Even if they hadn’t taken shifts guarding their encampment, Rohl still doubted he’d have felt anything but tired and groggy. He didn’t exactly know how many hours of rest he had gotten but it definitely wasn’t long enough. The sky had barely begun to lighten before he’d found himself kicked out of bed and all but pushed back into the forest.

He’d barely been given the time to change and ready himself, never mind enjoy breakfast or allow his body time to fully awaken.

“Hurry up, gods, humans are so slow.”

As much as Rohl could understand the opportunity they had here and the gold it would possibly bring, they weren’t exactly on a time restriction. Whether it took them a day or a week to clear out this section of forest, it didn’t matter.

Not that his mentor seemed to care about that, all she cared about was marching him further into the forest and towards the last few unchecked trees in this area. But with them revealing nothing more than squirrels and annoyed birds, they had no choice but to head further into the forest. They weren’t exactly in deep, but they had reached the point where the tree coverage began to thicken.

Rohl couldn’t be certain that at this distance, his blessing wouldn't hit more than his target tree but given how this area still had to be checked, Rohl doubted the elf would care about his concerns.

I'll need to be extra alert, the elf may be at my back, but I need to be prepared to turn and strike as soon as the tree in front of me is cleared.

His companion definitely seemed capable enough to dispatch more than one spirit should two or even three emerge at the same time, but given how they were renowned ambush predators, it couldn’t hurt for him to be extra careful.

I'm surprised she didn’t make us go further in earlier, more trees, more spirits, more gold.

With that in mind, Rohl chose his first target carefully, it was a small bunch of trees, hopefully spaced just far enough that his blessing wouldn’t affect them all. The ground beneath him was clear, dry, and contained no dead leaves, mossy patches or obstacles of which he could trip and fall. And should all that not be enough, the route towards the road was clear if he needed to run.

Everything was ready and fortunately for him; he managed to assess and choose the spot before the elf got too annoyed with his dawdling.

All forests get more dangerous the further in you get, we’re not exactly in the thick of it but still, best be careful.

After taking a second to calm his somewhat anxious breathing, Rohl readied his weapon and called upon his blessing, repeating every step he had taken the day before. But even as his fingers traced over his ukatar, no tree spirit was forthcoming. The forest remained just as silent and empty as it had before.

“It worked, there empty, get moving.”

With his companion answering his unasked question, Rohl moved towards the next two trees and positioned himself so that he could watch both trees equally. The second his weapon was ready, Rohl once again unleashed his blessing.

Just as it had the countless other times, they had done this, the emerging tree spirit was cut down with one quick swipe of the elf’s blade before it had even got the chance to raise its wooden arms in defence.

This is so easy, I guess without my blessing this would be dangerous, the spirits would be the ones hunting and ambushing, not us.

“Have you ever done this before?” Rohl asked as he harvested the slain monster.

“I have.”

“How many did you get?”

“Seven, three days’ work for seven kills. If it wasn’t for your ability making you useful, I wouldn’t have bothered doing this again.”

It was pretty much the answer Rohl had expected and one that also set his mind ablaze with questions.

If I’m the only who can do this, they’ll either lower the price for any logging work I do or more hopefully, they’ll let me get rich doing this. Then again, I can't spend too much time doing this, it’s hardly real monster slaying, the silence isn’t just going to wait around for me to stab it.

Killing an ambush predator as it was forced out of hiding didn’t exactly class as real combat, the beasts had barely the time to react, never mind put up a true fight. If they hadn’t been forced into a reckless attack by his blessing, this quest would likely have gone a lot differently.

There would have been no way to force the monsters into attacking and any combat would have been on their terms.

They would only have come out when I was unaware and when they had the advantage.

Once they returned to Elmon, Rohl would have to go out on a quest again. This time one that hopefully provided more combat experience. It was obvious that the elf wouldn’t be so keen to join him and Rohl didn’t exactly fancy another quest filled with beatings and abuse.

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Still, this contract provided a great opportunity for him to finance the rest of his adventuring journey, with some luck, he could afford good gear, potions and possibly luxury supplies. It would make his end mission far easier and with that in mind, Rohl stepped up his harvesting and added some pace to his steps as he moved towards the next oak tree.

This one was much larger with far more offshoots than the others and whilst Rohl had no idea if that affected the spirit that emerged, he was somewhat keen to find out. But as his blessing reverberated through him and no wooden appendage emerged from the bark, it seemed he was unlikely to get an answer from this particular specimen.

He was equally as curious if the type of tree affected the spirit as well, it did seem possible given how they had only faced oaken spirits so far and with the next tree being a particularly proud-looking chestnut, Rohl was keen to see if they faced a chestnut sub type of spirit.

But just as with the previous few trees, the chestnut proved to be spirit-free.

Oh, come on, I’d like a little variety if possible.

As if they had simply decided to ruin the elf’s money-making scheme, the quantity of spirits diminished slightly as they progressed into the deeper areas of forest. A fact that definitely annoyed the already blessing-affected elf.

Despite having no control over where the spirits lived, the elf definitely seemed to be blaming him, he could almost feel her glare as they walked towards the next tree. Her not-so-gentle kicking of a nearby rock and hacking of a small bush were pretty much all the signs anyone would need to decipher her mood.

Rather thankfully for Rohl, the next oak tree did prove to contain a spirit and rather unfortunately for it, its wooden body provided to be a good outlet for the elf’s anger. The elf definitely hacked at its corpse far more than needed, enough to almost make it seem as if the spirit had always been a pile of sticks rather than a once fearsome monster.

It was more brutal than Rohl would have liked from someone who could easily turn their blade on him but the fact the spirit’s twig remained intact did reassure Rohl somewhat regarding the elf’s control of her blessing-infused anger.

Please be more spirits, please be more spirits.

As if his plea had been an answered prayer, the next tree and its spirit soon met a fate similar to the previous one. Rohl had no idea if those two violent outbursts were enough to quell her rage but given how his blessing likely refreshed it every so often, he doubted she had calmed down in the slightest.

If I’d made my blessing any stronger, she might have already attacked me. Hopefully, long exposure doesn’t make its effect stack.

It was a curiosity that Rohl wanted the answer to but not quite yet, it was a mystery which should only be solved in a situation where he had backup to help him should the worst arise. If the elf turned on him here, his chances were slim and with the next several trees revealing no spirits, Rohl felt his chances of making it out unscathed drop ever so slightly.

Who knew the greatest threat in the forest would be Ell the angry elf?

With Rohl having no intention of discovering how angry she could get, he quickly moved towards the next tree and tried to direct his blessing towards the tree and only it. Rohl knew he didn’t have the control for such a thing, but it didn’t hurt to try especially in a situation like this.

Come on spirits where are you? Please let the elf kill you horribly so I may live.

“How are you feeling?”

The elf’s lack of reply told him everything he needed to know regarding how she was holding up.

“Do you want to rest for a bit?” Rohl asked truly hoping she took him up on the offer.

“I’m fine, but I’d be much better if you would do your god dams job and find me spirits to kill. Bloody useless good for nothing humans,” came the elf angrily mumbled reply.

Yeah, that’s a very normal thing for someone doing completely fine to say.

After taking a small and silent prayer that the next tree contained a spirit for the elf to release her anger upon, Rohl quickly made his way towards a nearby birch. But unfortunately, its thin frame revealed nothing as Rohl’s blessing was unleashed upon it.

“I said do your job.”

Rohl was barely able to hold his tongue at that comment. Shouting at the elf or explaining how he was doing everything he could, would do him little good, especially given how it was likely the elf knew that and was simply venting her frustration at him.

With one eye now permanently watching the elf just for safety’s sake, Rohl made his way towards his target oak and once again repeated the steps of unleashing his blessing. Just as it had gone the previous few times, Rohl was left staring at nothing but an empty tree with no spirits in sight.

Come on, at this rate we’ll have barely a tenth of what we killed yesterday. I can actually feel her glare.

As if just to spite him, the next handful of trees also proved to contain no tree spirits or even squirrels for that matter, it was as if the forest had been emptied of life just to make his quest harder.

“I thought I said do your job.”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Rohl snapped back after finally failing to hold back his tongue.

“Waste my time. Useless bloody human. Pathetic. How hard is it to force some spirit out of a tree? How simple-minded are you?”

“How would you know how hard it is, all you have to do is stab whatever appears. I’m doing my best to get the spirits out. There’s not exactly training on this.”

“Try harder. I knew I shouldn’t have relied on a human.” Whether her anger had carried her there or if she had done it as a threatening gesture, the elf had gotten a lot closer to him, making the threat her drawn weapon posed all the more apparent.

It probably would have been the wiser move for Rohl to step back, calm himself down and simply concede, but his own anger had already started to rise, and this argument was long in the coming.

“I've done the best I can, I forced hundreds of them out yesterday, maybe they prefer the outskirts or have wizened up and moved even deeper in. I don’t know but it's not my fucking fault, so stop blaming me.” With his words catching the elf by surprise, Rohl moved to further back up his point. With heavy steps, he approached the nearest tree and unleashed his blessing just as he had countless times before.

“See I know what I'm bloody doing,” Rohl’s worlds were filled with anger and later a small bit of smugness as the telltale signs of a tree spirit emerging began to appear. But that joy at proving the elf wrong was rapidly crushed as more and more spirits began to emerge around them. It seemed as if the bark of every tree he could see had begun to shift and move, even the ones Rohl could have sworn he’d cleared. In a matter of moments, they'd gone from standing in a small clearing to being surrounded.

The forest had become alive with the spirits, hundreds of them with the largest conglomeration all coming from one direction, the road.