Haruhiro's morale was at an all-time low. Of course, he only had memory from the last two weeks of his life, so "all-time" wasn't really as impressive as it sounded, but today officially marked the first time that he was feeling worse than he had during his week of torture at the hands of Master Barbara of the Thieves' Guild. The primary reason for this was, of course, his finances, and the ill mood seemed to have spread over the rest of the group as well. He didn't want to ask anyone else about their own financial situation, but since they all pitched in for groceries and housing and nobody was sporting any new clothing, he imagined they were in a similar boat to him.

He had had one silver, eighty-eight copper at the end of his first week in Grimgar, just after he graduated from the Guild. They hadn't made any money their first day hunting, and he had spent fourteen coppers. The second day, he had a net earning of four. The third…

They had gone hunting for mudgobs again in the forest, and had come across a group of three. Haruhiro had been a little nervous to confront them, but Manato had been extremely confident that they could manage it. With Shirou curious to see how they managed against multiple opponents, everybody else was talked into an attack.

It hadn't ended well.

Ranta and Haruhiro had focused on one of the goblins, a big green one carrying a rusty axe, but they hadn't had any experience fighting side by side yet. As Ranta was pushed back by a wild flurry of attacks that left him too busy trying to defend himself to retaliate, Haruhiro jumped in to take the pressure off of him. The surprise of the switch-out had stalled the goblin for only a moment, and Haruhiro almost immediately found himself forced to retreat as well. He tripped over the Dread Knight as he backpedaled, sending them both to the ground.

Haruhiro thought they were doomed as the goblin waddled up to take advantage of their vulnerability, but Yume warded it off by sinking an arrow into the ground near its feet while they recovered. The arrow passed a little too close to Haruhiro for him to be comfortable, but he appreciated the save nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Moguzo had engaged a second goblin, one wearing a studded metal cap and wielding a short sword, using the same low sweeping attacks that he had tried to use to keep Yume and Haruhiro away from him the night before. He was keeping it occupied on his own, and didn't seem to be in any danger, but he also wasn't coming anywhere close to landing a hit.

Manato was fighting the third and final goblin, supported by magic missiles from Shihoru, and seemed to be getting the upper hand over the dirty yellow wielding a dagger.

Shirou watched with a critical eye from next to Shihoru as his teammates fought.

A huge thudding noise sent echoes through the forest, as the sword wielding goblin baited Moguzo into a swing that it easily ducked, leaving the giant's sword stuck firmly into the trunk of a tree. The goblin took a moment to survey the other combatants, and apparently decided that Yume, standing alone off to one side with her bow, was the easiest target. With a sinister grin on its face, it sprinted towards the archer while Moguzo struggled to free his sword.

Yume, who had been sighting on Ranta and Haruhiro's goblin again, was taken by surprise as the goblin tackled her from the side with a high-pitched, warbling growl, sending her shot flying far off into the canopy above them. Yume shrieked as she and the goblin hit the ground hard, rolling away from each other, and she stumblingly got back up to her feet. Her left thigh was bleeding from a large slice that ran from just under the bottom of her shorts down to where it had been deflected by her socks, reinforced courtesy of Shirou, just above the knee. It wasn't deep, but still she struggled to put her weight on it, and fell to the ground again as she desperately tried to draw her kukri, scrambling away on her butt as the goblin stalked closer.

When Manato heard his teammate cry out in pain, he turned away from his opponent and began to rush towards Yume, but the goblin he was fighting couldn't pass up such an opportunity. Leaping after him, it plunged its dagger deep into his calf, bringing Manato to the ground as well.

Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.

The goblin standing over a terrified Yume, with sword held high, toppled to the ground and lay still.
Manato crawled forward to get away from his pursuer, rolling onto his back to see that the yellow goblin wasn't moving.
An arrow whizzed past Haruhiro's ear, directly into the green goblin's eye.

Haruhiro turned towards Shirou to see the older boy still standing in an archer's stance, both hands still extended from where he had released his third arrow. His face bore a faint frown. He slowly lowered his arms, and calmly spoke. "Manato. Please heal yourself and then Yume." Haruhiro realized that everyone else was staring at their savior as well in complete silence, but after the archer's clear tone had shattered the moment, everyone began to move.

Shihoru frantically pushed through the undergrowth to get to Yume, where she helped apply pressure to the girl's leg. Manato scowled at Shirou and tried to limp his way over as well, but couldn't make it on his own, and needed Moguzo to support him. Only after making sure Yume's thigh had been fully healed did he have Haruhiro pull out the dagger from his leg and heal himself. Ranta spared a few glances to make sure everybody was alright before going around to gather up the sellable items from the goblin corpses, grumbling halfheartedly as he did so about how if everybody else had pulled their weight properly, he could have gotten more Vices. All the while, Shirou just stood there with bow in hand, surveying the area to make sure that nothing else snuck up on them.

Finally, everybody regrouped. The mood was somber, and there were more than a few heads hanging low as they awaited Shirou's brutal assessment. They weren't disappointed.

"Sloppy. You had them outnumbered two to one, and still were overpowered. Yume, an archer needs good situational awareness; once Ranta and Haruhiro had their goblin under control, you should have either covered Moguzo with your bow or gone in to assist him in melee. Shihoru, that applies to you too, if you'd read the situation better you could have stopped the goblin rushing Yume. Manato, don't let your attention waver when it's your responsibility to hold down one enemy. Trust that your allies can defend themselves and each other. Ranta, Haruhiro, Moguzo, all three of you need practice fighting. We're heading back for today."

At this, there were a few protestations, considering it was still before noon, but Shirou shut them down. "No. I won't have you fighting until I'm confident you can handle the kinds of enemies you'll be facing. We're going to go back and train: Physical conditioning, sparring, maneuver drills. When I think you're ready, we can go hunting again."

Haruhiro had argued that living wasn't free, and they needed to earn money to survive, but Shirou wasn't having any of it. He insisted that money was of no use to the dead and that they had enough to get by in the meantime. The loot from the three mudgobs Shirou had executed wasn't worth much, only one silver in total, which had been just enough to cover his daily expenses. The next day, a Thursday, he'd spent fourteen copper, and then another fourteen on Friday and another fourteen earlier today. Doing the math, that meant that since he had graduated, he had spent twenty percent of his money. At this rate, he would be starving in the streets after four more weeks.

Shirou's reinforcement every morning had been stopping most of their clothing from being damaged, but obviously he hadn't been reinforcing their undergarments, and Haruhiro's one pair of underwear was already getting threadbare. He had wanted to buy a new pair, a few days ago, back when he assumed they would be making money every day, but now such thoughts were far from his mind. Instead he ran calculations, trying to figure out how much longer he could last if he spent one copper less per day on food, or two, or if he managed to convince all the boys to move into a 6-bed room, or if they started camping outside the city walls and foraging.

The money problem was only one part of the drop in morale, however, thought Haruhiro as he rolled over in his cot with a sigh. He had thought Barbara was bad, but he reckoned Shirou could give her a run for her money when it came to harsh training.

The only reason he wasn't covered in bruises was thanks to Manato's healing of them at the end of the day, but even that didn't completely remove the soreness. All day long, from sunup to sundown, was training.

Before breakfast, Shirou made everybody run through the mostly deserted streets of the city for several miles while he stayed behind and cooked, and the day only worsened from there. Haruhiro was pretty sure he couldn't count as high as the number of squats, pushups, and sit-ups he'd performed over the past few days, not to mention the countless swings of his dagger. He couldn't even imagine how much harder it must be for someone like Moguzo, who was made to perform the same exercises with his vastly larger sword.

Midday and afternoon was for maneuvers, allegedly to give them some time to rest after morning conditioning, but they were just as grueling in their own right. They had practiced approaching an enemy under the cover of large slats of wood as Shirou pelted them with blunted arrows that seemed to unerringly seek out any body part that was left sticking out, boosting each other up walls that were unclimbable alone, moving stealthily but quickly as a unit, and more. Earlier today, Shirou had let them outside the city walls again, but only to use the outskirts of the forest as a training ground, where they played full contact capture the flag. That had actually been pretty fun, Haruhiro admitted, as he had led his team of Moguzo and Shihoru to victory over Manato, Yume and Ranta by leaving his teammates to defend while he snuck off to find the enemy flag, sprinting back to his side of the field with Yume hot on his heels and the flag in his hand.

Maneuvers tended to transition fairly seamlessly into sparring, which at least gave everybody a chance to vent their frustration towards Shirou's harsh training. Thursday evening had been the first time all six party members besides Shirou were sparring together, which allowed for some new scenarios. It was lucky that both of the spells Shihoru had learned thus far were non-lethal, because it got her some practice using them on living opponents. Magic missile hit with the force of a punch, and could be fired for relatively low energy. Shadow Echo, which took the form of a dark elemental blob that looked a little like a clump of seaweed, caused the target struck by it to convulse uncontrollably. In team sparring, they quickly learned that she was an invaluable support member who could potentially lock down multiple opponents at once, leaving them vulnerable to further attack, but that she was also completely vulnerable herself in close quarters. To that end, Shirou had insisted that she also do some sparring with only her staff. She was terrible at it, but she seemed willing to learn, so maybe there was hope for her yet.

Manato… despite probably being the most naturally athletic of the group besides Shirou, he was falling behind in their daily exercises. Haruhiro had seen him sneak out every night after Shirou had gone to bed, and he often wouldn't stumble back to their room until well past midnight. The lack of sleep and the hangovers weren't doing him any favors physically, and the fact that Shirou didn't even seem to notice, seemingly just accepting his poor performance as his natural limits, was only exacerbating the problem. In fact… Haruhiro wasn't really sure how much it cost to buy a round for the whole tavern, but Manato had to be running out of money. What would happen when he ran out? Would he have to ask the others for a loan? Would he admit why he needed one?

And finally, there was magecraft.

"I'm sorry, Moguzo, Manato. The presence of magic circuits is determined at birth. Really, it's shocking that so many of you had any in the first place," Shirou explained with the tone of a doctor explaining to his patient that they had some kind of disease – like he was afraid that they would take their anger at the situation out on the bearer of bad news.

He'd just finished Grasping the rest of the group. Haruhiro apparently had nearly as many circuits as Shihoru at fifteen, a fact that he was secretly very proud of, but felt bad celebrating – because Yume had just one, albeit of a high quality, and Moguzo and Manato hadn't had any.

Moguzo helped dispel some of the tension by chuckling. "To be honest, after seeing Ranta and Shihoru, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go through that anyways, and I can't miss what I've never had. I'll just have to rely on all of you to support me, alright?"

Ranta clapped his friend on the back as a show of support. "That's right! You just worry about being big and intimidating and acting as my shield, and you can leave the badass magic and demons and sword fighting to me!" He said with a childish grin.

Manato didn't really look interested either. "Well, if I'm not to be included in this training, I think I'll be off," he said detachedly as he stood up and began to walk towards the entrance of the lodge.

Haruhiro watched as he left. Should he call out to him, ask him to stay? Tell him not to visit the tavern tonight? No… it was too late. He was already gone, and Shirou was already explaining again what it would mean for them to open their circuits. To walk with death, apparently.

He still had his reservations about the process. Sure, reinforcement had probably saved the party from some more grievous injuries, but couldn't they just rely on Shirou for that? Would it be ok just to rely on Shirou forever? And being able to make weapons out of thin air was cool, but hadn't he mentioned at some point that it was a unique ability of his? So what was really the point? Was it worth going through so much pain?

Well, if everyone else was moving forward… he would accept whatever pain it took to keep up with them.

He and Yume agreed to have their circuits opened together. Shihoru and Moguzo agreed to help keep them as comfortable as possible as they went through the process, and surprisingly, so did Ranta. The pain was so bad that it could make even Ranta feel sympathy, huh? That alone might be the thing that scared him the most. As they lay side by side, Yume's hand made its way into his. Oh. He supposed she must be pretty scared too, huh?

He gave her hand a squeeze as he felt the pinch of the needle in his arm, but after that, all thoughts of the outside world were forgotten.

He would later reflect on the fact that the pain was far more mental than physical. It was like a growing sense of panic, a feeling of a shortness of breath. He had begun to hyperventilate, but even though he was breathing deeply and rapidly, his mind was insisting that it wasn't enough, that he was suffocating. He began to get dizzy, ironically from having too much oxygen in his blood, and thrashed about wildly in terror for a few moments while gasping before passing out.

He supposed he was lucky, in that sense. Sure, it had been one of the most terrifying things he'd ever experienced while it happened, but he'd been unconscious after the first few minutes. He woke up as the process came to an end, shooting up and gasping like a man who'd almost been drowned, to see Yume already sitting beside him with tears in her eyes.

"You were out for nearly an hour, Haru!" She smiled through the tears. Wait, when had she decided to shorten his name to Haru? "I was worried you wouldn't wake up!"

"I'm alright, really…" He tried to protest, but she'd suddenly tackled him into a hug, only to drag him bodily to his feet and march him over to where Ranta and Shihoru were watching and wrap them up into the hug as well. Yume was pretty strong, apparently.

"Yume felt like she was being crushed! It was so scary, and yours all lasted so much longer than mine, you're all so brave! Yume's so proud!"

Moguzo and Shirou were watching the hug from a short distance away. Ranta was feebly protesting and trying to free himself, but not very hard. Haru thought he might secretly be enjoying it. To be honest, he was too. He cautiously encircled his own arms around his friends. Shihoru had already given in to her chipper roommate's attitude and shyly hugged everyone back as well.

"Come on, you join in too!" Yume beckoned to the other boys, and Moguzo lumbered over good-naturedly. He was able to wrap his arms around all four of them, and lifted them off the ground entirely for a brief second.

Shirou just continued watching with the same smile, which hadn't shifted at all. Had he not heard Yume? Or did he just assume her invitation didn't apply to him?

"Good job, all of you. Thanks for helping out, Moguzo. Let's break for dinner, and then I'll get you all started on the basics. Shihoru, Ranta, if you could help Haruhiro and Yume figure out opening and closing their circuits, Moguzo and I will start cooking."

"You hear that, Parupiro? I'm your sensei now, so you'd better treat me with the proper respect, got it?" Ranta said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Haruhiro did his best to ignore him as he settled down to meditate. He'd already heard Shirou's earlier explanation, after all; he didn't need some annoying brat trying to tell him what to do. Now, to just recapture that feeling…

It had felt like a shortness of breath. Now that he was prepared for it, he took in several deep breaths, and on the third, held it at its apex. In his mind's eye, he imagined a stone plummeting downwards until it impacted a perfectly smooth pane of water, sending ripples across the surface, and as they spread, he felt prana begin to spread through his body. He kept holding his breath as the panic began to set in again, but it was more manageable now. Especially if he just matched it to the physical version of the same sensation… and then he breathed out, imagining the ripples fading until the water was again a glassy sheet, and as the ripples went still so did his prana.

He returned his focus to his surroundings.

"…if you don't get it. Hell, you might never get it. We can't all be as talented as me, after all. If you beg me a lot, I might give you some tips," Ranta was saying.

"Done." Haruhiro cut him off and stood up. He silently exulted in the look of shock that crossed his foil's features as he brushed past him, leaving him sputtering.

He could have stayed and helped out Yume, and basked in the feeling of superiority over Ranta, who still beat him more often than not in sparring, but he had something else to do.

"Hey, Shirou, can I talk to you for a moment?" He called out.

Shirou broke off from his conversation with Moguzo with an apology, and walked over to Haru while wiping off his hands on his apron. The thief wasn't exactly sure when or where he'd gotten an apron, actually. Perhaps it wasn't just Manato who was less frugal than himself. Speaking of…

"Can we go somewhere private?" He lowered his voice a little. "I want to talk to you about Manato."

"Sure, we can use our room." They walked in silence up the stairs as Haruhiro tried to piece together his thoughts. Shirou sat down on the empty bottom bunk, and Haru on his own bed.

"What about Manato did you want to talk about?"

"…I'm worried about him. Have you noticed he's been sneaking out at night?"

Shirou nodded. "I have, but he's always on time for training in the morning, so I haven't seen a problem with it. What he does in his own time is his business, right?"

Haruhiro frowned, thought for a moment, and shook his head. "Not if it affects the group. He's been drinking every night. He's not at his best when we train, and soon we'll have to loan him money. Money that we don't really have to spare."

"You're right, I suppose, if it puts the rest of the group in danger. But why talk to me about this? Shouldn't you be talking to Manato?"

"I tried. He didn't want to talk about it. I just… I kind of assumed you would have some way to fix it."

"Haruhiro, I'm… not actually that great with people." The older boy smiled sadly. "If you couldn't get through to him, there's no way I could."

Haruhiro struggled to understand. "What do you mean? You're always so solid and reliable, it feels like you always know what to do… and Shihoru really likes you, you know?"

"A sword is solid and reliable. Knowing what to do in a fight isn't the same as knowing how to talk to people. And I like you all too, but I don't think Manato likes me."

Haruhiro noted how Shirou neatly avoided the mention of the purple haired mage, but didn't push it. "You knew he didn't like you? It didn't seem like you'd noticed. Does it not bother you?"

"I can't control how other people feel about me."

He said it so matter of fact, like he was absolutely confident in who he was. That he couldn't change, no matter how many people hated him for it. Haruhiro hoped that someday he would be that confident about himself. "…I'm worried about what will happen if we do nothing."

Shirou shook his head. "If I try and talk to him about it, he'll take it personally. It's not like I can just order him to stop if my authority is part of what's causing the problem in the first place."

Haruhiro sighed, trying to think of anything else to say and failing. After a moment of silence, he nodded and stood up, but was stopped as he began to exit the room.

"Haruhiro. I'm glad you brought this up."

Haru turned around to see the swordsman's expression was conflicted.

"I'll… try to keep a closer eye on him, make sure he doesn't get in over his head."

Haru nodded in thanks and turned to go. Before he got out of earshot, however, he heard Shirou mutter something under his breath.

"How can you save everyone if some people don't want to be saved?"

The magecraft spells that Shirou taught were interesting. To Ranta's delight, they had started with structural grasp before moving onto reinforcement. Haruhiro had been surprised at how hard the spells were, and how variable their results seemed to be, compared to how Shihoru's magic missile and shadow beat spells seemed to be exactly the same every time. After three days of practice, he was at least proficient with Structural Grasp to the point that he could glean some fairly detailed information about an object he used it on. It was kind of like each object was filled with tubes that he would pour a tiny bit of prana into and then observe how and where it flowed, and by the time it had somehow looped all the way back to where it started, he had a near perfect mental image of its physical characteristics. He still couldn't grasp the history of an object, but Shirou had said that was an advanced use of the skill anyways. He found that he had a certain affinity for using it on living beings – a fact that spurred jealousy in Ranta.

The hotheaded boy was terrible at the spell – he would finish it in a flash, but come out with relatively little information, and he could barely use it at all on other people, as he found out after repeatedly trying it on Yume and Shihoru from behind at all hours of the day. Yume herself was average at it, mostly because it took her too long to finish the spell. Shihoru was undoubtedly the best of the four – her grasping was far faster than Haru's, and they had a similar level of accuracy.

Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare any of them to Shirou, who could completely grasp every detail of pretty much anything with just a touch.

As far as reinforcement went, it was harder to judge the results, because only Shihoru had managed it to any extent so far. She described it similarly to the way he did, with minor differences – to him, it felt like trying to pour prana into a spiritual mold the same shape as what he was trying to reinforce and then waiting for it to solidify, but he had troubles getting the amount right. His prana would ebb and flow, and if he didn't put enough into the mold, it would leak out. Force too much in at once, the vessel would shatter. Shihoru, lucky for her, said she didn't feel any ebb or flow, and didn't have to hold it perfectly filled at the end. She just poured prana in and stopped when it was full – still tricky, like trying to fill a cup exactly to the brim without spilling – but it was as if she was using a constant drizzle from a… sink faucet…? Or a constant drizzle from a second cup that she could hold steady, and he was using the pump from the well. Yume described it like building up the image of the object with bricks of prana that always seemed to fall over before they reached the top, and Ranta wasn't even trying. Because he had a poor mental image of an object from structural grasp, he couldn't perform reinforcement well anyways, so he always just shot a ton of prana into whatever he was holding until it overflowed and was destroyed.

Even Shirou admitted that it was a valid use of the skill, but warned him to be careful. If he tried it on something that could take more prana than he could produce, he might drain himself dry and die of prana deprivation. He also matter of fact-ly warned him that if he tried to use it on anybody else's property, including their clothes, he would shoot him.

So far, the only thing they'd practiced on was pebbles. Not exactly shooting fireballs, but Haruhiro actually quite liked Shirou's version of magic. It gave him concrete minor goals to work towards, he had seen the end result's effectiveness first hand, and it distracted him from his dwindling wallet.

Shirou had decided that tomorrow, Sunday, would be a rest day. They were free to do as they wished, without having to worry about training. While he was elated that his body wouldn't be suffering its usual abuse, that of course meant another day without making any money – and probably spending more than usual, if people decided to go out for meals instead of pitching in together for groceries.

Haru sighed again and rolled back over, looking up towards Manato's empty bunk as he drifted off to a fitful sleep, filled with dreams of money, goblins, and drowning.

Shirou rose early on Sunday morning, around 4:00. He had made clear to the rest of the group that he wouldn't have any training for them today. What he hadn't told them was that he wouldn't be around at all for the majority of the day. He wasn't sure how some of them might take it, so he had decided that he would sneak off before they woke up. He took the time to scratch a simple message into a plank of wood with a projected dagger and prop it up next to the stove where it was sure to be noticed.

I'll be back for dinner – Shirou.

There, that should do it. He slung his bow over his shoulder. It was the only weapon he was bringing with him today. He figured leaving behind his bastard sword and dagger in his room would help dispel any worry over his absence, even if rationally the party knew that he could project whatever blades he wanted.

Frankly, his conversation with Haruhiro a few days ago had worried him a bit. He hadn't known that the thief, and probably the rest of the party too, were so worried about money. Did Manato resent him because his insistence on training was cutting off his money supply, and indirectly the drinking that he seemed to enjoy so much? Regardless, the training was necessary. The group had to know their own limits, or they would die, it was as simple as that. And what kind of army sends out a group of barely trained kids to fight deadly monsters? Surely the extra two silver given to trainees, beyond the eight required to join a guild, was to finance living expenses over a short training period before a group actually ventured forth to fight goblins, right?

Well, if the training was necessary, but his friends were worried about money, then the solution was simple.

Shirou would make some money.

Originally, he had planned on doing some blacksmithing, figuring he could make a fair amount of money by providing swords to other adventurers – especially if his projections didn't actually dissipate in this world. On the other hand, he hadn't completely ruled out the fact that it might just take them weeks or even months to disappear instead of hours, so he wasn't comfortable selling them, and after all, he was already employed as a volunteer soldier. If it was his job to kill the monsters that might threaten the city, he supposed he might as well do so, and if it also happened to be the best way to make a lot of money fast, he wouldn't complain.

He walked through the streets of the city, nearly empty in the pre-dawn light. Nearly, because there was still the odd tavern patron or two filing home after a late night of weekend drinking.

In fact, the pair walking towards him were eying him strangely – and not altogether pleasantly. Both men, and both seemingly intoxicated based on the way they were awkwardly staring at him while clearly pretending they weren't. The taller one had just leant over and started whispering to his friend.

Curiosity piqued, Shirou casually reinforced his ears to be able to hear what they were saying.

"…come on, man! Red hair, priest's robes, but has a bow, it's gotta be him! How many people in town could fit that description?"

"I guess… he doesn't look like a coward, though…"

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know?"

They paused in their conversation for a moment when they thought they were within his earshot, but continued once they had passed him.

"Hmph. They really just let anyone into the reserves now, huh? They should, you know… do background checks or something."

"I don't think the reserve volunteers really have backgrounds…"

"I guess. But still, if somebody in my party acted like that, they'd be kicked out in an instant…"

Huh. Interesting. Shirou idly wondered what they'd heard about him, and from whom, but wasn't overly concerned. That was a problem for another day. Today was for making some money, and for testing out some of what he felt he was capable of, but hadn't had any chance to test yet.

He made it to the city gates, which were kept guarded at all hours of the day. Typically, a Crimson Moon member would have to present their badge to the guard on duty to be allowed outside the gate, but the current guardsman was snoring loudly.

Shirou considered waking him up. He was in dereliction of his duty, after all – what if the town were suddenly attacked? But on the other hand, he didn't want to be a nuisance, and as a volunteer soldier, it was also his job to sally forth and quell invasions before they happened, so instead he silently climbed the stairs behind the guard that led up to the parapet. Reinforcing his legs, he lightly stepped off the wall, falling twelve feet and landing quietly in a crouch.

Now, where to hunt?

He ruled out the forest. While good for novice warriors, the few and far between mudgobs wouldn't be good for what he had in mind, and wouldn't pull in much money besides. If there was one good thing about Manato's drinking, however, it was that he often picked up new intel from other, more experienced parties. He hadn't directly discussed it with Shirou, but Shirou had overheard him telling some of the others about alternative hunting spots when he was in a good mood. There was Damuro, which used to be a huge human city before it had been conquered by the Deathless King and later occupied by goblins. Supposedly, the Southeastern portion of the city, known as the "Old City," was mostly ruined, and occupied by weaker goblins. Manato had wanted to go there instead of the forest, hoping for more consistent loot. The alternative was the Cyrene Mines, which were occupied by Kobolds.

Shirou thought Damuro would do nicely, specifically the non-ruined part. If ruined portions of the city attracted weaker goblins, then he assumed nobody would mind if things got out of hand and the Old City ended up getting an expansion.

Just in case, of course. It wasn't like he was planning on destroying the city or anything.

The city was really shockingly close to Altana; it took him less than an hour to make the hike over. He drew his bow as he stepped through the crumbling walls that marked the eastern border.

"Trace: On."

He opened his circuits and began to reinforce – and alter – the bow. He had a blueprint stored in Unlimited Blade Works that he couldn't project – that of a massive black bow, taller than he was, made of a high-tech carbon polymer blended with incredibly strong steel in a process that Shirou was pretty sure hadn't been invented yet. Ignoring this impossibility, the bow called to him, and even if it was beyond his current grasp, he could at least approximate it. He concentrated on the bow in front of him, reinforcing not only its conceptual metaphysical gaps, but also reinforcing the concept of "bow" and changing its physical form to something closer to the perfect bow in his soul. It visibly changed color to a dark grey that was almost black, and it grew longer, more angular, with sharp manufactured edges replacing the more rounded curves of the wood. Finally, he used alteration, the second spell of material transmutation magecraft, and added the concept of "Used to fire Noble Phantasms" to the spiritual identity of the bow.

The process took around a minute to complete. Shirou was satisfied with the result, but resolved to practice more to reduce that time.

He entered the nearest ruined building, and climbed up through a hole in its roof to be able to see the rest of the city better. Off in the distance, to the Northwest, there were still some mostly intact spires that would provide an even better vantage point. Nodding to himself, he set off in their direction.

It was time to kill some goblins.

Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I'm out of time for this update. I'll be away from a keyboard for the next three weeks, sorry for the delay in updates. Thank you to everyone who's left reviews, and please continue to do so! I'll do my best to get back to you!