That night of sleep was the best I’d had since the attack on Alcion. Renna didn’t let me sleep in though, she woke me up shortly after the sun rose. Our mission was about a six hour walk away. If we had a horse, I bet we could be there in two to three hours. A horse was not on the menu today, so we packed some food. While we should be able to make it to the goblins and back before nightfall, but it was better to be prepared.

  We walked out the front gates. Surprisingly, the guards only glanced at us and said nothing. As we left, I couldn’t help feeling this was a waste of time. Every fiber of my body wanted to go straight to South Ornea and look for our families.

  Yes, yes, we need money to hire help. That thought didn’t help. Every day our families could be moving further into South Ornea or heading into North Ornea. They could be sold and spread between the two nations.

  Nothing I can do about it now. Even if we left now, there’s a good chance they’d already be sold.

  It was hard not to think of what would happen in my world. No modern country would accept a town full of people being kidnapped. Living in medieval times was still hard for me at times. Not that there was anything I could do about it. I needed to accept this challenge head on and stop comparing this world to mine.

  Our journey went smoothly, and we arrived at the cave where the goblins were said to be located. To my surprise, there were no guards. The job said the cave was deep, with a few passageways. I’d make markings so we didn’t get lost.

  “We should rest for a few minutes before going inside,” I suggested.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Renna went to a rock and sat down. She rested her back on the wall with her sword resting beside her.

  I took a seat on the opposite side. We waited fifteen minutes before getting back up. “It’s time,” I said.

  Renna twirled her sword a few times and looked at the cave. “You create light, and I’ll lead the way,” she said.

  The logic was sound, even if I didn’t like not leading the way. Call it a habit of my time in Vietnam, I was almost always first in my unit to arrive at the scene. Renna was a sword user, so her logic did make sense.

  I raised my hand and conjured three small balls of fire. I sent them forward to float ahead as we entered. This simple trick took me more time to master than I’d like to admit. It was nice having my hands free. At this point in time, I could control two different types of spells at once. I was trying to get to three, but that was a lot harder than learning to do two.

  For the first bit there was no sign of a goblin. I was starting to worry that we entered the wrong cave, then Renna turned her head. Something moved through a passage ahead. I looked at the ceiling of the cave and saw a hole. Now it made sense. These goblins let people come this far before attacking from random passageways they’d made. These goblins were a lot smarter than the ones near my village.

  “Renna, take care of the goblins on that side,” I raised my hand at the hole and blasted it with fire.

  There were screams. Then three goblins came flailing down the ceiling passage. Their bodies made sickening crunching noises when they landed. Once I was sure they weren’t a threat, I looked toward the left passage and saw Renna charging forward.

  There were five goblins, and they looked surprised to see a twelve year old child rushing them. They started laughing as one threw an axe at her. That was when Renna increased her speed. She deflected the axe, which clanged as it hit the floor. Her sword was a blur as she split the first goblin in half. The next goblin barely got a chance to see his buddy fall when her sword sank into its chest.

  The other three goblins started screaming. One jumped at her. Renna kicked the goblin in the stomach, then thrust her blade through its skull. The last two goblins started to panic. But fear only paralyzed them for a moment before Renna decapitated one and slid her blade through the last one’s chest.

  That was eight goblins down. I closed my eyes and heard nothing else. I’m sure the other goblins had to have been alerted by our presence. “Good work,” I said.

  “You too,” Renna wiped her blade on one of the dead goblins brown shirt. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Before we moved on, I burned a circle into the wall next to the left tunnel. Renna led the way down the left passage, which was a winding tunnel. We were moving to the left, then the tunnel curved right, then back left, then to the right.

  A large entrance showed up. There had to be goblins coming up soon. The moment Renna stepped out of the tunnel; she ducked. Two spears whooshed past where her head had been a moment earlier. She turned right and cut down one of the goblins with the spear.

  I launched a stone bullet, which whizzed above her head and smashed a hole into a goblin archer’s chest. Renna deflected the spear strike from the goblin on the other side of the entrance and split open its throat.

  There was screaming from within, and it sounded like most of the goblins were in this area. I ran up beside Renna and saw a large cavern and the biggest goblin I’d ever seen. This thing had to be at least twelve feet tall, with a large nose to boot. It was ugly yet also terrifying. It was more like a troll than a goblin. Next to this large goblin were the rest of the other goblins. They were sneering at us as we stared at them.

  “Thorian, you take care of the big one. I’ll slay the little ones,” Renna said.

  “Okay, be careful,” I said.

  “You as well,” Renna said.

  The goblins looked shocked when Renna ran at them. I couldn’t look at her as I focused on the large one, which looked to be aware that I was targeting it. I launched two stone bullets. The large goblin dodged both bullets and flung a large axe at me.

  In turn, I fired another stone bullet, which blasted the axe into pieces. The large goblin looked shocked, then decided to charge me. I raised my hand and unleashed lightning. The goblin raised its axe to block. The lightning hit the weapon and zapped the goblin. It wasn’t strong enough to kill, only stun. That had been my goal.

  As the goblin tried to move, I launched two more stone bullets. The large goblin could do nothing but watch as the first bullet blew off its left arm, then the second one blew through its forehead, splashing purple blood onto the ground. The goblin fell forward, crashing into the ground, which caused the area to shake a little.

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  That had gone smoother than expected. I looked to see how Renna was doing. In short, she was slaying goblin after goblin. These ones may be smarter than the ones near Alcion, yet they weren’t much stronger.

  The goblins were starting to scatter, trying to find a way to leave. I launched a few stone bullets to put some of the fleeing goblins down. The last two were taken care of by Renna, who lopped both their heads off with a single stroke.

  And just like that, our first job was completed I had expected this to be harder. That didn’t mean I let down my guard, I wasn’t dumb enough to do that. “Do you see any more?” I shouted.

  “We got them all,” Renna shouted back.

  “Great, I’m going to get the head from the big one,” I walked to the big goblin. The job required proof of completing our job and said the head of the big goblin would do.

  I wasn’t a fan of desecrating the dead. But I wanted to get paid. With a wave of my hand, I created what looked like a drop down saw and the head came clean off the body. I shaped a ball of earth around the head and lifted it. Much better than dragging the head around with our hands.

  “Well, that was easy,” Renna said.

  “It was a D ranked job. We can try a C rank next.”

  “Party pooper,” Renna said. “This was your idea you know.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  We got through the windy tunnel, and I saw the burn mark I made earlier. Frankly, that mark hadn’t been needed. I was expecting this cave to be more like a maze. Still, it was better to be on the safe side.

  It didn’t take long before we emerged from the cave. The sun was so bright I nearly lost focus of the encased goblin head. After a few seconds, my vision adjusted. I didn’t think we’d been in that cave for too long.

  “Well, well, well,” a familiar voice said.

  Six people came out from behind some rocks. I recognized two of them. One of them was the big, tattooed guy at the guild and the other was his skinny friend. I had a bad feeling about this. Renna raised her sword. It seemed she had the same feeling as me.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked despite knowing the answer. I gently lowered the encased head to the ground.

  The big guy started laughing. “Ah, you really are children, aren’t you? Though, I have to say I didn’t expect you to succeed in killing the goblins in the cave,” he said. there was something unsettling in his gaze when he looked at Renna. Of course, why wouldn’t this guy be a creep?

  “Let me spell it out for you. We are taking that goblin head and the girl. You… Well, you aren’t needed,” One of the other guys said.

  I hope Renna and I are strong enough to beat these guys. If all six were intermediate warriors, we were screwed. Then again, if these guys wanted to steal our bounty, maybe they weren’t that strong. That’s what I hoped for anyway.

  Five of the six guys all had swords. The big guy had an axe. They looked ready to strike. Well, if we lost this fight, then I would be dead, again. A part of me wondered if I would retain these memories in my next life or if something different would happen.

  I watched all six take a step forward, then something moved past me so fast I didn’t see what it was. The next thing I knew, there was a sword buried in the big guy’s chest. A figure stood before him. Whoever it was, they weren’t human. He was bald, with dark gray skin. This… stranger, glanced at us. I glimpsed red eyes before the stranger turned back to the other five guys.

  “Who the hell-”

  The skinny guy didn’t get to complete his sentence as the stranger slit his throat. The skinny guy clutched his bleeding throat and began writhing on the ground. One of the others raised his sword to strike and yelled as both his arms were cut off, then he went silent when his head followed.

  The stranger swung once more with his blade and the last three were split in half. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t track any of his movements. All I could see was what happened after he struck. In a few seconds, the six attacks were reduced to zero as they were dead or bleeding out.

  The skinny guy was no longer moving. The three bisected men gasped as if trying to speak, when the stranger struck each of them in the heart and no more sound came out of their lips.

  I gulped when he turned to look at us. I imagined he was here to save us, but his expression didn’t give me much confidence I was right. If he was planning to kidnap or kill us, there was no doubt in my mind we couldn’t stop him. He stared at us with a blank expression. Who was this guy?

  “Who are you?” Renna asked, she switched stances from Gylorian to Iron Guard. Surely, she didn’t think she could stop him if he decided to attack us.

  The stranger sheathed his sword. “My name is Arsted. I’ve suspected these six of being behind some murders. I saw how they interacted with you two and thought they might try something,” he said.

  “What are you?” I asked.

  Arsted had a puzzled look on his face. “I don’t understand your question.”

  “You’re not human, so what are you?” I said again.

  “Ah, my apologies. I am a demon of clan Zoderia.”

  Demons exist? Why did nobody ever mention this to me? I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. There were elves, goblins and other monsters. Were demons good in this world or bad? Maybe they were neutral, either way it was best to stay on our guard.

  “I will say, for children you are strong to be able to kill the goblins,” Arsted continued. “I had planned to assist you, but you got here faster than I anticipated.”

  “Why would you help us? You don’t know us at all,” Renna said.

  “Because you are children,” Arsted took a few steps toward us, only stopping himself once he got within a couple feet. “I heard you talk to a guard, that your families were taken in a raid by Ornea.”

  Was this demon stalking us? Well, if he was, he likely saved our lives. If the six people he killed were suspected of killing other adventurers, they couldn’t have been much weaker than us. I watched Renna sheathe her sword and stick out her hand.

  “Thanks for saving us,” she said. Arsted gripped her hand.

  Not wanting to look ungrateful, I did the same thing and thanked Arsted and shook his hand.

  “I must ask, are you both planning to save your families?” Arsted said.

  “Yes. We’re doing jobs to get money to hire help,” I said.

  “I see,” Arsted closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Normally, I would try to talk you out of this. Children shouldn’t risk their lives so easily. With your skills, I see no point in trying to dissuade you. I would like to assist you, if you’ll let me.”

  I looked over at Renna, who shrugged at me. That wasn’t helpful. It seemed she didn’t know much about demons either. “I’m willing to consider it, after we get back to Dacha Fortress. Are you fine with that?”

  “Very well. May I have your names at least?”

  “Oh, of course. I am Thorian Ashford.”

  “I’m Renna Melordia.”

  “A pleasure to meet you both. Are you fine with me coming with you back to Dacha Fortress or would you prefer me to go separately?”

  “You can come with us,” I said.

  And with that, we were off to Dacha Fortress.

  We arrived back at the fortress with no further problems. Our journey was uneventful. Throughout the journey, Arsted barely talked. I didn’t ask any questions; I wanted to do that at the fortress. When we got back, the guards didn’t ask us any questions the moment they saw Arsted. That had to be a good sign, right? Once we made it back, we headed straight to the guild to gather our reward, then headed to our inn.

  From this quick journey, it seemed Arsted had a reputation. Nobody gave him a glare or looked down upon him. Some gave him a salute when he walked by. This did make me feel better about him, though I wasn’t going to blindly trust him.

  Once we were all situated in our room, the questions began. “Thanks for your patience, Arsted,” I began. I cleared my throat as an itch crept up on me. “Where do you come from?”

  “The Faeloria Continent.”

  I didn’t know why I bothered to ask that question. I had no idea where Faeloria was. That was one thing I needed to educate myself on more, where the continents were and who lived where. My assumption at this point was that all demons came from Faeloria.

  “Why do you want to help us?” Renna asked.

  “I help those in need. I’ve been doing this for over two hundred years. You can ask around this fortress and verify my claims,” Arsted said.

  I did see the reactions around town. Was there a reason not to let him join us? We needed all the help we could get. “Renna, I think we should let him join. What do you think?”

  “I was thinking the same thing. Welcome to the party, Arsted,” Renna said.

  Arsted said nothing and yet I could see a little smile on his face that quickly disappeared. The odd thing was that didn’t set any red flags off. I think he genuinely wanted to help us. “Thanks for helping us, I appreciate it.”

  With that, our little party was now a team of three. I was going to look into demons before taking our next quest. It didn’t hurt to make sure there was no hidden motive or danger of having a demon in our party.