The group decided to go on another mission while the exam result hadn't come out yet, I wasn't confident that I had actually passed. Jasly had most certainly passed, she was very talented, besides being very beautiful.
These thoughts were a little confusing.
I still didn't fully believe in my own strength, it could be a bit of impostor syndrome, or maybe it was the fact that in my past life I had been much stronger, I really had been strong. Now I felt like just a fragile human who could use magic.
Maybe fighting monsters I was strong, but in my past life I could break giant rocks, now I could barely leave scratches on rocks. The system of this world was very limited and I couldn't advance in the spiritual system, which made me weaker than I had been in my past life. At the same age I could already fight evenly with any strong adult.
The mission was simple, defeat goblins and collect some herbs in the forest. Normally these missions would be E-rank or D-rank, but by description it fit as a B-rank mission, since the number of goblins was very large. Goblins normally gathered in hordes of twenty or more, in some cases they also stayed in smaller groups, like four or five. Even when living in larger groups, they hunted in smaller ones. But this horde had at least fifty, which made the mission more difficult and required more combat experience, besides plenty of firepower.
Mainly area firepower, since goblins always attacked together, so close-range attacks and attacks that only damaged one opponent were considered very bad. They would only serve to delay the monsters a little.
That was why groups were usually broad in combat power, since everything was unexpected, missions didn't always go as planned, that's why groups with the same type of attack were always dissolved and groups with different abilities thrived.
Of all the guild's groups, we were the one with the highest number of mages. Four mages in one group was a bit excessive, but we managed to handle the work and cover each member's weakness. At least that's what it seemed with the first mission we completed.
I don't know if our group could be considered an exception, but our attacks were diversified. Besides that, I could also be considered a swordsman.
"Another strange mission," Jasmine said as she sat on the ground.
"How long will we still have missions like this? I miss simpler missions," Dain seemed tired.
In fact, it was strange, I wondered if this had something to do with Kiya's prediction about food shortage. She hadn't given many details and it could have been caused by anything. These events would fit into her prediction, those monsters destroyed crops and killed animals that served as food, but I still wasn't sure.
"What were you thinking?" Jasly asked me, she spoke softly to keep the others from hearing.
"About Kiya."
"Makes a bit of sense, but I don't know."
"Who is Kiya?" Dain asked. Even though we spoke quietly he managed to hear.
I looked at Jasly and she began to speak, "she is a seer from our village, she uses magic and can predict the future. A few months ago she predicted food shortage, we don't know when it would happen, nor if it really would happen, but everyone in the village started storing food. That's why these events resemble her prediction a little, since this could lead to difficulty hunting monsters and could reduce food supply, besides increasing the losses in the harvest with some monsters destroying crops."
They went silent. After a while thinking, Jasmine said, "has she ever been wrong?"
"As far as I know, no. She is always right, but it's hard to know exactly when the events would happen. That's why we acted as fast as possible to store all the food."
"Did you manage to store a lot?"
"To be precise, at least two years of food for everyone in the village. Little by little some were storing more and expanding the crops."
"I think we should do the same," Dain said.
We took advantage of the pause to eat. We were tired and so we rested for a few hours. It wasn't very comfortable, but sleeping a few minutes on the ground managed to give me more energy to continue.
Along the way we found some plants that were requested, we collected them and placed them in an item bag. We managed to collect a few more, maybe we could get some extra coins.
"Did you hear that?"
"What was it?"
An arrow came in our direction, they were goblins and hobgoblins. We formed up and Dain started clearing the way, Jasly, Jasmine and I used magic. Nima used magic to improve our stats, which helped Dain defend and attack.
Tobias stayed in a protected place, he wasn't very useful in a fight like this, his role was more to discover traps and find treasures, but in small combats he could help. In this case, he would only get in the way.
Elys was hitting the more distant goblins and the ones that could cause more damage, like the archers.
Goblins were stupid, but smarter than many other monsters, since they could make more complex weapons, like axes and bows.
There were in total twenty-two goblins and two hobgoblins. Tobias started cutting off the ears of the slain monsters, he did this while the rest rested.
"Doesn't seem strange, it was a normal group."
"I don't think it's here, it's deeper in the forest where they were spotted."
"I don't understand this mission," Jasmine said. "The goblins are inside the forest in a place where no one should go without being ready to fight or die."
"She's right," Jasly said. "There's no report that they went to the road nor that they attacked anyone. Who was it that requested the mission?"
Dain took the mission paper and it didn't have the name of who requested it, which was strange, since at the bottom it always had the contractor's name or the name of the village or company.
"Secret mission, I didn't know the guild still accepted missions like that, looks like they're getting inspired by the assassins' guild."
Dain laughed when he heard.
"Or it's a mission from the guild itself to gather information, or something like that."
We stopped thinking about who hired us and started walking. It didn't take long before we were attacked by two orcs, we managed to take them down without any problem, the body was placed in the item bag. In this case we didn't need to cut the ears, since the mission was only about goblins, but this meat could be sold and increase our earnings.
But still it was strange, only two and they seemed to be running from something, maybe a stronger monster, maybe a basilisk.
"We'll ask the butcher to cut the orc and keep the amount of meat that pays for her service, the rest we'll store."
Dain ruined my plans to have more money, but that was fine, his decision was correct. Even more considering what Jasly had said about food shortage. Besides, we also needed to eat during the missions, so it made sense, but it was a lot of meat and it would last for quite some time.
We walked a little further and found a cave, it had several goblins at the entrance, which was very strange, since they normally left two or four goblins at the entrance. Not for protection, they acted more like doormen and warned the other goblins if someone tried to attack.
More goblins were leaving the den, the number surely went past dozens. They seemed more organized than normal goblins, it was as if they really knew what they were doing. Even though they seemed intelligent and could forge their own weapons, they were still monsters and acted more by instinct. But these ones didn't, they had a different aura, it was as if they were humans protecting a den.
"We won't be able to handle them all," Tobias said.
"There's one way, but we'll have to wait. We can wait for most of them to go in and use magic to seal the cave, they'll hardly have another source of oxygen and little by little they can die of asphyxiation."
"I can use explosive magic and Jasly can maximize my magic with wind magic, Jasmine can use that tornado spell and with that we can collapse part of the ceiling and entrance. But Dain and Elys must take down the goblins that stay outside. Nima can use magic to improve our stats and maybe it'll be pretty easy to handle them all. But there's one problem, the den may have more than one entrance. So we have to stay alert so we can run if needed."
The plan was created.
But it still seemed to have some flaws, we were almost completely synchronized, but the plan required speed and trust, I didn't know if we had all that. At least we seemed to.
Up to that moment there wasn't much to do, what was left was to wait for the most opportune moment, which would be when there were fewer monsters at the entrance. So, the only thing to do was wait.