"So, when are we going?" Auel asked
The Guild Master rubbed his chin
"If everything goes smoothly, you'll reach the Elf Country in about two days"
He glanced at Black Turtle
"So, T think it'd be best if you leave tomorrow"
"Today you can prepare before your departure"
Auel glanced at Gramm and he just gave a small nod
"Fine"
"Great" The Guild Master smiled "I'll take care of the paperwork and I'll prepare the caravans, so please take a rest"
All of them bow at the chief and went outside
The moment they stepped outside, Gramm looked toward Auel
"So, what are you guys planning to do today?" Gramm asked Auel's party
"Dunno" Auel answered immediately, then his eyes narrowed "Why did you pick us?"
"Hey calm down, you are the smartest person I've met, and maybe this quest can increase your rank into gold too, right?"
Auel just silenced and then walked down the bar
"Umm, what's wrong with him?" Gramm asked Erin and Rikka
"I don't know" Rikka shrugged "it's the first time I saw him like that"
All of them slowly walked out the bar
"By the way how long are we staying at the Elf country?" Rikka continued
"Hmm, I don't know how complicated the situation over there" Gramm crossed his arms "but let say at least 1 week, or maybe longer"
"Damn, that's long"
"Hey, your name was Erin right" Helen asked
"Ahh, Y-yes"
"Do you want to go shopping some magic items together" she asked "I could lend you some of my money if you want"
"N-no, I'm fine, I can use my own money"
"Hey, it's fine, we're are going to stay there at least 1 week" Helen continued "Also, we don't know if we will fight a strong enemy right?"
"B-but-"
Helen held Erin's hand and ran outside the bar
"Come on" she waved at the other "Gramm, I'll go first, ok?"
She continued before Gramm could answer
"I'm sorry about my friend" Gramm said "She always energized if it's about shopping"
"It's fine"
Rikka's face darkened
"Hey what do you think happened to the Elf king" Rikka asked "I mean, what kind of things could beat the member of the Hero's party?"
"I don't know, but let's stay positive and see what the quest handler said when we get there"
The groups separated and spent the rest of the day preparing
The next morning came, the caravans already went toward the Elf country
Each party rode in a separate carriage as they traveled northeast toward the Elf Forest
The forest called Elf Forest even though it was not completely ruled by the elves
There were multiple creature kingdoms inside the forest, beastfolk, treants, even small animals
But because of the Elf king significant role in maintaining peace in the forest, the forest was named Elf Forest
However, the Elf king didn't want to rule the entire forest completely
He allowed the other creatures to form their own kingdoms
The caravans traveled in the day without any obstacles
When night came, the group stopped to rest
They set up a camp fire and the girls already gone to sleep
The men took turns standing watch
Auel sat near the fire, his eyes remained fixed on the darkness
"So, couldn't sleep?" Gramm sat beside him
"Yes, as always" the answer came immediately
"By the way I want to ask something" Auel said
"What is it?"
"Are there any reason why you pick black turtle as your party's name"
"Of course there is"
Gramm chuckled
"It happened quiet a long time ago"
"Before this party, I had another one"
Auel glanced toward him
"But due to an incident, all the party members died, leaving me alone"
The campfire crackled
Gramm's gaze remained fixed on the flames
"Of course, I felt very down after that incident and thought I'd never become an adventurer again"
"But eventually I got back on my feet"
"From there, I tried to create a new party, and this party was born"
He laughed softly
"Initially, we were terrible; everyone was only thinking about themselves"
"Everyone was only thinking about how to defeat the most enemies"
"Well, I wasn't immune to that either, because my old party still in my mind"
"And I thought that nothing can replace them"
"But everything started to change after we took a quest, a quest to defeat a black turtle"
A black turtle is a turtle about 3 meter tall, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a snake-like tail
It's covered in a hard shell, even the scales on its skin are very tough
A monster famous for breaking adventurers' weapons
"We had a very difficult time facing the creature; all attacks couldn't hurt it"
"Even after three days of trying"
"We couldn't hurt it"
"We ran out of potions"
"Even our equipment broke"
"But then, we began to believe that the failure of the quest was entirely due to our selfishness"
"We couldn't coordinate well and only thought about ourselves"
"We agreed to cancel the quest and return to town, becoming the first quest failure of my life"
"But from there, I learned to understand each other, to understand each other's strengths and weaknesses"
"Then, when I became gold rank, we were able to create a title for our party, and we chose the quest that first brought us together, Black Turtle. Sounds simple, right?"
"But how about your title" Auel asked
"My title? You mean black scale?"
Gramm laughed
"It's from the black turtle"
"You see, the turtle has a really hard scale, even I cannot scratch it"
"And for me it's the hardest obstacle when I fought it, because I used to cut each part of the enemies' part"
"But when I fought that turtle, I barely cut it"
"So as a reminder how weak I am, I chose black scale"
The two sat quietly
Then Gramm looked at him
"What about you? What kind of title you're going to take when you reach gold rank?"
"I don't know, I haven't thought about it"
"Well, I don't want to be acknowledge by people"
"Why? Isn't it great being known by a lot of people"
"Nope, I don't like it, beside aren't you also tried to hide your rank plate?"
"Ah, these" he pulled his rank plate he tried to hide "Well you're not wrong"
"But the reason I want to hide it is not what you think"
He shrugged
"I actually don't like how the rank hierarchy works"
"The idea where the higher rank can do more than the lower rank"
"People tends to use their high rank as their advantages and exploit the lower rank"
"That's why the lower rank usually insecure to ask help from the higher rank"
"That's why I tried to hide my rank so the low rank can talk to me easily or even ask my help"
Auel kept silence after hearing that
"Well, I'm going to check the area" Gramm stood up "Try to sleep as short as you can, we should get there in the noon tomorrow"
Then Gramm walked around the area to check the situation
Morning came, they continued their way to the Elf Country
But the moment they arrived at the edge of the Elf forest, the caravans stopped
"Hey, why did we stop?" Auel asked
The driver scratched his head
"I'm sorry but this is the farthest we can go"
"What? Why?" Rikka asked
"The Elf country announced that we caravan cannot get inside the forest, so you need to get there by foot"
"So, we walk?"
"Yep"
"Wonderful"
Then the group got out of the caravans with their luggage
Then began making their way into the forest
"So, any idea how we find the Elf country?" Helen asked
"Hmm, I don't know" Gramm said "but let's start find it before it gets dark"
"What, are you crazy?" she continued
Suddenly they heard something, rustle
A bush moved
Everyone immediately tensed.
"Who's there?" Gramm yelled
He stepped forward, weapons were drawn
The gazed at every corner, then suddenly
FWIP!
An arrow shot from the forest, Gill perfectly blocked it
Ashley fired back toward the source
The arrow vanished into the trees
"Hey, show yourself" Gramm shouted "Who are you?"
"I'm the one who asked that, who are you guys" a female voice answered
A figure stepped out from the bushes
A young elf
Long blonde hair tied into a ponytail
Her bow directed at them
"What did you want?" she said confidently
Her eyes swept across the group confidently
Then she froze
She lowered her bow, her eyes widened
The confident expression disappeared completely
"No way..."
Her voice trembled
She took a step forward
Everyone frowned
The elf girl's eyes slowly began to shine
"Why are you here...?"