Rick jumped five meters in one go, reaching the top of the rock outcropping next to their camp. Len followed, looking in the same direction as him.

"What do you think?" Len asked.

"I'm thinking that it's mighty suspicious they're coming this way. You see a camp out in the wilderness, you usually do your best to avoid it."

"Though is that our apocalypse mind talking or the realities of today?" Len said.

"Fair point. So you want to give him a chance?"

"Trust but verify, Rick," Len said.

"Fine, fine. Wait, look,” Rick said.

“Two of them peeling away. Scouts," Len said.

Rick looked over, raising an eyebrow.

"Trust but verify," Len said again. His alarm enchanted necklace vibrated on his collarbone. He sent a pulse of mana through it, resetting it.

"Don't bode well if they're sending scouts to check us out," Rick said.

"We would have."

Rick grunted before dropping down into the camp again. Len followed.

Rick stoked the fire a little bit more, taking a seat back on the crate.

Len shifted to another boulder, keeping the forest in front of him.

With his all-seeing eye, he was able to pick out the scouts approaching. One moving through the forest ahead of them, another moving around behind them to the rock bluffs.

Rick poked at the fire, shifting the wood around as Len drank from his canteen.

You could hear the breathing of the scout upon the stone rise. Their feet catching on loose stones and scree.

Not the best scouts against someone that has a tempered body and enhanced senses, passable.

After a few minutes, they turned around, returning back towards the rest of their party.

"I guess we're going to have guests soon," Rick said.

Len focused on the party, watching as the two scouts returned.

"Looks like they're having a little chit chat. Pass on the information. And they're all coming together," Rick said.

"Makes things easier. It also shows how confident they are," Len said.

They didn't have to wait long before the party emerged from the forest.

"See? Just two of them. Only boys," one of the scouts that had moved through the forest said. He wore the gear of an archer, same as the other scout, the rest wielding spears. The last a sword and shield user with his shield hung on his back.

Those spears look better suited for throwing. Sturdy enough to be used like a normal spear though.

Len rose up from his seat, squinting in to the forest like he couldn’t quite make out the approaching party, Rick following suit.

Len cast a spell, bending the air between him and Rick so that no other would be able to hear. Unlike the party who was speaking in whispers, still audible to anyone with tempered hearing.

“Don’t have much in the way of supplies,” Len said.

“Thought their job would be quick, they’ve been out here some time. Have pretty basic gear. I see leathers and gambesons," Rick said. "The only metal I see the sword user has, bracers, shield and sword.”

“Think he’s trained with them?” Len asked.

“Walks with confidence at least,” Rick said.

“What are we going to do, boss?" one of the spear users asked the sword dude.

"Find out if they know anything about the tablet, get a full meal into ourselves, and resupply," he said, chuckling to the others. A dark laughter ran through them all.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"What if they're hunters?" the second spearman asked.

"If they're hunters, then I guess we'll only take a small tithe. Call it a teaching moment.”

“I don't think they realize we've tempered our bodies and have better hearing," Len said dryly.

"Fuck if I'm giving them a single crumb," Rick muttered back.

Len ran Mana through his body, stretching out and readying himself for what was to come. "Cancel the spell.” Rick said.

Len did so.

“Hi there, travelers," Rick put on his best idiot boy out in the country smile, waving to the party.

"Hello there, lad. What are you doing out around these parts?" the man with the sword asked as they reached the other side of the camp fire.

"Heard there was good beast hunting and got a job to check out one of the mines," Rick shrugged. "How about yourself?"

“You affiliated with the hunter bureau?” The sword user asked.

“Nope,” Rick shook his head.

The party looked at one another with messages in their eyes, relaxing.

"We're looking for something," the sword user watched them both closely for a reaction. "A tablet."

Rick and Len looked at one another, shrugging. "Ain't heard or seen no tablet," Rick shook his head.

"What you got there?" one of the spear users used the butt of his spear to point out the crate Rick had been sitting on.

"Just supplies," Rick said.

"Ooh, lovely," the man moved towards the crate around his archer buddy.

"Been starving on the rations we brought. Always nice to have a little change up, you know?" He chuckled and reached down towards the lid.

Rick put his foot on the top of the crate before the spear user could lift it. "I'm sorry. I don't think so, boy. Out here, you use your own food."

The spear user's face went through a clash of emotions: embarrassment, anger, turning to hatred, and then glee. An ugly, strangled laugh escaped his throat as he stood up. Len could see his muscles tighten, readying for what was to come.

All of the party making subtle movements of readiness.

"Oh, come on, boy. Out here, it's kind to share," his face lost all mirth as he tilted his head at Rick like he was an idiot.

"See, these forests, they're hunter territory," one of the archers said, moving around the campfire towards Len.

"That means if you come here and you meet a hunter, you better be prepared to pay the price." His face split into a grin. “And we determine the price.”

The man with the sword let out a chuckle. "Now, now, boys, don't want to be scaring them too much. So, what do you say you tell us the truth about why you're really here?" He stepped on a boulder, leaning forward to rest his elbow on his knee.

"Then, we'll see. Then, we'll take a payment for being so rude to my dear fellow party member here,” He gestured at the spear user leering at Rick as if to ask him what he was going to do it, inviting him to do something.

“Then send you on your way back to the city.” The sword user continued. “See, this ain't a place for children."

"I was hoping we could do this the easy way," Rick said, rolling his shoulders back. "But I guess, well, hell, it's been some time since I've done it the hard way." He laughed, stepping upon the ground and drawing his hammer as he moved.

Len drew his sword, darting across the space between him and the archer who was circling the fire to his right in one step.

The archer started drawing his blade just as Len's cut through his neck, separating his head from his body.

Len grabbed his mana blade from his sheath, turning and throwing it sideways at the shield user. The shield user was just starting to push off his leg when the blade blew a hole through his collar bone and kept going. He fumbled at the new hole through him, collapsing to the ground.

Len was already moving, his steps hurling him towards the second spearman who was readying his spear, the remaining archer grasping at arrows in his quiver.

There was a wet squelch of an exploded head to Len's side as Rick moved past the once-laughing spearman.

The fumbling archer was putting an arrow on his string as Rick’s hammer met their arm. Their arm crumpled like cracking sea ice eclipsed by a blood-curdling scream as they dropped to the ground.

Len's steps took him into the range of the remaining spearman who jabbed at him. Len altered the ground under his feet, causing him to slip.

He grabbed the spear, yanking on it, drawing the man forward as he brought his blade under the spear, through the man's leathers, gambeson, and stomach, drawing it up and through his chest, actually severing the end of the spear off. The man crumpled to the ground in a wet wheeze, nearly coming apart in two.

Condensed mana flowed through Len's veins, a tithe of the dead. He scanned the surroundings, checking there was no one else left before analyzing those upon the ground.

The shield user and spearman’s life blood was draining out, the first archer dead already.

The first spearman was now a headless corpse, painted over the rocks, ground and Rick. That left just the screaming archer on the ground cradling his arm.

“Still got it,” Rick said, spinning his hammer in his hands.

“Weren’t that hard,” Len grimaced, after going through shield boy, his knife had felled two trees and then dropped into the dirt. “That’s going to suck to get.”

“Hey hey!” Rick said trying to get their attention. He kicked the arm getting a high pitch yell. “Focus up here screamer.” Rick gestured two fingers at himself, covered in the gore of the first spearman’s head.

The archer was pale as the moon with eyes just as wide.

“Always better when you have a captive audience. Now, why the fuck are you out here?” Rick asked.

“T-there was this tablet that some miners uncovered, an artifact. Said that it was covered in words, glowed with the color of mana. They were bringing it back to the city but they never made it so we were sent out to find it. Please don’t kill me.”

“Shut up,” Rick said looking at Len. “Artifact covered in words and glowing?”

“Sounds like an enchantment, or a skill tablet. Has to be a tear here somewhere then.”

“Pretty valuable this early in the game,” Rick said.

“Anyone that gets their hands on it will have a massive advantage. Learn a skill or can start learning enchantment and have an enchantment to use.”

Rick leaned down and put his hammer at the base of the man’s skull.

There was a sudden hum and the man collapsed, eyes lifeless. You didn’t leave an enemy alive. Mercy killed in the apocalypse.

“I got to go get my knife out of the forest,” Len used a clean spell on his sword, removing the grime.

“I’ll get started on the looting then.” Rick waved him off, his hands scrunching up the archer’s clothes, darting into pockets to pull out items. “Healing potion, nice! Shit that’s a heavy coinpurse.”