Liam pulled out the loot that he received for the others to see.
One was a pair of gauntlets that resembled the ones the Askith Wight Commander wore. They were silver in color that looked to run up half the forearm. On the back of the hand of each gauntlet was a skull that looked to be melted in. Sharp bone spikes protruded on each knuckle while the fingers looked like sharp claws.
Liam assessed the item.
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“Bone Gauntlets of the Askith Wight Commander. Item type – Weapon (Unarmed). Item Rarity – Rare. Item Quality – Average. +10 Armor. Effect – Life Drain. Each strike made with the Bone Gauntlets of the Askith Wight Commander drains 10 health and Stamina from the target, giving 5 back to the user. Effect – Elemental Enhancement. Due to the special nature of bone crafted weapons, Elemental spells are enhanced to strike harder and flow easier.”
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Liam’s eyes widened as he read the stats and effects of this weapon.
This is one nasty punching weapon. Liam thought before turning to the next item.
This armor piece closely resembled the breastplate the Askith Wight Commander wore, except there was a few things that were different. For one, it wasn’t as big as the EFM’s armor, and for the other it only covered the chest area instead of the entire upper torso. The metal portion of the armor was silver while three pale white rib bones on each side stretched out over the chest.
Liam assessed it as well.
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“Bone Breastplate of the Askith Wight Commander. Item type – Armor. Item Rarity – Rare. Item Quality – Average. + 20 Armor. Effect – Life Drain. When enemies attack this armor piece 10 Health and Stamina is drained, giving the wearer 5 health and stamina back. Effect – Elemental Resistance. Due to the special nature of bone crafted armor, this armor piece raises resistance to elemental magic by 10%.
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“Damn, both of these items are good,” Liam stated as he looked at the others.
“Yeah they are,” Ariyana agreed.
“So, who is getting what?” Mercer asked.
“Um, I’d like the gauntlets,” Roman stated. “I think they will help with the direction I want to go.”
Liam and Mercer nodded in agreement.
“Then they are yours,” Mercer said as he passed Roman the weapons.
Liam looked at Blair as she raised her head. She noticed Liam was looking at her, and frowned.
“I swear if you say its because…,” Blair started to say until Liam interjected.
“I wasn’t going to say what you think,” Liam said. “I think the Life Drain effect would be best on you because of the fact you take so many hits. Getting some HP and Stamina back will help because you also swing that great axe which takes so much stamina to swing. Plus, that Elemental resistance will help you against any element type magics.”
Listening to his reasoning, Blair couldn’t help but agree.
“Fine,” Blair finally caved. “I’ll take it, but I swear if anyone makes fun of me because I keep getting armor that has bones in its design then I will kick their ass.”
“We understand,” Mercer stated with a light laugh. He then looked at Liam and asked, “Was there anything else?”
“Just some coins,” Liam said as he pulled out the amount he remembered and handed it to him.
After handing him the money, Liam scanned the room for the lever he was hoping would be in there.
He located it on the back wall where the Askith Wight Commander was staring at.
“Hey Roman, could you go pull that lever over there?” Liam asked as he pointed to it.
Roman looked over and nodded as he jogged over and pulled it.
As he pulled the lever, the same sound of stone grinding on stone echoed from the hallway as dust and sand fell from the ceiling.
“You guys ready to see what we’ll face next?” Mercer asked the others.
“Can we take a five minute break first?” Artem asked. “I need to get my stamina back. It doesn’t replenish as fast as you guys.”
“Yeah we can do that,” Liam said. “Let’s all get the soreness that’s seeped into us out. The fights are getting harder as we go so we don’t want to get a cramp or anything of the likes.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“You should probably work on your Stamina Recovery and Stamina Endurance more, Artem,” Roman stated as he approached them. He then looked at Liam and said, “Could you imagine if Artem had both of those as high as ours? He would be one annoying Defender that could not only take any hits, but keep standing in any attackers way.”
“I agree,” Liam stated. “You should run with us in the mornings.”
Artem gave them a tired sigh as he looked at them. “I’m already tired thinking about it.”
Roman let out a laugh.
“It would be great if you were able to do it, then you’d be able to protect me easier when I’m with the front line attackers,” Ariyana smiled warmly with a sweet and innocent voice.
Artem blushed slightly before looking away from her smiling face. With a bit of embarrassment in his voice he said quietly, “I’ll do my best.”
Liam stared at the two. He trusted his group but was still wary of how they acted. Back in his old world during the end of days, people would use any method to try and coerce people to do things they wanted.
Deep down he knew these people wouldn’t do that to each other, but he couldn’t help but be cautious. Especially when it came to Ariyana.
Ariyana’s class was literally one who could sway others with her voice and looks. Adding in her race that amplified things, she could easily entrance others to do what she wanted. Her interactions with him and the others showed she wasn’t using her abilities to do that, especially when it came to Roman.
When she spoke to him it felt like she was talking to a sibling. The only way he could compare it was how he and his siblings spoke to each other. However, when it came to Artem it was different. She was sweeter to him than the others.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
At first Liam believed she was using her abilities to get him to do things he would never want to do, but his opinion of that changed over time. The more she talked with Artem the more Liam didn’t see the signs she was doing that.
Maybe Artem charmed her instead with his food. Liam thought as a smile formed. That would be one interesting development if she actually fell for him.
“I’m curious to know,” Blair started up, bringing Liam out of his thoughts. “How high are your Stamina Endurance and Recovery, Roman, Liam? I just got mine to level ten, but when I see you guys go at it, it feels like I’m still behind.”
“Hm, I don’t know about Liam’s, but my Stamina Endurance is at level fourteen and my Stamina Recovery just hit fifteen,” Roman said before glancing at Liam.
“Is it really only at fourteen and fifteen?” Liam asked as he cocked his head to the side a bit.
Roman nodded. “What’s yours at?”
“My Stamina Endurance is at eighteen while my Stamina Recovery is at seventeen.”
Everyone’s attention focused on Liam after he talked.
After a few seconds of silence, he was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and asked, “What?”
“How is it so high?” Roman asked, shocked at what he was hearing.
“Our stats raise depending on how hard we push ourselves. During the fourth floor I was put into a lot of situations that pushed my stats over and over,” Liam stated. “However, thanks to those situations I was able to grow my stats and learn the limit of my body and what I needed to do in order to grow.”
Everyone continued to stare at Liam.
Not wanting things to get any more awkward, Liam coughed and suggested, “Is everyone rested? I think we should move on to the next Elite Floor Monster room.”
Without waiting for a reply Liam got up and started walking away.
Artem, Ariyana, and Roman followed him while Avery, Blair and Mercer stayed back waiting for them to leave the room.
Blair walked up to Mercer and asked as quietly as she could while keeping her eyes on the open door, “Our stats cap at level twenty during the tutorial right?”
Mercer nodded with a look of concern while facing the open door.
“I thought it was impossible for us to get our stats that close to the cap while we’re here in the Tutorial Area?” Blair questioned.
“I was told that too,” Mercer said agreeing with her question.
“What does that mean then?” Avery asked, keeping the level of her voice as quiet as the others.
“It means, he’s been pushing himself harder than we thought,” Mercer stated. “For what reason I don’t know, but its probably not good.”
“What should we do?” Blair inquired.
“Keep an eye on him for now,” Mercer answered as he stood up. “If he’s pushing himself then he’s bound to get tired and make a mistake somewhere. With what happened during the fight I feel like he’s walking on an edge we can’t see.”
Blair nodded. “I agree. He wasn’t acting like he normally does. That pressure he was exuding was one I didn’t think he could ever make.”
Avery nodded agreeing with her. “He might be getting exhausted and doesn’t want to show it.” Avery then turned to the other two and asked, “Should we call it a day for now?”
Mercer shook his head. “No. Let’s see how the next fight goes and see how he is. If it looks like he’s about to fall over or start to falter in any way then we’ll call it a day after that fight.”
“Ok,” Avery and Blair stated as they started walking out the room.
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Sitting in a room in a different realm, Eri watched Avery, Blair, and Mercer with an assessing eye through a small pool of water inside a bowl she held on her lap.
The room she occupied was hard as stone. There was a bed with a pillow and a blanket. The rest of the room was covered in raven black stones. The only light that filled the room came from outside behind solid bars made from the same material as the floor and walls.
“You’re not wrong to be wary and concerned,” Eri muttered to herself. “Him being so far ahead in stats compared to others shows how much potential he has, but potential can be a double edged sword and can consume a mortal. Especially one without a proper support.”
I wonder what triggered his other class to seep out from behind the seal. Eri thought as her eyes narrowed. That seal is powerful enough to hold it back and not let anything leak, so how did some of it seep out and try to take hold of him.
Painful screams echoed outside the cell-like room Eri sat in.
I will have to give it to him for reigning it in and not let it take control. Eri thought as a light smile grew over her lips. Maybe he will be strong enough to handle my blessing.
Eri looked back at the people who made up Liam’s group. Her smile grew even more. “They do seem like they can be trustworthy companions if they are able to catch on to the changes of your nature and worry about you, Liam,” Eri quietly muttered to herself. “I might have to reward them when you accept being my champion.”
Without thinking more about it, Eri focused her gaze back on Liam and continued to watch as they exited out the hall.
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As Liam walked out from the hall, he quickly scanned over the room. He started with the floor they were on and then the top floor. He finished with the bottom floors and saw the door on the second to bottom floor was open.
As he pointed to the door, he said, “It looks like the second to bottom floor door opened there.”
Everyone saw where he pointed and made their way down.
As Liam turned around from the stairs and headed to the door, he looked at the hieroglyphs.
The first set of pictures showed a group of people around a tall interestingly designed stone building. Streaks of red, blue, and purplish-yellow ran out from the building to the sky. The second picture showed a horde of undead creatures swarming the building with the colorful streak running from the top of the tower down to them.
The next picture showed a swarm of undead running towards a few people wearing clothed robes with streaks of color running towards them.
Must be mages of some sort. Liam thought.
The last picture showed piles of bodies with an Undead floating above them. It wore a ripped up robe, a staff in one hand and an icy blue color covering the other hand.
“Looks like it will be an Undead Mage type EFM,” Liam muttered.
“How can you tell?” Avery asked as she walked up next to him.
Liam pointed to the colors he saw. “These colors represent magic. If the colors match with what I have seen with Mana Sight, then this icy blue color should be ice,” Liam replied.
“Hm,” Mercer muttered. “That is an interesting way to look at it.”
“Want me to scout it out or should we go in as a group?” Liam questioned as he looked at Mercer.
Mercer looked at him. After a brief moment of silence, he answered, “Let’s go in as a group.”
“Ok,” Liam said. “I don’t hear any movement in the hallway so we should be clear of monsters till we get to the EFM’s room.”
“Ok,” Avery and Mercer said as they walked into the hall.
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Liam and the group walked cautiously as they made their way to the open door at the end of the hall.
Like Liam had suspected, there weren’t any monsters roaming the hallway.
As they approached the opened door frame Liam peered inside.
The room was a little bigger than the last two rooms. The other difference was three pipes running out from the wall and into a dug out area that ran along the back wall. At the corners of the back wall, they entered a drain and disappeared.
Standing in the middle, close to the back wall, a skeletal form wearing a ripped up mage robe hovered a couple of inches off the ground.
Like the last two EFM’s, this creature had its back turned from the open doorway.
Liam assessed the creature.
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“Askith Deathlock. 2500/2500 HP. 4000/4000 MP.”
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As Liam assessed the creature, it slowly swirled around with a wicked ghastly laugh.
“So bold of you to approach my lair,” the Askith Deathlock stated. “Please, enter so I can kill you and rai…”
The Askith Deathlock stopped what it was saying as the room started to suddenly rumble for a moment. The rumble caused dust and loose rocks to fall from the ceiling.
Liam and the group, confused on what was happening, braced themselves for any attack they thought the Askith Deathlock was about to send their way.
As they kept their eyes on the EFM, confusion grew more on their faces as they noticed the creature looking around the room confused as well.
Liam felt another rumble across the floor.
Then another.
And another.
To Liam it felt like something was running. He then noticed the water pipes start to push out more water, harder than before. Almost like something was forcing a huge amount out.
After a few seconds of the rumbling picking up in pace, Liam watched the Askith Deathlock slowly turn back to the wall it was facing before.
As he turned to face it, the wall exploded, bringing a massive scaley jaw wide open through it.
Liam and his group took a step back to dodge the flying pieces of stone.
Liam’s eyes widened as he saw that Giant scaley jaw turn sideways over the Askith Deathlock and slam shut, swallowing it whole.
Liam assessed it.
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“Binky The Giant Albino Crocolisk. 5000/5000 HP. 0/0 MP.”
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As quickly as it had appeared, the giant head of the Albino Crocolisk was pulled back into the massive hole it had created and disappeared.