Chapter 7.1: Return

After entering the forest, Sierra thought long and hard on what we should have started on first. It seemed she wanted to do this as efficiently as possible. She finally ended up deciding to teach me how to jump from tree to tree.

"Most biomes that host monsters typically are of the forest variety. So, I think it is a good start to learn how to travel in these areas." He began to explain how to do it, while demonstrating. She ended up jumping up to a tree branch like it was nothing. "Ok, first thing first, jump up here."

"Do you think I can…it is, like 10 feet."

"You literally dashed, like 10 feet easily with your style. Just do it, upwards instead."

"Ok, here goes nothing-" I decided to jump upward to the tree branch with my flash style, to which ended up causing me to burst outward into the sky. I was surprised that it ended up getting me a bit over at least 3 extra feet. As I ended up landing, which I didn't, as the forward force ended up causing me to fall out of the tree. I don't know how much it would hurt, but I winced at the pain that was going to happen to my face.

But like landing, I didn't fall either.

"Geez, do I have to hold your hand at everything." She groaned, holding me casually by the arm as I was bent over close to falling. She ended up pulling me up. She let go, causing me to wobble a bit. I was sure I was going to fall again, though it seemed like she wasn't going to help. Is she fed up? "Bend your knees, wide stance. If you still have trouble, put one arm on the tree trunk. "

I did as she did. "Ok….not too hard. Kinda like balance training." I am self coxed. Now when I think about it that way, this is easy." I ended up thinking that I could end up taking my hand off the trunk, to which I wobbled a bit before I ended up holding on to the truck again. Yeah…no reason not to be safe.

"Now we jump-" She ended up jumping onto the next tree. "Once you land, be sure to bend your knees to suppress the energy. Also, scout out a branch to land on, big is best. If it is smaller than usual, don't stand on it too long before it breaks. Now, go on, try it. This time, don't land on the same branch as me."

My eyes darted from her branch to the next. And the next. Until I spotted a well attached tree branch. I think I can reach it. And if i don't put too much force in it…..

I jumped. But once again, I wrongly estimated my strength. This time, I overestimated it; only being shy from it, having my hands right there. Rather than miss, I ended up grabbing the branch, causing the branch to shake a bit, as leaves fell. I wouldn't have had any problem hoisting myself up. However, I ended up scratching my fingers a bit. It didn't hurt too much, but it ended up causing me. To lose my grip. I ended up quickly looking around, luckily there was a branch not too far away, to which I was able to fall down, sticking to the landing.

Maybe I should wear some gloves. I ended up dousing my fingers into the potion to which ended up healing my fingers, before pulling them out and putting about 75% of a potion back.

"I guess I can give you partial credit."

" Do you always calculate where to land?!" I asked.

"Yeah, trust me, it gets easier with practice." She confided.

We continued this. She jumped from tree to tree as if it was as natural as breathing. Wanting to hold my own, I tried my best to jump from tree to tree. Sierra ended up telling me that once I ended up finding more spots, I can let my forward momentum do the rest. Gradually, I ended up getting much better at it. So much so, that I was steadily able to keep pace.

We did this for a while, going around the forest. This reminded me of when I was looking around for some enemies to deal with. We continued to scout until it seemed that she ended up spotting something from below. To which she jumped off to look at the ground below here.

She began to look thoroughly, her nodding to herself and her continued observation. She stood back up, as she appeared to come to her conclusion.

"The hobgoblins went back to their home."

"How can you tell the difference between a hobgoblin and a goblin?"

"Oh? You don't know?" She began to point out subtle differences in the tracks, while also teaching me to track a bit. Though, she said that the hunter class goes more into it, so she just taught me the basics.

After she did, she decided to allow me to have hands-on learning, allowing me to track them down. To which I luckily was able to do. I didn't just track the impressions in the ground, but the broken branches, the bent grass, and the crushed flowers. Patching everything together was this fun little mini game. Now, Compared to Sierra, who ended up pointing out things beyond my knowledge, I ended up creating a vivid description of what was going on. It was very cool. Though I don't think I can describe that height yet or ever.

After reaching a certain moment, Sierra decided it was the right time to jump back into the trees. She said that she didn't want me to multitask jumping through the trees while tracking them down. Especially since I am still a rookie; regardless of how good I got, she knows me so we already.

Jumping from tree to tree. We continued to do so for a bit. Sierra was able to track while jumping. I mean, I have a keen enough eyesight to look from that distance, which is surprising, but hey- I'm an elf too. Guess that is part of those genes. Even though, oddly enough, my status says I am raceless, but surely that is a bit of a joke. As I was thinking of this, I was surprisingly still able to jump. I guess I am not a complete ditz. I also ended up spotting a goblin wandering.

It is wandering in the right direction. That means we are right. I was happy that we reached the correct conclusion. Though, it should have been expected.

"Lumiya. Watch this." She immediately dismounted from the tree, darting straight at the goblin, staying clear within its blindspot. Before it could even turn its neck, her two daggers ended up sinking its neck with such predatory might, before using its almost dead corpse as a board to jump off of and back into the trees. She did this with such grace as she picked back in the very similar spot that she jumped out of the tree from.

"Wow!"

"You think you can do that?" She asked.

"Oh, no. I definitely doubt so."

"True. What I did was a lethal attack known as the Spider Fangs. Now, the non lethal version is the Spider Bite. The difference being rather than sink your weapons into the guaranteed death spot, you instead, apply pressure to that area via a hilt. This is quite a powerful pressure point to use against people. So much so, that people typically have neck guards to protect from this.

"I think I understand that. But, I doubt that I will be able to flip back into the tree like you did."

"Oh, that was for show. You typically can do that with much larger foes, like ogres, but most of the time, people land on the ground before jumping back up. If you want to be cruel, you jump off the dead corpse and will get the same result."

Yeah, what she did, that was pretty cruel. I wonder what her alignment is.

Alignment is, in short, a personality check that people in video games have as well as paperback rpg games. It is mostly used as a narrative device. As for games that end up using this, I kinda dislike their approach. But, I will get back to that.

After getting a glance at the goblin body, as well as getting its ears, I ended up taking a brief thought on whether or not I could do it, visualizing myself attempting to do it a few times, before I could grasp the "Spider Fang". Though, before I can actually say I can do it, I k

"Stop here." She halted. The suddenness of stopping almost caused me to lose balance after landing right beside her. But thankfully I regained it. It would have been bad to fall now, since we ended up finally reaching the entrance of the goblin's home.

They were all organizing things, even going as far as creating fire and cooking the food. It seemed that they were quite smart. If they cooked the food out in the cave, it would cause smoke to smog up the cave, and they couldn't breath, if we are referencing how humans work. I honestly don't know if they respond the same. As for the berries, some of them were organizing them. It looked like they were checking for the good ones, as well as the bad. Though it didn't seem like they were throwing away the bad ones. Instead, they were putting it in its own spot, before giving them to an evil old looking shaman of a goblin, to which seemed to chuckle before bringing the bad ones into the cave. I could only think that they were making poison or something. I read-up that some higher thinking goblins may even go as far as to do that.

The Stronger looking ones, the Hobgoblins, were standing guard. They didn't seem to talk to one another as they surrounded the perimeter. It was quite interesting. There were no archer goblins, which was perplexing, but I guess I can live with that. Those were the main problems when trying to fight up against the hob-goblins in the first place

"Ok, I want you to try the spider fang. Once you perfect it, you should be able to do spider bites, "she ordered. "Let's see, take out one of the hobgoblins"

Easier said than done. Though, I didn't complain here. I ended up jumping from tree to tree, making sure not to make any more noise than I have to. It was pretty noisy too to begin with, as the tree's swayed by the wind, and the non-guarding goblins seemed to be in their own mindspace as they conversed with one another. This was a perfect opportunity to make the first move.

Marking my target and finding a branch above its adjacent spot, I ended up greeting ready to jump.

Come on, you can do this, you can do this, you can-

Whoops. I slipped. As I began to fall, I tried my best to twist my body mid-air. I could at least stab that area. To which I successfully did, I didn't have the leverage you would get by landing on the body. But I was at least able to stab it as I ended up falling on its body with a thud.

This immediately caused all of the goblins to get aggressive, as they ended up seeing a random elven girl on top of their now lifeless brethren.

I could hear him faint breathing as well as his muscles twitching. Crap, I missed. I ended up stabbing him there once again, to stop the breathing. Although the blood spattered on me, I ignored it as I stood up ready to fight the rest of them.

"Ok, guess I have to do this the old fashion way." I first ended up throwing the dead hobgoblins spear at one of the other hobgoblins, to which ended up stabbing it clear in its leg. It ended up wailing. Although I should have felt bad, I was a bit happy. Yeah! Take that, you piece of shit. I guess I was directing my repressed vendetta against the goblins I fought onto them.

Without wasting a breath after that, I quickly draw my wakizashi, before flashing stepping right in front of the goblin.

"Hi." I said to him, before, pivoting behind him and stabbing him with my Tanto dagger into his neck. He was still breathing, to which I grumbled again as I swung my katana to lob its head off.

Wow, my movements improved. It has been a while since I fought against monsters, one month, to be precise. I would have thought that I would have gotten sloppy. But I guess I couldn't really get sloppy with my skills, when I didn't really have skills to begin with.

A few more goblins began to surround me. I didn't feel threatened at all though. As they swung their blades, I ended up easily evading them, jumping; acrobatically flipping out of the way as I ended up, landing on one of the goblins, only to perform spider fangs this time.

I sloppily landed once again. However, this time I stuck the landing. So, at least I was approving little by little. "Alright, who's next?" I was taunted.

It seems the few hobgoblins that were still alive by this, which was about 4 seemed to be a bit provoked to which I ended up smiling as I could remember a small lesson, I learned from Haku-sensei-

"The one who loses their cool is the one who is at a disadvantage in the art of war.…"

And this case is no different. As they blindly began to swing, I ended up immediately seeing the opening, to which I ended up whirling my blade, cutting two of their hands off, both with their weapons, as well as being able to slightly cut the chests of the other two, which ended up prompting them to back up.

As the hobgoblins with their decapitated arms were writhing in pain, this distraction was yet enough to fish them with decapitating cuts before tending to the other ones.

After seeing most of their comrades fall, they ended up becoming fearful, to which they ended up attempting to flee.

"Oh no you don't-" Sierra said from above, taking the one down on the left with a spider. Her technique was still great, and it was quite amazing to see her. "What are you just standing around? Take care of the other one."

"Oh right." I immediately closed the distance, with a flash step, before stabbing the hobgoblin though its back. It was quite odd. As all of the foes, I killed without sympathy. It didn't disturb me. Though I could only wonder. Would the previous me do think the same?

Well, I don't have too much time to worry about such thoughts. Although I was able to take on the hobgoblins, the rest of the goblins were waiting their turn, to which Sierra backed away to allow me to handle the rest, to which I did. Then after I did, I collected the elf ears. Curious, I turned to Sierra to see her, to which she only stood there idly. I was curious if she wasn't at it as well.

"Oh, you can have some of the ears." I was granted permission. I'm sure she was quite raring to get money.

"I'm good." She said, as she continued to observe me.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm good. I am just surprised that an elven girl such as yourself would end up doing what you're doing."

"Huh?"

She looked as confused as I was. "Well, most light elves are a bit too prideful to go as far as to butcher the dead."

"What about dark elves?"

"Well, I can't speak for all of them, but I couldn't care less. Life is life, and dead bodies are just dead bodies; objects that you can do whatever you want with. They aren't alive. And even then, why should you worry? In this world, there are predators and prey. I am just surprised that you are doing the same thing I would do." She gave valuable points. Though, it made me feel like she was a bit suspicious about me, given what I did.

"Well, I guess I didn't think that thoroughly…" I ended up awkwardly chuckling. Thankfully, A large growl inside the cave was able to halt that.

"I'm sure that was the goblin king." She noted. "It must have smelt the dead bodies of its brethren."

"Well, guess we still know it is still rare to go. Shall we?"

She ended up looking at me; her eyes sharpened. "Yeah, it seems like you level up by a bit. Well, guess we have no choice."

And so, we ended up entering the cave.