Chapter 81 - Observe

The next day.

Albert and Yale walked to the west gate, where they agreed to meet Erica.

When she was in the brothel, Erica only wore a bolero attached to each other and a miniskirt for the purpose of enticing the customer. She had an image change in this journey.

She wore a white t-shirt coupled with a leather vest that covered only around her stomach, raising her breast a bit to make it look a bit bigger and enticing. Although she was still wearing a miniskirt as one of her objectives was to get Albert's heart, she also wore long knee socks just to prevent small thorns or splinters from scratching her skin.

She carried a bag, the size of her body. It seemed to have a tent and other necessities for herself and the group.

She tied her long red hair and kept her eyes sharp, preparing herself to hunt some monsters.

The moment she noticed Albert and Yale, her sharp gaze disappeared, leaving only an energetic and gentle smile that could warm everyone up.

"Prince Yale, Sir Albert." She nodded politely, greeting them.

"We've made you wait." Albert smiled, nodding back.

"I just came here a few minutes ago. Please don't mind it." She chuckled.

"Well, the journey won't be that long, so we're going to kill as many as possible." Albert looked at her.

"Yes. I have no problem." She agreed without hesitation.

"Alright. Let's go then."

The trio then left the city, making their way to the hill.

During the journey, Erica was playing conservatively and proactively depending on the occasion. When they were walking together, she chose to be silent, listening to their conversation.

On the other hand, when they needed her power like preparing food or resting, she would try to make them comfortable.

Though, Albert and Yale were already independent themselves, not leaving many openings for her to exploit.

They went through the forest and didn't encounter any monsters within the first five hours.

However, it soon changed because they were already far away from the city, meaning not many hunters cleaned this place periodically.

"Grr…"

Suddenly, a voice echoed in both Yale and Albert's ears as they exchanged looks.

Albert and Yale immediately took their bats. Since Erica already knew about their special place to store the bat, Albert and Yale didn't hesitate to utilize that advantage to make their trips far easier.

As soon as the bats appeared on their hands, they were ready to charge forward. But they were not alone this time.

Albert stopped himself at the last second and looked at Erica. "Follow us."

Erica nodded with a serious expression. "Don't worry. I can read a bit of your body language. So, I should be able to follow the bare minimum of what you're planning to do."

"Okay." Albert then turned around and chased after Yale, who didn't even bother to talk to Erica.

The trio made their way toward the monster and soon realized it wasn't just a single monster. There were four monsters standing next to each other.

The monsters had a cylindrical body and head like that of a cat. However, only its head was covered with fur, not its fat body.

Yale released his light and dark power in an instant, feeling no clash between the two elements.

When Albert arrived with Erica, he patted Yale's shoulder and pointed at two monsters on the left before pointing at himself, telling Yale they were his prey.

Yale nodded, knowing that his prey were the ones on the right.

Erica wanted to stop them to ask what she was supposed to do, but Yale and Albert had moved toward the monsters.

When there were only thirty feet left, Albert raised his hand, summoning another bat.

'Bonk Arrow!' He waved his hand down as the Bonk Bat moved at an incredible speed toward the monster on the left.

That Bonk Bat immediately got the monsters' attention as they leaped to the side to avoid the Bonk Bat.

After that, they ran to Albert, who was the only one visible due to Yale hiding behind a tree.

When they got close enough, Yale came out from behind the tree and stomped the ground, creating a small spark of his power to launch himself forward. This was Yale's Bonk Dash.

With this skill, Yale covered the remaining distance in an instant as he struck the monster's head with his Bonk Bat.

'Light and Dark Bonk.' Yale muttered inwardly as he hit the head as hard as possible, trying to launch him away.

However, the monster didn't budge, resulting in it receiving Yale's momentum. In that instant, an indentation to the inside appeared on the face, almost touching its brain.

'The monster is too heavy for me to launch without the Bonk power, huh.' Yale was disappointed, knowing that the majority of his power came from Bonk.

Meanwhile, Albert was getting chased by three monsters because the third one didn't go after Yale.

As experienced support, Erica suddenly came to Albert's side and kissed her fingers before waving them to throw that kiss at one of them.

In that instant, the monster turned around and chased after her, giving Albert the opportunity to kill the two monsters.

Albert smiled. Although he had gotten the power up from the Lumberjack Title when fighting in the forest, it still meant a lot for him if someone grabbed the monster's attention for a moment, allowing him to finish his job as soon as possible.

Hence, the moment he saw the opportunity, Albert pointed his Bonk Bat to the monster.

'Bonk Strike,' he muttered as another Bonk Bat made of lightning came out of the bat, flying straight to the monster's head.

Bam.

The Bonk Bat caused a small spark and electrocuted the monster, paralyzing it for a moment.

After that, Albert hit the ground with his bat as the golden-colored energy ran through the ground and rose right in front of the monster, turning into a bat.

Bam.

The monster didn't fly away, but its body began shaking as if it had almost lost consciousness. Albert took this chance to use his Bonk Dash to appear before the monster and struck the head with all his might.

'Bonk Discharge.' He struck the creature's head and killed it. After that, he used another Bonk Dash and used his Bonk Smasher to kill the other one.

[Killed a Hemordicous.]

[EXP+30]

He then raised his head and saw Yale defeating the last monster while Erica observed him since she had nothing to do anymore.

"Good job." Albert waved his hand, indicating that they had finished their jobs.

Yale acted as usual and talked with Albert, but Erica was in shock.

She thought, 'They're this powerful? Aren't they supposed to be E Rank Adventurers? This kind of power, I'm afraid it's around D Rank. I can see some awkward movements in their actions, but if they get more experience, I think a C Rank is possible.

'Also, Sir Albert is using multiple elements too? But considering Prince Yale's condition, I think only someone who can wield multiple elements can teach someone to do the same.

'Even so, if I'm not wrong, Sir Albert can use more than two elements. First of all, there is one ability that doesn't have an element. Then, there is Lightning, which seems to be his main element. After that, it's Space Element since he can store his Bonk Bat somewhere.

'Having two elements alone is close to impossible to cultivate, but he has three? He doesn't seem to have difficulties in using them either.

'If he continues showing such progress, I'm afraid his power will be beyond my imagination. I'm lucky to have this opportunity… I'm sure that my queen would like to form a good relationship with him even more after knowing this.

'On the other hand, there's not much time for Prince Yale to train under Sir Albert. And in such a short time, he can wield his two elements so perfectly? Is this Prince Yale's talent or is the teacher that good?

'Considering Sir Albert's elements and abilities… I'm afraid it's the latter. This just elevated Sir Albert's talent even more.' Erica assessed them, not knowing that this was just the tip of an iceberg.

She hadn't even seen how Yale and Albert could become stronger when bonking others, let alone other features of Bonk Bat.

While she was thinking, Albert came to her and asked, "By the way, can you charm monsters like that?"

"I'm afraid not." She shook her head in disappointment. "There are monsters that can easily be enticed, but they're not among them."

"I guess, we can only rely on Satyrs…" Albert thought for a moment.

"No, no. I think I can do more. There are many types of monsters residing in this forest, so it's possible to charm some of them."

"Well, alright. At the end of the day, it's not our priority." Albert nodded.

"Yes. I will do my best to support you. By the way, what do you think of my performance earlier? Do you need me to change something?"

"Sorry for not discussing our battle plan with you… We got used to fighting together, so having another person made us forget that there were three of us. For that, I apologize."

"No, no. It's fine. I'm just tagging along." Erica waved her hands as she was the one receiving the favor to get this kind of view from the front seat.

"Well, I usually split the monsters evenly with Yale. So, I want you to be the buffer like earlier."

"I see. I will distract the excess monsters. At the same time, I will charm other monsters as well."

"Yeah. That's about it." Albert nodded. "Sorry, but there's another reason why we would like you in our party."

"What is it?"

"I have trauma from sharp objects, so I can't use any knife to do things. So, Yale is the one who usually takes care of everything. But he is a prince, you see…"

"I see." Erica nodded in understanding. She knew that the two couldn't take care of themselves well in their journey because of this situation. So, she thought this was the perfect time for her to act, showing her charm.

"This monster has delicious meat, so I will get some and bring them with us for dinner. Also, I will take their ears and fangs for appraisal in the guild, allowing you to get the money if there's any mission or bounty related to them."

"Yes, please. As for the split—!"

"No, no. Please don't split the money. I don't need them. Besides, I'm going to stay on the back most of the time, so let me just observe both of you. That's enough for the payment." She smiled. For her, the chance of observing Yale and Albert, the anomalies in the making, were priceless, so there was no way she would make them uncomfortable by splitting the money.

Besides, she had gotten enough money from the brothel, so this kind of money wasn't that big of a deal.

"Alright. Let's resume our journey after you finish what you ought to do."

"Understood." She smiled and immediately proceeded with her work. While cutting the monster's body, she thought, 'Prince Yale is good at talking and political stuff while Sir Albert is good at fighting and commanding. I thought they were naive and easy to take advantage of, but they turned out to be a smart pair. Well, this means if the queen can make them her allies, she will gain a tremendous benefit.'

She smiled happily and continued with her job, making Albert and Yale misunderstand her. They thought she just loved to work hard.

After a while, the group continued their way toward the hill, killing one monster after another. It wasn't an easy journey, but they eventually arrived without a single wound on their body.

That was a kind of achievement themselves.

Because they arrived at dark, they chose to stay on the foot of the hill for the night.