During our second days travel there was a big increase in traffic, both from other carriages and even groups of people on foot. That would explain why after just a few hours since setting off, the roads got steadily wider, enough for two carriages to pass though side by side. There was a large variety of races passing by like elves, gnomes and even people from races i've only heard about like beastkin. I was told a long time ago by a biologist that some people believe that dwarfs and gnomes were once one race, but when some of them left their mountains and caves and moved into swamps and forests, secluding themselves from the world they evolved into a new one. When I brought this up to Quinn a while ago he said to never talk about this to a gnome or dwarf, unless I was looking for a fight.

Note taken.

Apart from the people, most of the carriages look different too. With some being bigger, smaller and having no roof or having such a big one that noone could see inside. Some carried wooden boxes and barrels like ours, while others just transported people. I decided to take this opportunity to ask some questions I had been thinking over this past day.

"How big is Baalmore anyways?" I asked to my group.

"Have you seriously never been?" replied Erwin who was sitting across from me, raising an eyebrow.

"I had once when I was very little because the king wasnpassing through, though I don't really remember it. But apart from that no, I never needed to." I said.

"Well seeing as it's the second biggest city in the kingdom and smack bang in the middle of it, i'd say it's pretty big." Quinn said as he looked over his shoulder into the back of the carriage.

"Also, it's home to the main branch and largest guild hall so it has a lot of people passing in and out." Rose added, who was to my left. She went on to say that the city is surrounded by thick stone walls that reach high into the sky, with four heavily guarded gates in the cardinal directions. Once someone has passed a security check, they enter the first district. The city is split into three rings that the people call the districts.

The first ring is the housing district, which is exactly what it sounds like. All building around the very edge are where the people who live in the city stay. Next is the middle ring called the commercial district. Where most shops, inns and taverns are located with one big market on the east side. Last but not least the very center of the city called the guild district. At the heart of the city lies the adventurers guild, that even dwarfs a cathedral that holds all the staff that work there, some guild owned shops for its members and private rooms for parties and quest givers to gather in. It also houses the strongest members of the continents guilds and leader who runs it all, the rank S guild master. Surrounding it are the smithys that make the armour and weapons used by members, alchemy masters that sell traveling essentials and potions, towers of mages clans that sell magical items and the city barracks that houses the guards who protect the city.

"Sounds like a busy place." I said after taking it all in.

"well I guess so, you get used to it after awhile." said Rose.

"We will be heading to the commercial district when we arrive, the shop we managed to buy is on the west side." said Gilgwyn from up front, sitting next to Quinn.

"Aye, then you two can go turn this quest in and get paid." said Quinn.

"yes sir." They both replied.

After a long and uneventful day of travel we pulled over yet again and set to making camp.

after going through the same procedure we did last time, we had just sat down and started to wait for the fire to get hot enough to cook with. When we all heard a god awful sound come from the treeline nearby, that sounded like a cross between a cows moo and someone gargling. Immediately Erwin, Rose and Gilgwyn shot to their feet and started to form a circle around me and Quinn, quickly drawing their weapons as they never broke eye contact from where it came from. Some seconds past as I held my breath waiting for something to appear. Quinn broke the silence, asking the question on my mind.

"What in the blazes was that?" he said.

"Shush, it's probably still nearby." Rose said with a single armoured finger to her lips.

Another few tense seconds went by as the bushes on the other side of camp started to rustle, coursing the three of them to drop into a stance as they waited for whatever it was to show.

Just as the rustling stopped Rose shouted for us to hide as the three of them fanned out into a triangular position before another, louder gargling sound was made as two large figures charged out from the forest.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"It's cattle demons!" she yelled out as the three of them dashed forward aiming to intercept them.

"Oi, lad. Let's run and hide behind the carriage." Quinn said, pulling me.

I gave a nod as we both darted for cover, crouching behind one of the wheels and looking back to see our foe.

Demons occur when an animal or monster gets corrupted, transforming them into a new form. The most common demon that normal folk can come across are demon animals, more specifically farm animals. That's how come I know a little about them. I mainly worked in the fields but every so often I would over hear other farmers talk about how one of the animals has turned, broken out of it's pen and ran off. what you would normally do next is deliver a message to the nearest guild imforming them before going back to work, seeing as there was nothing you could do about it and you were definitely not getting it back. I had never seen one before but I'm not happy I did.

From the forest came two large and grotesque looking cows. They had mostly ashen skin that sagged unnaturally all over their thick body, and comically bulging eyes that were bloodshot glowing a dirty red. The horns were much longer and bigger than they should be, with small barbs adorning them at the tip and horrid purple liquid endlessly pouring out of their mouths, that almost looked like a grin.

Oh gods that's nasty. Just as I stopped looking at these nasty beasts, Gilgwyn pulled two daggers out from under his cloak, dodging one of the cows as it charged past him then throwing them right into its side. As soon as it slowed to turn back, Rose dashed right up to the side of it, stopping just before it's back left leg. She pulled her arm back with her fist clenched, an orange light poured from around her arm and fist as she brought it down onto it's calf, with a nasty snapping sound. Horrible screams of pain rang out as the cow fell over onto its knees, desperately trying to fight through the pain to stand back up.

Just as Rose jumps back to avoid a kick, I look over to Erwin as he slash's the second cow, just as it tries to run him through with its horns. The demon has some cuts and wounds over its body, and keeps accumulating more as it sluggishly tries to hit an attack over and over again, with Erwin easy dodging. Going in for another hit with it's horn, Erwin quickly hops to the side and runs to the rear of it, pulling his blade up as a light blue glow flows around the sword. He slashes down at such tremendous speed my eyes couldn’t follow, cutting a gash into it's back that starts spraying blood, as the cow falls to the ground moaning in pain. Erwin walks over to its side, before raising his sword into the air and plunging it right into the creatures neck, silencing it.

I hear a scratching of metal as I glance back over to see Rose just managing to dodge a blow as it scraps her gauntlet, with Gil taking that chance to throw another blade into the cows other back leg, knocking it back over again. Just as the last demon nearly stands back up, Rose charges right up to its side, slamming it in the head with a even brighter orange glow as before, stunning the cow and making it wobble as it hits the floor again. Gilgwyn sprints over, pulling a dagger out and jamming it right into it's eye as it convulses before going still.

Seconds go by as the fighters make sure their foes are indeed died, collect their thoughts and knifes before walking back over to us.

"It's save now." Gilgwyn said as he wiped blood and brain matter off his knives.

"That caught me off guard, haha" Erwin said resheathing his sword.

"Tell me about it. Didn't think we would come across a demon." Rose said.

"aye. my heart can't take these kind of scares, one of the many reasons I want to settle somewhere." Quin said, before going for another swig from his flask.

"I've never seen a demon, only ever heard about them. They look terrible." I said, looking back over their shoulders. and smell it too.

"Well they may look nasty but there the lowest demon you can come across, if you know how they tend to act and move, they're pretty easy to deal with." Rose said as she sat back down next to us.

"really?" I replied, is there such a thing as an easy demon?

"Yeah, really. But don't be mistaken, E+ ranks and above can take on cattle demons no problem. But real monsters turned demons are very, very dangerous. Only people allowed to take on something called demon bounties are a party of rank Cs and above, and only if said party has been on a lot of quests together with great teamwork." said Erwin with a stern look.

"But don't worry, you wouldn't normally come across one this close to a main road anyway." Rose said.

"I recommend reading up on the types of demons you can find at the guild library when you find the time. Monsters too, it's always better to know more about the enemy." said Gilgwyn.

"Alright, i'll be sure to do that. By the way, what was that weird glowing light coming off of you two? Magic?" I said eagerly.

"Well it's a bit hard to explain because I can't show you my stats, as my guild tag can only be viewed by me, other adventurers and the guild." Erwin said as he pulled some sort of metal tag out from under his armour, that had weird writing on it and a gem embedded at the end. "But like, when you get better at doing stuff with a class and whatnot you unlock something called an 'Art'. Arts are what let people do crazy stuff apart from magic, well it's hard to grasp without doing it yourself but if you sign up for training and get your tag you'll understand what I mean."

"Anyway, the light you saw was an Art called Imbue. It lets you give a piece of armour or weapon a boost for a few seconds, we used it to make us hit harder and faster. It's common knowledge among adventurers as it is a staple of most classes and doesn’t drain alot of energy to use, letting you use it multiple times a fight." said Rose.

"I think I get it. Thanks for trying anyway." I said, something to look forward to.

"you'll get it eventually, don't worry. Anyway i'm even more hungry now, so let's eat!" Rose said over her rumbling belly.

“Oh but what about the cows?” I asked.

“Right, we can’t really strip them for parts to sell as we don’t have much space but we can probably take a little of something and bury the rest. We don’t want other things coming in the night after smelling all the blood.” replied Gil.

“Fine fine, food after. So what we taking off it?” Rose said.

“Well, organs are a no go as we have nothing to keep them in, so all that's left really is the ear tags so the guild can confirm the kills and maybe a horn? Think we could fit one?” said Erwin.

Who would want the organs from something like that! I thought.

“Aye we could lad, probably 2 at a push. Oi Jax, help me with getting food ready and you lot get to carving, we arrive tomorrow so I want an early night so we get there for the afternoon.” said Quinn.

We all nodded and got to work on our tasks.

Some time later after pouring all the bowls of food, I shouted everyone over as they lifted the last horn onto the carriage. After cleaning themselves off we all sat around the fire for dinner.

As we were eating the others said that it’s going to take them some time to bury both cows so we should head to bed before them and they will take all the night watches for tonight. I tried to take the first watch but they said it was fine and after finishing went back to work. Reluctantly I left them to it and after washing up and rolling my sleeping bag out went to bed. Maybe because we arrive tomorrow or because I kept remembering how nasty those demons looked but it took quite a while for me to settle before I finally dozed off.