Chapter 6 - The grind is real

As they joined the room, a two meter wide spider appeared, and like Fabien had said, its tag said it was level 15.

They now saw the monster that they had to kill, and instinctively thought how hard the next sections of the dungeon would be, but they realized that this opponent was more important at the moment.

As they had always done, Fabien tried attacking the spider right away, with the objective of getting all of the attention, so that Largon, the main damage dealer, could attack.

And so he did, sneaking up from behind to one of the eight legs.

However, this didn't work out since the spider instantly noticed him, as it also had eight eyes, and it dodged the attack and counterattacked, which Largon thankfully parried.

He then swung his sword and tried to damage the leg, but the spider just got out of the way of both players, who were constantly targeting her.

Largon then decided to use fire breath, as it was now finally useful.

"Skriiieeeghk"

It landed, and it dealt 10% of his health.

Tronk also gave the boss a weakening spell that had some debuffs, including speed and defense, so they attacked.

Fabien managed to hit the leg of the spider, dealing a bit of damage, but Largon didn't have such luck, as it dodged.

The next time, Largon told Fabien to go all out, and he did. The spider also tried to block and dodge everything, but he managed to weaken another leg.

Unfortunately, the spider managed to hit him, so the venom spread. Because of his class and resistance, this effect left his lizard body after dealing 40% of damage, which was mostly healed.

While Fabien and the spider had attacked, Largon managed to sneak to his back and, with some timing, managed to hit it and deal a lot of damage, but it also attacked him, and he wasn't expecting that, so he had to activate the scale armor to reduce the damage.

That didn't stop part of the venom from getting to his system, so his health went down to 50%.

Since he had activated his armor, he decided to also go all out, so he targeted the legs that were weakened by Fabien, and he was breaking them.

But somehow, the spider seemed almost unaffected, as it was still standing with six legs remaining.

Fabien kept trying hard, and Largon didn't want the armor to get wasted, so he was also attacking with everything they had, so the spider was getting weaker.

Another factor that was in his favor was the 10% chance of burning with every attack he landed, and he already got two.

Largon was also able to use the firebreath, as five minutes had already passed since he last used it. This time it seemed to deal a bit more damage, as the monster's defenses were a bit debilitated.

With the help of Tronk's buffs, they were finally able to end the fight, as they had slowly but surely cut off the spider's legs, until it could no longer stand, and they killed it.

The drops from the raid were also evenly distributed, although they gave Fabien the venom he needed. He also leveled up and decided to spend his skill point on ENG.

He then went to the village to sell his goods, but at the end, he restrained himself from selling some venom in a jar. In total, he got 1 silver and 45 copper from the drops.

Also, he thought about how he still needed to get the salamanders for his ongoing quest.

The salamanders were all at least level 10, but most were higher, and they were immune to his firebreath, which was very annoying.

While searching on the internet, Igor found out that the best strategy to beat these foes was to have AOE attacks, or a lot of energy.

He thought if he wanted to go straight on, but he reasoned he had too little energy, as the guides told him the fight would be long, so he figured he would need to level up at least one level.

He also thought he would need to take the long route, since the salamanders were immune to damage.

Searching for good places to farm in the beginning village, he found the bug forest.

It was a place full to the brim of low level bugs that were weak to fire, so he went there.

When he was at the destination, he sensed a very high amount of humidity. He had concerns about burning the forest down, but it seemed he shouldn't worry about that as it would be almost impossible.

He wandered through the forest, waiting for something to happen, until he found a wide open space, and at the end, there were around 300 of these bugs.

He then began his attack with a firebreath that left 20% HP on every opponent it touched.

He began swinging his sword, and sometimes, the low percentage burn from his weapon took place.

Five minutes later, he had already killed around 100 bugs, and he decided to rest a bit.

After that, he went at it again. It was very exhausting, but he was trying to get better energy stats in the end.

These five minutes fighting sets kept happening, and sooner than he realized, it was over, but his health was lower than he expected: 65%

This fighting session gave him a level up, that he used in energy, and a lot of drops, so when he went to the shop, he was surprised when he was told that it was worth 2 silver.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, the bugs shell isn't as useful as the spider rests you sold us earlier, but the amount that you give us makes it worth more"

If you take into account the random money that can get dropped by monsters, he now had 4 silver and 72 copper, and at his current level, he was ready to take on the salamander for which he had been preparing.

But first, he wanted to know what a certain market was going on in one of the plazas of the city.

He saw everything: blades, healing potions, capes…

"A cape? It has +2 DEX and +1 ENG, and it definitely looked cool contrasting with his lizard appearance.

He asked the shopkeeper, who was a player by the name of Zhon, if it had anything special, and he said that it had: It was resistant to fire!

It was perfect for him, but the only downside was the prize: 4 silver. He thought about it, but at the end he trusted his guts, and decided to keep it

"You won't regret this decision, have luck with your quests"

"Thanks!"

And so, Largon went.