Chapter 32: Day One Of The Investigation
It took us almost an hour of walking to reach the forest. We passed the time mostly in silence. Bella and I kept our Presence Detection active since leaving the city, so no monsters would surprise us.
While we were walking, I was releasing my light magic as a small strand of light, directly to the baby light dragon in the pouch. He was curled up in the pouch greedily inhaling every bit of magic I sent him. I kept an eye on my MP as it slowly whittled away. By the time we entered the edge of the forest, I had used almost one hundred and fifty point of my MP. I could keep feeding him for a little more than another hour.
"I'm picking up a group of goblins on my Presence Detection." Bella said. "About twenty of them to our left."
We had decided that Gina would keep a written track of all the survey details, and I would make use of my Unique Skill, Memory Safe, to keep a mental track of everything since we wouldn't be able to write everything down at all times.
"What are they doing?" Paul asked. It was a reasonable question. We needed to get as much information on the monsters of the forest while we were here.
I focused my Presence Detection on the group of goblins. "They seem to be collecting food. Probably berries or something growing naturally." I based my guess on the motion they kept repeating in my Presence Detection. We were far enough away from them that they wouldn't be able to notice us unless we made a lot of noise.
We moved deeper into the forest as we took note of everything we sensed or saw. We kept mostly out of range of the majority of monsters, so there was little fighting done. By lunch, we had recorded details on a few groups of goblins, a pack of forest wolves, three different Horned Alphas, and a colony of Razor Ants.
"Whew!" Gina plopped herself down on a fallen tree. We had been walking for almost six hours at this point, and everyone was getting hungry.
We had brought lots of food for this quest, but all of it was dried meats or simple vegetables and fruits. We couldn't risk making a fire, since there were many monsters that would be lured to us by the smoke or smell of cooking meat. I took out some food for all four of us and split it between everyone.
Paul was sitting on a large stone protruding from the ground. He had been carrying the most weight out of all of us, yet he still looked like he could continue walking for days. He must have some amazing endurance.
"Hey, Paul." I said, causing him to focus on me. "I was wondering. You don't seem like you should only be an E rank adventurer. Your stamina and strength are leagues above ours."
"Hehehe." Paul chuckled a bit at my words. "You're not wrong. If I wanted to, I could be a B rank adventurer. My level is at that point."
"I got this far while in the military. I served in the military so that one day, my wife and I could fulfill our dream of becoming famous adventurers." He looked over at Gina with a warm smile. "However, her level is below mine because of that. Now, we are basically powering through as many quests as possible so that Gina can reach my level. Our wish is to become A rank adventurers at the same time. Until my wife is B rank, I asked to keep my rank the same as hers."
I listened to Paul's explanation. I never would have thought that you could keep your rank lower than it actually was. I assumed that there were certain requirements to be allowed to do that, otherwise people could cause lots of problems by faking their ranks.
The rest of the meal was eaten mostly in silence. I fed more light magic to the baby dragon throughout the meal. I hadn't checked yet, but it felt like I had more MP to spare than before. My MP probably rose a bit.
I had found the baby light dragon almost a whole day ago, yet I hadn't thought of a name for him yet. I wanted him to have a cool name, but it was hard to think of one. Well, I guess I'd just keep thinking about it.
We all returned our bags to our backs and continued surveying the monsters we had found within the forest. We had split the forest into three sections. Each day we would focus on a different section and record everything about the monsters we found in each one.
By the time the sun had almost set, we had already stopped the survey and found a clearing to pitch our tents in. Once the tents were prepared, Gina and I went over the details of what we had seen or sensed throughout the day.
The investigation required us to keep track of a few things. First, was what monsters we saw. Second, was how many of each monster was seen. Third, was to keep track of what each monster was doing throughout the day. Last, we needed to verify if any of the monsters were stronger than the rest. Somewhat like a leader among the monsters.
We double checked that the info we each had was the same. Once everything was verified, the four of us are dinner. I tried to feed some more light magic to the baby dragon, but he was already asleep and wouldn't absorb it at all.
Paul and I were found to take first watch, while the girls would take the second watch. I spread my Presence Detection as far as I could. I sat on the ground while leaning against a tree and started using fiddling with some ice magic.
Paul was sitting across from me, keeping an eye on the forest around us. Every now and then his eyes would linger on my hands as I played with my magic.
The moon was directly above us in the sky when Paul finally spoke to me. "Hey, Lucifer. Why are you playing with your magic? Won't you be in trouble if your MP runs out?"
"Actually, I'm playing with my magic so that I can raise my MP. As long as I don't go below ten points of MP, it help raise my capacity for MP if I consistently use magic." I said.
"I didn't know that. I can only use void magic, so I never really cared for learning about magic." Paul said.
"Well, you two should go get some rest now." Bella suddenly spoke up from the entrance of our tent. "It's time for our watch, so you two can continue your talk tomorrow."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone