Zeke immediately turned his attention to the direction Hamil shouted. Just as he said, seven more creatures came hurtling at them while they were already dealing with a dozen or so monsters.
However, unlike the monkeys, these were in fact sloths. Unfortunately, they weren’t slow like the sloths, but instead incredibly annoying. They appeared like the same four-legged brown-furred creatures with long claws, but their bites and claws emit an acidic like substance that can easily burn one of those chunky trees down in a minute or so given the time.
Worst yet, they were small and numerous, giving them a level of danger that would be difficult for even a normal party to counter. They were almost like spiders, crawling all over the place and using the trees and vines to hide themselves.
With a total of twelve they were already fighting after suddenly being surrounded by the stealthy creatures as well as the incoming seven, their chances of running away before it gets dicey went up in smoke.
Kote was already hiding from the entire fight, using his high-level stealth skills to take out whichever sloths he managed to spot. Thankfully they were easy to kill, their Vitality probably extremely low compared to their Dexterity. However, they were also just as fast to spot him, so he had to get away before getting bombarded with slashing strikes.
Hamil was keeping the field as an operator of sorts, using his spells to keep any unknowing disadvantage from showing its ugly face. Due to that, he had to ensure to keep his mana cost down, so he only relied on using his magic for any bad encounters.
That only left Saang, Mikella, and Zeke to face the huge number of creatures on their own. Saang kept the entirety of the group well off using her Blood attunement as a wall of sorts before any of their strikes manage to hit her. She would summon a wall right before any of the fast sloths (strangely enough as it is), come and slash at her, then take the advantage and cut them apart.
Even if it doesn’t kill them, their blood was all over, increasing even more of her ammunition. However, there’s only so much blood she can control as she’s ensuring not to let anyone get hurt rather than taking them on herself. Her style of combat is usually single-focused, using her blood to increase her versatility, but her specialty is protecting herself and others in her midst.
That was normally how the Tempest Winds acted, but thanks to the two otherworlders, they increased their efficiency.
Mikella took the chance that Saang gave to deflect one sloth attack to easily down the creature with her lightning-infused sword. Whenever she could, she would slash at another sloth far away with a spear held aloft with her lightning. It wasn’t something she was used to doing in a full party, so she was making sure to keep only one extra weapon on hand (technically speaking as it was floating in the air) rather than bombarding the enemy ranks with a dozen or so weapons. Considering their terrain, it would turn worse before it would get better.
Since the more they kept the sloths to themselves, the more damage they accrue. With how many there were, they couldn’t always protect themselves, which ended up with them getting slashed and learning about the acidic strike themselves first hand. That’s where Zeke comes in.
He would quickly approach and heal them before going back out, buffing himself with his runes and with his sub-race’s talent of boosting stats for a short while with direct mana (though the mana cost was nauseatingly high). He would use his fists and kicks to take out any sloths that approached him. Even as his body burned and he winced at the pain, his skills and healing made it easy for everyone to focus on the larger goal at hand, even with the incoming backup going after them. He would also occasionally send a runic spell to make a quick shot at one of the sloths, but he kept his mana consumption to mostly healing and buffing himself and others.
The numbers on their front were decreasing, so Zeke took it upon himself to take his anger out on the sloths at the back. With a rapid step in, he punted one sloth to another, causing them to crash against each other. During their time of confusion, Zeke rushed in and crushed them with fists, his Strength-enhancing buff from his tattooed runes and sub-race stat boost finishing the gruesome. Another three sloths struck back at the side, slicing his arm and leg on the right while the third missed him as he jumped back.
He winced at his skin burning so much from the fresh cuts, the stench of his flesh being on fire on top of the stench of the rotting liquid that permeated into his body. But his Restoration skill made it easy to spot the incoming invaders in his body and heal himself back up. He had plenty of practice thanks to the poison given to him by that werewolf assassin. He kept fighting back at the sloths, his mana slowly reaching to the midpoint before the other two backed him up.
Mikella spun and slashed with her spear, and sliced with her sword to every sloth that approached Zeke. Recalling her weapons back, she pulled out her axe, chucked it into the air, and let her lightning control the axe to make absolute decimation to the rest of the sloth populace.
Despite the huge axe swinging with abandon, each sloth was cut in a way that dealt a fatal blow, all thanks to her Dragon Eyes. But it wasn’t just that–it was as if she could read the entire battlefield with those eyes alone. At a distance, she shot an electric blast at one of the monkeys ready to chuck a hard stone at them, which ended up with that very stone being thrown at one of the sloths, taking it out from friendly fire.
It was a beautiful sight even amidst the flying blood and guts that spewed out from every creature that she slain.
Eventually, the monsters were all killed, leaving behind a nasty stench of rot, blood, and a whole lot of acid in the midst. When the party reconvened together, Zeke went ahead to heal them up, finally leaving his Mana to almost a quarter.
Level Up! You are now Level 63. You gain 2 free points (2 FP total).
You have gained +8 DEX from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +8 INT from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +12 SPI from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +7 END from your sub-race.
…..
Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now Level 7.
You have gained +2 VIT from your skill.
You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
Steadfast Mind Level Up! It is now Level 2.
You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
Parallel Thought Level Up! It is now Level 9.
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You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
*****
The notifications added in, along with Mikella’s own progress.
*****
Level Up! You are now Level 63. You gain 2 free points (2 FP total).
You have gained +10 STR from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +10 DEX from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +5 INT from your sub-race.
You have gained +5 SPI from your sub-race.
You have gained +5 END from your class.
…..
Mana Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 2.
You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
…..
Lightning Mastery Level Up! It is now Level 2.
You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
…..
Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now Level 4.
You have gained +2 VIT from your skill.
You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
Acrobatics Level Up! It is now Level 4.
You have gained +2 STR from your skill.
You have gained +2 DEX from your skill
…..
Dragon Eyes Level Up! It is now Level 3.
You have gained +2 STR from your skill.
You have gained +2 DEX from your skill.
Despite all these increases, and despite how many monsters they killed, the amount of XP has drastically decreased.
But putting aside that, Zeke still marveled at the amount of enemies that attacked them. Two days passed since they entered into the dungeon. Throughout those two days, they have met more and more enemies and not enough benefits.
In fact, despite spending those two days fighting monsters and traversing the tower, they only just now received a level up.
“Damn it, this is taking so long,” Mikella grumbled. “If we had at least landed in some building, we would’ve been done by now!”
“Tell me about it,” Zeke digressed. “I hate to say this, but we must have gotten lucky for our first tower to be a giant castle building than this…”
He can’t imagine anyone having a good time in this scenario, especially for their first venture into dungeons as well as the first time being in the new world. If it were them, would they have survived? Especially with Clara on the way, this was just too much to spring on an ordinary Beginner.
Zeke can only surmise that anyone who got placed here had already perished, and that was putting it mildly. And that only made Zeke even more angry.
“Is it just the luck of the draw then?” Zeke muttered, his brows furrowing instinctually. “If we’re not lucky enough, we’re screwed? I can’t believe this…”
Mikella listened without really saying much else. Zeke chided himself for saying that out loud. It was obvious that both of them didn’t like this, but he didn’t have to make it worse by saying that.
“Sorry, I let myself…”
“Hey, you’re not wrong,” Mikella shook her head. “Anyways, let’s keep going. For now–”
“Hey! One of them dropped something! It’s a book!”
Hamil suddenly shouted which instantly got everyone to cheer up. Zeke and Mikella knew this might happen at some point, but being that two days passed, they figured their lucky streak would end.
Instead, it was rising now. When they approached Hamil, he showed the book to everyone as he read the contents.
“It’s called Acid Spray,” Hamil said, rolling his eyes. “Pretty cliche, if I’m being honest. Still… this apparently drops every so often in the towers?”
Zeke and Mikella nodded in unison. Saang whistled in admiration as she took the book herself to study.
“If it weren’t for the Skill Repository, this would be a great find. Still, I don’t think it’s worth it to learn. Better to sell it and get some decent cash.”
“I take it you two won’t learn this either?” Kote asked, pointing at the otherworlders. “You said you got limited Acquired skill slots, right? Seeing what you two can do, I have to mention that this will not make your builds any better.”
“That’s fine, can you give it to me for a sec?”
Zeke asked, getting Saang to hand the book to him. After checking with Identify, he got amused.
“Shoots out a spray of acid dependent on the Intelligence stat. Doesn’t say how far or how effective, though. What I’m curious about is where exactly do you shoot that spray from?”
“Zeke, sometimes you ask questions nobody wants to know the answers to,” Mikella shook her head ruefully. “Now you put that god-awful image in my head. I hate you.”
“So do I,” Saang said dryly, getting Zeke to chuckle awkwardly. It was a valid question in his opinion.
“I’m guessing either from your hand or even from your mouth,” Kote mentioned off-handedly, ignoring the mood as he displayed his thoughts. “I’m certain you create a ball of acid from your mana. If you do it from the mouth, it might surprise your opponents.”
“So are you gonna learn it, Kote?” Zeke asked, glad that someone at least understood the validity of the question. The girls, of course, just shook their heads.
“Nah, I already have a specific poison in mind. It’s the kind that debilitates the opponent from the inside. Easier to take down opponents with a group, especially with my current skill set that lets me get away from combat faster.”
“Wouldn’t acid be a pretty good way to debilitate someone, though?” Hamil asked, arching a brow.
“Physically, yes. But I’m talking about the nasty stuff. The kind that you don’t notice, and all of a sudden you get tired, sickly, and sweating in the middle of combat. You start thinking it’s just the jitters from the fight, but in truth it’s the poison seeping its way through your bones…”
Kote spoke in a way that brought Zeke to shiver, but his gamer mind instantly got excited. Who on earth wouldn’t want something like that working on your enemy? It would make a lot of things easier if they got an internal battle going on while also fighting for your life on the outside. He knew that by heart.
“Kote, you’re scaring me,” Saang said, actually staring at Kote with a concerned look on her face.
“That’s a first, you usually do way worse than me,” Kote raised a single visible brow towards Saang. “I’m pretty sure my way is better than literally bathing yourself in your enemy’s blood, their entrails and guts just slathered all over you.”
“That only happened once, jackass!” Saang barked back. “It’s not my fault those damn things just get everywhere when it’s outside!”
Zeke decided to opt out of this conversation, getting a little too gruesome to stay listening. Even Mikella turned a bit pale. She was a weapons maniac, but she wasn’t the type to like blood so much–at least not enough to get an attunement out of it.
It was then that he sensed something with his periphery. He raised a brow and turned towards a random direction. He swore his Overreach ability took notice of something weird.
It wasn’t really something he would pay attention to. However, after fighting for a while and trying to relax, he felt a sense of panic that made him think an enemy might get the jump on him.
However, when he turned to the direction he thought he sensed movement, he was surprised at the outcome. Something did move, but it wasn’t a creature he was unfamiliar with.
It was in fact something, or someone, he was very familiar with. A person. It was someone other than the four he came here with. Almost ghastly and somewhat boney, but that was definitely without a doubt an actual person.
And that person looked right back at him. Her eyes widened in shock.
“Guys!” Zeke shouted, instantly getting everyone’s attention. He took a closer look before realizing that the person ran away. “I saw someone!”
“You found another monster?” Hamil said as the Tempest Winds already pulled out their weapons.
“No! Someone! A person!” Zeke shouted, his heart hammering. “A live, actual person!”
“What…?”
Mikella looked back at him, her eyes widening. Everyone else shared the same look.
“It’s a survivor!” Zeke said, his voice rising in pitch. “Like us!”