While walking to the South Gate of Prusha, I explained to Kale what I heard inside of the bounty hall. The kid going missing. Kale's eyes lit up when I explained and grabbed my shoulder.
"It's good of you to tell that to me, I'll have the guards at the entrance keep an eye on a lonely kid if they ever come by. If we're lucky, we might find him in the forest. Even more lucky if the kid isn't torn apart…" Kale brushed some snow off his cloak as he said that, the sound of snow being crushed under our feet filled that quiet hesitation he made.
"Did they describe the kid?"
"No, but one of the adventurers said he was deep inside the forest."
"Ah…we should be fine." We watched as Lilith jumped around in the snow, grabbing snow as she did. Kale patted my head as he looked down at me.
"She must be excited, doing something other than training. It's a good break for her." He said that in such a sweet tone, like a dad. "Reminds me of Gerald…" Then his face twisted into a frown. "Maybe too much of Gerald, but at least she's not being too lazy."
"I thought My dad was your favorite student?"
"He is, but we used to butt heads. Kind of like…brothers." Kale sighed as he shook his head. "Or maybe like Dad with his son, I don't know. I'm not good at describing that stuff." He trailed off before pushing forward through the snow, The South Gate in our view now. "Come on…"
Sort of odd seeing kale be more frank, he usually starts acting this way when we bring up family of some sort. I never really pried on it, neither did Lilith. But something gave me the vibe that he was missing something.
Upon passing the South gate, Kale poked one of the guards. The man was covered in snow, all that metal on him must've been fucking cold as once he turned around, I could hear his chattering of his teeth as he tried to speak.
"Y-y-yes?"
"Yo, Not looking too good?" Kale swiped some of the snow off the man, and patted his armor. "You got no…insulation in this?"
"N-no. I-I Forgot…N-now what do you w-want?" The man tried to sound confident, but the chattering and shaking didn't make it any better.
"A kid, there's a kid in the forest as of right now. If you see them, let me know." Kale brushed the mana armor even more. "Also keep yourself warm, put some fur on or something, you'll die out here."
"I-I love and die for the K-king…" the man pledged, which made kale sigh with annoyance.
"Yeah, yeah…don't push yourself with that. Just keep an eye out for a kid." Kale moved away from the guard, pushing ahead and taking a right turn. "Kids! Forest is this way, unless you need something from…the camp here." He pointed at the camp where me and Lilith were before we entered Prusha. Still active as usual, the noises of adventurers were less noisy, but noticeable. The snow covered the tents and trees above the camp. I haven't seen this camp in awhile, so I might as well see what's up with it.
I remember getting some gloves here from a merchant, I had those gloves on right now. I rarely used them ever since I got them, but now that it is winter here, I felt it was the right time to use them properly. I never really figured out what they did, but I'm assuming they were for defense or maybe for a better grip for the staff. I mean, these gloves were taken off a dead person's body.
"We'll check the camp, maybe there might be something useful?" I answered kale. He nodded and pointed at a tree.
"Well don't take too long, I'll be under that tree, observing the camp from there."
"Observing?"
"Being part of King Lucian's force means I gotta do some work. Observing and giving reports is one of them. Along with solving things inside the city. I feel like you should've noticed that when living with me?" Kale gave me a quizzical look before leaving to the tree.
Now I'll be honest, I still didn't know why the bell Kale did for king Lucian. It seemed like he was just a person the king would ask to do his bidding. I'd say he was a part of the police force, some of the guards recognized him. But unlike the guards at the gates, they didn't really seem familiar with him. This kingdom's security is twisted and confusing to me. It's like there's branches that seem connected, but aren't. Like two securities that don't communicate with each other.
Shaking my head from that wild thought, I looked at Lilith and nodded at her. "Let's check out the camp, Lilith."
Lilith nodded and buckled her Short Sword tighter around her waist. That black sword of hers was really something.
Following behind me, I walked into the camp and looked around. There were two shops open in the surrounding tents nearby, most of the tents were either closed or partially open. A couple of adventurers were sitting around a fire, a reptile looking man looked at us as we moved aside him.
"SssGreetings." He hissed. He was different from that other reptile man we met before in this camp. From what I remember, the other reptile man had almost an Australian accent? But it wasn't quite right. This reptile man…well he just gave off a typical reptile vibe. His tongue slithering out every now and then as we looked at him.
"Ssssomething wrong? Never sseen a eldesche before?" The reptile man gave us a curious look, his big yellow eyes swapping between me and Lilith. An Eldesche was the name of the reptilian race in this world, thank god I remembered that from the book I read.
"N-no no! I've seen your kind before, I was looking for a merchant-" I began.
"My kind?" The reptile man interrupted me, squinted his eyes.
Aw shit, did I really say something like that? Did I really say that?
There was a small silence before the Eldesche broke into a laughter, the other adventurers laughed as well as they had been watching us.
"Ssssnot to worry about kid. We get that a lot. Jussi messsing with you."
Oh thank god.
"Oh ay? What's da commotions out here? Ferra!" Another reptilian man came out of one of the open tents, looking in our direction. He seemed familiar to me.
His green scales and Australian accent made me recognize him. The reptilian Merchant
"Hey, aren't you the one who sold me these?" I pointed at the Reptilian merchant. He squinted at me for a moment before scratching his head.
"Ay, maybe I did. What's it to ya?"
"I'm going out on a quest, and I'd like to look at your store." I rummaged through my pocket and held out a bag of rubees. "I have rubees this time."
The reptilian's eyes lit up as soon as he saw the bag, rubbing his hands together. "Mate, I recognize you now! Come on in! All the merchandise is inside, snows fuckin them up!"
Lilith got beside me and folded her arms, giving me a look. "What are you getting from him?"
Learning from the alchemy class I'm attending in the university, which to be fair, I didn't really listen at all in it except for a couple of major points in it. There are potions in This world. Not as strong as typical magic, but enough for a group that doesn't have one to get through a quest. They're usually made from a specific plant that has a massive amount of mana in them. They are imported from Ithryll and sometimes from small villages around Anos. Healing from these is dependent on how potent it is.
"Getting potions, maybe some food for when we're out there." I answered back to Lilith. Lilith smiled at the word food.
Walking into the reptilian's tent, I saw a table inside and an arrangement of gear and items around the tent, some of the stuff in here clambered onto each other or stacked on each other.
"Oy mate, what're you buying then? Got some potions, enchanted weapons. All them classy things for you adventurers!" Proudly, the reptilian man held out a sword, glinting a pearly white. The handle of it shimmering a rainbow-esque color. "Got this one right ere from a dead dude in a dungeon!"
"No,No. just here for some potions. I think we're capable in terms of weapons." I quickly dismissed the weapon offering, but Lilith looked tempted with it. Giving the sword a interesting look.
"It's enchanted though! Not sure what it does though…" the reptilian man laid it down on the table and grabbed three bottles with reddish liquids inside it. "Here's ya potions, fifty rubees each."
Fifty?! Well Jesus Christ. That's like more than half of my rubees right now if I bought all three.
I've been holding onto these rubees ever since I left Shanford.
Reluctantly, I pulled out the rubees and passed it onto the reptilian man. "I want all Three."
"Haha, Glad to have ya service. Mate!" He rummaged through the rubees and handed back what was change before sliding the three potions to me.
They were in circular bottles, a cork on top with a string tied to it. They were somewhat small, easily capable of holding it in my hand in whole. Such a small amount for healing, don't you think?
"Ay, girl! Interested in anything? Been staring at me merchandise." The reptilian man was talking to Lilith, she was looking at a sword when he spoke.
"Nope, just admiring the weapons!" Lilith gave a smile when she said that, somehow her saying that gave me a dangerous vibe. Her fondness is violence must be from her dragon side, or she really just wants to kill goblins.
"Ah, I see…"The reptilian man leaned next to me, whispering. "How much for the girl? Two thousand? She's got the mind of a killer, I can see it in her smile."
"No." I responded aggressively. "She's not for sale."
"Heh, figured. Now get out, mate." He waved us out, there was a slight irritated undertone to his voice when he said that.
Grabbing the bottles, I nodded at Lilith and headed out of the tent. I heard a clanging noise when I stepped outside and the reptilian's voice ringing from it.
"Oy, Mate! The fuck!" I watched as Lilith frantically ran out, the reptilian running out as well. Seeing behind him, I saw that some gear was toppled over. Lilith must've accidentally pushed them. Or maybe not.
Lilith scurried behind me, sticking her tongue out at him. She gripped my shoulder and it was a really tight grip. What the hell was she thinking I'd do in this situation?
Well, actually I did have one idea. A very intelligent one. One that would quite frankly…scared even me due to its genius.
Grabbing Lilith, I bolted back to kale. Running past the adventurers at the fire, who gave me and Lilith a weird look as we ran past them. I still felt Liliths grip on my shoulder as we quickly found ourselves outside of the camp.
Look, I didn't wanna make a fuss over something in the camp. That was the last thing we needed, to get caught in some trouble outside of the kingdom's wall. And I'm sure Lilith would've enjoyed it, but not me. I'm even sure Kale would've thought it was a stupid idea to fight in the camp.
Speaking of kale, we saw him leaning on one of the trees. He was cleaning his swords with a cloth before noticing us. When he gave a wave, we headed towards him frantically.
"Hey…what's with the rush?" He squinted his eyes at us. He holstered his swords back to his sides as we approached him.
"Nothing! Alright, let's go kill some goblins! Not like Lilith did something bad, Come on let's go!" I pushed kale off the tree. Kale seemed confused but looked back at the camp for a moment before just nodding.
"Alright, alright. Hold your pants! No need to push!" He pushed me off him as he sighed. "What'd you get?" He looked as I held out some potion bottles. "Potions, huh? Well I guess those would come in handy, though I doubt any of us will get hurt from goblins." He pointed behind him, there was a cleared road that led down further. "We're heading down that way, and then turning into the forest. Once inside, we'll hike a bit until we hit a goblin nest. Easy fight, easy money. Ready?"
"Ready!" Lilith saluted kale when she said that. Her excited looks seemed to have made kale worried. He folded his arms.
"You need to relax, Lilith. We're not here killing for fun…or whatever you are thinking this'll be. It's a lesson for you guys and a way for us to get rubees." He lectured her.
That seemed to kill some of her vibes as she sulked, lowering her head. Poor Lilith. But kale was right, me and her don't have any experience with goblins or Bounties. This is also a good experience for us to see if we are capable of even doing this stuff.
"Kota, are you ready? You think you can handle being out there?" Kale looked at me now. He must be worried since I didn't have any sort of training besides that one time I fought another mage. But I was pretty confident that if I stayed behind and stayed mid range or long range, I'd be fine. So I gave him a nod which prompted him to nod and take off on the road.
"Alright, let's head to the forest!" I followed in suit as Lilith trailed behind us.
****
It was about an hour of walking, before we finally headed into this forest. Much of the snow was somewhat deep for me and Lilith on the way there, but as soon as we entered the forest, it was much shallow and only up to our shoes now.
Lilith finally got over her sulky mood and was prancing in the snow, Kale advised her to not do that but he gave up and let her do her own thing.
I stayed behind kale and just examined the woods we were in. The trees here were very large, the branches and height of them were significantly larger than any of the trees in Prusha or in GreyHill woods. They didn't block out the sun completely, but it did conceal it well. Other than the trees, there were animals here too. Some of them I recognize. There were birds and rabbits that lived here, things that I saw in Shanford when it was winter there.
What was new to me was a deer…or what I think was this world's deer. Walking with kale, I saw it. It was eating a piece of vegetation along one of the trees before spotting us. It had the looks of a deer, but much more muscular and glittering with mana. I suppose mana would also affect animals, but I've never seen it until now. When it did notice us, it scurried off, leaving a trail of mana behind it.
"Those are kiesse. Good meat. but with the amount of mana In them, it gives us mana poisoning." Kale explained.
"Mana poisoning? That's possible?" That's the first time I heard that.
"Taking mana from another species means taking in mana that was filtered differently. The way animals process mana is different compared to ours. That's why most of the meat in Prusha is filtered first before being marketed." Kale continues explaining. "I learned that while hunting as a young kid."
"Really? That's nice. Maybe you co-."
A snowball smacked my face before I could reply back. Wiping it off, I looked to see who did it.
Spotting her hat that she was wearing sticking out behind a tree, I raised my staff and imagined a snowball. I saw the snow beneath me collect in front of my staff as I launched it at Lilith. I missed her as she moved from the tree, she was quick.
"Haha! Got you!" She happily chirped, she started to sway her hips in a way to tease me. "You missed!"
Oh? She doesn't want me to miss? She thinks my aim is ass? I'm going to throw a fucking gigantic ball of snow at her and see how she reacts.
Kale watched in amusement as Lilith kept doing her irritating dance. I was collecting more snow as I imagined a bigger snowball. Once I made a bigger one, I launched it as quickly as I could at her.
Lilith had her eyes closed so she couldn't see the larger snowball splat right into her chest, sending her flying.
Kale laughed at that one, we watched as she too was laughing, getting back up from her tumble before she immediately stopped and looked around.
"Kale?" She said in an uneasy tone. She tensed up as she looked ahead at something?
Kale gave a confused 'Hm?' Before immediately getting serious. He waved at Lilith, as she soon wan behind one of the trees and crouched behind it.
I didn't notice what was going on, but Kale swooped down and forced me to duck, crouch running behind a tree before looking past it.
Kale surveyed what was up before pointing at what Lilith was nervous about.
Goblins. Three to be exact. They were short, like a typical goblin you'd see in a RPG. But these guys were scrawny and thin, yet two of them had clubs that they easily held with one hand. They must've heard us laughing out here and investigated. They moved closer to where we were before, the Goblin in the front signaling the other two to stop. It pointed at our tracks and eyed them.
"That's a goblin scout. Lot smarter than usual goblins like the one behind him." Kale whispered. He swiftly pulled his left sword out, pressing the bottom of it to make it glow with mana. He's going to paralyze them?
"Gurk Glurrk! Eree!" The goblin scout shouted, somehow hearing that almost made me laugh. This wasn't really a good time to laugh, but the way it said it made it sound very comedic.
"Kota, trying using your magic on them." Kale looked at me as he said that. "Let's see what you can do."
Ah yes, my time to shine! My magic training has come to fruition! Still crouching, I planted my staff on the floor and wondered what spell I should use.
Perhaps quicksand? It'll be easier to take the three out if I just trapped them. Plus the last time I used it, Derrick was stuck in it pretty well, so there's no way these goblins could wiggle their way out of it.
I looked at kale and nodded to show that I was ready, kale nodded and looked at Lilith, who was eyeing both of us. Kale and Lilith seemed to have had the same idea as both readied their swords. I was casting my quicksand. None of the goblins noticed us still, they were still examining the footprints and clumsily walking through the snow.
As soon as I casted the spell, I saw the floor underneath the goblins sink, the ground gave off a liquid look as it clung to the goblins feet. They quickly realized what was happening and tried to free themselves, but to no avail.
"Now! Lilith!" Kale yelled, he scurried out behind the tree and speeded towards the goblins. Lilith in tow behind him, Swinging her black short sword beside her as she flew at lightning speed.
The goblins had no time to react as Kale slashed the goblin scout over his chest, causing the goblin to spasm and collapse on the snowy ground. The paralysis from his sword worked.
"Kill these other two!" Kale instructed Lilith, who was already making plans of that as she cleanly sliced right through one's neck, its head twisting in the air as Lilith proceeded to thrust into the last goblin. The force of her thrust pushed it right out of the quicksand and into the air. Lilith was way too fast for the quicksand to sink her, but now standing in it, she slowly sank. The goblin she was holding in the air struggled, blood coughing out of its mouth as it squirmed before going limp.
As soon as it went limp, Lilith grunted and tossed the goblin to the side, wiping her shortsword with her cloak. Turning her head around at us with excited eyes.
Damn…Lilith is scary. Well at least she isn't killing us, so we're good. I left the tree that me and kale were hiding behind and walked into the opening.
"Hi- hiiieee!" The noise came from the goblin that Kale paralyzed, it laid on the floor in a very discomforting way. It seemed to have regained some movement as it used its right arm to try and crawl away, but Kale stopped it by stepping on its arm with his feet.
"Nuh uh, not going anywhere green thing." Kale applied more pressure to the arm, causing the goblin to scream in pain. "Good job, Lilith!" As soon as kale finished that sentence, he plunged his sword into the back of the goblins' back. The goblin groaned before finally falling silent.
I should feel sympathetic to these goblins, I don't think anyone really enjoys the sound of painful screaming. But, these are goblins. Not humans. I'll let this slide for me.
I watched as kale casually sliced off the ears of the goblin, looking at Lilith to see if she was watching how he was doing it. She watched with interest before trying as well. Grabbing the first goblin she killed and slicing its ears off.
"Once we get these ears, we'll follow the goblins tracks that they made. That'll most likely lead us to the goblin nest." Kale pocketed the goblin ears into a pouch he had. And now I was staring at a dead goblin with no ears, what a sight.
Kale must've noticed my attention to the dead goblin as he held out his sword to me, as if inviting me to cut goblin ears too. I kindly
Declined that offer, I'm not touching a dead goblin.
"All done! Here, kale!" Lilith ran up to Kale with the ears of both goblins, she had a smile on her face as Kale grabbed them and put them in the pouch as well. Lilith then ran to me.
"Having fun? She said amusingly, the look on my face must've told everything as she laughed and walked when I had no response.
It feels so odd that I'm the only one that feels somewhat grossed out by the dead goblins, but again, I'm in another world where it's just normal. It's something I'll never get used to, but I guess I'll have to live with it.
"Alright, stop teasing Kota. No funny business." Kale sternly said to Lilith. "Let's follow their trail. Kota, can you burn these bodies? We don't want any traces for other goblins to find them."
I made no objection to that as I quickly held my staff out and casted a beginner fire spell, the smell of charred skin enveloped the area as I tried to cover my face with my cloak. And within a couple of minutes, the goblins' bodies were charred and disfigured. Hopefully the goblins are dumb enough to not be able to recognize it, because I can.
"Good. Now…let's follow this trail of theirs." Kale looked at the trail the goblins left behind, they led deeper into the woods where it seemed no one else but the goblins came from. Which gave me a thought.
…Are we the only ones out here? Maybe since it was winter, there weren't many people out here. But it was weird that we haven't come across anyone else here. We should be hearing other in this forest, but ever since we came in…we haven't.
"Come on, kota! Walk or we'll leave you behind!" Lilith shouted, both her and kale have already made their way to follow the goblins trail as I still stood where the burnt goblin bodies were.
I quickly made haste for the two, not before seeing a black blur pass by one of the trees in the distance. Probably just a kiesse who was passing by. Ignoring it, I quickly got with the other two and we began our tracking for the goblins.