So, about me spelling the beans, talking then what I really thought about their ‘goblin hunting’ plan.

It sort of went like this.

I considered my options and concluded they were either stupid or insane. So, I need to get back to my instance, back to work. Trapping rats, then crocs, then people, maybe.

I smiled faintly. Shook my head. Tilted backwards using my hands to support my body while I looked at the weird sky. The whole thoughtful resolution act. I've done it before. It’s effective.

“Nah. Sorry, guys. I think this might be where we part ways. There’s no way I’m going after goblins in their turf. I have my own hunting grounds right here.” I said while pointing towards the instance.

“Sure, I screwed up while trying to speed things up and, yes, that was quite stupid, but it won’t happen again. The rats got nothing on me if I took my time. Which I will.” I said nonchalantly.

“There’s just no need to face a setting with so many unknown variables. Too many threats.” I said, making a scowl while waving a hand at them, to make sure they understand I am not just talking about me.

Then I lowered my instance while rubbing my forehead, the whole ‘deep in thought and considering things’ vibe. Hunching over, placing my elbows on my knees and slowly interlacing my fingers, imagining a conference room where everything is under my control.

“Ok. Since you guys did helped me, let me give you two advices: the first is wise the fuck up, which is self explanatory, and the second is join me before you regret it.” A little forceful, sure, I had to show how confident I am, can’t fake that.

I could see the surprise on most faces. Gareth was expressionless but his eyes widened for half a second there. I saw it. Finn was wide eyed, but smiling, I think the guy is just happy he won’t have to watch over me, whatever.

Elara held her hand over her mouth and… nodded? Whatever. Bronwyn just shook her head while giving that scoffing smile, as if calling me delusional, understandable. Rhys, well, he took a look at Elara, then she nodded at him, then he frowned before looking back at me, then scratched his head as if he didn’t hear me properly, I am starting to doubt his capabilities as an effective combatant.

Well, I did what I needed to do. Now, trying to make things clear. Very clear. I further elaborated on my next steps to make sure they are aware of the mess we are all in and how to advance.

“I got a dungeon right here. It might not be an easy one for me to solo as of now. But it’s predictable, and that makes it easy with enough preparation. I am not in a hurry. Not anymore. It’s been ten days, not three months. I got time. Even more so while in there.” I said looking at the instance. Already turning towards my hunting grounds.

“After I’m done with the rats I will go after the crocs. I will keep three of them alive, obviously calling them Larry, Curly and Moe, and keep them as pets. To keep the instance going.” I said while taking my first steps back towards the instance.

“Once I get rid of everything that could be a problem, I will plan for the future, using the shards to get all sorts of information necessary for that. Perhaps even getting one of those ‘gifts’ in the meantime, not that I need one to deal with rats or crocs, but it might be convenient to speed things up.” I said nonchalantly while shrugging, already halfway to the instance.

“Perhaps the next time you come here there will be no instance, but a survivor’s colony. I am quite sure I can pull it off. Alone, if needed. I will definitely need people to cook, brew and clean stuff for me while I focus on more important matters. Like, I don’t know, conquering and managing my rightful part of this new world.” I said while smiling and finally turning back to look at them.

And there they were. All those weird reactions. So, I turned my back to them and made my way to the instance. My instance.

Then came the cacophony of voices telling me to wait. So I did. But I didn't turn back. I must confess that I was a little afraid of what I might see.

I like to think I am quite good at reading people and interpreting situations, but these people, well, I suppose my meager knowledge on human nature might no longer work.

Are they going to kill me now? Are they going to kneel down and swear eternal allegiance towards me and my cause? I just can’t tell, not anymore.

So, I stood there. Waiting them to say their piece. And ready to run for my life if needed be.

“Vincent, we will go with you.” Gareth said directly.

“You bet your ass we will, damn it, that was great.” Finn said while still laughing.

I was a little confused, to say the least. So, I turned around while frowning.

Gareth was just smiling while gesturing to me to come back. Not happening, you are all crazy.

Finn was still smiling while rubbing his eyes. Apparently he laughed so hard he cried. So rude.

Elara was talking with Rhys and Bronwyn, not loud enough for me to hear, while she was being given some water, perhaps to recover from her partial seizure or whatever that was.

Bronwyn gave Elara the water while frowning and looking at me from time to time. I am quite sure they were talking about me.

Rhys was rubbing Elara’s back while still gazing at me. A smile on his face. Creepy.

Elara was just staring at me, a fixed stare, with hints of… admiration? Ok, extra creepy.

My thought process was interrupted by the first sentence that made sense.

“I am sure you are not understanding what is happening, but we are going to explain, alright?”, said Gareth while still smiling. “But first, let me just say this: there’s no goblin cave, okay? It was a test.”

I would have frowned, but I was already doing it, so I just tilted my head and brought the frown a level higher, the universal body language for “what the fuck are you talking about”.

Gareth sighed and put his hands on his hips.

“There’s no goblin cave. There never was. We discussed this earlier. We, humans, are the only ones with some intellect in this mess, there are no goblins at all. Not here, anyway.” Finn said.

“We sort of wanted to see what would you do if you were presented with the chances for advancing at a faster pace while facing unknown dangers.” Rhys said, in a very matter-of-factly manner. “The goal was seeing if you would cower or not. But we weren’t expecting, well… that.” Rhys said while waving his hand all over me.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I would have frowned more if I could.

Surprisingly, Elara was the one who said the first thing that actually helped me understand some of their reactions.

“I can detect deception. Not lies. But I can tell if people believe what they are saying or if they are trying to tell things they know to be lies. You… are honest… and kind of scary.”

So, they knew I was wounded when I said I was fine, got it. And they can also tell that everything I said so far is mostly things I do believe in, fine. That sort of makes sense, sort of.

“Shall we start from the beginning?” Finn said while smiling and going back to the campfire. “This will be fun”.

Gareth beckoned me to follow. So I did. Still finding some things weird, but most of it made sense now that such things can be taken into consideration. They, most likely, were reacting to things that I had no idea they knew. Not really fair, but whatever.

We all sat back in the campfire. But before any of them could start I lifted my hand and looked straight at Elara.

“You can tell if I am bullshitting, right?”, I asked.

The girl nodded, blushing a little.

“Then can you please tell you fine people that I know, for a fact, that we should leave this talk while inside there?” I said while pointing to the instance. “Because it would be ten times faster. I already lost enough time as it is.”

The girl looked at the others and nodded.

“Fine”, Gareth said. “Let’s go people, gather your things. We have to outrun some big lizards. Keep the formation tight and follow Vincent’s lead.”

“No.” I said. “I don’t think we will.”

“What?” said Gareth while frowning slightly.

“Come on, Vincent. We kind of like you already.” Said Finn, which surprised me a little. “You are like a harmless bunny hiding a bloody knife behind his back, that’s hilarious and awesome.”

I frowned at that.

“Finn.” Said Rhys while glaring at Finn. “Not helping.”

“Sorry”. Fin said while scratching his head. “Maybe that’s only me, okay?”

“Certainly only you.” Scoffed Bronwyn. “No one else would find a bunny hiding a bloody knife behind his back amusing.”

Elara lifted her hand and was about to say something, but Bronwyn shut her up with a glare. Elara sort of deflated and put her hand down.

“So, you are ditching us now?” Said Rhys. “Not fond of being called on your bluff or what?”

Gareth glared at Rhys, certainly not appreciating the bluntness.

“No”, I said nonchalantly. “Couldn’t care less about that.”

Elara nodded.

“What I mean was, no, I don’t think we will have to run from the gators if you follow my lead.”, I said while crossing my arms. “I have a way in. One that they can’t follow.”

“Really?” Asked Bronwyn.

“Yep.” I said while nodding. “It might have some rats on the way, but I think you prefer big rats over five-meter-long velocicroc freaks, right?” I smirked.

Elara looked at them and nodded.

“That settles it.” Gareth announced loudly. “Let’s go, people. Vincent, you lead the way.”

I nodded. And two minutes later we were on our way.

There were no rats to fight. Which was rather anticlimactic.

The entrance was just a couple dozen feet away from the border, no gator around. The group was a little surprised about it. Some of them glared at Finn, who smiled and said something like “Come on, no way I could have seen that, it was covered in vines…”

We ventured down the tunnel. Gareth and Bronwyn with a tad more difficulty. I had to put some effort to take back my makeshift shield turned makeshift barrier, but I was glad to recover it.

The notification about the dungeon came up as soon as we hit the hole leading to the chamber where I fought the three rats.

*Dungeon Detected: The Rat Warrens. Level: 1. Recommended Party Size: 1-3. A dungeon filled with giant rats.*

Finn whistled and said something like “It doesn’t get easier than that.” And got elbowed by Bronwyn who was a little frustrated by the archer’s like of tact.

Finn scratched his head and looked at me. “Sorry, Vincent, I can talk like this right now, but this is by no means easy when you are not ready for it.”

I nodded and smirked. “Don’t I know it?”

Finn just smiled. So did the others. I think they are somewhat happy that I am not going to cry in a corner due to being so absurdly weak. So am I.

Half an hour later and we were walking the sewers towards my disgusting penthouse.

“We are fine down here. Nothing to worry about. You might as well start talking.” I said.

“Well, fine. Who wants to start?” Asked Gareth.

“We will do this properly, let’s start from the beginning.” Said Finn, a tad more excited than I would consider normal. It sure sounded like lots of fun for him.

“Fine.” Gareth said. “You tell him, we interject if you miss something.”

“Good. Good.” Said Finn. “Alright, Vincent. Listen closely. I tell you, if we ever meet a bard I will one hundred percent commission a song about this. It’s priceless.”

I sighed. “Can you just start already?” I am quite sure the man will do as he said. Prick.

“So, we found this instance. Very big. The bigger one we found, by far. We had to stop and try to see what had happened. The system told us that it had undergone some sort of violent displacement and most people perished due to it. Then they were assaulted by crocodilian stuff, the big ass lizards, as soon as the place stopped shaking. Big mess. Almost ten thousand people are trapped here, you know? That’s a big instance for us. At least for us.” Finn said.

“I mean, I know that there should be some gigantic ones. Can you imagine? A big city with millions of people turning into a freaking instance the size of a country? Dude, that’s just…” Finn was saying as he was interrupted.

“Blabbering.” Said Rhys.

Finn sighed and took a breath. “Naturally, I query the shit out of the system to know everything about this place. Turns out the only hostile thing in here were the mini spinos. And the system said they were both ambushers and used pack tactics, which already made them hard to deal with, but then we found out the damn things are of the fourth level. That’s extra nasty.”

Again with the level thingy. No idea what that means yet. It’s not like I have a level or anything. I will ask them later.

Finn made a pause. “Vincent, not even we can deal with a pack of those things. One or two? Sure, if we have time to prepare and all of us together in an advantageous terrain. More than three? We are dead, for sure. So, these fine gents here were against me probing for survivors, because, let’s face it, this is a dead zone, a starting point so bad that they were sure no one would make it. And it did make sense. Except…”

Finn made a dramatic pause.

“Except you found out that there was still one person active within the instance.” I said while scoffing.

“Bingo!” Loudly said Finn. “There was still one guy here. Surviving. Amidst a bunch of creatures we were incapable of facing. Probably from the very start. So, the obvious conclusion was that the guy must be a monster. A very powerful person. And while we were discussing how awesome it would be to have such a guy as a member of our group, you waltzed out of the instance.”

Finn was smiling from ear to ear. “See? We were imagining the ultimate warrior and then you came out. We were sure you were hiding some serious abilities beneath the calm surface, so we did our best to prepare… until I query the system about you, and it did answer.” Finn started laughing.

“Didn’t get the joke.” I said.

“Since you weren’t exactly warrior material we thought you were hiding your awesome powers, that you got one hell of a gift. But the system doesn’t let you query about people who have gifts. They are considered anointed or something like that. You can’t ask for information about them. But I did it anyway, and I succeeded.” Finn said proudly.

“Which means you found out that I had no gift. Fine.” I said.

“Man, can you see how scary that was? You were an ordinary guy…” Finn starts saying.

“Still am, Finn.” I said while smirking.

“Yeah. Exactly.” Finn said while expecting me to come to some weird conclusion. “Man, you are like the bunny who lived amidst the tigers. That’s one freaking scary bunny.”

Surpsiling Elare intervened. “Agreed. Scary from beginning to end. Still scary.” She said while looking at me while almost hiding behind Bronwyn.

Then, in another surprise, Bronwyn who seemed quite the serious lady, patted Elara’s back and, with a maternal tone, said “There, there. I will make sure the scary bunny gets a club to the head if he turns too naughty ok?”

I snorted.

Bronwyn could no longer hold it in and started laughing. Infectiously. Not even Rhys could hold his laugh this time. Finn, as always, didn’t even bother resisting. Gareth shook his head in disapproval, but he was also laughing. Elara pouted until she couldn’t help but laugh as well.

And these were the people I thought would kill me?