When I woke up the next morning, it was barely dawn. Yesterday, it was decided that I'd be going to the hunt but only as a physician and wouldn't be fighting. I had a hunch that even if I was to display my skills to today's hunt and hunt a good number of monsters, Rayla would forbid me from going there again, since the promise was that I'd be staying far away from the battle. Even if I showed immense talent, she wouldn't be so happy.
There was another problem. It was surveillance. I wanted to sneak out on my own, but that wasn't possible. The only reason I went to the sewers was to find a way out of the city, but I ended up fighting rats instead. I wanted to go on a hunt unhindered, without someone's interruption.
Having Jack's, mine, entire family there was not going to help. However, there were still ways I could deal with this little problem of mine. For that, I'd need some control over this body.
Having a new body was great and all, but the fact was that it was the body of a child. I was mostly used to the bodies of adults, which was why my movements in the sewers weren't harmonious. I had to milk this body to the fullest to even fight rats.
There was no yard in this small house. Just a living room, slash dining room, slash attached kitchen, and the parents' bedroom on the first floor.
On the second floor, there were two rooms. One belonged to the boys and one belonged to the girls. I didn't get why the a need for separation when there was nothing like sex here.
Anyway, I left the house to do some light exercises and get used to this body. As I left, the streets were empty with only the street lamps alight. They were run by some sort of material, not magic. I began to run around the block, only to run into some men wearing the militia uniform. As they spotted me, they squinted their eyes to see who it was, and once they recognized me, one of them spoke, "Hey, Jack. Congratulations on awakening. I see you can't contain your excitement."
"Hey." I greeted him as well, and since I didn't know his name, I quickly replied, "Yeah. I just want to run around the city."
"Haha." The guard laughed along with the other one and said, "Just don't be too excited and venture on the left part of the town. They say a goblin snuck in, so the captain is there right now to see if it is true."
"Will do." I quickly replied and carried away. I didn't want to engage in a long talk, but I was severely mistaken. I ran into three more groups of two, and they greeted me and congratulated me the same.
It turned out my family was well-known around here. Or it was the fact that everyone knew everyone around here, which seemed odd given the population of this city.
Granted, it wasn't like the modern times where a man wouldn't know the name of his neighbor, but still, for everyone to know me even so far away from my house told how tightly knit this city was. Or it was something else, like my family.
After two hours of jogging and some light exercises, it was still dark when I returned home. As I did, I saw four people in the living room, preparing for the hunt while Rayla was in the kitchen, preparing food. Seeing how early it was, it seemed like the hunt began sooner than I expected.
"Where were you?" Lucas asked with a frown on his face.
"It's our fault we didn't tell him when we'd be leaving," The little sister came to my defense and said.
"We leave in ten cycles, Jack," The elder sister said, "So get ready. There's your equipment."
I nodded and looked at the things she was pointing at. They were nothing more than leather armor that didn't seem very durable and a knife, along with a wooden spear with a metallic hilt on top.
Neither of the weapons seemed very durable, and it wasn't just my equipment that was like that. I thought my equipment was rundown because I was supporting and wouldn't be fighting much, but as it turned out, the entire party had a similar kind of equipment. Lucas's was torn from many places, and so was the father's.
The elder sister's armor was nowhere to be seen, and the little sister had a broken dagger. No wonder they came with such injuries last night.
"I know the equipment isn't properly maintained, but when I get the four gold coins this month, I'm going to have them repaired." The father said with a determined expression, which made Lucas tut while the elder sister was a little sad. The younger sister said, "Don't worry, Father. We will make sure not to get hurt, so we don't have to waste money on the healing paste. And we now have Jack with us as well, so we can save money."
So money was tight, huh? Well, it made sense given the condition of this house. I had seen worse houses during my jog, so I could say they were doing better than most. But not well enough seemed like it.
I didn't chime in about anything and got ready to leave. The shop was unlocked anyway, and with alchemy, as long as I had materials, I could craft various weapons and make various elixirs. But that option was a little far away, so I'd just buy some equipment from the shop for the time being after I had amassed some wealth.
We left after exactly ten minutes, with Rayla waving us goodbye, her insistence on my not joining the battle the same. It was still dark outside, with rays of sun emerging from the east, which indicated the morning wasn't very far away.
We arrived at the city gate only to greet two guards. When they saw us, they greeted the father of this body and then engaged in a light conversation that revolved around the hunt.
"So, five, huh? That'd be five coppers, Julian, but seeing as it's Jack's first hunt, let's let this one be on us." The guard said.
"Are you sure?' The father of this body, who was called Julian, asked.
"Of course," The guard replied with a smile before he opened the door as Julian handed him four copper coins. Once we were out, they closed the gates and said, "See you in the evening, Julian."
"See you in the evening," Julian replied, and we began to make our way away from the city. There were woods outside the city, but a proper path had been constructed, with only a few wild animals, such as rabbits or boars could be seen.
After about an hour of a long walk, we arrived at a very ominous-looking scene. There were still woods a little away from me, but the demonic energy emitting from them was something else. Even the plants had it, which indicated that every living being beyond the territory was infected and enhanced by demonic energy as well, a highly corrupted energy that made one lose all sense of their being.
As a personal user of demonic energy, I could say with certainty how hard it was to control and how strong it makes one. Of course, that came at a sacrifice. Loss of rationality meant loss of coordination. And even if one managed to keep their sanity intact, they'd still get angry quite quickly, making them lose control in the battle.
Also, demonic energy wasn't very effective in terms of defense, so whoever wielded it had high offense but half the defense of their peers with other powers, so all it required was a good strike in the right place, and one could deal with a demonic being very easily.
"Okay, listen up," Julian said before he began to address everyone, "I will be at the forefront like always, and Lucas will be on the rear as always."
Then he addressed the elder sister and said, "Sandra, you will be behind me to provide quick support."
Then he turned to the little sister and said, "Martha, you will cover Jack and Jack," then he turned to me and said, "You will make sure to conserve your strength and mana so you can heal us after the battle."
Once all the roles had been assigned, we entered the forest in a proper formation with Julian at the front, Sandra, the elder sister, behind him with a dagger in her hand. Behind her was I with the little sister, Martha, sticking close to me with a spear in her hand while Lucas was behind us, cautiously wielding his spear.
The pace we were going at would take us a day to travel a mile only but we didn't have to travel a mile when Julian stopped and pointed in a direction. I could see a lone goblin standing a little far away with a spear in its hand.
"It seems we are lucky today." Julian said with a smile before he said, "Everyone, be ready for battle."
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