My morning was more energetic than usual, waking up and sipping down the tasty stew with companions that I would in the future trust with my life and protection was definitely a novel experience, the two cultivators in the group, Randal and Foranda were not morning people, I myself would have been in similar situation if I hadn’t had a life waking up at dawn to plow the fields and water the crops.

We packed bed rolls and fire starters, the cooks gave us a farewell gift of tasty beast meat and the barman handed us a map of the local beast territories and geography,although the terrain is a repeated forested hills that expand till they reach the mountains encasing the Myriad Valley, but those mountains may seem close, but their size tricks the eye, as they are a months travel to even reach the foot, by horse!

My group exited the inn and walked past the marble runic line separating civilization from the wilderness, conversation was sparse while we walked towards the tree line, Tog and Nog seemed just a bit more tense, Randal and Joe abandoning the merry tone they carried with them in their voices before, the redhead more antisocial than usual, this atmosphere infected me too, making any attempt at conversation die prematurely in my head from hesitation.

It took no sooner than three hours before we are standing in front of the trees, the chirping and rustling of leaves was music of its own, the smell of nature ruled my sense of smell, and looking into the almost perfect scene of a virgin forest, I could feel the life inherent in it, the sheer prosperity that it embodied, our presence ever so small compared to Life, to the forest, to IT.

"Archer!! ARCHER!" My worship was interrupted by Joe shaking me vigorously, my other companions looking on worriedly, Joe's grip on my shoulders relaxed as he sighed once he saw my attention settle on him.

"What happened, did the forest just hypnotize me?" I uttered, confused and shaken by the sheer force that the forest exuded on my mind.

"Yes, I welcome you to the Forest of Life, the first line of defence of the sect and cultivation ground for those who hunt for blood cores, you cultivate your mind right?" Joe asks.

"Yeah, I do." I reply back, my eyes looking at the forest in a tiny bit of terror.

"All those who practice mind cultivation will experience the same thing as you did, its a sort of sixth sense you have that lets you feel the governing entity of the forest, don't worry, it only happens when you allow it from now on." Joe said with a smile on his face, calming down.

Randal butted in and told us to sit on the grass to explain how we will engage the monsters.

"First of all, you need to know the usual monsters that reside this particular part of the forest, there are three types of monsters we are most likely to encounter, the most numerous of them are the ever breeding goblins, I'm sure all of us have seen or encountered these pest a multitude of times, they hunt in parties of eight to ten, but should we encounter them, don't let them run away, and if they do we will immediately move away from that area since they will call reinforcements from their settlements, did everybody get that?" Randal questioned after taking a breath from his ramble, It seemed like Randal would take the leadership positions, and himself telling us this cements his positions as leader, it could have easily been Joe telling us about monster knowledge.

But I don't mind, he has more than half the team in his pocket and leadership fits well with his confidence, and I have a faint suspision that this team is being considered as training for the young Sigmond, even more suspicouis is that there is no head strong brute in the team, but wait, how would the Quest Hall even know I don't have a personnality that would conflict with Randal, I haven't even befriended anyone at the short time I was in the sect, fuck, this spiral of thoughts will have to continue later, I nod to Randal to continue.

"When we do engage a group of goblins, I want Tog and Nog to take to the front and keep the goblins occupied, I will be behind them with my sword ready for any opening the goblins will regret offering, Foranda you will be jumping between Tog's and Nog's flanks, killing off the stragglers that they don't catch, prioritize killing those that are heading towards Joe and Archer, and you Archer will be killing those in the back of the goblin group, if you see any one of them running, shoot them down immediately or hamper their mobility, just don't let them escape, any questions?" Randal said.

"Can I chase after goblins that escape? I'm confident in my chances of catching up to the short legged menaces with my speed." Foranda spoke.

"Ok, If you are confident you can catch up then do so after we finish the battle, but don't go too far, we don't want you attracting even more goblins and slow our retreat, is that all?" He asked again.

I nodded, I was fine with staying in the back and laying death on the monsters from far away.

"The second type of monster is a snake, not the venomous type but the constricting variant, be sure to watch your step as they camouflage with the bushes and don't stray too far away from the team, once you are caught by the snake shout for help, don't try to resist as that would only hurt you more, fortunately they only appear in a couple, a male and female snake and very rarely do they gather a number larger than that, we will depend on Archer and Joe to spot them, Foranda keep vigilant when one of us gets attacked, I want you to be the first to reach them."

"The last type is an eagle, keep your eyes in the sky since they don't warn you before they shred your head into mush with their talons, if they do succeed or fail in their mission to kill you, they will take time to fly away, so take that brief window to wail on their wings, the beaks don't pose a threat once they are on the ground, Archer I want you to take out the ones that are too high for us to reach, the number of them vary too much, they may only be one or a pack of twenty, it all depends on our luck, is there any final questions before we enter the forest?"

"How are we splitting the loot?" The swift lady asks.

"Split three ways between the cultivators, my servants and Joe are being paid by my family." Randal says.

"Do all monsters drop blood cores?" I ask.

Randal doesn't answer but looks towards Joe.

"Goblins have the tendency to have a blood core for every ten, that means a 10 percent chance, for the snakes that's a 30 percent chance and the eagles are a 40 percent chance." Joe replies.

Seeing that we are satisfied with the arrangements, Roland rolled his shoulders and looked at us each in the eyes and said.

"Let's do this."