After Osric and Jayson went to the training ground behind the guild with Franklin, and Paul left the guild—
William remained seated at the table. He was waiting for the archer.
'I hope he arrives soon. I don't like being by myself.'
'Although I wonder if we'll get along?'
'He seemed very serious when I talked to him.'
Shortly after, he arrived.
William was relieved to see him arrive early.
"Richard, right here!" He called out with his hand raised.
The 37 year old man with an athletic 6'0 foot tall body walked towards him. His long, light brown hair flapping from the air.
His short stubble and serious expression made him look sleep deprived.
"Hello."
"Morning, Richard. How are you?"
"Fine."
"Alright. I already picked out a mission for us."
William handed over the mission parchment.
Richard looked through it and nodded.
"Alright."
William felt awkward. Richard clearly wasn't much of a talker.
"Actually, it was our party leader Osric that picked it."
William continued to talk about how great Osric's insight was, but Richard's expression never changed.
"Let's just go." He said.
"Alright then. Let's do our best."
The whole way to the monster forest to the east of Ashbrook, Richard didn't speak a single word.
'This is so uncomfortable.' William thought.
'I used to think that Osric wasn't very sociable when I first met him, but this guy clearly just dislikes people.'
'No matter. I will do my best to get close to him!'
"So Richard, how long did you work as a hunter before becoming an adventurer recently?"
"Almost twenty years."
"Wow! Aren't just 37 years old? You must've started young. That's incredible."
"Yes."
'This guy isn't giving me anything.' William thought while exasperated.
"How is it, becoming an adventurer? Do you like it?"
"Don't know."
"Did you enjoy hunting?"
"Mostly."
'Finally an opening!'
"What did you enjoy about hunting?"
"Improving my shots with the bow."
"That's cool. So how was it facing a monster for the first time?"
"It was okay."
'Must be pretty skilled, like the rumours suggested.'
"What monster was it?"
"A Feral Dog."
"Nice. How was it hunting with a party for the first time?"
Richard was starting to get annoyed.
"Do you never stop talking?"
William was surprised by that response.
"Haha sorry. I'm just a curious person and I enjoy talking to people."
Richard just sighed.
'I'll just stop for now.' William thought.
He was disappointed but didn't plan on giving up.
Meanwhile Richard was also lost in thought.
'His outgoing nature reminds me of that guy.'
'I don't want to think about that disgusting traitor. I'll never trust someone that overly friendly again.'
—
After another few minutes of silent walking, they arrived inside the monster forest.
"I will take the front. Stick close to me." William whispered.
'His attitude took a complete turn.' Richard thought.
William was completely focused and serious now.
They walked in the direction where the wolf was last located.
William started looking for tracks, but he quickly realized how difficult this was. He had mostly relied on Osric before, and before him, on other adventurers and luck.
'Shit. I can't find anything.'
"There." Richard whispered from behind.
"That's a wolf dropping. It's only been here a couple of hours at most. And look at that broken branch next to the bush. The wolf went that way."
William was impressed.
"Alright let's go."
'Having a former hunter in the party would be really useful.'
With Richard's tracking, it only took a few minutes to find the wolf.
It was drinking from a small puddle of water that wasn't frozen.
"Good job finding it. Now let's approach it slowly. I will take the front and you just provide back up."
William turned towards the wolf and was about to sneak up to it—
"Crack."
Unfortunately he stepped on a frozen branch.
The wolf quickly turned around and spotted William a few metres behind it.
"Grrr."
The wolf got into position to attack him.
"Whoosh!"
An arrow was released and hit the wolf's shoulder.
'How did it react that quickly?' Richard thought.
William immediately started moving and drove his axe down hard.
Because of the arrow in its shoulder, the wolf reacted late.
The axe cracked the wolf's skull open for an instant kill.
"Phew. That was close. Can't believe I made such a beginner mistake."
"Thanks for covering me."
Richard looked unimpressed and he was still pondering about how the wolf reacted to his arrow.
"Sure."
'That arrow should've gone straight into its eye.'
"Crack."
Another branch cracked behind Richard.
He was pulled out of his thoughts.
'Hm? What was that?' He wondered as he slowly turned around.
"Watch out!" William yelled as he began running towards him.