Heroic Guidance

We travelled together for days, since this hero was newly summoned and set out pretty much right after his summoning the level of his lust was limited in comparison towards the other heroes.

But, his attitude was far worse, pretty much the furthest thing I would qualify as being a hero.

"Aren't we there yet? We've been travelling for DAYS."

"we're literally minutes from arriving Patience."

We continued on through the forest encountering a few plant monsters and monster insects along the way, while this hero was still a hero compared to the last he just seemed to be I don't know lacking?

He was still stronger than me but his rate of growth was like a tenth the last.

In all our fights up to now he'd yet to unleash on of the skills all heroes eventually possess.

"Are we FINALLY there?"

"Yes. This is one of several camps of bounty hunters. Be careful, because-"

"Whoo, I'm going to go check it out!"

Without waiting a second longer the hero dashed off into the encampment.

Striding in myself I came to greet a few old friends.

"Simon, you old bastard! What are you doing here?"

"Just my part in the war against the Demon Lord."

"Still think it's not a lost cause, huh? Well, what do you need?"

"Supplies and a place to rest, for a start."

"we've got both. The woods have gotten worse ever since those damn elves starting sending scouts into Oscil, but this is one of the safer camps."

"Then I need information about bandits and other dangerous groups. I intend to guide the hero through a bunch of random forests with weak monsters until he can survive against the demon lords forces."

"Then I wouldn't recommend going east. Theres some woman leading a real rough bunch, and they have explosives."

"Noted. Anyone worthwhile I could hire to assist us?"

"Most of the hunters here are pathetic. But there is this one new chick though, named Aka... she's one of the fastest I've ever seen but... I'm telling you with a body like hers your hero wont be able to keep his hand off of her, well if she doesn't slit his throat first for trying."

"Tell me more about these small groups is i-"

"Hey, old man!"

"Check it out, I got us a new partner! and she's hot!"

"Is that seriously why you hired me? You'd better be able to pay..."

"I'd be the one paying you, actually, but I've been told you're competent."

"Well then mister employer, Hi there, names Aka. Glad to see you're the one whose actually in charge."

"Hey, I'M the leader! I'm the hero!"

"Of course you are. Aka, we're just going to test our strength on some of the bandits in the region."

"And we're totally going to take down that bitch to the east!"

"It might be better if we-"

"Nope, we're not arguing about this. Let's go!"

The hero was not patient and quickly rushed off to find himself yet another fight.

Aka meanwhile looked at me who was sighing with a look of was that pity.

"Well we'd best get after him fore he hurts himself."

With out supplies replenished and a new party member our margin for safety should be fine so long as we don't run into the bandit leader that I was told about.

The first few fights we pretty normal, Aka the new addition to the party was a great add, her speed was amazing she wielded a pair of iron daggers like an assassin, our teamwork was phenomenal, while the hero was off to the side just swinging his sword around like a lunatic.

This continued on until the heros patience had all but lapsed...

"You guys are way too slow! I'm going on ahead!"

With our teamwork, aka and I had actually slain more monsters than the hero but we didn't get the chance to object as he ran off ahead...

"Sorry for pretending I'm some kind of an expert. I'm good, but I need to act like I'm a lot better to keep people away from me.

"You don't have to apologize to me."

"I still feel like I should. You're the real deal, and I don't like pretending. it makes me feel like... like..."

"Hey! Hurry it up!"

from the distance out of view the hero called back to us.

"Like that."

"You don't need to worry about it. You're very talented."

"Thanks! Now let's get moving."

Aka walked forward and I could not help but focus on her ass...

[Ugh, I've never felt lust this strong. what the hell is wrong with me?]

I continued on holding in my resolve until we regrouped with the hero.

"Look at these asshols blocking the road for no reason. Ugh I hate... but whoa that chick is hot! let's go help them!"

"No way in hell. It's clearly a trap."

"How can you abandon innocents in their time of need?"

"seriously? The whole thing could not be a more obvious ambush. You see that cliff? They'll have more people ready to attack us from there."

"..."

"It looks like they made it up there via a system of caverns. Lets check for another entrance and turn their ambush on them."

"I like the way you think."

"Huh? Wha? I don't get what's going on, but... Let's go kick some ass!"

Having managed to convince the hero otherwise we circled around through the forest and entered the cavern system continuing to take down the monsters we came across, even dealing with a set of cockatrices.

The cavern itself was pretty straightforward, however we did manage to locate couple crates.

One had some gold in it, another had a health potion that hadn't yet expired and the last one... had a collar.

Yeah one of those kinds of collars, I kept it hidden from the hero, gods know what he's use it for.

As we proceeded on, there was... well a presence that I was drawn to.

"Is that a crystal?"