Chapter 14: One week.

The goblins were able to amass 21 crystals for all the surrounding corpses.

It was already quite a bountiful harvest but it was the cost of two of their members getting injured, three if they counted Nina who hurt her ankles during her fall when getting down the roof.

It wasn't anything bad, just a light sprain that would easily heal in a few hours.

But in fear of the wolves coming back, Kennen suggested that they leave the area before deciding who would get the loots and go back to the hotel.

Evan was being supported by Enzo while Kennen supported Frank as slowly entered the hotel via the same window.

It was only 10 am but people were already assembled at the buffet hall and they easily noticed them coming back.

Kennen saw Michael instantly get up from his seats and speed walk up to them the moment he noticed them.

"Ah… you guys came back quite early today, have anything for us?"

Always entitled and straight to the point.

"Can't you see that we are bleeding? Piss off!" Evan was feeling cranky due to the pain and really didn't want to deal with Michael's shit right now.

"Of course I can see that." He just didn't care, "But you guys didn't get yourselves hurt for nothing, right?"

"Even if we get anything, you pricks don't deserve anything! You guys just sit on your ass and expect us to hand everything to you?" James with a surprising outburst.

"We're sitting on our asses because you're not giving us enough for us to fight on our own!"

A man from the crowd yelled and Michael immediately followed with, "Exactly, so stop being stingy."

Frank stepped up to deescalate the situation.

"Just give it to them, Ken. We don't have time for this. Too tired and too injured."

Kennen gave him a nod so Frank and the other could quickly go up the stairs and rest.

He had 21 crystals with him but he only took out two for them.

"Hey! You seem to have more than two! A lot more!" Michael was indignant after seeing a bit of what was inside the bag.

"Just take the two and shut up." Kennen didn't want to deal with this guy and shoved the two crystals wrapped in cloth to Michael.

"Hey! What don't you understand in stop being stingy and share it with the people?"

Michael insisted and stopped him from leaving by grabbing his arm.

"Listen here asshole, my friends risked their lives and bled for this. I'm not to give these crystals we earned with our sweat and tears to you just because you asked oh so nicely." Kennen slapped his hand away.

This was starting to tap on his nerves and he was sick of it.

"Back off before I turn you into a porcupine." Kennen said with some venom.

The goblins took out the javelins from their quill on their back.

That seemed to make the people shift in unrest.

"Wow look at that, he's threatening us! He is looking down on us because he got monster friends!" Michael tried the same stray and tried to pit the crowd against him.

However, that didn't seem to work that well as none of them spoke up.

Except for a guy with a pair of glasses, "Look, sorry if he came off as insensitive. We want to let you know that we appreciate your efforts in keeping this place safe."

"However, look at it from our side. There's monsters everywhere and the only way to survive is to take those crystals so we can get powers. Like I said, we appreciate what you're doing for us but we don't want to be deadweight and we need the crystals for that."

"Look at the bright side of it, we will be able to help you too if we all have powers. Maybe, one of us will even get a power that would be able to heal your friend's injuries?"

What he said made sense, too much sense even.

However, Kennen wasn't in the mood to entertain that idea.

"You already got your share. Do you expect us to give you everything and have nothing to show for our work at the end of the day?"

The man with glasses wanted to say something but Kennen didn't want to hear it anymore.

"You said you guys were grateful, right?"

"Of course, bu-"

The man answered positively but got interrupted again.

"Then act like it! Take what you get and wait for us to get you more the next time we go out."

With that said, Kennen tried to leave again and this time nobody stopped him.

"You'll regret this in the future!" Michael still wanted to have the last words.

Kennen just hoped that this guy would be the first to die when they would go out hunting.

…

"What took you so long?" Rafael asked when Kennen came into Evan's room.

Kennen took a look around and saw Evan was lying on the bed after his wounds had been taken care of and Enzo was now bandaging Frank's arms.

Jordan and Nina weren't there while Amelia was helping out Enzo with the procedure.

"That guy wanted more crystal from me after seeing that I had more than two." Kennen explained.

"F*ck them leeches! Shouldn't have given them anything!" Evan grumbled from his bed.

"I've already said this many times. It's to keep the peace and so they can stop being leeches, they may even be of help!" Frank sighed in tiredness.

"But that man is so rude, he really makes it hard for people to feel like helping him." Amelia also gave her opinion,

"Babe, I also agree he's an asshole but it's something that we have to deal with." James gave a helpless smile to his girlfriend.

His words kind of made Kennen feel strange and he wasn't the only one that felt that since his friends also gave James a weirded look.

"I wouldn't have given him any crystals if it was me." James added when he saw all the gaze on him.

Kennen felt that he was acting strange but couldn't put his finger on it so he let it go and changed the subject,

"We have nineteen crystals left, how do we split it?"

"Give ten to Evan, maybe he'll get a power and heal faster with it." Frank suggested and no one else expressed any disagreement to it.

They wanted to know whether they would get a power up or not at the 20th crystals so they may as well do it now with Evan since he was injured, even though doing that also meant that one of James and Brandi wouldn't reach their tenth crystals powers up now.

James and Brandi didn't express their disapproval of this so Kennen certainly wouldn't bring it up.

He took out the crystals and fed Evan one crystals at the time until he gave him ten.

"So, got anything?" Kennen asked.

"Nah…didn't get shit…" Evan slowly shook his head, "Even my rank is the same. I do feel stronger but still not strong enough to claim that I'll be able to beat that giant wolf."

"No need to rush anybody to 20 crystals now." Enzo noted.

Everyone felt a bit disappointed but in the end, it was too easy to be true.

"The rest goes to you two then." Kennen handed the nine remaining crystals to James and Brandi.

The two looked at each other and Brandi's expression was like a deer caught in the headlight as she hurriedly said, "Take it James! I didn't do anything…"

She had her head lowered in shame so Amelia immediately went to console her, "Oh Bran, don't be sad, you tried your best. Not everyone can fight…"

Since they decided among themselves, Kennen handed the crystals to James.

"I only need eight to reach ten." James said.

So he only took eight and one remained now.

He handed it over to Brandi but she still didn't want it and said she would give it to Jordan later.

Amelia looked at her boyfriend inquiridly after he absorbed all the crystals.

"I got something new, Phantom Strike." James quickly answered after seeing his girlfriend's inquisitive face.

"When used, another similar attack will come one second later after the initial one."

Sounded like a beginner's skill and pretty straightforward to us.

That was Kennen's opinion of it and actually every single of them got pretty basic power up when reaching ten crystals.

He started to wonder when they would get anything crazier.

"What happens when you use it but don't attack and just run for example?" Enzo asked curiously, probably one of his intrusive thoughts again.

"I don't know?" James was uncertain, "Let's try it."

James apparently activated the skill as he jumped but nothing happened.

Guess nothing would happen when he didn't perform an 'attack'.

"Did you feel your energy drain?" Rafael asked as they would feel their energy drain whenever they activated a skill.

"Weirdly, no." James replied.

"Maybe, it's still activated then. Do a punch."

James punched into the empty air and one second later, a blurry form that resembled James' arm did the same action that James did a second earlier. Although the blurry arm passed through James' arm, it would actually do damage if it connected to something.

Then James tried again with a javelin and the phantom limb would also replicate the weapon.

"Nice." Enzo nodded in approval.

Kennen wasn't sure how James would use it in an actual fight as the target may not be on the same spot a second later. However, it wasn't something that Kennen had to figure out.

"Alright guys, rest up, we'll try another expedition this afternoon." Kennen said.

He felt like taking the day off, especially after what happened this morning, but they had to keep grinding if they wanted to improve their odds of making it out of this island alive.

"Ha…Guess we have to keep going." Frank sighed.

"You're staying back since you're injured." Kennen pointed to his bandaged arm.

"It's just a bite on one arm, it doesn't even hurt anymore. I'm fine." Frank assured him.

Kennen pondered as he looked at Frank's arm before relenting.

"Since we're also going out this afternoon, we'll get some rest before it then." Amelia said before she and her two friends left.

Kennen went to lie in his bed and his friends also rested in their own ways.

…

After having lunch and finishing discussing their itinerary, they were ready to leave for their afternoon expedition again.

They would go for the south.

Away from the embassy in the east where the pig orcs were and away from the park in the west where the giant wolf was.

Maybe the south was where the boss for the mini cyclops was.

This expedition had fewer members than the one in the morning. Evan didn't come due to his injuries and the couple also prefered to stay back this time.

It was quite tame that afternoon. They didn't have any epic fights as every encounter with monsters were small skirmishes where they quickly dispatched them.

Brandi still couldn't be relied on to stay in front as she was too nervous and froze up in fight unless the enemy was completely restrained.

James was doing okay but tended to be clumsy and often struck the wrong area.

Frank was reliable as always although he wasn't really a tank. Maybe he was a tank, an evasion tank.

All in all, it was a good expedition as they were able to collect 14 crystals in that run.

Apart from the three crystals they put aside for the people at the hotel, Brandi received eight of them to put her to ten in total while the three others were given to Jordan when they went back.

Brandi received a skill from her class tree named double slash.

She would just slash in a cross.

It was possible to do the move without the skill but it was much faster with the skill, especially the second strike.

The first strike's speed was normal and it was the second strike that was abnormally fast as it was pretty much instantaneous with the skill.

Not that it helped much with Brandi's nerves during a fight.

The three crystals given to Michael yielded two combat powers and one production power.

Kennen didn't get many details, the production power had something to do with separating minerals while the two combat powers were one of them could charge a strike while the other could dash quite quickly.

The fourth day went about the same as the previous ones.

Sleep, eat and grind crystals. Rinse and repeat.

The next two days weren't that different.

At the end of the sixth day, they were able to collect 58 crystals in those three days.

They didn't get anywhere near the park or embassy so the fights were relatively easier.

Putting aside the 8 crystals Kennen gave the other survivors of the hotel, the other 50 crystals were all absorbed by his group.

Jordan got to ten crystals and he received a new skill called disinfect.

It could clean wounds and disinfect any surfaces.

Just like Jordan's powers, it was quite useful and unique.

Nina also got boosted to ten crystals. What she received was quite in line with her original power, which was to increase fertility on the soil, and just like previously, it was pretty useless to them currently.

The remaining 36 stones were split between the rest of the members.

Frank and Enzo got 5 each while Amelia and Rafael got 6 each.

Kennen also got 6 for himself and it was the same for James too while Brandi got the remaining 2.

He thought that days would continue to go on like usual, grinding crystals until they were strong enough to roam the island without any danger and find a way to leave the island and back to the US.

Maybe the being that sent monsters to their world thought they were having it too easy because a horn resounded during the sixth day's night.

And that sound didn't bode anything good.