After Davis had left, Roy looked around the field. There were around thirty to forty goblins that led dead in a pool of their own blood.

“As I thought, he is pretty strong,” Roy said with thoughtful eyes.

“You think the other knights are like him?” Robb asked with interest.

Roy scratched his chin in thought before responding, “I’m not sure about that. But even if they are not, his squad was definitely stronger than our guys. They’re more skillful and they have that red aura that boosts their stats.”

“Well, that’s to be expected. They have been training for years, would be weird if normal people could become stronger than them in just a few days.” Robb smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Anyways, let’s go check the blue ogre’s corpse. I wanna see what kind of gem it’s gonna have.”

The two made their way to the giant monster’s corpse in a second. It was charred beyond recognition, and even the ground on which it stood was burned and full of ashes.

“Damn, this world is really unfair. How come you’re able to throw such a powerful spell?”

Roy rolled his eyes at Robb’s question. “Brother, I fainted for three hours after throwing it. If I miss it, I would be dead.”

Robb raised his eyebrow, “If you miss your target when your fireball is so fast, then you deserve to die.”

Roy could not argue Robb’s logic; he was right. Fireball was such a fast and destructive spell that it could instantly kill any creature below the level of an ogre. The only downside was that he could not use it constantly and that it left him weak when he would overuse his mana.

Roy plunged his sword through the monster’s charred skin and opened up its solar plexus. Amidst the flesh and guts, he found a large gem covered in purple blood. As he grabbed the red gem, it barely fit in the palm of his hand.

“I don’t know what that is, but it screams ‘Important’,” Robb commented from the side.

“Yeah, it looks like a bigger version of the other monster gems.” As Roy’s words reached that point, his eyes opened wide. “Wait, where are the other gems…”

“Calm down,” Robb said with a nonchalant voice. “You probably dropped them around the field when fighting. Let’s just go search.”

As the two searched around the field for the missing red gems, Roy went back to the campfire Davis had set up. Thankfully, he found the pile of gems just right next to the place where the two were sleeping.

Roy signaled for Robb to come with his hand, and the latter immediately appeared next to him.

“You found it?”

Roy showed him the stack of gems. “Yeah, Davis really is a good man.”

“Shame that he did not run with Marth. It would have been great if he was on our side.” Robb looked in the direction of the village hall with disappointed eyes. “Anyways, we’re done here, right? Shall we go back?”

Roy nodded and the two made their way back toward Roger’s place. As they walked through the streets of the marketplace, Robb suddenly looked at Roy and asked, “So, what’s your plan after all of this?”

Roy had a puzzled look on his face before he answered his friend’s question. “I guess survive, become stronger, and then get revenge—for both Mr. Karthus and Aiden.”

“Is that it?” Robb looked at Roy with serious eyes. “Are you going to have revenge and that’s it? You don’t have a goal after that?”

“Why do you think that?” Roy asked while raising his eyebrow.

Robb stayed silent for a few seconds before answering, “Since you gave us that speech after we killed that first goblin, it felt like you were a bit different. You had more focus on your actions and you did not waste any time, it’s as if you had a goal that you needed to reach no matter what.”

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Roy looked down stuck in his own thoughts, but even after he reached his answer he hesitated to speak. “I have a dream, but it’s kind of embarrassing…”

“Just say it, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about between us,” Robb said with an interested smile.

Roy looked at his friend hesitantly before he took a deep breath. “Okay, I want to become a king.”

“A king? That’s kinda out there. Why do you wanna become a king?” Rob let out a small laugh.

Roy blushed in embarrassment and shouted, “Don’t laugh! I actually thought really hard about it.”

Robb covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing. “So, you still didn’t tell me why you want to become a king.”

Roy shook his head at his friend’s antics before answering while looking up at the orange sky, “A king is wealthy, so he can give to the poor and not have them starve. A king is also powerful, so he can stop and punish the nobles when they abuse those that are weaker than them. That’s why I wanna become a king, so the world can be a little bit more fair.”

Robb looked at Roy with an understanding smile before rolling his eyes, “That’s quite surprising, I didn’t think you would have such a childish dream. Also, you know that wanting to become a king is treason? You sure you wanna do that?”

Roy shrugged his shoulders. “And what if it’s treason? They already want to kill us, so what is there to be afraid of? If they are going to kill us either way, I would rather have my crime be as big as possible.”

“Honestly, I should have expected that answer,” Robb burst out laughing. He then looked up to the sky with reminiscing eyes. “But I guess my dream is not that much different…”

“Hmm?” Roy, who was annoyed at Robb’s laughing attitude, looked at him with interest when he changed his voice tone.

“I wanna become a great general. I wanna lead a large army and fight on the frontlines.”

Roy grinned, “Like Marshall Liam?”

“Exactly, like Marshall Liam.”

Roy reminisced with a smile on his face about his childhood. When they had just been raided by the barbarians beyond the plains, Marshall Liam had come to their village and defended it for three months with his large army of trained soldiers. Everyone loved him and he treated them all with respect. In those years, all the kids wanted to become just like Marshall Liam—he was their hero.

Soon, the two crossed through the village and reached Roger’s house. They found Marth and Alfonse had already woken up and were about to move out with their groups.

“Oh, look who just came back. You guys worried us sick.” Fred walked toward them with a big smile on his face. “So, what were you guys doing that took you this long?”

“Long story, man,” Robb replied. “Just one thing led to another, and a full night just passed.”

Alfonse laughed heartily at Robb’s answer. “I told you guys not to worry. They were just too focused on hunting and didn’t notice the time pass.”

“I’m glad that both of you are safe,” Marth said with a relieved look on his face.

“Well, a lot of things have happened, but we can talk about that another time. For now, I just want to have a quick meeting before you guys move out.”

The group of five made their way to what was now their unofficial meeting room. However, before they could start discussing their plans for the day, Roy found a jar in the corner of the room and put all of the red monster gems inside of it, including the big one that came from the blue ogre.

“What are those?” Alfonse asked with interest in his eyes.

Roy smiled at his friend before sitting down on the bed, “Those are gems we found inside the ogres’ bodies. Honestly I don’t know what they’re useful for, but I thought it was a good idea to keep them just in case.”

Alfonse nodded at his friend’s explanation before sitting down alongside Marth and Fred. As for Robb, he stood as usual next to the door to keep an ear out for anyone who might come.

Roy looked at his friends and said, “Before we start, I wanna know what your stats are so that we can plan properly.”

“Sure,” Alfonse replied. “Both my Agility and Mana are at Sentinel rank D-, my strength and constitution are at E.”

“My constitution is at D+, my strength at D-, and both my agility and mana are at E-,” Fred followed.

“I’m the same as Fred, but my constitution is at D- and my agility is at E+.”

After everyone had shared their stats, Roy spent a few seconds thinking. “That is a good overall strength, you could easily kill an ogre with just the three of you. But what about your groups, how are they doing?”

“All of them can now fight against a tall goblin on their own, or two small ones at the same time. Of course, they could probably do better now after their stats have updated,” Marth replied with confidence.

“Other than Alric and Conrad, it’s about the same for our group too,” Alfonse followed.

Roy’s eyes darted around as he processed this information and analyzed his future plans.

“You need to push them harder,” He finally said. “By the end of the day, they should be able to fight against a group of seven goblins on their own.”

“Isn’t that too harsh,” Alfonse asked with a worried look.

“It has to be. If we’re not harsh with them, they would not develop the instincts they need to fight stronger opponents. When we will have to eventually kill the red bear, they will be just a tasty snack for him if they’re not strong—both physically and mentally.”