Chapter 123 Weakest Party

The Party. They were five in total. Five monster-hunters. Today, a monster joined them. The six of them together, they were the Party.

With those fine numbers, the adventurers could go out of the capital. Where to? Well, the destinations varied depending on the season, time of the day, and stuff as there was a lot of stuff to go about when you were a monster hunter. That applied to the Party, too.

But anyway, they left the city. A plethora of different training grounds could welcome the group of five, but the particular party I joined only chose one and stuck to it. There, they accomplished the quests issued by the Guild Bureau. The same quests they had picked before heading out. The quests led the group to their usual spot; dark woods.

A dark forest within which monsters lived. Be it poisonous-fang spiders, giant ferocious rats, gray-claw wolves, ferocious boars… and goblins. Many monsters, but mostly goblins. That was the location the party of five—no, six was headed to.

Today, if that wasn't clear enough, I learned that the outside world was vast. Oh so big and grand. Countless different pieces of land laid out the vast entirety of the world; stormy deserts of sands and only sands, moist jungles full of greenery and brimming with wildlife, mountain ranges of cold and ice, and so many more. That was what my adventurers let me know. And then, there were dark forests filled with monster-types.

The humans, their great numbers notwithstanding, couldn't rule over every land of the world. Due to that, areas such as these dark woods existed, and monsters, ancient ruins, or caves, inhabited them. Humans didn't dwell in the forest, no.

That might have been hard for me to believe since all I ever so were humans everywhere ever since I first opened my eyes, but I might have as well been born there and be at peace with everyone. Peace wasn't nearly as interesting anyway.

Among the monster-types living here, goblins, despite the fact that they lived far away from the lands of men, still were targeted by monster hunters. Why was that? That was simply what the job of an adventurer was about, and earning a living was what everyone went about. These monsters, goblins, certainly weren't unique monster-types like me—dumb and weak—so they were good prey to hunters.

Adventurers strived to make a living out of their hunting monster-type prey. Due to the high-risk situations they put themselves in, they could earn a big money. That is, for some adventurers, though. So it seemed to me; the party, for instance, wasn't earning said big money at all. The job was harsh and endangering, but they were too weak.

As my old advisor let me know, magic users rarely chose to become adventurers. That wasn't for no reason. Incidentally anyway, most monster hunters could barely be considered magic users.

"Getting by." If you took a random person and guessed that that was the resume of their life, you would be right most of the time. If you took my five monster hunters, that was the same.

"Monsters are dangerous," I was told. "Is everybody a monster, then?" I then asked. "Of course not," I was told, "are you stupid?" They were the stupid people.

And so, though dangerous they were, monster-types still were targeted by most people all across the many kingdoms of the continent. The Guild's hearty folks had a saying: Ain't nothing's to go to waste with 'em monsters! They were right.

How exactly did the monster hunters make a living out of hunting monster-types and other creatures (aside from being rewarded by the Guild), I didn't know, but they still did.

And so, the party members were five. There was the leader. That young, fresh, energetic handsome human was the one in charge of the five hunters including himself. And I knew what being a leader was. With his regular sword and shield, though the man was barely armored properly, he was a knight-class fighter.

Then there was the enormous tank. He was young, but not so energetic. Still, the big guy was great. Also, he was the most heavily armored of all the team since he was the party's tank. Assuredly, I couldn't stand beside him and call myself a tank without being a blatant liar.

Then there was the sorceress of their party. She was the female I'd saved back on the battlefield, the one looking every bit the little quiet witch she was with the regular giant pointy hat a witch had. Pretty, short, quiet; she was a support.

At first, the priestess and damage dealer of the party weren't with the group. Soon after they let me tag along with them, we joined up with them. The priestess, the charming lady I accidentally called "babe," was walking behind every member, with me, holding the rear relaxedly, carrying her bonking priestess staff. I already knew about her.

And the last guy was the team's damage dealer. Equipped with a long thin black sword, he called himself a renegade or something and walked in front of everyone.

In the end, I could join that team:

Ring! ❮ Invitation to a party: Leader has requested you join Leader's Party (5 members) — Accept/Decline ❯

I obviously accepted. Spontaneously, the System hit me up with other notifications and I was acquainted with all my party members' levels—they were all around level 14—and other worthless bits of information about the group. Along with this tab, I was told that "The experience received will be shared."

Yes, I officially was part of the team. Now, we were six. Or maybe not: "Of course we aren't six, mister!" As soon as I made the comment, I was suddenly called out by the babe of the group. "From what you've told us, I gather you must have lost your adventurer license, have you, yes? Bad, bad, very bad. …But I knew something like this would happen!"

The official story for me, the young monster hunter whom they had back on the battlefield, was that I lost my adventurer's license, or whatever that thing was.

Ostensibly, I should have lost it due to my carelessness back on Greenfield. If I wished to accompany them outside the capital, it was because I didn't have the right to go on my own, or something. My former party couldn't accept me anymore if I was suspended. Since I was affiliated to the Academy, the babe said, I absolutely required my adventurer license to accept quests from the Guild.

"Back during the battle of Ladafar… you really messed up, my boy," she said. "The authorities could have easily gone farther than simply suspend your right to deal with the Guild, you know!" It could have been worse. Way worse. Thankfully, and from what the priestess guessed, I should be reissued a permit from the Guild soon enough. "Only then, my boy, will you be allowed to say we are six," she finished. "Six members! For now, you can't count as an adventurer. That means you won't partake in the fighting, get it? I hear from our leader you just wanted to accompany us anyway… 'Accompany' is what you'll do!"

Though I had been allowed to tag along with the monster hunters, the boundaries were clear. I had to be aware I wasn't to fight. Why that was, well, according to the babe, I had to follow the rules. As my seniors, the party would make sure to enforce the rules on me.

My shoulders a bit lumping forward, I replied that I would do as I was told.

"Very well said," said the priestess with a beaming face, moving to get closer to me and pat my head. "You may be, like, very strong," that was why the leader had allowed me to tag along, knowing I wouldn't be a burden, "but you must know you will only be observing from the rear, just like the healer, me, fufu, and not fight."

Incidentally, the reason why I wished to accompany the team was for the sake of learning. "Learning the ropes," remember? I wanted to learn from them and observe what combat as a monster hunter was like. For all my life, I fought solo, so people teaming together in order to get quests done had my interest.

What a pain, though. At the very least, I could go out. Plus, the change of environment was way better compared to the boring hell I lived for the past two weeks.

Surviving would soon begin. The very reason why I existed. Surviving implied fighting, and that implied having a fun time… or so I immaturely thought anyway. There was nothing to fear, they told me, with goblins. It wasn't like I would be fearing even orcs, so yeah. Still, since there was fighting even against a mere handful of goblins, I could call it surviving and feel satisfied and accomplished.

And so, at present, I and my humans were surviving. That was correct. The dark woods were three hours of walking from the capital. As we had walked for more than three hours, we were inside it. Trees weren't so high compared to the Great Forest of Benelloan, but they still were imposing trees. Dark green and bushy. With them came along the woods' undergrowth, bushes, shrubberies, wild shiny mana flowers, rocks, water streams, and everything.

We could be expecting our guests—no, maybe we were the guests—anytime, now. The chattering of the whole team was brought down to silence by the leader, at some point, and before I knew it, we had plunged into the dark sea of darkness and trees.