บท 7: The Nightmares Start

Waking up in an unknown bed, he panicked, wondering where he was. Archer noticed a young woman in her twenties lying next to him. Recognizing the smooth navy blue hair. It was a girl he knew all too well lying in front of him.

Archer went to hug her but was stopped by an invisible barrier. After that, she sat up and stared directly at him. He saw blood drip down from her lips. That's when the scene changed to a random street, and he saw her being stabbed.

He started to panic and rushed towards her, but everything changed again. Now, he was the one being stabbed while the maniac laughed. Awakening abruptly, drenched in sweat, he glanced around only to realize he was still resting on the branch.

His clothes clung to his body due to all the sweat. Archer shook his head and looked around. He heard birds chirping and some beasts grunting from below. Then he looked down to see a massive hog-like beast, the size of a rhinoceros on Earth, just rooting around.

After it was done, it wandered off somewhere. Rubbing his eyes, he realized that he was drenched in blood from yesterday's hunt. He remembered he had eaten all the hearts he collected.

While sitting there, he checked his status.

[Experience: 350/1000]

[Level Up: 5>8]

[SP: 10>38]

Exclaiming in shock. ''I've leveled up eight times since I started hunting!''

Deciding to spend the points while relaxing on the branch. He put ten points on HP and Mana, four on strength, constitution, stamina, and charisma, and two on intelligence.

He felt his body strengthen as his stats increased. After calming down, he checked his status.

[HP: 200>300]

[Mana: 880>1180]

[Strength: 65>105]

[Constitution: 40>80]

[Stamina: 70>110]

[Charisma: 260>300]

[Intelligence: 90>110]

All the points gave him a massive boost. His whole body felt stronger, his muscles grew, and his senses improved. Looking down at the ground as he stood up, he hopped off the landing with a thud. When he hit the floor, he heard shouting in the distance.

With his upgraded senses, he could tell it wasn't far away. He ran in the direction of the noise, and after a five-minute run, he came across a very familiar scene. A group of five adventurers were fighting a group of goblins.

At the back of the goblins was a goblin shaman casting spells at the group as he directed the others between spells. The adventurers consisted of two knights, one girl and one boy, an elf girl dressed in a healer's outfit, and another elf who was also an archer who wore leather armor covering most of her body except her midriff and legs.

She seemed to value speed over protection. Lastly, a tall and muscular human mage with a bald head stood at the back, casting protective magic over the group. The two human knights looked like each other: blood-red hair, blue eyes, and milk-white skin.

The girl was slender and tall, with hawk-like eyes, like the boy. They wore plate-like armor that covered most of their bodies except the head and hands. That's when Archer turned his attention to the healer, who had auburn-colored hair and yellow eyes, presenting a fairly average appearance for an elf.

In contrast, the female knight surpassed her in terms of beauty. But when he saw the elf, he realized how beautiful she was. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She had beautiful brown skin with long silver hair tied into a ponytail that dangled down her back.

The elf had a pair of red eyes that sucked the soul from anyone who got close and pointy elf ears. She wasn't tall and was about five foot five and thick in all the right places.

'She's beautiful.' He thought to himself.

Shaking his head to regain focus on the battle, Archer observed that they were holding their own against the goblins until an additional wave emerged from behind them. The bald mage turned around and cast Fireballs at them to hold back the incoming horde.

The elf archer looked back and covered the mage by precisely shooting arrows. They were about to be overrun when Archer intervened.

'Let's go.' He internally mused.

Pointing his small hand at the incoming goblins. Two Void blasts shot out and crashed into the unaware goblins. The adventurers stopped what they were doing and looked towards the explosion, seeing a giant dust cloud.

Then, a white-haired boy dressed in black and covered in blood rushed out of the cloud and slashed the remaining goblins. Archer danced around wildly, laughing as he slashed any goblin he encountered.

''Hahahahahahahahah, die beasts. DIE!''

He had no real skill beyond what his old memories showed him. Also, when he was on Earth, Archer was learning to wield a sword in college for history class. As the adventurers finished killing the goblins they were fighting, he finished his slaughter after killing the last seven.

That was until a Fire Blast smashed into the right side of Archer's body, sending him flying. When the elf saw this, she aimed her bow at the beast who attacked the boy. She released a mana arrow that flew through the air, puncturing the shaman's head.

It dropped to the ground dead, and that's when she heard the knights coming from behind her. ''Where did that boy go?'' The female knight asked as she looked around.

When the elf archer heard this, she turned to them while thinking. 'Did they not see him get blown away?'

She pointed in the direction Archer flew off in. ''He was sent flying in that direction. Let's check on him.''

They all were searching for him until a shout was heard. ''Over here!''

The elf archer found him first and called the others over. When they arrived, he was lying on the floor staring up at the sky with a smile on his burnt face. Archer quickly sat up as the pain subsided while looking at the elf and asked a question. ''What's your name?''

She narrowed her eyes before replying. ''That's your first concern, not that the right side of your body is badly burned!''

Archer looked at his right side and realized it was burned from his face to his waist. His white skin was now pitch black and burning.

''Oh shit.'' The pain slammed into him, making him lay back down again.

He was in agony. Although the elf healer tried to heal him, her spells weren't working. The pain hurt so much more that he nearly fainted, but just as he was about to pass out, a notification popped up.

[Regeneration Learned]

Archer and everyone else noticed his charred skin slowly repairing itself. That's when he heard gasps and shocked voices but could not understand them clearly. The pain subsided slowly as Regeneration kicked in.

After a while, he was healed, and even his burnt hair was back to normal. Archer stood up under the others' shocked gazes. He changed into new clothes when he saw his pants and shirt burned.

Once he put on fresh clothes, he looked straight at the elf archer and repeated the same question with a big smile. ''See, I'm fine! Now, will you tell me your name?''

The female knight snickered as she whispered to the bald mage. ''She has a new fan.''

But as they spoke, they suddenly looked panicked and sprinted back to where the fight had occurred. All except the elf archer returned to their original location. ''Who did they forget, Hehe?''

She looked at him and spoke.''Why are you laughing? It's creepy.''

''Because I distracted them, you guys forgot someone, didn't you?'' He said with a broad smile.

After he was finished, he turned to the elf and smiled. ''My name is Archer, an F-ranked adventurer. Well, I joined yesterday, and this was my first quest, but I got sidetracked.''

She looked at this strange boy who wasn't upstairs and introduced herself: ''My name is Talila. We were looking for a goblin camp. What quest did you take?''

''I'm on a wild dog quest, but so far, all I've found are a few dogs and you guys, '' he answered.

Talila looked at this strange boy and noticed his twitching ears poking through his scruffy white hair. She looked into his bright violet eyes. With his messy hair tied up hair, she barely noticed the lumps on the sides of his head.

'What kind of elf is he? He's not a High, Sun, or Moon Elf. Maybe a Forest Elf?' She shook her head and decided to ask. ''What kind of Elf are you?''

Archer looks confused while answering. ''I'm not an Elf; my father is human, and my mother is dragonkin.''

Talila's eyes widened at the mention of dragon-kin, and she spoke sarcastically. ''You're a dragonkin. I haven't seen one in years, and now one is standing before me hunting wild dogs in the Forsaken Forest?''

As he gazed at her, he remembered that Dragon-kin were nomads, traveling the different continents in search of a new homeland. The Church of Light up north took their home when they lost the last Draconian-Alliance war over one hundred years ago.

His mother met his father when she was hired as a mercenary, and she later married him as his second wife. '"Indeed, I am. I was actually in the midst of my first quest when I happened upon you being attacked, prompting me to lend a hand."