Takt sat on a stone boulder near the drunk woman. He was contemplating if he would wake her up or let her alone.

He just sighed after some minutes of thinking before approaching her and gently tapping her cheeks.

"Oi! Wake up! Oi!"

He was trying hard to wake her up but it seemed like she was in the middle of a good dream as she was smiling and laughing while asleep.

"This woman..."

Due to his extreme annoyance, he poured water on her, from her water container.

Confused and drowned from that kind of waking up method, she sat and grasped for air.

"What's that? I almost got drowned."

"Are you already awake?"

She looked at him fiercely with her glistening emerald eyes.

"What's with your deal?"

"I'm just trying to wake you up. You sleep here in the open. Also, near that deadly forest." He pointed the forest behind her.

"What? Deadly forest?"

"Yes. That forest had some kind of monster which chased me before."

She looked in the direction of the forest and unfortunately, at the same time, a wolf covered by a black miasma jumped from the shrubs.

"Like what I said!!!"

The wolf was growling with his saliva corrupting the grass as it dropped down. Then, it attacked the woman who seemed weak from being drunk.

"Get away!!!"

"Huh? What? With this cute little puppy?"

She glared at the wolf and a ray of blue light pierced through it, causing an explosion and killing the said monster. Its body got disintegrated like sand being blown away by the wind before a piece of large tooth and a red stone remained.

Out of surprise, Takt ceased from running towards her and fell on his knees after feeling a sense of relief.

The woman just stood up and stretched her arms before picking up the bottle of alcohol she was holding.

"Are you okay?" he asked between his breath.

She sat down on a small mound of soil before drinking her alcohol.

"Haa! This hits right!"

"What's that?"

"Hmmm... what?" the woman asked. "That cute puppy? That's a weak monster. This forest is inhabited by monsters spawning from a dark miasma found in the heart of the forest."

"No. Not that, drunk woman!"

"Hey! Who's drunk woman, damn kid?!" She pointed the bottle at him.

Takt just sighed as he felt exhausted in dealing with her and because of what happened.

"Ah. You're probably talking about that magic."

"Magic? You can use magic?"

"Of course, even looking at my dazzling body and pretty face, you wouldn't know that I'm good at magic."

Takt clicked his tongue before mumbling something that irritated her.

"Who are you calling old hag, huh? I'm just 4X years old."

"Then, you're an old hag."

"What did you say?!"

She threw the bottle that hit Takt's forhead before rushing to him and kicking him out of anger.

"Hey! Stop that! I'm a low level, innocent person."

"Do you think I already forget about your rudeness in waking me up, huh?!"

"I won't do it if I know that you're also a monster."

"Who's monster, you damn weak slug?!"

About a few minutes passed before she stopped kicking him and felt relieved about it. Takt, on the other hand, was defeated and filled with bruises and swelling while kneeling down in front of him.

"Now, tell me your name!"

"Takt, Master!"

"Huh? Do you think--"

He showed her his adventurer's ID card. She grabbed it and looked at it, confirming his answer.

"You're an adventurer?"

"Yes. A low level one, the lowest to be honest. So, if you would, I just want to finish my job request."

"What request?"

"Here."

He handed the job request form to her which she just glanced over.

"But I couldn't read it."

She felt curious about him and observed him from head to toe as he was trying hard to avert his gaze, wishing for her to not find his real identity. 

"Hmmm... drink this."

She pulled out a small bottle with blue liquid on it from the pocket of her pants and threw to him.

"What's this, Master?"

"That's a reading mastery potion. It's a potion that will helps you able to read words even without a proper education."

"But it will only last for four hours. After that, go to the library and learn how to read."

Takt just drank it up and some bluish light glowed over her body for a second.

Due to a sense of excitement, he rushed to the open field of grass and flowers to search for that herbs and fulfill his first job.

"He is an F-rank upon evaluation and he has a low amount of mana that almost in the borderline and he--"

Her eyes grew widened upon seeing Takt's mana evaluation results. She glanced on him showcasing a weird smile like having found her prey.

Takt was busy picking up those herbs that was needed to finish his job request with full of amazement about his newly-found knowledge.

"This is sick. I can read those weird symbols. To be honest, experiencing magic myself is already mind-blowing but somewhat exciting. Fortunately, the description of the herb is also written so I can find them."

Takt laughed maniacally while crouching down to pick up those herbs. 

After fulfilling the request to gather ten bundles of it, he was about to go back on that place to get his things but a shadow casted over him.

"You..."

He slowly turned back and looked up, just to see the woman he was calling Master was standing behind him.

"What is it, Master?"

"Can you use magic?"

An old wound suddenly got opened again upon hearing those words.

He gradually shook his head answering that he couldn't cast any kind of magic.

"Then..."

A gust of wind blew and that woman's long straight blonde hair fluttered in the air as she held her chest, pointing on herself.

She looked like a hope offering her hand to him, a light casting a shadow on him due to covering the sun above her.