The artifact Corwin was going after was something that needed to be kept a secret. It was the kind of item that could start a guild war. Corwin had wanted to gather it himself, but he decided he’d need a small team in order to do so. The question was who could he trust. Kyo was an obvious inclusion. Alice had a good reputation in her past life, and always kept her word so Corwin was willing to bring her as well. The wolves were physical enemies so the team needed one warrior. Corwin wasn’t completely sure if he could fully trust The Bear but that was his best option.

Corwin purchased a mount in the nearest city before heading home on horseback. Mounts could be stored using the inventory system, so Corwin didn’t have to worry about inconvenient things like stabling. The mount reduced the journey time to about 1/3rd of what it would have been otherwise and Corwin spent only 4 hours getting back to the capital.

He gathered his small team and headed into a private room in the guild hall. The first secret he’d reveal was space manipulation.

“I’m going to create a portal to our destination. The fact that I can do this is obviously a guild secret so please don’t repeat it. When there we are going to fight a boss in order to get a powerful item. This item is a top secret, as knowing we have it could start a guild war. I’m trusting each of you with very important guild secrets. I think you have the potential to be important members of the guild and I want you to see this through.”

The bear simply nodded while Alice looked rather pensive. Kyo spoke first. “I’m glad you’ve put this trust in us. I’m looking forward to the additional responsibilities. You can rely on me.”

Alice spoke next. “I’m honestly a little surprised. I’ve been making a number of mistakes in the dungeon raids. I’m not sure where your confidence is coming from.”

Corwin needed to reply to that. “Mistakes are natural at this point in the game. You have a difficult role to play, combining utility with DPS. Your most important spells are Area of Effect which makes targeting harder as well. Despite all this you get far more right than you get wrong. You also improve quickly. Most importantly, you’ve demonstrated you’re honest and trustworthy. I have faith in my decision and hope you’ll have faith in your own abilities as well, Alice.”

“Thanks for the compliments. I hadn’t thought of things that way,” Alice said with a slight blush. She looked a little embarrassed, almost like she didn’t believe the praise. Corwin knew he’d need to keep working on Alice’s confidence. But first, he needed to talk to the bear.

“I’m a bit surprised as well. I’ve been doing well in my role, but we haven’t interacted much. I’m not sure how you can trust me with all these secrets,” The Bear said.

“To be honest, I’m taking a bit of a gamble. I know you better than all the tanks and I needed to bring a tank into the inner circle. I’ll get to know you better as we work together,” Corwin admitted.

“Your gamble will pay off. I’ll show your trust in me is not misplaced,” the bear said confidently.

With nothing left to discuss, Corwin created the portal. Kyo, Alice and The Bear stepped through, and once they had Corwin followed. The portal closed behind them, leaving them at the ruins. The mobs in the ruins had regenerated so the team got practice fighting wolves.

Compared to Corwin everyone was under-levelled and under-geared. Despite this, they still had strong gear for level 20. The Bear was able to tank the wolves successfully. Corwin was the only good source of damage as 5 levels of level suppression was too extreme for everyone to deal with. He was slaughtering regular wolves in a single blow, elites in two, and special elites in three. After some time, they arrived in the basement.

Corwin cleared out the surrounding mobs and stopped to go over strategy. “I’ll tank the main enemy; The Bear will tank his summons. Alice, you should save your ice wall and your ice-based slow effect for when the enemy summons. Kyo, we need you mainly for healing and utility. Focus on your healing summon, and if you have any that provide buffs feel free to use those as well. Since you won’t be doing much damage, it would be useful for each of you to try using agility drain on the main boss. Any questions?”

The strategy was simple enough so everyone remained quiet. “Let’s get started then,” Corwin said eagerly. He looked over the fully healed Elite Superior Lord.

Dire Wolf Pack Leader, Elite Superior Lord, Level 25

Hit Points 300,000/300,000

Mana Pool 150,000/150,000

Corwin engaged while the others applied the agility debuff. Fighting the lord with 3 debuffs on its agility was slightly easier than before and Corwin was able to avoid getting hit. Things went smoothly up to 80% health. When the pack leader summoned an alpha, The Bear stepped up to tank. He was able to dodge many of the blows, and block and parry others. Level suppression was still quite heavy so he took fairly substantial damage. Fortunately, with Kyo focused on his healing summons, he was able to get health back quickly. Corwin knew The Bear’s limit would be two chieftains. The battle would be difficult.

Corwin finished killing a chieftain, which took a bit of time while avoiding the blows from the pack leader. He then slowly whittled the leader’s health to 60%. Two summons came and Corwin began to attack one down while The Bear generated aggro with both of them. His tanking skills were pushed to the limit. Fortunately, neither of the enemies was able to land a full hit. Corwin finished killing the first chieftain while the pack leader just finished moving around the ice wall that Alice set up. With the slow she had cast on the Wolf leader and the two agility drains acting on it this was quite manageable. The Bear was in good shape against just one enemy and Corwin slowly finished it off while focusing on avoiding damage from the Pack Leader.

The last chieftain fell and Corwin once again focused on the leader. He announced the change in plan. “Next summon is three chieftains. The Bear will tank two and I’ll take on one and the leader. The last summon is four chieftains. The Bear will tank two and I’ll take two and the leader.”

Corwin finished whittling down the health and used his haste skill when the summons came. Alice was perfect with the ice wall and ice slow. Corwin finished off the chieftain that was attacking him quickly, before he had to deal with the leader’s attacks. Unfortunately, the bear was under significant pressure facing two alphas for so long. He stabilized at 20% health before one chieftain went down. From there the rest of the wave was smooth sailing.

The next wave was the critical point. Corwin used Air Manipulation to get a huge speed buff. He slayed one of the chieftains before he was attacked by the pack leader. He quickly worked to slay the other chieftain, bursting his skills and techniques as fast as possible. Meanwhile, the bear was struggling desperately. Alice’s slow had recharged and she wisely through it near the bear slowing down the enemies attacking him. That bought time enough for Corwin to finish killing his chieftain. Unfortunately, the slow had run out and the bear was under massive pressure. Corwin couldn’t draw aggro as the bear had too much built up. Just before Corwin killed the 3rd chieftain the bear ran out of health and died. The two chieftains turned on Corwin, although one almost immediately fell. Corwin faced a chieftain while under the attack of the pack leader. This was quite manageable. The bear had done his part and his brave sacrifice meant the only remaining risk was the ultimate. The artifact was so close that Corwin could taste it. The 2nd chieftain fell as Corwin refocused on combat, pushing stray thoughts out of his mind.

Corwin turned to the pack leader and began to wail on it while saving all his skills and techniques for the final burst. His dodging was equal to the task, so the only question was the ultimate ability. At 5% health the countdown started. Corwin had the enemy at 3% health when the countdown was half done. He knew he’d come up short. He had the enemy down to 1.5% health when the countdown expired. The pack leader used the spirit of the wolf pack ability, and a horde of 100 spirit wolves started to attack the party. Corwin desperately attacked the pack leader with everything he had, knowing the summons would vanish once it died. The pack leader was at 1% health when Alice and Kyo died. Corwin was down to half health when the pack leader had 1500 HP. Unfortunately, Corwin was a bit careless and got hit by a special skill, dropping to 20% health. Very quickly it became a close race. The pack leader had 100HP left when Corwin had 1000HP. 8 spirit wolves hit Corwin in the time it took for him to deal a finishing blow to the pack leader. Each wolf dealt 125 damage. Fortunately, a regen tick saved Corwin and he avoided the indignity of killing while perishing.

Corwin was glad he hadn’t brought a healer to do resurrections; they would have fallen away. He went into the room the pack leader was guarding and got the chalice. He then headed for the nearest city to meet his team near the respawn point. They had fallen to level 19 from dying in the field and he’d need to help them level back up. The artifact was worth many GCP’s so everyone gained a huge benefit. Nonetheless, without Corwin’s help, plans to run the dungeons tomorrow would be disrupted.

Corwin brought them to a level 32 area and killed monsters for 15 minutes while they recovered. He put his spare experience into his ring, bringing all of his elemental abilities to Tier 1. He’d need to do some more grinding before the cooldown for space manipulation was reached.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 25: 27% of level 26

Str: 4985 (base:25)

Agi: 5025 (base:125)

Con:4985 (base:25)

Int: 1513 (base:25)

Cha: 1513 (base:25)

Lck: 521 (base:25)

Cnc: 521 (base:25)

Sta: 521 (base: 25)

Qi: 521 (base: 20)

Soul: 521 (base:20)

Air Affinity: 521 (base:20)

Fire Affinity: 521 (base:20)

Water Affinity: 521 (base: 20)

Def: 20237

MDef: 16653

HP:158635/158635 (base: 1000)

MP:51003/51003 (base: 1000)

Gear:

MW: Epic Tier Level 31 Longsword, +496Str +496Agi +496Con

Base Damage: 620-744, Def 744 MDef 620 Durability 790/992, Requirements: 992 Str

OW: Epic Tier Level 31 Shortsword +496Str, +496Agi, +496 Con

Base Damage 496-620, Def 620 MDef 496 Durability 796/992, Requirements: 992 Str

MA: Epic Tier Level 31 Plate, +496 Str, +496 Agi, +496 Con

1984Def,1984MDef, Durability 710/992, Requirements:992 Str

LA: Epic Tier Level 31 Plate Cuisse, +496Str, +516Agi(20 Gemstone), +496Con

1984Def, 1984MDef Durability: 716/992 Requirements: 992 Str

G: Epic Tier Level 31 Plate Gauntlets +496Str, +516 Agi(20 Gemstone), +496 Con

1984Def, 1984MDef, Durability 718/992 Requirements: 992 Str

B:Epic Tier Level 31 Plate Boots +496Str +506Agi(10 Gemstone) +496 Con

1984 Def, 1984 MDef, Durability 751/992 Requirements: 992Str

H: Epic Tier Level 31 Helm, +496 Str, +506(10 Gemstone) Agi, +496 Con

1984 Def, 1984MDef Durability 741/992, Requirements: 992Str

RR: Epic Tier, Level 31 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+496 All base attributes, +496 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Epic Tier, Level 31 Ring of Elements (+496 All base attributes,

Ignore 6.2 Levels, Ignore 6.2 Equip Levels

AM: Epic Tier, Level 31 Amulet (+496 All base attributes)

Skills:

Spatial Slash, Legacy, Tier 0 Level 0

Haste of the Warrior, Legacy, Tier 0 Level 0

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 1, Level 0

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 1, Level 0

Air Manipulation, Special, Tier 1, Level 0

Earth Manipulation, Special, Tier 1, Level 0

Fire Manipulation, Special, Tier 1, Level 0

Water Manipulation, Special, Tier 1, Level 0

Dragon Fist, Martial, Tier 0 Level 0

Qi Blade, Martial, Tier 0 Level 0

Demon Slayer, Rare, Tier 0 Level 0

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wave Chop, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, Rare, Tier 0, Level 5

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 2

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 3

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Techniques:

Rapid Blow

Vanishing Steps

Sword Light

Mana Drain

Health Drain

Stamina Drain

Strength Drain

Agility Drain

Endurance Drain

Flicker

Precision Dodge

Curses:

Curse of the Lust Demon, Days Remaining: 29

Bloodlust Malediction, Countdown: 9 days