A gentle breeze rustled the leaves on the swaying trees. Calm filled the forest resounding with the canorous cries of birds.

-THUMP

The air boomed.

-THUMP

Like the hammerings of a drum, the rhythmic thumps drowned the sound of the chirping birds away. Insects scuttled away and the singing birds flew off as the sound grew louder and louder with each second.

Deep amongst the rustling leaves appeared the figure of a humongous green monster. The tall monster’s mountainous muscles spasmed while its hideous mouth heaved in fear. Suddenly, the sound of running grew louder than ever. Dozens of feet crashed against the floor as smaller monsters ran behind the first one.

With haste in its feet and fear in its eyes, a Hobgoblin, the leader of Goblins, ran with its entire settlement for its life.

“At last... I am out.”

**

Clamor and clatter boomed in the rowdy pub, a lively atmosphere one would find each night at the Moons’ hideout. The small town of Vicino did not have many places its loutish residents could frequent, so the only pub in the plaza was always filled with guests.

Sitting at the counter was a large bald man. He stoically stared at the mug of beer in his hand. The large muscles and the glistening scars on his dark brown skin were intimidating enough to make a grown man turn on his heels, yet the numerous people sitting around him didn’t seem to mind it at all.

The man chugged his beer down and the bartender promptly brought another mug out when the door to the pub crashed open.

“Morris! Big trouble!”

The noisy bar quietened at once. Everyone turned to face the scrawny man that had barged in with a shout. Then, they all turned towards the counter, but the large man sitting at the center had already left his seat and was making his way towards the newcomer.

Morris’ face crunched as he reached the man with rushed steps. The glare on his face made the newcomer involuntarily gulp. Morris grabbed the scrawny man’s hand with great strength.

“What is it? Is someone hurt?!”

“Ah, um, uh, no!” Jimmy, the scrawny man, stumbled over his words. “The goblin settlement! It’s gone! The whole cave collapsed!”

Hearing his words, the people in the pub broke into loud whispers and murmurs while the four people sitting around Morris ran up to him in surprise.

“How can that be? What happened to the monsters then?” Morris asked.

“I-I don’t know. I heard they are all dead! Uh-uh, what do we do now? It was supposed to be our job.”

Morris closed his eyes and put a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “Calm down, Jimmy. It is good that the people are safe now.”

“But how can we be so sure that all three hundred of them disappeared?” From next to Morris, the tall man with similarly built muscles spoke up. “There must something fishy. We should check out the Explorer’s Guild and get things straight.”

Morris nodded his head at Skipper’s suggestion. He waved his hand at the bartender who gave him a thumbs up and left the Moons’ hideout with his group.

Under the hazy blue sky coldly lit by the twin suns, the group walked through the cold stone streets, passing by the modest buildings of brick and mortar. In such a peaceful place, the sight of a buff and lanky group was so intimidating that it could make limping old women run in a marathon. Yet, the people passing by gave them warm smiles and friendly waves.

“Hey, Morris!” A voice called out. Morris turned around to see a tall woman in lofty armor. Her imposing figure and composed smile gave off the aura of a seasoned veteran. Behind the woman were two more people in similar armors. The long-eared girl had a giant halberd on her back while the chiseled man carried a spear.

“Tigress!” Morris exclaimed as he grasped the woman’s hands. “What is it, is anyone hurt?”

“Wah, uh no!” Tigress pulled her hand back. “I wanted to talk about the goblins.”

“Oh! Were you the guys that reported the collapse? Did all the goblins truly die?”

The Tigress nodded her head and continued. “We weren’t going that place. We were on our way back from an escort job and found a bunch of Goblins and a Hobgoblin running. It was a very weird scene. They seemed like they didn’t want to fight and died pretty easy.”

Morris pressed his hand against his chin at her explanation.

“When we traced their path, we found the original location of the settlement destroyed. The whole cave had collapsed on itself… Um… I was told it was supposed to be your gig so…” The Tigress nervously shifted her gaze.

“No, no, you did the right thing,” Morris said as he tapped her shoulder. The Tigress faintly blushed and nodded her head.

“Well, um, you should still check in with the Explorer’s Guild. They did say they had something to talk with you about.”

“Got it,” Morris replied and they split up.

At the entrance of the guild, Morris bumped into a short child and furiously apologized, but the child was slightly intimidated as he did not say a word and ran away. With an understanding yet disappointed gaze, Morris and his group entered the guild. They passed by the others and went straight up to the reception.

At the reception was a listless lady with platinum blonde hair and pointy ears. She was gazing off in the distance while spinning a pen in her hand.

“Ahem, Ahem!” Morris coughed.

Without noticing him, the listless receptionist sighed and continued gazing away.

“Ahem! Miss!”

The receptionist turned to face Morris and immediately sat up. The sight of the burly man with a hawk-like glare and a menacing scar on his face was intimidating enough to make the most professional of receptionists clatter their teeth in fear. Of course, the receptionist of the Explorer’s guild was an elite professional. Her teeth clattered and her eyes trembled as beads of sweat started forming on her head.

“M-M-Mister Morris!”

“Yes, it is me,” Morris replied. Sensing her mood, he tried to calm her down with a friendly smile, but the receptionist was just more scared. With trembling hands, she pulled out a pouch of money and extended it towards the man.

“No! I don’t want your money.”

“N-n-no… This is the money, for your Goblin request… The manager asked us to pay you twenty percent of the request fee.” The receptionist summoned all her courage to explain her actions.

Morris could only sigh tiredly at this face. “I understand. It is part of the rules, so I will accept it,” Morris said and reached for his wallet, but there was nothing. Surprised, he pulled out his overcoat and checked the pockets again but he still couldn’t find it.

“Where is my wallet…?”

**

“At last... I am out.”

Red hair cascaded down, touching the tips of Astolfo’s shoulders. The scar around his left eye couldn’t hide the glistening in his pupils. His clothes that were now a little better than rags fluttered in the air as he took in a deep breath and wiped his face.

“Hmm, the fresh air. The sun. I can’t believe it has been six whole months.” His eyes still closed, Astolfo’s muffled voice echoed in the air. He wiped his eyes again and shook his head before looking up in the sky. “Home doesn’t seem that far away anymore.”

Astolfo smile and stretched his arms. After dusting his clothes, he turned back to look at the cave one last time. For every second of the last six months, he had been desperately fighting within an inch of his life. After miraculously saving his eyesight, even the mysterious healing had reached its end, making survival tougher than he could imagine.

“I wouldn’t have survived it wasn’t for the curse, huh. How funny, the curse of Teleios was my blessing of life…”

Astolfo walked towards the walls of the cave and looked inside. Insidious green blood filled the floor as hundreds of corpses spread in all directions. The frail houses set up by the Goblin colony had all broken down from the bulging masses of earth and ice while deep cuts decorated the walls of the cave. Without batting an eye and the gruesome sight, Astolfo clicked his tongue.

“What a mess. I should probably seal this place up.”

Astolfo raised a finger. Suddenly, a small pebble fell from the top of the cave and landed right on his head.

“Ack. This damn curse!” Taking a few steps back, Astolfo meticulously brushed the dirt off of his head and tried that again. As his finger traced a line in the air, the cave walls thundered. Dust and dirt dropped down as the cave collapsed upon itself with a big crash.

“Haha, take that, stupid cave!” Astolfo exclaimed.

After kicking the debris of the cave with a gleeful smile, he turned away from the cave and skipped ahead. The young redhead was happy, and after being alone for so long, he didn’t need to be around anyone else so show it. For the last six months in a dark cave where even his shadow would shy away, he had been his only companion and his only ally.

The boy moved deeper into the forest, following whatever trail he could when the sounds of someone talking entered his ears. Like a rabbit, Astolfo hopped behind the trees and took cover under the overgrown grass. From the distance, three people wearing lofty armor were approaching.

The tall and imposing woman with waving brown hair and a collected smile on her face looked like the leader of the group. Behind her was a black-haired man that reminded Astolfo of one of the sharp-jawed men he had seen in his storybooks. And lastly, a stunning woman with platinum blonde hair and pointed ears followed them from the back.

“Is-is that an… elf?!” Astolfo whispered to himself. As the group came closer, he could hear their voices.

“$%$#[email protected]#$”

“#$%%^[email protected]#$%%#”

“&*#)#*$&@*$%@!!”

He could hear them. But he didn’t have the farthest clue of what they were saying. Astolfo squinted his eyes as he tried to make out what they were saying, but let alone a familiar word, he couldn’t even hear familiar noises.

“Are these people sentient…? What language is that?” The inexperienced country kid was more conflicted than awed with his first experience of hearing a new language.

Astolfo kept his eyes and ears rooted on the group as they walked up to the cave he had collapsed. After inspecting the debris, they shook their heads and turned to leave.

‘Was this place their goal? I’m glad I broke it. There are a lot of things in there just three people can’t take on,’ Astolfo thought to himself. With his life on the line at every second, he had adopted the policy of not being an idiot and did his best to avoid everything he could not kill.

As the three people walked into the forest, Astolfo quietly followed them. He had gotten quite good at hiding.

“Strange language or not. They must be going to some house of some kind! Oh, what I’ll give for a good bath and a cup of tea!” Even while the following someone, he continued his talk with himself.

Soon, the forest slowly faded away as homely buildings of brick and mortar started appearing in his surroundings. The rough dirt road of the forest merged into cleared paths and eventually into streets made of cold stone. With the loss of forest cover, Astolfo took on the mask of a random bystander, but couldn’t hide the surprise on his face. His mouth widened and closed alongside his eyes as the beautiful town of Vicino welcomed him with open arms.

The buildings around got slightly bigger and the streets grew wider as Astolfo followed the armored lady and her group to the heart of Vicino. The central lane of the town was slightly crowded with large establishments surrounding it. People of all kinds in tunics and cloaks and skirts and dresses filled the streets. Mixed in with the humans were the occasional long-eared and exquisitely beautiful elves.

Seeing the rugged and dirty Astolfo staring at his surroundings with all the blatant innocence of a child seeing something for the first time, the people either smiled warmly or looked worried for the kid. Some tried to approach him and talk to him, but he couldn’t do much other than furrow his brows and tilt his head.

Luckily the people he was following were too busy with whatever they had seen, or he would’ve been noticed long ago. At last, the three went stopped across one of the grandest buildings around. Astolfo looked around while waiting for them to come out. He was sure of it.

“This place… I can surely find a good house in this place… I want to bathe, a bed, some tea… I want to get out of these dirty clothes.” The boy silently clenched his fist as the flames of determination burned in him.

The armored lady had finally come out of the building after roughly fifteen minutes. Astolfo hid his smile as he started following them again. After a few minutes, the leader lady called out to someone and ran to him with a wide smile. He could not see who she was talking to, but after the talk was over, she had a relieved look on her face.

“This is bad!” Astolfo was following her for one purpose. He needed money. The boy remembered one of the lessons he had with his father in the forest near his home in Frucht.

‘Astolfo,’ his father had said. ‘You are useless. You can’t do anything by being as weak as you are. So when push comes to shove, you will have to rely on techniques like stealing and tricking. I’ll teach you what to do, so listen close, ok?“

Looking back on it now, he thought that it was rather crappy of his father to teach him to steal. But he wasn’t in any position to complain.

‘One of the important things to remember while picking a target is to observe their psyche. Are they alert? Are they scared? These people will be difficult to steal from. You need someone troubled or unsuspecting to steal properly.’

The lady was not tired anymore, but the man she had just talked with seemed to have something on his mind. He had a whole entourage with him that was mimicking the same mood.

“Maybe… This one just might be easy.”

Saying so, Astolfo stopped tailing the armored lady and closed in on the coated men.