"So you eat a lot everyday…"
"Ya" I said with my mouth still full of chicken.
"And then you lift heavy weights repeatedly…"
"5 to 12 reps. But going too heavy right now is cumbersome."
"And all of this is so you can strain your muscles to make them bigger?"
This was a little harder to explain, so I stopped eating momentarily.
As Toba was doing his best at eating all he could, I swallowed a last bit of potato and began my lecture.
"Technically, what we do is destroy our muscles with intense training, and that way our body needs to adapt to this activity. So then when the muscle rebuilds itself, it gets bigger than before, and we get stronger."
"But you don't need bigger muscles to get stronger. Just regular fighting and training does the job."
"You're right." I said with a half-smile. The glint in my eye signaled I had something else to say.
Mia was serious. Although I was goofing off a little bit, me and Toba were clearly outliers, so any adventurer would be curious about our methods.
And I had been thinking quite a lot about bodybuilding in this world, so I had some legit insights.
"But… Everything has a limit, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"As you get stronger, it gets more and more difficult to go to the next step, the next level. It must take a very long time to make your body as hard as steel like some adventurers are said to have."
Mia nodded before adding in.
"I heard the strongest warriors trained their bodies to the point of permanence, and even stopped aging because of it. But I don't know how long it took or what methods they used."
"Exactly. And if they even stop aging, how hard must it be to go even further? It makes sense that the more your body gets strong, and your muscles get dense, the more it will resist any kind of change, even for the better."
"If even time fails to affect them, training results must be diminished as well." Mia was following along.
"Now think about it. If you have a certain amount of muscle, and it can only be refined so much, what's the next step?"
"Hone your techniques and reflexes would be the usual answer…"
"It's simple, you just need more muscle to begin with."
Mia's eyes widened a little.
"If you can only harden an armor up to a certain extend and then no more… You just need to make it thicker. Add more metal." I said with a grin.
But that's just a theory.
A muscle theory.
"It does make sense… But why aren't the best warriors and adventurers doing this then? And more importantly, how did you come up with this?"
"Think about it. They all have dense muscles already, their body will resist it all, blades, spells, aging, training…"
"So they would resist your method as well…"
"And when they try it with no visible results, they give up and focus on what they know."
"And the ones who could do it, who haven't honed their bodies yet, are instead focusing on the basics of training and fighting."
"Well, realistically, the great majority aren't even doing that. But the ones serious enough to train will surely go straight to the classic method that everyone uses."
"And the method is simply mindful fighting and training until exhaustion, so it already works in tandem with adventuring and learning techniques. Going out of your way to increase muscle size would be too roundabout."
"There is only one thing that confuses me, however."
"Wait just a second." Mia said with a frown on her face, interrupting the flow of our extremely autistic conversation.
She got up and turned to the table beside us. I was so into our talk that I hadn't even noticed there was someone listening.
I'm sorry Luna, I failed the awareness test.
Her face was getting a little red already, and the people at the table seemed frightened.
A little warning or threat would make them go away, but I feared that if I left it up to Mia, a fight would break out.
"There are 6 empty tables here and you two chose the one practically glued to us… If your ears are tempting you that much I can rip them out for you. It would free you of the distraction." I said with my back still turned, not getting out of my seat.
What they saw was a green-haired kid with a very muscular back that shouldn't be that wide or that ripped.
The kid rumored to have fought and survived the blond demon, who carried around absurd amounts of weapons, used advanced techniques, and even tamed wolves at only 12 years of age.
What Toba and Mia saw was me making a very weird face as I gave my all into spreading my lats and contracting my muscles to seem bigger.
It's just standard. I'm still nowhere near the size I need to be to use my muscles for intimidation, but the king cobra technique is ingrained into my soul.
To assert dominance from the back, you spread your lats. To assert dominance from the front, you puff up your chest.
Mia glared at me, and that gave time enough for the two intruders to get up and leave without a word.
"Why did you do that? I had it under control. I don't need your help to scare these people off."
"I know you don't, but what were you thinking while you got up?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can you remember what went through your head at that moment?"
"No. What does that have to do with anything?"
Mia was getting angry, but it was a good opportunity.
"While I threatened them, I was thinking that they seemed scared already, and it wouldn't take much to make them get out. I wasn't really angry, and I didn't really want to rip their ears off."
"What is your point?"
"If I HAD been truly angry, maybe I wouldn't think anything, and maybe the situation would end up escalating further than it needed to be."
"What does it matter to you if I beat them up? Listening in on a conversation is more than reason enough."
Before I could answer, she continued.
"Didn't I warn you about partnering up with me? We haven't even done anything and you're already trying to tell me what to do, you're no different then-"
"I didn't want to end our talk because of some annoyances. I'm having fun."
She wanted to keep going, but it seemed I got through to her.
I knew how it was to spend large periods of time alone. This conversation must be something rare for her, and she surely was enjoying it as well.
"Sure, you could vent off your anger at them, I couldn't care less. But then we would likely have to pack things up and get out of here."
"You weren't worried about them?"
"Why would I? If you tried to kill them, I would stop you, but I don't exactly like people listening in on me either, especially since we are talking about something potentially very important."
She seemed lost in thought for a second, but she was still visibly angry.
When I got my fit of rage against Toba, I didn't stop until I hit him at least once. It must be much worse for her, so even if it was just a minor thing, it must not be easy to cool off just like that.
I shouldn't push her, so I just went back to eating.
For a while, we three just sat there eating poultry and potatoes in silence.
Somehow, the silence wasn't awkward.
…
"Wouldn't it be easier to use rocks as weights instead of a whole tree?"
"We use them for other lifts. If I use a large rock while bench pressing, my hands would be too close together, and it wouldn't be as great for my chest. Not to mention that I would probably die if it fell on me." I said as I spotted Toba on his last set.
"Who the hell came up with all these names and techniques? It's all so specific."
"It's complicated… Our master didn't talk much about it."
Mia had good reason to be suspicious, and I was obviously hiding something, but with the number of things I was sharing with her, it would be incredibly ungrateful to pry any further.
Adventurers had certain codes about sharing information, which was why she got so angry at the pair who tried listening in on us at the tavern.
We finished our training. Mia didn't want to join in just yet, so she just watched and listened to me explaining what muscles each exercise targeted.
It was very refreshing having someone that could understand it. Toba was a great training partner, but he was a practical learner.
"So, after this you eat again, and then start taking quests?"
"Yeah. We should take it a little light today though since we took some damage yesterday."
"I know. You said you weren't lifting what you normally would six times today."
It's not my fault. It's extremely bad luck that the first time she watches me train is when I'm injured.
Mia was surprisingly interested in our routine; it really was something a lot different from the usual adventurers.
Now it was time to move into what she was familiar with.
…
"Sophie, are you sure?"
"Just take it. The requester paid a lot for the horns, and if I wouldn't have anyone to give the money to."
"You can keep it if you want or give it to Owl."
"I wouldn't feel right keeping it, and Owl is your responsibility! You'll talk with him, right?"
"Yeah, I'll settle it with him then."
I got down from the counter trying not to grin too much.
I didn't know how much was in there, but the bag was heavy with coins.
"Thanks a lot, sister Sophie!"
"Mmph! Don't cause more trouble now!"
"Don't worry, we'll do things legitimately now."
As I said that, Mia entered the guild, earning a few stares.
After quickly looking through the board and taking three E rank quests, she walked over to us.
"I'll take these three today. Cona and Toba will be helping me."
"R- right away!" Sophie quickly wrote something down before stamping the quest scrolls.
"See you later Sophie!"
"Tell Toba I said hi!"
Toba was avoiding her today since he felt too guilty about tricking her, but he should get over it soon.
It would do no good to force him only to have him spill everything and ruin our success.
After that was all sorted out, it was time to get our hands dirty.
…
"What was the first one again? Something about kobolds?"
"It's an exiled hobgoblin controlling a pack of kobolds, shouldn't be too hard to deal with."
From my knowledge, hobgoblins were a separate race that evolved into a tyrannical relationship with goblins.
They subjugated and organized the normally lazy and carefree goblins, ruling them through fear and commanding them with borderline slavery conditions, turning them into a fearsome force due to their numbers.
"Shouldn't he command a group of goblins instead?"
"If he did that, he would be hunted down instantly. The guild doesn't allow highly organized goblins in Porang region."
"So, he intentionally took control of kobolds so he would be viewed as a lesser threat? That's pretty smart."
"Kobold hates goblins, Luna said." Toba spoke while he chewed on a piece of meat.
"That is true, he probably had to kill more than half of the pack to make them submit." Mia added while nodding at Toba.
Our carefree conversation was suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Look at that, I guess criminals do stick together after all."
It was Owl, but he was alone this time.
"H- hey pal! I was looking for you, hehe."
"Were you? I shouldn't be that hard to find. Apparently, I was at the Cross Hills AND the beach at the same time yesterday!"
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that… I really shouldn't have done it, but I got impatient, you know me, right?"
"You must still be impatient, if you're willing to partner up with someone who almost killed you."
"Tsk. You know better than anyone that I didn't try to kill him." Mia glared at him.
"So, you two have history after all."
"I told you at the tavern, she almost killed nightingale. But you didn't listen to my warning, and instead went on to use my name and take a quest with her."
"I wasn't going to kill him either! He-"
"Wait, wait. You're getting this all wrong. Mia, I don't know what happened between you two, but I must solve this misunderstanding before it blows up in my face."
Mia was clearly angry, but she didn't seem to be having an outburst just yet.
"I think I understand things pretty clearly."
"Like I said, let me explain. First off, I don't remember half of what happened that day at the tavern, so didn't know you told me that."
"Well I'm telling you now then. But you still refuse to listen."
"Secondly, I didn't use your name to partner up with her on a quest. If I intended to collaborate, I wouldn't need to use you in the first place, right?"
Owl paused to think. He was clearly angry at all this, but he was a clever guy.
"What happened was, we took the request as if we were helping your group out and set out to complete it on our own."
"Are you two crazy? You went to fight imps inside a mausoleum alone?"
"A little bit crazy yeah. Anyway, we met Mia there, doing a quest of her own, and we helped her out. Long story short, we saved each other, and decided to work together. That way I wouldn't need to cheat or commit fraud in order to take more difficult quests."
"Cona why don't you listen to me? Is it worth it to risk yours and your brother's life like that? I paid for your healing spell when she attacked you because I felt guilty for not stopping you that time, and then you use my group to trick the guild and go right back to her!"
Mia was somehow keeping her cool. She didn't want to meddle in our affairs.
So, honor can keep her in check… Noted.
"Like I said, we saved each other, and I'm part demon too, as you know."
"So because you have a little demon in you, you think you two are the same?"
"Not the same, but I have experienced the emotional outburst once as well. I know how it feels."
"Tsk. You'll see in time, but why don't you just complete the quests on your rank normally? You saw how deadly it actually is, if you two were alone you could have died against the imps. Just calm down and stay on your level."
This is getting annoying. I'm in the wrong for using him, so I'm being as nice as possible, but he should know I'm more capable than that. And not just me, Toba is absurdly strong too.
"Cona and Toba were doing just fine against the imps on their own. The only real danger was helping me with my quest." Mia said with a light smirk.
A smirk? I had never seen her smile before.
I was hoping for her first smile to be tearful and emotional while she thanked me for completing all her side quests and tying up her character arc, but instead she's insulting Owl.
"What?" Owl glared at her.
"Like I said, Cona and Toba were perfectly able to complete their quest on their own. You may not want to accept it, but Cona is already stronger than you."
Shit. Mia told me yesterday something about Owl being insecure about this.
I also got a few hints here and there, he always seemed to be gauging my strength, and got serious when I mentioned something by mistake.
Owl was clearly offended by what Mia said. His carefree and larger-than-life attitude was nowhere to be seen.
"That doesn't really matter now, does it? We're all adventurers just trying to rank up." I tried to calm things down.
"That's what I get for trying to help a rookie… They get overconfident and act like imbeciles." Owl got even more angry by my statement but hid it with a moronic smile while he talked back.
"What did you just say to me?"
At that point, I stopped thinking strategically.
All this time I had been hiding my achievements while being as humble as possible, so it was annoying to hear the guy I had to save from goblins talk to me like that.
Being forced to downplay what I could do, being forced to take easier quests than I was capable of.
I was fed up with it.
"You heard me. You're not the first delusional rookie I meet."
Toba backed away from me, and Mia seemed to be enjoying it all.
"Delusional… Well, I tried to solve things up in a friendly manner, but I'm running out of patience."
"Same here, I wasted enough of my time on you two."
"How about this then? If I win, I pay back the cleric fee, and you keep your mouth shut about the imp quest." I said while drawing my gladius.
"And if I win?"
"I stop taking quests in this town. I don't want Sophie to pay for my mistakes."
"Deal." Owl said while drawing two shortswords from his waist.
I was expecting him to refuse and say he would tell the guild on us, but he didn't even hesitate.
He's either sure he'll win, or he's not a bad person after all.
Mia and Toba moved away from us. This wasn't the outcome I wanted, but Owl managed to piss me off.
If he was a decent person, and his only problem was his ego, I would do him a favor and shatter it into a million pieces.
I tossed aside the spear strapped to my back, along with my throwing knives.
"What are you doing?"
"I don't need it. I'll fight you with this sword."
"You're that confident in your spells, huh?"
"I'm out of mana, actually." I said nonchalantly.
This pissed him off, and he dashed towards me with his shortswords in a mixed stance.
One in front of him and one hanging loosely at his side. One of them will be to draw my attention and the other to catch me off guard, most likely.
It doesn't matter which is which.
He struck at me with the loose one on his left hand, giving a series of swings that I dodged with body movement. The other sword kept close to him in a defensive position.
He kept swinging and stabbing with his left, and when I stepped a little too much to the side in a dodge, he struck with his right arm, which was coiled like a spring in the "defensive" position.
PING!
I blocked it, and almost immediately after, he slashed with his left hand again.
The blow I blocked didn't have much force behind it despite all the preparation and speed, so it was obvious that the real threat was the follow up swing.
He planned it well, and it would have connected, since I hadn't had time to reposition my sword, and wasn't with the right footwork for a dodge.
THUMP!
"Urgh!"
Owl was sent flying backwards after getting kicked in the chest.
He started coughing while he got up. He clearly wasn't expecting it, but he recovered fast.
"You rely too much on setups and technique right from the start. This shows you have no confidence in your strength."
"You rat!" He dashed forward again, this time with purposeful and honest strikes.
PING! PING! PING! PING!
The volume of strikes he was giving out was enough to make me need to block several times instead of just dodging, and he wasn't leaving himself open.
He was fast, and his technique was good.
If any one of those strikes were to hit me, I would be injured for sure, and maybe lose the fight right there.
But they didn't have enough force to get through my defense, and he wasn't skilled enough to move past it.
Kicks would keep him in check when he got too greedy, and by the way he was dodging them, he couldn't afford to take another one.
"Shit!"
PING! PING! PING! PING!
He was getting impatient.
He tried a few fencing tricks and feints again, but they were no match for Luna's.
With the way the fight was set up, I had a clear disadvantage if I kept on the defense, so it made sense that he was going all out.
He was getting annoyed with my lack of offense, especially since going aggressively should be the correct strategy for me to win with only one sword.
From an outside perspective, it could look like I was toying with him. But it couldn't be further from the truth.
In reality, his attacks were fast enough that I didn't have a safe enough opening to strike or counter, and his balance and footwork were both on point.
If I risked a little, I could get a good hit in and break his defense, but with the way things were going, there was no need to take such a risk.
He couldn't keep up his offense forever, and he would eventually get tired.
He revealed his tricks and style of fighting right at the start, probably thinking the duel wouldn't last long.
Now I had seen all he could do, and the fight was already over.
After a few more strikes, he stepped back to recover, but the fatigue from the constant pressure made him too slow.
BANG!
I stepped in and struck diagonally with full force towards head, making him use both swords to defend.
The strength of the blow made him drop to the ground, and he just barely managed to hold on to his weapons.
"It's over."
BANG! BANG!
I struck twice while he was on the ground, and now his weapons were far away from him.
Thump!
He tried to kick me, but the movement was awkward. He was used to relying on his blades.
I blocked without moving out of the way and pointed my sword at him.
"It's over."
Owl didn't say a word while I stepped away.
He seemed to be in shock for a while, but it didn't take long for him to get up and compose himself.
"You'll keep your word, right?" I said while extending a bag of coins towards him. I had promised to pay back the cleric fee, so I wouldn't owe him anything.
"Yeah."
He moved past me, ignoring the coins and walking away, also leaving his weapons on the ground.
Weird, I thought he would be either fuming or in denial, but he had a resolute face just now.
Owl went away with his back straight, not letting out any semblance of depression or frustration. Whatever he was thinking at that moment, he had resigned himself to that truth.
It feels nice to win for once. But I wished I had solved things in another manner.
"You were impressive." Mia said while Toba nodded in agreement.
"He was good, but he underestimated me too much."
"I don't think he did."
"What do you mean?"
"He's an adventurer, the most intelligent monsters he fought so far were probably undead knights or the occasional bandit. Most people don't have the training and experience to fight one on one like that."
"Yeah, he wasn't bad, but he wasn't very strategic."
"Strategy for adventurers is coordinating with teammates to fight monsters. The occasional brawl or duel does happen, but it doesn't earn any money, and bandits are rare."
"I kind of expected that. Just like I lack experience in fighting monsters, people here lack experience in fighting humans."
"And when an adventurer comes along who knows how to duel, everyone gets suspicious. It's not a skill fit for a beginner."
"Can I assume you have this kind of training as well?"
"Yeah, but I had to learn it in different circumstances from yours." Mia had a distant face as she said that.
'Had' to learn it, huh? I wonder what she's been through before becoming an adventurer.
"You can tell me about it when you're ready, but in the meantime, we could incorporate some sparring into our routine. Like you said, us three are probably the only ones with this kind of training."
"Sparring?"
"Yeah, we fight without seriously injuring each other."
"Is that how you trained?"
"I don't know any other way…"
"…"
"Wait, if you've never sparred-"
"We can try it out." She said trying to end the subject.
Do I have a thing for dangerous women? Or do I just attract them?
…
Porang region had a decent variety of monsters, but most were very weak.
The most common quests would always be for kobolds, goblins and shorelings.
These monsters had one thing in common, and it was that they didn't pose much of a threat unless they were organized by a leader. These leaders, like hobgoblins or kobold shamans, were kept away from the region in order to maintain it as a 'low level' starting area.
That wasn't to say that there were no challenges in the area, but they were rare. Apparently that minotaur at the mausoleum was newly formed, and if someone discovered him first, the guild would send an expert adventurer to dispose of it.
Other than undead, which could spawn from corpses or aggregates of bones, and devils who entered through portals from hell, the other creatures had to reproduce, so the only times real trouble arrived outside of crosshills, it was a straggler from another region like the hobgoblin we defeated right after my duel with Owl (apparently, he had left town after losing to me).
Mia dealt with the hobgoblin quickly while Toba and I handled the rest, and the whole thing went as smoothly as possible.
In fact, our missions were moving along perfectly this past week, and we earned quite a nice amount of money.
Our equipment was being well maintained, we were eating and sleeping well, and the tiger claws I left at the workshop got made into an endless vat of acid that I didn't really know what to do with yet.
My training this week was also full of PRs, but the reason for it wasn't a pleasant one.
It was Mia.
She figured out I had second intentions with her and started acting completely cold ever since. It was incredibly frustrating, I felt like the 'dere' bar that I had painstakingly been filling up had returned to 0 again.
Our relationship had become completely professional, and she still didn't open up or tell me about anything from her past.
She also didn't show up to spar like we talked about.
But the biggest trouble was that we were being incredibly effective. Mission after mission completed perfectly, it was clear that the three of us could handle just about anything the guild could offer at this rank.
So I really had no good reason to complain, in fact it was immature of me to expect anything else.
But still… I didn't get my bone punched out of me just to get an addition to the team…
Being the way I am, the leftover frustration that I didn't spend on the gym sometimes came through in our interactions, and Mia being the way she is, our relationship was getting worse by the minute.
She was being surprisingly nonexplosive, however, and it only served to annoy me even more.
I could look for a girl in town, but I had invested heavily in tsundere demon girl stocks, and now I didn't want anything else.
I also didn't find Owl's group anywhere after the duel, so they presumably went after him. Even if they didn't, they probably wouldn't be too happy with me either.
Which meant that the only person I could talk with now was Toba. Toba wasn't much of a talker.
I kept getting stuck on a cycle of trying to start a subject with Mia, being cut off and getting annoyed, then managing to get past my pride and annoyance and start another subject only to get cut off again.
We probably have similar backstories, we're both loners and weird in our own way, and we have great reasons to work together, so why did this massive ice wall suddenly manifest?
I was prepared to get punched or bitten or even stabbed at, but I wasn't prepared to get ignored!
Especially not after all those instances when I managed to get her flustered.
"Cona, what are you doing? Focus."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I said in a bored tone as I cut off a goblin's head and kicked another into oblivion.
We were tasked with a mission to wipe up the goblins inside the cave where we got our first rank.
The same cave where we rescued Owl and his group, and where I got my first taste of a fight with multiple monsters.
When I realized how easy and how little force I need to kill them, and when I grew accustomed to dealing with large groups of enemies, fights like these became trivial.
"Even if they're goblins, we can't be careless." Mia said in a disapproving tone.
She won't even scream at me? What the fuck.
"Why? What are they going to do?"
As soon as I said that a group of no less than 20 goblins came running at us from the cave.
"Tsk."
"Want to use a spell?"
"No need… Toba you take them out with your club, we make an opening for you."
"Yes brother!" Toba said as he tightened the grip on his greatclub.
That club in his hands is already an AoE, I shouldn't use spells for goblins.
…
After what could only be described as a goblin massacre, we returned to town.
Toba's club was completely dirty with goblin entrails and blood, and being made of wood, it didn't all come out when washing.
Previously he had a few stains here and there, but now it was completely darkened.
It wasn't pretty to look at, but it was an additional reason for people to not mess with us.
The first half of the trip was in total silence, and I was the only one annoyed by that.
"You know, that cave was where we killed the goblins for our first rank."
"It's not exactly a beginner friendly place. Even if you two had special training."
"It wasn't, and we weren't used to dealing with groups of monsters, so we suffered a little, but that cleared path we went through was collapsed at the time, so we didn't have to deal with all of them."
"That is good luck." Mia said while still looking forward and walking.
"There was also someone stuck between the collapsed rocks. Someone you know."
"Owl?"
"Yeah, that's when I first met him and his group."
I was expecting a reaction out of her, but after that the conversation died out again.
Damnit.
We arrived, and as usual the only thing on my mind at the moment was quickly cleaning myself and passing out in bed.
Adventuring was exhausting, and sometimes it involved a lot of travel, which made me miss the wolves a lot.
I was also at an age where I needed absurd amounts of sleep to function, so at the end of the day I was practically a zombie.
"I forgot to tell you, but the guild said they were going to post up a C ranked quest today. Those are rare, you should take the quest before going home."
"I'm tired, I'm sure no one is capable of completing a C rank other than our team right now, so I'll just take it when I wake up tomorrow."
"You wake up late, don't risk it, it's worth a lot of money." Mia walked away as she said that.
"Tsk. Why don't you take it then?"
"Brother let's go to the guild. Toba wants to see Sophie."
"She doesn't work there at this hour, and I'm tired. I'll just wake up a little earlier tomorrow and it'll be fine."
…
"You had one job! Was it really going to hurt you if your precious sleep was off 20 minutes?" Mia cursed with her teeth partly grinding against each other and her fists clenched.
"Again, why didn't you go get it then? Why did it have to be me?!" I screamed back at her as we walked.
Against all odds, the quest had already been taken by a 'passing adventurer' when I went to get it in the morning.
Mia and I knew it was bullshit though, and 'passing adventurer' was one of the things they told to avoid leaking information on who got the quest.
The reason they withheld information was 'vulturing', which was when someone or a group would follow a party expecting them to fail the quest, so they could complete it and reap the reward instead.
And that was exactly what Mia, and I were trying to do.
I left Toba at home because I didn't want to force him into doing something wrong again, and because things were heated up between Mia and me.
He had noticed our sour mood and was getting uncomfortable, so I didn't want him to get caught in a possible fight.
Right know the only thing keeping her and I in collaboration was our common anger at whoever took the quest.
But that didn't mean we weren't also angry at each other.
"I had something I needed to do. Do I need to tell you every single thing now?"
I couldn't help but snort with a sarcastic smile.
"WHAT NOW?"
Her expression was quickly warping, and a vein was almost bursting on her forehead, which told me she was probably starting to get dangerously angry, so I shouldn't keep it up despite how much I wanted to press her on the issue.
"Forget it. We don't have Toba with us, and we don't know if whoever took the quest is actually going to be any help. We need to stay sharp."
"Tsk. Then don't go spacing out when we enter the cave, goatman are no joke, if you slack off, we're both dead."
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry… But they're weaker than the minotaur we killed, right?"
"… Yes, but it could be more dangerous depending on how bloodthirsty it is."
Her tone had changed from an angry to a serious one. It seemed I managed to de-escalate our argument.
The quest involved killing a goatman that had snuck into a cave deep inside the western woods, which was how people called the forest with tall trees to the left of the now cleared out goblin cave.
Goatman were unintelligent bipedal beasts with large goat heads sporting wicked horns.
They were known for how aggressive and brutal they were and attacked by goring their prey and then ripping them apart with their bare hands.
Once they grabbed a hold of their target, they wouldn't let go until they were dead. Their aggressiveness drowned out any and all instincts of self-preservation, however, which made them an easy target for expert adventurers.
Goatman were a sort of boogieman for people, not because they had a high fatality rate, but because of the way they killed.
Getting hit by a poisoned arrow by goblins and slowly tiring out until you got a bad wound and died was way more common, but at least people had something to bury later.
When a goatman killed an adventurer, they ripped them in half after disemboweling them with their horns, spreading guts and blood everywhere. They then ate chunks of the limbs and face and left the rest as decoration on the ground.
Deaths are deaths, but there were few people rational enough to think that way after witnessing a goatman attack.
"If things get messy, I'll be ready with minor repel, so don't expose yourself too much. Let's fight it safely." I said as I shuddered a little.
Mia nodded in response.
Was that a scared expression I saw? I guess even she has her limits.
At this point the angry atmosphere around us had died down completely, owing much to the fact that we were both terrified of getting ripped apart and eaten.
At least we stopped fighting, but I can't believe she had the audacity to say that. 'Every single thing'? she hasn't told me shit! I don't know anything about her, and I basically told her almost all my backstory. Even if not all of it was true…
Anyway, she should feel a little guilty about it at the very least.
…
After about two hours of walking, we stopped to orient ourselves. We were supposed to have arrived already, but all we found was a big rock wall we had to walk around.
There was no sign of the supposed cave, which was strange since we stuck to the compass and followed the exact directions we remembered from the quest.
"Maybe we missed it? Forests are pretty disorienting after all."
"That is unlikely… I checked the compass frequently, and the cave wasn't described as hidden."
She's had that compass for a long time… As much as I hate to admit it, I can't imagine her being careless when it comes to these things.
We were racking our brains trying to figure out the answer, when I suddenly detected a very slight smoke smell.
My nose couldn't compare to Toba's, but every time he would tell me he smelled something, I tried to detect it as well.
I didn't always manage it, but sometimes I could just about detect a hint of the smells he noticed. Over time, I became a little more sensitive to it.
"I think a smelled smoke just now… Don't know where it's coming from though."
"Really?" Mia had a face like she didn't fully believe me, but perhaps not wanting to start another shouting match, she decided to go with it.
"It's very faint, but it shouldn't be far from here… We didn't see anyone or anything on our way, so it could have come from torches in the cave?"
It was a stretch, but we had no other leads.
"Hmm…" Mia paused for a while, then took a finger in her mouth and held it up to the wind.
She could have just watched the movement of the leaves around us, but it was cute, so I won't complain.
Wait, I'm supposed to be angry at her. It wasn't cute at all.
"The wind is blowing from behind us… So if the smell reached you we should have passed the origin already… Did we really miss it?"
"It really would be surprising, the only remarkable thing we passed was that-"
"Wall…" We said at the same time.
It couldn't be… Right?
We walked back until we found the rock wall we had passed, and sure enough, there was a noticeable smoke smell coming from within.
And when we placed our hand on it… It went through!
"An illusion? But why?"
"…"
"It's not the first time I see it, the tower was the same, but that had barriers as well, and this cave just had a quest posted on it… It doesn't make any sense."
"I know people who use these sorts of spells."
"What? Who-" As I was finishing my sentence, I turned to look at Mia, only to find her wearing her scariest expression yet.
It wasn't anger or fear, or at least that was not all it was.
Her eyes were completely open as if in a trance, and not a single movement could be found in her body. It was like she had been taken away somewhere.
"Mia are you alright?"
Without looking at me, she drew her daggers and passed through the illusion.
"Shit!"
I had no choice but to follow.