It was quiet for the past few days, there was no disturbances that happened when we were there. Thankfully I was able to train a lot during this free time. 

Adric taught me the ways of the sword while Kara introduced me to the world of magic. The first training sessions were intense; Adric showed no mercy when we sparred. He was proficient in the third style, his blade was precise and powerful but thankfully we used blunted weapons but it still left bruises. 

Kara was the opposite, she was strict but kind. After the incident she showed me ways on how to control my mana more proficiently. We didn't spar of course since I'd probably die in the first minute, but we did compete on chant timing by seeing who can use magic faster. She'd always win as she was able to cut down parts of the chant. 

During my night shifts I've been practicing on cutting my chants until coming to a realization, what if I use chant less magic?

"Chant less magic? unless your a prodigy its almost impossible. Buuut, it's faster, all you really need is to think about the spell in your head and poof! you did chant less magic" 

Kara yawned. 

"Who can use chant less magic?"

"well only a few I know off, the Queen of the elves, the wizard of blue and I believe someone named Tron"

she shrugged.

"But its better if you just focused on cutting your chants instead"

the rest of the night was quiet, nothing special really occurred until next day. A worker approached Adric and me when we were eating lunch behind the barn. It was a young girl with feline ears. 

"Excuse me. how long are you guys planning to be here?"

Adric looked up, he was still chewing but spoke. 

"Until we slay the monster that keeps stealing your masters cattle" 

"I...I see" 

she walked off disappointed. we watched as she approach one of the workers. 

"there's no monster" 

Adric speaking with the sandwich still in his mouth

"what!?"

"Yep, first day here Gurt told me there was no evidence of any beast being here. Normally there would clumps of hair, droppings or at least some sort of blood but nothing"

"then who?" 

"the slaves. or I should say workers"

They're slaves? it at least explains why the look like disheveled.

"But why not tell the guy? the job would be over already"

"Because there's more money to be made bugger" 

he laughed as finished his sandwich. 

"I'm waiting for the right time until we catch them in the act, you see they're meeting with someone to sell of the cows. when we find them we'll blackmail them for more money and then we'll turn them in to their boss"

"I see. does Kara know?"

he grinned. 

"why? you like her?" 

"no-no, I mean I do like her. like a friend you know but are we all on board with this?"

"of course she knows, besides don't you want more money? we can get you out of this cheap clothing you have on"

he pulled on my tunic. 

I mean more money wouldn't hurt right? 

"yeah I'm in"

***

For the next two days I've been noticing during training that the workers seem to be getting worked up, irritated even. It used to be one or two of the workers to approach but now they seem to be asking every hour when we're done hunting the monster.

Adric throughout all this was calm the whole time, he was unbothered whenever they approached him during training or lunch. I asked if this bothered him. 

"Nah, it's amusing really. Slaves like them have no patience. We're basically cutting off their revenue and either have to stop or continue while we're here."

"How you plan on catching them?"

"Kara had set up magic circles throughout the forest, if one of them crosses it she would know. Then we will confront and bam money for us"

he grinned while leaning back eating his sandwich as the next Worker approaches

***

 

"Oi! Bugger wake up!" 

I was being slapped across the face, not gently mind you.

"Hey! hey! what the hell?" 

I questioned, while getting up rubbing my eyes. 

"They tripped Kara traps, let's go"

It took less convincing as I got up, putting on my tunic and grabbing the sword and rushing alongside Adric.

"How do you know its them?"

"A cows missing, Gurt and Kara already left"

We ran past the tree line for a few minutes until we started to here a large commotion Kara and Gurt were arguing with the workers there. As we approached I noticed two men wearing cloaks across from the group of workers. 

The villagers were yelling at us, telling us to fuck off some just looked scared. Gurt wasn't helping the conversation as he babbled on random nonsense while Kara stood silent. Adric stepped up calming the workers.

"Oi listen listen. I'll do you deal ok, we'll pretend this never happen if you pay me and my group handsomely" 

"What!? that's not far we've been doing this for a while until you showed up" one of the workers spoke up. 

"Hey, think of it as a sort of payment for me keeping my mouth shut" he grinned 

"...." murmurs between villagers unsure. I then notice whispering, Kara was chanting something under her breath. 

"what's going to happen? our owner won't allow you to leave without evidence"

"True, but all we need is a monster body. Me and my group would just kill a random Great wolf or damn Shadow beast"

More murmurs before they all agreed. 

"fine name your price"

"twelve gold coins" Adric responded confidently

"five gold coins" 

"ten gold coins" 

"No seven gold coins" 

"eight gold coins and that's it" Adric eyes narrowed. 

some of the workers looked rather disappointed but relented. 

the older one gave us a small pouch. Gurt grabbed it before counting the coins inside, he then gave an affirming nod to Adric before leaving. As we got out of the forest Ardic burst into a fit laughter. 

"Kara. Kara did you get all that?"

"Yeah, all in here"

I looked incredulously, wondering what they were talking about. 

"You see bugger Kara used memory magic. basically she recorder all that happened. of course we're going to show the owner an edited version of it. 

We all headed towards the manor. knocking the door a few times the owner walked out looking quite pissed that we woke him up this late at night. Kara proceed to show him the evidence, it was a still picture of workers and the people they were trading with. 

"you see mister you're workers are the ones who are committing the crime" 

"I should've known that Demi humans are the worst type of slaves for work" he shook his head. 

"well thank you. I will be contacting slavers to deal with this lot. as for you here you go" he handed us a written letter. 

"hand this to the guild, they will then give you the payment that I sent them earlier, and take this as a thank you" he handed Adric another small pouch. 

We then took our a leave. once we were off the farm Adric looked through the small pouch he was given. 

"nice four gold pieces" 

he then divided up the payment into three gold pieces for each of us. 

"well that's a good first job wouldn't you say? you see bugger without us you'll probably be hunting slimes or assisting with menial chores around the town"

I nod. 

"what will happen to the workers?" 

"probably be sold back to the auction house, since they're being returned due to disobedience probably being sold for organs or soemthing"

he shrugged. 

"really? wow." 

That was it, it was that simple to get rich. 

Interesting.