After looking calmly at his status screen, he realized how much improvement he had. “All my class skills advanced, and the foes we fought against were not even that strong. Imagine when I go against stronger ones.”

He knew skills advanced quickly with fighting, but the progress he made had been amazing to say the least. After training for a week with such a great master like Jouti, his skills had begun to advance rather slowly. It took him only a day to get them to the peak of the Inferior tier. The next few days were spent training the skills into the Common tier.

Now, his skills had advanced a lot of levels only by fighting. “They’ll naturally advance, I just have to keep fighting.”

Fred focused on his attribute points, but in the end decided to distribute them among Intelligence and Wisdom. The Mana body skill was too good to waste its potential spending points in other attributes.

After getting it done, he laid on the bed and closed his eyes to sleep.

__________________

The next day, he bought two more change of clothes for 4 silver early in the morning, ate his breakfast and went to the guild. Getting there at the scheduled time, his teammates were already waiting.

“Hey everyone!” He waved at them while approaching the group.

“You’re the last one Fred. What took you so long?” Emmanuel said with impatience. By the way he was grabbing the hilt of his mace, it was obvious he wanted to smash some things.

“I needed to buy more clothes… You know I just arrived in the city.” Fred said with an apologetic smile.

Just as Emmanuel was about to say something, Diana slapped him in the shoulder and said. “Stop bothering Fred! He didn’t arrive late or anything, we were the ones that arrived early.”

Emmanuel shrugged and said with a smile on his face. “Sorry Fred. It’s just that I’m eager to fight!” His voice was full of enthusiasm.

“Let’s get going then.” Amanda said, “I bet that Emmanuel is not the only one eager to fight.” She said while pointing at Oliver, who was spinning his tantos on his fingers.

The group entered the dungeon just like the previous day, but better prepared now that they knew what to expect of the first layer of the dungeon.

They smashed the place apart, killing every goblin or hobgoblin that stood on their way. The creatures had no chance. Their team was too strong, and they covered for each other's weaknesses.

“Let’s try to face the boss of the dungeon.” Oliver suggested after they ended a fight. “The enemies in here are not up to our skills, we can easily kill them.”

They knew that the first layer barely represented a threat to a strong group of adventurers. Goblins were pack creatures, but they were harmless if you were prepared. There were some dangerous ones, like ranged goblins that used poisoned darts. But Diana's blood healing took care of that.

“Well, I’m not against the idea.” Emmanuel, who was full of green blood all over his body said.

“Well, even if we can’t win, we can at least safely retreat.” Said Fred.

After a quick vote, the group decided to go forward. Oliver began to read the map provided by the guild, and led the group toward the boss. The layout was a bit complicated, but the first layer was fully explored, and there were many signs to guide the path.

After walking for a while, Oliver came back from scouting.

“The boss is in the room ahead.” His voice was serious, the previous laziness left it. “The boss is an orc. It’s at least level 20, I can’t identify it. There are six hobgoblins with him, and twenty goblins.”

“We must have clear targets before going in.” Fred said. The situation required caution. “I can take care of the orc and offer some support when I’m able.” If they would take care of monsters, the boss had to be distracted.

Everyone else nodded. By now, they knew that Fred was the most powerful one amongst them.

“There are too many hobgoblins, and they can cause a lot of damage if left alone.” Diana said. “Oliver, could you take care of at least one before we engage? Are you able to take care of it and leave?”

All eyes turned to Oliver, if he could pull this out, the danger would diminish severely.

He nodded and said. “I’m confident in doing that. If I’m lucky, I could even take two out before getting out.”

Emmanuel placed his hand over Oliver’s shoulder and said. “Don’t risk it, we need you alive.” Oliver nodded, and the group approached the cave. Oliver cast his dark magic over the group, something he had never done before. A veil of darkness enveloped them, and according to Oliver, would muffle all sounds and make them almost invisible in the badly lighted cave. Oliver looked back at the team and nodded. He stepped out of his field, and disappeared. As soon as Oliver took the first hobgoblin out, they would engage.

His skills are truly amazing… Fred thought while looking around, he couldn’t find any sign of Oliver, for him, he had truly disappeared.

After some minutes, it happened. Oliver materialized out of thin air, and struck an archer hobgoblin. The creature didn’t even have time to react before Oliver’s tanto pierced through his neck, he turned around and slashed at another hob archer before running towards the group.

They had already left the veil by the time Oliver made the first strike. Some goblin archers tried to hit him, But somehow Oliver could see the attacks coming, and rolled to the side, evading most of the attacks. Unfortunately, an arrow hit him in the leg, right beneath his armor.

The group quickly caught up to him, and Diana took out the arrow while healing him. Amanda invoked three balls of fire and released them at the goblins. They dispersed to avoid the attacks, but some were still caught in it.

With sword in hand, Fred looked at the big creature coming at them from the back of the goblins group. The orc had green skin and was muscled, he was at least two and meters tall. There were tusks growing from beneath his lips, giving him a menacing look. He was carrying a metal hammer. He identified the creature before engaging.

Orc

lvl ?

Just as Oliver had said, he couldn’t identify it.

Fred invoked his armor around him. A translucent armor appeared over his body. After infinite armaments evolved to Common tier, he was able to pick another model, and after discussing it with Jouti, they decided upon this armor. Emmanuel stepped forward to stop the hobgoblins coming at them while Fred ran to meet the orc.

The creature was waiting for him with a swing of its hammer. Fred knew that invoking a shield wouldn’t make a difference, instead, he boosted his body and stepped to the side, avoiding the blow. Two floating swords tried to slice the orc while he attacked it, but they could barely get through his skin. They were a bother at most, but not a threat. Fred knew that only the sword in his hand could finish the creature.

The attack from his sword left a wound on its side. But the bones stopped it. Fred jumped back and avoided another angry swipe while attacking again. He used mana in every step, boosting his body and making small bursts to make him faster. By now, this fighting style was already ingrained into him.

He concentrated on his sword, and made it even sharper, mana sage helping him maintain the big amount of mana concentrated on it. The orc attacked him, and he boosted his body while evading the strike, he attacked with his sword, but the orc also stepped back, not taking the full blow. His attack had left a huge wound on its chest, but it was only superficial.

They began to attack and evade each other’s attack. The more Fred fought, the more comfortable he felt. His mana was far from being empty, and his sword was as sharp as ever.

The orc didn’t hit him directly with the mace, but he still took many punches and kicks. Even though they were not as deadly as its mace, he was still pretty hurt. His healing skill worked while boosted by mana body to heal him.

He stepped back and took a moment to look at how the fight was going behind him.

Emmanuel had taken one hob out, and Amanda had killed another one. Oliver was already on his feet, and killing the goblins that were left.

It’s time to end this. Fred thought while looking at the orc in front of him. The orc knew how to fight and didn’t leave any opening for him to kill it. Let’s create our own opening then. The orc swung its hammer again, but instead of evading, Fred created three shields in front of it. The first two were almost instantly shattered, and the last one delayed it for a bit, but the attack still hit his shoulder. However, his sword had already penetrated the orc skull.

He slided two meters to the side and felt the broken bones on his shoulder. If he didn’t have the armor on, he would be dead. He knew it was an unnecessary risk, as his team would have come to help in moments, but he wanted to take it out.

His healing began to work, and he approached the group, he used his two invoked swords and skewered the goblins that were left. The fight was finally over.

Diana approached him and placed her hand on his shoulder. A red glow washed over him, and his shoulder began to quickly mend.

After a minute, his shoulder was as good as new. “We made it!! HAHAHHAHA!!” Emmanuel laughed heartily, it was close, but they had killed the boss and his minions. “Next time the boss is mine Fred!” Diana turned to Emmanuel and healed his wounds. He had fought against three hobs at the same time, it was not an easy fight.

After everyone was healed, they looted the room. “Hey everyone! Look at what I found.” Oliver said from beside the boss's body.

They saw the silver crystal in Oliver’s hand and their eyes opened wide. It was a silver ranked skill!

“Which skill does it have?” Amanda asked. “See for yourself.” He said while throwing the crystal to her. She grabbed it, and after identifying, lost all interest. “Which one is it?” Fred asked her. “See for yourself.” She said while giving it to him. Using identify, a window popped up.

Rage (B)

Mana rages within you. Strengthen the user's body, while also making his mind hazy.

The skill was great, but the moment his eyes laid upon it, he knew who it was meant to belong. He passed the skill over to Diana, and let her inspect it. Emmanuel was curious to see the skill, but he waited for his turn. As soon as Diana identified it, a small slime appeared on her lips as she passed it unto Emmanuel.

He looked at the skill shard in his hand while saying. “Guys… This is…”

“I agree with letting him get the skill. We need to get stronger if we want to explore the dungeons.” Oliver said. The others agreed with him. Emmanuel thanked the group and shattered the shard on his hand, letting the skill fuse with him.

a silver glow enveloped him, and he learned the skill. Emmanuel smiled like a kid, and laughed. The others smirked seeing his reaction and left the dungeons.