Level Up The Colony-Chapter 25: World Shard

Timothy's eyes gleamed.

This was his chance to understand Gates from the system's perspective, to analyze them at a deeper level than ever before.

A gruff voice snapped him from his thoughts.

"You're late."

Timothy glanced at the bulky man who spoke.

"Well, you didn't specify a time."

A chuckle came from another hunter.

"The kid's got a mouth on him."

Timothy ignored them, already distracted by something else, a scent lingering in the air.

Before he could place it, someone else approached, a young man about his age, handing him a contract.

Timothy skimmed through it.

The legal jargon was thick, but nothing seemed outright predatory.

At least, not that he could tell.

The pay for a porter in this C-rank Gate was...

Five hundred thousand naira ($333)

His lips curled into a grin.

This was good.

Very good.

Without hesitation, he signed the contract and passed it back.

Whatever the strange scent was, he didn't care.

He just wanted to get paid.

As the briefing began, he quickly got the gist of it, formation details, combat roles, safety measures.

The teams were structured in groups of four, three, and two.

The warriors and tanks led at the front.

The mages flanked the back.

And in the middle was a healer and two assassins besides her

And him?

The only solo porter.

He didn't necessarily belong anywhere

He wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

But again he didn't care.

They piled on so much gear that even experienced campers would've balked, leaving Timothy to wonder if they planned to settle in this dungeon or simply discourage him.

Soon preparations wrapped up, it was time to enter the portal.

Stepping through, Timothy braced for that any unfamiliar jolt of crossing realms, but it felt no different from the low-ranked gates he'd entered countless times before.

On the other side, they found themselves in a lush jungle, the ground soft and wet beneath dense canopies of twisted branches and towering ferns.

Timothy's mind flicked back to his first penalty quest, which had nearly killed him.

Sure, he was stronger now, but caution never hurt.

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The burly warrior with a gruff voice led the formation, halting to address everyone.

"Stay calm and stick together," he barked, lowering his tone as if half-expecting an ambush.

"This dungeon's uncharted. Don't get sloppy."

Timothy couldn't help but note that this was information they should've known beforehand.

Still, with no immediate danger in sight, the party advanced into the jungle.

After a short walk, Timothy's perception began buzzing with unease, as though danger lurked in the tall grass.

He glanced around warily, but the others pressed on, forcing him to keep up with their fast pace.

A sudden ding from the system caught his attention:

[You have entered a World Shard]

[Emergency Quest: Retrieve the Panther Orb]

[Do you accept? Y/N]

He froze, scanning the prompt.

But the rest of the group was moving on, so he hustled to catch up again

"Accept," he thought, hoping the quest might shed light on whatever threat his senses had detected.

Despite the bulky supplies, Timothy matched the party's pace easily, another sign of how far he'd come.

But his intuition still screamed at him: the air itself felt dangerous.

He called up his status screen on the fly:

Level: 22

HP: 7800

MP: 40

Fatigue: 20

Strength: 55

Stamina: 35

Agility: 28

Intelligence: 20

Perception: 25

Free Stat Points: 49

...

Recalling how his shortcomings nearly killed him in a previous dungeon, he decided to invest those free stat points:

+7 to Agility

+20 each to Intelligence and Perception

+2 to Stamina

Satisfied, he skimmed through once again before closing the screen:

Level: 22

HP: 7800

MP: 80

Fatigue: 20

Strength: 55

Stamina: 37

Agility: 35

Intelligence: 40

Perception: 45

Free Stat Points: 0

...

With immediate effect he sensed his perception growing and with just a little focus he was able to tell where the danger was coming from in the air.

"Poison?" he murmured, stopping short.

A few paces ahead, one of the female hunters glanced back, noticing Timothy lagging behind again.

She nudged a masked assassin, but he merely shook his head, uninterested in a porter's concerns.

Meanwhile, Timothy's mind raced.

Why wasn't the rest of the party reacting to the poison? Possibly they lacked his Perception or had gear mitigating it?.

He remembered the system message from when he'd gained his Hybrid Trait, he scrolled through the system and found the exact message.

[New Racial Trait Acquired: Hybrid]

Your body has fused with external influences, creating a unique physiology, granting potential but leaving you unstable.

...

"A unique physiology," Timothy repeated under his breath. Could that be why he sensed the poison so acutely, or why it wasn't affecting him?

"Why is everything always so vague?" he growled, before jogging forward to rejoin the group.

To his surprise, they were waiting for him.

A tank named Stan smirked, arms folded.

"Is that load too heavy for you?" he asked in mock concern.

A nearby mage, Maria, shot the tank a glare.

"Shut it, Stan. You're the one who insisted on extra backup weapons."

Stan scoffed.

"He's overpaid for a porter. He can carry his weight or more."

Timothy said nothing, but his thoughts stayed on the poison.

If the group kept going blindly, they'd be in serious trouble.

'But would they even listen to a porter?' he thought

They weren't necessarily waiting for him as just ahead was a river or what used to be one as it was stagnant right now.

The atmosphere became thick with tension as the gruff-looking man, his voice as rough as his demeanor, took charge and stood in center

By his side stood Stan, a Tank, broad-shouldered and imposing.

Their team had clearly come prepared.

Meanwhile, only the assassins, who had been assigned to keep watch, stood in another group away from the center but still attentive.

The others seemed to accept the authority of the gruff man and Stan as they immediately kept mum

Timothy, standing apart from the group, wrestled with his own thoughts.

How should he break the news to them? Should he even try?

His internal debate was cut short by a sudden mental disturbance from Gray.

The little creature's thoughts were muddled, filled with fragmented words.

"Weak... eat..."

Raen furrowed his brows.

He sent back a calming thought, warning Gray that everything around them was dangerous, most likely poisonous.

But the little one's distress didn't subside.

Then, as if the situation wasn't complicated enough, a faint glow caught the party's attention.

Across the river, nestled in the solid ground, were mana crystals, pristine and pulsating softly.

A lucky find in such an unlikely location.

Before they could react, a beast emerged from the shade of the denee forest beyond the river.

At first glance, it resembled a tiger, but its feline features were more defined, its muscular frame adorned with a prominent, ridged spine.

Its golden eyes gleamed, reflecting the flickering glow of the crystals.

"The fuck is that?" someone muttered.

Stan, despite his muscular build, tensed at the sight.

He might have looked unassuming, but Timothy had already noted his strength in estimates.

"You're focusing on the wrong thing," the gruff man said.

"The real question is, how do we get across this river?"

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the team.

The healers and mages, standing in the second row of their formation, started arguing amongst themselves, debating potential magical solutions.

Meanwhile, the frontline fighters, including Stan, were having a more aggressive debate, this time about the best way to cross.

"The real question is, who decided this shrimp could be a Tank?" one of the warriors sneered, side-eyeing Stan.

Stan's jaw tightened.

"You think I can't take a hit? Want to put that to the test?"

The jeers grew louder, but the gruff leader was already moving on.

He was already used to them berating each other

Unlike the rest, he focused on the obvious solution.

Silently, he walked among the trees, pressing a calloused palm to their thick trunks as if judging their strength.

While the team squabbled, Timothy took a step back and let the heavy pack slip off his shoulders.

As he did, the scarf around his neck loosened, revealing Gray in a pitiful state, shriveled up and curled into a tight coil.

"Weak... eat..."

Gray's thoughts flickered into his mind, fragmented and distressed.

Timothy frowned.

Everything here is bad for you.

Poisonous.

He tried to send his intent to the little creature, but Gray still seemed troubled.

Timothy gritted his teeth and reached into his pack, retrieving the thermos flask his system had provided him earlier. Uncapping it, he took a cautious sip, testing it himself before tilting the flask slightly towards his scarf, hoping Gray could absorb it in some way.

The reaction was immediate, though it didn't fully recover, Gray's trembling eased, and its dull, ashen color gained a little more vibrancy.

A sharp sound snapped Raen out of his thoughts.

CRACK!

A tree crashed to the ground.

Turning his head, he saw the gruff leader lowering his blade.

The trunk had been felled in a single swing.

Someone in the group muttered a snide "showoff," but the man ignored it.