Levi stared down the goblin mage, his pulse speeding up in anticipation. It stood a bit taller than Levi’s waist, hunched and pale green. It wore a draped black robe that covered one shoulder like a toga, tied with a crude rope across its chest, and carried a twisted black staff that it leaned on with both hands. It grinned nastily when it saw them enter, and its eyes began glowing sickly orange.

“Two, circle behind and stab when you can. I’m going in front. If we get it down below 5%, let me try taming it before finishing it off.” He was pretty sure that + monsters couldn’t be tamed, but the hypothesis needed further testing before he’d be willing to give up completely.

The goblin began charging a spell, the glow transferring from its eyes to the hands holding the staff, power flowing down the black curves like liquid filling up an alembic.

Levi drew heavily on stamina, dashing forward with haste nearly sufficient to rival his former base speed, closing the distance. Gordon held his sword in front of him with both hands, while Gremlin Two crouched and rushed around to attack the back of the boss’s legs.

Levi channeled mana into his sword, the beastly aura springing into existence around it the instant before it connected with the goblin’s staff. Mana rushed into the attack as the sword’s aura clamped down on the staff, brown power combining with the orange in a haze of static. Levi didn’t slow, twisting his sword without releasing the jaws, yanking the weapon from the goblin’s hands.

The staff went flying, spinning away half charged, while Levi used his momentum to twist and slam a foot straight into the goblin’s face. Power continued to gather in its hands, and it thrust them forward at Levi without waiting for the spell to fully charge. The half-hearted attack wasn’t enough to injure him, but it burned a hole through the back of his remaining jackets.

Levi continued to move with the flow of his attack, slashing his sword deep into the goblin’s arm in a rapid sweep. It wasn’t quite enough to shear it off completely, coming up against the bone and sliding down, but it gouged out a huge chunk and elicited an angered scream from the boss.

Level 1+

(Goblin Mage)

Health 84%

The damage potential of a fully charged manablade couldn’t be compared to that of a plain inactive weapon.

Levi took another spell in the side, this one dropping his health only by 4, but leaving another large hole in his protective layers, rendering the sturdy jackets all but unusable. He ducked and stabbed out, driving his sword into the goblin's chest. The beastly maw clamped down, draining Levi's mana faster as he shoved it into the weapon.

The goblin mage howled and kicked him hard, but Levi was larger, stronger, better trained, and wearing armor. The goblin's foot claws entirely failed to make an impact beyond the hollow thud as the weak strike connected. Levi yanked hard on the sword, sending blood and goblin hide flying in an arc from the gaping wound torn across its front.

Level 1+

(Goblin Mage)

Health 45%

Gremlin Two stabbed the back of its legs repeatedly, the goblin snarled and began charging an attack, power concentrating in its throat. Levi could see it glowing past the sticky brown of its blood, energy flowing up its chest and gathering glowing behind the flesh of its neck.

He swung the sword again, as the goblin raised its arms. He struck the same arm he'd injured previously, the bone snapping as his blade's aura clamped down.

Level 1+

(Goblin Mage)

Health 32%

Then his mana ran out, his meagre pool expended entirely by his sequential attacks.

"Not soon enough to save you, though..." Levi grunted, twisting aside as the goblin breathed out a gout of corrosive flame.

The goblin was already bleeding copiously, Levi's beast-inflicted wounds dealing constant low level damage. Compared to the enhanced dire-turkey he'd faced in the Beast dungeon, this goblin mage was easy pickings. He could have stood back and let it bleed out, but that would be inadvisable with Gordon here. There was a good chance one of the goblin's stray spells might end up hurting his ally. Besides, Levi wasn't really the sort to stand back and wait anyway.

In close combat, he was nearly untouchable. The only reason the goblin got any hits in at all was that his level 4 body still had less than a week of strenuous action and the muscle strength simply wasn’t there.

System Stamina could be used to enhance and push beyond human limits, amplifying whatever he had to work with, but it would still take time for his human body to catch up to his skill. It felt almost like wading through water, every movement sluggish and unresponsive compared to the immediacy he was used to, but he was getting better at pushing his human limits without draining his stamina so extremely like he’d done in the first day.

Still, it took less than a minute for him to bring the goblin mage down into taming range.

Unfortunately, that very speed worked against him: he’d still not recovered enough mana to use his class ability.

He grappled the goblin, wrenching its arms into a lock behind it, then tripped it so it slammed to the floor beneath him. “Two, I need you to spot me. If it gets off a trick shot while I’m blind, finish it off.”

The mage gathered power, unleashing another gout of corrosive fire, but Levi had it pinned to the ground so it only grazed his leg with minimal damage. He could see it starting to degrade his greaves, though. He really needed to get some powered armor soon, or he’d have to constantly be replacing pieces as it was damaged from normal combat.

Two took his position by the goblin’s head, ready to stab it if necessary, and Levi drank a mana and stamina potion in quick succession. The mana dazzle whited out his vision as his body struggled to integrate the raw power, while his regens dropped to nothing as everything was diverted to refilling stamina.

He half heard a sizzle and a clang through the white noise roaring in his head, but couldn’t tell what was going on. He really had to get his regens up, relying on potions in combat was deadly dangerous and against anything higher than level 1 would be incredibly stupid.

Then his vision cleared, the world settling back into focus. The goblin had managed to pull one hand out from Levi’s grip while he’d been distracted with the potions, and Gremlin Two had driven his manablade through the hand and pinned it in place. Power oozed from the goblin’s palm, melting a depression into the floor, but unable to reach Levi or Two.

“Nicely done,” Levi praised. “Good, fast thinking.”

Two had prevented the goblin from getting off a surprise attack, and managed to still keep it alive for Levi to practice on.

Levi immediately began his attempts to tame the goblin mage.

RESISTED RESISTED

A destructive spell sheared through Levi's shoulder, shredding his sleeves and leaving him with a nasty corrosive burn; it had twisted its other hand and got off a quick shot. Levi took a play from Two’s book and drove his shortsword through the offending hand and into the goblin’s leg, pinning it where it could do no further damage.

"Come on. Join me, you know you want to."

RESISTED RESISTED RESISTED

Regardless of the goblin’s desire or lack thereof, no attempt to tame it returned any result but the same [Resisted] he’d received for every attempt to tame a + creature.

Once he’d fully expended his mana again, he stared down at the bleeding goblin with a sigh. It had finally depleted its mana and struggled helplessly, yet did not succumb to his tame, even at a single sliver of health remaining.

It seemed an army of boss monsters would have to wait until he could evolve Tamer into Summoner and start binding things regardless of their resistances. In the meantime... next time he found a dungeon with anything but gremlins he would definitely pick some up. He bitterly regretted not having reached level 5 before attempting the Beast dungeon; a few dire turkeys, a spider skunk, and even a couple dilos would be better than an army consisting of only gremlins.

“Plenty of time for that on the way,” he consoled himself. The other two treasure dungeons would be providing additional opportunities for collecting minions, and there would be more than a few dungeons along their route. Plus there was still that level 3 destruction dungeon waiting for him back in Ohio; he could swing by there on the way north between Kentucky and Michigan.

The thought of finally being able to challenge it properly excited him more than he'd have thought possible. Between a proper active manablade and the addition of Gordon to the team, he couldn't wait to get started.

“Sorry, but I did give you every opportunity to join me.”

With one quick slash, he decapitated the helpless goblin.

Congratulations, Levi Morrison!

You have 1 level available.

Applying to default class.

"Verify."

Tamer level increased to 5.

Tamer threshold 1 reached!

+10 health, +10 mana, +10 stamina

Unassigned Stat Points: 1

Unassigned Ability Points: 3

New class ability options are available.