The Modern Man Who Never Played Video Games Is Now An Adventurer!

Three hours. That's how long it took us to find even a single monster in this section of the forest. Bella ,Paul, Gina, and I were all very confused at this strange occurrence. It wasn't like the monsters were running from us. They just didn't exist.

When we finally found a monster, it appeared to have been dead for a long time already. Flies were buzzing all around the body and it reeked of rotten meat. The monster's body was almost as tall as a horse, but much heavier than a rhino.

"That's looks like a Frenzy Rhino! I read about them at the guild." Gina said. "They're B rank monsters that have the ability to raise the fighting power of other monsters as well as their own."

I let out a low whistle. I was glad that this monster was already dead. It would have been a big problem if we had to fight it, even with Paul's strength.

Bella walked up to it and after inspecting the body for a few minutes, she said, "It looks like someone or something killed it. Look here. These are clear signs of a fight." She pointed at a few large cuts and missing chunks of flesh.

I quickly whipped out my shortsword and looked around. If this thing died in a fight, there was something of at least A rank. We could be in danger, or it could have left the area. The body was dead for a few days at least from the looks of it.

Paul had done the same and was wielding his hammer and shield as he scanned the area. After a few minutes, we finally relaxed a little since nothing seemed to be near us. I picked up nothing on Presence Detection, and there was nothing but a slight breeze to be heard.

Bella and Gina had prepared for a fight but stayed between Paul and me since they were both ranged fighters. We all looked at each other as we let out nervous chuckles. After recording the monster and its current state, we moved on to another part of the forest.

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"Do you think they could cause any problems for us? If they kill our project, it'll be quite the setback." A deep voice sounded out from right next to the body of the Frenzy Rhino a few minutes after Luke and party left.

"I doubt they could kill it. They seemed pretty weak to me." A soft voice like rose petals responded from the same general location as the first voice.

At that moment, the air shimmered and two figures slowly took shape as the light wavered around them. A man with long white hair falling down to his waist was standing next to a woman whose bloodred hair was cut short, revealing pointed ears and bright red eyes.

The two of them glanced in the direction the party of four adventurers had left in a few minutes ago. "The young man with the shortsword seemed to have noticed our presence for a moment. We might need to keep an eye on him." The woman said as she turned to look at the long haired man.

"Indeed. It did appear as though he had noticed something. Send two people to keep an eye on him. However, make sure they stay out of his way. We don't want to tip anyone off about our plans." The man responded, clearly slightly concerned.

At that, the man and woman moved in different directions as they blended back into the backdrop of the forest.

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Bella was smiling. The sky was already dark and Bella and I were sitting next to each other as we ate our supper. Unfortunately, it was just dried meat, bread, and some more veggies, but at least it was food. There had been no monsters found at all during the day, besides the dead Frenzy Rhino we had found earlier.

Suddenly, I felt extra weight on my arm. Looking down, I discovered Bella leaning against me and couldn't help smiling. Life was wonderful.

"C'mon Bella. We have second watch. Let's go sleep." Gina said after letting us relax for almost twenty minutes.

Bella put on sour face but quickly relented. "See you in the morning." She said as she crawled into the tent.

"See ya." I responded as I picked up my shortsword and leaned against a tree. Velli was with me this time, since he had yet to fall asleep. I held him in my l.a.p and fed him more light magic as the night got deeper.

As I fed Velli more magic, I could feel our connection getting stronger as well. Suddenly, a picture of a massive dragon flying in the skies appeared in my mind. After a moment, I realized that this was also a light dragon. The dragon was skimming over the tops of the trees in a forest, when, our of the blue, her wings were torn apart, sending her spiraling to the ground. Using her front legs, she slid to a stop and let out a massive roar. She was in terrible pain and knew that she wouldn't be able to escape a fight.

Suddenly, my vision returned to the present, and I saw Velli looking at me with intelligence in his eyes.

"Mother." I looked around for the source of the voice before noticing that Paul was acting as though he hadn't heard anything.

"Mother." I heard it again, but this time, I looked at Velli and realized that the voice I was hearing was his.

I realized it wasn't an actual voice. It was Velli's thoughts being transmitted to me. I tried to send him a question by pretending to talk in my mind. "Was that your mother that you showed me?"

Velli nodded his head and tears formed in his eyes. I lifted the little dragon up and rubbed his small scaled head.

"I'm sorry." I didn't know what to do. I had no idea we would be able to communicate with words.

At that moment, Bella and Gina came out from the tents and told Paul and I to go get some sleep. After saying goodnight to Bella, Velli and and entered the tent and before I could start conversing with Velli he was already curled up, sound asleep.

I smiled as I looked at the little dragon. Slowly, I too drifted off into the world of dreams.