Ultimate Level 1

The first fight had turned into a massive slog fest. Fowl was able to keep the attention of the warrior he fought, and Max eventually wore down the third one as Tanila assisted with spells.

When the last dragonkin was dead, everyone breathed a little easier.

“Gods, that was a lot harder than you told me it would be,” Fowl teased, stretching after enduring all those attacks.

Putting his weapon away, Max got out the knife the blacksmith had given them and started cutting up the corpses.

Only three constitution points…

“Those two are going to want some reward for all that work,” Batrire muttered to Fowl as she watched him start to harvest a corpse. “Max and Tanila were doing a lot.”

“What!?” Fowl exclaimed, snapping straight up and looking at Batrire, who was smiling from ear to ear. “Don't make me reprimand you again!”

She leaned forward, grabbed a few beard hairs escaping from inside his plate armor, and gave a tug.

“We’ll see how you do today for that honor.”

The second group was slightly better as Tanila and Max figured out the best system.

Fowl would pull the group toward them, and as they got close, she would freeze one at the back. A moment later, she would root the next one. Max stood off to the side slightly, still stealthed, and waited till the remaining two were engaged with Fowl before breaking stealth and running to the frozen one.

Two attacks later, it was dead. Max had enough time to run to the rooted one and take it out from behind, hacking off a leg where it couldn’t block and leaving it to bleed out.

His next attack was using the hammer part on the dragonkin’s back. Hitting just to the spine's side did more damage than a head-on attack.

Killing the last two was easy, even if putting them down still took a while.

“What happens when there are more of these or some different kinds?” Fowl asked after harvesting the skin from a corpse. “I mean, at what point are we unable to handle this?”

“Why did you get to curse us like that?” Tanila replied. “We never talk like that.”

Shrugging, Fowl points his knife at a corpse. “Every other dungeon we fight in, we run into this problem. With Seth’s luck, we’ll find some rare or something worse. What I want to know is how many we can handle at once?”

“You still have blind?”

Tanila nodded. “I haven’t been using it at the start. It is a shorter duration and a last-ditch effort if they resist one of my other two skills. I have more skills, but we need to not depend on them if I can get away without it.”

She turned to Max and asked, “And you still haven’t gained a single point since the first group, have you?”

Shaking his head, Max shrugged. “Part of that, I believe, is because these are the easiest of the new rank creatures. Maybe the next level will have a few more to collect. Besides, I’m at thirty-five stat-wise.”

Fowl began to chuckle softly, and then it became louder and deeper.contemporary romance

Watching his dwarven companion laugh so hard it echoed in his helmet, he waited for Fowl to settle down.

“Thirty-five? Gosh, that sounds like a newborn… you know I’m at a sixty-four constitution.”

Max rolled his eyes and nodded. “Yes, but you are weaker in every other stat, and you know it.”

Grunting, Fowl nodded but seemed content to be much stronger in that area.

“It is why you can take such a beating and survive,” Batrire chimed in. “Had Seth received a few of the hits you had taken, I doubt he would be alive. That,” she paused, emphasizing the last word, “is why we keep you around.”

Tanila chuckled as Fowl held up a middle finger at Batrire.

Two more packs died to their usual tactics before they came across a pack of six.

“Well, that’s everything for the day,” Fowl grunted. “We can’t handle that many.”

Max nodded, considering that statement as he studied the group of dragonkin. The fact that every one of them had the same sword and shield felt boring, yet it also felt like it was preparing them for something later.

“Tanila, do you feel like there is a pattern to dungeons and how the creatures progress based on size and equipment?”

She turned and looked at Max, studying his face as he rubbed his chin while watching the pack fifty yards away. She followed his eyes and then began to try and imagine what he was thinking and seeing.

“Why would they all have shields and swords, you mean?” Batrire asked, following Tanila and Max’s gaze.

“Exactly. Every dungeon we faced has gotten progressively harder and built off the base. I have no expectations it will suddenly change, but what would such a drastic jump mean if this is the case?”

Both women nodded while Fowl groaned and found a rock to sit on. “You three, let me know what you figure out. For now, I’m going to rest.”

“Feels like a waste of a day,” Fowl groaned as he waited for his ale refill. “We didn’t get far at all in the dungeon. Having to wait for it to reset will be a pain.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The others nodded, ignoring Fowl’s attempt to engage them in conversation. Each of them was reading a book Max had acquired from Adam, seeking any possible information.

“I still think I’m going to have to visit the elven library here,” Tanila muttered. “These books are useless… you… I mean, the humans are keeping so much to themselves. Knowledge has power, and someone is keeping it for themselves.”

Looking up from his book, Max considered what Tanila had just said. “Someone keeping it for themselves…”

His mouth fell open, and a squeak came from his throat.

“Seth?”

He saw everyone looking at him but shook his head and held his finger to his lips.

“We need to go to my room and talk.”

Max paced the room a few times as he felt everyone watching him. Tanila sat on his room's small chair as Batrire and Fowl leaned against a wall.

“The advisors… they have to be doing something with this knowledge.”

“The ones you thought were going to kill you?” asked Tanila.

“I’m not sure if they were going to kill me inside town or later, but I don’t believe I was going to be left alive,” Max replied. “Someone within our country is doing something with every person given a skill considered valuable or a threat. The question is what and who…”

“Do you think the dwarves or elves know?”

Max looked at Batrire and shook his head. “I doubt my people would share that kind of information. As Tanila pointed out a few times, we can be greedy, and I have no doubt now that someone is pulling strings.”

“What are you hoping to do about it?” Batrire asked as she straightened up. “We all know we’re not strong enough to go against those people yet.”

Max nodded.

“It’s true we aren’t, but if we figure out who is pulling strings, we can put ourselves in a better position to stay safe from them and also fight back when the time comes.”

Tapping her fingers against the edge of the chair she sat on, Tanila nodded in agreement.

“If only we could use the towers back in our countries. That would –”

“That won’t happen, so stop thinking about it,” Batrire interrupted. “We both know how our kingdoms feel about that.”

Max watched the two women gaze at each other.

“Can dwarves or elves use the other’s tower?”

Both of them grimaced and shook their heads from side to side.

“Not usually,” Tanila answered. “It has happened in the past but only on rare occasions. The ability to use the dwarfs for our people is just as rare.”

“Then why do the humans let anyone use ours?”

Batrire started to chuckle and undid her coin purse. Holding it up, she gave it a few small tosses, letting the coins jingle.

“Remember the piles and powers? Towers are different. The gods get power from the tower when you go through them. Phaius will get power for every person, human, elf, or dwarf that clears levels. So he is willing to share that power.”

“But why aren’t the others –”

“It’s because we are more likely to survive ours and take more power for ourselves,” Tanila cut Max off. “If someone dies in the tower, the god gets a massive increase in power. We don’t take risks, and our god doesn’t want us to die. We only fight in the tower when the odds are in our favor. Massive raid parties set out. Everyone works together. The truth…”

Tanila shifted in her seat, adjusting her hands for a moment before finally clasping them together on her lap. “The truth is most people never go past a certain stage. Only those strong enough or drunk on power attempt the higher levels. Our people do what we can to stop those who shouldn’t attempt to go further. Some end up here.”

Max’s brain hurt as he tried to consider everything he was being told right now.

“How many? How many actually pass the tower?”

“All one hundred levels?” Batrire asked.

“Yes! Every level!”

“Less than one percent. Maybe even less than that.”

The sound of Max sucking air in through his teeth filled the silence of the room.

“That few?”

Tanila nodded, raising her hand for some reason. “Seth… most elves don’t want to be a god. To consider that path is frowned upon. You would be in conflict with Thuyja, and that would cause some problems with our people. There is a story of one who had tried…”

Her eyes focused on the floor and her chest heaved a bit more than usual as she took a few deep breaths. “Their… zealots… zealots came and killed their family when they wouldn’t stop. Hundreds of elves died. One of our strongest fighters killed so many before she was finally stopped. After that… it has been two hundred years since then.”

Max moved to where Tanila was and squatted down so he could look at her face. Tears were slowly coming from her cheeks.

“You care about your people. I promise to do my best to not harm them.”

She gave a smile that appeared forced, and yet Max knew it was genuine.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I know my people have not been kind to you, but not everyone is that bad.”

Max reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. “I know. I appreciate you showing me that more than you may ever realize.”

Tanila clasped Max’s hand with hers and squeezed back.

“If you two don’t stop that nonsense, I’ll be expecting a half-elf child running around soon,” Fowl stated, bringing everyone back from the tender moment he had ruined.

Fowl blocked the elbow he knew was coming from Batrire and began to curse when he saw Tanila hold out her hand and an ice shard start to form.

“Woah! Woah! I’m joking!” he shouted, holding up his hands as he tried to cover and protect himself.

Max saw Tanila wink at him and couldn’t help but laugh as he knew she would not do anything besides scare Fowl.

“I’ll let it slide this time,” Tanila said, her tone as cold as the ice on her hands. “Next time, I’ll suffer three days of sitting in a room, flagged for injuring you.”

Clapping his hands, Max let the noise bring everyone’s attention back to him.

“Alright. Now that we understand things better, let’s deal with what we can. I need to hit some dungeon to collect items for the lower-level adventurers. Tanila, are you still okay with going to the Elven library?”

Tanila rose, the ice gone from her fingers, and brushed the tears from her face, a small frost appearing for just a moment on her cheeks. “I am.”

Max nodded, ignoring Batrire’s scowl.

“You two going to turn in the items we collected today to the blacksmith or just take turns pulling each other's beards?”

Max saw her blush for the first since meeting Batrire. Her face was redder than his cloak, and he saw her eyes go right to the floor.

“Uh… Seth… That’s really not appropriate to say to a dwarven woman in mixed company,” Fowl muttered, his voice conveying shock at what he heard.

“What? I mean, I see you two pulling –”

“Just stop,” Fowl held up a hand, holding back the coughs and laughter that Max saw him fighting against. “No more talk about beard tugging or pulling, ok?”

Max nodded, noticing Tanila almost wheezing from chuckling to herself.

“On that note, why don’t you two leave first?”

When Max's words finished, Batrire was out the door, and Fowl just grinned, obviously enjoying whatever had just occurred.

“What did I do?” Max asked after they were both gone.

Unable to hold it back, Tanila roared with laughter, her face flushed and tears running down her cheeks again.

It took her a solid minute of slow and steady breathing before she could answer. Each time she tried, more laughter erupted.

Taking one last deep breath, Tanila let it out slowly. “Beard pulling or tugging is slang for…” she paused, taking one more breath to be able to continue. “The beard between the legs.”

Max’s eyes went wide, and he felt his cheeks become hot.

done.co