A far distance away, two young ladies got out of a large, luxurious tent on the side of a hill. They were practically naked.
One of them—a girl with elf ears and flowing pale blonde hair—appeared to have a tired yet euphoric expression while having trouble walking.
She was being supported by the other girl, who had unruly scarlet hair and an invigorated smile gleaming her face.
"W-why don't we g-go one more time?" The blonde one pleaded as she seemed reluctant to place the enormous tent away.
The redhead laughed melodiously before replying. "Oh, I'd love to…" An alluring smirk flashing her face as they locked eyes. "But you've been saying that for the past half hour now. At this rate, we'll never make it to Etern."
The elf's head fell with grudging understanding as the tent disappeared into her storage ring.
"...That doesn't mean we can't have some fun while bathing though," the redhead whispered steamily into her ear while embracing her from behind, causing the blonde's face to heat up again.
In the distant horizon, a towering mountain could be seen.
***
In Edgelorn, Selene Cellow was restless.
In the wake of contracting a Domain-grade Spirit, the world had descended on her all at once. The media hounded her. Family and friends flooded her with congratulations. Suitors appeared from nowhere, eager and smiling.
None of them seemed to notice that she was still hurting from the loss of her lover.
To them, the Domain-grade Spirit more than compensated for it. They laughed when Caissa's name came up, calling his decision a mistake, insisting he must be regretting it now, and how she could find someone way better.
That was how they attempted to comfort her, which only made Selene begin to resent them.
She also somewhat resented Caissa, though her mind was currently still in a turmoil between longing, confusion, and bitterness.
***
I greedily gulped down water as I finished my workout routine consisting of 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats, and 1000 jumping jacks to kick start my metabolism for the day.
Unfortunately, being in a caravan and all, I couldn't get the 10km run and had to substitute with jumping jacks.
Also, when I was in the midst of exercising, a kitten appeared and seemed to claim me as its mother, watching and following me around. It was a tiny tabby with grey and white stripes, not orange. Thank god.
I don't know where or who it came from, it's mine now.
Scooping the kitty in my arms, I headed with it into the bathing area. The baths, while crude—considering it was made with transportation filtration in mind—were rather high tech, equipped with water and fire creation runes.
Ah, wait... Aren't cats afraid of water?
The thought struck my mind as I was feeling the water temperature but my worries were quickly alleviated. With a cute leap, it dived into the bath, paddling around adorably using its paws.
Removing my clothes, I got in soon after, washing off the sweat from my workout and cleaning the mysterious kitten.
Through the window, I could see hills approaching in the distance. We had traveled nearly a hundred km by now, a bit less than 5% of the journey just in the past three hours.
However, our speed was going to stagnate, soon and fast.
After leaving the 100 km radius of the empire, no hunters, guards, or adventurers were going to patrol the area. Monsters were going to become more and more prevalent.
Our 40 kmph speed was going to slow to an 8. The scout team was going to be required to depart and well… scout the area ahead.
The combat Spiritbound were also going to head out and patrol the caravan by its sides or clear unavoidable monsters on the route.
Unless told to stand back, passengers were welcomed to fight alongside them to gain some combat experience and accelerate their growth through real battle. Of course, in the case of injury, the caravan was not liable.
I planned on being one of them for those very reasons.
While I had put myself through extensive and grueling training, I've never once experienced facing a monster in battle, or even just up close. Only ever from a distance or through a screen.
So, if given the opportunity against some weak monsters, I'll try my luck.
…
Finished with cleaning myself and Juna, which is what I decided to name my cat, I headed into the lounging area to lounge around.
Why Juna? Well, my surname is Augusta, like August, the month so I wanted to name my cat in a similar vein and Juna came to mind.
Donning a white robe, I relaxed on a sofa with Juna sprawled in my lap. I could feel many eyes on me while on my phone—particularly women—which was annoying because I wanted to focus. Goddamn milfs.
I was currently facing a 2300 rated bot in Magichess. And at this moment, I had to thank and praise my past self from three hours ago from being so intelligent.
Right as the caravan was going to depart and exit the range of signal, I downloaded a few offline games on my phone.
It was going to be a long journey—four weeks—without some forms of entertainment, I was going to die.
Suck it, Blue Pocket. Good luck charging me additional fees from downloading on cellular data now. I'm outta there.
Back to the match, I was crushing.
The bot didn't make any mistakes or bad moves, I just played better.
Soon, I beat it and moved onto a 2400 rated one.
International master level… I felt a bit nervous, how could I not?
Just a few hours ago, I had believed I was no more than an above average player. Now, I was facing a bot with the skill of less than 5,000 people in the Rance empire with a population of 700,000,000.
Although, there were many uncertainties.
How accurate is the bot rating? How many great Magichess players were there that just remained hidden?
These questions remain unanswerable for now, but there is no doubt that this bot is very strong.
…
"FUCK!" I shouted under my breath while aggressively petting Juna to keep me calm.
I had lost, and lost, and lost… to the 2750 rated super grandmaster bot.
It seemed ~2650 was the limit of my skill. Above that, I could only draw or lose, which tilted me as I wasn't used to losing. Even though I expected to lose, actually losing left a bad taste in my mouth, so I kept going again, losing track of time.
The sun was setting, Juna was frantically meowing and clawing at me in hunger. Poor little thing hadn't eaten in thirty minutes.
Okay to be fair, it had only been relying on small treats I asked passing girls to give me.
Getting up, I placed the kitty in my pocket and headed to the kitchen. The hunger was finally catching up to me after I finished doomplaying that chess engine.
I ate a large dinner and placed many future meals and snacks for Juna in my storage ring. The food was all free as it came with the ticket.
Finished with my meal, I spent the next few hours refining my spirit core and circulating essence until I felt utterly exhausted.
After all that, I felt a miniscule increase to my essence capacity and bodily strength, perhaps barely progressing 0.02% to the second realm.
It couldn't be helped. This was how slow the cultivation method was, highlighted especially by my lack of a spirit(s).
Tomorrow, I should try to find an opportunity for battle or just ask a Spiritbound to spar during lunch break or something. If I ask a young lady, they'll probably say yes.
That should help me progress by more than double the amount. I'll reach the one third point to the Resonant realm pretty soon.
Drained and fatigued, I went to bed.
…
In the middle of the night, I was awoken by the sounds of screams.
Juna was frantically scratching me, seeming extremely distraught.
I soon realized why as I sat up, shaking off the daze of just waking.
I could see flames of destruction ravaging the caravan, which was now separated in many pieces.