Chapter 97 - Alfheim#7 Lucy And Lilith

"I will protect you. For now, I just want to test how strong you are. Honestly, based on the Leader's attitude, it looks like you are going to stick with us for a while. To be blunt with you, I don't want you to become a burden to us, that's why I have decided to  teach you a few things so that at least you can take care of yourself." I speak to her with a serious face.

She looks at me dumbfoundedly before a bright smile comes on her face. She wipes her non-existent tears before jumping at me as she shouts, "Thaaaannnkkyyyoouu, Luuucyyyy."

-Thud

"Huff…huff.." kicking her away, I catch my breath as I fall on the ground. That b*tch f*cking hugged me so tightly, I couldn't breathe at all. I look at her with a glare, as she scratches her head as if she still doesn't understand what she did wrong. I started doubting if it is a good idea to take her in.

"Stay 5 metres away from me. Always," I speak with my eyes piercing her, at which she turns her head and tries to whistle it out.

I sigh again as I move toward our quest's location. Observing me walking away, Lilith hurriedly runs towards me. 

…

After walking for quite a considerable distance, we arrived at our destination. Looking at the empty space and the forest right ahead in front of us, we analyse the surroundings for a while before a certain broken cart comes into our view. Getting closer to the cart, we observe the mana flow around it. Magicules of Fire and Ice covered the area, but there were no signs of Fire and Ice around.

"They used artifacts of Fire and Magic and then erased the traces with Wood Magic and Light Magic." I analyse the surroundings as I tell Lilith about what happened. Turning around, I see Lilith missing from my back.

"Sigh…where did this idiot go now?" I sighed. This is going to-

"LLLLLUUUUUUUCCCCCYYYYYYYYY HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPP!!!!!!" I hear the voice of Lilith coming from a certain distance away from here, deep into the forest ahead.

"[Mana Sene: Eyes of Ifrit]" I channel mana into my eyes and body to observe the surroundings as far as I can. I notice the heat signatures of Lilith a bit far away along with other people surrounding her.

"[Burst Sprint]" Channeling mana into my body, I ran towards the place where Lucy was. Time slowed down with my sense slightly disoriented by the wind hitting my face, but it was still bearable. I coated a mana layer on my body and then dashed towards that place. 

Passing through the forest and jumping into trees, I reach the place in an instant where I find Lilith in a small cage, probably made for children. There was a portal right above her head, which was connected to another trap portal to capture people here.. Observing her current scenario, the bandits looked like they had just cast a bind spell on Lilith and stopped her from speaking anymore. 

I then hide my presence and observe the situation for a few moments. A smile forms on my face as I realise that this situation is somehow one of the lucky trails we can take. One of the persons senses around for a few minutes before confirming that there is no danger. Then they move Lilith towards their place. 

Following them for a few moments, I reached a certain place where a large wooden boundary was made, inside which a few houses were built.

'Did they really arrive a week ago?' I can't help but question this, but then the thought of having an excellent wood mana user crossed my mind. It would also make sense with the scene near that cart.

"What is a pipsqueak doing here?" I hear a voice coming from my behind. Hearing which, I jump towards Lilith and free her in an instant. Jumping any other way would lead to them charging at me and me fighting all of them alone. Running away isn't an option either, since they might change their location right after this.

After freeing Lilith, I then finally observe the man, a beastman of the tiger clan, looking at me as if I were some prey. He then moves closer to me with a sly smile as he speaks, "Looks like it is our lucky day."

The other bandits look at us with a smile on their faces. Then they prepare to fight as all of them move closer to me, but before they could do so, the beastman says, "Let me fight them. It has been a while since I had a proper exercise."

The others nod and take their weapon back. Soon, more and more bandits come out of the houses. I observe their increasing numbers.'This doesn't look like 50 or 70, more like 100 or 120' I think as I sigh at my own stupidity to believe in the numbers on the quest paper.

'However,' If that beastman is out, the others don't look so strong. It still is within the acceptable range.

"What are you thinking? Looks like you are scared…haha…then I shall move towards you. I am going to Enj-"

-Booom

I hit the Beastman with my fire fist, punching him away. His body passes through the wooden house and hits the wall behind before falling on the ground as lifeless as it could be.

'Well, that finishes the first part,' I think as I observe the surrounding bandits looking at me with fear in their eyes. 

"Let's kill some bugs," I look at Lilith, who looks at me with a smile on her face, then nods before chanting,

"[Silver Magic: Globe of Inferiority]" She chants and a silver, translucent barrier covers the entire area. A smile forms on my face as I look at her magic. A fast and smooth chant to form a dense barrier such as this…this is perfect, looks like there will be a lot fewer things to teach her than I thought before.

After an hour of screams that were heard all over the forest, enough to alert a few adventurers and the Royal knights, we saved the kids and submitted the heads of the 112 bandits in the Adventurers' guild, completing the 1st mission of today.