Entering the Forest

Earth mages were renowned for their building capabilities. Earth mages could build impressive beautiful buildings faster than construction workers, but they cost three times more.

Building a city had done favors for Will. Mainly. It allowed him to gain lots of experience and level up his Terramancer ability.

Every since the assassination, Will's terramancer and swordsmanship had reach a bottleneck.

By breaking through the to the rank of Master, Will could keep his promise to himself to grow stronger and protect his loved ones.

Will was fortunate to always have someone protecting him from harm ever since he reincarnated, but now Will wanted to be responsible for his own protection.

Jason had asked his friends and mentees to look after Will at the Knight Academy, and later in army during the war. Elder Thaddeus's magical power was enough to scare and deter nobles from attacking for fear of retribution.

But now Jason would soon be retuning to civilian life, and Elder Thaddeus had lost his mana pool.

Now, Will felt it was time to repay the favor. In the future he would progress in rank. And the next step was to breakthrough to becoming a Master Terramancer and Swordsman.

Will decided to spend his 18th birthday in the forest across the river from Guidon.

The forest the third and fourth years ventured into his freshman year at the Knight Academy. The same forest Adventurers visit to fulfill quests from the Gadreel Adventurer Guild.

Coincidentally, the Adventurer Guild was Will first stop on his way to the forest.

Early morning, at the crack of dawn, Will sat in his carriage as he rode to Adventurers Guild.

No, Will did not go there to register as an Adventurer, but to say goodbye to Marcus.

After Marcus' arrival in Gadreel he enjoyed the city so much, he decided to get a job and stick around. Marcus applied and was offered the Assistant Guild Master position.

When Will visited the dwarves, Marcus moved into guild dormitories. Now he both lives and works, when he's not whoring or gambling.

When the carriage reach the Adventurers Guild and Will walked inside. Most of their members were still asleep, some snoring loudly at bar tables where they passed out drunk. This was a common occurrence, adventurers worked hard and partied harder.

This morning, Will noticed the broken chairs and beer tankards. Will also smelled the heavy scent of musk and vomit.

Will greeted the junior clerk on duty who led Will to the second dormitory on the first floor. Will knocked on the door, but no one answered. After a few minutes of waiting, Will pushed the door open to find a snoring Marcus and a courtesan Will recognized from the White Lotus, Cherry.

"Brother wake up!" Will said several times.

Waking up Marcus was like waking up a hibernating bear. From the back, he did sort of resemble a bear, with his long silver hair and prolific back hair, he could be mistaken for a mutated silver bear.

Will decided cover Marcus with a blanket and leave a note. Will left soon after. He next stop was the fort to say goodbye to Jason. While Jason's army service ended, he was waiting on the discharge paperwork that said he was leaving under an honorable discharge. Jason's replacement had arrived and already assumed command.

As the carriage crossed to the new bridge, Will noticed how beautiful the sun looked in the morning rising over the river and forest.

Nisha was comfortable sleeping on the carriage cushion.

She hated the Adventurer Guild because they smelled terrible and there General disregard for animal rights. On more than one occasion, an adventurer had tried to capture her. After the third failed attempt where Nisha almost killed her attackers, Will enacted a law making it illegal to trap Nisha and gave her full human rights. Moreover, he tied Nisha to his position as City Lord, thus an attack on her was equal to an attack on Will.

Jason stood outside the fort, ready to receive Will. Oddly, he was wearing civilian clothing. Will couldn't remember the last time he saw Jason wearing a suit. He looked like a proper noble.

"Good morning brother," Will said hugging Jason.

"Morning! I received my discharge paperwork. I must admit, I'm confused what to do now. The army, my entire day from dawn to dusk was planned. Now, with all this freedom, I'm not sure how I'll spend it?" Jaso lM admitted.

"Take my carriage back to my estate. Spend the day with Kurosawa, to learn how he manages the city. Surely, that shall aid you when you take over for father this year," Will suggested.

"Are you sure you don't want me to accompany you into the forest?" Jason asked.

"No, this is a journey I have to undertake myself," Will said.

"You know must nobles throw birthday parities. You want to go into a forest filled with beasts, monsters, and dire beasts," Jason laughed.

"I saw Marcus, he was sleep, but I left him a note," Will said changing the discussion.

"I see what you're doing. The three of us brothers are too much alike in our dogmatic mental pursuits.

Still who could imagine Marcus settling down and accepting a job? Our wild middle brother is certainly becoming more mature," said Jason.

"Yes, Marcus has always been a free spirit," Will agreed.

"When shall I see you again?" Jason said steeping into the carriage.

"After I return from Guidon. I plan to attend Elizabeth's graduation and then return on the airship with her. The second airship should be operational by then," Will said waving goodbye to Jason as the carriage returned home.

"Are you ready Nisha?" Will asked casting [radar].

"Ready!" Nisha said expanding to her full size and roaring!

The forest was made up of beautiful maple, oak, and evergreen trees. The local adventurers reported seeing Goblins and Hobgoblins roaming around the woods, as well as packs of in Timber Wolves.

To adventurers below the rank of C this forest was a restricted area. Will's strength could easily deal with these monsters, that's the reason why he came. Will wanted to rid the Forest of Goblins to prevent a raid on his city.

When Will approached edge of the forest, he didn't wait, he ran in without hesitation. Cautiously, he advanced toward the inner reaches of the forest. Timber Wolves could be seen patrolling around the woods from time to time.

The Timber Wolf's sensitive nose would sniff him out from over a kilometer away, even longer if her was downwind from them. Thankfully, between Will's radar and Nisha longer sense of smell they could pinpoint the wolves before they were within range a wolf pack.

Not longer after entering, Nisha and Will found a pack of Timber Wolves. Will and Nisha stealthily avoid the Forest Wolves, taking a big detour around them. To gain the element of surprise Will and Nisha would attack form up wind.

Aside from the Timber Wolves, Will also saw with adorable Bear Cubs. The little cubs fumbled and tumbled around on the grassy

plains, giving an innocent and cute look. However, they were still beast, and they hated humans.

As Will and Nisha detour came to an end, they heard a wolf's howl coming from behind them.

"Damn! A wolf den!" exclaimed Will.

Will's luck was bad, there were 9 Timber Wolves and the alpha wolf was a fire beast.

"Okay, Nisha you take alpha and I'll take the 9 wolves," Will said after immediately casting [rock spike], [arrowhead], and [quick sand].

Nisha pounced on the alpha's back bitting it on the back of the next. The alpha easily through Nisha off, her bite didn't even cause the fire beast to bleed.

Will's spells injured two wolves. The other seven rushed to attack Will at the same time. The wolves were skilled fighting as a unit.

Will swung his sword, injuring one in the leg.

The wolves spread out, they were smart enough to not bunch together.

Fighting in the wild required casters to manage their mana supply. A wizard that ran out of mana, was a dead wizard.

While the wolves were fast and had high dexterity, Will's dexterity wasn't to far off.

Will had a hard time hitting the wolves with his spells, but then he realized the wolves attacked him by jumping in the air, where they lacked dexterity.

Will began firing [arrowhead] at the jumping wolves and [earth spike] when the wolves landed impaling them.

After there were only two wolves left, Will easily killed the scared beast by using erosion to dig a pit with rock spikes in the bottom.

The Will ran over to help Nisha. Nisha was doing well, holding her own against the dire east.

The alpha wolf had mana core of a peak journeymen. Which gave Will and Nisha a slight advantage.

Will and Nisha cast spell after spell until they worn the alpha down and won. The battle ended after Nisha casted [roar] which stunned the wolf and then Will casted [rock dome] and [rock spike] trapping and impaling the alpha.

After killing the alpha, Will used his sword to cut out the beast core within the wolves chest plate.

When they finished killing the pack, Will and Nisha had lunch in cave the wolves made their den. They lit a fire and roast the wolf's meat.

After a brief rest, they walked a kilometer deeper into the central region of forest.

After a kilometer Will and Nisha noticed an increasing number of Kobolds in the deeper they walked into the forest. There would even be groups that consisted of ten or more Kobolds.

Kobolds were humanoid dogs, that lived underground. Since Kobolds lived underground they had poor eyesight, but a great sense of smell.

The most dangerous thing about Kobolds were their ability to swarm enemies with overwhelming numbers. For example attacking 5 Kobolds could quickly escalate to 500.

The lowest number of Kobolds they had could reliably face was at least four or five.

If they didn't want to die, Will and Nisha would have pick them apart group by group, or take a detour around them.

Will and Nisha decided to leave the Kobolds alone and travel deeper into the forest. As they moved deeper, they continued to meet pockets of four Kobolds.

After spending over an hour moving forward, Will and Nisha finally arrived in front of a Goblin's Stronghold. Awhile back, some adventurers reported seeing Goblins in the forest and followed them back her.

However, the report failed to mention the Kobolds.

Will hid far out behind a large boulder. Several meters ahead a massive fort 12 meters tall, stood a Goblin fortress. The forest looked like a relic of an old human kingdom. Although the fortress was worn, the Goblins had done their best to make repairs.

Nisha also pointed out the Kobolds no longer filled the area surrounding the area. Instead Goblins had replaced them. These Goblins held daggers, short swords, and bows.

Compared to the pockets of four or five Kobolds, this place was a literal battlefield.

"I didn't imagine there'd be this many Goblins or they'd be this fortified did you?" Will asked Nisha.

Nisha shook her head no apprehensively.

The only good thing about this situation was that these Goblins were very close to each other.

If lucky, Will could cast [meteor] and reduce their numbers. But if there was a Shaman or Chief they might sense my mana and cause everyone to scatter.

Such a large number of monsters was much scarier than Will could imagine.

'I know you guys can't fend all of them off,' Will thought to himself rethinking his plan.

"Nisha you stun as many as possible and I'll drop a meteor on them. We'll fight as much as we can. If it looks bad we'll run and use the spacial door," Will said.

Ready? 3…2…1

Nisha popped out from behind the threes shocking the Goblins in the rambled watch town.

Will cast [Meteor]. Will meteor was no longer a smolder ball of rock. But a hot dense ball of magma. The meteors' rocks grinned against each until they heated up, causing rocks to break down further under they heat until they turned to magma.

The meteor landed on the Goblin forest with a large boom.

The Goblins that were hit by the meteor bellowed in pain before dying.

Within moments, sixty Goblins rushed out of the fort. Several that rushed out were badly wounded.

Five minutes later, there were hundreds of Goblins and tens of Hobgoblins charging to Will and Nisha.

Seeing a large number of enemies Will cast [Sand Storm], [Earthquake], [Quick Sand], and [Arrowhead]. Will felt his mana pool dip.

A brilliant blizzard of sand blinded the Goblins the land shook and split open swallowing a hundred Goblins. A hundred more found themselves drowning in quicksand. Furthermore, tens of Goblins and Hobgoblins were mowed down by Will's rock arrowheads.

Watching the numbers even out, Will unsheathed his Āsudoragon katana and rushed forward.