I

With her initial goal accomplished, Eva gave some thought on how to handle the newfound power over the dungeon. She reasoned that if she changed the rules right away, the landwalkers would find out and camp the entrance waiting for her. Instead, it would be better to get away when the monsters came and then drop the hammer on them. In the interim, she would Sneak out and re-run the dungeon at Master✷ level except for the boss as many times as she could safely do before the 2 PM monster wave. She allocated her experience and started a new instance of the dungeon without being spotted.

The imps only got easier to deal with as she progressed through the dungeon runs. Each run took her around two hours to clear the imps before leaving and re-entering. It was a gold mine of experience ripe for the taking. After eight dungeon runs, and seventeen hours of dungeon delving, Eva took a break. There was less than an hour until the monsters would be active. It was time to prepare for the escape. She spent her experience and her class points before looking at her status and her skills.

Novice Fireball✦ Lv 3

Deals 2.3 damage per mana spent

Creates an explosion, dealing 10% additional damage in a sphere 0.4 yards across

Besides the amazing Fireball✦ upgrade, Eva advanced to tier 3. This meant less experience from the imps, but the return was still decent. She needed 125 in each stat and then she had to spend 10,000 experience to advance. There was one thing that surprised her more than anything else. Swords★ and Infuse Weapon★ did not rank up despite gaining several levels in each skill! It seemed that there was a different breakpoint for Journeyman★ level skills. If it followed the same pattern as everything else, she guessed she would need to hit 25 in the skills before she could choose another option to improve the skills.

Eva took the opportunity to have a look at what the landwalkers were up to since she wasn’t going to run the dungeon again before the monster wave. She Snuck out of the dungeon and into the cave. She stayed towards the edge and tried to hide in the shadows to minimize her visibility. From what she could see, the landwalkers were treating the dungeon like business as usual. There was a steady trickle of them heading away from the dungeon to prepare for the monsters. She Snuck back into the dungeon and waited for the system message. She’d give it another five minutes past that before she would make her escape.

II

There are 20 days remaining

4976/10000 are still alive

New Quest: Defeat a monster wave. 0/2121 killed

Eva took a deep breath. It was time to go. She Snuck▲ out of the dungeon and looked around. There were a few more guards than the day before, something she attributed to her little stunt, but not so many that she couldn’t fight them all. Observe★ put their levels at around 13. She waited in the cave for some kind of distraction. Several minutes later, one dropped from the cliff above into the enclosed area around the dungeon. It was a very large and very angry looking snake. Eva knew that her time had come.

She stuffed a Health Potion✦ into her mouth just in case she had to drink it while climbing and Snuck▲ out of the cave. She stuck to the edges and grabbed the closest hold in the cliff face and began to climb. Hands and shoes gripped the rock as she inched her way ever upwards. The climb down had been easy, with the gravity assist. Going up was a different sort of challenge. She wanted to remain as quiet as she could while at the same time climb quickly to avoid being seen.

A rock slipped from the cliff when Eva pressed her foot into a small outcrop a little too hard. She nearly lost her balance but recovered in time. The problem was that the landwalkers were alerted to her presence! She dropped the Sneak skill and rushed to climb the rock face while several of the guards shot arrows at her. Thankfully, her shield was strapped to her back for the climb and took most of the hits. It didn’t cover everywhere, and she got an arrow through her left calf that caused her to stumble.

She reached down and yanked out the arrow while taking a gulp of the Health Potion✦ from the bottle hanging from her mouth. As soon as the wound closed, Eva pushed herself to climb faster. Twenty feet to go. Ten feet. Two feet. Finally, with all the power she could manage, she threw herself over and rolled onto the top of the cliff. The cliff itself made for a much better shield against the landwalkers than her own shield had done.

With the important part of the escape managed, she got up onto her feet and fought any snakes that got close to her. There weren’t very many, but it was a welcomed bit of experience that she’d steal from the aliens. Soon enough, the message popped up to inform her that the monsters had all been slain. She was awarded a small amount of experience for participating but nothing more.

Eva chose that moment to lock the dungeon by setting the whitelist only to her. No one else would be able to enter it. She knew they had some human allies, so adding humans to the whitelist wouldn’t do what she wanted.

She Snuck▲ towards the path that went to the fort, all the while keeping an eye on the landwalkers to see their reaction. It took some time, with some of them running back and forth between the dungeon and the town proper before she saw many of them exit the town like bees from a kicked nest. She watched as they assembled their forces—at least a thousand strong—before they started off in her direction!

Eva took the chance to run towards the village before the landwalkers could see her. Along the way, an idea wound its way through her subconscious brain and into the forefront. She knew that whatever they were going to do was her fault entirely, and so it would be up to her to make a difference. The recent boost to Fireball✦ was enough for her to kill most of the lower-leveled landwalkers in one shot. The major roadblock she had to tossing Fireball✦ after Fireball✦ was mana. She would need mana potions; a lot of mana potions.

She knew vaguely how to get to the dungeon from the fort, and from the dungeon she could get to the village quickly enough. The dungeon camp now had completed defensive works in place, with walls and towers surrounding it. She made a stop at the dungeon entrance to warn the person on duty that an attack was likely coming and the vague direction. Once that was done, she continued her race to the village.

III

The village had continued to build up its defenses as well. The palisade had been reinforced and towers sat behind with enough room for around twenty ranged fighters each. Eva entered the village and beelined to where the council was. She grabbed the attention of the council members who were there.

“The landwalkers are preparing an attack,” she said, breathless. “I don’t know when they’re coming, but it should be within the next few hours. I’m going to murder as many of the fuckers as I can before they get here.”

Some of the councilors looked shocked, but a couple looked smug, as if this was something they had predicted would happen.

“Why now?” one of them asked.

“We knew it was going to happen sooner or later after the attack on the dungeon a couple days ago,” answered another.

“Well,” said a third, “let’s get the news out there and finish preparations. I want scouts to fan out and give us advance warning closer to their arrival as well as the makeup of their fighters. The more we know, the better. Send a runner to the dungeon to ensure they’re ready and send out some scouts of their own.”

The rest of the councilors nodded in agreement.

“Oh, and Eva?” he continued. “Thanks for bringing this news to us quickly. Good luck out there.”

Eva nodded and ran towards the market where she could pick up the potions she needed. She felt guilty knowing that people would die for what she did. At the same time, if she let the current state of affairs continue, she knew that even more would die. Perhaps everyone in the village. Even if not dead, she’d seen the cruelty of the humans from the fort. If they were given the captives when the village lost, that would be a tragedy and something she was adamant she would prevent if at all possible!

“Hey Lex,” she said when she approached his table in the market.

“What can I do for you today, Eva?” he asked.

“How many Mana Potions do you have?”

“Of what quality?”

“Like in total.”

“Hmm, I’ve got 48, why?”

“I’ll take them all.”

Eva took out the shards she’d gained from the dungeon and handed them to Lex. That she was using her ill gotten gains to fix a mess created by getting them was not lost on her.

“There’s going to be a fight against the landwalkers soon. Please make as many potions as you can. We’re going to need them!”

“Thanks for the heads up. I hope to see you later?”

“When it’s over I’ll come by and chat.”

She put away the mana potions into her backpack and took out one of the stamina potions. Though she’d recovered somewhat from her run to the village, she did not have enough stamina to make it back to the fort to see what was going on without drinking a potion.

IV

Half an hour later, Eva arrived at the edge of the woods surrounding the fort. The landwalkers were just starting to arrive in the clearing, and the humans of the fort had opened the gate for them to come in. A small group of the landwalkers swiftly entered the fort. The leader of the humans approached them, only to fall to the ground, dead! She could hear screams from within the fort, but they were silenced quickly when no more violence was meted out. A different human came forward and bowed to the landwalkers before the landwalkers exited the fort followed by a stream of humans.

Eva Snuck▲ towards where the landwalkers were coming from. They had been strung out into a long line along the route from their town to the fort. This would give her the best avenue of attack while also remaining out of harm's way herself. In only ten minutes, she found the end of the line. She readied a Fireball✦ and threw it before readying and throwing the next one a second later. With the damage that Fireball✦ did, there were no screams from the dead. They just dropped to the ground and smoldered. It was the explosive part of the Fireball✦ that alerted the landwalkers that there was something wrong.

Fireball✦ after Fireball✦ fell into the now scattering landwalkers. Most of them found their marks, resulting in a corpse. Even if she missed, the explosion usually caught one or two of the landwalkers, dealing some damage. They ran from her in the direction of the fort, with Eva’s Fireballs✦ hot on their tails.

She chugged the first of many Mana Potions✦ and continued her pyromanic assault against the aliens. By the time the stream of landwalkers entered the open field, she’d killed several dozen and injured around the same amount. The fleeing invaders sewed chaos within the ranks of their more composed brethren and the humans that had sallied forth to join them.

With the landwalkers bunched up and no longer organized thanks to the influx of panicked aliens, Eva had a great opportunity that she was not going to waste. She lobbed Fireballs✦ as quickly as she could into the crowd. Each one was almost guaranteed to kill the one it hit and damage the ones nearby. One Fireball✦ every second fell against the landwalker force. The ones in the center tried to get away, while the ones on the outside showed signs of fear. The leaders of the force looked in her direction and motioned for the fighters to take her out.

Eva kept chugging her Mana Potions✦ and throwing more Fireballs✦. The potions filled her stomach but she forced more of them down so she could keep killing. When the group of fighters approached her, she did her best to kite them and pick them off with more Fireballs✦. Four minutes later, she was out of mana and potions. The landwalkers attacking her had been whittled down to three, which she took care of with her shortsword.

She Snuck▲ back into the woods, watching for the direction the landwalkers would take. While she waited, she forced herself to throw up the now-useless liquid contents of the potions in case she needed to imbibe a stamina or health potion later.

After only a few minutes, the lumbering mass of landwalkers and humans made their choice to go towards the village. Eva caught the shapes of several scouts rushing off to give warning of the coming fight. She had done enough to kill around 200 of them, but that was only a small dent in their overall numbers. She’d need more potions or she’d need to face them head on with her sword and shield. She was happy to do either as long as they all died for taking her friend.

V

It took about half an hour for her to run back to the village while dodging trees, brambles, and other obstacles. When she arrived, she saw the towers filled with people ready to defend the village from the aliens. By the gate were most of the rest of the villagers dressed in their combat gear awaiting the arrival of the enemy.

Eva made her way through the lines and inside the village. She’d spent her entire reserves of Mana Potions✦ to whittle away the numbers and she would need more to be the boogeywoman that would keep the traitors and invaders awake at night. She found Lex surrounded by a group of people, handing out merchandise and collecting payment. She waited her turn.

“Hey, Lex,” she said. “Business looks like it’s going well.”

“Sure is!” he replied with a smile. “Conflict has a way of separating money from people, after all.”

“You have any more Mana Potions available?”

“Only a handful.”

“I’ll take them and a couple Stamina Potions as well.”

“Sure thing.”

Lex proffered the potions in exchange for her currency.

“By the way,” he continued, “I have some other potions that might be useful for you. They don’t regenerate health or mana or stamina like the ones you’re used to, but they do have their effects. This one,” he pulled out a bright orange potion that Eva could have sworn looked like it was swirling, “will burn when exposed to air. Unfortunately they’re hard to make and would cost you a Journeyman Shard★ each, or equivalent value of other shards.”

“That is pretty nice,” she said, thinking.

The effect would be like a fireball or maybe napalm. Great for crowd control, and likely impactful on the small scale for the upcoming fight. She would see if she could afford a couple just to test.

“What’s the exchange rate between shards?”

“Five Novice✦ for one Journeyman★. I’ll make it four Novice✦ for you since you've been a good customer.”

“I’ll take two, then,” she said, handing over most of the rest of her money.

“Come again anytime. Knock ‘em dead!”

Eva chuckled as she walked away. Though the firebombs were in plastic bottles, she was strong enough to throw it at the ground and have it rip apart on impact. Though not the best delivery vessel—glass would have been infinitely better—they would work for the purpose she had in mind. She made her way back to the lines and Meditated✦ off to one side. She would need as much Mana as she could have to trash the aliens when they finally came.