The two friends reached the end of the road and what laid in front of them was the vast sea of trees. The dull sound of explosions kept blasting at a distance. Someone out there was still fighting against the monsters, and it made Jason curious.

On the other hand, killing those kobolds didn’t bring him anything beneficial except for the experience. The only thing he looted from these kobolds were two curved daggers along with its sheath which were now wrapped behind his back. The dagger bore a resemblance to jambiya, a middle eastern type of dagger, but it was a lot longer in length fitting for a big creature like the kobold.

“Wait up,” from behind, Hakeem was barely running towards Jason.

Jason glanced to the side and saw this tall friend of his who was smiling. His gaze fell over the thing within Hakeem’s grasp, it was the mace from the dead Vanguard Kobold.

“Are you sure about that?” Jason asked while pointing at the mace.

“This is just perfect for my skill, I can-”

“Stop, just stop. I don’t want to hear it,” said Jason, stopping Hakeem from saying another word.

Again, he was cursing at Hakeem from the inside. He still didn’t know about the other skill that Hakeem had obtained but knowing it was related to a weapon it was definitely an offensive skill. Just the thought of having a flashy attacking skill made him envied Hakeem.

“What about the leftover points? You think I should distribute it to agility?” Hakeem asked.

Jason remembered the past injury of Hakeem’s ankle.

“Let me try something first,” said Jason.

He reached out to Hakeem’s ankle and once again green glow emitted from his hand. While at the same time, his ability scanned Hakeem.

Hakeem

Lv: 2 Job: None

Status Attributes : ?????

Status Condition : Defective right lower limb

The green glow intensified as Jason cast the healing skill multiple times, stacking the effect on top of one another. His eyes kept on looking at the 'Scan' screen to see whether the status condition could improve or not. Hakeem stood there staring at his glowing green leg, as he felt warm energy concentrating at his ankle. It got him thinking about Jason trying to heal his old injury, was it even possible? Yet seeing this unbelievable scene made hope bloomed within him.

“Done,” said Jason as he stood up while brushing off his hands.

“You mean?” Hakeem looked down on his feet as he was still unsure about this. At first, he stretched his foot a few times and seeing it was fine, he started to jump around on the spot. Then the corner of his lips started to curve upwards.

Hakeem showed some fancy footwork as if he was dribbling an invisible basketball. His eyes were focused as if he was reenacting those plays he made during a basketball game. The curved only went higher as the white of his teeth started to show. The tall black man started to sprint along the paved road as he finally ran like he used to. At this point, Hakeem was enjoying the feeling of running once more uninhibited by any past injuries.

Smiling from ear to ear, he was living the dream. A dream that he didn’t think was possible. Once again, he sprinted back to Jason who was waiting for him. His breath was ragged audible to the ear and as he stood in front of Jason, his height trounced over him. Hakeem looked down at Jason with a stoic face, a staredown between two old friends.

“Done having fun?” Jason asked as he was itching to continuing on his journey.

Yet the reply he expected didn’t come as rather than verbal, Hakeem responded with his body. It caught Jason off guard as two long arms wrapped around him for a hug.

“Thank you,” said Hakeem as his voice was trembling. He kept on repeating saying his gratitude as Jason could feel the back of his left shoulder getting wet.

Since when is this guy is such a crybaby?

Jason didn’t speak out his mind as he just patted Hakeem at the back.

“Okay man, you can stop hugging me now. It’s getting weirder,” said Jason.

They both separated as Jason saw the unbelievable crying face of a gigantic adult man with snots and tears messing up Hakeem’s whole face. Jason didn’t think his act of healing Hakeem’s ankle was a big deal, but to Hakeem what Jason did to him was as if he had given Hakeem a second chance of chasing his dream. A dream of playing under the spotlight of the NBA. A dream that he had buried in the past but now resurfaced once more.

“If you want to follow, stay close and about the point distribution. I recommend you put some into e.resist, it kinda like HP so the more the better chance of surviving,” said Jason.

Hakeem who was still sniffling could only nod in response. Jason took the lead and entered the forest with his night vision goggle turning the darkness of the forest into a massive view of a greenish hue.

I think I should have got a thermal vision since it would be a lot easier to spot an enemy.

A point jotted down in his mind as he was sure about becoming more prepared. Then they went deeper into the forest and at times, they would be stumbled across Scout Kobolds. Jason made quick work of it as his arrow flew straight into their heads. He didn’t have the luxury of handing these kobolds at Hakeem on a silver plate since being in this dark forest, he was sure that he was at a disadvantage if the first arrow didn’t kill it immediately. Hakeem didn’t mind about it since he was already satisfied with his recovered ankle.

Yet for Jason, he was disappointed over his kills for the last forty-five minutes. Every kobold that he killed didn’t give any loot to him except for whatever they were wearing and wielding. These kobolds mainly wore roman gladiator skirt for the lower half and the upper half was merely shoulder pads strapped with leather across their body. With their sizes bigger than Jason, he wasn’t going to try on an oversized skirt. Even the buckler was left untouched by both Jason and Hakeem. For Jason, it didn’t fit with his overall offense tactic that mainly relied on his bow, while for Hakeem he already had a tough time wielding the mace with both of his hands. Even after pouring two points to strength, Hakeem still didn’t have the capability of wielding it with only one hand.

Deep down, Jason was hoping to gain another scroll, and he was praying for an offensive weapon-based skill, having one would definitely boost up his attacking prowess.

“How do I look?” asked Hakeem as he showed off the Kobold’s Leather Skirt at Jason. With him having more or less the same height as those kobolds, the roman gladiator type of skirt fitted well with his body size. Jason didn’t say a word as it was ridiculous in his eyes.

“You’re giving that look,” said Hakeem.

“What?” Jason replied.

“The look that told me that I look ridiculous,” said Hakeem, “I’m gonna take this off.”

“Better leave it on, the defense stat might come in handy in preventing your death,” said Jason.

Gael Pteruges Skirt

Category : Lower Armor

Strip like leather armors made out of the hide of Bumi Bison. Sturdy and reliable.

Defensive Block : +16

Energy based defense : +50

Seeing through his scan ability, the description itself told him that it was a skirt. Rather than telling Hakeem, he might as well sugar-coated it with just telling him that the stats were pretty good. On the other hand, Hakeem who heard about the word ‘death’ made him swallowed a mouthful of saliva. It didn’t take long for him to abandon the thought of throwing this skirt away. Right now it was better to just endure and survived through this ordeal.

“Let’s go,” said Jason as it was enough time for rest. They still had a long journey ahead of them.

Both of them hiked up the slope, rather than taking a safer and much more comfortable path around the slope, Jason was starting to get impatient. He wasn’t leveling up and loots are not drooping as he expected. But as soon as they reached the top of the slope, Jason’s night vision goggle picked up something at the far end of his sight.

“Hold up,” Jason said preventing Hakeem from going forward.

Hakeem reacted and prone close to the ground. He didn’t even mind getting dirty as staying alive was the most important thing.

“What is it? Is it a kobold?” asked Hakeem as he whispered, he paid mind about his tone. He learned many lessons during this eventful night, and one of them was too tried your best to stay quiet.

“No, it’s a person,” Jason said as he could barely discern the shape of a human.

“Oh, it might be a soldier,” said Hakeem.

Hakeem's assumption was reasonable since the only stupid people daring enough to go close to the crack were them and the soldiers who were being forced out of their own will.

“It could be, but he’s alone. There’s no one else,” said Jason.

“What? Are you sure about that?” Hakeem asked.

Jason was just about to reply but he fell silent seeing the things behind the person. His eyes were bulging out and if it wasn’t for his eyelids it would have popped out from the socket. Jason was shocked by seeing the things chasing that man.

“Hakeem, run to your car and drive as fast as you can,” said Jason as his eyes didn’t leave the sight of those things.

“What? Why? Listen here man, I know I’m a burden but we friends need to stick together,” said Hakeem and after he said those things, he felt the ground starting to shook. “Hey, do you feel the ground moving?”

Jason ignored Hakeem’s question and crouched low to the ground, he grabbed Hakeem by the collar of his t-shirt.

“This time, I’m not sure if I can protect you while fighting,” said Jason as his falcon-like eyes stared right at Hakeem, “You’ve done enough, go now before it’s too late.”

Hakeem sensed that the tension around Jason was at a higher level compared to when he fought against those kobolds. At first, he thought about bringing him back and then he stuck him for the journey and now he was about to leave him. He swore to himself he would be a good friend after he last treated him back in high school but he knew he was still useless.

Hakeem fist-bumped Jason by the shoulder as he said.

“Don’t die, man, you still owed me a proper hangout,” Hakeem left and ran as fast as he could towards his car.

Meanwhile, Jason moved closer to the person who was running away. Through the night vision goggles, Jason saw multiple creatures forming a line charging across the forest floor. In his eyes, it was no different than a stampede. Jason reached the person who was running away and Hakeem was right, it was a soldier and he was drenched in sweat while trying to get away from this stampede.

Jason who was invisible ran close to the soldier side by side. He thought about taking a shot at those monsters but for some reason, he was curious about the circumstances of this soldier. At first, he had no thought of saving him but a question in his head needed to be answered. With that decision, he unveiled himself and greeted the soldier. Jason tapped the soldier by the shoulder.

“Hi.”

“ARGH!”

Jason's voice came out of nowhere startling the soldier who was running for his life. Then the unexpected happened.

BANG.

BANG BANG BANG.

Out of surprise, the submachine gun in the soldier’s hand released a torrent of bullets raining down at Jason at point-blank range. At that point in time, Jason knew one thing, he messed up.

Fuck.