"Oh, why did we even take the job?"

A pained feminine voice asked.

"Because we are broke and we need money."

A male voice answered.

"No! It's for the thrill of the adventure!"

Another voice yelled.

The owners of the other two voices stared at the last guy with disbelief. He was their party leader and had gotten them into all sorts of trouble before, but they were certain that not even he was that stupid. At least, that was what they thought.

Together, they were a rank B- party. The B rank attack mage, Charlotte, The C+ rank Swordsman, Aden, and the B- ranked support mage, Ross. They were quite the infamous party back in Dirthhaven, the capital of Keiman, for the kind of dangerous jobs their useless leader would take and barely manage to complete.

Right now, the reason why they were in the Larm forest was because their leader had accepted the job of going to take resources. In secret, he actually wanted to fight the Mad Witch of the West. He didn't understand why so many adventurers had met their ends at her hands, so he would stop it. Either he was going to kill the Mad Witch, or it was going to kill him. That was his intention.

The others knew about it and were very angry, at the same time, they just shrugged it off, because they knew that that was how their leader worked. He would just pick a job and they would somehow complete it. It didn't matter how dangerous it was or how tiring it would be, he just had some sort of luck that always helped them.

This time however, there was an extra edition to their party. A young woman who looked no older than 20 had joined them. She was called Lucia and she was also a support mage, much like Ross, but focused more on healing than boosting her companions physical capabilities, so she was welcomed with open arms.

They had been in the woods for a few days and had been able to judge the average monster strength. The strongest monster they had seen there was of the advanced rank, so even Aden wouldn't have a hard time if he were to try to solo the West. The only problem was the Mad Witch. Ross and Charlotte were praying that they wouldn't encounter her, whereas Aden was working tirelessly to find her cave.

"Ah damn it! Why can't we find her cave!? Was it all a lie!?"

Aden asked. Ross and Charlotte looked at each other and spoke with their eyes, when they came to a conclusion they nodded.

"Yeah, it's all probably a lie."

Ross said

"I mean, if there was actually a cave we would have found it by now, wouldn't we?"

Charlotte added.

Aden started to think about it for a while, then Lucia added,

"If that's the case, then what happened to all those adventurers who came to this forest in search of resources?"

"Yeah that's right! Come on you guys. Think a little bit more like Miss Lucia. There's a strong monster out there and I can sense it."

Ross and Charlotte begun to cry. They didn't hate Lucia. Far from it. In fact they had come to love her company. It's just that sometimes she said unnecessary things at the worst times. So, they continued to walk in search of the Mad Witch of the West.

After an hour of painful walking and searching, they finally found a cave. Charlotte then said,

"This is it guys. I sense an awfully large amount of magical presence in the area."

Aden drew his sword and Charlotte, her staff. Ross and Lucia were readying themselves with their support magic. Ross casted his spells on Aden, instantly giving him a boost in strength, speed and defense.

"Alright then, let's go witch hunting."

"Ugh, Witch Hunting was like centuries ago."

Charlotte Retorted.

"What? I hit a soft spot?"

"You know I don't like that part of our history."

The duo continued on with their bickering, whereas Ross and Lucia just looked on in boredom.

"Wow, are those 2 always like that?"

Lucia whispered the question to Ross and he showed her a bright smile.

"Even in the grimiest of situations, you can count on those 2 to be at each other's necks."

"Must be nice to have something like that."

"Yea, it sure is."

Lucia had already told them that her original party had entered this forest without her due to her being sick. The next time she heard of them, they were all said to have been killed by the Mad Witch of the West. So to them, it seemed like she had just come for revenge.

"Hey you guys, we are literally in front of a monster's home and you're being this loud?"

He whispered to them and they stopped bickering. Charlotte let out a sigh, then got serious. She had an entirely different air about her at that moment. She was about to show what a true veteran she was. Same could be said for Aden who gripped his sword tightly.

"Would you do us the honor?"

He said to Charlotte, signaling for her to start with their plan.

"With pleasure."

A bright red magic circle appeared in front of her and she began to chant. As soon as she was done, a fireball, the size of a cannonball shot out of the magic circle and into the cave, instantly setting the place on fire.

"Oh? Charlotte is capable of perform Rune magic?"

Lucia asked, since all she had seen the girl use was regular magic.

"Yeah. She isn't called the Arcane Ember for no reason."

Ross went on his knees and began chanting a spell of his own. The spell caused plants with purple flowers to emerge from the ground. While Ross was casting the spell, he could feel himself being filled with unnatural strength. He was shocked by how quickly he had finished the spell and the strength of the spell. The others also noticed how unnatural it was and congratulated him for getting stronger. He brushed it off, saying it was more like adrenaline.

He had finished sealing off the cave entirely. These weren't just ordinary tree roots. No, they were dangerous plants that had poisonous flowers on them. When those flowers got burnt, they would create poison gas strong enough to kill a troll.

Their plan was to burn down the monster's home while the monster slept. They felt that it wouldn't be that easy to kill the monster with fire, so they had come up with the plan involving toxins after a while of walking around this forest. They noticed that there were a lot of poisonous plants around and came up with their plan. In the chance that the creature managed to survive the poison, they would fight it in its weakened state.

For a moment there was silence, but then something was fighting against the plants barricading the cave entrance. The thing was clawing at it seriously, and with [Mana sense], they could all tell it was a very dangerous beast.

"You guys! Get back!"

Aden screamed and they all backed away. They were prepared for the beast to burst out and attack them. After a while they could see the beast's snout and claws. When it finally tore apart the vines, it snarled at them, then fell on the ground, dead. It was a massive timber wolf, bigger than the average one.

"A timber wolf?"

Aden asked as he poked its dead body with his sword.

"Maybe one of the kings?"

"Yeah, those adventurers that died must've faced off against this thing."

"Yeah, the kings are no pushovers after all."

"Phew, if that's a king, then we managed to kill a king! Woohoo!"

"Hehehe, you guys realize what this mean?"

Charlotte and Ross grinned at him.

"We're the guys who killed one of the Kings! We're gonna be famous and the guild will pay us a ton! Hahahaha! I can just hear the girls shouting. Lord Aden! We Love you!"

Charlotte kicked him and the two began bickering again.

"Fufu... See Miss Lucia, we are always luc-, Miss Lucia?"

Ross looked around but couldn't find Lucia anywhere.

"Lucia?"

The other 2 noticed that Ross was acting strangely.

"Yo, Ross. What's up?"

Charlotte noticed the oddity of the situation

"Where's Lucia?"

"Well you see that's the thing... I can't find her. She just disappeared."

"What do you mean "she just disappeared"?"

"I mean she just disappeared. Like as soon as we were done, I couldn't see her again."

All of them were put on sudden alert. Had she been kidnapped right under their noses? Then that would mean there was a creature around, but where was it? Charlotte and Ross' [Mana Sense] couldn't pick up on anything. Naturally, it should have been very difficult for them to use [Mana Sense] in Larm, but after a few weeks of trying, they managed to get a hold on the frequency and differentiate the beasts from the forest itself. Certainly something only the more experienced adventurers could pull off.

Aden's ability to sense presences on the other hand was ringing loudly. There was something dangerous very close to him. In fact, he was looking at it. He simply couldn't make a sound. His body was too scared to do so.

Just then a horrid shriek cut their conversation.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!!!?"

A shriek so horrid, it caused them to shudder. They slowly turned their heads towards the source of the shriek. Standing in front of the dead timber wolf, was a little girl with grey skin that was turning white, silver hair and glowing golden eyes. She radiated a killing aura so intense that the 3 instinctively knew that, that wasn't an ordinary little girl.

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Minerva had just finished hunting for dinner. Normally she and her pet, Fang would have gone out together but she told him to stay in the cave and guard it. Why did she do that? Today would mark their one month celebration of meeting so she wanted to get something nice for him.

So she found a bull deer and was dragging it back, but on her way there she could smell something burning and smoke was rising to the sky. It came in the direction of her cave, so she dropped her bull deer meat and ran as fast as she could towards the cave. When she got there, she saw 3 humans standing there and Fang was dead in front of her cave which had been set on fire.

She walked towards Fang's corpse, tears in her eyes. The humans hadn't noticed her presence even after she had squatted down next to Fang. The poisonous fumes had no effect on her due to her natural resistance to poisons she had acquired from eating several of them in attempts at surviving by herself.

She then shifted her gaze to the foolish humans that were bickering among themselves after killing her best friend.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!!?"

She shrieked. A shriek so horrid all the creatures in the west heard her. All creatures began to evacuate the premises and prayed for the fools that had gone near the Witch of the West.

She produced intense blood lust as she looked at the three fools. She was wondering which one of them to kill first.

"E-erh, little gir-"

Before Aden could finish his sentence she had already punched off his head. All that remained was his body, and blood gushed out of his neck like a fountain. His body then collapsed to the ground.

They were all in shock at the sight and could not even react to her then punching Ross with enough force to create a hole through his stomach. She then grabbed his stuffy beard and brought him down to her eye level.

They looked eye to eye and Ross felt like screaming for help but he couldn't. He could feel the eyes sucking something out of him and it was painful. Too painful for him to even react in anyway. It didn't take long for his body to turn soulless, and fall to the ground, dead.

She then fixed her gaze on Charlotte who had been frozen stiff. As soon as she threw a punch, an arm caught hers. It was a slender arm that belonged to a very beautiful woman.

Both Minerva and Charlotte looked at the owner with confused expressions.

"L-Lucia?"

"...No. Sorry, but I lied to you. It was a pleasure meeting you. Bye now."

Larm then snapped the fingers on her free hand and Charlotte disappeared.

Minerva growled at the stranger. She could instinctively tell that this person was in a whole other league. Still, in her rage she couldn't think properly. She didn't care about strength. All that mattered was that her friend had been killed. Anyone who protected those who killed her friends must be killed. That was her thought process at that moment, so she used her skill [Lazy Eyes]

It was a skill that put anyone to sleep. Depending on how it was used, this skill could put a person in a state of eternal rest. In a sense, the targets of this were already dead.

"Ara ara~ So scary~"

That response made Minerva shudder. Her instincts were screaming for her to run away

Minerva tried to throw a punch with her free hand, but it was instantly caught by plants that had grown from the ground and wrapped themselves around it. Then more plants begun wrapping themselves around Minerva, trapping her. The woman then let go of Minerva's arm and took a step back.

She looked at Minerva who was struggling to break free then snapped her fingers again, and flowers bloomed on the plants. These plants contained a scent that could calm a person.

At the same time, a throne made out of plants was being created behind her. As soon as it was done, she sat down on it. She waited for Minerva to calm down, then spoke.

"Hello there. My name is Larm, King of the Forest and I'm here to make you a Tyrant. How about it? Will you become my child?"

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The king of Keimen, Roland Boulderdane had been scrolling through a lot of requests and official documents. This life of his, he saw it as a very boring and tasking one. He just wanted to escape the troubles kingship sometimes brought and just have a good adventure like in the old days.

So when a knight came rushing to his room, saying that two women who claim to have just faced off against the rumored Mad Witch of the West and had managed to survive had appeared in his throne room out of nowhere, he was excited. He immediately threw away all the tiresome papers and quickly walked towards the throne room, against his soldiers wishes.

When he got there, he saw two women. One looked haggard, and was asleep, whereas the other looked calm and collected. A true beauty that radiated elegance. He wanted to make her one of his concubines, however he suddenly thought about all the soldiers that had surrounded the two women and were pointing spears at them.

They were being questioned at that moment by the captain of the royal guards, but the woman noticed the king's presence

"Oh, it seems that the king has arrived."

She said and all the guards directed their gazes at the king. The captain of the royal guard then approached the king.

"Your majesty, you shouldn't be here."

"Never mind about that. What's going on here? Why are you surrounding these women?"

The captain looked at the women one more time then said,

"Your majesty, they claim to have used teleportation magic to appear here after fighting the Mad Witch of the West."

"Oh?"

The Mad Witch of the West. That was a name the king had been hearing frequently and it had piqued his interest. He raised his hand signaling for the soldiers to lift their spears and stand down.

"The Mad Witch of the West, you say? And what would a delicate woman such as yourself be doing fighting the Mad Witch of the West?"

"I went into the forest to scout the strength of the witch."

"Why would you do that?"

"I am a scout mage of the Dhijan Nation. I was sent by my king to test the power of the Mad Witch of the West because of all the talk about it, to see if we would have to dispatch a force to handle it."

"The Dhijan Nation!?"

Everyone in the room was on high alert. The Dhijan Nation was a very powerful nation and also one of their ally nations. The fact that they pointed spears at a member from that Nation could have affected their friendship. The king glared at the soldiers and they gulped.

"Oh I'm sorry about the way my soldiers treated you. Might I interest you in-?"

"As rude as it maybe for a simple civilian like myself to cut off the king of a nation while speaking, I cannot allow you to speak. For what I am about to relay to you could crucially affect this nation's state of affairs."

The king gulped.

"W-what is it?"

"The Mad Witch of the West, although not a Tyrant yet, she shows power close to that level. If you do not eliminate her quickly, you shall lose the ability to extract resources from that forest. She has been an obstacle in that aspect for a while now, no?"

"Hiikkk!!! Y-yes, but how do you know that?"

"I have been living as an adventurer in this town for quite a while now. Most of the adventurers who go on missions to extract resources never come back. So I went with this girl's party which was B rank. I saw the beast's power myself. She took down the entire party in five seconds. I managed to escape with this girl using spatial magic."

"Huh!?"

"F-five seconds?"

"A B-rank party? No way."

Such things could be heard among the soldiers. It was very understandable, because B-rank parties were actually very strong and rare among humans and there especially weren't that many of them available in the Keimen kingdom.

"If you don't believe me, this girl is the Arcane Ember, Charlotte."

She took out the girl's Adventurer License which was a mithril plate. The girl's face was inscribed on the plate, alongside her name, rank and class. All the men shook at the sight. Sensing the fear, the woman took action.

"Fret not, if we act now we can kill her."

"H-how?"

One of the guards screamed, and the woman looked at the king with a gaze that gave him chills. He then grinned.

'Oh, I really like this woman', he thought.

"I believe your majesty already knows?"

"Of course. Summon 50 B- ranks and set them loose on the Mad Witch of the West! Tell them it's an emergency order!"

"B-But your majesty! Such a thing? What if the guild refuses?"

"Tell them that if they do it, we shall reward them 1,000 gold coins, and tell the guild leader I'll make him a noble if he succeeds. That crook is very shrewd and wouldn't miss out on the opportunity to become a noble. Tell them to move out as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the deadlier the situation."

The captain of guard nodded and gave orders to his subordinates. After an hour, adventurers had gathered in front of the guild hall. For all the adventurers to gather so soon showed just how dire the situation they were in was, so they set off into the forest quickly.

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