"Hey Seb! Hey!"
The halfling, ever so enthusiastic, was waving his hand.
To his left, with an embarrassed smile, stood Tim.
"Good morning. Everything ready to go?"
I nodded. My backpack was packed – not to the brink, but with 2 days worth of provisions, on top of the regular survival tools, it had less than half of its capacity left.
"Alright! We are ready, then."
"Let us march forward, into the dark unknown!"
The halfling bard half-sang that last phrase, taken, perhaps, from some famous ballad. Not that I knew any Valorian songs or poems, though.
Having already met near the town's back entrance, we didn't have long to go before passing the lone guard, throwing a single glance our way.
---
[Skills]:
[Charge Thrust] - Lv2 (77/100)
[Arc Slash] - Lv1 (18/100)
—
I also threw one last glance, albeit at my skills, that had marginally improved throughout my training.
The higher level skill improved slower – actually, if my training with [Charge (work in progress)] was fully or partially counted towards the original skill, then the progress was even slower than that.
'Well, maybe there are faster ways to improve them than training.'
At this pace, and considering the slowdown, I was afraid I had no chance of mastering a skill before my countdown expired.
However, this was all I had for now. Putting those thoughts aside, I raised my head, looking at the crimson treeline, standing majestically underneath the blue morning sky.
Step after step, we made our way through the field, before entering the Red Pine Forest.
***
The journey began smoothly.
The morning forest was unrecognizable from its night counterpart – the chirping birds, the rustles of many more small critters and insects than before, and the shiny morning sunlight, reflected off of the crimson treetops and lush green foliage.
I knew of the few dangers that might await us in this forest, so I kept my eyes open – yet, no enemies appeared. Instead…
"Hey, can I stop by this pile of branches for a minute?"
"Hey, mind if I look under that rock?"
At first, my companion's faces were curious. After a few fruitless searches, Tim's face grew annoyed, and even the halfling showed a bit of hesitation.
"Please, just wait for one minute… oh, here we go!"
I took the tweezers, which I obviously prepared as part of my harvesting kit, and carefully cut a thin mushroom with a light teal stem and a bright blue cup, which was hidden behind a small bush.
"This right here is a potential secondary ingredient in low-grade stamina potions. Not the biggest size, but should go for 5 silver, I think."
I saw the two sets of wide eyes looking at me, before quickly adding.
"Of course, I'll give you 20% each! For time spent... The whole thing might net a few gold total, and won't take more than a few minutes here and there."
With the mention of my voluntary commission, every last bit of annoyance left my companions' eyes.
"Of course! Take your time. I-it's not like I was gonna argue."
"Ha ha, didn't expect to have a herbalist among us! If I knew, we could have gotten you a harvesting mission on the side."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at my companion's sudden understanding, which was met with some awkward laughter, which I also joined.
It's not like I held a grudge, though. We were all in this for money, after all. I wouldn't hypocritically judge my party on this account.
A few more hours passed, and a few more sacks and glass bottles were filled with herbs and mushrooms. There wasn't another lucky find like the start, but the overall value of my harvest had surpassed 1 gold, by my estimation at least.
"We'll rest here for a bit."
Tim suddenly called for a stop.
As we were finding places to sit or lean against, the halfling had actually taken out his map, carefully looking at the surroundings.
"Actually… at our pace, we may be a little late."
The small man said, with a frown.
"How late?"
"Not by much. We might still make it by nightfall. But… actually, if we took this detour slightly farther ahead, we could save enough time to make it for sure, even with all this mushroom collection."
The halfling raised his eyes from the map, looking at Tim.
"Is that… safe?"
Thankfully, our young leader retained some vigilance.
"Yes! I was talking with your friend, Xin, the other day. He gave me a few pathfinding tips. There was actually an old route here, but it was abandoned. This goblin nest is very rarely occupied due to its awkward location, far from any nearby water sources. We got really lucky it had a few green friends move in recently! Otherwise, he'd be chasing some lone goblins all over the forest, ha ha ha!"
"Alright. I trust Xin, and I trust you."
I also nodded. More time for plant harvesting? Sign me up!
We went off the thin trail, making our way through the brushes and shrubs, heading in a seemingly random direction.
From time to time, I found a herb or a mushroom. In less than 2 hours, I had another 5 silver's worth of plants. I was not sure if this could be considered quite lucky, or I simply underestimated the average collection rate.
'Maybe it has to do with this corner of the woods being relatively untouched.'
Regardless, I pressed forward, as did my companions.
No enemies appeared, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.
No, actually, something out of the ordinary did happen.
An hour or two before noon, as I was looking around for more free money, I suddenly noticed that my gaze had skipped over something.
I moved my eyes again, only to confirm my suspension.
Slowly and intently, I scanned the general direction of this phenomena, until my eyes stopped on a tiny hill, barely visible in the distance.
"What is it, Seb?"
"Oh, more plants! Right?"
"...no, it's nothing. Let's keep moving."
In a world with demons, devils, random unstable portals leading to certain doom, and countless other dangers, the only thing that came to my mind upon witnessing this unknown phenomena was a saying – curiosity killed the cat.
I was not going to get closer, only to trigger some ancient curse, or become the target of a vengeful spirit. I did not even have a Path yet. I was fine with my current goblin-slayin' shenanigans, thank you very much.
And so we continued forward, towards our goal.
***
"Hey, Sebastian, why did you become an adventurer?"
Among the occasional chatter, Tim decided to ask me a pretty natural question.
"I.. suppose it just happened?"
Throughout the last few days, I didn't really give my current occupation much thought.
I needed to become stronger, and I needed money - and fast. Adventuring seemed to align with those two goals, so I simply went with the flow, focusing on everything else I had to worry about.
"Really? Most people don't go on life-threatening missions just because."
"Timmy! It's not polite to pry into other people's business."
"Oh! Erm… sorry."
Surprisingly, it was the bard who showed a sense of tact. However, I really didn't mind answering.
"No, that's ok. My reasons are pretty boring, though. I simply need to make at least 20 gold by the end of this month, and as far as I know, this is the only way for me to do it."
Pinpin's face flashed with understanding, while Tim showed curiosity – however, the latter decided against asking more questions.
"What about you, Tim? Why did you become one?"
Since I couldn't see any potential harvesting spots nearby, I decided to continue the chat. My profit meter has surpassed the "2 gold" mark by now, anyway, according to my estimations.
"I.. Well, I've always wanted to be an adventurer. Many of the boys at the orphanage thought about it, but only some of us joined the Adventurers Guild academy each year - and even fewer graduated."
"Didn't you say Xin graduated at the top of his cohort?"
Tim shook his head.
"He did, but he was an exception, not the rule. Usually, it would be some talented child of a local guardsman, who trained with the sword ever since he could swing one, or that of a retired adventurer. Kids like us could only dream of graduating."
"But you did, though."
"Yes! I did everything I could. I.. I had to make it."
"That sounds admirable. Not everyone would put so much effort to chase their childhood dream."
"Dream? Erm, yes, it was definitely because of that, too. But…"
Tim lowered his eyes.
"I also really need this money."
"Well, no shame in that – we're all here for those gold coins, at the end of the day. Right, Pinpin?"
After a moment of silence, I looked at the halfling, who wasn't paying any attention to the conversation – instead, his eyes were focused on the map, occasionally throwing a few glances around, before finally folding it and putting it away.
"We're here! Behind that hill over there!"
As the sun had touched the horizon, painting the trees in a shade of red even more vibrant than usual, we had finally reached our destination – a moderately large cave entrance, leading deep into the hill.
"Alright. Gather 'round, everyone! This is the nest layout."
"Wait, we already have a map of its layout?"
I was confused, having been under the impression we'd have to explore an unknown cave.
"Aha ha, Seb, the look on your face! Timmy, why won't you explain?"
"The guild actually does its best to preserve those nests. The goblins will come either way, but this way, rather than tracking them all over the forest, many of them are concentrated in a few set locations that are already mapped, too."
"Oh. This makes sense, actually."
"Of course it does. Some of the guild's rules and protocols might feel weird, or even antiquated at times, but they have been born from the collective experience of thousands upon thousands of adventurers, piling up over the centuries. Even if something seems weird at first, there is always a story behind it… oftentimes written in blood."
I sounded like Tim thought very highly of the Adventurer's Guild.
'Perhaps to the extent of putting them on a pedestal.'
Still, it was not my place to intervene or argue, so rather than trying to chill his enthusiasm, I just nodded.
'I mean, it's also a side of the truth, even if he's probably overlooking the many Harolds that also lurk in huge organizations like this.'
My old IT firm was the best example of that, if anything.
While I never had a superior try to sell me a course (not to mention a loan), in my time there, there were plenty of middle managers licking the higher up's asses while secretly ruining their departments, either stabbing everyone in the back trying to get promoted, or squeezing everything out of their position before jumping ship, somehow managing to keep a few bridges intact for the sake of good references.
Now that I thought about it, I wasn't sure whether putting my life on the line hunting goblins in dark caves was worse than working 9-5 (10-5.5) at my old company.
'If only it weren't for those curses…'
I sighed, pushing away my meaningless thoughts, focusing instead on the map held by Pinpin, who laid out the plan.
"...and this corner right here could be used for an ambush, so we have to keep our guard up! Finally, this small cavern in the end is most likely where they live. If we don't encounter every goblin by then, that's where the rest will be. That's also where the loot is, too!"
"Now that I look at this map, this nest looks pretty small. Don't you think we could clean it in an hour or so?"
"Timmy! We are stepping into the treacherous domain of cunning, bloodthirsty monsters! There may be traps inside, and you've just seen all the ambush spots! We mustn't charge, headfirst into the unknown. We must remain vigilant! Even at the cost of a few hours."
At the bard's scolding, albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek, Tim lowered his eyes.
"Y-yes. Yes, you are right. We shall follow your plan. That's alright, Seb?"
I just nodded.
The path was pretty straightforward. In fact, even though this cave went quite deep, there were barely any branches, and the branching paths that did exist were usually a choice between a short, straight path onward, and a bigger roundabout path.
We would carefully descend into the cave, taking the longer routes whenever possible. This would waste quite a bit of time, but it would reduce the chance of an ambush, as that's where goblins would lay in wait, if they did prepare an ambush for some reason. The shorter paths were usually fully within line of sight from both ends, and were more likely to have traps.
Finally, in this expedition, we had an advantage that most parties wouldn't have.
As I was about to take out a torch - a redwood torch, known for their extremely high longevity, lasting about 3 times longer than regular wood torches - I felt Tim's hand on my arm, stopping me.
"Wait. There's no need for that."
My raised eyebrow was met with a coy smile.
"We only took those torches as a precaution, and for camp later. For now, we have something better. Just listen."
Still a bit surprised, I returned the torch, before noticing the halfling bard, who had already taken out his lute from its leather case, his fingers a moment away from striking the strings.
Tu du to du, to-
And so began a melody, fast and fluid, faintly reverberating off of the nearby cave walls.
The bard's fingers moved as if possessed, and it almost seemed like the air around them was shimmering.
Suddenly, the melody stopped, as abruptly as it had started.
At that very moment, I felt something akin to a light tag. I instinctively knew I could resist it, quite easily at that, or simply give in.
Within a moment, I decided on the latter – it didn't feel harmful, and I knew it had something to do with the bard, whom I found trustworthy.
The next moment, I felt my vision change. Colors became less saturated, losing some of their vibrancy. However, they also became brighter.
As I looked at the dark cave, which previously appeared pitch black farther in, I could now see much better, and even the farthest wall appeared as if dimly lit.
"Ha ha! Don't think lil' Pinpin is only good for reading maps and shooting a few iron bolts! Greenwood Charlston's 7th Melody! You may also recognize its effects from spells such as [Bestow Minor Darkvision]! Now, now, no need for applause."
The bard smiled proudly, clearly fishing for some praise.
"That… was amazing."
I willingly took the bait. Honestly, I was quite shocked. I knew that magic existed, and I even experienced Amelia's healing, but to 'see' its effects this way somehow felt completely different. More… distinct. And wondrous.
"Oh, it was nothing, nothing at all!.. Ehem. Well, this enhancement shall last four hours, so let us embark on our quest without delay!"
With those words, the three of us entered the dim cave, leaving behind a forest slowly descending into similar darkness.