Volume 1 - Chapter 4: First Hunt

"Monster?" Valerie said, frightened.

"Yes, Mom, we have no choice. We have 15 days. According to the mission, the penalty is just experience loss, but if we kill the boss monster, we can obtain items, right? After all, that system message calling itself a game told us that," Aaron replied.

"You're right, but what if something happens to you or our family?" Valerie said, saddened.

"Sooner or later, we'll reach a point where nothing can harm us, Mom. You know why I was so injured. If we don't become stronger, there may come a day when we can't do it anymore. So what will happen then?"

"Aaron is right," Sean said in a serious tone.

"Is that so?" Aaron thought his father wouldn't accept what he was saying.

"Yes, you're speaking the truth, but are you sure it's worth putting your mother and your new little sister in danger?" Sean said in an even more serious tone.

"Dad, just three hours ago, I fought against maybe over a hundred goblins, and I killed more than half of them. I was almost dead in the process. Fortunately, I managed to find a safe spot and hide, escaping from them. If that didn't happen, I would have died. But what if stronger monsters come? Do we have any choice but to become stronger until then?" Aaron said, both sad and serious.

After a few dozen seconds, Sean said, "Okay, if your mother agrees to it, if our new little girl agrees to it, I accept it." He nodded, indicating his approval.

"I don't know how important my opinion is, but I agree," Dahlia said, standing before Aaron, whom she had accepted as her new big brother.

"If all of you want this, then there's no harm in trying. If eventually one of us gets hurt, at least it proves that we tried something together and lost," Valerie said, setting aside her fear.

Aaron was greatly surprised by all that was being said. He never imagined his family would face all of this so easily. After all, it was just a few sentences he had uttered. He could swear that the gods had a hand in this, but he couldn't prove it. In fact, he could swear that the gods had a hand in everything that had happened so far.

In the end, it had happened. His family had agreed to go hunting, and it made him incredibly happy.

"I thank you for trusti--," Aaron started speaking, but his words were interrupted by a massive system notification that appeared above:

"Now you can purchase weapons, potions, armor, and specific materials from safe zones. You will earn 'unit points' for each monster you kill. With these unit points, you can buy whatever you want from the market. Safe zones are marked on the map."

Aaron began to approach the front of the tower and with hopeful anticipation, he said, "Market," in a normal tone.

Suddenly, a window opened in front of him, visible only to him, and categories were listed. Although Aaron was actually very happy, he was also a bit annoyed because in his previous life, if you wanted to access the market, you had to enter the tower. But it didn't end there. If you wanted to purchase something from the market, you had to be at least level 30. In other words, this game had an official currency and profit system where high-level players were selling items to low-level players at exorbitant prices, making a huge profit. It was, in a way, akin to a complete black market situation. Please note that these transactions were limited to the in-game world and not applicable in real life.

Aaron had seen his parents' statuses and decided to buy weapons for them accordingly. He had a substantial number of unit points, considering the large number of goblins he had killed, and he had earned almost 1000 unit points from the initial kill rewards alone. It was more than enough to buy low-level weapons for everyone. However, Aaron already had a sword. As previously mentioned, he had received the sword as a gift on his 18th birthday, and although it wasn't magical, it was better than most swords in the store because the sword itself was of A rank.

After purchasing a sword for everyone and also getting healing potions in case of injuries, Aaron completed the payment. Soon, the swords appeared before them, shocking the onlookers. No one expected something to be created out of nothing and materialize in front of someone, but the power of the system made it possible.

Aaron returned to his family and handed over everything they needed. Then, he sent a party request to each of them and adjusted the experience sharing settings to ensure equal distribution. Now, the only thing left for them to do was to leave the safety zone and go on the offensive.

As Aaron and his accompanying family, along with the dozens of people following them, reached the boundary of the tower, they came to a halt. Aaron took the first step forward.

"The safe zone exit from the World Tower has been made."

With those words, they officially left the safety zone behind and ventured into the unknown.

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Aaron took a step outside the boundaries of the tower, and his family and the people around him were suddenly filled with courage. With slow and cautious steps, they entered the street ahead. The bodies of the goblins he had killed had disappeared, indicating that they had been taken, dragged away, or devoured by something.

"The goblins' bodies have vanished. It has only been about 4 hours since the game started, so there shouldn't be a monster stronger than goblins around here. Goblins care about the bodies of their comrades, so whatever came here must have died. What could it be?"

Aaron pondered, partially lost in his thoughts because everything he said was true. Goblins, while not very intelligent, were sadistic creatures that valued the bodies of their comrades. As mentioned before, there were two creatures that could be worshiped by them, the "Goblin King" and the "High Orc." If one of them did not give the order, goblins would do everything in their power to eliminate any living beings in the vicinity of the bodies, let alone leave the corpses behind. This was the nature of even the lowest-ranked monsters.

Aaron quickly noticed that the voices from the group behind them were getting louder, and eventually, his anger reached its peak, causing him to turn around and shout:

"What do you think you're doing?!'' The crowd behind him was genuinely frightened. A man in his 30s stepped forward and began speaking:

"We apologize for following you without showing proper courtesy, but we don't know what to do. Most of us don't have these so-called 'points,' and those who do believe that points are crucial, so nobody helps each other. We know that you are experienced and brave." The middle-aged man said.

"Experience? You've misunderstood something, sir. I am neither experienced nor brave. Yes, I'm brave, but that bravery is solely based on protecting myself and my family. If you're thinking of hiding behind someone, know that in this cursed world, surviving is a struggle, and you can't even fight."

"I understand, but what should we do?"

"We are humans, no matter how powerful another creature may be, we can defeat it with our intelligence and instincts. Throughout history, we have done this repeatedly. Now, history is repeating itself and telling us to achieve it once again. Yet here you are, coming here and complaining. Gather makeshift weapons from around, surround the monsters, just as they intended to do to you." When people heard these words, many of them became angry with Aaron. After all, he was the one who left them alone – at least that's how they saw it. However, despite that, some of them were filled with a senseless and inexplicable courage. Suddenly, people started sending each other team requests and searching for objects that could be used as weapons around them.

Human instincts began to take over.

Approximately 5 minutes later, almost everyone had armed themselves, and the man who had spoken to Aaron earlier poured out his words one last time:

"Thank you, young sir. Even if we die, I will never forget you," he said. Even though Aaron basically didn't do anything for them one drop of intrepidity was enough for them.

Everyone had suddenly left him and his family behind.

"Was it necessary?" Sean questioned in a doubtful voice, and Aaron replied, "Of course. What if we had taken them with us and they betrayed us? What if they stole from us? Right now, you just have to trust me, and I have to trust you."

"I understand, but still, many will lose their lives. It's so cruel," Valerie said with a sorrowful voice.

"I'm aware of that, but I can't protect you until I become strong enough, and in my current state where I can't even protect you, I can't guarantee the safety of every single person there. I'm not a warrior, my dear family. I'm just a regular kid who, as you can see, is slightly stronger because I took the chance to level up early in order to protect you. I guess we should thank the system for that."

"Then let's go. We have a lot to do, don't we?" Sean said, and with Aaron nodding in agreement, the conversation ended.

The group began to move forward. They were currently in the city of Durham in England, and the family's lineage had been living in the Durham County region for centuries, making them a family that knew Durham well, perhaps even the most knowledgeable. They were familiar with all the safe spots, shortcuts, and everything else one could think of. Aaron and his family were in a fairly secure situation.

As the family continued on their way, they suddenly heard voices coming from the road. It was the goblins, talking among themselves:

"Kiek! That damn human, we all pounced on him but could do nothing but wound him, kiek!"

"Kiek, yes kiek! That damn human is adept at fleeing and killing, he has slain over fifty goblin soldiers, kiek!"

"Kiek! If it weren't for him taking and carrying away our comrades' bodies, we could have gone after him, kiek!"

Upon hearing this, Aaron's eyes widened in realization. He was completely right; something had indeed taken goblin bodies from the goblins and carried it away.

''Kiek, kiek! One of the goblin archers said he saw the monster that took away our comrades. It had sharp long teeth and four legs, not a human, kiek!''

"What? Four legs and sharp long teeth? Could it be?" He thought.

"Kiek! Yes, I heard it too. It resembled a short wolf and a spiky rat, but bigger and more brutish, kiek!"

Aaron was once again shocked by the goblins' words because their description reminded him of the Young Lork Wolves. These wolves were indeed three times the size of a human and had long sharp teeth. Their levels and rankings started from Level 10 and Grade F, going higher as they advanced. With his current stats, Aaron could probably take down 10, maybe 20 of them on his own, but having his family with him made that scenario out of the question. Aaron finally shook off these thoughts and quietly discussed with his family. After all, the priority was not the wolves but the development and safety of his family.

"Listen, please. Do you see the opening over there?" Aaron pointed to the gap between the rubble, about 5 meters away.

His family answered the question by using their heads, and Aaron continued speaking:

"I'm going to enter that opening, and you will wait here until I make some noise and attract the goblins towards me. If it were just me, I could easily kill three of them on my own, but I'm not alone, and you also need to learn how to fight."

His family responded again by using their heads, and Aaron added one final sentence.

''Alright then, the plan is simple. I'll go there, make some noise to attract the goblins, and you'll come and kill them with a stealthy attack. Also, Dahlia, will you be alright?''

"I'll... I hope so," Dahlia replied. This time it was Aaron who nodded his head, and right after nodding, he swiftly and silently moved towards the rubble of the building.

Aaron picked up a handful of stones from the ground to make some noise. He began tossing them lightly around, creating a soundstorm as if someone was walking loudly. It worked, as the goblins suddenly turned their heads and screamed:

"Kiek! Prey, kiek!"

"Kiek! Yes, a tasty little prey, let's go, kiek!"

"Kiek! Let's catch it, kiek!"

The trio rushed towards Aaron's location and entered the building. There, they came face to face with the young man, who spoke when he saw them:

"Hello, garbage bags. Do you remember me?" and one of the goblins shouted, "KIEK! YOU! KIEK!"

At that moment, three swords pierced from behind them. While Sean impaled the goblin's head with his sword, Dahlia and Valerie didn't do the same. Instead, they stabbed them through their backs, and the two resisting goblins died right there.

"Well done, team," Aaron said with a smile, feeling proud. However, the incident was not good for Dahlia and Valerie. Both of them started vomiting. They had taken lives for the first time, and they knew it wouldn't be the last. But Sean wasn't in such a bad condition; he only experienced a slight dizziness.

At that moment, in front of Dahlia, Valerie, and Sean, appeared individual notifications indicating their level increase. Aaron, on the other hand, received a system notification:

"Team members Dahlia, Valerie, and Sean have leveled up." The family had successfully completed their first hunts as a team, resulting in leveling up. Although the feeling of taking lives was terrifying for them, the sense of relief and pride from leveling up overshadowed that dreadful feeling.

All three of them knew that they would continue to do this for a longer time.