They had been running for hours already. There wasn’t a single individual in the group that didn’t have some type of injury. Richard and Brandon did their best to brunt the worst of the battle, whether it was fighting multiple Goblins, or learning the hard way they could survive a grazing hit from a fireball with only a few burns, they braved it all.

They were not initially far from the Outpost, but the Goblins themselves seemed to know that and purposefully reinforced defenses on any paths that led towards the Outpost. This level of organization baffled Richard and the rest. It forced them to run away from the Outpost for a while as fighting melee battles against knife wielding Goblins while dodging the occasional fireball wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but eventually after some time Richard and Brandon just agreed to forcefully breakthrough.

They couldn’t run away forever or eventually they would get tired, and that’s without mentioning how tired the rest of the group was, as they didn’t have the stamina of someone in the Body Tempering realm.

So, with the risk of death of their mind, Richard and Brandon changed their positions with both of them running in tandem at the front of the group, swords were drawn, and convictions were steely. With the rest of the group following ready to support and fill gaps were needed it was a one shot attempt at escape. If they failed here…there was no need to consider that option as they wouldn’t be around to worry about it.

They met the forces of the Goblins head on, swords, hammers, arrows, and even a mace met the knives and fireballs of the Goblins. A prolonged battle would probably see the group lose their lives as more Goblins would gather over time, but this was not supposed to be a long fight.

After a path to the front was somewhat cleared, Richard and Brandon repositioned to the flanks of the group to help keep the path open.

“Don’t stop running! Keep your feet moving! Get to the Outpost no matter what!” Richard screamed out as he dodged a knife aimed to his side, followed by him driving his sword into the clavicle of the attacker. The Goblin fell backwards once Richard pulled his sword out, which provided him a little space that he made immediate use of to move in the direction of the Outpost.

Though the Goblins didn’t leave him that freedom for too long, by his third step towards the Outpost another basketball sized fireball flying in his direction, he quickly realized that dodging it would expose his friends to danger. It was then that a Goblin tried to stab him in his thigh once more to try and root him in place for the fireball to hit, but instead of immediately killing the Goblin, Richard grabbed him and threw him at the incoming fireball.

The force of the impact shot the body of the Goblin back towards Richard, who caught it and then immediately threw it once more towards the Goblin who fired off the fireball.

Richard didn’t even know if his throw made contact or even did any damage, but he didn’t care he just needed time. He glanced over at Brandon and saw that he too was doing his best to fight off Goblins while moving towards the Outpost as fast as they could.

This arrangement went for quite some time before the Outpost finally came into view. For some reason the Goblins stopped chasing completely as the group continued to make a beeline for the Outpost. Of course, the green man was still not standing out in front, so someone had to open the gate themselves.

Before long 12 bloody people exhaustingly made their way through the gates as the sun set in the background, almost as if to signify the end of the whole ordeal.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Everyone trickled into the Outpost while Brandon kept a watchful eye on the forest, worried a fireball would come flying throw the air any minute now. Inside, Richard did his best to gather the entire group together so that the injured could get the help they needed, he of course was among the most injured, yet his selfless attitude continued to shine forth as he orchestrated to medical efforts for the rest of the group. It took Trent to show up and almost forcibly drag Richard into a house and place him on a cot for him to rest.

Eventually someone came running in with one of the few health potions they had left, after Richard, Trent and Brandon used them to heal up after cultivating.

“Here Richard drink, don’t even bother talking man you look terrible. We will deal with all this later, for now you need to rest.” Trent spoke in a firm tone as he along with everyone else in the group knew by now that Richard would never rest if they left him to his own devices.

A little later, the same type of treatment was forced on Brandon as he was dragged back inside and given a cot to rest on, along with a potion. While everyone in the group all sustained various injuries, no one took on more damage than Richard and Brandon. It was only right they were given priority, and no one complained about it.

Jax watched all of this happen with frustration painted on his face. He wanted to help, he wanted to get a small piece of revenge on the man that knocked him out, but he was weak. Too weak to help, too weak to fight back, too weak to do anything.

He along with a lot of people all attempted to cultivate, but it was not easy to meditate long enough to sense the ambient Qi, then it was even harder to pull a wisp of it into your body, while most people failed at the sensing the ambient Qi, the next batch of people failed at pulling it, he failed once it made contact with his body.

His stamina was drained, and he didn’t have enough will power to bear with the pain of the Qi entering his body. He screamed out the second the pain hit him and fell unconscious once more. If it wasn’t for the fact that only 3 people in the entire group actually broke through, he would want to find a hole to hide in, though despite all of that he was finally at his breaking point. Either he would break through tonight, or he would die trying.

As everyone was busy trying to provide medical attention to the injured, it wasn’t hard for Jax to find a somewhat secluded area near one of the houses, while he would want some privacy from the group due to the fact he planned to cultivate until he broke through or his body broke down and Trent would most likely stop him, he didn’t want to go too far. He knew he would need some form of help even if he was successful.

POV Jax

‘Alright come on Jax! You can do this man, if that bastard could do it, you can too. Focus…sense the Qi…focus…sense the Qi…

Ten minutes later

Ah, there it is…I can sense the Qi…beautiful…alright I got here a little quicker than I did last time, now for the hard part.

That one seems close enough, come to me.’

Jax grit his teeth, as he willed the wisp of Qi to come towards him, bracing himself to deal with the immense pain that was sure to come.

Sweat began to build up on his body, as forcing the wisp of Qi to bend to your whims wasn’t an easy process for most people. Though eventually Jax’s focus paid off and the wisp of Qi finally made contact and entered his body.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to stop the pain, he wanted to just go sleep in his bed back home before the Tutorial began, but he pushed on, because more than any of those things he wanted to help the people whose been there for him since this Tutorial began, despite the fact Richard didn’t want to help with that bastard, he would take care of that himself.

He wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t want to kill him, but he truly felt he deserved a beating. One that came from his own two hands.

With that type of motivation, he pushed and pushed until he felt something within him shift and the wisp of Qi left his body on its own.

Jax probably would’ve smiled, if his body wasn’t now ravaged with wounds and sweat and blood mixed to paint quite the scene. He laid down on the ground and let out one weak and hoarse scream with the last of strength as he immediately fell unconscious once more. He thought to himself that this was happening way too often.