Adventurer Jasmine POV:

I walked with the rest of my party through dense forest. We were fulfiling guild issued request to hunt down local bandits. At the head of my group was tall blond-haired boy Johan. He had a [Ranger], so he had few tracking skills. he had a good sense of humour and was our leader. Behind him was a bulky, wide and short man Sergey. He was wearing heavy gambeson with leather protectors. He was a group’s [Heavy Warior]. Then there was me equipped in light leather armour. And at the end was a young witch in her seventeens. She was pretty talented with her C rank magic talents, which she always liked to show to people around her. She was wearing a grey robe and meter tall wooden staff. Her name was Constance.

Suddenly Johan raised his first signalling for us to stop. “Their camp is over there. But something is wrong. I can’t detect any presence inside.“

“Maybe they are not home?” Sergey said with a small sign of sarcasm.

“Let’s explore their camp. If they are not home, then we will prepare a small surprise party for them.” Johan ordered.

We swiftly entered the camp and spotted a scene of destruction. There was a big gaping hole in the palisade with a crater underneath. The grass was withered and burned. They were also four bodies. All of them had a gruesome-looking burn on their whole bodies. Tow of them was torn apart and mutilated.

I was used to seeing ugly scenes, but something here made me want to vomit.

I asked, “What happened here?”

Johan laughed and gave his opinion “Maybe forest monster, or they tried to rob someone who they shouldn’t. It doesn’t matter. We will report our work as done and grab reward.”

“No!” Constance shrieked and took a deep breath before she continued “, We can’t say it was our work. Air is full of death miasma. Someone here was using a form of forbidden magics. Just look around you. The grass is withered.”

Until now, quiet, Sergey joined the discussion “Should we investigate?”.

“No, do you see that hole? Pure death magic will not cause something like that. It was multi-elemental magic. There is the presence of four magical elements in the air. It was either group of mages or one with an affinity for four elements. And Neither of these options is good. We probably could win but not without casualties.” Constance continued with a tone full of pride for her knowledge.

“Hahaha, you are our mage. I will not argue with you when there is magic in question. We will return and report it to guilt. Guild will probably give this case to the church. So we will probably get some rewards from church for our information.”