"Holy shit... you fought this?" Ming's brows furrowed as he gazed upon the orc's corpse. "With just you two...?"

"I only came along towards the end." Miyu shook her head as she recalled the orc's form when she arrived. "Nate already inflicted multiple wounds, so it was somewhat easy to kill it with just the two of us."

"You're so modest, Miyu!" Ayumi chirped as she embraced Miyu from behind, though Miyu's chest plate didn't make it as pleasant as she liked. "You should give yourself more credit. I would've been too scared to move if that got close to me."

"Ayumi's right. Don't sell yourself short. If you hadn't come along when you did, I wouldn't've been able to defeat it." Nate voiced as he massaged his neck, visualizing what would have happened if the orc had stepped on it. His eyes were then drawn towards a few members limping forward as they tried to get closer to the dead orc. "Seems, like you guys didn't have such an easy time either."

"You can say that again." Ming heaved a sigh as he massaged his bruised shoulder. A hobgoblin (as some of the expedition members called it) had managed a desperate attack on him. Despite having been disarmed, the green menace was determined to inflict any damage it could, so it started beating him with its bare hands. "There are others who're worse off, though."

"Yeah, I kinda saw... it's a good thing nobody died though." Nate remarked. 'It would've been really troublesome if people started backing out of this. If even a single person died, this group's numbers would likely be cut in half.'

"Mm." Miyu nodded in agreement. She then turned to look at Nate. "What do we do now, though? Everybody's tired so should we just go back...?"

"..." Nate looked around and saw that a few people were paying attention to their conversation. He wanted to continue onwards but thought better of it. Besides, his armor was all busted up. If another orc showed up, he'd be finished. "Yeah, let's go back."

"Whoo!" Ayumi cheered!

There was a collective sigh from the ones listening in. Everybody was relieved that this day was essentially over now.

"Everyone! Pick up all the hobgob weapons! And don't even think about filching anything. Any weapon obtained in an expedition belongs to the expedition, so you don't get to keep your shit if you decide to back out of this!" Nate called out as he started going back to the area where the expedition members fought with the hobgoblins. He intended to help out in the weapon gathering.

'Fuck, this is taking so long.' Nate hid his impatience under a mask of composure. They were still so far away from the center, and they already faced something so strong. And yet, they weren't getting particularly stronger either. 'Was that just a unique boss type of thing? We aren't going to be facing off against a horde of those eventually, right? It's just going to be more goblins, right? Please...'

Nate was antsy and uneasy as he stepped forward.

*****

The expedition safely returned from yet another trip into the valley, and yet again there were no casualties. Some of them were bruised or wounded, perhaps both, but all of them were alive. Which was something to be celebrated.

However contrary to yesternight, people kept to themselves this afternoon. Despite the relatively early hours, most of the expedition members were now passed out asleep. They'd gone through a more rigorous battle than they expected today, which was even worse for the new members.

Everyone joined thinking they would only have to fight kids, but then suddenly had to brawl with adults. It was only natural that most of them blacked out the moment they made it back to safety.

"We should probably take tomorrow off, too." Nate thought out loud as he put down the cloth he used to wipe himself off. After he put on a new set of clothes that someone had kindly gotten him as a gift for being a good leader, Nate put on his armor and weapons again. One would say that he was too paranoid, being in full gear despite being in a "safe zone", but he wouldn't stop doing this. He'd been burned too much by unpreparedness. With his broken chest plate and Dane ax in hand, Nate made his way to the altar, hoping that he could do something for the trusty piece of metal that guarded his torso until a while ago.

"Oh, hey leader!" Someone called out from behind him as Nate paced forward. Nate looked toward the source of the voice to find one of the expedition members. He'd been the one who kindly gave him a new set of clothes.

"Oh, Harold. What're you doing here...?" Nate raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he watched the man approach. A casual glance revealed that the man was actually unarmed, even having his hands swaying freely beside him. Because of this, Nate didn't mind leaving some of his guard down around him.

"Nothing at all. Just thought I'd see what you were up to!" Harold's lips parted into a wide smile. "Were you just headed to the plaza? Getting something to eat? Just tell me, it'll be my treat!"

"Is that right...?" Nate smirked in amusement, realizing what Harold really wanted. "I'm not really hungry. This armor, I was wondering what I could do with it. Maybe there's an option to fix it."

"Oh..." Harold sent a look towards the metal chest plate Nate held in his left hand. "I'm not aware of anything... though that might just be because I'm poor. Stuff only shows up in the catalog if you can afford it, after all."

"Yeah, well I probably got a boatload of points from fighting that orc. Though I wasn't the one who killed it, I still played a major role, so hopefully, I got a lot for that."

"Right, you probably got a fuckton of points for that..." Harold muttered in agreement, his eyes gleaming with greed.

"..." Nate didn't miss this though. He'd had a hunch, but it seemed he was right. Harold probably wanted to suck up to him. That way, he would easily be able to get Nate's breadcrumbs. Nate found people like Harold to be quite common, so he was used to dealing with them. He just had to play along, then abandon them at the right time. Of course, if he was useful, Nate wouldn't mind feeding him some bones from time to time. The thing was, he didn't even dare to join the expedition team, so Nate doubted he'd find a use for the man.

Eventually, Nate and Harold arrived at the plaza. There were bystanders scattered here and there, but Nate didn't pay them any mind as he headed straight to the mysterious stone slab. Nate raised a hand and put his palm against the stone.

A rush of information flooded his mind, as writing that only he could see appeared on the stone slab.

[You have: 13,430 pts] [Producing list of possible exchanges] Miscellaneous Rusk Bread = 1 pt

Nutrition Bar = 3 pt

Sweet Roll = 10 pts

Bottle of Water = 10 pts

Shirt (Choose color) = 45 pts

Weapon Belt (Choose type) = 50+ pts

Trousers (Choose color) = 65 pts

Armament Repair = ???? pts Armaments Offense Ammunition (Choose type) = 10+ pts

Dagger (Choose type) = 100 pts

Hand Ax (Choose type) = 150 pts

Sword (Choose type) = 300 pts

Polearm (Choose type) = 350+ pts

Projectile Weapon (Choose type) = 500+ pts Defense Joint Armor (Choose type) = 250+ pts

Helmet (Choose type) = 300+ pts

Body Armor (Choose type) = 1000+ pts Magic

(Some options are only available to those with Magic Aptitude) ✯Amulet of Might (Special Item for MVP Orc Slayers) = 1,000 pts

Magic Power Restoring Pill = 3,000 pts

Mist-Dispersing Lantern = 4,500 pts

Healing Pill = 5,000 pts

★Beginner Red Magic (Knowledge Infusion) = 10,000 pts

★Beginner Blue Magic (Knowledge Infusion) = 10,000 pts

★Beginner Green Magic (Knowledge Infusion) = 10,000 pts

★Beginner Black Magic (Knowledge Infusion) = 12,000 pts

"Woah, I got so much out of that fight..." Nate muttered in amazement, but then his eyes were immediately drawn towards the [Armament Repair] option that wasn't there even though he'd had up to three thousand five hundred points at one point. Likely because he didn't have an armament to repair. Without thinking much, he immediately selected it. Information flowed into his mind. "Four hundred points to repair my chest plate, huh. Well, that's still worth it, since it cost two grand to buy..."

The iron chest plate in his hand glowed with light. After a moment, the light dimmed and disappeared.

"Nice. It looks brand new." Nate nodded in satisfaction at the perfect repair of his armor. He started putting it on, then noticed something else that hadn't been there last time. The [Magic] section. "What the hell...?"

'Amulet of Might, huh. Well, I can kind of guess what it does from the name.' Nate stared intently at the words strewn across the stone slab. 'As for the others, I guess they never showed up since I didn't have enough points until now. But still, Magic, huh. I guess it wouldn't be too strange if it existed. I mean it wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened here.'

As Nate gazed upon the Magic options, his heart beat rapidly.

This was it. This was what he was looking for.

An edge against monsters like the orc. Or anything for that matter.

"I need this." Nate decided without hesitation. That lantern looked like it'd be useful too, but he wanted that magic first. His forehead wrinkled in thought. "Which one do I pick, though...?"

The only thing that differentiated the magic from each other were the colors in their names. Nate could somewhat guess that the colors corresponded to certain elements, but he didn't know any specifics. Like offensive power, defensive power, or any other special effects.

'Wavering here isn't going to get me anywhere... let's just pick this one.' In the end, Nate was a man of action. He didn't like just staying around. Of course, he wasn't a reckless fool who'd take action without thinking at all, but he didn't want to think too much. Nate decided to just pick the most expensive option. Hopefully, the higher price meant that it had something special to set it apart from the rest. 'Black Magic it is. And since I still have about a thousand left, I guess I'll buy that amulet, too.'

Nate wanted to buy some more armor, like a chain doublet to put under his chest armor, or maybe even some armor for his legs. But he wouldn't be able to buy anything decent with a thousand points anyway, so he may as well just go for the mysterious amulet.

A flash of bright light later and there was a golden amulet hanging off of his neck. It had a simple design, a carving of a fist holding a bolt of lightning. It reminded him of that greek god who couldn't keep it in his pants.

'Where's the magi-- ACK!' Nate suddenly doubled over as a sharp pain assailed his head. He'd thought the knowledge infusion would be similar to how the information of the stone slab's exchange function worked, but it was apparently more akin to that screeching sound he'd first heard after getting sucked into the white room's floor. Nate felt like someone was wringing his brain like a wet towel as the understanding of Black Magic was drilled into his head.

"Are y-you okay?!" Harold worriedly exclaimed as knelt down beside Nate.

'Do I look okay to you...?' Nate wanted to retort, but he waved Harold off, asking the man to give him some space.

After what felt like an eternity, but was actually just a few seconds, of torment, Nate finally heaved a sigh of relief. He stumbled into a standing position, then looked around with a look of satisfaction.

"Everyone!" Nate called out to the people around him. "May I have a bit of your time."

He smiled as he brandished his arm, causing thick black smoke to swirl around his body and form what seemed like a serpent. The serpent's red "eyes" shined with light and malice.

Nate's were much the same. The whites of his eyes as well as his irises were buried under a cover of darkness as deep as an abyss.

The leader of the expedition team, unanimously agreed as the strongest person in the village, spread his arms wide as his lips formed an evil grin.

"It seems I've become a dark wizard."