As Thomas made his way down the passageway to the next room he summoned up his mana and created a greatsword from the Metal element. He needed to hold back on his speed but he could use the full might of his Power attribute to decimate the kobolds. His experience in the last room had shown him that he was now far stronger than the regular kobolds. With that in mind, he made the greatsword long and sharp to give himself a bit of range with it. When it was done the greatsword had a length of two meters and a blade width of thirty centimeters. This made the sword longer and wider than anything a normal human in the real world could wield. For Thomas, it was as light as a feather in his hands.
Thomas gave the sword a few test swings and felt a bit of a tug that wanted to unbalance him and force his body to follow the trajectory of the swing. However, he always managed to counter the force and keep himself balanced. He wasn't sure if it was his Power or Endurance attribute at work but either way it made it possible for him to use the sword in defiance of conventional physics. He could swing the sword with his full might and wouldn't end up flying after it if he held onto it. There would be no Thor style flight for him.
Thomas rested the sword on his shoulder as he continued to walk the twisting and turning pathway until he passed the last twist and could see the group of seven ram-headed kobolds in the next room. He hadn't seen kobolds like them before but recognized that the curled horns on their head could easily deal a fair bit of damage if they charged. Thomas lifted the sword off of his shoulder while he grinned broadly. Without a second of hesitation, he charged directly into the next room, though he kept his speed tuned down to just fifty percent.
Thomas lifted the sword and began his swing as he was running putting the full might of his Power attribute behind the swing. He crossed a distance of just over forty meters in less than a second. He didn't stop his run as his large greatsword completed its horizontal swing. The razor sharp edge of the sword, its weight, and his speed all added together to create an extreme amount of force. The sword slammed into the kobold and cleaved it in half at the chest. Thomas felt barely any resistance at all as he completely bisected the monster.
From the start of his charge to the completion of his swing less than three seconds had passed. The other kobolds hadn't even registered his presence before one of their companions had passed away. Continuing his momentum, Thomas gripped the sword tightly in both hands and continued the initial swing. The sword cut into and bisected a second kobold that had been standing to the left of the first.
Thomas stopped his swing and reversed the direction the sword was moving in while taking a quick step forward to bring the third kobold just into the range of his weapon. Without even having time to realize what was happening to it, the kobold's chest was cleaved open by the tip of the greatsword. The force of the passing blow was enough to send the kobold flying back half a meter before it collapsed to the ground and rolled a bit further away. Thomas had now killed three of the seven kobolds in less than five seconds.
The remaining four kobolds finally realized what was happening and let out loud braying sounds as they started to charge Thomas. Their speed was a notch higher than most kobolds giving them a possibility of closing in on Thomas. Thomas didn't move at all and instead faced the four kobolds as they charged at him. Two were coming from his left, one from directly in front of him, and the last was coming from his right.
Thomas quickly turned to his left to face the pair of charging kobolds. The two of them were relatively close together making them perfect targets for a two-for-one deal. Thomas took several steps forward as he swung the sword from his right to his left. Thanks to the length of his blade both kobolds found themselves in range of his horizontal slash. With his full Power behind the swing, the greatsword bisected the two kobolds at the same time, reaping their lives with ease.
With those two taken care of, Thomas turned his head to look at the remaining two and see their positions. The kobold that had been charging directly at him was now the closest one and still charging him. It had closed the distance a great deal. Thomas spun from his left to his right and reversed the swing of his greatsword to cleave the charging kobold in half. The kobolds body continued to charge forward due to momentum before it collapsed into two gory pieces on the floor.
The final kobold continued to charge at Thomas despite the gory deaths of its companions. Thomas raised the sword above his head and waited, allowing the kobold to come closer. Just as the kobold came into range of the weapon, he slashed vertically down and bisected the last kobold from head to crotch. He immediately regretted his decision as the kobold's body split in half and spilled its foul-smelling organs all over the ground. Thomas had never been so grateful that dungeon monsters would quickly turn to dust before.
Thomas covered his mouth and nose with one hand as he waited for the dead bodies of the kobolds to fade away. The entire fight had lasted a dozen seconds at most so the first body was still in the process of disintegrating away. Even after the bodies had completely disappeared the scent of them still lingered in the air for a bit making Thomas very uncomfortable. He quickly collected the mana crystals from the kobolds before he moved into a passageway leading to another room.
After walking for a while he left behind the scent and got to enjoy some 'fresh' air. The air in the dungeon was somewhere between fresh and stagnant but was still infinitely better than the stench of a kobold's insides. Thomas sat down and recovered his expended mana and stamina. Though the fight had been short he'd expended a bit of stamina and a fair amount of mana. Though both his mana pool and mana control had grown significantly, he still wasted at least half of the mana he spent on a spell effectively doubling its cost. Eventually, his mana control would progress enough that he wouldn't waste mana anymore, it would just take some time to grow to that point.
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Once he was recovered he continued his journey through the dungeon slaughtering kobolds with various weapons he created out of the metal element. The more he practiced the better he became at killing the kobolds and the more he recalled about fighting properly. He still wasn't that great but he felt he was getting to the point where he could at least fight monsters and protect himself. He may have loved making items and crafting in general but there would always be people who would try to use their power to bully him into making what they wanted. He'd long ago learned that the only way to deal with such people was by force.
As the hours flew by, Thomas slaughtered group after group of kobolds and collected their mana crystals. When it started to get late in the day, he made his way to the safe room on the second floor and left the dungeon. He'd defeated many kobolds during the day and wanted to get their mana crystals turned in at the guild to get himself some more experience. He needed a significant amount to even out his attributes still.
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Thomas was forced to wait in line for quite a while when he arrived at the guild. It was getting late in the day and a lot of people had arrived to turn in their quests for the day. Many returning from the dungeon with their spoils. When he arrived at the counter he smiled at the male receptionist and pulled out his guild card, "I'd like to turn in sixty regular kobold mana crystals."
He'd managed to kill a total of sixty-five kobolds today but even combined with his leftover mana crystals he had just under seventy and couldn't turn in the quest seven times. He was sure he would get some more of them before leaving Reykhoten so he didn't worry about it. Even if he didn't earn more, he could just use them for enchantments or alchemy so extras were not a problem or a waste of space.
The receptionist accepted Thomas's guild card while saying, "Please place all of the mana crystals you would like to turn in on the counter."
Thomas did as instructed and very quickly sixty little purple mana crystals were set on the receptionists counter. Since he didn't have an enormous horde of mana crystals it was possible for the receptionist to deal with it right then and there. The last few times Thomas did this he turned in hundreds of crystals which took a long time to verify. Sixty crystals would only take a few minutes to verify in contrast. The receptionist quickly went to work and verified each of the mana crystals taking just a few seconds with each one. Around five minutes later the receptionist finished and smiled at Thomas, "I have verified sixty kobold mana crystals. I'll return in a moment with your payment."
The receptionist swept all of the mana crystals off of the counter and into a bag before he left with them and Thomas's guild card in hand. Thomas just waited in silence until the receptionist returned with the same sack, only this time filled with gold coins. The receptionist set the sack and his guild card down with a smile, "You completed the quest six times. Here is your six hundred gold coins. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Thomas really wanted to turn in the kobold hide quest as well, but even after all of the monsters he'd killed today his luck had bee horrible and a second one hadn't dropped. Thomas shook his head and picked up the sack of coins. The moment he did the system notified him of his completed quests.
System Notice: Repeatable Quest, Quest Complete! (x6) Head into the Reykhoten City Dungeon and defeat the Kobolds within! Collect 10 of their mana crystals and turn them in at the Adventurer's Guild.
Rewards: 300 Experience and 100 gold for each batch of 10 mana crystals turned in
System Notice: You have gained 300 experience. (x6)
The receptionist gave Thomas a smile as he said, "Thanks for all of your hard work!"
Thomas gave the receptionist a nod as he stored the gold coins inside of his inventory and made his way toward the exit of the guild building. When he stepped outside he noticed that it was completely night outside. It had only been on the cusp of dusk when he entered the guild. Shaking his head at the wasted time, he started walking down the street toward 'The Minotaur's Resting Place'. Without having to feed a glutton like Victoria his bill would be significantly less this time around.
As he walked he opened his character sheet and took a look at his growth for the day. He couldn't keep from smiling when he saw that his total experience earned had surpassed a hundred thousand. At this point, he had doubled the amount of experience he'd had when he arrived in the city and his attributes had grown significantly. If he was to go into the dungeon back in Ulvstad at this point he was certain he could breeze through it and defeat the dungeon boss on the impossible difficulty without breaking a sweat. Not that he would since the experience would be so little now.
After enjoying the pride he gained from breaking through the hundred thousand experience mark, he looked at what he had available to spend and smiled some more. He currently had 9,500 experience to spend on his attributes. He would do that back in his dorm room. Lastly, he looked down at his metal magic to see what it had reached. He hadn't been paying any attention to it as he wanted to be surprised when he was done for the day.
Thomas let out a groan as he looked at it. His metal magic was sitting at rank twenty-four and only needed 114 more experience to reach rank twenty-five! How disappointing was that?! He sighed and shook his head. It wasn't that big of a deal, he could just spend some time using metal magic before going to sleep and getting it up to rank twenty-five before he went to sleep. Still, it was just so depressing to see how close it was after all that work without quite reaching the goal.
Thomas decided to put it out of his mind and enjoy an extra beer or two with his dinner at 'The Minotaur's Resting Place'. He smiled as he stood in front of the door to the restaurant. Yes, a few extra beers would make him forget about his metal magic for a bit. He opened the door and stepped inside while still smiling to himself.