The group of four walked around the marketplace in the middle of the night, searching for more goblins to hunt. After a few minutes, they came across a small pack of five, with four of the monsters being small and only one tall variant.
“Take this sword, it should help you a bit.” Robb handed his Moonlight Katana to Lorenz who accepted it with hesitant hands.
Roy looked at Lorenz and Jaimie with a serious expression. “You are both going to fight the goblins that we meet up with from now on. There is no sharing of kills, whoever beats a monster kills it. Also, no closing your eyes; if you close your eyes, you die, understood?”
“Yes, I understand,” Jaimie responded with a big smile, while Lorenz nodded with a serious expression.
With their discussion finished, Jaimie turned around and took out his dagger. He then dashed with incredible speed at the pack of goblins, before plunging his blade into one of the small monsters’ neck.
Lorenz looked with shock at the ghostly speed and steel-heartedness of Jaimie. Not to be outdone by a boy younger than him, Lorenz clenched his teeth and charged forward. While the monsters were confused and focused on Jaimie, Lorenz slashed at one of the small goblins diagonally.
The katana cut through the monster’s flesh, organ, and bone like butter. Its body was split into two halves that quickly separated from each other. Lorenz looked with horror as blood and guts fell all over the ground from the goblin’s two halves.
“Focus!”
Roy’s voice snapped the young boy out of his daze and he jumped out of the monster’s range. The tall goblin charged at him with rage in its eyes, making Lorenz freeze for a second. Just as the young boy was about to close his eyes, he remembered Roy’s earlier words. He clenched his teeth and charged forward to the surprise of the monster. With quick speed, the young boy stabbed the goblin through the chest before it could complete its wide diagonal slash.
As Lorenz finished off the tall goblin’s life by cutting off its neck, Roy breathed a sigh of relief and put back his sword in its place. He was one millisecond away from dashing in and killing the tall monster before it could harm the young boy. He then smiled as Lorenz showed more focus while battling the rest of the pack; the young boy was in the zone.
“Good job, that was some good work.” Roy walked toward the two young boys while clapping.
“That was easy, let’s fight some stronger monsters next time!” Jaimie ran toward his older friend and met him halfway.
Lorenz, on the other hand, could only stare at Jaimie’s back with a complicated expression. The boy was two years younger than him, just eleven, but not only was he stronger but he was more fearless and talented than him. A weird feeling sprung up inside Lorenz’s chest, one that was akin to a small fire.
“Yeah, these ones were too easy. Surely there are stronger monsters out there.” Lorenz walked toward Roy with a puffed chest and a smile on his face.
Seeing the boy’s reaction, Roy shook his head while Robb covered his mouth and chuckled in the back.
Roy sighed, “Well, there definitely are stronger monsters, but let’s take things slowly. Until you get the full hang of it, we will just fight groups that are smaller than ten.”
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Thankfully, Lorenz did not let his ego take over his senses and nodded respectfully at Roy’s words. Jaimie, on the other hand, was sad for a moment before his everlasting smile returned to his face once again.
“Okay, but let’s go quickly find more goblins. I wanna hunt five hundred before the day ends!”
Lorenz turned and looked at Jaimie as if he was staring at a ghost. “Are you joking, how are you gonna hunt five hundred?”
Jaimie gave a puzzled look to the shocked young boy. “What do you mean? I already hunted 453 goblins, I just need 47 more.”
Lorenz’s mouth opened wide and did not close. He turned and looked at Roy in hopes that he would tell him that this was all a joke, but the latter only sighed and looked away.
Lorenz’s heart dropped to his stomach. He was too naive; he thought that since Jaimie was younger than him that they would be comparable. However, he could not be further from the truth. In both strength and mind, they were miles apart.
“Lorenz,” Robb’s voice snapped the young boy out of his dark thoughts. “Just remember, the apocalypse started three days ago. No matter what’s going on, just remember that you’re three days away from becoming the same or even better than anyone, understood?”
Lorenz looked blankly at Robb before looking down and nodding slightly. He clenched his fists and reinvigorated the dying embers in his chest. “Yes, I understand.”
Roy smiled at the young boy’s resolute face. “Also, you’re an awakened now, so you don’t need too much sleep. You can work on the spikes and traps during the day, and hunt with us at night if you want.”
The group of four continued to hunt monsters until midnight. They started off by only focusing on goblins so that Jaimie, and most importantly, Lorenz can be as efficient with their hunts as possible. However, both Roy and Robb got some chances to show off their skills and kill ogres to the awe and wonder of Jaimie and Lorenz. Roy’s Fireball was especially astonishing to the young boy who had never seen a skill or a magic spell before.
By the time it was about to reach midnight, the group made their way back to Roger’s house, where they met up with Marth and his group at the front.
“You guys just came back?” Roy walked up to the knight captain.
“Well, we can’t be wasting any time, now, can we?” Marth replied to Roy’s question with a smile.
“Good,” Roy looked at the rest of the group. “You will soon see the results of all your work.”
He then looked back at Marth and asked, “What about the rest? Alfonse, Jack, Fred, and the others.”
Marth looked past Roy and a small grin formed on his face. “Well, speak of the devil and he shall come. There they are.”
Roy, Robb, and the two young boys looked back and saw both Alfonse and Jack’s group coming from a distance.
“Hey, aren’t you quite the lazy bunch? Why are you here first when you should have been hunting more?”
Robb side-eyed Jack who was joking around with both of their groups. “It doesn’t matter how long you hunt if it takes you twenty years to kill one goblin. You need to focus on efficiency.”
Jack clicked his tongue at Robb’s retort. “Say that when we have both the same stats. I’ll eat you like breakfast then.”
Robb shrugged his shoulders and laughed, “That’s if you catch up to me, leave the dreams to when you go to bed.”
“Guys, we just came back from a full day of work and the first thing you do is fight with each other? Grow up a bit.” Alfonse cut in between Robb and Jack who had been inching closer to each other.
Just as Jack was about to say something, Fred interjected. “Hey Roy, we need to have a meeting to discuss our plans, right? Should we go upstairs?”
“Yeah, let’s go. It shouldn’t take too long anyways.” Roy nodded at Fred’s suggestion before making his way inside along with Marth; the rest followed soon after.
Just as he was walking up the stairs, the awaited green aura covered him and drilled into his muscles and bones. By this point, Roy and the others were already used to the pain. Only Lorenz who only fully experienced it once when he awakened moaned in pain and discomfort.
As Roy looked down at the young boy, Robb gestured at him with his head. “Are you gonna check it now?”
“No, let’s go up first.” Roy continued walking up the stairs and entered the master bedroom. As he sat down on the bed along with Alfonse, Marth, Fred, and Jack, he said the word “Status” in his mind.