Below the hill we stood on, was a small village. From what I could see there couldn't be that many people living there. I saw a few buildings that looked to be barns. Hopefully, there was a horse I could get.

The tower was in the center of the four lands, surrounded by a large mountain range on all four sides. The mountains themselves were oddly formed natural borders between the lands. However convenient they were for keeping the territories distinct and almost irrefutable, they were inconvenient for travelers. I would have to cross the mountains, and it wasn't something you wanted to do on foot.

I stepped out from behind the tree, making sure my hood was secure and wouldn't randomly fly off. I took a deep breath, gripped Mezu’s hand, and started to make my way down the hill.

When we were about halfway down, I saw a man come out of a building and start heading towards me. I gripped Mezu's hand a little tighter.

"You there! Are you a hunter?"

The man called out waving his hand at me.

I waited to respond till we got closer.

"What If I was?"

The man smiled gently.

"What luck. An E rank dungeon appeared in our village, the guild just came here and won't be back till next week, but by then I'm worried it will break. Would you be able to help us with it?"

What kind of stupid luck is this? There has to be a catch.

"If I say yes will you give me a horse?"

The man seemed to get nervous again.

"We only have a few horses in our village."

He can't really say no to my request though, can he?

"Is that so? What a shame I really need to get to the mountains."

I couldn't give everything away, like the fact that I was just as desperate for this to work out as he was. I really couldn’t stay in elvish lands too long.

"If you're going to Manthia then our blacksmith can give you a ride. He's headed that way to trade."

Ugh, a whole trip closely with an elf. That's probably not the best situation.

"I'm not really a fan of traveling with people."

I felt stupid saying that, I really couldn't be too picky. If this was my only option I would have to take it, but the idea of traveling with an elf that would just be too much work having to hide my ears all the time.

The man rubbed his hands together nervously.

"We can give you a horse and if you could leave it with our friend in Mantia, that way we both win. I'm sure you'll be able to buy a horse there. I'm afraid our horse breed can't go over the mountains so even if we could give one to you it wouldn't be much help."

Yes!

"That seems like a good deal. Why don't you lead me to the dungeon."

The man beamed and turned, holding his hand out politely.

"Of course follow me."

He started to lead me past the buildings, around the back of the village.

"Sorry for not introducing myself, I'm Elaith the village chief. Well, I don't really do much leadership as we are a small village and all."

I just simply nodded, I needed to leave as small of an impression as possible.

We made it to the end of the rows of buildings and I saw a portal a bit further off. Next to it stood a man. As we got closer, I was surprised to see such a burly-looking elf. He almost reminded me of a dwarf except for his height.

His size and his leather apron led me to believe he was the blacksmith. I was a bit glad the chief thought of another solution, traveling with this man didn't seem that great of a thing.

"Who's this? I thought you went out to gather people to go in?"

He looked me up and down with a gruff look on his face.

The chief patted his shoulder.

"This hunter happened to walk into our village and offered to help us out."

He looked at me again and shrugged.

"Well, if he's lying, we'll know soon enough. I'll wait for him out here."

"Great, thanks! Come see me when you come out."

The chief walked away quickly and I could see his hands still shaking a bit.

When he was further away the Blacksmith put a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll keep your secret, halfer."

I jumped at his comment and slowly turned my head to look at him, scared.

"We don't get a lot of solo hunters just wandering about, and if you were anything but a halfer you wouldn't be wearing a hood."

He laughed, hitting me on the back in a friendly manner, but the weight behind his hits didn't do much to stop my nerves.

I rubbed the back of my neck and laughed nervously.

"And here I thought the entire kingdom hated my existence."

The man's face lost the grin quickly and his hand dropped back to his side.

"Anyone with high elf blood does. I'm sure you know why."

I didn't but the look of curiosity on Alcoroth's face made me a little concerned.

"The look on your face says otherwise though?"

I laughed again trying to relax my face seeing his eyebrow raised.

"I uhh…"

"Why don't you head in, I can watch the little guy if you want."

I looked down at Mezu, a part of me thought he was invisible since no one commented on the fact that Alcoroth was just floating mid-air.

Damn it, that would have been so much easier. Well, at least Alcoroth was invisible.

"Ah no, he'll come in with me, don't worry about it. I'll see you when I come out then."

I went in quickly and let out a huge sigh on the other side. Then I looked at Alcoroth, annoyed. He hardly ever explained anything.

I didn't have time to think when I heard a screech, and a goblin jumped down at me.

Without thinking I pulled out Mezu's blade and lodged it into its skull. I pulled it out and jumped back ready to attack again, but the goblin didn't move.

I got slapped on the back of my head and turned to look at Alcoroth.

"What was that for?"

"Don't use that knife, getting it all dirty with goblin blood. How disrespectful."

I rubbed the back of my head annoyed.

"What was I supposed to do? It was the only weapon I got as a reward."

Alcoroth glared at me, those same eyes he had on during training.

"Use those gauntlets you idiot, you need to work on your hand-to-hand combat before you should even bother with a sword."

"Then why bother training me with a sword?!"

Alcoroth scoffed, making my face twitch in anger.

"I didn't want to do such a low thing as fighting you in hand-to-hand combat. It's much better for you to learn that in a low-level dungeon like this one."

I heard a ding but didn't even bother looking at the notification.

"Agh! You prick."

I put it away and put the gauntlets on.

"I'm only doing this because it will affect Mezu."

Out of curiosity, I looked over at him to see him poke the goblin's face. I sighed and couldn't help the grin that formed on my face. I walked over to him and softly pushed him forward to get him moving.

"Alright, let's get moving."

After the fifth goblin I killed with a few punches, I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it. I was surprised to learn my training with a rapier had still done something for the rest of my combat abilities.

Another couple of Goblins jumped down. I grabbed the spear when one got nearer and punched the goblin holding it.

It flew backward and I used its spear to impale the other one.

I went after the first one and punched it a few more times before getting off of it panting a little.

I looked over to see Mezu staring at me as if in awe. It felt like his eyes were sparkling.

Ah, damn this kid.

Also, damn Alcoroth; that stupid smug face has been sitting there since I fought the second goblin. There is no way I'm thanking that prick. Even though I clearly had gotten stronger, his ego didn't need the praise.

I tried to wipe my hands off in the grass. My blood was smooth and I had gotten used to the feeling, but the blood from goblins was a lot thicker than I was expecting. It was sticky too. I mean it didn’t help that I had gotten some goblin brains mixed in them as well.

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Thinking about the fact that I had goblin brains between my fingers didn’t help, and I soon puked up my breakfast. And then instinctively wiping my puke off my mouth with my dirty fingers made it worse.

After some very annoying laughing from Alcoroth, and him pulling a towel and bucket of water out of his storage space, I was cleaned up and on my way.

We walked further through the dense forest. It was a much different type of forest than I had ever seen outside of a dungeon. I wondered if there are places in our world with forests like these. The leaves on the plants on the ground were larger than my head. And the roots of the trees were so thick there was hardly any flat ground to walk along.

The trees got even denser before suddenly thinning out quite a bit. I slowed down and duck—walked through the foliage. I moved the pieces in front of me aside with my hands every few feet to check, and soon I moved them aside to see a goblin camp.

It was an interesting layout. They had cleared most of the trees and foliage in the area so it was like a completely barren area. The design of this dungeon was lazy, putting the camp in such an open space and not using the difficult terrain to make it harder.

Well, then again it was an E-ranked dungeon, I guess at a higher level it would be designed differently. But then again with it being so out in the open, I wouldn’t be able to sneak around and try to kill them one by one. If I just went in now, they would all surround me.

That being said, the layout of the camp was pretty simple. A small wooden spiked fence surrounded four small buildings and one large open pavilion-like building. In front of the pavilion-like building sat the goblin king on his throne. He was quite a bit fatter and taller than I had imagined a goblin king to look like.

"Are we still doing that rule where Mezu can't help me?"

Sure, I killed a few goblins but that was only when one or two were coming at me I wasn't ready to take on this many.

And the goblin king had a few boils on him that I really didn’t want to explode on me. I did already puke up everything in my stomach but it still wasn’t something I wanted.

"Yes, as I said before, Mezu only helps if you're really in danger, or we're fighting humans."

I clasped my hands together in a begging motion looking up at the bastard just lounging around cleaning his glasses.

How could those things even get dirty?

"But it'll take forever to do this alone. I just want to get back to Azmar. A few of my party members might still be alive"

He pushed me out into the open.

"Then work faster. Who knows what kind of rewards you'll get for a solo clear like this."

I flinched hearing the goblin king roar. I turned and punched a goblin that leaped at me annoyed. It slammed into a tree and I yelled back at Alcoroth as I vaulted over the bush at the oncoming goblins.

"That's what you said before I got these crappy rewards from the beginner's dungeon."

I grabbed a goblin's leg as he kicked at me and swung him around hitting the others.

"Maybe if you make friends with that blacksmith then you could get a sword."

I tossed the goblin in my hands away, (not that there really was much left of the ripped corpse I was swinging,) and into a group charging at me.

I grinned at Alcoroth holding a thumbs up.

"Thanks for an actual smart idea."

Luckily the king didn't get up until I defeated all the smaller Goblins.

When he did get up though, he was quicker than I expected and I just barely dodged his club.

As I rolled away from another strike, I grabbed one of the blades lying around.

I looked at the ground littered with more small blades like that, and worked hard dodging and collecting a few more.

The king halted his movements for a second, seeming as if he was charging up to swing.

Even though I had gotten used to his earlier speed, I was almost hit by his next attack.

I didn't spend time thinking and whipped around to see his large back. I threw the blades at it.

Even with my horrible aim, enough landed on his back in a lineup from his ass to his head.

I charged at him yelling to get his attention. He turned to me and lifted his arms up to swing downwards at me, but I slid through his legs missing it.

As I slid across the dirt, I flipped onto my stomach grabbing at the ground to stop. I scrambled to my feet and launched myself up at my first knife.

I managed to hold all my weight on the one knife without it moving. This damned skin sure was thick.

I started to climb up his back.

The king tried to turn his head to see where I was, but his neck was too fat.

I was almost at the top when he started to swing back and forth trying to throw me off. I did the final jump with all my might to get to his head, but I ended up higher than I was expecting.

I did my best to turn in the air and swung my fist at his head as I fell down, closing my eyes at this stupid idea.

I heard a crunch and then the force of me landing on his body.

I nervously opened my eyes to see myself almost at ground level.

Mezu sat in front of me beaming like an idiot.

I looked down only to vomit (not that much came up anyway). My hand was lodged in the goblin king's head.

After I tried to empty my already emptied guts, I got off of him, swinging my arm around trying to get the blood off.

Mezu charged at me beaming and leaped into the air, but was frozen for a second.

“Not when he’s so dirty” I heard Alcoroth say from somewhere.

Then I felt a large amount of water dumped on me. All the blood and brain matter were cleaned off of me and Mezu was unfrozen.

Mezu tackled me to the ground beaming, making unintelligible excited grunting noises.

"Did you see that Mezu?! I took him down in one punch."

I ruffled his hair happily as he nodded aggressively.

Sure, Alcoroth could have done that in a much nicer way, but I wasn’t going to complain after what had happened earlier. At least this time he did it without me having to ask.

I heard a ding and sat up, pushing him off my chest and into my lap.

I looked up at the notification.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quest complete: based on performance suitable rewards will be given

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then the image distorted and the words changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Class upgrade completed.

Complete beginner's taming armor set will be rewarded.

The monarch looks down favorably at you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What?! No sword yet again?!"

I threw myself back laying down annoyed.

"Well, you didn't clear your class upgrade during the training, and didn't you already decide to talk to the blacksmith anyway?"

"That's not the point."

I started to teleport, so I slipped my hood up and grabbed the bag of loot.

I reappeared at the entrance of the dungeon and heard the laugh of the blacksmith.

"You made it out, good. Let's head down to see the village chief."

I got up, but Mezu was still clinging to me excitedly.

"Come on Mezu you gotta walk."

Mezu grumbled and climbed onto my back and then shoulders. The weight shocked me a bit but I laughed softly.

"Fine, you can stay like that."

The blacksmith laughed again, starting to walk.

"It's probably better if I don't ask, right?"

"Yeah, I don't even think I'd be able to explain it well."

I put a hand on Mezu's leg to hold him there and followed.

"I didn't introduce myself earlier, you can call me Lykor."

"I'm Quartz, this is Mezu. Nice to meet you."

"So what did the Chief offer you? People don't clear dungeons for free even if they get rewards from it."

"A ride to Manthia. Originally he said you could take me but I had refused since I wanted to hide my ears. So he said I could borrow one and leave it with someone there."

He sighed heavily annoyed.

"Sounds like our chief, a little too nice for his own safety, but are you sure that's all you want?"

He looked over his shoulder at me.

"I mean I wasn't too sure about heading into the dungeon myself but getting the guild's help would have been too late."

"I don't really have much equipment, so I was thinking of asking you for a sword, but I don't want to be too greedy you giving me a ride and all."

Modesty gets you results.

Lykor laughed heavily, grabbing his chest.

"You're a brazen one aren't you, I'll let you know what I decide once we get back to Manthia."

Okay, so maybe I’m not the best at feigning modesty then.

We made it to the buildings and the Chief was outside talking to another villager.

"Oh, you're back already? Thank you so much, hunter."

He seemed overly happy, and I get what Lykor meant by him being too nice as he seemed to run over his arms open. Lykor stopped him in his tracks grinning.

"No need to discuss his reward, he already told me. I was planning on heading out tomorrow if we were going to scout out the dungeon, but I'll leave today instead alright chief?"

I was relieved to hear we were leaving soon; I really didn't want to stay here much longer.

"Are you sure it's already so late? You can always stay for dinner."

"I really need to be getting back home. The ride is more than enough. Thanks for the offer though."

Lykor turned the chief around and pushed him back to the other elves.

"You heard the man, we'll be heading off now."

Lykor quickly turned to me, led me off, and leaned in to whisper,

"Let's get out of here quickly."

After rushing to help him pack up his things, I was glad to be far enough from the village to take off my hood.

Living in the Azmar, I never had to hide my status as a half-elf. Elves were rare as it was there. Most elven adventurers who even wanted to challenge the tower tended to be highly ranked within guilds and lived in the tower. And the ones who weren't either lived in their country or had left. Since they left, they didn’t care about someone being a half-elf, it was less stressful.

Still, it was a habit to mess my hair up and have it cut weirdly in an attempt to hide my ears. I didn’t know how well it worked since I never looked in the mirror, but since it was only my hood that gave me away earlier, I wondered how good of a job my hair actually did.

I watched Mezu sit on the horse pulling the carriage ahead of us.

He was a weird little thing. It confused me a bit though; all the terms Alcoroth would casually use or the times he'd accidentally speak about Mezu formally.

What was a bit more confusing, than me being used as food for a frighteningly powerful small being, was the fact that I was a half-high-elf of all things. I always just assumed I was a plain half-elf, no reason to assume I was anything special.

But then again there was a gap in the panel that showed it, it could have just been a system error. Even if I was a half-high-elf and abandoned by my parents I would have ended up in the orphanage in the capital wouldn't I have?

I looked over at Lykor. We would be together awhile, might as well ask him a few questions.

"So do you mind telling me why they hate halfers?"

Lykor chuckled.

"With everything that happened I forgot you were completely oblivious. Where did you grow up anyway?"

I wasn't sure how open I should be to this complete stranger but even if I told him the truth, he'd probably think I was lying.

"I grew up in an orphanage in Naredur."

Lykor's laugh was heartier than I was expecting.

"A halfer raised by dwarves, you really are a strange one."

"Well, they only ever teased me about never going to see my home country."

"You lucked out, you probably would have gotten killed if you were in an orphanage here."

Lykor's face hardened.

"Why would they do that?"

Lykor looked at me as if he couldn't decide what to say.

"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to."

"I'll tell you enough so you know how serious it is."

I watched him think a bit more. Mezu jumped back onto me playing with the straps of my pack.

"A while ago when I used to live in the capital, a friend of mine was running the orphanage there. Now with elves having such long lives, there weren't many living in the orphanage so she was able to treat the kids well. But one day when I was on my way over to them, I used to teach the kids archery, the royal guards were standing outside holding my friend back as they burned the building down. The next day they announced a ban on all half-elves in the capital and country. If they didn't leave on that day they'd be killed."

I looked down trying to control the shock on my face.

"I left after that, with the other half-elves."

"What happened to your friend?"

"She lived with me for a while but she lost herself after that happened."

"Why would they go so far to kill kids but leave everyone else alive?" I thought, panicking.

There must have been a kid they were looking for. And a kid that young that they'd still be at an orphanage.

"Sorry about your friend."

"That's all you have to say?"

Alcoroth's voice made me jump. He had been so quiet I almost forgot he was there.

Lykor just kept looking forward. A couple of times he opened his mouth as if to speak before closing it. It seemed to be that he was trying to decide what to say.

I leaned back in my seat and played with Mezu's hair after repositioning him to lean his back into me.

Whenever I looked at him, I half expected there to be fluffy ears buried under the fluff of his hair. Sometimes I wished there was; they would probably be even softer and nice to touch than his hair already was.

A loud sigh from Alcorth made my face twitch a bit in anger.

"You sure know how to kill the mood. Aren't you even slightly curious about your half-elf past?"

I glanced up at him, urging for him to shut up.

I couldn't just outright ask about that. But it was strange. I’ve always tried to change my hair color, and hide my eyes and my ears when I was younger. I didn’t really question him but I guess it was a bit strange. Why had my uncle encouraged that?

"Why would high elves only care about kids that young, and care about half-elves in the first place. It's not like a half-high-elf would exist, right? I mean that would be the only thing that would insult them so much they'd murder children, right?"

I said that mostly as a joke really hoping I couldn't at all be related to this.

"I didn't stay around long enough to ask but halfers weren't popular for a while in the capital. A lot of High-elves saw any mix as an insult but they didn't do anything about it ‘til then."

Lykor looked over at me. I did my best to have a blank face, but I didn't have much control over my expressions in the first place, so I really didn’t know what emotion he read, if any.

"For a halfer raised by dwarves, you know only basics about elves. Even though dwarves and elves have always competed it's not like we aren't unknowledgeable about each other."

"I didn't ask much about it when I was younger."

Actually, Uncle looked so sad whenever I asked about my parents that I stopped asking after a while. My uncle was an ex-adventurer that taught me about swords to keep me from mining. He used to say my weak elf hands wouldn't last a day in the mine. Not that he taught me anything about smithing either.

Even though he looked after me, I stayed at the orphanage and couldn't tell anyone where I went every day, not that people asked me. He told me once I was old enough I should leave and never come back.

I shook my head as if to force myself not to think of him.

"Why not?"

"The only answer I got was, 'well they hate halfers so why do you care?' So after a while, I just stopped asking."

Lykor seemed to find that comment funny despite it being a lie since he looked less tense.

"Why'd you leave then? It sounds like you were accepted there."

"Well, mostly . . . let's just say we're both not sharing completely, and the reason I left is part of that."

Lykor laughed.