Jaclyn P.O.V

The tunnel we were heading down was split off into two different pathways. We didn’t have any reason to rush but since both tunnels looked the same and they didn’t want to send off their scout more than a hundred feet they decided to just go right. Unlike the main tunnel we were coming from this was a lot tighter, not so much in its width but its height.

Whereas before all the ceiling really represented was protection from flying creatures now it stood two feet above my head, and I was one of the lucky ones. Both of their heavy plate warriors and my brother had less than a foot clearance, they could even make a decent hop without hitting their heads.

“I see fire up ahead.” the scout reported.

“Ajax, make sure they don’t see us if they haven’t already.” Jones called out.

I am not sure what Ajax did but all of a sudden our torches only lit up a perfect sphere around us as if the light refused to travel any further. Despite having gone into a dungeon before with a total of three different groups my father set up, and with those groups being units belonging to noble houses, none of their mages seemed to have a spell that did something like this. The most shocking thing however was that Ajax wasn’t covering his mouth, not only that but his jaw never moved.

I had seen all of his gear and knew he didn’t have any runic items, all he had was an enchanted bracer and if I recognised the rune correctly it was for some form of shield. It wasn’t uncommon to see mages with such enchantments in case they ever ran out of mana but that then begged the question of not only how he casted the spell but also how he did it so quickly.

“No ambush behind so far.” the scout called out as he moved to the back following identifying a fire source up ahead.

“It’s a kobold patrol group up front.” This was the first time I had heard Ajax speak, his voice was quiet but it traveled. “The two torch holders are mages.”

I both envied and pitied Ajax. Much like his lack of social skills his poor background also showed in his high Perception stat. Perception was a stat that nobles almost never invested in, rather choosing to raise it with practice until level forty or fifty and with potions afterwards. That also meant that my perception was sitting at forty-four and I could barely see two sources of light up ahead, let alone that they were kobolds and had mages with them.

As we continued to approach the patrol the team readied for combat, I also picked up how the light spell that surrounded us worked, it apparently created a bubble around us that wouldn’t allow light to exit,

Mages had long since worked out that for something or someone to see they needed the light that bounced off the target to reach their eyes. Whatever this spell was it allowed light to enter, meaning we could see outside but didn’t allow it to leave meaning nobody could see us. I wonder just how expensive it was to keep active.

“They have an assassin wandering around.” the scout said “it’s stealth isn’t that high I can handle it.”

“Seems they have a solid frontline. Getting to their mages won’t be easy.” the massive shield bearer said.

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“Have the rangers focus on the caster at the back, I’ll take out the other one if Nelly can buy me a few seconds.” Ajax said.

“You sure?” Jones asked.

“Yeah, I need to keep pushing myself.” Ajax answered. “ We’ll all be heading towards the capital in less that a year but I won’t have a team then, need to get as many levels as I can.”

He certainly wasn’t wrong about that, if he wanted any team to not dismiss him out of hand near the capital he needed to be at least level thirty. The capital had the most active adventurer presence in the kingdom, not only because of the two dungeons there but also because of the high amounts of rich nobles that needed all sorts of different jobs done.

This also meant that their adventurers were very segregated. Unlike in other places the adventurers near the capital always had plenty of people of their own power level that they didn’t need to carry someone weaker just because they filled a niche role. The only exception was healers.

“Fine, go for it.” Jones sighed. “Just don’t get yourself killed, everyone else, look out for friendly fire.”

I knew better than to ask a question right as they were preparing to engage but why would friendly fire be a concern?

I didn’t get more than two seconds to ponder as a shriek filled the tunnel. It seems our scout had found the kobold assassin and landed a good blow. Next thing I knew Ajax turned into a blur and he was gone. My eyes couldn’t even properly track him in the weak lighting, only catching up with him once he was already slicing an axe towards the head of the kobold caster.

That was unbelievable to me. His physical stats had to be over two hundred for him to move like that. For him to have such high physical stats as well as his earlier Perception meant that he would have a total of 1000 stats. This was already something nearly unheard of outside the heirs to the ducal houses or the royal family at level twenty-six.

The more shocking thing was that he classified himself as a mage, this was easily seen as his axe instantly left a trail of frostbite where it bit into the kobolds shoulder. Even if his mental stats were all around one hundred he would have thirteen hundred stats at level twenty-six. A normal adventurer might have close to seven hundred and fifty.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to glare at my brother. Couldn’t he see that I was focusing on something? Before I could lay into him he pointed out my mistake. I had been so captivated by the young adventurer that I hadn’t even been paying attention around me, if any of the kobolds had targeted me I would have ended up a sitting duck.

Taking more care of my surroundings I turned back to analyze Ajax’s fighting style. I had no chance of figuring out anything about his use of magic so I focused on his physical fighting. Taking a close look at his axe swings I was surprised by what I found.

Each individual strike was meticulous, efficient and deadly, if I was to guess I would put his skill somewhere in the low thirties similar to my own weapon skills. But from what I could see all the most he had at Uncommon level was [Precise Blow], by no means a bad skill but he clearly lacked a style skill.

Style skills were some of the easiest skills to pick up as well as some of the least prevalent when it came to adventurers. This mostly came down to the skills being picked up almost exclusively by having someone who already had the skill teach it to you. Both me and my brother had picked up [Knight’s Swordplay] and [Knight’s Shieldwork] by having our father beat the rare skills into us from a young age.

As I watched the kobold mage’s head fall from it’s shoulders I turned my attention to the rest of the team. It was easy to see how he was the odd man out for them. Where Ajax engaged the kobold in a one versus one the rest of the team worked together to cut apart the rest of the kobolds in the same amount of time despite an almost two to one disadvantage in numbers.

I couldn’t help but keep coming back to Ajax. If I was to fight him in a straight up physical battle, I would be confident of winning,my fighting style giving me an edge so long as he didn’t have an advantageous environment to abuse my low Perception stat, but it would still be close. Once magic got added to the mix however I was under no illusion that I would stand a chance, this despite me having a six level advantage.

“No bosses among them” Nelly said the caster didn’t look pleased at this. “I think we might have a den situation, maybe a village.”

I suppressed a shudder at the news. Dens and villages sometimes showed up in dungeons when a semi-intelligent race like kobolds, goblins or orcs were part of the floor. Dens or villages were formed by having multiple boss enemies staying together in one area. This meant there would be much fewer bosses traveling with patrolls or hunting parties but it promised a dangerous fight.

Not only that but dens and villages also got quite a few adventurer parties killed. As with everything the System rewarded challenge, dens and villages always rewarded teams that cleared them, they always contained at least one resource that could be taken out of the dungeon. Now whether it be metal, cloth, leather, jewels or something else it depended on the speciase and your luck. Many adventurers overestimated themselves in their greed and died to the numerous bosses guarding the loot.