Behold. Le World Map is complete. Enjoy.

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj4spur-58e03a86-6ed5-4803-b75e-af525c8123c5.jpg/v1/fill/w_1325,h_603,q_70,strp/arcadia_world_map_by_pokefan1337_dj4spur-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTA4NyIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo0c3B1ci01OGUwM2E4Ni02ZWQ1LTQ4MDMtYjc1ZS1hZjUyNWM4MTIzYzUuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTIzODcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.rKMnHcTq3MMfkxNTmKbqrPeTWgctsL4Q0soi4BnOkmY]

And our boy's current skills.

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj68iyo-bf5466b5-504c-4cc1-9dd7-60cc9f1eb873.jpg/v1/fill/w_901,h_887,q_70,strp/status_magic_5_by_pokefan1337_dj68iyo-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTU0NCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo2OGl5by1iZjU0NjZiNS01MDRjLTRjYzEtOWRkNy02MGNjOWYxZWI4NzMuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE1NjkifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.dg9cA3owXHvneH2obI2JIxufA9jlOgVlw7_SyRIE8DI]

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj68io8-e1d181e8-3520-4d57-b8cd-f03b9d5694e0.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1046,q_70,strp/skills_status_5_by_pokefan1337_dj68io8-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTk4MSIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo2OGlvOC1lMWQxODFlOC0zNTIwLTRkNTctYjhjZC1mMDNiOWQ1Njk0ZTAuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE1NjkifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.5XwymT5PhmVL3p53TyTgZUsg1ROajB548u9hYMlQpPQ]

Office of the Triarchs, Primus - Arcathis

Vaelithar Valcrest was at his ancient white wooden desk, his sharp eyes, one gold on the right, one silver on the left, were taking in the usual report of his beloved daughter’s activities. Lena, his High Elf assistant, looked particularly nervous, hiding her classic elven good looks under her curly chestnut tresses, and as he read the report in its entirety, he understood why. His body was the picture of calm, dressed in robes befitting the Archsorcerer of the Arcari, the elite group of Archmagi that ran, operated, dispatched, and trained Arc Wardens, Vaelithar sat above all of them in terms of power, respect, and prestige, as one of the three immortal sovereigns that had overseen Arcadian society for millennia.

“Lena.”

The word was like a thunderclap in the space, as the level one hundred and ninety sorcerer’s aura started to flare up. Not many things could cause him to lose a measure of control, like this. In fact, there were maybe only two. His daughter, and his wife. He doted on them, but not on his sons, and they understood why. He respected them instead, as they’d done their storied lineage proud, but they were both several centuries old. His precious Rose was barely seventeen. Thus, Lena understood his intentions when he spoke again.

“Get me every single piece of information that you can about this…Drake Long.”

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj576l6-897a4948-58b1-4a56-86e2-49dedc6ca22e.jpg/v1/fill/w_894,h_894,q_70,strp/vaelithar_valcrest_by_pokefan1337_dj576l6-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTAyNCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo1NzZsNi04OTdhNDk0OC01OGIxLTRhNTYtODZlMi00OWRlZGM2Y2EyMmUuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEwMjQifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.9YiUI7ajIdhgAwLL43h4418NiiEof5FEAN2_fgQkNMc]

Lena nodded. “I-I had a feeling you might want it, Archsorcerer, so I already compiled everything the Guild and the Academy have on him.” She handed him a single piece of paper.

Vaelithar considered himself a good boss, even tempered, fair, even if their hours required them to work tirelessly year round for the good of their planet. There was simply so much to do, and arcane sorting methods could only go so fast, and retain so much. So it made his assistant flinch when his eyes rapidly scanned the paper that was slowly bending in his strong grip and said, “What the fuck is this?” He was perfectly calm, but there was a storm in his eyes and his bodily network of magic. “It’s nothing. It’s barely three paragraphs. You’re telling me the oldest Guild on the planet and the finest Academy in the world, both of which he must attend, only gathered a single piece of paper’s worth of information on him!?” Most dossiers ended up being several pages, at least.

“Well, sir, it uh, it seems your daughter has chosen a complete enigma as her suitor. No family history, no family name, and while the word itself is not unknown to us, it seems his last name has only ever been used to refer to, umm, length. There are no other Longs on all of Arcadia. On top of that…he’s a class we’ve never heard of. A…Monk, I believe. Running description of its abilities is, and I’m quoting the Guild, sir, ‘a fast, melee striker that punches things until they die’. And that does seem to be what he does. He and his Party, your daughter among them, have faced down a level seventy five Raiju that was hunting an Alicorn herd, and a level sixty Goblin King. The same one responsible for the slaughter in Zemkarth. The Monk, Drake Long, was level twenty five at the time of facing the Raiju, and level fifty five against the Goblin King.”

The Archsorcerer slowly raised a sharp eyebrow. “He’s gone from level three to fifty five inside of a week?”

“Fifty seven, as of last Status activation, sir!” Lena clarified, standing straight.

The High Elf’s aura grew more intense. “This…has the reek of that Goddess all over it…” He snarled, standing, hands on the desk as he gave his orders with a controlled fury that made his robes billow. “Find out where he’s going tomorrow…then, I’m going to Eradicate hi-”

Vaelithar paused, as one of the floating patterns by his desk drew an ornate Magic Mirror up onto it, as it received a communication from its partner. On Arcadia, these essentially functioned as telephones, though thanks to magic, they had jumped straight to the ‘face time’ stage of that technology, and never progressed it any further. While useful, they were hard to craft, and could only pair with one other mirror at a time. This one was specifically for his beloved wife. “Syl…That was fast. I take it you saw the same report I did.”

His wife nodded. “And as expected of my darling Vael…you’re already plotting to destroy the young man our daughter chose. Even you can’t commit Murder, Vaelithar. Especially not of this boy.”

The Archsorcerer grit his teeth. “I don’t care how special he is to the Goddess, he will not have my Rose!”

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj5akgc-65713b3d-cb44-40eb-be51-983c7ff119e8.jpg/v1/fill/w_894,h_894,q_70,strp/sylriel_valcrest_by_pokefan1337_dj5akgc-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTAyNCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo1YWtnYy02NTcxM2IzZC1jYjQ0LTQwZWItYmU1MS05ODNjN2ZmMTE5ZTguanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEwMjQifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.1xi2nhjwyVrwbxzJYMKwUgxsYJyUwyVufwcWxpAQ40w]

Sylriel Valcrest rolled her eyes. “You sound like my father. When you courted me. At the Academy. As teenagers.”

Vaelithar blanched, but as usual, his wife was right. Skilled politician he was, he dodged her point. “She’s too young to start dating! We were twenty, at least. Several years in, proper Adventurers! She’s barely seventeen! Maybe when she’s a hundred and seventy. Or seventeen hundred. Quadruple digits at least.” He said firmly, crossing his arms.

“She’s closer to eighteen, and you know it.” His wife replied calmly. “Listen to me well, Vaelithar. I know I cannot stop you from spying on him tomorrow. Few could. But understand, I will not allow you to murder our daughter’s chance for a life as happy as ours before it's even begun! At the very least…examine the quality of his character. Our Rose is no fool, and if this report is accurate, she seems to have fallen harder than he has. She practically ripped the poor boy’s shirt off in public, and he left not a mark on her.” Sylriel smirked knowingly at him, then. “Perhaps, like some people, his emotions aren’t always immediately obvious, and readable. Perhaps he understands what seeing kiss marks on her neck would do to her reputation. We simply do not know…so observe him. I will be. I’m very curious.”

Vaelithar exhaled, defeated once again by his wife’s sound logic. “Fine. But if he fails to impress me, I will see to it that he is removed from my Rose’s life, one way or another.”

Sylriel sighed, exasperated. “She’s not Yours! She’s her own person, Vaelithar. Just like we taught her to be. And this is her choice. By the Gods, you are stubborn…but I know it’s because you care. You should come home, dear. Relax properly, before tomorrow.”

Vaelithar sighed, tiredly. “There’s…just too much to do. Weekends are when I catch up on everything I don’t have time for during the week. I’ll try to make it home soon.”

Sylriel deflated at his words, but nodded stoically. “Alright. I’ll see you then, I suppose.” The mirror floated back to its resting place, and Vaelithar sighed again.

Lena spoke then. “Sir…I can wrap things up tonight, and I’ve already made room in your schedule for tomorrow’s…spying. Go home. Rest. The work will be here when you return from scouting this…Drake Long person.”

Vaelithar eyed his assistant. “You’re sure? You already have your own work to see to as well, Lena.”

The younger elven woman nodded confidently, though she still looked nervous for some reason. She’s already given him the report, but Vaelithar didn’t question it further. Many people were unnerved in his presence, and he had been releasing his aura more than intended. “Quite sure. Get some rest. I’ll keep things from catching fire until you return."

Vaelithar glanced at his work pile, and sighed. “I could use a rest…very well. I leave things in your capable hands. I’ll see you sometime tomorrow, Lena.” With that, arguably the most powerful spellcaster on the planet, save Galdurath, Teleported home to surprise his wife, leaving his assistant alone in his office.

She got to work immediately, organizing papers, perusing the high level magical tomes on her boss’s walls, many of which had been magically sealed and warded for centuries. Then, after several minutes, she contacted her true boss. Or rather, the one that had leverage on her. “Mr. Pandarus. I’m finally in.”

The spell, a new one invented for one to one communication over vast distances, crackled as the arcane office’s wards interfered with it, but the man’s sleazy voice came through all the same. “It’s about fucking time, Lena.”

“Just tell me what I’m looking for.” She said, barely hiding her disgust.

“Mind your tone, wench.” The man growled. “The tome is called the Arcanomicon. Dispel the ward on it, and use the Scroll I gave you. Then, I’ll see that your sister is let free. You should hurry up…Goblins are quite unkind to female prisoners.”

Having seen the accounts from Zemkarth, and hundreds of others just like them that she’d kept from the eyes of the Triarchy at the behest of her blackmailer, her sense of panic and worry overpowered any hesitation she had for betraying the Archsorcerer. The tome was quite ancient, and a warning ward flashed as she drained it of magical power, what little was left. This simply required someone with enough mana to repower it, and the wards would persist for another several centuries.

It was a common enough occurrence, but before she repowered the ward, she’d be quickly perusing the tome in question. She opened the scroll, and grimaced as she recognized the highly regulated Duplicate spell, capable of exactly copying non magical artifacts in their entirety. Like the interiors of old tomes.

She had the tome copied and replaced quickly, and then Teleported the object in question to her blackmailer. His sleazy voice came into her head again, making her cringe as she placed the tome back and empowered the ward again. “Your sister will be just outside the main entrance to the Wallow. Have a nice life, Lena.” She shuddered again, and Teleported, leaving the work pile, and the office, unattended.

She appeared outside the Wallow Dungeon, gasped in shock at the sight before her. Her sister looked like she’d been literally thrown out of the Dungeon, and left in the dirt. The lower part of her clothes were gone, and her eyes were blank, expressionless, disassociated with her reality. She curled up when her sister touched her, and as she looked up, her blank eyes registered that she was back in the upper world, and with her sister.

Tears streamed down the younger elf’s face, and her sister was shaking as well, not with tears, but with rage. She forced a connection to Pandarus, all but shouting in his skull. “You said she would be unspoiled! What the fuck Eridion!? We had an agreement!”

The voice she was rapidly coming to hate filled her head again. “Ahh. That is unfortunate. You know what Goblins are like, my dear, downright brutal, and exceedingly stupid. Tell you what, I’ll pay for her medical treatments, and a memory wipe spell, and she’ll be good as new.”

Lena grimaced. Even memory spells had limits. The more traumatic the memory the more likely it would resurface. Her sister would get maybe a decade before things started resurfacing.

“Remember, if you renege on our agreement, they’ll bury You, not me. You’re the one that committed a crime, all I did was purchase an illegally cloned tome that, for all the Wardens will know, turned out to be fake. Take your sister to the nearest hospital. I’ll make sure she has the best care on the planet.”

Lena got her sister to her feet, and cut off the communication to Pandarus. He was the reason her sister had been captured at all, she was sure of it. She knew her sister wasn’t his only victim, either. But she had no proof.

As Lena felt her sister weeping against her side, her resolve solidified. She’d play along, burn Pandarus’s money on expensive treatments and therapy, but in that moment she decided that pig had to go down. The only question was how, or more importantly, who. Pandarus had enough Gil to buy anyone's loyalty, or threaten them into inaction.

For some reason, a snippet of information relating to Drake Long bubbled up from her subconscious, as apparently, though it was unconfirmed, the young monk had decided that the Wallow needed Purging in the aftermath of what they’d done to Zemkarth. He was unbound, somehow, to their society, and his only emotional ties were all Arc Wardens, and had the vaunted protection of the Academy keeping them safe from the likes of Pandarus. He would, Lena realized, be the ideal instrument of Pandarus’s downfall, and he might even do it for free, with moral fiber like what the rumors claimed he possessed. With a plan forming, Lena guided her sister to the hospital, and then began composing a secret, magical message.

The Next Day, Galdurian Arc Warden Academy Male Dormitory - Primus City

“The idea is to pass an electrical current through an antenna, kinda like the ‘magic popotoe’, but much stronger. That’ll make what we called ‘radio waves’ back on Earth. And thanks to the capacitors we made and set to charge before breakfast, we should, theoretically, be able to communicate with them, now they’ve had time to draw in ambient mana. This actually turned out really easy, since these nifty magic crystals can translate sound waves. We had a whole wire, cone, and magnet setup on Earth, but this is…so much easier.”

Drake had used some minor metalbending by combining his earthbending to make his new device, along with a new blacksmithing skill related to magically shaping metal. This had unlocked a whole new stance, and had evolved his various element bending techniques into one single technique that he was familiar with, and very excited at the implications of: Energybending.

Vincent was composed but excited, the shine of his eyes giving him away. Caelum had tuned out and made a vacant expression during the explanation of how radio waves and antennas worked, but he was just as interested in the end result. “So we’ll be able to speak to each other over long distances without any magic? Just a button press? Do you think they’ll work in Dungeons?”

Drake shrugged. “They should. Depends on how much interference they pick up. Anyway, I’m gonna go outside and test this bad boy. Don’t touch anything but the button, when you answer.”

Drake ran out of their room then, found the stairwell crowded, and thus opted to leap out the window of the fourth floor in front of the stairs, cushioning his landing with some timely airbending. He looked up then, and smirked as he realized Rose and Lyria were before him, already in their adventuring clothes. They smirked at him, and Lyria shook her head as Drake said, “Stairs were crowded. Wanna see what we’ve been up to all morning?”

The two girls shared a look, eyed the magitech walkie talkie in his hand, and then nodded. Drake grinned and held the button. “Weed Den, this is Amdrag, confirm you copy, over.”

Rose giggled at his strange choice of words, and Lyria was also smirking. Then, their eyes widened, as they heard Caelum’s voice, and what sounded like Vincent struggling to grab the device. “Uhh…what? Drake? We can hear you, uh, over.”

Drake smirked, and pressed the button again. “Ten-four Fisher King. Put Four Eyes on, if you would, over.”

Vincent’s voice came through next with remarkable clarity. “This must be that…radio language, you mentioned. It seems to combine vague physical characteristics, along with number combinations meant to convey acknowledgement in a subtle manner. I must say, I don’t understand ‘Weed Den’ or ‘Amdrag’, though… over.”

Rose and Lyria shared a look, and Drake grinned, as Vincent’s voice was coming in crystal clear. He’d been worried the ley lines encircling the planet might scramble radio waves, but so far, they were good. Theoretically, with how Vincent explained that Dungeons were highly concentrated areas of magic, one of the many things that made their inhabitants so deadly, especially when they had time to just level without doing much for centuries, the walkies would probably work even better within them. At least, until one of the Final Bosses figured out what they were doing.

“Drake…” Rose started, “Did you…just invent, or perhaps re-invent is more accurate, a magicless long-distance communication device…in less than half a day?”

“Our room is the Weed Den, and I’m American, technically, and a master of Dragon Style Martial Arts. Amdrag. Over.” There were, obviously, other reasons he’d chosen that callsign, but Vincent wouldn’t understand them. Yet. Making cartoons, anime, movies, video games, all of it, was very much on the list. Currently, the most popular Arcadian method of entertainment was magically animating words with a mid level spell, like the Instructors did when teaching, but it was very draining to anyone who wasn’t a high level Arc Warden, and the animation style changed with who was doing the casting. Drake intended to revolutionize their animating skills, and make bank while doing it. He smoothly turned back to Rose, and winked at her. “Girl, I’ve barely gotten started. Just wait. Once I make screens and recording devices, I’m paying a visit to the artists at our fine Academy. They’re going to be superstars!” He chuckled, using jazz hands to emphasize his point.

They would also, from the jump, be getting certain guarantees about rights, pay, ownership over their image and its use, and of course, a strict code of conduct that would try and prevent any perverts in the future from creating the abusive, cookie cutter, greed driven shithole that Hollywood had turned into.

Rose chuckled at him, practically glowing as she did. Or maybe she just did that from his perspective, since she still had him dazzled from the night before. “Well, the sky isn’t roiling with magic, so I guess the Gods will allow whatever schemes you have in mind. Anyways. If you boys are done reinventing how the world communicates, Garret is waiting at the Guild already, and so is most of the class.” She gave him a meaningful look. “We’re going into the Wallow, today.”

Drake grinned with a fake sinister gleam in his eye. “I hope you all did some cooking already…because while I was making this,” He spun the walkie like a revolver and slid it into his once more white martial arts pants, “Vincent managed to revolutionize Adventuring forever…after a few discussions about quantum mechanics, and a lot of spellcasting. I’ll go get them.”

In short order, they’d arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, where they found their classmates, geared and ready to roll out. They were also, each of them, holding various multitudes of foodstuffs in various methods of wrapping. Their class clown, Nyara, got on Drake’s case as soon as he and his party walked in. “This is too much food, Drake! I didn’t realize you asked everyone to make some. There’s enough here for a year!” She also seemed oddly upset, for some reason, as if she’d thought he’d only asked her and her alone to cook.

Drake looked at the gathered foodstuffs, estimated their portions, and then calculated for their beastly tanks. “I’d call this about eight months worth, if the Tanks eat like they usually do. Vincent, if you’d like to share with the class?”

The bespectacled enchanter smirked knowingly, pushed his glasses up so they caught the light and turned white, and then said, “My friends, our extraplanar ally informed me of a nifty concept that Adventurers in his home used, to carry large amounts of food and water simultaneously.” He smoothly brought around the leather backpack he’d had on his shoulders then, and placed it on the ground. Glancing around, Drake noted that Kelista, the Guild’s primary clerk, and a few of the other adventurers loading up on breakfast were eyeing them too.

“It’s called…a Bag of Holding.” Vincent said, and a few of their classmates smirked at the name. “As you might expect, it holds things. But more things than usual. A lot more. Normally, shoving this much food into an Arcane Hole would make it too heavy to carry, but with some timely low level Blacksmithing runes for weight reduction engraved into the high quality leather bag I attached the Hole to, it’s able to be worn in combat. The leather did also need to be magical and somewhat high quality for the runes to take, but it all worked out. Put the food in here friends, and we’ll be on our way.”

One by one, they put their food in the pocket plane, and then Vincent shouldered it again. They took some basic kill quests for goblins, hobgoblins, and even a Goblin King, if they could find one. As they stepped outside, they found the only members of their class who hadn’t initially joined them, namely, the fourth row of their class seating chart that included Bjorn, Caelum, Leif, and Zara.

Caelum nodded at Drake as they locked eyes. “I explained the situation. Despite Leif’s snitching, we’re all in agreement with the general plan. The abominations in the Wallow need to be destroyed.”

“Good.” Drake said, meeting the gaze of everyone but the backstabbing fox, “We’re going to need to trust each other down there.” At that point, he gave Leif a hard to read stare, and the fox man’s ears lowered slightly. “If we can do that…we’ll be fine. The Goblins already trust each other, or at least obey enough to work together. If we can’t outmatch them in that regard, they’ll have yet another advantage over us.” He addressed the group then. “While we’re in there, try to stay close to me. I have a buff that boosts your experience gain, and we all need to get a lot stronger.”

With that made clear, Class Seven made haste to the Wallow Dungeon. The upper floors were little more than a series of caves, long tunnels, and the occasional round intersection that nine out of ten times either had a fight going on, or the remnants of one. Drake quickly realized the upper levels on the first day of the week’s end were absolutely packed with new adventurers. After a solid thirty minutes of only finding in-progress fights or ones that already ended, Zara finally said, “Let’s just head deeper. We’re wasting too much time.”

Heading downwards in a Dungeon meant finding the right room on one’s current floor, one that usually was home to what adventurers called Floor Bosses, which were usually higher level monsters, and always had loot with or around them. They found the floor, and the boss, already slain and looted, and by the look of him, he’d been slain a while ago. The next floor was entirely different. Connected by a short descending spiral staircase encased in black worked stone walls that seemed beyond a goblin’s ability to craft, they emerged into an open field that had rolling plains, idyllic grassy fields, and several valleys, within which were fortified goblin camps with watchtowers surrounding them. Around the hills were a ring of mountains that, Drake assumed, were the hard border of the floor they were in. There was even an artificial sun in the sky, despite Arcadia not being anywhere near a star. Even this far away, Drake could see sentries on the furthest encampment’s watchtowers, though his brows furrowed, as he saw arrows take them out.

Enhancing his senses, he looked closer at the other encampments, and swore. “There’s only one left, and it’s being attacked now! If we want in on the Floor Boss, we need to move!” As one, the four teams of four started running forward in a wedge formation, and Drake grimaced, as he noted the various trees and bushes dotting the landscape had enemies hiding within. “Hit the bushes with arrows! Low level spells only, they’re just weaklings!”

Having apparently heard him, one of said weaklings that he hadn’t noticed, a goblin in an assassin role most likely, leapt at him with a surprise attack from Stealth, and a pair of daggers dripping with poison. Drake managed to dodge one, but that just brought him right into the other, as it sank in deep, and critically, into his shoulder, near his heart. Almost immediately, he felt the poison numb his nerves and take effect. Perhaps it was his anger at being injured so easily, or just luck, but Drake countered with a critical strike of his own, as the power of his Dragon Palm blew away the top half of the low level goblin. Rose came up to him, but he shook his head. “I’m fine. Daggers can only do so much damage, and Monks can expel poison.” Or at least, they could in D&D. He focused his inner Ki, and slowly, the tainted blood, now purple from the poison, leaked from his shoulder, and with some quick waterbending, it was left in a smoking pile on the ground.

In the distance, smoke began to rise from the final war camp, and Drake saw their group had fallen behind, to wait for him and Rose. “We need to go faster…everyone huddle close! I’m giving us a speed boost!” As they started running again, he started bending the air around them, first increasing their speed, and then as they caught up to their classmates, the entirety of Class Seven. In under a minute they crossed the vast plains. “One three…jump as high as you can! Trust the air to carry you over the wall, and get ready to fight as we land!”

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Drake counted down, and then as one, they leapt. With a surge of airbending, he propelled them over the wall, and straight into utter chaos. Three teams of four adventurers below were heavily outnumbered, and in an increasingly desperate fight. Drake’s growing perception saw they were also Academy students, and he had a feeling, they’d just jumped in on their class rivals right as the shit hit the fan. Leveling past fifty five had unlocked a new move that promised to make Quivering Palm even more brokenly overpowered. The Status System called it ‘The Dragon’s Fangs’. Drake knew it by a different name though, Eight Trigrams, Sixty Four Palms. The best part though, was that it was classified as a at will attack, meaning he could use it repeatedly, though his heightened perception when he aimed each attack did burn through his magic, it wasn’t fast enough to matter, with his mana pool.

As he activated it, Drake saw the nodes of magic within the goblin’s bodies that were within his melee range, and with his new ability, he could hammer those nodes for serious damage that grew exponentially from two, to four, to eight, to sixteen, to thirty two, to sixty four strikes at once. He just needed to manage to hit six times in a row to get to that number. As Drake took in his targets, he noted that these were hobgoblins. They were much larger than ordinary goblins standing at least six feet tall, they were hairier, and apparently hornier too, as they had a reputation for stalking the upper caves in search of female adventurers, but usually, they just ended up dead. The noob squads they’d run into had, after some chatting, revealed that multiple parties would band together to slay a hobgoblin, if one was found up above. Everyone knew what they did to their prisoners, but the system wasn’t perfect, and too many women ended up being dragged down to this floor, or even further into the Wallow as a result.

Class Seven wasted no time. Their tanks spread out and drew the focus of the hobgoblins going for their peer’s healers. For his part, Drake hammered a particularly hairy one for twelve total Dragon Fang strikes, which left it stunned about as long as a Dragon Palm would. Lyria’s magic struck next, a Lightning Bolt that burned off most of the hob’s fur, and then Leif was there to steal the kill, as he stabbed the creature in the neck and heart simultaneously. He smirked at Drake, as if his juvenile BS mattered, but Drake had already moved to his next target, along with everyone else.

The tables turned on the hobgoblins quickly, with most of what he assumed was Class One accepting their aid with little more than a nod. Their skills were legit, but their levels were slightly lower, and the hobgoblins were all at least fifty. Between that, and numbers, they’d ended up in dire straits rather quickly. As Drake and his timely fists helped turn the tables, and Leif kept stealing his kills, he finally found their leader.

Sethis and one of the knight tanks from Class One had it cornered, and as more of their damage dealers were freed up, they were converging on what had to be the Floor Boss. Covered in spiky black metal plate, the heavily muscled goblin was not a hobgoblin, but something else entirely. “It’s a Champion!” Vincent shouted helpfully, as he and the rest of Drake’s party saw where he was heading next. “Debuffs!”

He and Lyria hit the Goblin Champion with a series of debilitating debuffs that sapped its strength and forced it to slow down. Champions were apparently a mutation that hobgoblins could turn into when they served a strong enough king. They were considered leaders among their species, but they didn’t tend to live for very long. The stronger a goblin got, the more paranoid it became, often for good reason, as a race as fecund as theirs was always trying to shift the power structure. It took brains, cunning, and brawn to advance, and hold one’s position. This particular Goblin Champion clocked in at sixty, and Garret took over as main tank, since he was the highest leveled damage sponge they had.

As the champion swung its double-bladed great axe, Garret tanked it, and Sethis took the next blow, sliding across the field as even after a reduction in strength and speed, the Goblin Champion was no joke. After him, Class One’s knight, covered head to toe in expensive looking plate armor, tanked the next, by which point Garret had been healed by Rose. This was the first time Drake had seen tanks rotate in action, but he didn’t wait and watch, he needed to get a piece of the action, if his experience buff was going to apply to everyone around him. Thus, he decided to use some more of his new techniques, a powerful three-strike combo, and his first class buff, Fury of the First Dragon, which caused the enemies he struck to either be knocked prone, or sent flying into the air.

With a furious yell, he vanished in a flash of white and caught the champion with a swift uppercut to the jaw, sending it skyward, to the shock of both it, and his tanks. “Back up!” Was all he had time to shout at them as he leapt into the air after it, and activated Duel in the Heavens, the aforementioned three-hit combo.

Drake caught up to the champion in the air, as rotated to his right, hammering the monster with his knee, right to the midsection, where a human’s kidneys would be. He then rapidly spun the other direction, and landed another knee strike, at which point he gusted himself back with some timely airbending, then forward again as gravity brought the Goblin Champion earthward again. Shifting the focus of his buff, Drake sent him hurtling into the ground with a double handed slam to the goblin’s green abdominal muscles. The Goblin Champion slammed into the ground hard enough to break it, making him prone, as their tanks laid into him.

Having backed up as asked, they were perfectly positioned to damage the champion. Sethis cut off a leg, while Garret stabbed its heart, and the Class One tank went for the throat. Two sorcerers from Class One joined Lyria then, as all three focused lines of intense flame from their staves on the crater in which the Floor Boss had landed, reducing its health to zero.

The other parties, seeing they had things in hand, had begun searching for victims, but unfortunately, those they found were already dead from their wounds. Leif called out that the Floor Boss was dead then, around that time, and the rest of the two classes converged on the three tanks, Drake, Lyria, the other two sorcerers, Rose, and another healer who’d been helping her from Class One. Seeing the looks in their eyes, Drake spoke up first. “Four from your class and five from ours took this bastard down. I’d say that means we split the loot evenly. Any objections?”

The armored knight from the opposing class shook his spiky black haired head, as did Garret and Sethis, but of course, there were dissenting opinions. The epitome of a pompous noble stereotype, a High Elf whose golden plate armor was still pristine, spoke up loudly, turning up his pointed nose at them, as he needlessly ran a hand through his orange-blonde hair. “Our Class got here first. The loot, therefore, is ours.” He hadn’t even bothered joining the other tanks, despite being near enough to do so.

Leif spoke up next, a grin on his foxy face. “Your Class would be dead without us! And we’ll take the payment for saving your asses from that chest!” He said, raising a silver claw towards a rather large and stereotypically overflowing brown loot container right beside a set of stairs that, presumably, led even further into the Wallow.

“Everyone calm down…” Drake started, as more claims for the loot erupted from both sides. “Garret, Sethis, take our armored friend here, and guard the chest for now, if you would.” The three tanks shared a look, nodded, and then did so, which quieted the bickering.

Another force of personality emerged from the back of the opposing class then, and Drake could tell he was their leader. His hair was blue for some reason, probably thanks to mixed ancestry, and he smirked at Drake, as they locked eyes, and read the basic info that, Drake had learned, was a byproduct of reaching level fifty, namely, seeing another person’s name, level, and class, with a glance and a bit of focused magic to the eyes. This teen’s class was Sword Mage, like Nyara’s. He was also level sixty, though, as Drake checked his own level, he found he’d hit fifty nine, which meant that, with his experience boost, he’d gotten a level and a half from a Goblin Champion. Given that the only ones above them were Kings and presumably the Emperor too, that made sense to him.

The blue haired teen held out a hand towards Drake. “Rael Astorius. You must be the Monk. I speak for class One.”

Drake took the hand, giving it a firm shake. “Yes, I’m the Monk. Drake Long.” He glanced at his classmates, and shrugged. “I don’t know if I speak for all of them, but I am the primary reason we’re here.”

Rael gestured to the chest, then. “You seem reasonable. I’m glad. What should we do about this loot?”

Drake chuckled. “First, let’s see what’s inside. Garret, if you and your Class One compatriot would kindly open the chest…”

Rael smirked. “Forgive me, I forgot you’re new to our Academy. The gentleman in the plate armor is Varian, a Knight of the noble house of Rynn.” Drake blinked, and bit his tongue before he could smirk. Varian Rynn. He had a feeling the knight’s sword could split in two, and the more Drake looked, the more similarities he noticed. A blue and gold lion on his kite shield. Both pauldrons of his blue full plate armor sported the head of a lion framed by eagle wings. Nice. Rael Astorius continued.

“The rest of my Party, Ceyrin Aerothal and his mighty wolf, Draug…” A member of Arcadia’s bird folk that strongly resembled a Bald Eagle dipped his white head in Drake’s direction, and the wolf by his side, which had to have been a Dire Wolf by its size, gave him an intelligent glance, and a slow nod. Apparently it qualified as a magical creature. “…and of course, our own fiery healing Sage, Lady Elara Astris.”

The lady in question was busy smirking, and chatting with Rose, who looked absolutely thrilled to be in her presence. As she heard her name, the admittedly beautiful redhead turned to Drake with a critical eye, but this time, even his teenaged body did not react as she stepped close and offered a hand for him to kiss. He shook it, instead, and she scoffed, pretending to be offended. “So this is little Rose’s latest love, hmm? Well, at least you’ve got the look of a Noble…I don’t know about that Class, though…”

Varian spoke up in a rough baritone as he and Garret emptied the chest, placing the items within on the ground for all to see. “His Class just sent a Goblin Champion soaring twenty feet in the fucking air, Elara. With his bare fist.” He gave Drake an approving nod. “It takes guts to face the spawn of Dagorath in melee combat, let alone in armor that light.”

Drake shrugged. “Doesn’t really bother me. Now then, along with the armor and weapon he left behind, it looks like we’ve got…an uneven amount of items.” He sighed, and cast his gaze over the members of Class One that had yet to be introduced. Their second party was led by the paladin with orange-gold hair, long elven ears, full golden plate armor, and a cape. He was using a warhammer, and a large shield with Laurelin’s symbol on it, the same golden tree that marked Falcor’s brow. Their healer was a snake woman with black scales that had red bands on them, and a yellow underbelly, though her top half was more human than snake. Their damage dealers seemed to be a pair of pretty cat girls, one was a rogue like Leif and had black fur, with white markings on her cheeks. Her twin had white fur and black face marks, and he read her class as ‘Druid’, but she didn’t look like a healer. Drake’s eyes widened as he realized her hands had been shapeshifted into powerful white claws. A Feral Druid, then. A master of shapeshifting.

Drake sighed inwardly. In another life, in another world, that had been his class of choice. Stealthy, high burst damage, decent DoTs, and of course, the ability to heal. He tried not to think of his many MMO characters, now probably doomed to sit idle forever. All that effort and time, now useless to everyone. The final party of Class One arrived next, and Drake had to do a double take. Their leader seemed to be a redheaded nerd who was classed as a wizard. She was human, objectively normal, but the rest of her party was not.

Their tank was a hulking turtle man, with custom plate armor for his stomach and limbs. He had a two handed warhammer, and his thick, round shell, probably his shield, was covered in blue runes that had been carved into its edges. Their other damage dealer was an armored minotaur, with a large pair of dual-bladed axes. The most unique member though, had to be their healer. She was a being made entirely of stone, with orange-gold gems for eyes and similarly colored veins that ran throughout her skin. Her class was unusual too, as he’d never heard of a runescribe before.

“Now that everyone is here, shall we begin?” Rael asked, and the majority of those gathered nodded. “Let’s start with the Champion’s weapon. I see…only one here who could even use it, so, Bram,” He said, turning to the massive bull man, “How does it compare to what you have?”

Bram looked between the two, and his brows crashed together. “Sharper…but the durability is trash. Would need forging.” He snorted in exasperation.

“Actually, I can help with that,” Drake chimed in, as he trotted over. The bull man was even larger up close, but as Drake pulled out a mithril ingot, left over from his first foray into smithing, the heavy bestial brows raised in surprise. He offered Drake the axe, and after some firebending, some fist smithing, and some blacksmith skills, he managed to infuse the shoddy goblin axe with the mithril bar, making it much stronger, and changing its overall appearance.

The bull man raised it, grinning. “HA! Mighty! You have the gratitude of Brammoth Ironhorn, small Monk.”

Drake chuckled, and bowed. “Drake Long. Happy to help.” He turned to the rest of the gathered adventurers. “If anyone needs repairs on metalwork, I can probably mend some stuff.” He offered the gathered classes, and then blinked, as he realized his blacksmithing level had risen quite a bit just from that relatively simple fusion of materials and weapon. Apparently the higher the quality of material he worked with, the more experience it gave. An idea formed, as he remembered how objectively easy turning the mithril into bars had turned out to be. The four to one ratio with coal was a lot, but not with a Bag of Holding.

Next, the goblin’s armor was claimed by Sethis, and Drake patched it up, along with a rent piece of Varian’s breastplate, with his fist smithing. He’d managed to find an anvil in the goblin’s encampment, which made fixing the armor quite easy. They also had a lot of Blackstone, as well as iron and copper ore. A little digging around had revealed a stash of mithril, which seemed to have been attempted to be forged by the goblins, with no success, but Drake had Vincent pack it all away into the Bag of Holding anyway.

Rael had fully taken over item distribution by that point, with both classes agreeing those who would benefit most from an item, should be the one to have it. The ultimate split ended up being fair, but the parties were split over the final item, as it would objectively improve anyone who used it. “You guys are still divvying loot?” Drake said, as he returned from the hut with the anvil in it, “I thought you’d be done by now.”

“Ahh, Drake Long.” Rael said, inclining his blue haired head. “Perhaps that Monk wisdom of yours can aid us here. Every Dungeon Chest below the first floor always comes with what we call an Epic tier item. This one, just happens to be…really quite good. Behold, the Corestone Catalyst.” He held up what looked like a golden medallion, with a rainbow colored crystal at its center. “It passively heals any wound, and restores magic. At quite a fast rate. It also significantly increases one’s speed, and provides a twenty point boost to all stats. As if that wasn’t enough, it also grants its wearer an ability called Battlefield Awareness. Once activated, it highlights all nearby monsters, as well as allied creatures, in red and green respectively. Neutral creatures like natural and magical beasts are blue. It has only a three minute cooldown, and lasts until there are no longer red marked creatures in the area, or until its wearer ends the ability.”

Drake whistled. “I can see why we’re in disagreement on this.”

At that moment, Rose stepped up next to him, and gave him a wink only he and their class could see from her angle. “I know how we might solve this, Rael, if you’ll allow me.”

Rael bowed gracefully. “Of course, Lady Valcrest. If anyone could mediate this, it would be you.”

“Thank you.” Rose said, stepping forward. “First, I’d like to propose something. From this point on, the floors will be harder to traverse, the enemies higher in level. My Drake here has an ability, as some of you have noticed, that affects all of those he deems allies. Many of you received quite a bit more experience than you were expecting, thanks to his arrival. I propose, in the name of leveling ourselves, we journey together henceforth, as allies, for I know the Goblins will be equally unified. Not being so ourselves may very well end up killing one of us.”

Rael glanced over his class, and there was no dissent. She’d had them at ‘magic experience boosting buff’. “Good.” Rose said, with a dazzling smile. “Now then, as for who this rather decent item should go to, would everyone who already possesses a magical amulet, please raise their hand?”

Slowly, and with some confusion, everyone present raised their hand. Everyone except Drake. He was too busy falling, hard, for Rose as he just stared at her, impressed. Rael spoke then, “Drake Long…do you really not have an amulet, rings, or empowering trinkets?”

Drake shook his head. “I was going to get some, but I need all the Gil I make, currently. For tuition. I was told I had to pay my own way. I was hoping to get some on this run.”

Rael nodded, and sighed. Rose had them. There was no one who needed it more than one without the slot even filled. “In that case…” She said, gently taking the Corestone Catalyst from him. “I believe the choice is obvious. We of Class Seven wouldn’t be here today, if not for Drake. He’s one of the highest level students in our class, and he’s managed to outmatch even our Vincent in Dungeoneering.” She put the medallion around his neck, still smiling, and finally met his gaze. As Drake had hoped, her cheeks flushed slightly. “If nobody objects, I’d like to make him our Class Leader, as Rael is to Class One.”

There were, at that, some objections from Class Seven. Bjorn, Zara, and Leif all loudly protested, calling Rose biased. Bjorn crossed his arms, his deep voice rumbling with discontent. “I don’t care how strong he is, leadership should go to the most experienced. And that’s not him. I’ve been delving into Dungeons twice as long as all of you. I should be leading.”

Zara scoffed, flipping her black hair over her shoulder. “You couldn’t lead yourself out of a paper bag, ‘Ironside’.” She said with actual air quotes, before turning on Rose. “This isn’t the government, Princess. You don’t get to just crown your boyfriend as leader because you like him. He’s not a leader, he hasn’t been groomed since birth to be one, either. In fact, I don’t believe he even has a family, let alone the finest tutors in Primus. Vincent or myself should be leading, no one else is near qualified.”

Leif’s ears flattened as his tail bristled. His glare was sharp, unrelenting. "Oh, of course. Let’s all just line up behind the Chosen One like mindless sheep. Just because he’s got divine backing, we should all just roll over and obey?" He scoffed, eyes burning with resentment as he crossed his arms. "He drops into our class from nowhere, racks up levels faster than anyone in history, and now we’re just supposed to fall in line behind him? Not a chance. I’m not about to bow to some outsider just because Laurelin decided he should be special."

Drake spoke up, then. “I didn’t ask to be Chosen, Leif. Goddess Laurelin made that choice herself, and she didn’t choose you. She’s not the only one that didn’t choose you, either. Get over it.” The foxkin drew his daggers and snarled, but a glare from Garret made him remember where he was. Behind them, Class One watched, interested, but lacking context. Drake turned to the others as Leif stormed off. “For this outing, at least. Rose is right, it was me that gathered us here today in a Dungeon most of you are well leveled above, at least for the upper floors. I’m the one who brought you into this pit, I’m the one who should be responsible for leading you out.”

Bjorn studied Drake for a long moment before exhaling heavily. “Fine. But when you screw up, I’m taking over, Rookie.”

Zara huffed but gave a reluctant nod. “No one is going to follow a guy that doesn’t even use his real name Bjorn. Let alone someone who had to be demoted a year. You’re less qualified than Drake is…but fine. He did beat Vincent that one time in class, I guess. Can’t hurt to give him experience. That’s what the Wallow is for.”

Seeing Leif was still fuming, Drake walked over to him. “I think it’s about time you and I had a heart to heart.”

Leif remained unconvinced. “Fuck off and die.” He said, simply.

“I’m not going to, Leif. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to stay, and special boi that I am, I’ll probably live longer than you. We were on good enough terms at lunch my first day. We’ve barely spoken since. What happened?”

Snarling, Leif pointed a clawed finger at him. “You stole Rose! The most beautiful woman at the Academy and you just waltz in and immediately romance her? It’s bullshit! You did something! One of your weird God powers warped her mind, or something!”

Drake whistled. “Wow, dude. Uhh…y’know what? I’ll let Rose herself set you straight on that one. Just do me a favor and agree to work with the Class until we’re out of the rapey Goblin cesspit, alright?”

Leif snarled, tail still bristling. “Fine.” It very much was not fine, though, and the last thing Drake needed was some lovesick delusional fox boy stabbing him while he was facing down a goblin.

Drake returned to Rose’s side then. “You should uhh…talk to him. He has some…misconceptions about your relationship.”

Calmly and serenely, Rose walked over to Leif, and Drake heightened his hearing so he could hear her words. She wasn’t harsh or mean, but she did make it clear the silver foxman had never had even a flicker of a chance at being with her romantically. She called her attraction level to him a flat, unmoving zero, which seemed to make Leif deflate under the weight of the reality of her words. They both returned to the group then, and Rose very obviously took Drake’s hand. Leif was quieter after that, no doubt processing the reality of being so calmly and brutally rejected. Drake understood Rose’s methods. They had just identified who was still against the idea of him leading. Not that he really wanted to, he’d never been even remotely leadership material in his past life, but with a medallion this overpowered, it would be foolish to not have him in some sort of leadership role.

With the drama settled, Varian, Rael, Drake, and Garret led them further into the Wallow Dungeon. The next floor was very similar. Grassy fields, a bit more forest, some nearby mountains that likely contained ore. Drake murmured to Rose as they walked. “I was expecting more…mud. So far, all I’m seeing is fertile farming land and ore rich mountains. Why don’t the Goblins just stay in here? Block off the entrances and prosper until they have enough numbers to break out?”

Rose smiled at him, though it faltered, as the eagle man ranger called out four total encampments. “Monsters don’t know how to farm…they also don’t need to eat, they just like how food tastes, when they take it off Adventurers. Their only instinct is to slaughter and spread despair, as their God commands. The only things they build are weapons, and temples to Dagorath’s depravity. Besides, only a few can break out, without a Demon Lord to call them forth from the Dungeon with Dagorath’s power. We’ll find more of them the further down we go, though.”

At that point, Rael called them over. “We’ve decided to take two of the four Goblin fortresses here per Class. Ceyrin’s eyes spotted a Goblin Citadel in the far mountains, packed to the brim with Goblins wielding iron weapons and heavily fortified, and the forest around it was crawling with Hobgoblins. Draug also, apparently, heard wolves, which means there’s likely a squad of Goblin Riders, lurking about.”

Drake frowned. He didn’t know if his buff had a range limit, but there was another issue. “What if they have Goblin Champions in each encampment? You guys were in pretty dire straits from just one. We should scout them out, first.”

Rael nodded in agreement, and then, a moment later, Ceyrin landed beside them. “I heard you talking.” He warbled in his shrill tone. “Each encampment has a lot less Goblins than that last one, but they do have Champions leading them. There’s never been so many on just the third floor.” He said, giving Rael a look.

“I also don’t know how far my Buff extends.” Drake added. “If they’re higher than sixty, our Class could end up in trouble too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had more Goblins waiting where we can’t see them.”

Rael nodded. “Well then, the obvious option is to Party up. Your Buff affected us even without that, but it makes sense to do so here. It should still affect us if we’re all in the same party, in the same Dungeon. We’ll all be able to see each other’s health and magic, and if one Class ends up in trouble, the other can rush over, or send some timely aid. We should select who among us can get to the others the fastest, and either lend a hand, or rush back for full reinforcement.”

Drake agreed, and those chosen to be potential runners were himself, Lyria, who could fly, Leif and his Rogue speed, and Zara, who also had learned the Fly spell. From Class One, the runners were Ceyrin, the bird ranger, both of the cat girl twins, Miuli and Miulei, and Aeliana Altis, the nerdy redheaded mage who had tons of spells, among them, Fly. The sorcerers and wizard could cast that on tanks and healers as needed as well, making them the more valuable go-betweens.

With the worst case scenarios prepared for, the parties shared their class buffs with each other as needed, and then set out. Garret, Sethis, and Bjorn smashed through their first encampment’s wooden gate with little effort, and the slaughter began. There were far less hobgoblins this time, but no small amount of regular goblins, many of whom had annoying ranged weapons. Drake kept the arrows off them with his airbending, and the casters in the parties took them out with spells.

After that, he switched to firebending, and went hut to hut, catching several groups of lazing regular goblins in his firebending breath attack before they’d even realized they were under assault. Then, a roar echoed through the camp, and Drake, Rose, Garret, and Lyria converged on it. They found Ironside, already in berserker mode, matching a confidently smirking Goblin Champion blow for blow, each one of his greataxe’s strikes healing him.

The champion’s smirk faded as he realized there was not one, but three parties attacking his home. Garret and Sethis got involved, and so did the rest of their class. Seeing the damage being done, Drake shot into the air this time, and prepared a Quiet Kamehameha, as shouting the words was entirely for flavor. It didn’t feel as epic, but it was quite satisfying when the empowered Ki beam hammered the champion directly and ended his existence, after the casters and Leif had done their damage. It wasn’t an easy encounter by any means, but once they found the pattern of his attacks, six damage dealers, three tanks, and three healers keeping them all up made short work of even the mightiest foe.

They looked over at the encampment across from theirs, and sure enough, a few minutes later Class One gave the all clear. None of their health or magic was overly depleted. Ceyrin was flying towards them, and Drake met him halfway, where they confirmed that they’d take the next two encampments, and then rendezvous to camp together. More eyes, and a chance to bond, not to mention more people to take watch shifts, would guarantee a safe long rest as their abilities recharged. He also confirmed that, like Class Seven’s champion, theirs had been level sixty two, but they’d all gotten a shitload of experience from it, so his buff was working.

Drake had his parties ransack the camp for all it had, though once again there were no living prisoners, just corpses, a few very rotten Adventurer Guild rations, and shoddy armor. It seemed only the final encampments on a floor would have anything to do with smithing. There had been a chest by the champion, but Drake already had his loot, so he didn’t bother trying to get any, yet. Everyone who’d gotten nothing so far, had first dibs.

Their next raid went much the same, though Class One finished their champion first, and Ceyrin marked where the camp would be. The quests they had for exterminating goblins were finished, and the hobgoblin one was as well. Now all they needed was a Goblin King, though apparently it was rare for them to be this high in the Wallow. Despite facing a dual-wielding champion this time, once again, Class Seven’s tactics proved as good as Class One’s, and their rising levels and damage of their abilities made even the level sixty two opponent an easy win without his camp to back him up. Goblin Champions were threats to less experienced lower level parties, and their status as Academy prodigies was proving to be a legitimate threat to the goblins. Drake had no doubt that the Goblin Emperor was watching them though, and probably on the next few floors, his minions would adapt, likely with larger numbers.

Drake ended up getting a trinket that no one wanted, his first, in fact. The Mirror Image Mirror didn’t boost stats, just hit points, but it also made Mirror Images of its holder. Apparently, the images were durable, and also drew from the same magic pool, so it wasn’t a popular spell even among casters, and they only usually made one or two images, typically. Drake could make up to six, with the mirror. Apparently they just autonomously attacked too, but Drake tried it out on their way to the camp, and realized his new medallion regenerated his magic faster than his clones were burning it. With a little communication and mental control, he could also make them attack as he wanted, so none of them wasted Quivering Palm on low level enemies, or a tree. They were, essentially, Shadow Clones straight out of Naruto, but they were also him, and therefore shared his goal of kicking ass and looking cool as a monk. He even found he could adjust their robe colors, for help differentiating.

Drake offered to store Class One’s food along with theirs, after explaining what the Bag of Holding did, and they tossed in some other hard to carry things as well, to be retrieved later. Dinner was something that Sethis had made, namely quite a lot of hearty stew in a magic cast iron pot that always replenished the broth. This meant, if they could hunt, they’d always have stew to eat. It was then Drake learned that natural animals did also live in Dungeons, and could apparently come and go from them at will. Ceyrin had offered to hunt some deer after hearing about the infinite broth pot, and Drake and Rose went for a walk through the now cleared area of the floor, as the night sky took over the day. Oddly, the night sky had three moons in it, despite Arcadia having zero, and Drake started to wonder if Dungeons were just altogether separate planes connected to entirely different worlds, or planets. Or maybe it was just an aesthetic choice by the Final Boss, or whatever force in Arcadia was responsible for creating the Dungeon’s layouts.

Once they were far enough away, Rose kissed him again, and while he could never deny her, he did avoid another make out session, saying, “The Final Boss can probably see everything we do when we’re in his Dungeon. The last thing I want is that pig Emperor seeing any more of You than he has to.” Rose deflated, but nodded, seeing the sense in his words. Drake guided her chin upwards then, snaring her eyes again. “Once we’re out of here, we should go somewhere private, tomorrow. Maybe a beach, or something.”

Rose smirked at him, his intentions obvious, but not unwelcome. “I’d like that.” She said, eyeing him in his far too concealing robe. The flowing garments hid his muscles well. “Well, I’m going to get some rest then. Don’t stay out too long, Drake.”

Drake assured her he wouldn’t, but that wasn’t entirely true. He’d sneaked the Bag of Holding off earlier, and now retrieved it. There were mountains near the floor’s entrance, and his Battlefield Awareness confirmed no nearby monsters, so he wanted to do some mining before turning in. With some earthbending, and using said earthbending to sense ores within the mountain, he found quite a lot of copper, iron, coal, and even ten solid chunks of mithril. He also ended up with what he was pretty sure was adamantite, but his smithing skills were too low to confirm it. He went deeper though, testing the limits of the Dungeon, and eventually found an ominous black stone that seemed to be a hard border of the floor, but he knew for sure that no goblin had placed it here, under literal tons of earth.

About two more hours of mining, and he returned to the surface dirtier, but loaded with more than enough ore for his purposes thanks to years of perfecting strip mining in Minecraft. When he returned, he set the Bag of Holding back where he’d nicked it from, and found Rael and Ceyrin still up, murmuring in low tones. They both seemed relieved to see him. “We were about to go searching.” Ceyrin warbled quietly. “Draug saw you tunnel into one of the mountains, and for a while there we were out of range of your Buff.”

Rael smirked. “Vincent said not to worry. Doing some late night Fist Mining, were you?”

Drake nodded, and grabbed a fresh bowl of stew from the pot, though it was mostly broth. Ceyrin and Rael joined him. “You guys haven’t seen this yet, but I can actually bend the earth to my fists as well as fire and air and water. I loaded up on some ores that I’m going to smelt when we get out of here, and after that…I have an idea of how I can rapidly increase my Blacksmithing level, which as I understand it, will also give me regular experience too.”

Rael chuckled. “Vincent pegged you correctly. Always improving. Though I saw Rose return early looking a bit disappointed. After that steamy makeout you two had the other night that got the entire campus buzzing I was expecting more mussed hair and missing makeup. Trouble in paradise?”

Drake shook his head. “There’s only a few things that could keep me from kissing a woman that fine…but a Final Boss watching us, especially one as perverted as a Goblin, is one of those things.”

Ceyrin nodded. “A fair assumption. I have felt eyes upon us since we set up camp, and there is nothing in the woods around us, though your new ability could confirm that for us.”

Drake took the hint, and activated it. A moment later he said, “We’re all good. I think Draug scared off any normal Goblins that might’ve tried messing with us, and the Hobgoblins are all by the Fortress.”

“In that case, I’m going to get some rest. Don’t stay up all night on watch, Rael.” As the birdman departed, that left Drake and Rael to talk some more, not of anything important, mostly just stories of epic fights. Rael had tons, whereas Drake had to draw from his D&D group’s escapades, and insert himself into them. The handsome Sword Mage was a decent guy and Drake found himself liking his subtle humor the more they spoke. Once Nyara and one of the cat girl twins, the black Rogue one took over their watch, he went to bed confident that, though Class One were rivals, they were also worthy allies. He made a mental note to see if the other first years were as worthy, and then went to sleep trying not to think of Rose and her soft, warm lips.

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Since our Protag did ding to 60, here's the level 60 stat blocks

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj68st2-6420f397-85f4-47aa-baf3-e9bac6185def.jpg/v1/fill/w_829,h_964,q_70,strp/status_magic_6_by_pokefan1337_dj68st2-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTgyMyIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo2OHN0Mi02NDIwZjM5Ny04NWY0LTQ3YWEtYmFmMy1lOWJhYzYxODVkZWYuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE1NjkifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.5gGokplLBw7txpO43fxTw16S9_jPoLHkCU1W7d4Rliw]

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/107dc055-197f-4c79-a8d4-bf5e3018e03b/dj68sv9-256305f1-b15e-46fe-b1df-6d777100e9c0.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1046,q_70,strp/skills_status_6_by_pokefan1337_dj68sv9-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTk4MSIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzEwN2RjMDU1LTE5N2YtNGM3OS1hOGQ0LWJmNWUzMDE4ZTAzYlwvZGo2OHN2OS0yNTYzMDVmMS1iMTVlLTQ2ZmUtYjFkZi02ZDc3NzEwMGU5YzAuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE1NjkifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.PTvDGJVeRPQMHLnKvl7Q4EKjgR8RgX1C1sqgyXW88Tg]