Bear was very chewy and gamey, but it wasn’t the worst, that’s all I had to say.

“Now, who is this man who can get us out of here?”

“He’s called the mole, and he comes here once a month, that’s all I’m giving you, I don’t want to say anything unless I know for damn sure I’m gonna be safe.”

I didn’t fault him. I was quite tired and the moon was starting to rise, so I suggested we head to sleep, he didn’t waste any time and zonked out on the ground right in front of me in an instant.

I took a little longer to sleep considering there was no cushy modern horse fur mattress with electric heating and mind-control waves to send me straight to sleep, but I made do.

-

I was questioning my decision to sleep right then and there, I must’ve been really tired to do something like that, and Jeremy was complaining about it too like he didn’t just pass out on command.

“We could’ve gotten our throats slit, we’re lucky man.” He said.

“Well, they didn’t get slit. We just gotta keep powering through until this mole man comes back and takes us away.” I stood up and reviewed my character sheet, I had 3 free points to allocate and I immediately put it into speed, I wanted moves like Jeremy.

I didn’t like that this put me ever closer to the foreman taking me back and me being sentenced to work in that place ever again, but ya’ win some ya’ lose some.

“We need to figure out a way to stunt our growth, we have enough food for a couple of days if we can preserve it somehow, so no more bear hunting. I say we just run until the mole comes up from the ground.”

“Good idea.” He said, standing up as well.

“Though maybe we can trap the goblins, we don’t necessarily have to kill and claim their XP, we just need to keep 'em in somewhere, and I know just the place.”

“What place?” I asked

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“The spawn point, every monster has one, we just need to find the one here, close it off and hopefully we can quickly cleave through all of them when we see the mole and then go wherever he goes.”

I nodded and smiled, I was gonna be free of whatever threats were around, be it goblins, bears, uhh, yeah, that’s it. But at least they weren’t there.

“But first, I need to make myself some proper clothing, I can’t be out like this.” I nodded and he got to work, skilfully skinning the bear hide and making a fancy tunic out of it over the course of a few minutes. It was fun to see him at work and in his element.

“Tada!” He said, twirling around to give me the full 360 view, I do not know why his talent was wasted at the forge.

“Are we gonna finally try and find this spawn point?” I asked,

“Yup, let’s split up, start marking trees if you see it.” I nodded and went on my way, him walking in the opposite direction.

My journey was uneventful. If I saw a goblin I’d use my new boost in speed to dodge its attacks and take its blade as I had run out during the bear fight, then I’d just run. I did happen to see some other people but they just gave a slight nod in my direction and went their own way, morale certainly wasn’t high when you knew you would just be going back to whatever slave camp you were assigned to.

It took a while, maybe an hour or two, but I saw a goblin appear right out of thin air a few paces away and knew that this was the spot, I’d start marking trees in the area, trying not to draw the attention of the goblins there while doing it unless I needed a spare knife, these got dull quickly.

I was gonna hide up in the trees until Jeremy came, hopefully,, he could see the many trees that were marked and know that this was the general location of the spawn point. It was tough getting up without a boost, I had to channel the energy of every random parkour video I saw as a kid and my new speed stats.

Now I can lay my head back and rest.

-

“Hey James, you awake?”

I jolted back from whatever dream I was having.

“Yeah..? Well, here’s the spawn point, what’s your plan?”

“We need to contain them, we can use their daggers to cut down trees,, and maybe we can arrange the logs to make some sort of pen.”

I had no faith in this plan, but I might as well do it, I’ve got time to kill before the mole comes and smuggles us out.

“Alright, let’s waste no time.”

Our blades cut into the tree, barely making any sizable dent even with both of us sawing at it, we had to replace our knives frequently as possible. Still, we trudged onwards, working together until finally, the tree couldn’t handle it anymore, and then it fell to the ground.

“Alright!”