>>>>

Ben

Once Xander had secured the mayor, he seemed to transform and was covered from head to toe in armor. A sword appeared in his hand and it gave off this light that was to bright to look at directly.

I couldn't help but wonder where he was getting all this from, who or what was this guy? He seemed like he came straight out of some Marvel comic book, but other times he seemed like just a regular person. It was a bit disconcerting.

I also couldn't get over what we were all experiencing. It was as if we were in another world fighting monsters, side by side with some sort of mage. It was like something out a story book.

There was something invigorating about going against monsters obviously much stronger than you. that really got the adrenaline pumping. I had done parachute jumps, paragliding, a little mountain climbing but this was totally different, and even felt a bit addictive.

Of course, it was reassuring knowing that I was fighting alongside someone who could intervene if things turned south, but the risk was real and ever present.

I couldn't help but wonder, what Xander was capable of? He could probably handle anything on this level on his own. Did he even need us? It was hard to tell.

"I will attempt to cripple the rat, but you need to inflict as much damage as possible if you find an opening." He looked at each of us with a stone like glare and his words seemed to have a physical weight to them.

"Keep a safe distance, don't take any unnecessary risks. Try to flank it but watch out for his claws, teeth and especially his tail, if those barbs get into you, you will be ripped to shreds."

"Now let's go" he said, and at once he flew towards the rat monster with an inhuman speed. The saber-tooth rat also moved with a blurring speed, and when the two of them clashed it was almost impossible to follow their movements. The rat was slashing with its claws, biting with its mouth and spearing with its tail almost simultaneously. But Xander always seemed to be a microsecond ahead of it, blocking the blows and managing to inflict some damage of his own in between.

We flanked the rat from a distance, and fortunately I had managed to get hold of a fireman's axe before we entered the tower, which gave me a bit extra reach.

They were moving so fast it was hard to find any opening.

Suddenly the rat found an opening and slashed his claws at Xander's head with blinding speed, but at the last moment he managed to drop under the rat's arm and his sword suddenly blazed brighter as it cut off the rat's arm at the elbow. Immediately the rat's tail followed seeking to impale him where he was laying on the ground. Xander managed to grab the tail with his free hand, and plunged it into the rat's own rib cage. The rat screamed in rage and pain and attempted to bite at Xander's head but when he opened his mouth, Xander blasted a large fireball directly into its mouth and throat.

Seeing my chance, I ran in and jumped while swinging my axe overhand and drove the pike side of my fireman's axe into the back of the rat's head where it met the spine. I must have been lucky because the point entered between the signal bones severing the spinal nerve and the rat collapsed. I could see Hench, Louis and Mitch were also hacking at the rat but with less success."

The rat was immobilized but it still wasn't dead, so I took out my knife and managed to slit its throat by slipping my knife under its scales.

Once the rat was dead, Xander sliced open the monster, reached in and removed a round object with something glowing on the inside and handed it to me.

"I think this one belongs to you Ben, nice job! Be careful with it, that beast core is worth a small fortune."

>>>>

Xander

As a last-minute idea, I decided to take the monster's forearm, head and tail and added it to my dimension storage. It could come in handy to show people what they would be facing if they entered the tower and could maybe be used in training.

As I turned back to the group, I realized we were all a pretty gruesome sight, most everyone was covered in blood.

I released the barrier from around the mayor, and as we were next to the river, we quickly washed off the viscera and blood. My armor had remained remarkably clean, so I only had to scrub the areas not protected by the armor.

"Man," Mitch said as we started off again. "I can't get over what you just did, you're some kind of super human. I have never seen anyone move half that fast. If you got those powers from the tower, I definitely want in on that Mojo."

"You may get your chance. I am hoping to open a school, but I think that it will all depend on whether or not we get to the mayor's son in time. Given time you should all be able to do similar things. Also, you may get a good head start depending on the rewards you get after we defeat the boss. "

We continued on our way, turning left at the bridge as Will had instructed and the path led us out of the village onto a road that followed the river on side, and a forest on the other.

We came across a bunch of dead giant ants, and I could only assume that this had been done by the mayor’s son's group. From pieces of cloth and traces of blood, I could tell they didn't get through unscathed but I suspected that they all survived this far."

The fact that we found the ants dead, could mean a couple of things. This meant that either the Dungeon hadn't regenerated them yet or that the children had somehow avoided the rats in the village entirely. I wasn't sure if the Dungeon regenerated monsters while a group was still active on the level.

In the distance some movement caught my eye and I heard some weak cries as well. My hearing and sight being heightened by mana, I suspected I was the only one who had noticed.

"I think I have spotted them and I think they're in trouble. They are a little over a kilometer from here. I am going to run on ahead, try to catch up as soon as possible."

I redirected mana to my legs and shot ahead. When I arrived at the scene, I saw the children being dragged into the woods by thick vines, and I suspected the vines may contain some sort of poison as the children were no longer resisting and were barely conscious.

As I approached, more vines shot out of the woods and started wrapping around my legs and ankles.

All the vines seemed to be coming from the same place. With my sword I easily cut through the vines that were entangling my legs and I generated an intensely strong flame that completely disintegrated the vines at their source.

I used my sword to cut through the vines where they had started wrapping around the children but I would have to disentangle them manually.

It was at this time that the rest of our group arrived. Mayor Levine ran to her son who looked like he wasn't far from losing consciousness. Louis and Ben started hacking at the vines with the knives and axes as they were still wrapped around the children.

"Aaron, dear, can you hear me, are you OK. look at you, you're all covered in blood. Aaron, speak to me."

"Mom? I'm sorry mom, I'll be ok, just give me a minute. I am so tired."

"This guy here looks pretty bad, Hench said, kneeling next to another one of the boys. "His pulse is really weak and he's lost a lot of blood."

I knelt next to the child Hench was holding and poured one of the healing potions into his mouth. Within seconds his wounds were healing and he was looking healthy again. I imbued mana into my arms and hands and unwound the now dead vine from the child.

"How are the others?" I asked Louis and Ben.

"They look like they've been through hell but they should pull through."

"How about Aaron?" Mitch had been checking him over for injuries.

"He is very weak, I suspect that he may have been poisoned." Mitch said, at which point mayor Levine broke down, tears streaking down her cheeks, and hugged her son to her chest.

"Please help him" she begged me. I will do whatever you want, but just save him."

I poured another vial of healing potion into Aaron's mouth and he also recovered completely within moments. After all these healing I only had 2 vials of healing potion left, and one of them was only a low-grade potion.

After this I liberated the other children from the dead vines which were still wrapped around them.

"Now that the worst is over," I said "maybe we should take a break so you all can recuperate before we face the level boss."

At the mention of the boss, all color drained from the children's faces.

"I only have a little healing potion left, so you all need to be super careful from here on."

"I don't know what you guys were thinking going into the tower alone, but I hope that you have learned your lesson." I turned to look at the teenagers, who immediately turned their eyes down.

In reality, I felt a bit hypocritical seeing as I had done the exact same thing as they did, just a couple of days ago, but my disguise and the armor made me look a bit older and my hypocrisy was for a good cause.

"One thing I don't get, is how on earth did you guys got past the saber-tooth rats and the rat King?"

"Oh, that was easy", Simon, one of Aaron's friends said. "Someone called us inside one of the buildings, and showed us a tunnel that lead to the forest. He also gave us some clubs and warned us to watch out for the ants. We avoided the rats entirely, but a few of us were injured by the ants, those things were massively strong and fast."

I recognized Will's intervention in Simon's story, but I had yet to understand what made Will tick. If I were a dungeon psychologist, I would probably diagnose him with some form of multiple personality disorder.

I pulled out the clawed forearm of the rat King. At the sight of it they nearly fell off the log they were sitting on.

"Well, luckily for you, this is what you missed, plus over 100 of his buddies who were just a bit smaller." Their mouths were hanging open, just imagining the beast that arm belonged to.

"But don't worry, we still have the level boss to deal with, and from my information, it shouldn't be very far from here."

If anyone is hungry, I have some food. Most everyone was hungry so I took out some of the supplies Cara's mother had prepared. I was happy to put the food to good use as it was way too much for me to finish.

"If everyone is ready, I suggest we move on. This is only the first level so the boss shouldn't be much more difficult than the rat king, but as a general rule, level bosses are pretty tough so be prepared."

We had advanced about another kilometer when the river turned to the right and we arrived at a large field full of a variety of wild flowers. Reds, blues, yellows, and purples. It was almost like a scene out of a Monet painting.

" I could definitely see myself living here" Ben said. "A little house by the edge of the forest, this would be my front yard, and I could go fishing in the river. Close to the center of the town, paradise."

I couldn't help but think that this world Will had created was truly amazing, if it weren't so dangerous.

At that moment we were shaken from our reverie by the sound of a deafening roar coming from the forest on the far side of the field.