"Don't shout so loudly. Something might hear us..." whispered Alzeth.

"Okay..." said Mei, slightly embarrassed.

Alzeth picked up the shield and stuffed it into his inventory. He also stuffed the zombie's corpse into his inventory something Mei found somewhat distasteful. Alzeth picked up the zombie's sword and handed it to her.

"You can take the sword if you want," said Alzeth.

"Oh, thanks."

Mei wasn't too keep in using a sword used by a zombie, but she accepted it anyway. She used Scan on it.

Greyed Sword (CURSED)

Type: Sword

Rarity: Common

LVL: 10

267/300 DUR

Effects

+200 DMG

Grey Curse

You lose 10% of your max HP every 60 seconds, slightly repairing the DUR of the weapon. Hallucinations of horrible monstrosities attacking will appear often. The Grey Moss will try to take control of your body at random intervals, making your movements sluggish or even completely controlling you for 5 seconds

That... didn't seem like a good trade-off for twice the damage of her old sword. She quickly stuffed it into her inventory, slightly afraid that the effects might trigger at any time.

"So... all the loot from the dungeon will be cursed?" Mei asked uncertainly.

"Not exactly according to the forums, but around ninety percent of the equipment." Alzeth.

"Oh... But didn't you say the shops don't buy junk? Why are we keeping them?" Mei was unsure why he wanted to waste limited inventory.

"Who knows when it will come in handy?" Alzeth shrugged. "Might as well keep everything when you have inventory space.

"That attitude will make your inventory full of garbage," said Emerr.

"Having a bit of everything comes in handy at times. Also, shhh... monsters."

They walked quietly as they could, seeking out random zombies to kill. Several zombies went down smoothly, Alzeth pocketing all the corpses and weapons. Mei's SpellSword class finally reached Lv10, giving her her first skill. She was very pleased.

Mana Slash

100 MP, 5 seconds cooldown

The most basic attack of the SpellSword class. Charging the blade of a weapon with mana allows for more powerful attacks.

Damage Formula

Physical Damage + 1.1x (Magical Damage)

Bonus magical damage if the sword is a good mana conductor.

Next Level:

Physical Damage + 1.2x (Magical Damage)

MP Cost -> 200

Your Skill Points: 13

Click here to level up the skill (1 Skill Point)

Mei decided to only use 4 skill points to level up the skill to Lv5, increasing the Magical Damage to 1.5x and the MP cost to 500. She thought it was probably not good to blow too many points on an early skill, but she still wanted to be of use in fights, not a useless teammate that hit like a... not very strong person. Mei wasn't too good at coming with metaphors.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

It was a while of walking later when they heard something abnormal. The sound of clashing metal and shouts came from ahead.

"Inferno Blade!" 

They saw a flash of fiery light from the distance. 

"I think it's one of those high levelled grinders. No zombie would be chunni enough to shout their attack name!" said Alzeth.

As they approached, they saw a man in burning red robes pouring buckets of water on a burning moss covered golem that was sliced cleanly into half and covered in slashes. As the man tossed another bucket of water, the golem finally stopped burning. Mei used Scan on the man, revealing that his username was Green_Pepper.

Pepper stared at them cautiously, his eyes darting back to the halves golem once in a while, as if afraid the trio would steal it.

"Um... Hi." said Mei nervously.

The man squinted, something that was not needed as his burning robes lit up the place quite well. He quickly used scan on them. Seeing their level, he let down their guard.

"What are you bunch of newbs doing here?" he asked.

"We were looking for monsters around level twenty to kill," said Alzeth.

"Hmph, there are barely any of those weaklings around," said Pepper. "See this golem thing here?"

The man turned to it and kicked it. 

"These things are everywhere! They would kill newbs like you in one punch! I, however, can kill these things in one hit, haha!" he said smugly.

"Okay." said Alzeth. "Why not help us out if you are so strong then?"

Pepper was taken aback for a second. Wasn't this newb a bit too direct? Even if a person wanted help, they should be a bit more persuasive, right?

"What reason do I have to help you out anyway?" he asked.

"I don't know? To be nice?" said Alzeth.

"Go find someone else to be your Mr Nice. I'm busy," grumbled Pepper.

"Okay, that's not nice. Also, your robe is still on fire. You should do something about that." said Alzeth.

"That's a pyromancy spell for lighting up dark places," said Pepper.

Alzeth didn't answer.

He took out a knife of sorts, then began hacking at the head of the golem until the exterior shattered. Inside was a grey orb, the core of the golem. He quickly stuffed it into his inventory. Afterwards, he took the armguards attached to the golem's arms and pocketed them too.

"Okay, you are not busy now." said Alzeth.

Pepper stared at Alzeth with an exasperated look. Alzeth stared back. After a short 'game' of starring, Pepper sighed.

"Fine! I'll help you guys out for a bit, okay? Just don't expect me to protect you when a high levelled enemy comes in and wipes you all out."

Alzeth turned to Emerr smugly. 

"See? I told you I would be able to find someone to help us."

"You are the least charismatic person I've ever met in my life," she answered.

Alzeth laughed.

"Thanks for helping us," Mei said to Pepper.

"No problem. Grinding alone can get a bit boring at times."

"Hmm, but why didn't you just join a party earlier though?" asked Mei, curious.

"I logged in at 4 AM. No one was online to party with me," said Pepper.

"Oh..."

Mei felt like that might be a tiny bit early to get up and start grinding.

"You didn't meet anyone else here while grinding?" asked Alzeth. "Also, I'm sending a party invite to you."

"Nah. Not many people come here since the loot sucks for the most part. Heck, I only came here because I needed golem cores for a quest." said Pepper as he reluctantly accepted the invite.

"Oh, that's easy," said Alzeth. "I heard all you need to do is to attack the walls to spawn them!"

Alzeth raised his pole and swung it towards the mossy wall.

"NO! What-" shouted Pepper.

But he was too late. With a sound that sounded like cardboard being hit, a red damage number popped out from the wall.

-1068!

"-are you doing?" Pepper finished his shout.

Alzeth shrugged.

The wall began to shake as mossy fists punched out of the wall. They pressed themselves against the wall, pulling a head with a single glowing eye and a huge torso out. The golem stared at them menacingly as it struggled to get out.

"What the heck? You actually spawned a heart golem! What type of horrible luck is this?" yelled Pepper.

"Huh? What are those?"

"They are moss golems that are like ten times stronger or something! Even I would struggle to deal with those!"

"What? The forum post I read didn't say anything about that!" Alzeth seemed shocked for some reason.

"It's a really small chance, like maybe five percent! Most people don't know that it even happens!" Pepper continued in a panic.

The golem finally emerged, plopping onto the ground.

"Why the heck didn't you hit the golem while it was getting out?" shouted Alzeth, suddenly realising that Pepper could have whacked it in the face several times as it struggled out.

"It can kill me in one hit!" shouted Pepper back.