The gate was a wonderful concept written in the novel. it was describe as a Dimensional portal that lead to many great wonders. Inside the Gate was a whole new environment that tackled the many genre's. From caves, to fields, islands, oceans, ice lands…everything beyond the gate was fantastical.
With its own environment, it created it's own life. The basic being the Monsters, and some rare items like the vegetation and minerals. The world it created was alien to what any new gate would prosper. Some gates would lead to the same world, while others would lead to different and more complicated environments. As such the possibilities inside the gate were limitless.
By the Novel, it would follow the simple Medieval Fantasy genre that the Author was so in dept with. From Goblins to Dragons, these monsters were the very pinnacle of Fantasy.
".…" right now I was in an environment that was mostly a flat field. The grass was aquamarine that stretch up to my chest, the trees were dark and twisty and what roamed in these fields were the savage living monster's known as Goblins. Walking around with primitive weapons like a club, spear and axe.
It's been 20 minutes in the gate and right now I was walking around the area looking for any monsters that would come my way. I haven't meet any targets at the moment and from the looks of it, it was about to rain inside the Gate.
"Damn, being inside this gate is really something else. The air is breathable, the texture of each plant and soil is almost similar to that of the original world, even the raindrops is somewhat like water except it's a bit bluish. I should have at least prepared more than rush things through." looking from how the storm clouds were starting to build up, I decided to take shelter from the upcoming rain and try to find anything that was built for cover.
"A tree or cave would be good right about now."
My only objective today was to pay off the 15,000 ence, so hunting about 15 monsters was my target. But so far, no monster was in sight. Although beyond this area, was a mountain.
"There's a mountain in the distance, maybe that's where the monsters are hiding." I said to myself.
"Apolo"
Appearing out of thin air and into my right hands, Apolo materialized like black lightning.
I called out to my weapon. Knowing how adept I was at with using a spear I didn't fear any monster's that were coming my way, With this I was ready for any attacks from monsters while going for the mountain.
I didn't call out for my shield Endit since I already had a shield on hand. either way, shield or no shield, I could handle any monster out here with just a rank F gate.
As I made my way to the mountains, I saw on my way were a bunch of Goblins running from the tall blue grasses and straight into the forest before the mountain.
"Their running away? A lot of them too."
About 20 goblins were running straight into the forest, each carrying a simple weapon on hand.
Screeching like lost children, they disappeared into the forest like rats would as soon as they entered.
"I guess my hunt today won't last an hour long." I said while slowly walking to their direction. I knew for a fact that this hunt was easy, even with them hiding by the bushes or on the trees, it was futile.
My instincts were top notch from hunting Demons in the dark for more than 2 years. Using my sense of smell to locate a demon in the dark was part of my practice, listening to its every movement was just as much of a key element when I was fighting that bullet-like monster.
Hunting a simple, slow goblin in broad daylight was child's play to me.
As I made my way to the mountains, I noticed the tall grass were moving quite restlessly. It was the same tall grass where those goblins came from. Moments later, a couple of few people came out of the tall grass. They carried with them various weapons. They were hunters just like me.
"Where did they go?" asked the first hunter. It was a girl that carried a bow and a quiver behind her back.
"I'm not sure, they must've ran through the forest to hide." said another hunter who carried a short sword with him.
"I think they did. Look, a couple of foot prints on the ground leads to the forest" said the Hunter who carried a small dagger by her hips.
"Should we follow it?" asked the Bow hunter.
"We should be careful, goblins are quite sly monsters when their in the forest. They make quite an acrobats when in a environment like the forest, they hunt from above the trees, through some bushes and even lay traps from the ground." said the Dagger wielding hunter.
"There's about 20 of them…if we hunt those many in a complicated place like the forest, it'll be difficult." said the swordsman.
"I guess we'll stop right here for the day, we've hunted enough mana cores." said the Bow hunter.
"Yeah…lets go back home and look, the rain is starting to drop ." said the Dagger wielder.
And so they decided to go back to the gate exit. They made the right choice since it was suicide to hunt 20 goblins with only three people in a forest.
As they started to walk back to the gate, the noticed another hunter that was standing still in the field. He wasn't making any eye contact with the hunters but he was looking straight at the Forest.
".…" Worried, the swordsman thought that the lone hunter was going to the forest to hunt some goblins. As a sign of concern, he walks up to the lone hunter to try to warn him of the dangers of the forest.
"H-hey you, if your planning to go the forest, forget about it. A bunch of goblins just went through that area and might be planning a trap." he said to the Lone chain mail wearing hunter.
"...*Nods*" The lone Hunter just gave them a simple nod back.
"Looking at his attire, he must be a beginner." said the Dagger wielder.
"Let's just go, the rain is starting to drop even harder." said the Bow hunter.
As they ran back towards the gate, the Swordsman looks back to see the lone hunter. As he turned back, the lone hunter was no longer there.
'He's gone…' thought the swordsman.
Just like a ghost, the lone hunter who was thought to be just standing in the middle of the field with nowhere to hide suddenly vanishes in plain sight.
But at that very moment, the Lone hunter was actually dashing straight into the forest to capture the hiding goblins. He was moving at the same speed as a arrow, so it didn't take him that long to go inside the forest.
"Damn…the vegetation in this gate is insane." I said as I walk pass through the rippling blue vines that were hanging on the tall dark trees.
"Okay, lets do our business." I said as I closed my eyes and started focusing on my hunt.
*crack….snap…thud* the simple noise of branches breaking and leaves swaying restlessly were heard from a mile away…
*Sniff…* I moved on with smelling through the forest, checking if anything foul was nearby.
*Sniff…* "Ah, something smells like shit right about 103 meters southeast." I said indicating the direction where the goblins were coming from.
"Its the same direction where those restless sounds were coming from."
So I walked to that same direction. As I did, I could hear restless movement from above.
'Above the trees huh. About four…no five goblins.'
So readied my spear and jumped up to the trees.
"Hup!" As I jumped from branch to branch, I could see it. Five goblins looking down below, waiting for a target. I didn't waste time. As I got in range with those goblins, I immediately thrusted my spear at the first goblin. Directly hitting its heads and pushing it off from the branches. As it fell faceless first into the ground, I immediately followed through targeting the four goblins. They were shock to see their companion laying down on the floor dead, as soon as they saw this they turned back to my direction and went straight to me like a rabid animal.
Screeching like an angry animal, they charged at me with their rusty knives and clubs. But I didn't falter, I just blatantly stabbed each goblin that was coming my way. From the heart, to the face and even straight through their stomachs. Each one fell from the branches, with their guts displayed out in the open.
"Hmm, Their cores should be around the heart, so I guess its scavenging time."
I grabbed the rusty knife that was by the dead goblins and started digging through their dead bodies. Looking for the white mana core that was attached to their hearts.
It was a nasty process of digging for the valuables…it took me around a minute just searching around this body. Until finally I saw this shining white crystal embedded into the heart.
".…1 minute and 13 seconds. That's a lot longer than me actually killing these things."
One after the other, a core was pulled out of their bodies like candy from a baby…
"That's five down…ten more to go." After claiming each core, I proceeded to go for the next batch of goblins.
"Okay, lets see where they at…" I focused myself and began searching for any abnormal sounds in the area…
".…A screech, no….a cry…100 meters north. Someone's in trouble!"
It wasn't a screech from a goblin, it was a cry for help. A hunter.
I quickly called out my spear and began running through the forest. Hoping that I wasn't late to anything.
~Swoosh~ *Bushhh* jumping out from the forest, I came to an open area that showed a tent that was placed in the middle of the open area.
A Girl was screaming for help as she drag herself on the ground. The blood trail was long and the monsters that surrounded her were a pack of 'Robin Wolfs' a black headed wolf with a red stomach fur under, a similar pattern of that of a robin. Its speed was its main characteristics as well as to its light body. Similar to a Robin, it would jump at heights no animal could muster thanks to its light body, sort of like a bird soaring through the winds.
"Grrr….." four Robin wolfs surrounded the poor helpless girl.
"HEEEYYYYY!!!" I called for its attention, shouting out to look my way.
"!! GRRR!!" Instantly they heard my call and faced my way.
*tik* *tik* *tik* *tik**tik**tik**tik**tik**tik**tik**tik**tik*
The rain was finally starting to pour.
I had no time to waste. I instantly charged at at those ravenous beast.
Two Robin wolfs came at me with their speed that was comparable to that of a fast pitch. They ran straight at me like a mindless animal would with their bare open fangs out in for me to attack.
The first wolf came jumping at me from above and tried to naw its mouth to my face, but to my instinct, I thrusted the spear in my hand straight into its mouth, leaving it dead while spiked to my spear. But the second wolf was coming and it went for my sides, it jumped right at me so I held out my rusty shield and tried blocking but the momentum from his charge was to strong that it ravaged the shield to bits. too bad for it though because as soon as the shield broke, I instantly grabbed it by the neck and squeezed hard until I could hear a snap.
*Snap*
I threw the wolf that was stuck to my spear to the side and went for the two wolves that were guarding its prey from me.
"Haa!!" I threw the spear straight into those wolves. Like a speeding bullet, it hurled right into the Wolf's center skull.
*Thack!* embedded into its brain, it oozes its blood right out.
The last wolf was the only wolf remaining. Scared out of the fact that a bigger predator was right in front of it. He went full docile and ran away like a scared pup.
Without a second to lose, I ran to the injured girl. Seeing her leg was badly injured from one of the bites marks the robin wolf inflicted, I brought out the minor healing potion that was in my pocket.
"here, I'm going to pour this into your injury." I said girl as she was breathing heavily. Her skin was cold and her face was pale…I needed to warm her up. With the rain not stopping, I carried her into her tent and laid her back into one of the sleeping bags.
"Th-thank you…" said the girl.
"Is there anything here that can help you? A medicine pouch, a potion, anything?" I tried asking her if she had supplies that could aid her at this moment.
Her hand shakily pointed to a certain direction. On that direction was a bag that was being drenched from the pouring rain.
"P-potion.."
"Okay."
I ran up to the bag and came back with it wet. Pulling out from it's contents was two bottles of healing potions, one was half empty while the other was leaking. Some other things was also inside this bag, a lamp, a rope, a book with some notes on it basing on some monsters and a pair of dry clothes.
I passed on the healing potion for her to drink and turned on the light as a heat source for her to heat up.
"Thank you." said the girl as she laid there, slowly dozing off into sleep. Her breathing was slowly becoming less tense and her temperature was also coming back to its normal state.
I sat beside her as she slowly recovered. She was asleep at the moment so I couldn't ask her anything.
An hour passes and the rain was still constantly pouring.
".…" I thought to myself why she was here, I tried thinking of many reasons…I searched around the area for various clues and found only a broken dagger, a trail of blood and an amulet with a picture of a younger looking version of the girl.
"This…this is some first day being a hunter. Is this based off my luck? Am I this unlucky?"
I already finished carving out the cores that were in those three Robin Wolves. So I only needed to wait until she wakes up.
A couple more minutes passed by and she was finally waking up
"hnn…"
"Are you okay?' I asked her.
"..!?" she was surprised to see that a person was beside her. Setting inside her tent like it was his and the outside was the continues drops of rain.
"Hello?" I tried calling out to her since she didn't reply.
"Ah…who are you?" she asked, confused as to what was happening.
"I guess you don't remember. You were attacked by the monsters over there. A Robin Wolf."
"Ah…yes, I remember now. Thank you for helping me."
The Girl before me had orange hair and wore round glasses with her blue eyes that were similar to mine. With it she also had prickles on her face. Looking at her body, she seemed fit for being a hunter but her attire was something I questioned. She didn't wore any armor, not even a simple chain mail. She was clearly not hunting but doing something else.
But despite that, I didn't pry on her background. On my mind I only thought of helping her.
"If you're willing to leave this place, I'll carry you back to the Gate." I suggested to her.
Despite the healing potion, she wasn't fully recovered. She needed better medication.
"Thank you, I'd like that very much."
"Before that you should change to drier clothes, your clothes were wet from the sweat and rain."
"Ah, thank you." she asked me to go outside so she could change and as she did, I could feel the rain finally settling in.
As she got out, I tried asking for her condition.
"Can you walk?" I asked her.
"...Ah! No, no I can't. it still hurts." she tried stepping on the floor with her injured leg but the result was obvious. She was still in pain so walking was a no go.
"Then I'll carry you." I suggested to her.
"Eh? But it'll be hard for you."
"Don't worry, carrying you won't be a difficult thing to do and beside we need to hurry."
"I guess we should."
It took her a couple of minutes to prepare everything she needed to pack back to the gate. As she was done, she gave me a nod and climbed up on my back.
"Here we go."