Chapter 29: Chapter 28 – Setting out on an expedition.

Some time had passed since Helci’s first expedition into the forest. That was something she considered a big failure. She couldn’t kill a single goblin and had to be rescued by some kid and she even got berated her for it. She did manage to level up once, the goblin that she injured had chased after her and was finished off by the human mage that rescued her. She gained part of the shared experience after the kill and managed to level up.

This incident made her rethink her approach. She wasn’t strong enough to wander alone into the forests. She also figured out that the white goblins that were in this forest were stronger than the regular green ones.

She was a scout, this was a combat class while also a utility class, so she needed to increase her combat and detection skills. She didn’t receive any free weapon proficiencies as they needed to be trained by herself. She needed to increase her basic dagger proficiencies and maybe the short sword ones. She was a class relying on agility and wouldn’t be good with heavier weapons.

With their good eyesight, a scout made a good archer but they mostly needed to use short bows or crossbows due to their lack of strength. Contrary to popular belief, archers relied more on strength than dexterity as they needed enough power to draw their large longbows. The dexterity and good vision then added to their aiming proficiencies. 

After the first level, she had received a basic trapfinding skill. Before that she only had a passive that allowed her to see better and spot hidden enemies. It only worked on them if they weren’t hiding or their skill in stealth was really low.

The half-gnome girl had decided to first train a bit, increasing her passive weapon proficiencies along with doing basic strength training. While at it she also made sure to visit the adventurer guild hoping that she could get a job there. To her dismay, not many people wanted to take in a bronze class scout into their mids that was only on their first class.

The other adventurers didn’t want to put their faith in an inexperienced tracker. Someone that could detect the enemies before they ambushed you was a cornerstone of every party. They were sometimes even considered more valuable than mages or priests.

Time continued to pass, in the day she worked at the inn while in the evening she did her training. She was quite diligent and even managed to level up thanks to increasing some of the basic combat skills. She had never trained before and had gone through her first class change. People who didn’t train the basic skills beforehand would find them leveling up faster after attaining a class.

After a few months of hard work, she had her break. She managed to land a spot in a party. She agreed on lower wages and was more or less a tag-along extra. Her first job was to protect a caravan that would take her on a two-week trip back and forth. The pay wasn’t great but she still took it.

This forced her to quit her job at the inn. The innkeeper wasn't happy about an abrupt leaving of his worker but he could do nothing but shrug. The first quest unfolded with some strains, their party was attacked by some wolf looking monsters. They managed to clear them out with only a couple of people injured. Soon she started leveling up and her adventurer life had finally begun. She found the encounter very exciting and was hoping for more but to her dismay, it wasn’t always so action-packed.

Her party spent two weeks walking in front of a cart and sometimes riding it. The monster attacks were rare and she felt bored. The sleeping conditions were even worse than at the inn as they either slept outside or in one of the carriages. She even had to deal with the male members snoring all night long.

She also didn’t like the looks that some of the adventurers were giving her. Luckily she wasn’t the only female in the group and they never went too far. Her new party consisted of her as a scout, two warriors, a girl that was an archer, and another scout that was already in his second-tier 1 class that was a tracker. This was a popular class to take along with a scout as it also had monster detection qualities along with basic pathfinding skills.

Everyone besides her was a steel rank so she was the newbie of the group. She had to do things like cooking or washing their dirty clothes. She knew that they didn’t consider her a real party member just yet but she had to catch up to everyone. Their ages were all comparable to her as she had a late start. 

The days continued to pass and she never returned to the inn. Her levels were slowly rising but without any dungeon nearby her progress was meager. Her party didn’t want to move to another city as they were okay with easy transport work. She on the other hand wanted more, she wanted to get stronger and earn some respect.

One day Helci brought news of the expedition to Manstos Grotto and how it was mostly about exterminating a monster infestation. To her surprise, the party refused this request telling her that it sounded sketchy. There wasn’t enough info about the monsters and the inside of the caves might not be correctly mapped out. They were the types that liked to play it safe so they refused the request.

She went away fuming, she didn’t want to do the protection missions anymore. They had spent the past four months doing those and she was still only a level 10. She wanted to progress faster but was afraid to head out on her own. Luckily this expedition was accepting almost everyone even bronze adventurers could join.

To the protests of her party, she decided to go there as a solo act. They didn’t want to budge even after she asked them again and again. This wasn’t considered a betrayal of trust or anything, it wasn’t rare for adventurers to change parties and to join larger expeditions like this on their own. They wished her good luck and to come back in one piece.

She arrived early in the morning almost before anyone had gathered. She took her time to examine her dagger and short bow that she was now using. She was wearing light armor and the same leather vest was still on her as she didn’t have enough coin to make a drastic change to her gear. She also looked at her status screen while wondering how she compared to others at her level.

 

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