Chapter 5 Journey Back I

The night quickly went by as the next morning arrived.

At Ferlan Village, the people had started their daily morning businesses. The silence at the entrance of the village was shattered when a group of people on horses came.

Clad in steel with crest of lion head on their chest plate, they were no mere soldiers, but knights of Illunar Kingdom. Though, very far, Ferlan Village was still part of it and paid taxes annually, which not necessarily needed.

Even so, the guards showed respect and courtesy upon sight of them. "Honorable Knights, what can we do for you?"

The one that seemed to be the captain looked at the guards one by one, and waved his her hand. "Don't mind us. Were only here to escort someone back. We won't stay for long so don't worry too much."

The knights went inside the village and the guards didn't obstruct them. One of the guards whispered to the captain guard. "Should we inform the Chief? From what I observed, some of them aren't fond of Demi-Humans. Specially that guys at the back, there eyes were like knives."

The captain guard shook his head. "No need to disturb the Chief. They seems decent guys and definitely won't do anything inappropriate. But still, watch them, just in case."

"Yes, Captain." Several guards saluted and follow behind the knights.

The sun arise from the east and wind blew from the west. Victor was still sitting before the campfire that had already burned out. Through the night, he reviewed his status and all the new skills he acquired.

The new Unique Skill, [Forest Guide] was a useful skill on finding his preys.

[Unique Skill: Forest Guide]

[Grade: Mystic]

[Info: Allow the user to communicate with every plants in the forest, hear what they hear and see what they see. Any creatures affiliated with nature will see you as a friend and not attack you, unless they were attacked.]

Thinking of how he could use this new Unique Skill, an idea came in his mind, but he must first see for himself how it worked.

The girls were still asleep, truly tired in both mind and body. He stood and approached a tree, he touched the trunk with his palm and closed his eyes.

At this moment, his Unique Skill activated. An image converged in his mind. He saw himself in the image, with his palm on a tree. He felt no sensation, only the connection between him and the nature. He could see and hear every sound that nature made.

It was a skill made for locating and spying!

Looking for location of the Demonic Asura Bear, the image in his mind zoomed, traveling as fast as the speed of light, in but an instant, the form of the Demonic Asura Bear came into view.

It has a form of a bear, but it was covered in dark skeletal shell. Black spikes adorned its back, connected to the spinal cord, from the tip of its lizard like tail up to the forehead. With three meters height, it was a small giant. Its claws were glistening in sharpness and its fangs were secreting purple slimy liquid. Strong, deadly and venomous, it was simply demonic. Worthy of the name Asura.

Giving commands through thought, the image in his mind changed. The entrance of Ferlan Village came into view. The village was still the same the day he left, he saw several guards he knew.

As he thought of looking for an Elven Village where the girls came from, the image in his mind changed and a village built on the high rise trees appeared. He didn't know what it was called.

Victor saw a group of elves hiding behind the tree foliage, and others patrolling around. The location of the Elven Village was very far to the east, near the Buirne Mountain.

As the houses in Elven Village was built on a tree, he could spied at them easily, he could move from house to house and listened to their conversation. He could very much understood their words as he had already learned the Elven Tongue from the girls he rescued due to [Language Acquisition].

He changed from places to places, until he found the place were the village Chief resided and several elves were having a meeting. They say before a circular table and from their words, he found who was the Chief.

A blonde elf said in agitation. "Chief, many of our children went missing for more than a week already, aren't we going to form a group to find them?! Time is essence!"

"Carrick is right chief!" Another man supported. "We don't know who kidnapped our young ones, but they'll definitely not kill them yet, instead they'll sold them to the slave market! We must give chase before they could leave the forest!"

An elderly male elf sighed softly and said. "There's no need for that. I've already tasked Laurel, Maria and Frey to track the kidnappers. They'll definitely return with great news. What we can only do now is pray for the safety of those in danger."

Everyone one in the room turned silent as they heard the Chief. Victor was about to leave change location, but caught a glimpse of two people smiling as they bowed their heads. He ignored it, as he thought it to be a scheme between old elves and left.

Hearing their short conversation, Victor searched for the three people that were mentioned. Using his connection to the forest, he immediately found their exact location and their situation wasn't good.

The three were escaping from trouble, they were being chased by an angry Steel Hide Rhinoceros. A non-aggressive monster, and it must be them that provoked it. It would not attack, unless it was threatened.

Though, Victor wanted to help, but the distance between them was very wide, going back to Ferlan Village was much safer and would take lesser time.

Severing the connection with the forest, Victor returned to his body. When he turned around, he saw the girls looking at him with funny faces and giggling, wondering what he was doing standing beside a tree.

Some of them were still wary of him, but that was normal since they didn't know each other. He shook his head and thought. 'After giving them to Myra, I'll continue on my hunt. I still have many monsters I need to hunt.'

He approached the girls and gave them water and a bag of wheat bread for breakfast. Seeing a bread, not meat, they ate their fill quietly. Victor spoke. "Fill your stomach. We will depart once you're done. We're heading to our village. Just like I said, there are many elves in our village. You can ask them to help you contact your families."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Humans and Elves living in one village?" Amber asked doubtfully.

Victor smile and bite on his bread. "Not just Elves, there are also Dwarves and Demi-Humans. The villagers in Ferlan Village is consisted of different races."

The girls thought he was boasting, murmuring amongst themselves, but Victor ignored their doubtful glances. He was sure they'll definitely knew once they arrived at Ferlan Village.

"Ah! Before we depart, can you introduce yourselves? I can't just call you, You, everytime, can I?" Victor tried.

The girls exchanged glances and introduced themselves, starting from the blonde haired girl that seemed the oldest. "I'm Amber Cera. I'm the oldest, 53 years old."

'5-53?! That's half of my age! Her appearance is that of a physically fit and extrovert young lady that has just reached adulthood, but she is enough to be my mother?!' Victor sighed inwardly. 'Elves cannot be measured by human standards.'

"Euresha Lynne! I'm pleased to meet you!" The second was a girl with curly silver hair, as tall as Amber, with considerable bosom and slightly thin. Must be due to lack of food for several days in captivity. Not just Euresha, the rest were the same.

The third girl was petite, with brown hair that reached her shoulders. "I'm Bionna Earnae, thank you saving us, Mr. Victor."

Victor waved his hand. "Don't thank me yet. You're still not safe."

The fourth was a girl with short blonde hair and looked boyish. "I-I'm Shyli Forrest. Please to meet you!"

The fifth was a girl with straight and long green hair, and kind of expressionless. "I'm Ynari Gaelic. Please take care of me."

The sixth was a girl with long brown hair. She beamed a smile and said. "I'm Pestil Aceans, 23 years old and I live in Curthim Village. My hobbies are- hmmm! "

Amber covered Pestil's mouth to stop her from speaking further as she would definitely continue on until she couldn't think of anything else to say. The others could only smile wryly as they were used to Pestil's behavior when she was happy. She was a talkative girl.

The seventh was a girl with over the shoulder silver hair. "Ferries Ashmay."

The eighth was a girl with long silver hair. "Lola Moraine."

The ninth was a girl with silver hair tied in a bun. "Acacia Delrosa."

The tenth was a girl with green hair tied in a ponytail. "I'm Yuna Adenna"

The eleventh was a girl with silver pigtails. "I'm Seina Freua."

And lastly, was the youngest of the rest, with emerald hair. The cutest of the rest. "I-I'm Daisy Sylva."

After several minutes of eating and resting, they continued on their journey.

Last night, Victor created a large raft, which make it easier for them to cross the river and go to the other side, then proceed onward on foot.

The journey would without a doubt long this time with the girls as company. If Victor was alone, he only needed three days to arrived at the village, but with the girls, he estimated it to be more than a week. He must consider the safety of the girls, first and foremost. They'll definitely encounter monsters on the way, and they'd get tired and would need some rest, making the time longer.

Victor couldn't help but sigh. "I just hope it will not rain."

As though making fun of him, the clouds suddenly let out a flashing light and booming sound. On the second day of their journey, a heavy rain came while they were walking, resulting for all of them to get soaked.

"What a very unlucky day..." Victor grumbled. "As I thought, after an fortunate encounter, what follow next is a series of misfortune...."

Following behind Victor, Amber heard his words and wondered what he meant by misfortune.

The heavy rain would seem continue for the entire day. Though, it was still in the middle of the day, darkness had already filled the forest, and due to the rain, mist formed and obscured the sight further away. Fortunately, Victor had the ability to communicate with the forest or they might have lost their way.

At times like this, the Luqane Forest would sunk into silence. Only the sound of the raindrops could be heard and the occasional thunderous roar in the sky. The top predators in the forest, the Horned Tiger, Red Hind Bear, Dire Wolf and other furry monsters would locked themselves in their holes as they hated the rain.

Victor knew about this from his own experience. And this time was when the Doroth Leeche and other insect monsters would come out.

The Doroth Leech wasn't huge, in fact, it was only as small as a thumb and thin as a fingernail. It was almost transparent, but as it ate leaves, it could be seen and almost the same with a normal leaf. It has no limbs and stationary. It could only moved through gliding the wind and it also had no eyes for it to know where it was going.

Eating was all what it know. It only ate leaves, but it didn't know what a leaf looked like.

However, no matter how weak a Doroth Leech could be, it was still a monster. Each Doroth Leech inhabited at the top of the trees could reproduced into thousands through dividing itself. It couldn't lay eggs as it had no reproductive system.

Apart from that, it also have a neurotoxin, a strong paralyzing poison that could paralyzed even the thick skinned Red Hind Bear. Though, it could only live for two days, it could clone itself into thousands to continue its existence.

Once the heavy rain came, the real problem would began. Thousands of them would be swept down by the rain and those that it touched would be paralyzed!

With his [All-ailments Resistance], Victor was fearless against the rain, but the twelve girls weren't. Thus, he lent them all his clothes for protection, even the one he was wearing, leaving his upper body bare. He really didn't know why he was helping them so much...

They traveled without stop while raining. Most monsters were hiding due to the rain, and so, there were lesser monsters blocking their way, mostly Cave Spiders, Man-eating Beetles and the likes. Due to the large difference in Levels, Victor's Unique Skill [Hero's Gift from the Devil] never activated, but he collected the monster's souls in his [Soul Pouch].

Night came when the rain stopped. The clouds dispersed and the moonlight gleamed through between the leaves. Though, the ground was muddy, the girls were tired and needed a rest.

After making a campfire, the girls circled around the fire to warm themselves. Comfortable sighs could be heard as they put their hands near it, at a safe distance.

"Warm! I'm so tired..."

"My legs hurts... Massage them for me, Pestil."

"Don't wanna!"

"I'm hungry..."

"We travel for the whole day without stop. You must be very hungry. Eat and replenish your stamina. Then, sleep early. You need to wake up early tomorrow so we can arrive at Ferlan Village earlier." Victor heard their complaints and gave them foods and drinks.

The girls nodded and fill their stomach before entering their tents. They were no longer wary of him, only bashful. Only Amber and Euresha could talk to him in reserved manner.

"Victor, we're very thankful for you for saving us and you even escorted us to your village where we can contact our families. You're a good person. We will compensate you once I've contacted my grandfather." Amber said before going in her tent.

Victor waved his hand. "Yes, I'll count on you for compensation."

Euresha smile to Victor and followed Amber. She muttered. "Thank you, Mr. Victor."

Victor shook his head and sighed. He thought. 'What an unlucky day...'

Sitting before the campfire, Victor scouted the surroundings through his Unique Skill [Forest Guide]. He could see all the monsters nearby and take note of those nocturnal monsters that carried poisons in them, like snakes, scorpions and the likes, not differentiating the sizes.

Though, poisons were ineffective against him, the girls were different.

Using the [Star Fall], he eliminated all the monsters that would enter his range of sight.

An arrow would materialized as he pulled the string and released it. The arrow shoot out disappearing in a blink of an eye, targeting a black snake slithering towards the camp.

Hiss! Hiss! Hissing at the last moment of its life, it limped down after constricting in pain as it was shot at the head, pinning it down on the ground.

The night deepened and the surrounding of the camp, hundred meters away, was littered with corpses of small monsters with an arrow on the head. After shooting down all the small monster that numbered to a hundred, no more monster approached.

"It's really hard to be a good man... Villains have it easy." Victor took a deep breath and yawned tiredly.

He closed his eyes and entered a half sleeping state, in which his senses were still active. Being too complacent wasn't good while in the wilderness, however, they were still within the outermost region where monsters were quite weak.

If they were within the middle region, Victor wouldn't dare to even make a sound, much less a fire. Thus, it was fine, as long as he made the monsters knew that the place where he stayed was his territory through killing many monsters around, making it seemed a forbidden zone.

This was base on his experience as a hunter. Though, he was stronger than before, Victor believed that he wasn't the strongest. Thus, he would never let his guard down even a second.