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She still intimidated Zarian a little with her no nonsense personality.

At least she looked great and was still the same gung-ho woman who always had his back. She’d helped him get into the Marines despite his issues, after all.

I’m definitely power-leveling her first. Zarian was now Level 15. His Parasite Cloak had leveled up from 1 to 3. The experience from the side quest was greater than he’d originally thought.

He noticed Para showing off more range and control. He wondered if skill levels influenced the scaling with stats. What other benefits did leveling up a skill provide?

He also had 25 points in his Free stat waiting for him to invest.

Dump or nah?

Zarian had a lot of questions.

Like what the hell did the Wonder stat do? It was the only one he couldn’t guesstimate.

Was Wonder for luck? Was it for divine aid? Was it for intelligence? Wisdom? Wanderlust?

Naturally, he needed to find an expert or a local just like what Naomi had said.

They needed to find a town. That was the case with most isekai scenarios. The people who arrived in another world would go to the nearest sign of civilization and get some answers.

He hoped that would happen without a hitch as he headed toward the only exit. Naomi followed behind him while looking over her shoulder at the others.

The civilians grouped up together behind Naomi. The boys in blue walked solemnly in the back, keeping some distance.

Zarian gave them all a cursory glance before he focused on what was ahead. Para would protect his back – she’d shrank down into a more leathery and normal cloak form.

Less stylish, more subtle.

“Watch that puddle of ooze there,” Zarian pointed to the side.

“Um, what is that ooze exactly, sir?” asked Wally, the only guy geekier than Zarian.

“I don’t know.”

“Can’t you tell by looking at it just like you did with us?” Wally insisted.

Zarian felt his neck heat up with embarrassment. Then he said, “I was testing you,” and used Identify on the ooze.

“Hm, well, since you can’t see with your own eyes I shall explain,” Zarian said, making himself sound official and stuffy. “A scary goddess came to the Star System as a baby twenty years ago and cried a bunch. Her tears corrupted others and spread secretly all over the place. Touch it at your own risk.”

“Holy cow, really?” Wally blurted. “That sounds mythical as heck.”

“He’s fucking with us,” grumbled a cop. “He has to be. There’s no way.”

“What happened to the goddess?” Bianca asked.

“When do I go home?” Hannah asked in a shaky voice.

Zarian didn’t have any suitable responses for them right now. On their way to the exit, he noticed something walking toward them from within the tunnel. It was as short as a little child.

“Ariana?” Zarian called before realizing something was wrong.

The childish thing bolted straight at him like a ball out of a cannon. It seemed deadlier than anything he’d seen yet.

There was no time for a warning. Zarian surged forward a few steps. His Parasite Cloak responded even faster, whirling, shifting, solidifying into a slanted shield in front of him.

The incoming figure deflected off his makeshift meat shield. The force was heavy. Para soaked most of the hit while the rest shook Zarian up.

He would’ve stumbled if Para hadn’t thrown down bone stakes into the floor for stabilization. That was great at first until Zarian and Para unraveled and tried to locate the attacker.

The shifty figure was dashing straight at the cops in the back. Zarian couldn’t aim his hand fast enough to shoot a dark beam or anything.

With a growl, he manipulated the darkness closest to the cops. He felt some difficulty since the conjuring was further away, but not enough to stop him.

A wall of dark spikes thrust upward between the cops and the shifty attacker. The spikes were quick, wild, poorly aimed. They were still a good enough deterrent.

The wall was too tall, though. The attacker bounced off the shafts and turned toward Zarian, Naomi, and the civvies.

The moment it stood still to look at them, Zarian used Identify.

Oh, damn, it’s a dark-type versus dark-type battle, Zarian figured.

The goblin probably invested in the Agility stat. The thing certainly looked like a corrupted goblin, too.

Its wiry body was masculine while standing a little under five feet tall. The arms were long, reaching down with claw-tipped fingers past its knobby knees. Big ears reached out from a conical-shaped head filled with overgrown teeth. Its flesh was the color of oil, and its black, soulless eyes were wide-open portals filled with depraved hunger.

Then the goblin spoke in a garbled language that the Identify trait translated for Zarian: “I’m going to rip you apart and defile your corpses. Then serve your dirty limbs to the Slave Cook for good eating, transgressors.”

“It said a bunch of nasty things. And apparently there’s an enslaved cook.” Zarian used the conversation to charge up darkness in his hand.

Palm thrusting forward, he pressed the skill button and shot out projectiles of Straight Darkness. He even switched on the Overpower trait to boost his skill.

The projectiles were short and quick, much like crossbow bolts. But they had way more weight, way more density, and could probably smash rock to pieces.

The goblin showed off its own alpha skill: Shadow Rush. The creature melted into his element as a humanoid blob, embodying shadows, and sped ahead as fast as a bolt.

For a split-second, Zarian feared the goblin could move past his dark bolts with no damage.

Then his overpowered nature shone true once again. The bolts connected solidly. They ripped the goblin out of its Shadow Rush.

The creature screamed, his arm torn off.

Dark blood splattered onto the stone floor as the goblin staggered to the side. The Level 22 Marauder was an easy shot now.

“Naomi, shoot it,” Zarian said.

With no hesitation, Naomi raised her pistol and pumped nine mil rounds into the goblin. She took chunks off its torso and head.

She emptied an entire magazine, performed a speed reload while the goblin stood stunned, and emptied another magazine into its face before the monster fell over.

Naomi turned to Zarian, her confusion clear. It took her nearly thirty pistol rounds for her to finish the goblin.

He could’ve finished the goblin with one more dark bolt.

“I want you stronger,” Zarian said simply.

“Thank you, sir,” Naomi replied, militant and grateful.

Zarian received no level ups. That was fine, because Naomi had gained a new personal level, putting her at Level 8.

Two more and she might receive her class options, including new skills and maybe a trait or two.

“Could I get some help to level up?” Wally asked shamelessly. “My skill can empower me physically.”

Without answering, Zarian had Para store the goblin body away instead of eating it. She was still full from her prior meal.

He thought about Wally’s request while stepping closer to the tunnel and peering into the darkness. There was barely any light.

After concentrating for a few seconds, the darkness became more clear to Zarian. His affinity was probably the culprit, granting him dark vision.

Zarian noticed no further enemies coming down the tunnel. Still, he was wary. How bad would things get if they faced down multiple fast-as-hell goblins in a corridor?

Should I dump points into Agility?

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Ugh, he was hoping to min-max on Mysticism, Willpower, and maybe Wonder. He was strong enough, wasn’t he?

“Where are you putting your stats?” Zarian asked openly.

“Willpower, Agility, Strength,” Naomi answered.

“I was planning Agility and Strength,” Wally said. “To take advantage of Basic Empowerment. I’d prefer the more magical approach, but I’ll hulk things out if I have to.”

“You’re acting weird,” Zarian said toward Wally, inching into the tunnel.

“Oh, sorry, I’m doing all I can not to freak out. I mean, I’ve always dreamed about this. I just wish it was a nicer isekai,” Wally said. “Then again, I still wouldn’t go back to working in retail. That’s more soul crushing.”

“Fucking nerd,” mumbled a police officer.

“I need more help to understand all of this,” Bianca admitted.

“I want to go home,” Hannah mumbled.

Jack and the other police officers remained silent.

Zarian and Naomi shared a look of understanding. Or maybe Zarian was hoping she understood him.

These guys were a lot to handle, and Naomi had to do the bulk of the social work for Zarian. Meanwhile, he wondered if facing down goblins corrupted by the Shadowfell Tears would mean he should expect traps.

Growing up poor without video games and nobody but Ariana as his closest confidant shaped Zarian into reading bargain-bin paperbacks. Loads of them.

While inside of the Marines, he had a more stable internet connection and the good fortune of consuming Japanese and American comics. Some of that included a lot of portal fantasies into magical worlds with or without game mechanics.

He’d even played a few online fantasy games with similar setups. So he had extensive wisdom in this sort of situation.

So would the corrupted goblins of the Infinita Star System set traps?

“Para, can you help me?” Zarian asked. “You might get hurt.”

The Parasite Cloak waved a tendril up and down that seemed like a nod to Zarian. Para wanted to help. Zarian turned to the others.

“Para’s going to check for traps, right?” Wally said, sounding excited. “You’re a nerd just like me for knowing that.”

Zarian humored him. “Yeah, I am.”

Naomi addressed the other girls. “We will help you, okay? Just bear with us while we deal with hostile creatures.”

For the first time in a while, Jack spoke up. “There’s trained professionals in the back who can help you. Why not put the police in front to lead the way.”

Zarian frowned under the darkness of his hood.

Okay, that’s a weird way to put it when we all know I’m more powerful. Hell, even the police officers weren’t so happy about how Jack spun that statement.

Jack seemed a little out of it, so nobody should blame him for the weird phrasing.

Before Zarian answered, Naomi cut in. “Let’s get going before anyone acts dumb, sir.”

Jack looked like he was sucking on a lemon. Zarian didn’t bother checking on the cops’ reaction again. He nodded at Naomi before facing forward.

Para unraveled into long strings of flesh and stretched ahead. She reached farther than Zarian had expected. With threads as thin as hair strands, she felt out the tunnel for traps.

“Ariana, are you seeing this?” Zarian asked, amazed by his Parasite Cloak. He was so glad he chose it.

“Whose Ariana?” Wally asked.

Jack shushed at him.

Zarian stepped forward at a slow pace, giving Para time to clear sections of the tunnel. Everyone followed in three cliques: Naomi behind Zarian, the civvies followed second, and the police.

After a few minutes of trap clearing, Zarian answered Wally’s question. “She’s my little sister. I figured she was a ghost since nobody can see or hear her other than me. But she might’ve been a figment of my imagination since she disappeared the moment I entered that portal.”

A few minutes later, Bianca spoke up. “Maybe her spirit couldn’t go through with us. Or it’s elsewhere.”

“I don’t know about that,” Zarian said. “It doesn’t matter now. Para found a trap on the floor.”

The Parasite Cloak pointed a long bony spine down at a patch of the floor ahead. Zarian looked closer and noticed a rough, discolored square that differed from the rest of the tunnel floor.

It was a bonafide trap.

He directed Naomi and Wally to come up carefully and look. Naomi nodded with a grim expression. Wally looked like he was going to geek out from the thrill of crawling a trap-laden tunnel.

Zarian was still sad about Ariana, but the visceral danger of facing goblin traps kept him focused. He quietly explained to the others how goblin traps were like the traps in the jungles of the Vietnam War.

Wally went a step further talking about spike pits, falling logs covered in spikes, and other horrible traps that might have goblin feces on them. Bianca and Hannah grew more terrified.

Thankfully, he wasn’t too loud, but he was distracting. Naomi pressed her finger to his lips for him to shut up.

Wally looked a little flustered from that and stopped talking. He looked at Naomi a lot more for her approval or something.

Poor bastard. Naomi ate the hearts of men for breakfast.

After getting past multiple traps safely, they reached the end of the tunnel and found an open doorway to the right. Inside was a roughly hewn stone staircase going up. Para was so good as a scout her threads had already checked it out. All was clear.

“I can barely see,” Naomi said. “The lighting here is terrible.”

“I can try my skill and light it up,” Bianca said.

“That’s a bad idea in the dark,” Naomi replied. “We’ll all get severely blinded.”

Zarian wondered if he would get blinded the worst because of his Dark Affinity. If the System ran with Pokemon-style rules, he wouldn’t want to face strong light-types.

Slow and steady, Zarian entered the staircase. Naomi followed. The others were trailing in when Para quivered hard against Zarian’s back, giving him the creeps.

That had to be a warning.

Para quickly spooled her threads back into the whole of her cloak body. Zarian wrapped his arm around Naomi’s waist and pulled her close to his side.

He placed his hand on Wally’s chest and pushed him back into the others. They exited the staircase back the way they came before a handful of goblins entered the staircase from the top.

Zarian didn’t know how many were there, but there was definitely more than one. He placed his hand on Naomi’s gun and pushed it down, signifying that she shouldn’t shoot.

Bullets were too weak. And too loud.

They needed a new solution. The others need weapons.

Zarian thought quickly on his feet. He willed for an answer and something outlandish came to mind.

The goblins walked lower down the staircase, drawing closer.

There was a faint sconce light on the wall over the staircase. The sconce light shone just enough for Zarian to gesture at the people he wanted for the next encounter. When it was time to start, Zarian was sure things would fall apart from the jump.

Surprisingly, Bianca did as Zarian wanted. She closed her eyes and walked inside the staircase while the goblins were leaving the last landing.

Zarian closed his eyes. He still saw light through his eyelids. It was bright and painful, all from Bianca’s Searing Flash skill. Her light filled up the staircase and shone through the open entrance.

A gaggle of goblins screamed in pain and rage. While Zarian blinked the spots out of his eyes, Para flowed into the staircase and wrapped around Bianca.

The Parasite Cloak pulled the ditzy but brave latina out of the staircase.

Then Naomi and Wally stood in front of the entrance in open view. The goblins tried to focus on them while still heavily blinded.

Zarian used them as distractions while he forced the darkness on the staircase floor to spring up as spikes. They felt weak and brittle in the aftermath of Bianca’s powerful flash, but the spikes screwed up the goblins anyway.

He hit them with more and more spikes rising from the floor, splattering blood across the bottom of the staircase. The goblins screamed in pain, their legs torn up.

Once he stopped and cleared out the spikes, Naomi stepped forward with the new weapon in her hand, a dark sword. Zarian had made the weapon out of solidified darkness set in nearly straight and sharpened lines. Wally had the same weapon in his hands.

Naomi was higher in level than Wally, so she struck first. Zarian watched as she chopped at goblin heads savagely.

Then Wally joined, his skill activated, empowering him. He struck as hard as Naomi.

To avoid goblin retaliations, Zarian conjured dark tendrils from the floor to hold down all five monsters. Once he had them pinned, the fight was mostly over.

Something about Zarian’s darkness overpowered the goblins’ Shadow Rush skill. None of the goblins could escape even if they wanted to flee. Their deaths would make him and his group stronger. That was a must.

“I can’t believe this!” Wally said, thrilled by the bloody combat. “I’m really living my dream!” His mouth was running fast as he split goblin skulls with multiple swings. “I’m slaying goblins with magic.”

“Stop running your mouth and focus, Wally,” Naomi snapped at him while she worked on her goblins.

Wally didn’t hear her. “I’m not a freaking loser!”

Zarian wanted to tell Wally to quiet down as well. As crazy as Zarian was, he was used to being outlandish. Wally seemed like he would lose too much focus coming out of his shell right now.

Then the worst happened. A goblin snapped free from the tendril holding it down.

Shocked, Zarian used his Identify trait on the lone goblin. It wasn’t a Marauder. It was a Rampager, with an alpha skill called Shadow Strength.

The goblin’s body shifted with bulging shadow muscles that ignored the damage on its legs. Zarian conjured more tendrils to restrain it.

The goblin hopped away from the reaching tendrils. It landed on Wally while the retail worker was chopping down at a different goblin, laughing the whole time, completely unaware of the danger.

“Wally!” Zarian tried to warn as the goblin smashed the guy’s head into bloody bits.

A dozen dark bolts shredded the strong goblin up a split second later. A few of those bolts tore off chunks from Wally’s body by accident.

“Fuck!” Naomi cussed after killing the last goblin, unable to stay calm. She yelled down at Wally’s corpse. “Fucking god damn it, boy! Your stupid ass got yourself killed!”

Zarian grimaced as the others looked into the massacre at the staircase bottom. Their eyes were on Wally’s corpse.

Before anyone could say a thing, the police officer with the Super Punch lunged at Zarian’s side.

Para smacked him into the wall. He crumpled into the floor like a sack of potatoes. The police officer with Basic Healing ran to his friend and used his power.

“You don’t know what you’re doing. Stand down and let us take over,” said the officer with the Command skill.

Zarian grimaced, feeling its effect slithering into his brain, trying to Command him against his will. Before he did anything, Naomi stormed out of the staircase, looking meaner than ever.

She was Level 10 now, while the officers were all Level 1 still. Her hand caught the one with the Command skill by the neck and lifted him up like he weighed nothing.

Everyone watched, horrified and intimidated, as Zarian held his silence and let Naomi do what she did best.

“Don’t use that skill on the sir ever again or I will make you regret it,” Naomi demanded, cold and steely.

“We can help each other,” said the officer with Basic Healing. “We have to help each other through this nightmare.”

Naomi ignored the healer, staying focused on the officer with the Command skill. “Do we have an understanding? If not, I will consider you hostile to our survival.”

The man wheezed and struggled, unable to shake off Naomi’s overt Strength. Zarian did nothing to help, knowing Naomi was being the bad guy for him. It was screwed up, but it was better this way.

Nobody would want to face his anger.

Before the man suffered too much or died, Naomi released him. He collapsed into a fetal position at her feet, gasping and coughing before saying, “Yes,” in a hoarse cough.

Zarian grimaced at his messy group before looking at Wally’s battered, headless corpse lying amid the goblins. Bianca was sobbing, having a full-on breakdown. Hannah looked even more pale than before, clearly traumatized.

And Jack was glaring a hole through Zarian’s head.

“It’s dangerous,” Zarian said. “I’ll fight anything in our way. But I can’t guarantee your safety anymore.”

“I still want to get stronger, sir,” Naomi said, glaring at everyone else, measuring their worth and finding them all lacking.

It was a good thing Zarian was really in charge. Naomi could be too harsh sometimes.

“Me too,” Jack grunted. “As long as we’re more careful in the next encounter.”

“That could’ve been me. What was I thinking going first? That could’ve been me.” Bianca sobbed, rocking back and forth. Hannah wrapped her arms around her, offering a shoulder to cry on, holding back her own tears as well.

“Let us help,” muttered the police officer with the Super Punch skill.

Zarian was tempted to say no, but reconsidered. Things had looked good until he realized his mistake too late. He hadn’t used Identify on all the goblins. He’d assumed they all had the same skill.

Thus, someone had died under his watch.

Zarian refused to make the same mistake again.