To the Cobweb Forest

Jax arrived at the eastern gates of the city, where he met up with Danny and the rest of the party.

He was introduced to them.

Jax listened to their names, but by the time they were ready to leave, he had forgotten all names but Loma, the other porter in the group.

Loma was a muscular man, slightly taller in height than Jax, and a few years older. He held a large pack on his back, which at the moment seemed to be more or less empty.

The fighters themselves were also slightly older than him, appearing to be in their early 20s. Since Danny had already mentioned the composition, he knew who did what after being introduced.

Jax remembered them by their physical description.

The female warrior wore a sleeveless shirt and held a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

One of the male warriors wore a green shirt and had short hair. The other male warrior was Danny, wearing a brown shirt.

The male sorcerer held a large shield, and the female sorcerer—the strongest of the group—had long black hair that disappeared inside the armor she wore.

As they made their way to the forest, Jax asked Gemma a few different things that made him curious about them all.

"Why are sorcerers the ones that are with armors and shields? Shouldn't it be the warriors who do that?" he asked.

"In the first few Opal stages, the difference in strength between a sorcerer and a warrior is not that far off without them using their skills. Since sorcerers only cast spells anyway in a fight, they are mostly given the task to defend the party. You'll see that it will change once you move on to the next few Carriages."

While instinctively the thought of sorcerers being the ones with armor made little sense to Jax, the explanation made up for it. For now, it seemed this was the right thing.

The other male warrior turned toward Jax for a moment and turned back around, whispering to Danny.

Jax noticed it but couldn't hear anything they were saying. "Can you go and listen to what they're saying?" he asked.

"I can, but their helper will tell them I'm there," Gemma said. "Are you okay with that?"

Jax raised an eyebrow. "Never mind, I forgot they had helpers too. How many in total here?"

"All but the porter next to you," Gemma said.

Jax turned toward Loma. "Hey, you've been a porter before this?" he asked.

"My job is being a porter," Loma said. "What about you?"

"First time," Jax said. "I came here less than a week ago."

Loma frowned. "Are you good at being a porter? Were you one before you came?"

"No idea. Can't remember shit," Jax said. "But how hard can it really be? It's just carrying stuff, isn't it?"

Loma slowly shook his head, his expression one of shock at Jax's nonchalance. "You do realize how dangerous this job is, right? You need to be vigilant at all times, you need to know what to avoid in order to not die—" the man paused. "Wait, if you weren't born here, then you should be registered. Don't you have a Path?"

"Hmm? Of course," Jax said. "I'm a Sorcerer. No spells though, so… technically just a regular guy."

Loma frowned. "Why are you working as a porter if you're a sorcerer?"

"What do you mean? I need the money."

"Surely it's not urgent. You just came here," Loma said. "You could earn it later once you have your spells and kill some beasts on your own. You do realize we're going to a place that's considered the second most dangerous place around here?"

Jax was speechless. "My helper failed to mention that."

"It's too soon to tell you that. Most people start thinking about going out to fight once they've trained for about two weeks," Gemma explained.

"And yet you're sending me to a dangerous place in less than a week."

"Not to fight," Gemma added. "You're just working as a porter. We know you are strong, so it's just carrying things."

"He says it's dangerous though," Jax said.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you what to avoid. You'll be fine."

Jax wasn't sure how much he could trust her, but at that moment, he chose to.

"Let's see how things go," Jax told Loma. "Do tell me if I'm a burden on you."

The pathway they walked on was one where carriages and carts were drawn, taking people to and from the nearby cities. The nearest city here was apparently a three-hour walk away to the east, called Saltport City.

The path to the forest diverged early on during this very path and led north, which was where Jax and the rest went.

"Why didn't we bring a cart or carriage of our own?" he asked. "That looks like the better way to carry things than just two men."

"We can't take the cart into the forest, and we'll be going so deep that it just won't make sense to come back and forth to the cart even if we kept it at the edge," Loma explained. "So, the only proper alternative is to have us carry everything while the fighters are free to kill monsters."

"I see."

They really had thought through everything.

They arrived before the forest some time later. From the city gates to here, it took them about twenty minutes of walking. It was far enough away that no monster could reach the city without someone knowing, and close enough at the same time that people could come each day here to hunt.

The reason for the name 'Cobweb Forest' soon became apparent to Jax. The entire forest was indeed covered in cobwebs at every step, as if it was the domain of spiders.

"How does one even do anything in this place?" Jax asked. "It looks like you'll get trapped at every step."

"Don't worry," Danny said as he turned around. "Those spiderwebs easily burn away. We just need to carry a few burning torches, and we can clear away a large section of the cobwebs."

Danny pointed to a few people that burned a few pieces of wood and began walking in. As they walked, the cobwebs burst away at once, propagating far enough that the entire party could easily walk through.

The sorceress gestured at Loma, who put down his pack and brought out a few large sticks, a bundle of cloth, and a bottle full of something that smelled flammable.

Loma pulled out a box of matchsticks and lit the torch. With the fire lit, they were now ready to walk into the forest.

The sorceress took the torch from Loma's hands and walked in first.