Iron rank was the rank the interesting quests got available. The previous two rankup missions could be interesting as well, but nearly all missions were simply harder versions of the quests you could do in the lower ranks.

All quests they had been allowed to take so far had either been go there and kill x monsters or go there and collect x plants, nothing interesting.

That was about to change though, because Iron ranked adventurers were allowed to take on special commissions, which had better pay and interesting quirks to them.

Furthermore, they were officially allowed to go and hunt without the assistance of a teacher as they were acknowledged to be able to deal with most threats they would come across in the lands controlled by the empire.

There were as many different quests as there were people, so the diversity as well as difficulty between bronze and iron rank was phenomenal.

Probably the hardest quests special hunting quests, where you had to capture a monster instead of kill it.

Currently they were doing one such quest, having to capture a hobgoblin for one of the teachers who wanted to make experiments on it.

While that didn't sit well with her, goblins were known to be partially sentient after all, she gave into the insistence some of the new members to do it.

The quest would be easy enough as she had one of the academy’s alchemy students make her a potent sleeping dust and would apply it to the monster with wind magic.

Unlike the big monsters like drakes, capturing weak humanoids was easy. It would only get challenging once they reached higher evolutions, where simple poisons or other alchemedic brews wouldn't affect them for more than a second.

Finding the goblin proved to be far more challenging than anticipated. The empire’s goblins had learnt long ago that they would mostly be ignored as long as they didn't bother humans. Sometimes they were hunted anyways but there was nothing except hiding they could do to properly change the status quo.

That only applied to normal goblins though, the moment an evolved goblin was found the adventurers guild sent out someone to kill it.

Obviously the teacher had heard about the coming quest and requested it be caught for him to study.

After three days of uselessly wandering the forest, encountering the odd monster every four hours or so, Starshadow finally spotted the hobgoblin.

Subtly changing their course, she went in his direction.

The hobgoblin was a prime specimen of his kind, a meter and fifty centimeters tall he was above average for his species. Though even the slender elves would seem broad compared to him.

Its mouth was full sharp teeth and big enough to split its head in half with a twisted grin. The ears were out of proportions, long, pointed and bigger than most other species.

It had the same green skin all goblinkind had.Slightly changing the course, Mary made sure Taimanu would be able to smell it.

With Mary’s subtle guidance, they were able to get near enough for Taimanu to smell it. Following it further proved easy enough because of that and would be nigh impossible otherwise, as the monster lived in the forest for all of its life and was able to conceal its tracks perfectly.

As they were about to enter the range it could hear them, Mary cast a spell that would suppress their sounds and smell, or the others would surely destroy any element of surprise, crashing through the forest as they did.

With Taimanu taking point a few meters ahead, Mary noticed the ward the hobgoblin had too late and he noticed them.

Unlike the monsters they had hunted so far, it didn't charge at them, but chose to flee.

The only smart choice and one that gave her the final shove.

She had been hesitating to take the quest anyways, there were too many unknown factors she could do nothing about. Furthermore she really hated hunting sentient beings regardless of race.

They weren't ready to take on one of the eastern forest tribes anyways, several hundred goblins had no problems dealing with a group like hers.

With few more months of practice, they would be able to do something. As the others had to learn how to cast the more advanced area of effect spells that worked against small humanoids like goblins first.

“We were spotted and he is running.” Taimanu told them.

All but one of them looked at her.

“What are you waiting for, we have a goblin to catch. Let's go!” The second lizard pressured.

“No, we retreat, there is no way we will be able to deal with its entire tribe, which we have no idea where to find. I would like to live more than complete a stupid quest.”

“Just like that? We didn't even try. My opinion of humans like you was low to begin with and now you want to run from goblins! Goblins! Why are you all following her, I was silent so far, but that stops now!

I am her superior in all ways, I vote for me to be the leader.” He practically screamed, something Mary was quite surprised by, as lizardfolk males were usually pretty meek.

“I am leading because I am the best at it.” She stated.

“Everyone who wants to die can stay with the idiot, but I will return to the academy.”

Unsurprisingly none of them wanted to fight the whole tribe and even the lizard didn't seem to like his chances without their help.

He was rumbling something to himself the whole way back.

Soon enough she saw retreating had been the right choice. With Starshadow keeping watch, she could see the forest teeming with goblins only an hour after they failed to sneak up on the hob. Seeing the mass of green bodies sent shivers down her spine and had her really glad she was done with the quest.

The goblins didn't give much chase after checking they retreated so Mary slowed down the fast pace she kept up until now.

As they stopped down for the night, she cast her advanced ward and told her team to settle down for the night. She saw the exhaustion of the march she forced them to do after seeing the goblin tribe in every action they took.

The ward would allow her to get the three hours of sleep she needed and she would be able to keep watch afterwards.

Dresk couldn't believe what was happening. They took one of the easy quests on his urging. Even though the noble everyone seemed to accept as their leader wasn't really convinced.

That didn't matter to him, what really was a problem though, was that fact she didn't seem to respect the daughter of clanlord Duisk as her superior.

When he had been offered an extra reward should his team take the quest, he had been suspicious at first, but seeing the nobles reluctance he happily convinced his teammates to do it. Everything to cause discomfort for the arrogant human after all.

This morning, everything went to hell, after finally finding the useless monster three days after entering the forest. They were about to finish the mission, until they ran into a fucking ward. Nobody told them the monster was a stupid mage.

Instead of doing the only reasonable thing and following it to complete the quest, they fled. From goblins. He still couldn't understand it. What would some goblins be able to do to them, they were trained mages, iron ranked adventurers. There was no goblin that could best them!

Deciding he couldn't sleep anyways, he got up and looked around. The noble’s ward was up, allowing them to sleep without interruption. Getting up, he slowly crept over to her pack where the sleeping powder was located. If the rest feared some goblins he would show them what he was capable of. He would prove the human wasn't fit to lead the clanleader daughter once and for all as well as establish his standing with her.

The moment he opened the pack he could feel a presence looming over his crouched form.

“What are you doing?” The human hissed.

Straightening himself he towered over her with his height.

“As you are all too cowardly to face a few goblins. I will take the matter into my own hands!”

“Oh no you won't, they would rip you apart you idiot. Stay here!” She commanded.

No she wouldn't stop him again. All the hate and content of the clanlord’s daughter regarding her as superior and bowing to her leadership came over him at once. Infusing his body with mana for a short amount of time, he surprised the arrogant human and hit her head with all his might, knocking her out cold in one attack and causing a bloody wound on her head. Finally she got what she deserved, the bloody human. She wouldn't wake up from that for a long time he noted with satisfaction.

Without any further interruptions, he searched her pack and found the sleeping agent shortly afterwards.

Looking at the unmoving form again, he felt a short pang of regret, but it quickly passed.

After a short internal debate if he should take the sword she always had on her as well, he decided against it. He was no thief after all even though no human deserved such an excellent weapon.

Without looking back even once, Dresk set out into the night. He would show these goblins why they were inferior to everyone else.