Ain't an Ordinary Girl

Chapter 18

One of the Mercenary asked, hugging himself with a shiver.

Of course, everyone felt the dropping temperature. The forest were packed with tall and lush trees, so along with it surroundings and the upcoming nighttime, they were all aware the inherent changes of the temperature, the changes in the nature.

Though something was a little amiss.

It's still around dusk, so the air's temperature should be humid, at least. It'll only start to drop when the sun completely sunk in the horizon. The unusual and continues dropping of the temperature makes the group unsettled. They all have this foreboding feeling that each of them had cultivated because of their field of work.

It is ticking at the very corner of their minds and was ready to erupt at any given moment.

Danger was creeping in.

"Men... You all must survive... I'll surely hunt the soul of those who dies! I will never let you rest in peace, you bag of old bones!"

A minute of silence after the sudden declaration, the group of Mercenaries all cracks in hearty laughter with what Valdez had said.

Most of the members in this group, around 30s to 50s, were working together and in Valdez's circle since.

Valdez, this outstanding man, was their recruiter and leader, the one who bond them all together. So whenever there was a commission for him, it was obviously meant that they were in, too.

They've been in life and death for who knows how many times. They succeeded and failed many times as a group, thought they found heaven but ended up in hell.

All in those adventures, they were ready for the worst possible scenario, and that is to lose their lives. But that was not the case for Valdez, who always rushed ahead without the slightest of hesitation to save his brothers who were in mortal danger.

So even if some of their missions weren't completed and deemed almost a failure, sometimes really a failed one, they were all grateful since they always survived that ordeal, they all lived.

Getting a deep, horrible festering injuries or any mutilated body parts were still a sign of luck for them, since with potions and Healers, those injuries will heal and those mutilated parts will surely grow back.

But once dead... that's that, because even the most powerful Mages or Healers can't bring back those who already died.

Resurrection stones or spells are yet to be developed or learned. Both still be in a process, yes, but every attempt were unsuccessful that even making a prototype was impossible.

It will surely be taken few more years of repetitive failures before some Alchemists and Mages finally piece all the records the previous researchers gathered and be able to complete them.

A kind of moment that everyone are surely looking forward to.

"Haha! Val, you bastard! As if you're not a bag of old bones yourself!"

"That's right! That's right! Stop making us look older than you just because you look younger than your actual age! Haha!"

The Mercenaries' mood lighten up just like that. Their gloomy, full of apprehensive mood with those invisible thick grey of clouds hovering above their heads a while ago vanished as if it has never been there.

Lucky or unlucky, those things must not affect their mood or else even their way of reasoning will be corrupted. With hazy mind that indicates an unstable thinking, only danger awaits them.

Yes, fear is instinctual, so even though the Mercenaries were veterans in their field, it didn't mean they have no fear anymore.

In fact, while encountering monsters and other dangers, because they've been exposed in that sort of environment, the fear level that is supposed to be high for ordinary people decreases by three to four levels for them, which was the advantage they've got from frequent exposure to monsters and other forms of danger.