As Akari got closer to the city, the air began to thin. The mana in the city wasn’t as concentrated as the mana in the forest.

  Once up to the gates, she spotted a guard approaching her.

  “Hello Young Girl. May I ask for your reason for coming to this city so te?”

  “Oh…”

  The guard stared at Akari, waiting for her answer. Not only did she not have an answer, she was having trouble opening her mouth. Before now, Akari only spoke to people she felt comfortable with already.

  Her family and servants were people that her body was already used to strangely enough. There was a familiarity to them that made it easy to speak to. Outside of them, she only spoke to children. This was Akari’s first time speaking to an adult, an intimidating one at that.

  “Miss?”

  The guard reached out for Akari, slowly stopping as he realized that it’s getting harder to move.

  The mana subconsciously leaking from her was so dense that it was visible. A dark purple outline was encompassing Akari, and the Guard noticed.

  His eyes narrowed as he moved his hand towards his sword, accusing,

  “You can’t be human, no child can emit that much mana!”

  “Huh?! What are you talking about?”

  Akari didn’t know what to do, but she quickly reminded herself that she needed treatment.

  The guard unsheathed his bde, the cold metal slicing through the air.

  “What are you doing!”

  Akari backed away. In response to her fear, her mana output increased even further, the air becoming thick and hard to breathe. It was akin to being submerged in water, although a bit thicker. The air had a purple tint and squeezed everything in the vicinity, except Akari.

  The closer the bde got to Akari’s neck, the slower it moved, until it eventually broke. It was as if Akari was a Bck hole, not pulling everything in but everything that got close was put under her immense pressure.

  The Guard backed away, looking at his shattered bde, his own mana just barely protecting his hand from being crushed with it.

  “Look, this has to be some big misunderstanding, lets just-”

  As Akari was speaking, she grabbed the guard hand, trying her best to calm him. However, All this did was crush the guards entire arm and incapacitate him. Akari was stained red, the same color as her eyes. Staring at the Guard on the ground, Akari began to panic.

  Thoughts like, ‘Am I gonna be held responsible for this?’ and ‘What even happened, there’s no proof I did this..’ flew through her head.

  Eventually, Akari came to one conclusion, she just needed to make it as if nothing even happened.

  Her eyes darkened for a moment as she dragged the Guard into the forest and hugged his body, crushing it in the same way his arm was before. Blood gushed from all over his body as Akari silently began digging a hole.

  Pushing mana to her fingertips made her nails tougher than any normal sword. She dug a hole with ease and buried the body, making sure to return the earth as close to normal as she could.

  ‘I’m a murderer now…’

  Tears welled up in her eyes, something Akari didn’t even want to happen. Her body was reacting more strongly than her mind. She choked it up to her body still being a child, so her emotions showed more freely than she’d like.

  Akari walked into the city, covered in blood. She came up with the idea to just say it was monster blood if anyone asked, but no one did. It seemed to not be that rare to enter the town covered in blood.

  By then, Akari had already calmed down. Her mana output was normal, no, less than normal. She was subconsciously holding back even more than normal to avoid another situation like before. Thanks to this, Nobody got hurt or even noticed Akari, even when they bumped into her on the busier streets.

  ‘I still need treatment.’

  Luckily, Akari didn’t forget her purpose for returning to this city. She walked while clutching the hole in her abdomen, not hurting, but not wanting to lose blood either.

  ‘Wait… I’ll need money for treatment.’

  Akari realized as she turned from the direction she was going, going towards a pce she passed not too long ago. It was the Adventurers guild.

  ‘If this world is anything like those novels or manga, the quickest way to get money would have to be the most dangerous one.’

  Akari didn’t know if she had time to get an actual job. Even if the wound wasn’t fatal, what if she got infected? What if that rabbit had some magical ability to corrode one's body? Akari didn’t want to take those risks, so, she arrived at the most extreme option.

  She entered the medium sized building and her nostrils were immediately filled with the smell of booze and beer. She expected this, but was still amazed at how people are able to stay in this smell.

  Sounds of chatter and ughter filled the pce, not stopping even when she entered. Nobody paid any attention to Akari, and she loved this fact.

  She strode through the Guild, walking straight to the man behind the counter. He had dark brown hair and a scar over one of his eyes, which intimidated Akari a little.

  “One slip registration thank you!”

  Akari said, immediately correcting herself before the man could say anything,

  “One registration slip please!”

  “Alright lil missy.”

  He handed her the slip, having a smirk on his face.

  Akari grabbed it and began filling it out, trying to mask her embarrassment in the process.

  Once she filled it out to the best of her ability, she gave it back and noticed that there was an orb on the table.

  “I’m gonna assume you’re a mage or a soul user since you aren’t carrying any weapons on you.”

  The man surprisingly had a rather polite tone, causing Akari to space out for a moment before saying,

  “Oh, yea, I guess I am…”

  “Great, just put your hand on this orb and push your mana into it. In simple terms, the brighter it gets, the more mana you have.”

  Akari followed his instructions and the orb began slowly glowing, eventually illuminating the entire Guildhall. Everyone went silent.

  *Crack..!*

  The orb shattered, the light immediately dying down and the entire Guildhall broke into cheers.

  Even the receptionist cpped, saying,

  “Great job, you’re at least C rank in terms of mana output alone. To rank up further, you’ll have to prove yourself.”

  He then grabbed a band from under the counter, continuing,

  “Give me your finger, this band will always keep up with your rank and will also act as your ID. With this, you won’t need your parents anymore, as you’ll technically be an adult.”

  ‘That’s convenient,’ she thought as she gave the man her finger.

  He pulled out a small needle and pricked her finger with it, a drop of blood falling onto it and dying the band purple, the exact same color as her mana.

  She put the band on as she asked,

  “So that means I can take jobs now right?”

  “Yup, you’re a fully fledged adventurer now.”

  Akari smiled at this and went to the board, eventually picking out a C rank job request.

  It wanted her to subjugate one ogre and didn’t have a time limit. The reward was 1226 copper. Although Akari didn’t know how much that was worth, it was in the thousands so she assumed it was a lot.

  Akari knew she didn’t have experience in fighting, but she felt an endless amount of mana flowing through her. She was also able to kill a monster without any mana. These, along with the fact that she was the same rank as the mission, made her think she should be able to win.

  “Let's do this!”

  Akari said, sounding a lot more childish than she meant to.

  ***

  Akari was walking through the forest. By now, the wound on her stomach clogged itself. Since her body hadn’t given out yet, she assumed that the wound wasn’t fatal.

  She wasn’t just walking, she was focusing on her mana, and trying to sense the environment. She was slowly making progress, being able to sense around 8 meters around her.

  Though the range was short, she could sense everything to an atomic level. It felt strange. She wasn’t feeling as overwhelmed as before, as if the information was getting filtered in her brain.

  That wasn’t the only odd thing, her range, it’s shorter than before, yet, it’s more precise as well.

  The more she focused on it, the more she could sense. After a bit longer, her range grew to 9 meters. She was growing quickly, too quickly.

  Eventually, she found a cave. Before leaving to the forest, she read a bit on ogres, thanks to the guild having a monsterpedia for free.

  Ogre’s are strong humanoid monsters, but slow. They have great eyesight and an enhanced sense of smell. They are also quite rge, the average ogre standing at around 6 meters tall.

  They’re noticeable thanks to their dark blue skin. Contrary to popur fairy tales, they aren’t bulky, being rather lean. They don’t usually have magical capabilities, being solely reliant on their indomitable strength.

  Their homes are usually in caves or underground.

  Being territorial monsters, it’s extremely rare to see them in groups.

  Normally, they are C rank monsters, their only danger being their strength, as these are not intelligent monsters, but if you see them in groups, they’ll immediately become an A rank, as there is likely to be an anomaly in the group.

  Seeing as Akari found a cave in the forest, she automatically assumed it was an ogres home, and she was right.

  Deep in the cave, she found a pile of dead monsters, those rabbits, which are called Bicorns, and wolves, Dire Wolves.

  Bicorns are E css monsters, not very strong but travelling in great numbers. Their weakness is why Akari was able to kill one by herself without mana. DIre Wolves are D css, something Akari wouldn’t be able to take on.

  Although they’re a rank below Ogres, Dire Wolves are intelligent, fast, and durable. These traits make them more of a pain to deal with than Ogres.

  That only goes for humans though. Ogres are able to simply overpower the Dire Wolves, hence, Akari wasn’t surprised to see this.

  “This is definitely an Ogre home, but it’s not here, what to do…”

  *Rumble*

  Akari felt the ground shake, almost falling on the ground. Her sensory range was around 15 meters by now, never turning it off.

  With this range, she could feel the entire cave, barely reaching the entrance. All she could feel is a bulky humanoid, holding two wolves, one in each hand.

  Akari began getting nervous. She knew that it couldn’t be an Ogre. It was too bulky.

  She felt it begin running into the cave, each step shaking it.

  The closer it got, the more clearly she could sense it, to the point where she could even sense its color.

  Instead of blue, it was red.

  Whatever it was, it wasn’t an Ogre.