Once they all calmed down a little the group decided it was a good time to turn in for the night, but before they did Brandon checked with Trinity to make sure this was going to be a safe place to sleep for the night.

"Don't worry." Trinity insisted. "This field is the safest place this side of the island. Monsters don't even travel through here. It's not in any of their programmed routes."

"You know the more you talk the more this all just sounds like a video game." Brandon responded trying to be as snarky as possible.

"Oh stop worrying so much. Besides, if monsters did approach Cillian would alert us. There's nothing to worry about." Trinity declared.

Seeing how insistent she was Brandon decided to believe her, and went off to bed in his tent.

It was hard to tell exactly how much time had past, but Brandon wasn't able to fall asleep. He wasn't worried about getting attacked at night anymore, but there was still a lot on his mind.

Trinity was asleep right next to him lying on his pillow. She was so small she fit right there next to his head no problem. He insisted she sleep next to one of the girls, but she said she wasn't capable of being away from him for long. After a bit of back-and-forth he eventually just gave in.

Brandon decided to get up, and go outside for a bit to clear his head. As he opens the flap to his tent he saw Tenjin was already sitting on one of the logs tending to the fire.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Brandon asked as he approached the campfire.

Tenjin turned to see Brandon walking over towards him while rubbing his eyes. "Sure, no problem."

Brandon took a seat down on one of the other logs, and the two of them sat there in silence for while.

"Hey Tenjin, I wanted to say thank you for having my back there in the cave. If it wasn't for you, I'd have died back there." Brandon thanked him.

"Hmm.. well to be honest I feel like I failed you. I let the Goblin Chief get past me, and if it hadn't been for the fact that we all leveled up you would have died." Tenjin stated bitterly while biting his lip.

Brandon could see the look of shame Tenjin had on his face. He was clenching his fists like he was angry with himself.

"It's not your fault Tenjin. That Goblin Chief was way stronger than us, and if you hadn't been there I definitely would've died anyways. We had the best plan going forward, and if it had been anybody else at my back we would've died... this isn't like the real world. When someone is higher level then you your chances of winning are a lot slimmer." Brandon reminded him.

Tenjin looked up and Brandon, and Brandon could see the determination in his eyes. "That's why we have to get a lot stronger. Right now, there are monsters in this world that could kill us ten times over, so we can't afford to be weak. We need to grind every day until there's nothing in this world that will be able to kill us."

"You know there's always going to be someone stronger Tenjin, but you're right we need to get a lot stronger." Brandon admitted.

"You're right, but I want to make sure we all stay safe. That's my job as the groups vanguard!" Tenjin declared.

"I've been meaning to talk about that with you actually. I've been taking on the role of leader so far, but shouldn't you be the one to lead us? You have more experience in this kind of thing they I do." Brandon asked him

"My kind of strategies only work in our world. They won't work in this one. It's too much like a video game, and I wasn't very good at those even though I enjoyed playing them. Ha, I was considered a prodigy you know? I finished high school at 16, college at 18, and I was on my way to becoming Tokyo's greatest detective. At least that was the goal." Tenjin said solemnly.

"Well then, now you can became Fantasia's greatest vanguard on the greatest team!" Brandon proclaimed.

"Didn't you say there's always going to be someone stronger?" Tenjin reminded him.

"Yeah, but doesn't mean we can't dream!" Brandon replied.

They both began to laugh at how ridiculous they seemed , but then Tenjin pointed his fist outward towards Brandon. "I give you my word Brandon I'm going to due everything in my power to become stronger and protect everyone in our little group."

Brandon gave him a fist bump. "And I'm going to do everything to become a leader worthy of the strongest man alive."

They both continued laughing for a bit then Tenjin decided to try to get some sleep for the night.

Brandon decided to lay on the ground looking at the stars. Part way through he heard Trinity yelling.

"Woah!"

He heard her yell, and next thing he knew Trinity was flying out of his tent towards him, and stopped right before reaching him. She was floating in the air rubbing her eyes, then she began to look around to see where she was.

"Oh Brandon, what did I tell you? I can't be away from you very long, or else I'm going to be forced to come back to you!" Trinity reminded him.

"Sorry, I didn't know it would be like that. I thought you'd just teleport to me." Brandon said apologetically.

"Not if I'm close. What a rude awakening!" She pouted while crossing her arms.

"Sorry" Brandon stated while kinda laughing at how funny the situation was.

"Hey, well look what we have here. Starting to cozy up to your little pixie friend now are we?"

Brandon turned around to see Cass getting out of her tent.

"Don't worry. I won't tell Ava you have a thing for more... smaller women." She whisper as she approached the center of camp to sit next to Brandon.

"It's not like that Cass!" Brandon explained as he rolled his eyes at her. "Trinity isn't able to be far away for me for too long, or else she'll be forced to come back to me."

"Oh so you guys are into the master-servant thing are ya. She began to laugh a little. Don't worry it'll be our secret." She looked right at Brandon, smiled, and gave him a playful wink.

"Are you always like this Cass?" Brandon asked a little surprised by her constant mocking. He wasn't used to be around women like her.

"Like what?" She asked playfully, pretending she didn't know what he was talking about.

"You know.. you seem like the kinda girl who likes to make fun of people all the time." Brandon admitted.

"Ha, maybe. To be honest I just think it's fun. It was just me and my dad back home, and I used to hang out with him and his friends all the time. This is how they talked to each other, so it's just like second nature to me. It's how I connect I guess." She stated.

"Oh I get it, so what your saying is your just trying to get closer to us is that it?" Brandon retorted.

Cass began to get a little embarrassed when he said that out loud. "Nnnoo." She stuttered. "I'm just trying to be a team player is all."

"Oh, so you're not just making jokes about people liking each other because you secretly wish you were the one getting all the attention?" Brandon began copying the things that Cass did when she was making fun of him by smiling and winking at her.

"Oh, shut it!" Cass said as she lightly shoved Brandon. "I'm not interested in any romance. Besides, boys don't really find me attractive anyways. Even if I were interested I doubt any of them would be."

"I don't know Cass I think you're pretty attractive." Brandon said withe a playful grin.

Cass fell dead silent at that point. In that moment she honestly didn't know what to say, and just turned away from him.

"You're a real jerk you know that. Teasing a girl the way you are." She stated as she punched his shoulder.

"I'm not kidding though. I think the reason guys don't show a lot of interest in you is probably because their intimidated by you. You're so forward that's it can be kind of off putting for men if they're not used to it. Most guys just probably don't expect to see that from girls.

"Yeah, you might be right." Brandon couldn't see it, but Cass was a little embarrassed. Brandon was right, she was used to guys being intimidated by her. She could make friends and talk smack with them, but most were too off-put by her to ask her out. There were a few guys who showed interest, but things never worked out with them.

"Anyways Cass don't sell yourself short okay." Brandon said sympathetically.

"Yeah, I won't." Cass took a second to recollect herself, and returned to relentlessly teasing Brandon. "Well Brandon you really are quite the ladies man. I know I said I wasn't interested, but I might have to reconsider after all those sweet nothings you've been whispering to me."

"Wait, what? That's totally not what's going on here." Brandon was taken off-guard. She had gotten all shy and quiet for a moment, and he thought he was starting to break through the barrier she was putting up, but afterward she just turned it around on him and started making fun of him again.

"Don't worry Brandon." she laughed. "Like I said I'm really not all that interested in relationships. We're in a new world full of new mysteries. It's like the dawn of a new age you know. We've all been reborn in a new world, and I want to discover all its mysteries. That doesn't leave much time for relationships."

Brandon laughed. "Well alright then Cass. Actually, when you think about it that's the quest we've been assigned anyways."

"What do you mean?" Cass inquired.

"Think about it. The main quest is to "Learn about his world" remember? I think whoever created this place wanted us to explore it, and live lives filled with adventure, so let's go do that." Brandon proposed

"Sounds good to me." Cass giggled. "Well that's enough chatting for me," Cass stated as she stretched her arms. She then got up and walked behind Brandon placing her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. "Goodnight darling. I'll see you in the morning."

"Oh get off me and go to bed." Brandon told her as he got up to walk to the other log.

"Aww, you're no fun." Cass crossed her arms and starting walking back to her tent quietly laughing the whole time.

Brandon staid at the campfire for a few more minutes, then decided to turn in for the night. As he was about to go into his tent, he heard Cillian start to growl over in Cass's tent.

He turned around and walked over to her tent. When he was about half-way there he saw Cass and Cillian began to leaves hers as well.

"What's going on with Cillian?" Brandin asked. "Is there trouble nearby."

I don't know." Cass responded. "He's looking at Ava's tent though."

They went over to Ava's tent, and as they approached they could hear her groaning in her sleep.

"You think she's having a nightmare?" Brandon asked as he turned towards Cass.

"I don't know, but I'll check on her just to be safe." Cass began opening the flap to Ava's tent, and when she stuck her head inside she saw Ava sleeping inside with a strange creature sitting on her chest.

It looked like a small, disfigured man the size of a goblin, except it's ears were bigger then a humans and they were pointed with the point facing upwards. It had red skin, and two black horns protruding from its head. When Cass poked her head in it turned its head, and she could see its black eyes.

Before she could look at its status Cas quickly pulled her head out and screamed. "Oh crap what is that thing!"

"What? What? What did you see?" Brandon asked startled by her sudden outburst.

Cass's scream had woken the other two, and they both began to get out of their tents. At that same moment the creature ran out of the tent, swung a hard right, and ran into the forest.

Seeing this Brandon stuck his head inside Ava's tent to see if she was okay. He saw that her HP was down to 40/65, and he was beginning to wake up.

Brandon began to dash after the creature into the forest while yelling at the others. Tenjin, Felix check on Ava to make sure she's okay, he commanded.

I'm coming with you, Cass shouted as she ran after Brandon with Cillian and Trinity following shortly behind them.

Brandon and Cass could just barely make out where the creature was thanks to the full moon, but it would be easy to lose it if they didn't keep up the pace.

Thankfully Brandon had placed both of his stat points into agility once he reached level 4 so he wasn't having to much trouble keeping pace with Cass. However, she was just a little bit faster then him, and managed to pass both him and the creature.

She quickly turned around when she got in front of the creature pulling out her two daggers to strike it. It was quite a bit slower than her, so it was easy to hit.

Brandon came up behind the creature, and they had it rapped on both sides unable to escape.

When they looked at the creature they were able to see its status clearly;

Night Mare (familiar) Lvl 5

HP 20/50

MP 50/76

They took a closer look at its stats and saw they all of them were 10 except for its magic which was at 15. Compared to them it had a much higher magical aptitude, but otherwise it was weak.

Brandon wasn't sure what the word familiar in parenthesis meant, but this creature hurt Ava, so he had to take it out.

He shoved his sword right through the creatures back, and Cass had Cillian finish it off with his bite. Thankfully, since Cass leveled up all of Cillian's stats increase from 6 to 7, so he was a better fighter.

With the Night Mare defeated they both received 75 EXP, but they were both still concerned. If this thing was a familia, then where was its master.

"Trinity can you explain this?" Brandon asked while trying to calm down his heartbeat. "If this thing is a monster how'd it get into our camp, is it really someone's familiar?"

Trinity felt a little guilty since she had insisted they'd be safe, but she didn't expect someone's familiar to come into the camp and attack them.

"It had the familiar tag, so that means it does belong to another person, not one of the monsters that just spawns here. She explained. "Anyone or anything can just walk into a camp, so maybe someone is nearby, or they just sent it out to attack whomever it found."

"What exactly is a Night Mare, and what was it doing to Ava?" Brandon asked feeling disappointed in Trinity. "And why didn't you tell us that this could happen?"

Trinity could tell that Brandon was angry with her, and she was a little scared of him at the moment. "Because I usually can't tell you anything without you asking me a question first." She cried. "That's how is guide pixies work. I'm sorry."

Trinity tilted her head down, but Brandin could see tears rolling down her face. He pushed her chin up using his pointer finger to reveal the pixie's crying face, and tried his best to give her a warm smile.

"I'm sorry Trinity." He stated feeling bad for getting angry at her when it wasn't her fault. "I didn't know. Can you forgive me?"

Trinity started wiping her tears with her arms, and nodded at him. She then floated over to sit on his shoulder while she calmed down.

After a few moments had passed she began to speak again. "A Night Mare, or Mare for short, is a type of demonic creature. They come out at night to sap the vitality of mortals, and they do this by sitting on their chests while they sleep and causing nightmares which we slowly drain the victims HP. The familiar version, if controlled by someone with demonic blood, can actually use the Night Mare to siphon HP from the victim of they are low and use it to restore their own."

"So, there's probably another person with a demonic bloodline around." Brandon concluded.

"The only one I know of in the area is Felix." Trinity pointed out. "But he doesn't have the ability to summon familiars so there must be someone else on the island with us."

"He also doesn't have the motive to do that to any of us." Cass stated a little irritated that Trinity had bothered to consider it might have been Felix. "I don't think he'd do it even if he were capable."

"I'm not saying it was him!" Trinity responded defensively. "I'm just saying he's the only one I know about."

"Okay calm down you two!" Brandon interrupted. "I don't think anyone of us suspects Felix. This was obviously an attack from another player, or maybe they did it because they were low on hit points. Either way, we need to be more careful, and on guard from now on. Trinity do you know how many others there are on this island?"

"There wasn't anybody else on this island when you all started, but there are others on other islands nearby that could have made it hear. It's hard to say for sure." She confessed. "I don't have exact data on who they are, or their abilities. All I know is that there were five others besides you guys who started somewhere within the Mirage Islands."

Everyone immediately remembered the person the Goblin Chief was eating when they first came across its camp.

"What are some potential starting locations that are nearby?" Brandon asked hoping one would be close enough to hopefully give them a starting place on where to look for their potential attacker.

"The only place near this island is probably the small island right between this one and the next major island in the chain." Trinity responded. "It's not really that big, but definitely big enough for five people to stand on, and it would only take somebody a minute to swim over to this island. The only problem is if they did, they'd end up on the higher level side of the island."

"Well that explains how the guy being eaten by the Goblin Chief got there before us." Cass concluded.

"Yeah." Brandon concurred. "But I wonder if the person who summoned the familiar started in the same place."

"It's hard to say." Trinity stated unable to draw any certain conclusions. "But I can tell you that this person is a level 5 demon, or half demon that knows the Conjure Lesser Demon spell. The master, and the familiar will always be the same level."

"Well, it's not like we can't deal with a level 5!" Cass said determined to find whomever it was that sent the Night Mare after Ava.

"I don't think we'll be able to find out anything else tonight, so let's get back to the camp and the others." Brandon asserted.