Tinker was the last to log back on. He logged back on at about 11 in the morning. That gave him more than enough time to sleep, eat and shower. On his return he asked what the others were up to. Cuzen claimed to be a few days away from finishing his basic training so he was going to power through until he was done. Zomger was doing a quest where he was participating in a fishing tournament a small distance away from the capital. Yuri it seems was hunting game in a plain about 4 hours walk away. Lina was still in the mage tower busy with Grand master William learning enchanting. She claimed that she did not know when she would be done but it would not be soon.

Tinker made his way over to the training hall to join Cuzen. He enjoyed having someone to talk during his rest. He would be honest, ever since he did basic training with Cuzen he would rest more and take longer time to recover. It also fell to them to notify Gambit if they saw other people do basic training.

It was not hard to spot those that wanted to test out new weapons or skills. They would be done in less than 30 min. Those with basic training will hit scarecrows for longer. They kept their eyes open but it seemed not many were busy with it. It was still not well known it seemed, that if you wanted to be a warrior, paladin or knight that doing basic training will help you out more.

Tinker however messed up his order. It was good to finish basic training before level 20 to reap most of the benefits sooner. He asked the instructor if it was possible to receive a shortened version of the basic sword. He needed it to be shorter otherwise he would not be able to attack that efficient with dual swords. The first few hours they practiced they did not notice any person busy with basic training. It seems a lot would start but after 30 min they would be off. 8 hours in during one of their breaks they saw one person in starting cloths which they decided to go talk to. They were not equipped in their battle gear and only wore their black cloaks in the guild house. For now they trained in normal cloths. Beggars and female looking players were always on the lookout for strong warriors to help them. They discovered it work best to blend in with the masses. Wearing your best gear also makes you a pray for theft or player killers. In big cities the last mentioned rarely happened.

“Hi there, how is the training coming along?”

“I am not interested in whatever you are selling. Go bother other people.”

“Come on Cuzen, let us leave him be, he clearly does not want to be disturbed.”

“No Tinker, we are now part of the guild and this is one of those things we have to do. If he asks us to leave after we had our say we will.”

“Fine, you can do the talking, I am going to refill my water. Good luck.”

“Ok, take my drinking bottle and extra container with you please.”

“Geez you lazy piece of meat, want me to get snacks while I am at it?”

“If you don’t mind, now be off before I give you my shopping list”

“Somebody is full of humor today aren’t they?”

“After 8 hours of just hitting are you not getting tired and want to do something new?”

Tinker walked off and Cuzen focused on the new person. “Hello I am Cuzen, may I please have a few minutes of your time?”

“You will leave me alone after you had your say right?”

“Yes, unless you give me reason to stay longer.”

He stopped what he was doing and put down his wooden sword and focused his attention on Cuzen.

“Ok, this is my first time doing this so just bare with me. Do you know why you are busy with basic training?”

“Yes, for the increased stats, so that when my first month passes I can go out stronger as those of the same level as me.”

“Great since you know that it helps, I don’t have to tell you these things. So long story short we focus on recruiting players like you that know a bit more. Think the recruitment motto is something like, we prefer quality over quantity.”

“So far I have only bad experiences with people. Why would I join a guild?”

“We are not like others guilds. My friends and I past our initiation test very well so we have freedom to farm where we want, when we want. We don’t force our ways on others. There are some things we demand but rest of the time we want people to do their own thing. We do not want bad or even average players. We want the best.”

“This pro guild of yours has room for little old me and just what makes you guys so pro?”

“I did not use the word pro, just above average. Well we have above level 100 players. One of our guild masters have over 100 000 gold, some have secret classes and the list goes on. Do not get me wrong friend. Our guild does not need you, we only want you. Right now you can’t do much, but later on you will be so much stronger and other new recruits can work well with someone like you.”

“It sounds too good to be true. What is the catch?”

“You need to pass the initiation test, follow the guild rules and always be an above average player. If you are not, you are let go or you don’t get to join.”

“Fine, what is the test and how many members you have already?” It seemed he was starting to gain an interest.

“I have no idea. I am still relatively new in the guild and we got about 250. Gambit will decide a task for you to do. He handles that part, we scout out possible recruits. It won’t be an impossible task but don’t expect it to be a walk in the park either.”

“When will I meet this Gambit?”

“I will tell him we found someone new. He comes around here every now and again. Can I assume you are going to be around here for the next few days?”

“Yes”

“Great my buddy and I will be close by if you got more questions. I am Cuzen by the way who are you?”

“The name is Mark”.

Tinker returned with the water and no snacks. They ate some jerky to restore their fatigue before they started attacking again. Gambit said he would arrive within the hour to talk to Mark.

As they were each attacking their own target a person could see the divergence in their style. Cuzen stood like a tree and attacked each shot with all his power. Tinker would flow and move around the target, sometimes he would stab or slice. Other times he would thrust or perform sweeps with all his might but he was always on the move. He was worried that the system would not pick this up as doing basic training because most of those that do training just stand still and attack like Cuzen does. But his stats did increase so he was doing something right. Mark on the other hand did look at them now and again but he seemed to be focusing on his own dummy.

“Yo Tinker, want to try a combo attack?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“You attack from the rear. With one blade you chop for the neck and the other you keep low and thrust for the spine. I leap and bash the target backwards from the front. So you need to wait for me to leap, and while I am bashing him backwards you must be attacking already.”

“I understand, by now I have a good idea how fast you travel in the air so it should work. Wonder if we will be able to kill a cloth wearing person in one go. I have noticed I do more damage to the monsters that run into my blade than those I attack.”

“Right on, since my leap has such a long cool down let us try and get it right the first time.”

They got into positions. Cuzen even equipped his plate armour so that the bash could be stronger and push the scarecrow further.

Tinker did not bother because the leather would give some minor damage increase but his speed would be slower. This was a test to see if the attack works and if the timing was possible.

“Hey Mark check this out.” Cuzen shouted to him. Naturally every other person in the training hall stopped to look at what was about to happen. Tinker wondered if any other person name was Mark or maybe they were just bored and would welcome something different. If he would guess he would say about 30 people were watching. He took a deep breath and made ready. He was about 1 meter behind the scare crow. On three Cuzen would leap and that would give him the time to move forward and start his attack. He decided to thrust low in the back with his left hand sword and chop with a back hand with the other sword. That way he could move forward and to the right and not get crushed by Cuzen and keep most of his momentum forward.

“One” Tinker hoped that Cuzen would go for the middle and not over shoot a bit to the left and hit him

“Two” And why did he need to call Mark and get the whole hall watching them? If they mess it up they would get laughed at

“Three” He was off, he did not check if Cuzen went, he just focused on his two points of attack. Both his swords seem to hit their mark but out of nowhere something hard hit him in the face. As he was moving forward and to the right of the dummy, he lost the grip on his left hand sword. It seemed to have gotten stuck. After losing one weapon he instinctively performed a duck roll so that he could stand up and face the scarecrow. A quick scan of the immediate area revealed that there were no new threats and so he did not have to dodge any new attacks. During his role he thought that a third player might have started attacking him. Because he knew Cuzen did not hit him by accident because he only used his shield after the leap. He saw a head still moving on the floor close to the scare crow. The scarecrow was lying on his back with no head and a sword sticking out of its stomach. Cuzen stood at its feet grinning like an idiot.

“Well I did not think this would happen.”

“No shit, at least you did not take a decapitated head to the face. It did not hurt but unfortunately I did not a see it coming.”

“Hahaha most shots to the face usually do hit when you least expect it.

“That it does” A man said while laughing. They turned to see who it was and they saw Gambit walking closer.

“I thought you guys are training, imagine my shock when I walk in here and seeing you guys are the center of attention. It seems it is happening a lot lately. But epic combo attack there, do you guys have a name for it”

“Thanks, we do not usually hog the attention and it just seems to happen to us. We wanted to show Mark over there how we do what we do. I think we should name the combo attack the sandwich.”

“I like it, not only does it remind me of food, but it describes the attack pretty well. On a sad note if you use the attack on a woman you should be ready for critical remarks from others.”

“I have not even thought that far yet, does it happen a lot?”

“Yes, all the time. When I use my skill whirling death they call me the ballerina dancer. Just one of those things I guess.”

Whirling Death

User spins fast for a short duration of time. Deals damage in a 360° area around the user.

Damage done is equal to your normal attack. A minimum of 1 attack per second is allowed.

Costs 200 mana. 1 hour cool down.

Duration depends on current fatigue level.

WARNING, once user starts, he cannot stop until the skill is over or he dies.

“What is fatigue?”

“People mention it and I have read something about it. But I have never seen the bar or stat for it.”

It shares the same bar as your stamina. The more stamina you have, the less is your fatigue. Thus if you are running low on stamina your fatigue is high.”

“Maybe one day we can see you in action. Mark is that dude over there so you can go right ahead and talk to him. Tinker and I are going to fetch a new scarecrow.”

A few days later Cuzen finished up his training and left Tinker behind while he went and sold his sword. Since nobody in the party could use it other than Tinker. He of course did not want to use it so it was useless for them. When Cuzen started the game he decided he would not be like most that only use swords. The guild would not sell it to a guild member because any one that wanted the sword needed to go and earn it. Cuzen left the training hall to go do a quest for the church. Lina was still at the mages guild. Yuri started a new quest in the region he was in and Zomger was still fishing in the tournament. He would be finishing up soon. Zomger used the time since the start of the tournament to bid on the item he found online.

A dark gamer was raiding in a cave with his guild somewhere close to the north and discovered the mysterious statue. Nobody else in the party wanted it and he took it to skilled person to get identified. When he read what it could do he knew he could sell it to a shaman or some similar class that can use it. Tinker only stumbled across it because it was listed under unique at the dark games union site. He recognized the name Oguumi and noticed it was different than the one he had discovered. It was already on auction. The time remaining was 1 week. Tinker told Zomger who took an interest in the statue. He joined the bidding war and had won. He bought the item for 80 pounds. Normally he would not spend that much money on items but the text told them that more bonuses will be revealed if the other sculptures from the same series are brought together.

The person traveled all the way to Zomger to deliver the item himself. He was clearly a Korean and tried to sell Zomger a wand to compliment his new statue. Zomger liked that wand but after he spent all that money on the sculpture he was not in the mood. The wand the person was selling was better than the one he was using but alas the money was a bit too much. The sculpture was unique and what was most important. It was the same looking Aztec man with tongue sticking out. But this man was kneeling with hand stretched up and outwards with what seemed to be human entrails in its hands

Oguumi statue of dark offerings

Durability: 8/10

A sculpture made to represent the extinct tribe offerings

Active effect is to increase Curses, Hexes, Voodoo and Ritual spells by 5% in strength for all party and raid members.

Requirement: Must be of a class that uses Curses, Hexes, Voodoo and Ritual spells

Only 1 statue effect can be active at a time. Unless other statues of the same series are discovered.

The Oguumi were a primal and primitive tribe that believed in dark offerings. It is said that after many offerings their Dark Lord answered them and demanded them to increase their offerings. So they did and received many blessings from their Dark Lord that allowed them to stack a multiple amount spells and abilities that are not normally possible.

The moment Zomger had both sculptures a new message appeared under the text that explained that the Oguumi were a primal people.

Two or more Oguumi statues are in close proximity to each other. Both statue effects are active and in full effect. As a bonus the effects are increased by an additional 10% for having 2 statues.

This was good and now his curses were 20% stronger. It also confirmed their suspicion that there are more statues in the world. The person delivered the statue right after the fishing tournament. Zomger came in 4th with the biggest black bass he had ever caught. He won a fish bone necklace. The stats were not good but they increased vitality and chances that fishes will bite are increased by 5%. First place won a fishing pole that subbed as a weapon. Second place won a tool kit with hooks and lore’s in. Third place was a rare gold fish whose exact stats would be revealed once it grows up. At the end of it all he would rate it as a good fishing week and was pleased with his new item. He made his way back to the city to see what his friends were up to

Back at the city life went on. Tinker was at the training hall. Cuzen was at the guild house gathering intel for a possible dungeon they could go farm. Yuri and Zomger had made their way back and Lina was still busy in the mage tower. Cuzen found out of a nearby dungeon they could go farm intensely, the only problem was that Lina was not ready to go. She told them she would be finished soon so they should go on without her. They agreed to leave and start the farming without her. They stocked up on supplies and headed towards the dungeon.

It turns out Cuzen asked around in the guild and they suggested that it would be a good place to go farm. The dungeon was in the shape of a huge mansion with a creepy long wall around it. The place was relatively well hidden. It was not near a major road. There was a small overgrown path leading from the nearby village to the mansion. It would appear that most of the villagers chose to ignore the existence of the place and did not want to talk about it. To get the quest you have to go to the small chapel were you respawn after you died. There was only one priest there and if you did not ask or mention the mansion in some way you would not get a quest. In addition the quest could not be shared so each person had to get it.

According to the information they got the dungeon of Mogul could have been divided into three levels. The first was the entire outside of the huge mansion. Estimates put it around one square mile. At the outer perimeters were roaming satanic hounds. Inside there were numerous different enemies to fight. There where gardeners that fought with a shovel. They may have worn cloth and have no real weapons but they were alone and as strong as a single pack of hounds. There was also a single sentry that walked around all over the grounds with two bigger satanic hounds. Small pavilions in the grounds held groups of cultist. They consisted of two men armed with swords, one healer, one spell caster and the fifth person always seemed to be a random fighter. They seemed to be sitting and enjoying each other companies until they notice you. The most disturbing were the little children. They would come out of nowhere and stab you with daggers a few times and jump into the nearest bush or duck behind a tree and disappear. While doing all this they would giggle and laugh like little children do. There were sheds and other outhouse buildings that each held its own surprises. The average level of the monsters was between 50 and 65,

The second level was the entire mansion. There were many rooms close to each other and multiple floors. Some rooms were big and others were like a hotel. At least 20 small rooms in one hallway. Each of the two wings had its own boss. The countess was in the east wing and the head servant in the other. In the mansions own kitchen was the third boss the huge chef that fought with meat slicers. After you kill him you can go into the cellar. The average level of the monsters was between 65 and 80.

In the cellar was the third level. A massive cellar with multiple levels stretching in each direction. The cellar it seemed was not only a store place but a prison, place of sacrifice and all other things that were nasty. In the cellar there were two bosses. The leader of the satanic hell hounds in the kennel portion of the cellar. Last in the deepest corner of the last room was Count Mogul himself. Upon his death a magic pathway opens that takes you out of the cellar and puts you a good distance from the grounds. The trip is one way so you want to make sure you are not left behind. Otherwise you have to fight your way out. The average level of the monsters was between 80 and 100.

During the walk to the town Zomger showed them all his new statue and told them about his fishing tournament. There were well over a thousand participants. It was mostly Npc’s that participated. They fished in a lake which was the major source of water for the capital. Many rivers from around the area flowed to the lake so the fish life was numerous and divers.

Yuri was busy for over week by hunting migrating birds. They were enormous birds that needed to be killed. If they are too many when mating season starts they ravish an entire regions plant and small animal life. In addition the birds had a good portion of meat that tasted like chicken. After that he got a quest where they needed to hunt buffalo. He did not kill the biggest beast but those that were sickly and tainted by chaos. They had to do it to protect the herd. He got only gold and experience for the buffalo’s because nothing of the animal could be used thanks to the exposure to chaos. Tinker would have like to have some meat tainted by chaos, but alas he missed on the opportunity to add it to his book.

The town they arrived at was not busy and gave of a slight vibe of misery. No wonder nobody ever came to the town. Others told them that there were not many quests in the village to do and who would think of going to talk to the priest at the chapel to hear about the mansion. The BoS only discovered the quest by accident. They found the mansion and were farming it and died when fighting the chef. They all died in quick succession and talked about what happened once they were all alive again. The priest on duty heard them and gave them the quest to kill 200 enemies. A person could get the quest 3 times, to kill enemies on each level.

They followed the overgrown path till they reached a gate with a huge wall going as far as the eye could see. The mansion was also visible but it looked like a small building from the gate. It did not take long before they encountered their first pack of hounds. They were fast but they all started attacking the person closest to them. Only when another person attacks them will they change targets. At the start of the fight all five dogs attacked Cuzen. Tinker rounded the pack and was attacking the hound that Cuzen was flogging with his mace. Zomger had his hands full with healing him and casting the odd curse in between.

Yuri did miss a shot on the hound Cuzen was attacking and thus he had a new dog that came racing after him. He started running away from the battle with the hound in pursuit. No matter how much speed or stamina you have you cannot outrun a hound. Yuri made it to a tree just in time and climbed up high enough so that the dog could not get him. From there he just shot arrows at the dog that tried jumping and clawing his way up the tree to no success. The others had their work cut out for them. Cuzen could only block one hound with his shield and keep another busy with his mace. That left two free to attack him from the sides or his back. Sometime during the fight a hound climbed upon his back and bit into his shoulder. He was the last to be killed.

After their first battle they had to talk tactics. Cuzen claimed that 5 hounds were too much damage for him and he could only manage 4 at a time. If they encounter bigger packs Tinker will take on a hound on his own and try not to take too much damage. If they fight six Yuri would have to agro one. If the encountered more they would not engage. The problem was that if they start the fight and see they are outnumbered the dogs would chase them all the way back to the gates.

During this strategy talk Tinker was adding the different parts of the hound to his alchemy book. Only their stomach could be used to increase resistance to poisons and allows the user to ingest food, water or other things that would normally hurt or kill them. For example a person needs to eat and drink. If you are in a swamp and all there is to eat is rotten flesh and still standing water you will die when you consume it. With a potion made of the stomach of the hounds a person could eat and drink the things from the swamp and gain nutrition from them and survive a few more days. The effects seemed only to last for a short time and a warning message told him that a person could not use the potion for more than a week before the body refuses to ingest more rotten food.

They were walking around and looking for their next group of hounds to find, they had killed 4 groups so far without too much problems. Yuri claimed to see hounds a good distance away, they wanted to move stealthy behind bushes to get a better look. You can imagine their shock when a gardener stood up straight not 5 meters from them. At first they did not know if they should attack, but the gardener charged them. They were warned that gardener’s strength and skill matched that of 5 hounds. They did not see how it was possible until they started fighting him. After a slight delay they fell into their standard formation. Cuzen would keep him busy while Tinker would come from the side or back and attack. Tinker jabbed fast two times and as his was preparing a full power swing when a shovel hit him in the face.

Normally the beast or monster would turn around before they start attacking him but this gardener swung without looking and continued its attack. He shook the hit off like a champ and attacked again. A few attacks later the gardener tried it again but Tinker managed to block the first attack and even dodge the second. The gardener changed tactics after that. He started to move like Tinker does when he is under attack by multiple opponents. Tinker could not get behind his opponent again. Yuri yelled for them to stop chasing him and just fight him from the front shoulder to shoulder. Because the gardener kept diving and rolling all over the place a lot of arrow shots missed. As Tinker and Cuzen started fighting shoulder to shoulder the gardener took this time to run straight down on Yuri. Normally Yuri would run and save himself but he could not this time. He managed a few shots till the gardener was on him. He took his dagger and blocked the first blow from the shovel with his bow. He performed a duck role in the direction of his friends in the hopes of getting far away but he too got a shovel to the back of the head.

They stabilized a bit after that. They noticed that the gardener would prefer to attack Tinker, it seemed he picked up that Cuzen does not take much or any damage behind his iron armour. Sometime during the fight the gardener again stopped attacking and ran down on Zomger. Even with the other 3 people attacking him, the gardener would not stop attacking Zomger. Lucky for them Zomger was a shaman in leather gear and could take a few blows. He even attacked the Gardener with his Club. The fight was over soon after that and again they took the time to evaluate and learn from the battle. Tinker took the shovel claiming he might need it someday. He had a shovel but this particular shovel had bonus stats and if your life depended on it, it can be used as a weapon.

Their encounter with the second gardener started off well. Tinker would start the attack while Cuzen provided support. The other two would stand behind them. By doing this both Tinker and Cuzen could stop the gardener from just running past. I did happen once or twice where the gardener would just run far around Cuzen who could not keep up. Cuzen made up for it by leaping to the aid of others. Zomger and Yuri would just keep attacking or casting spells while they walked behind the other two. Again the gardeners surprised them by running in circles to tire them out and dodge attacks from range. Cuzen jumped on the back of a gardener the one time it came to close. This slowed it down enough for Tinker to catch up and do good damage. Yuri however had to stop shooting, instead he came in close with dagger in one hand and an arrow in the other for some melee combat. The second gardener died faster than the first but the fight was still sloppy.

The fight against the third gardener went well until he ran away and stood with a tree to his back. Thus preventing the others to get a surround on him. He also kept moving around so that Yuri never had a clear shot. They decided to just surround him and all four of them came close to attack it at melee range. At the end of it all they concluded that the gardeners were too unpredictable. Thus the other fights against them also went sloppy.

The sentry with two bigger hounds was easy enough. He would release both of them and Cuzen would keep both busy. Tinker would attack the sentry. The damaged Tinker did against the sentry was not the best but he kept his target busy. He sometimes sustained a fair amount of damage and fought until his friends came to help him. They managed to kill the two hounds before he was done with the sentry. The sentry had a leather chest piece and carried a rapier so his attacks were fast. On some level it felt like a duel for Tinker. Just he and the sentry. Sure Zomger cursed him, but other than that it was a 1 on 1 fight.

For the time being they only fought the three different type of enemies. Those assembled at pavilions and buildings on the ground they bypassed. While moving along a row of bushes Zomger suddenly yelled out. The others turned around to see what the problem was. A little girl was running away with dagger in hand laughing at them. Yuri tried to shoot but she dove into a bush. As he went closer to the bush she was gone. This happened a few times more. So after a while they would keep looking behind them for in case she sneaks up on them. The plan was that if she reappeared Yuri would not attack and run after her. That seemed to work well as she ran to a tree and hid behind it. Yuri rounded the tree ready to pay her back for the stab he received but she was gone.

They concluded that whenever they lose sight of her she teleports or ghosts out. After many chases they finally managed to keep eyes on the girl and she could not teleport away. She did not even try and run away because she appeared to be out of breath. It seemed being a child takes its toll on a person. They hesitated at first because nobody really wanted to kill a child but she did not look like a normal child. From behind she looked like just any other child normally would. But she had a dagger, her skin was pale and the eyes were not right. They seemed evil and satanic to say the least. The up side was she died quickly.

They continued this for about two days before Lina came to join them. Only once she was with them did they feel confident enough to attack the five cultists. The fight was tough to say the least but they emerged victorious every time. They struggled the most when the fifth person was a knight in thick iron armour but he died just like the others in the end.

They even entered the stables and sheds. The sheds had two gardeners in, but the confined space of the shed helped our group of friends more than the gardeners. In one of the stables they encountered a horse. It was in a stall and could not charge them but he put up a good fight. The hooves of the front feet felt like 2 hammers hitting. Cuzen had a shield to block but Tinker took a hoof to the chest and after that the odd hoof to the arms. The horse turned around to kick with his hind legs, Tinker evaded like a trained warrior but Cuzen was unmoving like a tree. When the stronger legs hit him he was kicked backwards a good five meters and made contact with the floor.

Tinker used the time in between to gather samples for his book. Most of the plants he got was for poisons or would weaken something important. He took all the red vines he could lay his hands on. It did high amounts of poison damage.

All the cultists seem to be human. He chopped one up and added it to his book. It seemed humans were a lot like goblins. Since they were in such abundance all over the continent nothing of them could be used. Satanic horses heart could be used to increase maximum stamina by 250% but in addition it increases your stamina drain by 25%. They did not get many horses, and it seemed the meat could have been eaten. The problem was that 80% of the normal nutrition you receive is lost, due to it being tainted.

Unfortunately it seemed meat tainted by evil could not be used in alchemy. Only later did he discover when his alchemy reached the appropriate level that the meat can be used. There was no time for using professions. They only repaired what they needed and took what they could for later use. All they did was fight and take small braeks to recover.

After a week they stopped. In just over a week they leveled up 3 times and one more for handing in the quest. They decided to get the quest and spend the next month in the mansion. Tinker was about 10 levels behind and the others about 5 but they felt confident that they could fight in the mansion. The average level was between 65 and 80 but they were not average players.

Inside the mansion there were servants in well dressed cloths and trays that were sharp as swords. In some of the rooms they would find more cultists and people to kill. During some fights reinforcements came from adjacent rooms. All they would do is retreat in a corner and fight like their lives dependent on it. Many times they came close to death but a bandage here and a potion there proved to be what they needed to power on.

They pulled out all the stops. Yuri even used his spirit hawk to run interference. He would turn the vision on for all the world to see and send it to attack people. Out of reaction they would swing weapons at it to stop it, but all physical attacks did nothing to the spirit hawk. Unfortunately the Spirit hawk could do nothing to the attackers either. Its only job was to keep them busy and distracted for a few seconds. During a lot of their fights those few seconds was the difference between life and death. The stupid monsters like hounds would keep chasing and biting the hawk to no effect. The humans however adapted fast and were not fooled twice.

So far in the mansion they encountered no hounds and only fought humans. A lot were servants but the most seemed like guests or fellow cult members. They were not robed in cultist cloths and instead wore fancy cloths. The up side was they dropped good money, but the items were lacking to say the least. Each of them got a nice suit for if they ever get invited to a ball or some other rich and fancy event. Lina on the other hand looted nearly every new dress and other cloths for her tailoring.

They encountered a normal looking door and opened it ready to fight whoever was inside. They cannot remember who was more shocked. Them for walking in on about 40 cultists eating in a huge dining hall or 40 cultists who were interrupted by outsiders. There was no retreat and they stood their ground at the door. It was not the big double door to the hall room but a servant entry if they would have to guess. Cuzen stood like a tree in the door frame preventing any from passing. Tinker would stab and poke through the sides at any of the 8 people trying to get past Cuzen. Yuri was just shooting arrows into the masses, he was not aiming at any one specific and just tried not to hit his friends. Zomger would curse those in front and shift back to healing. There was no need to curse those at the back. By the time they would reach the front the curses effect would have disappeared.

Lina was the star of the show this time. Normally when spell casters cast a spell like fire ball, you can see the fire ball forming by the caster and fly through the air to its target. The Flame strike spell of Lina did not work like that and all she needed was time and line of sight to the ground she was going to cast the spell. Sure she could not see pass the masses of people to the ground where she casting the spell but according to the system she had line of sight. She did not hold back and used all her mana to cast flame strike just outside the door frame. Those cultist in the back were out of the damage zone and kept pushing their allies forward. Those in the middle and front that took the full amount of damage were trapped and could not escape.

The weakness of Flame strike was that a person could just walk or move out of its area of effect and take minimal damage. At the end of it all she probably got over 30 of the 40 kills in the hall. They were lucky that those packed inside did not go out through the main door and come attacking from different hallways. It seemed they all thought that they would overrun and overpower the new threat fast.

It took a week for the people they had just killed to respawn. They could try and clear every room but after a week they would have to start over. Their plan was to work towards the countess. They were told that she was on the top floor in the room at the end of the corridor. They did not feel confident enough to fight her so they stuck to clearing the rooms between her and them.

After the battle in the hallway they changed up their tactics. They would clear out a room and send Yuri far ahead to agro enemies. On his retreat back to them Tinker would also find a group and both of them would fall back. Thus it happened that 20 to 30 people would stand in the hallway trying to get past Cuzen who blocked the door way. Lina burned them all and after most of them died to the flames. Tinker would slip pass Cuzen and fight to his full potential. In truth he would beat Lina in a duel but when it came to doing massive damage in an area nobody could compete with mages and wizards. With their new tactics farming became much faster.

Every week they would return to the hall and kill all those in the same way. They only fought like this when Lina had the mana. Otherwise they would just clear a single room and she would only help in a minor way to regenerate mana for the big battles. Tinker had many potions and gave all those that increase mana regeneration of fortified the intelligence stat to her. His alchemy stat was still low and his potions only increased intelligence by 1 %. Every little thing helped at this point

They only encountered two other enemies that were not human. It was long hallway on the third floor that had stone gargoyles statues on the one side and knights armour on the other side. When they passed the last knight, they came to life. They were caught off guard but manage to stabilize during the fight. This was also their first encounter against armoured men with pikes and halberds. Lina took the most damage but she managed to pull through while the others evaded and Cuzen true to his nature was unmoving as ever. With the three dead they killed the remaining three that came to life short after that. They were about to loot and complain when all 6 gargoyles came to life simultaneously. Someone shouted to retreat and they fell back to the last room they had just cleared. Cuzen stood firm to give his allies time to retreat. He was however needed to stand in the door frame at the room they retreated too. He used his leap in an effort to get ahead but one managed to get inside.

Tinker fought him in single combat and had his long awaited duel. During this duel the others were given time to focus on the 5 gargoyles that did not make it inside. Gargoyles had wings so they hovered a small distance in the air. Most of the time the scratched and tried to bite their enemies. Their legs were weak so they did not use them to fight. Their tails however were like short spears that could attack from any side. Tinker was caught more than once by a quick jab but he would stab the creature back each time. After that battle they became weary of every statue they passed and Yuri would even shoot some of them to provoke a reaction. It seemed some statues came to life while others did not. The shooting of the arrow did not seem to work. Only once you walk pass or directly stand in front of a statue or piece of armour would it come alive.

Towards the end of their month Yuri complained that he thinks someone is watching them. After facing little children that disappear they did not want to take chances. They set a few traps and later if they went back a few traps were not touched and others were disabled. One night soon after another trap was disabled they just exited a room they cleared Yuri used his tracking to watch down the hallways to make sure no surprises were waiting.

“Guys I think I just saw Quantum in the direction we came from.”

“What would he be doing here all alone this time of night?”

“I don’t know. I overheard Gambit tell Stan them that he is sending a member of the guild to do the dungeon with them. It could have been him. He is high enough level to enter the third level of the dungeon.”

“According to the guild info he is online and somewhere in the Heaven Kingdom.”

“Well that is about as useful as an ice cream toaster.”

“I’ll message him and ask where he is. Hello Quantum it’s Cuzen here, this may be weird but where are you now?”

“Behind you guys of course.”

They turned around to look for him but saw nothing. Cuzen actually laughed at how they just got trolled. “No man I am serious where are you?”

The reply never came and they did not ask him again. They decided to just go on and not set any more traps. If he was there with them he clearly did not want to make contact and if he was somewhere else he did not want to be disturbed.

They were slowly making their way to the countess. She was a spell caster and while fighting her only the odd servant would come help and she summoned a fire elemental. Normally they would not try and fight a boss type monster that had ten levels on them but upon reaching level 50 mages and wizards learn a shield spell to protect against the magic type they had the strongest affinity towards. Thus Lina could cast fire shield. Those spell casters which used more than one type could only cast a shield of the magic which they were the strongest in. She had two type of shields the first was one that increased their fire resistance for 5 minutes by 5 %. The other one increased fire resistance by 75 % for 5 seconds. It was best to cast that during an enemy attack or a small time before hand.

After spending over a month in the mansion they finally decided to go face the countess. She was a level 85 boss monster and they were only about 75. The others in the guild informed them of the countess attacks and abilities. The plan would be to kill the fire elemental she summoned. It seemed once you kill it you have a five minute window before she could summon it again. At The start of the second phase a servant would arrive and every 5 minutes after that another would arrive till the end of the fight. Best estimates for killing the fire elemental and servants were at about 1 min each so that would leave between 3 and 4 minutes they could attack the countess.

Before they started the ceremonial buffing commenced. Tinker had potion that increased magic resistance for 1 % for an hour so they all drank one. They joked how they hoped the fight would not last and hour. He did not have a potion for something specific as fire resistance, yet. He gave potions that fortify stamina by 2 % to each of them. They entered the room charging. Lina cast the 5 second shield on Cuzen as the Countess was releasing her first spell. Apparently the first spell she cast was a lava lash aimed to destroy the armour of the nearest plate wearing person. It still did good damage to the durability of Cuzen’s armour but he powered on.

The next spell was to summon her fire elemental. Lina did not even to bother to attack it because it is said fire elementals live in the earth core and had a 99% resistance to fire. She focused instead on the countess. The others dealt quickly with the elemental. The countess did not do so well with all the enemies attacking her but she put on a good fight. She fared much better than the witch a while back from the Mystic forest. With the start of phase two, servants came and after their death she would shoot a Pyroblast at a random person. Lina needed time to cast her shield and she did not want to guess who to give the strong shield too, so they came up with a compromise. As soon as the servant died they would all stand in a straight line and Tinker or Cuzen who ever was in front would get the shield. That way the person with the shield will get hit every time and the others would be ok. It all worked well till one time the countess shot a Pyroblast off to the side and destroyed the Spirit hawk who was hanging far back. This was the first time it died but at least he would be back in 24 hours.

In the third and final phase the countess would cast flame strikes of her own but the others would just move out of the burning areas. With their mana starting to run low the countess died. As a last goodbye present, upon her death she released a wave of fire that did 10% damage to each person. If you had less than 10% life remaining you would die instantly. If you survive the attack you immediately get third degree burns and slowly loose health over time. Zomger was not a priest so he could not heal the burns and only heal the damage it caused. But running low on mana he would not be able to heal each person. They knew this would happen so Tinker prepared bandages for them to apply. It helped to stop the damage they were taking over time. It was a good enough fix to keep them alive until a priest could heal them

The loot was a sort of battle dress. It was red and black and not big as a ball room dress. It was comfortable to run and travel in while looking good. The stats was all for a spell caster. Later they would notice that whenever Lina would cast spells during battle the parts of the red in the dress would start becoming brighter, mimicking the colours of the fire spell she just cast. For the next few months while they all received better gear Lina would still wear this battle dress even if its stats was not as good as others.

The others would tease her later on how she had sentimental value and could not let it go, although nobody could deny how well the red and black battle dress looked on her especially at night time. Unfortunately many others notice her fine dress and many strong looking men walked up to her and would vow to protect her if she joined them in quests. She already had 4 men protecting her full time so she declined all the kind offers in the best way possible. By shooting them all with Fire balls if they would not leave after the first no. Later when her tailoring skill was high enough level and she no longer worked off patterns she would make many battle dresses based on this one style.

Ever since they entered the mansion they did not leave and decided now would be a good time. Their food was running low and they needed a priest to heal the burns. On the way out they fought the odd gardener and hounds. Another creepy girl sneak attacked them with her dagger but they just left her and made their way to the village. In the village they first went to the chapel to get healed of the burns and hand in the quest. After it was all said and done Tinker was level 76 and the others were 80. It took them a month and a half to advance 25 levels. Others told them they should have gained about 13 levels maybe 18 max if they pushed themselves.

Not only did they push themselves day after day, hour after hour in the mansion their tactics of getting huge groups to attack at the same time made a huge difference. In addition normally a person would wait till you are level 65 before you enter a dungeon where the average level is between 65 and 80. They went in early and the extra increases in experience only helped. After sales of new supplies they each were about 350 gold richer. Yuri had to buy arrows so his end profit was less. Arrows are not expensive but to fill his magical quiver with thousands of arrows cost a bit. They were still debating if they wanted to go back for the third level of the dungeon or go to a new place. The problem was that now they only wanted to enter dungeons about 10 levels higher than their average levels.

But before they could come to a final agreement the Guild Tab pinged to show an urgent message.