For years to come, three things stood out to Kristoffer every time he remembered this one specific day.

First, Carl.

Kristoffer just learned that Carl's an Octacore party member. Kristoffer's Master, Lime, was also a member of Octacore. With how much Lime had told him about their adventures over and over again, Kristoffer realized how much Lime respected and admired the other 7 members. Lime claimed that when the members first met each other, she was still half as strong she was today. She strived to reach their level of strength so much that she had overtaken almost all the members at some point in time.

But Octacore was not just any normal party out there. Their overwhelming strength aside, all of this happened inside their dreams. The Octacore was formed inside a dream, their adventures... were inside a dream.

All 8 members were literally having the same dream. Not at the same time, though. Those dreams transcended time. Lime had that dream around 300 years ago. Since Carl's a human, he wouldn't have been born yet.

Rather than a dream, it was a lot closer to a nightmare. One way or another, a thousand souls found themselves in a dungeon. In the end, only less than thirty made it out alive, or in other words, woke up. Hence, the survivors dubbed the location they got thrown in, the Nightmare Dungeon.

Just being a survivor of the Nightmare Dungeon would make one highly respectable in Kristoffer's opinion, and perhaps to many other individuals around the world who received the story.

But realizing that Carl was one of those people that Lime highly respected, was both a shock and great news for Kristoffer.

It was a shock because it took him a whole day to realize that the Carl whom Quill mentioned when his bakery almost burned down, the Carl whom Lime told could kill a person 3000 meters away, the Carl who first taught Lime hand-to-hand combat, and the Carl who brought down a minotaur yesternight, was also the Carl who was riding with him in this very wagon. Kristoffer could only throw insults at himself for this embarrassing oversight.

However, this was also great news because Kristoffer's a fan! When Lime narrated their adventures, she would always emphasize each person's strengths, weaknesses, habits, stuff like that. If it were to be written as a novel, Kristoffer would place Carl in his Top 3 Favorite Characters. The guy was the weakest member, the weak link, an underdog. He almost died more than once, too. However, his knowledge was out of this world.

There were many times he saved the party in the Nightmare Dungeon by answering weird puzzles, opening secret doors no one else could detect, and most importantly, using his medical know-how. Lime never shared what Carl did for a living, though.

Whenever a party member would sustain a fatal injury that an advanced healing spell would find hard to solve, Carl would jump in and shout instructions they found weird but incredibly effective. His methods could not heal a broken bone per se, but without those methods, a regular healing spell would not be able to save them at all. But it did!

Kristoffer did not make it obvious, but he's so exhilarated that he wanted to shake hands with the dude. That's all he was wrecking his mind with throughout the rest of the journey. But even that was put to a stop by the second thing that surprised Kristoffer.

Second, the immigrants (and their leftovers).

People at the checkpoint would still be within the parameters of ordinary. Sometimes people would take a rest for a bit and continue to set forward. It seemed like the 4 people there were waiting for the caravan to arrive with relieved expressions on their faces, and that's still in the scope of normal if it weren't for the mind-boggling amount of dead barghests littered around the area.

At the same moment that Kristoffer set his feet down the wagon and onto the ground, a pig-riding goblin showed up from the far distance. It was the taxman they were expecting.

Kristoffer would have been happy to welcome him after a long time since their last meeting but his mind was just not into it. Literally.

Kristoffer slowly scanned the surroundings, to which he saw a spot of burned ground, 2 horses leisurely eating grass, a man gagged and tied, 2 dead headless werewolves with gaping holes on their chests, and of course, a ton of dead barghests.

Kristoffer squinted his eyes at those remaining standing at what could only be called a battlefield. He was already familiar with two of them—Pinky, a lady with silky pink hair who was also the Syndicate's Head Researcher of sorts, and Domenic, a man known to be the only coachman from the other town crazy enough to carry visitors.

Thus, Kristoffer switched his focus on the other two. "Who the feck are you?" he asked.

There have been no sightings of barghests in this area for nearly two decades and now they would just decide to show up in packs, and dead at that? Why the heck would this amount of barghests appear here of all places, and why now?

The answer was obvious to Kristoffer: it was either of these two—a cloaked woman and a man in leather armor...or both of them.

"Good day to you, sir. My name is Mute," the man in leather armor answered. Mute turned to his companion who was keeping quiet. Judging by her eye movement alone, she probably didn't want to be rude but was just weighing whether to answer or not.

However, people who were hesitant to share their identities always screamed trouble.

"Ahahaha, apologies but my friend here is the shy type," Mute said, his voice a little shaky.

"You don't have to answer my question for now," Kristoffer said to the cloaked woman, "...however, you will need to at the Chiefs Assembly."

At this point, the goblin rider finally arrived. "Good Lord, what happened here? I went past a wrecked carriage on the way so I urged Smoke faster. I was worried. It must have been an excruciating battle seeing how many there are!" The goblin waved his hands towards the remains.

Almost at the same time after the goblin finished saying his piece, Kristoffer noticed that all 4 of the arrivals looked at Carl.

It was most likely just a reflex, though, because all of them glanced for just a tenth of a second. That's hella sus.

"For now, let's hop onto the wagons, shall we? We'll talk about what happened on the way," Kristoffer offered.

On the way back, Kristoffer's passengers increased with the addition of Mute and the mysterious woman. Pinky and the tied-up person was pushed into the Syndicate's wagon. The goblin and his pig on the other hand were entrusted to the militia. The coachman rode one of his horses, pulling with him his other horse.

Kristoffer had Pula and Nel take the reins at the front for the moment. With Carl and Victor on his left and right, respectively, they listened to what transpired. What stood out was the long-range "spell" that killed the two werewolves. Of course, they still had to chop off the heads to prevent them from regenerating.

A long-range spell without a trace of mana whatsoever?

Kristoffer turned to look at Carl, but when he got a smile in response he decided not to ask.

They talked some more about the situation until they finally returned to Arkbay.

***

Inside the town hall sat the 3 individuals running the town: the old Flame Tamer, the Syndicate's Boss, and the Silver Mavericks Captain.

Ever since Lime disappeared, these 3 kept things afloat.

And every time would-be immigrants came, there also came the so-called Chiefs Assembly.

"So, what brings you here?" Kristoffer asked with a frown, his lips pursed. He had read these two's papers, something they always gave out to residence applicants for documentation. Since they require their names, the cloaked woman had to write her name then and there.

So she's called Frost? Rather than a name, it sounds like an alias.

Kristoffer sighed, there was nothing he could do if she's more known by an alias.

Mute was the first one to answer his question. "I would like to live here from now on."

"And why is that?" the Flame Tamer asked.

"Uhm, I-"

"Rejected," Quill firmly said. As she had always done.

"Quill, let's at least listen to what they have to say."

"Fiona, I always kept telling you, no one sane or with a clean background would want to live here out of a whim!"

"But what if they just needed protection!"

"And what would they give us in return? Resurrect our dead guards? Plant one tree for every crime they committed in the past?"

They started.

These two women always had the same argument every single time someone shady applied.

However, Kristoffer couldn't jump in during these times. Both of them had a point and his only purpose was to break the tie.

Looking at Mute and the cloaked woman's expressions, it would seem like Quill hit the spot.

"Ehem," Kristoffer continued over the soft quarrel. "Since we are having technical difficulties with your reasons for application, we can skip it for now and jump to the Combat Ability Test."

The two applicants looked at each other.

"There was something like that? Is that for real?" This was the first time Frost spoke since he had met her. Must be very critical that she had to ask.

"Well, yes. We just want to know where we could place you during a siege. I heard there hasn't been a siege since the first years of Arkbay as a village, but the tradition of readiness can never be played down."

Upon hearing this, Quill and Fiona stopped bickering and proceeded to silently walk towards the mini arena just beside the town hall. It was almost a staged routine.

Kristoffer beckoned Mute and Frost to follow. If anything, the CAT would be a huge factor in whether or not he would allow these two to reside in Arkbay. At this point, it was glaringly clear that these two had a high chance of bringing in trouble, but if they could prove that they can outweigh the risks with their own value, then possibilities were open.

The mini arena was a multi-purpose venue, where battle training and friendly matches were regularly held. Inside, it could seat a thousand people around a dirt stage with some patches of grass here and there. But today, there were only around forty people watching. Most of them were curious about the newcomers, while the rest were just bored out of their minds.

Quill called out one of her stronger lackeys and pointed at Frost.

She really wanted Frost out, huh.

The lackey was wearing a magical ring and gave another copy of it to Frost.

"What is this?" Frost asked.

"Just an insurance, it's a time-based resurrection magic item," Kristoffer explained. "You're not allowed to kill your opponent, but in a serious fight, one can never know. Although we still encourage you to pull your punches because you will have to pay for those when they get used, and they are very expensive."

"How expensive?" Mute asked.

"You can buy a small mansion in the capital with one," Fiona revealed.

The two applicants gulped. Kristoffer was sure these two don't have much with them, maybe.

"But it's okay to injure? Until at what point?" Frost asked.

"You can do as much damage as you need until the opponent resigns or until the referee decides to stop the match," Kristoffer explained. "As long as advanced healing potions could fix the problem, then you won't be having anything to worry about."

Earlier, Frost removed her face mask for the assembly, but now that she had worn it again, it was hard to see if she smirked when he said that they could do as much damage as they liked.

Must only be my imagination. Kristoffer waved the thought away and stood in the middle of the stage. "I will be the referee for this match. Stop fighting immediately when I say so, or there will be consequences."

Quill and Fiona nodded at those words grimly, implying that it would be in their best interest to do so.

Quill's representative was a thin man known for his speed and used two short swords. Frost, on the other hand, wielded a pair of sai, a sort of weapon mainly purposed for stabbing.

Whoa. It's been years since I've seen one- er, two of those.

Seeing that both parties were ready, Kristoffer called for the match to start.

The two quickly narrowed the distance between them and traded strikes and stabs.

However, the match ended in less than ten seconds when the lackey got caught by a complex feint and lost an eye. Despite screaming in pain, the lackey still managed to cut through Frost's arm as she retreated. Both of them thought of their next action for a split second and started casting buff spells.

Before the next strike came, Kristoffer knew the lackey already lost. "Stop! That's the end of the match, Frost wins!"

Quill looked like she wanted the match to continue but didn't complain.

"What?! I can still fight!" The lackey menacingly walked towards Kristoffer but was stopped in his tracks when Quill flicked her fingers, beckoning him over.

Both of the fighters were given healing potions, for free! Courtesy of the chiefs.

Now, it was Mute's turn.

"Great going, Frost! You were amazing!" Mute placed himself at the center of the stage, looking confident.

"This time, you will face a member of the Silver Mavericks," Kristoffer called one of the older members to face Mute, but then came the last memorable moment of today.

"Silver Mavericks? Oh yeah, I've heard of them. Should be an easy win!"

Something snapped inside Kristoffer.

But the third was the most unforgettable one. It was when Kristoffer fought Mute for the first and final time.