“So they kept chasing me, and obviously I had no choice but to run.” Nia sat beside the campfire with a warm roasted sweet potato cupped between both hands.
She ate slowly as she continued telling Kyle about what she’d been through over the past two days.
“They chased me all the way from Seabreeze City to the area around Westport.
Two whole days.” She frowned in annoyance.
“Seriously, how irritating can people get?
No matter how many times I lost them, they kept coming back.
Like a bunch of bugs that just wouldn’t go away.” Her nose wrinkled in disgust.
She might have made it sound casual, but being chased for two straight days had clearly exhausted her.
Kyle sat on the other side of the fire and listened quietly without interrupting.
From everything Nia had said, however, he had already figured something out.
Even an Intermediate Skill Scroll worth more than ten million gold didn’t seem particularly precious in Nia’s eyes.
The reason she’d rather spend two days being chased than hand it over wasn’t really because of its value.
It was simply because she’d found it herself.
It belonged to her.
So why should she let someone else take it?
Kyle glanced at her.
He was becoming increasingly curious about Nia’s background.
Someone who could casually give away an Intermediate Skill Scroll worth ten million gold couldn’t possibly come from an ordinary family.
Nia talked for quite a while before finally noticing that Kyle still hadn’t responded.
She stopped.
“Why aren’t you talking again?” Kyle waited until she had completely finished before calmly saying, “You almost died.” Nia froze.
Apparently, after listening in silence for so long, that was the last thing she’d expected him to say.
Then she waved a hand dismissively.
“Relax.
I’m not that easy to kill.” She took another bite of sweet potato and swallowed before continuing.
“If I really take a fatal hit, one of the life-saving items I’m carrying will activate automatically and teleport me somewhere safe.” After saying that, she seemed to realize how ungrateful that might sound and quickly added, “But I still have to thank you.” “If you hadn’t been there, I probably wouldn’t have died, but I definitely would’ve gotten hurt.” At the thought of being injured, Nia instinctively pulled her shoulders in.
The disgust on her face was even stronger than when she’d talked about the three people chasing her.
“Getting hurt really hurts.” “I hate pain.” Kyle looked at her.
For once, he didn’t know what to say.
Apparently, he’d worried more than necessary.
This young lady could casually give away an Intermediate Skill Scroll worth ten million gold.
And on top of that, she carried an item capable of automatically teleporting her to safety when she suffered a fatal attack.
An ordinary class holder might never even see something like that in their entire life.
Nia quickly finished the sweet potato in her hands.
She clearly wasn’t full.
Without the slightest hesitation, she held out one hand toward Kyle.
“I gave you an Intermediate Skill Scroll.” “Got anything else to eat?” Kyle checked his storage space and took out several pieces of bread from the loot they’d collected earlier.
There were more than a dozen.
The moment Nia saw them, however, she shook her head.
“No.” Kyle looked at her.
“Why?” “I want the thing from earlier.” “The sweet potato.” Kyle fell silent for a moment.
He put the bread away and took out another sweet potato instead.
Only then did Nia accept it with satisfaction.
“Much better.” She took a bite before casually adding, “That bread came off dead people.” “This young lady isn’t eating that.” Kyle stared at her.
“…” She certainly hadn’t looked this disgusted when they were collecting the dead people’s equipment.
Kyle ultimately decided not to say it.
Instead, he watched Nia happily eating the sweet potato and found himself slightly confused.
Was it really that good?
When he’d eaten one himself, he’d thought it was fine.
Nothing special.
Yet Nia looked as though she’d discovered some rare delicacy.
One bite followed another, and before long, more than half of it was gone.
Halfway through, she suddenly seemed to remember something.
“By the way, why did you come this deep into the forest alone?” “Just to level up?” Kyle nodded.
“Partly.” Nia stopped mid-bite.
She immediately caught the important part.
“Partly?” “So you’ve got another reason.” Kyle didn’t hide it.
“I’m going to Blackstone Mine.” This time, Nia stopped completely.
Kyle noticed.
“What’s wrong?” Nia didn’t answer immediately.
She swallowed the sweet potato in her mouth first.
“You mean the Blackstone Mine north of Westport?” “The Level 14 dungeon?” “Yeah.” “What are you going there for?” “There’s a mission at the Exchange.” Kyle paused before adding, “And the goblins I encountered in the forest today were acting strangely.” He reached into his storage space and took out one of the Goblin Bone Fragments he’d deliberately kept earlier.
The fragment was only about the size of his palm.
Aside from its natural gray-white color, several faint black marks could be seen across its surface.
Kyle handed it to her.
“This.” Nia took the bone fragment.
The casual expression on her face gradually faded when she saw the black marks.
She rubbed one with her fingertip.
Nothing came off.
Then she brought the fragment closer and smelled it.
There was none of the burnt odor that ordinary scorching would have left behind.
Kyle watched her reaction.
“You’ve seen this before?” “I’m not sure.” Nia studied the fragment for a while.
Her expression gradually became more serious.
“But while I was coming here from Seabreeze City over the past two days, I think I ran into some strange goblins too.” Kyle’s eyes shifted.
“Where?” “Somewhere between Seabreeze City and Westport.” Nia thought carefully.
“I think I was already closer to Westport by then.” “There were probably a dozen or so of them.
At first, I thought they were just ordinary wild goblins, so I wasn’t going to bother with them.” “But for some reason, they kept following me.” Kyle frowned slightly.
“They chased you?” “Yeah.
For a long way.” Nia nodded and gestured with one hand.
“Normally, if wild goblins realize a class holder is way above their level, they’ll either hide or run back to find more of their own kind.” “But those were different.” “I’d already gone really far, and they were still chasing me.” She looked down at the bone fragment again.
“Eventually they annoyed me enough that I killed a few.” “I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but seeing this bone reminded me.” “One of those goblins had something black on it too.” Kyle immediately asked, “Where?” Nia thought for a moment.
“Around its eyes.” “And there was some on its arms too.” “It didn’t look like something stuck to the skin.” “It looked more like it was growing from underneath.” Kyle didn’t answer immediately.
When he’d discovered the strange bone fragments that afternoon, he hadn’t known what they meant.
He couldn’t even be certain whether the black marks were limited to one small group of goblins.
But now Nia had encountered something similar from another direction.
More importantly, their behavior had been abnormal too.
The number of goblins in the forest had suddenly increased.
Black marks of unknown origin had appeared on their bones.
And on the road from Seabreeze City to Westport, Nia had encountered goblins willing to chase a class holder despite an obvious level difference.
Any one of those things could have been dismissed as coincidence.
All of them happening at once was harder to ignore.
Nia watched Kyle thinking and quickly guessed what was on his mind.
“So you think this has something to do with Blackstone Mine?” “It’s only a possibility.” Kyle’s answer was calm.
Blackstone Mine was already one of the areas with the highest concentration of goblins around Westport.
It also wasn’t particularly far from the forest where Kyle had encountered the abnormal goblins.
With more unusual signs beginning to appear, it was naturally the most obvious place to investigate.
Nia looked at the bone fragment once more before handing it back.
“Then you’d better be careful tomorrow.” “If it’s just the normal dungeon, that’s one thing.” “But if these goblins are already changing, who knows what’s happening inside the mine?” Kyle returned the fragment to his storage space.
“Mm.” Nia waited.
Nothing else came.
She looked up at him in dissatisfaction.
“That’s it?” Kyle looked back.
“What?” “I just told you something that important, and all I get is ‘mm’?” Kyle seriously considered the problem.
“Thank you.” Nia stared at him.
“…” She suddenly felt that expecting anything more had been a mistake.
Nia lowered her head and took an aggressive bite of her sweet potato.
“Kyle, you dummy.” Kyle looked up.
“What?” “Nothing.” Nia continued eating.
But the corners of her mouth quietly curled upward.
The night gradually deepened.
The two talked a little more afterward, but Nia had spent two days being chased and had gone through another fight tonight.
She was already exhausted.
Before long, her voice grew quieter and quieter.
At first, Kyle occasionally answered.
When he realized the other side of the fire had gone completely silent, he finally looked up.
Nia had fallen asleep leaning against the rock beside her.
She was still holding a half-eaten sweet potato.
Kyle didn’t wake her.
The forest was cold at night.
With so many undead moving around the perimeter, the air nearby was even colder than elsewhere.
Kyle took a spare coat from his storage space and gently draped it over Nia.
Then he returned to his original position.
Forty Black-Iron Skeleton Warriors remained scattered across the outer perimeter.
Four Bronze-Rank Skeleton Warriors guarded positions closer to the camp.
Once Kyle confirmed there was nothing unusual nearby, he closed his eyes again and began meditating to restore his Spirit.
The rest of the night passed without incident.
The next morning, sunlight filtered through the dense canopy and scattered patches of light across the forest floor.
The campfire that had burned through the night was already dead, leaving only pale gray ashes behind.
Kyle ended his meditation.
After an entire night of recovery, his Spirit had returned to full.
But the moment he opened his eyes— he found a face directly in front of him.
Nia was crouching there.
Her bright eyes were fixed on him.
Kyle remained silent for two seconds.
“What?” Nia immediately held out her hand.
“Any sweet potatoes left?” Kyle stared at her.
“…” She had been crouching here waiting for him to wake up— for sweet potatoes?
Kyle took one from his storage space and handed it to her.
Nia accepted it.
But the hand she’d extended didn’t move.
Kyle looked at her.
Nia looked right back at him as though this were perfectly reasonable.
“Not enough.” “More.” Kyle took out another.
Nia still didn’t lower her hand.
“More?” A third.
A fourth.
A fifth…
Eventually, Kyle simply took out every sweet potato remaining in his storage space.
More than twenty sweet potatoes piled into Nia’s arms.
She hurriedly gathered them against herself, her eyes immediately curving with delight.
“That’s more like it.” As she transferred them into her own storage space, she complained with complete confidence, “Why are you so stingy?” “They’re just sweet potatoes.” “You’re a grown man.
Be a little more generous.
You could’ve just given me all of them from the beginning.” Kyle looked into his storage space.
His food supply was empty.
Not a single sweet potato remained.
After putting everything away, Nia still seemed suspicious.
“That’s really all of them?” “Really.” She narrowed her eyes at Kyle.
The look on her face made it seem as though she wanted to climb directly into his storage space and check for herself.
Only after deciding that he probably wasn’t lying did she finally nod.
“Fine.” “I believe you.” She stood up and brushed the dust from her clothes.
“I’m leaving.” Kyle looked up.
“Where are you going?” Nia blinked.
This was probably the first time since meeting him that the quiet Kyle had actually taken the initiative to ask where she was going.
“Back to Seabreeze City first.” She smiled.
“Those three chased me around for two days.
There are a few things I need to deal with back there.” “After that, I need to keep leveling too.” Then she seemed to remember something and became serious again.
“As for you—if something really is wrong with Blackstone Mine, don’t go inside and think only about leveling.” “If things don’t look right, come back out first.” “The dungeon isn’t going to grow legs and run away.” Kyle nodded.
“Got it.” Nia seemed satisfied with that answer.
She waved.
“Then I’m off.” After walking several steps, she suddenly turned around again.
“Kyle, you dummy.” Kyle’s brow moved slightly.
“Kyle, you dummy?” Nia didn’t give him a chance to object.
She was already laughing as she backed away.
“You’d better level up quickly!” “When you’re stronger, remember to take me leveling with you!” Then she turned and left.
Her black-clad figure quickly passed between the trees and gradually disappeared from Kyle’s sight.
Kyle remained seated, looking in the direction she’d gone.
After a moment, he suddenly felt as though something was missing.
The sweet potatoes.
She had taken all of them.
Kyle looked down at his now-empty food storage.
Then his gaze shifted toward the place where Nia had slept last night.
That was empty too.
The spare coat he’d draped over her— was gone.
Kyle stared at the empty spot.
“…” He looked up again.
Nia had already disappeared so completely that he couldn’t even see her shadow.
After a moment of silence, Kyle quietly repeated what she’d said before leaving.
“Take you leveling someday…” He remembered that.
As for the sweet potatoes and his coat— forget it.
Kyle stood and completely extinguished what remained of the campfire.
Then he briefly cleaned up the traces they’d left around the campsite.
Only after finishing did he take out the Goblin Bone Fragment with the black marks again.
When he’d first discovered it yesterday, he’d only thought it was unusual.
Now, however, he could be certain that the goblins changing weren’t limited to the group he’d encountered in the forest.
Similar goblins had appeared on the road between Seabreeze City and Westport.
Even their normal behavioral patterns had begun to change.
Kyle put the bone fragment away and looked toward the northern side of the forest.
That was where Blackstone Mine was located.
Originally, he’d only planned to visit because of the mission at the Exchange while continuing to level along the way.
But now— things clearly weren’t that simple anymore.
The forty Black-Iron Skeleton Warriors spread out ahead of him once again to scout and keep watch.
The four Bronze-Rank Skeleton Warriors remained closer to Kyle.
Once he’d confirmed the direction, Kyle didn’t linger.
He started north through the forest.
His destination— Blackstone Mine.