The Place Where Everything Begins

Right now, the clash had been ongoing for more than 10 minutes with alternated back and forth retaliation between humans and monsters.

There was already one casualty, more than three lightly injured people, and one fatally wounded person from the human side. Meanwhile, there were more than half of the outlanders remaining.

If it were only those skeleton soldiers alone, it wouldn't be a problem for them at all because they were more than ready to slaughter the skeleton soldiers by utilizing their makeshift formation to their advantage.

However...

This time around, five imps were accompanying those skeleton soldiers out of the two passageways.

Despite their petite bodies and weak-looking appearances that should have been easily killed by just a punch or two right at their faces, still, it was proved absolutely otherwise...

As for the fact that they were annoyingly hard to kill because of their flying capability and agile, acrobatic movements, altogether with their one-meter sharp solid tail as weapons, they were considered as even more of the undead and threat than those skeleton soldiers.

Furthermore, the dead one and the fatally wounded one from the human side were actually the workmanship caused by sneak attacks of those annoying imps...

'Everyone is getting tired, while many of them have slipped up more often. At this rate, there would be more people getting killed and injured.'

Mitchell thought frowningly when he suddenly spotted the cloaked person earlier finally coming out of the public toilet.

Then he thought, 'The guy finally comes out. What is the guy's purpose here... a friend or a foe?'

Having thought of that, a blurred image promptly came into his mind...

It was a scene right before he lost consciousness...

At that time, he saw something. To be more exact, he saw someone...

'Black cloak...'

'!!'

Suddenly, as if realizing something shocking, Mitchell's eyes widened in astonishment...

'Black cloak... Right... The guy I saw before everyone lost consciousness was also wearing the same clothes. That means it isn't a dream after all...'

Afterward, sudden enlightenment kicked in, and then Mitchell could finally piece up the little information he had in his head...

'So, he may be a human that was teleported here just like us.'

'Somehow, he didn't fall asleep like everyone else back then.'

'Then he went into one of the doors when we were unconscious.'

'And, he has come out just now... from the leftmost door...'

'But... did he really clear that door which is also the mission ranked number 7 on the Crystal's missions list? It should be several times harder than killing some skeletons and imps... Isn't that too absurd...?'

With those incredulous thoughts in mind, Mitchell turned his head to see Eddie. He decided to relay his absurd discovery to his bald friend, only to realize that the usual easygoing and unscrupulous muscular Eddie was currently looking unblinkingly at the black-cloaked person...

However, Mitchell saw that something was amiss about Eddie's current behaviors...

At this moment, Eddie looked like someone whom had just been haunted by a ghost firsthand; his face seemed so terrified with a wide agape mouth.

Heck... he was even being pushed back by a mere skeleton soldier...

Upon seeing the sight of his friend being like that, Mitchell hurriedly moved closer to Eddie, and by using his 'bronze' sword, he beheaded the skeleton soldier that had kept pushing Eddie back.

Afterward, he hurriedly called out two people in the second line of defense to substitute the two of them to cover the vacant holes in the formation while at the same time dragging the stiffened Eddie to the back of the formation.

"Eddie, what happened? Why are you looking so terrified as if seeing a ghost?"

"..."

After dragging Eddie to the back of the second line of defense, Mitchell made Eddie sat down on the ground, and then he asked Eddie about what had happened to him exactly.

But to no avail, Eddie gave out no response at all, while his eyes remained fixated at the black-clothing person's direction, even although the view in front of him was fully shielded by those fighting people and also the horde of monsters.

"Hey, Eddie... Eddie!"

"..."

With a frown, Mitchell decided to slap some senses into this dickhead's peanut brain...

*Slap*

"Ouch! That hurts..."

"You finally come to your senses, huh. What happened to you? Can you talk now?"

With his eyes blinking three times continuously, Eddie's eyes became more clear and focused...

After looking around to assess their current situations, Eddie finally spoke to Mitchell, whom was looking at him worriedly, "Oh, it's you."

"Yes, it's me, bastard. Now, tell me fast; we have to go back to help them soon."

Upon hearing those words, Eddie recalled the moment he saw the black-cloaked person coming out of the toilet...

Then he spoke, "You know... I have a talent called 'Instinct' within my Status Window."

"Instinct?" Asked Mitchell, he got a bit perplexed with this sudden topic from Eddie.

"Yeah, instinct, kinda like beast's instinct if you ask."

"So what? How is that even related to your terrified expression earlier then?"

"Well, how to put it... Hmm... The way it works is like when I see a skeleton soldier, an imp, or even a human; I will be able to tell instinctively how strong they are. Well, it usually comes in the form of instinctive feelings though..."

"So, you want to tell me that the black-cloaked guy is stronger than those monsters?"

"Yes, wait, no... I mean, you cannot compare them at all, the feelings giving out from those monsters and the black-cloaked person were akin to an ant and a ferocious lion..."

Without any better word to compare the disparity between Jeremy and the outlanders, Eddie could only use 'ant and lion' as a comparison.

"But I'm sure I know what that guy is..." After hearing Eddie's words, Mitchell murmured to himself almost inaudibly.

"You also know?" Replied Eddie in surprise after hearing Mitchell's murmurs.

As if agreed beforehand, they spoke...

"That guy is..."

"That guy is..."

"A monster"

"A human"

"..."

"..."

"What do you mean? A human? Are you fucking kidding me now!?"

Eddie's loud voice echoed out suddenly; it was such an absurd idea of Mitchell's. No way in hell could something like that be considered as a 'human' like them.

He was just too monstrous...

Upon hearing Eddie's questions, Mitchell told Eddie about his recollection, "No, I'm not. Do you still remember the time when we lost unconsciousness mysteriously?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"At that time, before my eyes closed shut, I saw someone with black clothing exactly the same as that one. Also, I'm quite sure that he had been teleported here with us... I think he... he should be the 50th person of our group."

"Are you for real? That dangerous being is a human?"

Mitchell looked into Eddie's eyes, then nodded his head firmly...

*Sigh*

With a sigh, Eddie spoke in doubt while scratching his bald head lightly, "But... how can a human give out such a feeling? Even right now, I'm still feeling goosebumps all over my body from just a single look at that guy earlier. It is just... too dangerous... I'm sure I would be killed in a second or two if I fought with that guy."

With a frown, Mitchell fell into deep thought.

After a short moment, Mitchell finally spoke up, "Before that guy went into that toilet, you were the one who notified me about the guy's presence, right?"

"Yep, why?"

"At that time, did you feel different than this time when you look at that guy?"

After some thoughts, Eddie answered, "Hmm... Before the guy went into the toilet thingy, I thought I felt nothing out of the ordinary at all, but this time, I felt like I was staring at an unsurmountable predator."

"Is that so? Why... Maybe the distance was too far? Or maybe that guy did something in the toilet, later came out stronger?" Mitchell said in an even more perplexed tone of voice while looking at Eddie's stupid face.

"Don't look at me like that; I really don't know. Let's not think about that, that mons... human is going to reach here soon."

"Then what should we do?" Mitchell couldn't help but asked Eddie.

As a result, Eddie was stumped for words; he then spoke back to Mitchell sarcastically, "You ask me? You are a leader of our coup... I mean 'group'. So, it's you, sire, who decide, isn't it."

"A good leader is the one who listens to his team members' opinions."

Mitchell bullshitted through with somewhat reasonable words, for he still thought that it was better to believe in someone with beast-like instinct in this kind of situation instead of his clueless idea of the black-cloaked guy's approximated strength.

*Sigh*

With a sigh, Eddie spoke with uncertainty, "If it were me, I would befriend that guy no matter what it takes. If I couldn't befriend then... I would have tried my best not to antagonize a dangerous hair-raising guy like that."

Following with a firm nod, Mitchell finally decided his immediate future actions, "Let's do as you say..."

"Copy that!"

"Alright, get up already, bastard. It's time to go back and fi..."

"Want some help?"

Suddenly, a moderately loud sound came out from the other side, behind those monsters...

The shout was, of course, from Jeremy, who was smiling warmly at them from the opposite side; despite his face looked obscure because of the hood, his nose and mouth were still visible to the people's naked eyes.

At the same time, as if the outlanders had just realized Jeremy's presence, one by one, those creatures standing idly at the backline started turning their heads in Jeremy's direction.

*Cluck* *Cluck*

*Cluck* *Cluck*

With the sounds of their jaws and bones clucking, the skeleton soldiers walked towards Jeremy slowly...

"Well, I guess I have to help out anyway..." Jeremy murmured lightly upon seeing the incoming outlanders in front of him.

After all, killing these skeleton soldiers and imps was also ones of the missions within the Crystal; he had to do it anyway. Moreover, killing them also gave him some SP to buy things at the shop.

As for those creatures' strength, it couldn't even be compared to the hobgoblins whom he had fought against ever since some hours ago at all, for them to be only the lowest-ranked organisms, unlike humans and hobgoblins...

*Whoosh* *Crush*

With a simple swing of his spear, Jeremy broke the neck of the closest skeleton soldier in half...

*Fwhoosh* *Crunch*

By another swing accompanying terrifying wind sounds, another skeleton soldier's body was bisected...

*Whizz* *Puchi*

An imp dropped dead to the ground with a hole the same shape as Jeremy's spearhead on its chest...

Graceful yet without any unnecessary movement of his body and spear, Jeremy killed the outlanders in front of him easily, like killing some bugs.

While the people fighting at the frontline could only look in awe at the mysterious black-cloaked guy killing those undead creatures effortlessly.

The number of skeleton soldiers diminished at a very fast rate...

Not even 10 seconds later, there were only around 20 skeleton soldiers and two imps remaining. That meant, the guy, considering that it was a male's voice, 'he' had killed one skeleton soldier per second at the very least...

Soon, with fewer and fewer monsters remaining on the battlefield with each passing second, those people at the backline and those huddling people at the far back corner also saw the mysterious black-cloaked man.

'Terrifying...' was the only thought that kept echoing within everyone's minds.

The man was nothing but a legendary warrior depicted in the legends and folklores when he brandished the spear...

"Well, you won't let me fight these creatures alone, will you?"

Jeremy spoke with a charming smile plastered on his face to those captivated and awed people...