On the trail

Before they set off after burying her father Victoria had something that she needed to collect, it was the final thing that had been left for her by her mother.

It was stored away in an ornamental box adorned with carvings intricate enough to fool ordinary onlookers if they weren't paying attention.

Taking the box into her hands she stared at it for a minute before opening it and taking a look at what was inside, not that she needed to know what was inside as she already knew, she just wanted to see what it looked like.

The dress inside was mainly black with gold weavings on either side that ran down to the bottom, a white cloak of sorts was also included that was to be worn on top to ward away spirits of bad luck.

"Where were those charms when you needed them" The goddess sighed, she didn't seem all too excited about Victoria finally leaving the roost, even though she had been lobbying her to do so for years now.

`They were obviously inside the box, which had only just been opened` Victoria was not dealing with the goddess' remarks today, at least not in the same jovial manner that she was usually able to.

"Hey Alex just give me a minute okay" Alex nodded and left the house to stand guard outside, he had never truly recovered from the events seven years ago, always being on edge around Victoria when the two were alone.

In any case that didn't matter right now, what did matter was that the dress was not entirely simple to wear unlike the others that her mother had sewn.

Not that putting it on was necessarily hard, all that was required was pulling it over her head, the difficulty came in clipping the white adornment to the back and making sure that it stayed on.

But it wasn't an impossible task and eventually it was all fitting tightly with nothing falling off, even if she ran from one end of the house to the other.

Before she left she gave one last sweep of the house, after she left it would most likely remain abandoned and would be demolished in the coming years, she may never return to this place again, yet one last look was all she needed to say goodbye before exiting the door one final time.

And with that they both set off towards the forest, Victoria had no idea where they were headed, every time she had asked Alex had responded with the same lines of "I don't know" and "We'll see"

This had gotten on her nerves quite a bit but the more she pestered him, the more she got the same answer out of stubbornness, so she had stopped before instead focusing on the final gift from her mother.

As soon as they entered the forest the environment turned to night with the trees blocking any and all light that was trying to make its way to the forest floor, strangling the plants underneath.

"We'll be taking the northern path from here since the first places we'll be going to are the Nothern lands"

The name rang a bell to Victoria but she couldn't quite figure out why but she felt like that was not a very safe place for her to go currently.

"Can we not try to go to the Havendales or Jike, for the love of the goddess I would take the swamp towns over the northern lands right now"

It sounded like she was having a childish tantrum about the destination that they were set towards, and to a certain extent she was but the feeling of danger was too strong for her to ignore.

"It's a good thing that you don't want to go there Victoria, the physically strongest players are all situated around there, the only reason that they haven't killed each other yet is due to the age restriction, it will be a bloodbath tomorrow"

The goddess' chilling words only served to reinforce her opposition to visiting the Northern lands anytime in the near or far future, she didn't want to ever go if she could avoid it.

"Fine then, since you seem so dead set on not going to the Northern lands we'll instead go to the swamps, there's someone I've wanted to meet for a while who lives there anyway so I was planning to go sooner or later"

"Guess it's going to be sooner than you thought huh, wait a minute is it someone you want to fight?"

"You're both half-right and half-wrong in that assumption, if they don't live up the reputation I will certainly be fighting them to expose the fraud, yet if the reputation is well founded, I will definitely not be fighting them"

He spoke as if the rumours were terrifying in nature, slightly shuddering at the thought of the rumours being true.

"Well now you've got me interested, why is he so scary to you?"

He gave her a puzzled look that was asking "Do you really not know?" without having to say any words, causing Victoria to pout at him.

"So-rry for not hearing about things like that when I've lived in a remote village for all my life"

"I lived there for seven years, and yet I heard rumours like this practically every other week, you just want an excuse for not talking to people"

While it was true that she hadn't spoken to the people of the village all too much, preferring to keep to herself, she could still boast a wide arsenal of rumours from all corners of the village.

"Well I heard from certain women that tried to hit on a middle-aged woman at the tavern"

Alex's face went a deathly pale, his jaw practically swinging off of its hinges on his mouth, this told her all she needed to know.

"So it was true, jeez you just couldn't be satisfied with the village beauty so you went for a side mistress several times older than you"

"It's not like that, I'm telling you it's not like that, just listen to me"

She ran ahead as if she was running from a lover heartbroken by his betrayal, and Alex for his part played the lover chasing after his girl to try and explain the situation to the level of an Oscar-winning actor.

This time though, when Victoria ran she was more careful about what she could bump into, never forgetting that time she had almost been mauled to death by goblins.

Every step she took was calculated by looking ahead and analysing for any signs of monster activity, be it large or small she would pick up on it.

And that's just what she did, stopping dead in her tracks as soon as she saw the droppings from what seemed to be another pack of goblins that were nesting in the area.

"*Huff Huff*Alex*Gulp, I'm going to need you over here"

"*Huff* What have you seen"

"Look on the floor here" She bent down to point towards where she had seen the monster tracks.

"That's disgusting" He visibly recoiled away from the poo that was all over, which made Victoria smirk.

"So mr monster Slayer, please slay these goblins for the sake of world peace"

"I think that's going a bit far, even for hyperbole don't you think?"

"Nothing of the sort my dear fellow, goblins are a scourge all over the world, so killing them makes the world a more peaceful place"

"It's amazing how much bullsh*t you can come up with on the fly, it really is, probably the only people who can compete are nobles at a stretch and merchants from the East"

That last remark was a common belief of people from the middle of the continent since many of their legends tell of Eastern merchants who scam ordinary men out of their souls and the like.

"I don't think I'm that bad for it, but are you going to get the job done or what?"

"*Sigh* Fine, it's not like keeping them alive would benefit us in any way" He unsheathed his sword fully revealing a glimmering silver blade with dragons that wrapped around the hilt.

To the naked eye the blade seemed completely normal, but upon close inspection it could be observed to be vibrating at a very rapid pace allowing for easier cuts.

He held the blade in front of him with his right hand, his left being held to his left to help keep his balance as he sneaked his way around the forest to find where the goblins were nesting.

He found them a couple of trees down sitting merrily, eating and dancing around a large bonfire that had been erected in the middle of the camp, clearly the goblins were in the process of moving.

He descended upon them with a fury unmatched by even followers of the god of rage, his sword cleaving through their soft blue bodies like a hot knife slicing through butter.

It was barely even a minute by the time all the goblins were dead, their insides now decorating the local scenery in a sort of grotesque flower arrangement.

"Now that that's done, shall we head off?"