While the experience was pathetic. Dren was still getting a lot out of this. Mostly knowledge of the classes. From Mike, he learned Defenders started with a sword and shield. He had taken blacksmithing as his profession since it offered strength and vitality. His profession was still at level one tho. Since what little metal they had gotten was given to those focusing on professions. His class active skill was a taunt ability. While his passive was a defensive skill that allowed him to further reduce damage taken while wearing heavy armor. Of which the chain hauberk he wore apparently counted for.

While Sara wasn’t willing to share any information about her class. In fact, she mostly just bitched and talked down to everyone or sat back meditating. He had managed to identify that casters had a quick attack spell and a barrier spell. Both were apparently rather mana intensive if he was to believe all her complaining. The fact she didn’t seem to do much other than toss out a few spells made him believe that. She wouldn’t tell Dren what attributes her Tailor skill gave. But he got the feeling it wasn’t great stats for a caster.

Healer was the class he knew the most about now. Other than assassin of course. As Jen was happy to share info about it. Healers had a spell that could restore health that scaled off spirit. Instead of intelligence as he would have thought. While their passive allowed them to see the percentage of health targets they identified had left. Both friendly and enemy. She also let him know that at level five he would unlock a new skill. While there weren’t too many people past level five still. It did seem that not everyone got the same skill at five. What determined what someone got? No one knew. Not even the guides. Tho she thought she might eventually get more knowledge on it as she leveled up her profession. For her, it was a debuff spell that lowered an enemy's hit chance by blinding them with a flash of light.

When Dren asked. She told him she didn’t know of any of the skills assassins could get at level five. She acted oddly when he asked which made Dren paranoid he had somehow blown his cover. He hadn’t toggled on his new skill as he was certain someone would notice and ask questions he didn’t want to answer. Dren had pieced together that the passive skill for mages was Meditation tho. It seemed to boost their mana recovery rate while sitting still.

With the carapace harvested and tucked into the backpack, he stood up. They had been at it for about an hour and only killed a dozen or so of the spiders. They seemed to attack only one at a time, which made it easier. But it was a terribly slow and boring party so far. But Jen had warned them that from this point on they would now start fighting more spiders at a time.

Mike was once again at the front as they headed in deeper. Roots embedded in the wall and ceiling of the earthen cave lit up as they passed under them. Giving them a moving area of dim light. While it was better than being in the dark. Dren found it seemed to make the darkness just a few feet ahead and behind them harder to peer into. Allowing the dark-skittering bugs to almost always get the jump on them.

Like the two that lunged out of the darkness now. Mike managed to bat one away with his shield while slamming his blade down on the second as it leaped for his face. The blow didn’t seem to do much damage as the defender lacked the strength to cut into the carapace. They were instead, batting it away. A glob of fire shot forward after the one he had knocked away with his shield. It moved quickly, like a fastball thrown by an experienced pitcher. Dren had paid plenty of attention to it. After all, he might need to dodge that attack, and to his surprise as he got more comfortable with his new body. That didn’t seem like it would be impossible.

With an angry hiss, the spider flailed around as the glob of fire splattered on it. The flames lasted only a few moments before going out. Enraged the spider rushed towards the mage as she worked to channel more mana into her wand for the next attack. She started to shuffle backward and the next attack failed to come as she seemed to lose focus on her casting. Before the spider could close in to leap at the woman it was sent sailing away. Dren had rushed in and rather than attack the quickly moving spider with his dagger. He kicked it with all his strength. Which he now believed was actually the highest of their party despite being an assassin. It sent the dog-sized spider flying away to bounce off the earthen wall. It flailed around seeming in pain from the kick or maybe hitting the wall. It was enough of an opening for Dren to dive in on it. In his gaze, the otherwise invisible creases in its carapace glowed. As did its eyes. Using his entire body to pin the thing down and ignoring the stabs from its many legs as he kept its head away from anything it could bite. Dren started stabbing. It took only two critical stabs before the thing died. It took several more before Dren realized it was dead. Standing up he checked himself over. Finding that the spiders stabbing legs had barely broken skin. Even when they struck his unarmored flesh. A few bits of hitpoints had been lost. But not much.

Nodding to himself he turned to find Mike had the other spider pinned against the wall again while waiting for him. Dagger in hand he moved towards the pair.

*****

Dren was again cutting away at a spider. One of four he was to work on. The number of spiders increased steadily and this time there had even been a new type. It spat a caustic venom that luckily didn’t poison but did burn quite painfully. Dren still tsked in annoyance, he had been rushing in for another punt attack on the spider before he realized it looked different. The attack caught him off guard and he hadn’t managed to make a clean dodge. Instead, it splashed on his upper arm. It hadn’t done much damage but it sure did hurt.

Movement beside him broke him out of his thoughts. Glancing up he found Jen standing over him with an odd expression on her face. “Your affinity. Did you choose one for toughness?”

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Dren blinked, and his hands stopped moving from their work. “What?” Where had that come from?

“You don’t take as much damage as I am used to. When you get stuck, it is much closer to the damage I would expect a defender to take.” She said, not seeming mad but almost thoughtful.

“Uh.” Dren didn’t want to answer that. He definitely didn’t want to tell her it was from a perk. No one else, not even the over-sharing Mike or Jen had mentioned a perk. He was starting to think it was something he got for being an invader. Jen just stared at him a bit more before seeming to shrug.

“I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m just used to Assassins being much… squishier.” She said before leaving him to do his work.

Dren for the hundredth time changed what he thought his kill order should be.

*****

“Whew.” Mike said as he stood there while Jen healed him. The last fight had included two large hairy tarantula-type spiders. They were the size of a very large dog or maybe a small pony. Five regular leaping spiders as well as three spitting spiders. It had been a tough fight. Made mostly possible due to Mike hitting level five and gaining a new ability that allowed him to taunt all enemies in an area. This surprised Jen as she said that was a new skill, one she hadn’t yet heard of.

Dren had managed to get his assassin to level four and he felt like he was close to five. Sara still hadn’t leveled and was making that everyone's problem. Apparently, she had done more dungeon runs than Mike. Jen tried to pacify the woman and Dren was starting to think that the share of experience from a kill wasn’t split evenly. He did most of the damage and killing. While Mike did what a defender should do. Sara mostly complained about how much mana her spells cost or how few of them hit. So Dren figured she didn’t get as much experience as she really didn’t help as much. Dren again thought this version of the system was rather fair in a way. Dren also moved her back to the top of his kill order. Not because she was a threat but because she was annoying.

“Alright. You are topped up.” Jen said with a sigh. She had healed him several times during the fight as well. Right now she was doing the most amount of healing they had needed during the entire dungeon so far. “We should go ahead and head back now.” The healer said as she dusted off her robe with the hand not holding her crooked staff.

“What?” Dren said confused. He quickly checked his quest for the Fox in the Hen House upgrade. It wasn’t complete and he was pretty sure the dungeon continued on.

“The boss is all that is left. We aren’t ready to fight that thing. Only a few groups have managed to clear it.” Jen said.

“We aren’t doing the boss?” Dren asked confused. “We should be fine fighting a bigger spider. Or even lots of smaller ones. We did fine that last fight.” Dren pushed.

Jen shook her head. “No. First, it isn’t a spider but a huge troll. One at level thirteen. It takes a tremendous amount of damage to kill it. Not to mention it apparently hits incredibly hard.”

“A troll? In a spider dungeon? That makes no sense.” Dren argued.

Jen just shrugged and Mike nodded his agreement. Tho he had an annoyed expression. “Jen is right. It is a tough fight.” Mike stated then quickly added when Dren gave him a questioning look. “Not that I have fought it. But my cousin is actually the top defender in town. He has fought it. Even killed it. So I’ve heard a lot about it.” Mike glanced between his three party members, even if Sara was once again meditating. “That said. I think we have a good chance with our group. You are a higher level healer than theirs was when they killed it. Jeremy here does a ridiculous amount of damage even for an assassin. And…” he glanced at Sara. “... Well she does have fire which is supposed to help with him.” He gave a weak smile and a shrug. “Then there is me. I’m pretty badass, aren’t I? My affinity is Stone. With my class and smithing profession, I get 200% for my toughness and 150% for my vitality. That is even better than Charles.”

Jen responded almost instantly as if she expected that argument. “But your profession is still level one. So you have almost no strength and less vitality.”

“I just got one to all attributes tho.” Mike said cheerfully as if that made all the difference.

Dren expected Jen to shoot him down again but felt a bit of hope surge as she seemed to be thinking it over instead. “We are probably as strong as the first group to kill it. I guess. You are quite durable and the other group had an archer instead of an assassin.” She glanced at Dren. “They hit decently hard but have a much slower attack rate. Not everyone can be a little stabbing monster.” Dren made a confused face at that. One that said, who me? “Yes, you. You are quite… intense when you are stabbing things. Most assassins I see tend to spend an unusually long time aiming for targets. I’m not sure if your dexterity is just maxed out. Or if it is just a pure lack of hesitation. But once you start stabbing. You… Well. You stab a lot.”

Dren glanced at Mike who shrugged and nodded. Even Sara cracked open her eyes to give him a look. Sure, his main strategy had been to stab every critical spot he could find on a monster as fast as he could once engaged. But as far as he knew all assassins had the active skill to see critical spots. It couldn’t be that odd to just stab them all… in a rapid flurry of stabs. Repeatedly. Ok, maybe he got a little too carried away. But in his defense. When pinning down a giant squirming spider that was trying to eat you. Well, stabbing it a lot just seemed appropriate.

While Dren was briefly lost in thought, Mike spoke up. “Soooo. We can at least try it, right? Come on. You know how awesome it will be to go back and tell everyone we cleared the dungeon.” Jen seemed to be hesitating so Mike added. “Just think of all the guide levels you will get. I heard guiding a party thru their first dungeon clear, gave that one guide a full level.” Mike grinned as Jen glared. “You know who I am talking about.”

Jen finally sighed. “Well, what do you two think?” Dren of course agreed so all three of them turned to Sara. She kept her eyes closed though she was clearly aware of the conversation. Finally, she let out a sigh, tilted her nose up some, and spoke.

“Well. I guess I have to agree. You can’t do it without me.”