Jude and Ellie left town high spirits, although it was already mid-morning, they headed directly towards the goblin encampment. He could have skinned along the way, but it would slow them down and their real purpose was to level up Ellie.

Along the way Jude had a thought and asked Ellie, “Should we form a party?”

“I don’t know; crafters don’t gain EXP the same way as the other classes. We gain EXP by using our skills.” Ellie replied.

“Oh? Then are your skills different too? Our skills tend to have a category skill with subskills under it.”

“We don’t have any skill categories like you do. Instead our skills are more flexible, like how I used repair on your weapon and clothes.”

Jude thought about it and at first he thought that his skills were flexible as well. But the more he thought about it, he realized that Ellie was right. The first repair that Ellie did on his sword was extremely different that the second repair on his clothes. She had done two completely different actions and used the same skill both times. Jude’s were always the same thing, swords. He could use them differently or swing them differently, but in the end, they were still the same swords.

“I still think we should form a party.” Jude figured keeping an eye on her HP wasn’t a bad idea.

“Well, you would either need the Party Leader skill or we would have had to go to the temple,” Ellie replied.

“What? You need to have a skill to form a party?” Jude thought this was strange.

“Yeah, how else would you do it?”

Jude thought it was odd because in games it was easy to form a party. Jude had access to the and had already turned on his HUD. He could at all times see his health, mana, buffs and debuffs. He thought for sure he could do something as simple as making a party.

Ellie look on at Jude curiously. From her point of view, he was waving his hands around like an idiot.

“You know you can’t just learn a new skill out of thin air right?” Ellie interjected. But to her surprise, she got a notification.

“How did you--? That doesn’t--? What--???” Ellie said confused.

“Hmm? Oh, I just gained skill. Cool.” Jude said to himself.

“How did you do that?” Ellie asked again.

“I just opened up the menu and looked around until I found the party settings.” Jude replied.

“What you said doesn’t even make sense.”

“Have you ever tried opening ?”

“No, how would I even know how to do that and why?”

“I don’t know, just say or think .”

Jude thought this was a good time to experiment.

“Ugh, ok. .” Ellie said. “Nothing happened.”

“Really? That’s strange. If you can’t open it then I guess, I can’t explain it. Sorry.” Jude wasn’t sure why Ellie couldn’t open it. Maybe it was due to the fact that she didn’t know what an Options menu would look like.

They then had a long discussion about but no matter how Jude explained it, Ellie still couldn’t open it or understand what he was talking about.

***

They had finally arrived at the goblin area of the newbie zone. This time Jude didn’t go straight to the village but stayed on the outskirts. Before he had a hard enough time taking on two, so he had no confidence on attacking a whole village of them.

Jude was still surprised at how resilient they were. Goblins were typically the weaker creatures in fantasy. Just about anyone should be able to mow these down easily. Yet two were quite the challenge.

While Jude was lost in his thoughts, they came upon another group of people. These youths were about the same age as Jude and Ellie, around 15-16 years old. They seemed to be part of one of the military groups as they all had matching colors, the same went for their trainer too.

They were well organized, far better than the Temples group Jude had first meet. They had seemed to have 3 warriors, a rogue with a bow and a healer. The rogue would shoot the bow and pull in the targets, then the warrior with a shield would ‘bellow,’ drawing the goblins to him. Two more warriors with spears would then stab the goblins to death. The healer took care of any wounds. The whole process was quick and efficient.

“That’s the Riwa Kingdoms army recruits. Let’s avoid them if possible.” Ellie said.

Jude couldn’t agree more, “Okay.”

As they turned to leave a different direction they heard a shout, “Hey!”

It was the shield wearing warrior, “What is a crafter and a wannabe doing out here?”

Wannabe? How am I a wannabe? Jude thought.

But the militia group all had good equipment. The warrior who called out was covered in leather that had metal plates studded into it. His kite shield was simple, yet was polished to shine and his sword was the same as Jude’s, a . The other warriors were similarly dressed, while the healer and rogue were dressed in cloth that still looked much better than his. Plus, they all perfectly matched in color: black trimmed in red.

By comparison, he really did look shabby.

“We are out hunting of course, but we couldn’t help admire your team work. It was really wonderful.” Jude was annoyed at being called a wannabe, but it was better to play nice in these situations. Besides, their teamwork really was good. There was no harm in telling the truth.

However, these people were clearly looking for a fight.

“Are you hunting goblins?” Shield didn’t even let Jude answer as he continued, “In your dreams! Clearly, you are out here to take advantage of the Riwa Army! Let me guess, you wanted to wait for us to be weakened after fighting some goblins and then try and take advantage of us right?”

“N—“ Jude tried to reply.

“Unfortunately for you, we are a lot stronger than you think! Trainer, permission to teach these miscreants a lesson?!” Shield asked his trainer.

“Sure.” The trainer was farly young as well, perhaps 20 or 22. And apparently he was also cut from the same cloth.

“Alright guys, let’s kill them!”

That’s a little extreme right?!?

“RUN!” Ellie said as she bolted away. Jude was not far behind her.

The sound of a bow string twanged and an arrow skipped passed Jude’s shield. Luckily it didn’t do much damage.

“What was that?” the rogue asked.

“Never mind, just keep after the country bumpkins!” Said shield.

Jude’s 10% movement speed from his boots were now showing their true effect. He could easily pass Ellie if he wanted to but kept behind her to act as a shield. Jude had nearly 60 HP and had the . gave him a 1 HP shield for every 2 MP he put into it. The effect lasted 2 hours. He had dumped 60 MP into it after they left as the mana would regenerate by the time they got to the goblins.

After a couple more arrows, one miss and another hit. Jude and Ellie reached a wall of brush.

“,” Jude said. The blades quickly cut a path allowing them to avoid further arrow shots. However, the others hadn’t given up their pursuit.

This continued for a while, until Jude game up with a plan. They had temporarily lost the squad and were leaning up against a tree. Ellie was breathing hard, but Jude still seemed fine. He guessed it had something to do with their level difference. Jude had twice the HP as Ellie, maybe HP had something to do with vitality and endurance? Either way, now was not the time to think about it.

“I have a plan.” Jude said, “We’ve are still close to the , so the next time they find us, we will run towards a group of . Before the start chasing us the group behind us will run into them. That should slow them down long enough to get away.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then we will keep running them into until they do.”

“That sounds good, but I’m not sure how much longer I can run.”

“Don’t worry, from now on I’ll carry you.”

Ellie wanted to reject the idea, but she was really tired. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, you're like 70 pounds, right? It would be like carrying a book or two!” Jude knew that complimenting a girl’s weight was always the right way to go. And right now they need moral as much as anything.

Jude continued, “Besides, I have a run speed boost with my boots, we will actually be able to go faster now.”

“Okay, let’s do that then.” Ellie agreed.

It was at this time the army squad found them.

“There they are!” Yelled one of the warriors.

***

The Riwa Kingdom Trainer followed his squad through the woods. This was good training for them. Fighting dumb beasts like and in this area became meaningless after a time. The creatures in the newbie zone all lacked a certain intelligence that other creatures possessed.

Killing these two noobs that wandered to a place they didn’t belong would be a good exercise for his squad. First, the enemy was smarter and didn’t have the exact same static attacks and tricks. Second, it gave the experience chasing after someone. Third, it would bloody them, getting them used to killing something other than goblins and animals. Further desensitizing them to violence.

As for the noobs? Who cares. Noobs die all the time in the forest newbie area. No one would miss them. If they were really worth something they would have had a trainer.

They had chased them for a while now and the Trainer was surprised that one of the noobs was a Wizard. Someone born with such a class was usually treasured. They wouldn’t be allowed to venture forth on their own. Especially at low levels when they were much weaker than the other classes.

Was the wizard already level 10? Thought the Trainer. He seems to have a shield spell and they only get that after gaining magic, so he hast to be level 10. But still, to have reached level 10 and be so young… maybe he’s one of those people who look younger than they are…

While the Wizard out by himself was odd, they had already started the attack and stopping it now would only get him into trouble. As long as he covered up the evidence well enough, there shouldn’t be a problem.

They had finally caught up with the pair again when the Wizard picked up the Crafter like a princess. This made the Trainer wonder if they were out here because they were lovers? A lover’s tryst huh?

His young warriors were now making a loud fuss chasing after the lovers. However, instead of the pair slowing down while one carried the other, they actually sped up. The trainer knew it had to be magical shoes.

Still, he doubted that the Wizards stamina would hold up. So they continued chasing.

Then the odd thing happened. They ran into goblins. But the way they ran into the goblins, made the Trainer certain that it was set up by the running Wizard. Clever boy.

“Keep after them, I’ll take care of this!” He told his squad.

“Yes sir!” They responded.

The trainer thrust out his spear and shouted, “!”

In a blaze of speed, he passed his squad skewered the first Goblin instantly killing it. Then with a quick swipe killed the second goblin.

For the Trainer, these goblins were just too low.

***

This is getting tiring. Thought the Trainer.

He had personally killed over five groups of goblins, but they weren’t getting any closer to the lover’s pair.

Damn those boots!

If it kept going like this, he would have to personally step in and kill the two. But then things took another turn as he realized where they were headed.

Quietly as he could, he gave out orders to his squad. “You two, head out that way and you two, the other. Make sure you make plenty of noise, I want them to keep going straight!”

The squad members quickly gave their nod and spread out.

Grimwar Caves is where you will die!