After a bit of tracking Locke finally found the foe he was looking for. A lone wolf near a pool of water quenching it's thirst. What was interesting in this game is that a lot of wolves didn't actually travel in packs when found this close to the starting area. It seemed like the developers were slightly lenient when designing this dungeon, which was a nice change of pace. Locke activated his enhancement and walked forward without his weapon drawn. He wasn't being stealthy and intentionally got it's attention.

The wolf jumped backwards in a defensive posture at the sudden appearance of an enemy. It decided to attack shortly after and pounced towards Locke hoping to knock him. Looks like the animals plan was to get a good vantage point to clamp down its jaws on his neck. Of course this simple plan would never work against Locke and with a quick sidestep the creature landed behind him. After a couple more similar exchanges the wolf most likely realized this pattern was futile. Changing tactics it decided to just attack anywhere it could reach.

This time however Locke didn't attempt to dodge as it's jaw latched onto his side. There was very little pain and his HP barely dropped. His endurance stat was now 30 thanks to his physical attribute buff being set to endurance. In a frenzied rage it continued to bite him for a some time before Locke smacked the side of it's head with a quick jab. The force from the attack sent the wolf back slightly and it decided to also jump backwards to create some distance.

Satisfied by how much the endurance stat lowered the damage he received it was time to set his plan in motion. Locke proceeded to heal his HP to full using healing touch. The efficiency on healing touch was extremely bad. To the point Locke understood that it would quickly become obsolete as the players max HP continued to rise. The goal at this point was to gain a point in healing or holy mastery, whichever the name was to see what it did. His previous tests of injuring and healing himself didn't seem to work. Granted Locke only did it for roughly an hour so its possible that he needed to continue at it before gaining a point. He decided to stop though, for one he wasn't exactly a masochist so it wasn't a pleasant experience even if the pain was quick and reduced. The other main reason was it felt that the developers most likely thought of this method and didn't allow it for balance reasons.

Either way he still wanted to find out what the mastery was which is why the situation of this single wolf attacking him came to be. After about fifteen minutes of this back and forth between him and this creature Locke finally got a notification. Satisfied with the results he quickly finished off the wolf who was looking to be on it's last legs anyways.

Opening up the window Locke was very satisfied with what he saw. The notifications indicated that he received a point in both Holy Mastery and Restoration Mastery. Also he was the first to acquire both which provided him with extra attributes similar to the previous world firsts.

Wow, this was worth it for sure. Having an extra 6 wisdom will help a ton in the long run, it sucks that I wasn't able to get similar increases with my other masteries though. Should I keep at it and learn earth mastery? No, there is no point. The world first for that would be more likely snatched by someone else already. It's better to focus on ice and lightning at least for now.

This test provided some insight on a few aspects of this game. There seemed to be a world first for every mastery and he definitely missed the ones provided by fire, ice, and lightning. The holy element seemed harder to master compared to the others and required a weird method like this one to increase it quickly. For this reason it seemed like Locke got lucky and earned the world first. It was hard to tell if the self injury tests had any effect but healing his prior teammates definitely should have.

I will choose to believe the self injury method doesn't work, and honestly I don't even want to do this new method anymore either. There was something off about causing intentional self arm to gain a slight power increase like this that just didn't sit right with him.

As for the endurance stat it did increase how much damage his punches did. Strength seemed to come out on top, but it made sense endurance also made a difference. His body was harder which included the fists thus resulting in more damage. This also brought up the thought of someone who has a ton of more strength than endurance. Would that person's punches also cause self harm due to his fists not being able to withstand the power? Locke was not looking forward to testing that theory out and hoped someone else would do it for him.

He started stretching, “Alright enough of this, time for revenge.”

Locke left the endurance boost running this time around to lower his stamina consumption during travel. He made his way back to where the party fought the hobgoblins previously, or more precisely where they saw the several plumes of smoke. It was hard to say at this point if there was a settlement or not but the answer to that question will soon be unveiled to him.

It was smooth sailing for Locke as he traversed the forest as the wildlife no longer posed any threat. In under a day of travel he was now on the outskirts of a large clearing with several plumes of smoke flowing into the sky. The clearing held a fort in the center with decently high wooden palisade walls. There were also scout towers placed in several locations behind the walls overlooking the area. The towers appeared to be manned by what looked to be small goblins.

Locke's theory proved to be correct quite quickly as he received a quest the moment he laid eyes on the fort. Looks like this is an optional objective of this dungeon.

D rank difficulty......I am still not sure the system is comparing the quest to my current strength, level, or just for users that join this tutorial. Either way that is two ranks higher than the dungeon itself, it shouldn't be easy. Not that it was unexpected after the encounter from earlier.

Daylight still remained which meant Locke was not confident getting a closer look at least from this direction. The plan was the circle the area and find a better place to scout from as well as the main gate that they use. He was certainly not strong enough for a full frontal charge to take them all on alone so it was time to get some recon in to see what can be done.

It didn't take long to find a good spot to scout from as there was an large overlooking cliff edge on the other side of the clearing. Honestly it was pretty close to the fort, roughly one hundred meters away. This confused Locke at first as it was clearly a security flaw that could be exploited. However, upon closer inspection he noticed that there was what looked to be the initial stages of a mine being dug out. Also if the forts purpose was to only to keep wildlife out then its fulfilling it. No matter the reason it was an obvious help to Locke's plan so he made his way to the top of the cliff cautiously. There could be traps or scouts up top for all he knew, but there was none to be found.

Overlooking the clearing from the cliff edge Locke had a good vantage point to see what he was dealing with. With perception boost running bringing the attribute to 38 there were no problems getting a good look at the inner workings of the fort.. There were hobgoblins and smaller goblins roaming about the area. He could also see several wolf like creatures in a somewhat massive cage that was most likely locked. These wolves seemed a bit bulkier than normal but it was hard to tell from here. As far as buildings go there were a total of six that he could see, they did not seem very well constructed. They were made of wood without any doors or windows, just frames that normally would contain them.

Just as I thought there were way to many of them to charge head on without a plan. But what plan could overcome these odds, maybe if I had my left arm there would be something. Sheathing or dropping my weapon to cast spells is a huge handicap that all my plans would have to consider..........well I guess observing them from here for any flaws or weaknesses that can be exploited is all that can be done for now.

Locke setup watch on the top of the tall cliff edge that helped him overlook the place. There were several trees up top that he could catch some sleep without being attacked by most wildlife. It was a pain in the ass to climb the tree as well as tying a safely rope to prevent falling due to the fact he had one arm. The rope wasn't very secure and the basic knot wasn't the best. But, Locke wasn't really worried because even if he fell out of the tree his HP and healing spells could deal with it. The sound from the fall could be a problem, but the cliff was far enough away to where it shouldn't matter.

Spending the next two days overlooking the fort Locke finally had what he felt was a viable plan. It depended on a certain aspect of the game he wasn't sure about but it was the best option. Based on observation he counted a total of twenty two goblins, eleven hobgoblins, six worgs, and one larger hobgoblin which appeared to be their leader. The larger wolves he saw in the cage turned out to be worgs, powerful beasts which should be more dangerous than a bear.

The leader of the fort looked especially dangerous and Locke could tell that in a one in one fight he would lose every time. The monster was almost a foot or two larger than the other hobgoblins and wielded a very large great sword. Even with strong swordsmanship he figured that blocking an attack from that weapon would not leave him unharmed. Locke understood that stat wise these creatures had more physical stats then him even if he boosted his strength to 30. However he was confident against the normal hobgoblins with his boosted strength, even if theirs was higher it shouldn't be by much. The only dangerous aspect of them were their numbers and skills.

While waiting for nightfall Locke began to gather a large amount of flammable material into his inventory and other necessary items. Once nightfall hit it was time to start stage one of the plan which began with infiltration.