The two wolves were bigger than any Roy had ever seen before. They stood at a meter and a half on all four with their black fur and silver stripes. The beasts slowly made their way toward Robb and Roy who calmly backed off with their swords in hand.
As the two groups had a stalemate with one inching closer and the other backing off, the two wolves reached the corpse of the giant monster. With careful eyes, the wolves bit the monster’s arms and shoulders and dragged him to the woods.
Seeing that the beasts only wanted to prey on the giant, Roy let out a sigh of relief. The two young men looked at each other before they also walked towards the dense trees; they had to go back to the village if they wanted to survive the night. As they marched alongside the cliff, they soon found a familiar face.
“Finally found you guys, what happened?” Alfonse was out of breath as he ran all around the forest to find his friends.
Hearing his question, Robb looked at Roy with curious eyes. “Honestly, I want to know the same. How the hell did we end up on top of a vine below the edge of a cliff?”
Seeing that they were both interested, Roy was forced to narrate the events from the start. He explained the rage mode of the monster with its red aura and how it destroyed trees as if they were made from strands of wheat. He was then forced to the edge of the cliff by the rampaging beast. Remembering that there was a vine that they used to play on when they were younger, Roy took a leap of faith and caught it. After that, they killed the monster, and had their prey stolen by a pair of overgrown wolves, before finally meeting up with Alfonse.
“Goddamn, quite the adventure you guys had.”
Robb shook his shoulders at Alfonse’s comment. “Don’t know man, I was passed out for half of it.”
Roy, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow as he looked at Alfonse. “Hey, by the way, did you get an achievement?”
Alfonse tilted his head at Roy’s question. “Achievement? What’s that?”
Robb was taken aback by his friend’s response. “Huh, so you didn’t get it. Those floating words appeared in front of us when Roy killed the giant.”
Alfonse shook his head. “No, I didn’t see anything like that.”
Roy’s mind raced with thoughts. Why did Alfonse not get the achievement? It couldn’t be because he did not finish off the giant since Robb had also gotten it.
I guess it’s because he was too far away? Or maybe he didn’t strike it enough times?
Roy had multiple theories and hypotheses running around his head, but he could not confirm any of them. In the end, he decided to leave it in the back of his mind and think about it when they got more information.
As they were making their way through the forest on the side of the mountain, Roy remembered that the hideout was close by. Thinking back about the pillar of light that he saw beaming close to their base, Alfonse suggested, “Hey guys, wanna go past the hideout? I wanna see how messed it got from everything that’s happening.”
“Sure, why not,” Robb replied nonchalantly.
As such, the group took a slight detour and made their way up the side of the mountain. However, just as they got close to where their hideout was located, words started floating in front of their faces.
Quest Description
Kill the boss of the mountain forest: the red bear (0/1)
Rewards
Unlock safe settlement and the lord system.
As he looked at the words in front of him, Roy couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t understand what the words meant by “lord system”, but he understood what a safe settlement entailed. In this world that is now filled with monsters, the only place that could be considered safe was one where those beasts could not come to harm them.
“So, we just need to kill this red bear, right?” Alfonse asked with a hopeful expression. From his looks, he was also able to understand what the words “safe settlement” meant. Unfortunately, as if he was suddenly struck with the same curse as Jack, his question was soon answered.
With a mighty roar, a beast that eclipsed even the giant monster from before many times over stood from within the trees. A red-furred bear that towered above the branches and leaves marched down the forest. It had a scar on its left eye and a mean look on its face as its smashed trees with every step it took.
The group of three immediately took cover behind the trees next to them. They closed their mouths with their hands and curled up into tiny human balls so as to not bring any attention to themselves. From its overwhelming aura, Roy knew that even if he was in his best condition he would not be able to defeat this beast. It was a monster that stood many levels above the earlier giant, and no amount of trickery or traps could handle it. The only thing he could do was hide and hope that it would not notice them.
Even after the red bear went past them, none of the three young men dared to move an inch. Only after the sound of its steps could no longer be distinguished from the wind did Roy heave a sigh of relief.
“We have to kill that…” Alfonse’s expression sunk into one of despair at the thought of facing such an enormous beast. The other two did not fare much better. The trip out of the forest was unusually silent as each of them was stuck in his own thoughts.
When they reached Roger’s house, they found their friends waiting for them along with mister Jacob. Both Robb and Roy’s steps had slowed to a crawl the more they walked. With the adrenaline wearing off, the cost of their earlier wounds caught up with them. Alfonse, being the only one not injured, let the two use him as support as they slowly walked toward their destination.
Seeing the three young men struggle, Jacob ran to their aid along with Jack. He lifted Roy on his shoulder while Jack took care of Robb. While all the ruckus was happening around him, Roy slowly faded out of consciousness and slept.
By the time he awoke, he found himself laying on top of a bunch of cushions inside Roger’s house. More surprisingly, even though he hadn’t thought of the word ‘Status’, a screen was floating right in front of his eyes.
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Stats Attributes Rank Level Strength Initiate S Constitution Initiate A- Agility Sentinel E- Mana Sentinel D
A tremendous energy and vitality flowed within Roy’s body. His muscles were tight, well-defined, and held within them immense power. Just with the difference in his musculature from before, Roy felt as if he had gained a couple of inches in length. He now looked like a veteran of the battlefield, properly trained in the military—not just a lanky country boy who raided merchants with his friends.
Snapping back from his daze, Roy looked at his body. His back and left arm were wrapped in bandages. However, even though he was badly injured just a couple of hours ago, his pain has largely subsided. Even his arm which was wrapped in bandages was not painful to move around.
Roy stood up from the cushions and walked towards the candle-lit living room, unwrapping his arm on the way. Inside, Roger, Jacob, and the rest of his friends were sitting around a large table discussing matters with each other. Young Jaimie, on the other hand, was sitting with Mary and Greg in the corner of the room and cheerfully recounting his heroic adventures. The only ones that were missing from the group were Robb and Jack.
“Hey, why did you unwrap your bandages? You need to properly heal.”
Seeing Roy who had just woken up, mister Jacob immediately stood up from his chair to reprimand him.
“But… I have already healed.” As if to prove his point, Roy played around and did circles with his left arm.
“How in the world?” Jacob held Roy’s arm to check it with a confused look on his face. “I could have sworn that your bones were shattered… Well, I guess congratulations on the recovery?”
Roy gave a toothy smile to the surprised Jacob before focusing back on the others. “So, what have you guys been discussing?”
“We were talking about what we were going to do next,” Alfonse replied.
“Yes,” Roger added. “Of course, we need to save as many people as we can, but we will have a problem with space. The house is only so big after all.”
Roy scratched his chin for a few seconds in thought before looking at Alfonse. “Did you tell them about the safe settlement quest?”
Alfonse nodded at Roy’s words, “Yes, we did talk about that. But the red bear is too strong; you saw how big it was.”
Roy nodded before asking another question, “I know that this is off subject, but have you checked your status again?”
Alfonse shook his head with a confused look before thinking, Status, in his mind.
Stats Attributes Rank Level Strength Initiate A Constitution Initiate B+ Agility Initiate S Mana Initiate S-
“Oh, they have gone up,” Alfonse said with a surprised look. “My strength went to A, my agility to S, and my mana got up to S-.”
“Interesting,” Roger commented from the side. “So you can still increase your power even after you awaken.”
“Oh, my stats increased too,” Fred interjected. “Both my strength and constitution are now S.”
Roy’s mind raced with all the new information. He understood that the more he killed more monsters, the more he would grow stronger; the words of god had hinted at that pretty clearly. However, his increase in strength was still much higher than what his friends had experienced.
Oh, it’s that achievement.
Even though Roy had reached this conclusion, he couldn’t share it with no consequences. The giant was too strong of a force for them to go and fight, and anything he would say about the achievement will only blind his friends with greed.
Roy took a deep breath and broke the silence, “Our stats went up probably because we killed monsters. The more monsters you kill, the more your stats go up; I think that’s pretty clear.” He then paused as his mind strayed off with another thought. “Also, did something weird happen when I was out of it?”
“Yeah, something did happen,” Alfonse responded. “Like a couple of hours ago, green light covered our bodies—or at least, those of us that awakened.”
“That must be it then,” mister Jacob said. “That’s probably when all of your powers have increased.”
Roy nodded with a smile on his face at all of the new information. It felt as if the mysterious puzzle that was this new power was slowly being solved in his mind.
With his curiosity satisfied, Roy stood silent for a few seconds before his mind flashed back to the David family. He immediately stood up and was about to go out when Alfonse stopped him.
"Hey, where are you going?"
Roy looked back and answered in a hurry, "I'm going to the Davids, I need to bury them. We just left them in their house, who know what monster would go inside."
Alfonse smiled and gestured for Roy to sit, "Calm down, you don't have to get so worked up."
Roy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but he did as Alfonse told him. He trusted that there was something he didn't know.
"Your friends already did," Roger explained while smiling at Alfonse and Fred. "Thank you, David's spirit can now move on."
"We just did what we were supposed to do," Fred nodded before looking back at Roy, "Jack explained what happened to us, so we just went there and finished the job. We had to take them to the fields since the soil was easier to dig there."
Roy's chest deflated as he felt a massive weight drop off his shoulders, "Thank you... thank you."
Alfonse clicked his tongue at Roy's attitude, "Tch, don't make it weird. That's just normal, we can't have you do all the hard work alone."
With the atmosphere less tense, the group continued talking and laughing with each other. After a few more minutes, they heard knocking on the door.
"Wait, I'll go check."
As was usual, mister Roger was the one to stand up and open the door. Jack, who was wet with the rain, entered the house and hastily made his way towards the living room.
“The knights are fighting with a large pack of tall goblins.”
While Jack looked worried, the rest of the men could only look at him in confusion. Finally, Fred responded in an annoyed tone.
“So, what? Do we go and save them? They were the ones who captured us and wanted to execute us. I honestly don’t care whether they live or die.”
Jack shook his head at Fred’s retort. “I don’t care about the knights either. The problem is that they’re fighting to protect villagers. They have women and children in there.”