Chapter 110: The Journey Without an End.

“Well, thanks for the ride, friend,” I joked to Therick as I and Moonwash hopped off the wagon once Latarus was out of sight. Granuel and Berry did the same, leaving Therick and Angerly to drive the wagons forward.“Okay then,” Therick swung the reins to signal to his Horreks.

“Let’s go!” Angerly bellowed joyfully as both wagons began to pick up speed.

“Bye-bye!” They both shouted as they disappeared down the road.

“I did a really good job with those wagons,” Moonwash commented.

“And the horreks are very fast and strong,” Granuel added. “I think they’re faster than a centaur of the same general levels.”

“They are. It’s a shame we couldn’t really tame one.”

“I wish I had a horrek friend too.”

“Bah! I am the one outright hated by them!” I complained. “There was nothing stopping you guys from getting one if you really wanted to!”

“It won’t be a good partnership anyway,” Moonwash said. “It’ll only be a pain.”

“I want to get a different pet.” Granuel nodded. “Maybe something real intimidating, but actually super nice.”

“I want something cute.”

“Well, if we’re just throwing things out there, then I want a fucking dragon! Not as uh, a pet though. But a friend!

“Hey, ummm…” Berry fidgeted as the wagons really didn’t come back. “Should we go after them…?”

“Hmm? Oh, you mean Therick and Angerly?”

“Yes! What else could I mean?”

“I don’t know who you’re chasing after. You tell me,” I shrugged. “But nah. Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. Trust me.”

I found a treehugger snake nearby and tossed an infernal fireball upon the creature. It was a venomous monster that wound all the way around a tree and disguised itself as part of its bark. The creature burnt nearly just as well as wood, because its bark-like skin shared much of the properties of the real thing.

Moonwash used water magic to douse the flame afterward, and so too did I extinguish it with my infernal magic by dumping large swathes of fire upon the nearby road. I was genuinely not looking to burn down the entire forest today, no matter how fun it would be.

A sharp metallic screech rang through the air as I pulled out a sword from its scabbard upon my back. I brought its blade in front of myself, and the ominous, sinister, dark blue mythril glimmered under the light of the sun. This was my new greatsword, and it was sharper, heavier, and to account for my own increase in size. My old greatsword had almost become just a regular sword in my hands.

“Who do I need to kill?” I asked sharply, and Granuel answered.

“That armozard, as I said.” He pointed in some direction in the forest, but I could not yet see the monster. “Can you try to do it without damaging the scales too much? I want to preserve the materials.”herick introduced our group, the receptionist politely asked for our credentials, and then she pointed us towards the quest board.

There wasn’t anything terribly interesting there. Not even a Level 40 monster which they definitely could not clear out, although I questioned if they even had scouts to check for those threats.

As my friends were discussing which quest would even be worth taking, I grabbed one from near the bottom.

“I wanna take this one.”

“That one?” Therick asked, almost incredulously.

“Those are common herbs,” Granuel informed. “It doesn’t even pay much…”

“It’s not like you, Haell,” Angerly commented. “Did you mistake a horti for some kind of monster? It’s just a plant that grows in the forest!”

“Yeah. Nothing for you to kill.” Berry giggled.

“Rude.” I huffed. “I’m not some barbarian. I was just interested. This is the very beginning for adventurers, right? The newbie quest! I never got to experience that.”

“I haven’t either,” Moonwash agreed. “We’re here on a continental tour. There’s no reason for us not to. It could be nice.”

Our friends didn’t have any objections after that. They just wanted to needle me, but there really was nothing stopping us from taking a simple quest if we wanted, for whatever reason we may fancy.

“Over there!” Granuel said from the open window of the wagon. The village was still in sight, and yet we’d already found the herb we were looking for.

I did not let any of that curb my enthusiasm. I jumped from the single wagon we’d taken with us and landed near the edge of the road. I walked into the forest and stared at the patches of grass and bush, until I finally found the horti I was looking for. I picked it up happily and giggled like a child.

“You’re really enjoying this,” Therick said, amused. The rest of them had now followed me in.

“Yeah! It’s just a classic. Now I feel like I’m really an adventurer.”

“Umm… You’re picking it wrong though,” Berry pointed out, and I tilted my head.

She showed me how to properly dig out the herbs, root and all, and I joyfully followed her instructions for my beginner and starter quest.

After that was done and over with, we dove deeper into the forest, because of course we’d taken on more quests than that. I hummed happily in good cheer for a while longer, until my mood was gradually overtaken by my undying wrath once more. Dark-purple magic snaked out of my skin and twisted around the greatsword in my arms, giving its already sinister feel an even deeper pull.

I blurred.

A murdle died in a smear of red feathers and blood.

A growling breath escaped my lips. The blade of my greatsword dripped in the entrails of that which was once alive. My wrath hummed in approval upon the destruction that I wrought, but I knew it would never be sated. I could only hope that the violence shed today may allow my cursed weapon to evolve once more. I had managed to transfer the curse of menace to the weapon, but now I needed it to also contain my wrath.

I decided to let go just a little. My armored hooves dug into the ground, and I blurred forward towards my next prey. A squirrel died, and then another. A massive centipede crawled along the trees, and I crushed it like the bug that it was. I returned to my friends with a heavy air, always and immediately shooting off towards any passing animal or monster just trying to mind their business. My aura leaked out of me, birds flew away out of fear, and devilish eyes froze them in their tracks. I killed everything in range, leaving little to even be harvested for our quests.

“Uhhhh… Haell?” Therick hedged.

“What?” I answered, a bit too sharply.

“Well, care to leave some for us?”

I raised a brow. I thought it over. He was most likely referring to the many monsters of the forest, and their inability to give me even the slightest bit of a challenge.

“We want to fight too,” Therick continued after I had taken too long to respond. “We have evolutions closing in!”

“Oh. Of course it’s fine. I was just… in a different mental space there.” I gestured to the space around us. “But go ahead and kill! You deserve it!”

My friend seemed just a bit more reluctant after my words, but he obliged nonetheless.

I watched them for a while, from how Therick danced around his opponents, beguiling a tiger and a monkey both, to how Granuel shot his opponents with spikes of rocks, often hitting them right in the vulnerable parts of their face. During this time, I just hung back and allowed my friends to experience the same joy of slaughter that I loved, but I never once let go of my sword, nor did I retract the threads of mana going through it.

Our days continued in much the same way, full of travels, monster-slaying, and the brief stays in civilization in between. It soon became a sort of routine, but it never felt monotonous. Every day was different enough to be exciting, but there were also enough prevailing themes for it to feel peaceful and serene.

The constant travel was the most monotonous part of this journey, but spending time with my friends was never a bore, and the shifting terrain and scenery felt varied enough to just be a joy to watch sometimes while sticking my head out the window and feeling the breeze. Granuel and Moonwash would show me the new plants and trees among the foliage which I had thought were all the same before. The monsters were successful in keeping us alert and awake, for despite being the same grand forest, each region had a different ecological balance than the other, along with the rarer and unique encounters that were always a joy. Even when they weren’t particularly difficult, it was still fun to fight and kill a new contender in the game that was life.

I enjoyed the thrill of battle with Angerly and sometimes with Therick. Our teamwork grew, and so did our trust in each other. Granuel was kept on his toes by the possible ambushes and opportunities for diplomacy both.

Berry was just happy to be spending time with us. She even admitted to liking the camaraderie borne out of our shared violent experiences, despite how harrowing it could be. Our crustecar friend was the one who always had the deck of cards or a board game to make our long travels all the more entertaining.

Moonwash found loads of exciting new things during our journey, though she lamented the lack of facilities for her to work with. There weren’t really plenty of forges for rent, as most blacksmiths just settled down somewhere and did their work in the same place. That was the case even in the frequent scenarios where they worked for somebody else and didn’t technically own the facilities themselves. Renting entire forgeries just wasn’t a service people frequently desired.

To allow my girlfriend to engage in her passions and make more cool things for us all, I began to take her out sometimes whenever we stopped by a settlement, and just go deep into the forest wherein we would build a pop-up forge for her to work with. Moonwash would often build it herself, along with my help and of whoever else was there, for construction was made all the easier in this world with magic and our supreme physiques. The resulting forge would still not be quite as good as the ones at home, but it was more than serviceable enough for Moonwash’s purposes. We only got better at making them overtime, and she too improved in her ability to improvise and work with lesser means.

Oftentimes, Angerly would go with us during these outings, bringing only one wagon along, which we would then use to go way off-road. Moonwash had gotten quite good at regrowing the plants to mask our passage with Therick’s consultance. Angerly was a great help at building the forges, for she could carry large chunks of stone, and she could actually use earth magic too, if not to the level of a master. Once the temporary facilities had been made, I would then guard my girlfriend from the creatures of the forest while she worked. The noise and the smoke often attracted monsters, and worse, Worse yet, fellow

We decided to just tell the truth that our adventurer ally was a smith, and needed facilities like this from time to time. Questions would be asked about why she was an adventurer to begin with given her background, but we just told them to fuck off. told them to fuck off. The interactions were a lot more diplomatic whenever Granuel was around, but it never really devolved into bloodshed either way.

Adventurers weren’t actually that prone to violence.

Not if it wasn’t sanctioned by a quest.