With the sun rising, I tapped Faust on the head, and shouted "Ok, let’s take a break.” Tobias and I hopped off Faust, and he shifted back into his human form—panting heavily from all the running. Stopping alongside him were both the wolves Dream tamed—also heavily panting as Dream was already getting them water from her Inventory.

“Did you bring food too?” I asked, feeling hungry for a while now.

“I did, but I had to feed it to the wolves for them to come with us.” Dream replied.

“Anybody else?” Asking the rest, but they didn’t have any. I chuckled at the thought of us going on a multiple day trip without any supplies, and thought “Are we going to be alright?” Taking out all the fruits in my Inventory, I gave them all away. “You guys can eat those while I go hunt us some breakfast.”

“Ooo, thanks!” Dream said, reluctantly giving Faust some water, and Faust who gave me a thumbs up.

“Thank you Eyes.” Lavie thanked, biting into the fresh fruits.

“Need help hunting?” Tobias asked, also eating the fruits.

“I’m good, just need someone to collect some firewood, and if you can, would you guys talk in chat so I can read while I hunt?” They agreed, with Faust and Dream volunteering to get firewood, and so I left them to their things.

Lavie- So why did you kill the mayor?

Tobias- To be honest, I joined the Underground Guild on the very first day, and after doing a couple of boring requests, I found an interesting one wanting to kill the mayor of the town. And I didn’t kill him remember, the goblins did…

Lavie- You led them there!

Faust- An Underground Guild?! That sounds cool how do I join?

Tobias- I don’t think you would pass the tests to join, kid.

Faust- Y not?

Tobias- It requires skills of both dexterity and subtlety, which you clearly don’t have, Bear Boy.

Faust- Not yet I don’t

Dream- Wait if u joined the Underground Guild y r u here with us?

Tobias- That’s the thing, I just found out that the Branch Leader of the Underground Guild, and the Branch Manager of the Adventurers Guild are actually the same person. The Guilds are both one.

Dream- Dun dun duunnn

Faust- Lol

Tobias- Thaddeus gave me a Quest to help kill the Goblin King as a request from the Underground Guild.

Dream- Me 2

Faust- Same

Lavie- So the Guild we're in is corrupt? Doing both the good and bad requests?

Tobias- You shouldn't assume that killing is always bad, or that not killing is always good. After all from where I stood, the way you ruthlessly massacred those goblins without remorse last night, it wasn't so different from what the goblins were doing to the townspeople.

Lavie-...

Tobias- Things in life are never just black and white. And whether you want to admit it or not, there will always be a need for people willing to get their hands dirty for the overall good. For example, a request to get rid of a corrupt mayor who fills his pockets with the town’s gold and assaults gullible female adventurers and servants.

Lavie- Sorry for calling you a murderer, Tobias.

Tobias- Don’t be, I was actually a professional hitman in the other world. Calling me a murderer isn’t too far off, and I’ve killed my fair share of innocent people.

Lavie- Oh…

Faust- Awesome, not the killing innocents part tho

Dream- Ur dumb

Tobias- Joining the Underground I was sworn to secrecy, so don’t let it slip that I told you this or they'll probably send assassins after me, got it?

Finding a male deer in the distance, I closed the menu. Sneaking into a clear line for a shot, I drew my arrow and casted Turning Arrow. Shooting the bow, the deer reacted quickly to the sound as expected—trying to run—but predicting it, the arrow turned into the deer’s running direction—striking it near the area of the heart, and killing the deer in one shot.

Sneak increased by 1 Level. Turning Arrow increased by 1 Level.

“When I hunted deer with my Uncle, it would usually take a few arrows to kill one, but all it took was one shot.” Admiring my bow, “This really is a good bow.” Then grabbing the deer by the head, I collected the eyes.

You have collected the [Eyes of a Deer]. Eyes of a Deer: Having larger pupils and increased eye rod cells, your sight is greatly enhanced during the night and in dim light.

Easily picking up the deer, I brought it back to the others. Faust and Dream were bickering again—this time about how to make a campfire—and Lavie and Tobias were on separate sides not talking. “Is this Party really gonna work out?” I thought to myself. Though when they saw me arrive, the mood changed—Dream and Faust stopped fighting, and Lavie & Tobias came to help me with the deer.

Before I could do anything to the deer, Faust came asking “Can I see the body first?” Not sure what he wanted, I put the deer down.

Crouching down to the body, Faust placed his hands on the deer, and after a second a pure white magical aura emitted from his chest—quickly surrounding his body and the body of the deer. The four of us watched as the white aura suddenly pulsed and a loud breaking of bones could be heard, and we could see Faust’s collar bone pop up and protrude under his skin—causing him to scream out in pain. A second later another pulse came and another bone popped up, and then another, and another. Each time moving and shifting the bones in his body, and each time causing him to scream out in immense pain.

Taking a step forward, Dream looked to be thinking of helping him, but stopped herself unsure how healing would affect Faust like this. Dream then asked, “Do you guys do stuff like that?”

“Not personally.” Lavie replied, watching the white aura start to retract and return to Faust.

“Mine’s a bit different.” Tobias answered, showing his left hand turning ethereal.

“If he’s collecting forms like I think he is, then I have something similar, but I don’t ever feel pain from it.” I said, as a white furred deer with a beautiful set of sharp antlers stood tall in front of us.

Rearing at us, Faust let out a shout only I could understand. “Wooo! This body feels so much lighter than others.”

“You alright, Faust?” I asked.

“Completely.” He answered as a deer, “It only hurts the first couple of Shifts, but I’ll get used to the pain soon.” Quickly running around the area.

“He says he’s alright.” I relayed to the others, “Think he's just testing out his new body right now.”

“Well if he’s gonna act like that after making us watch him like that.” Dream grinned mischievously, “Go get him!” Pointing at him, both her wolves howled and started to chase after Faust. The rest of us laughed, deciding to ignore Dream hunting down Faust, and Faust running away frantically.

Taking out all the goblin bows in Infinity, I used the bow strings to tie up the deer—hanging it upside down on a strong tree branch. I also took out a knife and began skinning deer. Lavie and Tobias watched, with Lavie saying “Looks like you’ve done this before, Eyes.”

“A few times.” Continuing to skin the deer, “I hunted with my Uncle whenever hunting season came and we always ate what we hunted.” Peeling some of the hide off.

“You know how to handle a knife, have you ever thought about being an assassin?” Tobias asked, finishing his last bit of fruit.

Laughing at his bluntness, I said “I can’t say I have, but maybe I could try it in this world.” Reaching the deer’s neck, I cut the hide off and a message suddenly appeared.

You have learned the Proficiency: [Creature Harvesting]. Creature Harvesting: Finding all different parts of a creature to be useful, you naturally start to understand and develop better ways to harvest a creature’s body for all sorts of materials. Skill Level based on your ability to harvest a creature for materials, and the methods you choose to do so.

“Useful.” I thought, cleaning the deer hide by taking it in and out of my inventory. Using the hide to cover a large dirty flat stone boulder, I laid the skinless deer on top, and grabbing a cleaver from Infinity, I started butchering the deer into pieces—cleaning the venison in my Inventory.

Creature Harvesting proficiency increased by 1 Level.

While I was butchering Lavie went to drag back Faust and Dream, somehow forcing them to stop bickering long enough to build a campfire together—with Faust lighting it with a small fire spell—and Tobias who volunteered to cook for us. We all sat around the campfire, peacefully eating the freshly cooked venison together, and I stored the extra for later. Looking around at the Party, I thought “Maybe I was wrong.”

After we ate, we decided as a group to continue traveling without rest to make it to the castle in a day. An hour passed, then 2, then 3; and when we reached the 12th hour of traveling, the sun was beginning to set and we found a forest clearing with a small pond of water. Tapping Faust and signaling to the girls, we stopped.

Hopping off, I said to them “Let's rest here for a bit. The water in the pond looks decently clean if you’re really thirsty, and here's the leftover venison if you’re hungry.” Passing out the cooked venison from my inventory.

“I think I can make the water drinkable.” Dream said, walking over to the pond. Putting both her hands in the water, she began casting something, and a second later her hands emitted a clear white magic light—flowing and spreading to the whole pond. “I cast Cleanse on the water, it should remove any bad effects.” Seeing the water of the pond had cleared up, “And it looks like it worked.”

“Nice, I’ll go scout the area while you guys rest, we should be nearing the Castle.” I said, leaving the group.

Walking a little bit in the direction we were heading, I climbed the tallest tree and stood at the top, and I could see the whole area—still surrounded by forests. Still a little bit away, I could clearly see the mountain range ahead of us. “That must be the Crescent Mountains. Probably 2-3 hours by foot.” I thought, jumping down and regrouping with the others.

“Okay here’s the situation, the Crescent Mountains are still a couple hours away. We can rest now, or we can keep going and rest later?”

“I’m still good.” Faust said, with food in his mouth.

“Me too.” Dream added.

“Doesn’t matter to me.” Tobias said, drinking some water from the pond.

“Up to you.” Lavie said, giving me the choice.

Giving my opinion, I said to them “I think we should rest and sleep here tonight. We’ve been traveling since last night, and I don’t think we should be facing an army of thousands without sleep. If we go any further, we could end up running into a bunch of goblins.” They all generally agreed.

Seeing Dream’s tamed wolves running off, Faust had to be cheeky. “What they don’t like you anymore or something?”

“No, I just let them go.” Dream said, drinking some water and eating. “I only tamed them so we could travel faster, and since they weren’t anything special, I didn’t wanna bother leveling them in the Dungeon.”

“Wait, you can level monsters? That sounds hella fun!” Faust excitedly said, a little envious.

“Too bad you suck and got placed behind me.” Dream replied, sticking out her tongue. And with that they started fighting again, but the rest of us just shrugged and ate our leftover food.

The sun completely set after another hour as we tried to find nice spots to sleep, but seeing Faust turn himself into a bear again, we all naturally surrounded him—deciding his soft fur was the best for a pillow. Faust tried to refuse at first, but being too outnumbered, he ultimately gave in and we slept deeply in his fur.

Jumping awake to a seeable night, my ears caught the sound of faint voices coming our way. Thinking about waking the others, the faint voices suddenly turned into the sound of pained screams. Looking at everyone still sleeping soundly, I thought “Can’t they hear that?” Then thinking, “They probably didn’t put points into Sense.” Quietly getting up, I decided to check it out myself—sneaking towards the screams.

Taking about 5 minutes to reach them, I arrived at a horrifically bloody scene—body parts of at least 9 dead goblins ripped and thrown across the ground—and right in the center of it was a strange pink furred creature—equal in size to the goblins, but much more beastlike. Blood dripping from the two horns on its head and its sharp clawed hands, it held the last goblin by the neck using his glowing pink mouth. Then noticing me, the creature simply turned to me and stared with its glowing pink eyes.

Staying away and raising my hands, I said “Friendly?”

Dropping the body, the creature showed me a bloody smile, saying “I know Mistress’s friends, but how can you speak to me? Or are you a cat too?” Its body then got even smaller, until finally it looked like a regular but strange pink cat with two tails—not having a glowing mouth or eyes anymore, and only having nubs for horns.

“No, just plain elf.” Showing it my regular elf self. “So do you have a name?” I asked, collecting the goblin eyes.

“My Mistress chose the name Neon.” He answered, licking the blood off to clean itself.

“Well Neon, good job protecting us.” Also collecting the weapons and armour off the goblins.

“It’s my duty to always protect my Mistress. No matter the time.” Raising his head proudly.

“Do you think you’re strong enough to protect her from people equally as strong as her?”

“Of course I can.” Neon answered confidently, “I am her chosen Incarnate, so I will always be as strong as the Mistress. If someone is equal to her, then I am equal to them." Then giving me a nod, Neon headed back to the others.

“If that’s really true, Dream could end up being one of the strongest Players around.” I thought, checking Neon with the Eyes of a Seer, and seeing a white name like the other Players; Lv.6 Neon. But surprised by Neon’s unexpectedly low Level, I opened up the Rankings Menu to compare it to Dream’s Level—checking in the Highest Level Rankings.

<— Highest Level —> 1st- Eyes Thalion Lv.20 2nd- Lavie En Rouge Lv.11 3rd- Goat Blood Lv.8 4th- Jane Doe Lv.8 5th- Faust Lv.8 6th- Audacity Lv.7 7th- Naisu Lv.7 8th- Ahhhhh Lv.7 9th- How Do I Get Home Lv.7 10th- Zealot Lv.7 …

“What the hell, only Lavie and Faust are in the Top 10? Not even the other original Top 10s are here anymore.” Scrolling through the Rankings to find the others, I was shocked by the huge differences in the placements.

1888th- Omega Lv.7 ... 3946- Dream Manic Pixie Lv.6 ... 6230- Tobias Casper Grim Lv.5 ... 7003- Casino Lv.4 ... 7554- Essex Lv.4 ... 8383- Xian Lv.3 ... 9004- Da Vinci Lv.1 ...

“Have the others really just been doing nothing this whole time?” I asked myself. “But if Tobias and Dream still got picked over people higher level than them, Thaddeus must’ve seen their Subclass Skills and thought they were stronger.”

Still hours away from sunrise and not feeling like going back to sleep, I patrolled the area thinking of ways we could deal with being stuck inside a Dungeon with 10,000 goblins—keeping in mind I had to keep everyone alive for the Quest and for myself. But even after an hour of planning, I couldn’t think of a plan that didn’t involve us eventually being surrounded by thousands, or one that didn’t require us to split the forces and trust each other to take care of a few thousand by ourselves. And then it just hit me, “Wait, Thaddeus said we only need to kill the Boss to exit the Dungeon, and if that’s the case, it’ll be a lot easier to kill 10,000 if we‘re not stuck inside with them.”

Coming up with a stupid idea, I started to head in the direction of the mountain range and purposely looked for another goblin scouting group; and when I found one, I openly approached them. All eight Lv.6-8 goblins immediately drew their weapons towards me, and the Lv.8 Goblin Warrior shouted “Stop tall creature, or attack!”

Smiling, I stopped saying “I’m not your enemy. Look, no weapons.” Showing them my weaponless person.

“Speaking Goblin? Very rare, tall creature.” It stated, “What want creature? This Goblin King’s land.”

“Monsters really do think I’m a monster now, this is perfect.” Answering, “I’m just passing by Goblin, but before I go. Can you tell me which King owns this land?”

It spit at my feet for not knowing, “Stupid creature, this King Goblex’s land.”

Then one of the Lv.6 goblins, whispered loudly to the group “Capture strange tall creature? King reward us.” They all huddled together in front of me, and I could hear them loudly discussing the idea.

“They’re kinda stupid if they’re ignoring me right now, but at least it’ll be easier to manipulate them.” Taking off the Platinum Guild bracelet, I uncomfortably hid it under my chest plate—knowing goblins like shiny things and are probably gonna take it if they see it. Cutting them short, I said “No need to capture me, I would happily go with you to meet King Goblex, maybe I can even join as part of the army?”

The goblins looked at each other confused, but the Lv.8 asked “Creature join us?” And I nodded yes, “Must swear to King first.”

“Of course, lead the way.” But before we went, they surrounded me and tied my hands together, and even tied a rope to each ankle in case I ran. “Least the ropes weak.” I thought, tugging on the tension of the rope.

“Walk, creature.” As they all pulled the ropes attached to me.

Slowly walking our way there, we passed more and more groups of goblins scouting the area—each time quickly explaining why I was with them—and as we neared the base of the mountain range, a few messages appeared.

You are now entering a Lv.2 Closed Dungeon, and are unable to leave until the Boss is killed. Only 4 more people are allowed to enter the Closed Dungeon. Your regeneration is now halved.