The notification together with Adrian’s words shocked everyone, they thought that by bringing the cockatrice to the blacksmith they would get some rewards, maybe coins or items, they never expected that they would suddenly get and finish a hidden quest.

“I’ll leave you boys to figure out what weapon you want me to make, and remember, I’m only making one.”

Adrian gets back in his smithy and lights a cigarette, the little cigarette looked out of proportion and comical in his giant hands.

“Guys, I’d like to get the weapon if you don’t mind.”

Wolf calmly says to everyone.

“I’m fine with it.”

“Same”

“I-I agree.”

“I guess I do too?”

Everyone agrees to Wolf’s request right away, he was the best fighter in their team, and the only one still using the knives they took from the university, making him fight with that would only lower his strength.

“R-Really, I thought I would have to persuade you guys a bit more.” Wolf was genuinely surprised to see everyone agreeing so quickly, he already formulated a plan to persuade everyone in his head, seeing that that’s not needed made him a bit happy, and confused.

“Well it’s kind of embarrassing to see you use those bent knives, to be honest, plus even if I hate to admit it, you’re fucking strong even with them.”

Shadow tells him seriously. From their first meeting Shadow always disliked Wolf, he was the usual stuck-up rich kid he hated. His joining their team was something he didn’t oppose due to the sole fact of him being a pioneer, but, that changed when they went to the forest. Wolf’s combat skills were amazing, he never hesitated or panicked, he was always calm and collected, he was simply a perfect teammate.

“Yeah, not to mention your proficiency is B, I really want to see what else you can do with daggers.” (Reign)

“I’m not going to pick a dagger.” That was like a bombshell in everyone’s head.

“W-What will you pick then?” Beast asks.

“There was always one weapon I wanted to use before, you’ll see it later.”

Wolf says while going inside the smithy, he goes to the blacksmith and tells them about their decision.

Both of them sit down and talk about the weapon, how heavy it should be, how long, and how sharp, Adrian listened to Wolf until he finished and finally hit him in the head and said:

“You think I’m going to do all of that from a goddamn chicken boy, get out and wait until tomorrow, you’ll get MY WEAPON then.”

He picks him up with one hand and throws him at Reign and the others who manage to catch him, falling down to the ground together.

“For god’s sake Wolf, what in the world did you tell him to make?!” (Shadow)

“I guess I was a bit overzealous when describing it, well it’s already late, we should probably go to sleep, the mana thing really made me tired.”

Before they could realize it was already nighttime, they actually spent hours standing outside the castle and training their mana, even if only a couple of moments had passed for them. .

“What, I didn’t even check out my weapons, let’s just go and fight some things in the forest a bit, we can go back then.” Tank pouts and says, he was feeling incredibly happy when he got his mace and couldn’t wait to use it, alas he spent all day trying to feel mana and now felt a big sense of remorse.

“We did talk about the forest at night, I do wonder if anything changes, I guess nothing bad can happen to us if we stay at the beginning parts.” Reign puts his hand on his chin and says.

“Yeah, let’s go check it out, we’ll go in and out quickly,” Shadow says while jumping around.

“You guys just have a death wish don’t you,” Wolf says while facepalming.

“Beastie, you think you can use the bow at night time?”

“I-I think so, I might miss a few times though.”

“That’s alright, we’re going to see if there are any weak monsters to fight anyway.”

“Come on guys, what are you waiting for, let’s go, let’s go!” Tank runs at the gate while yelling.

At the gate.

“Are you guys sure about this, the forest will be more dangerous now you know?” A soldier asks everyone.

“Yes” Everyone nods and says simultaneously.

“Alright, just be careful.” The soldier says and starts opening the gate.

Everyone waits and leaves the walls through the open gate, they enter the forest and move slowly.

“That’s weird, we moved quite a bit so far and there’s nothing here yet.”

“Do you think they’re asleep now?”

“It’s possible, but there’s bound to be some predators, just continue carefully as we have so far.”

It’s been about 20 minutes since everyone entered the forest and they have not seen a single enemy yet. The forest was eerie at night, the slightest sound made everyone tense up and alert, only for it to be nothing in the end.

“Wait,” Wolf tells everyone and stops.

“What is it?”

“I think I hear something, the same thing as before, I’m going to scout a bit ahead, you guys just stay alert and wait for me here, I’ll be back right away.”

“Got it.”

Wolf moves ahead while everyone puts their backs against each other. This was one of the tactics that they previously agreed on. Wolf was very good at sneaking so he would go to check anything suspicious while everyone kept the formation until he returns. This way they could cover all sides and be left with no weak points except below and above. After a while, they hear silent footsteps and see Wolf coming back with a weird expression on his face.

“What is it, did you find anything?”

“I did, we were right, this forest changes a lot at night, follow me and be quiet ok?”

Everyone nods and follows after Wolf. They move slowly, trying their best not to create any loud sounds. After following him for a couple of minutes Wolf raises his hand and everyone stops.

“In front of us, these seem to be the enemies at night.”

They all come closer to him and look in front, the things they saw were rather unexpected.

[Lvl3 Zombie]

[Lvl4 Zombie]

[Lvl2 Zombie]

[Lvl3 Zombie]

…

In front of them, they could see a dozen or so zombies standing. The zombies didn’t look as hideous as games and movies make them, they looked the same as any human except for their pale skin and some injuries here and there.

“Z-Zombies, t-they’re real.”

Beast almost screams before managing to collect himself. He looks around and sees the faces of his teammates. “I knew it.” He sighs as he confirms his suspicion, they all wanted to fight.

“L-let me just find a good spot ok, the trees are a bit sparser here so I can see them a bit with the moonlight.”

Beast moves around before finding a good spot for archery. He crouches and takes his bow out, taking out an arrow he focuses and pours mana on it.

“I-I want to check the strength of it with mana, you guys get ready, I’ll shoot soon.”

Everyone nods and disperses, Wolf and Reign go right while Shadow and Tank take the left. Tank found it quite hard to sneak, his large body and muscles giving him a lot of trouble with being quiet.

The arrow was notched on the bow, Beast was still pouring mana on it because he was afraid of what happened last time he was only pouring a little bit at a time, finally, the arrow changes a bit.

A dark green hue covers it and it gains weird inscriptions on the shaft, finally seeing some change, Beast decides it’s enough and targets the Lvl4 zombie.

Swish

The arrow was released and it leaves a dark green line in the air, before anyone could react it had already hit the zombie’s head. It enters through the front and exits from the back, only the back of the arrow can be seen stuck in his forehead, the mana-enhanced arrow managed to completely pierce through the zombie’s skull and deliver fatal damage.

The zombie still wasn’t dead, but it could barely move with his injury, right away the other jumped out and attacked the other zombies.

Wolf was first. With lightning-fast speed he closes up on the nearest zombie, with fire blazing from his knives he plunges them both at the zombie’s neck, hoping to disconnect its spine. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work and the zombie tries attacking him. Wolf immediately lets go of his daggers, takes the zombie’s arm, and uses a judo throw. Slamming it on its back. Taking out the knives he reignites his flames and stabs the zombie straight through the eyes, that attack shows to be extremely effective as the zombie stops moving right away.

Shadow and Reign were the ones to fight their targets next. Coming from the shadows he pounces on the back of an unsuspecting zombie. Shadow tries to imitate Wolf and quickly slashes its neck open from behind, unfortunately for Shadow he seems to have forgotten that zombies are already dead, breathing is not needed and blood loss is also useless against them. Right away he sweeps the zombie’s legs and throws him to the floor. Seeing what Wolf made shadow follows, plunging his knife and dagger deep into the eyes makes him extremely uncomfortable but it works.

Reign used his sword and slashed the zombie’s arm. The sword goes halfway in but gets stopped by the bone. Taking it out he moves to decapitate it but has to abort because of the attack coming his way. Looking at the hand passing in front of his face he attacks again, cutting off the hand. With one more slash, he manages to hit the zombie’s neck, with a strong slash the head goes up in the air and rolls around.

Tank was last, with his giant shield and mace he takes on 2 zombies at the same time. Charging at one with his shield he manages to deliver a strong push that makes the zombie fall down fast, with a couple of its bones breaking.

Gripping his mace he rises it up in the air and smashes it down on the other zombie’s head.

Break, Squish

The skull of the zombie simply couldn’t handle such an attack, with relative ease Tank manages to break in and destroy the zombie’s brain, killing it right away. The other zombie tries getting up, only to face the same fate as his predecessor.

Swish

Another arrow hits the head of the fallen zombie, with 2 arrows deep inside his skull it finally dies.

Everyone attacks the other zombies, making quick work of them, they were tenacious and had great vitality but the slow speed of the zombies made them easy targets.

[Battle has been concluded, distributing experience…]

-3X Lvl2 Zombies killed – 60 exp points gained-

-4X Lvl3 Zombies killed – 120 exp points gained-

-2x Lvl4 Zombies killed – 80 exp points gained-

[The party has earned 260 exp points, distributing evenly to all]

“Well, that was easier than I expected, I guess fighting monsters below our level is not a problem at all,” Reign says while cleaning his sword with one of the zombie’s clothes.

“Yeah man, that was boring, let’s go find some more.”

“Hey guys, I just found this from one of the zombies.”

[Item a mysterious diary found.]

“So, shall we read it?”

“Later, I think we should go back now, we know what to expect at night to a point, no need to stay here any longer while we’re tired.”

“Yeah, I agree with Wolf, it’s better to leave now before anything bad happens.” Reign nods.

“Alright, let’s go back, I want to see what Wolf gets tomorrow anyway.” Says Shadow with a smile.