This Hero is Sleeping!

Leaning below the shade of the trees and the coverings of the bushes, a group of three made its way around the sides of the unused paths. One held a quiver of bows straddled to his back, the second a giant halberd, and the only things worthy of mention on the third were his fluttering black cloak and his fresh, unscratched leather boots. They crawled their way ahead, not making a single snap nor a rustle as they passed through the veneer of green.

Finding a sudden sag in the ground, Quinton at the front raised his fist and the two following behind stopped.

He closed his eyes and pressed the dent in the ground with his fingers. As soon as he touched the dirt, a surge of mana spread.

"[Track]"

A faint green glow emerged around Quinton's hand before disappearing. Quinton slightly raised his body and moved.

"Let's go."

"What was that?" Claude asked. Not many of the other students had managed to use their skills in just the little time they were there, so he barely knew of anything aside from his own and Elric's skills.

"It's Quinton's Class Skill, He's a [Scout Ranger]," Jamie answered as the two followed behind Quinton, keeping as low as possible. "He can single out the traces of his target. It's more of an increased perception than anything, but it's useful."

"Ahh…" Claude nodded.

Skills had to be practical, but also realistic. Unlike in video games, he couldn't end up seeing an illusion of his target nor could he single out its mana or something, but he could instead increase his perception only to the tracks of a single target. It would impossible to use such a skill without knowing about tracking, and even with basic knowledge, its efficiency would be nowhere good enough. That was the same reason more than half of Claude's skills were unable to be used.

"What's your class?" He asked Jamie.

"Me? I am a [Halberd Warrior]," Jamie smacked his chest as he spoke. "Cool, right? Jamie and I are the only ones in the branch with specialized classes."

"Ok."

Claude nodded.

"What's yours?"

"I don't know."

He didn't think he could say Light Hero now. And for making an excuse, well, Claude wasn't going to work that hard.

"Huh? Hey, what's your class?… Claude! Claude!"

Soon, the group neared a slight clearing in the forest.

A rusty smell tickled at their noses as the sounds of small bugs and flies increased. And then, their eyes fell on a line of corpses.

"What the fuck…" Jamie winced.

In front of them, lines of bandit corpses spread through the forest. The red and black clothing of the bandits was torn through while bits of their flesh and blood spread over the ground. Some of their necks were torn through while others had peeks of the skulls looking out of their heads.

"The trail doesn't end here…" Quinton muttered. "There must be something else…"

It was a gory sight. Even other escorts wouldn't have left mere bandits in such a state, no, they wouldn't be able to. As if every second inch of their flesh had been tasted, the bandits were completely bitten through.

"What could have done this?"

"Reminds me of dogs…"

"Dogs?" Both Jamie and Quinton were a bit shocked at what Claude muttered.

"Yeah, aren't dogs pretty gnarly?" Claude observed the two for a few seconds before shrugging. He had seen plenty three-meter tall dogs in the Mystic Forest. "I guess you city boys wouldn't get it."

"No, what kind of dogs have you been seeing?"

"Hah… well, anyway, it's definitely some kind of monster. The trail is slightly worse, but it's not gone. Let's continue ahead."

The two nodded and followed.

Claude found their way of doing things rather tedious, but he was willing to soak it all in like a sponge. If he had known such techniques when he was weak, it would have been much easier to survive in the Mystic Forest.

They continued walking.

And before they could stray far enough, the culprits of the sight revealed themselves.

The three peeked their heads out from behind a tree as they gazed at the clearing slightly downhill.

"Goblins…"

Dozens of the green monsters danced around. Their protruding tusks yellow with rot and their slimy mouths wet with saliva were disgusting enough to creep out the toughest of soldiers.

"It's an entire settlement…"

If that wasn't enough, they had created dozens of huts and were all living together.

"Quinton, how many do you think there are?"

At the center, a single, larger goblin sat straddling its hands against its chest.

"That hobgoblin… maybe around forty? No, even sixty…"

Fighting a goblin or two wasn't a problem, maybe even fighting a dozen could be done. But taking down forty at once was a little difficult even for splendid scouts like the two members of Kone.

"Let's go back," Quinton said. "If we push the car we can manage without any sound. I am also worried that some of them might have already gone over to our spot. Um… Elric, won't be able to handle it, right?"

"What do you mean? He'll kick all of theirs and then all of our asses and still not break a sweat."

Jamie and Quinton were slightly amused at Claude's words. They didn't think the pretty one had anything other than his looks going for him.

"Well, even so…" Jamie spoke.

"Let's fight. It's annoying to push the car and still risk being found."

The distance wasn't far enough from the road for them to relax. If they were going to do it, they had to now.

Jamie and Quinton weighed their options.

A lot depended on their third member.

"You're a warrior, right? You use your bare fists?"

"You might be strong, but it's not a good match-up—"

The two had no choice but to shut up.

From thin air, the boy in front of them had pulled out a large sword in hand, and an orb of flames danced in his other.

"You were saying?"