Chapter 494 - Knowing Smiles

Chapter 494: 494 - Knowing Smiles

The morning at the Astralis Requiem headquarters began like all the others, with the sound of footsteps in the tree’s corridors, the smell of damp wood and new leaves, and the constant murmur of groups getting organized for another day of hunting.

But Dylan, who had spent the entire week reviewing spreadsheets and reports in the support office beside the main lobby, realized that something was different the instant he looked up from the scrolls.

Lisa and Lohan were crossing the lobby together.

That, in itself, was nothing new, because the two of them had crossed that lobby together almost every day since the guild had existed.

The difference was in the manner. Lisa walked with her two tails swaying from side to side at a calm, happy rhythm, and every few steps the tip of one of them brushed, almost accidentally, against the side of Lohan’s body, who rode on her back, and he, in turn, adjusted his own mass with exaggerated care, as if he wanted to take up as little space as possible, while at the same time making a point of staying as close to her as possible.

"I didn’t say that!" Lohan’s voice came through the guild link, and Dylan, who was only a few meters away, caught the whole sentence, in a tone of feigned indignation.

"Yes, you did," Lisa replied, laughing, and her laughter echoed through the whole lobby, so light and so free that two new members chatting near the entrance stopped mid sentence to look. "You said you were going to teach me how to make a potion. You, Halon! The guy who melted a soup pot."

"I melted it by accident."

"You melted a cast iron pot."

"It had a weak spot."

Dylan gripped the scroll a little harder than necessary, because he realized he was smiling at a conversation about soup, and couldn’t stop.

Beside him, at the reception desk where she was organizing the new members’ entry forms, Alice had also stopped writing, her quill suspended in the air.

"Did you see that?" she asked, in a whisper she clearly thought was discreet, and which in practice was heard by at least three people.

"I saw," Dylan answered, in the same tone.

"I’ve been seeing it for a few days, actually. But today it’s even more..." Alice searched for the word, waving her hands in the air. "More."

"More," Dylan agreed, and exchanged with her a knowing look, a look from someone who had just understood something without anyone needing to say anything.

Lisa and Lohan reached the desk, and Lisa raised her head, her golden eyes shining, still with a trace of laughter at the corners of her mouth.

"Good morning, you two," she said. "What is it? Why are you making that face?"

"What face?" Alice asked, with an innocence so theatrical it would have made any actor give up the profession.

"That face of someone who knows something."

"We don’t know anything," Dylan assured her, with the seriousness of a lawyer. "Absolutely nothing. We’re just happy to see you two so... in sync."

Lisa opened her mouth to answer, and shut it, and her ears flattened slightly, and the tip of her left tail curled up, in an involuntary movement, touching Lohan’s back with the tip of it, who was sitting there, motionless, pretending a deep fascination with the ceiling of the tree.

"Hm," she said, finally, with a newly recovered dignity. "Very well. Can we talk about today’s plan?"

"Of course," Dylan replied, and unrolled the scroll on the desk, trying to keep his expression neutral, and failing miserably. "So. As you know, the experience needed for Level 21 is double what was needed for 20. I did the math last night, considering the pace you’ve kept over the last few days, Lisa, I found a good hunting route for you two."

"And?" Lisa asked, her eyes fixed on the scroll.

"Under normal conditions, it would take about five days of intense grinding. With his direct help, which is now much more efficient than last week, I estimate three."

"Three days," Lisa repeated, and the determination returned to her face like a wave. "I can handle that."

"Two and a half, if we push ourselves," Lohan added, with his calm mental voice, and Lisa turned her head toward him with a challenging smile.

"Two and a half?"

"Two and a half."

"Is that a bet?"

"It’s a promise," he corrected, and the two of them held each other’s gaze for a moment too long to be merely professional, until Alice cleared her throat so deliberately that they both startled.

"Good work to you two," she said, with a smile that was too wide. "Good hunting. Come back in one piece."

They left the lobby, and Dylan waited until the two figures, the white one and the blue one, disappeared through the tree’s gate, and only then let out a soft laugh, shaking his head.

"I’ll bet a month’s salary that she still hasn’t gotten used to it," he said.

"I’ll bet two that he never will," Alice replied, and the two of them went back to the forms, still smiling.

The first day of grinding began in territory Lisa already knew well, a region of swamps north of the Valley of Fangs, where a large population of dark furred bears roamed in groups of three or four, all between levels 20 and 22.

And that was the big difficulty. Dealing with Level 20 monsters was already easy for Lisa, considering that her Legendary Base gave her an advantage that made her much more powerful than monsters like these of the same level.

The problem was the Level 21 and 22 monsters.

Despite the difference in Base rarity, since they had gone through evolution, even the Level 21 monsters were already more powerful than she was by a small margin, the Level 22 ones were even more powerful, and considering they traveled in groups of three or four, it made the battle even harder.

The advantage was having Halon there with her to help with this hunt, otherwise, even with a Base like hers, staying there would be practically a death sentence.

It was a dangerous terrain for someone with little strength, with the treacherous mud and the bears, huge and fast, but for someone with enough strength to control the situation, it was a goldmine of experience.

Lohan spread over her back as soon as they arrived, and the first thing Lisa felt was the difference in the living armor.