Volume 2 Chapter 4: Part 4: Adventuring

A few minutes prior before this whole situation occurs.

Great! I finished all the quests now! Onyx smiles. It doesn't take Onyx a couple of days to grab everything. The last one was the hardest. It was to find a unique herb. Compared to the other quests, this one was more of a hassle.

Onyx found where it was. But the problem was the herb was surrounded by desert moles. They were hard to deal with. It wasn't because of their strength. One slap from the thunder bear alone would kill the desert moles.

But why they were so annoying to deal with than the thunder bear was the terrain. The desert moles burrow underground, making them undetected. They will burst out from the ground! The moles rushed at their prey with bullet speed to crush them!

That's why Onyx's body is covered in dirt and grime. He used himself as bait or stabbed and dug the ground to make the mole come out. Out of all the quests, this one took the longest to defeat.

But once he collected the herb, he felt the ground rumbling around him!

What's going on? Onyx made a confused expression as he wondered. When he turned in the direction of where the sound came from, he understood why.

There were four adventurers. And behind the four was a large number of goblins.

The goblins threw rocks and waved their clubs around as they chased down the four. Decrepit smiles were on their faces like chasing the four is nothing more than a game.

And Onyx realized something else. Aren't they getting closer to me?

Like, really close?

And they did. Because without warning, the four ran past Onyx! These guys! Onyx's expression turned dark.

He knew what this meant.

"Geee!" The goblins' laughter made Onyx frown. The monster changed targets now. The blood and smell coming from the cart made it more apparent too.

"Hah." Onyx sighed as he looked up at the sky. Why is there so much bad luck for me today? Seeing him spacing out like this, one of the goblins took the chance and attacked!

Thud.

And the next second, the goblin dropped to the ground. It was split into two in an instant.

"Fine." Onyx points his blade at the goblins. I need to finish them up.

And he did. That fight didn't even last a minute.

Onyx demolished all of them. And it didn't take him to chase after the four.

...

"You're alive?!" The four voices overlap. Never did they expect Onyx to be alive. The guilt on their faces is nowhere to be found. What replaced it was relief. They're even ready to jump and hug the guy!

But Onyx isn't going to let that happen. His face is pitch black and pissed off as he looks at the people who tried to kill him.

"Do you guys know what you did?" The four stopped their movement after hearing his cold voice. His tone is like a bucket of water dropping down on their heads.

"You guys broke the code."

...

"Onyx, while you are on your quests, there will be times when you meet up with other adventurers. There are things you must not do when you meet them. You must listen to these." Madelyn's expression turned grave as she talked.

"What are they?" Even Onyx could understand Madelyn was serious about this.

"

You must not kill off any other adventurer. Treat them as comrades in arms. Even if you don't like them, just ignore them. Don't kill them. If you are in danger and are escaping from a horde of monsters, never party pass to another group. That is called the cowards' method and is scorned by all adventurers...."

Madelyn continued to list off the things adventurers couldn't do. Finishing it up, she added, "If any of these rules are broken, a fine will be the least of your problems. Depending on the severity, you might get a demotion and your licenses revoked."

Hearing all this, Onyx nodded, making a note to all of this.

...

Remembering what Madelyn said, Onyx can't help but chuckle a bit. She told him to be careful. He never thought this would happen to him in a couple of days.

He got some devil's luck.

His words slice through them. Ryan and the rest clench their first tightly. They understand too. That's why it was so difficult for them to do it. But then, Ryan grovels!

"I'm sorry you had to suffer because of us! If you're going to report it to the guild, just blame it on me. I was the one who chose to pass it to you."

Ryan is the captain of the group. He was the one who decided to do this party pass to Onyx. So only he should be the one to be punished.

Not them.

"No! We did it as well!"

"Please, spare our captain!"

"..." Onyx stays silent and sighs, "For now, don't you need to treat your friend?" He points at Lily, whose leg is still bleeding. Not treating it will just cause the wound to get infected.

"Oh yeah!" Ryan's face pales, realizing it too.

"Here, catch." Ryan turns around, and the guy hands bandages to him. Seeing it, Onyx continues, I'll listen to what you have to say after taking care of it."

"Understood!"

...

"Once again, I'm sorry about what we did to you." After treating Lily's wounds, the five move to a river stream. There, the four bow their heads again towards Onyx.

Onyx can only hold his head, "If you have done this to another person, they would've died, right?" That is something he can't let go of.

It's fine for Onyx. Goblins are nothing more than bait for him. On the other hand, it might have been too much for others. The number of goblins there was too much for one adventurer to handle.

They most surely would have died.

"We know. That's why we are truly sorry!" Ryan kept smashing his head onto the gravel, showing how remorseful he was.

"I get it. So stop smashing your head on the ground. It'll be a hassle if you knock yourself out." Onyx sighs. Why is this happening to me? He definitely felt a sense of deja vu. It reminded him of the day he saved Stewart and the rest.

Well, at least Stewart got knocked out. Thinking of this, Onyx realizes something else,

"I don't even know what your names are? My name is Onyx." He can't just keep calling them you and them.

"Ahh. My name is Ryan. I'm the captain of the blue cats."

"..." Blue cats? Why is it reminding me of them? Onyx tilts his head. He got a feeling of somebody ripping off another name. And really?

Blue cats? Onyx looks behind him, and the other guys give a wry look. The only one with a proud expression is him.

Anyways,

The party's names are Ryan, Marcus, Lily, and Lin.

And they are F-class as well. Ryan and the rest are two levels below me.

But something is odd.

Onyx asks, "So why did you guys go so deep into the forest?" That was the thing he found off. Their group was only F-class, yet they jumped into an area where C and D-class monsters were swarming.

Ryan's expression turns tearful again once he hears this, and he slams his head down....yet again.

"We're sorry!"

Not this again. Onyx shakes his head. He can't believe he has to go through this again.

Letting him cry his head out, Onyx asks him,

"Are you good now?"

"Mmmhmm. Sorry about that."

"So explain to me again why to go so deep into the forest of death?" Ryan did say something about it. But Onyx couldn't figure it out through his blubbering.

"Did someone make you go?"

Did somebody force them to go? He couldn't understand why they came here by themselves?

Ryan makes a wry expression, "Well, you see. We came here on our own accord."

"Huh?" Onyx looks at him strangely. Onyx has the expression saying what was wrong with him.

"A few days ago, our party ranked up into F-class. Because of that, we thought we could take on the entire world. So while we took on our quests, we decided it was a good idea to go even deeper."

"..." Onyx doesn't even know what to say when he hears all of that. He couldn't believe somebody would be this foolish to jump into the fire pit.

Even if they have ranked up. That was just dumb.

Seeing how Onyx gave them a weird gaze, Ryan and the rest can only look down in shame and embarrassment. Even they know what they did was stupid as well.

"So, what did you guys find?" If they came out running for their lives, that means the thing inside was something dangerous. Ryan's expression turns pale. The rest does the same too,

"Well, you see, we were hunting down goblins. But after killing a lot of them, they started to run away. We chase them down. After chasing them, we found out there was a lot more. And I saw it."

"Hmm? Saw what?"

"...A goblin king." Ryan's expression turns even paler as he remembers it.

A goblin king? Onyx researched it a bit after he went back to the royal palace. The goblin king is the highest level variant for a goblin. It was many times stronger than the goblin mage he had fought before.

And to make matters worse, if there's a goblin king, many other goblins will be there too. Thinking about it for a few minutes, Onyx gets up from his seat,

"Where are you going, Onyx?"

"I'm going to beat it."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. I'm going to deal with the goblin king."

"..." Ryans and the rest's faces turn blank. Fight with the goblin king? Did you not hear what we said? How are you going to fight the goblin king?!

"Oh. And you guys are coming with me."

"!"

"And you guys can't say no, or do you want me to go back to the guild and tell them?" Onyx makes a mischievous grin as he stares at them. The grin caused the four to go crazy a bit. But they didn't say anything.

Rather, they couldn't do anything.

Ryan leads Onyx deeper into the forest. There aren't any issues for them to arrive there.

Onyx slices the monster down with ease, surprising them. He looks a few years older, yet he's doing much more than them. And when they arrive there, what Onyx sees is not a camp.

It's much bigger. The camp is more of a settlement.

The number of goblins there is just enormous. Not only that, Onyx can see variants there too.

"Ho, there's a lot of them." Looking at the area, the only thing Onyx does is laugh.

"See. I told you. Now, we should go back." Ryan says, ready to run away from the sight. Contrary to what he thought, Onyx gives the biggest smile,

"Nah, we're going in."

"Are you insane?!" Ryan was about to burst into tears again. What did he do to deserve this? (-_-)

"You guys don't need to do so much. I'll be taking care of most of them. You guys only have to stall some goblins while I deal with the variants and the king."

Even Onyx wouldn't be so cruel to do something like that.

"....Understood." If it was stalling, they're more than capable of doing something like that.

"Good. Now let's go!"

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