Chapter 351 351 Detected



It was just before dawn when the Goblin sounded the whispered alert.

"Mister Wolfe, wake up. There is someone scouting us, I can smell the human in the woods, but I can't see them with the leaf wall around the camp."

Wolfe reluctantly sat up and noticed that the Goblin had kept the fire smouldering all night long, so it would be ready to ramp back up to cook breakfast. It was also clear that someone was indeed watching their camp.

Wolfe just happened to be facing him when he sat up, and with [Detect Hidden] active, he could clearly see the human soldier who thought that he was sneaky, hiding up in a tree fifty metres away.

He cautiously looked side to side and found two more humans sitting in the trees, all looking down on the camp with weapons drawn.

Wolfe raised his voice so that the humans would hear him and the Witches would wake up as he called out to the group watching them.

"You all might as well climb down from the trees and come join us for breakfast. We don't have much, but I've got some ration packs and some trail mix left until we go hunting." Wolfe called out.

"Not bad senses, Guardian. Though I suppose the Goblin warned you that we were here." One of the sentries called back.

"There are advantages to having a pure blood with a Familiar among our group, that is for sure." Wolfe agreed.

"Just the one Witch, then?" The sentry asked.

"One Witch, then me and my woman." Wolfe agreed.

"You're human, are you?" The Sentry asked.

"I'm certainly not a Witch, that's for sure." Wolfe laughed, making Ella chuckle in her spot under the blankets.

As Wolfe talked to them, she focused on her Aura, pulling it tight to her body so that she didn't give off any presence of a Witch, and then cast a charm on herself to disguise herself as human.

If there was a Witch nearby, or the scouts let them go to the village, they would check to make sure Wolfe wasn't lying. As long as they didn't realize that Ella was a Rank Two Witch, things should go smoothly.

Christa wasn't a weak Witch anymore, but she wasn't overly powerful either. So it would give them enough of an alibi for having slept in their armour spells and for the presence of the Goblin.

The three men climbed down from the trees, and Wolfe pulled open a section of the leaf barrier to let them in.

"Good camp you lot have set up here. If we didn't have thermal imaging, we would have never found it in the dark." The first man into the small clearing congratulated them.

"It's an art form and a valuable skill these days, if you know what I mean." Wolfe agreed.

"What brings you so close to the village?" The scout asked, ignoring Wolfe's answer.

"We were going to go hunting this morning, so we had something to trade. There are a few things that we need. Namely, a new bow string and some herbs for healing potions that we haven't managed to find lately." Wolfe shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"And you thought they would let you in?"

Wolfe gave him what he hoped was his best-confused look. "I might not have been out here long, but trading with the villages has never been a problem. Nomads like me would never survive if we couldn't trade at all."

"Your Witch looks a bit soft to be a Nomad." The scout accused.

"She's got other circumstances. Look, if it's a problem, we will hunt on our way to Flokburgh." Wolfe replied defensively, referring to a large village further south of them.

The scout relaxed a little at that. If Wolfe at least knew the unofficial names of the villages, he wasn't a total fraud.

The locals didn't usually speak the name of the village to the authorities. They would simply call it "The Village" and use the location marker as the designation when the Coven came looking.

The names were on the map that the Headmistress had, though, and Wolfe had memorized as many as possible before leaving the Academy.

"Alright, we will lead you to Jakarth Village after you finish your hunt. Just whistle when you get close to the patrols, and they will send someone to guide you in and check your credentials." The scout agreed, then quickly led his people back out of the camp to continue their patrol.

"So, what are we going to hunt?" Ella asked once the scouts were far enough away that they should be out of earshot.

"Whatever we find. There aren't any Magical Creatures that don't sell well to the Witches, and if there are more humans in the village than just that patrol, they'll also take the nonmagical ones as food." Wolfe shrugged.

"Alright. Since we're up, we might as well get to it. Who knows how long it will be before we find something good enough to hunt." Christa sighed.

Grok smiled up at her. "You underestimate the nose of a Goblin. It's not this big for decoration. I caught the scent of a large magical predator only a few hours ago. It should still be in the area if we can find its trail.

The wind is blowing from that way, so if we follow that until we find the scent again, we just have to follow the trail away from the village."

The group followed the Goblin Paladin toward their target, creeping through the woods as well as they could, given that two of them had absolutely zero woodcraft skills or stealth training.

"There, I smell a large predator," Grok announced, moving his halberd forward into attack position.

Wolfe increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] and found what he was talking about. A large snake, nearly two metres across, was masquerading as a fallen tree a few dozen metres ahead.

"Well, I don't know how we're going to get it back, but we've found it, that's for sure." He chuckled as he scanned the area for other people who might accidentally witness his attack.

There was nobody nearby, so he motioned for the girls to stay put.

"Grok, let's go get dinner."