—–
We reached the outskirt forest of the Affnaria Duchy, where my entire journey began, I glanced around my surroundings finding that there was nobody around, and we quickly descended into the ground as the night came. There were nobody around, I believe, so it was fine for us to move to the ground.
BOOM!
The enormous body of Lucifer hit the ground, as he sat down and let us jump down into the floor. I watched at the beautiful starry sky, and the surroundings were all calm, my own aura probably scared any sort of wild beast, but it is bad if I scare everybody, so I tried to suppress my presence.
“And here we are! Where everything started.” I said with a smile.
“Wow, it has been a while…” Said Partner.
“I wasn’t here at the beginning of your journey, so I feel a bit bad… I guess I lack that feeling of nostalgia.” Sighed Emeraldine.
“It is fine, you’re still part of the main team.” I said.
“Hm, this accursed town where we killed that devil in the form of a human… I suppose it is being taken care by a girl that actually cares about doing what’s right now, so it is not so bad.” Said Lucifer.
I think Lucifer was talking about the duke we killed back then, oh yeah, that one guy I really hated him, I am still hating him even after killing him, I guess that’s part of being a resentful ghost lady.
We began to walk across the forest while leisurely chatting, until we reached the entrance to the duchy, my appearance had been changed since I evolved, so I didn’t looked at all like I was once shown to look like after becoming a ghost, I doubt anybody would recognize me, to be honest.
I had already come here after my evolution too, and nobody recognized me, the girl, Julia, didn’t recognized me either, so it was all fine and dandy for me to do as I please and enter it. I still had my adventurer card which I was going to use to pass through, Partner, Lucifer, and Emeraldine got their own cards as well, so it is all okay.
When we reached the doors, there were five guards guarding it, all of them seemed to be young men on their mid-twenties with strong bodies and physiques, their Levels were around twenty and thirty, so they were rather experienced and had slain a large quantity of monsters. Humans don’t seem to be able to evolve as other races and have a set amount of level cap they have, it is said that they can surpass it through special methods when they reach it, but it is usually set at Level 100, some untalented ones could have a cap of 50, and those that have no talent would be between 20 or 30. Although these young men had been slaying beasts for a long time and had yet to reach their cap level, most of them were between cap of 80 to 100, a talented one had a cap of 120, so he had yet to reach his full potential.
Based on blessings, they can be given greater level caps and enhance their power further through leveling up. And even if they reach level cap, they can still develop and learn skills, and level them up or even awaken them if they reach a certain level of comprehension and mastery over it. Nonetheless, there is an easier way to tell a person’s strength without calculating stats, danger level. Even humans got one in their status, and these guys were all D- or D+, nothing to be afraid of, but actually quite strong, the normal soldier is barely E or F+.
“Hey there, you’re here very late in the night, do you want to enter the duchy?” Wondered one of the soldiers, the friendly one that they probably send to talk with shady people.
“Yep, can we get in?” I wondered. “I swear we are nice people.” I said with a smile while nodding.
“I think that only makes us more suspicious…” Said Lucifer.
“Maria-sama, I think your ability to socialize had become even worse.” Said Emeraldine.
“Ahh…” I sighed.
“S-Sure, you all look like… quite the party, you’re wearing expensive-looking clothes, aren’t you? Are you nobles? Why are you not in a carriage? Or are you adventurers?”
“We are! Here is my card.” I said.
I showed the soldier my card as he inspected it with his eyes. He looked at it and then covered it on magic, until a sudden magic circle on it glowed brightly.
“Ah, it is authentic, alright, miss Maria, you can pass…” Said the soldier. “Though going out into the wild at this hour… And you’re still F Rank?” He wondered.
“Yeah! W-What’s wrong with that?!” I asked nervously while crossing my arms. “I-I am a competent adventurer! I help the people! Occasionally… I am also a dark witch so don’t mess with me.” I smiled at the man mischievously, but he laughed off, he didn’t understand I was strong and immediately assumed I was a weak person based in my adventurer rank.
“Hahaha, you’re a cute lady, you can pass.” He said.
He quickly checked on everybody else and nodded.
“All of you are authentic I guess, F-Rank Adventurers traveling such long distances by yourselves though? From where did you came from?” He wondered.
“I was blessed by the goddess of death, so we were guided by fate to come here without facing many difficulties.” I said with a smile.
“T-The goddess of death? Now that’s new… I guess you’re lying.” He laughed. “Don’t say such jokes in front of a priest, missy, or you’re going to get scolded!”
“I am not joking! Uurrggh! Want me to show you something good?! Hahaha!” I laughed maliciously, he had almost made me blast his head off with a Darkness Sphere, but Lucifer and Partner grabbed me by the arms and carried me inside the town, while Emeraldine put herself in front of me while apologizing to the soldiers…
“Ugh! Unhand me! I will give him a lesson!”
“Yeah, yeah, sure…”
“Calm down…”
“Now, now, don’t make a scene…”
—–