Fifteen minutes had passed since we entered the Manto-Forest.

The trees grew not unusually close together, but the huge treetops of the red-beeches almost covered the entire sky above us without a gap. The light of the sun shining through the leaves bathed the entire forest in a red-orange hue.

It wasn't particularly dark, but it wasn't particularly bright either. Although we should be able to hear the weak monsters that awaited us here from afar, we could not solely rely on that.

My clients might be a bit arrogant – except for Tobi – but they were still professionals.

As soon as we entered the forest, the previous chatter was reduced to a minimum.

Cautiously and in formation, we moved forward.

♦

After 10 more minutes of brisk walking, Ralf stopped abruptly and stared ahead. Since he formed our vanguard, the rest of us consequently came to a halt as well.

»They are here,« Ralf said in a calm voice.

I followed his gaze.

And sure enough, there was movement in the distance. A group of small, green figures ran swiftly across the forest floor – toward our location.

Thick bellies, thin arms, and skinny legs. Their ears were slightly pointed and they possessed a disproportionately large nose. Also, their eyes were not white, like a human's, but yellowish with vertically elongated slit pupils. In their hands, they carried wooden clubs, which served as their weapons.

They were goblins. As D-level monsters, they were among the weakest and most harmless creatures you could find in any danger zone. Any hunter should have no problem winning against one.

The danger with goblins lay more in that they often moved in large hordes. And if 20 of those nasty green dwarves – not to offend dwarves – were running at you, that could be a problem, even for an experienced hunter.

Ahead of us, I could make out about 10 creatures. For a well-practiced team of 3, there was nothing to fear here.

Of course, this did not apply to me.

While I was sure I could fight one and win, if there were more, my chances of survival were close to zero.

Fortunately, I did not have to fight. Nor was it expected of me.

»Okay guys, you know how it goes. Ralf will draw their attention and I'll hack them down. Aileen will cover us from behind. Make sure you don't let anyone get to Hektor. Got it?«

»Yeah yeah, you don't have to tell us,« Ralf said, taking his big shield off his back. With the shield strapped to his right forearm, he crouched slightly, eyes fixed on the enemy.

»Let's get this over with quickly!« Aileen shouted, who then – with elegant movements – climbed a tree a few meters behind us. Then she took her bow, which she had strapped around her torso, and nocked an arrow.

Tobi also unsheathed his sword and got into position. In the shadows of the forest, his blade shone in a slightly bluish tint.

For a brief moment, I marveled at how quickly the team had moved into a fighting position. While I have worked with many hunters throughout my career as a Mendax, rarely have I seen such confidence and leisure in the face of a superior number of enemies.

For Aileen and Ralf had cynical smiles on their faces and their eyes expressed their thirst for blood. Even Tobi seemed to rejoice at the opportunity to wield his blade.

'Crazy.'

I couldn't understand them. How could anyone be so excited at the thought of having to fight monsters? For me, this was a job. I had to do it in order to survive. If I had a choice, I certainly wouldn't be standing here, shaking all over while waiting for the angry and screaming horde of monsters to reach us.

But I guess that was just the difference between the weak and the strong. Strength, as we all know, breeds self-confidence – and apparently makes you a little bit crazier, too.

»Hahahaha! Come on, you bastards! I'll turn you into green mush!« Ralf screamed at the top of his lungs.

In the next moment, the first two goblins crashed into Ralf's shield.

While the latter only twitched a little, the goblins went down. Because at the last second, Ralf ran towards the monsters and rammed them with the mana-enhanced shield.

While the goblins, who undoubtedly broke a few bones on impact, tried to pick themselves back up, Tobi strode forward and, with a fluid motion of his sword, separated their heads from their necks. 

Now, one might think goblins possessed green blood according to their body color, but immediately a dark red liquid erupted from the now headless necks of the monsters like a fountain.

Meanwhile, two arrows flew past me a few inches from my head and two more enemies went down. Aileen had hit one goblin in the head and another in the chest. The latter was still wriggling briefly, but after another second or two, it also stopped moving.

»Good shot! Hahaha!« Ralf shouted and ran towards the remaining monsters – his shield like a battering ram ahead.

»Follow me. But stay behind me!« Tobi shouted in my direction before he, too, followed the screaming giant.

I swallowed down the saliva that had collected in my mouth and placed a hand on the pommel of my sword as if encouraging myself. Then, somewhat reluctantly, I also started moving and followed the others – knowing that any danger from behind would be detected and eliminated by Aileen.

♦

After a few more minutes, silence returned to the Manto-Forest.

As the last goblin powerlessly fell to the ground, Ralf wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

»Huuu, that felt good,« he then said while taking deep breaths.

»Yeah, that was fun. Almost too easy,« said Aileen approvingly as she began to collect her arrows. Some lay on the forest floor. Most she pulled out of the goblins' lifeless bodies.

»I’m telling you, we're overqualified for a job like this. Don't you think so too boss?«

»Quit your whining. If you want to be transferred, be diligent and start gutting the goblins.«

»Yeah yeah, already on it.«

»Let's see if lady luck is on our side today. Hey, you. Why are you standing there like a statue? Hand us the two knives from the backpack.«

I averted my gaze from the now red-stained forest floor and looked at Aileen, who was staring impatiently at me with her hand held out.

»Sorry,« I said and put the backpack down.

Then I reached my hand deep into it until my whole arm disappeared inside. At first, I only felt endless emptiness, but as soon as I thought of the word knife, my hand immediately enclosed a metallic object.

It was the effect of a certain enchantment. These so-called dimensional backpacks could carry huge objects as long as the object was not alive and a maximum capacity was not exceeded.

After pulling out the first knife, I handed it to Aileen. I repeated the same process and gave the second knife to Ralf.

While the two of them would cut up the goblins to look for mana-crystals, Tobi would keep watch and make sure that no more monsters surprised us while we were distracted.

»Hektor, there should be another knife inside...«

I looked at Tobi and nodded. Then I reached my hand into the backpack again and once more imagined the small cutting weapon to appear. Immediately, my hand clasped the handle of an elongated object.

'Hmm?'

But something was wrong. It was too light.

Frowning, I pulled the object out of the backpack.

'A... pocket knife?' I thought.

In my hand, I held a tiny... knife? Could it even be called that? The handle was made of simple wood, not high-quality metal like the previous two I had pulled out. The blade was also many times shorter and seemed to be already very worn.

It was something I would go mushroom hunting with, not gutting large monsters.

I could not believe it. As far as I was concerned, a person's abilities were not an indicator to determine what kind of object that person received from the enchanted backpack. If one did not know the exact appearance of the desired object and there were several objects of one kind, then the backpack should spit out a random one.

'Am I now already getting screwed by a bag?'

Ralf and Aileen, who were slashing up the goblins with bloodied hands, saw my lost expression and couldn't help but snicker.

Tobi, seeing the knife in my hand, gave the duo a sharp look.

»Oops, must have packed the wrong one by mistake. So sorry,« Aileen said while trying to hold back her laughter.

Tobi frowned, but then shook his head as if he had no nerve to deal with this situation.

»Sorry, Hektor. It's small, but it should be just as sharp. Maybe, just try it…?« Tobi said as he wiped the blood on his sword on a clump of moss.

I just sighed and nodded my head. Then, knife in hand, I walked over to the nearest goblin.

Somewhat disgusted, I looked down at the green monster that had been killed with a deep cut across its chest. I really didn't want to dip my hands into that thing. But work was work. And 5 silver coins was 5 silver coins.

So I crouched down and plunged the knife into the goblin's abdomen before beginning to slice open its entire belly.

Reluctantly, I then dipped my hands into the monster's red intestines and dug around in them. 

The first time I had to do this, I expected a terrible stench – matching the appearance of the monster. But back then I quickly realized that it was not so bad. Only the slight aroma of iron hit my nose. It was not pleasant, but it was bearable.

For a while, I pushed the goblin's internal organs back and forth with my hands while trying to keep my leather bracers clean. Every now and then I would cut up some guts.

Then, just before I was about to give up, I felt something hard against my fingers.

I quickly pushed the monster's innards aside to get a better view.

And at that moment…

Pure blue light lit up my face.

»The hell?«

♦

»Ahhh, that was the last one. I thought it would never end,« Aileen said, pocketing her knife. In her hands, she held the green, flayed skin of a goblin.

Ralf, too, pulled his bloodstained hands from the abdomen of a goblin.

»Would have been too good to be true,« he said regretfully.

»Here, kid.«

Aileen handed me the green skin, which I let disappear into the backpack.

»Catch.«

Ralf tossed me two green lumps of meat – I realized that they were ears. I put these into the backpack as well.

»Okay guys, grab your stuff. Time to go home.«

Tobi wiped the blood on his sword on the forest floor before putting it back in its sheath.

Then we started moving toward the exit of the forest.

After a few steps, a giant came running up to me from behind and a big arm wrapped around my neck.

Since the size difference between me and Ralf was so great, it looked like he had me in a headlock.

»Hahahaha, not bad, Hektor. Who would have thought you would find something like that in a goblin. In a GOBLIN! Hahahaha.«

Ralf laughed out loud as he gripped my neck a little tighter, unable to hold back his excitement.

6 hours had passed since we entered the Manto-Forest and the midday sun was already beginning to sink in the west. In that time, we encountered 4 groups of goblins – all containing 7 to 12 individual creatures. 

The goal of today's mission was to bring back and sell certain monster parts like the skin, nose, and ears. This is how most of the hunters earned their living.

Very rarely, however, other things could be found in the monsters. In danger zones of higher level with an accordingly higher concentration of magical energy in the air, mana-crystals were more often found in the monster carcasses. 

These mana-crystals were worth a fortune, depending on their level of purity.

However, to think that a mana-crystal would be discovered in a place like this, and in a goblin at that… It was so unlikely that I had never heard of such a thing happening in the Manto-Forest before.

Yet, that very miracle happened to me today. The very first goblin I gutted contained such a blue stone. It wasn't a particularly pure mana-crystal as it was almost completely transparent. Nevertheless, it was worth a fortune. I could work as a Mendax for an entire year and would not be able to buy it.

Too bad I wouldn't get anything out of today’s find. Because I wasn't a hunter, I would go home with my usual 5 silver coins.

»Why are you looking so down, kid? Cheer up. Today is a beautiful day.«

Aileen, who was walking in front of me, reduced her walking speed so that she was now on a level with me. Ralf on my right. Aileen on my left.

'Shouldn't you to be in formation?' I thought, more out of annoyance than concern about being ambushed.

It was clear that these two were no longer as averse to me as they had been at the beginning of this expedition. In their euphoria, they even seemed to like me.

In reality, I obviously didn't do anything special. The three of them had killed every goblin, I just happened to search the one with the mana-crystal. That was pure luck and anyone else could have done it.

However, that didn't change the fact that they were now rich.

»Be quiet, you two. We're still in a danger zone.«

A few meters ahead walked Tobi, who was carefully observing the surroundings. If he was happy about today's yield, he didn't let it show on his face.

»Tssss, what a killjoy,« said Ralf, taking his arm off of my neck.

»Hey kid, just make sure you don't lose that backpack. If you do your job well, I'll give you a 1% commission. Wouldn't that be something? Hahaha.«

'One percent? Wasn't it five earlier?'

With a mana-crystal, five percent would still be a gigantic sum. Ralf probably didn't want to let a third party take that away from him.

I didn't complain, because even 1% was more than I had ever earned in a single day and possibly would ever earn again. I was already counting on not receiving any of the spoils, so this was actually a pleasant surprise.

»First, we need to get out of here. After that, we can talk about splitting re–«

Tobi, who was talking with his back to us, stopped abruptly.

Ralf and Aileen must have sensed something too and they also stopped mid-step.

All three turned around and looked in the direction we came from.

I followed their example.

»Impossible…« Tobi whispered.

It was at that moment, that goosebumps spread all over my body.

And the forest floor began to shake.