Jeremy was quick to deal with the Kobold attacking him, ending it in a few blows with his knuckle dusters.

Something I had noticed was that these monsters seemed very weak in compared to humans, they died quickly, they were just softer and more squishier, I’m this sure this was gonna change once we got stronger and had to fight stuff stronger than us, hell, we already did experience it when we wrassled with that bear.

I jogged up towards the last one and Jeremy did too, I tried to sink my blade into its gut but it stepped back, avoiding this. This was unfortunate for the kobold as Jeremy sent a hook into the side of its neck. Jeremy was able to throw more powerful blows as his mind stat increased, he had to limit himself before his increase in mind or he just fell like a loony-toons character, now he could put some serious power behind his blows.

If mind was able to make me walk better, probably because of some brain rewiring with whatever focuses on motor functions, it was sure to improve technique, maybe it amplified the effect of skills, I wasn’t any faster, better or stronger when wielding my knife, I just had better technique, I wouldn’t slip and I could grip the knife better, I knew when to time stuff.

Now that I think about it, I was better at keeping the gnolls at bay with my blade after the mind increase, though I do not know whether that’s just the ability to not slip when doing anything other than walk at a below-average pace.

I’d have to test out my skills above ground to figure that mystery out, for now, we had to get deeper into this cave. Was this classified as a dungeon? Dungeon crawling sounds way cooler than caving.

We continued walking along, and on our way, we saw some XP shards left on the floor.

“Wait, wait, this is dangerous,” Jeremy said, inspecting the wall that had many many dents along the side of it, probably from all the crystals.

“The monsters ate em, there must’ve been thousands of shards from the looks of things, we have to watch our step when we go in.”

“The monsters need XP too?”

“Every animal does, some plants too.”

“Hmm, alright then, let’s use what they left over then, get ourselves just that little bit closer to the next level,” I suggested.

He nodded and we got to work divvying up and using these crystals, it only provided about 20 XP to the both of us after everything.

We went further down into the cave, the first couple monsters weren’t shit, just a couple gnolls scattered here and there, the most threatening they got was when there were 3 at once, but that was the extent of that segment of the dungeon.

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That was until we met the first miniboss, he was guarding a wall of purple shards.

“Huuuumaaaan…” It spoke. “Daaangeeer beeehiiiind theeese waaalls..”

This thing was massive, covered in muscle, and all around just not a nice-looking guy if I do say so myself, It reached for a massive flail strapped to its side and swung it in the air, looking down on us threateningly.

“So this is the guard dog to the actual boss, I don’t think we can deal with this guy, what do you think?” I asked Jeremy.

“Me neither, I need a bow for this shit.”

“A bow?”

“Yeah, I’m a hunter, I use a bow.”

“Fair enough.” We turned tail, jogging slightly so that we could get the hell out of here, the miniboss didn’t seem to follow, I guess we needed to properly agitate it before it was gonna hunt us down, we could’ve died if it didn’t view us as enemies yet.

“Where would you locate a bow, if I may ask.”

“Maybe one of the rebels can make one, or already has one.”

“Good idea.”

We exited the dungeon once again, following our marks toward the speakeasy and messing up any goblin that came our way until we finally arrived.

When we went through the door, I happened to just realise we were covered in blood, sweat and a thin layer of dirt, I looked over at Jeremy and he was even more bloody, considering how brutal and up close his killings were it made quite a lot of sense.

“Wow, why did you guys have fun without me,” Kashubian said, he was that crazy one talking about the frog people.

“We found a cave and we want to clear it out, we’re leveling up so we can do the rebelling n’ all,” Jeremy said.

“Ok, I was gonna join you but you make a compelling point, why did you come back?”

“I’m more efficient with a bow, I have been using brass knuckles for the majority of the fights and then we faced a miniboss and I’m just not confident in my ability to brawl with a 7-foot-beserk hyena behemoth.”

“Ah, makes sense, makes sense. It just so happens that I am a woodworker, I haven’t made any bows, but I can give it a go, just fetch me some wood and we’re golden.”

Ah, a fetch quest, I used to hate them but it’s a good break from all the bloodshed, can’t be too hard, can it?

We both quickly patted ourselves dry of blood and bits before waving goodbye to everyone and leaving the establishment.

Wood wood wood, it was everywhere, we were in a forest after all, it’s only a bow so we don’t need to cut logs, we can just get a thick branch.

Jeremy cut straight to the point, walking up to a tree and punching it with his brass knuckles, chips flying away and the gap between the branch and the trunk loosening until finally, he had claimed his branch.

He lifted it above his head excitedly and made his way back to the speakeasy, where Kashubian was already waiting near the door with his woodworking tools.

“People may call me crazy, but they know I’m very good in a pinch, let me show you my magic.”