"What are we hunting this time?" I asked Kayden as we rode the carriage lent by the guild towards the city's gate western gate.
"What?" Kayden seemed surprised by my question.
"I wasn't paying attention to the quest you picked, I was looking at my grimoire at that time." I told him in a bland tone.
"You can't be serious, you even agreed to it but you weren't looking." Kayden said as he pulled the quest paper out and gave it to me.
"Hmm… now that I think about it, there's been a lot more quests appearing on the board lately. Haven't you noticed." I said as I looked at our current quest.
"Your right, the entire board is covered. Pultra and Drole needed to stay out of the guild so no quests will be forced on them." Kayden said as he looked at the street vendors selling all kinds of items.
Each stand respectively sold different types of items, from meats and fruits to miscellaneous objects and trinkets. There were stores which held seemingly higher quality goods but those were mostly houses for weapons, clothes, and jewelry.
The city resembled an old century London and there doesn't seem to be any large advancements in technology.
The city guards patrolled the town regularly but now there seems to be an influx of guards in the city. At every corner there's a guard.
"Right, I wonder what's happening." I said as we were about 20 meters from the city gate.
The quest we accepted is to locate and kill the group of lizard-men at the western swamp.
According to the description of the quest, the lizard-men are humanoid like creatures with the appearance of a lizard.
Quite simple enough, however they have hardened greenish red scales and the ability to shoot a slime-like substance from their mouths which is able constrict movement like a web.
These creatures are also very hostile so they will attack without a moment's notice, they are also physically endowed.
There's a warning in here too. The lizard-men will fight in the water because they can move exceptionally well in the environment. It's advised that we draw them to land and keep from the shallow end.
"The receptionist warned me that they normally live in groups of ten." Kayden said as he showed the Western Gate Guard his Guild ID.
"Given our luck so far, it may be fifteen. No wonder she was warning us- you. Oh well, we'll just have to manage somehow." I said as the guard gave me my Guild ID back.
"You're free to go." The guards' told us.
"You're too carefree about this honestly. I hope this isn't gonna bite us in the ass later." Kayden said worrisomely.
"Hmm, hopefully." As the horses headed towards the woods.
As we headed into the western woods, the trees seemed to be more damp. Well not just the trees, the entire damn environment seems to be wet. The atmosphere changes drastically as well, Kayden notices it too.
"I almost forgot these woods are shared with the neighboring city, so adventurers from the guild there may come to complete this quest. The receptionist said we should move fast but carefully." Kayden only now mentioned that.
Oh well, I understand why he must've forgotten. He seems to be sweating a bit, is he nervous or hot. Either way the air is incredibly moist and warm.
According to the map of the woods, it seems that the swamp started just 50 meters inwards of the entrance to the woods. So we'll stop about five meters away.
In the meantime, I should try to calm him down. After all, he won't be able to do much if he's panicking.
….
I'm not sure what to say to him, what am I even supposed to tell him? That the lizard people who spit web-like slime as an attack aren't much of a threat….
That doesn't seem right after all. I never met a lizard person even when I was on the back of the Colossal.
Hmm, he's gonna have to tough it out.
"Hey, you don't feel that? There's so many fucking monster in these woods." Kayden said as his voice softly trembled.
Now that he mentions it , I do feel an unprecedented amount of monsters in the area. This must be why the quest board is filled to the brim.
"There should be adventures on their way to deal with them. Just focus on the main attraction for now." I told him as I scanned the woods. Well scanning for any traces of mana.
If I were to explain how it looks, it's like I'm looking at a small ball of blue opaque light. The size seems to change depending on the species. As I saw in the city, humans tend to have vein-like wires spreading from the blue opaque balls.
I assume, monsters who can control their mana have the same vein like wires in their body. To see these wires I have to concentrate but nevertheless it's all amazing, this new world.
And new abilities that I would've normally assumed to be supernatural, I must make it natural as I will be here for sometime.
Still, there is a sea of monsters on the ground and in the air.
"Hmm, we should tread carefully. We don't wanna run into a monster and waste any mana. Plus fighting right now might draw in more monsters." I said as I noticed the amount of monsters that were around us.
"Please stop talking, I beg of you." Kayden said, seemingly pleading as his hands trembled.
"Sooner or later, you will get used to this. We'll be hunting monsters and humans, this is a team deathmatch after all." I'm trying to reassure him but I feel as if I'm using the wrong words.
"Yes, I'm aware. How are you okay with that? Killing other people, fighting these creatures. It's all unbelievable." Kayden asked as his grip tightened around the leather strap.
"Well, I want to win. If that's what I must do to win then so be it. We all joined with the idea of what was to come. Magic and monsters, I'm sure it was surprising to everyone including but that's what we agreed to. I nearly lost my life on the first night but the magic saved me, I nearly lost my life the next morning but once again, the magic saved me. I was lucky enough for it to happen twice but now I need to do better. No matter what we do, this is our life from now on. There is only one goal for all of us" It might've been depressing to say, that's how I see it.
Hopefully he understands.
"I see… you're right." Although he agreed, he had nothing else to say.
…
It was awkwardly quiet for a few minutes until he suddenly spoke up.
"One goal is to win this game but we all have our own separate goal to win the tournament. Yeah, I do. I have my own reason for joining so I shouldn't be complaining too much now-" As he finished the carriage suddenly stopped.
The horse started neighing as they backed a few steps back. Oddly enough there weren't any monsters around us, but I could feel the large group a few meters ahead of us.
Kayden hopped off the seat of the carriage to check the horses. "They stopped because of the water, it looks like they won't go any further than here."
"We're probably near the swamp, it seems the water level is gonna start to rise from here. We gotta travel the rest on foot." I told him as I grabbed our weapons from the back of the carriage.
"Right, let's go then." Kayden said as he readied himself.
I had one sword and two daggers, unfortunately the sword is normal but Drole lent me his daggers just in case I needed more firepower.
Kayden had a sword similar to mine just in case the monster get too close, but he will maintain a safe distance to cast spells.
So we had the horses wait there as we walked inwards of the woods, to the swamp. As we walked, I realized how weak the soil became as the water rose. Soon enough our knee- high leather boots were submerged and we forcibly had to push our legs through this water.
The tree trunks dipped deeply into the water and stood tall, about 20 feet in diameter with the trunks seemingly splitting apart like spider legs.
The water was filled with… shrubs, algae, plants but no animals. No insects. Not even flies. This feeling is absolutely bad-
"Airon." Kayden called to me, staring dead ahead as if he caught sight of Satan himself.
"What-" It might've been better though.
The things in front of us were well over a dozen. Way more than 15.
It was the heads of the Lizard-men peeking the top of their heads out like alligators, their scales greenish red and others completely yellow. Eyes as golden as the coins we were rewarded.
One of the Lizard-men immediately saw us and stood, its belly scaleless and white. A human-like body standing 8 feet tall, arms reaching down to their knees. Fangs protruding to the bottom of its mouth.
It pointed to us with its mouth opening wide, saliva dripping from its teeth like slime.
*SCRYYYYYYYYYY* Suddenly all of the lizard-men stood and faced us.
The lizards began charging us almost immediately.