Chapter 14: A Walk on the Island
The island women began preparing the feast to celebrate the guild’s creation, but I felt uneasy. The forge view didn’t allow me to see living beings outside the guild’s property. I didn’t know what kind of creatures roamed the area, and too much tranquility made me nervous. This island was hiding something, and I had to find out what was special about it.
After saying goodbye to Manaia, it was time for a little reconnaissance.
"Mirage!"
With my Mirage skill active, I left the village unseen. The sun was setting, and the evening breeze felt refreshing and relaxing. If it weren’t so dangerous, I could take Manaia on a romantic stroll.
I had barely moved a couple of kilometers from the village when I found the first surprise. The island wasn’t as pristine as it seemed. There was movement. Too much. First, I saw a group of goblins sniffing around a stream, as green and filthy as I remembered them. To one side of the stream, a patrol of kobolds was on a small rock mountain, using their picks to dig up minerals, while inside the stream, a group of sealakels (lizardmen) with their scales gleaming under the sunlight were enjoying themselves, lying in the water. Using [Hero’s Vision], I saw their levels ranged from 10 to 25; there were even several zone bosses at level 35, quite strong for a small island.
I ventured deeper, and the panorama got even more fucked up. Near the coast, some Ogres, looking like giant pigs with cold stares, patrolled the shores. They were territorial creatures; they didn’t usually mix with anyone, not even among themselves; they seemed like mantises: the female devoured the male after sex. What a sad fate! Then, an orc camp stood on a hill, their grunts reaching me. And not far off, the shadow of a solitary ogre moved heavily, a true walking tank. I even saw some stone golems, inanimate until someone got too close. It was a big surprise; if it weren’t for my skill, I wouldn’t have detected them. These golems were very stealthy and were level 65.
The variety was insane. Goblins, kobolds, sealakels, orcs, ogres, golems... What the hell? On the continent, these races didn’t mix. They killed each other for a piece of meat or territory. They never agreed to live together, unless...
A shiver ran down my spine. My gamer mind, trained by thousands of hours of dungeons and grind, connected the dots. The mix. The variety of low to medium-level monsters. The hostility between them that seemed suppressed here. Shit!
"There’s a dungeon in this place...!" I whispered, slightly panicking.
Excitement took over me. A dungeon meant loot, experience, resources. It was the perfect opportunity to strengthen my family guild! My eyes gleamed with the greed of a veteran gamer. But the excitement didn’t last long. Logic hit me again, harder than before. If there was a dungeon, that meant there weren’t just monsters. It meant there was a fucking Demon King. And that... that was truly dangerous. It could be a threat level I couldn’t deal with yet. I had to be cautious; I wouldn’t have the backing of the King’s army or the Holy Church of Light to support me, so assaulting the dungeon alone, no matter how tempting it sounded, would be suicide.