“Put him dow- What?” The words pounded in Jack’s mind, and he forced himself to land on his feet with “Weaving Fortune”, barely holding onto his consciousness as Arturo crumpled to the ground. He barely managed to keep himself on his feet, but it had cost him too much focus. The strings snapped and slowly reverted back to his body, as well as the horrible headache that was plaguing his mind.

He heard a gasp of air coming from the floor, it seemed Arturo had awakened. He was breathing heavily on the floor, grabbing his chest. “You… You bastard. What the hell did you… do…” His breath was raspy, and his skin was pale, far different from the usually quiet and strong man they’d always appeared to be. Jack didn’t like it. This man was his lifeline when it came to battle, and now all he was to him was a loose end. He couldn’t just kill him now, though.

Even if it was self defense, It would be too much for all of them. Liam crashed against his back, and for a moment Jack thought he was being attacked, it was just a rather rough pull away from the scene, however. “Arturo! What were you doing! That isn’t cool, man! You could have killed him.” The big man had already sat up, groaning as he rubbed his head. “You… You don’t get to lecture me. You had the exact same problem with the bastard.” Liam flinched, taking a step back. “W-what!? That’s not… But I didn’t go and hit him!” Jack, who had been victims of the two, had heard enough from the hypocrite, and as the others rushed to see what the problem was he decided this wasn’t the best place to be.

He turned around, walking away from them before pausing and turning to the frightened girl on the floor. “...Charlotte, take care of him. I think he really needs a friend right now… I think Liam might need one too.” The girl had tripped and fallen back during the ‘fight’, which was fortunate since she hadn’t gotten hurt.

And yet, she kept looking at him with big, terrified eyes. Eyes that were as confused as they were sure that the person in front of them had done something wrong. He hated those eyes, especially since this had been an act of self defense. He was the victim here, not the predator. The predator was shaking on the ground, unable to stand.

And Jack had even gone so far as to ask her to heal them. What more could he do to make them understand? “You… What you said… What were you going to do to him?” Jack raised an eyebrow, before realizing that she had heard him utter the spell. Oh, that? “It’s the only offensive magic I have. I’m largely utility, you know? You should be well aware of that. You only have one skill to fight with, right?”

She opened her mouth defensively, before shutting it, seemingly realizing he was right. She was a healer, and he wasn’t meant for battle. It was just the way these things worked. He walked away just before Mary and the others came, walking towards the guards that were still closely behind them. This had been enough training for now, at least for him. The guards seemed hesitant when they saw his goblin companions, but at least they didn’t immediately brandish their spears.

“Hello, Hero. You’ve… You and your team have done quite well, venturing this deep into the dungeon. Teamwork really is the greatest medicine for lack of experience.” He almost chuckled at the man’s obvious attempt to remedy the situation between him and ‘his group’, which almost certainly meant Arturo. He didn’t need to worry, he’d try his best to at least remedy the situation as much as he could when everything had calmed down.

And if it didn’t work… then he’d stay clear of them for as long as he could, at least until they started seeking him out. He’d have to make sure to become a much more useful token to the princess and those in control before then, to make sure he wouldn’t be the outlier. He’d start on that now, actually. “I think it’s a good time for me to come back to the entrance, don’t you think?” The knight didn’t speak, turning to him and the group behind them, who were still surrounding Arturo.

“Are you sure that’s what you… I don’t think that…” The knight’s words went in one ear and out the other. He was certain, being here would only breed more bad blood between him and Arturo, and expecting them to be the one to leave would only be Jack acting petty. He needed to- “The dungeon is near over, and I was looking forward to seeing you use your fancy taming ability on the boss, see if it worked. Real big bastard, that one.” Jack froze, eyes twitching. His palms had become sweaty.

There was something called a… a boss? A leader? Something stronger than the goblins? Something that could become his? The knight must have noticed his excitement, since a giant grin appeared on their face. “I don’t think you’ll be able to defeat that thing without your big buddy, yeah?” He glared at the knight, turning back to where he had left Arturo. His friend was back up and looking good as new, if you didn’t include the hollow look on their face. They seemed depressed, which was surprising.

Maybe they were guilty?

If they did, that would have definitely been a good thing for Jack. He turned to the knight with a smile. “Maybe we can finish this, I’ll try… I’ll make this work.” The knight patted him on the back, and for a moment Jack couldn’t help but respect the individual for his craftiness, using Jack’s lust for power to force him to make up with the others. It was purely for his sake, too, so he didn’t even feel all that frustrated over being tricked.

He’d make sure to remember their faces.

He walked back to the group, all of them a lot more down than they’d been before. The air was thick with tension as they saw him return. He made sure not to act any particular way. There were too many people looking at him for any one reaction to suit them all. It was best to just act bland for now. “The knights say we are reaching the end of the dungeon, that there’s something called a boss at the end. They said it’s a lot stronger than the-”

“We know what a boss is, Jack.” Abby said, rolling her eyes. He raised an eyebrow at the sarcastic response, unsure of where they got that information. “Did… Did the king tell you about it? I hadn’t been listening at that time.” Mary chuckled despite the tense atmosphere, turning to the rest. “Jack’s never played anything other than what I told him to play. He doesn’t know any game terms.” The others' eyes widened, and then they nodded understandingly, as if the pieces were starting to come into place.

Liam walked up to him. Looking as if he was looking at an alien. “Wait… Is that why he’s acting like that? Tell me he at least knows what leveling is. Like, he knew what attributes were, right? Dude, how come no one…” Liam had absentmindedly turned to Arturo, who probably knew the most about Liam. The big man remained stony and silent in front of Liam, who backed off immediately. “Ah… nevermind. But Jack, you really didn’t know about any of this? What about the leveling?” He… didn’t understand. They were likening this to a game? The ones Mary had made him play? There wasn’t any of this violence or leveling in the small animal game that forced him to buy a house-

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Goddamnit, he had better things to do than this.

“We can talk about this later, let’s finish this. You can pry into my life later, Ok?” He motioned to the rest of the cave ahead, gesturing at them all to follow. None of them moved. Only Liam had the bravery to speak. “Look, we were thinking about heading back. I don’t think we’re all in the best state right now. A lot of us are tired, too.” Jack froze. This meant no new puppet, he wouldn’t be able to grow at this rate.

He wanted to grow.

“...That makes sense. We’re all on edge here so I guess it's best if we head back. Wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt.” Abby said, stretching as if she’d finished up. The others nodded in agreement, and he noticed most of them almost drop their shoulders at the same time, their eyes suddenly showing the exhaustion they’d gone through. They’d been pushing hard in order to prove themselves, and they had. None of them had anything left to prove, which was terrible for him.

He just needed them to fight just a bit more…

They had started doing extremely well, but looking at the way they seemed almost ready to fall apart… He agreed that it was too dangerous for them to fight in this state, despite his explicit need to continue. That and their injuries would be blamed on him if he became incessant. They walked back to the knights with an air of satisfaction, all except for Jack and Arturo. He made sure to stay as far as possible from the unstable man, taking extra caution by hiding next to Liam.

The knight who sent him to his group watched disappointedly as they returned, and Jack wore a guilty expression on his face to try showing it wasn’t his fault. “And I thought you all would finish this dungeon. I hadn’t expected you all would give up right before the finish line.” Liam chuckled nervously, an expression of exhaustion on his face. “We… We’ve decided to leave that for another day. This place isn’t going anywhere, right? We’re tired.”

Jack watched closely, watching the strings waver and wane as the two spoke. The rest of the group’s strings were subdued, and loosely rolled into a ball inside them. It was a testament to their lack of will to fight. The knight smiled with sad eyes, suddenly much more open with their emotions. Even the other knights behind them seemed a bit more receptive. They were empathetic to their feelings, it seemed like.

“Alright. You seven already did much better than we had hoped. It was wishful, thinking to believe that you would finish a dungeon at such a low level. Let’s head back and rest, I’m sure the princess will be happy with your progress. How much have all of you progressed?”

Jack watched the others as their strings manifested, pulling forward to create faint outlines of objects in front of them. They had started checking their ‘statuses’, hadn’t they? “I reached level 3, anyone else beat that?” Liam said, as a faint outline of what seemed to be a book floated in front of him. The others had similar ones as well, except for Mary, Charlotte, and Arturo. Arturo seemingly didn’t activate anything, while Mary and Charlotte had what seemed to be an open scroll in front of them rather than a book.

None of them had the original flat paper in front of them as he did.

Was that normal?

He knew the differences between Mary and Charlotte compared to the others, both containing skills related to religious aspects. How that made sense considering all of the skills were allegedly given to them by the gods made little sense to him. He’d think about that later, for now, he had to check his “Level”.

The results were… both disappointing and confusing. First of all, he had a new page.

Puppeteer- (Lvl 1)

The strings of magic are something everyone in the world uses, to some extent. Whether they mold and stretch them through spells, or flex and harness them through their tempered bodies. Even the simple act of living a quiet and mundane life can pull the strings in large and conflicting ways. The strings of magic are universal, and through proper preparation and training you can be the one to control their strings, whether one wants to or not.

Strength- D

Constitution-C

Perception- C

Agility- C

Arcane- A

Willpower- A

Luck- S

Skills- (Strings of fate) (Weaving fortune) (Capture Puppet) (Train Puppet)

Puppets-

D-rank Puppet Goblin, Gobby (Lvl 4)

F-rank Puppet Goblin, Unnamed (Lvl 2)

The page was smaller than the first, and conveniently located on its side. He didn’t realize demons would also have these ‘levels’. Did that mean they became stronger with time as well? How horrific.

“What’s your level, Jack? Please tell me it’s 4 or something…” He turned around to see Abby behind him. In the back Jack was boasting about how his level was the highest. It must have been that everyone had been level 2 or below. “Fat chance, Abbs! I took out, like, ten of them on my own!” Said Liam, who had somehow heard him over his own conversation. She stuck her tongue out at the gloating warrior, before looking at Jack with exasperation. “You killed a couple of them so you must have gotten higher than Liam, right!?” Jack shook his head.

This was disappointing. “I didn’t level once.” He said, never once looking up from his status page. Abby gasped, looking at him as if he’d said he lost a leg. “No… Really? Even Charlotte's level two. I thought we all worked pretty well together.” It was conflicting to him as well. He’d pulled his weight during those battles, especially during this last one. At the very least, he deserved one level… At least there was a silver lining. “Ah, but my Gob- err, puppet, has become level four. The other one had become level 3.” It wasn’t much, but that was the most he could brag abou-

His eyes narrowed as he saw Abby’s face turn into what he could only describe as malicious joy. It was only there for a few seconds, but it was enough to make him weary. “...Can you lend me him?” she asked, in a voice that showed none of the emotion he swore he saw on her face. He… Wasn’t sure if he could trust her. It wasn’t like this girl to do anything truly wrong, however, so he allowed it. “Gobby, listen to Abby until I say otherwise. Do not follow orders that may get a human killed.” She chuckled, looking at him as if he was insane. “Seriously Jack? You’re not gonna make any friends here if you keep acting like that. You. Follow.”

She ran forward, towards the rest of the group and specifically at Liam. He hadn’t seen her move like that even in battle, and the goblin even had trouble following along. He sighed, looking back at his newer, dumber goblin. It’d get a name when it earned it in battle, otherwise it would remain nameless. “Maybe next time we’re down here, friend.” He smiled, wondering about what would happen the next time they came dow-

“GUESS WHO GOT THE HIGHEST LEVEL!?”

His ears rang from the noise.