Bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, Raine looked past Kaelin’s shoulder. As soon as he got a clear view of the figure entirely shrouded in a brown hood, he immediately recognized them. It was the same eccentric person he had briefly met at the Alchemy Workshop that morning.
"Raine!" Kaelin spotted the black-haired young man at a glance. Clad in his new Leather Armor, he looked exceptionally tall and straight, and her emerald eyes instantly lit up.
Her wine-red ponytail whipped in an arc behind her as she practically sprinted over, coming to a halt in front of Raine with a gust of wind.
"I finally found one!" Her voice trembled slightly with excitement as she subconsciously reached out and grabbed Raine’s forearm. "I found a Caster capable of breaking that barrier!"
She stepped aside to reveal the brown-robed figure behind her, then looked back at him eagerly. In those eyes that were usually so sharp, there was now a hint of cautious pleading. "You said before that if I ever needed a hand, I could come to you anytime. Does that still count?"
Raine calmly met her urgent gaze. He could clearly feel the slight trembling from her palm, as well as the helplessness she was desperately trying to suppress in her heart. Flashes of that indestructible Magic Barrier deep within the Howling Cave crossed his mind. He recalled Kaelin’s disappointment and stubbornness when facing it, as well as the tacit understanding and trust they shared while fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the Bear Goblins that night. Moreover, he harbored a somewhat irrepressible curiosity about the secret mission Kaelin had been silently bearing all on her own.
He did not hesitate. Giving a slight nod, he spoke in a low voice that carried a reassuring Power. "What I said naturally still counts. You need a helper, and I am your helper."
His words flowed through Kaelin like a sudden rush of warmth, allowing the nerves she had kept taut for days to finally relax for a moment. Her nose even stung slightly. She pressed her lips together firmly, pushing down her surging emotions, and then broke into a brilliant, relieved smile. "That’s wonderful! Let’s go inside and talk about the details!"
With that, she tugged at Raine’s arm, ready to pull him into the inn.
"Hey! Hold on! Armless!" a gruff voice exploded from the side like muffled thunder.
Sodden, hugging his nearly man-sized giant Shield, stepped forward to block their path in just a few strides. Redbeard practically bristled with anger, his light brown eyes wide and round.
"Where are you rushing off to? I just made plans with the Earth People lad to go to the Adventurer’s Guild tomorrow to take on an expedition commission!" he grumbled, rocking on his heels demonstratively, his thick boots striking the ground with a heavy THUD.
Only then did Kaelin notice the Dwarf’s presence, rendering her temporarily speechless. Her heart had been so filled with the joy of finding a Caster and the urgency to break the barrier that she hadn’t considered Raine might already have plans.
Seeing this, Raine smiled and stepped between the two, explaining in a calm tone. "Sodden, don’t worry. Kaelin and I discovered a location earlier that has some trouble needing resolving. This operation should count as an adventure as well."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Kaelin and the silent brown-robed figure before settling back on the Dwarf. "Since we already made plans, why don’t we form a party and go together this time? There is Power in numbers, and we can look out for each other."
Sodden furrowed his bushy brows. He looked at Raine, then at Kaelin, and finally cast his gaze over the mysterious, silent brown-robed figure. After a moment, he let out a huff from his nose and said gruffly, "Since you said so, Earth People lad, then we’ll go together! I’d like to see just what kind of dangerous Secret Realm this is!"
Seeing Sodden agree, Kaelin visibly sighed in relief and quickly nodded. "Then let’s head upstairs together. Before this adventure begins, we need to make a detailed plan."
Wasting no more time, the four of them crossed the gradually bustling inn lobby and went straight up to the second floor, arriving at Kaelin’s extremely spartan room. The final traces of the setting sun’s afterglow filtered through the window, slicing the room into two halves of interwoven light and shadow. The increasingly thick darkness added a touch of solemnity to the impending conversation.
Taking a deep breath, Kaelin spoke first, briefly recounting what she and Raine had previously discovered deep inside the Howling Cave.
"So you’re saying that the first step of this adventure is to unravel that rock-solid Curse Barrier?" Sodden asked in his signature gruff voice, lightly stroking his braided beard.
"Armless, how can you be so sure that this secretive fellow can actually break that thing? A Curse Barrier isn’t something that can be easily dismantled!
"What if, when we get there, this person drops the ball like a rusty Mining Pickaxe and can’t even produce a single spark? Wouldn’t we have made a wasted trip, just to stare blankly at that damn barrier?"
Raine remained silent, but he too looked at Kaelin with an inquiring gaze, as this was a question he also cared about. However, he believed that given Kaelin’s dedication and caution regarding this matter, she would absolutely not just find a random person to try.
Kaelin was obviously used to the nickname "Armless," not even furrowing her brow. She merely asked in return, "Mr. Sodden, since you’ve asked this question, you must not be entirely ignorant about Curse Magic, right?"
Sodden patted his chest with a face full of pride, his voice suddenly rising as he waved his thick arms in growing excitement. "Of course! Although I can’t conjure half a spark myself, our Clan has no shortage of Masters who study the Curse School!
"Their most important method is being able to summon all sorts of bizarre helpers from those unseen, intangible alternative planes—from loyal Otherworld Wolves to tough, hard-hitting Earth Elemental Servants!
"I remember most clearly there was one idiot—may Moradin knock some sense into his thick stone skull! He whimsically wanted to summon an assistant from the Chaos Sea Plane, and as a result, with a loud SPLAT, a slimy rainbow slug dropped down!
"That thing was bigger than a small hill. It tumbled right into the Forging workshop, spraying slime like fireworks. It instantly extinguished the entire furnace, making the Secret Silver Smith Master who was present so furious that he almost strangled the idiot with his beard!"
Speaking vividly up to this point, Sodden suddenly lowered his head, his voice gradually dying down into a melancholy whisper. "To be precise, it was in my... former Clan that there was no shortage of Masters studying the Curse School."
Noticing the Dwarf’s sudden melancholy, Raine took the initiative to steer the conversation, looking at Kaelin. "So, that means you must have used some method to test the abilities of our Caster friend here?"
"That’s right. Her abilities have already been confirmed." Kaelin gave a slight nod. Then, under everyone’s curious gazes, she carefully withdrew a completely blank piece of Parchment from the Storage Bag at her waist. Her movements were solemn as she gently spread the Parchment flat across the tabletop.
"This is my test."