Preparations

Groggily I started to wake up. Rubbing my eyes I let out a long yawn before I went to stretch, only to find that I couldn't move my left arm. I turned my head and my eyes went wide.

There I saw Lily nestled up against me resting her head on my arm. She moved a little and I held my breath instinctively.

'If she finds me here next to her she's going to kill me!'

Thankfully she didn't wake up and settled down again. Carefully I moved my arm from under her, and climbed over the back of the couch before sneaking off to the bathroom.

After relieving myself I made my way to the guest room and threw myself onto a large king sized bed. Checking my phone I noticed Jenna had texted me last night and I fell asleep before replying.

I was staring at my phone for a long time. Struggling to think of what I should say that would make the situation a little less awkward. I got the vague feeling that Jenna felt uncomfortable about me spending the night at Lily's house, but that made sense to me.

"She must be worried about Lily... Her friend having some guy they met a couple weeks ago spend the night at her place is a risk... Not that I would do anything, but I get it."

I decided to just send a simple message.

Desmond: [Good morning Jenna. Just so you know, nothing happened last night, I went to sleep suddenly because the guest bed is so comfortable but we just watched a movie.]

Surprisingly she replied immediately.

Jenna: [You don't have to explain anything! I'm just glad you both had fun! ^_^]

"I guess she is in a better mood. Maybe she was just tired.. Yeah that's probably what it was."

Little did I know that I just started a misconception for myself.

****

"Whoa..."

Jenna smiled happily and patted Tina's shoulder.

"I know right? Its crazy how much of an impact he has in a fight, although it's easy to miss unless you're looking closely."

Tina turned her head to look at Jenna who just said that. They then turned back to look at the scene unfolding before them. Lily, Ethan and Desmond were all fighting goblins. However it was generous to call if a 'fight'.

Lily and Ethan were quite literally tearing through the goblins as if they were pudding.

Desmond had purchased two skills that had greatly increased their combat power. The first was [Minor Physical Blessing] which increased the target's physical abilities.

The other one was [Holy Barrier]. It was a skill that created a barrier around a target that blocked attacks. If it received enough damage it would break, but Desmond could simply recast it.

With these two skills Lily and Ethan were able to simply run straight at their enemies. Arrows were deflected, melee attacks were dodged, and any sneak attacks were quickly being dealt with by Desmond's accurate throwing knives.

Jenna had a bright smile on her face as she watched the whole ordeal. Tina looked at her and asked.

"You that happy to see goblins getting killed?"

"Haha, no, I just... It's really looking like we are starting to become a really well rounded party."

At this Tina nodded, but she had a sour look on her face. Jenna, noticing this, asked her.

"What's that look for?"

"Nothing really... I just don't like feeling like they don't need us."

Jenna looked back at the ongoing fight with a complicated expression. She understood exactly what Tina meant. Just a couple of days ago they were all working equally together to deal with the dungeon, and now the two of them were falling further behind from their friends.

A sense of inferiority started to rise in their hearts, but they still resolved themselves to improve. Whether that meant more practice or getting more skills, they had to catch up.

That was when Desmond shouted to bring the two's attention back towards them.

"You guys coming?"

The goblins in the room had been dealt with, so they were about to leave. Jenna and Tina quickly jogged to catch up to them before the party continued forward. It seemed like they had already outgrown the Goblin Caves.

****

'These skills are incredible... Just a slight boost lets us tear through small packs of goblins like its nothing. The only problem is my mana...'

Wanting to test out the skills I had been using them often, but that was not going to be something I could do forever. The biggest mana drain was the shield. Having to refresh it all the time was too much on my mana pool.

I told the party that I would just apply the buff on them for now, and save the shield for really important moments. They nodded and our pace slowed down significantly. I realized now that having a true support or a healer was really essential to fighting stronger enemies.

While the party was feeling confident since we were crushing these goblins, I knew that we were simply frogs in a well. This was just an E-Ranked dungeon. D-Ranks were where monsters knew skills and magic. It was an entirely different experience than what we had right now.

We were currently fighting a group of goblins. Jenna landed a well placed shot into the side of a goblin causing it to drop it's weapon in pain and cry out. Ethan slashed it's neck to finish it off.

Lily ran past him and grabbed a goblin by the head. She raised it up and slammed it into the ground. She stomped down and caved the goblin's chest in. A flame arrow flew past her and struck a goblin in the face.

It fell to the ground swatting desperately at it's face. Conjuring a spear made of blood I threw it like a javelin that impaled the goblin into the ground.

We began checking all the bodies. I looked around for a moment before I heard a low drum echo through the cave that we were in. Everyone's heads slowly turned towards the tunnel at the end of the room. I walked ahead towards the sound and as I exited the tunnel I saw a goblin in a robe surrounded by several goblins slamming on drums.

There a translucent nameplate appeared.

[Goblin Shaman][Rare]

I quietly retreated back to the party, who looked at me questioningly when I returned.

"Did you find what the sound was?"

I nodded solemnly. I looked them all in the eye.

"It's a goblin shaman. There are a few goblins around it, but that's not really what I'm worried about."

Jenna snapped her fingers and pointed at me.

"The spirits it summons!"

I nodded. I then explained the abilities of the Goblin Shaman.

"The shaman itself doesn't let off attacks often, instead it is dangerous because of its minions. It can summon one E-Rank enemy that is almost strong enough to be a D-Rank monster, and ten normal E-Rank monsters."

"Tina and I can deal with the small fry. Ethan can help protect us."

I nodded to Jenna. What she said was right.

"Lily will be in charge of distracting the powerful summon. Ethan and I will go for the shaman."

After working out a short plan we all left and entered the room where the goblin shaman was.

The moment we walked into the room the goblin summoned it's minions immediately. Lily, Ethan, and I sprinted forwards. Tina immediately created a flame wall behind us that blocked the small fry from bothering us.

I thought for a moment that perhaps it would be possible to kill the shaman before it summons it's strongest spirit, but that thought was soon crushed.

I threw a dagger at the shaman but as it was flying towards the shaman a large body blocked the dagger.

It was a giant goblin that was easily over eight feet tall of pure muscle. It's dark green arm had a small cut where my dagger landed. Lily sprinted from the side and spun rapidly. She used her whole body to land a powerful kick that caused the goblin to stagger backwards slightly.

However it wasn't knocked over. It planted it's feet firmly into the ground, kicking off the ground and swung it's large fist at Lily.

She ducked under it and landed a hook in it's stomach. I used this opportunity to throw another dagger at the undefended shaman, but that was when I was reminded that there was a reason why you couldn't just ignore the shaman's guardian.

My dagger bounced off of a blue barrier powerlessly.

Realizing my mistake I quickly relayed the change of plans to Ethan.

"We have to defeat the guardian! The shield around the shaman doesn't fall until it does! Ethan, go help Jenna and Tina- I'll help Lily kill the guardian."

That was when we immediately split up. Ethan slashed an opening in the flame wall with his [Wind Slash] skill, and ran to the other side before it closed.

Whenever a goblin was defeated another goblin was summoned in it's place, so we adopted a different strategy:

Crippling the goblins and not letting them de-spawn.

This method was working, so Tina dropped the flame wall and everyone joined the fight to kill the D-Rank Goblin. At first we were unable to really do much damage, but over time the effects of bleeding excessively showed.

It started with when the goblin went to dodge a fireball from Tina, when it slipped and stumbled to catch itself.

"Lily, go for it's legs!"

She nodded and sprinted forward. The goblin, seeing her run towards her, swung it's arm.

She slid under the giant forearm and tackled the goblin's legs out from under it.

With a crash the goblin fell, and Lily quickly rolled out from under the goblin. Ethan ran forward and approached the head of the goblin.

He jumped over the flailing arm of the goblin and slashed at it's face. His sword cut a long gash from the goblin's chin to it's forehead.

*ROAR*

It flailed it's arms aggressive and sent Ethan flying towards the cave wall. I quickly used [Dash] to place myself in the path of his body. Catching him I hit my back against the cave with a thud.

"Thank you!"

"Ugh, just get off me please."

I pushed Ethan off me and quickly got up to my feet. The goblin had been peppered with arrows and fireballs during this time. It had gotten back on it's feet but it was really unsteady.

Judging that it was a done deal that the guardian was going to die, I summoned a blood spear and watched the shaman. I let the rest of my team handle the guardian goblin and the moment I saw the blue shield disappear I threw my spear along the highlighted path.

The red spear cut through the air like a meteor and burrowed directly into the shaman's chest. As an added measure a dagger and an arrow planted themselves into the shaman's forehead as well.

Finally, our tension was relieved as we saw the summoned goblins disappear, and we all lowered our weapons at the same time.

I was the first to organize their thoughts.

"Really great job everyone."

Like everyone was reminded at the same time they all began to smile brightly. Lily rushed over and high fived me roughly. Jenna jogged over while laughing and gave me a hug.

Stunned I didn't even remember to hug her back. Instead I stood there like a log before she seemed to realize what she was doing and swiftly let go. Backing up she was blushing and looking at the ground with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Sorry! I-I just got really excited since we beat a D-Rank monster!"

After that little word vomit she quickly turned and ran over to the other two who were hugging. I pushed away Lily who was laughing next to me and checked the body of the shaman. As expected, I was prompted by the parasite in my body to let it enter the corpse of the shaman, so I reached my hand down with my back towards the party.

Quickly it burrowed into it's body before coming back to my body.

[Spirit Affinity (F-Rank) learned.]

I knew what the talent was since it was a common one. At F-Rank it meant nothing more than being able to hear the rough words of weak spirits, but the higher the talent the more I could commune with them. It wasn't a negative thing, but it wasn't really a useful talent.

Unless I gained a spirit skill...

Wait a minute.

[Ghostfire Spirit]

I quickly re-summoned the skill. I held out my hand and the spirit, as if it understood what I wanted, quietly floated over to sit on my hand.

Just yesterday it was just a ball of grey flames, but now that I had [Spirit Affinity] I could make out the faint shape of a little creature within the flames. I didn't know what it was, probably because my talent was so low ranked, but it felt nice being able to see the spirit had a shape.

I smiled as I looked at the flames. I didn't know for sure but it felt like it knew I could see it. It nuzzled against my hand and I laughed at the warm sensation of our touch.

I grabbed the ring and the skill book the shaman dropped. The skill book wasn't useful to any of us so we decided to sell it, but the ring was bought by Tina. It had a minor effect of improving mana costs, and while I could use it it was better for a person who could deal more damage.

We decided to continue for a couple more hours before finally leaving the dungeon for the day. We had only gotten mana crystals today but I was always happy to make money.

After that day we continued to visit the Goblin Caves until I finally had enough money for a big upgrade. The last chance I would have to improve my strength before the test tomorrow morning.

I was now walking towards the Foundry to look for some new skills and items. I had slowly been improving my gear the past month but that had only been to the point where I had normal quality leather armor.

I wanted to buy a [Magic] accessory but those were the most expensive pieces of gear to buy. A good accessory could be more of an impact than a weapon.

However I looked at my bank account and sighed.

Account # XXXXXXXX9882

Balance: [$58,209]

D-Rank skill books were starting at $25,000 and [Magic] accessories were $30,000 starting.

"I should go look for a skill, and if I really don't find one that stands out I'll buy an accessory. A skill can last me much longer than an accessory will... But the cost. My heart is going to bleed by the end of the day."

Walking into the book store I immediately began to browse the catalogue. There were a lot of skills, but all of the really good ones people kept for themselves. However that worked in my favor in some ways, because I wasn't going for one of the popular skill sets that a lot of people used.

What I meant was that most people chose to pick skills related to their talent or just popular skills that had proven effectiveness.

For example fire skills were one of the most popular, which was why Tina's skills cost a fortune to buy, and she had to rely on luck to get more.

However I liked skills that applied debuffs. The problem was that it meant I didn't have many attack skills.

"Mm... [Blood Sword] seems a bit redundant, while [Spirit Hand] doesn't really seem necessary right now since I use a hit and run style of fighting... Is there really no skills for me?"

As I continued looking without any hope, I had to stop scrolling as I saw something ridiculous.

[Exsanguinate][D-Rank] - $42,000 or 54,000 Honor Points

[Cause a target to excessively bleed from their wounds for 5 seconds.]

"Shit... It would really fit my fighting style... But that price!"

As I struggled to make a decision I received a text. Taking my phone out I read the string of texts from my party.

Lily: [Good luck dipstick! Break some legs!]

Tina: [FUCK THEM UP!]

Ethan: [...]

Jenna: [Just do your best. If things don't work out we can always try to get you a spot at our guild, but I hope you get into a good college!]

I smiled. 

'They're all rooting for me... I shouldn't be worrying about the cost of investing in myself or my future.'

Operating the tablet I bought the skill book before going to the counter to get it. After receiving it I took no time to wait, and immediately learned the skill. With $16,000 left I decided to look for more skills with what I had left.

[Necrotic Touch (F-Rank) learned.]

[Ball of Light (F-Rank) learned.]

[Poison Enchantment (F-Rank) learned.]

The three skills cost me a total of $14,000, but they were all worth it in my opinion. [Necrotic Touch] coated my hands and feet in a green energy that would drain an opponent's life force with every hit. It was a small amount but that meant that I could punch an enemy to death without ever piercing it's defenses.

Of course that only applied to an enemy's physical defense. With high enough magic defense my skill would be useless, but most monsters lower than D-Rank had no magic defense at all.

While leaving the Foundry having spent almost all of my savings, I didn't feel that bad. Instead my mind was working to think of different ways to utilize my new skills, when I happened to see someone.

'Hm? Isn't that Michael from my class?'

[Parasite nearby.]

[Fully grown parasite ready to be collected.]

Walking over to Michael with a smile, I opened my arms wide and greeted him loudly.

"Michael!"

Turning his head he looked at me with a confused expression. After a moment he recognized me.

"Desmond! Oh I almost didn't recognize you. Your whole aura is different. You been going to dungeons a lot?"

"Yeah, I've been trying my best to get stronger for the final exam, but there is only so much I can do with an F-Rank Talent..."

"Ah... I know what you mean. I tried going to dungeons for a while but it's been hard to find any groups who are willing to take me in with my F-Rank Talent. I got a lot of scouting skills so I am able to act as a guide."

Taking this opportunity I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder. The same shoulder I first planted the parasite.

[Parasite available for harvest.]

[Would you like to harvest?]

[Yes/No]

'Yes!'

I thought silently. Then I sensed a parasite inside his body enter my hand, and become a meal for my parasite.

"Ow!"

I let go of his shoulder and he rubbed it painfully.

"You should go to a doctor. Every time I've touched that shoulder you've cried out in pain."

"You jerk, it only happens when you touch it! Whatever, I have to go. See you tomorrow, Desmond."

With a smile on my face I waved goodbye to Michael. From what I could tell nothing bad has happened to him when I removed the parasite.

This meant he didn't lose his talent, otherwise with his improved senses he would have noticed a drastic difference, but everything was as usual to him. Which meant I could now freely use my talent how I wanted, knowing it wasn't a negative to others.

I boarded a bus and headed back home. On the bus I began to read the messages I had ignored.

[Improved Senses (F-Rank) talent acquired.]

[5/5 Parasite Targets assimilated.]

[Evolution available!]

[Recommended to get to a safe place before activating evolution!]

Immediately I felt like my world had opened up. I could see further around myself, I could hear much better, and I could even smell things I couldn't smell before.

However it all happened so suddenly that I felt like I was going to throw up because of the sensory overload I was experiencing. I grabbed my head in pain as I tried to calm my mind and ignore the things I didn't need to feel right now.

I had my eyes closed shut as tightly as I could the entire ride home and when I finally heard what sounded like my stop being broadcast into my brain with a megaphone I stumbled off the bus. Walking into my apartment I quietly shut the door before hurrying to my bed.

My improved sense of touch made me feel so bothered by the sensations of my clothes touching my skin that I quickly stripped and threw myself onto my bed.

I felt so uncomfortable that I asked the system to just start the evolution process for me.

[Evolution will begin immediately!]

[Consciousness will be turned off for user's sake.]

My vision then went completely black.