After a few hours of wait for Kanbe, Caroline arrived with a golden staff made of pure gold with a cross on the upper end of the staff. The cross had several gems attached on the four ends of the cross, alongside a massive white orb in the middle of the cross.
“Sorry for the delay, I sent word to the church just in case we don’t come back tomorrow since we are facing an archlich. Also, had to contact a few adventurers I know to have them ready for a cleanup job and inform them about the situation.” Caroline said as she smiled at Kanbe. ‘To not count contacting carefully the chapel of Namika about the plan and the new conditions. Not like I will have to talk to them any longer, as they had exactly what they wanted. Information on the hero was enough to cover for the deal to be completed, it seems. Well, better for me. I can stay close and inform Dad, when he gets around, without informing the chapel. I just need to prepare a reason for the chapel to acquire information, which will be dealt with by the archlich appearance.’ Caroline thought to herself as she giggled internally to her revised plan.
“Well, no worries, I got to see a map of Elstivia and Rivialt. Also, hearing some interesting rumors about the elven princess being possibly one of my companions, sooner or later.” Kanbe said as he smiled at Caroline. ‘Three hours of wait, I even had dinner. I never expected to eat a stew in a medieval room. Well, looking forward to seeing how dungeons truly are like.’ Kanbe thought to himself.
“Oh, well, nice to hear you got more informed. But the clock is ticking. We have 18 hours until the exorcists arrive. Once the time is over, you must be carried to Crelens and deal with an issue that has happened in Rivialt. An incident that may require a hero, and one of big importance for Elstivia.” Caroline said as she looked serious.
“Understood, I will be going then. The sooner we get this done, the better, right?” Kanbe said as he checked his equipment.
“Indeed. The sooner we handle this incident, the better. Also, a good way into acquiring experience.” Caroline said as she started moving along.
Kanbe simply shrugged and followed quickly the archbishop, considering that it would best to start moving towards the cave and help out the adventurers who were supposed to find the missing child.
And so they walked through the wheat fields, went across the grass fields outside the wheat fields, and went through a rather thick forest in which Kanbe and Caroline had to go carefully as they found several traps done by poachers who tried to capture different monsters.
But after a long journey of two hours on foot, they arrived to a thick area with the entrance to the cave, where they found Kieli and Raham trying to plan a way to pull out May from the cave.
“Hello, excuse me. Are you two adventurers?” Kanbe said, looking at the odd duo.
“Yes, newbies, so we can’t show you the ring. But our leader is a gold rank adventurer who is trapped inside the dungeon. Someone clearly ignored to inform of the fact that this cave became a dungeon!” Raham answered Kanbe’s question with a frown.
“Oh, I see. That’s rough, man.” Kanbe said as he scratched his neck awkwardly.
“Well, we need a healer and a mage to get in. This dungeon is not going to be an easy one. 300 goblins minimum. May must have killed a few, but they are too many and clearly armed.” Kieli said before huffing.
“Armed? Armed goblins are an entire different talk than normal goblins. They could be evolved goblins with specific classes, and those are deadlier than the average goblin. This could be a Gold rank dungeon.” Caroline said as she frowned.
“Yeah, but we need to rescue Mia!” Raham exclaimed as he looked worried.
“Look, we are here to help. We can go together, and find the missing child.” Caroline said as she looked serious. ‘More sacrifices for the archlich, but they got into this mess themselves. So they sought out this mess by themselves.’ Caroline thought as she tried to check if they were going to be a problem by checking out their body language.
“Either way, we will have to work together. If armed goblins are harder, and considering the fact that parts of the cave will be troubling for us as swords might be useless in tight spots. But nonetheless, I can use holy magic, so I can cover as a mage until we find Mia.” Kanbe said, as he was considering the fact that he was going into a cave.
“And I can act as a healer, and I can use holy magic too. Furthermore, I am level 60.” Caroline added with a serious look.
“Sounds like a solid team.” Kieli commented on the plan, while looking at her spear.
“Unless the fact that we need a tank! We need an Aggro Master!” Raham exclaimed as he frowned.
“With my barriers, that will be compensated. Goblins shouldn’t be so much trouble.” Caroline retorted to Raham’s complaint.
“Yeah, but who knows what sort of dungeon boss we might fight. It could be a Minotaur.” Raham retorted back.
“And what’s your plan then?” Kanbe asked as he frowned. ‘If we keep losing time and fight amongst ourselves, both the child and the adventurer trapped are going to be in danger.’ Kanbe thought to himself, clearly feeling frustrated about this petty squabble.
“My plan is to wait for true reinforcements! Sooner or later, the hero will arrive and so the exorcists will too!” Raham exclaimed, while frowning at Kanbe.
“Oh, I am the hero. So don’t look for the exorcists. They’ll come tomorrow. Do you think your companion can survive that long?” Kanbe said before sighing.
“Bullshit… This is bullshit! It’s impossible, a brat like you is the hero!” Raham retorted while pulling out his crossbow.
“It is possible, Raham. And it’s our best bet. The woman besides the boy is the archbishop. I am an Appraiser, Raham, so you know they can’t trick me easily.” Kieli said as she prepared to go inside the cave.
This made Raham to quiet down and just shrug, while preparing to follow Kieli while looking clearly angry. It was a fact that this situation was stressful for both adventurers, but Kieli was taking it far better than Raham, and both Caroline and Kanbe noticed that.
“Then, we will delve inside the dungeon. It’s not about completing it, but rescuing the adventurer and the child. The hero will be our frontline, as he is skilled with the sword, and will go alongside Kieli. I will remain behind, ready to heal and place barriers while Raham covers our back.” Caroline said while pushing Kanbe slightly forward.
“Understood, good plan, archbishop.” Kieli merely responded with those words to the archbishop’s tactic.
“Yeah, the usual two, one, one formation. At least the archbishop isn’t an idiot.” Raham said as he waited for Kanbe and Kieli to move forward.
As Kanbe and Kieli moved forward, followed by Caroline, Raham made sure to stay a couple of steps away while ready to shoot Caroline in the back if she tried some sort of trickery on him.
At first, the cave looked deserted, and the group could easily move around the cave. Kanbe couldn’t see in the dark, but Caroline taught him how to use Holy Aura. The spell itself made the armor shine brightly, giving clear view for a few meters to Kanbe, and increased the defense of the young hero.
Once the group got to the area of the totem, Kanbe could clearly see the different holes around the totem that acted as paths for the goblins to sneak on those distracted by the totem. Also, it served as a way to listening to the intruders, relay orders to the other goblins, and detect intruders if they used any sort of light.
It was clearly a devious trick, which no one would usually think of, but thanks to Kanbe… Now the goblins were clearly aware of the intruders, and the adventurers were awfully aware of the holes.
But before any goblin could crawl through the holes, Caroline left holy turrets just besides each hole as she smirked. The turrets would stop and essentially block any flanking the goblins could try to do with the holes, while essentially acting as decoys for the goblins.
“The goblins here might be more devious than usual, but with these holy turrets… They won’t notice if we are just looking at the totem, or if it’s a trap. And at least, we should kill 10 or so goblins once they decide to trigger the trap, unless they rush right now. I will use Mapping and Trap Making to make several traps and a map of the dungeon. This will alert all the monsters in this dungeon, but Kanbe here already made sure we alerted them, so: No cons to this plan!” Caroline said as she started circulating mana across her body, and it came out of her body to traverse the entire cave, while she grabbed a paper to map the entire cave.
“Yeah, good idea, archbishop. But now they must be rushing here. I suppose you’ll map first, and then make the traps as we go.” Kieli said as she frowned.
“Yep!” Caroline merely replied to Kieli’s words while she was making the map. ‘Also, it’ll be a good way to get the archlich ready for you three. I am sorry for the hero, but I can’t allow him to become a problem for my deal with Namika. So we’ll have to see how strong he can be, and I covered myself right now for not defending the hero as I was using other skills to help with the rescue.’ Caroline thought to herself, as she focused on making the map as detailed as possible.
And so, countless goblins started rushing towards the group while Raham was frowning as he shot goblins in the head with the crossbow. Kanbe looked at the massive group of goblins, and started using Holy Bullet to thin out the entire army of goblins by shooting at a goblin and winning some time before the fight went out of control.
But the goblins were too much, even if the cooldown time for Holy Bullet was a rather short one, and Kanbe could only take down 10 or so goblins from the entire army made of way more than 300 goblins.
“Prepare for close combat!” Kieli said as she impaled a goblin only to throw them away, while Raham finished off the goblin with a bolt to their neck.
“O-Okay!” Kanbe nervously said, as he unsheathed his sword while shooting a few Holy Bullets to down a few more goblins.
As goblins using swords approached Kanbe, he parried the slashes nervously and swung against the goblins with all his strength. As Kanbe slashed away, the goblins dodged the attack, but then were hit by either Raham’s bolts or Kanbe’s Holy Bullets.
The fight was going according to Caroline’s plan, as Kanbe showed that he was learning how to use the different spells, while Kieli and Raham used everything at their disposal to kill the goblins and thin out the army.
“Okay, I have the map done! I will make a copy for each of you, so wait a bit more, and I will get onto the trap making!” Caroline exclaimed, as she used mana to make copies of the map.
“Okay, but sooner or later, Kanbe will end up without mana. He is not taking any hit, but his mana consumption is extremely high!” Kieli said, as she stabbed through a goblin’s heart.
“Yeah, and I don’t have so many bolts! I made a few, but I have shot at least 100 of my 300 bolts! Luckily, I was carrying a massive amount of bolts and I will not be running out of them any time soon.” Raham said while recharging his crossbow.
“Holy Lance!” Kanbe exclaimed as he circulated his mana out of his body, and created several spears made of holy light which flew towards several goblins to pierce their armors.
As the goblins tried to dodge the attack, they noticed that fighting as a horde was disadvantageous right now with the cave’s limitation. No matter how wide the area was, it was not meant to handle more than 100 goblins, they couldn’t fit all in one part of the path without hitting each other while trying to dodge the spears.
As the goblins fell while fighting, the rest started trying to run away as they knew that they were dead if they kept fighting in such disadvantageous position.
“They are retreating! It seems like Holy Lance has worked quite well against the goblins!” Kanbe said, sweating due to the exhaustion he was feeling after a massive battle. ‘I need to take a moment to breathe. I feel so dizzy after using so many spells, I lost a quarter of my total mana in Holy Bullets and the Holy Lance spells.’ Kanbe thought, as his head was in pain due to using so many spells at once.
“Good, now we can take a respite then!” Raham exclaimed as he was shooting at one of the fleeing goblins, and killing them as he shot to the back of said goblin.
“That’d be ideal. Kanbe has used a lot of magic and Caroline is still making the copies of the map.” Kieli said as she looked around.
Caroline had finished with the maps, and now was preparing traps for the holes they’d find along the way. It seemed counterproductive for the archbishop, as she planned to have the hero killed, but she knew that if she didn’t do this she’d be blamed for the hero’s death which was a terrible thing as it would mean her end.
“Either way, we will put the traps in the holes, to prevent any sort of ambush.” Caroline said as she showed one of the bear traps she had made, which were smaller than they should be as they were prepared to be used against goblins.
“Good, that way we don’t have to use so many bolts.” Raham said as he grabbed the bolts from the corpses, trying to recover some bolts used to kill goblins.
“And it’d be great to take a breather, especially for the young hero.” Kieli said as she patted Kanbe’s back.
Kanbe fell to the ground after the strong pats of Kieli, as he was exhausted from using all that mana at once, and just sat down on the ground. This made Caroline shrug as she kept preparing the traps, while Raham kept acquiring the bolts, for a while.
After a rest of 30 minutes, to catch their breaths, the group kept moving while using Kanbe’s Holy Aura to see the holes and leave traps, but they couldn’t leave traps on those that were above them. This led to Caroline to leave Holy Turrets in each of the holes placed on the roof of the cave, as they floated and could withstand for vast periods of time.
This made sure that no goblin could sneak behind them by using said holes after the turrets disappeared, which was a relief for the adventurers, as they kept investigating the cave.
For 2 long hours, the group found the forge as it had been clearly reinforced with the remaining goblins ready to shoot them if they went inside the room. It was clear that the goblins were organized, and they didn’t want anyone busting their forge, which made Raham gulp in fear.
“Well, shit. If we go in, we will be pelted by arrows. If we don’t, we are in a stalemate.” Raham said as he trembled.
“They are too many to outrange them. Also, the archbishop is our healer, so she should save up the mana. In case we run out of resources, and get hurt.” Kieli said as she frowned.
“We have an easy solution. It’s not a rather good idea, but we might bust the forge. That would be their lose condition, and we could prevent an army of goblins running with weapons in hand to Argeares. Of course, it’s not our win condition, but right now… It’s our best bet.” Caroline said as she smiled.
“Yeah, but for that, we would need a powerful spell. And as I said before, we need to reserve your mana. You used a lot of mana already, with all the traps you made.” Kieli said, while peeking inside the forge room.
“Yeah, but I still have a lot of mana. I added a few markers on the traps too, but I still have 30000 MPs left. I could use Photon Laser to shoot at the forge safely, and blow it up. Or so I hope.” Caroline said as she smiled, while Kanbe shrugged.
“I could do that too. I still have 10000 MP. It’s quite a lot, considering the amount of mana we use for the ambush.” Kanbe suggested, as he looked at Raham and Kieli.
“Yeah, but I don’t think your stats compare to hers. All skills and spells depend on the stats, and if she does it… It’ll be a clear difference.” Raham commented, while considering both options.
“And I have more mana than you. If you use up all the mana, you get knocked out due to mana fatigue. Some mages can withstand the mana fatigue, but in your case: It’s certain you’ll be KO. Not to count, I can add a marker to the forge and use it to aim.” Caroline said, while using her staff to aim from behind a wall to the forge as she peeked carefully inside the forge.
“Okay, okay. You win, Caroline. Do as you wish.” Kanbe said, as he gave up trying to stop Caroline from using her mana recklessly.
Caroline giggled, while she aimed at the forge, and used Marker Addition to mark the forge. Then she went fully behind the wall and created a Holy Turret, as she held her staff with both of her hands, clearly focusing to use the spell properly.
“Oh, light. Shine bravely, pierce through matter and destroy my target. Photon Laser!” Caroline chanted, to increase the power output of her spell, as she sent mana inside the Holy Turret.
As the turret absorbed the mana sent to it, it charged up a massive laser of the size of the forge itself and shot it at the forge while taking out a few goblin blacksmiths and the front line of the armed goblins.
This ensured that the forge was clearly destroyed, leaving just a massive hole filled with molten rock and melted steel, as there was left a refractive surface right behind the forge due to the massive heat of the laser.
“Okay, that was awesome.” Kanbe said, clearly impressed by the combination of skills and the power of the Photon Laser.
“This is why I told you to let me do this. I will support you in this fight, but you must be careful. I am sure that the dungeon boss has caught wind of us with this. The mana signal I let out was massive compared to the goblins.” Caroline said, while Raham moved quickly to use his crossbow to shoot one of the panicking goblins.
“Well, time to do our job. It’s a very wide space, so you can swing without any issues, Kanbe!” Raham said with a wide smile, enjoying the chaos caused by Caroline’s spell.
Kieli charged at the now panicking goblins, who could just try to shoot at Kieli with their arrows and try to make distance with the Draconid. As Kieli got into range with her spear, she quickly stabbed the nearest goblin four times, ensuring to cause a grievous bleeding to the goblin and effectively killing them.
“Okay, let’s go in!” Kanbe said, as he went inside the forge room, while using Holy Bullet to shoot a goblin who was trying to flank Kieli.
“Thanks!” Kieli said, as she was stabbing another goblin.
The fight was chaos, the goblins were clearly disorganized now by the surprise attack they had suffered. It was still a bad fight for the adventurers, as there were easily 100 goblins left to kill even after all what had transpired, but the chaos made it far easier to fight and the ample space they had in the forge room was clearly a blessing for the hero and company.
“Keep at it, we can defeat them. Most are using arrows, and are not carrying swords, that means we can charge at them!” Kieli said, as she used her fire breath to burn several goblins, while expelling a massive wave of fire equal to the Fire Wave that May had used previously.
“I am running out of bolts!” Raham said, while taking out the goblins who tried to run away from the scuffle.
Meanwhile, Caroline simply used Minor Barrier three times at once to protect the hero and the companions. As the goblins were focused on the other adventurers, they couldn’t go after her, and if they went after her… The Holy Turret could stop them with a massive barrage of piercing bolts made of pure light.
Nonetheless, Caroline kept creating a few more turrets to ensure her safety and support the team without using too much of her mana.
The goblins clearly didn’t have any chance to defeat the adventurers, as attacking the healer was essentially impossible, and the other heroes could easily cut them or snipe them if they tried to run away.
After an hour of fighting, Kanbe and company had managed to defeat and kill all the goblins in the cave. But Raham was out of bolts, Kieli had used almost all her mana, and Kanbe was exhausted after trying to slash the goblins only to be forced to use Holy Bullet to finish up the job.
“This fight was quite gruesome. But it was good we caught them by surprise.” Kanbe said, as he was sweating due to the heat in the forge room and the exhaustion he was feeling. ‘Well, only should remain the dungeon boss. Otherwise, we should have met even more enemies by now.’ Kanbe thought to himself, trying to catch his breath.
As Kanbe rested, Caroline went to check the area only to find May running towards the forge room. She was clearly surprised to see May alive, as she knew the archlich could easily deal with a mage, which raised some questions in her mind.
‘Why is this one still alive!? The archlich is slacking off, or what!? Well, nonetheless, they are exhausted. I have enough mana to run away with Light Sprint, and go back to the city to inform of Kanbe’s demise. And the archlich was proudly boasting of a wyvern, which brings the question: Where in all Inferno is that wyvern!?’ Caroline thought to herself, while considering whether May could defeat the wyvern on her own.
“Oh, Kieli, Raham! You came to rescue me with reinforcements. And here I thought I’d have to use a teleport stone. There’s one in the storage room hidden in the forge. I found the missing child, he’s in a room filled with goblin babies. We need to cleanse the area, without traumatizing the boy. And I know the boss monster of this dungeon. It’s an archlich.” May said as she looked at Kieli and Raham.
“An archlich!? I don’t have blunt bolts to use at him! I don’t have skills to deal with that! Not only that, but I am a level 10 guy!” Raham panicked, as he tried to recover the bolts he had used.
“Yeah, he is level 10, and I am level 20! We are outmatched against an archlich! Those tend to be level 60! Six times Raham’s level, and three times my level!” Kieli said, as she was sweating, while trying to catch her breath.
“Well, it sounds like a terrible situation.” Kanbe said, clearly unaware of the difference between the team and the archlich.
“Essentially, a spell of that archlich could kill Raham! I could barely survive it, but probably it has the necromancer skill tree! That means all of these corpses will become stronger monsters if we leave, but we can’t defeat the archlich! In short, Argeares is not safe at all! And not only that, who knows which sort of magic this archlich can use!” Kieli exclaimed, as clearly she was terrified.
“Yeah, the best solution is to run away right now, then. Get the child, and run away. The exorcists will be informed, and they’ll deal with the archlich.” Caroline suggested, as she was considering whether to run away now or just try to get them to agree with her idea. ‘If someone defeated the wyvern, it must be someone who is dangerous for the archlich. I will have to give up on the plan, to acquire information of that individual. Shit, this plan only worked to make the hero stronger.’ Caroline thought as she saw her plan falling into pieces.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. May. Could you go fetch the teleport stone, while we rest up?” Kanbe said, while looking at the red-haired mage.
“Yeah, it shouldn’t take long-” May said, until she felt a presence made of darkness right behind her.
No one had noticed the archlich movements, as it had teleported to the room using Space Jump to jump from the room above the forge room to behind the May, and now the hero were seeing it in all of his glory.
“Good job at killing all my summons. You know, the fun thing of this is using a goblin spawner to train goblins. Then with the corpses, I use necromancy to create stronger monsters and then attack Argeares. I win more mana than I should ever admit if I set the training rooms with mana absorption. Of course, it only worked on the goblins and weakened them so you could win against them. But the mana absorbed in death is 50 times more than the average mana I acquire from just having the goblins drained of mana.” The archlich said, as he clapped at the group, while a heart made of mana appeared between the hands of the archlich before the last clap was done.
“Even then, without an army, once we inform the country-!” Raham said, only to feel like something was going wrong and clutch his chest, as he tripped and fell to the ground.
As Raham fell to the ground, the archlich cackled while Kanbe tried to check what happened to Raham. The hero quickly held him and ran to Caroline, with worried eyes, as he left the sword behind.
“Caroline! Heal him!” Kanbe exclaimed, clearly worried about Raham, while holding him.
“I-I might be too late for that. That was Heart Grasp. The necromancer spell that grasps the heart of the target and crushes it. A necromancer’s main source of damage, alongside Putrefaction of the Living.” Caroline said as she looked at Kanbe with sad eyes. ‘Great! One down, but not the one he had to kill! You wasted a Heart Grasp on the wrong enemy! Oh, wait, he has Holy Aura, so that couldn’t work.’ Caroline thought to herself, clearly angry with the archlich as she disliked putting innocents in this sort of situation.
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Kanbe quickly glared at the archlich, who was laughing at the situation, while Kieli started running away from the archlich as she felt as if her legs stopped working. The archlich had shot two azure bolts of raw mana, using Mana Bolt, to her legs and had pierced them.
“No running!” The archlich said as he got serious.
Kieli could only scream in pain, while May used Fireball to create a sphere of fire and shoot it at the archlich. But the archlich simply used Space Jump once more, to get away from the mage and the fireball, as the fireball exploded upon touching a wall of the forge room and showed the storage room’s contents.
The storage itself was a massive hoard of treasure with all sorts of armors and weapons waiting for their new owners, books of all sorts, vials filled with strange liquids, gold all over the room, a small blue stone that released mana, and a few statues made of gold.
“H-How many travelers you killed for this!?” May asked, angered by the display of wealth she had witnessed, as she glared at the archlich.
“A few merchant convoys. No one clearly noticed, as they were smugglers. Who is going to miss a few smugglers in this country? No one! The corruption in this country is quite useful for a necromancer like me. But now, thinking back, I should have captured them and sold them as slaves. I am planning to do that with the boy, once I finish up with Argeares. Just like the Black Flame Devil did, I am going to make my own country!” The archlich proudly said, as if he was enjoying this situation more than he should, while wind condensed in his hand making a bullet made of wind, and shot at May’s left leg.
May dodged the Wind Bullet, only to counter it with a Fire Bullet, while Kanbe ran to grab his sword and used a Holy Bullet to attack the archlich.
The archlich couldn’t dodge both attacks, and was struck by the bullet made of fire, which ignited his clothes and damaged his shoulder. But the archlich simply used more mana to repair the item, as threads of mana came out of his body and entered inside his clothing while extinguishing the fire.
While the fight was going on, Caroline finished off Raham with a Holy Bullet and headed towards Kieli, as pure white mana came out of her body and entered inside Kieli's body. The archbishop was using Medium Heal to stabilize Kieli's body while using bandages, that came out from her inventory, to stop the bleeding.
“I can’t restore your flesh, at least nor here. So I will stabilize you, and then you’ll have to crawl to a safe spot. I suppose the safe spot must be the area with the goblin babies. So go there, grab the kid, eliminate the babies, and run out of here. I am sure you have a regeneration potion, so keep it with you. I know you wanted to use it on your companion, but the heart was utterly crushed. Regen potions don’t work fast enough to save someone from a Heart Grasp. You would need a Cleric or a Restoration Magician, and the closest one is in the city.” Caroline said, as her mana came out and healed Kieli enough to prevent her body to die due to the bleeding right away, while tying up carefully the bandages to ensure that Kieli wouldn’t bleed out as she moved away.
“You finished Raham…” Kieli weakly said, while crying, as she glared at Caroline.
“Call it a mercy kill. Deaths caused by Heart Grasp are clearly painful, and slow. It was the best for him, we couldn’t heal him, and he was going to be suffering, so I took the responsibility to give him a proper death while ensuring that the archlich didn’t acquire any experience from him.” Caroline said, as she prepared to ‘assist’ the hero.
Kieli stayed quiet, clearly struck by grief due to her companion’s death, but started crawling while holding the spear. Caroline knew that letting her alive would bite her ass, but at the same time, she could use this as an opportunity to increase her popularity in the church of Zerax.
‘I can easily turn this into profit. I just need to explain that it was a mercy kill, which was, and a Reugios killed is a dead abomination in the eyes of the church of Zerax. Which leads to me being known as a caring member of the church of Zerax who still upholds the views of the church. A balance between caring and loyal, as it’ll lead to the old coots of the church to keep me around while being more popular amongst all the people of Elstivia.’ Caroline thought to herself, as she walked towards Kanbe.
The hero had rushed towards the archlich, with fury in his eyes, as he had witnessed Raham’s death. With his sword in hand, he charged at the archlich to fight the seemingly impossible battle against the powerful necromancer.
***
Outside the cave, the wyvern had dropped in front of the entrance to block it from another outsider that came to the cave, a man with pale skin, a pair of curved black horns, pure black eyes, and short white hair. He looked well-equipped to deal with all the goblins without breaking a sweat, as he was wearing a blue leather chest armor made of scales similar to the ones the wyvern had, blue leather gauntlets made of the same sort of scales, and the lower part of a leather armor made of the same sort of scales.
“Well, another wyvern has arrived. Shame I haven’t brought my team, but looking back… Zerax just teleported me here. I suppose that the duty he has for me, the Barbarian Hero, is to slay this wyvern and check the cave. Well, as long as I can rage… All is good!” The man said as he smirked at the wyvern.
The wyvern roared at the man, while clearly looking ready to fight against the intruder, as the man simply shrugged. Then this man summoned a massive axe with a massively curved head made of a Damascus steel, which had a circular symbol with a hexagon engraved in its butt, a massive elongated wooden haft with some sort of symbols all across its length until it arrived to the lower part of said haft which was made of steel with straps made of leather covering the steel part with a massive amethyst added as onto the steel pommel said axe had.
“Well, if you wanna die so badly, I will be glad to oblige. You damnable lizard! So, I would love to rage!” The man said, as he was grinning, while charging at the wyvern.
The wyvern roared at the man, and started breathing fire at the man, but the man didn’t flinch at all as he seemed to get angry while his mana became crimson red and formed a sort of aura all across his body.
The man ferociously went into a frenzy, as he started to slash the wyvern as he delivered 20 powerful attacks consecutively, all of them coated with the man’s mana, while the wyvern tried to bite the man to no avail as he moved towards the belly of the beast.
As the wyvern noticed how dangerous the man was, it decided to fly upwards and shoot from a safe distance from the maniac that was attacking its belly.
But this didn’t help the wyvern at all, as the man mounted the wyvern and started slashing the tail of the wyvern until he cut it as it dropped on top of a farm, as the wyvern had gone to the city to try to drop the man on the city only to notice that the man wasn’t falling down at all, even with the strong winds of the area, and in fact was still slashing away.
The wyvern couldn’t drive away that maniac it had on top of him, but it could regenerate quickly, which meant that this fight was a fight of endurance. Would the man fall down, or the wyvern would crash onto the city?
One thing was sure, though, and it was that the city would have a first-rate view of the fight between that man and the wyvern. Even if the wyvern aimed to chomp on a few civilians at least, in order to not fall alone in this battle and at least cause some sort of damage on the city, while the guards of the city tried to evacuate the people outside the city as fast as they could.
The city was in chaos due to the wyvern, and the adventurers in the city started preparing to fight the wyvern and assist the man who was attacking it, while the mercenaries focused on ensuring that no one stole anything while everyone was evacuating.
Once the wyvern went lower, trying to crash on a building to crush the man that was on top of its back, the adventurers started shooting arrows and all sorts of spells at the wyvern while the ones who used close range skills awaited excitedly for a chance to strike the wyvern with their swords, axes, and hammers.
Sumeragi was looking at the entire chaos from afar, and he sighed loudly, while he was placing everything inside his inventory to run away and find a few of his friends. It was of the utmost importance that he followed the rest of the civilians, to not rouse suspicion in case he was forced to attack the wyvern, but it was a duty he didn’t like at all.
‘Damn that lizard! I suppose the archlich planned to backstab us, and take some extra credit from our plan. I warned Grandine about this damnable idea. Father told us way too many times: Do not trust an archlich, they are arrogant and annoying. It’s better to have sentientless liches than a powerful archlich, since they won’t cause any sort of trouble as long as you can order them around.’ Sumeragi thought to himself, while storing away several weapons he had made in order to sell them and have some money.
During the chaotic fight, the wyvern smashed itself inside the smithy while Sumeragi was going to leave. Of course, this angered Sumeragi, but tried to control his anger. But then the wyvern roared and tried to bite him, which managed to do so only that it attacked Sumeragi’s prosthetic arm and broke its teeth trying to crush it.
“Okay, that’s it. I tried to do like the rest. But you know how much time I will need to do maintenance on this arm because of that bite, you oversized lizard!?” Sumeragi said as he summoned a black samurai armor on top of his body, in order to wear it quickly, and a black lacquered katana in his prosthetic arm as he gripped the katana tightly.
“Oh, you’ll help out! Thanks man!” The man said, clearly still under the effects of Rage Mode but managing to control it, while slashing the wyvern with his axe.
“Shut up, you bastard. If you drove it here, you are next.” Sumeragi said, as he glared at the man, while charging at the wyvern with his katana.
The wyvern could only whimper in response to the onslaught of both men, trying to kill it for different reasons, as it tried to fly away from the smith. Only to notice that the dark elf had changed the hand that held the katana, and used a mechanism on the prosthetic hand to shoot it to one of the hind legs of the wyvern while attached to the rest of the prosthetic by an extremely thin wire cable, as Sumeragi used the mechanism to jump onto the wyvern.
Kieli Status:
Race: Draconid.
Gender: Female
Age: 18 years old
Height: 1 meter and 70 centimeters.
Three sizes: 90-58-90
Cup size: D
Likes: Her spear, acquiring good equipment, freedom, cheesecake, money, helping out in the orphanage.
Dislikes: Politicians, corruption, hypocritical people, slavers, Caroline.
Level: 20
STATS:
HP: 10100/10100
MP: 10050/10050
STR: 1
VIT: 1
INT: 1
DEX: 100
AGI: 100
Magic affinity: None.
Skill affinity: Spearman, Blacksmith, Merchant, Craftsman, Miner, Energy Weaver, Energy Spearman, Appraiser, Advanced Scout, Scout, Guardian, Lancer.
Job: Adventurer.
Skills:
Spearman (Master):
Great Spear Mastery: Increases the power of the user when they wield a spear.
Spear Proficiency: The user is proficient with the usage of the spear.
Spearman’s Feet: The user’s attack speed increases a 30%.
Heart of Infantry: The user’s agility and vitality is increased a 15%.
Double thrust: Active, 15 MP. A double piercing strike with a spear.
Triple Thrust: Active, 20 MP. Three powerful thrusts with a spear.
Powerful Sweep: Active, 30 MP. A powerful sweeping attack with a spear, it can make the target tumble.
Skewering Thrust: Active, 40 MP. A powerful thrust that can skewer those that aren’t armored enemies, which causes grievous wounds and blocks all their movement.
Mighty Stance: Active, 10 MP. Lowers the agility of the user a 50%, but increases the strength and dexterity a 40%, for 2 minutes.
Octa Thrust: Active, 100 MP. Eight powerful thrusts with a spear. This can make the opponent tumble and fall. Pinnacle skill.
Appraiser (Master):
Knowledge of medicinal and poisonous herbs: The user can recognize the plants that are good to use for medical use and the ones that are used to make poison.
Knowledge of medicinal properties: The user can recognize all the items that can be used to make items to heal people.
Knowledge of armors, and shields: The user can recognize the quality and utility of all armors and shields, their enchantments, and materials.
Knowledge of weapons: The user can recognize the quality and utility of all weapons, their enchantments, and materials.
Knowledge of materials and tools: The user can recognize the quality and utility of all materials and tools.
Appraisal: Active, 10 MP. The user uses mana to check the status sheet of the target, and it can’t be tricked.
Body Appraisal: Active, 15 MP. The user uses mana to check the body of the target, showing all the augmentations they may have and special situations (ailments, or special body types).
Item Appraisal: Active, 30 MP. The user uses mana to appraise an item, showing their rarity, value, durability, state, and enchantments.
Psychological Appraisal: Active, 30 MP. The user can use this skill to appraise the psychological state of an individual.
Truth Appraisal: Active, 30 MP. The user can discern instantly if the target is saying the truth.
Building Appraisal: Active, 60 MP. The user can appraise a building, its durability, amount of people inside, number of rooms, secret rooms, and even if the building can stay there without any risk of falling down.
Mass Appraisal: Active, 100 MP. The user can do a massive appraisal in an area of 300 meters of radius. Pinnacle skill.
Raham Status:
Race: Reugios.
Gender: Male
Age: 18 years old.
Height: 1 meter and 55 centimeters.
Likes: Taking care of his equipment, freedom, reusing bolts, his equipment, loyal people.
Dislikes: Anything related with Zerax, Zerax, corruption, hypocritical people, slavers, conspiracies.
Level: 20
STATS:
HP: 10100/10100
MP: 10050/10050
STR: 1
VIT: 1
INT: 1
DEX: 200
AGI: 200
Magic affinity: None.
Skill affinity: Arbalist, Advanced Recon, Alchemy, Technomancy, Assassin, Ninja, Seeker, Chef.
Job: Adventurer.
Skills:
Advanced Recon (Master):
Recon Eyes: The user can see more than the average individual, up to 7 meters of perfectly clear sight.
Careful Steps: The user is stealthier than the average person, making less sound with their steps.
Advanced Range: The user’s scouting skills range doubles.
Recon: Active, 20 MP. The user sends a wave of mana that scouts the area ahead, up to 150 meters beyond the user’s passive detection range.
Advanced Charge: Active, 30 MP. The user charges forward in a direction for 50 meters, and then teleports to a location in a range of 150 meters.
Mana Recon: Active, 40 MP. The user sends a wave of mana that scouts the area ahead, up to 150 meters beyond the user’s passive detection range, and disables all spells set as traps.
Decoy Recon: Active, 30 MP. The user sends a sphere of mana towards a range of 400 meters, which releases a mana signal equal to a recon skill being used as a decoy to trigger any mana detection.
Long Range Recon: Active, 60 MP. The user sends a wave of mana that scouts the area ahead, up to 600 meters beyond the user’s passive detection range.
Mana Detection: Active, 20 MP/Minute. The user detects all mana used in an area of 400 meters around the user, which informs them of who is around the area. Pinnacle skill.
Leshelle Status:
Race: Rashak
Gender: Male
Age: 20 years old.
Height: 1 meter and 80 centimeters.
Likes: Taking care of his equipment, freedom, raging with Rage Mode, his equipment, loyal people.
Dislikes: Anything related with Namika, corruption, hypocritical people, slavers, conspiracies, boring fights, cheesecake, geese.
Level: 60
STATS:
HP: 50000/50000
MP: 10050/10050
STR: 400
VIT: 400
INT: 1
DEX: 200
AGI: 200
Magic affinity: None.
Skill affinity: Heroic Axe, Barbarian, Rage King, Bodybuilder, Berserker, Defender, Enhancer, Miner, Axe Wielder, Chef, Survivalist, Craftsman.
Job: Adventurer.
Skills:
Heroic Axe (Master):
Heroic Power: The user gains a 20% increase in all status when the user is facing a dark enemy.
Rejection of Darkness: The user cannot use dark skills but his damage to dark enemies will increase an 80%.
Axe Mastery: Passive. Using one-handed or two-handed axes will grant the user a 20% extra attack damage, and increase the speed in wielding such weapons a 20%.
Outstanding Hero: The user has more damage as less HP has left.
Bleeding is for the weak: Passive. When the user hits a wounded opponent, the damage dealt increases a 25%
Enhanced recovery: The user can regenerate a 20% faster.
Evisceration: Active, 5 MP. The user strikes with an attack enhanced with mana, to increase the cutting power of the axe. This can wound the enemy easily, but the chance is increased if using a two-handed axe.
Pommel Smash: Active, 2 MP. The user strikes an opponent with a heavy smash using the pommel of the axe. This attack can stun the opponent, but is faster with a one-handed axe.
Quick Chop: Active, 1 MP. The user chops with the axe a target quickly. It doesn’t do much damage, but can be used repeatedly on a stunned target. It is faster if the user uses a one-handed axe.
Heavenly Breaker: Active, 5 MP. The user can jump to an enemy and while jumping charge with holy mana an attack that can break iron helms like if they were made of gelatin.
Spinning slash: Active, 10 MP. The user spins quickly and slashes all enemy that is close to him/her.
Rampage: Active, 50 MP. Increases the user speed for 10 minutes while using an axe, but the speed and the duration doubles if the user is using a one-handed axe.
Calamity Crush: Active, 60 MP. A heavy attack that uses the weight of the user and the axe to deal increased damage towards a target. The damage increases a 50% if the user is using a two-handed axe.
Radiant Slash: Active, 35 MP. The user channels the mana of the environment and those who are loyal to him/her and does an energy slash that can cut anything. Pinnacle skill.
Heroic Seal: Active, 500 MP. After having all the requirements to use Providence and using it, the user can craft a seal that will imprison the enemy in a dimension of light. It only will work on dark beings. Pinnacle skill.
Rage King (Master):
Controlled Wrath: Passive. The user only can get angry in a fight or when they are engulfed in rage. No skill can calm the user when he/she is angry.
Wrathful Resistance: Passive. When the user is angry, instant death skills won't work on him/her.
Seething Hatred: Passive. The user health regeneration increases a 200% when they are angry and with less than 70% of their total HP.
Rage Mode: Active, 12 MP. For 15 minutes, the user becomes totally enraged. It resets every time they get angrier, yet it also drains stamina. Increases damage a 45%, but there’s the chance that the user doesn’t recognize the allies.
Wrathful intimidation: Active, 4 MP. The user releases a wave of mana while roaring, which makes weaker enemies get afraid of the enemy.
Furious Spirit: Active, 30 MP. The user releases a combo of 8 hits with the weapon they hold in their hands, each hit hits more than the previous one if the user is enraged.
Wrathful Glory: Active, 50 MP. The user leaps forward and does a slash with their weapon, which in case that they are in rage mode releases a powerful mana shockwave.
Raging Geyser: Active, 40 MP. The user can punch the ground, and make a pillar of fire come out of the ground. Only works when Rage Mode is active, and deactivates it right after being used. Pinnacle skill.
Berserker (Master):
Berserker’s Axe: Passive. Increases the damage done while wielding an axe a 20%, and increases the defense of the user a 40% when they are enraged.
Ignore Pain: Passive. Allows the user to ignore the pain, and increases their resistance to terror, fear, and mind control a 40%.
Berserk’s Bloodlust: Passive. Increases a 5% the damage the user inflicts for every 100 HP they lose, and when the user has lost an 80% of their health they can heal up all the wounds once per day.
Berserker’s Champion: Passive. The user increases their speed, and strength a 30% when they are enraged, and grants them resistance to all ailments. The increase of speed and strength doubles once they have less than 50% of their health.
Armor Break: Active, 20 MP. The user delivers a powerful strike with their axe that can break low quality armors easily.
Decapitation Swing: Active, 30 MP. The user delivers a powerful swing that can decapitate a weak opponent that doesn’t have armor.
Raze: Active, 40 MP. The user charges forward, swinging the axe all across their charging trajectory. The range of the swings become bigger when the user is enraged.
Wrathful Warcry: Active, 70 MP. The user roars and increases the morale of their allies, while the enemies can be intimidated. Allies get a boost in their stats of a 20%.
Lethal Swing: Active, 100 MP. The user releases a powered up swing with a 20% of ignoring all defenses and doing an instant death. If it does not cause instant death, delivers massive damage. Pinnacle skill.
Barbarian (Master):
Barbarian’s Fist: The fists of a barbarian are far stronger than the average fist. (Don’t add this to RABP, but STR factor becomes STR*60 for fist attacks).
Barbarian’s Body: The body of a barbarian is far stronger than average, and recovers faster. Their base defense increases a 30%, minor wounds will be closed by just resting up for a moment, and the base regeneration speed becomes 200 HP/Minute, at the cost of being unable to wear armors that cover all the body since they absorb mana through the pores of their skin to stimulate their regeneration.
Barbarian’s quick weapon: Allows the user to wield axes a 70% faster.
Aimed Wrath: When the user is enraged, they can recognize their allies, and focus on their enemies. This gets rid of the side effects of the rage ailment of not recognizing allies, losing accuracy, and being slower at the moment of dodging.
Unyielding Barbarian: When the user is about to die, their body triggers an effect known as ‘Rage’s Last Wind’ which restores a 20% of the user’s total HP, and starts a 30-minute-long rage mode.
Bashing Fist: Active, 10 MP. The user uses mana to increase the knockback effect of their first and the impact of the fist, which increases the damage caused by said attack.
Harsh Flaying: Active, 25 MP. The user uses mana to reinforce the weapon’s sharpness, allowing it to damage the limb it is aimed at and make it inoperative. It wounds badly the enemy, and can nullify basic regeneration.
Rage Mode: Active, 12 MP. For 15 minutes, the user becomes totally enraged. It resets every time they get angrier, yet it also drains stamina. Increases damage a 45%, but there’s the chance that the user doesn’t recognize the allies.
Consecutive Swinging: Active, 40 MP. The user swings with their weapon three times consecutively, while maintaining any buffs they added to the attack before activating this skill.
Furious Attack: Active, 45 MP. The user wields accurately their anger to increase the damage a 30% while not being under the effects of rage, and increases the accuracy of the attack vastly.
Bloodthirsty Frenzy: Active, 50 MP. Requires being under Rage Mode’s effects or under the ailment known as Rage. The user attacks a target in a frenzy 20 times with their weapon, as each attack has a 10% increase in damage. Can’t be combined with other skills that increase damage, but the user can choose another target that is in range if the previous target falls down while this skill is being used.
Raging Roar: Active, 30 MP. The user roars and enrages the enemies that are stronger than the user, while forces those weaker than them to fight the user.
Cutting Rending: Active, 50 MP. The user uses mana to increase their strength while using a cutting weapon, making sure it can go through normal armors and tear a part of it. It causes massive damage to armors, and can cause grievous wounds if the target does not have an armor.
Intimidating Challenge: Active, 100 MP. The user roars as they uses mana to enhance their voice’s range and sound. Those weaker than the user will be forced to fight them under the effects of fear and terror, while those stronger than the user will just be forced to fight them.
Reckless Attack: Active, 120 MP. The user drops all defense as they attack an enemy that is 40 meters away with a charge while using the weapon. The range doubles if they are in Rage Mode, but the enemies are capable of countering the attack.
Raging Frenzy: Active, 500 MP. Can only be used under Rage Mode’s effect. The user attacks three different targets that are surrounding the target with their weapon, up to 30 times that reset once one of the targets is dead. The barbarian absorbs half of the HP they have taken from the enemies. Forcefully shuts down Rage Mode once it is finished, and stuns the user for one minute. Pinnacle skill.
Enhancer (Master):
Hardened skin: Increases the defense of the user a 50%.
Instant Reflex: The user returns to the attack stance when the enemy throws off-balance him by a previous attack. It can hurt depending on how the user is thrown off-balance.
Magic Soul: The user gains a 50% extra resistance to magic.
Body Enhancement: Active, 1 MP. Increases for a brief period of time (1 minute) all the status a 20%.
Skill Boost: Active, 3 MP. The damage caused by skills is increased a 3% for a long period of time (1 hour).
Evasion enhancement: Active, 5 MP. The user increases his speed when he dodges attacks during a brief period of time.
Improved Body Enhancement: Active, 10 MP. Increases for a long period of time all the status a 20%.
Improved Evasion Enhancement: Active, 25 MP. The user increases his speed when he dodges attacks during a long period of time.
Neural Enhancement: Active, 30 MP. The user makes his brain go faster, obtaining increased attack speed and reflexes.
Battle Aura: Active, 50 MP. The user increases all the power of the muscles and allows the user to imbue the weapon used with magic so not only can be stopped without any kind of mana skills.
Limiter Release: Active, 25 MP/second. Nullifies any limit that the body has, increasing a 90% all Status. But causes pain and overuse will cause the death of the user.
Defender (Master):
Protector of the weak: Passive. Increases a 75% the speed of the user when he sees someone wounded, and wants to go to their aid.
Tough Body: Passive. Lowers the damage taken a 20% when protecting someone.
Resilience: Passive. Lowers a 25% the effect and duration of ailments, curses, poison, and charm.
Grand Recovery: Passive. When the health lowers a 50% of the total, the user regains a 5% of their total health per second.
Mana Dash: Active, 2 MP. Allows the user to do a dash forward using the mana in their body.
Curse Bane: Active, 5 MP. Increases for 10 minutes the resistance towards curses a 20%
Magic Bane: Active, 4 MP. Increases for 10 minutes the resistance towards magic projectiles a 20%
Savior's translocation: Active, 20 MP. The user teleports in front of someone else, giving their backs to the target.
Rescue Retreat: Active, 30 MP, must grab the nearest ally. Allows the user to teleport anywhere in a range of 200 meters.
Defender's stand: Active, 100 MP. The user increased twofold their defense, and make a small field that stops all kinds of projectiles for five minutes. Pinnacle skill.