Trip to The Forest

The Baron was writing something on the parchment on his table, while Thomas guided me to sit on one of the opposite chair. Thomas left after that, while Baron had yet to take his eyes off his writing. At last he put down the quill and looked at me.

"How are you doing, Boy?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"Oh! Different indeed..."

Damian raised his brow at that. Different? Is he talking about his behavior? Well there was just no way or reason for Damian to continue acting like an imbecile so he never really tried to but he never really showed his full capabilities either, about that he was sure.

"Oh! Don't look at me like that boy. Tell me why do you want to go outside?"

"Huh? When did I..."

But Damian didn't finish the question. Ah, of course, The kind maid must have spilled all the beans already.

"It was your daughter's idea, my lord. She wanted a way to level up I just suggested one."

"A troublesome one indeed, and too dangerous yet feasible."

Baron Goldilocks looked at Damian as if looking at him for the first time and continued.

"Her proposal mentioned for both of you to go, do you have any problem with that?"

"No, my lord. If we have enough protection then I have no objection, I am also curious about the monsters."

Damian answered showing the Baron the naïve thoughts of a young boy who has yet to understand fear. And it looked like the Baron bought it.

"Fine then Thomas will take you. And Boy..."

The Baron paused for a second and looked into Damian's eyes.

"You can ask if you need anything, I will do what I can."

Damian was surprised. The Baron was a better character than what was considered normal for nobility in this world, maybe that's why his daughter was so proud of her lineage.

"Can I get my freedom back?"

"Huh!?...Ha..Hahhah..Hahhahah."

The Baron laughed uncontrollably for a whole minute before abruptly stopping and making a face that could make the devil tremble in his dark dimensions.

"I gave 100 Vigha fertile lands to your family boy, Give me something of similar value and buy your freedom back if you so wish for it."

Damian didn't even know how much was a Vigha, yet even if he sold himself 10 times over in a market he still would be short on the amount the damned Baron must have paid for him.

The Baron continued doing what he was doing before Damian came, so he just left without saying anything else. There was no point in any kind of conversation here Damian realized, no matter how good he was treated or if he had good resources here to train himself or that he was fed and had a place to call his home, at the end of it all he was just a prisoner with a better-looking prison. He had no control over his life whatsoever, and he had a glaring suspicion that even the class or job choices will not be solely his if he remained here.

The rune formulas were a good mind teaser to get lost in whenever he needed an escape, Solving it's various mysteries was indeed very interesting.

Damian understood only one variable of the five different combinations of alphabets and numbers. He still needed to test it but he knew it to be true since it was one of the variables that was common in all 10 runes. It was responsible for either intensity of the said rune or mana output. It could also be combined like the more mana it uses the more intense or greater the force of said rune. But it was only one variable of the five, in which only few were similar otherwise it was all a unique variables for each rune. He was indeed far from understanding it.

Two days later they were riding in the carriage to the northern forest. The small town that the Baron had his villa in was left far in the dust, it was apparently called Lockwood.

Four people were in the carriage and 10 knights were on horseback all riding towards the distant forest. Damian looked outside of the small window and did his best to ignore his companions which were Lucian, Rosie and Thomas.

Damian already knew Thomas was a powerhouse since whenever he was in front of him, his knees felt like jelly. Thomas never showed how capable he was but seeing the difficulty level of this endeavor the Baron must really trust him to protect his daughter and his investment.

"Do we know what are the common monster type that are found in this side of the forest?"

Surprised by my question Lucian raised her head from her book and looked at Thomas who in turn looked at Damian and answered.

"Mostly unranked monsters like Slimes, Goblins and Wolves. The average rank of the monsters in this area is Leader rank such as Orcs, Imps, Spiders and Trolls. Nothing a light walker can't handle. There is one Terror-rank monster but it's deep in the forest so we don't have to worry about it."

Damian had read about the ranking system for monsters and Beasts so he knew that with his current stats the only monsters he could face were slimes most likely. But Lucian was older than him and far more skilled with the sword, she could probably go against all kinds of unranked monsters. Her level should be around 15-17 at best.

The knights were most likely all Light-walkers: The first rank masters, most likely on their second or third job even, and Thomas seems even above them which would put him most likely in the second rank category - An Enlightened.

They reached the entrance of the forest in an hour, from there it was walking. Two people stayed back with all the horses and carriage. Still two horses were accompanying the group since it could be used in case of emergency or sending important messages. The plan was to hunt till dark then head back.

The knights fell into the formation just as we started; encircling the four of us inside. We headed deeper into the forest and started encountering monsters here and there. Mostly packs of goblins and Wolves, we did see some orcs and spiders too. However none survived the knights and entered the encirclement.

"Are you ready my lady?"

Thomas asked after giving us time to observe how the monsters moved and attacked. However, I was ordered to strictly stand near Thomas unless a slime or two were available. We were given real short swords for the first time.

Lucian took a stance of the crouching tiger and nodded. The knight let a goblin with a wooden club pass, who ran straight towards the golden-haired beauty.

Lucian's form changed from crouching tiger to the leap of the mountain and swiftly turned to one with the world. An ugly head of a still-running goblin body, rolled on the ground and its body followed suit after some seconds.

Lucian was considered an unparalleled genius among her peers not because she had insane stats or some great lineage, she was considered a genius simply because no one in the entire North could match her in growth. She was the prodigy in Northern noble circle. She had the potential to become a peak-level master swordsman. Which was a really powerful and famous skill among the nobility, and also most coveted.

We continued like that and ventured deeper into the forest, increasing the difficulty and the number of monsters. Even Damian had some one-on-one with jelly-like slimes. It took just one sword strike to deal with them though and were not much of a challenge. Damian was happy with his progress, he was not here for the killing any ways, what he was waiting for was a monster with higher concentration of magic in its blood.

And at last the chance he was waiting for finally came, in the form of small ugly-looking flying monstrosity that was called an Imp.

However before he could even think for even a second the imp came directly rushing towards them going past the knights on the ground. It came out of nowhere, probably hiding above the trees that blocked the knight's vision.

A bright green light on Damian's vision caught his attention and he turned towards Thomas who was whispering something so fast his ears couldn't even keep up.

However that was not the most surprising part, the source of the green light instead made his eyes bulge in surprise, it was a magic circle forming a few inches away from Thomas's mouth and was consisted of various numbers and alphabets connected with a web of green pathways which were all inside a big green circle.

A few seconds later an arrow made of solid air flew past everyone and slew the flying monstrosity along with a tree, which now had a huge gaping hole in middle of it.