Climbing into the wild woods, I began to slowly farm the goblins. Although they walked and stood in groups, if you didn't run alongside them and plunge right into the crowd, goblins could be 'pulled out' one by one using a Magic Arrow. Stung by the charge of electricity, a goblin would immediately rush at me, yelling something in his native language. After that, all I had to do is keep my distance from him, slashing with my spear. When the goblin's life drops to 10%, it started to run away, but I finish them with a Magic Arrow.
Goblins, like me, had only a hundred health units. But their weapons deal maximum 5 damage units per hit, plus they swung their weapons at such a speed as if they were underwater. With such their "skill", I did not even try to evade their attacks. Alas, the magicians became true magicians just somewhere about on the 7-th level. Until that moment, I have to swing all sorts of stabbing, cutting objects and evade opponents.
In general, level-up system in this game has an interesting story. They were given not for the stupid killing of an infinite number of enemies, but for... passing the exam. Yes, that's right. It was necessary to come to the Examination Board, and then win the battle against the enemy. Depending on the wishes of the 'customer', you could choose different types of opponents: one fat and slow, but strong; one fast and strong, but quickly dying; a crowd of small creatures attacking in a pack; a duel with medium-sized enemies, the next of which appeared immediately after the death of the previous one; and so on.
Each such battle will be evaluated by the system, after which the player was upgraded or deemed insufficient. To get a second level, you had to make talismans with spells of the first level. Some geniuses could get the third level immediately after the second one. And those who grew their hands out of their ass, or shoulders, but instead of hands were claws, had to collect second-level players' uniforms to achieve the necessary efficiency.
Required map drop on twenty-eighth Goblin, which took almost twenty minutes. To kill one Goblin without letting it get to my body, I had to use magic at least four times. This is eight mana units or forty seconds to restore it. I considered it a waste to spend mana regen potions for the sake of pathetic Goblins. So, I had to rely on my natural regeneration.
During the farm, I got twelve copper coins, twenty-eight Goblin quest teeth and four tin rings, which did not give any advantages, instead of pretty appearance. And, of course, I obtained a map that showed the location of portal which should lead to the boss's dungeon. Each portal is visible only to the owner of the map, so there was no competition for them with other players.
Combining my map of the area and the goblin map, I slowly moved in the right direction. A couple of times I met players who were furiously slashing goblins, but they did not notice me, so the clarification of relations with the victims of my marathon still postponed.
When I reached my destination, I saw that a group of goblins is blocking a way to the portal. After looking around, I found a suitable place and decided to pull the goblins out of this company one by one.
But then the sounds of battle and shouting caught my attention:
“There he is! Don't let him escape.”
Turning around, I saw seven players moving toward me at a rapid pace. Simultaneously with the movement, they beat four goblins who were in their way. The area around me was pitted with gullies and hills, so I had nowhere to run. Only if I pass a group of players. But they clearly will not just stand by and watch how their 'prey' disappear over the horizon. Even if each of them throws one distance spell to me, it will be 70 damage. And after a second, another 70 will arrive, and I will die.
Quickly having made up my decision, I ran straight to the nearest group of goblins. Slipping between them, I reached the entrance to the dungeon in one leap, and then jumped into it without hesitation, agreeing with the question whether I really wanted to go into it or not.
“-You have entered the wandering dungeon of the Earth Krait Worm.”
What?! What worm? Hell, I think, I got a wrong map. In the end, this map gave only an approximate location of the entrance. Meanwhile, the following inscription appeared in front of me.
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“-This dungeon is designed for a group of 5 people. Until your group completes its passage, the entrance to the dungeon will be blocked.”
Well, that's great. Turning around, I saw a 'gray' canvas of the portal, which indicated that it became inactive. Now I can't even get out of here. So, I have only two options, I can die here or I need to go and kill the group boss.
Yesterday in the library, I didn’t give attention to this boss. Because, it was designed for a group of first levels, so it should have been fairly simple. But since I am not going to play in a group, I didn't read about this dungeon and this group boss. My desired stones will fell from bosses who could be killed by one player or as part of a group of two people. I wasn't going to mess with the group boss which I didn't want anything from it. But now it is too late to drink Borjomi. I had to go and try to get through this fucking dungeon. And then I'll have to figure out how to get rid of the pursuers waiting for me.
Taking the spear in both hands, I prepared for battle and began to walk slowly forward. The dungeon really looked like an earthworm's burrow. The walls were made of crumbling soil and clay. True, there were cobwebs stretched across the passage, but they somehow passed through my body, completely ignoring my existence.
For the first hundred meters, I literally crept forward, expecting that someone will jump to me with scream. But no one was in a hurry to attack me. Then I quickened my pace and went forward, somewhat irritated, tearing through the cobwebs. Five minutes later, when I must have walked about four hundred meters, a large cave appeared in front of me, in the center of which the boss was 'sleeping', curled up in a figure that is often depicted when they want to say 'Oh shit'. The inscription above the boss clearly identified him as my target.
I didn't get excited, but began to walk slowly around the room, studying my surroundings. As it turned out, I did it for a reason. On the opposite side of the hall, there was a large 'stone' that I could easily climb on it. Maybe this stone is here for some purpose? So, I climbed on the rock, using the ledges as steps. Just climbing on this detail of relief I found nothing worthy of my attention. Well, so what now?
Deciding that I would always have time to jump down, I turned to the boss, chose his as target, and threw a Magic Arrow spell to it. The worm immediately stirred up, raised its head, and screamed so loudly that my skull almost cracked. Three seconds of that wild scream was probably too much. But as soon as the scream of the worm fade away, a wild, many-voiced squeal of similar voices was heard from the corridor from which I had recently came out. A second later, a stream of worms literally flew out of corridor, each of which has at least fifteen centimeters in diameter, and more than a meter long.
I just prepared to die but the small worms suddenly attacked the big one and began to tear it apart. Boss tried to resist, but the forces were too unequal. In just a minute, the boss's life has reduced to zero, after which it screamed one last time and exploded with streams of acid that killed all small worms in the hall. I've been sitting on the stone all this time, so I didn't even get a unit of damage. Finally, the wild screams subsided, and silence descended on the hall.
What was just happen? But before I could do anything, a message appeared in front of me:
“-Congratulations on completing of the Earth Krait Worm dungeon. Until all players exit the dungeon, it becomes a safe zone.”
And after that, two more messages immediately popped up in the world chat, highlighted by an animation of 'flaming fire'.
“Players: Cheater were the first who could pass the Earth Krait Worm dungeon on the server.”
“Players: Cheater set a new record of passing the Earth Krait Worm dungeon. New passing time is 10:07. Damage received by players: 0. Deaths: 0. Previous record of the dungeon is improved by 1:19:53.”
I didn't know whether to be happy or cry when a couple more notifications appeared.
“-For the first kill of Earth Krait Worm, you get a permanent bonus +1% to poison damage.”
“-For setting a new record in the Earth Krait Worm dungeon, you get a bonus + 5% to poison damage. This bonus is valid until someone surpasses your record.”
Yes, it's a good luck. Apparently, the record is considered to pass the dungeon in less than an hour and a half. I passed it in ten minutes and didn't even know what went wrong. However, I will think about it later. It is time to collect the loot.
I jumped down from the rock and walked over to the boss's corpse, which was slowly melting into the mist. Already habitually extending my hand, I activated the collection of loot, and a window appeared in front of me, similar to the inventory, which contained one item. Without looking, I clicked 'OK', and then opened inventory to see what I got.
The reward was a 'golden' spear, designed for the first level. When I picked it up, I saw that it looked as if it were made of gold. Weapon classes were divided into: gray, white, green, blue, purple, gold, and diamond. Golden things were considered almost the ceiling of what a player can get. Only rare lucky people could take possession of diamond equipment, and there were always a few of them. As for the gold items, they can be 'scaled', and their damage depended on the level of player and from the 'quality' of talismans inserted into it. Even now, without talismans and at the first level, this spear deals 50 damage per hit.