The Main chamber was double the size of the others, containing ten regular Razorclaw Wolves as well as the Razorclaw Alpha. The beast was one and a half times the size of the others, with shimmering grey fur and 8 inch long claws. The Alpha rested on its haunches near the back of the chamber with the rest of the wolves laying in a group around it, occasionally shooting glances at the entrance but making no move towards it.

Michael could see all this from the other side of the barrier that separated the Alphas chamber from the rest of the Dungeon. The barrier, a clear yet distinct plane of pure Mana, kept the wolves from leaving the chamber, making their previous tactics pointless. They had arrived a few moments earlier and decided to take a break and rest before facing the Alpha Wolf.

This wasn't going to be like the other fights, where Michael simply needed to pepper the Wolves with Magic Arrows, this one required the whole team to take part. While they rested they went over the plan for the upcoming battle. After their opening moves, Sam would be tanking the Alpha, he and Damien keeping it busy and away from the team as they dealt with the remains of the pack. There were ten wolves in the chamber and they needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible, meaning that Michael and Olivia would be unleashing everything on them as quickly as possible. And as usual, Anne would be keeping everyone alive.

After everyone was prepared, mentally and physically, they stepped up to the barrier. Olivia placed her hand on it and a prompt appeared in front of everyone.

Party Leader Olivia has initiated the Alpha Wolf Boss Battle.

Do you accept?

Yes / No

Everyone accepted, and they transitioned to the other side of the barrier in an instant. For a moment everything was quiet, as if the world was taking a breath, and then the Alpha howled.The wolves burst into motion, racing towards the humans. Before they moved more than a few steps a thunderous crack rang out as Michel used his bow's Thunder Shot on the lead wolf. The arrow pierced straight through the lead wolf, doing catastrophic damage, before slamming into the wolf behind it, catapulting the wolf backwards into a third. The wolves all paused, a sliver of fear showing in their eyes, before the alpha's bark snapped them back into action.

That pause proved to be unfortunate for the wolves, two of them becoming entangled in vines that burst from the ground whilst a third got an arrow to the face. Dupli-Casting Vine Traps while firing an arrow proved to be almost too much for Michael, the strain forcing him to his knees. The others hadn't been idle during this. Damien had disappeared into stealth while Sam and Olivia, through her earth elemental, created Earthen Walls in a wedge shape, leaving a small gap in front for the wolves to come through. By the time the wolves reached them, and Michael recovered from the sudden strain, Sam had taken his position at the opening.

With a final shake of his head to clear his senses Michael focused on the fight. Things were going well so far but that would only last for as long as it took for the Alpha to join the fight. Damien was currently kiting it around the room but the pressure on him was high and even a single mistake would have serious, possibly even fatal, consequences. Damien may have 12 levels on the beast but an attack focused Boss could kill him if it got a critical strike in.

As such, they had no time to dawdle. Since that was the case, Michael immediately started the massacre. Magic Missile infused arrows rained down on the wolves, each one finding critical points in the eyes, ears or throats of the wolves. It was a good thing that Sam was a dwarf, several of the arrows came close to scalping the short warrior.

Once the wolves were dealt with the team turned their attention to the Boss. Sam led the charge, with a Charge, and slammed into the Alpha. The beast slid backwards a full meter, a testament to the dwarfs strength. With a few hits as well as a Taunt Sam made sure the Alphas aggro was firmly on him. With some skillful shield work and well timed dodges the dwarf was taking the full brunt of the beasts attention with minimal contact. Anne was actually getting bored, apart from an occasional light heal there was nothing for her to do. Truth be told, since the team was ten levels above the Alpha, the fight was simply too easy for them as long as they didn't slip up.

Thanks to Sam, Michael could take his time and work through his entire skill set. To start, Michael Dupli-Cast two Vine Traps directly under the wolfs hind legs. The spells only held it for a second, the wolf's strength being too high, but Michael wasn't really trying to hold it, he just wanted to see how effective it would be on a boss monster. That and working on increasing skill levels. To that end, Michael cycled through his skills, using Dupl-Casted Vine Traps as soon as it came off cooldown and spamming Magic Missile infused arrows at the Boss in between.

The Alpha Razorclaw was partially resistant to magic and had a high Vitality as a boss monster, so the going was slow. To make matters worse, the boss had an almost supernatural sense for danger and often dodged attacks. Even with Michael spending Mana like water it still took almost ten minutes to wear the boss down. Added to that, when the Alpha's Health reached 75, 50 and 25 percent it howled and spawned three more Razorclaw Wolves. Worst of all, since the wolves were summoned through the Bosses skill, they didn't even give out any experience.

The whole fight was draining, mentally speaking. The boss may have been a simple fight, thanks to Sam, but a wrong move could still have been serious. Sam might have been able to laugh off most hits, but even he would have died from a critical hit. His reflexes, as well as his gear, had kept him safe during the fight, but it would only require a single mistake for the team to have to bury another friend.

Michael was also drained, though in a different way. The constant casting of spells had drained his Mana to near zero several times and he'd had to chug a Mana potion to keep up with his expenditure. The only way to describe it would be as if his very soul felt drained, like a wet towel being rung out by a guy with anger issues. While he was resting, Michael pulled up his notification log. Skipping past the Razorclaw wolf kill notifications, he got at least 60% for all of them, he got to the Alpha Razorclaw notification.

Tier 2 Level 10 Alpha Razorclaw Killed!

Participation : 58%

Ranger Experience gained : 290

Modifier for Perks : 100%

Total Ranger Experience gained : 580

Bonus : Amulet of the Wolf Pack

Smiling, Michael pulled up his inventory and brought out the loot. The amulet was a wolf's head wrought from a silvery metal that looked beautiful. The metal was so skillfully sculpted it looked like the wolf would start moving any second. It probably wouldn't do much though, since it was just a head. Michael Identified it.

Amulet of the Wolf Pack

Tier 1, Rare Quality, 250 Durability

This amulet allows the wearer to, once a day, summon two Razorclaw Wolves to fight alongside them for ten minutes. The wolves will have Attributes equal to half of the wearers and will follow the wearers mental commands.

Michael was happy, not only was the amulet beautiful, it was extremely useful. Similar to Olivia's summons, the wolves would have multiple uses beyond just fighting. Scouting trapped area's, luring monsters, you name it. More importantly, the wolves would have half his AP, meaning they would grow more powerful as he did. Whilst it wasn't exactly a game changer, it would be useful for a long, long time.

The loot was nice, but it was overshadowed by the levels. Having been on the verge of levelling before the fight he not only hit level 4 but also level 5. The attributes were nice, and he'd get to them in a moment, but the skills were his first stop. Michael quickly entered the Ranger Skill space.

As soon as he entered the space he noticed that the second layer of skill orbs for the Bow and Nature Magic skills were uncovered. Excited, he quickly approached the first Bow skill.

Multi-Shot

Bow Skill, Active, 50 Mana cost, 30 Meter Range, 1 Minute Cooldown.

Rapidly fire multiple arrows at one or more targets.

Michael felt both interested and uninterested by the skill. It was a useful skill, especially when facing multiple enemies, but he doubted he'd be able to use Spell Arrow on each arrow. He moved onto the next.

Power Shot

Bow Skill, Active, 50 Mana cost, 50 Meter Range, 1 Minute Cooldown.

Channel incredible power, releasing a devastating shot after three seconds.

Michael was over the moon, Power Shot was perfect for him with the only downside being the channeling time. Three seconds may not be long, but in a battle it could be the difference between life and death. He moved on to the Nature Magic skills, eager to see what was on offer.

Healing Sap

Nature Magic Skill, Active, 100 Mana cost, 30 Second Cooldown.

Manifest a Sap that can heal 150 points over ten seconds.

Michael frowned, the skill was undoubtedly good, just not all that useful right now. Having a healer on the team made healing skills somewhat lackluster. He moved on to the last skill.

Poison Spores

Nature Magic Skill, Active, 150 Mana Cost, 30 Meter Range, 10 Metre Radius, 1 Minute Duration, 5 Minute Cooldown

Summon a cluster of Poisonous Mushrooms that continuously release Poison Spores. Creatures inside the spell effect gain a stack of Mildly Poisoned every second.

Mildly Poisoned - lose 1 Health per second for ten seconds.

Michaels eyes widened. At first the skill seemed innocuous enough, 1 health per second for ten seconds wasn't that much of a worry. The fact that it stacked though, that was the kicker. In an enclosed space, like a dungeon chamber, the skill would be devastating. Sadly, the skill didn't differentiate between targets, so it could hurt his team.

Michael pondered over the skills, the options making choosing quite difficult. The bow skills were awesome but so was the Poison Spores spell. In the end Michael chose to go with the Poison Spores skill, despite the potential risk to his teammates, as it was simply too a useful skill to pass up. Michael could take down single enemies with relative ease thanks to his control skills and high firepower but he would be almost useless against a swarm of enemies. Poison Spores would help to shore up that particular weakness. Having made his decision, the Skill lit up and he was transported out of the skill tree space.

Back in the Alpha Wolf's chamber the team headed down the tunnel at the other end. After a short ten meters they reached another barrier, similar to the one that had blocked the Boss Chamber but this time opaque. One by one they placed their hands on the barrier and disappeared, with Michael going last. As he placed his hand on the barrier a notification screen appeared, as it had with everyone else.

Do you wish to enter the Treasure Room and receive your rewards?

Warning, you cannot return to the dungeon from the Treasure Room!

Yes / No

Clicking yes, Michael finally left the dungeon and appeared alone in a another dirt cave, a rusted old chest lying in the center of the room. Walking up to the chest Michael placed his hand on it, a notification screen appearing in the air above the chest.

Congratulations!

100% Dungeon Completion - Reward upgraded

First time Completion - Reward upgraded

Highest amount of Damage Dealt - Reward upgraded

Most Monsters killed - Reward upgraded

Michael smiled, Olivia had already explained the various categories that would upgrade the reward, such as highest damage dealt, most damage tanked and most damage healed. It was nice to see that he had gotten four reward upgrades, the highest the rest had ever gotten was two which gave out decent if underwhelming rewards. Michael dismissed the screen with a wave of his hand and the chest clicked open, letting him pull the lid open.

The sight that greeted him as he opened the chest proved that the universe really did have a sense of humor. Michael stood there for a second, staring at it, and then burst out in laughter. At the bottom of the chest, oblivious to the slightly manic laughter above it, was a bar of soap.