Chương 8: Hidden eyes

"Captain, there's a good spot here." A young woman waved from ahead. Marcus followed at a steady pace, scanning the area before giving a small nod. The hill was open, clean, and elevated, perfect for visibility. If anything approached, they would see it coming. Following behind Marcus was a brown-haired teen holding a long sword, and a black-haired young man with two daggers hung on his waist. Coupled with Marcus holding a short sword and a heavy shield, and the young girl with a bow.

They were a well-balanced adventurer team. Composed of a warrior, a shield bearer, a rogue, and an archer.

"Elaine, clear the area. We'll rest and eat here," Marcus said, unstrapping his pack.

"Evan, gather dry branches. Ron, keep watch. Call out anything unusual."

"Yes, captain." The three nodded and scattered, each busy with their own things. As each of them focused on their tasks, Ron was looking through a pair of binoculars, checking for any abnormalities. Suddenly, his eyes widened.

"Captain, there's a situation! You should see this." Marcus quickly put down what was in his hands and walked towards him. He took the binoculars from Ron and looked at the direction he was pointing at. What came to his sight was a lone figure, surrounded by goblins. It was Kyle.

"Fighting goblins alone, it seems he's a solo adventurer. However, it's very reckless to engage so many goblins alone. Hmm? What exquisite skills! That young man's battle intuition, on-the-spot response, and sword skills are among the best I've seen among low-level adventurers." Marcus exclaimed.

"What? Let me see, let me see!" Elaine rushed over.

"You have your own pair of binoculars; use them!" Marcus waved and said.

"Tch! Fine." Elaine snorted and hurried to her parcel, taking out a pair of binoculars before walking over.

"Hmm, oh, I've found him! Amazing, he split so many goblins in two! Oh, and he's handsome too!" She exclaimed.

"Captain, should we go down and help? And how about we invite him to join our team? He looks like a solo adventurer." Elaine said as she passed the binoculars to Evan beside her.

"Yeah," Ron added.

"He's strong." Marcus finally lowered the binoculars.

"Have you both forgotten the adventurers' unspoken rules already?" he said calmly.

"Never approach unfamiliar adventurers in the wild unless necessary." He glanced back toward the fight.

"Besides… he doesn't need help." The young man was cutting one goblin after the other, like mowing grass.

"If we interfere now, he might think we're approaching with sinister intentions." He handed the binoculars back.

"If you're interested, wait until we're back at the guild." Elaine frowned slightly, then nodded. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"Now that you mention it… I think I've seen him before." While the three were animatedly speaking, they didn't notice Evan's strange expression as he looked at Kyle. His eyes, hidden behind the binoculars, were wide as he looked at Kyle. He wasn't looking at the fight but at the sword.

'Those patterns…' He recognized the patterns on that sword. They were the exclusive patterns for adamantine-forged high-quality swords. Moreover, he noticed a faint inscription on the waist of the blade. Although they were a bit blurry due to the distance, he's pretty sure they were dwarven inscriptions. If he wasn't wrong, that sword was a high-quality, dwarven-forged sword, one of the best weapons below rune-inscribed swords.

They were usually worth around 20 to 30 gold coins, an amount of money he might not gather in 20 years! Evan's eyes gradually filled with greed. …………. As he struck down the last goblin, Kyle finally relaxed. He was drenched in blood and sweat.

'Man, fighting goblins at noon, wearing multiple sets of clothes and leather armor is tough. Not to mention the humidity of this forest…' Enduring his discomfort, he wiped the sweat on his face, then flicked his sword, cleaning it of the goblins' blood before sheathing it.

"Ugh!" As the adrenaline slowly subsided, Kyle felt stinging pains from the injuries on his legs, palm, and face. He took out his water pouch, a clean piece of cloth, an herbal paste, and some bandages and started cleaning his wounds and bandaging them. These supplies are part of the adventure guild beginner set. He was quite surprised when he first saw the clean, white bandages.

He hadn't expected such a thing to exist in a middle-ages-like world, but upon remembering the existence of magic and other extraordinary powers, he didn't think much of it. The herbal paste is just a cheap, low-quality healing paste; it could speed up healing a bit and prevent infection, but it couldn't compare to healing potions or healing magic at all. After cleaning his wounds and wrapping them up, Kyle stood up and looked around.

"I was careless." He muttered as he counted the goblin corpses on the ground. 12. Counting the three goblins he killed at the beginning, it comes up to 15.

"The intelligence I got from the adventure guild didn't mention that there would be such a large number of goblins in a single location. They said that goblins usually move in teams of 3 to 5." Kyle was a bit angry, but thinking about the news he had heard over the last few weeks, the number of goblins in the silverbark forest had increased too much. Maybe these goblins are a part of some settlement.

"They should have been a team; the three I saw at the beginning should have separated from the others for some reason, but they weren't far away from each other. When the three goblins cried out as I ambushed them, the other goblins heard it," Kyle deduced.

"At least, this is the most reasonable explanation," he muttered as he carefully looked around.

'I won't make the same mistake again,' he thought as he carefully surveyed his surroundings for any lingering threats, still keeping [Mana Enhancement] active. It wasn't until he was sure that there weren't any other threatening creatures within a 50-meter radius that he walked to the goblin corpses and started cutting their ears, still fully on guard. Putting the last goblin ear in the pre-prepared pouch, Kyle stood up and wiped the blood and sweat on his hands and body as much as he could.

"Ugh, I need to take a bath." He undoubtedly smelled terrible now. Kyle couldn't stand it himself, let alone others. After packing everything up, Kyle quickly walked back to the place where he killed the first three goblins. It wasn't difficult to find by following the trail left behind by him and the goblin group. Kyle looked at the stinking goblin corpses, surrounded by flies and other insects, with a look of disgust. He took a deep breath, forcing down his nausea and cutting their ears off.

"This is a bit different from the adventure I was expecting." Kyle muttered as he put the last ear in the pouch before closing it up.

'Isn't an otherworld adventure about fighting powerful monsters and demons, exploring dungeons and ancient ruins, defeating dragons and gathering treasures, and flirting with beautiful elves, and cute demi-humans?' Kyle thought as he walked back the way he came from.

"Heh, what am I thinking about? That's the case for powerful individuals, or those who transmigrate with OP powers and abilities from the start. I'm just a low-level adventurer now, and this is just how low-level adventurers are." Kyle muttered self-deprecatingly. However, he didn't despair or fall into depression, because Kyle knew that he wouldn't always remain a low-level adventurer.

'My talent is no worse than any cheat or ability; as long as I'm given enough time to train and grow stronger, I'll eventually stand at the peak of this world; there's no doubt about this.' Kyle was filled with confidence.

'But for now I'm still a low-level adventurer, so I need to keep my head down and bide my time.' Kyle thought as he walked out of the forest. He quickly walked towards the Ber River and started splashing himself with water, rinsing off the filthy blood and sweat, and cooling himself down.

"Ah, that's much better." Kyle cleaned the grime on his armor and clothes.

"Although there are still many traces that can't be cleaned, it's much better than before." He rested by the river for a bit, looking at the sun overhead. Kyle estimated that it was afternoon.

"I need to carefully calculate the journey's time on the next quest. I almost got heatstroke." After resting for a bit, Kyle followed the trail back to Mirevale town. The line wasn't long, so it didn't take much time before he was walking on the town's street, soon reaching the adventure guild.