“What?”

  The man woke up.

  "..." When Roy saw the man's face, his frown turned upside down. Before going to the woman, he gave the man two shoulder pats. "My mistake, I thought you were someone I knew."

  The man shrugged it off and went back to sleep.

  “Excuse me ma'am,” Roy called as the lady who got surprised earlier turned around. “Got any spare room?”

  “There is,” the lady replied. “Follow me.”

  Roy followed the woman to the room on the second floor. After giving the woman twenty grat, Roy stepped into the room. But Roy's eyes burned as two luscious cheeks were revealed.

  “Ah…” said the guy with his buns showing.

  Ace was there, pulling his trousers on. The woman had her eyes closed, but she could still see through a tiny gap between her fingers. Regretfully, Roy struck the woman's nose as he shut the door. In agony, she winced.

  “What are you doing here?” Roy asked.

  “Hello!” Pot greeted, carrying a pot.

  Ace zipped his pants and answered, “To rest of course. And why is Pot carrying a… Pot?”

  Roy shrugged.

  “What about you?”

  “Hmm…” Roy checked the whole room and noticed another person, covered in a blanket. He gazed back at Ace, commenting, “Same.”

  Ace went past Roy to go downstairs for a drink after he was done dressing. However, Roy continued to gaze at the individual who was sleeping. His invasive idea was to take off the person's covering. He slowly walked toward the blanket, drawing nearer until he could reach it. He had a small smile on his face and was ready to pull the blanket off. But Roy was stopped when Ace grabbed his hand.

  “Come on, Ace, a peek wouldn't hur-”

  “Respect privacy!” Ace dragged Roy downstairs.

  The blanketed figure looked at the open door as they walked away. But then she saw that Pot was looking at her. Pot gave a small wave and crawled out of the room.

  “...” She yawned and sat, recalling something unpleasant.

  ***

  Roy and Ace were walking through the woods outside the inn, carrying a stealth potion.

  “Can’t you do this on your own?” Roy said. “It’s your problem, not mine.”

  “Shh! We're almost there!”

  With a few steps ahead, both of them reached a grassy field that was glowing in different types of colours.

  “It’s Dugrow Season,” Ace said.

  Dugrow Season. A bug that lives beneath the ground and lays its eggs every night on the grass. The eggs were the cause of the grass's luminescence.

  “Did you know? Dugrow eats bones rather than meat?”

  “...”

  “Is he speechless of my all seeing knowledge?!” Ace felt the urge of excitement.

  As Ace continued to bark, Roy gazed at the grass and recalled a disturbing history with Hono.

  “...”

  When Ace leaned so close to his face, Roy jumped back in surprise and was brought back to reality.

  “You’ve been spacing out for a while now,” he said. “Something bothering you?”

  Roy shook his head and rubbed his right eye. “Imma head back now, good luck~” he began walking away.

  “But-”

  Already, he had vanished from view, swallowed up by the woods' darkness.

  As he knelt down to gather the glowing eggs, Ace complained, mumbling, "What am I even getting all excited about? It's Roy!”

  He farted out of the blue and glanced around to see whether anyone had heard. Honestly, it was only a sly gopher grinning at Ace.

  “...”

  Ace zapped the gopher after pointing his finger.

  “Creepy.”

  Upon returning to the room at the inn, Roy saw that the person in bed had left. Nevertheless, the bed cover had an amulet on it. Roy studied the amulet closely. Its symbol was the same as the previous one.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Roy frowned and went to his bed, ignoring the amulet. “What’s the point anyway…” He said while Pot was sitting on his chest, staring directly to his brown eyes. “What?”

  Roy ignored the amulet and scowled before retiring to his bed. As Pot sat on his chest, he looked straight into his brown eyes and remarked, “What?”

  Pot crawled forward a bit. “Are you sad?”

  “No-”

  Pot bumped his face to Roy’s and patted his forehead. “Shhh~, there, there~.”

  For some reason, he felt drowsy as his eyelids were to fall till he fell asleep.

  “Roy!” Ace barged in and noticed he was already asleep, along with Pot. “Oh…”

  Though, he discovered the third person wasn't on its bed. Yet, he saw the amulet. His eyes widened and kept it in his pocket. Ace then remembered some advice from Walt-

  However, he found out the third individual was not on its bed. He did see the amulet, though. He kept it in his pocket while his eyes grew wide. Ace then recalled some of Walt's advice:

  “If you ever encounter a Quill member, stay away…”

  With a solemn expression, Ace concealed the amulet in his pocket.

  ***

  The entire room where Roy and Ace sleep was filled with light as the sun rose over the mountains and filtered through the window. Ace, however, was already prepared. He looked at Roy, who was wrapped in a blanket, and Pot, who was dozing on its pot next to Roy.

  “Where did the pot come from?”

  Ace shook his head and walked out of the room without even alerting Roy or Pot. He felt that this was the best he could do. Following their brief adventure together, Ace already disapproved of Roy's actions yet respected his might. He gave himself a slap after thinking that, motivating himself to perform better.

  Roy woke up with Pot back at the inn. They discovered Ace's bed was empty.

  “He didn't even say goodbye to us…” Pot looked sad.

  “Uh-huh,“ Roy replied, packing his stuff and when he was done, he left the room, and Pot followed his trail.

  Soon, they left Aegis Town and headed to their next destination.

  “Wazzat?” Pot peeked at what Roy was holding, a map. “So many liiiiines~”

  Pot became bored because Roy was too preoccupied on the map. Something moved on the bush as Pot looked around. Pot leaped off and ran directly to the suspicious shrub.

  “Aha!”

  The object was a pebble. Pot turned around after scratching its head, but the pebble moved slightly, so Pot turned around once more.

  “Hmmm, meh…”

  Pot dashed back to Roy and the pebble opened its little eyes, stalking both of them.

  “RAHH!”

  Pot caught the living pebble and the pebble tried to get out.

  “You’re coming with me~”

  The pot on Roy's shoulder turned out to be a fake, and the real one concealed well..

  “Hey, hey! Look what I found!” Pot interrupted Roy.

  “... A pebble…?

  “A living pebble~” Pot's eyes were shining in awe. “Can I keep it?”

  There was no response coming from Roy, so Pot took the silence a yes.

  ***

  Roy found himself in a ruined village after an hour of wandering around. It was overrun by some creatures, judging by the damage to the buildings.However, Roy didn't care and continued on his way. They then noticed themselves on their left after passing another residence.

  “What the?” Roy said.

  “What the?” the other Roy repeated.

  Both Roy tried poking each other and flinched.

  “I… Look good~” Both Roy stated.

  “Hi!” Pot waved to his exact copy.

  But out of nowhere, a figure appeared beside Roy's reflection. A girl with wild white hair, dressed in crimson clothing, brown pants, boots, and a dark scarf. Roy scowled and turned to look behind him, but there was nobody there. However, their reflections vanished as soon as he turned back to face them. Until someone suddenly appeared before him. His face had a gentle smile.

  “HONO…!?”

  Roy reached out his hand, but then, a hand grabbed his hoodie, pulling him away from the reflections.

  “Wake up!”

  Roy heard a faint sound and opened his eyes a bit, everything was blurry.

  “You think he's dead?” said the girl.

  “Imma give him some CPR!” the man inhaled and leaned forward.

  Roy's eyes lit up as he sprung. He was gasping for air while checking the situation. There were three casters, two men, one girl. Also the girl was carrying Pot who was eating tapay. Those three casters were the ones he robbed from the dungeon.

  “Oh! He's alive.” stated the girl as she rubbed Pot back and forth.

  “What happened…?” Roy asked.

  “Apparently you were hypnotized by Mirrorins.” said the nerdy man.

  “They may be thin and wide, but god, they're the worst!” The girl caster commented as she quivered a bit.

  Mirrorins. A creature that creates a reflection of its prey, enticing them to become entangled and unable to escape until they have been consumed inside.

  Roy placed his palm on his forehead, “Oh god… How long was I out?”

  “Not much, but you almost got sucked in.”

  “Luh…” Roy looked down and remembered Hono appeared for a second. “Thanks for dragging me out.”

  “Don’t mention it,” the leader said and glanced at the girl. “Niva, put that thing down.”

  “No! I wanna keep it!” Niva as she scooched close to Roy only to whisper, “Can I keep it?”

  “Be my guest.”

  Pot grabbed onto Roy's hoodie, pouting.

  Niva showed some tapay on her bag and Pot's mouth was drooling. Yet, Pot shook his head and held tight at Roy.

  “Ugh! Fine!” Niva crossed her arms.

  *SCREEECH!!*

  “We should get going!” Tarph said and everyone nodded as they left the area.