The gentle dirt hills continued as my siblings and I ran deeper into the first floor of the Dungeon. The cobbled walls of the entrance disappeared long ago, and it was only the occasional clump of boulders that broke up the horizon of nothing.
It would be really easy to get lost in here, I realized with a shiver. I tried to comfort myself by reminding myself that all we had to do to get back was turn around, but I had a sinking feeling that it wouldn’t be that easy.
We’d been jogging for about ten minutes–I was coated in sweat and breathing hard at that point–when Peter came to an abrupt stop and pointed straight ahead.
“Look. Monsters.” His voice was nearly giddy as though he wanted to die some horrific death against the fangs of whatever heinous creation this Dungeon came up with this time.
I looked to where he pointed and breathed in relief. It was a pile of grass which meant it couldn’t be any worse than [Grass Clippings] like what I faced in the tutorial. With Peter and Bethany at my side, one of those guys would be a piece of cake.
My confidence faltered slightly as the grass pile fluttered and split apart, becoming not just one [Grass Clippings], but four of them. Okay, maybe this would be slightly tougher than I originally thought. Still, level 0 [Grass Clippings] couldn’t be too hard to deal with, regardless of numbers.
“[Archery],” Peter declared loudly.
I glanced over at him to see a bow appear in his hands and a quiver along his back. He nocked an arrow and drew the bowstring back with ease, as though he’d done it all his life.
Bethany and I both stood at the ready with our hands up, but there wasn’t much either of us could do at the moment. Peter let his arrow fly, and it smacked the frontmost [Grass Clippings] in the middle of the head… and then went completely through the head, landing in the dirt behind it. The monster looked unbothered except for a few broken grass strands along his face.
“Uh, Peter?” I said, watching the creatures lumber towards us.
“It didn’t work. That’s not my fault. This was Beth’s plan.” He already had a second arrow nocked.
I didn’t want to throw Peter’s shot off, but I also didn’t want to get overrun by the monsters so I pointed my hand and aimed at some of the back ones. Five more [Grass Clippings] had appeared, bringing the total number of enemies to nine.
“[Push],” I said clearly.
From my side, Bethany called up her [Shield] ability.
The moment the magic left my fingers, Beth’s [Shield] appeared in front of me, a glowing yellow wall. A strange thunk sounded, and the next thing I knew, I was getting tossed backwards into the dirt, landing flat on my back.
I sat up and stared at my siblings who were both ten feet away from me now. The [Shield] rebounded my own [Push] against me.
“Beth! Come on. Watch where you put that thing,” I called out as I got to my feet.
“You’re the one who didn’t say you were going to start [Pushing] things,” she replied, her hand still outstretched to maintain the thick shield. It was about five feet across and seven feet high.
“Well, you didn’t say you were putting a [Shield] up either.” I jogged up to them, going to the opposite side of Peter to avoid being behind the [Shield].
“Shut up and do something to help. These arrows aren’t working.” Peter loosed another shot which sunk into a [Grass Clippings’] chest, but even lodged there, it did nothing to slow the creature.
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“I can tear them apart with my two [skills],” I offered. “As long as Bethany isn’t going to [Shield] the monsters from it.”
“You do that. Beth, you cover me and keep these guys from tearing me apart.” Peter dropped his bow, but it disappeared before it reached the ground, the quiver dematerializing alongside it. “I’m going to do some real damage. [Swordsmanship].”
A longsword appeared in Peter’s hands, and he wasted no time dashing into the thick of the monsters, raising his blade high. Bethany’s [Shield] disappeared from protecting no one, and she jogged to be closer to Peter.
I stayed where I was so I could have a good view of the fight, and I focused my attention on the outer [Grass Clippings] so I wasn’t interfering with Bethany’s and Peter’s flow.
Keeping my eyes locked on my first target, I put both hands out, positioning them the best I could to match what I wanted. “[Push]. [Pull].”
The magic flew from my hands, each [skill] with just a slightly different feeling, and the [Grass Clipping] I focused on tore in half and then exploded into a shower of broken grass strands.
[Grass Clippings Defeated]
[5 XP Gained]
Immediately after that notification, another one with the same message appeared below it, and I glanced over to see that Peter had sliced his way through his first enemy. It seemed we would all get equal [XP] from fighting together, regardless of who killed the most. That was a nice perk.
I didn’t spend too long appreciating the Dungeon’s one small kindness in catering to team tactics as I went back to tearing apart [Grass Clippings]. The notification box in the corner of my vision continually dinged, as both Peter and I killed off the monsters.
My brother sliced through the final [Grass Clipping], and then lowered his sword down with a broad grin on his face. “See? That’s how you kill monsters. I’m a one man army.”
“Hey, I helped too. I took out three of them by myself,” I reminded him. “And Bethany kept you from getting sliced apart. This was a group effort.”
“Every band needs a frontman.” Peter released the sword which dematerialized like his other equipment from earlier.
“How lucky we are to have you,” Bethany said dryly. She sighed. “That was a little chaotic at the start. Sorry my strategy didn’t work out.”
I shrugged. “We had to try something to start off. But now we’re close to our next level, right? Nine [Grass Clippings] at [5 XP] each puts us each at [45 XP]. We’re only [5 XP] away now.”
Peter flexed his arm. “That’s a single [Grass Clipping]. Why don’t we go find one now? I’m just getting warmed up.”
“And how much [MP] do you still have?” Bethany crossed her arms.
That was a good point. I pulled up my status screen and grimaced.
[Temporary Class:]
[Kinetic Mage, Level 2]
[MP: 1/15]
[XP: 45/50]
[Attributes:]
[Strength: 1]
[Agility: 2]
[Speed: 3]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Charisma: 2]
[Luck: 1]
[Attribute Points Available: 0]
I had a single [MP] left after that fight. “Yeah. I’m at one. I won’t be able to fight for a while.”
“Exactly. I’m down to my last three [MP],” Bethany agreed. “Peter?”
He sighed. “Two [MP] is all.” He threw his hands in the air. “This sucks. How are we supposed to progress when we’re capped by our stupid [MP]? Why would a [Dual Fighter] even use [MP]? Shouldn’t it be stamina or something instead?”
“This is just a [temporary class],” I said. “Maybe it was easier for everyone to use the same basic things like [MP]. But it’ll recover. It shouldn’t take that long.”
“Whatever,” Peter grumbled as he kicked at the piles of dead grass leftover from the [Grass Clippings].
“Don’t pout, Peter. We did really good. This was only our first fight. We’ll get stronger after we level up, and then it’ll be easier to keep fighting for longer,” Bethany said. She tried to put her arm around his shoulders, but he shrugged it off.
I gestured to the bland dirt and rocks surrounding us. “Besides, there aren’t any monsters around here to fight right now. It took us like ten minutes to find these ones. If we just keep going, but at a walk, we’ll recover our [MP] in time for the next fight.”
Bethany walked up to the nearest pile of boulders and patted it. “Exactly. Why don’t we sit for a couple of minutes, and then keep going?”
Before I could agree with her idea, the rocks under her hand began to vibrate. Bethany backed away as I held my hands up, watching with a gaping mouth as the rocks coalesced into a disjointed humanoid form.
[Rocky]
[Level 1]