Wind and sound surged through the training grounds as Shin’s mace struck a black goblin shield. Behind it stood Donny, donning the white striped red armor of Osee and a vermillion helm, solid as a rock. Shin’s arm flurried, targeting every opening with no mercy, all falling on the shield.
An axe took its place as the mace slid up the shield and hooked on the top. Shin jerked the shield down, and Donny yanked it up, ripping the axe from Shin’s hands. No sooner had it left his fingers that Shin twirled around his armored foe, another axe taking the force of the spin straight at his neck. The weapon struck with a reverberating muffled gong, all the impact neutralized by the aura pulsing from his neck.
Donny spun opposite, hacking his own axe at Shin, forcing him to dart back. A powerful burst from the warrior brought him right to Shin. Aura surged on his shield and bashed up, forcing Shin to step to the side, starting to circle again looking to attack. Donny’s feet shifted slightly and lunged, more rapidly and suddenly than he had moved before. His arm flickered, jagged aura forming on the edge of the metal and Shin leapt back, blood splattering from the long gash across his torso.
A sword and buckler found his hands as the wound continued to bleed, magic beyond the capabilities of his body supremacy to stop. Shin rushed forward without a skill, darting around, his sword slashing and thrusting from all manner of unorthodox angles. Shin held back his sword and thrust. Donny raised his shield again and a long needle grazed over it. He slipped his head to the side just in time for the estoc to scrap along the side of his helm. His axe flickered in response and rebounded furiously off the buckler.
Donny burst back as Shin thrust the estoc at his throat, and his eyes found a towering greatsword slashing down on him, Shin having dashed forward with the burst. Donny raised his shield and the greatsword vanished, the thrust of an estoc from the crouching shaman below stopping just short of his neck. Donny paused for a moment as he lowered his weapons with a sigh. Shin stored his estoc and assumed a casual stance as well, both with more than enough energy to spare.
“27.” Shin reminded. The number of times he had stopped a killing blow short since Donny had reached the peak of lesser lord and maxed his fundamental skills.
“Yeah.” Donny smiled, aware of the reason Shin gave the number each time, drive and competitive frustration on his face.
Kamala waited patiently in the shade of the wall, having no further need of immediate training while across the sandy grounds, mana swirled and broke around Yen as her body jolted slightly in random directions.
“Don’t use too much mana.” Shin reminded.
“Shutup.” Yen spared only an ounce of attention for a response as she poured herself into frustrated concentration.
“Good enough?” Donny drew Shin’s attention back.
“Yeah. You can take drakes on your own. The axe might make things more difficult.”
“I’ll make do till we get paid.” Donny’s armor had found significant upgrades but he still only had uncommon tier axes to wield. A problem they could not fix at the moment, as for the first time Shin was nearly broke.
He had not said what he had four days ago lightly. The four of them had truly spent all their days and nights in the training grounds, with Shin sneaking off when he wasn’t needed to practice inscription or take his spirits out into the wilderness for a break from the monotony of his soul. An expense that had paid off as Shin glanced around the three of them.
[Human Knight (rare) - Lesser Lord]
[Human Wizard (rare) - Lesser Lord]
Kamala had been a rare lord from the start and by her word had maxed nearly all 15 of her skills since, save for one, and reaching the peak of what the 1,500 total limit Lesser Lord would allow, with points to spare as Shin had. She had made mention of wanting to advance to intermediate lord as soon as possible, only remaining at her current rank because of the dungeon. Shin checked his status again.
[Human Shaman (rare) - Lesser Lord]
Strength - 150 (195)
Agility - 355 (461)
Constitution - 50 (65)
Vitality - 84 (109)
Dexterity - 33 (43)
Perception - 150 (195)
Force - 24 (31)
Spirit - 466 (605)
Control - 156 (203)
Willpower - 36 (47)
Skills:
Greater Cure Wounds lvl. 10, Greater Mystic Wall lvl. 10, Summon Mystic Kitsune Guardian lvl. 10, Greater Buffer lvl. 10, Grand Martial Combat lvl. 3, Greater Quickstrike lvl. 10, Befriend Spirit lvl. 10, Meditation lvl. 10, Galvanize lvl. 10, Greater Quickstep lvl. 10, Harvest Spirit lvl. 4, Spirit Possession lvl. 2, Ripple lvl. 10, Condense lvl. 10,
Traits:
Body Supremacy, Eyes of the Spirit King, Ethereal Soul, Spiritkeeper,
All necessary skills had been maxed. Harvest would be irrelevant for the dungeon and based on the increase from leaving up, Spirit Possession at lvl. 10 would only grant him 25% of the stats of the spirit he chose, a largely inconsequential boost at this point, and an outright downgrade for most of his attributes. Grand Martial Combat had leveled slowly as he lacked the time to find good enough sparring partners out in the wild, and needing to hold back against Donny somewhat so the tank of the party could get training suitable for him.
“Yes!” Yen yelled from the side, jettisoning through the air in short straight bursts. She shot down and pulled up just slightly, letting herself fall a few feet to the ground before walking over to join the others.
“Wouldn’t you get flight somewhere down the line anyway?”
“It’s Propulsion right now. And now I don’t have to waste an high tier option on it.” Yen said brimming with renewed confidence, bordering on outright conceit. “This game is meant for people who play it the right way. Try and keep up. I would hate to leave you all behind some day.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Maybe reach the peak of low lord before you leave the nest, Miss Phoenix.”
Yen eyed Donny with a cocky smile and grasped at him. Raw magical force gripped the knight, holding him firmly in place, his muscles and veins bulging as he struggled against it.
“Whatever will I do against such a powerful peak low lord with a meager 500 Force?” Sarcasm dripped from her smug face as Donny mustered a strained smile.
She waved her hand releasing him from the invisible suppression, content, and glanced at Shin. His body blurred to the side as a suppressing force closed down on nothing but air, to her annoyance.
“You should be ready to move up to mid after this, right?”
“Need to fuse.”
“Still?” Yen asked with some surprise.
“Harder than upgrading.” Shin had tried to fuse Greater Wall and Greater Buffer after maxing his other skills but to no avail. Even the Quick skills which ought to be easier bore no success. Epic tier proved to be exponentially harder than rare, the only one he had been successful in upgrading was Combat, and fusing proved even more difficult. It wasn’t as though there was resistance in the skills themselves as with the clash of holy and spirit energy, just simply the raw fundamental difficulty.
Shin glanced up, seeing the sun nearly center in the sky. “We’ll enter the dungeon when everyone’s full.”
“Strategy meeting first, since it’s definitely going to be full of bullshit.” Yen looked over to Kamala. “Princess, a moment of your time, if you would grant us that pleasure.”
Kamala held still for an elegant moment and walked over, ignoring the banter.
Yen frowned at the lack of response but waited for her to reach them before starting. “Okay, so traps and mobs, then the real stuff, right?”
“Yeah.
“You’ll be our canary then we take over until the boss so you can recover and we all take it out.”
“Simple enough.” Donny agreed.
“Would be even easier if we just hire some random scout…”
“No.”
“Your mana.” Yen shrugged, heading over to the shade and taking out a guidebook on tailoring. “I need about 4 hours.”
“Gonna take a nap then.” Donny headed over to wall as well, and Kamala followed stoically and silently. Shin sat down where he stood, taking out a desk and channelling meditation.
---
The party left the training grounds late in the afternoon and headed off, soon running into Chato and his entourage waiting by the gate. Half a dozen of his goons read as lesser lords and the man himself registered as unreadable.
“Cutting it close, uh? I was starting to think you might be getting cold feet or something.”
“We’re taking care of your problem now.” Yen spoke up.
“Our problem at this point, no? But hey, I never doubted you for a second.” Chato led his entourage away and the party moved on, heading over at a job towards the dungeon. Yen glanced back at Chato and his goons watching them from atop the wall.
“Dumbass rushed his advancement.” Yen muttered.
“Gotta keep up appearances.” Donny said casually. “We can deal with that after this.”
Wasting no time and standing on no ceremony, the partner passed through the portal into the reddish brown rocky tunnel of the dungeon. Shin led them through it at a careful walking pace, the carved eye of his brass ring put to use once again as he walked around and set the numerous traps off, the other three following behind exactly. The layout had changed and the exact order and nature of the traps were different but the difficulty was the same.
Soon they came to the ambush section and Shin held out a hand to stop them. The open cave like section had no cliffs to hide behind up ahead, instead lined with a great number of rocks and hefty stalagmite protruding from the ground, and kobold shaped souls behind them.
“Traps on the ground. They use slings.” Shin said to the open air and a gray furred shug appeared in front of Shin. “Kill them.”
Kong bounded through the air off the ground and blinked into a cluster of shocked kobolds, ripping them apart before moving onto the next.
“What the fuck?!” Yen yelled, more agitated than the kobolds. “I thought you killed that thing!”
“Decided not to.”
“Why?” The words strained out of her mouth.
“Felt right.”
“Of course...” Still upset, but suppressing it for the task ahead, Yen went quiet.
Soon all the souls of the kobolds fell flat and Shin recalled the shug. Kong as a rare elite cost a staggering 24 mana a minute in upkeep. Far too much to use in anything more than short bursts. Shin bombarded the open floor with rock talismans and once the dust and traps settled, the party moved on, Shin darted off to loot this instances trapmaster, before they reached the mouth of the cavern.
“Leave two for me.” Donny took vanguard and the party descended.
Four fire drakes perked up and roared at the trespassers, and a bolt of mana caved in the skull of one. Another opened its mouth, fire swirling inside, and a mana bolt shattered its jaw. The drake crashed to the ground but started to rise until an estoc pierced deep into its eye.
Donny burst forward at the same time as the first mana bolt, bashing a drake off balance then chopped into its neck. His axe sunk not even halfway and the drake roared in anger. Donny ripped his axe out and bashed the drake again, chopping once more right into the cut and through its neck fully this time.
A second drake charged forward and Donny lunged, aura surging around his arm and the edge of his axe, cleaving straight through its neck in one go. The vicious beast crashed to the ground and Donny swiped his axe clean.
“Easy enough.”
Shin hopped between each drake, sucking their blood into a pouch. Donny kicked the nearest over and hacked into its chest, about halfway and pulled its chest cavity open. Shin stopped by and drew a skinning knife, carving out a glowing hot sac. Kamala wrapped it deftly in special silk cloth, and the three repeated the process for the other drakes.
---
Shin bashed around a scrambling drake, the constant blows to its head preventing it from doing much more than remaining on its feet. An angry lash of its tail slammed into the wall of the cavern and Shin flickered underneath in the instant it looked away, thrusting his estoc right through its eye.
He glanced over to see Donny finish off his share of the four drakes. Neither of them had used skills, saving their stamina for the boss fight and any unexpected problems that may arise on the journey. Yen and Kamala stood back, saving their far more precious mana for the same reason.
“Feels like we overtrained.” Donny half griped as Shin finished up the material gathering.
“Keep that same energy when the system tries to fuck us.” Yen shot back.
“Just been shy flirting so far.”
“You didn’t fight the boss of your stage, did you?”
“How could you tell.” Donny ask rhetorically as he casually took the vanguard.
“Because you’re too fucking comfortable. Stage bosses are serious. They always have some bullshit cheat.”
“Seems like you survived just fine.”
“Whatever, you’re the one whose gonna stand in front of it. Be a good damage sponge and last more than a few hits.”
“Above.” Shin interrupted.
The party turned their focus up to the ceiling as they entered the next cavern. Four winged humanoid dragon monsters lunged from the cover of stalactites, spears and tridents pointed at them. An arrow found the eyes of two and a mana bolt caved in the chest of another.
The three pronged spear of the last clanged against Donny’s shield as it hovered in the air, striking down from above, their speed about equal. The dragonewt darted and thrust from the side, and Donny dodged, his shield vanishing. He grabbed the spear and yanked the dragonewt in, removing its head with a single swing of his axe.
[Dragonewt (rare) - Lesser Lord]
Strength - 243
Agility - 237
Constitution - 224
Vitality - 218
Dexterity - 198
Perception - 202
Force - 197
Spirit - 181
Control - 145
Willpower - 156
Shin glanced at Kamala inquisitively.
“Just the eyes.” He took out a spoon like tool and carefully scooped them out for her to store away and the party moved on.
The dungeon was a simple one. No mazes or split paths, just ascending or descending slopes between caverns, some winding but never more complicated than that. The slope they walked down was the same as any other but Shin darted in front and the end and came to a stop. His brass ring gleaned but the carved eye didn’t glow and his prismatic eyes scanned every corner of the cavern more massive than any other.
“Empty.”
“Which means it’s a deathtrap.” Yen asserted.
“I’ll go first.”
Shin walked out, glancing around. The two casters trailed behind and Donny brought up the rear, each one of them alert and ready to burst into action at a moment’s notice. To the center they walked, seeing neither hide nor hair of the danger lying in wait. Shin glanced to the sides and then ahead as a giant stream of flames surged upon them.