Both groups charged at each other, one pushing their speed to the limit, the other shambling ever closer. Owen barely remembered to use his Keen eye and was surprised.
*Inferior Roseborn human level 12. Roseborn humans are a plant type enemy that uses human corpses as armor. It can ejected thorns from the carcass in surprise attacks.*
He quickly shouted out the info to Peggy and Myra who both gave shouts of affirmation. All three enemies were level 12 and despite being the same type they all looked drastically different, though from the sounds of it, that was based on how they grew through the carcass.
Owen immediately activated empowered body at the full 25% buff and was confused for only a moment.
*You have 1000 out of 1000 health points. You have 858 out of 1430 mana points.*
"I guess for whatever reason, I have more than half mana." Not wanting to do the math mid fight, he focused back in on the two enemies in front of him. Both were now within his range. The one on the right seemed to pulse with the speed only becoming more and more rapid. Owen dodged back right as the enemy threw thorns everywhere. They tore through its ally's body, but didn't seem to impeded it at all.
"Alright, time to get serious." He managed to dodge most of the attacks thrown his way and the ones he didn't dodge he was able to quickly heal. He weaved through attacks, managing to keep them at the very edge of his spear range. He charge mana into his spear and stabbed faster than his opponents could react.
The one that had kept shooting out thorns at him stabbed right through the head. Then pulling and rotating his body quickly, he created a thin cut through the second enemies chest, though roots grew to hold the flesh together. Owen wanted to vomit at the sight, but couldn't spare the chance as the two enemies grasped arms awkwardly and began to fuse together. "Peggy, Myra! They can fuse, cut them down quick." Using his keen eye on the new form he was surprised.
*Inferior Roseborn Giant level 18. Roseborn humans are a plant type enemy that uses human corpses as armor. It can ejected thorns from the carcass in surprise attacks.*
It stood at about 3 meters now, having grown wider as well. It didn't seem faster however, but each of it's attacks had cause cracks in the walls and concrete floor. Owen imbued his spear with the max possible mana and stabbed hard into its legs but it didn't seem to be doing any damage. "Guys, I can't hurt this thing." He spared less than a seconds amount of attention to see that Peggy was having the same issue, but Myra was wielding short axes that were slicing her opponent to shreds.
Forced to wait for her to come to his rescue. He continued to dodge and attack, though he didn't imbue his weapons with mana anymore. Regardless, he could feel his bonus stats leaving as empowered body wore off. The Roseborn giant finally landed an attack that threw Owen against the back wall of the office. His arm was definitely broken and maybe a rib or 2 as well. Standing up he channeled his vitality through his body, slowing beginning to feel moderately okay again. He danced through his enemy's attack and began making small slashes with the edge of his spear.
Not paying attention to the time, he moved as similarly to the flowing waters spear technique he could remember and slowly ever so slowly the Roseborn giant began to fall apart. First he managed to cut one of its leg's off at the thigh as he had slowly began focusing on attacking it faster and faster in an attempt to out do it's healing. Imbuing more and more mana into his attack again, he managed to cut it off and began on the opposite side arm.
His opponent seemed to sense there was a change in the pattern of the fight as a section of the chest seemed to disconnect from the rest, forming into the mangled shape of a human, but without the actual flesh of one. One quick stab was enough to put it down and what was left of the giant began to crumble apart as another plant monster made an escape attempt. Deciding to try something for the first time, he hefted his spear as the monster began it's escape and threw his spear at it, focusing some mana on it.
It flew perfectly and missed entirely as the monster moved to go upstairs. It made it one step higher, before a thrown hand axe cleaved it in two. Owen let out an embarrassed laugh as he went to retrieve his spear and the axe immediately after.
"Nice save Myra," She nodded with a big grin on her face. "This guys give shit experience," she said as she seemed to stare at nothing. Owen checked his notifications and winced.
*You have slain, Inferior Roseborn human level 12 x2. You have gained 45 experience. 23 experience has been consumed by your 2nd grade soul.*
"Goddamn it, I only got 22 experience from that." Both Peggy and Myra stared at him in surprise. "Damn that's lower than I got by quite a bit, is it cause you're too high leveled?" Myra asked, but Owen shook his head, "No I'm only level ten, but I think it's something that my sponsor had said. He had mentioned that the quality of my inheritance or something would make it harder to level and that having my soul temper this early on would make it worse, though I would be a lot stronger for my level."
"Wait, you already have a soul temper?" Peggy asked. Owen nodded and Peggy sighed. "Maybe reading those dumb books really does help in the long run." Both Owen and Myra frowned at that, but neither of them argued with her. "Alright, let's go see what those monster had been looking at." Myra said cheerfully.
They made their way across the even more ruined office, before making it to an almost comically sized chest. It was made out of a dark wood, with giant steel bands wrapping around the edges. It wasn't nearly as decorated as the chest Owen had opened in the tutorial, but as soon as it opened a screen appeared before with.
*Congratulations, you have found 1 hidden chest. Select one item as your reward.*
Before making any decisions, he double checked with Peggy and Myra to make sure they both had the same screen up. Deciding to make sure it wasn't for all of them collectively. He stood back and waited for one of them to pick a piece of loot. He didn't have to wait long as Peggy suddenly leaned into the chest and pulled out a bracelet. It was a shiny golden color, with deep etchings all reminding him of a certain ring that needed to be taken to a lava forge or something to be destroyed. Myra then leaned into the chest and pulled out a set of braces that seemed to match her breastplate in design, save for the jade snake emblazoned in the center of the breastplate. Realizing it was his turn, he moved back to the chest, with the same message popping up.
*Congratulations, you have found 1 hidden chest. Select one item as your reward.*
He was surprised at the list of options, there had been 10 originally, with two slots empty now.
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The first item was already something he was pretty sure he wanted.
*Wand of Fire Essence. Imbue this catalyst with mana, to change it into fire essence. Allows the user to cast fire based magic that they are familiar with.*
Tempting, but he didn't have any magic skills or know anything about it.
*Amulet of Regeneration. Can charge this amulet with up to 100 health points or 100 mana points. Lets the user absorb the charge of HP or MP, increasing their regeneration by 1 point per 10 seconds until the 100 points have been used up.*
Owen didn't like this item nearly as much, it might be useful when prepping for a fight and you want faster regeneration for a fight, but it seemed less useful than the fire wand.
*Tunic of cold resistance. Boosts cold resistance for a short time, needs to be infused with mana to activate.*
Another bad item, the next several were much the same as most were gear designed for a drastically different environment or repeats of gear he already had. The last two items were more tempting that the wand had been.
*Medium quality short sword. This short sword is durable and keeps a sharp edge. Minor storage ring. This ring lets the user store any combination of items fitting into a 1x1x1 meter space.*
"Guys do you think the storage ring or the short sword would be best for right now?" "Doesn't matter to me," Myra said. "The storage ring would be nice, but right now only Myra can kill any of these guys efficiently. I'd much rather survive this gate, than get weird stares for carrying around a rapier in broad daylight." Owen nodded and picked the sword.
He had already been leaning towards picking a sword, but he hadn't even considered storing things for when they went back outside, he had only had a preference cause his spear wouldn't fit inside the storage space. He gave the sword a couple practice swings and tried imbuing it with mana, but it was like there was a wall in the way. None of the mana he tried sending into it, made it and was just returned back to his core.
Carrying a spear in one hand and the sword in the other, they slowly made their way onto the next floor. It was more office space and before either Owen or Myra had had a chance to attack. Peggy charged forward with a hand on her new bracelet. "Shower of Flame," she shouted, while obviously striking a pose. a tiny spout of fire came out of the bracelet in an arc and landed squarely on one of the roseborn enemies.
"OOOAAAAH OOORRRO!" It shouted as it was doused in a tiny amount of flames. It sent thorns everywhere as the smell of cooking flesh started wafting through the air. Right when Owen thought it was going to be over, a large red flower sprouted out of the human body's mouth and began absorbing the flames. Peggy's bracelet had long since stopped throwing out flames on the enemies and each one that had been lit on fire began sprouting red flowers, that Owen realized were probably roses.
A new scent began wafting through the air, with an almost sweet aroma, completely overpowering the cooking meat smell. Peggy moved back to stand a little closer to Owen and Myra as they felt the ground start to rumble. Rushing downs the stairs were more than a dozen of the roseborn giants. "Fuck fuck fuck, guys run!" Owen grabbed Myra and Peggy's hands and began to rush towards the stairs going to the lower levels.
He let go of Myra's hand as she pulled in front of their group. Myra pulling out her second axe became covered in a greenish aura as her empowered body technique merged with whatever skill she was using. They were almost completely surrounded with only the stairs going down still a possible exit. Myra became death incarnate as the aura that had covered her entire body dimmed, but shone several times brighter on just the edge of her axes.
Then she began her slaughter.
One of the giants threw a fist at her which was bisected down the arm, she spun in an attack that severed the head of the first giant, she weaved through attacks thrown her way. The only attacks that still seemed to hit her were the thorns as they pierced through her enemies to catch her off guard. Peggy and Owen had made it down the first couple stairs as Myra slowly began to retreat, slowly dicing up any enemy that gave chase.
They had made it back to the second floor and Myra who was about to power down, looked up at the ceiling. Cracks had begun to form, starting from where the plant stalk had grown through the floor all the way across. She pushed both Owen and Peggy down the next set of stairs as a deafening crash was heard seconds after. She kept them running until they made it outside. Her skill ran out of energy and striking her bracers together, she gained a small percentage of the resources used.
Owen stared up at the building as more and more cracks were forming along the walls. "I'm glad I hadn't picked the fire wand." He said and both Peggy and Myra nodded. The air surrounding the 3rd floor of the building had begun to turn red as more and more of the roseborn enemies were lit on fire. Each giving off that weird scent that seemed to call other roseborn to it's location. Owen then opened his eyes in realization.
"We need to get off the street and find a building without plant life in it. They are going to be calling even more of them over here." Myra and Peggy opened their eyes in shock and Myra let out a small laugh. "We have to figure out a way to clear out all of these enemies. We can't allow the gate to open up and let these out."
They rushed through the streets dodging groups of enemies moving towards the fire that had begun to climb to the top of the building. Smoke competed against the red cloud for space in the air, but all of it was quickly turned red as more and more of the roseborn collected together. More than twenty minutes had passed with them needing to wait so often to sneak past the groups of enemies moving towards the center. Peggy tapped Myra and Owen on the shoulders while they were waiting for a group to pass. Leaning in, she whispered to them both .
"I just got a notification for that first enemy." Owen nodded. "So, they can be killed with fire, just not very quickly at all." he whispered back and all three of them nodded. They finally found a smaller building without a giant plant growing through sections of it. It had access to the roof, so they all moved to the top of it to get a better view of the first building they had gone inside.
The flames had stopped and now most of the roseborn type enemies that had moved to that area, just stood idle as plant growth began to slowly appear on their body. The roses that had formed were no longer visible, though Owen wasn't sure it that was due to the distance or them actually just disappearing.
Turning back to the group, he sat down in a circle with them. "So, what's the plan, I counted more than a hundred enemies out there and I'm not sure there is an easy way to clear them all out. I'm not sure magic is the right way either, it might just be fire that caused it, but my keen eye skill now gives more information."
*Using fire on these types of enemies will cause them to secrete an airborne lure that calls nearby roseborn to it's aid.*
"I think we should use some fire on them again." Peggy said and before anyone could interrupt she continued. "If we can create big enough cloud, we can try and have all of the monsters gather together in a group and we can go around and try looting any other chests that might be hiding in these buildings. Maybe that will give us a better idea of what we have to fight with them." Owen and Myra both looked at Peggy in awe, then to each other with wide grins.
"I think that's a marvelous idea, Peggy." Owen said. "Let's split up then, and trying to find the chest locations, once we are pretty sure we've found them all, we can take turns going and collecting the items from them." "Why do we need to split up? Isn't that way too dangerous?" Myra asked. "For experience and I think it'll be faster. You and I can take on small groups by ourselves and you and Peggy could go together to make sure Peggy gets experience as well. That way one of us is always here and can blast these guys with fire every so often."
Both Myra and Peggy gave him concerned looks. "I don't think that's required, they seem pretty set on staying here for now, plus I don't think you have actually demonstrated the ability to take on an entire group, don't forget we all know each other's skills now, and nothing you have pairs with that sword." Myra said flatly. "Yeah, plus isn't that how everyone dies in horror movies? Splitting up sounds like an awful idea to me." Peggy said stamping a foot down in protest.
"Fine fine, we will go as a group, but first we need to create a big fire to hit these guys with to try and gather the rest of them here." Myra and Peggy grinned. "Did you see what was on the bottom floor?" Owen shook his head. "There was what I can only guess was a liquor cabinet." Realizing their idea Owen began to grin as well. "Let's do it!"