A group of knights could be seen traveling on horseback. At the front, leading the group, was a beautiful woman. She was smiling and humming some unknown song. Her hair was also slightly fluttering in the wind. Such beauty could easily make a lot of men fall for her...

"...Nana na... kill them all... Nana na... children too..."

At the very least until they would talk with her.

'Can I kill this b*tch?'

A bit behind her was a black-haired youth, wearing similarly black robe that easily distinguishes him from the rest of the group. His expression appeared neutral and disinterested but if one looked closely, one could notice his one eye twitching from anger.

"Sigh... It appears we are close to our destination..."

"Huh?"

Nate was tired of her singing this awful song so he pointed out the fact they were already close to the forest.

"You are right! By the way do u know how we call this forest?"

"How?"

"Darkwood forest. You know why?"

"Why? Because it's dark inside?"

"Well, you guessed it. The closer you are to the centre the darker it gets; they say that the sunlight doesn't even reach the centre and demons live in there but that's a lie"

"Really? And how are you so sure of it?"

"I checked duh"

'Of course, you did'

***

Some time passed and the party already entered the forest a while ago. The sun was starting to set so the decision was made to camp nearby. Quickly some tents were set up and a campfire lit to provide some light during the night. Nathaniel didn't have much to do since most of the work was done by the holy knights so he volunteered to "scout" the area. He simply choose one direction and walked forward without a set goal in mind.

"Tsk... am I not on a level of a strategic weapon to these people? Why would they allow me to follow this crazy b*tch?"

He was complaining and letting out some frustration he built up today. Before he noticed he already walked quite the distance from the camp.

"It's getting dark"

Suddenly he made a motion with his hand, grabbing the air in front of him and a black staff appeared out of nowhere. This was the very same staff he was gifted with just yesterday by the emperor.

"This storage ring sure is useful"

He admired the silver ring on his right hand but quickly lost interest. He closed his eyes for a split second and purred a small amount of mana into his staff. Out of nowhere a small white sphere appeared and illuminated the area around him.

"Damm... I love magic"

After this he continued his walk, the sphere followed quietly behind him.

Half an hour passed.

Nate was already starting to get tired from walking pointlessly in the forest so he decided to turn around and go back to the camp. He was walking with half closed eyes but after being around five minutes away from the camp he suddenly stopped.

The sphere behind him dimmed and quickly extinguished. Instead, a blue light appeared in his eyes and he could perfectly see everything around him. Also, he circulated mana in his body and strengthened it.

"Hmm..."

He seemed to have made sort of decision and ran towards a certain direction.

Nate didn't run far; he was still quite close to the campsite. Despite this his expression was serious as he was hiding behind a thick tree. The reason he was hiding there, was the fact he sensed some unknown creature while scanning the area with his mana.

His technique could be called genius since he created it while reading about spells with similar effect but it was more simplified and could be used almost continuously with the only downside being all he could tell from these scans was a rough shape of the area. Still, he could detect movement and distinguish between a tree and an animal.

'Is this the so called goblin?'

He finally took a peek at the creature. Its skin was dark green, had pointy ears and was very short not taller than Nathaniels knee. It was also wearing some simple clothes made from animal skin. It appeared to be looking for something since it was scanning the ground with its eyes even though it was almost completely dark.

'It seems goblins can see quite well in the dark... Well, I am done observing'

Nathaniel started to casually walk towards the creature with his staff in hand. The goblin also noticed the slowly approaching human and seemed shocked but Nate didn't give it time to react. He pointed his staff at the goblin and then aggressively moved it to the side.

"Gruuuu!"

The goblin screamed as it flew wherever the staff pointed and was ultimately pinned to the tree. What Nathaniel used was simple telekinesis!

"Human please spare! I no danger! I simple scavenger!"

Nate was utterly shocked and his eyes widened.

"Human mercy!"

He ignored the goblin, looked down with a frown and started to think with sweat visible on his forehead.

'Weren't goblins supposed to be simple minded monsters that only knew how to kill? What is going on? I was told that goblins can't be reasoned with... if this is the case then... WHAT!!!'

He hurriedly jumped to the side and he felt a gush of wind flying past him. He looked to where the goblin was and a shocking scene of blood, cut off limbs flying in the air and a tree split in two welcomed him. Then he turned towards the source of the attack and he was horrified to see a very familiar face.