‘It was stupid…….’

Lucas groaned while wanting to cry out loud, cursing his own luck at the same time.

'It really was stupid to find a sword in this vast forest without knowing the exact place.' He cursed at himself for having his expectations high and felt a huge depression while he kind of started to know that his hopes were impossible.

It had been over 4 hours that Lucas had been walking around in the forest. Everyone, especially Ryosuke, was wearing smiles of happiness as the hunt was going really well. Within these 4 hours, they had already fought 2 small groups of kobolds and some average monsters with the shape of horned pigs and won over them without much effort. Lucas didn't even need to heal that much because of Ryosuke's proficiency, so it was a thing to be satisfied.

No matter what, Lucas felt nervous as he still found no sights of finding a sword which he started to think that it was impossible to do so. It was like finding a thin needle in a stack of hay. In addition, he couldn't move or go around freely under the watch of Brook and Carl which made his situation worse.

'Shall I sneak out to here again later while taking Brother Ryo, Tus and Eura?'

Lucas believed that the sword must be lying somewhere near the entry and not the deep places of the forest because the adventurer in the novel was just a beginner and not someone who would hunt in dangerous areas. If it was with these three, it would be ok to do this much, considering their abilities plus his own healing magic. But the problem was whether he was able to sneak out or not.

'Gahhh, I want to grow up early.' For the first time, Lucas didn't enjoy his easy life as a child anymore.

"Master Lucas, are you perhaps tired?"

Tus came to ask Lucas as he saw a look of exhaustion on Lucas's face, thinking that Lucas was still a ten years old kid, regardless of his skills and adaptability.

"Not really, Tus."

Lucas was not really tired as he was recharging his stamina with his magic. For Lucas, healing magic was pretty useful for him as he didn't need to use a lot of mana for that magic and at the same time, he noticed himself that he had a large amount of mana capability in recent years.

"Are you sure? Don't put yourself too hard, Lucas."

"I also think so!"

Ryosuke and Eura also gazed at Lucas which made him nervously laugh and say he was really fine.

'What did I even do to be tired? It was Brother Ryo who did most of the slayings.' Lucas thought with his mind considering whether to give up the sword now or not. Maybe he could also find it again later since he still had two years.

But not long after he had answered, he felt himself being lifted by someone behind and when he looked back he saw it was Carl who carried him.

"I told you I am fine, Carl...."

"Shhh, it's ok to relax a bit, Young Master Lucas. We are also taking a rest for lunch, right Sir Brook?" Carl had his usual happy smile on his face as he was answered by Brook with a nod.

Lucas wanted to protest but he decided to let it be, as he wanted to use his opportunity as a child to the fullest.

'No one will be willing to carry me if I grow older.'

"By the way Carl, are there any resting places that hunters use?" Lucas seriously hoped that Carl might know a place like that and Brook agreed to take a rest there, imagining that he would miraculously find the sword there, just like in other Webnovels, although he knew that the chance was as low as usual.

"Not really because it had been a long time since I visited here. Sir Brook might know some places, though...."

"There is one I am familiar with." Brook answered. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious, teacher. Lately I have been reading some books about hunters' life so.... Maybe can we go there? Is it near?" Lucas tried to push his last chance for today.

"It will take around 20 minutes to get there." Brook looked at the map that he was holding. "If it is ok with everyone, we will take a rest there."

"Of course!"

Everyone gave the same answer as they wanted to fulfill Lucas's wish and as they had expected, it made Lucas's eyes to get brighten. They followed Brook's lead and Ryosuke even defeated two unlucky Heges, monsters with a size of a husky but kind of looked like hedgehogs.

Lucas was impressed by Ryosuke's activeness which seemed like he was more energetic here than in his trainings. And the way he fought was also smooth and lacked nervousness as if he was born for this.

'Maybe even if I didn't find the sword, he should be ok?'

Looking at Ryosuke, Lucas wanted to hit himself for his over-worriedness. Since the beginning, Lucas really wanted to make sure Ryosuke was prepared fully for any cases and was able to protect the ones he treasured so that he would not feel immense sorrow or guilt in the future, which were the main cause for him to be on rampage.

'Come to think of it,..... Lucian doesn't contact Ryosuke?' Lucas wrinkled his eyes as he felt something was missing. Ryosuke had been here for three years but there was still no message from Lucian.

'The other main reason for Ryosuke to be on rampage is because his hope to go home was shattered, right? Then, who told him that killing the demon lord can make him get home?' One thought popped up after another in Lucas's mind. 'Or.... could it be that brother Ryosuke is keeping some secrets?'

Lucas was so immersed in thoughts that he did not realize they had reached their destination until Brook told him. When Lucas was drawn back to the reality and looked at the scenario around him, his eyes widened a bit because of surprise.

'The place is............ quite normal?'

The place, which was called a rest area for some hunters, was not that different from other parts of the forests. The only thing that was separated from other parts of the area was a small field of grass where some yellow flowers, similar to the figures of lavender were growing.

Lucas finally got off from Carl, saying thank you and started to look here and there to know if he had some luck or not but unfortunately, he couldn't find even a rusted thing, much worse, a rusted sword. Lucas just sighed and just thought to himself that it might be a wrong place for him so technically he gave up finding a needle in the haystack.

"What are you looking at, Lucas?" Ryosuke came near Lucas as he didn't know what Lucas was doing. "Are you not hungry? Let's eat."

"Ah, just looking at the flowers." Lucas just said like that because he was near the field of yellow flowers.

"They are called Viridis. Monsters don't like their smell."

"Oh, I see." Lucas wasn't expecting for Brook to explain though.

'So these are the Viridis...' Lucas had read about those mysterious flowers in some books. As Brook had said the monsters tend to avoid these flowers as they didn't like their smell. So hunters usually took a rest near those flowers. What strange was that those flowers' smell only lasted for a few minutes once they were plucked and they could not be grown by humans. They just grew in everywhere they wanted.

Lucas just sat on one of the logs like the others did and had the small lunch brought by Eura, with the others, giving up entirely on finding the legendary rusted sword today. The sun was already a bit high because it was noon time but that didn't make any difference in the damp atmosphere because of the shadows that trees around them provided.

"For now, rest for 20 minutes. Then, we are going to hunt for two more hours and will return to the town after that." Brook told them while making Ryosuke happy that they were finally going to get to rest.

"Young master Lucas, tell me if you are tired, ok?" Carl whispered to Lucas who only answered with a nod. It seemed that no matter how Lucas said he was not tired, everyone didn't believe that, looking at his worn-out face.

20 minutes was up so fast as they prepared for their departure again, with Brook leading in front as usual. But not long after they had left the resting place, Brook had a frown on his face with his intuition getting vibes of something nasty was going to happen and so he readied his sword which made everyone in the group alert, thinking of the possibility of some kinds of monsters popping up.

Lucas could feel that a soft blow of wide passed beside him, carrying a chilly aura with it.

Everything seemed to be quiet until Brook realized what exactly was happening and shouted suddenly.

"Get out of---"

Even before Brook ended his word, Lucas could see the gush of black mist rushed towards him so quickly that he didn't even have time to react.

At the same time, Lucas noticed that his arm was grabbed by someone but even before he got to look at the person who grabbed him, he was engulfed by darkness, making him shut close his eyes in surprise.

Everything became quiet again and it didn't take long for Lucas to get his vision back to look at the surroundings.

"Where am I now?"

Lucas just blinked his eyes, trying to rephrase what just happened, noticing that it was not the scenario that he saw before.

'I guess troubles love me a lot?'

He really couldn't help but to laugh nervously at his fate.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading >< By the way, do you prefer the daily updates or mass updates in one day?