The whole group had gotten together and they set off to complete their quest. Even though they could most likely match a group of the lowest of D-Tier Adventurers, they were officially E-Tier and had to choose from jobs and quests that E-Tiers were allowed to choose. Due to this, they had to choose jobs that weren't a challenge to them.
Like before, they had chosen a goblin extermination quest, however with four people they chose one with more goblins. This time a tiny tribe of goblins was robbing and blocking a very unused road, however people still crossed from time to time no matter how unused the road was.
The small branch of the Guild Bureau located in Verin received the quest themselves, however, they chose to delegate it to one of the guilds in the area for a couple of reasons. Even though the Bureau had ample resources to simply squash the tiny tribe of goblins, they wouldn't since they had more important things to do and something as insignificant as maybe 23 goblins wouldn't make them bat an eyelash.
So even though it was technically their obligation to do fulfill something that is under their responsibilities of protecting public spaces like roads, they would often delegate it to the local guild to give more jobs and quests for adventurers, and secondly, they found it beneath them to deal with them themselves.
Although it was good for adventurers, the attitude the Bureau had was something that normally would upset people. However, no matter what they thought, they would never say anything as the Bureau was something that was above even the king of Partha.
Leon didn't know exactly what the Bureau was, but he had heard from Erik that they were a mysterious association that established Guilds across the continent thousands of years ago and they originated from an extremely powerful individual whose combat power was said to have been at minimum S-Tier who wanted to establish an organization that was neutral and covered the continent.
Nowadays they enjoyed a status akin to a first-rate country, however, to them, Partha was barely qualified to have a Bureau branch within their country. In their eyes, they had a small branch in the capital of Pelv and from there they established subsidiaries that acted as branches for the small branch in Pelv to handle the guilds from around the country. However to even the King of Partha, that "small branch" was actually a grand building that connected Partha to a potential superpower.
In reality, no matter how much Partha could ever try, the Guild Bureau was established to maintain order to the previous mess that was the adventurers across different countries and also protects the continent from any harm that would cause calamity.
Therefore they stayed completely neutral and unbiased, they never even interfered in politics unless something threatened the entire continent. Even a large country like the Yuan Empire didn't try to belittle or insult the large branch the Guild Bureau had in their country.
The road the group had to clear out was only a few hour's walk from Verin and was near Partha's border with the Akkad Dynasty. They reached the supposed road in two hours.
Leon was at the front of the group and squinted at the lush forests that covered both sides of the road.
"Tomoe can you sense anything?"
Tomoe used all the senses she had and stopped walking to plant both her feet on the ground and wrinkled her nose to smell the surroundings.
With a voice of elegance, she reported her findings.
"There is barely any traces left of the goblins, however, I could barely sense something on the road in front of us. It seems the goblins have a small force waiting to ambush anyone in front of us."
Leon went down to a whisper.
"Do you know the exact number?"
Tomoe gave a nod and Leon came up with a game plan.
"Alright here's what we are going to do…."
After the group got the plan down due to Leon's leadership, they set off to enact it.
Tecia sat waiting in a bush as she was not built for stealth and the other three slowly made their way off the road and onto one side of the forest. From there they all stealthy moved forward as Tomoe took out a spare knife instead of her using her long spears that might brush against the greenery around and Arwin did the same with his bow.
They each found a goblin who wasn't that vigilant of their surroundings as they had gotten bored of waiting for someone to come down the road.
Leon sneaked up to one of them and suddenly put his hand on the goblins face to prevent it from making any sound and expertly cut its throat with Ensis. Its green blood sprayed everywhere onto the leaves and was a darker shade of green than the tree and leaves around it.
The goblin tried to struggle but goblins were usually small enough that Leon's hand essentially covered the goblin's whole face as Leon's hands were slightly bigger than the average person. Its movements slowly came to a halt as the life seeped away through the giant slash in its neck and it eventually stopped moving and came to a dead standstill.
Leon looked over to his left and saw that Arwin and Tomoe had done something similar and their goblins also had stopped moving. They each did this two more times as they killed all the goblins on their side of the forest, however before they could try to maneuver themselves to the other side to do the same.
A shrill of a goblin came in the far distance and the other eight goblins on the other side woke up from their lazy lookout and immediately took their weapons and hurried towards the scream. After a minute, the three finally felt comfortable to speak as the goblins had left by this point.
Tecia came over by then and looked confused, she saw the corpses of the goblins but saw that the other goblins on the other side of the road had left.
"What exactly happened?"
Leon also looked confused.
"I'm not exactly sure."