Chapter 6- Miles

"Yeah sure," I reply, walking back to the cart. Magic even when undergoing proper training is always so draining that I get left exhausted after a fight, more so than just simply waiving my favourite whip around all day. At the cart I grab a roll of bandages and tie up the gash in my arm before grabbing five medical approved bottles. Once again I jump off the cart and go to a nearby dead wolf.

"Fuck," I mutter getting some gold blood into the first bottle, "I know I'm the elf but everytime something involves animals, it's me that deals with it. I swear those two only know how to do their job and nothing else."

"Well that's an odd way of talking about your fellow party members," a female voice says.

I jump slightly, getting startled and almost dropping the third bottle of blood. Turning I see that it is Sora who spoke behind me.

"Oh...hello Sora," I say trying to recover, "is there something you need?"

"I was just coming over to make sure if you and your companions were still alive."

I take a closer look at Sora as I stand. Even covered in blood she looks stunning, especially the way the sun glows through the hair.

"Oh uh, yeah, we're alive. Little bruised but the pack alpha wasn't much trouble after dealing with the pack around us," I fumble through my words.

Sora smiles slightly at my clumsiness or at least I think it's the clumsiness, "if you don't mind my asking, why are you collecting ichor?"

"It's a highly valued form of poison that doesn't degrade over time as long as you keep the bottle sealed," I reply, "and since it's so rare nowadays...we've used this stuff to pay the Blood Hunters to look the other way when we get into trouble sometimes."

"That's smart, is there a special way to keep them?" Sora looks at the bottles with interest.

"Medicinal glass bottles made of high quality are the best for it."

"Thank-you, tonight you should all come join my party's fire, it would be nice to know you better." Sora says sweetly.

I give her a smile, "why thank-you. Now if you'll excuse me I have some cleaning to do"

With a wave, Sora goes back to check on others and I finish filling the bottles. What I failed to mention is the way Hunters utilize this poison. You see when put on a blade or pointed object like an arrow or bullet, the poison enters the bloodstream like any other but it has a nasty effect. For about an hour the afflicted target will writhe and scream in pain as the magic that makes up part of their blood becomes forever erased, stopping them from being able to cast any magic even from a scroll ever again. This is the safest and most preferred method of the Hunters when it comes to live capture bounties. However the target can die from the pain as a result of being too high of a magic caster class since most of their blood is mana enzymes and not normal blood causing hemorrhagic shock to the heart. This rarely happens as we take good care to find the illegal magic users before they get that powerful.

After filling the bottles I check my surroundings before raising my right hand and opening my adventure console. A red ping sits on my name, as I click it some info shows up:

Adventuring Rank Old: 7

Adventuring Rank New: 8

Ability unlocked: Mage Assassin

Ability details: When a target casts a spell you have increased resistance against it and your aura now makes it harder for a caster to target you and maintain area of effect spells.

"Huh, that's helpful. I wonder if Rem and Rin got the same ability," I mutter quietly while closing the console. With that I calm the horses down enough to get them untangled.

"I'm so glad the wolves were after the people and not the transport," I whisper while putting the harnesses back on the horses. Once they're all done, I hop onto the driver's seat of the cart and watch the rest of the caravan put themselves back together.

In the distance someone's baby is crying while two parents I assume they are, try to calm the baby down. Five or so bodies got cast aside to the roadside knowing we could not delay long enough for a burial. I also note that some people who look like they work in the clothing and smithy industries have gathered some of the wolves with less damaged pelts and threw them onto their carts. Finally getting a good look at the sheer size of the caravan there are two-tens carts and around six-tens and seven people that I can see. It's not likely but if these people are all revolutionaries...this could be a big problem. A small party of four or five casters is more than enough to call in an entire battalion to try and quell, so if hidden within this group is three-tens of people who are casters…

"We've got a big problem if things go south," I say quietly as Rem approaches within earshot.

"What'd you find out?" Rem asks.

"Based on our previous adventures, the size of this caravan suggests that there may be around two to three tens of casters within the people heading north."

"You're right, that is a big problem. Rin and I might be the Twin Star Hunters, but that's way more than we've ever taken on at once. Did you at least get the blood sealed away?"

"Yeah, yeah I did. Sora also came over, so I had to be friendly and ended up divulging what the substance is."

Rem sighs, "I guess it can't be helped, just for that though you will be driving the cart down the next leg of the road"

I nod, "ok Rem, did you deal with your adventure rank yet?"

"No," Rem replies, "I'll do it while we're moving and Rin is sure we aren't being watched."

"Fair point, how did the dire wolf dressing go?" I ask.

Rem holds up two of his knives that are now pitted and scarred, "as you can see, the hide was so tough and the blood was corrosive. When we get to the next armory I'll need to buy a few more"

"Come on boys!" Rin calls out, "they're starting to move and we're ready to go."

"Ok ok, we're going!" I say pulling the reins and getting the horses moving.

"Rem you should go rest in case something else happens, I've got this," I tell him.

"Thanks," Rem says as he lays down and promptly goes to sleep.

Rin sits in the back corner of the cart staying silent as we move along the road. Eventually I notice Rin pulls up her console, not peeking, I just simply look forward. As night falls we reach a clearing and slow down to get set up for the night.