“Hey, how’s arm?” Lucas taunted as he continued to weave around the room, avoiding the enraged King. He roared in anger, doubling the speed of his swings, but growing even more imprecise. Lucas dodged his swings, not even bothering to activate his skill, conserving resources. Even though his opponent was enraged, Lucas knew that a hit would still cause a lot of harm, courtesy of difference in levels between himself and enraged dryad. He could just hope that the King was near exhaustion so they could proceed with next part of the plan. He ducked to avoid the swing threatening decapitation, and instantly dodged with his skill to avoid the quick backswing. He got up on his feet, deciding to land a hit or two to advance the process of exhaustion. As King came charging, he activated “Stinging cut” making a cut on the thighs of his nemesis, leaving him screaming in pain. He quickly activated “Death by the thousand cuts” and started hitting, every hit leaving King a bit bloodier and pool of blood at his feet a little bigger. He stopped himself at one moment, still wanting to conserve resources, not willing to over commit in case King had second phase of the fight. Speaking of that second phase, he casted a glance at the rest of his party. They stood ready, waiting on Lucas’s signal. The familiar sense of dread reared its ugly head once again, paralyzing Lucas. While he waged his internal battles, King got back to his feet and charged yet again. Frozen by his woes, Lucas was in no shape to try to get out of the way. He felt a sharp pain in his guts, and dropped down to his knees when King’s sword was pulled from his stomach.

“You take 319 points of damage”

Barely clinging to his life, Lucas went limp, awaiting a blow that will end it all. He overheard a sharp sound and something loud. After that, he felt a familiar energy coursing through him, a pleasant feeling that reinvigorated him and reknit worst of his wounds.

“You are healed for 350 points”

He carefully got back to his feet and was greeted with a sight of bulky form clashing with calmer King, who looked extremely satisfied to land a hit on his daughter killer. Getting back to his feet, he dropped his careful demeanor and went all in. Activating his ultimate skill with a quick mental command, he rapidly span past Maraya, who gallantly protected him when he was down. Slamming into King, he felt rapier slid in between his ribs, shredding his internals. Lucas anchored himself and quickly pulled his sword, feeling the sluggishness that came with mana shortage. Not wanting to drop his momentum, he instantly activated “Stinging cut”, making a wide gash throughout the length of King’s arm. He screamed in pain, just like the last time skill was activated. Lucas took a step back, and then lunged with his sword, putting all of his Strength into that pierce. Rapier cut through flesh, unfortunately missing anything vital but making significant damage. Slowed by the hail that came from Michael rifle, King was a moment too late to strike back, Lucas dodging far away from him. Overcommitted and focused on Lucas, King left a wide opening that first Maraya exploited with a disorienting blow to his head, immediately followed by John, whose rifle made loud noise as the bullets from its double barrel wrecking the knee of the unfortunate dryad. He went down, looking finally beaten. Not keen on being surprised, party carefully approached, Maraya ready to intercept any attack with her shield. King was struggling to get up, consistently failing. When they boxed him, he finally gave up and went still.

“I hope I deserved a quick death, invaders” he spoke with finality in his tone. Lucas mentally agreed with his beaten enemy, but remained silent. When they came up with the plan, they agreed that Michael land a finishing blow if possible, lagging a bit behind in levels. Although plan went out of the window do to Lucas’s mistake, they careful approach showed as unnecessary, as King laid before them. Michael approached him, still careful about any last stand attack, but none came. He put his rifle at the temple of their beaten foe and pulled a trigger. A short burst came from the rifle and upper part of King’s head exploded, splattering brain matter all over the place. Immediately, prompts came up.

“You have assisted in slaying Jona, Last King of the Dryads, Warlord level 50”

“Congratulations! You are level 33 Duelist.”

“Stat allocation in progress…”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“Stat allocation completed”

“By slaying the last king of the dryads, you resisted the echo of the long lost race of Viridi dryads. Hopefully, that would help you and all of the humanity to alleviate collective trauma still haunting the Earth after failed invasions from the races of the multiverse.

Your prizes are awaiting you when you exit the dungeon”

“Quest updated “Help the camp Hearth”: You have finished the dungeon and stopped the threat to the settlement. Report back to Camp Hearth to get your prizes.”

“Title awarded: Scenario dungeon diver I”

“Fucking bureaucrats, making you report instead of immediately giving you prizes.” Lucas quickly ranted before checking his new Title.

Scenario dungeon diver I

You have completed your first scenario dungeon. +1% to all stats in all dungeons. Upgradeable

“Cool little title” Lucas concluded.

He waited politely for everyone else to finish, opting to wait with stat allocation after he saw what loot awaits him. One by one, his teammates finished studying the prompts and after a quick deliberation, they decided to exit the dungeon, collect the loot and rest afterwards, per Michael’s suggestion. He looked incredibly anxious, Lucas finally happy to get his friend back as he assumed he is impatient to get a hold of the loot. He planned to have a serious talk with him, suggesting to him to quit his mercenary troop and come back home, hoping to return to fun romps with his friend. A prompt startled him and pulled him from his thoughts.

“Leave dungeon

Y/N”

He quickly accepted and everything was a dark for a moment before he found himself back at the entrance. He spotted the chest holding all of the loot they earned during their trek through the dungeon. Just as he took a step forward, at least two dozen figures emerged from the shadow. They were humans wearing a very familiar uniform, something Lucas got used to in the last few days. Just as he registered that they wore the same uniform as Michael, one of them spoke up.

“Put down your weapons slowly”

Lucas looked all around him spotting the party were surrounded. Still tired from the last battle, they had to move quickly, finishing the fight in one or two hits. Activating “Eye for details” he showed visible confusion as all of them returned with only class and no level.

“???, Infantryman, ??”

He prepared to rush quickly just as Maraya tried to activate her barrier. Suddenly, a burst from behind bulky woman brought her down, Michael quickly aiming at Lucas. He quickly activated “Dodge” on pure instinct, his mind suddenly going blank at what he just witnessed. The rest of the troopers opened fire, with about five grenade-like skills coming from somewhere behind them, orange light exploding near Hannah’s feet and sending her flying. Michael continued his spray of fire, not letting John to lose himself in the shadows and soon enough he was dropped down by combined fire from about a dozen soldiers. Lucas roared in anger and rushed at the nearest enemy, “Guiding strike” guiding his hand to pierce the unlucky man right through the eye.

“You have slain ???, Infantryman, ??”

Michael trained his rifle back at him, and he was forced to once again “Dodge”, relying on limited precognition his skill allowed him to land far from the storm of bullets that went his way. Dashing right back at his best friend, he started feeling his cheeks get wet, realizing he was crying. Just as he was near his target, orange grenade lookalikes landed between him and Michael forcing him to stop and change course just in time to avoid another stream of bullets.

“Why?” he shouted at Michael, while running in zig – zag patterns, making him harder to hit.

“I’m sorry” was all Michael responded as he lobbed grenade right at the path of Lucas. Grenade exploded, sending Lucas flying, but luckily for Lucas, his armor stopped the worst of damage.

“You take 44 points of damage”

What wasn’t so lucky for Lucas was the fact the explosion and subsequent flight made him drop his sword, which flew somewhere out of Lucas sight.

“Of course fucker predicted where I would be, he saw me run like this a thousand times” Lucas scolded himself for carelessness. He suddenly heard weird sounds, and he was trying to get up, he realized he is terribly slow.

“You are suppressed. You will be slowed down until you take cover”

Although the bullets didn’t do any damage, his armor blocking them from hitting him, he knew how nasty the slow was as Michael was liberally using it during their run. Worse yet, he felt fatigued and realized he was running even out of stamina. He quickly exited suppression by activating his “Dodge” and landing, somersaulting to his left to land behind a trunk of some tree. Knowing he’s outmatched, he tried to see if anybody else survived. What he saw, however, crushed any hope he had. One of the troopers stood over bulky form of Maraya, sending burst after burst in her prone form. John was a couple of meters to the left from that scene, heavily battered and constantly under suppressive fire from a dozen troopers. Hannah was nowhere in sight, and Lucas carefully moved from his cover searching for her. He found her after some search, her once lovely body marred with bullets and wounds from the bombs that hit her. As she was wearing no armor, suppressive fire that the troopers liberally used did some heavy damage to her. Lucas felt once again tears rolling down his cheeks and he turned himself from the grisly scene and simply ran.