POV Jax

That felt really good. I finally had a chance to get a little revenge on that bastard for thinking he could just knock me out and get away with it. I respect Richard a lot, but I completely disagree with what he was saying. Life before the Tutorial was always a dog eat dog world, what about now? People are fighting monsters with medieval weapons and getting stronger by cultivating.

What will happen after the Tutorial? Governments are all gonna be gone basically, there’s no need to worry about our old way of life anymore. We have the power to control our own futures now, so if someone hurts you, why can’t you hurt them back?

Either way, if that idiot knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay quiet and keep his head down from now on. Why does Richard treat him like he’s all important anyway? He’s just one guy. So what he got to Body Tempering before us? He probably woke up next to the Outpost and had things easier than we did.

Whatever the case, now we have more than a couple people in Body Tempering realm, and we don’t need to worry about him anymore.

Richard was definitely overthinking this. Plus, I even ensure he got home ‘safely’. Yeah, he was definitely overthinking this.

Anyway, let’s head back to the gate to make sure everything is alright. What even was that monster? Of course, that bastard somehow led it here and put us all in danger in the process. sigh Lets just see what Richard has to say and if he wants to do anything about it.

POV Richard

“Richard! Come out! It’s an emergency!” Cristine yelled out at the entrance of the house.

Another one?! Are they attacking again?! I rushed out of the house to find Cristine standing there, a little sweat on her brows from obviously running here.

“What happened? Are the Goblins attacking again?!”

“No! Well, kinda? Anyway, just listen!” Ignoring Richard’s confused expression Cristine continued.

“Its that guy you said we should leave alone, he showed up out of nowhere all of a sudden. We were guarding the Outpost, and next we know that guy was running like his life was on the line towards the Outpost. He was clearly very hurt, and his chest area was covered in blood.

“I’m not really sure how he was even still running in that condition, but he looked to be on his last legs. Though that’s not the reason for the emergency. That was because of what was chasing him. I’ve never seen anything like that before Richard. It was a gigantic monstrosity of a Goblin. It looked to be well over 6 ft and had enough muscles to make body builders back home look skinny.

“It chased after the man for a while, before stopping and letting out a roar and then promptly disappeared back into the forest. It all happened so fast, that some of us even froze when that…thing showed up.”

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I don’t even know where to start…a true monster was out there in the forest…one that injured Raizen to the point of running for his life, and based on what Cristine said, he almost didn’t make it. Wait…Raizen…

“Wait what about Raizen? Did he make it? Where is he?”

“He stumbled his way to the gate, but someone helped take him home.”

What? Someone took him home? That’s…odd.

“Who took him home?”

“…It was Jax.”

Jax…Jax took him home…don’t tell me…there’s no way he would do something to him right? To an injured man at that? No…Jax’s better than that.

“…Let’s hurry to the gate to look at the situation.”

Richard eventually found his way back to the Gate, with Cristine following right behind him. He saw that the situation was under control, and there was no sign of the monster in sight. He had his suspicions as to why the monster hadn’t chased Raizen all the way to the Outpost, but without more details they would remain just suspicions for now.

“Cristine, just to make sure I understand everything that happened. Raizen come running through towards the Outpost, clearly injured and needing help, and an extremely large Goblin was chasing him and most likely the reason for his injuries right?”

“Yes, that sounds about right.”

“Then shortly after the large Goblin made its presence known, it let out a loud roar and quickly took off back into the forest, and since then hasn’t been seen again?”

“Yes, I believe so. I ran off to come let you know the situation, but everything looks calm here, so I don’t think any of the other guys saw anything while I left.”

Hmmm, why did he run back into the forest? If he really was the one to injure Raizen and chased him from wherever, why would he stop now? Is it because he saw more of us? Is it because he saw the large Outpost? Something about this doesn’t feel right at all.

Where did Raizen even find this bastard? The only thing we saw in the forest were regular Goblins with knives and the ones who could send fire balls at us. So where did this big guy come from, and why is he so vastly different in size from the other Goblins.

I really need to speak with Raizen when he…oh there’s Jax.

“Jax, I heard what happened. Glad everyone’s safe. How’s Raizen?”

“Yeah it was all kind of abrupt. One moment everything’s calm, and then next you know some idiot who was clearly in over his head comes running at us, leading a damn monster of a Goblin straight towards us. Thankfully it seemed to lose interest and went back into the forest.

“Who knows what would’ve happened if it ran all the way to the Outpost?”

“Yeah all true, but Jax. How is Raizen actually doing? You brought him home right?”

“Yeah I helped him out, despite all the ‘good’ he did us here today.”

“Jax.”

“He’s alive and in his home, that’s all I got.”

“…I’ll take you word for it then.”

“Good, now what do you want to do about the monster? It seemed a lot stronger than us.”

“That’s a great question, for now…nothing. We don’t know enough about it, where it came from, how it fights, and why it didn’t chase all the way. For now, all the on guard rotation for the night just need to be made aware of the potential threat.

“The current word is not to engage and instead immediately barricade in the Outpost and get help. I don’t think what you all have been describing is something a few of us can fight. It will probably take all of us, especially it shows up with more regular Goblins by its side. Or even worse, if there are multiple Goblins of that size running around in there.”

“Alright that sounds like a plan. I’ll make sure when the next squad comes to relieve us, they know what to look out for.”

“Appreciate that Jax. I will make sure to try and talk to Raizen in the morning to get more information on the monster. Then we can figure out how to best deal with it.”

That last sentence annoyed Jax more than he cared to show to Richard, so he just walked off after giving him a nod to acknowledge what he said.

Richard on the other hand, just watched intensely as Jax walked away.

Something was bugging him about this whole situation, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He eventually left, hoping a nice rest in the night would put his mind at ease.