The night was uneventful, and yet Lucas found himself unable to get any proper rest. He tossed and turned fitfully until Harry finally roused him for his turn at watch. From there, he simply kept vigil up to the first signs of light peeking through the trees, when everyone got up to continue their mission.

"Here, eat up," Belinda told them as she passed around what, by all indications, were fresh-baked muffins. They were even still steaming, as if they'd come straight from the oven, not the small leather pack she carried with her.

"Where in the world did you get these?" Harry asked whilst staring at his own muffin in utter confusion.

"Well, I am a [Cook]," Belinda answered simply, as if that explained everything.

"But we didn't even have a fire..." Harry trailed off, but it seemed that was enough explanation for him, as a moment later he shrugged and set in to the baked good.

Lucas found his own to be perfectly moist and delicious, and all other considerations were secondary after that. Once they were finished eating, it was time to move on, and the mysteries of their [Cook] were set aside for future considerations.

What followed were many more hours trekking through the forest, following the most obvious trail there could be, all while remaining under [Stealth] and keeping a watchful eye out for any roving bands of goblins. A few times as the day progressed, they did hear or see signs of other monsters in the area, but nothing came overly close to the trail the goblins had wrecked so their party of four had no difficulty passing by unnoticed.

The first signs Lucas and company were drawing near their destination showed up around an hour past midday, when the destruction that had thus far been confined to their path's borders started to spread out into the surrounding area, and tracks suddenly started showing up in abundance. They were packed so close together that it had become hard to distinguish one from another.

"This makes the third trail to join with this one," Lucas whispered to the other three when they came across another branching path. "We have to be close now, right?"

"Most likely," his mother answered. "We must be even quieter from this point on, as it becomes more likely for us to encounter any of the monsters' scouts. No more talking outside of immediate emergencies."

They all nodded in agreement, and their group continued forward at a careful, slightly reduced pace.

[*ding [Stealth] has reached level 23!]

At least one good thing is coming out of this situation, Lucas smiled faintly as he thought, all this stalking is doing wonders for that Skill. He wouldn't allow much celebration in the middle of all this, but the notifications did keep him from dwelling too much on his nerves. True celebration could wait till they had Eugene back.

A few minutes later, Lucas got another notification.

[*ding [Stealth] has reached level 24!]

Huh, another one? That was pretty quick.

He started paying a little more attention to the way he was stepping, trying to see if he'd made some unconscious change that would explain the quick level. As far as he could tell, he'd been stepping as usual, so it had to be something else.

[*ding [Stealth] has reached level 25!]

Lucas suddenly froze mid-step, causing Harry to bump into him behind. The [Hunter] let out of low grunt from the impact before steadying himself. He tried tapping on Lucas's shoulder to get his attention, but Lucas paid him no mind--instead, he strained his senses for all they were worth.

When Lucas didn't immediately start moving again, the two women stopped as well and turned to see what was wrong. Mary caught his eye and gave him a questioning look, then spoke quietly. "Lu, what is it?"

He looked her directly in the eye and hurriedly whispered back, "We need to get off the trail!"

To her credit, Lucas's mother didn't even take the time to ask him what exactly was wrong; she instantly gestured to the other two, and they all dove into the more preserved vegetation just off the trail. They made some distance and doubled-back a ways, then fell prone facing the path.

Once there, all three of them looked to Lucas, but he just pointed back at the trail, then his own ears, and gestured for quiet.

I probably have the lowest [Stealth] Skill out of all of us, so it is unlikely any of them got the levels as well. Thank the gods they all listened and didn't insist on an explanation, Lucas thought. If they had, there was a good chance that whatever was tracking them would have caught up.

That assumption was proven correct a few minutes later, when the sound of deep grunts and snarling, accompanied by the footsteps of several beings following the trail made it to their position. All four of them tensed when the group passed by just ahead, and no one moved a muscle till the sounds started receding once more.

[*ding [Stealth] has reached level 26!]

Lucas caught the others' attention before whispering as quietly as he could, "We need to take that group down. They haven't found us yet, but they are tracking us. If they alert the rest of their camp, any chance of sneaking in and rescuing everyone disappears."

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"How did you know they were even following us?" Harry whispered back.

That wasn't what the [Hunter] should be focussing on right now, but from the look on his face, Lucas decided it was easier to clear up his confusion real quick before moving on. "My [Stealth] is really low, and its level has been going up fast, but there is only one reason why it would suddenly gain one level after another."

Harry made a face of realization and gave Lucas a nod, done with the issue.

"We'll ambush them, then," Mary told them. "If they already have our tracks, then just doubling back won't throw them off."

"We don't even know how many were in that group, though," Belinda challenged.

"It didn't sound like any more than seven," Harry chipped in, "but there were also a few creatures that moved on four legs. I highly doubt the goblins are taming carolfs."

"We'll manage," Lucas shrugged, then hesitated, "but you all should stay at range. They could be corrupted."

"Corrupted?" Harry asked with a furrowed brow.

"The infection," Lucas clarified, and Harry nodded.

"Right, I guess I can practice [Throwing]..." the older boy trailed off.

Harry was still working on switching all his Skills around, and he didn't have many dedicated fighting Skills to start with, so him being at a loss was understandable. For this fight however, [Throwing] his knives--or even his spear--at range would work well enough.

Lucas was a bit more curious how his mother and Belinda would deal with the monsters, but he wasn't so foolish as to not trust that the two highest-leveled amongst their group could handle themselves. Their stats alone, with neither of them being physical Classers, could probably carry them through a low-level battle.

"Let's go," Lucas's mother gave the order, "before any of them reach the point we left the path."

As silently as they could, the four of them crept back onto the path and stalked forward after the party of goblins. A minute or so later, they heard the monsters up ahead and slowed their pace, stopping just behind a cluster of ferns to get a look at their targets.

The complications were immediately apparent once Lucas laid eyes on them. For one, there were only a few goblins present. Supplementing those numbers were two black-furred canine creatures, and one hulking, dark-skinned brute that looked as if someone had taken a bellows and inflated one of the goblins to twice its size.

[Goblin]

[Goblin]

[Goblin]

[Wergest]

[Wergest]

[Nilbog]

It's called...goblin...backwards??

[*ding [Identify] has reached level 40-41!]

Lucas wished his Skill would just share the monsters' levels with him, as that would be a lot more useful than a couple names he'd never heard of. He looked to the others in question, but no one offered up any sort of answer. His mom started making a few gestures to direct their approach when a wild snarl cut through the surrounding activity and drew everyone's attention. He turned back to the scene ahead of them and nearly cursed when he saw what was going on.

One of the goblins stood struggling to wrangle one of the wergests, trying to get it to follow the tracks once more as it went inexplicably rabid. Inexplicable to the goblins, that is--not Lucas. He knew the moment he locked eyes with the beast that it had caught their scent, and the nilbog clearly had some clue too.

The large brute callously kicked the struggling goblin away from the canine monster and watched as it charged directly down the path, toward Lucas's location.

It only made it halfway before a spear flew out and impaled it's back, but from that point, the game was up.

A number of things happened nearly all at once: first, the other monsters all roared and started charging, only to be immediately interrupted by a storm of forest debris rising up all around and starting to pelt them, courtesy of Belinda. Lucas charged forward to meet the monsters next, and the battle truly began.

Two of the goblins went down in the storm before Lucas even covered the full distance--perhaps not fully dead, but he was sure Belinda's telekinetic abilities would see to it soon. He passed by the impaled wergest and had to jump out of the way when it tried to lunge at him. It didn't make it far before the spear inhibited it's movement and Lucas lashed out, slashing through its extended throat with [Single Sting] and definitively ending its life.

[*ding You have slain [Wergest - level 73]!]

He didn't linger to marvel at the ease with which his mother's knife killed the thing[ as the second wergest bounded into range, one of the goblins right behind it. A bolt of resplendent blue electricity shot past and washed over the canine, locking it in place, and gave Lucas the chance to [Quick Step] forward and plant the knife in its skull.

[*ding You have slain [Wergest - level 79]!]

The was still coming, but when Lucas looked up, he watched three thrown knives take it in the stomach, chest, and throat, causing it to collapse. Lucas moved on to the final monster of the bunch, and the slowest to react. Only once all the others had fallen did the nilbog let out a roar of its own and start charging.

It started roughly forty paces away from Lucas, but it covered the distance fast--however, not too fast for him to react. Lucas leaned forward, and an instant before the nilbog reached him and swung, he activated all his Skills and dashed forward. His blade slashed into the monster's side as he passed, then cut into it's leg as he pivoted, before he finally buried it in its back.

The nilbog collapsed, but Lucas received no kill notification, so he pulled out his blade and stepped back, just in time to dodge its attempted reach for his ankle. Another bolt of lightning flew in from Mary's location and locked it down, giving him some time, but he did not immediately make another attempt at the kill. Instead, he made more distance and turned to the others.

"I swear I stabbed the thing's heart! How is it still alive?!"

"I don't know, stab it again!" Harry yelled back, rather unhelpfully.

With a final spark, the blue arcs running over the nilbog dissipated and it burst up, straight toward Lucas. Before he could react, it swung a heavy fist into his side. Lucas flew back a dozen paces and fell to the ground.

[HP: 840/920]

"Urgh..." he groaned, but he didn't have time to recover at his leisure. Lucas planted his foot while still laying upon the ground and activated [Quick Step], shooting himself back several more paces just as the nilbog crashed into where he'd fallen. From there, he quickly stood and channeled [Arclight Renewal] to begin repairing the damage.

Another paralyzing blast came in and hit his enemy, but it dissipated even faster than the last. However, in the moment the nilbog was frozen, the reason for its persistence became clear. Lucas watched as the last signs of his initial strikes faded away and the monster was restored to a near-perfect, if slightly scorched condition.

With a start, Lucas realized.

It heals as fast as I do!