Past the meadow's beautiful field of majestic grass and tranquil bushels of wildflowers, Goblin Slayer was walking toward the edge of the Oakshire Forest; not really paying attention to where he was going, as he was more engrossed with managing his inventory than anything else. With BBB having been there to help him identify potentially valuable organic resources and items were left over from the mangled remains of the monsters who Fairy Knight brutally slaughtered in cold-blood, Goblin Slayer was scrolling through the holographic-screen; softly mumbling to himself, as he read the short description of each stacked item that his advanced AI assistant was able to transcribe for him, after having using her own magecraft abilities to analysis the structure of each valuable able that she had recommended him picking up.
""Honey syrup: dropped from "Berga Bug"; an organically processed substance, used in cooking"... "Antidote: dropped from "Egg Snake"; used to cure poison and venom statuses. If consumed prior to being poisoned, you'll be protected against venomous and poisonous attacks for ten minutes"," Goblin Slayer read to himself, while listening to some relaxing-ambient music being played to him by BBB; who, when asked, told the ten year-old that the song in question was from a playlist she made that had been composed of her favorite soundtracks, all from a video-game that was about mining and crafting.
Scrolling all the way down to the bottom of his inventory-menu, Goblin Slayer was slightly bummed out by the estimated value that he would get from selling his items to a merchant. Unsure whether or not he was getting better at navigating through the floating-menu, or if BBB was simply making it easier for him by tailoring it to his liking, Goblin Slayer was finding it easier-and-easier to utilize the incredibly helpful tool that BB had bestowed upon him before her departure. So when the relaxed ten year-old noticed a blue circle popping up on his GPS-interface, part of him already had a feeling that he knew why the marker looked different than the typical red-circles he had been seeing thus far on his map.
"…Dame Knight, would it be too much if I were to ask you to conceal yourself? It's nothing against you; I just don't want you to scare whoever this person is up ahead," Goblin Slayer respectfully requested, which wasn't exactly what Fairy Knight wanted to hear, but she understood his reasoning well enough to not argue with him.
"Very well; that's fine. However… Know that I will not hesitate to intervene accordingly, if they raise their arms to you," Fairy Knight cautioned, before becoming fragmented into a cloud of glowing particles that were absorbed into Goblin Slayer's body; leaving him alone, with the only visible means of defense being the short-sword that he slid back into his scabbard.
Even though Goblin Slayer was more than aware of how unsuspecting he looked without Fairy Knight hovering around him, he still didn't want to come off as threatening to the green-haired elf that stood near the dirt read that led into the Oakshire Forest; with the fact that she was nose-deep into what looked like an map, the boy knew that any sudden alert would cause her to reach for the wooden bow she had tucked in her armpit. Clearing his throat so as to not accidentally have his pubescent voice crack, Goblin Slayer raised his cupped hands up between his lips to amplify his voice, before finally taking in a deep breath and shouting "H-HEY THERE!"
As he walked down the last grassy hill that needed to traversed downward, in order to get to the small section of flatland that seperated the meadow from the edge of the woods, Goblin Slayer managed to see the pale-skinned elf's long-pointy ears twitch at the sound of his voice before the female elf lowered her map, as she turned around to face toward his direction. Furrowing her thin brows, the petite woman in question began tucking her rolled-up map into her large-leather pouch that she had attached to the back of her belt; her minty-green eyes focused on Goblin Slayer, as she looked at him with a wary narrowed-gaze.
"What's a human-child doing out here by themselves? You… You are alone, right?" The elf asked with a cautious tone in her distrusting voice; her sharp-eyes looking upwards at the top of the hill, before scanning the rest of her visible surroundings. "… I swear to the gods…! I-If this is some sort of trick-"
"-N-No, no— it's nothing like that. I'm out here by myself, just trying to get through the woods is all," Goblin Slayer replied back with his hands raised up in a surrendering fashion; again, doing his best to ensure that he wouldn't be mistaken as a threat.
Still appearing skeptical of the boy's attempt at reassuring her, the elf kept her green eyes locked onto him as her long-point ears perked up, carefully listening to her surroundings, for any sounds of breathing or footsteps that would alert her if she was being lied to. After about a minute of silence with her gloved finger up to gesture at Goblin Slayer to remain quiet, the petite elf let out a deep sigh as her slender shoulders finally relaxed.
"Ughhh… Alright human, I'll grant you the benefit of the doubt for now… Just… Just don't make me regret it," the elf murmured quietly, before her gaze lowered into a perplexed expression as she suddenly found herself questioning the scenario altogether. "Wait, wait, wait; hold on for a second… Wait! W-What the hell is a human-child out here on the frontier by themselves?! You stupid-dumbass kid, don't you know how dangerous it is out here?!" The elf asked in a condescending tone, as she slung her bow into its leather sheath she had strapped behind her back; her fists resting on her hips, as she raised a brow at him.
'Wow, she's… Rude,' Goblin Slayer thought to himself, while shifting his gaze away from her stare, in order to see BBB nodding her head agreeingly at him. "Uh… T-Thank you for your concern and all that, but… Rest assured, I'm doing more than fine out here; I might not look it, but I'm more than capable of handling whatever's out there," Goblin Slayer said with an uneasy smile on his face, while still being eyed at by the disapproving elf standing before him.
"Uh huh; yeah, sure. Those are some "famous last words" if I've ever heard them spoken," the elf sassed back, as she lowered her arms while straightening her back up. "Tch, whatever… I didn't come all the way out to the middle of nowhere, just to play chaperone to some little ragamuffin… Okay, I'm going to leave now, alright? Good luck not dying, human-child; after all, your kind's pretty susceptible to doing that when you're alone," the elf said dismissively, soundly forcibly apathetic to the way Goblin Slayer's situation looked.
Raising a confused brow at the minty-green haired elf, Goblin Slayer took a moment to check out the way her brown booty-shorts clung snuggly to her toned buttcheeks, after she had turned her back on him to begin walking down the dirt path that led into the heart of the Oakshire Forest. '… I guess all of that apathy was just a facade. I can't help but wonder why she bothered pretending not to care in the first place,' Goblin Slayer wondered to himself, as he was easily able to see through the elf's attempt to seem indifferent about his safety; with the way she was purposefully walking slow, and constantly looking over her shoulder at him, it was obvious to the boy that she was was having a truly difficult time doing what she thought was abandoning a helpless child.
Looking down at the floating holographic-screen that only he, Fairy Knight and BB could see, Goblin Slayer exchanges glances with BBB before being gestured by the two-dimensional AI to proceed with the path she had planned for him. Shrugging his shoulders, Goblin Slayer began listening to the quiet music that was being played for him by the lavender-haired chibi, as he made his down the dirt road and under the thick-brush of the treetops; the light of the sun barely breaching the leaves of the oak trees surrounding both sides of the dirt path, as he unintentionally followed behind short-petite elf, who in turn looked relieved after seeing him beginning to trail behind her at a distance.
Stopping in her tracks before they got too far into the woods, the elf spun around while staring at the ten year-old with annoyance in her green-eyes. "Okay, it's now evidently clear to me that I'm not going to be able to continue on with my quest with you following me like a lost pup… Alright human-child, I'm going to take you back to Londobell; let them be the ones who find you new caregivers, or whatever you need," the elf declared with a forced-begrudging look on her face; pretending to sigh in defeat, as she rolled her eyes to herself while crossing her arms over her flat-chest.
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary. Don't worry about me, I'm not trying to burden you with my company; it just so happens that we're both on the quickest path to reach the Mythril Mountains, so I'm just taking it for the same reason as you," Goblin Slayer clarified with an appreciative look on his face, and didn't pay much mine to the way the elf's expression dropped into a confused look of shock; instead, he chose to focus on using his fingertips to navigate through the advanced map that he had pulled up on his menu-panel. "Let's see… "Matterhorn"… That's the village that you're heading to as well, yeah?" Goblin Slayer asked, as he looked up from his map to see the bewildered look the elf was giving him, as she tried to make sense as to why it looked as though he was moving his fingertips in the air for seemingly no reason.
"Uhhh… Y-Yes, that's actually where my next stop is… B-But that's pretty far for a human-child to travel there on their own; it's about twelve hours from the edge of Londobell to there… There's no way you'd make it by yourself," the elf stated, as she began to reveal her true concerns about the boy's safety; unable to mask her worries with any more false bravado. "L-Look, kid… I-I don't know why you're trying to get there by yourself, but… Y-You understand that I can't let you go any further, yes? Letting a child get themselves killed isn't a very good trait to have in my line of work— and an even worse consequence for my reputation," the elf said more so to herself than to Goblin Slayer, as she began walking toward him with deep exhalation of breath, escaping through her slightly parted lips.
Sensing Fairy Knight preparing to strike, Goblin Slayer began to panic as he thought about how he could avoid the confrontation altogether. "S-Sorry, but I can't let you stop me from reaching Matterhorn; whether you approve of that, or not," Goblin Slayer insisted with an apologetic tone in his voice, as silently asked his servant to divert their shared mana over to him; the color glowing within his irses matching the way his magic crest was shining in a crimson-light, as his passive-buff became amplified with the power of his servant.
Freezing up with the look in her eye of utter confusion and fear of the unknown, the green-haired elf could watch with her jaw agape as she watched as Goblin Slayer's small body became enveloped in a glowing cyan-aura. Just as she thought about pulling her bow out to draw back an arrow from the quiver she had attached on her hip, the elf was forced to raise her forearms up to shield her eyes from the cloud of dirt that exploded outward from where Goblin Slayer had been standing; letting out a yelp the moment she felt something sprint past her, fast enough to cause her to stumble backwards from the sheer-power of the wind left behind in the wake of magecraft-using child.
Leaving the concerned elf behind in the dust, Goblin Slayer at first felt victorious from the mental high he felt from performing the newest spell that BB's "April Fools" copy had managed to quickly teach him: "Quantum Dash". Although the quick burst of lightspeed was exhilarating, the moment Goblin Slayer's feet stumbled onto the ground while trying to regain his balance, the excitement the ten year-old felt coursing inside of him quickly faded as he looked around at where his spell had spat him out to; or at least he tried, as the treetops had become too thick for any sunlight to reach the forest floor.
Left in complete darkness, with the glowing cyan-aura of Fairy Knight's essence fading away, Goblin Slayer did his best to keep his composure as he began navigating through his menu-panel. "It's… Rather hard to see out here, isn't it…?" Goblin Slayer murmured under his breath; trying best to make light of the unnerving scenario he was in, as he listened to the sounds of birds chirping and crickets rubbing their legs while waiting for his inventory to come up.
"Error: Insufficient mana required to access Moon-Cell. Try again in approximately twelve minutes," the pop up notification read, after Goblin Slayer had tried accessing his items, in order to pull out an oil lantern to illuminate his surroundings. A chill ran down the unnerved boy's back, but he remained calm as best as he could.
"That's… Worrisome. Dame Knight, could you… Could you come out please? I would, uh… I would feel more secure, that way," Goblin Slayer explained with a nervous and quiet chuckle, as he remained perfectly still while hoping to see that familiar cloud of photonic particles coming out of his soul.
What the dreading child got instead was another pop-up notification that read "Warning: Insufficient mana required to sustain servant. Please wait until your mana regenerates above the minimum requirement necessary to summon your servant."
Without the protection that Fairy Knight was able to provide for him, Goblin Slayer immediately felt every bit of confidence within himself disperse at that very moment; his heart beginning to race as he forced his trembling fingers to navigate through the menu, in order to check on his status. '"Mana: Negative Seven-Thousand, Two-Hundred Photons, out of One-Hundred"… If it's going to take twelve minutes, then that means my mana's roughly recovering at six-hundred photons per minute… That's not very fast… At least, I think? I still don't know how all of that works. Ugh... Casting that spell was a mistake…' Goblin Slayer thought to himself with sweat beginning to bead down his forehead, as he forced his shaking head to reach down his waist.
Checking the pouches that were still attached to Slime Girl's old leather belt, Goblin Slayer could hear his heartbeat pounding away inside of his chest over the sounds that the woodland critters around him were making; his eyes staring into the bleak-abyss in front of him, as his holographic-menu did nothing to illuminate the pitch-black area he was stuck within. Alone and feeling vulnerable, all Goblin Slayer could think of while desperately searching for anything within his belt to help him out his plight was the night that his village got invaded; more specifically, the hopeless despair he felt, before Fairy Knight had come to his and Vivi's rescue.
No longer feeling as brave as he had been feeling since the night he defeated the goblin army, along with its warlord hobgoblin leader, Goblin Slayer's self-doubt began blossoming within his terrified mind. "S-Shit…!" Goblin Slayer muttered worryingly under his breath, recoiling his hand back, after accidentally scooping up a glob of left-over gel that had been left over from when Slime Girl had touched the leather-belt. Although the first instinct he had was to wipe the gel off of his fingers, through the dread he felt in that moment Goblin Slayer suddenly got an idea.
Kneeling down on the forest floor, Goblin Slayer could hear himself involuntarily whimpering and breathing becoming more shallow, as he blindly felt around for a sturdy stick near the dirt path, in order to create a makeshift torch using the long-lasting and highly flammable slime-residue on his fingers. Even though he was scared out of his wits, Goblin Slayer did his best to maintain his composure; a balancing act for him that became far more difficult for him, the moment he heard every woodland creature who had been inhabiting the area with him all become silent, after the sound of a nearby twig snapped.
Frozen with fear and becoming wide-eyed, Goblin Slayer held his breath as he heard the sound of a ghastly whimpering becoming audible from where the twig had snapped several meters away from him; his hand becoming desperate, the moment he regain enough control to continue searching for a way to create his own source of light. That's when Goblin Slayer felt a sickening sensation growing within him, as even in the dark he felt the eyes of the entity looming over him piercing through his very soul. Any hopes the boy had that what he was experiencing could be excused as just his imagination getting the better of him vanished the moment he heard the sound of a young woman's ghastly voice beginning to speak in a haunting voice.
The voice echoed unnaturally as it murmured barely-audible whispers that got muffled by the heavy tension within the darkness, its breathing sounding painful to Goblin Slayer, as his shaking fingers finally found a broken off-piece of a branch that he needed. The voice sounded hollow with how eerily quiet it spoke; making Goblin Slayer second guess himself each time he thought he heard the last whispered end of its maddening rambles. The feeling of impending doom felt asphyxiating to the ten year-old, as his trembling fingers wiped as much gel off of them as he could get off into the tip of the broken branch.
'Come on, come on, come on…!' Goblin Slayer thought frantically to himself; his eyes widened in the dark with sweat pouring down his brow, as he felt the presence of the entity draw closer to him.
The unknown entity continued to murmur its saddened-incoherent woes in the dead silence, sounding as though it was coming from less than a foot away from where Goblin Slayer's ear was. Feeling cold air brushing against the side of his face, the ten year-old began to smell the sickly-sweet stench of decaying flesh infiltrating his senses as the dark and malevolent presence drew closer to him; the sparks flying off of his short-sword's blade showing flashes of ghostly-white skin within less than a foot away from him, as Goblin Slayer repeatedly collided his weapon against the side of the half-buried rock that he had found while searching for the branch that he was trying to ignite.
Avoiding looking at the bloodied teeth that filled the ungodly open-mouth smile of the white-skinned face that was grinning at him without a body to call its own, something deep within Goblin Slayer screamed at him to avoid looking into the unnaturally large eyes that were glaring into his very soul; the flames at the tip of his burning torch illuminating the area around him, as he slowly reached down with his right hand to grab the handle of his sword.
There was no guarantee that his futile attempt at catching the monster off guard would work, let alone the chances of his sword actually being capable of physically contacting the entity all together. But even so, Goblin Slayer forced himself to keep the pale-skinned being's face within his peripheral vision the entire time he was staring down; appearing to be frozen with terror, as the entity's human-like jaw started to unhing. Seeing the rows-and-rows of bloodied teeth through the light of his torch— revealing to him the monster's lamprey-like maw— Goblin Slayer waited with his heart pounding in his chest, as he prayed that the perfect opportunity to strike would present itself soon.
Quickly pulling his short-sword out, Goblin Slayer heard the monster screeching in agony in its shrill-fear cries, after he rammed the blade of his weapon through the roof of its nightmare-inducing mouth, and straight through its brains. Avoiding making direct contact with the wailing monster's haunting eyes, Goblin Slayer knew better than to risk having the nocturnal entity follow him if he were to run away; so instead, the boy proceeded to begin violently scrambling the inside of the white-faced monster's brains, by twisting the blade and repeatedly ramming it in-and-out at different angles.
With his sword-bearing arm covered in pitch-black blood that looked more like ink than anything else, Goblin Slayer watched as the entity's dying body began dispersing into the musty air around him; it's physical body becoming nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor, as Goblin Slayer stumbled back with his heart racing inside of his chest. Alert with the fingers of his left hand wrapped tightly around the base of his makeshift torch, Goblin Slayer held his right-hand around the handle of his short-sword; his dusty-rose eyes scanning through the thick flora and close-knitted oak trees that were on both sides of the dirt path that he was standing in the middle of.
With the unknown entity slain, Goblin Slayer felt an invisible weight being lifted off of his chest as he took a shaking breath of air into his burning lungs; nearly gasping for breath, as the woodland creatures around him began to once again fill the heavy silence that had been within the air moments ago. "W-What the hell even was that thing…?!" Goblin Slayer murmured stressfully under his breath, as he took a moment to gather his composure and regain his bearings.
'Okay… Okay let me just… See what's around; find an area secured enough for me to wait there, until my mana is out of the negatives,' Goblin Slayer thought strategically to himself, all while trying to calm his nerves down as he scoured down the dirt path; his eyes search vigilantly through the darkness, with only his dying torch to keep guide his way. With nothing but his own wits and sense of direction, the ten year-old wandered through the Oakshire Forest; completely at the mercy of fate, as the green-haired elf who was coming up from the far-rear wasn't the only thing looking for Goblin Slayer in those woods.