"Mister…you can let us go…" one of the goblins muttered behind them, while the other sniffled quietly from the other side.

The curly-haired lad shook his head, while the other two didn't answer, just focused on running. Ren, the dark-haired guy wasn't talking as he carried the other one. He was focused on finding a clear path for them.

Following closely behind them was a blonde with spiked hair. He wasn't carrying anything, but he had a foul look on his face.

The blond sneered, all while stabbing and pushing away a monster that came after them. "So noisy.

"You already put us here, are you going to waste our efforts?" he asked, making the goblin pale.

The brunette sighed while the dark-haired one looked bored as he ran stably across the forest, over the roots, and it was almost like the ground was level. "Just focus on running, I can't save your asses this time. I've no mana anymore."

The blonde looked affronted. "Who saved whose ass?!" he yelled, but then he screamed when a sharp blade passed by his face and grazed his nose.

"HEY!!!"

Stab!

A small beast—a brootrat—was impaled in front of him, splattering some blood on him, and its corpse was waved off the sword.

Aaron felt embarrassed, but he and the others kept running. He looked at Ren, only to see the latter giving him a side eye.

"Why do I have to babysit you, too?"

Gasp. "You know we're in this mess because of you, right?!" he said, looking at the goblins. If they hadn't tried to save these bloody goblins, would they have attracted so many? Would their movements be so slow?

"I'll push you to a beast's mouth one of these days! Your mouth smells the same anyway!"

"Your lack of an intelligent insult is really depressing," Ren said as they ran in parallel. "We did not ask you to follow us. You went ahead on your own."

"Your lack of respect is depressing. I'm older than you!" he yelled, pantingly stabbing a monster in the eye, and looking at Ren as if he was imagining he was the one being stabbed.

"You have to deserve the respect first, idiot," Ren snapped back, tone still stoic but words sharp, as he swung his sword again, taking down two brootrats at a time.

The young men's names were Ren, Aaron, and Zachary, all young mercenaries at the late Awakening stage. The dark-haired stoic young man was Ren, the tanned skin brunette was Zachary, while the snappy blonde was Aaron.

Ren, 21 years old, was a swordsman specializing in speed and agility. His sword was simple yet obviously of good quality, reminiscent of the type of fighter that he was. He had ebony hair, blue eyes, and a perennially stoic expression on his face.

In contrast, the 22-year-old blonde Aaron was a spearman, and had a bit of an explosive energy around him, and it looked like he'd go off on anyone who offended him, which might not even be difficult.

Lastly, the curly-haired brunette, Zachary, had a very good build for someone who just turned 21 years old. He preferred to use his hands when fighting, and his equipment was strong, spiked gloves, known to smother monsters at his level in the face.

They were currently running away for their lives, all injured, tired, and bloodied. There were also green critters a third of their height on Zachary and Ren's backs.

"Unlike you two, I'm a noble!" Aaron yelled, smacking another rat away from them as he ran parallel to the other two. "Back in Town, you could be punished!"

Ren looked blankly at him. "You should've acted the part first."

"!!!"

Zachary could only shake his head, focused on guarding the rear while Ren led the path. Path to where? They really didn't know either.

They were in pain and they were hungry, but they could not even take a break anymore because of the beasts that would come at them. Their HPs and Staminas were getting dangerously low. They have to find a place to hide, quickly!

They had been traveling for about a day now. They ran away from most monsters they encountered—they simply could not afford to lose energy when they were so far away from civilization—but because they were injured, it was extremely difficult for them to find peace.

They got lucky a few hours ago when they found a stream, washed the blood off, at least those that smelled the most, and also got drinking water upstream.

However, after resting for a few hours, they just had to go, so now they were walking around again, aimlessly.

Unlike adventurers, the missions that mercenaries usually took wouldn't require them to camp in the dangerous wilderness for days. Their missions were mostly in the safe zones—which comprised the vast majority of the land mass in the continent anyway—and those had clear roads to and from each territory, even among villages.

In the safe zones, if they got lost in the extremely vast forests or farmlands in between territories, they could just run. Even if they were doing so aimlessly, they were bound to find a pathway or even a road. Now, there was no such thing!

Their training focused a lot on fighting wild animals, bandits, gangsters, and handling business properly. They were also more snobbish in that they had higher standards in terms of food and so on. At best, they knew how to make fire and hunt, and make basic food from them.

When they had to go out, they had a simple magic tool that could help them find direction. Each mercenary team and its captains would have this because it wasn't too prohibitive. Sadly, Ren lost his during the attack, and the other two didn't have personal ones.

So now they were lost. They could only be sure they weren't going in circles by marking trees with their weapons, and that was just about it.

For the past day, they ran, fought, ate random fruits, and so on. They didn't have enough time to recover their stats, and they could literally feel their bodies getting heavier.

At some point, the goblins also tried to run on their own. They were fast, after all, and they jumped at the chance to become bait. It would've worked if they were all in top condition, but the two goblins had been injured before, too.

Too soon, they got caught.

Seeing them getting bitten all over by brootrats—monsters that shouldn't be difficult for peak awakened fighters if they had enough stats—the trio could only follow in the end, which ultimately attracted more and more monsters to their team, leading to the current situation.

Now, the goblin behind Zed was really weak and barely conscious, while the one on Zack's back was half-dying but still nagging, and the rest of them were also barely holding on.

Aaron waved his spear again as yet a few more monsters appeared. There seems to be a few brootrats on this side too. "Were these common in this area?"

They were used to insectoid monsters as the Western dungeon was closest to their town. They were now seeing a lot of furry, smelly ones.

"We must have gone quite far East," Zed said, sounding very logical as always.

"Sigh, I knew I shouldn't have gone on this mission. My very sharp instincts were telling me something."

"Do we even know where we're going?"

"The monsters are all weak awakened monsters, so at least we're not approaching a dungeon," Ren looked at the back, making a rough estimate of the density of monsters they had encountered so far. "We should be around the midpoint now."

Aaron flinched at this. "What—ah!" In his distraction, his leg–which had a wound by the way—hit a branch head-on and he gasped in pain.

It hurts.

Zach looked at him in pity. "Are you crying?"

"I'M NOT!"

"How far away could the nearest Town be?" Aaron asked Ren, eyes definitely teary. The delineation of the danger zone and the safe zone was all border towns. There were a few villages, but they were much further in.

"At least 2 days, no 3, depending on where we are," Ren said after a pause, jaw clenched as he avoided another monster.

To think they had to do this for days more…

Would they really be able to last that long?

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