And so the group continued on their journey. They were caught between towns at the moment, so they began to set up camp for the night once more.

Estrith shivered as a cool wind blew through the campsite. The days were growing shorter, and the nights were growing colder. She looked down at the ditch she had dug.

It turned out when Her King had ordered them to practice ‘camping’, she had spent most of her time organizing the other warriors and beating down the rebellious ones who would defy Her King.

So…she hadn’t actually got much practice herself.

She frowned as she imagined yet another night curled up in the dirt.

She glanced over.

The Imperials…didn’t seemed bothered by the cold. They started a fire with practiced ease, and then took out their tents.

Estrith furrowed her brow.

And then…she remembered Her King’s orders once more. Was she not here to uncover the secrets of the Empire? Was she not here to study their ways?

She strode over to the half-Wulver. Wulver weren’t much better than humans but at least they weren’t Her King’s sworn foe, after all. He turned to face her, raising an eyebrow.

“What is it?”

“You there, Wulver boy. Teach me how to ‘make camp’.”

He glanced over at the human girl, then back to Estrith. He narrowed his eyes.

“I’m busy. Go ask Ateia, if you want.”

Estrith scowled at him.

“You would defy me, boy? You are but a welp, barely fit for the hunt. Know your place.”

He crossed his arms and met her gaze. He scowled back.

“Oh, I do. You have no power here, Dobhar, so I’m not going to take your crap. Try to make me, if your queen will allow you to do so.”

Estrith grit her teeth, but turned from the boy.

“I will not forget this.”

She marched over to the human girl. She couldn’t help but glare at her.

“You there, human. Teach me how to ‘make camp’.”

The human ignored her.

“Human, I said teach me how to make camp!”

The girl continued her work.

“I heard you the first time.”

Estrith clenched her spear.

“You dare ignore me?!”

The girl shrugged.

“I have a name, you know. ‘Human’ doesn’t work, there’s more than one human here, you know. So I don’t know who you’re talking to when you say that.”

Estrith scowled again.

“Human girl.”

She just pointed towards the usurper.

“There’s more than one human girl as well.”

Estrith grit her teeth again.

“Fine. Ateia, teach me how to make camp.”

Ateia shrugged.

“Generally, people ask nicely when they want a favor. “

Estrith closed her eyes, gripping her spear hard. These brats, who would not last a single minute in combat with her, were seriously getting on her nerves.

But…

Her King had commanded her to learn. He told her she would have to be clever about it. So her pride battled against her loyalty.

The cold wind that blew through at that moment also affected her judgment.

Estrith opened her eyes. She couldn’t help but grit her teeth, spitting out the words from between them.

“Please…teach me how to make camp…Ateia.”

Ateia smiled at her, causing a vein to bulge on her forehead.

“Sure! I was just about to set up this tent, why don’t you help me? We don’t have an extra right now, but you can borrow mine during my shift tonight.”

Estrith remained silent, trembling with unspeakable rage. But…this was still not as much humiliation as Her King had endured. She would dishonor him if she could not do the same. So she quietly followed Ateia, listening to her words and watching her actions…

Meanwhile, NSLICE-00P was off to the side. She formed a magic circle in front of her, her robotic eye flickering and recording every detail. And then…an image of the persons of interest appeared before her.

She was trying to study this ‘Illusion’ magic she acquired. The structure of this magic circle was different from the others, so she was having trouble determining exactly which portion of it was responsible for the Illusion attribute…if such a thing existed.

Eventually, she decided to use the brute force method.

She cut off portions of the magic circle and tried to slot them into the attribute section of a Bolt spell, forming dozens of magic circles at once to attempt different permutations. All of them failed, either fading as the mana drained out of them or sparking and fizzling and then vanishing immediately.

Until…

One circle managed to complete. It flashed once…and then vanished with no effect.

The skill Illusion Magic has leveled twice and is now level 3! Modular spell casting detected: Illusion aspect now available!