"Guys, there's another horde ahead! A silver, five bronze, and many irons. The silver seems to be a Mage." I hear Cleo through the interface.
"A mage??? That'll be tough, and it's evening too, so Jay has low damage with his clockwork. Sarah, you'll have to do most of the work," Max called out.
"I'll summon my Nanoraptors to help you," I suggested.
And so we moved forward, preparing ourselves for our fourth encounter with a goblin horde. It had been three days since we left the Town of Beginnings. Aside from picking off one or two goblins, we'd barely encountered any. According to Max, that dungeon should've had hundreds of goblins if it was silver ranked.
"Did you figure out why we haven't seen as many goblins as we should have?" Max asked Cleo.
"I picked up trails using my Scent Trace skill. Most of them seem to be heading toward the river outside Arcadia Forest," she replied.
"They're leaving the forest? Doesn't that mean they'll infiltrate the next town?" I frowned.
"They can't. There's a huge plateau where the river flows. And there are defenses set up by the next town," Sarah said.
"Now that I think about it, when do I get my geography lessons? What's the next town?"
"The next town is the Town of Trades or Town of Flourishment, called Silvermoon. It has huge marketplaces and is one of the three biggest trade centers," Max answered.
"This where I get to learn Cleo is a princess from Silvermoon?" I joked.
"No… but the town is full of us Silvestris folks," Cleo replied.
After a bit of talk about what we could buy in Silvermoon, we reached our destination and spotted the goblin mage. He was bigger than the one we first fought, had a skull-topped staff, and wore a necklace made of bones. His skin was a strange shade of purple, instead of the usual green that orcs and goblins had. The rest of the goblins had bone spears and didn't carry the usual buckle shields.
"Alright, Sarah, this is going to be on you and Jay. I'll handle the bronze ones. Cleo will hold off the irons. Jay, pick them off if they get close to Sarah," Max explained the plan.
"I'll win, Max. Don't worry," Sarah replied.
I summoned four Nanoraptors, saving half my MP for Slowdown and Blades of Wind. Max charged into the bronze goblins. His fight looked like it was going to take a while. On the other side, Cleo used a skill that surprised me. Vines shot out and tied up about thirty goblins.
"What's that?" I asked Sarah.
"Oh, that's her Thorns of Roses skill. It drains health and traps enemies. It doesn't work well on bronze monsters though. Anyway, let's start the attack," she replied.
I used Slowdown on the silver goblin mage while Sarah fired off spells like Fireball, Icicles, and what looked like conjured blades. I added my Blades of Wind and decided to try using Arcaniac at the same time.
"Wait, it actually works! I can combine Arcaniac with Blades of Wind!" Excited by the discovery, I kept using both, charging my sword. Sarah kept attacking with her spells.
Then, suddenly… everything went dark.
.
.
I opened my eyes to a black sky, filled with smoke. The smell of blood was everywhere.
"What just happened? Where's everyone?" I stood up, confused. Looking around, I found myself in what looked like a graveyard. There was one grave that stood out—larger than the rest. I walked toward it slowly. When I saw the name carved on the stone, I froze.
Here lies the Strongest, Jay Chawla.
"Huh? I'm dead? The strongest?" I stared at the grave, shocked. That's when I noticed someone had walked up beside me. I hadn't even heard their footsteps.
"Jay, I'm sorry I had to kill you. You were too strong for this world. Thanks for leading me, my friend."He said it to the grave—and walked away.
.
.
"Jay! Jay, can you hear me?"
I blinked as the sky changed again. The smoke, the grave, and the strange figure faded away like mist. I felt cold, then warm, then… real.
"Jay, wake up!" Sarah's voice rang out, and I felt a hand shaking my shoulder.
I opened my eyes and saw Sarah, Max, and Cleo standing around me, looking worried. We were back in the forest. The battle was over. Goblin bodies were scattered across the ground.
"You okay?" Max asked, helping me sit up.
"Yeah… I think so." I rubbed my forehead. My sword was lying beside me, still faintly glowing from the leftover energy.
"You collapsed mid-fight," Sarah said. "But then your Nanoraptors went wild, like they were protecting you."
"It was really weird," Cleo added. "The silver goblin tried to cast something on you but… something pushed it back. We couldn't even get close to you for a while."
I stayed quiet for a few seconds, then slowly said, "I… saw something. Like a dream, but it felt real."
"What kind of dream?" Max asked, looking serious.
"It was a graveyard. Everything was destroyed. There was a grave with my name on it. Someone was there too, talking to the grave. Said… I was too strong for this world." I paused. "But I don't remember anything after that."
Max looked at me carefully. "That might've been a memory… or maybe a vision. It's rare, but some people get flashes of their past lives, or glimpses of what could happen."
"You think it's something from before I started in this world?" I asked.
"Could be. Or it might be connected to your class. You've used Arcaniac twice now, right? Maybe it's waking something up in you," Max said.
Sarah frowned. "Jay… are you sure you're okay? That didn't sound like just a normal vision."
"I'm fine," I said, forcing a small smile. "I'll keep an eye on it. But I think I should head back and rest a bit.""
Cleo nodded. "Yeah… but tell us right away if you see anything again."
"Of course," I replied.
I didn't tell them about the other part—the words carved into the grave.The Strongest.I didn't know what it meant yet. But I'd figure it out.