My hunger now subsided we continued to farm the Spore Spitters for another couple of hours, or at least that’s what I thought it was. I had no clue as to what the time was as my watch had stopped working, most likely as soon as I stepped into this world. It was an old watch, one my dad had given me when I was sixteen years old and I got my first job. It was the last thing he had given me before he had passed and I only ever took the thing off when I had a shower or went swimming. It was a solid watch, heavy, with a blue background and silver clock hands, the strap was metal too, it wasn’t the ideal watch to be wearing while farming Spore Spitters but there was no chance in hell that iw as taking it off. I counted that we must have killed at least fifteen Spore Spitters while farming, my experience rising ever so slightly with everyone that I defeated. To my frustration however, the more we killed the slower the process seemed to take, as in my experience bar literally grinned up until finally I had reached level five. I assigned my skill points to the swordzerker skill, meaning it was now up to four points, I was so close to unlocking the next slot and even more curious now to see if it would unlock a skill like Raven’s shadow portal.

Raven continued to lead the way as if she was a bloodhound tracking a fox, she seemed to know exactly where she was going, there was an intensity about her that led me to wonder exactly what she had been through to end up like this at such a young age.

“So the plan remains the same?” I said as I followed here closely behind. I know I was only level five but with a stack of 20% to my damage when berserking there was no denying that I was stronger than I was when I first arrived here.

“Raven simply nodded as she walked.

“And yous till want me to just walk right into the camp and draw them all out.” I said, reiterating the plan to her.

“Raven nodded again.

“And you think I am strong enough to survive this?”

Raven nodded again, this time though there was a hesitancy about her that did not offer me the reassurance that I needed. What was I doing? I was so deep over my head, this whole fighting thing was alien to me. I had never killed anything before today, not even a bug, I hated confrontation to a point where I actively avoided it and now we were heading straight into the centre of a terror camp will the sole mission of starting a fight with them. From what the side mission had said there were twenty of them too, which seemed far more than I should be able to fight again. One or two maybe, although they were far smaller than me, well the ones I saw anyway they still looked like they knew how to handle. Weapon and they had a feral-ness about them that made them look, well terrifying.

Raven raise her hand to motion me to stop before jumping up and grabbing an over head branch and scurrying up a tree like she was a monkey. Her speed and ability was ridiculous. She was about twenty foot up in the air when she motioned for me to follow her up, I hadn’t climbed a tree since I was a kid but this one looked easy enough, there were plenty of branches for me to use to pull myself up.

I did as Raven commanded and climbed the tree although a lot more clumsily and less elegantly than Raven had, some branches snapped under my weight but I managed to get up level with raven. I chose to stay standing, rather than sitting on one of the thicker branches, from this height I did not want too all, if I did I would likely break my back. Not being the best with heights made this an ever worse idea but when Raven pointed outwards, I instantly understood why she had brought me here.

The terror camp of doom was just ahead of us, I could see the entire formation of the camp. I was expecting something like a few tents dotted around, makeshift in this forest, the kind you use on a camping trip, the clue was in the name. This camp was nothing like that, it was more like a fortified village than a camp, it was oval in shape, felled trees had been used to erect a ramshackle fence around the perimeter that must have been at least ten feet tall. The top of wood had been carved into spikes, with the occasional post pointing outwards to stop anyone trying to scale it. There were three turret towers, again made of wood sourced from the forrest, they carried in size but had wooden spikes pointing out from the upper level that was covered by a canopy of gathered leaves that had been formed into some kind of roof. The centre of the camp was open, with tracks through the ground where something had been dragged through, a few huts scattered around the outer edges that looked more akin to shanty town than a home. It was shelter though.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Just how long have they been here?” I asked

Raven remained silent, of course she did, she was a nute kid, she had no way of speaking to me. I continued to watch over the camp, the entrance had two smaller turrets either side of it and a large gated entrance that was open. It looked like some of the turrets were manned bt not all of them. The terrors were milling around the camp, some like they were talking to one another, some carrying out patrols as if they were a well trained force. I certainly hadn’t got that impression when I had seen them for the first time, they seemed wild and uncontrolled, here they looked like they had a purpose. We continued to watch as a small group of the terror’s walked in through the entrance, there was four of them, two at the front, two at the back, they were carrying what looked like a pig which legs had been bound around a large pole they were carrying between them.

Now I am no genius but even I know how heavy a pig is, and I would question if four fully grown men would have the stregnth to lift one. These were clearly stronger than they looked which gave me even less confidence about facing off with them.

“Are you sure this plan will work?”

Raven raised a sceptical eyebrow before diving from the tree, I clumsily climbed down, hugging the tree as best as I could so I dint lose my balance and injure myself before the fight had even started.

Standing by Raven I looked at the small clearing between the trees and the camp and took a deep breath. Raven patted me on the back like she was a parent trying to encourage a kid to go play on a park, except this was no park it was a camp filled with terror’s that would kill me if I didn’t do this right.

My chest started pounding, I had never done this before, I had never had a fight let alone started one, which led me to question the choices that I had made unto now. Why out of all the choices had I picked the berserker class, why had I not picked a more balanced class, one that would have allowed me to heal or cast spells from a distance.

Because of Jerry, that’s why. Because I was sick of being pushed around, I wanted to prove to myself that I could be something else in this world, not the push over that I am back home.

“Fuck you Jerry.” I said.

Raven looked up at me, with confusion.

I stepped forward and began my approach to the gates of the terror camp, I could feel myself getting pumped up, allowing my hatred of jerry to fuel me as the terror’s camp got closer and closer, until I was at the front gates. I didn’t take the opportunity to look around, I simply walked right through, confident, knowing that I had this, that I wasn’t going to die today and I would complete this side mission.

The four terror’s that were carrying the pig creature were on the far site of the camp, they looked like they were arguing with one another but I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Their words were muffled by the thick, black spiked masks that they were wearing.

My chest continued to pound as I walked in, no one seemed to notice at first. That was until my foot caught on a rock in the ground and I fell flat on my face.

“Fuck!” I cursed as I clambered to my feet, that wasn’t the entrance I wanted and I certainly had the attention of all the terror’s whose feral gaze was now firmly on me and nothing else.

“I hope you know what you are doing,” I muttered under my breath, unsure if Raven could hear me, I didn’t really care. Right now I needed to ready myself for the fight I was just about to start.

The terrors screamed out loud, a battle drum started thundering around me, from where I had no clue but my heart beat faster than the drum as my adrenaline surged and my whole body started to tremble. What was I doing, it was too late to back out now as four terrors ran towards me, the ones that had carried in the pig thing. They all had weapons, weapons that looked bigger than mine, hatchets and maces, they were crudely shaped like they had been fashioned together with the resources they had here, not forged by a blacksmith.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I said to myself, momentarily frozen as the terror’s approached me. As they ran towards me I saw there levels and that at least let my confidence grow, they were all level 2 and 3 meaning I was a couple of levels higher than them. When the first one reached me he swung at me with his hatchet and I stepped out of the way, lunching forward with my cleaver. It made contact, slicing through the skin on its chest and it let out a squealing noise. I didn’t have time to see whether I had killed it as the other three approached.

I let out a roar, I didn’t want to trigger my berserk abuility yet, I only had it for thirty seconds and then I needed to wait for it to cool down and reset. I would need tow wait until I really needed to use.

The three terror’s hacked and slashed at me and I dodged and dipped out of th way desperately trying to avoid there attacks, each time jabbing out my cleaver at them. One by one the terrors dived at me with a crazed aggression, hurling insults, punching, kicking and swinging at me with their weapons. When they made contact their blows felt more like a dull thud rather than a blow, the pain was tolerable, more a discomfort. It was like being hit by a child. I continued to fight them off until eventually all four of the first wave of terror’s lay on the ground around me, dead. I had actually killed them, if I could have omitted I would o s bile rose in my throat. I reminded myself that these were not children these were my enemies, and dangerous ones at that.

Panting I looked up to see the rest of the terrors descending on me like ants, the fight was only just getting started.