Althea, Master of Dragons I

Althea let out a small yawn, rubbing her eyes out of drowsiness.  She was unable to sleep a wink on the train ride back to Magnolia due to a severe case of motion sickness.  So, she had to persist through a cursed existence of half-consciousness all while attempting to hold back her barf.  Truly, being a dragon slayer was inconvenient.  But it usually didn’t matter when Althea just traveled on foot most of the time.  In most instances, it was faster than more traditional methods, and running through the wilderness was actually rather refreshing.  Compounding this with the fact Althea regenerated magic power faster than she could use it through running, and it meant she could keep running as long as she wished.  But this time around was an exception seeing as running across a mountain range would take way longer than just sitting on the mechanical abomination referred to as a train.  Usually, Althea would prioritize physical and mental health over speed, but after spending so much time away she was eager to get back to the place she considered her home.  And now she was sleepy, but there was not the time for rest!  She had more than enough of that during her “vacation” away from her guild.

Fairy Tail was the first piece of society Althea got acquainted with after ceasing her hermit-like lifestyle.  Before having become a mage within the guild, she could count the number of people she’d met her entire life on one hand.  She arrived at the guild simply because it was the first place she’d heard of, but stuck around because they gave her juice.  Oh, also the people there were super nice.  Despite all the property damage she created, for some reason, she was still valued and recognized by Fairy Tail.  Nowadays Althea could confidently say it was one of the most important places for her, and she was sincerely thankful for the people who welcomed her so warmly.

Speaking of Fairy Tail, she was actually staring right at it from the roof of a neighboring building.  “I’m pretty sure that one’s for the guildmaster’s office…”  Althea murmured to herself, gazing at one of the office’s many windows.  A wise man once said, “the second impression is as important as the first, and all subsequent ones”.  Or maybe it was Althea’s dragon mentor saying some nonsense about the importance of balancing the “tsun” and “dere” of anime characters.  Honestly, who cares?  All that matters was that the slayer was going to be meeting her guild master after a long time and she needed to remind him how cool she was.  And how else should Althea go about this reintroduction besides from barrelling through a window?

With one fluid movement, the water mage’s feet left the ground and she dived towards the window that would assumedly lead her right to Mura.  “GAH!”  However, instead of crashing dramatically through the glass as she expected, the young girl just kind of “bonked” right off the transparent surface.  Maybe if she had remembered that the whole guildhall was enforced through magic, she wouldn’t try to only use the force from her measly body weight to break a window.  Althea managed to land on the sidewalk below pretty neatly, brushing off her clothes in a manner she hoped was natural.  If people thought that the meant to almost crush some pedestrians in the street, that would definitely become her reality.  Fake it until you make it!  A few confused gazes landed on the young blonde that came out of the sky.  However, as a site designated for business between wizards, people quickly lost interest.  The only wound Althea had sustained from her failure was one to her pride and an imprint on her face.

Hoping that her face wasn’t too red from the whole “face crashing into window” thing, she opted to enter the guild hall through the front entrance.  As she moved through the guild hall, Thea mentally patted herself on the back for not stopping for some juice.  It only required exerting restraint of a minimal degree by running right past the juice bar and right upstairs, but the impulsive Althea typically didn’t think twice before distracting herself.  But you could probably guess that from how she thought barreling through that guild master's window would be a good idea.

No one bothered to stop her as she made her way straight to Mura’s office and burst through the doors.  “Senpai!  Mura!  Mura-senpai!”  Althea chirped as she enthusiastically flailed around both hands in some sort of advanced waving technique.  “You, erm, didn’t notice anything hitting the window earlier, did you?”  She said apprehensively.  If Mura had noticed her ungraceful display, the worst-case scenario was that he wouldn’t let her go on that request he called her to his office for.  Althea had no idea what any of the actual details were, but that’s what she had Mura for!  He sat around doing paperwork at a desk, so he must have more patience for reading than Althea ever could.  Whenever she took a job, all the water mage would do is a glance at the location and head there without actually looking at the request.  But then again there were times when she just selected with her eyes closed, so that was no surprise.

If there was one thing that Althea adored more than juice, it was venturing out on jobs to beat stuff up!  As a reasonable battle maniac, she always kept her muscle headed tendencies limited to consenting parties, criminals, or people who tried fighting her first.  Indeed, Althea was extremely benevolent towards any of the people she got into a tangle with.  If it was for a job, she would one hundred percent fight them to the death unless it was requested otherwise.  How else would you be able to know that the other party is putting every single card on the table?

Speaking of which… she wondered to what degree she could combat her senpai.  She was aware of the gap between her current S-rank and his H-rank, but not all battles are fought to be won y’know.  Sometimes the joy of being punched is just as great as punching.  Wait, didn’t that statement make her into some weird pervert?  There shouldn’t be anything wrong with enjoying a fight even if you're being beaten to a pulp, so it must be from how she phrased it...

Althea couldn’t help but smile as she was greeted by Mura.  It had truly been a long time since she had the pleasure to meet face to face with him.  In fact, the last time they talked could barely count as a conversation.  Her mentor had sent her out to do a small task for her S-rank exam, so did that set of directions count towards interaction?  It wasn’t like there were many ways to come into contact with Althea other than by catching her in person.  After all, as a former mountain hermit, the youth had never seen a lacrima in her life before coming to Magnolia, let alone a lacrima device.  So, if she were to talk to someone, it was only because she happened upon them on accident during a job or such.    What even were lacrimas in the first place?  Fancy rocks you could find in the ground?  Crystallizations of mana?  The blonde had no idea and not much of a reason to care.

Althea was glad that she had a change in her physical degree to such a degree that Mura noticed seeing as she had been told most 15-year-olds don’t look so childish.  The slayer still didn’t understand how people could differentiate old and young people when eternal shotas like Mura existed.  From her recollection, Sorano was supposed to be fifteen too, but she had been both Fairy Tail’s guild master as well as an overall important person within magic society.  It wasn’t that mastery of magic had anything to do with age in the first place, so it was only expected that people just leaned to accept many mages being underaged.  Personally, Althea felt like she had stopped growing years ago, and was just a bit conscious about of vertically challenged she was.  No one would ever take her seriously if she threatened to punch them in the face if they messed with her, but maybe if they too could detect magic power it would be possible to estimate her level of prowess.

However, a much more pressing matter was whether or not Mura actually saw her attempt to break his window.  The ribbon wearing mage let out a small sigh of relief once her guild master stated that he in fact “didn’t notice anything”.  But that grin of his afterward made her double back and question if that was really the case.  The more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that Mura didn’t notice how she swan dived into a windowpane.  Her face began to redden slightly out of embarrassment as she realized she was being teased.  “Mura-senpai, I swear that I didn’t really have the intent to break guild property-- I just wanted to break one little window.  No one would've missed it, I swear!  I-I mean, you might’ve, but it’s important to look at the guild as a whole.  Do you know the fresh air is good for the body?  I just, uh, wanted you to, uh…”  The youth began trailing off.  “Please forget you ever saw me do that.”

Speaking of fresh air, there was a much more pressing matter at hand, so Althea quickly discarded any trances of her embarrassment.  Mura pulled out this weird looking lacrima-thing, describing the kind of job the two were about to go on.  Making a request to a big guild like Fairy Tail did seem a bit fishy, but Althea didn’t feel worried whatsoever.  Her excitement for doing something interesting outweighed any concern for her well being.  The fact that he was having a “lizard problem” of all things brought up even more questions, but it was only expected she’d think of dragons first.  However, you couldn’t find the magical beasts just about anywhere.  In fact, there was a time she had arrived at a forest expecting a cool dragon but instead got a wyvern.  Imagine just how disappointing it would be to arrive at Talonia only to find out a guy lost his pet lizard or something.

“Oh yeah, that sounds great.”  She replied immediately without a trace of hesitation.  Although Althea was trying to keep her expectations low, she couldn’t help but hope this was some sort of world-threatening level of opponent.  Maybe the entirety of the Talonia would be decimated by the gravity of the fight or something cool like this, who knows?  Althea found that the value of human life was just a tad bit arbitrary, so in situations that involved widespread destruction she’d always ask herself WWMCD, “What Would the Magic Council Do?”.  As an organization that prioritized humanity and Fiore as a whole over the individuals, she was sure they’d be okay with any mass murder Althea performed as long as she had a good reason.  When Fairy Tail came into the equation, she’d go ahead and prioritize that, but otherwise, it didn’t matter to her all that much.

“Anyways, when do we start?  Can we go right now?”  Althea exclaimed, closing the distance between her and Mura’s desk.  “I’m okay with train rides seeing as I have a healing spell that can make it going around, so we can head to Talonia now, right?”  She said excitedly, her words coming out faster and faster.  “I don’t have any money on me, but we can sell these weird thingies, right?”  Althea picked up one of the many black bricks decorating the desk, taking a moment to inspect it.  She had no way of knowing what the heck a cassette tape was in the first place, let alone many of the technologies used in current-day.  In the first place, she didn’t even know where all that money she was making from jobs was going.  The youth just kind of went from place to place in a bit of a nomadic style while only using the funds handed to her in person.  But most of the time, people send jewels straight from that “bank account” to hers, but where is this fabled “bank account”?  No matter how much she looked for one, there was no large amount of money laying around anywhere in Magnolia.

Oh?  Apparently Althea couldn’t just sell the weird black things?  Mura referred to them as cassette tapes and held some form of digital media on them.  The blonde went into deep thought for a moment, reflecting on her many bad experiences regarding television shows.  Well technically, she didn’t have a problem with most, just the ones her dragon mentor watched.  Often the dragon compared the streaming services her Midian cartoons were locked behind to the Devil, but that was probably just an excuse.  Even Althea understood from the incoherent blathering that it was just an excuse to pirate cartoons instead of just paying for the services.  Hopefully Mura didn’t have a similar taste that consisted of “harem”, “echii”, and “isekai” shows, whatever those terms meant.

Well, in hindsight, it would probably take more time to find willing buyers for the cassettes than to locate Althea’s bank account.  It wasn’t a very good idea in the first place, so much for being resourceful.

But evidently, the slayer’s concerns were for naught.  The ever-reliable Mura had already procured funds beforehand, once again proving to be superior to the NEET dragon.  It should’ve been more concerning if he didn’t have any money.  He was a Wizard Saint endorsed by the Magic Council ontop of the guild master of Fairy Tail, so he’d be rolling in the dough by now.

But something that caught Althea’s attention was how her guild master had chuckled at the mention of her motion sickness.  W-Was he making light of the youth’s trauma?!  There was a rather long time where she hadn’t even been away about the little trick with healing spells, yet didn’t have the physical abilities to just do a cross country sprint.  Honestly, she was about to bring up all the ship and train rides she had suffered through but dubbed it much too embarrassing.  And so, all the blonde could do was smolder and pout in silence, leaving her plight unvoiced.

However, the moment departure for Talonia was mentioned, all previous grievances disappeared.  Althea’s whole face lit up in childlike anticipation, “Yeah!  I’m gonna punch something no matter what!”  She declared in response to Kyuken’s initial comment.  It was always nice to get a bit of blood on her hands, but it wasn’t that Althea liked violence.  There was a time and place for getting bruised and bloody, the water mage just happened to enjoy combat-related jobs.  Technically, this was her profession, so if anything the young girl was just a regular workaholic… who did all tasks besides paperwork.


The mode of transport had been designated as a train, a place that held many dark memories for Althea.  “Okay, yeah.  Let’s go…!”  She exclaimed, swallowing down her nervousness.  The moment the youth stepped onto the train compartment she cast a healing spell, immediately dispelling her motion sickness.  The blonde let out a sigh of relief as she and Mura were led to their seats, taking the seat across from her mentor.  She couldn’t make any sense of why dragon slayers were cursed with such a horrendous affliction in the first place.  The NEET dragon explained it once, but the mage could barely understand what she was talking about.  But in the end, it all just boiled down to “it can’t be helped”, which wasn’t helpful whatsoever.

But when a child suddenly emerged from out of nowhere, the slayer immediately tensed up.  Just like trains, her past experiences with children were not good.  Back during that one time she kissed Sorano, the two had encountered such small organisms.  But they were such confounding creatures that neither distraction nor threatening resulted in a positive outcome.  By the end of the exchange, they were branded as pedophiles and forced to escape from angry parents.  So it was only reasonable that the blonde was astutely aware of her weakness towards miniature humans.  One might assume that someone who enjoyed being around others could talk to children, but were those small “things” even human?  As someone who was around the same age as children and appeared to be no older than twelve, Althea gave the impression of someone who could easily deal with them.  However, for most of her life, those around the young girl were way older than her.  The fact they treated her like an adult didn’t help, forcing her to meet their messed up expectations.

In the first place, Althea didn’t get recognized as a member of Fairy Tail often.  She never really appeared in public, and more or less only did so during jobs.  Usually it was only those who were aware of her time as a Rising Star or familiar with the management of the guild who even knew the mage was apart of Fairy Tail.  It was probably Mura who was attracting most of the attention in the first place, darn nit!  With such widespread fame, he must also have way more interpersonal relationships than Althea.  Riajuu, go explode!

Either way, she couldn’t keep staring blankly at the child forever, so Althea cleared her throat before speaking.  “Indeed, underaged individual.  I believe both I and my colleague are willing to grant a signature.”  Wow, that came out much smoother than Althea expected!  Truly, practice does make perfect.  The water mage glanced at Mura, grinning triumphantly.

“Oh, erm, okay.”  The small creature said, his excitement dying down considerably.  However, the blonde couldn’t imagine what it was acting so tentative for.  Not only did she accept the request, but she also emitted a happy-go-lucky atmosphere!  Maybe the breeze was putting it in a bad mood or something, children were just fickle like that.

The creature almost seemed hesitant as it handed a pen and paper over to Althea, the older girl quickly taking it and scribbled across the white parchment.  Once she was finished, instead of her signature, she had just doodled a juice box on the paper.  Looking satisfied with her work, the blonde handed off the pen and paper to Mura before sinking into her cushioned seat.

Althea couldn’t help but to smile as she watched Mura jot down his own signature and hand the small human the pen and paper.  It seemed rather pleased with the signatures it received, and Mura had even given her a thumbs-up as she conversed with it!  That definitely meant she was taking the correct approach, right?  But apparently, putting down a drawing instead of her name only resulted in confusion on the child’s part.  Althea didn’t make a habit of signing with juice boxes, but she thought the organism would appreciate something nice to look at.  After all, if she doodled on official guild documents, there was no doubt she’d be scolded.  But when she was their age, she definitely would’ve liked to have a nice picture rather than a paper containing the names of some random person.  But then again, this was supposed to be for their father, so maybe that was what resulted in the child’s confusion.

However, Mura’s explanation of her “autograph” was what really surprised her.  She hadn’t realized that the juice in the guild was imported from out of the country!  In fact, she was sure most of the brands available had ‘Made in Fiore’ printed on them, so maybe it was some kind of secret?  But the glitter of wonder in the young girl’s eyes only intensified when Mura described how the juice was actually soda!  She was almost positive that the carbonated beverage had very little relation to juice, but apparently, she was wrong.  Her mentor seriously had some thought-provoking information, that one statement changed Althea’s entire viewpoint of soda!  No wonder he hesitated fo much before granting the precious grain of info.

The small human also seemed amazed by this new information, their voice full of curiosity.  However, Mura clearly felt like he had disclosed enough of his profound wisdom because he quickly ended the conversation.  For the first time in her life, Althea felt a sense of kinship with a child.  She typically felt they were more akin to robots than actual people, but seeing that even an unmatured human could understand the curiosities of the world showed her a different side of the organism.  Wait, if both she and the child enjoy juice, then that means they have a common interest!  Aren’t they basically best friends by now?!

At this point, the dragon slayer was absolutely glowing.  She had made a new friend in a juvenile younger than herself, something she had previously assumed to be impossible.  Additionally, she gained more knowledge about plants, soda, and such beverages.  Also, the mother of the child didn’t offer a single word of complaint!  Althea wasn’t sure if it was because Mura was with her, or her level of human interaction was better than she’d assumed.  Either way, she waved amicably to the mother and her child as they went on their merry way.


Althea was glad to see the train ride had finally ended.  She wasn’t bothered by her usual motion sickness, but it never felt nice to sit around for too long of a duration.  However, the only way people actually knew where to find her location was if she stayed put for a moment, so she didn’t mind it if it was necessary.  Otherwise, trains were lame, sprinting was still her preferred mode of travel.  The blonde followed her guild master out of the train compartment, entering the busy train station.

It had been a while since Althea last step foot in Talonia.  She was pretty sure last time she ended up driving a pair of scissors through someone’s hand for an exam?  Either way, she didn’t actually visit often, but by no means did she dislike it.  The place had some really good food, in fact, she could really go for something to eat at the moment.  But she was sure that by the time the job really got underway, her sense of hunger would fade.  However, little did she know the first road bump of the job was already upon them.

“Eh?  My senses?”  The youth echoed.  She usually didn’t bother with learning the specifics of a job, but she had just kinda assumed Mura knew where he was heading.  Althea hesitated to tell Mura that she had absolutely no idea what they were looking for, so logically she couldn’t search for the suspicious guy with her senses alone.  Talonia was full of many different sounds and smells, and unless one used adequate concentration you wouldn’t be able to distinguish them at all.  However, she guessed that some things simply weren’t based on any logical conclusions!  Surely if she believed in herself enough, they’d eventually come across Mr. Suspiscious.

“Okay, lizardy smell… lizard…”  The blonde murmured, closing her eyes in concentration.  Then, without a moment more of deliberation, she began to speed walk away from the train tracks.  Her steps through Talonia were devoid of hesitation, and her royal blue eyes were fixated on the street ahead.  But it wasn’t long until she stopped… at a soft pretzel stand.

“Oh, erm, that’s funny!  I must’ve gotten distracted…”  It was true that the mage was headed towards the most lizardy smell in Talonia, but now that a perfectly good soft pretzel was right before her eyes, why not treat herself?  Althea fished around in her pocket to find any loose change only to realize she had no money on her.  That is, besides this card with her name on it and a bunch of numbers.  The stand’s owner seemed extremely confused when she handed him the card in exchange for the soft pretzels, but the blonde walked away fast enough that he didn’t have a chance to react properly.

“Haha, I got a bit sidetracked, but this will help me find Mr. Suspicous even faster!”  The young girl announced, attempting to half reassure herself and half reassure Mura.  However, little did Althea know that the section of the street she was about to step on was had been subject to constant repairs.  It kept caving in at random intervals into a dark, very suspicious underground area.  Locals knew the repair was dubious at best, so they knew to avoid it.  So thus far, no one had been injured by the shabby repair, and things weren't a problem until they caused actual issues.

Sadly, Althea’s body weight wasn’t enough to break a window, but it was enough to make a shabby repair collapse.

“uuWA?!”

She had her soft pretzel promptly disappeared down the hole to who-knows-where.

Unfortunately, Althea’s actions seemed to have upset Zirconis.  The spirit ball-thing was almost about to resort to physical violence towards herself!  Hunger was a very prevalent human need, and just because she decided to take a small break from the job to fill her stomach didn’t mean she wouldn’t eventually get the job done.  And what would happen if the mage was in the middle of a fight, but suddenly her tummy got the rumbles because she hadn’t eaten all day?  She wouldn’t be able to properly maneuver, and then she’d probably end up dead at a critical moment.  Who would be to blame if that happened?

Zirconis, that’s who.

Althea noticed that, oddly enough, Mura had paid the stand's owner a variety of shiny rocks, reclaiming the blonde’s fairly useless cards.  She wasn’t familiar with that kind of currency, maybe it was a special kind for cool people like Mura?  Paper money was pretty overrated, but was it okay to pay with such a unique alternative?  Even Althea had enough common sense to know that paying for food with something like a commemorative coin was just a bit unreasonable.  Instead, you should stick things like that in your shoes, so if you need to brag about it you can pull it out at a moment’s notice.  It might feel a bit uncomfortable to walk around with around twelve rocks jabbing into your feet, but Althea felt like there was plenty of space in Mura’s shoes for a dozen rocks.  She was sure it’d be worth it in the long run, just like window insurance.  You wouldn’t think you’d need it until a loli tries to take an “alternative route” into a building.

But the more pressing issue was how her pretzel had left her hand and fallen into the mystery hole.  The slayer thought she was pretty resilient to small stuff like falling, but the odds were that her pretzel wasn’t.  Desperately, she scanned the dark cavern for any sign of her beloved soft pretzel, praying that it hadn’t ended up fragmented into thousands of little pretzel pieces.  It was pretty darn dim, but for a dragon slayer like Althea, something of that level didn’t serve as much of a hindrance.  And it wasn’t until Mura informed her the location of her snack that the youth finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Woah, that’s a pretty crazy looking hand-thing…” She remarked, her blue eyes brimming with curiosity.  Apparently Mura had made sure to catch it before it fell deep into the hole, which meant Althea could still eat it!  “I’ll be right there!”  She exclaimed, inspecting the rather precarious area she was standing on.  At times like these, Althea missed the time when she had wings.  Well, technically, back when she had wings she never actually used them to fly, but it was the thought that counted.  Sure, she could probably just try climbing up the jagged wall, but sometimes she simply wasn’t in the mood for that.

Wait, there seemed to be some kind of weird lizard thing on the wall?  It was of a pretty moderate size too, Althea had previously fought a wyvern that was much larger than it.  Instead of comparing it to a small house, she’d probably put it around the size of a large cow or something.  However, it wasn’t long since the abrupt appearance of the strange lizard that it had made an incomprehensible move.

“My… MY PRETZEL!”  Althea was shocked, stricken with grief, and just overall not feeling all that good.  The feeling of having her food stolen from her wasn’t comparable to anything she’d ever experienced before.  Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but she had bonded with that soft pretzel.  It was her loyal friend and companion despite how short their time together was.  One shouldn’t discredit relationships just because of their lack of longevity.  If that was the case, Zirconis wouldn’t have tried to bite her head off.

However, she believed it wasn’t too late to recover her pretzel.  Sure, a weird animal had kidnapped Soft Pretzel-kun, most likely with the attempt to eat it, but Althea still had the opportunity to pursue it.  Back when she was living a hermit lifestyle on Pheonix Mountains, she had often stolen prey from the local wildlife.  It wasn’t like she would discriminate against raw, slobber-covered, half-eaten chunks of meat.  In her eyes, all food was equal, that’s how you know she’s a good person.

But anyway, she understood now why Mr. Suspicious had requested for help regarding a lizard problem.  If the thieving lizard had acting as discourteously to her as it had him, she also would’ve wanted it dead.  Well, she wasn’t sure yet if she was allowed to kill it, but Althea was sure that Mr. Suspicious would be okay even if she brought him a lizard corpse.  She wasn’t positive if he had lost his pet lizard or something, but the thieving lizard had made personally insulted the Fairy Tail mage.  If she let this one off the hook, what would she say to all the other stuff she’s killed because they annoyed her?

“Yeah, that lizard will rue the day it dared to steal my food!”  Althea announced as she was whisked away by Mura, the pair making their way to the bottom of Mystery Hole.  In fact, Mystery Hole seemed to not only be a simple depression in the ground, because there were all sorts of mystery corridors branching out to who knows where.  “Nooo, I hate mazes…!”  The youth cried, attempting to pick up the trail of the thieving lizard.  However, when the whole place reeked of lizard, there wasn’t any distinct path for her to follow.

“Erm… I guess we might as well just pick randomly…?” The young girl muttered, stepping down one of the many hallways.  However, almost immediately, she abruptly tripped over a wire that was inconspicuously lying across the floor.  Althea let out a groan of pain from having face-planted onto the cold, hard floor, but was shocked from the sudden crash that resounded through the cavern.  The moment she activated the tripwire, an axe came flying towards her, embedding itself in the wall after having missed its target.  If she hadn’t face planted, Althea may have ended up getting injured--or worse--getting an extreme haircut!  The young dragon slayer shivered at the thought of suddenly going from having long hair to a short bob, good thing she was lucky enough to have tripped!

But soon, she got over the shock, getting back to her feet and wiping the dust off her clothes.  “Okay, I cleared that trap nicely.  Let’s keep going!” She chirped, not exercising a hint of scrutiny.

Mazes were truly some kind of horrific construct birthed from a twisted, deranged mind.  They were usually all dark and contained monsters, both of which were things Althea had no problem with.  However, the idea of being trapped within a space with many routes but only one escape didn’t help with her claustrophobia.  Perhaps that was the reason why the destruction-prone youth hadn’t even considered just breaking down the maze’s walls.  Either way, there was absolutely no way she’d allow her senpai to notice her meager anxieties.  Any personal feelings Althea held didn’t matter when she was in the middle of a job.  Well, that also brought up the question of why she’d pursue her soft pretzel, but that was a completely different matter.  Despite the conflicting implications, she would never allow something to think it could get away with wronging her.

More importantly, she and Mura had quite splendidly overcome the labyrinth’s first trap.  Of course, she was too busy having her face connected to the floor to notice how the axe’s metal warped unnaturally around her mentor’s figure.  But the slayer hadn’t really stopped to think critically about the situation, so she wasn't questioning a lot of things she should've been.  Sure, Mura had been pondering the nature of the labyrinth, but it wasn’t like she’d been listening carefully.  Under normal circumstances, she’d use her special technique of “pretending to pay attention” as he imparted any advice or wisdom on her.  Letting words pass into one ear and out the other wasn’t that difficult, but the young girl’s respect towards Mura prevented her from doing so.  She might try and break windows, but she wouldn’t completely ignore words that may be useful in the future. “Yep!  Got it!  I can surpass you if I learn more about logistics!”

Too bad she wasn’t too good at comprehending what was meant to be a simple lesson.

“Oooh!” The water mage let out a voice of amazement as she watched Mura’s lump of iron being molded into an orb.  The way it neatly assumed a completely different form was almost like magic!  Well, it undoubtedly was magic, no amount of staring in the world would lead to metal behaving like that.  But watching the iron ball disappear from her line of sight prompted Althea to wonder what the purpose of sculptors was when there were people like Mura.  Years of work and effort could instantly be rendered obsolete the moment a wizard with the right magic appeared.  However, as she mulled over the intermingling of magic and the arts, a horrific buzzing reached her ears.  Althea frowned as the noise assaulted her senses, dulling her sense of sound enough so that she wouldn’t get nauseous.

“They sure are obnoxious…” The teen murmured, as she watched the bugs emerge from the walls.  She’d only realized how annoyed her tone was after the words escaped from her mouth, but that was only reasonable.  It already wasn’t a good day for her, but a swarm of little bugs didn’t help it.  They were even trying to gnaw at the slayer’s legs, but there wasn't any real need for her concern.  Any injuries she suffered from would heal immediately, and the creatures weren’t capable of doing that much damage in the first place.  In stark contrast, Mura was able to flawlessly exterminate dozens in an instant.  Althea could hardly follow the movements of his blade, and she’d say her eyesight was pretty darn good.

“Woah, senpai, that was super cool!”  Althea exclaimed, her eyes sparkling in wonder.  All of her negative emotions had been pushed aside at the sight of the amazing spectacle.  Seeing blood and guts brutally paint the walls also helped lighten her mood just a bit, but the effect probably would’ve been more impactful if the opponent’s body was larger.  “The way you went all fwoosh and then the insects went splat was-”  Althea managed to stop herself before her excitement got the better of her.

“Oh, so I’m taking the lead?  Just leave it to me, senpai!”  The young girl proclaimed, turning to face the incoming cloud on insects.  She wasn’t the most well-rounded wizard, but she had enough tricks up her sleeve to deal with some bugs.  Well, she could always use her regular water magic, but Althea ought to show off just how much training she’d been doing!  Wearing a carefree smile, the youth raised her hand, sparks briefly dancing around her palm before shooting out a beam of white light that engulfed the passageway.  Of course, her mentor technically just told her to lead the way, but she had simply wished to incinerate them.  Lucky for her, there hadn’t been an infinite amount of insects, and the only remaining traces of them were scorch marks on the walls.

“How was that?!  I worked pretty hard on learning how to do that.”  The blonde said, smugly leaning against one of the maze’s blackened walls. “It’s pretty impressive if I do say so mysELF?!” Sadly, her cool pose was ruined by the fact the wall she was resting on abruptly collapsed.  It was the second time that day Althea fell through something that was meant to be secure.  Who knew so many surfaces were just waiting to shatter apart?  Thankfully, the fall wasn’t nearly as bad as her previous one, and the young girl only found herself a small hop down from where she previously was.  However, she wasn’t entirely alone in the large, dark room.  Althea found herself in a pit of rats, the little creatures attempting to viciously tear off her flesh.  They were just as successful as the bug-things, but the problem was how they were actually burying the slayer with their furry bodies.  Slowly sinking into a writhing mass of creatures attempting to murder her wasn’t a typical experience for Althea, nor was it a welcome one.  If she used a big spell again she might end up breaking another wall, so she was stuck flailing around in the pool of rats.

Althea had felt rather proud of herself after displaying her confidence for once, and Mura’s praise following it made the bug’s incineration all the sweeter.  Well, not literally, from her experiences bugs tended to have a pretty bitter taste.  Actually, no, she was pretty sure that wasn’t the case all the time.  Sometimes they end up just tasting like flaky nothingness.  Perhaps it was the kind of bug that resulted in the differing tastes?  Was it the amount of… um… juices they had?  Or perhaps their diet?  The slayer wasn’t too fond of eating insects unless she really had to… y’know what?  Who even cared?  Back when she was living by herself, the blonde was never picky when it came to what she’d eat and what she wouldn’t eat.  There was no reason to averse to eating invertebrates besides the fact that many weren’t a fan of the idea.  Could it be that magician life was making her soft??  ...No way that could ever happen.  Anyways, if she had the opportunity in the future, she’d test out insect cuisine or whatever.  Hmm, she could actually do it at right that moment, but Althea was pretty sure she’d be hard-pressed to find any bug-parts remaining after her attack.

Speaking of which, that very attack had won some well-earned praise from her senpai!  However, the mention of light magic left her ever so slightly confused.  She couldn’t quite wrap her head around how sparkly light lasers and such were comparable to her… light laser, okay, understandable misunderstanding.  Additionally, it wasn’t one Althea had any reason to clear up at the moment either, the explanation of the magic she used was rather lengthy, and her pretzel could be gone any moment now!  When she first purchased the warm, soft delicacy, she had taken it for granted.  Now she dreams of being within its warm embrace(?) once again.  No bugs!  Only pretzel!

Welp, that was the least of the youth’s worries now that she’d fallen through a brittle surface… again.  And this time was even worse, instead of just a hole, there were rats inside the hole!  And it didn’t take long for the stunned slayer to be submerged in the hairy mass.  She thought his special awareness was pretty good, could it be that old things secretly had some sort of vendetta against her??!  Wait, no, a wall and floor aren’t sentient… is what they want her to think.  Althea’s caught on to their tricks, and two could play at that game!  Well, uh, since the wall and floor were already playing she supposed it’d be three players, but she’d beat them anyway!

Althea continued to ponder… whatever it was she was thinking about, so absorbed in her (useless) thoughts that the rat problem was resolved before she could even register it was an issue in the first place.

“Oh, wow, thanks Mura-senpai!”  The young girl said lightly before getting to her feet.  She was about to make an attempt at dusting off her clothes, but after seeing the state of them, she doubted that a light pat-down would do anything.  At this point, she couldn’t tell what smelt worse, her, or the room.  Now she really have to get back at the maybe-sentient-maybe-not wall and floor, so she’d better figure something out before she forgot all about it.  Thankfully, it seemed like her guild master was already busy fending off the waves of diseased rats, so now she had time to get back into battle mode.  Actually, it was pretty nice to just sit back and have all the heavy lifting done for her.  Mura was pretty good at getting rid of the rodents with his… uh… tree?  Althea had never really bothered to ask for specific details on her mentor's magic… what was it that he used?  No matter how much she rattled through her head, she couldn’t think of it’s name.  Was it Om Nom?  Oushinwooshin?  Whatever the name was, it didn’t change the fact that Mura had pretty much been doing everything for her.  Sure, spectating the gruesome, bloody skewering of mangled rats was always nice, but hitting them herself was even better, right?

“Huh?  Me?  Going?? How should I kn-”  Althea muttered, having been so caught off guard that she almost said exactly what she was thinking.  To be fair, there was nothing around that suggested where they might be going… And she was the one who led them there in the first place… Well, she was sure they were in the right place anyways!  It’d all turn out fine, in the end!  “Mhmm, yeah, definitely someone behind this, I agree.”  The youth replied statically, doing her best to keep her expression as neutral as possible.  “I’m pretty sure the walls and floor have something against me, but I’m not sure if they keep pet rats or anything.  They don’t have hands or anything, so probably not… is what they want me to think!”  The slayer exclaimed, letting out a gasp of realization.  Clearly, their vendetta against her was immense, but she would’ve never imagined their plans were so immense.  She’d need to get better at playing this 3-person board game if she wanted to have a chance at victory.  Wait, she might as well add in Mura just to make things equal.  Now it’s a 4-person game of tag!

...Despite the fact rats were pouring in torrents from above, Althea couldn't feel any urgency in the situation.

“Yeah Mura, I got it all figured out! Umm, let’s see...”  The youth chirped before gesturing towards the first divergence she laid her eyes on.  “Over there looks good!  Let’s go, senpai!”  She could try and rely on her sense of smell again, but the reliability of that was questionable at best with the rancid rat stench that was clinging to her.  Might as well just go in a random direction!  Well, might as well assure her mentor that she was a competent person to be leading this job expedition.  “Don’t worry Mura, my sense of direction is great!  Like, there was this time I got lost in the desert, and it only took me 3 days to get out!”  Truly, deserts were vast planes of nothing.  If she could find her way out of there, she could find her way out of anywhere!