The group of five tread through the forest and into a wide clearing. Rich lead then with his shield held high. Eric stood to his right while Alex was on the left. Behind them, Kai and Taylor were ready with their magic ready. They had separated themselves from other climbers and had not seen much. After speaking to others, they heard that wolves roamed this area of the forest and did not group up too large. As a new group of climbers, they wanted to avoid that. They continued into the clearing and heard the rustling of branches.

“Everyone stays close. We don’t want them ambushing us from the sides,” said Rich.

Alex looked around and tried to spot the wolf or wolves. They came from the right and jumped at Eric, but Rich was there soon after and his shield blocked the wolves. Alex and the others could feel their level was at three and had the power to match. Rich was pushed back, and Taylor stepped in and called on her powers.

Vines wrapped themselves around the nearest of the three wolves while blocking the other two’s passage. They would have to get around the barrier she made. Kai pelted the wolves with steaming hot water while everyone else moved forward.

Alex stuck with using his dagger for now and worked his way closer while dodging the spiked tail of one of the wolves. He realized quickly that he needed to be aware of his surroundings and watch out for not only the wolves but where his teammates were positioned as well. With Kai and Taylor casting ranged spells he did not want to get in their way and cause problems.

Eric stayed close to Rich under the protection of his shield and stabbed out with quick movements at any open spot on the wolves. With Taylor tying up the wolves’ ability to move Rich’s need for defense was lessened so that he could focus on swinging his sword around. The wolves kept trying to cut away their restraints with their tails and teeth but that was just what they needed. With the nearest wolf distracted and a downward swing of Rich’s blade, he cut the first wolf’s head off.

“Focus on the wolf on the left. It is already more injured. We should be able to take it down quickly,” yelled Rich.

This lessened the danger somewhat as they worked to separate the last two wolves and finish them off. Alex moved to the blindside of the wolf opposite Rich and stabbed where he could. The dagger made a few small cuts but did not dig into its fur as he hoped. Compared to the level one wolf he had trained against these wolves were practically bouncing off. He knew that it was in part his lack of skills and abilities related to daggers and wielding them. Each time Eric or Rich swung their swords their power was boosted by their path and the powers they had available to them. In contrast, each time Alex attacked he was only using his strength with no added system assistance. The contrast was clear. Without using magic his damage output was effectively crippled. Considering the level of the wolves currently, he worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up.

As Kai used his magic, he was able to improve his accuracy against the moving targets. His water attacks splashed into the wolves’ eyes and nose causing them to be temporarily blinded and irritated. Eric watched the timing for Kai’s next attack and swung his sword at one of the wolves remaining. It didn’t see Eric’s attack coming now that it was blinded and fell dead soon after.

The final wolf roared ferociously and was quick on its feet to avoid the entrapping vines. Alex tried to get close, but it always tried to swipe its claws at him. He did not want to test the ‘starter’ nature of his armor so early. He had watched Rich’s shield get battered and it had gained quite a few knicks and scratches on its wooden front.

Alex considered his line of attack to help deal with the final wolf. “I need to be doing more damage. Each time the wolves died I only felt a trickle of experience. Even Kai with his steaming water attacks has been doing more damage than me. If I want to do more damage, I need to use my lightning magic. Now is the time to practice it. The wolf is the last in its group and has already been weakened by the others. I will start with something simple. When I stab the wolf next, I will try and use my magic in my other hand and try to do anything. Based on the result of that experiment I will try other things.”

With his plan decided Alex waited for the next opportunity to use his dagger.

Alex held his dagger firmly in wait. The wolf tried to whip him with its tail, but he leaned back narrowly missing getting hit. When some of Taylor’s vines wrapped around its tail, he struck. Alex rammed the dagger into the wolf’s middle. Alex attempted to summon a bolt of lightning with his magic, but to his frustration, nothing happened. He gritted his teeth and tried again, but the magic remained stubbornly out of reach. He could feel the magic moving within him and he could feel the wolf’s body with his mana. Hurriedly he put his free hand on the wolf and tried again.

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It was then that he felt like the connection had been pieced together when it previously was separated. His pull on his mana grew slightly then stopped. The wolf’s response to this ‘attack’ was to shake its body in an attempt to get him away from his dagger and it worked.

The dagger still lay set in the wolf’s body. Alex was forced to let it go and step back as the wolf’s spiked tail came swinging around again. Alex re-equipped a dagger from the vest on his chest and resumed the fight.

Together the five of them surrounded the remaining wolf leaving it no means of escape. With a swipe of his blade, Eric cut off the spiked tail of the wolf leaving one of its main ways of attack removed. Cutting off its tail also caused the wolf to lose balance. As it fought on its tail was no longer a counter balance to the rest of its body. Only a minute later it was riddled with injuries and a final blow by Eric ended its life.

“Finally!” Rich roared out. The others also let out sighs of relief after their first battle against wolves. “And level two as well,” he said excitedly.

In response, everyone else checked their statuses. Alex pulled up his own.

<<<>>>

Name: Alex

Path: Magic (Sub-Path: Lightning)

Rating: G

Level: 1 (46%)

Abilities (1/1):

Manipulate Electricity [G]

Tower Points: 0

<<<>>>

Alex frowned. He hadn’t gotten nearly enough experience to level up. At 46 percent he would need to do a lot more against future enemies to get the experience needed to stay with the others. As they went around, they found that only Kai and himself hadn’t leveled up yet. Though Kai was much closer. As for his tower points, they had automatically gone to Kai as their team’s accountant and manager. As a party, they had decided to pool their point and collectively spend their points as needed.

“Come on. Let’s keep going,” said Eric. “We can get the two of you up to level two with us soon enough. We just need to find another group like this one.”

“Wow was that amazing,” said Rich. He stretched his body and flexed. “That level up was great. I feel like I have been shot with caffeine and adrenaline, and all my muscles aren’t sore anymore. If every level-up is like this, then I wish I could level up every day.”

“Stop exaggerating,” said Taylor. “You are going to make our two teammates lagging feel bad. It is a nice feeling of refreshment and energy. You are just being over the top.”

“Whatever. We need to gather the remains of the wolves,” said Rich. “Taylor, you will hold the bag since you can stay out of the action in future fights and will be at range. We should also consider one of those spatial bags or rings. It will help us collect material and we can say out here for longer before needing to dump supplies. It would also be useful on road trips and such.”

“Different bags were one of the first things I asked the manager of the store we waited in,” said Kai. “We probably can’t afford any spatial enchantment items for a while. The smallest of bags start around 5000 Tower points. It would be much better to get a weight-reduction bag and use some of those. Their price is much better and is around 1000 for a decent-sized bag.”

Taylor grabbed the empty bag and went around to each of the wolves’ bodies. After they died the wolves dissolved leaving behind only the useable crafting pieces. This made collecting and carrying what they needed much faster. Once the pieces were all picked up, they moved on from the clearing and searched for wolves elsewhere.

They resumed their trek through the forest in search of other wolves. As the day passed into late afternoon, they took a break to eat before returning to the hunt.

It took a while longer to find another group of wolves. The next pack was also level three with a single wolf at level four. Everyone in their group tensed up when they sensed the power of the lead wolf. Rich called them back into focus.

“There are still only three wolves, and we are all a little stronger now. We can do this!”

Their actions followed similarly to the previous group of wolves. Taylor took charge of area control against the wolves. Rich and Eric each took one of the weaker wolves while Kai and Alex kept the strongest wolf back until Rich and Eric could assist.

Now that he was fighting against the stronger wolf Alex tried to use his magic again. Kai used his steaming water attack to blind the wolf as usual which allowed Alex to get in close. He had to be careful with where the wolf’s attacks landed. The wolf was larger and quicker than the others. Its tail was longer and more heavily spiked.

When Alex got used to the timing and stabbed a few times with his dagger he added his magic into the mix. Following a knife stab he slapped the wolf with his other hand and activated his magic. The wolf shook and spun toward him but nothing noticeable changed. He tried it again with the same result. Frustratedly, he stopped allowing his mana to not drain unnecessarily.

He let his focus return to fighting the wolf and over the next few minutes they whittled down the group and killed off all of them. By the time they tackled the strongest wolf together, Alex had gained a few shallow scrapes from it. After slaying the final wolf Alex looked up at the sky. The night had started to settle in, and the moon hung over head.

“We should head back now. It is getting late,” said Alex.

“Is it about your bedtime now?” Eric sneered. Taylor interjected, “You know what he means, and he's right. We should head back. I don’t want to stay out late in the tower. At least not until others have experienced it. I mean based on game logic the higher-level monsters should start walking up and hunting in the next hour or so.”

“You’re right. Let’s get going. Everyone grab some of the loot and we will head out and sell our stuff in the village,” said Rich. “And I don’t want to test out night hunting on the first day.”