Chapter 14
Boss fight!
The boss had noticed Beth as soon as she had entered the room and had picked up its axe then kicked over the table, taking a battle stance. Janet’s speech fully pumped me up, and I was feeling super fucking unstoppable. As Beth and Janet charged, I was running between them several feet back.
The two ladies started to split in a flanking move. I saw that as my moment to do something that had just popped into my head. It might have been a stupid idea, but fuck it. I had practiced throwing knives and throwing axes, but I had never thought to practice throwing my spear, which, with what I was about to do, seemed like a fuck up on my part.
With all that in mind, I lifted my spear up like I was about to throw a football. I pulled my spear back and let it fly. Okay, so not my best work. I was aiming for its face, but shit, I still fucking hit the guy right in the shoulder. I stumbled a little in my run after my throw, but really, it was just because I was so surprised that my throw actually landed.
It was a fifteen-foot throw, and I thought, at best, I’d distract the guy enough to let Beth and Janet get a hit or two in. I got my feet under me again and kept running just in time to see the dude look down at the spear protruding from its chest, then just smash this axe down on the spear shaft, breaking the weapon.
In no time, the boss was ready for the attack coming at him from Beth on its right side. The goblin boss smacked Beth’s sword aside with its weapon, then, on the backswing, smashed her shield in half and sent her flying back. Beth fell and rolled like a hotdog for a second. Then she popped back up onto her feet. Beth had to shake her head a couple of times to get it together. When she was back on her feet, she was already planning her next engagement.
Janet had immediately tried to get the upper hand on the boss while he was dealing with Beth, but the boss had dealt with Beth faster than Janet had been anticipating. The boss was ready to block as Janet brought her axe down.
The boss was holding its axe with both hands spread wide on the haft of its axe, and the boss fucker brought it up and blocked Janet’s chop. Its knees buckled quite a bit, but then the boss pushed Janet’s axe to the side and brought its own axe down on Janet in turn.
Janet swung her axe up to block, but she had been pushed off balance. She only managed to knock the boss's strike off track. As the axe was diverted, the strike lost most of its momentum, but at the end of the swing, the boss's axe was lodged deep in Janet’s shoulder, and she was in shock, I could tell.
Beth had recovered a bit at that point and made a stab at the boss’s kidney. Beth’s strike hit true, and her blade sunk in a good six inches. Beth then ripped her sword free before dashing back out of striking range.
The boss had let out a roar of pain when Beth had stabbed it and yanked its axe free from Janet. Then kicked Janet away and turned toward Beth, who successfully got out of range. I was in range to attack now. I had pulled a halberd, one of the ones I had just picked up out of my bag of holding. after I had thrown my spear, I was left weaponless.
Now, I used my new weapon to strike low, fast, and accurately with my attack, and I managed to take the boss's foot off just below the knee while it was enraged with Beth. The boss went down hard, and I thought it was over, or at least I did, until a pulse exploded out of the boss’s body. We were all lifted off the ground and thrown backward through the air at speed.
We all had flown in different directions. I did know about Beth and Janet at that moment, but I had been flung through the air and had landed on the ground hard about fifteen feet away from where I had been fighting the boss. I sat up in a daze a shook my head to pull myself back from almost being knocked out.
I looked around once I could see the “around” again and found Beth and Janet. Beth was still on the floor, but she was moving. She had been only a couple of feet away from smacking into the wall, which probably would have hurt way more.
Janet, however, had been much closer to the wall than Beth at the time what ever magic the boss used went off, and she had smacked into the wall. It looked like she had taken most of the impact with her arm. The pain must have knocked her out because she was slumped against the wall, not moving. I just hoped she wasn’t dead.
I couldn’t worry about that right now, or I was sure I’d definitely be dead. The boss however was looking a lot better than we did. The leg I had just cut off had grown back, and it even looked like the wound Beth had inflicted had healed up as well.
All I could think was shit, all that work. With Janet out of the fight, it was up to Beth and me now. The boss was standing there with its eyes closed. Beth was back up, and I got to my feet. We looked at each other, nodded, and then charged in unison.
We were about equal distance away from the boss. We had just been blasted in directions. We were only five feet away from the boss when the boss opened its eyes. I struck at the same time as Beth. She stabbed out at the side of its head, hoping to get a critical blow, and I stabbed out in an opening between the boss’s breastplate under the arm.
its arm was kind of in the way, though. So I had to aim slightly behind its arm at an angel. The boss noticed Beth first and swung its axe at her. Beth had to abandon her attack to try and avoid the blow. It was so fast. Beth brought up her shield just in time, but as the axe hit, it cracked the wooden shield in half, letting the axe continue forward, cutting Beth’s arm clean off at the elbow.
She screamed in pain but still had the presence of mind to jump back out of range of the boss. She was sweating hard and was shaking as she shoved a Senzuketa Bean into her mouth and tried to stop the bleeding. I had seen the boss react to Beth, and in doing so, the boss had left the spot I was attacking wide open. Stabbing out with my new halberd, it sunk into the boss deep. The halberd cut through the boss's skin like butter. The boss screamed, letting Beth retreat out of strike range. I assumed she was just resetting for another attack as I twisted my halberd and ripped it out through the boss's stomach.
It stopped screaming in pain to cough up a mouth full of blood. I knew I had just dealt a hefty blow to the boss, but I made a rookie mistake and stayed in one place too long after my attack. The boss turned to me and swiped at me with its axe. The attack was slowing down a little, so I had time to catch the blow on the staff of my weapon.
I managed to match the boss's strength, but the edge was slowly being pushed into my shoulder. I tried to stop the axe, but there was nothing I could do, and then it was through the bone before I could push the attack away.
As I lost my arm, I realized there was a fist coming right at my face, and I had no time to block it. I was knocked off my feet and sent through the air in a nice arch, landing on the ground knocked out.
I was only out for what seemed like a couple of seconds, but when I woke up, Beth had lost the rest of her shield and her arm or half of it, and she was fighting the boss alone. When I finally processed that information, I stumbled to my feet the best I could.
Almost fell a few times but managed to get to my feet. I had tried to push myself up one time with an arm that wasn’t there anymore and had fallen right on my face. My nose was definitely broken, and my arm was just fucking gone, and I was bleeding heavily.
I pulled a Senzuketa Bean from my bag and ate it. I felt the healing effect hit me instantly. I started to run back into the fight. Beth saw me, and I could see the relief on her face when she saw me. Then out of fucking know where Janet brought her axe down right into the back of the boss's head. It sunk in all the way to the shaft of the axe, and the boss stopped moving.
A second later, the boss dropped to the ground, dead. Beth and I kind of just stared at Janet in shock then I ran over as fast as my addled brain would allow and swept her up in a one-armed hug.
It was a good thing I did, too. As I put my arm around her, she went limp, and her eyes fluttered close.
“Janet, shit! Beth, help, shit, help!” I yelled out with a hint of panic bleeding into my voice. The next second, I heard Beth running over as fast as she could as I slowly and gently lowered Janet to the ground.
twenty minutes later, we had managed to get some mana-kissed water into Janet's wound to wash it out, and that seemed to be helping with the healing as well. After we had cleaned Janet’s wounds, we had to check on our own injuries. The Senzuketa Beans Beth and I had both eaten really helped with closing our severed limbs. The sink was already regrowing over the end of my shoulder and over Beth’s stump.
Only a few seconds of checking ourselves over showed that other than the obvious missing limbs, we were basically covered in superficial injuries and were more or less doing okay. We were both beat the fuck up and would definitely have some bad bruises from the fight.
We had tryed to make Janet as comfortable as we could. We ended up using one of the cloaks to prop up her head and made some bandages out of my shit to keep her wound closed.
Janet’s wound was starting to look a bit better, but a lot of my worries would be abated if she would just wake up and eat a fucking Senzuketa Bean. Then, at least, I’d know she would be okay. Shortly after the twenty-minute mark after the boss had died, Janet’s eyes began to flutter open.
She coughed a couple of times and then asked for some water. We handed her my bag of holding, and she drank some water straight from the bag. She took a good long sip and then stopped and coughed again for a couple of seconds then continued drinking till she felt that one ration from the slot had been consumed.
At that point, she pulled out a Senzuketa Bean and ate it. I let out a breath, relieved, knowing she’d be okay. Janet looked up at me and gave me a wink, and I rolled my eyes at her. Beth had been sitting across from me as I held Janet, and she had been looking worried till Janet started messing around and joking about almost dying.
Then Beth knew she was fine. Janet sat up and started drinking some water and then eating some rations. I helped Janet up, and she moved over to a wall where she could sit with a backrest. I helped her sit, then sat down next to her, with my back against the wall.
I saw Beth eating, and that sounded good, so I pulled out some rations of my own and drank some water. Fuck, you know, sometimes when you take a sip of water, and you can feel it spread through your chest. Dam, it’s just the best feeling ever, and right now, that hit me as I took my first sip of water. It was like heaven at that moment. I shut my eyes after a second, and I passed out for a little. When I woke up, Beth said I had only been out for an hour and that she had passed out as well and only woke up a little bit before me. Janet was passed out against the wall and she was snoring away.
I thought it was probably good we had gotten some sleep and let that Senzuketa Beans do their job. I got up and walked over to where Beth was sitting on the ground. I checked on her arm for her, and she looked at my shoulder. we were both healing fine. We sat there in silence for a few moments.
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I had started thinking about how Beth lost her arm, and I lost my arm, so we kind of were in the same boat. It was so weird. It felt like my arm should be there. I still felt like I could grab something with it if I wanted. It was just tripping me out. I figured it might grow back. Senzuketa Beans were a true wonder, which was a reassuring thought. Then I was lost in thought till Beth pushed me.
“Hu? Oh, my bad, what?” Ha-ha. “Wow, you were on another planet for a second there. I'm glad I could bring you back to earth.” Beth said.
“My bad, I was somewhere else. Sorry, what’s up?” I asked Beth.
“Nothing, I just asked if you had checked your stat sheet yet cuz I was just about to check mine out.” Said Beth.
“Oh shit, good called totally spaced. Bet we got some amazing rewards or something for finishing this dungeon, or well, let me rephrase that. We better have gotten some amazing shit from completing this fucking dungeon.” I said and smiled at Beth. Beth laughed and then nodded. “Yeah, we better get something good. I’m gonna check my notifications.
You gonna do the same?” Beth asked me.
“Yeah, I’m gonna check it out now. Let's compare notes after,” I said.
“Deal,” Beth said, and we both pulled up the notification from the boss fight. I had some more kill notifications, and then there were some other notifications that I’d never seen before. honestly, I couldn’t really believe it. The first new notification I saw was a first in world.
Congratulations! You and your party are the first on your planet to complete a dungeon, which is quite an amazing feat!You have not only survived the integration, but you seem to doing literally better than anyone on your entire planet. The slag company has been notified of your amazing feat, and your prowess has been marked. You are truly an outstanding member of your race! Plus, you have eight points to every stat.
That was a little scary that the achievement had been reported to the slag company but that was a worry for another time. I couldn’t fucking think about that right now. Besides fucking plus two to every stat was amazing, and I was eager to see what notifications I had to come.
The next new notification was the dungeon completion notification. Congratulations! You and your party have completed the dungeon of the Wondering Howler. Completing the dungeon with two fewer members than the recommended five-member party has given you a twenty percent bonus to your dungeon completion reward. Reward, you and each party member will receive 500 XP with a twenty percent bounce of 100—total XP 600.
That was great always nice to get a cool G in XP. Next, and it wasn't really new. At first, it looked like a regular kill notification, but it was different.
Congratulations! You killed a boss of the dungeon of the Wondering Howler. You and your party were the first on your planet to do so. You are truly adapting to your new life well. You have received a dungeon coin. This item will help you find dungeons as you explore your planet.
That was cool. Hopefully, there were some more dungeons near us, but I didn't know if I could do another dungeon for a little while after this hole fucked up place.
The last notification was a sweet, sweet level-up.
“Level up! You were Level 9, and now you’re Level 10.Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, fight for money, these are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!”
As I closed the level-up notification, another notification popped up.
“Pick your first class! You have fought through the brutality of the integration and came out the other side swinging. You have not backed down and are working hard to improve yourself. Well, it’s time to take that a step further and start to develop a path that resonates with your very soul. Pick a class and see what your future holds.
Would you like to choose your class now yes/ no? If you choose no, you will be able to pick your class at any time by returning to your class sheet. Now available in your status sheet. Holy shit! Fucking classes? This might be super awesome, but I did think it would be a good idea to talk it over with Beth and Janet before picking one.
I chose no for now and then decided it was time to distribute some points. I looked at my stat sheet and decided to wait till I picked a class to dish my points out. I might get a better idea of where to start focusing my points when I get my class. So, I left my stat sheet alone for now, and it wasn’t looking too shabby.
Travis Mullins
Level: 10
Race: Human
Experience needed to next Level:11,130/11,280 XP till next Level.
Titles:
Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)
Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)
First in the world to:
Complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)
Resistances:
Element of fire: 5%
Strength: 33
Dexterity: 25
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 26
Constitution: 32
Luck: 22
Janet Katz
Level: 10
Race: Human
Experience needed to next Level: 11,150/11,280 XP till next Level.
Titles:
Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)
First in the world to:
Complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)
Strength: 31
Dexterity: 28
Intelligence: 26
Wisdom: 25
Constitution: 27
Luck: 18
You have three unassigned stat points to distribute.
Beth Holloway’s
Level: 10
Race: Human
Experience needed to next Level: 11,050/11,280 XP till next Level.
Titles:
Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)
First in the world to:
Complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)
Strength: 30
Dexterity: 29
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 23
Constitution: 28
Luck: 17
You have three unassigned stat points to distribute.
I finished looking over my stat sheet and decided to check with Beth and see if she had got to level ten and could pick a class as well. I looked over at Beth, and she still seemed pretty engrossed with her notifications, but I still leaned over and tapped her on the leg.
It took a couple of tries of me tapping her leg and saying, “Beth, earth to Beth,” while continuing to tap her leg to get her attention. When she finally looked over at me, she looked kind of shell-shocked. Beth seemed a bit out of it when she finally looked at me. She shook her head a couple of times, then said, “Wait, what? Sorry, I’m a little in awe at what all these notifications really entail. What’s up Travis?”
“All good. I was just gonna ask you if you had finished checking all your notifications and wanted to talk. Kind of a lot to unpack there.” I said, and Beth started nodding as I finished talking.
“Yeah, you aren’t kidding. I’m assuming you saw the first in-world notification? That literally means no other person on this planet has done what we just did. I kind of can’t believe it.” Beth said. Still kind of stunned at the realization.
“Honestly, it must have just been a best-case scenario. Like, I better, there are a lot of more capable people than us out there. We found a dungeon, and they didn’t, or they did, but they just didn’t clear it or didn’t even run it.
We got lucky, that’s for sure, and now we’ve probably got a pretty good head start on the rest of the planet with our titles and our levels. Oh shit! Almost forgot did you reach level ten?” I asked Beth.
“Yeah, I did, but I got a weird notification that said I could now pick a class. I figured I’d just wait and talk it over with you and Janet. I didn’t want to place my stat point either, so I still have three to spend as well.” Beth said. I was definitely happy she had done the same thing I had. Made me feel better about my decision.
I definitely thought it was a good idea that we talked it over before diving headfirst into some crazy shit without talking it over, Chough, chough.
“Yeah, I did the same thing. I got that same notification, but I just said no for now, and yeah, I still got my stat points from the level up as well.”
“Should we take a peek? I mean, we can all still sit down and talk about it together, but hell, want to?” Beth said, giving me a devilish grin.
“Beth! How dare you? I would never… Okay, maybe just a little peek.” I said, and Beth rolled her eyes. We were about to take a peek when Janet let out a loud series of coughs. Then, I could hear her drinking some water.
“Guess the clock ran out,” I said in a soft voice to Beth, and she looked over dramatically, sad, then gave me a smile,
“all good, let’s check on Janet,” Beth said, and I nodded, then we headed over to check on little Miss Janet. Janet didn’t need much checking in with after her little nap and the magic little Senzuketa Bean, of course., Janet was now in better shape than either Beth or myself.
Janet’s shoulder wound was about fifty percent closed, and all her other injuries were almost completely gone, just little pink lines here and there. Janet let out a huge yawn and then asked us what had been going on while she was out. We told her to check her notifications.
At first, Janet looked at Beth and me a little warily because we were both so adamant that she checked out her notifications. Finally, she just shook her head, annoyed, and said she would check. Janet was quiet for a little while, and then she just closed her eyes, and a smile crossed her face.
Janet's smile was filled with sincere joy. Then she let out a loud whoop! Janet jumped to her feet and then started jumping up and down, screaming,
“We did it! We fucking did it, ha-ha-ha, I can’t believe it. We killed that boss. Yeah! Oh my god! Woo-hoo, we really did that shit, and first in the world! Are you kidding me? Yeah, babe!”
Janet went on like that for about five minutes before she finally chilled out, but you could feel her buzzing with pent-up joy.
“So, you got the class choice notification, right?” I asked Janet.
“Yeah, I got it. I was gonna wait to pick till after we talked. I also saved my points cuz, honestly, I was just way too juiced to keep paying attention after seeing the first in the title and that we had finished the dungeon. Did you guys pick already? What did you pick? Is it cool?” Janet asked me and Beth.
Beth and I laughed at Janet for a second. Then Beth explained we had had the same idea as her. Janet looked relieved.
“Should we pick it up now or wait till we're back at the tree house?” Beth asked Janet and me. We talked about it for a little and then decided to just deal with it back at the tree house.
“So, let's loot this place clean and get the fuck out of here,” Janet said as she stretched. Almost as if Janet’s words were prophetic, a notification pushed its way into all of our vision all at once.
Dungeon completed, you now have three more hours to remain in the dungeon before it closes and you are forcefully ejected. A forceful ejection will hurt and cost you an XP penalty of one thousand XP.
“Okay, that’s not good. Janet’s right, let’s get what we can and get the fuck out of here.” I said, and we looted the boss. The boss had its breastplate and axe, but it also had a bag of holding strapped to its breastplate attached to a side buckle, which was a nice bonus.
We didn’t check the contents yet. I just tied it to my belt then we carried on. We looted the four guards of all their armor and belongings. I had already taken their weapons, but now we took the rest of their equipment and got out there. We made it to the entrance of the dungeon with two hours and ten minutes to spare.
We walked outside, and the sun was bright in the sky. There was not a soul in sight, and It was a beautiful day. We started walking back to the tree house, and on our way there, we passed through some thick brush.
We made our way through to the other side of the dense brush, where we stopped. Janet had been in the lead, and I was behind her with Beth behind me. When Janet stopped walking, I walked into Janet then Beth walked right into me.
It was basically a Three Stooges act, and I felt like an idiot as we separated. I was about to bitch at Janet for stopping so abruptly when I looked up and saw the reason she had done so. There was a large bore but about eight feet tall, and it had what looked like a beetle’s carapace covering its body in large, segmented plates.
It was eating some plants about ten feet away from where we had popped out of the bushes. When the beast saw us, It stopped chewing and just stood there looking at us. We stood there staring back at the beast till Janet took a step back, and the thing's head twisted toward the sound. It snorted once, then twice, and sniffed the air.
The beast tilted its head to the side like it was thinking. Then it snorted again. We thought the thing was gonna leave us alone there for a second, then Beth shifted her footing again, causing a twig to snap, and that was it.
The beast charged us, and I think Janet just reacted in the only way this new system had taught her. The thing was moving fast, and Janet had a second to react. She just swung back her axe and sent it flying into the forehead of the beast.
There was a moment of pause when the two collided, and then the beast's head was split in two down the middle and Janet continued her swing and sliced the beast almost completely in half. In the end, the beast was lying on either side of Janet.
It was impressive, but the one thing that wasn't so great was when Janet killed the beast. Blood had gone everywhere. It was stupid gross, but the act was so impressive I mostly forgave Janet for the mess she’d caused.
We got back to the tree house and washed off, which kind of sucked nowadays. We had found a plastic trash can and had poked holes in the bottom of it to make an impromptu shower, which worked pretty well. It made me miss hot showers so bad. The part that sucked was that someone had to stand on the roof and pour water into the trash can to make it work.
Once we were all clean and sitting down around our kitchen table, we started talking about what choosing a class might entail. Janet was hoping for some magic. Beth was definitely excited at the prospect of obtaining magic as well, but she was pretty open to anything. I thought that we would probably get class choices that would take into account our experiences and actions so far and offer us appropriate options.
I was thinking more or less the same, Beth, but I also thought classes would offer us more power and more benefits than being classless. After talking, we all decided it was time to see what classes the system offered us. We all finally looked at our class options but agreed we would check back in before making a final pick. Without further conversation, we were all calling up our new class screens. I had four opinions to inspect.