To The Forest

When Nicola and I ran approaching Luck, he put his hands on his waist and made a face as if he wanted to say something.

「…..You guys… You protect yourself, okay?」Luck

After saying that, Luck started walking toward the forest.

We followed him from behind.

Luck's fast walking was a bit tough for a 6-year-old child, but we couldn't slow the pace down.

After a while, we finally entered the forest.

It was still daytime, so it was dazzlingly bright in the grasslands, but it was a little dark in the forest because the trees blocked the sunlight.

From here, we proceeded slowly and carefully.

Aside from being on guard in case we encountered goblins, we might find Jack somewhere, so we proceeded while searching the surroundings.

I felt a somewhat hot presence behind me.

I looked back and found Nicola, who was covered in sweat and breathing heavily.

She was an indoor-type who rarely ran under the sun after all.

I opened my item box, took out a towel, and handed it to Nicola.

She then silently received the towel and began to wipe her sweat.

「Hee… you're an item box owner, huh」Luck

Luck turned around for a moment as he said that, and opened his mouth halfway.

「A,… Never mind. Let's hurry」Luck

「W, Wait… Hahh…hahh」Nicola

Nicola was still wiping her sweat while breathing heavily.

Luck turned around once again and admonished Nicola.

「Rather than taking a break, it'll be better if both of you go back to the forest entrance and wait there. I'll collect you properly when I come back」Luck

Without answering to Luck, Nicola pointed to the bush on the right side, a dozen meters away in front of us.

When Luck and I looked in that direction, we found a goblin hiding there.

If we kept walking, that goblin might find us first.

「I see. There's a goblin hiding, huh」Luck

Luck took out his sword and entered the battle mode, butー

「No. I'll do it」Mark

As I said that, I made nine stone bullets.

I learned that one bullet wasn't enough to kill a goblin, so I made nine of them.

I had to make sure I killed it for good, because if not, our life might be in danger.

I shot all nine bullets at the same time toward the goblin.

It seems that my secret practice in the corner of the vacant lot had paid off.

ーBang!

The bullets hit the goblin's chest and blew it away.

The goblin rolled on the ground, and it stopped moving.

Luck then alternately looked at me and the goblin's corpse several times with his jaw dropped.

「U, Uwohh… Mark, you're so strong… Uhh, I'll tell Jack to never offend you ever again…」Luck

No way I will use this against Jack, so I don't think he needs to worry about it tho…

After that, we started walking again.

And once again, Nicola stopped and pointed in a direction.

This time, a goblin with a bow.

Just like before, I shot the stone bullets and killed the goblin.

Celine said that we should collect the bow from golins if we found one, but this time, we were in a hurry, so we decided to just leave it.

After that, Nicola kept finding goblins as we proceeded, and I shot them all.

Thanks to her discovering every single goblin, we could proceed smoothly before the goblins found us.

I thought she wouldn't do anything even though I brought her with me, but she was very useful.

I never knew Nicola could do something like this. And I didn't know how she did it either.

Nicola pointed forward again, but this time, I didn't see any goblin.

「There's a goblin corpse lying over there」Nicola

We walked toward where Nicola was pointing, and yeah, there was a goblin corpse there.

We nodded to each other and approached the corpse.

The goblin's belly was torn and its right ear was cut off.

It wasn't that dirty, so it was probably killed not so long ago.

And… its face was covered by something like white powder as if the goblin was just competing in a candy-searching contest*.

What the heck is this?

/* candy-searching contest is a competition to find a candy that was hidden inside a basin full of white powder, like wheat flour or potato starch, with only using your mouth.

「It's Jack's doing. We were right. He was heading to this forest after all」Luck

Luck took out a white ball from his small bag on his waist.

「I use this ball to blind the enemies. When it hit the enemies' faces, it would explode into powder and blind them for a while. I gave Jack some of this balls」Luck

Luck looked forward with a scowling face.

「Khh… Let's hurry!」Luck

We silently continued walking.

After a while, we arrived at a resting place near a river.

Celine, Nicola and I used to rest in this place when we went to this forest the other day.

「The other side of this river is the kobold territory, and the place where to find fine herbs is also over there. We'll cross the river. Be careful not to slip」Luck

「Ah, wait」Mark

When Luck was about to try to walk in the shallow part of the river, I stopped him.

「If our shoes get wet, it may hinder our move, so…」Mark

I used earth magic in front of Luck who was looking at me suspiciously.

The earth pillars raised from the riverbed and created stepping stones with about 50 cm of diameter on the surface.

I arranged the pillars at regular intervals across the river.

Luck made an amazed look while crossing the stepping stones.

「When Jack told me about you, I thought he was exaggerating. But really, you guys are amazing…」Luck

Luck was amazed not only by me, but also Nicola.

For adventurers, the ability to detect nearby monsters seemed to be an awesome ability to have.

I think Celine was also using this kind of ability when we were hunting goblins here.

Well, that's a rank-C adventurer for you.

I didn't usually hide my ability, but maybe it was going too far this time. Still, I wanted to do everything I could do now since we had to hurry.

And it seems that Nicola also thought the same as me. She always acted like a cute fragile girl, but she showed her seriousness this time.

「We'll be fighting kobolds from now on. How much do you know about kobolds?」Luck

Luck asked me while we were crossing the stepping stones.

「I heard they are dog-type monsters. And also they are stronger than goblins」Mark

「Indeed they are stronger than goblins, but unlike goblins, they don't have weapons. They seem to be intelligent enough to use weapons, but they already have deadly weapons like fangs and claws. Also, they are moving as a group better than goblins. Adventurers were often surrounded by them before they knew it. So, always be vigilant and never let your guard down」Luck

As I listened to Luck's advice, we arrived at the other side of the river.

From here, we would be infiltrating the kobold area.