Moving through Gilcour Thicket is an absolute pain in the ass. No wonder people don’t bother coming into this forest besides to hunt for monsters and rare herbs. There’s nothing else here besides those things.

With my messed-up leg, my progress has been slow but steady, nothing I’m not used to. Moving through forests while injured was a common problem in my previous life. I figure I’ll be on the edge of the forest within a few days if I keep my current pace up. But right now that wasn’t possible.

I sliced my way through two of these damned bugs with my sword and sent a fireball at the third that was charging me, disintegrating the abomination. These monsters were only found deep in the forest and I remember seeing them in my old monster book and since I’d run out of repellent they have been swarming me.

They were called Drones and they resembled large black bees if bees were mutant monsters from hell. They charged at you like lancers with their massive stingers that were the size of a man’s arm and once they impaled you they pumped you full of venom while trying to bite your head off with their mouths filled with razor blades. Truly nasty beasts but thankfully, they burned just like any kind of bug.

They have been harassing me for the better part of a few hours, sending two or three at me at a time. Instead of being constantly annoyed by these monsters, I’ve decided to hunt down their nest. I figured allowing them to slow me down every twenty minutes or so would only hinder me in the long run and it’s not like I can run away from them. The monster book told me that drones formed around a hive that they protected. They would kill animals, monsters, or people and bring them back to the hive to be dismantled for food.

If I destroyed the hive and brought back proof it would probably fetch me a decent amount of coin while also giving me an introduction for the Adventures Guild. Starting from the bottom rungs of the guild did not sound like fun. I’ve also taken a few Dire Wolf trophies along with Forest Spiders to add to my collection so this Drone hive would be a nice addition.

Mmm, seems like I’m getting close.

I injured a drone about an hour back and let it run away from me so I could track it back to the hive. I followed the sickly black blood while killing many of its brethren. It seems I have pissed them off enough to send extra troops or I’ve gotten closer to the hive, it’s probably both. My ears didn’t need to be at 100% for me to hear the buzzing of insects closing in on me.

Taking them out before they reached me was the ideal scenario so before I could even see the Drones I sent fireballs blazing through the forest towards the sounds. Most of my fireballs must have whizzed harmlessly by but at least one of them impacted with a monster and exploded. However, the insistent buzzing did not get lessened. Instead, it was coming closer and a whole lot faster than before.

I barely had time to throw myself out of the way before a black bur flew right past me. The sound of wood splintering and branches crashing sounded off behind me as I summoned my sword to hoist myself off the ground.

Damn, I just got these clothes and you know what… Maybe I do need my hearing back.

What I thought was a bunch of different insect wings buzzing turned out all that noise was coming from a single, very large black bug. It was about three drones wide and four drones tall and just managed to unlodge itself from a tree it split in half. How the fuck did something so big manage to fly on four sets of insect wings, I’ll never know.

I also remember reading if a hive was left for long enough it could produce different types of Drones so this must be a Drone Knight. It was bigger, faster, and stronger than a normal Drone. And to make matters worse it had a shield-like carapace that extended in front of it. The shield made for good material for armor since it was highly resistant to impacts and even magic. Things can just never go my way, can they?

The Knight buzzed its wings and charged at me once more. Thankfully, no matter how big or fast this thing was it was still a stupid bug. I rolled out of the way once more but not without leaving a gift behind this time. I was getting really tired of rolling around and dragging myself off the ground slowly but I was sure this was going to work. Although this thing looks like a bee from hell, if it has any kind of biological relationship to a bee then it’s going to be in a world of pain.

The knight impaled another unfortunate tree and tried removing itself from the wood. But before it could free itself a bright light began expanding until it exploded. Of course, I was looking away from the explosion and when I turned around the bee monster was freaking out as it thrashed around wildly. It lost all sense of direction and purpose while blinded by the light.

With its flank to me, I launched two sets of earth spikes into its back, pinning it to the tree with a sickening crunch. The insectoid wings stopped their buzzing and the Knight let out a death spasm as it went limp.

Good old fashion flash-bangs never fail. When I learned about traveling actors using something called flash powder from a school event I knew I had to get my hands on the stuff. Sadly it lacked the explosive power to concuss targets but the blinding light was on par with the first iterations of flashbangs all the way back when. I made about twenty of the bad boys using earth magic housings. I heated a small mineral in the middle of the case with fire magic which would eventually ignite the flash powder. Good stuff.

I hobbled over to the dead bug and sent my sword through the back of its head, can never be too careful with these things. Killing people is one thing, killing monsters born from whatever the fuck mana is, is another. I’m convinced that mana is the reason these abominations were spawned. And it gives these monsters unnatural abilities beyond what should be possible. When I watched that Dire Wolf do a spine-twisting acrobatic move in the mid-air I knew that shouldn’t be possible for a canine.

But it is what it is, this is the world I live in now so I just need to accept the facts and learn to deal with these creatures. Of course, if I could live a life avoiding these creatures that would be ideal.

I was thinking all of these things while chopping up the Knight for parts. The carapace shield, the stinger, and the venom sack would all sell for good coin and serve as proof for my deeds. Thanks to all my time hunting with Dad I’m pretty confident in my skinning and dismantling skills.

And this spatial storage ring allowed me to carry all of this stuff with ease. My ring was about sixty percent full of monster parts and rations along with everything I would need to survive in the wild like campaigning gear, courtesy of House Stav of course. I even have a bow and some arrows but it’s kind of difficult to use one with only one hand. It was a shame, I was sort of looking forward to using a bow. Maybe it’s the Elven blood coursing through me that wants to take down some monsters with a well-placed arrow.

I finished my work and let out a deep sigh as I burned the corpse to ash. The hive must be close if they are sending stronger bugs after me.

Within thirty minutes I found what I guess was the hive. It wasn’t any beehive I’d ever seen as it was just a large tree-covered orange comb-like structure. Drones were buzzing about as watched from a distance. The Drones crawling around looked to be much smaller so they were newly hatched, considering I’ve done a number on their population in the last few hours.

Welp, absolutely no point in walking over there. Twelve fireballs should do the job. The forest is unlikely to burn since it rained recently and honestly, the world might be a better place if Gilcour Thicket stopped existing.

I took out my cobalt gladius and used it as a conduit for my spell cores. My mana pool has grown considerably over the last few years just like Grandpa said it would. Of course, I haven’t skimped out on training my mana control either. I’m sure my available mana will only increase from here on out. It felt good to be able to cast some spells again after such a long time.

The fireball cores ate my mana and grew to the size of a Human’s head burning a bright orangish-red. Either noticing the light or some disturbance the Drones looked over to me, but it was far too late for them. My fireballs launched a blazing speed and impacted the hive along with the handful of Drones that were outside of it. The only sounds were the crackling of my inferno along with the smell of burnt insects.

The giant tree hive thing began burning a brilliant orange as I moved towards the hive. The fire would do its job so there was no point in waiting around. I’m sure all this cooking monster flesh would just attract more monsters and I wasn’t looking to fight more than I had to.

My boots crunched a few burning Drone corpses as I went to slice a piece off of the hive for proof. My sword effortlessly sliced into the comb-like structure as sticky black liquid dripped from it like a wound. But the most disgusting part was what came out of the hive once I gutted it. I quickly stashed my sword and grabbed the comb as I side-stepped out of the way of the flow of black liquid. Riding the black liquid-like trash down a river was bones and viscera. It was absolutely disgusting and the stench assaulted my nose.

When I read that Drones dismantled their prey I see what they meant now. It was hard to tell what was what but there were definitely a few bones that belonged to a Humanoid amongst the sea of black death. I sent a fireball into the hole I made in the hive just to make sure this atrocity to nature was dead for good. Hopefully, they died quickly.

I wanted to remove myself from this nightmare-filled place as quickly as possible. Whatever this smell was going to attract I didn’t want to be a hundred miles within its radius.

—

I made camp and slept the night away. And by making camp I meant I dug a hole in the ground near a rock with enough space to breathe and covered myself with earth magic so I wouldn’t be killed in my sleep. This was probably one of the only times where being small was a good thing. I’m worried that I haven’t grown all that much considering I’ll be turning thirteen in a few months but I’m holding out for a growth spurt soon. I’m definitely under the average height for an Elf my age regardless if it’s the Dark or High blood in me.

I digress, I’ve made good time as well now that I wasn’t being harassed by fighting death bugs every twenty minutes. I’ve moved closer to the edge of the forest and I should be near some towns before the end of the day. I haven’t found any other people in the forest so far or at least till now.

Somebody has been following me for a while now. They have been keeping a good distance away from me and haven’t made any moves yet. They are pretty good at hiding themselves as well. Part of me wants to attack them but they would be able to flee from me at this distance. I have the last bit of my Berserker cap and Magic Lily powder combat drug at the ready. But the other part of me wants to wait.

I can’t be sure if they are a friend or foe at this point but I have a feeling whoever it is doesn’t want a fight. If it was bandits there would be multiple and they would have attacked my crippled self as trudged through the forest. If it was a Sandervile scout team there would be at least two and they would be tailing me closer. For some reason, I have a feeling it’s an Elf following me. It’s just a gut feeling but I know it’s not a Beastmen since I would have never sensed them coming.

No point in worrying about it. Because here they come.

I slowed my pace and waited for them to halt me. And sure enough, they did just that,

“Stop, don’t move a muscle,” A female voice rang out in all directions in an Elvish accent I didn’t recognize.

I obliged and stopped moving. Even though I knew she was behind me to my right in a tree her voice bounced off the trees as if she was everywhere. If I was relying only on my hearing I doubt I’d be able to find her. She must be using some kind of magic.

“What’s another masked High Elf child doing this deep in the woods?” She asked.

“Another?”

She clicked her tongue in annoyance. She must have not meant to tell me that bit of information.

“I don’t know anything about another High Elf in these woods. I’m just passing by,” I responded.

“Then why are you so deep in the woods alone? Aren’t you a little young to be out here by yourself, kid?” The aggressive tone she had before had lessened somewhat.

“I can handle myself.”

“Are you an adventurer?”

“Not yet.”

“Are you the one that burned that Drone hive?” She asked me.

“And what if I am?” I responded with a hint of annoyance.

“Then you must be a pretty strong mage if you handled it by yourself. Even though you are clearly hurt you managed to take down an entire hive, that’s pretty impressive. Say where are you headed, kid?”

“I believe I’ve answered enough of your questions already. I don’t feel like talking to someone who is holding me up in a forest with an arrow notched. So either fire that arrow or come down from that tree so we can talk like normal people.”

She didn’t know but I had four fireball cores prepared and ready to fire at her, I increased the width of them so it would engulf any arrow she launched at me.

“You… You know where I am?” She asked, unable to hide her surprise.

“Yes.”

I heard the leaves rustle as she dropped down from the tree. I turned to look at the woman and it was just as I thought. She was an Elf with ears pointing straight out from the side of her head with short blonde hair that fell to her shoulders and cold blue eyes that swam around like ice crystals. She had on tight-fitting brown leather pants and a green and black leather vest that hugged her petite frame. I couldn’t tell how old she was but she was at least an adult. In her hand was a longbow made of silver metal with a quiver of arrows on her back. The Wood Elf stopped changing her voice as she spoke to me,

“Okay… I don’t want a fight or anything kid. What’s your name?” She said with her hands up sensing my hostility.

What is my new name?

“You first.”

The Elf shrugged, “Fair enough… Alce Velvetpost.”

“Voker Winterheart. What are you doing following me in the forest, Alce?” I asked.

“Well, we took a quest to take out a Drone hive that killed a farmer in a nearby village. But when we found the hive it had been burned to a crisp along with all the bugs. That wouldn’t happen to be your doing?” She asked in a much friendlier tone.

“Seems I beat you to it. Sorry, they were constantly attacking me so I had little choice. Should I… give you proof of the destruction of the hive?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure what the protocol for this type of stuff was. Did they have dibs on it since they had the quest? Or did it not even matter since I wasn’t an adventurer? I wasn’t going to hand over all the material, just the chunk of the hive I took.

“No-no…. you did all the work. It would be wrong of us to take credit for something we didn’t do,” She said, waving her hands defensively.

“We?” I asked.

“Yes, my team and I took on the quest.”

“I see…”

“You never did say why you were in the forest? Are you really just passing through?”

“Yes, I prefer traveling in the forest, regardless of the danger,” I said.

She smiled at my words, “Never thought I hear a High Elf saying that. And where are you headed, Mr. Voker Winterheart?”

“Luminar.”

“Well, it seems the forest has brought us together in more ways than one. My group and I are also heading to Luminar. Say… Would you like to accompany us? You don’t have to or anything but traveling in a group is much safer than being alone out here. And we could always use a mage’s firepower in our party, no pun intended…” She said awkwardly.

“You would have me join you? I’m a masked stranger that you just met in the woods? Aren’t you at least somewhat apprehensive about me?”

“I never said I trusted you completely or anything… But you said you weren’t an adventurer yet, which means you want to be one right? And besides, I can’t imagine someone who took out a Drone hive by themselves without even understanding what they would get in return is a bad person,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “The way I see it you can travel with us for a bit and if things work out then they work out and if they don’t then well they don’t. Besides, I believe the Mother of the Forest brought us together for a reason. So what do you say, Voker?” She asked while extending her hand.

Mother of the Forest? Must be some kind of Wood Elf deity that I’m unfamiliar with. Thankfully by chance, she extended a hand I could shake since I had been hiding my missing one just in case. But should I accept her offer? I don’t see why not. I’m in need of a good night’s rest where I don’t have to worry about a monster attacking me in my sleep. And she seems like a nice enough person. Alce and her crew might even be able to help me become an adventurer or at least explain to me how things work.

I shook her hand, “Sure, why not. Not looking over my shoulder for a change sounds refreshing.”

And with that, Alce led me to where her party was waiting for her return.