The team made their way to the foot of the mountain, and Grimmy started investigating possible entries to the bandit’s hideout.
“Hey Grimmy, why doesn’t Joe just give us really good weapons and armor? Wouldn’t that help us reach D-grade faster? It would also keep us safe,” asked Alice.
“There are rules, Alice,” responded Grimmy. “Gods cannot intervene into mortal affairs. The reason why he was able to give you all the pin was due to Dream’s intervention. Dream broke the rules by contacting another God’s chosen without consent, and in retaliation, Lord Death gave you all a way to protect yourselves from further interaction.”
“What about my boon?”
“Boons are okay. Those are considered blessings, and any god can give anybody they deem worthy a blessing. No rules being broken there. Blessings of course have limitations as you can see, and every boon is different. Yours give you some immunities to death affinity and some stat bumps.”
“Interesting,” replied Alice, deep in thought.
“Can we get some boons as well?” asked Rami.
“That’s not up to me. That’s up to Lord Death.”
“I mean, we are representing him in the champion’s tournament or whatever, so he could at least give us a boon.”
“Don’t worry, Rami. I’ll ask Joe next time I see him. I’m sure he will be okay with granting you two a boon.”
‘Thank you, Alice! You see, Grimmy, Alice is a nice person, and she is going to ask Joe about it. You could’ve said the same thing.”
Grimmy ignored Rami and continued searching for an entry into the mountains.
After a few more minutes of searching, Grimmy found a small passage covered by bushes and roots.
“Alright, the reports said people saw bandits coming and going from the west side of the mountain, so we should be close… There!” Grimmy pointed. “That must be the entrance to the hideout. There are clear indications that people have been using this passage and the roots and bushes seemed to be intentionally placed there to hide the entrance.”
“Alright, Grimmy! I knew you could do it!” cheered Alice.
“Let’s go! Time to kick some bandit ass!” shouted Bonetta.
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The party went through the passageway and were stopped by a system notification:
Warning: You are about to enter a dungeon. This is a Lvl 10 dungeon. The minimum recommended Lvl for this dungeon is Lvl 10. Do you want to proceed?
Yes or No
“Of course! They are hiding in a dungeon. No wonder I couldn’t sense them with my identification skill,” said Grimmy, “That’s too smart of a move for your everyday bandits. There must be someone else behind them.”
“Well that someone else is also getting a beating,” said Bonetta.
“Calm down, Bonetta. We need to think this through. We can’t just rush into a dungeon…”
Alice selected “Yes” and the whole party was transported into the dungeon.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/7THHRk0.png]
The team entered what looked to be the inside of the mountain. It was a sophisticated system of tunnels almost as if it was intended to be a maze. The tunnels could fit six or seven people side by side and were about 15 feet tall. Bonetta could reach the ceiling using her high jump.
Rami sighed. “I’m starting to understand why you two like each other,” said Rami, referring to Bonetta and Alice.
“Rami, it’s not like we were going to turn back and head back to town. I just saved us 10 minutes of pointless discussion.”
“Grimmy, you’re right. I see now why she almost got her arm bitten off.”
“Hey! That wasn’t just me. Grimmy was at fault too! Also, can someone explain to me what a dungeon is?”
Rami was about to scold Alice, when Bonetta made a silencing gesture with her finger.
“Shh,” said Bonetta. She was a couple of feet ahead of the team just as their rehearsed battle formation. “I hear something.”
“She’s right,” said Grimmy. “We have a few monsters coming from the west. Get ready.”
They were in a triangle formation with Bonetta being in the front. The team prepared their weapons, spells, and buffs.
Bonetta started by buffing her defense with her Stone Pelt skill. Alice would prepare herself by inflicting both bleeding and necrotic wound. Rami readied himself for a Water Sniper spell. Grimmy just stood up as high and as back as possible.
As soon as the monsters appeared, Grimmy identified them:
Goblin Hunter Lvl 10
Goblin Hunter Lvl 10
Goblin Hunter Lvl 10
Goblin Warrior Lvl 12
The rest of the team automatically got the information off the party interface and began to work.
The team opted for a simple strategy. Bonetta would tank the warrior, while Rami and Alice took care of the hunters. Alice immediately transferred her afflictions to the warrior to help out Bonetta and applied a few more on herself to transfer them to the hunters. Rami chose one of the hunters and shot it with a Water Sniper, following up with a Water Prison on another one, encasing him in a sphere of water.
Bonetta buffed her strength with Swell Up and went to town on the warrior. The warrior was weakened with the afflictions that Alice was able to transfer at the beginning of the battle, so its movements were sloppy and caused no threat to Bonetta. Though Bonetta still could have handled the warrior without the afflictions.
Bonetta reminded Alice of how an MMA fighter would move, only faster and more agile in general, with some move combinations that would make MMA champions look like amateurs. Bonetta was clearly trained in hand-to-hand combat to a degree that few had at her level. In comparison, Alice seemed like a beginner with her combat style. Alice was able to make some great moves due to her Acrobatics skill, but in reality, she was simply jumping around and swinging at monsters without a proper strategy or forethought.
Rami finished off the goblin he initially sniped with a second Water Sniper and moved on to the one that was just released from the Water Prison. The Water Prison at the moment could only last about 15 seconds.
Alice went for the last hunter and managed to swipe at it with both her sickles, rendering him a dead corpse walking. The hunter took a few swipes at Alice. Alice managed to dodge one and got hit by the second one. It was a shallow cut, so she quickly healed herself. Once Alice inflicted the hunter with bleeding and necrotic wound, she took a step back to see how the rest of the team was doing.
Bonetta had a few injuries here and there, but nothing major, and Rami was completely unharmed. Alice cured whatever injuries Bonetta had, and finished off the hunter she was fighting.
After a couple of minutes, the battle was over. No one suffered any major injuries, and Alice took care of the minor ones with her healing spells.
“Alright,” said Grimmy, “overall it was a pretty good fight, but…”
Grimmy started telling everyone how they could’ve done better, and where they were lacking. The party was used to this, since Grimmy did the same thing when they went out for training last time.
“Yes, Grimmy, we will be better next time,” said the party in unison.
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