After Jaimie had killed the pack of ten goblins, the group continued patrolling their side of the village. As they turned around a particularly noisy street, they found a large horde of thirty goblins along with two ogres leading them.
“Well, my turn I guess.” Roy walked in front of his group and conjured a massive fireball on top of his hand. It was at least 1.5 times bigger than the one he used to kill the blue ogre.
The ogres and goblins roared and shrieked as they charged toward the group of young men. Their eyes were bloody red in rage and bloodlust, but as they looked at the ball of fire on top of Roy’s hand, they felt a deep sense of fear.
The young man launched his spell at the horde of monsters with incredible speed. In less than a second, the fireball reached the ogres and goblins before exploding with a massive shockwave.
Roy blocked the heat wave with his arm before looking back at the aftermath. There were only flames. The fire towered high in the sky and burned with it the monsters who screamed and shrieked. Only a few blue goblins that were far from the center of the explosion were able to survive. Their skin was burned and their faces were disfigured, but they still had a deep instinct to survive. They clawed their way out of the fire and slowly crawled on the hot dirt road.
“Wow, that was super awesome! Is that a new skill?” Jaimie jumped toward Roy and looked at him with excitement. Even Lorenz who was usually aloof looked at him with wide eyes.
“No, it was just my fireball. I just put more mana into it.”
Roy then took a deep breath and covered his head as he felt a slight dizziness. Robb looked at him with concern and asked, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Roy nodded. He then smiled as he looked at his hand. “I still can throw another one like that.”
Robb raised his eyebrow in surprise. “Wow, really?” He then looked blankly at the ground before his eyes opened wide. “Wait, if you just put all of your mana into it, can’t you just kill that damn red bear right now? No need for all of this preparation stuff.”
Lorenz’s ears were perked at Robb’s words. He looked at the two young men with an open mouth and betrayed eyes.
Roy saw the young boy’s reaction and pursed his lips. He then looked at Robb and shook his head. “No, I don’t think I can.” He then took a deep breath before continuing his explanation. “Just that blue ogre, I don’t think I can kill it when it’s not wounded or tired even with all my mana. It will be badly burnt and hurt, but it will still have some life in it.”
Robb also saw Lorenz’s reaction and understood his mistake. “Yeah, my bad. I got too excited.”
“That’s okay, it’s normal.”
Even though Roy saved the discussion from going into hurtful territories, Lorenz still had a blank look on his face. The more the young boy thought about it, the more he felt that his skills were going to be not needed very soon. With all the magic, skills, and powers, what use is there for swords or spears? And even those, they could find weapons that are better than anything he could ever make as a gift from a dungeon.
The group of four walked around as these thoughts raced in Lorenz’s mind. After a few minutes, they found a lone ogre, eating the corpses of both men and goblins.
Roy looked with disgust at the hellish landscape in front of him. The bodies of monsters and humans mixed into a pool of blood and flesh, and the ogre was eating from it as if it was a buffet.
He then walked up and said, “I’ll blast it off with a small one. You cut its leg immediately after, okay?”
“Sure, sounds like a plan.” Robb nodded and took out his sword. He was ready to dash in at any moment.
Roy conjured a normal-sized fireball in his hand and threw it like a baseball at the gluttonous giant. Both the ogre and its meal burst into an explosion of flames before Robb suddenly appeared and slashed its right leg off.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Lorenz!” Roy snapped the young boy out of his day. “Go and finish it off.”
The young boy’s eyes widened and his mouth was slightly open. Just as he was about to complain, he clenched his fist and bit his lips. As he walked toward the burning wounded ogre, the beast towered over his small body. However, his eyes were resolute and his heart had already steeled. He jumped high over the giant’s body before plunging his sword into its nape.
“Good job, Lorenz. That was your first ogre kill.” Robb patted the young boy’s shoulder with a smile. Lorenz too had a happy expression on his face as if he could not believe that he had killed such a massive beast.
“Woah, congratulations Lorenz! You’re good!” Jaimie also jumped over and hyped the young boy up. Lorenz, listening to all the compliments, raised his head high up in the sky and laughed manically. Roy could swear that he saw his nose grow a little.
The group of four continued their hunt throughout the night. With their new updated power, most of their time was spent searching for the monsters rather than killing them. By the time dawn broke, Roy had killed seven ogres, Robb eight, Jaimie four, and Lorenz two. As for the goblins, they could not bother counting them for there were so many.
“We’re seeing more and more blue goblins and ogres, is that alright?” Robb asked as they were moving toward the marketplace, where Lorenz’s smithy was.
Roy nodded at Robb’s comment and sighed. “It’s been like that since the first day. It’s like they’re becoming stronger like us.”
Robb stared blankly at the front with furrowed eyebrows. “You think those monsters have stats too? Do they grow the more people they kill?”
Roy shrugged his shoulders and clicked his tongue. “I wouldn’t be surprised. I guess it’s the same thing that we do, we kill them to grow stronger, and they kill us for the same reason.”
Robb shook his head at the sudden direction the conversation had taken. “Well, that’s just an idea. We don’t know what’s going on really.”
As the discussion finished, the group reached Lorenz’s workshop. Alfonse’s group had arrived before them and they were waiting at the front.
“You guys took your sweet time,” Fred teased as he walked toward them. “So, was the night good?”
“Yeah, the hunt was good,” Roy replied nonchalantly. “What about you guys?”
“It was amazing,” Fred’s grin spanned his face. “We hunted five ogres. Five-fucking-ogres!”
Alfonse shook his head at his friend’s antics. “You’re embarrassing us, Fred. Just calm down.”
Robb, on the other hand, clapped and nodded with a proud expression. “That’s actually really nice. You guys did a good job.”
“Yeah, five is a good number,” Roy added with a smile. “How was it? Did you guys have much trouble with them?”
“No, not really,” Alric responded. “We can now deal with them even when they use their red aura. We understand how they work and we have enough speed to run away and dodge.”
“Good, that’s what you’ll need for the dungeon. Just run away, dodge, and don’t let the big-ass wolf get to you. Trust me, you wouldn’t want its claws on your chest.” Roy touched the side of his ribs with a smile. Even though the wound has mostly closed, it was still throbbing with pain a bit.
Alfonse’s group turned silent at the mention of the dungeon. They all looked at each other with hesitant and wary eyes.
“Yeah, about that. You said that the dungeon allows five people, but we have six here. How do we work that out?” Alfonse asked with hopeful eyes. He didn’t want to push anyone from his group and tell them not to go into the dungeon.
“Well, there is an easy fix to that.” Roy shrugged his shoulder before looking at his group. “We only have four here, so one of you guys can join us.”
“Make it three,” Lorenz interjected. “I can’t come with you to this dungeon thing. I need some sleep after work if I wanna properly hunt with you guys at night.”
Both Roy and Robb raised their eyebrow at Lorenz’s sudden announcement before they nodded in acknowledgment.
“See? Now we have room for even two more if you want.”
Roy’s joke went over Alfonse and his group’s heads making him sigh dejectedly in his mind. He then cleared his throat and took a more serious demeanor. “You don’t need to choose who comes with us now. You can do it later when you all think over it properly.”
“Sure, that sounds like a plan,” Fredd nodded.
As there was nothing more to discuss, Roy’s group took their leave after Lorenz got started on his work. As they made their way out of the marketplace, Robb looked at Roy and asked.
“What do we do now? Continue hunting ogres?”
Roy thought for a second before his eyes flashed with an idea. “Hmm, we have been killing goblins and ogres for the past few days nonstop, but they still keep appearing, right?”
“Yeah, they do,” Robb nodded. “But what does that even matter? They probably just appear out of nowhere as they did the first time.”
Roy raised his eyebrow at Robb’s answer. “Have you seen them appear out of nowhere? And if they appear out of thin air, they must appear somewhere, right?”
As Robb’s eyes widened at the sudden realization, Roy’s smile grew even wilder. “What do you say we go and find this place where they appear from?”