While traveling south towards the town, Alex realized something. He had almost no information on his current quest. He had no idea how many goblins he was dealing with, the location of their camp, or what weapons they stole. He didn't even know the name of the town, just that it was south of the guildhall, and its general location on the map.

Luckily, the southern portion of the Summerfield Kingdom was scarcely populated, and contrary to the name of the kingdom, it was a quite dense forest. The woods were directly next to the kingdom's namesake, and development had only started when almost the entire landscape had been taken over by city or farmland.

The forest was a very scenic place. While moving through, even with his mediocre magical skills, Alex could sense a power emanating from it. Dense underbrush surrounded the bases of a thick canopy of trees. shellwood trees, massive trees that grew up to 200 feet and dropped sweet acorns, lightly peppered the woods. Their wood was highly valued by all craftsmen due to its strength, and even more highly valued by wizards, enchanters, and other magically inclined folks due to its ability to channel and hold magic so well. The only reason they weren't extinct was because of how robust their trunks were. There have only ever been a few felled, and those were already dead. Alex decided to take a short rest under one once he reached what he believed to be halfway to the town. 

The magic filling the forest had increased the potency of his hastening spell, and he didn't adjust his physical output properly. While he had been making much faster progress than he anticipated, he was utterly spent. After creating a small clearing free of brush and debris, Alex put down his pack and removed a small pot from it. After fashioning a fire pit with dried sticks and leaves lying around, he used magic to set the leaves ablaze. That had to be one of his favorite tricks from the magic class. He placed the pot on the fire and poured in some water. While the acorns of the shellwood tree are sweet raw, the real magic comes when you boil them. Literally.

Alex gathered as many acorns as he could and filled the pot until they were even with the waterline. After boiling for only a few minutes, the water started to turn a translucent dark green. He waited until the mixture became completely transparent, then poured the liquid alone into one of his empty waterskins. There it was, a perfect stamina potion!

But that wasn't the best part. The acorns, now drained of their nutrients, left some thick opaque sludge at the bottom. Alex happily scooped some up with his finger and licked it off. It left behind a delicious syrup. Alex took the leftover acorns and coated them in the substance.

After finishing his stamina potion, and all the sugar-coated acorns, Alex decided to try and get a better vantage point by climbing the tree. There wasn't a tree climbing class at the academy, but if there were one, Alex would've been top of his class in that too. A good thing about oak trees is that all of their sprawling branches make them very easy to climb.

As it turns out, Alex was much closer to the town than he expected. The magic of the forest was affecting him much more than he originally thought. It was only another 30 minutes until he reached the town. Now would be a good time to find some information.

As he approached the town, some poorly armed guards attempted to stop him at the gate.

They were brandishing clearly improvised weapons. The first guard was tall, lanky, and looked to be barely older than 15. The other was more evenly proportioned and looked about 30 years older. They looked like they could be father and son. The young one had what looked to be a spare tool handle, with one end whittled down and sharpened to be a makeshift spear. The other brandished a large butcher knife, which he likely snatched from his kitchen.

"Halt!" the first guard yelped nervously.

"What is your business with our town?" ordered the second one.

"Relax, I'm here from the adventure guild back in Stockton. I saw a post about some stolen weapons, and came here to check them out."

"Another kid from the city coming here thinking they can fix all our problems. I told the town council me and my boy could fix this on our own. Looks like they didn't believe me." the older guard growled angrily.

"They probably just thought you were needed to guard the town. Or maybe they weren't impressed by your previous encounter with the goblins" Alex said smugly.

"What are you trying to say, boy?! I'm not good enough?!" the guard angrily yelled.

"Please calm down... he didn't mean it..." muttered the younger guard. "He's just trying to help us..."

"Whatever. He can come into the town once you prove your worth by taking out that camp." The older guard grumbled. "They ran off to the east. You can see smoke from their camp above the treeline."

Alex thanked the guards for the info and headed east towards the camp.

As Alex approached, he decided to scout out the camp. He climbed up a tree that had a good view and observed.

Something wasn't right. The camp was littered with standard goblin sized huts, but there were a few rawhide lean-to's interspersed between them. This wasn't just a goblin encampment; there were orcs here too.

This immediately changed the difficulty of his mission. While still doable, it was no longer going to be the cakewalk he thought it would be. Alex had planned on going in on the camp, sword out, and slashing his way through. Goblins alone were rarely smart enough to do anything except run at you with their spears and clubs or run away from you with your stuff. But with orcs in the camp, he had to be more careful.

On a hunch, Alex had brought his bow, but not many arrows. While looking through his supplies, he could only count four. While looking at the camp, he searched for the stolen weapons. While he couldn't see them directly, he could see some well-equipped orcs guarding a much more solid hut than any of the others. They wore metal helmets with flat tops and were armed with claymores. The huge orcs were able to wield them one-handed, and held a more orcish studded leather shield in the other. That hut had to hold the stolen weapons. Or their chieftain. Either way, it was important to keep a note of it. There were 2 crude archer towers at the end end of the camp facing the town. They were made of branches tied together by the long vines that could be seen wrapping around the surrounding trees. They looked to be only about 6 feet tall and definitely couldn't hold anything heavier than a goblin.

Alex decided he would start there. Staying behind the cover of the trees, he pulled out his bow, nocked two arrows, and released the string. Both arrows hit their mark, taking out the archers and the towers under them. The tower collapsed onto nearby huts. While they didn't cause much damage, it drew the attention of the entire camp. 10 goblins and 4 orcs exited their tents and huts to check the commotion. The two orcs guarding hut were distracted for a moment but didn't leave their posts.

Alex nocked his remaining two arrows and fired them at the same time. Two of the orcs were down, but the others saw where the arrows came from. The orcs charged into the forest, each bringing 5 of the goblins with them.

Alex took a few stones and threw them deeper into the woods. The orcs bought the bait and kept rushing deeper into the woods. The orcs guarding the hut were much better disciplined. With no arrows left, Alex was forced to enter the camp. Even as he approached, the orcs didn't move, only readying their weapons for his attack.

Rather than going for the orcs, Alex focused on the hut behind them. It was about 10 feet of mud bricks, with a thatch roof. Using his fire-starting spell, he lit the roof ablaze. The orcs finally broke formation. One rushed into the hut, and the other charged directly for Alex. It took a slow and telegraphed swing straight down towards his body. Alex stepped to the side and stabbed his blade straight through the orc's exposed rib cage and out the other side. He was aiming for the orc's heart, and directly hit his mark. It collapsed shortly after, leaving no blood behind. Monsters had none. Instead, an ethereal gas flowed through their veins that dissipated once it left their body. Alex took the orc's shield in one hand, and his sword in the other, and rushed into the hut. As he suspected, the weapons were inside. And so was the chieftain. He could kill two birds with one stone.

The remaining guard orc was more hesitant than it's former partner. It stood next to the chieftain in a fighting stance. The chieftain was adorned in body paint and had many piercings across its face. Orc chieftains were the only members of a tribe that learned magic. Their piercings were strongly enchanted and greatly increased the chieftain's magical potency.

The chieftain didn't seem to be joining the fight. It was instead using its magic to enhance its guardian.

Suddenly, a piece of the burning roof fell onto the orc guard, and Alex went for a slice to its arm.

Bearing through the pain, the orc blocked the strike and was healed by the chieftain. With blinding speed, it brought the stolen claymore down onto Alex's head. He was barely able to block it in time. The shield he took from the orc was sliced hallway through, only stopped at the studded metal center.

Alex let go of the shield and threw his sword at the chieftain, landing it directly between its eyes. With the guard orc's magical enhancements gone, he was easily able to dodge its swings. Alex ducked under one slash and pulled out his dagger. The orc raised its sword and brought it down with all it's might. Without the chieftain to enhance its speed, Alex easily sidestepped the swing, and while the orc pulled its sword out of the ground, he dug his blade directly into its kidney.

With no magic to heal its wound, the orc fell over, dazed by the pain, and dropped its weapons. Alex took the claymore, and cleanly sliced off the orc's head.

After taking the chieftain's piercings and dislodging his sword, Alex left the hut. He then remembered there were still 2 orcs and 10 goblins left. Well, he less remembered, and was more greeted by them outside the hut. He could take them out, but it would be tough. That many monsters at once were extremely dangerous to fight, even if most of them were goblins.

Rather than relying on wit and ingenuity, Alex decided to use his new toys. By pure coincidence, the orc chieftain's piercings fit perfectly onto his fingers like rings. As he put them on, he could feel their magical powers coursing through him. In one swipe, Alex was able to take out one of the orcs and 4 of the goblins in front of him. He felt a small prick in his back and noticed one of the remaining goblins had run around him and stabbed him in the back. It didn't matter, as the magic from one of the rings healed the small wound quickly. Without that ring, that stab would have paralyzed him, and left him defenseless.

Alex picked up the goblin and threw it into another. He then took the sword of the goblin and flung it at the final orc. The orc tried to block it with its club, but missed and got the blade lodged into its arm. With only 4 goblins and a weakened orc left, Alex used one of the few spells he had bothered learning and set it off in front of him. He channeled his mana into his left hand, spoke the word of incantation, and in an instant, the monsters were flown in every direction, burning up in the fire of the explosion. 

With all threats neutralized, Alex sat down to rest. He then remembered why he didn't do well in his magic class. While his spells were powerful, he had very little magical stamina. The combined power of the rings drawing from his energy stores, and his explosion being enhanced by the properties of the forest had left him completely spent. 

And this time he didn't have any of those special acorns.

Alex checked his bag to see if he had any stamina potion left. Sadly, it seemed his pouch had been sliced during his encounter and had leaked most of its contents onto the ground. What was left would be barely enough to make it back to the town. He downed it and started heading back.