“Look at the size of that shield!” Steve Jr. cried as he retreated from the hobgoblin boss.

Jayden barely managed to parry a huge bastard sword as he yelled, “Screw the shield. No goblin has any business being this big.”

Hanna hugged the basement’s wall, keeping her distance from the monster, “That’s hobgoblin, dipshit.”

I chuckled at the banter, even though it hid the fear that maybe we’d stepped into a fight over our head. The basement was a cramped, poorly lit space, the stone walls closing in with a chill dampness. Each echo of our movements seemed to ripple ominously against the harsh outlines of rusted pipes and shadowy corners. In the midst of it, I gripped my rifle. I wasn’t sure if the Sharps would do much damage, but the hobgoblin’s skin looked as tough as iron.

Jayden ducked under the hobgoblin’s swing, stepped in, and swung at the monster. A thin line of blood seeped from a scratch on the beast’s exposed arm. Watching the trickle of blood, one thing I wished the System had was the ability to see someone’s health bar. Especially an enemy’s.

I swallowed a sigh, feeling I was wasting my effort as I infused more mana into the cartridge. I’d inserted the cartridge with thirty infused mana. My latest effort brought the total up to fifty mana. I knew more mana increased the range. But as I sighted down the rifle’s barrel, I hoped at this range, it would improve the damage.

As I pulled the trigger, the hobgoblin lurched to the right, swinging his sword at one of our fighters, who attempted to get close enough to strike. Without a shield, our barbarian tried to shift from swinging his sword to parrying. My gunshot masked the clanging of metal on metal. The hobgoblin’s sword would have cut Flacco in two were it not for the parry. Still, blood spattered against the far wall as the sword cut deep into the barbarian’s shoulder.

For all my effort, the bullet chipped the far wall. Even so, the kick from infusing fifty mana almost felt like the old days, shooting seventy grains of gunpowder. I swore as I grabbed another cartridge. Even as I levered the breech and inserted it, I infused more mana into the cartridge.

“Healer!” Jayden screamed, “Flacco’s bleeding out!”

Our combat medic has the only ranged healing spell. Keeping away from the hobgoblin’s deadly blade, he cast a healing spell. A thin stream of mana shot from his fingertips. It glowed as it sped across the room until it hit Flacco’s open wound. Almost as soon as the spell hit, the wound stopped bleeding.

A fireball splattered against the monster’s shield. Another fireball scorched his skill, sending smoky tendrils into the air as the stench of burned flesh nearly made me gag.

Even though the fireball didn’t do much damage, the hobgoblin roared and sent a hateful glare at Sarah, who shrank next to me, “Oh, shit! I think I just pissed him off.”

Wesley threw himself between the creature and us, raising his shield just in time to deflect the hobgoblin’s blade.

I threw the rifle to my shoulder. At this range, I’d have to be blind to miss. I centered the snarling face in my sights and squeezed the trigger.

The hobgoblin’s head snapped back as the bullet struck him. A primeval roar deafened me. Then another fireball slammed into him, splashing fire across his skin. Now the roar filled with pain as he focused on us. His nose was a bloody mess; rivulets of blood poured down his chin and dripped onto his chainmail armor. His eyes narrowed and he stepped forward.

Wesley backpedaled until he crouched a few feet in front of us. “Scatter!”

As I dodged to the right, the hobgoblin swung his sword. Wesley caught it on his shield. Such was the force of the hit, that he hit the wall.

Wesley would have been struck, except several things happened at the same time. Sarah cast another fireball, hitting the hobgoblin in the side. His armor was poor defense against her magical damage. Almost simultaneously, Hanna slipped in behind him and plunged both knives into his back.

Although pissed, the hobgoblin finally looked like he was in pain. That didn’t stop me from trying to put more distance between me and him. He tried to spin around to stop the pain in his back. When he spied Hanna, she jumped back, but not fast enough. She was closest to his shield arm, which lashed out. I cringed at the meaty thunk. She flew across the room, landing in a crumpled heap near our barbarian.

Lumbering more than running, the hobgoblin turned to Sarah. She had no armor. A single critical hit would kill her. She let loose several fireballs in quick succession, burning through her mana. Each hit only seemed to enrage the hobgoblin more.

But he was facing away from me. I hadn’t had an opportunity like this yet. I didn’t bother infusing more mana into the cartridge. Thirty mana should be enough. I lined up my sights on the back of his head, just below the skull.

When the bullet struck the hobgoblin, he tumbled forward, knocking Sarah against the wall. The monster bellowed as he tried to move. His spinal cord now severed, he wasn’t able to move and it was only after a few well-placed hits that he stopped moving.

Seeing Wesley hobble over to Sarah, I raced to Hanna and knelt by her side. When I turned her over, I saw her chest rising and falling. When her eyes fluttered open, she grimaced, “Fuck, he hits like a truck. We get him down?”

I bobbed my head, “Dead as a doornail.”

I had no idea what a doornail is, but Dad had used the expression more than a few times. As I helped Hanna to her feet, I scanned the room. Jayden had his hand on the hobgoblin, a smile on his face, “There’s some sweet loot.”

Our combat medic huddled over the barbarian, who lay on his back. His injury, even though it had stopped bleeding, looked severe. Hovering over them was our spear prodigy, David Huerta. His face was contorted into intense concern. The barbarian is his father.

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Steve Jr. inspected his sword. Even a system sword could take damage when hit hard enough by a better system weapon. There were nicks in the System forged blade.

Jeff Carson unslung his bow and nearly fell onto the first step of the stairwell that leads to the lobby. Our other warrior collapsed next to him and drank from a water skin. Then he held it over his head and let the water spill over his head.

Our combat mage lifted his head, “Flacco isn’t responding!”

After checking on Sarah, Wesley rose and dashed over to our downed barbarian. He felt around for a pulse. “You stopped the bleeding, right?”

The mage ran his fingers over the wound. “Yeah. It’s closed up.”

Wesley’s hands glowed as he pushed the mage’s hand aside and place them on Flacco’s injury. After a long while, his face contorted in anguish, “I can’t heal a dead man.”

His words hung in the air. David, our spear-prodigy, cried out, “Dad!”

The teenager ran over to his father. I couldn’t take the grief on his face and turned away. Until the System I’d never seen a dead person. Now, in only a week, I’d seen several of my neighbors lose their lives and lost track of how many monsters we have killed. I’d thought I was growing used to death, but the sound of David crying rattled me like nothing had before.

His dad’s body lying a few paces away from the dead boss sent a shiver of dread through me. There was no respawn. Death was final.

While Wesley comforted David, Jayden looted the hobgoblin. A pulse of blue appeared in the corner of my vision. Guilt threatened to wash over me as several blue boxes appeared, one on top of another.

Your raid group looted [34] gold coins. Your portion, [3] gold, [9] silver, [9] copper have been added to your money pouch.

Your raid group looted Hospitaler's Sword of Strength

Your raid group looted Hospitaler's Chainmail of Defense.

Jayden grinned at me, as though completely unaware of the tragedy unfolding off to the side. “Nice loot. I could really use the chainmail. Beats the hell out of my leather armor.”

I managed a thin smile as I pushed David’s anguish from my mind. “Maybe when we get out of here, we can figure out the loot situation.”

You successfully completed [Clear the basement of the hospital] in under 1 hour.

You are awarded 300 experience points.

Congratulations! You have cleared the Hospital Dungeon Quest.

The dungeon resets in [6] days, [9] hours, [34] minutes.

There were other alerts. I dismissed one and reviewed another.

Combat successfully completed.

[43] kobolds killed

[18] dire-rats killed

[1] kobold elite, common killed

[52] goblins killed

[1] hobgoblin elite, uncommon killed

3460 party experience points.

Your portion of damage – 10%, adjusted for level [4].

You are awarded with 312 experience points.

More than nine hundred experience points! I eagerly selected the next blue box.

Congratulations! You have leveled. You are now level [5]. You have received +1 to Constitution.

You have multiple classes that may be leveled. You may only pick one class to level.

There were no new classes from which to pick. Eventually, I planned on putting more levels into Hexslinger. But for now, I focused on my sharpshooter class, upping it to level three. As soon as I did that, I received another alert.

You have leveled up your firearms skill: +3 to your Firearms skill

I barely managed to avoid a grin as David continued sobbing nearby. I felt like an ass. Here I was going through system messages while one of my friends mourned his dad. Despite my guilt, I recalled my character sheet.

Name

Caden

Regeneration

Level

5

Health

120

1/minute

Experience

384/1600

Mana

110

1/sec

spells

Mana Infusion

Action

140

4/sec

Age

14

Race

Human

Classes

Lvl 3 Sharpshooter

Lvl 1 Hexslinger

Strength

8

Agility

13 (2)

Skills

Ranged Attack

Constitution

12

Firearms +3

Intellegence

8

Wisdom

8

Charisma

8

Glamour

8

I glanced at the body of our barbarian. If we couldn’t avoid battle, and the System delighted in antagonizing us, our survival relied on one important strategy: leveling up.

Everyone gained at least a level in the hospital dungeon; between the three quests, we each gained nine hundred experience before the boss fight. Going from level four to five took eight hundred experience. In fact, I wasn’t the only person to hit level five. Jayden and Hanna both reached it too.

Wesley helped David to his feet and several others put his dad onto the three shields and used them to haul the body up the stairs and out of the hospital. We didn’t stop when we cleared the building. We didn’t stop until we reached the barricade.

The cop rose from his seat in the bed of the pickup truck. He kept his crossbow handy, even as he spied Flacco being carried by several of our party. His voice was weary, “Told you the dungeon was brutal. How far did y’all get?”

Jayden flashed a grin, “Took down the boss. You shouldn’t have much trouble with it for the rest of the week. Until it resets.”

The cop’s jaw dropped. “The hell you say. You took down the boss?”

For once, Jayden seemed to accept the cost had been high, when he looked behind him at the others holding Flacco on the shields. Then he turned back to the cop. His voice was grim, “Yeah. I wouldn’t try it without a strong tank and several healers. Even then, he can one-shot you.”

We didn’t hang around. The walk back to the village felt like a thousand miles. What had taken two hours before, now took almost twice as long. Each of us took our turn carrying Flacco back to our village. We were stronger and wiser as we trudged through the gates in the early evening. And infinitely sadder. Even with healers, we were vulnerable to the System.