--- Paved Road in the middle of Unknown Forest ---

Huh? Where am I?

*hngh

it's bright, is it morning already?

“Oh, he woke up”

The one who woke me up is a muscular man carrying two swords on his back.

“Hey, what are you doing sleeping in the middle of the forest like this? Even though it’s near the road, this place is still not perfectly safe”

Huh? Who is this guy? And it seems there are about another 3 people behind him.

Wait, Forest!?

Now I take a better look of my surrounding, it’s true that I am in the middle of the forest.

. . . . .

Ah! That’s right, I was transferred to another world.

“Hey! Are you listening?”

“Eh? Ah! Yes!"

"I didn’t mean to sleep here, but I run out of breath and fall asleep when catching my breath. The next time I woke up, you guys already in front of me”

“Anyway, if you want to take a rest in your journey, you should at least set a simple camp. If you don’t have a camp set, then you should find the rest spot which shared for everyone to use. If you are traveling alone, you should know about this already.”

“Well then we will be on our way, be careful next time”

Huh? Are they leaving already?

“Ah, wait”

“Hmm? Do you need something?”

“Actually, can. . . can I join you guys until the nearest city?”

“The nearest city? But, we are on our quest to send these medicine to Daren Village on the west”

“If you want to go to the nearest city, you should follow the road to the east. you should see a city after 3 days, if you're going on foot"

Huh? 3 days?

Wait, it doesn't matter whether it's a city or a village, as long as I can live not in the wild.

. . . . .

And yeah... Considering I just met a group of goblin, I should follow them, at least we can understand each other, and they seems to be not hostile.

“Ah, then, can I join you guys to the Daren village?”

“Hmm? Don't you want to go to the city?”

“I - I want to find a place to stay, and considering what I have, I won't survive in the city”

"Hey Graim, what you say?"

"Hmm? as long as he won't get in our way, I'm OK with it."

"Well, you can join us until we reach Daren Village."

"Thank you. ah, by the way, I am Taka, nice to meet you."

“Right, we haven't introduce ourselves. I’m Gareth, the leader of Silver Sky Adventure Group. That guy with a big shield is called Graim, that man with the bow is Dan, and that girl is called Dia."

"You can follow us, but keep up to our pace, we will leave you if you are too slow"

It’s reassuring that they are not asking about me personally, or this might be the ordinary thing in this world. Well, they won’t really believe me if I said I come from another world, won’t they?

"Hey Taka, you said that you ran out of breath, right?"

Suddenly Dan start a conversation with me.

"Yes, I was running so hard at that time"

"What made you running like that?"

"Ah, I spotted a goblin settlement, then I run away as hard as I can"

"Hoh, so there really is a goblin settlement inside the Meridien forest"

"And where is that settlement"

"If I'm not wrong, it should be in this direction"

I pointed to the place where I was before

"To the north it is"

"Eh?"

Suddenly I am able to see a snake-like creature come running from the direction I am pointing right now.

It was a big creature with about 3 meter long from head to tail, it has two hand, but has no leg, with a big head about three times the human's head

“A serpent is coming our way! Form formation one”

Just after the captain said that, Graim with his big shield come to the front as vanguard, Dan with his bow prepare to shoot the Serpent, and Gareth the captain with sword in both of his hands is joining the vanguard.

And about Dia who have a knife on her waist, I can’t find her anywhere.

“The serpent is wounded, Dan, go focus attacking on its wound, I'll keep it busy”

“yes captain”

“Graim, make sure it can’t break through your defense”

“Don’t worry, my shield is impenetrable”

Wha - - they seems experienced. Or meeting a weird creature and fighting for your life is a normal occurring in this world.

I can barely follow everything happened here.

As for me, I go and hide myself behind Dan the archer.

When the arrow finally hit the wounded area, Gareth suddenly shout.

“use shield bash!”

“[shield bash]”

Hearing that, Graim immediately leap forward and push the Serpent using his shield.

The serpent which just got shot by arrow and shrieking in pain, dropped it guard and got flown away by Graim, then using this opportunity, Gareth leap through and cut its head.

After the head's been cut, the serpent is not moving anymore.

“We are finished here, but don’t drop your guard”

Then Dia suddenly appear out of nowhere.

“How was it?”

“There is nothing around, seems like they just got attacked and scattered when they run away”

Huh? Oh, so Dia’s job is to check the surrounding area

"Dan, retrieve the core"

Dan takes a knife out from his waist and move closer to the serpent, he then use the knife to slowly open up the serpent heart location, and inside it is a blue colored round thing, about half of a hand size.

So, that's a core.

it seems joining them was the right answer. I’m glad, if I walk by myself, I will be dead once I meet others like this Serpent here

Other than that meeting with the Serpent, there isn’t any other eventful thing on our way to the village

“Hey Taka, we can see the village now”

Dan speak to me and pointing to the direction of the village.

“Ah, so that’s the Daren village”