You brought ruin,

calling it peace.

Agony,

calling it healing.

You seek redemption,

but all you do it sin.

Are you satisfied?

When you wake up,

will you realize

what you’ve done?

As per the norm Crimson was up extremely early, he was excited enough to beat the sun this time, and spent his usual half hour meditating. After he finished meditating in his dark room he held up his hand to cast the [Fire Light] spell so he could see during his morning routine. As he cast the spell he noticed weird blue lines flowing under his skin to his hand.

Once the blue reached his hand it flowed out of his palm and intwined in the air, and formed into the small red orb of [Fire Light]…What was going on? He recast the spell a few more times and focused entirely on the blue flowing through his arm. Did this happen when he was using it to practice [Calligraphy] too? He was entirely focused on writing, so it was possible.

He quickly formulated a hypothesis about the identity of the blue lines. The only thing he could possibly think of it being would be [Mana], or the [MP] in his body. While his [Blessing] did show in exact numbers how much [MP] he had, he could get a feeling for how much he had by focusing internally on himself.

He’d been especially aware of it during his meditation, but the fact he could SEE something was odd beyond all doubts…or was it normal? Maybe everyone could see the [MP] or [Mana] as it formed into magic? He’d go ask Verity.

He quickly moved through his morning routine and put on his armor over his usual clothes, they were good enough to act as padding underneath, not great, but good enough.

After he finished he walked downstairs and didn’t see Verity, in fact, most of the inn was empty. The only person was the inn keeper’s daughter. She was standing with folded arms and her head bowed like she was praying or deep in thought, but he could tell that she was actually sleeping. Sleeping on your feet like that? An impressive skill. What was even more impressive was the fact that she woke up the second he got close, and didn’t even act like she’d been sleeping.

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah, what time do most people sleep in to?”

“Most people sleep till at least 10 in the morning.”

“Seriously? That’s late!”

“Well, most adventurers don’t enter a dungeon till about noon or after. Some of the more motivated ones will start at nine.”

“How lazy!”

“Most adventurer’s are.”

“*sigh* and here I wanted to get started as soon as possible.”

A chilling glint appeared in the girl’s eyes. “Want me to go wake up your party members?”

“Member. I only have one other party member, an elf girl with green eyes and gold hair named Verity.”

“Elf, Green Eyes, Gold Hair, that would be…room 5. Be right back!”

“Thanks.”

The girl skipped off up the stairs and a few seconds later Crimson heard a loud shriek. She skipped back down the stairs and cheerfully told him,

“She’s up now. She’ll be down in a few.”

“Thanks, I never caught your name.”

“Melody! Yours?”

Social norms in this situation would be…a compliment then introducing himself?

“That’s a nice name you have there, my name is Crimson.”

“What a weird name.”

“I think so too, but it’s the one the gods wanted me to have.”

One ‘god’ in particular, but she didn’t need to know that.

“The gods? Not your parents?”

Crimson felt his smile become wooden and fake, and did his best to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.

“I left my parents rather abruptly, I don’t even know if they still remember me.”

“Oh…”

It wasn’t a lie, but he got away without answering her question.

Verity chose that excellent time to come down the stairs with a grumpy look on her face. In this case ‘grumpy’ being the same as ‘murderous’.

“I’m going to kill you!”

“Not now, we don’t have time for that,” he got a tight grip on the back of Verity’s jacket and kept her from leaping over the counter and turned to speak to Mellany…err Melody, “do you have any food in the back we can buy?”

“Sure!”

She brought out some food from the back, it looked edible, so Crimson didn’t care too much about what it was. He paid 10 Copper for the lot, and split it up into four groups. He gave two of the groups to Verity and told her to eat one of them for breakfast.

She complained to him about starting so early, but he responded by reminding her that she agreed to follow his lead, and just offer advice. She immediately responded by advising him to start later, but he told her that starting early was better. He even listed out several reasons why, and she couldn’t really argue with them. She then mentioned the potential danger of being attacked.

‘Didn’t they decide that they weren’t going into the dungeon until the people who had attacked Crimson had been caught and all that’. He was kinda surprised that Sherry hadn’t mentioned to Verity that they had been caught, she’d mentioned it to him on his way out of the guild last night.

Grumpily, she gave up the fight and munched on her breakfast as they both headed to the east gate. They showed their adventurer’s card to the guards and were let easily through the gate. After that it was a half-hour jog to the nearby dungeon.

The first part was downhill, no surprise considering Falst was built on a mountain. The second part was along the side of another mountain -there was a steep cliff next to the path- and the third part was up another mountain. Fortunately, they didn’t have to go all the way up to the peak, just half way up. The dungeon entrance was rather well marked with the bright green torches, the stone pillars, and the sign that labeled it as [Goblin’s Retreat].

[Goblin’s Retreat] was one of the three dungeons PUBLICLY owned by the crown -Crimson was inclined to believe that there was at least one other, but he didn’t have any definite proof, more on that later- and was the dungeon that most newbies went to. The other two dungeons were [Slime’s Cavern] and [Haunted Graveyard]. Based purely off the names it was pretty easy to guess the environment of each of these dungeons, but it isn’t possible to use the names to guess the difficulty of the dungeon.

A dungeon is given a level range to determine the levels of the monsters inside. [Goblin’s Retreat] ranged from Lv.1 to Lv.20, [Slime’s Cavern] ranged from Lv.1 to Lv. 33, and [Haunted Graveyard] ranged from Lv.45 to Lv.100. Because of how broad a level range can be it isn’t possible to properly arrange it into tiers like with adventurers, so just the level range was stated.

When Crimson had learned all of that his first question had been: If both [Goblin’s Retreat] and [Slime’s Cavern] had some crossover in their level range, why is [Goblin’s Retreat] the first pick for most people? The answer: the danger involved.

When faced on a flat field a Lv.1 Goblin will always be stronger than a Lv.1 Slime. They have a better instinct for fighting and have weapons that can deal more damage, but if compared when fighting indoors? The slime becomes far more dangerous.

While slimes lack a goblin’s instinct for direct combat, they are far better at setting ambushes. Waiting on ceilings, walls, in gaps between bricks, everywhere they can. Unprepared adventurers will almost certainly die until they understand what they’re looking for. That was why everyone went to [Goblin’s Retreat] before [Slime’s Cavern]. Not going to [Haunted Graveyard] early was a given.

Crimson and Verity walked through the innocuous cave lined with the green torches until they reached a wall of mist at the end of the cave. There was a guard post at the wall, but the guards only glanced at them for a second before retiring to their sleeping positions once again.

Quite the tight security, Fort Knox would be SOOOOO jealous.

Crimson took a look at Verity and got a nod and grin from her, apparently she was over being forced to get up early. He then equipped his sword, and pushed through the fog wall. It was weird, almost like there was a layer of ice resisting him before it gave way and let him pass through, and his clothes weren’t soaked when he walked out on the other side.

On the other side of the fog wall was a valley in the center was a massive mansion, appropriately sized for a giant. From where he was standing he could see the land dip and rise, see caves and cliff, and see pathways all slowly and meanderingly lead to the mansion in the center. He could see goblins of different sizes and builds wandering in groups along these paths, some were waiting in more wide open areas, while others appeared to be waiting in ambush.

“Well, let’s do this!”

“Yeah, when we get a little further in, I have a question for you about your magic.”

“I hate to say this, but you know a bit more about magic than I do.”

He waved her statement off, “It’s a question you’ll be able to answer.”

She looked at him for a long moment then shrugged. “Alrighty then. Now, pick a path O’Leader!”

He looked around for a moment, then shrugged and took a path that lead around the edge of the valley, instead of to the mansion. From his research he knew that the higher level monsters appeared more when getting closer to the mansion. Well, high level for a Lv.1 noob like him.

It didn’t take long to reach a wide open area with a single goblin in the center. The funny thing was that these creatures thought they had set a trap. There were actually a total of three of them. Noticing them wasn’t even bragging, they were just so obvious that even a three year old child could have spotted them.

Crimson considered his options for a second, then leaned down and picked up a rock with his right hand and drew his [Wayfarer’s Companion] with his left. He was curious to see how taking damage from a distance would make them react.

He winged the fist sized rock into the oversized head of the ‘trap’ goblin and waited to see what would happen…it flinched, and started looking around. Do they have bad eye sight too? Or was he just out of the aggro range?

Crimson signaled Verity to stay put and took a few steps forward. The goblin had stopped looking around and was standing there stupidly again. Clearly, it wanted another rock to the head, and he was happy to oblige. Unfortunately, he missed that throw, and had to try again.

It was a hit that time and the goblin flinched and looked around again. Really? He’d had an idea that goblins were stupid, but this stupid? No way. Maybe it was just that stupid because it was Lv.1? He could only hope.

Crimson considered his new options, and opted to see how close he had to get to aggro the stupid thing. Crimson walked to within ten feet of it and stopped. The goblin finally noticed him! It screamed, pointed, and ran at him. The other two…didn’t react. Were they too far to see too? They failed in their ambush! You had one job gobs!

Crimson glanced behind him just in case to make sure that there weren’t any goblins sneaking up on him and casually dodged the first strike of the goblin who attacked him. He was starting to see why a beginner would start here, it was possible to kill this thing without training.

He flicked his blade out and scored a critical hit. The goblin’s head separated from it’s body for a second, before the whole thing disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke that was sucked into the ground instead of floating into the air. A few objects dropped onto the ground too.

Crimson double checked to make sure that he wasn’t being attack, then picked them up. There were five items. A tooth, a claw, a *hurk* toenail, its club, and a black orb, the size of his palm.

He threw away the toenail and looked closely at the orb. It looked like obsidian, and he could see some kind of blue symbol glowing in the center. It was interesting looking, but he’d have to wait till later before he could properly investigate, no point in wasting daylight!

“Hey Crimson!”

He shoved it all in his inventory and turned to Verity who had moved closer.

“What’s up?”

“Let them hit you! I won’t get any XP unless I participate by healing you!”

“Sure.”

A Lv.1 basic goblin would only be able to deal a single hit point of damage against his CON. Not a big deal.

He walked over to the goblin on the left and baited it into attacking him with it’s club. Just to be careful he let it hit only his right arm. He would still be able to fight even if it became unusable in some way.

Well, even if goblins were super weak, it was still not good to underestimate them. These were the most basic goblin type there is, and the weakest as well. The only danger they present is in higher numbers. If Crimson was swarmed by a good twenty or so he would be in serious trouble. Chances of death instantly soar.

After letting it hit him a good twenty times he had Verity heal up all the damage in a single casing of [Lesser Healing]. He could hear her rejoicing in the background as he ended the sad little creature’s life with a quick slash across the throat. He snagged its drops -it dropped the club this time- and moved on to the last one in the area.

He let it hit his arm again a few times, had Verity heal him, and then spent twenty minutes just dodging its attacks. He could have gone for longer, but it collapsed, so he cut its head off and grabbed its drops.

He’d let it attack him so that he could grind [Lesser Evasion]. He’d check the results later, he didn’t want to leave himself too open to being attacked.

Continuing along the path he and Verity reached another group of gobs. This time, instead of baiting them one by one he ran through the group of four to catch their attention. He let one hit his chest then stabbed it in the throat with the dagger while blocking another with his [WC].

Instead of continuing the fight he broke off and backed away, to see what they’d do. Well, they chased him, up to a certain point, then stopped and started looking around. Bingo! He’d found the edge of their aggro range.

He sheathed his dagger and unclipped his katana from his belt and waited till all three gobs had turned around. He slid his sword into its sheath then did his best attempt at Iai. It…wasn’t very good. Well, that much was to be expected. He’d only casually used it against dummies before, and never in a ‘serious’ fight.

Even so, for it to be so bad that he didn’t even kill the gob in one hit…was quite pathetic. Especially for an enemy of this level. Not referencing Lv.1 here mind you, but level of danger.

Well, it did lose an arm, so there was that much at least, but it still wasn’t much. It turned around and screamed at him, but the other two kept walking away…okay. He had no other choice but to accept how stupid those two gob were. Your friend is back here dying! Are you okay with that?

Well, it was a good opportunity to test something he was curious about since he realized that they had an aggro range. He grabbed the goblin he’d injured with his free hand and dragged it a good ten feet up the path -past Verity who was giving him a weird look- and dropped it to see what would happen.

It immediately scrambled with the unrivaled desperation of a starving fat man at a buffet back into its aggro range - completely ignoring him and Verity. He thought fully walked back into the aggro range of the three goblins and let them attack him. He was actively dodging, but in a three v. one he was unable to dodge every attack, but that just meant it was good practice for Verity.

He also ignored the voice in the back of his head asking him if he was actually taking the lesson Mars had taught him to heart.

After five minutes the first goblin died from blood loss and the whole exercise became much easier for Crimson. The other two fell over and stopped moving after about fifteen minutes beyond that and he easily killed them.

Pick up the drops and move on.

That makes a total of 7XP so far for Crimson. Nice! The first level up should only take 10XP, and since he was letting Verity heal him the whole time she should be just 1XP behind him.

After a few minutes of walking the ground started to slope upwards. A gob tried to jump down at them using the height advantage, but it was alone. Crimson stepped to the side and stuck out a leg and tripped it. Verity used her staff to beat its head in, and they moved on. Amusingly enough, he got XP for that one.

At the peak of the slope they found a cave. There were ten or so gobs hangin out near it, and Crimson decided to bait them out one by one. By moving just slightly into the edge of one of the gobs’ specific aggro range then winging a rock at it he was able to face them one by one. He was able to kill five of them easily with that method before the other five noticed, and grouped up. Surprisingly enough, these ones were a little smarter. Maybe they were Lv.2?

Well, it didn’t matter, both he and Verity had Leveled Up through the whole process, and he felt like he was on top of the world.

*Kekekeke*

“Crimson, I don’t like that evil laugh.”

Even though he wasn’t stupid enough to charge into the five that had grouped up, he still knew he would win! He-!

…

…

For some COMPLETELY unknown reason he felt the ghost of a boot print pressing into his chest. Well, he’d still collect their lovely XP.

Since they’d gone out of their way to group up he was forced to use a hit and run strategy, to reduce any damage he might take. He still made sure to take a hit so that Verity could get some XP, but it ended pretty easily. The gobs had nothing in the way of defense, so a single hit from him was enough to dangerously injure them. No, the problem came AFTER he killed all the gobs.

The problem appeared in the form of some very loud growling from the cave, and the chanting that came after it.

“”Uh-oh”” Crimson and Verity spoke in unison.