Episode 1

In a forest during the night, my group and I continued traveling to our quest destination. This group has a really bad combination with all of us being good in one thing only, which is assassinating.

First let me introduce the group.

Ravenna Eriobea, the party leader. She's an Elf and an magic trickster. She has the typical High Elf features, blonde hair and green eyes. She's probably around 75 years old. No, she's not a grandmother, that's like early adult age for elves. She is a small elf! She's short, like 4'11 short. She makes the decision, and takes initiative for the team.

Razz Matash, another assassin that possesses magic in the party. He's a human. There's nothing really unique about him, he's got brown hair and dark brown eyes. He's not tall nor short, just average height like 5'6. He's, you could say, an average joe. He's 27 years old.

Domotraus Trijalle, he's human also. He's the fastest in the team. Naturally, he's got good reflexes, and is always alert. He's probably the most charismatic person in the team, he gets around easily with others. He has dark black hair with light brown ends. Has sharp brown eyes that shine almost gold under direct sunlight. He's a tall person, 6'2 in height. He's only 23 years old.

Sephsevel, this girl's a mystery. She's what you would call a Mastermind. She has a way of exploiting the weaknesses and blunders of her opponents, she's considerably a dangerous assassin in the party. She's a dark elf with the typical edgy look and long white hair.

Then there's me, my name is Athelstan the Cheater. Yep, that's really my name. I'm a human too, nothing special about me aside from the fact that I cheat a lot. I'm still surprised that my team still trusts me. I'm 5'7 in height. I got dark black hair with dark brown eyes, pretty generic right? I'm a pretty young guy like I recently turned 20.

Now let's go back to the adventure.

Under the darkness we travel, avoiding any hostile creatures we could sense. Our quest was to go to a village fulfill their request, which is to destroy a goblin hideout. No we're not goblin slayers, usually we receive quests related to assassinating specific people or scouting in enemy territory. We were quietly walking until Ravenna told us to stop. We had to reach the village by sun rise and stopping midway wouldn't allow us to reach our destination in time. Since I'm just a human, I couldn't see under the darkness other than a weird silhouette of what looks to be a giant creature, other than that I have no clue why we stopped.

She signaled us to draw our weapon, which we did. This giant creature was awake as it was busy moving around. Despite us being hidden under the darkness, it had noticed us right away. Just our luck, it stood up. Then I realized we were going against an Ogre. We had to react fast as it already saw us. Ravenna made the first move by casting the spell, firebolt. She shot it towards the Ogre which hits. As it was distracted the rest of us maneuvered behind the tree giving us full cover. We're not that great fighting things head-on so we like playing like cowards attacking it then running away. It moved towards Ravenna and tried to attack her with his giant club, what a caveman technique. She was able to dodge the attack avoiding the hit. As that happened the rest of us has reached our positions. Domotraus, being the fastest, went ahead for a sneak attack behind the ogre which hits. Followed by another sneak attack from Razz which also hits. The ogre turns around to face the enemies that attacked him from behind, which was a big mistake. The moment he turned around Sephsevel had made her shot with her longbow. It hits the right eye of the ogre, I made a sneak attack behind him aiming for his leg the same time the arrow shot. The ogre falls to one knee then tries to attack both Razz and Domotraus. As usual being an assassin means we're fast, the two of them were able to dodge the attack and made some distance between them and the ogre. Ravenna gets both of her short swords and stabbed the ogre from behind, which made the finishing blow. The ogre falls to the ground, dead.

We looked, and signaled to each other that we were okay and unharmed. We started hearing footsteps from left and right, meaning this ogre wasn't alone. So we hurried off to prevent another encounter.

We were very used to fighting monsters and groups, as we had encountered a lot of hostile creatures in our other quests, this ogre was simple. It was a peaceful travel to the village. The sun had risen and we arrived, it's a small village, with around 10 houses in a circular formation with some fields behind the houses. The village is located in a clearing within the forest.

We were welcomed by the guards watching over the village. We entered the village and let's say it looks quite nice. There's a well in the center of the village, this is where they get their water of course. The village elder, who waited for our arrival, approached us.

"You five must be the rogues we had requested, allow me to formally welcome you to my village. Please follow me this way."

The old guy lead us to his house. We sat down in the dining room and he offered us a meal and some tea. After eating and enjoying ourselves, Ravenna takes the initiative to ask about the quest.

"Now that we're here, let's discuss about your request, what is it you need us to do?"

"This village is usually safe, and the surrounding areas were also safe. Even a part of the forest was safe for us, during the day at least. I had a group of four strong men to hunt for food. They usually come back after 5 hours, but the last time they left, they never came back. I sent out a search party and we found their belongings on the floor near the hills, north from the village. We had also found goblin prints and followed it, which lead us to a cave. We chose not to enter it."

The village elder takes out a map showing the village and the surrounding area, he plants his finger in the northern area of the village where the hills are located, but not exactly on the hills.

"This is where the cave is. We believe that the goblins are become active during the sunset, and we haven't been hunting ever since."

I saw something interesting in the map, it looked like a building somewhere in the south of the village.

"What's this building?" I asked as I point to what caught my interest.

"This is an abandoned church, there's a rumor of a spirit taking the appearance of a well known rogue named Cilan Mamoru. He fought in the war to protect the world from demons, he died in battle. And that church is where he died.

This spirit is known to cause chaos to wherever it goes, but as far as this spirit goes. It's just a rumor. But the main objective of the quest is here in the north with the goblins, don't get distracted."

"Right.... goblins... got it" I just looked away irritated.

"Ughh old people" I mutter to myself.

As the village elder explained things, I noticed Razz trying his best to not fall asleep, he'd be doing the signature lowkey headbanging where he just slowly puts his head down then immediately put it up with his eyes half open. This guy must be a master of stealth cause no else seemed to have noticed him. Well I wasn't listening either, too busy focusing on sleepy Razz.

After a while of Razz trying to fight his sleep, the village elder stands up followed by Ravenna.

"And that's what we know so far, I wish your team a successful quest."

They both shake hands

"Thank you. We shall move out by nightfall and take out the goblins on the same night." Ravenna says assuringly.

The village elder begins to walk out.

"Well I have a village to take care of enjoy yourselves for the time being."

"Anyways team, got a plan?" Ravenna asks and looks at all of us.

Of course, I'm not smart enough to think of a strategy, but I DO know someone who does. The rest of the team also knew this so we all looked at Sephsevel on reflex. We were waiting for her to come up a plan as we watch her inspect

the map.

She finally speaks up

"I'll explain the plan later, I need some time to think of counters. So yeah see you till then."

She stands up then walks up the stairs.

"Hey, where are you going?" Razz asks her.

"We were given permission to use the rooms. Knowing you, you were most likely totally not half asleep and was totally listening to the village elder." She says sarcastically.

Domotraus stands and follows her up

I knew for a fact that our mastermind probably said an excuse just to take a rest. Well we are pretty tired from traveling, so I guess I'd do the same in her position.

I followed them upstairs also cause I want to sleep. Before I left the room, I looked back at the table seeing Razz already asleep, making himself comfortable on the chair. I let out a little laugh then went upstairs.

I entered a random room and see a girl sleeping on the bed. She looked pretty cute with her dark curly hair reaching to her shoulder she looked young but not too young, I'd say she's around 17 years old. She slowly rises as soon as I had opened the door, she turns towards me then rubs her eyes.

Quick strategy plan.

It takes about 5 seconds for your sight to clear up, and about 3 seconds when rubbing your eyes. As she rubs her eyes, I can make a quick hide behind the door as I haven't closed it yet. But she would know that someone had entered, and we'd be in trouble if I were to just leave the door open, but if I do close the door. It would again make a sound, but the sense of hearing isn't fully awake either. And people tend to forget the first 30 minutes of what happens as soon as they wake up, but she looks like she enjoyed her sleep. So there's a possibility that she might notice me the sound right away, but I can always kill her so there would be no witnesses. Wait what am I thinking?! I can't kill her. She's just a girl-

Then suddenly she finished rubbing her eyes. Good game, this is it. I was too slow, sadly I don't have the fast reflexes or the speed of Domotraus. If I did though, I'd have been able to get out of this situation before she could get back to her senses.

She opens her eyes and I'd just be standing in front of the door, frozen knowing I had screwed up and the village elder is gonna have me arrested.

She screams as loud as she can then throws a pillow at me then hides under her blanket.

Ravenna pulls me out then closes the door.

"What in the word are you doing?! He said not to enter her daughter's room! Weren't you listening to what he was saying?" She be scolding me

"I- uh I'm sorry" I didn't know what else to say honestly. But right mow I'd really like to just take a sleep.

"Just go to a vacant room and take rest, I'll explain things to the village elder." She heads back downstairs.

I looked to the right and followed the hallway and there'd be four doors, two on each side, excluding the daughter's room. I went to the one nearest to the daughter's room for reasons and thankfully it wasn't taken.

The room isn't big it's quite small really. There's the bed at the end of the room, with a window on the left side if the bed.There's a cupboard beside the door I came in from, and a small table and a chair on the right side of the bed. I just went ahead and jumped on the bed then took a rest. Since I was used to traveling I slept like a log.

After 8 hours of sleeping, I woke up and got my pack. I inspected my dagger, and it looks like it's about to break. I needed a replacement, something good and not a kitchen knife. I checked my pocket and counted five bolts. I equipped my handbow and prepared one bolt. I head out of my room and headed downstairs.

As I arrived I see the girl from a while ago reading a book.

"Good morning."

"Afternoon" She looked at me with those brown pure eyes.

"Exactly what I said!"

I just sat down on a chair. It was really quiet. I wasn't good at talking much, but someone had to break this silence. I know for a fact she wasn't going to, so I made the first move.

"Hey so what's the book about?"

She looks at me in the eyes. At first I thought to myself if she was the one. But I know for a fact that I was being to simple, so No.

"It's a story of a Prince and how he came to learn of love after a tragic past."

"I see. By the way, my name's Athelstan"

"My name's Mary"

Mary. What an angelic name. Wait what am I thinking?!

"So Mary, how young are you? I'm twenty"

"You're quite young for a rogue. I'm sixteen"

And there is the awkward silence again. Pretty intense. After just a few minutes of me staring at her as she reads. Razz enters from the front door.

"Ah you're finally woke! Let's start going, we're gonna setup camp near the cave."

I stand up and head for the door. I look back to take one more glance at Mary. Our eyes catch each other then she quickly goes back to reading. I blush and look down tryna hide my face. From here on out, I knew our journey would be a tough one.

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