As Aug hovered over the goblin, Frank yelled at him for dawdling.
He cursed Frank inwardly and left the large goblin for a moment to finish looting the rest of the corpses, scanning them as he went. Unfortunately, none of the others had any uncommon items. So as the group left; he circled back and collected the goblin with the uncommon item, then raced off after the party.
In owned dungeons, the group leader was responsible for their team's safety. This meant that any deaths would cause a suspension of license and possibly some jail time. Thankfully, that meant Frank had to protect Aug. The close tabs on him were not because he cared, but because he did not wish to go to jail. Aug had no gear, so he was an easy target for enemies.
After a few hours of exploring, they took a lunch break. Being the leader, Frank, as usual, supplied food for the group. Well, aside from Aug, who had to pack his own lunch.
Aug had gathered a few interesting corpses by this point. The larger goblin with an uncommon item, a goblin warrior, and a dungeon fox that had attacked them and come dangerously close to biting off a piece of Aug's leg.
As they finished lunch and began the assault on the first pack, Aug was daydreaming already of what exotic corpses he might find. While looting, he found another interesting corpse, a goblin archer, and picked it up on the spot.
The entire group saw him do so, and Aug snapped back to reality when Selene got up. He had messed up.
"What the fuck was that?" asked Selene, disgust in her tone.
"What was what?" asked Aug, trying to play it cool by putting on an innocent and confused face.
"You just ate that corpse, you disgusting fiend," she shrieked.
Selene was being as dramatic as usual. He had hoped the rest of the group would ignore her.
"I saw it too," commented Alistair, whom he had only heard speak a few times, and it was usually to blame Aug.
"I did not," Aug replied, realising this would not go away. He pulled the goblin archer from his inventory and threw it on the ground.
"Ew, he collects them! So gross," yelled Selene.
Frank got up and approached Aug, took the pack off his back and pushed him, not moving Aug a step. This somehow annoyed Frank even more, who then kicked him out of the party.
"Leave now, you creepy, no-good, waste of fucking space," yelled Frank, furious at him.
Aug didn't have a retort, just an overwhelming urge to punch Frank. Even though it would feel like punching a wall, it would at least send a message.
Fortunately for Aug, the city had installed a teleportation mechanism in the dungeon as a safety feature for solo players. Within moments of being kicked out of the group, he found himself transported from the dungeon to the entrance's exterior.
Before being teleported, the last image he saw was Ilya's face. A look of confusion, disgust, and sadness was clear on her face. He was sure he would never see her again. Not that it mattered; they had barely spoken, but Aug had become entranced by her smile.
Angry and upset, Aug returned to his apartment with his head down, his three hours of work having gone unpaid. With 100 fewer steel coins and no job, his financial troubles worsened. He needed to find another group soon, or he might starve.
He had earned a measly ten percent of a level today, so outside of the corpses, he had almost nothing to show for his work.
Aug did not remember his drive home. All he could see were the faces of the party members. Their disgust at his ability was hard to unsee.
Once home, he went into the garage and started punching his punching bag, cursing himself for his mistakes and that wretched party for being so close-minded. After ten minutes, Aug left the garage feeling slightly better, having vented most of his anger. He vowed never to use his ability in front of anyone until he knew he could trust them.
In the meantime, he needed a little more cash to survive, so he processed the corpses in his inventory for money.
He began by processing the goblin warrior, as he didn't have enough mana to process the larger goblin. It was the next logical choice, yielding him seven items. From it he got all N8F items, a slight increase in power from his previous results, but not by much.
Among the items, there were a few new ones, including:
[Goblin Spear - Weapon - A pointy stick fit for a child.]
[Goblin Shield - Shield - Probably better used as a frisbee.]
[Goblin Leather scraps - Reagent - Scraps of 'Armour'.]
[Pickled Goblin Warrior Heart - Consumable (+1 STR | 8 mins) - His badum badum makes you strong]
As well as another goblin hide, goblin bones, and a dried goblin arm weapon. He listed all the items aside from the bones in the market. This time he had gained ten percent experience towards the next level. This was equivalent to about two to three hours in the dungeon, a successful return for a quick process.
Unfortunately, he had already run out of mana. He would either have to wait for it to come back in time or sleep. But Aug was too impatient for that.
Alternatively, he could go buy mana potions from the corner store across the road. Until now, he hadn't had many mechanisms for using his mana. Therefore, he hadn't needed mana potions, but as he would make a profit off each corpse, it was better than waiting a day.
After spending forty steel coins for two minor mana potions, he returned to his apartment. Aug then took one potion and processed the dungeon fox. The dungeon fox was in pretty terrible shape. It had been cut open lengthwise and emptied of its organs, leaving him with only three items from it:
[Dungeon Fox Tale (Tier 1) - Trinket (+1 LUCK) - A fluffy tail for luck. Somehow.]
[Fox Skull - Decoration - An interesting table decoration and conversation starter.]
[Dungeon Fox Pelt (Tier 1) - Reagent - These fluffy bastards will keep you warm. But you're gonna need six of them.]
The processing of the dungeon fox had spent six of his available mana and gained him more experience. As he still could not process the larger goblin until he had more mana, he attempted to process the bone piles.
Unfortunately, even though he had enough mana, processing [Tier 1] items required his skill to be level two.
Annoyingly, unlike levelling up, levelling skills was a random process. The user didn't really know when the skill was going to level up, or if it would happen at all.
Sadly, he was now out of corpses and had no sources to gain more.
Aug sighed, then listed all his new items on the market, saving the bone pile for later, and the fox tail, which he equipped. The items sold again within an hour, earning him 422 steel coins.
Once more, people had bought most of his items he posted because they were funny gifts. This was now all the money he had until he could find another job. Aug then posted his advertisement back on the job boards, hoping something came up soon.