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Free dinner

Matt’s smile widened slightly before he nodded, then he spoke

“Great, looking forward to working with you, Felicia…”

Felicia nodded before she swung her long spear over her shoulders and walked over to Matt, when she reached him she clapped him on the shoulder and asked

“Could you take me and a small group to where you killed the metal panther?”

Matt nodded before he added

“As long as I approve of the members of this small group, some of your people don’t look to take kindly to my presence”

Felicia nodded before she showed a thin smile and turned her head to the side and called out

“Jo, Bella, Ike! Get your tools, we have ourselves a free dinner to partake in!”

3 people quickly grabbed their weapons from the camp before they jogged over to Matt and Felicia, Matt glanced at them, 2 were women and one was a man, they all seemed older than the other bunch. Matt didn’t detect any killing intent from them so he turned around and walked into the forest, when they were a little away from the encampment Matt spoke without looking back at them

“Your name was Ike, right?”

The man in the group nodded and asked

“Right, your name is Matt, right?”

“Yep… Say, where did you get that hello kitty watch?”

The 4 people looked surprised for a moment before Felicia spoke

“So you are a Lost too, Matt?”

Matt kept leading the way as he spoke

“If you mean that I am from another world, then yeah”

Ike smiled as he spoke, he felt a sense of companionship with Matt now that he knew that they both were from the same world

“One day I went to work and disappeared from my office, reappeared in this forest… Luckily I was on the outskirts of it… my daughter had given me her watch as a good luck charm, and I really was lucky, all things considered, I met Fel soon after, and she took me in”

Felicia nodded, then she thought for a few moments before she spoke

“A lot of Lost appear in this forest, the wisemen say the space in this area is unstable, so maybe that’s why? Anyway, there are a lot of things I don’t understand about their so-called wise words”

The other 2 women nodded before one of them spoke

“If you are a Lost like Ike then you better stay away from the Rights temple and their people, they treat you Lost as outcasts, or in some cases, as demons”

Matt nodded, then he abruptly changed the direction he was walking in as he spoke

“That nun… she’s with the Rights temple?”

Felicia and the others followed Matt’s change in route as Felicia nodded

“That she is, the Rights temple have a lot of sway in our exploration outpost”

Matt nodded, then he asked

“Mind if we speed up a bit?”

Felicia and the other 3 nodded, then Matt began jogging through the underbrush, after a few minutes they neared the place where he had battled with the metal panther, a strong scent of blood hang in the air, the 4 people glanced around the area and ignored the corpses of the recruits as they set their sights on the metal panther, Ike robbed his hands together as he spoke

“Fel… You chose right when you accepted Matt, he’s brought us a golden egg!”

Felicia’s eyes also sparkled, so did the other 2’s, though Matt quickly snapped them out of their daze as he spoke

“You better hurry… Before we have uninvited guests”

The 4 of them snapped out of their daze and nodded, then Ike took off his backpack and took out a few coils of rope as well as a tool that looked like a medium-sized pickaxe along with a knife, then he walked over to the carcass of the metal panther and began stripping the metal plating from its carcass with practiced movements, the other 3 kept watch around the clearing, Matt he jumped into a tree and sat down before he closed his eyes, though he was still alert to the surroundings, for a while nothing other than Ike stripping the metal plating off the carcass happened, but then something entered Matt’s perception, he opened his eyes and spoke out to the others

“We have company”

Felicia nodded before she called out

“Bella!”

“Yes Felicia!”

Bella closed her eyes and tapped the wooden staff in her hand on the ground once, Matt could feel something spreading out from Bella through her wooden staff where it changed and turned into a pulse that spread out with Bella in the center, then after a bit Bella spoke

“1 group, 8 small sized monsters!”

Matt nodded, Bella’s prediction matched up with his perception, soon the group of monsters emerged out from the undergrowth, it was indeed 8 small sized monsters, they looked like small wolves though their tails were that of a giant scorpion-like stinger on the end of their tail, Matt narrowed his eyes, he had seen this monster before, he had died to it too, he quickly called out to the others

“Don’t get stabbed by the stingers, they can also spray poison from their mouths!”

Felicia nodded and called out as she kicked off the ground closing the distance with the monsters

“Cover!”

Jo raised her crossbow and yelled out

“On it!”

Matt stayed on the branch of the tree and watched them, Felicia’s group had treated him nicely sure, but their survival wasn’t required for him to reach civilization, Matt paused as he had a sudden thought

‘When did I become so callous..? I used to be so naive… When did I change..? Is something messing with my mind..? I killed people too, yet I am entirely calm… Something is definitely wrong with me…’

The more Matt thought, the more he felt a headache, it was like white noise stemming from the base of his skull spreading through his head, Matt felt dizzy at once and grabbed his head with a hand while his thoughts swirled around in his head, all the feelings that had been suppressed surged, fear, disgust, guilt and anger were twisting around his head for a few moments before a dark green light shone in his eyes. Then he calmed down somewhat as a thought surfaced in his mind, bringing clarity to him

‘...I am going to live, survive this… Only then I can grow old and feel sorry for myself’

Then Matt looked at how the battle was going, Felicia was holding off the scorpion wolves while Jo and Bella were attempting to pick them off from a distance with bolts and what looked like orbs of pure energy which she fired from her staff after preparing them for a moment, though things weren’t looking too bright for them, this was likely due to the fact that Ike was busy stripping the metal plating off the metal panther carcass and couldn’t assist them. Thought having him stop his work to help them was not an option, it was only a matter of time before other monsters showed up with a stench of blood this dense, so stripping the metal plating took priority, that said they would likely retreat if things got too dangerous, after all, you could only spend your hard-earned money if you were alive, Matt cracked his neck before he jumped down and landed in the undergrowth as he spoke

“I’ll assist”

Then he kicked off the ground and rapidly approached the frontline which was still being held down by Felicia, so far the 3 of them had killed 3 scorpion wolves while Matt had been confused over his own state of mind, this left 5 alive still, Matt passed Felicia and collapsed his poster once he entered the range of the scorpion wolves, as if having predicted it one of the scorpion wolves pounced over Matt that were sliding on his knees, Matt reached up with his deployed palm bone spike and slashed open the chest and stomach of the scorpion wolf that had pounced over him, Matt didn’t stay still and celebrate his victory however as he pushed off the ground with his other hand and narrowly avoided a stab from another scorpion wolf’s stinger, twisting in the air he delivered a kick to another scorpion wolf, sending it flying until it hit the trunk of a tree sending a loud crack out as its spine snapped ending its life. Felicia, Bella and Jo didn’t stay idle and managed to deal with the remaining 3 scorpion wolves swiftly, then Felicia thanked Matt

“Thank you for the assist, Matt”

Matt nodded and ripped the chest of one of his kills open before he grabbed the core, then he walked over to his other kill and was about to rip the chest of the carcass open when Felicia handed him a knife while holding the blade

“Here, this is how we do it in the civilized world”

Matt showed a smile and received the knife from Felicia before he stabbed it into the carcass and slashed it open before he grabbed the core