'What the!? Why is she crying? and the two guys in the back are looking at me with those puppy eyes!' Ian did not hear what the girl said as he was startled.
The girl immediately dropped to her knees to beg for help and the boys in the back took off their hoods to look at Ian with puppy eyes.
the first guy had ruffled brown hair and black eyes. He had a pretty boy look to him. He looked at Ian with pleading eyes as he went on his knees next to the girl.
The second guy had straight black hair flowing down towards both sides of his head with a split in the middle. The guy did the same thing and went on his knees next to the girl.
It took Ian a second to actually talk to them properly. Ian took a deep breath and started talking.
"Okay, first of all what was it again that you needed help with?"
"We need you to save our friend!" the girl said
"Yeah please help us!" the boys said in unison.
"Okay hold on, first you guys introduce yourselves."
"Okay I will go first, My name is Elizabeth Storm" The Silver haired girl said
"My name is Kyle Gold" The brown hair boy said
"My names Tio Lou" The black hair boy said.
"Okay, My names Ian. Now lets go inside the Inn so you can tell me what happened to your friend."
Ian and the other three follow him inside. They sat at a round table in front of the receptionist desk and the three start talking about their friend.
Elizabeth started out by saying that the four of them were inseparable since childhood and had always hanged out with each other. Their other friend's name was Jenny Horton. She had straight blonde hair down to her shoulder blades and blue eyes. They all decided that they will form a party to earn money in the Adventurers Guild.
They did this because they knew that the town they grew up in was poor. So they all promised that they will renew the village as they set off to Holgun. Everything was going well for them as they were completing enough F rank quests that they would eventually go to E rank. But during an F rank quest they encountered goblins. There were only four so the four of them could've easily slain them.
And they did exactly that but as soon as that happened they heard a ghastly growl behind them.
When they turned around they saw a pack of Red Wolves. They are high-basic tier beasts, borderline low-intermediate. What made them scarier is that they came in packs of 16 at least.
The four turned away and ran towards Holgun not looking back, they arrived at the entrance only to see that only the three of them have returned.
As the three recall their mistakes they all start to tear up.
Ian felt bad for them as they looked to be the same age as him, probably around 17.
Ian was worn out after the fight with the War Bear and he did not know if he could take on a pack of 16 red wolves or more.
But then Ian soon realized that this was the perfect opportunity to get stronger. He thought long and hard about this as he did not want to die as soon as he came to this world.
"Alright fine I will help you guys out, but as soon as the situation gets out of hand I'm running. Then it is up to you guys to try and outrun them." Ian finally replied
Tio, Elizabeth, and Kyle all jumped up and grabbed his hands.
"Thank you so much Ian! As long as you can help us find our friend we would take any help!" The three said as they sighed a breath of relief.
Ian adjusted his War Bear Robe and the four of them decided to set off now.
Ian greeted the knights outside the entrance again and instead turned right and walked down that path.
That is because Elizabeth and her friends went exploring in a dense forest filled with low to high ranking monsters.
Its called the Hidden Forest. That is because the fog in the forest is thick enough to hide something that could be potentially dangerous to anyone who goes inside.
It is not extremely dangerous as there is already a man made road in it. Also the mist blinds the monsters allowing them to not see anyone crossing through the streets. But this did not stop monsters from appearing so it was still a little dangerous.
The Skull Forest was north of Holgun so the Hidden Forest was east of Holgun.
They walk on the path and continue on for what seemed to be about 20 minutes.
Ian and the group then smelt something rotten, they both ran past the shrubbery to their left and saw the dead goblins the group killed.
Now that they established where they were Ian could now use clues to find out where Jenny went.
"Hey guys! I spotted some footprints, they are most likely Jenny's"
Ian and the other's came over glad to have found a clue. They all started following the footprints until it stopped right at the entrance of a cave.
Elizabeth gulped in nervousness, and so did Tio and Kyle.
As they were hesitating whether to go in or not Ian stepped forward without hesitation and continued walking in
"Hey, you guys coming with me or not?"
They all snapped out of their daze and hesitantly followed Ian into the cave.
Water dripped from the ceiling and a putrid smell was coming out from deeper in.
As it got darker and darker Ian focused mana on his finger to emit a shining blue light.
This was not a spell, as long as you can efficiently use Mana and had a good enough Mana pool you can do most things but most people just stuck to skills as they required far less Mana. It was almost impossible to master as conjuring mana as a physical form outside of your body requires a lot of skill.
When Ian casted it they all saw the group of Red wolves, around 20 of them, cornering Jenny against the dead end of the cave.
She was breathing heavily with scratch marks all over her body.
"Jenny!" Elizabeth shouted
She was aggravated by the sight of her injured friend and rushed in.
She grabbed the rapier by her hilt and pulled it out to stab one of the Red Wolves.
But it easily dodged it and lunged at Elizabeth ready to dig its Jaws into her neck.
"[Dark Chain]"
Black chains rose up from the ground stopping the wolf mid lunge and restraining it.