Richard and his team set up their little resting location in the slightly remote area covered by ancient trees.

''Hey Richard! We have few extra healing potions now so I think it is better to take larger share of them as you are still injured.'' Nick looked over the wounds on Richard and felt a bit guilty about his injuries.

''Thanks for the gesture. I think it will come in handy.'' Richard replied modestly.

Rummaging his backpack, Richard took out a blanket and set it on the ground before slumping his ass on it.

''By the way Nick, what happened to you back then? I was sure you were heavily injured from the spear throw.''

''Uhh... About that. I managed to block it with my wrist guard, but the force dropped me from the branch. When I fell to the ground, I went breathless for some time.''

''So you were just scaring us for no reason and and taking relaxing down time while me and Nadia were fighting for our lives.''

''Nononono, you misunderstand. I really could not move properly and I felt dizzy enough to blur my vision. I even lost some durability on the wrist guards.'' Nick desperately complained about his condition, obviously hiding the fact that the injury was not as bad as it sounded.

''Sure thing champ.'' Richard snorted lightly and began to bandage and sterilize his burn wound with a small medical kit he had taken from the hotel's bathroom.

The group fell silent for a brief moment thinking back to the encounter before. Only after a few minutes of silence and bandaging their wounds Richard checked his status for hp.

''157 points huh? It is a lot better than I thought. Two potions and weapon proc really do the trick for recovery. Without the weapon special effect the wound would still hurt like hell.'' Richard thought in his head.

''We do have an option here. If we spend extra healing potion on my wounds we could possibly continue with relative ease with little to no burden on my part.'' Richard spoke out his mind.

''I'm good with that, how about you Nick?'' Nadia responded.

''It's fine with me too, I need some time to recover my mana though.'' Nick answered after pondering his own condition for a few tens seconds.

''It is decided then. I'm going to down one of those naaaasty tasting potions and we can continue. It is best to leave as soon as we can, it ain't a place I'm comfortable in.'' Richard concluded.

Richard drank his potion with sour face and went to help Neck, cutting some branches for a fire from a nearby tree, leaving Nadia in charge of lighting the fire.

''Say, Nick. What is your level right now? I thought that it would be rude to pry into others status so I have postponed it.''

''I'm level 9 right now, what about you Richard?''

''10, I just got my first job so I wanted to know is it same for everybody.''

''Wow nice dude, what job did you get?''

''Uhh, it is called a reaper. Probably because of the scythe and stuff.'' Richard's forehead started to perspire when he imagined Nick's face if he heard that he had become a farmer and smoothly lied through his teeth.

''That is super cool name for a job, just don't go to the dark side with the role playing.'' Nick commented.

''It comes with few skills that I have not been able to test yet, but I am looking forward for your and Nadias jobs too.''

After getting branches for a fire, the duo returned to Nadia and the campfire.

''Yoh, nicely done Nadia, we can distribute the extra stats here while eating. Better keep our senses sharp though, we can't be sure if there are more hostiles''

Taking out the food they had left, the group started to cook simple meals for themselves and distributed the stats to the places they felt appropriate.

''Hmm. I felt it before but the lack of mana is becoming a big problem in prolonged fights. Maybe I should increase mana in the future?'' Richard thought to himself and finally decided that extra intelligence would be for the best. After all, what good are skills for if you can't activate them?

''I do have massive damage output with Curtain-kun so now I just need to outlast the enemy. I remember seeing in Doomy back in the day the best tip: Get your enemies hp to 0 while keeping yours above that, works every time.''

Feeling the effects of the previously distributed stats, Richard felt that this is the lifestyle he wanted so badly even before the D-day. Life where you could see your progress in the journey to grow stronger without guessing the actual values, it felt fulfilling to him.

''Everything would be perfect if only I knew that my family and friends were safe... Constant excitement and danger, dopamine,adrenaline and endorphin bursts to make you feel alive.''

Snapping out from his train of thought, Richard came to question himself.

''Did I finally snap? Before all this shit storm, I dreamed of a boring life: Stable commercial airliner job and life free of risks.''

Slapping himself a few times on the cheeks, he felt stinging, crisp pain coming up.

''Are you ok Richard? What was all that about.'' Nadia asked, looking concerned.

''Ah it's nothing, I was just testing if the stat values would feel different.''

Richard answered in a smooth voice.

''Well, the pain was real so I am fairly confident that I am not locked in some institute for loonies.'' Richard mumbled in whispers.

The team ate and rested for nearly two hours without interruption.

''Strange, we have not encountered any enemies while resting. Have they gone to sleep or just avoid us on purpose?'' Nadia carefully observed the surroundings after speaking her mind.

''Maybe there is something more important going on for them? It is good for us that they are preoccupied. At least we did have a good rest and recovered.'' Richard said in a joyful manner.

''Yeah, that is good and all. I can't help but think that we are supposed to go to search the place where the patrols were. There is bound to be something important there.'' Nick commented from the side.

''Well duh? That should be obvious.'' Nadia snorted as if annoyed.

''Let's put the speculation aside, Richard, how are your wounds? Ready to go?'' Nick asked.

''Pretty much 100% Although the gun shaped burn mark is still there, it isn't restricting me.''

''Let's pack up and go then. The sooner we wipe those filthy lizardmen out the sooner we can get out of here.'' Nadia spoke excitedly.

Packing up their stuff, the group was back on the move. As per their previous arrangement Richard led the group as scout and moved towards the area the lizardmen came from.

After 30 minutes of searching the perimeter, the group spotted (lizard)man-made structure.

The building was 30 meters in diameter and only 4 meters tall, fully made out of stone. On the walls there were intricate decorations, often depicting dragons and by the entrance there were two large statues of lizardmen made entirely with stone.

Signaling the team to gather, Richard took cover by an ancient tree.

''That should be the temple of the dragonsworn. I find it hard to believe that there is anything else besides that.'' Richard told honestly his opinion.

''Yeah no shit Sherlock. I can't see any lizardmen around this place, why is that?'' Nick suspiciously asked others.

''I know as much as you do, dear Wattson. We are probably going to find out when we enter.'' Richard eyed the temple suspiciously before sighing.

''I will be the vanguard, Richard takes the off-tank role and Nick supports from behind. Let's go.'' Nadia asserted after taking a look around.

Richard and his team arrived without interruption in front of the temple without obstruction. Wary of the situation, they raised their alertness to the max.

''What the hell? Is this not their sacred place or something. Why is there no-one here.'' Nadia snorted at the missing troops she was looking forward to killing.

''There should be an end boss inside. Let's enter carefully and think more after we know what we are dealing with.'' Richard said after seeing the overly excited Nadia wanting to rush in.

The team climbed up the stairs towards the temple, admiring the complexity of the structure itself and the decorations.

''Man, I did not think that the lizardmen could actually build anything. Using spears and bodies like primitive humans I kind of assumed that their knowledge would be limited to some shitty nest or something.'' Richard stated and continued.

''I mean look at those statues. They even have well crafted swords made entirely of metal. It is a sign that they have reached at least some point of technical knowledge, like our iron age.''

''Can't we just smash the statues and take them? Swords would surely be great addition to us if the spaces inside are limited.'' Nadia greedily looked at the little over meter long swords and licked her lips.

''Of course we can. There is no honor for their culture in dungeons. Wait... Back off! There is something strange about them. Inspect.''

Just as Richard used to inspect the stone statues started to crack apart, revealing living flesh from beneath the cracked stone.

''Mother fucking cliché. This was so obvious and I did not even think about the possibility because it was so overused.''