For a second, everything was silent except for the feet of the fleeing Goblins, almost as if the World itself was waiting for them to leave before restarting time. A few of the people edged backwards as they noticed the chill in the atmosphere: they had experienced enough battles to know when shit was about to go down.

Sensing his new prey edging backwards, a grin blossomed over Anatoly's face. He turned around from the Crystal and caught eye contact with some of the others, his lips parting and hand in the air in a pistol sign.

"Let's do this!", his voice was chipper as he gestured shooting a round into the air, motioning the start of a race.

Chaos broke out in the next second as Anatoly, Fedro, Ailean and his two friends began moving towards the others. However, Anatoly was in for a cruel twist of fate as a menacing spear shot towards him, tightly gripped by the very woman who said she would participate in the backstabbing.

Anatoly stopped his sprint, and instead raised his sword in a defensive stance. Orena leapt at him, her spearhead lightly scratching his face as he slashed down at her, which she dodged by the breadth of a hair.

A small stream of blood began trickling down his face, although it wasn't much compared to the blood covering him. He was already more injured and bruised than Orena as he had been taken the brunt of the Goblin attacks.

"Why?" Her betrayal was responded to with a simple question. Both of the top dogs stared at each other, the chilly atmosphere freezing further.

"Because I've always wanted to fight you…", his question was met with a simple response. One could swear Anatoly's lips curled as he heard the reply, although that disappeared in the next second as he charged straight towards her.

The betrayers and betrayed stood frozen around these two, shocked at what was happening. However the betrayed quickly broke out of their shock; clearly Anatoly and his group had meant to backstab them, only to be stopped by Orena who seemed to be betraying the backstabbers… It was a bit too complex of an issue to hit them out of the blue, but the important factor was that these betrayers meant to kill the very people they had shared lives with for weeks.

Juan took lead, roaring with anger as he pointed towards the betrayers. "Fuck you bastards, I'll be damned if any of you leave this place alive." The Camp leader finally seemed truly heroic in such a moment, his curly hair stained with blood fluttering in the gentle breeze.

The others followed, shields and weapons rising as the circle tightened. No longer were they edging backwards, rather they moved towards the five backstabbers.

Ailean, his two friends and Fedro had been shocked when Orena had betrayed them and was just about to go and help Anatoly when they noticed the sheep bare their fangs.

This was going to be messier than the fight against the Goblins.

Jayesh charged at Fedro, alongside Egor and Scowly, whereas Juan, his two friends and the dainty girl charged Ailean and his two men.

"TITAN'S TAUNT!"

"FROZEN BOUNDARY!"

"BEZEEEEEERK!"

The few with mana remaining activated their abilities as they clashed against their old allies, blood and limbs flying within the first second. However, the fights surrounding Orena and Anatoly's were nothing compared to the centrepiece they hosted, both howling with madness and bloodlust as blades continuously struck.

Anatoly shot forwards, wielding his dual-handed sword with a single hand as the other arm elbowed crashed into Orena, elbow first.

Orena responded by twisting her spear in the air to knock his sword onto the ground, followed by a swift kick to his stomach.

Despite the cuts they had, despite the pain, despite the fucking madness of the situation, the two of them still fought as they pushed each other to their limits.

Once again weapons met, Orena's spear bending under the pressure as Anatoly chopped into it with a heavy strike. She rotated the spear, causing him to go off balance as she recoiled backwards, before thrusting her spear into his ribs.

"ARRGHH!"

He growled like a beast as he eyed her. She replied with a silent gaze, one that perfectly conveyed the insanity inside of her.

Both of them had injuries and wouldn't last much longer; the fight had come to its climax!

Orena pounded across the ground as she charged him one final time, her spear positioned behind her in a throwing stance.

Anatoly sprinted at her, sword ready to intercept should she throw her spear, and later in a beheading motion as he leapt, merely two metres away from her.

The spear left Orena's grip, gliding through the air as it shot towards Anatoly's chest. He no longer had the luxury to respond as he was mid-flight with his blade too far away to reflect, only able to tilt his body to the left as he felt his end nigh.

The spear stabbed into his hands, which were holding onto the handle of his sword, before getting stuck half-way through.

He fell to the ground, kneeling as splatters of blood dripped down, creating a pool within moments. Embedded across both palms was the spear, making it impossible for him to move his hands.

He was no fool; he knew he no longer had any chance.

Orena trudged over to his dropped sword with a limp as he remained kneeling. It was as her shadow was cast over his body that he moved. He twisted his wrists so that his palms were facing the sky and ground, before using the ground to force the pole of the spear through the crude, bloody holes.

He was but a man, and thus clenched his teeth as he acted. Tears quickly flowed down his face in two streams, mixing with the blood on the way.

"AARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

The pole was out, his hands once again free, albeit in senseless pain. The holes through his palms were like Christ's as he raised his head, glaring Orena straight in the eye as he said,

"Always remember that you took my life on this day. And so make sure you put in my effort, as well as all those of the many you have killed…"

His voice was pained, his throat dry as he spoke. He inhaled one last deep breath of air before finishing.

"Orena, I hope that one day you find your son. And I sincerely hope, with all my heart, that he will be a corpse as you find him.

Kill me."

Those were his last words as the sword was swung, slicing his head off clean as it plummeted to the ground.

There was but a hint of tears within Orena's eyes, which quickly disappeared as she turned around.

Their fight had taken the longest as all around her were even more corpses than before. The last ones standing were Orena, Scowly, Jayesh and the dainty girl whose name was Aaliyah.

None of them showed any indication of wanting to kill the others and was also far too tired to even try. So Orena effectively took control of the group as she motioned everyone closer, showing her bare hands to prove her good-will. Not that she couldn't respond if they did try her.

Her voice was now fatigued and soft as she spoke, "I wonder who's got the most points", which was followed by a smile and finally a tinkle of laughter as she laughed at her own joke.

A few seconds passed before the message came up.

Well done to all those who are still alive. You have been recorded as having contributed to the destruction of a teleporter of the Invader species "Goblin". Below are the top ten people with the most points contributed.

Orena

Stanis

Jayesh

Elgetor

Aaliyah

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You will shortly receive rewards based on your contribution.

Stanis stirred awake from his light nap, surprised at all the messages inside of his head. What was this for? What the fuck was a teleporter? Why was he number two on the list?

In took him a few seconds to finally rouse from his drowsiness, after which he realised that this likely meant that the others had succeeded at the Goblin Camp raid. He took a guess that the teleporter was how the Goblins had come down to Earth, and destroying it meant beating the Goblins. However, he was still confused as to why he was number two on the list, considering that he hadn't even participated in the battle…

Stanis tried to expand his name.

Stanis Volkov contributed by:

Killing the current master of the Camp, tier-two Kyln the Goblin Mage

Killing one of the champions, tier-one Shagra the Sentry leader

Killing 4 Sentry Goblins.

Tier two?! Stanis double-checked that he still had the Storage stones with him, before blossoming a smile. He then expanded Orena's name.

Orena Eze contributed by:

Destroying the teleporter

Killing one of the champions, tier-one Shakra the Goblin Swordsman

Killing 98 other Goblins

Also stole all of Anatoly Brege's points by killing him solo.

His shock only grew after reading it. She had killed 98 fucking Goblins, all by herself, within hours. More importantly, she had killed fucking Anatoly by herself. Then, he was even more confused than at the start as he remembered that Anatoly, her, Ailean and his two chumps had planned to backstab the whole group. But he couldn't see any of others names, including those of Juan's or Egor's, and here he was reading that Orena had solo killed Anatoly…

Eventually, Stanis put this to the back of his mind as he realised that he wouldn't be able to make any sense of it unless he directly asked someone who had been there. He then checked the others' contribution and was happy as he realised that not only was Jayesh still alive, but he had also contributed the third most! It seemed the five of them were the last survivors, the 18 others who had started this raid alongside now bodies in the dirt.

You have 64 points for a lower difficulty teleporter. Your rewards have been increased for the low number of Humans (23) involved in the destruction of the teleporter.

10 extra attribute points

5 levels equivalent experience.

A spell suited for you. Your suitability was determined by your allegiance to the Zelaro, a race of dark sorcerers.

A bound scroll appeared in front of him, which he momentarily ignored as he checked his status.

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 14 (regeneration is capacity/4 per hour) (Mana capacity is actually 20, however 6 points are currently in use)

Level 19 (Progress to the next level is 3%)

Unallocated points: 26

Strength: 20 [19->21]

Dexterity: 20 [17->19]

Constitution: 20[17->19]

Intelligence: 14[12->13]

Wisdom: 12[11->12]

Tenacity: 18[16->18]

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense

Stanis was surprised as he looked at his status. He hadn't checked it for quite some time and it seemed the global average had increased a lot since then. It seemed he had increased by three levels for killing the tier-two and tier-one Goblins, and five on top of that for his reward. This meant that he had a grand total of 26 unallocated points!

He then proceeded to rack his brains on how to spend these points, after all spending such a lottery of points in a bad way could be the difference between a dead Stanis and an alive one in the future. Strength, Dexterity and Tenacity were all low down his list of priorities as he felt he was already good at close combat and enduring pain. Well, maybe Tenacity could be raised a bit…

As for Constitution, Stanis had been confused as to what the point of raising it further would be after he had seen his injuries heal in a jiffy before. Even now, all the bruises and cuts he had across his body were nearly healed up and the pain had basically numbed by now. The only remaining wounds were from the fire-bolts. This was what caused his realisation.

The fire-bolts were created with mana, and those wounds were the ones that were healing the slowest. Could it be that an increased constitution meant better regeneration against magic wounds as well as better health? The idea seemed to make sense in Stanis's mind as he nodded in approval of his thoughts.

As for the last two attributes, Stanis felt these were the ones he needed to upgrade. First of all, he had the mission from the Zelaro which was effectively impossible for him to complete. Only by increasing intelligence and wisdom could he improve its power, and thus succeed the mission.

Secondly, the image of Kyln fighting also inspired him; if he was able to fight at a safe distance while shooting bolts of raw arcane power, he would be absolutely overjoyed as that meant he would no longer have to have his body break down after every fight. There was also the fact that he wouldn't have to go through the damned pain!

And finally, the message he got from the System right now furthered his though this way. It said the Zelaro were a race of dark sorcerers and Gahlnym had suggested grand rewards if he passed the missions they set, so wouldn't their grand rewards surely have to do with magic. What use would magic spells have if he didn't even have any firepower to support them?

Just to make sure that there wasn't anything within his loot that could sway his decision, Stanis decided to open them. Opening the Sentry's Storage stone, he received a small, emerald gem. It didn't look exactly like what he had expected, but Stanis took a wild guess that this was the Stone of Wonders the Hu mission had implied.

Stanis then opened the Storage stone from the Goblin Mage Kyln. To his surprise, Stanis got a message as he opened it.

As you have killed a foe whose battle skill is far above yours, you have gained one of their skills as loot.

Out of the stone came another bound scroll, now leaving him with two. Deciding now was a good time as ever, Stanis opened both scrolls.

Light Healing

Use the powers of the Shaman king to lightly heal. Use with caution as overusing it in a short period can lead to hallucination or even cause you to enter another plane of life.

Costs 3 mana to use. No Cooldown.

It seemed he had gotten a healing skill from Kyln. Stanis didn't remember Kyln ever healing himself during the fight, although he had seen the lower down Goblin Shamans doing it and so it made sense that a tier-two Goblin also had access to it. The Light Healing skill didn't seem to scale of Intelligence or Wisdom, but the fact that it was light healing with no cooldown basically meant that you would need a large mana pool to use it effectively. This pushed him further towards Intelligence and Wisdom.

Destructive Mana Recharge

A skill made for dark sorcerers. Drain mana from your environment, causing death to your surroundings, to recharge yourself of mana. The amount of draining depends on your Intelligence and Wisdom.

Cooldown: 6 hours

It was a recharge skill that sucked mana directly from the environment. It was clearly made for mages, in fact it said so in its very description! This was the deciding factor as Stanis was now set on upgrading his magic skills. He accepted both the skills and immediately used Destructive Mana recharge.

He could feel a flow of mana from the stone of the cave around him, the flow downstream towards his body. Within two seconds, the influx became too strong for Stanis to keep and he immediately collapsed it. He could see cracks spread across the stone he was sitting on… But on the other hand, he did get 3 mana back from it, exactly enough to use Light Healing.

And so Stanis then used Light Healing on the scorched wound on his chest as that was the one healing the slowest. He immediately felt a drain of mana from his body, but no other aftereffects. Rather, he looked at his chest and saw that the wound, which had been scorched flesh about 2cm deep, had healed, albeit only by a bit. But it was still a good thing as Stanis noticed that scorched, dirty flesh was gone, replaced by tougher, cleaner flesh. He guessed that about one or two more uses were enough to completely reverse the damage!

Now having experienced the power of his skills first hand, Stanis realised the importance of magic had only increased for him. So mind now set, Stanis spent his attribute points.

"Allocate 8 points to Intelligence and Wisdom, 3 points to Constitution and Tenacity and 2 points to Strength and Dexterity."

He had allocated over half his points to Intelligence and Wisdom, but it did make sense considering the fact that he had neglected those two attributes all this time. He also removed the shadows from all but his arms in order to increase his maximum capacity, and thus mana regeneration.

"Status":

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 28 (regeneration is capacity/4 per hour) (Mana capacity is actually 32, however 4 points are currently in use)

Level 19 (Progress to the next level is 3%)

Strength: 22 [21]

Dexterity: 22 [19]

Constitution: 23[19]

Intelligence: 22[13]

Wisdom: 20[12]

Tenacity: 21[18]

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense, Light Healing, Destructive Mana Recharge

Now happy with his Status, Stanis lay there for one more hour as he waited for his mana to recharge. An hour later it had regenerated 7 points, enough for him to lightly heal both his chest and left arm from all the burn wounds.

It would be an overstatement to say that he was refreshed, but he was certainly feeling much better than before as he got up to his knees. He snacked on a few supplies from his now-bloody backpack as he walked out.

It was as he took a step outside that he wished that he had never gotten out. Standing outside the cave was Orena, alongside Jayesh, Scowly and Aaliyah. He hoped that this wasn't going to turn out as the last meeting by the sea went, but he wasn't going to risk it as he immediately tensed, hand shooting for his sword.

It was a short but painful beating later that Stanis put down his weapons, and began walking with the others.

A new Arc had begun!