And Into the Fire

As weird as it may sound, a low-level dungeon was exactly what the terrified group needed. They were scared, wounded and grossly out of their league, but they knew they could beat a dungeon.

It seemed that monsters couldn't leave a dungeon, so they were well and truly safe. More importantly, the dungeon could provide them with food, goods and—most importantly—levels. Between that, an endless source of water, and housing, they were finally in a position to survive.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Jay had some status points to allocate. "Status." He pulled it up in front of him and began to look through it.

[ Status sheet

Name: Jay Michaelson Race: Human Class: Elemental Archmage Level: 3 (400/2000)

Strength: 9

Agility: 11

Endurance: 10

Intelligence: 16

Will: 16

Luck: 5

Unspent status points: 3

]

It seemed his level bonus had automatically been applied, so he just had the points to spend. He still felt like he needed some more endurance, and luck was still far too low for his liking. He dumped 2 points into endurance and 1 into luck and took another look.

[ Status sheet

Name: Jay Michaelson Race: Human Class: Elemental Archmage Level: 3 (400/2000)

Strength: 9

Agility: 11

Endurance: 12

Intelligence: 16

Will: 16

Luck: 6

Unspent status points: 0

]

That was more like it. He thought he remembered endurance saying it would increase healing speed, which would be nice. He wasn't entirely sure about luck, but he thought it had something to do with item drops from monsters. And the more he brought back, the quicker they'd improve.

Once he was finished admiring his stats, Jay went looking for a top-notch party to check out the new dungeon. Pete was the first to agree, petting his rather dangerous-looking baseball bat. George declined in favor of getting people moved into the houses and doing some scouting. Kyle wanted to come, but he was busy leading the other earth mages to raise defensive walls around their safe zone.

Fortunately, Sarah and Andrew were both up to the task, so Jay resolved to go with just the 4 of them. However, they were met at the entrance by one of the metal mages whose name Jay forgot.

"Hey guys, I'm Eve. I'm one of the new metal mages. I thought maybe I could help you guys out? I've got some arrow heads that are pretty effective and I might be able to sense helpful ores if we're lucky. Please let me come?"

Eve seemed nice enough. None of the others knew her beyond her name and class, but they all readily agreed that an extra body—especially one that could sense useful ores—would be beneficial to the team. That decided, the group of 5 entered the cave-like dungeon.

[Level 1-10 Dungeon Entered. No monsters present. Generating monsters. Clear all levels before anyone else for a first clear bonus!]

As they descended into the cave, it became readily clear that this wasn't going to be the same as the first one they were in. The walls were lit with some kind of fluorescent moss, and the ground was uneven where the tunnel had been smooth. As they neared some the first expanse, they were greeted with the sight of a lively forest.

It wasn't particularly dense, but it was definitely a forest. Birds flew overhead, small beasts ran in the brush. And the party had no idea what they were supposed to fight. Technically all of these things were monsters, but there was no way the party had the time to kill everything.

At best, they could force their way through and hope nothing followed them from behind. Then again, they did have fire on their side…

"I'm going to light this place up. Everyone, step back and get ready to fight." Forest fires were typically a bad thing, but then again, so are monsters. Besides, he could put it out with his endless canteen afterwards.

Firing off a few fireballs at different sections of the forest had everyone waiting in suspense. As each one hit, a massive flare of fire started up. Trees were consumed in seconds, grass burned faster than they expected possible, and countless creatures died in the flames.

[You have slain…]

[You have slain…]

[You have slain…]

[You have slain…]

There must have been at least 50 different monsters in there. And Jay and his party got the XP for all of them.

Instantly, his entire reached level 3. Jay's fireball also reached level 2, increasing the heat of the flames. He watched as his flames changed from a cherry red to a clear orange. It was both beautiful and terrifying to look at.

As his teammates began allocating their points, Jay started trying to put out the fire. He hadn't leveled up yet due to the increase in cost, so he figured he might as well make himself useful.

At first, he tried to just run around and pour water on everything. And then he remembered his class. What was he doing? He was an elemental archmage! Water was his to command!

Jay focused on channeling mana into the water, shaping it to go where he needed. Although it ended up just looking like a fire hose, he couldn't deny its effectiveness. His fire was put out almost instantly, sizzling away as his magic-driven water met his magic-driven flames.

Once it was clear and everyone was good to go, Pete lead them towards the room's exit. Again, they entered into a rough cavern. Nothing attacked them while they were there, though. After a few more minutes of walking, they came across a smaller cavern. This one was also populated with trees, but lacked the life the previous forest had.

In the distance, Jay could make out the vague shapes of a large cat and a small humanoid. He couldn't be sure, but he thought it may be monkeys, which would be cool.

Jay had always liked monkeys, admiring their dexterity and strength. Now, that seemed like a bit more of a problem. If he was right, each one of them was at least as strong as a human. If they were smarter, then they'd be in for one heck of a fight.

Pete led the team forward slowly and quietly. There's no point in giving up the element of surprise, after all. As they got closer, the blurry shapes were made clear.

Jay had been right about the monkeys…sort of. They were a strange blue color and rode on the cat-things Jay had noticed earlier. Their mounts weren't quite jaguars, but they were a close, double-tailed approximation. You know, if a jaguar's tail had blades on the end of them.

There were only three of each, but they were clearly able hunters. They feasted on what Jay could only assume were the previous inhabitants of this cavern. A huge pile of bodies lay to one side while the monkeys consumed what they wanted and tossed the rest to the jaguars.

They took up defensive positions, not knowing exactly how strong these monsters were. Clearly, they were better than everything else here, but so was their party. With the advantage of surprise, Jay only hoped they'd be able to take these things out easily.

He prepared to fire a lightning strike, aimed at the nearest monkey, but just as he fired it, something alerted them to the incoming attack. The monkey dodged out of the way, running straight into Sarah's arrow. It fell to the ground defeated, but its jaguar came charging at them.

[Party member has slain a Cercopes. 25 XP rewarded. You are in a dungeon. XP rewards will be given when you complete the dungeon.]

Andrew sent forward his Den Mother to fight it and it seemed to do okay. It had difficulty outmaneuvering the jaguar, but the jaguar's tails and teeth couldn't penetrate its strong fur.

Eve took out another one of the Cercopes with an arrow through the head, guided by her magic. It seemed to tire her considerably, but it made the fight far easier. As Pete turned to take down the jaguar mount, Jay turned to the last of the beasts.

He was taking no chances and instead tried something he hadn't done before. He charged a lightning strike in each hand. The first went straight for the Cercopes. The second followed it as it dodged and hit it square in the chest.

The monster was knocked off its jaguar and sent flying, smoldering, through the air. By the time it landed, both it and the remaining jaguars were dead.

[You have slain a Cercopes. 25 XP rewarded. You are in a dungeon. XP rewards will be given when you complete the dungeon.]

[Party members have slain 3 Distortion Beast Mounts. 75 XP rewarded. You are in a dungeon. XP rewards will be given when you complete the dungeon.]

[You have learned a new spell. Twin Lightning Strike learned. Strike with twice the devastating power you previously wielded. This spell is based on the Lightning Strike spell. This spell costs 60 mana.]

Interesting. Double-casted spells seemed to be different from the base spell they used. If that was the case, Jay probably wanted to start improving those soon. Then again, it seemed like improving the base spell would improve this one too. It was a tough choice to decide which one to train, and, honestly, he could worry about that later. First, they had to beat the boss.

The boss room was the smallest of the caverns yet. Unfortunately, it also held the biggest, more dangerous monster on the entire floor. A blue gorilla several times its normal size pounded its chest and bolted at them the instant Jay tried to channel mana.

Jay's firebolts seemed to have no effect, evaporating as soon as they hit its body. As he charged up a twin lightning strike, the monster barreled straight towards him. He realized he didn't have time to complete the spell and gave it up, choosing to dodge instead.

Even as Sarah and Eve's arrows pounded into the beast, it continued to charge them. It swung a meaty fist at Jay, but was intercepted by Pete's bat. The spikes impaled the monster's arm and Eve quickly expanded the spikes, tearing the hand from the body. It was brutal, but effective.

The giant ape backed up, nursing its wound, channeling water mana into the injured arm. Unfortunately for it, Jay had been busy charging a second twin lightning strike. It hit it head on, and the beast fell to the ground, fried.

[Party has slain a Juvenile Water Cercopes. 200 XP gained. You have completed the first floor of Level 1-10 Forest Cavern Dungeon. Would you like to exit and claim rewards or continue?]