Mathew walked to the gate in full battle gear. The robes he purchased from Di when he talked about his rod, were layered over the leather armor he wore. Hovering right behind him were his two trusty wisps, Wispy and Whis. His newest weapon was too short to work as a walking staff, so he just held it in his left hand lazily.

Mathew saw the group of three girls. The most geared was Lindsey. She wore a set of green and brown leather armor. A quiver of arrows rested on her back, with her bow also secured to her back. She was talking to Madison and another woman he knew he had seen before.

The third woman had darker skin, showing she was more than likely Indian. She was wearing workout clothing and the only item she had that made her seem ready to fight was a floating crystal that hovered above her left shoulder.

Madison was wearing combat gi, something she must have purchased from the Shops at some point. Mathew never had seen her wear it before. Her hands were wrapped with fighting tape, and had black makeup under her eyes. She was the first to notice Mathew and looked annoyed.

“Took you long enough! I’ve been waiting for over an hour!”

Lindsey and the other woman just smiled. “You are a bit late.” She gestured to the other woman. “Mathew, this is Doctor Gloria. You two apparently have met before when I talked about you last night to her.”

“Mathew, I’m glad to see you in good condition. Last I saw you, you were a bloody mess.”

Mathew now remembered where he last saw her. She was the doctor who took care of him after he cleared out the wolf den. “To my surprise, I am all well now. If it happened after Phase 1 started, I would probably be dead. My recovery owes no small thanks to you either. I’m sure my quick recovery had your magic as a large factor.”

She smiled at him with a nod. “Yes it did. It’s amazing what we can do medically now. Healing magic at this stage is already a miracle. Imagine what we can do in the long run. No one will ever be sick, have cancer, worry about disease or worse. I want to gain more levels to earn a class so I can be even better at healing magic.”

Mathew nodded, “Glad to have you. Now why don’t we start walking and find something to fight? We can talk more as we walk.”

Madison cheered and led the way. Mathew’s goal was focusing on his own skills, but also helping these three level up. He wanted to attempt the Goblin Dungeon on his own, but he still planned on bringing them just in case things get dicey.

The possible rewards for completing the Dungeon on his own fueled him to push forward more and more these next few days. Once they were far enough from the base, Mathew stopped and looked around. “Lindsey, can you scout for something to fight?”

“I guess so. I don’t have any movement powers. So if you hear me screaming, please come quickly.”

“Wait, why send her? I’m obviously faster.” Madison said with a humpf.

“Because you are our front liner.” Lindsey said. “We have no True Tank, so we need you to be our Dodge Tank.”

Madison looked confused. “What’s a Dodge Tank?”

“Zack is a tank who focuses on mitigating damage taken with a shield or armor. He still gets hit, but his health stays near full even after a solid hit. Hence the term True Tank.” Lindsey explained. “A Dodge Tank is someone who avoids getting hit at all. They keep the enemy focused on them, but dances around their attacks while being as annoying as possible to keep any threat on them.”

She pointed at Gloria, “Her job is to keep you alive. Have you put any points in Vitality or Endurance?”

Madison shook her head. “All my points went to Strength, Dexterity, and a few in Wisdom from my Profession.”

“Then you better be really good at dodging Madison, because I imagine any single strong strike will kill you.” Lindsey said, not downplaying the reality of the situation.

Gloria just smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m really good at keeping people alive. Mathew is here isn’t he? It will be different for me in a fight. Usually my patients are knocked out or on a gurney, or really close to me. I still can heal at range, so just stay within a decent distance of me, and I’ll be sure you won’t die.”

Madison nodded, and Lindsey left. Mathew kept his head on a swivel. Ever since gaining his class, he had heightened senses. As the only one at Level 10, he would need to be the one to ensure nothing sneaks up on them.

It didn’t take long before the sounds of a loud roar echoed from the direction Lindsey ran from. Followed by the fast steps of sneakers on underbrush. Mathew stood ready, “Madison, get ready. Soon as Lindsey is out of the way, you go in. Stay on the move, and if push comes to shove just run and I’ll blast whatever is there.”

“Ha! I’ll be fine. Just leave it to me.” She stood in a martial stance and readied herself. Gloria just stood idly behind them both. Mathew had the ranged healer behind him, due to the level difference. Push comes to shove, he could practice his newest skills with his knife.

Bursting into the clearing, Lindsey kept running past them. Once she passed Mathew she pulled out her bow and knocked an arrow. “Got two bears for you guys.”

Mathew cursed, he only wanted to fight one thing at a time! “Madison, keep one of them busy. Gloria, keep her alive. Lindsey, blast the second one with me, hold nothing back!”

Just as he finished his orders, two large brown bears ran into the clearing. They both stopped for a moment seeing four humans in their way. The largest of them stood up on its hind legs and let out a roar.

Everyone else flinched in fear, but Mathew didn’t. He released a [Mana Bolt] from his Rod holding nothing back. Quickly following the attack were two smaller bolts coming from his wisps. The bolts all had varying hues of blue, showing they were icy cold attacks.

Mathew grinned seeing the three attacks forced the bear to fall on it’s back, but it was not outright dead. Large patches of fur and skin were missing on it’s chest and belly area. “Madison, the second one!” He shouted.

He then realized she was already running forward toward the second bear. She jumped forward at a speed faster than Mathew could even run. Her right foot grew ablaze with orange flames and connected with a resounded smack across the bear's front shoulder.

Madison continued the momentum and used the bear as a platform to jump backwards off of, landing several feet away. The smell of singed fur soon filled the air. It let out a spit filled roar and started to chase after Madison.

A lone arrow flew past Mathew’s head, and pierced into the side of the first bear, causing it to grunt in pain. “Good job!” Mathew shouted, as he fired normal attacks at the first bear. He wanted it dead, but couldn’t risk using all of his mana so soon.

After two more blasts from his rod and three more from his wisps, Mathew determined the bear was dead. He turned just in time to see the other bear rake his claws against Madison's left arm.

She screamed in pain, and instantly went to run away. Mathew winced and mentally commanded both of his wisps to attack the bear. Lindsey had already loosed an arrow into the body of the bear.

Mathew was about to yell for Gloria to heal Madison, when a yellow glow surrounded Madison. He turned to Gloria and saw her holding a hand toward Madison while she had a focused look on her face.

The orb hovering over her shoulder glowed yellow as well. Making Mathew wonder what exactly it did to enhance healing spells. Last he checked, they only attacked like wands, staves, and apparently his wisps, which acted like orbs.

Madison let go of her arm, looking at the bloody mess. However, under the blood, wounds were being slowly stitched back together. She kept running toward Gloria while the bear chased her.

“No, not to the healer!” Lindsey shouted. She loosed two more arrows and drew out a short sword. “Madison, turn and fight! Just avoid getting hit, Gloria can’t fight, that’s your job!”

She ran up next to Madison and held the sword out awkwardly. Mathew grimaced and continued to attack with low powered blasts from his rod and wisps. He prepared himself to step in as well, in case the bear overpowered them somehow.

Madison turned and her good arm glowed with flames as she ran back toward the bear, albeit at a slower pace. Lindsey also ran forward, going along the opposite side of where Madison was running to.

The bear was forced to choose, and decided to attack Madison. She lept backwards, narrowly avoiding an attack. That moment gave Lindsey a perfect opening to slash at the bear's open side leaving behind a red glistening wound.

Confused, the bear instantly turned toward it’s most recent attacker and started to chase the slower Lindsey. Madison grunted in pain and ran forward. Just before she reached the bear, she jumped up and landed on its back. She punched it over and over again at the back of the neck. Just after the second punch Mathew could see the fur was burned away, and skin was exposed to be punched by her flaming fist.

In retaliation, the bear reared up to throw Madison off. She was slightly expecting this and landed on her feet, but still stumbled onto one knee before running away.

Mathew blasted a large [Mana Bolt] through his rod, finishing the fight before anyone else could get hurt.

With both bears dead, Mathew stood up and looked around. Him, Henderson, and the others got snuck up once or twice by wolves. He wouldn’t put it past other animals to do the same.

While he kept an ear and eye out, Gloria was healing Madison’s arm. “Thanks.” Was all she said.

Lindsey was talking to Madison, going over what she did wrong, and how to do better. In all honesty, she has the offensive side of fightin down. She just needed to work on team coercion, and her role in a fight. If they had Zack, she could focus on pure DPS, or Damage Per Second. A role in the group whose job is to deal as much reliable damage as quickly as possible. A role Mathew filled perfectly.

“I know, I fucked up. Sorry, okay?” Madison said, not looking anyone in the eye.

“Hey, it’s important to learn from mistakes.” Gloria said. “In my line of work, mistakes cost lives. I made plenty, and I’ve paid the price for each of them, either financially, ruining relationships, or sleepless nights. Nobody got hurt other than yourself, so count yourself lucky. Now let me check your arm to be sure it healed okay.” She pulled out a sanitized cloth from a medical kit she carried with her, and wiped away some of the blood.

Mathew thought the battle over while they did that. “That wasn’t much of a fight. Those bears had to be maybe Level 5 or 6. No more than 7. I annihilated that first bear without so much of a sweat. Plus that second bear was slow and bulky. Compared to the wolves, it’s easier to fight so long as we do so in smaller numbers.”

Once everyone was ready, they moved on to find a second fight. After that Lindsey and Madison both leveled to 10. Gloria was only Level 8. They all agreed to keep fighting for the day until they couldn’t anymore, or it was getting late

The rest of the day was a repeat of the first fight. Lindsey would go out and find something to kill, and Madison kept it busy. Mathew on a few occasions chose to fight a monster alone. He had to keep himself up to snuff.

After the entire day, he didn’t improve a single time according to his menu, but he felt more confident in his power set. He could take on any low leveled creature without too much worry for himself.

Only once was he forced to use his knife, and that was when he fought alone. Overall, the entire day went great. Gloria ended up gaining only one more level, but said she felt she was close to 10.

The girls all went to the Hearth Crystal to go over their own gains and agreed to meet up the next day to repeat the process.