As we cautiously made our way within the forest, often having to hack our way through obstructions or circle around entirely, both of which drew a frown from Duncan; we eventually came across our first monstrous beast.

It was a worm the size of my body. Looked utterly harmless. Until it opened its mouth wide and circular rows of teeth showed with bloody specks of its last meal still on them, after which it charged, slithering its way incredibly fast toward us.

Duncan smoothly met the charge by unslinging his shield, and equipping it within mere moments, he held it out in front of him and a piercing, continuous screeching sound was heard as the teeth of the monster ground against the metal of the shield.

But Duncan didn’t budge an inch and as the worm’s body bunched up, an arrow shot past Duncan’s foot and straight into the worm, causing its body to straighten up.

At which point from either side of Duncan, Moreno and Dunkirk flashed forward, and cut at the worm’s sides before retreating hastily as the worm thrashed.

I paused where I was, hesitant about acting and ruining their formation, which looked practiced. Then the worm stopped thrashing around, and rising halfway off the ground, fell forward on Duncan, who grunted as he hunkered underneath his shield and pushed back.

As the worm reeled from the failed slam, more arrows feathered from its upper torso, while Moreno and Dunkirk took advantage of the moment to sprint forward, leaving wide open gashes along the worms sides before they got clear; Then, running in a wide arc, they came back behind Duncan as the worm flailed, unable to decide which direction to pursue in.

After that, it was just a matter of waiting as the worm bled out, with the occasional arrow aiding the speed at which it fell.

Speaking of the arrows, fire eye Cathy deserved her name. Her arrows were nocked and fired so fast, that you could barely see her draw the bow. Yet, each arrow would unerringly go to a weak spot that would have been exposed for barely a second.

Finally, the worm fell, thrashing around for a period in which we stood a distance away cautiously while waiting.

After close to fifteen minutes of waiting, Duncan walked forward and prodded the worm with his sword, and seeing no movement - he gave the all clear.

Soon, everyone was busy harvesting the usable parts of the worm, such as the teeth; the skin; and so on.

Rising shortly, the work having taken us just mere minutes as the experienced adventurers sliced up the worm expertly.

Then we were off while Cathy shot a reassuring smile at me, and Moreno snorted before ranging forward again.

We resumed our formation and kept walking, and soon, we found a spider’s nest.

Or rather they found us, as enormous spiders began dropping down from the trees, shooting webs at us.

But we had advance warning from Moreno, and we were prepared.

With a roar, we charged at a particular small tree from which two spiders had dropped, and hacking them to pieces in a moment; we put our backs against the tree with Duncan in the front, along with Dunkirk who had a round shield to aid him - given by Duncan.

Then protected from the front, we stood there as Cathy fired arrows one after the other, unerringly into the spider’s eyes and brains while the spiders crawled around us menacingly, but unable to do much given that only three of them could reach us at any given point.

Moreno also shone as his daggers moved rapidly, deflecting the legs of the spiders as they stabbed forward.

I, in the meantime, only had to deflect the occasional leg that went through the three adventurers’ guard, but even then Cathy had it under control as she would fend it off with her bow and then shoot an arrow after the offending leg.

Idly, I noticed that till now, no one had truly activated their warforce. Either that, or all of my comrades were iron ranked, which I highly doubted.

After an hour of hard fighting, the last spider fell, and the adventurers stood; their breathing harsh but not labored.

Waving them aside, I took charge of the harvesting, and efficiently I picked apart the spider corpses with a few mistakes here and there in the beginning.

Fluid stained my arms and caused a burning sensation that dulled after some time. At which point, I slowly began to lose feeling in my limbs until Duncan threw a small vial at me and said, “Anti venom. Some of those spider’s secrete venom on their skins which will poison you, even if you avoid their poison sacs.”

Understanding dawning on me, I quickly chugged down the vial, a little embarrassed because I was the healer who was supposed to know this.

Resolving to study a better bestiary, and experimenting on any corpses that I could buy, I rose and examined the area where we were ambushed.

Finding that I had taken care of all the spiders, I quickly took stock of my loot.

Lots of spider fangs, jaws, shells, and venom. Especially the last part, which I handled gingerly as I handed all of it to Duncan, who nodded at me, and put it inside what I assumed was his finite ring.

Moving onward, Moreno alerted us to another spider infestation, and we warily made our way close by before finalizing on our plan of action.

Moreno, shouting and waving, drew the attention of the spiders who, enraged at the interloper in their territory, scuttled after him in a wide circle while Cathy spat out continuous arrows that felled the spiders trailing behind him.

As the spiders understood what was happening, they screeched, and a portion of them split aside to rush us.

Only to be met by Duncan and Dunkirk, who stood like a solid wall in front of their advance.

Once the spiders on our side were killed, Cathy went back to focussing on the ones chasing after Moreno, and then it was close quarters combat in which I only had to stab forth once... ending the life of a stubborn spider that had crawled close with three arrows in its eyes.

Pulling the sword out, I looked around at the scene of carnage and almost whistled appreciatively.

These adventurers were good.

The efficiency with which they dispatched the spiders was quite astounding. They wasted not a single arrow or a single strike. Every bit of action they did had a purpose behind it. That, plus their tacit teamwork, just made things flow so smoothly.

Bending down to my harvesting task, I completed it just as the sky darkened and the day ended as night rolled in.

Taking stock of the loot, Duncan nodded in a pleased manner as he said, “That should be enough. We’ll return tomorrow since traveling at night is too dangerous. There’s a spot half an hour behind us I marked for camp. So let’s get there quick, aye?”

As we chorused our agreement, we set out to the clearing that Duncan had noticed and sweeping the area; we cleared out the few monsters that were there before we lay our bedrolls on the ground and I set up a small hooded fire on which I quickly roasted some meat.

Not spider meat, though I heard it was delicious. I didn’t know how to roast it properly and I resolved to add that to my list of things to do. Learning how to roast monster meat.

I calmly cooked as the adventurers set up camp; sprinkling powders, drawing lines, and setting warning traps. In a short while, everything was done, and everyone gathered around for food, with Moreno keeping watch a short distance from us.

As we ate and joked around, I took a plateful of the food to Moreno, who accepted it with a snort, the only thing that I’d heard from him apart from that one sentence back then.

Shrugging, I went back to the campfire as I thought regretfully about how I hadn’t found even one single flower of thorns.

Calculating, I realized I had one more attempt at getting the flower of thorns since I would still hopefully have one warforce infusion potion left after we got back to Yamal.

Debating over whether to ask Duncan and the group about it, I decided against it, as I still didn’t know them that well.

Then, putting out the fire, and deciding on the watches; we went to sleep on the hard ground with our lumpy bedrolls providing scant cushioning.

“This was a pleasant life,” I thought. “An adventurer’s life”

Kill beasts that could be called as monsters, sleep underneath the starry sky, make money, protect the innocent, and live freely.

Especially the last part.

It really appealed to me and I was glad that I had joined the adventurer’s guild.

Looking at the surrounding people, I was also glad that I had met a decent group. I was fully prepared to be on my guard and I still was, but even in the thickest of fighting; they had protected me zealously.

Which earned them a lot of brownie points in my book. A lot.

Especially given that I wasn’t exactly contributing much apart from being a glorified monster part collector.

Snorting much like Moreno, who had the first watch, I turned over and went to sleep.

It was going to be a long night.

And not a peaceful night.