Chapter 44 - A new team

Day 59

Neo’s POV:

"Neo, Neo, we have our first real visitors!”

Luna was right, Neo was able to detect the group of five people including Mike.

“Can I kill them? Mr. Floppy wants to fight again.”

“Wait, not so fast Luna. I talked with you about this, we only used special measures if they enter a forbidden area or if they kill other adventurers.”

“Boring! I need something to do, I’m only training Mr. Floppy all the time. Biff is sitting in that stupid market stall and Wolfgang is controlled by you most of the time.”

The little fairy was right, he needed to find a job for her.

“We will have a second entrance soon. How about you possess one of the lesser earth giants and train to fight for now?”

“Cool, you’re right. I’ll go to the arena and train fighting. I’ll be much better than the stupid giants. Did you know that I have access to your mana skills.”

“No, I didn’t know that. Maybe, you hold back a little? It would be kind of flashy if you start to throw around high level spatial magic. Well, you’ll probably only use it against people we want to kill anyway, so as long as we don’t leave any witnesses behind, it should be fine. But if you can use my skill levels, it would be probably better to possess a shaman and start to train magic. Skill level isn’t all, you need experience and spells, too.”

“Great idea, then please create some skill books with spells for Luna!”

“Ok, the goblins don’t have enough mana for powerful spells, but it would be good if you can start to train the basic ones. Oh, and don’t teach them to Mr. Floppy. That rabbit is creepy enough as it is.”

Neo saw Mr. Floppy’s head slumping down and he heard a light whimpering noise. Luna looked angrily in his direction while tipping her foot on the ground.

“Ok, you can teach some of the spells to him, but not all.”

The rabbits head came back up and it started to excitedly jumping up and down.

“Thanks, we are off training spells.”

With that, the little fairy and her rabbit flew away. It was kind of impossible for him to be strict with Luna.

Mike’s POV:

Mike and his new party entered the dungeon and moved through the first rooms.

“Ok, the only enemy on this level is a normal wolf.”

“Boring dungeon, just a stupid wolf, let me kill it.” Hans bragged.

“The first levels are probably for newbie adventurers, so it’s normal that they are weak for us. Nevertheless, keep your guard up, it is still a dungeon!” Izzy cautioned.

“Enough talk, let me show you how to finish a stupid wolf! Flamesword!” Hans shouted.

Mike saw the fire appearing on his sword, but was it really necessary to call out loud the name of the technique he wanted to use? Whatever, he thought and looked after Hans, who cleaved the wolf in two parts with his two-handed sword.

“We should take these plants over there. They are worth a few silvers.” Mike proposed.

“Pah, I’m in here for the real money, not for a few silvers.” Hans bragged.

“Shut up and focus.” The silent Karn ordered.

The other adventurers where speechless for a moment, they seemed to be surprised to hear the fighter talk. Even Hans didn’t say anything in response and they just collected the plants and made their way to the second floor.

“The first group is five wolves. Alone, I had some problems to kill them all, before one could get to me. I used the narrow hallway, but with a team, they should be easy.”

“Let me kite them.” Keldian asked and threw a fireball at the wolves.

Only two of them managed to stay ready to fight and attacked, but Mike and Karn easily blocked and killed them off. After that, they entered the next room. With everyone being unharmed, they didn’t pause at the small lake, instead they went for the second group of wolves in the last room of the second floor.

“Same procedure.” Keldian throw another fireball, then Izzy shot water bullets at the remaining wolves. Just as Mike and Karn wanted to block the four remaining ones, Hans pushed them to the side and attacked them with his flaming sword.

Two of the wolves went down almost immediately, they stood no chance against the powered sword. But, one of the wolves managed to bite into Hans’ leg, who went down with a cry. Before the last wolf could go for his throat, Scorpion appeared besides it and stabbed the wolf’s neck. The other one, which still had its teeth in Hans’ leg, was killed by another water bullet from Izzy.

“Stupid idiot, if you want to die, just kill yourself, don’t drag us into the mess.” Scorpion snorted.

“Damn lurker, you’re just jealous of my skill and that I killed the most wolves. Izzy can you move your fucking ass and heal my wound, it's hurting like hell.” Hans shouted.

Izzy moved over and started to use a water magic spell to heal Hans’ wound, while Mike thought about the stupid prick and began to doubt if Hans would survive this adventure.

When Izzy was finished with healing the injured leg, they moved to the third floor. Karn and Mike went in front, with Hans and Scorpion behind them. They had no troubles with the next two groups of wolves, even Hans stayed in line. When they arrived at the boss room, Mike informed them what they could expect.

"So, there is a large black bear in there, the problem is, he is always poking into a bee hive. When we enter, the bees will attack us and the bear, so stay focused."

"Bees, bears whatever. Let's go!" Hans shouted and opened the door and went in, the rest followed.

Like before, the bear charged at them after he destroyed the bee hive. Hans evaded the charge and jumped to the side, this left Mike in front of the angry bear. He wasn't able to bring his shield in the right position, before the bear impacted on it. Mike felt the tear in his shoulder muscle and had to drop the shield. He activated Haste to move away from the angry animal, while Karn hit the bear's head with his mace. Izzy shot water bullets at it while cursing at the bees. The bear shifted its focus on hear, but before it could get ready for another charge, Mike used Windcutter and stabbed his sword into the lower part of the its spine. The bear howled and his back legs slumped down. Hans came back into the fight, pushed Mike to the side and decapitated the bear with his two-handed sword.

For a moment, Mike thought about attacking him, but he held back. He didn't know enough about the internal relationships in this party and didn't want to risk to stand alone against the rest. He activated his Water Regeneration to heal his shoulder and he picked up the shield.

"Fucking moron, can't even block a weak F rank animal. Why do we need such a looser?" Hans complained.

Mike couldn't hold it any longer, and shouted back.

"If you pull this crap again, I'll kill you, you fucking idiot!"

"Boys, please! Nobody was badly hurt, we're still in a dungeon." Izzy tried to calm down the situation.

Hans snorted and bumped into Mike's injured shoulder.

"This isn't over farm boy!" Hans whispered while he passed him.

Mike thought for a moment about going back alone and leaving the dungeon, then Scorpion stepped next to him.

"Damn, how I hate this little prick. We were forced to take him in our party, but accidents happens and the way he behaves, there is a high chance he gets himself killed." the rogue whispered to him with a smile.

This let Mike to rethink the situation and he decided to stay and help the others to survive despite having this reckless idiot with them. They went on to the fourth floor.

"Be careful, there are panthers and snakes here. They'll try to surprise attack us."

"I hate snakes." Izzy murmured.

They went into the forest of the floor. When they scouted the first panther, Keldian shot a fireball at it. It didn't die, instead it went into a frenzy and ran at Karn. Who was able to block it with his shield. Then he bashed the panther's head with his mace. It went down, but three other panthers seemed to be angered by the fire and attacked. Mike stepped in front of Izzy and blocked one with his shield while he activated Tough Body. Another one went after Hans who hit it with his sword and Scorpion who sidestepped another one while cutting its throat. Mike immediately switched his active mana technique to Windcutter and he managed to behead his opponent.

He then looked around, it seemed everyone was fine and uninjured.

"Maybe, we should leave the fire for this floor."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Keldian answered meekly.

They went through the rest of the floor without much trouble. At one point, Hans was bitten by a snake, but Izzy was able to heal him pretty quickly.

A little later, they arrived on the fifth floor.

"This is a safe area for mining, behind these doors are boss rooms with a large brown bear in it."

"Let's go, I want a new bedside rug." Hans decided and moved ahead again.

"Wait, don't we need other weapons like spears to fight it?"

"Don't worry, my blade will kill it."Hans answered and the rest followed him.

Mike hesitated for a moment, but then he went after them. He was at rank E5 now and the bear was normally an opponent for groups of high F ranks, so he should be fine.

"Mike, you and me, we go in front. We'll block its attack together, smash your sword against your shield, so its focusing on us." Karn intructed.

They went in, Mike saw Hans getting a little bit pale for a moment after he saw the bear. Then he shifted his focus on his job, activated Tough Body and stepped next to Karn. Both of them hammered their weapons against their shields. The bears roared at them, then it charged. They put their shields in front of them and tried to block it, but it wasn't working. The force of the bear's impact was too large and they were both hurled backwards, losing their shields. Mike managed to land on his feet, while Karn hit the ground hard. He saw the bear coming at him again and immediately activated Haste to get out of its way. While he was evading the bear's attack, Scorpion and Hans slashed at it, whereas Keldian shot fire arrows and Izzy went to help Karn. Mike ignored his pain and attacked. He stabbed his sword into the side of the bear's neck. The bear roared, shifted his head to the side and Mike lost the hold of his weapon. He evaded the bear's next attack and rolled to the side, where he saw Karn's mace, lying on the floor. In the end, it was not needed. While Mike picked up the mace, the bear went down after a heavy blow with Hans' flaming sword.

While they were recovering from the fight and Izzy healed Karn, a chest appeared. Hans ran to it and inside there were six gold coins.

"One for each." Scorpion suggested and Hans reluctantly agreed.

Mike got back his shield and sword and inspected them. His sword was fine, but his shield was dented and needed some repair work from Gunthar. While, he did this, Karn came back to his senses.

"Sorry Mike, I've underestimated the bear's strength and nearly got both of us killed." Karn apologized.

"It's ok, I thought it would work, too."

"Quit the chatter and let's get to the next floor." Hans impatiently demanded.

With that, they went down the slope to the next floor.