There was a whole world for them to discover. Kirie had been right about that. Unfortunately, there was always the linear progression that needed dealing with. Alphonse could only hope that the necessary, mundane tasks were sprinkled with a bit of excitement and mystery along the way. 

The travel time to reach the capital was five days on foot. Dense forest covered half the distance, while the remainder cut through a series of hills and squat plateaus. To the north of these landmarks sat a small village hugging the line of mountains simply known as The Barrier which divided two nations: the Central Kingdom of Tevilandis, and the Northern Kingdom of Xersceld.

The village was a relatively short detour when traveling northeast, but it wasted almost an entire day when backtracking around the rough terrain, as it was cradled by the mountains. Alphonse didn't want to waste any time reaching the capital, so this course was mostly undesirable.

The second option was a recently established outpost for adventurers that became available when the area turned into a popular hunting ground. Monsters were of the typical types: ogres, trolls, goblins and other small bipedal creatures of extensive variety. The quadrupeds in the area were already scarce due to the extensive slaughter from the more sentient beasts. Furthermore, regular citizens of Tevilandis hunted these parts with the aid of adventurers as escorts.

Alphonse's plan was to head straight for the capital with as little interruptions as possible. He suggested to Kirie and Asa that they immediately seek out the Adventurers' Guild Union when they arrived. The organization held authority over both native and outworlder guilds. If they wanted to register as a guild, then they would have to deal with the paperwork and potential legal matters. Both formidable foes.

Politics suck, Alphonse thought.

He stopped to analyze his surroundings as a brief breeze maneuvered around him insistently. A thick canopy obscured the sun almost entirely, resulting in a shadowy, damp forest floor. The harmonizing sound of insects traveled through the trees, and small animals scurried through the foliage as the trio made their way along the natural path tread by many an adventurer.

It seemed the area was safe for the most part, judging by the abundance of activity. Alphonse still kept a watchful eye on the dense foliage with the aid of his improved perception. He no longer had access to active skills since he sacrificed his mana pool, but at least the passive perks of the accompanying stats still remained.

Kirie intruded on the mellifluous sounds of nature as she let out a loud yawn. “Ugh, I need a bed.”

She stretched her neck casually and raised her hands to the sky. Her mouth remained open wide in an unbecoming manner as she didn't bother to stifle the boredom.

“You've done nothing but complain since we left,” Alphonse said. "If I didn't know Rinka better, I'd say you were spoiled."

Kirie waved at him dismissively and let out an irritated breath. "Never break a catgirl's routine unless you want her seriously pissed."

"Don't encourage me," Alphonse said. He regarded the other catgirl who walked a short distance ahead. "Hey, Asa, tell your sister to toughen up."

He felt Kirie's eyes staring daggers into him at the comment.

Asa stopped walking as the only acknowledgment that she'd heard him. Alphonse faltered when he saw her downcast eyes and the distressed frown on her face when she turned slightly towards him. She hugged her staff close to her body and fidgeted.

"Woah, what's wrong?" He hastened his steps to stand in front of her. The catgirl half-turned from him so that the hood of her healers robe concealed most of her features.

Alphonse frowned at this and wondered if she was still coping with their new situation. He didn't blame her. They'd only left Rinka and the Submerged Oasis behind about a day earlier. She was now considered an adventurer with plenty of high expectations as the party's main healer. Alphonse at least had an idea about interacting with the people of Hovestile and taking on quests. Asa knew next to nothing about it, save for the bits she read in the many books collected over the years. Actual experience couldn't be substituted...

"I-I miss my bed," Asa finally said. She averted her gaze fully and wrung her hands along the staff.

Alphonse stared at her dumbstruck and realized his assumptions were far off the mark. He rested a hand over his face. Seriously? You're supposed to be the mature one. Friggin spoiled catgirls.

He never imagined that the tenacious Kirie and indomitable Asa would be so susceptible to a bit of routine discomfort. Sure, he didn't like sleeping on the hard ground either with nothing but a thin blanket and dying campfire for warmth. He hated the stiff feeling of his joints and the tightness of muscle after waking up from a restless sleep. The air always felt heavy for a while after he roused himself, and he was racked with dry coughs, as if the morning dew latched to his throat. But he suppressed all of his complaints for the sake of not appearing spineless in front of the catgirls.

Maybe it's their cat traits? Alphonse wondered. Cats did seem like grumpy animals. He did imagine that a cat exposed to human comforts might become addicted to them. Perhaps the same was true in this situation.

"Never break a catgirl's routine..." Alphonse recited with a bit of amusement.

His shoulders slumped when he observed the two sisters clasping hands and facing away from him. They slowly glanced over their shoulders to see if he was watching them and quickly turned away when they saw his lack of sympathy.

Looks like it's time for a new routine. He took a mental note and decided this was a weakness he could exploit during future disagreements.

He took the lead as they started complaining to each other about more meaningless topics. His focus, on the other hand, diverted to more important details. At the forefront of these concerns was how he would manage to interact with other people once he arrived at the capital. Honestly, he preferred as little involvement as possible for the first few weeks until he adapted to his new look. Wearing a dark rogue-like outfit with a scarf constantly obscuring his features didn't necessarily make him incognito in the middle of a wide city street.

Two demihumans and an outworlder forming a guild wasn't necessarily a common occurrence. He planned to have some accessories made for Kirie and Asa to cover up their ears a bit, but anything too flashy would just draw even more attention. For some, the accessories would be obvious. It wasn't entirely necessary, but every precaution helped buy some time to integrate with society.

Not that he really had much experience with society in the first place -- not even on Earth.

Alphonse's ruminations were put on hold when he noticed a set of deep imprints in the sodden earth near the side of the path. He stared at them for a full five seconds before moving to approach them.

Asa spotted them as well. Her demeanor changed as if from the flick of a switch. She rested a hand on the damp ground and ran it over the uneven portions. “Tracks. Two humans, at least. The other prints don't obscure them." Her brow furrowed as she noted some details. "Deirgu would be my guess.”

Alphonse and Kirie settled next to her and examined the disturbed earth. The scattered tracks were narrow and extended around double the length of a regular human foot. Some of them left three tiny punctures from curved nails. The unmistakable shape of footwear indicated the human prints. More depressions extended from the human tracks, but those that overlapped indicated that the weight of the footfalls wasn't as heavy as a human's.

Deirgu were short, rodent-like bipedal creatures. Their threat level was minimal individually, but packs of them could overwhelm an unsuspecting party in a matter of seconds. They weren't the brightest creatures, but sometimes numbers and sharp weapons were the only needs for victory.

Alphonse focused his perception and examined the surrounding forest. He picked up an unnatural shape with straight edges within the foliage. He approached it cautiously and made sure to circumvent some of the clear breaks where monsters had passed through. He slid around a tree with his shortsword at the ready. He lowered it when he observed an empty wagon with a stilted wheel on the nearest side. The monsters hadn't been without some basic sense, but they should have considered covering the wagon's tracks. Asa and Kirie joined him and instantly noticed the splatter of blood on the rumble seat.

The lack of bodies concerned him most.

Alphonse ventured further and found another natural path on the opposite side. At first, judging by the lack of human prints, it seemed the deirgu carried the humans after a successful ambush. There were signs of a brief struggle, and he backtracked a ways before the ambush position. The hoof tracks of a horse vanished somewhere along the way, as if plucked out of existence. The ground was hardly disturbed where the wagon's wheels veered off. He concluded that there had been no guard detail assigned.

Why was an unguarded wagon traveling in an area crawling with monsters? Alphonse thought.

Furthermore, it was headed east. The nearest village was in the same direction, so it didn't likely originate from there. There were no settlements near the western border that was defended by the Tevilandis military when the monsters pushed forward, emboldened by fresh numbers.

After a few more minutes of walking, the deirgu tracks stopped following the path and entered the thick vegetation deeper in the forest.

“Looks like they escaped and tried to make a break for it," Kirie said. She pointed at another set of human tracks slightly larger than the ones they saw earlier. "This human might have played decoy."

Alphonse attempted to run an enhanced perception this time to glean more evidence. Simply focusing with perception tapped into the stat's passive potential and sharpened sight, but enhanced perception was an active with a cooldown that revealed recently flattened grass, broken branches and other disturbances by highlighting them in smudges of yellow. 

A flash of static filled his vision as he initiated the enhancement. A dizzy spell fell over him as veins of red sat outside his periphery. The cracks enlarged and emit an angry pulse that turned everything into a blur. A painful throbbing intensified near the back of his eyes as he tried to force the pain away by blinking rapidly. The crimson faded after a few seconds and a final flash of static brought his sight back to normal.

Shit. He held a hand over his eyes as he regained his bearings. No magic...right.

Kirie looked up when he let out a sharp gasp. "You alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Just something in my eye." He didn't want to bring up his attempt at using mana. She might feel guilty about his previous deal with the Construct Contract, and he didn't want those unnecessary feelings clouding her focus.

She seemed unconvinced, but hesitantly went back to examining the ground.

The catgirls found some of the more notable disruptions until Alphonse motioned further ahead.

“Check there,” he said. He needed to rely on his own knowledge from texts he read at the Submerged Oasis while also tapping into his own hunting experience from back on Earth. He was confident that he could at least discern when the ambush occurred, and he did have his sketches of tracks written in his contract for reference.

“There are new ones,” Asa said. “Something met the deirgu along the way. Something big. I don't recognize it.”

You can only have so much knowledge being stuck in one place so many years, Alphonse thought.

He stood beside her and frowned at the oval depression in the dirt. Another matching print sat amidst a crushed bush with branches sticking out of the ground. It was at least a solid five feet away, indicating that the creature's stride was considerably long. He agreed with Asa: something really big came through.

“Give me a sec,” Alphonse said. He searched around for a suitable tree and scaled it up to the lowest branch. He narrowed his eyes and examined the tracks leading further north.

He climbed down and regrouped. “I'll lead and scout the area when we get closer.”

They formed up. Asa trailed slightly behind Alphonse while Kirie took up the rear.

It didn't take long to find the source. The forest soon opened up to a copse of trees fed with rays of light that broke through gaps in the canopy off to the western side. The area looked bizarre with the condensed vegetation hugging so close and then suddenly spreading out.

Milling about the open area were strange, furry creatures with beady eyes. They wielded crude spears and bows held in clawed hands. Their faces resembled those of a rat with jutting jaws and overlapping teeth. Some had hunched forms, while others stood unnaturally straight, as if a plank had been tied to their backs forcing them upright.

Sitting in the center of the pack were three individuals bound and gagged with vines. Two of them looked older, perhaps around their middle years – a man and woman. A young girl sat between them who appeared five years of age at most. Not merchants by the look of them. A family.

“What the hell were they doing out here?” Kirie hissed.

Alphonse narrowed his eyes at a large gap between two splintered trees across from them. “No clue, but we better act soon if we're going to help. Looks like the big guy wandered off in a hurry.”

Asa frowned. “Of course we're helping.”

He shrugged. “Kinda figured. Let me scout the other side to make sure it's really gone. If I'm not back in ten minutes, wait for my signal.”

“Which is...?” Kirie asked.

He pointed at the furthest deirgu standing atop a length of standing stone. “When that thing dies.”

He didn't wait for their reply. He disappeared amongst the foliage that bordered the clearing and made his way to the opposite side without incident. There didn't appear to be any enemies waiting to ambush if the main camp fell under attack. He ventured a short ways further to see if the monster that left the larger prints lingered nearby.

The monster really had left in a hurry, and likely in the midst of a rage. More collapsed trees suggested that something demanded its attention. There was a strong possibility that this monster was leading the deirgu. The smaller monsters didn't take prisoners -- they were too dumb to carry out an interrogation.

Alphonse saw and heard nothing. Something that large was difficult to miss. Still, he figured it may be hiding within earshot. It might decide to join late after the fight broke out. The attack needed to be quick and efficient. They didn't need to kill every enemy for a rescue mission.

He went back to the open area when he was satisfied and observed the deirgu.

A little more than a dozen. Four archers. Eight spearmen. The rest, unarmed.

He ran the list through his head again to better track his observations. He waited for their movements to discern any patterns, but most of them stood in the same place looking bored.

Three watchers in the middle to keep an eye on the ones guarding the edge, Alphonse thought.

The deirgu held a solid position with a view of nearly every angle. The weakness in their setup was the complete exposure. A trail of jutting rock formed a blind spot at the rear of the circular formation. It cut just outside the center of the small clearing, forcing a watcher to constantly look up at its fellow standing on top.

Alphonse settled himself on a branch positioned slightly above the deirgu's position on the arced rock formation. The top was angled towards the forest, which meant its body would fall away from the center and out of sight.

He settled an arrow on his bow and drew back on the string. The distance didn't concern him. He'd taken further shots in his own world. The watcher craning its neck to look up was the problem. His attack required patience and a bit of luck.

After a few minutes, the deirgu on the ground looked down and massaged its aching muscles. The one standing above leaned forward. Alphonse released the arrow and it stuck through the eye of the rodent creature. He jumped from the tree and made no more than a whisper as he landed in the grass. The monster teetered for a moment before falling forward, and Alphonse caught the corpse to minimize the noise. It wasn't a big monster, only about three feet in height and skinny. He then climbed the face of the rock formation and peered over the side to observe the watcher below.

A series of clicks emitted from the creature's jutting mouth as it called to its neighbor. The other watcher turned away to regard its comrade. It failed to notice a certain catgirl with a large axe appear from the surrounding forest and cleave the head of who it was supposed to keep an eye on.

Alphonse situated himself on a narrow ledge and fired an arrow at the enemy closest to Kirie's first victim. The arrow lodged in the monster's head, and it died before hitting the ground.

The enemy went on full alert. The gibbering, clicking noises rose in volume. Their attention was soon drawn to Kirie's dramatic entrance. They took a few fearful steps back upon seeing the massive double-edged axe resting on her shoulder.

Alphonse took advantage of the distraction and landed behind the two watchers below. He pulled the first one back and stabbed it through the chest with a dagger. The second monster didn't have a chance to respond as the short sword in his other hand stuck in its jugular.

The other monsters towards the front remained focused on the catgirl with the wicked grin on her face.

“You guys don't look so good.” She extended her weapon at eye level - the enemies' eye level.

A brave deirgu chattered to its comrades and they readied their weapons. They shrieked at Kirie and started to charge forward. Their attack faltered as one of the group took an arrow to the back and fell on its face. A few to the rear whirled about to face Alphonse. One of them briefly saw the tip of an arrowhead before its eye exploded.

It was a simple matter to throw off the deirgus' coordination. About half of the remaining pack went for Kirie, and the other split off to pincer Alphonse. He fired off another quick shot and punctured an enemy's thigh.

Alphonse chose a tactic suited against larger numbers. He started to backpedal as a taunting gesture, turned on his heel and retreated to the forest.

He knew his party was capable enough to handle the rest. If the big monster decided to show up, then he'd likely be the first to see it. He was sure its heavy footfalls would be enough of a warning sign as well. If not, hopefully Asa would talk sense into Kirie and fall back.

He broke the forest edge and ghosted into the gloom of scattered shadows. As expected, the deirgu didn't find this acceptable.

LordAstrea

Been a while since I last uploaded a chapter. Apologies for that. I plan on getting back into this now that my life obligations seemed to have died down. I've also recently started working a job with overnight shifts which has taken some getting used to, and the weird sleep schedule is throwing off my internal clock. I've been doing quite a bit of reading in my spare time to get myself back in gear. Still, it's been too long, and part of it was definitely my enthusiasm waning. So I bear a solid chunk of the blame for the delay. (I definitely blame the sleep)

Expect chapters at least two times a week now. It all depends on my erratic work schedule whether I get more out. Any more than that and I'll burn out. Lol. All my other projects will be put on hold so that I can focus on this story.