Brandon spent the next few days in camp with the others, they got to know each other and become more comfortable together. They practiced combat formations and worked together to take down a few deer near the edge of the clearing around their base. Over the days, Brandon made all of them a shallow bowl from the wood. He infused his mana into the bone knife so he could carve with it. Thysse fully grew the hedge around and over them. He left a large hole in the roof above the fire at Brandon’s instruction, but between having good shelter, having made good beds of packed leaves and grass for everyone, and now bowls and even forks, also made by Brandon, they were living a not uncomfortable life.

It took Brandon a few tries but he also made Mia a glove that would hold one of the ruby eyes in it on the back of her hand. It was not a glove with full protection and he had not made any fingers, but it held the gem to her so she could use it when needed. The other ruby eye was sitting in the middle of the fire pit.

Since the hedge had been built, the watch was being held differently. Brandon and Thysse worked together to make a flat area on top that was surrounded by thorns. They could see over them and observe the field from the vantage point. It was no watchtower, but it would suffice.

Once those were all taken care of, Brandon started a new task. Weapons and armor were in short supply. Their clothes were functional, and while had some understanding of tanning, he was not fully sure how to make leather and not desperate enough to try. Instead, he wanted to solve the weapon problem. Blackberry thorns are angular and sharp. The thorns on this blackberry bush were razor sharp and a little over two feet long. After hitting a few and testing their strength, they seemed to be sturdy as well. The thorns dented his damascus short sword when he swung it at them uninfused to test them.

Brandon had collected three thorns that he had cut to stand up straight. He had spent time carving a handle with a crossguard for each. He started with two sticks, carefully carving out a hole in one so that he could slide it on the tapered end of the other until it friction fitted. He left about six inches of wood above the crossguard to sink into the thorns. Once they were fitted and carved to shape, he wrapped each in rawhide to make a comfortable grip and slid them inside the thorns. It was not difficult with his mana.

Once he had done that, he carved notches in the thorn to give it a place that wasn’t sharp that he could wrap rawhide through. It allowed him to wrap the blade of the sword in the shape of an x around the crossguard. It was not the strongest thing ever but he did do it tightly and it was fairly secure. He had been pleased by the item but the notification was even better.

[Brandon’s Thorn Sword (Uncommon)]

+5 slashing damage

+7 piercing damage

Durability:300/300

An invention of the craftsman Brandon. This sword is made of the thorn of a giant blackberry bush that did not exist on Earth in the past. This sword is the first of its kind on Earth and is a magic weapon earned due to the inherent magic used in growing the thorns.

He made two more after these and created rawhide sheaths he could slide them in on his belt. He spent the time infusing each with his mana. It felt different than infusing his current weapons, easier somehow. Once they were infused he had full control of them like his other weapons. He was not yet ready to store his damascus short sword forever or give it away, but he had left it in camp since then. The thorn swords became his primary weapons so he would not wear out his Mist Steel sword. It had only lost a small amount of durability, so this would keep it around for when he really needed it.

The day after Brandon had finished his thorn swords, they were having a discussion around the fire in the morning. None of them had leveled up from the deer they had been hunting the past few days and they were all feeling the need to. Practice was good and all, but if they came across a group of deer or a larger monster like the boat they'd still be in danger. During this time Brandon had found out from Kara that her group had joined a settlement of almost a hundred people. The highest level player there was level 5 already.

“I am close to level 4 but I'm still level three and so are all of you. I think with our practice, we would be fine going on a short excursion to try and find a tougher monster than the deer or maybe two at once.”

“We need to practice more. We aren’t coordinated enough yet. I still have to work around You and Thysse’s movements better. You aren’t easy to predict all the time.” Mia said.

“I agree with Brandon,” Thysse said. “I am not super comfortable knowing there are already people at level 5. The monsters are dangerous but so are all of the other humans. We are essentially in a no man’s land.”

That thought brought the group to silence for a while. After a moment, Brandon stood up from the fire. He brought his sword belt with 4 swords on it over to him via telekinesis and buckled it on. “I know you want to do more training Mia, but we really should go. Real practice will serve us well.” He gestured for everyone to get up.

Brandon turned and left The Hedge. He walked past Jade and Thysse and saw her whispering in his ear. Dylan was next to them attaching the blades he had made from thorns to his shoes. He had asked Brandon for some hide strips and came to him a few times for advice, but he crafted them all on his own, it was 3 blackberry thorns cut down to just 5 inches each splayed out at the end of the shoes to act as claws. They were tied to a harness that connected to his shoes. He tightened it and infused his mana to make them more rigid. Brandon had taught everyone in camp the basics of mana control and telekinesis.

Brandon stood outside The Hedge at the edge for a bit and waited for the others to join him. Thysse came out first with Jade. Their formation was no longer what it had been the first day. Brandon took the center front with Jade and Thysse flanking him at either side. Mia had proven herself able to fight in melee by using her staff as a spear to kill a deer and was alone in the back. Dylan was in the middle. His job was to use his speed to save Mia or someone in the front if they got in danger. He had also taken down his first deer using his kick after his dashing ability. Brandon had been right, it increased the strength of his kick skill by almost 4 times, dealing most of the deer’s health in one blow. He still carried the spear and used it to keep enemies at a distance but after dashing he was almost certain to kick.

Brandon held his fist out to Thysse and they bumped knuckles. “You ready?” Brandon asked as Mia came out spinning her staff. He reached out and offered the same gesture to Jade who responded in kind.

“Yeah, I’m excited.” Thysse replied to him. He had a hungry look as he gripped his rake.

Once Dylan walked out of The Hedge, they started forward. Brandon had his map pulled up and started glancing at it as they headed into the woods. It was a beautiful day today, even as eerie as the forest was to Brandon. It still did not feel natural, but the morning light shining through the trees with light dust and pollen floating in the rays of light was simply beautiful. It was a nice warm day but not yet hot, almost like spring in the southern parts of North America.

They walked cautiously for a while, no one speaking as they looked around. The trek through the woods was in an almost straight line, only changing to walk around trees. They kept walking until Brandon noticed something odd and held out his hands. Brandon had to take a moment to figure out what he was seeing, but as he slowly walked closer he could see that what was ahead was a cliff. As he approached the edge, he heard some shuffling, grunting, and the crackling of a fire ahead. Looking over the drop it was almost 15 feet down.

At the bottom of the hill he saw a small camp. He was about to call out to the people below, but before he could, he saw there were no people in the camp. Instead, between the ragged tents and around the fire, there were goblins. More than that, sitting on the bodies of three people, picking his teeth with a broken radius, was something larger. It was the size of a man, not a large one, maybe 5 feet tall. Green, wrinkled skin, lean muscles, and a face even Hephaestus wouldn’t envy. The creature was wearing some kind of rough scalemail. The scales were bent and worn and it looked ragged, but it would definitely make killing him harder. The mail had a matching battle skirt and the belt had a brace of knives attached to it. Above the creature’s head was a name and a health bar like many others: [Hobgoblin Level 9]. Above that, there was something more, a title and a name: [Karigan, the Bonebreaker].

Brandon could feel his mana rising and his blood boiling as his swords slowly drew from his scabbards of their own accord. There was no conscious control. It took him a moment to calm down as he saw the state of the camp. At least 5 people were dead, and he didn’t want him and his friends to end up like them. There were bodies of many goblins on the ground as well. Brandon counted 7 goblins, all between level 2 and 3.

Brandon slowly backed away from the cliff and went back to the group, holding his finger up to his lips as he walked back. He pulled out his phone and silenced it and waited for everyone else to do the same. Once they had, he sent a text to the group. “I won’t ask you to do this with me, but I think if we are careful we can do it. Below the cliffs are goblins and a tougher monster called a hobgoblin. They are in a camp of people they killed. It looks recent. I am going to kill that hobgoblin. I will try a full assault with my sword control but it takes a lot of mana to control more than one at once, even one takes a good amount. I hope I can kill him quickly and get away, but I don’t know if I can. If you aren’t willing to help, you can leave. I think we are strong enough but this is more danger than we bargained for.”

“I trust you.” Mia smiled at him after she sent her reply.

“We can do it, how many had ranged weapons?” Thysse texted.

While Brandon was typing a reply, Jade said “I wanted to kill a goblin after you talked about them anyway.”

“Thanks guys. I don’t know, but I have a plan. I’ll explain it but it will be a long text.”

“Alright, but hey, we still need your help. Don’t be too reckless, man.” Dylan sent.

Brandon began to describe his plan. He was going to put all his points in magic power and gain more mana as well as power for his sword manipulation. He wanted to send his new swords in a surprise attack trying to kill the hobgoblin. He had no helmet, so Brandon thought if he controlled all three thorn blades at once, he may be able to kill the hobgoblin in one attack. It would only be possible to do it because he wanted to send all the swords to the same spot, but he’d be vulnerable while he did it if the hobgoblin didn’t die.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

After some discussion, Mia asked, “So you think you will be able to kill him by attacking his weak points? I know they do more damage, but do you think it will be a one shot?”

“I mean, our vital areas are still vital. I think it will work but I can’t guarantee it. This is the first named monster I’ve seen.”

“What do you mean named monster?” Asked Jade.

Thysse replied before Brandon could finish typing his response, “Okay, so you know how most monsters have their species above their head? In an rpg, if a monster has a name above their head they are stronger than others. It means they are powerful and rare monsters you will get better rewards for killing them.”

Dylan’s response came after that. “Is it a monster with two sets of names? One of the worms was like that. It has fire coming out of it and more armor than the others.”

“Oh! I think that makes sense.” texted Jade.

“Alright, do you think you can hold off the other goblins after I try and kill the hobgoblin?

A quick round of agreements from everyone led Brandon to put his phone away and gesture for the others to follow him quietly. He crept back to the edge slowly. Looking over carefully, he saw the goblins beginning to chatter around the fire. He could make out a few words, the dungeon translator doing its job. One in particular he heard a few times was dinner. He knew they were talking about the people. He brought up his status screen with a thought and put all of his free points into magic power. He could instantly feel the power of the mana surge within him.

The sudden surge of adding almost half again his magic power all at once made him almost sick, he had to swallow as he felt his stomach acid rush up his throat and he broke out in a cold sweat for a moment. After a moment, the raging mana calmed and he was able to breathe normally. He used his telekinesis and sword manipulation to draw out his three thorn blades and he drew them up above his head, all three pointing tip first at the hobgoblin.

It was hard to manipulate three swords at once. It took all of his focus to keep them steady. Unlike the fluid movements he now had swinging one sword through the air, they were jerky and didn’t move quite how he wanted. Splitting his focus like that was really hard. It reminded him of learning to juggle. Doing a pattern where your hands did the same thing like the cascade was easy. When he moved the swords as a unit, it was easy, but just as learning to make each hand act independently as many juggling tricks required, making multiple swords move even slightly differently was difficult. The effort to do so made his brain fuzzy and a sword nearly dropped once as he tried it.

The other issue he could feel was one he had already experienced, it took more mana to control more swords. He was already feeling the strain. He moved the swords to form a triangle above his head with some effort. Then, as one unit, he compelled the swords forward and down. With increasing speed he pushed his mana into the blades, he could see a slight glow begin to come off the edges like a haze as he put more and more power into his blades. The draining sensation was like ice slowly creeping up his body.

The hobgoblin noticed the swords too late to dodge. They were barely five feet from him when he saw them. He tried to move out of the way by diving off the pile of bodies, but the swords caught him in the air. Instead of two swords piercing his eyes and the other going into his forehead as Brandon intended, only the left most corner went into its left eye. It sank a few inches in, definitely deep enough to hit its brain. The other two also sank a few inches into its skill from the side.

The resounding scream from the hobgoblin was enough to know it wasn’t dead yet. More importantly, Brandon could see it had over 15 percent of its health left. He tried pushing with his mana as hard as he could, pushing the swords deeper into its skull, but they wouldn’t budge, even when he expended a lot of effort. Brandon let out a scream of his own as he exerted as much effort and power as he could, feeling the physical toll of mana surging too fast through his body and into his weapons.

Around him, his friends had started moving as well. Mia was sending quick white flashes of quartz bolts down at the goblins who had taken to throwing knives and rocks. Dylan, Jade, and Thysse were flanking Mia and Brandon. They were waiting for the goblins running around the cliff to get to the way up the hill. Brandon wasn’t sure they’d make it up if Mia’s mana held out, but he was happy his new friends were still prepared for it. He heard a ding as the first goblin died to Mia’s mana bolts and he saw the hobgoblin stand up.

Brandon stopped trying to force the swords in deeper, deciding it was a waste of mana. He glanced at his mana bar. [67/320] Damnit. I don’t have enough mana for this. He dropped control of his two swords and tried to pull out just the one in its eye. After some effort he was able to pull it out, but the hobgoblin was hardly idle while he tried. The hobgoblin had been holding a halberd, but he tossed aside the rusty weapon and pulled a wicked looking javelin from its back. Brandon saw it had four of these on its back. The javelin had a black tar like substance on its tip and appeared to be entirely made of a knotted dark wood. Even the tip looked wooden though it was covered in the dripping sludge.

The hobgoblin threw the javelin at Brandon as Brandon pulled back the sword and sent it at the hobgoblin with telekinesis. The sword sunk into its shoulder, but this caused the throw to go wide and it was heading for Mia.

“No!” Brandon shouted as he dove towards Mia and pushed her to the side. The javelin missed as Mia fell onto her side. Brandon wasn’t so lucky. They had been standing only a foot from the edge of the cliff. He fell on the cliff side of Mia and the edge collapsed. His weight combined with the sudden impact was too much for the cliff and he was too winded to grab onto the edge.

He tumbled down, the soft earth protecting him somewhat as he rolled down the cliff. He landed with a thud and let out an exclamation of pain. He thought he heard Thysse and Mia’s voices, but his ears were ringing. And his mind was fuzzy. He felt bruised but the fall hadn’t been that far. He had only lost around 20 percent of his health. It was the mana loss combined with the sudden fall while being winded.

After a deep breath where he could feel some of the cloud of dirt enter his mouth and taste the unpleasant blood and dirt mix that was made from the cut on his lip and the dust cloud around him, he was able to think a little more clearly. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed his mist steel sword. He drew it from the scabbard and looked around quickly. A second javelin hit the cliff wall barely a foot to his left, and he changed his mind about the dust cloud being bad because it got in his mouth and lungs and thanked it for saving him from the Javelin. Brandon quickly ran out of the dust cloud in the direction the javelin had come from.

When he exited the settling cloud, he saw the hobgoblin had grabbed its halberd and was running at him with it raised over his head screaming “My eye!” There was barely a dozen yards between them, so Brandon began to ready an arc slash. He held the mist steel sword in both hands down by his right side, the tip in the grass but not touching the ground, and overloaded the mana in the blade. As soon as the hobgoblin entered within twenty feet of him, Brandon slashed his sword through the air, making a complete arc until the blade was above him and to his left. The hobgoblin, surprise obvious on his face, tried to dodge to the side, but his dive made the slash line up perfectly with the length of his body. He saw the health bar of the hobgoblin fall to 0. and the arc of mana cut through its head and damaged its armor. Scales flew off and the ones that remained were damaged and dented. Brandon looked at his mana bar. He had 11 mana left. He started laughing in relief, hearing the repeated dings as the notifications came in. He felt the level up come through and the now familiar surge of power. It was much greater than usual though.

He stood as his health and mana recovered, feeling refreshed. His mana sight told him two goblins were rushing him from the group. Thysse had joined him at some point and was fighting a goblin next to the cliff who had likely been coming after Brandon. Brandon felt the connection with his swords and could tell exactly where each of the thorn swords were, he pulled up one with telekinesis and focused on using it to quickly kill the goblin who was approaching him on the left. It drove into the creature’s head, killing it in one blow. The goblin approaching from his front right was a bit more difficult. By time he was able to focus on it, it was upon him.

He intercepted its first strike with his sword when the goblin jumped at him and attacked from above. The goblin’s cleaver-like weapon flew out of its head as it screamed at him. The goblin dropped to the ground and prepared to leap at him again. The sword was still vibrating from the strike he used to knock its weapon away as he spun the blade around in a strike from above that cleaved through the goblin’s head, splattering Brandon’s clothes in blood and brain matter.

After he had dealt with the last goblin, he looked around. There were a lot more goblin bodies than he had counted goblins before. He called up to Mia, “Mia! Are you alright?”

It took a moment to get a response and he was a little worried. “Yeah! We made it.”

Brandon tried to expand his mana sight to where Mia and the others were, and he saw the bodies of an additional 8 goblins on the ground, killed mostly by Jade and Dylan judging by their wounds. Brandon walked over to Thysse, now that he was actively paying attention to his mana sight he realized it had upgraded again. It felt nearly the same as his own vision and he found he wasn’t accidentally ignoring it anymore.

Thysse was surrounded by the bodies of four goblins. He was panting slightly and leaning on his rake. “Hey man, thanks for coming to help me. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s no problem. Try not to fall off a higher cliff next time, I may be able to come help if you do.” Thysse stood up straight and stretched. I guess it’s time to level up huh?”

Brandon nodded and pulled up his notifications. He had a notification for 23 goblin deaths as well as the death of the hobgoblin.

[Congratulations on slaying a named monster! This named monster had killed 12 humans since its birth but it couldn’t kill you! How did you manage that? Did you cheat? For the world’s third kill of a named monster, your party is granted a random supply box and a random item box each.]

[For killing Karigan, the Bonebreaker, you receive the Bonebreaker Armor. Only one party member may accept this reward. The armor will size itself to the owner.]

The party rewards had a claim button but he decided to wait to claim them. He also saw he was listed as the current owner of the bonebreaker armor but he could transfer it to any of the other party members. Once they were back at camp he would decide what to do about it.

Checking the rest of the notifications, he saw he had leveled up to level 5. No wonder he felt stronger, he had leveled two levels at once. Below that was an interesting new window. He looked over it carefully.

[Skill Selection Window]

[You have 24 hours to select a skill or one will be assigned at random from the following list of 5 skills. Receivable skills are based on personal achievement and class progression.]

[Skill: Lunge level 1 (common)]

+10 piercing or slashing damage

Step forward with a quicker step than you normally could. Slash or stab during this step dealing extra damage to targets hit.

[Skill: Mana Bolt level 1 (common)]

Channel your mana into a bolt that you send forth to smite your enemies. The range and damage of this bolt is based on how much mana is poured into it and how efficiently that mana is used.

[Skill: Fast Infusion level 1 (Uncommon)]

Increases the speed of infusing with objects by 20% and decreases mana needed to infuse any object with your mana by an additional 20%

[Skill: Infused Blade level 1 (Rare)]

Channel your mana into a blade infused with your mana to charge its edge with power. This skill will increase both the slashing and piercing damage of any weapon you are using by a flat 5 + an additional 10% This damage counts as magical damage. This skill slowly consumes mana over time while active.

[Skill: Battle Smith level 1 (Rare)]

Weapons and armor you craft give additional stat boosts when used by you in combat but not when used by others. The stat boosts depend on the weapons and armor crafted.