Kyle stared blankly at the kobolds.

Over three hundred? How are we supposed to fight that many at once? I listened to Sarah when she said to focus on getting a shielding spell, but it feels like in this situation I need some AOE (area of effect) skills instead.

While the kobolds individually were fairly weak, they were powerful in groups. They only had about fifty health and their spells only dealt around twenty damage on average, but 300 kobolds firing at once could deal 6,000 damage. Now not all the kobolds down there could use magic, but there were still the two kobold shamans to consider.

Walt spoke up in a small voice, “I don’t think I can tank that many kobolds.”

“Of course you can’t,” Li responded. “It would be suicide for us to fight them head on. You have a plan though, don’t you Sarah?”

“Indeed I do,” Sarah answered Li with a devilish smile on her face. “Numbers are only effective if you can use them. The only real problem is the kobold shamans, since you need to be within sixty feet to use your CC.”

Sarah then outlined her plan.

“First we need to get rid of the small fry. It will be troublesome to fight the shamans with the other kobolds attacking us. The small fry aren’t a problem though, as I can take care of them myself. The plan is simple. Kyle shields me for his maximum amount and I rush into the kobolds so I am surrounded by them. That way they can’t all use their magic for fear of hitting the other kobolds. I will slaughter my way through them, avoiding the shamans and their minions, while you three follow after I have gotten rid of most of them. You two will need to use mana crystals to refresh your mana whenever you run out. Walt, you need to shield the other two once all the small fry are killed and get Li close enough to the boss so she can use her skill. Once she does that, I can easily kill the two shamans and then we can mop up the two guards. Easy peazy.”

“Absolutely not!” shouted Kyle. “That plan is crazy! You will get yourself killed!”

Li and Walt were shocked. They had never seen Kyle get upset, let alone contradict Sarah. At this point they basically assumed he would listen to whatever she said. Sure, he had his own opinions, but they had never seen him flat out reject something Sarah said without suggesting an improvement or asking for clarification.

The two looked on wide eyed at Kyle and Sarah who were currently having a staring contest. At first it looked like Kyle was winning, but it quickly became apparent that he was gradually wilting under Sarah’s stare that only seemed to get more intense as time went on. It was like they were having an argument with their eyes alone, and Sarah was clearly winning.

Kyle eventually caved, and in a very small voice, barely above a whisper, said, “We can use your plan.”

Li and Walt exchanged a look. There was clearly more going on than what was on the surface, but they kept their noses out.

Sarah then coordinated exactly what was going to happen, like when the other three should enter the fight and from where. Kyle was very quiet throughout the whole discussion. Once they had finalized the plans and everyone was in position, the assault on the Kobold horde began.

Kyle, Li, and Walt watched from the canopy as Sarah quickly penetrated the kobold ranks. Only the ones directly around her knew what was going on, but they were quickly silenced by her blades.

Once she was in far enough, Sarah turned her attention from covering distance and keeping a low profile, to slaughter.

And a slaughter it was.

Kyle had never got a chance to see Sarah’s new skill Extended Mana Blade in action. None of them had as they had never fought enough enemies to warrant its use. That had changed now.

Instead of Sarah using short swords like she normally did, now Sarah’s blades randomly extended up to ten feet and sliced through multiple kobolds at the same time. It was a massacre.

Thanks to Kyle’s large shield she did not have to worry about taking damage, and she kept using mana crystals to replenish her mana so she could continue using her skill. As the only one who had been in a dungeon before coming to the dungeon school, Sarah was the only one not using the dungeon school’s basic armor that they provided for everyone. Sarah’s armor has special slots in it to store mana crystals that she could then absorb mid battle without taking them out, which had looked awkward when Kyle had seen her putting them in, but in practice allowed her to abuse her skills without worrying about her mana pool.

Kyle knew that Sarah was fast. He was not incredibly knowledge about everyone current power levels or how strong was strong, but he did know that doubling your speed sounded like a lot.

And it was.

In all the battles they had done so far, there had not been a real need for Sarah to go all out. Sure she could use her increased speed to attack more quickly, but that was not its best use.

Her speed’s best use was mobility, and Sarah used it to the fullest.

It seemed as soon as the kobolds around her fell dead she was already somewhere else, killing other kobolds. By this time the kobold shamans had noticed someone was slaughtering their brethren, but the spells they fired at Sarah were almost entirely ineffective. The spells ended up hitting other kobolds instead of their intended target who had since moved on.

A few dozen dead kobolds later and the kobolds had started to mount a resistance and were more organized and shielding themselves as well as shooting spells at Sarah constantly. It looked like a scene straight out of an anime where you could see the line of bullets, or in this case spells that trailed behind the action hero as they systematically dismantled the incompetent opposition by running circles around them. Once the kobolds started shielding themselves it took Sarah a bit longer to kill them, but that longer was more like two hits instead of the instakill it was before.

The other three were supposed to join in the fray once a little over half the kobolds were killed, but they ended up joining when there were barely any kobolds left since they could not take their eyes off the goddess of the battlefield before them.

Her prowess came at a cost though. She was still taking damage, and were it not for Kyle’s shield she would have long been dead. Kyle was able to feel how much strength the shield had left, and when it had lost about two thirds of its original strength, Kyle snapped out of watching the dance of death and dragged the other two with him to join the fray.

Once the full party started fighting the kobolds started to be routed. Monsters would never retreat, but there were so few kobolds left that they could no longer utilize their strength of numbers and were slowly but surely picked off.

This part of the plan called for Walt, Li, and Kyle to make their way towards the two kobold shamans so that Li would be in range to use Shadow Suppression. Unfortunately, this attracted the ire of the shaman’s beefy guards, who were about two feet taller than the other four foot kobolds, and the guards moved to intercept Kyle’s group.

This is where the tank started to shine. So far, Walt had felt pretty useless in their dungeon runs. He dealt almost no damage and there were no monsters for him to tank since he was not able, or needed, to tank the giant ogre so he was basically being carried by the other three.

But their current situation clearly demonstrated why tanks were vital to team’s success. Kyle and Li were unable to protect themselves unless they constantly used shield skills on themselves, but that was fighting a losing battle. Walt on the other hand was able to use his basic armor and blocking skills to absorb a great deal of the damage that was being directed his way.

When a shield spell took an attack, it lost health equal to the attack amount. Someone’s armor was only calculated in when they themselves were taking the attack, not the shield spell.

The same was not true when you were using an active blocking skill though. This meant that Kyle could shield Walt for his full regular mana pool of 140, and then use the mana he filled back up with mana crystals on attacks. This was because instead of the shield taking the full amount of about forty damage from the two kobold guard’s attacks, it took that damage minus the current active blocking amount of thirty-three.

Walt was not able to block every single attack, as he had to block the spells of the two shamans in addition to the attacks of the two guards, but the damage his blocking skill was preventing was massive.

Walt might have been fine if all he had to do was block the two guards, but he had to push forwards so Li would be within sixty feet of the shamans. Walt was not that good at eyeballing distance, but based on the general area Sarah said they needed to be in, they were about ten feet away.

That ten feet was at the same time very close, and oh so far.

To push the guards back Walt, needed to take extra damage that he could have normally blocked. It was not like the guards could be killed either, as the kobold shamans were healing and buffing them if they got into a rough spot. At this point Li and Kyle didn’t even direct any of their skills at the guards and just targeted the last of the remaining kobolds, as attacking the guards was an exercise in futility.

Kyle almost ended up running out of mana crystals to shield Walt. To get the last few feet, Kyle and Li needed to team up where Kyle was focused on shielding him and Li put mana into Walt’s Self-Healing Crystal skill.

They finally manage to get close enough though, and Li shouted “Now” at Sarah, who then started running straight at the two shamans in preparation to kill them when they were suppressed.

Recognizing the incoming threat, the two kobold shamans changed the target of their spells to Sarah. In the five seconds it took Li to cast her spell, the remainder of Kyle’s shield on Sarah went from a little over five hundred, to less than one hundred.

At that point Li’s skill went off and the shamans were toast under Sarah’s DPS. The kobold guards followed soon after with no shamans to help them and Sarah free to introduce her blades to their faces.

It was the group’s most intense fight so far and it was also by far their closest. Had Li not been able to get in range to target the kobold shamans in time the best case scenario would have been them running away. The worst case scenario was a party wipe.

When the last guard finally fell, everyone basically collapsed where they stood. It was exhilarating and tiring knowing you were incredibly close to defeat yet still managing to pull through.

Once Kyle recollected himself, he stood up and marched over to stand in front of Sarah with his arms crossed.

“Too close,” he said.

Sarah slowly nodded.

“We will train up our skills a bit before we do this again,” Sarah responded.

It was indeed a close battle, but they had persevered and emerged victorious, and as they say, to the victor go the spoils.

And spoils there were indeed. To see if a monster dropped anything, you had to touch it and will the corpse to fade away. This process obviously took time with over three hundred corpses strewn across the large clearing. The party’s biggest surprise was they were able to loot the giant chinchilla corpse, which gave them a whole two enhancement crystals.

Once they finished looting the corpses, they shattered the glowing stone and returned to the stone room to take stock of their swag.

There was a basic wooden treasure chest in the stone room that held their rewards for completing the dungeon, and despite having picked up three skill crystals, two enhancement crystals, and numerous mana crystals in the dungeon, the chest contained the true valuables.

It had three escape crystals, which were sold in the market for about four hundred points. They had needed to buy one before entering the dungeon in case they had to run away and could not complete it. It also had twenty-seven enhancement crystals. Twenty-seven! Sarah ended up needing to slap Kyle as he almost started to hyperventilate looking at them, although Li and Walt weren’t much better. It also had four skill crystals, but without getting them identified, they could not be sure if they were any good.

After counting everything up they left the dungeon and headed over to get the skill crystals identified. They had decided that they were most likely to distribute the enhancement crystals fairly evenly, but that anyone who got shortchanged on the skill crystals would get more.

Walt ended up needing to carry the two tents in his hands so they could make room for all the mana crystals in the backpacks. Mana Crystals were fairly small, about the size of a large strawberry, but they had over six hundred points worth of them.

The plan was to turn all their gear in, eat an early lunch, and then figure out the distribution of the loot back in their room. Sarah was the one who was going to take the skill crystals to be identified, and the other three would not know what they were until they all looked at the descriptions in their room.

Kyle was skeptical of Sarah’s ability to keep silent throughout the ungodly good lunch, but she uttered not one peep. She was smiling a good deal more than usual, but other than that nothing was said.

Kyle was mostly silent during the meal. He was ruminating on their recent dungeon experience. Sure, they had come out alive, but it had been a close thing. Much closer than Kyle was comfortable with.

I need to get stronger. A lot stronger. If I had more mana Sarah’s shield wouldn’t have fallen that low.

Kyle avoided thinking any further. They had come out alive, and he would get stronger. End of story. Further down that train of thought lay demons, and Kyle had enough demons already.

It was with mounting tension and excitement that they made their way back to their room. Sarah insisted that she was going to take a shower before the big reveal, so everyone else ended up taking one as well.

Freshly clean and with full stomachs, Kyle, Li, and Walt all gathered around the table in the main area and waited for Sarah to slowly lay out the skill descriptions for them to read.

“Two of the skills were useless to us,” Sarah said. “But I think you will like these other five.”

Name: Basic Magic Power Gain

Effect: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.

Name: Improved Blocking Passive

Effect: Whenever you activate a blocking skill, you block an additional damage per skill level. This skill is passive and can stack with all other skills, including ones with the same name.

Name: Rapid Air Bullet

Effect: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.

Name: Vitality Enforced Strike

Effect: Empower a strike with your own vitality to deal an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. This skill can be stacked with other non-health sacrificial skills. Costs twenty health.

Name: Basic Health Gain

Effect: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.

Once Kyle read over all the skills it was obvious which one he wanted the most.

There are only two magic related skills, so if I give Li Basic Magic Power Gain she should be fine with me getting Rapid Air Bullet. I can make better use of it anyway. Let’s see, that leaves three skills. Walt already has Basic Health Gain, so that should probably go to Sarah. I think the last two are most suited for Walt.

It ended up working out just as Kyle thought it would. They had a total of twenty-nine enhancement crystals from the dungeon, so Kyle ended up with eight and everyone else got seven. They also decided that they would spend some of their points on getting some utility skills, like a light skill, in case they needed them.

Kyle insisted they spend the next three days skill grinding before entering the level two dungeon again, and Sarah and the others agreed. Sarah admitted that she may have been a little optimistic about their strength before.

The next three days were profitable. They were more than profitable in fact. The group alternated time between grinding their skills against the ogre and the slimes and grinding them in the regeneration room. It was almost trivial to take down the ogre now, but other groups had started entering the dungeon so the entrance fee was a lot higher.

On the third night any reservations Kyle had about going back into the kobold dungeon were assuaged by the growth the grinding session had gained the party. If they had been able to survive in there before, then they were certainly able to now.

Name: Kyle Anders

Health: 100

Mana: 210

Physical Power: 2

Magic Power: 2

Skills:

Exponential Mana Regeneration, level 12: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to .25 of the user’s current mana with an additional .025 per skill level every five minutes.

Mana Bolt, level 30: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.

Small Fireball, level 20: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user’s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.

Mana Pool Extension, level 7: Creates an extended mana pool that is attached to the user’s original one. This extended Mana pool is equal to two times the original mana pool times this skills level. The extended mana pool can only be filled by active regeneration skills. The extended mana pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. The extended mana pool must be drawn from before the regular mana pool. The extended mana pool cannot have mana transferred to it or from it by any outside source and can only be channeled by the user.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Fortified Mana Shield, level 23: Creates a shield around the user that blocks magic power plus X plus one per skill level damage, with X being the mana spent to cast this skill. Costs ten plus X mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.

Ally Shielding, level 12: Instead of shielding the user, you may instead use a shield skill to shield a target less than ten feet per skill level away. The shield costs an additional twenty mana to cast and shields the ally for an additional two damage per skill level.

Rapid Air Bullet, level 30: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.

Basic Ball of Light, level 20: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user’s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.

Name: Sarah Bailer

Health: 120

Mana: 80

Physical power: 27

Magic power: 2

Skills:

Improved Physical Speed, level 12: Doubles the effective speed of physical power and increases physical power by one per skill level.

Basic Slash, level 31: Deals damage equal to your physical power plus one per skill level. No cooldown or cost. Cannot be combined with other active attack skills.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 15: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Basic Mana Regeneration, level 18: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.

Mana Blade, level 20: For ten mana you can form a blade made out of mana. This blade lasts for ten minutes. Any attacks made with the blade deal an additional one damage per skill level. It takes five seconds to summon a blade.

Extended Mana Blade, level 16: Creates an extended blade of mana from the user’s weapon. The extension length is up to one foot per level of this skill. Costs five mana per one second duration. This skill is passive and can be combined with other active and passive skills.

Basic Health Gain, level 4: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.

Basic Awareness, level 3: Improves your ability to notice things you may not have otherwise. Each level of the skill increases your passive perception by a very small amount.

Name: Li Chang

Health: 60

Mana: 200

Physical power: 2

Magic power: 13

Skills:

Shadow Suppression, level 10: Shadows prevent an enemy from taking any actions for a number of seconds equal to twice the user’s magic power plus one per skill level. Cannot be used on the same target within 120 seconds. Costs 50 mana. Five second cast time. Can target anything within sixty feet of the user.

Mana Regeneration, level 21: Passively regenerates mana equal to 20 plus the level of the skill every five minutes.

Mana Bolt, level 15: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.

Basic Mana Shield, Level 20: Creates a shield around the user that blocks two times magic power plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.

Dual Target, level 2: When the user activates a skill with only a single target, this skill allows the user to select an additional target. If two target are selected, the skill used costs three times as much mana. If Dual Target is used to select an additional target, the skill used to target cannot use Dual Target’s effect for ten minutes. This cooldown time is reduced by ten seconds for every level of this skill.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Basic Magic Power Gain, level 4: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.

Basic Ball of Light, level 10: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user’s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.

Name: Walter Drussel

Health: 220

Mana: 60

Physical power: 6

Magic power: 2

Skills:

Self-Healing Crystal, level 20: Creates a crystal above the user’s head that after five seconds heals the user for one health per skill level per ten mana channeled into the crystal. The user or others are able to channel mana into the crystal. Spawn time, instantaneous. Cannot be reactivated for 30 seconds once activated. No cost.

Basic Mana Regeneration, level 17: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.

Basic Health Gain, level 9: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.

Basic Health Regeneration, level 15: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.

Firm Mana Shield, level 12: Creates a shield made of mana that can be used to block. When blocking, prevents an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana to summon. The shield lasts for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon the shield.

Basic Shield block, level 13: Block an attack with your shield. When blocking an attack this way, you prevent an additional ten plus skill level damage. No cost.

Basic Blocking Damage Reflection, level 6: When using an active blocking skill, you return damage equal this skills level as reflected damage. The reflected damage ignores all armor and resistances. This effect cannot be stacked with another passive blocking damage reflection skill.

Improved Blocking Passive, level 6: Whenever you activate a blocking skill, you block an additional damage per skill level. This skill is passive and can stack with all other skills, including ones with the same name.

Vitality Enforced Strike, level 10: Empower a strike with your own vitality to deal an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. This skill can be stacked with other non-health sacrificial skills. Costs twenty health.