After taking down the Orcs that attacked them, Astrid and her subordinates relocated and started setting up camp in a new spot within the forest island. Despite being on a floating island, the entire land was extremely massive; several acres large.

Even after a couple of days had passed by, Astrid and her group barely covered a portion of the forest island. It was simply that enormous. How could such a large landmass be supported like this while in space? It didn’t make a lick of sense to her.

It didn’t take long for the group to finally set up their new camping spot. There was a makeshift fire pit along with five beds made of moss which the dark elves would use to sleep on when they get tired. Astrid was currently sitting on her moss bed while crafting some more arrows for herself.

In her hand was a roughly crafted stone. She was grinding it against a large piece of rock to shape it into an arrowhead before tying it around a stick to make an arrow. Next to her was a small pile of freshly made arrows like the one she was working on.

As a Ranger, her Class relied on ranged attacks from bows and the like. When she first chose the class, the system provided her with a certain amount of arrows. However, the majority of them were either lost or destroyed after using the projectiles against monsters. Astrid would even collect the arrows that she fired to conserve them, but after repeatedly firing the same arrows multiple times, their durability plummeted rather quickly.

Because of that, she had no choice but to craft more. Thankfully, Astrid was experienced in making arrows since she did it a lot back in her home. In fact, that was one of the reasons why she chose the Ranger Class in the first place.

Astrid was a skilled archer and had a knack for archery. It was thanks to her talent with a bow that she was able to become captain so early. So, she figured that Ranger was the best class for her.

While making more arrows, her subordinates were also busy maintaining their weapons. Among their members, only Astrid and Liva possessed the Ranger Class, since both of them were the most skilled at archery. As for the others, two of them had the Warrior class while the last one was a Rogue.

There were no Clerics or Mages, primarily because no one within their group knew how to use magic or heal people. There was also the issue involving Clerics since they relied on divine power and would likely make a pact with some kind of divine being, which went against the dark elves' culture.

The only divine force Astrid’s tribe believed in was nature. It was all around them and provided her people with everything they needed. To choose a Cleric class, a dark elf would to choose some unknown deity over Nature, which they have known their whole lives.

As Astrid continued her arrow crafting, one of her subordinates walked over and sat down next to her.

“Is there something you need, Dolk?”

“Nothing really. Just wanted to see how you were doing.”

Sitting next to her was one of her most trusted subordinates, Dolk. He had a slender build, not of a warrior but of an assassin, which is why he chose the Rogue Class. Unlike Astrid, who had long silver hair tied into a ponytail, Dolk’s silver hair was short, which he preferred since having too much hair would obstruct his vision.

Dolk was also considered Astrid’s right-hand dark elf since he was the most capable and reliable soldier in her team. He would sometimes advise her on certain subjects like how to deal with invaders or hunt game for the tribe.

Not only that, but Dolk was also a childhood friend, and Astrid happily accepted him into her group when he was assigned to her.

“So,” Dolk started. “what’s our next move?”

“Same as before, I guess,” Astrid shrugged. “We all need to at least reach level ten before attempting to locate a Sub-Boss. Hopefully, there is one in this forest.”

Gaining more levels was their highest priority at the moment. Especially Dolk and the rest of her subordinates. While Astrid already reached level nine, they were barely past level five. During the time they first arrived in this dungeon, Astrid did most of the work since she adapted a little quicker to their situation. Afterward, the rest of her people quickly picked up the slack and they acted as a team.

There was also the fact that Astrid has been going up against stronger enemies on purpose to increase her XP and level up faster. She was experienced in fighting tougher foes back home, so this wasn’t anything new to her.

“Shouldn’t we move on to a different island?” Dolk suggested. “This place has enemies, but I feel that we’ll be able to gain more if we expand our territory a bit.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Astrid shook her head. “No, we have the home-field advantage in this place since this forest is much like ours back home. We need to make sure of that until we reach level ten. Plus, we barely scratched the surface of this place.”

“Yeah,” Dolk nodded. “That and we received some kind of mystery box that had food and water for us to drink.” He chuckled. “I still find it hard to believe the water was somehow stored in those transparent flexible bottles.”

Around a day or so ago, Astrid received what was called a dungeon challenge where she needed to kill a horde of monsters that she and her group were targeting. In return, the reward was a Common Loot box along with some stat points to make her stronger.

Astrid already planned to take them down, so the reward only drove the group to kill them more. And when they did kill the horde of monsters, Astrid was rewarded with the loot box, which contained food and water for them to consume.

Dolk pulled out a jerky and took a bite, gleefully chewing it like it was the best thing he ever consumed. “I still can’t believe that this came from some mystery box.”

Astrid turned to her friend and cocked an eyebrow while grinning. “You find that more unbelievable than some magical system teleporting us to some dungeon in space with floating islands?”

Dolk lightly chuckled, realizing what he just said. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He rubbed the back of his head before his expression stiffened. “So…how do you think things are doing back in our world? Apparently, it's being merged with another world, right?”

Astrid paused and stopped grinding her rock against her stone arrowhead. A sullen expression plastered on her face. She took a moment to collect herself then sighed deeply.

“I’m not sure…” She confessed. “Since our world is being merged with a foreign one, I would assume that there will be chaos once all of the residents return from their respective dungeons. Other than that, I don’t know.”

Although Astrid said this, she had a few ideas on how different things would be once they returned home. Since two worlds were going to become one, that meant they were bound to encounter other people from the other world. And that in itself would cause a lot of turmoil.

There will be conflict, territory disputes, and so much more. Which is why Astrid was so determined to leave this dungeon as fast as possible. She had to so she could prevent her tribe from getting overwhelmed by the quarrels of war between worlds.

While Astrid fretted over this, her eyes glanced over at Dolk as she noticed him looking a bit nervous, which confused her.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Hmm? A-ah, it’s nothing…” Dolk said nervously.

“I can tell it’s not nothing, Dolk,” Astrid stated sternly. “Spill it.”

After pressuring Dolk to confess, he groaned deeply and raised his head so he could stare at the stars above them.

“You…you know your siblings are going to fight you for Tribal Chief, right? Especially Kollr.”

Astrid could feel her skin crawl at the mere mention of one of her siblings' names. Kollr was the oldest son and second oldest of their family. However, due to some issues, Astrid and Kollr didn’t see eye to eye. This was mostly because of their competition the position of Tribal Chief.

Although Astrid was the oldest sibling and the one who was the heir to the title, there were other ways for the other siblings to take the title instead. One of them was fighting for the title in a Tribal Standoff.

There were multiple occasions in the past when siblings fighting for the title of Tribal Chief would do the Tribal Standoff to see who was more worthy of it. Even the current Chief, Astrid’s father, had to do a Tribal Standoff himself against one of his siblings and won.

However, there was another reason why Astrid and Kollr had such a strained relationship. It was because she didn’t like Kollr’s personality. He was a manipulative person who used people to get what he wanted. And she bore witness to such an act, and Astrid realized just what kind of person her brother truly was.

Which is why she could never allow him to become the Tribal Chief. Kollr didn’t care about the tribe, only his own self-interest. And if his self-interest involved the destruction of their tribe, then Astrid couldn’t let him take the title.

“Kollr can try and take the title from me, but it won’t be easy.”

“Maybe so, but if we were given the chance to get stronger through leveling up, then Kollr was given the same opportunity. And you know what he’s like.”

“Yeah, I do,” Astrid turned to Dolk with a glare. “And yet you still remain friends with him.”

Since Astrid and Dolk were childhood friends, it stood to reason that Kollr was also his friend as well. Though, even after she broke off ties with her brother, Dolk still maintained his friendship with him. And that certainly angered Astrid a bit.

Dolk shrunk back in shame, lowering his head to avoid looking at Astrid. “I-I know you hate that, but I feel that he can still change, Astrid.”

Astrid scoffed. “Just a second ago, you talked about how Kollr was going to fight me for the title, and now you think he can change?”

“I only said that because I don’t want you guys to fight! That’s the one thing I never want to happen.”

Dolk gently grasped Astrid’s hand, with a troubled expression on his face. They stared at one another for a moment.

“Then what do you expect me to do? Let Kollr take the title and have him doom our tribe?”

“That’s not what I-!”

“Enough,” Astrid interjected, causing Dolk to pause. “I don’t want to hear anymore.”

Her hands forcibly pulled away from Dolk’s, as she abruptly stood up from her bed, walking away from her companion.

“Astrid, where are you going?” He asked sounding concerned.

“To blow off some steam, alright?” She said coldly, not even sparing a glance at him. “I’ll be back soon.”

Without explaining further, Astrid walked further into the forest before she disappeared entirely from Dolk’s sight, deciding to look for some prey to hunt. It was the best way for her to destress.

And she especially needed it now after the conversation she had about her brother. Just thinking about Kollr gave Astrid a bad case of indigestion. She could barely stomach his existence after knowing who he truly was.

Which was why she was going to do everything in her power to prevent that bastard from becoming the next Tribal Chief. No matter what it took.