Ch 15
Matt had only a minute to ponder Tempormr’s warning about potential side effects when the three women around him suddenly began coughing violently. In a matter of seconds, their coughing erupted into bouts of vomiting and desperate gasps for breath, their panicked eyes darting around the dimly lit corridor as if searching for an escape. Thankfully, spotting Matt seemed to soothe them somewhat—until Maria broke down in tears while the bow wielder clung to her legs, struggling to catch her breath. The redhead, however, remained unmoved, her vacant stare making it painfully clear to Matt that she was suffering the worst of it. Realizing that every second counted, Matt forced himself to speak.
“The three of you can deal with the effects of being captured and drugged later; right now, we need to rescue the other three.”
After a tense pause, it was the redhead who finally responded.
“Surely by now they’ve been taken to the goblin village and are—”
“No, they haven’t! Don’t ask how, but when I rescued you all, I managed to get you to wake up early. The others are only five to ten minutes ahead, and I move faster than these goblins—there are only about twenty of them left. Besides, I just reached level 3, which is when our kind hits G rank, so things aren’t as hopeless as they might seem.”
A spark of hope flickered in the redhead’s eyes as the bow wielder turned to regard him for the first time, and even Maria’s wails softened into quiet sniffles as she listened.
“You do look slightly different,” the bow wielder observed. “It’s almost as if someone snapped your picture and then retouched it in Photoshop. Still, if the goblins were truly on your level, I doubt your recent increase in strength would be so decisive—they wouldn’t be so easy to dispatch.”
“I don’t think they all start from the same place we do,” Matt replied evenly. “Frankly, my stats have more than doubled since we first arrived. Granted, I have no way of knowing for sure; maybe we were simply facing the rejected, weak, and expendable ones of their kind.”
“Sounds like you’re making a lot of assumptions,” the redhead shot back. “But fighting is better than just sitting around. I’m assuming you don’t have any of our weapons?”
“Sorry, but for now you’ll have to make do with the clubs that the goblins seem to favor.”
At Matt’s response, it was clear that the three women weren’t pleased. They simmered with discontent yet held back their complaints as the bow wielder and the redhead rose to their feet. Maria, however, remained sprawled on the ground. Matt had no desire to deal with her; if forced to choose which one of the women he wouldn’t have minded losing to the goblins, it would have been her. Still, he knew they needed to keep moving, and if he didn’t at least try to get her up, he might as well set off on his own. So, gathering the last reserves of his patience for dealing with people, he spoke.
“Maria, I’m not here to coddle you—or anyone else, for that matter. I can’t say I like any one of you, but as long as you’re all trying, and I’m around, I’ll put up with you. That said, if you plan to break down and cry when others need you to toughen up and carry on, then go ahead and stay here for any monster that wanders by to feast."
“Would it kill you to actually be nice?” Maria muttered, glaring at Matt with a look that could curdle blood.
“It might, just as it might kill you to run a few miles in the middle of a blistering summer,” he retorted. “The point is, we’re not going to change who we are, but at the very least, we won’t harm one another.”
“Just leave me to die, will you? I already know my fate—I only serve to slow down our chances of survival.”
“Has any of us actually said that?” the redhead interjected sharply.
“No, but you all are thinking it, especially you three,” Maria shot back. “At least—”
“We think plenty of things, just like you,” the redhead countered. “That doesn’t mean we act on them, and it doesn’t mean they’re true. None of us really know each other—we all tend to isolate ourselves, and as much as it pains me to admit, that is only speeding up our demise.”
“What are you saying?” Maria demanded.
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“Zara. That’s my name,” the redhead declared, her tone firm. “Now I’m not just another nameless face to all of you.”
“Masaki Yumiko,” interjected the bow wielder. “Yumiko is my given name; I assume most of you follow Western customs.”
“Are you actually from—” Maria began, but Zara cut her off.
“Maria, let’s not dwell on where any of us are from,” Zara said decisively. “I don’t wish to reminisce about life before all this chaos; it only makes our current plight feel even more unbearable.”
“Alright, looks like we at least know each other’s names now,” Matt observed with a hint of weary resignation. “Now, Maria, what’s it going to be?”
“All I’ll do is hold you all back, just as I am right now,” she replied sullenly.
“I just need the three of you to attack from the rear while I charge ahead,” Matt instructed. “My hope is that I can hold them off long enough for you to catch up and deliver the final blow.”
“So you’re leaving us to fend for ourselves while you play hero?” Zara retorted sharply.
“No,” Matt insisted, his tone firm yet laced with urgency. “I just don’t believe they’ll expect the three of you to be in fighting condition—it might just catch them by surprise.”
“Whatever,” Zara grumbled. “Just go cut the goblins off; the three of us will catch up and hopefully make it before it’s too late.”
As Zara finished speaking, she shot Matt a look that clearly warned if he didn’t get going, he’d have to face more drama than he ever wanted. With a nod, he turned and left, following the obvious trail left by the goblins. Once he vanished, Zara faced Maria, who immediately planted her hands on her hips and launched into a tirade.
"Honestly, I’ve wanted to do what Matt has been dreaming of since day one and go off on my own, but I like living too much for that. Still, if dead weight like you is offering to disappear, I’m all for it—feel free to just lie down and die. I, on the other hand, plan to live. Let’s go, Yumiko, we shouldn’t keep Matt waiting too long if we want to level up to two using this fight."
With that, Zara turned, and Yumiko shot Maria one last disapproving glance before clicking her tongue and following Zara, each of them wielding a club in one hand. Maria didn’t bother to follow; as the pair moved out of sight, she was left alone.
Meanwhile, Matt wasted no time and dashed away. Although he nearly fell face-first as soon as he started running, he quickly recovered before actually faceplanting. He continued cautiously, trying to adjust to his new stats. Thankfully, the balance between his strength and dexterity remained intact, which helped him avoid a complete loss of footing. Still, it was frustrating feeling as though he couldn’t move as quickly as his body wanted to. However, with each step, he could sense his movements steadily improving, and he was optimistic that soon he’d be moving effortlessly. Unfortunately, his mind reckoned that it might still take hours to reach that point, and he desperately wanted to catch up to the goblins in under one.
What Matt didn’t fully grasp was that, once engaged, his mind began to perceive everything at a much faster rate. This effect was amplified by the fact that he was alone and running toward his goal—what felt like a minute to him was closer to 50 seconds. While many might lose track of time amidst constant distractions, Matt was accustomed to the quiet of the wilderness, which granted him an unusually accurate sense of how much time was passing. He hadn’t realized just how useful that skill could be until he spotted the goblins now traveling in one unified group.
Before long, Matt found himself cutting through the group, overtaking them with a grin as he observed the fear etched on 19 of their faces. In all, there were six hobgoblins carrying the last three women, along with 13 smaller goblins—including the one who had slipped away from him and sparked this entire mess. What he hadn’t expected was for that elusive goblin to speak with the authority of someone in full control, issuing orders like a commander.
"Everyone else, keep going! I’ll hold him back. If he escapes me and catches up, charge him one at a time to slow him down. We’re close enough to the others now to overwhelm him if he dares to give chase."
Matt’s stunned pause cost him dearly. The small goblin vanished in a flash—much like the rabbit had earlier—leaving him scrambling as he barely dodged an incoming strike. What really threw him off, however, was how he overextended his movements and ended up in an awkward position while the other eighteen goblins fled with the three unconscious women. His initial impulse was to charge after them, but the moment he moved, he was forced to duck again as a dagger glinted before his eyes. A sinister chuckle resonated through the air as the elusive goblin continued speaking.
“It’s hard to adjust, isn’t it? Suddenly, all your stats surge, and you don’t get a chance to test them before being thrown into battle. I’ll give you credit, though — you can react, even if you do so a moment too soon and end up out of position. You really thought we had abandoned the other goblins and risked leaving those three breeders behind? Don’t worry; none of them will die. Another group will guard their bodies until we deal with you.”
Before Matt could shout a retort, he found himself dodging once more—a dagger now aimed at his ankle. The brief glimpse of the goblin fueled his rising worry over just what he had gotten himself into.
“I bet you’re wondering why I didn’t kill you earlier. You probably think I was too scared—”
“No, you wanted us to believe we were safe, relying on your clumsy techniques in the chaos of a battle against more than one opponent. Really, you wanted me to lead you straight to the women while you hid in the shadows until we stopped for the night.”
“Oh, it seems you’ve managed to see through some of my intentions after the fact. Not bad for a level 3 who hasn’t fully adapted to the rules of the system. Still, as one of the few to reach rank E among my kind that you’ll find in these woods, it matters little. Compared to trash like you, I might as well be a god. So, any last words?”
“Yeah, you talk too much.”
