"Oh, why did we even take the job?"
A pained feminine voice asked.
"Because we are broke and we need money."
A male voice answered.
"No! It's for the thrill of the adventure!"
Another voice yelled.
The owners of the other two voices stared at the last guy with disbelief. He was their party leader and had gotten them into all sorts of trouble before, but they were certain that not even he was that stupid. At least, that was what they thought.
Together, they were a rank B- party. The B rank attack mage, Charlotte, The C+ rank Swordsman, Aden, and the B- ranked support mage, Ross. They were quite the infamous party back in Dirthhaven, the capital of Keiman, for the kind of dangerous jobs their useless leader would take and barely manage to complete.
Right now, the reason why they were in the Larm forest was because their leader had accepted the job of going to take resources. In secret, he actually wanted to fight the Mad Witch of the West. He didn't understand why so many adventurers had met their ends at her hands, so he would stop it. Either he was going to kill the Mad Witch, or it was going to kill him. That was his intention.
The others knew about it and were very angry, at the same time, they just shrugged it off, because they knew that that was how their leader worked. He would just pick a job and they would somehow complete it. It didn't matter how dangerous it was or how tiring it would be, he just had some sort of luck that always helped them. freeweb(n)ovel.co(m)
This time however, there was an extra edition to their party. A young woman who looked no older than 20 had joined them. She was called Lucia and she was also a support mage, much like Ross, but focused more on healing than boosting her companions physical capabilities, so she was welcomed with open arms.
They had been in the woods for a few days and had been able to judge the average monster strength. The strongest monster they had seen there was of the advanced rank, so even Aden wouldn't have a hard time if he were to try to solo the West. The only problem was the Mad Witch. Ross and Charlotte were praying that they wouldn't encounter her, whereas Aden was working tirelessly to find her cave.
"Ah damn it! Why can't we find her cave!? Was it all a lie!?"
Aden asked. Ross and Charlotte looked at each other and spoke with their eyes, when they came to a conclusion they nodded.
"Yeah, it's all probably a lie."
Ross said
"I mean, if there was actually a cave we would have found it by now, wouldn't we?"
Charlotte added.
Aden started to think about it for a while, then Lucia added,
"If that's the case, then what happened to all those adventurers who came to this forest in search of resources?"
"Yeah that's right! Come on you guys. Think a little bit more like Miss Lucia. There's a strong monster out there and I can sense it."
Ross and Charlotte begun to cry. They didn't hate Lucia. Far from it. In fact they had come to love her company. It's just that sometimes she said unnecessary things at the worst times. So, they continued to walk in search of the Mad Witch of the West.
After an hour of painful walking and searching, they finally found a cave. Charlotte then said,
"This is it guys. I sense an awfully large amount of magical presence in the area."
Aden drew his sword and Charlotte, her staff. Ross and Lucia were readying themselves with their support magic. Ross casted his spells on Aden, instantly giving him a boost in strength, speed and defense.
"Alright then, let's go witch hunting."
"Ugh, Witch Hunting was like centuries ago."
Charlotte Retorted.
"What? I hit a soft spot?"
"You know I don't like that part of our history."
The duo continued on with their bickering, whereas Ross and Lucia just looked on in boredom.
"Wow, are those 2 always like that?"
Lucia whispered the question to Ross and he showed her a bright smile.
"Even in the grimiest of situations, you can count on those 2 to be at each other's necks."
"Must be nice to have something like that."
"Yea, it sure is."
Lucia had already told them that her original party had entered this forest without her due to her being sick. The next time she heard of them, they were all said to have been killed by the Mad Witch of the West. So to them, it seemed like she had just come for revenge.
"Hey you guys, we are literally in front of a monster's home and you're being this loud?"
He whispered to them and they stopped bickering. Charlotte let out a sigh, then got serious. She had an entirely different air about her at that moment. She was about to show what a true veteran she was. Same could be said for Aden who gripped his sword tightly.
"Would you do us the honor?"
He said to Charlotte, signaling for her to start with their plan.
"With pleasure."
A bright red magic circle appeared in front of her and she began to chant. As soon as she was done, a fireball, the size of a cannonball shot out of the magic circle and into the cave, instantly setting the place on fire.
"Oh? Charlotte is capable of perform Rune magic?"
Lucia asked, since all she had seen the girl use was regular magic.
"Yeah. She isn't called the Arcane Ember for no reason."
Ross went on his knees and began chanting a spell of his own. The spell caused plants with purple flowers to emerge from the ground. While Ross was casting the spell, he could feel himself being filled with unnatural strength. He was shocked by how quickly he had finished the spell and the strength of the spell. The others also noticed how unnatural it was and congratulated him for getting stronger. He brushed it off, saying it was more like adrenaline.
He had finished sealing off the cave entirely. These weren't just ordinary tree roots. No, they were dangerous plants that had poisonous flowers on them. When those flowers got burnt, they would create poison gas strong enough to kill a troll.
Their plan was to burn down the monster's home while the monster slept. They felt that it wouldn't be that easy to kill the monster with fire, so they had come up with the plan involving toxins after a while of walking around this forest. They noticed that there were a lot of poisonous plants around and came up with their plan. In the chance that the creature managed to survive the poison, they would fight it in its weakened state.
For a moment there was silence, but then something was fighting against the plants barricading the cave entrance. The thing was clawing at it seriously, and with [Mana sense], they could all tell it was a very dangerous beast.
"You guys! Get back!" f(r)eeweb(n)ovel
Aden screamed and they all backed away. They were prepared for the beast to burst out and attack them. After a while they could see the beast's snout and claws. When it finally tore apart the vines, it snarled at them, then fell on the ground, dead. It was a massive timber wolf, bigger than the average one.
"A timber wolf?"
Aden asked as he poked its dead body with his sword.
"Maybe one of the kings?"
"Yeah, those adventurers that died must've faced off against this thing."
"Yeah, the kings are no pushovers after all."
"Phew, if that's a king, then we managed to kill a king! Woohoo!"
"Hehehe, you guys realize what this mean?"
Charlotte and Ross grinned at him.
"We're the guys who killed one of the Kings! We're gonna be famous and the guild will pay us a ton! Hahahaha! I can just hear the girls shouting. Lord Aden! We Love you!"
Charlotte kicked him and the two began bickering again.
"Fufu... See Miss Lucia, we are always luc-, Miss Lucia?"
Ross looked around but couldn't find Lucia anywhere.
"Lucia?"
The other 2 noticed that Ross was acting strangely.
"Yo, Ross. What's up?"
Charlotte noticed the oddity of the situation
"Where's Lucia?"
"Well you see that's the thing... I can't find her. She just disappeared."
"What do you mean "she just disappeared"?"
"I mean she just disappeared. Like as soon as we were done, I couldn't see her again."
All of them were put on sudden alert. Had she been kidnapped right under their noses? Then that would mean there was a creature around, but where was it? Charlotte and Ross' [Mana Sense] couldn't pick up on anything. Naturally, it should have been very difficult for them to use [Mana Sense] in Larm, but after a few weeks of trying, they managed to get a hold on the frequency and differentiate the beasts from the forest itself. Certainly something only the more experienced adventurers could pull off.
Aden's ability to sense presences on the other hand was ringing loudly. There was something dangerous very close to him. In fact, he was looking at it. He simply couldn't make a sound. His body was too scared to do so.
Just then a horrid shriek cut their conversation.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!!!?"
A shriek so horrid, it caused them to shudder. They slowly turned their heads towards the source of the shriek. Standing in front of the dead timber wolf, was a little girl with grey skin that was turning white, silver hair and glowing golden eyes. She radiated a killing aura so intense that the 3 instinctively knew that, that wasn't an ordinary little girl.
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