“What is he thinking?” Leo thought to himself. He had returned to the cabin but his discovery in the forest left him unsure of the priest's decision. He had found the guards at the edge of the forest of all places. But this wasn't the good news he had hoped for. Two were dead, one was missing, another was unconscious and had been tied to a tree.

The latter man was resting in a bed in the cabin, but he wasn't likely to be waking up anytime soon.

And the words his subordinate returned with made him even more confused.

(“Has the enemy already entered the dungeon!? How? But I can’t think of any other reason the priest would keep watch of the stairs and say that.”)

As he sat on the chair engrossed in his thoughts, the others in the room were focused on the stones he had on the table. They kept their gazes subtle but he could tell they drew their attention.

(“The detection stones.”)

Four blank stones were laid out on the table. And if they showed an arrow then that meant those gathered here would have to go outside and fight a foe who managed to do that to their comrades.

(“Sigh, I would like to tell them the priest has it under control but at the moment that's all conjec-”)

All the stones flashed a red light. Those all gathered in the room turned to Leo for indication.

(“This… this is beyond what I imagined.”)

The stones would normally point to the direction something entered the barrier. But a solid red light on the stone indicated something else. The barrier had been broken.

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“Dumbasses, did they not think putting a barrier in a random forest wouldn't make them obvious?” Lily commented.

“Alright, you've served your use Lily, now go home,” Tina said.

Out of everyone brought along for the journey, Lily had the most experience dismantling barriers.

Lily slapped her fat chest and Tina responded in kind by clamping down on her head like she was trying to crush a watermelon with her bare hands.

“But this is strange,” Elizabeth commented as she examined it. She slapped Tina's hands and she stopped. Lily rubbed her head and turned to Elizabeth.

“What do you mean?”

“Mr. Bentley didn't report a barrier being here.”

She pulled out a map. It had an approximate representation of the roads and various forests, with even the dungeon itself represented but no mention of the barrier anywhere on it.

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

“Shit, did they set this up recently?” Lily asked.

“Ugh, I can imagine that red-headed idiot got himself in some trouble.”

As these words exited Tina's mouth the whole group became a standing commotion.

“Regardless!” Elizabeth said loudly. “That doesn't change what we have to do. If anything we have an extra incentive. After we spill their blood I want you all to do your best to find him.”

The rest soon quieted down and began walking.

She sighed as they began walking into the dense forest. (“I should start thinking of what to do when they don't find him.”)

As they walked into the forest there was one amongst them, dragging their feet an exceptional amount.

(“Damn that Ezekiel. Why'd you have to die? Couldn't you have been something cushy like a hunter or fisherman? ”)

The one with these thoughts that was different from the others present was Kevin. The white-haired young man was starting to regret opening his mouth while at the regional building.

(“Ugh, why'd I even come here? I'm not a fighter. I can barely protect myself, much less do damage. Besides that guy was just an annoyance.”)

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Four years ago.

The pale boy was minding his business as he walked through town. He was shorter than he was in the present and held something shiny in his hand.

(“Who keeps leaving gold coins around the place?”)

The coin had a labelling of 1000 on it and it was probably the most money he had probably ever held. There was a multitude of these coins scattered throughout the town. How did he know this? Well, he had found some the day prior.

“Hmm, that's strange. Yesterday the coins were blue, but now they're green.”

Another fact. He didn't have magic. Or that's what he told himself at least. But his eyes were strange. Various things in the world would have a different hue covering them like a miasma, through his vision.

Red was usually bad and blue was usually great. Green was just okay.

Blue would be a winning lottery ticket while green would be one that gave you a few thousand dollars and at minimum, recouped buying the ticket.

(“That's strange. Why's it green today? This is great money. I can probably live the rest of my life easily with this. Heh, I could probably even build a nice home.”)

He didn't give it much thought and continued searching the town for more coins. And he finally found it. The motherload. It seemed whoever had dropped the coins had done so by accident. At the bottom of a building no child should be around or under, he found a whole sack of coins. It had a tear at the bottom and the number of coins labelled with a thousand, seriously messed with the kid's sense of scale.

“Ten, twenty, thirty. Holy crap, I could probably build five mansions with this type of money.”

As he counted the coins he noticed the bag and its coins were labelled grey. This meant whatever he was looking at wasn't of any particular gain or loss.

“Huh? Why's it grey? Don't tell me!?”

He ran the coin against the bottom of the building and much to his relief, it kept a consistent gold colour instead of a brown or silver being revealed.

He had fooled with a trick like that before when he ignored his eyes on a coin that had a grey miasma.

“But why is it…”

He paused when he heard a footstep approach.