Chapter 16: The Curse of the Mystic Forest (1)

Soft shuffles rang out as Elric and Claude crouched their way ahead. From hut to hut, they took cover and moved through the settlement.

Thankfully, none of the Orcs had stepped out of their homes yet.

In a few seconds, the two of them were at the other end of the clearing and had dived into the woods again. They walked a bit further and settled down at a spot.

"Shit… that Orc almost broke my bones…" Claude winced and held his burning stomach.

Elric ignored Claude's words and traced his finger over the dirt on the ground. He drew a circle in the shape of the lake and then drew a small amoeboid to represent the clearing. "We came around from the east, no more clearings or huts this side." Elric dragged his finger ahead toward the center of the part below the lake. "There's only space for one more clearing of huts between this place and the center. If it's there, it's there. If not, well, we'll be able to find an altar or a chief's house, I think."

Claude looked at the makeshift map on the ground and nodded. The path that Grabar had mentioned was right behind them, but they would have to be vigilant and follow it through the woods.

Elric continued onward and made a line further back from the center, away from the drawing of the lake. "We escape like this," he said.

Claude's eyebrow raised in surprise, he was rather impressed that Elric still had the sense to plan an escape. "Why that way?" he asked. "We don't know how far behind their settlement extends."

"We do, actually. The stream formed was visibly new, remember?" The boy then pressed his finger on the other end of the lake and formed a circle with the settlement as the center. "Even if we consider the whole thing in its radius, there's only space for a single settlement behind, that too not completely. This would be the place where we can escape best."

"I see… you've thought far, huh. Not tired?"

"I am. But I can hold on." Elric finally raised his gaze from the ground and looked at Claude in the eye. "Sidekick, what was that thing back there? The white glow thing?"

"S-sidekick… you bastard, you don't remember my name! Do you!?"

"W-what bullshirap!" Elric frantically shook his head sweat dripping from his forehead again. "Just answer!"

Sighing a defeated sigh, Claude lifted his club. "It was an effect of my class."

"Class?"

"Right, you didn't have one," Claude remembered Elric's stats, he didn't remember that the child in front of him had never seen the god stone holding his stats in the first place. "My class is… [Light Hero]… It gives me the blessings of the goddess of light. Enchanting my weapons with light and being able to use light magic is part of it."

"Pfft." Elric cackled. "Hero, lol, who uses something like that? What are you, a middle schooler?"

"Should you be saying that!?"

Elric giggled at Claude, but a question came up in his mind. "Use magic with the class? That means you can't use it without?"

"Nope." Claude shook his head. "My attribute is called [Trinity]. No idea what that means or is supposed to do. The people in the church said I should focus on my skills as the [Light Hero] first since that is a big deal."

"Huh, look, redhead here is a big deal."

This time, both of them broke into a peal of laughter.

After a final look at the makeshift map Elric had drawn, they stood up and set off again.

Elric and Claude coursed through the trees with nimble steps. With Claude in the lead, they crouched low and hid behind the woods and the bushes as they followed the thin path of worn-down grass and continuously trampled dirt through the woods. Before long, another clearing filled with huts came in front of them. A couple of pairs of Orcs moved around the huts, with planks of woods or blunt weapons of stone, likely setting out for a hunt.

The two of them did not exchange any words as they tiptoed around the perimeter of the clearing. Softly, very softly their every step pushed them a little bit further. They had witnessed a single Orc's ability firsthand, earning the air of many armed ones was the last thing they wanted to do, so they avoided every little crunch of dried leaves and every little snapping of small twigs as they slowly made their way around the settlement and toward the road leading further in.

Elric was surprised that there was another clearing before the central one but did not let it show. The longer he looked at the sight in front of him, the sooner he realized how this settlement was laid out.

Unlike the clearing before, the Orcs here held weapons and even their huts looked bigger. He was a little worried about his escape plan, if the central clearing was meant to house Orcs even higher in status, chances were that their clearing would be smaller, making enough space for two settlements in the range he had guessed. In the end, even the range that he came up with was a guess, so he decided to not worry about it much.

Just as they approached the path, Claude suddenly grabbed Elric's head and pushed him down to the ground. The two of them lay flat on the ground, sticking as close to the dirt as they could.

"Gra!"

"Gardar! Gardar~!"

Screams and thumps approached from the path. A set of about seven loud feet trampled the ground with each step as they passed through the path and toward the clearing. Claude pressed down on Elric's head further while raising his just a slight bit.

The green monsters that were coming closer couldn't be compared to the ones he had seen before. Their heads loomed at least a couple of inches above the previous ones while their protruding bellies stuck out far from their chests. The weapons they held were sharper and sturdier, making the ones he had just seen look like toys.

The Orcs were scary on their own, but the one in their center was terrifying from just a look. Three streaks ran down its left eye to the one broken tusk on its right, scarring its face. The shoulder of the giant Orc about two and a half meters tall was padded with a stone guard as the leather of many dead monsters armored its body.

Facing it… was impossible.

Claude couldn't believe how lucky they were that this Orc that looked the most like a chief would be leaving the place. But nervousness also crawled up in his heart, worried that they would find Grabar's corpse at any moment.

With bated breaths, Claude lowered his head again and waited.

He waited and waited, until the sound of the feet simmered down.

His heart panicked, too scared to be noticed, but even more afraid of the Orcs finding their dead friend.

Finally, when the Orcs were on the other end of the clearing, Claude lifted his hand off of Elric's head and crawled ahead. Elric followed right behind Claude, they shuffled ahead on all fours toward the path, and then, they got up and ran ahead at once, not looking back even for a second.

Nothing noticed them running away.

But it wouldn't last long.

Their pace didn't fall.

In a few seconds which felt like a few hours, they came across the final clearing that was their goal. Huts made from logs of birch and oak spread around them in a clearing even bigger than the ones before, and at its center, stood a hut wider than any other.