The First King of Beasts

Dustin ignored the eyes around him and headed back to the town. He originally wanted to live a quite life and stay anonymous, but with the way things were going, that dream of his had already been thrown to the gutter before it even began.

'Heh, Alas, I am too strong.'

Dustin now had no other choice, instead of staying anonymous, he could only act mysteriously now and let everyone else have their own views of him.

Just like the first time when he came to claim the rewards for his earlier quest, Dustin also caused a little scene in the collection centre, as the moment he even got there the people around were already looking to see what he was going to receive this time.

He left and went back to his house, as there was nothing else he could do at that moment. The difficult quests on the same level with the two he just completed were few, as they were only three at the time. He had already done two at the moment, and as far as he was concerned, there was no need to do the last one if the difficulty was the same.

While in the comfort of his home trying to think of ways to get stronger, the two brothers that had entered the goblin den that Dustin cleared first could be seen appearing outside with particles of light around them.

..

"That was insane." Marcel said.

"Yeah. If we were just a little bit weaker and uncoordinated we might have actually died." Nathan responded.

They had been going at it for more than three hours now, and could only barely attempt to kill the E+ rank Goblin. The armour they wore had surely helped them, but it had become weaker after continues use for months, not to mention that it was already rusty and in a bad condition before they even got to this world.

Back inside the cave, they easily could dispose of the low rank goblins that attacked and handled the rest comfortably well until they entered the third floor where they began to encounter E rank goblins. These goblins were well built and could rival their strength quite well, so it took a little bit more effort to fight against them, only for them to get to the last part where they encountered the E+ rank goblin that pulled that on them.

The goblin unlike they had expected wasn't a physical fighter like the rest they had been facing, and the worst part was that it could even raise the dead goblins that came as undead to fight for it. Because of the number of the undead goblins and their rank, the two brothers found it hard to kill them easily, and unlike normal undead zombies, these ones could still fight properly and behave just like how living goblins would.

By the time they found the opportunity to get a shot at the goblin, it just activated a shield that blocked their attacks, not even giving them enough time to harmer more blows on the shield, the goblins surrounding them would attack again. This went on through out the fight,and while they got fatigued and tired, the undead goblins didn't, so in the end their only option was to use the return stone.

"Good thing we got two, if not it would have been a really terrible situation."

"Yeah. The boss of this quest is just the worst fit for us. Also, we might need to find some new armour for ourselves."

"But nothing will be better than the one we have now in these early stages."

"True, es..."

The two brothers continued their talk as they made their way back to the town. Good thing nobody was around these parts as there weren't other quests close by, if not Marcel would have actually felt the embarrassment way more.

..

Dustin had been thinking of a way for him to increase his level faster than he currently is at the moment. The best way of course was to kill and get stronger, but the fact that the quests didn't provide any strong monsters that would provided him with much needed experience points was a problem, and though he was sure he could just wander off into the forests beyond the mountain, that was a dangerous move on its own.

Dustin was unsure of the level the monsters in the forest would be, so he saw no need to endanger himself all for the greed of power. When the quest ended, it clearly said that the monster ranks will return to normal, so that meant whatever he knew of the monsters before the quest ended was irrelevant now.

It was obvious what he had to do. The fact that information had to be gotten to be able to know what he was to expect beyond the mountain was evident. The only way to go from this point forward was to inquire about it. Of course Dustin could play inquisitor and go around looking for those that came in a bit late to ask about the strength of the monsters they faced before they arrived across the mountain over at this side, but why do that when you are privileged?

"I should visit the city lord, it's been a while." Dustin said.

Thinking about it again, Elva would be a better person to talk to about this. The city lord would probably be busy, no need to disturb her if he can just get the information he needs from Elva.

'Yes, that should be my next step. I should leave after resting for a bit.' Dustin thought to himself while relaxing himself on his chair.

After 'relaxing' Dustin went out, and by this time it was already getting late, so he wondered if the city lord's assistant would still be available.

Dustin entered the town's hall, and as it would go these important people of the town don't take the ground space, so he went up stairs. Just as he got there, he ran into the person he was there for, Elva.

"Ah, Dustin. What brings you here? Are you here to see the city lord?" She asked.

"No, I'm actually here to see you if you don't mind."

"Oh, then why don't you come this way please." Elva said while gesturing for him to follow her using her hand.

Dustin followed her as they walked towards an office, one he obviously had never been to. According to Elva, she was just on her way to the records office to check something, as ordered by the city lord, so that was where they went. They could definitely talk while also carrying out her task.

Dustin wasted no time in asking the question that brought him there, and though Elva was a bit surprised that he was even asking such a question and so early on, she could understand. Anybody would want to know such a thing, as they basically just shared a border with the ferocious beasts, having only a barrier to separate them and keep the beasts at bay.

"Hmm, I understand your curiosity, but it would be hard for me to explain effectively the strength of these beast. That is the ones outside the boundaries of this town." Elsa said.

"That's no problem, any explanation is good."

"If you say so-"

Elsa went on to explain just what kinds of beast inhabited the area out side the boundaries of the town, and the habitat. She made sure to stress the fact that the exact beast inhabiting some parts of the forest may change, as the beasts move from time to time. Also, the exact strength of all the beasts could not be perfectly calculated, as there would always be the stronger beasts being born that no one had seen before.

She also pointed out the fact that they themselves had not explored most of the place outside the town, so their information is based only on what they knew, anything else was out of bound. As far as Elsa was concerned, there was only forest surrounding the entire town, and there was no other settlement anywhere near were the town was, neither have they seen any before.

'What? Neither have they- Is she trying to say this is the only civilization in the entirety of Na'ash? That's-' Dustin thought to himself. She may have not meant it this way, but he sure got that piece of information pretty quickly. There was also the possibility that she just used the wrong words to pass off her information making it seem like what it was not.

After talking a bit more, Dustin had his decision. He was going to venture out of the boundaries and beyond the mountain even before the quests reach that part. If he wanted to get stronger, he would have to do this for now, it was the only way he saw forward at that point.

Elsa who had been informed of Dustin's plan offered to assign someone to him that would help him while he was outside, so that he would be able to increase his survivability rate, but as it would go, Dustin refused. Having someone with him was just a bad idea.

"If that's the case, then at least take this, it will help a lot-'