Ephemeral: A Journey To Find The Meaning Of Life
Chapter 9: The First Mission
I got a message from the village chief that only the four of us are allowed to carry out this mission, because only we are considered capable of completing it. Helen understood and did not insist on coming with us. This mission given to us can be a very dangerous mission, because we have to come to that place. One of the largest empires on the continent, the "Kingdom of Amfordia". In order to get information from one of the adventurers trusted by the Elf village head.
The journey we took may take a long time. I was a little worried about Helen, but the village chief assured me that Helen would be fine while in this village. I was a little relieved after hearing that, at least my mind was not disturbed while on a mission.
"Don't burden us, do you understand?!" Gorris still doesn't seem to accept me.
"Yes-yes!" My answer.
Our current position is not too far from the Elf village. We chose to go through the forests rather than the main road, because many human traffickers used the road. I just follow their directions and obey them, Jorgun as the leader of the group will do his best in this mission.
We found a village with no inhabitants, it seems like the place has not been lived in for a long time. Trying to inspect the village, if there are useful things of course should not be missed. I found a book that I thought had information in it. When I opened the book, only a few pages remained. Broadly speaking this book tells about the origins and history of this village, not too important. But what caught my attention was some paper tucked into this book, like wanting to give a message. When I tried to read those papers, sure enough, there was a message inside. If I can conclude then this is how it is...
It is sad, sad and sad for the fate of this village. If only that day I did not believe his words, I could still enjoy my life. There is nothing you can trust, they will definitely betray you one day! For the last time, I really regret it.
I thought that this village was destroyed by treason. At least that's what I can get from this message. I wanted to invest this place, so I asked Jorgun for permission. There weren't many important things I found after that, but I got a rusty old sword, a strange emblem on the handle. I took it to find out about the emblem.
After I finished, we continued our journey again. I was still curious about the sword I just picked up, I asked Jorgun, but he had no answer about that sword.
"It's already night. Let's stop today, let's go again tomorrow. Don't do things that can trouble the group, understand?!" Jorgun.
We answered with "Understand!".
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Today we continue our mission to find the tree. Nothing too important happened today. While resting, I talked to Caris about how she could become familiar with Helen. She told me what happened that day, Caris said that Helen was a very innocent and beautiful girl, she had also heard Helen sing. Caris said that she was 61 years old, I wanted to be surprised but considering that she was an Elf. The 61-year-old elf is still considered a teenager, unlike humans, 61 years old already has a grandson.
After that, we continued our journey until nightfall. As I was about to fall asleep, I heard a voice. Apparently Gorris is training alone in the middle of the night. I'm trying to get her to talk, but it looks like she's just gonna cut me off.
The journey continued again after that night. This time we found a small town, we tried to get inside. Caris, Gorris and Jorgun hide their Elven identities in robes.
We bought supplies for the next trip, including better weapons. Because starting from here, the road we passed would be more dangerous because there were so many monsters. Although most of them are tiger-class monsters, it still does not rule out the possibility that we will meet monsters with bear-class.
The monsters in this world were divided into several classes, most of them were tiger class. One of the tiger-class monsters was a Goblin, they had intelligence above average monsters in general, meeting some of them was not a big deal.
We continue our journey.
"Stop!" Jorgun stopped the movement of the group.
I saw a group of Goblins relaxing in front of a cave. They were quite numerous, there were roughly around 30 Goblins in that place. The best move is to avoid them because fighting Goblins that much will consume a lot of our energy. We secretly tried to take another path so as not to deal with them.
It may be too late to realize what happened, but Gorris is not with us at the moment. He tried to fight those Goblins alone.
"Keep out of my way, stupid monster!" Gorris.
The emotions of the Goblins were provoked due to the words spoken by Gorris.
"Damn it! Always causing trouble" Jorgun invites us to help Gorris who is being attacked by Goblins.
We helped him fight against the Goblins. Their numbers are really many, I'm not sure this will go well.
This many goblins should have a leader guiding them, right? If true, this is a big deal.
While fighting with the Goblins. I saw one of the Goblins that was different from the other Goblins, I think that Goblin was their leader. When I tried to attack him, the Goblins immediately tried to protect him. As expected, it was a Goblin that could use magic. This is really a problem.
"Be careful! That goblin could use magic, he was the leader of these Goblins." I told them that.
I have to find a gap to break through directly into those Goblins! But how is it?... Ah, there he is!
I will try to use potions that enhance physical abilities. I bought it in the city we just left before. I drank the potion, my body felt lighter and stronger simultaneously. I asked them to distract the Goblins as much as possible from the leader.
As they were doing that, I looked for a loophole to launch an attack on those abnormal Goblins.
That's the chance I've been waiting for!
I barged straight towards the Goblin and immediately cut off his head with my sword. The effect of this potion is really useful in close combat, I have to store this potion more.
No one was injured between us, this fight went quite smoothly. Jorgun praised me, he said I was talented in fighting. It's the first time anyone has said that to me, of course I'm happy about it. We decided to continue our journey after that.
1 Week had passed since that day, we had passed through various obstacles in the midst of our journey. We see monsters more often. We tried to avoid the fight, but Gorris was always the first to start the fray. He made the journey even more difficult, Jorgun always advised him, but Gorris never stopped doing so. Caris is starting to get exhausted and out of steam, she may need a comfortable resting place at this time. Our food supply is running low, maybe the day after tomorrow we won't be able to eat anymore. I hope we can get to our destination soon and complete this task quickly.
What is Helen doing right now? I miss his strange behavior.
I fell asleep because my brain could not resist the fatigue that was happening to my body.
......................
Finally, the kingdom to which we are going has been found, the Kingdom of Amfordia.
This place is really big, I have never seen a place this big since childhood. Are there a lot of interesting things in this place? N-no! Focus on the mission you're on, Luke.
They wear robes again when they go inside. That said, in this place there is a lot of discrimination against living things other than humans, not least the Elf race.
We are looking for a place to stay first. After such a long journey, we really need a place to charge comfortably. I asked the people around me about the information of lodging places in this kingdom.
Lodging is quite a lot in this kingdom, because many traders and adventurers who come to this place to relax. We took a little lodging on the outskirts of the kingdom, in order to prevent Caris, Gorris and Jorgun from the suspicions of the surrounding community. I contributed a lot this time, because I am the only human among this group.
I tried to circumnavigate this kingdom alone, looking for items that would be useful for my next trip. Since this was a very large kingdom, it definitely had items of better quality. The most important thing right now was to buy food supplies and search for the adventurer.
But, I'll put food supplies first. Because if we're not in top shape, the mission will go badly.
After buying food supplies, I went back to the inn to meet them. Jorgun gave the order to rest while in this place, tomorrow we will just continue this mission. He told us to replenish our energy and rest well, especially Gorris who likes to act as she likes.
We booked three rooms. Jorgun and Caris will sleep alone in the room, Gorris and I sleep in one room.
"Why should I room with him anyway?!" Gorris protested to Jorgun who decided.
Jorgun seems to be intending to make me and Gorris more familiar. Gorris absolutely dislikes Jorgun's decision, but Jorgun begs him to obey this time alone.
"Yes-yes! I'll take it this time, just this time, okay?!!" Gorris agreed even though she was a little irritated.
While going to sleep, I saw Gorris tidying up the room perfectly. I didn't think he was such a perfectionist. I praised him, but he didn't feel happy about it, instead thinking I was mocking him.
What exactly did he think?!
Tired of thinking, I chose to sleep faster. As per the orders of the Jorgun, we have to rest well tonight. Tomorrow, the mission will resume. I hope everything will go well.
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