The next thirty minutes of advancement did not bring forth any other monster packs, their path clean and without any other interruptions, save for a single doe that Chiyo skillfully felled with a single arrow, a small and pleasant surprise for the group, their dinner promising to be quite a treat. Jack also stopped the grou pevery now and then, pointing towards some plants to be harvested, either for his use in mixing his original spices or to be eaten later. Of course, he himself also took part in the harvesting, though no one present would have minded had he not. He was, after all, ensuring they had filling and nutritionally rich meals every time they ate. In the same manner Kaede also received additional amount of respect, her cooking being the best among the group, with one of Alonso's guys coming in second, though not murpasing Jack by all that much who was third, that was assuming Jack was not cheating and using all manner of additional spices he had made. If he went all out, even Kaede could not equal him, but as Jack explained, that's when he was no longer cooking, but solving math equations of sorts and unlike Kaede, he knew the exact values and formulas of each item he added.

  "Think of it like this. At that point both me and Kaede have to solve some quantum equations. Where Kaede does things as she is thought, not aware of all the possible actions to be taken, I am something of an Einstein or Hawkins of that particular subject. Does not seem fair at all, right?" Was the explanation Jack had used, adding that doing all that calculating was no fun either. Add to that Kaede's skills in making their food already insanely tasty, he found it unwise to spoil their group with almost drug tier super tasty food. "Can't get you used to that. Don't forget you will be adventuring without me on the other side, while I myself will be busy in a workshop wherever our base will be located." That last bit had been the nail in the coffin, the group giving up on getting him to cook regularly, understanding the dangers he had picked out.

  Soon enough, they started to hear sounds of some sort of an activity, as though large numbers of something were near, yet somewhat far still. With elevated alertness, they moved further, slowly creeping through the thick brushes that littered the ground, eventually coming upon a cliff of sorts, a drop of over hundred meter deep fall before them. And there, below, they saw it. The expansive tent city of sorts that was littered with monsters going about their day. Some groups of hobs were tearing into chunks of flesh, clearly feasting on their latest prey, others were just laying around, relaxing or watching some goblins fight among themselves for whatever reason. Then, suddenly, a man's scream of pain echoed across the camp below, the agonizing cry carried up towards jack's group as well, repeated very other minute. The man was clearly being tortured for the fun of it, there was little the damned monsters could ever hope to learn without the ability to speak their language.

  "There's thousands of them!" in a whisper exclaimed Chiyo, clearly more surprised and expressive than usual.

  "Yes, seems like a proper warm up." Jack absentmindedly added, his gaze locked on the monster camp below, commenting on auto pilot, though he quickly snapped out of it, realising what he had said and feeling the odd gazes on him.

  "Sheesh. learn to take a joke people." he shrugged, playing off his earlier comment, adding a moment later "Does not seem that there is anything much scarier than hobgoblins down there, though I think I saw some wolf like creatures in the far back there, so maybe just a bit. That and their leader is either a pretty nasty hob, or something a vit fatter as well." while pointing towards a certain corner of the camp below, indicating the place he had seen the wolves.

  "Should we inform the village about this?" asked Emi, slightly worried about the numbers as well.

  "Let's head back first." Jack decided, the group wholeheartedly agreeing and leaving the place in quite the stride, only relaxing another thirty or so minutes later when they were sure they had quite some distance between them and the monsters.

  "Are they not too close to the village? They must have found it already, clearly." Izumi asked, confused at the situation.

  "No doubt, though I am guessing the tutorial has its own rules, preventing the entire camp from just slogging out, otherwise, with those numbers it would be easy for them to just steamroll the entirety of people in the village in the first day or so, leaving only those that ran away as soon as the horde was noticed. I do have a glaring suspicion that some double crash could be expected once the food shortage truly starts in the village. Seems like the perfect moment for a twisted invasion to begin." Jack replied, adding his own two cents regarding the whole mess, causing more than one of his companions to agree with him.

  "We are in agreement to warn the village though, yes?" asked Kaede as they continued on their way back.

  "Fine with me, should help keep people's mind of mindless rioting and shit, what with the looming threat of a monster horde." Jack agreed, followed by the agreement of the rest of the party, coming to a unanimous decision.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  "I will have to trouble you Izumi to deliver the news to the elder who should then spread it further along. You are our groups diplomatic face after all."

  "Consider it done. Want to come with me Kaede?" Izumi agreed and questioned the other leader of theirs.

  "N-no thanks. I would rather prepare a nice meal for us while you do so, hope you don't mind?"

  "Not at all, though if you do feel sorry leave an extra serving for me and we can call it even!" Izumi replied with a smile, a small and mischievous smile suddenly creeping on her face. Kaede smiled back at the playful remark, shook her head and agreed. Jack just watched the whole interaction with a smile on his face, having noticed little something something he believed would be fun to observe developing.

  -------------

  "Just a couple of monster groups and the speed you guys took care of them was good too. Well done." Jack praised his party as they walked through the village gate, with Izumi splitting off at the village elders home to deliver the news while the rest of the group returned home and sorted through their freshly acquired veggies and started to prepare supper. Jack would, once again disappear in his own room, having earned enough matter to make Fumiko's weapon set that he handed over just after the supper once Izumi had debriefed them about the exchange she had with the elder.

  "He seemed worried, but nowhere near as much as one would expect, though I suppose most people would fail to notice the subtle tells. I think that elder is more than what he seems, though I have yet to understand what he is and what purpose he serve here."

  "I am surprised you noticed. Bravo." Jack applauded Izumi for her sharp eyes and instincts, explaining a bit more as he did "I have a similar suspicion. And there is a perfectly obvious side that would be interested on seeing how things develop in the tutorial." Jack then pointed his hand towards the ceiling, momentarily catching the group off guard, until Emi gasped and exclaimed.

  "The angels!"

  "Ding dong! Correct!." Jack smiled, adding "Though I assume they are only allowed to observe and in limited capacity at that. How else are they to figure out who the talented people from the batch are so they can offer great deals to join them once through. They are the sponsors here after all, whatever that means. What does raise a concern however once that is established, is a rather nasty question. Just how many other such trials are held, sponsored by other higher species with similar goals?"

  Jack's question left the room silent for a while, the implication hanging heavy in the air, until Izumi broke the damning silence "It does not change what we have to do though. We are still going out daily to try and thin out those monster ranks, are we not?"

  "You bet! I would be more than happy if we managed to cull them far enough, while seeking for the path their scouts are taking to reach this side, to be able to take out their leader and have the tutorial dealt with by ourselves. I have this feeling such action would bring us some nice rewards."

  "What's the possibility of you taking them on and coming out top on your won?" jokingly asked Kenji, causing Jack to seriously consider before he answered and his answer would have caused some of his group to fall on their ass were they not all already sitting down.

  "If we get a week or so to cull them? Probably I could do it then, though seems like too much of an effort and a waste of a perfectly good opportunity to have you all gain much needed experience. I would much rather have you along. Would speed it all up a great deal as well as my previous point."

  "Ehm, boss? Does that include us as well? You did we needed to fight only until we got our classes Or did something change?." Alonso chimed up at that moment, from his and his groups facial expressions it was clear they had not taken to the kill or be killed part of this new world of theirs and were quite reluctant to return to the murdering part.

  "Oh, no no no. With you gentlemen it is optional. You can totally skip all the coming engagements and stay here and work on developing and mastering your skills. It was partially for that reason that we stopped so many times along the way back and collected such quantities of all manner of edible plants and their seeds. Feel free to transform our small garden within the fence in your own, personal experimental field to serve as a testing and training ground for your future endeavors."

  "Won't you need us to grow something specific for you?"

  "Yes, but it will not devour the entirety of your time, giving you plenty of chances to dabble in stuff you yourself would like to. That would also serve to maintain your levels of happiness, no?"

  "That does sound indeed quite pleasant, I have to say." Alonso nodded in agreement with Jack's reasoning, both regarding the combat and the future plans for his group, once again reaffirming his belief in a choice well made when he and his pals came along with the two kids when they first offered them some work for food.

  "Anything else we have on our agenda, or are we done for the night and will meet in the morning?" Jack asked and seeing that no one had any additional comments wished them all goodnight and retired to his room, ready to rest and recover for the grind that would no doubt follow the next few days. There were plenty of green skinned shits of different sizes and forms to murder and quite the number of jewelry he would like to mess around with making once he was done with the weapon part for the party and had some excess matter on hand. He very much liked the vitality boosting medallion he had cooked up and was more than eager to mess around with spatial enchantment to ensure he would have access to storage space once outside the tutorial. Their personal storage spaces had been shrinking after al, receiving yet another 'nerf' when they found the large monster camp, serving as additional clue that they had found the main 'baddie' of the tutorial.