Chapter 14: First Fight

A month has passed and inside the Willow Forest, Gael and Fortis ate walking through the woods carrying a bag and fully equipped with armour and weapon. They are on their way to find and fight monsters, Gael thinks that Fortis is ready to apply the things he learned for the past month into a real fight, no amount of training can surpass experience, no matter how hard a person or a monster train they will still lose against an experienced enemy.

Three days before they start their journey towards the inner part of the forest, Gael bestowed Fortis a steel short sword, he deemed that Fortis is now worthy to wield an actual sword and be called an actual sword practitioner.

The length of the sword is tailored to match Fortis' height, its craftsmanship is similar to Gael's sword a double-edge one-handed sword since the swordsmanship that Fortis trains are the same as Gael's.

He also gave Fortis a mix of leather and steel armour, he used the money that the Crown Prince gave him to buy new equipment for his familiar and other necessities.

Fortis is wearing leather chest armor, steel pauldron on his right shoulder and vambraces on both arms, he's also wearing new leather boots, Fortis' pieces of equipment are more expensive since has to be specially tailored since there are no armor and other equipment of Fortis' size.

Being fully equipped Gael decided that it is time for them to explore the Willow Forest, their destination is the center of the forest since from what Gael knows there is a B rank monster acting as the forest ruler and he wants to challenge it before the three months is over, but they are still a long way to go to fight a mature B rank monster that is why he wants for Fortis to experience as many fights as possible along the way and also this is their chance to train their teamwork and coordination.

After a few hours of walking the two of them found an empty tree stump that can fit the two of them, they decided to stay the but inside since it is starting to get dark already, so they set up camp and started a fire to provide the heat, Gael also took out some piece of meat for their dinner, seeing the piece of meat the glutton Fortis started to drool.

Gael just shook his head at the sight of his drooling familiar.

" Shouldn't you be more inclined towards eating raw meat since your a monster? " Gael asked in wonder.

" Kiiiik kiiiik kiiiik kiiiik " Fortis said that cooked meat is more delicious and it is Gael's fault for letting him have a taste of cooked meat. Gael can only understand Fortis because of the mental connection they have as Tamer and Familiar.

" And now it's my fault?! I can't believe this punk " Gael scoffed.

Fortis just stared at the juicy piece of meat being roasted and ignored Gael.

They had a fulfilling dinner and are now doing their nightly routine, Soul Feeding, Fortis is sitting in front of Gael and Gael's palms are pressed on the Goblin's back as he transfers some of his soul to Fortis.

The two of them have become stronger this past month as Fortis grow stronger so is Gael and as Gael grow stronger so is Fortis, but the growth spurt of the two of them started to slow down it is also one of the main reason why Gael decided to embark on the journey to fight the forest ruler, he realized that training their bodies and practicing swordsmanship has reached its current limit and that they have reached a bottleneck, and what they needed the most right now is a push and that push can only be found in actual fights especially the life and death one's where their life is on the line.

After the soul-feeding is finished Fortis went to sleep, the little Goblin is sleepy from getting full after eating a big piece of roasted meat, Seeing the sleeping Goblin Gael just shook his head and sat down with crossed legs to start meditating, the night quickly passed and the bright morning came, the sun hung up high.

Gael quickly got up and Fortis followed after him they equip their armorial and weapons and continued their journey early in the morning, Fortis is still a little bit sleepy but is still trying to keep up with Gael's pace, while they are walking Gael's has his guard up his enhance sense skill is in effect, even Fortis has his enhance skill in effect, it is a passive skill, meaning they don't have put any effort to use a skill it is akin to breathing, enhance sense increases the overall senses of the wielder meaning Gael and Fortis' sense of smell and hearing are similar to a dog's and their eyesight to that of a hawk, with the enhanced sense skill they have full awareness of their surroundings, sneak attacks and ambushes are useless against them unless the person or the monster that will attack them has a stealth skill.

They continue on their way and it is surprisingly smooth since they are still at the outskirts of the forest but once they passed the boundary of the outskirts and the inner part of the forest monsters and wild beasts will slowly appear. At their pace, Gael is guessing that they will reach the inner part of the forest in the afternoon.

Hours have passed and they finally reached the boundary of the outskirts and inner part of the forest, the forest up ahead feels ominous and there are no more dirt paths ahead meaning no one has ever set foot on the inner forest or it had been too long since someone entered that the path has now disappeared.

Steeling his heart Gael took a step forward and crossed the boundary Fortis quickly followed after him, the first few minutes inside the inner forest is still peaceful and quiet until now, in front of them Gael and Fortis noticed something, they both reacted at the same time thanks to their enhanced senses, there is a movement from the bushes up ahead, though they managed to notice it with their skill, recognizing what kind of creature is up ahead is not possible for them right now maybe in the future but right now their skill can only be used for detection but that is already more than enough, they can be invincible in a fight with enhanced sense alone.

Gael slowly unsheathed his sword and so is Fortis, they slowly approached the bush when they get closer something shot out of the bush, a white-colored streak of light flew towards Gael, but with his enhanced sense he managed to block it on time with his sword, when he blocked the white colored streak of light a sound of metal clashing can be heard, he managed to have a clear view of the creature that attacked him, it turns out to be a Rabid Rabbit a D rank wild beast, the same rank as Fortis, Rabid Rabbits have great speed, extremely sharp claws, and pure white fur.

Fortis saw Gael was attacked, when Gael blocked the Rabid Rabbit Fortis immediately turned into a green blur and disappeared from where he was standing, then he suddenly appeared behind the Rabid Rabbit that attacked Gael, Fortis just used the skill Dash to appear behind the Rabid Rabbit, he quickly slashed with his sword to attack the Rabid Rabbit but it managed to dodge with its great speed, but Fortis' attack managed to slightly graze it's back.

The pure white fur of the Rabid Rabbit got stained by its crimson-coloured blood but seems to not mind it at all instead it turned into a white blur again but this time its target is Fortis, not Gael, Fortis saw the Rabid Rabbit dash towards him, he dodged the Rabbit's claw gracefully by spinning, he then counters attacked with the use of the spinning motion, the Rabid Rabbit's head flew and blood spurted out from its severed neck.

Seeing how well Fortis caught against the Rabid Rabbit Gael feels great.

' it seems like we didn't waste a month '

He then approached Fortis who is still in a daze from what just happened, he is not in a daze because he was scared and overwhelmed, is in a daze because he felt that it was too easy.

Gael pat Fortis' head making him came back to reality.

" Kiiiik " Fortis just asked Gael if that's it? It turns out Fortis found it easy.

" You punk, don't get too confident, it is just a D rank monster, though it is the same rank as you, you've undergone harsh training and a lot of soul feeding so it is normal for you to defeat such a weak opponent " Gael quickly dismissed Fortis' arrogant attitude with reality.

" Kiiiik " Fortis frowned hearing Gael's words, it turns out his first kill is nothing.

" Though I expected this result, still you did a good job on your first kill " Gael said with a smile and pat the small Goblin's head.

Feeling Gael's hand on his head and hearing his words made Fortis smile, it is the first time that Gael saw a monster smile, he fought against monsters before when he was still a war dog since one of the jobs of the army is to do monster clearing operations, that is why he has seen a lot of monsters before but this is the first time that he saw a monster show other emotion other than anger and ruthlessness may be because they are in a fight that time but regardless he just learned a new thing about monsters today.