The confusion stuck Faust in place. What he saw he couldn’t understand. And the more he thought about it the more worrisome it became.

Something thundered in the Kobold world. Snow fell relentlessly. Lightning lanced through the black clouds.

This place was a... breeding ground? An incubator for the system to create enemies for its grand game?

He did not know.

And honestly that might never change. Did the Kobolds in Mind’s Forest come from here? Was this entire world created to spawn enemies? Or did the system come here like Earth?

His scouting mission was a semi-success. They already knew about the Elite Kobolds and Goblins from the streams. But now they knew they could attack the other side of the gate.

Now he had to bring back his painfully expensive golems back to the trial world.

Crawling down from the tip of the dark temple, Faust wondered how he could exploit this information to gain more rewards from the system. He waited and watched just before he crawled down to the door; he could not be seen.

He made it into the temples in two worlds. A sigh of relief escaped him. A bit foolish to think he was clear just because he entered the building.

In the dark, snowy Kobold world a sudden bark made Faust jump. Suddenly the black dog-like eyes of the monsters were peering up into the shadows. He had been caught.

He pushed the golem with strict urgency, slithering in the shadows of the rood as barks sounded. In the goblin world, he moved more carefully. Splitting his will like this hurt.

The golem rushed past the entrance hallway and into the main cavernous hall of the temple. Candles flickered above. The barking increased. The shamans drawing bloody lines across kneeling Kobolds raised their snouts.

The monsters communicated what they had seen and the shamans acted immediately. They raised a hand and magic flashed. He expected a fireball. He wished it was a fireball.

But instead the temple pulsed with hidden power. The dark stone emitted a purple glow, and Faust suddenly felt like needles pierced his skull.

What’s this?!

Shadow of the Mind!

The pain fadded immediately. Something stabbed at the shadow created in his head, thinking it was attacking Faust. His freed mind snapped back to his golems just in time.

The kobolds jumped from the ground onto the walls. Faust retreated to the roof, running across where the Kobolds couldn’t reach. But now more of them guarded the tunnel leading to the gate with spears. They were stopping him from escaping.

Shit. And those Shamans are casting another spell!

Faust was frugal and cautious. He planned but never relied on the plans to go right. And if shit went to the fan, he always made sure he got the most out of his situation.

So immediately he turned to the second tunnel. The one they dragged weaker Kobolds into. To die he supposed. Shooting across the wall in seconds, the Kobolds didn’t realise his plans till he was at the tunnel. It had no guard to stop him as he passed, but he heard feet thundering after him.

He turned back once, then he focused on covering the long tunnel as fast as he could. Furious barks followed him. The tunnel was dark and empty. At least that was what he thought.

At the near end of the second tunnel, where the gate would be in the first, a radial pattern of glowing light waited for him. It was like a set of geometric structures carved from various colors of light. Red, blue, purple. It reminded him of something else; the colors of the gate.

This is what generates the gate. This is where we can probably close them early. Maybe....

What rewards would he get for such an achievement?

But his current situation was dire. His pursers came now, and they sounded bloodthirsty. Faust kept his vision attuned to the golem despite the hopelessness. He wanted to see what else this place had to offer.

His answer came with a long fleshy tentacle lashing at him. The golem snapped backwards. The blow pulverised the stone easily.

Then came a creature so terrible Faust felt bile rise to his throat.

[Origin Wyrm (Bound)]

[Level: 6]

[Combat Power: 1071]

[Details: Crawled from the corpse of the First Fallen. They are filled with magical power and are perfect for all uses. Their regenerative ability is near unparalleled, but their intelligence is non-existent.]

The creature was a mess of flesh connected by several bony appendages. Teeth, terra-coma and bones jutted from its raw, bloody looking flesh. An eyeless face turned to him. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of teeth and sticky saliva.

RRRIIIIIIIIII

The roar assaulted Faust’s mind, or rather the shadow of his mind, tearing it apart in an instant. Dust fell. The entire temple trembled under its force.

Then it stopped. A hand stroked its flesh from the shadow. It was huge and clawed with brown fur. A Kobold Chief walked from the shadows, snarling at Faust’s Golem; tall and lanky yet powerful.

[Kobold Chief]

[Level: 6]

[Combat Power: 805]

[Details: The leader of Kobolds. He organises forces and creates a small encampment.]

Faust only got a glimpse of it before the temple flashed with new power. Red flooded the darkness of the temple. Faust didn’t even get to see what the spell did, he was just abruptly cut off from his Golem.

Now he only saw through the eyes of his one golem in the goblin world. Where it was relatively safe. After some time he decided to leave it there to watch the temple. Then he opened his eyes.

Light flooded his vision and the sound of war rattled his ears. Smoke filled the air in front of him. He couldn’t see the battle field over the ramparts. The battle to kill him hadn’t ended on the walkway either.

The system sent Midnight Lynx, Goblin Assassins, and Void Eaters. All converging on this one spot on the wall. When he rose to his feet he even saw the giant body of a dead troll in front of the southern wall.

Okay, that’s just too much. System, I thought we were friends?

His defenders looked terrible. Some of them looked ready to just kill him just to end the system’s onslaught.

Spider’s clothes were tattered from all her transformations. Her long brown hair had been sheared short by a sword that must have meant to kill her. Her eyes were snake-like. She had a reptile’s tail that swatted goblins off the wall. Both hands were tentacle-like, giving Faust a brief surge of panic. She used them like whips with two daggers in both, slashing through necks.

Nirvana fought more confidently with her sword. Her baggy military jacket had many bloody tears in it. Skeletons rounded her in a tight formation. Each of them blocked and deflected, while Nirvana was there cleaving arms and skulls. Her mouth was bloody. She had been feeding on monsters to regenerate.

The team’s tank, Greg, had joined them. He was giant. His Schema’s Growth ability had him looking more titan than man. His hammer pasted three Goblins to the ramparts in a spray of gore and heavy bang. The stone cracked all the wall through.

An arrow slid into a goblin’s head as it snuck up on the titan. Zen looked more alert than ever. No jokes or quips. His normally lazy eyes were narrowed in focus. Blood and barely healed injuries ran along his bare arms.

A slap to the back of the head made Faust snap back. Thalia didn’t flinch when his axe came close to decapitating. She glared up at him, unconcerned with how he towered over her. She was mostly uninjured, but her white dress was stained with the blood of her friends.

"You better have gotten something good," Thalia said with a hard voice.

Faust made a non-commital sound. "Good and bad is subjective. What I found is objectively shit."