The newly formed team of 4 adventurers started their journey exiting through the western gates of Tinte, passing pleasantries whilst inside the village confines. Marsh Qway the Knight, Vaela the Fighter, Pon To the Fighter who excelled in archery, and Logan Hall the Wizard who was secretly a Spellthief.

A final reconfirmation was given to Logan by the leader Marsh, asking the mage if he was prepared for the journey and battles ahead. Logan agreed, at which point a new window appeared, detailing a part of the mechanics he thought he would need to experiment with.

“You have joined a party led by Marsh Qway. Info settings are set to minimal. While in this party you can see your allies' level, HP and MP numbers, activating skills and spells, experience gain, as well as any active effects. As long as you are an active member in combat you will receive experience from any kills made. Due to having 3 party members, your experience gain is reduced by 30%”, the window explained.

“So, that explains a lot. No wonder it takes NPCs longer to level if they're getting less experience in teams. If we fought goblin scouts, I would have needed 15 goblin kills to get from level 1 to 2, but only 10 on my own. But 27 days still doesn't seem a valid timeline. Since I can see their XP gain, the first kill we get I can get a better idea”, Logan calculated.

“Do you guys want any micks thrown out during combat?”, Logan asked, trying to find a way to still gain XP during encounters.

“You know micks? Good, that’ll help. You musta had a good upbringing to afford all those books”, Vaela responded, her cold exterior showing little signs of thawing. “Keep them on enemies we're not currently engaged with if you can. Don't want any wayward spells to hit us”, she ordered.

The party moved quickly to the west, without any mounts or vehicles they had quite the journey ahead of them. During what seemed to be a 30-minute crossing, the party did intermingle with discussion. Logan was able to discuss the others' adventuring experience, most of them starting around the ages of 16 to 18, this being Marsh's 11th month, Vaela's 8th and Pon's 2nd month. Marsh being the oldest and more experienced, hitting 19 next month, was designated as the leader.

Vaela just recently hit 18 whereas Pon was still 16 at this point. With the information of ages and timelines for levelling, Logan soon realised just how late he had joined, around 10 years after the youngest member. Apparently, adults were considered of age at 15 for both sexes, the adventurers' halls allowing any 15 to 60-year-old applicants. Most older-starting adventurers were some form of mage, spending extra time to learn more spells and advanced alterations.

Feeling a bit out of place, the older Spellthief made sure to not overstep his bounds with the younger adults. Many questions were asked of the lying mage, though he had a false reply at the ready through quick wit.

Finally, reaching a short forest before a tall hill, almost a mountain, the party stopped for a short rest at the foot of the trees that greeted the grassy plains. Logan moved to use his Clean mick on the party, requested by Marsh, to hide their scent as best as possible, chanting “Waters of everclear, wash away all dirt. Clean”. Gear was triple-checked, snacks and water were had, with the leader drawing up a plan for the group.

Logan was much more comfortable at this forest, a combination of his adventure the day prior and his newly formed party. As he was designated as a Wizard, he was given free rein to stay back, far away from attacks.

Marsh pulled out a small map of the forest with some pre-written notes on it, “Alright, listen up. We have a good 5 or so minutes of travel from the forest to the hill where these goblins have held up. There is a rather sizable hole in the side we're approaching from, marking the entrance to their cave. It isn't overly deep, mostly a shelter from the rain, so we'll draw them out into the open field, the hill has a good stretch of clear land at its base. Up until that point, we shall try to be stealthy, if we spot any goblins, take them out quick and silent, we don't want them calling for backup.”

“Me and Logan can hit from afar, your armour may be too loud to get in close. If we time it right, we could kill the scouts in 1 fell swoop”, Pon put forward.

“Good plan, Logan, keep the incantations quick with your Force mick, go over the lines with Pon so he can time his shots properly”, Marsh agreed, nodding to Pon.

“The incantation for Force is as follows: ‘Forces of arcane, build up and crush. Force.' You should fire when I say ‘up’, give time for your arrow to hit first and then my mick since it can push them over and make you miss”, Logan instructed.

“Got it, fire on ‘up’, we should stick close”, Pon confirmed with his allied magi.

“Any additionals, me and Vaela will take out. If there are larger groups, our ranged attackers will hit the furthest away”, Marsh continued, pointing towards the party as he mentioned them. “Once we hit the cave, we'll have to reform and decide the next part depending on what happens”, he concluded.

“If the camp learns of our presence, we should run back the way we came and leave the forest. It will cause them to straggle out as we flee”, Vaela suggested.

“Hope it doesn't come to that, but yeah, that's a better backup than any”, Marsh accepted.

Looking to one another and reconfirming plans of attack, the party made sure everything was in order. Once they were finished, the team stood up and started to move forward, Marsh and Vaela at the front, Pon and Logan towards the back.

It wasn't too long until the party came across their first encounter, a single goblin scout, a normal enemy for Logan at this point. “Identify”, Logan thought, wanting to see what he had been facing so much yesterday in finer detail.

“Goblin Scout - Goblinoid. Level 1: 5/5 HP, 0/0 MP. A small goblinoid creature, trained or rather bludgeoned to go out and gather supplies and information for the main group. Often on their own or in pairs. Stands at around 3 feet tall with simple fur loincloths and sashes”, the window detailed to Logan. “Huh, level 1, no wonder they were easier than that wolf. So, is it 100 XP for every level 1 enemy?” Logan pondered.

The party were able to spot the goblin ahead of time, Marsh made a "V" with his fingers and pointed at the ranged units behind him, motioning for Pon and Logan to attack. The archer and mage moved up to a closer tree, Pon nocked an arrow and awaited Logan.

“Forces of arcane, build up and crush. Force”, Logan incanted, with the word “up” causing Pon to let loose his arrow, hitting dead into the back of the scout. As Logan finished his final word, he felt the energy build up from his chest down his arm as thin grey lines encircled his limb, combining at his palm a small vortex of grey lines formed an orb as it shot out and impacted the goblin with a blast of power. Logan could see that Pon's shot dealt 5 damage, whereas his Force dealt 2, putting the goblin at -2. More than enough, but the random damage from Pon may have just been high.

“2 damage isn’t a lot, but it doesn’t take much to use and I could fire it at range safely.”

Falling to the floor, the goblin wasn't even able to react to the attacks. A single twitch went across its arm, and then it went still, an alert popping up with Logan and Pon's experience.

Logan gained less than he was expecting. “67? That isn't 30% of 100, it should be 70. Unless it's because I am a level higher than the goblin?”, he worried. Looking over to his companion, he saw something even more surprising. Pon was awarded 10 experience for the kill. “What!? Why is it so low? That's only 10% of what the goblin should give. He is the same level as me, is the penalty greater for NPCs?” Logan contemplated.

“Good shot, let's move up. Logan, can you get its ear and gear?” Marsh directed. Logan moved up to the goblin, tearing the arrow from its body and passing it back to Pon. Cutting the ear, Logan made sure to pick up its club and coins. “I'll have to keep an eye on their other XP gains”, Logan judged.

Moving deeper, the next group of goblins the party found were 2 scouts and a tougher goblin wielding a metal mace. “Identify”, Logan commanded.

“Goblin Muscle - Goblinoid. Level 2: 11/11 HP, 0/0 MP. More muscly than their scout allies, the goblin muscle can dish out harsher pain and is normally set up as a guardsman for scouts in more dangerous climates”, the window explained to Logan.

“Level 2, over double the health and he has an actual weapon now. I would have hated to fight one of those yesterday. At least now we can see the experience difference in levels”, Logan surmised.

Turning to the party, Marsh waved his hand to have a short discussion. “I'll charge the mace wielder, Vaela get the closest scout. Pon and Logan you can hit the other scout, we'll go on my charge”, the leader instructed. The team nodded in acknowledgement, Pon nocking an arrow, Vaela getting into a charging stance.

Starting off the encounter, Marsh dashed through the tree line the party were hiding within, shouting out loud “Wall of Iron!”, he was covered in blue light as he held his shield in front of himself. The goblins heard the shout, turning to look at the Knight heading for the muscle. Vaela was next, running at the closest scout with both swords in hand.

“Forces of arcane, build up and crush. Force”, Logan enspelled once more. An eruption of force following a singing arrow in the air, bringing the middle scout down without issue. Force dealt the same damage as before. The muscle swung his mace down with fury, though it merely bounced off of Marsh's shield. In a parry-like display, Marsh swung his shield to the left and pierced forward with his sword, cutting into the muscle for 5 damage.

Vaela found her quarry, a scout who at this point only wanted to flee, leaping upwards, she brought down both her swords, slicing off the scout's arms as they hit the floor with 2 solid thuds. Screaming out with jets of blood, the goblin fell down. Nocking another arrow, Pon shouted “Left!” to his allies, Marsh darted to his left as an arrow shot through the air into the muscle, dealing 4 damage.

Recoiling from the arrow, the muscle started to let out a roar, but Marsh brought up his shield and slammed it onto the goblin's head, causing it to bite off its tongue. Holding its mouth in anguish, Marsh let out another slash with his blade, bringing the goblin muscle to the floor to meet his previously-living allies. With the bodies going lifeless, Logan received his experience.

Similarly, the NPCs also gained their experience, they all gained “10, 10, and 20” each. “Wait, they gained the same? Even the higher levelled adventurers. The calculation seems pretty set for them, they all gained 10% of what the scouts would give, and since I haven't fought a level 2 on my own I don't know the normal XP for those. Is it 10% across the board for NPC XP rewards?” Logan tried to piece the puzzle together, landing on as close an approximation as he could.

While pleased that the hunting was simple, Logan noticed the big jump in XP from level 1 to level 2 enemies. Due to the maths involved with parties, Logan could only guess that the XP increased by around two times. “Safe and quick, if I did this before I could have easily gained another half level in a group”, Logan thought back to his previous forest adventure.

Sitting at 1,571/3,000 experience, Logan thought he could easily reach level 3 today. If there were at least 20 goblins plus a hobgoblin, and he participated in each fight, he would be above the 3,000 required XP. It felt a bit cheap, but then he was forced into this world without his consent, so Logan would take anything he could get.

“Looks clear, Logan, get their gear while we ready up”, commanded Marsh yet again. “I did that last time though”, Logan reflected. He didn't want to raise too much in the way of arguments about it, already sitting on a low pedestal due to being a mage. Logan took the command and looted the ears, clubs and maces, as well as coins from the goblins.

A minute passed as Logan took up the loot, placing them within a communal bag for enemy loot. The bag was assigned to Marsh, who dropped it whenever combat started, similar to how Logan did it yesterday. Pressing onwards, the party made their way deeper into the forest.

Meeting the halfway mark in their journey, the forest became quite thick in trees and foliage, only having sparse spaces of open fields. Something caught Logan's eye as his team sallied forth, a thin piece of rope hidden amongst the foliage, throwing out a hand he shouted to Marsh “Get down!”.

Marsh throwing his head back, he looked to Logan whose eyes were fraught with fear. Seeing it to be a real threat, Marsh jumped to the floor, a loud creaking and swinging of wood filling the small open space with a crashing sound. A large log tied to rope came swinging from up high, barely missing the Knight but grabbing and tossing his shield off into the forest.

“Traps! Ambush! At the ready”, Marsh ordered, standing to his feet with sword in hand and scanning for his shield. As the team prepared themselves, several rustles of leaves and bushes could be heard as several goblins came charging out at the party.

“Fucking monsters”, cursed Vaela, who began to slash at approaching scouts. First, she only had to contend with 2 scouts, the closest one taking a double slash from her dual-wielding and hitting the ground with a hard skid. Another scout was able to bash her arm, causing her to lose one attack but still able to retaliate with a returning slash. As the least armoured between her and the leader, in the end a total of 4 goblins assaulted her.

Marsh was engaged by 3 scouts who jumped him all at once, his voice booming over the area. “Hard Skin”, he commanded, his body coated in a red shield. The strikes against him shimmered against the barrier as he retaliated. Using a combination of punches, ripostes, and sword slashes. He would disorientate one scout to deal with another with 2 slashes, take a hit from another and retaliate.

Following in suit, Pon fired shot after shot at charging goblins, aiding his allies. When Vaela was ambushed he would fire at the goblins not currently attacking, or distracting goblins who were in mid-slam.

Seeing the confusion, Logan hid behind a nearby tree to quick-cast his micks “Force!... Force!... Force!”, he spoke over and over, the yells of his compatriots and adversaries making it impossible to hear his chants. Alone, Logan took down 2 goblins who were charging his allies, using 3 castings of micks each, with enough testing it seemed like Force would only deal 2 damage for now.

Vaela was a flurry of blades, Marsh an indomitable wall, Pon a quick arrow-looser. The battle raged on for a minute before all foes were slain. Surrounded by goblin corpses, the party composed themselves, Marsh regaining his shield. Vaela had taken a few hits, Pon also, though Marsh was not injured at all, probably due to his Knight skills. Vaela was down to 30/42 HP, Pon was at 26/30.

“Good eye, Logan. That log would have brought me out of combat for a bit and we would have suffered heavier losses”, commended Marsh. Looking over his party members, he moved to check wounds and equipment.

“Can you gather up the corpses and gear while I tend to our allies”, he asked the uninjured Spellthief. “Again with looting. I saved your ass”, Logan cursed in his mind. Begrudgingly, the mage moved to gather up the rewards of battle. As he did so, he was able to inspect the floating experience text of both himself and his allies.

In total, there were 9 goblin scouts, each rewarding Logan with 67 XP, ending up with 603 for the encounter. The NPCs were on a much lower end, only gaining a final 90 for the battle. “I guess this is my penalty for gaining so much XP, clean up duty”, Logan accepted. He harvested another 9 ears, adding more clubs and coins to the communal loot bag. Marsh had bandaged or applied salves to his allies' wounds, bringing Vaela back to 35/42 and Pon to 30/30.

“Keep an eye out for any more traps, we're almost at their hill cave, so make sure to keep things quiet”, Marsh ordered. His party members nodded in agreement, Logan following suit.

As they moved on, Logan noticed a window was behind his head, ordering it to his face, the window had informed him about gaining the Trapfinding SKoL. “Probably got that for noticing the trap, good, it'll help if we come across other traps in this forest”, Logan celebrated.

Either through a great choice of path, or sheer luck, the party were able to reach the base of the hill, the forest becoming less dense as it got closer. Marsh rose a fist to halt his allies, everyone moving to hug a tree each to scout ahead behind cover. From their treeline cover, a stretch of grassy plains led to the hill, around 200 feet away.

2 goblin muscles were stationed at the entrance of the cave, 2 large aflame spikes casting some light in the immediate vicinity. The sun was still high in the sky, so the flames only really helped to light the beginning of the cave. The hill was indeed tall, around 150 feet at its apex. Grass and mud covered it towards the top, corpses of both animals and humans placed across it, though most of the meat had been chewed from the bones.

Waving his party a bit closer, the group formed around 3 trees, Pon and Logan sharing a rather fat trunk.

“Alright, it doesn't look like they know anything's up. Vaela and I will take the muscles down and flank the entrance, Pon, fire as many arrows as possible into that cave, we gotta hope you can thin their numbers before they get out. Logan, use Force at will, but once you see the hobgoblin, let loose all your spells into him. We cannot afford any attacks from the leader, and the rest of us will be focused on the small fry. Pon, cover Vaela if needed”, Marsh gave out orders to everyone, it seemed the group were used to their leader and took the commands without question.

“How about these?” Vaela asked, pulling out 3 balls of cloth dyed black in a sticky substance. “Oil?” Logan thought.

“Throw those just inside the entrance, and I'll light them”, Pon responded, getting out flint and a cloth-wrapped arrow.

“This will be a long fight, 20-30 goblins is no joke. If we take too many hits I will call for retreat. I can't use Hard Skin due to that ambush earlier, so I will be joining you in pain this time”, Marsh reported.

“A Knight skill to reduce damage, does that mean he can still use Wall of Iron?” Logan wondered.

“You can count on me, Marsh”, Pon returned.

“All clear, boss”, Vaela followed.

“Affirmative”, Logan added. “I got 3 spells to use, if I can see its health I will finally find my spell damage. Hopefully, the hobgoblin catches fire for even more”, Logan planned ahead.

“Then let's quell the goblin numbers”, Marsh finished. The group stood tall, Marsh and Vaela starting the charge towards the hill cave entrance. Pon nocked his arrow ready, Logan keeping an eye on the entrance, ready to fling some Force micks. The quest was about to get properly underway.

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