I had a feeling that raising my body stat would reduce the amount of sleep I needed, and I was becoming more and more sure of that being true. Despite having been awake for probably close to 20 hours now, I still only felt a little bit sleepy, as if it had only been around 12 hours.
After dropping off one of the two swords I’d grabbed at what looked like a community stockpile, I spotted a large group that seemed to be deep in discussions. Ben was among them, and he was one of the few that actually seemed to be speaking.
The group discussing the issue was about 20 people, though it only took a moment to see that five people were actively engaged in the conversation. Those five included Ben, one tan woman with a scowl that just didn’t seem to want to go away, a bulky man wearing his full set of chainmail armor despite the safety of the floor, an absolutely ancient looking old man, and a woman who wore the same purple mage robes that I did.
Ben spotted me and motioned me over. I walked around the group and made my way over to him, and we talked in a low voice while the others continued their discourse.
“Hey, did you make any progress on the next floor?” He asked.
“Yeah, I made it to floor three.”
“Really? Were the goblins not too much of a problem?”
“Well, they were definitely an obstacle. The extra stats from our title made the fight far easier than it would have been otherwise, so let others know when going down there that a group is definitely recommended.”
“Will do. So, what level are you now?”
“Nine.” I say, and he looks surprised again.
“Nine? You gained seven levels in that short time that you were gone?”
“I managed to wipe out an entire goblin city on my own, including one goblin that was definitely supposed to be some kind of ‘boss’ monster. Damn thing cut my weapon clean in half.”
“Still, doesn’t that seem a little excessive?”
“Maybe, but who am I to judge how many levels the system gives me?”
“I guess so. Anyways, I should probably introduce you to the others. They’d feel a lot more comfortable knowing there was somebody at the camp that is this high of a level.”
“Why’s that?”
Ben grimaces, and I get the sense that what I’d feared might happen had come true. “There are people going around and killing smaller groups of people. We assume they are doing it for the easy levels.”
I frown, understanding how serious the conversation was suddenly getting. “Do you have a plan for if they come after this group?”
“I don’t think we need to worry about that.” Ben assures me. “We could almost certainly fight them off with our superior numbers, and they will be unlikely to attack us due to that.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” I say. “I know this isn’t exactly something you are going to want to hear, but with my improved stats from the levels, plus improving my use of magic, I could probably take down half of this camp before somebody was able to stop me, and even then there is a very good chance I could get away with my body stats focused on agility. Individual power seems to matter a lot more here than it ever did before this whole tutorial shit started.”
Ben paused, and it seemed like he was considering something. He was about to speak again, but the scowling woman from before intervened before he could. She had a thick accent, and while I couldn’t quite place it, it was clear that Spanish was likely her native language.
“What are you two talking about over there?” She asks, her voice having an edge to it. “You got any ideas for how we can secure enough food for all of us? If so please do speak up.”
Ben coughs, quickly recovering. “I was catching him up on our current discussion. This is River, the person I mentioned who was exploring the second floor.”
“Well River, did you happen to find any way for us to gather food? Don’t bother mentioning the extra deer down there, because we already have people who’ve begun hunting them.”
Well, I was going to mention the extra deer. I’d thought before that the deer would be enough to feed our camp, but that was before I saw how much it had now grown. Pure hunting was unlikely to feed a group this large. I think for a moment, before an idea pops into my head.
“The goblin cities.” I say. “They probably have food stored somewhere within. With how many goblins there were, they probably needed a way to feed them all each day.”
“Did you find one of these goblin cities?”
“I did.”
“Did you find any food within?”
I try to dig through my memory, which feels a lot easier than I expected. I can remember everything I saw more clearly than I was used to. “I did. They were cooking skewers of meat over fires.”
There is a bit of mumbling around the group for a moment, until the woman in the purple robes spoke up. “It’s better than nothing at least. We will send some of our higher leveled hunters to raid one of these camps. Hopefully they can find where they keep the food.”
“I think you should send River with them.” Ben says, speaking up once more. “As far as I know, he is the highest leveled among our camp, and could intervene if the hunting group is put in any danger.”
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I stay silent, already onboard with the plan but a bit put off that I had just been volunteered to play bodyguard.
The armored man finally speaks up. “I can lead the first raid on one of these goblin cities. I’d appreciate having River there if it means more safety for my team.”
“Perfect.” The first woman says. “Take a healer with you in case anything goes wrong.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” The man says, before turning to me. “Are you ready to go?”
My eyebrows raise in surprise. “Right now?”
“Yes, right now. Food is an immediate problem, and any potential solution is one we must take advantage of as soon as possible.”
“I guess that’s true.” I respond, still unsure if going out in the dead of night was a good idea.
The others continued there discussions while I followed the armored man around the camp. He gathered a few people before we all headed for the staircase. Our group consisted of the armored man, one healer, two archers, and another mage. Once we get down to the second floor, they begin leading me towards a goblin city they’d discovered earlier that day.
“While we walk, why don’t we get this group acquainted with one another? I already know each of you, but if we are going to be fighting together you should get to know one another.” The armored man says. “Names, classes, and levels. I’ll go first. My name is Roderick, I am a fighter, and at the moment I am level 5.”
There is a pause after that, before the one and only healer in the group speaks up. He introduces himself, and as it turns out he is only level 3. Actually, after every member of the group speaks up, I come to find out that not a single one of them is higher than level four besides Roderick.
I am up last, so I introduce myself. “My name is River, and I am a mage. I am also level 9.”
The others seem shocked at this, and even Roderick is caught off guard.
“How are you level 9 already?” One of the archers asks.
“I wiped out one of the goblin cities.” I say.
“On your own? Huh, maybe we didn’t need you here after all if they are so easy to deal with.”
I just stay silent as we keep walking. I’m not sure how true it is that they wouldn’t need me here, but given how strong the goblin leader had been I wasn’t sure how well they’d be able to deal with it. Given that Roderick was almost certainly focused on strength over speed, he could probably go toe to toe with it, but with whatever attack it had performed that made it’s sword glow, I wasn’t completely convinced that the fight would be incident free.
When we get to the city, it is once more in the center of a clearing. Roderick and the others start planning their attack while I climb a tree, trying to get a better idea of what this particular city was like compared to the other one I’d seen.
My eyebrows furrow in confusion after about a minute of looking. As far as I could tell, this was an absolute carbon copy of the other city. It even had the tents all in the same place, with the lone wooden building also being positioned in the exact same location. I could also see the staircase in the center of the camp, though none of the goblins seemed to be acknowledging that it even existed.
As I was trying to come up with some reason that the two camps would be so similar, the group below begins charging the goblins. The two archers fire off several arrows, dealing with the archers atop the wall, and as a group they manage to take out the three guards at the entrance.
From there, they break down the front gate with Roderick's brute strength. That wasn’t saying too much, as the gate wasn’t particularly strong, but it did show that he was stronger than I’d been when I took out a city. I’d had to climb the walls to get in.
The five of them proceed to slaughter everything in site. They don’t have to be particularly careful, as there are five of them to watch every direction at once, but it still hurt me a bit to see how much ease they handled it with. Roderick especially seemed to be having an easy time of it, as him killing a goblin didn’t require an expenditure of mana. He could just keep going until he was too tired to continue.
In a shockingly short amount of time, it was just the lone goblin warrior remaining. That too quickly fell among the onslaught of arrows, sword strikes, and spells. It had managed to get a fairly devastating blow on Roderick, leaving a deep gash in his arm, but the healer had managed to patch that up in less than a minute.
I climbed down from the tree, jogging over to the camp as the others were scouring it for food. When I arrived, Roderick was in the middle of trying to open the door to the wooden building, but it refused to budge.
“Do you think you could try and open this?” Roderick asked, a bit of a defeated look on his face.
“Sure.” I say, shrugging. After I push and pull a bit, I see that the door is not going to move easily. “Back up.” I tell the others, before placing my palm directly in the center of the door. I cast mana blast, putting a bit of extra mana into it. I want to get this done with one use instead of having to waste the extra mana on a second cast.
The door shatters into splinters at the attack, and the shards of wood are sent flying to the opposite wall. The smell of blood immediately hits my nose, making me turn away. It wasn’t the smell of fresh blood like was coming from the goblins, but the smell of blood that had been there for a while, a permanent smell that came with the building.
Looking inside, we could finally see what was stored within the building.
12 deer, all gutted and hung up, were stored within the building. I briefly wonder how goblins learned that you should hang a deer after killing it, but that doesn’t really matter.
The others in my group let out a cheer that was half filled with disgust, before they seem to realize something important. Roderick voices the fear that everybody in the room had the moment we saw all of the carcasses.
“Alright, 12 deer and six of us. That doesn’t sound too bad to carry. These new levels will certainly help.”
Groans go all around the group, but we do still grab two deer each. They are heavy, gross, and awkward to carry, but thankfully the staircase isn’t even 20 meters away. While dragging them over, I ask Roderick a question.
“Hey, out of curiosity how many levels did you earn for clearing the camp?”
Roderick grimaces a bit. “Only two. I’d been hoping for more after you said you jumped to level 9, but I guess I received less since we fought in a group. The notification for clearing the camp even said as much.”
“Wow.” I say. “I guess fighting solo gives more of a boost to levels than I’d thought. I already knew about that bonus, but the difference between going from level 5 to 7 and going from level 2 to 9 puts it more into perspective.”
“Wait a minute. You were only level 2 when you cleared one of these cities? Even if you are a better fighter than us, I just don’t see how that could be reasonable.”
I try to think of a reason for my success. What could I say that wouldn't come across as me having not done much in the way of self preservation.
“I, uh, developed my own spell. That made things easier.” I say. “I improved the basic mana bolt too. Made it a lot stronger.”
Roderick still looked suspicious. “If you don’t mind, could you show me that stronger spell?”
“Sure.” I say, setting down the deer I’d been dragging. I point my wand at the nearest wall of the city, dumping half of my mana pool into this one singular cast of the spell. Maybe it was the fact that I used so much mana, or maybe it was because I’d gained 7 levels since last casting the spell, but when that mana bolt hit the wall, it left a basketball sized hold straight through it.
“Yeah, that’d do it.” Roderick said, shrugging and moving on. I just stared at my own wand, amazed. The inner scientist within me was starting to get excited, and I eagerly began dragging the deer to the staircase, excited to do some more experimenting with my mana once I got back to the camp.