Putting more focus and spending more of his soul energy he could sense even further ahead and what he saw was not good. Further ahead in the direction of the Nabard Fort was a goblin village which was teeming with Mid E rank goblin warriors and there has to be a chieftain among them, a high E rank who controls and commands those goblin warriors.
But that was not the real reason of Spade's fear further down South was a predator hunting for prey and it was no simple predator, it was a dark elf the highest ranked monster found in the Western forests. He was a Mid B rank making him intelligent, strong and his arsenal of many abilities which make him a specialized hunter.
But what was such a monstrosity doing near the shores, his hunting areas were in the central parts of the forest unless someone has driven him out of there.
"Will you put the sword down" Spade said in a nonchalant manner, he had already noticed the presence of another human when he increased the range of his twilight sense. Looking back he saw the person who was pointing a sword at him, it was none other than the grey haired Kurt.
"What are you doing here, was it your doing that caused the malfunction?" Kurt asked, the usual smile which was always plastered over his face was now replaced with a serious expression.
"No, I'm also a victim just like you and you wouldn't wanna waste time talking here I just saw something really terrifying further down south if it senses us back we're done for." Spade had no intention of extending this conversation due to the impending danger and he wanted for Kurt to understand that as well.
After a long look of silence Kurt removed his blade "So, what did you see?", Spade explained to him what he saw but the expression on Kurt's face remained same, maybe it was an ability or item which allowed to him to control his expressions.
"What's the plan?" Spade asked, considering their rankings in the academy and Spade's personal choice he didn't want to take the lead here.
"It's simple, our goal in all this is to reach the fort or close enough so that we find someone, but the straight forward way is closed due to goblins and the right side has the Dark Elf, so we'll move from the left side which wouldn't alert the bigger threats, any questions."
Listening to Kurt Spade understood why he was ranked first but there was one small flaw, to their left was the boar which wasn't a threat but bypassing it without causing a disturbance was problematic and Spade brought it to Kurt's notice by pointing at the boar.
"The boar, don't think much of it. My concealment abilities are good enough to fool him, but getting you through it is an issue" after thinking for a while Kurt spoke again "Huh... I'll distract him for a bit while you move ahead once you've bypassed it I'll join you, since the monster's can't sense me."
It was a good plan but it heavily burdened the responsibility on Kurt which Spade didn't like but his skills would come in handy in the near future when they will move past the boar, his twilight sense will help find a path which doesn't cross with any monster. "Ok, we'll go with this plan but first let's discuss what resources we have."
There was not much, two sets of armor, two swords, a cloak, a mask, a food and water container and three healing potions, I swear the next time even if I'm just going back home I'll stock up enough food and water to last me a month.
Once all which needed to be said was said we got to work. Kurt used his skill [Afterimage] which allowed him to create temporary illusions of himself to distract the boat and the moment Spade saw a clear way for him, he ran with all his might.
He had was expending his soul energy at a ridiculous rate to boost his speed and once he was far away he slowed down a bit to allow Kurt to catch up to him. It didn't take long for Kurt to catch up to Spade due to his other skill [Flowstate] which enhanced speed, senses and accuracy but now he was using it to only maximize his speed.
And by the time they crossed over the goblin tribe the sun was also starting to set and the world was bathed in Dusklight and considering how dangerous it was to move at night in the forest they stopped their advance and decided to find a place to stay the night.
"Huff...Huff... It was really tiring to use illusions and then run at full speed to catch up to you" Kurt said with a look of exhaustion.
Ignoring the his complaining words Spade asked "Where are we planning to spend the night."
To which Kurt raised an eyebrow and looked at Spade with a playful expression and said "On the trees, we're gonna sleep up there tonight."
'What's with the weird tone' Spade took a second to understand the joke and felt a bit awkward about it and shook his head to his suggesstion.
Once they found a place which was a bit secluded and there weren't any monsters around they climbed it up and finally took a breath of relief. They shared what little food and water was stored in Kurt's box. Spade also wished to purchase one of these but such storage type items were not cheap and at that time a sword and armor seemed more important.
Having had their meal they slept one at a time, even though Spade was cautious of Kurt his twilight sense would alert him if anything go's wrong.
The night in the dark forest quite terrifying because most troublesome creatures of the forest hunted in the dark and the Dark Elf was also one being, but his overwhelming strength allowed him to hunt in the day as well. It only hunted at night when it was trying to hunt down a really fearsome target.
And after what felt like an eternity morning came and they continued their journey up ahead. Due to their desperate run yesterday they had scaled quite the distance but now they thought to slow down the pace abit because they were now entering the inner parts of the forest and unlike E rank the monsters they will see here will be of D rank and even one of such monsters meant the end for both of them.
And their food had also ended which means they had to hunt as well. Continuing at a moderate pace they came across a monster which could restock their food storage box, it was a large, grey-furred canine with piercing yellow eyes, razor-sharp claws, and teeth. It's thick coat is speckled with darker grey markings, and it stands approximately 3-4 feet tall at the shoulder, it was a Greywolf.