Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Rena glared at her friend who was hurt for the second time in one day. There were bruises all over his body, most of which were concentrated on his arms and chest. Blood flowed freely from one of his nostrils and both of his ears. On top of that, his machete was broken in half and lay in pieces next to the Quillow Beast's corpse.

Lethen and Paul worked together to work on skinning the hide and breaking down the body. The quest was specifically for the spines and hide from the monster. Thankfully the one they attacked was the only one that had not used them to attack, so they would receive a larger sum for the additional spines that were collected.

It was a time-consuming process to break down because you had to remove every single quill before skinning the body, otherwise even more damage would occur. They already had to contend with the slashes and attacks on the underbelly, neck, and face, so if they could avoid destroying more of the pelt, it would work out in their favor.

According to Jen, Quillow Beast meat was rather flavorless and was mostly used as filler for low quality meat blends, jerky, and emergency rations. Despite the lack of desirability, they still planned on collecting a large amount of it for selling. Such was the way of the adventurer life.

"Drink this potion." Rena demanded. Lucius merely cocked his head to the side since he could not hear her at the moment. She huffed and shoved the bottle into his mouth. It didn't matter if she hurt his teeth, because her magic plus the potion would fix it anyway.

His body started to glow slightly, after which she activated her spells, "[Lux: Heal]"

The blood stopped flowing and the bruises slowly faded from blue/black to a sickly green before finally fading away.

"Thanks, Rena. Too bad for my weapon, huh?" the boy grumbled.

His eyes were locked on the machete that had been with him for the last several years. Originally it was a rusted hunk of metal that was simply laying and rotting away deep in the forest outside their home. When he grabbed onto it, he awakened his skills and was able to push back the Alpha Deer that seemed to have tracked him down for revenge.

"Yeah… but hey we can pick up a new one in Lelvern?"

Her friend paused for a moment and gave a weak smile before nodding his head. He then pulled a hunting knife out of his pack and began to assist the party in breaking down their quarry. Since he was no longer paying attention, Rena went over to the weapon and stored it in her storage ring.

Jen had told them that relying on the storage ring for too much was a bad idea because if someone managed to steal it you lost everything in your possession at once. For this reason, most adventurers only stored monster parts in it temporarily. It felt like a waste that it could store so much, but was used for so little.

However, given the fact that a bad actor could easily steal the ring, it made sense not to use it for absolutely everything. She did however, use it to store potions because it would have been too much to carry in her hip pack, plus banging around in there in the middle of combat could spill it and waste the potion.

"Well, looks like that is that." Lethen said while wiping his brow.

The skin was folded lain out flat on the ground with the skin side down, so the gory side was facing up. On top of the skin were piles of cut and broken-down meat that were pre-cut into desirable shapes for butchers. If they did that part themselves, then they could make just a little more money by saving the butcher the work.

One should only do that if they could cut the meat properly of course, because otherwise you actually receive less than just the full corpse being given up.

Next to that was a pile of Quillow Beast spines. There wasn't anything on these monsters that were good for potions, but the spines weighed about the same as a stick of the same size, but was stronger. Because of that, many hunters paid well for arrows made out of them, so fletchers loved these things.

Since the Silverthorn Forest was named after these very creature's spines, they were very abundant in the area, which meant for a lot of profit for fletchers and hunters.

"Alright, let's find a good place away from the rest of this corpse to camp. Then, in the morning we can get to town." Jen ordered.

The sleeping shift was split into four, with Lucius being left out of the rotation per Rena's request. Since he had been badly hurt twice in the same day and finally unlocked his ability to use his magic, he was likely completely exhausted. Plus, since it was his first day using his magic on top of trying to combine it with Arts use, his mana was likely near zero.

Like normal, she set up her sleeping bag right next to his. She volunteered to take first watch so she could watch over him until he fell asleep. If she did not do so, she couldn't trust that he would actually get rest.

Staying awake in the dark forest was also somewhat traumatizing for her. It reminded her of the oppressing darkness of the trial. That forest seemed to have almost a magical property that seemed to press down on a person and make them feel small and alone. That same magic also seemed to keep away the normal aspects of a forest, like birds and bugs.

Other than the monsters and occasional hunters, it was like it was dead.

Even though this one was dark and foreboding as night fell, it at least felt like a normal place. Bugs buzzed in the night, crickets sang to one another, and annoying moths and other insects attracted to the dull light of the fire almost brought comfort. And of course there was the sleeping boy next to her.

She watched as his chest rose and fell gently and the sound of a quiet snore escaped from him. She brushed a lock of his hair out of his face and said, "You're so amazing Lucius. Whether you are powerful or weak, does not matter to me. But you keep trying and you stay by my side no matter what, despite that you could easily hate me.

You protect me because of a promise made by your father, but… Gods… I love you so much."

"Well, isn't that sweet." A teasing voice startled her and she had to hold back a yelp so she did not wake up the group. Staring at her from across the camp was Jen.

"Y-y-you heart all that, h-h-huh?" Rena sputtered.

The party leader gave her a toothy grin, "Yup, every word." She then replaced it with a more serious look "If you want to stay with him you might want to give up on this whole dungeon raid endeavor. One or both of you might die."

She sat in silence for a moment. "I know… it is a major risk… but I need to do it. He's going off to war, whether I like it or not. I'll follow him if I have to, but to prove that I can do it, I have to make it through the dungeon with him. Besides, even if I don't go, he told me he would still do it to prove to himself that he will make it. If he dies… then I might as well do so beside him."

"A little young to be thinking that way, don't you think? What are you, thirteen?"

"I turn fourteen tomorrow."

"Hmm… well you can make your own decisions I guess, but you should really think about it, if that's what you want. I still suggest you avoid the dungeon at all costs, but if you still want to go, we will help you. Get some rest."

Rena nodded at what Jen said and laid down next to Lucius. His gentle sleeper sounds felt soothing to her ears and she was able to quickly doze off. No matter what anyone else said, she was going on the Grand Raid, and with Lucius.