“Again!” Thalia yelled out after spectating Barry from battling against multiple city guards that were copies of the ones from Haglethorn. She wasn’t satisfied with the results of the fight because Barry had taken too many hits from his opponents. Outside of the dreamworld they were in, Barry would have likely fallen due to overexertion.

  Listening to her command, Barry pushed himself after taking a couple of seconds to gain his second wind and mentally summoned more guardsman to practice against. Anything that Barry manifested was what Barry last remembered them being as; meaning, any enemy that he had fought in the past that he summoned, could either be as strong or weak as he remembered being. He had been going at it for at least an hour and a half.

  Blocking the first strike from his enemy, he slid his greatsword against his foe’s blade and slashed downwards; clashing against their armor and knocking them back, yet still receiving a hit of his own. One guard with a bow struck a direct hit on his right leg, making Barry infuriated and charge at them, shielding himself from more arrows as he closed the gap just enough to land a horizontal slash on them to send them tumbling back.

  Another guard with a shield and lance struck him from his blind spot, causing him to flinch. He faced the enemy and allowed himself to be hit again in the shoulder so that he could yank their weapon out of their grip before vaulting over and delivering a downward strike, but was blocked by their shield.

  The more Thalia watched her student fight, the more she understood what sort of fighting style he kept going back too. She could still see him going back to his ways of relying on brute forcing his way through his battles, as well as trading hits with his opponents so he could give one back. That was what she didn’t want.

  “You can’t keep purposely taking hits in order to get one in, find opportunities, not trades. Look for an opening to sweep them off their feet, deflect their attacks and swiftly close the gap between each other! We need to break that habit of yours!” She urged.

  Barry knew that she was only trying to help, but still, he was getting furious just listening to her pointers. “Yeah, yeah, I know! I get it!” He barked back.

  “Then show me!” Thalia pressed him with her commanding voice.

  Gripping the handle of his weapon tight, feeling himself getting madder by the second, Barry chose to remain steadfast in place. His eyes shifted between enemies, processing as much info as he could to plan out his next course of actions. Despite his training being taken in his dream realm, he could still feel a sense of adrenaline.

  When it came down to intense battles that were life-threatening, he would always find himself feeling a sense of thrill and excitement. He experienced these moments when he fought the three-knights and their king from the tutorial, the giant one-eyed Eviscerator, and the leader of the band of Orcs he fought against in Ned’s village, known as Wreav. His only conclusion to having this sort of feeling during those times was probably because he deemed them challenging enough to make him want to go all out with everything he had. They pushed him to his limits.

  After mapping out his own script of motion in his head, simulating what he was going to do before pulling the trigger, he channeled his inner rage to execute his path to overcoming his foes. ‘Locking in…’

  He dashed forward, ducking his head with perfect timing as a lance was thrusted at him, missing him entirely. Barry saw a bit of an opening underneath his opponent’s shield and performed a swift leg sweep with his sword, causing them to fall on their ass.

  Barry noticed there were four other guards that were trying to flank him on all sides. Anticipating this sort of tactic, he paused his assault on his current enemy and allowed the guards to launch their pincer attack.

  Launching off the ground, he avoided their attacks and descended back down with a powerful stomp on their weapons, so strong that they lost grip. Before performing a spin attack that sent all his enemies hurling back. ‘Good. That’s better.’ Thalia was pleased.

  Multiple arrows were being fired at him from all around him, so in response to these projectiles, he picked one target to focus on while keeping a low profile as he moved in with haste. Arrows whizzed past him narrowly missing him, Thalia watched as he moved in erratic movements to close the distance so that he could beat his opponents down one by one.

  Barry did his best to read where his foe would shoot based on their eyes and how their arms were angled. Not much of a fight was given whenever he came into contact with these bow users, since they weren’t fast enough to switch weapons. Their bodies would then be used as meat shields when making his way to clear out the rest.

  Thalia noticed improvement as his fight continued on without being inflicted any damage and how he was becoming more conscious of other types of decisions that he could be making. His tussle with about 20 different guards would come to a close after 15 more minutes, Barry then collapsed on the ground in the field of plains to regain his strength.

  “How did I do?” Barry asked his master with an exhausted expression like a tired dog.

  His master walked over to him, paused for a moment as if thinking about his performance before looking down at him. “What? How many mistakes did I make this time? Was I that bad that you're just going to be silent the whole time?” Barry said, thinking she was going to insult him some more.

  Thalia “Definitely an improvement from your rugged way of fighting recklessly. Evasion and open-mindedness is what we’re working on.” She extended a hand to him to stand back up and he accepted. “Observe, analyze, and exploit. Being able to process everything that goes on in the battlefield, even the tiniest speck of detail, can mean so much when it comes to achieving victory. Brute force and aggressive attacks without thought is not always the answer for everything, a vast majority of the time. Do well to remember that.”

  “So then…you’re not denying that there could be times where constant pressure with thoughtless attacks can be the solution to a problem?” Barry wanted to know.

  She sighed with a hand on her hips and the other facepalming herself. “If those times do come, it’s usually only during moments of crisis or if you need to distract an opponent. I’m hoping for you to break those habits of yours and become at least a more modest and tactical fighter. Be better than what you are, is what I want.”

  “Fine, understood. I’ll start switching up my fighting style from now on. But I can’t promise any immediate changes when my next fight comes, it’s something I’ll have to get used to.” Barry genuinely wanted to become a proper fighter, but couldn’t help but keep thinking that trading hits with his opponents might be necessary.

  Thalia crossed her arms, accepting his answer. “Of course, I don’t expect an instant change in you after this training session. As long as you accept the flaws in your methods and are willing to accept my teachings. If I see improvement, you can take as long as you want to be tutored under my wing. It’s not like I can leave and go as I please.”

  Barry stowed away his weapon, creating a couple of chairs with his mind, one for him and Thalia to sit. He would then think over his practice matches, trying to pick out what he improved on and what mistakes he made.

  After about 10 minutes, Thalia spoke to Barry, grabbing his attention. “My brothers, Alistar and Claude, when you are gone they appear to talk to me personally. Telling me that I shouldn’t be helping you. Calling you undisciplined, easy to agitate, foul-mouthed, a bunch of insults.”

  “Well, they ain't wrong about the first three. I’m at least aware to point out my own flaws myself.” Barry replied, resting his head on a fist.

  Thalia chuckled. “Yes, you are capable of showing humility. It shows that you are willing to grow like we agreed on, which is why I think my brothers will come to terms with helping me shape you into being a true knight. They can deny it for now, but I’m sure in the future, their minds will change.”

  Barry sunk into his chair a bit more, reminiscing about the fight he had with her brothers during the tutorial. “It could also be that they’re still pissed off how they lost to me during our rematch. I only won because of your queen’s necklace.”

  Suddenly, Thalia felt a great disturbance around the place that only she could sense and smiled. “It seems that reason might contribute to why they choose to ignore you. Claude just told me that he would have won, if the moderators hadn’t decided to depower us, compared to when we were in our prime.”

  “Oh! That makes more sense now, no wonder you look different compared to what you were when we fought from before. The moderators had to have placed some restrictions on your capabilities in order to make the tutorial more fair for everyone else that was trying to finish the quest.” It was on his mind why he didn’t recognize Thalia when they met because both versions of her looked different.

  She nodded. “Precisely, we were originally from Scion but had died long ago, yet were resurrected by the moderators to be used as opposers for the people back at your world. Because of our immense strength and powers, we had to be taken down a peg.”

  His eyes widened with a surprise look. “Wait, you and everyone else that was a zombie from the tutorial was originally from Scion!? The current world I’m in? Why didn’t you tell me!?”

  “I felt there was no reason to tell you, because I’m trying to help you train at the moment.” She then took a moment to think about something to herself.

  Barry had questions about what sort of knowledge she had about the world if she really did live during the past. There could be something she knew that could help discover what the great calamity could be. “Thalia…how old are you?”

  Thalia looked at him, he could feel a sense of hostility even if he couldn’t see her expression being hidden within her helmet. “Why do you ask? You could discriminate me based on how old I tell you I am. A woman’s age isn’t something that is shared so easily.”

  Barry felt like he was going to step on a landmine if he pressed any further, but decided to shoot anyway because he saw his question as an important one. “I ask because it could help me and my group figure out what sort of danger the world could be facing. Maybe something like an ancient evil might rise up and swallow the world, am I wrong to think so?”

  She thought about his reason for asking her age, it wasn’t a bad one and considering how serious he was about finishing the main quest. “I don’t know what year it is now. But the time of my death was…during what my people considered, The Era of New Beginning. The year was NB 0387. A period where monsters were becoming less rampant, yet still were the cause of many concerns for the residents of Scion.”

  Barry patiently sat in his chair before she spoke again. “As you have seen, my home, which is known as Adelgard, had fallen due to the people of the kingdom going on a rampage because of some unforeseen circumstance. My brothers and I did our best to mend this upheaval but eventually fell to the overwhelming might of our own people and the infectious curse that terrorized Adelgard. Had we not shown mercy, we would have escaped with our lives…but how could we…when we cherished them all. We died before we got to know how our king fell from his throne. We had hoped that our king and queen would survive the chaos…”

  Thalia rose from her seat and gazed off into the big blue sky, resuming her answer to Barry’s question. “I have fought many powerful combatants, slain countless abominations, and as you can see, have taken down my fair share of dragons during my time. So as far as, ancient evil, goes. I can not say that I recall any who might rise to oppose you in this game we participate in.”

  After listening to what she had to say to him, Barry thought about the possibility of something rising from the past some more and asked an interesting question. “I’m not sure myself how long ago you were alive, but if the moderators and gods decided to bring you back from the dead to act as a challenge against us, the contestants, then…what’s stopping them from resurrecting something horrible or malevolent from the past as well?”

  His inquiry did make her curious as well about the possibility. “That…that does make sense. I can see the point you’re making. If the gods were able to bring me to life, what sort of beings might they bring back from the past to oppose everyone trying to survive this game?”

  Barry suddenly felt a disturbance of his body being shaken by someone from the real world. “I think I’m being woken up by someone, seems like it’s time for me to go.” He told her as he rose from his own chair.

  Thalia paused her thoughts for a moment about his question and acknowledged his need to return. “Very well, I will try to remember anything dangerous from my past that might resurface once more. The curse is the only thing that I can recall, but seeing as how the world isn’t ruined from it. We can assume that it is no longer present.”

  “Good, I wouldn’t know how to deal with that shit if it did appear again. It sounds very corrupt from the way you talk about it. Anyway, I’ll be taking my leave. See ya.” He said, before shutting his eyes to return back to his physical form.

  But he was interrupted by Thalia after his name was called. “W-Wait, Barry.”

  He lost his concentration and opened his eyes, looking puzzled as to why she sounded anxious. “Yeah, Thalia? Is it important?”

  She rubbed her hands in a nervous expression, lacing her fingers in between each other as she asked Barry something dire. “You know, ever since we figured out that you could manifest nearly anything in this dreamworld of yours…I’ve been thinking of something that could help with your training.”

  “Yeah…” Barry was intrigued by what this, something, was that she was referring to. “What do you think could help with my training? I’m willing to summon it if you really think it will help. Granted, I need to at least know what it looks like.”

  And for the first time, Barry believed he had seen the first act of excitement he had ever seen from Thalia. “Really!?” Her voice sounded so cheerful, before she changed the tone of her voice to one more calm and serious. “I-I mean, it would be wonderful if you did.”

  “Hmm…” Barry was wondering what she was going to ask of him. “So what is it?”

  Thalia stood tall and proud as she told him exactly what it was that could possibly improve his training in the long haul. “...A violin. I am positive that it will improve your performance to drastic heights if you were to bestow one to me. I’m sure your world must know what a violin is-”

  Barry burst out laughing, he couldn’t contain it inside himself because of how silly it was to see Thalia get so nervous and worked up over to ask him for an instrument. “Oh damn, haha, that’s what’s gotten you so flustered? A violin? Thalia, I thought it was something serious.”

  He continued laughing to himself, as Thalia started feeling embarrassed for asking him such a silly favor. “I knew I shouldn’t have asked for a silly favor, go ahead, mock me. Carry on.” She turned around, marching towards the training dummies for some practice to distract herself.

  Barry calmed himself, thinking that he had enough laughing at Thalia, and thought about her request. “Hey, hold on there, Thalia.”

  He sifted through his general knowledge of musical instruments and manifested a violin in front of her. She stopped in her tracks, looking down at the instrument with amazement. “Next time, just be upfront about what you want. Why the hell would I say no to someone who's trying to help me? Let alone, my master.”

  She picked up the violin, looking at it like it was something she would never see again. Thalia looked back at Barry, feeling so thankful. “Play whatever the fuck you want. I don’t care.” Barry said in a nonchalant tone, he then shifted the environment into the exact same place as Nightwalker's new home with a beautiful sun in the sky. “Chill out near the lake, make some music. You should be able to enjoy something in your free time.”

  Thalia then watched as he sat on the ground with his eyes closed as he prepared to enter back into the real world. Her lips moved, wanting to give him her thanks. “Barry…thank you. Truly.”

  Barry said in a casual tone. “Of course.” He said, before moving on back to his sleeping body.

  When he returned, Barry was awoken by Luna. He got up and looked around the room to see that everyone else was sleeping in besides Luna. He didn’t find Anna, so he figured she was probably still giving directions to Abe. “What’s up? Is it my turn to give directions?” He asked Luna, as he stood up to stretch.

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  “Oh, yeah, Anna asked if you could switch with her now. She looked pretty drowsy.” Luna replied, sounding like she was ready to sleep herself.

  After one final stretch in and one last yawn, he agreed. “Yeah, sure. I’ll take over for her.” He then made his way to exit the carriage.

  When Barry stepped outside the carriage, he saw that they were parked behind some trees that were near a gravel road that continued on through a field of grass and shrubs. It was in fact night, as he looked up at the moon beaming down upon them.

  “You’re awake, nice.” Anna said, sounding very appreciative. “Well, it was great talking to you, Abe. I’m gonna go hit the hay, Barry’s going to keep you company now. Good luck trying to get him to laugh, he can be a grouch at times.”

  She then hopped down from the coach box and walked past Barry, who had an annoyed expression on his face. “Thanks for taking over, grouch. Have fun.” She teased him before entering the carriage for some much-needed rest.

  Barry sat in the coach box with Abe, giving him a quick hello before Abe got them moving again.

  As he was giving Abe directions, he brought Abe up to speed about the situation that was going on with the world at the moment and how everyone was now a part of a game called “Lost Adventure” by the gods will. Abe told him that he had heard a bunch of stuff happening, but wasn’t informed exactly what it was that was causing all these disturbances. In fact, he told Barry that he couldn’t see the system menu or notifications that Barry was talking about.

  This piece of information led Barry to believe that maybe not everyone was included as a contestant for Lost Adventure. He would keep this in mind from then on. The topic would then shift to Abe wanting to get to know Barry some more and fired away question after question to try and find where his humor lied, but couldn’t tell given Barry’s serious nature and lack of personal memories of his life.

  “Hmmm…” Abe stroked his chin as he tried to figure out a way to get a reaction out of him. “Cats or dogs?” His raven on his shoulder repeated his words.

  This was probably the 20th question he had asked Barry. Barry didn’t think much of these questions at first aside from Abe trying to make small talk to pass the time, but he was starting to believe that he was being interrogated. “What? Do you mean which one I prefer or-”

  “Yes!” Abe confirmed with a firm nod. ”So which one?”

  Barry was puzzled. “What? Why-”

  “Just tell me!” Abe asked again, interrupting him.

  He racked his brain, thinking the positives of both pets and taking a shot in the dark of which one his former self would have chosen. “I guess…dogs? Because they’re man’s best friend? Listen, I don’t know. You’ve been asking me a lot of damn questions since I’ve been here, are you interrogating me?”

  Abe broke out laughing at his annoyance, his raven cawed as well in amusement. Barry rolled his eyes as he looked away towards the passing trees. “Haha, that maybe true. I’ve been trying to get a read on you since your pal Anna told me how much of a stuck up guy you are. Always in a lousy mood with anger issues.”

  “I’ll admit, she’s right about being me angry. That’s for sure. I just don’t like to be bothered with little stuff, especially since I’m in being forced to participate in this fucked up game. I want to complete this quest as fast as possible. And let’s get one thing straight, Anna’s just someone I’m willing to put up with for help. Not my pal.” Barry clarified.

  “Sure, sure.” Abe decided to ease on the many questions he had next. “Well, the ride to the Ichor Ocean will take us roughly two days to make it. As long as we don’t run into any trouble, we should be able to-” He stopped talking, his expression turning to one that was intensely focused on something.

  Barry noticed this and spoke. “Something wrong?”

  It seemed like Abe was listening to something that had to be incredibly quiet because Barry could not hear whatever it was. Barry observed the area around them for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing stood out to him. “Abe? What-”

  Abe then steered his horses off the path and onto the field of grass, they were straying away from their course, which prompted Barry to question Abe again. “ABE! Where are we going!?”

  “Sorry for the sudden change in direction, but I heard a call for help out in these woods. Hope you don’t mind sparing some time for a good cause.” The ghostly ranger explained, completely focused on navigating his horses to where he needed to be.

  ‘I kind of do mind, we’re on a mission to retrieve one of the keys. We can’t be distracted by small shit…’ Barry wanted to say what he wanted, but felt the same bothersome feeling inside that told him that he should just do the right thing. So, after biting on his tongue in irritation, he replied in a bothersome tone. “Let’s make this quick…”

  They would travel further down the field for about 5 more minutes until the noise of what could have been a horse crying out for help was heard. “There! You hear that!” Abe pointed out, peering into the woods for the animal that was in distress.

  Barry examined the woods to the upmost ability that his eyes would allow him, seeing clear through the darkness while also trying to detect any thermal signatures with one of his unique features. Ultimately, he was able to locate what Abe was probably referring to and identified it to him. “I see something…or multiple? Just keep following along the side of the trees, it seems like whatever they are will appear out onto the field.”

  Following his guidance, Abe stalked along the side for a minute or two until what Barry was talking about made their appearance. Abe was surprised to see what had emerged from the forest. “Oh great Mother of Gwendail! That’s a Unicorn!”

  And that it was, galloping out of the dense forest, was a sight to behold. A majestic white haired Unicorn with a horn of gold appeared, it had a long rich pinkish-silver mane and tail. Around its neck was a black collar with glyphs written on it, emitting a dark purple glow. As it moved, the Unicorn left behind a trail of sparkles everywhere it went. The creature seemed to be anxious with the sounds it was making, moving with a sense of purpose.

  “Faster you fools! We can’t let a fortune like this get away! The quest rewards will be ours!” Someone shouted out from the forest before revealing themselves. Sprinting out of the woods was an armed horseman rider with a bolas in hand, and tagging along with him were a band of other horse riders that apparently wanted to capture this magnificent beast from a children’s fairytale book.

  “Poachers!” Abe growled with frustration. “Barry! I’ll drive, while you dispose of these crooks before they lay a finger on one of nature’s fine creations.”

  Barry nodded and pulled out his greatsword as he prepared to engage the poachers once they got close enough. “Oh, but do be mindful not to hurt their horses.” Abe advised.

  “Got it, just get me in there.” Barry acknowledged.

  And just as he said that, he received a notification window telling him the following details of an accepted side-quest that he agreed to:

  ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

  Sub-Quest

  Title: Run Unicorn! Ruuuuuun!

  Description: Nasty poachers are in pursuit of a wild Unicorn fleeing for its life. Unicorns are considered to be one of nature’s most glorious creations and must be preserved under the law of all Unicorn lovers.

  Objective: Prevent the capture of the precious Unicorn from the wretched hands of the pursuing poachers. It is an automatic failure if the Unicorn is harmed even the slightest.

  Time Limit: —

  Reward: 5,000 Exp; An Achievement

  Penalty: Auto quest fail if Unicorn is harmed even slightly

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  ‘An achievement as a reward? That has to be something similar to the two achievements I’ve obtained from the tutorial. Now this seems worth the trouble.’ Barry thought, he was more motivated, now knowing that the reward was a title.

  One of the poachers took notice of Abe and Barry approaching them from behind and informed the rest of his crew, looking a bit spooked to see a spectral carriage gaining on them. “W-What in the- G-Ghosts! There’s a ghost chasing us down!”

  “I ain’t just no ghost, buster! I’m Abe! The Great Animal Whisperer! Protector to all critters and creatures alike. Now you back off that Unicorn, or my honey badgers will rip tear your precious jewels off for funnzies!” Abe threatened, his raven flew from his shoulder to peck the poachers as a distraction. A pack of honey badgers were then summoned on top of the carriage, ready to dive in at the poachers to play with them.

  Half of the poachers fell back in an attempt to handle Barry and Abe, while the rest continued to subdue the Unicorn. A couple of them fired arrows and firebolt at them, but they all whizzed past them as Abe’s horses skillfully maneuvered out of the way.

  The honey badgers would fling themselves at the poachers once they got close enough, terrorizing them with their nasty temper and vicious claws. Barry did the same and jumped at one of the horse riders, knocking them clean off with a horizontal slash, taking the reins of the horse, now assuming control.

  He did what he felt was natural, speeding the horse up to get close to the other poachers, blocking any incoming projectiles with his weapon before taking them out one by one. Once the horses were removed from their riders, they would break off from the chase to be free again in the woods to start their new life.

  “Haha!” Abe cheered, his ghostly cry with excitement chilled the air. The poachers were not expecting a ghost to come and ruin their plans at all tonight. “Give that fella a new look, Daisy! Oh, that one could use a bit of touch ups on the nose. Bite it off, Gumbo!” He encouraged his honey badgers.

  Further and further, Barry moved up the ranks to prevent the poachers from laying a finger on the Unicorn. His enemies tried everything they could to put a stop to him, but he continued to advance without stopping.

  One of the lead riders took notice of Barry’s pressure on their backline and fell back to deal with him personally. They had a mage staff in hand, looking to be made of some type of root with a star shaped tip, holding an amethyst shard. At a glance, he was able to see that it was an Uncommon item with the name, “Staff of Feebleness”.

  The apparent mage twirled their staff around in the air before aiming it directly at his position, the ground beneath him sprouted purple chains that tried to bind him, but he would react each time to avoid allowing himself to get captured. ‘You’re not getting me with this hocus-pocus crap.’ He urged his horse to go a bit faster.

  More projectiles were flung his direction by other poachers, but still he remained focused on the objective. Despite things getting increasingly difficult for him to watch out for, he kept pushing through, and eventually it got to the point where he felt that he should unleash his special move on them.

  Channeling his anger within his sword arm, bringing it close to his body, thinking about wanting to rid these poachers for good; Barry rose up from the back of his horse so that he could wipe out the pests that were in his way. “Buzz off, you bastards! And good fucking night!”

  He then swept his greatsword with quickness in the direction of each of the poachers, sending a condensed blade of wind at each of them from a distance. His attacks ate through their armor, pushing them off their horses as blood poured out from their wounds. He obtained a level up afterwards.

  Yet, the mage that was trying to bind Barry had projected a dark purple barrier in time to dampen his attack. However, even despite blocking Barry’s wind blade, they still flinched at the excretion of mana they had to use in order to block it. “Damn it…” Barry said, he had gotten better at his stamina consumption for performing the move, but still felt somewhat exhausted.

  Barry kept maneuvering around to dodge the mage’s chains, until he realized that Abe was able to catch up to him from the side. “Looky you, Barry. You’ve taken done quite a bit of scum along the way up here. Need help with this one?” Abe offered.

  “No.” Barry declined, he was determined to finish off this mage on his own. “I’ve got this handled, just push up and make sure the Unicorn is safe. I’ll keep this fucker off of you.”

  Abe flicked his hat and guided his carriage towards the front to deal with the last of the poachers. The mage that Barry was challenging tried to stop Abe with their magic, but Barry send another wind blade their way once more. His attack was blocked but saw that it consumed a bit of their mana, based on his vision of their mana bar. “Where the hell are you looking at!?” Barry taunted.

  Annoyed by Barry’s comment, the mage decided to give up trying to restrain him and instead used up every bit of their mana to unleash volleys of purple magic arrows at him. “Bring it!” Barry felt a sense of thrill within, as he charged through the wave of projectiles.

  He did all he could to intercept the mage’s attacks from landing a direct hit on his horse with his greatsword. The path ahead was riddled with blasts of magic, tossing dirt and grass in the air to obscure his vision. But he kept pressing on, unfazed by the mage’s tactics.

  And as Barry drew in closer, the more nervous this mage became. Barry had the advantage when it came to reading out his opponent’s resource management, whether it was stamina or mana because of his eyes. So when he saw that his opponent was close to running out of mana, he decided to pour everything he had into sending a couple of wind blades their way.

  “Running out of juice?” Barry mocked, preparing to send the mage packing with his next move. “I’d like to see you block, THIS!” And unleashed two crisp wind blades towards the lead mage after channeling his rage, as well as nearly using up all his stamina.

  His first wind blade was blocked by a barrier the mage had manifested, but was shattered upon impact, dark magic evaporated into the air momentarily. And without any mana left to defend themselves, Barry’s attack landed a direct hit into their chest. Blood sprayed out as the body tumbled off their horse’s back.

  Barry would be notified that he had leveled up twice. And as he was storming by their fallen corpse, Barry snatched the staff that they were wielding and was able to stow it into his inventory. ‘Kat could use this. Strengthening the group should be a priority, that way they could protect themselves so that these urges to help them in moments of need don’t cause me to get sidetracked.’

  With the lead mage out of the way, he then realized that there were no longer any other poachers chasing after the Unicorn. Abe was further ahead, now riding alongside the Unicorn, possibly trying to let it know that he was trying to help.

  So Barry caught back up to them, following the Unicorn until eventually it brought them down a trail into a forest, coming to a stop at a clearing near a pond. Abe and Barry halted, giving the Unicorn its space as it studied them with uncertainty. It still wore the strange black collar on its neck.

  The Unicorn snorted at the two, watching them step off from their rides. Barry stood where he was and allowed Abe to do his thing, since he referred to himself as the best animal whisperer of all time.

  And to Barry’s shock, Abe began making horse noises of his own to communicate with the nervous Unicorn. ‘What the fuck…’ Barry could not believe what he was hearing from Abe.

  Yet, surprisingly enough, the Unicorn seemed to understand him and started to relax enough for Abe to approach them. Abe walked over to the Unicorn with caution before petting it, confirming to it that he really didn’t mean no harm. He then removed the black collar from its neck, which made the Unicorn apparently really happy.

  It sprung around with high energy, upon closer inspection of the Unicorn; Barry believed that he could see it radiating white essence of magic around its body. ‘The collar must have inhibited its powers.’ He concluded.

  The Unicorn licked Abe’s face, nuzzling their face into Abe’s, making him chuckle before looking in Barry’s direction. Barry watched Abe make a couple of horse noises that he couldn’t understand, before witnessing the Unicorn prance in his direction.

  Barry had his hands in the air, realizing that Abe probably told it to give him a sloppy lick on his face as thanks. “W-Wait! Hold on-” It was too late, the Unicorn nudged its face into Barry’s prior to giving him a long lick on his face. ‘Uuuuugh…’

  Abe found it very amusing to see someone like Barry who was so serious to be licked by a Unicorn. “Ain’t that cute, a stuck up guy like yourself just made friends with a Unicorn. That’ll be a story to tell the rest of your crew.”

  The Unicorn started to dance around Barry, filling the air around him with sparkles of light that whirled in the air, until suddenly he would see that his quest for saving the Unicorn was complete. He obtained rewards as promised, gaining the achievement known as the following:

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  Achievement

  Unicorn Lover’s Shield

  Type: Activation Skill

  Effect: Create a medium-sized rainbow barrier at a chosen area within 50 meters for 5 seconds, that is capable of blocking nearly any attack.

  User and allies recover 25% of their health, stamina, and mana while inside overtime due to the power of Unicorn friendship!

  Uses Remaining: 5

  Cooldown: 24 Hours

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  Barry liked the ability that the achievement gave him, but he found it to be very embarrassing. ‘Couldn’t the name of the achievement been named differently?’

  After giving thanks to its new friends, the Unicorn’s horn emitted a white light at the tip of it before firing a white beam of light that created a swirling white portal. It gave one last cheer before galloping into the portal to who knows where, the portal closed immediately afterwards.

  Abe slapped his knees with a smile and sighed with content of their actions. “Wow, was that a treat. It’s not every day you get to see a Unicorn, you don’t know how lucky you are to see one such as that.”

  The creature was a sight to behold once Barry got close to it, he had to admit that it was majestic in appearance and the way it was able to make its own portal. “It blessed me with a useful ability, so I outta be lucky to be given it. But I wasn’t expecting to be licked in the face...”

  Abe chuckled for a bit as he approached the carriage to get back in his driver’s seat. “Yup, that’s just their way of saying thanks. Heck, being licked by a Unicorn officially makes you an honorary Unicorn supporter!” His raven then repeatedly called Barry a Unicorn supporter for a bit.

  “Whatever, just don’t tell the others what happened. I think Anna will make a big deal out of what happened, and that’s just going to irritate me so much.” Barry asked of Abe.

  “No promises, I’ll at least share it to one of my buddies at my usual pub.” Abe replied with a grin, Barry just rolled his eyes, not wanting to argue since he was exhausted from the episode they had.

  And with that final event of the night, Abe told the horse that Barry borrowed to be free, and that’s what it did. They would then continue their journey to the Ichor Ocean, back on the road again.