It was now the day of the second monster hunt, they were told that this time they would be staying at the slime plains for a few days until they reach level 10.

They once more saw the familiar Coachman, but the adventurers accompanying them were different this time, they were all young and five out of eight were women.

This time the coach took more time to arrive, but that was because their destination was different.

This time their base of operations was a mountain town and differently than the barren fortress, there was lots of green here.

"This time's hunt location is rather dangerous thus I would advice you all to be carefull and not touch anything inside the cave without thinking, the Mimic cave is a rather perilous place"

The one speaking was the Coachman, whom gathered them together after they descended the carriage.

The locals avoided them like the plague for some reason hiding in their houses until they left town.

All the students at the moment were mixed together or rather divided into dozens of smaller groups of friends, the reason was that they didn't have the time to gather as groups.

The leader of the adventurers a rather roburst blond woman whose height was only a little short of Nick was leading the way.

"Everyone Halt!"

She suddenly shouted out of nowhere.

"Why are we stopping, I'm sure that we're still too far from the cave"

The coachman said rather angrily.

"Bandits, around ten of them, they should be heading towards the town we just arrived from, they might kill the mounts or loot your carriages"

The woman said without a hint of fear in her voice.

"Then dispose of them! what are you waiting for!"

The Coachman shouted histericaly, he too understood that they had made a small miscalculation on how many guards to hire for the carriages, it wasn't that they were completely unprotected, but that they wouldn't be able to protect the horses, bandits in general loved stealing horses.

"We are not paid to do so, if you want us to kill the bandits you will have to add something to our payment depending on their strength of course"

The Macho woman said with a wide wolven smile on her face.

"That's why I hate doing bussiness with beastmen, how much meets your fancy?"

The coachman said seriously.

"One Jeter a head"

The woman said as if she had found a fat lamb to eat.

"That's daylight robbery, A dime is the limit, take or leave!"

The coachman said.

The woman looked at her companions and signed to two of them to stay to guard the group as she and the others went back to town.

"We are going after them!"

The coachman said after a few minutes.

"Sire, please have patience, I'm sure that the fight hasn't cooled down yet"

One of the remaining adventurers said.

"Do you think I'm stupid, You are getting a dime per head, Do you think that I will stay here and believe your report because you say so, lead the way back or on our return your whole group will feel his majesty's authority"

The coachman said making the two men show them the path back.

The students felt somewhat uncomfortable returning, but in general they weren't still believed that adults knew more things, thus they simply followed after all they were in a foreign world, not following would end getting them lost.

They could now see smoke in the distance, there was a large chance that the town was put to the torch like in some movies.

Getting closer they could hear screams comming from from the distance, there was also the sound of weapons clashing accompanied by cries of battle.

The first corpse they came across caused most of the girls in the group to scream, some even feinted on the spot, the body belonged to the adventurers' leader, her body was half naked and she had multiple cuts all over her body, one of her hands was missing and blood dressed her whole body.

"There's people over there!"

Suddenly they heard a shout from the distance as four people holding torches and weapons approached them.

"Guys the nobles are back!"

Another one shouted, he was standing on top of a building's roof holding a bow.

"Everyone Run, we will hold them back!"

The one who spoke was one of the two adventurers whom came with them.

"Spirit of Magic converge a Magic Arrow to destroy my foe!"

The other adventurer chanted and a strange illusory arrow appeared in front of him shooting towards the man on the building. Unfortunately however he missed, the man on the building evaded his arrow with a simple step back but the next moment an illusort soccer ball hit him in the head, it didn't do much in the matter of damage, but it offset his balance leading him to fall, of course they couldn't see where he fell or if he was alive or not.

The four bandits however were already upon them, due to their incredible physique even the bandits whom were far away could be seen approaching them at an incredible pace.

The one whom shot the Football was Christo, his power was to make magic missile appear in the form of soccer balls, which could then kick towards his target, of course the kick was not done by him, but there were already another ball ready for shooting.

He might only have a 2% of conjuring a magic ball, but that didn't stop him from spaming it.

Suddenly they saw a bandit in the distance collapse just like that, everyone was confused even the bandits whom were approaching.

As suddenly as the first fell another right next to him fell, the remaining two bandits begun swinging their weapons around, the first thought was that there was an expert rogue protecting the nobles, It was a rather usual practice having a rogue bodyguard of course they had no idea that those rogues were already dead since they were the ones guarding the carriages, and their leader was the anxious Coachman whom was still nervous about their safety.

A third fell to the ground like the two before him, there was not a hint of injury on his body, the last bandit begun running away, he cared more for his own life than wealth.

The far away bandits however had another idea, they took out their bows and begun to notch their arrows.

"Show yourself or we will shoot the nobles you pro...Gulp"

His words were suddenly stopped as blood begun flowing from his mouth making even the most brave of bandits to cower and shoot their arrows.

"...Wall of earth!"

The adventurer had already on it and a wall rose from the ground in front of them.

"Aaaaa!"

A scream sounded from the side of the bandits, the students couldn't see what was happening on the other side of the earthen wall, but if they could then they would have seen a bandit with a round hole on his chest making his inwards visible.

The bandits were even more terrified now, but it didn't stop there another bandit's foot dissapeared, but the next thing made them all run in horror as someone's head dissappeared and in stead of it appeares inwards, hearts and the missing parts of the others.

At the scene of horror the bandits didn't stay they run away as fast as they could leaving behind the man missing the foot as they ran away in full panic.

Another moment later the head that had just dissappeared reappeared at the location whe bandits used to be or rather where another man's head used to be.

Another bandit died by his own comrades, being stumpeded to death as if they had already lost all reason and acted like wild beasts. There was however no one that could explain the horrible things that they had just seen.

the earthen wall suddenly dissolved letting the arrows trapped inside it fall to the ground.

The wall was sort of like a slope so even if the arrows did pass into it, they would be directed towards the ground bellow.

The bandits however they were awaiting to see on the other side of the wall were now gone, they could only see one of them crawling on his hands trying to run away.

"Thank you for saving us!"

The coachman shouted suddenly to the air not understanding himself what exactly had taken place just now, he only hoped that their savior didn't have any bad intents on them, but there was no answer comming any time soon.

"Sire what do we do now, you can't be thinking of still going to the mimic cave, right"

The adventurer asked somewhat dubious of the Coachman's personality.

"Mimic cave, what mimic...Oh yes, are you stupid, how the hell do you expect us to go to the cave with just us, now hold that bandit at least we can have one of our noble friends get the kill"

The coachman said and the adventurers quickly apprehended the crawling bandit whom was fiercely trying to fight for his life.

"You with the sword, come over here and cut his head off"

The coachman said pointing at John whom had the inderstructible sword in hand.

John approached, but he was rather unwilling to take another human's life.

"Get on with it we don't have all day"

The coachman bickered as he made his way to inspect the damage done to the carriages.

John swang his sword as he closed his eyes as a result however not putting enough strength into it, well not that with his meager 2 points of physique he could cut the man's head with one swing, but he did manage to create a small blood fountain drenching himself in blood and fainting on the spot.

The next to try was Dimas who too had the same power, he close his eyes and swang again and again thus relieving the man from his misery.

Multiple students were holding their

hands near their mouths trying not to throw up, the atrocious images around them made them awaken to a new reality, this world was definetely not safe, nor as civilized as their own.

Bandits, a word that in modern civilization is closer to terrorists.

The dead bodies littered the steets, the only positive in all of this was that half of the carriages were still usable and that most of the horses were still alive.

"Master..."

A faint voice came from under a broken carriage.

"Quickly heal him!"

The Coachman shouted at the students and all healers rushed towards the injured man.

"You did a good job keeping the carriages safe, the others?"

The Coachman asked with a voice full of pain.

"I'm not sure, most of them begun with ambushing them in the streets, if they were lucky then they might be barely alive"

The man said while coughing some blood.

"Why is your healing so weak..."

The Coachman wanted to get angry but at the final moment begun calming down, he was rather depressed as he could see the health of the wounded man falling faster than their healing abilities could handle, all they could do was prolong his suffering.

"Don't you have any healing potions or something, don't tell me you hadn't prepared any"

The one asking was Christopher, whom was rather irritated by the stupidity of those people, seriously if they had magic and potions, why on earth didn't they use them in the first place.

"Em, that, those are supporsed to be used for the..."

The coachman was at a loss for words, truth was that under normal sicrumstances he wouldn't even dare touch those healing potions.

"Just go check whether the bandits stole some I'm sure I saw one of them running away with them"

Christopher said making it plainly impossible to not understand his meaning, if there were potions missing then the bandits had taken them away, it was as simple as saying it was all the bandits' fault.

The Coachman and the other students looked at him strangely but the coachman didn't stay for long he swiftly went and brought a potion for his comrade.

Next they begun to sweep the town and found another six coachmen with injuries and one whom was almost dead.

In their search they also found two of the adventurers both in dire straits.

The town people came out shortly after the bandits left, but they didn't dare approach the group of nobles.

"Mommy, why didn't you run inside as well"

A little girl was weeping, such schenes could be seen all over the town of course the town people did have a small militia to guard them, but in front of the bandits they proved to not be enough, some were later found to have even fled for their lives.

The students were struck with mixed emotions, but Dimas whom killed the bandit felt deep hate seeing the little girl's weeping figure, she was the same age as his own sister, how wouldn't he feel emotional.

"Can we do anything to help these people, maybe healing or something?"

Mina asked the Coachman.

"It's not in my jurisdiction, the soldiers will probably arrive in two days and even bounties for the remaining bandits will be issued, that girl will probably after today join the adventurers' guild and strive to exterminate all bandits, it's rather common, maybe in the future you will even work with her who knows"

The Coachman said rather unwillingly, truth was that there were lots of misfortunes in the world, this time even his own life was in danger, he even regretted leading the heroes back to the town, if something had happened to them it would be their heads rollings even if they survived the bandits.

"Everyone begin loading the valuables to the remaining carriages, the foodstock you can leave behind, we cannot carry too much anyways"

The Coachman said making Mina and some others smile at his words, he could do nothing but he still decided to leave some food for the villagers.

They threw much of the baggages and the surviving adventurers took the corpses of their comrades with them to burry them in their homeland.

The journey back was rather long, but there were chatters in each and every carriage, the now crowded carriages held six people each while two people were even sitting with the four surviving adventurers, one of the two was Christopher, whom honestly didn't care, and the other Alexi whom was simply too cowardly to do otherwise than he was told.

when they arrived back to the castle there was an uproar, for three reasons, first of all because the expert the coachman had described was not sent by the king, secondly because of the bandits and thirdly because the heroes hadn't leveled up, causing them to stay behind scedule.

Non the less there were still some people whom leveled up that night.

At another place however the thirteen people shadowy figures were once more having a meeting.

"So which country's expert intervened in the end?"

The womanly voice asked.

"Don't ask me, even our scout couldn't detect his presence"

The arrogant voice said with a hint of anger.

"Mine scout neither"

"Non mine"

"No!"

"Not mine"

The voices answered with no as they went one at a time until they reached the small dwarf like figure.

"Me scout died again"

"It's rather mysterious maybe it was the rogue hero of yours"

The elderly voice sounded.

"He is a warrior, but he might have some magical item we are not aware of"

The Archmange said.

"So when can we go pick heroes?"

The Arrogant voice changed the subject to something of more importance to them.

"Soon enough, in a few days they will have the second power feast and the final monster hunt, after the hunt you can come and take the heroes of your liking you should also join the hunt itself as adventurers just to get a firsthand impression of the heroes and have an opinion of which one you want"

"Well I won't decline"

An elderly voice said rather satisfied with the flow of events.

"Remember however that you have to bait them, forcing them is out of the question if I see anyone trying to force them I won't be gentle with him or her"

The Archmage said, seemingly having plans of his own.

The next day the Archmage had another meeting, but this time in a small room in his magic Tower, more like an observatory because of the large telescope pointing at the sky, next to him were three people, one of whom the students had seen before, he was the baldy Archbishop Chevalier, the other one although he was there at the first feast, the students wouldn't even remember since he looked rather plain looking, but he was non the less a prince of the country, the last person was the Archmage's nephew Gilberd.

"You can enter!"

The archmage suddenly spoke and two figured entered the room, the were Vadima and the Coachman.

"How many of the heroes do you think we can rope, which methods should be used and which hero we must hide by all means?"

The Archmage asked with full seriousness.

"We should rope the one called Christopher, but be very careful of him, his weakness is a girl called Alexxa, if we convince her to stay then he will probably tag along"

Vadima said, these were her thoughts and the Coachman could only nod in agreement.

"Second is the one called Dimas, he is rather strong and is not afraid of a fight, but I have no ways of roping him at the moment, but if we could rope some of his friends somehow then he might stay"

Vadima said, after all she had seen him chatting with a few people lots of times.

"The third one is called Costas he might seem unremarkable but he has much potential to show, especialy his power, as much as I know however his brains are down at his cock, we could probably use his lust to keep him"

Vadima continued numbering the students until she had went through twenty of them before the Archmage told her to stop.

"I have heard rumors that you have been eyeing someone do you think that you could use your feminine charm to keep him loyal to our kingdom?"

The archmage said making Vadima's tanned skin turn red.

"Can't we use the servants?"

The prince asked somewhat hecticaly, after all one of his brothers already had a crush on Vadima, if he offered her to the heroes he would lose his brother's support.

"Do you think the other kingdoms will care if the heroes impregnate a common girl, they will simply mock us and degrade the girl to being a prostitude in disguise"

The Archmage said with disdain.

"Can't we use the princesses, especialy those bastard ones"

The prince really hated the twin princesses, they were acting cute, but in truth they were venomous vipers underneath like their mother the king's fourth wife.

"Do you want to push them on the throne or something?"

The Archmage asked making the prince's face turn somewhat grim.

"But Dridinal will kill me if I do what you are telling me to do, you do know that he's the strongest prince out of all twelve of us, without his help I won't be able to become the king even worse we might even go into civil war and lose the throne to one of the others"

The prince said his voice distressed and his thoughts blurry and panicked.

Vadima's face was even worse than before, hearing that she was already promised and the person being that pig of a man Dridinal, truthfuly she would have prefered the heroes to him.

Dridinal was the fatty whom was affected by the illusions at the feast, the problem is that he has tons of supporters and even more wives and sons, he's a bussiness tycoon and can simply smell gold from kilometers.

Of course he wasn't the only prince whom wanted her, she could also select Torro, the son of the second wife, the problem was that he was even worse, he is known for having no wives at all since they all die at the first night, they say that he's a sadistic bastard, that never touches a woman twice since she will be already dead.

"You do understand that If your brother hadn't refused to take the throne you wouldn't have even been here, he already gave his word that he would make you a king in exchange for privileges, whether you offer Vadima now or after is of little consequense to his, not to say that you aren't the king yet, so you don't have the authority to touch a general's daughter"

The Archmage said making the prince somewhat ashamed of himself.

"The you should go get that Costas for us, if you are able to make him stay loyal to our kingdom then you will be given your own territory and your father's title will increase by one rank"

The Prince said as he thought of ways to pursuade her.

"As for you Rivalz your services will no longer be needed, after all the other countries already know about the Heroes, they even sent their own expert to protect them"

The ArchBishop said and gave him the permission to leave.

"Vadima you can go too, you can think about the prince's offer, but you should know that unless he becomes king you will see nothing of the stated"

The Archmage said and waved her to leave.

"Why did you say the last thing, is there a way for me to fail with the support of both of the Archmage and the Archbishop by my side"

The prince asked.

"Prince Tudar, do you think that your brothers don't have supporters of their own, do you think that they are stupid, I'm sure that right about now they will approach both Vadima and Rivalz to learn which hero they should rope and how, offering her double whatever you have offered"

The Archbishop said with a sharp and emotionless voice as if he was a robot.

"Then what can we do, we have to stop them from opening their mouths"

The prince said anxiously.

"Isn't it fine, as long as we don't go for the top ten and get the ones below we can gain ten times what they have, after all they will challenge one another for the top candidates the best heroes and after winning him over our kingdom will simply have one more hero"

The Archbishop said nor angry not content with an apathetic voice.

The prince then calmed down and then left.

"How come these three brothers are so diferent, one is a brute warrior, the other a successful merchant and the last one an complete imbecile"

The one asking was Gilberd.

"Don't look down on him, he might seem stupid but he has inherited his father' luck, he has fortune written all over him, even the assassination attempts on him ended in killing the wrong prince, another time the poisoned tea had gotten cold because he talked for too long, making the attempt to fail, there was also the time when his whole Chamber was put on fire only to have him wake up the next day on the only furniture that survived the fire, his bed"

The Archbishop said as he sighed from remembering some things from the past.

"Do you know Gilberd why our kingdom is also known as The kingdom of fortune, it's because it's king from ancient times is the luckiest one and not the most deserving of the throne, in the history of the kingdom there were always at least three people fighting for the throne, but they always ended with two of them killing one another"

The Archmage said with a crooked smile as he looked at the Archbishop.

"I only hope that your plan works, because the other kingdoms are already ready to divide the heroes into equal parts"

The archbishop said with a rather irritated tone.

"Relax, as long as we can pull Costas and Alexxa we will have enough power to clean our part of the dungeon"

The Archmage assured him.

"By the way what's your plan to pull the lass over"

The Archbishop asked as he was walking away.

"Just a little romantic situation"

The Archmage said as he looked at his handsome nephew whom gave the most enchanting smile he could.