It seems the church bell had more of a purpose than I was expecting. It most likely acts as a way for people to tell what time it is, and it appears that the number of people who were out and about has decreased significantly. Even many adventurers are starting to move out of the city, most likely on their way to their next quest. I hadn’t been talking with Anna for that long, but…

Are these two people following me?

I wasn’t that far from the guild, but I felt two people following me shortly after I parted ways with Anna. Then again, maybe I’m being paranoid… Perhaps they are just heading the same way as me. But just to be sure.

I broke off from the main road and went into some back alleys. I zig-zagged through the lanes until I found a spot that suited my purpose. I groaned from the pain of casting another spell as I erected a stone wall to cut off the other side of the alley.

My mana was still bottomed out, and even though Anna cured most of my symptoms, I was still at a dangerously low mana percentage. I doubt I would even be able to use mana enhancement for five minutes.

I would have to use my mana sparingly and efficiently since I could still sense those two people trying to find me. People with good intentions don’t follow children into back alleys.

And if they know who I am, I need to handle this before they tell anyone else.

With my choice made, I cast another earth spell as sweat pooled under my mask from the overexertion. My body felt weaker and weaker, and my bones cried out in pain. I moved my body through the stone wall and waited on the other side.

It didn’t take long for me to hear voices. “Where did that Elf go?”

“Hey, was that wall always here?”

“He’s here somewhere.” Then, a more gruff voice came from a third person.

A third person? I couldn’t sense him at all, so he must be a Beastmen.

I’ve really gotta figure out how to sense these guys. I’m sure if my hearing was back to normal, I could at least hear them coming.

I listened through the wall as two sets of footsteps approached the wall. The Beastmen was there as well, but his footsteps were inaudible. The footsteps got closer and closer until eventually, the sound of a large quantity of soil being moved broke the silence, followed by the screams of men.

I placed my hand on the wall and used it to form a spell core for an earth lance. A hole formed, and a spear of earth shot out, catching a Human man in the chest with a thud and spray of red blood.

In one swift motion, I ripped a baseball-sized rock from my wall, and as I stepped through the hole, I threw it at inhuman speeds. The rock collided with the skull of what can only be described as a tiger standing upright, a True Beastmen. The rock smashed into his head with a crack and silenced his howls of pain.

The last surviving man in my earth trap was a middle-aged Human man. The shock of his partners’ quick deaths overrode his pain from the earth spikes digging into his trapped legs. He was staring wide-eyed at me with everything from the waist down stuck in the earth.

The earth spear that took the life of the first man must have just missed him and gone over his head. Blood dripped down from the corpse onto the trapped man as he stared at me.

“Scream and I’ll kill you. Why were you following me?” I threatened.

The man didn’t answer me as his mouth opened and closed like a fish. I groaned from the pain and fatigue and summoned my sword from my ring. The blue and gold metal reflected what little light managed to find its way into this dark alley. I set the razor-sharp edge against the man’s throat and drew blood just by grazing him.

He winced in pain and began talking frantically. “Nn…nnNothing! We were just—”

I pressed the blade closer to his throat. “Stop your rambling. Do yourself a favor and tell me why you were following me. Do you know who I am?”

“No! NO! We… We heard a child became an adventurer last night and when we saw you… we just—”

The man continued to ramble as I drew the sword back and pulled on a piece of metal that was around his neck. The metal was crude, but it was sprinkled with multiple colors, light greens, light blues, and purples. The colors were mixed to make it look like…

Opal? This is an adventurer tag, isn’t it?

“So a group of adventurers was planning to rob another adventurer? I do believe that’s against the rules,” I said flatly.

I would know it was indeed against the rules after sitting through Dominick’s orientation yesterday. Violence against other adventurers was prohibited and grounds for demotion or even termination depending on the severity. But I guess there are always bad apples.

Doesn’t matter.

Perhaps seeing my hostility, the man began thrashing around violently in the trap, which only made things worse for him. The spikes dug further into the man as he yelped in pain.

Tears rolled from his eyes as he turned to a new tactic of begging for his life. “Please! I’m sorry! Just… just let me go. I'll never do this again or bother you. I won’t tell anyone, I swear! L—listen, I have a wife and kids! Please!”

“You planned on taking from me, so you should expect that the same could happen to you. It’s a shame you didn’t learn this lesson before it was too late,” I answered back.

Before he could attract any more attention, I slit his throat. Then, wiping the blood off the blade, I stored it back into my ring and looked out at the scene. How had things come to this? Was this the best way to handle things? Maybe.

Maybe not.

Either way, I can’t be too careful. And besides, I showed my ability to use earth magic, something I’m trying to hide for the time being. If there was a chance these men knew my real identity then I had no choice but to kill them. The longer I stay hidden, the more likely I am to make it to safety.

Now… what to do… I don’t have enough mana to burn these bodies, so I’m just going to have to bury them. I guess I’ll just use this pitfall trap as their grave.

I shuffled the bodies around and rummaged through their belongings, looking for anything valuable. I was trying to be both fast and careful. I didn’t want people to find me, nor did I want to get blood all over me. But it was difficult without using any mana and missing a hand… and a crippled leg, sigh.

The two Humans just had some pocket change, the clothes on their backs, and their adventure tags. I took the tags along with the spare change and put them into my spatial storage ring. I managed to move the True Beastmen’s body into a better position so I could search it.

This was my second time seeing a True Beastmen. They differed from just regular Beastmen. Regular Beastmen were mixed with the blood of Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. So it was safe to say that Beastmen just looked like one of those races with animal features like ears and tails. Their hair and senses were different from Humans and Elves as well. But True Beastmen like this tiger man here is literally a Humanoid tiger that stood upright.

The tiger man had some loose change and an Opal adventurer tag like the others, but he was armed with a small dagger. The dagger wasn’t all that great. It was clearly mass-produced, and it would struggle to win a fight against a stick of butter. But I’ve needed a weapon that I can display openly.

Mages typically carry a staff or a wand, but I’m not interested in paying the premium cost to get a decent one. And mages don’t usually use swords or other melee weapons either since most people can’t cast spells and use mana body enhancement in conjunction like me. Having a small dagger shouldn’t arouse too much suspicion, though.

I took my cobalt gladius out one last time to use it as a conduit for a final spell. I’m not used to using something to assist me in casting spells, so I haven’t thought about using it all that much. But I really should be using this thing more often.

Cobalt is a metal that seems unique to this world and has the ability to help someone’s mana flow. Since I’m running on fumes here, I’ll just break down my stone wall and use it to fill up the grave. I’m not worried if people find these bodies. By that time, I should be long gone from Anderfield, and it’s not like I plan on ever coming back here.

My earth wall crumbled as I guided it to fill the grave. Once the bodies were sufficiently covered I did my best with the remainder of the mana I was willing to spare and tried to make the ground look undisturbed.

I’m sure if someone took more than a passing glance, they would be able to tell something was off, but there was nothing I could do about that. The stench of blood and death still hung in the air, but I was wasting time. I needed to not be here any longer, so I set off to the guild.

While I was walking back to the guild I felt a vague uneasiness wash over me. It was… familiar in the sense that I’ve felt it before, but highly odd considering I didn’t understand it.

I’ve only felt this once when I first killed those men in the jungle. Something felt… off. I’ve killed thousands of people, and I can never remember feeling this way in my previous life. I don’t get this feeling when I kill monsters, either. I also can’t remember if I felt this way when I killed Martin and Ester, but I’m going to blame that on my combat drugs.

So what is this feeling? Do I feel bad for killing those men? Is it because I have emotions, and I’m a different person now?

No… I don’t think it’s that easy of an explanation. In all honesty, I don’t give a damn about killing those men. Whether it is the ones in the jungle or the three I just killed right now, I won’t be losing sleep over their passing, and the world is probably a better place without them.

So why? Why does killing people feel so different… so… wrong?

I sighed as I pushed the door open to the guild. There was no point in getting philosophical over the meaning of life and what it means to take one. I was never much of a thinker. I don’t plan on becoming a philosopher any time soon. Maybe I'll think about it after the first few centuries of life.

Centuries, huh? What’s it like to live that long I wonder?

I threw my tired body towards the reception counter and asked about selling monster parts, buying supplies, and getting some breakfast. The employee told me it was past the complimentary breakfast time and that I would have to pay extra, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

I ordered a double serving of whatever they were selling for breakfast. It seems Domnick wasn’t on duty yet, but after placing my order with the chief, a young man guided me to the back of the guild building.

The guild employee from this morning was sitting behind a counter with multiple shelves and writing in a large ledger. She looked up from the book and smiled. “Good morning. How can I help you?”

“I was told to come to you to sell my monster parts and buy supplies.”

Her brown hair bobbed up and down as she nodded. “I can do all of those things for you, sir. Are you registered with the guild?”

“Yes, but I have yet to receive my tags. I was told they would be ready this afternoon,” I replied.

“Oh, you are the new adventurer. Your name was… Voker? If I remember correctly?” she said while tilting her head.

I nodded in response and she continued. “You were quite the talk last night. A young High Elf coming into town with a bunch of Amethyst-ranked adventurers just to become an adventurer himself.”

“We just happened to meet on the road. Now then…”

“Oh, yes, pardon me. So normally, you would give me your tag, which would correspond to how much the rate for purchasing the items would be. We also take into account the part’s overall condition and if you harvested them correctly. Can I see what you intend to sell, sir?”

Beforehand I had shoved some of the monster parts into my new bag so I could sell them. I didn’t plan on selling everything I had in one go as that would be suspicious, so I decided to sell the Lurker claw, the Drone Knight carapace, along with a few Dire Wolf fangs and pelts. I figured I’d save the Forest Spider silk sacs for a latter day, along with the extra Dire Wolf parts.

“This is… a lot. And this carapace, is this from a Drone Knight?” she said with bright eyes. I nodded. “And the condition… it’s nearly perfect. Same with the pelts and fangs. Are you a hunter by chance, Mr. Voker?”

“Once upon a time.”

She just looked at me and laughed. “You say that like you are an old man or something.”

“I suppose. I also need to buy supplies. Dry rations for about two months, drinking water, a whetstone, sleeping equipment, and some extra material to mend my clothes with.”

“That’s quite a lot of things. Also, two months’ worth of food? How are—”

“Don’t worry about it. Can I buy these things here or not?” I asked pointedly.

She winced at my harsh rebuke but she continued, albeit hesitantly. “It will take a day or two to get that many rations. The water… I’m not sure how I can give you that much water? That’s a lot of canteens. Everything else should be ready by tomorrow, and the extra material? Your clothes are made out of Goliath parts, aren’t they?”

“Put the water into buckets, and I can manage from there. The time doesn’t matter either. And Goliath parts… I’m not sure. How can you tell?” I asked.

As an Elf, I don’t need to eat as often as a Human but I do need water. With my ring, I can easily store gallons of water without worry. I want the whetstone to maintain my weapons, but it seems this extra material to mend my clothing might be more than I bargained for…

“May I touch it?” she asked. I nodded and extended my arm out so she could feel the sleeve.

She closed her eyes and pinched the fabric a few times while nodding her head. “Mmm, yes, this is made from the hide of a Goliath. A monster found in the depths of dungeons. Its hide can produce a cloth-like material that is super lightweight but has the equivalent defensive properties of Dwarven Steel chainmail. Your black pants seem to be made out of the same material… but it’s more uh… leathery? I’ve never seen so much before… Say, where did you get all of this?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“A merchant sold it to me for… a reasonable price.”

That price being free… I didn’t specify what kind of clothing I wanted from Deguzman nor what I wanted it to be made out of, but I guess the merchant went above and beyond. Talk about good customer service.

“So, how much for extra material?” I asked.

“I don’t think I can get you anything even remotely close to this kind of quality. The price must be unimaginable. I can get you something quite a few levels below this, but…” she trailed off.

“That’s fine. Whatever you can get is better than nothing. How much do I owe you?” I asked.

“Okay… well, we will subtract everything from what you would earn from the monster parts… uh, one second.” She began flipping through her ledger and mumbling to herself. “Let’s see… after deducting everything, I owe you two large silver coins. Does that sound about right, Mr. Voker?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what the rates were, but I was buying a lot of equipment and provisions. Two large silver is a pretty hefty sum considering I didn’t work very hard for these things. On the other hand, a family of four needed to make a little less than one large silver a month just to eat, so I’d say I made quite the haul.

“I uh, okay then... I’ll have everything ready in two days from now,” the employee said with a practiced smile.

“One more thing. Do you happen to know anything about a village that was attacked a little over five years ago?” I asked.

“A village that was attacked… I’m afraid you are going to have to be more specific. That’s sadly a common occurrence.”

“Right… It’s a village on the southern tip of the second largest island in Syn’nari. It was attacked a little over five years ago by a group of outlaws from the Holy Kingdom. Anything come to mind?”

“Yes, actually, it was a long time ago, but I remember a few things. I was still in Ostela training to be a receptionist when I heard about it. What exactly do you want to know?” she asked me.

“Everything you can tell me,” I urged.

“Well for starters it was that group of rogue templars they call themselves the Chapter of Despair and they have some hefty bounties on their heads. From what I remember… They attacked a village, but nothing serious happened. At least not that I know of. I heard the attack was thwarted just like it was last time. I imagine if the Syn’nari rangers can stop the Holy Kingdom, a group of bandits from the same country wouldn’t pose much of a threat,” the girl said while looking out thoughtfully.

“Were there any missing people posters? Any requests sent to the guild by chance? And what do you mean like last time?”

“Sorry, it’s been a long time… I don’t remember any missing people posters or requests from the guild to find people. I know Syn’nari gave the guild a large sum to increase the bounty, but that was about it. That issue came and went before I could even blink. I’m sure I wouldn't have known it happened if I didn’t work at the guild. And what do you mean? Do you not know about the failed invasion of Syn’nari?” she asked.

“No… I don’t. Could you explain to me what happened?”

“I wasn’t even born yet, but my father was a part of the thwarted invasion force. After the Old Empire was overthrown and the war finished, the Holy Kingdom of Atoral sent a small invasion force across the sea to take Syn’nari. An Exarch even led it. The reason was apparently some kind of crusade or something… my dad doesn’t really talk about it all that much,” she said sheepishly.

“It’s fine… thank you for telling me what you know. I’ll be back to get my things when they are ready.”

I turned and walked out of the room to get my food. That was a lot of information to take in. I can’t be sure if I’m thankful or anxious.

If the attack on the village was a minor incident then that means nothing serious happened. However, if Owlkirk had been razed or many people had died, it would have been a more prominent event.

That means there is a good chance everyone is okay…

But no wanted posters looking for me… I mean she is just one employee, so I don’t expect her to remember a single poster of some random child. But if there isn’t a request…

Does that mean Mom and Dad aren’t looking for me? And what about Grandpa?

I trudged up to my room with the food and set everything down on the bed. I did my routine of blocking the door and covering the windows once more. I even gave the room a courtesy check to see if anything was disturbed, but I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

I sat on the bed and took my mask off, and began devouring my brunch. I was both physically and mentally drained. My entire body ached, and I was confused. I finished my double portion of food off in record time and sprawled out on the bed with a sigh.

Even… even if they aren’t looking for me, it doesn’t matter. I will return to them.

I put my mask back on and rolled into bed. I drifted off to sleep in record time. Healing magic and mana sickness make for a great sleeping aid.

—

I woke up feeling groggy and tired but much better than before. I moved the curtains and was greeted by the darkness of night. I also noticed that the building was… much louder than I remember. I readied myself as best as possible and went downstairs.

The main hall was bustling with bodies. The warmth from all this body heat made me sweat, and the smell of food and alcohol mixed in the air. Armed men and women of different races yelled, sang, ate, and drank together as if today was their last night on this planet.

I suppose it might be that tomorrow wasn’t a guarantee in this line of work for some of them.

When I descended the stairs, the entire room went silent, and I could feel the eyes of nearly everyone in the room turn to me. I felt their gazes bore into me as they took stock of me. But I paid them no mind as I hobbled down the stairs.

I guess this is a room filled with people who hunt and kill monsters and other people. Eventually, satisfied with whatever they saw in me, the room returned to normal as if the last few seconds had never happened. I waded through the throngs of people until I found Dem waiting at a table alone with a wide smile.

“Morning sunshine. I haven’t seen somebody get that kind of reaction in a long time,” Dem said with a slight wave of his hand.

“Mhm. What do you mean?” I asked.

“Dang, you even have your morning voice on. Must have slept like a rock,” Dem chuckled. “Anyone ever told you that you have a weird aura about you? That they just can’t help but want to be around you?”

I stared at Dem. I don’t recall anyone telling me I had a weird aura around me. Some people have called me weird, but… I’ll chalk that up to me just being me.

“No, never been told that before.”

“I see… well forget about it. You were quite the talk last night. Masked High Elf child becoming an adventurer and all,” he winked.

“So I’ve been told…” I said while looking out into the crowd. Even now, I could feel the occasional glance towards me. “Where is everyone else at? I thought I was late?”

“Nope. You are the first one. The others should be here soon, so we can just wait for them,” Dem said while taking a swig of his beer. The golden color liquid foamed at the top.

“Dem, is that really you?” a male voice called out.

“Huh? Nick?” Dem said while looking over his shoulder.

A tall Human man with black hair stood away from the table. He was probably in his late twenties, and he had brown leather armor on and an iron chest plate over it. He had the build of a runner, but plenty of muscle showed on his forearms and legs.

Strapped to his shoulders were two daggers with the blades pointing up in their sheaths. Dangling from his neck was a purple gemstone, an Amethyst guild tag.

“It really is you. I heard you came into town. How have you been?” Nick said while giving Dem a firm handshake.

“I’ve been doing good, Nick. Voker, this is Nick, an old friend of mine. So does that mean Adrian and Crowley are here as well?” Dem asked while returning the handshake.

“They are around here somewhere… at least I think they are… I sort of lost them a few minutes ago,” Nick said with a chuckle. The smell of alcohol wafted off his breath, but he didn’t seem overly intoxicated. Then he turned to me. “So you are the masked High Elf, huh? Word has it; you even got to skip a whole rank. What was your name again, kid?”

“Voker Winterheart.”

“Oh, that’s a cool name… names Nick. I’d uh introduce you to my party, but…” he said while gesturing out towards the crowd. “But they are a little occupied at the moment,” he chuckled.

“That’s fine. Is it always like this?” I asked.

“Every day,” Nick answered back quickly. “Every day we survive another quest is another night to be celebrated. Why make all this money if we don’t spend it? Am I right, Dem?”

“Yup,” Dem answered back with a chug of his beer.

“Say are— Huh?”

Nick stopped himself short and looked out into the crowd. Dem as well turned his eyes toward the commotion. The room had grown quiet despite one particular conversation that continued on regardless.

I, too, turned to look at the commotion, and sitting down in a chair was a female Beastmen. Even while seated, she appeared tall. She had brown bear ears sticking out from her black hair.

She looked to be in her early twenties, but you could never be sure with Beastmen… and they say it’s hard to tell how old Elves are. She was wearing a leotard that left most of her brown skin exposed hanging around her neck was a red piece of metal, a Ruby-ranked adventurer just like Dem.

That outfit… It leaves little to the imagination. Does she really wear that around in public?

The woman was being accosted by a Human man who had clearly had too much to drink. I didn’t need my hearing to hear the vulgar words coming out of his mouth. He, too, had an adventurer tag around his neck, but his was an orange color marking him as Topaz.

Both Dem and Nick faced forward with a sigh. They had looks of resignation on their faces. “Let me get a swig of that…” Nick said quietly.

“Yeah…” Dem said without his usual amount of energy.

The building had yet to return to normal, but I could pick up a few more vague conversations bubbling around now. I could hear terms like “silver” and “betting” be tossed around while people looked on with similar expressions to Nick and Dem.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“That beautiful Beastmen woman over there… that’s Bella… uh—you see…” Dem said nervously.

Nick chimed in with a dead voice. “Bella has a nickname. And you are about to see how she earned it with your own eyes… if you are brave enough to watch that is. That poor guy must be new around here, he has no idea what’s coming...”

I looked from Nick and back to Bella and this Human man. Bella snorted. “Back off, creep. I’m not going to tell you again.”

“Ah… you don’t have to be so hostile babe—”

Everything happened so fast. If I blinked, I might have missed it. Bella stood violently up from her chair and towered over the man. She kicked the man’s legs out from underneath him as he fell slowly onto his back.

The same leg she used to sweep him was already up in the air and coming down towards the falling man. He hadn’t even hit the ground before she stepped down on his groin, forcing him back down to the floor even faster. As the man landed, her foot, with force and momentum, continued onwards as an indescribable sound echoed in the silent room, followed by a high-pitched yelp of pain.

I involuntarily let out a short breath as my stomach twisted in a weird phantom pain. The entire room filled with similar sounds as men winced and groaned in unison. Dem pursed his lips and closed his eyes while Nick bit his tongue and winced.

It was a group phenomenon that I had never experienced before in my life. Yet, for some odd reason, I felt a strange feeling of kinship with that unknown man as his manhood was crushed with that… sound.

I looked away from the scene and faced the wall. The three of us didn’t say a word to each other until the room eventually went back to some kind of normalcy. The clatter of coins rang out as people passed money to each other from whatever bet went down.

Oddly enough, most of the money being passed around was amongst the female adventurers. Most of the men were nursing phantom stomach pains and still wincing, myself included.

“What… what just happened,” I squeaked. My voice came out at a higher pitch than I expected.

Nick sighed deeply. “That’s Bella the Ball Busting Bear Beauty, do yourself a favor and learn from that man’s mistake. He is going to be spending the next week in the church getting healed. He might even become a priest at this point.”

“I… I thought violence amongst adventurers was prohibited?” I questioned.

“It is. But you heard her. She gave him an audible final warning… made sure we all heard it… the guy continued, so she was allowed to “defend” herself. Not that he didn’t have it coming… maybe just not like that,” Nick said with dead eyes.

“Oh…” I trailed off.

I mean, he was harassing her. If you harass anyone, you should expect punishment. But that… I’m not sure if I would wish that upon my most mortal enemy.

Dying might be more preferable.

I noticed Dem look over his shoulder and faced forward rather quickly as he began to whistle. Nick groaned and buried his face into his hands. I didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know who was approaching us.

She forced her way in between Dem and Nick and addressed the two of them with a smile that seemed almost predatory. She gave both of them a side hug, squeezing their heads into the sides of her breasts. “If it isn’t Dem and Nick. I heard you were around Dem. Came into the guild yesterday and didn’t even bother to say hello?”

“Hello, Bell. I see some things haven’t changed,” Dem said with a flat voice.

Bella clicked her tongue, and Dem looked over at her. The two stared at each other in silence, then suddenly, they began laughing at each other.

“Nick, it’s good to see you too,” Bella added in between chuckles as she let go of them.

Nick took his face from his hands and had a broad smile on his face. “You too, Bella.”

What… what is going on? Are they friends? They seem like friends to me. Do friends normally act like this? But they seemed so wary of Bella. Perhaps adventures are a closer-knit community than I had expected.

As soon as I thought about her I felt her eyes turn to me. Her swirling hazel eyes locked onto my face as she stood up. She once again forced her way in-between Nick and me and rested her…chest.. on the table.

“So this is your new party member, Dem? Where did you find such a cute little Elf boy?” she asked.

An awfully sweet scent assaulted my senses. It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was… different? It wasn’t the smell of perfume or even a scented soap but something I was unfamiliar with.

I was trying to understand these things, so I didn’t notice the person who walked over from behind me.

With a swift chop to the back of Bella’s head, the woman’s emotionless voice sounded off. “Stop that. You are embarrassing us.”

My heart sank into my chest but it was only for a moment. This person… she reminded me of an older Cerila.

She was a Beastmen as well with white and gray hair. However, her eyes were cyan blue, and she wasn’t a fox Beastmen like Cerila but another kind of canine. A wolf, perhaps?

With a slight bow, she turned to me. “Please forgive her, young man.”

“It’s fine. No harm, no foul,” I responded.

I don’t even know what Bella did. Or why she was apologizing for her.

The wolf girl tilted her head slightly and spoke with the same monotone voice again. “What an odd saying.” And with one swift motion pinched Bella in the ears while she was trying to retreat silently back into the crowd.

“Ouch! Veme, please let go! I’m sorry—I’m sorry! I just got excited, that’s all, and—”

Tears were flowing from Bella as Veme continued to pull her by the ears. The two of them came and left as fast as they had come. I was left very confused as Nick and Dem chuckled.

“Just another day…” Dem remarked.

“Mhm,” Nick responded.

What just happened?

As I watched the two of them leave, I looked around the building once more. Most of the adventurers were Humans, and a few Beastmen and Dwarves mixed about. I didn’t see any other Elves or Dragonkin. But, I also just noticed something. Something I’ve never thought of before.

All the Beastmen I have ever seen have been predator species like Canines, Felines, or Ursidae. I’ve yet to see a single prey subspecies. Does that mean… what does that mean exactly?

“Yo, Voker, you awake in there, kid?” Dem asked me.

“Huh? Yeah, just thinking…” I responded.

Dem rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Uh-huh… so did you end up getting your supplies? I noticed you have a new dagger now, so you must have gotten some things. Do you still plan on traveling with us?”

“Yes, I got everything I needed. I should have everything in two days and be ready to go.”

“Good, that’s perfect. That perfectly aligns with our schedule,” Dem said with a satisfied nod.

“If you ever get bored of hanging around ol’ crusty Dem here, feel free to join us. We could always use another member,” Nick added with a grin.

“He can party up with you when I die, Nick. Go poach somebody else’s genius Elf mage,” Dem chuckled.

Nick shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t hate me for trying.”

“Make sure you are good to go, Voker. We are leaving for Nactus, but we have a job to do on the way,” Dem said.

“A job?” I asked.

“Yeah, we are going bandit hunting.”