Elias gulped, the back of his neck prickling with cold sweat.
"Look, I’m really sorry about all this. I didn’t know—"
He was cut off mid-sentence as the entire group in front of him burst into laughter. Amanda, in particular, wore a wide grin, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
"We’re just messing with you," she said, grinning. "Coincidentally, Erik’s my boyfriend. So imagine my surprise when I asked him who dumped their monsters on him, and he pointed at you. We couldn’t not mess with you after that."
"Nice to meet you, lad," Erik said. "These two are my cousins—Robert and Anderson."
The family resemblance was obvious. All three shared olive-toned skin, short black hair, thick beards, and dark eyes. They were broad and solidly built, though not quite as tall as they had first seemed. They also had similarly large noses and ears. In fact, they looked more like brothers than Alana and Amanda looked like sisters.
“I just happened to be nearby when I saw them talking about you,” said the lone young man with a grin. “I overheard Amanda suggest pranking you, and I got curious. I’m Alex, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Elias,” he replied, nodding to Alex and the three cousins.
Now that he knew the group in front of him wasn’t looking to demand satisfaction for being screwed over, Elias felt much more at ease.
As group after group arrived in the glade, he’d started to worry that everyone might band together and make him pay for causing the whole mess. At this point, he was just hoping no one realized he was the one responsible in the first place.
There were so many groups involved by now that it would be nearly impossible to identify who had first gathered a horde of monsters, especially since some groups hadn’t come to the glade at all. As long as he kept quiet, Elias figured he’d be fine.
“So, who’d you stumble into to end up here?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
A chill passed through Elias, but he kept his expression carefully neutral. It felt like the man had read his thoughts—his heart began to race.
But no. Looking closer, he could tell Alex wasn’t onto him. The guy was just a gossip.
Schooling his features into a passive mask, Elias scrambled to come up with a plausible answer.
"The group that ran into me isn’t here," Elias said. "I was still pretty far from the glade at the time. I think they might’ve headed straight for the clearing."
"Is that so?" Alex asked, his eyes narrowing slightly, though a roguish smile tugged at his lips. "Could you describe them to me? I’ve been at the level cap for a while now, so I know most of the adventurer groups in the newbie zone. Maybe I can figure out who they are."
"I... I don’t really remember what they looked like," Elias stammered, his mind racing. "It all happened so fast, you know? I think one of them was a tall brunette woman, and the other was a man—a tall man with dark hair. They might’ve been a couple... no, they were definitely a couple."
"Is that so?" Alex asked, his smile widening.
The rest of the group was now eyeing Elias with a mix of knowing smirks and narrowed eyes. On the inside, he cursed Alex for his persistence—and himself for being such a terrible liar. Outwardly, he nodded with confidence, flashing a bright smile at Alex and the others as if nothing were wrong.
Silence stretched between them as Elias locked eyes with each person in turn. He no longer trusted himself to speak.
Alex’s smile was as smug as a cat’s, mirrored by Alana—though hers was more restrained. The three cousins wore matching cocky grins, and Amanda looked seconds away from bursting into a fit of giggling.
Elias held firm, not folding under the pressure in the slightest—until he broke.
"Okay, it was me," he whispered urgently. "But please don’t tell anyone else."
"Wait—what? It was really you?!" Erik said, his voice far too loud for Elias's taste.
Elias blinked, catching the surprise even on Alex’s face—and cursed under his breath. He’d been baited. None of them had actually thought he was the real culprit. They were just messing with him again.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
He clicked his tongue. The confession was out now, so all he could do was run damage control.
"Yes. Now please lower your voice," Elias pleaded.
"Fine, fine!" Erik replied—without lowering his voice in the slightest. "You seem like a good sort, Elias, so we’ll let it go. Isn’t that right?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. Some were still chuckling; others just smiled in quiet amusement. Elias returned their nods with a thankful smile, but his shoulders remained tense, despite how easygoing everyone was being. The mischievous glint in Alex’s eyes made it impossible to relax.
Elias narrowed his eyes at the man, briefly considering whether he should try knocking him out. After all, it was hard to talk when you were unconscious.
But it was already too late.
Before Elias could say another word, Alex excused himself from the group, claiming he’d just spotted a few friends. He slipped away with that same roguish smile from before—and Elias’s heart clenched.
Given how gossipy the man seemed, it would be mere minutes before everyone in the glade knew Elias was the one behind the monster hordes.
It didn’t take nearly that long.
In less than a minute, Alex had already moved from one group of friends to another—and that’s when Elias’s fear became reality.
He watched as Alex spoke to a tall, thick, and hairy man who suddenly turned and pointed straight at him, seeming to ask, “That’s him?” Alex nodded in confirmation.
"Hey, everyone! That’s him right there—the one with the short blond hair! He’s the one who caused this whole mess!" the large man boomed, then burst into boisterous laughter.
Everyone in the glade stopped what they were doing, and Elias froze like a mouse in front of a cat. Slowly, he edged toward the island’s edge, already planning his escape in case the crowd of adventurers turned on him.
Maybe if he got away and laid low for a few days, they’d forget what he looked like. If that failed, he could always buy a mask and keep it on until he reached the Beginner rank.
The glade erupted into shouts and hollers. Elias heard a few curses, some people yelling things like “Nice going, dumbass!”, and even got splashed with water from a few tossed bottles. But he didn’t sense any real hostility—they were just having fun at his expense.
He’d been hoping the crowd wouldn’t turn violent, but he definitely hadn’t expected them to treat the whole thing like a joke. If anything, they were mocking him more than blaming him. The curses and shouts had no real bite.
"Relax, lad. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and we’re all adventurers here—well, most of us anyway," Erik said with a grin, noticing Elias’s confusion. "I’m a few years older than my cousins, so I’ve been around this crowd a bit longer. Trust me, most of the people here have their own share of stupid mistakes to their names. No one’s going to give you a hard time for screwing up—just don’t do it again. Hell, this is actually my third time in this exact same situation."
"I think what Erik meant to say is that no one’s going to give you too hard a time. You’re still going to get picked on for a while," Alana said with a wink, grinning. "There’s nothing to it, though—you deserve it."
"Just don’t let them go too far," Amanda added.
"And no matter what you do, don’t let them give you a nickname. Those never seem to go away," Anderson said, shooting Roberto a smirk. "Isn’t that right, Goose?"
Roberto’s eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched. He took a deep breath and jabbed a finger at Anderson’s chest. "You little—"
Tuning out the bickering cousins, Elias let his attention drift to the adventurers scattered around the glade, seeing them in a new light. Now that things had calmed down, they could have left—but they hadn’t. Nearly half had already jumped into the natural pool for a swim or were in the process of doing so. The rest were lounging, talking, or simply resting, as if they’d planned to meet here all along.
As they continued to talk, Elias learned that all three cousins aspired to become smiths. None of them had broken through to the Beginner rank yet, despite all being at the level cap—not even Erik, who was nearly four years older than Elias.
They’d been pooling their money so they could all enter the Beginner rank with a perfect foundation. Apparently, they were very close to succeeding, thanks mostly to Erik, who had been saving the money he earned from adventuring and working ever since he was eighteen.
Elias was honestly astonished by their drive, especially considering how rare it was for professionals to focus on their foundation before reaching the Beginner rank. Most didn’t start caring until they hit Journeyman.
As it turned out, they were doing things this way because they didn’t want to give up on adventuring entirely, unlike most crafters. The three of them planned to form a party with Alana and shape their Skills into a hybrid of smithing and combat.
It was an interesting plan, and Elias listened with rapt attention as they outlined it in detail. Though he knew his own path lay in adventuring, he’d always found the more unconventional pursuits fascinating as well.
Even Amanda chimed in, saying she wanted to write about the exotic zones of the dungeon—using her Skills to make people truly feel those places through her words. She also admitted, with zero shame, that she fully intended to exploit her boyfriend and sister by making them escort her to those locations.
Elias shook his head, amused by the girl’s shamelessness—when suddenly, his mind jolted and his eyes widened.
He hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that he was forgetting something, and now it finally clicked: the energy crystals. Thousands of them were still lying at the bottom of the pool, and it seemed like everyone else had forgotten about them too.
His reaction was so sudden that it drew a few raised eyebrows from the group.
"What about the energy crystals?!" Elias blurted out.
The moment the words left his mouth, he knew he’d screwed up.
The group’s raised eyebrows turned into blank stares… then their eyes widened in realization. To make matters worse, his voice had been loud enough for several nearby adventurers to hear him as well.
"The energy crystals!" someone shouted—then all hell broke loose.