Chapter 23

Hurry

Gary spent 110 points bringing everyone’s stamina to 75, then touched dimensional pouch for 28p. The lowest level bag reduced weight by 10% and had two cubic feet of space. The next one doubled in price and reduced weight by 20% and had six cubic feet of space. All the rest were grayed out. Gary bought the second one, trusting Rome to buy a lot more orb lights after cave ten.

As they walked south west to the coast in the middle of the tundra region, Joe told them about the helpless feeling in pitch blackness, being pulled in different directions and knowing his squad was near, but unable to see them.

“Kind of reminds me of Thirrell,” said Torger. Rome nodded.

Brun asked “What about him? He was your replacement when they booted us out of Home, then usurped Baybil and became tribal chief.”

Torger told the story. “I had become the governor of a dwarf city after they ousted a tyrant named Small Foot, but I already told you guys about that. While training my replacement, I taught him to be among the people. Spend a day occasionally fishing with the fisher uh, dwarves. Wash clothes with the dwarf ladies, stuff like that. It was a very small village and everyone knew everyone, so I found that by being among them it kept morale high, and higher morale meant increased production.

“I taught him a lot in the five months I had to train him, but he seemed to like punishing dwarves for bad behavior. I could do little to change that attitude, and hoped it would go away. Instead it got worse. After a few months, he blackmailed and bribed the council members to replace the tribal chief with himself, and then he let his true heart show. He ruled with an iron fist driving the whole tribe like a colony of ants. The few rebels were publicly tied up and beaten by Thirrell’s personal guards, their business and assets seized by the government.

“Dozens of prayers went to Muldwil every day, received by Ristopan, until he finally decided to get off his ancient butt and do something. When he looked through his scrying globe he was horrified at how overworked the dwarves were. Morale across the whole tribe was almost at hatred. Ristopan, Rome and I went to overthrow Thirrell. He died by suicide, but that wasn’t good enough for Ristopan. He used his highest level spell, Revive. It can raise someone from the dead within one minute of dying. He ordered all dwarves to move east, closer to his keep, but left Thirrell behind. He told him since he wanted to be in charge so much, he was now sovereign ruler of all of Home for the rest of his life, which would be more than another hundred years. Ristopan cast a shield over the village that both damages and heals anyone who attacks it. For the first six hours Thirrell pounded on the shield taking the pain of fifty damage but without his health ever dropping because he would get cured the same amount with each of his punches to the shield. He now has all the food and water he could want, but there is no metal in the village. A dwarf is driven to dig in mines, and that lack of being able to do so will drive him crazy. He is healthy and well fed with nothing to do at all for the rest of his life, a mad ruler with not a single subject to rule over.”

“If you knew the revive spell, why didn’t you save Susan?” asked Nikko.

“We never got to that level. Ristopan is now one oh three, and the highest we got was seventy-three. A spell of that difficulty was far beyond our ability.”

They walked in silence for a while thinking about being stuck on 1PX all alone for years. None of them wanted that. They watched clouds roll in.

Later Tyler said “I’ve been thinking about the points sheet.”

“You better keep this real simple,” Gary threatened.

“I will.”

“Remember when I pummeled Brun when he told me he killed my family, but they just kept casting cures on him? I can cure you once every four minutes.” Gary punched his own fist.

Tyler stayed quiet for a couple of minutes. “Basically you want to know how we can increase our points in each cave. It turns out our low squad strength and how quickly we finish a cave only help a little with the score. The most important thing is dealing damage with our primary weapons, and second most important is not taking damage.”

“What are our primary weapons?”

“I have no idea.”

Brun joined in. “We have different skill levels with different weapons. Maybe it’s our highest skill level.”

It sounded reasonable and he explained how he used to be a black mage and Rome used to be a white mage. “So I’ll cast damage dealing spells and Rome will keep our health topped up.”

With everyone’s higher stamina they got to cave 10 much quicker, but the timer worried Rome. He muttered “Three and a half days left.”

Before they entered he double checked with the others. “Are you guys sure we ask for the next cave location instead of confirming our primary weapons.”

Torger nodded and whispered so the other squad wouldn’t hear. “What if they don’t make it? We’ll have to find another cave on our own.”

Rome looked at his brother Joe and his heart ached thinking they had smaller chances of surviving each remaining cave.

They got the location of cave eleven from Elora then walked inside. It was pitch black again, but they had all cast Analyze 2 before entering. When they entered it wasn’t a large round room like the vampires, but a small tunnel that they had to stoop to walk in. A tyter would have to crawl. Instead of stone walls like all other caves, this tunnel had dirt walls. Walking back for a while led them to an intersection.

“This is the first one that’s not a long straight tube shape or large cavern in the shape of a cylinder. Which way do we go?” asked Rome.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Rome turned left. As soon as he did goblins entered the tunnel from both sides, trapping them in.

“Tyters don’t hunt the goblins on Nuva. Why are they training for it here?”

Torger’s question went unanswered as the goblins charged. Rome cast Shield 2 around the three of them then strengthened it and added Fire 1 and Ice 1 to it.

The goblins would hit it then yelp in pain as they lost 24 health, then hit it again. They all carried a dagger or spear, but made of copper. The three men waited in the shield until it shattered. Torger faced one direction and fought and killed the goblins, but with little room to swing his sword it took longer than he would have liked. Brun cast Fire 1 spells at the already injured goblins on the other side, while Rome held up the iron round shield blocking attacks from the crude and small weapons. He had little skill using a shield and several times took cuts to his hands and legs. Once Torger killed the ten goblins on his side, he turned and killed the remaining three on Rome’s side. They walked through the tunnel until they came to another intersection, and they were attacked by another group of twenty-four goblins, but this time Brun and Rome had wrapped their waists and legs with iron chain mail skirts. They focused on just blocking attacks waiting for Torger to kill the goblins from one tunnel at a time.

Not knowing which way to go they chose to go straight through the intersection and entered a large cavern. Inside were two large goblin warriors and a hobgoblin. The warriors had almost complete sets of iron armor and each had an iron mace and shield. The hobgoblin held a silver staff and immediately cast Lightning 1. The spell hit Torger who was in the lead. He ignored the pain and rushed in. Rome cast a Cure 1 on him and Brun returned the Lightning 1 spell with a Beserk 2 spell. The hobgoblin dropped his staff and ran at Brun trying to punch him with bare hands. Rome bashed him in the head a few times with the round shield and the hobgoblin died.

Torger was in his element easily swinging the sword, dodging, and parrying the warriors who tried to hit him with their maces and block with their shields. The fight was sad as Torger took just six seconds to cut both arms off both goblins. He then decapitated them and the cave glowed with light. In the distance they heard the entrance door slide open.

Well done hunters. Your score is 141. Total points available to spend: 166

Training cave 10 difficulty: 18.3

Squad strength: 45.0

Time: 21 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

“Why is our score so low?” complained Torger. “We mostly used our primary weapons, my sword and your staffs, and we didn’t take that much damage.”

“We’ll have to ask Tyler. What do we want to buy?”

As much as Torger wanted to buy two customize gems to make all his armor the right size, they had to buy armor for the others. Rome said “There’s four of them. They already have four axes, four skirts, and one full set of iron armor with shield.” He ended up buying twenty orb lights, one pair of iron gauntlets, and three iron shields. “It’s all we can afford. No more points.”

Outside they rushed into action. Joe and Nikko were standing still looking at the sky while Gary was running away from them holding up his axe. Tyler punched Joe and Nikko lightly in the face and they came out of a daze but quickly went back into one. “Cottols!” yelled Torger.

Torger ran to the right and saw one. Before he could get to it the large cat cast a confusion spell on him. Torger dropped his sword and turned his back to it. The cat pounced to rake its claws across Torger’s back, but as it was in the air a shield formed near Torger. The cottol slammed into the magic shield and cracked it, then the beast ran back into the woods.

While Rome was protecting Torger, Brun cast Lightning 1 multiple times at the one Gary was battling. The cat had taken several swipes against Gary’s unprotected flesh, but he grit his teeth and kept swinging his axe, sometimes landing a glancing blow to the cat. The bonuses from Brun’s gold staff and wool tunic meant each Lightning 1 spell took off 31 health points, but he was low on mana having just finished the hobgoblin a few minutes earlier.

Tyler, Joe, and Nikko were finally all alert and rushed the third and final cat, while Rome ran to hit Torger for one health point, pulling him out of his stupor. The cat cast a confusion spell and it hit Rome, but that was all the time Torger needed to run up to it and sink his blade into the cat’s skull. A second blow killed it.

Brun’s spells aided Gary enough to kill the cottol he was battling, but he was bleeding heavily and out of breath when the beast finally died. The other three men were having a much more difficult time. Their skill with axes had risen only to level seven in all their fighting, and their swings were still a bit clumsy and misplaced. None of them had any armor since whichever squad was in the cave took all the armor with them. The cat ripped open Joe’s arm as he swung at it and he cried out in pain. Rome turned and cast a Shield 1 between them and the cat then called out “I’m out of mana!”

The beast simply walked around the eight foot by eight foot shield and the battle continued. Tyler and Nikko each got in a hit to its flank, but got scratched arms in return. Torger cast a Shield 2 around the beast then ran and finished it off. While he cast Cure 1’s on Gary’s squad Gary said “It was cloudy when you guys went in, so we were on alert for low level monsters, but as soon as you entered a light rain started. The cats appeared just a minute before you came out. Another couple minutes and we would be dead.”

“We bought three more round shields and a pair of gauntlets,” said Rome. “You’ll have to keep them with you while we’re in the next caves.”

They discussed strategy and entered the cave. Gary asked Elora “What is a primary weapon?”

“A primary weapon is a weapon held in the right hand. Ranged attacks do not count as a primary weapon even if it is held in the right hand. Have a good fight.”

Tyler said “That explains their low score. All the spells cast by Brun and Rome didn’t count towards their score.”

Gary had thrown two orb lights into the tunnel as far as he could. He was dressed in full armor, while the others each had a shield and mail skirt, and Joe had on the pair of gauntlets. All four were sure to keep their axes in their right hand only, even though the handles were too big for a good grasp. They could just see the first intersection far in the distance. Twenty feet before they got to it Gary threw two more orb lights into it. He walked as fast as he could to it, then turned and walked back as goblins poured out of the three tunnels into the intersection. But they remained there and didn’t bottleneck into the tunnel where the humans were. They stood there waiting for the humans to come to them, where there was a lot more room to use their spears and swords.

“That didn’t work,” explained Nikko, stating the obvious.

“Yeah got it. Tyler, what do we do now?” asked Gary.

“In games when you pull mobs, they’ll usually follow you further than where we are, but they seem to have a short leash. They are somewhat intelligent. We could try the same thing as the vampires.”

“No” said Joe. “They had low stamina and only attacked the necks. We don’t know the goblins stamina and they’ll attack us anywhere. If we can disarm them they won’t be much of a threat.”

“We’ve got to move quickly. Orb lights are burning,” said Gary. “We’re just going to have to use our shields more than our axes. I wish they had smaller handles. They worked great with two hands but are unwieldy with one hand. Focus on blocking more than attacking.”

They marched forward, Gary in the lead. Just one foot from the intersection, all twenty-four goblins rushed him. He put up his shield, and Joe and Tyler ran to either side of him putting up their shields too. Nikko complained “You guys trapped me back here.”

The goblins beat on the shields with their spears and swords, and occasionally one would get through injuring Joe or Tyler. Joe’s bracers protected his arms, but his hands and legs got hit. Gary was covered in armor head to toe and took no damage, but he couldn’t counter attack either.

On a particularly powerful spear thrust Joe grabbed the shaft and pulled it out of the three foot tall goblin’s hand. He tossed it behind himself to the floor but had to drop his axe in the process. “Nikko use it to stab them back.”

Nikiko had never held a spear before and most of his thrusts missed as he held it between Gary and Joe, but occasionally got in a hit. The goblin that was now spearless reached down and picked up Joe’s axe! That didn’t work for them. With quick thinking Joe and Gary bashed it in the head with their shields then Gary finished it with his axe, but their formation was broken. Goblins rushed the gap and three got past before Gary and Joe could close it up again. Joe and Tyler took several shallow cuts and Nikko was getting shredded since he had to drop his shield and axe to hold the spear.

The three front fighters got in an occasional shield bash, but were losing, and Nikko gave up on the spear and tackled one of the little goblins. His high school wrestling kicked in and he easily tossed it into a wall. Bleeding heavily he tackled, disarmed and threw each goblin into a wall over and over.

Then the orb lights flickered and went out. Gary had to reach into his dimensional pouch and give a mental command “Orb light.”

One appeared in his hand and he threw it. It hit a goblin in the chest but didn’t damage it like the vampires. During that brief time Joe and Tyler took more cuts. They reformed the line and as soon as they did Nikko came up behind them. “One of them had a spear. Joe reach behind you.”

Joe held his right hand behind him and Nikko placed a goblin spear in it. Once Joe had a spear instead of an axe, it felt natural to hold it next to the shield. No goblin could rush straight at him without getting impaled. “We need two more spears. They work better.”

Nikko received a Cure 1 from Gary and some of the bleeding slowed. He stood behind the other three and it was much easier to hit the goblins that were trying to avoid Joe’s spear. After five minutes three more goblins were dead and Gary had to throw another orb light and cast a Cure 1 on Tyler.

Once all four of them had spears the fight was much easier and they took little damage. Nikko dealt most of the damage as the goblins tried to attack. When the battle was over Gary’s armor was scratched and dented all over, but he was unharmed. Every four minutes he gained enough mana to cast a Cure 1, and then they walked forward. All four carried an iron shield and a copper spear, the axes were carried by Nikko in the back of the line.

At the next intersection they all walked in and stood in a circle back to back, the axes on the ground in the middle. The goblins rushed in from three tunnels and the first ones were pushed by others behind them straight into the copper spearheads. They were driven on so deeply that the men couldn’t dislodge them. “Dammit retreat!” commanded Gary.

They stayed in formation, bent down to pick up an axe while also holding the spear, and walked back to the original entrance, all the while goblin swords left minor cuts on exposed flesh. Then they took several steps back into the tunnel. As before, the goblins stayed in the intersection at the edge of the tunnel. “This isn’t working. We’re not equipped for this,” said Gary.

Tyler said “We could try to run past the intersection all the way to the final boss room. The goblins may not follow us once we get far enough, but if they do follow, well we won’t be coming out of here.”

After talking for a while Nikko wore the armor and Tyler wore the bracers. They all ran through the intersection, Nikko in the lead bowling over the goblins. They made it through and after a while the goblins stopped chasing them. A message appeared in front of Gary’s eyes.

Cowardice. Fleeing from battle. -50 points.

They came to the boss room, shields and axes ready. As soon as they entered Nikko was hit with Lightning 1. The warriors had much better skill with their maces than the humans had with the axes. The iron axes bounced off the iron armor of the warriors, and the iron maces bludgeoned the humans. Nikko ran at the hobgoblin and got hit with another Lightning 1, but threw his shield out smashing it in the face. A couple good axe swings finished it and he looked back to see one warrior badly wounded from axe strikes by Joe and Tyler but Gary lay on the ground and Nikko watched as the warrior brought down his mace smashing Gary in the head. His body went limp and he disappeared in a pale green light. Nikko ran and tackled the warrior, but he was too big and heavy in his armor for Nikko to throw him. After a minute of wrestling he pinned him down while the others hacked him to death. Their axes were bent and dull after smashing against iron armor in the battle. Before the last orb light went out new orb lights lit the passage back to the front of the cave. None of them could read the kiosk screen so they walked outside.

Chapter 24

Respawn

While the others were inside it began to snow. The veterans heard a roar a few hundred yards away. Rome stayed to keep watch while Torger and Brun went to investigate. They walked over a hill and into a valley, snow accumulating on the ground. In the distance they saw a new cave shimmer in the faint light. They walked a little closer and a message appeared.

Hidden cave #5. Level 12. 45 points for finding a hidden cave.

“That’s not so bad,” said Torger. We can handle a level twelve cave just fine.”

“Should we bring Rome?”

“We don’t have time. And it seems this cave is only available while it’s snowing. We can’t risk it. What if it stops snowing and the cave disappears?”

They walked in and just like with hidden cave 2, it was open land and snowy tundra. Three large ape like monsters ran at them. Brun cast Analyze 2.

Grey Yeti. Level 28.

Health 600/600 Strength 18 Stamina 30/30 Mana 0

“Strong, and high health, but nothing special.” Brun cast Shield 2 around all three, buying Torger a few seconds to get to them. It took the Yetis only two punches to smash their shields. The first one Torger came to, he cut off its hand, turned his wrists, then cut off the other hand. Without the ability to punch or grab, the beast was powerless to do anything. Torger ran his blade into its chest, but dense bones stopped the blade, doing just a little damage. He tried a stab to the face and perfectly placed the tip into the Yeti’s mouth and out the back of its head.

As the creature dropped to the ground Torger turned to see Brun running away from the other two. Torger ran behind them and made a deep cut on the back of the leg of one. It spun and punched him in the face. Torger flew back a few feet, his nose severely broken. He cast Shield 1 in front of himself, blocking the next punch, then cast Cure 2 on himself, relieving some of the pain. The next punch shattered the shield as Torger was standing up. He rolled to the side and swung, slicing the same leg again, the blade being stopped by bone. The monster fell down and Torger stabbed it in the face. He looked up and smiled as Brun was easily outrunning the last Yeti, draining its stamina. Brun circled around and brought it to Torger who sliced off one hand, then the other.

Hidden cave 5. Your squad leader is not with you. Total points to spend without a squad leader: 175.

Would you like to make a purchase? All unspent points will be lost.

(Without a squad leader you may only purchase personal upgrades.)

All armor and weapons were grayed out and they could buy health, stamina, mana and spells for themselves.

100 health (Torger) 32p

200 health (Brun) 64p

10 Stamina (Torger) 10p

25 Stamina (Brun) 25p

1 Strength (Torger) 4 p

20 Mana (Brun) 40p

They walked out both with 500 health, 100 stamina, Torger had 21 strength and Brun had 100 mana. That brought Torger to level 74 and Brun to level 68. Rome was still level 49 making them excited to joke with him when they got back, but when they returned they saw everyone looking sad and downcast.

“What happened?” asked Brun.

Rome answered “Gary didn’t make it. They described the respawn light and he did have a respawn, along with Joe, but we don’t know where the respawn is.”

“It has to be the portal entrance. What do we do? We don’t have time to walk there and back. We’ve got less than three days left.”

Torger said “We should have bought teleport three. We could have built a building here then teleported there then teleported him back to here.”

Brun answered “Rome can do it. He can defeat the Yetis by himself. I think.”

“What Yetis?”

Rome walked into the cave, but didn’t receive the 45 points for finding a hidden cave. The three monsters rushed at him, and he fought the temptation to cast Shield 1. Brun assured him it was a useless spell against their high strength. He cast Earth wall, trapping the feet of one, then levitation on another. The beast thrashed wildly in the air but couldn’t move more than a foot in any direction. The third one punched Rome and he fell on his back. In desperation he used the last of his mana to cast Shield 2.

The time it took for the yeti to punch it twice allowed Rome to scramble up and run. He ran in circles for many minutes. When the Earth Wall and Levitation spells wore off, those monsters joined the chase. Eventually they got tired and Rome’s stamina was still at 45/75. He held Torger’s sword and was only able to make shallow cuts with his level 12 sword skill, but after an hour the last one died from dozens of shallow cuts.

Well done hunters. Your score is 99. Total points available to spend: 99

Hidden cave 5 difficulty: 11.9

Squad strength: 13.1

Time: 1 hour 23 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Rome spent 40 points on mana bringing him to 100, and 55 on Teleport 3. With the last points he bought two more orb lights.

When he got back to cave 10 the others were building a shack out of tree branches. Once done he teleported to the portal entrance on the northeast corner of the continent. Gary was sitting inside sobbing and naked. He looked up to see Rome. “How did you get here? It should be a four day walk for you to cross the continent, if you really pushed yourself.”

“A teleport spell. I’m going to send you back to the others, then I’ve got to wait thirty minutes for my mana to recharge, and I’ll be there too.”

Gary started to ask a question but a pale green light surrounded him. A second later he was sitting in a small crude hut made of tree branches tied with vines. Torger handed him an iron mail skirt and said “Ask questions later. Our time is getting short and we’ve got to hurry.”

Outside his squad was ready for battle with shields and axes. They walked to the hidden cave and before they entered each received a Haste 2 spell. Torger told Gary “As soon as you walk in, run and keep running until the yetis get tired. Then quick strikes and back away. Two or three solid punches is enough to kill you. Your squad has been briefed.”

Gary nodded and they walked in wearing nothing but boots and chain mail skirts. They ran in different directions and easily outran the charging yetis. They circled around and came together and while they were running Tyler explained to Gary “When you died you disappeared, and all your stuff was laying on the ground so we picked it up. We didn’t spend any points at the kiosk ‘cause we can’t read the tyter language. Our axes are very dull from hitting the goblin armor and we sharpened them a little, but it’s going to take a long time to kill these things.”

When the beasts were tired Joe ran forward and struck one in the back. Blood trickled out and it punched him. The strike that had broken Torger’s nose with his 400 health had done a lot more damage to Joe’s 100 health. His jaw was broken and most of his teeth were knocked out, and was only semi conscious after landing on his back. The three Yetis ignored him and tried to punch the others, but their movements were very slow since their stamina had dropped to 2/30.

Gary swung his axe much faster than Joe had, but didn’t put much force into. It was really like a check swing. He had plenty of time to dodge the resulting punch. The others saw that and slowly whittled down the yetis while Joe crawled away on hands and knees.

At the end of the fight they were all exhausted and battered, Gary having cast a Cure 1 every four minutes. Halfway through they had to run again once the yetis had started to regain stamina and speed.

Well done hunters. Your score is 82. Total points available to spend: 113

Hidden cave 5 difficulty: 11.9

Squad strength: 15.1

Time: 1 hour 39 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary bought a customize stone and shrunk all the axe shafts to fit their hands, and shrank the boots to fit him comfortably. All four axes were as sharp as new when he was done. He spent 18 points giving each of the others three more mana points and the last 20 giving Nikko the Cure 1 spell.

Outside they got cured by the veterans and Torger asked “Why was your total points so low?”

As they hurried to cave 11 Tyler explained “We took a lot of damage from the goblins, and took a lot of time. Plus we got the cowardice penalty. Taking damage reduces your score a lot.”

Cave 11 was north, deep in the forest and on the coast. Before entering they slept, with rotating shifts.

“Welcome to cave eleven. What is your question?”

“Where is the final cave?”

Elora marked Rome’s map. It was in the center of the desert.

They walked in to pitch blackness again and saw it was another labyrinth, not a straight tunnel. As they walked Torger stepped on a stone and arrows shot out of the walls at them. His armor protected him but Rome and Brun took an arrow each to an arm. As they cast Cure 1’s on themselves Torger said “How do we detect traps?”

“This is new to us. We can’t see them so we will throw rocks ahead of us,” answered Rome.

Torger threw a rock forward and a cloud of gas fell from the ceiling. Once it dissipated they walked ahead and threw another rock. Spikes rose from the ground. “I see the sensors. There is a triangle shaped stone on either side of the walls pointing at each other.”

He threw another rock and the spikes dropped into the floor again. “We’ll have to do this one at a time.” Torger threw a rock and they rose up and he walked through them, and they dropped as he crossed the triangle stones on the far side. As soon as he was across Brun started to go but they shot up again, then dropped then shot up in a continuous cycle. At the same time four small bulls ran and attacked Torger. His armor protected him from their horns and hooves and he killed them easily since they were only three feet tall, but four more ran at him. He killed those as Brun slowly worked his way through the spikes taking one step at a time as they reset. By the time he made it to Torger there were twelve dead bulls and four more were coming.

By the time Rome made it across Torger was fighting the seventh batch of fifty pound bulls. They walked forward but the bulls always attacked in groups of four making their progress very slow. They were coming out of small side tunnels too small for the men to crawl into and as they kept pushing forward past the bull tunnels the bulls finally stopped coming out. Once Torger killed the last one they moved forward and Torger threw a rock. Huge axes on pendulums swung through the hallway straight at them. It missed Torger by an arm’s length and swung back, and there were five pendulums swinging all forward and backward in the tunnel, their paths overlapping.

“There’s no way through those,” said Rome. “We have to stop them.”

“The shafts are steel and those things weigh more than I do,” said Brun. “We need to wait out their inertia and they’ll stop on their own. Eventually.”

“We don’t have time for this. We’ve got two days left. We have to defeat cave twelve then skip to sixteen to get out on time. I hate leaving Joe, but we can’t wait for them any longer.”

Rome glared at Torger for suggesting they leave his brother behind. “At cave twelve we’ll ask Elora what getting ejected means.”

It took fifteen minutes for the pendulum axes to slow down enough for them to garb the blade edges one at a time and stop them. On the third one Brun’s hand slipped and got sliced wide open, but nothing three Cure 1’s wouldn’t fix. The next trap was a quicksand pit that Torger stepped in and the others pulled him out. It was a narrow section of tunnel and they crossed by jumping off the walls back and forth. Rome hit his head on the ceiling and fell in near the end, but Torger pulled him out when Rome held out his staff for him to grab on to.

The next trap released cottols who attacked in pairs, for a total of ten, and the last section was a large room with four level 16 trolls with wood clubs.

Well done hunters. Your score is 159. Total points available to spend: 159

Training cave 11 difficulty: 18.3

Squad strength: 45.0

Time: 41 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Rome spent 132 points on three steel spears and 22 points on an iron spear. He saved the rest of the five points.

Gary asked for the location of cave 12. Inside he threw an orb light and all four men got hit with arrows. Gary and Joe cast a Cure 1 each and waited for their mana to recharge before casting the spell again. It took two Cure 1’s on each person before they continued on. They easily avoided the gas cloud and Joe was the only one with a respawn so he was dressed in the armor. He sprang the spikes on purpose then reset them and crossed the spike trap while they were raised up. Once he was across, the spikes shot up and down repeatedly and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Four small bull attacked him while Gary worked his way through the reciprocating spikes.

Joe used the steel spear to skewer the first bull. It was still alive but well impaled. Joe dropped the spear and grabbed the next spear, skewering the bull that tried to drive its horns through his chain mail skirt. He dropped that spear then impaled the next bull that was stomping its way through his boot. He dropped the spear and grabbed the iron spear. That bull was trying to climb up his leg and bite his arm so he had to push it away. The iron spear didn’t penetrate as much as the steel ones did , but it still did quite a lot of damage. Three more thrusts killed it and then Gary was through who hacked the severely injured bulls with his axe, but left the fourth one alive and squirming. No more bulls came while that one was still alive. It died just before Nikko made it across the spikes. The next batch of four met three steel spears from Joe, Gary, and Tyler, and Joe jumped on the last one. He shoved his gauntlet down its throat while Gary and Tyler finished it with their axes.

They dragged the last squirming bull past the tunnels before killing it, and didn’t have to fight anymore. “This is a grinding cheat. We could stand here for hours killing bulls and gaining points,” said Tyler.

Joe shook his head. “Their horns are close to breaking open the armor. Much more damage and we’ll have to buy a customize gem to repair it. We would have to kill hundreds of bulls to make up the seventy-five points spent on a customize gem.”

They used the spears as pole vaults to jump over the quicksand, thankful Rome had thought of that when making his purchases.

They entered the room with the cottols. Nikko and Tyler went in first as fodder, getting confused and turning their backs to the cats. As the cats sprang forward Joe and Gary rushed in and held their spears and shields. The cats were incredibly agile and twisted out of the way at the last second, somehow landing gracefully on their feet. Instead of focusing on the cats Gary and Joe lightly punched Nikko and Tyler, who immediately got confused again. As the cats charged once more, Tyler and Nikko had just been tapped in the head before the cat claws raked them. Nikko had on the armor, but the claws left deep scratches in it. Tyler had claws buried deep in his arm. Joe and Gary swung their axes, each burying it into a cat’s shoulder. The cats hissed in pain and Nikko tackled the one that tried to claw him.

Gary and Joe grabbed their spears and killed the one that was attacking Tyler, then each cast Cure 1 on the man. Tyler groaned in pain but they couldn’t pay attention to that as they helped Nikko. As soon as both cottols were dead two more appeared. Nikko threw himself forward, got hit with the confusion blast, and resulting claws once he turned away from the cottol. Joe got hit by the confusion spell and turned around. Before the cat could get to him Gary blocked it with his shield, at the same time knocking Joe down, who then picked up a spear and helped Nikko who was getting mauled. His armor wouldn’t last much longer.

Tyler fought off his pain as much as he could. His right arm hung uselessly at his side but he still gripped the shield with his left. He ran forward and used it to bash Gary’s cat in the head. Gary used the distraction to place a massive overhand swing into the beast’s skull. He turned and killed the cat that Nikko and Joe were fighting. Then Gary ran to the side of the large room. As soon as the cottols entered and cast their confusion spells he ran behind one and chopped off its tail.

Joe and Tyler were stunned and Nikko scrambled up again throw himself in front of a pouncing cat, saving Tyler’s life. Gary ran around the one that turned on him and while sprinting pushed down Joe and Tyler. He then spun just as the tailless cat pounced on him. Gary was knocked to the floor and the ca clawed his chest and bit his face then went limp, Joe’s spear buried deep in its anus.

The other cat was on top of Nikko and all he could do was hold his shield in front of his face while the cat’s claws shredded the mail skirt and chest plate. He lay there defending himself until Joe’s axe hit it in the side, and a second later Gary’s axe finished it.

The fourth pair of cats bounded into the room and saw four bloody and bruised humans who were exhausted. They stunned the two guys standing up; Gary and Joe. Nikko and Tyler scrambled to their feet too late as Gary and Joe had claws rake down their backs. They screamed in pain and fell down. Tyler yelled to Nikko “Protect Gary not Joe!”

Nikko didn’t understand why but obeyed and shoved a spear through the cat’s side. It fell to its side kicking its feet but still alive. Nikko turned and smashed his shield into the cat that was biting Joe’s face. His shield smashed hard into its neck, and as the cat backed away in pain its teeth took out a huge chunk of Joe’s neck. His eyes went glossy for a second then he disappeared in a pale green light. Gary recovered enough to hit the cat in the back of the neck with his axe, paralyzing it. Nikko went to finish it but he said “No, wait.”

One cat was paralyzed with an axe in its neck and the other was squirming on the ground with a spear in its side. The men sat down and rested, Gary casting a Cure 1 once every four minutes. “How are we going to finish this without Joe?” asked Nikko.

“The trolls should be easier according to Rome. Like the yetis they have high strength and health. We’ll wear them down then attack.”

Once everyone was at full health they killed the two cats and the next two came in. As soon as they entered three spears impaled them. They got confuse spells to hit Nikko and Gary, and Tyler dragged Gary away from the wounded cats. Nikko got batted around in the armor but was saved by the cats being already wounded. It was easy for Gary and Tyler to finish them.

As predicted the trolls were big and slow. They chased the three men around in circles until all four trolls were tired, and swinging their clubs looked like they were moving underwater. The men used axes to cut at their hands until they eventually were sheared off then it was an easy matter of swinging the axes at their backs.

Well done hunters. Your score is 72. Total points available to spend: 72

Training cave 11 difficulty: 18.3

Squad strength: 15.1

Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary spent 40 points to buy Cure 1 for Nikko and Tyler, then gave each man four more mana so they could each cast Cure 1 twice. He hated the low score and when he examined it at Tyler’s urging he saw they had taken a lot of damage. They dealt 2241 in damage and had taken 391 in damage.