Zane opened his eyes and stood up after he finished recovering. He looked at his combat log and saw less changes in his attack and defense when fighting against the alpha bear. He didn’t dare to say his attacks were perfect, but he felt a lot better about them.

“Hmph, I remember someone saying that I shouldn’t help because I would lose a lot of mana.” Sophie spoke out loud in a mocking tone. “Someone said that it would take a long time for me to recover”

“First of all, you should speak mentally,” Zane said after letting out a sigh. “Secondly, I didn’t know you were close to leveling up.”

“There’s no point in using mental communication. The bears are up but they didn’t notice us when we were right outside the room. If they didn’t smell us, they probably wouldn’t hear us either.”

“You might be right,” Zane admitted. He nodded as he remembered the beta bears noticing there scent only after they stepped into the room.

“Although you didn’t know I would be able to level up, it doesn’t change the fact that you made the wrong decision.” Sophie gave Zane a victorious smile.

Zane put on a neutral expression after hearing Sophies word. “How could I be wrong? At the time there was no guarantee you would be able to level up with the experience from the three bears. Look at Luna and Lana. They were able to level up but Shane didn’t.”

“Why am I being brought into this?” Shane asked.

“Anyway, everyone’s prepared and we should start moving to the next room.”

“Of course,” Sophie said with a smile. “The person who was wrong can take the lead and we’ll follow him.”

“There’s no need for you to take the lead Shane.” Zane spoke as he walked forward. “Ill take the lead for you instead.”

Shane shook his head as he followed after Zane and everyone else into the dark passage. The group made it through the passage without any problems. Zane remained alert but he wasn’t concerned with being attacked anymore. They eventually reached a room that was much bigger than the previous rooms.

“Hello bears!” Jason said. After he spoke everyone was tense and waited for a reaction. After a few seconds everyone relaxed when the bears didn’t react. “I guess they really can’t hear us.”

“I won’t blame you for calling out because I was going to try something similar,” Sophie calmly spoke before turning to glare at Jason. “But I will blame you for doing so without thinking about the rest of the team.”

Jason shrunk under Sophie’s glare. “Sorry big sis. It definitely won’t happen again.”

“I see twelve bears,” Zane said. “Ten normal, two alphas and their all awake. It doesn’t look as bad as we thought it would be. Hopefully this is the last of the bears and there are no extra bears waiting with the dire bear. Anyone has any ideas on what strategy we should use?”

“Well, I think that I should use my magic to give everyone buffs,” Sophie said. “Of course, I can reconsider if someone thinks differently.”

“That’s a great idea,” Zane said while avoiding Sophie’s gaze. “Any other ideas?”

“We definitely shouldn’t rush in,” Shane added.

“Why don’t you tell us your idea?” Jason asked. “I’m sure you have a few of them.”

“Sharing ideas is important to coming up with a good strategy,” Sophie said. “Although I think Zane is asking us to share our ideas so he can show off later it doesn’t change the importance of sharing our ideas.”

After Sophie finished speaking Lana spoke up. “I’m in favor of staying close to the exit and letting the bears come to us.”

Zane disagreed with Sophie. He definitely wasn’t the type of person who liked to show off. However, he did agree that sharing ideas could be beneficial to creating a good strategy after listening to everyone talk. They mentioned ridiculous ideas, crazy ideas and smart ideas. Zane didn’t think of some of the things the other did and he could see how what they added would benefit their final strategy. He initially thought he would hear several bad ideas for a strategy before he told everyone what was the best strategy to follow. Sophie insistence to share ideas was a smart thing to do and he would follow her example if he led a group in the future. Of course, he would never say this to her.

After talking for a few minutes, they eventually had a solid plan. Zane added a few points that he thought could improve it but most of the plan was created by everyone working together. Once everyone agreed on the plan, they did a final check and Sophie began applying buffs.

Sophie placed her hands together in front of her chest and her mana began to surge. Zane herd Sophie mumbled a few words in the arcane language before pushing her hands toward him. He felt energy surge through him and his strength increase. It was similar to a level up but it was far less refreshing.

You received a Basic Strength Buff

Buff: Str + 12

Duration: 15 minutes

A few seconds after Zane received his buff, he heard Sophie repeat the same words and push her hands toward Shane. She did the same movements toward Luna and Lana but the words she used were different.

“Did you understand what she said?” Zane asked.

“I haven’t learned a lot of magic but I was able to make out a few words.” Shane replied in a nonchalant tone. “I focused on learning to be a smith and warrior training. I didn’t have much time to learn the arcane language.”

“I know, you already told me that. The reason I asked was to see if our title helps with understanding the arcane language. Teacher Isabelle taught me some of the basics about magic and I needed your help to test my theory.”

“Huh, you’re right. I guess the system didn’t want it to be too easy for people to learn magic.”

Zane shrugged his shoulders to indicate he wasn’t sure. He checked Sophie source bars and saw that she still had more than half her mana after applying the buffs. A few seconds after Sophie was done with applying the buffs, she called for everyone to begin the plan. Everyone nodded and stepped into the room.

The bears instantly reacted to their presence and started to approach them from different areas of the room. As the normal bears walked forward Zane saw the alpha bears roared while laying down in the back of the room. Everything was playing out perfectly.

Zane, Shane and Luna moved in three different directions to attack the bears. Zane went to the middle Shane went to the right and Luna went to the left. The bears were scattered so Zane said he would do his best to draw the attention of four bears and they could focus on attacking three each. They agreed but were prepared to deal with more if something went wrong.

Zane wanted to draw the most bears toward himself so he attacked first. He used Charge and the bear closest to him sped up to meet him. Zane managed to slam his shield into the bears head and was knocked back a few steps. Zane saw that the bear was stunned and delivered a quick thrust with his spear to the bear’s neck. The bear let out a roar of pain and Zane stepped back.

Looking around Zane could see that he attracted the attention of most of the bears. There were two bears more than three meters to the left and three bears more than four meters to the right that had fixed their attention on him. Zane continued to back up as bears chased after him. Soon two more roars of pain were heard in the room. Only one of the bears to the right of him moved toward the roar coming from the right. To the left of him one bear paused before continuing to chase after Zane.

It didn’t’ matter that Zane had five bears chasing him. The goal was to injure the bears while bringing them away from the alphas. Plus, there was an archer that was willing to help him lessen his burden.

An arrow hit a bear in the eye when it started to get to close to Zane. Zane used his spear to pierce the bear in the front leg before continuing to back away. The injured bear did not deter the other bears and they continued to chase after Zane. After more than a dozen seconds Zane had made it back to the entrance with five injured bears. He arrived a second after Shane and Luna.

The moment Zane arrived he saw Shane and Luna go for the kill. Two mournful cries resounded through the room and two bodies dropped to the floor. Not wanting to fall behind Zane focused on the first bear he wounded and delivered a fatal attack. Skill Combo. Stab. Pierce. The bear released a gargled roar as it dropped to the ground and Zane saw another bear close by receive an arrow.

Zane didn’t worry about using to much energy. The name of the game was to kill as much bears before the alphas arrived. After his first kill Zane could see that the alphas stood up. It would only take them a few seconds to approach given their superior strength and nobody to slow them down.

Facing four bears Zane used their numbers against them. He managed to make the bears block each other and create an opportunity for him to strike. Zane activated Warrior Steps and quickly closed in on the bear blocking the others and used a combo attack. Another combo attack equaled another dead bear.

Zane could see the two alphas closing in when he looked up. He decided to focus on the healthiest bear of the three in front of him and deliver another combo attack. The injury was severe but it took another thrust to bring it down. Zane was aware of the danger that his decision brought him. He quickly brought up his shield to receive a blow from one of the last two bears. The other bear was weakened from multiple arrows and distracted by another arrow from Lana.

After Zane received the attack from his right, he stumbled back several steps. By the time he recovered Shane and Luna had both killed another bear. Zane could sense the Alphas close by and he knew what would happen next.

“Zane,” Shane called out.

“Got it,” Zane replied.

Zane used Charge to attack the last bear Shane was facing and Shane moved to attack the alpha. Zane wanted to fight the alpha but everyone thought he would have used too much stamina and Shane would level up after they killed one or two bears. That made Shane the best person to fight the alpha bear with some help from Jason. The other alpha would be distracted with arrows from Lana, bound with wood from Shawn then Luna would deliver the killing blow.

Zane thought the plan wasn’t carried out perfectly, but everything worked out toward the end. The best-case scenario would be for Zane to fight two weak bears but instead he would be facing three. After knocking over Shane’s final bear, he turned to see only one bear chasing after him. At first, he was worried that one of the bears were chasing after Lana but he quickly realized that wasn’t the case. The final bear was lying on the ground filled with arrows and glaring at Lana.

After deactivating Warrior Steps Zane slowly dealt with the two bears before moving to kill the final one. The moment he killed the final bear Luna had landed the final blow on one of the alphas. Zane went to help Shane finish the last alpha and he saw Luna moving to help as well. The group quickly dealt with the alpha and had only one more bear to kill. The dire bear.