With the toy wolf skinned and all usable parts stuffed inside John’s inventory the group continued deeper into the forest with Mia at the lead. Still needing the practice to hopefully get the skill [Presence Detection], they took their time while looking for any signs of the lone slave who according to the dryad decided to stay behind.

That confused Mia, if they had managed to become aware enough to escape despite the collars inhibiting effects on a slave’s mind, why did they not choose to go with the others? Did something prevent them from doing so? It was something she was hoping to find out when they found them. Choosing to focus on the current task of finding them instead of worrying to much about it, Mia continued onward.

The group continued for a few hours, only encountering 3 more toy wolves that were quickly dispatched by Mia, she didn’t receive any level ups from them and when she questioned why she was reminded that when a fight is too easy you get less exp and are required to kill more. With her increased dex, she understood what they were talking about. She could effortlessly avoid their attacks; she has gotten used to counterattacking and has even gotten used to attacking thanks to them.

It got to the point where she was looking forward to fighting something else, but to her dismay the next time they encountered something it was another toy wolf. Right when she was about to draw her dagger, John spoke up.

“How about I take care of this one?” He said, stepping forward with his sword drawn. “Take a break, Mia, I don’t think you’ll gain much exp from these guys anymore.”

She was going to protest, after all any exp is better than no exp as far as she was concerned, but she realized she had yet to see John fight. She put her weapon away and stood aside “Ok.” She said, thinking this was a good idea to gauge his abilities.

John nodded “That’s fine, right?” He asked the princess, tilting his head back towards her.

The princess briefly looked towards Rowan, who gave an affirmative nod, then went back to John “That is fine. Fox! Make sure you watch closely, this is the difference between a commoner and a hero.”

For once Mia had no qualms with following an order from her and watched John approach the toy wolf who had been on alert this entire time. When John approached the wolf growled, focusing it’s attention on him while backing up, something Mia recognized they always do when they were about to pounce.

John faced his sword towards the wolf “Come! Face my sword!” John shouted.

Mia saw the wolf leap in response to John’s words, its mouth opening wide before it was swiftly split in half down the middle. Both sides landing behind John, the fight ended in an instant, John letting out a satisfied sigh. That was… quick. Mia thought, looking at the bisected body of the wolf she noticed the cut was clean, as if there was zero resistance when he cut it.

“You see Mia? This is the power of the chosen hero!” He laughed, holding his sword up high into the air.

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The other two present clapped “As expected of my hero.” Athena said, rushing over to his side to offer more praises.

Still looking at the body Mia thought to herself. It wasn’t much of a fight but she had gotten a glimpse of his power. The thought of her head being bisected on the ground briefly entered her mind and she shivered, comparing it to her fight with the goblin, she’d have to get faster. She never wanted to get hit by something like that.

A pat on her back snapped Mia out of her train of thought, looking back towards the source she saw Rowan, his hand still on her back “Don’t compare yourself too much to a hero, tey are a bunch of cheats.”

Mia tilted her head to the side, he was trying to console her? He had been getting nicer to her ever since she won against the goblin but even then, this surprised her.

Noticing something, Rowan quickly removed his hand and brought it to his mouth, letting out a cough he turned his attention to the hero “Impressively done hero!” Rowan said, walking past him and kneeling down to the wolf’s body. After a moment he stood back up holding a stone that had been cut in half “But be mindful of were you cut, avoid the valuables.” The stone in his hand gave out, crumbling into dust.

John paused, his smug grin quickly turning into a frown as he lowered his weapon “Yeah… got it, sorry.” He spoke.

“Rowan! Do not be harsh towards the hero. He knows that, he was just showing off towards his fox.” Athena pouted.

“No, it’s ok princess.” John said, outstretching a hand in front of Athena in order to halt her “Rowan is right, I should have been more careful.”

“Hero…” Athena looked up at him with admiration, holding her hands together. John returning her gaze with an awkward laugh as he scratched the back of his head.

Mia raised an eyebrow, wondering where the heck did this come from. Looking to Rowan for answers she found he had already disposed of the rest of the toy wolf’s body. He had done so the moment John’s attention was off him and towards the princess, who by now was singing his praises. It then donned on her, the princess had taken this opportunity to try and appeal to him, meaning this whole thing was an act.

She felt a bit of pity for John, which quickly faded once she reminded herself this was all his fault and went back to training. She found it extremely difficult to do so with all the flirting in the background.

After an hour the group continued, with John in a very good mood they continued at a faster pace. Mia wondered if he even remembered why they were out here in the first place with how often he was stealing glances at the princess but it was best to ignore him. They were now in the deeper part of the forest, the trees blocking out the sun above and the sounds of beasts becoming more frequent.

“If we go any deeper then tis… I doubt who ever was left behind could survive here.” Rowan said as they walked.

“They wanted to stay behind, maybe they were confident in their abilities?” John added.

“Monsters everywhere… why are they not coming here?” Mia asked, her ears twitching as she tried to keep track of all the noise.

“Smarter monsters tend to avoid fights tey know tey can’t win.” Rowan said, glancing around “Still, tey are in an uproar over someting.”

“Perhaps that dryad had something to do with it.” Athena said, now holding her staff as she looked around.

“You think?” John readied his sword “They are not going to all gang up on us, are they?”

“What do you tink, Mia?” Rowan asked.

Mia shook her head, the sounds were erratic, upset, but were not getting closer to them. “Not getting closer. Safe?”

Rowan nodded “Correct, for now.”

John perked up “Then we should continue, if they are not approaching us then there is a good chance they are not approaching the one left alone, there is a chance.”

“We shall go a bit deeper; this could be trap set by the dryad.” Athena said.

With that thought in mind, the group carefully continued. Surrounded by lou