Below the hill we stood on, was a small village. From what I could see there couldn't be that many people living there. I saw a few buildings that looked to be barns. Hopefully, there was a horse I could get.

The tower was in the center of the four lands, surrounded by a large mountain range on all four sides. The mountains themselves were oddly formed natural borders between the lands. However convenient they were for keeping the territories distinct and almost irrefutable, they were inconvenient for travelers. I would have to cross the mountains, and it wasn't something you wanted to do on foot.

I stepped out from behind the tree, making sure my hood was secure and wouldn't randomly fly off. I took a deep breath, gripped Mezu’s hand, and started to make my way down the hill.

When we were about halfway down, I saw a man come out of a building and start heading towards me. I gripped Mezu's hand a little tighter.

"You there! Are you a hunter?"

The man called out waving his hand at me.

I waited to respond till we got closer.

"What If I was?"

The man smiled gently.

"What luck. An E rank dungeon appeared in our village, the guild just came here and won't be back till next week, but by then I'm worried it will break. Would you be able to help us with it?"

What kind of stupid luck is this? There has to be a catch.

"If I say yes will you give me a horse?"

The man seemed to get nervous again.

"We only have a few horses in our village."

He can't really say no to my request though, can he?

"Is that so? What a shame I really need to get to the mountains."

I couldn't give everything away, like the fact that I was just as desperate for this to work out as he was. I really couldn’t stay in elvish lands too long.

"If you're going to Manthia then our blacksmith can give you a ride. He's headed that way to trade."

Ugh, a whole trip closely with an elf. That's probably not the best situation.

"I'm not really a fan of traveling with people."

I felt stupid saying that, I really couldn't be too picky. If this was my only option I would have to take it, but the idea of traveling with an elf that would just be too much work having to hide my ears all the time.

The man rubbed his hands together nervously.

"We can give you a horse and if you could leave it with our friend in Mantia, that way we both win. I'm sure you'll be able to buy a horse there. I'm afraid our horse breed can't go over the mountains so even if we could give one to you it wouldn't be much help."

Yes!

"That seems like a good deal. Why don't you lead me to the dungeon."

The man beamed and turned, holding his hand out politely.

"Of course follow me."

He started to lead me past the buildings, around the back of the village.

"Sorry for not introducing myself, I'm Elaith the village chief. Well, I don't really do much leadership as we are a small village and all."

I just simply nodded, I needed to leave as small of an impression as possible.

We made it to the end of the rows of buildings and I saw a portal a bit further off. Next to it stood a man. As we got closer, I was surprised to see such a burly-looking elf. He almost reminded me of a dwarf except for his height.

His size and his leather apron led me to believe he was the blacksmith. I was a bit glad the chief thought of another solution, traveling with this man didn't seem that great of a thing.

"Who's this? I thought you went out to gather people to go in?"

He looked me up and down with a gruff look on his face.

The chief patted his shoulder.

"This hunter happened to walk into our village and offered to help us out."

He looked at me again and shrugged.

"Well, if he's lying, we'll know soon enough. I'll wait for him out here."

"Great, thanks! Come see me when you come out."

The chief walked away quickly and I could see his hands still shaking a bit.

When he was further away the Blacksmith put a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll keep your secret, halfer."

I jumped at his comment and slowly turned my head to look at him, scared.

"We don't get a lot of solo hunters just wandering about, and if you were anything but a halfer you wouldn't be wearing a hood."

He laughed, hitting me on the back in a friendly manner, but the weight behind his hits didn't do much to stop my nerves.

I rubbed the back of my neck and laughed nervously.

"And here I thought the entire kingdom hated my existence."

The man's face lost the grin quickly and his hand dropped back to his side.

"Anyone with high elf blood does. I'm sure you know why."

I didn't but the look of curiosity on Alcoroth's face made me a little concerned.

"The look on your face says otherwise though?"

I laughed again trying to relax my face seeing his eyebrow raised.

"I uhh…"

"Why don't you head in, I can watch the little guy if you want."

I looked down at Mezu, a part of me thought he was invisible since no one commented on the fact that Alcoroth was just floating mid-air.

Damn it, that would have been so much easier. Well, at least Alcoroth was invisible.

"Ah no, he'll come in with me, don't worry about it. I'll see you when I come out then."

I went in quickly and let out a huge sigh on the other side. Then I looked at Alcoroth, annoyed. He hardly ever explained anything.

I didn't have time to think when I heard a screech, and a goblin jumped down at me.

Without thinking I pulled out Mezu's blade and lodged it into its skull. I pulled it out and jumped back ready to attack again, but the goblin didn't move.

I got slapped on the back of my head and turned to look at Alcoroth.

"What was that for?"

"Don't use that knife, getting it all dirty with goblin blood. How disrespectful."

I rubbed the back of my head annoyed.

"What was I supposed to do? It was the only weapon I got as a reward."

Alcoroth glared at me, those same eyes he had on during training.

"Use those gauntlets you idiot, you need to work on your hand-to-hand combat before you should even bother with a sword."

"Then why bother training me with a sword?!"

Alcoroth scoffed, making my face twitch in anger.

"I didn't want to do such a low thing as fighting you in hand-to-hand combat. It's much better for you to learn that in a low-level dungeon like this one."

I heard a ding but didn't even bother looking at the notification.

"Agh! You prick."

I put it away and put the gauntlets on.

"I'm only doing this because it will affect Mezu."

Out of curiosity, I looked over at him to see him poke the goblin's face. I sighed and couldn't help the grin that formed on my face. I walked over to him and softly pushed him forward to get him moving.

"Alright, let's get moving."