Zorey and adventurers (part 1)

"Thh...! Thhhhhe on whhhho crrrrrushhhhhhes...!"

But if Lesia was terrified, then the wolfman tribesman who also got freed from the rock bindings was about to die on the spot from sheer horror.

The beast, whose mere appearance struck fear in the hearts of countless humans and was an object of the nightmares of many adventurers, was lying flat on the ground, trying to make itself appear as small as possible while inching away at a snail's pace.

"Yeah, sure, why not? Who cares about my plans anyway!"

"?!?!" "!!!"

The black-haired boy ended up standing up and sighed in annoyance while rubbing the back of his head, making Lesia and the wolfman tribesman flinch and freeze up.

"What are you still waiting here for?! Fuck off to your village!"

"ARF?!"

The boy lowered his hand, but then his gaze turned to the hyperventilating canine monster, and he shouted at it, making the creature let out a dog-like yelp and run away with all of its might and disappearing within the bushes in a blink of an eye.

"...haaaa... now then. As I was saying before, my name is..."

Zorey let out another annoyed sigh while staring after the escaping wolfman, after which he turned towards Lesia, attempting to pick up the conversation right where they had left it, but...

...the girl was already gone too – she had to bolt away at the same time as the wolfman tribesman...

"...oh, for the love of System...!" *UMPH*

The boy rolled his eyes and groaned – ending up rushing in the direction he expected the girl to run off to, creating a massive shockwave just by kicking off the ground.

He managed to catch up to her in no time but judged it would actually be not even inefficient but straight-up cruel to her as it would scare her even more.

From Zorey's perspective, Lesia looked just like a scared dwarf lesser rat running back to its burrow after spotting a predator.

Since the burrow, in this case, must have been a camp where the adventurers gathered, and Lesia wasn't in the right state of mind to make some false trails right now, Zorey simply overtook her and charged ahead.

"..."

After a few minutes, Zorey was standing on top of a wooden wall surrounding the relatively big encampment, taking over the area surrounding a road between Little Barn and New Herbal...

No.

Little Barn and Little Greens.

After all, it has been three years since New Herbal ceased to exist.

"...huh...?"

"..." *UMPH*

"What was that?! Everyone – combat ready!"

Caught in thoughts, Zorey almost got spotted by one of the adventurers standing guard but managed to rush away without being spotted – protecting his identity at the cost of the shockwave he created, alarming everyone in the camp.

At that point, moving from one end of the wall to the other had no point, so Zorey lightly jumped down with both hands in his pants pockets and an indifferent expression.

"What's going on? Did Lesia return? Did we finally have a confirmation about its existence?"

Right after softly landing, Zorey approached a party of four adventurers busily gearing up and asked as casually as it was possible.

"Huh? I... umm... I'm not sure, friend, but you better get back to your party and prepare. Erol seems to be in a bad mood today."

One of the adventurers – probably the leader of the group – raised his brows, looking at the black-haired boy, but ended up not recognizing that something was off and advised Zorey with a smile.

"Then I'll go back to my party and pick up the equipment in case I would run into Erol. See you around. Let us talk some more after the ruckus clears out~!"

"Heh. Sure, why not? Take care.."

Zorey laughed, tugging on the collar of his worn-out shirt and waving the adventurer goodbye and even receiving a positive response.

"...so that whole Erol is the most important guy here, huh? I wonder if he's strong?"

{Do not attempt the disruption of their chain of command, please.}

Zorey hummed to himself while walking through the camp and instantly got a System message that simply radiated worry.

"I do not intend to do that, Ma'am. I'm simply curious what kind of person was sent to lead the monster village subjugation quest... although I'm not entirely sure that's why they are here for. Lesia was utterly shocked at the sight of a wolfman tribesman after all. Ma'am."

Zorey stopped behind one of the large tents and leaned to the side while murmuring, sharing his opinions with the System.

{I cannot force you to accept the implementation of the therapy program, but I do have access to your data. You lied to me just now.}

The next message showed up, and it was rather direct and basically impossible to misunderstand.

"Commander Erol! Lesia is back!"

"Open the gate!"

While Zorey had no intention of responding back to the System, the adventurer guarding the gate and a tall blond-haired man in his early thirties got permission to let the approaching Scout in.

"C...! CLOSE THE GATE!"

"?!?!"

But then, to everyone's surprise, the rushing girl cried out in utter panic before throwing herself through the gate as if expecting it to shut right at her command.

"Lesia! What's going on?"

"Close it! Close it before that monster shows up!"

The blond-haired Erol called out and approached the woman, cowering on the ground while she tumbled to the side, covering her head with both arms and wailing.

"LESIA!"

"!!!"

The man's expression darkened, and he raised his voice, causing the Scout to flinch and regain at least a bit of composure.

"What did you see out there? Is there really a monster village? Do they have a champion or something?"

Erol's gaze softened, and he asked while offering a helping hand to the shaken woman.

"E-Erol! Screw some monster village! There was this village kid – I mean, I THOUGHT he was a village kid, but then a wolfman tribesman showed up, and we hid, BUT THEN a fre-freaking Earth Elemental showed up and, and... and...!"

Lesia grabbed onto Erol's hand, but instead of standing up, she pulled herself closer to him and started frantically explaining everything that happened without taking a single breath.

"Wolfman tribesman showed up?! So then the monster village is... WAIT! DID YOU JUST SAY THAT EARTH ELEMENTAL SHOWED UP?! CLOSE THE GATE! EVERYONE PREPARE TO EVACUATE FROM THE CAMP!"

For a moment, Erol's eyes lit up with excitement, but that almost instantly turned into fear, and he stood up together with Lesia and hurriedly gave commands to the rest of the adventurers.

"!!!"

And this time, unlike the moment earlier when it was the Scout shouting, everyone sprung into action without hesitation.

"N-no! Erol! The Earth elemental is dead already!"

"..."

Lesia, surprised about suddenly finding herself in the expedition leader's arms, shook her head and muttered meekly – although, for the first few seconds, her words didn't seem to have a reaction.

"...wait... what...?"

But then, just as he was about to rush towards his tent, Erol froze up and stared at the troubled woman.

"The monster I was running away from wasn't the Earth Elemental! It was something that killed the Earth Elemental!"

"EVERYONE, STOP!"

Lesia gulped down her saliva and explained and flinched when Erol roared at the other adventurers, who listened to him and literally froze in place, unsure what to do because of the conflicting commands.

"Say it again. So there was some villager, a wolfman tribesman showed up, and Earth elemental came after it. But then, The earth elemental was the one to die? Did... did the wolfman get reinforcements from its village? Are we so late in detecting the monster village that a champion monster capable of taking care of Earth Elemental spawned?"

Erol took a deep breath and asked, propping Lesia up so they would be on the same eye level.

"No! It was that villager kid! He killed the Elemental! He actually tore its heart out and then burnt the clay core with some item!"

The Scout shook her head and continued the explanation.

"..."

...which made Erol furrow his brows...

"... you're calling that person a village kid... then... their Status Window didn't show up automatically, did it...?"

He inquired with a slightly less worried expression.

"He...! Umm... y-yes... There was no System Window popping up right away, and there was no notification for it either..."

Lesia flinched and huddled her shoulders before admitting.

"...then he wasn't a monster, or a red... or even an orange player... was he...?"

"...it... it certainly appears to be like that..."

Erol pressed further, and Lesia admitted while looking away, feeling her face getting extremely hot from embarrassment.

"Then... are you telling me you've encountered some powerful player and ran away from him instead of trying to learn anything? Did he attack you?"

"...he... he didn't..."

The expedition leader frowned and prodded further, which made Lesia lower her head and mutter.

"BUT! Erol! He claimed that he was from a nearby village, so he was clearly hiding something! And when the Earth Elemental died, and the wolfman tribesman and I were released, the wolfman almost lost its mind from fear and called that guy – the one who crushes!"

"...!"

Lesia suddenly perked up and urgently finished her story, giving the main reason for her fear, and had Erol lean back as his eyes widened.