I earned about 200 experience in Barkskin and a full level in my dexterity during my week in the city. It was hard to get excited about such small progress in Barkskin but dexterity was another matter. I found myself valuing my physical stats just as highly as my essence ones for improving my ability to fight. I would never have enough essence to constantly cast my skills and there was no reason I couldn’t continue to improve at fighting with weapons over time.

I let my mind wander as I walked down the road towards the bloodfields with the nine other adventurers. John's team had been staying mostly to themselves as we shared the path over the past two days. We talked for a few minutes each night about all the details of our planned expedition. John had planned on heading directly for an E-rank Awakened as soon as we arrived, while Gary wanted to slowly make our way deeper while clearing out any monsters we could find. I supported Gary's decision, along with everyone else on our team. None of us wanted a repeat of our first time working with another team of adventurers.

“It’s our willingness to keep pushing forwards that will let us reach E-rank, not rushing towards it as fast as possible,” Gary said to John beside me. We had just set up our camp at the edge of the bloodfields as the sun was setting over the trees in the distance.

“How about this,” John held his hand up, “we hunt down one or two F-grade Awakened then we head deeper, ok?” John looked hopefully at Gary and the rest of my team beside him. I looked to Gary questioningly even though that sounded like a good compromise, to me. Gary seemed to consider for a moment before he looked towards the rest of our team to see if we had any objections and I nodded along with everyone else.

“All right, we can do that, “ Gary agreed. John smiled and nodded as some of the tension drained out of him and Gary. After two days of them quietly arguing away from both teams as we hiked down the road they had to be annoyed with each other. I was just relieved John had suggested that; he was worried about how long it would take to find one once we began looking but I doubted it would be complicated. Both of our teams called it a night after a quick dinner so we could get an early start. I fell asleep while thinking of ways to incorporate entangle into my fighting style.

I woke up feeling rested and well-prepared for the expedition we were heading on today. After a quick breakfast, we headed into the bloodfields after an hour's walk along the edge to get away from the road. Gary and John had decided both teams would move in our groups separated by a few meters. In the dense forests, their team was as far from us as they could be without disappearing entirely behind the wildlife. We moved steadily throughout the forest as we quickly dealt with any goblins or wargs we saw. A few hours passed steadily until we reached a similar distance to our past trips this far. We turned and kept a similar distance from each other as we searched the area for any clearings in the trees.

“Noise,” Aaron said. I quieted along with the rest of my team and John quickly noticed and signaled his team to still. Gary jerked his head forwards and Aaron dashed off towards the sound coming through the trees. I leaned against a tree and let the weight of my pack rest while I waited for Aaron to return. We had set a quick pace during the day and I felt it. A few minutes later I saw him returning through the trees ahead of us.

“Looks like the usual,” Aaron said once both teams had gathered. “Seven houses and a large cabin in the center. No hobgoblins outside.”

John grinned, “Sounds like an easy F-rank core, right there. My team will fight a few meters to your side. We’ll pull them from a distance and clear them as they hit us, we’ll hit the Awakened together if possible.” It was our usual strategy when dealing with the villages, but it had served us well so far and more people would only make it easier. Aaron led us forwards until we reached the treeline and I saw a normal goblin village with a large cabin in the center. We advanced into the clearing and continued until we were about halfway to the village and John waved for both teams to stop. Some of the goblins in the distance had already noticed us and were charging across the grassy clearing to reach us. All four archers killed the goblins as they streamed towards us from the buildings in the village. I waited patiently in the front beside Zack until four hobgoblins rushed out of the cabin.

“Two Awakened,” Gary said as the four hobgoblins roared and sprinted towards us. Small groups of goblins finally reached the front and I quickly finished a wounded one with a thrust. Most of the goblins were alone or wounded and I killed any that reached me in one or two quick strikes.

“Gabrielle hit them with a meteor. We’ll move forward right after it lands,” Gary ordered as the hobgoblins started to near our two teams.

“Meteor,” Gabrielle started casting immediately and the sphere of flames quickly grew in front of her. She sent the spell shooting past once the group of hobgoblins was about 30 meters away and it sent all four crashing to the ground once it landed between them a moment later. Gary, Zack and I had all rushed towards them as she cast the spell. Three bangs sounded from in front of me and I knew Aaron had cast Haste and all three Drill shots he could while the skill lasted. Gary flashed away the last ten meters with a cast of Charge and I saw him spear the heavily wounded hobgoblin in the front.

“Entangle,” I cast as the hobgoblin reached for its fallen club on the ground and caused vines to rush up and grab its arms. It was the first time I’d used it that way in combat, but it was a method I considered recently while thinking of better ways to use it in combat. The hobgoblin struggled for a moment until Gary stabbed it through the skull and turned to another.

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“Entangle,” I sent vines up behind the hobgoblin Zack had just bashed with his mace and grabbed its legs. I stabbed the monster's chest as it jerked around wildly and swung its mace towards Zack.

“Vigor,” the massive swing caused Zack to cast his spell and he managed to block with his shield. I stabbed rapidly into the hobgoblins back until it slumped over. I looked around and saw John fighting one Awakened while Gary fought the other a few meters away from the other. As I jogged over Gary was baiting out its skills and leading it slowly in our direction.

“Thornbolt,” I cast once I got close and sent a thorn slamming into the monster's side as it lunged forwards towards Gary. The hobgoblin roared and grabbed at its side and Gary capitalized by rushing forwards and casting Flurry. His arms blurred as he sent three strikes towards the monster and it fell onto the floor, dead. I glanced over to John and saw the other Awakened lying at his feet while his team walked towards him.

I grinned and looked towards Aaron with my eyebrows raised, “That was easy.”

“Just some target practice,” he shrugged with a smile. John and his team walked over to join us as we gathered up by the awakened’s corpse.

“Good job! You guys are pretty good, I’m impressed. And Gabrielle, especially,” he winked towards the brown-haired girl. She looked unimpressed and raised her eyebrows.

“I’m impressed, too. With all of us archers and casters there were barely any goblins that reached us, I’m a lot less worried about being overrun than with just one team out here,” Alex said with a nod towards Aaron. He was one of the archers on John's team and I hadn’t spoken to him much, but I’d seen Aaron walking with him.

“Well done, everyone. Let’s get everything looted and move to the cabin for the night while it’s still light out,” Gary prodded us before we continued talking and we quickly split up to search the goblins and dig out the monster cores. A few minutes later I got to the cabin and took in the large foul-smelling room. There were rags piled in a few spots around the edges of the room, but everyone's packs were set up near the center where it was mostly empty. I dropped my pack near the others and worked on cleaning my gear while everyone else started trailing inside. Gary waved me over a few minutes later and I saw everyone heading in his direction.

“Today was a good showing of the strength both of our teams have when we work together,” John grinned and raised his hands and we let out a light cheer. “Tomorrow, we’ll go deeper and see if we can find something a bit more challenging.”

I looked to Gary and watched as he nodded to John. “All right. After today, I’m confident we can handle anything we’ve seen, so far. Hopefully, we can find a larger village tomorrow with an E-rank Awakened,” Gary responded with a nod in support.

“Well, it won’t be a village,” John shrugged a bit guiltily. “I’m not sure what all of you know about geography, but these clearings are the on the edges of bloodfields. We won’t find E-ranks within these forests.’

“What?” Aaron yelled, “Then what did you bring us out here for?” I frowned and looked at John as everyone turned to him, including his team.

“John, what do you mean? You had us preparing to go after them for months,” Alex protested with a shocked expression on his face.

“Calm down, everyone,” John shouted over everyone until we all quieted. “Let me explain. The Bloodfields are at the edge of Satar’s territory, beyond the forests is an area ruled by Awakened hobgoblins. With the forest blocking travel in this direction, Satar never expanded further than Gorok.” I had never heard of a place that was outside of Satar and I didn’t know whether he was telling the truth.

“Who told you that?” George asked him, another member of his team.

“No one. My father is a cartographer, so I’ve seen maps of the entire kingdom of Satar. This is the southern edge, and Gorok is the southernmost city,” John replied quickly.

“So how do you know there are E-rank Awakened outside of the forest?” Gabrielle asked him with her arms crossed across her chest.

“It’s obvious. There’s no way adventurers kill all the Awakened in this massive forest, and they don’t push towards Gorok or we’d know about hundreds of adventurers dying to them. They have to go somewhere,” he finished strongly as he pointed outside the cabin.

“Can hobgoblins even become E-rank?” I asked doubtfully.

“Of course, any Awakened advances the same way we can. Trust me, the plan isn’t any different than before. We head deeper until we come out the other side of the forest and search for Awakened.” John responded confidently.

“All right. I wish you would have told us the truth sooner, though,” Alex said with a glare towards John.

“Agreed. We’ll head deeper in the bloodfields, but if we reach the edge we’re moving forwards slowly and carefully,” Gary warned John and received a grateful nod back. I sighed and shook my head at the drama John caused. In the end, it sounded like something I wanted to do. Explore past the edge of the Bloodfields and see something that was outside of Satar. I hadn’t ever thought of lands outside of Satar and I hadn’t even really considered that anything was out there. Gabrielle cooked our team dinner and I spent an hour or so discussing the day before I headed to my bedroll. I pulled up my status to check the day's progress.

Eli - Lvl 4 Druid

Experience - 2970/5000

Strength-8

Dexterity-9

Perception-7

Vitality-8

Spirit-9

Willpower-9

Barkskin - Level 7\10 Upgradeable

Experience - 320\6400

Thornbolt - Level 5\20 Upgradeable

Experience - 290\3200

Rejuvenation - Level 4\10 Upgradeable

Experience - 290\1600

Entangle - Level 3\5 Upgradeable

Experience - 330\400