Chương 40: Arica Miller

The next morning Damion made his way to the designated meeting location for the escort mission. Damion was not sure who he should be looking for, so he simply stood there looking around for the person he was supposed to meet. After a few minutes pass, Damion noticed a young woman, not that much older than he was, looking around the area. The woman was rather petite with blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Damion did not see her carrying a bag or a weapon, but seeing how she was looking around the area, Damion took a chance on if she was the mage he was looking for.

"Excuse me, are you Arica Miller?" Damion asked walking over to the woman.

"Oh," was all the woman said as she turned and looked at Damion.

"I'm here for the research escort mission," Damion said to her to clarify if he was talking to the right person or not.

"Ah, I… I was just expecting someone older as an escort," she said.

"Well, that… a lot of knights don't like interacting with mages," Damion was not sure how to explain to this woman why no one older or more experienced took her mission request.

"Well.. at least you accepted. My fellow research assistants were telling me they never had anyone to escort them. I'm Arica," she said putting a small hand out.

"Damion," he answered as he shook her hand.

"Well, Damion, I've already rented a ground car for the next few days. I'd like it if you could drive and keep it charged. That way I'm free to handle any beasts that show up. You do know how to drive a ground car right?"

"Yes, I can handle one, just as long as you tell me where to go. I haven't been on a lot of missions, so I'm not that familiar with the terrain once we get off the road." Damion wanted to be proud of the fact that he could meet the expectation of this mage to be able drive a ground car, but his admittance of not having a clue of where to go dampened his mood.

"Don't worry, just follow the road to the Benault Forest. Once we get there I will take some measurements and then I'll figure out which way to go, but mostly we'll just be traveling along the edge of the forest."

"Sure thing, where is your ground car?" Damion asked looking around.

"This way," Arica led Damion over to a ground car that was similar to the one he and Ethan had rented a few days ago. Damion removed his pack and stuffed it in the cargo compartment. Arica had not retrieved a pack from anywhere or a weapon as far as Damion could tell. When storing his pack Damion saw the cargo compartment was completely empty and there was no gear inside the cab of the ground car.

This left Damion with the conclusion that Arica either had a spatial artifact to store her gear, or she was woefully unprepared. The two of them were quickly on their way towards the Benault Forest in the ground car, the scenery passing by quickly as Damion drove the car as fast as he dared. Damion quickly realized that while this ground car looked similar to the one he had driven before, it was actually quite a bit faster. It would not be long before they would reach the Benault Forest.

Considering this car was faster than the one he used prior, Damion sent a trickle of his mana into the control stick to slowly feed the ground car and keep its magic battery charged as he suspected it might also use more mana than the other had. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"I can see the forest already, the trees really are enormous," Arica said excitedly when the tall dark trees of Benault Forest came into view. The forest was actually still a distance off, though they would reach it in a few minutes given their speed. Damion chuckled at the young mage's reaction to seeing the tall trees and remembered his own just a few days ago. He could not help but wonder if this was Arica's first mission on her own.

It certainly seemed like her first mission in the region to be so enthusiastic about the Benault Forest.

"You think it's funny that I've never seen trees so big before?" Arica chastised Damion for his short chuckle. Damion said nothing and only shrugged his shoulders. He really did not want to get on the bad side of this mage, she was after all paying him and she could possibly give a bad report on him to the Association.

"The Benault Forest is very unique you know. No other forest we know of has such massive trees."

"I never knew that," Damion admitted.

"Yes, it is quite fascinating. And the forest is actually growing. That is what I am here to do, the quarterly study of the Green Zone border to see how much the forest has grown."

"Then does that mean the Green Zone is shrinking?"

"Technically, yes. But you have to understand we are talking about centimeters of growth a year."

"Trees do take a long time to grow," Damion said sagely.

"How do you measure how much the forest has grown?"

"Quite a few years ago sensor plates were laid along the edge of the forest and now we measure from the plates to the edge of the forest."

"Then comparing that with the measurements from the past, you get an idea of how quickly the growth is. And if it is growing faster in different areas," Damion said as he put together what Arica's task was.

"Exactly," Arica said, sounding a little surprised Damion had figured this out on his own. As the Benault Forest loomed ahead of them, Damion began slowing the ground car down in preparation for instructions from Arica. When they were almost at the edge of the forest, the mage finally spoke up.

"Pull off the road to the left." Doing as instructed Damion pulled off the road and brought the ground car to a stop. Arica hopped out and started walking into the forest. Seeing the mage heading fearlessly into the forest, Damion quickly followed after her. It was his job to protect her while she took her measurements, he did not want to be caught slacking so early in the mission.

After walking a few meters into the forest, Arica stopped and began to kick and scrape the leaves and other ground cover with her boots. Damion realized she was probably looking for the plate she had mentioned was laid down in the past. Emulating Arica, Damion kicked at the grass and leaves to see if he could help her find it.

"Found it," Arica announced, prompting Damion to look over.

"Now due west from it." Arica pulled out a small device from her pocket and after fiddling with it for a moment started walking away from the plate towards the edge of the forest. When Arica walked past Damion, he took a look at the device she was holding and realized it was a simple compass. Somehow he thought it would have been some kind of artifact. In fact, Damion was surprised that Arica did not have an artifact to locate the plates.

When Arica reached the edge of the forest she placed the compass on the ground and Damion realized that it was indeed an artifact. From the compass a light shot up and then showed a series of numbers. Arica quickly jotted down the numbers in a notebook she pulled from another pocket before pocketing them both.

"The next plate is 100 meters to the north," Arica said as she started walking towards the ground car.

"How many of these plates are there?" Damion asked.

"100 in either direction from this one. Each one 100 meters apart." Arica's answered made Damion groan internally. Now he understood why the mission was supposed to take four days.