Part 31

Our group continued for several more hours, exploring the Smoke Forest until nightfall. We encountered several goblin groups on our journey through the forest. Most were using the blow dart and bait trick, while a few were just outcasts from the nest and were wandering around without any sort of defense.

Once night fell, we stopped fighting against the goblins and began to set up camp. Hazel had brought a tent with her, one large enough to fit three people in.

After all of today's killing, we ended up killing 215 goblins, which was a little over what we needed to kill to complete the quest.

"Level eight! Level eight!" Jonathan sang as he walked to the center of the camp with a bundle of sticks, "I'm level eight, let's go!"

"No light," I said as I noticed the twins begin to set up a campfire. Hazel looked at me as she was leaning against a tree trunk and smiled.

"What? Aren't we going to get dinner?" Jonathan asked.

"We're in goblin territory. Unless you want to get night raided, then no light," I said as I turned to Jonathan, "We'll eat tomorrow morning, once there's enough light to see around us."

Jonathan sighed and nodded as he let the firewood in his arms drop to the ground. Evelyn did the same, looking even more disappointed than her brother.

"I'll take first watch," I said to the others, "Get some sleep."

The twins nodded and moved into the tent as they prepared to settle down for the night. Icarus went with them, yawning as he entered the tent and disappeared from my view. I turned to Hazel, who was still leaning against the tree.

"You should get some sleep as well, Hazel," I said. Hazel nodded, then pushed herself against the tree and readjusted her balance before walking toward me. She continued walking in my direction, not the tents, then stopped directly in front of me, "Hazel?"

"Let me watch with you," She suggested as she slowly folded her arms. I looked at her in silence for a moment, not sure what to say, before I eventually nodded.

Hazel and I sat down at the edge of the camp as we leaned against a tree facing the tent. The tree was large, but Hazel still sat only an inch away from me. I looked at her, then quickly appraised her stats.

『 XP: 98.9/100 』

"You only need one more kill to level up," I whispered to her. Hazel looked at me, then smiled and began to lean closer to me as she let her cheek fall on my shoulder. As her body touched mine, I felt my face warm up and turn red, but her eyes were luckily trained away from mine. Because of the explosion of nervousness within me, I was unable to speak or move. I found myself frozen, hardly able to breathe.

We stayed like this for a while, up until the night had taken both me and her into a deep slumber.

When I awoke, the edge of the sky was beginning to turn into a pale blue. I looked to my side, where I saw Hazel sleeping at my side, her chest rising and falling like the waves of a peaceful sea. I quickly looked away as soon as I saw her, my face more flustered than it had ever been. I slowly moved away from Hazel as I tried to escape to anywhere else.

I first leaned her against the tree, then began to slither my arm away from her hip as I brought myself to my feet. Then, once I was free, I turned around and began to head to the tent.

"I ended up falling asleep," I said as I looked at the rising sun in the east. I sighed and turned my attention back to the tent in front of me, "Luckily, it looks like nothing happened last night, but that cannot be allowed to happen again."

Once I was near, I opened my mouth and then shouted from outside, "Wake up! It's time to go back to Hewe!"

"Five more minutes," I heard Jonathan's voice mumble from inside. Then, immediately after, I heard the yawn of a tired Dragon Wyrmling. Not long after I heard the two boys complain about waking up, I saw Evelyn's figure leave the tent without so much as a sound.

She then turned to me, nodded, and moved into the tree line for a moment. I turned away from her and walked into the tent. I found Jonathan sprawled across the ground like a bug, his limbs pointed in all directions as his body attempted to find some sort of comfort. Icarus was also sleeping on the ground, his body curled into a ball.

Icarus looked up at me as I walked inside, his eyes still drooping as he rose his head away from his body. Then, as soon as his eyes met with mine, he suddenly jumped to his feet and ran in my direction.

"Jonathan," I said as I crouched down to play with Icarus. I looked to Jonathan, who was starting to wake up, and chuckled, "Get up or you'll miss breakfast."

"Breakfast," Jonathan mumbled as he looked at me. I chuckled again, then stood up and left the tent with Icarus joining me at my ankles. Once we were outside, I turned to the center of the campsite to find Evelyn creating a small campfire in the center of the camp. She was attempting to set the wood on fire, but her face lit up as soon as she saw me.

"Fire," She whispered. I nodded, then walked forward and held my hand over the wood. I focused my mana around my hand, then watched a small flame escape my palm and land against the wood, igniting the campfire.

The fire that left my hand jumped forward, enveloping the campfire like a hungry beast. The fire, which was dark red in appearance, seemed to flicker with excitement as it burned the wood away. Evelyn flinched back as soon as the fire in front of her blazed to life. She landed on her back, then looked at the fire with a shocked expression.

"Careful," I laughed, "It's hot."

Then, as I turned away from Evelyn, my gaze stopped on Hazel, who was still sleeping against the tree trunk on the edge of the campsite. As I looked at her I felt my face become warm and my emotions become foggy. The memory of last night flashed in my mind and I looked away, too flustered to look at Hazel, lest I die of embarrassment.

"I'm going to go get breakfast," I said to Evelyn as I turned to her. Evelyn nodded, then began prodding the fire with a stick as she stared at the red flame in awe. I turned away from Evelyn and looked towards the woods, then began my trek to find some breakfast.

I walked for a little over ten minutes, finding all sorts of various things that didn't interest me. I found a few groups of outcast goblins but burned them away without much need for effort, as they didn't interest me. Then I found a few smoke rabbits and decided to chase them down for some food. Because of the two-minute cooldown on『 Acrobatics 』, I wasn't able to get more than two by the time ten minutes had passed. However, by the end of my little journey, I found a large river.

The river was wide and clean, with a current strong enough to sweep away any filth that ran into the river. As I looked at it, I realized this was a good spot to wipe away the goblin blood we had been stuck with since yesterday.

I nodded in satisfaction as I turned away from the river and began to walk back to the campsite. I found four more rabbits on the way back but was only able to kill three. Then, with five smoke forest rabbits in my hand, I finally arrived at the campsite to find the other members of my party gathered around the campsite.