“Rainen, do you want to make a stop here?” Axel points at a village on the map. It’s small and out of the way, near another surrounding of woods. Taking it would mean another two days at the least to get back on the main road.

“I’ve got no problems with you guys deciding where to go since you were kind enough to pay for our detours but I’d advise against that village.” the wagon driver said, looking back. “That one is down Hailforn Road right? That’s one of the places that was hit the hardest the last few years of bad harvest and increase in taxes.”

“Yes,” Hilda confirms, “I do remember quite a few villages in this area, in particular, being quite unfortunate. Many have disappeared or are only starting to rebuild. I doubt you would be able to find anything pertaining to your search in these villages Young Master.”

This was about where Axel, Hector, and I were attacked last time we went to the Green City. If going down that road means there’s a possibility of being attacked by people then, “Let’s avoid it. The city is close enough that taking a detour now to another town would be detrimental to my search.”

“I would agree, kid.” the wagon driver says, holding onto the reins of the horses loosely. “We’re glad you guys paid us a good fee for our company but going through so many forested areas does cause some of the others to get a little uncomfortable.”

Discontent? I’ve seen a little bit of it but there have been no open protests about going through the more dangerous routes. Maybe it’s because we haven’t been attacked or maybe it’s because Hilda is keeping an iron grasp on everything waving those Yurfray coins around.

“This is good,” Hilda comments, looking ahead. “The city is within a few days’ reach. I do hope that Lady Millicent is doing well.”

“About my aunt-” a pain strikes my chest and all eyes turn to me.

“Are you okay Rai? Is it the chest pains again?”

I nod.

“Young Master,” a concerned Hilda rushes over, moving my hand away and starts to press against my chest. “I had hoped that tea worked since we haven’t seen this in a few days. Do you feel any pain here? Or how about here?”

I hold up a hand, telling her to stop. “It’s getting duller. I just need to take a few deep breaths and I’ll be fine again.” I get out of the wagon and put my arms behind my head, letting my lungs take in as much air as possible.

Hilda and Axel look on from the frontmost wagon but stay on. I toss a thumbs up their way to show them I’m okay. Hilda’s tense form relaxes and Axel leans against the few crates inside the wagon.

These pains have been going on since we left Aurora City. There wasn’t anything out of place at the start of the journey but as we kept moving, I became bored and ran off to train once the wagons all stopped to set up for the night.

As I jogged, a sharp pain shot through all the way from the center of my chest to my arms. I thought of it as a simple twitch or the odd pulled muscle but as I started to practice my knife throwing, I collapsed to the ground writhing in pain.

It felt as if someone was repeatedly stomping on my chest. Black spots invaded my vision and I couldn’t breathe. However, once my hand slipped and I fell flat on the ground, the cold snow steadily brought me back to how I once was.

I didn’t tell anyone afterward in fear that I would be blowing something out of proportion but the pains came in the next day and the day after that. Looking back, it would have been impossible for me to keep it a secret from them since I was constantly grasping at my chest.

In the last town we passed by, a healer was kind enough to examine it after Aisha dragged me to him. Initial worries were that I caught a disease or had gotten sick. The result turned out a bit differently than anyone imagined.

“Your chest, it’s healing,” he said, surprised that such a massive amount of damage had been done and that I was still alive. “How in the world did you get injuries like these? This is some interesting magic going on.”

Of course, I lied in my answer, stating that monsters attacked me. I knew where I got these injuries from, I also knew when, I just didn’t know how. After that one man, Havel, hit me with his mace, I knocked out cold for a while.

It’s amazing that I lived and that I didn’t see any of their blood splattered across the walls when I woke up. The demon’s being suppressed by this seal quite a bit it seems. When I let it out to fight the halberd user, I thought it would easily wipe everyone it came across out.

That’s what it did the last time…

As I walk, lost in thought, a voice pierces the silence

“Help!”

My ears perk. I look at where the sound came from and see nothing but trees. The wagons stop. The people we’re traveling with pop out from the shelter of the wagons and look for the voice as well.

The horses snort, raising their legs and stomping the ground. Something’s nearby. Something not very fun. There are a few fighters in this group. They’re stronger than the average person but I don’t know if they can handle the new monsters or not. Even I haven’t come across one yet.

“Big brother,” Aisha jogs over, her dog accompanying her, alert and growling. “Did you hear that? I think it came from that way.” she points off the trail.

“Yeah, I think most of us did.” Should I rush over there? If worse comes to worse then we’ll be attacked too. “Aisha, stay here. I’m going to check it out.”

“I want to come with.”

“No,” I say firmly as I wave Hilda over, “Don’t let Aisha follow.”

“I was not planning to Young Master.”

I break off from the group heading toward the direction of the sound. My chest pounds, begging for a moment of respite. The added challenges of running through deep snow also contributed to my overall tiredness. I don’t have to time to stop, so I run despite the constricting pain and aching legs.

Something catches my eye and I run in that direction. I see their leg, the rest of their body is behind a tree. Once I reach him, once I see him, I shake my head and run off. Red stains the snow where he lays.

I keep going. Someone still needs help. I follow the trail of blood until it leads to a path of matted and thrown around snow.

“Help!”

Five people, adventurers, stand back to back fending off monsters from all sides. The person, who I presume to be the leader, heaves breaths. Sweaty, bleeding, cold, tired, and in a fight for their lives.

“Help!” he screams again, waving his sword to push the monsters back.

They’re either completely new adventurers, or the monsters really have grown much stronger. To be pushed to the brink by goblins… The danger of facing goblins came from their numbers. Venturing into a cave or into a thick forest is where they’re most likely to camp out for an ambush.

But here, in this snow covered place, it would be impossible for them to hide. Goblins suffer as much from the cold as any human.

“Stop wasting your breath,” a girl in leather armor says, “No one’s here. And if they were, everyone’s too scared to come-”

A goblin rushes her as she speaks. She steps back, bumping into the person opposite of her, and throws her arms up, protecting her face. A mistake.

I hurl a knife and it lodges itself into the goblin’s throat. It gurgles on blood, falling dead to the ground. One goblin with a bow howls and shoots an arrow at me. I pull more knives throw them at the goblins before taking cover behind a tree.

Peeking around the corner, I count twelve goblins still up and around down there. They really are getting better, since there should have been only five left. Another arrow flies at me, hitting the tree with a dull *THUNK*

“Above you!”

I roll, dodging a nimble, snarling goblin. It waves its short crafted knife around trying to draw my attention. Its ruse fails. I twist around, catching the other goblin midair as it leaps at me. I grab onto its arm and throw it into the snow. The other rushes toward me but I kick its chin. Its eyes roll to the back of its head, incapacitated.

“GRAAAH!”

Again, the goblin comes. I kick it away, pull out a knife, and end its life in a single throw. They’re not as weak as they used to be, that’s for sure, but not strong enough for me to be worried about a small group. Physically, they’re perhaps only a little tougher. I can’t come to a conclusion yet on how much smarter they’ve become.

The glasses wearing mage of the group points his staff at the goblin he’s facing off against, “[Fireball]!”

The goblin leaps out of the way, loosening its crafted knife while doing so. The magician flinches and the knife sinks into his thigh. He cries out in agony, dropping his staff and gripping his leg. He goes down to one knee and the goblin lunges at him.

From its side, the goblin pulls out another crafted knife and starts to stab the mage. He throws his arms up in defense. His teammate turns around, only managing a shallow cut with her sword. The goblin stumbles back a bit, tripping over the snow. She takes the opportunity and rams the goblin, pinning it to the ground. She screams out for someone else to finish it off.

I rush to them, sliding down the icy slope while having close encounters with arrows. Reaching the bottom I throw a knife at the goblin who seems to be giving orders. The leader of the little group knocks the knife away with his staff, an surprising feat.

I quickly survey the situation again. Good. The goblin who attacked the mage was finally taken down, and none of the other goblins made a move during that time. The adventurers don’t seem to be bleeding to a point where they need a healer right away either.

I’d say It’s a pretty fortunate situation. They might not look at it that way but I sure do.

“Grah!” the leader shouts, pointing at the surrounded adventurers.

The other goblins joyously cheer and break off from the positions they held since I got here. The adventurers’ faces fill with fear and they back closer to each other. The injured magician cries out and the party leader’s eyes meet mine.

At this rate, I won’t get to them in time. I bite my lip and teleport. Once, twice. I grab the nearest goblin by the neck, sink my knife into its chest and move onto the next. I slit one’s throat, I impale another one. I turn one to a pile of ashes and lightning bolt another.

The adventurers, at this point, gather their courage and strength and charge the remaining few. Despite seeing how weak they were before, the adventurers actually manage to cut down the rest of the goblins with little trouble.

The goblin leader, being the last one, shrieks at us before turning to run away. I teleport behind him, sending my fist crashing down on his head. He collapses, still conscious. I aim a fireball at the dizzied monster.

It looks me straight in the eye and mutters, “Evil human.” before the fireball turns him into a charred corpse.

I take a moment to catch my own breath.

“Hey,” the leader walks up to me, holding his hand out, “Thank you for saving us. We wouldn’t have made it without you-” he leans closer, “A-are you alright? You seem a bit winded. Although it makes sense considering how quickly you took down those goblins.”

I nod, “I’m all good. How is your group?”

“Like I said, thanks to you, we’re safe.” the leader glances back at his group. Two people, the girl that saved him earlier and a larger man, lift the magician to his feet.

With no imminent threat, I take another look around the woods, “Do you guys have a camp nearby or was this supposed to be a quick quest?” The nearest village I know of is the one down Hailforn Road.

“It was supposed to be an easy first mission. F-ranked too. We thought now would be a good time to start adventuring. We’d rise to the top during all this madness when everyone was scared.” he clutches a torn glove, his knuckles turning red, “...Anyways, do you mind if I ask what rank you are?”

“I’m an F-ranked adventurer just like you if that’s what you’re asking.”

He shakes his head in disbelief, “A-after all that? There’s no way you’re a new adventurer!”

“I’m not,” I respond. “Due to changes in the guild, lots of people have been demoted one or two ranks. I used to be D-ranked, so I dropped down two.”

“Oh.”

Somehow, he looks even more disheartened… Well, it’s not my place to say anything to him. Adventuring isn’t something that should be looked on as something easy, however, he lost a few people today.

“I’ve got a few wagons nearby, we’re making our way to the Green City. If you guys come along, we can treat your friend,” I say while pointing to the mage.

“Thank you,” he bows his head and keeps it there until I stop him. “I’m Istruan, leader of The Leather Gloves.”

“Rainen. Just a solo adventurer if that’s what you’re looking for,” I shake his hand and start walking back to the wagons, “Follow me.”

On the way back, I lose myself in thought, breaking out occasionally when asked a question by Istruan. I rack the entirety of my brain, going back to as far as I can remember but I have no luck. I return to my group with Istruan’s party in tow.

Aisha asks if my chest is tight and what happened while sitting next to me on the back of a wagon as we watch Istruan and his friends get tended to by Hilda and some others.

“Is something bothering you,” she asks.

“No,” I answer bluntly, hoping to deflect her question.

“Are you lying to me?”

“I only lie to people I dislike,” of course I’m lying, “So make of that what you will, my cute little sister.”

She frowns, “Mmmmm. Lying then following it up with a truth. So tricky!”

I laugh while combating the big question in the back of my head. When did goblins learn to talk?