Chapter 307 We’re A Team, I Guess?

Smoke billowed out in all directions as the gravity bubbles shimmered into existence. The group screamed as Lee Seng held them together with his ability. The bubble and ground beneath them shook as trees fell around them. Wind blew in opposite directions of the impact.

"Is he okay?!?" Liz shouted. Lee Seng focused. He could hear Evan still shouting.

"Yeah." Lee Seng answered. The wind died down and Lee Seng looked at his friends. "Cover your mouths. I'm removing the barrier." He put his hand up to his mouth and nose and removed the barrier. They could all hear Evan screaming.

[+1 Soul. Total Souls: 41]

Evan had rolled away in the blast, a barrier enveloping him as he bounced away. He was now snuggled in the hole he had created and his eyes were still fully shut. Lee Seng swiped the dust away, clearing the dirt cloud with his gravity. The area was heavily damaged and treetops were everywhere. A couple logs had covered the large hole Evan had made as he jogged over.

"AHHHH!" Evan shouted.

"Evan!" Lee Seng shouted.

"AHHHH! I'm still falling!" Evan shouted. Lee Seng rolled his eyes and bear hugged one of the logs. He grunted as he picked it up and set it off to the side.

"EVAN!" Lee Seng shouted into the hole. "CALM DOWN! YOU'RE ON THE GROUND NOW!" He jumped into the large hole, slowly lowering him down as he looked around for the monster.

"I'M GONNA DIE! I'M GONNA DIE! THEY DIDN'T EVEN WARN ME!" Evan shouted. Lee Seng landed near Evan and leaned over.

"Dude, you're fine." Lee Seng shook him as Evan's eyes flew open and latched onto Lee Seng's leg.

"DON'T LET ME DIE, LEE SENG! I NEVER WANNA DO THAT AGAIN! THAT'S THE WORST IDEA I'VE EVER DONE!"

"C-calm down, Evan. You aren't gonna die as long as I'm around!" Lee Seng tried to shake him off. Evan continued to complain and fake cry as Lee Seng scanned the area. "Should I even ask you if you know where the body is?" Evan, surprisingly, pointed to the opposite side.

"It fell over there!" Evan told him. Lee Seng moved with Evan on his leg. He could feel Evan's weight on him, but it wasn't anything too new to him. He had trained with heavier weights on before.

Lee Seng came to a stop and tried to lean down to inspect the monster. Evan's grip felt like a sloth hugging a tree branch.

"Can you let go?" Lee Seng asked. "I'll be right here. I just wanna look at the monster." Evan opened his eyes. He accessed his surroundings and realized what Lee Seng was true. He had been in the ground for the alst couple of minutes and didn't have any injuries from the fall. He reluctantly let go and Lee Seng moved to the side.

"Is it dead?" Manny asked. Lee Seng pulled his katana sheath out and poked at it. It didn't react in any way. He rolled it over, nodding.

"Yup, it's dead." Lee Seng answered.

"What is it?" Liz asked.

The monster was definitely blind. Its lanky and small body allows it to easily hide and traverse the forest with ease. The only strange thing was the bone-plating cover across its head. It was rough. It created a rough, thorny crown look mixed with a helmet covering.

"Strange." Lee Seng muttered. He squatted down, taking a moment to look at it closer. "It used it's teeth to create noises so it could spot us with echolocation. Why does it have this bone-plating across half of its head?"

He tapped his sheath on the bone-plating. It felt hard.

'Reminds me of the bone lizard.' Lee Seng thought. He glanced at his watch. It would normally tell him what monsters were in front of him if he was in close proximity.

"Storm Goblin?" Lee Seng repeated the name. "What's a Storm Goblin? You guys know what that is?"

"No." His teammates voices came through.

"Hmm, why would a goblin remove it's use of seeing for echolocation and speed? It packed one hell of a punch…"

"Store it!" Liz told him. He nodded and pulled the SCD out of his pocket and tapped it on the dead Storm Goblin. He watched it light up into particles. The number 40 switched to 41. He stood up slipping his sheathe back into its place, turning to see Evan had gotten up from his spot.

"How'd I even create this big of a hole?" Evan asked. He was standing near one of the dirt walls and attempting to climb out of it.

"Want help?" Lee Seng asked, wandering over to him.

"Are you going to… Lift us up there?" Evan asked.

"Yeah."

"O-okay, uh… lemme just…" Evan took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He held his arms out for Lee Seng to grab him. Lee Seng smiled and wrapped his arm around him. The two floated out of the huge crater, landing near his friends.

"We're done." Lee Seng told Evan. Evan gulped and took a peek. He could see his friends and was about to turn around when Lee Seng moved his hand to Evan's head, forcing his gaze to stay on his friends.

"Don't look back." Lee Seng told him. "Don't need you to freak out, again."

"Are you okay, Evan? You were blowing my ears out." Manny asked. Evan gave an awkward chuckle as he nodded.

"I-I'm fine. We managed to kill it at least." Evan stuttered. Manny nodded, giving Evan a reassuring pat.

"Cool, let's get out of here?" Manny looked at the group. They all nodded.

The next twenty minutes were smooth. Lee Seng didn't detect anything around them as heoved ahead of the group. Evan was pretty shaken up about the whole event because of the "air stunt," but other than that, the group came out with minimal damage.

The telepad shack had a similar design and look to the one they had come out of. Lee Seng peered through the black tinted and frosted windows, hoping to see something. He moved to the door and grabbed the handle.

He could hear something click and unlock as his watch glowed.

[Student access to Telepad #36 in the Tall Forest Zone allowed.]

He pushed the door open and slightly warmer (but not by much) air rushed out of the shack. He gave a quick glance and nodded, turning to his friends approaching him.

"It's all good." Lee Seng gave a thumbs up.

"Let's go home." Olivia stretched.

"Where do we dump the bodies we got? And how are we distributing that?" Ritsuka asked.

"6 ways?" Manny suggested.

"It probably won't be a lot with a lot of that being mere goblins. The three hobgoblin's and one Storm Goblin might give us money, but not that much…" Liz told them.

"So we should just hold the money on the side?" Evan asked.

"If we're gonna be a team and end up living together, we could think of it as group money." Liz shrugged.

"Let's see how much it is and we can decide if we wanna split it six ways or not." Lee Seng suggested. They all nodded in agreement and piled into the shack.

Ritsuka shut the door behind them as the shack starts to light up. The telepad was warming up and ready for transportation. The familiar sound of the telepad whirring to life greeted their ears. Manny set the destination to the Academy's Trade Center.

"Ready?" Manny asked.

"Yup." Everyone responded. Manny tapped the go button and the room flashed, dying in light.

The group landed in a well lit and warm environment. A large sign that read, "Academy Trade Center. Get your kills traded here!"

"This is your guys' first time, right?" Manny asked. The transfer students all nodded. "Alright, we'll head to the Trade area but this is the Trade Center for the Academy. Any kills and spoils you get can be traded here. The Academy then handles what happens to those on their own. It could be used here at the Academy or bought by companies and people outside."

Manny led them all out of the telepad room. The sounds of people chatting as they walked through the halls and in and out of the rooms. Manny led the group to the left, following the hall until it popped out into a large area where people were standing in line and waiting for their spoils to be traded for currency.

Manny led them to one of the shorter lines. Once they were settled and waiting, he turned to look at the others. Lee Seng and the other three transfer students were taking in their surroundings.

p "Cool place, huh?" Manny asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Y-yeah, it's uh… Huge." Evan nodded. "This feels like one of the Trade Centers I visited before. The Guild looked exactly like this one too."

"This is a replica of what the Guild's will normally look like. Though it may not be 100% teched out, it gives a cool retro vibe." Manny commented. They slowly moved up in the line.

Lee Seng felt his phone buzzing and pulled it out.

[Incoming Call from Akio Kato]