As Terry walked off the dirt road into the more wild forest his breathing unknowingly began to slow down as well as his heart rate, he stepped on the moss covered forest floor while he scanned the trees and forest floor around him for wild plants and game as he walked deeper into the forest
"steady now..."
a change from when he first set foot in the forest was that he had his bow in his left hand with an arrow ready on the arrow rest so he only needed to draw back the string to fire it off instead of having to retrieve it from his quiver first,this tactic was by no means uncommon and had already netted him 4 rabbits and a forest bird so this had become the new norm for him whenever he was in the forest. Right now he stood and leaned up against a tree as he took aim at a bird sitting on a branch a few tens of meters away, a few seconds later he let the arrow fly and quickly it struck the bird that fell down on the forest floor
"yes!"
Terry did a fist pump and began walking over towards his kill but suddenly felt something watching him and stopped walking as he looked around, but after a few seconds the feeling disappeared again
"...maybe it was just my imagination? well whatever with this forest bird I"m one step closer to reaching stone rank!"
ranks for the hunters guild were like the ones from the mercenaries guild starting from lowest to highest was wood, stone, iron, steel, silver, gold, platinum, mythril and finally adamant.i.te. Reaching stone from wood rank signefired a more than just a leap in one rank, it was often a cruel joke that circled around the upper ranks that the reason the lowest rank was wood was because wood disappeared after a while in the forest, if the lower rank was iron instead the forest floor would be filled with rusted iron tags as being a hunter, especially in the lower ranks was dangerous work, in fact it was only at steel rank that---
"stop right there"
Terry nearly jumped up from surprise but did as the voice that sounded out right behind him asked and stopped moving
"good... now drop the bow"
Terry reluctantly dropped the bow and arrow on the forest floor before he raised his hands above his head, it was only now that he realized that the voice that was speaking to him in the common language had a heavy accent
"don"t tell me it"s an elver..!"
"good now turn around"
Terry slowly turned around and came face to face with what he feared an elven woman clad in leather armor that was pointing an arrow towards him, but beyond shock there was also amazement
"she sure is beautiful..."
the elver had pale smooth skin and shoulder length blonde hair and emerald green eyes, her figure was somewhat slender but she still had curves in all the right places
"(by the 13, what"s that on his face!)"
the elver spoke something in elvish which Terry didn"t understand as she frowned, although Terry didn"t understand what she was saying he had seen those eyes and that frown before and explained"this is a birthmark, I was born with it"
the elver cutely tilted her head to the side as she repeated after Terry
"birth.... mark?"
Terry gave a nod and pointed at his birthmark
"this is a birthmark"
"I see... wait keep your hands up!"
Terry quickly put his hands up again and stared at the elver while he waited for the next instruction, he knew she was unlikely to kill him as long as he followed her instructions as she could have easily killed him when she had snuck up behind him
"now walk that way"
the elver gestured to the way she wanted Terry to walk and Terry gave a nod and began walking for a bit before he stopped and slowly turned around to face the elver again that had a frown on her face
"what is it human?"
"my name is Terry... could you pick up my bow, it was a gift from someone"
the elver gave a deep frown but eventually she picked up the bow and carried it with her
"thank you"
"....now move!"
"okay, still this way?"
"yes now move!"
"okay"
Terry began walking with his hands raised above his head, after walking for about 15 minutes he arrived at a clearing where a bunch of elvers was gathered along with a group of hunters that was sat down in the middle of the clearing, Terry was ordered over and sat down next to the other hunters and waited, the other hunters were pale, clearly they expected to be killed by the elvers but Terry closely opsevred the elvers facial expressions and was pretty sure they weren"t going to kill them...
A couple hours later the group of captured hunters had grown to about 50 people, at this point the elvers got them all on their feet before they began leading them further into the forest, while they walked the hunters whispered to each other as they began formulating an escape plan in secret, however no one shared the plan with Terry, he of course knew that it was his "flaw" that was at work again and simply ignored it, anyways he knew the elvers were not going to kill them anyways so why risk his life by trying to escape? After walking for about 30 minutes the group arrived at an even larger clearing where a group of elvers stood ready to receive them
"(line them up and let the captain have a look at them!)"
one of the elvers yelled something which the other elvers reacted to and soon the group of about 50 hunters were lined up in a single file
"look over there a human walking with the elvers!"
Terry looked over and saw a person walking with two elvers, one on each side he had short black hair and blue eyes and wore casual clothes, he also carried two pale swords on his right side, each in their own sheath, but what took most of Terry"s attention was that he seemed to be speaking elvish with the elvers that walked beside him. Soon he arrived and stood in front of the lined up hunters and spoke
"err... sorry about the inconvenience, as long as you follow the orders I, or the elvers give you will be set free and your weapons will be returned to you in due time"
the other hunters let out sighs of relief, but some of the hunters were dissatisfied and began yelling at the man
"who do you think you are, I"ll have you know that---"
the hunter that yelled would most likely have continued yelling at the man but before anyone noticed the man was right in front of the hunter and grabbed the hunter by the neck before he lifted him up into the air and spoke out in a slightly chilly tone
"or you can not follow the orders you receive and end up being squashed like a bug, you choose yourself"
the man let go of the hunter that began coughing as soon as he was free and the man slowly walked back to his original position and began looking the hunters over from left to right, Terry tensed up when he walked in front of him but thankfully he didn"t stop and kept walking
"thank the 13..."
just as Terry was feeling relieved the man stopped and walked backwards until he stood in front of Terry and suddenly showed a smile before he asked
"what"s your name kid?"
"what do you mean kid? you are not much older than me... right?"
"my name is Terry"
"I see..."
the man looked over Terry and suddenly grabbed towards his neck, just as Terry closed his eyes in fright he felt his guild tag being lifted up and slowly opened his eyes and saw that the man was inspecting the guild tag before he asked
"are you a new hunter?"
"y-yes I started two weeks ago"
the man gave a nod before he showed a smile and said
"you"re coming with me"
the man ignored Terry"s confusion and looked back as he asked something in elvish
"(who caught this one?)"
the elver that had caught Terry raised her hand, the man gave a nod before he spoke again
"(good you are also coming with me, as for the rest of them let them loose)"
the man began walking a few steps before he turned around to face Terry that stood still
"as I said you"re coming with me kid, so please follow after me"
"...okay"
Terry began following after the man that walked across the clearing and turned around and stood and waited for the other hunters to get out of the clearing before he gave Terry a clap on the shoulder with a gentle smile on his face
"don"t worry I won"t harm you little brother"