Chapter 3: A Fated Encounter

Young hunter's POV

Next morning I was walking through the forest to hunt for my breakfast. I inhaled the fresh air of the morning ambience and went through to the forest feeling refreshed. I have some encounters but these monsters are not good for eating. They are called "Goblins" a monster with the same limbs as humans but they have green skins, low intelligence and half of our size. Although they are weak, the sheer number of them are very troublesome. Their numbers grow so fast, they are considered pests with no materials can be harvested. The only thing they are good for is being a food source for the other monsters. When their numbers grow so much, they become a target for subjugation.

It is best to leave the Goblin corpses behind and let the other monster take care of them. I keep looking out for edible monsters then I saw another elk. Feeling excited, I quietly climb up to the nearest tall tree by jumping on the branches. I hold my breath for a few seconds then exhaled as I hide my presence. With this, I have now disappeared from any sight. This ability is called "Hide" My teacher taught me this as a requirement as a member of "Wolves" to help us hunt our targets.

Now that my presence is erased, I used "Sense" to search any other presence besides me and the elk. "Sense" is also of the abilities taught to me. Well, my teacher taught me everything about hunting, espionage, and combat so I can use them as my liking. Although I sense others, it's just a very small presence, which it could be "Rabbits, " "Canaries," or "Squirrels." These monsters are herbivores, and they are also in the same categories with the elk, but elk is a much better hunt for me. I aimed my bow to the head of the elk and concentrate to make sure I do not miss. As I'm about to release my arrow, I detected four presence.

"Huh?"

I looked at the location where I sensed the presence. There should not be carriages going through the forest. This large forest is between two towns called "Holgate" and "Silper". There should be a road connecting the two since the forest is so wide, it will take six days to travel even on carriages. Not only that but there is also a risk of encountering bandits and monsters especially when they are simply making their presence known, 'Are they idiots or something?'. There are two reasons for taking the risk of going through the forest. One is they are being chased, which is impossible since I don't sense other presence behind them. Two is they are doing illegal activities, Well it is the latter since the two guys on the carriage looks like a thug and there's a cage with a red haired girl inside. The carriage looks shabby with no roof and the horse looks so exhausted, For someone doing such an underground activities, they must be a cheapskate.

As I inspected the carriage, there i noticed the girl looking outside her cage with a dead looking eyes. Thinking she must have given up, I locked eyes with her. This should not be possible since I hid myself but for some reason we keep locking eyes with each other for about two minutes before she got startled by the thugs having a conversation.

"No choice, I guess."

I turn my bow that is previously locked from the elk to the head of the thugs. I put another arrow on my bow and concentrated. I locked on to the head of the thugs and released the arrows. The arrows struck through their heads, killing them instantly. The horse panicked when its rider fell off the carriage, but I immediately released another two arrows to the head of the horse, killing it. To be honest, I don't want to kill it but if it thrash around so much, it will damage the carriage carrying the girl inside the cage and attract some monsters so I have no choice but to kill it. With both riders and the horse dead, I went to the carriage.