The goblins were getting closer, their eyes gleaming with malicious glee.

Kyle smiled—a cold, calculated expression. His gaze snapped to the nearest goblin.

His eyes flared crimson. "Attack the boss."

The goblin flinched, its eyes widening. Then, its small feet pounded against stone as it rushed forward, spear raised, screaming with fear.

The massive monster roared in confusion as this tiny creature charged it. It waved its axe and cut the little green creature in half.

But it didn’t stop there. Another goblin charged, then another, and another.

Dozens of goblins threw themselves at their boss without caring for their lives. Their only goal was to cut, stab, bite, and kill the huge monster.

The boss roared in shock, swatting them aside with brutal swings. Goblin bodies were crushed, torn apart, sent flying across the cavern.

Leo stared in disbelief. "What the?!"

Mira’s eyes widened. "Did they... turn on it?"

"Doesn’t matter!" Alara snapped. "It’s our chance!"

They moved.

Alara slashed again and again, each strike landing deeper as the boss struggled to fend off the relentless swarm.

Leo rammed his shield into its side, throwing it off balance, while Mira hurled fireballs at him.

Kyle stayed back without rushing in, just watching. He wasn’t stupid. This thing could kill him with a single blow.

Instead of risking his life to kill it, he could make these ugly green creatures fight for him. This was the fighting style he had always wanted.

The boss’s movements slowed. Its breathing grew ragged.

Its wounded shoulder—already damaged long before this fight—was soaked in blood.

Alara saw it.

She stepped in, ignoring the pain screaming through her body, and swung with everything she had. Her blade tore into the injured shoulder.

The monster let out a furious roar and dropped to one knee. But it didn’t go quietly—its axe came up in a desperate, brutal arc.

CRASH!

Alara was sent flying backward, skidding across the stone before crashing to a stop.

"Alara!" Leo shouted. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Kyle’s eyes hardened. `Now.`

He snapped his gaze to the goblins still near him—those he had deliberately left alive.

`Finish it. Now!`

They obeyed. The goblins rushed the kneeling boss, climbing over its body, stabbing at its neck, its eyes, its chest.

The monster struggled—then stilled.

Its massive body slumped forward, crashing to the ground as the last of its strength left it.

Silence fell over the cavern.

The goblins collapsed around it—dead or dying.

Suddenly, the system screen appeared before Kyle’s eyes.

[You have slain a Goblin Warrior]

[Unused Stat Points: +8]

[Shop Points: +80]

Kyle let out a slow breath. That was his way of fighting and he wasn’t going to change it.

Then another screen blinked into view before he could even process the last one.

[You have defeated an Evolved Monster for the first time, you received: A Mysterious Egg.]

He read it twice. `A Mysterious Egg?`

He checked himself over—nothing. No egg, no item, nothing in his hands. But when his eyes landed on the back of his hand, he stopped.

A tattoo. One he definitely didn’t have before.

Three golden eyes, ringed in black embroidery. Just sitting there on his skin like it had always been.

`What is this?`

The system answered before he could finish the thought.

[The Mysterious Egg has been contracted. You can save it as a tattoo and take it out whenever you want]

`Contract?`

He could feel it—a strange connection between him and the tattoo.

He pushed his focus toward it, ordering it to come out.

The tattoo lit up, faint gold bleeding through the black lines. Kyle dropped his other hand over it before anyone could catch the glow.

Something pressed back against his palm. As if something was trying to come out.

He lifted his hand just enough.

The light faded, and an egg sat in his hand where the tattoo had been.

He turned it over quietly, keeping it low. Small thing—about the size of a chicken egg. Black, with gold running through it in thin uneven stripes.

He stared at it for a second longer.

There was something off about the egg. He couldn’t pin it down exactly, but it was definitely not a good feeling.

`A Mysterious Egg... I wonder what it is?`

Before he could inspect it further, Alara groaned.

Kyle’s attention snapped away from the mysterious egg.

She was already pushing herself up, her sword planted against the stone for support. Blood stained her shoulder and side, but her eyes were sharp—focused.

Mira rushed over, her green eyes wide with concern. "Alara! Are you alright?" She knelt beside the injured leader, her hands hovering uncertainly.

"I’m fine," she said through clenched teeth before anyone could speak. "Just... give me a second."

Weston was already at her side.

"Don’t move," Weston said, already pressing his hand to her shoulder. Gold light spilled from his palm.

Alara let out a long breath, the stiffness leaving her all at once. "...Thanks."

Leo was a few steps away, shield arm dropped at his side, still catching his breath. "That was... something."

He looked around at the mess—goblins, boss, everything in between. "What happened to them? Why’d they turn on their own?"

Kyle looked over the bodies, then back at the group. He shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe they panicked," he smiled as the mysterious egg dissolved back into the tattoo. "Once their leader got wounded, they lost control."

Leo let out a breath. "We were lucky."

Weston examined the boss, nodding slowly. "The boss was already wounded before the battle. The fight with the goblins must have reopened the injury."

"The wound must have been caused by the adventurers who accepted the mission before and died at his hands." Leo frowned.

Alara looked at the monster’s corpse for a moment, then refocused on the rest of the team.

"What matters now is that we killed it and completed the mission." She said calmly, still sitting because of her injuries. "Take anything important from the cave and the bodies, then let’s get ready to head back."