Dove POV

            The grasslands of Reality greeted our exit of the City. In the distance, forests and mountains filled the background. The feeling freedom was universal among all who saw this.

            Unlike the Sewers wHere no map could be seen, the World Map showed a map like Naut City and its Alleyways; however, the map was mostly empty. As we walked around, the map automatically filled itself.

            We wandered around for while until we encountered monsters. Our first encounter comprised of 6 Goblins.

            Goblins were ugly humanoid creatures that had mutilated faces and pointy ears. Their bodies were smaller than humans, but their appendages were longer. Their skin was sickly green and dry. They grunted various undistinguishable sounds that seemed to be their form of communication. They utilized rusty short swords as their weapon.

            The six Goblins attempted to circle us; four came from the front and one on each side. I plucked away at the Goblins and killed one of side ones. It took six arrows, one of them being strengthened by Fade Walk.

            For the first few seconds, Hawk showed great difficulty in avoiding the Goblins attacks and took an attack or two; however, after those seconds, he dodged and slashed away at the Goblins. Thanks to his new sword, he could dispatch the Goblins in the same number of hits as he could Sewer Rats.

            The other side Goblin entered melee range, so I fought it with my sword. Their attack animations were trickier than the Sewer Rats, but nothing compared to the Sewerberus. I took down the lone Goblin without getting hit.

            Canary used Electron Overcharge twice. Hawk set Electron Overcharge to a maximum of three uses per encounter to conserve Mana. The first Electron Overcharge was used in the beginning of the encounter to help Hawk fight the four front Goblins. A Goblin ignored the ball of lightning and went straight through it, losing half of its Health.

Electron Overcharge

            Fires a ball of lightning that moves as the user wills. Units touching the ball take damage and get stunned.

            Range: Starts in front of the user, Infinite

            Cooldown: 12 Seconds

            Canary added that the Monsters he fought did not take notice of Electron Overcharge and ran directly into it if he was in the direction.

            The last Goblin passed Hawk when he just killed another. The second Electron Overcharge was used then to hit the Goblin. As it was stunned, Canary ran up to it and whacked it with his rod continuously. While his attacking speed was low, the damage he dealt was significant because Sages had relatively high Attack compared to other mage-types. In the end, Hawk came and finished off the Goblin.

            We spent the rest of the afternoon fighting in the World Map. The Goblins were the sole Monsters that appeared. They appeared in groups of four to eight. They dropped 10 Fitts on average and occasionally a Potion. I actually felt bad for the Goblins. ARF alone slaughtered hundred of them, let alone the other larger Parties.

            Canary easily integrated himself into our battles. He matched our expectations and dealt notable damage to the Monsters. By the third encounter, he began to announce the positioning of the Goblins whenever it felt needed. While no where as detailed as Zoe’s called, his ability to multi-task allowed him to mimic Zoe’s talents. Of course, his observation skills and call timing were nowhere near Zoe’s level.

            Safe Zones could be seen from a distance. We reached one of them and entered. The Safe Zone was no different to the other places in the World Map.

            “The sun is about to set, we should rest here for a while then go back.” stated Hawk.

            As sat down on the field, Canary pulled us to sit closer to each other. In the end, we ended up sitting cuddled up together with Canary in the middle.

            “Did I do well?” asked Canary with an innocent look on his face.

            “You did very well! Continue doing your best, alright?” answered Hawk.

            “Yes! Canary will not let you down! You two are like my older brother and older sister.” said Canary as his face lit up with excitement.

            “Now that you mention it, didn’t you have an older sister?” I asked.

            “Yes. Sister Trice is my older sister. I haven’t seen her in two years before being brought to Reality since she studied abroad.”

            “What was she like?” asked Hawk.

            “She was really kind and smart and beautiful, but she became busier and spent less time with me until she finally studied abroad.”

            “Is your sister… in Reality?” asked Hawk.

            “Probably… she’s eighteen this year. Of course, she’ll definitely be one of the strongest Players in here.”

            “Oh, you’re very proud of her.” I commented.

            “No. It’s not about me being proud. Sister Trice is a genius among geniuses, even Hawk wouldn’t compare to her.”

            “Oh? How smart is she?” asked Hawk.

            “Sister Trice took twenty-three IQ tests from online IQ tests specifically made for geniuses. She took all of them at the same time and answered them simultaneously with a finger for each IQ test, a stylus controlled by her mouth, and two that followed the movement of her eyes. The time she took was a result of the physical limitations of the human body’s movements. Otherwise, she would have finished the test instantly.”

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            I could not comprehend Canary’s description. My mind could not accept that such a monster existed, but the way Canary told the story was first-hand. He witnessed his sister’s capabilities first-hand.

            “Interesting.” said Hawk showing curiosity but not a hint of surprise. Judging by his reaction, he probably had met people of that level.

            “Why aren’t you surprised? You don’t believe me?” asked Canary.

            Hawk stood and walked a few steps away in the direction of the setting sun.

“The person I held dear the most accomplished unbelievable feats like your sister.” sadness and regret filled this sentence.

Hawk had never mentioned this in university. While Hawk was open about the background of his broken family, he never mentioned this before.

Canary face indicated he wanted to ask about this person, but held it. Hawk using ‘held’ indicated that either they fought, which was improbable considering Hawk wouldn’t let an argument continue for too long, or more likely this person passed away.

            After it reached 5 we walked back towards Naut City. While other Parties generally fought until around eight, Hawk preferred ARF having some bonding time so we always finished before sunset.

            The sun had very nearly set as we approached Naut City. As we did, we fought our final encounter of the day against eight Goblins.

            Four Goblins engaged from the front, and another four flanked our backs. Hawk immediately fought the four Goblins as Canary sent his first Electron Overcharge to help him. After the second battle today, Hawk never got hit by any of the Goblins. After picking off one of the Goblins behind us, I engaged into melee combat with the remaining three. I killed one of them, but two ran after Canary, one nearly dead and the other at full Health. The second Electron Overcharge that initially headed towards the low-Health Goblin changed paths and went for the other Goblin. Canary fought the other Goblin in close combat. He took a hit for 17% damage, but hit the Goblin to death. I cleaned off the other Goblin.

            “Canary, why did you change targets?” asked Hawk.

“I want to know as well.” I seconded.

            “Because wasting Electron Overcharge on an almost dead Goblin is a waste. Is it wrong?”

            “It’s not wrong. In fact, it’s very efficient use of Mana; however, if a Player is in danger, make sure to do the best strategy to save the person, even if it is inefficient.”

            “Okay! Life over efficiency! Noted!”

            Canary’s fighting skills were undeniably average. His strength lay on his multi-tasking. Unlike other people, including Zoe, whose performance would decline when thinking and analyzing when in action, Canary held no such problem. His calls on the positions and Health of the monsters did not slow down his control over the Electron Overcharges. Also, one of the important aspects of mage-types was positioning. Canary always figured out and moved to his best positioning quickly. While he had no reason to do so in the last encounter, Canary moved a lot during fights to always be in the best positions as the Monsters moved.

 Considering he could control up to six Electron Overcharges with no difficulties, with eight as his current maximum due to Mana restraints, which he could still control perfectly as long as he wasn’t distracted, we had yet to see Canary fight at full power. Hawk had great difficulty fighting four Electron Overcharges, I could only imagine how hard fighting all eight  balls especially since each additional one would make the fight exponentially more difficult.

            As we arrived at the Gate, a Player was standing besides it, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. The Player had short silver hair combed to one side and the face of a delinquent. His black eyes sent sharp gazes to what he looks up. His body, while not muscular, was well structured. He was probably Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or something along those lines. I couldn’t really distinguish between those races.

            “Gin…” said Hawk.

            “Oh, if it isn’t Hawk, is this your Party?”

            “Yes.”

            Gin looked at me with… lustful eyes. His hand began reaching out towards mine. Just as I was about to reflexively slap him, Hawk grabbed his wrist. “Dove doesn’t like being touched by boys, so could you please refrain?”

            Hawk bloodlust filled the air as he said those words. This was the first time I’ve seen Hawk emit bloodlust, and it was on the strong side.

            “Boring. This is why I hate conservative virgins.” said Gin as he walked away from the gate.

            When he was a few steps away, Gin left a few words, “Dove was it? I’m sure I’ll fuck you one day, so look forward to it.”

            As Gin finished his line, the world turned dark. Gin turned his trembling head slowly towards us. He gulped his saliva and clenched his fist. Behind him lay the person who would end the world.

People’s bloodlust were nothing new to me, but what Hawk showed was different. Hawk emitted murderous intent that would crush the minds of the weaker-willed. He was like a demon eradicating all life, like death opening the gates of hell, like a god bringing down his judgment.

            Canary began crying, as he sticks his entire body unto me. His body was on the verge on collapsing as he could barely make out, “Hawk… is scary…:

            “Stop!” I stated. I grasped Hawk’s hands.

On first contact, Hawk’s hands were cold. Only after a second did it warm back up and the bloodlust disappeared.

 Gin did not say… no, could not say anything and left in a hurry.

Hawk bowed down. “I showed you something scary, I’m very sorry. Please forgive me.”

Canary stopped crying and petted Hawk’s bowing head. “Hawk only did it because the person was saying very bad things to Dove. Next time, I won’t be scared, since Hawk loves us and would never direct that scariness towards us.”

Canary’s words amazed. Just moments ago, he couldn’t move in terror. The next time, he said he won’t be scared. What’s even scarier was that my instincts said that he could carry out his words.

Hawk had always been protective of his friends. While I did think this time he was overreacting and being overprotective, I didn’t think he’d actually kill Gin even if Gin decided to fight. His bloodlust purpose felt more like intimidation to me. Well, even if he did try to kill, it’s my responsibility to stop Hawk from doing anything he’ll regret.

“Who was he?” I asked.

“Ranked sixth in Purge’s list, Golden Warrior Vice-Leader Gin. He’s a good person to get along with if you’re a guy, but he holds no respect for girls and think of them as objects. The reason Golden Warriors is male-exclusive is because the Leader, Kin, who is Gin’s brother, knows that part of Gin and protects women from Gin.”

            “Sixth…” I muttered.

            We walked back towards the Naut City. I noticed Hawk had a disheartened look on his face.

            “Hawk, thank you for standing up for me.” I said with a smile.

            Hawk returned to the normal Hawk we knew. I understood… Hawk feared that I may leave him. No, Hawk would be afraid of the mere fact that I feared his actions. While I felt no such thing, Hawk always overthought about these things.

            “Neh Hawk, how long are you going to hold Dove’s hand?” said Canary.

            Ever since I grasped his hand, Hawk had never let go. Because my mind focused on other things, I actually did not remember until Canary mentioned. Judging, he probably didn’t notice as well. Hawk was shocked for a few seconds before he let go and looked away blushing.

            Hawk is Hawk. No matter what sides of him we may discover, he treasures us from very much. We are his allies, and we will do everything in our power to help him.