Somewhere within the forest around Last Heaven, a teen was gathering herbs into a sack. Another was looking out for danger, and a third was taking a nap.

“He’s not already asleep, is he? We’ve been here for less than 5 minutes.”

No matter how much he tried, Oliver couldn’t get answers from Ana. She either didn’t know, avoided his questions, or was so desensitized with Ethan’s actions that they no longer registered as weird.

“If he doesn’t wake up, I’ll smack him upside the head.” she said matter of factly.

They had been gathering herbs for a few days now. While the Academy promised to provide materials and recipes, they only did so if it matched the teachers’ interests.

For example, there was currently a huge order for vitality pills from Last Heaven’s King. As such, both the Alchemist Association and the Academy’s branch dropped all other orders and focused solely on this one.

Even the students were taught how to make low grade vitality pills and were given herbs for just this recipe alone. If Ethan and Oliver wanted to advance their alchemy, they had to do it on their own. And, since Ana needed to skip school for the time being, she decided to join them on their adventures.

“All done.” announced Oliver after tying the lid of his sack.

Ethan opened his eyes, nonchalantly got up, and popped a vitality pill. Everyone’s pockets were full of them.

“How can you sleep while eating those things? I feel like running a marathon every time I take one.”

“Practice.” answered Ethan with a deadpan face. After eating hundreds of these pills in the past week, he discovered he could forgo sleep altogether if he overdosed with about 50 per day. For a restless bastard like him, this was a gift sent from Heaven. At this point, his little naps were merely experiments to check if they made a difference.

The group grabbed a sac each and went further into the forest. Their goal was 9 sacks per day. Whether they filled them with herbs or with demon beast parts, it did not matter.

“Are you sensing anything yet?”

“Nope.”

“Ethan, are you sure that sixth sense of yours actually works?” These past few days it hadn’t exactly been accurate.

“Hmph.” He snorted and threw a kitchen knife into the bushes. A squeaky yelp was heard. The teens went to check and found a dead goblin with a large club in his hand and a knife in his chest.

“See? Told ya.” Ethan’s nose went up as he crossed his arms. Oliver cut the beast’s chest open and took out a tiny mana core.

“Number 102.”

“How much are these worth?” asked Ana.

“All of them? About 10 gold coins.” His friends were practically drooling. Even for Oliver, this was a decent sum.

Suddenly, rustling sounds were heard all over. The teens stopped chatting and everyone grew tense.

“Ethan? Your 6th sense?”

The boy took back his knife and pulled out another one.

“Shut up and protect Oliver.” He threw both knives in odd directions and more yelps were heard.

In a rage, 10 goblins charged from all sides. But somehow, at around 5 feet from the teens, they momentarily froze.

“Now!” ordered Ethan. With one stomp of Ana’s foot, 6 stone spears rose from the ground and pierced the enemies. Ethan’s knives came flying back and embedded themselves in the skulls of 2 others. The remaining pair charged towards Oliver.

“Heeelp!”

With eyes half closed, the boy was swinging a fancy spear as if it were a club. Oliver was a man of many talents, but fighting was not one of them.

One of the goblins slapped away his spear and the other went in for the kill. Inches away from Oliver’s face its advance stopped. Ethan had grabbed its neck and squeezed.

- Crack! -

The other one was taken out by Ana, yet the rustling continued.

“How did you not pick this up?” complained Oliver.

“I did… just now.” Ethan’s normally carefree smile was replaced by a grim look.

All of a sudden, more goblins came out from behind the trees, much, much more. This time, they didn’t attack right away. Those holding clubs casually walked forward while a few with bows prepared to fire from the back.

‘It’s a God damn army.’ thought Ethan. For an instant, predator and prey eyed each other carefully.

“Iiieeeaaa!”

On a screeching note, the horde attacked. Ana raised a round wall all around them. When her hand touched it, the wall began shooting stones in every direction. Nonetheless, some goblins still managed to climb.

Ethan started killing those who tried to jump over with even Oliver helping out.

“I got one!”

“I got 10.”

Though bickering, the team worked effectively. All around the wall, dead goblins piled up. Ana’s stone barrage was eventually blocked by corpses, so she started helping the boys fight from within.

However, the more goblins they killed, the faster they attacked. Unbeknownst to them, the pile of bodies outside had grown all the way to the top of the wall. The goblins were now using it like a ramp to speed up their advance. Then, just as the 3 youths were about to be overwhelmed, a goblin with a bow jumped above the wall.

Ethan saw it as if in slow motion. Oliver had his spear in a goblin’s torso. Ana’s focus was on the other side of the wall. His knives had already left his hands and he couldn’t retract them in time.

‘I messed up.’ He thought to himself while moving his body towards the arrow’s path.

However, just as the arrow was about to leave its bow, a large shadow ripped it out of the sky. Soon after, screams mixed with howls, and a new wave of fear hit everyone’s senses.

After a long moment of stunned silence, the teens nodded to each other and Ana slowly raised the ground beneath their feet. Outside their tiny fortress, a battle on a whole other scale had begun.