Selene quickly apologized for making a scene in front of the blacksmith's stall, her face flushed with embarrassment. Her apologizes quickly turned to thanks when they handed her three light weight armor. It took her two servants dragging her away to properly prepare for the fight before she stopped gushing about how well crafted and light the armor was.
"Well... She's... something..." The apprentice blacksmith muttered, looking to his short boss.
The man just grumbled about needing to work on better armor. It was always about work with him when it came to Nobles, not that the man complained. They usually found something to complain about. Not like many of them even looked at a hammer. She just looked different. He was sure his boss saw it too, but like he was going to openly talk about it with other Nobles around.
Still, he couldn't help the curious feeling in the back of his head. Glancing back to the young Noblewoman, he saw her happily spinning around in her new armor, her servants giving her sweet, genuine smiles. Maybe she was just a nice woman and seeing that from a Noble like herself was new?
"Rush, back to work." The short man called, bringing his apprentice back from his thoughts.
"Right, yes, sir."
~~
"Good evening, everyone! I am the Grandmaster on this mission. The name's Lukas. Our mission for the next few days is to track down, and exterminate this monster." Lukas pointed to the now magically formed image of a horned bunny.
Selene recognized them from the outskirts of the empire. They were usually small, only growing to be roughly 2 feet and their horn only growing several inches. Their fur, if tended to properly, would sell for a great price because it was naturally water-resistant, making it hard to stain, and extremely soft. The meat was also delicious, naturally having a sweet taste to it. The horn itself had many uses, uses that the studious woman would sadly admit to not knowing. She tried to find out, but none of her books had the information and buyers wouldn't really divulge what they were buying items for to strangers.
"A horned bunny?" Jupiter sounded annoyed, a heavy sigh seemingly sounding throughout as the crowd began murmuring agreements with him.
Selene didn't care about whatever he was going to say. If people didn't want to hunt down a delicious bunny for whatever reason, she was more than happy to share the rewards with the people that did help hunt it. Besides, there was a reason to having called so many people there anyways, she was sure of it.
"It's Core evolved into a monster." Juno's voice echoed over everyone else, silencing them.
His once annoyed and jerkish face was set in a serious expression, looking all the nobility that he claimed to have.
Lukas sighed and nodded.
"Yes, I assume most of you aren't Adventures?" The Grandmaster's face twisted in irritation when he saw the majority raise their hands or nod. He rubbed his face, tired looking.
Selene felt bad for him.
"Fine, the quick of it is that every non-human being has a Core. Animals that we eat and hunt, their cores are too small and fragile to harvest. It's why most regular animals don't have the ability to directly use magic but have special attributes. However, there is a chance in a million for an animal's Core to evolve and grow. This causes the animal to change into a monster. For people as green as you, fighting a Monster Horned Bunny would be a great way to see whether you have the skills or the guts to be in this line of work."
Whispers began to spread about the crowd once more. Two pairs of eyes looked to the female Gaea, who seemed to be whispering eagerly about something to her two attendants. Both of whom were nodding eagerly along. Those eyes would swear up and down that the female attendant licked her lips as if tasting a delicious meal.
Not long after, they began to track the monster. Which apparently wasn't as easy as many nobles had thought. Jupiter was especially upset as Juno was allowing him to lead their small party. The older brother claiming that he was mainly there to supervise and make sure that he didn't get himself or others killed.
Those words had cut a knife deep within the man's pride. He was arrogant in believing that he could kill this beast by himself. That he didn't need someone saving him! Even if that someone was Juno!
By nightfall, the parties reconvened at the camp site. No one seemed to have good news for tracking the bunny. That was till Selene got back, humming a merrily tune as she and her servants carried in a large deer.
"We got some deer!" She chirped. "It was right by the Bunny's lair too! What a convivence!"
Lukas stood to his feet, moving over to her in a blink of an eye.
"You were by its lair?" He hissed.
The young woman nodded with a grand smile.
"Yes, sir! It wasn't that hard. Horned Bunnies love burrowing using their horn, so it only made sense to look for hard soil and then unnatural looking caves. There was one a few miles from the river. The tracks to it also looked like large Horned Bunny prints."
Her smiling face faltered as she noticed everyone staring at her with strange expressions. She really didn't like those expressions. She couldn't tell what they meant. So, she looked to Juno's and Lukas's, hoping for some direction there.
Pride and amazement. That's what their expressions told her. For what, she genuinely had no clue.
"Was... Was finding it supposed to be hard?" She murmured weakly, her brows furrowed.
The Grandmaster gave a calming laugh, lightly patting the young thing's head. He honestly was expecting it to take a few days for the new adventures to find even a hint of a trail!
"Seems you have a good eye for details."
She shook her head quickly.
"Clover is was the one who spotted the tracks, I was just the one who confirmed that the cave was out of place and new." She took a step back to her servants.
Said man nodded his head to the Grandmaster, his face firm and serious. He then turned to his young Miss just as Izzy fully took the deer.
"I'll bring this to Franky."
"Thank you-" She yelped as Lukas dragged her over to the rest of the people, grinning.
"This is how you become an adventurer! Now! Tell us every little detail there is to know."
Selene's face burned a bright red, she wasn't used to having so many eyes on her. Not like this. Still, she described the landscape and terrain, what was uprooted, the likely advantage points for archers and other long-range attackers, as well as areas for the close-range fighters to hide in.
Juno was thoroughly impressed with his little sister. She needed to learn to mask her emotions better, but she was good. Tracking a Monster was a lot harder than tracking an animal. When evolved, even stupid Monsters like Horned Bunnies become smart enough to cover their tracks. To make it harder for bigger and hungrier Monsters to find and devour them. Seems she knew how to pick people with good skills. Though her preferring Agility to Strength wouldn't do her good in the eyes of their father. Unless she has the killing blow.