Driving off the Goblins

"Who's Sanderson?" Yanxi asked, a little surprised.

"Is this mentor of yours famous?" Lamore pressed.

"Is this mentor of yours powerful?" Kana asked eagerly as well.

Dean felt a headache coming on. After a whole year together, didn't these three know what I was capable of as a Magic Apprentice?

"You're overthinking it. My mentor isn't powerful or famous. He's just an ordinary teacher." Of course, he looked perfectly ordinary, even rather weak. As for how powerful he really was, or in what ways, even Dean had no idea.

"Ordinary..." All three sighed. Of everyone on their team, Dean had the hardest life. Being a Mage was part of the reason, of course, but having no family support was another.

"But my mentor is pretty rich. He knew I didn't have any savings, so he gave me a gold coin as spending money." As he spoke, Dean tossed a glittering coin into the air.

The moment the gold coin went up, several hundred pairs of eyes seemed to appear around them, "bouncing" along with the coin as it rose and fell.

"Hey, you idiot! Run!" Seeing that things were going wrong, Kana immediately snatched the gold coin, stuffed it into Dean's clothes, then grabbed his and Yanxi's hands and ran.

Lamore, a Priest whose survival skills were second to none, had already slipped far away, a step ahead of Kana.

Good heavens, this was the slums, a place packed with poor people, every last one driven mad by poverty. They wouldn't dare target someone with money and power, but Dean was only a lowly Level-One Magic Apprentice.

Even with three other level-one youngsters helping him, they couldn't hold off hundreds or thousands of desperate paupers.

Kana swore she wouldn't set foot in the slums again anytime soon. These people now knew that the four of them seemed to have a bit of money.

That wasn't the point. The point was that none of them was particularly strong. They were cannon-fodder level... no, a little stronger than cannon fodder... still cannon fodder.

Before long, the four of them arrived at the town gate, panting. Lamore was combing his flowing emerald hair. His blue-green locks looked quite beautiful in the sunlight. Of course, he was a guy.

"Forgive me for fleeing... er, no, evacuating the slums first. As a Half-Elf, I must maintain my perfect appearance at all times." The preening peacock still hadn't stopped combing his long hair.

The other three ignored Lamore's vanity.

"Wait, weren't we supposed to pick up a quest? Don't tell me you've already accepted one?" Dean looked at Kana. She was absolutely capable of doing something like that: accepting whatever quest she wanted without asking the others.

Or rather, Kana deliberately ignored Dean's opinions. Sometimes, she even went out of her way to choose quests where he couldn't contribute much, leaving him to serve as the team's pack mule.

"That's right. It's your fault for sleeping so late. It's already noon! Heh, you don't mind that I tore down your lousy wooden box, do you?" Kana said cheerfully, without the slightest embarrassment over having demolished someone else's home.

Dean glanced at Kana, then turned away. He didn't want to look at that smug face anymore, even if she did look quite pretty when she smiled.

"Let's go. Our quest this time is to drive off a few Goblins." Kana handed their team badge to the guard at the gate. Once they were allowed through, she led the other three toward their destination.

"Dean, why don't you move in with us? That way, Kana won't tear down your room anymore." Along the way, Yanxi tugged at the hem of Dean's clothes and spoke to him in a tiny voice.

"You're not short on money anymore, right? You don't have to live in the slums now." After saying that, she gazed up at him with her big eyes.

Yanxi was already petite and delicate, and on top of that, she had beautiful blue eyes that seemed to hold a whole sea of stars. How could Dean resist a plea like that? Besides, he no longer had any reason to live in the slums.

"All right, I'll move in. Let me think. There's a lot of stuff I'll need to buy new, like..."

Beside them, Kana had long since pricked up her ears. Although she pretended not to hear, her heart was pounding. At last, her whole team would finally be living together.

An hour later, the four reached their destination, a small village northwest of Blue Town.

Calling it a small village wasn't quite right. It was a fairly large farm, so vast that its boundaries were almost impossible to see at a glance. Supposedly, the grain it produced could feed all the residents of Blue Town for half a year.

But there wasn't a single person on the farm now, only a dozen or so exhausted-looking Slimes hopping about.

It made sense. With such a huge expanse of farmland to tend and only a dozen or so Slimes to do it, they really did have too much work.

"Let's leave these Slimes alone. The farmer told us in the Guild hall that they'll finish their own work. Our job is to find the Goblins hiding around the edges of the farm and drive them all out," Kana told Dean.

Clearly, Yanxi and Lamore already knew the details of the quest. Only Dean, who had slept until noon, was still in the dark.

"What about the farmer? Isn't he going to show us the way?" Dean asked, puzzled. With this much farmland, it would be dark by the time they made a circuit, never mind having to search for the Goblins' hiding places.

Kana rolled her pretty eyes at Dean. "You can tell just by looking. This farmer has been squeezing the Slimes for everything they're worth to make himself more money. Now he's hiding in town from Goblin attacks, but he still hasn't forgotten to order the Slimes to keep farming. Do you think a farmer like that would guide us?"

Dean was speechless too. Didn't that mean they could spend days searching if they were unlucky? The Goblins might already have left while they were still wasting their time like idiots.

Besides, a single Goblin wasn't necessarily stronger than an adult human. A small roaming band of ordinary Goblins like this might not even be as strong as three or five regular grown men. Yet this farmer was actually afraid of being ambushed by them.

"Dean, do you know Basic Life Detection Magic? The spell that lets you sense all large creatures within a hundred meters?" Kana suddenly turned back and asked.

"What are you talking about? Of course not. Why would I learn it? That spell is basically useless. It never detects what you need it to, and it picks up everything you don't." Dean waved a hand. "That's how our magic teacher explained it. Basically, no normal Mage would waste time learning that spell. What, did you want me to use it to find the Goblins?"

"Didn't you just say you don't know it? I knew there was no point counting on you. Hmph!" Kana huffed at Dean indignantly. "Besides, you're not a normal Mage anyway!"

Dean: "..."

True enough, with his focus on the dark element, Dean could hardly be considered mainstream. He was more of a niche Mage, so he didn't quite meet the usual standards for a normal Mage.

(End of chapter)