Before even making his move to infiltrate the dragon’s treasure room, he had to make sure that he was prepared. This was a flipping dragon that he was stealing from after all, no way in his state was he going to be capable of fighting the flying lizard, even if he used up all of his remaining stat investment points and any other resources. He had to be ready to escape when the time came, get in and get out.

  Opening his character profile, he started investing 3 points in strength, 4 in agility, and lastly, 4 in endurance. Leaving him #

  He also looked over at his inventory for any items that could help make his operation a lot smoother. Barry was so focused and distracted on his travel to Puck’s home that he had completely forgotten about the items that he had received from the village kids as a sort of advance payment. Which were the “Lucky Pebble” and “Silver Key”.

  Inspecting the “Lucky Pebble”, it provided him an additional +25% exp boost while sitting in his inventory. Barry was thrilled to have such an item like this, it was what he needed to help make up for the lack of Class and sponsor he didn’t have. He would then look at the dirty “Silver Key”, and remember about something else that he had forgotten in his inventory.

  ‘The silver chest I found in that van from the tutorial! I should be able to open it with this.’ Barry found the chest and immediately brought it out, sitting on his lap with the silver key in hand, ready to unlock it.

  His key hand motioned towards the chest, inserting it inside and turning till he heard a soft, audible click. Upon opening the chest, a blue orb of light floated outward, before hovering to his chest, allowing itself to be absorbed inside him. Barry could feel a slight surge of energy coursing throughout his body, a blue screen would then appear with the text, “Kinetic Output - Skill (Rare) Obtained!”

  Quickly, with eagerness, he looked at the skill’s description. “Kinetic Output - Passive: Physical attacks of the user, now apply additional bonus damage depending on the amount of speed/force applied to the attack (Scaling between 0% - 100%).’

  Another passive ability that applied bonuses to his physical prowess was more than welcome in his arsenal of skills. Although he would have wanted something utility based, maybe invisibility which would be useful, but he wasn’t going to complain about his new skill. He also noticed that all three of his skills so far were mainly passives, aside from ‘King’s Commanding Presence’ activation part.

  He wondered if he was ever going to get any real activation skills that required him to use mana, maybe spells or any other sort similar to them. At the same time, Barry was glad he didn’t have to be concerned about using mana at the moment, it made his life easier not having to keep track of it or switch up his current build.

  Barry also saw the ‘Magic Mike’s Book’ he had found along with the uncommon sword from the platybear’s den. Reading the description, it provided a +2 bonus to Wisdom upon use. He used it anyway, increasing his Wisdom stat score, noticing his mana capacity bumping up by a bit, as well as his mana regeneration and magic resistance. Even though he didn’t have any use for his mana at the moment, he at least knew what Wisdom did for him.

  The rest of his inventory was his gold and a variety of monster parts that he had obtained so far along the way. He was still unsure of how to make any use out of them but decided to keep holding onto them. They had to have a purpose if he was able to collect them.

  And with that, Barry was satisfied with his preparations, getting ready to leave the room without waking Puck up from his sleep. When he was about to exit the room, he gave one last look back at Puck, thinking ‘If we don’t see each other again, I hope you find the friend you wish to have. Take care.’ Then left.

  He snuck out of the tunnel and back towards the center room of the treehouse. When he arrived, he noticed there were a couple of Kobolds that were on guard duty. ‘The glowing rocks will make things difficult to sneak past these guards…but then again I might not have too, considering that these Kobolds don’t seem smart.’

  Barry decided to put a dumb idea he just thought of into motion, having faith that it would likely work. He began nonchalantly walking up towards the nearest guard.

  The stationed Kobold took notice of the human who threatened his leader, raising his spear at Barry with watchful eyes before speaking. “Halt! Human, what you doing walking out here at sleepy time?”

  Barry cooked up his choice of words and delivered his excuse. “I need to take a shit, would you mind taking me outside so I can do my business?” He then pulled out a few pieces of gold from his inventory. “I’ll pay ya.”

  The guard's greedy eyes shined at the sight of a few coins, lowering his spear and returning a smile. “Yeah, me take you. No problem.” Barry then handed him the gold. “Come, lets go.”

  As the two were walking towards one of the elevators, Barry was searching for the same tunnel on the 1st floor that lead to the underground treasure room. When he found it, he pulled out a pouch of gold from his inventory and dropped it directly above the tunnel. A faint thud and jiggle of coins were heard.

  “Oh shoot, I dropped some more gold in the tunnel, it seems. You wouldn’t mind helping me get it, would you?” Barry asked, using his nice voice.

  The Kobold couldn’t hide his greed when he heard that Barry had more gold. “Yes, but only if you give some of it to me.”

  Barry nodded, looking happy. “Of course, you're being a big help and I appreciate it, dude.”

  These Kobolds seemed so gullible and easy to persuade to Barry, if he all he had to do was wave a couple of gold in their face. On their way over, the two had past security with no issues, his plan was being executed smoothly by the time they reached the tunnel leading underground.

  He could spot his pouch of gold deeper into the tunnel and rushed towards it, waving at the guard to follow him as he ventured down.

  The lone Kobold followed and when Barry picked it up, he turned around to face the guard who already had his hand out, demanding his payment already.

  Barry grinned, leaned over and gave him what he promised. “Thanks man, here’s your reward.” Then delivered him a nasty slap to the face, that sent him slamming into a wall, knocking the Kobold unconscious. ‘Greedy fuck.’

  He fixed up the Kobold’s sleeping body, making it look like he was napping on the job, before continuing the rest of the way to the treasure room.

  Barry remained cautious as he made his way down, unsure if there were any more Kobolds guarding. Fortunately, there were no more Kobolds, and it was just him when he arrived at the entrance of the treasure room, in front of the double door.

  Slowly peeking through a crack between the doors, he scanned around the room but didn’t see anyone, not even the dragon who would be on top of the peak of the cliff.

  This was a prime opportunity to raid the room, his heart was pumping from excitement as he wanted to dive into one of the piles of gold. He calmed himself down, knowing he shouldn’t do so, and snuck himself inside with caution.

  He was able to pick up piles of gold easily if he wanted too, but if he did, then any items that rested on top would clatter down, causing a ruckus that would probably alert the dragon if it was still over the cliff resting. And there happened to be a lot of items, most of them being Commons.

  His eyes spotted a couple of uncommon items that he sighted with ease, snagging them, not bothering to read their description now and rather later when he was safe. Any item name that had their font color black, he ignored them. About 15 minutes had elapsed since he entered, so far he had taken 8 uncommon items and 1 rare item.

  Barry was mainly thinking about how much gold he was going to get from the room. He wondered when he would get a chance to use the gold he had, most likely to use it at a store or something in exchange for stronger equipment. Regardless, he would not be broke after his operation.

  The cart that the Kobolds had rolled inside must have been rummaged by the dragon, the mysterious magical orb with “???” as it’s name with orange font, was gone. He knew it was too good to be true for it to stay on the cart by the time he returned.

  Suddenly, as he was looting, he heard something roll off the mound of gold he was standing on behind him.

  He turned around, sword pulled out in hand at the ready to cut down a potential stalker, only to be shocked to find the last person he would want sneaking around with.

  “Barry, what you doing in here? Why are you stealing from treasure room?” Puck asked, sounding a bit shocked himself to find the one person he thought was a friend, robbing his families findings. The little Kobold seemed to be struggling, trying to keep a firm stance on the gold but was scrambling.

  Barry was flustered, he wanted to yell at Puck to tell him to stop moving and stay quiet but didn’t want to make any noise himself. “Puck-” He watched the little bugger continue to struggle to keep his bearings, but only made more noise. He wanted to pull his hair out from the stress that he was getting, watching Puck scamper around.

  “Puck, saw you take loot, Puck thought…thought you came to home, to understand Kobolds like you say. But you just wanted to take loot…” Puck sounded disappointed, inside he was hurt to come to the realization of the true reason why Barry asked for him to tag along back home. “...is it true, Barry?”

  Barry was speechless, he wasn’t sure how to respond to Puck’s question. Given the situation he was in, Barry would lie and tell him that wasn’t the reason why he asked to come and give him one of his absurd lies to keep him quiet, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Feelings of what seemed to be guilt built up inside him, how could he lie to someone who was so innocent. “Puck, I-I can explain later but-”

  At that moment, he could see the entrance of the room begin to seal away, with the doors coming to a close. Eventually trapping them both inside with no other way to escape it seemed. ‘Damn it, this can’t be happening!’

  A loud bellowing roar echoed in the room, followed by jets of fire being unleashed in the air behind the cliff in the room. Giant wings sprouted out, and the giant red dragon appeared at the peak of the cliff. It’s nostrils flaring with embers, expressing its irritation at whatever awoke it from its slumber inside its own domain.

  “Who dares to enter my lair without being summoned!?” The dragon demanded to know immediately, it’s dagger eyes shifting around trying to spot the mice who had crawled inside.

  Barry had grabbed Puck before the dragon rose to the peak of the cliff to survey its loot. He had positioned them behind a large silver platter that was sticking out of a mound of gold, concealing them from the dragon’s sight.

  “Barry, why-” Puck tried talking to him, but Barry shut his mouth and gave a hand sign telling him to shush up.

  He wondered how the hell they were going to get out of the predicament they were in. His eyes scanned about for an exit of any kind, but couldn’t find one. They were stuck, it looked like.

  “Reveal yourself now, and I MIGHT let you leave this room alive. Otherwise, I will incinerate this whole room ablaze if I have too, and sniff out your roasted body to be consumed. So choose!” The dragon began to inhale and exhale, fire was fanning out of his maw, ready to be unleashed everywhere.

  Barry had a feeling that this dragon was, in fact, NOT going to allow him or Puck to live. ‘Am I really going to have to go toe to toe with a fucking dragon? I’m not capable of taking it on. Think, think.’ His mind scrambled to find a solution.

  With him distracted to come up with a plan, Puck had managed to squirm his way out of Barry’s arms, slipping away from his grasp by surprise and running out from cover, out into the open. Barry wanted to chase after him but didn’t want to blow his cover.

  The little Kobold waved his arms up high, as he stood out, trying to get the dragon's attention. “Oh great one! It was Puck! Puck came here!” He shouted out, Barry was stunned, he wasn’t expecting Puck to throw blame at himself to protect Barry. In fact, he thought Puck would have snitched on him because he was stealing from the treasure room.

  The dragon, outraged to discover that it was the mere vermin, Puck, who wandered inside, huffed and puffed a cloud of smoke towards Puck as he leaned his long neck closer. “You? The cursed one dares to enter my domain, uninvited? Why! Tell me now!”

  Barry was still hiding behind cover, debating whether he should jump in to intervene or not. He weighed out his options, if it was really worth helping Puck over his own life.

  Puck, although rattled up and terrified to face the dragon’s judgment, gathered his courage and answered his question. “Puck came to ask you a question about Puck, oh great one.”

  The dragon gazed at Puck, barring his row of sharp teeth, curious as to what the Kobold was going to ask him. “And what would that be, my pawn?”

  Puck thought for a moment, what to ask the dragon, he would soon come up with a genuine question that he wondered himself for a long time. “Oh great one, why is Puck cursed? How can Puck be normal, Puck want to be loved by everyone. Please, oh great one.” Barry could hear Puck’s voice tremble slightly, this was a personal question that must have been on his mind a lot.

  The dragon looked at Puck intensely for a moment, before creeping his lips back into a smile and bursting out laughter, his voice echoing all around. “Haha, you really want to know why you are cursed? I’ll tell you why, you’ve done so much wrong before in your past life, that caused you to become a worthless piece of rubbish to all. You only have yourself to blame for making you the way you are, a scrawny rat with no talent and purpose to serve his kin for the better. Only able to burn and scorch those around him, stirring up trouble in his home. You deserve every bit of disrespect you get from your family. That is the truth.”

  The mighty dragon’s words cut deeper than any insult Puck had ever gotten, tears began to form in his eyes, nearly coming to a break-down, but he held on.

  “I’m afraid there is no other way for you to become normal; but there is, however, one way you can become useful to me that will make me really happy.” The dragon leaned in closer.

  Puck could feel the dragon breathing from his large nostrils, Puck responded with a shaken voice. “W-What can P-Puck do for you?”

  “I’d like to eat you.” The dragon then lunged it’s head forward, snapping his jaws at the Kobold to gobble his late night snack. Puck froze in place, watching his life come to an end by the one he worshiped, seeing no other reason for himself to continue and accepting his fate.

  But then suddenly, his arm was yanked away from his dying fate, pulling him aside. The snap of the dragon’s maw echoed.

  Looking to the side, the dragon saw what had snatched his meal. “Human, I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.” Its eyes flared up with anger, smoke exhausting from his nostrils, feeling betrayed after showing hospitality to Barry.

  Barry kept Puck behind himself, shielding him from any harm more harm that the dragon would impose before saying something snarky. “Yeah, well, I guess some dragons are stupider than others. You just happen to be one of those fools, you big dumb lizard.” He mocked.

  The dragon, furious at his joke, unleashed a jet of hells fury upon the duo. Barry, still holding onto Puck, placed him on his back and dived back into cover in time to avoid what could have been a fatal attack. He scrambled to his feet after and got to moving all around the room.

  The dragon and Barry began to play a game of cat and mouse, the dragon trying to incinerate the pair from above the cliff. Barry kept evading each attack, utilizing the environment around for cover.

  “Barry.” Puck said over his shoulder. “Why you save Puck? Puck was trying to take blame to help you, why?”

  Barry slid down a hill of gold, dodging another attack. “Because Puck-” He had to do some more maneuvering around. “-how could I watch you take fault for something that had nothing to do with you. You’re innocent, it wouldn’t sit well with me to see you get gobbled up. You were still willing to sacrifice yourself for someone like me, and that was very courageous and selfless of you. Even despite catching me in the act of stealing…and I apologize for not telling you the truth for why I am really here.” He in fact did feel a bit guilty for tricking Puck.

  He would also remember all the times since he awaked at the crematory back on Earth. The times he saved or helped people he had no reason too, he resisted every time. This moment was slightly different because he made a decision for himself to rescue Puck. He would usually never agree with these feelings or instinct to help, but he still did it, and he would really wish to know the reason for these strange habits.

  Puck felt good inside to hear someone give him such compliments. He was happy to have meet Barry, glad to have given him the handcrafted star amulet. To Puck, it was a sign of his friendship.

  The dragon was starting to get very irritated that Barry was just running all over the place, and roared. “I’m done with this silly game!” The dragon spewed flames, even more intense, on both sides of Barry, creating two massive walls of blazing infernos, trapping them. “Now PERISH!”

  The mythical creature from across all fiction took in a massive gulp of air before unleashing a massive flamethrower attack that would engulf the two with nowhere to run.

  Barry got into a chucking stance, ready to toss Puck over one of the walls of flame. “Puck, I’m going to throw-” He tried reaching for Puck that who was supposed to be on his back but wasn’t there.

  He then turned around, but when he did, he was shoved through the wall of flames after catching a glimpse of Puck who was the one who pushed him. “Thank you, Barry.” Were the brave little Kobolds last words before Barry tumbled through the wall of fire for a couple of moments before stopping on the other side, clear of fire. As he passed through, he could feel his skin burning from the flames, the intense heat making him sweat like crazy.

  Deep inside, he could feel a rush of worry fill his entire body as he immediately recovered back on his feet, running back into the fire and flames shouting “PUCK!”. He was experiencing headaches at the same time, flashes of memories that he had during his time with the Kobold.

  He did not care about how badly the flames were causing him pain, his first priority was ensuring that Puck was safe. “PUCK!” He shouted again, and when he reached back to the other side, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

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  “Fire! Fire! Puck on fire!” There, flailing on the floor, was Puck shouting in a panic. He rolled around, looking completely unharmed, still trying to put out the flames that he believed were still there.

  “Enhanced Vision Level Up! Enhanced Vision (Grade D) ?? Eyes of The Scout (Grade C).” A notification window appeared that read, followed by a description of the new added features. “User is now able to see the Stamina and Mana Bar of foes; Now able to perceive the world around in finer detail, can see through darkness and see farther; User is able to activate at will the ability to see footprints, fingerprints, heat signatures, and much more; User can now emit an area of effect or line pulse only perceived by the user that scans and highlights beings and items briefly for 10 seconds.”

  Barry’s vision became much more enhanced the moment he received the skill level up. Everything he saw was sharper, almost like getting the ultimate prescription for his eyes. He also didn’t realize before as he was running around. There were no scorch marks anywhere, not a single one, nothing.

  Actually, when he thought about it some more, everything where that the dragon spewed flames was completely fine. ‘How is this possible? The fire hasn’t really caused any damage? I could feel pain and the heat from the fire whenever I touched it or was near it, but how? Maybe if I…’

  He then thought about the additional features of that came with his new skill, activating his ability that seemed like it would be useful for detectives. And with a thought, his eyes flashed blue, emitting a blue ghostly aura. From his sight, he could see some interesting things that confirmed his suspicions.

  Barry was able to see different colored footprints that were his from running around, blue, green, and red. Red probably meaning most recent, green meaning a while ago, and blue meaning a long time ago. But the most interesting find he discovered, was when he was using his heat sensor feature, there was no sign of heat being emitted from the flames. He could see the color of both him and Pucks body temperature as red, so he knew his ability was working.

  Something then moved that he spotted from the corner of his eye, upon directing his attention to it, he spotted a figure similar to the build of a Kobold, approaching them from within the wall of flames. ‘Who- Is that who I think it is?’ Barry could also see the figure wielding a staff of some sort, he wasn’t able to see the name of it but had a good idea of who it might be. He pretended not to notice the mysterious figure, looking away with his back turned helping Puck who was still panicking.

  Shaking Puck’s shoulders, he was able to get Puck to come to his senses. “Puck, you’re fine. I’m okay, we’re alive.” Barry reassured Puck.

  Puck stopped freaking out, the sight of Barry surprised him. “Barry! You alive, Puck so happy- owww.” He stopped talking as he held his head in his hands, seeming to be experiencing a headache. “Puck’s head feels dizzy, Puck also feel…tired.” His eyelids were looking drowsy from the looks of it.

  Barry wondered why Puck was looking sleepy, but then suddenly he could then hear the figure approaching them from behind. He raised a finger to his own lips, telling Puck to stay silent as he listened, waiting until at the right moment. Spinning around with a kick, knocking away the staff that he spotted from his assailant, before grabbing and lifting a Kobold in a chock hold. They wielded a dagger in their other hand, attempting to take a stab at his arm, only to be halted with Barry’s other free hand, yanking away their last weapon with ease and tossing it to the side. “Of course, it would be you, Durg. You shitbag.”

  Durg was in his clutches, trying all he could to pry himself free, but no matter what, Durg could not make Barry budge. “L-Let g-go human. O-or el…se-”

  Barry slammed Durg on the ground, pounding his head, causing him to groan in pain. “P-Put m-” Again, Durg’s head connected with the ground, his eyes rolled back, recoiling from the trauma.

  “Or else what, asshole? You didn’t finish, mind repeating what you were going to say?” Barry taunted, he couldn’t help but crack a smile as he bullied the bastard.

  Puck watched in silence, as much as he didn’t like Durg for how he treated him, he didn’t believe Durg would actually attempt to kill them. The Kobold remained still, watching Barry enact his own sort of punishment towards Durg.

  Durg coughed, gasping for air, Barry loosened his grip a bit, not wanting to kill the fucker too soon. “You…human, will die…from dragon…with stupid Puck.” Durg insulted, spitting a bit of blood at Barry on his cheek, who was unfazed by the defenseless worm that continued to struggle to be free.

  The flames surrounding them had died down, unveiling them for the dragon to see the group in view on top of the cliff. Another point that made Barry skeptical about everything was why the dragon never bothered to move from the cliff, when it could easily come down and physically claw, swipe, or bite at them up close. None of it made sense to him.

  Regardless, the dragon seemed shocked to find the duo still alive. “H-How- No! You both are supposed to be- gggggrrrr! Neither of you will be alive any longer after another blazing inferno!” The dragon prepped up another huge flamethrower to unleash upon them, not even caring if Durg got caught in the attack.

  Upon looking up at the dragon, he saw that the dragon had no heat signatures, which was really weird. “Puck.” Barry said. “Trust me and close your eyes and ears, you’ll be fine, I promise. Believe me and we’ll make it out of this.”

  The little Kobold didn’t question Barry, placing his trust in the first person who showed kindness to him in his life required no hesitation. He shut his eyes and curled up with his head tucked in.

  “Y-You stupid hu-human. You w-will-” Barry tightened his grip around Durg’s neck, shutting him up.

  “Keep quiet, this all bullshit, and you know it Durg.” Barry barked, the dragon was then ready to unleash another flamethrower and let loose. He watched as the blazing inferno approached quickly but remained still, holding his ground, unafraid as he stuck Durg out in front of himself. He wanted to know if the flames would affect Durg the same way it had affected him so far, would he be lit on fire or not?

  The flames would swallow them all, Barry kept an eye on his HP and Stamina bar, confirming his suspicions as he watched his Stamina bar be depleted steadily and not his HP. This was not true fire, it wasn’t even real, despite him feeling the intense heat it gave off and slight pain upon realizing it was all fake. And when the flames died down, the three were completely unharmed with no burns. “I fucking knew it! None of this is real!” Barry was pissed.

  Durg had a face of someone getting caught in an act red-handed, he was speechless. The dragon, once again, was stunned to see Barry still standing. “T-This isn’t possible! How are you-”

  Barry slammed his foot down, deep inside he channeled a surge of energy within himself, thinking about the final additional feature to his new evolved skill. “Cut the crap, you false dragon! You had me in full belief, thinking I was fighting the real deal, but no, you’re nothing but a fraud, and I’m about to prove!”

  He then released the charged energy within, sending a pulse of blue energy that washed across everything it went as it travelled in a straight line across and over the cliff; until it reached something that, one hundred percent, confirmed his suspicions. ‘I fucking knew something was off.’

  He charged at the dragon with Durg still in one hand, and at the last moment, got into a chucking stance, stomping the ground before shifting all his weight and force into one, utilizing his other new skill “Kinetic Output” and sending Durg soaring at the dragon dead on. “You’re nothing but an illusion!” Durg’s body zoomed with explosive propulsion, traveling in the air until Barry saw his body phase through the dragon with no resistance.

  The dragon seemed to be panicking, as its head shook around, as if scared. “N-No, I-I am completely and entirely real, you little rat bastard. Don’t come any closer or I’ll-”

  Barry started bull rushing towards dragon, ignoring everything that he said to try to make him stop. He climbed the cliff, spotting ledges and crimps to grab on to as he ascended. The dragon tried clawing and biting at him, but Barry simply did not care as each attack phased through him. Although he didn’t feel anything physical, he could see that the attacks were chipping away at his Stamina, but thankfully he had a good amount of endurance.

  As he climbed and made it to the top, he had charged another scanning pulse and fired it, marking and highlighting the truth that fooled him.

  “Stop human, and I will let you and your little Kobold live another-”

  Barry rushed through the dragon, phasing through the illusion and spotting the fraud that was controlling the illusion. “Shut the fuck up and accept this ass whooping that I’m about to deliver, free of charge!”

  When he arrived at the other end of the dragon, he found Durg’s body unconscious on the ground but also spotted someone that appeared to be an elf like Ven, who seemed to be 19 in human years wielding the same mystical clear ball he wanted from before. They had freckles, a wizard hat, orange curly hair, glasses, and face of terror as he watched Barry charging towards him full speed like a raging bull.

  The seeming illusionist dropped the ball on the ground, placing both hands in front of himself, screaming “Wait! Wait! WAI-”

  Barry did not halt to listen to what he had to say to his cries and delivered the elf a fist full of rage square into his chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending the poor bastard flying back, tumbling across the ground for a good while before coming to a stop. “You like that!” Barry shouted. “I don’t make empty threats, I make promises!”

  He then collected the mystical orb as he walked over, also confirming that Durg was passed out, taking a nap, before approaching the guy that ticked him off since the beginning of his magician’s act.

  The mage coughed and wheezed as he tried getting backup, almost feeling like puking everything inside, saliva spilling out. “N-No…plea…please…I’m sorry…stop.” He turned over to his back, clutching his chest, wishing he was out of there, away from the mad man that was about to send him away to the afterlife.

  When Barry met the mage who stared up at him, he looked him dead in the eyes, feeling like one punch in the chest wasn’t enough. “I feel like you deserve another hit, my last wasn’t good enough, don’t you think?”

  The elf coughed, shaking his head frantically. “I’m sorry, pl-please no-” Barry had knelt down and slapped him right across the face, leaving a red hand print. “No, sto-” Another slap was given. “I promise I-” Again, another was gifted. The mage curled up into a ball, completely scared of the man who made him show his true colors.

  “Oh! You’re scared now, huh? So scared that you decide to tuck your tail close between your legs, you fraud.” Barry had thought he had lost Puck from the dragon, he wanted to beat some more sense into the mage but felt that from seeing the mage in his current pitiful state, he had learned his lesson and stopped.

  He then thought about Puck, he had to go back and check up on him. “Hey magician or whatever, I’ll be back but you better not move from this spot, do you hear me! I saw through your cheap party tricks, and it won’t work again. So don’t bother testing me, got it?”

  The mage nodded in response, he believed every word Barry meant. He was not willing to try any shenanigans.

  Barry got moving back to Puck, finding that the Kobold was still curled up in a ball with his ears and eyes closed. “Puck! Everything’s fine now, the dragon’s gone now.” He said, tapping Puck on the shoulder.

  Puck took his hands off his head and peeked with one eye, looking around cautiously before standing up. “Everything okay? Dragon…gone?” He looked at the peak of the cliff, seeing that the dragon was no longer there. “Dragon is gone!?”

  “Yeah, Puck, someone else up there was controlling-”

  “Barry defeat big scary dragon! Barry, you so awesome! You super duper strong, so cool! Yay!” Puck clapped his hands, applauding him of such an amazing feat he didn’t really accomplish.

  Barry sighed, facepalming himself but couldn’t help to laugh a bit, accepting Puck’s point of view. “Yeah Puck, I slayed a dragon all by myself.” He then looked around at the loot he couldn’t wait to take. “Now that the dragon is no longer here, I suppose I can help my self to all this loot now.”

  Puck rose and dived into a mound of gold with a positive attitude now, splashing gold all around. “Yeah, with dragon gone, Kobolds and Barry can now have loot all to themselves.”

  “Yeah…” Barry felt awkward now, he was really tempted to take everything that was valuable inside, including the gold. “...” He was getting the same sort of irritating feeling he would normally get whenever he was only thinking of himself.

  He continued to watch Puck play around with the gold and collection of items all around. Barry gritted his teeth and the feelings of doing the right thing intensified within. ‘But all this loot here can be of better use in my hands!’ The feeling would not accept his reason, amplifying it even further. ‘They’re Kobolds! What the hell are they going to do with it all!’ The feeling persisted, ‘WHY!?’.

  The feeling got so strong that it started to cause him so much stress that he was feeling light-headed. ‘No, this is…this is stupid. It’s all going to be wasted on them, let have it all!’ He then bursted out shouting. “FUUUCK!”

  [Transition Scene]

  Barry and Puck returned to the 1st floor of the treehouse with Durg and the mysterious mage, both held hostage. With some questioning and a bit of interrogating, Barry was able to squeeze out every bit of info from the two scumbags. Learning that Durg and the mage, who called himself Ron, were both working together to fool the Kobolds to going out and collecting as much loot as possible for them. Barry and Puck had also learned that the gossip of Puck being cursed was false, it was a lie that was told by Durg because he was jealous of Puck’s mojo. The Kobolds would also add in that Durg would threaten to feed them to the dragon if they didn’t bully Puck.

  While Puck was being apologized to by the rest of his kin and chatting with them, Barry stood next to a beaten up Ron, who sat with a look of dread. “I’m not done with you, Ron. Understand? You will follow everywhere I go from now, until I no longer need you.” He told Ron, sounding intimidating.

  Ron nodded in fear of what he might do if he refused. “Yes Barry, of course…b-but what sort of plans would you have with me in mind?”

  “Lots of things, I’m sure. You’ll be plenty of useful with your particular illusion tricks and such.” He then thought about Puck, he would have liked for Puck to join him through the trials and challenges that he would face in ‘Lost Adventure’.

  Ron kept silent to himself; however, he started mumbling something under his breath as he looked away from Barry, facing a wall. Barry took notice and wondered if he was casting a spell. “What did I just tell you, I’ll stab you right here and now if you try something.”

  Barry had a sword drawn at Ron’s throat, causing the elf to recoil, fearing for his life with his back against the wall, before responding. “N-No! I’m not doing a-anything like that, I assure you, Barry! I was just saying how lucky I was to be alive, that's all.” Worry sweat was forming all over his face.

  With Barry’s improved sight, he was able to make out Ron’s facial expression more clearly, he could see the smallest tension around his face, the slightest red blush that was forming from his cheeks. This bastard was hiding something. “I call bullshit, Ron. Maybe I should yank those teeth out. You probably don’t need those to-”

  “O-Okay, okay! I called you a Feifvgre, that’s what I mumbled. I’m sorry Barry. Please don’t pull my teeth out, I need them to be useful.” Ron bowed with his head pressing against the ground, hoping Barry would do no harm to him.

  Barry stood still, he thought about what Ron had just said and was curious to know what a Feifvgre meant. “...What is a Feifvgre, I don’t know what that means. Tell me and be honest.”

  Ron lifted his head slightly, looking up at Barry with caution. “It…it means goblin shit…Barry. I called you goblin shit, I’m sorry.” The mage was prepared to shield himself from the beating he was expecting to take.

  Barry processed the word Feifvgre in his mind, it had to be elf language and if it was, the way the word was pronounced sounded fancy, a tongue twister that was for sure. Barry would then let out a soft laugh before lowering his weapon to his side, “Elf language, I assume?” He asked.

  Ron was stunned, he was not expecting for Barry to react so calmly to being insulted. “Y-Yes, Barry, I cursed at you in my race's language instead of Common Tongue. I’m sor-”

  “Don’t fucking apologize, next time you curse at me because you don’t like the way I treat you. Say it louder with your chest, I don’t want to see or hear you whispering behind my back. Got it?” Barry was actually amused, he believed the mage and let it go.

  Ron was still unsure if Barry was going to pull a trick on him or not, the last thing he wanted was to be rocket punched in the chest again. He decided to just agree with him and promise to cuss out loud back if he ever felt like it. “Y-Yes, goblin shit!”

  Barry couldn’t help but grin a bit, “That’s better, but remember Ron, you piss me off like last time, and I’ll literally tear your head off. Keep that in mind. ” He reminded, Ron nodded in affirmation.

  After their talk, Barry decided to inspect everything that he was obtained from the treasure room…which wasn’t everything because his body won’t allow him to take it all. Taking a gander at his inventory and currency, he let out a heavy sigh. ‘I could have had it all, damn it!’

  He now had 147,673 gold, 12 Uncommon items that included some of the ones he was wearing, the rest being weapons, he had also obtained 2 Rare items. If only he was able to freely control his body and will, he would have had so much more. There was no way he was going to forget about his missed opportunity to have it all.

  He wore Uncommon leather chest armor, greaves, leggings, and steel helmet. He noticed that there was an option to turn a piece of equipment invisible for cosmetic purposes, while also still applying their modifiers and such. One of the Rare items that was acquired were a pair of black/green leather boots with sigils of some kind, engraved on them. Too bad for him, though, he was not able to acquire a set bonus for wearing his mix-up of armor pieces. His previous armor was the tracksuit that he had received as a reward from a starter kit, probably being an exclusive armor piece for beginners.

  All together, the set provided him a total of +120 to armor rating, +17 agility, +5 endurance, +20% movement speed, +50% reduced fall damage, and a +5% to attack speed. The majority of his agility bonus came from his Rare boots, which also granted him the ability to double jump in midair at will with no cooldown, while also giving him the +50% reduced fall damage. He excited to try out the double jump ability when he could.

  As he chilled, watching all the Kobolds commune together with chatter about the false dragon and joy of being free, something he had forgotten about appeared in front of his eyes.

  “Hello! My favorite contestant!” A blue call window appeared, it was Ven. “I’m so sorry to keep you by your lone some self for quite some time, me and a couple of other moderators have been experiencing some…issues connecting with this world.” Barry wondered why Ven wasn’t messing with him since he arrived in the new world, he motioned towards an unoccupied section on the 1st floor so he could have some privacy.

  “You’re saying this game isn’t finished? Is that what you mean? Some developers you all are, is there a chance something horrible will happen any time soon besides your stupid quests.” Barry had to ask.

  “Oh no, no Barry, Lost Adventure is fine as of now, so don’t you worry. We have everything back under control again, so everything should run smoothly. And I have to say, looking back at the replay, I quite enjoyed your little quarrel with that false dragon.”

  “Yeah, it was irritating, I know. Now cut to the chase, why did really call me for?” Barry pushed Ven, wanting him to spit out the real reason.

  Ven laughed, “Wow, you automatically assume I want something the moment I call? How rude of you. Well, I hate to break it to you, but I do in fact WANT more entertainment from you. And remember, it’s not just me seeking for more juicy action, the ones above you want more to see. I see you made friends with a family of Kobolds…maybe if you-”

  Barry interrupted, not allowing him to finish his sentence. “If you’re suggesting me to kill all these Kobolds after liberating them. I’m NOT doing that, I will sit my ass where I stand and do nothing for months on end. I understand you’re streaming this shit show, so how well do you think your viewer count will tank if I do absolutely nothing?”

  Ven gave it some thought and sighed, sounding somewhat defeated. “That would be boring, and I wouldn’t put it past you to do such a thing, so…fiiiiine. However, I will provide you with a different quest that I’m sure will test your moral compass, adding some suspense to my stream.”

  There was a moment of pause before Barry received a notification about his new quest. “Enjoy contestant, I wonder what you will do now. But stay alive and I hope to see you alive until the main quest event is release. Goodbye!” The call then ended.

  Barry took a look at the quest, his eyes widened when he realized what it was, by just the title. ‘Save the Village from Otherworldly Creatures! Time till invasion: 3 hours. Reward: None. Penalty: None. (?? ? ??)’

  Barry was both astonished that it was related to the village that he came from and confused why there was no reward or penalty for it. ‘The quest, there’s no reward to incentivize me yet there is no penalty…it is like Ven said. It’s more about my moral compass…’ He wasn’t sure how to go about it.

  Puck then approached Barry, he noticed Barry all alone in his corner. “Barry! Come join, have fun with family and play games!” Puck was in a good mood after bonding with his kin, clearing all the misunderstandings that they had.

  Barry stood still, wondering if the reason why the quest had no reward or penalty was because these otherworldly creatures were going to be insanely hard to defeat. He wondered if going back was worth the risk, he nothing to lose if he just walked away, but the same feeling to do right rose within. He was conflicted.

  “Barry?” Puck was looking concerned.

  It was then that Barry made his decision, he was going to go back. Besides, he had already accepted advanced payment from the children, and it would damage his pride if he ignored them. “I have to go Puck, I need you to stay here where it’s safe. Where I’m going, it will be dangerous.” He told the little Kobold, sounding serious, before moving back to Ron.

  “Puck confused? Why-”

  Barry faced Ron, who was sitting down, twiddling his thumbs. “I’m in a hurry and I can’t have you slowing me down, so you're staying here until I get back.” He then informed the other Kobolds around, telling them to watch Ron and to hurt him if he tries to escape. Ron would accept Barry’s order without any complaints.

  Puck tried speaking to Barry again but was ignored. “Barry, what’s going on!” He was so lost.

  Barry then dashed off towards the exit in a sprint, making haste without stopping, as Puck watched the first person who changed his life for the better leave him behind. “Barry, wait!”

  Puck tried catching up to Barry as he left through the double doors but couldn’t, Barry was too fast, watched him climb the tall walls that circled around his home, hoping and crimping the walls as he climbed further up until he made it to the top. Continuing his way towards whatever caused him to be in a hurry.

  Puck was sad, all alone once again, despite just being to mend things with his family. He wished Barry didn’t have to go so soon, just when things were going good. He hoped to see him again. “Barry…”