I sat bound in the darkness, pondering what fate had in store for me, when I was startled by Scott suddenly leaping out of bed. He practically vaulted from the mattress and began frantically scanning the room, whipping his head around. On his face, I could clearly see a grimace of disgust and anger. Freezing in place, he turned his head toward me—but then his gaze shifted to the window. He remained motionless like that for about a minute before finally saying:

  — “We’ve been attacked.”

  — “What? By whom?” I asked, still using the medallion I’d been temporarily allowed to keep. They’d decided to leave it with me—just in case, or maybe simply out of laziness.

  — “I don’t know. But they’re already at the gates.”

  — “But how did you—”

  — “No time to explain,” he cut me off, dragging my bony frame across the floor as he left the room. The treatment wasn’t exactly first-class, but I chose not to complain. Scott knocked on the neighboring room, and sleepy voices from the girls immediately answered. After waiting about a minute, he saw the door crack open and Berry’s face appear.

  — “What do you want? We just fell asleep!”

  — “I get it, but this is important. There’s fighting at the gate—or somewhere nearby.”

  — “Again with the spear?”

  — “Yeah.”

  — “Got it. We’ll be ready in a moment,” she replied, her voice now much more composed, and disappeared behind the door.

  There was no need to repeat the process with Sem—he’d already stepped out on his own, awakened by the noise in the hallway. Once everyone had gathered in the captain’s room, the discussion began.

  — “We’re moving as a full group toward the gatehouse. It’s possible they need our help there. If the threat level endangers all of us, we retreat from the settlement immediately and head straight to the guild. No unnecessary risks—and there’s no one here worth protecting anyway. Clear?”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  — “Yes, sir,” came the quiet but unified reply from the entire group.

  — “What about the skeleton?” Scott asked, already halfway out the captain’s door.

  — “Take him with you and give him a knife or a sword—the one he originally carried, I think,” Sem responded quickly.

  — “Lucky you… or maybe not. Who knows…” Scott muttered as he untied the rope that had held me so tightly. “Something strange is going on, so you’d better not pull any stupid stunts. Hope that’s clear?”

  — “Yes. I understand,” I kept my answer as concise as possible.

  Now re-armed and temporarily free, I headed with the whole group toward the gates. As we approached, we heard the sounds of battle and chaos. After passing a few houses, we finally saw what was happening.

  — “Does this kind of thing even happen?!” I couldn’t help exclaiming.

  Where the gates had once stood, there was now a massive hole—filled by a slime. It was a rink. A gigantic rink over four meters tall, with an eye shaped like a five-pointed star—at least, that’s what I assumed at first glance. But upon closer inspection, I realized it was actually five separate eyes, each with its own pupil, clustered together in one spot. The monster wasn’t roaring or howling—not at all. It silently oozed through the broken gate. Splintered planks and beams sticking out in all directions slowed it down, but it was obvious that in another ten or fifteen minutes, it would be fully inside.

  — “What the hell is this thing?” I asked again, fiddling with the medallion in my hands. “Why is it here?”

  — “Judging by the shape of the hole and the direction the broken beams are bent, it looks like someone—or something—threw this slime into the defensive wall,” Sem finally answered me.

  — “What?! So this thing didn’t come here on its own?”

  — “I don’t think so. Monsters of this tier rarely leave their territory. They’re ancient—and far too lazy. Usually, the guild organizes expeditions against creatures like this: several silver-ranked teams or even an entire gold-ranked squad. It’s very strange that it showed up here, right now,” Berry continued for Sem. She adjusted her hat, pushing it slightly back, which made her resemble a mushroom—specifically, a rare species of blue human-shaped fungus.

  — “Screw it! I’m sick of all this nonsense!” Scott burst out. “Don’t go there, don’t touch that—but monsters and crap like this just keep growing and multiplying. Enough! You say this beast isn’t normal? Fine, whatever. Right now, I’m going to gut it, and then we can finally get some proper sleep.”

  With that, he gripped his spear with both hands and aimed it at the slime. The moment the spearhead began glowing red, Scott vanished from my sight in a single explosive lunge—and immediately after, a deafening impact echoed through the night.