I am the Enchantress!

Chapter 27 Can you teach me?

The battle ended in just eight seconds.

The gnoll fell, and Wilder and Talia emerged victorious. The only spectator was an adult reindeer, which had already run into the dense forest the instant the flames erupted.

"We need to get out of here quickly," Wilder said to Talia.

Gnolls are social monsters, and although this one is injured, it is most likely a lone wolf that has fallen behind its pack, but we still have to be wary of it.

"Mm," Talia replied.

Wilder then noticed that her gaze had been fixed on him the whole time, and there seemed to be something hidden in her pale blue eyes.

Were they scared by the gnolls?

Or are you surprised by your own magic?

For an ordinary person, both of these things are indeed exciting enough.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Talia nodded. "Let's go."

Wilder nodded, but then suddenly remembered something.

"Wait me a moment."

He walked to the gnoll's corpse, endured the strong smell of blood, bent down, and searched for something.

Finally, among the shattered remains, he found the beast's left ear.

Don't underestimate the value of even a mosquito's leg.

After carefully wrapping his left ear and stuffing it into his pocket, Wilder and Talia hurriedly left the woods.

On the way back, Wilder noticed that Talia always seemed to want to say something but hesitated, and would occasionally steal a glance at him.

"Uh..." He turned his head to the side. "You have something to say?"

"Um!"

When asked this, Talia readily replied, "Could you... teach me?"

"Teach you what?" Wilder didn't understand.

"The one that shoots flames from your palm."

"You mean Burning Hand?" He understood. "That's a mage spell; you need to be able to see the magical network to learn it, and..."

"I don't want to learn magic," Talia interrupted him.

"So what do you want to learn?"

"What I want to ask is..." she blinked her pale blue eyes, her tone earnest, "How did you manage to reduce the power of the flames so much?"

"what?"

Wilder was stunned.

How do I teach this?

His Burning Hand was only this powerful to begin with, and he had plenty of mana in his body today, so this spell was the most powerful he could muster.

"You...have you seen an even more powerful burning hand?"

"No," Talia immediately shook her head in denial. "I... I heard it from someone else. They released flames that burned all the monsters to ashes, and in the end, they couldn't explain it to the association."

"That might be a higher-level spell? Like a fireball?"

Wilder wasn't quite sure either, "My Burning Hand doesn't need to be controlled; its power is only this much to begin with."

Wilder had no suspicion of the girl who was fighting with the reindeer for the spring dew grass and told her the truth.

"So that's how it is."

Talia nodded and didn't bring it up again.

The two returned to Ironweave Town before sunset and went directly to the Adventurers' Guild to report.

Martha was on duty today, so Wilder naturally went to her counter to queue up. There was a line of people ahead of him handing in their orders.

The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder.

"I already told you, I cleaved that gnoll in two with one axe blow! It's crippled and definitely dead!"

A berserker, over two meters tall, was shouting excitedly, with a long axe, taller than Gru, slung diagonally across his back.

"Mr. Cass, I've already said that." Martha didn't even lift her head, her attitude resolute. "Rules are rules. The association only recognizes the left ear of a monster."

"grass!"

The berserker's voice rose several octaves, "I led my men all the way from Area B to Area A, wasting an entire afternoon, and you're telling me I won't get a single penny?!"

"Didn't you get the money?" Martha finally raised her head and gave him a cold look. "You handed over two left ears and one hundred and twenty silver coins, not a single one missing."

"We killed one more! A third one! Sixty silver coins short!"

"I've made myself perfectly clear. If you don't have anything else to say, just move aside and don't block the people behind you."

"Damn it! If this isn't resolved today, I'm standing right here, and nobody's turning in their mission!"

The berserker plopped down on the counter, and his henchmen joined in the commotion.

Martha frowned and prepared to get up to find the association's guards.

Just then, a voice that sounded somewhat familiar to her came over.

"The gnoll you're talking about...is it the one with the split in its chest, running from its left shoulder blade all the way down to its right rib?"

The berserker was taken aback, and looked up to see a handsome young man.

"You saw it?"

"Hmm." Wilder nodded. "I was on a mission on the outskirts of the forest when I ran into them."

"Where is that beast?"

After asking that question, the berserker glared at him, looking him up and down, and suddenly blurted out, "You killed it?"

No, no.

Wilder quickly waved his hand, his eyes even showing a hint of lingering fear.

"I'm just a novice mage, how could I possibly deal with such a big guy? I was too scared, so I ran away while it was burying gold coins in the ground."

He spoke of the phrase "burying gold coins" in particular with a nonchalant air.

It seems that compared to escaping death, such trivial matters are not worth mentioning at all.

"Buried gold coins?!"

The berserker jolted awake, leaping up from the counter. "Did you see clearly?"

"Yes, there were dozens," Wilder said, resting his chin on his hand as if recalling something. "I guess he was being chased and wanted to hide his valuables first?"

"Yeah! I chased that beast across an entire district!" The berserker stepped closer. "Quick, tell me! Where did you see it?"

"A·19".

Upon hearing this answer, the berserker fell silent for a moment.

He wounded the gnoll in area B.5, so it should have been between area 3 and 8 in area A.

A·19?

Where the hell did they all go?

Are you sure?

"certainly."

The berserker sized up Wilder, whose calm face showed little emotion, only a naive and foolish enthusiasm.

"Let's go!"

He waved to his henchmen and left the counter.

Wilder shrugged and walked over to the counter.

"Martha, we meet again. I'm here to turn in my mission."

"Hmm," Martha rolled her eyes at the berserker's retreating figure by the door, "Wild, why are you helping someone like that?"

"Helping others brings joy."

Martha shook her head, no longer dwelling on it, and instead asked, "What mission did you go on?"

Wilder placed his and Talia's burlap sacks on the counter and handed over the task list.

Martha quickly checked the payment.

"Fifteen clumps of spring dew grass, seven silver and fifty copper coins; five clumps of dragon and snake petals, two silver and fifty copper coins."

She looked up and glanced at the brown-haired girl next to Wilder, then asked, "Should we settle the bill separately?"

"Okay, but wait a minute."

Wilder then took a small linen bag from the pocket of his close-fitting soft armor, opened it, and handed it to Martha.

"Plus this."

Martha took it, lifted it, and glanced at it.

Immediately, a smile appeared on her face.

"The one from just now?" she asked.

"That should be true," Wilder replied.

"receive."

Martha flipped the ledger back to the previous page, found the task of clearing out the gnolls, and checked the box next to "the third one".

"Congratulations," he read from the names recorded in the ledger, "Mr. Cass, you have replaced the left ear of the third gnoll."

She counted out sixty silver coins from the drawer and pushed them in front of Wilde.

"Here is a supplement of sixty silver coins for you. Please keep it safe."