CLICK! Jack cut a carrot with his knife, dropping the pieces into a boiling pot as he stared at Lydia standing beside the carriage.

“Lord Arad is powerful, isn’t he?” One of the elvish women said with a smile as she cut some meat, putting it in the pot after Jack.

“You saw him. Decide for yourself,” Jack waved his hand, glaring back at the two elvish men, “Where are the logs I asked for? Do you know much it will take to dry them?”

“Samanta can dry wood quickly. Don’t press us,” One of the men growled, back, swinging his wood axe at a tree, chopping some branches.

“He’s right,” Samanta the elf replied with a pained smile, “Let them work at their own pace,”

Jack shook his head, “No, can do,” He glared at the two elvish men. “Get it chopped now. I don’t care how, get it done,”

“No way! We can’t,” The two men cried, and Jack stood, “You high and mighty elves, show me what can you do. Chop it down, don’t complain, and work harder.”

The two me glared at each other, swinging their axes harder than last time. “Don’t be the only one doing work. I saw you earlier drying wood with your fire magic. If they don’t finish a bit early, we’re not eating lunch until evening,”

BOOOM! The trees shook as a pillar of flame and smoke rose to the sky with a dying screech. The elves gasped, jumping in their places, “What was that?”

Jack stood, scratching his head, “I caught something,”

“You what?” One of the elf men glared at him.

Jack turned toward the elvish woman, “Two come with me. I might need your help skinning a monster.” 𝚍ｏ𝚟𝚕.ｏｒｇ

Jack walked in the front, and soon they saw a tree splashed with blood and guts, burn marks spreading vertically on the charred trunk.

“It’s a big one,” Jack looked back with a worried face, “It seems to have survived the initial blast, but would die soon,” He followed the blood train until he was stopped by a large corpse.

A massive brown bear with massive claws lay dead on the ground, a gaping hole in his chest.

“What happened to him?” One of the elvish women gasped, glaring at the corpses.

“This is a demon brown bear, a B-rank monster.” The other one covered her mouth. The smell of blood and guts hurt her lungs.

“I have the whole area rigged with traps. He fell into one of mine,” Jack smiled, “He’s a B-rank monster for a blasted monster,”

One of the elvish women walked away to puke, “We can’t handle flesh and blood well. It looks gross,”

“You’ve been cutting meat for lunch all this time. I thought you two would be fine,” Jack looked at her, puzzled.

“We’re cooking for the people who saved us,” The woman gasped, “We can handle some meat for that, but this is too much,”

Jack nodded, standing up and looking at the bear, “Well, I can do it on my own,” He pulled a dagger and started skinning the bear. “Just bring me a bucket of water, and some bags to put the hide in then,”

the two women rushed back to the carriage to bring the water. But they found none.

“Lady Aella! Lady Aella,” One of them reached Aella’s tent, calling her.

“What is it?” Arad walked out, glaring at the woman, “Do you need something?”

“Master Jack asked for some water, a bucket so he can skin a brown bear that fell into his trap,” She gasped, barely able to speak seeing Arad tower over her.

“Bring me an empty bucket. You find them in the carriage,” Arad replied, going back into his tent.

The woman ran as fast as she could, bringing a bucket back. “Master Arad, I brought the bucket,”

Arad walked out again, pointing at the bucket with his finger. A stream of cold water rushed from his fingertip, quickly filling the bucket.

The woman gasped, seeing the crystal clear water, “Water magic?”

“No, I have a clear well in my house. I filled storage magic with some of it. You can drink from that if you wish,” He replied with a smile.

The woman bowed down, “Thank you, I will take this to master Jack,” She rushed back, making sure not to spill anything.

“Brown bears live in the elvish territory. We’ve crossed the border.” Doma said with a smile, “Get ready for trouble.”

“Why do you say that?” Arad sat beside Aella, listening to Doma.

“Elves are weird. It would be a pain to adjust to them even if they didn’t intend to cause us trouble.”

“We aren’t that weird,” Aella looked at Arad, “Don’t listen to that witch,”

“Have you heard of the tree’s servants? World tree kins?” Doma smiled.

“I think I have, but I’m not sure,” Arad scratched his head. Something inside told him he heard about them before.

“They are identical women born from the world tree to serve it. Some call them the priestess of the world tree,”

It then clicked in Arad’s head, “I heard an elf named Vars speak of them. He worked with another adventurer called Gojo,”

Doma laughed, “Since the elves are the weird people they are, they use those women as a reference for everything. Distance? They count with feet, which is how long is a priestess’s foot. They also use hands, arms, and pounds.”

“Wait, I can understand feet and arms, but what about pounds?” Arad looked at Aella. She shook her hand, “You don’t want to know,”

“It’s how much force and weight it takes to penetrate a virgin priestess. Yeah, I don’t know who’s the smartass who measured it, but he sure was an elf.”

Arad sighed, scratching his head. “I can’t believe it,”

“But, to give them credits. The priestess is a constant reference as they are absolutely identical through the eons. You can be sure that a priestess’s foot today, is the same size as one thousand years in the past, and will remain the same one thousand years in the future.”

“Even so, I don’t think it will be a problem.”

“The great elvish empire, we’re coming,”