Turns out Troll skin was tough. Tough enough that my first spearbolt shattered against its side. My aim was perfect. The spear connected just as the troll was mid swing. However, the bolt shattered against its skin and caused no visible damage. The troll ignored my attack like it was nothing and didn’t even glance towards us. I was hoping it was just the distance travelled that caused my spear to shatter and not the skin of the creature. We were still 60 metres away from them after all.

“Hmm. Let me get closer and try again.” There is no such thing as a creature I can’t slay. This troll was just a walking hulk of experience waiting for me to harvest.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Burin said from my side. “Maybe we should just go around.”

The trolls were still just bashing against each other. They were equipped almost the same and only wielded different weapons. The one my attack hit was wearing ruined cloth around its waist and held a large club in its right hand. The other troll was a bit smaller with a bigger belly and held a staff adorned with skulls.

“I’m going to get close enough to identify them before launching another spell.”

Miko stayed a few metres behind saying she would stay out of the fight unless needed so we would get the most experience. She really was a thoughtful girl.

I had no idea why the trolls were fighting each other and couldn’t really tell if either had the advantage. The sound of their weapons meeting each other’s flesh was sickening and reverberated off the tree line. I wouldn’t want to be at the end of one of their attacks, yet they seemed completely fine after receiving a blow from the other.

Once we got within range I casted identify on each.

[Gorix, Troll shaman of the glade]

Health: 2100 / 100%

Class: Shaman

Level: 7

Race: Troll

[Bonks, War troll of the glade]

Health: 3700 / 100%

Class: Warrior

Level: 7

Race: Troll

Neither seemed to pay any attention to the identify spell and continued to bash on each other.

“Hey Miko. Didn’t you say that each floor has a maximum level of the level plus four?” Meaning since we were of floor 2 the highest level creature should only be level 6.

Miko walked up next to me, and I watched her face as she looked towards the trolls. Her eyes flashed as she used identify and then widened, her pupils dilating in fear. “Mewshit.” She started taking a few slow steps backwards away from us and the trolls.

“There be a steam nearby. If we can lure them over to it, then I can trap them for easy pickings.” Burin said from my side.

“Sounds good to-“

“No mewking way!” Miko cut me off. “That shaman has double my health and the warrior has triple. These are raid level beasts.”

“R-raid beasts… Both of them?” Burin stumbled by my side, and I reached out in case his legs collapsed under him.

“How’s your leg Burin? Do you need to sit this one out?”

“Do ye have rocks in your head, Fool Reigner?”

“Fool? What happened toMaster Reigner just a few hours ago?”

“Nay, Fool it be if you planning on fighting.”

Looking back at the trolls they seemed completely uninterested in us and continued wailing away at each other. I could actually see their health bar’s dipping a bit before filling back up to full.

“Think you can run with your injured leg?”

“My leg be fine”

“Great. You said they were slow right? If things look bad, we can just run away.”

I summoned a spearbolt and after speeding up to a jog launched it towards the club wielder. I aimed for the warriors head this time, more specifically, it’s eyes. If my spell shatters against this attack, I’ll be happy to leave them alone.

“Wait” Miko said too late from behind me. “You were the one who said they were slow!”

Oh yeah, it was me that said that.

“Fool Reigner!” Shouted Burin as he ran towards the stream of water cutting through the glade.

I don’t see what the big deal was. Sure, they might be a little tougher, have more health, be bigger, and maybe stronger than anything else on this floor. But they are going to give experience, like a lot of experience. The amount of experience they would give made me salivate. Not to mention the loot. I am just a poor low level still. They really needed to think about my needs for a moment.

My spearbolt struck true and pierced not one but both eyes of the war troll. “Hell Yes! Critical strike!” I pumped my fist at the successful thro- uh, launch of the spell.

For the first time the trolls reacted to us. The warrior screamed. The noise was so loud and disorientating that I had to crouch down and place a hand on the ground to keep myself steady.”

Once the noise died down to something manageable, Miko moved to my side and readied her shield and mace. “What have you done.”

“Well, his health is not regenerating anymore.” The war troll swung his mace wildly with one hand while covering its face with is other.

The troll shaman turned towards us and made some guttural sounds before projectile vomiting towards us. I jumped back dodging the attack, but Miko was not so lucky.

I cast another spearbolt, this time aiming for the shaman and did not hold back my strength. The spell hit the troll shaman squarely in the stomach, not shattering on impact, and sunk into the creature’s flesh.

Looking at the health of the shaman, my attack seemed to deal about 5% of its total health in damage. Some quick calculations meant that it was going to take at least 20 spearbolts, or 400 mana, to down the creature. My current mana was 410. There is no way I am going to be able to kill both of these trolls.

A panicked yell emanated from Miko in front of me. My first thought was she was badly damaged from the spell and cast an identify spell on her to see how bad it was.

[Name]

Health: ??? / 98%

Class: Sentinel

Level: 10

Race: Half-kin. (Half Beastkin, Half Human)

“Miko, what’s wrong? You are not hurt!”

“My armour!” was all she yelled out as she back peddled.

I watched as Miko’s armour started falling off her as if it was melting. It seemed like only her armour was melting as her flesh seemed undamaged and Her health did not decrease further.

I started laughing, loudly. Miko, the destroyer of clothes, was finally getting a taste of her own medicine.

“Yes!” I continued laughing while pointing towards her “Karma does exist! Miko, you-” I was interrupted by the foot of the war troll and was sent flying. I don’t know if the war troll was aiming for the stream or just got lucky but there was enough air time to orientate myself and land on my feet. Or I would have if I did not land in the middle of the stream.

I heard Burin mutter “Fool Reigner” as the water current changed and pushed me to the stream bank. “Pay attention.”

“Thank you, master Burin, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Miko was running towards us holding scraps of clothing around herself. “Nooo!” She called out as tears could be seen, twinkling in the light of the sun, trailed behind her.” Only the shaman troll seemed to be following as the war troll was tripped over on the ground, continuing to cover its face with one hand.

“You did ask to lure the trolls over here, right?”

“Oh, so getting punted was just you repositioning?”

“Yup, all part of the plan.” I took a few steps forward “Miko!” I yelled out “Do you have spare set of clothes?” I was not sure if she heard me or not as she continued crying “Nooo!” as she got closer to us.

As enjoyable as it was watching her suffer through her comeuppance, I did not want her to become traumatized for life from the event. I still remembered enough of Japanese cartoons to know that a half naked woman being chased by grotesque creature never ended well.

I cast summon armour for the second time and created a robe she could wear.

+1 to Summon Armour Spell rank.

Soon as she was within range, I threw out the clothing. “Don’t look!” was all she said while catching it and running past us.

Turns out the troll was not as slow as I had made up as it was just a few metres behind Miko.

Fortunately, Burin was prepared, as a swarm of arrows flew past me on both sides and struck the shaman’s lower body. The arrows were either water or ice because when they impacted the troll, they caused frost to build up, slowing it down significantly.

“Nicely done Burin!” I spared a glance back to see the dwarf standing ankle deep in the water, breathing heavily.

The troll made a guttural noise but before it could spew out more stomach juice, I cast a hammerbolt right into its face. The trolls head snapped back and for a moment did a great impersonation of a fountain, spraying itself with it’s own vomit.

The fight became easy after that. With Burin slowing it down I managed to pepper it with spear and hammerbolts, and it was not long until it collapsed to the ground. I checked my mana and saw that I had 45 mana left. To be safe I launched a point blank spear into the trolls head.

Experience gained

+1 to Summon weapon Spell rank.

I leaned down and picked up the large pouch that appeared on the corpse and placed it in my storage pouch.

“Nice work everyone.”

“Aye... I can’t believe it. We killed a raid beast.”

“You’re saying that multiple groups are needed to take that thing down? Seemed pretty easy to me.”

“That’s because you are completely broken.” Miko said from behind me. I turned around and saw she had donned the robe. Unfortunately, that looked to be the only thing she was wearing, as she had no shield or weapon and was bare footed. She did not look happy at all. Wanting to cheer her up I said the first thing that came to mind.

“Nice robes. Want my old boots?”

It must have been the wrong thing because she completely ignored my question and gazed past me. “We should move. The other one is coming this way.”

“I can slow it down. With all this water I don’t need to worry about running out of mana.” Burin said.

That’s nice but I couldn’t say the same. “I don’t have enough mana. I could do one, maybe two more spells.”

“Wow” was all Burin said, followed by “It’s fast.” from Miko.

“Aye. Very fast. Maybe we should, you know. Get moving.”

I turned to look at the troll and was amazed at the sight. It was moving quickly towards us. Each of its steps was powerful enough to rip up chunks of earth and send it flying upwards behind it.

With summon weapon now at rank 4 I really wanted to test it out against the war troll’s flesh. Maybe I can injure its leg and slow it down. Throwing caution to the wind, I summoned a spearbolt and launched it towards the troll to the sound of “Fool Reigner” from Burin.

I watched as the spearbolt met the war troll’s flesh and, like before shattered into motes of light.

Another “Fool Reigner” sounded out from Burin, and I noticed it sounded much fainter this time. I turned around to see both Miko and Burin on the other side of the stream, their backs to me, running in to the tree line. I could hear a constant “Fool Reigner” being repeated over and over from the dwarf.

It did not take long to catch up with the duo, a quick hop over the stream and a jog was all that was needed. We made it past the tree line and continued to run. I didn’t think we were moving in the right direction but decided to keep that to myself, as the sound of branches snapping, trees smashing, and the troll screaming at us was a strong motivator to keep moving forwards.

The troll was determined, and despite the dense trees and foliage in its way, was slowly catching up to us.

We were saved by an ambush of all things. I didn’t think it was their intention to help us but I was thankful all the same. I thought they were other adventurers at first, but Miko’s yell of “Bandits!” corrected my assumption. A stream of arrows flew towards us and Miko had to jump to the side. Burin just lifted his shield and continued to hurriedly plod forwards. His leg must have been bothering him as he was starting to slow down.

Turns out that the bandits were terrified at the sight of the troll, as they too turned around and started running for all they were worth.

“Hey, you can’t leave without introducing yourselves!” I yelled at the bandits.

Miko had caught back up with us. I guess she too was making sure to limit her pace to Burin’s. Hope her feet were okay, she had been running barefoot for some time now.

Since we did not have anywhere better to run, we followed the bandits. They were kind enough to lead us straight to their hideout. Wooden houses were scattered either on the ground or in trees and rope bridges spanned everywhere connecting wooden walkways to buildings.

“Watch where the bandits step” Miko commented and took the lead in front of Burin.

We ran through the centre of the hideout where a large number of bandits were watching us on all sides. They all wore leathers and had bows outstretched. They were a mix of races and I could spot orcs, humans, and beastkin, as we moved through their territory. There were both men and women but no children, thankfully.

I glanced behind us and saw bandits either fleeing or shooting arrows towards the war troll. The arrows bounced on the tough skin and only seemed to piss the troll off as it rampaged about, smashing any bandit, or building within range. Sometimes using one to smash the other.

We continued running for a while until all Burin could endure was a slow limp forward.

“Let’s stop here for today.” We had been running for long enough that my mana had completely regenerated. I summoned a campfire and sat down next to it. “Anyone want something to drink?”

Burin just let himself fall to the ground and gasped out “Bastard.”

“Sounds like a no from Burin. How about you Miko?”

She seemed to ignore me as she just sat with her back to us.

Remembering her feet, I got up and moved around her to have a look. As I got closer, she hissed at me. Actually hissed, like an angry cat. “Hey there. I just want to take a look at your feet. You have been running barefoot and I’m worried they are injured.”

“My feet are fine. Just leave me alone.” She pulled her feet away from me and scooted around turning her back to me again.

I moved over to Burin to get a look at his leg. There was no blood leaking through the bandages. He must have just worn himself out.

Sitting back down, I summoned some food and drink for everyone and placed it in a pile near the firestone. “Phew, that was really fun.”

“Fun? Ye fool Reigner. We nearly died!”

“Died? That is an exaggeration.”

“Exaggeration? That troll nearly had us! This ain’t some bedtime story where a hero comes at the last moment! People die in the tower. They die by taking stupid risks like attacking two, two raid creatures! Ye almost killed us all.”

Had I made a mistake? Were the trolls too much? No, I don’t think so. Burin must be feeling vulnerable without his team to lean on.

“Tell me Burin, how much health did you lose during the battle?”

He looked at me and went to argue but stopped.

“I was the one to take the most damage and even that was not much to worry about.”

“Trolls are not slow, Fool Reigner.”

I chuckled at that. “I thought for sure they were slow. Who knew a troll could move that fast?”

Burin gave a frustrated harrumph, reached out and grabbed some of the food and drink before resting against a nearby tree to eat.

“I’m sorry about your armour Miko.”

She rounded on me. “You think that’s why I’m so upset? I thought you died! You were laughing it up so hard at my expense that you didn’t even notice the war troll until it was too late. You should be dead from that attack. I don’t understand how you can be so happy.”

“I just thought it was ironic, you know.”

She glared at me. “What?”

“You” I pointed my finger at her “have taken every opportunity to ruin my clothes since I arrived here.” Burin seemed to perk up at hearing that. I started chuckling, remembering the look on her face as her armour melted around her. “It was karmic retribution that you- that your...” I couldn’t help it anymore and broke out in laughter.

“That!” Burin yelled towards me. “Right there. You are having way too much fun. Don’t ye understand where you are right now?”

I wiped my damp eyes and caught my breath. “We are inside an incredible tower with interesting places to explore and creatures to fight. Of course I would be having fun. This place is an adventurer’s paradise.”

“Aye, well this paradise killed my friends.”

“I’m sorry Burin. Even through I only met her, Torva was someone I could see myself calling friend. However, it was not the tower that killed your friends. They might have been inside the tower at the time but the cause of their deaths was because of some dead elf walking.”

“Dead elf walking?”

“That elf is dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“I never ruined your clothes.” Mumbled Miko.

“What.” I looked towards her. “Think about it for a minute before saying something so ridiculous”

“Fool Reigner.” She replied

“Aye, fool Reigner.” Echoed Burin.

“Bah, you both just want to be angry.”

Burin stared at me for a moment before holding out his hand, palm up. “Seconds… Master Reigner.”

I felt my eye twitch and sighed. I summoned some milkshakes and handed them out. Even Miko could not ignore the power of my magical abilities. She did however hiss at me again after taking the drink.