On the way to the to the Dungeon, two more notifications rang out.

Ding!

Ronnie is now the Leader of Outpost L

Ding!

Tenzen is now the Leader of Outpost Z

Ronnie and Tenzen huh. I wonder how strong they are. Or perhaps how they convinced their Outposts to let them become the Leader. Could it be because of their strength or was it through good old fashioned diplomacy. I’m sure the system has a reason for making us select a Leader, even going as far as to say it will select one for us if we don’t choose, so perhaps I’ll get to meet them.

I still really hope it’s not some cliché tournament though.

I also know I’m extremely positive that I’m going to forget their names at some point, but this is why people like Richard exist, and why I’m thankful for having someone like that as an ally.

The second both notifications rang out, he made us stop so that he could scribble down their names, along with their Outposts on a piece of paper. I didn’t even think to do that, but that’s Richard for you.

We passed by the Goblin Outpost on the way, but the team sent to that one was already in so we just missed them. But we eventually reached the Goblin Village. Richard then began his spiel, on what to expect in the Dungeon. We have discussed it all before, but it doesn’t hurt to have a final prep talk.

“Now, we don’t know exactly what to expect, but we have some ideas as previously discussed. It is likely that we’ll find some type of village as stated in the name. Think of the Outpost for example. It will likely be something along those lines, but since there is already a Goblin Outpost Dungeon, it’s expected that it will be bigger, and likely more suited for living.

“With that being said, we’re expecting a lot of danger. Both the Green Den, and the Goblin Outpost were still E Class Dungeons, meanwhile this one is D Class. This would be our first Dungeon of this Class, and the minimum cultivation required reflects that. Five 4th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators. That is a significant leap in requirement. So, expect to fight 5th Cycle equivalent Hobgoblins.

“If anything stronger than that shows up the plan is to run, hide and do our best to stay out of Raizen’s way. Raizen will enter first, and we will wait a few seconds before following him in. Hopefully we show up together like the previous two Dungeons, but if for some reason we don’t disengage from any hostiles if possible and regroup away from danger. If that isn’t possible then act freely until it is. The key is to survive.

“Any questions?”

No one had any questions for him, not even Nate, who had never gone into any of the Dungeons before this one. Of course, it was explained to him in detail just what they were and how they worked before this, but it would definitely be a bit different to experience it firsthand…

Welcome to the Goblin Village

(D) Class Dungeon

Five 4th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended

Enter? Yes/No

I accepted the prompt and quickly found myself in another forest, but it didn’t take me very long to realize I didn’t see a single village. It was just a typical forest. The trees weren’t so thick that I couldn’t see the blue sky above me, and the sun was shining all around. I heard the sounds of birds in the distance, saw small animals dash about the place, and in the distance, I could even hear what I think to be a small stream. This is different.

The Goblin Village

Objective: Kill the Chief

Or

Objective: Survive for 1 Day

Cannot Leave Before Either Objective Is Complete

Interesting…

A moment later, Richard, Nate and Brandon all arrived together. It’s good we didn’t all get separated. Especially since the expected village is nowhere to be seen.

“So, this is Dungeon…not what I was expecting. It feels like we haven’t left the Tutorial at all. It’s as if I was back at my camp before moving to the Outpost.”

“Yeah, where is the Villa…oh I just got the Objective notification. Two different objects…that’s a first. Raizen. What do you want to do?”

‘Richard has been directing more and more questions like this to me recently, as if forcing me to do more leadership like things. I won’t ask him about it though. Anyway, what do I want to do huh...’

“We will try to kill the Chief, if it isn’t possible we’ll focus on surviving. First things first let’s find this village.”

“Sounds good, we should focus on stealth as much as possible so let’s move quietly and keep talking to a minimum. Any questions?”

“Would it be faster to scout on our own? To cover more ground.”

It was a question from Nate, since Brandon didn’t have much to say as always. I’ll answer this one.

“There could be 5th Cycle Hobgoblins lurking all over the place. It’s best to stay together for now. I hear water in the distance come with me.”

Everyone nodded and we moved together as silently as possible towards the sounds of water I was hearing.

We weren’t ninjas by any means but compared to the other sounds of the forest around us, we were pretty quiet, and we traveled like this for roughly 40-ish minutes before we could finally see what was actually a small river and not just a stream. It wasn’t flowing very fast, and it was only about 6 feet across. Though none of that was what caught our attention.

There were Goblins.

A small squad of 5. One Hobgoblin, and 4 normal Goblins. They were walking parallel with the river and had weapons in their hands. The normal Goblins had small knives while the Hobgoblin carried a large mace.

Was this just a patrol perhaps?

Not sure, but they weren’t really far enough for us to start talking out loud. We were currently crouched down behind some shrubs as we watched them patrol the riverbank. The fact that they are patrolling here should mean that their village can’t be too far away, so what should I do. Wait for them to potentially leave? Or perhaps I should kill them right here and now.

Hmm. I took a look at the other three and they aren’t even watching the Goblins. There’re just looking at me, waiting for a decision. It’s all on me huh. Fine fine.

Above our heads, five small black arrows quickly formed out of my black flames and before the Goblins realized what was going on, they were all struck in the head and burned to ash shortly after. The big one wasn’t able to resist like the 4th and 5th Cycle ones did, so it was like 2nd or 3rd Cycle equivalent. Interesting.

Now for the hard part.

“Richard, what do you think? Should we keep going in this direction? Or follow the river up or downstream?”

Yeah, now you got to make a decision.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to pick a direction based on what we know so far, so I don’t think anyone would fault you for whichever way you decide to do.”

No way he managed to flip it back to me. Whatever.

“Hm, fine let’s just keep going.”

I didn’t really have a reason to pick that direction, I just did. Around 10 minutes later and it proved to be the right decision. We ran into another patrol just like the first one, and I took it out the same way as the first. We pressed on for another 40ish minutes and in that time, we ran into 2 more patrols, but Richad and the others took those two out instead of me. I would protect them, but I wasn’t here to babysit them. But the reason we stopped walking now was because we finally saw it. In front of us was a massive clearing, where a stone wall about 6 feet in height, and behind it stood various buildings. I couldn’t see the whole village but I’m assuming they were houses. Goblins were everywhere. Both Hobgoblins and normal Goblins were coming in and out of the Village. They looked like other patrol groups.

“So…what do all think?”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Honestly. It would be very hard to sneak in there. We’re better off just going all out in the beginning or just hiding in the forest.”

“Hm. We could also just go around getting rid of all the patrol groups leaving the Village. Bring their numbers down as much as possible, before raiding the village itself.”

“We should just send Raizen to set it on fire and then kill whoever comes running it out.”

Nate, Richard and Brandon all gave their opinions, and I thought over them for a moment. All of them made good points, but Brandon’s idea resonated with me the most. I really didn’t want to waste time going around killing patrols when I can just burn them all.

“We’ll go with Brandon’s idea. Get ready.”

I took a deep breath and gripped my spear, then charged out towards the village walls. It didn’t take long for them to spot me and before I knew it various shouting and eventually bells? Yeah, bells were sounding out in the village. Arrows soon came flying my way from somewhere, but I dodged them without issue and quickly made my way to the wall, before slamming the butt of my spear into the ground, causing an ocean of flames to rise up along this side of the village.

And with a roar, they came crashing down like a small tsunami crashing down on the coast of some unfortunate fishing village. Various screams could immediately be heard, but I didn’t stay there to listen, I quickly made my way back towards the group as they had stepped out behind me to fight the few Goblins that were already outside of the village. They didn’t need my help, and they were done in a few moments.

We grouped up after to watch as my flames continued to burn within the village for a few moments with no one running out, until a roar was heard.

“RAHHHHH!!”

That didn’t sound good.

“Boys. Stay together but run and don’t look back.”

“Raiz-”

“Richard, I said to fucking run.”

Something about that Roar gave me a bad feeling, the same type of feeling I had when I failed to completely protect the Outpost on the first day of the last stage. Something was very wrong. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but the Goblin that unleashed that raw is probably not something to mess with. At least not while having to protect them.

It’s a good thing they didn’t need to be told a third time, and they began sprinting as if their life depended on it.

And it’s a good thing they did.

A moment later, a Hobgoblin that looked very different than what we’ve seen to date came charging out of the village, with two other Hobgoblins in its arms. A few other Hobgoblins came charging out as well, each carrying Goblins of their own, but they were all on fire. It wouldn’t take much longer for them to burn to death.

All of them except for one.

The main Hobgoblin.

It looked shorter than its counterparts by a foot, and it was also slightly leaner, yet its muscles looked stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. The differences didn’t stop their either, its armor was all black and definitely looked stronger than anything I was wearing, and that was without mentioning the steel mace that it now wielded in its hands after dropping its brethren and turning towards me with hate filled eyes.

I suppose that’s deserved.

None of that worried me though. It wasn’t on fire. Nothing. Even when it held its fellow Goblins who were all burning, the fire seemed like it was unable to latch onto him. This would be troublesome.

Especially since the second he appeared my instincts have screaming danger to me over and over again. Just standing here before him I started to feel afraid. Of course that was until my flames roared to life within me. This wasn’t going to be a battle I could avoid no matter how far I ran; I knew this monster would catch me. Better to stand my ground. Plus…I didn’t want to run in the first place.

Isn’t this what you’ve wanted Raizen?!

A battle you couldn’t run from against a superior opponent?!

Instead of a smile making its way onto my face, it was a mad grin that bloomed in its place.

“Come!”

I screamed at the Hobgoblin and instead of responding with audible words it roared once more and darted in my direction.

Fast!

Before I knew it, the Hobgoblin was upon me with a mace crashing down towards my head.

Shit.

I jumped back as far as I could, and the mace crashed into the ground where I was just standing.

Boom!

A small crater remained as a cloud of dust rose up in the area and the Hobgoblin charged through it with a speed I could barely keep up with and the mace was now coming straight for my left side. There was no time to dodge so I moved my spear to block and covered my entire left side in flames.

ARRHHHH!!!

Neither the flames nor my spear did anything as the mace crashed into the left side of my body and sent me flying about 5 feet before crashing into a tree that broke on impact but still stopped my flight.

My left arm…it was both punctured from the spikes and crushed from my shoulder to my elbow…

Fuck…

Ah that shit hurts.

I barely got time to tend to my wounds before I heard a familiar roar and the Hobgoblin was upon me once more.

Fuck.

I didn’t even wait to see the attack it would deliver and instead just jumped backwards as my left arm dangled to the side.

The broken tree I was leaning on, was reduced to splinters in one swing, and the Hobgoblin took another step towards me.

This can’t continue.

I let out a shout of my own.

“C’MON BROTHER BURN IT! BURN IT ALL!!”

I cried out to my flames and promptly an inferno of flames erupted from my chest and everything within 40 feet in all directions was covered in deep, rich, black flames.

I stood weakly among the flames as my left arm hung weakly and I panted for air. My body was definitely healing faster than ever before, but my left arm was truly damaged beyond reason so it would take a while to fully heal.

I took a couple seconds to catch my breath as I waited to see how the Hobgoblin fared in all this fire.

It only took a moment before the result showed itself before me.

My heart almost dropped.

The Hobgoblin was practically unharmed as it walked slowly towards me.

The mad glint in its eyes was gone by now.

Instead, it was replaced with what looked to be a hint of wariness.

Ah you’re afraid now huh.

Here, watch this.

“Vorrash.”

The world went black.

The area was already covered in black flames, but this was a step above that. Everything went black.

Then that thing that I felt last time was back, and I got that same familial feeling when I felt it watching me. I didn’t have time to worry about that though…I focused on the Hobgoblin in front of me and willed for it to die…I don’t know exactly how it worked last time as I was a bit out of it, but I didn’t know what else to do other than willing with every fiber of my being for that Hobgoblin to die.

It was then I heard a voice in my head.

“You’re not strong enough to properly use this power little one. I’ll help you.”

That was all it said, before the darkness faded away as if it was never there. The Hobgoblin was still standing though. Only something was different.

It was screaming.

My flames were still blazing strong around it, and it was finally being burned.

I stood there and watched as it slowly and methodically scorched from the flames. It’s very flesh and bones being eaten away as if a plague had taken hold of it’s body.

From that point, only a couple of minutes later and the monster of a Hobgoblin was on it’s last legs as it fell to floor and squirmed around until even it’s very life was burned away. Then it too became ashes.

Heh.

I should feel some type of happiness about this, but all it was, was another reminder of my weakness. If that V-word power that I don’t even understand didn’t work, I likely would’ve died here.

Tch.

No use in crying about it.

The Goblin Village

Objective (Kill Goblin Chief): Complete

Congratulations

Granting Rewards

Right after that notification appeared in front of me, the feeling of being teleported took hold of me and I was suddenly back in front of the Dungeon entrance. Huh.

“What the…”

“How…”

“What…??”

Richard, Brandon, and Nate all showed up with me. They weren’t the only other things to show up, as a small chest was at my feet.

I didn’t get a chance to reach down and open it though…

“Raizen! Your arm! I’m grabbing a potion give me a sec!”

I didn’t bother saying anything as I just took the potion from Richard and drank it. My arm still hurt like hell, but it was in a much better shape compared to a couple minutes ago. Still couldn’t really move it much though.

“Thank you, Richard. My arm will be okay soon. I’m assuming you all were fine?”

“...We ran into another patrol but apart from that we made it over the river and ran past the area we arrived in for a few moments and just waited there. We could see the flames you created from way over there but trusted you and waited. At some point that same darkness from before descended and we essentially couldn’t move, only for it to go away just as quickly and next thing you know we were being teleported.

“I’m assuming that thing at your feet is our reward?”

“Seems like.”

I squatted down and opened the lid to see what all that effort amounted to.

It was 5 silver coins. Hm, that was a lot, of course that wasn’t all it was. Next to it, was what appeared to be 3 ingots? Hm. They were pitch black in color, but apart from that they looked like typical ingots you might see in a certain crafting game.

Hm.

I suppose I won’t know the value of that and if it was worth it until we figure out what these ingots were worth. I reached to pick one up, and it was surprisingly light. That’s a good thing right?

Who knows.

Anyway, we packed up and made our way back to the Outpost, and quickly learned that all the other teams had arrived ahead of us, and it was right then that a string of notifications sounded off in front of me.

Exactly 13 of them.

13 notifications about who became leaders of whatever Outpost. That brought our total up to 16 Outpost now with a Leader. That now left 10 more who hadn’t found one yet. Interesting.

Of course, Richard wrote all the names down like he previously did.

After making sure everyone was alright, and ensuring Irene that my arm would be fine before the day was over, seeing as how I could actually move my shoulder now. It really was crushed beyond reason for it to take this long to heal huh.

Anyway, Brandon took the Ingots to the Blacksmith while I made my way to the Outpost Leader’s office. I needed to ask about the Hobgoblin.

A few moments later.

“It was likely a Hobgoblin that reached Qi Refinement. Your flames burn extremely hot, but they lack Qi. They would never be able to burn someone or something that is being protected by Qi.”

“I see.”

I wonder if I should try to reach Qi Refinement tonight.

“If you’re thinking about breaking through to Qi Refinement now, then I suggest you wait. You will be transported out of the Tutorial tomorrow. I believe one of your people will be waiting. It would be best to consult with them regarding your cultivation.”

“…I suppose that makes sense.”

I left and made it back to my house, but not before Richard found and let me know the ingots were apparently something called Tempered Black Iron. A Qi level ingredient and something the Blacksmith can’t do anything with during the Tutorial. It’s about to be over anyway so I guess that doesn’t matter.

I took a few hours to myself to freshen up, eat a couple food pills and allow my arm to heal a bit more before making my way back outside with the others.

It was late into the evening now the entire Outpost was gathered together at the training grounds.

We divided up all the supplies between the entire group just in case we would all be sent to different places back on Earth. For some reason I ended up with all the ingots though.

Moving on, time continued to pass as everyone chatted with each other about their experiences in the Tutorial, what Earth is going to be like, and many other things, but eventually the moment we were all waiting for came.

Though as the moment came, I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the other Outposts. By the end of the night no other Leader notifications were announced. Hm.

Anyway, a blinding flash came up over the entire group and I instinctively shielded my eyes.

When I opened them, I was expecting to see some broken building, maybe even an overgrown forest, or perhaps a monster dog or cat even…but instead I opened my eyes to see that I was still in the training grounds…Except there was a large white dome over us now and some type hologram projection of the metal man who tore through space and gave that weird salute greeting two months ago was floating above us.

He opened his mouth to speak, and a voice laced with power and authority sounded out.

“Congratulations on surviving the Tutorial.”

~ End of Book 1 ~