Mia brought Al to the front of the wagon to introduce him to her companions. There, a buff middle-aged man wearing a fur coat and a little boy with glasses sat on the bench at the front of the wagon, on the Thaz forest path.
The little ten-year-old boy had on a similar riding hood to Mia, only he had taken the hood off. So, Al could see a head full of blond hair, and, most importantly, a pair of antlers on his forehead.
"Tristan, put your hood on when in public!" Mia said.
"Yes, ma'am..." the boy reluctantly said. "How does she even know, isn't she blind?" he mumbled afterward, pushing up his glasses.
Having seen the boy hiding antlers under the hood, Al looked at Mia inquisitively. 'Is she aslo hiding something under there?' he thought.
She somehow managed to return his gaze, despite her empty eye sockets. "I'll show you what's underneath my hood if you take off that bandana."
"I didn't say nothing."
"You said everything."
The buff middle-aged man looked over. "Who is the kid, Mia?"
"Alexander Monet, a hitchhiker from Nientel."
"And, who are you, sir?" Al asked. He was somewhat perplexed by the situation. The tiger-man was nowhere to be found.
"My name's Monty. Nice to meet you." He shook Al's hand.
"Don't hurt yourself Monty, he already saw you when we inspected the rear," Mia said.
"Still... "
"It's fine, he's just a kid, no threat."
"Hey aren't we about the same age," Al said to the rude girl. But, although the former part was a little hurtful, the rest was true. Except for the boy, Tristan, Al was weaker than everyone else here.
"Alright, Youn-, I mean Mia." The middle-aged man's body started rapidly changing. Fur grew out of his skin, a tail grew, and his face warped. Before Al's eyes, he turned into the tiger-man from before.
"Neat! What are you guys?" Al said, fascinated by their animal parts.
"Wow, you're really from a backwater town," Tristan said, a pompous look on his face.
"Hey don't be rude." Mia slapped the back of the boy's head.
"Sorry, Mia."
"Forgive him, he's a bit... special. Since there is no use in hiding it, we are what you humans call beastmen," Mia said. "A fact that I would please ask you to keep a secret."
"So, I'm guessing your hiding an animal part under that hood?"
She nodded lifting ups her hood slightly, revealing a pair of bunny ears and pitch-black hair. "Yes, and in the spirit of sharing, you have a spell diagram tattooed under your bandana?"
"Uh, yup." he scratched his red hair. Since she had already seen through the spell, Al thought, it didn't matter if she knew where it came from.
"Oh! So, that's why the human can use spells despite only being in the 1st Realm," Monty said.
Monty was right, Al thought. Normally you needed to form a Qi Sea to be able to conjure spell diagrams. But, with special ink made from his blood, mom tattooed the diagram onto his forehead. It took three painful weeks to tattoo the whole thing, but in turn, it allowed him to crudely use the spell despite not having reached the Qi Sea Realm.
"But, why don't you just breakthrough into the Qi Sea Realm? You've already reached the peak stage. It's more effective to just advance." The tiger looked a little puzzled.
"I don't have a cultivation technique that fits my attribute."
"Oh yeah, that'll do it. So, what's your attribute?"
"Sorry, sir. We've only just met. I'm not telling you everything."
The tiger chuckled, looking a little embarrassed. "Oh, yes, forgive me for prying too much."
"Hey, people. Shouldn't we get going instead of talking ourselves to sleep?" the boy said, impatiently fiddling.
"Oh yes, of course. I forgot." Monty took the reigns and got the oxen moving. While he did so, Al went back to the rear of the wagon, while Mia followed him.
"Why are you coming with me?"
"You're no threat to us, but you still need supervision, kiddo,"
"I'm the same age as you!"
"Well, for beastmen seniority goes by strength, and your a teeny tiny weakling," Mia said her cold face showing a little joy as she teased him. "Although, on another matter, where do you want to go anyway? Why are you traveling with us?"
"Rivia. I want to join the Adventurer's Guild there."
"Ohhh, you're that type of guy. Although you can count yourself lucky since that's where we are going."
'Again with the rudeness,' Al thought.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he said, but the girl refused to elaborate.
To ignore Mia, Al focused on himself. After using up almost all of his Qi, Al had to replenish. But, since he did not have a cultivation technique to replenish his Qi quickly, he had to go all-natural which meant taking a nap. Luckily, it was still dark out, so he quickly dozed in the back of the wagon.
He had a nice peaceful nap as his QI replenished naturally until he was woken up by a commotion outside. He could hear the sounds of fighting. Through a crack in the canvas cover, he could see silver shadows blitzing about.
'Well, good morning to me,' Al thought as he got out his revolver. He looked outside through the crack to see what was going on. On the path surrounded by trees, In her blue robe, Mia stood. From the open air above her, she made icicles rain down onto a pack of silver gorillas.
The icicles with the diameter of a fist hit the monkeys full-on. Yet, they remained unharmed as their glistening silver fur had hardened into solid metal.
Their hardened fur resembled plate armor, due to that, and being twice the size of Mia, they looked incredibly menacing. Al couldn't help but be impressed. 'Wow! Wish I could have that!' he thought.
The earth trembled as earthen spikes grew from underneath the silver gorilla. The pack vaulted to evade them, but most could not react fast enough. Seven gorillas got skewered, their blood-forming puddles under the spikes.
Only three remained, among them a mean-looking one. The gorilla Al supposed to be their leader was twice the size of the remainder of his pack. In addition, a large claw make went across his face.
Enraged by their companion's defeat he beat their chest as a baleful aura grew from him.
In front of him, the earth split and Monty walked out. Underneath his large fur coat, he was fully covered in a layer of crystal armor. With two giant axes in hand, he said. "Young mistress, step back. This one is in the late stage of the 2nd Realm."
Monty stepped forward and a wave of earth spikes was sent toward the Gorilla and his companions. They jumped aside to evade, but Monty was already in front of them, his giant axes first slashed at the head of the two companions.
The axes' blades easily cut through their hardened fur, sending their severed heads flying. The Leader even further enraged kicked at Monty forcing him to tumble back a few steps. In a wild rage, the Leader rained a barrage of punches onto Monty, but his armor simply withstood the pressure, as his axes slashed upward in an 'X' shape.
Two deep gashes opened up on the giant gorilla's chest, his silver armor standing no chance. He shuffled back a few steps before collapsing in a pool of blood.
"Phew! All done. You can come out your Highness."
The insides of a tree opened up on the side of the road, inside Tristan jumped out. "Finally. It was getting cramped in there."
"Highness, huh?" Al said as jumped out from the wagon's rear. "So, you guys are some fancy pants nobles?"
As soon as he uttered those words killing intent rose in the armored Monty's eyes. 'Whoops, shouldn't have said that,' Al thought.
"Calm down, Monty, it was bound to come out sooner or later. We will not kill innocents to protect ourselves!" The young girl planted herself in between Monty and Al. "Also, even with this information, the kid doesn't know anything."
Monty growled at Al but relented. "As you wish, young mistress." He let the crystal armor on him fall onto the gourd, where it dissolved into the earth.
At that moment, Al infused Mind Qi into his revolver and shot. Shock rose on Mia's face as the bullet flew past her towards the Tigerman's head. It narrowly shot past Monty, embedding itself in the forehead of the gorilla's leader, preventing his sneak attack.
The giant silver gorilla fell to the ground again, this time truly dead.
"A sneaky one, that is," Al said, smiling at Mia. "No need to thank me, young miss."
If Al has learned one thing in these past few years: It's that muscle brains don't stay down. He couldn't count how many times Rocky had walked around just fine while gravely injured.
Her cold face grimaced. "I'm so happy I don't have eyes to see his stupid grin right now."