Inside of the headquarters of the Crawler’s Association, a meeting concerning a particular person was currently taking place.

At the head of a table was a red headed man wearing a grey suit, Johnathan Young. He was speaking to two other men, and standing next to him was the suited man who witnessed the subject of the meeting in action. He seemed just about to finish a report to those present.

He spoke in a gruff voice, “I didn’t think the kid looked like much, but he obliterated the training dummy and the bot.”

Johnathan Young turned to the gruff man, “Thank you, Richard, you may leave now.”

As the gruff man shuffled out of the conference room, Young turned to the two men.

“Well, Mr. Chairman, as you saw on the video, his strength is vastly different from what it was the last time he was tested. Based on all our information, it is virtually impossible for someone to grow that much in such a short time. It's possible that he betrayed and murdered his group when he was inside the dungeon with them, and that is how he grew strong so quickly.”

“Strong?” The man sitting next to the chairman, who could only be described as a mountain, snorted in derision. “Those bots are nothing, any 2-Star can tear them apart in seconds.”

Young looked at the man in annoyance, “While that may be true, it isn’t his current strength, but the fact that he killed experienced Crawlers that has us worried.”

The large man snorted once again, but before he could fire off another remark, the Chairman held up his hand.

The Chairman was an old man, but he had been running the Association since just after it was founded, so there wasn’t a single person who didn’t take him seriously. As such, the bundle of muscle posing as a human sitting next to him bit his tongue

He smiled warmly, “Now now, gentlemen. There’s no need to get worked up.” He turned his attention to Young, still standing at the front of the room. “Johnathan, you said that you spoke to the young man in question. How did that go?”

“Well, Sir,” Young began, “He seemed extremely nervous when talking to me, as if he was about to jump out of his skin. However, when I presented him with his new rank, he seemed so excited that he forgot all about his nerves.”

The Chairman continued smiling, “That kind of earnestness is hard to fake, and you have particularly good eyes, Johnathan.” He chuckled towards his subordinate at his remark, “I believe that for now, we should simply observe and see what comes of this boy. If he continues to grow stronger at this rate, we have no reason to suspect him. If not...”

The chairman stole a glance at the mound of brawn next to him, who spoke up once again, “Austin McKenna, huh? Maybe I can finally get a good fight…”

With that, the matter was closed.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Austin was standing in a circle next to Julie, the excited redhead who briefly interrogated him, and a man whose name he found out was Griggs.

In total, there were five Crawlers meeting here before the raid.

Griggs just finished up their strategy for the raid, and after the circle broke and everyone went to prepare before stepping through the Door, he caught Austin.

“Hey, mate, I hope you don’t mind me taking the lead here, even though you outrank me.”

Austin looked bewildered, “Oh-Um-I actually really appreciate it. If I was in charge, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Griggs gave Austin a friendly pat on the shoulder before walking away. Their party consisted of:

Austin, a frontline fighter. Julie, a rogue wielding twin daggers. Griggs, another fighter, wielding a broadsword paired with a wooden buckler. And an armored man whose name was Ray, wielding a tower shield and a shortsword.

The final member of their group hadn’t spoken a word yet, and Austin hadn’t found out his name either. According to Griggs, he was their healer and support caster.

Out of their whole group, Austin was ranked the highest, and the rest of them were 1-Stars with Griggs being a 2-Star. Overall, their party composition was decent, so a 1-Star dungeon shouldn’t pose any threat to them.

“Then again, that’s what I said about Anderson’s group. I can’t let my guard down.”

Austin had equipped the leather armguard from the escapee goblin on his left arm, and had pocketed the mana crystal. Since it was killed outside the dungeon by him, all of its drops also went to him, naturally.

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The group reassembled and as they prepared to pass through, Julie slid next to Austin and grabbed onto his arm.

“Hey, what do you think we’re going to find in there?” she asked, innocence and excitement in equal parts written on her face.

Austin was flustered by this behavior, so he performed his usual routine of stuttering, before offering a simple response of, “I don’t know.”

The group stepped through the Door, and into the dungeon. The other side of the door was completely different than the ant cave that Austin had been in previously. This time, it was a wide open, grassy field that seemed to stretch on for miles.

“Alright fellas,” Griggs called out cheerfully, “Seems we’re in a field type. Austin there has already confirmed that we’ll be facing goblins in ‘ere, so look for their encampment.”

Julie was the first to speak up, “Oooh, oooh!” she called excitedly, “There’s smoke over there!”

The rest of the group seemed unable to see what she could, but as she was a scout, this was to be expected.

Griggs whistled in appreciation. “Good eyes, girly. Alright, form up and lets march!”

Even though they were quite different, the way Griggs conducted himself inside of the dungeon reminded Austin very much of Anderson. Austin steeled himself, resolving to not allow Griggs to resemble Anderson in other ways.

With Ray standing at the front, flanked on either side by Austin and Griggs, and followed closely by Julie and the mute healer, they began to march in the direction that their scout had indicated she saw smoke.

Before they knew it, they were upon a forest standing alone among the grasslands. “Geography in the dungeon doesn’t have to make sense, huh?” Austin mused.

By this point, they could all see the smoke rising from within the trees, it was clear that the goblins had made their camp inside the forest.

“Keep an ear out for an ambush, you hear?” Griggs said, facing towards Julie.

She didn’t respond, but instead just nodded her head like an excited puppy.

As they pushed through the forest, Austin heard the rustling of branches headed their way. Since there weren’t birds inside the dungeon, this could only mean one thing.

Just as he noticed it, Julie’s head also pricked up. It seemed both of them had heard it, but Austin was the first one to speak.

“You might wanna draw your weapons now.” Austin said, far too timid for the situation.

Everyone had assumed their battle stances by the time their enemies arrived. Thanks to the early warning, they weren’t caught off guard when several goblins dropped from the trees and attempted to latch onto their backs.

Austin made a grand swing with his longsword, and caught two goblins in his arc, removing both of their heads from their bodies.

Level Up!

“Nice.” he muttered to himself.

Before he had the chance to assist his comrades, the small ambush was already taken care of. Griggs had pulled a similar move to Austin, though he only took out one goblin, Julie had deftly sidestepped the two dropping towards her, and, before they had a chance to recover from a hard faceplant, had planted a dagger in each of their backs. Ray bashed the goblin falling towards him in the face with his shield, and quickly turned and took care of the one assaulting the healer.

It was quick, efficient, and brutal. With that, seven goblins had been dispatched, and their group was no worse for wear.

Austin went around and collected the crystals and gear that each goblin left behind, and placed them in the backpack that Ray was carrying in addition to his other gear.

“Hey, Austin.” Griggs called over to him. “I notice you’re lacking a bit in the armor department, go ahead and take the pieces that these bastards drop.”

Austin was stunned, “Really?” he asked, “Won’t you be losing money like that?”

“Nah,” Griggs replied nonchalantly, “The crappy leather stuff that gobs wear ain’t worth much. Them crystals are where the cash is at these lower level dungeons.”

“If you insist…” Austin replied, still uncomfortable at taking Griggs’s charity.

After collecting the bits and pieces from the seven slain goblins, Austin was now wearing a breastplate that used to cover the goblin’s whole torso, a wrist guard on each arm, and leg protection, all over his street clothes that were just a bit too tight. It wasn’t much, but it was better protection than he had previously, so Austin wouldn’t complain.

The group continued forward through the forest, and after another uneventful ambush, Austin had completed his set of leather armor, save a helmet. He was feeling pretty good about his skills at this point, and had leveled up another time from killing four in the second ambush.

After the second ambush, the rest of their journey was uneventful, and they came to a clearing in the forest where the goblin’s camp was.

Julie went to scout the camp while the rest of the group stayed hidden past the treeline. When she returned, she had a grave look on her face.

“Bad news, there are two hobgoblins and a goblin chief at the center of the camp, and they look tough.” She said this with a pouting look on her face, as if she was upset that it wouldn’t all be as easy as the ambushes.

Griggs frowned, “Two hobs wouldn’t be much of a problem, but with a chief thrown in there alongside the rest of the camp, things may get tough.”

“I have an idea,” Austin ventured.

“Let’s hear it, mate.” Griggs looked excited to hear what he had to say.

“I can probably take out the chief in one on one combat,” He began, recalling that the guidebook said that Goblin Chieftains were only marginally stronger than standard orcs, one of which he killed not too long ago.

Griggs whistled again, “Come to think of it, the way you were carving up the small fry, I bet you could. Go on.”

“If we charge the camp, Julie and Ray can keep the rest of the camp busy while Griggs and I quickly take out the hobgoblins, one each. After they’re dead, Griggs can join up with them to finish off the small fry while I fight the big guy. This way none of you are at risk with a strong opponent.”

Austin made his case, keeping the fact that he wanted to monopolize the XP from the Chieftain to himself.

Julie regained her eager state, “Oooh, yeah! I wanna see you fight that big strong guy. It’ll be so cool!”

Griggs was smirking too, “I knew there was a reason we brought you on, this could definitely work. Let’s do it.”

Ray and the mute mage also gave their consent, and with that, their plan of attack was decided.