Terren's Hidey Hole

"Finally!" Terren screamed out, shocking Roy, who was daydreaming while he made containers.

"Scared the hell out of me! What? Did you finally get the skill?" Roy asked Terren who was still cheering to the side.

"Yup! Just in time too, there was barely anything left to cut." Looking down at the pile of bones and tendons, Terren sighed in relief that her work was finally complete.

"Good job, go relax for a while. Solus is going to cook the meat and package it, so you can go train if you want." Roy gave her an encouraging smile, then got back to work. He had made a bunch of containers with lids so that they could carry a decent amount of meat with them in their backpacks.

'We'll have full bags, but it isn't like we need the space for much else right now. I can make most simple things on the spot after all.'

...

When all the food was cooked and packaged, the group decided to look around the area to set up camp for the night.

As they continued their search though, all three of them picked up a particular smell lingering in the air.

"""Goblins!""" They all said in unison, looking at each other.

"Everyone be quiet, let's follow the scent and see what's going on." Roy suggested to the group, before moving out.

...

Around ten minutes later, they found where the smell was originating. A small village, many of the houses were burned to the ground, while the rest were inhabited by goblins.

"I have a bad feeling about this place..." Terren whispered to Roy and Solus, as she looked towards the camp more carefully.

"I think there are multiple goblin sub-species here! We need to be careful, I have no idea how many of them could already have Mana Hearts..." Terren nervously said, while looking at Roy.

"Hmm... I don't know. I don't doubt that there will be at least a couple tier one goblins here, but it is almost night time as well. We could use it to our advantage and take out a lot of them!" Roy excitedly whispered to the others as he back out from the hiding place.

"Roy, are you sure abou-t this?" Solus asked him nervously. She too wondered if it was too dangerous to attack a goblin village with what looked to be dozens of goblins present.

"Hm... We are a party, so since both of you guys feel we aren't ready to take this on, let's find a place nearby and camp out. We have enough meat, so let's train there until at least Solus unlocks her Mana Heart. After that we should be powerful enough to take them on after a surprise attack to thin their ranks." Roy explained his thoughts to the others, and they sighed and agreed.

"Well, since it's decided, let's go look for a well hidden location. I want us to get one that the goblins definitely can't find." Terren made sure to emphasize that she wanted the location to be well hidden, as she began to walk away carefully.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Unlike Roy and Solus, Terren didn't have the [Apprentice Assassination] skill, or any other stealth skills. She needed to be extremely vigilant while this close to the goblin village.

'I know that my dad had a stealth skill that he got from the [Hunter] job, but that is way too far for me. It would probably be better to train the assassination skill like Roy and Solus.' Terren ended her thoughts as she spotted a hole under the roots of a nearby tree.

"Guys, over here!" Terren whisper-shouted, as she approached the hole.

"Looks pretty deep! I'll go down first, then you guys follow after. I want to make sure that there isn't anything dangerous." Roy then stepped forward, before dropping one of his spears into the hole with what looked to be a long strand of hair attached.

*Clunk*

It only took around one second for the object to hit the bottom.

"Dang, what was the equation for depth based on time??? Oh forget it, it probably isn't that deep." As Roy mumbled, he was speaking in English, so Terren was having trouble understanding what he was saying.

'Probably trying to gauge the depth?' That was her best guess as she watched him pull the hide of the deer from earlier out of his backpack.

After collecting it, Roy used the hide to create a rope. He then tied the end to one of the sturdy roots, before dropping the other end into the hole.

"Yup, just about right." Roy said, as he started to climb down into the abyss.

'Never ceases to amaze, huh? He's so different from how the other orcs act. Always makes you wonder if he was serious about being a human, but his tone at the time was so nonchalant...' Musing over Roy's oddities, Terren soon heard a muffled shout to head on down from the man in question.

'Well, here goes nothing.' Terren said, grabbing the rope and sliding down.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After reaching the cave floor, Roy took a quick glance around.

'Much bigger than I originally thought it would be! This might actually end up being perfect. I just wonder how this formed... I don't see any signs of something living in here, nor do I see any scratch marks from digging? Oh well, I guess it's better that we don't have to fight for it.' Taking one more quick glance, Roy turned his head up and called out to his companions.

"All good, come on down!"

*Fwoosh*

Soon, Terren came sliding down the rope, followed by Solus, who was enjoying the ride.

Once everyone was inside the cave, Roy walked over to the entrance and touched the rope. With the connection, he untied the knot using [Keratin Control]. The rope soon fell down and landed by his feet.

'All done. Hopefully no one else will find this hole while we live here!' Roy and the others then unpacked their gear and prepared themselves for a grueling training session.

"Let's see... First off, Solus, you focus on leveling up [Mana Manipulation] and completing your Mana Heart. Terren, you don't really even have enough mana to start, so I want you to focus on learning English and leveling up [Gauntlet Arts]. You'll be able to increase your job level and mana with the English lessons, while also being able to communicate directly with Solus. To be honest, I'm getting tired of translating and you need to be able to talk in battle." Roy chuckled a bit, then told them his plan.

Rubbing his hands together, Roy began to suck up ambient mana, while also turning his hands into hatchets. 'Lez get it!'