The march towards the hunting grounds was smooth. North of Rim Elm was a small forest that was near the river. There, most of the wild animals and wild games stayed. When the wind is right, the area around that location will open up. This was due to the large river that flowed from the ocean and towards Drake Castle.

In the game, the Hunters even set up a small campsite called the Hunters Springs. This was the area where the hunters would stay when hunting for wild game.

Halfway through the journey, Val’s perception had now shown its use. He could roughly tell the movement of the Mist half a kilometer from where they were.

There were several Gobu- Gobu that noticed the group of Hunters and fled from them.

It was there that Dyne saw for the first time and Evil Fly. It looked like an overgrown butterfly that had a wingspan that was wider than an average human.

But the Fly simply retreated as it noticed the Hunters approach.

“Bertugo. Get ready to steal.” Dyne ordered. Throughout the week, Bertugo had learned more human words, and while he couldn’t speak yet, he could understand important words. Words such as steal.

Dyne used the Golden Compass and marked Bertugo. The two rushed forward to ambush the Evil Fly when it was moving.

Bertugo’s sprint was extremely fast. He moved faster than Dyne, and as he approached, he then activated a powerful spell that players of Legend of Legaia could only have late-game.

In fact, the spell that the players would acquire was a downgraded version of this spell. Evil God Icon was an accessory that allowed players to steal items upon killing or defeating an enemy. But the Gobu Gobu and its stronger evolutions had that ability.

Steal. It was a simple ability, but in the Seru and monster-infested world of Legaia, it was an amazing ability.

Monsters and Serus had the ability to create items and other crafted equipment. After talking with the Elder and Hunters, Dyne understood the items drop rules and how it was converted into this reality.

Each monster would have a chance of leaving an item drop based on items that they might have found, picked up, or created as they continued to grow.

Stealing was different. The ability to steal, which humans had managed to craft the Evil God Icon from, was a power that aimed to take either an equipped item or a carried treasure from a monster. Knowing the game and what items he could steal from monsters, Dyne believed that it was possible that the Evil God's ability to steal can draw out a magical power within certain enemies.

The Evil Fly was the perfect enemy to test the steal ability. Its drops were similar to the items that could be stolen from it. It was the item known as the Antidote.

It could cure people from poison, which the Evil Fly could inflict on an enemy. But of course, in this world, there were many kinds of poison.

The Steal happened.

It was mysterious as Bertugo somehow created a strange vacuum-like attack that forced out the Evil Fly item.

It looked like a small clumped up ball of blood that somehow floated before the Evil Fly. The item floated for a bit, and there was a resistance between Bertugo and the Evil Fly as if the two were doing some sort of invisible tug-of-war.

Bertugo won and immediately retreated with the item on hand.

The Evil Fly was enraged as it chased after Bertugo, but Dyne was already jumping in mid-air.

The spirit energy hardened all over his body, and he released the punch at the very center of the flying insect and sent it retreating back.

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Dyne cursed as he landed.

“Ugh. It seems I can’t move my soul energy while running. It was too confusing!” Dyne cursed out.

While he could gather and compress the soul energy and create Spirit on certain parts of his body, he couldn’t do it when his body was moving. It was as if his soul remained stationary, and the conflicting movements led to the explosive one-spirit-filled strike.

The Evil Fly was angry, and it shot towards Dyne.

Suddenly, the hunters arrived just in time. Three hunters jumped out and used small knives to stab at the Evil Fly.

More hunters arrived and ganged up on the Fly and killed it.

Dyne was surprised at the sudden movements of the hunters.

“Woah. I didn’t know you guys could do that!” Dyne laughed at the scene.

“He He. It was in our fight with Bertugo. We couldn’t beat him one on one, and then we soon decided to attack him all at once. We achieved our first victory over Bertugo!” The hunter laughed.

Dyne had a weird expression and glanced at Bertugo. But Bertugo had a happy expression. It was difficult to tell because of Bertugo’s goblin face, but his soul seemed really happy.

“It's not just that. Having to face a Gomboo for the past week had a lot of effects on the hunters.” Val explained.

Dyne turned to the approaching Val, who was seated gloriously on the Slime.

“Professor V!” Dyne unconsciously called out.

“Professor?”

“Never mind. Your form just reminded me of another strong Soul Cultivator who was bald and used a wheelchair.” Dyne laughed.

“Now, what was it that you were saying was the result of the battle?”

“One of the main issues that our hunters have is that we would panic when we see monsters and Serus. But after fighting with Bertugo, the pressure, his monstrosity, and powers made the hunters more confident. As such, monsters like that Evil Fly doesn’t seem so scary anymore.”

“Val is right! A week ago, whenever we would see monsters like this, we would immediately run away. I guess the Mist made us subconsciously afraid of monsters. But with the Genesis Tree and our constant training with Big Brother Bertugo, we got our courage back. Who would think that this Evil Fly would be so weak!” One of the hunters who attacked laughed.

“Rei is right. That’s exactly what we feel!” The other hunter exclaimed.

“Curses! I was too slow! Master Dyne just ran off! And Esto and Rei got ahead of me!” Ipkus laughed.

It was then that Dyne had a strange expression.

In the game, Ipkus was an unnamed character with who the player could talk to learn of his back story. He is a hunter who almost died in one of the hunts and injured his legs so that he could no longer move. On the night that Rim Elm was attacked, talking to the unnamed character reveals that he lamented two hunters' death. Rei and Esto.

Dyne’s memory of the game was more precise, thanks to Strafe’s ability. And so, when these two were mentioned, it made Dyne realize that these were the two who were to die shortly before the game started.

“Hey Strafe, are these two destined to die?” Dyne called out mentally.

“Yes.”

“Can I save them?”

“If you become strong enough. The whispers of fate about them are very weak. While the dangers of their deaths are still present, if you save them until Rim Elm gets attacked, then they are saved.” Strafe laughed.

“Good.” Dyne smiled.

He then walked towards Bertugo, who handed him an item.

“Oh! An Antidote!” Val admired.

“Such a rare find! It can cure a variety of diseases from infections, wounds to poisons!” Val explained.

Dyne gave an amazing nod as he looked at the item.

“It’s quite rare for that item to appear.” Ipkus gazed in envy.

Dyne secretly realized just how amazing these apparently common items are.

“Amazing. Was that a skill bestowed by the Evil God?” Juno asked in amazement.

Juno’s words finally stunned Dyne. With that simple statement, Dyne realized that there was just so much more in this world. Dyne only guessed that the item Evil God Icon must have been derived from the abilities of the Gobu-Gobu and the other monsters.

“Evil God Icon gives the stealing ability upon killing an enemy. This means that Bertugo and the other monsters with the Steal ability are followers of the Evil God... Maybe I should ask Bertugo who this Evil God is. If anything, the gods of this world should be just like Biron. Cultivators who became gods.” Dyne pondered.

“That was quite a blow, Master Dyne! You reached the level I was at!” Vahn moved and praised Dyne.

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, Vahn! I had the advantage of getting blessed by Biron. It isn’t much.”

“Did you receive Art Points?” Vahn asked.

“Art points? Right! There was that!” Dyne remembered. He immediately turned his attention to the spirit energy in his body.

There was a Spirit energy remaining on his fist.

“I see. AP. This is the Art points.” Dyne remembered that attacking, getting hit by the enemy in the game, and blocking enemy attacks allows the characters to gain AP or Art points. These were used so that they can perform stronger attacks known as Arts.”

“I guess I should ask Tetsu to teach me how to use Arts when I get back.” Dyne laughed.

“It may take a while for me, though. I just learned how to make two-spirit attacks! Tetsu said that I would need to have been capable of making at least three spirit attacks to perform the Arts!” Vahn sighed.

“Hmmm... That might not be the case.” Dyne smiled mysteriously.

“I think we will be classmates in Tetsu’s art training.” Dyne laughed.