Trip to The Forest

The Baron was engrossed in writing something on the parchment on his table while Thomas guided Damian to sit in one of the chairs across from him. After that, Thomas left, still, the Baron had yet to take his eyes off his writing. Finally, he put down his quill and looked at him. 

"How are you doing, boy?" the Baron asked.

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"Oh! Different indeed…"

Damian raised an eyebrow at his words. Different? Was he talking about his behavior? Well, there had been just no point for him to continue acting like an imbecile, so Damian never really tried to, but he had never really shown his full potential either—he was sure of that.

"Oh! Don't look at me like that boy. Tell me why do you want to go outside?" the Baron shot a glance, his eyes narrowing.

"Huh? When did I—"

But Damian stopped mid-sentence. 'Ah, of course, The kind maid must have spilled all the beans already.'

"It was your daughter's idea, my lord. She wanted a way to level up. I just suggested one."

"A troublesome one, yes. Too dangerous, yet feasible."

Baron Goldilocks regarded Damian as if he was seeing him for the first time before continuing.

"She mentioned that both of you would go. Do you have any problem with that?"

"No, my lord. If we have enough protection, I have no objection. I am curious about the monsters, too."

Damian answered, showing the Baron the naïve thoughts of a young boy who was still unfamiliar with fear. And it seemed like the Baron bought it. 

"Fine, then. Thomas will take you. And Boy…"

The Baron paused, locking his eyes with Damian.

"You can ask if you need anything. I will do what I can."

Damian was a bit taken aback by his words. The Baron seemed a better man than what was considered normal for nobility in this world. Perhaps that was why his daughter was so proud of her lineage. 

"Can I get my freedom back?"

"Huh!?… Ha…Hahhah…Hahhahah."

The Baron laughed uncontrollably for a whole minute before abruptly stopping, his expression shifting to one so fearsome that it could make even the devil tremble in his dark domain.

"I gave your family 100 Vigha of fertile land, boy. Give me something of equal value and you can buy your freedom back if you so wish for it."

Damian had no idea how much a Vigha was worth, but even if he sold himself 10 times over in a market, he would still fall short of the amount the damned Baron had likely paid to buy him. 

The Baron then resumed his work, so Damian left without saying another word. He realized that there was no point in any further conversation. No matter how good he was treated, how many resources he was being given to train himself, or how he was fed and had a place to call his home, at the end of it all, he was just a prisoner in a better-looking prison. He had no control over his life whatsoever, and he had a glaring suspicion that even his class or job choices wouldn't be solely his if he stayed here much longer.

The rune formulas had now become his refuge, a good mind teaser to get lost in whenever he needed an escape. Solving their mysteries was indeed a welcome distraction.

Damian had figured out that only one section among the five different combinations of alphabets and numbers and runes that made up the runic circle, but he still needed to test it, nonetheless, he knew it was true since it was one of the variables that was common in all 10 runes. It was responsible for either the intensity of the said rune or its mana output. 

The more mana a rune used, the more intensity or the force of the said rune would be. But it was just one of the five variables, among which, only a few were similar, to top it off each rune had one of its own unique combinations of runes, letters and numbers. 

Thinking of all this, he realized that he was indeed far from understanding it.

Two days later, Damian found himself riding in the carriage toward the northern forest. The Baron's villa in the small town of Lockwood was already left far behind them.

Four people rode inside the carriage, while ten knights on horseback escorted them towards the distant forest. Damian gazed out of the small window and did his best to ignore his companions—Lucian, Rosie and Thomas. 

He already knew that Thomas was a powerhouse. The reason; whenever he was in the presence of the old man, his knees would turn into jelly. Thomas had never displayed how capable he was, but given the difficult nature of this endeavor, the Baron must have placed great trust in him to protect his daughter and his investment.

"Do we know what are the common monster types that we can find on this side of the forest?"

Drawn by his question, Lucian raised her head from the book in her hands and glanced at Thomas, who in turn looked at Damian before answering.

"Mostly unranked monsters like Slimes, Goblins and Dire wolves. The average rank of the monsters in this area is Leader rank such as Orcs, Imps, Spiders and Trolls. Nothing a Light-walker or first rankers can't handle. There is one Terror-rank monster, but it's deep in the forest, so we won't have to worry about it."

Damian recalled the ranking system for monsters and beasts and knew that, with his current stats, the only monsters he would most likely be able to handle were slimes. Lucian, however, was older than him and far more skilled with a sword. She could probably take on a variety of unranked monsters. Her level was likely around 15-17 at best. 

The knights were probably all Light-walkers, first-ranker masters, likely on their second or third job by now. Thomas seemed even above them, which would likely place him in the second-ranker category—an Enlightened.

They reached the forest entrance within an hour. From there, the way forward was on foot. Two people stayed back with the horses and carriage, though two horses accompanied the group, in case of emergencies or to send messages. The plan was to hunt until nightfall, then return. 

The knights fell into formation just as the group started walking, forming a circle with the four of them inside. Then, the band headed deeper into the forest, encountering monsters along the way—packs of goblins and wolves and occasionally some orcs and spiders. However, none managed to survive the knights, much less enter their circle of defense.

"Are you ready, my lady?"

Thomas asked after giving the two kids time to observe how the monsters moved and attacked. However, Damian was ordered to strictly stand near him unless slimes appeared. For the first time, the two were given real short swords.

Lucian assumed a crouching tiger stance and nodded. Seeing her prepared, a knight let a goblin with a wooden club pass, who charged straight towards the golden-haired lady. 

In a flash, Lucian's form shifted from crouching tiger to the leap of the mountain, swiftly merging seamlessly with the world around her. The next moment, the still-running goblin's ugly head rolled on the ground and seconds later, its body followed suit.

Lucian was renowned as an unparalleled genius among her peers not because she had insane stats or some great lineage, she was considered a genius simply because no one in the entire North could match her level in terms of growth. 

She was a prodigy in the Northern noble circle and had the potential to become a peak-level master swordsman—a really powerful and highly coveted skill among the nobility. She could have gotten any house lordling to marry, but the Baron had chosen the deteriorating Sunblade house, since it neither came with any strings attached and was one of the oldest houses with generations of powerful warriors. Their blood had potent magical abilities, though why such a house was falling farther and farther was a mystery to Damian. In his childhood he had witnessed nothing that could help him understand this behavior from his family.

The group then continued to venture deeper into the forest, facing more difficulty as the power and the number of monsters continued to increase. Even Damian got the chance to face one-on-one with jelly-like slimes and took them down in just one sword strike. Though they weren't much of a challenge, Damian was happy and felt proud of his progress. He wasn't here for the kills anyway, what he was waiting for was a monster with a higher concentration of magic in its blood. 

And at last, the chance he was waiting for finally arrived, in the form of a small ugly flying monstrosity known as an Imp. 

However before Damian could even think for a moment, the Imp darted towards them, rushing past the knights on the ground, coming out of nowhere since it was probably hiding above the trees which blocked the knights' vision.

Suddenly, a bright green light flashed in Damian's vision, drawing his attention. He turned to see Thomas, who was whispering something so fast that his ears couldn't even keep up.

However that was not the most surprising part, the source of the green light was what made his eyes bulge in surprise—a runic magic circle had formed just a few inches away from Thomas' mouth and consisted of various numbers, runes and alphabets, connected by a web of glowing green pathways which were all inside a big, vibrant green circle.

Seconds later, an arrow made of solid air shot past everyone, striking the flying creature and tearing through a tree, which now had a gaping hole in its trunk.