Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Never Judge a Book

"Are you sure this is where they will be passing through?"

A tall, thin man wearing ragged clothes was hiding in a bush while whispering to his comrade.

"Yeah, the scouts we sent are sure." 

The old, bearded man donning padded armor beside the thin man replied with conviction in his voice.

"I'm asking you, though!"

The thin man slammed the ground as he glared at the bearded man. Sweat drops continued to fall from both their foreheads. There was an uneasy silence permeating inside the forest.

Situated on a path toward the holy city of Treshour, the Forest of Imminent Danger was appropriately named and perfectly situated for the plans of the men hiding in the bushes.

Monsters roamed the lands of Chrona, a fantastical world of creatures and magic. But for some reason, they did not enter this particular forest.

"Quiet…! I see them coming. Alert the others."

The bearded man in armor then moved from his position while his comrade went to the opposite direction.

One by one, there were rustling in the bushes. Then, figure upon figure of armored men wielding all sorts of weapons emerged from those bushes and behind the trees. There was only one way this scene could be described: An ambush.

---

A short distance from where the ambush was awaiting, there was a group of people walking towards it. They were casually talking with each other, not aware of what was about to happen. Upon reaching the ambush site, the armored bearded man stepped out in front of their path.

"So, this is the infamous party who can't be defeated?"

He breathed a heavy sigh as he shook his head.

"How the hell did you get your bounties so high? Are the other mercenaries really that weak?"

The bearded man then started to laugh out loud while grabbing his belly. The other members of his mercenary group slowly showed themselves one after the other. The man in ragged clothing approached his comrade.

"See? There was nothing to worry about!"

He grabbed the bearded man's shoulder and smirked at him. The confidence in his voice was a far cry from how it shivered mere moments ago.

"That is why we shouldn't trust rumors! How can an ordinary-looking party like them beat hundreds of mercenaries? I mean, even monsters can't kill them? Look at them!"

The bearded guy in armor pointed at the awe-struck party. He started to feel like having brought about forty of his men to ambush the party in front of him was a waste of time. This was because he could easily identify the job classes of the party due to their clothes and weapons.

There was a cute girl with shoulder-length blue hair, showing an eerily cheerful smile in her face and wearing a mage's hat. The hat clearly made her the mage of the party in the mercenary's eyes.

The other beautiful girl, with long pinkish hair and slightly pale skin, was wearing clothing from the clergy, thus making her a priestess and their healer.

There then was a lean guy with brown hair wearing bluish metal armor that seemed too heavy for him. The bearded mercenary deduced that that guy was a slow, lumbering knight.

The slightly taller guy, with combed-back green hair and a vacant look on his face, had a bow behind his back so he definitely must have been an archer, the bearded man thought.

Then the young-looking man with golden hair, who was shaking in his boots and sweating profusely, was perhaps a merchant in the mercenary's mind. The bearded leader thought that if the trembling man was a warrior or any other job class, he wouldn't be THIS scared.

The bearded mercenary then stared at the priestess standing in front of the party, wondering why they would let their healer be in the most vulnerable spot. Afterwards, he looked at the mage who was vulnerable as well, standing slightly far from the rest of the group. He was also baffled why the knight that was with their group was hiding in the middle, between the archer to his left and the other guy to his right.

"Let's just finish this and get our money."

The armored mercenary raised his sword to signal his men.

"Kill—"

Before he could finish giving his command, the mage suddenly ran toward the woods of the forest. It took the mercenaries by surprise.

"Huh? Where is she going? Go after her!"

The bearded leader turned his head to watch the mage who ran away. He then quickly pointed his sword toward the mage. About ten men followed after her.

Unexpectedly, the other party members dispersed to different directions, except for the priestess. They all also headed toward inside the forest. The remaining mercenaries formed groups and followed each of fleeing party members. The bearded armored mercenary stayed behind to deal with the priestess.

"I get it now. Every member runs for their lives when you're attacked. No wonder you survived this long. I guess those other mercenaries were too ashamed to admit they let you run away, so they just claimed to be beaten. How pathetic!"

The bearded mercenary was inspecting his blade as he spoke, running his index finger on the blade's sharp side, ensuring its sharpness was enough to cut through his prey's flesh. His actions were signs that the priestess posed no threat to him.

"But still, your comrades are heartless, leaving you all alone. They just let their healer die like that? I sort of feel pity for you. Too bad you're a looker. Such a shame I have to kill you here."

He scanned the priestess from top to bottom, all the while licking his lips through his smirk. The priestess was just looking back at him silently while standing still.

"Not even a prayer, eh? Fine."

He dashed toward the priestess and swung his sword upward to cut her.

"Die!"

---

The mage kept running until she reached a clearing in the forest. She stood in the middle of the clearing and placed her hands on her waist while she waited for her pursuers.

"We got her cornered! Surround her!"

A mercenary from the group that followed the mage shouted to direct his comrades. They then surrounded the mage, with their weapons at the ready. The mage didn't flinch. In fact, she was smiling cheerfully while looking up at the sky.

"You know, it was a bad idea to run on your own. With no one else to protect you while you cast your spells, you're as useless as a dead body, which you will turn into in a moment."

Another mercenary pointed his round-bladed sword toward the mage.

---

The archer stopped running after a while, standing in the middle of several trees. He sat in front of a tree. He saw a rabbit nearby and motioned for it to come closer. The rabbit approached him slowly and then he started to pet it with his hand. The mercenaries were able to catch up to him and surrounded him closely.

"Why the hell did this guy stop running? And what's with the rabbit?"

One mercenary asked his comrade beside him.

"Who the hell cares? Just don't let him use his bow and arrows and we'll be fine. This close distance should be no problem!"

The other mercenary readied his large dagger as he stared at the sitting archer.

The archer slowly stood up as he let the rabbit run away from him and the crowd of mercenaries. But before it could get away, one of the mercenaries shot an arrow at the rabbit and killed it.

"That's what is going to happen to you!"

The one who shot the rabbit shouted at the archer. All the other mercenaries laughed.

The archer then bowed his head. He walked slowly toward the rabbit, and then kneeled down as if to say a prayer. He then stood up and pulled the arrow from the rabbit's body.

"Well, will you look at that? I just noticed that this guy is not even carrying any arrows with him! What kind of archer are you? Are you going to reuse that single arrow to kill all of us?"

The rabbit killer mercenary pointed at the still archer. All the others laughed more loudly.

---

The knight started to slow down after running for some time now. He had his hands on his knees as he was catching his breath. The mercenaries then caught up with him.

"I've never seen a knight this cowardly."

One mercenary exclaimed.

"He looks weak, too."

Another one commented on the knight's appearance.

"Why is this freakin' armor too heavy?!"

The knight then stood straight and shouted. The mercenaries were surprised.

"That's enough running for me."

The knight then turned around at the mercenaries.

"What? Only you guys followed me?"

He clicked his tongue.

"You think you can take all of us? We're about fifteen strong here! We carefully planned to take on a slow knight with this much manpower. There is no running—"

"Shut up already! I just said that was enough running for me. Also, don't worry your little heads about a slow knight. Okay?"

The grinned at them.

---

The other guy from the party was running out of breath. He was holding a knife in his hand. He could hear the footsteps of those chasing after him getting nearer by the second. His body wanted to stop running, but his mind kept telling him to run. While running frantically, he tripped on a tree's roots.

His body rolled around and hit bushes with thin branches. His instincts told him to immediately hide behind a tree as soon as he could. He crawled toward a tree and stayed hidden behind it. He was clutching his knife with his shaking hands, ready to attack anyone who would come. His anticipation was at a fever pitch. But no one came.

After a few more moments, the only noise he could hear was from that of his racing heartbeat. The footsteps of his pursuers were nowhere to be heard. Let alone the mercenaries themselves. He went out of hiding and turned his head as he looked around.

"It happened again, huh?"

He wondered to himself as he hid his knife in its sheath.

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---

"Run for your lives!"

One mercenary was shouting as he ran away from the mage.

"Earthquake that swallows up everything!"

The mage shouted to the air. She then punched the ground and it cracked open. The large fissure seemingly chased the mercenaries and some fell into it.

"That's not magic!"

The mercenary wearing ragged clothes complained to her while grabbing on the edge of the crack.

"Shut up!"

The mage then uprooted a tree and proceeded to 'cast' her spell.

"Whirlwind that blows away everything!"

She swung the tree and it created a strong wind. Some mercenaries flew away while the others fell into the cracks in the ground.

When she saw there weren't any mercenaries left standing, she planted the tree back by thrusting it into the ground.

"Never mess with the greatest mage alive!"

She brightly smiled and gave the beaten mercenaries the thumbs up.

---

"Stop! Please! Don't kill—"

The mercenary's throat was cut open. The archer sliced it with the tip of the arrow he had in his hand. He also was dragging the body of another mercenary by the hair as he was walking closer to the rest of the mercenaries. There were already other bodies lying on the ground.

'What the hell happened? Wasn't he supposed to be an archer? Why isn't he using his bow?' These were the questions some of them had before they died. The fear crippled the mercenaries and they weren't able to run away. All they could do was regret killing the rabbit in front of the monster that was standing before them.

---

"Where is that knight? Where did he go?"

A mercenary was frantically looking for the knight. The others were also turning their head left and right desperately.

One by one, they fell. They had no idea what was happening. They were being picked off one after another.

"The heck is this? I counted and there were only ten of you! I even looked around to check if there were others hiding, but no one is!"

The knight reappeared in front of the mercenaries.

"Where did you go? Did you do this to them?"

One mercenary demanded answers while pointing his sword toward the knight, his hand shaking all the while.

"I was just here. I never left. Didn't you see me?"

The knight closed his eyes and wryly smiled at the mercenary.

"Stop messing around! What did you do?"

The panicked mercenary standing in front of the knight looked around again. There were now only five remaining mercenaries standing, including him.

"I."

One guy fell down.

"Was just."

Another guy fell down.

"Standing."

Two guys were left.

"Here."

And the last guy that was left standing was the mercenary holding his sword toward the knight. As far as the mercenary was concerned, the knight was always in front of him and never left.

"Huh? What is happening?"

The mercenary pointing his sword to the knight realized he was the only one left.

"Nothing, really. By the way, I haven't seen that slow knight anywhere? Do you have any ideas?"

The knight brought his face closer to the mercenary. He stared at the trembling mercenary with cold, dead eyes and a wide smile.

"What are—"

Before the mercenary could ask, the knight was now suddenly standing behind the mercenary.

"You're not talking about me, are you?"

The knight softly whispered to the mercenary's ears. Immediately afterwards, he struck the back of the mercenary's neck and rendered him unconscious.

---

"What is… going on…?"

The bearded armored mercenary was huffing as he kept on swinging his sword, slicing the priestess' neck every time.

"Why… can't I… kill you…"

He finally fell down on his knees out of exhaustion.

"What… are you…?"

He then looked up at the priestess.

"That was quicker than expected. I suggest you exercise some more. It'll be good for you."

The priestess bent down and stared at the bearded mercenary. Her tone hinted at concern toward the mercenary.

"But maybe that is the limit of a lowly mercenary such as yourself."

But it was only for a moment, though. She then stood up straight and crossed her arms in front of her while she looked away.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party members came back to where the priestess was.

"What took you so long? This poor man was exhausted from attacking me. You could have shortened his suffering by knocking him out earlier."

The priestess placed her hands on her waist as she leaned forward toward the others.

"You seem fine to me, as always."

The knight remarked while fixing his gauntlet properly in place.

"What happened… to my men? And why… did you run away… if you were really strong?"

The bearded mercenary was now lying down on the ground but still hadn't lost consciousness.

"I didn't run away."

The priestess answered without looking at the mercenary.

"I was scared."

The young-looking guy said with a straight face.

"…"

The archer was just silent while he looked away.

"We wanted to see who would be chased by the highest number of people. If more people followed you, it means you're the strongest."

The knight proudly answered by thumping his chest with his fist.

"We wanted to see that?"

The mage raised her eyebrows as she looked at the knight.

"H-how is this… possible…?"

The exhausted and seemingly confused mercenary locked his gaze upward toward the knight.

"Oh, it seems you're interested to know about us, huh? Let's see…"

The knight crouched down and recounted how the world's strongest party was formed. Although, he didn't notice that the mercenary had passed out already.

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