’’Oiiiii, Tet-san….. Are we there yet??’’

The voice came from a young, handsome lad with short blonde hair, a pair of wide blue eyes and pale skin. At first glance one could easily be mistaken of him being someone from a noble family, if only it wasn’t for his carefree attitude and choice of clothing

‘’ NO, ERIC! WE- ARE- NOT!’’(Tet)

Tet clenched his fist and gritted his teeth as he yelled.

People inside the carriage were all surprised to see this side of Tet, normally he would be calm and cheerful in the guild’s hall, Tet is like everyone’s best drinking buddy, but it seems like even the most patient guy can’t handle this young lad after all, Eric has been repeating himself the same line over and over in the past 2 hours.

‘’Ahahaha! Tet-san is mad!’’

Eric laughed as he finally got what he has been working hard for.

‘’ Just sit down already…’’

Tet sighed as he responded to Eric with crossing arms and closed eyes, trying to find his inner peace.

‘’Yes Sir!’’

Eric replied it with a salute before jumping down on the empty seat beside Tet.

‘’By the way, aren’t those mercenaries?’’

Eric asked curiously as he pointed toward the carriage in front of them.

‘’Ah, yeh they joined us last night’’

‘’Hehh~ I wonder how strong they are~’’

Eric said it in a cheerful tone as he swings his legs back and forth.

‘’ Don’t cause any trouble now, as bad as they seem to be some of them can still be pretty decent.’’

‘’How mean! I am not a troublemaker you know? Until trouble run into me of course, By the way what do you mean with some of them?’’

………..

‘‘Ehh, ugh haven’t I told you already?’’

‘’….. Not again.’’

Eric responded quietly and ended his line with a facepalm.

‘’Ahahaha, well I was once a mercenary too you know?’’

‘’HAH!!!!!??’’’

Everyone was shocked, afterall Mercenaries are just a bunch of traitors and heartless killers who only care for money or, at least that is how people have always been portraying them as.

For Tet the highest rank adventurer and one of the 13 Masters to be or have been one is indeed a shocking discovery.

‘’ Calm down people, calm down! What did you expect me to do? No adventurer guild accepted me back then ya know? Whenever I get near a human, they would either ran away from me or tried to kill me… I am not that bad of a lizardman ya know??’’

Tet tried his hardest to explain to the bunch as he put both of his hands up.

After listening to Tet’s word everyone couldn’t help but feels bad about it, after all it was their own kind who started the war in the first place…

……..

As a few moments passed by with awkwardness Tet finally began to talk again.

‘’Ehh… come on everyone, the past is the past no point crying over spilt milk ye know? Not to mention that I am glad to meet ya all…’’

Tet said it in an awkward tone while trying his best to cheer up the bunch. Sad tales has never been Tet’s specialty, so he has never been good at comforting people or talk them out of it.

‘’Hehhh, it’s rare to see Tet-san like this.’’

Eric said it with a calm yet surprised tone, while looking at Tet with wide open and curious eyes.

‘’Is-is that so?....’’

Eric nodded twice

‘’I… see?’’

……..

‘’Ehem! Anyways! Have I told you guys about that time I beat one of the 13 masters?’’

Tet puffed out his chest proudly while saying so.

‘’Yap!’’

The bunch replied

‘’Uhmm…. How about that time I defeated a demon general?!’’

‘’Yap…’’

‘’Ehh?? how about that time where I was close to get married to an elf princess?’’

‘’Ya-……HAHH!!!???’’

Yet again, everyone was shocked by the new discovery, after all elves are but a proud and narcissistic bunch, with all that being said, people can’t help but to admire their beauty.

As the lively conversation goes on so does the carriage toward the warzone… for many of them this is just a quick money grab, and since they have an S rank with them, they are almost certain that nothing can go wrong, but little did they know what awaits them…

…..

A few hours passed by.

‘’WE HAVE ARRIVED! EVERYONE PREPARE YOURSELF!’’

The voice came from a big and muscular man in his late thirties, with most of his body part covered up in fancy looking armor giving off the impression of a knight.

‘’ uwwaa~ about time’’

Eric yawned then quickly jumped off the carriage.

‘’Are you coming? Tet-san! How long are you guys going to talking about those elves???’’

‘’Ye,Ye coming’’

As Tet and Eric left the carriage, the bunch also followed them to the front where everyone is at.

‘’Listen up! Our goal is to rescue lady Eliz Arnfield, and to destroy that small tribe down there, the more of those animals you kill, the higher the reward you will receive so, make sure to cut off their left ear as proof, that is all! Any questions?’’

The shouted while holding a painting of Eliz on his left hand.

As the explanations ended everyone from Tet’s group began to stare at him with sad looking eyes.

‘’Eh? ah no don’t mind me I am here for the same reasons as you guys, even though they are demi humans we are not related you know?’’

Tet replied while scratching his forehead.

Everyone made a sigh of relief as they got Tet’s ‘’Approval’’

Eliz…I haven’t heard that name for ages, many of the newbies may not know this, but she is one of the few masters, not that I know her that well since she was always on mission with the Lionel dude… What was his name again? Well it doesn’t matter… Things may get more complicated than I thought, if this is against her will, then…

Just the thought of fighting against another master send the chill down of Tet’s spine, he clearly remember his previous fight against one as if it was yesterday, even though it was a friendly match and he won but there was no room for failure in such a fight, just one little mistake and it will cost your life…

‘’Prepare yourself! We are moving out!’’

The knight shouted as he pointed his sword toward the village.

Slowly but surely, they headed toward the village.

‘’Something is off’’

Eric murmured, but it was just enough for Tet to hear his words.

‘’You think so too?’’

Tet replied as he looked around…

‘’Uhn, it’s way too quiet, not even a bird can be heard…’’

Eric said it with a serious looking face.

‘’An ambush?...’’

Tet murmured then continued after a few moments of thinking.

‘’No, it can’t be, my detection skill hasn’t picked up anything or anyone nearby yet, this is… very unusual.’’

Tet said with confident, since his detection skill is already at maxed level from way back, when he was still a mercenary.

‘’Traps?`’’

Eric asked although he was certain about it.

‘’We must tell everyone els.’’

Eric nodded then quickly rushed to the front to warn the knight.

‘’I see…’’

The knight nodded as Eric finished his explanation, without a doubt he shouted to get everyone’s attention.

After explaining the matter, they decided to bring everyone with trap detection skill up in front.

It took them a while to detect every single trap nearby…

‘’I-impossible… What is this!?’’

One of the members cried out as they found out how many traps there were in their surrounding

‘’Indeed…This amount of trap is ridiculous, not only that they are very well hidden they are also perfectly placed on this road, it seems like that they had been expecting us even before we departed, but even so… This shouldn’t be possible…’’

It was Kulua who explained the situation, a young yet talented B ranked rogue who is very close of being an A rank, as a rouge he has already maxed out his trap detection and trap disarm skill and prefer to be soloing most of the time since his social skill is terrible, people have been seeing him as a cold person. For Kulua to talk this much is indeed a surprise for everyone.

‘’What do you mean by that?’’

The knight asked.

‘’There are over 50 traps just inside this area of 20 meters radius, one of them is enough to send 3 of us flying and cause serious damage, but the thing is they are perfectly placed to the point that you won’t be landing anytime soon as you get hit by even one of them… Do you know how hard it’s to plan all of this? Even for me it would take at least 2 days to do and this is just the tip of the iceberg… who knows what awaits us down there.’’

…..

‘’Indeed, this shouldn’t be possible with the time and the skills of the Lionel tribe, for the Lionel strengths means everything that is why the possibility of having someone that is so skilled at placing these traps is not possible, not to mention that their racial trait only allowing them to be fighters, of course this can be done with a mage with mana detect skill but as far as we know then these traps have ‘’anti mana detect’’ enhancement so mages that are below level 8 with ‘’mana detect’’ won’t be able to detect them…’’

The more they discussed the less it makes sense, of course they did used a lot of time to analyses the situation since their life is on the line, even one mistake can be fatal. not to mention that most of them has never been in such a large expedition before.

with that being said, the one who is paying them is nowhere as patient as they are…

‘’What are we waiting for!?’’

The shout came from the main carriage by the look of it, it must be the carriage of the noble who is hiring them, on the side of the carriage’s window stood the knight from before with a sorry and clueless looking face.

‘’I apologies Kevin-sama, but we cannot move any further with these traps in our surrounding, according to the adventures these traps ar-‘’

‘’Does it look like that I care?’’

Kevin interrupts the knight as he was trying to finish his sentence, even though the other can’t see his face one can immediately tell that he is extremely pissed by the voice of his, it was calm yet sounded like he was going to murder someone at this very moment.

‘’I-I understand sir…’’

The Knight bowed while as he ended his line, then moved toward the other to inform them about the situation, but it seems like that they already got a grip of it, most of the adventures looks pissed, not at the knight but at Kevin and his attitude, as for the mercenaries they are as quiet as ever knowing that they have already been paid a good amount of money, if something go wrong they can always leave immediately and since they rarely work in group there is no need to share the golds after either.

‘It seems that you guys already got an idea of the situation already.’’

The Knight smiled bitterly while saying so, trying his best to save his image.

‘’So, what is the plan Mr. Knight?’’

Tet asked while still thinking of the best way to get out of this mess.

…..

‘’I got an idea… I can get us off this road to the plain over there, but no further, since we have no idea what awaits us down there, the only option is to move forward…’’

‘’That is way too risky…’’

*whispers whispers*

‘’I know, but please do understand that we cannot wait any further, the young master is impatient and not to mention that you already decided to risk your own life at the moment that you accepted this quest.’’

….

It was hard to accept but it was indeed the truth, of course they could just abandon their mission at any moment but the rewards will be handed back to the owner, they will have to pay for the traveling fees themselves as well, not to mention how far they have been traveled to reach the destination returning now would be a waste of time and effort.

‘’Alright, I guess we have got no choice…’’

Tet replied with a frustrating tone then continue.

‘’But! I will be the one who lead together with all the rogues and assassins in front to prevent as much causalities as possible.’’

‘’That is fine with me, after getting you guys off the road, I won’t be able to move for some time anyway.’’

‘’Fine, Let’s get this over with…’’

Tet replied frustrated.

It’s rare for Tet to be so cautious since he is a Master Lancer all he does is fight till he drop but recently he decided to picked up a second job as a Hunter, ever since then he have become much more cautious with the help of the ‘’sense of danger’’ A passive skill which let him foresee or more like feels the level of danger in his surroundings.

Damn it, I shouldn’t have picked Hunter as second job…now I can’t stop worrying about small stuff.

*Sigh*

‘’Is anything wrong? Tet-san.’’

Eric asked curiously.

‘’Nah it’s nothing…Eric, we may have to release that seal of yours this time.’’

‘’Really!?’’

Eric shouted excited

‘’Unfortunately, yes… Just remember to hold back, ok?’’

‘’Yap, Yap can we get started now mister Knight??’’

Ignoring Tet’s words, Eric immediately jump to the Knight’s side pulling his cloak to get his words through.

He is not listening at all…

Tet made another sigh as he looks at Eric’s excited face.

‘’Ah, uhm as you wish.’’

The Knight replied while being confused.

‘’Alright! Everyone stand back, I am going to force us through!’’

The Knight shouted to get everyone’s attention then continues.

‘’Iron wall! Greater Endurance! Lion’s Heart! Greater Strength!’’

With every single skill used up at once, the knight took out a heavy looking shield from a lesser storage ring on his finger, the shield which is made from enhanced steel with a lion’s head on the upper middle of it together with many fine-looking carvings, had a shiny blueish gem inside the Lion’s mouth just big enough to fit an adult’s hand, by the look of it, it must have been a quite expensive purchase nothing that the Knight himself can afford.

The Knight tightly hold onto the enormous shield with both hands and shoulder pressed toward it then shouted out yet once again.

‘’ON RUSH!’’

Immediately he was sent 30 meters onwards just in a blink of an eye, following his steps was the sound of explosions made from nothing but air.

Exhausted the Knight collapsed on both legs right where he stopped.

‘’GO!!’’

With the remaining energy that he had left he shouted as loud as he could as he fully collapsed onto the ground.

Chapter 24 end...