I want to say first, before anything else, that the results of increasing my Dexterity cannot be understated. I stress this because, good lord, was it already putting in the work. Earlier, I had managed to shoot two separate targets with one cycle of the binary trigger, and it had been a clumsy and slow action. Sure, it had worked, but the speed was the same as if I had just fired in normal semi-auto, and both of them had been wounded and nearly stationary.

Now, with the three points enhancing it, I was laying down a precise and steady stream of burst fire that was taking out one or two green midgets with each burst. A few here and there survived the first shot and needed a follow up, or got lucky and dodged a round that would’ve ended them. I was averaging two dead goblins with each function of the trigger. It felt oh so easy to line up the shot, take the shot, swing and let the trigger go to drop another. Made easier by the tight hallway that the horde was packed like sardines in.

They were damn near moving in slow motion compared to how they had before.

I had to give up on keeping track of just how many goblins had died so far, maintaining a tally on them was taking brain power that was better focused on aiming and firing my gun. I could see that bodies on the bottom of the pile were disappearing just as fast as I could add to it. The corpse pile only barely managed to stay high enough to keep the goblins from simply swarming into the room, each of them had to climb over their dead fellows if they wanted to get to me. That kept me from getting overwhelmed and overpowered by sheer numbers.

My first magazine ran dry, which gave the goblins a brief moment of respite from annihilation.

Only a brief moment.

Ability: Minor Speed activated

My movements reminded me of the same grace that I only saw with shooters who had spent countless hours practicing their reloads for competitions. My hands moved like I had rehearsed the motion a thousand times, each motion engrained in muscle memory with the precision of a clock. My thumb hit the release to drop the empty steel mag to the floor and, before it even fell free, my hand was moving to pluck the next mag from its pouch on my chest. It was driven into the magwell and I popped the rifle’s stock against the hard surface of my forward plate to send the bolt home and chamber my next round.

A grand total of three goblins made it over the macabre blockade in the split seconds it had taken me to reload. For their efforts, I rewarded them each with two red roses on their chests, which blossomed even as they began to fall and my muzzle swept back up to the door. Before their bodies had finished dropping to the floor, I was firing again at the rest of the horde that seeked to invade the room.

Ability: Minor Speed deactivated

Unlike the last time, it appeared that the goblins were abandoning their usage of the Russian Wave strategy, and their numbers began to thin out right around the time my second magazine ran dry. I drew my handgun from its holstered and used it to pop a few stragglers, then reloaded my rifle when they ceased their assault. I waited a few more seconds to see if any more were coming. The mound of bodies began to vanish, leaving behind a trove of shiny things.

I stepped over the mess of loot on the floor and poked my head around the corner to see if any had been holding back, but found nothing but the sounds of imaginary crickets. To play it safe, I stuck one of my motion sensors to the wall a few feet down and turned back to my treasure.

Gained 42 Soul Energy, 46/60

I noticed very quickly that something was seriously wrong. It was clear to see that I had picked up forty two XP gems. There was no way I had miscounted, the Status window confirmed my gains. So why in the hell was there a measly ten golden nuggets on the floor? Where the heck was the rest of the gold that I had just fought for! Was the dungeon trying to rip me off? Had it decided that I was making too much money?

Horseshit, I declare! Mark my words, I was going to be leaving a scathing review on Yelp for this, if it was the last thing I did.

I sat down and stewed in my rage while I reloaded my empty mags and topped off the others. A benefit of the cold dungeon air was that it let my rifle’s barrel cool. I then redonned my backpack and moved toward the next hallway. The way back home was still very much blocked off by several feet of stone, and I didn’t think my crowbar would do much to change that.

After walking through an exceedingly short S-shaped hall, I turned left to find myself looking into a room that, at long last, wasn’t tiny. Two hobgoblins stood at the far wall where they flanked a door. Six goblins stood between us. One of the big boys tried to start off the fight by using his magic darkness bomb, but two rounds of 7.62x39 in his chest put an end to that plan. The goblins rushed me en masse, and I fired a round at the vanguard.

I say one round, because my gun chose that moment to jam. I could feel the bolt close, and hear that the sound wasn’t right. I pulled the trigger anyways, hoping that it’d still go off, but all I got was a click and nothing fired. There was no time to investigate what was wrong at the present moment.

Ability: Minor Speed activated

All I could do was let the rifle drop against my chest and draw my handgun again, putting two rounds into the goblin I had just shot at. The rifle round had just barely grazed him, but the 10mm slugs put him right on his backside while the next goblin closed in and took a swing at me. I dodged to the left, firing two more at him with one hand while the other drew my knife from its sheath. There was no time to dodge the third goblin. His stone knife bounced off of my Aura.

Aura: 68%

My pistol barked three times and he gained three new holes in his body, and I tilted my head back to dodge the hobgoblin’s wooden spear as it sailed right over my head and impacted the wall behind me. He rushed forward, making me ignore the goblins that were battering at my legs to focus on the bigger threat.

Aura: 15%

I didn’t expect him to leap over the goblins, but I still managed to aim at him while he reared back his shield to swing it at me. My sight hovered right over his nose.

Unlike his piss poor throw with the spear, my shot didn’t miss. I ducked and his corpse crashed to the floor behind me. I kicked out at the goblin to my front, while I aimed at the one to my right. Something went wrong. Instead of the familiar heavy recoil of a 10mm, I felt only a nudge of the gun. In place of the lion’s roar of a report, I hear the kitten meow of a distinct pop.

I slashed out with my knife, slicing across the throat of the goblin to my left while the lucky bastard on the right got a free hit on my arm with his knife.

Aura: 0%

I threw the whole weight of my body into him, tackling the goblin to the ground and pinning him down. My pistol slid across the floor, but it was useless to me anyway. We began to wrestle. I brought my knife up and stabbed down at his chest, and he grabbed my wrist. I met him eye to eye as he struggled to push the blade back.

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Twenty four hours ago, he might’ve won that battle. Unfortunately for him, this time I had the advantage and slowly but surely drove the knife into his heart. His eyes went dull.

The final goblin didn’t have the time to get back up after I had Sparta kicked him. Judging by how he held his collar, I think my kick had broken his clavicle. I had enough time to yank the mag out of my rifle and pull back the bolt to let the dud round drop to the floor, then reseat the mag and chamber a fresh and functional round. I shot him in the heart, and the fight was finally over.

I fell back and landed on my ass, my adrenaline pumping.

Ability: Minor Speed deactivated

Stamina: 59/100

The whole thing, start to finish, less than a minute, but it felt so much longer. I slowly took off my backpack and pulled out my water bottle, draining half of it in one long chug. I stood up and migrated to the corner where I could watch both of the doors, and sat down again. My stomach gurgled, and I realized that it had been several hours since I’d last eaten. I fished around in the pack until I found one of my MREs and pulled it out.

Menu #20, the older one, hashbrowns with bacon, onions, and pepper. It was a personal favorite of mine, damn what other people say about it. I poured water into the heat packet to get it started, and propped the sleeve against the wall to warm my entrée and desert (apple turnover, yum). As for my drink option, I had coffee or an orange flavor mix. I despise coffee, so I chucked the packet across the room and mixed the orange with my water.

While my food was cooking, I decided I needed to get it over with by inspecting my pistol. I dropped the mag into my lap and locked the slide back, letting the spent casing drop to my palm. It had fired, but that sound wasn’t what it should’ve been. I disassembled it, pulled the slide off and then removed the barrel, holding it up to the light. I looked through the piece of steel and found the issue.

Fucking squib.

The round either had far too little, or no powder at all, and the primer had sent the projectile into the barrel, but without the force necessary to expel it. I didn’t have the tool on hand to clear it, so my pistol was out of the fight for the foreseeable future.

I reassembled it for now, and placed it in my backpack along with the mags. At least it was nice not having the weight on my belt now.

It wasn’t all bad, my food was finally done, and I salivated at the smell. There are those out there who hate MREs across the board, but let me tell you, they are missing out if they won’t eat #20. I used the salt and pepper liberally, and got to eating.

I could go on at length about the rest of my meal, but I'll just leave it off by saying that I was quite content with it, besides the blueberry coconut stuff. That stuff always fucked with my stomach, so i tossed it into the corner as well.

I saved the crackers to snack on later.

And of course I pocketed the cheese spread. That stuff is as good as gold.

After an hour of sitting and relaxing, my Aura read 22%, and my Stamina was full again. It was time to move along. I gathered up the XP gems and the two nuggets of gold (cursing the dungeon again for being stingy with my loot)

Gained 10 Soul Energy, 56/60

And also gained another Concealment gem, so the dungeon wasn’t being absolute in dicking me over.

Through the next door I found a smaller, but emptier, room. Not an enemy in sight. I chuckled to myself at the idea that a group of goblins could’ve been sitting here, heard that fight, then the sound of me having a delicious meal and relaxing while they sat just outside of aggro range. Alas, that funny thought remained just that.

And through door number three was a much larger room, where three orcs turned to stare at me as I stepped through the threshold.

“Hello there boys!”

Ability: Minor Speed activated

I opened fire on the orc closest to me, firing two bursts. The first took out both of his knees, and as he was collapsing on the now nonexistent joints I popped another into his collar and replaced his nose with a crater. His body crumpled to the floor as I turned to the next, who promptly hefted up his axe and threw the damn thing at me. I ducked back behind the door frame, and the axe dug into it, sticking into the stone like it had been warm butter. I backed further into the second room, as the third orc rushed in after me. I put eight in his chest, slowing him down with each impact, before one must’ve hit his spine, as he fell flat on his face and stopped moving.

The unarmed orc retrieved his weapon, and reached behind himself to grab something.

Not wanting to give him any chances I opened fire, striking him twice in the arm and shoulder. He dropped the item he had been grabbing for, and even dropped to his knees to retrieve it with his good hand, giving me a good target to put a round right in his ear.

Ability: Minor Speed deactivated

Stamina: 85/100

I slowly walked back into the room, and spotted a chest in the corner. The first thing I did was retrieve my XP gems.

Gained 15 Soul Energy, 71/60

Level threshold has been met. Would you like to level up?

I made the decision to hold off for the moment, because if I got a class then I wanted my next score increase to be related to it. I ignored the Berserker gems entirely. The chest was thankfully unlocked, so the crowbar was unneeded. I popped open the lid, and stared inside to find a…

Egg shaped rock? The thing was about the size of a standard American football. It was a dark stone, maybe augite? Again, I am not a geologist. There were seams along the sides that looked like it opened somehow. I reached out and touched it.

Golem Egg (Rare) (0 Mana, - Remaining Time)

Given time and ample mana, it will hatch and produce a golem based upon the user’s personality.

Well that was cool, I guess. A few issues though. One, I don’t think that’s how golems are normally made. Two, I didn’t have any mana, so how was I supposed to give it any? I decided that I’d keep it anyways, in case I could get it to hatch at a later time. It didn’t take up much space in my pack, and didn’t weigh as much as it looked, so it was really a nonissue.

After I stowed it, I moved on.

I walked back through the three rooms and continued on down the hallway, which stretched on for a fair distance before another room came up on the left. I walked in, sweeping my gun around.

The room had to be about fifteen feet wide and at least thirty feet long, making it larger than most of the rooms I had found so far with the dungeon’s new layout. In the dead center of the room sat what was clearly a water fountain. Crystal clear water poured out of the top, cascaded down the three layers of stone, then sunk into the basin in the middle. I felt… Calm.

I approached it slowly, scanning for danger, until I felt my skin warm up like it was a sunny summer day. My sore muscles began to relax, a soothing force kneading out all the stress of the last few hours. My first guess was that this was a designated rest area, like I had seen in a few games before. These usually served as a checkpoint, or to give the player a brief refresher before tossing them right back into the meat grinder. It also usually marked that a boss fight was incoming.

If I had seen ammo or other consumables, that would’ve confirmed that last scenario.

“Damn,” I thought to myself, “this would’ve been such a better place to eat lunch at. Shit.”

I still had my crackers and cheese spread, so it was as good a time as any to sit down and eat them.

Aura: 60%

Stamina: 100/100

My Stamina was full in only a few minutes, and my Aura regenerated rapidly. I took off a glove, stuck my fingers into the cool water of the fountain, and had an idea.

I dunked the Egg into the fountain.

Golem Egg (Rare) (4 Mana, Four years Remaining Time)

And just like that the warmness and ease of the fountain stopped. The sparkling water came to a halt, the fixture ceasing operation.

“Fucking god damnit.”

It seemed that I had killed the golden goose. I had wanted to stay there and recharge all of my Aura, but oh well. I left soon after.

I will not bore you with the details of the next two rooms, for they were both empty. They were decently sized, yet, lacking so much as furniture. I encountered not a single enemy. Then I found myself in another fountain room. I didn’t stop to investigate, I rushed toward it to take advantage of the Aura regeneration.

Then everything promptly went to shit.