With the room silent after his last comment, Robb chuckled, “Well, don’t worry too much. If you can’t do it today, there is always tomorrow.”
“No, I think our group can do it.” Jack shook his head. “I’ve been killing ogres with Hassan the whole day, and with these stats, I can definitely hunt them on my own. I shouldn’t have too much trouble since I have the same speed as that wolf.”
Listening to Jack’s confident voice, Alfonse let out a sigh and tightened his lips. “We shouldn’t have a problem with ogres now either, but I’m not sure about this dungeon. I think we’re gonna have trouble with it.”
Fred nodded at his friend’s words. “Yeah, especially with that lightning skill. How the hell do you even dodge that, anyway?”
“It takes time to charge it, so you just have to move out of the way when it opens its mouth and you see blue and white.” Robb curtly replied.
Fred raised his eyebrow in interest. “Oh, is that true? That makes things much easier.”
“Yeah, but still,” Alfonse said with hesitation. “What if it targets Thomas, Derek, or Brian? They might freeze and get blasted.”
Fred clicked his tongue, “You’re worrying too much. They’re not babies, they killed hundreds of goblins by now, and they even fought with us against ogres.”
“I have an idea.” Roy cut right through all the discussions and everyone turned their attention toward him. “Robb, we won’t be able to do the normal difficulty today, so let’s just split up between the two groups.”
Robb nodded at the suggestion. “Sure, I’ll go with Alfonse and Fred, you go with Marth.”
“Wait, wait,” Alfonse interjected. “You said that only five people can enter this dungeon, right? If you guys join us, someone from our groups will have to not come.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Marth nodded and looked at Roy with a serious expression. “You already promised the boys that if they get strong enough they would get an opportunity. It would be better for them to know that they’re not strong than to have only one of them not join. That would create future problems.”
Roy stared blankly at Marth before nodding his head. “You’re right, I didn’t think it through.”
“It’s okay, as long as you understand.” Marth’s expression softened and he smiled at Roy.
“Here is another idea,” Robb took over the stage with everyone’s attention on him. “I can let you borrow my sword when it’s your turn to clear the dungeon. If you just get a couple of hits on that boss, it’s gonna die in no time.”
“Is it really that strong?” Jack raised his eyebrow in doubt.
Robb shrugged his shoulders, “You can try it out downstairs if you want.”
Alfonse looked at Roy and asked, “Is the meeting over? Or do we still have something to talk about?”
Roy thought for a few seconds before remembering one last point. “Yeah, for the groups that will guard Lorenz. Alfonse, you’ll be first, Marth, you’re second, and Jack, you will be third and last.”
“I see, switching it up a bit just in case,” Marth commented with a smile.
Roy nodded and replied, “Yeah, it’s just a good idea to have different schedules from day to day. That way even if someone is spying on us or something leaks, they will send the wrong information.”
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“Yeah, yeah, we know you’re smart,” Jack teased while standing up from the bed. “So, the meeting is done now, right?”
Roy smiled and stood up, “Yeah, we’re done here. Let’s go down.”
With those words from Roy, everyone stood up and made their way downstairs. As they walked out the door, they saw a small commotion in front of the house.
“Wow, I really can’t see him anymore. These skill things are simply magical,” Derek, one of Alfonse’s group members, commented from the side.
As Roy and the rest looked around to see who or what is gathering everyone’s attention, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Hey, did you guys finish?”
Roy, Alfonse, Jack, Fred, Marth, and Robb all looked back behind them to find that Jaimie suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“What the hell? How did you get behind us?” Alfonse raised an eyebrow and asked in shock.
Jaimie had a proud smile on his face as he responded, “Hehe, it was because of my skill.”
“Wait, so you got a skill?” Fred leaned in and raised his eyebrows while looking at the young boy. As he stared at the stupid grin on Jaimie’s face, his shoulders lowered and he had a defeated expression on his face.
“No,” Jaimie replied. “I got two!”
Alfonse and Fred looked at each other with slumped shoulders, before letting out a long sigh at the same time.
“You know, I’m starting to think that I gathered some bad karma in my past life. I must have been a bandit in it too.” Fred looked at the starry sky with a blank stare.
Alfonse shared his look and shook his head. “If you were a bandit, I must have been a corrupt guard. I just hope that I had fun with all the money I stole from those poor travelers.”
In the meantime, Jaimie looked at them with oblivious innocent eyes. “When that green light entered inside me, it felt like I had so much energy, and when I let it out I became invisible! Isn’t that cool?”
“That’s cool as shit,” Jack replied with a slight chuckle as he looked at his two gloomy friends. He then looked at Jaimie and asked, “But that’s just one skill, what’s the other?”
The young boy thought for a second before responding with a smile. “That one is Silent Step. When I walk I don’t make any sound anymore, I almost freaked out Lorenz when I came from behind him.”
“No, that’s not true,” Lorenz interjected with red cheeks. “I was just shivering from the cold!”
Jaimie furrowed his eyebrows and covered his chin in thought. “But I didn’t know that people screamed when they were cold, is that how it works?”
Jaimie’s genuine expression of confusion made Lorenz’s cheeks turn into ripened tomatoes. He turned around to hide his embarrassment and said, “No, that was not a scream. It was a war cry to keep me warm and forget about the cold!”
Roy shook his head at the two boys’ antics. He then turned toward the rest of his friends , “Well, let’s split up now and go hunt. For the dungeon, let’s wait until the end of the day when you’re more used to your stats.”
As such, the four groups were separated into four cardinal directions. Roy’s group walked for a couple of minutes before they met up with a pack of ten goblins.
“Can I go fight them alone? I wanna test my skills.”
Roy raised his eyebrow at Jaimie’s request before nodding, “Sure, I wanna see them too.”
With a happy expression on his face, Jaimie took out his dagger and faded into the background. It was as if the colors of his body and clothes bled into the surroundings and became blurry. If Roy wasn’t looking at him the whole time he would have definitely missed him, and even with that knowledge he had to strain his eyes to keep them locked onto him.
“And here I thought Jack’s skill was too strong. What use is my ghost step when the little kid can just stroll to the monsters without anyone seeing him.” Robb looked at Jaimie with a mixture of awe and envy. For a second, he understood how Lorenz had been feeling the whole night.
After leisurely walking to the back of the goblin pack, Jaimie slashed the blue goblin’s throat before plunging his sword into the eye of one of the tall monsters beside him. The group of goblins froze for a second at the sight of the young boy who appeared out of nowhere, and Jaimie did not waste that opportunity. He pushed the corpses of the two monsters at the rest before going on a killing spree. With his high agility, he jumped from one goblin to the next stabbing or slashing their throats. The small goblins tried to run away, but that only made them easier targets for the young boy. He sprinted after them like he was a wolf running after his prey, and plunged his dagger into the napes.
“The little cheeky fuck is becoming good,” Roy commented from the side.
Robb looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Keep calling him a cheeky fuck and soon you will be the one stabbed by his dagger.”
Roy chuckled at his friend’s comment before looking back at Jaimie. “I guess it wouldn’t be too cool if we let him get all the spotlight. Let’s go fight some ogres next.”