Dyne ate their dinner earlier and soon prepared to set up their camps for sleeping. The two goblins continued to work out Dyne’s arrangement in setting the traps that would create an alarm if anything would get within their camp.

The two goblins marveled at Dyne’s ingenuity with the items he revealed and returned to camp. The traps were made about fifty meters from where they were. Dyne’s training allowed him to hear things and react from these minute sounds, so the setup was enough for Dyne.

Dyne put out the fire and had the idea of using the Slime as a blanket and pillow. The Slime could adjust its temperature to Dyne’s surprise and even become colder.

Dyne rested with a relaxed expression, which made the two Goblins look with confusion.

At this point, Dyne started to ask Brod of certain questions he had regarding the Gobu Gobu villages around here.

“Why are the Gobu Gobu low leveled? Why is it hard to evolve into another Gomboo?” Dyne asked Bertugo. At this point, Bertugo could understand some of the words but couldn’t speak them. But right now, Dyne was using him as a translator.

Bertugo relayed Dyne’s question to Brod.

Bertugo managed to ask the right question, which showed that he understood most of what Dyne said.

Brod began to relate the answers.

All Gobu Gobu could not afford to absorb most of the life energy they get from their kills. It was hard enough to kill that the Gobu Gobu would risk their lives fighting each other. The area around Drake Castle is a turf war between three different tribes. Adding the Seru in on the mix, the risk of those battles was very high. And for all that trouble, only a small portion of the life energy they receive would go to their experience.

Most of the time, Gobu Gobu’s hunt and kill each other and offer their preys' blood offering to the Gomboo, who then offers it to the Evil God Totem.

“Blood offering?! So that’s why! Most of the blood you get is offered to the Gomboo!”

Brod nodded and then explained that all Gobu Gobu had a quota. If they failed to meet it, the Gobu Gobu’s offered their blood to compensate for their missed quotas. In extreme cases, a Gobu Gobu would be put to death if they failed to meet the requirements for several months.

As such, the Gobu Gobus were forced to hunt for monsters, humans, and Serus. Of course, the Serus was always the best option.

The Gimards were the best and most rewarding creatures to offer, but they were also very risky to fight as they could shoot out fireballs.

The answer startled Dyne.

A single Gimard was worth two months, the usual quota. But killing one was hard because the Gimards all traveled together through the Mist.

Every month or so, the Gomboo of each tribe would go out and hunt some Gimards. They would bring along with them the strongest Gobu Gobu of their respective tribes.

As for Drake Castle, the undead monsters could easily overpower a Gobu Gobu. And the battle abilities of the undead were as organized as humans. But more importantly, these creatures had no life energy. Hence, fighting them was pointless.

"No life energy? Then they don't drop gold or experiences?" Dyne was confused and decided to ask Strafe.

"For them, it won't give anything. But for you, it's still possible to get experience from them through the technique I taught you." Strafe clarified.

"Alright. Good." Dyne sighed.

Dyne listened to how Brod explained the details of this part of the world. Bertugo, after all, was a Gobu Gobu who lived beyond Drake Castle and had little understanding of the tribes and the situation on this side of Drake Continent.

Soon Dyne had a basic grasp of the Gobu Gobu tribes' situation and how the Gomboo functions in each village on this side.

What was clear was that the Gobu Gobu tribes were weaker on this side of the mountain. Most of the Gobu Gobu tribes on Bertugo’s side had more than a dozen Gomboo and would tend to engage on a turf war on the central side of Drake Kingdom. But for this side of the land, the battles mainly lie right around the area of Drake Castle.

“So that’s why in the game, two enemies show up on the random encounters outside of Drake. And this should also be why Zeto seems rather busy. The monsters might have become one of the reasons why Zeto was ignoring most of the humans they know are alive...” Dyne began to ponder.

"But why ten years? Why did Zeto ignore Rim Elm and the rest for ten years? Why attack now?" Dyne was confused.

Dyne began to think about the game but ultimately decided to figure that mystery out later.

After settling his plan for the trip tomorrow, Dyne spent the remainder of the night teaching the group basic English. The focus was mainly with Bertugo, who already knew several words. Brod could only clumsily follow with the English training of Dyne.

The group slept peacefully, and Dyne even allowed the two goblins to sleep peacefully, confident of the traps he prepared.

The Mist soon appeared, and Dyne woke up. It was nearly dawn as the group began to put away all the items. Right before they left, Brod asked if Dyne could apply the same thing he did with Bertugo. He wanted to hide his identity, for now, fearing that the Gobu Gobu of his tribe could identify him.

Dyne agreed and applied several patches of the clay he made once more from the nearby river.

Brod looked like he had a bruised face. The strange tattoos on his body that mark him as one of his tribe were also covered.

As for the camping equipment, Dyne divided the load on the two Slimes. Dyne finally decided to name his Slime Number 1 and called the other Slime Number 2.

Soon Dyne ordered Brod and his Slime to scout ahead while he and Bertguo remained at the back.

A certain plan was made where Brod would make a signal if a Gobu Gobu of his tribe attacked him or if it wasn’t a member of his tribe.

And so, the group continued to move with Brod drawing attention from the enemies who would try to engage or ambush Brod and his Slime, but then the enemy would then be ambushed by Dyne and Bertugo using the Golden Compass.

The group met several foes as they traveled within the Mist. The first enemy they encountered was an Evil Fly, which they killed off immediately. Brod excitedly attacked as if trying to see his newfound strength at his level up.

Dyne allowed Brod to absorb this Fly's blood, while Dyne used the life energy extracting method that Strafe taught him.

The Slime devoured the rest of the body, and this made his small figure larger.

The group continued, and soon, a pair of Green Slimes appeared. For some reason, Brod decided not to attack.

“Slim. Hard to kill. If together.” Bertugo explained with great difficulty.

Dyne frowned and wanted to see why. He urged Brod to attack and told him not to worry about any damages since they had healing leaves.

Brod nodded and rushed to attack the twin Slimes.

The Slimes immediately merged, and its acidic property immediately appeared.

Brod’s stab attack couldn’t pierce through and stab the Slime. Immediately Brod retracted his arms and grimaced in pain.

“I get it. Spirit. Monsters can’t do spirit. Of course, they can’t... They don’t have a soul. They only have strong physical bodies. But when Vahn would attack the Slimes in-game, they wouldn’t get hurt because of the spiritual attack.” Dyne realized what happened.

This was also the reason why the Slimes were not wiped out of existence despite the harsh environment.

The Slimes immediately divided and began to attack Brod. Brod’s Slime went to the defense, and Dyne commanded Bertugo and the Slime to begin their sneak attack.

All it took was a single hit from Bertugo, and it immediately killed one of the Slime.

Number 1 rammed the remaining Slime and began its attack on it. It waited for Number 2 to deliver its blow. Soon, Number 2 began to devour the dying Slime.

After getting the experience and dividing the gold between Bertugo, Brod, and Number 2, Dyne and his party continued to travel north.

Soon the Mist grew thicker and thicker.

But for some strange reason, Dyne could sense a movement of thick Mist on some regions of the field.

“The Mist can move at will?” Dyne was confused.

But suddenly, it all made sense.

“I see. Is that how the Mist can reach various areas which it shouldn’t be able to reach in the first place?” Dyne pondered.

In the game, Octam was one of the Sebucus continent towns that managed to escape the Mist. They traveled downwards and found a safe haven where they stayed to escape the Mist. Yet the path towards it, despite being hidden underground, still had the Mist. There were also towering areas like in Jeremy where the Mist managed to reach the top levels even when the Mist should have been weaker.

“If the Mist is heavier than air, then the Underground town of Octam could be explained. But how is it able to rise to the mountains as well?” Dyne pondered.

He then realized that the thick amount of Mist that was present around Rim Elm was wildly exaggerated. He knew how far Rim Elm was from the Mist Generator. There were various barriers, such as the strong winds caused by the wide river's rushing currents. Even on most days, the Mist was weak near Rim Elm.

And yet, three years from now, when the game officially starts, a thick amount of Mist gathered around Rim Elm. It was so heavy that it allowed an Army of Gimards to reach it. Even the large Sim Seru Juggernaut, who could only live in an area with thick Mist or absorb many's life sources, managed to appear there.

“It seems that there are more mysteries about this Mist.” Dyne frowned.