“Morning, Eli,” Gary greeted me as I joined him by the cooking fire he was building. I nodded to him and we quickly prepared a breakfast of oats while everyone trailed over once they finished packing.
“So, yesterday…” Gabrielle trailed off awkwardly while we ate. I glanced up at Gary and watched him take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry for getting us in this situation,” Gary said and raised his hands when everyone tried to speak up. “I know, it was a group decision, but I could have stopped us from coming out here, and I should have. We’ve been too caught up in pushing to E-rank as quickly as possible,” Gary said as he stood up and looked back to the forest. “We could have died back there, just so we could earn a little bit more money. It’s not worth it.”
“You're right,” I nodded, “we have plenty of time to reach E-rank before we have to guard the walls during the next horde. I got so lost in the silver and strength we’ve been gaining that I thought we could handle anything we’d find out there.”
“We made a mistake, let’s just try to be smarter moving forwards,” Gabrielle said. “We can still earn plenty by hunting down the F-rank Awakened hobgoblins when we get back to the Bloodfields.”
“Agreed. Who cares if we can’t gain experience in our classes for a while, we’ll still be able to level our skills while we earn the gold for the E-rank monster cores,” Aaron said optimistically.
“What about Alex and Dan?” I gestured back towards the mountains. We hadn’t seen any signs of them since they disappeared yesterday and I wasn’t as confident that they abandoned us.
“We hope they got back to the bloodfields. It’s possible that they rushed back and camped behind some trees where we couldn’t see them,” Gary said with a grimace. I sighed and nodded wearily. I got up with everyone else and we started back towards the Bloodfields.
We spent the next three weeks moving from village to village in the depths of the Bloodfields. After the first day, we managed to clear two camps on most days, although we still decided to skip the heavily fortified villages when we found them. The fights were still challenging and we made good progress in our skills as the days passed by. By the time we left the Bloodfields to head back to Gorok, we had thirty-two F-rank monster cores to turn in and all five of us had reached level 5 in our classes. We were surprised to see that none of us received a new skill to unlock when we leveled, although there was a chance we would receive a skill once we consumed an E-rank monster core.
Eli - Lvl 5 Druid
One Skill Point Available
Strength-9
Dexterity-9
Perception-8 (+1)
Vitality-8
Spirit-11 (+2)
Willpower-9
Barkskin - Level 7\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 4190\6400
Thornbolt - Level 5\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 3040\3200
Rejuvenation - Level 5\10 (+1) Upgradeable
Experience - 50\3200
Entangle - Level 5\5 (+2) Upgradeable
My stats had started to slow down in their speed of leveling, recently. I only leveled Perception and Spirit once during the three weeks of hunting Awakened, and I used the statistic point I earned to level Spirit again once I leveled my class. On the other hand, I managed to level Rejuvenation again and I had maxed out Entangle a couple of days before we finished. Although there was no obvious difference in the strength of Rejuvenation, Entangle was quickly becoming my most powerful skill. The Awakened hobgoblins would only be able to pull themselves out of the vines if they used a skill to empower themselves. Although I knew I could spend my skill point to upgrade Entangle, I decided to hold off in case another skill was offered when I reached E-rank. The rest of my team managed to make a similar amount of progress in their skills and by our last few days in the Bloodfields we were hardly challenged, even when we fought two Awakened at once.
“We’ll spend a week in Gorok, again,” Gary said as we sat at one of the tables in the adventurers guild. Aaron and Zack left to take the bags of loot to the attendant and I ordered stew and ale for all five of us.
“Sounds good to me,” I replied distractedly as I watched Aaron talking to the attendant.
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“He’s not even listening,” Gabrielle rolled her eyes and laughed from across the table. I tuned her out as I watched Aaron slap Zack on the back and head towards our table with a huge grin on his face.
“Well?” I asked as soon as he sat down. Aaron calmly pulled out three gold coins and pushed them towards me as I grinned.
“Three gold, twenty silver,” Aaron laughed. “Each!” I spent the rest of the night celebrating with my team at the adventurers guild before we left to book rooms at a nearby inn. I woke up the next morning feeling sick and barely made it to my chamber pot before I emptied my stomach.
“Morning,” I said once Gary joined me for breakfast. I cast Rejuvenation on him after he slumped into the chair beside me with a groan.
“Thanks,” Gary perked up after my spell. “I think I’ll grab food at the market. I need some new boots, badly,” he gestured towards his feet. I rolled my eyes and smiled, I’d been listening to him complain about them for a week.
“No problem, I’m gonna head back to the guild. I want to talk to one of the receptionists about where the E-rank dungeons are,” I said as he got ready to leave. “I know it’s a dungeon by the capital, but that’s all I’ve heard about it.”
“Good plan, let me know what you find out,” Gary waved as he left. I waited around for another half hour to see if anyone else would show up so I could cast Rejuvenation, but eventually gave up and headed out. I walked the short distance back to the adventurers guild and walked right to the counter since no adventurers were waiting for this early in the morning.
“How can I help you?” the attendant asked after I walked up to her desk.
“I’m looking for information about where E-rank dungeons…” I trailed off as the woman nodded and waved me to stop.
“There’s only one E-rank dungeon, and it’s a short distance from the capital. It’s called the Depths and you won’t be allowed inside if you're not already at the E-rank, so I wouldn’t bother worrying about it.” The lady looked away once she finished speaking and I awkwardly walked away after I realized she was done. With nothing else to do, I shrugged and headed to the training yards to practice. The next few days passed pleasantly as I spent most of my time split between training and eating. I’d been noticing that I had started to put on some muscle after the months of daily training and fighting, although not nearly as much as Zack. By the time we were ready to head back to the Bloodfields, I was down to just over three gold after I replaced some of my armor and bought a new pack and another month's rations.
“Our last time heading to the Bloodfields, hopefully,” Zack cheered after we passed through the gate on our way out of the city.
“Well, I wouldn’t be against heading back to those mountains once we reach E-rank,” I shrugged thoughtfully. “I found out some more about the Depths, the E-rank dungeon, yesterday,” I shook my head in disgust. “You have to sign up weeks in advance just to enter the dungeon!”
“What? Why?” Aaron looked shocked as he stared at me.
“I don’t know. I heard an E-rank complaining to his team before they went through the portal to the capital,” I replied with a sigh. I had been heading back to the inn after spending the afternoon training when I saw the silver emblem on the teams’ clothes. It was rare to see E-ranks at the guilds we had been to and I stopped to watch them head to the portals.
“E-ranks? Why didn’t you ask them about the dungeon?” Gabrielle asked.
“Why didn’t I ask five E-rank nobles about the dungeon they fight at?” I looked over at her flatly.
“Fair enough,” she sighed. “I wish I knew who to ask about those mountains, I’ve been wondering what caused the Essence to be so dense there.”
“Me too, I’ve never felt anything like it,” I said as I thought back to the odd feeling of the Essence in the mountains. The rest of the day passed quickly as we all chatted about what we thought was causing the strangely dense Essence. Aaron and Gary decided it had to be an E-rank dungeon, while the rest of us thought it was some sort of Essence leyline. Each of us had around three gold left and with another full month to spend we would easily earn enough for each of us to purchase an E-rank core when we returned. There had been a short discussion on pooling our money to allow half of us to level our classes first, but we ultimately decided to advance all together after one more expedition.
I spent the hike to the bloodfields talking with Gary about whether or not I should go ahead and upgrade my Entangle since he was facing a similar choice.
“Trust me, Eli!” Gary looked at me with an annoyed expression on his face. “I want to know what Charge upgrades into just as badly as you want to know what Entangle changes into. Do whatever you want, I’m going to wait.”
“Sorry…” I trailed off as Gary waved good-naturedly. I had probably brought it up too many times. I sighed and tried to be happy about having Essence to spare for leveling Thornbolt primarily during this trip. The rest of the trip to the Bloodfields passed quickly and we entered the forest early on the third day since we left Gorok. Just like our last time in the forest, we tried to clear out two of the small villages every day. I focused almost entirely on casting Thornbolt and Barkskin as I worked to get as much as I could from the routine fights. Although the Awakened hobgoblins were always slightly different from each other, the fights all started to feel the same after a few days. None of us gained much progress in our statistics during the trip and we knew it was because of the easier fights, although no one complained. Losing three people on our last inadvisable trip had lessened my drive to push myself to my limits, and I was still trying to decide if that was a good thing or not.
“We’ll get three gold, sixty silver when we arrive back at Gorok,” Aaron said as we walked back down the path to the city. All five of us were bloody, tired, and sore but Zack laughed and led us in a cheer.
“That should leave each of us with enough for an E-rank monster core and over a gold to spare,” I said with a grin as I clapped Gary on the shoulder. We spent the trip back to the city cheerfully debating what the effects of E-rank would be. I pulled up my status to check on the progress I made during the long month of hunting in the Bloodfields.
Eli - Lvl 5 Druid
One Skill Point Available
Strength-9
Dexterity-9
Perception-8
Vitality-8
Spirit-11
Willpower-10 (+1)
Barkskin - Level 8\10 (+1) Upgradeable
Experience - 60\12800
Thornbolt - Level 6\20 (+1) Upgradeable
Experience - 2240\6400
Rejuvenation - Level 5\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 640\3200
Entangle - Level 5\5 Upgradeable