“We should be reaching Rigel’s location soon,” a black haired man with hair pulled back into a half ponytail said as they traversed carefully through the forest.

“Good. We are proceeding as planned,” Reuben nodded as he studied the position of the sun.

Elise who was walking behind wiped sweat off her forehead as she trudged ahead together with the rest.

It was high noon, and there were currently six members in their group. Andric, Seymour, Fiore, Reuben the Guild Master, the black haired scout with an axe on his back who had joined them a little while after they had entered the forest and lastly, herself.

After the Guild Master had announced that they would be attacking the Goblins, they prepared quickly, and Fiore brought her to the Guild armoury to borrow a shortbow and a quiver of arrows. They left around late morning, leaving one of the three Guild Receptionists to look after the building, and according to the scout, they should reaching the place where one of the group of 100 Goblins were resting at soon.

Andric walked nearer to her and asked, “Are you feeling unwell?”

Elise shook her head. “I’m okay.”

It was difficult to believe in her ‘okay’, but Andric had no choice but to watch the girl trudge on. This was supposed to be her test to see if she was capable enough to be a rank D Adventurer so it would not be to her advantage if he helped her too much.

“Hah,” he let out a sigh as he scratched his head.

Seymour who saw that came closer to him and smiled. “Don’t worry. When we are fighting later, I will be beside her so nothing bad will come to her,” he assured.

Andric smiled wryly. Even if a person was to pay a high amount, it was difficult to say that they would be able to get the protection of a rank A Mage. However, Elise got it for free, and probably without even knowing how special it was.

“Wait,” Andric said suddenly as he stopped in his steps. “There is someone approaching from the west.”

Reuben who had sensed it as well glanced at the young man approvingly. “It is fine. It is just Rigel.”

In the next moment, a grey-haired man in his thirties stepped into their line of sight.

He was breathing slightly heavily, but his eyes were steady. “Guild Master, I'm glad you have arrived. The group of Goblins at the west have started to move. The ones in the east are still stationary.”

“What kind of Goblins do they have?”

“Each group consist of around 20 Goblin Riders, 20 High Goblin Archers, and 60 Goblins.”

“Hah. Mostly weaklings. They are just testing us with this. Is it because we have been killing too many of their scouts recently?” He asked with a sly grin.

Looking at Rigel again, he asked, “Any signs of reinforcements?”

The man shook his head. “As you say, this group is most likely cannon fodder to test how well we can handle large groups at one go.”

“Where have you placed your men?”

“So far we have five men observing each group.”

“Five will be too little if we are suddenly faced with reinforcements,” Reuben said thoughtfully. “Tell Reina to gather at least twenty more rank C and above Adventurers and tell them meet us at the Twisted Tree. Oh, and update the Mayor on what is happening. Tell him to increase the frequency of guard patrols around the town perimeters and prevent the townspeople from going into the forest.”

Rigel nodded. “Understood.”

He held out his arm and whistled. Just as Elise was wondering what he was doing, a grey flash appeared and landed on his arms.

It was a large bird around 80 cm tall with grey and black feathers. It had yellow, hooked beak, and three tiny blue feathers grew from the top of its head. Its golden eyes were intelligent and it swept across the group of Adventurers before affectionately rubbing its head on the face of Rigel.

When she saw Rigel writing a note and tying it on the bird’s legs, Elise finally understood how they had been passing messages so quickly.

As Rigel was busy writing down Reuben’s instructions, he continued giving out instructions to the rest of the group. “Andric, you will go to the group in the west with Rigel. Fiore and Blake, go with him as well,” Reuben ordered.

“Alright!” Fiore replied cheerfully. It had been some time since she had exercised, plus she will have a good looking guy to accompany her, so she did not have any complains.

“I’ll go with the young lady and Seymour to face the Goblins in the east. Are there any questions?”

Andric had anticipated that they would split Elise and him up as they knew each other so he was not very surprised. “I do not have any issues with that arrangement.”

Rigel had only just realised that there was a foreign face amongst the group and asked puzzledly, “Pardon my question, but this lady is…?”

“Rigel, meet Elise. She is a new Adventurer who wish to participate in the Goblin quest. I have brought her here to test if she has the capability to participate in it,” Reuben explained to the bewildered Rigel.

“Elise. This is Rigel, my Assistant Guild Master.”

Elise gave a slight smile and nodded her head at the older man.

“Well, now that we have made the introductions, let us move into our positions quickly.”

“Today, our motive is to destroy every single Goblin they have sent us,” he said with a cold grin.

*****

Elise was currently hidden amongst the trees. Her green dress and brown cloak blended into the foliage, making her difficult to spot.

Reuben squatted beside her as he peered at the group of Goblins half hidden within trees. They were currently at an elevated ground a distance away from their targets. The five other men were scattered loosely around the perimeters and were ready to attack once the signal is given.

The Goblins riding on Forest Wolves were currently patrolling around the area while a mass of 60 Goblins were restlessly milling around the centre of the group. Different from the Goblins Elise first saw in the forest, the Goblins Riders and the Goblins were all wearing shoddily made metal armours. The Goblin Riders even had shields made from wood and covered with a layer of metal.

Hiding in the trees were the High Goblin Archers. As they had green skin, they blended into the surroundings perfectly. Elise would not have noticed if Reuben had not pointed them out to her.

“Elise, how far are you able to shoot?” Reuben asked suddenly.

Elise closed her eyes for a while before she answered, “With the current wind speed and direction, probably around 150 to 200 metres.”

Reuben nodded. “That is a bit shorter than what I’ll hope for, but it should be sufficient.”

Pointing at a Goblin Rider that was slightly bigger than the rest, he asked, “When I give the signal, I need you to shoot the leader of the group. You can hit anywhere. The arrow is just to cause confusion and signal my other men to attack. Will you be able to do that?”

“Leave it to me.”

“Seymour,” he addressed the calm man who had been standing aside. “Please support us from the back later.”

Seymour smiled. “There is no need to worry about that. I will do my best to assist you.”

Reuben nodded. Like him, Seymour was a rank A Adventurer. However, he was not stationed at a fixed location but sent by the Perenia Capital Guild to different parts of the land to resolve monster problems. With him around, their chances of winning this war was in their favour.

“Alright. You can start whenever you are ready,” Reuben said to Elise. “It will be fine even if you miss, so don't get too stressed over it,” he added with a mischievous grin.

Elise just laughed dryly. While it was true that she had not used the bow for very long, she managed to get the feel back while practicing at the Guild’s range so she had confidence she will hit the target.

Taking out the bow that was hanging on her back, she notched an arrow and pulled opened the bow.

She aimed at the head of the Goblin Rider wandering near the front of the group of Goblins.

“Is this going to affect the outcome of my test?”

Reuben grinned. “Your test has already started from the time you enter the forest. But I won't lie to you that how you perform in this battle will show if you are capable of being a rank D Adventurer or not.”

She was very sure that she will be able to kill it with one shot, but was that really enough to proof that she is capable of being a rank D Adventurer?

If she need to bet her test result with this shot, then she will need to make it flashier.

“As long as it causes confusion, it will be okay right?” Elise asked.

Reuben was amused. What was this girl up to?

“Yes. That will be fine.”

“Alright,” Elise answered, satisfied with his answer.

Instead of aiming at the Goblin Rider, Elise pointed her arrow upwards.

She gathered all the mana in her body and directed it to the tips of her finger.

To create magic, apart from offering mana, the user need to give structure or instructions to what they want the mana to become. This can be done by using words or envisioning the phenomenon the user want. For more complicated magic, magic circles are required, but for what she was going to perform, just envisioning and words will be enough.

Flames, become my fury and scatter. What I desire is, Fire Rain!

At her last thought, she let loose the arrow.

Her arrow flew in a beautiful arc across the sky. Everyone apart from Seymour who saw that was confused as it was obvious that it was not going to hit a target. Seymour on the other hand held his breathe as he could sense the mana trapped within the arrow.

Th-This was!

When the arrow reached its highest altitude and started to descent, flames burst from the arrow and scattered down over the Goblins. Trails of orange rained down from the sky, burning everything it touched. True to its name, it looked as if fire was raining down on the Goblins.

The unfortunate Goblins were immediately thrown into a mess and shrills cries and screams filled the air. The Goblin Riders who had shields used them to cover their heads and attempted to calm their subordinates down, but the sudden onslaught of flames had caught everyone by surprise, and very quickly, the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

Goblins with body parts burnt screamed and rolled around the floor in pain. Some even had their green, hairless heads melted, and white skulls could be seen from below the black, charred skin. The whole scene looked like something out of hell, and the scent of blood was strong in the air. Even if the Adventurers did not go out to kill them, there was no doubt most of the Goblins will die from blood loss.

Although the magic had lasted for less than a minute, half of the Goblins had already been rendered useless.

All the men who saw that spectacle were momentarily stunned. Even Seymour, as despite knowing that Elise could use magic, he did not know that she was capable of using such a large scale attack.

Reuben on the other hand, guffawed out loud. This girl is surprising!

“Well done! I’ll talk to you again later,” Reuben said as he pulled out his 2 metre long broadsword from his back and held it easily with his right hand.

“Sure,” Elise answered calmly. Her hands had not stopped after she let out her first shot and she was smoothly and agilely aiming for the Goblin Archers hidden in the trees.

What? How did she go from a small sputtering flame to being able to create flashy magic like this? You can't possibly think that she has been just sleeping and eating for the past few days, right? She had been properly meditating and practicing to get used to the mana in her body, so her magic is much more stable with a better effect now.

Reuben jumped down from their elevated position and joined in the fray. His other five men had already jumped into action after the fire had stopped and were busy engaging the Goblins. With a swing of his broadsword, Reuben decapitated the heads of several Goblins. The Goblin Riders proofed a little trickier as they were agile on the backs of the Forest Wolves, but as the men were all rank B and above Adventurers, the Goblin Riders were not a match and they made quick work of them as well. In less than fifteen minutes, all of the Goblins had perished.

As the men combed through the forest for any stragglers or spies, Elise remained at her elevated position. She heaved a soft sigh of relief. It was the first time she had participated in battle as an Archer, so she was glad everything had gone smoothly.

She glanced at the man standing beside her who had been looking at her with curious eyes since the start of battle. Did Sey even attack during the whole battle?

“Is there something on my face?” Elise could not resist and finally asked. It was unnerving to have a beautiful man stare at her silently.

“Why did you choose to become an Archer even though you can use magic very well?”

Ah, so it was because of her choice of job class? Why is everyone insisting for her to become a mage? Her magic power is lesser than an average Lauritopia citizen, you know?

Elise wanted to say that out loud, but since she was supposed to be keeping her identity a secret, she swallowed her words and explained, “Because my mana is low. Once I have used an attack like the one I showed earlier, I don’t have the mana to use magic anymore. If I choose to become a Mage, I will become useless after using my mana for a large scale attack, so it is better for me to be an Archer.”

Although Seymour understood what she was saying, he could not help but give a slightly confused look as it was normal for a person to run out of mana after using a large scale attack. Unsure of what to follow up after her strange response, he decided to change the topic instead.

“Then, where did you learn how to use magic from?” As people who can use magic were rare, people who can use magic were usually sent to special institutions or were taken in by an experienced Mage as disciples. From Elise’s smooth and experienced actions, she must have been taught by an excellent Mage so he was rather curious.

Where did she learn her magic from? Elise’s mind went into a whirlwind as she thought of what to say. She was supposed to be an amnesiac person, but apart from Andric, she had not spoken about it to anyone. Andric did not seem to have spoken about it to others either.

Should she come out first and let them know about it? It would become troublesome to deal with all the questions, but it might be better than being suspicious for keeping it a secret.

“I...”

“We have cleared the area here. There was a group of ten Goblins hanging around the area, but they have all been killed.”

“Thanks for your hard work,” Seymour replied Reuben politely with a slight nod.

“What are our next plans?” Elise asked quickly. Since Reuben had showed up at a good timing, she might as well take advantage of it.

“My scouts will be taking this chance to enter deep into their territory and secure the location of their base. I have already contacted Reina to send over the twenty scouts. We should be able to get hold of the location by nightfall.”

Reuben crossed his arms and looked at Elise approvingly. “You are much better than you look. Why did you choose to be an Archer when you know magic?”

This again?

Seeing Elise’s grimace, Reuben laughed. “Haha! It’s okay if you do not want to be a Mage. You make a pretty good Archer as well.”

“Thanks?”

“Elise, you can return back to the Guild first. You can participate in the Goblin Subjugation Quest a week from now. Take this time to train and buy your bow.”

“So, I pass the test?” She asked excitedly.

Reuben laughed. “Yes! Now start heading out. One of the scouts will escort you.” He gestured to an dark blue haired man in his thirties to come over. The man already knew what was expected of him so he quickly jogged over.

“Titan will be your escort.”

The two parties nodded at each other in acknowledgement.

Turning to Seymour, Reuben said, “Seymour, I need you to remain here for a while. I have something I need to discuss with you.”

“Sure.”

Elise did not mind as she knew that Sey was working for the Guild. Since there was nothing else here for her, she will gladly take up his offer and go back and rest first.

After making sure that Elise was out of earshot, Reuben turned to face Seymour with a serious expression.

“Seymour. How is it?”

The blue haired man closed his eyes before a crease appeared between his brows.

“I can feel the presence of multiple strong monsters in this forest.”

“Multiple?” Reuben’s face grew stiff. Were they going to be dealing with more than one Goblin General?

He nodded. “Yes. I can’t identify exactly what they are. But they are at least rank A.”

Reuben exhaled heavily, and exchanged looks with Seymour.

“We will need to keep our guard up then.”