We will not need to use any special tricks for this boss. He's a dumb brute who can only swing his club around… This one is different though, his mouth is billowing smoke out of it… Shit he might be a rare variant boss. This is going to be a pain.

“He might breath fire, if he does retreat immediately he has to have his feet planted so he can't chase after you.”

I start making as many puddles as I can and drench the main fighters in water. The reason being, so there equipment doesn't catch fire from a single attack. We've been using this method from the beginning of the dungeon. I start to make a hole and fill with water for later use when the ogre charges.

“If he's moving he can't breath fire, it takes all his concentration to do that. Just dodge his attacks until you see him plant both his feet.”

I don't want to use my knife cannon or knives cannon on enemies I don't have to. So I'll hold off for now.

We pound him, everyone listened to my instructions. When they see the ogre plant both his feet into the ground they back off. Hilda is slightly slower than everyone else but still fast enough to avoid damage. The plan is working perfectly for now. A single hit from his giant club could seriously wound or even kill someone. All it would take would be one hit. I've shot a few arrows into him, I can use bows now but I stick with a crossbow for actual combat. My aiming with a bow isn't as good. Plus I can't fire at full power yet.

We're whittling him down, it's going smoothly but I know from experience he'll enrage once he's been weakened. That's when we have to be the most careful. It's been around ten minutes since the fight started. He's used his breath attack several times but hasn't landed it on anyone yet. Gobber is doing wonderfully with his new classes. He makes an exceptional tank. I think it's making the ogre madder than the ogre would normally be. He enraged earlier then I expected he would because of his frustration at not landing a single attack.

“He's enraged, run if he's looking at you!”

He turns towards me. I use feral roar and cast haste on myself. I look back and he's not chasing me. He swung blindly at our allies. What!? Ogre's are supposed to be stupid. Is it because of the demigods magic seeped into the dungeon? It might be because we have one over the limit for a normal dungeon group. He hits Gobber knocking him back twenty feet. He's in bad shape but not dead or unconscious. His bones might be broken though. If Gobber didn't have his two new classes I doubt he'd have survived. Let alone still be awake.

“Shit! He's acting differently, everyone be prepared for anything.”

I pull out my knife cannon. He starts chasing Zergnar the beast commander. He's faster then he should be! I aim for his leg but stop for a second. Using this would be a waste of resources... No! I have to use it or he might die! It's not fast enough though. In my slight hesitation he manages to hurt Zergnar, knocking him off his mount. I fire at ogres leg. Zergnar's legs were hurt and his dire wolf is in bad shape. His dire wolf managed to fling him at the last second making him avoid a death blow.

I start reaching for my knives cannon, I hate using this trump card but it's to save everyone's lives. I aim it and by that time, the ogre is swinging down his club… It's too late, I fire the cannon. Zergnar leg's were destroyed in the previous attack and in the last attack of the ogre's the dire wolf was crushed to death… My knives cannon lands, shredding the through his body. He's still wobbling on his last legs though. About to fall over dead, he inches towards Zergnar.

Shit! I don't have any trump cards left I can use at this range. He's over top of Zergnar he lifts his club up! Thinking quickly I throw Zergnar into the air with a control nature uppercut. Launching him away from the ogre just before he's crushed. The ogre looks over at me and throws his club! It's too fast for me to dodge! I'm knocked unconscious.

Blue mage skill learned Ogre's strength- temporarily boosts strength for 10 seconds

Blue mage passive skill upgraded Reptilian regeneration-->Ogre regeneration- Able to regenerate lost limbs and body parts within months of losing them

Master of learning 21 to 22

I woke up a little later, the boss died right after attacking me. It was the last of his energy in that attack. Zergnar was alive… But in very bad shape, even after using regenerate he still couldn't walk. Even if he can later he might have a limp permanently… Even worse his pet just died, it was more than a pet though.

It was his pet, his mount and his best friend. Zergnar cried morning the loss of his companion… We all just stood there… Feeling sorry for him. There was nothing we could do but feel sorry for him. If only I didn't have this negative trait! It's all my fault! I should have been able to control it! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!

“Can… Can I borrow you're sword Kite? I don't think I can do what I want to with my spear...”

Is Zergnar trying to kill himself… I don't understand. I don't think he would do that though. If I ask why he wanted it...No I couldn't ask what he wanted it for. I handed over my sword and he started cutting up his dire wolf. Skinning it completely, he stabbed my sword into him, digging out his heart he ate it...

“There, now he'll be a part of me forever."

He took the pelt to make armor out of it. We looted the room and left. Several rares but none for myself and none I didn't have. My greed acted up but I dealt with it the only way I knew how. Pricking my finger when the urge came over me. Why would I even need rares I couldn't use but could make versions I could? This trait needs to be dealt with. I need to find a way to remove this trait.

Even with losing his pet. I still think we could clear the tier four dungeon. It will take a few days to get there. Maybe he could get a different mount? I half expect Zergnar to head back home but he comes with us. Getting there is too easy, we have no problems. We make it to the entrance after five days. It will take another week to get home too. I'll miss the first few days of school which is fine.

We take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow we'll head down to the rest floor. Then continue from there after resting a day. With tier four dungeons, the floors can range between seven to ten. I plan to help Zergnar get a new pet. In this area the enemies should be tougher since we're not near any cities. We wait until night and head out. Everyone else is asleep, I don't want them to be fatigued for the dungeon tomorrow.

Me and Zergnar go alone. The enemies aren't too difficult to kill by ourselves. I cant focus on making wind scrolls to refill the cannons though. I still need to make two more. I should be able to make scrolls faster once we enter the dungeon because it's a high mana area. Zergnar was injured so badly that he now walks with a limp. Even healing with regenerate hasn't cured him completely. We enter a forest nearby.

We're attacked by a few hell bats, immunity to fire, which was their weak point before. Switching to freeze instantly kills them. They fall out of the sky and shatter on the ground. We don't want to tame one of those for him since he needs something to ride on. We fight more hell bats, I'm ready to quit when we see a pack of dread wolves.

They aren't a part of the dire wolf evolution. Meaning Sock will never evolve into one of these. The dread wolves are pure black and have several tails, all with poisonous stingers on them. They'd be difficult to fight let alone tame, I'll start by weakening them down with some arrows.

I fire a stealth snipe shot at the one in the back. “Critical hit!” Instant death. The 3 left in the pack noticed and have started coming! I had already laid some sink traps and watered the surface in some area's making it more difficult to get to us. I fire a few more arrows killing another 1. Before they got to close to use a bow anymore. Pulling out my sword and shield I beat on the one I'm fighting while Zergnar tries to tame the other. I block until I have the chance for an opportune control nature spear. It's skin is weak enough to impale with the ground unlike the owl bear. Mines dead but something is wrong with Zergnar.

He should easily be able to tame these pets on his first attempt but it looks like he's struggling. The monster is attacking him viciously, with him barely defending. Should I kill the last dread wolf? No, I need to let Zergnar handle this. He's not doing very well though.

“Whats wrong? Why aren't you taming it?”

I ask moving in to defend him. He's silent for a moment then speaks.

“If… if I tame another wolf... It will be like replacing Bloodyfang.”

I just assume that was his dire wolfs name.

“Bloodyfang wanted to you live Zergnar. He launched you out of harms way so only your bottom half got crushed. The blow from the ogre would have killed you... If he didn't put himself into harms way and toss you off at the last second.”

He stands there thinking about it then asks.

“What does that have to do with me replacing him?”

“He wanted you to live, having a pet is your lifeblood. If you don't have a pet you are far weaker. You're still grieving, I understand but if you can't move on than chances are you will be a hindrance to yourself. And to us and to your future. You would make his sacrifice pointless?”

Crying Zergnar finally tames the dread wolf… We go back to camp, Zergnar takes watch for the rest of the night with the few other gnolls we brought for that purpose.

Before we head in, I want to try on that gauntlet. I'm hoping their are no negative effects on it. That would be awful. I use detect on it again. I noticed the name changed. It was originally called “The cursed gauntlet of pure defenses”. Which was far too long, it's name now is “Aegis”… What kind of a name for a piece of equipment is that? It sounds like the name of some type of shield or a person, not a gauntlet. Realizing I wasn't getting any information about the mystery effect from the name I reluctantly equip it.

The moment I do I feel it latch onto me, sucking all my forms of resources. My energy is completely drained dry! My rage is being filled and sucked out! My chi is slowly seeping away! My mana is draining steadily down! I can't remove it, it's latched onto my arm! I thought he got rid of the curse!? Finally it stops, I check my stats...

Everything is replenishing that does so naturally. My chi lost was only around seven percent. As long as it doesn't do that every single time I equip it, it should be fine. My health and fatigue have also been drained. Both sitting at half what they normally are.

My health is slowly going up from my rejuvenate. I try to constantly keep rejuvenate up on myself. Even a weak version is enough to help level druid. As shape shifting goes, once I hit 25, I should able to transform into 3 animals. A few besides the ones that I had granted levels are getting close to 25.

I assume my fatigue will once we get some sleep.

Zergnar was still awake. It looked like he had been crying the whole night. We head towards the entrance but he doesn't come.

“I need to level this pet up more so it doesn't die. I will not let that happen again.”

I understand and we head into the tier four dungeon. With Hilda in the group, we're at the max limit of five people. We had six in the last dungeon and that might have effected the difficulty. Some adventurer groups still adventure with more than the recommended amount. Without Zergnar this will be more difficult but also less difficult.

It's another time dungeon… WHY! These are the hardest dungeons. We're barely inside when we get into our first fight. Devil horned rabbits, I lay down some string and make a trap out of it. It slows the first one down but the next one manages to break through. Dammit, this couldn't be easy could it. Gobber was waiting for it thankfully and finished it off in one hit.

The other one that tried to rush through first was completely tangled still. He was easy to dispatch. Any groups bigger than that and we risk someone getting impaled by the devil horns. This one is going to be more difficult than the tier three dungeon. I'm half tempted to just leave with how many negatives are adding up.

We push forwards anyways. I doubt anyone would want to pack up and leave without trying to make it to the boss. The first floor was only devil horned rabbits. That being the case it was still difficult. The only one injury so far being Nargzar. He went in for an attack and got impaled through his stomach. We thought he died but it somehow missed all his vitals. With 3 healers here. He quickly was healed back to full health. The hole in him was healed with regenerate. The only big difference was the giant sized hole in his armor.

Pets don't count towards the total amount of people in the dungeon. I think it has to do with them being made from mana so it won't be siphoned from them in dungeons. Once we get more well organized, that means we could have fifteen beast tamers with three or four pets each in a single raid dungeon. Without any negative effects towards the difficulty!

The second floor we start seeing time mages. These ones are more difficult. Both boosting the speed of enemies, while slowing our own speeds. Me and Gargarz could cast haste. Which could provide protection in the form of precasting haste on people so the slow would be negated. Some of us still managed to be slowed though. With 3 healers again it is quickly dispelled. The speed boosts to the devil horned rabbits was the biggest obstacle. They could push through my web traps without them needing to sacrifice at least one of themselves weakening it.

Master of learning 22 to 23

Floor three was similar to floor two. The next floor or the fifth floor will be a rest level. We need to make it there quickly because some of us are worn out. Gargarz has the lowest fatigue out of the group and he might be slowing us down some. I let him ride on Sock for a moment to help ease his lost fatigue. We push forwards to the fourth floor, unfortunately it isn't a rest floor.

There is a new monster in the form of a bloated blink monster. It can teleport as well as spew out vomit that causes the paralysis, confusion and sickly debuffs. If someone's hit by that during a fight we might be in trouble. We have to pull each group carefully. I stealth shot snipe a target every single pull. Hoping for it to be an instant kill. Gobber also fires arrows for these groups. We have too much defense and not enough range without him helping. We can kill one-two mobs before each pull depending on my luck at criticals. We make it to the fifth floor and rest for the night.

During the break on the fifth floor. I refill my knife cannon and knives cannon and patch the giant hole that was made in Nargzar's armor. I know we'll probably need them for the boss fight soon. During my dreams I kept dreaming of myself being devoured, when I woke up I swore I heard someone say.

“Feed me.”

But everyone else was still asleep. We're going to push towards the boss floor today which should be either the seventh eighth or ninth floor... Depending on the size of this dungeon. We head out and the next floor has no new enemies, we're still careful and take our time heading to the seventh floor.

We get to the seventh floor. I notice the layout is slightly different for some reason and go to walk forward but Gobber stops me.

“My sense trap is going off.”

That means Gobber is already level 40 with scout at least, probably more. I get the feeling that the room is tilted slightly to the left now. Even still I don't see what type of trap it would be.

“I can't tell what trap is here, anyone know?”

… We think for a minute then I notice something. The floor tiles are all color coded. Where the wall is the highest are openings, so chances are. Depending on which color you step on, it will make something pour out of each hole. Testing this theory I step on the blue one and water comes pouring out. I managed to route it around myself with elemental magic or it might have made me slip and fall against the wall which would probably result in a trap to my death.

We look at each trap design and figure the only safe ones are the brown ones. Nothing comes out of when stepped on. There is a treasure chest in the middle of the room… Should we risk it? YES OF COURSE!... Even fighting my urges I still think we should. I tell them to get to safety on the other side before I attempt to open it. Everyone easily makes it across knowing the trap now.

I don't even open the treasure chest, depositing it directly into my void bag I feel the weight being drawn off a trap. Once it's fully off the walls open up above the trap holes on the main side to reveal several blink dogs. They rush towards me setting off the floor tiles. Everything goes insane! Arrows are shooting out! Lava! Magic! Water! Boiling oil! All moving towards me because of the slanted floors. I jump towards the exit but am hit with three arrows doing so.

I'm down to twenty five percent health. Some of the blink dogs have already been taken out by the hazards but a few are left alive. Gobber shoots and kills one. The last two manage to make it to us. Hilda, Nargzar, Sock and Gobber are all ready to defend. Easily killing the first one but the last one left alive blinks passed them.

It's right above me! I'm already about to die! With no weapons or my shield in my hand, nothing to defend myself with. I try to block with my hand. The wolf bites down on the gauntlet causing no damage. I forgot about the gauntlet! I easily defend the few seconds it takes for the dog to be dispatched by my companions.

We heal up and I remove the treasure chest from my bag. It had around a dozen gold and two rare rings. One was a ring I already had but the other was an illusion ring. I had a one hundred percent chance to learn it too! Totally worth me almost dieing. I'll deconstruct it once we're safe but for now I'll equip it...

WAIT WHAT!? Their was a rare inside my other rare, shouldn't an explosion happen? I guess I need to do more research on how long it takes... Maybe it being in a container removed the chances of it interfering with each others mana?

Making it to the eighth floor we notice new enemies, time knights. They're difficult to kill because they can rewind damage on themselves and allies. Any knights we come against we have to sneak attack and kill first or the fight will be drawn out tremendously. The knights can't rewind death so it's easy enough to just kill everything by focusing each target. Then ganging up on him afterwords.

Everything is adding up though. With the hasting and slowing of the time mages, the potential one hit kill rabbits, the debuffing blink monsters and now the healing time knights. We could easily be outlasted by a group if we aren't careful. No near death experiences in the dungeon… We are all prepared for the boss fight.