Ultimate Level 1

Ninety-one gold later, Tanila, Fowl, and Batrire upgraded their skills to rare. Knowing the next one could cost around one hundred gold for each person or a massive quest, Tanila led them toward the line that would take them to one of the attendants responsible for answering that question.

“Are you sure we need to do this now?” Fowl asked, his stomach rumbling. “I need to eat more than some jerky or nuts.”

“Yes, you do,” Batrire replied. “You could use some fruits and vegetables as well. Would help fix a lot of your problems.”

“Bah, you don’t know what that would do to me. Imagine a warrior in full plate armor, and suddenly the urge hits… I don’t want to get caught with my pants down, like Seth.”

Max groaned as the others chuckled.

“It is a part of adventuring no one talks about,” he stated, motioning to the attendant who was waving them forward.

“That was rather anti-climatic,” Tanila complained as they walked away. “Check back in a week… like I want to come back and see what god-awful quest they will give each of us.”

Max nodded as she continued to pout. It had seemed weird at first, but after thinking about it, then it did make some sense. Knowing the skill they were trying to upgrade let the adventurer guild know the path people were on. It seemed sneaky and yet brilliant. It would allow them to keep tabs on higher-level adventurers and their growth paths.

“Still, he looked shocked when you put down your elemental magic mastery skill.”

Tanila nodded, and a smirk appeared as she recalled the man’s expression. “He did seem a bit taken aback.”

Max had bid them farewell outside the adventurers gate and took a cart to one of the other halls, testing his skill theory once more.

Four bosses later, Max was convinced anything under level fifteen wasn’t worth it.

A level twenty ogre dungeon only required Max to sneek past most of the ogres, knowing they weren’t worth even fighting as they all had a sword, club, or axe as a weapon.

The boss had been easier than he had expected, struck dead with a single blow, even without stealth.

Grinding his teeth, the lack of a skill bothered him slightly.

“Holy elf tits,” Max muttered out loud as he crossed off the boss's name from his list and looked at the skills for it. “I still haven’t tried that yet.”

Realizing he hadn’t used it left him frustrated, especially when he considered how that fight against the mimic had gone.

As he looted the chest and tossed the item into storage, Max almost tripped as another idea came to him.

“You got to be kidding,” Fowl whispered, holding his arm up to block Batrire from smacking him again. “That would be completely broken!”

Tanila nodded after Max showed the three of them the paper on which he had scribbled his idea. “But there isn’t a way to determine how that ‘raging’ skill,” she said, using her fingers for quotes, “would choose to attack. If it did choose to obey that combination, I’m not sure anything could stop you.”

Max grinned and nodded. “I feel bad I didn’t realize this earlier. Had I known this today…”

“It’s ok, we still won,” Batrire cut him off. “You do enough heavy lifting. Now we have something new to try.”

“Enough with the ‘I’m a damage-dealing warrior’ stuff. I got a list of things we need to collect in tomorrow's dungeon.” Fowl finished talking and slid across the table the paper he had gotten from the blacksmiths.

“There is going to be a lot of skin to collect. They gave us three knives that should work and asked if we would spend a few days farming.”

Max glanced at the list and had expected the scales. “They also want eyeballs?”

Fowl nodded and shrugged. “We can make some good money off all this stuff.”

Picking up his tankard, Max took a drink and closed his eyes as he leaned his head against the booth.

“You ok?”

Max nodded, turning his head and smiling at Tanila. “Just thinking. Everything I have read tells me about the next ten levels scaling harder. The monsters and creatures will have more hitpoints as we progress, and their skin and armor will be harder to pierce.”

“And this worries you because you lack strength?”

Max noticed the change in her voice and shook his head.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You just upgraded your magic skill. This means you have access to a lot more attacks. The problem is defending against the creatures when they focus on you. Now, I didn’t miss the fact the system makes you stronger at level thirty while also upgrading the strength of what we face.”

Knowing it would be easier to show, he pulled out his notebook and set it on the table. Glancing at Fowl and Batrire, who were both whispering things he would rather not have heard, he focused on the page he turned to.

“Level thirty dungeons feature creatures that almost demand you to upgrade your skill. The dragonkin we will face tomorrow is very resilient to weapons. Their magic resistance is on par with normal sub-thirty monsters. This means warriors should be planning on how they specialize to fight them. We don’t have a true damage-dealing class. If we did, that would also demand them to build in a way to not fall off against specific monsters.”

“Like you were against undead?” Tanila asked.

Nodding, Max pointed at where he had multiple lines of text written. “Scorpions are a new addition to the monster pool. Tell me, why is it there are very few poisonous creatures until this point?”

“Because I can’t cure poison until now,” Batrire answered, obviously paying more attention than Max initially thought.

“Exactly! Now, if you don’t have access to improved skills, you spend a lot of time grinding those dungeons we just cleared. Gold is required, and we both know it would have been months of grinding to earn enough gold for four people to rank up their main skill.”

Running his finger down his list, Max grimaced as he tapped a few level thirty-five or higher monsters.

“Everything I have read, and you all know I have read a lot lately, points to this next tier being rough. We will face tactics and creatures who don’t fight how we are used to. They stop running at you and run away from you. Possibly gaining friends or seeking a better spot to attack from.”

Turning the page, Max pointed at a whole new list.

Wincing, Talina gave a slight grunt. “The level forty and above dungeons.”

Max nodded. “These are another massive jump in difficulty, and we need to prepare for it.”

Turning two more pages, Max ignored the whistle from Fowl as the dwarf saw some of his monsters and their information.

“And then here we have the tower… Everything you just learned but on a whole new level. As Tanila mentioned a while back, some levels take a week or longer to complete.”

“Which is where Factions come in,” Tanila added. “Getting help from others who know the floors and what to expect.”

Max nodded.

Tapping his tankard on the table, Fowl leaned over to spit and saw Alexander staring at him. Flashing a grin, the dwarf sat up and swallowed.

After clearing his throat, Fowl tapped the book. “You are thinking too far ahead. Doing that will overwhelm you and cause problems. We need to focus on tomorrow and maybe a few days down the–”

“You’re wrong,” Max said, cutting him off. “Imagine this is a normal four or five-person team. You have to plan ahead. The skills that are picked, the monsters you choose to fight, and when.”

He holds his hand up and displays the two rings. “Even the bosses you get to finally try and defeat. So, no, we need to start planning and saving. Tough choices are coming that will determine how well we do in the tower when we finally get there.”

“And we still have to start looking at Factions. Don’t forget that.”

Max nodded and smiled at Batrire, who was stroking her beard while looking away in thought.

A sigh came from Tanila, and Max saw her frowning.

“Something wrong?”

She shook her head and tapped a finger against the table.

“Tomorrow is going to be bad, isn’t it?”

Max shrugged and pointed at Fowl. “Depends on how good our warrior is.”

“Ogre nuts, we’re screwed,” Batrire teased, only to get a tug on her beard from Fowl.

“If you two will excuse us,” Fowl said as he gave a wink. “I need to take this woman to her room and explain how to talk about me.”

Laughing, Batrire pushed Fowl out of the booth, grabbed him by the beard, and dragged him behind her toward the stairs.

“Gods, I’m thankful for noise-canceling walls,” Tanila said after the dwarves had disappeared from sight.contemporary romance

Nodding, Max picked up his drink and finished it.

“I’d offer to keep chatting, but I know you are tired even though you try to hide those yawns. Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Tanila nodded and accepted his hand as he helped her out of the booth.

“Sleep good, Seth. Try to keep us alive tomorrow.”

“Ice Prison!”

Max was about to curse until he saw the shards of ice rise up and surround a dragonkin.

His stealth had failed, and the pack of four had changed targets from Fowl to him since he was closer.

Spinning his halberd, he kept them at bay as three started to surround him, each with a shield and a sword.

Fowl was a few steps away, and as he got close, the one furthest left engaged the dwarf, who smacked his black mace against its side.

The other two were strong, slow but strong. Their attacks caused his weapon to vibrate each time he parried an attack, and the dragonkin absorbed the strikes from his weapon on their shields with no problem.

“Ensnaring!”

Backing up again, Max watched the one on his left become snared by the roots and vines, hissing loudly.

Max engaged the single dragonkin and watched his new weapon’s performance, creating some distance between them.

Thrusts, slashes, and slams rained down on the creature as each part of the weapon was used to injure it. After suffering a nasty cut to its leg when it tried to attack, it went on the defensive.

“Shattering soon!”

Cursing under his breath, Max realized he wasn’t doing enough damage to this foe.

“Ice spear it!”

Turning slightly to its right, Max left its back side slightly exposed as he waited for Tanila’s spell. Once the ice spear, now larger and faster, hit the creature and stumbled for a second, he took the opening, hacking off a leg.

The lizard fell, its sword clattering to the side.

“Breaking!”

Seeing the ice shards that had imprisoned the fourth dragonkin cracking, Max ran toward it.

Before the spell freed it, Max delivered a massive overhead chop that shattered the ice and drove the axe blade deep into its neck and chest.

Yanking his weapon free, Max backed away, watching the creature stumble and fall as blood rushed from the gash.

“Five seconds!”

Cursing under his breath, Max turned and raced toward the dragonkin focused on Tanila, its back exposed. Unable to move and twist, Max swung, his axe coming down on the monster's spine, and a loud crack sounded, but only the slightest amount of blood flowed from the creature's back.

Goblin shite… their back scales are thicker…

The roots broke, and the lizard spun toward him, its eyes burning with rage.

This is going to be a long day…

done.co