The road to the capital had long since disappeared behind us, t least, the proper road had.
Rather than follow the well-maintained highway that carried merchants, adventurers, nobles, and travelers toward the royal capital, we'd begun taking the smaller trails that branched away from it.
At first Sara had questioned the decision, then before long she had come to understand the reason.
The Kingroad was just to safe, sure there might be the occasional encounter with bandits but that was irregular and there was no guarantee they would be in the area or even active on a particular day, so instead to uphold my promise with her.
We instead went for prey that was ever present, Monsters and Animals filled the wild and as we made our way closer to the capital we carried out a bloody purge in an almost straight line through the forests.
Experience meant levels, Levels meant points, Points meant strength, and strength meant that eventually, Sara eventually be capable of getting the revenge she was after and completing the terms of our contract.
That last part was important.
At least to me it was, she had given up her entire self, body and soul to me all for the promise of power and the chance at revenge with her own two hands.
She had already completed her end of the bargin all that remained was my own part.
~
The first few days had been rough, Sara wasn't a natural fighter, she had spent most of her life working in an inn, cooking, cleaning, serving customers, and helping her father.
Her body wasn't accustomed to combat, nor with the gore or even feeling of having taken a life.
The first time we'd encountered a wild boar, knowing she was the main combatant and that i would only get involved if she was in trouble, she'd nearly frozen.
And because of that she needed to toss out more than ten fireballs before the beast was felled, and worse than that aside from its tusks the pelt and meat was unusable as it had been charred black from the flames.
The second time was better but even still her fire was destructive in her usage and any hope of collecting drops from her opponents was sure to be folly.
Finally on her third attempt she changed her thinking, rather than simply tossing out a fireball, she instead started to trying to think tactically, using the ball of fire to guide her target into a pre-prepared trap, which once sprung ended the beasts life without causing excessive damage.
As her level increased i didnt keep her as a sole magically user, since as proven in some of her fights she became useless when they got to close to the point she posed a threat to herself if she cast any of her spells nearby.
So keeping with the look of a mage, i used my dagger to quickly carve out a simple staff that she could use for close quarters combat, and then used a few of her levelups to provide her with some points into strength, weapon mastery, and lastly Short Spear since that was the category instinct told me a staff fell into.
The wilderness became our training ground.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Each time we fought she was given a new order, some times restricted to only using her strongest spell Firestorm, while other times i made her fight entirely with her staff, or once when she wouldnt stop teasing me about fufilling a slaves duties towards her master, i made her fight with her fists, ending a rabbits like with her bare hands.
That ended her teasing of me as a sense of fear prevailed the act of killing literally with her own hands was almost to much for her to handle, but she accepted that she had indeed gone to far.
Days passed and Sara's level climbed but at the same time i didnt just sit back and do nothing, increasing my own level a bit when we came across a group, allowing her to take on only what she could handle while clearing out all the rest to give her the space she needed to complete her own fight.
Like today, the first goblin appeared from behind a tree, then another, then there were five of them.
Before we'd even engaged their numbers had reached closer to twenty.
Before even telling her anything Sara had already raised her staff up agressively while beginning her chanting to cast her Firestorm spell.
The goblins charged at us, but a second later the massive spell erupted and engulfed the left side of their formation.
Leaving seven or so piles of ash on the ground once the licking flames receded, meanwhile Sara had started chanting to cast another spell.
She was our rearguard so as a swordman i tookup position in front of her to guard her in case any of the goblins got close enough, and after the second firestorm landed, only four goblins managed to survive, and even still they were less charging towards us to attach but instead looked more like they were fleeing the devastation that was occuring behind them.
In a flash my blade cut through the air, and just as quickly the four goblins bodies hit the ground with a *Thud*.
Ha haaaa "That was a pretty big group of them."
Sara said while calming her breath,
"Indeed, there must be a goblin village nearby to haven encountered a scouting party or warband of this size."
My words werent without conjecture, when i was back at the town i had run across a goblin village once and they were pretty easy to understand even back then.
If the village was newly established they would only send out a single goblin to try and loot or pillage.
Then once their numbers had increased they would expand to sending out squads of about five or so, to increase their power and range, all while still keeping the majority of their force in the village all for the purpose of continuing to reproduce to furhter increase their numbers until their was a veritable flood of goblins.
Since their party was around 20 the village nearby must be of pretty significant size, and was no doubt a problem to any human towns or villages nearby if they left it alone.
Sara didnt voice her opinion but it was pretty clear from the shimmer in her eyes she didnt fear hundreds of goblins and instead simply viewed them as a source of experience to grow even more.
But before i was going to go that far to assault the goblin village first off, Sara was going to be getting another upgrade.
Her strongest spell now was Firestorm which could at most deal with 25 goblins if they were all standing together, but up against hundreds... well, we'd get surrounded and while i might be able to get away thanks to my stealth, that would mean abandoning Sara or watching her fall as i continued to swing my swords.
But if her magic was even stronger... unlocking even greater firespells.
Perhaps she could be like one of the court magicians and wipe out all the goblins with a single cast.
Sara Level 20 (4) Age 15
Job: Fire Magician
Strength
Strength 2/30
Weapon Mastery
Short Spear 2/5
Vitality
Natural Recovery 1/20
Stamina 3/20
Immunity
Disease Immunity 1/5
Magic
Mana 8/30
Life Magic
Elemental Affinity 1/5
Fire 4/10
Charisma
Appeal 2/5
Looking once more at her status board i had four points to work with, her own mana was still capable of holding out upon multiple casts of firestorm and the limit during training was greater than ten casts so i felt there was no need to increase that further.
On the otherhand, Elemental Affinity was one i had been wondering about, if Fire enhanced her fire spells and gave her access to more, then what about if she was great at Elemental magic itself?
Would it be like a boost?
Like a mathematics problem where the current formula was 1x4=4 but if elemental was increased it would becoming 2x4=8?
If that was the case Sara could truly become a walking disaster but even so i wanted to find out, so prepared for the outcome, i placed a single point into her Elemental Affinity, while the remaining three went to her Fire.
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