“Is mana stored in the coccyx?” Bel asked Cayn.

  “What.”

  “Think about it, if we used to have tails but we couldn’t use mana back then, doesn’t that mean the coccyx used to block the mana flow?”

  “Please continue.”

  “Ok, so like, you know how we don’t have a tail anymore and we can now use mana and skills and all that?”

  “You are almost there.”

  “So if the mana was in the tail, then the coccyx that is now the old tail is now the new tail so technically— Nevermind.”

  “What do you think the mana organ exists for?”

  “I don’t know, I thought it made mana and it was stocked somewhere else.”

  Astor came back with an armful of mana cores. “The animals are stunned.”

  Cayn spoke, “Alright.” He went on to heal the animals.

  “Yo Astor,” Bel said, “is mana stored in the coccyx or the mana organ?”

  “Mana organ, it’s in the name.”

  Bel shook her head. “No one gets me around this lot.”

  Cayn came to them and they went on. The trio was in the Second Land, exploring the inside of the tallest mountain in the world and making money by selling off mana cores.

  “Blue-eyes, say thank you,” Bel said, on their way to the local mana cores’ shop.

  “[Switch: Druid],” Astor activated. “Thank you.”

  Silence. No class acquired, nothing. Awkward. “It doesn’t work. Why?!”

  “Maybe because the ‘thank you’ has to be sincere?” Cayn said.

  “Oh my System, Astor, don’t you feel thankful to my person?! Oh dear, oh my!”

  Cayn glanced at her. “Stop it, guilt tripping him won’t work either.”

  “Worth a try.”

  They arrived at the buyer’s counter and Bel put down the mana cores. “Mornin’.”

  “Another big haul, huh?” the buyer said, handing out the money. “Thank you for your services as always.”

  Bel let Astor take the money. She waited a bit, squinting at the buyer. “What class are you?”

  “[Shaman]?”

  She waited a bit more, but there was still no sign of a screen saying she got a new class. “I know your ‘thank you’ wasn’t sincere.”

  “Pardon?” the buyer said.

  “You heard me—”

  Cayn dragged her away from the counter. “I’m so sorry for her behavior.”

  Far, far away, Cayn scolded her.

  She spoke back, “Listen, I wasn’t harassing him or anything like that. I was just trying to innocently get a new class. Only Astor had a new one!”

  “Your wants and needs are none of my business, but don’t go to someone and force a sincere thank you out of them,” Cayn scolded again. “Have you tried being more demure in your endeavour? It might work that way. Not only that—”

  Bel stopped listening and nodded as he went on his rambling. She observed Astor instead, who was experimenting with his skills again. He took the habit since they entered the Second Land, she didn’t know why but it was fascinating to see what he could do. Astor was currently playing around with some light particles and before she knew it, one of his fingers disappeared.

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  “How’d you do that?!” Bel asked him, tossing Cayn’s babbling aside.

  Cayn looked at them sternly as Astor explained, “Use [Corpuscle] to manipulate the light and camouflage it.”

  Bel tried herself but couldn’t quite get the same result. It was way harder than it looked. Her belly growled. “I am hunger.”

  “Don’t think I will let you eat before you learn proper manners,” Cayn said.

  “You sound like my father.”

  “I might be!”

  “By the System!” Bel held her head and put out the most hyperbolic shocked face she could pull off. “Dad, you’re back from the store? You’ve finally bought the milk and come home?!”

  Cayn exhaled. “Alright, alright, fine. I’ll let you off the hook. Just do not bother people anymore.”

  “No promises, gonna do my best though.”

  At the local inn, they bought a few meals at Astor's, their treasurer, expense. Indeed, he told them, a long time ago when they first met, that his primary goal was money. She didn’t really know why and didn’t want to pry into his life. But she knew it had something to do about him being an orphan; a fact that she guessed due to his demeanor being very socially inept. Was Cayn aware of this fact as well? Maybe, he was smart enough to figure it out as well.

  The [Chef] of the inn placed their plates down. Astor, as the midliner, had ordered a Dexterity boost, he needed to be fast enough to move between the frontline and the backline. Cayn, him, chose a Constitution boost, the backline being the most vulnerable, he needed some insurance in case he got hurt. Bel took the usual Strength, she just wanted to rip out mana cores faster. It was an important part of the day, as it would dictate their strategies going forward.

  A loud group of adventurers barged into the inn, loud as ever. They all shared the same features as Bel: pink hair and eyes. She hid her regard to not draw attention; it failed, the group walked toward her.

  “How’s it going, fellow Pink?” a man said.

  She hid her face by eating lously. “Going alright.”

  The dude leaned and caught a glimpse of her face. Damn it.

  “What do we have here?” he said. “Isn’t that the fake Pink girl?”

  Damn it, damn it, damn it.

  “Wait, wait, wait. Lemme see,” a woman in the group said.

  The last member, a girl, also joined, “It is her!”

  It was the worst situation for Bel. She managed the Pink tribe with the whole World Boss situation and now this? She didn’t want Astor and Cayn to know about her past. Not after accomplishing so much and being so close to being a proper Pink.

  “What is a faker doing around here?” the dude said. “Are your hair even real?”

  “Come on, her daddy’s gonna come beat your ass if you continue like that,” the woman said.

  The girl added, “Where? I don’t see daddy coming to the rescue.”

  “That’s right, doesn’t that mean we can say whatever we want?” the dude asked with a punchable smirk.

  Bel’s hand trembled with fury. She was about to crash out, but Cayn spoke, “Sorry, could you stop acting like we aren’t here?” He took the polite route of asking them to get lost.

  “Well, we just wanted to let you know that your friend is—”

  “We don’t care,” Astor said casually, with a mouthful.

  “Whatever, let’s get some food,” the girl said. The group listened to her and acted like Bel wasn’t that important anymore. It was for the best… probably.

  Astor and Cayn started to eat faster. They probably didn’t want her to stay around that group any longer. She kept up the pace. Her meal had turned sour.

  ***

  They delved deeper into the mountain, looking for any kind of monsters, especially World Bosses. They still had to finish the quest, as a System’s quest was of the utmost importance.

  Bel was glad none of her friends asked anything about the fiasco of earlier. She really didn’t want to talk about it.

  A group of monsters were found by Astor. Around nine moles. The trio had trained themselves to work with their new skill set but kept the usual formation of frontline, midline and backline. It made things easier as each role was defined by where each of them stood.

  Bel was in the front, drawing the attention so that either the midline or backline could immobilize them. Depending on the number of monsters, Astor would either focus on immobilizing or distracting too. In this case, nine was a bit too much for Bel alone. They both drew the aggressivity, giving opportunity for Cayn to focus on chaining each, one by one. And with a teamwork as simple as that, the job was done in no time.

  Now came the chores, plucking the mana cores and healing the animals… It was a pretty simple routine at this point. If it wasn't for the big fight against the World Boss and the Stampede screwing her expectations of what a Journey should be, she’d enjoy the whole thing a little more. And with the group of earlier being around, it was making things even more complicated. Maybe she should hide her face like Astor does. She’d have less problems. But if her parents heard about that, they’d be disappointed in her. Disappointed that she wasn’t proud of being part of the Pink tribe… If only she was like the others.

  It was getting dark and they had to go back to the inn, to eat and to sleep. She didn’t want to. She didn’t know what would happen if she got insulted again. Probably a fight between the two parties. No, surely.

  “Should we camp?” Cayn proposed. He caught onto Bel’s anxiety, didn’t he? He avoided her gaze. “I mean, I always wanted to camp once in my life.”

  Astor nodded, a little bit too hard.

  “Only because you insist,” Bel said. She just realized that she was more silent than usual, must’ve thrown them off.