Aiden stepped away from a vicious swing that would’ve taken his head off. He backed himself into a tree as Otid came in swinging once more.

His hand was already working behind him as Otid charged. Aiden could see the traces of someone who’d taken his time practicing his sword skill, but he could also see a man who had grown complacent in his practices. It wasn’t just enough to learn the swordsmanship skill, you needed to practice it.

You have used [Unarmed Engraving(U)].

Aiden dived out of the way as Otid swung his sword at him.

You have activated [Enchantment of Lesser Endurance].

Otid’s sword cut an inch deep before Aiden's enchantment took effect and it held as the enchantment went through the tree as far as it could go. He tugged on the sword once then twice.

Aiden was already going in for the finish.

You have activated [Cube of Lesser Strength]

With the extra strength from the [Cube of Lesser Strength], Aiden swung a powerful punch into the man’s side from behind, then quickly backed away. The force of the blow didn’t do as much as it would’ve done to someone of Aiden’s current level, but that wasn’t the point.

“That’s three,” Aiden called out.

Otid was furious. He wrenched his sword from the tree and turned to Aiden with a snarl on his lips.

The fight was technically over, and Aiden had used at least six enchantments already. He was practically out of mana at this point. If he activated another enchantment, he’d likely pass out. At level two, this was his limit when fighting against someone with a class.

I guess six is stretching it, he thought as he unsheathed his sword.

He couldn't wait to get to level ten and have a class. Only then would he be able to use the proper enchantments with increased percentages as high as fifteen and twenty. And fighting against someone with more than ten levels more than him wouldn't be so taxing as they would both have Classes. Aiden sighed as he gave a few testing swings with his sword. It wasn't like he was really going to use it, after all.

“What?” Otid asked, if he wasn’t so angry it would’ve sounded like a taunt. “Run out of enchantments?”

Aiden shrugged, then patted one of his soldier belts, the one hanging low. “I’ve used up all the cheap ones. The ones remaining are more on the side of nobility expensive, wouldn’t want to waste them before running into the goblins.”

He took a sword stance with his free arm in front of him as if it held a shield and rested the flat of the sword on his forearm, tip pointed at Otid.

“Come on now,” he said. “Let’s end this with me in command.”

Otid stood there, sword in hand, chest heaving in anger. Aiden waited. He had played tricks and games the entire way, confusing Otid with one well-placed enchantment after the other. It was the only way he knew how to win with how weak he was in comparison to his opponent. Now, for their final clash, he intended on using his final trick.

He wasn’t sure exactly how it would go, but he was curious.

Aiden felt his mana channel through his body as he dashed forward. Otid stood where he was as they met and swung his sword in an upward arc at the final moment.

Aiden stabbed his sword forward and Otid’s sword clashed into it, sending it flying upward. Aiden abandoned the weapon to the upward momentum and let himself fall. He slid along the ground and into Otid. His body barreled into the man’s legs and Aiden moved quickly.

He grabbed one of Otid’s legs, raised his and locked them around it. Then he pushed his weight into the action, turning himself around for better leverage.

In a moment, he found leverage and Otid’s knee bent forward. The man fell and Aiden had him in a leg lock.

“That’s four!” he declared quickly, then hurriedly extricated himself from the man.

When he got back to his feet, he was slightly panting. He turned to Taliner and Ded.

“Call it,” he said.

Ded looked down at a pocket watch in his hand. “Three minutes and forty-two seconds.”

Aiden finally let go of his alertness. The moment he did, fatigue hit him like a truck. He bent forward, catching himself with his hands on his knees, and panted heavier.

All the movement and the enchantments had taken a lot out of him. For the duration of the fight, he had practically been a twelve year old on steroids fighting against a young adult. Once again, Aiden was reminded of how much he hated being classless.

In front of him, Otid was already getting back on his feet.

“Last one doesn’t count!” Otid declared. “That wasn’t a hit.”

Aiden could debate it, but the man wasn’t entirely wrong. Otid could’ve broken out of the hold at any time. It had simply surprised him. He could’ve also found an angle to swing his sword down on Aiden. It was why Aiden had released him quickly and called it.

But by that argument, Aiden could’ve also done a lot of things in that moment. He could’ve pulled his dagger free and stabbed three nice holes in the man’s leg.

“It counts, Otid,” Taliner disagreed.

Ded walked up to where Aiden’s sword had fallen from being knocked away by Otid’s swing as the adventurers exchanged words and picked it up. Then he brought it to Aiden.

“Doesn’t count,” Otid was saying, turning to Taliner. “The kid tripped me, that’s all there is to it. Tripping someone doesn’t count.”

Taliner shook her head. “He had you on the floor with your back exposed to him and your leg in his hands. Trust me, it counts.”

“How?” Otid turned and pointed a finger at Aiden. “You know darn well that last one didn’t count.”

Aiden took his sword from Ded and slid it into its sheath.

He ran a tired hand through his hair, paused, then touched his forehead. He hadn’t even broken a sweat. But he was tired.

Which means this is all mana fatigue?

Which meant his tiredness didn't even come from the fight, it came from the constant use of mana and the effect of constant use of the enchantments on a body that wasn't supposed to be pumped full of so many enchantments.

Aiden almost laughed as he checked to be sure he still had everything on him. His dagger remained sheathed and strapped to his belt and his other pockets still had his enchanted items.

Taliner took a deep breath, then let it out. When she spoke, she did so slowly, as if to a child. “Otid, he had you on the ground. Your back was exposed to him. And he still had his dagger on him. This is not an argument.”

She stomped over to Aiden after that, leaving Otid with his mouth hanging open, making incoherent sounds.

“I don’t know about the big oaf,” she told Aiden. “But a deal’s a deal. As far as I’m concerned, Lord Lacheart, you’re the leader of this contract quest. If you’d like, I have no problem escorting you back to the society hall to have the details updated. I’ll serve as your witness.”

Aiden waved her words away. “That’ll just be a waste of time. And please, call me Aiden.”

………..

After the little exchange, Aiden asked that they find somewhere to rest while Ded tracked down wherever the goblins could possibly be. Otid pointed out that he had a tracking skill, but Ded pointed out that his class required that his tracking skills be as high as possible without revealing what it was.

In the end, Otid was left to wait behind with Aiden and Taliner while Ded went forward. The [Scout] would find the goblins and report back.

So they sat for minutes. Three minutes turned to five, and five to ten. Eventually they were seated for almost thirty minutes doing nothing. Taliner sharpened her shortsword simply because she could. Otid loitered about, sat, then loitered some more.

Aiden sat calmly, allowing his mana restore itself. While he did so, he wondered at the adventurers he was with. He knew Taliner, she hadn’t been very important in his past life but she’d had her moment of fame after leading a quest that had brought down a necromancy horde. Turned out, from the little he knew, that she'd done a quest at some point in her life and had failed to kill a Goblin Shaman that had gone on to grow very strong and terrorize places.

It had turned out that a mutated monster had unlocked the [Necromancer] class and had been terrorizing a village. It had taken a few adventurers to put it down in the end, and some lives had been lost.

But that isn’t for another two years, Aiden thought.

As for Otid, he’d never heard the name. So either the both of them were not an official party, did not become an official party, or simply parted ways at some point.

Or he died.

“Hey, kid.”

Aiden turned his head to Otid and raised a questioning brow. Otid grumbled something about young people not having respect for their elders anymore before coming to sit beside him.

“What was that enchantment you used?” he asked, staring into the canopy of trees.

Aiden didn’t need to think about it to know what Otid was talking about. Very few people knew the enchantment by its effect.

“Lesser Confusion,” he answered.

“Never heard of it.”

Taliner paused in sharpening what was probably her fifth blade. “I have. It’s actually a rare enchantment. Not many people use it. It’s called Lesser Madness in some places.”

Not many people used it in any kingdom Bandiv was aware of. In fact, it was banned in most kingdoms. But there were places where its use was common.

“Wait.” Taliner frowned at Aiden. “Isn’t that enchantment banned in a lot of kingdoms?”

“It is," Aiden answered. "But not in Bandiv.”

“If it’s so rare, how did you get your hand on one?” Otid asked.

Aiden pointed at himself. “Noble bastard, remember? It would amaze you the kinds of things a noble can get their hands on.”

“It’s also very expensive,” Taliner said, looking at Otid with a smirk. “Like gold coins expensive.”

Otid paled. “I thought you said you only used the cheap ones, Lord Lacheart.”

Aiden cocked a brow. “Lord Lacheart?”

“Bastard or no, you’re nobility, right?” Otid said sheepishly. “You’re still a lord.”

Aiden shook his head but couldn’t help smiling. He was finding Otid interesting.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I have no idea how much it costs. Since it didn’t come from my pocket, it’s not a cost you need to settle.”

Otid let out a relieved sigh. “Thank the gods.”

Aiden actually had no idea how much an [Enchantment of Lesser Madness] was supposed to cost. He hadn’t used it much in his past life because it also disoriented the caster and he hadn’t learned about it until his level was significantly higher. And even then, he had done his own enchantments, so he’d never needed to buy one. As for how he got this one, he'd had a list for the palace’s enchantery and they'd simply prepared what he needed at no cost.

Their conversation switched into simpler things after that. It was more of Taliner and Otid engaging in the occasional bickering here and there. They talked about a few quests they’d done together. Clearing out mole-rats. Helping in a subjugation of walking-snakes, which were basically komodo dragons that walked on two legs and were more snake-like in form.

Ded returned after an hour while Otid was telling Aiden about his swordsmanship and how he had been practicing with the sword since he could walk.

“Even after I hit eighteen, it still took me twelve weeks to get the foundational skills I needed to get it,” Otid was saying.

“Ha!” Taliner laughed. “I guess you aren’t as talented with the sword as you thought you were.”

Aiden understood that. The truth was that it actually took a lot to register a skill as learnt by the system. Someone could know how to use a weapon and still not have it registered as a skill, and that person would never be as good as someone with the skill.

Skills were a bit on the extra side of things. It was a registration that the skill was now an unshakable part of you. It was basically an unconscious acceptance of the specific skill. If it took a thousand punches thrown in a single day to call someone a master of a punch, then it would take a thousand punches for the system to register the [Punch] skill at zero mastery.

That Aiden had gained his early was a testament that the effects of his previous life were still very much there. Even amongst the other summoned, each skill needed to be practiced a few times to register. A single sword swing was not, naturally, enough to get the [Sword Strike] skill.

Technically speaking, he was already overpowered.

Aiden got up to meet Ded as he came to them.

“Found them?” Aiden asked him.

“Yes,” Ded nodded. “I counted at least eight.”

“Levels?” Otid asked.

Ded said nothing. He didn’t even acknowledge the man.

“Levels?” Aiden asked.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“The lowest was a three.”

“And the highest?”

“Eleven.”

Aiden rubbed his jaw. He was very sure they had a leader. Goblins didn’t lead goblins in this world. They were led by Hobgoblins or Goblin Shamans. And none of the two were anything less than a level 15.

Otid held his annoyance at being ignored well as he turned to Aiden. “It must be some external gathering. A level 11 goblin can’t be the one leading them.”

“Yea,” Taliner joined, slipping her knives in many sheathes that littered her belt. “There’s got to be a Hobgoblin or a Shaman, if not the guild would’ve given the contract to someone else. Adventurers with lower levels. My money’s on Shaman.”

“Why?” Ded asked.

“Well, before you guys came along, we’ve been tracking these things. At some point, we got a tracker after some unfortunate circumstances, and he detected traces of magic. Goblins don’t use magic.”

Otid groaned. “Not this again.”

Aiden looked between them. “Not what again?”

“Foolish tracker was rambling about summoning and things like that.” Otid waved it aside. “Just bullshit. He said he found blood of something summoned with too much magic in it, said it was human. It was unreasonable.”

“Just how much magic.”

“80%.”

Aiden almost let out a low whistle. That was definitely too much magic to be found in anyone’s blood. And that much magic from a summoned creature was…

Sam bled that night, Aiden remembered.

It meant their foolish tracker had found residue of Sam’s blood.

But eighty percent? Aiden hadn’t thought their mana concentration was that high. That explained why they leveled up faster than the average person on Nastild and learned skills at breakneck speeds.

With that level of mana concentration, it was a wonder all of them hadn’t been Demon King candidates. Then again, from what he knew, all of them were arguably Demon King candidates.

Aiden gestured ahead of them. “Lead the way, Ded.”

The soldier obeyed. And as they followed, Otid grumbled once more about having a tracking skill too.

…….

They found the goblins after thirty minutes of walking.

As Ded had said, there weren’t that many. Eight to twelve at the most. And unlike the ones Aiden had fought along with Sam and the others that night, these ones carried a scar or two, here and there. Weapons, too.

“Is that a fucking morning-star,” Otid whispered in surprise.

Aiden looked in the direction the adventurer was facing. It was.

The goblin held the weapon by the handle, swinging the spiked ball at the end of the chain like it was practicing some odd technique while another watched in what Aiden could only interpret as awe.

Aiden pointed at a goblin that kept sheathing and unsheathing a longsword. “What’s that one’s level?”

“Can’t you…” Otid trailed off. “Sorry, you don’t have a class so you can’t see it yet. Never knew the day would come when I’ll be adventuring with a classless.”

Taliner shook her head. “And in everything you just said, the answer wasn’t there.”

“That’s a level 5, my Lord,” Ded answered.

Aiden nodded. “Thank you. And I won’t warn you about that title again. It’s Aiden. But I’m taking that goblin.”

It was high enough to get him at least two levels when he killed it.

“Because you use a sword?” Otid asked, confused. “You know there are lower levels in the group that also use a sword. You sure you can take it?”

Aiden snorted, making his way out of hiding. “I took you, didn’t I?”

Otid frowned and Taliner snickered.

Out in the open, Aiden held up his sword and placed a finger on it. He traced a simple enchantment on it while the others stepped out of hiding as well, drawing the goblins’ attention.

“What are you…”

Otid’s voice trailed off as a soft orange glow trailed a path along the enchantment Aiden had drawn.

You have used [Enchantment of Lesser Flame]

Effect: Fire damage with a 3% chance to deal critical damage on every blow.

Duration: 00:02:00.

The effects of everything before a class were abysmal.

Aiden swung his sword in a vertical slash by his side and it ignited in flames. “Let’s get this over with.”

He could see the question on everyone’s faces as they charged into the goblins. Aiden followed behind them, sword swinging, while Ded darted about until he disappeared from the battle.

Aiden ducked a stray goblin swing, avoiding it narrowly, only for Otid to take its head off with a single swing.

In his current position, Aiden needed to be careful. A person could not identify a monster’s level without killing it until they developed a class, so all he knew was that the goblins in front of him were all stronger than him. By how much was a question he had no answer to.

He swung his burning sword, deflected a dagger thrust from one of the goblins and brought the blade down on the goblin’s back as he side-stepped it. The creature shrieked in pain as Aiden trailed a burning line along its back then stabbed it through the neck. He ripped his sword out, already running after his initial prey.

Energy filled his chest, curled around his heart as he kept running forward.

You have dealt a critical blow on [Goblin Level 6].

You have slain [Goblin Level 6]!

Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!

Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!

Level 2---> Level 4

You are now Level 4!

That wasn’t so bad. The reason he was charging the level 5 goblin was for the double level up. With three levels between them he had been sure of it.

But a random goblin had dealt with that for him.

Aiden twirled his sword as he stepped forward, deflecting a strike from another goblin. It had charged at him with a dagger and he was more than happy to indulge it. Before he could, however, Taliner’s throwing knife took it in the head.

Does that count as a kill steal? He thought, stepping over the creature’s body. From Taliner's point of view, his success wouldn't have been guaranteed.

In a matter of time, Aiden was on the Level 5 goblin he’d initially sought out. It deflected three of his strikes, parried one, and missed the last that cut open a line in its inner thigh that ignited in flames.

Levels were a great method of measurement. But the truth was that they were nothing but a measurement of raw power. All things being equal, a Level 5 was always going to be stronger than a Level 4.

But that was if all things were equal.

And nothing is ever equal, Aiden thought as he spun around the goblin, sword held out in the spin to take its head.

The blade of his sword sliced the creature’s head in two horizontal halves.

You have slain [Goblin Level 5]!

Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!

Level 4--> Level 5

You are now Level 5!

Aiden stood as the creature fell, flaming sword in hand. Around him, the goblin camp was falling into silent chaos. One goblin corpse was slowly beginning to burn while others just lay scattered about. Only two were left alive and Taliner and Otid flanked them easily.

Are they playing with them? Aiden wondered as he walked up to them.

As he approached them, the flame of his sword dimmed and dwindled. The duration of the enchantment was coming to an end.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he approached them.

Taliner turned to him, somehow still keeping the goblins under her watch. “Killing goblins is really kind of a waste for us. At least goblins of this level.”

“So we thought we’d thin them out for you,” Otid finished. “Have you level up safely.”

Aiden looked around them once more, taking in the chaos of death.

“I kind of already had my level ups, though,” he said.

“Certainly can’t be enough,” Otid replied. “What we’ve got here are two level 9s. They’ve got to count for something, right?”

They would. But Aiden wasn’t sure how he felt about safe leveling. And at this rate, he was going to hit level ten before they even finished the contract. That had not been a true part of his plan. The plan was to level up until he was close to ten, get back to the palace to gain some more skills, then safely hit level 10. Though, from what he knew, he wasn't sure how many more skills he was going to be able to get. Unless he could get [Mana Mastery] there really wasn't any other skill he really needed.

He already had what he needed to ensure he got a combat class, a battle class to be specific. And with enchantment skills being his only real magic based skill, there was a high chance that [Enchanter] was going to be one of the offered Classes.

Regardless, his current skill set would give him a larger number of Classes to choose from.

Unfortunately, Aiden's plan was proving to be his own ruin. At this rate, he was going to hit level 10 in the field of battle, and he had no idea what kinds of Classes would be offered if his last levels were rushed in battle.

“I thought you didn’t like me,” he told Otid as he considered their offer.

Otid shrugged. “Can’t say I hate you either, kid. But they are monsters and you are human. Getting as many strong adventurers as possible will always be a good thing. We’ve always got to be stronger than the monsters.”

Aiden couldn’t disagree with that line of thought.

…………

Aiden cleaned his bloody dagger on the grass and pulled up his skills.

[Skill]

[Tongue of the Visitor (Mastery 100%)], [Basic Swordsmanship (Mastery 10.20%)], [Unarmed combat (Mastery 12.00%)], [Resilience (Mastery 44.23%)], [Mana manipulation (Mastery 0.00%)], [Keen eye (Mastery 39.33%)], [Basic Enchant (Mastery 02.10%)], [Unarmed Engraving (Mastery 3.00%)(U)], [Dagger-wield (Mastery 04.33%)].

He now had the [Dagger-wield] skill.

Taliner walked up to him and held out a piece of cloth. “Have this.”

Aiden looked up before taking it. He looked down at his dagger with residue of goblin blood on it, unsure. It would be a while before they returned to the Adventure hall. If he was right, they would be out here for another day, two at the most.

“Goblin blood isn’t very easy to wash off if you leave it for too long,” he told her.

Taliner scoffed. “It’s for your leg, stupid.”

Aiden looked down. “Oh.”

He had an injury in his thigh. It wasn’t deep, just a simple knife wound, a glancing blow, really. He’d miscalculated the speed of one of the goblins and had gotten it for his worries.

“You know that was stupid of you,” she said, as he pressed the cloth to the injury. “You had a sword and two opponents. In every fight you take the advantage you can get. There was no reason for you to use a dagger, even if you know how to use one.”

“I was testing something.” Aiden dabbed the remaining blood he could. Some of it had dried up so it would take a bath to get it off.

Aiden had never been a fan of the dagger. The Order had forced him to learn its use, but he had only used it when it was necessary. So while he’d had the skill, it had taken him a while to learn it.

But a single fight against two opponents with it and I’ve got it at 4% mastery.

He was sure of it now. His skills from the extinguished timeline weren’t totally gone. While he’d lost them entirely, he’d somehow carried over his proficiency in them. Which meant that he could get all his skills back. All he had to do was engage in them. He wondered if it would still apply once he got his class. Also, fighting off the two goblins had only gained him an extra level. So he was now level 6.

Level 6 in under two weeks, he chuckled. I guess we’re lucky I’m not the Demon King.

He doubted there was anyone above level three among the others back at the palace at this time. They were too preoccupied with getting their basic skills. Aiden guessed things were going smoothly so far.

…unless you end up being the Demon King in this timeline.

The thought slithered into his mind, unbidden, and Aiden froze.

You’ve already met one of the criteria. You’ve gotten a unique skill before getting a class. And you know where the Demon King castle is and how to access it.

Aiden frowned as his own mind played games with him. There was no way he was going to end up being the Demon King. He just couldn’t picture it happening. He doubted he was the kind of person to meet whatever the requirements were to gain the title... Right?

Then are you going to be the hero?

Aiden’s reaction to that was a laugh. He had never possessed the characteristics of a hero, and everyone had been very certain that title went to someone based on who they were. What he was had nothing to do with being heroic. In his past life he had been too unfocused, confused, and arguably cowardly in the early days of his summoning for it. In this life, he was too jaded.

Here you are getting stronger so that you can stand by the Demon King… sounds like something a Demon King candidate would do.

“It’s what a brother would do,” Aiden muttered to himself with a frown.

“Good to see you’re having fun,” Otid commented half-heartedly. “Come on. We’re not done. It’s only a matter of time before the other goblins realize these ones aren’t reporting back.”

“We can take another three minutes,” Taliner objected. “Let the kid catch his breath.”

Aiden didn’t like being called a kid, even if he was technically a kid right now. But Otid was right, they needed to hurry. And he could always get a healer to deal with his injury so it didn’t become a scar whenever he found his way back to the palace.

He picked himself up from the ground, wincing involuntarily at the slight pain. “Let’s get going.”

The next encampment Ded led them to had goblins of lower levels and they cleared it out easily. Aiden played support, using enchantments of varying kinds to destabilize and confuse the goblins while Taliner and Otid dealt the finishing blows.

They needed none of the support and Aiden knew it. He gave them the support for himself. Enchantment magic was the only kind of magic he’d ever developed a proficiency for. And the Classes a person was offered was based off their personal capabilities, their skills, and who they were as people. It was also based on what state they were in in the moment of their offer. If he was offered a magical Class, it was going to be [Enchanter], he was sure of it. So he might as well ensure that the Class skills that came with it, if it remained his best choice to pick were at least battle oriented.

People offered Classes in the heat of battle often had Classes that leaned heavily towards battle and violence.

Aiden didn’t want [Enchanter] but he also didn’t want a pure martial art class or violence class like [Butcher] or some other strict violence class. So he practiced his enchantments were he could find them.

They made their way through two more encampments in the same way. They rested after each fight while Ded went in search of the next encampment and disappeared once the fighting began. In this way, they fought into the night and their violence spilled into the sunshine of the next day.

“Just how many camps do these bastards have,” Otid spat. He was growing irritable from the lack of civilization. At least that was Taliner’s defense for his continued growing uncouth behavior.

Taliner gave him a worried look before coming over to Aiden.

Despite the sun shining in the sky, the forest was cool with a gentle breeze and the swaying branches of trees that had witnessed a lot of goblin deaths in one night.

“And why the hell aren’t you killing anything!?” Otid snarled at Aiden. “That last goblin was getting away. And instead of killing it, you just chopped its leg off. What if it had escaped?”

“It would’ve made no difference,” Aiden answered, checking for leftover specks of blood on his dagger. “Whatever is leading these things already knows we’re hunting it. If it’s smart enough, it will be planning how to escape.”

Taliner’s eyelids narrowed at him. “You’re not interested in leveling up, are you? That’s why you’ve stopped killing them. You don’t want to hit level ten and get a Class.”

Aiden said nothing.

“You don’t want a battle class, is that it?” she tried. “You don’t want the violence even though you’re good at it?”

Again, Aiden said nothing and Taliner seemed to give her opinion a second thought.

“Why?” she pressed. “Everyone wants to level up, and battle classes are amazing. You could end up with a knight class. Or did your father tell you not to get a class? Is he trying to dictate that part of your life, too?”

Again, Aiden said nothing. But his mind moved to thoughts of his father at her words. His parents had been strict but not harsh. They liked things a certain type of way and did their best to ensure they ended up that way.

Let the children make mistakes so that they learn from them.

It was his father’s guide to raising them. Even when Ted had fallen off a tree as a child and broken his arm, their father had simply taken him to the hospital to get it fixed and had done nothing when Ted had gone tree climbing again a few months after his arm had healed. It was definitely reckless.

But their father had a very precise approach to life that had only been softened by their mother’s presence. If it wasn't going to kill or maim his child, then his child was free to make the mistake and learn from it. All that mattered to him was that the mistake wasn't one that would affect the rest of their lives or end it. They often wondered if he kept strictly to that rule because he only had sons. If they had a sister, would he have treated her the same way?

Aiden felt a touch of longing for his parents in his heart and smothered it almost immediately. He’d gone eleven years without them once before. He could go another eleven.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder how they were. How long would they mourn? Would they try for another child? His father was only in his late forties so they could still have another child if they wanted, right?

When Aiden saw Ded coming back, strolling with the easy stiffness of a soldier, he was glad for the distraction.

“What did we get?” Otid asked a bit forcefully. “Please tell me it’s the last group if not I’m going out on a limb and hunting these motherfuckers down myself.”

Ded looked from Otid to Aiden in a request for permission and Aiden nodded.

“A bunch of goblins,” Ded answered. “At the heart of the camp, there are two Hobgoblins and one Shaman.”

Taliner let out a low whistle. “That’s a tussle and a half if I ever did hear one.”

Aiden agreed.

Two Hobgoblins and a Shaman was quite a lot. It meant there were at least two level 15s and one level 20. Aiden wasn’t sure of what he wanted to do. He could call it a day here and head back to the palace where things were under his control. He only had a few more levels to go through before level 10, after all.

But that would mean risking the chance that one of the Hobgoblins or the Shaman would escape. That was going to be a consequential problem to innocent people who would have the misfortune of ending up in their path.

Turning back was not an option.

It isn’t even your world, he thought.

But he was going to be stuck in it for a significant while. And he wasn’t even sure if Ted would come across the same discovery that led him to finding a possible way home if things happened differently here.

No. They needed to deal with this and be done with it. The longer he stayed below level 10, the longer he remained weak. With the thoughts going through his mind, he cast aside the need to take his time. He knew how to get stronger, and for him, right now, faster was better.

Ted had said there was a key with the giants in the frost mountain. He had also said the leader of the Order needed to know about it. So Aiden at least knew where to start on his journey back home. There were three frost mountains he knew of that were close enough to Bandiv he could get to first and they required good levels to venture into.

Aiden shook out his leg, tested the injured leg to see how far he could push it. The result was that he could push it far enough.

“Two hobgoblins and one Shaman,” he said, turning to Otid and Taliner. “I’ll deal with the goblins. Can you guys handle the hobgoblins and Shaman?”

Otid scratched his jaw. “It’s a stretch, but we can. Give me that expensive burning sword and I’m sure I can push it far with the help of the enchantment.”

“Otid!” Taliner chided him. “You can’t take the boy’s enchanted sword.”

Aiden thought otherwise. “I ain’t got any problem with that. But it’s only got one more enchantment on it and its customized to my mana signature. So it'll just be a simple sword for you. I could still have it customized for you when this is all done, though.”

“Lord Lacheart,” Ded said in a hurry. “You cannot—”

“Today you answer to me,” Aiden cut him short, checking the enchantments he had left in his soldier’s belt. “I will hear nothing about safety or madness. We’re killing these things before they try to escape and endanger others. Got it?”

Ded slipped into silence but nodded. He suddenly had no arguments to offer. The quick acceptance was odd, and Aiden realized the soldier had always been that way.

What if it's also the reason he'd done something as stupid as lead us to the goblins that night?

It was worthy of thought but Aiden cast it aside for now.

“Alright, then,” Aiden said, then slid his dagger into its sheath. “Let’s go get this goblin mess over with.”