Shortly after I took a horrible beating in the chilly water, and before I could drown, the kelpie ran off. One of my party members must have distracted it.
An arm grabbed mine and helped me out of the water. Then a cooling sensation spread through my body, healing all the aches and pains, even the ones I hadn’t noticed were developing.
When I opened my eyes, Kron had a serious look in his eyes and a magic spell in his hand. Then he cast a spell I recognized as Condense Fresh Water. The one rank X spell that was so useful almost everyone learned it. It dried me off immediately.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/949515587766329405/1041868601570897940/SPOILER_Kronsmol_copy.jpg]
“Did you shit yourself?” Kron asked.
I jerked. “What? No!”
“Good, because I can heal your injuries, and I can dry you off, but I can’t clean your pants.”
I scowled up at him.
“Murr needs you.” He pointed to where the catfolk dodged another charge from the enraged kelpie.
“Oh, snap!” I then activated my taunt and yelled. “OVER HERE YOU KELPIE-DICKED MOTHERFU—AH!”
I cut off the last word when I saw that it was heading over here with the speed of a demonic horse.
After opening my inventory, I realized my swords weren’t there, but lost somewhere when I’d tumbled earlier. I fell back frantically. Its eyes had turned crimson and mist left its nostrils when it snorted angrily.
There they were! Both red and blue blades lay together in the grass. I swiftly darted over to them. While avoiding a hoof attack from the black stallion, I skidded to pick the two up, then rolled to my feet. Granted, I could have just used my old weapons that I still had in my inventory, but I didn’t think they’d work as well against this monster.
It was time to take this sorry excuse for a seahorse down!
The hair on the back of my neck raised. I jumped forward and turned, and manipulated my swords to defend myself. It loomed over my head. The kelpie’s chilly, rank breath blew in my face. It lifted its massive reversed hooves high into the air and aimed them at my skull.
“Bring it!” I yelled.
An iron ball from the right struck the kelpie’s eye, causing the dark horse to jerk its head in the opposite direction. A whinny of pain echoed through the forest, but its forelegs missed me entirely.
I used this opportunity to stab my aura enhanced swords into its side. Unfortunately, the kelpie used its aura to protect itself.
It turned its backside toward me. Since I knew what was coming this time, I used my Dangerous Dodge to sidestep its kick while looking like a boss.
This was one hell of a troublesome enemy. But this was what it was like to punch up.
It also made me realize that I needed an actual aura attack. While my main role as a tank was to direct the enemy’s assault toward me, that didn’t mean I wasn’t also supposed to have teeth.
It whinnied evilly, then bucked like a bronco at a rodeo from my past life. And I’d never actually been to one of those, but as creepy as the fish-smelling horse was, I had the urge to ride it.
Kron sent a spell at the dark pony. I didn’t know what it was, but it caused the beast to stop stomping and start swaying.
Murr sent several well-placed attacks at various weak spots from its head to its rump.
Not wanting to be the only one left out, I ran up to it and attacked its thick, blubbery hide with my swords. It didn’t even scratch its surface. Well, if one attack wouldn’t do, then multiple cuts would! I focused on speed this time, making many shallow aura infused attacks along its neck and sides. That was when it woke up from its stupor and started to make a desperate run for the water.
Using my superior Elven speed, I ran after it and sliced at its hind knee. I must have hit the same weak spot Murr had discovered because the kelpy fell forward, tripped, and slid across the ground before finally splashing into the deep part of the river. It floated to the surface like a dead fish.
Ding-a-ling-ya-dong
Congratulations! Through hardships untold and balls nearly crushed, you’ve earned a level! You have 1 attribute point to place.
We did it! We survived our first encounter with a higher level monster. It took us longer to kill, but we’d managed it.
“Quickly, grab its hooves so we can get the guild reward!” Kron said.
Wait, there was a reward? I swiftly darted after it, but it had already floated downstream towards where the river became rapids. Murr, who was faster than I was, overtook me and started sprinting slightly ahead of the monster before jumping onto its side. The kelpie corpse bobbed but held his weight above the water. Unfortunately, that was when both moved into harsher waters.
“Murr, get out of there. Money is not worth your life!”
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The catfolk took out his dagger, jumped into the water beside the kelpie leg while simultaneously attacking its ankle. Now that it no longer had aura to protect it, the blade sliced through. That was when Murr and the hoof both vanished under the turbulent water.
“You realize that if we lose that catfolk, his parents will kill us, right?”
Here I thought we had a reverse-gender Paris Hilton as a rogue. Who knew he was actually the ‘hold my beer’ type?
“I thought cats hate water!”
“Catfolk love it,” Kron pointed out. Apparently, because Murr didn’t even hesitate.
“You think he just lost one of his nine lives?”
He looked grim. “If he did, he’ll be pissed about it.”
Using my aura, I enhanced my leg muscles to the max until I saw a wet and shivering catfolk clutching a massive boulder that jutted far out of the water. There were several boulders leading up to it and I knew that if I didn’t get him out of the chilly water soon, his limbs would weaken and we’d have to go another round of catch-the-kitty.
Unfortunately, the one Murr was clinging to was in the middle of the river. But there were several large stones with fairly flat tops leading from the short cliff we were on towards our rogue.
Since I’d need all my Elven dexterity, I switched out my armor for my street clothes. I also added my new attribute point to Body, which should give me a boost.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Kron’s brows furrowed.
I grinned. “Saving our cat—folk rogue.”
Then, I ran and jumped onto the nearest boulder.
“Oh, shit!” the healer said.
Yeah, you don’t see golems do that. The next stone was a little tricky because it was fairly far away and I didn’t have the momentum that I’d had before; however, at level 5 I was around eight to ten percent stronger and faster than I’d been just a two days ago. I could make it. No, I had to. For Murr.
I backed up as far as I could go without disrupting my footing. The last thing I wanted to do was twist my ankle at the last second. I spent the couple small steps I had on the rock getting as much momentum as I could before jumping to the next stone. My feet landed like I’d aimed for, but the surface was more slippery than I’d suspected. I started sliding. Almost panicking, I dropped to all fours and clung to the top. My legs flew off the side. A drum beat in my head. I managed to clutch the edge of the stone. Grunting with effort, I pulled my limbs back in until I crawled on top of the boulder.
“This is a dumb idea!” Kron said.
“Do you have a better one?”
“Sam, hurry!” Murr yelled tiredly from below, his voice barely reaching me over raging the sounds of the rapids. A few pieces of forest debris peppered Murr’s back.
It had been a while since I used it, but I cast Condense Fresh Water. Because my class wasn’t Mage, doing so was harder than before my Destiny Reveal. Fortunately, everyone could use rank x spells. Light spread under my feet as mana rose from the ground. The spell formed around my hand, then I aimed it at the stone. As the river rock dried, the droplets of water gathered in an orb on my palm. I tossed it into the rapids below.
Now that I had a dry surface to work with, I safely hopped onto the next rock that was fairly close by and dried it as well. Using mana as a melee class really took a lot out of me. There was no way I could use it in battle unless I was desperate. Once the stone wasn’t wet, I jumped onto Murr’s boulder.
The catfolk looked like he was about to run out of stamina. I quickly grabbed his outstretched hand. It tightened around mine so much that I had to grit my teeth from the pain. Then I pulled him up. Before I could follow Kron’s example, Murr used the spell Condense Fresh Water on himself.
I stretched and kneaded my hand. “How is your grip so tight?”
He smirked, “I’m a rogue. We’re good with our hands.”
Right, that was the class known for free climbing buildings and cliff sides. “Wait, why weren’t you able to climb up by yourself?”
“Didn’t you notice that the bottom of the rock was coated in slippery algae?”
“I did not.”
“The only reason I held on for so long was because I discovered barely manageable handholds that kept me in place. Even the best rogues wouldn’t be capable of climb up from that... at least not at our level.” He crossed his arms.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/949515587766329405/1041868601797378058/SPOILER_MurrRapids_copy.jpg]
“Ah, I found it!” Kron yelled. We turned to stare at the golem, who pulled out an entire metal folding ladder out of his inventory and placed it between the rock and the small cliff side beside the river.
“How the hell does he have an inventory that large?!”
“His mom is a high level adventurer. She probably gave him an expansion stone.”
Right. Being from a poor frontier, I had never actually seen one, though both my father and mother had used several to expand their own inventory spaces back when they were famous adventurers. And they didn’t save any for their potential children. Those jerks.
Then again, the way my father had put it, getting promoted to lord of a frontier area was a sudden and unexpected punishment for an unappreciated good deed he’d done. So, they probably didn’t think they’d retire that soon.
Kron traveled across the next gap on the wobbly ladder.
Murr leaned over so he didn’t have to yell over the sound of the water. “Do you think he realizes that it would be faster for us to... just jump back once we recover?”
“Oh! You’re right!” I yelled, “Hey! Kron, we’re good!”
He kept slowly making his way over.
“Aaaand, he’s not listening.”
By the time he arrived, we’d already recovered. He held the ladder between our rock and his and motioned for us to cross. Well, there was a reason everyone said healers were stubborn.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/949515587766329405/1041868602023878677/SPOILER_Sam_copy.jpg]
***
Once we were all safely back on solid ground, we followed the river towards one of the main roads to return from the dungeon. We’d all agreed that, while we still needed another level, we’d done enough for the day. Tomorrow would be soon enough to get ahead of Assholes and Company.
At least, that was what we’d planned. As walked over the next ridge, a human rogue with an orange braid fought a kelpie. It was around the same size as the one that had taken three of us to kill.
I’d thought she had a party and searched for them, but apparently she was going solo. The kelpie had corralled the poor girl, so her only escape was into the lake.
For a second, it appeared like she was about to flee the monster using a dodge I saw her use earlier, but the monster did that sudden turn-and-kick that caught me off guard the first time. It sent her flying into the lake with a splash.
Thankfully, I had re-equipped my armor beforehand, so I just pulled out my swords and started running. I used ‘Come At Me Bro!’ by saying, “HEY! WHY DON’T YOU PICK ON THREE-SOMEONES HALF-YOUR-SIZE!”
Kron groaned. “That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Just go help the human.”
“You didn’t even have to ask.”