“Daniel, we need you. Break time is over.” Yelled Steve over the constant sound of battle.

Daniel weary got to his feet and took the spot guarding the front entrance way from one of John's stone constructs. It was about five feet tall, humanoid in shape and wielded a tower shield in one hand and a short spear in the other. Both made entirely out of stone. Once Daniel was in position and he held his own tower shield John dropped the stone slab that had been preventing the gremlins from entering the cave. They couldn't keep them blocked off for long otherwise the gremlins would find or make a new way into the cave.

Something the bestiary had not mentioned about the gremlins was when the gremlins had a target they were single minded in their pursuit to kill them, and if they didn't have a clear path to get to said target they would make a new way. They had learned that lesson very early on when John and Steve had been exhausted physically and mentally or only mentally in Daniel's case. They had tried to seal themselves in for some much needed rest. They had left several of John's constructs to keep watch since they didn't need rest or anything else that a living person needed. It was a few hours later when the gremlins had managed to burrow a hole in the roof of the cave, and fell onto John as he slept; it had been a very rude wake up call for the man. Their only saving grace had been John's constructs. They killed the few gremlins that managed to make their way inside the cave, and after the short, but hectic battle John had managed to seal the hole in the roof preventing any more gremlins from using it to enter the cave.

That had been two days ago now and three days since the first wave of gremlins had attacked them, and Daniel was struggling to focus on the upcoming fight as he stood in position ready to take on the next wave of monsters. Daniel had been mindlessly killing these Gremlins nearly non-stop since the very first day; he wasn't able to get any amount of sleep during this time, only a few hours of rest every once and a while since he was almost always needed to fight off the continuous waves of monsters. He was the main reason why they were even still in this fight at all; with his skills and his feat making it so he needed no sleep. With ‘Powerful Organs’ all of his organs were more efficient meaning they needed less energy to function which also meant he needed less sleep, coupled with his ‘Troll Regeneration’ feat constantly recovering him his exhaustion and stamina loss he always felt in top fighting condition. At Least he did physically, mentally was something else entirely. The constant fighting was wearing on him after three day of constant fighting was draining.

One of the amazing things he had discovered during all of the fighting was a new way to use ‘Death Blows.’ He could use the healing energy he received from killing gremlins to recover stamina rather than healing his body; it was less energy efficient converting it to stamina than healing, but with the number of gremlins he was killing the energy lost in the conversion was negligible compared to what he almost constantly received. He had also received a prompt when he had discovered this and it raised many more questions about his skills.

Congratulations, you have unlocked a hidden benefit of the skill ‘Death Blows.’ you can convert healing energy gained through the skill into stamina at a 2 to 1 conversion (2 health to 1 stamina).

Experiment with your skills to discover more hidden benefits.

The prompt was interesting and did raise several questions about his skills. He had gained a similar prompt with meditation when he had discovered the deeper layers of meditation, but at the time he hadn't really considered if he could find hidden effects for his other skills. He thought he might also be able to convert healing energy to mana, but since he still didn't have mana channels unlocked he doubted he would be able to for the time being.

All things being equal he didn't need any of the stamina he converted for himself, instead all of the excess healing energy that he got that didn't go towards healing his own wounds was converted into stamina for John, Steve, and Kota, keeping them fighting shape for longer than they otherwise could have. Eventually even that wasn't enough to keep them going; after several days of constantly funneling then stamina he could no longer fix the feeling of bone weary tiredness they all collectively shared. A mind could only stay continuously awake for so long until it demanded sleep Steve and John had already reached that point already, and even with Daniel’s skills and advantages, he was also closing in on that point as well. For now though that didn't matter soon he would be back in the thick of the fighting.

As Daniel stood in the gap waiting for the first gremlin to attack him he saw holes in the walls of the cave in front and on either side of him. This was one of the other things that had allowed them to hold out till this point. John’s earth magic and constructs. The constructs were relatively weak in a straight up fight, but they could not tire. John had made these killing holes in the side of the cave with a hallway behind. The constructs could safely use their stone spears to attack the gremlins that approached Daniel. They had moved their initial defensive line about ten feet back into the cave; this gave the constructs lots of opportunities to make attacks before they got to Daniel’s position. Daniel had a couple minutes before the next wave reached him so he decided to look over some of the other notifications he had received.

Weapon Proficiency: Short Swords ( 1/5 ): Masters of the short sword are feared the universe over for their skill and up close and deadly precision with their chosen weapon. Passive. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points.

Level 1 (Passive): Basic understanding of the Short Swords, and knowledge of basic Short Swords weapon techniques.

Level 2 (Passive): Sense of the Short Swords, and knowledge of intermediate Short Swords weapon techniques.

~~~~~

Weapon Proficiency: Tower Shield ( 1/5 ): Masters of the shield can block and parry even the mightiest of blows. Passive. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points.

Level 1 (Passive): Basic understanding of the Tower Shield, and knowledge of basic Tower Shield techniques.

Level 2 (Passive): Sense of the Tower Shield, and knowledge of intermediate Tower Shield techniques.

~~~~~

Pain Resistance ( 2/5 ): Pain means nothing to you when you have already experienced the pain of a thousand swords piercing your body. The pain only makes you stronger and you relish the clarity that it gives your mind. Passive. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points. Current Total 15%.

Level 1 (Passive): Reduce the physical feeling of pain by 5%.

Level 2 (Passive): Reduce the physical feeling of pain by 10%.

Level 3 (Passive): Reduce the physical feeling of pain by 15%. Physical pain sharpens your senses while in battle. Bonus based on level of pain.

The weapons skills were a nice addition to his repertoire, and Daniel could feel how he held the weapons with ease and skill than he had a few days ago when he had first picked them out of necessity and fear of them being overrun, now though they felt good in his hands. It was just a shame he couldn't utilize some of his skills with the short sword like his two professional skills that increased hammer speed and strength as well as well as ‘Heavy Blow’ though he could still use it with the tower shield though it didn't have as great an effect as when he used Ice Fang.

The increase in ‘Pain Resistance’ was also nice though leveling it up had not been pleasant in the slightest; he still blamed Steve for that. The last interesting thing was when he gained the ‘Physical Fitness’ skill even though he hadn't been able to do any of the exercises in the book while they had been in the dungeon it seemed like the skill or the system considered the near constant fighting he had been doing as exercise. And Daniel had to admit he was thankful for that, he would have hated having to restart the training for the skill a third time.

Physical Fitness ( 1/5 ): The perfection of the body is a lifelong pursuit that takes much discipline and dedication that most people lack to reach their body's true perfection. Passive. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points. Current total 1%.

Level 1 (Passive): Negate muscle degradation from lack of exercise. Decrease all Stamina expenditure by 1%.

Level 2 (Passive): Decrease all Stamina expenditure by 2%.

The bonuses were nice enough, and based on how many other skills he had worked at max level the skill would reduce all stamina expenditure by 15% which wasn't a small amount. Though Daniel doubted he would ever get the skill to that level unless he used skill points. He had read the level 5 requirements from the training guide he had purchased from the shop and having to keep a training schedule for five years without ever missing a single day was crazy. The other benefit of negating muscle degradation was also nice. He had read once that professional strong men had to train daily and eat some ridiculous amounts of food to maintain and increase their gains, and once they stopped their routines they could start losing some of their strength. There was also the loss of muscle mass as a person aged this would prevent all of that. A person could train to the peak their body would allow and then never have to worry about losing their physique if they stopped exercising, it was a great benefit.

As he waited he also made another psionic legionnaire for his mindscape. He tried his best to make them every hour just as Ulgatha had instructed, but because of the constant fighting he wasn't always able to keep up with the task. Daniel did wonder what his mindscape was looking like. He hadn't had the time to check though even without doing so he could feel some changes in his mind. Several times information had pooped into his mind as if he just remembered some long forgotten fact, and he had to imagine that it was Ulgatha’s doing, but even without knowing for sure he was glad some progress was being made in his mindscape even if he wasn't there to witness it.

Daniel refocused on the upcoming fight and dismissed the notifications he had been reading. Drawing his short sword and hefting the tower shield that John had made he was ready; the shield was heavy as he held it and a bit unwieldy considering it was made out of solid stone, but despite that with the combination of his strength and ‘Troll Regeneration’ constantly reducing his fatigue his arm never grew tired so he had any trouble holding the shield in position. Readying himself for the next wave he waited his shield in position and covered his body and his sword, resting with the flat of the blade against the edge of the shield, ready to stab out at a gremlin at a moment's notice. It was a shame he wasn't able to use Ice Fang, the new weapons skills were nice, but with the narrow corridor he was fighting in coupled with the small frames of the gremlins Daniel had quickly realized that he just wasn't able to generate enough force with Ice Fang to consistently take out the gremlins in a single blow. Pair that with a slow attack speed of using a weapon like a maul and their numbers, it was inevitable that they would be able to quickly get past his guard to attack his lower body. Even if they were unable to harm him due to his armor and ‘Tough Skin’ skill he was more worried about his allies who the gremlins could harm. This is what had prompted his weapon change to be able to better defend and block off the corridor he was defending.

Daniel stood ready shield in position, John began to lower the wall blocking the cave when he saw Daniel in position. It only took John a few seconds to lower the wall, far better than he had been at the start of all of this. Just one of the advantages of being a mage Daniel supposed; being able to level up spells through use just like general skills sure was useful.

Once the wall was completely down a swarm of gremlins rushed into the cave. There really was no other way of describing it other than a swarm. It was a pile of flailing limbs and fur and as Daniel watched he saw gremlins crawling over the body's of other gremlins just to be the chance to be the first to get to their prey. It was honestly kind of disgusting to him and as he watched several gremlins were killed by the stampeding swarm as streaks of blue light appeared and exited the cave to who knows where. Daniel shifted his weight and braced for the impact of the gremlin swarm. When the gremlin made it about a quarter of the way into the cave spears of stone began to come stabbing out holes placed in the walls made by John to allow his constructs to safely attack the monster swarm, and when Daniel glanced up he could also spot several other holes in the ceiling as well, but currently nothing came out of those at least not yet. When the gremlins made it about half way into the cave that was when Steve finished casting his spell; a tornado of wind blade appeared in the middle of the cave shredding any gremlin who entered into chunks of blood meat before they disappeared into a blue light that streaked out of the cave just like Daniel had seen before.

John had made a small crawl space in the ceiling of the cave with spy holes so that Steve could see down into their kill box and safely cast his spells without the risk of a stray gremlin attacking him. The spell Steve cast was something he called ‘Blade Storm’ and was one of the new spells he had made to combat the gremlins. Though even with the devastating power of Steve's spell eventually the gremlins eventually managed to overcome it with sheer numbers and some gremlins began to make it through Steve's spell. The spell worked by making a tornado completely out of wind blades. The blades of wind would dissipate after striking a target and even though more were being generated every second as Steve channeled the spell to increase its duration; their numbers eventually overcame the spell and Steve was forced to cancel his spell. You might imagine that Steve would have made a fine spell considering the gremlins' elemental weakness was fire; well he had and they had quickly learned not to use it on them. They were vengeful little balls of fur, and would try to light you on fire with their own body's before they succumbed to the fire. If the fire did not immediately kill them they would just continue to come at you.

Another lesson that had been learned the hard way was to make sure the gremlins couldn't fit their heads though the killing holes. They were like cats in how if their head and ears could fit into somewhere, then their bodies could as well. They had lost half of John's constructs in this way before John managed to seal off the tunnel, trapping the gremlins inside.

As Daniel continued to watch, tens of gremlins were felled every second as John's constructs and the last vestiges of Steve’s spell continued to work. Very few managed to make it to Daniel, but that was fine with him. He knew soon enough that would change.

Around two minutes later Steve's wind spell faded and then vanished entirely. Steve would be low on mana and he would have to enter ‘Meditation’ to increase his mana recovery speed. The stream of gremlins entering the cave never ceased, and with the loss of Steve’s spell the constructs could no longer keep up with the number of gremlins entering the cave. Daniel got in a defensive stance and hefted his shield which was almost as wide as the doorway since John made the cave taper becoming narrower the farther in the gremlins went. This made it so with the narrow opening he was deafening and the size of his shield there was only a small gap on other side of the shield that he could use to stab out with his short sword. He just needed to withstand first contact. This was also something else they had learned. Even though individual gremlins were small and relatively weak when they came charging at you in a wave of fur, the weight of their combined bodies could easily knock a person over if they weren't prepared.

Daniel braced himself ready for the impact of the charge. A moment later it came and the impact made him slide back almost five feet. Daniel quickly activated ‘Heavy Charge’ he only moved forward the distance he had lost to regain his initial position After that Daniel began to continually stab out with his sword injuring or killing a gremlin with every stab. It was hard to aim at any one gremlin mainly because he could see almost nothing from behind his large shield, but as long as he hit something he was fine with the outcome. This fight went on for tens of minutes with Steve casting spells whenever he had enough mana though he didn't cast any of his larger more devastating spells. Kota was unable to do much during this kind of fighting in enclosed spaces, so John had made him a hidden exit to the cave to allow him to stealthily kill any straggling gremlins. It gave the dog something to do even though he had stopped gaining any more evolutionary progress from killing the monsters on the first day.

After a while with the fight at basically a stalemate a new sound began to emerge over the din of battle. It was the rumbling of thousands of feet hitting the ground. The next wave of gremlins had arrived before they had managed to finish off this current one. Daniel cursed under his breath, this could be bad. Daniel quickly spoke to John using the short length telepathy that was one of the benefits of their ‘Party Interface’ skill. “John, the next wave is arriving early. We have to do it now.”

John quickly responded also using telepathy, “But it's not ready yet. I have yet to make an exit tunnel. If we do it now we will just end up trapping the gremlins at the bottom of the tunnel and not kill them. That will just make it harder for me to finish this later.”

Daniel grimaced as he stabbed another gremlin through the throat. “I will buy as much time as possible, but you need to hurry. I won't be able to keep this up if more come. Especially if they manage to get their buff.”

“Okay, I think I am close. I will make a smaller tunnel to find an exit then try to expand it as much as possible. Just give me as much time as you can.”

“Just make it quick.” Daniel replied. A few minutes later the next wave arrived. Daniel wanted to pester John to work faster, but knew that his worrying would only distract the man. The buff Daniel had referred to was something else they had discovered. The bestiary John had purchased hadn’t mentioned it. They didn't know if it was something unique to these dungeon gremlins, or if the bestiary was lacking information. Either way they had the ability and it was a pain in Daniel's ass. From what he understood about the buff though his ‘Identify’ didn't give him any information about it was that the more gremlins there were the stronger they got. They wouldn't get the buff until their number reached some level of critical mass, and with the waves of gremlins coming more quickly and containing more bodies with every wave it was getting increasingly more difficult to deal with the previous wave before the next one arrived.

Daniel assessed Steve's current mana capacity though the extra sense ‘Party Interface’ gave and determined that he was about half full. Daniel cursed again he was about to regret what he was again to ask Steve.

He once again spoke using telepathy this time directing the conversation to Steve. “We need to buy John as much time as possible. I need you to use your flame storm spell.”

“Are you sure?” Steve's tone was apprehensive. “You know what happened last time?”

“I know, but I can withstand a little pain.”

“Okay, but I won't be able to cast any more spells though the kill holes in the ceiling because of the smoke. I can continue to channel the spell at range without needing to see it once it's cast, but you will be on your own after I run out of mana.”

“Just get ready, the next wave is already here.” and as he spoke the gremlins from the new wave began to enter the cave.

“Okay, as long as you're sure about this.”

“I am.” Daniel relied resolutely.

“Okay, here goes nothing.”

Steve waited until a large number of gremlins had entered the cave. Their numbers were quickly approaching critical mass and Daniel was hoping Steve didn't mess up his timing. Around thirty seconds later Daniel felt the first empowered blow hit his shield, and in panic telepathically reached out to Steve again. “It's now or never Steve they have their buff!”

About five seconds later; just enough time for Daniel to start worrying that Steve hadn't heard his message. Steve cast his spell. A tornado of fire appeared in the middle of the cave.