I dodged under the arrow that flew toward my head as I stuck my head out. I knew I needed to hurry, one of the goblins was wearing robes, and that usually meant a mage. A goblin mage could turn the tide of a fight with its destructive spells or disabling hexes, and if it managed to cast something before I reached it, the entire battle could spiral out of control. The urgency of the situation pressed heavily on me, knowing that every second counted.
After dodging the arrow, I came around the other side of the tree running full sprint at the mage. I saw the mage lifting a small wand to point at me and I wished I had a movement skill to get closer quicker.
As I continued to run the tip of the wand started to brighten with a red glow. Within a second a small ball of red fire was at the tip before shooting at me with the speed of an arrow. Raising my shields I put them in front of me before lowering my shoulder to charge through the explosion I was expecting from the fireball.
The explosion erupted with a deafening roar, sending shockwaves rippling through the air and scattering debris around me. The force of it made me stumble, halting my rush for a brief moment as I braced against the heat and light. Thanks to my Arcane Armor, the fireball’s searing flames and concussive impact were little more than a distant sensation. Even so, I felt the faint strain as my skill absorbed the energy, and the instant it broke, I recast it without hesitation, determined to push through the chaos and close the distance to the mage. Even though the fireball did cause my skill to break it gave me enough time to reach the mage and slam my shield right into the bridge of his nose. Killing him instantly leaving only two more.
My skill reactivated almost instantly, but just as the mage fell, it shattered again, leaving an arrow lodged about an inch deep in the meat of my bicep. The pain left me vulnerable, and the final goblin seized the opportunity, driving its blade into my calf with ruthless precision.
Spinning quickly, I grabbed the goblin that stabbed me in the calf and threw it right at the archer. The archer was able to dodge but that gave me enough time to get Arcane Armor back up and running. I did a limping sprint toward the two goblins. The one I threw was still stunned from the throw and the archer did not have enough time to get back up and draw another arrow.
When I got close to the goblin archer, I guess my faceless cover was scary because the creature screamed and fainted. I stomped on its throat before moving over to the stunned goblin and doing the same. This allowed me to finish all five with only minimal injuries.
As I stood catching my breath, a wave of relief washed over me, mixed with a lingering edge of tension. The fight had been brutal, and while I was grateful to have emerged relatively unscathed, the weight of what could have gone wrong lingered in my mind. Still, there was a flicker of pride, each battle honed my instincts and brought me one step closer to mastering the challenges ahead.
Goblin – Level 39
+720 xp
Goblin – Level 34
+570 xp
Goblin – Level 36
+720 xp
Goblin – Level 33
+540 xp
Goblin – Level 30
+510 xp
As I reviewed my notifications, I felt a rush of power fill me up signaling a level up. As the power filled me, I noticed that the arrow popped out of my arm and the cut in my leg completely healed. I was not sure, but it seemed like I received more experience from a harder fight and the fact that I received the same amount of experience from a level 36 and a level 39, I suspected that a rarer class gave more experience.
It gave me the idea that if I waited on reading my notifications, I would be able to use the healing from a level up during a more dangerous fight which would hopefully give me more experience and allow me to level slightly faster. Considering this was supposed to be for a level 25 group, that group would have to be well trained and have a lot of stats from training to make up the difference. And only that if the dungeon monsters only have the exact stats that they should have for their level.
With those thoughts cleared out of my mind I walked over to the bodies and hoped that I might be able to loot them, but unfortunately there was no such luck. Since I could not loot them, I grabbed everything that I could and threw it into my Inventory.
After I stored away the shields, bow and knifes I grabbed the wand and tried to Identify and see if anything interesting came up.
Wooden wand – This is a wooden wand used to help focus magic.
Identify could not level up soon enough in my opinion.
Deciding that I needed to move I decided to use Treasure Hunter’s Instinct for the first time. Immediately I had a feeling that something was buried only 30 feet away. Making my way to it I pulled out a shovel, thank goodness for over protective mothers.
Digging down a few feet I found a small round disk with an engraving on it. Identify only said that it was a small disk with an engraving. I shrugged and just threw it in my inventory then used Treasure Hunter’s Instinct again. This time nothing came up, so I just walked away from the edge of the dungeon.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I decided to head toward the center, reasoning that if this dungeon followed the patterns of the games I knew, I would likely find stairs or a portal leading to the next level. Alternatively, if this turned out to be more of an open forest, I figured I might come across a natural choke point—a strategic area I’d need to pass through to proceed.
As I considered these possibilities, I reminded myself that moving forward recklessly wasn’t an option. I planned to clear out smaller groups of monsters on this side first, ensuring I was strong enough and had gathered enough resources to face whatever lay ahead.
It did not take long before a new group of monsters came into range. This one a group of goblins mounted on what looked like maybe wolves, but I was not completely sure. This group did not seem to be heading right toward me, so I did my best to stay downwind from the creatures.
It made me feel that the previous group was either in a group with the single goblin I killed when I came in allowing the mage to tag me somehow or something. Knowing this I made sure that I stayed as hidden as possible. Working my way up to behind the group and using Identify on, what looked like a warrior to me and the mount that looked very similar to a coyote just the size of a great dane.
Goblin – Level 42
Fenric – Level 31
Of course, why wouldn’t it become harder and harder. How is this recommended for level 25+? The only thing that I can figure is that due to it being oversaturated its increasing the level and amount of creatures. Not only that but that level 25 is the absolute minimum.
Knowing that I would not be able to take all ten at once I tried to think of a way to take a few of them out before being overwhelmed by all of them. Looking around I could not find a way to narrow the number of creatures coming at me at one time and realized that it was just not realistic to fight that many creatures yet.
I stayed where I was waiting for them to get out of sight before wandering in the opposite direction from the way that they went. I quickly found another group of goblins, which seemed to be about the same strength as the first group.
I stayed hidden for as long as possible before charging toward the goblin that seemed like the mage. As I ran into the group the goblin in the back screamed and the one with the shield opened its eyes wide. None were able to react fast enough to stop me from killing the mage and the warrior with one strike each.
When the archer saw the warrior fall to the ground it turned to run only to get a shield to the back of its skull. That left a sneaky one that was currently sneaking up behind me according to my Panoptic Sense and one other. I turned to the none sneaking goblin and sprinted at it, and it didn’t even move. The creature was shaking in terror at how quickly I tore through his group of friends.
Right before I finished him off the sneaky one jumped at my back, forcing me to spin and slam the edge of my shield in its ribs. The sneaky goblin crashed to the ground and gasped trying to breath. Before the terror filled goblin came to its senses, I ran up to it and kicked it in its chest to knock it over then stomped down on its head. After that I finished off the last one and I realized just how much easier it had been to fight this group from just one level.
Goblin – Level 39
+720 xp
Goblin – Level 34
+630 xp
Goblin – Level 36
+720 xp
Goblin – Level 33
+600 xp
Goblin – Level 31
+620 xp
With the experienced gain from this group, I gained another level, and with that a boost in confidence. Almost feeling that I could take the group of ten that I ran into earlier. I mean I wasn’t dumb enough to try and go do that, but the boost in stats really made me think that I might be able to take them.
I wanted to gain a few more levels before I did that though and that was exactly what I set out to do. Finding multiple groups of five or six goblins and even one group that had the mage riding on a Fenric. I kept expecting the amount of experience I was getting to decrease but it never did.
After wandering around near where I entered for close to four hours, I hit level 15. Though I did not level up without first looking over my experience.
You have reached level 5 in your class. New skill gained.
Arcane Step- This skill allows the user to teleport instantly to any location within their line of sight. Upon activation, the user is transferred to the designated location with no delay, bypassing all physical and magical obstacles.
Name: Jace Obexis Talent: System
Level: 15
Class: Ascended Arcane Juggernaut
Experience: 2369/2500
Profession: Relic Seeker
Experience: 132/200
Race: Primarch
Strength – 58
Dexterity – 41
Endurance – 51
Constitution – 56
Wisdom – 37
Intelligence – 60
Luck -36
Abilities:
Inventory Treasure Hunter's Instinct Relic Seeker's Sight
Skills:
Identify – Level 1 Panoptic Sense – Level 2 Mental Reverie – Level 2
Shield Mastery – Level 3 Leadership - Level 2 Martial Arts - Level 3
Dodge – Level 3 Arcane Armor - Level 2 Arcane Manipulation - Level 6
Arcane Step – Level 1
Arcane Step sounded like the skill I needed to move around much quicker and deal with that big group from before. Its ability to teleport me instantly to any location within sight would not only enhance my mobility but also complement my close-combat style, allowing me to close gaps or retreat strategically. Combined with my shields and Arcane Armor, it provided a perfect balance of offense and defense, giving me an edge against larger groups or stronger opponents. Happy with my current gains I decided to not check my status again until I left the Dungeon. Hoping that it would allow me to continue gaining higher experience.
The first thing I did with my new skill was to see if I could teleport into the trees around me. If I could get close to the group and Arcane Step behind the mage then get back into the trees, it would allow me to hide between attacks.
While the skill did allow me to get back into the tree, I quickly realized a few limitations of the skill. While I could move to any location within sight, it was only within 25 feet of me. I was hoping this range would increase with the skill level. The next thing that I realized was that the skill used a lot of my mana. I was able to cast it back to back ten times before I just collapsed for about five minutes. However, if I waited for 5-10 seconds between each cast, I was able to push that to twelve.
Having assessed the new skill out I felt I was almost as ready as I could be for the big group of goblins, that I was not suspecting was the boss battle for this section of the forest. But first, I pulled out a slice of homemade pecan pie that my mother made. If I was going to die, I was at least going to die happy!