The Buer Mystical Forest, known as one of the death traps that many adventurers fear. Currently, Lane, some guards, and few of his acquaintances were in that forest. Their job was to escort Lane to a location located on the edge of the forest.
Except for Lane, most of his friends were wearing clothes and armor according to their class. Most of the mages were wearing some kind of witch clothing, the archers were wearing a hood like an assassin, while the swordsman and lancer were wearing heavy-duty plate armor.
The guards were wearing plate armor, but it didn't have any magical effect that would boost one's stats. The armor that the heroes wore would boost their stat by a margin that made their already superhuman strength stronger.
"Halt," one of the guards said. In front of them was a monster. A skeleton, one of the undead monsters that were categorized as a demon. They're fairly weak, but could be deadly since they always attacked in a swarm.
The group waited for the skeleton to walk pass them, but, Kelly disobeyed that order and attacked that skeleton with his sword. The skeleton immediately broke apart by the force of Kelly's huge sword.
"Skeleton army!" One of the guards shouted and pointed his hand in one direction. Hundreds of skeleton suddenly appeared from a direction.
The mages readied their spell and the archers pulled their bow and aimed it at the skeleton army. "Fire!" Someone gave a commando and the ranged unit started firing their weapon at the skeletons.
Fireballs, iceballs, and arrows were fired at the direction of those skeletons. Explosions were made from those balls spell. The iceball did the damage by exploding into multiple fragments while the fireball exploded into a spark of flames.
The skeletons were approaching closer and closer to the ranged unit. After that, the melee unit started charging at the direction of the skeleton army. The lancer swung their Lance at the skeleton and managed to kill six of them at once due to their superhuman speed.
"Six down, three hundred to go," Kelly said and he charged to those skeletons and swung his swords menacingly. The big sword killed the skeletons in one hit. It was very powerful.
The Lancers started attacking with their lance and pierced two skeletons at once. The skeletons immediately dropped dead on the ground and more of them were coming.
"Hold them off. We got this!" Kelly said as he charged to the skeletons mindlessly.
"Aye," Julia threw a fireball spell to clear the way for Kelly. The skeletons were thrown off the ground and fell to the nearby trees.
"Wow," Lane just looked at the other heroes in amazement with the guards. All of them were amazed by their feat against the skeleton.
Kelly walked to the skeleton while waving his sword around, "this is too easy," Kelly swung his sword and it hit two skeletons at once.
It didn't take them long until the number of skeletons had gone down. The heroes took care of it very easily. Kelly and the other melee weapon users returned to the main group where Lane and the other guards were waiting.
"Lane, you weaklings, let's go. Don't bother us for too long," Kelly said.
'what was the meaning of those words? Don't bother us,' Lane thought of that meaning. Nevertheless, they continued walking deeper into the forest.
The forest wasn't your ordinary forest with only trees, leaves, and animals. There were also magical trees that were colored in rainbow, and some mystical creatures. Some of them were hostiles, some of them weren't, but most of them were hostiles.
"Commander, how long will it take for us to reach the place?" Kelly asked one of the guards which were his commander.
"It won't take long. We'll arrive soon, don't worry," the commander said as the heroes entered the forest deeper.
The forest was densely populated with trees and other smaller vegetations like bushes or sapling. The plants were very weird, some of them were very demonized. Luckily, the heroes brought their own food since the delicacy of the castle couldn't be found in other places.
Different from the others, Lane was only given a piece of bread for his lunch and that was it. He didn't have any other food besides that bread. The heroes had delicacy like bread, meat, and even cakes. Lane was jealous, but when he asked for some of that food, they refused to share since it was their part. From the looks of it, it was reserved for them and only them.
Lane salivated over that food, when he tried to steal it, all he had was a punch in the face which was very expected. In the end, Lane only got the piece of bread that was given for him in the beginning.
Lane sighed, 'only this? What kind of discrimination is this? This is just ridiculous.'
After some hours of walking, the finally arrived at the location that the king gave according to the document. It was located in a border between the deeper part of the forest and the edge of the forest.
"Heroes, we're on the position. You guys know what to do right?" One of the guards said as he pointed in the direction of a tree that was marked by an X. Someone must have been there, but who?
The heroes started gathering near the marked tree. There were multiple marked trees in that location. The heroes started following those marked trees and Lane followed them from behind.
It didn't take the heroes too long for them to find their main goal. It was a hole with a tombstone in the middle of the forest. Lane got a feeling that the grave wasn't the place where he would get his power.
"Sir, are you sure this is the place where I can get my status?" Lane approached that hole and stood right beside that hole.
"It's a grave son," the guard said and Kelly walked closer to Lane.
"Always has been," Lane felt pressure from his back. The pressure was very sharp and continued to the front of his stomach. He looked down and noticed that a sword pierced his body.