Chapter Ninety-Seven: On the 5th day. Look to the East.

The sound of shrieking as massive fireballs fell from the sky, incinerating monsters left and right flooded the surroundings.

And the culprit was none other than Drake.

"They really are sending nothing but relatively normal Goblins huh…" Drake said, waving his hand in an arch over his head, as four more fireballs formed. Each one turning from a deep crimson then an ethereal blue, into a bright hot white from his new skill.

Magic Exposure P1(37%) [F Rank]

Lay bare the rules of magic. Strip your enemies of their right to protection through your expertise of your magic.

Passive Effect: Spells and Skills now stip targets of 150% of their Defensive effectiveness. (Increased based on Proficiency)

Spells now cost 50% more.

"This 50% cost increase is really kicking my mana pool in the butt, my regeneration can't really keep up anymore. Hopefully, when it ranks up in proficiency it'll alleviate it a bit…" he sighed.

"Sir, with that last batch I just reached level 14, and we've collected around one thousand cores again," Amir denoted.

"Wow already? They are really sending in a lot. The quest mentioned thousands as the bonus quest but this is getting up there into the 10s of thousands isn't it?" Dake said, firing off another round of white fireballs.

"Thanks to it though, just hit level 15 myself. Well shit, got a new variation on my little ones!" Hudson cheered, showing genuine enjoyment for the first time in a while.

"Oh? Good to hear! What's this one?" Drake asked.

Hudson took a moment, his eyes going distant as he seemed to be reading something. But after a few seconds, his eyes focused and his smile grew.

"Well, I would say it's definitely a welcomed upgrade. These little ones are definitely going to help those damned Goblins,"

Hudson placed his hand on the ground, a silver magic circle forming. Within the span of five minutes, he had built a flying drone from the ground up. The process was fascinating to watch as each part was constructed from the ground in a scene much like 3d printing.

Drake smiled as well. The drone was not the typical ones you see with the four propellers, these had some form of propulsion to them keeping them upright as they lifted vertically off the ground. But the process was dead silent, making Drake chuckle slightly.

"Now that we have this, can we go?" Chelsea asked, her face impatient.

"Hold your horses, Chelsea. I know you're in a rush and so are we, but I'm going to do this right. Let's see what the little guys can do. Hudson, you're up," Drake said, giving him a wave.

Hudson nodded, his face turning serious, as he stood and did some sort of mental command to the drone, flying off into the distance of the tree line.

"That there is hard to deal with," Hudson muttered, "Once the little one gets out of vision it switches over to a sort of heads-up display thing, like out of those movies. But I can still see from my perspective as well. Don't like that shit, not one bit… I think I'm gann-" Hudson tried to say then expelled his stomach on the rampart.

"Man…." Drake said, his face grimacing as he summoned some water to wash off the vomit from the area, "Besides not being able to hold your lunch, how's it looking Hudson?"

Hudson stood back up from retching, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, "Before I let the meal go, the little guy took out a Goblin no problem with a small turret from its undercarriage. And, looks like the little guy had a surprise as well, pup," Hudson grinned, "Little bastard has some explosives, won't kill em in one batch, but a few more of these little guys and I'll be carpet bombing like the sam hell out of those little vermin."

"Then my Lord, shall we proceed henceforth?" Theodore asked both hands on his cane.

"I think this counts as a greenlight yup. You have everything you need to make more of these Hudson? And what's the count on these ones?" Drake asked, nodding to Theodore.

"It's one to every 5 levels so I can only manage three right now, but I got the bigun' in the tent waiting as well. With that, I think I can manage with the rest of us to hold off anything short of the King itself," Hudson said, his hand moving to his chin thoughtfully.

"That's all I needed to hear. With these, the sentries on the wall, and a mini Big-O, I think we are all set to go, Chelsea, Theo."

Chelsea's face relaxed as she heaved a sigh of relief, her hand going to her chest as she finally was able to go back.

Theodore gave a terse nod, "As you command, with all due haste my Liege!" then turned to Harley giving her hands a squeeze before landing a peck on her lips, "This one will return swiftly my love. Be safe."

Harley smiled dotingly, then nodded, "You too, Theo," then looked to Drake, her eyes telling him to keep Theodore safe.

Drake nodded, but it went without question. He would make sure everyone made it back, at any cost.

"Then, let's get going! Make sure you two can keep up," Drake grinned, "Also make sure to keep the order here as best you can, anyone doing anything naughty gets put in horny jail with the bad guy till I get back. And make sure to let the others know we've left for now.

Harley, Hudson, and Amir nodded in unison as they saw the group off.

[Theodore Rotwood, has joined your party]

[Chelsea Jackson, has joined your party]

"Then, lead the way you two. I want to be there by sunrise or sooner," Drake directed, then a thought hit him, "If only you guys met them before you had to come back with me."

"Why in the world would that be a thing we would want?" Chelsea asked, confused.

"Because then we could use one of the greatest quotes of all time! 'Look to my coming on the first light of the 5th day, at dawn look to the east," Drake said, pulling out his staff and grooming a beard that was not there.

"You have to be the worst person I could have been stuck with…." Natto sighed, her tone indicating her face was cringing.

Come on… You know you love me. Drake chuckled.

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God damn it! Wh-what are we supposed to do, what am I going to do!? I can't die like this… I won't die like this! Chris screamed internally, with incredible desperation as he continued to hear the banging on the barrier from the outside, each thrum of the barricade dimming the light around the makeshift wall of iron and wood.

"Fuck can't you refresh the barrier yet Julia you useless piece of shit!?" Chris growled, his eyes shaking wildly.

"I-i just refreshed it! I won't be able to do it for another 15 minutes!! Don't ask for the impossible, you lunatic!" she shouted back, pools of sweat streaking down her face as she did her best to maintain the spell, each hit that struck the barrier depleting her mana bit by bit.

"W-what did you say to me you filthy bitch!?" Chris howled, running from the back of the cage his sword ringing as it was drawn from its scabbard, "You're lucky I ever asked you to be in this group you ugly pig!"

"Chis! What are you doing? Stop!" Megan yelled from beside him, doing her best to hold him back, gripping his free arm.

"Get off of me you fucking dumb college skank!" Chris snapped, throwing her to the ground, "Why… Why! Why did I have to end up with so many incompetents?! It wasn't like this at the company… All I had to do there was tell someone to do something and it would get done without fail! But here… You all miss the mark every time! I've had enough! I won't die here, not like this! All of you get to the front and protect me when they break the barrier!"

"Are you crazy?!" someone screamed.

"He's finally snapped…" said another.

"The fuck did you just say?! Who do you think got you all together!? Who do you think got us this far?!" Chris shouted back.

"You mean got us into this… we would have been better off with Chelsea in charge.." someone whispered.

"Who fucking said th-" Chris was about to roar, but was stopped by the loud thumping against the barrier.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Chris stammered, his brain running at a million miles an hour to figure out a way to survive, "Oh I know!" he said, beginning to chuckle slowly then it becoming a hysterical laugh, "I'll just kill you all and throw you to the Goblins! Maybe that will distract them long enough I can run out of here! Why didn't I think of it earlier, you are all dead weight anyway!!!! Hahahaha!"

"Wh-what are you saying Chris…?" Megan said, her face paling, "Y-you said you would protect us! You said I would be safe! You said that we could make it through this together!!"

"Blah blah blah, stop running your mouth for once and shut up Megan! It's like it never closes! The only reason I tolerated it for so long was because you were a priest! And what's worse? You never even put out! How was I supposed to know you were some little pure girl who's saving herself," he said, spitting the word in disgust, "The least you could have done was give some service to your fearless leader."

Megan recoiled, her face shattering into tears. Her entire image of Chris falling into pieces like the shower of sobs that rolled from her eyes.

"Yo-you… promised…" she cried.

"Shut up already" Chris shouted, "For fucks sake…. I know! Before they get in, I'll let you die with at least a little bit of pleasure! I'll save you and Julia for last," he cackled, "She can't very well stop using the spell if she wants to live even a little bit longer. And she can't lose too much concentration either, which makes this perfect!" he finished, licking his lips as his eyes looked them both up and down.

"You sick fuck!" one of the men from at the back of the cave screamed, drawing a sword to stop Chris.

But Chris was unfortunately faster. He had methodically planned out to stay at the top level in the group, making it so no one could match him, regardless of class.

Chris dodged the sword swing with ease, his own sword glowing in a faint red as he raised it. Bringing it down swiftly on the man gouging out his back and the meek leather armor he wore.

Another one of Chris's schemes allowed him and a select few to hoard all of the good equipment in the name of 'protecting' everyone, even going as far as to confiscate people's quest rewards from them.

Standing above the bloody body of the man, he looked at the rest of the group, but some of them weren't going to go down without a fight. Mainly the ones who had just recently been Chris's lackeys for most of his schemes.

"So you're just going to throw us in with them huh? Don't forget we have some of that equipment too!" one of the men growled, pulling back on a bow, the nocked arrow beginning to glow with a green sheen, "I'm not dying here! Not without a fight!"

The man screamed and loosed his arrow, it screeching across the cave building speed and power as it left the string, the faint glow turning into a bright green light.

But that meant nothing to Chris and his class.

Chris raised his free hand, a red shield glowing on the back of it. The arrow collided with the shield as sparks flew until the arrow slowly dissipated against it. A smirk creased the mad man's face.

"Did you forget! I'm a tank class you fucking idiot! And still far above your level!' Chris cackled, as he rushed forward at the archer, his sword beginning to glow red, but he was halted in his tracks again as he heard the quickening rhythm of the Goblins against the barricade, startling him.

"What?! Are they getting through already?! Do something you stupid woman!" Chris sneered at Julia.

Julia's face had gone past pale and had begun turning ghostly white as she jerked with every strike against the spell.

Her hands began shaking as she struggled more and more to stay not only focused but upright as she began wobbling back and forth. Julia reached into her shirt pocket pulling a vial of blue liquid from it, and pulled the cork with her teeth.

"Julia, no!" Megan shouted, "You've already drunk too much already! Any more so soon will give you mana poisoning!"

Julia's shaky hand put the vial to her mouth ignoring Megan's pleas. She didn't want to protect trash like Chris but she had no choice if she wanted to live even a moment longer, praying for some kind of miracle.

The banging and thumping continued and quickened as she took a long pull from the vial, emptying it in a breath.

But the Mana Potion backfired. She had taken too many too quickly.

Julia coughed as she splattered blood in a mist from her mouth, falling to the ground and beginning to seize.

"Julia!" Megan cried.

"Fucking useless! Now what are we supposed to do!? All of you get fucking up there or I'll kill you my god damned self!" Chris roared.

But the sound of the banging stopped suddenly, as silence began to fill the cave.

Chris was hesitant to even speak for a moment. Then after a few more silent seconds of nothing, he began to feel confident.

"You cowards in the back, I thought I told you to get the fu-"

But he never finished his sentence as the barricade crashed open with a loud crash and the wrenching of metal, the dust covering the entire cave entrance as everyone shielded themselves from the debris.

"Wh-what the fuck is going on now?!" Chris cursed, looking over his arm that had shielded his vision, only to see a woman scowl, her auburn twin tails fluttering behind her as she roared and sprinted at him, her fist thrusted forward as it connected with him square in the face.

"Chris you fucking asshole psycho!!" Chelsea howled.