The ancient underground city of Ekeletas, after enduring its golden age of prosperity one thousand years ago, is now an abandoned underground dungeon infested with Kobolds, bipedal wolves that have a certain level of intelligence so that these monsters are all equipped with weaponry and armor. They now reside in the ruins of the ancient city, only occasionally coming up to the surface to hunt for fresh meat. Otherwise, the ruins supported their lifestyle. However, that doesn't mean that these Kobolds are docile. They are still monsters that have an irrational hatred towards humanity.

The Ekelestas Ruins wasn't far from where Loganel was used to going, being only in a different direction. When they had arrived at the entrance of the sprawling dungeon, there were broken pillars arranged in a symbolic way, forming a circle around the entrance of the underground city. Etched into these pillars is what appears to be an ancient language. The meaning of the arrangements and the etchings were unknown to this day.

"Pretty calm around here," Loganel observed, carefully walking up to the entranceway to the city below. He peered into the dark stairway leading down and shivered. "We're gonna need a light if we want to go down there."

"Here," Azura walked up behind him and pressed something against his arm.

Loganel looked over and realized that the object was a small lantern.

"Put this on your belt," Azura explained. "It's of the same concept as the street lights in Astalan and should last for quite sometime."

"Thanks," Loganel muttered as he accepted the lantern from her. He then clipped it to his belt and pressed the button on the top of the lantern, causing it to light up, emitting a gentle orangish yellow light.

The trip then started the decent down into Ekeletas, cautious in their every step. As they walked dust blew up from the ground, hovering in the air near the ground.

Suddenly, there was a crunch when Loganel stepped on the stairs.

"What's this?" he asked, kneeling down and looked at the object that had caused the sound. It was a fragment of a crystal of some sort.

"That looks to be some sort of illumination crystal," Azura explained. "Ekeletas used to be illuminated by these crystals. In fact, once we get to the main city area, we shouldn't need these lanterns any more."

"Why are these crystals here not working then?" Juliana asked.

"For some reason," Azura continued, "the crystals on the stairs leading to the outside were destroyed."

"Let's continue then," Loganel said after discovering what the object was.

After finally descending to the ancient city, the world around the three brighten up. The ancient city was located in a large underground cave with a tall ceiling. On the ceiling, numerous crystals grew from it, and each of the crystals casted a bright light the same color as that of the moon. Seeing that there was ample light to see, the three of them turned the lantern off.

"It's bright in here," Juliana said, basking in the mystic light.

Suddenly, there were noises of howling.

"Careful," Azura said to the other two, ordering them to be on guard.

Emerging from the corner of the street was a pack of kobolds. These Kobolds, equipped with simple armor and armed with machetes, swords, and spears of some sort, turned the corner and saw the three. Immediately, they howled and started running towards them, weapons raised and ready to defend their home.

"Five," Loganel notified the others of the number of enemies as he unsheathed his sword. "This'll be tough."

"Igni!" Loganel enchanted, hurling an arrow of fire at the kobolds that ran at them. However, the attack was deflected by the leading Kobold with its machete.

"Glazi!" Azura enchanted, conjuring a sharp icicle in the air and letting it fire at the Kobolds. However, once again, the attack was stopped. The leading Kobold smashed the attacking icicle into pieces with his weapon.

"It's not working," Azura muttered.

"We'll just have to do this the old fashioned way then," Loganel said, bringing his sword to a ready stance. "This is bad," Loganel whispered, "outnumbered..."

Knowing that he needs to split the five Kobolds up, he casted another Igni spell. This time however, it wasn't intended to hit, but rather to create a separation. Instead of going for the first Kobold, he decided to aim it at the location between the leading Kobold and the four trailing ones. The sudden orb of fire surprised the trailing four, creating about a second of difference in the arrival time of the Kobolds.

"You two take the first one," Loganel said, looking over his shoulder at Azura and Juliana. "After you're done with it, come and take care of the rest."

"What about you?" Juliana asked in a concerned voice. She was nervous at the current situation, leading her to grip her staff tighter until her knuckles turned white.

"I'll see what I can do to hold them off and stall for time," Loganel said. He then refocused his eyes on the enemies before them.

The leading Kobold was near, and when he struck at Loganel with the machete in its, Loganel took a deep breath and calmly used his blade to redirect the the Kobold so that it was flung towards Azura and Juliana behind him.

Alright, he thought, two vs one. Should be able to take care of it quickly, or I hope they can.

Loganel then immediately focused on the four in front of him. Since he decided to become a spellsword, he takes classes in both the Mage School and the Warrior School, thus forming the Spellsword School. He searched his brain for spells that he could use that he has already learned from Mage School, which wasn't much yet. However, he was able to find a spell that could create some sort of shield, or at least a makeshift wall in front of him.

"Teris Moiz!"

With the enchantment of the Earth element spell, a wall of rocks suddenly sprouted from the ground, creating a small barrier between Loganel and the four Kobolds. However, the small wall was only able to cover a small area, making it so that if the Kobolds were to move around the wall, they would be able to get to Loganel easily. However, since these lower level Kobolds lack intelligence being the grunts that they are, they weren't the brightest and thus hacked away at the wall made of earth magic.

With the four Kobolds before him distracted, Loganel looked over his shoulders to observe the battle behind him. It would appear that the two were still struggling against the first Kobold. After a quick observation, Loganel discovered that this Kobold's equipment was of a better quality than the other four Kobolds. In addition, its movements seemed more experienced and fluid. With these observations, Loganel concluded that this Kobold must be a captain type figure in the squad of five Kobolds.

Azura moved swiftly, dodging the Kobold's strong attacks with its machete. She sidestepped the slash, and countered with a stab with her rapier, targeting the creature's throat so as to avoid the armor that the monster wore.

The Kobold ducked to the side as it saw the attack coming, leading it to preserve its life. However, it didn't escape unscathed. The blade of Azura's rapier nicked the creature's ear, causing it to bleed as a part of its ear was cut.

The bipedal wolf creature then howled in rage as it realized the pain that was coming from its ear. This howl, loud and powerful, led to Azura stopping in place. She was unable to move due to the surprise and effect of the scream.

Seeing that Azura wasn't able to move, the Kobold then lunged forward at her with its machete, bringing it down at Azura's shoulder. Azura, seeing that the attack was coming, forced her legs to move, barely dodging the attack. She escaped with a cut on the side of her arm, blood slowly flowing out of the wound as she winced in pain.

Juliana, seeing that the monster's attention has now been entirely drawn to Azura, snuck up behind it with her staff raised in the air.

She didn't just focus on healing and buffing spells at her time in the Cleric School. In addition to that, she also learned a few basic offensive skills involving the use of her staff. Baton Smash, the name of the skill she learned, involved using the cleric staff or wand and using it as a blunt weapon. This skill is particularly useful when dealing with armored foes or against foes with hard shells or bones.

Without any hesitation, Juliana utilized the skill, Baton Smash, and brought her dense staff down on the Kobold's head with the intent to crush its skull and kill. However, since her staff was still the crude beginner staff that the school provided her, its damage wasn't that high, resulting in merely pain for the creature. This pain angered the Kobold even more, and made it redirect its anger towards Juliana.

"No!" Azura knew that Juliana was now in danger of the Kobold's attack. She saw that the Kobold had turned its back to her and she seized this opportunity. She quickly surveyed the Kobold's crude plate armor, which is basically a plate of metal strapped over its shoulders that offered protection to its key organs. Immediately, she decided to aim for the stomach of the Kobold, which wasn't covered by its armor. If she's able to do so with accuracy, she should be able to penetrate the Kobold's body with her sword. By doing so, she'll be able to significantly slow the Kobold down, which should give her ample time to deliver the killing blow.

Loganel suddenly heard the sound of the hacking stop. He then immediately assumed a combat ready stance and assumed that the four Kobolds had smartened up and are now walking by the wall.

Just as he had anticipated, he saw the tip of a Kobold's blade protrude from the side of one wall, and immediately, Loganel released the spell, causing the rock wall to crumble and fade away. With the wall gone, Loganel had a clear view of the Kobold. In addition, his sudden appearance surprised the Kobold, leading it to hesitate in attacking. Loganel was determined to use this to his advantage, and immediately stabbed the Kobold with his sword right in its chest.

He wasn't sure if he had penetrated its heart or whether he had dealt a killing blow, but the fact that the creature will be immobile was enough for him. Loganel didn't stop to celebrate or anything having learned his lesson from his early days of fighting goblins.

He quickly glanced to his side and saw two Kobolds there. He knew that his right side was exposed, therefore, he quickly enchanted Teris Moiz and summoned the wall of rocks to block the Kobolds from attacking him immediately.

With the threat of an attack eliminated for the moment, Loganel was able to focus on the Kobold before him. He knew that the Kobold isn't as smart as him. In addition, judging by how long it had took them to realize that they could just go around the wall, Loganel concluded that the goblins he had fought so many times were more intelligent then them.

Therefore, Loganel thrust his left hand at the Kobold and casted Igni in its face not to damage, but rather to distract. He didn't use much power on the spell, leading it to only make a small spark of fire in his palms, which captivated the Kobold's attention. From there, Loganel drove his sword at an angle up the Kobold's upper stomach and into its chest region, avoiding direct confrontation between his sword and the small metal plate that the Kobold hung around its shoulder as armor.

Now, with this Kobold no longer able to move, Loganel pulled his sword out of the creatures limp body, and released the spell that formed the rock wall, leading to the wall to crumble once again and becoming one with the ground once again.

He looked over and discovered that Azura and Juliana were able to take care of the captain Kobold and were now engaged in combat with the two Kobold that Loganel had blocked off from him earlier.

Now, with the Kobolds being outnumbered, Loganel, Azura, and Juliana were able to swiftly defeat the two. They did so by double teaming a Kobold with the extra person they had at their disposal. And when the first Kobold had been taken care of, the three then focused their attack on the lone Kobold that was still able to move. It was obvious that they were able to defeat it easily, thus, ending their welcome into the now Kobold City of Ekeletas.