Victoria, Freddy, and Lucy were marching over the open fields towards the gigantic forest, each of them with a long spear over their shoulder. Though they had to leave the last one behind. A spare would have been useful, but even just these tiny metal spear-tips were a valuable resource.

Thinking about it, that must mean that Commander Klein is pretty wealthy if she can afford an entire set of armor.

They were only about fifty meters away from the treeline when Victoria finally asked: "Does one of you two happen to have any Skills or Talents that would allow us to find a suitable monster to kill? Something like tracking for example?"

"N-no, I don't think so."

"Mine, maybe. It's...", Ferdinand was about to explain.

"No need to go too much into the details. I wouldn't tell you the details of my Talent either.", Victoria interrupts him.

"Right, makes sense. Basically, I can make myself luckier for some time.", Freddy explained.

"Luck?", Victoria asks. Even in a world with supernatural powers, Victoria didn't believe in it. If anything, luck was nothing but a happy accident. But still, for the System to call it that... Well, 'luck' might also just be the closest approximation without revealing the actual talent.

Then again. The gods seemed to be capable of probability control...

"Actually, now that I think about it, how are we supposed to even know if we found an opponent on the right level? Last time I looked at some, only their names were displayed.", Victoria asked. It was a bit embarrassing that she had overlooked this, but it would be plain stupid not to ask now that they had come this far.

Both, Victoria and Freddy, looked at Lucy. If Victoria didn't know, there was no way that Ferdinand would know after all.

"I-I think we have to say 'Inspect' while looking at the demon. B-but it takes a moment and you can't move or it fails. I think. Why don't you know this?"

"Well, Freddy only appeared today right in the middle of town. And I don't live in the barracks, so I probably missed that piece of information.", Victoria answered.

"I see...", Lucy went silent again.

This was good to know, but also made things a bit more difficult. After all, they would have to get a clear visual on their potential prey, without getting detected themselves. Depending on how long the inspection takes, they might lose their chance to ambush their enemy, if they even got the chance to do that.

With that new piece of information, Victoria quickly started to brainstorm several different formations in which they could move through the forest, only to discard most of them in moments. Finally, she settled on one.

"Okay, I will move in front. Lucy in the middle and Ferdinand at the end. Lucy, your job is to inspect any enemy we come across, you are our eyes. Ferdinand, don't rely on your sight. Try to listen. We don't have enough people to cover every angle by sight, so that is our best option. I will use my mana perception. I have only about seven meters range, so we have to stay relatively close together, and I can't guarantee that I will catch anything, but it works even through objects and is going to be our best bet to catch anything you can't hear, Ferdinand."

Of course, the most ideal formation would have been for Victoria to be in the middle to take full advantage of the 360-degree radar-like coverage of her mana sense. While the range was limited, it would be a good final defense in case both sight and sound failed to catch the enemy. But that would mean that Lucy and Ferdinand would cover her front and back, putting them in the most dangerous position, as well as the one that would engage first in a fight.

She wasn't planning to coddle them, but Victoria didn't even trust herself to go in for the kill without hesitation. Much less Ferdinand and Lucy the least.

Talking about killing monsters was easy. Training to fight them too. Actually doing it, was something entirely different though.

Besides, she also had purely selfish reasons. While the long spears would be useful to keep the enemy at a distance without a doubt, they also restricted their movements if someone stood in front and behind them. And when they fought, Victoria wanted to move freely.

Quickly, her two comrades got into position. Lucy almost cuddling up to her back, and Freddy maybe a step behind.

"Not THAT close. Keep one to one and a half meters distance to each other. We don't want to stab each other by accident now, do we?"

Victoria would have preferred a bit more distance between them, around two meters each. That way, they would be within a step or two to be able to help each other, but far enough distanced that enemies couldn't ambush more than one person at once. It was a bit cold-hearted, but it would have been optimal. Sadly. She didn't trust herself to keep them in reach of her mana sense at that distance, in case she got distracted.

Her reach had already extended to about a meter on a subconscious level, and with a lot of concentration, she could feel the full ten meters Homy had talked about. Though that was something that she still had difficulties doing. But, there was one slightly strange thing about it. It was the fact that she didn't get a Skill that would have helped her.

Well, she did have a theory of why that was, but there was no real way she could prove it. That was, that she didn't train the sense to achieve something special with it, but was actually just getting used to what it could already do and teaching her brain to properly interpret the information.

Now that she thought about it, maybe those people who supposedly had a sixth sense and could feel other people's presence and stuff like that weren't actually lying. Some of them at least. Maybe they had simply cracked the seal a bit and accessed their mana sense.

Victoria pinched herself. That might be an interesting theory, but it didn't matter right now. She couldn't let herself get distracted.

Finally, they set off.

Shortly after entering the forest, they had decided to stay within sight of the forest's edge, none of them wanted to get lost now that they didn't have a convenient message pointing them towards the fort. It would also allow them to run towards the plains if they had trouble dealing with an enemy. That way, they at least wouldn't have the home advantage.

Ten minutes passed.

Trees passed.

Thirty minutes passed.

Even more trees passed.

An hour passed.

At first, they were perfectly at attention. But as more time and trees passed, the more relaxed they got. Vitoria could feel her concentration slipping quicker every minute, she caught herself more and more often with the range of her mana sense reduced to dangerous degrees.

Surprisingly, Lucy was the one who stayed the most vigilant of them. Though that probably related to the screams they would hear in the distance every now and then. Whenever that happened, the girl flinched. She was vigilant, but not necessarily in a good way. Sooner or later, her nerves would give out, and if that happened, they might have to return without any results to show.

Victoria was hoping that they would find an opponent rather sooner than later. In a different group, she might have taken the risk to go deeper, but with two people with barely any training, she couldn't bear the responsibility.

If they still hadn't found anything in half an hour, Victoria decided, they would have to return. Maybe they could ask one of the guards for...

"LUCY, DODGE!", Victoria screamed.

She spun around, just in time to see Lucy scrambling to the side. A gigantic brown hairball landing where she had been just moments before.

She quickly took several steps in Lucy's direction, getting a better look at it and simultaneously preventing it from getting closer to the girl as she pointed her spear at the oversized animal.

Lucy knew that she had been stupid. She should have said something earlier. She should have never even gotten close to this damned forest. She could feel the ground shaking beneath her as whatever monstrosity Victoria had her warned of landed where she had been just moments earlier.

She wanted to flee, just run away. But she couldn't. She was just too scared. And she didn't want to abandon anyone ever again. Last time she did, it had left her psychological wreck.

Just barely, she managed to scratch together the last vestiges of her mind. She turned around to do her job, inspecting the enemy.

The sight that greeted her, was almost so comical that she wanted to laugh. It looked almost like a scene taken right out of Alice in Wonderland, a story she had always loved. Everything fit, the gigantic trees, the beautiful girl, the squirrel towering over her with its ginormous, fluffy tail, nibbling on a gigantic nut.

Seconds passed. 'Inspect' finished, ripping her out of her reverie and throwing her right back into reality.

"F-five.", she mumbled.

"It's level five...", she repeated louder, fearing they hadn't heard her.

Her eyes took the situation in, this time, without the reality distorting veil her denial had gifted her.

That wasn't a squirrel. It was a monstrosity. Its eyes were un-proportionally large, sickly white orbs covered in red veins. One of its ears was almost ripped to shreds, just barely connected with its head by a single strip of skin. The arms and legs were covered in bulging muscles, speaking of unnatural strength, not at all hidden by the short, grey fur, which was covered in brown stains of dried blood. Its jaw was full of serrated fangs that weren't nibbling on a nut, but a human head.

The head made wet sounds, mingling with the cracking of its skull as the monstrosity attempts to crack it open with its daggerlike teeth.

Lucy screamed in fear, and the monster answered. It's screech mind-numbingly loud.

The sound was cut short as Victoria stabbed her spear into the demons jaw, drawing just a trickle of blood.

The squirrel jumped back, just barely injured. It lands on all four and starts to dart all over the place at speeds Lucy is barely able to follow with her eyes.

Her mind was already beginning to fill with pictures of her broken body, the sound of her breaking bones, the feeling as the monster slurps her brain out of her cracked skull.

Then, something brings her back.

In wonder, she watches Victorias back. Beautiful and brave like the legendary Amazonian warrior women, as she is covering her cowardly self from the danger.

The monster jumps towards Victoria, snaking around the attack coming towards it and changing directions with inhuman speed.

Flying towards Freddy, it abruptly stops just out of reach of his attack, looking at him almost mockingly. Then, it backflips, smacking its tail into his face, throwing him onto his back, and landing on its feet just two meters away.

It jumps.

Just the fraction of a second before it fell upon Ferdinand, Victoria slammed into it, spear first, driving it off course.

With another screech, this time in pain, the monstrosity jumps into the air, ripping the spear out of Victoria's hands.

Like in slow motion, Lucy could see it flying through the air. finding footing on a tree, and pushing off again, flying directly at her.

Again, the pictures of her mangled body. Her cracked skull. The smell of blood and urine. The sounds of cracking bones.

As it got closer she noticed more and more details, she could see every single vein in its eyes. The scars beneath its fur. The clumps of clotted blood on its whiskers.

The mocking smirk.

Lucy screamed!