The sun was up and the smell of thick vegetation entered my nostrils a cold wind breezed through the forest giving me a small shiver,not because it was cold,but because it made me feel uncomfortable...

To my left stood hoboku and to me right was hobusaku while hobura was standing on my front the rest of the group were surrounding us walking in a solid formations very guarded,it had been a few hours since we left our base we were currently walking towards the elven village through the help of the slimes that were located at that place I had already told vulgan that I would arrive...well at least I tried to let him know through the slimes which was a bit hard since I didn't know how to write,but I know that he understood what I meant.

The distance between our base and the village seemed huge it would take at least half a day to get there which worried me slightly since it seemed like we needed to spent a night in that part of the forest,but at the same time it was exciting and worth the trouble in my opinion,I would get to know a different part of culture and acquire a lot more information then before vulgan had a lot of topics that I would like to discuss with him he obviously seemed to be a very wise man who had probably seen all kinds of things when he was an adventurer which was exciting in itself since he had a lot of stories to tell stories that for me as a outer worlder would interest a lot.

Another thing to add was that hoboku had given her position as the captain of the magicians group temporarily to hobuha,but for some reason she was still standing next to me as if nothing had changed I had asked her about that topic and she told me that hobuha insisted on having her stay next to me since she was powerful and could more quicker then hobuha could this kind of outcome made me slightly rethink about my judged of what I thought of as a "Punishment" stripping her whole title of a captain wasn't going to happen since she was still smart and a important member in the group who was the fastest to judge and think of something while I was gone...well mostly.

I thought of adding something into the punishment,but discovered that I didn't have all too much things that would make her displeased and I was sure that she had already reflected on her blunder multiple times making me give up in the end...

Anyways back to the road...we encountered a few beasts,but they weren't anything that the girls couldn't handle basically small fries going further into the forest was also very interesting because each time we took a step into a different part of the forest we would always encounter new beasts and different kinds of monster lurking around each time they were killed I also stored them inside the storage appraising them first to raise my appraisal skill further and in one of those encounters we met up with a pretty weird animal...or plant so to say...

-RAHHHH !

The monster roared and its appearance was very unexpected almost coming out of nowhere,it had camouflaged itself and only struck when one of the female hobgoblins came close to its reach.

-ehh...

One of the female hobgoblins shrieked a bit surprised about the sudden ambush of the monster...that was a log ? A tree maybe ? I don't know,but it looks like a walking log with a scary face carved into its wood the legs and arms looked fragile,but seemed to be very robust and sharp at that too.

-JUMP BACK !

I shouted hobushi who was being ambushed immediately heard my shout and jumped back following my orders I also got ready and shot out my and directly hit the nightmare log and froze it on the spot.

Seeing that the danger was already over hobushi got up for a moment she was a bit angry because of the nightmare log and wanted to take revenge and kill it,but I didn't let her.

-Stop,let me see it first...

Hearing my request hobushi stopped positioning her weapon and looked at me surprised after that she nodded and let me see it for myself,the nightmare log to be precise.

Walking towards it I kept a sharp look at it while appraising the strange monster plant,it looked like it was straight out of a nightmare thats why I called it a "nightmare log" the bark was old and also very rotten it seems its face hideous and its eyes glowing a crazed red color on top of that it was surprisingly still alive the red eyes were fixated at me and were following every step of mine.

-creepy...

I muttered not really scared of the old piece of bark,but more like scientifically aroused...or magically so to say.

Without a second thought I called hobura to me and told her to slice the head of the monster clean into two pieces I wanted her to slice it through both eyes to let me see what was inside of this thing.

No,one really questioned what I wanted to do with this and just followed my words with a objection hobura also drew her sword and cut the log in one clean motion as if she was cutting butter...

The result was weird the insides of the monster was pure old wood the red eyes were also no longer present those seemed to be only empty sockets not even connected to anything...

Is this monster something normal ? I wonder.

Looking at its appearance and insides I could guess that it was 100% pure plant,but it acted like a ferocious beast attacking without a warning or any reason this was also the first time I had seen a plant type monster until now every monster at least had some kind of blood even if it wasn't red it sure had blood.

I kept staring at thinking if this was normal or not and then realized something odd...the left side of the forest,looked a bit unhealthy..

This sudden realization just had dawned on me looking to the left you could see the plant life of that part of the forest seemed to be a bit more light brown and the leaves looked dry too the smell was also very different and the ground had also a different color it looked to me as if it was spreading...

-Taint ?

I wondered it looked awfully close to some kind of epidemic that was spreading could it be something that was caused by magic ? maybe the bark was mutated by this...

Whatever it might be this alarmed me a lot...I told the female hobgoblins to stay away from this taint so we wouldn't catch anything,I also decided to make a small detour to avoid that part of the forest and sure enough since that moment we didn't meet any more nightmare logs like we did before.

Our walk continued for about 7 more hours half a day had already gone by we had crossed a lot of places and were very close to where our goal would be I could feel myself getting excited until finally I saw the outskirts of a town in sight with multiple buildings made out of rocks and leafs and other plant life formed into a beautiful town...

The sight of civilization was breathtaking making me slightly emotional as I saw a person far away waving at us with a big smile on his face behind him stood other lot of individuals who didn't have that smile,but a rather neutral friendly look on their faces...

-Hey sorron !

Vulgan shouted cheerfully I waved him back with even expression slowly making my way towards his village with the female hobgoblins in my wake.

The villagers seeing my arrival weren't as thrilled as vulgan was mainly because we probably looked very intimidating,but expected that and when we finally came face to face with vulgan and his people I took the initiative and stepped forward myself.

I had already discussed this with the female hobgoblins they weren't really happy with the way I was going to handle this,but didn't object and just let me do my thing while watching me and the villagers very carefully.

Vulgan and I smiled at each other both of us had a wryly expression since this kind of atmosphere was the very same one we had when we met the very first time breaking ice was getting harder every second and if we wanted to get along we needed to convince the others...

-Mister ! SORRON !

Someone shouted as I was about to start my conversation my name was called out...the voice was childish and very sweet very familiar to me too as I saw a little girl going through the crowd of people finally revealing herself to...calarel ?

-You really came !

The girl shouted cheerfully quickly running up to me the people tried to stop her,but her excitement was sudden and unexpected.

Her father vulgan didn't interfere and just watched with a smiling face on his own as calar made her way in front of me with a big smile on her face seeing her made me also smile unconsciously.

-Yeah,I came just as I promised so how have you been ?

I asked while kneeling down next to her.

-I told all of my friends about you and also told them about the stories you told me about they didn't believe me at first,but now that your here I can show them !

She said with a very proud expression running down her face seeing her proud like this made me laugh for a moment vulgan also couldn't hold onto his laughter as both us once again started to laugh easing the atmosphere around us a bit more.

With this done vulgan started his own conversation and invited us to his village preparations seemed to have already been done only waiting for us to arrive.

-Oh by the way I also brought a few presents...

I stated making vulgan a bit surprised as he watched me raise my palm and out of nowhere a leaf bag full of fruits appeared,the fruits were glowing faintly not too obvious,but making vulgan immediately realize what those fruits were some of the other villagers also seem to understand what the fruits were while others looked very confused.

-Thank you for the present...now shall we ?

He said grabbing me onto my shoulder as he brought me further into the village where a large area full of tables and chairs stood at place with a lot of different food on the table the eyes of the female hobgoblins glowed when they saw the food very greedy to begin the fest.

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