13 Catching a Ride

--Gremory Point of View--

"Wow, awesome!" the archer spoke.

'Having magic alone does not make anyone invincible against non-magical beings after all... I was thinking this Shaman would be strong, but if they managed to kill him so... Maybe Shamans are not that strong or just this one was weak? Hard to know.

"..."

'Carine and Fulgence are C rank, but I never thought of them as strong as the old man.'

Then Fulgence ended the Shaman by breaking his neck, finishing the fight against the goblins.

'Good one guys!'

"Heeey, how you are able to shoot so fast?" The human archer asked Carine impressed by her performance.

"..." Carine replied, just standing still like a statue.

The human archer didn't care that she was ignored and just stared at Carine with shining eyes.

"Looks like you have some strong friends there, it wasn't for you, we probably would be dead now so... Thanks" The warrior spoke to me.

"No need to thank me, I had my own reasons to help you" I said to the warrior.

"Oh, you want the loot then... We need to recover an item in that cave over there, you can take whatever you want except that, as a reward for saving us"

"I will not interfere in your quest adventurer, what I want is not the loot..."

"Oh, why did you think we are adventurers?"

"This place is too far from the roads, so you must have been sent here to kill the goblins and only adventurers are sent in this type of quest"

"That make sense, but it's just partially true. By the way my name is Danton, my friend there is Claire and the guy on the ground is Rudolph"

"Nice to meet you, my name is Gremory. Are your friend over there okay?"

"Nice to meet you too Gremory and don't worry, one of the ice spears of that Shaman hit his leg, then he can't walk now, but he will be fine. I think..."

Claire hearing this, stopped daydreaming and ran to help her friend bleeding on the ground.

And I ran with her.

Rudolph was unconscious and full of wounds but everything superficial, the only problem was a small hole that was left by one of the ice spears in the middle of the right leg.

"We need to cauterize the wound" Claire spoke quickly as she was trying to hold the blood from coming out.

"Maybe I can help with that!" I speak to Claire.

'When I was handcuffed by the bandits, I remember melting the cuffs by concentrating the shadow around my wrist and releasing it out the same way I did with my shell, but in a much larger amount'

I start to look at the small goblin blade on my hand.

'If I just concentrate shadow on the blade and release it quickly, maybe it can work'

And so did I, the control over the shadow had improved a lot in those four years with me using the shell 24/7. So controlling the movement of the shadows is quite easy already.

The blade started to vibrate and heat up, so I quickly passed it to Claire who used it to cauterize Rudolph's wound.

While Claire was fixing Rudolph, Danton approaches me.

"What you did there... You are a mage?"

"I think so..."

"Then you are a fire mage? Wow, dude, I wish to be you"

"Doubt you would like"

"Being a fire mage means you are a Viridian, I dream about this since I was just a little boy"

"Don't know about this Viridian thing, also you speak like you are much older than me!"

The three warriors just were in their 20s.

"When compared to you, we are! Yet look at it, you are able to kill goblins with a fu***** stick!"

"I am not a fire mage, and my power is just dark"

"Dark? There is no power like that, you are joking me"

"If you don't want to believe me that's fine"

At that moment Claire finished bandaging Rudolph and came to me.

"Hey, your face is bleeding, stand still I will make a curative!" She spoke.

"Don't worry about me, this thing will disappear soon"

"This is part of your dark magic?"

"I guess so..."

"And why your friends don't move? What happened to them? Is this some kind of elixir for increased strength?" Claire the archer asked.

"You are asking many questions!"

"Don't mind her, she is a curious person. But your friends really don't look well" Danton intervened.

"..."

'What will happen if I speak the truth? Should I lie to them? I will not be able to absorb the dark energy of the Shaman if I lie... So maybe is better, to tell the truth and if they try something I just send Carine and Fulgence to kill them'

"That's the thing, they are dead!"

"What?" Claire asked scared.

"Hmmm... That explains a lot, we heard about a monster in a village near here with the power to bring people from death. You are the monster then hahaha, we will mind our own business so please don't kill us!" Danton spoke while making some distance from me.

'This was easier than I imagined"

"I am not a monster, this is just my power to control the dark energy!"

"Dark what?"

"Is just a thing that comes out of dead bodies, I call it dark energy"

"I see, so what will you do now?" Claire spoke.

"I will feed" At the moment I said that I opened my shell and started to absorb every goblin and even the Shaman.

This feeling never tires me and once again I feel strong. And all the goblin's bodies turn into dust, leaving only some blades, the staff, and robe behind.

The cut on my face also started to heal in the same second.

"I see why everyone calls you a monster, the nature of your power is kinda scary" Danton spoke while holding Claire from taking too much distance from me.

"Your face, well the healing is awesome but this scar on the face is quite big..." Claire spoke

"Another one? Well, I should start a collection!"

"Hahaha, you could. I don't know if you like to keep showing your body, but we can give you some clothes if you come with us" Danton replied.

As I look back at myself, I realize that I am without a shirt yet and the rest of my clothes just look like crap.

"To where are you guys going?" I ask Danton.

"We need to deliver the item to the guild center to collect our reward, and we need to find some healer to help Rudolph. So we are going back to Lathrium"

'That's good enough for me. They seem to be good people and are not going to try anything because I save them. Besides, I am completely lost in this forest'

"I would like to go if you guys are not afraid of me"

"If you want to kill us, you would have done it already. So why not?

"And about the item?"

"It is just a small water gem that some goblins stole from some farmers, we are tracking these goblins for quite some time to get it back"

Danton spoke while we approached the cave.

"What is a water gem?"

"You know, for a mage, you seem to know too little. A water gem is just a gem that has water in its core, but the amount stored inside it is very large so when a settlement is going to be formed away from a water source, it is necessary to take one of these."

So we arrived at the cave, there was just a blue gem not bigger than a hand, and from it was flowing all the water stream.

"This is interesting, to be honest, I don't know much about these types of things. I lived my entire life in a small village nearby, and I didn't leave too much..."

He just took the gem and the water flow stopped.

"I realized, but then I think we better hurry, I don't think my friend will be out for a long time, and soon he will start complaining about his leg" Danton spoke.

"Then, let's go to Lathrium!" I spoke to Danton.