The next morning, they stood up early, said their goodbyes from John and Azza and went on their way to the dungeon. They hoped to make the way in one day. It took them less than an hour before they reached the start of the snow covered terrain. Anna started to use her ice magic again. She strengthened the surface of the snow. It took her a bit more mana than before, when she was only accompanied by Daniel, but she was able to make the surface strong enough to carry their group. As they marched on in a fast pace, Daniel began to train his magic spells and the mana compression skill.

“Did you decide on your new skill, yet?” Daniel asked Anna while they made a short break to eat something.

“Yes, I did some testing and came up with a good idea that will help my water and ice magic tremendously.” Anna answered with a smile.

“Do you care to tell me?” He asked curiously.

“Not right now. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I don’t think that skill would be useful with air and lightning magic anyway.” She commented.

Daniel sighed. Unlike him, Anna liked surprises and to be mischievous. He probably just had to wait and see. So, he turned his attention towards Jacob.

“Jacob, you are almost level 30, do you already have access to new elements?” Daniel asked and Isabella, Fedor and Anna turned towards them and started to look curiously at the old man. They too, were very interested in what kinds of elements you get access to. Previously, they only gathered that you could get access to life magic.

“Yes, I focused on body enhancement magic at level 25. It allows you to create spells to temporarily improve skills or attributes with mana. When I reached level 25, I had the choice between enhancement and metal magic. I know that there is life and death magic too, but my understanding of these topics wasn’t good enough to be allowed to choose them.” Jacob explained.

“I chose metal. A good dwarf needs earth fire and metal magic.” Kargarn commented.

“Metal magic? That doesn’t make sense for me, what is the difference between earth and metal magic? Isn’t metal part of the earth?” Daniel asked and Jacob and the dwarf looked confused.

“Earth is earth and metal is metal.” Kargarn said as if this was some kind of fundamental truth. Daniel wasn’t really convinced by that, but he decided to let the topic rest for now.

“Are there other choices?” Isabella asked with interest.

“Yes, there is enchantment and curse magic. Enchantment is very hard to get and to get curse magic, I heard you need to be unforgiving asshole. At least, that is what I was taught when I was a child.” Kargarn explained.

“Sounds useful, maybe not in a fight, but in an ambush. Curse someone, and run away to wait for them to wither and die.” Fedor commented and Jacob shook his head.

“Curse magic is maybe the most powerful form of intermediate magic. I once saw a powerful C rank fighter in heavy armor defeated with just one spell attack. After being hit by the curse, he wasn’t strong enough to carry his own armor anymore. He suffocated from the weight of it. If you are fighting a boss, there is nothing better than to weaken it with curse magic. The only problem with it is that it’s hard to get. I’ve heard that you need an understanding of the body, like you need for life magic, to be able to choose it.” Jacob commented.

“That is boring, I like to challenge bosses in a one on one fight. Metal magic is the best! Making your weapons do more damage, improving your own armor and using it to repair your gear, there is nothing better for a real fighter!” Kargarn claimed in a proud tone.

“It is far more sane to don’t get hit and to use your superior speed to attack the enemy’s unprotected spots instead of just duking it out with the enemy in the hopes that you can do damage faster to them than they can to you.” Jacob declared in a depreciative tone.

“To me it sounds that they would work good together.” Anna commented with a shrug.

“Sure, but you only get another element at level 40. That is a long way from level 25.” Jacob explained.

“Isn’t there a way to gain access to these magics by yourself, without the help of the system? Like you could access the synergy elements or basic magic?” Daniel asked.

“Getting synergies is easy, you just combine your magic, but to get access to basic magic you need to be some kind of genius. I have no idea how it’s done. How do you even know about it?” Jacob asked.

Daniel looked at Anna, it was her discovery after all and she only smiled and created a magic missile and shot it in the snow. Kargarn didn’t seem to be very impressed, but Jacob’s eyes went wide.

“Can you tell me how you did that?” He asked.

Anna smiled and started to explain how her thought process when she made her discovery. Jacob and Kargarn looked at her with an admiring expression. They started to follow her instruction. Twenty minutes later, they both were able to create a basic magic missile themselves.

“I never understood what made travelers so special, maybe it is just that they didn’t grew up with the system. I would’ve never tried something like this. That creates a lot of questions. What else is possible to do by yourself, without the system? Do the people from powerful families know about this and decided to keep it for themselves? I was always told that your bloodline was a huge factor in your skill with mana and the reason why sons and daughters of powerful people often became powerful themselves.” Jacob contemplated.

“For me, the system was always the system. You get to a level, gain access to a skill or element and use it. I always thought you’d gain something like basic magic as a reward, because you are a genius. At least, that is what was taught in our dwarven kingdom.” Kargarn commented angrily.

Kargarn’s and Jacob’s statements made Daniel think. Together with the fact that people were told to keep their skills secret, this looked like a deliberate measure to keep information from normal people in order the prevent them from becoming really powerful. But, it didn’t make sense. Didn’t the human and the dwarven kingdom need powerful people to fight the dungeons?

He had to smile. Maybe, it was a bit like back home. All a big theatre show in order to keep normal people calm. What did politicians say most of the time? ‘Well, we really want to implement this measure, but for this and that reason it is impossible right now. But, if you elect us again, we might be able to do something for you in a few years.’ Sure, there were a lot of people with good intentions, but most politicians that were honest to the public and really spoke their minds were sooner or later crucified for having unpopular opinions.

Maybe, the dungeons were just used as a conveniant external enemy. Being able to play the great protectors against the evil dungeons was a great way to justify your right to rule. On the other hand, there could be some good reasons for keeping information about the system secret and he was just too cynical, Daniel thought. In any case, in the future, he would made sure that he wouldn’t follow what was the conventional knowledge in this world. Second guessing what was possible and what not, would probably be a good idea.

“Damn, this place really needs the internet.” Fedor commented and explained what it was when Kargarn and Jacob looked at him in confusion.

Daniel had to agree with the Russian. With the internet, there would probably be hundreds of well-known exploits to the system. He smiled when he thought about how much work people put in to find the best way just to have an advantage in some game. If the system was implemented on earth, it would probably take less than a week for some people to find ways to totally break it. Maybe, here he could be the one that would find the game breaking exploits.

While he had that cheering thought, the others got ready to proceed with the journey. They finished the break and continued their way to the dungeon.

The travel was uneventful and shortly before sunset, the dungeon entrance came into sight.

Warning Dungeon Break Imminent!

All kills will give double experience!

“I’m loving this dungeon already.” Kargarn said with a huge grin on his face. He took out two big axes from his inventory and began to run towards the dungeon entrance.

“Shit, ok let’s follow the idiot.” Jacob cursed and ran after the dwarf.

Daniel and his friends had no idea what was happening, but they decided to follow the two more experienced fighters.

The dungeon entrance was still 200 meters away and Daniel and Fedor were quickly losing ground to the much faster Kargarn and Jacob. It wasn’t helping that Isabella and Anna fell back even further and without Anna’s magic, he was sinking into the snow with every step. Daniel activated Advanced Haste in hope to keep up with the other two, just as the dungeon entrance came to life.

Four humans appeared and quickly ran away from the entrance. A moment later, goblins started to spew out of the dungeon. First five, a moment later ten, then twenty. They just kept coming. With decreasing the distance, Daniel was able to recognize the four humans as the other traveler group. They looked injured and fled from the ever increasing goblin horde.

“To me!” Kargarn screamed, only fifty meters away from the other travelers. The four men turned around and immediately changed the direction of their escape.

Daniel didn’t understand what was going on. Why were they running from low leveled green goblins. Sure, there were a lot of them, but they were only at level 3. He didn’t know why the goblins were able to leave the dungeon, but it reminded him a bit of the rabid rabbit attack.

When the travelers were only ten meters away from the dwarf, the goblins close behind them, Kargarn jumped over their heads directly into a group of over twenty goblins. Fire started to form around him mid air and when he crashed into the enemies, there was a bright explosion. Daniel had to close his eyes for a moment.

When he opened them again, he saw that none of the goblins from the first group survived the fiery attack. Charred body parts were scattered in the snow around the dwarf, but the next group of enemies was already closing in on him.

Daniel didn’t know how he did it, Jacob was suddenly standing next to the dwarf with two short swords in his hands. He looked ready to face the ever increasing wave of goblins. By now, Daniel estimated that more than a hundred of the green buggers were gathered in front of the dungeon. That wasn’t all, the higher leveled goblins fighters started to appear as well.

“Melee fighters to me, casters keep the dungeon entrance under fire!” Jacob screamed at Daniel’s group and the other travelers. They looked hesitant for a moment, but when they saw Daniel, Fedor, Isabella and Anna coming for support, they stopped their escape and went to form a defensive line with Jacob and the dwarf. Daniel was only five meters behind their makeshift defensive perimeter, when Jacob and Kargarn began to fight the next wave of goblins. He removed his new sword from the inventory and activated his Lightning Edge around the blade. He hesitated for a moment, but then decided against activating his Lightning Armor. Channeling all three spells would deplete his mana rather quickly. He didn’t know how long the goblins would keep coming and didn’t want to risk running out of mana. In addition, he had a fine new set of armor and estimated that the goblins wouldn’t able to penetrate it with their crappy stone and rusty iron weapons anyway.

As he got into close combat, he saw the first fireball and a huge ice crystal flying in the direction of the dungeon entrance. The fireball exploded on impact and around ten goblins went down. The ice crystal was far more devastating. It exploded too and spewed shrapnel consisting out of ice shards in every direction. It looked like Anna’s new spell was quiet efficient. Not wanting to get injured by a surprise attack again, Daniel turned his whole focus onto the goblins in front of him. Anna and Isabella would be able to thin out the horde just fine. At least, as long as they didn’t run out of mana.

As he hit the first goblin with his new sword, he almost felt no resistance from the impact. His slash just went through the goblin and cut it in half. It looked like the notification from his Lightning Edge spell had been right. With a better blade, the bonus to the cutting power was far larger. With the improved sharpness in mind, he planned his next slash in a way that it would kill two enemies with one strike. He smiled, while it felt different in his hand, the new sword was a big improvement. He didn’t need to be as prudent as before anymore. With his thin and light saber, he’d always been afraid of damaging his only good weapon by a wrong strike. That was why he had used piercing attacks against most of the enemies. With the far more durable sword, he was able to use his full strength.

After killing a few more enemies, Daniel hesitated for a moment and took a quick look at his status.

Mana 83%

Stamina 90%

There were still more goblins leaving the dungeon. While they weren’t able to injure him right now, they might be able to grind him down in the long run. He deactivated his haste spell. At the moment, for these weak goblins it wasn’t really needed and was just a waste of mana. He kept the Lightning Edge active, at least for now. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to kill two goblins with each strike.

In the next minutes, Daniel felt like a lumberjack. He lost count of how many goblins he hacked down and he had to be careful with his steps not to stumble on all of the goblins corpses lying around him in the snow. He killed four more goblins with three strikes and saw the first level 7 goblins appear in front of him. It didn’t really make a difference. While they were a little bit stronger and faster, his equipment advantage alone made it a very unfair fight. He hacked them down and then heard Jacob scream.

“Slowly fall five meters back! Let them climb over their fallen to slow down the wave!” The experienced fighter commanded and Daniel followed the suggestion.

A small glance to the side showed him that Fedor had arrived next to him and was falling back a bit, too. The explosions form Isabella’s fireballs and Anna’s ice bombs could still be heard over the fight. Meanwhile, Daniel had another look at his status.

Mana 68%

Stamina 65%

With his high regeneration, he was probably the best suited for a drawn out fight. His only hope was that the dungeon would run out of goblins before he and his friends ran out of mana and stamina.

When he’d fallen back the five meters Jacob had ordered, he went on with attacking the goblins that had followed him.

While he was not injured, the endless wave of goblins began to get on his nerves. After a few more minutes, his sword arm was starting to feel tired. While his overall stamina was still fine, it seemed like it didn’t really reflect the status of each part of his body equally.

“Bosses!” He heard Anna scream and looked up in the direction of the dungeon entrance. Their situation just had gotten a lot worse. The armored floor bosses were starting to appear at the dungeon entrance. While Isabella’s and Anna’s magic attacks were killing a few of them, their numbers slowly increased with each passing second. Just as more than twenty of the axe wielding fighers at level 15 gathered and Daniel was starting to think about a retreat, he heard the dwarf scream.

“Finally, more interesting food for my axes. I was starting to get bored.”

The dwarf used his jump attack again. This time, he didn’t activate his fire attack and just landed between them. Daniel was worried for the dwarf for a moment, but when he saw that the large axes of the goblins were just rebounding from his heavy armor and that each of Kargarn’s attacks left behind flying goblin body parts, he sighted. He realized that none of these opponents were any danger for Jacob and the dwarf. It was a bit humbling when he thought about his first fight against the goblin boss, but it gave him a goal to work towards.

“Keep the fireballs going, they can’t really injure the little asshole anyway.” Jacob commanded. He had arrived at the side of the group of goblin bosses and each of his sword strikes was cutting off a goblins head.

With the boss situation well in hand, Daniel turned his focus back on hacking down goblins as fast as he could.

It took ten more minutes, but finally the dungeon stopped spewing out new goblins. Five more minutes later, the remaining goblins were all dead. Daniel took a deep breath and put his sword back into his inventory. His right arm felt like lead and his whole body was hurting. As the fight went on and he got more and more tired, he had started to make minor mistakes and had been rewarded with goblin attacks against his armor. They hadn’t created wounds, but he had bruises all over his body.

He sat down into the snow and took another look at his status.

Status Daniel Krieger

Level

XP

Free Attribute Points

17

238,539

20

Life

Mana

Stamina

83%

46%

33%

He didn’t know how many goblins they’d fought, but from the fact that they were fighting with ten people and that he got two whole levels, the number must’ve been quiet large.

“Why are you sitting down? Let’s go into the dungeon! That was a good warm up. I’m stoked, let’s hunt more goblins!” The dwarf yelled at his direction. Daniel was too tired to even reply.

“We need to regroup Kargarn. The girls ran out of mana and Daniel and Fedor look depleted as well. Let’s treat the wounds of the other party first.” Jacob suggested and Daniel had to look up. He saw that the other four travelers were heavily injured, two of them were even unconscious. He was starting to get up, but Jacob only shook his head.

“I got this, try to regenerate as fast as possible. Kargarn is right, we need to get into the dungeon. If not, another wave could attack us any moment.” Jacob explained and went over to the wounded.

This sobered up Daniel, he tried to push back the exhaustion from his mind and started to meditate to speed up his regeneration.