Chapter 2 - Section 2 - Smuggled Out

15 minutes passed, I know this cause the only thing I could do trapped in this crate was staring at the MMO clock in my menu.

The cart once again came to a stop, and the crates lid was pulled of flooding my eyes with sunlight.

"Welcome to the Wilderness Mire's most wanted" <Merchant>

Sating so only to end with a giggle.

Not exactly my idea of a joke, but it was hard to refute that i was infact probably the most wanted man in the country at the moment.

"Whew man they really wanted you for some reason I've never seen that many knight's at the gate except in times of war." <Larr>

"Well I cannot thank you enough, especially you Miss…" <Kokei>

"Oh that's right we haven't been introduced, my name is Raisa Salide I'm a merchant of Joquet" <Raisa>

Raisa in a word was a stunning beauty red hair that flowed down over her shoulders atop her head was a simple straw travelers hat, her facial features were more European than those I'd seen in the Kingdom of Mire thus far, whereas I stood out all the more for having North American facial features.

"Well met, thank you for saving me, Miss Salide, my name is… ugh well let's see, I guess call me Satou for now" <Kokei/Satou>

I offered my old avatar's name since I couldn't think of anything else to go by since clearly Kokei was now a taboo name to operate under. Reaching into my pocket I removed my Guild card, and tossed it as hard as I could into the forest.

"Well it's a pretty unusual name but I understand the circumstances so nice to meet you as well Satou, and you don't gotta go with honorific's with me just call me Raisa, now these guys filled me in, so I guess as your employer I better tell you to get to work!" <Raisa>

Ending with a devilish grin on her face, before breaking out in a laugh.

I'd cocked my head to the side a bit in confusion.

"Dude she means using your item box skill to carry her carts items so we all can ride instead" <Larr>

Answering as a hand slapped my back

[Right of course then we can escape faster than having the five of us walk beside the cart]

I spent the next minute scooping up all the crates and pots stored in the cart all of them being placed into my Inventory in a sub-tab I created to separate out my stuff from her's.

Once I was finished the five of us clambered up onto the cart, Larr the ranger took a seat next to Raisa as the lookout, the rest of us sat down in back.

The journey continued on like that for quite a while every now and then a conversation would spark of old missions the wolves had taken.

I meanwhile was busy manipulating my MMO menu, first I explored the store for some simple items, since I didn't manage to go shopping this morning in the city.

I kept things simple with a 4-person tent, simple futon bedrolls, and some basic food stuffs that would recover stamina in the game.

"Goblins! Up ahead, looks like there's about 20 of them lurking in the forest" <Larr>

Calling out to us.

Without hesitating the 3 other <Marked Wolves> in the back with me jumped out of the cart and made their way to now stand in front of it, Larr meanwhile got down from the front seat.

[Oh right I'm one of the wolves I should go to]

I flipped my hood up, descending from the cart and drawing my steel sword and dagger from there sheathes, walking around to the front of the cart.

The wolves and Raisa were all staring forward at the squad of goblins that were making a beeline from the forest towards us.

They looked like hairy green children but with plenty of fangs, and pointed ears typical representation of your standard goblin, not even an advanced species like Goblin Soldiers, Generals, Lords, or Kings.

In other words small fries, I can't speak much either since I'm only lvl 1 myself with all rank F stats but with my mmo gear equipped boosting my stats I should stand a good chance even in a 1on1 fight with these goblins.

The wolves took the usual formation I guess with the mages in the rear, Larr taking stance in the middle with his bow, and Roseanne upfront with shield and sword, decent formation considering the party's classes.

[Their teamwork is good, but as for me, I'm equipped like a speed warrior or rogue but if I interfere I could mess with their teamwork, should I instead switch out my weapons for ranged attacks or go full rogue slip around both formation and nip at the goblins heels?]

The battle started with Larr sniping goblins from afar, 1, 2, 3, 4 goblins fell in quick succession until they were only 25 feet away when he switched over to the sword at his waist, enhancement magic was cast on the group thanks to Quinella, as they all prepared for close quarter fighting.

The goblins didn't seem to take any notice of me sending all their malice and focus towards to squad visible targeting them, so I activated my cloak and boots swiftly walking along the side of everyone, only for a moment did I feel Larr's eyes rest on me before returning to the goblins, the goblins meanwhile didn't take any notice as they all rushed right past me without a care in the world.

[Well it is the Mantle of Shadows so I can understand the goblins not seeing me, but I wonder if Larr could actually see me or not?]

Taking off in a run since the opposing forces had finally met in combat, the <Marked Wolves> outnumbered and one small mistake would result in them becoming overwhelmed, I meanwhile began my own plan to fell the goblins in the rear archers, and mages started dropping like flies, Raisa in the cart from her new vantage spot meanwhile wore a shocked expression on her face watching as the rear line of the goblin's started to topple over with an occasional head sent flying.

[Rear-guard down, now time to go after their flanks increasing their wariness and make them lose focus, I gotta keep an eye out for the others don't want to get caught up in an AOE spell of something by accident]

Continuing to make my assault from the shadows, slicing the heels of the goblin vanguard, goblin after goblin collapsed and was killed by the Wolves, confused looks began to show onto their faces as they were left wondering why the fight had turned so much in their favor, finally the last goblin fell to Larr's blade. Quinella, and Roseanne began to look around, while Larr had squinted his eyes staring right at me.

[No one's talking to me so I guess they really can't see me, the flavor text said it helps you to evade from enemies so does that mean deep down they are my enemies? Or is it just because they wielding weapons]

Everyone's posture relaxed almost immediately after Larr declared an all clear, Roseanne sheathed her sword, and Quinella took her second hand off her staff a look of surprise shot across their faces.

"Well that looks like it's the last of them, I don't see anything else in the forest either, we should be good to keep going, but we'll want to setup camp in the plains further down the road the smell of blood on the road's likely to attract other monsters, so we'll have better lines of sight in case of another attack… Whoa What the Hell!" <Larr>

As he was talking both Anthony, and Larr sheathed their weapons, until they cried out in surprise finally joining the others in being able to sight me.

"Where.. Where. Where the hell did you come from Ko… er Satou!?" <Anthony>

"What do you mean? I've been here the whole time" <Satou>

"It was amazing he got around the goblins and took out their rear lines, then starting targeting the goblins you all were fighting it was like he was invisible to them!" <Raisa>

Praising me while highly clasping her hands in front of her chest.

"Ugh, did you see him do any of that?" <Anthony>

Raising his question towards Larr who had the best eyes in the group as a ranger, but he seemed to already know his answer since both of them had jumped out of their skins as if Satou had appeared out of nowhere.

"Nope not a thing, I mean I saw the goblins falling, I just figured he was casting magic or something from the rear, there were a couple time i thought something was out there on instinct but i never could see him." <Larr>

"So from that I take it you're a rouge then?" <Quinella>

Raising a question in my direction.

"Well not really no, I'm trained in a couple of different weapons but my class is [Novice] for the time, though I figured I didn't want to interrupt your teamwork, so I used my equipment to support you all the best I could." <Satou>

"So it was your equipment and not a skill that made you go invisible?" <Marked Wolves>

"Well yeah my cloak here has the ability to raise my evasion level when I'm engaged by an enemy though from what I've seen anyone wielding a weapon against me is considered an enemy, haven't tried to see if an unarmed person targeting me would also get the effect" <Satou>

"Whoa that's so cool, are you really level 1? To have such an amazing item must've cost you a fortune!" <Roseanne>

"Oh no, I actually got it loaned to me from a friend who told me I should get out of the city, he must've known someone was after me, so I'm thankful since it could've helped me to escape." <Satou>

"That's quite a friend to entrust something like that to you" <Quinella>

The Marked Wolves all proceeded to search the goblin corpses afterwards, and the removal of their fangs and right ear.

Meanwhile I just stood there watching, curious about one thing…

[I get why there checking the pouches and taking the ears and fangs for subjugation rewards but why… wait did Larr just walk through that? Can they not see what I see??]

Amid the field of goblin corpses there was a sparkling shine, approaching and tapping the air where the sparkles were suddenly a loot menu appeared before my eyes.

Goblin Fangs, 390 Dokc, Goblin Card – Common, Staff of Azu Gohl.

[This is this an MMO drop loot screen… so not only can physical rewards be collected but I also get typical drops one would see from monsters in the game, that's like getting a double reward for anything that's hunted]

As the wolves proceeded with their collection I nonchalantly wandered around collecting my own drops covertly while looking like I was watching what they were doing.

"Oh right you are a new G rank, you want us to teach you what's worthwhile to harvest from goblins?" <Anthony>

"Ah yes, I hate being the only one of us not doing anything, I'd feel bad for receiving a share without committing the labor" <Satou>

"Well not much really to it, the ear is used to verify the kill, goblins don't payout much but they will get a G-ranker points towards ranking up, next are the fangs if they're broken don't bother pulling them, and lastly is their pouches sometimes they have some dokc on them, or items they pillaged from travellers" <Anthony>

"I see, so not really a lot of a goblin is worth it" <Satou>

"They're just vermin after all, they multiply quickly so their just trash mobs, not like others such as orcs whose testes can be used for medicine, and meat to be consumed. Though there are some of us…" <Anthony>

Jerking his thumb towards Larr

"Who've gone out of their way to consume goblin meat" <Anthony>

"What really?" <Satou>

[Gross, eating a humanoid monster i mean i know it's common in fantasy stories but until someone gives it to me and i don't know what it is first i don't think that's a moral hurdle i'll get over anytime soon?]

"Telling of my folly again are you Tony, but yeah don't get curious you'll be bedridden for weeks, goblin meat is worse than poison" <Larr>

The collection and disposal of the goblins proceeded quickly, using Terra (Earth) magic to dig a hole the corpses were buried lest they attract other monsters and animals to the road. The next hour of travel went smoothly until the party reached the clearing we would setup camp for the night.

"Ko.. Ah Satou do you mind bringing out our bags, we can spread the canvas in our packs to make a shelter for the night" <Larr>

"Actually if you don't mind it, I have a tent." <Satou>

While saying that I manipulated the menu to place the tent and bedrolls into my backpack, not sure exactly how it works since they size alone should never fit in this pack but the menu shows I can place up to 20 items into this pack regardless of size.