(Gavin)
"Deflect!" I swing my sword, striking the Fireball.
At Level 2 of Deflect, I still feel most of the force of the attack, so my sword is pushed back, but the goblin's Fireball is thrown off into another direction.
"You okay, Luca?" I ask while keeping my gaze on the goblin.
+38 Health!
I'll take that as a 'yes', then.
"Max!" I call as the Goblin Shaman throws two more Fireballs at me in succession.
I can't stop both, and no matter which side I dodge to, one will hit me at the rate they're flying.
A pair of Waterballs come from my right, striking the Fireballs. While the attack didn't completely neutralize them, it did weaken them enough I'm able to take the brunt of one with my arm, Luca remaining behind me as we move. I only lost a few points of Health to that.
"Thanks!"
"Bad gobby!" Max yells. "You no use Fireballs! That be my spell! Fireball!"
At least he isn't burning through his Mana and using Fireball Fury again. After that incident last night, he's been a little more careful.
The Goblin Shaman aims its staff at me again, now that I'm protecting Luca. It figured out that Luca was healing everyone and began targeting our healer.
"Heal Slimes incoming," Braden's voice reaches me from behind, but I don't focus on it.
He's already moved on to another spot. I see him briefly passing by Max, probably alerting him as well, then the ranger raises his bow.
"Magic Arrow, Piercing Shot, Multishot."
A shimmering green arrow forms as he draws his bow, and when he fires, it splits into two. The Goblin Shaman turns, blocking the arrows with its staff, and Max takes the opportunity to throw a Fireball at it.
"Spikes, Max!" I yell to him. "Use spikes, not balls! More penetration power!"
Fireballs are better when impact damage over penetrating, and we need to disable its arms or legs, which makes Stone Spike or Wind Spike a better option. If we can cut through its muscles, it'll help us greatly.
"Rawr!" Max makes a face at me as the Goblin Shaman shifts its staff to point at the Fireball, a blue Barrier forming in its path.
Braden, wherever he's ended up, shoots another pair of arrows at the goblin, which turns its attention to stopping those as I charge forward. Max's Fireball slams into the Barrier, which doesn't waver in the slightest, and the Goblin Shaman turns its attention to me, using its staff to block my jab.
One of Braden's arrows skims its back, while the other slams into its arm. Braden can barely take out a few of its Health, but that's the same for all of us. We're relatively evenly-matched against this thing.
But those Heal Slimes Braden alerted us to the arrival of, those will be a problem.
I watch as Braden scrambles up the side of a building behind the Goblin Shaman, whose attention is still on me. I'll need to move back in a moment, but for now, I have its attention. As long as it doesn't hit me with another poison cloud, I should be fine.
Our weapons locked together, the Goblin Shaman and I stare at each other as we try to overpower the other. Luca could give me another Blessing of Strength, but I know he's saving his Mana for Heals and Cure Poisons right now.
Even as I keep my attention on the Goblin Shaman, I spot the Heal Slimes, coming from a road to the right. White-gold, and not all that large. Level 3, maybe Level 4. I'm not looking over to see their information. Whichever they are, they're definitely going to have enough Intellect to heal half of the Goblin Shaman's Health with only a few restorations.
"Me on it!" Max calls out before I can say something.
Braden focuses on attacking the Heal Slimes as well, leaving me to deal with the Goblin Shaman. I should be able to manage a minute, maybe two by myself, so I'm not upset. The Heal Slimes are a priority for Adventurers, just as healers are for monsters.
Zack would not have let the pair of them come here if he thought we would not be capable of handling them with this, so we should be fine, as long as we don't screw up.
"Gavin!" Luca calls out, and I realize the Goblin Shaman's summoning another cloud of toxic gas.
I did get distracted. Lord Light of Stone, please grant me strength, as I don't have enough time to get away. What would Zack do? Probably just rip its head off with his bare hands. I can't do that.
An idea forms, and I put my right foot back, then push forward.
"Dash!"
The extra force causes the Goblin Shaman to stumble back a step, and as my momentum from the Dash carries me forward, I move to the side, so that I pass by the toxic cloud of gas.
You have been poisoned -4 Health per second
Thank goodness it's not much more than that, Luca can only cure poison effects up to 5 Health per second at the moment. I wasn't hit by enough of the fog to do much more than that. Had it been more, he would have needed to use that Skill multiple times to keep reducing the Poison Damage. The last time I was poisoned, it even affected my regeneration.
You have been cured of poison.
"Thanks!" I call back as I pivot, swinging my sword at the goblin's legs while it's off-balanced.
My blade cuts into the back of its legs only a little, taking out a little bit more of its Health. A moment later, a large chunk of its Health is restored.
"BAD SLIMY!" Max yells. "FIREBALL FURY!"
Too late to stop him, but at least it should take out one of the Slimes, and he isn't just a magician. He'll switch to using his knife now.
The Goblin Shaman moves forward and turns back to face me, swinging its staff with a Fireball accompanying it. I start to react, but know I'm too slow and late on that. Before the Fireball impacts, however, a Barrier of pure-white magic appears in front of me, and the Fireball impacts it. The barrier breaks, but the Fireball isn't powerful enough to keep going at the rate it had been, and I'm able to move out of its path.
Since when are Barriers pure-white? Who cast that?
As I run around to make my way back to Luca, I notice him looking exhausted. That's right, his Heals use a pure-white glow instead of the golden-white of most people. Did he just cast a Barrier? When did he learn how to do them?
Maybe that's why he looks so exhausted.
I return to in front of Luca, hoping those two finish fast. This fight has already gotten a lot longer just from that one successful heal they managed. How exhausted are we going to be after we finish this? Luca needs to conserve his Mana, so he can't heal us every time our Health drops below what he can restore at full power. That really affects things, too, because it meas that we're essentially on a timer.
If Luca runs out of Mana, we have to wait for him to recover it, and that means time we could end up dead, even if it's only a few seconds. For poisonings? Even worse. So he's letting us run at under half of our Health to conserve his Mana.
Enough for a few stronger hits from the Goblin Shaman. This one hasn't done it yet, but the weaker one we fought yesterday could throw lightning.
Just as I think that, sparks start dancing on the tip of this one's staff.
Lord Light of Stone, please let us win this soon. And please let us manage to survive that without too much damage.
"Luca, get behind me and take several steps!" I command, basing my timing off the lightning of yesterday's Goblin Shaman.
----------------------------------------
(Luca)
When I wake up, we're inside a one-story house with part of its roof missing. Max is brushing his tail, Braden is rubbing his bow with a cloth, and Gavin is carefully checking his armor. Mr. Zack isn't in here, but I can sense him nearby.
Lately, I can feel his warmth more and more. It's strong, like a raging inferno being contained in a little package, yet gentle, like a clear spring morning. I don't remember any springs, but I'm pretty sure that's how gentle it is.
"What happened?" I ask.
"We killed the Goblin Shaman," Gavin looks at me. "And you passed out shortly after. According to Zack, we all did. We all woke up in here, so he probably moved us here."
"Me woke up first," Max nods. "Me had lots of notifications. Stuff went up."
I nod. I have a few notifications as well. I gained two Levels to Novice, and since I have Cure Bleed and my Heal is at Level 7, I more than qualify for advancing my Class, so I do and become an Acolyte.
Now I need to learn another Cure and do enough healing for the Experience, and I'll be able to become a Priest. Mr. Zack would probably recommend Cure Bleed, and that's the only other one I know of.
What other ones are there?"
"Cure Burn," Mr. Zack's thoughts enter my head. So he's listening. "Yes, I am. Many fire-based spells can cause burn damage, which is similar to bleed and poison in that it negates regeneration, but its actual damage-over-time is nonexistent. It is painful, though. It takes 200 Intellect for fire spells to start doing that."
I nod, then remember that he doesn't have the ability to see me.
"It's fine!" He laughs. Wow, hearing a laugh in someone else's thoughts is so weird. "You'll get used to it, Luca. Lightning spells can cause burn damage at only 150 Intellect. Then there's Cure Stun, which is what Nathan used on you when I accidentally terrified you and your brother with that roar. Nathan assures me that if the caster can do silent casting, then it can be cast even when the caster is stunned."
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I want to learn that one. Mr. Zack laughs into my head again. What's he doing right now?
"I had to pee," he tells me, and there's a weird sound in my head, like zzzt, which is just weird. I've never heard something like it before. "I'm not that far, I promise."
I know.
"By the way, Gavin's talking to you."
He is? I look at Gavin, who's looking at me with concern in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asks. "You zoned out, and you did hit your head a few times while we were up against the shaman."
"I'm fine," I nod. "Mr. Zack was telling me something."
Gavin groans. He doesn't like it when Mr. Zack uses his telepathy to talk to us, he finds it creepy. I think Braden does, too, I'm not sure. Max gets excited over it, but that's because he's Max. He gets excited if Mr. Zack pulls out fruit. Or milk. Or meat. Or rolls. Ooh, rolls. I'm hungry.
Gavin gets an annoyed look. Mr. Zack just talked to him telepathically didn't he.
"Zack said to eat and rest," Gavin tells the rest of us. "He's keeping watch outside."
"Yay!" Max quietly exclaims. "Me want to play cards."
"Let's just eat," Braden says, and I nod.
We pull bread and jerky out of our Inventories, Mr. Zack gave them to us after we had breakfast this morning. As we eat, Gavin makes sure we're each okay and ready to return to fighting, since we all know Mr. Zack will be making us fight again after this.
It's even possible he's going to let something attack us while we're eating. He did that yesterday, during dinner. He led a Level 2 Goblin Knight straight to us.
I can sense him nearby, though, so I doubt he's doing that this time.
----------------------------------------
(Braden)
As soon as we finished eating, resting, and checking our gear, Zack informed us that we were to travel back to camp, where he would be waiting for us. Then, he left, and his presence simply vanished. I didn't know he could warp around. I suppose he probably took off with that great speed of his, but with how suddenly his presence disappeared, I'm not entirely sure.
Our job is to return to camp without fighting anything we cannot handle, which means being careful as we travel. If we come across something weaker and can kill it, then we are to do so, but only so long as we are sure it will not attract stronger monsters.
Right now, I'm moving from building to building, jumping and running along the ruins of their walls and roofs, scouting the area. We aren't the same kids we were a few days ago, and can handle some tougher monsters now because of Zack's intense, thoroughly-exhausting training here, but we still need to be careful.
Which is why I'm scouting ahead, looking out for monsters, then signaling to the team once I've cleared the area. The rest of them are hiding within buildings or behind rubble, moving only at my signal.
After nearly an hour of painstakingly slow travel, I assess a duo of goblins that are in the path we need to go down. We could continue going forward, but when we passed by that way earlier, there was a Goblin Chieftain that had made the plaza ahead its home. So turning down this street would be optimal according to my mental map.
We could go another route, which would involve backtracking and taking more time. As it is, I'm sure we'll only reach camp closer to sundown. We did take a late lunch, and Zack somehow got us pretty far across Talorn without too much issue. There's no way we can avoid fighting entirely, either, which will only add on time.
Let's see…
They're both regular goblins, it looks like, and one of them has a club, while the other is unarmed.
Goblin Level 2 Health: 104 Mana: 32
Goblin Level 1 Health: 94 Mana: 27
We haven't faced goblins in pairs here yet. Can we do that, or should we turn back? We can probably handle them, as long as nothing else shows up, so I scout around briefly, checking to make sure nothing else is around. After confirming only the presence of a few Snow Slimes, I return and make an assessment.
While those things could be killed based on our pure damage abilities, we have to factor in their Willpowers and Endurances. My arrows will doubtlessly do only a few damage to them, while Gavin might be able to take out around 10 Health per attack. Max might be able to do more, if his attacks connect.
Mostly, Max tries to distract things or neutralize the spells of the monsters. I bet he could probably take both of those on his own if he actually went all-out.
Yeah, we can handle this.
I carefully back away from the edge of the building, moving along the broken wall, then jump across from this building through the window of its adjacent. Moving through that building, I jump out of another window and into the next. These are from the 'populated' sections of the Fallen City's layout, so they're spaced closer together, allowing me to do this.
We live in – and are staying in here – an 'unpopulated' section, which means fewer people live there, but it's also places that have more space on the properties themselves for training.
After landing in the next building, I scale the wall and pull myself through the opening onto its roof, before running across that and jumping down into the next building, landing in a roll on the ground.
Quickly returning to my feet, I hop over the ruins of the front wall and join the team behind the rubble they're crouched behind.
"There are two goblins in the path," I inform them. "We can handle them so long as nothing shows up, and I didn't see anything that might pose a problem. Gavin, one of them has a club, so you handle that. Max, you take care of the other, okay? I'll act as backup."
----------------------------------------
(Zack)
"So you don't know what's going on?" I ask as I watch my team sneak their way down the street.
"No," Nik answers. "Jackson and the smiths are keeping silent on whatever it is. He did mention he'll have your gear ready for the Greed Lord, though."
"Did he say which set?" I ask. "He was making two of them."
My team turns around the corner, and Gavin immediately charges the goblin with a club as Max fires off a pair of Wind Spikes, the first aimed at tripping up Gavin's goblin, the second aimed at the unarmed Goblin's chest.
"The one he sent out a quest for the ingredients for," Nik nodded as the goblin with the club tripped, a severe gash in its leg. The other goblin wails as the Wind Spike pierces into his chest, taking out a quarter of its Health. "He told me that he was about to work on it when that project came up. Adrian informed me that Lord Light of Air mentioned that Normar was on his way back as well, since the Greed Lord should be here in anywhere from a week to a week and a half."
Which means Essence of Life. Did he acquire Essence of Death while he was on his little rampage? I'm still trying to sort out how I can acquire it, as it seems beyond my abilities right now.
"Alright," I nod as Gavin's sword blocks the goblin's club with ease, then the warrior quickly changes to slashing at the monster from the side. "By the way, I've been wondering – do you know if Nathan has the Druid Class?"
"He does," Nik confirms. "How did you guess?"
"I figured out," I grin at him as Max fires off two Fireballs at his goblin, Braden using Multishot to add extra distractions of the monsters. "How he gets past Kaelmar."
"You did?" Nik asks. "How?"
"The Druid Class," I answer. "Monsters of certain types can pass through the mountains, right? The Ice Lord followed Nathan, after all."
"Yes," Nik nods, then snorts. "He turns into his animal form and moves through the mountain. Since the animal is commonly found in mountains, that would enable him to pass through."
"What's his form?" I ask as Gavin uses Wind Strike for extra damage, successfully cutting deep into the goblin's shoulder.
"Snow leopard," he answers.
"I bet he's cute, cuddly, fluffy, and snuggly," I grin, and Nik snorts again. "Speaking of cuddly things, when I can cuddle Kulkul next? You haven't let me near him in months, other than the rare occasion I'm beaten badly enough he's tending to me, and even then, Gold's pretty much taken over."
"You've traumatized him."
"It's his own fault for being snuggly," I shrug as Gavin avoids being smacked by the goblin's club. "I was actually mostly thinking for Luca, I think he'd be delighted at getting to snuggle something so soft as Kulkul."
Nik shakes his head in amusement.
"They've gotten decent," he tells me. "To handle a pair of Dungeon-Class goblins, even at only Level 1 or 2, already? What did you do to them? Didn't you say that when you arrived a few days ago, they could barely do a thing to a Level 1 goblin?"
"Yeah," I gesture to my team. "I've been putting them through hell, pitting them against the absolute most they can handle starting nearly as soon as they've finished breakfast and ending shortly before bed.
"In addition to running as stealthily as they can," I say. "As we move through Talorn to a new training spot, they've been fighting decently tough monsters. I've made sure that everything is within their abilities, even if only barely, with a ninety-percent efficiency in their combat. So as long as they don't waste ten percent of everything, they're fine."
Mana, Health, energy – as long as they don't have too much waste for foolish moves, they will be fine with everything they do. Like right now, as Gavin manages to kill the goblin with a final strike to its neck, Max's already falling to the ground from two Stone Spikes, a Wind Spike, and a quartet of Fireballs that struck it in the span of about five seconds.
Okay, maybe Max went overboard, but he got excited, so I'm not going to blame him.
"Individually," I say. "They never would have gotten this strong this fast. Only because they're fighting something that much above them as a team and struggling are they able to advance as quickly as they can. It's not like with me, where I simply learn and grow at a nigh-impossible rate. This is what's needed to force them into rapid growth.
"It's dangerous," I say. "And without someone like me watching over them, someone able to step in immediately and heal them while simultaneously dealing with the threat, it would never be possible to do. The risk of dying would be too great, especially without the ability to do the combat calculations I can do."
The ability to determine if the team's able to handle things or not. Even the slightest misjudgment can prove cataclysmic and deadly, and that's why I'm watching them as they travel, close enough to step in should it be needed.
The fact that there are three other Dark Knights and four Priests here may also help. Nik stopped by last night to see if there was anything I needed and just to make sure we were doing okay, and I told him I wanted to do this, but didn't because it would be just me.
So he offered to bring a few more of the Dark Order and a few healers, all of them able to use a Level 10 Conceal and who could mask their presences.
Luca's annoying in that he can sense presences of people with strong affinities. It's not the same as my ability to sense people's inner Crystals, but it does derive from something similar. My theory is that after expending that much of his own inner divine power with A'Lutar when Braden died, Luca acquired the ability to sense presences as a result of that holy power.
For the purpose of this stage of their training, they need to think they're not being watched. Luca's looking and acting nervous because he is nervous, and that's told the others that I'm not hiding. They realized quickly after we arrived here that he can sense my presence, and the lack of it terrifies him.
But this is needed for all of them.
"I just hope they aren't too cautious," I admit to Nik. "Braden's judgment is getting better, but they will need to fight some stronger things to grow stronger. If they don't go up against things they'll struggle against on their journey home when they could, I'm going to put them through even more hell the next few days."
"Sometimes, I wonder if you're sadistic," Nik says.
"Not to my team," I shake my head. "Just concerned for their abilities while wanting to help them grow. They agreed to be put through harsh training, and that means being exhausted, beaten, and bruised. They want to participate in the big battle, they need to get stronger."
"You told them Level 50," he says. "Officially, we aren't allowing anyone under Level 100. Even a Level 75 Adventurer would be at too much risk with how many monsters will be there, and even most of the Level 100's to Level 125's will probably die."
"About that," I say. "I intend on reaching Angel before the battle, and I'm sure Nathan will try, as well. And Resurrection is a Skill available to Angels. As long as it's within three days and the body isn't too badly damaged, it can be used on them."
"You keep saying-"
"Big S told me."
"Ah," he says. "What are your plans, after returning to Maelnor?"
"Train my team a little more," I answer. "Battle the Greed Lord with the assembled Adventurers, take my team back here once or twice, to the mines at least once, and to do my own intense training, in addition to individual trainings. My goal is to reach my Second Ascension before the big battle."
I think for a moment.
"And I think I know how to restore the City Barriers," I add. "But I'll wait on that a little bit longer."
"Alright," he says, and we start moving to follow my team again. "Do you need anything else?"
"No," I answer. "Thanks for bringing everyone out here. I know that Big Stone was assembling warriors, not just Druids and such, for the mines. Do you know how big the force that's going to attempt to subdue those Fallen Adventurers caused by the previous attempt on the Demon Kobold King will be?"
"No," he answers. "Speaking of the Crystals, we thought that 'Big S' was 'Big System', and 'Big C' was 'Big Crystal', but Big Flame mentioned that you call Lord Light of Stone 'Big W', so… what do they really mean?"
"He's 'Big Weirdo'."
"I'm not even going to go there," Nik mutters as we locate my team with our eyes again as they sneak past a corner. "And 'Big C'?"
"He's just a Big Child."
Am not!
Big Flame laughs at Big C's response, and Nik snorts.
"And 'Big S'?"
"He's the Big Shit!"