The recommended level for this area exceeds your current level. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Al has dismissed the dungeon’s annoying message in his mind for the sixth time in a row. He wasn’t going to turn around now just because his 13 levels weren’t good enough for this 20 level dungeon. He was determined to finish his quest one way or another, and no stupid messages would stop him!

The recommended level for this area exceeds your current level. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

“For Parva’s sake...” he murmured under his breath and dismissed the message once more.

“You said something?” asked Felia.

“Nothing important” answered Al, and they continued to venture into the dark and maze-like caves of the Uniga dungeon. Filled with giant rats, occasional skeletons and monstrous amount of water stickers did put this dungeon on the more difficult side of the beginner dungeon spectrum, but overconfident Al was assured that he could beat it without batting an eye.

Felia, on the other hand, was worried for her low level companion. Being a 22 level elven cleric, her quest was to watch after Al to let him successfully finish his own quest or, at the very least, return safely. The 15 year old elven paladin was surely talented, having gained 10 levels in a span of the few months he spent with the Parva’s church, but, more often than not, such hot headed individuals got themselves into a lot of trouble than they could handle. So, the church of Parva sent their more experienced followers to prevent even more casualties than they already had. Not that Felia would ever tell Al that she was sent here by the head priest’s orders. The young boy wasn’t fond of her eagerly taking care of him, he didn’t need to know that even the church didn’t trust his abilities to finish this dungeon, not to mention defeat its Master.

As they were getting closer and closer to the Master’s Chamber, the more and more worried Felia grew. “Al?”

The recommended level for this area exceeds your current level. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Al dismissed one more annoying notification and asked: “Yes, mistress Felia?”

“I told you that you can call me Felia. No need to be so official”.

“Yes, sorry, mist…” The young elf paused for a moment. “...Felia. So, what is you wanted to ask me?”

“I was just going to mention that we could just turn around and go back at any moment”.

“I told you, I’m more than capable of doing this!” His six fingered grey fingers gripped the hammer in his hands even more tightly. “I have got all my levels in this dungeon, haven’t I?”

“Sure, you did, but you have never...”

“I have never been to the Master's Chamber, yes! And there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?”

Felia only could stay silent in agreement with the hot headed paladin.

As they went past one of numerous cave lakes in this dungeon, Felia’s passive ability, Divine sight, showed her that a particularly large water sticker was unfolding itself in order to sting its prey in the face. “Water sticker, right behind me, 70cm high”. Al turned around, brought his hammer over his head and, as Felia stepped sideways, he crushed the stick like creature with an audible crunch. The paladin flashed a yellow light ever so slightly and then proceeded to crush any left over severed feet, as not to let any possible sticker children to grow out of them.

“I can see you have leveled up?” Felia asked her companion.

“Yeah, and I don’t need your help”.

Level up! You are now a level 14 paladin. You may now redistribute 5 points between Strength[36], Endurance[21], Constitution[33], Faith[20].

Heavy weapon mastery is now level 6.

The recommended level for this area exceeds your current level. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

The stupid message aside, Al was excited to hit another level so quickly. He redistributed the points between listed attributes and marched forward even with more confidence than he had before. Felia only felt concerned about the lad’s eagerness to fight a superior foe. Even 4 level higher quest would give trouble to any adventurer, who would dare take them on, not to mention the 6 level gap this boy wanted to conquer. Sure, he would gain several levels worth of experience, but the risk was too high, and even a 22 level cleric wouldn’t be able to assure his safety.

As they made their way to the Dungeon Master’s Chamber, they killed 2 water stickers, 5 giant rats and 1 skeleton, what gave Al half of experience points needed to gain another level. And there they were: right in front of them were the metal gates of the Master’s Chamber. A few rat bodies were scattered on its floor, and a couple of them slightly twitched, what distinguished them as the rare body stickers. And yet, there was something that even the experienced Felia haven’t seen in her barely starting cleric career.

“How did this dire bear get in here?” she asked no one in particular. The bear in question had its back turned to the adventurer duo and was audibly chewing on a fresh corpse of a deer, that the creature brought with it, but… what was the point? Why would a wild bear come into a dungeon full of hostile creatures and how did it even get into the Master’s Chamber? These questions rushed through the Felia’s mind, as she was taking in the curious sight, all the while Al went to the lever on the side and pulled it. The gates started slowly rising and the female elf took a step back as the metal bars slided out of her grip.

“What are you doing?” Felia asked Al.

“I’m going in and finishing the quest” answered the paladin and took out his hammer from behind his back.

“No way!” she practically screamed at the suicidal idiot. “You can’t clear out the Chamber, when that thing,” she pointed at the bear, “is in there. We must go back and tell the head priest what happened”.

“Nothing happened,” said Al, as he entered the Chamber. “It’s just another monster to kill and experience to gain”. Felia was uncomfortable and didn’t want to come into the Chamber with Al, but the quest had to be done and so, she entered the room, as the metal gates were slowly closing.

The paladin took each step with confidence. As he passed each of the rat’s bodies they slowly unfolded into bigger, bloody and darker versions of the water stickers, as they stealthily tried to sting the boy and inject him with their stomach acid, but the paladin killed each of them with the help of Felia’s spell Parva’s Power. It boosted the boy’s Strength attribute by 20%. Each creature crunched as the hammer broke their limp bodies. Couple of the stickers reached 2 meters in height, but the 45 Strength helped Al crush the opposition taking only 6 hits worth of 166HP. The overconfident boy didn’t seem out of place in here as he was covered in the sticker’s and his own blood, mixing up in a sickly puke colour.

During the crunching and murder Al’s body flashed two times, what signaled that he gained two levels worth of experience and, due to the sheer amount of creatures, was extremely close to his third level up.

Level up! You are now a level 15 paladin. You may now redistribute 5 points between Strength[38], Endurance[22], Constitution[35], Faith[20].

The recommended level for this area exceeds your current level. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Level up! You are now a level 16 paladin. You may now redistribute10points between Strength[38], Endurance[22], Constitution[35], Faith[20].

Heavy weapon mastery is now level 7.

Heavy armour mastery is now level 5.

The recommended level for this area exceeds your current level. Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Yet, the dire bear was still eagerly eating the dead deer. Nothing could possibly interrupt its dinner, and, as such, it was an easy target. “Felia, buff me up,” Al said quietly.

Felia practically whispered under her breath: “I don’t like this”. She touched the boy’s shoulder and said more audibly: “Let Parva guide your hands”. Yellow light swallowed the paladin fully, healing the missing 166HP and buffing him for the next 2 minutes. And now, stronger, faster and nimbler at full 502HP Al approached the dining giant monster and gripped the hammer to strike the beast down.

What Al ignored, however, was this message:

Quest ‘Clear Dungeon’ from ‘Church of Parva’ was successfully completed.

Clear out Master’s Chamber in Uniga Dungeon 1/1

Return to ‘Church of Parva’ to turn the quest in and get your reward (150PP, 250XP).

Funny name for Prinzessin Pounds aside, what the paladin decided not to notice and even mention to his superior was more important than he could imagine. What this message told him was that this monster was several levels higher than the level of this dungeon, and, as he was taught, monsters around the Church didn’t go above level 20. And, as he stood there, ready to start the uneven fight, something happened, that Felia would never forget.

Time seemed to slow down. The monster in front of Al started straightening up, but as it raised up, body of the deer started raising up along. When the beast stood right up, it became apparent that the bear had no head… the body of the deer was its head. But, instead of stopping right there, it continued moving, twisting its back in impossible shape, bringing its whole weight right upon the shocked 15 year old elf.

As the monster came down upon him, Al turned around to run from it, but never got the chance. The body of the deer fell right on his legs, breaking them in several places.

Your right leg is broken. You can no longer run. -122HP

Your left leg is broken. You can no longer walk. -125HP

You are heavily bleeding. -30HP (each second)

Everything hurt and he couldn’t feel anything. Feeling so contradictory, Al felt only worse. The monster moved its deer head from Al’s legs, scraping off his chain pants, his skin and even some of the meat, exposing the shattered bones to the world around. Extreme pain left the paladin speechless, unable to scream, only desperately scrambling away, with terrified expression on his tortured face.

Felia screamed something, but Al couldn’t hear anything.

You have been healed. +150HP

You are heavily bleeding. -30HP (each second)

The beast looked at the scrambling elf with the deer’s dead eyes, and the deer’s abdomen slowly opened to reveal hundreds of small sharp teeth. The bear took a few steps towards the paladin and quickly lowered its head right at Al, biting down on his head. Paladin screamed in agony, but the yelp didn’t last even one second. His hands went limp and with an audible crunch the beast tore his head right off the boy’s body.

Quest ‘Safety first’ from ‘Church of Parva’ was failed.

Assure your companion’s safe return 0/1

Return to ‘Church of Parva’ to report the quest’s failure.

Felia couldn’t say a single word. She only stared in the monster’s small beady deer eyes. The bear-deer, however, wasn’t going to stop only on one victim. It started approaching towards the shocked female elf. Cleric noticed the rapid movement and ran away towards the metal gates. There was another way out of the Chamber, but she would have to pass this monstrosity, and in no way she would get close to that thing.

She tried to go between the metal bars, but her armour was too bulky to make her way through. She looked back at the towering monster making its way to her. She shrieked and started quickly taking off her chainmail shirt and pants. When she had only her underwear left, she started squeezing herself through the gate. Head… The beast made its way closer and closer to her. Hands… Cleric’s panicked mind forced her movements to be less precise and only slowed her down. Body… She was almost through, when the monster reached her armour. It looked down at her and the abdomen mouth twisted in a shape that resembled a smile. It started falling down to immobilize her. Legs…

The monster crushed her right foot. She let out a little yelp, but the adrenaline didn’t let the pain stop her.

Your foot is broken. Your top speed is now 20% slower. -56HP

“Let Parva’s sight heal the wounded”, she said to herself while running.

You have been healed. +56HP

She continued running, limping on her right foot. Her long black hair waived. Her grey pupils showed terror and determination to get out of this place. The beast roared in the background. She ran even faster.

You have put too much pressure on your broken limb. -10HP

You have strained your foot. Your top speed is now 5% slower.

She ran and ran. Giant rats got out of her way, water stickers unfolded themselves to try and sting her, skeletons followed her with their empty sockets. And she ran, and ran, and ran…

You have left Uniga dungeon.

Only now Felia allowed herself to stop. She leaned on the nearest cave wall, put her left hand on her chest and started breathing heavily. The breathing slowed down and eventually became normal. Cleric slid down on her bottom put the hands over her face and started sobbing. Al was dead, but that’s not why she was crying. The sight of his death was much more traumatic than anything else she saw in her life, even though as a cleric she saw a lot of horrible things: unnaturally bent legs, bones sticking out of bloody wounds, even cut off fingers. And still never she has seen something as horrid as Al’s dismembered body.

Then she sobbed at the realisation that she would have to leave her old life behind. In no way anyone would believe her story. Even if they did, she failed to protect the young and promising paladin, she was naked, her foot broken, and lost church provided armour. Such serious offences against the Church of Parva and, as such, against Tohcraft family guaranteed twenty years of jail. She had to leave the Prinzessin. As soon as possible. After one day the church would send their best divine warriors to look for them. When they would find Al’s desecrated body, at least, what was left of it, and her chain armour in the same chamber, she’d become a wanted criminal.

And yet, she couldn’t leave looking this way. She had to find some kind of weapon and some clothes to hide her skinny 17 year old body. Felia had to sneak to the church’s grounds at night, but even before that she had to get rid of her class and rank. If she stayed Parva’s cleric the head priest would have no problem finding her.

Are you sure you want to lose your ‘Cleric’ class? Yes/No

She stared at the message in her mind. She hesitated. 1 and a half years of work would go to waste. She’d become a nobody orphan, she had been before joining the Church of Parva. But if she didn’t get rid of it, she’d become a prisoner, at best. At worst, she’d be dead. It was no choice, and yet she hesitated.

Are you sure you want to lose your ‘Cleric’ class? Yes/No

But, as Felia knew, there was no choice.

Yes

You have no class. Your attributes have been set to default.

Please, choose one of following classes:

Paladin

Cleric

Craftsman

Wizard

Sorcerer

Warlock

Rogue

Berserker

Fighter

Ranger

This was death of Felia the Cleric.

Rogue

Level up! You are now a level 1 rogue. You may now redistribute 5 points between Dexterity[15], Endurance[15], Charisma[5].

Lockpick is now level 1.

Stealth is now level 1.

Light weapon mastery is now level 1.

Light armour mastery is now level 1.

Sleight of Hand is now level 1.

Persuasion is now level 1.

Intimidation is now level 1.

And this was birth of Felia the Rogue.