The World of Astrial

A lively forest right off from the capital. Not big enough to be considered on the map but big enough for monsters and animals to lurk. The monsters were slightly low level but majority of the monsters were wolves, goblins, and slimes.

Since they were getting closer to the forest, Eliana lowered her voice to the softest audible whisper.

"Yes, we need to remain hidden. We also need to maintain a reasonable distance.

Ze wolves, if anyzing like home, will already know of our presence. Ze distance only serves to give us more time to escape.

Also, zey will begin to suspect us stalking zem if we approach too much. We need to maintain ze lowest possible profile."

Eliana looked at the map and made a mental note of their approximate location.

((red dot))



"Arisa.... Tell me what you know about zis forest. What is ze traversability? It may be easier to go around."

It was almost sundown or at the very least the sun started to glow orange to be set. The forest was big enough to not see through to the other side. "U-um...the forest doesn't have rough terrains like the ones in Mast....as the originality of the forest was from Alfrueta's...known to be traversed easily like on a dirt road."

"Zough it may still be dangerous to go zrough ze forest. We don't know exactly which parts of ze forest ze wolves consider zeir territory. Zey may consider ze whole forest to be zeirs.

Korbin, you should weigh in."

I'm certain he'll come to a similar conclusion, but he's proven his mind to be powerful. Fazer always told me a commander should consult wiz his officers before making a decision.

Kris looked at the map, "We could travel near the forest, as if we are heading somewhere else. We might be able to lure them out? It would be better to try and lure them out onto open ground, wouldn't it? With their sense of smell, it is likely they have been aware of our presence for some time."

She looked over at Korbin as well, looking for his opinion more than Arisa's, since Arisa seemed to be here to step in if she was needed. "We may have to fend off other monsters out here in the wilderness as well, on top of dealing with our targets." Already, she was beginning with her prayers and preparations, silently murmuring and meditating even though she was able to split up her attention and listen to her fellows as well.

"The issue with fighting them on open ground is that if they surround us, there would be little to no options for escape. The best option we have is Eliana's teleportation arrow but we don't know if it can take passengers. If we are in the forested area, we could climb the trees to escape." Korbin said.

He had already considered the possible negative outcomes and had prepared such a solution if it were brought up by anyone.

Damnit, he's right. How could I overlook a detail like zat? Damn me. Fazer would shoot me for being this stupid.

Eliana silently raged in her head for a moment.

No. I need to rational. My arrogance needs to be silenced. Fazer would be more disappointed if I let pride trump logic.

"Korbin is right. Ze forest gives us many more options. We not super human, aye? We could never outrun them. We must make use of ze forest. Let us enter from ze East!"

Her voice seemed a bit overcome with frustration, however she kept it at bay.

Coming from the east side of the forest, there were some slimes bouncing and roaming around on the outskirts, minding their own business. The slimes were not that big. Several of them were the size of balls while others were the size of cars. The forest was relatively lit by the sunset, particularly not as dense and as Arisa said, the paths were not as rough.

Heading into the east side of the forest, Eliana kept both eyes open. She was always scanning the area like a nervous radar, searching for any sort of hostiles. Korbin, Eliana, and Kris made a natural team. While Eliana mostly kept watch to the North-West, Korbin watched the South-West. Kris naturally kept her eyes towards the back of the group, to the East.

The three of them couldn't have made a more natural team in this way.

Arisa seemed to just kinda hang along with them, maybe occasionally looking where the others might miss.

Kris chewed her lower lip, looking like she had some reservations about Korbin's suggestion. She glanced to the other party members to gauge their reaction, and tried to stymie some of her concerns whenever Eliana agreed to the plan. Reaching up and scratching the hair at the back of her head, she knew she lacked experience in adventuring and that she might need to follow the instincts of these people.

The cleric followed instructions to walk at the back of the group, keeping an eye toward the East. She shielded her eyes against the slanting rays of the sun, constantly staying in tune with her magic and muttering prayers. Her small shield was strapped to her left arm, but she had not taken out her mace. Kris checked the position of her fellow adventurers every few minutes, wanting to be sure they weren't getting separated.

She kept an eye on the slimes as well, concerned over their presence. Some of them looked very big to her, and she didn't have any magic that would directly harm them. Noticing that much of the wildlife gave them a wide berth, she remarked, "Is there a path into the forest that will allow us to avoid wasting energy on the slimes?" stretching on her tip toes to look at the line of trees they were approaching.

"What do you mean?" Eliana began, looking at Kris. She kept her speech to a whisper. "Ze slimes clearly aren't interested in us. We aren't wasting energy on zem unless we engage. Zey are like sheep. Zere is nozing to be gained via engagement. Fret not.

And please try to keep your voice down. Zat is what will bring ze true danger to us."

Her inexperience is obvious. She has no idea how ze danger levels of creatures are to be weighed. Ze slimes are a distraction. Zis simulation is challenging our abilities to assess enemies and decide what to focus on. Clearly we need to keep our eyes open for more dangerous enemies.

As they continued to walk, all seemed rather calm. So far, so good. They were nearing the south-west side of the forest.

There was a somewhat fast shadow running across the forest before stopping onto a path. The distance from the shadow and the party was distant, as such, it's not dangerous for the moment. The slimes outside the forest slowly group up together as it was almost night.

A red flag went up in Eliana's mind. She unsheathed the bow and readied herself to fire without hesitation. She broke into a coldsweat.

Eliana's experience hunting had given her keen senses/reflexes when it came to this sort of thing.

The shadow was looking towards the group now and it was obvious.

Kris kept her voice low, just loud enough for Eliana to hear it, "If we get close enough, will they not take an interest?" She was moving along with a quiet grace that was inherent to her kind, and put her metal helmet on over her head.

She froze, keeping her attention on the thing watching them, eyes narrowing as her head tilted. The elf moved into a defensive crouch, putting a misshapen metal ball in her sling and waving it in a quick circle over her head, keeping momentum going but she didn't let fly just yet. It moved in a blur over her head with some clever, economical movements of her arm and wrist.

Observing that Eliana was about to shoot, she did not want to distract her and decided to follow up the arrow with one of her own bullets after Eliana let fly. The cleric had to wonder their attacks would even work, squinting at the creature to try and see if it was an elusive animal or something less corporeal.

Eliana's shot would have the up-most accuracy.

She was soon ready to fire again, but she was also watching and waiting to see what the shadow would do.

I need to gauge its reflexes and agility. I also need to study its movement patterns.

She launched off another arrow, this time slightly to the left of the target. She sent another slightly to the right.

I want to see how ze creature might handle multiple projectiles. Which direction will it go to dodge them? Or will it easilly be fooled into dodging one arrow while zrowing itself in front of anozer.

While all of this was going down, Korbin had been watching intently. He did enter into a ready stance that he had learned from Aikido. It had his front foot facing forward and his back foot facing to the left. This naturally put him standing sideways.

Kris. She doesn't seem to have much experience being under pressure like this. Must be her first time. I feel bad for her, all training and no experience.

The arrow impaled the wolf in front, near the limb area, before the metal ball slammed into its head, cracking its skull, kill it. It let out a whimper before falling. The moment the body fell, three more shadows raised across the north western field and was running towards the group rather fast.

Damn... Zese wolves are suicidal. We may need not even observe zeir movement patterns.

Eliana shot three arrows, one at each of the wolves.

"They sent an Omega. It's meant to test us." Korbin said, moving in front of Kris and Eliana after she shot her arrows.

So they must be pretty similar to the ones back home. At least that removes some of the danger of uncertainty.