Walking out of the encirclement, Mark could feel dozens of eyes staring into his back, still calmly walking away as he headed for the exit ramp from the ravine. The moment he left the guards in the back Donny walked up to him, his eyes were much more alive now than ever since Mark had met him. It would seem he got a bit of closure with this slaughter, he was much calmer too.

“What now Master?”

“We are going to take our reward at the Association, see what else pops up in that time, and await the caravan, we have just enough time for you to learn a little more before we get to the Capital.”

Donny didn’t even wince this time, it seems witnessing the truly powerful people of this world fight made him much more hungry for power, he was slowly but surely taking on the qualities of a battle junkie, and Mark would have to beat those out of him. Determination to complete a mission was good, but losing yourself in killing led only to becoming a serial killer, of no use as an art of an organization, too volatile.

He would make sure to lead Donny properly, to not end up with a lunatic for a subordinate, he didn't want to clean his organization’s internal structure before he even made it in the first place.

When they arrived at Pharia, people were celebrating everywhere on the streets even though it was already completely dark outside, people just lit up torches and lanterns everywhere, and the celebrations continued. It would seem, the guards have sent runners ahead to inform the people of Pharia of their victory. Many wagons, of merchants who couldn’t afford proper protection, and were stuck in the town, were hurriedly leaving.

There were colors everywhere, and many people started cooking food out on the streets, giving them out to anyone for free. Dancing Goblins' doors were wide open with Joe and his waitresses giving out free beer to the people on the streets.

Everyone was celebrating the end of the bandit’s terror, after all, many of these people had family outside Pharia, many people here were refugees, who ran away from their homes around here, in fear of being the next victim of the bandits’ raids.

But all this was finally over, the Bandit Queen Vesthia was slain, and her goons were slaughtered by the brave guards of Pharia.

Mark and Donny had barely stepped through the gates when people started approaching them, offering them food, drinks, and small trinkets, shouts of appreciation filled the town, and everyone wanted to thank the people who helped free them from the shackles of terror that bound them for months.

Donny was instantly overwhelmed, he did all he has, just for the sake of his vengeance, to kill those that have hurt and defiled his family, and even though he got a shadow of closure by killing the bandits, only now did he feel truly free, all those people lived in fear of their own families, there were also some that, like him also lost their loved ones to the Stranglers, but now they were all vindicated.

It filled him with such a strange feeling that he has never felt before, he felt light, like a feather, like a leaf in the wind, taking a deep breath, Donny felt something amazing. The Stamina coursing through his blood, suddenly ‘moved’. He had trouble progressing lately, his control training stagnated and he was unable to learn any new techniques his master was trying to impart to him, but now it was gone, completely.

The Stamina danced wildly, rushing through the pathways, he was trying so hard to push it through just the day before, there was no hesitation, no blockage, he halted taking in the feeling. Mark saw that something was happening with Donny when he was about to ask what was going on, he saw the shadows creep up around the boy, they couldn’t entirely hide him, there were too many people around, and he wasn’t consciously guiding it, it just happened.

Mark wasn’t sure what exactly was happening, but it would seem Donny has conquered something inside himself reaching some sort of enlightenment stage, it lasted very shortly, just seconds after Donny opened his eyes, he looked flabbergasted at Mark, seeking an explanation, not knowing what to tell the kid, Mark just shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

Soon they arrived at the Dancing Goblin, where they were once again welcomed with cheers and toasts, within seconds two mugs of ale appeared in their hands, handed over by Bald Joe, who was now standing at the entrance of his Inn, grinning maniacally, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, it would seem he was very happy with the bandits gone.

Mark allowed Donny to celebrate a little, while he pretended to also drink from his mug, getting rid of the alcohol with over a dozen people observing him non the wiser.

After sitting for a bit he retired to his room, he almost died today, he had many things to mull over, his performance disappointed him a bit, and he felt that he was becoming more reckless as of late, taking the fight without properly investigating his prey’s background, he didn’t even try to infiltrate the hideout beforehand to not be walking in blind, without a plan.

If he were to guess as t the reason, it would be his sudden increase in power, he had similar problems, just after his training started he instantly forged ahead of his group, soon he thought he was better than anyone, it only took a singly beating to near death to remind him he was just a child.

It stopped after that, very quickly he reached the peak of his world human limits and stagnated, but here he once again started gaining strength at a very quick pace and it once again started affecting him. He had to watch himself, he would never slow down his growth speed, that would be stupid, especially in the world he was now living in, but he had to be doubly conscious of his mindset.

Slowly breathing, he went into his usual meditative trance, now broadened by circulating his stamina throughout his whole body. Slowly his heart calmed down, and his mind slowly regained its razor-sharp focus, he would live in this world, and to do that he would have to improve not only his body but also his mind, there was no point in having powerful hardware when your software couldn’t even use it in the first place.

After a couple more hours he opened his eyes, standing up he kept his slow breath and stamina circulation while starting to exercise his body, he always gained the most benefits from exercising his mind and body in tandem, after another hour he finally went to bed.

………………………………………………………………………………

He had another dream, he knew it the moment he opened his eyes. He was once again in this strange tunnel, being dragged by his former subordinates, ahead of him Dreszer was carrying Young Miss, and behind him, the inhuman roar just sounded out. He had no control of his body, he couldn’t feel his Stamina, and for the first time, he felt naked, powerless.

His body turned its head, looking behind, searching for the source of the roar, and he saw IT. He couldn’t fathom what it even was, it looked like a mass of red energy, tentacles swiping out destroying the walls of the tunnel. Hundreds of animalistic maws were snapping out, trying to reach them - its prey. From deeper inside the mass two enormous glowing purple orbs were pointed at them, looking at them, he was sure of it, even if it lacked any semblance of an iris, just two glowing orbs.

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Another roar sounded out it sent out a wave of dust, creating cracks in the walls as it headed for them, Tom and Jake quickened their pace, Draszer turned around, still holding Miss with one hand he reached out with his other hand, and a mass of blue energy, mixed with red gathered at his palm, a beam of light shot out, decimating dozens of tentacles on its way, shattering tens of maws, finally hitting one of the glowing orbs.

A scream like none other he has ever heard sounded out, dust fell from the ceiling, and Mark was sure it was about to collapse, when before them finally appeared a set of doors. They were majestic, the doors to Torrento’s office could not compare in the slightest.

They were more than twenty meters tall by his estimates, with depictions of kingdoms at war, hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures battling, and battling, they were flitting about slaughtering themselves, many mysterious creatures appearing and disappearing, being born and dying.

The mysterious markings on them glowed in golden light, showering the five people in the tunnel, then Draszer reached out and touched the Doors, and they opened…

Waking up, he lay on the bed for minutes, trying to digest what is this all about, what is happening, are the dreams depictions of the past, was that how he landed on this Planet? There were so many questions he just couldn’t find answers to. He stood up, and the first thing he did was to look at his statistics, maybe an answer was hiding there.

Sure enough, there were some big changes, seeing his abilities his head started whirling with possibilities.

Name:

Mark

Class:

Rogue

Level:

13->16

Experience:

263k/650k

MP:

42

SP:

78

Strength

25->29

Agility

40->48

Constitution

22->26

Intelligence

16->21

Skill:

Description

LVL

*Apprentice Bow Mastery*

Apprentice handling of weapon: Bow

LVL 11 EXP 337/10k

*Snipe*

Minor correction of a fired arrow, increased flight speed, increased penetration damage.

LVL 11 EXP 133/10k

Double Tap

Shoot two arrows at the same time, arrows will land very closely together.

LVL 9 EXP 756/2560

Charged Arrow

You charge your arrow with more Energy allowing it to do much more damage. The arrow is destroyed.

LVL 5 EXP 12/160

*Apprentice Dagger Mastery*

Apprentice handling of weapon: Dagger

LVL 12 EXP 1/20k

*Pierce*

Executes a powerful pierce dealing much more damage, causing excessive bleeding and capable of stunning the enemy for a short time.

LVL 11 EXP 13/10k

Stealth

You are thinning your presence, avoiding the awareness of other living beings.

LVL 10 EXP 6843/20k

Sprint

Run much faster.

LVL 8 EXP 553/1280

Forest Stride

The art of moving efficiently through a Forest.

LVL 7 EXP 533/640

Quick Step

Make an instantaneous step in any direction.

LVL 9 EXP 1477/5120

Lie

Your ability to lie has become much better, unaware folks would almost always believe you.

LVL 6 EXP 199/320

Premonition ^UNIQUE^

You can sense incoming danger.

N/A

*Stamina Control*

You are capable of controlling your Internal Stamina.

LVL 6 EXP 655/1280

*Bolster*

Empower your body with Stamina.

LVL 8 EXP 5/2560

*Eye of Arano*

Empower your Sight.

LVL 2 EXP 11/80

In the past week, he had some improvements, but nothing spectacular, but today would be different. Yesterday, he fought his hardest battle yet, killing an individual more powerful than him, and from then until now, you always got more by killing things stronger than you, the same way you got way less killing those weaker than you.

He also found one little clue as to the reason the dreams could be coming. The last time it happened he had just broken 10 Intelligence, now it broke over 20, it was a very small detail and could have nothing to do with his dreams, but he could not be so sure.

What he knew for sure, was that he needed to increase his Intelligence and see if he could trigger another dream. If so it would be a very valuable stat. He needed to know what was happening here. Why did he land in this World? Were the others also transported? Is the weird red being still chasing them? He wouldn't be able to sleep well until he got to the bottom of this.

But to do all that there was only one way.

Get stronger.