Goblin Cave (3)

"Man, those online forums weren't wrong when they said that the pacing of the game felt fast. This should be an impossible dungeon but I'm one-shotting everything…" Marcus commented as he bisected the final goblin in front of him. Looking around the cavern they had entered, he noticed that the rest of the goblins, numbering an intimidating group of twenty, lay slain on the ground and disappearing into smoke.

"Yeah… Most players took advantage of the flawed balancing to power level and farm dungeons like field zones (Field zones being an area like the village forest.). The number one guy, ChosenOne, reached level 32 just yesterday, and that's without these Enhanced monsters giving more experience."

"That guy must be insane, I wonder what he is doing to level so fast every day," Marcus sighed as he sheathed his sword and walked over to the rest of the grouped up party members with Silverwind beside him.

"How do you know Serenity?" He suddenly asked as he looked around for anything more than dropped coins and a couple of rusty daggers and swords which were unusable.

"We know each other IRL and I wanted to play the game. Well, I kinda dragged her along but she's having fun and we have been playing together since launch. Even saved her from some assholes trying to collect a beast-hunting "tax" from her." Silverwind said as he stopped and collected some of the dropped coins on the ground. Though they were mostly bronze and silver, he happily collected them as more money meant more things to spend on later.

"What about you? Got any friends you are planning to play with?" Silverwind asked, flipping the question back to Marcus who stood close by and pondered for a moment.

"I have two friends I would like to meet up with, a whip user named Nyxx, and a brawler who acts like a battle junkie named Ajax. They should be questing together and waiting for me to reach Lumont since it's the first major city accessible to players from our village."

"Sounds like you have a plan already after this dungeon, reaching level 20 in a single day is your goal, right?"

"It might as well be with how crazy we are leveling right now." Marcus replied as he turned and walked toward the group, ready to continue their dungeon run. Checking the time as he walked, he took note of the time remaining being twenty-six minutes.

As the two boys finally reached the group, Gilgamesh ended his conversation with Hypatia and Fenrir. The three companions, along with the mostly silent Serenity, looked toward Marcus as he once again expressed their time constraints.

"This would probably be impossible if this balancing wasn't broken. Can you imagine trying to kill twenty of these goblins with weaker attacks? I'd probably retreat with the party and use a return crystal to return to the village." Silverwind expressed happily.

"Exactly, so let's try to finish this before some random system patch comes out and nerfs our damage output" Marcus stated calmly as he looked toward the end of the cavern they had yet to explore. So far the dungeon was linear so they continued from tunnel to tunnel in a convenient straight line, making it much simpler to navigate.

"We can do that but first, what do we do with the gear?" Fenrir questioned as she held some four pierces of uncommon gear drops. One being a shield, chest piece, another Jagged Sword, and a dagger.

"I'll just add it to the dungeon loot pool, it's a free 100 slots of storage that is eventually decided on as the dungeon concluded, so if none of us want or need it we can store it there and split it between ourselves later," Silverwind interjected as he took the items from Fenrir before they subsequently disappeared in a flash of light. 

Before that happened though, Marcus quickly passed his gaze over the items, now held by Silverwind, his thoughts briefly going to a future where he and his guildmates would eventually fight tooth and nail for loot dropped by bosses using the auction function supported with the storage space. 

(AN: This is just a thought not an actual peek into the future…)

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As the group continued onward, they finally encountered 2 new goblin variants, both exciting him and scaring him as they numbered 6 total within a tunnel. One of the new variants was a Goblin Archer, a goblin that stood with better posture than basic goblins making them seem taller. They also wore gray torn rags that resembled cloaks that hid a fair amount of their body leaving their more straightened faces uncovered. They carried crudely constructed bows but they didn't give off the vibe of being completely untrained.

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[Status Page]

[Name] Goblin Archer(Uncommon Elite)[Enchanted]

[Level] 15

Health Points: 5050

Mana Pool: 1400

[Attributes]

Strength: 20

Agility: 55

Vitality: 45

Intelligence: 30

Dexterity: 70

[Skills] [Piercing Shot], Evasive Dash

Piercing Shot

Rarity: Uncommon

Fire a highly accurate arrow, dealing 200% damage and piercing enemy defenses.

Mana cost: 100

Cooldown:15 seconds 

Evasive Dash

Rarity: Uncommon

Quickly dodge an incoming attack, increasing the Goblin Archer's evasion by 50% for 2 seconds.

Cooldown: 20 seconds

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Looking toward the other, a similar "Elite" tier goblin called a Goblin warrior, Marcus wondered how he would have even gotten past this if not for being broken…

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[Name] Goblin Warrior(Uncommon Elite)[Enchanted]

[Level] 18

Health Points (HP): 9,850

Mana Pool: 4,200

[Attributes]

Strength: 100

Agility: 85

Vitality: 95

Intelligence: 40

Dexterity: 80

[Skills] [Cleave], [Quick Strikes]

Cleave

Rarity: Uncommon

Deal a sweeping attack, dealing 250% damage to all enemies in a small area.

Mana Cost: 300

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Quick Strikes

Rarity: Uncommon

Execute a flurry of rapid strikes, dealing 50% damage three times to a single target.

Mana Cost: 200

Cooldown: 30 seconds

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"Now we can tell why this was deemed impossible under normal standards…" Silverwind said as he readied himself for battle beside Fenrir who had adopted a more "wild" stance, positioning herself like an olympic runner, her calves tensing in preparation to launch herself at her much stronger enemies.

"This is getting out of hand… this mist that was mentioned in the quest clearly mega buffed these goblins…" Marcus groaned as he looked particularly at the 4 level 18 Goblin Warriors. Turning his head to his trusty companion, Marcus was about to ask if he was going to join them but was stopped short by a simple head shake from Gilgamesh.

"Come on! Why won't you help, if this were after a patch and we end up weaker we would probably die! You can help us this on-"

[System to Player Alert]

[A Server Update Will Commence in 2 Minutes To Fix Glaring Issues]

[Please Reach A Safe Place When The Countdown Reaches 0]

[All Players Will Be Logged Out And The Game Frozen for 10 minutes As The Update Is Applied]

[Well Wishes - Admin Rudy]

[Time Until Update: 1:58]

"Well isn't that just perfect!" Marcus groaned as he sucked his teeth and turned towards the Goblins Warriors and Archers who are now approaching.

"20 seconds is your limit for this battle" Gilgamesh said to everyone as he activated his King's Dominion skill again, unpausing the use time as it continued ticking. Adding the 30 seconds he allotted for this battle, Gilgamesh had already used it multiple times so far with the remaining time being a short 30 seconds after this battle concludes.

"Let's finish this quickly!" Marcus said confidently as he ran towards the closest Goblin Warrior, Fenrir taking the two Warriors closest to each other while Silverwind took the remaining one. Honestly, Fenrir and Silverwind were the highest levels in the party at 18 themselves with Serenity and Hypatia reaching level 16 together, an increase of 2 and 3 levels for both duos respectively. They could handle their selected enemies fairly easily, as while they were enhanced and such, they were still beginner level enemies so they weren't the greatest at combat strategy.

With the cave being narrow Hypatia and Serenity had no choice but to wait for an opportunity for attack to present itself, a moment where their allies weren't in the way of their spell, much to the same dilemma of the Goblin Archers.

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Arriving in front of the Goblin Warrior following a three second sprint, Marcus quickly slashed his sword at it, somewhat hoping the goblin was not as agile as the basic ones but he was proven wrong quickly. The goblin watched his easily telegraphed swing and leaned it's body backward, letting the blade of Marcus's sword pass as it grabbed his arm and threw him to the wall.

With the strength of the Goblin Warrior surpassing Marcus by a few dozen points, Marcus felt his back crack in multiple places as he struggled to dodge out of the incoming sword threatening to slash him across the chest. Using what he imagined to be every muscle in his body, Marcus did a very inexperienced roll which turned into a dive as he was unable to follow through entirely.

As he hit the ground, he quickly rose to his feet to catch a beige fireball impacting the side of the Goblin Warrior, blasting it to the ground with great force, as the smoke cleared moments later, Marcus saw it struggling to move, it's charred left side now also missing arm and green blood spurting from it's wound like a leaking faucet.

"Thank you Hypatia!" Marcus thought to himself as he quickly brought his sword down on the neck of the Goblin Warrior, taking what remaining health it had left. At the same time, an arrow whizzed through the air and pierced through Marcus's shoulder.

-550

Looking at his health, which had remained untouched until just now, dropping by about a fourth of its total value, Marcus shifted his head in the direction of the archers to catch another arrow being shot directly at him.

 Knowing he had little time to react, Marcus once again did an inexperienced roll turn dive that put him closer to Fenrir who was working to slay her second enemy. The first already collapsed on it's knees as it's head and neck was half impacted into its chest, due to a likely hammer fist attack from the wolf lady she repeatedly did on the second Goblin Warrior, whose head continued to sink into it's chest while Fenrir continued with an amused smile on her face, oblivious to the large amount of blood coating her with every swing of her fist.

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With the battle concluding moments later, Marcus sighed as he watched Silverwind pulling an enraged Fenrir from her "game", the same one she had extended to the goblin he was fighting after she was unable to continue with her 2nd broken goblin, eventually even extending it to goblin archer who dodged a fireball made by Serenity.

"Let me go! I was doing something!" Fenrir shouted as she allowed herself to be pulled away from the now deceased archer.

"Not a chance! You need to calm down so you clean yourself up!"

"Hrmph!" Fenrir groaned with a pouty expression and turned to the only other person she could rely on, appearing as if she were wronged by her summoner. "Hypatia help meeee!"

"Should we be concerned?" Marcus asked as he looked toward Hypatia who was rubbing her hand caringly on the side of Serenity's face as she leaned into her well endowed companion and silently watched the comedy routine between her friend and Fenrir..

"I doubt it will be a problem, Lady Fenrir will just have to find more monsters that can handle her playfulness," Hypatia replied before she continued to hum a song she knew as the timer for the update neared completion.

[Update commencing in 5]

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