“Oh, I completely forgot!” Andy gasped as they walked through the town square, the Defender now wearing a full set of iron armour, several pieces covered in rust, pointing to a large white stone building Jake had noticed earlier, “You should bind your respawn point to here.”

“Respawn point?” Jake asked.

“Yep, where your ghost appears when you die, not that there’s anything around here that could actually kill you, but better safe than sorry,” the man said, dragging Jake towards the temple.

They quickly entered, Andy leading Jake to a large crystal obelisk in one corner, motioning for him to put his hand on it. Jake did, getting a new screen as he touched it.

Bind your soul to this point?

Y/N?

“Bind my soul?” Jake blinked at the wording, Andy just chuckling.

“It’s just flavour text, man,” Andy explained, “All it means is your ghost will appear next to it when you die.”

“Oh, okay,” Jake nodded, accepting the prompt, a strange tingling sensation running through his hand, “There, done.”

“Great,” Andy hummed, turning around and almost colliding with a robed woman, “Oh, sorry!”

“It is quite alright,” the woman hummed, “I had simply come to ask if you had any coin to donate to the Temple.”

“Ah, right,” Andy sighed, “Sorry, a little strapped on cash at the moment.”

“That is quite alright,” she nodded, before turning to Jake, “And you, your lordship? Perhaps you have a few coppers to donate?”

“Huh? Oh, yes,” Jake nodded as he pulled out a gold coin, the pair having gone to the bank previously, Jake withdrawing a considerable sum, dropping it into the small box she was holding, her eyes going wide.

“Y-your lordship is so generous!” she gasped, quickly bowing to Jake, “This humble Priestess thanks you greatly for your contributions to the Temple of Healing.”

“It’s alright,” Jake said nervously, looking at Andy as the man rolled his eyes at him, “I, uhm…didn’t realise that giving that much would be a problem.”

“It is not a problem at all, your lordship,” she shook her head, “May Healios look favourably down upon you and yours.”

“Healios?” Jake asked as the woman hurried off.

“God of Healing Magic,” Andy explained, “There’re gods for just about everything in this world, but Healios is one of the biggest and most followed.”

“Is he a Primal?” Jake asked as they left the Temple, Andy shaking his head.

“Nah, just a regular god by my understanding,” Andy hummed, “He does exist though. I think he’s actually like one of the AI that handle stuff in the game.”

“AI?” Jake muttered, his thoughts going back to Gaia. Did that mean that she was also an AI? She had seemed so real to him though; he had easily mistaken her for a real person.

“Yep, anyway, let’s get back to the Adventurers’ Guild, I want to take a Quest and see how you do,” Andy laughed, “I bet you could one shot the Goblin Lord World Boss by now. Especially with that one Title of yours.”

------

“There they are,” Blake said as the three men followed behind the other two and the wolf, spotting them coming out of the Temple, “Damn, did the tank upgrade his armour?”

“The Firster must have bought it for him,” Flame grunted, “See, I told you that getting in with that guy would be a good thing!”

“You aren’t kidding,” Trent muttered, “But how do we do it?”

“Dunno,” Flame sighed, “I mean, saving him from a perilous situation would be great, but I doubt anything around here could do him any real damage. Plus, he’d probably take it out before we could jump in.”

“They’re heading back to the Adventurers’ Guild, looks like,” Blake hummed, “They’re probably going to take a Quest and leave town for a bit.”

“Damn, we need to follow them, then,” Flame growled, “I am not letting the Firster get away from me that easy!”

“Yeah, but how do we even get his attention?” Trent groaned, the small party jogging after the two men, “He’ll probably just see us as nuisances or something!”

“You know,” Blake said as they hurried along the street, the other two looking at him as he spoke, “We could just ask?”

------

“Excuse me?”

The voice was low and nervous as Jake and Andy turned to look at its owner, the skinny man in a ragged robe swallowing loudly as he stood in front of them, clutching his staff like a lifeline.

“Yes?” Jake asked, Andy already rolling his eyes.

“I, uhm…I was wondering…if it would be okay to, you know, party with you?” the Mage asked slowly, flinching slightly as Jake looked at Andy, the man just shrugging, “I-I mean, me and my group. We have a Fighter and a Healer. Oh, and I’m a Mage that uses Dark Magic.”

“And-?” the Firster started to say, before the tank punched him lightly on the arm, the man blinking before nodding, “Sorry, Goldrun. What do you think?”

“I don’t see why not,” the man named Goldrun shrugged, “We were just going to do some light hunting in the area until the Goblin Lord reappeared, so might as well.”

“G-great!” the Mage blurted out, “I’m Blake Blackwand! And my friends are Flame Wall and Trent Tiller.”

“Interesting names,” Goldrun hummed as Blake waved the other two men over, both approaching cautiously, eyeing Jake and Eta, “How’d you all meet?”

“Oh, by chance,” Blake said happily, “We’re all off-timers, so we kind of didn’t have much choice in who we partied with.”

“Makes sense,” Goldrun nodded, waving his hands around a bit, before each of the men received a party invite, “Here you go.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Thanks,” the three said, quickly accepting, the Fighter, Flame Wall looking a little disappointed after a moment, “Wait, you hid everyone’s level status?”

“Yeah,” Goldrun nodded, “This is just a temp party, so there’s no need for us to know all your secrets, or for you to know ours.”

“Fair enough,” the Healer, Trent sighed, glancing over at Flame, “So, shall we go? What Quest did you choose?”

“Hunting Starved Wolves,” Goldrun hummed, the three men paling slightly as they looked at each other, “Why, got a problem with that?”

“N-no,” Trent said, “It’s just, well, they’re kind of a hard mob to fight, considering that you have to take on a whole pack at once.”

“You don’t though,” the Defender said, “It’s pretty easy to draw one or two off at a time if you’re patient.”

“Ah, that explains it,” Blake sighed, looking at Flame, “This guy is anything but patient.”

“Hey!” the red-haired man grunted, “I can be plenty patient when I need to be!”

The group chuckled at his outburst as they headed out the door of the Guild building and towards the main gate.

------

The arrow shot through the air, its steel tip punching into the head of the Starved Wolf Alpha and causing it to collapse to the ground, dead. The rest of the twenty strong pack immediately went berserk, their bodies twitching as their eyes went red, scattering into the surrounding forest in search of their leader’s killer. Three immediately found the culprit, a tall figure draped in leather, the bow still in his hand. Two of them leapt at him, while the third tried to circle around, coming face-to-face with a wall of iron as the shield bashed it in the face.

“Wow, never had them do that before,” Andy called to Jake as the man easily dodged the two leaping wolves, “They definitely seem stronger, probably a berserker mode or something.”

“Oh? Sorry,” Jake replied, slicing the head off of one of the wolves in a single stroke with his bone short sword, Alpha’s Fang, before driving the wooden blade of his Ritual Dagger of the Wilds into the other wolf’s skull, “I just thought taking out the Alpha first would be best.”

“Nah, it’s cool, Jakey,” Andy laughed, bringing his Iron Mace down on the Starved Wolf that was attacking him, crushing its head, “Though I don’t think our new friends think so!”

“What the fuck!” Flame shouted as he waved his Bronze Great Sword around wildly, several other Starved Wolves having circled around them at the sounds of combat, “This is crazy!”

“Just don’t get hurt!” Trent shouted as he cast a Spell on Andy, the man glowing softly for a moment, “I need to focus on keeping Goldrun up!”

“Easy enough for you to say!” Flame huffed, “You two get to hide behind him the whole time while I’m on the front lines!”

“COME AND GET ME!” Andy suddenly roared, startling everyone, including the wolves, as they all turned and charged towards him, “Jakey! You’re up!”

Flame, Blake, and Trent all blinked as the man named Jake seemed to vanish, his body moving with unnerving speed as he darted between the Starved Wolves running at the Defender, each collapsing to the ground a moment later with stab wounds or missing heads. The next thing they knew, the three of them were assaulted by numerous experience notifications, their jaws slack as they watched the leather armoured man wipe the blood off his strange weapons with a rag.

“Holy shit, he really is the Firster,” Blake muttered, “Finished off a whole pack of Starved Wolves basically by himself!”

“Keep it down,” Flame grunted, moving towards the nearest corpse, about to place his hand on it, “Let’s just get the loot and move on.”

“Wait,” Jake said, making the man freeze, “If it’s okay, I’d like to skin and butcher the bodies. I have the Skills, but they need to be levelled up some more.”

“O-oh, of course!” Flame barked nervously, darting back form the body as the man set about cutting the first corpse apart, “S-sorry!”

“Not a problem,” Jake hummed as he worked, taking the first wolf apart in minutes, quickly moving on to the next. Thirty minutes later, the entire pack had been cut apart, the hides, meat, and bones shared out equally between the five of them.

“I didn’t even know you could get meat from these guys,” Trent muttered, “But if we keep getting more like this, our bags will be filled in no time.”

“How much space do you have?” Goldrun asked, “I have two Starter Packs and a pouch, so I have twenty-five slots, and you guys?”

“Fifteen each,” Blake offered helpfully, “A Starter pack and a pouch.”

“Sixty slots,” Jake hummed, making the others all stare at him in shock, “Though my inventory is already about half full of other things.”

“S-sixty?” Flame gasped, looking at the grey leather satchel hanging from the man’s shoulder, “You mean that bag holds fifty stacks?”

“Yes?” Jake blinked, Goldrun just shaking his head as he chuckled, “If you run out of space in your inventories, I can carry the difference until we get back to town.”

“I…thanks,” Flame swallowed, “Though, uh, I think we finished the Quest already.”

“Nope,” Goldrun hummed, a grin on his face, “We didn’t just take the Starved Wolf killing Quest, we also took the Alpha hunting Quest. So, still another nine to go.”

“W-what?” the three men gasped.

------

Jake was having fun.

While the enemies in this area were pretty weak compared to what he’d had to fight previously, the presence of other players was strangely enjoyable. It also helped that he’d managed to level up his [Butcher] and [Skinning] Skill to level eight over the course of their hunt, as well as raising his [Observe] and [Inspect] by one level as well. [Gathering] had also risen by two levels, thanks to Jake collecting everything he could find that looked like it could be an ingredient for either [Alchemy] or [Cooking].

Now the party was facing its greatest foe yet, though it didn’t look too impressive to Jake as he used [Observe] on it.

Starved Wolf High Alpha

Beast World Boss

Level: 10

“It’s a fucking World Boss!” Flame hissed as the six-foot-tall beast snarled at them, two more packs of Starved Wolves just behind it, “And its level ten! We’re gonna fucking die!”

“Jakey,” Andy said as he stepped forwards, “You handle the adds, the rest of us will hold the WB for now.”

“Right,” Jake nodded, glancing over to Eta as the Shadow Wolf yawned, not having fought in any of the battle so far, “How about a competition, boy? You take the right pack, and I’ll take the left.”

The Shadow Wolf seemed to perk up at the idea, trotting forwards to stand beside Jake as they readied themselves.

“Alright, you three! Blake, keep your Slow Spell up as much as possible, hitting with Dark Bolts when you have a chance. Trent, you’ll be focusing on keeping me up while Flame attacks from behind!” Andy called, “Let’s kill this thing!”

The other three all gave a nervous cheer as Andy stomped forwards, banging his shield with his mace to get the High Alpha’s attention. As soon as the World Boss focused on him, Jake and Eta moved. Blood sprayed as the two took out the regular Alpha’s first, sending the rest of their packs into a berserk rage. This didn’t help the Starved Wolves much, as they were easily cut and torn down by the two over-levelled fighters, blood splashing around them as they killed their way through the twenty or so enemies.

Meanwhile, Andy was holding the line, dodging, and blocking the High Alpha’s attacks with practiced precision, though still getting hit from time to time. When that happened, Trent was quick to heal him, though still careful not to do too much and risk grabbing the World Boss’ aggro. Meanwhile, Blake was casting furiously, alternating between his Slow Spell and Dark Bolt, keeping the High Alpha from overwhelming their frontline fighters. Flame was screaming as he hacked at the large wolf’s back legs, yelping each time it turned its head to glare at him, before Andy managed to get its attention again.

Jake and Eta finished in less than a minute, the wolf with a pleased look on his face as he had killed his pack just before Jake. The Champion just chuckled at the wolf, turning to see how his party was doing, ready to step in the moment they started to struggle. For their part, the four-man team was holding their own, slowly piling on the wounds as the High Alpha started to flag. Growing slightly bored, Jake started to skin and butcher the corpses of the other wolves, getting a large pile of meat, bones, and skins for his trouble.

A triumphant cry made him look up just in time to see Andy strike the High Alpha on the side of the head with his mace, causing the beast to crumple to the floor, dead.

“Holy shit,” Flame gasped as he fell onto his backside, “Holy shit, we did it! We killed a World Boss!”

“And got a Title for it too!” Blake cheered, “And so much experience! Ding!”

“Oh, yeah,” Trent groaned as he rubbed his temple, “Ding.”

“Yeah, ding,” Flame muttered, shaking his head as he got up, “That was crazy.”

“What does ‘Ding’ mean?” Jake whispered to Andy as the man panted alongside the other three.

“Oh, it means they levelled up,” he explained, Jake nodding.

“In which case, ding,” Jake smiled, the others all looking at him in surprise.