Hours of walking passed in this forest. By now, it was afternoon, and the sea of trees didn’t seem to end. I knew there was an end, simply because I managed to see it, but in this small body, and walking at the same pace as the other mortals, I didn’t realize that it was going to take so long to explore this place—or get anywhere for that matter.
Eleanor had been walking mostly at the back of the group. The fear and suspicions that she had for the demonoids had hardly been quelled as she carefully looked at them and every strange movement that they made. However, so far, they had just been walking. Grool said little, and what little he said, he said it in the same simple way that he spoke. While on the other hand, Jul chose to use as many words as he could to say the simplest of things; a rather common trait in the goblins of the world.
Thankfully, Dom managed to get the goblin to keep to himself, but I still saw the little being's mouth twitching the whole time, apparently talking to himself.
There had been a couple of times where they saw beasts, but for some reason, both Grool and Jul always chose to avoid them, even if with the group’s combined power, they would be able to easily take them down.
By the third time we avoided a small red fox in the middle of the woods, Dom asked the thing I was wondering about myself.
“Ya guys are pretty strong, and I myself am pretty strong as well. Is there a reason why ya’all seem to not want to fight a single beast?” he asked, his gaze at the small fox that was blissfully ignorant of the group that was getting further away.
Without turning back to look at Dom, and stealthily walking away, Grool answered, “No need. We no hungry. We not in danger. Better move.”
“Is that so…?” Dom asked, crouched down and silently moving like both Grool and Jul.
It seemed like stealth was part of Jul’s skills, as the little goblin blended with the environment so well that even while passing right next to a beast, it wouldn’t react to anything around it.
Eleanor was a bit clumsier. With almost every step, she would create a cracking noise of a branch breaking, a dry leaf crumbling, or a muddy puddle splashing. It was thanks to Jul’s expertise in stealth that they weren’t found out by any beast, as he managed to replicate that exact same sound at the complete opposite side of where Eleanor was and lead the creatures away from the group.
This time, with an apologetic look and a slightly lowered head, Eleanor nodded in thanks to the goblin, who just reacted with a wide smile and a thumbs-up. Dom saw that and approached Eleanor as the group continued walking down the path that Grool was opening at the lead.
“Say,” he whispered with a narrowed-eyed look of suspicion directed at Eleanor. “What’s your deal?”
“Eh?” Eleanor replied, dumbfounded by the question.
“Yeah… I’ve been watching you for a while now, and it don’t seem like you’re the kind of person that could survive in the real world—let alone in this hellhole. But you’ve got a lot of power from what little you showed last time. What’s your deal?” he asked again.
Eleanor lagged in her response as she tightened her lips slightly. “I’m not… a fighter…”
“Yeah, no shit. But how did ya get this far?” Dom asked this time while giving a sweeping look at Eleanor from top to bottom. “I’d say ya were dragged this far by another group of people that cleared everything for ya, but if that was the case, ya wouldn’t be this strong.”
“Ah, it’s thanks to Kyun,” she said, turning to look at me with a smile. “I was forced into this place by other people… But ever since then, Kyun has saved my life and helped me fight back. As for my strength…” She brought up her left hand and clenched it a couple of times. “I don’t know. All I know is that after I killed the first shadow monster in this place, I just became stronger.”
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“You killed that thing alone!?” Dom exclaimed, and even both Grool and Jul turned their attention to Eleanor. “It took a whole army and half of our people to get that thing down, and I think we only managed to kill it by sheer luck.”
“Impressive,” Grool said with a low tone. “We lucky too.”
“Ahhh yes, yes, quite lucky indeed. It was thanks to the valiant effort of our most beloved and heroic fighter, that in the final steps, and with a blow of auspicious blind power, that the beast was fallen, and we, in our most swift step, were able to move forward!” Jul said with wide movements of his arms.
“So, how did ya do that?” Dom asked, “What was the secret?”
“Eh…? Hmm…” Eleanor paused to think for a moment, remembering what happened back then, “I just threw my sword at a stalactite, and it killed it.”
“What?!” Dom exclaimed, incredulous about the answer. “But that thing was immune to all damage! How could something so simple do it in!”
Hearing the discussion, Grool chuckled. “It immune to things it see and feel. If no see, and no intent, it not immune.”
“Ain’t no way it was that simple!” exclaimed Dom, but then shook his head and turned a glare back at Eleanor. “What about the—the thing, with the minotaur and the—the strange lady thing.”
“Hm…” Eleanor thought back on it again, but while she did, she turned to look at me with a smile. “It was mostly thanks to Kyun. He’s been pushing me and encouraging me to fight and move forward.”
Dom turned this time to look at me. “That cat? But it hasn’t done anything besides follow us and look at us. It’s not helped at all.”
“Blessing,” Grool said, and with one large swing of his arm, moved aside a large tree branch. “We here.”
Dom seemed like he wanted to say more things as his glare of suspicion was stuck on me, but since we apparently reached the end of the trip, he chose to look at the place Grool opened up. However, he seemed confused instead. “What is here? I ain’t seeing anything.”
Grool and Jul didn’t answer as they just walked ahead into what appeared to be nothing more than just more woods. Both Dom and Eleanor looked at them with confusion, until Grool placed a hand on a particularly large tree, and the truck slid open to the side as if it was moving on its own.
The inside appeared to be just like an empty wooden house, with wooden floors, a simple wood table, a few plants as decorations, and tools spread around, like swords, small hammers and pieces of metal. There were a few doors at the back, each one close to each other, with only a couple of them opened. The place was also getting natural sunlight from the same side that the sun was shining from a window that couldn’t be seen from the outside.
“Well, I’ll be…!” Dom exclaimed, scratching his head, “No wonder we never figured out where the demons were.”
“Wait,” Grool replied, gesturing to them not to move from their spot. “Me announce.”
He carefully stepped into the tree, and as soon as he did, one of the doors slammed open.
“Grool!” angrily shouted a woman. “Why are you so fucking late?! I was just about ready to go out there and beat the ever-loving shit out of your corpses if I found them! Did you manage to get the shit-for-brains on the other side of this shithole to—”
From one of the doors walked out a woman. She was taller than Eleanor by about a head, her body was in a better shape and had more curves than the average human, with a slightly larger bust than Eleanor and wider hips. However, her skin was ash gray; at the end of her long fingers were pointy nails that almost seemed like claws; and from her lower back, a long, white, fleshy tail that ended with an arrow shape was swaying from side to side.
She also had long, white, straight hair that had almost no stray hairs popping anywhere, and her bangs were perfectly cut around her eyebrow’s height, making it seem like it was a line. On top of that hair, from the back side of her head, a pair of bright red horns popped, going forward on the side top of her head and ending in slightly upwards pointy bits, making it seem like a large, crimson laurel crown.
Her facial features were soft, with a round face, similar to Eleanor’s, but she had a few freckles around her cheeks under her eyes. Her nose was small, her lips were bright red like her horns, and her irises were a dark red color with pupils that appeared like a slit, just like a cat’s.
If Eleanor had the kind of beauty that caused people in a party to gossip, then this devil woman had one that would cause every man to forget where he was… if not for the powerful glare that she was throwing this way.
“Well, fuck me,” she said in a crude way. “Come on in, then.”