More monsters. More death. Not on their side luckily, but the push forward to the next level of the dungeon grew easier. Not only did the hobgoblins give double the amount of coins as the goblins did, they actually came in more fewer numbered swarms. That allowed the team to push through the rest of the dungeon at a faster rate, especially now that all of them had managed to get their recent spate of upgrades.

Lance was cursing silently, knowing that even with the minor – and relatively cheap – upgrade to Quiver to speed up arrow production, he was lagging behind everyone else. Sure, for a time, his splitting arrows and high explosive arrows had given him an edge. But now, the front line fighters were taking on the monsters full-time and he was forced to wait behind, since with Thorns and Peak Performance, Neil was able to handle the monsters on his side much easier.

Sarah too, of course. Then again, she had always been incredibly proficient at fighting. Almost as though she had been born to do this, with the savage glee that Neil’s workmanlike fighting had never matched. Even Yanesh was pulling his weight, lobbing Fire Bolts and arrows in equal measure. He had been muttering about getting an Elemental Firebolt amalgam when he had the chance, constantly pinging the Shop to find out options and what could or could not be done.

As for him? He was just holding back a little, focused on letting the number of arrows he had never fall beneath ten just in case another rush happened. In the meantime, he sniped those hobgoblins he spotted and debated what other additions he could buy.

His initial plan of only picking up enchanted items, concerned that he might lock himself out of the better, higher quality Shop items seemed to have faded with the ability to remove Shop purchases and furthermore…

“You’re sure that joining together multiple abilities is viable?” Lance said, asking outloud once more to Yanesh.

“Definitely. You can look up Champion’s Body yourself,” Yanesh said, as the group moved forwards slower. The current portion of the dungeon had started twisting and turning, with more and more siderooms. It made scouting for the two archers more difficult, so they would often stop and wait for siderooms to be cleared fully before they moved on. They could have gone into the rooms themselves, but after the first couple which were no larger than a small one bedroom location, they’d chosen to just send the melee pair in first. After all, if it did turn out to be a larger location, the archers could come in afterwards.

Lance flicked the Shop up, calling details of Champion’s Body to review.

Champion’s Body Upgrade

For those looking to be at the forefront of a fight, the Champion’s Body upgrade provides an overall increase of an individual’s survivability. Upgrade includes the following elements:

Enhanced Strength (Basic) Enhanced Reflexes (Basic) Enhanced Senses (Basic) Healing: Accelerated (Basic) Tough Skin (Basic) Reinforced Bones (Basic) Champion’s Compatibility

Cost: 5000 Coins

Discount based off previous upgrades:0

He let out a low whistle at the point total, though it made sense. He had to assume that the Champion’s Compatability option basically made everything work better, or maybe just pulled all the myriad purchases into one group. Though…

“You told Sarah already, right?” Lance said.

“Told me what?” Sarah said, emerging from the room. “Empty too, obviously.”

“Champion’s Body. And of course I did. What do you think I am? Stupid?” Yanesh grumped.

“Well, if the shoe fits…” Lance said, grinning.

“That’s not very nice,” Sarah glared at Lance.

“It’s fine. Lance has no sense of when not to make his terrible jokes,” Yanesh said, rolling his eyes. “Now, what are you going to buy? We can’t help you pulling us down.”

“Uh huh. Wait till you need me to help you make another excuse to your parents for…” Lance trailed off, seeing the flash of pain on his friend’s face. His lips thinned, and he clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Sorry.”

“Whatever, man. You’re an asshole.”

“I am.” Lance exhaled, then shrugged. “I’m thinking either an enchanted bow that does magic arrows too, which will let me keep shooting or some skill that lets me create arrows directly. Like Magical Arrow or Mana Manipulation – Arrows.”

“Are those real options?” Neil asked, glancing backwards for a second before he returned his gaze forwards. As the most armoured individual, he was taking the lead. Especially since the corridors had a tendency to narrow, enough so that his Thorns ability made it painful for anyone else to come close.

Lance opened his mouth to answer, only for Yanesh to cut him off.

“Magical Arrow is real. I’m not sure it does what Lance wants, what with a thirty second cooldown for conjuration. But it’d help. You can also upgrade it to give it elemental options – like a Dark Magical Arrow or Fire Magical Arrow. Don’t know about the other, though I wouldn’t be surprised. The Shop is rather ridiculous.”

“It’s real. Sort of,” Lance said. “The actual things I’d have to buy is Mana Manipulation – Beginner which is a pre-requisite. There’s Mana Sense too that I think, if we had time, might actually get you Mana Manipulation if it follows basic LitRPG books. Of course, it might just be that you need to buy Manipulation anyway since it might be that they’re two different skills – like seeing light and manipulating it, you know?”

“Yeah, I think it might lean towards the second myself. But I bet you have some sympathetic advantages if you buy both,” Yanesh said, growing excited.

“Yawn,” Sarah said, outloud.

“Did you literally say ‘yawn’?” Lance stared at Sarah.

“Yes. You two nerds can keep talking, but maybe after we clear the dungeon?” Sarah said.

“I’m no nerd…” Lance groused, but did shut up. After all, buying the items were enough. He just had about enough to buy both things he needed. First, Mana Manipulation then, once the world stopped spinning and nothing else seemed to have made a difference, he bought the second necessary skill.

Maybe he could have learnt this without the purchase. But he needed arrows, and this worked. So…

Create Mana Object

Knowledge rushed into his mind, making him stagger for a few seconds while he did his best not to fall over. Information on how the very arrows he carried worked, how the Quiver did much the same thing as what he was learning, just that it did not require actual concentration.

He could have gotten even more specific for less coins but his hunch had paid off. Having a Quiver and examples of the Mana objects right next to him meant he could figure out how to do it himself.

Once his head stopped spinning, Lance started conjuring the arrows, frowning. The first arrow took nearly a full two minutes to form, what with the failures and resulting problems. In between, the team had slowed down even further.

And then, the very first arrow he ever created from Mana, he had to fire off when he realised he’d forgotten he was in the middle of an actual dungeon run.