Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Considering what he had heard, it seemed that Jori didn't come to Tristan after losing his hometown. He didn't seem like he was someone who came from a noble family, so he wondered why they headed straight to the capital. Tristan only fell after six years, so it seemed a bit too soon that they expected that the city wouldn't last.

"You are too young to be studying in the school in the capital, but you are quite skilled. Did you have a particular teacher?" Jori asked. "You look a bit like a noble, and since those who are young in our organization are recruited directly by lord Branden…"

"I studied a bit in the school of Tristan, but only for a couple of months, and then the invasion happened," Rain replied.

Rain didn't want to talk too much about himself, but that group already had enough problems as it was. A cold and distant attitude wouldn't help improve things. Rain wondered what he should ask; it had been a while since he had talked with anyone that wasn't family. He didn't feel that interested in the lives of teenagers either.

"You guys must have stood out as well… if Lord Branden recruited you all," Rain said while feeling troubled for being that respectful to a kid.

"We aren't connected to nobility, but we had some parents and acquaintances that served in the army and knew a few things about the battlefield, and we received instructions from them, and those people introduced us to Lord Branden," Jori explained.

Rain wanted to ask more about the group, but asking about the others while they were sleeping nearby was a bit too risky. It would be better if he heard things directly from them. In any case, the conversation ended, and Rain had his mana full again, so he used it to warm things up in the camp. The night was getting cold to the point that some steam was leaving his mouth when he breathed.

"Trying to use Fly would be too risky here. My other movement speed technique is also impossible to use here… training sure is hard during missions like this," Rain thought.

On the other hand, Rain could be able to gain at least ten silver coins per day for that work. That wasn't half bad, but Rain didn't know how to invest the money that he had saved thus far.

While he was thinking about that, the hours passed quite fast, and soon their turn ended, and Jori called Asche and Terra to assume guard duty. Just as he had imagined, Rain had a hard time falling asked again… even more so when things were so silent that he could hear the two sisters whispering to each other.

In the end, Rain was only able to sleep for one hour before the sun began to rise, and the group began to raise their camp. He dispersed the earth's walls and then stretched his body. It seemed that breakfast would have to wait for a while since Jori wanted to move a bit and look for some fruits along the way to help with it.

Around mid-morning, the group managed to find a tree with some apples in it, and they helped themselves. They kept going after filling their bags with fruits since that area had plenty. Thanks to the war and now the monsters, few people were moving around and looking for food in the area.

"We are getting closer to the area where were are supposed to find the monsters, so keep your guard up," Jori declared. "They are supposed to be nocturnal monsters, but we can't drop their guard. They also like to hide behind things and target their targets like that. Asche, you are up."

"Okay," Asche said and then moved a bit forward to have a better view of the area ahead.

Asche looked from one side to the other as if she was looking for trails of the monsters. It would have been easier to do if it was snowing, but that wasn't the case. In any case, the area didn't have many trees or bushes, but it had plenty of hills. So there were plenty of places where the monsters could hide.

"If they are nocturnal, they won't move unless we are really close to them," Rain thought.

Rain had thought that perhaps he could listen to the enemy's footsteps while putting his ear on the ground. He imagined that the monsters would be big enough to make a lot of noise, after all. Still, that would be useless for now.

"I guess I need a tracking skill as well…" Rain thought.

The group slowly moved toward the nearest hill and stopped at the top while looking for traces of the enemies around. Still, they didn't find anything. Without wasting time, they began to move to the next vantage point.

After doing that a couple of times and not making any progress, the group felt quite troubled. They assumed that finding the monsters would be easy since they attacked some of the soldiers around Tristan.

Meanwhile, Rain noticed that Jori stopped talking and was only focusing on using his blade as soon as he spotted the enemy. Asche was nearby to alert everyone, but it didn't seem like the group had a clear method of action once they found the targets.

"I suppose I should wait and see instead of pointing that out so soon…" Rain thought.

"We are wasting time here… we will split and look for traces of the monsters and alert the others once that happens," Jori declared. "Don't engage in battle and just inform the others of your findings."

Everything aside from the first declaration seemed like a good idea. Rain assumed that while they had been working together for a couple of months, they didn't have any proper guidance to avoid making hasty decisions like that. Once they joined the organization, they began to work together and did things as they saw fit.