A few days later, Rion stood beside a tree and watched Dora train.
Dora exhaled softly, and her eyes sharpened as she nocked an arrow on her bow and aimed at a tree in the distance.
She stood in the position for a few moments before she let the string go.
Pew!
Thk!
The arrow whistled towards the tree and struck right at the mark.
Her lips arched up, and she nocked another arrow on her bow.
An hour passed as she continued to shoot one arrow after another, and she finally lowered her bow. She walked towards the tree and began to pick up the arrows.
While she was doing that, Rion called out, "Dora!"
Dora turned her head towards him with a surprised look and responded with furrowed brows, "Rion? Why are you here?"
All of them had decided to train by themselves to better understand their current prowess, so she wasn’t keen on Rion disturbing her, but it didn’t mean that she disliked him coming to her; instead, she was actually quite gleeful about it.
A faint smile crossed her face as she finished picking all of her arrows and walked towards him.
He scratched the back of his head and answered truthfully, "I need you to find a few herbs."
Her lips drooped into a frown, and she asked while looking at the forest around them, "Herbs? Here? Did you forget how close we are to the purple fog forest?"
He sighed, placed his hands on her bare shoulders and came face to face with her as he said, "I know that!"
He let go of her shoulder and explained while circling her, "Those herbs can only be found at the deep southwestern forest that is still green and good."
She listened to him with a lowered head; however, it wasn’t because she was scared of traversing the forest, she knew that Rion would never allow a threat to come her way, and that trust was built upon the fifteen years they had been friends.
The reason for her lowered head was quite simple, she didn’t want him to see either her reddened face or her foolish grin.
"Dora? Are you listening?" He asked while softly jabbing his finger at the side of her arm.
She took hold of her lips that were spread foolishly and pressed them into a thin line before she asked, "Why do you need those herbs?"
He placed his hands on his waist and answered while puffing in pride, "I am going to create a medicine."
"Medicine?" Curiosity brushed her eyes and left her lips as she probed, "What kind of medicine?"
He turned around and gestured for her to follow as he walked towards the camp.
She began to walk beside him, and he explained, "I kept thinking about what had happened during my aura awakening and then..." he flashed her a smile before he continued cheerfully, "I remembered! I had forced all of my intent and will into a single action, and that caused my aura to awaken."
She nodded and inquired with furrowed brows, "What does that have to do with this medicine?"
He ignored answering directly and continued with a childish grin,
"After remembering that, I asked myself, 〔Can’t we just find herbs that allow us to enter the state of absolute focus?〕"
His grin widened into the realm of impossibility as he continued further,
"I mean, there are herbs that both enhance and diminish our concentration! So we just have to prepare a medicine which allows us to push the enhancement to the absolute!!"
Even though she didn’t understand what he was mumbling about, she nodded and asked, "You have the items that would allow me to find these herbs, right?"
He turned his head towards her and shook it with the grin still plastered across his face.
She stopped and blinked a few times before she mumbled, "How... How am I supposed to help you then?"
He patted her on the back and added with a smirk, "Heh. Don’t worry I already got the herbs or other things that are commonly seen beside the ones I want... they are quite rare, after all."
She let out a relieved sigh and questioned, "So... What are these herbs that you want?"
"That..." he stammered with a wry smile.
After about an hour, both of them ran towards the southwestern forest while Dora barked at him.
"You dumbhead! You were talking about that medicine like it would be a breeze to get the herbs!" She calmed her breathing and continued, "and then you hand me items that are even rarer than the white quali?! Are you looking for a beating?!"
"WHAT?! I gave my all to get the best ones to make it easier for you!" He shot back and stopped as they reached the southwestern forest.
She placed her hands on her knees and asked while breathing heavily, "Hah... hah... You! Why... do you never get tired?"
He looked at her with a mischievous smile and muttered, "Isn’t that good for you?"
She frowned and questioned with a puzzled look, "Huh? What do you mean?"
He looked away and answered while forcing a cough, "Ahem! Ahem! Nothing..."
A thin smile slipped from her, and she took a deep breath before taking out a thick, dark yellow leaf-like herb from her leather pouch.
She closed her eyes and held the herb before her head with both of her hands before she began to mumble in an incomprehensible language — similar to the one Nena used while performing the ritual of destiny and the ritual of marking.
The herb shone with a golden glow before it crumbled into a golden dust that entered the centre of her forehead.
A golden dot appeared on her forehead, and she opened her eyes.
"Oh? Your eyes turned green!" Rion pointed with a glinted smile.
She smiled back and focused on the whispers of the herb that she had used.
A few moments later, she began to run deeper into the southwestern forest and shouted, "Follow me!"
"Always!" He replied and began to run behind her.