The Raven's Wings, as The Raven had taken to calling them, or Meld's Forest Hunting Party, as they were actually registered, proceeded farther east into the foothills of the looming Pancal Mountains. The leader of the expedition, the bearded swordsman Meld, led the way, followed closely by the boxer Kim and the demi-human Ovis. Behind them trailed The Raven, or rather, Suzy, clutching her spear tightly, eyes constantly scanning the dark depths of the treetops around her.

Ever since she found out she had been watched by an unknown third party during a fight earlier that day, an act which she herself had not noticed, she had been unable to calm down. When even the experienced and ever-reliable Meld had been unable to identify the creature, her anxiety about the subject rose dramatically; not that she would ever admit as such to her teammates. The Raven had an image to protect.

Forcing herself to tear her focus from the trees before she drove herself mad, The Raven let her sight rest on the rugged and pleasantly shirtless Kim. At least the trip wasn't all bad, since she got to spend time with the hunky boxer. Even if some weird monster tried to attack them, Kim could just sweep her up in his arms and-

Suzy's delusions were suddenly interrupted as Meld held up his shield arm and slowed, the signal that he had spotted enemies. The Raven readied her spear and got into a low stance, the posture that allowed her to more easily make sudden movements in combat. Kim similarly lowered his stance, and raised his loosely-clenched fists to his chin. Moving at her own pace as usual, the sheep-horned priest merely stood straight and held her creepy looking Yaldabaoth statuette to her chest.

The Raven was glad for the distraction of battle, as it would help her put the mystery of the peeping monster out of her mind. Although monsters around this area wouldn't grant any significant amount of experience for her, the rewards from the Association for killing these monsters would be useful. While her Entropy magic was strong, it had the unfortunate side-effect of damaging her weapons with each use. Constantly buying replacement spears had become a significant financial burden for the fledgling mage. Glancing down at her new spear, she was satisfied it would last a few more hunts.

As The Raven's Wings stood in formation, time passed slowly, until finally a trio of short green humanoids rounded a tree and into the clearing. Goblins. As the first Goblin spotted the party, it was momentarily struck dumb by surprise at the sight of the well-armed group and stood frozen in place.

The Raven hated goblins. They looked disgusting, like squashed down old men. Their skin was a nauseating shade of pea-green, and they were always filthy. It was as if every aspect of their existence was carefully designed to be as annoying and unpleasant for the Sapient races as possible; they were clever enough to steal from farms and kill livestock, but too stupid to grow food themselves. They bred rapidly and would hunt local wildlife to extinction, but their own meat was foul and inedible. They hated Sapients on instinct and would kill travelers and adventurers whenever possible, making coexistence impossible. Goblins were truly a blight on the world. Countless times, powerful ascendants and even multi-national alliances had tried to wipe them out completely, but such efforts had always failed. No matter how thoroughly they hunted them down, some goblins would crawl out of their hiding place and the problem would return. Some mad enchanters had even attempted extreme magical methods to wipe them from the planet, although the collateral damage from such methods had been arguably worse than the goblins themselves. In the end, all humanity could do about the menace was to kill them on sight whenever possible.

And The Raven's Wings planned to do exactly that. As The Raven began mumbling the Ideal of Entropy to taint her mana, she turned her spear towards one of the rear goblins and prepared to fire a Decay Bolt. As expected, the party leader began the battle by launched himself forward with his movement skill and sliced deeply into the still-stunned lead goblin. Strangely, the goblin seemed to almost dive into Meld's blade of its own volition. At the same time, the rainbow-robed Ovis touched her figurine against Kim's muscular back, covering his fists in a shimmering opalescence. Kim dashed forward towards the rightmost goblin, lowering his body almost to the floor. Upon reaching the goblin he shot upright, delivering an uppercut squarely to the goblins chin. The goblin was sent flying into a nearby tree, dazed.

As the third goblin hefted a thick branch in preparation to strike Meld, The Raven let loose her spell. The black-rimmed white bolt, which was densely packed with the concept of inevitable decay, traveled up the length of her spear and flew through the air towards the monster. Moments before it struck, the goblin suddenly lurched directly towards the bolt. On impact, it spread across the magical beast's body as normal and caused the monster to rapidly wilt. As the stricken goblin's body withered and it fell to the ground, Meld finished off the lead goblin with a stab to the heart.

After Kim finished off his dazed opponent with by twisting its head and The Raven killed her target with a stab to the heart, the group returned to their formation. Seeing no new enemies arrive, they finally relaxed.

Turning towards her mentor, The Raven asked the question that had been on her mind. "Did those goblins seem to be acting weird to you? They almost seemed like they jumped into our attacks on purpose. Goblins may be reckless but I've never heard of them committing suicide."

Meld and Kim both flinched when she mentioned the goblins jumping, but the veteran swordsman then sighed and answered his student’s question. "So, even you noticed, Suzy."

"The Raven..."

Ignoring her, he continued. "Since you've already said that much, I suppose there's no point pretending we didn't notice." Meld's eyes flickered towards the treetops. "I think... it was the same... thing from last time. It used some kind of spell to make the monsters lose balance right before we struck. It moved farther away afterward but I think it's still nearby. Probably following us."

Suzy gripped her spear so tight her knuckles turned white and gasped. "Th-that thing is following us? B-b-but why? What’s it plotting?"

Meld wiped his sword clean and put it away on his side, then looked around the trees with a scowl. "I think it's using us to farm Experience without risk."

Ovis tilted her head and scratched the bottom of one of her horns. "I don't get it. What do you mean?"

The swordsman crossed his arms and sighed. Before he could explain, Kim spoke up. "You know how nobles will hire mercenaries to kill strong monsters for their kids while they sit back and do the bare minimum for contribution? We're being used that way, but without getting paid for it."

"Wow, that's dirty!" replied Ovis brightly, clearly not at all upset about being used in such a way.

"Well, it doesn't really hurt us I suppose. It's not like any of us are here for the Experience anyway. Still..." Meld took one more slow scan of the treetops before crouching down to harvest what he could from the goblin corpses. "I can't say I like being taken advantage of."

"Agreed" added Kim with a deep nod.

In the center of the clearing, Suzy held tight to her spear, her eyes darting between every dark place in the thick canopy above.