Adam stared at the leather chest piece that sat on the ground in front of the group. This was something new. Something none of them had seen before. As he looked at the gear on the ground a notification appeared floating next to the jerkin.

Black Leather Jerkin: Protects the wearer against some slashing and piercing damage Rarity: Uncommon Requirement: 4 Dex 4 Str 4 Vit Minor Rune 1/1: Enduring: This armor will self-repair and self-clean over time.

“Loot!” yelled Josh. That broke the silence of the group and everyone snapped out of their awe at the new finding.

“Looks like we found you a new shirt,” said Adam.

Josh rushed over to the jerkin and picked it up. His face changed in an instant from a shining grin to a frown. He held the jerkin up to his chest, and it was obviously made for a goblin. The goblin’s they fought were maybe chest high for Adam and Mina and Josh stood a head taller than both. To say the least the jerkin was far too small for the overlord.

“Hmmm, I don’t think it will fit.”

Adam looked at the floating text again and had a thought. “Put it into your inventory and try to equip it from there.”

The piece of leather armor disappeared as Josh’s eyes unfocused. Then the black leather armor appeared on Josh’s body more than twice the size it had been before. His eyes widened as he looked down at the perfectly fitting piece of gear. He moved his head around trying to look at it from every angle.

“How’s it feel lad?”

“Amazing! It’s not too tight or too loose. It’s perfect.”

Josh stretched and moved around. He touched his toes and jumped a few times. The armor moved like it was made for him. His arms were still bare as the jerkin only covered his torso, but it was much far better than having nothing protecting him at all.

“Have any of you ever seen something like that happen before?” asked Adam.

They all shook their heads even Skyeyes who was the highest level of the bunch.

“Yo, another level too!”

Adam willed the notifications back into his view at that. He went down the list and was pleasantly surprised.

You have gained 1000 experience points

You have reached level 4!

You have gained +1 to all attributes

You have gained +5 free attribute points

You have received 5x small soul crystals, 4x goblin teeth, 2x goblin bone, 3x goblin heart

Your Hand-to-Hand skill has reached level 10

You Nature Magic skill has reached level 8

“No new skill at level 4 for me,” said Adam as he closed the notifications.

“Same,” said Josh.

“Me as well,” added Mina.

“Skyeyes, did you get an ability at level four?” Adam looked over to the wolf-riding goblin.

Skyeyes shook his head. “No ability. Level four nothing.” The goblin opened his eyes wide and brought both hands up, opening them wide. “Level five big ability. Class ability.”

“Oi! You oversized goat. Why am I only level 3 and why didn’t I get another spell?”

“If you call me a goat one more time I’m going to–”

Adam interrupted Josh’s rant, “We all did some fighting before Josh summoned you. Don’t worry you’ll catch up at some point.”

Drox rubbed his paws together and smiled, “Good, I want some more spells. Let’s go kill some more goblins.”

WIth that the group headed further down the dim tunnels. Drox was back atop Snowball and Skyeyes was riding Porkchop again. He rode with ease compared to Drox who bounced with every step. Jerky trailed slightly behind the two wolves who walked behind Adam, Mina, and Josh.

Adam willed the small party menu in his top left to come into view. He looked over the party and saw that everyone seemed topped up and healthy. Then he noticed Skyeyes’ mana. It was completely empty and read 0/120.

“Skyeyes, why is your mana not regenerating?”

“Wolves. Wolves take magic. Bond is–” he paused for a second searching for the word. “Costly.”

“I see,” said Adam, “it costs mana to keep the bonds. So the more mana you have the more bonds you can have?”

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“No.” He paused for a second and tapped his chin lightly. “Always three. Always all mana.”

Adam thought he understood. “Ohh, so it’s a percentage. If you have two wolves you’d have 40 mana and if you had one wolf it’d be 80 mana to use. Is that right?”

Skyeyes nodded fast. “Yes. Yes.”

“Josh, why doesn’t Drox take up a percentage of your mana?”

“No idea bro, but if I had to guess it’s probably because I can only have one Drox. Also, there was a cost to cast the spell, and he had to agree to the pact and so did I. It seemed more like an exchange.”

“Oi, I’m a person. Not some dumb beast.”

Snowball bucked slightly at the comment and Drox flew off the wolf. He crashed down onto the floor with little more than a soft plop due to his fluffy nature. His groan echoed through the tunnels as the group laughed.

“I do not think she liked that,” said Mina through small giggles.

Snowball padded over to Drox and nuzzled him with her nose.

“I didn’t mean you girl. I was talking about those other two mutts.”

Drox got up and dusted himself off. He patted Snowball on the head and she let him get back on her back. The group continued down the tunnel. They had gone about a kilometer between each of the rooms so far, and they were coming up on the end of their third kilometer if Adam had judged the distance correctly.

Not long after another room came into view. There were no goblins standing around waiting as the group moved closer. As the room came into view it became apparent that this one was far different from the others. They crept up together slowly until they were all at the edge of the room’s opening. Adam’s eyes grew wide at the sight.

The cavern was absolutely massive. It was at least 100 feet across and half as high. The stones weren’t smooth like the tunnels or the rooms before, but instead they were jagged and jutting from everywhere. Pieces of rocks lay strawn on the ground and small carts were loaded with ore and stones. Adam even spotted some helmets and pickaxes laying around. This wasn’t just any cave. This was a mining operation.

Looking around the room Adam saw at least five other smaller tunnels on the opposite side of the cavern. There were some barrels and boxes stacked along the wall, but other than that, the room was empty. It was as if the inhabitants had simply disappeared.

“A mining operation?” asked Josh. “Is that obsidian?” He pointed toward one of the carts full of the black ore that shined like glass.

“It called heart of mountain. It shiny but hard. Very hard. It rare.”

“Why’s it just sitting here if it’s so rare?”

Skyeyes shrugged. “I not miner.”

“Fair enough,” said Josh. “You guys think we should head down one of those tunnels?”

“I guess,” said Adam, “should probably pocket some of these ore though if we can. Do you mind Skyeyes?”

The goblin shook his head and the group moved out into the cavern. They split up and each headed toward carts of ore. As Adam got close to a cart filled with a gray ore he saw the notification pop up floating next to the stones.

Iron Ore: used for crafting weapons, tools, and components

He moved over to the cart and picked up one of the stones. He willed it into his inventory and it disappeared from his hand. He pulled up his inventory and saw that one of the spaces now had the ore inside with the number 1 beside it. He put his hands into the cart and willed the ore into his inventory again. His inventory now had the number 15 next to the stones.

Adam took a good long look at the menu in front of him. The page looked like an old school character sheet. It had a silhouette of a person with small boxes showing where gear could be equipped. There was a box for head, body, legs, feet, hands, shoulders, waist, back, neck, rings, and weapons. He let out a small laugh at the fact that there were only two ring slots. He was currently wearing a simple tunic, simple breaches, and simple boots along with his common weighted gloves. The rest of his slots were empty.

That wasn’t what he was looking for though. Below his gear he had a box that was considered his inventory. Adam thought for a moment. He looked at the spaces and counted them. It was a 5 by 5 box giving him 25 spaces. It seemed that each of his items took up one space except for his soul crystals which had a number beneath the inventory. It was on the bottom left of the menu. There was a picture of three different soul crystals of descending sizes and he had 12 next to the smallest one.

Adam’s eyes moved over to the bottom right of the menu where he saw a number he hadn’t noticed before. It read 30/120. That was it. That was what he was looking for. Adam was positive. That was how much weight he could carry. He knew he had to test it though.

Adam thrust his hand into the cart and started putting all the ore into his inventory. He had the menu pulled up and saw the number rise quickly. When he hit 55 ore in his inventory he saw the number in his bottom left reach 125/120 and it went from white to red. Instantly Adam felt the weight on his body. He moved back and felt like he was underwater. His limbs were heavy and it was like he was moving in slow motion.

“Whoa,” said Adam, “we have a weight limit.”

“Really?” asked Josh.

“Yeah, bottom right of your inventory. Next to the soul crystals.”

Josh looked at the number and then continued to fill his inventory with the mountain heart ore. As soon as his weight limit passed its limit he felt the same weight that had hit Adam.

“Bro, that’s trippy. I feel like I’m swimming.”

Adam looked over his stats and realized he hadn’t spent his five free points yet. He put three of them into strength and the weight disappeared in an instant. He looked down at his inventory and saw that it now read 115/140. He went ahead and put two more points into dexterity as well.

“Looks like strength directly affects the weight we can carry.”

“Sweet,” said Josh. “What kind of ore do you have over there? There were only 15 mountain heart ore here. The rest of the cart is filled with copper.”

“Iron ore over here. What about you Mina?”

“Copper,” she said. Her cart which had been overflowing was completely empty. She was moving toward Adam at normal speed still. “I have 60 ore. It took about half of my weight.”

“Damn you’re strong,” said Josh. “Copper’s heavy.”

“That it is lad,” said Drox. “We’ve got iron ore over here. I can hold about 15 before the weight gets too much.”

Skyeyes was just sitting on Pork Chop looking around the mine. His eyes were darting around the room. Simultaneously all three wolves’ ears flattened and a rumbling growl escaped from them. They bared their teeth and turned toward one of the small tunnels that connected to the cavern.

Everyone went silent. For a moment there was no sound other than the wolves’ low growl. Skyeyes put his hand up and the wolves went quiet. That’s when the sound reached the group. It was a small sound at first. Just a simple sound like a rock hitting a metal bucket. Tink tink tink. Every second it would sound and every second it grew louder.

Slowly, as quiet as he could, Adam moved over toward Mina who was facing the tunnel where the sound was coming from. He saw Josh move as well to her right side. The wolves padded over silently with Drox and Skyeyes atop two of the three. Snowball, who was carrying Drox, stopped next to Josh abruptly. Drox slid off the wolf and fell to the ground in a puff of dust and gravel.

“Oi wolf!” yelled Drox.

Everyone turned on him, and he looked as guilty as a teddy bear could look. He put both paws up to his mouth. At first nobody noticed, but as everyone turned back toward the tunnel they realized something was missing. The sound had stopped.

A roar erupted from the darkness. It was no roar of a man. It was bestial and deafening as it echoed through the cavern walls making dust and rocks fall from the ceiling. Everyone was standing close together at least ten meters away from the tunnel, but they felt the roar in their bones. It made the hair on the back of Adam’s neck stand straight up and goosebumps ran across his whole body. He wasn’t sure if it was fear or excitement.

The sound of metal on stone started again as the roar died away. This time it was far faster and so much louder. Adam felt the tugging in his chest he had felt before when monsters had attacked. It was becoming a familiar feeling now. One that meant danger.

A form crashed through the entrance and sent stone shooting in all directions. Mina raised her shield as Adam covered his eyes with his gloves. Josh just stood as a few stones bounced off of his body. Dust bellowed out of the tunnel and from it rose a shadow. It grew and grew until it was over two meters tall. Then the shadowy figure let out a breath and the dust blew away like pollen on the wind.

Adam looked up and saw a monster. It looked like a massive goblin covered in hair and muscles. The skin of the creature was green, but the hair was the color of rust and it almost covered the thing completely. Its ears were long and pointy and its nose was the same. Dark veins of black covered its body almost shining through the thick hair of the creature. It looked, to Adam, like a mix between a sasquatch and a massive goblin. Then the notification appeared next to its head.

Corrupted Bugbear Foreman - Level 7 - Elite Enemy