Alfred couldn't help but explore while Rick examined he corpse. The cause of death was obvious, however there were other wounds on the torso of the hobgoblin as well.

'I wonder when I can reach the Silver rank. Maybe I'll probably need to buy a Silver Rank pill. But it's too expensive for me to afford.'

As Alfred mourned his poverty, he opened the door to a destroyed goblin hut and froze. The smell of blood was thick.

The roof of the hut was broken in some places, as if something with great force had hit it. To no surprise, he saw a goblin corpse in the corner.

His gaze turned to the side and he felt a chill run down his spine as he swung his axe by reflex.

The sound of something tearing made his heart calm down, as he realized it wasn't alive. The thing he slashed was a strange shaped creature he couldn't fully make out.

"Boss! I found something!" Alfred yelled and with the sound of Rick hurrying over, Alfred finally managed to relax, however he still couldn't seem to identify the creature at all.

"What did you find? The hobgoblin didn't indicate anything concrete..." Rick's voice trailed off as he stared at the husk of something he couldn't recognize.

"What the heck is this?" Rick asked Alfred who out shrugged in response. Since neither of them could identify it, they decided to bring back the husk, only to realize that there were multiple husks laying around.

"It kinda looks like some insect molted a lot, or there were multiple of whatever they were here." Alfred looked at the smaller husks and then shook his head.

"Just grab the biggest one and let's go. I'll grab the back and you take the front." Rick said decisively, wrinkling his nose at the smell wafting off the husk.

While it didn't stink, it had a strange scent that made it seem unique. Alfred also noticed the scent and chalked it up to pheromones.

Soon the village vanished behind the trees as they tried to return to the town as soon as possible, their pace slightly increased as they didn't want to be out in the woods with some unknown creature.

'Whatever it is, I can guess that it isn't some peaceful creature. The claws match the wounds on the hobgoblins torso. And that tail, even I haven't seen such a thing.'

Because he had more resources due to his family, he had knowledge on almost all basic monsters, however this thing... husk he was carrying didn't show up anywhere within the books he read.

...

William, the vice guild leader sat as his desk fiddling with a dagger seemingly made of some material similar to gold.

'This is a good gift from that guy. I might have to persuade Noah to not help the king...' William had already had someone make contact with him from the Ebris Empire.

'If this kingdom falls, I can use this guild to rise through the ranks and gain more power.' Just thinking about it made a smile appear on his face.

His blue eyes and black hair made him quite popular with the ladies, and because his status as a Silver ranker, he could impress most beautiful commoners or oppress them until they had no choice but to yield to him.

Anyone who tried to speak bad about him almost always faced some accident, but whenever an investigation went on, he always escaped unscathed.

'You can hold on to the position of Guild Master for now Noah. I'll let you live a few more days in ignorance.' With a sinister smile, William hid the dagger in his desk and went back to perusing his papers.