Walking down the beaten road towards the Worlds Tongue brought up uncomfortable memories to Diana, as she walked beside her friends. The road they were walking down was made of hardened dirt rather than stone or gravel, and the grass growing on the sides reached up to her knees. To Dianas front, where they were walking, was the Worlds Tongue. She saw, and she remembered.

  She had sneaked out of the house like she had done many times before to see what the people were doing in their day-to-day lives, when something had caught her attention. What she now knew was most likely a spell cast on her, she could resist walking down one of the more abandoned alleyways in the city. Until eventually, her memories grew more and more spotted. She knew she entered a building of some kind, and was then bound and carried away. Her posture became wilted at those horrid memories, but looking at the bright side of it. It was how she had met Vita and her friends further down the line. Yet she couldn't bring herself to stand back up properly.

  Beatrice, who had been walking near her, noticed, and gave Diana a friendly pat on the shoulder and a small smile. Trying to find a distraction for her friend, Beatrice built up her courage and spoke to Vita.

  “So, uh, Vita. What is the wilderness like? Us city people didn't really grow up inside the woods.” The small smile she had been maintaining so far grew brittle as Vitas head angled itself, letting one of its eyes look directly at her. It didn't blink, didn't move, nothing. Beatrice could only think about how unsettling that stare was, almost like she was looking at something that wasn't alive. Yet it spoke either way. Beatrice shivered.

  “Nothing in there could match me in combat, nor could any poison kill me. But the creatures I fed upon grew weaker the closer to the forest edge I went, where I found humans.” Words that didn't do much to remove the fear they had for Vita deep in the back of their minds, but it did confirm one thing. They were fairly safe where they were headed towards. Earl, who still had the quest document, had one hand on the pommel of his strange sword.

  “While the quest demands that we kill, or at least defeat, goblins, I doubt we will run into any large numbers of them. Guessing we will be somewhat lucky to see a small group of them, and deal with them without any issue.” Heracles nodded along before speaking as well.

  “Yeah, but keep in mind that something was pushing the goblins closer to Kingdom territories. There might be something strong out there forcing them to move, so we are staying vigilant to avoid any surprises.” They all nodded their heads to this, with determined glints in their eyes. Which slowly moved towards Vita, who surprisingly responded to this.

  “I won't do anything unless it is necessary. Fighting goblins is beneath me, and is better suited for you four. I will, however, keep an eye out for this threat that might be out there. We're here.” During their short conversation, they had moved past the treeline. The trees here were young compared to the gigantic trees deep inside, yet the ones here were still plenty enough and tall enough to create many shadows for lesser creatures to scurry around. Looking behind them, the dirt road had disappeared. Yet this was not a reason for panic. The Worlds Tongue, while dangerous and difficult to study, was surprisingly fair to those that wander through it. And following the sun to the west was guaranteed to lead you home, regardless of where the original path you took disappeared too.

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  This didn't stop both Beatrice and Earl to ready themselves. Earl pressed on an inconspicuous button on the scabbard of his weapon, causing it to open up like a book, releasing his sword. Half of the sword was fairly ordinary, almost dull in this regard. The other half, however, had a melted design to it that appeared almost like the teeth of a great beast. With a groove running down the length of the blade and down to each individual “tooth”, the sword was clearly designed this way to work with Earls strange fire magic.

  Beatrice did not use a physical weapon, but with a quick flex of her personal magic caused a great many flowers to bloom in clusters across her skin where it meets the air. Especially on the back of her palms, where the largest ones opened up to show the mana that had gathered within them. She would not conjure any large plants like she did in the tournament, there were plenty of those around her.

  Seeing how the other two had reacted, Heracles shrugged before muttering something silently beneath his breath. A soft glow covered his skin as strange tattoos crawled across his body like great rivers of mud. Eventually the glow disappeared as they settled on him. Seeing that no one questioned what had happened, he explained it anyway to release some of the tension.

  “Thanks for asking, the symbols are mostly decorative. But it is a lesser spell of the one I used to fight Vita with. Should be good enough for goblins when it can block strikes from people.” The look he received from Beatrice made him go quiet and look away, pretending that her flat look was meant for something in his direction.

  After walking for a full hour through the wilderness, which Diana argued was the perfect time for Vita to let her piggyback, when they finally found their first trace of something. Pulling out the document and folding some pages to the side to find a more detailed description of goblin behavior, he shared it with the rest.

  A tribe of goblins will not mark the edges of their territories like other beasts or monster, rather they will mark where their members had traveled beyond the previous marking. These markings would grow more intricate the closer they got to the center of their territories, until the home of the goblins was within eyesight. And these markings were almost every time of a poorly drawn goblin, or carved if they had anything sharp at hand. Suddenly, Vita placed Diana back down on the ground and formed a spear for her to use before jumping up to stand on the treetops.

  Diana couldn't complain about it for long, however, as a few goblins let themselves be known through their giggles. They were surrounded.