It was an odd feeling for Mathew to sit back and watch someone else go in and fight. Ever since fighting the Pack Leader wolf, he has been at the forefront of almost every battle that he was involved in. Taking on the most danger and all the rewards related to it.
Sitting on a rock with only a single wisp summoned watching his two Infernal summons go into battle was new.
Yet he welcomed it. Before he leaves this floor, he will send the two to clear out an entire Novice Dungeon alone. Mathew wanted to see if it still counted as him clearing it himself. They are, afterall, his summons. If it didn’t count, then The System clearly had loopholes. Loopholes he could further exploit. The System had several, he just needed to find more.
The idea of Agnox getting similar Titles and gaining tremendous amounts of extra stats would only help him in the long run. The stronger his summons, the stronger he would be in turn.
Jeffery’s metal armor covered all of his sides, back, and neck. His legs were mostly exposed to keep him mobile. While his underbelly was only covered with leather. It was clearly made by Zack. It mimicked the style that Agnox had with his Infernal armor. Jeffery’s was mixed with the Volkar leathers giving him a bit more color to his red and gray fur.
Right as the first of the boars noticed the pair, Jeffery let out a low howl. His head was raised high up into the air. Agnox’s blade was lit ablaze as he flew into the air above the boars.
Mathew watched, seeing if he could spot anything the two could improve on. Instantly Jeffery charged forward and leapt into the group of boars. At first, Mathew was about to instantly go and save the idiot. “What is he thinking jumping into them all!”
That was when Agnox flew down above the entire pack and fire exploded outward from him. All the boars were covered with singed flesh. Even from where he was sitting, Mathew could smell it.
Jeffery seemed unscathed by the flames, and continued to bite and bash his way through the pack. Agnox threw three [Fire Bolts] before he started to attack boars with his height advantage.
Mathew found their tactics amusing. It was no different than when he fought with them, yet there was a certain synergy between the two. Mathew hardly had time to focus on either of them during a fight. Now he could see they were close.
Way closer than he originally thought. Jeffery acted as the shield to Agnox’s blade. It wasn’t perfect, but Mathew foresaw what the two could become for him.
He watched Agnox roll in the air as he dodged the boss' giant tusks. The large pig-like creature was not happy, its family was threatened.
More blackened injuries covered the boars as Agnox slashed at them all with his blade. Then he took off back into the sky, far out of range of any attacks, leaving Jeffery alone.
The wolf acquired the gaze of the boss, as it was the only enemy it could attack. A weird screech came from the boss as it charged forward at Jeffery. It cared not for what was in its way.
Jeffery tried to leap out of the way to avoid the attack entirely, but it was caught from the pigs swinging head to catch Jeffery on its giant tusks. It didn’t impale the armor luckily, but a large dent was seen even from Mathew’s view point.
Agnox flew back down, landing a critical blow to the boar's back. That seemed to royally piss it off as it bucked up at Agnox, trying to throw him off it’s back. Mathew had forgotten Agnox had the [Backstab] Ability until that moment.
“They have this easily. I shouldn’t ne-” Mathew’s eyes went wide as pain enveloped his entire body. His mouth was agape as a silent scream came from him. His vision went fuzzy before he collapsed to the ground twitching violently. A blue screen hovered in front of him, but he didn’t have a moment to read it.
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“A few more attacks and the boss is dead Jeff! Keep up the good work!” Agnox called to his canine partner.
Agnox was having fun. Actual fun. His entire focus wasn’t on both protecting Mathew and attacking a powerful enemy. The boar alone was weak. The only reason he fought with run away tactics was due to the sheer large number.
Jeffery was unstoppable with his armor and defensive bulk. The two would go far. Jeffery was all he had to connect to his Infernal home.
Agnox flew down and thrusted his flaming blade into the boar's back. “Gotcha. Just as the human saying goes, the larger they are, the harder they are to take down. Yet, this guy is a scoop of cake!”
Jeffery barked at Agnox in annoyance.
“Hey, I did not say it wrong! Let’s finish the little guys, then we can finish off the mother.”
Agnox swiftly went from boar to boar slicing them with his flaming blade. The ability slowly drained him of mana, but thanks to his [Soul Bound Familiar] ability, he had plenty to let loose in this fight.
That was Mathew’s intention. For everyone to get stronger.
Agnox took down four more boars, leaving behind five little ones and the boss. He took a glance toward Mathew to see his expression. Instead of an amused smile he liked to have on his face or the far away gaze of him in thought, Mathew was on the ground. His body was thrashing.
“MATHEW!” Agnox yelled in shock. While he was distracted, the boss boar got an easy hit on him, sending him flying across the ground.
Jeffery jumped back between Agnox and the boars. He barked thrice and growled in defiance.
Agnox coughed and wheezed. He quickly glanced down to see a large gash across his torso. “Shit. Thanks Jeff. We need to end this, Mathew is hurt for some reason. He isn’t dead, otherwise we would know.”
Now that Agnox thought about it, he felt pain coming from somewhere else than the one on his body. Deeper. It was mute, but Agnox knew it was coming from Mathew, and slowly growing.
Agnox took a deep breath and stood up. “You keep the little ones off me. I’ll finish momma.”
Jeffery snorted in agreement and charged forward. Mathew didn’t realize how much respect Jeffery had for his master. He was strong. He was the pack leader! Anything that threatened the Pack Leader had to go through him. Mathew depended upon Jeffery to be his wall. His shield. Yet, something took him down while he was distracted.
Jeffery bashed his way through the weak boars. They all tried to bash him back in return, but he didn’t move. He was three times their size, and with the added weight of the armor, they couldn’t make him move.
The larger one however could. It charged at him, yet Jeffery was ready. He dove down between its legs just as Agnox pierced through its side. Flames grew as Agnox dumped almost all his mana into [Flare].
A twenty meter circle of flames erupted from him. Bathing everything into singes. The giant boar was barely alive as half its body was burnt to a crisp.
Jeffery didn’t waste a moment and went to finish it off. His claws raked across its burnt body, driving the pain further until it collapsed dead.
Agnox knew Jeffery could finish the fight if anything was left alive, and went to check on Mathew.
His face was pale, far paler than usual and sweat covered his head. Agnox didn’t know but the barest of first aid, and that was only with physical wounds. Whatever was afflicting Mathew wasn’t something he could resolve.
Mathew continued to twitch violently. Agnox lifted one of his eyelids and saw Mathew’s pupils were wide. “Mathew! Can you hear me! Speak to me, what’s wrong?”
Yet there was no response.
Agnox glanced left and right, to try and find the source of his summoner's demise. “You can’t die on me Mathew. We have come so far, and I still need you.” With no visual change, Agnox stomped the ground in anger. “Fuck!”
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Jeffery trotted over, and nudged Mathew with his nose. Yet both the summons were at a loss of how to help their master.
Agnox dismissed the windows related to the Dungeon. He glanced toward the exit. There was only one hope. Agnox picked up Mathew, and tied him to Jeffery’s back with some spare rope. He was fourtuned Mathew was light. He barely had 30 strength, but it was enough.
“Come on, hopefully nobody will attack us and we can find some help.”
Agnox left the Dungeon first, to ensure it was safe. He saw nobody around. “Where the hell are those three at? They should be here by now.” He glanced upwards. “Fate is crude. Damn System.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Agnox winced and glanced around.
“Even if Mathew and the other humans underestimate The System, I can’t keep cursing at it. It listens to all.”
Agnox took off to the sky to look for help. He was willing to take any type of help, pay any amount. He knew Mathew would want that much done to try and save him.
Jeffery came out of the portal, already growling in case any enemies were nearby. Noticing the lack of foes, he glanced up at Agnox. Waiting for him to choose what to do next.
Agnox was in charge now. If either of the wisps were here, Agnox would still be in charge, since he was the only one that can talk. Jeffery understood that much.
For as far as either of them could see, there were no other humans. Agnox floated down to Jeffery. “Let’s move toward where we saw that larger group go. Hopefully we can find them and they won’t kill Mathew. We need to be wary.”
Agnox dug into one of Mathew’s bags and pulled out a gun. He loaded the magazine as he was shown and put it into his own bag. It was one of the few backup plans since guns don’t need mana to use.
He then dug out a pill and fed it to Jeffery. “Stamina recovery pill.” Agnox explained. Mathew went over several contingency plans, yet nothing this drastic. There were plans if Mathew was injured physically, but this wasn’t one of them. They also included knowing where the closest healer was like Brown or Dr. Garcia. Even Leo was considered until he left for a healer.
The two started to hike in search of help. Agnox was incharge of taking out any enemies. Even for his Level 19 self, the less than Level 9 creatures were no match. It was good experience and training for his powers.
Right now he had his [Ignite Blade] Ability ready to upgrade, but he waited. He was going to save the upgrade choice for whatever fight he needed the bonus power up for. Yet another plan Mathew came up with.
The pair of summons traveled for nearly two hours. They only detected a single group. Agnox scouted them out first, and determined them unsafe. The way they killed anything on sight was a problem for him. They all used guns, and just didn’t give Agnox any good feelings.
He needed to trust his gut.
The sun was finally setting. Nearly twenty hours have gone by since they entered this place. It was obvious the light and dark cycle wasn’t like on earth.
Agnox glanced at Mathew’s unconscious body. He had stopped twitching an hour ago, but he had yet to wake up. Worry continued to grow in his mind.
“I’m going for another scouting loop. Stay in open areas so I can find you better.” Agnox said to Jeffery before flying into the air.
Agnox was typically lazy with his ability to fly. Not carrying to move faster than a walking pace outside of battle. Yet now he had already taken his armor off to move faster. Fly further. Tire out slower.
He flew a wide arc around where Jeffery would be. To his surprise, he spotted smoke in the distance. Not just one pillar, but several. Hope blossomed inside of him.
He swiftly made his way closer, but not close enough to be easily spotted. A dozen tents were set up in a circle. People were milling around among each other, all with matching armor. Most of it looked like the stuff Captain Henderson’s guards and the other humans wore when he first battled them all.
“If they are also American’s, Mathew would be safe with them.” Agnox thought to himself. Mathew rarely touched on the smaller clans or guilds that Earth had before The System introduced itself. Rather, the ‘Countries’ they were.
Agnox found it funny that even before how things truly worked, Humans from Earth still gathered into groups like everyone else did.
He trusted such a large group. Nobody seemed agitated, nor mistreated. A few injuries were spotted among them, with a singular man treating each of them.
Agnox reunited with Jeffery a short moment later. “Okay, I found a group. They are that way, we follow the smoke and we can get Mathew some help.”
Jeffery picked up speed. Moving as fast as he could without causing his master to flop around.
Humans would trust a dog like creature with a human on his back. An Imp? Agnox knew that his job was done, and now it was to move into an out of sight role.
“Keep him safe. I’ll watch from a distance buddy.” Agnox said as they got closer to the group of humans.
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Being a doctor in an age of magic and fantasy was interesting work. Yet, Dr. Shutlz continued to perform his job, regardless of the circumstances. Upon acquiring his profession and class, both related to medicine, his usefulness to curing mankind of ailments only grew.
He was dragged into this Dungeon partially against his will, partially because he had no other choice. Monsters had raided his home, and this was the only option for safety.
“Okay Brandon. That cut looks clean now. Let me patch you up, and you are cleared for work tomorrow.” Dr. Shutlz smiled at the younger lad.
“Thanks Doc. We would all be dead without ya.”
He watched his latest patient walk off over to the food table. The boar meat had been cleared, and deemed safe to eat. Many of the soldiers and workers were excited to have fresh food like this. Being forced to eat rations for weeks was not safe for the human mind.
He was packing up his supplies, the last of the injured taken care of for the night. He turned to one of his nurses. “Sarah, how is our main guest?”
“She is fine. Still not talking, but will eat food at least.”
He nodded. “Surely she will come around. We need her to survive once we leave this place.”
Shouting erupted from the south of the camp. Dr. Shutlz glanced that way, “Now what? More monsters?”
“DOC! WE GOT A LIVE ONE! But no clue how much longer!”
Dr. Shutlz’s eyes went wide, instantly he threw his bag open and pulled everything out. “Sarah, prepare for the worst. The guards don’t get that scared without due cause.”
Dr. Shutlz was ready for almost anything. A man with missing limbs. Poison. Hell, even burned flesh. Yet when he saw a perfectly normal looking man being carried in, he was perplexed. The leader of the guards, Tobias, looked like he saw a ghost.
“He looks fine to me. Why did you act like he was bleeding out?” Dr. Shutlz half demanded an answer from Tobias.
“Sorry Doc, there was a…”
A giant red furred wolf trotted next to the man on the table. He didn’t growl, but even Dr. Shutlz saw the threat in the beast's eyes.
“Is that thing safe?” He asked Tobias.
“He hasn’t hurt anyone. We barely convinced it to let us carry the man. Just…don’t kill the man. I don’t think that’s a normal wolf.”
Dr. Shultz’s eyes went over the wolf. “Is it a summon? A pet? Tamed beast?” He shook his head and focused on the current situation.
“Right. Okay Sarah, do the scan. I want our new guest to be eating pork for breakfast on his own.”
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Agnox found a tree to sit in. Four magically enchanted bags were safely stored away in hidden spots he chose. A pair of binoculars were clasped in his hands. “Good job Jeff. Now let’s hope someone can fix up Mathew.”