Steven stared at the mist as the group approached it, slightly nervous. It [i]should[/i] be safe, but he couldn’t know without experiencing it himself. That made him nervous. He assumed that the captain was trustworthy, and she had assured them that they would be fine, but circumstances wouldn’t be exactly the same for every person. There was only a small chance that something unexpected would happen, but it still made Steven a little nervous. Nevertheless, the group pressed on.

As they neared the edge of the fog, Steven steeled himself for what awaited. A few meters away from it and he began to feel a little odd. With a little reluctance, Steven stepped into the fog. As soon as his head was engulfed in the mist, his world became quiet, as if the fog had also obscured his hearing. His thoughts drifted away from him, and Steven was calm. [i]Be at peace,[/i] The mist seemed to say. [i]There is happiness here…[/i] It said, coiling around him. Some part of his mind said that this was unnatural, that the world was not so serene. But his mind was elsewhere, and Steven was in the fog. Steven slowly lifted his hand up, cupping some fog in his palm. It mysteriously stayed in his hand, wavering slightly. [i]Stay here…[/i] The mist whisphered. [i]There is no sadness here…[/i] It said to Steven.
“If only I could collect happiness in my hand like this…” Steven said. “Maybe I wouldn’t be so troubled.”
He let go of the mist and it dissipated. Steven slowly came out of his trance and immediately walked into a tree. 

Steven rubbed his nose and looked around. The mist abundant, but not thick enough to obscure vision by too much. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the fog, and if Steven looked back, he could see the edge of it, where it gave way to the rest of the world.

Steven stooped down and took some crystals, as that was what they were here for. [i]What are these?[/i] Steven thought to himself. Putting them into his bag, Steven found himself pondering about them. Why did they need these? Why were they growing in the weird fog? Steven turned to ask the captain, but she was busy pulling another recruit away from going deeper into the mist. [i]Huh.[/i] Steven thought. Out of the corner of his mind, he had heard the captain say that it was more difficult to resist the mist if you were depressed, but he didn’t know that it actually applied to one of the recruits. Steven turned back to gathering crystals. The captain would have her hands full for a while.

The trainee paladins soon left the mist, bags full of crystals. Steven had some in his pockets because his bag was full. As soon as Steven stepped out of the mist, the thoughts that left him behind came back to him, causing him to pause mid-step. He soon got over the surprise, however, and felt normal once again. No fogged mind, no fogged vision. Steven stretched, and was glad to see the sun. He looked around at the other trainees, some who were still in shock over returning once more to their thoughts. [i]Well, they’ll be alright.[/i] Steven said.

The trainees had an hour to rest, and after that, they would be on their way. So Steven took the time to observe the reactions of his fellow trainees. The majority had gotten over their blissful experience, but some were still out of it. What was interesting was the fact that the reaction of the person who’d been impacted by the mist to the highest degree was bringing plenty of worry for her. Steven reasoned that it was surprising to see someone they’ve trained with for practically years collapse was shocking, but there was more to that. Back during training, Steven had often heard Alicia mentioned in the conversations of other trainees. Due to her high birth and fast progress, she was hailed as the strongest person in their group. She was the one who took command when the old captain was killed last night. Most of the trainees respected her for her family, but she showed skill to back it up. Steven was surprised to see that she had some kind of depression, but he wasn’t as shocked as all of the other had been. Steven hadn’t noticed it himself, but she seemed to be held in very high regard amongst the recruits. Similar to the statue of a hero, something eternal and something that would last forever. Steven could see why the trainees were shocked, and all that he could really think about was the fact that he wasn’t really shocked.

Everyone had weaknesses, Steven knew that. If it wasn’t too little of something, it was too much. In Alicia’s case, it was probably her defence. Her style was good for fighting multiple opponents at once, but it sometimes leaves her weak. Sometimes, it seemed to Steven that the stronger a technique was, the window of weakness would be larger after it. The same could be applied to Alicia’s mind. This was Steven’s assumption, but Alicia’s mental depression was likely due to the stress she endured to be a Luminous knight. There were too many expectations she had to meet, too much to do. If Steven had to hazard a guess, she must’ve spent all of her life training to be a paladin. Steven didn’t envy her life. The dagger training he went through as a child was hellish enough, but he went and combined it with bow training whenever he could. It hadn’t been that bad in the end, but Steven was surprised he could pull it off. It had made the paladin training much easier and all, but he couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of training it took to be able to use Alicia’s strange double sword style. It must’ve cut into her childhood. Whatever the case, it seemed that her life lacked happiness, and that brought her into danger in the mist.

Steven made a note to watch out for her in the future. She was frailer than she appeared. While she was intelligent, he had seen her dive into the crowd of bandits and become stranded in an island of enemies. Thankfully, she had friends to back her up, but if what Steven guessed her lifestyle to be like was correct, she had few friends anyway. On reflection, Steven should watch everyone. Most had weaknesses that weren’t apparent. In particular, he should watch anyone who pushed others away, because they were the ones who had no one to catch them when they fell. This may have been just Steve’s arrogance, but it was the closest thing to an aspiration Steven had.