Second World

Jack woke up the next morning just as the sun started to rise. There hadn't been an ambush in the night, so he had a whole night's rest. He was to meet the team at the dungeon entrance at 8 AM, so he had around two hours before he needed to get there.     

He stored his camping tent and took out his Apprentice Cooking Stove to make some meals. He quickly made five portions of Chicken Soup and stored them in his inventory bag. He also made another Whetstone to replace the one he had used last night.     

Then he set out towards the destination marked on his map. For breakfast, he just ate bread while he was on the move.     

He avoided the monsters on his radar as he was in a hurry. He could not afford to waste time fighting them. He arrived at a grove at the foot of Mount Thenias. The destination marking was now a point on his map instead of an arrow indication, so he knew he was getting close.     

He started through the grove as it was the most direct route, and he didn't have time to go around. There weren't many monsters in the woods, so he could avoid them easily with the help of his radar.     

When he was a hundred meters into the grove, he noticed a small group of blue dots entangled with a greater number of red dots. Some players were in combat with monsters. He thought about it and decided to see what was happening. It might be Silverwing's team. If so, he should lend a hand.     

He could hear the sounds of people fighting and yelling when he got closer. But all the yelling was in women's voices. Were they from Wicked Witches? In that case, he should just let them fend for themselves. He didn't have a good impression of them from that arrogant granny, Queen Magenta. But he decided to continue to get closer and have a look.     

He crouched down when he got close and sneaked into a thicket that could conceal his presence. From there, he could see the group fighting. Four female players were battling a group of seven Cave Trolls. They seemed to have been fighting for quite a while.     

He inspected both parties. Most of the Cave Trolls were level 12, with two at level 13.  The female players were all level 12, except for one. The level 12s were unknown to him, but the other was Jeanny, one of the Wicked Witches players who sat beside Queen Magenta in the meeting yesterday. Jeanny was now level 13, one level higher than when Jack last saw her. She was holding a spear.     

Jeanny and one of her comrades were Fighters, while the other two were a Ranger and a Magician. They covered each other well; it was evident that they were used to fighting as a team. The female players seemed to be having some difficulty as they were outnumbered, though they were holding their own against the Cave Trolls as their teamwork was rather good.     

However, it was also apparent that they might not be able to last much longer. Each of the women had lost a lot of HP, and the Cave Troll attacks did not allow them to consume recovery potions.     

The Cave Trolls were small in size, only a tad bigger than Goblins. They fought using stone clubs in both hands. They had black fur covering their entire bodies, with a long snout of a nose, and their eyes were dark and wild. They looked determined to crush the players into mincemeat.     

Jack was contemplating whether or not to intervene. If that Queen Magenta had been in this group, Jack would have happily walked away. He might have even shown himself and waved to her before walking away to show some spite. But he had no enmity with these players. Jeanny hardly spoke in the meeting, but she had not said anything that offended him during their encounter.     

While Jack was thinking, a thicket on the opposite side of the clearing began to shake, and a hulking humanoid monster appeared. It was similar to the Horned Ogre boss that Jack had fought, except slightly smaller and without a horn. He inspected it using his God-eye monocle.     

Ogre (Basic monster, humanoid), level 14     

HP: 2000     

The Ogre gave out a savage roar as he waved his thick arms around in an intimidating manner while advancing on the group of female players. The Ogre didn't wield a weapon, but his fists looked deadly.     

'The women are done for sure,' Jack thought. The female players seemed to agree, judging from how pale their faces became.     

Jack was considering what he would have done if these female players were not associated with Wicked Witches. He figured he would have intervened without hesitation. After a few more brief thoughts, Jack decided to treat this as though he was doing his hunting missions. After all, both these monsters were on the lists that he had yet to complete.     

He cast Energy Bolts and Mana Bullet into the Cave Trolls, ran from his hiding place, swinging a Sword of Light towards the Ogre. The two spells crashed into three Cave Trolls while the Sword of Light struck on the Ogre's head.     

The monsters he hit turned their attention to Jack. The female players were also startled by this interruption.     

"It's you..!" Jeanny said when he saw who had intervened.     

"You know him?" One of her comrades asked.     

Jeanny nodded.     

Jack retreated out of sight when he saw the Ogre and three Cave Trolls coming towards him.     

"Oh, no!" Jeanny screamed when she saw the four monsters chasing after Jack. "We have to help him! Those four monsters are too strong for one person."     

"We should worry about ourselves first," her friend said. "Good thing he took half the monsters with him. We should be able to deal with the remaining ones."     

"Don't worry about him; he should have his friends with him," another woman added.     

"Yes, magician spells came from where he showed up. They can deal with those monsters for now; we will go help once we deal with the ones here."     

Jeanny knew that this was the only thing they could do at the moment. "All right, let's kill these monsters fast. We should have no problem now that there are only four of them. Let's hope they can hold out until we arrive."     

It took them several minutes to deal with the four Cave Trolls, but not without injury.  The Ranger's HP bar had dipped to critical.     

"Let's drink healing potions and go to help them; I doubt they can hold out much longer," Jeanny said.     

"Wait! Pick up the loot first," the Ranger said as she went around gathering the coins and items dropped by the Cave Trolls.     

"No time!" Jeanny said as she ran to where Jack had disappeared. Her other friends had no choice but to follow. The Ranger reluctantly followed at the back as she picked up as much loot as she could on her way.     

When they came out of the thicket, they saw Jack was bending down picking items from the ground.     

"Huh?" The four of them were confused as they looked around. Where were the Cave Trolls? Where was the Ogre? Where were his teammates?     

Jeanny approached Jack with a bewildered look.     

"Has your team defeated the monsters?" She asked.     

'My team?' Jack thought, confused. Then he remembered that he had used Magician's spells to draw the Cave Trolls' attention. He decided to play along.     

"They have left; I stayed behind to pick up the loot," he said.     

"Your team is rather capable," the female Magician said. "That big monster looked strong."     

"It was a level 14 Ogre," said the Ranger, who had used Inspect when the Ogre appeared.     

"Ogre? Wasn't that the monster that one of our guild members encountered two days ago? It took six of our strong members to kill a single Ogre, and they lost two people in the process."     

"Amazing, did your team really defeat that monster so quickly? It was not even five minutes," the other female Fighter asked Jack.     

"Well, we are very strong," Jack replied without humility.