The Accidental God-Seeker

Originally written from August 5, 2023 to September 3, 2023

Objective realism painting, grounded fantasy scene-setting. A narrow, rugged dirt path winding through a medieval-style village. Wattle-and-daub or rough timber-frame buildings line the path closely. Figures in the middle distance wear coarse, natural-fiber tunics in earthy, muted colors. One figure carries a woven basket. Textures are prominent: the uneven, packed earth of the path, the rough plaster/wood of the walls, the simple weave of distant clothing. Natural, slightly overcast daylight. No central focus figure, purely environmental background. Precise detail, tangible atmosphere. Wide aspect ratio 16:9

Book Description:

Katherine just wanted a simple life – a quiet farm away from the dystopian drone of her modern world. A lucid dreaming pill seemed like a harmless escape, a way to build her dream in her mind. But when the pill seemingly kills her, she awakens not in a dream, but in a raw, magical reality brimming with talking trolls, enigmatic gods, and brutal goblin warfare.

Thrust into a world where survival means violence, Katherine's pastoral ambitions are quickly replaced by the harsh necessity of the sword. Guided by the powerful yet unsettling god Johnny and pursued by the knowledge-hungry troll known as the Questioner, she grapples with her lost identity and the blood on her hands. As she navigates treacherous dungeons, complex alliances, and the haunting echoes of her past life, Katherine discovers latent power and a disturbing new ambition growing within her – the desire for godhood itself. Can a woman who only wanted to till the earth survive long enough to claim divinity, or will the weight of this violent new reality break her first?

Chapter 1
In her city with a population of half of a million, on a sidewalk, in front of a bus, Katherine stood, watching the world move past her.

To get a sense of physical space, she gripped her chest, feeling the grainy texture of her shirt.

On the streets, she walked into a bus. From there, she took a window seat and stared outside, her eyes scanning over the hundreds of people trying to get inside one of the many buses on the road.

Turning away, she glanced at several passengers deeper inside and closing her eyes, taking deep breaths which convinced her body that she was safe.

Close to her face, several smells wafted, and her face twitched.

Above her, the aircon holes pointed straight at her, as she curled her fingers, crossed her arms, and tensed her limbs inward.

Now that she had escaped the chaos of the streets, she reviewed who she was. On Earth, she only had one ambition at the moment: wanting to build a farm. However, she felt that the modern world was too dystopian for her to make a farm here. 

As soon as she exited the bus, she saw a familiar product poster of lucid dreaming.

During most of her life, the concept of lucid dreaming was common and famous in many spheres as virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI due to the complexities of the human mind and the desire to imitate it with AI.

Consequently, her decision to avoid the product until now was a matter of deviant personal preferences in respect to culture norms rather than any prolonged desire to become "addicted" to it.

Several hours ago, she bought the product on her smartphone offhand.  

Later, several minutes after leaving the bus, she arrived home at her apartment.

Seeing a delivered package, she opened a package to learn that it was empty. 

Thinking someone stole the delivered items inside, her brows grew more pinched. "What is this?" she said, covering her face. "What is this! I cannot believe..." 

Indeed, she went on and on about inflation and the economy. 

After calming down, she realized that she opened the wrong box, having several unopened packages in her room from online shopping.

In the middle of her room, she opened the right box. Next, she took out the product inside it. 

While searching online about the product earlier, she learned that it would grant her the ability to dream lucidly about anything she wanted, including the farm that she wanted to build. 

From her perspective, the product was a pill sitting on her hands and waiting for her to eat it.

From her hands, the pill entered her mouth and soon broke down in her stomach.

Feeling that her sleep tonight would be exciting, she decided to fall asleep on the floor in the living room.

Since she lived alone, her sleep remained consistent.

Instead of entering a dream, she died and went off into another world.

As soon as she came to her senses, she realized that she was standing in a strange, white room.

As her brain connected the dots, she appreciated the design of the interior of the house where he was: white walls that aided meditation, clean, carpeted floors that gave weary feet respite, large windows that allowed natural light to flood the space, and a tall, muscular man, at whom she stared for several lengthy seconds. 

Speaking of his looks, he was a huggable, large, pony-tailed, bearded man with curvaceous forearms and bulbous arms, wearing a delicately trimmed suit. 

Feeling that her stare was too long, she averted her gaze, feeling puzzled. "Where am I in the dream?"

In front of her, he guffawed and said: "Don't worry. I got you."

In the meantime, on the flat floor, adjusting her legs, she furrowed her brows with surprise.

To her right, he sat on a stool, which took seven seconds.

Adopting a thinking pose, he waved his right hand back and forth and making the fabric under it magically disappear and then re-appear whenever this hand went over the fabric again. "You're in the chamber of the god Johnny... 'in the dream'."

His voice radiating and hitting her where she was, she went through a myriad of expressions before settling on wary politeness. On her face, a grimace surfaced. Behind her grimace, she said slowly, "You?"

In the reflection of her left eye, the god, Johnny, beamed with a smile. "Yes, me." In the middle of the room, he turned aside and adopted a second thinking pose. On his face, he muttered words too quiet for her to hear. 

After a while, in response to her tilted gaze at him, he faced her, mirrored her tilted head, and gave a thumbs-up. 

Tensing his whole body, he repeated, "Yes, me!"

From him, the wind of his voice slapped against her, messying her hair.

Behind her bangs, her face twitched weakly, as she arranged her hair. Amid her frown, a pursed-lip, deep breath escaped from her face. 

Sadly, the man's enthusiasm failed to penetrate her. However, she felt less anxious knowing that the man was, at least, trying to be accommodating.

From reality, his voice snatched her out of her mind: "You're not in the dream."

Recoiling into her mind, she stared at the contours of the man's body. 

Within her ears, his voice grabbed her leg and pulled her off the floor of her mind: "You're not in the dream. This is real."

Her fingers rubbing against each other, keeping herself grounded, she tensed her brows. "What, what do you mean—"

Her voice fell apart when his words created waves, each wave stiffening her breath: "I am a real god, and you're in reality. Though, this is more supernatural and magical than what you suspect reality is supposed to be. Basically, you are not where you think you are and not with whom you think I am."

His form standing in her shadow, she chuckled. "This is a dream. I just got to learn how to control..." 

Reifying her statement, she slowly hardened her hands, her gaze affixed on their contours, which took thirty seconds.

Meanwhile, from the view of the ceiling, a second chair appeared at a higher point than her. Toward the chair, Johnny sat down. 

From his perspective, he felt a softness when he rested his cheek onto his closed knuckles.

Her figure towering over him, Katherine rested her hands down on her knees, leveling their heights. "What works?"

Her face in front of his, he kept replying with dismissive statements like "Nothing works."

His voice growing faint as she moved away, she shook her head, her expression growing pinched.

At her left, he stood up and walked up to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Katherine. This is real. Okay? Let's move on already. We don't want you to stay here in this depressing white room. I'm in self-imposed isolation, you see? Oh, look at the clock." Above his confident smile, his eyes lingered on her. 

In front of him, she noticed a clock on the wall behind him. 

Exactly, the clock was stuck at "300 kilo hours".

From the viewpoint of the clock, Katherine and Johnny looked warped and sounded muffled.

Specifically, he discussed that the clock was his way of keeping track of how much time he spent in isolation. Additionally, he said that it was stuck because she was in the room with him.

Since the clock felt externally objective to her, she felt calm. 

Departing from her feelings, she said a simple "okay." 

Furthermore, she supported her chin by positioning her right hand right under and against the nostrils, naturally making a circle around the mouth, allowing herself to ground her sense of her breathing and smell.

In front of what looked like her thinking pose, Johnny gave her an expectant look.

Seven centuries ago, he remembered discussing with a friend at a mansion where hundreds of people had gathered and were relaxing with a variety of different amenities.

During the dicussion, he made several points in regard to his personality in that point of time.

One, he disliked people because inherently, people were too overbearing and could betray him at moment. Rather than being someone with a lot of betrayals in his past, he learned that people were too dangerous after reading books for very many years. Living a life already peaceful enough, any disruptions would only remove him from his quiet living. Two, if someone bothered him, he would extricate them immediately from him because he preferred a two-way connection rather than wasting his time on someone who would eventually treat him like a superior or inferior. In conclusion, he wanted to be a "normal human," and he wanted others to treat him as such. Three, he only brought a person to his room because they were ignorant of his concerns, which made them very common among the billions of humans scattered throughout Earth.

Seven centuries later, in his room, Katherine interlocked her fingers in front of her face, obstructing her mouth. "Okay."

Considering the spectrum of tones in her voice, he affixed his eyes at the ceiling and shifting from side to side. "Say it again."

Below the focal point of his eyes, she lowered her hands. "Okay."

Making a seasoned assessment of her voice, he turned away from her, staring elsewhere. "I mean 'stronger'. More stronger—"

At his side, she clasped her hands together. "Okay!"

At the sound of her voice, he smiled and went to tap her on the shoulder. Along the way, he turned around, strutting to where the first chair had disappeared.

Behind him, she squeezed her eyes shut, slightly frowning. "What... then?"

Her form falling under his shadow, he nodded with seasoned concern. "Just steady yourself. You're a farmer, are you not?"

His voice like a swirling wind fuming at the edge of her figure, she felt comfortable enough to want to correct him: "That's different from a soldier."

Her form growing smaller as he levitated, he grinned with friendliness. "What is that supposed to mean? You'll still need some guts to spend your days digging up stools."

His arms sweeping above her, she took a step back. "What do you mean?"

With her reduced to the size of a dwarf in his perceptive, he levitated down to the ground and sat down where a wooden stool appeared to catch him. Glancing at the stool, he guffawed to himself. "I'll let you have it. 'Digging stools' I mean."

Towering over him, she shouted for the second time in this room: "The farm you mean!"

Her finger pointing at him, he waved his hands.

Next to her, a portal appeared.

The edge of the portal making the hair of her arm stand on end, she tripped in surprise.

Her body falling onto his arms, he held onto her. In the direction opposite of the portal, he placed her down.

Toward his levitating feet, she gazed. "This is real?"

Her gaze falling upon his face, he locked eyes with her. "This is real."

His eyes like a shimmering glare yet his smile like a douse of heaven streaming onto her, she took a few steps toward the portal, but now that she was one step away from it, she stopped. "I want to stay with you."

Beside her, he turned away briefly and blushed. "W-what?"

His blush like a hot furnace in front of her, her cheeks felt hot too, as she face-palmed. "I mean I want to understand what's going on."

Her head below his arms as he fidgeted by gripping the portal and shaking it around, Johnny darted his eyes left and right, adopting a polite smile. 

Before Katherine felt too embarrassed, he dropped his nervous act, returning to his confident demeanor. "Sure. What do you want to know?"

His form distancing from her, she lifted her palms. "Where should I go if I want to... you know?" 

Simultaneously, he teleported her and himself to a different world on the grass in a forest.

Falling to the ground, she grabbed onto his slacks: "What was that!"

Her expression right below him, he waited 20 seconds for her to calm down before he asked, "Are you okay?"

His head directed at her, She nodded furiously, implicitly conveying that Johnny should have told her they were going to teleport first before doing it.

Her grip on his slacks loosening as she stood up, he apologized, saying that he was afraid that they would stay in the room forever.

In the wilderness, he pointed to a patch of land wherein holographic outlines highlighted its boundaries. "When you take a dump there, the stool disappears." 

She ran away from secondhand embarrassment.

He shrugged lightheartedly. "I guess I was too direct." Thus, he made an oversized shirt appear on his right hand and wore it to cover his muscles. Nevertheless, according to how he thought Katherine felt, his arms and shoulders still looked too obvious. Finally, he wore steel shoulder plates and made his shirt long-sleeved.

Feeling bored and wanting to talk about things in which he was interested, he asked her if she liked bunkers and presented the different options for bunker designs via holographically projected videos incorporating structured data such as diagrams, tables, and lists.

His detailed explanation taking several minutes, she started laughing immediately. 

Her voice like a flower at the tip of a silhouetted hill at sunrise, he took her reaction well. Either way, he enjoyed having someone easygoing with whom to hang out. 

As soon as Johnny gave her farming tools, later that day, she went to working on a plot of land. 

Initially, she used the shovel since she thought that was the easiest to use. Soon, however, she recognized that she might need to clear the weeds first. In the end, she found herself painstakingly pulling weeds with a weed puller.

Next to her weed puller, crossing his arms, his legs wide apart, he smiled. "You can also ask for magical powers." 

Midway, his voice growing muffled, his form disappeared.

From where he had disappeared, the flow of the breeze intensified appreciably.

From the viewpoint of the breeze, she looked like a little child in the middle of a field where forests upon forests surrounded her like she was stuck in a sci-fi world full of alien-like creatures and deathly rules.

Below the breeze, she reached out her hand and touched the grass where Johnny had disappeared. "Johnny?"

After a few minutes of weed pulling, her grip hardened, perspiration beading her forehead. "Johnny!"

Next to her, Johnny materialized before teleporting to the distance within an embrace of trees.

The deep shadow over him separating them as she was in the sun, Katherine exclaimed "You were there all along!"

Her voice reaching him through the distance and past the depth of vegetation, he gulped to satisfy a false sense of thirst, seeing the dry yellow. "Yeah!" 

In the yellow, Katherine's figure lay on the ground, her legs tucked to one side. "Curse you!"

Pertaining to general appearance, she could stand at five feet and one inch tall with a healthy and balanced body shape and a subtly hourglass-like figure that characterized her femininity.

Moving forward, Johnny demanded privacy, and consequently, she asked to be invisible too. However, he agreed, and she regretted it when she struggled to work with her invisible hands. Subsequently, Johnny teased her in response.

They were mostly pretending to be mad at each other, having bickered about. 

A cheeriness overwhelming her, she thought that it was a good time to address certain issues and asked if she was dead.

Her voice sounding down, he chuckled nervously before stopping himself halfway. "Wait, you're serious! To answer that question, no, of course not! At least, I'm sure we're not dead! I mean, consciousness right!"

His answer satisfying her, she asked where the animals were.

After she finished speaking, he waved his hands. 

Around her, a cacophony of sounds broke out from hundreds of animals that materialized in their vicinity.

In the middle of the sounds, she waved her arms panically, plumping down. "Hey, hey! Wait a minute! Wait a minute! What is happening!"

After Johnny removed the animals with a wave of his hand, he took on a business smile. "This is actually a big world, but this specific area feels like a playground, or a sandbox, isn't it? Well, you can choose to live the hard life. As soon as those animals appear and those plants appear, you're going to have to understand them and know how to handle them. You know that, right?"

His booming voice entering her ears, she stood up, wrinkling her nose when she realized some bits of dirt were on her face. "Really?" 

He grinned in an almost condescending way. 

However, he exaggerated his tone and facial expressions to ensure that she took his demeanor as a joke. 

Meanwhile, she placed down her weed puller and rubbed her hands together.

Her form appearing gigantic when he teleported to her, he raised his arms theatrically. "Indeed, fool, that is the way it has always been!" 

Face to face with him, she removed the bits of dirt off her profile with her wrist. "Oh... well then. Teach me then." 

With her face clean, she smiled seriously and toothily.

Her teeth glinting in his eyes, Johnny interlaced his fingers, slowly bending down to one knee. "Science?"  

From his split squat position, he rotated his legs, shifted down, sat on the ground, and crossed his legs, as if he was praying. 

His leg hair tickling her bare feet, she waved and curled her arms, twisted her fingers, and rotated her hands around. "Magic." 

Because the word "magic" still sounded like a "loser nerd's term," Katherine laughed through her nose to herself, even if she had enjoyed watching movies depicting magic. 

To clarify her seeming contradiction, her behavior implicated what appeared to be internalized self-dislike, a defense mechanism, social conformity, projection, a complex relationship with identity, cultural or social pressure, or a combination of these. Generally, people might simultaneously embrace and reject certain aspects of themselves, leading to contradictory behaviors and attitudes.

Feeling the tickle of grass as he stood up, Johnny flicked his middle fingernail against his left shoulder plate, trying to make a musical beat. "Dang, it wouldn't have been so fun to see you do science though."

His words offending her somehow, Katherine squatted, grabbed her weed puller from the ground, and stood up again energetically. "Eh, not a 'me' thing." 

Since she wanted to avoid tripping and irritating her skin on the grass, she had moved robotically.

Her arms swinging past him, he crossed his. "Gotcha." 

As Johnny began strutting around on the grass, high above him, he looked like a toy soldier. Higher, from the viewpoint of a cloud, his figure appeared as a speck. On the right side of this perspective, 100 kilometers away from Johnny, a larger speck moved around. As the viewpoint descended toward this speck, the speck's features became clear. Below the clouds, from the canopy of the trees, the speck was a giant.

From the giant's perspective, his footsteps created craters in the ground. 

Above the ground, his hands had a ball-like glow that covered them with a golden, transparent color.

Behind him, a hallucinatory, horse-like form levitated, trailing behind him. 

From the giant's perspective, he was appreciating the flowers nearby when he heard the sound of an interplay of sounds: a boom, a chime, and crying laughter from Johnny's direction.

The sounds like a rageful vengeance seeking to tear him apart, the giant made an expression like he was agreeing and pressed his head against the ground. 

As time passed, his face began to show wrinkles and shaking restraint, anger rising in his loose cheeks.

When his emotions came to a standstill, a new set of emotions popped up, as he muttered feverishly, "Time to wage the second battle."

Behind him, he heard the sounds of the metal of soldiers' weapons clanging, the fitting of their armor, cooks' cooking utensils clinking, their handling and adjustment of horse equipment, blacksmiths' anvil hammering, musicians' bells, cymbals, and tambourines, jugglers' or performers' metal props, camp equipment, soldiers and camp followers' equipment repairing, weapon repairing, and defensive fortification constructing, farriers' horseshoe shaping and nailing, coins jingling, surgeons and medics' instruments, and mess kits clinking.

When he faced them, his army had gathered, wearing yellow coats. Peering at their faces, he squinted and blinked several times.

Within their camp, relatively near the soldiers, hundreds of wagons and various horse-like animals served to carry their food and myriad kinds of potions and medicine. 

To offer some context, low-ranked soldiers managed these wagons and animals, while reputable soldiers were responsible for them and protect them. Speaking of responsibility, they were rare and precious because the army were non-state or non-government. In regard to leadership, a warlord figure, the giant, led the army, but they wandered through the country rather than having a set territory with which they fought over boundaries. In terms of arrangement, The wagons and animals were in one line near the soldier tents. However, the wagons that carried potions were far away in the distance. Incidentally, the tents had internal lines of gabion-like fortifications to reduce and compartmentalize pseudo-mortar effects.

Next to a fortification, a blacksmith summoned a shack wherein he began to work like a madman.

Above him, ten angel-like beings levitated and gave orders, stretching their arms until they became elongated. At the bottom of their elongated forms, their fingers tapped the workers such as the blacksmith, rejuvenating their energy. Soon, they stopped and returned to the ground, morphing back into soldiers with purposeful strides and slightly measured steps.

Above them, from the viewpoint of the clouds, the military camp looked like a map with numerous sections. On the left side of this viewpoint, two small specks stood still. On a closer look, these specks were Katherine and Johnny.

From Johnny's perspective, the grass on the ground below him looked like the smile of a newly-wedded queen. 

Ignoring Katherine's plea for help, he strutted away. On his face, he calmly smiled underneath his tan skin, dark hair, and flat nose.

Starting from his face, his whole body dissolved like mist, leaving her groaning louder.

His form disappearing before she could reach him, she decided to stand up, sitting on the ground. 

Since she had a tight skirt, she tucked her legs to the side and pulled the end of her skirt down to cover herself. Afterwards, she chose between planting her palms or balling her hands into fists, pressing her fingers and the bottom of her palm to lift herself up with her tucked legs, gradually rotating her legs to a vertical angle. Then, on her bent knees, she sat on her haunches briefly, slightly patting and brushing away the dirt off her legs and knees. Simultaneously, she stood up straight, pulling down at the ends of the sides of her skirt and adjusting its rim to align around her waist. In the end, she proved the difficulty and complexity of standing up with a tight skirt, which took less than 5 seconds.

Her skirt having contained some dirt, she brushed the dust off her hands. "In the end, I have to find a way to make this work myself, huh?" 

In her little field, she excitedly slashed the weeds and dug as hard as she could.

Soon, she sat down and fell asleep on the bare earth.

Hours later, when night came and she woke up, she heard a loud metal banging noise.

In the darkness of her field, she got up and began to stretch. 

Since she somehow slept well and had a surprising amount of dreams, her refreshed happy-go-lucky mind jokingly thought that her back might be broken. 

Despite her stretching, her face felt numb and heavy.

Momentarily skeptical of the past events, she cocked her head behind her, watching her back, her brows furrowed. "W-where am I..." 

Indeed, questioning her circumstances made more sense than pretending as if she had experienced something normal and trivial. 

Also, again, she realized that her "dream world" was reality.

Behind her, the face of a figure mouthed, "I will hate, and I will hate."

The air shifting in response to the figure's presence, Katherine instinctively turned around. "Excuse me... who are you?"

With her bare eyes, she learned what the owner of the voice was. "Excuse me..."

In front of her, the owner, a troll, smiled. "Can I ask you a question?"

At his side, the fingers of his right hand curled. "What is a dog?"

His voice belonged to that of a handsome gentleman, she winced.

Her eyes darting around his face, one side of his face slumped downward in loose folds. Behind the loose folds, the troll looked attractive. Below his face, the belly of the troll's face was lean and very muscular. At the sides of his belly, the contours of the triceps muscles of his arm were visible. "What is a dog?"

His words intense like a chokehold, Katherine wanted to smile because she was scared of what he was trying to say along with his fantastical appearance and grave demeanor. Yet, she avoided smiling in case the troll took it wrongly. "Uh..."

Inside her mind, she struggled to reach into the muscles of her limbs, finding that her body ignored her commands to move.

Nearby, the troll crossed his arms and stepped back, turning sideways with a familiar strut.

As soon as she regained control of her body, Katherine raised her head as far as she could. "Johnny!" 

Her voice like a dying witch, the troll cocked his head at her and came to a halt. His muscles loosening, he began to study her expressions. 

His gaze like a giant head outsizing her by millions of times, her cheeks trembled.

From beneath her cheeks, a nervous smile kept forcing itself to the surface of her face.

Her smile like the messy, loose florets of a cauliflower, the troll curled his fingers of their right hand, but kept their tips off the palm, and placed his thumb against their end knuckles from a diagonal angle, the palm of the hand facing the midline of his body. "What is it?"

His voice like the chest sitting of a sleep paralysis monster, Katherine felt her sweat touch the top of her brow. "Ah, right." 

Past her brows, she tapped her forehead as if she was scientifically testing the texture of her sweat. 

As soon as she believed that the troll had referred to her "Johnny!" scream earlier, she removed many options from her list of what to say next. 

Her sweat moisturizing her neck, she wiped her neck, forehead, and the sides of her face with her hands, her right voice shaking somewhat. "I know Johnny."

Her voice escaping into the night air, the troll took a deep breath, enjoying the night air. "Then?"

As seconds trickled by, she only watched him because she misinterpreted his last comment as a partially finished statement rather than a question. "What?"

Once he processed her question and body language, the troll laughed. "I see then. It's too complex to say?"

When she heard the laugh, her belly showed a series of back-and-forth movements.

Her expression like a wet, dirty rag, he smiled. "Well, then, good night." 

On the surrounding stretch of land, he began to walk away. 

Above the land, from the viewpoint of the sky, they resembled dots. Farther up, they blended with the green all around them. On the left side of this viewpoint, several brown spots spread in lines around a tiny central square. As the viewpoint moved closer, the spots became towns part of a city adjacent to a blue river. Back up in the clouds, the towns looked like a disease upon the earth. After zooming in on the right side of the viewpoint, the two dots of Katherine and the troll were a little far away from each other. Further down, Katherine was moving away. From a more human perspective, she was sprinting. From the viewpoint in front of her face, her crying was piercing and jolting: "Help! Johnny!"

To her left, on a nearby tree, Johnny's invisible eyes peeked at her. "Better this way. She has to become independent." 

As he contemplated his decision, he was fine with leaving her.

Transitioning to a new phase, he wanted to raise her like he would raise a boy. 

A deep, conflicted love for her driving him, he wanted her to hate him and try to live by herself and become strong by herself. 

Balancing his desire to guide her with the fear of stifling her potential, he would provide some help, but he believed that too much assistance would ultimately turn her into a crippled state of dependence. 

Yet, he would allow the night the chance to take her, if it meant she could get out of the horror herself and learn because of it.

His voice echoing through the forest and gracing through Katherine but becoming too quiet for her to hear, she kept yelling. 

Around her, the pre-sunrise darkness developed into a gracefully frigid presence like a chaotic intersection of darting hunters and woodcutters with one even barking orders.

When she calmed down, she recognized that her situation called for a review. 

Assessing her situation, she first utilized a scientific perspective of the matter, using her mind as a canvas on which to write down notes.

Considering the distance and cognitive map she had covered by moving and seeing with her field of view,  she mentally created sections of her surrounds. Employing the complex mechanics of her brain, each section obtained a recognized unique sensual emotional identifier.

Once she finished assessing spatially her surroundings, she moved on to considering her bodily needs.

After taking care of some bodily needs, she transitioned to considering her hunger and dehydration.

Since the tropical rainforest was an incredibly biodiverse ecosystem, she felt that she could find a fruit somewhere around here.

However, she was late to realize that she would have to compete directly and indirectly with similarly diverse animals: deer, warty pigs, crocodiles, civets, tarsiers, monkey-eating eagles, flying lemurs, reticulated pythons, birds, bats, reptiles and amphibians, insects, arachnids, mollusks, millipedes and centipedes, segmented worms and leeches, and jellyfish, among others.

In the end, she would most likely die from dehydration, wounds, infections, and hunger. To address this issue, she should stay in a village, but even there, it would still be horrible due to isolation from modern amenities and medical care.

Even more, each succeeding day would drastically lower her already bottom-touching chances of survival.

When she processed her impending doom, she went on her knees and begged a god, her emotions clinical like the monotonous handwriting of a doctor. "Johnny, please, help me. Give me something. Give me magic."

Next to her, Johnny appeared, smiling.

His smile like the sci-fi expanses, the infinite lands of fantasy, or the nostalgic yell of an older man at the end of his time, Katherine's face gradually contorted with the anguish of comfort and conclusion at the end of a thousand possibilities. "I can't do it."

After several minutes of silence, stillness, and meditation, Johnny lifted his palms and sat on his haunches to match her height. "Do you know... what it's like... to be a person?"

Despite his confused tone, his question was rhetorical.

His words and tone like a flickering light at the end of a long journey, she opened her mouth and then let it be.

When he realized that she was dumbstruck, he smiled ambiguously.

With a wave of his hand, two crates appeared a short distance from each other, facing a center.

After sitting down, he motioned for her to sit down on the other crate.

When she sat down, he gestured toward several tables that appeared in front of them. On it, bowls of pork barbecue, "bananacue," greasy fried chicken, various kinds of rice cakes, white rice, several bottles of 2-liter soft drinks. "yema" cake spread.

The yema cake smelling like milk and egg yolks, he took a slice out of that one, as a dessert plate appeared on his hands.

Similarly, she grabbed the skewer of a piece of pork barbecue, glancing down.

Under one of the tables, several rice containers sat on the rough ground.

On the ground, Johnny sat on his haunches and used his crate to eat his yema.

To his left, Katherine crossed her legs and used the side of her leaning leg as a makeshift table.

When they finished eating and drinking soft drinks, Johnny made his dessert plate disappear and sat down on his crate, leaning his palms on at the end of his thighs. As time passed, he glanced at her, his surroundings, and his body, smiling contemplatively. When Katherine finished eating, he opened his mouth and looked at her as an indication of his desire to communicate. Once she recognized it and reciprocated his attention, he turned his body toward her. Her brows raised, he turned his head away from her, his voice gentle. "I want you to remember."

As soon as he noticed her raising her plate to indicate that she was done, he made it disappear.

His magic like a strong wind smacking her and departing just as fast, she was stone-faced except for her responsive eyes. When he relaxed, she stopped fidgeting with her hands and fingers. "Johnny, thanks for the food. I was a little off there. I thought I was going crazy... you know I don't know what happened to me. Have you ever felt that? The last time I felt like I was in the wilderness and about to die was when I went hiking. That was the most stupid time of my life, doing so many risky things as if I could do anything. I haven't forgotten."

With her words circulating her head in review, she smiled apprehensively.

Her smile like a noisy bat, he said that he could magically prevent her wounds and infections, keep life-threatening animals away from her, and feed her dinner everyday for the rest of the week.

His elaborations regarding her safety sounding similar to that in a privileged life, she recognized how fortunate she was. "Pfft!" 

Before Johnny could ask her what she thought, she guffawed for several, glacial seconds after holding it in for so long. 

With her guffaw, ecstatic relief overwhelmed her. "That was so good... ah..."

Her expression similar to that in a trance-like state, Johnny lowered his head slightly, rubbing his nails in a sedative manner. "Katherine."

Once her face was serious and she was paying full attention to him, he locked eyes with her for several seconds before saying, "A-are you okay?"

His voice like that of a shepherd to an injured lamb, she sat in a more relaxed way. "Yeah." 

Her tone like she was staying the obvious, he thought that she was forcing herself, nodding. 

Off his crate, he stood up, saying goodbye and disappearing.

For the rest of the week, Johnny decided against helping her and let her struggle, leaving it to fate.

By the time the next week came, she had had many mental breakdowns. Even after all that, instead of becoming stronger, her mental state became worse. However, she learned how to run, to bear with pain and hunger, thirst, and dizziness, and to take care of some of her physical needs.

In the new week, with Johnny's help, she had a small farm, food to eat, and water to drink. Yet, because it would be impossible to tend to the farm all alone in the middle of nowhere, Johnny pointed to a village 30 kilometers away.

Guiding her along the way, Johnny taught her about the world, about philosophies, ideas, ideals, and everything he learned throughout his cosmic and "world-smart" life in a non-linear fashion.

Katherine felt that Johnny was someone she could trust to do these things. Contrastingly, when it finally came to many other things, she was sure that she would have to brace herself, alone.

When she came to the village, she realized that it was when one was isolated that one experienced the strangest things.

In the village, the senses guided daily life. With respect to touch, people wore rough, natural-fiber clothing and worked with coarse tools, feeling the rugged dirt roads underfoot. Visually, a manifold variety of earthy, muted colors adorned clothing. In the distance, candlelight flickered in the evenings, and villagers witnessed medieval trades and rustic landscapes. Touching on sounds, animals called, blacksmiths repaired household items and fixtures, and market vendors called out their wares. As for music, church bells tolled, and minstrels played their lutes. With reference to smell, a blend of scent wafted and flourished. Specifically, these scents were that of the outdoors, cooking fires, and livestock, with herbs and spices joining hands with the rare hint of flowers, along with tanned leather.

Inside the huts and outside on stand-alone chairs, people ate earty stews, ale, cheese, foraged fruits, and vegetables, sometimes with elegant honey. Likewise, herbs and spices gave meals an air of sophistication. On the fields and at huts, daily tasks involved manual labor, from plowing fields to kneading dough. In the night, the warmth of an open fire and layered clothing in rainy seasons provided comfort, while bamboo floors provided a hard, straightening bed. 

On bumpy mud paths on slopes, residents navigated instinctively, their toes like experienced acrobats. 

Instead of handling carts through the tough landscape, they carried by hand or woven baskets.

A basket that a villager held passing by her, the first sight that surprised Katherine was the clean, neat teeth of the villagers.

Next to her, Johnny informed her that magic allowed them to heal their teeth issues, among others.

Numerous issues that magic could cure forming in her head, it was at this moment that Katherine coveted godhood, or, at least, the powers of this quality. Maybe, because of her encounter with the god Johnny and her week of anguish, she felt this.

With her feelings set, she said calmly, "Why don't we?"

Her voice catching the attention of several villagers, her statement served as both a suggestion for her and Johnny to interact with the villagers and a confirmation to herself to pursue godhood.

With godhood as a final goal, she weighed her options.

Bizzarely, what she felt right now was the same complex feeling that had prompted the troll to mouth, "I will hate, and I will hate."

Chapter 2
Three months later, in the bright, sunny morning, Katherine jumped from a hill, slashing at a goblin's neck, saying: "No more! You piece of shit!"

The tip of her blade almost hitting him, the goblin dodged her slashes, grabbing a rock and throwing it at her.

The rock hitting her armor, she caught the rock and threw it back.

The rock missing his small form, he ran up to her and slashed at her.

Sidestepping and using a branch to pull himself back, he cast a spell: "[Electraflare!]"

From his hands, a bolt of energy flew and struck her.

The damage slowing her mind, she remembered her father and mother lying together when they died.

When she realized he was charging her, she darted out of the way.

Her movements like a rat, he preemptively dodged a slice from her and halted next to a wall-like step on the slope where he was, moving closer to her.

Her form appearing larger, he cast the bolt spell again, moving away and grabbing a rock.

The bolt missing her, she tensed her muscles.

The rock flying at her, she preemptively dodged again.

Before she dodged, he predicted her and shot her with the bolt.

The bolt affecting her insides, a burst of red flew from her body.

The red pouring in droves, she collapsed.

Before the goblin could kill her, she drank a potion and recovered in a second, crawling backward. 

Her form like an arachnid, he even threw a rock and predicted where she would try to dodge again, hitting her again but with decreased damage because of her armor.

His movement having become markedly slower, she faked a retreat, running into a group of bushes.

From behind her, another bolt of energy flew, but it missed because she was too far.

In front of the bushes, he kept shooting his bolt of energy at the bush, moving closer and closer.

Before he turned around and left, she jumped out, dodged a bolt, and sprinted.

Her speed decelerating appreciably, he took a risk by attempting to flee from her immediate range instead of fighting her head-on.

His arms out of stance, she slashed him on the arm, too dizzy and weak to aim for the neck.

Their arms connecting through her blade, they both fell with her on his back.

His position too vulnerable, he kept slashing in her direction, while she kept stabbing him on the back.

Regarding her choice of attack, her posture and limited range of motion prevented her from aiming for a more critical area like the neck.

As milliseconds passed, he cried, struggling, flailing his arms before his voice slowed down and finally became silent.

With his death, their fight ended within 13 seconds.

With how tense the fight was, she huffed, resting her palms on her knees. 

Yet, she retained some of her gentleness through the way that she subtly cut through the goblin's flesh during post-processing.

"Good job, Katherine!" Johnny said, walking up next to her.

Twelve hours later, Katherine cried softly, "I just never thought it'd be this way, you know." Specifically, she felt that her actions were contradictory to who she was. Yet, she knew that she could keep going. In fact, she could deal with her emotions by focusing on the productive aspects of her actions and goals rather than on the difficulties and challenges alone. Incidentally, her developed relationship with the concept of productivity manifested as a result of her recognition of the interaction between it and self-sufficiency.

Katherine stood up, exited the restaurant, and made her way through a crowd. "What next?"

Johnny smiled, watching her begin to tense as she realized that he wanted her to find out what to do.

They were in a new town, and it was nighttime.

Katherine adopted a thinking pose. "Check the wares?"

Johnny's smile deepened.

Katherine gave a "whatever" and strutted away, her back crossing the shade of a lamp.

In the distance, a small boy stared at the valley below, enjoying the summer beach. "I wish I could see my mother again."

He chuckled with a feeling.

Coming nearby, Katherine saw the boy get on a horse and ride away. Surprised, she wondered why more than 10 soldiers also on horseback accompanied this boy.

Johnny disappeared before Katherine got to ask him.

Bothered, Katherine looked over the edge at the same valley at which the boy was looking.

The valley extended the dense population of the escarpment where she was.

"That's a big beach," she said. 

Her mouth remained open.

Katherine wanted to assess her plans. Suddenly, four teenagers, three boys and a girl, walked past her.

They looked so jolly compared to her serious gaze.

Katherine turned away.

The four went on to become great adventurers.

Katherine felt stuck.

She went to an inn to rest.

Before she was able to sleep, she heard a familiar loud metal banging noise.

Katherine froze.

To her right, at the entrance to the bathroom, a portal gradually appeared.

A troll maneuvered himself past and out the portal and into Katherine's room.

It was the same troll who scared her to death.

Katherine stood up and bolted.

The troll stared at her. 

He opened his mouth, but he arranged his feet first before speaking. "I was watching you," he said.

By the time he spoke, Katherine was out of earshot.

Huffing, her eyes becoming wet, Katherine's wide, focused eyes expressed deathly fear.

She tried calling Johnny's name many times, even screaming to the point that the inn staff and guests berated her and shouted at her to leave.

Katherine went to a group of people whom she knew. "Hey, guys, please, help me. Something's chasing me." Her voice carried anxiety.

The group of people were adventurers. Additionally, they were in a pub that mainly served adventurers.

The adventurer Richard spoke, "Okay, what's the issue?"

Katherine handed her cash, but Richard angrily declined. "What's the issue?" he repeated.

The other adventurers showed compassion in their faces, but Richard just seemed angry with her.

Katherine apologized and said slowly: "A troll is following me. He had a portal, a portal."

"Three inferior mages, or one superior mage. Did the troll cast [Prepare]?"

"No, no, he didn't." Katherine looked exasperated.

Richard nodded. Then, he grabbed Katherine's shoulder. "Remember, we told you already." In the past, he told her that she could come to them if she needed help. However, for a long time until now, Katherine was reserved and avoided commenting about her circumstances and past. Consequently, this made Richard and his group suspicious of her and implicitly question her from time to time. Yet, they wanted to help her since she seemed to be a victim of circumstances. In the end, Katherine waited 2 months before she told them anything personal. Because her request was late and random and lacked background information, Richard felt betrayed. Furthermore, he was concerned about their safety in regard to his group's encounter with the troll. Finally, Katherine apologized repeatedly.

Richard tsked.

The adventurer Cambert shot an arrow into the darkness.

This arrow created a holographic outline around the building.

The troll appeared from behind a corner.

He showed a badge.

The group froze.

After a few emotional seconds, Cambert said, "He isn't who you think he is."

"He is the 'Questioner,'" said the adventurer Obed.

Katherine glanced between the adventurers.

Richard closed his eyes, as if he was stressed.

The troll asked Katherine, "What is a car?"

As minutes passed and Richard and the group left, Katherine stayed because they were silent.

She connected the dots between her encounters with the troll.

As if following a manuscript, the troll said, "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to." Moreover, he was rubbing his chin and looking elsewhere with a passive demeanor.

Katherine was sure that the troll knew she was from Earth.

She shook her head instinctively. For a moment, she gazed outside at the bright sky.

"Tell me!" she said. "What's going on!"

The troll sat down on the floor of the inn. "You see that no one is here anymore? I am one of authority. I am of higher blood. When you are with me, I want you to humble yourself." His tone was matter-of-fact with a tinge of concern.

"Just be honest with yourself," the troll repeated. "I have seen people like you, and if you politely sit down and talk to me, I might learn something. By then, you will become valuable to me. So please, be discreet and let us exchange knowledge."

Katherine felt that he seemed less suspicious than before. Even so, she felt that his words were deficient in persuading her that he was anything but a threat.

The troll smiled similar to how Johnny would smile.

Katherine took a deep breath before struggling to say, "What?"

The troll's face twitched.

"What will we exchange specifically?" Katherine said.

"What is a dog?

"I heard it from someone I knew."

Katherine closed her eyes hard. "I don't know what you mean? Is a dog something that doesn't exist here?"

"'Exist here'? What do you mean 'here'?"

Katherine looked down. Inside her, she became emotional out of surprise. In her mind, she recognized that the troll was ignorant regarding the contradistinction between Earth and this world. As a result of this, she wanted to take advantage of this ignorance. Outwardly, she remained calm and still.

The troll smiled as if begging for Katherine to answer his question.

Katherine said, shrugging with both shoulders, "I mean here on this country or land, Sir." She added an "or" to emphasize her authoritativeness, objectivity, and comprehensiveness.

The troll stood up. "Well, then, since my butt is itchy from sitting down on such tawdry ground, let us head to a cafe. I can teleport us." 

He opened a portal.

Katherine's belly jolted inwardly.

As if the sky emanated from his fingertips, the troll struck the portal, making it bounce in place. From the sides of the portal, yellow strands flew and left, embracing the room and coating the room with an ethereal, transparent color. Incidentally, these strands smelled like urine. On the top left and right side of the portal, tiny, blue explosions only a few inches in size emerged. Coincidentally, these explosions let a fresh smell like lavender. Anyway, these explosions sounded like sarcastic young voices intentionally singing a choir song badly. Behind the troll, a shadow embraced him, disappearing. From the belly of the troll, many strands flew and struck different points on the wall. Additionally, these strands connected the troll to these walls. 

These strands smelled like the stir-fried noodle dish 'Mie goreng.' Moreover, they sounded like what Katherine imagined the whip of the tail of a whale sounded.

Some small parts of the cafe disappeared such as a small portion of the wall and the wooden outline of a door. Specifically, these parts faded gradually. Subseqeuntly, they became translucent to the point that they disappeared.

The troll took shallow, visible breaths. From his mouth, tiny creatures that looked like goblins exited. From the tip of his mouth, they jumped onto the floor. With their crossbows, they shot arrows at the walls. After a few seconds, these walls crumbled into dust. Afterwards, the roof and ceiling fell toward the troll and Katherine. Nevertheless, the troll's breaths which formed a transparent platform blocked it somehow.

The troll left the cafe floor through the staircase like a normal person.

Squinting, Katherine followed behind, avoiding the tiny creatures on the ground.

However, she realized that they were in another place. Somehow, moments ago, as they walked down the staircase, they teleported. Moreover, Katherine was sure that she saw the same cafe before she went down the staircase. Yet, as she walked down the staircase, she learned that she was somewhere else. In conclusion, she felt distraught.

The troll pointed at a sign which read "Food" and sat down.

They were in an open cafeteria.

Katherine realized that the signs were in English rather than in the expected language of this land "Alan."

"Did you do this?" she said. Meanwhile, she politely avoided the sides of the legs of the people sitting down at the tables inside.

The troll sat down, beckoning her to join him. "I ordered some delicious lamb meat. You want some? I can ask?"

Katherine slowly nodded.

At the periphery of the town, two minutes earlier, the tall giant and his army positioned. "It's better we go fast or we go slow?"

"Faster, Sir!"

They were charging the town gates. From one of the soldiers, an explosive arrow removed the tip of one of the two towers of the gate wall.

A barrage of smoking arrows shot at the gate wall.

Cracks radiated from the arrows, ending in the collapse of the bulkiest portions of the wall.

The tall giant shouted.

Two angel-like beings tapped the soldiers walking in front of the giant. 

The 8 other beings were guarding the flanks, creating magical walls. 

These walls blocked projectiles from soldiers that coalesced from behind the corners of the town walls.

A rune-like symbol marking on the ground emerged. 

It covered almost all the ground that the army of the tall giant did.

The tall giant yelled with agitation as the rune grew bright.

A wind began to pick up dust all around, forming swarms. Then, the swarms swallowed the soldiers. When the swarms left, the soldiers of the giant had become undead.

The tall giant yelled with agony, raising his hand.

He cast a healing spell: "[Heal!]"

The soldiers turned to dust.

The towers, the walls which they targeted, and the gate fell completely.

The town was naked for them to slaughter.

Katherine was there, watching. "What is this?" She was outside and stern-faced, but the troll left already.

She was ignorant of the troll's destination.

The giant spun his flabby arms and threw a ball of light that spun around, making an pulsing sound.

Katherine yelped, ducking behind a corner wall. When she leaned back, the corner wall collapsed. Yet, the configuration of the house remained intact. Worried that someone would kill her for breaking the wall, she ran off.

Katherine found herself at the forest where she felt safe since she knew how to hunt goblins and skin them. 

She felt that handling goblins and knowing how to write in Alan were her only skills. Regarding writing, Johnny spent most of their time together teaching her it.

In the distance, the magically amplified voice of the tall giant repeated frenziedly, "I am the epitome of grace and beauty." 

The last thing he said was "I am the epitome of light and darkness."

Katherine sprinted away into the darkness while the grass waved in the morning breeze.

The time was 4 AM.

Later, the sound of mourning swept past a field of sparse trees and up a rolling hill.

"Katherine," said the member of a guard patrol, Bliss. "That's her name."

He was stepping away from the frail form of Katherine and calling to his friend, Robert.

Robert and Bliss connected hands.

Bliss smiled. "Should we help her?"

Another member of the guard patrol, Bane, joined their prolonged handshake. "We should," he said.

Robert nodded, glancing at Bane who nodded and smiled.

A large thunderous air exploded causing the night sky to turn dark and the wind to grow strong. 

A thunder-clap struck the air as rain came in droves.

Robert, Bane, and the last member gathered together around Katherine, protecting her from the rain.

They were using magical shields for the job, draining their energy little by little.

Sleeping, Katherine, with her bitter gaze, felt as if she was all alone.

The dark day would last long.

Considerably after Katherine woke up, Bane remarked, "She really went, huh?"

Katherine returned from a goblin hunt, her eyes fiercer than before. She raised both her shoulders and pointed with a blade at a tree. "Who owns that?"

Bane felt the tension slip away, his face a land of surprise. "No one!" 

Katherine nodded, raising her hand.

A shovel appeared in her right hand similar to how Johnny summoned an oversized shirt.

The shovel fell upon the grass, and Katherine dug.

The three guard patrol members gathered closer together, staring at Katherine from behind. As she struck the earth, she glared at them as a warning.

Dirt flew, and a shape which Katherine thought alluded to a goblin's gradually appeared.

She threw a goblin in and buried it. At the top of the hill, a bird landed and perched.

Katherine glanced at it before making the shovel disappear. 

She realized that the patrol members left earlier. Nearby, a bunch of boys leapt, exiting a small opening in the wall nearby.

"You see that!" said the boy Gap. "That's what I'm talking about!" 

Similarly, the rest of the boys celebrated.

One of them shouted at the rest to stop and said, "You guys... we almost died!"

As a response, they all guffawed.

From afar, Katherine watched them, her brows furrowed.

"I am not who I was," she said. Succeeding this, she let out a heavy breath.

She could run away now, but today, she wanted to sit down and watch other people live their lives—life in listlessness.

In continuation of her observance, she expected to find people escaping from the town; however, she was wrong.

She returned to the town and found it back to normal and seeming even more durable and enduring.

Her face looked like a smudge of hatred, but she just felt lost.

Her experiences with glorious magic were few. Furthermore, all of them hinted at death and destruction. So, when she heard the magically amplified voice which said "I am the epitome of grace and beauty", she was sure that the town was gone.

Katherine inched further in her desire for godhood.

Chapter 3
Later, in a dungeon, Katherine raised a sword and slashed a rope, seeing the rock attached to it fall.

This rock smashed into a crowd of masked goblins.

With a smile, Katherine threw her daggers, but she only hit one. Yet, it was a direct hit right under the chin.

The goblins fell like dominoes as Katherine weaved her way through the suffocating air inside.

Blood spilled like liquid from a keg.

When Katherine dodged an arrow and struck the last goblin, she guffawed like the boys who celebrated did.

Metal plates strung together with brown strings flew against the pavement as Katherine rummaged the goblins' bodies.

Several of the bodies got up, pretending to be dead. 

Katherine blocked those stabs with her arms, stood up, and kicked each one of them to death throughout the course of five minutes. Since the goblins were too injured to move too much, she could do this.

Finally defeating the goblins, Katherine smirked. "Great then."

Katherine got a good look at the dungeon. 

Four-square pictures hung on the wall, yellowish, potted plants sat on a shelf on another side of the wall, a large, spinning fan hung from the ceiling, and two large mats were set at the corner of the room.

In awe, she stepped onto a chest below her.

"What have you done!" said a masked goblin shaman, emerging from a doorway that led to a corridor.

He cast a fireball spell.

Katherine jumped out of the way.

The shaman raised both hands and stared upward, groaning. "[Rolling Pins!]"

From the name, Katherine expected giant rolling pins to attack her. Instead, two black dogs emerged.

The dogs slashed  Katherine and stomping her leg with their weight.

Katherine shouted, dropping her blades.

"Got it," she said.

She picked up a dagger, threw it, and hit the goblin shaman in the head.

The shaman fell, disappearing inside his cloak.

The dogs froze, turning to dust.

"Great job!" Katherine said like how John would say it whenever she achieved a goal.

The goblins and the shaman got up again.

Katherine bolted out.

She was sure that the goblin and the shaman revived after a period of time and that the dungeon was one for grinding for experience.

She met the adventurer Richard, who softened up after learning that she was close to the Questioner. Coincidentally, she heard that "the Questioner" was "a fancier title" than the Questioner's true designation: "regional director."

Richard pointed in the direction of a certain dungeon within the town.

The dungeon led to tunnels through which Richard and his group could reconnoitre or survey enemy goblin territory as a small team.

"I am gladly participanting," Richard said. "If, in case, you want to come, please do tell me."

He smiled.

Katherine nodded, feeling that Richard's stare was one of a giant facing a tiny child. Yet, she knew that it was just the way Richard's facial configuration was. Ultimately, this "configuration" reminded her of how the structure she had damaged by leaning on it remained sturdy despite her actions.

Richard's smile persisted despite Katherine's off-putting gaze.

Behind Richard, where twelve adventurers part of his group were, an opportunity for an expansion in interpersonal connections emerged in Katherine's eyes.

The imagination that contained the flowers of summer, the bridges to new, lasting connections that spoke of sturdy fellowship, the valleys that led to an awakening of spirits, and the vivid interplay of economical agents of the town that withstood an attack all injected Katherine with the question: "Should you continue?"

Katherine's eyes pierced through the clouds and into the sky. She was stuck on this world, and she would wage a war against its elements to craft a "farm."

Richard and his group left 5 minutes earlier.

Katherine stood there, minutes passing, people passing her at high speeds as time seemed to zoom.

She got up, staring at the people down below: people walking in crowds, individuals briskly meeting one another, people laughing and pointing, and conversations circulating like clouds in the air.

Far away, the tall giant said, "Time to wage the third." 

His body was full of scars from slashes and folds from surgical operations. 

His right eye was gone.

In the interspaces of the thickets in the distance, groups emerged, casting meditated spells, shooting full-power arrows, and charging from all sides.

The giant made a circle with his hands and gently directed them toward the groups. 

A flurry of magical colors exited his palms at high speeds.

The groups separated into subgroups.

Four yellow-skinned women wearing simple clothes emerged from the subgroups, one of them almost invisible.

With their presence, they silenced the colors, returning the atmosphere to normal.

A black goo rapidly flickering between white and black emerged from the subgroups. It said, "[G.G.A]"

The giant's armor cracked and exploded outward in shrapnel .

The shrapnel struck the giant, causing bleeding wounds. 

The giant raised his hand and healed his body; however, the shrapnel inside stayed, leaving his face pinched.

Soon, the giant fell.

In a shack, Katherine carried a heavy bag of gold and left her home, seeing the groups gathering together. When they walked at a certain point, they touched an invisible, giant, dome-like, magical barrier.

Touching the barrier made it light up briefly.

Katherine locked eyes with the group before she slowly returned inside.

"Ah, I see..." She was sweating, and her heart pounded with fervor.

Outside, when they felt that she was looking elsewhere, the groups revealed the giant's body. With wagons, they transported it across the stretch in front of Katherine's shack. Throughout this, the giant and his limbs fell off several times.

Katherine chuckled until she emptied her lungs.

Johnny appeared beside her, levitating a foot above the ground. "Don't actually do it. I know you're feeling it, but don't do it."

Katherine looked at Johnny.

Johnny smiled. 

Katherine raised his hand as if to hit him.

Johnny flinched.

Katherine embraced him.

Johnny laughed. "Are you kidding..." A tear dropped his left eye.

Katherine almost said, "Where were you?" But then, she realized that Johnny was something beyond her imagination.

Johnny frowned. "Hey, I was just here, watching you. I know you struggled..." 

He sounded like he had more to say, but he compressed his lips shut.

Katherine's hair felt soft under his chin.

Johnny levitated down to the ground.

Katherine backed off from Johnny, who felt he was impossible to break and penerate.

She spoke to him from a polite distance, "What happened to you?"

Johnny said very formally as if reading from a treatise, "The imperative essence of isolation stands as the pivotal facet requisite for the consummation of my designated retreat."

"What?"

"I lived a long time. I can do that."

They stared at each other for a while.

Katherine glanced around her shack, first looking at her bed she bought then looking at the storage containers and her desk. 

"I killed several goblins last night. Do you want to see them with me?"

Katherine shook her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I can give them to you."

Katherine shook her head. "No, no."

"Are you sure?" Johnny was sure she needed goblins.

Katherine shook her head. "No, I don't need them."

Johnny rubbed his chin. 

He thought that Katherine targeted the goblins because she wanted to understand how to fight them better. However, he noticed that Katherine kept dumping the bodies of the goblins rather than studying them. So he felt that bringing goblins to her and then studying them with her would be among her interests. Now, he recognized that he was wrong.

Johnny smiled, glancing at the maps on the desk. "Do you need more maps?"

Katherine nodded.

Surprised, Johnny magically summoned maps out of thin air. "This is one of the Town of 'Laol' and the Town of 'Don.'"

Katherine thanked him and accepted them, sitting down to scan the maps' features.

After what felt like a long moment, she cocked her head at Johnny, "Anything you wanna say?"

Johnny, who was still there, shook his head, disappearing. "Nope."

Later, Katherine found herself staring at the complex wooden texture of the desk rather than on the map. 

She stood up and left the shack, arming and armoring himself for battle. 

She was heading to Richard and his group.

In a dungeon nearby, Katherine placed together two little traps and checked to see if they worked by placing a rock on them.

Since these traps were magical, they cast spells that froze their targets instead of some physical attack.

Katherine waited for the first few goblins to survey human territory.

The first group of goblins looked insect-like with the way they cocked their heads and made whistling and clicking noises to communicate to one another. Coincidentally, they looked like soldiers from Earth in an indoors, urban operation.

Katherine saw one of them avoid her trap. However, she was calm.

When she noticed that her trap led one of the goblins to where she hid, she took advantage and emerged, slicing the goblin to death.

She proved that her 2 months of hunting only goblins were useful.

Expecting them to flank her, she ran straight out of the fight, through a doorway, into a corridor, and behind a corner where she could ambush them again.

Since they could only go through the doorway two at a time, Katherine reduced the amount of potential damage she could take. From behind the corner, since the corner obstructed her sight, she used her longer arms to swing her sword where she expected them. Finally, she prevented them from making confident attacks.

The goblins waited it out. In a stroke of genius, one of them advanced and used his blade to determine how tired Katherine was based on the power of her swing.

Meanwhile, the rest prepared potions by taking it out of their very tightly closed pouches.

They inspected their dead comrade in case he was still living. Moreover, they let their comrade who got trapped drink a potion to remove the immobilizing effects of the magical trap.

Another goblin drank a potion and angrily charged in front of Katherine to attack her, taking the brunt of her sword with his chest. Fortunately, drinking the potion prematurely mitigated the damage. Also, Katherine's attack was too weak from repeated swinging. Ultimately, Katherine continued to swing rather than stop.

The goblin backed off and gave a signal to the rest. Surprised, Katherine stopped and prepared her throwing daggers.

Feeling motivated, the goblins charged.

When the goblins appeared, she shot at them, hitting one of them in the shoulder.

The goblins ran back into the room, allowing Katherine to get her sword and start slashing again to block them.

Because the goblins prepared their potions earlier, the injured goblin healed himself quickly. Since Katherine's slashes grew weaker, the goblins charged.

Suddenly, Katherine peeked from behind the corner, aimed a dagger, and shot it at the charging goblins.

She tripped on a rock.

Since they were charging next to one another, they were a large mass.

The dagger hit one of the goblins in the chest.

The goblins stared in shock.

Katherine made a split-second decision to shoot another dagger while she was on the ground.

However, she missed.

Then, in another split-second decision, Katherine stood up and charged, slashing at the goblins.

The goblins were afraid of backing off toward their injured comrade.

As the injured one was drinking a potion, they blocked Katherine's heavy swing.

Her weight was too much since she was leaning against them.

The goblins labored in retreat when the injured one that had a dagger partially inside his chest died from blood loss after running out of potions.

The injured one needed help from the other goblins to pull out the dagger. To compensate for this lack, he forced himself to stay alive by drinking potions repeatedly. Yet, it ended with his death. 

Katherine found that her energy was too low and used her remaining energy to run as well.

She hauled her sword in the direction of the goblins to distract them and lighten her overall weight. However, it was a gratuitous move.

Leaving the fight, Katherine learned that dungeons were too dangerous for her and that she was fortunate the last time she entered a dungeon. Lastly, she learned to bring shields.

When she returned home, Johnny re-appeared with a new set of clothes.

Katherine stared at him.

Johnny revealed two new arms emerging from where his belly would be. Instead of a regular abdomen, he had a metal one.

"What is this?"

Johnny grinned. "It's actually a piece of my updated attire for a specific occasion."

"What 'occasion'?"

"The 'Day of Oallllr.'"

"Meaning?"

"Don't worry too much about it. It's better if you finish your map studies first because you still have magic tomes to learn, but not before the books that delve deep into science."

"Science... What kind of science?"

"Biology."

Katherine dropped her jaw. Then, her brows became furrowed.

Johnny felt that maybe Katherine did like to study goblins.

Katherine covered her mouth for a moment.

She turned her head to the side where she could look at the top of the trees and at the sky. "Why?" she mouthed.

Johnny grinned nervously.

While Katherine stared in silence, Johnny analyzed the room: red strands of fabric that were used to embellish reports sent through the adventurer guild, a collection of mismatched weaponry, dirty clothes used to dry off blood from weapons, variegated containers of water such as buckets, pitchers, barrels, and animal skins and bladders, and oil in glass bottles, among other things.

Johnny wondered how she accomplished all of this within the span of three months. Then, he realized that he was teaching her the whole time. Yet, he felt proud of how self-sustaining she was.

"Should I go with them?" Katherine said, intent on scaring away Johnny by asking him a difficult, vulnerable question.

Johnny smiled. "Sure. I trust you."

Katherine shook her head once. "Whatever."

Johnny disappeared, feeling that he had given her enough time to brainstorm.

When she realized how timely Johnny's disappearance was, she was sure that he was supporting her even if she felt that his presence and actions encroached on her sense of self.

Katherine disappeared herself into the night.

She postponed her plan to visit Richard earlier because of the sudden appearance of the goblins. However, indeed, she was intent on joining them.

Later, in a bar, Richard and his group saw Katherine. "Hey, Katherine," they repeated, their eyes that of curiosity, awe, and wonder.

When Katherine excused herself and sat down while looking down, Richard and his group became silent.

Katherine looked up. "How does this work?"

Richard and his group grinned, nodded, or both.

The symbol of a god hung on the wall directly behind Katherine. 

One of Richard's fellows, Cambert saw the connection between Katherine and the symbol, thought about it for a moment, and then dismissed it.

Chapter 4
Four teenage boys separated in different paths of life, each one becoming an adventurer in their own distinct way.

Part of Richard's group, these boys saw Katherine at the bar.

They wanted to know if Katherine was going to change things up or just add to the count.

They each took a sip from a healing potion at the request of Richard, Cambert, and a third member of the group. 

Katherine looked up higher at them, who were standing. 

The boy Callous said, "If I knew you were coming, I would have given you gifts." He grinned flirtatiously. "Would you like that? Or, I mean, would you like me... 'to'?" Specifically, he meant "to" as a play of words because "to" had the same pronouciation as "too."

Expectant, Katherine nodded with understanding. "Hmm... I could be available." But then, she almost face-palmed after remembering that Callous could be below 18.

The boy Yonder removed his jacket and placed it down on the table as he sat down.

His voice broke the light-hearted mood Katherine felt. However, the rest of the group were used to his grouchy attitude late at night. "Do you guys really want to stay here?" he said. "I'm getting really itchy-feely. Let's just go."

Yonder saw the shadow of Richard, who gave him a meaningful smile and assured him regarding something between them.

Yonder sighed, watching Katherine place down a shield on the table.

Meanwhile, the two boys Redlight and Striker pretended to laugh at each other, teasing. Then, they extended their teasing to Yonder, who ignored them.

In the middle of a lull in several loud conversations between the adventurers, including Katherine, Richard subtly told Katherine, "This is Dungeon B."

He pointed to the counter of the bar excitedly, as if he was a child showing his new favorite game to his friend.

Soon, Richard and the group entered Dungeon B through a staircase at the counter.

Throughout their five-hour talk and walk, Katherine and Callous found themselves connecting in various topics such as determinism, the different stages of plants, and studying. Yet, Katherine only divulged her much younger self's attributes and interests. In reality, she was much different than the qualities she described.

Talking with the younger Callous allowed her to regress to her early days and explore the complexities of her childhood and adolescence.

Katherine spent several days in Dungeon B, doing several things outside of her comfort zone. One, she drank from the flat-tasting water that Callous summoned. Two, she ate the bitter vegetables that Richard magically grew from seeds. Lastly, she struggled to swallow the badly cooked meat of carnivores that lived in these caves. Fortunately, these carnivores hunted in packs and were too weak to fend off humans. Magically, they regerated their wounds quickly. Indeed, seeing their wounds regenerate in real time awed and concerned Katherine.

Three days into their journey, they crossed over from Dungeon B to underground goblin territory.

At the end of their journey, several weeks later, Katherine exited the caves.

She felt like tons of metal weighed against her upper thighs and several sharp knives struck her ankles. In other words, she felt wasted after trekking so much in sloping, bumpy, tunnels and cave corridors.

She felt that she finally received a physical baptism of fire with a duration of more than one week—three weeks and six days.

Katherine found that the rest of the group felt empowered, as if they could fight a legion of goblins and survive based on their conversations.

They saw thousands of other adventurers in groups in several colossal chambers in Dungeon B.

These chambers were grandiose hubs or gathering points replete with similarly bold and ambitious personal and group identities.

Katherine and Richard's group only took the fastest path, missing more than 99\% of the dungeon.

Behind Katherine, the troll whom she knew appeared out of a portal. "I bear a request," he said, swaggering past Katherine. "Specifically, I necessitate your input concerning the implications behind the comprehensiveness of that world to which you experienced a prelude."  In other words, he wanted to know what she thought about the world.

He was wearing fancy regalia.

"Why are you here?" Katherine said, positioning herself closer to Richard's group.

"Here, my arrival may feel negligible, but if dialogue proceeds constructively, then, such a quantifiable increase in understanding would reduce the experiential deprivations that academia exhibits in its systemic delineations." In other words, he countered her by saying that successfully talking to her would increase understanding and help complete academia.

I exit my established routine to visit you, a human that came from nowhere." 

Katherine opened her mouth. "Who are you?"

The troll chuckled as flashes of colorful lights flew from his hands and the portal behind him. 

Strands flew around, creating arcs. 

He smirked, levitating into the air, his hands extending to the side with palms facing up. 

His hair swayed in the wind. 

His legs were squeezed together, and his feet were pointed outward. 

The more he ascended, the more the sunlight lit him up. 

"My name is Czesław Antoni Wójcik Michał."

Katherine shook her head in confusion as she gradually pieced together her realization. "You know 'nowhere'?" she said.

"I am ignorant regarding your origin."

"How do you where I am at all times?"

"I don't. Instead, I sacrifice 1,000 goblins in order to come to you."

Katherine covered her face. "W-what?"

A tear fell down her face, falling through the air and hitting the ground.

The troll nodded deeply, joining knees with the ground and appreciating the Byzantine properties of the earth. "You are right. Namely, people are valuable, and their experiences are valuable. Indeed, letting 1,000 goblins die was the choice of my kind. As a final point, I just exploited this decision by making use of it for my sacrificial spells."

Katherine looked up. "But..."

As if seeing through her, he said confidently: "That is correct again. Precisely, the worth of lives cannot be quantified. Yet, let me address that you have engaged in warfare and the hunting of intelligent creatures." 

Katherine hesitantly frowned, slightly shaking her head.

"However," the troll stressed, "our personal choices are distinct from my purpose here, which is to gain knowledge and further the appreciation of life and the world."

"What is it you want?" She glanced at Robert and his group, seeing that they were suspiciously each taking a sip from a healing potion.

The taller troll politely smiled sideways at Robert's group. "What then?"

His tone implied that he wanted to talk to her alone.

Katherine walked away, and the troll joined her.

Robert felt at a loss, but Katherine felt justified because Robert and his group left and ignored her in the presence of the troll before.

The troll pointed at the distance. "Let us talk of the people."

His tone took on a more conversational quality. "I met a troll named 'Don'. She became the wisest person I ever met.

"I met the three goblins. I forgot their names. I forgot...

"I remember Gian, the person who bullied me when I was younger. I wish I could tell him how much he matters.

"I remember so many people, and being someone who has lived so long, I feel only so much more angry. I feel that I am callous because I have lived too long and learned too much. The gravity of the implications and details of the things I have learned is incomparable to the trivial emotions I feel when I grieve. The world is a great world, full of great people. Trust the people, get disappointed, and then hope again. Then, you will do things that benefit the world rather than destroy it. Do not forget the pain of losing everything and not being able to save a soul." 
Despite the consistently low-spirited tone, the troll's face twitched a lot. 

It showed a dynamic mixture between anger, grief, and happiness.

It was like he was speaking to himself rather than talking to Katherine. 

It sounded like he had so much more to say — enough to fill libraries and libraries. Yet, he halted himself, focusing on the importance of learning even now. "How about you, Katherine? What is it like?" 

His face was so full of subtle emotions moving on the surface.

Katherine rubbed her chin, pointing to a lake. "It's fine I guess. What is that?"

The troll shifted his head from side to side, smiling, his eyes flickering between open and closed. 

He looked like he was having a trance. 

"That is Jolly Lake," he said.

Katherine walked a few steps away before turning back. "Can I go? Richard is probably waiting."

The troll nodded sagely.

An explosion of colors emerging from the troll's hands.

He stared at his hands and fingers calmly. 

While staring, he began rotating them to inspect their different sides. 

While engaged in the previous two actions, he began contracting and relaxing them.

The troll's jaw clenched, and his lips trembled.

Tears dripped down his face.

He closed his hands.

Long after Katherine and Robert's group left, he stood there, frozen for several hours.

Meanwhile, alongside Richard's group, Katherine laughed at what Yonder's mention of something funny.

From a distance, two 150-goblin groups transmitted information through messenger goblins.

They reported several key words: "far-away troll," "vulnerable group," and "generally favorable conditions."

In their sights, Katherine guffawed with tears of joy when she heard of Callous' sullen declarations when he was a child.

She felt that the topic was striking since they mirrored the one that the troll talked about earlier.

From the bushes, numerous arrows struck Richard's group, leaving Yonder on the ground and crawling with his face bleeding from several pores.

Because Richard's group routinely each took a sip from a healing potion, Yonder healed instead of dying. However, the arrows flew again, striking Yonder and his group.

Katherine blocked an arrow with a shield, moving away with the rest of the group.

One single explosive arrow struck Yonder, causing him to explode in a flailing, fiery form.

For a single moment, Yonder seemed to be spreading his arms like an eagle.

Katherine disappeared past the trees, letting Yonder be.

Richard's group slowed down to a halt.

Katherine wondered why they stopped. "Hey, guys, let's go! We're going to lose! You too Yonder!" She called Cambert "Yonder."

Spears flew and struck Richard. For a moment, he looked like a statue of freedom and authority, as if the debris of the world whirled toward his essence. Again, Katherine let him be.

Katherine cried, "Let's go!"

"Yonder" tripped and sprained his leg. 

His fall was comparable to the glory of humanity allowing itself to be humble in order to see the glory of the earth below. 

It was like the gods were speaking to him and him alone when he closed his eyes for a moment. 

It was like the heavens swarmed him with a flashing light that revealed a rippling grace that spanned across generations. 

His face was ever-bright.

Katherine grabbed him and tried to cast a spell. However, she failed.

Yonder cast a spell that healed his leg.

Katherine helped him get up and dodge an arrow.

Yonder screamed hoarsely: "I am alive! I am alive!" 

He sounded like a rambunctious but good-natured friend living on the outskirts.

When Katherine and who was left of Richard's group escaped into a dark karst cave, the flash of the hot, tropical sunlight made it hard to see outside.

"What is this? I've never been outside the city." Katherine rubbed her forehead.

Yonder stared, smiling as if in a trance.

Katherine passed by him from behind, giving him a second glance. "Hey, you okay?"

Yonder was ignorant of his smile. "Yeah?"

Katherine slightly furrowed her brows. "You're smiling."

Yonder quickly covered his face. "Yeah, sorry, I can't control my facial expressions sometimes."

The adventurer John stared at "Yonder", who was actually Cambert. "Who died?" he asked as if mocking everyone here, including himself.

Katherine said, "Yonder."

His face gradually revealing his anguish, Cambert joined the other ten adventurers part of Richard's group grieving.

"And Richard," Katherine continued.

Her voice echoed into the cave into the various fissured, grooved, cracked, layered, bumpy, pitted, crumbly, porous, banded, and craggy surface of the cave walls were.

The cries of the adventurers grew louder.

"We used the little that we had," John said concretely. "It should have been enough to make it... Yet..."  

What he meant to say next was: "But I learn now that it's those who are born with power that never really learn what it's like to suffer truly, only suffering imagined, abstract suffering generated by abstract perceptions from culture, ideals, philosophies, and social standards of what suffering should entail, taking on the undetectable pretense of suffering in order to separate oneself from the responsibilites and terrifying echoes of ability and privilege. 

"Just as the pretense of superiority through the imitation of those who convey superiority by crafting a persona that they themselves then come to believe in. Confidence reified by a delusional mindset of arrogance and narcissism. Embodying some good habits while adopting cruel models of life. Yet, in the end, such an ideal is boisterous alone rather than reflective of the complex reality it longs to serve. Furthermore, such pretenses are only epitomized by those whose origin relies on insecurity. Incidentally, there is one mindset that I declare to be a contributive, positive force in my life, and that is optimism."

John was only able to say little when his interiorized emotions detailed complex frustrations. However, the fact that he only alluded to them rather than expressed them directly made it so that he maintained a strong focus on the concrete and a weaker one on the abstract.

Katherine kept trying to cast magic.

"What do you think?" she said.

Several days later, Johnny appeared while Katherine was alone to help her strategize.

She was distancing herself from the others. 

Meanwhile, the others stayed at an outside camp.

They discussed regarding serious topics that they wanted to be privy only to those officially within Richard's group.

Out of earshot, Katherine sighed. "I cannot get to them." 

She emphasized "them" in a way that meant that she thought that those in Richard's group were at fault.

Johnny nodded.

Katherine sighed. "What... should... I... do?"

Johnny smiled weakly.

Katherine sighed again. "Really? You don't want to tell me anything?"

Johnny nodded with an awkward smile, consitently keeping his mouth closed.

Katherine stared at his mouth. "Please."

Johnny messed up his hair from the back.

Katherine rested her forehead on her fingertips and turned away with her other hand on her hip. "Is this intentional, purposive, or something?" 

She began to walk around in circles. "Talk me into something."

Johnny looked down.

His fingers were relaxed and interlaced. 

He was rubbing the pad of his right thumb against the end knuckle of his other thumb. Several times, he rubbed the web of his left thumb with the pad of his right pointing finger.

Katherine muttered, "God, what would happen if I was God?"

Johnny's eyes darted a little before he looked up at her, wide-eyed.

Chapter 5
Katherine squatted down and stared at the ground in front of Johnny. 

Her behavior mirrored the troll earlier.

She summoned a shovel with Johnny's help and began to dig.

"I dig, dig, and dig. 

"I hate digging.

"But I do it.

"I dig like a maniac.

"So much dirt.

"So much dirt.

"Okay, that's enough," she said calmly. 

She dragged the bodies of Richard and Yonder into the open graves.

She only realized now that Yonder was around the same height as her.

"I finally did it."

She took a whole week just to avoid the goblins and drag their bodies here.

Richard's group declined her requests earlier because they said they were leaving, which made her feel betrayed.

Katherine let out an exasperated sigh. "Time to leave."

She returned to the dungeon while Johnny watched over her.

She went toward the entrance that led to the caves, but she learned that the goblins were entering it.

For a moment, she thought they were guarding it, but they were only entering it.

Guarding it was too much for the goblins. 

The goblins relied on strategy to make sure that they were fighting against the most vulnerable groups of humans.

Their stratagy led to the defeat of Richard and Yonder.

Katherine waited until they left.

An adventurous, lone goblin went on a forest path that crossed her location, wearing a cloak.

She emerged from behind bushes and trees, wielding a sword.

The sight of the drawn sword made the goblin hesitate.

Katherine took a loud step.

The goblin reconsidered his steps, causing him to pause. 

Katherine slashed at the goblin's dominant hand.

The goblin dodged, snarling in fear.

Katherine slashed the goblin several times before kicking it in the chest.

His cloak fluttering in the wind, the goblin flew backward, his feet maintaining contact with the ground.

He stumbled, trying to stabilize himself. 

He collapsed, his face under his cloak.

Katherine left its body there because she was against eating goblins.

She only sold the goblins' parts.

Having hoped to see Richard's group at the entrance to the caves, Katherine wanted to leave, but it would be impossible for her to leave alone.

So she decided on another solution: she could travel the longer route. 

Through her recent experience with her gifted maps, she was well-aware of the longer route.

She crossed paths with a walled village.

She entered it, learning that the quality of clean, neat teeth was a trend in other places as well.

Returning from a nearby dungeon, a group of adventurers sat down nearby, talking in loud voices.

She remembered that they conversed regarding the "beauty" of "interesting" "goats" and getting a "good offer". Incidentally, throughout her time in this world, Katherine sighted many wild deer and warty pigs in the forest. At the same time, she learned that it was common to eat fish, poultry, pork, deer, and bananas.

Katherine wanted to strike up a bold inquiry with the adventurers. However, she was sure most of them were more skilled than her in fighting off other monsters besides goblins. Precisely, she was doubtful regarding her right to request information. Moreover, she was less concerned since adventurers were privy to the knowledge that if they attacked an innocent fellow adventurer or divulged this fact, they would die. Magically, adventurers learned this knowledge after signing up at the guild. At the time she signed up, however, Katherine paid it little attention since she was sure she would die before she did anything murderous to another human being. In the end, she just knew how to choose her battles, and those battles were solely with goblins, which the deathly law excluded from "adventurers."

She remembered clearly the face of the goblin whom she killed earlier within a second and, within 30 seconds, 10 more goblins whom she killed before. Yet, her heart remained secure.

She walked fast as if time was moving for her.

She joined the adventurers.

She assimilated herself into their group through premeditative responses to interactions.

Her level of skill in pattern recognition in the realm of social interactions came from her past experiences with Johnny and Richard's group. However, she failed.

The adventurers slowly ignored her as time passed until they directly declined her request to join them again.

Katherine stared at her hands, walking out of the village to a place where she could be alone.

She mouthed, her face becoming crumpled, "I am muck.

"But I am... the epitome... of grace... and beauty." She tried to imitate emotionally the sense of freedom that the tall giant's words now meant to her.

Johnny appeared in front of her.

They exchanged greetings.

Focused on the pads of her fingers, he watched how they turned red briefly when he pressed them.

Katherine regarded him, knowing instantly that his presence was privy only to her.

She became calmer vicariously through Johnny's self-soothing behavior.

The separation between Johnny's angelic, refined body along with his purely concerned expression and the dirty, cruel environment created a sense of pristine perfection. Similarly, many might feel drawn to their childhood because to them, it represented this sense.

She kept worriedly glancing in the direction of the village.

She squatted down, imitating the way people sat down in this world.

Long after pondering in isolation for a long time, Johnny told her, "Do you want a mission?"

Katherine felt a tickle on the second toe of her right foot. "Yes!"

Johnny smiled. "Go slay seven hundred goblins. I will give you something that might help you."

Meanwhile, Katherine felt that the texture of the tickle was strange since it felt like that of an insect rather than that of the plants on the ground. 

She separated her legs out more and found an insect in between her two legs and in front of her. In response, she yelped, which she then hoped to convey as a "yes" to Johnny. At the same time, she backed away. Then, she turned around, waiting for the insect to leave.

The insect retreated away.

Johnny told Katherine that she could join a group of adventurers who were coming. Moreover, he said that she had to be careful. Lastly, he said many other things like asking for updates of her progress in her map studies, what she thought about the adventurers who rejected her, what movements she took with the goblin whom she fought earlier, and how he thought she could improve in many aspects, among many other topics to keep her consistent, stable, and aware. Yet, he refrained from giving her knowledge that he felt would be too much for her.

Because of the insect's alarming presence, Katherine started taking account of the animals around her.

Johnny watched Katherine disappear from his sight as he returned to his ethereal home, his eyes determined.

Sitting down in his room, he could only laugh about his situation.

Throughout his lifetime, he recorded down his memories, thoughts, and life in swaths of books.

The sound of clapping resounded through his room that now turned into a stadium.

A live piano concerto played as hundreds of gods emerged and took their seats nearby.

Johnny used his true name "I Am The Witch-Guard of Heavenly Places" to introduce himself to these gods.

Later, he cast a spell: "[Let Those Who Crumble Crumble to Their Deaths]

Alongside him, the other gods cast their chosen spells.

"[Cry, Weep, For This Day Is Bound to Flesh.]

"[Never Be Happy, Always Regret!]"

"[Cast the Lazy and the Depressed Into Eternal Damnation]"

Instead of taking effect, these spells stayed in a moment of pause while a certain council of gods among the hundreds of gods parsed through them and decided whether they were appropriate.

The spells would either impinge upon or benefit the inhabitants of the world Katherine was.

Johnny smiled with a mixture of emotions.

Today was the Day of Oallllr.

Meanwhile, Katherine headed to the adventurers to which Johnny referred her, her steps marking the swath of land she passed. 

When she met them, one of the adventurers shook her hand immediately. Surprised, Katherine reciprocated it. Then, to exert control, she shook hands with the rest of the 20 adventurers.

The adventurer Hifeol moved higher on the slope and began snickering.

The rest of the adventurers there squatted down in the middle of the remote path, cheering.

An adventurer signalled to them from higher up the hill.

The adventurers quieted down, and they each raised both hands as if to cast a spell.

A troll carrying a box appeared, wearing armor.

Magical wind flew from behind when the adventurer Carpenter cast the spell "[Wind Gusts]".

The troll cried: "Hey! What the hell are you guys doing!"

The troll tried to push back against the wind, but he was too late and ended up tripping.

Falling toward the adventurers.

An earth mound emerged and protruded against the troll's body when the adventurer Happenstance cast the spell "[Earth Uproar]"

A steep ramp appeared after the adventurer Stonefly cast the same spell "[Earth Uproar]".

This ramp was diagonal enough for the troll to slam into while retaining his fall and off balance velocity.

In shock, Katherine asked, "Who are you guys?"

The troll cast the spell "[Ice Clamp]", creating ice that swallowed him and stopped his fall. However, he was too exhausted to get out in seconds.

Instead of answering her verbally, the adventurer Nocker looked at her and showed her his prowess. Namely, he cast two spells: "[Aerial Allies]" and "[Fireball]".

Three fairy-like creatures emerged from thin air and went into the holes of the troll's ice formation.

They pestered and bleeding the troll.

The adventurers waited as Nocker finished his second spell.

A fireball formed in his hands and flew toward the ice formation, melting it.

The troll shouted furiously, "Nocker!"

Katherine stared, connecting the dots between the troll and the adventurers.

Her gut told her to back off in case the troll was stronger than she thought.

She began moving away.

"Hey," the adventurer told Katherine as vines emerged from his hands. "'Golden,' what are you doing? Come here."

Facing away from them, Katherine furrowed her brows.

The troll cast a spell "[Evolved Understanding]". Instead of targetting himself, he aimed it at the adventurers.

The adventurers fell to the earth and gazed at various things, crying that the complexities of the world were too much.

Katherine was too far away to study the full effect of the spell.

The troll placed his hands on the adventurers' heads, paused, and then slapped them hard to the point two of them fell sideways to the ground.

Horrified, Katherine returned home. "What is this? Is this what Johnny needed me to witness?"

Johnny made her go back.

Katherine saw the adventurers and the troll carrying notebooks.

The troll was snickering. "If you cast your ability earlier, this wouldn't have happened," he told Nocker.

Katherine was confused, but she kept walking toward them.

"What are you guys doing?" she whispered to herself.

"Golden" was what they called her.

"Golden, come here, where's your field notebook?" said Nocker, putting his notebook inside his bag only to take it out again.

Katherine rubbed her brow with her elbow raised, too confused to look pleasant. "Who's Golden?" she said.

"You're the one the 'Iso' sent right," said the troll, gesturing to the south.

"'Iso' who?" Katherine crossed her arms loosely and rubbed the sides of her torso.

"'Iso Mental Planet.'" The troll raised his notebook to get a better angle for the sunlight, revealing blocks of text. 

Katherine had a bias where she perceived tall people as more likely to be less textbook intelligent.

She perceived the Questioner, who was another troll, as distinct since he often appeared alone. However, since the troll in front of her had a much more normal impression, especially when factoring in his more down-to-earth interpersonal connection with the adventurers, she felt that the troll in front of her as an intelligent anomaly within normalcy.

"Okay..." Katherine shot her hand up to cover her mouth. Yet, she reconsidered, touching her nose and immediately bringing her hand down. Moreover, she adopted a small-stepped gait rather than letting herself walk as she would normally.

Instead of telling her that it was okay to feel confused, they gestured her to a stew in a pot situated on a flat part of the slope. "Eat," emphasized the troll. "We 'stole' that from the fiesta."

"Fiesta?" Katherine paused briefly, her eyes darting around.

The troll turned his head behind at her as he walked. "Eat. Enjoy yourself. There is much to tell. If you really aren't Golden, then your presence here is inappropriate. However, we would gladly accept one of our own."

Katherine's head flicked upward. "'Own'? What do you mean?"

The troll paused, scanning her distracted expression. "Oh, I thought you were from Winston!"

Winston was the town where Katherine lived while hunting goblins for two months.

Katherine nodded, her brows furrowed and tone rising in emphasis. "I am from Winston. You live there too?"

"Not 'live', but we do receive most of our goods from there, alright?" he said as he began walking away.

Katherine flickered her fingers forward as she walked. "What?"

Katherine tried to find answers elsewhere, glancing at Nocker.

Nocker was listening to the other adventurers discussing formatting and aesthetic styles regarding structured data such as those in tables and lists for their notebooks. 

He was tired of hearing them talk about styles when they should just follow the standard rather than embellishing their notes with different script styles, among others. "By following the standard," he posited during a board meeting where several trustees known for promoting "stylism" were present while most of those against it were absent, "according to quantitative reasoning, anyone would find themselves writing so much more."

The adventurers brought the pot with them as they and Katherine headed to a nearby village.

Katherine saw goblins walking around freely, sitting on their haunches all around.

Since she was standing at the gate to the village, many goblins made their way past her. However, they moved comfortably closely past her, as if she was a goblin like them.

When the tip of a a headband rubbed against her elbow, she made a surprised sound.

The goblins stoically looked at her.

They were checking to see if one of them bumped into her.

Katherine sat down, watching the goblins begin working in the contruction of a pergola-like structure.

Throughout the village, goblins and humans co-operated with various equipment.

A goblin guard was strangely talking to her: "Don't you think they need to start using horses? Why is it took so long to get to this point? In other cases, they would use a lizard, but seriously, why aren't they financing those who rear horses? It feels like a steal. Eh! The 'big man' is a stuck-up."

"Big man" referred to the vassal lord of the territory that included the village.

Katherine made polite statements and used an agreeable tone to get the guard's thoughts.

She learned the guard's name: "Kato Guard."

Later, the guard gave her a toothy smile and a wave as she left. From the guard, she learned of several dungeon spots.

She shared her findings with the troll and the adventurers.

The troll smiled.

Katherine turned her head away and looked down to her left side, stone-faced. 

When she felt alone, she interlocked her fingers with force, flexing her shoulders.

She tensed the right side of her jaw.

The skin below her left eye twitched toward a wrinkled nose.

She contracted her neck muscles upward, feeling the tip of her upper teeth rubbing against the mucous membrane of her lower lip.

She curled her fingers toward the middle knuckles of her hands and rubbed them.

She separated her hands, stretching them wide open as she took a deep breath, raising her shoulders slightly.

She bit softly against the mucous membrane, looking up.

She grabbed her right hand with her left and raised her elbows, slowly forcing them apart while retaining a strong grip. When she separated them, she moved her elbows backward, stretching her shoulders. 

She clasped her hands behind her nape, her elbows pointing to the sky. 

She then straightened her arms, retaining a loose interlock between fingers of both hands, her palms pointing forward. 

She heard a satisfying crack around her nape.

Later, she cupped her left pointing finger and thumb. 

She rubbed the right side of her left pointing finger from side to side on the area above her upper lip, the end knuckle of this finger touching her nose. 

The groove below her lips supported the end knuckle of her left thumb.

Soon, her face twitched several times in a row toward a pinched expression. Similarly, her chin twitched repeatedly. At its every twitch, her upper teeth touched the mucous membrane.

She huffed through her nose many times to rid herself off the smell of manure nearby.

She tensed her chest, her arms inching inward, and took a quicker breath only to suppress and slow it down.

Long afterwards, she watched and curled her fingers one by one in a rolling motion. 

These fingers form a diagonal fist where her thumb lay on top of her index finger.  

Curling her arm, she tensed it along with her fist.

Chapter 6
A family walked past Katherine.

She watched them.

Later, the troll and the adventurers helped act as background noise while she sorted her thoughts. In the end, she learned a lot from them. Inside, she was in an introspective daze, yet she seemed as sociable as the rest of the adventurers.

When she went to hunt, she almost died after a mistake.

Her right cheek was bleeding, and a knife was in her stomach. 

She was huffing. Yet, when she stood up, her adrenaline kept her ignorant of the seriousness of her injuries.

She walked away, limping from time to time.

She retrieved her potion in a bag on the floor and saved herself.

Her adrenaline saved her.

Some time later, Katherine observed herself in a mirror inside an inn.

She remembered her history and that of her family.

Minutes passed, but she stayed there.

When she noticed a cascade of tears dripping down her cheek and making a small pond on the floor, she was surprised.

She thought that her mind was different and worked more faster since she had experience in two worlds, Earth and the world where she was.

As her desire for godhood felt more clear, so did her exposed humanity.

After a few minutes, she observed a spider. In response to her as a threat, it vibrated up and down in response to her.

She went outside and saw two guys fighting in the mud some time after a rain poured. Specifically, one was on the ground, and the other was grabbing with his right hand and punching with his left hand. Finally, both looked furious.

She ignored them and walked past houses and across the road.

She stepped gently on the ground, targeting the less watery mud. Moreover, she avoided the fractures on the bamboo deck floors of some of the buildings. 

A drizzly breeze kept her guessing as to how the day would go, as many people traveled to and fro around. Namely, she was sure that she saw over a hundred travelers on the way to this village from the camp where she left Richard's group.

She passed by two people arguing regarding price.

She remembered the concerned expression of the girl standing passively behind one of the two.

She hunted again, testing the waters by using a bamboo spear to fight.

Since the place preferred to work with goblins, she could only hunt certain humanoids such as "hobgoblins," which the villagers considered to be monsters.

When she went to a deep part of the forest, she sighted a hobgoblin sitting down on a broken cement wall. 

It was very jagged at the top, yet the hobgoblin looked relaxed and even rested his palms against it. Furthermore, his feet were bare just like some of the villagers.

His left foot was resting at the top of the wall.

He was rubbing the right side of this foot with his left thumb.

After observing for a few minutes, she learned that the he had a mild red spot where he was rubbing.

She guessed it was from a bug bite.

She put her arms around herself in a hug and skipping on tiptoe away to a pile of bags she dropped earlier.

She walked to the hobgoblin and chased it down.

They ran from thicket to thicket going across the same swath numerous times.

They both stopped several times to huff at different points.

The hobgoblin finally thought he escaped when Katherine grabbed his fingers and pulled his down from a tree.

When Katherine finished dealing with him, she returned to the village, selling some goods and acquiring some cash.

She took a breather, standing in front of the village at the left side of the entrance, glancing at and listening to the recent travelers that skipped, laughed, and discussed excitedly.

When the troll and the adventurers returned from a trip, Katherine stood up and joined them inside the village, laughing alongside them.

In another settlement, the troll Solyam stared at a human warlord, as several former members of the tall giant's army walked next to him.

"I thought I'd never seen her again," he said in regard to the warlord.

Another voice said: "We have the power, so why couldn't we? What social hierarchy would prevent us from understanding the concept of life and death?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" said Solyam.

After a few moments, he continued, "We're here to watch over her. Ensure we have everything prepared. The 'Giant' is waiting."

Two goblins on the rear side of the town walked behind a building, wielding expensive and powerful but short-lived bows and swords Similarly, three people behind the tallest building of a town watched out. Entering via a pathway that intersected with a mainroad, over 100 people waited.

Solyam watched several adventurer groups lining up in the middle of the town.

At the center of the town, one man was shouting.

Later, outside the gates of the town, another man darted, swinging his arms efficiently.

Meanwhile, Katherine hiked up a mountain, staring at the U-shaped ravine to her left.

One of the adventurers behind her was using magic to get up the mountain. 

He flew with the wind every five minutes in bursts.

"[Wind Self-Propelled Shot!]" he said.

In the distance, the adventurers magically barraged the walls of a large goblin settlement to dust.

Later, Katherine kept her stance low with her hands in front of her legs, as hundreds of goblins slammed into her group.

Katherine screamed when a knife fell upon her thigh. 

The goblin that knifed her kicked her on the leg, stabilized his footing by grabbing her, and pulled her head down to slam her face against his waiting knee. 

He fled before Katherine or her associates got to counterattack.

Several swords chopped up a goblin on the ground into many sections.

Five goblins were screaming next to one another, holding onto where they ears used to be.

Several adventurers were boldly walking forward, casting bright spells.

Katherine lay on the ground.

In the distance, an explosion made the adventurers and the goblins halt briefly before fighting again.

Katherine grabbed her knee, groaning loudly.

Standing up was impossible, and goblin just crushed one of the potions that she dropped earlier.

She noticed that the ground looked plowed in one spot.

Nearby, ten goblins were carrying a large wooden plank.

On the wooden plank, an invisible elephant-like familiar dropped off the plank, stomping two adventurers in the process.

The adventurers were screaming so loud before the elephant crushed them completely.

In a burst of adrenaline, Katherine  crawled with her knees to the side, ducking and dodging a volley of arrows that killed several isolated goblins.

She hugged a rock, her chin leaning on it, as a boulder fell from a higher slope nearby, rolling toward the middle of the fight.

She watched, as the boulder killed only one person, rolled over tens of bodies, and fell off the cliff on the opposite side of where it started. If some of the people still on the ground were still alive, then the boulder made sure they were dead.

She heard someone singing, as several goblins started covering their ears and turning away, soon collapsing to the ground.

She noticed a giant silhouette in the distance in the middle of the day and floating in mid-air.

The silhouette made a motion like eating, and every time, it made a chomping motion, one of the goblins disappeared into thin air.

She knew that it was the troll's ability.

Several horses fled and accidentally off the cliff after several large-seeming magic terrified them.

Glass shards from numerous healing potions began to litter the around in large patches around the fight. However, both sides wore footwear meant for these shards.

The adventurers cheered, as the goblins fled in fear and frustration.

In the distance, a goblin shouted, displaying agony in his voice.

Katherine listened to his voice that sounded across the battlefield.

He kept repeating, "Don't go!"

A loud fire show appeared from his fingertips.

The adventurers prepared themselves, charging toward the goblin.

The goblin transformed into that of a tall humanoid with an ox skull for a head.

The humanoid's stoic demeanor contasted the goblin's agony.

The humanoid raised his arm to the left, brushing against the sides of his red cloak.

However, instead of targeting the adventurers, the fire kept going upward like a light show.

The adventurers stopped when they saw the humanoid's wicked smile and glint of pride.

The humanoid walked away confidently.

He threw out strands that chained the goblins by the necks, levitating away, as the goblins struggled to keep up.

Meanwhile, Having drunk a potion, Katherine shouted at the adventurers in the distance, "What's happening?"

The adventurers marched in the opposite direction of the strange goblin.

When the adventurer Nocker passed by Katherine, she asked, "Why are you guys leaving?"

Nocker scanned Katherine's blood from her former wounds. "He's the leader," he said.

"What 'leader'?" Katherine felt Nocker entwined his right hand into hers and leave a special tiny potion.

After Katherine took a sip of this potion, Nocker shifted his head from side to side thoughtfully. "The leader is the one from where we are."

"'Where we are'?" Katherine noticed Nocker's disappointed lip curl. 

Nocker turned away, glancing at the  adventurers relaxing behind him. "Zone 2."

Katherine asked for help in standing.

Perching on the jagged rock below her was becoming painful, and her legs and butt cramped.

Nocker discreetly helped her up, and they joined the rest of the adventurers, who began marching again.

Nocker showed her a magic trick: [Excess Weight.]"

Nocker transformed into an obese version of himself.

Katherine covered her mouth.

Nocker looked at her, expecting her to laugh.

In response, Katherine shook her head.

Nocker awkwardly waved his hand, as he reverted the effects of his spell.

The troll rejoined after talking with the strange goblin.

He said, "He waived his rights to the goblin settlement, but he wants us to hand him a small fee because he spent several years raising the goblins."

After they went to a nearby town, Katherine found herself joining the adventurers and the troll in a wake for the two adventurers who died.

In the wake, the adventurers were passing many notes detailing the two adventurers' lives.

As a perk of having joined them in the fight, Katherine got a chance to get a copy of the documents regarding the two adventurers.

Their names were "Alexandra Marie Johnson Parker" and "Nathan Daniel Williams Santos."

Being in a city, the adventurers dressed elaborately and were well-armed. Moreover, the amenities that served them were high-quality. However, Alexandra and Nathan were different in that regard, according to the documents. Namely, they preferred spending their time visiting poorer communities. Within those communities, they operated under the empowerment of certain establishments, whose objective was to advocate for public interest in children going to formal education.

Katherine wanted to brush the words in the documents off, but she would be proud of herself if she did the things that Alexandra and Nathan purportedly did. On the contrary, she also wanted to head to the forest, clear a small plot of land, and start a farm where she would befriend humans and goblins alike. Even if she lived in a magical world, she felt that life was too complex for her to run off now. Lastly, she still had so many questions.

While she listened to the various people talking and laughing around in nostalgic memory of Alexandra and Nathan and her face maintained a smile, her hands trembled slightly.

She was still in the battle.

Her hands were expecting to make sharp movements and turns, maybe to slash a goblin or to grab onto a handle.

Various parts of her legs were tensing and relaxing again and again, as if she was about to dart.

She flexed the inner muscles of her chest, as if she was about to take a deep breath before making a strong move.

Her eyes were still as if hyper-focused on a target.

Her breath was off-pace, which would be normal in a fight if she almost tripped and was stabilizing her footsteps.

Her fingers was pressing against her skin, trying to cull her battle-readiness.

She began running in her mind, every step she made felt like it resounded throughout her body. 

In her mind, she was jumping back and forth.

Every movement she made felt like an agonizing dance.

She ran high speeds, tripping all over the place. 

She exploded, her limbs shattering into bits. 

Each bit flew in a different direction at light speed. 

She felt that she was falling off a cliff. 

Her head screamed for safety.

In reality, she was only trembling slightly, having a smile plastered on her face.

She was confused and surprised regarding her body's reactions.

She believed that the things of the mind stayed there and only influenced decisions rather than intruded her body's sense of balance.

When the pain subsided, Katherine and the adventurers parted.

She went to an inn room and felt her emotions intensifying again.

She had to make a decision. 

According to Johnny, if she bore the pain, she would become stronger. However, she wondered if he implicitly meant that she would become become stronger in magic.

She could choose to finish drinking the special potion that Nocker gave her earlier.

She heard from the adventurers that it would cure mental problems. Yet, she wanted to believe that Johnny meant well when he said she should learn how to cope with the pain rather than use the psychiatric potion.

She denied the potion and waited out the pain, screaming several times before she started to close her mouth forcibly.

The next day, when she asked offhand the adventurer Hifeol where she lived, Hifeol talked about a certain overbridge in her hometown where people passed. 

She added that it was just a random memory. However, it made Katherine reconsider her choices.

When she was alone, she called Johnny's name.

Johnny materialized, wearing a green robe. 

Katherine admired his appearance for a moment. "Johnny, about the shack... how to do it? Where is it? I mean where should I go to get there? I'm worried about bandits, and I feel like maybe there's other things I don't know... What do you think?"

Johnny asked what happened.

Despite feeling that he already knew, Katherine recounted her experiences to him.

Johnny said, "Do you remember when you said you wanted to become a god?"

"What? No, I said something else. I forgot."

Looking away, Johnny waited for Katherine to say something else.

Katherine looked in the same direction as Johnny.

After around 10 seconds, feeling awkward, she began to walk around and kept glancing at John, who stayed still in mid-air.

Johnny forgot that he was waiting and pondered about many other things.

Katherine took this as an opportunity to relax around him and let her mind loose as well.

When she got bored of looking in the same direction, she looked elsewhere. Yet, she felt she could think about anything when she was with Johnny.

Johnny glanced at her head from above. Since he looked at her only after minutes of looking at the same spot, he felt obliged to speak. "I don't know what you plan to do."

Katherine processed what he said and found that she remained calm.

Johnny levitated in front of her, obstructing her view. "I want to help you, but I have restrictions regarding how much I can help you. I need to know if you're willing to allow me to have those restrictions, but yeah. I do want to help you." 

His tone sounded calm, but his repetitive wording made him seem nervous.

After a few seconds, surprised, Katherine nodded, still picking her words.

Johnny frowned slightly.

Katherine opened her mouth and then closed it, looking in the distance. 

After a few seconds, she said, "I still want to try becoming stronger."

Johnny raised a brow and then lowered it. "I don't know, but I'll try something."

Katherine glanced at Johnny. "Okay."

Johnny took out a necklace and showed it to her. "This is for you."

Katherine politely accepted it, bowing. "What is this?"

"I am now your sponsor."

Johnny cried.

Katherine inspected the necklace, glancing between it and Johnny, her brows furrowing.

Johnny gestured for her to put on. "This is the best I can do for now."

When she put it on, her body began to show a change.

Her body grew taller, and it looked more streamlined for efficiency.

Johnny pointed toward the troll and the adventurers that just emerged from the bushes and were walking toward Katherine.

Chapter 7
From within a bush, the familiar figure of the boy who had gazed upon the valley, savored the summer breeze, and yearned for the embrace of his mother emerged. 

His name was Drake.

Several children ran from inside a home, a giant one that spanned several hundred meters.

They hugged the boy one by one, piling up.

"We're finally back," said a goblin behind Drake.

"How is it?" Drake asked the other children, staring at the soldiers who had accompanied him moving away past the trees in the distance.

He was in the town where Katherine first lived.

On the other side of town, several adventurers went inside the inn which Katherine visited once, one holding the door open as he waited for a shorter adventurer to tiptoe inside under his arm. 

They sat down, most with legs wide apart, each bringing a cup. "You said it'd cost a coin less, right?"

Another group of adventurers were sitting on the opposite side of the inn; also, two men were sitting close to the door at a three-seat table.

"That's right," the bartender replied cheerfully, putting down and aligning several cups carefully.

His employee that washed the cups of the inn left earlier due to an altercation with a sheep that the bartender kept as a pet.

The sheep was particularly intelligent, finding ways to provoke people, but the bartender only laughed whenever someone took offense.

When the bartender filled the cups of the adventurers, the bulkiest adventurer of the group handed the bartender a necklace. "What is this? We found this on the roadside." He was leaning forward, glancing at the bartender's relatively expensive pants.

Pants were a luxury symbol, and the bartender held a position in the town council, making him a respected figure.

"It looks like one by 'Ferry.'" The bartender squinted and made a cup lie down to check its sides as he wiped one of the cups of the adventurers to clean it a little since they were dirty. 

"Okay, okay, thank you," said the short adventurer shyly, pressing her thumbs together at her lap.

"Thank you," echoed the rest of the group habitually.

"You must pay me a coin for that." The bartender gestured to a deer head on the wall with his eyes.

"For the info? Oh, my bad." The bulky adventurer took out a large bag of coins since he liked his coins organized in satchels contrary to the rest of the group who just trusted spending their money on hunting gear more.

He revealed to the adventurers just now how rich he got after the last dungeon hunt.

When he realized people were staring, he tried to be discreet by lowering the bag a little, as he finished counting his coins.

He leaned forward over the table and handed the coin by the tip to the bartender, who gave the adventurer another squint.

The bartender stared at the short adventurer for few seconds, his expression transitioning away from curiosity toward empathy. "How's your Mom?"

"Fine," the short adventurer said, scanning the other adventurers who looked curious.

Inside the inn, a member of the other adventurer group said, "He's dead."

A moment ago, he was rubbing against the fabric of his robe with two fingers when he let it go.

"Who?" said a member wearing a brown bandana with a tinge of urgency. 

"Michael Enriquez." The robed adventurer returned to a frown. 

The bartender returned his attention to the short adventurer. "How about your Dad?"

"He's fine too." The short adventurer finished straightening herself.

In the meantime, shaking his leg from side to side, one of her comembers asked another, "Did you finish your project?" 

The adventurer whom he asked said, his arms atop each other and squeezing his left chest, "No..." 

His tone changed from confidence to doubt midway: "I finish... I'll finish it... in a long time."

An adventurer wearing full, black armor and wielding a black sword entered the inn.

He lightly closed the door since he hated loud noises. 

"Where are we going again?" he said.

One of the two men sitting close to the door said, "'Mont' said, 'The farms.'"

Wearing a mask, he stood up and walked to the middle before the other man sitting called him. 

"Hey, you forgot," said the man sitting down, extending a satchel toward him.

"I forgot..." the masked man said humorously.

The other man grinned. 

The masked man took on a polite tone. "Right, my bad, thanks." 

He grabbed the satchel before walking back toward to the black-armored adventurer.

Before they left the inn, the adventurer showed him something, exclaimed, shared a laugh, and finally placed an arm around his shoulder, as they walked out.

In another place, a year ago, the Richard that Katherine got to know later on sat inside an empty den, his arms bleeding.

His quiet voice had a self-assured intensity with a seemingly deranged, murderous quality and energetically used poetic wording to attempt to communicate his complex, abstract thoughts to others. When he emphasized, he used a whisper.

Right now, his tone carried a tinge of pain.

"You wanna know what it's like to be a person," he said with a slightly wavering tone, "just to be a human being." 

His expression shifted to concern. "Like a human." 

His tone took on a serious but excited quality, raising his hand with his fingers curled toward a circular center as an emphatic gesture. "You know how cool that would be—" He chuckled.  

He emphasized the last word: "It would be so wonderful." 

He says as if he's talking about something familiar: "I would be so surprised."

"Everyday," he emphasized. 

"I see so many people," he said with a rising inflection.

He emphasized the last word: "It's like everyday..." 

He continued: "...is this one thing that I can't seem to fit into a sense of not nonsense." 

"It's-it's this wonderful thing, I can't..." He exhaled. "...imagine how... Like it's so much if I could just..." 

His tone tensed: "...take it!"

He continued: "It would be so much easier. I need to organize everything and put things together, you know. That's the craziest part. I just love being able to grab things and.." 

He emphasized with a piercing quality: "...piece them like..." 

He said with satisfaction: "Finally!" 

"It's done," he said with a chuckle.

The quality of pain in his tone disappeared, but the intensity remained. "You know what a person is? Everyday, someone's going to ask why?

"Why does it make sense? Every time, it feels like a sun is brighter than any shadow, and yet the sun doesn't say a word because it is quiet." 

His tone took on a mocking quality: "It is dangerous, or something, right?"

He continued, "Either way, point is everyone deserves a better chance. I will make that happen, and of course, I will forget..." 

He said as if he was narratively enumerating in a list: "...what you're like... what you're like... what you're like."

A portion of thin wall part of the den collapsed, as Yonder walked inside, holding the bag to his chest, as though he were embracing it.

A poorly made badge of honor was hidden inside one of the pockets of the bag. Moreover, the bags had several dirty and scrolls. However, he spent most of his time meticulously arranging and writing on scrolls like these that depicted the lives of everyday people.

"What are you doing?" he said with disappointment. 

Richard's body was brawny and athletic, while Yonder was thin and scrawny.

Yonder noticed the pieces of Richard's regalia on the ground.

Yonder, who stared at him from above, got Richard's eyes to light up at the sight of him. However, secretly, Yonder admired Richard's talents, frustrated that he acted self-destructively at random times.

Richard saw Yonder in Katherine a year later because they both looked slender and pale and their bearings seemed to match.

A year later after Yonder expressed his disappointment, elsewhere, the portal that the Questioner used disappeared after he finished using it.

With an explosive, interrupted bang, it appeared in a chamber.

The chamber was dark and colossal.

It teemed with thousands of objects lying around in large piles.

The portal used its available, magical, spatial sense, and it learned that the other objects were portals like itself.  

In one corner of the chamber, a portal began expressing a loud cry, but it expressed it with a loud metal banging noise.

All around the chamber, the rest of the portals, one by, one, began to express that same cry.

At the top of a pile, the portal who last arrived guessed what they meant to say.

Elsewhere, an office with an outdoor waiting area replaced the cafe that Katherine visited and the Questioner helped dismantled.

The waiting area had a rectangular stall tent and chairs arranged in lines.

Adventurer groups waited languidly on the chairs as if they were going to the dentist.

The office used teleporting magic to service those adventurers heading to a dungeon and also sold potions and various expendables.

It was in an area teeming with teleporting services.

The area was a multifunctional establishment for many reasons. One, it hosted offices for rapid, long-distance, magic communication and also postal facilities. Two, it integrated horse-drawn carriages. Three, it had adjacent or nearby markets or trading areas where people bought and sold goods. Four, it attracted cafes, cafeterias, and retail shops and lodging houses such as inns, taverns, guesthouses, and monasteries. Five, while buying tickets, one could get information about travel-related inquiries. Lastly, it often became gathering points for people, fostering social interactions and becoming a symbolic landmark in the community.

At a magically bright chamber in a dungeon, the tall giant whom Katherine had heard watched hundreds of prisoners falling to the ground messily, beams of light shooting from their eyes and mouth.

Thousands of mages all took the same stance. From their hands, blue magic emerged, moving in the same direction and with the same intensity and appearance.

The giant gasped, as he fell to the ground too, his expression that of urgency.

The prisoners suffered only a headache, and their bodies were limp.

The mages were receiving "XP" from them. 

XP was a magical form of energy necessary for strengthening the body and reaching godly heights.

The forest where Katherine had hunted goblins for two months was loud with marching.

In one concentrated glade, hundreds of goblins were gathered together, forming mechanical parts made out of a special material and carved with molding and cutting magic.

They were trying to create a crossbow-like weapon.

When a goblin misfired with a weapon and killed another goblin, the goblins first imprisoned the goblin in a bamboo cage. In terms of durability, the cage was easy to break. However, the culture of goblins emphasized strong community bonds. As a result of this, individuals were more likely to feel a sense of responsibility, but it also could lead to limited individual freedoms, making goblins seem alike. 

Anyway, the goblins stopped working to head to the dungeons wearing funerary masks that resembled the goblin who died.

Subsequently, several human hunters entered the dungeon, trying to claim the chests that the dungeon magically spawned.

After the goblins placed inside a chest the late goblin's personal items, they defended against the humans.

The items included valuables and even money to assist them in the afterlife.

Concomitantly, members of the guard patrol that Katherine knew, including Bliss, Robert, and Bane, ate cooked saba bananas alongside a group of adventuers.

The adventurers were the ones who had declined Katherine's request to join them again.

The guard patrol and the adventurers were seated on a table and in the middle of several conversations.

"Arguably, you'd be branching too early for Malco to get you," said Richard, a fork lifting a half-eaten banana. "It's funny you even thought that was supposed to happen."

"I really don't know," said Bane, as he kept curling and stretching out his fingers. "If his ride is counted... nah, never mind. You're right. He's pretty much doomed at this point. Good thing my son got there early."

Bliss tapped the table twice. "Oh, by the way..."

The adventurer Dun leaned in. "Did you see Millie? Gosh! She was just holding the rarest there ever was."

"Yeah," Robert said, nodding with a grin, "got lucky."

In the midst of these developments, a group of boys that Katherine knew, including Gap, were squatting in the middle of a yard.

They cast timed explosive magic and ran away, closing their ears when at the explosion.

They glanced around before jumping in celebration.

They succeeded in transporting an incredibly dangerous magical artifact through their town while avoiding detection.

The town was also where Katherine had lived for two months.

Chapter 8
Some time ago, elsewhere, past the tunnels that she traveled across, Katherine gazed at the troll.

She was leaning against her sword while tensing her grip from time to time. 

"What?" she said.

"We want to know if you're coming," said the troll, halting a conversation between three adventurers behind him with a gesture.

"We're going on another fight, and we'd like you to participate." He grabbed a sword and cleaned it, grabbing another sword to clean that as well.

"Why are you here?" Katherine watched the troll cleaning all the adventurers' swords.

"We had someone track you, but that's not the point." The troll returned the swords, slapping the swords mysteriously.

"Why did you track me?" Katherine glanced to her left, hearing a rustle behind her.

An adventurer emerged from the bushes behind her, making himself obvious by repeating "Hello."

He returned to the rest of the adventurers.

The troll smiled a little awkwardly. "The point is that we want you to come. You may have not been useful, but some of us are want to quit, especially since Alexandra and... Nathan..." 

He placed his hand on one of the younger adventurers, who were rubbing their eyes and crying softly.

"Oh, okay." Katherine relaxed her posture.

The troll whispered to the adventurers who were having an argument. Moreover, he told them to separate from each other for now, handing them his own notebook. For some reason, the adventurers started cheering that they opened the notebook.

The troll continued: "Yeah... can you help us again?" He glanced at the adventurers and smiled when they praised him in technical jargon regarding his notebook. "We don't want you to be uncomfortable, so we tracked you in case you were going to leave." He led one of the adventurers around, looking for a seat. After several seconds, he found a log hiding behind a tree and dragged it to the glade, so the adventurers could sit down. "Now, we wouldn't want to feel like we just let you be. If you're not going to come with us on the next trip, at least, can we give you something to eat?" Meanwhile, he began reviewing the writing of the adventurers based on their notebooks.

"Okay, okay..." Katherine adopted a casual thinking pose, her arms raised.

"So you'll go?" The troll grabbed another notebook to review.

"Yeah, I... will go." Katherine saw one of the adventurers staring at her curiously, so she dropped her arms and composed herself.

"Great!" The troll carried the younger adventurer sitting between his legs as he sat up and began waddling away. Soon, he put down the adventurer.

For some reason, Richard felt alive even now, his memories living on in the troll and his adventurer group.

Before she left, Katherine realized that Johnny left earlier.

Later, after they ate, she looked down at her food.

She felt comfortable enough that the troll would listen to her.

"I never asked," she said. "Why did you slap... you know... them?"

The troll glanced at the adventurers one by one, nodding at one adventurer who was showing him his notebook. "I did that because I have a spell that strengthens them if I slap them in the face."

"Really?" Katherine ate the food with her bare hands alongside the adventurers.

In response, the troll chuckled somewhat awkwardly.

Katherine glanced at the adventurers and noticed how they ate and conversed simultaneously.

She crossed her legs at the table and leaned against the backrest of her chair, rubbing her fingers together. "Why did you guys fight?"

After he finished eating, the troll immediately removed his arms from the table and rested them on his palms since he was a very large being. "They have to... It's part of our studies on bandit behavior."

"What do you mean?" Katherine noticed how the troll looked annoyed at the young adventurer that went next to the his legs outside of his immediate sight.

The troll told the adventurer in a scolding tone: "I told you again not to do that. If I step on you, we will have to heal you again. You know, Uncle Anno and your brother Pantino don't want to do that again." 

The troll looked at Katherine and said quickly, "It's horseplay."

When the younger adventurer began walking away, the troll excused himself to Katherine and told the adventurer, "Do you want me to come with me to the store?"

The troll was on his knees and slouching since he was very tall compared to the adventurer.

"No," the adventurer said tiredly, going next to the troll and looking at the ground.

The troll carried the adventurer while patting his head. "Are you sure? We can buy asparagus again, you like?"

The rest of the adventurers respectfully waited until they were done talking.

The younger adventurer said, "Okay."

Katherine was happy that she finally asked the tough questions, so she looked outside the window, planning to accept the request to join the next fight.

Ten days later, a goblin awkwardly stood next to Katherine. "W-what do you want?" he said, stumbling over his words. "Why are you staring at me like that!"

Katherine felt sick to the stomach, but she was good at hiding it.

The troll repeated again and again that they would be joining goblins in the fight. 

Katherine wanted to ask why they fought goblins last time and were joining goblins this time to fight humans. Yet, she guessed that the world treated bad humans and bad goblins the same way.

She had a breakdown everyday for the last nine days in the morning since she began staying up in the night and sleeping in the morning.

Fortunately, the troll requested that she be awake in the night for the fight. Yet, it rained, which made it so that some of the bandits had an advantage.

The bandits lived everyday in the forest where the rain was.

The troll emphasized a "quick ambush" rather than anything "prolonged."

According to him, they were "scholars that happen to have magic and skills in fighting."

Katherine watched the troll charging into battle.

The bandits were human.

He struck several bandits in the face, pulling their faces against the rock nearby. 

Learning quickly, he stayed where he was and used the rocks around him to empower his attacks.

He grappled a tall treant familiar and broke its limbs, trying to kick it with the full weight of his right thigh.

The treant grabbed him with his roots, but the adventurers had his back.

Katherine jumped slashing several crawling plants off the treant; however, a bandit soon shot her in the back with an arrow.

A volley of arrows flew, but Katherine had her shield, blocking two arrows rather than one this time.

She gritted her teeth, watching the troll retreating and using his magical ability.

With his ability, the troll made two bandits disappear.

The troll fell to the ground, exhausted.

Several bandits struggled to keep fighting, standing and swinging clumsily.

Katherine listened to the sounds. She heard the spells "[Aerial Allies]", "[Fireball]", "[Ice Clamp]", "[Earth Uproar]", and "[Wind Gusts]".

She waited for the troll's spell "[Evolved Understanding]", but she realized that the troll exhausted himself too much.

She went to him, fighting off several bandits trying to take advantage of the troll's weakened state.

She slashed the arm of the bandit and blocked an spear from another bandit with her shield.

She plunged her sword into the bandit's face, but the bandit's helmet blocked it.

She tried to kick, but the bandits swarmed her, slicing her limbs and face.

Two flying creatures struck the bandits and distracted them enough for Katherine to escape.

She touched where her left eye, realizing she was blind in one eye.

She escaped the fight.

In the end, the bandits fled, and the adventurers took over a small dungeon they were occupying.

Katherine healed herself with a potion and had several adventurers remove the arrow. However, internally, the arrowhead was still inside. So, she drank potions every few minutes while a healer surgeon among the adventurers removed the arrowhead.

Later, Nocker watched Katherine crawling toward the cheering crowd of adventurers.

He helped her up again, watching her nod at him.

Nocker shook her hand and then rotated her arm, looking for wounds. "You did it, Katherine," he said, "I saw you kill the treant."

Katherine took a step back. "What? I did?"

Nocker smiled. "Yeah, you got the heart."

After a moment of them locking eyes, Katherine felt her cheeks aching with joy. "Ha!" 

Nearby, the goblin that Katherine saw earlier was on the ground, praying.

His name was Sam Williams.

He said: "We pray that your kingdom provides rest to those who know only evil and to those whose hearts align with disgrace. The hopes of 'Those Who've Come' shall be forever embedded to your souls. Let grace be unto you, my friend, for your spirit is right and soulful. Let the goals of humanity be aligned with grace, and let the ends of nights be forever cut short for the glory of light is here."

He hated them. 

He wanted to murder them all. 

Everyday, he patiently waited for the day he could destroy everything that they stood for because they took away him, who he was, and who he knew himself to be. 

He was tired of pretending that he was a normal goblin. 

He would defy to the forces of man. 

He wanted to create his own hopes and dream his own dreams. 

He demanded to be free from the stupidity displayed by callousness. 

He wondered how humans were so callous. 

He despised them. 

He despised their callousness. 

He wished that they understood that life was so much more. 

He wished that humans understood the weight of a life. He wished they cared more for the people that included the humanoids than spend their time doubting and judging others. 

In the end, humans were a bunch of hypocrites. Yet, he would hope because he was more than a creature.

He was a person.

From Katherine, Nocker stepped toward Sam and bowed his head for a few minutes.

Nocker thought goblins like Sam were too immature to rule themselves.

He thought that if one failed to wear proper clothes, it was a sign that they were immature.

Sam wore simple, ugly clothes seemingly by choice since Nocker knew that he had more than enough money to present himself better. As a result of this, Nocker felt that Sam was still too detached. Truly, Nocker's thoughts were more complex than this, but he believed that visual indicators were reliable as well.

From behind, Katherine watched Sam and Nocker for a moment, but the loud, light-hearted discussions of the rest of the adventurers got her attention.

Katherine looked for the treant, feeling proud of her work.

Resting for a while while wanting to be productive, she studied the treant.

As soon as the adventurers were about to leave, she noticed a glint on the treant's body.

While Nocker watched her, she grabbed something red on the treant's body.

Nocker wondered if he should alert the troll, but he decided against it since he trusted Katherine and were going to go back later after eating first.

Another adventurer went to Katherine and sternly told her how to write down what she found in a notebook.

Nocker felt relieved.

After they ate, the troll got up after staring at the ceiling of the dungeon where the adventurers sojourned.

He saw Katherine, who was trying to sharpen her blades but then ended up cutting herself.

He was confused since he heard from Katherine that she hunted goblins by herself for 2 months; however, he noticed that Katherine's face was pinched. Realizing she was in a troubled state of mind, the troll whispered to Nocker to give her the special potion for mental problems.

Nocker obliged, wondering if Katherine lived a poor childhood like he did.

When he offered the potion, Katherine abruptly declined.

Nocker expected her reaction and offered it repeatedly even when Katherine kept declining.

"Tell me why," Nocker said, cracking the knuckles of his right hand using just that hand.

Katherine declined.

He shifted his head and lowered his voice to an annoyed whisper. "Stop just saying no."

The troll and the other adventurers heard his familiar whisper and looked over to him and Katherine.

"I don't want to be ill, but I can't be weak either," Katherine said, tensing her jaw. "I don't want to be useless."

After a few short moments, the troll got up to stop them before Nocker said something mean since he was standing tensely still.

Seeing that the troll was coming to interrupt them and that this could be the last time they spoke, Nocker faced Katherine and locked eyes with her.

"Were you were not good enough that they threw you away, huh?" he said. Midway through his words, he began to turn and walk away.

Katherine sighed. "No, that's not it."

The troll stopped.

Nocker slowed down to a halt and then turned around. "What do you mean?"

Katherine adopted a confident pose. "I need to go back."

Nocker smiled.

Katherine furrowed her brows. "I want to ask..."

Nocker grinned. 

Katherine's eyes widened slightly. "I don't know if I ever asked, but did you guys follow me?"

The troll carefully stepped over the adventurers sitting down and went near Katherine. "We did. Why?"

Katherine smiled, imitating that vague smile Nocker had. "I want to know how you did it."

The adventurers were watching them silently.

The troll pressed his fingers together. "How about we all go to the dungeons? I'll tell you how we do it while we study the bodies a sister group of ours found. They're not very keen to visitors, so this is an exclusive. It's a big dungeon, let me say."

As time passed, she felt weaker and weaker: power and godhood would extricate her.

Chapter 9
Days before heading to the big dungeon, Katherine arrived at a village and visited the goblin Kato Guard after hunting nearby.

Kato Guard was continuing the topic he had with someone else that left: "But hold onto your hat, 'cause that ain't all. The old Johnson barn at the edge of town? Well, they've gone and transformed that rickety old thing into a cozy little café. Can you imagine sipping on a latte while sitting where hay used to be? It's downright surreal. And let me tell ya, folks are flocking there like there's no tomorrow, chatting away over cups of joe like they've been doing it for years.

"And don't even get me started on the community garden they set up near the square. It's like a rainbow of colors burst forth from the ground, with tomatoes as red as a cardinal's feather and sunflowers taller than a full-grown man. They're all workin' together, tendin' to the plants like they're family, and it's puttin' a whole new spin on this place.

"But you know what's got tongues wagging the most? The idea of an actual farmers market right here in our neck of the woods. It's like bringing the whole countryside right to our doorstep. Fresh produce, handcrafted goodies, and the chance to support our own folks—what's not to love?

"So, there ya have it, friend. This old village is riding a wave of change, and it's got everyone buzzing with excitement. Who woulda thought we'd see the day when the winds of transformation would blow through, shaking up life as we knew it? It's like a breath of fresh air sweeping away the cobwebs of tradition."

Later, Katherine laughed at a joke Kato made. However, for a moment, Kato thought her expression looked menacing.

Days later, on the day of the big dungeon visit, Katherine joined the troll and the adventurers, including Nocker, Happenstance, and Stonefly. 

Katherine watched several bandits in shackles passing by on a lower level of the dungeon. "Why are they here?"

"They've been sneaking about, you know." The troll shifting his head around guiltily.

"Right." Katherine gripped her sheath harder.

In the prison of the city where she was, the tall giant watched the prison bars, trying to get his shackles off by rubbing them against the bars at certain angles.

"If I could just reach this—"

"Enough, that'll never work," a tall but shorter man stared at the giant. "What next, you'll use your butt to crush the shackles open?"

The tall giant wrinkled his nose for a second at the man, but then he slowly softened his expression, grimacing awkwardly. 

He shifted his head away toward the corridor outside the jail cell where he was.

Meanwhile, through a sloping tunnel, Katherine and the troll's group crossed a doorway into a giant chamber.

Several hundred bodies lay on the ground throughout the chamber. 

Each of them were that of giant ants.

Mounds of dirt were lying on the ground in various spots, and some parts of the dirt looked black.

The ceiling had a hole that led to a higher cement ceiling.

The chamber had another doorway that led to a jugged tunnel that would be hard to enter and pass through easily and comfortably.

Katherine calmed down, feeling that a fight was over after seeing the bodies.

She said he was going to sit down, getting a random cramp.

The troll let her sit down on jagged rock that he tried to flatten with his hands.

The adventurers were busy on a corner, taking notes.

Hearing their voices made it easier for Katherine to bear the pain of the cramp since she was sure that if she could trust them to handle any foes if she was too much in pain to help.

Stonefly came up to her, looking somewhat stiff. "Hey, Nocker was calling you," she said.

Katherine nodded nicely and followed her to Nocker.

Nocker saw Katherine with her hand on her stomach and gestured another adventurer to come help her.

The adventurer Happenstance helped her walk and stand, while the troll kept glancing at her in case she needed help getting a seat.

While looking away, Nocker told Katherine that he had ideas for how she could continue her note-taking as well.

Nocker made Happenstance hold her hand to support her physically, while he visualized his ideas with his notebook and Katherine's notebook.

The sister group of the troll's group entered the chamber, and they numbered 62 with a mix of goblins and humans.

One of their adventurers cast a spell at an ant: "[Heal!]"

The ant turned into dust.

Balling his fist, the adventurer swore and said, "I shouldn't have used my eye muscle." Specifically, he was referring to the theory that proposed an interplay between nerves and magic effectiveness. Namely, some had expanded this theory by stating that specific nerves were likely to be more crucial than others, suggesting the idea that the "eye muscle" was a less contributory factor over others.

Another adventurer next to him said, "Yeah, you shouldn't have."

The adventurer made a sound, banging his gauntlet against the plate armor protecting his upper thighs, or "tassets." "Dang it, dang it."

The sound echoed, catching Katherine's attention.

Processing their expressions of frustration revived her tension.

Once Katherine's cramp was gone and all the adventurers of the sister group found a comfortable place to stand inside the chamber, she began to take out her sword secretly.

Nocker stopped her, obstructing the other adventurers' view of her sword. "Hey, hey, relax," he said.

The other adventurers thought he was just helping her with the cramp.

"Sorry." Katherine began to stare in the direction of the doorway, her brows slightly furrowed.

The sister group had several subgroups, each having a distinct set of personalities and styles of communication.

When they finished taking notes, Katherine heard a zipping noise behind her. 

The Questioner appeared through a giant portal, wearing several layers of clothes.

He had a metal tail at his back, wielded an axe with his right hand like a cup, held an apple with his left hand, wore a bow-shaped helmet.

The tail and the items slowly faded to dust.

His footsteps were heavy, and he walked with dignity as if he was in a ceremony.

Before it closed, the portal revealed rolling hills, a herd of sheep in the distance, and a man slowly waving next to the sheep.

At the sight of the Questioner, Katherine straightened herself. In contrast, the troll's group and the sister group lined up and greeted him by bowing toward him.

"I embody the role of the Questioner, assuming the mantle of your esteemed leader," said The Questioner, gesturing toward the second doorway of the chamber. "Accompanying me are numerous goblins, who shall provide assistance in the capacity of transient adjutants throughout the course of your expedition." 

Later, sitting on their haunches, the goblins began playing a game with marbles on the stepped and somewhat jagged floor of the chamber.

The Questioner was standing near the corner, shifting his head around, watching everyone.

The adventurers looked nervous, but they kept writing down their notes.

The Questioner called the goblins as soon as one of the adventurers broke his pencil.

The goblins took out a bunch of pencils and handed it to the adventurers.

Colorful lights burst from the Questioner's hands and flew around the room, creating a pleasant smell.

The texture of the lights looked foamy.

The Questioner stretched his jaw as widely as he could, covering his mouth.

He remembered several details regarding the adventurers, making him decide several things.

Meanwhile, the tall giant tried to lean his foot against the wall. "I remember being so absolutely mortified when I saw that dog, absolutely. Like an absolute tool of a dog. Damn, I got hit so hard that I couldn't make it past that point. Sheesh, if I knew I was messing with a monster, I wouldn't have switched shifts."

"Really..." said the tall man nearby, lying on the ground, long after the giant battered, bruised, and bloodied him.

He leaned his head forward to get a better look past a corner where bright light adn an open door was.

The giant continued: "Yeah. I cannot imagine myself getting so far ahead anymore. Do you remember what it felt like? To feel so stuck? And get effed up like a dog? Like what is this? A fucking game? A fucking game? This is serious stuff. We're just getting riled up and tossed and turned like motherfucking' removed pieces of shit. Well, that's the point I guess. 'Cause I have no idea."

"Seriously..."

"Either way, bust out the magic, we getting out of here. If I record it... Oh, make sure to get the recorder, I ain't finished yet!"

Meanwhile, the Questioner commanded a group of individuals to prevent from escaping.

Before returning to where Katherine was, he teleported to a different location. Specifically, he arrived in the outskirts of the city where Katherine first lived.

Next to the Questioner, the human Jaden found herself slicing trees.

"Wow, look at this!" she said.

The Questioner nodded, wiping under his eye.

Jaden raised her hands, seeing fluffy blue magic emerge from her hands. "[Transformational Essence.]"

It consisted of particles swirling in a concentrated, transparent goo-like form.

Jaden shot at a tree, transforming it into a rhinoceros. "What does this mean?"

The Questioner grinned and said: "Own it. Make it yours. Command and conquer." 

Jaden jumped and yelled. "We, we finally did it!"

The Questioner guffawed.

In the distance, three goblins watched them before a group of four teenagers introduced themselves.

After a short pause of surprise and assessment, the goblins began to run. In response, the boy Zephyr Swiftshadow cast a spell: "[Exhaust!]"

The spell slowed down the limb movements of the goblins. 

The boy Lumielle Starwhisper cast a spell: "[Vitalizing Rush!]"

The spell healed the teenagers and boosted their speed; however, right now, only the speed mattered.

The boy Magnus Emberforge cast a spell: "[Blinkstep!]"

The spell teleported him a short distance forward, allowing him to block the goblins with his large shield.

The girl Seraphina Moonstrider cast a spell: "[Verdant Entwinement!]"

The spell transformed her into tree roots, flew herself to a goblin, and shackled him with the roots before she emerged from the roots.

In response, the other goblins hesitated.

Then, the teenagers grabbed them, forced them to lie down, and shackled them.

"We wanted to ask you a few questions," said Magnus. "Do you know those two?"

He pointed obviously in Jaden's direction.

"Two?" said the goblin nearest to him. "I only see one."

"Hmm, you're right." Magnus gesticulated to Seraphina to remove the roots. "My bad."

Seraphina gave a thumbs-up, which Magnus then reciprocated offhand.

The other two teenagers both looked sleepy or bored.

Jaden used her magic to turn the forest into a bunch of animals.

The Questioner puked.

Jaden reverted the animals back into trees.

The Questioner began bleeding from pores all around his body.

Before Jaden looked back at him, the Questioner magically hid his bleeding. 

He smiled. 

He said that she "lagged" his body. In response, Jaden raised a brow. Finally, he said he meant that large-scale instances of using her magic required that he allocated more of his energy to her. 

From behind a thicket of trees in the distance, the teenagers emerged at the bottom of a slope, waving to Jaden.

Jaden waved back at them absentmindedly. "Who are you guys?"

The Questioner disappeared, smiling affectionately toward Jaden.

Jaden bent over, picked up a sword on the ground, and pointed it at the teenagers. "What are you guys planning?"

After a few seconds, she lowered the sword.

The teenagers stared at the air behind her.

Jaden glanced behind her worriedly.

Zephyr tilted his head, eying her when she touched her neck and gulped.

Magnus shifted to the side. "Your magic looks like something I can see people liking."

"Your tree destroying technique looks very unique." Zephyr said in an amazed tone. "However, it is your transforming spell that really hits the mark!"

Jaden raised her hands.

Zephyr took a few steps back, Magnus balled his hands into fists, Seraphina almost cast a spell, and Lumielle separated her clasped hands.

Magnus relaxed his fist. "Let's join hands. I guarantee that you will be able to utilize your skill well. We have certain abilities that will make your life easier."

He took out a notebook that looked familiar to Jaden. "I can talk to you about the three kinds of goblins."

"Ha, this is the one!" Zephyr rubbed his hands enthusiastically. "This is it!"

Jaden realized that the notebook was a copy from the troll and the adventurers' group. However, she was yet to learn about the kinds of goblins. "What are they?"

Magnus kept glancing at Seraphina, who was nodding. "Join us first. Then, we will tell you!"

Taking a cautious step in front of Magnus, Lumielle said, "It's okay if you don't want to."

The teenagers watched Jaden walk away to the side and out of sight.

They squinted at Lumielle, who shrugged, pressing her fingers together.

Jaden appeared, dragging a log back to where she was, and sat down. "Go, go, there's a leg there behind you."

Lumielle was the first to start pulling the log that was behind them toward the rest of her group.

Right before they all sat down, Magnus made sure the logs were exactly facing each another.

Jaden used her magic, emitting blue particles from her hands. "This is my magic. No need for incantations in this case."

From the trees nearby, a human shot at Jaden.

The arrow struck her on the neck.

The teenagers grabbed it and failed to pull it from her neck before they began to take out potions to keep her alive. 

They cut her open and poured the potions into her broke all these potions and had her drink it from the ground.

Every second, her mind shook, and her body trembled, as she kept pulling the arrow handle and drinking from spilled potion.

When her limbs gave out, the arrow was finally outside of her body, lying to her right. However, she passed out.

Several archers came up from the bushes, each aiming a bow with a very heavy draw weight.

The teenagers tried to flee, but the archers warned them to stay put.

Sam William emerged from the bushes, walked up to Jaden, and grabbed her limbs to inspect them. 

The archers glanced at Sam who gave them a compassionate look.

They let the teenagers go.

Letting go of Jaden, Sam said: "Your humanity is beautiful, and it is graceful. Your world was almost divine, and yet, you had to die like this. You deserved better like everyone else."

He broke into tears. However, after some time, he exploded into rage, growling with all his body's might until his head ached.

Repeatedly, he would break into tears and then explode into rage.

Hours later, his head weakly shifting up and down, he smiled with a mixture of emotions, saying, "It's time to believe."

He dragged Jaden forward, walking away, praying that she would join his side somehow, as the archers helped him carry her. 

"I just wanted to help," was the one statements Sam made earlier.

Meanwhile, Katherine laughed alongside the adventurers as they began walking outside the chamber.

The adventurers from both the troll's group and the sister's group were mingling, discussing casually regarding news, trends, and several amusing incidents since their last meeting two weeks ago.

Having stared weakly at everyone in all their subgroups within the chamber, Katherine felt strange.

She felt a draw toward the light where she imagined godhood greet her.

Chapter 10
Among the adventurers, several individuals helpfully translated with spells.

Besides translators, blacksmiths, bards, and "weather scientists" grew alongside the adventurers.

Later, outside on the streets, Katherine stared at a giant magical creature like how one would see a primed, pristine tank in occupied territory.

Later, Johnny appeared.

He celebrated Katherine's assimilation into the troll's group, as it reached the degree that she met the Questioner as a member rather than an individual.

He grabbed a coin Katherine had and made it transparent, as she praised her.

Later, the Questioner (TQ) observed the adventurers, including Katherine. 

He bumped into a man walking down a quiet road, analyzing the several options he could take in regard to his manner of response.

He interpreted the man's expression of guilt as a sign that he needed to interview the man.

"Hello, excuse me," TQ said.

The man nodded and almost bowed his head, but then he abruptly turned around and left, avoiding tens of passersby with ease.

TQ noted down mentally numerous things, assorting his thoughts and assessing several different considerations in prepartion.

He remembered when he built a house in the town that he helped create as the regional director and then learned that someone burned this house. 

He remembered just doing his best and rebuilding it. 

He remembered how the building looked like too. 

It was a square structure probably measuring 17 by 18 meters (m.) in width and length and probably 10 to 25 m. in height on the ground floor and probably 15 to 25 m. in height, width, and length in the B1 floor. 

The B1 floor contained a cuboid storage room full of barrels for storage. 

He remembered that he used a ladder at first and then changed to a magical shoot for vertical transportation. 

This portal had arcane barriers to prevent spillage into the air, an impossible feat in the natural world. 

He remembered that he first paved the B1 ground with a shovel and then removed them in order to make room for wooden slabs he thought.

He chose these slabs since they were much cheaper for the same function that full wooden blocks, also known as "boff," offered. 

He remembered that one or several of the barrels contained torches, coal, and probably iron ore and iron ingots. 

He remembered that he paved paths toward various settlers' buildings with wooden, stone, and probably iron shovels all around the town.

He remembered building a bridge across a shallow one- to two-meter lake.

He thought he remembered someone building a small shop at the town center. 

The town was the same one where someone with a name close to "John Panda" built a skull structure. 

He remember that the person "Sprutty" built his house behind the skull and that a monster farm was very close by. 

He thought that the town was probably the second one. 

He remembered that he had to found a town for a third time. 

The third town was when the ruffians came into the town and people started living far away from each other to avoid intergroup antagonism since he thought the second and first town were using "peace magic." Though, he thought that he restricted intergroup antagonism with magic after it became annoying for settlers. In the end, the troublemaking persisted and made it so that even if the town used peace magic, it was difficult. 

He tried so hard to abide by a lenient regional director code to the point that even if the ruffians were casting destructive magic, making those solid "magic pus" by mixing certain magic, and standing in front of him for hours over the course of about a week to prevent him from accessing in front of him because the town was using peace magic, he still went against imprisoning them since the constitution of his town allowed "practical" troublemaking as long as it adhered to inclusivity in other areas such as species equality and avoided being toxic in the forums at the town center. Nevertheless, it was a stressful environment which burned him out many times toward the latter portion of his 2-month town recording. 

It was a success as a foray into the various mechanics implicated in socio-cultural dissemination within an adventurer environment which enforced the manifestation of roles and personalities given the limited and almost always rounding, interiorizing mechanism which being an adventurer imposes in regard to that combative persona and thus impinged upon the comprehensiveness which any interactions which arise convey. Maybe, that constitutional ideal could have been plausible under different circumstances such as that which comprehends a more established methodology concerning the management of practical ruffians while abiding by that leniency within the constitution and which comprehends more effective modalities in which he could intercept the concerns of settlers while engaging with them as a hands-on participant within the town. Indeed, a larger peacekeeper force and more established brand identity could solve the problem, but at that point, it would have lost the more one-to-one connection which a smaller town offered.

In another location, some time later in the morning, Katherine listened to a familiar drizzly wind.

She was looking down at her raised hands where her blades lay. Philosophically, the sound of them tinkling together made her wonder if killing a goblin would be satisfying today to her sense of self along with her morals. Certainly, she said yes. 

Johnny told her that she would be a criminal, but she was already on board, riding the troll's back.

"You really want to see where this takes you?" the troll said before he slowly exhaled.

Katherine fell before climbing up again. 

"Yes!" she said, raising her arms.

The troll cast the spell: "[Ice Clamp!]" 

From the troll's ground near the troll's feet, ice emerged, instantly growing in size and forming a ramp that caught Katherine.

Katherine flew.

Carpenter cast the spell "[Wind Gusts!]"

Katherine's body allowed her to ride the winds a little, but she ended up falling.

The troll burst into laughter before he ran a notable expanse in a second.

Katherine realized that the troll was holding back.

The troll caught her, gently setting her on the ground, handing her the blades she dropped.

Katherine was in deep pain to the point of collapsing, but the troll got someone to heal her.

"Thanks for getting 'Yeye' to agree," she told Carpenter when she felt that the troll was out of earshot.

"Yeye" referred to the troll. Generally, it was a term for addressing one's paternal grandfather. In the case of Katherine, she was imitating the troll's group of adventurers.

The man Carpenter nodded, smiling like an bullied, insecure child finding out he became the king of a nation because he needed validation and care. However, this child's parents neglected this him. What happened when this child learned that a girl treated him nicely was his transition to a person set on pleasing both women and adults because he wanted respect. When he saw adults getting recognition for doing amazing things, he began to think that life was all about doing the most attention-grabbing thing. Though, since his father respected empathy and optimism, his son grew up to be both ambitious and empathetic, becoming a vey admirable man.

Carpenter was a man wearing a necklace and an amulet, three bracelets, four rings, sashes, earrings, gloves, gauntlets, boots, two pendants, and a medallion.

He wielded a sword with gems embedded in the handle.

His familiarly fantastical appearance made it convenient for Katherine to approach him earlier.

Before they got too comfortable, several goblins rolled up in a carriage, only learning that Katherine and the troll's group were there.

The carriage began moving again.

"Is that stolen?" Carpenter said, rubbing his nose with the dorsal side of his hand.

"Uh... no?" said one of the goblins, peeking out, their hand struggling to hang onto the door of the carriage.

Carpenter began offering his hand. "Hey, I want to see if you're trustworthy. My hand is the most powerful thing alive. I can turn anyone into a truth-speaker in five seconds. If you don't trust me, hold my hand."

The carriage stopped, and a bunch of goblins darted out one by one, each taking a position resembling a corner of a triangle.

Carpenter shook hands with all of them, and they pressed against each other as though in a hug. 

"Great then," Carpenter said, watching the troll behind him.

Carpenter and the goblins' hands remained locked.

After 5 seconds, Carpenter let go and pointed at the carriage.

His facial expression twitched around spontaneously.

The carriage disappeared.

Katherine saw the troll's magical silhouette behind where the carriage had been and heard him whispering what she thought sounded like an incantation.

Carpenter blended with the other adventurers.

The goblins sighed, saying separately:  "Fine. Here!"

They took out a bag of coins and handed it to Katherine, who kept glancing back and forth confusedly.

The troll watched her put the bag down and walk toward the troll's group who seemed to be moving farther and farther away.

Katherine stopped.

The goblins held onto her, making her freeze.

She thought that the troll's group knew her and that they could see that she was having a mental breakdown every morning. 

She was sure that they could hear her thoughts right now.

She thought they would throw her away.

The goblins let go and walked away.

She began walking again toward the adventurers.

Later, she noticed she was already sitting down among the adventurers.

Nocker thought she was doing well and admired her for what he thought to be her doing adventuring for its moral values rather than its monetary value. According to him, since he was watching her the whole time, her dropping the bag of money and walking toward the group was a visual sign of her morals.

After Katherine and the troll's group finished patrolling several different locations and greeting some friendly goblins along the way, they returned home.

Carpenter even had a long talk with a family of goblins on a road trip, stalling the rest of the group for thirty minutes. 

However, it was all good since the adventurers were able to continue a conversation regarding a certain trend in town for longer.

Katherine almost let herself break down. In response to her feelings of weakness, she stayed up and tagged several dungeons, following several groups of goblins.

The goblins looked bigger than the usual, but Katherine wanted to protect her sense of self, which included taking down others who made her feel incompetent.

She sliced several goblins wearing armor, failing to make a cut.

She darted backward as one of the goblins stabbed at her several times with a spear.

The tropically hot afternoon sunlight shone against her face.

Distacted, she routinely grabbed a potion and drank, as several spears flew at her, piercing her legs.

She cried, bursting into rage before Sam Williams appeared and stopped his fellow goblin comembers.

Becoming quiet, Katherine noticed that Sam Williams looked different.

He wore oversized clothes.

She collapsed and woke up a moment later to Sam slapping her across the face.

Sam said, grabbing her and vigorously shaking her back and forth: "What are you doing! You're betraying our trust! Why did Yeye let you come here and attack us? You should remember us. I was fighting alongside you two weeks ago."

Katherine stared at Sam's nose, noticing several nose rings, as she felt dizzy and dehydrated in a vertigo. 

Sam turned to his fellow comembers: "Why the hell did you guys stab her? You should have killed her. If you guys died, we would have nothing left to offer the troll, and they would have just let us be."

A portal behind him, the Questioner appeared, scanning Sam's clothes. 

When Sam turned around, he cowered.

"Let me take her," the Questioner said, taking two steps, each step scaring the goblins further away.

Sam watched the Questioner carry her and disappear into a portal.

He took on the subjugated child's wording because the Questioner could be around: "What the hell! It's unfair that she can just get away with it! This is stupid, so stupid!"

When Katherine woke up, elsewhere, she attempted to create a sense of constitution within herself when she remembered what happened.

Instead of panicking, because she had a long dream, she felt refreshed and prepared to face the goblins again.

First, she went to the troll's group and asked for help, more scared of dying than asking for help this time.

They responded by having Nocker tell her that it was easy to teach goblins a lesson.

Later, at the same place where the goblins almost killed her, Nocker lowered his head, finding Katherine's old blood stains on the ground.

He rotated Katherine's arm to check for wounds.

Katherine watched him stand up and hand her the familial special potion.

"Take it if you need it," Nocker said, pronouncing his words with an accent.

Katherine furrowed her brows briefly before she followed Nocker deeper into the territory of Sam William's group.

"What is it?" Nocker thought that Katherine had something to say.

Seeing an opportunity, Katherine asked if he used a spear since she found the goblins' skills in spear fighting impressive.

Nocker said yes, but he warned that she needed to train her legs first since he said he noticed that her legs were often the target.

Grabbing her bangs and shifting them to the side, Katherine said with confusion, "When?"

Nocker sheltered his mouth with his hand. "I saw you get hit in the leg, and you like to use that stance where your hands are in front of your legs. So I assume you're trying to protect your legs instinctively? Not a good idea when you should just fix those legs of yours."

Katherine glanced to the left and rubbed her hips. "Huh, what do you mean? I don't get it."

Nocker rubbed under his chin. "Or you could just start doing magic."

"Yeah, that sounds better. I'm more better at hunting goblins anyway who are shorter than me. That's why I keep my stance low." Katherine frowned in acceptance, lifting her palms, shrugging, her brows lifting.

"Well, sorry, I didn't realize. In any case, I believe you're more than capable of handling the goblins. I'm leaving." Nocker rested his spear onto his shoulder and began walking away.

Katherine watched for a few seconds before she said, "Hey, did I say something bad or something?" 

Nocker turned around and strolled back to her, "No, why?" 

His voice was a breath of fresh air in the summer heat.

Katherine took a step back since she suddenly felt that he was a little too casual. "I don't know. Just the way you were talking earlier. I thought you were mad at me."

Strangely, Nocker laughed with a serious expression, locking eyes with her. "Oh, don't worry... We're friends."

He sauntered away like a normal person.

Katherine wanted to ask him another question, but she felt that Nocker was too weird.

She decided to put off her plans to hunt the goblins, returning to the town alongside Nocker.

Nocker's behavior was intentional in de-escalating the situation.

He did this well for several reasons. One, he minded the fact that Katherine had dangerous emotional tendencies. Two, whenever, he mentioned her, Yeye kept repeating that someone should observe or watch and track Katherine in case she decided 
to do something crazy.

Nocker's suggestion of magic earlier reminded Katherine to be patient and focus on her long term goal of godhood rather than just conquering.

Chapter 11
Inside a tall prison, several guards stood on watch, staring at a woman walking up a staircase at the other side of the corridor. 

"What is that?" said Crime, interlocking his fingers and pressing his hands against each other to stretch. "Is that her?"

Afterwards, Loto replied, removing his helmet: "I wager it's her. They've been keeping her for days. What do you think we should do?"

Turning away from Loto toward the woman, Crime smirked. "We should help her."

"'Help' her? You really want to joke around again, huh." Initially, Loto looked confused, but then he grinned with a sure smile. "I see now. You're still drinking that potion that makes you sleepy? Stop drinking it."

In response, Crime shook his head. "It's not the reason." 

Loto pressed the side of his hand across his sweating forehead.

Shortly after, he began pretending to tickle Crime, his face a mischievous pinch.

In the meantime, the woman almost tripped.

Consequently, Crime shoved Loto by accident as he pointed, the end of his pointing finger still pressing against Loto's face. "Look at them!"

Frowning, Loto gently moved directly backward. "Yeah?" He finally looked serious.

Feeling assured, Crime crossed his arms. "This looks fun."

Bizarrely, the woman, who was trying to stand up, revealed two extra arms which emerged from the sides of her belly. Also, these extra arms attempted to support her but failed, only leading to more embarassment.

Despite her wobbling, exhausted limbs, the woman showed a trembling fierceness in her gaze as if trying to defy the sky.

Meanwhile, Crime and Loto frowned when a boy emerged from the staircase and helped the woman up. "Who's that?" Crime said.

Loto began to notice that the woman had two extra arms. "Wait, how did I not notice? Is she using [Invisiblity]?"

Crime glanced at Loto and then back at the woman, pausing as he realized. "Oh—"

The boy raised his arm in an instant, causing Crime to choke before he could shout.

Loto shouted instead, "Help!"

Suddenly, giant bungee-like arms attached onto the tower they were in, shaking the corridor.

Loto shouted again, "What is this!"

Later, an array of guards who listened to Loto's call emerged from a staircase next to Loto and Crime. Additionally, their presences caused the giant arms and the woman and boy to disperse.

On the ground, Crime and Loto's bodies began to stink.

According to the rules of the prison, they knew it was the woman's turn to get out of her jail cell and relax by roaming around the prison, but this time, magical elements entered the picture, culminating into a series of events which upset the dull routine of the prison.

Outside, the boy and the woman were hiking, their faces full of enjoy as they drank sweet grape juice in golden vessels. "That was a good one!" the woman said, her face beaming.

The boy placed his palm all over his face in pleasant surprise. "I just don't know!" he said, laughing. "I shouldn't have been so quick to get you out then?" In the end, it was a half-serious question.

The woman shook her head. "No, no. You did fine." She turned away, staring at the giant dragon from which giant bungee-like arms were suspended in the air. 

Magically, the dragon was made of millions of hard raw rice.

The boy wore a suit, and his eyebrows were thick, crafting an elegant impression.

The woman, with a pleasing gait, complemented her appearance with a bright-red jacket, which she had removed and used as a scarf for her neck.

Out of the trees, the array of guards burst out, their positions premeditated and their aims strategic. They shot according to an interconnected sequence, creating a cacophony of sounds and magical whispers in the air.

One of the giant bungee-like arms fell like a collapsed tower, and the guards subjected it with the elegant maneuvering of their weapons.

The other arm flew, but it fell all the same like a bird losing fuel mid-flight.

The eyes of the woman and the boy darted around, as the guards shot and stabbed at them.

The boy fell to the ground limply, and the woman screamed, hoping to fly. Finally, the eyes on the body of the woman soon deadpan reflected the empty sky.  

A voice boomed from behind the head of the squating guard Roland, "A dragon, Jakarta, who is that woman over there, and that boy, who is supposedly the assassin of Jakarta as well? All dead."

"No, Sir, only that boy is an assassin," said Mikkie, scratching his allegic arm. Because he misunderstood, thinking that Roland implied that the woman was also an assassin, he said this. "That woman is... well... She is no longer of use to us, Sir."

"Well, at least we got her."

A day later, in the same land, a tall man was surveying the plants when he found a small toy on the ground. "What's this?" he said. Regarding its symbolism, the toy reminded him of a "hobgoblin," the famed second evolutionary stage of a goblin. In addition, he remembered that hobgoblins were rare around here, so finding a toy in the middle of the forest felt like an omen to him. In response, he threw away the toy and tried to wash his hands by rubbing his open palms against a leaf.

He kept looking around, hoping to find the chest he wanted. Even if it made him look like a fool, he vehemously declared his intention in finding chests around this area. Despite his passion, he had yet to discover a single chest, and it has been 10 hours of wandering. Feeling exhausted, he sat down. "What a bother."

Feeling a crawling plant sway onto his back, he turned around. After staring around it for a while, he showed fondness toward it, rubbing it with the back of his fingers. 

For some reason, the interplay of softness and firmness in the plant reminded him of his late mother and her advice regarding goals. According to what he remembered, she said, "The only thing you need to do is give up."

He showed resistance, standing up and getting away from the plant as much as possible.

He sprinted around, endangering himself because if he was exhausted, he would fail to escape at the time a monster began chasing him. Yet, he expressed his impulsiveness by shouting as well, drying his throat. In the end, he did all this to motivate himself to press on by pushing himself into a corner.

From the bushes, a wolf broke out, biting at his right leg.

The man fell, but he was so impulsive that he began to use his knucles to punch and nails to claw at the wolf as well.

The wolf flinched, dodging his attack. Moreover, it hesitated, shaking its head, its eyes darting to the left as if it was waiting for something.

The man stood up and limped away, his right leg beginning to bleed. Yet, in the distance, he discovered a chest and felt that it promised of greatness which went beyond crawling.

The man stared before he realized that the wolf was charging at him. In a few seconds, he prepared a punch, only to find the wolf pulling its head backward in fright. In the blink of an eye, the wolf had diverged from its charge and began running away.

In confusion, the man shook his head from side to side.

From behind him, a tall bear charged and then halted midway, slamming down on the ground in front of him.

He fled instinctively.

From the bear's hand, a small treasure chest flew out, falling onto the ground near the man.

The man was screaming, but as the bear disappeared into the darkness, his voice grew silent.

He began to stare at the chest. "Finally—" he said before shutting his mouth midway for two reasons. Firstly, he might be setting up an omen by celebrating too early. Secondly, his voice might alert the bear or any monsters in the vicinity. Anyway, he widened his eyes as a golden necklace slid off from the top of the side of the lying chest. Eventually, he smiled, but he let go of his smile a few seconds later to obey the first reason.

He returned home. Midway, he ignorantly passed by the graves of the guards Crime and Loto. In the distance, he saw three-wagon line carrying a giant dragon. In the end, he discovered that his father, who was the prison guard Roland, brought the two bodies of the woman and the boy into his home. Surprisingly, he nodded plainly, having seen his father bring in bodies of monsters in order to dissect and study them. Moreover, he remembered that his father said, "Armed forces are part-time anatomists." According to his father's co-worker, soldiers and guards did the dirty work for the scholars to study.

The next day, he found himself doing cleaning and other chores as a part of the responsibilities his father imposed on him as the eldest son. Specifically, his other chores included examining bodies and writing down findings and measurements, which he found the most grueling. However, he enjoyed his life as a part-time adventurer and a son of a prison guard. Incidentally, his mother turned into a monster because she coveted certain magical gemstones which granted strength. Contrastingly, he preferred his life over a life where he had to sacrifice everything and everyone just to be happy. Sadly, he remembered that his mother valued strength over her own family. Ultimately, he believed that he would be alright alongside his father.

In another side of the city, a village woman ran outside. In the distance, she saw fifty men tear off the clothes of six men. Through her keen ears, she heard that the six men were begging for their lives. Using her skill in comprehending context behind tones, she concluded that the six men most likely had great wealth which they showed boastfully yet resisted to share. Finally, she saw the place of death of those six men.

Inside a small home, three children peeked outside. Among them, a girl widened her eyes to see clearly. As a result of this, she discovered the woman's ghastly expression toward the six bodies. With ignited curiosity, she went outside, leading the other two children. There, they began to scream and cry.

At the gates of the city wherein the village was, a man slowly removed parts of the giant dragon from his wagon as he held a bag of fresh gold. His eyes twinkling with satisfaction, he hurried onto his horse-tied wagon and drove away.

Behind him, entering the crowds near the gates, four disheveled women emerged and began ushering people who held the dragon parts out of the streets and back indoors, their eyes scanning behind them. Because they heard news regarding the six dead people who got their money by selling the dragon parts, they did this. 

Inside a house which one of them owned, they appreciated the design of the interior: white walls that aided meditation, clean, carpeted floors that gave weary feet respite, and large windows that allowed natural light to flood the space. Yet, they showed their worry, writing down a report with ink and quill.

Soon, in another part of the city, the man who held this report walked around a curve on a crowded road. Moreover, he passed a group of three women and seven children. Specifically, two of these women were the wives of Loto, and the third woman was the wife of Crime. Significantly, five of the children belonged to the third woman. Finally, they were heading to Crime and Loto's graves for the second time together. "What is it?" the third woman Deli said with a sorrowful tone.

"Have you heard?" said the first woman Aki, her voice shaking a little.

"About the murders?"

"Why?" said the second woman Sundie with an attempt at smiling. "Wanna join up?"

"Yeah, we sure can," said Aki, corresponding with Sundie's attempted smile.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," said Deli, her eyes frowning.

Sundie nodded with a bounce. Though, her face was stone-faced.

Meanwhile, the children were chattering calmly and with optimism. Moreover, only three of them looked to be grieving.

Existing everywhere, the god Johnny watched all of this. With his balled fist, he created a patch of flowers next to the children.

Seeing these flowers, the woman widened their eyes and pressed their children away from this patch. Also, they began walking away. Their eyes darting, they prepared a steady breath, which they believed they needed to cast spells properly. When they saw the women's reactions, the passing crowds avoided the patch, staying to the left side of the road.

Johnny smiled.

Chapter 12
At Katherine's shack, a member of Richard's group, John stared at the maps. "Gosh, it's been so long, Katherine, so that's where you were going."

Two days later, he stopped by a post house wherein postriders frequented to rest, refresh, and exchange mailbags. There, he pretended to be a choreographer, using Katherine's maps to prove his foresight of events. So he feigned a sudden state of analysis paralysis to sell the maps for letters.

Three days later, he went to a temple wherein parents exchanged their children for a bag of coins.

The children would become priests who tended to the temple and served the church. For the church, this practice was essential in maintaining the credibility of the priests in the separation between partiality, which they thought arose out of societal norms and cultural practices, and good faith, which they thought came from the ignorance of the experience of developing the 'partial ego.'

At the temple, he pretended to be a postrider who had lost his horse. So he walked around barefoot. Subsequently, he persuasively sold letters of parents and children to the parents that had exchanged their children and the priests that had lost their parents. Finally, in these exchanges, he acquired a sum of a bag of coins straight from the pockets of the parents and the temple.

Four days later, he entered a manor wherein several goblin servants wished harm on their human taskmaster. 

John re-imagined himself as a priest who had secretly become a parent and fled with his children instead of exchanging them.

However, John failed to convince the human taskmaster to sell the servants to him and had to leave, using his remaining gold to head to a place nearby.

In the distance, Katherine stared at John, turning away before suddenly turning back with surprise.

They entered an inn hall where many high-level adventurers could listen.

Feeling exhausted and an accompanying urge to share, John explained his rationales: "I have learned that in order to remove privilege, I must be duplicitous and multiplicitous! Whether a man is deceitful or truthful, a person of ignorance and privilege judges him based on knowledge that is incomplete and serves only his conveniences! I have risked my life and sense of self in order to understand the intentions and roles of others—within that multiplicity—thus furthering my comprehension of the context behind peoples' actions! Though, I understand the limitations of my attempt! For further exploration, you or I could enter adventurers' often, empty homes in order to usurp positions of authority! Throughout this process, we climb through the ranks by collating the adventurers' identities through their activity at home, which will allow us to represent adventurers more democratically rather than dictate out of ignorant privilege!"

Furrowing her brows, Katherine kept nodding. Instead of dismissing what John said like she did with the Questioner, she decided to listen this time. Mistakenly, she thought that she decided this randomly, which she considered to be more righteous than doing things systematically and routinely. However, the person she was before was different than the one now. 

"So you want to do the right thing, huh," was what Katherine gathered from John's disclosure of complexity.

She raised her heavier brow.

John shook his head subtly, glancing at everyone inside the inn hall, projecting his voice: "That's up for you to decide!"

His voice was loud at "you".

Days later, one of the audience members said, "I think he's crazy, and the words he's saying don't sound convincing at all. He sounds like a lunatic, but at the same time, his angry expressions sound truthful. I want to listen to him more, but part of me wishes he could just stop. It feels like he's saying something that I believed all my life, and yet, I couldn't put it together... until now."

For many days, people kept coming to listen. Outwardly, they hated him, but inside, they wanted to hear what he had to say. He was saying something that they all believed, but at the same time, it felt instinctive to speak against it like he was speaking against everything they ever knew. And yet, for them, they saw the truth—painful, bloody, and full of horror.

John kept coming because he was often restless in the night, and when he was tired, he did impulsive things.

It was only convenient that he had a place where he could express himself and get people's attention, so he used this opportunity to take it out all away.

Hundreds of people grew to over a thousand until the inn hall struggled to fit them all.

He had to go outside on the streets where the peacekeeping force that the Questioner assigned kept pushing against them.

However, John's magnetic personality even managed to persuade certain members of the force, making it more difficult for the Questioner to keep his calm.

The Questioner ordered an assassination for the first time in almost a century. Yet, instead of going through with it, he cancelled it.

In conclusion, he announced that he supported John's statements and realized his faults as ancient leader who had lived for over six centuries.

Katherine watched it all happen, and she helped John get to that inn hall by accompanying him and even nodding at him in support.

She could only feel this sense of godhood behind her actions, however, as if she was an arbitrator between different sides since she personally knew both John and the Questioner when they still opposed each other.

She felt power in the changes John would engender.

The Questioner annonced that he assigned a new agency to capitalize on the "widespread knowledge already available" in adventurers' homes in order to make more "democratic" decisions.

As a creature who began engaging in philosophy regarding the 'person's valuableness' centuries ago, he adjusted ruling many times and had a habit of personally going to places himself as a teleporter in order to cancel and handle things himself in order to ensure that his cancellations and his fickle manner of government remained reliable.  

John made sure to get his words in the air as well, using a voice amplifier that the Questioner lent him. With his words, he reinforced the understanding that the John and the Questioner formed a dual leadership, using terms like "oneness" and "sameness."

Later, Katherine met up with the troll's group of adventurers, hearing them discussing louder than usual.

John's impingement into their world was clear.

Soon, at an arena, John was wearing the late Richard's favorite regalia and holding the late Yonder's scrolls in his hand. 

In reality, despite declaring "oneness," John only functionally occupied a seat at the Questioner's 'inner circle.' Two, in the words of the other "former" members of Richard's group, he was only "pretending" that their group "still existed," as they declared a "disbandment." Lastly, he could have sacrificed himself to save his comembers, Richard and Yonder, rather than exploit their deaths in order to boost his own morale.

In admiration, Katherine tried to remember everything she knew of him, yet she realized that she was ignorant of who he truly was.

She only knew him because of Richard, and she only listened to him because he was part of Richard's group.

She let John be just like she did with Richard and Yonder, backing out from a trip with the troll's group to avoid mentions of John.

Then, in the forest, she quietly bathed in the smell and green.

It began to rain, which kept accentuating and defining the contours of the trees, their roots, the plants, the leaves, the bark, the insects, the grass, and so forth. 

The sound of raindrops set each object apart.

She walked back to town, watching the various stones on the ground. 

When she returned, she heard a man's voice call to her in a strange accent.

The voice belonged to Nocker, who appeared in front of her from behind her.

"Where were you?" Katherine asked, looking at the sky at the raindrops, putting out her hand, squinting.

Nocker turned away and ran his fingers through the hair on the back of his head. "I was just nearby, doing stuff."

"Ok." Katherine levelled her head and looked at the houses and various shops. 

"You want to go there?" She pointed to a shop with an overhang.

They took shelter, as she noticed adventurers that belonged to the troll's group in the distance.

For a moment, with how safe she was, she had time to analyze a certain spot on the ground in the rain.

It looked like the water on the ground was fighting against the attacks of raindops, splashing, swirling, and turning in response to the attacks.

Katherine faced Nocker, handing him a stick. "What happened?"

He looked at the stick and back at Katherine. "To what?"

She began briskly walking. "John!"

He pushed himself off the edge of the counter of the shop. "He's with the Questioner, right—"

She raised a fist in the air for a moment. "I need to call him now!"

He clasped the top of his head. "Talk to him? How?"

She dodged several people and burst into a sprint. "He knows me!"

In the town center, John was standing in a crowd, and magic allowed him to walk freely and prevent crowds from crushing each other and reaching a certain distance from him.

Later, Katherine walked up to him. "John!"

"Hi," said Nocker, feeling the magic stop him. However, the magic allowed Katherine to pass.

John politely shook her hand.

She noticed his security details that was the source of the magic. "What are you going to do?"

Nearby, the Questioner emerged from a portal, drawing the crowds' calls.

Katherine began weighing several options in her mind.

John learned magic recently to convey certain thoughts to Katherine telepathically.

She nodded as John's facial expression twitched somewhat during their telepathic communication.

When John's face stopped twitching and she turned around, the Questioner created a portal and helped her escape the attention of the crowds.

When they arrived at the quieter parts of the town, he said, gently putting Katherine down, "John told me good things about you."

Since she was on a ramp, she stumbled a bit before getting her footing. "I... why didn't you just give me a mask?"

She looked around and found a more open space ahead.

He threw a bunch of options out the window, as he began to walk alongside her past several wide-eyed townsfolk. "I didn't know you before this. I want to ask if you want to join John? He sounds like he wants you on board."

She sounded curious, raising her hand in the air. "What did he say?"

"He said that Katherine knew exactly what to say." He thought that Katherine had sparked John's desire to make his first public speech before he rose to prominence.

She studied his hands. "Really?" 

She sounded more confident than ever since she had spent so much time with the god Johnny. In addition, her first impression of the Questioner was that of a sad, broken, regretful, nostalgia-loving older man.

He wanted to listen to her more since she offered a different perspective due to her confidence alone.

"I don't know." He pressed the tips of the fingers of his right hand against his temples, letting out a lengthy exhale. "Maybe he did."

He thought that if she and John handled concerns regarding the adventurers' complaints regarding travel time, he might be to relax a little.

The rest of the Questioner's inner circle were too old to spend time ruling the City-state of Laol where Katherine used to live, which made it so that he had to take care of two cities at once.

If he could just take care of Katherine's concerns, then maybe he could share his library with her and have her try to read and maybe derive new insights.

He read all the books available in the two cities many times and changed many things over the years. However, a new perspective would change things.

Sadly, most of the people vying for power all had the same ideals and proposals from six hundred years ago even up to now.

Later, Katherine sat down at a cafe, and the Questioner joined her, putting on a mask and giving her one as well.

Then, with masks on, they sat down in silence, ignoring the shocked and surprised crowds that gathered to see the Questioner and his associate.

The Questioner moved to a seat cushion on the floor since he was very tall and since the cafe founders chose to accomodate only average humans around 5'4 in height with shorter chairs and tables.

Then, Katherine and the Questioner began to eat.

Midway through their late lunch, he opened a portal and teleported them both away to John's location.

Katherine rubbed around her ear after hearing again the sounds of the crowds shouting in response to the Questioner.

"Are you sure you're just the 'regional director'?" She rubbed her eyes at the angelic, orderly flashing lights all around. 

They looked like holographic symbols showing various locations and stops. 

The Questioner's expression wrinkled menacingly for a moment. "Yes."

He despised his weakness and longed to make sure each and every person knew that they mattered at all times.

He raised his arm as a symbol, casting the spell to target each person within a hundred thousand people: "[Crowdkindle Envisionment!]" 

Then, he cast the next spell to identify a random selection of 5 achievements of each target over the last 5 years: "[Fateweave Commemoratus!]"

Next, he cast the third spell to make it that when anyone looks at one of the targets, they would know the person's 5 achievements from the last spell: "[Accolade Insight Revelation!]"

Finally, he cast the last spell to make the knowledge of the achievements very colorfully defined: "[Chromaillum Achievistream!]"

A hundred thousand people looked around and stared at each other, many's community consciousness escalating to new heights.

Yet, it was John that was the reason that more than twenty thousand people had gathered here today.

The Questioner acknowledged him, while also thinking about Katherine who stood nearby and wore a mask.

When he was out of sight, he rewarded Katherine for significant contributions to the betterment of the City of Maestro by giving her a list of options: recognition and a title, a leadership role, a monetary reward, access to resources, scholarship or education fund, an artistic or cultural tribute, an invitation to advisory panels, public speaking opportunities, collaborative projects, or a permanent record. However, he said that the options were just to help her brainstorm and decide. In reality, she could ask for anything.

"Godhood." Katherine stared at a nearby wall as if she were staring at a camera.

"What?" The Questioner widened his eyes.

Chapter 13
Later, after the event, when the Questioner finally decided what to reward her, Katherine decided that her answer of "Godhood" was too abstract and vague for him to accomplish, so she gave something more specific: "I want to understand magic. I have been looking at magical tools for so long, and I can't get myself to understand them. They're a headache to use, and I kept trying them anyway. But I couldn't 'get' them." She assumed that her ignorance regarding magic made it impossible for her to cast magic and utilize magical tools.

With a seasoned smile, the Questioner handed her a book, trusting her with his life, saying, "This should allow you to get what you're looking for."

"Essentials of Magic," she read, leaving her mouth open after every word. 

She glanced at him, opening the book with care and a wince at every sound the book made.

Each page was 11.33 inches in width and 14.50 in height.

She rested one arm on the other, drumming his chin with his pointing finger and humming. "A lot of people are practically tradespersons in magic, so this is more formal. However, since you said that you cannot 'interpret' it, this should grant you the theoretical foundations in order to improve your comprehension of it." 

"T-thanks..." she mouthed before saying it, her widened eyes gorging the sight of diagrams, tables, and trees in the book.

Her head shook back at the sight of several different mathematical symbols that demonstrated what she thought to be the Questioner's notable intelligence implicated within the book. 

These symbols pointed to models and various equations which the author comprehended to illustrate and help define the dynamic processes of magic.

The first numbered section included data analyses, general considerations, and ethics regarding magic.

Katherine squinted briefly. "So I just read this?"

The Questioner changed to an enthuasistic tone.

A loud boom emerged in the distance.

He clapped his hands twice on the palms while curling his fingers inwardly, creating deep sounds. "That's right!"

"Do you want to know what an 'eidolon' is?" His voice increased in volume at each word, titters punctuating the last word: "Look. Look! Look!"

He pointed to a section in the table of contents, speaking with grace and boisterousness: "Eidolic Morphology."

Katherine nodded, realizing that besides being a "people-aligned" person, he also enjoined himself in theory. And it being magic for that matter made him seem like an incredibly worthwhile person.

He began walking around a table, going off inside his home to grab more books. "After this brief overview, you can move on to more specialized textbooks. I have a lot of them."

"Why don't you use them?" she said, referring to the magic in the books. Simultaneously, she covered her mouth, pretending to rub her nose.

The Question stopped, pivoting himself on one foot while placing his hand on the table, frowning slightly. "I don't know how."

He shifted around and glanced between her, his surroundings, the book, and his right hand.

He opened his mouth briefly before he spoke. "I'm just very good at theory, and I know some very crucial spells. But besides that..." 

"I am just a guy hanging out." He placed his left hand on his nape, rubbing it languidly.

He had her take the book, but he made sure to ask her if she wanted to return to the shack.

Katherine's lips moved like a viper's whip lash, her eyes blinking as if fairies the size of particles were emerging in droves from them. "I do."

A hue of mahogany-brown graced her skin, a slender line of light-yellow sunlight hanging across her face. "Want to go back."

Meanwhile, where Katherine's intact shack used to be located, three giant goblins stood, a purple glow emanating from their hottest parts such as their armpits, groin, head, chest, the palms of hands, the soles of feet, and their active muscles.

The goblins grabbed onto a hard, tactilely metal, transparent flurry of green air and felt their muscles growing in strength.

A stench having dispersed from their faces, their bodies gradually shrunk to normal, as they each concentrated their power and the one they had received.

"Quest complete," one of the goblins grabbed a coin the size of a chest, as the coin shrunk small enough to fit between two fingertips. "We wage the first battle."

In the meantime, Katherine sat down against a fancy chair, resting her shoulders against the sides of the backrest.

However, she began to feel discomfort due to having accomodated her back to the floor for a long time.

The chair's supposed comfort contradicted the inclination of her back.

In a few seconds, she got up and left through the Questioner's portal, returning to her homeland where her shack was.

The goblins stared at her, watching her move like a swift, shadow knight that had broken away from the ostentatious and exploited the inherence of powerful magic bestowed upon the knight in order to vanquish those whom the knighthood ascertained to be monstrous and deserving of the highest order of punishments, death.

They backed away as soon as they could, watching the Questioner appear after Katherine. "What do you—" said the goblin Rino, his hands frozen.

"What are you doing here!" Mallock interrupted, moving his ax up his hand in order to begin fighting.

Katherine ascertained their movements, as the Questioner cast restrictive mgic.

The goblins fell to the earth.

The Questioner made them tremble to exhaust their muscles and reduce their capacity for violence.

The goblins collapsed where they lay, their expressions that of apathy.

Katherine struck them with a foot and said, "Why is my home destroyed?"

They retched at her, wiping their lips when their drool spat out.

Another gave her an offensive gesture.

"These goblins are from the caves," the Questioner said, his expression twitching, as he gradually, slowly armed his magic.

Katherine compressed her lips, shaking her head to stretch them since she sat on the stiffening chair earlier.

The goblins stabbed her leg.

Katherine fell, screaming as if she was falling into a chasm.

The Questioner healed her leg, as she fell.

He cast another set of restrictive magic: "[Essence Lock!] [Void Ensnarement!] [Spectral Restraint!]"

The goblins levitated into the air limply, their expressions that of depression.

The Questioner kept casting spells, eventually collapsing himself.

Katherine saw an opportunity and grabbed him. "How do I understand the book?" She thought he could be dying.

"Just read it. If you need help, there are many spells to speed up your learning, but you would need to start somewhere. Learning how to read is a good thing."

He began talking incoherently.

Katherine looked up and saw the blue sky, feeling that today was going to be the last time she got this advantage.

"Johnny!" she said, as she stabbed the goblins several times to ensure that they were down for good.

Johnny appeared, wearing shoulder plates and a long-sleeved shirt.

She briskly walked to him and pointed at the Questioner. "How do I help him!"

Johnny told her to make sure the goblins and the Questioner were still alive. 

"How?" she said, covering her nose with both hands before clapping anxiously, as her hands were in a praying posture. 

"Read the book he gave you." Johnny sounded menacing, his voice deep and raucous.

"The magic book, but I can't." Katherine looked like she was about to cry, but her relationship with the Questioner was strictly professional.

"Just read it." Johnny locked his hands together with tension. "You'll understand once you turn to page 457."

"Okay, okay." She ran and grabbed the book clumsily with the pages drooping out. "I need to read page 457."

Johnny levitated out of sight into the trees, his gaze fixed on her figure. Taking a seat, his legs were wide apart. His head rested against his hands, his fingers were interlocked.

In the glade in front of John, she read the section title: "All Manner of Healing."

Page 457 was the first page of this section.

She read the first content words below the title: "Healing with diseases, disorders, physical ailments, and mental energy..."

She found the incantation at the bottom: "[Heal!]"

She cast the spell with her hands stretched out toward the Questioner and the goblins. "[Heal!]"

It worked, saving them, but she wondered why it only worked now even if she tried to cast magic before.

She realized that she only tried now to cast healing magic, but she wondered maybe it was because she read the book that she was able to cast it. 

Sighing curtly, she could only say, "I don't know."

When the goblins opened their eyes, she had gone.

Far away, some time later, in the second city where Katherine had lived, the troll learned about the prolonged absence of Katherine through Nocker, Carpenter, and two other adventurers, all of which were supposed to be tracking Katherine.

The troll chuckled. "Guys, we've finally got ourselves a 'valkyrie'."

His tone implied that the adventurers should get Katherine back.

Nocker nodded, holding and rubbing onto a red necklace on his right hand, as he wore leg armor, closing his eyes.

He left behind his psychological potion, his gaze hardening, as he walked out a dungeon.

Inside the dungeon where the three goblins came from, Katherine's magical necklace sparkled.

The book remained on her hand, full of the god-like expressions of magic.

Some time earlier, Katherine inspected the ruins of her home, watching the way that each part connected to it with her various items.

Instead of mourning her old self within that shack, she began to rebuilt a farm and start anew by burning the surrounding trees that had grown fast too close to her shack.

In response, she wondered if maybe the intrusive and destructive growth of the trees were the reason for the destruction of the shack, whereas she was sure that the goblins were the reason since they were standing on it rather than patrolling the surroundings.

In her environment, she noted several items that further explored her interest regarding the matter: the craters which the goblins' footsteps formed and the potentiality of their ages playing a role into the destruction.

Mentally, she constructed a model wherein she decided the factors of texture and smell into verifying the presumption that they destroyed the shack.

Departing from her shack and closer to more open ground, she took a smell and touched the craters with her hands, squinting as he did so.

Finding the smell problematic, she wanted to express her annoyance, but she was here to determine the culprit rather than spending time reading the magic book since she was yearning for respite.

Amid her respite, she alternated to farming by placing down several shovels and seeing how they sounded in relation to the ground. For her, this was her way of finding out if the ground was great for land. However, her method was based on assumption rather than evidence. Yet, she committed to it anyway, feeling that her capacity for determining soil quality based on the sound which the shovel produced on contact aligned with her desire to learn magic theory.

Subsequently, she quantified the number of times she slammed her shovel on the ground, but when she forgot the count  after over 20 times, she decided that she had enough and switched tasks to touching the ground again while she opened the magic theory book and left it on a bunch of rocks that she had noticed lying around. In the end, despite her strange fixation with counting and her shovel sound method of soil quality inspection, she exhibited an observant quality.

Although she was an observant person, she ignored the goblins lying on the ground nearby the entire time, demonstrating the ability to analyze information selectively rather than managing analysis paralysis.

She incorporated a unique perspective by licking the ground, although this action made her retch and drool onto the ground, empowering her to identify that her methodology relied too much on pretend boundary-pushing departure from a conventionally established routine.

Consequently, she expressed profanities before she began reading the book again. "I should really try to understand this," she said, clasping her hands.

Owing to her desire to escape her frustration, she accepted a collection of senses to engage her body and mind.

One, she felt the extremities of her fingers intermingling in tactilely stepped friction.

Two, the scent of the book saturated her face like flowers on a dry, grassy path and the rain on the canopy of a jungle tree from a viewpoint on the ground next to this tree.

Three, the weight of the book pressed against her hands, a wobbly greatness lulling her and begging her to open this book.

Four, she imagined the light hiss of her hands skidding across the cover of the book, which was too stimulating for her to enact.

Five, the academic, formal, literate mouthfeel of the book made her gulp and lick her lips and compress her lips against her tongue inward.

When she opened the book, she felt an awakening in her gut. Then, when she read, it felt like eating a scrumptious dinner, magically eating as much as possible and bypassing fiber-induced bloating from fried rice excess.

In sum, she had been trying to get used to the idea of reading theory, and finally, based on her reading experience, her hard work paid off, even if it went unconventionally.

Katherine held onto the book and read the first word that came into her comprehension: "[Languishing Drift!]"

The tree in front of her stared at her, and she stared back at it.

She sighed in disappointment.

A chip fell off the tree's bark, loud enough for her to notice.

She turned around and zoomed to it. "What is this?" she said, picking it up and rotating it.

"The spell worked!" she said, raising her arm. 

She nodded and spoke languidly, "Woohoo."

Several goblins emerged from behind the tree, wearing masks.

"Argh!" she said, her arms lifting.

The goblins would make her goal in becoming a god much more easier.

Chapter 14
The goblins beat her several times with combinations of kicks and punches and trampled over her farm land, mocking her with offensive gestures.

Katherine stared at them, realizing that she could react more calmer than before. Maybe, this was because she read the magic theory book, her trauma regarding taking complex, wonderful lives, or both.

Her body hurt, and they were close to stabbing her. However, since she lay passively down, they had lowered their blades.

She watched them stomping all over the ruins of her shack, but she felt that she was calm, trying to associate them with properties of magic rather than creatures that could kill her at any moment.

Her fear was dormant.

She realized that her blade was still in its sheath hidden on her belt, but she felt so calm that she took on a fetal lying position.

The goblins stared at her, sorry-faced.

They left, leaving her safe.

Katherine recognized that the goblins were only willing to fight combatants.

Intricately, she felt a tiny urge to kill them, but it was out of annoyance rather than out of a sense of duty and responsibility based on the adventurer culture in the world where she lived for months.

Later, in her town, she saw several popular shops in one part of one of several markets. For some reason, she thought that seeing these shops was like seeing a devil. Regarding this thought, maybe, she felt a complex reaction after the life-defining event she went through earlier.

Despite killing many goblins for two months, she was fine, but recently, she began to learn that her human mind was able to separate the depth of murder. In shock, she contemplated how terrifying her brain was, enabling her to commit acts of violence while allowing her to see the results and immersively regret it afterwards.

Her hands trembled, but instead of wanting to change against violence, she wanted to do more to validate herself and to achieve the expectations of the people who wanted her to keep being strong, powerful, and ambitious.

She would do it for those people whom she thought expected from her: the adventurers everywhere, Richard and his group, and the troll's group, among so many others who were too complex for her just to pretend that she was ignorant of them. 

They were her family, and she hated loneliness. Finally, she had a purpose, and even if it was scary, she would keep going because she learned that honor, respect, and values were all about loyalty.

Yet, the realization she had today was going to grow and gnaw more and more at her as time passed. One day, she would either give up fighting or fight against the culture that made her so okay with violence.

When she healed the dying goblins and the Questioner, she learned something.

She realized that healing a person was about vicariously living through them along with their values and desires and enabling them. 

However, controlling them was impossible. 

In the end, she could only control herself.

Far away, somewhere in a retreat in the forest, John and the Questioner discussed regarding the adventurers that started a revolution in response of John's rise to prominence.

"Panda, you remind me of a panda," the troll, the Questioner, said, his lips moving with a mixture of emotions.

Behind him, raindrops that walked down the rooftop scattered off the corner edge in a somewhat conical manner, some even streaming down the side, under it, clinging briefly, and dropping off there.

"W-what?" John said, as he moved his hand in front of his face, blocking the troll out. "In any case, we shall arrive at a standpoint between the adventurer groups. We should get to arranging and mobilizing."

Meanwhile, he noticed his bright nails amid the silhouette of his hands in the direct light of the cloudy light streaming into the room where he was.

The troll nodded before he packed up his bags as he did with his memories of the past, long, wide, and continuing to reach further and further. Soon, he would break.

He said, wiping his eyes, "Do you want power?"

John nodded before he took on a voice similar to a child implicitly telling his mother that he wanted to buy something special.  "Sure."

He had more to say, but he was too intent on showing his words through his actions now that he had deeply rooted his words in others.

He meant to say: "I am the epitome of light and shadow. I grace the world with my hope, and I create life out of the muck. Shan't they understand that it is my glory that shines above all? In the midst of the darkness and the filth? Let them know that I am Coalescing, full of the grace of the heathenish and the irrationality of the supreme. I create waves out of my gut, and I cast upon this earth my unfailing love. I shall become the epitome of grace and beauty, and they shall know me as Me. Let them coalesce upon themselves the reaches of my might. 

"I do what I must, not because I must, but because I can. If people did things because they must, then, they would soon realize at the onset of adulthood that they are but waiters for their customers and defacers of themselves for the benefit of their superiors. I am the exemption.

"I must be the confidence that bears the guilt that those privileged only pretend to bear, even if the world casts me out for who I am. I will bear this privilege and opportunity, and I will make good use of it, turning every single city into a wasteland if it means I will succeed in representing the people."

Soon, he remembered where he came from. Specifically, he lay down on the bare floor and fell asleep.

In the meantime, Katherine observed her body, as she lay down. Calming down, she squeezed the adipose tissue of her mammary glands, yet inserting herself into a grandious palace in the mind.

She would manipulate the world through her actions because her actions were contributory and enhanced other actions to greater effect, whether good or bad.

Soon after, the Questioner brought John and Katherine together in a dungeon.

John's tears bled through his sweat, as he swung like a maniac, slashing goblins.

However, he got exhausted in just under 10 seconds after dancing with his legs and arms in combat.

Katherine watched him, but then he tripped.

She caught him.

Chapter 15 - Memories and Decisions
"Six years after his mother died, his right arm trembled visibly.

He stood up briskly.

Even if his legs functioned well, he limped to his chair, grabbing the backrest and stumbling to sit.

He moved forward with a plan to attack the goblins."