Chapter 10
Part 2
"Survive the first wave!"
Those were the words that greeted us on the other side of the door as we were transported from where we had been just a second ago.
"What does that mean?" Carl said, giving me a nervous smile.
"Well, we're about to find out," I replied, as I saw the red dots in the darkness as they glitter like stars in the night sky. No doubt making us the target of their leering eyes like heat-seeking missiles waiting to be unleashed.
We had no idea advancing deeper into the cave would have brought us to a place that was not so beginner-friendly. After all, what kind of beginner dungeon had a monster wave instance of level 25 monsters? If I remember correctly, those kinds of instances were more common in upper-level dungeons, not a level 15 dungeon like the one we were in. Did the game make a mistake by accidentally transporting us to a higher-level instance? If it did, it was quite the bug in the game.
"What now?" Carl said.
I looked at the red eyes staring back at us, they were frozen still on the other side, making no sudden movement, no doubt waiting on us do something.
"I don’t know. Can we even be victorious?" I said, looking at the health bar of them
"Level 25 Goblins."
This was bad since we were only level 15, and they were a whole ten levels above us, and in an RPG game, that meant quite the difference in stats.
"It doesn't seem we can go back either," Carl said, as he looked behind us and found nothing but a rock wall, the door that had brought here now gone.
"Well, let's just get this over with," I said, letting out a sigh. Dead in this game meant we were going to lose our progress and equipment, it wasn’t' perma death like some RPG games where you lose your character completely, but it still sucked that we were about to lose our progress. Luckily it wasn't too bad since we were only level 15 so is not like we were about to lose a lot of progress, but still, it sucked to start over from scratch. I almost had grown accustomed to this character of mine, after all, it was modeled after me. Yet that wasn’t the only reason, her face flashing before me, would she recognize me with a different character? I thought for a brief second, but brush those thoughts aside, now was not the time to think about a receptionist in this game. Besides, I wasn't even sure she was human to begin with, what if she was some advanced AI girl.
"You're right, " Carl said, letting out a sight as well,
"I worked so hard to get to this level only for a dumb bug in a game to ruin it."
"Of that you are right," I said, taking my sword out.
"What if we try to fight them, who knows, we might even be victorious?" Carl said as he went into his casting position as a mage.
"We can't go out without a fight," I said, agreeing with his sentiment.
" Well what are you waiting for, come at us you stupid goblins."
And as if my voice had triggered them, the goblins that were in front of us came out screaming and hollering as they dashed at us.
Obviously we knew that we weren’t going to survive since they were above our level, but that didn't mean we weren’t going to go without a fight.
The goblins were fast, much faster than the acidic slime boss we had faced, but yet we were holding our own. They were not very intelligent which was to be expected from their class of monster, so surprisingly they weren’t that difficult to deal with, and their HP (Hit Points) were quite low too I noticed.
Carl was throwing ice spells at them, since that was the only offensive spells he knew as a ice mage, which wasn’t a bad role right now, especially with a lot of enemies around us. Freezing them for a few seconds which allowed me to slash them with ease. They had a little speed, but it was no trouble for me since I was quite faster than normal considering I put a lot of my stat points in speed and attack, modeling my character after the archetype of a glass cannon. Which meant I was deadly, but defensively weak, so I had to be careful.
After killing a few goblins, the 'EXP" widows were popping up in front of us, but we paid them no attention, we were focus on winning right now.
After some time, we were finally done. We somehow had managed to defeat all the goblins, all ten of them and we collapsed on the floor exhausted, our mana depleted, yet by some miracle we had been victorious against enemies that were 10 levels higher than us.
"Can you believe it?" Carl said,
"We somehow manage to defeat them."
"We make a good team," I said, taping his staff with my sword.
"I wonder what our reward would be," Carl said, eager to see what amazing loot awaited us for being able to survive such an instance as a pair of beginner players. And to be honest, I didn't think we were going to get loot if any since I was sure this was a bug.
"I wouldn't bet on it," I said,
"I think we will, any minute now," Carl said, sarcastically as no window popped up signaling any loot for us.
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"Did you go up a level," I asked as I saw my stats, I had gone two levels. I was now at level 17.
"Well, would you look at that, I did," Carl said,
"I'm now at level 18."
"Congrats, at least our levels went up," I said, and just as we were both basking in our brand-new levels, we heard the game voice again.
"Survive for 60 seconds!"
It said, and a giant timer appeared floating in the air, marking the timer for our next challenge.
"Survive what?" Carl said as we both got up as fast as we could.
"I think it means that," I said, pointing at the giant minotaur heading our way with its giant flaming sword.
The minotaur dashed with great speed despite its size. It must have been at least 10 feet tall if not taller. It had great bulging muscles you will expect a monster of its size to have, but the dangerous thing, surprisingly, wasn't its size and mass. No, it was that burning sword that seemed to scorch everything it touched, leaving nothing but dark charcoal behind.
" How do we survive that? " Carl said, sending ice spell after ice spell at the minotaur, trying to slow it down, trying to buy us time to survive this game.
"I don't know, but we just need to survive for 57 more seconds," I said looking at the timer as it floated in the air, 3 seconds had passed already yet those seconds felt like an eternity.
"Watch out!" I said as I saw its flaming sword coming our way, we moved to the side and saw a dark spot on the ground, which was now covered in almost complete darkness. The earth was scorched by its flame no doubt.
"Luckily it doesn’t seem to be of great intelligence," I said, noticing that after each attack it try to locate us. It was more like some loose animals than a sentient being, which was perfect.
"I have a plan," I said,
"Use your ice tundra spell and try to freeze it so we can slow it down. I'm pretty much useless here since close attacks are dangerous for me due to its sword, but I can distract it for you to cast your spell."
Carl looked at me, I could see the worried expression on his face telling me that this was not a good idea.
"Are you sure?" he asked,
I looked at the timer, another 3 seconds had passed.
"If we continue like this we won't survive and do you really want to start a new character, after all, the penalty is perma death," I said, as I looked underneath the timer and read the penalty in bright red letters.
He looked at me and he knew I was right, it didn't matter much if we lost these characters of ours, since they were low levels, to begin with, but making a new character meant making a new account and making another account we had to wait for it to be approved. And who knows if we were going to be able to make one, after all, this game was quite popular and that was an understatement.
"You're right," " Carl said,
"I'll start the timer, but I only have enough mana for one more tundra spell and that’s it."
"That’s all we need," I said, smiling at him and nodding, I needed to be confident as the leader after all, even if I wasn’t sure our plan would work.
"Over here you oversized cow," I yelled as I dashed away from Carl, and luckily, the minotaur looked my way, completely ignoring Carl.
"Ice bullet," Carl said, sending an ice bullet at its feet to help slow it down at least for a second. That luckily it froze him for a second, slowing him down,
"Soar Blade!" I said, as I dashed behind him and slashed him, just like I had anticipated. It was useless, for it barely flinched,
"ROAAR!" it led out a scorching scream and flunked its flame sword at me, which I moved to the side, evading it,
"Ice tundra!"
I turned to Carl and saw that the cast timer on his spell had no doubt started for he was whispering incantations underneath his breath.
"ROOOOAR!" the minotaur let out a screeching roar as it ran towards me once again. Luckily it was too preoccupied with me to even notice Carl, which was to my luck.
"You want round 2, you oversized cow," I yelled as I began to run away once more. Luckily I was way faster than it so evading him and his flaming sword wasn't such a struggle. I looked at the timer as it floated in the air, every second going down as if it were hours.
"ROOOOOAR!" it let out as it missed me with its flaming sword, scorching the ground underneath us.
"Just a little more," I said, as I watched Carl finishing the cast on his spell,
"NOW!" he yelled at last, which was my cue,
"Got it partner," I said, as I ran toward Carl with the minotaur trailing right behind me.
"I hope you enjoy a nice cup of ice cold water you oversized cow," I said, as I ducked as Carl's spell came toward us.
It hit the minotaur and began to freeze parts of his body, I wasn't expecting it to freeze completely, just enough for the seconds to go down,
"Almost there," I said, as both me and Carl watched the seconds reach close to zero,
"Just one more," I said, clenching my fist, somehow we had survived this level.
"Yes!"
We both jumped for joy as the timer reached zero,
"We did it!" I said as I ran toward Carl to celebrate our victory.
"WATCH OUT!" Carl yelled at me and the last thing I knew my whole body was on fire. Even though it was a game, it felt real as the fire began to consume me, every part of my body screaming as the waves of fire began to swallow it and leave nothing behind.
"C…A…RL!" I tried to say as I saw him upside down for some reason, and watched him disappear in front of me and the last thing I knew was pitch darkness.
image [https://i.imgur.com/6FhQ47o.png]