Lance fell unconscious, Rather he blacked out, and began to act by instinct. The trio behind him were battered and shaken. Everyone in the party got an alert.

  " Honor tier - Cave Troll lvl 8 Slain"

  Contributions evaluated.

  Rewards given.

  Lance didn't bother with his alerts. He was so high strung a moment ago and all he could focus on now was his insatiable hunger. He had been in this state before, barely alive, hardly standing. But now before him a large meal. The only thing he could see was the poker sticking into the Troll's eye socket. He could hear the sizzling sounds of the meat being cooked in its well. The only thing he cared about was the shades of color in his Discern Ingredients. Climbing back atop the head using the burlap sack as a handhold. Lance grabbed a hold of the spear and tugged, slowly the tip dislodged and pulled out. The eye stayed on the spear even through the palm of the Troll. Staring at it all he could see was gold. The color had changed from its purple tint to gold since last he saw it first removed from the socket. Lance did the only thing he wanted to do at that moment, he ate it.

  " Troll Soul Infused Eye" consumed.

  Choose from the Following

  - +2 Strength

  - Passive skill

  - Active skill

  Lance chewed the eye slowly, its texture was like that of a hardboiled egg with a warm runny yolk that oozed from its center. The flavor was rather bland however, the char masking most of what was there. All in all it left Lance a bit underwhelmed, but soon after finishing it, he snapped out of his near death haze.

  He stared at the screen in front of him. He chose one and then looked back at his companions. They were all huddled together. Reilly seemed to be waiting for Lance before she would cast a spell, just staring at him she waved him over. Courage and Valora were holding each other. Courage simply trying to stop his sister from crying, barely alive but stable.

  The whole ordeal left everyone in poor condition but the worst off was Courage, an arm gone and a heel had been cast but it did not come back. Lance hopped down and stared back at the creature seeing a few shades of red and blue, but instead of dealing with it now he just went back and sat with the others against the stones that surrounded the small pond area they were at.

  Courage simply looked at Lance from the side as Reilly cast bless a couple more times using the last of her mana. As their bodies healed everyone sat together for a while catching their breath, wiping their blood, sweat, and tears. Courage broke the silence first.

  " Thank you.. Lance. Thank you so much" he said as his voice began to tremble. Valora looked over at Lance as well, shaking her head holding back from bursting into tears. Reilly simply looked at him and smiled as a single tear fell from her cheek. Lance looked at all of them and nodded.

  " Couldn't have done it without ya. Thank you guys. Who's still hurt? Other than the obvious? I don't have a pan anymore, but I think we can use that for a fire." Lance said pointing to the large club the troll had. He then began to look around for the bat meat. Seeing it in a large pile close by he stood up to grab it.

  Courage responded, " This is just a scratch, I'll be fine. Did you guys get a notification as well?"

  Lance said yes as he continued to grab the meat off the ground and put it back in the wing, everything covered in sand and dirt.

  Reilly and Valora also said yes. A moment later Lance felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to see Courage standing over him holding a Gacha ball in his hand. Obviously presenting it to Lance, Lance pushed his hand away. " No way man you literally paid for that with your arm."

  Courage sighed, he felt remiss about missing his chance to make up for Lance saving his life. A second later still in front of Lance he popped the praise tier Gacha in front of them. A moment later he held in his hand an elegant sword while a scabbard appeared on his side. The sword had a gladius style to it, straight and double-edged but with no hand guard. He flicked it around for a second and then sheathed it on his hip, after a few tries.

  Reilly then also pulled out a praise tier Gacha, and then Valora as well. Lance opened his menu and checked his mailbox. A few things were there.

  "Achievement - Honor tier slain!"- Tavern Quest available

  " Level 8 Cave Troll slain - Honor tier drop"

  " Rare Creature Cave Troll slain - Party reward - Praise tier drop

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  " Troll Soul Infused Eye" consumed.

  Choose from the Following

  - +2 Strength

  - Passive skill

  - Active skill <- selected

  " Enstone Lv1 "

  Rare Racial Skill - Troll

  Description: Encase a small object in the surrounding stone.

  Activation - 1 Mana

  Lance looked at the skill and scratched his head. It was interesting and there were plenty of uses, he thought immediately of traps for goblins. He was atop the Troll when he received the ability. A lot of things were going on in his head so rather than dally on the things he would rather hide and figure out later he pulled out his very own Gacha ball. Honor tier, its shade was of a royal deep purple. He looked at the small cap on one side and the swirling clear, yet foggy jade like otherwise. He popped the top and instead of the ball just disappearing after a random number popped up. The purple cap turned to smoke and swirled in the air. It expanded and began to take form around Lance's left arm. A moment later a small bracer appeared as the smoke dissipated.

  " Bulwark Bracer"

  Honored Tier

  Shield - Wrist slot

  Description: Pressing your hand down towards your arm with a defensive intention will make a small ethereal buckler appear. It will take an amount of damage before it breaks. It requires a day to piece itself back together.

  Lance smiled brightly. It had hardly any weight, and could be deployed quickly. He immediately tested it showing off in front of the group. Courage and Reilly gave him a quick nod of appreciation admiring as if a bit jealous. Valora's hands were up to her cheeks and her eyes were wide in shock. She quickly approached Lance, smiling, asking him to show her how it works. Lance smiled and obliged her.

  Reilly opened her capsule and a flash of a second later a large hat like that of a cowboy appeared on her head. She took it off and then grimaced. One at its style and then another at its ability. Courage laughed at her as she grumped. " Haha. What you’ll look cute just wear it" He said. The next moment Reilly put it on his head and then pulled it lower angrily. A second later Courage smiled and then flicked it up, " Why, thank you"

  "Shut up your next Gacha, is the trade got it?" Reilly retorted and went to grab the wooden club to drag it over.

  Valora pulled out her Gacha and activated it and a second later a ring appeared on her finger. " Ohh wow look no way!! It's a moon ring!" She said as she made a fist in front of herself from which the ring shot out a cone of light like a flashlight. Lance, surprised, saw it and then gave her the same satisfaction of asking her to show it off and how it works. They began to make finger puppets on the cave wall.

  Sometime later the group had taken the bat meat and washed it in the small pond. Lance had also chopped up the club the Troll had which seemed to be just a large branch that it had been carrying. They made a decent size fire and after cooking the bat meat using the ingredients on hand Lance made some Cave Crawler Kabats, fully healing everyone and granting another duration of dark vision. The difference here was his score went from that of a dishwasher to a new level he hadn't seen.

  "Cave Crawler Kabats"

  Grade- Novice Chef

  +5 Health + 5 hours of Dark vision.

  Description: Kabobs of bat flesh, braised and seasoned with the fresh taste of spicy cave weeds and the brittle crunch of spider bits.

  Value: One Dull Experience gem

  " Huh interesting, what did I do differently? Is it really just washing the meat and a proper fire? More health and a higher duration. Not only that but it gave me value and a description. This is actually super lucrative. One gem for one Kabob? I didn't even put any experience gems into this. Perhaps Reilly is right." Lance thought.

  The group sat around eating for a bit. Eventually the group only had about two hours left and standing next to the corpse of the troll didn't seem like a good idea for much longer. Lance decided he would check out the Troll to see if there was anything on it that was of value, he was also quite curious to see what its face looked like. After giving it a once over he ended up cutting off its sash which was just a rope tied with a burlap cloth to cover its downstairs bits. Lance ended up with a good fifteen foot rope and he also took a couple finger nails, for some reason they were purple. The group all agreed that eating the creature seemed a bit gross, even by cave spider standards. The stink of it and the overall dirt of it definitely didn't appeal to them. Lance then cut into its chest and after a waist deep dive Lance popped out of its chest covered in blood and gristle. However in his hands was a large almost football sized gem. It was almost like a piece of obsidian but rolled in a light dusting of dirt. Obviously just a large Dull experience gem. Lance tossed it over to the group then immediately dove into the water to wash off. Ironically the small glowing fish in it were just small minnow's. Lance had found out earlier when he washed the meat. Either that or they were slimes and understood that they would lose if push came to shove, which it was he didn't know. They all moved clear across the pond wherever he had approached.

  Stepping out of the pond clean of blood Lance approached its head. He wanted to see its face and decided to pull off the burlap sack hood it wore. As he pulled it back the gross smell of rot and decay filled his nostrils. The troll's gross mouth flopped open. After a second the skin on its face and flesh on its skull quickly began to wither and fall away from its skull leaving behind a strange and grotesque body attached to a skeletonized skull. The burlap sac in Lance's hand began to shrink until all that was left was a small sac with holes big enough for two eyes and a mouth that seemed to frown. Lance looked down at it and up to his team who were all slowly gathering all the food he cooked, putting out the fire and grabbing the remaining wood. All of them were oblivious to him and what he had done to the troll. A second later Lance looked

  down and the burlap sack in his hands was smiling. It leapt up from his hands onto him covering his face.

  Lance fell to the ground tumbling and frantically grabbing at it as it clung to him trying to be worn. He wanted to call out to his team but it began to stuff itself in his mouth.