The six of them left the guild and headed towards the south edge of town. Walking together, Nobina could already notice how Darrias was keeping himself mostly separate from the group. It was really Jonathan taking the lead. Despite the group still being in town, Darrias seemed always wary of the shadows, likely due to the nature of his path. As for Nobina, she was with the rest of them.

She listened closely as she heard Jonathan, Herrita, and Noct mostly chatting amongst themselves, showing how close they were as a party already. As for Merick, he positioned himself between Nobina and the three of them, being close enough to keep chatting with all of them. However, Nobina could tell that he really wanted to chat more with her, likely vying for some interesting story Nobina might have had. It was a bit tiring, but nothing she couldn’t handle.

As for Nobina, she didn’t have much to say. Part of her wanted to start chatting with the four, yet she found herself mostly thinking about the task at hand. How would things go? Would they run into any unforeseen issues? It wasn’t enough to make her space out and ignore what the others were saying, but it was enough to keep her occupied.

Eventually, the group departed from the town and started heading towards the south forest. The south forest was about a few hours away, leaving open plains until they reached their destination. Besides the occasional farms they saw, there wasn’t much to say about the area before the forest. It was beautiful, considering that it was farmlands that Nobina wasn’t too acquainted with, but at the same time, it felt a bit ordinary. She was really waiting to see a sight that screamed, “this is what you see as an adventurer.”

“Nobina,” called Darrias, breaking her concentration.

“Yes?” she asked, seeing him next to her.

“Why did you leave the party and walk ahead next to me?” he said, maintaining a rather professional voice.

Nobina turned around and saw that the other four were farther away, now all chatting with each other. None of them seemed aware she had rushed ahead either.

“Ah,” she said, feeling embarrassed. “I must have walked ahead without anyone else noticing. I’ll head back.”

Before she could, Darrias shook his head.

“I’m curious how long it will take Jonathan to notice. Please wait here and don’t tell him that you did this on your own. I want him to realize how he and his party need to be vigilant at all times. Something like this could get you hurt or worse.”

Understanding the seriousness of what he was saying, she merely nodded.

About ten minutes passed before Merick noticed Nobina was with Darrias. He seemed to tell the three something before approaching the two of them.

As he approached, Darrias gave Merick a rather aggressive look, prompting him to be a bit worried.

“Uh… did I interrupt a private conversation,” asked Merick, confused by Darrias’s look.

“Why aren’t any of you concerned about Nobina wandering off?” Darrias asked.

“Well… she’s with you and she can handle herself so…”

Darrias, unsatisfied with the answer, merely scoffed.

“Really… So you’re aware that she’s sticking out and could be in potential danger? She is an escort target, remember?”

“Relax,” said Merrick, trying to act as casual as possible. “We are still far from the forest and monsters are very visible on the plains. If this was a more dangerous situation, we’d be in formation anyways.”

Nobina knew he had a point, but she was curious about what Darrias would say. He was the most veteran adventurer here.

“Perhaps you’re right, but you remember the mission, right? It’s investigating the south for any issues. Are you saying it’s not possible that monsters might be further away from the forest?”

Hearing that, Merrick turned to Nobina, who also gave a nod.

“Merrick. He’s right. This mission is to ascertain the status of the South Goblin Nest. Despite this area having no goblin reports for the longest time, history has shown that goblins have been spotted here extremely rarely. Of course, trusting your fellow team members like Darias is good, but at the very least you shouldn’t be far enough that you can’t react if I’m in danger.”

Merrick seemingly wanted to say something but held his tongue.

“My apologies,” he said. “I’ll speak with Jonathan about this. Please rejoin our group.”

With Merrick heading back, Nobina gave a sigh.

“Are you sure they are handling this poorly? Like he said, this area is almost always safe, and those goblin sightings were years ago. Specifically, it was due to a Goblin Invasion being imminent.”

Darrias nodded his head.

“Think about this one thing Nobina,” said Darrias. “If I didn’t speak up, how far do you think you would have gotten away from the group.”

She gave it a bit of thought before giving her guess.

“Maybe fifty meters? It’s hard to say.”

“Hm… and let’s say a wolf appeared and tried attacking you. Would they have been able to save you?” he asked.

“There are wolves here?” she said, surprised.

“The south is relatively calm goblin wise, but the wolf population has been on a slow rise. Unlike goblins, new wolves aren’t used to the area and might journey into these plains for easy prey. They might find none, but if they see a lone individual, they have a chance of attacking.”

Hearing that, Nobina understood why he was so concerned.

“Where did you learn that?” she asked.

“The adventuring reports received a few weeks ago said two wolves were spotted at the forest edge. It was only a sighting of two wolves, but it’s something that more experienced adventurers recognize as a sign of a growing wolf population. I’m pretty sure Jonathan is aware, but he must have not shared it with the rest of the party considering you didn’t know.”

Hearing that, Nobina nodded.

“Anyway, I’m just trying to teach all of you as much as I can about being safe out here,” said Darrias with a sigh. “Take my advice. Ignore it. It doesn’t matter to me.”

She shook her head.

“Thank you, Darrias,” said Nobina. “I’ll relay my thoughts to the other.”

He gave a nod, turning his focus forward as Nobina headed back. Once she was back, Jonathan looked rather upset at Nobina.

“Nobina… please let us know if you’re separating from the party next time,” said Jonathan. “We are supposed to be escorting you.”

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Nobina was surprised by his response to her return, but she merely remained calm and spoke back.

“My apologies Jonathan. I was distracted and found myself separated. I do have a question. Were you aware that I was separated from the group for quite a while.”

Hearing her words, he merely looked a bit away as he gave his response.

“Yeah… Well Merick informed us you were likely fine once he noticed you were far away, so I let him check up on you. That should have been good enough.”

Nobina sighed, shaking her head. She began telling Jonathan and the rest of them about what Darrias told her and her own thoughts. Hearing them, he realized that they made a mistake.

“Sorry about that Nobina,” said Jonathan. “As the team leader, I should be more aware.”

“No worries,” said Nobina. “Nothing happened, so just make sure to be more aware next time. I’m pretty sure Mimiki would care more about this than me. Though, I wouldn’t tell her for your sakes.”

They all gave a nod, and soon, the group continued on without issue.

An hour later, they reached the forest edge. Perhaps it was fate telling them to take the incident seriously, because when they were close enough, they noticed a pack of three wolves near the forest edge. The wolves, who seemed to notice them, headed deeper into the forest.

“Formations everyone,” said Jonathan.

The five of them entered their formation as they got closer and closer to the forest edge. Nobina could see the forest was similar to the other forests she had seen so far, yet this one felt a bit more open compared to the rest of them. It was easier to see farther into the forest, and the sunlight seemed to illuminate it well.

“Alright,” said Jonathan. “From here, we are about a day away from the Goblin Pond. It’s getting closer to the end of the day, so we’ll find a suitable campsite after one more hour of travel. Due to those wolf sighted earlier, we’ll keep a standard watch. I’ll be first, then Noct, then Merrick. Any questions?”

They all shook their heads. With that, they continued their trek into the forest. As they did, Nobina began mentally taking notes in her head regarding the sights she was seeing. Despite it just being a forest, now things felt way more adventurous. Being in a formation, for starters, made her feel like someone important. Besides that, she was also combat-ready. She was keeping her own awareness sharper now that there was a potential threat.

“This is what it means to be an adventurer,” Nobina told herself.

Soon, the sun was finally setting, and Jonathan ordered the group to set up camp. For Nobina’s part, her task was to shadow one of the others as they performed their set task.

Jonathan mostly organized things and gave instructions. Herrita was setting up the sleeping arrangements and fireplace. Noct was securing the area and making sure there were no nearby threats. Lastly, Merrick assisted in setting up the camp as well as preparing the food.

“How does the group handle food?” asked Nobina, trying to understand the process.

“Simple,” said Jonathan. “We all have our individual rations, and we determine how we want to eat them. This is more so the process for parties that haven’t been together. When a party is more in tune, we would generally have group rations and use those instead. Cheaper, but wasteful if you don’t fully use them. As for sleeping arrangements, due to the extra weight, if there’s no one suited for carrying a load then packing light is a must. Bags are used for sleeping and we depend on the forest for wood and stones for the firepit. That should cover the basics.”

Nobina nodded, wishing she had some sort of notebook to write all of this down. She had considered bringing out her diary, but she didn’t like the idea of having it exposed. Instead, she now planned to create another personal notebook purely for notetaking later.

After the sun had finally gone down, everyone, including Darrias, was around the fire eating food. As the crackle of the fire became the predominant sound, Jonathan asked if anyone wanted to share food, to which it seemed everyone was interested in doing so. Nobina, taking her rations, opened them up and began trading hers with the others. To her surprise, it seemed that she had rations that were a bit pricier than the rest of them. Jonathan and Herrita were surprised to see her willing to give up some of her quality meats for more simple dried meats.

“Don’t worry about it,” smiled Nobina. “I rather get a more genuine experience of what you guys eat than hog something that could make your experience better.”

Herrita eyes sparkled as she thanked Nobina and traded part of her dried meat. Jonathan did the same, exchanging his bread with Nobina’s bread. As they ate the food, Jonathan and Herrita seemed to really enjoy what Nobina had. As for Nobina, she didn’t show the same bliss. Instead, her look was full of intrigue as she tried to take in the flavors she was tasting.

“Interesting,” she said.

As for Merrick, Noct, and Darrias, they stuck with their own rations, not wanting to take anything of Nobina’s. It seemed all of their rations, even Darrias, were considered basic rations, while hers were called quality rations due to the better flavors and more nutrients they gave.

Once they were all done, everyone began heading to sleep except Jonathan. Nobina found that she was actually much more tired than she thought as she fell asleep without issue.

“Goblins,” came a loud voice, prompting Nobina to awaken.

She tried to get her bearings as she looked around for her special bag. Eventually, she saw the others also waking up as everyone prepared for combat. It was still the middle of the night, yet the sudden action had awoken everyone.

“Nobina. Stay center,” came Jonathan’s voice.

Her gaze fell upon him as she saw him looking towards the direction of the goblins. It was hard to see in the middle of the night, but she had to guess that more experience as an adventurer made it, so seeing goblins at night was likely easier for them.

“Nothing north,” called Noct.

“East clear,” called Herrita.

“West clear,” said Merick.

“Got it,” said Jonathan. “Merick. Watch Nobina. Herrita. Noct. Formation B.”

The two nodded, entering their own defensive formation. As they did that, Nobina managed to grab her special bag and go through it to grab her sword. When she brought it out, Merick was in awe seeing it.

“Oh my god. The sword of a le… A very good sword,” he said, quickly avoiding saying something regretful.

Nobina was thankful for him catching himself but soon refocused herself. Taking what Mimiki had taught her, she drew her sword and kept her stance. Merick, realizing he had a job, went back to watch for any flank attacks.

This was a fight between three adventurers and five goblins from what Nobina could see. There could have been more goblins or other threats, but her eyes weren’t catching anything.

“Fireball,” yelled Herrita, focusing her wand towards one of the goblins.

From the tip of her wand came a fireball that was about the size of a baseball. It didn’t seem super impressive, but when it flew at a decent speed and hit one of the goblins dead center, it was engulfed in a powerful flame that made quick work of it. The light also made the other four goblins visible, causing them to somewhat panic as they realized their cover was gone.

Noct fired an arrow and hit one of the goblins in the head, sending it down immediately. With three goblins left, they decided to rush the three of them in desperation. Herrita and Noct stepped back as Jonathan took the lead.

“Come at me goblins,” he yelled.

The goblins, recognizing his weapon, seemingly tried to go around him as they targeted the easier threats. However, that seemed to be a foolish move. Once they were close enough, it was Jonathan’s time to use his own skill.

“Slice,” he yelled.

His sword moved fast and managed to slice one of the goblins cleanly in half. The other two, realizing it was foolish to ignore him, turned their attention to Jonathan.

“Fireball,” yelled Herrita again, hitting one of the distracted goblins.

At the same time, Noct fired off another arrow, striking the goblin, but this time not killing it. The goblin, hurt, gave a screech as it tried to hit Jonathan. However, he blocked it without issue and cut down the goblin.

“Anything else Noct and Merrick?” called Jonathan.

“Nope,” said Noct, keeping at the ready.

“We are good here,” said Merrick, still scouting their rear.

After a few minutes, everyone relaxed. A few of them were still tired, but the situation had given them a boost of energy. As they all gathered together, Jonathan asked if Nobina was fine.

“I’m good… but that was amazing,” she said, her eyes lighting up.

“It was… just a standard defense,” he replied, feeling like what they did wasn’t anything special.

“Are you kidding me?” she responded back. “Seeing adventurers in action… I can see why Mimiki loves this lifestyle. It’s so… exciting.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, but this is serious work,” said Herrita, annoyed by her excitement. “Please remember that our lives are always in danger. I’m glad you like seeing adventurers at work, but please don’t make this seem like something we all enjoy doing.”

Hearing that, Nobina felt immensely guilty for showing her excitement. She realized that Herrita was right and showing her own enjoyment made the others uncomfortable.

“I’m…”

“Herrita,” said Darrias, appearing from the shadows. “One of the golden rules of being an adventurer is to never demoralize your fellow teammates. This was Nobina’s first time out here, but you’ve made her feel guilty for enjoying this lifestyle. If this ruins her concentration the whole time, who’s to blame but yourself.”

Hearing that, Herrita immediately waved her hand.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I… I was just speaking my mind. Hopefully you don’t let my words ruin this… lifestyle for you Nobina.”

Nobina shook her head.

“No… it’s alright. While Darrias has a point, it’s good having that perspective. Thank you… for making me realize this is serious business.”

Everyone seemed to be satisfied with the whole situation at this point. For Nobina, she realized that this was what it meant to be an adventurer. One could enjoy the combat and lifestyle of it all, but that wasn’t everyone. Some people were doing this for things other than the thrill of adventure, and it seemed Herrita was one of them. It made Nobina want to know all their stories even more, since she was planning to use them to help her write her book. As long as nothing bad happened, she knew this would be a fruitful trip. However, something in the back of her head made her worried, considering they’d already encountered goblins this early on in their quest.