Tale of Discovery

A short while passes, and the wagon gets much closer to the village.

"Hey, hey, don't tell me those kids are the adventurers?" a middle-aged man expresses his skepticism.

"Seriously? We're talking about the Great Forest of Tob here, not just any forest. They couldn't really be planning to head inside by themselves, could they?" Another man of around the same age responds.

As I suspected, this forest is not an ordinary one. First, there is the fact that Nazarick isn't exactly that far from here. Since we concluded earlier that the tomb has been transported elsewhere, I doubt the location would be anything ordinary.

Something that supports this notion even further is the objective I received yesterday - securing the territory. At first, I thought that it meant getting rid of all foreign beings and getting the area control, but now, I feel like there is more to it than just that.

Why? I don't know. I just feel like that's the case.

"Hello!" the voice of a young guy suddenly reverberates within my ears as the fellow on the wagon jumps off and cheerfully waves at the crowd.

"We are the adventurer party sent by the guild to deal with goblins here!" he exclaims with a hint of confidence in his voice.

"Stop it," the voice of a girl follows as the one dressed like a witch gets up and says, "We're just here to investigate not fight."

Once the girl's voice fades, a relieved look appears on the faces of a few of the villagers as some begin muttering among themselves.

"Welcome young ones," the man that was speaking to Emmot says with an amicable smile plastered to his lips, "Our Carne Village doesn't have much to offer, but we could help you by sending someone with experience in the forest with you."

Seemingly happy with the offer, the guy energetically nods his head and says, "That would be great! We're going to begin investigating as soon as possible, so please make it quick."

Seeing how impatient the fellow is, I shake my head slightly before shifting my focus over to the girl with the holy vibe.

Coincidentally, the girl also looks my way for some reason, resulting in our eyes meeting.

This doesn't last long as she quickly turns her head away with a trace of fear on her face.

Hey now, am I really that scary? Or, did she notice something?

Either way, this girl seems to be slightly afraid of me.

"Village Chief," a familiar voice comes from behind me as a man walks to my side and says, "I believe I should be the one to go with them."

While saying so, the man, who is none other than Opilio, casts a glance at me.

"I will be going as well," I state with a smile, "There should be no problem with that, right?"

The muscular man, who is the village chief, gazes at me and Opilio for a few seconds before nodding his head in confirmation.

"Wait a moment!" the 'adventurer' kid exclaims, "Even if our targets for this time are goblins, they're not something ordinary villagers can deal with!"

Upon hearing his words, an idea pops up in my head, causing the corner of my lips to raise slightly.

Such an opportunity was just presented to me by this guy, it would be a shame to not advantage of it.

"Are you saying that we're too weak for this and would be nothing a burden if we came with you?" I ask bluntly, not bothering to sugar-coat my words.

Startled by my bluntness, the guy stares at me dazedly for a few seconds before nodding his head once and nervously muttering, "I am only saying this because I don't want you to get hurt."

"Sure, sure," I say as a grin forms on my face, "How about this... You take that sword of yours and swing it at me as much as you can. If you manage to graze me, we will let you do as you please while we remain here."

"Huh?" he utters with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"You heard me," I state as I lift my left arm and pat Opilio's shoulder.

Understanding my intentions, Opilio nods his head before stepping back and exclaiming, "Everyone, please get back!"

The villagers take a moment to process what's going on before they all move back with curious expressions on their faces. All of them apart from the village chief and Emmot.

"Mr. Vincent," Emmot says in a solemn tone, "If your strength is truly at the level Opilio described, I hope you go easy on the kid."

Heh. I can clearly tell his intentions for saying this. He's worried that if I, 'an ordinary villager', were to defeat him too badly, his spirit would be broken, and he might just give up being an 'adventurer'.

Now that I think about it, what exactly is an adventurer? From the name, I can infer that it's a job classification for those who venture out into the wild and explore the unknown.

Apart from that, they have a ranking through which they're judged, with the lowest most likely being copper, hence the villagers' worries.

Anyway, I wasn't planning to take the guy seriously from the start.

"Mr. Vincent, do you need a sword?" Opilio's voice brings a halt to my train of thoughts.

Turning my head to face Opilio, I notice that he has the same sword from yesterday in his hands.

"That would be unnecessary," I casually state as I turn my head back to face the adventurer guy.

This little skirmish might seem like something I am doing to prove my strength to the 'experienced' adventurers, so we can tag along, but the truth of the matter is far different from that.

The main reason I am doing this is to increase my status in the eyes of the villagers by demonstrating my prowess. Aside from that, I would display just enough skill to cause the fellow in front of me to succumb to me.

From what I have seen so far, he is acting as the leader of this party. So, if I were to get him under control, there is a high chance that the rest will listen to me as well.

"You..." the adventurer mutters while shaking and pointing his finger at me, "Are you looking down on me?!"

"Yes, what of it?" I respond with a mocking smile on my lips.

"Fine," he says as he glares at me fiercely, "I will show you what being an adventurer is."

"Calm down!" the girl dressed like a witch exclaims, while the other two stand by the side with concerned looks on their faces.

Ignoring her, the fellow wields his sword and moves to an optimal position at the center of the space created by the crowd.

"You're not planning to fight me with your bare hands are you?" he asks while frowning.

"Fight?" I repeat before chuckling and stepping forth with a confident expression on my face.

"You!" he exclaims furiously before dashing at me, raising his sword, and swinging it down as hard as he can.

Alas, with his speed, he can only dream of getting near me, let alone graze me with his sword.

Just as the blade seems to reach me, time appears to slow down as I effortlessly make use of my absurd speed to move slightly to the left.

To the others, I simply blinked from my location a little, causing the sword to completely miss me.

"What?" mutters my opponent with a baffled look on his face.

"That was a little too slow, no? Are you perhaps going easy on me because I am a mere villager?" I mock him nonchalantly.

Expectedly, the fellow gets even more furious as he begins swinging his sword around at me madly, but, naturally, each one ends up as a miss.

A few minutes later, I stand casually while gazing at the exhausted adventurer who is glaring at me as if I've killed his parents.

Oh well, this should be enough. I will end this in a fancy manner.

And so, I raise my right arm as I clench my hand into a fist.

A short distance away from us, the adventurer girl with no weapon seems to notice something as she hurriedly exclaims, "Dodge!"

Unfortunately, before the guy can understand what she meant, I throw a punch at the air in front of me, resulting in a small blast of air, which lifts his feet off the ground and carries him into the distance.

A few villagers who were behind me hastily dodge scurry to the side as his body flies at them.

The next moment, the guy's body contacts the ground and rolls a few times before stopping with him lying on his stomach.

Complete silence ensues as the villagers gaze at me with looks of fear and disbelief, while the guy's party members look at their fallen comrade with widened eyes.

The only one that's not shocked by this is Nemu who is happily hopping while cheerfully yelling praises at me.

"Don't worry, he's not hurt," I state with a smile as I lower my arm, "Let's not waste any more time and get going then, shall we?"

To my words, the three adventurer girls only nod their heads, while Opilio, who is a few meters away from me jokingly says, "You sure do not know how to hold back."

"Hm?" I hum as I turn my head to face the smiling man before saying, "What are you saying? I believe I held back perfectly."

Hearing this, Opilio breaks out into laughter as he gives me a 'nice joke' look, only for his laughter to slowly die down as he notices that the look on my face is serious.

"No way..." he mutters with disbelief as beads of sweat appear on his forehead.

To this, I simply beam a smile.

---

"What are your names?" I carelessly ask the kids as we pass through the forest.

To my right, Opilio is matching my steps with a serene look on his old face as he grips his sword tightly.

Unexpectedly, even after a few seconds pass by, I get no response from any of the four as they silently follow after us.

"Come on, now," I say, "You don't need to be this fearful; it's not like I will kill you."

Even though that thought had crossed my mind before you arrived...

"Mr. Vincent," Opilio suddenly calls out.

"Is something wrong?" I respond.

"Yes. These trees are supposed to be clear," he says while pointing at a few trees a short distance away from us.

"What do you mean?" I inquire.

Did they paint them or something?

"There are supposed to be deep cut marks in the trees that can't be missed. Yet..."

Unlike what he said, the trees look unharmed.

"When was the last time you saw these 'marks'?"

Opilio goes silent for a moment before opening his mouth and uttering, "Yesterday."

Now, that's suspicious. Marks on trees, which I assume were caused by a sword or an axe healed overnight? Either the trees here are abnormal or there is something anomalous about the entire place.

Considering what Emmot and Opilio said yesterday, the matter seems to be more inclined toward the latter.

At this moment, I sense some movement in the distance, which upon focusing my senses turned out to be goblins and another type of monster - skeletons.

"I am detecting something way up ahead," I state calmly, but the rest are immediately alarmed.

"How far?" Opilio asks as he grips his sword even harder.

"Hm... Around two kilometers?"

Would he understand this unit of measurement?

Fortunately, he does seem to understand as his eyes widen like saucers.

Seeing him like this, I chuckle and ask, "What's wrong?"

"Mr. Vincent... You're saying that you can sense monsters from two kilometers away?"

"Well, yeah. Oh, right. It's a group of monsters made up of a dozen goblins and a few skeletons. I assume you guys can handle skeletons?"

This time, Opilio's feet come to a halt as he stands in place and looks at me as if I were a monster.

"You can't?" I question with furrowed brows.

"How can you tell what monsters they are?" the voice of a young girl reaches my ears.

Turning around, I gaze at the one that spoke - the girl that's carrying no weapons.

"It's a skill that I developed during training," I respond.

"No, this doesn't make any sense," she says dubiously, "Even if one could sense the presence of monsters from a long-distance, they wouldn't be able to tell what type of monsters they are."

"Well, I can," I shrug and say before turning around and continuing to walk in the direction I sensed the monsters from.

However, after walking a few more steps, I hear a soft cry that is almost inaudible.

[Help me.]

Coming to a halt, I look back at the others, only to find them undisturbed.

Am I the only one who heard that?

The voice was a weird one. I couldn't tell the gender of its source, and it almost felt like it was transmitted to me mentally - which would make the others' reactions, or more accurately, the lack of it, understandable.