Hours passed by with the waves steadily getting stronger and bigger with each one. One of the archers even got so bored that he just decided to count how many goblins were in each wave and what their levels were.

  The fifth wave, and the first one that got counted, had about 50 goblins in it. Most were level 24, but there were a few larger goblins that were over level 30. The wave after that had 55 goblins, with most of them being level 26. By the tenth wave, the archer stopped counting as it didn’t take a genius to see the pattern. Every wave would be about one level higher and have about five more goblins than the previous wave. Keeping count, a wave appeared roughly every 18 minutes.

  If this pace kept up, then the final wave at the 24 hour mark would have a horde of around 450 goblins, with the minimum level being level 99. I wasn’t entirely sure how we would do once that time came, but given that there were 20 of us we should be able to manage. Goblins were weak for their level, and the sheer amount of them is where most of the difficulty would be coming from.

  Okay, being real for a minute, this event seemed like it was going to be pretty easy to complete. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way or anything, but when you had the twenty strongest humans in the tower work together to fight off monsters, there was little chance of anything below level 100 being a meaningful threat. Even if they threw two or three level 99 raid bosses at us, I was pretty sure we could deal with it. This solidified in my mind that there just had to be something more to it, and I was not the only one thinking that.

  “We need to conserve our mana.” The level 79 archer says, addressing the group as a whole. “No more big flashy attacks. There is likely going to be something near the end of this event that takes a lot of power to deal with, and we need to be as ready as we can to face it.”

  “I agree.” I say. “Though with little to no magic, we are going to need to get more people involved to kill each wave before the next one can arrive.”

  “That’d be nice.” Says the mage who initially took out the first wave. Since then, he’d been the one most focused on dealing with the goblins as he had the best spells for dealing with crowds.

  With the 20 of us now all actively involved in taking out each horde, time seemed to pass a bit faster. Nobody was too hasty to kill the goblins, as we didn’t want to spend 30 seconds fighting and over 17 minutes waiting, so a lot of the time was spent simply sparring against the goblins.

  After a while, we were fighting goblins that had reached level 50 and spiked in power. They were larger and had larger muscles, though they were still shorter than the average human. Instead of primitive weapons and armor, they now had very well crafted sets of metal armor and sharp weapons. Goblins mages even joined their ranks as spells now flew at us from the air. I pulled my aura in to act as a shield against the spells, nullifying their damage without wasting any mana.

  This entire time, I had been using my bone dagger to fight. It was a mediocre weapon for my level, but against the goblins it did just fine. Eventually, I finally decided to test out one of the features of my aura that Talus had eluded to during our training.

  I was currently facing off against a goblin that was taller than I was and well above the average level of the wave. It was level 60, and wielded a massive club that was nearly as big as I was. I could take it down with just my two hands if I really wanted to, but the technique I was about to try wouldn’t even require that.

  The goblin got within range of my aura, and soon I could feel its aura hanging in the air around it. It was wild and uncontrolled, having not been reigned in and tempered like my own had. After the refinement mine had gone through over the past several days, it was like comparing a water hose and a pressure washer. Even if they had similar throughput, one would cut through things far more effectively than the other.

  My aura began to slowly push down on the goblin’s, squeezing it to be smaller and smaller. The goblin paused its charge, seeming to understand that something was wrong. It tried to take a few steps back, but soon it fell to its knees as the pressure pushing in all around it was becoming overwhelming. My own aura was condensing its aura so much that the goblin was slowly being crushed.

  It all reached a tipping point as the goblin crumpled, the bones in its body all shattering and the sensitive within becoming no more than slop. The goblin fell over dead without me expending a bit of stamina or mana.

  The next unfortunate goblin to cross my path met a similar, if less gruesome fate. My aura penetrated its own, ripping it away with great force and tearing it apart. This was a good deal harder than the feat I had just performed, but it also left the goblin crippled and unable to use any magical attacks.

  That goblin soon fell as well as my aura collapsed inwards to crush the monster. I looked around, wondering how other people were handling their opponents, when I see the cloaked individual from before looking towards me. I couldn't see their eyes, but they had their head turned towards me.

  I give a halfhearted wave, looking away. It was a bit awkward being watched, but he’d probably only looked because of my little aura trick. Actually, could he even tell what was happening? Most people couldn’t sense their own auras yet, let alone that of others. I’d only been able to sense my own aura after I’d gained the accumulate skill, and only been able to sense others auras after training specifically training to do so.

  I went back to using my dagger to fight, as using my aura was both boring and felt kind of unfair to the goblins. They could get a luckily parry or block an attack, but attacking their aura directly was something they couldn’t defend against.

  By the time the goblins reached level 70, they were bringing weapons more powerful than mere bows and swords. Catapults and trebuchets were brought into the mix, firing large rocks at our group. The archers got bored of bashing in heads with their bows, and finally decided to just eat the minor mana cost of summoning arrows to fire at the distant targets.

  At level 80, the goblins were bringing in ballista's and other various siege machines. The few goblins that still approached melee range were extremely heavily armored and seemed to be focused entirely on tanking blows while the large projectile weapons dealt damage from a distance. My aura crushing trick would have actually been quite nice here, as armor couldn’t block it, but around the time the goblins passed my level I could no longer muster enough force to outright kill them. I could still slow them substantially, bringing many of them to a halt, but I had to finish them off with a spell or my dagger.

  The higher leveled goblins in the horde were beginning to crest level 90, and I was actually starting to get worried that they would climb past level 100 when the normal goblins were around level 95. That would actually start to cause some major issues for out group.

  When the goblins began to reach level 90, I had to finally begin using magic. Up to this point, my dagger and aura alone had been enough to deal with these monsters thanks to the fact that they were weak for their level. Even so, facing down hundreds of monsters at a time was straining me. I didn’t want to activate empower, as this was more a battle of endurance than anything. That spell was meant for shorter fights where my mana reserves weren’t nearly as much of a concern.

  “How are you holding up?” I ask Flynn between the level 93 and 94 waves.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “It’s getting pretty tough, but I think I’ll be able to make it to the end of this.” He says. He looks off into the distance, where a cloud of green fog is slowly being blown away by the slight breeze in the forest. “I’m more scared of getting caught in that than by the goblins.”

  “You can say that again.” I note, watching as a person steps out from the thick cloud of poison.

  They pull off the gas mask once they are clear of the toxic cloud, revealing said person to be Flynn’s sister. She was already pulling out a bottle to begin mixing poisons again to prepare for the next wave.

  “What kind of place were you two raised in to both be so strong?” I joke.

  The joke seems to accidentally strike a sensitive subject, and I see Flynn grimace. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “Oh, sorry man. I didn’t realize-”

  “It’s fine. I’d just rather not talk about it.”

  “Got it. So...” I trial off, not knowing how to fix this conversation.

  Flynn just sighs, seeming to understand that I was still thinking about what his backstory could be.

  “Fine, I’ll tell you,” He says. “but only because I don’t want you coming up with something worse.”

  “It’s fine, you don’t have to if you really don’t want to.” Despite my words, I am still stupidly curious. What secrets does this guy hide?

  “Me and my sister grew up in a pretty rough place. We were raised by some pretty rough people. My father in particular was a career assassin, and wanted to raise us to do the same. That is why we both are decent at fighting and are not afraid of these monsters.”

  “Oh, wow.” I say. “I... I’m sorry I brought it up. I never would have guessed anything like that.”

  “Yeah, well usually I’m not so open about anything. You are just a pretty good dude. I never really wanted to follow my father’s line of work, but going against him would have gotten me kicked to the streets. Same goes for my sister, who actually did want to follow in our father’s footsteps.”

  “Her? A trained killer? I can’t believe anybody so bubbly could come from a life like that. She must be either crazy or really tenacious.”

  “It’s a bit of both.” Flynn shrugs. “So, I told you pretty much all you need to know about me. What’s your story?”

  “My story? Well, I don’t really have one. I had a relatively normal childhood, went to university to study physics, and eventually became a physicist. Not one of any particular note though.” I leave out the project I’d been working on up until the system arrived. I was still reluctant to tell anyone about that. I probably would have been a famous physicist had that not nearly destroyed the planet. I still don’t quite know how it could have gone so wrong.

  “That sounds more interesting than you seem to think it is.” Flynn says. “I myself would have loved to be a scientist, but life doesn’t always go the way you want. My sister went to college for a degree in chemistry, but I think you can take a guess why she might have wanted to do that.” He gestures to the still drifting cloud of poison.

  We talk for a little while longer, sharing a few minor details about our lives but still not going into very much depth. After a while the next goblin wave arrives, and I just so happen to use identify on one of the larger ones.

  Goblin Vanguard (Level 99)(Boss)

  “So that’s how they are making it harder without going past level 99.” I say after pointing the boss out to Flynn. “Think you could take one of those on?”

  “I’m not sure. It may be a goblin, but a boss monster is still a boss monster.”

  “Why don’t you go give it a shot. Challenge yourself a bit.”

  “I guess I should.” Flynn says, taking off to go fight the boss. I knew he could beat it. Thinking back to when bosses were first introduced, the description had mentioned them being much stronger than a typical member of their race for their level, not as being extremely strong for their level. The skeleton sentinel from floor 5 could absolutely curb stomp a goblin boss of a similar level.

  That had also been part of what made the titan such a tough battle. I had a feeling they were already strong for their level, which could only be amplified by being a raid boss. I wonder if there was ever a possibility of me getting a “boss” title. The King had one on floor 10, but he was probably just an exception made for the tutorial.

  Like I had thought, Flynn managed to take down the boss, though it was quite a close fight. A level difference of over 20 was nothing to be scoffed at. I myself had managed to grow to level 79 since the event started, but killing large quantities of comparatively weak enemies was basically the opposite of what my class represented. Flynn had a more general fighting class and had already gained two levels, probably a third after beating that boss.

  I decide to finally step up and get that last level for myself. Running over to one of the other few bosses in the horde, I quickly slow it down with my aura before releasing an absolute torrent of mana blasts at point blank range, each empowered by my aura and the tag I’d placed on it with my innate skill. The goblin didn’t stand a chance, it’s death awarding me with the one singular level I had needed to reach the upgrade I had wanted.

  Innate Skill upgraded

  Dimensional Duel (4/5)

  Effect 4: Up to 10 arcane tags can be placed at a time. Up to 2 tags can be placed on a target at a time, with the second being only half as effective as the first.

  The upgrade made the arcane tags slightly more useful, and I could now place them on multiple opponents. That seemed to go against the whole point of “Dimensional Duel”, but I’m sure there is some reason for the upgrade. Perhaps it would be explained by the final upgrade to the skill.

  The skill came in handy for now at least, and allowed me to deal with the horde slightly easier. In theory I was still running the risk of one of my marked targets surviving and running away, leaving me with a stat penalty, but in reality there was basically no chance of any of these goblins getting away.

  The system event finally hit the 24 hour mark shortly after the last wave was defeated. We could all breathe a sigh of relief that no level 100 enemies had shown their faces. Everybody read the system notification that arrived as the time expired.

  Floor Event Complete!

  All who have remained to the end of the timer will receive a special rarity item tailored to their class.

  Exclusive Floor event! Goblins Last Stand (Floor 2)

  The goblins have mobilized their strongest assets to squash the threat on floor 2! Leave the floor now or face great danger! Alternatively, run to the floors brave the goblin’s final attempts to fight off humanity and run to the main exit of the floor!

  All previous rewards will be upgraded to legendary rarity upon completion. If no individual completes the objective, floor 2 will be permanently closed off for the remainder of the tutorial, ejecting all who remain within.

  Once you have decided to take on this floor event, you may not leave until you complete it.

  Time left to leave floor 2: 5 minutes

  Most people present are sent deep into consideration upon seeing the notification. About half of those among us just turned and left right away. It was very obvious that there were going to be some level 100 monsters during this part of the event, and that was enough to deter most. Flynn seemed to be thinking about it for a bit, but eventually looked at me.

  “I don’t think I am going to be sticking around for this.” He says. “I might be able to do it, but the risk is just too high.”

  “I completely understand.” I say, nodding. “You might want to talk to your sister though.” I point over to the woman, who is currently bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.

  He sighs and walks over to her. They walk for a minute, before he sighs again. Walking back over to me, he looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.

  “What’d she say?” I ask.

  “She is staying, which means I am staying. I am not about to let her run into danger alone like that.”

  “What a good younger brother.” I say, teasing him.

  “Shut up. Could you at least travel with us so it is a little safer?”

  “Of course. Can’t have you running into danger alone like that.”

  He punches me in the shoulder, and I laugh. By the time the opportunity to leave has passed, there are only six of us left on the floor. Me, Flynn, his sister Fionna, The cloaked individual, their archer friend, and the mage who had first fought against the goblins. He was also the lowest leveled of us all, being only level 77 after all of that fighting. Flynn and Fionna were both level 79, and the other two had both climbed to 83.

  The system event begins, and over the course of a few seconds the skies darken to be almost midnight. I could still see, but not nearly as well as I would have liked to. A massive pillar of light appears way off in the distance, letting us know where we needed to get to. I spotted a few movements in the shadows, and quickly used identify to get an idea of what we were dealing with.

  Goblin Assassin (Level Unknown)

  The system event has begun! Reach the floor exit before being killed by the goblin elites! It doesn’t matter how long it takes you, so long as you remember your ultimate goal.

  Current Objective: Survive