Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened for the next few days. 

The dragon was adapting well, that was no surprise. It seemed to be understanding speech better. Askr was also doing his best not to be a burden. He still was though, in the eyes of a mercenary and an assassin. 

The cotton fairy, Q-tip, had gotten much more proficient in finding hiding spots in Ryuu's shirt. That too was expected. As an assassin, Ryuu had many hidden compartments in his clothes. Be it in one of the many pockets, under the robe, or the collar, there was always a place to hide for a five-inch creature.

Isle forest was known as a hunting ground, but that was not all to it. After all, a place without any remarkable characteristics couldn't have become a monster habitat. 

The curious dragon was now somewhat careful after the past demonstration. But it was but a child. Ryuu took every opportunity to teach the newborn and old-born child about the facts and dangers of wildlife, ending up with multiple blue-purple-green marks on his arm. 

'Ain't I generous?' 

Having a high pain tolerance, he was the best person to demonstrate these things, according to himself. 'Nothing beats practical experience.' His demonstrations had left the intelligent creatures hiding in the depths of the forest questioning humanity's sanity all over again. But this wasn't their business. 

Kai looked like he had reached transcendence or something since the third day, but this wasn't about him anyway. 

The problem arose only after they crossed the central border of the forest. 

[System: Sub quest, Loading.]

'I should have guessed…'

The system had been awfully quiet for the past few days. Ryuu was starting to forget about it. But that didn't last long. 

"I think we're being watched." Ryuu's voice was low enough for only Kai, who was right behind him, to hear. 

"Hmm."

Monsters and animals around here didn't follow their prey along, instead jumped directly at them. So, it had to be another group of people. Ryuu couldn't catch the exact number, but there had to be around thirty. He had caught onto this much even before the system notice. 

'Are they after the prince or the dragon?'

They couldn't be after money if this was part of the quest. Getting money stolen had nothing to do with the quest. They couldn't be after himself, because, well, he wasn't important. As for Kai, he saw no reason for a mercenary to be trailed. 

Whichever they were after, it didn't seem like they were planning to attack in broad daylight, so he chose to ignore them. 

As they went about their journey, hunting, teaching, and everything that came along with it, the annoying group didn't give them even a moment of break. Ryuu thought about the cottons back in the southwestern forest that wouldn't even let him do his business in peace. These people were also like that, but a hundred times worse. 

After a day's worth of careful hunting and an hour of cooking disappeared in ten minutes, they hit the hay, well the one who didn't feel the watchful eyes did. 
The others closed their eyes, but couldn't fall asleep. 

At such times, Ryuu felt envious of Askr. He was catching z's in a corner just like he had been on that fateful day months ago. Tsk. 

"How long do we have to tolerate them?" Kai was perhaps having a harder time, than himself. Ryuu could almost see black lines forming on his face. 

"Until they choose to attack, we can't do anything." Taking care of thirty or so people hiding in the dark was morning practice for either of them. But Ryuu couldn't jump at them because this was part of a quest, and didn't let Kai do anything either. "But if they don't do something before I'm done counting to a hundred, I'm attacking." Ryuu too, had little patience. 

[System: Mission will progress in a few minutes. Please do not make any rash movements.]

'Oh, now you appear?' 

The people on the other side slowly began to circle them in the dark. At this point, the dragon, who was also awake, took the liberty to wake Askr. As soon as he caught on to the situation, with so many people surrounding them, Askr couldn't help but think this was the end.

The three stood in the middle of the forest clearing, a few meters apart from each other, surrounded by 30-something people. But after another five minutes of no movement, Ryuu began to lose his cool again. 

'Should I just kill all of them?'

[System: Please be patient.]

'Why should I? They're the ones dragging this on!'

[System: ...]

'See? You're annoyed too!'

Can you imagine? An assassin trained to trail people, hunt them, spy on them, had been followed by such a big group of people for a whole day, but couldn't do anything about it. 

But those people were dragging this on even more. There's so much patience one could have. 
'Just say what you want, goddamnit!'

It is to be said, that no words were spoken from the other side, instead, a group of three jumped at Askr with knives. To be specific, they jumped at the blue dragon stuck on Askr's back. 

'Called it!'

In the heat of the moment, Ryuu jumped into action before preparing his weapon. 

[System: New universal achievement created. 

"How many times can I injure the same limb consecutively before it falls off entirely?"

Requirement: The same part of your body faces injury consecutively before it heals for the nth time.]

Even as blood dripped down from his left arm, Ryuu couldn't help glaring at the screen despite the chaos.

But he wasn't the only one. 

"Falls off entirely?" Ryuu looked back at Kai for a brief moment, surprised to hear the same words he read a few seconds ago. A look of horror took over his face as their eyes met. 

[System: Congratulations. 

A player has met the threshold to trigger the first universal achievement task. The task is now available to all players.

Reward: A random reward based on job class.

Penalty: Loss of limbs. 

Warning: The system does not recommend attempting the task unless you have regeneration ability.]

'Are you kidding me rn?'

No matter how ticked off he was, Ryuu knew this wasn't the right time to pick a fight with the system. 
With an arm out of order, it took a bit longer to deal with the attacker. On top of that, he had to shield Askr, who had turned into a statue from shock. 

It took less than ten minutes to take out the ones who had jumped at them, during that time, Kai had taken care of the rest of the squad very efficiently. 

'Having help really is great. It would have taken me another ten minutes to clear out the enemy.' 

The situation was dire for the other side. Despite being cautious and observing the enemy for nearly a day, they seemed to have miscalculated. Their number was going down rapidly. So the squad leader had no choice but to step in himself. 

"I risked my life to get that egg! The dragon is rightfully mine!" 

[System: Sub-mission: Complete.

You have discovered the blockhead who stole the dragon egg from the southeastern mountain. The loophole has been fixed. 

There are many who dream of taming a dragon. This is the first instance someone attempted to steal a dragon egg from its parents. 

Such—]

'Get to the point!'

[System:...]
[System: You may hand the culprit over to the child's parents.] 

"Hand over the—" The man shut up under Ryuu's glare. 

"You!" I have to endure this unnecessary quest because of your idiocacy! 

[System: You have to endure it because of the prince's idiocacy.]

'Well, I can't beat him up!'

[System:...]

"Why are you looking at me like that!?" The middle-aged man, dressed a bit more fancy than his comrades, began to back away as an ominous aura surrounded him. The face wasn't visible in the dark, but the delicate-looking man who kept getting injured all day long was walking towards him with a murderous look in his bloody red eyes. 

"Don't worry. I won't kill you." Ryuu actually meant that as an assurance. Not getting killed was good enough in his standard. "I'll only beat you up."

One throughout beatdown from a displeased assassin later...

The man was beaten unconscious, tied up, and thrown to a corner. Askr was sulking in another corner, contemplating his life choices after he realized it could have been him. The dragon who had watched a beatdown for the first time, was busy observing its kidnapper #1.

[System: Universal achievement triggered—]

'Do you want people to start a continent-wide beatdown? Have some conscious.'

[System:... Personal achievement: Beat down an NPC halfway to death and back. 

The reward will be added after calculating.]

Ryuu thought that the system had gotten much lenient in the past few days, but didn't comment on it. 

"Ryuu is your arm ok?" Kai's sudden question threw him off track. 

"My arm?" He had almost forgotten about it. 

[System: You're only three hits away from achieving 
"How many times can I injure the same limb consecutively before it falls off entirely?"]

"Oh, the system says I'm still three hits away. It should be fine." Most of Ryuu's injuries weren't serious, he just accumulated a lot. But it was nothing a few potions couldn't heal. 

He felt a chill run down his body. "I thought the south would be warmer. It suddenly feels so cold." 

[System:...
You can't accomplish the main task if you lose an arm. Please be careful.]

Wasn't he being careful? He always tended to his injuries carefully. He didn't even get injured often. "Achoo!" 

'Ah, it's so cold.'