I hear the other three grumble behind me as we trudge through the forest and I smile. Fools all of them, but my fools. The thick forest is beautiful out here, far from the capital and the crisp smell of nature is a boon to my heart, especially after our close brush with Reagan up north. I turn around and grin as our archer Matt glares at me.

“As a ranger or whatever, shouldn’t you be the one liking this the most?” I ask him with a knowing smile.

“That’s such a cliche. I like to shoot with a bow, not trudge through forests for two weeks.” He grumbles back and I slap him on the back laughing.

“Come on, this is good for us. All of us!” I say as I look at the other two members of my team. Our mage Tessa is a bit out of breath but at least she isn’t frowning and I’m happy she isn’t grumbling like a grumpy kid. Lina is silent as always, in her black leathers and daggers hanging everywhere on her. I know she isn’t very happy all the way out here but at least she keeps it to herself. Not like Matt who can’t stop complaining for more than five minutes.

“Look, we should count ourselves lucky to be doing this for the guild after what happened up north.” I tell him and the mood instantly plummets, our brush with death still fresh on our minds.

“I know, I still can’t believe he let us live.” Matt scoffs.

“I mean… you remember what happened in the pass… and I heard some rumors he ripped dozens of mages into pieces before he left the gray tower.” He continues and I nod along. We all heard the same thing and I can’t help but recall what can only be described as a slaughter.

I shake my head and try to steady my trembling hand. The memory of it is enough to shake me. He even seemed to be enjoying it at the moment, even if that might be my imagination as we were very far away. Still, we could hear the screams and see the magic and spells flying before he tore them apart. All of it echoed clearly against the blanketed snow and rocky mountains on each side.

This is our first assignment since and I think it’s perfect. It shouldn’t be very hard and we can always make a run for it if it goes south, and I was tired of wallowing in misery in that old musty tavern. Matt especially was becoming… more annoying. I sneak a look at the culprit who raises an eyebrow at me. Heh. I can’t be mad at him though, he is just a bit more sensitive I guess.

“What?” He asks me, already annoyed before I respond.

“Just thinking about how annoying you were in that tavern.” I reply with a teasing smile and I hear Lina agrees with me and while Tessa holds in a laugh.

“Well excuse me for not handling a brush with death with elegance sir knight.” He tells me mockingly.

“Excuse heard and accepted.” I say in an exaggerated serious tone and he laughs a bit at the silliness. The mood turns a bit more serious as we lapse into silence before he is the one to break it, as usual.

“I have to admit that it is nice to get out of that dirty tavern.” He tells me with a grin.

“Yeah?” I look at him with surprise. He has been complaining every day.

“Yeah, it’s just I wouldn’t have chosen this boring forest to wander but it is nice to be out and about again.” He admits and I smile. Truth is I think more than one of us was close to retiring after we survived Reagan. I didn’t tell the others that of course, and they never told me either, but it was in the air that week and I think we all felt it.

I’m happy we got through it and I hope it will make us stronger. I think it will, but it also shook me far more than I show the others. How casually he could have killed us if he had wanted to. As gold-ranks I never thought we would face a true monster so above us ever again. It felt like being in front of a mithril rank all over again. And not a brand new one who isn’t established, but an old one who knows exactly what he is doing.

It doesn’t matter now. We are all putting it behind us and it doesn’t help to dwell on it. I hear a sound and I’m not the only one. We all draw our weapons and turn towards it, standing still and ready for anything. A small animal hops out of a bush and runs away and we all look at each other before Matt, the only one not to overreact, turns to us and starts laughing hard. His wheezing laugh and pointing finger doesn’t help my embarrassment, but I can’t help but smile despite myself.

“You should have seen your faces.” He continues laughing and points at me specifically, bastard.

“Yeah?” I say but no comeback comes to my mind as I try to lessen this blow to my pride. He starts laughing even harder as he sees me come up blank.

“Fine fine. I am still a bit on edge I guess.” I admit with a chuckle. The two girls chuckle a bit but it’s just a tiny bit forced as it’s still too soon I guess. Matt manages to read the mood it seems as he starts recounting an old and embarrassing story we all know and it does help us get a good real laugh and relax a bit. We soon fall into silence, but it’s more comfortable now and relaxed, not tense like it was earlier.

It doesn’t take long for Matt to start complaining about how bland this place is and I spot Tessa rolling her eyes and I smile to myself. At least we shouldn’t be too far now, or so I hope as Matt is supposed to be the expert in these things. I turn to him and interrupt him and ask how far we are. It’s as much to get the information as to make him stop complaining for a minute.

“Shouldn’t be far at all actually.” He tells us as he inspects the map and looks around, seeing landmarks I do not. Rangers and their strange ways. I don’t understand how he even has an inkling of where we are as the forest looks the same to me as it did yesterday, but I’m very happy he can see the difference.

It takes us a bit longer to finally find what we are looking for. A hole in the ground it seems, and apparently we missed it a bit earlier. It’s… strange as it’s a normal forest all around and suddenly it’s like the earth has a cut or a wound here. Only it seems very deep and as we get closer we get to see a huge cave underneath our feet which isn’t something I love. I like to know my feet are on solid and stable ground.

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“Hear that?” Matt tells us as we get closer and he doesn’t hesitate to get closer to the hole. I don’t hear it but I trust his ears more than mine and get over there cautiously, not trusting the ground as I now know it’s rather empty under my feet.

As I get to the edge I look down and see something completely unexpected. On a small rise down in the cave far below, a bunch of goblins are fighting off undead. But not only goblins. I spot a few humans I think might be adventurers in their midst, fighting together. I instantly give Matt the order to secure a way down as I put on my helmet and get ready. I ask Tessa for a scroll which she hands over and I unfurl it. I read it out without truly understanding a thing but my sword soon glows a bit golden yellow while Matt finishes to set up a rope.

I rappel down fast in full plate armor and it doesn’t take me long to reach the bottom as I see the urgency of the situation. The adventurers are on the verge of being overrun. As soon as I set foot down there a few of the skeletons turn my way and I effortlessly slash through them, my enchantment taking them apart. They reform behind me, but slowly and I have more than enough time to push towards the others. I see all of them looking at me as I clear a path towards them with relative ease.

The enchantment on my sword weakens the skeletons and their bindings. It doesn’t kill them outright, but it makes clearing them a whole lot easier. After encountering undead once, I’ve never regretted having something ready for the next time, fighting them unprepared is the worst and I’m rather impressed the adventurers are still holding as I see a few skeletons that are actually dead-dead. They must have killed them over fifty times without an enchantment or anything.

I’m finally by the ramp up and I clear it in a few swings. The goblins holding the line look at me warily and back off slightly. I advance on them and turn my back to them as I take position to let them all rest. None of them attack me as I swing at the incoming skeletons that have already reformed. I spot a few zombie goblins trying to sneak by too and I decapitate them. It’s not enough as they come back without their heads a few minutes laters but with the enchantment I know I’ll only have to kill them a few times.

“Thank you so much.” I hear a woman’s voice behind me say, probably tired enough she could sleep. I nod without looking back as I swing at the next skeletons and disperse their bones again.

“Even with the enchantment on my sword this might take some time.” I tell them and to my surprise a boy soon stands next to me. I cover for him and clear the skeletons while he does something with his sword. It soon starts glowing a bit like my sword but more intense. A skill? It seems rather powerful. He touches a skeleton with the sword and it simply collapses and I’m taken by surprise. Did he kill an undead in one blow? That’s… something. I realize that he is the reason so many of the skeletons are actually dead.

I spot the rest of my team slowly making their way towards us with Tessa in the front, blowing the weakened skeletons to bits with magic. Matt and Lina cover her flanks while they advance slowly, mostly picking on the reassembling skeletons to gain enough time to make it through. In a few minutes they are with us and we continue to kill the persistent undead again and again. Even with the enchantment and some specialized spells it takes us about thirty minutes until the last undead stops reassembling itself.

I stand there sweating with effort as I finally turn to look at the rather strange group resting behind my team and I. The first thing I see is the boy bowing to me in thanks and I barely hear his voice as he thanks us for the rescue. The goblins seem unsure of what to do but I just grin at them all. Undead are a scourge for all the living and I find it beautiful that humans and goblins united to take on this threat to us all. However we all know that the goblins cannot stay with us.

“First things first, goblins this way.” I say as I step aside to let them leave and my team follows suit. It takes them a moment of hesitation but they soon all leave while most of them stare at us. I don’t have the heart to kill them after they helped save the lives of our fellow adventurers but I think they all understand that next time… things will probably be different.

I turn around to find a team of four resting as my team stands there. It’s awkward for a moment and I take this moment to introduce myself.

“Hello, I’m Richard and this is my team, Lion’s Strength.” I tell them as I inspect them. The boy seems to have been the one fighting the most as he has more than a few cuts on his armor, but fewer cuts on his body, meaning he got healed while fighting. I can barely see one of the girls as she is hiding behind a smaller girl which feels like nature. A druid I take it and I soon spot why the other one is hiding. Her cat ears are flat on her head and I grimace at it, knowing full well how hard it is for half-beasts to make it as adventurers.

She seems to misunderstand my intent and her friends too as the boy stands up and in front of them. His posture is a bit challenging and protective of them.

“Thank you for your help Richard, I’m Blaine and we are the Wolf’s Silver.” He tells me as he gestures at them but I can sense a hint of hostility as he seems to think I do not like half-beasts. Flustered about my faux pas, I try to correct the situation now rather than later.

“I must apologize for my reaction at your friends… features. I hold nothing but respect for half-beast adventurers but I know of their struggles, which is why I reacted that way.” I say a bit embarrassed. The moods seems to shift as they are a bit taken by surprise.

I take the time to truly take a look around at the astonishing cave we find ourselves in to let them the time to recover. Huge stalagmites jut out from the roof of the cave and point to huge twins mirroring them underneath, some melding into one huge pillar. What makes it impressive is the size of it all and it makes me feel rather small, but in an interesting way. I turn to the adventurers who are helping each other up now and open my mouth.

“Quite an impressive cave.” I tell them and I see Blaine looking at the bones littering the ground.

“Quite a cave indeed.” He agrees as he winces from pain while moving.

“Somehow I can’t wait to get out of it though.” One of the girls with him says dryly and Tessa chuckles.

“It’s good that you made it. How long did you fight before we arrived?” I ask them, curious as it’s hard to judge from their appearance alone, but my guess is at about an hour.

“Two or three hours I believe. The smaller girl with green eyes tell me and I raise both my eyebrows, impressed.

“That’s very impressive.” Matt inserts himself and I nod.

“Are you silver ranks?” He adds and I try to find a visible insignia to see what their official level is. It takes me a moment to register that I don’t see the familiar silver token on anyone because there isn’t one to be seen. Instead I spot the darker bronze one and I’m taken aback. They are bronze? That can’t be right. They look at each other a bit before Blaine responds.

“We are actually only bronze ranks right now.” He tells us embarrassed. I scoff at him and quickly add something as he seems to think I’m making fun of him.

“You’ll be silver once we come back to any city with a guild, at least. I’ll personally ask so you can skip to mid or high silver straight away.” I tell them and I see Blaine relax as he understands I wasn’t trying to make light of them.

“Thank you Richard.” He tells me before hesitating a bit and I lean in a bit to show I’m waiting for what he has to say.

“As nice as it is to stand around and talk, could we get out of here before we continue this conversation?” He asks and I can’t help but laugh.

“Of course! I’m sorry. Let us all get out of here and let you rest properly” I tell him and we make our way out of this strange cave.

They seem like a good up and coming team. Promising for sure.