The trio were left in awe. Not only were they left with more confusion and questions than they had originally, but they also didn't understand what most of the dwarf said. Between the fast-talking and the beard covering most of his body, it was pretty hard to understand him.

"You got that?" The old dwarf finished. He had rambled on much more than that beginning rant but they didn't understand most of it.

"Yes Fafri, I'm sure that they understood at least a little of your speech,"

"Why you little-"

"But I'm sure they will be more excited to finally get out there and mess up some monsters. And they would leave your shop faster too."

The old dwarf thought about it, wondering if it was worth it to start another rant, it was not. He wanted these brats out of his workshop as fast as possible. If he wasn't getting all of this money from the church he would have kicked them out long ago.

"Fine, whatever," The old dwarf stomped back behind the counter.

'Finally,' It was exhausting listening to that old man talk, fuck that guy. He punched him for no good reason.

"If you're that concerned about picking a weapon, then you can pick a couple and we can help choose just one." His father said, his face less serious, definitely showing signs of exhaustion. Bart nodded, showing his support.

"Alright, will do."

Mark continued looking around the shop. He didn't want to hold up the other guys for too long. He decided on four options: a spear, a dagger, a sword that glowed a faint blue glow, and a wand that glowed a faint green light. The wand glowed stronger than the sword but he didn't know what that meant.

"Hmm, well that dagger means close range, same with the sword, so you probably shouldn't pick those if you don't want to be fighting next to James in the front." Bart started, thinking about Mark's earlier worries and concerns.

"That leaves the spear and the magic wand. Similar to my staff it can help concentrate magic and mana, but it isn't good for whacking things. The spear is good and versatile, and you can always throw it."

"You should choose the spear, son. I assume magic can still be used with normal weapons so it's better to be able to try both at the start. If that old man said one thing right, it's that you shouldn't worry about the far future, just worry about the now." Both of the guys made very good points, but Mark still didn't know.

"Whatever, I'll pick the spear."

The old dwarf made a sarcastic 'finally' gesture, sitting up at the counter. It had only been forty minutes since they had entered the shop, was this what his mom felt like while shopping for groceries every weekend?

"Alright, two white-rated weapons and one yellow-rated weapon. That'll be 10 silvers."

"What?! 10 silvers? You just raised the price by three silver."

"Exactly, the doing your job fee, the fuck you fee, and the assaulted in my own store fee. You paying or what?"

The young dwarf grumbled. He should have expected that the old man wouldn't have gone lying down.

He brought out nine silvers and placed them on the table.

"You're missing one."

"Bullshit, you threw the first punch. The other two are bullshit too but you asked for that punch, and please, can we even call that a punch."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Fine, whatever. Now get out of my store!" The dwarf shouted, finally happy to get rid of those low-life scum.

"Gladly," the young dwarf shouted back.

The four walked onto the empty street, the moonlight from three moons illuminating the cobblestones.

"Well, it's a bit too late to go out hunting. Let's find you guys a place to stay for the night.

~~~

Newt's POV

~~~

'From above?!'

Far above Newt was a giant centipede.

"God I hate bugs,"

He did the only thing that he knew how to do, he ran.

There was no way in hell that he was going to even attempt to fight that thing. Sure he may have gone through hell himself but that was just pain, he was kind of numb to it after being spliced with multiple DNA strands and put back together again.

He had no fighting abilities, no powers that he could control or understand. All he had was a body that was unfamiliar to him and some red tentacles that he didn't understand at all.

The centipede was still following right behind him, it was actually catching up.

"Ahh, shit, shit, shit, shit, what do I do?"

They ran through the caverns, deeper and deeper into unfamiliar and dangerous territories. Soon enough he had a whole stampede of horrible mutated monsters chasing after him. In front of him was no better though.

The walls rose to the ceiling, he was trapping himself in the narrow part of the ravine. The countless monsters should have been attacking each other, but for some reason, he was their main target. They were all racing to get to him.

Suddenly something happened. A small blue screen appeared in front of him, asking him which kingdom he would like to be transported to.

"What the hell is this?"

There were five options, each representing the five strongest races capitals. Could he really get out of this mess?

There was only one chance, he was panicking and fumbled between the options. Eventually, he selected the dwarven kingdom.

'It's close to home and they should accept me there. Those dragons and gods are too stuck up, let's go!' He slammed his hand into the button... but it didn't work.

"What the hell! What do you mean target too far away to teleport?!" He tried smashing all of the other choices, but none of them worked either. He was stuck inside this ravine with these monsters.

Eventually, he found himself cornered. The beasts were a couple hundred feet away from him, just far enough to let him think for a minute or two.

'Shit, do I climb? Or fly? I don't know how these wings work...' Eventually, he decided on the worst option he could have made, and he started running back to the crowd of monsters. Surely he was small enough to fit through the gaps of the monsters, right?

Wrong, he collided with a large gorilla. It threw a large stone at him, it was as big as his torso. He dodged it and shoulder-bumped it hard enough to knock it over.

"Damn, I'm strong." The next second however he found himself in between two snakes, finally, everyone else had started ripping and tearing each other apart. The two snakes grabbed him and strangled him with their tails. Maybe if he could push them to attack each other...

Nope, their tails were connected and they fought pretty well together. But that didn't stop the gorilla from earlier to pick them all up and start swinging them around. It slammed them on the ground and used them as nunchucks against other monsters.

Newt had managed to slip out of the snake's strangling, but he was stuck between a giant monkey with nunchucks and a huge lizard whose body was like sand. The lizard had just killed something twice Newt's size, so he was terrified.

The lizard sprinted towards him, about to gobble him up, but out of nowhere a giant bird that was three times the size of this giant lizard swooped down and picked the lizard up, and flew away.

"This is way too chaotic for me. I need to get out of here, now!"

Newt ran through the crowd of monsters. He had no idea why they followed him the way that they did but he didn't want to find out why.

Finally, after a couple more near-death experiences, Newt had made it through the crowd of monsters. They were still fighting, not realizing that he had left the pile. He was totally ok with them not knowing though.

He sprinted in a random direction, at least most of the stronger monsters would be here. More foods like those blackberries would be unguarded too. Surprisingly though, he hadn't felt tired yet, well physically.

In fact, he felt ready to go. It was strange, he should have felt tired from that chase but he didn't. Very strange...

He traveled for miles and miles, surprised to see how far this underground area goes, it is almost the size of the continent that the elven kingdom exists on.

Eventually, he found a secluded cave that looked good on the outside, he still had to check on the inside though.

He sneaked inside, it didn't smell like anything new which was a good sign. No animal tracks or proof of existence like bathroom waste or discarded carcasses.

It was perfect. He walked inside and collapsed, sure his body felt fine, but his mind was a total mess. He needed to sleep on this, he would figure out what to do tomorrow. Sleep again came quickly and with little interruption this time. He dreamt of a blood-red sword, it was sticking out of the chest of a huge dragon. It called to him, to his bloody tentacle. He felt an urge to go and search for it, but he didn't give in. This sleep was too important.