Felton stabbed forward, skewering the little green monster with his spear. An arrow soared through the air past it, sinking into the eye socket of a second.

  My mandiblades cleanly severed the head from the body of the third, which bounced as it hit the forest floor, rolling slightly before coming to a stop.

  It had taken us over two weeks before we found evidence of the goblins, and that was only after we started camping out in the forest so that we could push deeper day by day. From there, we were able to begin hunting them down more earnestly, following their tracks and trails back to where they were grouped up.

  I turned back and checked over the others. Felton was wiping goblin blood from his spear, and Byron was standing just behind Felris, who was still scanning the trees in case there was another goblin lying in wait.

  Byron was more than powerful enough to exterminate every goblin in this forest on his own. He would have, too, had I asked him, without needing to do it myself or involving Felton and Felris. Instead, I asked him to hold back and mostly act as a guard for Felris, ensuring her safety in case of a surprise attack or protecting her while she chanted spells.

  There were a few reasons for that. While having loyal followers and delegating were important parts of leadership, I felt like I had to be the one, personally, to clear the dungeon in order to earn the honors that the queen would bestow on me. I was happy to accept the help of Felton and Felris because I considered them family, and they very likely would be in the not-too-distant future.

  Not that Byron wasn’t family, too, but he was, technically, in my employ.

  I also knew that I had gained some things of value from my youthful goblin killing adventure. I had no idea how the System worked under the hood, but if Byron had fought enough monsters in his life, I didn’t think he would earn anything more, even if he slaughtered every monster in this entire forest.

  On the other hand, Felton and Felris had almost certainly never leveled up before. Maybe Felris had, back in the Obdorn dungeon, if she was rewarded for the fireball she threw at the Nightmare Ant soldier that cut off my hand. She had never spoken about it, but there was no reason she would have, at the time.

  It was possible she had gained the stats that came from leveling up, but hadn’t noticed until later, and didn’t correlate the two events. Apparently, I was quite an unusual case in that I constantly checked my System. Felton had told me as much when we started training together, constantly badgering him about his stats. Mages did check their Systems before learning new spells, in order to ensure they had the requisite Will, but most people ignored it day to day; it didn’t really change much about their lives, barring the generally rare instances of gaining a new skill, which was hard to ignore. Even then, it was mostly the first skill that impacted them the most, with the others being of lesser importance.

  I could understand that. Skills were hard to acquire, requiring diligence and training that most people didn’t have the resources or time to invest in, and ultimately were only so helpful, especially later in life. It was specifically because of [Metasurvival] that I was uniquely obsessed with my stats and skills, but for most people they were a product of their life, not the focus of it.

  Felton and Felris were still young, though, and had their entire adult life to look forward to, even without consideration about reincarnation. If they could level up from goblins, those extra stats would be a lot more useful on them—and even more so for me—than a relatively minor relative increase for Byron.

  So we three were leading the charge and doing most of the killing. Byron was present to ensure we weren’t killed in turn. When it was clear this group of goblins was alone, I wiped off my mandiblades and sheathed them.

  “Good work,” I said to the siblings. Felton just gave me a cocky grin, but Felris preened at the praise. A look came over her face, and her eyes widened slightly. She grabbed my arm and pulled me away as Byron was giving some additional pointers to Felton about his [Spearmanship].

  “I got the skill!” she whispered excitedly.

  “For archery?” I asked, also excited.

  “It’s called [Bowmanship],” she said, a smile on her face.

  “What’s the skill description?” I asked, hoping she didn’t balk at the question.

  “Basic mastery of bowmanship. Minor carryover effect to all ranged weapons.”

  I raised my eyebrows at that. The carryover effect applying to all ranged weapons was actually fairly substantial.

  Over the years, I had tried to figure out the limits of those minor carryover effects. [Swordsmanship] helped me out slightly with daggers and axes, for example, but not a hammer, truncheon, or club. That was interesting to me, because using a dagger or an ax was very different from using a sword, whereas using a truncheon was actually a lot more similar, in some ways.

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  Likewise, [Spearmanship] aided in the use of a bo staff, but didn’t help with a farming scythe. I assumed it had to do with the handles, or the general functionality of the implement.

  So the fact that [Bowmanship] didn’t only carryover to all bow weapons but all ranged weapons meant that it could help with a sling, or blowgun, and maybe in other worlds, crossbows or even guns. It might not help with throwing weapons, like a thrown ax or dagger, but I would have to acquire it and test it. Maybe if I make a set of throwing knives, specifically designed for ranged use, that would benefit from both [Swordsmanship] and [Bowmanship]?

  “Well, congratulations,” I said with a smile, and gave her a little hug. She wrapped her arms around me, leaning into it, and lifted her face up towards mine.

  I disengaged and pulled back, putting some distance between us and clearing my throat.

  Felris pouted. “I wanted a reward.”

  “I’ll, uh, get you something later.”

  Dangerous woman. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to kiss her, I just worried that if I let her cross one boundary, one thing would lead to another before I could wrest back control of the situation from her. We needed to focus on finding and clearing the dungeon, first.

  Felris sighed, but followed me back to Byron and Felton. “Any sign of a trail, Byron?”

  “They seem to have come from that direction,” the former adventurer said, gesturing.

  “Then let’s continue on.”

  * * *

  After defeating a few more smatterings of goblins, we backtracked to a fortifiable position we scouted earlier in order to set up camp for the night. We had a pair of travel tents with us, and some provisions, which we were able to supplement with hunting.

  Setting up the tents went swiftly, and soon we had a fire crackling and some food cooking. Byron wasn’t much of a cook, but knew how to manage a meal in the field. I also knew how to prepare food, both from growing up in Redding but also my previous life.

  Felton and Felris weren’t much help in that regard, having lived their lives as nobility, but they were both willing to learn and contribute.

  The simple meal was passed out, and we dug in. The sounds of spoons scraping bowls and the crackling of the fire filled the air through our otherwise silent dinner.

  It was Felris who broke the companionable silence, once we were finished cleaning up.

  “I’ll take the first watch with Tovar—” she began.

  “I’ll take the first watch with Felton,” I corrected. This was not the first time she tried pulling this, and we’d already settled on this routine. “You and Byron get some sleep.”

  “But I—”

  “Goodnight, Felris.”

  She sighed, conceding easily enough. It had been a long day and we had been in proper fights, so she probably was more tired than she let on. With some food in her belly, she’d be unconscious in no time. And, as always, if I did hear a snore coming from her tent, it was clearly just my imagination.

  Byron nodded towards me before heading into the other tent. Mid-way through the night, I would switch with him and Felton would switch with his sister. We had enough people to do a three-shift or four-shift watch, except I wasn’t comfortable with anyone doing the watch alone, given that goblins had a tendency to operate in groups.

  Also, I needed someone to keep an eye on Felris, so she didn’t jump me in my sleep.

  “She’s pushing it pretty aggressively, huh,” Felton said with a chuckle as I settled down next to him, back to the fire.

  “I’m fending her off alright,” I said, shrugging. “Got my defenses up.”

  Felton shook his head, and I reached for my cup to take a sip of water.

  “She’s going to make an uncle of me ten times over by the time she’s done with you,” Felton said, causing me to spit-take my water. I coughed and sputtered at him as he smothered his laugh with his arm. “Oh yes, your defenses are truly an impenetrable fortress.”

  “Against her, not you!” I said, when I could speak again. “You’re not supposed to say stuff like that. She’s your sister!”

  Felton lifted a hand to his heart in mock outrage. “You aren’t going to give me adorable nieces and nephews, then?”

  “Can we not talk about this?” I groaned, bending my knees and dropping my head to hide my face. “Your parents—”

  “Definitely want grandchildren some day. Unfortunately, that burden falls to you. It will be years before I can, well, fulfill my duty.”

  “Yeah, well. First, we’ve got to clear this dungeon,” I deflected, as I’d been doing since the two of them arrived.

  “Tovar. There’s no future in which we don’t accomplish that. We’re three mage academy graduates, and we’re trained fighters, even more so with Byron at our side.”

  Felton was probably right. Goblins were a problem, because they were numerous and bred quickly, propagating and infesting like vermin, but I had killed some when I was a barely trained child. The untrained people of Redding had even been able to handle the problem. The one time goblins were a true problem was when they sneaked up on a person or attacked in overwhelming numbers, which had been the horrible conditions under which I lost my brother and my father lost his arm.

  Magic equalized that, to some degree, but even without, we could hold off a large number of them and whittle them down until they were dealt with. We might take some injuries, but much of it could be treated with healing magic. So long as we were careful, this was pretty close to a sure thing.

  Personally, I didn’t trust that. Maybe it was my history in Obdorn, but the dungeon could hold surprises we weren’t prepared for; something powerful lurking within. Even with Byron, we couldn’t be too careful. It was unclear to me how much of that was me thinking truthfully versus what I told myself to keep the future at bay for just a little bit longer.

  “The queen likes you,” Felton continued, “only the Guardians know why.” He flashed me a cheeky grin, and I rolled my eyes. “She gave you a task you could complete so she could elevate your status, and I imagine you’ll be summoned just about as soon as is possible after reporting our victory.”

  We sat in silence for a while.

  “Two or three,” I said.

  “Two or three what?” Felton asked, looking over at me with his brow furrowed.

  “Kids,” I said. “I guess.”

  Felton’s eyebrows shot up, and then a warm smile broke out on his face. “Well. I look forward to meeting them one day.”

  A short distance away, a voice called out from Felris’s tent. “We can get started now, if you want?”

  “Go to sleep, Felris!” Felton and I shouted in unison. A small chuckle came from Byron’s tent, and I sighed, leaning back and looking up at the stars.

  Absolutely incorrigible.