In horror, Gris glanced down the length of the train. Rocco and the four experienced people with him had also dropped down from their car. They quickly rushed up to the top of the train.

“Guys,” Christian said, tapping on Gris’s shoulder. “We should go. Hell no. That sounded like a hungry dinosaur. What if it heard the train. What if it smelled us?”

“Sound travels strangely in the woods,” Jok said. “It could be extremely far away. Besides, even if we were to continue, it could just chase us. If it already knows we’re here, we're already dead.”

“He is right,” Vespemere said. “And no, I do not know what the monster is before you ask. All I know is that it is indeed far away. It shouldn’t know we are here.”

“Gee, that fills me with so much assurance,” Gris said sarcastically. “Thanks.”

“You are welcome, Gris,” replied Vespemere.

Do demons not understand sarcasm? Shaking his head, Gris said, “Then we should get started. There has to be a tree here to climb. The faster we get that done, we can get back on the rails where it’s safe-ish.”

Jok nodded. “We’ll have to find binoculars, unless Vespemere has enhanced eye-sight from, well, demon genetics or something.”

“I have nothing of the sort, I’m afraid,” replied Vespemere.

“I have them,” Rocco said as he took out a pair of advanced looking binoculars from the inside of his bag. He placed them around his neck with a strap that was attached to them.

“Great,” Jok said. “If you could hand them over? We’ll head into the forest and find a tree big enough to scout ahead.”

“Fat chance,” Rocco grumbled. “They’re mine.”

“Are you serious?” Jok asked, as if he wasn’t sure it was some sort of joke. From what Gris knew of him, the old man wasn’t joking.

“They’re a commodity now,” He said. “Unless you have something to hand over as trade. And no, I won’t take useless cash. We’re in the end times now.”

Yep. He’s fucking crazy.

“We’re all in this together,” Jok said with a frown. “But fine, whatever. Then you’ll be climbing the tree.”

He nodded, satisfied with that. It seemed like he always liked to get his own way. And people said the younger generation had no respect or manners.

Jok made sure that there were people to defend the train and its people before they all headed into the forest.

Gris kept his head on a swivel, and his knife in hand. Just because he was difficult to kill, didn’t mean that he had lost his sense of fear. It was still there. Very much so as evidenced by the tremble of his hand.

He hadn’t gotten the machete back from the big greenkin. That was an oversight. It would have been useful right about now, but he wasn’t exactly in the proper frame of mind to remember it.

Perhaps feeling Gris’s unease, his own summon had inched closer to him holding a bow and a quiver attached to his hip.

He had done archery a few times before during a holiday retreat. He had learned that historical archers always either had a quiver on their hip, or they just held them in their hand. He didn’t know why he remembered that. But he guessed he was a sucker for ancient history. Unlike modern archers with their name starting with ‘J’ that always used a back quiver. How did he even reach those arrows comfortably? It was beyond him.

Rule of cool, Gris thought with a smirk.

“What’s so funny?” Christian said, walking by his side.

“Huh?” Gris looked at him. “Nothing. Was just thinking of pointless stuff.”

“Hey, what did you do before all of this? Adrenaline junkie? Skydiving, perhaps?”

“No way,” Gris scoffed. “Just an office worker. IT. Logging users in and out. Restarting their computers. Stuff like that.”

“Damn, really? With what happened back there I was half expecting special forces military or something. That was a lot of bravery. Even if you received a hell of a skill. To knowingly take that kind of damage?” Crhsitan said in awe. He couldn’t help but stare at his still-healing wounds.

“Yeah…” Gris nodded. He hated talking. Well, he didn’t hate it. He just had no idea how to move the conversation forwards. He always ran out of things to talk about after the 5 minute mark. Or maybe it was his social battery running on empty. Ask him what he does for work, idiot. As if reminding himself, Gris said, “So what did you do?”

“I was–am, a business advisor. My dad got me into it. Honestly, I wasn’t a big fan. I dreaded every moment before work. My real passion was starting up my own business. But how do I tell the old man that I want to cut up and move somewhere else after having him teach me so much? I don’t know.”

Sounds troublesome.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Yeah–” Gris was about to ask the male-model another question when his greenkin summon let out a sudden low growl. Gris noticed he was cautiously gazing beyond the tree-line. All Gris could see was darkness.

Everyone else noticed the peculiar actions of Gris’s summon.

Gris ducked behind a tree and everyone took cover just a couple seconds after he did. Grabbing his Summon, Gris yanked him down to the floor right by his side.

Peering around the bottom of the tree, green flesh appeared. It was more greenkins. Four, six, eight… twelve in total appeared. It was a large amount. But Gris knew he could take them. Should he fight?

Strangely, he found his blood boiling. His brain itched, as if telling him to go forwards, to fight. To level. To grow stronger. It was so addicting that it was borderline feverish. The promise of progression was too strong to resist. He wanted to see his stats increase. He wanted to feel it. It was a feeling he had never experienced during his previous life, during work. He was no longer chained to a desk.

Gris’s hands itched. His grip tightened around the handle of his blade so hard that his knuckles turned white.

He glanced at the others. He was about to move, but he knew his actions would put the others at risk. If the monsters passed them by, then they didn’t need to fight. Didn’t need to risk becoming injured.

The little green creatures were moving straight at the train. One was getting so close to Gris that he could smell its terrible body odour. Or maybe that was his own Summon.

Jok motioned to Bo. Then to Christian. Then to Chloe and her demon. Then to–

Gris had already moved. He scrambled up to his feet and launched himself at the nearby greenkin. Sinking his blade into the throat of the beast with a well aimed strike, he snapped his knee to its face.

Not waiting to see the results of his surprise attack, he was already moving at high speed to the next enemy.

All the greenkins stood in a line spaced line of around 15 feet. Gris was on the furthermost left.

In a panic, the second greenkin slashed its machete to Gris’s chest. He didn’t bother dodging. He took the hit and felt a hot streak brand across his flesh, felt his blood trickle down his body. Because of its unstable attack, it wasn’t a deep cut. But even if it was, Gris didn’t care.

Gris, utilising his higher strength, picked up the beast by the throat. Two arrows swished through the air. One embedded into the held greenkin, and the other flew on by, striking a tree, narrowly avoiding Chloe’s head.

Approaching the 3rd goblin-like monster, it dropped its bow, and grabbed a serrated blade. It snarled. It tried to move to the side to get an accurate hit on Gris, but he just moved the creature in his hands accordingly. Incensed with rage, the greenkin slashed at his legs.

With a grin, Gris threw the greenkin at the other creature. It crashed into its body. Both of them tried to scramble to their feet, but Gris was already there. He stomped on one of their throats, then leapt onto the other one. Holding its skull against the forest floor, he plunged his knife into its throat, and twisted the blade.

An arrow plunged into his side. He ignored it. The other goblin that he had stomped on couldn’t breath. His strength was too high now. Every attack was effective. It didn’t matter if he was holding a blade or not.

Gris completely surrendered to his instincts. He let his body do all of the talking until he had killed a total of seven of the twelve.

[You have defeated a Level 3 - Greenkin]

| …

[You have Levelled up.]

| Level 5 -> 6

| You have Stats to assign.

Gris grabbed the two arrows sticking out of his abdomen, and pulled them out with a forceful tug.

Jok, Chloe, Christian, and the others belonging to Jocco, looked at him as if he was a crazy madman.

Perhaps he was…

But they had a mission to complete. They couldn’t stand still gawking at Gris. Jok was the first to gather everyone and continue. At some point, the wounds on his body had stopped bleeding. They started itching.

Cutting out into a clearing, they were met with a truly gargantuan tree. Gris craned his neck, looking all the way up. He couldn’t even see the top. He glanced at Rocco with a pitying look of disbelief. He’s meant to climb that thing?

Rocco tutted, but nonetheless started climbing it. He used the large crackling of bark as hand and feet holds. It looked surprisingly easy to climb, if one ignored the heights.

It took him a total of 30 minutes to climb the thing and return. Reaching near the bottom, he nodded to the others, a smile of factory emerging on his lips. “I found something,” he said, leaping down the remaining distance. It was only a 10 foot drop.

He went on to explain that there was a mass of black in the distance. He didn’t know how far it was exactly, but all he said was that it was far. It was practically just a blur. And the train tracks lead directly into it.

“Strange,” Jok said, crossing his arms with a frown. “What would cause a large area to just be dark like that?”

“Many things,” Vespemere said, everyone turned to listen. He continued, “It could be the dark element pervading over an area, could be a thick fog. It could be anything.”

“If it’s in viewing distance, then it’s close. I wonder if it's the next station?”

“Or it’s another terraformed area,” Gris added. “The System mentioned that Landmarks had arrived. I wonder if that’s what it is?”

Everyone turned to Vespemere. He stood to think for a minute, like he was trying hard to scour his memories. After a moment, he nodded. “I do know of Landmarks, although my current memories of them are rather blurry. Landmarks are fortuitous places that have been sent from around the multiverse. They are real places belonging to real planets. Many are dangerous. I think.”

Christian’s head perked up. “Fortuitous. So you’re saying they have good stuff?”

“I believe so.”

“Whatever it is,” Jok said, “we need to find other survivors, and a place where we can gather supplies. Food and water. Also, the larger we become, the safer we’ll be. Given Gris’s… vitality, there must be others with strange skills that may prove vital in having us all walk out of this in one piece.”

With that decided, they began their return.

However, 15 minutes later, a bestial roar sent a trembling shiver down everyones spines. It was heading straight for them. Gris snapped his attention to the north. The ground shook and the bushes in the distance fell.

Gris rushed over and picked up one of the bigger machetes that the greenkin’s had dropped. And then the huge monster appeared.

Oh, shit!

Quest gained: Deal the last blow on the Feral Bear.

| Reward: One free spin and a (Rare) weapon box.