Chapter 23 - A Big Battle!
With that comprehensive melee wall, there was plenty of space for the backline of their groups to shine. Of these backlines, there were four main types.
Archers who shot arrows from the back and quickly nailed their foes, Mages who were simply saving their mana for now when they would face bigger targets, Curse type mages that would be frowned upon in smaller places like villages and towns, but only show their worth in larger groups as well as light magic based priests who were guarded with the merchants so that healing after the battle would remain simple.
This solid collection of offense and defense goes to show why this group was so trusted to protect these merchants to these areas. And this is also them not at their peak. After all, there are some members that are not available due to sickness and injuries in other assignments.
With their steady and solid teamwork, this goblin group was no match and were dealt with quite simply.
If we were just adventuring on our own, the goblins would have their left ear cut off to show proof that we slayed them, but that would only be fine now if the merchants were not in a hurry to head to their destination. So our group had to leave these corpses to the animals in the forest to pick clean.
After some more time, I noticed that many of the wild animals and monsters we later encountered would normally avoid us. This made a lot of sense as they would normally not target a group as large as the one we were in. In addition, there were not that many trees to ambush or hide in so what we encountered were mostly herbivorous types of creatures.
That was soon to change as where we would be headed was one of the largest forests in the continent. Of course, it is not as large as the forest that the Elves take pride in, but it was still a massive one that ends up even larger than the space taken up by the Empire of humanity.
I could even see it clear upon the horizon. A vast sea of trees with vast areas unexplored by most intelligent life. Soon we would be headed into the forest for ourselves and will likely face the most difficult time of our escort mission.
Unlike the plains where many threats could be found at a glance, this area was rather problematic. Due to the dense trees, the overall visibility of the group would be majorly slowed down. And this is why the merchants were so impatient to head past the plains.
This section of the road would be traveling through overgrown vegetation due to there not being a path through the forest. Because of the many plants and monsters hidden within, any attempts to create a viable path through the forest has been met with vehement opposition.
Most of this is due to the large group of Beast folk who use the dense forest to ambush potential invading forces alongside another factor. Monster groups.
Now, something that I have never really had to deal with were monsters. After all, I always flew above the air invisibly. So the monsters that could find and attack me have been none so far. This would not be the case here.
Maybe it is due to the lack of human influence in this territory, but the monsters here have all grown to monstrous scales have remarked the different territories in the forest. Unlike when I was flying in the air, there are plenty of ways to find an invisible target within the forest. Because of the dense trees around, there are several ways for the various monsters hidden in the forest to hunt aerial targets.
For this reason, I could not simply just fly up in the air as the visibility up there is not that good and it leaves me even more open to surprise attacks from all directions.
So, I had to travel alongside the others on this trip. This was not that bad a deal though. Since it would allow me to get a deeper understanding on how all of this works.
Traveling like this eventually led to me encountering one of the big problems that travelers of all types have to deal with.
"Are there always this many bugs around?" Swatting around, I could feel my skin crawl when one of these bugs landed upon me. Due to the specificity of Space magic and the general ability to sense all around me, I was able to easily find and swat any insect that landed upon me. The problem was that I could also always sense where all of them were which increased my discomfort.
"This is how it is when exploring places like forests and swamps. The biggest nightmare was when we had to deal with the giant insects in the swamp. Because of the general environment, any bug there had the potential to grow crazy levels of poison so we had to be careful to always have antidotes of all kinds with us just in case we were stung without noticing." After talking about it, Luke and the others shivered in place. Looking at them like this, I really do feel bad for them.
Compared to their experiences, Alice and I have really not been through much. It makes sense for Alice since she has grown to such a high level in such a short time that mundane problems like these ceased to be an issue for her.
That is why I wanted to be different. Maybe she saw it too and allowed me to be the one to watch over the Hero Party. But now that I am here, should I learn higher level magic?
Nah.
This decision might bite me in the butt, but I think that maintaining this current state is ideal. Especially when I look at the other members of the party.
Alice had informed me that the Hero's status was actually hidden and that what I could see with appraisal was wrong. But just because he is different does not mean that his party members were on that level.
The other members all generally had their primary combat abilities at around the level of 5-6. This has changed a bit of course. After the trip to the Demon King Castle and gaining their loot in the castle, they all had changes to a certain extent.
Being more specific, Vanessa had gained a shield from a fallen empire that had some spirituality inside of it from time accumulation. Of course, the spirit in the shield is nowhere near as active as the spirits in my main body's mirror dimension. If it were, I would not have so much trouble wielding them.
Instead, the spirit inside of Vanessa's shield was rather basic and it had memorized some of the combat techniques that its previous bearer had used. So using that skill as reference and combining it with her own shield techniques from being a princess and having access to royal arts, she was able to solidly consolidate her skill at the level of 6.
I would say her shield skills might reach the level of 7 if given the right opportunity.
Compared to her single sword skills, her shield arts are far superior. For sword skills, she does not really need them as much since she is the tank of the party. But it is always nice to have them. For her, her sword skills are still lagging at the 5th level.
This makes her overall quite strong among humans, but there is plenty a ways to go before she reaches a level where she can compare to the commanders under the Demon King.
Next up there is Mellie. She is actually quite decent when it comes to her arts as her Classic Light Magic was at Level 5 when I first saw her. Then after that trip to the Demon King's Castle, she had reached the level of 6. From what I see, she does not seem that close to level 7 in skill. Other than that, her other skills are all level three or lower. Not much to take note of.
Finally there is Wendy. Because she is the closest to me, she is also the one member I am the most familiar with. Due to obtaining a rather advanced spell book in Water magic, I thought that she would already have her Water magic at that Advanced level, but that is not the case. She is surprisingly at the level of 7 in Water magic.
Among the members in the party, she is surprisingly the closest to the Hero in actual strength. Well, it would not be so surprising once you check into her age.
Being a member of the Witch clan, she naturally ages slower than the average person so despite her appearance she is actually the eldest in this party. The hero and Vanessa are both surprisingly the same age as my main body and Mellie is a few years older which makes sense. She was a candidate saintess while the Hero was found and trained by the Empire after all.
Of course I am the youngest as a clone so all that is left is Wendy who is surprisingly in her mid twenties. Not old per se just a little surprising from my perspective.
As I was thinking that, she went and looked at me funny which led me to erasing that thought out of my mind quickly. Man, the sixth sense of these members are all surprisingly sharp.
Then I was back to looking at myself.
Status Screen
Name: Felicia (Clone)
Title: Clone of Alice
Race: Demon
Level: 22
Magic: Space Magic(4)
Skill: Appraisal(6)...
My magic level itself isn't that impressive and that is the point. I just want to follow along the hero's journey so there is no need for me to take up the spotlight by being exceptional among the members of Luke's party.
Of course my appraisal has to be at a decent level to be able to keep an eye on the party which led to it being higher level than even my Space magic.
Although it seems weak, it is actually rather misleading.
Compared to other skills and magic, space is one of the stronger ones so even if I am at a lower level I could still say I can hold my own against people like Vanessa. Of course I would most likely run in that scenario as my overall mana pool is not enough for me to leapfrog and beat others higher leveled than me, but it is enough.
Especially when compared to people even like the other adventurers in the group.
It may be surprising, but the Intermediate level is actually considered actually competent among humanity and slightly among demons. On average, the normal human person without explicit training will usually end up with a level three skill in their life time. It is only through some tough training and talent that anyone reaches the level of Four at all.
Among the adventuring group that is with us, the best that they have is at level 5 in Archery. And that is because they are relatively older and more experienced.
When putting it that way, the hero party is actually quite strong among humanities ranks. In comparison, most demons can naturally grow level four skills even if they never tried so on average demons are more strong and skilled over humans.
Never mind all of that. None of this really matters in the end since I want to follow the Hero's party after all. Maybe it is due to luck, but they never really end up in places where the party is absolutely superior in strength so I am rather looking forward to what will happen on this first adventure of mine.
Speak of the devil, here is some trouble. Swatting all the nearby bugs, I sensed with my perception that there were several beasts secretly waiting to ambush our party.
"Wolves right? Although this is a forest so what are they doing here?"
"Did you say something Felicia?" Wendy turned to look at me. I saw the others curiously looking my way so I decided to say it then and there.
"There is a pack of wolves quietly laying in ambush. The scouts seem to not have seen them yet so I wanted to... Oh they spotted the wolves I think and are heading back."
"That's good. I would be concerned if this experienced team fell because of a wild beasts ambush after all." Vanessa said. Then she stretched her body and turned to look at Luke.
"Should we help this time? I think my hands are a little itchy."
"We wait. Wait until their scouts come back and when they do if they call us it means they are not confident in taking this threat themselves so we can intervene. If they do it themselves we should just watch until it truly becomes quite perilous to intervene."
A surprisingly cold response was given by the hero. Although I am not that mad at it. Still, I would have expected him to at least inform the adventuring group about the ambush first so they can get prepared earlier.
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