Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 95: A Quick Assessment - Part 2

"You'd rank two hundred in speed and fifty in flexibility against the monsters inside the forest, as for stealth, you're not gonna be able to hide better than anything in there." Shocking everyone with Mel's stat comparison against the monsters, the priestess opened her eyes unamused.

"What?!" Mel exclaimed, baffled by the assessment.

"Next!" Instead of clarifying further, the priestess moved on to Amedith to not waste any more time. Doing the very same routine again, she let go of his hand and laid out his stat comparison against the monsters.

"You'd rank around ten in defense since your shield can withstand at least three blows before cracking, but apart from that, only your holy magic can give you some time to make it out alive if it comes down to running."

Moving right onto the next, she grabbed Aria's hand and gave her a quick reading as well.

"You don't have any chance of survival, you're gonna definitely die if you go in," hearing that, Aria's eyes widened with rage.

"The fuck are you talking about?! I can handle mys–"

"Next" Not letting her complaints stop her, the priestess moved onto Raven's hand. Quickly giving it a read as well, she opened her eyes and laid down what she'd found. "Hundred and fifth in terms of speed, reflexes are a bit lower than the archer, as for stealth, you'd be under fifty."

Lastly, moving on to Mino, she gave her a quick response.

"No different than the dark elf, but slightly more survivable," done telling, comparing everyone's stats, she leaned back into her chair with a sated smile. "That'd be five hundred gold coins or if you can't afford it you gotta bring me something rare from inside the forest."

A bit thrown off by the sudden demand, everyone gave her a confused look.

"You never mentioned a fee," Erika complained.

"You never asked, besides, do you think all these decorations and moving around come for free?" Shooting down her argument, the priestess stretched her arms back–nearly popping her breasts from under her blouse. Then with a sigh, she glanced across the confused faces. "Now go, what are you waiting for, that girl might clear house if you're not quick!"

'She knows we're underprepared but wants us to go in anyways?' Still a bit dubious of her intention, Raven decided to stick to the plan they'd agreed on before walking into the tent.

Taking Mel, and Ameidth with him, he walked outside, leaving the other three to lag behind while they scout the entrance to the forest. As they walked closer to the dark ooze flaming out from the ground, the sound of blades, grunts, and monster howls could be heard bleeding out from all directions.

"Who do you think the girl is?" Raven asked the other two, but obviously, they had no idea.

"Someone with a death wish just like us for sure," Mel responded, and the others couldn't help but agree.

Needless to say, they were right. As deep within the accursed forest, a lone Valkyrie walked with only one hand still attached to her body. Carrying the other arm which had been torn off by a leech, she wandered through the forest looking for her next target.

And when she found it, lurking in the shadowed tree branches, the size of a dog with a slight hump on its spine, it kept hissing at her from a distance as she moved closer and closer.

"Here," throwing her arm to the creature, she took a step back and watched as it climbed off the tree and lunged onto the piece of meat. Clad in a porcupine-like hide, the rodent had deep crimson eyes and rabbit-like front teeth.

Watching as it tore away at her skin and dug its way inside, a smile crept up Helga's lips. Letting the creature bury itself under her skin so, she kept staring at it in amusement as it squirmed packed between her flesh and her skin.

"These bastards have grown bigger, huh?" Having faced the skin-crawling horror before, she stretched her other arm to the side and summoned a spear tipped with burning hot iron. "Well, they're not big enough to kill me just yet!"

Throwing the spear at the building skin on her torn arm, she stabbed right through its body as well as her own. Squealing like a bleeding pig, the monster kept trying to crawl out of her skin, but the burning tip of the spear had melted its flesh with Helga's limb. Walking up close to the monster, the barbarian Valkyrie felt a surge of energy coursing to the wound from where her arm had been torn.

"Seems like that was enough killing," following her words, a flood of muscles shot out of her wound. Growing her arm right back, Helga reached for the spear with her new arm and wrung it around until a massive hole tore into the monster's body. "You're not growing a taste for humans, especially not of mine."

Drawing the spear out as quickly as possible, Helga stabbed it through the monster's head in the blink of an eye. Dying in an instant, the creature quickly turned to dust, and so did her weapon along with the monster.

'Another weapon gone, I should've bought more.' Having gone through half a dozen weapons, each one of which was now lost to the corrosive flesh of these monsters, she felt like she would run out far before she encounters her true target. 'Not like weapons would work on a metaphysical creature, but having one is always reassuring.'

Summoning a halberd this time, the barbarian women began wandering the forest once more. Her target was her only object, something for her to chew before spitting out its corpse, but before that, she had to find it, and finding a monster that lived only in one's own mind was much harder than it first appeared.

To her surprise, however, the sudden cawing of crows from near the forest edges, made her task much easier. Unaware of the newcomers to the accursed forest now being consumed by the very horrors she was hunting, Helga rushed through the thicket with giant leaps that flew her a quarter of a mile every second.

"Finally! AHAHAHA!" Laughing maniacally as she flew by, her eccentric voice kept the horrors hiding away. They'd seen far too much and lost too many times to even attempt a stealthy strike at the adventurer.