Rob told me to hang out around town with Julie while he gets a team together, he got us a room at a nearby inn and said everything would be ready to head out in the morning.

  “We have the whole rest of the day Jules, what do you want to do?” I asked as we left the building. She only muttered something, but it was in a voice just barely above a whisper. Ever since I told her that I had to leave to go check on Hector and Jasmine, she hasn’t been the same.

  I sighed and sat her down on a nearby bench. “I’m sorry Jules, but you know that I must go right? It’s important.”

  She looked up at me and I could see as her eyes were watery and threatened to unleash tears at any moment. “I know Jimmy, but mom and dad are strong… You don’t need to go after them too…”

  “Are you worried that none of us will come back? That you would be left all alone?” I knew the answer already but needed her to open up about it.

  As if that was the trigger, she started to sob while hiding her face in her hands. All I could do was rub her back while she let it all out, I felt bad ofcourse I did… But this was something that needed to be done. If she was a little bit stronger than maybe I could’ve taken her along… No. that wasn’t even remotely on the table!

  “Do.. You… Promise?” Julie asked through broken sobs. It was breaking my heart to see her cry like this.

  “I promise Julie. As your big brother, I swear to come back for you.” I crossed my right hand over my heart and held up my left. “Nothing is going to keep us apart.”

  “Ok…. I’m hungry…” She hiccupped but soon she smiled up at me. I could see it was obviously fake, but nonetheless, I smiled back and nodded. “Let’s go grab a bit then shall we?”

  -----

  The next day me and Julie arrived at the HQ building just as the sun started to break over the horizon. Rob had called half an hour ago to wake us up and let me know that the team was ready. When we arrived, we saw as group of people were out front and loading supplies into the back of a armored vehicle. Rob was there talking to someone that upon closer inspection was the leader of the B team of newbie hunters. What was her name again?

  “Hey Jimmy over here! You remember Allison right?” Rob said as he waved us over. He handed me a small folder with the info of the team and their power levels. It seemed that this was the B team and a couple of the so called noble newbies… This was going to be fun… I handed it back to Rob and turned to Allison.

  I smiled and replied “ofcourse I do, how are ya?” While holding out my hand for a handshake. Allison just looked at my hand before looking back up at me then down at my sister.

  “We aren’t babysitters Sir. This is a dangerous mission we are going on.” She looked firmly at me as she said this. Did she have no shame? She risked my life but yet she isn’t the least bit sorry?

  “My big brother is strong meany!” Julie yelled while pointing at Allison. Rob laughed before speaking.

  “Jimmy here is strong like little Julie here says, Your only job is to protect him and then set up a base camp while he dives into the dungeon.” Allison looks shocked at this.

  “You’re going to let some weakling like him dive into the dungeon alone!? This is ridiculous! Why don’t you let us dive into the dungeon while this pissant sets up the camp? I’m sure something like that is more up to his capabilities?” Allison was getting very upset but Rob just kept calm and looked at her with pity.

  “I made my decision Allison… I am a bit surprised at you bad mouthing the boy whose life you endangered though… Didn’t know you were fucking idiot.” He said this all with a straight face before turning to me. “Let me know if she starts spouting off more dumb shit and I’ll handle it when you all get back.” He turned to her with a serious gaze and repeated himself. “When you ALL get back… Understood.”

  Allison clicked her tongue before nodding.

  “Good. Now everything is set to go, you ready to stay with uncle Rob and Auntie Missy for a little bit?” He smiled down at Julie while holding out his hand to her. I crouched down and gave her a big squeeze and made sure she was ok. She nodded at me and turned to Rob and took his hand. They left inside the building and I turned to get into the vehicle but was stopped by a guy with green hair, he looked familiar too and then I remembered that he was apart of the training group too.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “The vehicle is at capacity with the 5 of us, so why don’t you find another ride.” He spoke in a tone that suggested he was better than me, who did this guy think he was? This whole team was set up to escort me to the damn dungeon…

  I just nodded and turned around while opening up the portal for Rhonda to come out. I kept Shadow and Boney in reserve in case these asshats thought to do something stupid. I knew they were all around the D-C rank but Allison and this green haired bastard was already pissing me off…

  I just hopped onto Rhonda’s back and tied myself down. “Looks like we are going to have to look for a saddle another day Rhonda, let’s just head to the dungeon.”

  “KWEH!” She squawked and launched forwards at full speed while we left the ‘escort team’ behind. It didn’t take long for the roar of the vehicles engine to reach my ears as they caught up to us ofcourse.

  “HEY!”

  I looked over and saw as Allison was leaning out of the window and yelling at me.

  “STAY WITH US DAMMIT!” She screamed at me but I just waved her off and had Rhonda keep running. I had already decided to treat this as a situation where they were just coincidentally going the same way as I was. A few hours went by and I had hopped off Rhonda about an hour into the run, she did great lasting that long with me bouncing around on her back (Ladies sound familiar?) But I knew she was reaching her limit so I got off and started walking, I also brought out the other two to walk with us as extra security since the other guys had already driven ahead of us.

  By now the sun was reaching high into the sky and I decided it was a good time to take a break and rest for a minute, I looked around and saw that there were a few trees near us but not really tall enough or had enough leaves to really provide substantial shade…. Oh yea! I can just go to my farm for a couple hours! I can check on the place and rest for a good amount of time, perfect!

  I looked around again but this time to make sure no one was around and after making sure the coast was clear I hopped into the portal along with my pets. When I appeared in my farm I was shocked as all I saw was a couple rows of Gyshal Greens for Rhonda and Boney but everything else was wilted and close to rotting. Dammit me, got so caught up with other shit that I forgot the importance of my own farm….

  [Wilted Feather] [Can be composted into fertilizer]

  [Wilted Gyshal Greens] [Can be composted into fertilizer]

  “Hmmm, well atleast there’s still a use for the stuff instead of just a waste I guess… But how can I compost stuff, that is something I don’t know what to do? Doesn’t that need like poop and things like that?”

  [Additional facilities available upon level up of farm]

  “Oh? Now isn’t this just convenient timing. Ok fine, show me how much I have left until level up.”

  [Apprentice Farmer (7/10) - The Gifted can grow anything they want with an increased speed of maturation. Only applicable in worlds with abundant energy atmosphere. Conditions for ability upgrade - 10

  different objects harvested.]

  [Harvests needed until next level up – 3]

  I looked at the purple screen in front of me with joy, I just needed to harvest 3 more different things and I’ll level up this farm…” I wonder what else I could plant? I know I still needed to plant the Deadman’s vein but wasn’t there something else I had gotten recently? Dammit I can’t remember after all the events I’ve had to deal with… Let’s just get to work on what we do have now, it looks like some of the greens and feathers are ready for harvest anyways.”

  I sighed as I got to work pulling out all of the old and wilted plants, Some of the old feathers had grown into what looked like stat boosters but when I touched the gem like root it just fell away into dust. Whatever could have been harvested from these things are now unusable and only the ‘plant’ itself had a use now.

  But I just shook off the disappointment and got to work tilling up new rows and got to work filling up one row with the Deadman’s vein. Taking a good look at it now, I was a little creeped out. It looked more like a stringy root with just a couple leaves at the top and that was it, but once I planted them into the dirt I could see as the dirt was piling up like something was tunneling underneath it? I didn’t think that a mole or something got into the farm so I brushed away the dirt and gasped at what I saw.

  There was the same root I had just planted! It had grown so fast instantly…. No, wait, what was that?

  I brushed away some more dirt and saw as the vein had actually pierced into the body of one of the Gregarious worms that were still living in the nearby dirt and it was feeding on it’s body! What once was a dried up root, now looked like a living thing as it seemed to pulse with life as the worm itself seemed to shrivel up with each one. Pretty soon the worm was nothing but a husk and the root withdrew back towards the stalk I planted and it stayed there… Was this plant carnivorous!!! This was some little shop of horror type shit and honestly? I was all for it, I was getting excited thinking about growing plants that could attack monsters for me!

  I needed to prioritize growing more worms now to feed these things, but I think here soon I’ll need to start bringing in bigger ‘prey’.

  I left the Vein’s to do their stuff while I switched to harvesting the ready plants. I didn’t expect any feathers to be planted but I guess Rhonda shed a couple just to keep some in the farm and by now they had grown. I pulled up a couple normal feathers that covered her body but the important ones were the bristles that lined her ankles and added an extra OW to her kicks. I really needed to get a little crossbow so I can use these things…

  Anyways, after that I moved onto the greens and after I harvested a few that grew into more worms, the rest was thankfully more greens and after planting them back I had some left over to leave out for Rhonda.

  That was only about 30 minutes worth of work in all so I sat down and leaned up against Rhonda while Shadow and Boney laid on either side of me. I set an alarm for an hour and a half and gave each of the pets a quick pat.

  “Alright guys, we got just enough time for a quick nap. Pleasant dreams.”