- SEABED TOWN -
The Bouncing Clam's owner sent word to the nobleman assigned to the town of Seabed of Hielgan's acceptance of the job. In the letter, it was stated that a member of the Bouncing Clam would be going to Seabed to deal with the town's pest problem.
When Hielgan arrived in Seabed, he wondered if the innkeeper had told the mayor that he would require assistance with food and accommodation. Hielgan jiggled his droopy coin purse and frowned at it as it made little sound.
After passing through various food stalls, and having been abashed with the scents of the day's delicacies. Hielgan heard his belly groan together with the cart's creaky wheels as it came to a stop.
A maid followed by a guard from the nobleman's home awaited Hielgan's arrival in town, and when he jumped out of the cart, the maid approached Hielgan and inquired about his name.
"You must be the Adventurer sent by Hersey right?"
"Hersey?"
Hielgan sounded perplexed, during his time at the Bouncing Clam he had not asked the old man about his name. However, seeing that he was the only adventurer on the transport cart, he immediately nodded his approval.
"Yes I am," Hielgan replied with a smile. "I heard you had a problem with Gascals."
"Gascals?" The maid sounded stunned. "Oh my, we dealt with them a while ago, our recent request involves Suspines."
"Su... Suspine?"
"This way I will explain on our way."
Hielgan followed the maid as she explained how another group of three adventurers had come to complete the former request involving ghascals, the group was not particularly affiliated with any adventurers guild, but they managed to take care of the ghascals with ease.
Unfortunately, the nobleman was out of town for a meeting and could not meet Hielgan on the same day, but that night Hielgan was shown a room in the nobleman's large barn that he could use till he got rid of the suspine.
The morning came quickly, Hielgan woke before the first light and proceeded to the fields outside the barn. After surveying the field for a few minutes Hielgan could see several areas where the suspine had damaged the fence and made their way into the fields to graze on the nobleman's crops.
"Tracks leading to the orchard."
Hielgan saw several hoof prints of the suspine that led to and from the field and the orchard, the suspine would break into the field in the afternoon, soon after the farmers had finished looking after the crops.
The suspine seemed to have adapted this pattern and caused a lot of problems for the nobleman.
"Hielgan sir!"
It was the maid from yesterday calling out to him, she quickly made her way to him and nearly fell when she tripped on some tangled shrubs. Unfazed by this she finally came to Hielgan, he noted she must have been used to walking in the fields and dragging her legs through the thousands of weeds that invaded it.
"You were looking for me?"
"Yes, I must warn you that the orchard leads to a forest north of here." The maid huffed. "The forest has dangerous beasts which sometimes roam around here."
"Yes, I know it well."
"You do?"
"Don't worry about me."
Hielgan's gaze returned to the tracks on the ground then he proceeded to follow them into the orchard, the tracking skills he had learned from his father were proving to be useful as always. Hielgan trailed the suspine's tracks through the orchard, from the way it appeared it seemed that the orchard had been abandoned for quite some time.
Weeds had wrapped themselves around the trees and grown up to the branches and formed a false canopy above the trees.
"[Detect Shadow]"
With a menacing glow, Hielgan's eyes glowed with a light blue, and through those eyes, he saw shadows of the suspines as they had passed through the orchards leaving after feasting on the crops in the fields.
The suspine were large mammals with the constitution of a boar, they have a pair of tusks that protrude from their lower jaw and curve outwardly over their snouts. The suspine also use these tusks to combat predators and other males of their species for mates and territory.
"Alright, that's them alright."
Hielgan readied his mind, from his ability he had seen a few large suspine, but most of them were young, this was most likely a newly formed sounder. The slaughter would be trivial, but the fact that he would be cutting down innocent creatures that had wandered in the wrong mortal's field.
"What would the Princess say?"
Hielgan recalled the recent visit the Princess had paid him, his mind wondered what would have happened if they had been found at that late hour. A vision of guillotines and executioners floated in Hielgan's mind and forced him to return to reality, he shuddered at the possibility of an executioner looming over him and cutting the rope of the guillotine over his head.
"Ooh~" Hielgan shuddered once more.
Suddenly Hielgan heard a loud squealing noise deeper in the orchard, he could tell it was coming from the area close to the forest. He tugged the greatsword on his back which came undone, then he rushed towards the sound.
The piercing cries continued as he made his way towards the suspine, shadows dashed through the forest as Hielgan came upon a puddle of blood.
"There is no suspine..." Hielgan bent down and touched the muddied blood. "What could have done this?"
Hielgan noticed the scattered hoofprints that showed that the suspine were in a hurry to leave the area, something was hunting them and one of the suspine was unable to make it out of the struggle.
'A trail of blood, it must be the creatures doing.'
Following the trail of blood Hielgan made his way through the orchard and before long he found himself by a large tree, he could not tell what fruit this tree bore nor could he describe it in the low light. However, Hielgan could tell from that particular distance that there was something lurking within that area, and since there were no friends in the forest everything that Hielgan's [Presence Reminder] allowed him to sense was a threat.