A Warlock's Ascent

Grump missed Davy, he didn't want to admit it, but that was the truth. When he was with them, he used to take care of all the bothersome stuff, cooking, making fire, etc. But now he has to do all that stuff because the fuckers with him are as useless as they come.

Hamel, who is known throughout that land for his alchemic skills, can't even roast a fucking fish, while his grandson is only helpful in gathering firewood. He had to scout the area, defend them when any monster come by and he had to cook for them as well. He had basically their butler. And he didn't like it, not even a little bit.

He was also annoyed at himself, he let that boy go when he asked, he should have been more careful and thought it through. He knew that Davy had become stronger than before, and if he doesn't cross paths with any higher-tier evolutionized monster, he would be handle himself.

But from what he had heard, that boy had the tendency to attract a lot of trouble, without doing anything. It was like a curse. He was afraid that the boy would be killed in the dark alley somewhere in the Vecrus, and he wouldn't be able to see a penny from those ingredients that he was hiding.

He knew that he was being paranoid, and he should focus on the mission, he couldn't help but be worried about that boy, he had grown fond of him in the past few days, and he didn't want to see him die for nothing…

Grump looked at the moon shining in the sky, it was time that they start to move. It has been two days since they have entered Vecrus, and now they were exiting it through Midgard's Bridge, the combination of roads and bridges connecting all the cities together.

They had reached the bridge connecting Vecrus and Barcelma, that evening, but they waited till night to cross it, that way they would be able to avoid any eyes and be safe. As the night was upon them, he turned around and looked at the grandfather and grandson duo. "It is time"

Both of them nodded and started moving, with Grump in the lead. They came out of the trees where they were hiding all this time and started heading towards the bridge. The area around them was awfully quiet, which Grump found alarming.

But he scouted the area before, and couldn't find anything out of place, nor did he find any monster tracks. He did find tracks of humans and horses, he figured that adventurers are killing any monster that spawn in the area as soon as possible.

It made sense to him that time because many people from Barcelma were coming to Vecrus, the city had opened the doors of their dungeon to all, and everyone wanted a piece of the pie. Thus they were being extra careful to avoid any adventurers.

They were moving in silence, with a good pace, but it is then he felt like something was wrong, he felt something was watching him. He was not paranoid, he had a skill called Danger Sense which tells him whether someone had ill intent against him in a 200m area.

His skill acted like a dome that spreads to 200m in every possible direction, with him as a center. He looked around, and found nothing but trees in the area, hell he could even feel mana fluctuation anywhere, so his enemies were not hiding.

He was able to tell that neither Hamel nor Ricardo had ill intent against him, so the question remained, who was having ill thoughts about him? As he found nothing while looking around, he started wondering what was all of this about, it is then he suddenly thought of something. He looked up.

It is then he saw the weirdest thing that he had ever seen in his life, there was a bird in the air, and he could tell that thing has ill intent against him. The most peculiar thing was that it didn't look like a bird, that thing looked as if it was transparent, and he could see through it.

"What is that?" he mumbled, attracting the attention of Hamel and his grandson.

"Some kind of bird… But I dont recognize it." Ricardo said. Both of the adults were shocked, the boy was very knowledgeable about these kinds of things, if he didn't know what that was, then who would?

NEEEIGGHHH

They heard the neighing of horses, someone was coming, immediately without a word they started running, as they were far away from the bridge, all they could do was run to the trees again and wait for these people to pass by…

They were able to hide quite easily, Grump looked out from the trees and saw a group of people coming on the horses, standing just in the place where they just were, it is then the group dismounted, and started walking towards their direction.

He cursed, and so did Hamel who was also watching, it is then that they saw that bird coming down from the sky and landing on the ground, just in front of the trees where they were hiding. It is then Grump realizes that this bird was not normal, this was the product of a skill, he immediately took out a throwing knife and threw it toward the bird.

The bird-dispersed into small mana particles, but it was too late by that time, the people tracking were on to them, and now the only thing left to see was whether they were friendly or enemies. For safety reasons he armed himself with his ax, and Hamel armed himself with his staff, and both of them got ready for a battle.

As they were about to come out to confront the group, they saw that everyone in the group had taken a weapon in their hands, making it clear that these guys were not friendly, they were enemies.