Meanwhile, near the Valhan Mountain Range which stood at the south-west of Belmud, a band of seven people made their way through the forest under a blanket of leaves. Few of the sun’s rays pierced through the thick canopy of the treeline. The lack of sunlight, combined with the thick vegetation, made it difficult for them to see what lay a little more than a couple metres ahead.

At this moment, this group surrounded a woman as she kneeled on the ground, pressing her middle and index finger into the dirt. After rubbing her fingers in the ground, she lifted them up to her nose and took a sniff.

Only one of the others within the group nodded their head in response to what she said as most of the rest took their blades and begun clearing a path through the vegetation. The one who nodded, a man with emerald eyes gave her an order shortly after she revealed her findings.

“Call your partner over. We’re moving towards the mountains.”

The woman silently nodded as she quietly doubled back to her partner’s position. After backtracking her steps for a few short moments,she found him a few paces away from the group. A man who wore a gambeson and had hazel brown hair who appeared to be surveying the floor.

Probably hearing her footsteps, he turned to face her with a small, triangular-shaped rock in his hands. With a slight smile on his face, he spoke up.

“What do you think, Gale? It looks like a potential spearhead don’t you think?”

The woman, Gale, chuckled before she responded.

“Beat you to it. I found some fresh goblin shit.”

Although he look a bit disappointed, the man only shrugged casually before he made his reply.

“Ah well. You win some, you lose some.”

“When it comes to you Cloud, I think it’s just ‘you lose.’”

Gale once again chuckled as she conversed with Cloud before she told him to return to the group with her.

“Now come on, we have to make it back to the group. If we lose them now then how are we going to get paid?”

“Yeah yeah.”

With a half-hearted response, Cloud followed her back to the others who had already moved on from their original position, leaving a trail of large leaves, broken branches and vines in their wake. Out of the six of them, only four were actually doing work. The one who ordered Gale to recall Cloud simply leaned against a tree with his eyes closed while the other, a man with golden blonde hair simply stood up straight with his arms crossed.

Apart from Cloud, she knew no one else from the party. They were simply temporarily enlisted and will probably leave the group once the job was done. However, among all the adventuring parties and employers that Gale previously worked for, she probably liked working with this one the least.

And that was because half of this party was not entirely human.

In specific, the four others who weren’t sitting around and were instead hacking away at the blockading plants with their rusty blades. Their pale plate armour seemed particularly dull without any light reflecting off them. Only their head wasn’t covered by their armour, revealing their bleached skull. Their movements seemed rigid and unwieldy, yet still precise and dextrous.

They were skeletons knights, once great warriors who were resurrected as shambling shadows of their former selves.

They could have been elves, dwarves, or even half-kin. Gale wouldn’t have minded as much. At least they were intelligent living beings with a conscious, much like herself. Instead she had to work alongside undead who are more akin to a perverted parody of life.

If one were to ignore their old, dilapidated weapons and armour, skeleton knights were actually somewhat comparable to their human counterparts. While they may have lost their soul and virtue, they still retained their martial prowess, now utilising it in undeath as they served their master.

She couldn’t help but feel both disgust and pity whenever she looked at them. Disgust that she had to work alongside such abhorrent abominations whose very existence twisted and warped the natural law of life. But at the same time she also felt pity for them, knowing full well that they did not wish to return to the land of the living as abominations.

In truth, she would have prefered to put a merciful end to their miserable existences.

However, the master of these skeletons was also her current employer, Thyvin Eikthyrnir. Although he neither held titles nor was he entitled to inherit one, he still possessed certain rights and privileges exclusive to members of the ruling family of Valha. Thus Gale had to force herself to repress her feelings of disgust and pity.

After all, she was also the one who accepted this quest in the first place. As an official adventurer who belonged to the Valhan Adventurer’s Guild, Gale had to be impartial towards her employers and the contents of their quest.

Currently, Gale and Cloud were hired as trackers for the infamous necromancer and his enigmatic associate, the emerald-eyed ‘Walter Faust.’ As rangers who excelled in tracking, the two of them were supposed to find a ‘goblin cave’ for their employers.

As its name would suggest, a goblin cave refers to any cave inhabited by goblins. Such a task should not be too much of an issue for adept trackers like them. Although Gale and Cloud were only adept fighters and could not compare to most other adventurers, they made up for this through their tracking skills.

Nevertheless, Gale and Cloud were both content with their role in the current party. All the heavy lifting and actual goblin killing will be left to Thyvin and his skeletal minions. They just had to track down and find the cave, they didn’t even need to get their hands ‘dirty.’ The only one whose presence was questionable was Walter but she knew better than to ask unwanted questions.

The fact that she detested Thyvin’s heretical magic was negligible in the face of the reward promised.

She didn’t even know why Thyvin and Walter were so dead set on hunting goblins anyway. Apart from their hides being a cheap but poor substitute materials for certain magic crafting recipes, goblins held next to no value. The only other gain someone could receive from goblins would be their ears which one could submit to the Adventurer’s Guild for a bounty reward.

And the only reason why the Guild did such a thing was to give some adventurers incentive to hunt down goblins. Despite the fact that goblins could cause potential damage to merchant trade as well as small communities like villages and hamlets once they reach critical mass, they were seen as a nuisance more often than not.

There was no glory or recognition for adventurers in killing goblins, only a serviceable payment. There was a reason why goblins were typically hunted by newbie adventurers who have yet to test themselves. The ‘weapons’ crafted by goblins can’t even pierce the most basic of padded armour, let alone the gambeson jacket that Gale wore.

She had to admit that she wouldn’t even be here if the reward wasn’t so high and the risk wasn’t so low. The moment her eyes crossed over the payment of five gold franqs for the relatively easy job of finding a goblin cave was the same moment she dragged Cloud into this quest. It didn’t matter what she was tracking or if she didn’t like or understand her employers.

As long as she received her due pay, then all will be well.

Eventually, they found their target, a cave bordering the outskirts of the Valhan mountain ranges with a moderately wide river flowing nearby. While it may seem like a regular cave at first glance, the stench emanating out of the cave as well as the occasional pieces of broken weapons found nearby indicated that an animal didn’t reside in it.

Although goblins themselves may be hard to find within a forests where trees and shrubbery obscured a person’s view, finding their caves was comparatively easier. If one were to find traces left behind by goblins within the forest, then the closest cave in the vicinity must be and usually will be inhabited by goblins.

“This is it? It smells… rather unpleasant.”

Walter didn’t hide any of his revulsion as he pinched his nose while surveying the cave entrance. Although, Gale felt that him saying that was rather… ironic.

You dislike the smell of goblins but you’re able to tolerate the smell of walking decaying corpses.

She fought the urge the voice her thoughts out loud and kept her lips shut as she gave a passing glance to Walter. Unlike her though, Cloud actually responded to Walter.

“Goblins have no sense for cleanliness like we humans do. Watch your step, you may step on something you may not like.”

“I’ll take note.”

The emerald-eyed man only gave a nonchalant but indifferent reply before he gave his next set of orders to the rangers.

“According to Thyvin this shouldn’t take long. While we do our work, you two may remain outside. As we discussed, you’ll get the rest of the pay when you lead us home.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The two rangers answered simultaneously, nodding their heads in confirmation as they did so. On the other hand, Walter only smiled and silently nodded back before proceeding to enter the cave with Thyvin and the skeleton knights. The necromancer didn’t even bother to say anything to his hired adventurers.

As they entered the cave, the skeleton knights all drew their arming swords with their right hand and a lit torch on their left, leading the way for their master. Soon enough, the light from their torches and the sound of their footsteps gradually disappeared as the group ventured deeper into the cave.

“Damned necromancer. Never liked working with their kind.”

Cloud immediately spat on the ground and spoke when they both ensured that their employers were out of ear’s reach. Similarly, Gale leaned onto the cave wall and spat as well before speaking.

“Neither do I. But we don’t have to like it, we just have to do it. We track down monsters, we get paid, we go home, no questions asked. That’s how we always operated isn’t it?”

“I guess that’s true. But isn’t that also the reason why we can’t find ‘our group?’ Because we always just ‘tag along’ whichever adventurer’s are doing a rewarding quest. Personally, I’m starting to get bored of this lifestyle. We already have enough money to suit our lifestyle, why not find a ‘proper cause’ to fight for? Even if it’s really just an adventurers’ group.”

Gale didn’t immediately respond to Cloud’s words. Instead, she just crossed her arms and turned her gaze towards the river stream. After watching the running water for a few seconds, she replied to her partner.

“But that means that we’ll get attached to the members of said adventurers’ group. That means that we’ll become obligated to support them in their endeavours and we will lose the privilege to do whatever we want. Also…”

Gale lost her voice while she was speaking. Although she knew what she wanted to say, it still took her awhile before she mustered the strength to actually say it.

“It’ll hurt more when we lose a fellow comrade. Besides, we had this talk before and we are only repeating the same points.”

She turned her gaze towards him as she concluded her words. Her eyes half smiling and half frowning.

“You can leave me and ‘find your own group’ if you want. But that kind of life isn’t for me.”

Cloud was left speechless for a while but he was soon able to open his mouth and respond.

“You know that I won’t leave you. I’m with you until the end of the li–”

“Reeeeeeeeeeee!”

However, he was interrupted by a high-pitched, nasally voice which came deep within the depths of the cave.