Deeper into the Forest

After receiving their armor and weapons from the smithy, Forlorn's Hope decided to travel to the forest to find stronger beasts. All the members started at E rank. The first day was uneventful, mostly hunting slimes and horned rabbits. Most of the other new grants stay here since they haven't formed a party yet and accumulating EXP is safer here.

After the end of the first day, they were close to leveling up to D rank. Motivated by their progress, they are now looking for goblins and gnomes, but that means going even deeper into the woods. They decided to camp in the forest until they can breakthrough to the next rank.

The next day, they come across a tiny settlement of approximately 30 gnomes. The group circles the settlement. Tasha begins by casting Wind's cradle which is a sleeping spell. Most of the gnomes fall unto the ground snoring, while seven more able-looking ones scan around confused. Althea uses her newly acquired spell Light chains to hold two of the gnomes who are trying to run away. Ellie uses her Ice daggers to impale another two. Terrick has begun casting Fire ball on the sleeping gnomes while Bryce is helping attack the last three gnomes with Dark lightning. As Bryce slits the throat of the last goblin, it screams loudly. From a distance, another scream can be heard. The team quickly kills all the gnomes and regroups. Terrick receives a notification that he has reached enough experience points to level up to D rank. Althea and Ellie receive them as well. A limping Bryce flickers back from the clearing where he killed the last gnome. They knew they had to get ready as the screaming horde seems to be getting louder and closer.

Tasha readies her Wind boomerang in anticipation of the horde. Althea casts Light's blessing to heal everyone's wounds. Ellie and Terrick are standing close to each other. Floating around them are Ice javelins and Fire javelins. What enters the settlement is a group of 50 gnomes wearing mismatched armor and tree bark. Some were holding clubs and swords while others are readying their bows. A rain of Ice and Fire javelins pelt the gnomes and about ten of them are hit. Some are dead while others are still running towards the grants. Tasha activates her Wind boomerang which beheads two gnomes then curves back to lop off three more. Bryce uses Dark flicker to close the gap and casts Dark lightning to kill seven more gnomes. Althea's recent rank up means that she can now produce 4 Light chains per cast. They appear from the ground and impale four more gnomes. By now, Terrick and Elie can be seen holding hands while casting another batch of javelins. Within 30 minutes, the second gnome encounter was over. Those who didn't level up from the settlement attack now did. The increase in power is observable since mana power doubles between E rank and D rank. They felt more confident strolling around looking for more monsters. After the rank up, they noticed that the accumulation of EXP was harder. They found a couple more settlements but have barely received 25% of the EXP needed to level up to C rank.

They hit another settlement, a colony of about a hundred foot soldier knolls. By this time, the team has found their rhythm. Tasha uses her Wind's cradle to knock out the weaker ones while Terrick and Ellie spam the main formation of knolls with Ice and Fire javelins. Althea and Bryce use their long-range spells and attacks to wipe out the stragglers. Since the enemy is strong compared to their level, they receive a lot of experience and are once again close to leveling up.

After the second day of being in the Forlorn Forest, here is the list of all the spells they have acquired since their Granting.

Althea's spells: Light's blessing, Light blast, Light daggers, Light shield, Light sword, Light chain, Light javelin, Light healing, Fire ball, Fire javelin, Fire blast, Water javelin, Water ball, Earth golem, Earth wave, Earth javelin, Earth ball, Wind flight, Wind slice, Wind javelin

Bryce's spells: Dark flicker, Dark shield, Dark sword, Dark lightning, Dark Surge, Dark blast, Dark daggers, Dark shadow

Jeruelle's spells: Water ball, Water javelin, Water blast, Water wall, Water cannon, Water healing, Water dome, Water melt, Ice dome, Ice javelin, Ice spear, Ice blast, Ice armor, Ice wall, Ice freeze

Tasha's spells: Wind's cradle, Wind flight, Wind slice, Wind javelin, Wind blast, Wind wall, Wind speed, Wind breath, Wind boomerang

Terrick's spells: Fire ball, Fire javelin, Fire wall, Fire blast, Fire explosion, Fire fall, Fire breath

The next morning, they run into a group of bipedal foxes. The enemy had some magic users with them. The fox magicians rained Rock shower which injured Bryce who was in the frontlines. Terrick activates one of his newly acquired spells Fire breath. Two soldier foxes jumped in front of the fox magician. They were roasted to death while the magician was heavily scared. Tasha used her Wind breath to fuel the fire until all the nearby foxes died. Althea takes advantage of the confusion to run and retrieve Bryce. She uses 2 Light chains to drag him back while using the two free chains to stab two foxes wearing armor. Ellie is now spamming the remaining foxes with Ice daggers. The last fox escapes and runs deeper into the forest. Tasha and Terrick runs after him through a thicket of trees and manages to kill it just before it reaches a ravine. They walk closer to inspect the body making sure that the fox is truly dead. As they scan the body, they see that in the valley below there is an encampment of numerous beasts and monsters. It stretches as far as the eye could see!

The two grants look terrified and immediately run back to the others.