A scream echoed from the other side of the hall. I took notice at the quarreling party, which consisted of tough-looking people and one teen clutching his arms in fear. About fourteen, fifteen-ish? So, a teen…

The unknown teen covered his head, “T-That’s no-“

As the teen struggled to come up with words, his other party members left.

“W-Wait!”

A sad smile crept up on the corners of my lips, He reminds me of who I am.

The three of us watched the scene with mild interest. Of course, none of us ever thought about including him in our party; As much as I hated to admit it, he didn’t seem like someone we could count on. I knew it was hypocritical of me to think this way, but if that kid ended up losing his life because he didn’t find a party…

Well, you can’t save everyone. Why think of others when you couldn’t even take care of yourself?

It sucked to admit, but none of us could afford to take care of another person, dealing with all our problems was enough, there was no need to add to the huge list of issues we needed to handle. Although…

What about Phillip? What does he think of him?

I shifted my gaze to my side, “Phillip? Any of your spider senses tingling?”

Of course, I wasn’t expecting a positive answer. I just wanted to know where his morality lay in, perhaps, from his answer, I could understand him better. The rage and darkness he displayed were an incredible asset to have, especially when we were fighting for our lives, but a part of me couldn’t help but be wary of the source of that energy.

He smirked, holding a laugh. Maria, however, wasn’t as amused as he was. Both her eyebrows cocked upwards. “You’re not serious? That kid?” She took another peep at the poor teen, “I… don’t think he’ll be able to do much.”

“Relax, nobody’s saying that we’re recruiting him. I’m just asking for his opinion.” Then I tapped Phillip on his back.

“Hmm…” Phillip eyed the teen, considering his options. “I can trust him. But that’s as far as it goes.” He shrugged.

“What?” Maria’s eyes twitched. “Just like that?” She flicked her hair aside, facing the teen, “I suppose he did survive this long, after all.” She groaned, letting go of a defeated breath.

We watched her struggled with her reasoning, “Look… I’m just not interested in taking care of a teen, alright? I know it sucks, and maybe a bit selfish of me to say, but it is what it is.”

Well, of course, nobody wanted that. Not even me, not even Phillip.

I shut my eyes and wished him luck.

“So, what did you get for your class? You must’ve gotten something after all that fanfare,” Maria spoke again, changing the topic. “Is it as good as Phillip made it out to be?”

I opened my status screen again. “Yep… It’s like, a decent amount of attributes per level. Although, I’m sure there’s more to it than that, otherwise, I’d be disappointed.” Shifting my gaze away from the screen, Maria shot a grateful smile at me.

Her smile showed that she was satisfied with my answer, although, there was no doubt she wanted more. “That’s good enough, I guess…” She stretched, “Are we doing the next mission right away? Honestly, I could go for a one-hour break, we still have a lot of time to kill.”

Her logic was sound. We should take a break. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said that the recent goblin fight was taxing, after all the bone-breaking that I’d lived through. Phew.

However, a part of me didn’t want to, as drained as I was. The goblin mission was a wake-up call; We’d gotten complacent and started thinking about saving points instead of going all out all the time. It was a necessary slap in the face to me — no, to me and Phillip — Which would prove crucial to prepare us for the grueling fights later.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“A break sounds about right.” I said, scratching the back of my head, “But I’ll do the Combat training mission first if we decided to rest.”

Phillip’s laugh roared the hall, “Yep… I’d gotten soft, it’s time to sharpen up my instincts.” He sighed, then turned to the obelisk, “We’d be facing the Orc soon, I think it’s best if we got a hands-on experience with it before then.”

“Let me guess, it will be the toughest fight in the combat training again today…” Maria shook her head, “I hate to say this, but you’re right…” Following Phillip’s footsteps, she gazed at the obelisk, apprehension in her eyes, “I tried fighting that thing yesterday…“ She drew a line across her neck, “It wasn’t a fight; it was a slaughter. It sliced me in half in one swing.”

That’s not a pretty sight… Was the orc even stronger than the Hobgoblin? I suppose I’d find out soon.

“So… I guess we’ll meet here again in 90 minutes?” I said, watching their heads turn to face me.

Each of them nodded with a different level of enthusiasm and left. Their bodies disappeared one by one, and I was now alone in the nexus. With nothing else to do, I entered the Combat training mission; Half of me was excited to see how much stronger I’d gotten, and the other half was worried that I’d be discouraged after fighting it.

It didn’t take long before I was back in the foggy field. The same crystal was there again, beckoning me to interact with it.

This time, there were no difficulties displayed. I hoped that I’d be facing the lizard again if I chose the medium option to warm up; if I couldn’t even beat the lizard on a regular basis, what chance did I have against the orc?

Watching the crystal morph, I readied both my weapons and stood, observing the figure that it was transforming into. My eyes went wide after witnessing the colossal form the crystal had become; an encounter that I’d never seen before.

[Lvl. 6 Orc Warrior]

Green-ish skin, with a set of fangs protruding outside from its lower jaw through its lips, and its deep, red eyes, reminding me of the horrors you’d dream about in your childhood. The frame of this monster was intimidating, standing at least twice as tall as I was, and its muscles were unmatched even when compared to Phillip’s. It carried a set of rough-looking axe and a barbaric shield, only wearing a fur outfit acting as its protection; As if it needed any.

A cold thrill ran down my spine as I hastily readied my stance, just quick enough to catch its axe, reeling in the recoil of steel’sels’ collision. While it wasn’t as brutal as the enraged Hobgoblin’s slam — The difference between it swinging with only one of its arms and the weight distribution of the axe and the club — It was still enough to push me off the ground, albeit only a few inches up this time.

Perhaps my toughness and Strength had grown to a point where I could take its hits, but I wasn’t under any delusion that I could deal with this thing on my own. The Orc did not need any fancy skills or combat instincts; It could overpower most of us with its strength alone.

The next attack came from above my head; A little too fast for my liking, yet I raised my shield just high enough to prevent a direct hit. An earth-shattering clank erupted as both our steels collided, caving my legs into the soft dirt beneath. My limbs weren’t used to taking these sorts of hits, and as our fight continued — well, it was more like a one-sided beating — They lost their strength to keep my defenses up, leading to my first death.

I woke up with my eyes gazing at the sky above. It took me a second to realize what happened.

Yeah, no chance of beating that thing on my own.

But that didn’t mean I’d give up. Even if I died, progress was still made.

I chuckled, remembering the gauntlet of deaths I’d endured against the lizardman in this same field, and my efforts then weren’t wasted at all, even if they came at the cost of my sanity. Yet again, since when had things been easy in here?

The first death taught me a little about how the Orc fought. Despite its crude appearance, its assault was calculated and precise. It never went all out like how the goblins did; their relentless assault made them a heaving mess after a few minutes of battle, no; The way it managed its stamina sustained it enough to last a prolonged battle. Which meant that I couldn’t just sit by and wait for it to weaken itself.

Winning against it wasn’t simple, even if I possessed twice the firepower that I had. I didn’t know the extent of the damage from my bolts against it. But gauging from the battle with The Hobgoblin, those didn’t deal any fatal damage after shooting it on three different occasions, meaning that I should only expect minor burns from a single cast. The disparity of the effects of my magic between the small goblins and Hobgoblin surprised me; It was a straight one-shot when I fired at the mobs, but it didn’t do much against their boss.

Perhaps it had a higher Arcane. Defense or toughness? Maybe a combination of both?

Approaching the crystal, I restarted the fight.

This time, I went in with another method, abusing my camouflage as it spawned, then firing two shots after. I needed to see the extent of my damage and to see where I should aim if I wanted to hurt this hulk of a creature.

The Orc spawned again, shrouding its area with its shadow. Crouching, I hid quite a distance behind it while priming my spell. It looked around the vicinity with its eyebrows raised, confused about my lack of existence.

I fired both my spells, landing on the same spot behind its skull. The eruption of the spell was a teensy bit larger than I remembered; a result of the growth of my mind attributes, resulting in a thick layer of dark smoke covering its torso. My camouflage was now off, and I remained where I was, checking if it was at least hurt by it.

Well, my bolts weren’t as threatening as Phillip’s axe, if that was what I wanted the answer to. The orc charged past the smoke, dissipating it with its force, and I saw the enraged expression that it showed. But its anger wasn’t the only thing I observed, trickles of dark purple blood flowed from on top of its head; A good sign that my spells weren’t trivial.

But that didn’t mean that I was even close to winning this fight. A couple of swings and blocks later, I was left a mess of meat and bones as it brutalized me with its fury and sheer power.

I gained a few insights from that death; The fact that my magic did anything was a relief in itself. But through that same death, I also discovered that despite how calm it fought at the start; it was prone to anger as well.

The same anger we could use later.

In theory, if my magic could hurt it, it was possible that I could beat it. My biggest problem right now was the notion of me becoming a sitting duck once it reached me; I didn’t possess the speed to run away from it, nor was I tough enough to last more than 5 hits. Just one of those reasons would justify me avoiding it, but both of them at the same time?

Clutching the staff in my arm, I hid behind my shield, facing the crystal forming into another Orc. I had to figure out a good strategy by the time this ended.

And then, another sequence of deaths replayed again. Battering my already mute soul, and yet, I couldn’t help but smile every time I died.