As soon as the strong adventurer and the remaining mage left the boss’s cavern, Gi got a system prompt.

Power Task complete!

Awarded [Elite] status.

[Elite] status increases characteristics at the same level as a Heart Orb.

All characteristics increased by a half-rank.

Stats

Strength - F+

Agility - E+

Vitality - F+

Wisdom - E+

Dungeon run complete!

Returning to Dungeon Stream in five minutes…

Gi was very pleased with the gains that he’d gotten from the Dungeon. He suspected that Krayli must have an innate E in Agility as well as the [Elite] status since she seemed even faster than him. With his upgraded range options and speed, would he have a better chance at her now?

He hopped out of the small lake and wandered over to the adventurers that he’d killed. The mud mage or whatever she’d been was mostly ruined from his blow to her chest, but the other two had been struck right in the head. He’d only been aiming for their chests, but a hit was a hit he supposed.

"Better lucky than dead."

Stepping over to the dwarf, he noticed that his robe was still perfectly serviceable minus a big splotch of blood around the collar. Gi pulled the robe off of him, which was fairly difficult with just one arm, but his slight grip in his ruined arm helped a little bit. Once off, he draped it over his shoulders and then walked over to the rogueish one.

When he’d seen this one disappear, he’d thought he was screwed as he didn’t think he could fight off a stealth battle and a slew of mages behind a warrior. He checked this one’s body as well, but other than a dagger there wasn’t a lot of gear he could use. What he did find was a pouch that had some coins in it as well as an odd looking leather case. As the timeline was counting down, he shoved all of these into his new robe just before he was suddenly back in the river of light.

In another moment, he was back in the forest. Daylight was up, but only Poe was nearby when he came out.

“How long ago did Nori leave?” Gi asked.

“Mmmmm… a couple days?” Poe said.

He realized now that he hadn’t told Nori where to meet him, but he supposed it didn’t matter. She would be recruiting people from Hillin’s town and that’s where he needed to go. “It’s time to complete the last task, but first there’s one thing I want to see with my own eyes.”

Poe chirped happily and before they left, Gi got his new equipment sorted. He tied the robe on and since it was a bit of a struggle to get it into the sleeve, he just rested it on top of the belt. The knife he’d grabbed from the rogue one was tucked in his belt and pouch he settled into an inner pocket to check later. Surprisingly, a system prompt opened.

Robe of Ice equipped.

Simple Dagger equipped.

Plain Pouch equipped.

Not realizing that the system had an inventory system, he tried to get more information on the items.

Robe of Ice - Provides resistance to both Ice and Water;(Enchanted)

Simple Dagger - Primary damage type - Piercing; Secondary damage type - Slashing; (Mundane)

Plain Pouch - Stores items (Mundane)

Contents: Ten gold coins and a locksmith’s kit

“Interesting,” he said and Poe flew to stare at him quizzically. Since it didn’t actually change much, he just waved Poe off and the two of them left towards the mountain in the distance. It took them nearly half a day to get close, but they didn’t have to wait longer. Much farther out than he’d have expected, the two of them saw a group of Fighting Drakes that appeared to be sparring if monsters could do such a thing.

Gi had Poe fly out of sight and he crept closer, trying to see if there was any new information he could glean or anything that would change his current plan. As he watched them though, he didn’t see any that looked like Elites to him. Nor did he gather any more information than he’d already had which amounted to “don’t fuck with Fighting Drakes.” As daylight started to fade, Gi was about to turn around when all the Drakes noticed the shift as well.

All five of the group he’d been watching lowered their upper body to the ground in what looked like a yoga move and spread their wings wide. They held this until the Playground grew fully dark and then they left back towards the mountain itself. Confused, Gi watched them retreat. It had almost looked like they were praying?

Again, it didn’t fundamentally change his plan, but it made him very curious about who these Fighting Drakes were and where they came from. They seemed even odder than he was. With no more Drakes around, he left, making his way towards the Coalition town. It took him longer than he wanted to get there so once they hit the edge of the hills, the two of them found a patch of grass to rest in. Poe took the first watch.

There weren't any incidents overnight and the two of them approached the town early the next morning. Poe had given him a basic description, but seeing it was something else entirely. It looked like a military compound had been touched up with steam punk. There didn't seem to actually be any houses and all of the buildings were production spots of some kind. For some reason, Gi had been expecting a wall or a guard but there was none of that.

Gi did spot Nori among a group of goblins when he came in and gave her a subtle nod. She made a slight gesture for one of the buildings near the center. He hoped that was a sign that she'd done what he asked. He walked over that direction, but was intercepted by Krayli. She didn't have her bow summoned but her fingers seemed to twitch when she saw him. Her eyes drifted down to his scarred chest and slinged arm through the opening of the robe and she scoffed at him.

"Looks like a smug jackass got a lesson handed to them."

Internally, he was rolling his eyes, but on the outside, he tried to put on a tough act. If it were Danna here, she wouldn't let some underling get under her skin. Getting angry at riffraff only gives them more power than they had before. "I came to talk to your boss."

She snorted, her nostrils flaring wide. Monsters who try to anger and get angry in return are the dumbest. No power and no control. If Gi didn't have plans here, he'd be smirking. "Fine."

She led him off into one of the low squat buildings. Inside, it was practically a factory. Goblins and a handful of other humanoids with opposable thumbs all worked on small intricate looking collars. Honestly, it looked like a sweatshop in a third world country. Watching with two hands clasped behind his back was the golem, Hillin, that both Poe and Nori had mentioned.

As they entered, he turned from the work of the humanoids to Gi, Poe, and Krayli. For some reason, he had articulated eyebrows that hung slanted over two orbs of light. It gave him the appearance of a kindly old man despite the fact that Gi knew they were all in the Child Stage. Though that made him wonder, how long could one stay here? Perhaps he'd been here a long time.

"What do you have for me here, Krayli? A new member of the Coalition?" With his question, he walked over to examine Gi and he examined him in turn. He moved well despite the faux-elderly appearance, but his height was slightly smaller than Gi and almost a head shorter than Krayli herself. What were his stats focused in? His traits? Whatever happened, Gi knew he'd have to kill this monster.

"I've been struggling to find Elites to capture their Body Orbs. This one made it sound like you all worked together to conquer the Playground here?"

"We do. I'm Hillin, the leader of this Coalition, and this is my right hand, Krayli. We've both completed all of our tasks, but I've been looking for a way to complete the optional goal for the Task of Ego. Krayli has agreed to help. Many of the others here have simply been here for a long time and unable to progress. They needed guidance."

Gi stroked his furry chin as though considering the golem's words. However, he'd already known most of that from Nori and it didn't change anything. The realization he actually had was that Hillin had considered his underlings needs and then used that to manipulate them. Gi didn't want to manipulate his own followers, but he also hadn't really considered their needs either. Would Danna have done that? He felt like she would as she'd been showing him visions since the beginning and had raised him up in the forest. "I see. And if you had another powerful person in this coalition, what would the plan be? What would be... mutually beneficial?"

Krayli glared at him. Whatever her case was, she was clearly loyal to Hillin here and probably hated Gi. He could deal with that though. He didn't need to be liked by ants. Hillin's metallic mouth tipped upwards in a smile. "Frankly, we've been waiting for another Elite to join us. Our goal is no secret so I don't mind sharing it with you. We intend to attack the Eldritch Forest. We believe there are three Elites including the Ghast Swarm. If we're lucky, we defeat the Elites first and then go after the Eldritch leader together. If we're not lucky, our horde fights the Ghast Swarm, our Elites take theirs, and I'll handle the leader."

"One on one? Sounds pretty bold."

Hillin shrugged, his shoulders giving off the slight rasp of metal on metal. "If you want to aim for the top, you have to be willing to risk everything for it."

Gi smiled. “No holding back, right?"

"Precisely. So... will you be joining us?"

"One question. The forest... corrupts monsters. How do you intend to combat that? If we can't prevent that, we're just going to create an army for whoever the Eldritch Leader is."

Hillin leaned over to where one of the other humanoids were working and picked up the collar. It had strange moving gears on it that Gi wasn't entirely sure were part of their function, but also had a rough gemstone right in the center. "Psychic Disturbance Collar. It prevents Telepathy and is powered by a Soul Orb. They're adjustable for different monster types and we should have plenty for all of us here as well as yourself and your companion."

Hillin handed it to him and he turned it over in his hand. It looked pretty advanced for something a monster should be able to achieve at their level, not that he had a good frame of reference. Danna sent him visions. Were there other Gods at play here? The Fighting Drakes had looked like they were praying and they didn't seem to have any increased intelligence which would make them about as smart as Poe at this stage. Perhaps Hillin had a god as well? He held up the collar in his hand. "And you've tested this?"

"Of course, I pride myself on the scientific method here."

Gi handed the collar back. "Well, it looks like we've got ourselves a partnership then." Gi held out his hand and Hillin shook it. Both of them had all the airs of two people cooperating. However, neither mentioned that Gi would need to slay three Elites to complete this Stage and was only slotted to kill one in this plan. He also doubted that both of them had completed with all of their Elites either. It would come down to who had the best timing on their betrayal because Gi for damn sure wasn't about to let the Heart Orb slip out of his paws.