Descending upon the broken ranks of the monsters downhill, it gave me the impression of a heavy cavalry trampling a small group of scouts. The good news is the fact that the eight hunters followed my orders to the letter and kept stabbing the corpses on the ground, creating a rather grotesque picture given how long those corpses took to disappear. In order to protect the meal I ate at lunch, I imagined a group of juvenile offenders being forced to do community service work, using their picks to pick up garbage… Yup! They were just collecting garbage…

Me and Alexa? We were only five meters in front of the ‘criminals’ and were also quickly stabbing the shit out of every monster in range. I was more reserved, but Alexa… she seemed to have really lost it for a second, as she was killing Murlocs left and right. If my damage was enough to kill one with a critical hit, her damage was sufficient with a normal strike, therefore the poor monsters fell like leaves to the spear in her hands, which was already blue colored due to the blood of her enemies.

Seeing that she kind of activated a berserk condition, I quietly stood behind her and focused on dealing with the monsters trying to attack her from behind or from the sides. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary while fighting, but suddenly there were no more Murlocs around us and the ones that were previously fleeing, stopped and turned to face us.

Seeing their brave action which didn’t stood particularly well with their previous cowardly behavior, I realized that something must have happened. Seeing how my Chaos senses began acting up made it even more obvious.

“Alexa! Get a grip! We need to…”

Damage received! HP -15!

Before I even finished my sentence, feeling a hand on her shoulders made her instantly react and a spearhead whistled near my face. I began heavily sweating and stared incredulously at the slightly crazed woman in front of me…

“Is she on her period!? What’s up with the sudden aggression?”

Obviously, I didn’t dare to joke around in this situation and because I was kind of stunned due to her unexpected reaction, I didn’t get the chance to remove my hand either. Seeing that there was still contact, I used my fingers to press the space between the clavicular bone on her right shoulder and the shoulder blade, creating a sharp pain which made her wince and loosen the grip on the spear.

Taking advantage of her reaction, I grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the ranks of the hunters which were staring stupefied at the two of us.

“Grab the javelins and rapidly move back on the hill. Prepare for the second wave!”

[[[Understood!]]]

“And you! You klutz! How long are you going to space out!?”

Probably surprised by the fact that I suddenly shouted, the group was moving even faster, while Alexandra blinked in confusion. She looked at me, then at her spear, then at my face that was grazed previously and almost started crying.

“Okay, okay! Leave that for later! I’m alive and it’s not that unexpected of you to go berserk given your status as this world’s hero. The monsters in the dungeons are basically your nemesis, so it’s fine as long as you keep your spear pointed at them…”

[Sorry…](A) – she said weakly

“I already said it’s fine… We need to regroup on the top of the hill. Seeing the Murlocs this calm even after we pretty much decimated more than 75% of their numbers makes me feel very unsafe. Come, let’s go! You guys, hurry up as well!”

I also grabbed six javelins and Alexa grabbed the remaining four, after which we scurried back and prepared to continue playing 'king of the hill' with the creatures. Some of the javelins were slippery due to the blood and viscera on them, so I had the guys (because the girls were surprisingly squeamish even after they already killed at least five Murlocs each) clean them by wiping the handles against the vegetation on our feet.

After a couple of minutes of preparation on our end and now standing at full attention, there was still no movement on the part of the monsters, which gave me a really uncomfortable feeling. The whole situation made me really uneasy about this dungeon. If before they were just rushing to get us because they saw me as food, now they were as organized as an army. That entailed…

“Fuck! A boss!”

[Michael?](A)

“Everybody, be prepared to run at full speed to the exit if I give the signal! No one is allowed to go against that order and if you do, I will rather kill you myself than let you be eaten by those monsters! Is that clear enough!?”

[[[Yes!]]]

It seems that threatening them worked well enough, especially after they saw me kill a Murloc and bringing back Alexa from her berserk state by force. Alexandra was also rubbing her right shoulder and silently glaring at me, action which I decided to pretend I didn’t see notice…

As for the reason I was so careful all of a sudden? I wasn’t sure if the monsters were gathering all the forces in the village to attack us, or if a boss was going to appear. However, if one thing was certain, if push comes to shove I won’t hesitate to run with the tail between my legs!

[Why aren’t they attacking? Are they afraid of us?](A)

“From the looks on their ugly fish mugs, I sincerely doubt that. They are waiting for something, but I’m not entirely sure what. Not yet anyway…”

And once more, we didn’t have to wait too long for the answer to arrive. A red Murloc three to four times bigger than the regular ones showed up. I let out a sigh and prepared for the worst…

“Last time even with better skills and stats I wasn’t able to even deal fatal damage to the Kobold boss. Now that I have no proper weapons, no skills and even my attributes are lower, I don’t dare actually try to solo it. As for going as a party… there’s no tank or healer, only DPS dealers. If there’s one thing that might be the same, it’s the cheat elf.”

“Alexa, if I remember correctly you have mastered both water and wind magic right? They should be maxed out so your spells will deal impressive damage. What exactly can you use?”

[…I …nt](A)

“Eh!? I didn’t hear you...”

[I CAN’T! I don’t know any spells!](A)

I froze on the spot and stared at her stupidly. What did this chick meant by not knowing any!? How the fuck was that even possible given her grandiosely named ‘Arcane magic’ that was max level?

Suddenly a thought struck me and I squinted in the area where the dead Murlocs were still vanishing.

“Drops? Is it possible to get skill books? Can’t be the case right? In the demo there were only materials and coins. But to a world that doesn’t have currency yet, what use would even gold have?”

Unable to make heads or tails of the situation, I simply decided to do what I’ve always done. WING IT BABY!

“Let’s start by taking a look at the boss! If it’s impossible we’ll retreat… Identify!”

Name

-

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Murloc

STR

40

Magic

35

Murloc Commander

5

4%

Sex

Female

DEX

36

Charm

15

Age

2 days

AGI

37

Luck

45

World

Midgard

END

34

HP

530/530 (+15.5/sec)

INT

40

MP

450/450(+12.2/sec)

WIS

36

Skill List Name Level Proficiency Desolate Howl(passive) ??? ??? Commander's aura(passive) ??? ??? Tidebringer's aura(passive) ??? ??? Blessings Blessing of the dungeon

“Holly schnitze! Prepare to run! That’s not something we can take on with only a handful of people.”

[Michael, they’re coming!](A)

“Fuck! Of course they are! Prepare to throw the javelins! Also don’t forget about keeping your attention on me and follow my orders! Got it?”

[[[Understood!]]]

“Good! Alexa, I’ll count on you to throw nine of them. I’ll try to buy us some time…”

Seeing the Murlocs rush towards us and the elves actually maintaining their calm, I was slightly impressed. I brought the stone knife and used it more as a hammer instead of its intended purpose and snapped the javelin I took in two and then in four. Then I used the vines I had on my person (both around my waist and the ones used to support the javelins on my back) and set up a simple trap. It shouldn’t do much, but even if one Murloc falls, it might slow down a couple others, creating a chain reaction.

When I finished ‘planting‘ the trap, I stood up and watched the monsters at the base of the mound preparing to assault us. Remembering just how many aura-type skills this boss had, I was quite scared to take them on...

“Alright! Let’s get this started! Each hunter on the extreme left and the extreme right, begin throwing your javelins! AIM! THROW!”

Two projectiles hit against the sea of fishes without much of an impact, except inflicting some isolate damage.

“The person next to the previous two also grab a javelin! Now all four of you: AIM! Throw!”

Another four monsters were instantly prepared for grilling, given the skewer which ran them through. With less distance, there was more piercing power!

“Next two people grab a javelin as well! All six of you: AIM! Throw!”

The monsters were already halfway up the hill and the projectiles pelted against them just like rain on a summer day. Another small number of Murlocs has fallen, probably never to rise again given the trampling they will receive from their colleagues and friends.

“Good! Now the remaining people grab a javelin as well! AIM! Throw!”

With the maximum output and Alexandra finally joining the fray as well, you could see some monster absorbing a javelin like a sponge, while others were being pierced like a needle would through cloth by the cannon shots Midgard hero was aiming at them.

“Everybody! Fire at will!”

This time they knew what that meant and they used their Agility attribute to its maximum efficiency.

[Mister Michael! I don’t have any other javelins left! Should I prepare for close combat?](Random Elf 1)

[It’s the same for me, Mister Michael!](Random Elf 2)

“Great! Good job you two! Now run for the exit!”

Even if they might’ve expected the order to come, they looked conflicted and hesitated.

“Do you actually dare to dawdle!? Get moving before I start throwing my spear at you slow asses!” –I hollered

Hesitating no longer, one guy and one girl began bolting for the exit.

“The same is applied for everyone else! As soon as your ammunition gets emptied, make a run for the exit. Don’t wait for anyone else, or you might slow down the rest of the team!”

When the Murlocs were only 20 meters away from us, only myself and Alexandra remained. She obviously slowed down the speed at which she threw the javelins, but not the power. If anything, it was stronger than before, literally blowing away at least four to five monsters with each strike.

She was obviously not going to leave before I do.

“Okay Alexa, I get it! Now finish throwing them and let’s run!”

I bent over after seeing that she has only three left and wanted to check the tripping traps I set up, only to see that the Murloc’s body disappeared and a book was in its place.

I blinked once, not daring to do so a second time just in case it disappears and grabbed it.

Would you like to learn the Dismember skill? Yes No

An automatic notification prompted me awake. Monsters dropped skill books!? I turned my head towards the horde of monsters still climbing towards us and almost started crying when thinking of the many drops that I won’t be able to collect…

[I am done Michael! Let’s go!](A)

“…yeah. Let’s…”

Kind of unwilling I followed her and ran towards the exit. It didn’t take more than a couple of seconds from the point we started jogging and a sharp cry followed by the sound of a sandbag hitting the ground entered my ears.

I involuntarily turned around and saw that a Murloc tripped over the vines and the others were either trying to avoid him, or were pushing him. Unable to climb over and being required to take a detour on either its left or right side, they were met with the second piece of vine stretched out. Another couple of monsters tripped, but that barely bought us five, maybe six seconds at max.

If there was something that pissed me off crazily, was the fact that Alexandra was slowing down on purpose yet again, so she won’t leave me behind. I swore to start jogging around the camp in the morning and in the evening so that my Agility stat can increase!

We arrived quickly at the exit, where the remaining eight hunters were anxiously waiting for us to return.

“Why are you morons still blocking the exit!? Get out of here faster! Move, move, move!!!”

Important things must be repeated thrice! Dunno where I read or heard that, however I agree wholeheartedly with it. While I appreciated their loyalty to Alexa or me, if they would’ve been ambushed because of such a stupid reason, I would’ve revived them only to kill them myself once more!

With the sound of me scolding them, their facial expressions also changed when seeing the mob following close behind our asses and began pushing and shoving each other out of the dungeon.

“Go Alexa! I’m right behind you!”

[Okay!](A)

At the same time she passed through the film while looking at me, her eyes widened considerably. I once heard that your pupils dilate when you see someone you are attracted to…

*CRUNCH*

Critical damage received! -256HP!

Silenced status inflicted! You are unable to speak or cast skills for 5 seconds!

Stunned status inflicted! You are unable to move for 3 seconds!

“OUCH MOTHERFUCKER! What the fuck!!!”