The trip was uneventful, of course. The only interesting thing that Ranthia’s unerring vigil spotted was a bird flying overhead while carrying multiple links of sausages in its beak. The greedy bird seemed to be struggling more than a little to maintain its flight while its stolen meal flopped about in the breeze. Beyond that, the waters were calm and the only boats they came within sight of were small fishing boats and one larger merchant vessel that never got even slightly near them.

  Pyra, Juvenae, and Hylla didn’t emerge from the wagon until they were safely berthed—and even then, Art and Ranthia had to carefully guide the horses and the wagon back onto solid ground before they emerged. Pyra had tried, she really, really had—the evidence of her efforts still painted down the side of the ship—but Green had ultimately gently convinced the girl to get in the wagon.

  Green had them gather up immediately. Pyra was still unsteady on her feet, but she leaned against Juvenae and tried to focus.

  “Well done with the journey. We have one important errand to run as a group, which should give time for those of you that need it to recover. After that, we will hit the baths then grab a light late lunch before we set up for people to report problems. The dock master is an old friend, and he’ll see that our wagon gets delivered. Hylla, you may accompany us or follow the wagon and set up your healing station nearby. Everyone else, follow me.” Green ordered with a smile.

  Ranthia wasn’t quite sure what sort of “important errand” required a full team of eight Rangers, but of all her guesses… none of them involved a cosmetics shop. The Rangers all looked confused as they followed Green into the shop.

  It was a nice shop, Ranthia supposed. Lots of natural light. Chairs and freshly conjured mirrors scattered about. Colorful pottery sat on shelves and displays. It just absolutely wasn’t a place for Rangers to do something of importance!

  “Oh, Gle—erm, Green, darling! You should have written me that you got your preferred route back—I would have had all hands ready for this!” A remarkably short man popped up (barely) from behind the counter before anyone had quite found the courage to ask Green what they were doing.

  “You know I don’t get enough notice to get a messenger to you, old friend. But yes, these are my latest blooms. If you could…?” Green stepped to the side, all smiles.

  The man scampered around his counter and moved up to Ranthia—the perks of walking in the front of the line—with a smile on his unappealing face. Bulbous was an incredibly accurate word for the man’s face, which was more than a little odd with his short and skinny frame.

  “Right, let me get a good look at each of you and let me know what appearance Skills you have.” The man ordered.

  Ranthia dutifully reported [Sexy] and forced herself to hold still while the man studied her face with an unnerving amount of focus. He then rattled off several numbers and Ranthia watched his assistants scatter and get to work grabbing jars and other implements in response.

  To Ranthia’s surprise the entire group had an appearance Skill. …Which was kind of a relief, honestly; she wasn’t as ridiculous as she sometimes felt with her determination to keep [Sexy]!

  Art had [Stylish], which was a bit surprising. The man didn’t seem to flaunt anything like the name of the skill suggested, but perhaps its true purpose was more subtle?

  Lysia—who was almost exactly the same height as the man that was studying her—proudly announced that she had [Cute]. Ranthia’s old Skill worked on her, and Ranthia wasn’t even slightly surprised to hear that she had it. It suited the petite defender—more than the gigantic shield she kept strapped to her back did, honestly.

  Abillo was reticent to share hers and Green had to stare at her for several moments before the quiet woman finally admitted that she had [Lovely]. That seemed fine, though ever since Abillo admitted it Ranthia couldn’t help but to think the woman would look better with longer hair. It was strange how new expectations could twist and color how she perceived reality.

  Tertia was more than a little smug when she announced that she had [Very Sexy] and that it was capped. So… there were evolved forms of [Sexy], good to know. Ranthia felt a completely reasonable amount of jealousy over Tertia having it.

  Juvenae was even less eager to share her own than Abillo was, she stubbornly clung to her silence until finally Pyra just rolled her eyes and announced that her friend had [Dark Beauty]. Juvenae outright pouted over being outed, but the man just rattled off new numbers for her.

  Pyra had [Hot] which just… ow. Worse, the kid seemed to be completely oblivious to the pun! She said it with pride! Ranthia had to fight to keep from groaning out loud, and her respect for the System was damaged in a way it hadn’t been in years.

  The short man plainly already knew as much, but Green still explained to the group that her own appearance skill was based on [Beautiful], but it had merged with the class skill that was responsible for her hair—and inspired her name—[The Green]. And in the short time that it took Green to share that information, the assistants had already finished getting everything together. Each of them was presented with a small chest filled with little clay jars, brushes, and other familiar implements.

  Ranthia tried to protest when Green handed the man a sack—she had plenty of money!—but Green just waved her off and announced that it was time to hit the baths.

  Ranthia was still glaring at Pyra and Lysia when they all got out of the baths—well, Art was on his side and fending for himself, of course—and gathered in front of Green (seriously, splashing in the baths like children). Granted, part of it was that Ranthia was still feeling awkward due to how clumsily she had evaded offers to wash her back or requests to wash the backs of the other women. It was kind of… intimate in a way she wasn’t used to outside of her previous relationships, yes, but the bigger issue was that her aversion to being touched was still in full effect.

  “Very well, Flower, you and Tertia can help one another with your cosmetics as you need. Everyone else, please gather your cosmetics and gather with me so we can get everyone looking their best. I believe that it’s important to put our best face forward when dealing with the people in every town and city. This means baths and cosmetics. Just because we’re Rangers doesn’t mean we should be covered in filth and act uncivilized! As Rangers we should be above the realities of the world, to help people feel safer.” Green announced.

  Ranthia swallowed the groan that very, very nearly slipped out. She didn’t necessarily disagree with Green—and [Sexy] would appreciate the additional effort—but she wasn’t looking forward to being stuck interacting with Tertia one-on-one. The slightly older woman came off as a bit stuck-up and snobby and Ranthia typically got along… poorly with those that came from wealth. Still, she held her tongue and soon found herself seated on a bench next to Tertia, their little chests of cosmetics opened between them.

  “Right, looks like these aren’t too dissimilar to what I used to use back in the capital. Do you have much experience with putting on your own cosmetics?” Tertia asked once she reviewed the jars in both their chests.

  “Sort of. My… ex was a [Stylist], she tried to teach me a few times, but she usually lost patience with me and…”

  Nonononono, Xaoc damn it all—she was not going to start crying in front of a stuck-up junior!

  “I… she usually just took… care of me herself…” Ranthia finished the thought, trying to rush through it.

  Yet the memories flooded her stupid, worthless mind even as the tears started to fall.

  Tertia just silently and patiently waited until Ranthia got a grip, then excused herself to wash her face again. Once Ranthia returned, Tertia just picked up like nothing had happened.

  “Right, your shades are mostly a touch darker than mine, but we’re going to largely be wearing them the same way. Why don’t you watch me apply each layer and effect on myself, then you can try to mirror it, and I’ll talk you through each step.” Tertia offered, without a hint of awkwardness or judgment.

  Ranthia was beyond grateful, especially when the tears came again partway through when Tertia, by happenstance, reminded her a bit too much of Hexara while correcting her brushwork direction. Ranthia just washed off what she had done so far and returned to a bare-faced Tertia who began again without comment.

  Ranthia had clearly misjudged the woman.

  On her previous round, Ranthia had dreaded manning the table to take the complaints of the locals more than anything. …By day two, Ranthia had discovered something so much worse.

  Green ultimately assigned two of them to permanent Hylla duty, after the fifth incident. Lysia and Abillo hadn’t even noticed the girl slipping off that time. They scattered to find her, and Ranthia ended up finding the kid deep in the worst parts of the slums in a filthy, stinking alley. Where a thug surrounded by some urchins was angrily tearing through Hylla’s supplies demanding to know where she hid the rest of her money.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He moved to bash Hylla’s head in with the hammer he carried, and Ranthia tore through him with her knives. …Only for Hylla to immediately start trying to heal the bastard! He wasn’t even bound and Ranthia was nearly forced to kill him to keep him from trying anything stupid!

  And so, Hylla duty became part of their city tasks. At least the kid was low level—she hadn’t even reached the level 128 class up in her first class yet—and was a dual-classed [Healer], which meant that Ranthia had the option of picking her up and carrying her—kicking and screaming—back to her chair and badly drawn free healing sign.

  In the end, nothing much came up during their first stop. The reports they got were either minor matters for the local guard that someone was upset weren’t somehow an urgent priority, or just… gossip.

  “Seriously, why would anyone think they need to tell Rangers that they think their neighbors are hooking up?!” Ranthia grumbled as she helped to pack up the wagon.

  “She really got under your skin, huh?” Tertia asked, bemused.

  “Yes, ugh! Her rant just wouldn’t stop! She wouldn’t even let me get a word in edgewise! Like why?! Who cares!” Ranthia grumped.

  “You would not survive in high society.” Tertia replied with a grin.

  Ranthia and Green took turns on scouting duty. Ranthia was faster than many speedsters thanks to her level, but Green could literally just disappear into woodlands. Even when Ranthia watched the woman do it, it was hard to tell she wasn’t part of the underbrush. Her mossy hair just sprouted more plants and blended her in with the other local plant life, which was mildly intimidating.

  When she could, Ranthia continued to practice with [Pure Reflections]—though she never let herself dip below 80% of her mana just for practice. During downtime, she tried to guide a mirror image through complex tasks like sewing or running through thick underbrush without tripping (or breaking). At night before she prayed and slept, she made two mirror images spar. They were far too slow to make a good opponent for Ranthia herself—even before the bizarre mental exercise of trying to outwit yourself—but trying to make two mirror images put on a decent show was great practice. Especially since Green knew how to brew a bitter, disgusting tea that helped with the headache that the mental strain inevitably gave her. It was horrible to choke down, but it helped so much she was determined to get more from Green after the route was done.

  Boundless optimism was better than the alternative dread.

  The route had been smooth and quiet so far, which meant that none of them were surprised when they were flagged down by a passing small merchant caravan. The caravan’s guards reported that they had been attacked by strange, bug-like monsters that they had never seen before. They’d managed to drive the creatures off with their bows, but they were “over level 100” (why was everyone so bad with their colors? Life on Pallos necessitated a careful eye for the differences between shades!), dangerous, and aggressive.

  At least the creatures apparently flew, which meant that the problem wasn’t due to remnants of the formorian scourge. When the final act of that war happened several had gotten into Remus. By the time Ranthia was a proper Adventurer they were believed to have all been hunted down, yet rumors persisted and flared up often enough that everyone still feared their return.

  Green scouted, while Ranthia led the rest of the team—and the wagon—off the road in the direction the guards indicated the monsters had gone in. Though Ranthia couldn’t help but to recall one other bit of trivia…

  They were fairly close to where she had fought the hellhounds so long ago. Why was this part of Remus so regularly experiencing monsters that weren’t normally seen in Remus? She’d never even heard of anything like these big flying bugs! It made no sense.

  Green reappeared right as they came into a clearing.

  She used Ranger hand signs to communicate the pertinent information as quickly as possible. The monsters were coming, five of them. When they arrived, she would break their formation and engage with the lead. Ranthia was to engage with the two on the left. Art would take the one nearest to Green’s position on the right. The rest of the team would need to engage the final one.

  Affirmations were irrelevant, there just wasn’t time. It was time for Ranger Team 6 to prove its mettle on the field of battle!

  The monsters emerged from the tree line. To Ranthia’s eye, they resembled the flying insects that she sometimes saw around bodies of water. Crystalline wings beat rapidly through the air, propelling a long, skinny, segmented body. Of course, there were minor differences, namely that these monsters were each about two to three paces long and had a gigantic, curved stinger at the end of their long bodies.

  “[Wyvernfly – Storm], single class only! Each of them is somewhere between level 140 and level 147!” Ranthia called out.

  She was never going to hold back anything that might get someone killed. Not again.

  Green nodded, then moved. Ranthia never expected such speed or aggression out of someone with two [Mage] classes, but vines surged from the woman’s mossy hair, lifted her, and then drove her right down the center of the swarm of wyvernflies. Right when she reached them, thicker thorny vines erupted from her hair and cracked at the lead monster as though they were whips, and Green drove it away from its fellows, nicely splitting their formation in the process—just as she had promised.

  Ranthia was moments behind her. In rapid succession she threw out three mirror images in an effort to try to box off her two targets. With monsters that were less than half her level, Ranthia felt confident enough to experiment, at least for the moment. She directed her mirror images—not that she could control three deftly as of yet—to begin to make actual strikes at the monsters.

  Granted, a small part of her mind was mildly distracted with amusement at how monsters that were roughly equal to where most hard-working men and women reached at the twilight of their lives had become low level in her eyes. They were literally less than half her level, so she could risk playing around a bit to gain useful information.

  Of course, throughout this, she still kept her ears—and other senses—alert for any signs of anyone else in her team needing assistance. Protecting the lives and safety of her team—or Hylla who was secure in the wagon—mattered more than killing the monsters.

  Moments into the battle, it was clear that the wyvernflies were agile… and stupid. None of the creatures seemed to grasp that they could just… fly higher and leave. Instead, they buzzed and darted around in quick side-to-side motions while they lashed out with their stingers. Ranthia willingly (that was her story, and she was sticking to it) sacrificed one of her images to learn that the stingers delivered an electrical discharge if they landed a blow, but Ranthia was mostly confident that there was no sign of any venom or toxin.

  Soon enough, yet another mirror image broke and had to be replaced, and by that point Ranthia was getting frustrated with herself. This shouldn’t be so hard for her! Her three mirror images were slow, wildly uncoordinated, and, more often than not, one just stood there doing precious little while she tried to rapidly cycle through giving orders to each one. By Xaoc, it felt like she had made no progress at all since she started practicing with the technique!

  It was frustrating, but she was starting to come to terms with the obvious answer. She might be able to improve some, but if she wanted to make decent use of her class, she needed a new Skill that could handle some of the workload. Especially since there was no way that she could channel, even if she was just handling two images.

  [*ding!* You have unlocked the General Skill [Submind]! Would you like to replace a skill?]

  …Had the system seriously just been waiting for her to make up her mind?

  Ranthia let two of her images go still—not that they would last long—and entered the dance personally. She had learned enough, and she didn’t want to try to review the new Skill offering while she was occupied with the battle. A few heartbeats later she activated [Void Edge] in both knives and—with a final pirouette—drove a knife through the body of each of the two wyvernflies that she was fighting.

  [*ding!* You have slain a [Wyvernfly] (Storm, level 144)!]

  [*ding!* You have slain a [Wyvernfly] (Storm, level 142)!]

  Ranthia turned and focused fully on the others. The fresh Rangers really were doing well. Lysia’s shield deflected and controlled the wyvernfly and she even had the sense to keep the base of her massive shield planted into the ground to limit the threat the lightning posed. When the monster tried to dodge around her, Pyra leaned around Lysia and unleashed orange-and-black flames to drive it back into position. Juvenae and Abillo kept pelting the bug on either side with pointed metal shells filled with Pyronox or sharp shards of ice. Tertia held her spear ready for a throw, but seemed content to watch her fellows whittle the threat town.

  Green seemed to be doing her best to test the bug she fought, rather than kill it outright. She was toying with it more openly than Ranthia was, baiting it into attacking tendrils of her plants while she kept it neatly boxed in.

  Art seemed to be struggling a little to land a decisive blow, so Ranthia put a mirror image near him and had it attack the creature’s flank to help. The Wyvernfly overcorrected to evade the new threat, which allowed Art’s sickle-bladed weapon to carve through one of its wings. After the creature crashed to the ground, it was over swiftly.

  [*ding!* Your group has slain a [Wyvernfly] (Storm, level 143)!]

  Shortly after, the new Rangers’ bug fell from the sky when its strength gave out, after which it was rapidly incinerated by Pyra.

  [*ding!* Your group has slain a [Wyvernfly] (Storm, level 140)!]

  Unceremoniously, a moment after that kill notification, Green’s vines grabbed her foe and ripped it in half with a wet crunch.

  [*ding!* Your group has slain a [Wyvernfly] (Storm, level 147)!]

  With that, Green just clapped her hands and announced “Well, that’s done.”

  None of them were injured, so they gathered up immediately. Art was trying to wipe baked bug guts off his weapon, but no one else even had equipment that needed maintenance after the fight.

  “Flower, would you do an old Ranger a favor? If I write a message for you to deliver, would it be possible for you to run it back to Ranger Headquarters and see it delivered to the proper clerk?” Green asked while they walked back to the wagon.

  Ranthia considered the distances.

  “Should take me a bit over three days, I think, if I stick with minimal rest. I assume we’ll meet at the next town?” Ranthia decided.

  “…Or perhaps the next.” Green replied with a hint of amusement. “Oh, I am sorry to put such a bother on you Flower, but I really would appreciate it. Here, let me write the message quickly at least while we get back to the road proper.”

  Ranthia smiled and saluted. Then, while Green was busy preparing the scroll, she used the free moment to review her level gains and skill offering.

  [*ding!* [Ideal Reflectance] has leveled from 108 to level 110!]

  [Submind]: Any given woman has only so much mental focus to spare, so make things easier on yourself and get a Submind that can handle some tasks for you! Your Submind won’t be sapient, but it will take simple orders and is great for simple or repetitive things that might distract you. Its available intelligence increases with level, but it can never surpass your own.

  Ranthia stepped to the side and—not entirely successfully—fought down the nausea while she dropped [Stealth] for [Submind]. She hoped the new Skill would help, but if it wasn’t what she needed, well, she could always try to get something better. The System was gloriously flexible that way.

  A short time later, her journey back to the capital began.

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  Nozomi Matsuoka.

  Sarah "Neila" Elkins.