[center][h2]Sonia Rainmaker[/h2][/center] [hr] "Hyaaaa!" Sonia swung her staff at full force towards the overgrown lizard in front of her, resulting in a somewhat comical scene of the dragon being thrown off its feet, crashing to the rock wall a distance away. After that, it stopped moving, signifying that it had fell to the duo. "Oh man, you're good! Really good, in fact!" Anastasia said as she walked towards her from behind. "I didn't know you're already this strong! You don't need me to be your bodyguard! Hell, I'm actually now afraid that you're stronger than me!" "Oh, don't say that," Sonia replied with a light blush, "I still have much to learn from a veteran adventurer like you." "Suuure you do, Miss 'I just hit a dragon in the face with a stick and sent it flying'" "I could only do that because you've weakened it first." After their little banter, Sonia approached the carcass of the now dead dragon and began her harvesting process. Normally, you would need at least twenty strong men to carry such a big spoil. However... "Now do your job, my Secret Bag!" She untied the small pouch she had been carrying on her waist. Without any hesitation whatsoever, she threw it towards the corpse of the dragon. However, instead of the bag just hitting the corpse nonchalantly before falling to the ground, it instead stopped mid-air, before opening itself wide towards the dragon. After that, something more miraculous happened. It began sucking the dragon's corpse into itself. And it didn't just suck normally like a black hole would. It first took off the dragon's scales. Then, it took in its meat. After that, its organs and bones. After it finished, it flew back towards Sonia's hand. Smiling, she tied it back to where it belonged. This was her trump card as an alchemist. Not only it allowed her to gather nearly infinite amount of materials, it also allowed her to bring all her alchemy items with her into combat without worrying on how to carry them. And she could bring out any items she desired by just simply thinking about it. "It's done! Let's continue!" she said to Anastasia with a smile. "You know, I'm always amazed by that bag, no matter how many times I see it." [hr] The two had been traversing the mountain to the southeast of the capital for hours now. On their way, they met surprisingly strong monsters, the kind that ordinary adventurers wouldn't be able to take care on their own. That was why this region deep into the mountains was still not scouted properly until now. The two soon had their lunch inside a cave they found. They sat right on its entrance, just so they could still have sunlight. Midway through their meal however, Anastasia smelled something that shouldn't be there. "Hey, you smell that? It smells like smoke. Something's burning around here," she said to her as she rose up from the ground. "Hmm? Oh, you're right. I wonder what this could be," Sonia replied, rising up also. "The scent seems to come deeper from the cave actually," Anastasia continued, turning back to look inside the pitch black cave. "So... someone is living down here?" Sonia replied, looking at the inside of the cave as well. "Let's go check." She took out a yellow gem from her secret bag. And then, she threw it to the ground, creating a bright ball of light that quickly illuminated the dark caverns. "Miniature Sun. Useful for dungeon exploring," she explained cheerfully. The two then traversed the cave with the sun's light guiding them. Surprisingly, nothing popped out, except some bats who were woken up by the searing light that suddenly assaulted them. "Wait, are those... Sonia, turn off the sun, right now!" Anastasia suddenly uttered. Sonia obeyed, ending the sun by hitting it with her staff, shattering it into pieces. And sure enough, she then saw what Anastasia saw. "Torches! So someone did live here!" The two quickly ran towards the light. And soon enough, they found themselves in a large opening, populated by many torches put on the walls. "There are people here!" Sonia shouted. Sure enough, there were people there. They looked all haggard and tired, wearing strange clothes that she was unfamiliar with. "H-h-h-human!" "It's a human!" "E-everyone, rescue has come!" Without warning, the people there quickly ran towards the two. Anastasia however, wouldn't have any of that, as she quickly drew her gun, aiming them at the crowd, quickly making them to stop in their tracks. "W-wait, we're not your enemy!" "P-please don't shoot!" After looking at the expressions of the crowd, Anastasia let her gun down. They seemed indeed harmless. Desperate even. Eventually, everything settled down. One of them explained their circumstances to the two. It turned out that they were also brought to this world one month ago. However, it seemed they came from a different world. "This one month... we could barely survive from the plants and berries we snatched from the outside. We couldn't... didn't dare to go far as those beasts... monsters... crawled all over this place... when we came here, we lost a lot of people to them... and some more when we made a mistake and got spotted by them when we sneaked outside..." Sonia's expression immediately changed to that of sympathy. She could perfectly understand how it would feel for them with no combat ability whatsoever. The monsters outside were the strong kind too. "Do not worry! We will get you all out of here! Our kingdom had been transported to this world at all and you would be safe there!" Sonia announced to all of them. "R-really?" "H-hooray, w-we're saved! We're saved!" And so they headed back to the capital, with the refugees in tow. There were around a hundred of them. After Sonia talked to some of them, it seemed most of them were brought here separately as they went on with their daily lives. They came from a nation called Japan. And they seemed to be wholly unfamiliar with alchemy, thinking of it as just a myth or a fairy tale. When Sonia gave some medicines to the weak and sick of the group, they instead thought of her as a doctor. "Here, I'll prove to you all that I'm really an alchemist!" Sonia said after she became more and more annoyed with their disbelief. She created the miniature sun once again, earning the awe of the refugees. Now most of them believed her, with only a little still in denial as their minds refused that they had been dropped in a fantastical land much different from the world they came from. At their journey back home, the group was attacked by some monsters. But it was nothing that Sonia and Anastasia couldn't handle. They took care of them with ease, earning more awe from the refugees. Most of them was surprised at how strong Sonia was, with her staff hits being able to kill the beasts easily. On the outside, she looked just like an ordinary girl, with no muscle in her. They arrived back in the capital safely. The refugees were told to wait in front of the gates however, as Sonia and Anastasia reported to the king first. Of course, Anastasia ordered to the guards to give them some food and drink as they waited. And even though she didn't have the authority, the guards obeyed her, simply due to her strong and charismatic personality.