Hunting day. Rowan got up in a hurry. He took a quick wash, put on his clothes and armour, cleaned his room, grabbed his sword and made a beeline for the door. Before he could make it out though, Angelica stopped him for breakfast.
As they ate, the man whose name turned out to be Arthur gave him a map of the surrounding areas. After breakfast everyone went their way leaving Rowan with the dishes. He diligently washed the dishes before rushing out too.
Rowan looked at the map and went to the main gate. As he reached the gate, he realised that he almost forgot that he was in the capital. There were a lot of carts being pulled by animals coming in and out of the gate.
Rowan went out and what he saw amazed him. There was a huge open field where people were fighting small animals and in the far distance was the forest. It looked creepily attractive to Rowan. He ran towards the forest.
"Hey kid, it's dangerous to go into the forest alone!" a voice called out to Rowan. When he looked around, he saw a group of five people heading in his direction. Two girls and three boys. The girls were a swordswoman and a healer. The boys were a swordsman, a shielder and an archer.
The boy that talked was the swordsman and he also seemed to be the leader of the group. "Hey kid, you should fight the animals on the field until you're bigger and stronger. Your parents would be really worried if something were to happen to you."
"My parents are dead," Rowan said before turning around, ready to enter the forest. "how about you join our group then," a soft but clear voice came from behind the group. It was the girl which Rowan suspects to be a healer. Seeing as the girl seemed worried he nodded his head.
Since he didn't know the strength of the animals in the forest, he decided to travel with the group since they did. The leader was Gary. He walked in front with the shielder whose name was Austin. Behind them was the archer named Michael or Mike for short and the swordswoman named Amy.
Rowan walked behind all of them with the healer called Lyndsey. She was really nice and talkative. She gave him a detailed overview of their group. They are all friends that met at school and after one of them joined the adventurer's guild all of them followed soon after.
Lyndsey took out her badge and showed it to Rowan with pride. It said D-rank on the badge but Rowan decided not to point that out. Just as Lyndsey was about to delve further into their history, the leader, Gary, silenced everyone before walking in a certain direction.
Rowan quickly used his sharingan and saw a pack of five wolves feeding on some type of carcass. Gary called the archer, Mike, and Mike jumped into a tree. He placed an arrow into his bow and pulled it back.
After releasing his finger, the arrow flew through the air before stabbing one of the wolves in the neck. Instant Death. The rest of the wolves looked towards the group before rushing them. The wolf at the front of the pack pulled back his head, ready to howl.
Before the wolf could make a sound, another arrow flew through the air, piercing the wolf's skull. Gary, Austin and Amy each went to intercept a wolf. Austin used his shield to bash into the closest wolf. He then pulled a short sword from his shield and stabbed it in the neck.
Amy kept dodging the second wolf's paws and bites as she kept slashing at the different parts of it's body. The wolf soon collapsed on the ground, barely breathing. Gary was like a wild animal as he pounced on the last wolf.
He fought against the wolf with his bare hands and still managed to beat it to the ground. He looked around and nodded to the others seeing that everyone was done fighting. Rowan looked on as they tied up the living wolves for some reason.
Rowan suddenly felt a chill going down his back. He activated his sharingan and looked around for signs of energy. He found an energy building up in the bushes next to Lyndsey. The energy moved and so did Rowan.
He used the body flicker technique to appear between Lyndsey and the energy before slashing out with his sword. He looked on as his sword cleanly cut through the giant head of a python. The energy that he saw was the venom it was building up.
Looking at the dead python that fell at his feet, Rowan saw a red crystal rolling from it's body. "Wow, a demon beast!" Gary exclaimed. Amy went to Lyndsey's side and gave her a hug but Gary couldn't keep his eyes off the crystal.
"It is said that the stronger the demon beast, the higher the colour in the rainbow. A beast with a violet crystal could take on a dragon from the ancient times. It is said that the great demon lords that rule the dark lands have a crystal above that ranking. The colour…black."
Listening to Gary's words, Rowan knew that those demon lords must be the devil's subordinates that Jesus was talking about. Rowan felt even more determined to get stronger. Mike dragged the corpses he shot down to the others.
"You're are pretty capable for a little kid but don't overdo it. Too many capable people die unnecessary deaths. We're going back for today," Gary gave Rowan a pat on the shoulder before taking the lead out of the woods.
Rowan quickly picked up the red crystal and gave it Lyndsey who tried to refuse it but he placed it on the ground and used the body flicker technique to appear out of their viewpoints. He looked on as Lyndsey picked up the crystal, looked around and then placed it in her bag.
Rowan looked on as they left the forest before turning around to go deeper into the forest but then he saw a small fox dragging the carcass the wolves were eating away.