Parker needed to focus. There was a new species of insect appearing in the west of the kingdom, and they were ravaging food storages, and it was his job to dissect it. They were the size of a small dog, which may not seem that big, but keep in mind; they were still ants. But he was searching for a very particular magical organ. Something inside of the creatures allowed them to turn invisible. It wasn’t the same as other creatures, which simply change pigmentation to match their surroundings. These bugs could become clear enough where you couldn’t see them unless you knew exactly what you were looking for. They were tough to spot on account of their stealth, and those that were squashed by those who saw them.

Parker had one completely intact. Finding which organ gave them the power to turn invisible would be a monumental discovery. The lack of blood made cutting it open easier. He looked around for anything unusual inside the thorax or abdomen. There were no abnormal organs or growths inside either. All that was left was the head.

Parker cut out a square of chitin from the ant’s head and looked inside. He noticed a fleshy cylinder connected to both of the ant’s eyes. When he reached in to investigate it, it disappeared! When he pulled his hand back, the organ reappeared. This piece connected to both eyes must be what makes the ants become invisible! He took his knife and cut it from the ant’s head, but the instant he severed it from one of the eyes, it reappeared.

With a frown, Parker put down his knife and leaned back into his chair. He had just destroyed the exact thing he was looking for. It would take weeks to get another specimen so perfectly preserved if he got any with the full head intact. Well, at least he knew what to look for. Maybe next time, he’d remove the whole eye instead, and leave the organ completely intact.

Right as Parker began writing his notes, a student walked into the door.

“Mr. Phillips,” the student questioned. “Are you busy?”

Parker was a recent graduate from the biology sector at the adventurer academy. Due to his placement in his biology and monster literature classes, the academy asked him to stay and help research newly discovered magical creatures.

“No, not particularly. At least, not anymore,” he replied, sighing.

“Well, I have some news you might want to hear. An adventuring party spotted a baby dragon in the south.”

“A what?!” Parker exclaimed, shooting up from his chair.

“A baby dragon.” The student responded, puzzled.

“No, no, I heard you the first time! This is amazing! Did they capture it?” inquired Parker. He had always had a fascination for dragons. There was just something about them that captivated him.

“Well, uh, no, they didn’t.” The student faltered.

“Oh…”

There was a short pause.

“Did they at least bring its body?” Parker asked solemnly.

“Oh, no! That’s not what I meant!” stammered the student. “They didn’t kill it; they just don’t have it.”

“Well, where is it?” Parker blurted with excitement.

“The adventurers said that while they were searching for its body, they saw some goblins carry it off into the distance, and when they followed them, they went into a camp. According to them, it was too dangerous to follow. They just headed right back here and started gossiping.”

“Well, that’s great news! Any idea where the town is?” Parker questioned.

“There’s some town near it. Supposedly some high ranked adventurer cleared out the camp alone, but I guess they must’ve missed a few scraps.” The student replied.

That’s great! Now all he needed to do was pack his stuff, talk to the job handler, ask for the info, and head out. Hopefully, he would be able to get some town guards to help.

Parker had combat training, but it wasn’t his strong suit. The only reason he took a sword training class was that at least one combat class was required to graduate from the academy. He was no warrior. That was the only class where he ever scored poorly. He ended up solo ranking at the very top of rank 5. The best he could defeat was a few goblins.

Parker left the lab and headed for his room. Once he got there, he needed to figure out what to bring. He ended up grabbing a large leather backpack, two canteens of water, three days of meal rations, some medical equipment, his notebook, pencils, a tarp, a sleeping bag, and the shortsword the academy gave him when he passed his swordsmanship class.

After arriving at the guildhall, Parker headed to the receptionist’s desk.

“Hi, sorry to bother you, but I’m trying to find this town down south, and supposedly someone took a job taking down a goblin encampment near it, and I was just wondering if maybe you had any information about it?” Parker questioned the receptionist.

“Whoa, slow down there, buddy. I can barely understand you.” The receptionist replied.

“I’m sorry, it’s just really important I get this information.” Parker insisted.

“Alright, alright. I’ll try and find it. No promises, though.” The receptionist grumbled.

After a minute of waiting, the receptionist came back out to their desk.

“You got lucky this time, pal. We throw away any jobs taken after a week and this one’s six days old. That Alex kid took it and never completed it. He even left the original listing with the map on it. I can give you the paperwork if you want to finish it yourself.” The receptionist declared.

“No, that’s not necessary. But I would like that map.” Parker responded.

Parker knew Alex. They were in the same alchemy class. Along with being a powerful adventurer, that man was a brilliant alchemist. The potions he made were second to none. His attitude, however, needed some work. Parker, on the other hand, wasn’t destined to be an alchemist. During the few interactions he had with Alex during that class, Parker’s class ranking was a common theme.

Parker didn’t care much about ranking, and wouldn’t have even known about his own placement if not for Alex bringing it up. It was best not to argue with Alex, though. He was 6’6 of pure muscle and wasn’t afraid to use any of it. He had seen Alex sparring during his swordsmanship classes, and he pitied whoever was on the other side.

Parker left the guildhall and began heading south. It was already midday by the time he started his journey, so he expected to spend the night in the forest. Even though he studied sciences, the adventurer academy required all students to have the ability to survive in the wild. Those classes would prove to be useful now that he was venturing out for the first time.

After a few hours of walking, Parker found the worst part wasn’t the heat, bugs, or brambles filling the forest. A cooling spell, bug warding elixir from the general store, and pair of leather trousers fixed all of those problems. It was the immense boredom that burdened him the most. A hastening spell would surely make his journey faster, but the stamina required to use one for more than a few minutes was immense, and he wasn’t the best at cardio. Like all adventurers, he was in good shape, but you wouldn’t catch him running any marathons. He was also getting a little tired, and the sun had begun setting.

Parker cleared an area on the ground near a tree to place his sleeping bag. He then nailed one corner of his tarp to a tree, and two others to the ground spread as far as they could go, The other corner was left as a small flap, a placebo door to help him feel at least a little protected as he slept.

Parker was getting hungry from the hike, so he pulled out one of his meal ration kits. He was an awful cook, which definitely didn’t help him in his alchemy class. These ration kits were great for him; all he needed to do to prepare them was add some water and cook over a fire. He found some brush and twigs, put them together, and tried using his flint and steel to start the fire. It took him almost an hour to get the grass to light, and even longer to get the fire blazing.

Parker opened the package, poured in some water, and stuck it upright into the fire. After waiting a few minutes to let it cook, he realized he had no way of retrieving his meal without burning himself. He sighed in frustration and began ruffling around in his bag for something to pull out the meal. He ended up using his sword and a random stick he found lying around to use as tongs and lifted the packet out of the fire.

Parker had burned his food yet again. What was left over was a barely edible mass of charred rice and meat. The water helped a little with preventing it from being destroyed, but once that all evaporated, the meal was left to the flame with no defenses.

Well, food was food, and Parker was hungry. He wolfed down the meal and headed to sleep.

The next day, Parker woke up with excitement. If everything went to plan, this would be the day he finally got to see a real, living dragon! He quickly packed his gear and set off through the forest, not bothering to burn another meal. He would just need to wait until he found a grill or something at a shop in the town.

Parker found observing the scenery was a great way to pass the time. There was plenty of exotic flora to see, and the forest’s inherent magic caused some plants to grow out in outlandish ways. He spotted a few flowers the size of horses, a rainbow patterned tree, and a bush that grew apple-sized blueberries. When he tried to eat one, it nearly froze his tongue off. His favorite sights were the shellwood trees. One had a small indent in the ground filled with charcoal. The camp must’ve been at least a week old, given how much it had returned to nature. The map used this tree as a marker, and he could see he had almost made it to the town. After another 2 hours of walking, he made it to the entrance of the village.

The recently constructed walls consisted of logs driven into the ground, the tops of which were sharpened into spikes. The gates were fashioned from wood planks, with their hinges crudely screwed into the surrounding walls. Two guards armed with claymores and metal helmets stood at the gate.

“Halt!” One yelled out. “What is your business?”

The first guard must be young. Their voice cracked too many times to be very old.

“I’m looking for an adventurer named Alex. I was hoping he could accompany me to the goblin camp by the town.

“Alex? So that’s his name. That punk abandoned us the instant he heard there was no reward. Last I saw him, he left the town with some random fellow and headed off into the woods. The goblins just rushed right back once he was gone” The second guard sneered. His voice was deep and gravely. It reminded Parker of his swordsmanship teacher’s.

“Well, would you mind guiding me to the camp?” Parker asked.

“Any friend of Alex isn’t getting any help from me. All I’ll give you is the direction of the camp. It’s east, and they’ve always got a fire going.”

The guards were clearly not going to help any further, so Parker just cut his losses and headed east. Once he reached the camp, he noticed it was mostly empty. There was a weak fire burning in the center of the huts, not much bigger than the one he made at his camp. Three goblins were standing around it.

Parker noticed one of the huts had light seeping out from behind the door. That must’ve been the only occupied hut. Maybe he could find the dragon in there!

Parker slowly approached the camp as stealthily as possible. He’d rather not fight any of the goblins. He wasn’t sure he had the guts to kill. It would be better to-

Parker tripped over a string and fell with a thud. A loud bell ring throughout the camp.

Well, there goes any chance of stealth. The goblins turned to face him.

“Intruder!” One yelled one its high pitched, nasally voice.

That was odd. That goblin spoke in orcish. That must mean…

This camp has orcs.

Right on cue, a lone orc exited the hut, brandishing an axe in both hands. It roared out a war cry and charged in to attack.

Parker could do nothing but run, leading the orc as far from the hut as he could. Once they reached the outskirts of the town, Parker shakily took out his sword and entered a fighting stance.

The orc rushes in, swinging both axes in towards Parker. He tried jumping back, but only succeeded in falling onto his back, narrowly dodging the swing. The orc lifted its axes and swung them down to where Parker was lying. He scooted backwards as fast as he could, and while the IRC’s axes were still lodged in the ground, he got up and ran for the hut. After fumbling with its axes, the orc finally removed them from the ground and resumed chasing him.

Parker knocked down every tent he ran by in an attempt to slow down the orc. What was he thinking, coming out here and doing this? He should’ve just stayed in the lab and asked someone else to get the damn dragon! He could wait! There was no way he could fight off all these monsters!

Parker pushed past two goblins and ran into the hut. All his doubts disappeared when he saw what lay inside. In the corner of the hut, he saw a small cage, with a jet black lizard with horns and wings trapped inside. Next to that cage was a goblin with a very sharp knife.

Parker rushes past the goblin to grab the cage. It was very light, even with the creature inside. When he lifted the cage, he heard a small yelp come from inside.

Shortly after, Parker let out a similar cry. The goblin had slashed across his arm, leaving a deep gash. He kicked over the goblin and sprinted out of the hut.

He was met outside by two goblins to his right and the same angry-looking orc to his left. Parker chose to run right, taking a few slashes along the way. It was a much better alternative than getting his head chopped off by an orc. He escaped the camp and veined for the town, sprinting as hard as he could, not stopping to look back.