Collaboration

Eisen immediately loosened up his stance and swung his Zweihänder over his shoulder, signaling Bree that everything is alright.

"Well if it isn't Jyuuk! How are you?" He asked and got closer to the Monkey Beastperson in front of him with a big smile. The beasts by Jyuuk's side began to growl louder the closer he got, but quieted down when their master told them to.

"Nice to see you again, Mister Eisen. What a coincidence that we meet here." He chuckled lowly and bowed forward as a greeting.

Respecting his wishes on how to interact, Eisen bowed back. "No need for the 'Mister', Jyuuk! Just call me Eisen!" He smiled and Jyuuk nodded lightly in response.

"Alright, thank you. What are you doing here in this area?" He asked, and Eisen frowned with a wry smile.

"Well, you know that this is near the Dwarven Country, right?"

"Huh? N-No, I did not know that… But it makes sense, considering the mountain ranges unfolding around here.

"So you've been traveling already, I see. Ah, sorry to be so rude! This is Bree, my companion. She helps me out a lot." Eisen chuckled, and Bree stepped forward and bowed down in a similar fashion as she saw Eisen and Jyuuk do.

"Nice to meet you!" She said nervously and then looked up at Eisen again. "How do you two know each other? I thought you lost your memories, Eisen." Bree asked with her head tilted to the side just slightly and an intense stare of curiosity directed at the old man.

Eisen smiled wryly and Jyuuk looked at him in panic. That was true! They were both not supposed to be able to know of each other, so how did they? When Eisen and Jyuuk were trying to figure out what to say, it seemed like both of them got a notification coming from another friend, albeit with slightly different content to each other.

[Hello Eisen~! I noticed that you met up with another Original! Since you need a way to explain your relationship, you can tell people (try to keep it to a minimum) about a white space where you two and three others found themselves with your memories lost and then were transported to the locations where you woke up! Don't mention me, though, as it might cause a few problems if you're talking to the wrong person.

In addition to that, you now unlocked more functions of the game, which can only be used in correlation with other players:

-Friend List

-Private Chat

P.S: Papa Samuel told me to say Hi! Oh, and have fun~!!!]

This notification helped both of them relax, and Eisen decided to simply tell Bree the story about that white space.

"Wooah! Really? Then you also lost your experience, Jyuuk?" Bree asked with her eyes wide open, and the Monkey-man nodded in response.

"Yes, that is so. And as Eisen mentioned, we were in that space with three others. If both of us lost our experience, they probably did as well." Jyuuk explained, and Bree looked at them with a sad frown. To just move on to the next topic, Eisen smiled and looked at Jyuuk.

"And what about these guys? Are they your companions?" He asked and motioned toward the beasts standing by Jyuuk's side. The Monkey-Man nodded with a soft smirk and moved his hand through the fur on his bear's head while the light blue bird jumped from the nest onto Jyuuk's shoulder. "Yes, they are. My occupation became 'Beast Master', it's a Tamer occupation. These kids here are the beasts that I tamed. This Eagle is called Aotori, and that Stag is Tsurishika. Inside that nest are the five of Aotori's chicks, the four blue ones are Mizutori, Nagaretori, Rekutori, and Iketori, and the red one is-"

"Let me guess, Akatori? And would that make that that Bear something like Kuraikuma or Yamikuma?" Eisen asked with a wry smile. Jyuuk seemed to have quite an interesting naming sense…

Surprised, Jyuuk opened his eyes wide. "Huh? How did you know? They're Akatori and Yamikuma…" He said confused, and Eisen winked cheekily, leaning in toward Jyuuk so Bree couldn't hear what he was about to say. After all, he didn't know how he could explain that part to her.

Quietly, Eisen explained that he can speak Japanese, so he knew what those names meant. "Oh really? What a surprise! We must talk about that sometime, I would love to hear the story behind that." Jyuuk smiled while his tamed beasts snuggled up to him, realizing that there was no threat around.

Eisen chuckled lowly and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Let's do that. So, are you hunting in the area right now?" He asked.

"Yes, I am. There was a small village of Goblins on the other side of the tunnel, although it was basically completely abandoned. And you? Are you hunting here as well?"

"Exactly. I need to get my stats up for a quest. If I do that just through leveling up, I need to get to about level 72, within a little more than a week."

"Oh, do you need my help in any way?" Jyuuk asked, more than happy to aid his elder and new friend with this task. Otherwise, he would have fought alone anyway, so why not help out Eisen at the same time?

"Hmm, I'm not sure… Bree, you said something about experience sharing, right? What would be more efficient? Us fighting individually, or having Jyuuk fight with us?"

Bree slightly tilted her head to the side and began to think about what the best course of action would be.

"So, let's say we all get close to each other's levels so that we all share the experience we get. Ah, which of your beasts can fight, Jyuuk?" She asked, and Jyuuk explained that right now only Aotori and Yamikuma would be able to. At some later point in time though, the chicks would be able to as well.

"Alright, then we have four fighters and one supporter… Since the experience would be split amongst us three, and Jyuuk's beasts would just get a share of his, it might actually speed up your growth, Eisen!" She explained, and Eisen nodded in understanding now that Bree explained how experience sharing worked.

"I see, thanks. Jyuuk, are you alright with that as well?"

"Yes, of course. I don't mind, really. What will we be fighting against?"

"Basically just Goblins. The whole place is swarming with them, and there seems to be some kind of town near here as well, so we'll definitely have enough monsters to fight against."

Jyuuk nodded with a smile on his face and grabbed his wooden pole tightly. "Lead the way."

---

"There's another group of five Goblins about fifty meters south. A Knight, Mage, Assassin, Cleric and some kind of goblin I haven't seen before. It's holding something like a lute. I can't tell what type the Mage is either." Jyuuk explained. The tactic that the party has been using up until now was fairly simple.

Using Aotori, Jyuuk scouted ahead to look for a good group of Goblins to fight against and tell Eisen and Bree about what types they were.

Before the fight began, Bree buffed everyone in the group, including the tamed beasts, and then Aotori and Yamikuma formed the Vanguard. As Aotori did the least amount of damage, for now, she attacked any Goblin that needed time to attack, meaning different Mages or Clerics, to at least distract them and buy time. Yamikuma always attacked Goblins like Knights, Swordsmen or similar, as they were the most potent close-combat fighters.

While Jyuuk's beasts were busy, Bree de-buffed the Goblins and Jyuuk and Eisen stormed forward, taking on the other Goblins. Who would take on which largely depended on the situation and type of Goblins that were in the group, and Bree would give as much support as possible and see if she could take out one of the physically weaker Goblins with her Warhammer, and usually tried to finish off the ones that Aotori attacked, as they were already damaged and distracted. However, if it got too dangerous for her, she would simply try and get out of range of the nearest attacker and either Eisen and Jyuuk would take care of it instead.

"Seems like that's one of those rare types that I mentioned to you before, Eisen… It's a Goblin Bard. They aren't really that strong, but they can de-buff us… And I heard that they are super annoying…" Bree explained and twisted her face in annoyance, in response of which Eisen softly laughed.

"Well, I guess we should try and take it out quickly then." He suggested, and Jyuuk nodded and looked at Aotori. "You take on that bard, then. And you, Yamikuma, take on the knight. Eisen, which ones should we take on?" He asked, and Eisen scratched his beard in thought.

"The Assassin and Mage seem like the most troubling ones. I can take the Assassin if you want, and then you can take the Mage. Whoever kills their goblin first moves on to the Cleric, and and then the bard. At last, we all fight against the Knight. Alright?" Eisen suggested, and both Jyuuk and Bree nodded in agreement.

"Then let's go," Eisen said, and Jyuuk motioned his beasts to attack. Following them immediately, Eisen and Jyuuk waited for the beasts to face their respective goblin and then jumped forward while the Goblins reacted in surprise.

The Assassin wanted to dodge, but Eisen anticipated it slightly and managed to cut off its path. However, due to the speed of the assassin goblin, it still managed to evade the brunt of Eisen's slash and was only cut by its leg. In response, it jumped forward and tried to attack Eisen with a poison-covered dagger in his hand, stabbing it forward. Also expecting this attack, since he got used to the regular attack patterns of goblins at this point in time, Eisen slashed his Zweihänder downward just in time to hit the Goblin's hand, cutting it off just in front of the wrist.

Directly afterward, Eisen slashed the sword to the side and cut into the side of the Goblin's torso which injured it fatally. Quickly, Eisen finished it off by stabbing through its head and then looked over to Jyuuk to see the progress with his fight. Since he was working with a low-quality blunt weapon, it took him a bit longer to kill the goblin, despite the fact that it was basically constantly staggered and stunned.

Next, Eisen looked over to the Cleric that began to cast healing wonders, which was the spell-equivalent for skills that depended on their faith for a god, and held the Zweihänder over the top of his head and swung it down as fast as possible, cutting into the Cleric's shoulder.

It clutched the religious symbol in its hands and seemed to say some kind of prayer in the Gobin's language until a soft light encased him, the Bard and the Knight, apparently partially healing their wounds. Luckily, Jyuuk managed to kill the Mage just before the cleric could heal it as well.

While Eisen was preparing for an attack, Bree ran up behind the Cleric and swung her Warhammer to the back of its head with full force and at the same time Eisen slashed his Zweihänder into the Goblin's legs from the front, which lead to the Goblin dropping to the ground with its head nearly completely bashed in and in a state that meant it was unable to move, making it possible for Bree to finish it off.

Jyuuk was running up to the Goblin Bard, and Eisen ran up to the Knight at the same time. Just before Jyuuk was able to hit the Bard, it managed to open its mouth for the start of a song. The sound was beyond horrible, and immediately left the whole group stunned as it reverberated through the small area surrounding them. Even Jyuuk's beasts were stunned, letting the Goblin Knight push back Yamikuma and injure it greatly as it stabbed into his belly, then turned to Eisen while the bear was lying on the ground without being able to move.

While the Knight lifted its blade to swing at Eisen, Jyuuk swung his pole forward in a fit of rage toward the Bard, basically breaking through the stun with sheer force that was caused by anger. This made sure that the Bard stopped its horrible song, and let Eisen react quickly as he swung his sword to the side, catching the Goblin off-guard and cutting through its throat while Jyuuk crushed the Bard's, making it impossible for it to continue singing. But due to the rough treatment, the pole got just now, it shattered into pieces and left Jyuuk without a weapon.

He looked back at Eisen, who already ran toward them and swung his sword toward the goblin that was holding its throat in pain.