After killing the giant squid and saying goodbye to Krystal. Natalie is happy when she gets a new staff, and Matt seems okay when he receives a big blue sword from Krystal. The team sets up camp and sits around the fire to discuss Sunset.
Matt asks the unicorn, "what's happening to you Sunset? You don't seem to be able to concentrate on the attack,"
Sunset replies, "Sorry, I feel something burning in my eyes.".
"Matt, are you serious? We all see the fire has literally burned her green eyes." Lance says with a deadpan, making Matt scratch his head.
"It's weird how two colors of fire appeared at once." Natalie comments, "we've all seen blue fire before, but it's rare to see two colors at the same time."
Sunset asks "Is this a good or a bad thing?".
"In the present, I don't know. In the future, yes. Because you can't concentrate on the spell while you have... weird fire appearing in your eyes" Lance answers..
"... Then what will I do when I can't use magic to help you in combat? I feel like I'm becoming a burden on your team now," Sunset replies.
"Hey, you're not a burden in our team here, you can be our pillow at night," says Natalie.
Sunset responds, "Thanks a ton. I'll pass.".
Natalie comes up with an idea after a while of thinking. "I suggest we stay here for 3 days to see what happens with Sunset, while we train by slaying monsters to become stronger."
It's a good idea, Natalie. I'll teleport to the town to prepare stuff that dropped when we slay the monsters, and then I'll sell it," Lance said as he pointed the crystal over the bridge. The other nods for agreement.
Sunset uses simple spells like burning a leaf, creating a water ball or fireball, but nothing happens. Natalie suggests Sunset try some advanced spells, so Sunset creates a ball of electricity, but nothing happens, then a spear of ice, but again she feels the burn. Due to this, sunsets become annoying.
Sunset whines"I really hate this fire."
Matt asks, "Yeah, you should. But when exactly will this happen?"
Sunset answers, "I think this has happened since I found that crystal.".
Natalie asks confusedly, "What crystal? We found you lying in a throne room, but I am sure there was no crystal there.".
'Really? I met some sort of white dragon before you found me. He poked my eyes after he poked his forehead," Sunset opens her dimensional pocket, appearing fire in her eyes, but she doesn't care about it. "Well, I think I have that crystal in my pocket," and she found nothing. "Maybe I'm wrong."
Natalie looks at Sunset curiously. "You don't feel any burn or anything?".
Sunset admits, "I still feel like my eyes are on fire, but I'm getting used to it. Besides, I'm trying to ignore this problem."
'Should I burn your whole body to make you feel it?" Matt asks as he is lighting matches, but he got a "bonk" from Sunset.
Sunset says, "Don't joke about this stuff please, I don't like to be on fire."
Matt offers, "Okay okay geez...Anyone up for some squid meat?".
"Ok...we should wait for Lance for eating each other"
Sunset, Natalie, and Matt test magic to learn more about this fire. It has been found that if Sunset uses a certain amount of mana, she will get burned. When the testing was done, Lance returned with a medium bag of money.
Lance says to the team, "Here's our money, we have a lot of materials for fighting monsters, so the shop buys them at a good price."
"Well, we can use the money to buy food, weapons, and clothing. I am tired when I wear these clothes all day." Natalie says in an annoyed tone.
"Have you forgotten that we have not taken baths since we first met Sunset?" asks Matt
"Fine, we need some baths for morale"
Lance asked, "Okay so where do we get a bath?"
"Well, Natalie and I have magic so we can create hot water for bathing." Sunset suggests, "we can create a hole by earth spell, Matt and Lance will bring water, and finally we can boil the water to a comfortable temperature."
Good idea, Sunset, but... What do you mean by "a"? Natalie is confused.
Sunset says, "Eh, we took a bath together, didn't we?" The trio deadpans at her
"Sunset, don't you know human boys and girls don't bathe together?" Natalie asks with a blush on her face as Sunset tilted his head in confusion. "That's why we wear clothes every day."
"Ah, I see. Well, it's too bad that in our world clothes are not a requirement, but I've seen mares and stallions bathe together a lot with no problem." The trio is surprised and feels that was correct.
"Okay. Topic aside. After the bath, you have to tell me when this problem happens, ok?" Lance said as Sunset nod
The team starts making hot baths, the girls begin digging holes while the boys bring water from the beach. As the water fills the holes, Natalie and Sunset make the water hotter until it reaches the proper temperature, and then Natalie builds an earth wall to prevent the boys from peaking.
Natalie and Sunset are discussing magic stuff as they take a bath. Mainly Natalie is talking about magic seals, magic words, and spells while Matt and Lance climb the wall to reach the girls. Lance and Matt peak a little, then Natalie shoots fireballs at them. Natalie quickly wears her clothes and chases Lance, while Matt already hides. Sunset simply waves a hoof at him and asks him if he wants to join. He seems to deny it because of embarrassment as he assumes that Sunset would chase him as she did with Lance.
The team sits together after the bath and begins to talk.
Natalie screams angrily, "You pervert have to pay for this.".
Lance tries to stop her, "Okay, okay, we won't peak at the future"
"But Sunset, why won't you embarrass me for this?" Matt enquires as all eyes turn to Sunset.
" Eh...The pony boys and girls taking baths together are normal to me. Even those two are strangers. But we prefer to take a bath alone since something should happen in the bathroom." Sunset explains and the trio stares.
Matt is disappointed: "I thought that was a joke."
Sunset asks, "Okay, how far will we have to walk to reach the mountain?"
Lance takes out the map and starts pointing to the location of the map, "Well we are now near the Glacier Valley, and then we have to pass this valley and the Kitten Ruin, and then we will reach Volcano Peak."
"I see, then we'll go two days later," Sunset says, as the trio nodded
.
"Good, we have to get to sleep, it is already night time. I will guard this night." Matt says
The trio is now sleeping well after the bath, while Matt is guarding the camp. Several monsters with red eyes, who appear to be hypnotized, enter the camp silently at the camp's back. When they saw inside the camp, they carefully carried Sunset out without anyone noticing. Matt, who is guarding the camp, is bored and gets into the camp to find something to do, and notices that Sunset is missing.
"NATALIE, LANCE, wake up" he shouted, waking the duo.
Lance asks him, "What happened Matt? Are the enemies attacking?"
"Sunset is missing." The duo is fully awake and preparing weapons, "we need to find her".
They go outside and look for the unicorn, find the footprint and follow it. They saw many monsters carrying Sunset to a magic circle. They rush to rescue her.
"Sunset, wake up!" Matt shouted to hope to awaken Sunset, but he saw she was still sleeping because she had an earplug in. "Shit, she's wearing earplugs!" Matt charges at them in an attempt to rescue his teammate, but the many monsters from the ground appear and try to stop him. While they try to kill these monsters as quickly as possible, there are too many. The monsters carrying the unicorn are almost at the magic circle.
"I have an idea, cover me," Lance demands as he equips the scanner and aims the gun-blade at Sunset. Lance takes a deep breath and shot. The bullet flies near Sunset's cheek to cut her cheek, making Sunset awake
"Ouch, what's happening?" Sunset wakes up and is being carried by something. Looking down, she sees monsters are carrying her. Sunset plans to burn them down with magic, but the monster throws her into the magic circle. As the magic circle is lit up, many chains emerge and surround Sunset's body. Sunset tries to get out, but the circle lights up again, and she is teleported away.
"SUNSET," the trio yells as they slay all the monsters and come to the magic circle.
Natalie said, "This is a long-distance teleport spell circle, but whoever created it must be a master of trapping spells... And hypnotizing spells to control the monster."
Matt says to others, "Whatever he or she wants from her, I can assume that this mage is not seeking to sell her,"
"Yep, we should bring this magic circle to Glacier Valley. Maybe we can track her from somewhere," proposes Lance, and the trio nods in agreement.
After Natalie has separated the magic circle from the ground, she uses the spell to attract the magic circle to a sheet of paper. After finishing, she rolls the paper and puts it in the bags. The trio then heads to Glacier Valley to ask for some help.
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