Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"Our next quest takes us to out of town for a while so make sure to say any good byes if you have any." Jen stated the moment everyone was present.

Everyone had gathered at the guild hall as per the usual and were mostly geared up and ready to go. Having learned from their mistakes, Lucius and Rena were a bit later than usual because they had picked up some healing potions on the way.

"We are heading to the merchant city of Lelvern!" The warrior woman shouted with glee and a raised fist in the air.

Rena's eyes sparkled with excitement. She had heard many stories about the wonderful kinds of items that one could find in the many shops and stalls that filled the city. It was a place of wonder and excitement for the young noble girl.

Lucius on the other hand felt slightly uncomfortable. He had also heard of Lelvern, though the stories he heard did not excite him. The first reason was because it was the most populous city in Arcadios and he was worried that they would be packed together like a bunch of pickled vegetables.

On top of that, the forest out side of the city was known as the Silverthorn Forest. It was home to a very high population of extremely dangerous monsters known as Quillow Beasts. They were Rank D monsters individually, but tended to group together in pods of five or six, which could easily be considered a C Rank threat.

Quillow Beasts were about twice as big as a full grown bull and looked giant porcupines. They had the ability to spray the spines on their bodies quickly loosing enough to combat that of a squad of archers in only a second. The spines they shot out were a gray-silver color, hence the name of the woods.

"Speaking of…we will be passing through the Silverthorn forest on the way. So, watch out. Oh hey kids. Why do you guys not have a name for the woods outside town? It has a lot of monsters and…. You know who, at the center." Jen asked suddenly.

"Wait, wait…you learned some obscure rule about not mentioning the Forest Lord's name in the guild hall…but you don't know why the forest doesn't have a name?" Lucius asked incredulously. "Are you stupid?"

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Before Jen could reply with an equally insulting quip, Rena interrupted. "It is because of the Forest Lord himself. Since such a majestic and powerful beast beyond most of our comprehension has made it his home, we do not give his home a name in case he should dislike it enough to…take it out on us."

"I see… wait… how can a monster dislike a name?"

"Oh, the Forest Lord is, by all accounts, more intelligent than people. He's probably as smart and wise as a dragon." Lucius answered. "Of course he hibernates for centuries at a time, so we only know what is passed down to us."

"Right…right. Okay, let's go!" Jen shouted, before something strange caught her eye. "Oh, that's weird?"

"What is it now Jen?" Paul's voice sounded more annoyed than usual. He seemed to want to get on their way already.

"I just see that our usual receptionist isn't in today…weird."

"Probably sick or something." Lucius said nonchalantly.

There was no reason for him to share what happened the other night. It would only cause problems and he was pretty confident that what he did would be considered an 'issue' with Rena, so he just kept his mouth shut. Again, it is unlikely he would be punished if found out, because he acted in such a manner as to protect the domain lord's daughter. Many things were forgiven for such actions.

The group headed towards the stables near the outskirts of the town. It was outside the city walls because of the concern for lack of space as well as horse manure inside the walls. Their plan was to catch a ride on a carriage heading towards Lelvern so as to save a lot of time on the trip. It would still be a multi-day trip, potentially up to a week of travel time.

However, it would be much longer if they tried to book it on foot.

In exchange for participating in the guard rotation, a merchant caravan was happy enough to take them on for their own trip to the merchant city, which saved them a lot of money. Charting a carriage for five people was not cheap. It was actually enough to make Rena blink a couple times at the sum.

What the merchant caravan had to offer was much less comfortable than a carriage though. They were put into a wagon at the rear of the group to keep an eye out for threats behind them. The other guards were split seventy/thirty at the front and back to ensure full coverage.

Not including their own party, the number of people on the trip amounted to almost thirty people. With this many people traveling together, it would absolutely be closer to that week timeline before they arrived.

Sitting in the wagon did give Lucius a lot of time to think though. After they had cleared out the bandit camp, Mia and The Marks searched all the tents and belongings in the camp to find clues at how they managed to organize in such a fashion. They also needed to figure out how the leader got his hands on a potion that bumped him from unranked up to fighting on par with an Advance Rank.

When he was conscious, he had been told that such powerful enhancement potions were extremely rare and also deadly. It was why it was so hard to get your hands on one. A single use could actually cause your heart to explode from all the stress of having to compensate for what the potion did to your body.

They never found an answer to their questions and there were no other signs of potions like the first one anywhere in the camp. Lucius did not expect that there would be any evidence behind. As far as he was concerned, they would be lucky if any of the bandits knew how to read.

He concluded that interactions would have occurred either magically at some distance through the use of a special enchanted item, or physical contact and conversation.

He highly doubted that those idiots living in the woods were smart enough to cover their tracks so well, but still, they did not find anything.

Another hypothesis that Lucius had was that whoever it was that bribed the receptionist and the other guy, who Lucius found out today was apparently an apprentice monster butcher for the guild, also helped those bandits organize in such a way that they actually became a threat.

"Hey Jen…I never asked, but since we are on the road. What is our quest?"

Jen's smile gave Lucius an uncomfortable feeling. "Hunting down a Quillow Beast."

"Dammit Jen…" Lethen muttered while shaking his head.

Lucius sighed deeply to himself. It was the one monster he did not want to run into, but here they were specifically tracking one down.