Osric's party was once again on the way to the monster forest.
As always, William was talking.
"Only the biggest and most accomplished parties go on missions twice a day. I guess we're really stepping up."
"Yeah. My wife was already happy to hear about the favourable contract, but she will definitely be even more shocked after I tell her about today." Paul said.
"You're so lucky to have a wife!"
"Girls always avoid me for some reason."
"I wonder why." Osric intervened.
William got annoyed.
"Screw you. Not everyone has your looks."
"Why do you care about such things? I prefer money over women."
William sighed.
"Bastard."
Paul then whispered to William.
"How is Osric with women?"
"I haven't really seen him talk to any on a personal level. I haven't known him that long."
"But I always see women throwing glances at him, which annoys me to death."
"I don't even know if he notices them."
Paul chuckled.
"I'm sure he does. He's the most observant guy I know. But he probably just doesn't care."
"He also has major trust issues because of his childhood."
"I see."
William felt bad now.
Osric could hear everything due to his Heightened Senses, but he chose to ignore them.
—
Once they entered the forest and left Paul with the cart and horse on a path, it didn't take them long to come back.
After less than half an hour, Osric and William were walking towards Paul with full bags.
William had a grin on his face.
"Hey Paul, we got 7 this time!"
While they waved to each other, Osric had a bad feeling.
'Why didn't I get a system reward message yet?'
That's when he sensed it.
Two big presences approached rapidly from behind trees.
He dropped his bag and unsheathed his sword while yelling.
"Wolfs!"
"William raise your weapon!"
"Paul hide behind Rust!"
Thanks to his Combat Sense, Osric managed to block one wolf in time, but William wasn't as fast.
William managed to raise his shield, but not his axe and he didn't have time to position himself either.
The brute force of the second wolf's attack sent him flying.
Osric was facing the attacks from the first wolf, and could only see from his peripheral vision that William was on the ground.
'Shit! I need to finish this up quickly and help William!'
The second wolf was now on top of William and trying to bite his throat, but he blocked its mouth with his axe.
On the other side, as Osric was about to lose focus from stress, his new Composure skill kicked in faintly.
'I need to focus.'
He remembered his training in Swordsmanship and started pushing back.
The next attack of the wolf was deflected with the shield in his right hand and countered with his sharp iron sword into its throat.
The wolf collapsed but wasn't dead yet.
Osric quickly finished it off before hurrying to William's aid.
William was hitting the wolf in its side with his shield.
It helped with the pressure it was giving with its jaw on his axe.
Right when William was about to lose his strength, Osric appeared from the side and stabbed his sword into the wolfs heart.
While all this was happening, Paul was observing from behind the cart.
He was trembling but now relieved.
'That was scary.'
'Do they experience such danger everyday?'
The danger of the job started truly kicking in now.
But Paul was determined to take his job even more seriously and do his best.
"Are you guys okay?"
Osric helped William up and answered.
"Yeah. This doesn't happen often, so it was certainly a surprise, but now we have extra loot."
William rolled his eyes.
"I almost died and you still talk about money."
"I saved you, didn't I?"
They both chuckled and started calming down from the adrenaline.
Paul was in awe.
'To think they can keep such attitudes.'
"Alright guys. You relax, while I do my job now and load the corpses."
"Alright."
Osric looked down at the fresh corpses and then it came.
"Ding!"
{ Challenge Completed }
Reward:
+1 Stamina
Extra Rewards:
+1 Endurance
Composure (F) Minor Progress.
Combat Instinct (D) Minor Progress.
New Skill Unlocked:
Shield Mastery (F)
'Amazing.'
'To get such great rewards, it must mean that this could've been much more dangerous than it was.'
'I probably have Composure to thank that things turned out well.'
Osric was very happy with his rewards.
One in particular.
'Unlike with Swordsmanship, I actually got Shield Mastery because of real combat.'
Osric decided to check his stats more closely later.
Once they got back to the city, they sold all corpses and completed the mission at the guild, and left a report of what happened with the wolves.
Their total earnings from this second exhibition today were over 10 silver.
After handing out everyone's shares, they parted ways and agreed on doing the same tomorrow.
'What an eventful day.'
Osric remembered how much suffered every Winter until recently.
But now he barely noticed the cold, despite it being in the middle of Winter.
Even after two missions, he still felt energetic.
'It's probably thanks to my improved stamina and endurance.'
'I think my stats are starting to enter the upper levels of what ordinary people are capable of.'
This made Osric excited and he could feel his greed increasing deep inside of him.