“What?” I mumbled as my eyes adjusted to the daylight streaming into the cave.

  “Check your map, you’ll see.” Mary released me and moved back to the wall. She didn’t seem too worried, so I assumed there was no danger.

  Opening the minimap, I first searched for yellow dots nearby, but was relieved to see no one trying to sneak up on us.

  It didn’t take long for me to spot the unusual thing on the map. A new icon had appeared—a lightning-shaped symbol that kept glowing. There were ten of them scattered across the minimap, all generally in the direction of one of the city stones.

  When I focused on the lightning icon, a new message appeared:

  New Event - Shard Drop

  Be the first to acquire the shards that are dropping and guarantee a powerful ability for yourself or your party.

  Shard quality - Rare or superior.

  “Do we need to discuss it?” I asked, glancing at Tress and Elk by the recently lit fire. They were sharing what looked like jerky and nodded in agreement, signaling they were on board.

  I shifted my gaze toward Mary and noticed she didn’t look convinced.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We’ll probably have to fight for it. We want to get stronger, but is it worth risking our lives? If I had to guess, the other competitors are probably as dangerous as a boss.”

  She had a point, but at the same time, shards were the most powerful things we’d encountered so far—especially the new one Mary was using for her shield. If we could find another shard of the same quality, I could only imagine how much stronger it would make us.

  “Fighting others will be inevitable; that’s the nature of the game. Besides, you told me yesterday—”

  “I know, I’m just evaluating our options,” she said defensively. She was making a real effort not to be a downer in the party, and I valued that she tried.

  “Let’s evaluate our options when we’re closer to it, though. It’s on the way to the city stone, and the show is clearly pushing us toward it,” I argued, and she nodded in agreement.

  “Let’s go,” she smiled, standing.

  She’d already packed her things and was ready to leave. Suddenly, I realized she was as excited to go as the rest of us; she just wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing.

  I smiled back at her as the others put out the fire and moved to the cave’s entrance.

  We moved through the woods with care, avoiding another trap. With each step toward the marked location, the vegetation grew thinner, and the ground shifted from muddy to sandy.

  I gradually realized we were heading toward the ocean I’d seen from the top of the slope, and a genuine smile spread across my face. It had been a while since I’d seen the sea, and I held fond memories of the few times I’d spent at the beach.

  As the scenery changed, so did the enemies. We kept our distance from other parties, but monsters eventually found us.

  They were all kobolds, like the ones we’d killed the previous day, but these were bigger and better armored. They were somewhere between a normal kobold and a chieftain. However, we handled them quite easily.

  The only ones that gave us trouble were those with spears and shields. It was hard for us to exploit their weaknesses, but we eventually overcame them and, in the process, learned how Mary’s skill worked.

  When a creature attacked her and she blocked it with her shield, a pulse of energy radiated around her in a nine-foot radius, instantly healing anyone within its range.

  During the fights, we only suffered minor wounds, but every time we were cut, Mary just needed to block one hit, and the injuries were healed.

  After defeating a group of kobolds, we decided to run a test. I purposely made a small cut on my arm and then struck Mary’s shield. I wasn’t expecting it to work, but as soon as my attack hit the shield, leaving a mark on it, the healing effect activated as usual.

  Knowing we didn’t need an enemy to strike Mary for the healing to work made our latest shard acquisition even sweeter. No one said it aloud, but with each step toward the shard’s location, we grew more anxious and excited about the prospect of finding another one.

  We kept our eyes on the minimap as we moved through the woods. A few groups weren’t too far from us, their proximity making them appear more like a large single group rather than several separate ones. However, we’d seen them moving before and knew there were four distinct groups.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  What are they doing ahead? I thought to myself but decided against moving straight toward them.

  We found a small stream flowing toward the sea and followed it, knowing it would bring us closer to the groups but not so close as to be spotted.

  The stream ended near the edge of the beach, where the vegetation thinned, blending with palm trees and undergrowth. A small slope nearby offered perfect cover, allowing us to observe the people on the beach without revealing ourselves.

  Of course, they could see us on the minimap, but it would only give them a general sense of our position, not our exact location or what we were doing.

  We stopped behind the rock and peeked over it.

  There were indeed four groups on the beach. Two of them stood out clearly, while the other two were too similar to tell apart.

  On the far left of the beach, a group of Arahaktar stood with their arms crossed, facing the sea. They were all male, their faces like masks of stoicism.

  The group next to them was a mix of humans, elves, and some Arahaktar. Most were female, with a few smaller males here and there.

  This was the group I couldn’t initially identify. I knew they were two separate groups, but they were mixed together and seemed to be arguing.

  Maybe they were actually trading information, but it was hard to tell from a distance—until someone punched another, and chaos broke out for a few seconds. It took a while for the people to stop fighting, but eventually, the two groups separated, making things clearer.

  One group consisted of a few humans and elves, while the other was made up entirely of elves and Arahaktar. They kept glancing between each other and the sea.

  The fourth group, entirely human, mirrored the Arahaktar on the opposite side of the beach, standing with serious faces, also staring at the sea. This was the largest group, numbering around seven to nine members, while the others had only five or six.

  All of them were focused on the sea, prompting me to check the minimap again.

  The shard was going to drop in the ocean.

  As I looked at the map, a timer appeared above the lightning symbol. It counted down from five minutes. The shard would drop about a half-mile away from the beach. Swimming that distance wouldn’t be hard—I could definitely do it. But fighting Arahaktar, humans, and elves for it? That would be the real challenge.

  A plan started to form in my mind.

  “Hey, Elk. Do you think you can cast an illusion that far?” I asked, pointing toward the four groups.

  Max kept his gaze fixed on the ocean. None of the crap those pointed ears or devils said mattered. He needed to get the shard and get stronger.

  The god wouldn’t accept anything less.

  Five minutes until the shard dropped, and he couldn’t swim. He’d always known this moment would come—the moment he’d be ashamed of not knowing how to do something so basic. Still, he couldn’t admit it, not when he had people under his command.

  People… not those freaks, he thought, casting a sidelong glance at the group on the far left. The devils bothered him the most—the smugness on their faces, the way they looked down on everyone as if they were somehow superior.

  Max had seen how some of them reacted when the screens first appeared, scared like little kids watching a horror movie for the first time. How could they be superior?

  “Hey, Adri. You were the one who saved a friend from drowning, right?” Max asked, ignoring the Arahaktar slowly approaching the beach.

  “Yes, sir. I did, a few years ago. We were fishing in Lobito when it happened,” Adriano replied. He was a dark-skinned guy from Angola, always smiling and full of stories to tell. Max liked Adriano. He didn’t want to throw him into the unknown, but there was no way he was jumping into the sea without knowing how to swim.

  You’re a monster, the god’s voice echoed in his mind. Why are you hesitating? You’ve done it before.

  I did what I had to do to survive.

  Keep telling yourself that, little lamb, the god scoffed, then fell silent.

  The god was upset, and Max didn’t want to provoke him further. Still, he didn’t want to go through that again.

  There was something liberating about killing, but that didn’t make it any easier for Max. He didn’t think he’d ever forget what had happened during that boss fight. And he most certainly wouldn’t forget how good it felt.

  He wanted to throw up.

  A disgusting devil stepped toward them, breaking away from one of the groups.

  The red-skinned figure was tall and skinny, with pencil-sized horns broken in half. In his hands, he held something glowing with a red light.

  It was a fireball.

  “What are you doing?” one of the women in the group asked, stepping toward the devil. Max didn’t know her name, but she was always stepping up, trying to prove she was a hard worker. He liked that about her.

  Something about that red-skinned devil seemed strangely familiar. Max’s attention was completely locked on him, and his companions mirrored his focus—even Adriano forgot about his task and followed Max’s lead.

  From the corner of his eye, Max noticed the group on the far edge arguing. A few people were throwing punches and shoving each other. In the middle of the chaos, a tall, lanky devil hurled a fireball at the ground.

  At the same time, the devil near Max did the same.

  The fireball exploded on the ground near Max’s feet. He instinctively jumped back, anger already rising in his chest. He was about to summon his weapon and end both the devil and anyone siding with him when he realized something.

  There was no explosion radius on the ground. No heat near his feet.

  Max’s eyes darted up, and the devil vanished like smoke. Recognition hit him like a boulder.

  His gaze shifted toward the sea. Nothing.

  He opened his minimap and spotted a small yellow dot moving quickly toward the shard’s drop point. Then, he caught the glimpse of someone swimming towards the shard.

  It’s him. The bastard is fooling me again!