...Ten kilometers... A distance easily covered within fifteen minutes by a vehicle. On foot, however, it would take at least an hour and a half. More so if they had to be cautious of everything on the way.

“Y-Yeung, three on the l-left!”

“Wah— Got it, keep an eye out for any of them hiding around the buildings!”

“Mister? What should we do?”
“Kuh—!? Y-You and your s-sister stay near me. Y-Yeung can take care of the ones at the f-front.”

An hour into their trek, they approached the vicinity of their hometown's business district. Large buildings, though not as big as their school's, were scattered all around. Shopping centers, grocers, supermarkets— the moderately sizeable buildings became home to another group of hostile monsters different from goblins.

“SQUEEEE!!!”

“SQUEEEEE!!!”

“One!” Whack. ”Dokk! When you say orc, would you prefer these guys or the ones from world of wahcraft—? Two!” Whack.

“I-In terms of looks, I w-would prefer the latter, b-but if we have to f-fight them, then I'm plenty c-content with these g-guys.”

Grunting as they approached Yeung with wooden clubs were three pig-like humanoids sporting huge tusks that prevented them from fully closing their mouths. They wore minimal leather pads, exposing huge bellies that looked very much like everyone's drunken uncle's.

“SQUEEEE!!!”

Smack. “Three. Was this all of them? There aren't any more?”

Dealing with them was no different from dealing with goblins. Sure they were taller than goblins, but with a goblin champion's weapon in hand, Yeung whacked them all on the head fairly easy.

[Mana insufficient for the release of tier III species privileges.]

“Hmmm... This thing again...”

Bringing his hand over the cyan glow leaking from the orcs' bodies, Yeung saw a small screen of text emerge in front of his eyes.

“W-Weird, I'm guessing t-that there's a lot more of them around, b-but they aren't coming out to attack...” Dokk furrowed his brows.

“It's cause big bro is strong!”

“Could it be that?” Anna pointed to the almost five-foot-long weapon that Yeung was carrying.

“Huh? This bone sword? What's it got to do with them?”

“Isn't that the leader of the goblins' weapon? I think that the three monsters that attacked just now might have just been to scout us. Since they saw you bring them down with that weapon, I'm guessing they now want to avoid you.” She elaborated.

“Wah— So this thing's a status symbol? Makes sense.”

“My sister's smart, isn't she? The smartest in the world!”

“Yeah, huhuhu.” Yeung ruffled Christopher's head, “ Your sister's really smart.” He added to the boy's praise. Anna blushed slightly at Yeung and her brother's enthusiasm.

“Dokk, what do you think?” Yeung asked. They still had to pass through this area to advance.

“T-Taking a detour w-would cost us d-daylight. If we continue t-through here, you should keep s-swinging that thing around to s-scare them off.” Dokk replied.

“...It might take us another day to reach the city if we take the detour around the mountain...” Yeung pushed the walls of his left cheek with his tongue, “We'll take Anna's word for it. I just have to keep showing this thing off, right?”

He raised the bone sword over his head like he was about to yell, “I have the power!” but refrained from doing so as he looked over his shoulder, “Oh yeah, Chris doesn't have a skill yet, right?”

Christopher shook his head from side to side, “Not yet... I'm not strong like you, big bro... I can't even kill a goblin.”

“You don't have to.” Yeung said, as he handed him a knife and urged Chris to follow him to the body of one of the orcs he had whacked on the head. There were no signs of movement from it except for some faint wheezing. It was still alive but barely.

Anna stepped forward to protest as she noticed Yeung's intent but was blocked by Dokk, his eyes reflected strict military discipline, “H-He needs to do this. R-Remember how y-your lives were saved by your skill? You, me, and Y-Yeung, we might not always b-be there to protect your little brother.”

Anna bit her lips. Chris barely turned twelve, it was cruel to force this on a child but she knew that there was some truth to what Dokk had said. Her eyes glazed over as her attention seemed to have turned elsewhere.

...Yeung heard what Dokk said, he didn't feel comfortable doing this either. So at first, he tried holding Christopher's arm over the cyan mist that the screen of text seemed to refer to as mana over at another orc's body. He expected it to seep into Chris' arm like it would his, but sadly, it didn't do a thing.

“Big bro, what are we doing?” Christopher asked with a puzzled expression.

“Hmmm...”
Yeung tried this for a couple of minutes before letting out a heavy sigh, “Listen, Chris, I need you to use that knife to—“

“Wait!” Anna interrupted with a shout, “What if we do this?”
Yeung tilted his head in a puzzled manner, “Do what?”

She rubbed her chin and had a troubled expression, “Wait. Ah. Umm... Like this?” While fiddling around with her index finger at something he couldn't see, Yeung intended to ask again but was stopped by sudden screen of text unfolding in front of his eyes, along with the subtle ring of a bell.

[Anna Wilson (Human) – Level 6 has invited you to a party. Accept?]

“—Huh?” Yeung was dumbfounded.

“H-Hey, Yeung, d-do you see this?” Dokk was the same.

“Yeah... Should we just say, accept?”
[Accepted.]

[Successfully formed a party. Leader position has been delegated to Song Yeung]

[Anna Wilson (Human) – Level 6 has joined the party

Christopher Wilson (Human) – Level 1 has joined the party

Lee Dokk (Human) – Level 11 has joined the party]

Text including everyone's names appeared along with their levels.

“Wah— if this is like a game...” Yeung walked over to the still breathing orc and dealt the final blow. After, he fiddled around until the screen of text showing their names appeared once again.

[Anna Wilson (Human) – Level 6

Christopher Wilson (Human) – Level 2

Lee Dokk (Human) – Level 11]

“...Big bro!” Christopher's eyes shone as he yelled beside him.

“Yeah... Your sister's really smart.” Yeung said, as he fell into thought, “...With the world seemingly falling into ruin, if a child like Christopher was able to keep his innocence even a little bit longer...” It would be ideal.