Chapter 6: Level UP

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Level UP

Hobgoblin charged.

Allan dropped to a low stance with his weight on his back leg, his two hands clutched around the chipped sword hilt, his fingers clenched in the leather wrap to keep them from slipping.

He felt a rush of instinct as the Hobgoblin began to charge at him, raising its axe in a high arc.

Too slow.

Allan stepped in. The axe came down in a brutal arc but he twisted sideways at the last possible moment. The blade passed so close that the wind of it slapped his cheek. A hair’s breadth. That was all.

I can do this. I can kill him. I will end it right here, right now.

His lead foot planted. The sword started to rise for a counter...

"MASTER!"

Just as he was able to turn in time and avoid the blade of the Hobgoblin’s axe, he felt something crash into his side. A soft push. It sent him flying sideways and he ended up with a solid thud against the cold stone of the wall.

"What the—"

"Master...are you okay? Drink the potion, fast."

Seris had come to his side and he felt her small hand pull against his back to a corner.

"Me and Lira will handle this...please run away, quick."

And then she was between him and the monster, her small knife flashing in the dim light of the corridor. The blade bit into the Hobgoblin’s arm, opening a shallow but bloody gash.

"RAAAAAAAR!" The beast roared.

Allan stared at her. "What the hell are you doing?!"

She wouldn’t answer, instead moving backward between Allan and the Hobgoblin. "Get away from it!" she was saying.

"Seris!"

"Run Master!"

Lira rushed forward a second or so later and started to drag the beast back down the corridor.

"Run, Master! NOW!"

"You two—"

"WE WERE WRONG!" Lira shouted over the Hobgoblin’s next roar. "The dungeon isn’t what you thought it was!"

The axe swooped down again, swinging out in a wide, flat arc, and Seris crouched down suddenly, the blade whizzing over the top of her head.

Lira immediately grabbed hold of Seris’s shoulder and pulled her down. The edge of the axe struck the stone with a massive blow, sending up clouds of dust and splintered stone.

BOOM.

BOOM.

Dust and shards of stone from the floor filled the corridor.

Allan stayed where he was, staring at them. Their faces were set in hard lines. Seris and Lira were not playing a game. They believed with all their hearts that in that moment, they could all die in that long hallway.

"Are you two...insane?"

The Hobgoblin violently yanked its axe out of the stone. Allan took a step forward.

"Get behind me, you two."

"NO!"

Seris’s voice cracked like a whip. Allan actually stopped.

"Master, look at yourself!"

He frowned. "What?"

She pointed at him.

Allan looked down.

He stared at his damaged hand, his eyes opening wide. His right hand was bent at an awkward angle. It was covered in blood that was dripping from his fingers to the stone floor below.

His left leg looked even worse. His right knee seemed to be bent at an awkward angle, and there was a large stain spreading down his leg from where his clothes had been torn open. Even his breathing was coming in short, ragged gasps.

"Oh."

His broken hand looked bad...very, very bad.

He pressed his hand against his injured side, wincing in pain as his chest and back flared up in a mass of sharp, pulsating lines of agony.

He chuckled quietly to himself, a slightly embarrassed tinge to his amusement.

"So that’s why you’re panicking."

Lira looked at him in shock. "Master, you’re bleeding! Please get away and drink the potion. We will be at your back."

"I noticed."

"Master! Stop joking. You can barely stand!"

"I noticed that too."

Doom! Doom!

Allan looked at Seris and Lira. They did not recognize the Seventh God. The man who spent ten years of his life playing Yggdrasil did not get any recognition from these two.

All they saw was the Level 1 nobleman in front of them. A man badly wounded. With a broken hand. A badly damaged leg. Wounds that bled profusely. A man who could die any second now. Yet, these two women risked their lives to protect him.

How pathetic.

As a recently-transferred player, Allan had brought nothing with him to the new world except for a stack of graveyard dirt and a ton of emotional baggage.

As Allan watched Seris and Lira battle the creature before them, a slow grin spread across his face for a moment.

Then Seris moved, like her grip suddenly became tight.

She suddenly appeared, slicing under the Hobgoblin’s swing as she created a shallow gash in its side before stepping back, once again out of range.

She was followed by Lira, who tried slicing at the monster’s side.

"RRRAAAAAR!!"

The Hobgoblin howled in rage as it wildly swung at the two women. They in turn dodged and weaved around its attacks, each managing to avoid being sliced in two.

Allan’s expression changed as he watched.

Wait...these two.

They weren’t helpless.

It was Seris who was quick. As fast as ever for her level of experience, though her footwork was sloppy. However, Allan could have sworn that her movements were now guided by certain instincts.

Lira’s speed was far behind that of the servant, but her movements were already imbued with a sense of proper spacing and timing, which she was able to execute without much trouble once she got into the swing of things.

Allan remembered the Appraisal windows he had seen earlier.

SSS Moonlight Sorcery.

SS Blade Dance of the Silent Gale.

Future bosses. Future raid threats for other players to struggle against for years to come. Right now they were fighting off a single, low-health Hobgoblin in some long-abandoned corridor.

He looked down at the remains of his own body.

"I’m an idiot."

Lira glanced over her shoulder. "Master?"

"I was trying to show off."

"What?"

Allan pulled out a small glass bottle containing a clear liquid that glowed with a reddish light. It was a small vial that Bela had given to him a short time before.

He uncorked it with his teeth and drained the liquid in the vial.

He was suddenly full of energy. The damage done to his fingers had suddenly mended with a series of sharp cracks.

The leg that had been previously at an odd angle was now straight. The deep cuts across his ribcage and his side were now closed up. The most amazing part of it all was that there was no feeling of pain. None at all.

Allan exhaled slowly. "Haaaa...much better."

Seris stared at him. "It worked?"

"Yes."

"And you waited until now to drink it?"

"I was slightly busy earlier."

The pain and effort of Seris keeping up with the Hobgoblin showed on Lira’s face as she yelled at Allan "MASTER!"

"Focus."

The Hobgoblin gave a loud roar, then turned around to charge at Allan. It swung its heavy battle axe in wide arcs as it moved.

"Seris, left!"

She moved without hesitation, just in time, as the heavy blade of the Hobgoblin’s axe passed over her shoulder, sending her hair into a frenzy.

"Lira, right knee!"

Lira didn’t ask any questions. She shot off to the right side, her sword thrust into the back of the monster’s leg. It stumbled about.

"Again!"

She struck again and again and Seris followed on the other side of the creature. In some moments the Hobgoblin spun on them, but Seris’s and Lira’s progress had gone far enough that it lost interest and fell heavily onto its wounded leg.

"Seris...wrist!"

"Wrist!" She understood at once. Her knife flashed across the tendons of the monster’s wrist.

The axe slipped from its grip and hit the floor with a heavy clang.

Allan smiled. "Good."

But the Hobgoblin managed to swing a wild swing of a fist. It was a haymaker.

"Duck!"

Both women dropped down as Allan stepped through the opening in their formation and brought his sword down in a clean diagonal cut across the back of the creature’s remaining good knee.

Blood sprayed across the stone in a wide arc. The Hobgoblin collapsed onto one leg, roaring in pain and rage.

Allan took one more step forward. "One more."

Then Seris slit the creature’s exposed arm and Lira pounded on the remaining leg until it too collapsed.

Then, in a final, heaving surge, the Hobgoblin managed to lift itself off the ground, but only for a moment. It toppled to the ground, sending up a new cloud of dust. It tried to get up from there, but could not support its own weight on its two shattered legs.

"Yeah, you’re done, Dipshit."

Allan raised his sword for the finishing blow, then stopped.

He looked at Lira, then at Seris.

"Finish it."

Both women froze.

"Us?"

"Yes."

"But—"

"You earned it. Level up, both of you."

They exchanged a quick glance. Then they moved together, with a smile.

Seris struck the Hobgoblin first, plunging her knife into the neck of the creature. The soft tissue was easy to cut through, and Lira followed up almost instantly by plunging her own knife into the side of the Hobgoblin’s skull.

The thrashing finally ceased, and the huge creature fell to the ground, lifeless.

Silence filled the corridor.

Then the notifications arrived.

[Hobgoblin defeated.]

[Experience acquired.]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

Lira gasped as faint light began to radiate from her body. Seris was taken aback by the experience of glowing windows appearing in front of her eyes, a look of shock mixed with wonder upon her face.

"I...leveled up."

Allan smiled. "Congratulations, girls. You both are now officially killers!"

But something felt off.

His own System window flickered into view.

[Party Experience Calculation Complete.]

[Calculating Return on Investment]

[Experience gained from Lira.]

[Multiplier: x50.]

Allan’s smile disappeared. "It’s here!"

A second line appeared beneath the first.

[Experience gained from Seris.]

[Experience Multiplier: x200.]

His experience bar shot up to Level 4, then jumped to Level 7, continued on to Level 12, Level 18, and then suddenly it shot up to Level 25.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

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