Chapter 41 – Present Gathering
[This is a terrible idea.] (Luna)
[Nonsense, this is a great idea.] (Syrus)
[Yep… it's an idea alright…] (Eva)
It had been months since Lilly's attribute discussion and the decision to start finding something for Jen and George's twentieth anniversary. Now it was midway through the seventh month of the year and a lot had been done, but at the same time, there was an important task they hadn’t completed.
Eva had some improvement in using her Manipulation attribute, but her two attributes were still far from separating. Besides that, the end-of-the-year festival preparation progressed really smoothly, to the point where the village could finally relax a bit and work at a normal pace.
[Please tell me we aren’t lost…] (Eva)
[Then, we aren’t lost.] (Syrus)
[It’s fine Lilly, we are going on the right path.] (Luna)
Now the big issue for the trio was that Jen and Geroge’s twentieth anniversary was about to happen in one week. And after multiple months, they still hadn’t decided on a gift.
Not that they didn’t try. Many debates were held between them to decide on a gift, but they had an issue about what would be a good gift. Many ideas were scrapped because they didn’t believe the gift in question was good enough for such a big event.
Now if Jen and George knew what Anna was planning, they would tell her to stop worrying so much. They would be fine with any gift, and just knowing Anna put thought into it would've been enough. But the trio wanted to get something amazing. Which was difficult when they couldn’t afford to buy anything and the village didn’t have anything they really wanted to give to their parents.
Which led to their current predicament.
[Let’s hurry up, we are going to have to run home at this rate.] (Syrus)
[I know, I’m keeping an eye out for it.] (Luna)
They were exploring far into the northern forest in an area they were very much not allowed to be in.
This was because after exploring all possible gifts they found out about the existence of a certain flower that grew in the area. It only grew during winter and it was rare, but they thought it would be a perfect gift.
[A Elerliss flower has to be around here, somewhere…] (Syrus)
[You’ve said you saw one before Luna, but are you sure we can dye it?] (Eva)
[Yes.] Luna replied confidently, remembering the days the church would lavishly bring in boxes of them.
An Elerliss flower was a rare flower whose petals changed colour when injected with mana, this colour would change with different attributes. These plants were often grown in cities due to their high demand among the high class and places like the church. Once they absorb some mana and before they would lose the colour they would be cut and stored, because if they were unearthed they wouldn’t rot or lose their colour for a hundred years. This length of time could be increased with proper storing methods and magic.
The problem was that where this flower grew happened to be near monster territory, which was why this area was designated off-limits. However, Eva researched the area and found that the monster sightings were so rare that the chance they would actually come across a monster was unlikely. So they decided to take the risk–worst case they could run.
Another hour passed. They had sneaked out during the night so they needed to be back before their parents woke up. That was the goal but they were prepared to say they just went for a morning walk as an excuse if they were a bit late.
As they were walking and as someone began to turn in a different direction, Syrus commanded, [Wait!].
[I think I’ve found it.] Syrus confidently replied. She saw what seemed to be a shining white flower–the natural state of the plant–in the distance.
They walked over to it to confirm that it was the flower.
[Yep that is it, good job Syrus.] (Luna)
[Wow… it's pretty.] Eva excitedly muttered, [Now let's dye it, I want to see it become red.]
[Hold your apples, we have something else to do first.] (Syrus)
Before they could start the process of picking the flower, a pack of wolves dug themselves out of the ground in a radius around Anna.
“Well damn, look at that, we have a party on our hands.” Syrus laughed.
They were ever so slightly larger than normal wolves with claws designed to dig, they also looked more deranged and had grassy and brown camouflaging fur on the top half of their bodies.
[Oh no… what are we going to do!] Eva started to panic.
These were once normal animals but they had mutated due to mana, a rare occurrence, producing results that weren’t necessarily always stronger than normal creatures but certainly more resourceful.
[Don’t worry, I’ve got this.] (Syrus)
Fire covered Anna’s fist, and she settled into a combat stance.
[You already knew about them didn’t you?] (Luna)
[Yeah, but I know they won’t be much trouble.] (Syrus)
The fight began with the wolves all pouncing at Anna. This just caused Syrus to smile.
She manoeuvred out of the way, punched one of them in the throat, and spewed fire from her hands to create a barrier between her and some of the wolves.
Syrus hearing more animals approaching called out, [Two more behind us.] To warn her soul roommates so they wouldn’t be surprised.
But Luna said, [I’ll handle it!] so Syrus decided to ignore them and focus on the other wolves.
Then once those two wolves leaped forward, a Moonlight blast shot from around their body, knocking back the two sneak attackers.
[...Please can’t we run away…?!] Eva screamed but no one was listening. This fight was still far from over.