Duncan got up from the ground and stretched his taut muscles.
“I think using two swords was a mistake,” he told Fenris.
Fenris patted him on the back before asking, “How so?”
“The current of electricity passing through me was double and it doubly affected myself and the target,” Duncan said with a tired voice.
“Electricity? What’s that?” Tenris asked before Fenris could.
“I mean lightning…” Duncan corrected himself.
“Ahh, you mean lightning, then say so. You made a nice melody with the incantation though,” Tenris replied.
“Yeah. And I feel like popcorn now. All popped,” Duncan thought and shook his head.
It was one of the vinyl records his father owned and played that inspired him.
Fenris nodded before saying, “Check your [ LOG ]. You must have leveled a bunch of times from these two.”
His head still hurt as if a train passed through his ears. Thinking of using a healing potion he dismissed it since it would need to be a higher-leveled one to handle this and he was sure it would pass soon.
He checked his [ LOG ]. At the bottom, he found the Guardian Skeleton.
[ Developed Lightning Resistance Level 16. ]
[ Developed Pain Tolerance Level 16. ]
[ Developed Lightning affinity Level 16. ]
[ You have killed Guardian Skeleton - Level 35 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
He scrolled a bit up and found the Wraith.
[ Developed Lightning Resistance Level 15. ]
[ Developed Pain Tolerance Level 15. ]
[ Developed Lightning affinity Level 15. ]
[ Developed Mental Resistance Level 12. ]
[ You have killed Wraith - Level 38 ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
[ You have leveled up ]
He gained five levels from the fight. Duncan was the main Damage dealer and he was far out leveled by the monsters so most of the experience went to him. Still, the number of stat points he gained was meager compared to the risk involved. Especially considering he got more in half an hour of mining ore.
“I got five levels,” Duncan said without enthusiasm.
“Wow, that’s impressive. I only got a level from them. How many stat points did you get?” Tenris asked.
“Five,” Duncan replied.
Tenris shook his head before asking for confirmation, “Five? Did I hear correctly”
Duncan nodded.
Tenris shook his head in dismay and stated, “Your class really sucks. I would have gotten five times as much.”
Duncan could only sigh at that. “I need to work on my skills more,” he thought.
He added four to Endurance bringing it up to 18.6 and one to Vitality bringing it up to 20.1. The fatigue and pain immediately lessened as he brought up Endurance. Not by much but it was noticeable nonetheless.
“So, I should take all this?” Duncan asked and pointed at the two piles of stuff.
“Yeah. But bring it back after identifying,” Fenris said with a laugh.
Duncan rolled his eyes before saying, “I really did forget about the jewelry. I can give it to you now. I still have it with me. It’s not like I have sold it.”
“I know,” Fenris asked.
“How?” Duncan asked in return, eyeing him with suspicion.
“No one in this bloody village except the Mayor could afford to buy them anyway,” Fenris said as he shrugged.
“Well, I could have given them away to a lady friend as a gift,” Duncan replied.
Fenris laughed at that before replying, “Shaya and Demira aren’t currently your favorite women in the world as far as I know.”
“No, they are not, but there is also Marykah. I could have given them to her,” Duncan replied.
“Ahh. The tailor girl. I used to get my clothes done by her. That was before the Mayor made me a prisoner… You could but I know your type. Like this stupid conversation. Honest to a fault, unless forced not to be,” Fenris replied laughing and patting Duncan's shoulder.
“Fuck. So I am a stereotype of an honest schmuck according to Fenris,” Duncan thought and shook his head.
Duncan looked at the two swords in his hands and decided to only use one, putting the other one away in his inventory. He did not learn any dual-wielding skills so he only knew how to stick them with the pointy end forward into something anyway.
“Petris check where that path leads to now,” Fenris commanded as they got ready for action again.
Petris obliged and came back with new information after a few minutes which he shared, “The right path leads to a stairway leading further down. I didn’t go further since my stealth was running out.”
“Alright. Let’s wait for Petris to recover and we try the middle one first. I suspect the lower we go the stronger the monsters will be,” Fenris commanded and sat down. He took out a roasted venison leg and started to eat it. Tenris and Petris, seeing him do that, did the same. Duncan had no appetite so he went back to mining.
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“What are you mining?” Fenris asked with a full mouth.
Duncan only heard a squeal from the whole sentence as he looked at the expecting Fenris he had to ask, “What did you say?”
“What are you mining?” Fenris repeated the question.
“Ahh. It’s just copper ore,” Duncan replied as he stored it.
“Copper? What will you use it for?” Fenris asked as Petris and Tenris looked on with interest.
“Bolgar said he can upgrade my swords to better deal with lightning with it,” Duncan explained.
“I see. Go on,” Fenris replied and got back to eating.
Duncan did one more and noticed the other fellows were already ready to go. There was no level this time but he had a feeling he was close. Putting the pickaxe and the ore in his inventory he turned to Petris and asked, “Ready?”
“I have been ready for a while now. We tried to tell you. You really are too focused on such a simple task,” Petris said with dissatisfaction.
“Let’s go. Petris!” Fenris commanded and Petris used stealth and went inside the middle corridor.
The rest used the same formation as before. Duncan and Tenris were on each side and Fenris waiting in the middle.
Petris soon came back and shouted, “It’s going up and it’s clear to a door which I didn’t dare open.”
“Alright. Good job. Let’s go,” Fenris commanded and they moved down the middle corridor which had steps every ten meters or so. Soon they came upon a door with the, by now familiar, five gem mechanism.
“Open it and close right after,” Fenris commanded and got ready for action.
As it was opened he threw a torch inside illuminating several humanoid figures and as the doors closed they were yet to respond.
“What were those?” Tenris asked.
Fenris considered for a while before answering, “I think they were Zombies. I was too far and unfocused to use Identify. I counted six. Be careful since there may be more behind in the dead spots. Open it up Petris.”
The door opened once more and the Zombies just stood where they were. Occasionally slowly moving like drunk people.
“Petris go Stealth, count them up, and come back,” Fenris whispered.
“There are eight of them in this room,” Petris whispered near Duncan’s ear, after a while startling him.
“I will go forward. Duncan, you go left. Tenris right. Petris you know what to do,” Fenris whispered his command.
They all moved in unison. Fenris made a foray two meters into the room and slashed off the head of the nearest Zombie. Duncan took the left and hit the collarbone which bounced off his sword into the Zombies cheek and his sword got stuck. Tenris did as Fenris and a head rolled off.
Duncan frantically twisted the sword which would not come out of the bone as Fenris decapitated yet another one. Tenris made quick work of his next target also.
Duncan let go of his sword and stepped back and got another sword from his inventory as his Zombie tried to scratch him.
Duncan’s Zombie came closer as Duncan hit the handle of the sword embedded into its head making it swirl to the side. Using the momentum of the swing Duncan did a pirouette and made a full circle swing on the neck of the Zombie finally killing it. The head flew down and bounced on the sword handle.
He looked around and saw Fenris and Tenris clapping their hands. They killed four and three Zombies respectively in the time it took him to handle one.
Duncan sighed.
“That twirl looked impressive,” Tenris quipped.
“Yeah. It almost cut my head off,” Petris added.
“Sorry,” Duncan said.
“I am joking. I was nowhere near you. I just cut some tendons of Zombies for Tenris to handle easier,” Petris replied and eased Duncan’s embarrassment.
“Alright. Duncan is doing the best he can. Don’t forget he learned to use a sword very recently. I would like to see you going into a dungeon at that skill. You would probably shit your pants sooner,” Fenris said to ease the banter.
“Really. How long have you been using a sword?” Tenris asked.
“I don’t know. Two weeks maybe,” Duncan replied as he tried to pull the other sword from the Zombie’s head. He had to step on the slippery head. Twist the handle and pull until finally something cracked and the sword came loose.
“Fenris is right. You really are not bad for two weeks. What’s your Swordsmanship level?” Tenris asked.
“They only have rotten clothes on them. No jewelry. No money pouches. Nothing,” Petris came forward with disappointing news.
“And they were leveled 10-15 which means no new levels,” Fenris added as he scrolled through his [ LOG ].
Duncan looked back at Tenris who looked dejected at the news and replied, “Five.”
“Ahh. Not bad for two weeks. I think I needed like half a year to get to five,” Tenris replied as he wiped off the sword on a cleaner part of a Zombie’s body.
“What should we do with them? Do you want to store them?” Fenris asked.
Duncan looked at them in disgust before saying, “For now let’s just leave them here. I will ask Elland if there is any use for their bodies, otherwise, we might just take them out and bury or burn them.”
Fenris nodded, “Alright. Petris, check the corridor once you have stealth,” Fenris commanded.
Petris nodded and disappeared immediately. He came back quickly.
“There are stairs to go further up until there is an overhead heavy iron door blocking the way forward. It looks like the mine entrance if you ask me,” Petris said in his report.
“So, a dead end. Alright, we go back. Duncan you can mine some more at the trifurcation,” Fenris commanded.
They soon came back at the trifurcation and Duncan started his mining as the rest worked on their gear.
After two more rounds, he finally leveled his mining skill again.
[ You have Learned Mining Level 13. ]
Strength +1.3
Dexterity +1.3
Perception +1.3
Duncan happily put his pickaxe away, dumped the ore into his inventory, and checked his status screen.
Name: Duncan Russel
Race: Human – Earth - UC3455788899332
Age: 22 – Earth years
Class: Jack of all trades
Level: 29
STATS:
Strength: 29.6
Dexterity: 34.1
Agility: 16.9
Vitality: 20.1
Endurance: 18.6
Perception: 38.2
Intelligence: 34.9
Wisdom: 39.6
Charisma: 7.6
PASSIVE SKILLS:
Acid resistance Level 1
Lightning affinity Level 16
Lightning resistance Level 16
Mental resistance Level 12
Pain Tolerance Level 16
Poison resistance Level 1
ACTIVE SKILLS:
Acting Level 4
Alchemy Level 10
Archery Level 8
Blacksmithing Level 7
Butchering Level 9
Cooking Level 4
Gardening Level 4
Geography Level 1
Herbology Level 5
Identify Level 11
Learn Level 10
Mana manipulation Level 2
Mathematics Level 1
Meditation Level 2
Mining Level 13
Necromancy Level 5
Observe Level 3
Reading Level 11
Stealth Level 2
Swordsmanship Level 5
Trapping Level 4
Unarmed Level 4
“I really need to work on Agility, Vitality, and Endurance. Also, I need to use Observe more,” Duncan thought as he closed his status window.
“What do we do now?” Duncan asked Fenris.
“I say let’s call it a day and get back with better gear but it’s up to you. Tenris wants to go ahead while Petris agrees with me. We decided you to be the tiebreaker,” Fenris replied.
Duncan’s face showed an unsatisfied expression. Unsatisfied because Fenris knew he would choose to go back and tricked Tenris by making him a tiebreaker.
“I guess that’s what makes him a good leader,” Duncan thought before he replied, “Alright. Let’s go back.”