___
Nate
___
Abram and Isai slowly and carefully opened the door and everyone got ready. I threw my eyes at Mica, but the guy held up well. His arms and legs weren't shaking and it didn't look like he was standing there frozen in fear. I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that it would stay that way when he saw the boss. If he froze with fear, I wasn't sure if the other three of us would be able to handle it. Isai probably has the most strength, since he was not very involved in the attack and mainly defended. Abram's MP and HP will be around half, but I have no idea about Mica. I quickly opened my character window to make sure I had enough MP for the attacks I had planned so far.
_____
Name: Nate
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Race: Shapeshifter (changed)
Class: Mage
Titles: Fire wolf Slayer
_____
HP: 370/470
MP: 230/520
EP: 925/925
Level: 2
Affiliation to element: Wind
_____
Stats:
Strength: 7 Speed: 6 Intelligence: 8
Agility: 5 Stamina: 8 Luck: 5
_____
Skills:
- Animal shapeshift (Wolf) (1/1) -) R-Rank
- Rain of wind arrows (1/3) -) D-Rank
- Tornado (1/3) -) D-Rank
- Wind wave (1/3) -) D-Rank
- Ice flower (1/3) -) C-Rank
- Flare (2/3) -) E-Rank
- Locator (1/3) -) C-Rank
_____
Skill Points: 0
Stats Points: 1
Health Point: 2
_____
Okay, good. My MP should last until we finish the boss.
"Mica" I quietly addressed the man and he turned his head in my direction as a sign that he was listening but his eyes remained in front. I smiled to myself. Mica is very careful, sometimes bordering on paranoia, but in this game it's very good.
"How much MP and HP do you have left?" I asked him. I wasn't sure if he would answer me. One of the reasons was that I don't normally ask about such things and a lot of players consider it sensitive information and won't answer you, and secondly, I wasn't very nice to him.
"My HP is at 185/320 and my MP is at 80/175, how about you?" Mica replied quietly to which I nodded my head.
"My HP is at 370/470 and my MP is at 230/520." This time it was Mica who nodded and I kept my eyes forward. It's time to fight.
"Team, get ready" Abram ordered us and we carefully entered the dark room. Our eyes were already used to the darkness in the dungeon, but this room was darker than the rest, so we could only see outlines so far. We stopped and watched to see if we could catch any movement.
It was quiet. But not the safe and peaceful silence. But the scary and tense where you wait for an unexpected attack. Nothing anywhere. I carefully began to look around on all sides, but I still could not see anything. I saw Mica and Isai doing the same thing as me. I didn't like it. It was too dark in this room. And I had the feeling that every time my eyes started to adjust to the dark, the room got darker.
"I don't like it Abram" I whispered and was answered by a quiet "Hm". For the first time, apart from my first dungeon raid, I was getting nervous. Something was wrong.
___
Mica
___
Although this was my first time in the boss room, it was clear to me from the worried expression of Abram who was standing next to me that this is not normal. Abram was supposed to go first and then Isaiah, but after entering here they switched. I couldn't see more than two meters, and even that only when I tried. And there was an uncomfortable silence. I opened my character window and pointed it to the Skills icon. I tapped on the window and started writing an idea for a new skill.
____
'Bong!'
____
The message appeared in front of me.
____
'Your skill request has been sent to the system.'
...
'Your request has been processed and approved by the system.'
...
'Your skill has been registered in the system.'
...
'You created a skill for yourself'
...
'You got 50 EP.'
...
'Please name your skill.'
'__________________'
____
I was hoping that my character window would light up the room, but that didn't happen. 'Never mind', I thought, 'this skill should help me with vision.'
____
'Please name your skill.'
'_Cat_vision_'
'Name of your skill has been registered in system'
...
'You obtain new skill named Cat vision'
____
I clicked on the skill to make sure I created the skill I wanted.
________
PLAYER
________
_____
Name: Micajah
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Shapeshifter
Class: Assassin
Titles: -
_____
HP: 185/320
MP: 80/175
EP: 515/515
Level: 1 !! (you can level up)
Affiliation to element: -
_____
Stats:
Strength: 3 Speed: 6 Intelligence: 2
Agility: 4 Stamina: 5 Luck: 6
_____
Skills:
- Animal shapeshift (Panther) (1/1) -) R-Rank
- Shadow steps (1/3) -) C-Rank
- Shadow illusion double attack (1/3) -) C-Rank .
- Cat vision (1/3) -) E-Rank
-) allows user to see in the dark as in a normal day
_____
Skill Points: 0
Stats Points: 0
Health Point: 0
_____
Before I could activate my new skill, my eyes were caught by the red marks that were shining at my Level: 1. I clicked on Level and 1 changed to 2.
____
'Bong!'
____
Another message appeared in front of me.
____
'You have reached the required number of EP to level up'
...
'The player leveled up from level 1 to level 2'
...
'The player's stats will increase by 2'
____
________
PLAYER
________
_____
Name: Micajah
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Shapeshifter
Class: Assassin
Titles: -
_____
HP: 185/320
MP: 80/175
EP: 515/515
Level: 2
Affiliation to element: -
_____
Stats:
Strength: 5 Speed: 8 Intelligence: 4
Agility: 6 Stamina: 7 Luck: 8
_____
Skills:
- Animal shapeshift (Panther) (1/1) -) R-Rank
- Shadow steps (1/3) -) C-Rank
- Shadow illusion double attack (1/3) -) C-Rank .
- Cat vision (1/3) -) E-Rank
_____
Skill Points: 0
Stats Points: 0
Health Point: 0
_____
After leveling up I activated my skill and the room immediately lit up. 'Shit!' I mentally cursed when I saw the room in front of me.
"Isaiah! Shield!" I screamed at the man in front, who immediately obeyed me without question. Which is good because if he asked first and only then covered us by his shield, there would by no us after that attack. The attack rammed into his shield and pushed him back a few steps. Abram helped him hold it and helped him keep his balance.
"Mica, do you see what's in front of us?" the leader asked me.
"Yes... and it's not pretty" I answered him.
"We don't see more then two meters before us, you will have to navigate us until I active my skill which should make other see this room too. Can you do it? It's enough if you continue your own attacks, Isai will take care of the defense and Nate will charge his spell for now" Abram addressed me, to which I agreed. No one else is able to navigate them other than me. At least right now. And so the fight began.
___
Abraham
___
Sweat was running down my back and my whole body was on fire. It took me almost a minute to activate my D-Rank skill. In that one minute, we could all be dead if it weren't for Mica. Isaiah's HP was less than 30% of his 100% and his MP was also low. He won't be able to fight us when I activate my skill. Nate was preparing his strongest spell and once in a while fired a weak attack according to Mica's instructions. Mica was the most active of us, shouting instructions at us and attacking at unexpected moments. We heard heavier footsteps and the angry roar of the monster in front of us even though we couldn't see it. 'Come on!' I said to myself and prayed to my not very good luck that I would be able to activate the skill before one of us dies. As the leader of this team, that would be my responsibility. I was beginning to understand why Nate turned down the position.
"Got it!" I yelled as I activated my skill named Fire chain, and the room lit up. My fire chains wrapped around the walls and lit up the room. I gulped when I saw the monster in front of us. Most D-Rank monsters were average size, but this monster was bigger than average. It wasn't giant size, but it wasn't average either. It was holding a wooden bat in its hand, some rags around its waist and some tape across its chest. Basically, this boss looked like the other monsters in this dungeon except that it was several times bigger and more dimensional. And that it had two heads. 'Fuck!'
___
Isaiah
___
The room lit up and I thanked every god I knew for that. I was exhausted and I knew that it would take only two attacks and I was done. My HP was low, never been lower than that, not even on my first dungeon raid. I knew that this was just a game and not reality, but sometimes you forget about that. I have yet to die in this game, nor do I plan to.
"Prepare to attack! Nate spells! Mica, unexpected attacks! Isai, step aside!" Abram shouted and rushed forward. A strong wind shot out of Nate's fingers and aimed at the boss, and Mica disappeared somewhere, probably going to take a good attacking position. I quickly rushed to the wall so as not to disturb them. My HP and MP were too low to fight them. I knew that. And even though I didn't like it, I trusted Abram to take care of it. And the rookie was good too.
___
Mica
___
My MP was at an unbelievably low level, but we reduced the boss's HP by a little more than half. But it still wasn't enough. Isaiah was out of the game, Abram was low on both MP and HP, and Nate was looking miserable as well. We fought for a little over twenty minutes, but everyone was running out of stamina. And I didn't have any skill that would do a lot of collective damage. I should come up with something like this in the future. I gritted my teeth and an image of a young boy with a wide smile appeared before my eyes. Min-Woo. My nephew. I can't die on my very first dungeon raid. I need money for his treatment. I stood up and prepared for another attack. But then something occurred to me.
"Abram, Nate! Can you hold him for about a minute?" I yelled to my teammates. I knew I was asking a lot. For only the two of them to hold dungeon boss for a whole minute was basically a suicide.
"One minute!" Nate yelled back at me and I wasted no time opening my character window. I clicked on the window next to the Skills folder and quickly started typing. Only now did I thank my mother who forced me to learn to write by all ten.
____
'Bong!'
____
The message appeared in front of me.
____
'Your skill request has been sent to the system.'
...
'Your request has been processed and approved by the system.'
...
'Your skill has been registered in the system.'
...
'You created a skill for yourself'
...
'You got 50 EP.'
...
'Please name your skill.'
'__________________'
____
I was already very familiar with this process. And if I counted correctly, I had twenty seconds left until the minute my teammates promised me.
____
'Please name your skill.'
'_Support_'
'Name of your skill has been registered in system'
...
'You obtain new skill named Support'
____
________
PLAYER
________
_____
Name: Micajah
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Shapeshifter
Class: Assassin
Titles: -
_____
HP: 185/320
MP: 80/175
EP: 615/615
Level: 2
Affiliation to element: -
_____
Stats:
Strength: 5 Speed: 8 Intelligence: 4
Agility: 6 Stamina: 7 Luck: 8
_____
Skills:
- Animal shapeshift (1/1) -) R-Rank
- Shadow steps (1/3) -) C-Rank
- Shadow illusion double attack (1/3) -) C-Rank .
- Cat vision (1/3) -) E-Rank
- Support (1/3) -) E-Rank
-) increases the MP and HP of your team members by 60%
_____
Skill Points: 0
Stats Points: 0
Health Point: 0
_____
"Isaiah, Nate, Abram! Your MP and HP will increase by 60%! Get ready!" I yelled the warning and immediately activated my new skill.
___
Nate
___
I was exhausted. My stamina was one of my stronger traits, but I still had trouble keeping up with offense and defense. My MP and HP were almost 10% out of 100% and I only had MP for one big attack. In other words, we were damned. The newbie was probably the best among us. He didn't panic or run away, which I wouldn't blame him one a bit. Abram was on it almost same as me and Isaiah wasn't on it any better. I wasn't sure about the rookie since I also had trouble seeing him between his unexpected attacks, but I could guess that he wasn't any better. And when he asked us for a full minute, I couldn't say no. Me, Abram and even Isai can't do any more miracles, but maybe Mica has an idea. Although I highly doubt it. And so me and Abram fought the boss without support for a whole minute.
"Isaiah, Nate, Abram! Your MP and HP will increase by 60%! Get ready!" I heard Mica's voice yelling at us and immediately I felt a rush of energy enter my body. I quickly opened my character window to make sure and my eyes opened wide in the surprise.
_____
Name: Nate
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Race: Shapeshifter (changed)
Class: Mage
Titles: Fire wolf Slayer
_____
HP: 282/470
MP: 312/520
EP: 925/925
Level: 2
Affiliation to element: Wind
_____
Stats:
Strength: 7 Speed: 6 Intelligence: 8
Agility: 5 Stamina: 8 Luck: 5
_____
Skills:
- Animal shapeshift (Wolf) (1/1) -) R-Rank
- Rain of wind arrows (1/3) -) D-Rank
- Tornado (1/3) -) D-Rank
- Wind wave (1/3) -) D-Rank
- Ice flower (1/3) -) C-Rank
- Flare (2/3) -) E-Rank
- Locator (1/3) -) C-Rank
_____
Skill Points: 0
Stats Points: 1
Health Point: 2
_____
My MP and HP, which was at 10% from 100% before, was now at 60%. And that was thanks to that newcomer. I'll ask him how he did it later. If this same happened to Abram and Isaiah, we should be able to take this boss down!
"Let's go one more time! Isai! Can you join in?" asked Abram, but Isai was already standing next to him with shield and sword in hand.
"Yeah! Let's do it!" I smiled. Now we finally have a chance!
___
Mica
___
________
PLAYER
________
_____
Name: Micajah
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Shapeshifter
Class: Assassin
Titles: -
_____
HP: 40/320
MP: 5/175
EP: 615/615
Level: 2
Affiliation to element: -
_____
Stats:
Strength: 5 Speed: 8 Intelligence: 4
Agility: 6 Stamina: 7 Luck: 8
_____
Skills:
- Animal shapeshift (Panther) (1/1) -) R-Rank
- Shadow steps (1/3) -) C-Rank
- Shadow illusion double attack (1/3) -) C-Rank .
- Cat vision (1/3) -) E-Rank
- Support (1/3) -) E-Rank
_____
Skill Points: 0
Stats Points: 0
Health Point: 0
_____
My MP was almost at zero. I'm done fighting. Nate, Abram, and Isaiah should be able to handle it without me.
I moved to the side so as not to disturb them and just observe the fight. The monster fired a few fire attacks but it had no effect on my newly energized teammates. My skill raised their morale and they were full of determination and energy.
____
The fight didn't last even ten minutes. The last blow was delivered by Abram, our team leader.
____
'Bong!'
...
'Dungeon boss has been slayed'
...
'You were in a party that slayed a boss, you will receive items from the boss based on your participation in the battle'
____
'Hm? Is receiving items based on participation in battle?' I did not know that. I thought that the team leader should divide it according to the discretion and agreement of his members. Anyway, this just suited me.
____
BONG!
____
We all looked in the direction the sound came from and above the body of the dead boss was a light blue window with four numbers and names with it.
____
'1. Micajah
2. Nate
3. Abraham
4. Isaiah'
...
'Based on your order, you will receive a reward'
____
I glanced at my team members but they didn't seem particularly displeased. Especially Isaiah, who is in last place. I didn't know how I ended up in the first place. Only if my skill Support, was counted and the actions of my teammates were also added to me.
"Congratulations!" Abram declared with pride in his voice, patting me on the shoulder. Since I didn't expect it, I lost my balance and almost ended up with face in the ground if Nate didn't catch me in time.
"Sorry, sorry..." Abram began apologizing and quickly helped me to my feet. Nate just sighed and Isaiah smiled at me.
"You still have to tell me how you managed to pull out your last skill that gave us MP and HP" Nate whispered in my ear with a friendly smile on his lips. His eyes were no longer so alert and were sincere. Isaiah who heard him nodded his head and Abram looked at us with question marks around his head. A silent laugh escaped my lips, but for the first time in years I was genuinely happy. And one thing was certain, we were a great team.
___
Nate
___
We exited the dungeon after we each received our rewards. Abram and Isai split from us with the excuse that they needed to arrange something else, which was a total lie. You could read it in their eyes. But I just sighed at them because this wasn't the first time they did something like this.
"How did you manage to increase our stats to 60%?" I asked him as we walked together, side by side, into the city to spend the night in some cheap hotel.
"It was a skill that I quickly created. However, I wasn't sure if it would work, but it turned out to be more effective than I thought," he answered the question I asked despite the fact that I expected him to reject me not so gently. Talking about your skills is even more taboo than talking about your MP and HP.
"Did you create it? And in such a critical situation?" I asked in surprise.
"Yup." This newcomer seemed to be more interesting than I first thought. I also invented one skill, but that was all. Only one skill I created system recognized and registered. And that was my C-Rank skill called Ice flowers. I've been coming up with it for almost a whole week. And this newbie tells me that this skill just so created in critical situation and the system recognized and allowed it. 'Heh? Interesting.'
"Ah, Nate, I have a request for you," Mica said after a moment of silence.
"Hm?" I thought he was going to ask me for information about one of my skills as I asked him, but his request caught me off guard.
"You're a race Shapeshifter too, do you know how to use R-Skill? And its consequences?" I was speechless. Firstly, I was shocked that he hadn't tried the most basic skill for Shapeshifters yet, and secondly, that this was what he was interested in. And also the fact that he absolutely does not need me to activate the skill. But I shouldn't be so surprised. This rookie was one hell of a surprise, seriously it should stop surprising me.
"Hm, if you have time, I can show you tomorrow and we can have a spar if you want" I told him to which stars appeared in his eyes and he looked like a happy child who gets a candy.
"Haha..." I laughed quietly, which made Mica stop, but then a smile played on his lips. We reached the beginning of the city.
"Then see you tomorrow morning at this place" I told him and then we each went our separate ways.