Chapter 6

As we stepped out of the archway and into the light, I was amazed at the sight laid out in the vast expanse before me. Grasslands stretched as far as I could see, and for a second I forgot that I was inside a tower. They reminded me of pictures I had seen, before my untimely death, of New Zealand and of areas of Great Britain. Warm light filled the sky from high above, almost like sunlight, and I could see what Amenthia had meant. The structure of the Dungeon outside did not look even a tenth of the size of the space we were now in and I had no doubt the power of the Council was at work here, which meant that the higher we went the more interesting the floors would become. Amenthia smiled at the wonder on my face and placed her arm on my shoulder, breaking me from my thoughts.

I turned to look at her and said, “Okay, then, my dear Amenthia, let’s get started on our first steps of this journey!”

I pulled my shield off my back and drew my sword, while my partner drew her bow and nocked an arrow in preparation. She nodded at me when she was ready to proceed and I made my way into the grassland ahead, with her following closely behind.

“Make sure to only give cover fire for now,” I said, over my shoulder. “If the mobs become too much, switch to your dual-sword mode and we will fight back to back until the mob is cleared.”

“As you wish, ‘sir’,” she responded with a slight chuckle. “I will try to conserve my arrows, but I will not allow you to come to harm if I can help it.”

I simply nodded and we continued on along the path leading from the archway, my eyes scanning the area ahead for danger. Within moments of reaching the top of a hill, a few meters away from the stairs, we came across a pack of three wolves. They had not seen us yet, so I slowed and gestured to Amenthia to do the same. She understood and stopped a few paces behind me, as she brought her arrow up to aim at the closest member of the pack.

I took a few deep breaths to ready myself, as this would be my first attempt at fighting, where my life actually depended on my success. Though this would be no different than any Massively Multiple Online game I had played in the past, there was one aspect that did differ, the human element. It is one thing to play through a computer screen, but it was quite another to be doing it reality and in actual hand to hand combat. Though I had Live Action Role-Played a few times over the years, this was a far cry from a bunch of nerds fighting imaginary creatures. I tightened my grip on my sword and pulled my shield tighter into my side as I prepared to attack. I took a last, deep, calming breath and then moved to the balls of my feet, as I started to dash towards the pack. I pulled my shield up in front of me, hoping to protect the vulnerable parts of my face, while bringing my sword behind me in preparation to slash at the nearest wolf. By the time the pack had noticed me, it was too late, as I brought my sword across the torso of my nearest foe.

I tore through the side of the wolf, opening a large gash along the creature’s left side. It started just in front of its left hind leg and ran straight across to its front left leg. The wound was not shallow, and blood began to pour out of the wound, which shocked me slightly. I hadn’t known what to expect, so seeing the blood was different, given the RPG nature of the Dungeon. However, these were also not mere game sprites, but living, breathing creatures. I brought my arm back in a reverse slash, hoping to add to the damage I had already inflicted and was lucky that the wolf had not had a chance to move away yet. While the sword didn’t do as much damage as before, the damage it did deal made the wolf unable to use the front left leg. I didn’t have time to place a killing blow on my target before I saw one wolf lunging at me from my left. I moved quickly to brace myself. I brought my shield up just in time and pushed my shield towards the beast’s head, as it came into range. I blocked the incoming attack before the wolf’s powerful jaws could clamp down on my arm and was able to deflect it away. I then lunged forward, while the wolf was still off balance, and pierced the wolf’s ribs. With a twist of the blade the beast cried out in pain and collapsed onto the ground. Less than a second later it burst in a cloud of black smoke, leaving a small orb in its wake.

I couldn’t help but smile at my first successful kill, but I had to be vigilant as there was still one wolf that was still uninjured, and I didn’t know how these mobs would react to that situation. The one I had attacked first, was still able to move and bite us, even with the severe wound I had given it. I turned to my right just in time to see the third wolf make a dash at me and brought my shield to bear just in time for it to take the brunt of the force. However, the force of the impact did cause me to stagger back and I swung my sword at its head, to keep if from pressing the attack. A few lazy swings kept the wolf at bay long enough to give me time to regain my balance and prepare a counterattack. I brought my sword arm in a sweeping, horizontal strike with my pommel, that connected with the wolf’s head, disorienting it. I spun around to bring a forceful diagonal slash to its head and administer the killing blow. The sword hit its mark and in a single motion, cleaved the beast’s head clean off. Like the first wolf I had killed, it, too, burst into a cloud of smoke after a few moments, though it did not leave an orb in its wake. I felt a twinge of pain in my leg and looked to find that the last wolf had snuck up and bitten me, though the pain was minimal thanks to the armor.

I had not expected the wolf to be able to attack me before I had finished it off, so I took my sword and drove it down into the wolf’s skull. It, like the other wolves I had killed, exploded into a cloud of black smoke leaving only a small orb where the creature had been. I turned to Amenthia and saw her smiling, I guess I did well, though I was surprised at her lack of help.

“Good job, Pathios,” she said in that sexy voice of hers, causing me to forget my frustrations. “You did very well for your first battle; now allow me to explain how your health tracking works.” She touched my bracer and said, “Activate Health Bar.”

The crystal began to glow, and a design appeared above the symbol of Tyr at the top of the bracer. The design totaled ten slightly angled lines, that began to glow in a faint, green hue.

Amenthia then explained, “The glowing bars show your current health, while all the others represent your full health. As you can see, you have taken some damage. Now that it has been activated, you will always be able to tell your health status. As you level up, your health will of course increase, but the tag will remain the same. Of course, your status page will show your current maximum health in a numerical value, should you wish to know.”

I remembered seeing my health listed, but I had not looked since before my level had been unlocked by Tyr. I placed my hand on the crystal and commanded the stats screen to appear and I noticed a few things that had changed from when I looked last. First, my health was sitting at about forty-three out of forty- five and second, there were small bars beside my attack, defense and speed stats. They, of course, still showed a level of one in each stat, however there were three different-length bars beside them. The attack was the longest followed by speed, and the defense was the shortest.

I turned to her and then pointed to the display and asked, “Amenthia, what are these bars beside the stats?”

“Those are the progress bars for your various stats,” She said, pointing to the strength stat. “They increase as you perform certain acts and will allow you to increase that stat, once you have accumulated enough progression points. Increase enough of your stats a few levels or complete a special task and your level can go up. You could be rewarded with an extra point to put into one of your stats, or you could gain the choice of a new skill or feat. Sometimes points are awarded for unlocking certain skills or feats that aren’t given when you level up.”

“Okay, that makes sense,” I said, “but why didn’t we go over this yesterday? I mean, I would have thought we would have gone over all of this before we headed out.”

“Yes,” She said with a smile. “However, as part of your trial, some things had to be kept from you until after certain requirements had been fulfilled. In this case, it was after you suffered some damage, hence why I didn’t help with this first battle. Yes, most adventurers are told this before they head out, but you are not like everyone else, as they would learn these things during the training years. Along with that, I am also with you, which gives you an unfair advantage, as most people don’t form pairs, parties or groups until their trials are complete and they reach level three. Therefore yours will be at times, on-the-job training, so to speak, but I have every confidence in your success.”

That made sense - a lot of sense actually - and explained her lack of help. I went over to one of the orbs and picked it up. I looked at it and marveled at the glowing sphere. It wasn’t very big or bright, but it was definitely better than getting nothing. I picked up the other orb and passed both of them to Amenthia to deposit in the bag. As she placed them both into the bag, there was no movement of the fabric, despite the two orbs being dropped in it.

I couldn’t wait to move further into this Dungeon, because I needed to build my stats and start making coin. I smiled and motioned for us to continue along the path we had been traveling before the attack. I tried to take in the various views, while still keeping an eye out for ambushes and mobs.

When we reached a fork in the path, I turned and Amenthia followed my lead as I started moving east. Amenthia was only a few steps behind me, on my right flank, as her eyes scanned the area for dangers. After a few minutes, our luck held, and we came across two more wolves. I once again went into a run, feeling more confident from the first battle and planned my strike to be a killing blow. I pulled my arm back and prepared to thrust the sword into the heart of the nearest wolf. Luck was once again on my side, as both were distracted eating a kill, and neither wolf noticed my approach. I used the opportunity that had been given to me to my full advantage. I drove my sword deep into the wolf’s heart and added a little twist of the blade to make sure it put the wolf out of commission.

The wolf exploded in a puff of smoke, which got the attention of the other one. I already had my shield up and between myself and the wolf to make sure that I would not make the mistake of letting my guard down. I pivoted to make sure that I could take the force of the attack without falling over and readied my sword for a counterattack. Just as the wolf was about to lunge, an arrow pierced the wolf’s right eye. The wolf then exploded in a puff of smoke, as well, though no orbs dropped this time.

“Hey, Amenthia,” I asked her, “how is it I am able to kill so easily if my strength level is so low? I would think that it I would take a bit more effort.”

“That is a good question, Pathios,” she said smiling. “Yes, strength has a lot to do with the damage that is done to the monsters we face, However, like a real animal or humanoid, if you hit a vital spot, then your damage is amplified. So, if you destroy the brain, heart or decapitate a creature, it’s basically a critical hit. Since the animals on this floor are mostly level one with the very rare level two, then critical strikes will result in a killing blow.”

I nodded and replied, “So, as long as I try for critical hits, or killing blows, we should be able to gain experience easily. Don’t worry, though, I won’t get ahead of myself and end up acting careless.”

She smiled at that and drew another arrow from her quiver, as we moved further into the grasslands. Over the next few hours we came across a few more wolf mobs, some flan mobs and a wild boar mob.

After all those battles we were feeling both tired and hungry, so we decided to find a quiet spot to rest and have a meal. Amenthia guided us to a nice meadow next to a stream that was free of mobs at the moment. We took out some bread, cheese and grapes that we had packed with us and enjoyed the quiet. I took this opportunity to check my stats display to see what progress I had made over the past few hours. My health was currently at thirty-five, down from forty- five. The wolf bite had taken two points, the other eight were taken by the boar mob. They had proven to be a bit tough to handle, since they had been level two, which meant that we had to work at it. There were only two of them, but it took some lucky hits from me and well-placed hits from Amenthia. She was down nine arrows now, which left twenty-one for today, but there was some good that came out of the fights, especially by the end of our meal. My progress bar for speed, defense, agility, awareness, vitality and strength had been increased. In fact, the only two stats that didn’t see any increase, were my magic and wisdom stats.

I ended up gaining five progress points in strength, two into speed, eight in defense, four in agility, three in awareness and two in vitality. What was interesting was that I could physically feel the change that it made in me. My defense bar was nearly full now, since I had suffered quite a bit of damage, as well as blocked attacks. As I was checking my stats, Amenthia was checking to see how many orbs we had collected so far.

“Well, we are well on our way,” Amenthia stated with pride. “So far, we have seven orbs of normal size. It is not bad, the energy in them is good, as well, so they should fetch a decent amount of gold.”

We finished our food, and I held out my hand to pull Amenthia up, which brought a smile to her lovely face. She felt light as I pulled her up and she stumbled, causing her to bump into my chest a bit. She paused a few minutes before pulling away, a light blush on her cheeks and I was regretting the lack of contact. We took up our weapons and I brought up my area map, to see where we had to go next. We were a few kilometers northwest from the stairs we had entered from and it looked as though the nearest access to the next floor was still a few kilometers north of us. With our destination set, we made our way out of the meadow and began our trek to the stairwell. Along the way, we came across another nine mobs, more wolves and boars. One of the wolf mobs was level two and the two boar mobs were as well, giving us a much-needed challenge. Amenthia had used up a fair amount of her arrows, so I had her switch to her blades, as we had no idea what kind of mobs would be waiting for us on the next floor. Over the course of the day, we had begun to develop a rhythm as we fought, and it was becoming instinctual very quickly. Being able to attack and dodge without getting in one another’s way, it almost looked as if we were dancing with one another as we fought. We got two more regular drops and this time we got a high-illumination orb from one of the boar mobs.

As we continued on our chosen path, we soon could see the archway for the stairs leading to the next level ahead and my anticipation started growing. It was carved into the side of a rock, face, which made it stand out from the rest of the terrain, as its white marble frame was a stark contrast with the rock.

We kept our eyes peeled around us, as we both felt that this was a good place for a mob to launch a surprise attack. As we drew closer, a glow appeared a few feet in front of the archway and I was elated that my suspicions proved true. I stopped advancing towards the stairs and immediately got into a defensive stance, as I waited for the glow to cease. Amenthia slowed down and approached my left side. Her swords were put away, but she had not drawn her bow.

“Now, Pathios,” she said softly into my ear, “you must face your first trial. I am afraid that the rules state that I cannot help you with this fight, but know you have everything you need to win this fight, Pathios, and I know you will succeed.”

I looked at her with shock, as we had spent most of the day working together seamlessly and now, I would have to fight whatever this was, alone! Just great, this would be interesting, to say the least, but if she was confident in my skills, then I who was I to argue. I quickly glanced at my bracer and it looked like my health was still in pretty good shape, but some was gone. A quick check of my stats page showed my health was at thirty-one, but I was shocked to see my defense total had gone up a point, it was now at two, and my progress point was sitting at one.

When my eyes returned to the glowing spot on the ground, it was gone and, in its place, stood what looked to be a goblin. It was thin and lanky but covered in muscle. It had pale, green skin, and glowing, red eyes and its head was shaved completely bald, its ears and nose were covered in piercings. It wore no armour, looked ready for blood and held a stone club in its hand. It was ready to start our fight and wasted no time in launching itself at me. I brought my shield up only moments before the beast reached me, swinging its club at my head in an attempt to knock me down. The force of the attack knocked me onto one knee, and it was still pushing down hard on the shield, its sinewy muscles rippling from the effort. The creature then used its left hand to dig its claws into my left shoulder, while maintaining pressure with the right.

Pain shot through me as its thumb talon had slipped between the sections of armour and pierced through the mail. Damn, this thing was fast and strong, and if I wasn’t careful, it could kill me very easily.

I swung the sword at its side hoping to make it take some damage, but the beast saw the attack and jumped away. At least I had been successful getting released from the goblin’s grip on my shoulder and I made sure to keep my shield pointed at the creature as I got up. Once I was standing, I planted my feet and launched myself at the thing. I swung my sword on a downward angle, hoping to knock its club to the left when it went to parry. It met my blow and used the middle of the club to deflect the blade away. I brought my shield up to eye level close to my body and took a deep breath.

I again launched myself at the beast and when I was a mere few inches away, thrust the shield hard at goblin. The shield bashed its arm into his chest and his grip on the club faltered. While the goblin tried to regain its grip on the club, it lashed out with a headbutt. However, the creature did not count on the metal under the leather and it became disoriented, though the blow did hurt me a little.

I pressed the advantage I had created and thrust my sword forward as hard as I could, burying the blade deep in the goblin’s belly. The beast howled in pain as green blood began to pour out of the wound. I swung my shield at its head to make sure it stayed disoriented while I gave the blade a sharp twist. The blow from my shield broke its nose with an audible crunch and only angered the beast further. It grabbed the sword with its left hand and began to pull the blade deeper, bringing me in range of its hands despite the damage the sword was doing. Then the goblin used its free hand to slash at me and, while my armor absorbed some of the attack, some damage got through. I kept hitting the beast with my shield, hoping it would let go of my sword, but it kept pulling me closer. I decided to take the risk and threw my shield down next to us. I then grabbed the sword with my now free hand and placed my boot on the creature’s hip. I pushed my left foot with all my strength while pulling hard on the sword. I succeeded in freeing the blade, slicing the beast’s hand, as well as pushing the goblin back. However, I had only moments before it was back up, with its dropped club in its good hand.