“I know we didn’t say we were gonna make a Party together, but she could’ve at least said something before ditching me.” I thought to myself, heading towards the western gate entrance. “Now I have to deal with the Quest by myself, so that probably means killing the giant monster is out of the question, and that I should just scout out the type of monster it is.” Covering my face as I passed the barracks, “I don’t wanna risk fighting anymore things without any armour on.” Looking at the wound on my chest that now scarred over from regening back to full Health. Then as I was about to head out of town again, I got a message from Lavie.

Lavie En Rouge

Lavie- Sorry that I left without saying anything, but I found an Iron Rank Request asking for only one person, and I had to leave right away to get myself cleaned up for it.

It’s fine, but a goodbye would’ve been nice, and I could’ve really used your help on this dangerous sounding Quest I got.

Lavie- A Quest? Not a Request?

Yup, and the Reward would’ve got us promoted to Gold Rank Adventurers.

Lavie- Sounds like I'm missing out.

You know I haven’t left town yet, you can still come along?

Lavie- Tempting, but I’ll have to pass. Once I decide to start something, I have to finish it.

Okay, but it’s your loss.

Lavie- I got to go now, see you later Eyes.

Oh, and Goodbye ;)

Smiling and closing the Menu, I exited the town and immediately noticed that this western forest was much denser, and slightly taller than the eastern forest on the other side, and also had a much narrower dirt road. Unsure about which direction I should go, I decided to follow the road for a while, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

The first couple of minutes I spotted a few solo Players inside the forest collecting plants and mushrooms on the ground, passed by some others heading back to town, and it made me think to myself “This must be where all the Requests are at, because I don’t remember seeing this many people on the eastern side of town—if any.” Getting further away from Asheton, I saw a lot less Players by themselves, and were instead in small Parties of 2-5 people. Some were also heading back to town, but with my great eyesight and hearing, I could see and hear Parties practicing their Skills and teamwork together deeper in the forest, and they seemed to be fighting mostly more goblins. “Does this place have a goblin infestation or something? Or are the forests in this world just filled with goblins?” I wondered to myself.

After an hour or two of walking on the dirt road, the sight and sound of Players were behind me, and now all I could see and hear were the different animals in the forest. Most of them were familiar animals like some rabbits that crossed the road, and deer that got spooked by my presence; but I was able to catch a glimpse of a strange white furred bear trying to do a handstand—far to the right side of the forest—and then a blur of a small neon pink creature moving through the trees—far on the left side. I came to the conclusion that it was best to ignore the strange animals, as they were both really far away, and looked to be heading back towards town.

Another hour passed by and nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me, and I said to myself “I wonder if the giant monster is this far away, or could it still be further away?” Peering at the road and forest that continued ahead of me, “Well if it’s a giant monster, maybe I can see it from higher up.” Climbing to the top of the closest tree, I was only able to see the treetops all around and nothing else, but I did spot a tree really far away that was quite a bit taller than the rest, and I decided to head straight for it to get an even better view.

Moving off the road and into the right side of the forest, it took me 30 minutes just to get to the taller tree, as I climbed to the top of it, and stood on the highest tree branch and looked at the surrounding area. Behind me and at the edge of my sight range, I could barely see the tall outer walls of Asheton, and ahead of me was the forest that continued to keep going. “I didn’t think the forest would be this big, how am I supposed to find the monster in it?” Then noticing the sun beginning to set, I said to myself “I couldn’t have missed it, right? Or maybe it’s in the other direction?” Looking to the left side of the western forest, but seeing nothing but the similar treetops. “Should I go back then and search tomorrow? This Quest doesn’t have a time limit, so I guess that’d be alright.” As I shook my head of the thought, “No, I’m already out here, might as well keep searching, and who’s know, maybe someone else was given the same Quest too, and I wouldn’t want them to complete it before me.”

Keenly observing the forest and perching on the high tree branch, I alternated in using the Eyes of a Wolf for seeing the slightest movements in the forest, and the Eyes of a Wood Elf to see things from afar; and with that last bit of sunlight, I saw at the edge of my sight, treetops begin to part and leave a visible path behind it. Smirking, I said “There you are.” Quickly heading down the tree, I headed straight towards the direction I saw, and after another few minutes of running, I finally reached the area with the parted treetops and broken branches, and right underneath them was a trail of huge barefoot footprints left into the forest ground.

“Holy shit these are massive! They’re almost as big as me!” I thought to myself, kneeling down and looking at the footprints closely. “From the distances between each step...this giant monster must be bipedal, and it looks like it only has 4 large toes.” Then some bipedal giant monsters popped up in my head, “It could be an Ogre, but I don’t think they’re this big in most fantasies, same goes for a Cyclops. Then from the monsters I’m familiar with, that only leaves an actual Giant.” Getting up from the ground, I chuckled a little “I really shouldn’t be doing this alone, but I still need to confirm that the monster actually is a Giant, and worst case scenario, I run for my life.” As I followed the footprints carefully and slowly.

By the time I caught up to the trail, all the sunlight was gone, and the dark night sky had arrived. I spotted the giant monster just ahead of me, but suddenly a new Skill appeared.

You have gained the Skill: [Natural Tracker].

I quickly read through the new Skill, and then turned my attention back to the giant monster.

Natural Tracker: Having an instinct for picking out and gathering information from tracks left behind, tracking things becomes easier to you.

All I could see about the monster from a distance was its body's huge stature—being at least 20ft in height—its shirtless and incredibly scarred and muscular back, the tattered brown shorts it wore, some dirtied string wrapped around its neck and lower back, a large brown sack that it carried over its shoulder, and dark marks on its neck, wrists, and ankles; and floating above its bald head was Lv.50 Elder Giant-Cyclops.

“Lv.50!? And it really is a Giant, I think?” Not really entirely sure about that, “But if that thing is heading towards Asheton, can anyone there even kill it? I know that Thaddeus also had a black name, but I don’t exactly think that means he’s equal to this monster, he could just be a high Level compared to me.” I speculated. “Well I don’t know how much stronger a Lv.50 Giant is compared to the strength of all the townguards and the Players, but at worst we’ll probably just have to treat it as a World Boss and all zerg it down before it can attack the town.” Kind of excited at the thought of killing a World Boss with the other Players, then thinking “I should keep track of it for a bit and wait for it to rest and sleep, then I can head straight back to town and tell Thaddeus exactly where it is.” Quietly moving from tree to tree, as I continued to follow the slow walking Giant.

Sneak increased by 1 Level.

I stalked the Giant for only about 5 minutes until it suddenly stopped and began to loudly cough uncontrollably. Quickly reacting, I pressed myself right behind a tree, as I listened to the heavy and painful sounding cough coming from the Giant. “That sounds really bad, is it sick or something?” I wondered to myself, “But that's good for us, and maybe with this I can get a better view of what the Giant looks like.” Sneaking to an angle where I could see the front of the Giant, its coughing stopped and almost immediately it looked towards the direction as I was in, as I just made it behind a tree. “What the hell? Did it see me? No way, right? I felt like I was being so sneaking.” Then deciding, “I’ve been pushing my luck with this too much, I better just leave—”

Out of nowhere the thick roots of the tree rose up and tore the ground around me—glowing with a green magical aura around them. Then with unbelievable speed, the roots moved straight towards, “They're so fast, I gotta dash out of the way!” But already too late to react, some roots wrapped themselves around my feet, and then quickly wrapped the rest of my body too. Out of panic, I still tried to use Ranger’s Dash to get free of the roots, but just like when I was pinned by the wolf earlier, it didn’t work; I also tried to brute my way through them, but with the green magical aura around them, they felt extremely strong and sturdy, and they didn’t even loosen a little bit. “Not good, I can’t move and it’s getting harder to breathe.” The roots started to wrap around my neck and head, and I felt them tighten more they already were—completely restricting all my breathing, as I could hear the Giant’s loud footsteps coming towards me.

You have been affected by the Status Debuff: [Suffocation]

My eyes widened at the message as the magical roots began to squeeze all the air out of my lungs. “I don’t need a description to tell me what that means, I gotta get free!” I really struggled to get free at first, trying to gasp for any little bit of air I could breathe, but after a while my body felt really tired and numb, my head light, and my consciousness fading away. “No air…can’t end...like this...”

***

“Sirbuh, l-let’s head back to town already.” A brown robed woman suggested, prying her mace out of a dead goblin’s skull.

“Oh come on, don’t be such a wimp, Malefic.” An armoured man replied, cleaning off the goblin blood from his sword.

“B-But it’s already really dark out here, and we don’t have a way to make a fire.” The robed woman pointed out.

“Malefic, the dark isn’t gonna attack us, and you saw how easy these monsters out here are to kill, we have nothing to worry about.”

“But—”

“No buts, and besides, you still basically have full Mana to heal us with, and I still haven’t used up any of Stamina, we can take anything.” Then the armoured man pointed ahead of them, “And look, I already see a few goblins coming towards us, and once we kill those I’m sure we’ll Level Up again, and then we’ll be one step closer to making it to the Top 100 in the Rankings!”

“Okay fine, just a little bit more…” But as the two of them looked at the dozen or so goblins ahead, the look of absolute fear quickly showed on their faces, as the dozen became 2 dozen, then 3 dozen, and then 4; until they could finally see hundreds upon hundreds, maybe even thousands of goblins charging through the forest—heading straight towards them. The two of them tried their best to run away, but a pack of Goblin Riders quickly caught up and surrounded them, and Malefic fearfully asked “W-What do we do, Sirbuh! There’s too many of them!” As more goblins surrounded the two.

“Shut up, I know!” Sirbuh shouted back, now being completely surrounded by hundreds of goblins snickering at the two of them. “All we can do is fight and hope we Level Up before we take too much damage, these guys are mostly only white and light red Names anyway, so I’m sure we can take them!” Readying his sword for any goblin that would come in range.

The two of them then heard a loud roar coming from deep within the horde of goblins, and all the goblins and wolves momentarily flinched in fear, but they slowly began snickering at them again. “W-What was that!?” Malefic asked, her mace shaking her hands, as Sirbuh tightened his grip on his sword.

The goblins started to chant, “Keekhh, kekkh! Kkeekh, kekkh!” And as they did, the hundred goblins moved to the side and let way for a huge muscular Hobgoblin Warrior—wearing lots of thick hide armour, and dragging a large bloodied wooden club behind him.

“Sirbuh, I told you we should’ve headed back to town, now we're gonna die!” Malefic blamed Sirbuh.

“Calm the fuck down, Malefic! It’s only a slightly darker red than the Tutorial Boss, we can still do this cause it looks like the other goblins aren’t gonna interfere with us.” Pointing out the goblins just standing around them in a circle, “So just focus on healing me, okay?”

“Okay.” Malefic replied, slightly calming down, and already readying a healing Skill.

Sirbuh and the hobgoblin squared up and were about to attack each other, when an even louder roar came from the horde, and the roar even made the hobgoblin flinch in fear. A few seconds later an even larger goblin came—wearing almost a full set of older looking metal armour, but had no weapon in sight. Then putting a hand on the hobgoblin’s shoulder, it threw the hobgoblin backwards into the crowd—crashing and falling on top of some of the smaller goblins.

Sirbuh and Malefic were in shock, but Sirbuh still confidently shouted to the armoured goblin, “Doesn’t matter if you have armour, or how strong you are, I’m still gonna kill all of you!”

“Sirbuh no, don’t! Look at it’s Name!” Malefic shouted.

“Huh? What’s the problem now?” Slightly turning his head to look at Malefic, but with that little moment of distraction, the armoured goblin moved and fully grasped Sirbuh by the head, and with just a little squeeze, his head popped and all the blood and brains exploded out of the goblin’s large hands.

“Noooo!” Malefic screamed, as all the goblins around her laughed and snickered. “No, no, no! This can’t be real!” Dropping to her knees in disbelief, “I’ll get you for this!” Trying to cast a Skill, but the moment she tried, the armoured goblin grabbed her casting hand and completely shattered it with another squeeze of his own. “Ahhhh!” Malefic screamed out in pain, desperately trying to pull her broken hand out of the strong grip of the armoured goblin; but being unable to, she looked up to read the the goblin’s Name again and shouted at the Hobgoblin Chieftain, “Go fuck yourself!” Spitting right in its face.

The Chieftain grinned at Malefic, "Kekkh keehk!" Throwing her by the arm—into the air—as she landed somewhere in the middle of the horde. All the goblins around her loudly cheered, already beginning to tear open and rip away her robe from her body—completely unbothered by her useless efforts to escape, and her desperate plea for help. The Chieftain then shouted to the rest of the goblin horde, “Kkeekh! Kekhh kekh!” As all the goblins cheered once again and continued to charge forward—stomping and crushing the body Sirbuh to a plump as thousands of goblins trampled all over it.

***

My eyes closed, I could hear the familiar crackling of wood from a campfire, the warmth that came from it, and the smell of delicious roasted meat in the air. “Mmm...smells good, what are you cooking, Uncle Thal? I asked out of habit.

I then heard an unfamiliar, abnormally loud, and deep voice respond slowly to me, “Ahh, you’re finally awake. I’m roasting deer, wolf, and bear; would you like some?” as a heavy muffled cough came right after the question.

Quickly coming to my senses, I opened my eyes out of panic, and found myself laying on the dirt ground, with my neck down still binded by some strong roots. Then whipping my head towards where the voice came from, I saw a whole tree trunk being used as one large piece of wood for the campfire, whole animals skewered on large branches and roasting on the campfire, and sitting on the ground right behind it was the Giant—resting its back on the closet tree—with the large brown sack leaning against the tree next to it—shining a little in my eyes.

Seeing the Giant from the front, I could see that he was an old sickly Giant man, with a lot of wrinkles, a grey bushy beard, and tusks that pointed upwards at the corner of his mouth. Being this close, the dark marks I saw on its neck, wrists, and ankles earlier, were now clear to me as marks left from old branded skin—the marks looked to be from a neck collar, and wrist and ankle cuffs. I could also see that the dirtied strings around his neck was just from an old leathery apron he had on, but as his singular large eye—in the center of his face—stared directly at me, I unconsciously said out loud, “That’s so cool...” In awe by the stunningly vibrant blue iris, and the lively blue arcing energy inside of it; that occasionally escaped and discharged out of the eye.

The Giant laughed at my unconscious comment, “Haha...well thank you, it’s been a while since I’ve heard a compliment, but what I think is even cooler is this.” As he showed me Infinity in his hands.