Howls and clashes echoed in the dungeon. Sallow dashed forward, dodging incoming projectiles fired off by the massive Wolf, before digging his claws into its pelt, causing the wolf to howl in pain, before trying to bite the Goblin Overlord, only for Sallow to flip up, swinging himself into the air above the Wolf before extending his arms out towards the Wolf.
Flames spun in the palms of his hands, before erupting forward into a tornado that crashed down onto the black wolf, engulfing it in flames and causing it to shriek. Jack sliced apart the last of the smaller wolves, before spinning around and looking towards Sallow — who he had tasked with keeping the big wolf busy.
[ ALERT ]
You have levelled up.
2 > 3
[ ALERT ]
Jack dashed towards the giant wolf that was engulfed in the flame tornado produced by Sallow, smirking. “So that’s Sallow's skill ‘Inferno’? Certainly looks powerful.” Jack spun his shortswords around, before morphing his legs into a cheetahs and dashing forward with even more speed.
“Araneida!” The arachnid immediately responded to Jack's call, leaping up high into the air, her eyes shining red. “Sallow, retreat!”
“Right!” Sallow responded, canceling his flame before dashing away from his position and grabbing onto a nearby stalactite, digging his claws into it before looking back. The flame tornado disappeared, revealing the wolf once more — its fur and body singed by the flames that Sallow had thrown down at it.
The wolf growled, glaring at Jack who got closer, before morphing his legs back to normal and beginning to slow his acceleration. “Go ahead Araneida!” The spider almost immediately shot out a flurry of lightly purple threads, which wrapped around the wolf in a rapid pace, binding it down against the ground.
[ ALERT ]
The ‘Black Mist Wolf’ has been poisoned.
[ ALERT ]
The wolf howled in pain, trying to break free from Araneidas' threads, however before it could achieve the desired result, Jack closed the distance between him and it in an instant, before driving the Red Moon into the wolf's body — before stabbing the Grey Kings Slasher deep into its neck. The wolf let out a slight shriek, before its voice disappeared.
For a couple moments, the wolf thrashed around a bit in the threads, trying to break free and drive out the shortswords piercing its body — however Jack held a firm grip on the wolf, pinning it down, before turning the shortswords in a circular motion, which caused any and all movement from the wolf to cease.
Blood stained the ground below it, with more and more flowing out of its body, as well as staining parts of Jack's outfit and hands.
[ ALERT ]
You have levelled up.
3 > 5
[ ALERT ]
Jack stood up, pulling out the shortswords from the wolf's body before spinning them around — throwing off any blood on them, before sheathing them back up and brushing off his cheek a bit, a light scoff escaping his lips. Sallow dropped back down onto the world, before making his way over to Jack and Araneida, who were by the wolf's corpse.
Araneida removed the threads around the wolf's body, before her body was engulfed in a dark aura and she sunk her fangs into the wolf's body. “This one is certainly stronger than any other monster we’ve faced so far.” Sallow stated, approaching Jack while his eyes fell onto the wolf, who was being violently devoured by Araneida at the moment.
Sallow lifted his eyes up from the wolf and onto Jack.
“We were lucky that we possessed the means to fight it.” Jack nodded, stretching out a bit before turning to face Sallow. “Indeed. The monsters in this side of the dungeon definitely get stronger. They’ll serve as a good way to grow our strength before facing the dungeon guardian.”
Sallow looked a little worried, while Jack looked away.
“System start.”
[ STATUS ]
Jack Alfred Gragbone
Gender: Male
Title: He who commands the Goblins
Level: 5 (2)
Rank: G
Class: Tamer
Stat Points: 8
Health: 700 / [0]
Magical Energy: 2,000 / [0]
Strength: 550 / [0]
Defence: 500 / [0]
Agility: 550 / [0]
Skills (Open List)
[ STATUS ]
“Four levels from technically a single encounter isn’t too shabby. In the side where the Goblin clans were located, the enemies were no longer enough for me to level up. Glad to see that this side will definitely harbour enemies strong enough for me to face.” Jack commented in his mind, before distributing his gained stat points. He threw three into strength, two into defence and then one in the other stats.
Afterwards, he closed the status window.
“I wish to ask, my Lord.” Sallow suddenly spoke up. Jack turned back around looking at the Goblin Overlord with a raised eyebrow. “What is it? Something wrong?”
“No…” Sallow shook him gently. “I just wanted to know… do you really intend to face the dungeon guardian? I had told you before that the reason why there are no incredibly strong monsters down here is because the guardian wiped them all out. Are you certain that you wish to face such a beast?”
Jack smirked, before crossing his arms and shrugging. “I see no reason as to why not. Sure, it may be a difficult fight and I want to increase my power rank before we even attempt to face it, however, I’m certain that with enough time…” Jack moved closer to Sallow patting him lightly on the shoulder. “We will be able to face it and come out victorious.”
Sallow still appeared unconvinced, his worry not fading, however the Goblin didn’t say anything and instead, simply sighed. “...Very well my Lord. I swear to you, that I will be there by your side to face the dungeon guardian with you.” Jack nodded, his smile growing a bit. Then, Araneida moved up to Jack happily ‘licking’ her fangs. From the wolf's corpse only a pile of bones remained.
“Enjoy your feast?” Jack asked. Araneida happily nodded and squealed lightly, to which the Tamer simply laughed, patting her head lightly.
“Alright, let’s keep moving. I wish to take out as many monsters as we can before resting.” Jack stated, before resuming the march further into the dungeon, with Araneida following closely behind him. Sallow watched them for a moment, before turning his head over to the skull of the wolf that the spider had devoured.
Moving closer, he kneeled down and picked it up, examining it for a bit, before placing it onto his right hip, tying it with a black rope. Then afterwards, he quickly caught up to Jack and Araneida, walking beside Jack on his left side.
A long time went by. Jack, Sallow and Araneida continued their hunt through the dungeon, encountering monster after monster and taking each one down with their exquisite teamwork skills.
Giant Black Spider (Rank C);
Giant Rocklizard (Rank C);
Giant Blood Bat (Rank C);
Giant Iron Tortoise (Rank C);
Giant Blue Spider (Rank C);
Red Ogre (Rank C);
Stonegolem (Rank C);
Currently, the trio were settled down to rest for a bit, with a small campfire. Araneida was happily devouring the body of the Red Ogre the trio had slain, while Sallow was cooking parts of the Giant Blue Spider over the campfire, so that he and Jack could also regain a bit of their strength through a meal before continuing.
Jack was browsing through his status window.
[ STATUS ]
Jack Alfred Gragbone
Gender: Male
Title: He who commands the Goblins
Level: 27 (2)
Rank: G
Class: Tamer
Stat Points: 2
Health: 810 / [11]
Magical Energy: 2,500 / [10]
Strength: 670 / [12]
Defence: 590 / [9]
Agility: 630 / [8]
Skills (Open List)
[ STATUS ]
“I’ve managed to level up rather quickly. The enemies here make me think back to when I first started journeying in this dungeon – killing enemies and rapidly levelling up. With the strength of monsters in this part of the dungeon, it shouldn’t be long before I manage to crack my next rank evolution.” Jack commented in his mind, before throwing the two stat points he still had into Defence and closing his stat window.
The sizzling sound of the cooking Blue Spider meat immediately caught Jack's attention, as he looked at it. “Smells interesting.” He commented, while Sallow picked up the cooking meat and handed some to Jack. “While it is not usually safe to consume a Blue Spider, since their very bodies are poisonous, the flames generated by my ‘Inferno’ skill are capable of neutralising that poison.” Jack took the meat handed over to him by Sallow, examining it slightly.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
It smelled interesting – and it didn’t look that bad either. Jack simply shrugged, before sinking his teeth into the food, taking a huge chunk of it. The meat definitely didn’t taste like some homemade masterpiece or fine dining from a restaurant, however, it was still very delicious. The meat was tender and juicy, but at the same time, had this crispiness to it.
It definitely wasn’t bad.
As for the taste? It was basically impossible to pinpoint what the meat tasted like, however the best comparison Jack could make was that it was somewhat similar to how a roast lamb would taste.
Swallowing the food in his mouth Jack threw his gaze over at Sallow who was carefully eating his own portion. “...It has been a long time since I last could sit down around a campfire with friends and eat. The last time I remember from my life in the military was when me and my masters team were hunting down a general from another country, who was hiding in Britain.”
Jack smiled, continuing to eat the spider meat.
The good memories of times that were long past him replayed themselves in his mind, while he and his familiars each enjoyed their meals, the gentle crackling of the campfire adding to the atmosphere.
After finishing their rest, the trio put out the campfire and immediately got back to hunting down monsters. Not too far from their rest spot, they ran into a rather unique monster — a giant octopus-like creature, that hung from the ceiling. Its body was a dark shade of red, with black eyes which glared down at the trio as it roared and shot its tentacles down at the trio.
[ Giant Cave Ceilingdweller (Rank C) ]
Jack rushed forward, slicing apart the incoming tentacles before stomping onto the ground. “Araneida, Sallow! Move in!” The Goblin and the Spider instantly rushed past Jack, with the Tamer sheathing up the Red Moon before activating ‘Spiders Venom’ drenching the Grey Kings Slasher blade in venom, before pulling his arm back.
Araneida rushed ahead and easily dodged the tentacles that the monster shot down at her to attack — all the while tying them all up together with her venom threads, before stopping and pulling back all the tied up tentacles, the venom of the threads activating.
“Sallow, strike me a little flame will you?”
Jack shouted, before launching the Grey Kings Slasher at the Ceilingdweller. “Right away my Lord!” Sallow tore apart the tentacles that Araneida hadn’t caught with her threads, before extending his left arm up towards the giant beast on the ceiling and firing off a flame tornado up towards it, engulfing the beast in an instant and causing it to roar in pain.
“Something unique I found out about the ‘Spider Venom’ skill that I possess is that the venom generated by it is one that is highly reactive – especially with fire.” As the venom drenched shortsword came in contact with the flame tornado fired off by Sallow, the goblin ceased his control of the flames, cutting off the source of the tornado before dashing over to Araneida to shield her, while Jack morphed his arms with turtle shells, making them as large as he could, before placing them in front of him as shields. As the venom came in contact with the remaining flames, a violent eruption was caused as the flames exploded, engulfing the beast entirely and practically incinerating it in a span of a few seconds.
The cave shook violently, with debris and stalactites falling from the ceiling. The beast's incinerated body also detached from the ceiling, crashing onto the ground.
Once the violent shaking ceased and the falling debris stopped, the trio eased up.
[ ALERT ]
You have levelled up.
27 > 29
[ ALERT ]
Jack sighed, before morphing his arms back to normal and stretching out a bit, walking towards the dead beast. Sallow and Araneida also moved towards it, walking around it to rejoin Jack's side. “A strange beast, isn’t it?” Jack asked, crossing his arms.
Sallow nodded. “These are known as Ceilingdwellers. They’re opportunistic hunters that usually use their lightning fast speed to quickly crush prey with their tentacles before devouring them.”
“I see… I’ll assume they’re quite dangerous then, right?”
Sallow looked unsure. “I wouldn’t say so. They’re usually far too small to devour anything bigger than Araneida and rely heavily on trapping those who don’t suspect to encounter them. However, especially living within a place where they are abundant, you learn to always watch your step as well as to detect them long before they manage to attack you.” Then Sallow's eyes fell onto the giant beast's corpse, which Araneida had begun to eat with her ‘Devour’ skill active.
“In fact, one this large is a rarity. I don’t think I’ve seen one in my life before.” Jack scratched his chin gently, before exhaling and crossing his arms. “It probably grew to such monstrous size because of the strong magical energy density in this section of the dungeon.
Sallow nodded.
“Most likely.” Not even ten minutes passed before Araneida had devoured the entire beast, the aura she expressed growing even stronger. The ‘Devour’ skill she possessed thanks to the ‘Absorber’ class was really busted. The ability to absorb the strength of other monsters to empower herself — it seemed insane.
Of course she couldn’t absorb the skills and unique abilities of another being, but she was able to gain their strength as well as their magical energy.
Once she was done, they kept moving forward, wasting no more time hanging out around the felled beast.
Hours later…
Moving further in, they faced more and more monsters, battling through them at a rapid pace and growing stronger with every monster they faced. Their hunt dragged on for hours — with occasional rests, where they would take a quick breather before continuing their slaughter through the dungeon.
Moving through the dungeon, they eventually came upon a unique sight — a scuffed village. The inhabitants? Ogres. Jack, Araneida and Sallow all hid behind some boulders, scouting the village. “Black Ogres. Dangerous and strong monsters.” Sallow stated, while Jack narrowed his eyes on the Ogres, to try and grasp a rough idea of the average power level of the Ogres.
“Each Black Ogre on their own is a C-Rank monster, with a few even being a low level B-Rank monster. They are for sure far more powerful than any of the Goblin clans located on the other side of the dungeon.” Jack commented in his mind, before exhaling. “So, how do we do this?” Jack asked, leaning back behind the cover.
“Not sure… We could rush in and start attacking, but each ogre on its own is one we’d need to work together to take down and in my rough estimation, this small village has at least thirty of them.”
Jack brainstormed for a bit.
What was the best approach to taking down this village? So many ogres of that strength would quickly overwhelm the three of them. Sallow continued scouting the village, before his eyes widened. “Impossible…”
Jack looked at the goblin. “What’s wrong?”
Sallow leaned back behind the cover. “At the back of the village, there is an Ogre Shaman.” Jack raised an eyebrow. Seeing Jack's reaction, he exhaled before looking away. “An Ogre Shaman is one of the three superior ogre species. The other two are Ogre Lords and Ogre Knights. These three superior ogre species are of higher intellect than the rest of their kin and always take up the mantle of leading the other ogres. Under them, Ogres go from feral and beastly monsters to actually grouped and organised forces to be reckoned with.”
Jack scratched his chin. “I see…” He replied lightly before throwing a look back at the village over the cover. He remained silent for a moment before looking at Sallow again. “Say, what would happen if we were to take out the Ogre Shaman first?”
Sallow looked at Jack before peeking over the cover as well. Then, after a moment, he looked at the Tamer. “The black Ogres would lose their coordination and be left with a moment of confusion, which would leave them open to attacks…”
Jack smirked, before placing his hands onto his shortswords.
“Araneida, Sallow – focus on driving attention of the lesser Ogres. I’m going for the leader.” Sallow exhaled, however nodded afterwards, before placing his hand onto the handle of his greatsword, which was still wrapped up on his back. “...How much time do you need?”
“Mm— A few minutes at most. It shouldn’t take long for me to get close to that beast.”
Sallow smiled and laughed. “I see. So you figured out that the Shaman wouldn’t be that good at melee?” Jack grinned without answering. Sallow stared at Jack for a little bit before exhaling looking towards the village once more.
“We’ll give you as much time as you need, my Lord.”
“Good.” Jack then leapt over the cover before dashing towards the Ogres. “Araneida, you’re up!” The Ogres immediately reacted to Jack's roaring voice, before roaring towards the Tamer and all beginning to rush towards him. Jack quickly leapt up high into the air, having morphed his legs into mantis ones.
Then, Araneida leapt out from behind the cover, before letting out an ear piercing shriek, which released an immense force across the cave, causing the Ogres to freeze up.
[ ALERT ]
Familiar ‘Araneida’ has activated [Ultimate Intimidation].
[ ALERT ]
In the momentary freezing of the Ogres, Sallow leapt forward, unveiling his newly upgraded greatsword, before gripping it tightly with both of his hands and with a heavy swing, slicing off the heads of three closest Ogres. Jack morphed his legs back to normal, before sprouting wings from his back, gliding over the frozen Ogres before making the wings disappear and landing at the other side of the village, kicking up a dust cloud with his landing.
The Ogre Shaman covered its eyes slightly, before looking at the arriving guest, its piercing green eyes shining through the darkness cast over its face by the hood on its head.
Jack let out a gentle laugh, before spinning his shortswords around and taking a battle ready position. “Alright, let’s see if you can be entertaining.” Jack's eyes locked with the Shamans, as Araneida landed behind him and using her ‘Venom Threads’ created a barrier, blocking off any of the other Ogres helping the Shaman.
Jack narrowed his eyes.
After a moment, the information window about the Shaman appeared.
[ CREATURE ]
Black Ogre Shaman
Rank: B
Level: 60 (4)
A unique member of the Ogre race. This specimen is a ‘Shaman’ and possesses destructive magical abilities and skills, as well as unparalleled leadership skills. However, as a trade-off for its highly destructive magical nature, the creature is weak at melee fights.
[ CREATURE ]
