He looked down at the bat and instead of taking his clothes from the mailbox he quickly sliced and diced the bat into strips. He took his sweet time and after around 45 minutes of crude butchering he had plenty of meat, two tattered wings and some talons. The claws on the wing were especially large and sharp. They were the hooks for the soon to be "intestine" rope that had been acquired. The last and most troubling thing was that the heart held a gem close to it the size of a baby carrot. Lance began to be curious about its use. He resolved himself to try and cook it. He licked it, it tasted like a rock. Literally zero tastes like a polished stone. What else could he do? He'd already seen how mundane things became useful.

  Now with a pan full of meat he set the meat back into the cavity and grabbed himself some ingredients. "Some mushrooms and moss for a small salad but instead of spider bites we 'll do fat bat nuggets yeaaaa, ooh and some slime dressing in the pan. Wait, should I just cook all of it? Does that make it stirfry? Yeah that sounds good. Okay. Pan Sear!"

  Immediately the pan grew crimson in its center which then spread quickly to the ridge. Lance held his hand above it and felt the heat rising off the pan. He threw everything in and kept stirring with his knife. Smoke rose and punched his nostrils right in the face. A pungent odor rose and with disbelief he quickly stirred and hoped the minute would be over. The pan was too hot. Everything was burning and getting stuck to the bottom of the pan. He scratched and scraped it off and onto an unfurled wing, soon after the pan lost its heat and cooled.

  "Cave dwellers hot plate" recipe created

  Effect- +3 Strength for 1 hour, Perception range increased for 1 hour.

  Lance dove into his food, the hot meat and mushrooms held him in glee for a few moments even behind his few millimeters of char. The meat was super juicy. Blood bat held up to its name.

  Cave dwellers hot plate eaten

  Grade - Dishwasher

  Effect- +3 Strength for 1 hour

  He didn't dispute the level of cooking this time. It was burnt, it was wasteful and hastily thrown together but the idea that he had gained so much from this bat gave it a special place in his heart.

  " You taste like wet dirty beef but man you were nice to eat..." He looked down at the bat after eating up what was left. Putting a bundle of uncooked meat into a wing he went for the guts.

  "Ugh this parts gonna suck."

  But just then he got a notification.

  Level up!

  Sammich level 2

  34/200 exp

  Chef

  Role - Fill

  Health - 14 ~17

  Attack +3 ~ +4

  Defense +1 ~ + 2

  Mana --- ~ 2/3

  Active Skills -

  Cook level 1 - Create food, Taste determines an amount of mana, health, and stamina restored by product. 0 mana

  Pan Sear level 1-

  While holding a pan, heat it's bottom without a fire for a flash sear finish.

  Active time 1 minute - 1 mana

  Class Passives -

  Full stomach - While full you can determine more ingredients when using class skills, as well as Regen 1 health per 2 minutes.

  Discern Ingredients - Determine edible ingredients from your surroundings.

  Lance stared at his class menu in awe. He wholeheartedly had already looked over the fact that he threw in the experience gem. Not only did cooking it work but even though the food was... Dishwasher tiered, it still gave him enough experience to level. And not only that but his stats now includes mana, and the new skill, and an experience bar? He thought back to the previous encounters. He... He never dealt the killing blow so he never got a Gacha or drop from anything, maybe he got lucky with the bat? But the others would have told him about the things they got in their menus wait.. no they didn't, Jack always referred to things by saying "the rule book" . No one said much outside of their ability, not their stats or really anything at all in concise terms. How much did someone have to learn alone? Was he that braindead... Lance realized at that moment. He's not only been a fool, but also he should really read the rule book, skipping it seemed like such a blunder now...

  His mind traced it back to the sign up rule. It was the rule that stated you can't speak in specifics unless to your guild members, on your friends list, or in game. Not sharing? Something simple that he would find out anyway? Seems like trust, or maybe they were to scared, either way. No one was going to hold anyone else's hand. That was apparent day one and the hopes of camaraderie had been crushed. “It will always be in my best interest to turn inward with information and help” This hit Lance hard. He had wanted to play a game with friends or to make them, but with these circumstances he would inevitably need to be careful every step of the way. Until he could make his own guild. Only then could he solidify a standing amongst friends, or at least powerful like-minded allies. A guild. He honed in on the thought. "I've got to pick and choose, and only then will i trade knowledge."

  Determined and with haste Lance called up his clock. 3:56

  "Just under four hours. Then I gotta get off for a day. Hmm. I have to find a checkpoint."

  ....

  " Ahaha yeah then the dude ate a baby cactus, freaking absurd!" Dorian bellowed around the campfire

  " Haha what the heck " Sadura chuckled under her breath.

  " Sounds.. painful.. " Jack said, twirling his finger in the sand.

  Reilly neither laughed nor played into any emotion on the topic. Recalling silly videos they'd seen online didn't seem to interest her. Since the group had pressed on from the pond her timidity had come back pretty strong. She couldn't help but feel guilty leaving Lance behind.

  Noticing her a bit aloof and silent, Jack stood up and gave her a pat on the shoulder. " Hey, you doing alright? Don't let what happened hold you back. Things like this are going to happen and rather than be hung up on it I'm sure Lance is rooting for us in his new character. It's not going to get easier. How's your mana looking now?"

  Reilly looked up to him listening. She couldn't shake the feeling in her stomach. Everyone had been so quick to give up and continue on and when she voiced her concerns they dismissed her, saying it was too late he's a goner. They could see his pulsing red tint, a sign someone in the party was at less than 5% health according to Jack. Even though Lance helped a lot and the few bats they fought since were a bit of a challenge, ultimately they still had their roles filled. " 3 points left. If I can rest a bit more I should be able to get another point.."

  "No, I think we've waited long enough. The next checkpoint has to be close. We've been moving for a few hours. We need to reach it with our timers. If not we will get bumped back to the previous one and everything gonna respawn by tomorrow." Jack said interrupted her.

  " Well I have only been following the main path. We could just move faster but I think you guys should worry more about her speed." Dorian said, pointing to Reilly.

  "Think you can move a bit faster or you want to get on my shoulders?"

  Reilly grew flush red. " No I don't thank you, and I'm sorry but the dress is a bit hard to walk it, not to mention these! " Reilly lifted her dress just a bit and revealed two inch wedges. She gripped the back of her heel and scowled back at him. " Why don't you try walking with these things for this long!....."

  Everyone grew quiet and then breaking the silence Jack burst into laughter, after a moment wiping tears from his eyes he spoke through patterned breaths " Oh my gosh haha... Well you should have said something sooner I guess, with that it makes sense.. In any case let's go, we have to beat the clock."

  Everyone began to grab up their things, Sadura came over and gestured at Reilly to hand over her shoes. After a quick tug the wedges pulled from her shoes and then the pair were handed back to her. With a quick nod Sadura then went near the fire and pulled out a limb of wood and kicked dirt over as if to put the rest out. After snuffing the rest out and picking up small pieces of scrap wood to place in her backpack, a small fold of bat wing fell out and onto the ground spilling its contents a fair share of experience gems fell on the ground. Reilly quickly went over to help meanwhile Dorian and Jack just gave each other a side eye.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  .....

  Lance fumbled his small box around and had neatly partitioned it with a couple strips of bat wing. The separation and gentle padding helped turn his once lunch box style sling into a pseudo bento style box.

  He had only begun to fiddle with it as the path he had been on, that was only waist high, at a certain point widened into an extremely tall breezeway. The natural formation made it seem like it had once been a stream, the flow and formations of rock looked as if over time the water level dropped to the point it is now, bone dry.

  Not only to stop the gentle knocking of the slime stones, the organization also helped dull the long walk through the winding corridor. After what felt like forever the sounds of rushed footsteps and the flicker of flame echoed in front of Lance, he slowed him to a standstill, quickly hugging the wall. With the passing of the steps he peeked his head around the corner and watched as the small flames bounced along in the now cavernous exit of the dry riverbed. Trying to get a better view of what it was that passed he squinted. Looking at the back of the small creatures he immediately sunk in place. It was a small pack of goblins. The three, long eared, green skin, and tattered rag garbed munchkins wove through the cave's rocky flooring with a gentle ease. Lance watched until the flame seemed to disappear in perhaps another corridor.

  " Shit. There's no way I could kill three goblins. Did they have weapons? Damn I didn't get a good look. Okay think.. What did they have when Klaw fought them? Daggers? A bow? I think he just snuck passed them all. hmmm.. "

  Lance slapped his cheeks in a way to psyche himself up and then summoned his menu. He clicked on his mailbox and accepted the reward of his Bat leathers. At which they seemed to just materialize in front of him on the ground. He then donned them, swapping out of his basic shirt and thin pants. The tight fitting leather felt quite nice the way it was snug on him. The cape flowed off his back to the back of his knee as well as draping up over his shoulders to his elbows. The hood had just barely covered his face without hindering his peripheral vision.

  All in all it was quite luxurious compared to what he had. Using a couple strips of bat wing he tied a notch through the waist on his side like a belt loop and used it as a new placement for his knife. He then brandished the small novice axe in its stead. Lance swung the pan and axe for a moment trying to figure out which felt better to swing. Even though the axe felt good the feeling of swinging the pan, which he had done all this time, seemed to have that much more familiarity. He put the axe on his back with another long strap of batwing as a makeshift sling. Looking at what he had left and making good use of time he cut into the rest. He made long strips and large sections for folds. He cut into his old pants for string and thinner strips of cloth for bindings. With everything said done, a very crude drawstring sack was made. Complete with his old pants on the inside as a liner. In went the small chest box, the remaining tattered strips of wing, and large slime ball. Without leaving too much on the ground and no longer having to shoulder a bundle of bat he used what he couldn't fit in his sack and made a thin braid of rope only about 6 feet long. Unfortunately he felt its actual use was rather poor because it still had a decent stretch to it as the skin was still rather fresh. Coiling it up and wearing it like a mantle he gave himself a rather decent look over and felt a good sense of pride.

  He checked the clock again 2:24

  He expected the time he used as preparation to hinder him from getting to the next check point, so rather than dally any further he followed behind in the same path the goblins took. The benefit of the dark vision proved to be that much more useful again to Lance. Not only could he creep in the darkness rather than be a flame lit target, but he could also see the steps the goblins took in the dirt, following them was quite easy.

  After following for a few minutes Lance reached an area that seemed to have many tracks of goblin feet back and forth in all directions. There was a narrow passageway just in front of him but he noticed down the other section of this wall was just a small alcove of stalagmites that seemed to wall off the section from the remainder of the cavern floor. He went in that direction to see why the tracks left that way were so numerous. Very quickly he found out, as his nose was assaulted by the pungent smell of dried pee and moist poop. Without even bothering to tread further he quickly turned around. But then paused as the quick shuffling of feet could be heard again and the passageway shined gently with the torchlight.

  The goblins came back.

  Lance hugged the wall close to him. Not much here could provide cover without jumping behind the stalagmites wall, that surrounded the excrement alcove. The only other option was to run past where they seemed to be coming from. The patter of feet drawing closer quickly erased that option, and he looked around in a panic. With a quick thought he jumped and grabbed onto the stone spears above his head and climbed up into the darkness.

  Mere seconds after spreading himself into a spider climb between the stone hanging above, a pack of five goblins came bumbling out of the passageway. Two of them were holding torches. They stopped in front of the entrance to the path towards the cave. One of them started waving his fingers and pointing at each of them speaking in a series of sharp sounds with a mix of grumble like phlegm gurgle noises. "Goblin speech is strange" Lance thought. Being that they were fairly close, Lance finally got a good look at them.

  Similar to himself the goblins were wearing attire made of bat skin. The main difference being that his clothes were made with higher quality, as theirs seemed to be crudely made and far more worn and tattered. None of them were completely clothed except the smaller, more aged looking one that was barking some sort of orders at the bunch.

  After a few seconds two smaller goblins wearing just tattered loin cloths were separated from the pack, one with a torch in one hand and a small blade in the other, the other with a gourd of some kind and a makeshift spear. The other three held crude short swords made of a rusty old metal and wore more clothes, a mix of cloth and leathers. The leader barked another few words and the group split. The pack of three went into the cave, the other two watched them leave.

  A few moments after the other group got out of sight the two came towards Lance. They passed the gourd back and forth taking large swigs of it and giggling to each other. They ended up right underneath Lance then one moved its loin cloth and began to pee, the other just a couple steps away squatting presumably to poop. " Great.. this is nothing I wanted to witness.." Lance was thinking before he was caught off guard by a shift in the stone he was clung between. *cr.. crack*

  Quickly Lance gave a quick shove and hopped to the other side he was wedging between. The two goblins looked up and in unison and screamed. "Aaaaa" *thud....

  The goblins watched as the stone fell from above. The goblin who was mid-stream was skewered from shoulder to ground dropping the torch in a massive pile of feces, it and he stood erect, dead instantly. Watching his companion die the other goblin plopped out a turd and hurriedly shuffled his feet to try and move out of the way as the stone fell his direction and onto his back squishing him into the fetid ground. Just like that, two goblins died.

  Lance didn't bother dismissing the notifications that popped up.

  " Level 1 Goblin killed"

  " Level 1 Goblin killed loot drop available - Praise tier"

  " Achievement unlocked - Natural Predator- Use the environment as a weapon" - Tavern Quest available.

  Looking on at the notifications Lance felt a struggle to be happy. On one hand it felt undeserved and rather unfortunately beneficial which hurt his pride, and as much as he would have liked to kill the goblins he now had to loot them... in filth. On the other hand he was certain he should buy a scratcher when he logged off, luck was on his side. He hopped down to inspect the two of them.

  The faint torch light was beginning to fade. Without needing the torch light Lance simply picked it up and snuffed it out rolling its side against the wall. He bent over and looked at the goblins now closely and activated D.I. He neither wanted to harbor the idea to eat the filthy little thing's, but he had to come to terms that it may be worth a try. The stone spitted goblin almost looked like it was ready to throw on a fire anyway. Lance noticed immediately that the goblin ears had a faint purple tint to them, still uncertain about the colored meanings to the ability, he continued to examine it. The goblin's eyes were faint but red as well as the flesh of the creature. The spilled smashed brain and innards were a mix of gray and red as if most of its insides had no purpose. Outside of the the only thing that had a deep red aura to it was the tongue. Immediately Lance pondered what it meant and came to the conclusion it had to allow him a use. Considering one of them was smashed he decided to take its tongue, a swift kick snapped the jaw close biting its tongue off and he left it be. He grabbed the small knife, its rusty metallic blade seemed to be crudely hammered and unfortunately it was bent under the weight of the rock, same for the spear as it was cracked in half next to the unlucky pooper. What was available was the small gourd in front of his outstretched hand. He picked it up and gave it a whiff. His nostrils filled with a deep smell of fermentation and acrid florals. Alcohol. The strongest he had ever come across. Lance may be young but he had been to a party or two, this stuff was stronger than anything he’d partaken in. Lance let out a small cough and then popped the small shaved rock cork back onto it and put it away.

  Rather than dally any longer Lance decided it better to leave before the others came back. He would have to wait on his rewards, and learn what a Tavern Quest was. Seeing that the path the other group took was his only means of return he made a hard decision and decided to head from whence they came. He turned into the corridor and crept up its path through the darkness.

  After a few windy bends Lance began to see torch light from the end of the corridor close to him. He slowly crept towards it. Clinging to a wall, he peeked into the next area towards the fire light. What he saw left him confused and in awe. There in front of him lay a goblin. No something more, it was easily bigger than even himself, and Lance was quite a bean pole. In a large stack of bat furs a sleeping bear sized goblin lay, drooling down his shirt. A gourd in one hand and a large cleaver in the other. The room was adorned with random crates and boxes stuffed with hay, some seemed to be made into small beds. Around the fire were sticks with bat meat feet away from a drying rack full of jerky. Small overhang hammocks were hung from wall to wall in one half of the room pitoned in place with rusted jagged pieces of metal reminiscent of broken blades. Sharpened spears and clubs were strewn randomly about the far wall amongst small piles of articles of clothing. If anything it looked like a disgustingly dirty male dormitory for goblins. Counting the beds certainly left Lance with the tally of eight, certainly not all of the goblins had been accounted for. And the craziest thing of all. Behind all the mess was a large door. Above it in a strange, almost ancient but legible writing. Level 2. The problem, the large Goblin thing was no more than ten feet away.

  Lance closed his jaw and tucked back against the wall. His mind raced with confusion. " Is that how you get there? That's simple but this is a messed up place to put it. What is that big guy he's gotta be more than a goblin.. an Orc? Ogre? I don't understand. Did I find a checkpoint? How do I know?... Shit... That damn manual..."

  Lance looked at his remaining time. 2:06.

  " No way. No way dude. This can't be right.. did.. Did I skip the whole floor? That other route.. But imagine fighting all those goblins.. I still have so long.. Should I just run in there? Can he follow me?" Lance's thoughts were cut off by the distant sounds of screaming goblins from behind him, the goblins must have come back to see what was taking them so long. The sounds of scampering feet and yelling coming from behind. Lance knew he couldn't get stuck here. He looked out towards the door, The beastly goblin still lay dormant in a drunken stupor. But in the other direction another passageway. Lance felt foolish but rather than run ahead to the next level he ran there. " I'm not ready yet. " He sprinted down the corridor and into the darkness of the cave beyond.

  Shortly afterwards a pack of three goblins entered the room Lance just ran through. One of which held in his hands a half a goblin, sobbing, the three of them walked forward and towards the fire. The elder goblin stepped forward to the large sleeping goblin and smacked him on the face. " Goda buda nah!!! Sobba gugg ak !"

  The large one awoke and looked at the goblin then sat up straight after a second he got off the bed and kowtowed to him. Then the elder goblin hopped into the bed, which was actually more of a throne. Smacking the back of his head and taking his cleaver like sword from him the elder goblin seemed to bark more orders. The three in front of him all began to shed tears and after they all gave the torso of the goblin a hug they all began to devour him. The elder goblin looked on at them, with the fire dancing in his eyes the shadows danced of the feast. He began to grin and using his sword, started to sharpen the cleaver edge, while he licked his lips.