When Daniel woke up in the morning, there was already shining some daylight through the wooden shutters of the windows. He was surprised that John or Anna hadn’t woken him. Maybe, their targets were still in the tavern, he concluded.

He dressed back into his leather armor and then left the room. Daniel had no idea which room was occupied by Isabella, so he could only return his own room key and get back to the other tavern.

When he arrived there, he wasn’t able to spot his friends outside. With nothing better to do, he decided to enter the tavern and get some breakfast. Inside, he saw that Fedor and Jacob were sitting with John at a table. Their targets were enjoying their breakfast at another table on the other side of the room. Anna was nowhere to be seen and he decided to join his friends at their table.

“Good morning, how is it going?” Daniel asked while he sat down.

“Nothing interesting, we’re only enjoying another fine meal.” Fedor commented.

“We did send Anna to get Isabella. Then, we can follow them when they leave the village.” John added in a low voice.

“Hopefully, they’ll leave today. I want to get this over with.” Daniel responded.

They were interrupted when another young woman arrived at their table and asked if he wanted to get something to eat. Daniel went for a bit of bread and some meat. He ordered some extra food packages. After all, he didn’t know if Isabella and Anna had eaten something and his inventory seemed to prevent food from spoiling.

When she left their table, Fedor turned to Jacob.

“Another daughter that is dangerous to look at?” He asked and Jacob only nodded.

While he was waiting for his food, Daniel started to think about his skills. He was level 14 and needed to decide what skill he should try to create at level 15. He wasn’t really sure which direction he should go. He could try to improve his weaknesses or focus on his strengths. In every game the decision was clear and min maxing was the goal. But, in real life as a glass cannon, it was not that easy. While he had been able to increase his toughness and endurance by a good margin, his vitality was still very low. He was very fast, but it was far harder to dodge a spell than a melee attack. Maybe, there was a way if he could increase his domain. However, in the rabbit night attack, he had no chance to dodge the spell that hit him. While it hadn’t been very strong and his high regeneration had already fixed his injured ribs, a stronger spell could have killed him. He didn’t want to think about how he would look like if he was hit by a spell like his own Air Bomb. The best he was able to come up with right now was some kind of magic resistance. If he let himself hit by spells, he would probably only get an elemental resistance spell. But, if Anna shot some Magic Missiles at him, maybe he would get a general resistance skill.

Daniel stopped his thoughts when his food arrived. He was still level 14, maybe a better idea would come up before he reached level 15. He started to eat, but after a few bites, he paused and turned to Jacob.

“Any good ideas for a skill at level 15?” Daniel asked.

“That is a very personal question. Here, nobody talks about good skills. If you find something good, try to keep it as close to you as possible. Legends say that the more people use a skill, the harder it is to level.” Jacob explained.

“That makes no sense. Shouldn’t basic skills like heavy armor be impossible to level if that were the case?” Daniel objected.

“There are basic skills and more specialized ones. My tip is, do not share your more specialized skills except with your family.” Jacob explained.

Daniel was unsure if there was something to it, or it was just superstition that was created by powerful people to have a reason to not to share their skills and to have a way to keep a power difference to normal people. At least, Jacob’s reaction had answered the question if there were libraries with useful skills and descriptions about how to get them.

Daniel’s thoughts were interrupted when a over two meter tall man with red skin and horns entered the tavern. He had a hard time keeping himself calm even when he remembered Jacob’s warnings about non humans. Right now, a demon was standing less then five meters away from him. Looking at his friends, they didn’t seem to be bothered at all.

He felt Fedors elbow to his ribs. “Don’t stare, that is Ignafax, he is just the cook here.” The Russian explained in a teaching tone.

When he looked at his friends again, he saw that they had a hard time to surpress their laughter. He turned to Jacob.

“How bad did they react when they first saw this Ignafax?” Daniel asked.

“Well, Fedor here almost panicked and started to pray to something.” Jacob commented.

Daniel sighed and continued with his food. A few bites before he was finished, he saw that the group of adventurers were getting up and began to move in the direction of the exit.

They got ready to leave, too. Daniel went to the counter to pay. He grabbed his food packages and put them into his inventory. Outside, they saw that their targets were around 50 meters in front of them. They were making their way down the main street. Jacob gestured them to stay behind a bit while he would stay closer to their targets. They were lucky, to this hour the main street had a lot of people on them that were going on with their business.

After looking around a bit, Daniel was able to spot Anna and Isabella. They were standing at a market stall that was selling fresh fish. They had already noticed the rest of their party and started to move in their direction. When they joined up, the group started to follow Jacob in a bit of a distance.

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A bit later, they were able to see that Jacob was talking to one of the guards at the village gate. After he finished talking to them, Jacob went in their direction.

“I talked to the guards. While doing that, I was able to see that our targets have chosen the path to Irondeep. It is around 40 kilometers and they didn’t look like they were in a hurry. We should have more than enough time to deal with them.” Jacob explained in a low voice when they met up.

“We should take another way first. Then, when we are outside the sight of the village, we change direction to way to this Irondeep. While we may have to move a bit over land, it is prudent that there is nothing that could connect us to them. Just in case we have to take them all out and they have friends that would come and investigate their disappearance.” John suggested and the other had to agree with his plan.

Half an hour later, they were back on the path to Irondeep and John started to talk again.

“Ok, we shouldn’t make this a fair fight. They have a higher level than we have. Who of you is good with a handgun?” John asked.

Unsurprisingly Fedor raised his hand. He had been in the military after all. Isabella and Anna just shook their heads. Daniel decided to do the same, while he had been able to use a handgun, that was at a close distance and the target didn’t look in his direction. Hitting someone who was trying to dodge would be far harder.

John nodded and removed a large pistol from his inventory. Daniel was no expert, but it looked like a Desert Eagle from Counterstrike. After handing it over to Fedor, he took out a big rifle with a scope.

When John saw his teams surprised looks, he started to explain himself.

“Well, I was in my workshop when I was summoned. Working on my weapons was one of the few things that were able to take my mind of from the pain in my arm. Most of it accompanied me, but it wasn’t really needed in the dungeon. While I don’t know how tough our targets are, I don’t think they can stay unharmed after being hit by a 50cal high explosive armor piercing incendiary round.”

Daniel didn’t know what to say and just nodded.

“Those poor bastards.” Fedor said with a smile while he chambered a round in his new pistol.

“When we meet with them, I’ll stay a bit back and start shooting if you give me the sign that the talks are not successful. I’ll start with the people without armor, they should be faster and a more immediate danger. Oh, and don’t move between me and the targets. If you engage, do it from the flanks.” John explained.

With that, they increased their pace to close their distance to the other group. It didn’t take long and their targets came into sight. It seemed like they didn’t have a care in the world, at least they didn’t turn around once. When they closed in on around 200 meters, John stopped and laid himself on the round with his rifle.

The others speed up to close the rest of the distance and Jacob stayed a bit back.

When they were only 20 meters away, they were finally noticed. The adventurers turned around and Fedor addressed them.

“Hey you, we have to talk about something. Did you know that this bastard over there,“ he pointed at the bearded man, “is wanted for murder, rape and theft?”

The man that looked like their leader started to smile.

“Look at that, some weaklings were following us. What do you think Logain, isn’t awfully nice of them to deliver us their money and donate us their experience.” He asked one of his comrades.

“Haha, you could say that boss. Hard to kill someone and get away with it in the villages and towns, but here? And they even brought us some looking fine young women.They must really be retarded to follow us.” Logain turned to the bearded man and continued. “Hey Akeem, are these friends of yours that know about the dungeon, too?”

Daniel had heard enough, he gave the sign to John and removed his saber from his inventory. Just as he finished casting his Lightning Armor, the head of the man that was called Logain exploded. A moment later, he heard the bang of the shot.

The other enemies were startled, but they drew their weapons and two of them looked like they were beginning to cast spells. All of them started to move and it looked like they were spotting for the source of the attack on their dead friend. Daniel was a bit surprised that the other five enemies reacted this fast. He created an Arc Lightning next and shot it at one of enemies that looked like it was a caster. While he channeled his spell, he heard another shot and saw that the second caster was hit in the chest. When the leader of their enemies raised his axe and came at Fedor, the Russian only laughed. He just raised his pistol and started to pull the trigger. The first bullet stopped the man’s charge, the second one let him stagger and he went down after the third one.

Daniel was a bit distracted by shooting and jumped back when his domain warned him that the fifth of the adventurers was swinging his mace at him. The man was wearing heavy armor with a shield, much like Fedor. He was a lot slower than Daniel, so it wasn’t that difficult to stay out of the attack range. Like with the goblin boss, he had a hard time finding a good spot to attack. Just trying to stab his opponent would have a high chance of damaging his own weapon. He got a little bit nervous when he saw that the bearded rapist had pulled an AK from his inventory. A moment later, he had to smile when he saw the first fireball hitting the man. The man was only wearing normal woolen clothes that started to burn immediately. His screams distracted Daniel’s opponent who turned his head to look at his friends. This was the opportunity Daniel had waited for. He exploded in a forward movement and stabbed the man’s unprotected throat. His eyes widened, but instead of going down, he swung his mace at Daniel’s side.

The next moments felt like they were in slow motion. Daniel cursed himself from believing that a pierced throat was the end of a battle in a world that didn’t seem to have physical limits. He tried to move out of the way, but deep down he knew that it wouldn’t be enough. When the heavy mace impacted on his arm near his right shoulder, he was thrown backwards from the force. He went to the ground and lost the grip on his saber. Despite the pain, Daniel managed to channel another Arc Lightning at his opponent. The man screamed, but even with that and the gushing wound at his throat, he was still raising his mace for another blow.

Just in that moment, the man’s head exploded and Daniel heard another shot. He started to get up without using his right arm. His whole side was hurting like hell and he had a hard time to stay conscious. When he was on his feet, he started to look around. All that was left from the bearded man was a charred corpse. It seemed like Isabella had overdone it a bit after her first Fireball. But, he was in no position to criticize her when he himself had thought his opponent was finished too early. The caster that was shot by John looked like he was still breathing, though parts of his chest were missing. The man that he had attacked with his lightning spell was on the ground. Daniel was able to see the rests of Anna’s ice spikes that pierced through him.

Surprisingly, the man that the others called boss was still alive, too. He was on his knees and it looked like he was trying to get enough breath to stand up. Fedor took a look at his gun and then stored it away. A moment later, he had removed his own mace from his inventory and bashed it at the man’s head. The first strike sent him to the ground, but it seemed like he was still breathing. Three strikes later, all that was left of the head was a bloody pulp.

Anna took care of the other man that was still breathing. She removed the man’s head with two strikes of her axe. Daniel took another deep relieved breath and sat back on the ground. With the danger over, he didn’t try to stay conscious any longer and blacked out.