BXBX NOVEL Chapter 103
Lorenzo who had already eaten his travel rations and went to sleep, rolled from side to side on his cramped bedroll while we delighted ourselves with an improvised but bountyful dinner.
Maybe Lorenzo thought if he made a fire we would take advantage of it to light our own and that’s why he didn’t make a campfire. Instead he’s now in the complete dark after having a poor meal, I think he’s too proud to move close to the fire.
I would invite him in, but it’s not that cold.
About the campfire, people in Ironwoods seemed to think it wasn’t a good Idea to make a fire in the woods because it might attract beasts, but it’s the other way around. Light won’t travel far in a forest so it barely makes us a bit more noticeable and we can use the fire to protect ourselves if anything happens.
After eating our full and chatting for a while, we all took our cozy fur capes and put them on the ground. They were made by Helena precisely to be both warm and also comfortable to sleep in.
When morning came we were all refreshed as if we were on vacation, but our instructor’s face was swollen and he had bags under his eyes.
.....
“Are you ok mister Lorenzo?”
“Yes, I’m fine. This mosquitoes pestered me the whole night, that’s one of the difficulties we adventurers have to face on our everyday life”
“It must be hard”
Sera said in a tone that resounded pity.
“Wait... you... why didn’t you get bitten by bugs?”
“That’s because we slept on the shack, it’s slightly elevated so bugs won’t crawl inside so easily and I used some repelent so...”
“Bug repelent? you just happened to have repelent on you?”
Lorenzo was flabbergasted.
“Of course not, but if you burn this poisonous leaves on the campfire before going to sleep, most mosquitoes won’t get close”
“I see... that’s actually pretty helpful. I wish I knew that from before. Anyways, we should get moving”
We nodded in response to our instructor comands and kept walking on the path we were following yesterday.
This place was nothing like our forest, it was brimming with life, animals and plants alike, but it felt... I don’t know... friendlier maybe. Nothing attacked us, there weren’t jackals or wolf following our tracks.
I had become so accustomed to looking over my shoulder that it felt weird not having some carnivorous beast under our tracks. Birds were easy to hunt, wild fruits, berries and vegetables were lying around.
More than becoming and adventurer I feel I could make a killing by simply gathering wild crops and sell them back at Ironwoods. But Luke was right, we don’t really need the money now, what we need the most is to build up our reputation.
After a couple hours Lorenzo seemed to be on guard, which meant we were close to the goblins territory. Luke was the first to draw his weapon but we all quickly followed his example.
We started walking slowly until I was finally able to find some footprints. I quickly took my notebook and depicted the footprints, they look human-like but it only has four toes and every toe finishes in a long nail. Judging by the size they must be small creatures no bigger than a five year old, but we’ve learned that even weak opponents can become troublesome in numbers so we treaded with care.
We heard a branch breaking in the distance and I signalled everyone to stop and do as we usually do. Luke went ahead to scout the enemy, Bob held his ground with his warhammer at the ready, while me and Sera took a vantage position on top of a tree.
We moved so fast it looked as if it was rehearsed, but actually, everyone just knew what they were supposed to do.
Luke came back and signalled us that there were two enemies present and we nodded.
now the only thing left to do is set up a trap and... Lorenzo stepped on a branch alerting the enemy of our presence.
“Uh, my bad”
He said apologetically and then disappeared into the vegetation.
Two small creatures came running towards us, Bob feinted a strike making the goblins stop in their tracks and Luke showed up from behind and killed them swiftly without making a sound.
Two green corpses lied in the ground bleeding purple blood. Other than the wound Luke inflicted on their throats they were completely unharmed. I took a few minutes to study the creatures and took notes of whatever I could, then Lorenzo came back from behind the bushes.
“That was fantastic, I don’t even know if i have anything to teach you. Most adventurers wouldn’t even find goblins on their first quest and you managed to slay two of them so quickly. Not only that, you coordinated your attacks without even whispering, how do you guys even communicate?”
“Unless it’s really necessary we don’t talk while hunting”
Luke replied.
“Then, how did you guys know what to do? how many years have you guys been hunting together?”
“This is my first time”
Sera said shyly.
Lorenzo seemed to be in a daze, he looked ten years older than when we set foot in the forest.
“Impressive! I wouldn’t be surprised if you guys reach C rank in a week or even a few days!”
He said when he was finally able to gather his thoughts and we headed back to the shack.
“I’m so tired of this crap, we always spend more time walking than fighting”
Luke complained as he took a stone out of his boot while leaning on a tree.
“Don’t be like that, if everything was fast you’d run out of quests in a week and then start complaining about that”
But Luke’s mood didn’t improve in the slightest. It could be said that the happiest of us all was the instructor.
“Instructor Lorenzo, why are you smiling so much?”
“I guess there’s no point in hiding it, whenever an instructor takes under his wing an adventurer he’s entitled to a small portion of whatever said adventurer makes during his career. It’s only a 1% so you don’t need to worry about it, you’d lose a lot more in some cities due to taxes only”
“That doesnt seem fair, you just watch over us for a short period and then get filthy rich without lifting a finger”
Luke grunted.
“That’s not the case. Too many adventurers die young, others just retire early. I work hard everyday to keep kids like you alive for the longest period possible. The cases in which an instructor is surpassed by his students is very rare, and even if that happens, it doesn’t necessarily means getting rich”
When we reached the shack it was still early, and since we had already finished the task we were able to gather all kinds of ingredients for a great meal. Lorenzo even helped us hunting some birds, I guess he didn’t want to be left out again.
“In this case you guys don’t need to provide any proof of your deed since I witnessed it, but later on you’ll be asked to bring different body parts to the guild. There was a time when they only accepted complete bodies, wich was highly unreasonable because most of the times beasts and monsters would end up in pieces”
We walked back and performed our chores as we listened to Lorenzo’s adventurer stories. Since I never heard any I was delighted but Luke was a bit disappointed and said they were just cliche stories.
He told us about hist greatest feats wich included destroying a thorny lizard nest, subduing a chomper beast and protecting a noble from a bandit attack.
He mentioned different beasts on his tales and I listened carefully but couldn’t make anything of it. While his stories were enticing, he was poor at describing the fights and limited himself to make sounds and hand movements as if it meant something.
Still, we all had fun over the campfire while enjoying our lavish dinner.
This time, Lorenzo slept in the shack making it feel a little cramped, we asked him if it was ok to not take turns watching the surroundings but he said this was a safe area and the most dangerous thing that could be found around were the wild boars.
Sera slept on the corner and asked me to sleep beside her. It made sense since she and I were close, but she didn’t look troubled at all which scared me a little.
The first thing she did when I lied down next to her was to press her body against me, I couldn’t say anything without the others noticing so I decided to keep quiet but she took it as if I had given her permission. I tried turning around, but Luke grumbled instantly.
“Hey, why are you turning to my side, I know I’m handsome but you got a girl right beside you. You should be pointing that thing at her”
Lorenzo and Bob laughed merrily at his joke, but I was embarrassed to no end.
And so, that night I had no choice but to try to sleep with Sera grinding her rear on me. Without so much as an excuse, she simply did as she wished until she finally fell asleep.