Novaris. Sax. 905. AGC.

  Nodel. Last Quarter ??. Day 23.

  The party left the city soon after finishing their discussion and were soon jogging at a respectful pace through the forest. A forest that was still the same as it always was, with a nice breeze and sunny sky.

  Not long after beginning their jog, Tesilim decided to roll his weapon die so he had a weapon ready for action because, apparently, ever since Alyx had shown off his magic door, there had been a few people following him.

  He got the katana, which only lasted an hour, during which they didn’t have to fight anything. It would be a few hours longer before they entered territory with monsters that could actually threaten them. Any monster that did try to fight them and wasn’t completely out of its mind was quickly scared off or efficiently dispatched. So, Tesilim found himself rolling his six-sided die once again, hoping the weapon would last the second time around. Or at the very least, until they confronted the individuals following the party.

  The second roll got him the boxing gloves, but only for a minute, so he rolled again. Finally, with his third roll, he got the boots, and when they didn’t disappear after an hour of travel, Tesilim knew he was stuck with them for a while.

  As for the people following them, it seemed everyone involved was waiting to head further away from the city before committing to anything. Tesilim wasn’t sure what the idiots following them had in mind, or, obviously, they didn’t know who they were dealing with because Lili had managed to get right next to them in stealth without any of them being the wiser. From the intel she had gathered, they were a group of five coordinating with another group of five, all intent on getting the magical item from Alyx.

  Sadly for them, not a single one had any brains because otherwise, they would have figured such a powerful item was likely soul-bound. However, it was also possible they were just greedy and jealous idiots who didn’t care about rational thinking. Either way, Lili had informed the party that their stalkers were likely waiting until they were far enough from the city before attempting to ambush them, along with the other party that was farther ahead of them. Of course, hearing this made Tesilim question a few things.

  “Wait, so why don’t we just turn around and beat them up now before they get the upper hand?” He asked telepathically.

  “Because it's a matter of technicality,” Rose replied before anyone else could, almost like that entire sentence should explain everything.

  “Can you please clarify? This sounds like one of those things everyone knows, but I have to remind you I have only been here a few months,” Tesilim replied, a bit exasperated.

  “Oh, right, my bad,” Rose said before continuing with an explanation, “More than likely, those following us are adventurers. Of course, the guild has a no-fighting policy, but that doesn’t mean it magically prevents fighting. To that end, these adventurers are trying to kill us and make it look like a monster attack.”

  “And the further we get from the city, the more believable the whole thing is, right?” Tesilim added.

  “You got it,” Rose replied.

  “Okay, but how come we can’t act before then? Also, wouldn’t the guild investigate?”

  “Yes, we could act, but it would look like we are the aggressors. After all, they are just traveling in the general direction we are. So, until they actually do something, we have our hands tied, sort of. We could just turn around and kill them, but we risk the chance of someone somehow running into us, and also, we are better than that, so it falls onto us to be the better people,” Rose explained, and Tesilim could understand it. That was part of the problem; usually, the good people tended to be at a disadvantage in certain situations because they were choosing to play by the rules.

  “To answer your other question, Tesilim,” Lili said, taking hold of the conversation, “The guild doesn’t usually investigate disappearances too much. They attempt to recover your bodies and tokens, but outside of that, and especially out in these parts of the world, unless there is a good reason to investigate, they assign the blame to monsters.”

  “Actually, in this case, they would investigate because of me. However, I doubt the idiots behind us know who I am,” Alyx said, joining the conversation, “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be pulling this stunt. Or maybe they might know and are taking a risk. Also, to add to the whole technicality thing, we could probably turn around and kill them, and I could just shove all of this under a rug with my station, but I would rather not. I like to handle problems like this on my own. After all, a possible future ruler of the empire needs to be resourceful,” Alyx finished, ending the conversation with a bomb.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  After a few more hours of travel, the party crossed the final line, and everyone slowly felt the mana shift in intensity as the amount of Ambient Mana increased. Sadly, this didn’t increase their mana regeneration because that’s not how it worked for their type of sapient humanoids. Instead, it was all truly a soul-induced effect, so it didn’t matter if there was more mana in the air. What mattered was how much the soul could take in.

  Anyways, not long after entering the area, the confrontation finally came. They had once again discussed turning on the group following them, but it was decided not to engage, seeing as it would be good practice to fight so many humanoids. On that note, the discussion had included whether everyone except for Lili was okay with killing other humanoids, a topic on which Tesilim was specifically singled out.

  However, Tesilim had pushed back on that specific topic, stating he had probably already killed more humans than Alyx, Rose, and the twins combined. He reminded everyone that he had come from a planet that had been experiencing wars and essentially an apocalypse for years. So, he hadn’t survived all those years without running into situations where it was either him or them. Thankfully, after explaining himself, everyone had backed off.

  That being said, Alyx, Rose, and the twins were also fine with the entire thing. Alyx already had bloodied hands from killing individuals he found practicing messed-up experiments on people or from the need to kill the victims after they had gone mad. Meanwhile, Rose had been trained in such matters as well, having been taken out of the city to kill bandits or other weak but problematic individuals. Finally, much like the other two, the twins had also killed people for their survival's sake.

  So, since Lili had said that the party that was following them was on the weaker end of things, at least training-wise, she believed their party could beat them even if outnumbered.

  The ambush wasn’t much of an ambush, and the party ran into a small clearing where five figures stood in their way, clearly waiting for them. The enemy party had a diverse cast of members. They held two fighter-looking dudes, one rogue, one archer, and what had to be a caster wielding a staff.

  One of the fighters was a bull beast skin that, to Tesilim, resembled a discounted minotaur, appearing more human despite its entire body having an incredibly short fur coat. This bull guy was wielding a large double-bladed axe and stood at what Tesilim assumed was around seven or eight feet tall.

  The bull wore basically no armor and was probably what Tesilim would call a barbarian. The other fighter, a burly orc, stood a foot or so shorter than the beastkin. For some reason, this orc fighter had run-down chainmail with one or two holes and wielded two swords, one longsword and one short sword.

  The rogue and the archer wore rough-looking and basic leather armor that Tesilim doubted was enchanted. However, the armor was where their similarities ended because the rogue was a thin-looking gnome with a scruffy beard and a multitude of sheathed daggers. Meanwhile, the archer was a cute elf with brown hair who was looking worse for wear with all the dirt on her. She had a basic wooden longbow and was standing a few feet behind the two fighters, unlike the rogue, who was slowly but surely moving away from his team.

  Finally, the last member of this team was positioned next to, but still a few feet from, the archer. She had reddish skin and horns growing out of her forehead. Now, even if she held a staff, she had no actual robes because actual robes were bad for combat since they impeded movement. Instead, she also wore basic leather armor, which appeared to be in much better condition than that of the rogues or archers. If Tesilim had to guess, she was this world's version of a devil hybrid and more than likely was a warlock or had some form of Innate magic to throw around.

  The first to speak was Lili, “Is there something we can help you with? You guys had a bad run-in with a monster or something?”

  “Yeah, you can help us by handing over the gnome,” Barked out the orc, getting straight to the point.

  “Why would we do that? He isn’t a healer, after all,” Lili said incredulously.

  Of course, as they started speaking, the other party arrived behind them, and they all turned to look at the other five members. These five were even more martially skewed than the first party. First of all, three of them were humans. One was a big, well-muscled bald guy using a large warhammer, matching the bull guy in armor choice. The other two wielded long swords and wore basic leather armor, almost as if they were trying to match. In fact, taking a closer look, Tesilim noticed they had the same dark hair and eyes, and their facial features looked incredibly similar, leading him to conclude they were twins.

  The other two members of this party were wild-looking goblins also wearing leather armor, but with a number of patches and holes. Tesilim could only tell these two goblins apart because one had a bigger nose than the other. Otherwise, they could have passed for twins as well.

  Looking back at the orc, who had a smirk almost like he was saying, “You fools, you step right into our trap,” The orc still answered Lili’s question as he went through the motions.

  “It doesn’t matter. We want the gnome, and we will take the gnome.”

  “Wouldn’t that be kidnapping? Are you guys adventurers!? If you are, aren’t you breaking guild rules!?” Lili said it with a bit of drama and somewhat sarcastically, also going through the motions.

  “That doesn’t matter to you, you bitch! Now, hand over the gnome or die!” The orc yelled, making the entire thing personal for Tesilim. He couldn’t just let this dude insult his girl.

  “Fine. I guess you’ll die then,” Tesilim murmured loud enough for his team to hear. Then he appeared in front of the orc, who suddenly found two daggers heading straight for his head.