Infernal Apocalypse

A Forest that the local people treated with reverence and hadn’t been touched in thousands of years was now being trashed by young fools from a place far from this land.

They had come searching for a Golem that was said to call that very Forest home. The core that sustained his life, was a treasure of untold proportions.

It was then the ground beneath their feet began to rumble, the young men who wrongfully entered this Forest became silent and the sound of the earth breaking apart reverberated throughout the entire Forest for miles on end.

The Golem they had sought was waking up.

Before long, a true monster from a time long forgotten was now standing at its full frame, as the massive trees above it were uprooted and the young men had to scatter. Standing at over 30 feet was a monster’s body made of the very earth beneath its feet, and in its chest a large flowing orb pulsed with untold power.

“Have I slept so long, that whelps still sucking on their mother’s milk have forgotten my name?”

A rumbling voice reverberated throughout the forest as it spoke.

“It seems the world needs a reminder.”

- The waking of the Core Eater

Alright, I had 400 Goblins in front of me, and that amount would be the perfect test subjects for what I had in mind. Which was to turn my flames into things like arrows and spears and all sorts of things.

And so, I did just that, I entered the cave and laid both my spear and bag down before running around and shooting out arrows made of flame all over the place. My aim was slightly off in the beginning, but I got better and better the more I shot. From arrows to both little and big balls, flame spears, and almost any other projectile form I could think of.

None of them were worth mentioning though, because this is not an avenue I think I’ll be going down. Yeah, I can make all the arrows I want, but no matter what I made, none of it ever felt truly right. Simply put my partner here didn’t like it. I’m not entirely sure why, but if it didn’t like it, then why would I? Now something it didn’t mind was when I used my flames to create a spear, not one I use as a projectile, but one I held in my hands and used it to fight. It was kind of weird wielding a spear made entirely of fire, as while it was solid enough for me to grab onto, at the end of the day it was all just fire. So, it was still loose at times, or it flickered and spread to nearby Goblins at other times. So, while weird, it was still fun, and something I can see myself using a lot in the future.

After all my testing I bathed the rest of the floor in my flames, collected my Rock Iron, and proceeded to the next floor, where the process was repeated. I was curious to see if the big one could resist my flame, but it was burned to nothingness all the same.

Eventually, the small chest returned and unsurprisingly the reward was 10 Bronze Coins. I guess that Lance guy was right. The extra rewards I got were most likely a first clear reward or something of that nature. What did I even get again? A weird-looking dagger and a pretty useless ring. Maybe I’ll bring them to the shop to see if I can sell them for something.

Moving on, I collected the money and accepted the prompt to leave.

This was a very satisfying and fulfilling trip. Learned a lot about my flames and how to use them in battle. It was a nice feeling knowing that I’d never truly be alone in anything I do and that I always have support.

Once outside, I quickly made my way back to the Outpost and after nodding at the folks guarding the Outpost I went inside and went straight to the blacksmith, sold half my Rock Iron, and then went home.

After a quick wash, it was off to sleep, it was a good day.

And then came morning and it was time for training again. Richard mentioned he wanted to chat after training, but apart from that it was a pretty quiet walk to the grounds. It was also another typical training session, I still couldn’t so much as brush my spear anywhere close to the Outpost Leader’s body, but I was becoming a better fighter with each sparring session, so my motivation never dwindled.

“You can advance again. I know you’ve been waiting for confirmation from me to advance but soon you will need to do this for yourself. I will explain further after you complete your next advancement.”

Well, he said he would explain after I advanced again so I won’t dwell on it.

“Understood.”

And as expected, he vanished right after that.

Ignoring that, I gathered my things and waited off to the side for Richard. They were practicing squad fighting it seemed like? From what I saw, they were separated into 10 teams of 3, and they were carrying striking drills. Someone in the middle would step forward and strike at an imaginary enemy before stepping back while the other two stepped forward on the flanks and delivered strikes of their own.

I watched on for a while as they constantly did this while switching whoever was in the middle. This is genuinely good stuff. It will help them in the Dungeons too.

Anyway, after finishing up, Richard quickly made his way over for us to chat.

“How was training for ya? I took a peek, and it looked really intense as you fought back and forth.”

“Did it? I guess it was kind of intense, but yeah it was good. You?”

“Yeah it looked like an actual fight, but it was good for me too. The focus today was team fighting and I’d say it went well for everyone. Also, I did talk to the rest of the team about what we just talked about and a few of them are up for it. It helps that another set of people managed to break through to 1st Cycle last night. We now have 20 people at 1st Cycle and after the Dungeon run today I’m going to attempt to break through myself.”

“That’s great news, so whenever they are ready just send a couple out to scout the area and be sure to remind them that they shouldn’t be fighting anything. Just go look around and come back. Oh, and tell Lance he was right, I went back to the Dungeon last night and I only got 10 Bronze Coins as a reward.”

“That’s interesting, I’ll be sure to let him know. I’ll be by your house in a second once we’re ready to go.”

“Got it.”

Before long I was looking at Richard and another group of four people. I didn’t know any of them.

“This is Vanessa, Brockers, Grant, and Harrison.”

They all waved as Richard introduced them, hopefully I can remember all of these names.

“I’m Raizen. Well, let's go.”

And just like that, we were off to the Dungeon once more. It went pretty similar to the first time, with Richard being the good commander that he was and me having to occasionally save them. Nothing like what happened to Brandon took place though as I made sure never to be too far from the group.

Eventually, we cleared the Dungeon and were back to the Outpost without much trouble. Well, not much trouble for me at least, we were attacked by a large horde that had a whole host of both normal and the magic-wielding Goblins, and even 2 big ones joined the fray.

Needless to say, that was far too many Goblins for this team, and they were tired from the Dungeon, so I had to put in a little work.

Anyway, we made it back safe, and sound and I told Richard he could keep all the cores, I didn’t need them.

My cultivation session went similarly to all of them before it except it felt kind of different at the end, I’m not sure how to explain it other than saying I could feel sort of a wall in front of me on my cultivation path now. Was this what the Outpost Leader was referring to?