“Why the fuck are dungeon monster out of the dungeon?” Ted shouted, giving himself some stress relief after another skirmish with weird creatures, the Weird village that was their goal now finally in sight. Lucas frowned, still thinking about the reason this occurs. No matter how hard he tried to find an alternative angle or reason, all pointed out that someone in the village had the class that allowed him to extract monsters from the dungeon, a feat thought impossible.

“Doesn’t matter right now, keep your voice down” Maggie hissed at her brother, Ted not concerned about stealth as usual.

“Hell, Mags, they zeroed on us every time, no matter how quiet we were” Ted pushed back, Maggie slapping his head to force him to shut up. Returning his focus back on his surroundings, Lucas flared his Perception, hoping to catch the next group of creatures before they are able to ambush his party. Spotting a signal from Maggie and the movement within his group, Lucas also started walking carefully, tempering his passive the whole time as to not wander too far off the group, this creatures giving even him some pause as they proved to be dangerous when in groups.

“You know, I think these fuckers are actually Neanderthals” Chen whispered to the group, stunning Lucas with his revelation.

“But they are marked as “Ancients”. Does the System thinks the Neanderthals were our ancestors” Margaret asked, sounding as shocked as Lucas was feeling.

“I think so, the shape is certainly similar. I just wonder if the System meant they were our ancestors, or is he trying to tell they were our precursors” Chen answered, the party going silent as they tried to process his words. Lucas tried to remember the shapes of his enemies, remembering they were looking vaguely humanoid, albeit a bit shorter than regular humans. Deciding now was not the best time for him to think about this, he instead refocused on the problem that awaited them in the village, their potential opponent certainly powerful seeing as he managed to do something thought impossible.

“Does this mean he has a potentially infinite army or the dungeon doesn’t respawn monster when someone pulls them out? Shit, I hate waiting like this” Lucas thought as they creped slowly towards the village, his Perception still strained hard. Arriving at the outskirts, Maggie signaled them to stop just in front of the first house, the village looking strangely abandoned.

“Still no enemies and I see a lot of movement in the houses I can see” Maggie reported as she rejoined the group “how do we play this?” she asked.

“Have you seen the source of the monsters?” Lucas asked.

“Unfortunately, no. I guess our first order of business is then to find out who did this and why?” Maggie asked in one breath, her eyes already scanning the houses. Lucas nodded and the whole party reshuffled in the battle formation, Maggie pointing at one of the houses some way inside the village.

“Is the one doing this aware of its monster dying? If so, this could be a trap” Lucas thought to himself, trying to squeeze just a bit more out of his Perception, still trying to find out if there were any enemies nearby. Fortunately, they arrived at the targeted house without hindrance, the strange creatures nowhere in sight. With a heavy frown, Ted raised his hand and knocked on the door.

“We come in peace, open up” Ted shouted, his hand making heavy thuds as it hit the door. There was sound of something breaking inside the house, followed by the complete silence.

“Come on, we know you are inside” Ted shouted again, frustrated.

Suddenly, the door went slightly ajar, a pale face of the man showing up in the hole.

“How did you pass the monsters?” the man inside asked, his voice trembling.

“We killed them. May we come inside?” Margaret asked, stepping forward from her place in the center, a big smile on her face aimed at disarming the man. Lucas could see the man studying them before opening his door halfway, ushering them in.

“Thank you. What had happened here?” Lucas asked as soon as the door closed.

The man looked troubled after hearing Lucas’s question, before sighing and starting his story.

“It begun two weeks ago, some people from our village deciding to kill our current leader. Their ringleader was caught and exiled, but the rest proceeded with the plan, breaking into his office and murdering him. After the deed was done, they realized he brought his daughter with him to work and decided to mop up all witnesses”

“Wait, how do you know all that?” Maggie asked, eyeing the guy suspiciously.

“I was there, arguing to leave the girl alone. We already did what we set up to do, our alliance with the village next to us secured and we were ready to gobble up all other villages. But those fucks refused to listen to me. They started chasing her as she screamed, taking great pleasure in tormenting her. Suddenly, she fell down and those creatures just appeared out of thin air, skewering the pursuers then and there. More and more of them showed up, so we fucking ran out. It was a bloody massacre, all who didn’t manage to barricade themselves inside the house was killed. Strangely, they completely ignored the houses and after finding no one, started wandering aimlessly” the man said in one breath, warily looking at the party, twitching with every movement they made.

“Relax, we are not going to kill you if you are telling the truth” Lucas said to the man, releasing his aura, freezing the man as Lucas’s power washed over him “but if we found out you tried to harm the girl, we will be back” Lucas finished, a threat clear both in his words and in his tone of voice.

“No, please. Last I saw of the girl was back at the office of the deceased village leader, ask her” the man said, sweating profusely.

Hearing enough, Lucas demonstratively exited the building, content to find out what he wanted with minimal effort. His party followed him out, but as soon as he exited the house, Lucas turned to them.

“I think I should go alone, put my speed to the maximum. It sounds like the girl needs help as quick as possible” Lucas spoke, his party predictably full of complaints, until Maggie stopped them.

“I think you are right. We will scour the village, see if there is any more of the creatures” Maggie simply said, enough for the rest to give up trying to change Lucas’s mind. As soon as the matter settled, Lucas started running, letting his passive give him a massive speed boosts, making houses all around him move so fast he haven’t even had the time to discern them one from another. Arriving at the location that looked like the source of all this madness, Lucas stopped, drawing his falchion and slowly entering the building, corpses strewn all around him. Inside, he found even more dried blood and corpses, the stench making Lucas face contort in disgust. Retracing the steps from the story he heard, Lucas found the body of the former village leader, his stab wounds clearly visible. In the corner of his eye, he spotted movement, turning around to find himself face to face with the humanoids he had be fighting on the way to the village.

On instinct, he activated “Dodge” avoiding the swing of the humanoid with a quick roll. Not eager to waste his chance, he activated “Guiding strike” his arm automatically finding the neck artery, spraying blood all over the place. The humanoid fell down, clutching his throat, futile in his attempts to stop the bleeding and System soon informed Lucas his opponent died with another message he eagerly awaited for some time now.

“Congratulations! You are now Sword of doom level 62”

“Stat allocation in progress…”

“+5 Agility, +4 Strength, +2 Perception. Two free point”

“Due to title Prodigy, you are awarded another free point”

“Fucking finally, you are getting to slow at awarding levels” Lucas spat mentally at the System, who still was as unresponsive as ever. Lucas shrugged at the cold shoulder he received, his eyes drawn to the slight movement in one of the corners of the room. A girl, not older than sixteen, was barely holding herself on the wall, her half - awake gaze fixed on Lucas.

“Hey there, are you okay?” Lucas softly asked, his voice making the girl softly whimper and two more humanoids warping in, carrying giant clubs. Noticing that the creatures weren’t leaving the girls side, Lucas took his time to activate “Sharpsight”, using it to get more information.

“Ancient bruiser, Club adept level 65”

“Ancient bruiser, Club adept level 65”

Learning enough about the humanoids, Lucas turned his gaze towards the girl, “Sharpsight” still active.

“Larissa Matthews, Dungeon master level 22”

“Fucking hell, she got a lot of levels fast. And by the feel of it, it is an Advanced class right off the bat” Lucas thought, impressed. He slowly approached the girl who once again whimpered, forcing the bruisers to step forward and swing their clubs, Lucas activating “Dodge” to jump backwards and avoid the swings. Realizing he still had his sword drawn in the presence of this traumatized girl, Lucas cursed himself internally before sheathing his sword.

“See, it is okay, the sword is gone. I am not here to hurt you” Lucas said as he carefully stepped forward, carefully eyeing the bruisers. As soon as he finished speaking, the girl whimpered again prompting the bruisers to attack once more. With grim realization, Lucas braced himself for the hit, one club hitting him in the shoulder while the other struck him in the chest.

“You took 725 points of damage”

“You took 725 points of damage”

“Please, Larissa, I will not hurt you. I don’t even avoid your hits” Lucas said pleadingly, the bruisers raising their clubs once more. This time, however, the girl rambled something, the bruisers freezing in place. Lucas got the cue and rushed towards the girl, stopping himself in front of her.

“Is it over?” she asked, her voice barely audible. When Lucas nodded, she fell unconscious, completely drained by her ordeal. The bruisers went limp, allowing Lucas to dispatch them with two quick swings before he took the girl limp body in his hand and exiting the building. It took him some time to find the rest of his party, handing the girl over to Margaret and taking the teleportation stone out of his ring, wanting to ask Bruce for advice. Instead, he noticed the note that came out with the stone and after reading it, he cursed loudly.

“We have to wrap things here quickly” Lucas announced to his party “it looks like our blue – skinned friends are back”