The Last Experience Point

Zach warily eyed the vacated space that used to be a flat wall, on top of which had rested the five unlit torches. Now, it was a rectangular opening that led to…somewhere. It was impossible to discern any more than that, as from where he stood, all he could see was a lightless, empty space, which was probably not at all representative of whatever awaited inside. Reaching over his shoulder, he drew his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness, gripping it securely. Then he looked back behind him.

"Is everyone ready?" he asked.

"You know it!" Jimmy shouted enthusiastically, grinning ear to ear.

"I guess," Rian said with a far more subdued tone, the touch of bitterness unmistakable. Lienne, however, merely nodded, and so too did the Elves.

"Tyson?"

Rather than reply with a yes or no, the cowardly, fancily dressed man dropped to his knees and began to beg and plead. "Don't make me do this, Sir Calador! I don't even have a weapon. I'm a lover, not a fighter. Show mercy!" He began coughing, though it sounded forced. "I also appear to be suffering from a mysterious ailment."

Zach rolled his eyes at the man. "Come on, Tyson. Get on your feet. We're going in."

He whimpered. "Okay, fine."

Can I even trust him not to flee? Zach wondered. Probably not.

Behind them, the two librarians continued to clutch at one another, terror in their eyes. They were speechless, and Zach really did feel badly for them, as they were forced to guess as what they were seeing, lacking the knowledge that was common to adventurers. Even still, they had done an excellent job of clearing out whatever guests remained in the cafeteria as well as the serving staff. For having done so, Tyson had compensated them with even more gold, as bribing people was the one thing the man seemed to be good for. Everything else? Not so much.

"Tyson," Zach said to him after a short moment, "you're going to go in right after me, okay? Because it's the only way I can be sure you won't wait for everyone else to enter and then turn around and leave."

The man swore. "That's exactly what I was going to do."

"Yeah, I figured. That's why you're going in second."

Zach made a slight nod towards Rian, who nodded back. Assuming Rian understood his gesture, Rian would ensure Tyson made his way inside and did not escape. With that out of the way, Zach readied himself to enter the dungeon. He knew that this probably wasn't the smartest idea, and he understood the inherent danger of what he was taking part in. Yet all he could do was hope that this really was connected somehow to finding Albion-4. Otherwise, it would be a tremendous risk taken for no reason.

And a huge waste of time!

Zach held his breath and stepped forward into what looked like a vast emptiness. For a moment, the world became an empty screen of grey light with nothing visible in any direction. But this emptiness soon proved to be temporary, for the exact moment he fully entered the dungeon, the entire scenery changed, and the emptiness became filled with the world: or at least a world: one that, just from his immediate impression, looked to be some kind of rounded hallway. The air temperature dropped as well, becoming slightly chilly but not quite cold.

"Whoah," Rian said as he appeared behind Zach. His wrist was gripping Tyson's, which meant he'd had to be dragged in. Jimmy and the Elves came through next, and finally, Lienne. All began to search their surroundings, and so too did Zach.

Right away, it became clear that they were at the very top of some kind of massive, indoor structure. Most of the walls around him were made of a very dark blue brick, but a few feet in front of Zach, there was a wall constructed out of metal bars which ran up to around chest height. A small gap existed between these metal bars and the ceiling, and through this gap, Zach could see a huge drop that looked like thousands of feet, which revealed that the overall shape of this structure was like that of a giant dome. And at the very bottom of this dome, thousands of feet below, Zach spotted what he thought to be a vaguely humanoid figure of some sort waiting on a rounded platform, but Zach could not really see a whole lot of it. The figure stood perfectly still with what looked like arms by its sides. Aside from that, Zach was far too high up to discern any greater detail than that. What he could make out, however, was the daunting, labyrinthine nature of the path downwards.

"That's…a lot," Seiley said, audibly exhaling.

From where Zach stood here at what appeared to be the top of the dome, he had a somewhat limited view of this place's overall structure, but he could see a totally incomprehensible series of ramps, doors, bizarre box-shaped structures, and other strange things that wrapped around the dome leading downwards in a disorganized, seemingly random pattern from the top to the bottom. These "pathways"—if they could even be called that—lacked structure or predictability.

Confused and somewhat overwhelmed, Zach and the others all turned to look at Jimmy, who was walking forward as if to stand beside Zach. He tapped his palm against the metal bar and peered down through the gap. "Okay," he said, "let's see what we got here."

Zach, standing next to him, gestured with his chin at whatever man, NPC, or "thing" awaited them all the way at the bottom. "So, what do you think, Jimmy? That's definitely a boss down there, right?"

"Not necessarily," Jimmy replied. "It definitely could be. But it could also not be. There's no way to tell, and there's nothing I can see that would make me lean one way or the other."

Zach stepped away from the wall and again observed his surroundings. They were in a fairly narrow but rounded room that formed something of a half-circle as far as geometry was concerned. There were no visible doors or openings other than the one they'd used to arrive, nor were there any indications of where to go. Behind them, the entrance they had used was still present, which Zach took to mean they could back out and leave at any time. There was also a low, almost tranquil buzzing sound in the air, but other than that, this dungeon was very quiet.

"Does everybody still have at least one rope in case of an emergency?" Zach asked.

Jimmy shook his head. "I don't. But we're not gonna need one."

"I don't even know what that is," Seiley said—and Trelvor agreed.

Zach sighed. "I guess escaping in an emergency isn't an option, then. Hey, this is looking really risky, Jimmy. Are you sure we're going to be okay? We don't even know what we're dealing with here."

Jimmy pressed himself more tightly against the metal bars as if to get an even better view of whatever awaited them. Then he laughed. "I know ya'll are tired of me saying this, but it really is gonna be easy this time. This looks like a pretty straightforward, single-floor dungeon to me."

"Single floor?" Lienne asked.

Jimmy backed away from the metal bars and turned towards her. "Yeah," he said with a nod. "I don't think this is like the others with all the floors and stuff. Whatever this place is, I think it's just this." He waved his arms around him.

"And what exactly is that?" Trelvor asked.

"Like I said, a straightforward dungeon."

"Thanks for the detailed description," Rian grumbled. "Jimmy, you've been really helpful."

Jimmy seemed to ignore the quip and continued to study his surroundings while Rian, clad in his leather brigandine, drew his axe and shield, and Trelvor removed his flute. Seiley and Lienne had their staves at the ready, and Tyson had his tears. For a moment, no one said a word as Jimmy paced back and forth around the rounded hallway, which appeared to contain no entrances or exits aside from the one they'd used to arrive.

Zach, wanting to play things safe, decided to call upon his mount, which at level 85, could be very useful to have around in case things here turned out to be extremely dangerous. Thus, he took a few steps away from the others and activated Summon Active War-Mount. But rather than call upon his Kralzek's Beast as it usually did, the ability instead brought forward a screen of information similar to the one he'd gotten in Trials of Nolak when he'd attempted to summon his mount.

"Well," Rian said, pointing at the spot in front of Zach where the information floated, "now at least we know the name of the dungeon we're in."

Lienne rubbed her chin as miniature, glowing lights in the shape of stars and galaxies floated around her new head piece that she'd won from the raid five days ago. "That's a weird name: Karnzon Location 3. Jimmy, do you have any idea what this might mean?"

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. "It means we're not in 1 or 2."

"Har-har," Lienne said dryly, rolling her eyes at him. "You know what I meant."

Jimmy waved his hand as though in apology then said, "It doesn't really tell me much to be honest. But I'm not worried." With that, he closed his mouth, then reopened it to release something that began as a yawn but ended as a calm, casual, and almost bored-sounding sigh. "Okay, guys," he continued, "let's get on with this. Let's see if we can't knock this one off the list before dinner." He turned around, then nodded. "We're gonna do this one by the book."

"The book?" Rian asked him.

"Yeah. Basically, Rian, you're the MT. Zach, you're melee DPS. Seiley, I want you on heals, and Lienne, you can be off-healer but I'd prefer you stick to DPS. Trelvor, you're ranged DPS, obviously."

"And me?" Tyson asked.

"Uh, you can just chill for the moment."

"I'm not that cold."

"No, it means…just relax and hang back."

"Very well. That, it just so happens, is my specialty, Jimmy. And I shall do it well!"

We'll see about that, Zach thought to himself, vowing to make Tyson contribute if the opportunity for him to do so came along. For now, however, he ran his eyes around every corner of the room, searching for some idea of how to proceed.

"Jimmy, it's great you want to start and all, but where do we even go from here?" Zach placed his palm against the brick wall behind him. "It doesn't look like there's anywhere for us to go but back into the Grand Library where we just came from."

Tyson immediately and forcefully agreed with his assessment. "You are very wise in saying so, Sir Calador. As much as I was looking forward to plunging into these unknown depths, it seems we must return. Very well. Drinks are on me." He turned around and began ambling towards the exit. Zach had to reach out and grab him.

"Not so fast. You better stay put or else," Zach warned him. Following this warning, Zach once again addressed Jimmy. "So, uh, Jimmy…do you have any ideas about what we need to do?"

Jimmy laughed, hard. "Noobs," he said through chuckles, offering only the one word in response to Zach's question as he casually walked all the way to the right side of the room, humming as he did so. Once there, he bent down, extended his hand, and picked up a loose, dark-blue marble brick on the floor that seemed to have fallen off the wall at some point and happened to be lying on the floor.

What the hell is he doing?

Zach watched as Jimmy then turned around, strutted all the way to the opposite end, and with that, he extended his hand and placed the rectangular brick into a section of the wall that appeared to be missing a brick. The brick, shockingly, flew out of his hand once it came close as though it were a magnet pulled by a massively powerful force, and then it sealed itself into the wall with a click.

Immediately after this click, the room began to rumble, and then Zach was forced to hop backwards as the ground shifted beneath his feet. He watched as a small section of it began sliding over to the side as though retreating into a hidden compartment until a moderately sized, square-shaped hatch now resided in the floor, granting them all entry to some place beneath them.

"H-how did he know to do that?" Tyson exclaimed loudly with overt astonishment as he pointed to the newly formed hatch in the floor not far from Zach's feet. "What in the name of the Gods?"

Zach shrugged. "I've given up bothering to ask. Jimmy just knows these things. You'll learn to accept it."

Carefully, Zach moved over to the hatch, bent over, and inspected this newly opened area. Peering as far as he could, he realized there was a short ramp that ran down it and into what looked like another hallway, but this one was straight and fairly wide before moving downwards and veering off in another direction entirely. However, halfway through this hall, there were three creatures that were clearly mobs, and each was moving back and forth, sliding on the ground.

"Oh, Gods!" Tyson cried, suddenly appearing beside him. "Tell me we don't intend to confront those monstrosities!"

"What monstrosities?" Lienne asked nervously, joining the two of them.

"Those!" Tyson shouted.

The creatures were reddish-brown with rounded bodies, jelly-like eyes, and they moved on what appeared to be thousands of tiny little insect legs. Each was the size of a small dog, and on top of each was a grey, stone-like, and cone-shaped spike that looked sharp and deadly with a flat, rounded base that covered the mobs' heads like a hat.

Jimmy sucked on his tooth, spat on the floor, and gently brushed Zach aside so that he could pass. "Excuse me," he said politely. Then, with six quick strides, he ran down the ramp and entered the hall, and once there, he lifted his staff, swung it wide across, and cast a spell that caused dozens of yellow, flashing lights to appear above the heads of all three mobs. Following this, Jimmy panted, dripping several beads of sweat; the mobs, which had been robotically moving back and forth, all came to a total halt as yellow stars now spun and rotated around the heads of all three stationary creatures.

"They're mezzed," Jimmy said, wiping sweat off his forehead. Zach rubbed his bottom teeth uneasily against his lower lip as he watched Jimmy point his staff at the one in the middle: Spike-Head Critter B. "Okay, let's do this. Everybody get your asses down here. Rian, I want you to pull that one. Zach, attack from the left. Lienne and Trelvor: fire at it from the right. Seiley, conserve your stamina for healing. Well? Get to it. I don't wanna spend all day on trash mobs."

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Rian nodded, though he did so with clear hesitance. And then, after the rest of them climbed down the short ramp, Rian raised his axe-wielding hand and threw his arm forward, releasing his weapon and causing the axe to spin several times in the air until crashing into the fleshy part of Spike-Head Critter B's body, dealing 1,544 damage and causing the stars to fade from above the creature's spike-covered head. The axe, still spinning, then flew across the air a second time, returning with a thwack to Rian's grip as he clutched his hand around the weapon, catching it.

"RAH-GWURB!" it cried as the mez was broken and it dashed forward towards Rian with surprising speed. Rian grinned, raised his axe, and pummeled it across the face for 2,111 the moment it reached him. And now, Zach saw his opportunity to join in. From the glint in the eyes of Lienne and Trelvor, they must have seen their own as well.

But then something happened.

The creature suddenly reversed its momentum. Without turning its body, its thousands of legs began moving in the opposite direction, and it began scurrying away from Rian back towards where it had been. It almost appeared to be running away.

It is! Does that mean Rian just used his…?

"Rian, you dumbass!" Jimmy shouted angrily. "Did you seriously just fear it?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"So what? The hell do you mean 'so what?' Aw, shit! Zach, now we're in real trouble."

Confused, Zach opened his mouth to ask why, but he closed it as he saw for himself what had alarmed Jimmy, for the moment that Spike-Head Critter B ran past the other two Spike-Head Critter mobs, the mezzes on them for some reason broke. And now, both began shuffling forward towards them. But even as they did so, the retreating, feared mob ran down a fairly narrow ramp at the end of the hallway and down another hall to the left and out of sight. It then reappeared just a moment later, but this time, it brought along with it three additional Spike-Head critter mobs, which must have picked up aggro off the feared one.

"Great job, Rian!" Jimmy growled. "You aggroed shit in the next room and broke my mez. Noob-ass bitch!"

"H-how was I supposed to know that would happen?" he cried out, appealing to his own defense.

"Common sense! Don't be using fears for no reason! The hell is wrong with you?"

"Are we gonna be okay?" Lienne asked.

Rather than answer her question directly, Jimmy said, "I'll slow them all, but we got nowhere to kite in this dungeon, so we need to burn them down fast. Focus A and C while B and the other adds head towards us." Jimmy ran off to slow the others while Rian, clearly using his taunt, caused the Spike-Head Critter A and Spike-Head Critter C to slightly divulge from their path so that they moved straight towards him.

"I can handle this!" Rian called out.

The two, un-slowed mobs, made it to Rian very quickly, and immediately, the one on the left—Spike Head Critter A—jumped several feet into the air, flipped its body forward, and made a lunging, stabbing motion with the stone-like, cone-shaped spike on its head. Rian lifted his shield, bent his knees, and angled his body forward as he blocked it with a thunk, which caused the mob to bounce off the shield and flip right-side up as it landed back on its thousands of legs.

Despite its small size, the mob must have been pretty strong, because Rian stumbled a step or two backwards upon impact. And unfortunately, the other mob—Spike Head Critter C—chose this moment to attack. Like its friend, it jumped, spun forward, and lunged at Rian, who attempted to raise his shield once more. But this time, he was too slow.

"Gah!" Rian cried out as the mob's cone-shaped spike pierced several inches into the flesh just above his belly. The mob then flew backwards, turned itself right-side up, and landed back on its feet as a frightening amount of dark red blood began leaking out of the wound in Rian's sternum.

"Heal," Jimmy said calmly—but he didn't need to. Seiley was already raising her staff to do just that.

"Val En Maxi Lor!" Seiley chanted, causing her eyes to briefly shine with a green light while an even brighter green spotlight was shined on Rian as though he were the main character in a play. Within seconds, his wound closed up, he began breathing more easily, and he even managed to raise his shield and stop yet another lunging attack.

"Start DPS'ing!" Jimmy shouted at them. "Hurry! The adds are coming!"

Zach nodded, raised his blade so that the hilt was level with his eyes, and then he struck directly downwards. With a clack, his blade crashed into the spike atop the mob's head, dealing 221 damage and causing a few flakes of stone-like material to pour off it like dust.

"Not there," Jimmy growled. "That's obviously its strong point! Hit anything other than the spike on its head."

Zach nodded. In hindsight, it was obvious. He raised his blade to strike again. As he did so, a melody began to play from Trelvor's glamorous new flute which, like Lienne's new head piece, had come from the Mare of the Primordial Void. At once, an upbeat, marching melody filled the dungeon, and now, rather than the raven Zach had grown accustomed to, a different sort of figure emerged in the air before Trelvor.

So, that's a 'Warrior Sprite,' huh? Zach thought.

The "Warrior Sprite" that appeared looked like a fairy, but it was male, had many more wings, and an angrier face. It was also tiny and could easily fit in the palm of one's hand. Floating in the air before Trelvor, it wielded two equally tiny swords and produced a constant buzzing sound as what looked like eight wings flapped up and down fast enough to appear a blur. This buzzing then increased in volume as it took off fast, shooting across the distance and flying over Spike-Head Critter C so that it could then drop down through the air and begin swinging wildly at Spike-Head Critter A.

And for a small little thing, it could really put out some damage—and fast.

6,122

5,155

5,044

Lienne joined in, launching numerous flaming missiles.

2,591

3,022

3,000

1,992

And now, aiming more carefully, Zach ripped his blade downwards on an angle, succeeding in slicing the mob directly across the softer flesh beneath its spiked head and causing a foul-smelling, brown-colored blood to stain the tiled flooring beneath them.

8,112.

He raised his blade to strike again. In the corner of his eyes, he saw Spike-Head Critter B slowly moving towards them along with three new adds: D, E, and F. The four mobs moved as one big group, and from the looks of things, Jimmy was applying his poisons to all four as he backpedaled to where Zach was standing—and then continued to retreat backwards.

"Hurry up!"

"Okay, okay."

Zach whipped his arms from left to right, then right to left, causing a tearing sound to fill the dungeon and more brown blood to shoot out of the creature as he struck for another 8,627 and 7,995. This, as the Warrior Sprite somehow managed to put out another 15,000 combined damage in just the time it took Zach to hit twice. The little thing's arms were moving around like an industrial machine, delivering strike after strike after strike.

"Lienne!" Jimmy called. "Pull off A and C and start AE'ing the group of four heading our way! Now's your chance!"

"Got it!"

Even as Zach focused on launching more attacks against his target with Trelvor, he saw Lienne casting in his peripheral vision, and he heard her chant, "Val En Maxi Flamir!"

A big circle appeared on the floor just ahead of where the mobs were heading, one big enough so that all four mobs could easily fit inside and then some. A moment after its appearance, the four mobs ran over the outer edge of the circle and soon crossed to the middle so that they were directly inside of it. Lienne, having timed the ability perfectly, grinned as a cylindrical, fifteen-foot-high pillar made of pure orange flame burst upwards, enclosing everything within the circle in fire and dealing between three- and four-thousand initial damage, which repeated several times as the slowed mobs scurried through and then outside of the attack. In total, each of them likely suffered more than 20k just from that one attack plus about another 7k from Jimmy's three different poisons, which he'd stacked on them and had all ticked at once.

Zach, realizing the need to move quickly, delivered a three-hit combination attack at the exact same time Rian swiped with his axe—and all while the Warrior Sprite continued hacking away. Brown blood flew everywhere, some of it getting in Zach's eyes. Delivering a fourth and final slash, Zach struck the killing blow, then took one hand off his weapon very briefly to wipe his eyes.

+7,000xp

Zachs scoffed at the pitiful amount of XP. As a group of seven, however, it was to be expected. Rian and Lienne had actually been the ones to teach him how XP worked backed in Yorna. With two people in a party, there was no penalty. With three to four, you lost half the XP rounded down. This increased to two-thirds if you adventured with five to seven, and with eight to ten, you only got a quarter of the mob's XP value. Finally, with ten or more, you got nothing outside of bosses or raid mobs.

So this thing is probably worth 21k if you're solo or duo, Zach thought. Good to know if I ever come back here.

Upon hitting zero HP, the mob toppled over onto its side and landed on the brick floor with a squish. It then began to shake and writhe before liquifying and disappearing into a form of acid, which stained the brick surface. It also left behind a shining blue light, which indicated a piece of loot had dropped. Shockingly, however, Zach barely even cared what it was, because blue meant "rare" and he had been spoiled by purple and higher to the extent that a regular-old rare didn't even excite him anymore. Well…maybe it did a little.

I still want it!

For now, however, he'd put his curiosity aside while they dealt with Spike-Head Critter C and the four more of them that were crawling closer and closer to them.

Zach felt his adrenaline pick up as he realized they might not be able to deal with this one in time, which meant they'd end up having to fight five all at once. He wasn't sure if Rian could handle that. "Let's go!" Jimmy called out, reinforcing his worries. "Hurry up and kill it!"

"Okay, okay!"

Careful not to hit the defensive, spiked part of its head, Zach brought his sword around at an angle, cutting through the flesh on its body and hitting for 7,702. Then he raised it immediately, wasting no time at all before striking a second time. But then something caught his eye, and he immediately pulled off, grabbed Rian's bicep, and dashed backwards, yanking his friend away from the mob.

Rian, losing his balance and falling onto his ass, yelled, "Zach, what the h—"

A circle formed on the ground, not all that dissimilar to the one Lienne's spell had created, only this one was much smaller and seemingly tailored just to wrap around the target that had been struck. Following its appearance, a pillar of blue flame burst into existence: and one that was a shade of blue so dark that it might have been more accurate to call it black. This inferno, which trapped the creature inside the flame, not only managed to cover it entirely, but actually incinerated it. Zach watched as it burned away until nothing remained of it but ashes and a green glowing light indicating an uncommon piece of loot had dropped.

310,251

+7,000xp

"Gods!" Tyson cried out suddenly. "You're…you really are everything they say you are!"

It took Zach a moment to realize that Tyson was speaking to him and not someone else. He must have been surprised by the damage number, though, to be fair, it was the lowest proc chance of the three abilities on his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness, so it made sense it was even more powerful than the light ability.

"Haha, nice!" Jimmy cheered. "You one-shot the thing. Attaboy! Okay, let's finish the rest off. Lienne, hit the group of four with another AOE before it gets to us."

Lienne, who was already panting and sweating from her last area-of-effect attack, nodded as if to signal her compliance, though doing so caused sweat to roll down her forehead, trickle over her nose, and splash onto the floor. Raising her staff, she unleashed another of the attacks, and despite her exhaustion, she managed to nail them again; slowed, the mobs took several hits while passing through the pillar of flame that she'd summoned while another two ticks of Jimmy's poison went off, causing each of them to release a synchronized "RAH-GWURB!"

Wow, Zach thought. They haven't even reached us yet and they're already slightly less than half HP.

"Rian, get ready!" Seiley shouted.

"I am!"

Rian pointed at one of the mobs with his left hand, likely to indicate a taunt, and then he threw his axe into the face of another, dealing 2,001 damage. Then he caught his axe, stepped forward, and clocked a third over the head just as the fourth jumped forward, spun its body, and lunged its spike into his shield, pushing him a few inches backwards. Two more then attempted the same attack, and this time around, Rian actually managed to maneuver his shield fast enough to block both. It was also here that Zach realized for the first time that Lienne and Rian were like way, way, way stronger than they'd been during Yorna.

Like way stronger.

This could only mean one thing: Seiley and Trelvor had been doing something that, while not technically power-leveling the twins, was close enough that it bordered on scandalous. Aside from Jimmy, no humans should have been able to catapult themselves through the levels as fast as Rian and Lienne had. Clearly, the two had found some additional benefits to dating Elves. Zach didn't even want to guess what level they were right now, as it would only depress him and make him realize he was falling so far behind. He didn't even want to know!

"Sweet!" Rian shouted out. "I just realized I leveled up to 48 on that last mob Zach killed."

Looks like I'm finding out anyway, he thought with a sigh. Then he inhaled sharply as he realized that Rian and Lienne were now actually higher level than Jimmy! I seriously need to start leveling.

Zach knew he had no logical reason to feel disappointment, especially because level didn't actually matter all that much. Stats were way more important than level. Leveling was just a number that approximated someone's level of power, and even then, it did so very, very poorly. An adventurer's stats were infinitely more relevant. Technically speaking, Zach was a good deal stronger than Rian or Lienne despite being level-26. And that was before considering Unleashed Phase. If he was using that, it would be a one-sided fight even if he took them both on at once. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling he wasn't where he should be. Seriously, he needed to start rising like everybody else around him seemed to be doing.

Deciding to take out his angst on Spike-Head Critter B, Zach let fly a flurry of low chopping slices, one after the next, each dealing between 8- and 9-thousand damage; this, as Rian suffered three more painful-to-look-at stabbing attacks that Seiley had to heal while Lienne sat on the floor and rested, panting. Trelvor, making up for her slack, was playing his flute like he was performing in front of a thousand people, the melody filling the entire dungeon with its upbeat, marching tune.

"Gotcha!" Jimmy cried as a bluish orb blasted off the end of his staff and struck Spike-Head Critter B for 2,115 damage and scored the killing blow. As far as Zach was aware, that blue-orb thing was actually his one and only direct-damaging attack—or at least the only one Zach had ever seen him use—and even then, he rarely saw Jimmy call upon it. But now, clearly having used Breath of Invigoration on himself, Jimmy was practically spamming the ability with glee.

+7,000xp

Zach, stepped carefully around Rian's left side and shoved his entire blade through the soft-portion of Spike-Head Critter D's body for 8,771. Then he winced as Rian failed to block another of the spike-head attacks, this one seeming to penetrate his heart. Luckily, however, due to a combination of his gear, constitution, and armor, the spike did not penetrate deeply enough to where Rian would require a purple or even a red stone. Instead, like the other times, Seiley was able to call down her heal upon him, patching him up instantly. But he had lost a lot of blood by this point. It was all over the floor around where he was standing, staining the dark blue bricks a shade of red.

"Lienne, do you still have your second yellow rejuvenation stone from Mushkie?" Zach called out as he spun around, ducked low, and swiped his blade wide, ripping off whatever strange collection of sensory organs passed for Spike-Head Critter D's "face."

Tyson cleared his throat. "What or who is a Mushkie?"

"None of your business," Zach said. "Anyway, Lienne, do you still have one?"

"Yeah," she replied, still breathing heavily. "I only used the one yellow so far—on Tyson. I've still got my purple, two reds, and the other yellow."

"Okay, good. Rian's probably going to need it after we finish off these three."

She gave him a thumbs-up, clearly too exhausted to reply. For a moment, her visage was obscured by a cluster of galaxies from that admittedly cool steeple-hat she'd won from the Mare of the Primordial Void raid. After they moved away, Zach could clearly see the fatigue in her eyes. Lienne was slouching over as though it required a good deal of effort just to sit upright. It seemed that those big area-of-effect attacks she'd used had really winded her. But that changed rather quickly as Jimmy, likely having just filled up his "bar" a second time, now cast Breath of Invigoration on her. Within ten seconds, she was back on her feet, a shocked and delighted expression on her face. "Whoah!"

"I know, right?" Zach asked with a laugh.

With Lienne once more blasting the mobs along with everyone but Tyson, the last three perished pretty quickly, and Zach claimed another +21,000xp. Following that, Zach sheathed his blade, lowered his head, and scanned the floor for loot. It seemed three things had dropped: a rare item and two uncommon.

"Let's see what we got," he said with an intentionally menacing snicker.

Kneeling down, he quickly took a gander at all three. It was mostly junk—something Jimmy appeared to realize without even bothering to look at it, as he muttered, "Vendor trash" and turned away. It was another new term Zach wasn't familiar with, but it didn't take a whole lot of thinking to figure out what was meant by it. Still, Zach examined the dropped items just to satisfy his curiosity. The first was a broadsword, one that was mostly unremarkable though it did contain a bit of flourish in its red-colored edges and looped handle. It didn't seem to drop with any kind of scabbard or sheath, however. It was just kind of lying there, loose.

The two uncommon items were also extremely "meh."

Zach paused a moment as an idea came to him. He looked the others in the eyes, then received nods from five of the six of them as though they seemed to share the same thought he'd just had. "Hey, Tyson," he said.

"Y-yes, Sir Calador?"

Zach waved him over. He approached and squatted down next to him. "Good news. You just got three adventuring drops. And look!" Zach picked up the sword and handed it to Tyson, who took it from him, though he did so hesitantly and uneasily as though it were a disgusting object. "You have a weapon now! Looks like you'll be fighting with us."

Tyson did not seem happy.