AN: Last chapter was special as I got my second tab; more than 25 chapters. Yeaye!

Calvin POV.

“..have fun here.” He waved at us and probably also grinned wherever he was right now. “Byy!”

We all could only stare at his dissolving in the air clone.

“...” I just stared there and shook my head. It was actually funny, except the little fact that it wasn't.

“Ha ha... ha.” Elena laughed awkwardly. “hey, this is a joke, right?” She looked around and had a pleading look on her face.

“I don't know what I expected...” Daisy shook her head and had an slight amused smile on her face. “At least he keeps on being fresh and original, I give him that.” She had smirked and showed her full teeth..

“Hey, he is coming back, right?” Elena kept on asking.

I sighed. “No Elena, he is not coming back. “ I told her and was now contemplating whether we should just walk out of here and reenter the dungeon tomorrow or something. Maybe it would have taught him a thing or two...

She laughed at that awkwardly. “Ha ha... ha.... what an ass...”

Ben agreed. “That was to soft of an insult for him.” He also added. “I feel like all asses in this world feel insulted now that you have equated him to them. Maybe you should apologize.”

She pouted and then smirked. “Sorry Ben, won't happen again.”

“I meant for you to apologize to all asses in this world, not to me.”

My sister just grinned widely. “I know...” She showed him a glare that had a spark in it. I don't know where it came from, but she had something against him all of a sudden.

I had to hide a chuckle. “Okay guys. This was bad but honestly if we did not expect that a person such as Artjem would have pulled something like that off, then we would not be very smart. No, we should have expected the unexpected. Now we can just go with the flow and hope for the best, such as Artjem taking out some of our enemies before we come there. Sure, it will be hard to take out high priority targets without our assassin and we will lack dps, but we will go through somehow. After all we are not new to this and Daisy should also count for more than one player, if she really gets going.” I stood up and walked in front of them. “Let's get to it.”

Daisy shrugged. “Well, I suppose I could use a little challenge.” She grinned smugly.

Yes, if it depends on it, Daisy should be enough to overcompensate for Artjems absence. She might have her level suppressed but she still was one of the leading ranked players in Might and Magic. Yes, she really is that amazing, she should be in the top hundred players world wide, even after her absence.

Ben told us that they were in one of the best guilds there are and he also was once a ranked player with his precious character, but then this character got deleted for obvious reasons...

Daisy also told us that it has been half a year since she played competitively. She had a break for whatever reason, but before that she was one of the leading forces. She was in the team that had conquered 3 raids in total and as such got the unofficial title of a champion. Honestly, how lucky is Artjem for finding her... and even getting her to join us. Very lucky.

But despite her having that break, she is still very powerful from the years of playing without a break. She still had her masteries on a very high level. That alone gave her a giant advantage and made her easily twice as strong as the rest of us, as we still needed to raise ours to grandmaster, which might take a few more months. Not only that, her complete gear was of amazing quality, her weapon even legendary class. It was the highest level armor and weapon, which in this case was only a big tome and a maid outfit funnily enough. It was so amazing that even with her level suppressed and the gear downgraded to an appropriate level, it was still beyond what any of us could hope to get in the nearest future.

By the way, looks of armor matter not in this game, it can easily be altered and switched for armors that were specially designed to have the best looks in mind just like that.

The few times we saw her going full out, we were all amazed at the sight. Well, all of us but Ben who already knew what she was capable of.

I also thought right now of Ben and what he told us about himself, or rather what we read online about him, but this is not important right now, it only distracts me from the real important thing.

Still... a murderer hugh....

Anyhow, it was time to get inside the fortress.

There were precisely two ways to get inside. Well, not counting cheating your way through with some bullshit skill *cough *...

The first way and the most obvious is to just get the soldiers attention and to get them attack you. They won't open the gates, but at least they will see only 5, well now 4, idiots that challenge a whole fortress by themselves and will maybe go outside to settle it mano en mano. They could also just shoot at us from distance if the chances were against us, but whatever.

Wait, you might ask, chances? But how can this be? Why would they act differently?

Well, my very handsome and clever reader, it is very easy actually.

The developers of Might and Magic came up with an idea to make dungeons and raids... less predictable. They hated the idea of having a guide or walk through for their dungeons and as such, they took the events that were deemed interesting enough by the system and implemented a new system.

Basically, a dungeon has 100 enemies in general. Well, what if there were actually thousand different enemies and as the dungeon starts, randomly generated people will be thrown inside and the story will be altered slightly to fit that, of course this excludes people that are essential for the story. So out of 1000 possible enemies 100 will be chosen and the experience will always be new and fresh. A system like this may create unique scenarios and change everything. To put it in the most easiest to understand way: You just never can be sure that something will be the way you think, your team composition may counter the enemies completely or you can have shit luck and be stumped. You may think that an area is always empty, but then 2 characters that have fallen in love with each other will go there to have a bit of sexy time and your cover is blown or something like that.

Suddenly a boss might spawn that is a strategic genius and will make no mistakes or the boss might be a muscle head that will only want to fight. Anyway, this is one of the ways this game manages to be so friking hard.

As for the second way to get inside, there is a conveniently placed tunnel, that I guess has been dug there for some time in the original time line and is waiting for us to get inside.

One problem with this way though...

If we take that way, we will get a few extra enemies. There will be roughly 50 goblins waiting for us there, even 2 gold tiers.

You can see it as a side quest to get down there and kill them all, not necessary, but also needed as to not let us simply walk inside the fortress without any problems.

It is also a way to punish people who lack originality and need a short cut to get inside. While we could have gone inside by other means, we just want to get it over with and also Artjem kinda fucked us over there, so we need to hurry now.

We moved to the north and easily found a cave that we were searching for.

“Are you ready?” I asked my team.

They gave me a thumbs up in return and we went inside

Once we set foot inside, we heard them, like rats they were all over the place,hiding with their small bodies.

“Do not underestimate them.” Ben voiced his opinion on that matter. “They may be small, but they are still dangerous as any other foe we may face. If at all, they are much more annoying and cunning. Those little shits won't be easy.”

By the way, our formation is: Me at the very front, then Ben, then Daisy with her demon and Elena at the end, as our support, she has the highest priority, even if compared to other games her supportive abilities are very limited, it only makes them so much more valuable. And when I say highest priority, I mean, highest after your own life because well, this ain't wow.

(AN: Let's just say wow still exists as an oldschool mmo)

Elena spoke from the back. “You know, I have seen a few.... videos with goblins playing a key role in them... Ever since then I have been wondering if goblins are really so big down there or if it was only in the videos I saw. ”

I could not believe my ears. “Ohh no... just where is my cute little darling sister...?”

She pouted. “Evolved into a beautiful mature darling.” Elena and Daisy both giggled.

“You know.” Ben answered her. “The question is whether you are dedicated enough to look for your answer after the battle.” He also added. “I bet you will get a nasty title for that, who knows.”

“Will the title give me any additional bonuses?”

He frowned. “Well, some titles are just there to fuck with you. Now that I think about it, none of us has still chosen any titles to be shown officially, to be equipped. Guess we hurried to much and did not even think about it. Not even Daisy.”

Daisy frowned. “Too much attention, who really needs that.”

“I bet if Arrtjem knew it was even possible, he would be now running with his evolved title or whatever and showing off.”

I was still in the middle of my rant, when we heard a loud screeching noise from all around us. As soon as those beasts started to scream, their eyes started to burn in red flames and around their necks and healed but nasty looking wounds.

I could see at least 15 goblins there. Those were definitely not normal goblins. Only good that no gold tier is here yet.

“Ready?” I screamed through goblins screeches so the people behind me could even hear my words. Quickly summoning my banner and ramming it into the ground, to get the buff, I screamed. “GO!”

I used crush and jumped at one of the goblins, smashing my mace right in his head with a loud munching sound. The health of the goblin that got smashed by me got only reduced by 25%, however 10% additional percent on his health bar were now pink instead of blood red, indicating something nice...

Just a little behind me, Benjamin used his battle cry and intimidated/debuffed the enemies as he was running at them with insane speeds and smashing them left and right and just straight up cutting them almost in two with his giant sword. At least I think he would have easily cut through them and they would be instantly dead if not for the game mechanics, but well...

Now that the low intelligence beings were concentrated on us, our two spell casters fro behind could just go all out.

Elena started to spam her chain lightning and rooted the few that ran her direction.

Daisy was also spamming her main attack spell and focused on single targets, taking them out together with her main summon Azazeru and another summon that is mainly there for sustain called Leacher, very quickly. One thing that she absolutely excels at is to kill low health targets. Her complete skill set revolves around her getting stronger the longer the battle continues.

I smashed another goblins head, breaking his skull with the power behind my swing, ironically I was not building for might, but I guess physics have still a value in this world.

The goblin had 15% of his health left, but all of this leftover was pink health. This is an advantage of tank classes and mace type weapons in general. We do low damage, but we also have something like critical hits. This pink health indicates that when it is all the enemy has left, he will enter a very weakened state and will be alive, but useless in battle. After all, it would be pretty fucking stupid if I would swing my big mace at someones head and it would no next to nothing.

I left him there and swung my mace at the next victim as I was surrounded by 5 more goblins and they jumped at me, slashing my armor, biting me and occasionally throwing fire balls.

I could see how Daisy casted another swarm at the goblin that was near death. A spell that does damage over time and once the enemy dies, they will enter its body and.. “breed” inside of him, spawning another few swarms and attacking others. A cheat like skill that could turn a whole battle around if used in the right time.

The goblins around me started slowly to glow a bit blue and sparks of lightning went from them if my mace smashed in them. This was another indicator of something from Elena.

Elena saw her chance as all of them had build up a charge inside of them and unleashed another lightning through all of them, forcing this charge within them to explode and ultimately finishing them off.

When the dust settled I could see Ben lifting a goblin by piercing his sword through his guts and then throwing his corpse away.

The dust slowly settled and we could look around. The corpses of the dead goblins were still burning dimly and providing light for us.

A goblin was still barely alive and slowly crawling towards us. “Gwhagha Bungha! Buee” He vomited some blood but continued to crawl.

I wanted to finish him off, but noticed that he had some “slime” on him that was about to go off.

I just packed my mace away and we all walked away as the slime on the goblin got from green to black and expanded in size, until it just went “BOOOM!” and the goblin was no more.

“Thank you for honoring my kill.” Said Daisy grinning.

“No big deal, should not even be mentioned.”

But she only pouted. “Yes, should be, but there are enough people that will kill steal despite me explicitly telling them not to. This is just not very nice... You can't even imagine how often I was victim to that. The worst thing is I can not even have revenge by doing the same...” She sighed and then looked towards Ben. “Sorry, I did not mean you, even if it was your group mostly...”

He just shrugged it off. “Ye. She was a cunt.”

They then went very silent. “With 'she' you mean...” Elena asked.

“Yes.” Was all that Ben said and we went quiet again.

We ventured further inside and killed a few lone goblins here and there, but until now did not meet a large crowd like before, neither did we meet the bosses. And Elena made no attempts to undress any goblins and to see if her theory is true, thanks god..

If there are supposed to be only 50 goblins here, then there should only be one half left now.

Walking slowly and carefully as to avoid possible traps and ambushes.

The further inside we got, the darker it became until we could only see the goblins when they were there. Right now, we could not see anything.

Elena started to use her abilities to produce sparks and provide some light for us. Every second a thunderbolt would fly towards a wall and just collide with it, doing nothing but give us a few seconds when we weren't blind.

We walked further ahead and turned around a corner.

There I saw a goblin being restrained by some kind of yellow goo. He sat on the ground and could not move or speak, we were only sure that he was alive by the way his flames were burning: a small red flame with some of the remains of his life in it.

Clearly a trap.

I mentioned for everyone to remain still and made my way to the goblin, because why not? I can handle anything they will throw my way.

He stunk, it was something that was a mix of shit and bad breath of an alcoholic after a night of partying and vomiting the alcohol out of him, that kind of smell.

I looked around as hard as I could, the flame from the goblin were very convenient in that case.

There were no places where goblins could jump from, no places where I would be blind from them ambushing me. Just lots of corpses and skeletons of those same creatures here lying all around. I guess this is supposed to look intimidating and create the horror atmosphere, whatever.

Looking back, the others were not really affected by it either. Daisy even liked it.

Either how, I was now standing right in front of the goblin. The goo stank even worse and felt like it smelled. I touched it just for the sake of it, I mean this is kind of what you are supposed to do in such a situation. Now I was supposed to wonder what the fuck is going, waiting for shit to go down on aaaand....

Above me something very big and dangerous screamed very loudly and as I looked there, I saw a giant snake falling down with its mouth opened wide and the fangs leaking venom, aimed at me.

As the thing would without a doubt hit me and I had no chance of escaping, I decided to go treat it as a plan all along, as if I wanted to just test it out: bitch, you ain't even doing any real damage to me! Get the hell outta here!

I raised my shield above my head and felt the collision as the snake threw itself at me and its giant jaw split apart, and tried its hardest to swallow me in one bite.

I fought my hardest as to not end inside its stomach and held onto the side of its mouth as the tongue wrapped itself around me and was pulling me inside.

Being thrown around inside and hitting against walls, I was disoriented now and for a few seconds had no idea where I was. Slowly standing up, now no longer inside the giant monster I saw that Ben was furiously hacking at its body and the girls (+ summon) were firing their single target spells without a break.

I stood up and was somehow glad for my giant body. It might be inside of a game, but I was sure that a smaller man would have not survived so easily.

Running at the snake I saw the name above its head, together with the level and hp. Basilisk Prejuce, 75% hp left. I was really taken aback, either the boss ain't shit and our attacks kill it very fast, or I might have been inside its mouth or blacked out for longer than I thought.

Seeing how the snake got enough and decided that Daisy was the biggest danger to its life, it lunged itself at her.

I knew beforehand what her abilities were and knew that she would easily evade that one, even at the cost of her summon.

She swapped her position with her summon at the last second and saw it being blown away into a wall, crushed under the giant body weight and power of the Basilisk. She cringed at the sight but then again, it was kind of what she wanted to do, so... At least he was not dead.

At that moment Elena fired another empowered spell at the enraged Snake which caused the dumb beast to switch targets again.

I saw my chance and used my [Stand behind me]. I jumped to her position and stood in front of her, surrounded by a shield that would block the next attack, no matter what (at least I hope so, really needs to be tested out).

Its giant body slammed against the dimly blue glowing shield and was repelled to the side.

Like this the battle continued a few minutes. Ben hacked with fury at the snake, spells were casted and their names were called out as it was done to [chant] it. I mostly just supported as my damage was low and I could not really smash such a big body, so I tried my hardest to get the aggro on me, which was not easy at all since it was much more real life like, no just press button and tank shit.

At the last few percents of its health, the head of the monster was glowing in Daisy's slime and as such we were sure the job was done. A big boom and the heavily damaged body fell to the ground, creating another loud boom that ended the nice battle.

We took the chance to breath in relief and waited for the health and mana to regenerate, which was much faster after battle.

I sat on the ground and waited for the rest to finish but heard low thud sound coming from the path ahead of us.

“Get ready. “I said while standing up. “We have dealt with half of the enemies? Well, I thin the rest is coming.”

The rest of us got ready and we were sure that this time we would need to get serious.

Quickly I counted 23 silver tier goblins that were conveniently burning for me to see them and one gold tier that was more of an ogre than a goblin, one head higher than me.

They did not wait for us as they ran up to us, screaming in their language or whatever.

I saw how Daisy used her ultimate and how her summon began to glow in a dark green and began to swell up, giving a few unpleasant sounds. Elena decided to use her single target nuke ultimate and would probably take an enemy out just like that. Ben had no really useful ultimate right now and we made clear that he would use [Berserk] only in dire need, but his class was still very broken so I did not object.

As for me?

I jumped towards the ceiling and as I reached it, I used my legs to push myself away from it, gaining even more force/momentum and slammed down right in the middle of them, creating a giant shock wave that send everyone flying and damaged them heavily.

Boom Bum Pow, baby!

“Pats himself on the back.” Good boy.

2 more chapters in the next few days.

Ciao <3