"It's beautiful.." Syla said, mesmerized by the scenery that was served upon her eyes.
Although the sun was still right above her head, Syla couldn't care any less about it, she turned her head around to see everything around her, the abundance amount of trees behind her that was used to be her home, and the dirt road that leads straight to it. Syla never felt this kind of emotion before, the kind of feeling that can only be obtained when looking at something so beautiful that it almost made her cry.
While Syla was sightseeing, she noticed a lot of insects on the grass, they were making a lot of noises, however there wasn't only an insects there, a group of slimes was also seen sliding with their transparent body, the slimes ate a couple of grass blades while they moved, absorbing it into their insides and melting it using their acid.
"Woah.." Syla gasped, she couldn't contain her wide smile after seeing the creatures around her.
'That's a slime! the most common fantasy monsters that you can kill easily, i read that slimes have different variants based on what they eat! This one seems to be a normal one, they most likely was born in this grassland and only ate plants or small insects, that's why their body didn't have any significant changes.. They actually looked so bouncy, i wonder what it feels like to touch them..' Syla said to herself.
Then suddenly, she heard a chuckle from her side, it was coming from Lori and Gauss, they seems to find Syla's behavior fascinating.
"Is this your first time seeing the outside world?" Gauss asked, he looked more confident than before, as if he was getting comfortable around Syla now that he knows her personality.
"Ah, yeah.. Up until now, i've always stayed in Demiria, even if i left the village, i never left the forest, so i don't know what the outside world was like, i've seen a few drawings from books that i've read, and it made me excited, that's why i became a wanderer." Syla replied while scratching her cheeks, she felt a bit embarassed after behaving like a kid infront of a strangers.
"I see, i'd say you're a strange one– Usually, demihumans tend to stay with their people, only a few left their house in search for a better life.. Most demihumans i've met in Direwell was forced to live in a human town after their village got destroyed by a monster or natural disaster. But you seems to willingly left your village, not to search for a better life, but rather to explore the world with your own eyes—
"To me, only someone crazy would do that, if you're brave enough to face unknown dangers that might come in your way, then you must be confident that you will be able to survive." Gauss calmly explained, his fingers intertwined with each other as he placed his elbows onto his thighs.
"Ahaha.. You're right, i might be different from the others demihumans.." Syla responded.
Their conversation was temporarily stopped by the sound of a howling wolf in the distance, Syla, Gauss, and Lori looked at the direction the howl was coming from and saw two gray wolves eating a Grass Deer corpse on the side of the grassland.
When the three of them were about ignore the wolves and continued their conversation, a pack of rogue goblins appeared from behind the trees that was at edge of the forest, their numbers were far greater than the wolves as the 5 goblins quickly ran towards the grassland.
"KEURKK!" One of the rogue goblin let out a shriek that alerted the gray wolves, when the two wolves saw the rogue goblins running towards them, they didn't run away, instead they stayed on their spot and growled, seemingly preparing for a battle as they won't just gave the goblins the meal they've killed that easily.
Awooooo!!
The rogue goblins lunged one by one towards the wolves, their claws were sharp like a needle and their mouth drooled with saliva as their hunger was rampaging inside their body.
Everyone on the carriage including Syla saw the fight unfolding directly infront of them, they kept a safe distance from the two clashing creatures and watched as the wolves ripped one of the goblin's arm using their fangs.
SRRT!
Although the wolves were keeping the high ground at first, it was soon became clear that the disadvantes in numbers made the wolves struggling to attack all of their enemies at the same time. The rogue goblins on the other hand was shredding the wolf's skin little by little, their sharp claws went deep into the wolf's flesh.
When the wolves realized that their movement was getting restricted by their injuries, they tried to run away, but the rogue goblins, who's still 3 in numbers, quickly captured them, they slammed the wolves head to the ground and stabbed their skulls with their claws, piercing through their brains and killing them.
"Those rogue goblins sure is strong when they're together huh." Lori said as her eyes was locked in to the fight.
"Yeah, although they're a weak monster when talking individually, when their numbers grow, it became a hassle to deal with." Gauss responded, he wasn't that interested with the fight, but still watched since there's really nothing going on in the carriage.
"If the wolves were 5 aswell, do you think they could win?" Syla asked to Gauss.
"Yeah, usually a gray wolf like that can take 2 rogue goblins alone and left with many injuries, if those two wolves weren't guarding their meal, they would've killed 4 instead of 2." Gauss replied, he turned his head towards Syla and ignored the rogue goblins, the fight was over so there's nothing for him to watch anymore.
"I see." Syla nodded, she watched the rogue goblins as they ripped the wolf's insides and ate them ferociously. "In the end, they're merely trying to survive huh."
"Aren't we all like that?" Gauss added.
"Yeah." Syla then averted her gaze and went back to the beautiful scenery around her.
A few minutes after the fight, Syla was startled when the carriage she was on suddenly stopped, her body almost launched to the left due to inertia, but fortunately her reaction time was quick enough to hold the carriage with her hand.
"Everyone, let's rest beneath that tree, the horses seems to be tired, and i'm sure you too, the sun's been burning after all.." The carriage driver said while pointing at a nearby tree that had a big shadow.
Syla looked at the tree that was being pointed at by the carriage driver and realized that she had also been sweating the whole time, her blouse almost got wet from her sweats and her feets were drowing inside her boots.
"—Sure, we're also almost at our limit, any more of this and i'll get heatstroke." Gauss casually said as he wiped the sweats off of his face.
Lori and Syla also agreed and in the end, the carriage driver ordered the horses to move towards the tree shade, where they then rested for a few minutes.
While Syla leaned on the tree and sat down, she grabbed her water jug from her satchel before opening the lid and drinking straight from it. Although the water had been heated by the sunlight, Syla still felt refreshed as the water went down her throat.
"Pwahh.. Thank god i filled it up before i left.." Syla whispered.
She took a few glance at Gauss and Lori that was beside her and saw that they were eating some sort of a dried meat, the meat broke into a loud crunch as they chewed and swallowed it seconds later.
'I heard adventurers mostly ate dried foods since it can last much longer without spoiling." Syla thought.
After seeing Gauss and Lori eat, Syla's stomach also began to growl, since there's really nothing going on anywhere, Syla decided to also eat her lunch. She grabbed a wooden box from her satchel and opened it, inside the wooden box was a steak covered in sauce and some carrots, usually a meal like this wouldn't be accepted by adventurers since it can spoil fast, however Syla was a new adventurer, she had just left her hometown a few hours ago, and this meal looks just as delicious as it seems.
"You have a whole steak as your lunch!?" Lori noticed the enticing smell coming from Syla and she couldn't helo but to look what she brought for lunch, long story short, her reaction was hilarious.
"Ahahaha.. It's a gift– Do you want some?" Syla offered her food to Lori and Gauss, she could see their mouth drooling when she said those words.