The outside of the town looked like a war zone trees knocked over the ground dug up with craters in random places, Dual looked at the aftermath of his workout with a smile. He went back to the town and as he neared the entrance he noticed Nora and a few others that had been watching him. He smiled and continued on, he took a few people that he felt were good in combat and leadership. He talked with them telling them that he had a plan to ensure they didn't get over run like last time. His plan didn't sit well with the others but they did agree that it was a smart if not dangerous way of doing it. His plan was when the next round started he would go out alone and do guerrilla warfare, simple smash and runs which would both help keep them scattered but also lessen the chances of people dying. They agreed still feeling bad about him doing such a dangerous job alone, they went out to tell people about the change and his plan while Dual went to start working out again. Dual with his new strength had found he needed to go to more extreme workouts to tire himself out more quickly, but thanks to the blessing of the goddess of adaptation he needed what he guessed was about 30 minutes after a hard workout to feel fully recovered. As he was planning to smash and run he focused a lot of his workouts on running and quick burst movements. While taking a break he saw six people walking over to him among them were Kyle, Cole, and Pete the other three he hadn't talked much with. When they reached Dual he stood up to greet them, "hey how's it going?". He saw all of their reactions and realized this was the first they'd been this close since his growth, he smiled, "kinda cool huh." Pete laughed, "I thought you were huge before now but damn are you even human still." Dual chuckled them looked at the rest of their serious faces, "so I'm guessing you came over to say something?" Cole stepped forward, "sir we all feel that it's courageous what you're planning but also feel that at times you'll need help or at the very least we want to help lessen the number that'll reach the town." Kyle spoke up, "we thought of some plans that should be able to have us help, we watched your workout and know we can't keep up with you but ambushing small groups will definitely help us all out plus even if it works for a bit if we don't continue to get stronger while fighting if it gets to where you can't handle it the town won't be prepared at all." Dual smiled looking at them all agreeing as well as looking motivated, "look I guess like I seem like the type that my word is law in the town but I'm not a dictator and if you all are willing to take the risks then this sounds good. However before the next round starts we should work on our coordination as well as plans for how best to ambush them." The six of them all cheered and Dual sighed thinking about how he was worried about what they said if something happened to him the town would be fucked but he also didn't want to force people to come out and fight. For the entire time till the next round they spent their times perfecting their roles in the ambush and practicing to respond to random situations as they wouldn't know what would happened. After resting for a bit they took their time discussing different monsters in games and lore and what new monsters might come out sooner or later. Pete continued to say that the most likely new one they'd get would be the hobgoblins, or magical variation of the goblins like ones able to use magic. Keith an archer added in that maybe these weren't goblins but just monsters that looked similar and the next monsters would be the same. Similar looking to something we know but could have different abilities, Dual added in that the best way to handle it would be to just prepare for both situations just in case. Dual noticed Kelly staring at him and smirked, "even I might get embarrassed if you stare so intensely." She noticed this and shook her head, "oh no I mean no." She paused then took a breath and smiled, "so I've grown up admiring strength well more specifically muscles. You see my dad was a talented weight lifter and devoted himself to it. So when I was looking at your muscles it was making me think the worlds simple common sense has fundamentally changed." Pete looked confused, "why would you think that?" Kelly nodded, "right well the norm was that each persons body type determined how strong they could get without hurting themselves, but Dual here his body seems to be changing to match the strength he is gaining. I've even noticed it myself and others here our strengths are growing past what we should be able to handle." Dual smiled, "well I now have the blessing of four goddesses and the existence of god used to be a highly debated thing, also when I received their blessings the change my body went through to stand it well it felt like I was being torn apart into little pieces and then reformed but differently." Cole laughed, "yeah who knows what'll happen next." Dual nodded, "well our biggest goal is and will always be surviving." They all nodded refocusing they started to go through a few more drills when the siren went off, they all felt a mix of fear and excitement as they started to search for the enemies. To their surprise they discovered how the enemies were brought into their area, just like with the weapons and the dead bodies they just materialized. As soon as they full arrived they began to move, however even though they were told they would be driven to hunt humans they didn't move towards them when they started. They all began to move in the direction of the town, Cole quietly added, "Maybe they head to the highest concentration of humans?" Layla nodded, "either way this will help out with smash and run tactics." Dual nodded and looked up the counter showed 1074, "let's get to work." They split off while Dual charged in thanks to the huge increase in strength he knew he was ok charging into a small group that had formed. Using his body as a weapon he punch kicked and stomped about 30 goblins before the group got a bit bigger then ran back to the woods with about 60 following him. He lead them to the ambush location and then nice the majority of the group was there the others that were hiding began their attack. Keith rained arrows down from the tree he was in, while Cole, Kyle, Pete, Layla, and Kelly attacked from different places around the group. When the attack started Dual turned around and charged the group killing more but this time he summoned his gear. They wiped them out within a few minutes, as the others were catching their breath Dual put his gear away and spoke while looking up, "let's move." Looked up to see the number left and started moving with Dual realizing they didn't have the luxury to catch their breath. They found the next big group nearby this one had about 200 goblins moving together, they split again and Dual armored up. Living up to his nickname he charged into the horde plowing through them he could hear and feel their weapons hitting his armor but nothing had made it through. After killing about 70 of them he charged back out killing another 20 on the way to their ambush location. They proceeded like planned but this time when they finished the four on the ground had some wounds to tend to. They did what they could to bandage up and rest while Keith stood guard, Dual informed them to heal up and join once healed and rested. After that he took off towards the town, when he got there only a small amount of goblins were attacking he knew they would be in danger but also could see the next wave approaching the town and knew they would need a break. He charged the second group, when he got there he didn't armor up knowing that the weight would tire him out faster. He reached the front line and stopped he swung a punch killing the first one with that he came to realize with his strength he didn't have to swing very hard to kill them. He proceeded to point his fingers out and using his straight hand he jabbed a goblin and it pierced through, Dual smiled figuring out his plan. He proceeded to slowly back up the way he came quickly stabbing the goblins as they got close swinging at him, as he figured how to move he was hit a few times but even without his armor it didn't do much to him. He did his best to conserve energy but killing a huge horde of goblins wore on him, he backed away a good bit more feeling he had killed a good number of them. He was surprised to see the size of the horde had grown not shrank, he dashed back while looking up this time happily seeing that the three hundred following him were the last ones left. He turned and ran into the woods quickly jumping up a tall tree to catch his breath. After a quick break Dual summoned his shield and launched himself to the ground his shield crushed and 7 goblins then he picked it up and summoned his armor and mace, now fully rested he proceeded to slaughter them left and right. Within a few minutes the last of the goblins had been dealt with, he listened for a bit and the face spoke congratulating them for passing the third round. As he was about to start heading back he heard each of his goddesses at once tell him, "sorry this will hurt." At the same time he felt two hands on his chest, two hands on his back, one hand on each arm, and one hand on each of his legs. Just as the thought in his head asked, "what?" His body felt the same pain when he first received their blessings, he clenched his jaw and watched as markings resembling tattoos began to appear on his body. On his chest was a beautiful woman wielding a massive shield seeming to be defending the people behind her, on his back he could feel a picture forming of a man in a suit of armor being hugged from behind by an angel whose wings were fully spread out, on his left arm was a beautiful woman holding a scale tilted to the left she was smiling and holding flowers, on his right was the same woman but the scale was tilted to the right her face was that of anger and in her other hand was a sword, and on his legs were an assortment of different symbols ranging from storms and elements to poisons and acid standing amongst all of it was a grey figure in the form of a woman on his right leg smiling and holding her arms open for an embrace. After a little bit he dropped to his knees breathing hard, the voice of the goddess of adaptation spoke up, "we didn't have anytime to tell you we apologize for that." The goddess of judgement added in, "it seems we've somehow reached full godhood." She sounded confused and this was weird to Dual, "do you not know why?" The goddess of protection sighed, "well in the deal to come here to make a deal with a human we would be cut off from the outside world until the end." The goddess of the shield of the weak spoke up, "so we don't know how we got enough followers but it's a great thing." The goddess of adaptation sighed, "good if Dual hadn't had my blessing before hand he would have exploded with the amount of power he just received." Dual laughed thankful he hadn't died there he asked them to tell him what had changed and they did. Dual felt unnaturally powerful before but the goddesses explained that he was severely underestimating how much more powerful a full god was. The four of them guaranteed that he could now solo the next 40 rounds if he wanted to, working out would no longer do anything for him only fighting stronger monsters could help him grow stronger. His armor and weapon had gained the ability to get stronger as he does too. He would heal almost instantly and adapt to nearly any hazard he would have to deal with, Dual laughed realizing he had a much better chance for survival now. He looked at his body and the goddess of judgement chimed in, "right since you've become the apostle of us our portraits were engraved into you." Dual shrugged, "well they look great and you all look beautiful." Dual began to walk back and when he saw them he noticed another change he had grown taller again, easily reaching 9ft now he towered to bet the rest of the people there. When he came back into the town everyone was in shock staring at this monster of a man others noticing his only surviving clothing was barely holding on. Dual stood in the center of town with a smile on his face, "alright let's make a plan."