Explosions came everywhere.

A group of five people were on the side, watching the scene of five people attacking three high orcs that caused their group to be in a state of almost dying.

One of the two ladies in the five people looked back at their group.

She has waist-length mint green hair, that is tied up in a ponytail, and golden eyes. A remarkable feature of her face was the mole under her left eye.

She stopped attacking and went to their side.

"You don't have any more mana?" she asked the person who was the healer of the group.

He slowly shook his head.

He was truly out of it.

A few minutes ago, their group encountered these three high orcs who were supposed to be in the inner part of the Dark Forest they are currently in.

This forest was in between two of the five kingdoms in this land, the biggest kingdom in this land, which is Circinus Kingdom and Antlia Kingdom.

They are close to the edge of the forest towards Antlia Kingdom and high orcs aren't supposed to appear here.

Caught off guard and not strong enough to face off three high orcs at once, they almost died if the other group did not appear.

The golden-eyed lady nodded her head before raising her hands and casting a healing spell that covered all six of them.

After making sure that they were healed, she went back to support her team.

"What do you think?" the one, who seemed to be the leader, asked their healer.

"It seems that she is better than me. Treating our wounds isn't that easy. But she was able to do it and even went back to support her team. And looking at the way she supports them with her powers, her mana is quite abundant."

All people in this world were born with a core, a core that could contain the mana that they use to fuel their abilities. It only depends on how much one can store mana to determine if they have strong power or not.

"Healers aren't as many as compared to the other abilities," another commented.

Abilities are different, there are the elements, fire, water, earth, wind, ice, and lightning. There are the mind abilities, telekinesis, vision, mind control, puppeteer, and others. There are also the common ones like vine, sand, fog, metal, wood, and others.

The usual ones are the most abundant in number when it comes to abilities.

Followed by the mind abilities and of course the elementals.

But there are also the rarer ones, such as healing ability and the strongest being the white ability.

Healing meant healing and buff for support.

As for the white ability, it is the ability that has a whole load of capability.

Mana doesn't come from nature or the natural elements.

Mana comes from the stars and absorbing mana is best done during the night.

Each mana comes from a different star.

Earth's mana comes from the star Rigil, Water mana comes from the star Rotanev, Wind mana comes from the star Deneb, Fire mana comes from the star Regulus, Ice mana comes from the star Alioth and Lightning mana comes from the star Vol.

Healing mana comes from the star Altair.

The mind abilities and common ones were the same, coming from different stars.

And the moon ability's mana, the strongest ability, comes from the moon itself.

It is the strongest with many usages but what it can't do is heal.

Healers are small in number but moon ability users are even smaller.

This fact also implies that the group that was saved wasn't simple as many other groups don't have healers in them.

"Do you think they know who we are?" another asked.

"It doesn't seem like they came here for us, it seems like they are here on their mission."

Most of those who can wield their powers strongly had different works.

Some become knights of the kingdoms while others become adventurers.

Knights mostly protect the royalty and the nobles especially when they travel and during the wars while the adventurers were mainly hired to lessen the numbers of the beasts in the land. They are also being hired during wars.

At the same time, Adventurers are freer than knights who are tied down by the kingdoms.

"But why are high orcs in this part of the dark forest in the first place?"

All of them shook their heads.

This was something that never happened before.

Dark Forest is one of the places where beasts and monsters breed and proliferate.

Burning the forest won't solve anything as it would only cause the beasts and monsters to attack the kingdoms. Creating barriers around these types of places is the best countermeasure for there not to be any beast and monster tide.

Especially for places like the Dark Forest which is just two to three kilometers away from both kingdoms.

There is a mountain range followed by a desert from these three places to the other three kingdoms in this land.

Then there is the ocean that separates them from other lands.

Though each land has the same problem, they have a place or places which house beasts and monsters.

If Antlia and Circinus have the Dark Forest, the other three kingdoms namely, Indus Kingdom, Lyra Kingdom, and Musca Kingdom, have the desert. The beasts in this place couldn't pass through the mountain range that would lead to Antlia and Circinus. The same goes for the Dark Forest beasts and monsters.

But these places have some kind of hierarchy as well.

The Dark Forest's center holds the strongest of beasts. What follows after the center is the inner half and then the outer half.

High orcs are supposed to be staying in the inner half. Yet for some odd reason, they appeared in the outer half.

"Beats me. We are just lucky that this group of people came to our rescue."

"They seem familiar though," one once again commented.

It didn't take long before the group ended the two high orcs.

"This kind of fight. It's still lacking. We would be berated," the man using fire with black hair and blue eyes, slashed his sword to get rid of the blood.

"Especially since it has been two years, we would be beaten, Spencer," the one using wind with red hair and green eyes, followed.

"We need to up our training," the man using fire who was named Spencer, shook his head.

He then faced the lady who healed the others, "How are they, Preshea?"

"Nothing wrong. I have healed them already as well."

Spencer looked up in the sky and even though they were in the outer area of the forest, it was still a long way before they got out of it.

"The sun is about to set, we should probably stay here for the night. To ensure that there would be no more inner area monsters coming to the outer area. Start preparing to camp out, Aaron, Richard."

"I understand."

"..."

Aaron was the wind ability user and Richard simply nodded in reply and was the one using the water ability.

"As for Luna..."

Spencer looked towards the other lady, who had silvery white hair. She was leaning on a tree with her eyes closed.

Though it had been closed even while in battle a while ago.

"Well, let's leave her be."

"Uhmmm."

The one leading the other team they saved speaks up seeing as they are starting to settle.

Spencer looked at the person.

"We... I guess we want to thank you for saving us."

Spencer shook his head, "We came here on a mission and it overlapped with where you are. So don't thank us."

The leader blinked, they didn't want the recognition that they saved others.

"Anyway, things are unusual in the Dark Forest, you guys should come here in a larger, stronger group. Even if it is the outer area, the danger has already risen. Have you not read the news?" Spencer berated them.

"Wait, wait, we are just thanking you. You don't have to act so high in front of us. Do you know who we are?"

They suddenly felt irked that this person berated them for something unexpected.

"Could it be that you guys are nobles? With the way you spoke, the words seemed like things a noble child would speak of," Aaron provoked him further.

"You- What if we are? We are not doing anything to you. Why are you acting like this just who are you guys?"

"We are just some adventurers," Aaron shrugged before he continued setting up camp.

"Adventurers? Then you don't have a family name? Why do you act like that then?"

The group started showing their anger.

"We have no family name but we have saved the asses of those who have family names," Aaron smirked.

The other group was lost for words because it was the truth.

"What did you come here for?" Spencer asked them.

"We are here to strengthen ourselves," the leader replied

"If you want to strengthen yourselves then start training in your training grounds instead of coming in this place with minimal knowledge of what is going on," he continued reprimanding them.

@@@AUTHOR'S NOTE@@@

Hi everyone!!! I thought I won't be writing a new story for now but this story kept playing on my mind. I couldn't help myself... Please enjoy our new story and while you're at it please give me your support... This story has joined the Webnovel Spirity Award 2023... Thank you and enjoy... ^_^

@@@@@