"Are they bandits?"

Mars gave a sigh before he answered her question

"No, they're hunters..."

"...What does hunters do?"

"I don't know I am not a hunter, why don't you ask them?"

78 looked over at the hunters and noticed that they were all looking at her and quickly hid behind Mars' back before she peeked out at them from behind her cover, Mars gave another sigh before he turned to the hunters, a few of them unconsciously took a step back when his eyes landed on them but the squad leader a middle aged man and the tank a demon with a tower s.h.i.+eld stood their ground. Mars gave a wry smile and introduced himself

"My name is Mars, this is 78"

The squad leader took a few steps forward and reached out his hand to Mars

"Nice to meet you benefactor Mars, my name is Allen"

Mars shook Allen's hand before he looked to the other hunters and spoke with a wry smile on his face

"I don't bite unless I am ordered to"

Allen gave a laugh and the other hunters also loosened up a little before Allen asked

"So benefactor Mars, what are you doing out here in the jungle?"

"Training, but I am about done with that so I think I'll follow you guys back to civilization"

Allan gave a nod, then the demon man spoke up as he walked over

"Benefactor Mars, my name is Damon"

Mars looked over at the demon man named Damon that carried a big smile on his face and shook hands with him

"Nice to meet you Damon"

Next to the only mage in the team a lesser beastman walked over and gave his hand to Mars

"My name is Johan, nice to meet you benefactor Mars... you too 78"

78 hid behind Mars' back when Johan spoke to her and didn't reply, Mars showed a wry smile and shook hands with Johan

"Sorry I didn't know she was so shy"

"I don't mind, I have a little sister myself that's also very shy"

Mars gave a nod, next came the two elves, they looked like each other so Mars a.s.sumed that they were twins, both of them showed wide smiles as they walked over hand in hand

"h.e.l.lo benefactor Mars, my name is Lise and--"

"---My name is Marie, nice to meet you"

Mars nodded and shook hands with them in turn before the last member of the hunter squad walked over, she was a lesser beastwoman and carried a spear

"My name is Juile, thanks a bunch for saving us benefactor Mars!"

Mars shook hands with Juile and gave a nod before he spoke

"Allen I will have to trouble you showing the way out of the jungle"

Allen gave a wide grin and spoke

"It's no trouble at all, anyway let's move out!"

The group quickly began moving in a single file with the elf twins in front acting as scouts, Damon after them, Juile in the middle, Johan after her and then Allen in the back, Mars and 78 followed behind them with a little distance on request of 78 so she could get used to them gradually. Mars held 78's hand while they walked through the undergrowth following the path that the hunters cleared out, Mars gave 78's hand a squeeze before he asked her

"I didn't know you were so shy?"

"... Is there a problem with being shy? Do you perhaps hate shy people Mars?"

"No I don't hate shy people at all... It's just from here we'll most likely be travelling from city to city, so I would be good if you could get a little less shy along the trip, you know just to make it easier for yourself"

"Okay..."

"I know it's no easy thing to change who you are, just keep it in mind... I don't think these hunters are bad people, they should be easy to talk to"

78 gave a nod and Mars gave a smile before he called out to Allen that was walking a little in front of him

"Allen can you tell me a bit about where we are going?"

"Oh right, we are heading to an outpost and from there we will be sailing from this continent over to another named Heden where we came from"

"I see... Do you perhaps know of a continent named Salen?"

"Hmm... Can't say that I do"

"I see, never mind then"

Allen walked back into formation, after a little while 78 asked Mars

"Hey Mars what's in Salen?"

"My home, that's where we are headed"

"I see..."

Mars gave 78's hand a squeeze when he saw she looked down

"Don't worry, there's plenty of room and you can get a room of your own"

"Okay..."

78 gave a small smile, but just as she thought the mood was getting kind of nice, the ears on top of her head twitched before she looked off into the undergrowth and soon she asked Mars

"... Mars should we not do something about that?"

"Don't mind it, the hunters will discover it soon"

just as Mars finished speaking Lise, one of the elven twins suddenly looked to the side before she called out

"Contact left, 1.600 meters!"

Mars gave a nod, the scouts of the party sure were top cla.s.s to be able to detect a contact from 1.600 meters away and gave 78's hand a squeeze before he spoke

"See, they noticed just fine"

"... Yeah they did"

78 gave a smile before she spoke again as she hugged Mars' arm

"You're so smart Mars!"

"Well I try my best to look smart"

"Isn't that the same?"

"No not quite, you see the difference is---"

While Mars and 78 was talking leisurely the hunters had already set up a formation against the incoming threat, Damon was in the front with his tower s.h.i.+eld with the rest behind him in a defective formation ready to strike, soon the contracted neared and when it was about 500 meters away Juile asked Allen

"Squad captain, can't we get benefactor Mars to help us?"

Allen looked over at Mars that sat on a boulder along with 78 and was happily chatting before he spoke

"Don't worry, he'll lend a hand if it gets dangerous, but we still don't want to trouble benefactor Mars too much we are after all top cla.s.s hunters, it would be pathetic if the only thing we could do was cling to our benefactor"

"... Got it captain, let's show benefactor Mars what we got!"

"That's the spirit Juile, now let's do this fast and clean"

"""""Yes captain"""""

Soon the contact broke through the undergrowth and appeared in front of the hunter squad, it was an oversized panther about 5 meters tall with brown fur, just as it appeared Johan finished build a spell structure and fired off an ice spike towards the giant panther. The speed of the ice spike was amazing and even though the panther attempted to dodge it still left a long tear on the side of the panther that let out a ferocious roar before it jumped into the fight and attempted to get to Johan but was blocked by Damon before it swiped at Damon that blocked with his tower s.h.i.+eld. the fight gradually tilted in favour of the hunter squad, this was only do to their fantastic teamwork, Mars looked at the fight while he talked with 78, soon the panter collapsed dead, it only took the squad of hunters about 5 minutes to bring down the panther, Mars praised

"Well done everyone, your teamwork has neared perfection!"

Being praised by their benefactor the six hunters showed happy smiles before Allen gave a laugh and spoke

"Thanks for the praise benefactor Mars, but surely you would be able to kill such a foe in an instant, no?"

Mars gave a smile but didn't confirm Allen speculations

Days had pa.s.sed and the group finally made it out of the jungle from there on it was open plains as far as the eye could see, 78 widened her eyes and ran around happily on the gra.s.s as she felt the wind blow, Mars watched over her with a smile and so did the rest of the group while they slowly made their way towards the outpost that had been set up by the sea, which was a little over 4 days away on foot.