The Cardboard Explorer

Cade felt a bit bored waiting. Looking around, from a far, Cade saw a big blue tongue toad jumping around leisurely.

"Since this stalker force me to join his party, I guess it is fine to let him wait in the line here," thought Cade and he felt like it was a good idea.

"Stalker, I am going to hunt some toads nearby," said Cade to Shihoon.

"I am not a… Don"t go too far," said Shihoon. He wanted to retort that he was not a stalker but he was. He himself realized it.

"Then, can I come with you?" asked Jonathan with a smile. He took off his helmet, so, his face was visible. Although he looked older than he was supposed to, he still emitted the teens aura.

"I am bored waiting like this and the line is still quite long," said Jonathan. Jonathan did not only feel bored, he also wanted to move around a bit.

Cade looked at Jonathan and he thought of something. "Okay, you can come with me," said Cade. He preferred to go alone but he thought it was not bad to let Shihoon by himself. Let him got bored waiting alone.

Other than that, Cade wanted to see the blue bear full set equipment in action. The equipment looked cool and he cannot help it but wanted to see it in action.

"Wait, you guys want to let me wait here by myself?" asked Shihoon. He himself felt bored waiting.

Cade left without answering Shihoon. Jonathan just smile at Shihoon and said that one of them needed to wait there in line. Since, Shihoon was the one that proposed (forced) the idea of teaming up, he can at least stand in line and wait for their turn.

Jonathan followed Cade from behind.

"You must be displeased that brother Shihoon forcing you to form a party," said Jonathan. He can feel it that Cade did not like the idea of forming a party.

"You are right but he was not wrong about the monsters getting stronger and stronger… I cannot fight alone anymore," said Cade. Even if he was forced to join Shihoon, he knew it himself that Shihoon was right.

"I hope that I did not fail with this test made by my family," said Jonathan still worrying about the test by his family that wanted him to explore the dungeon by himself.

"I think I agree with what stalker said earlier. Your family must have wanted you to realize this yourself. When I see you, Jonathan, you look a bit naïve and followed whatever your family said," said Cade.

"They must have done this to make sure you learn this yourself and not following their order blindly like this. As I said earlier, even I myself that stubbornly wanted to do this by myself knew that I need to work with someone else so, I am sure your family thought the same," said Cade.

"Hmm…" Jonathan thought about what Shihoon and Cade said properly and deeply. "Thank you, brother Cade for telling this to me," he still did not buy the idea of the test by his family was for him to realize about forming a party but he still thanked Cade for his words.

"You know, we are not that far in age… it felt weird for you to call me brother. Just Cade is fine," said Cade. Since Cade usually stayed away from people, he never once got so closed to someone younger than him.

Having someone calling him brother felt a bit awkward and weird. He was not used to that t.i.tle and besides, Jonathan was not in a huge age gap with him.

"Okay… Cade," said Jonathan. Jonathan was taught to address everyone older than him properly and he had quite a hard time to call Cade by his name but since Cade was older than him, he followed what Cade had wanted.

"Oh, there is two of them. I take the one on the left, you can take the one on the right," said Cade while pointing at the two big blue tongue toad that wandered around there.

Jonathan nodded and he wore his helmet back. He ran towards the big blue tongue toad on the right to fight it. Once he got neared the toad, Jonathan drew the great sword and shield he was carrying on his back and took a battle stance.

Cade looked at Jonathan and he can feel the fighting aura coming from Jonathan. "He looks really cool with that armor," said Cade while he was staring at Jonathan.

The toad saw Jonathan and just like how other toads were in the dungeon, it started launching its big blue tongue towards Jonathan.

Jonathan moved forward and he blocked the tongue attack straightforwardly with his shield. However, he was not been forced back even by a step. Jonathan completely stopped the tongue attack.

The toad was shocked but Cade was impressed with Jonathan. If Cade tried to block that, he will be sent flying.

Jonathan moved closer to the toad while blocking the tongue but the toad kept jumping backwards to create a distance between them. However, the toad ran to a corner and had no way else to run away.

The opportunity arrived and Jonathan did not waste any more time, "Armored Bear Soul, activate!" said Jonathan with serious voice.
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A silhouette of a bear made of energy with armor all over its body appeared behind Jonathan and, "Roar!!!" it roared. The energy of the bear flowed towards Jonathan and he was enveloped by the energy.

With that energy enveloping Jonathan, Cade can feel that Jonathan"s stats were increasing. With the increased of stats, Jonathan did not waste any more time and slashed the cornered toad with his great sword.

In one slash, the toad was cut to two and died instantly. Jonathan deactivated his skill and stored his shield and great sword back to his back.

The toad evaporated and a skill book was dropped. Jonathan stared at it weirdly. It was the first time he ever got a skill book as a drop. His luck was not that high and he had only once got himself an equipment drop.

Looking at the skill book, Cade knew that his luck was the one responsible for that. After seeing Jonathan in action, Cade felt a bit bitter with himself especially when he saw the skill used by Jonathan.

Cade shakes his head to let go the bitter thought and he looked at his target. Cade was used to fighting a single toad by himself and he just ran forwards without thinking.

Just like the toad that Jonathan fought, the toad that Cade targeted also launched its tongue to attack Cade. He was not capable of blocking the attack and Cade skillfully parried the tongue attack without much problem.

Followed up with that parried, Cade slashed the tongue to two and rushed to that toad. When he got in front of the toad, Cade slashed it with his cardboard sword and the toad died.

Looking at Cade fighting, Jonathan was shocked to see that Cade"s cardboard equipment was capable of killing the toad.

He remembered Shihoon"s words earlier about not minding Cade"s equipment"s appearance. It was better that it looked. Watching Cade in action, he finally knew how good Cade and his equipment were.

Cade finished the toad faster than Jonathan because Jonathan"s armor and huge weapon and shield slowed him down. Cade"s cardboard equipment did not weight him much and thus did not slow him down.

The toad evaporated and to Cade surprise, the toad dropped a puzzle piece. Looking at the puzzle piece, Cade was overjoyed that it was the last piece he had been looking for the past hour, the blue tongue puzzle piece.

Cade clenched his fist as he was happy that he completed a puzzle. He can now used them to get free stat points.

Jonathan came close to Cade and was surprised to see the puzzle piece. He had only heard and saw picture about them but this was the first time he saw the puzzle with his own eyes.

"Whoa~ this is my first time seeing a puzzle piece… Cade, you need to hide it fast or someone else will try to s.n.a.t.c.h it from you," said Jonathan worried that someone will s.n.a.t.c.h it. He knew how valuable the puzzle piece was.

Cade took the blue tongue puzzle piece and the system let out a notification.

[Grade E Big Blue Tongue Toad all puzzle pieces found] after the system said that, the other three puzzle piece that Cade found earlier automatically came out of his storage.

All the four puzzle pieces moved by itself and they combined by themselves. It took a second and a small complete replica of the big blue tongue toad appeared. It shone brightly and entered Cade"s body.

[Gain 35 stat points]