*Note: Sorry this was supposed to be yesterday's chapter but I was too depressed over my comp being wiped due to windows update to write. Sigh.. goddamn hidden buttons that keep closing my browser. Also sorry but no tentacles, at least not in this forest. As for the name of the forest, I have no clue what I was thinking when I made it up but it's a name and it works. I suck at names so I'll take it.

"Oh, my god patron's t-"

*Ding x 4242564

Windows blew up across my entire vision along with a really loud and long chain of dings. "Ow, Karen what are you doing."

Jane mischievously smiled, "Oh, so your god patron was a girl my apologies for asking." Then teasingly, "Cheating on your partner just because she can't be here, rather sly aren't you?"

"Wha- What, why does everyone think like that, there's nothing going on in the first place and Karen is-"

Shut Up

"And after how you violated me, to think you already had a partner," Mary blushed and looked away, not even trying to hid the smirk she had on her face.

"I didn't... not really... it wasn't like that, Honest!!" The looks Jane and Brandon were giving me hurts, while the three members of my party were barely containing their laughter. Actually, Mary was laughing so hard no sound was coming out.

The Lord Reaper is not... very well liked among the other gods. It would be rather catastrophic if you had answered that question.

"Oh..." then to change the subject, "Who are your patrons?"

Jane grinned puffing out her chest in pride, "Sekhmet Egyptian Goddess of War, I specialize in close quarters combat."

"That's not really something to brag about, war is a sad thing; you're being affected by Sekhmet too much." Jordan turned to face me, "My patron is the Titan Atlas, I also specialize in close quarters combat. If you ask me though it seems like we were chosen for our physical abilities, both of us being athletes; how about you?"

"I specialize in magic, I was just an ordinary gamer." I shrugged, "I got chosen after beating a game."

"That's an interesting way to choose someone, but I guess you've got some skills or talents if you've beat a game. Well thanks for the meal, although I feel like I'm forgetting something." Jane suddenly jumped up, "that's right we left Carey and Ben behind when I smelt food." More companions? This could be troublesome, I would have a hard time with just two of them... they were nice people but I don't want to die either. Wait, did she say she smelt the food, how far away was she for them to not have caught up yet?

"They are going to be so mad at us, and we ate everything too, Brandon should we just make a run for it?" Jane was in a state of panic, were they that strong?

"And where... *huff, do you intend *puff, to run off to?" An exhausted girl with blond hair in robes asked.

"Eh, uh no where Carey, we were just waiting for you. And look we found new companions." Trying to change the subject she made movements with her hands like she was trying to show us off.

Brandon put a hand on Jane. "Just give up, we're sorry we ran off ahead of you guys, by the way where's Ben?"

Carey sighed, "He's probably distracted by some animal or another, he'll show up at some point. But at least I know he can take care of himself and knows where he's going."

"I would like to point out that we can take care of ourselves, although we are clueless in terms of directio-" Carey was glaring at Jane.

Carey turned towards us and bowed, "My name is Carey, I'm a magician. Sorry for all the trouble Jane has caused you."

"Hey, Brandon was here too!!!" Another glare was sent in Jane's direction.

"He did not leap on or start drooling on their food." That was pretty much right on mark, does this happen often?

"Mmm," Mary came up to Carey with a very weird look in her eyes, "It's fine, although I wouldn't mind if you spent a while with me in compensation."

"Eh? Umm... Ah.." Not knowing how to react to Mary, Carey stood their blushing.

"Enough out of you, we have to pack up and get ready to move." Liliana said as she dragged Mary who had a pouting face on away, "Just ignore what she said, and it's fine, we had some leftover food and it was nice company."

"Oh, I'll help." Jane hurriedly went after the two, probably trying to escape further scolding.

"Right while we're getting ready do you guys have any information about the forest? We kinda just started going there without looking into it." Inwardly I was cursing myself for making such a rookie mistake, information is a vital component of victory.

Brandon laughed, "That was just like us at first, heading off without a care in the world almost worked too. As for information I leave it to our chosen one here, she's good at magic AND she's the chosen of this world's goddess of light Lumina; although she isn't part of the game."

Carey was blushing, "I was just lucky to be chosen by the goddess and born with talent others did not have. I myself have little feats to live up to that title." After a moment of awkwardness she looked up with a composed face. "As for information, the forest's name is Wuldrud and the inhabitants are primarily beasts and goblins. Although goblins are everywhere so there really isn't much point in including them. Most of the time except for the occasional stray or small goblin band the inhabitants kept to themselves in the forest, but recently there have been reports of combined attacks. That is to say that the beasts and goblins are appearing to work together which is strange to say the least but if they are, the goblins could become an actual threat. Our job aside from monster hunting is also to find out what happened and to fix it so to speak."

Goblins in games and stories were weak little green skinned things that were more annoying than anything. In large groups they can be dangerous but the most any game every gave them was some wolf mounts, mechanical monstrosities aside. After all if the worlds inhabitants aren't using robots I doubt the goblins have enough intelligence to use and hide them from the world. "What kind's of beasts are inside the forest?"

Brandon spoke up at that, "Mostly the same as animals you would find in a forest, with several mutations. Bears, wolves, deer, moose, elk, birds, rodents etc."

"Well, we're ready to go any time." Liliana walked up with Mary still sulking, Mina and Jane were engaged in an energetic conversation about stuff from our world; is it okay to tell the people of this world about our technology?

I turned towards Carey, "You sure we don't need to wait for your friend?"

She sighed, "He'll show up whenever he wants, the only things he's good at is stalking and running so he won't get lost easily even if you try. Let's just go."

Carey looked at me in astonishment, "You really have talent for magic, what you've just learned in this short period of time took me several years."

At first I was hesitant but Liliana came up and said that she didn't mind because she taught me all she could as she wasn't really compatible with magic so now Carey was teaching me about magic. System assist definitely was a cheat, all I needed was sufficient mana and a solid image. As long as the prior is good I won't have problems with the latter. I also came to realize what my Soul Consume ability did, it converted souls into raw energy which is then absorbed by my body, kind of like drugs and steroids without the side effects. I also suspected it but... the souls I consume are gone for good, wiped from existence.

A giant hand slapped against my back, "Good for you, to be honest I'm jealous because I can't use magic to save my life. It really is a convenient thing that our world lacked." Brandon was giving a comforting smile, was it because I said I was just a gamer before?

"Well, we're here." announced Jane who was at the front of the group, ahead of us was a road that went deep into a dark crowd of trees. It almost seemed as if it was one dark hallway with the trees intertwining in such a way that blocked out the light, looking to either direction one could not see the end of the forest.

"That, looks rather terrifying," If there wasn't a path I don't think anyone would be able to get back out of this forest, the entire feeling the trees gave off was one of foreboding.

"And it looks like we're going to have company," Jane grinned with her eyes glowing red, holding a plain steel dagger in each hand, "I can smell blood in the air, and lots of it."

At Brandon drew his greatsword as Carey held her staff in front of her, Mina was in the wagon holding tight to her dagger as Liliana and Mary stood by Dumpley with their swords drawn. I felt out of place as the only one without any prior preparation needed in the tense atmosphere. Suddenly the still forest burst to life with a rustle as sixteen green blobs flew out from the trees grasps with six black blurs following close behind. Goblins dressed in rags and hides with primitive stone weapons chased by black wolves with red glowing eyes.

"There shouldn't be any black wolves her-" Carey didn't finish her sentence as both of the monsters turned and headed straight towards us, whatever quarrel they had with each other forgotten. Snarling Jane jumped right into the pile of bodies with daggers flashing laughing manically. Her first victim a goblin with a thrust through the chin and into the head, her second a wolf with stab through the side of it's head. Behind her Brandon charged in as an unstoppable goliath bodies bouncing off of him, his greatsword cutting enemies in half with every swing.

A wolf and three goblins broke off from the group and charged at the wagon only to be impaled by a series of stone spikes that sprouted from the ground. Carey gave me a smile as I looked to her in shock, from what I learned magicians needed to chant out an incantation before a spell could be used, me as an exception.

Not wanting to be outdone I launched my own magic; gather energy, focus on an image, and release! A dozen spears made of ice flew from above me landing among the few still moving bodies around the destructive pair. And then it was over, none of them even made it to the wagon, devastated by magic and steel. I walked in for a closer look, the goblins were small green misshapen humanoids with ugly features, just what you would expect from goblins but the wolves looked peculiar. They had a dark red glow around them that I realized was magic aura, yet the wolves shouldn't be able to use magic and haven't during the fight.

"Could these be summoned wolves?" I asked Carey, "They have a red magic aura around them."

Carey stared at a corpse for a while and then looked at me in the eyes, "It's not impossible but I don't see anything." Was it because of my skill that I could see the aura? But at the same time... I realized I could see the souls of the wolves, they were alive. If that was the case then they weren't summoned familiars but created living beings, I have a bad feeling about this.

Rustling turned our attention back to the forest, weapons and spells ready but what came out was a man who was bleeding from scratches and bites, leg severely injured as he clumsily limped towards us as fast as he could. "BEN!!!" Carey ran towards him as Jane moved with supernatural speed past him diving into the foliage, Brandon took up a defensive position beside Carey. Howls and two souls later told me that she dispatched another two wolves.

Ben collapsed as into Carey's arms as she reached him,"Heal." White light poured of of Carey's hands casuing Ben's wounds to slowly start to healing, "Are you alright? What happened?"

Ben gave us strangers a glance before looking into Carey's eyes, "I'm not too badly injured, running is my specialty after all," he gave a wry smile but there were no smiles in his eyes, "Something bad is happening here, it was just utter chaos. Thousands of wolves are fighting in there and killing anything in the forest, where they came from I don't know but if they get loose there's no way local militia or even most adventurers can hold them back." He was exaggerating wasn't he? The wolves weren't that difficult to defeat, although most fell to Jane.

"That's cause we were strong," Brandon said reading my expression, "Most people may be able to hold back one of them, maybe even kill one at best but not without serious injuries."

Jane came back out of the forest covered in blood, "This reeks of a fight between chosens..." there was a dark look on her face, "and here I thought we had seen the last of people like that."

"Well, either way we have to stop them don't we?" Carey looked up at us, Ben apparently having drifted off to unconsciousness, she was angry, really angry. "We can't let them get away with this."

Note*: Again sorry for the late chapter, X...X was going to put it out several hours earlier but didn't have time to work on it until now, work is busy presumably because of the long weekend. I'll try to get the next chapter out later tomorrow but if not, Tuesday for sure. Also, not sure if you've noticed but aside from Shin I use third person for every other char (including Kage), is that fine or should that be changed? Also I kinda feel like I worded this chapter weirdly but I feel that with everything I write so let me know if it is weird, can't really tell. Well I'm off to bed, work tomorrow. Night! ^^