Ultimate Level 1

“Finish it!”

Max didn’t hesitate, driving his spear into the massive lizardman pounding on Fowl’s shield.

Their dwarf was barely standing after taking a hit to his side, but Batrire had healed him, keeping him from getting hurt even worse.

The creature fell over, its legs buckling as all the others had as Max mastered the spot to attack that shattered their spine, making the lower half of their body worthless.

Two more thrusts at its chest and head killed it, finally stopping the fight that had gone wrong.

“It’s my fault,” Tanila stated as she came running up to check on Fowl. “It resisted my ensnare, and there was nothing I could do.”

Fowl grunted as he stood and shook his head. “You can’t always promise that spell will hit. Sometimes stuff happens. Thankfully, Seth was able to help when he did.”

Batrire moved over and squeezed Tanila’s arm, and rubbed it for a second.

“Fowl’s right. No one here blames you. It isn’t the first time it’s failed, and none of us expect it to work every time.”

Tanila smiled, obviously still frustrated by how it had transpired but stopped apologizing.

“I guess Fowl and Batrire are right. Glad you could do what you did so quickly. Thanks, Seth!”

Max nodded, moved to the smaller lizardman, and collected the club it had tried to use. He tossed it near Fowl and the others and then pulled out his knife, cutting off its tail. “I’m just glad Fowl used his brain and brought the extra backpacks. I never considered having more than one in my temporal storage. Now I feel like an idiot.”

Batrire groaned as Fowl puffed his chest out and struck a pose. “Please don’t give him a bigger head than he already has. It was hard enough for his mother to push that thing out. We can barely get it through a doorway now.”

They all chuckled as they finished collecting everything and Max stored it.

“That just leaves the boss,” Fowl said as he pointed at the glowing orange portal down the tunnel they had just cleared. “I’m almost level seventeen, which is hard to believe. The experience has been amazing.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and took a moment as they stood there, watching the portal pulse.

“What are you thinking?” Tanila asked as she looked at Max and Fowl, who were still staring at it.

Max turned and gave Fowl a gentle shove. “I’d say let's try and get you seventeen tomorrow and then give it a try. That will allow me to also study the boss more.”

A cough came from Batrire, who was shaking her head at Max.

“It’s not just a boss now. It’s a boss and its minions. There will be multiple lizardmen in there with the boss.”

Max saw the other two nodding and grimaced.

“And that is why I wanted to do some studying. Because, as we are all aware, I have no clue what I’m doing.”

Fowl smacked him in the arm and laughed. “No clue what you’re doing besides killing everything. I’ll take your lack of knowledge in exchange for how you handle that spear any day!”

Max laughed, rubbing his arm even though it didn’t hurt and then giving a shrug.

“Well then. Let’s turn this stuff in and get ready for tomorrow.”

After collecting forty silver from a full dungeon clear except for the boss, Max bid the party goodbye and managed to clear out all but the last three orcs in the solo dungeon, bringing his total for the day to fifty-three silver.

He returned to the armor line with a little more coin in his pouch, looking to see what he could spend it on.

“I don’t think you understand, I cannot give a discount.”

Max gave the elf attendant another attempt, this time trying to look as sad as possible.

“I mean, I don’t have any more I can really offer, and those pants would really help against the boss tomorrow.”

An audible groan came from the elf’s throat as he watched Max give another sad attempt at a smile.

“You realize the prices are set by the person selling it. I can only change the price if the adventurer who listed it returns and tells us to decrease it.” The elf crossed his arms and stopped talking.

An awkward silence hung there for a bit as Max finally gave in and looked over the paper with the magical items he had selected.

Strength is what I need… if I can hit harder, I can kill faster…

“Fine, I’ll take the helmet instead but if I never return, just remember a few less silver could have prevented my untimely death.”

The elf rolled his eyes as he took the sheet from Max and saw the helm he had chosen. Opening a drawer next to him, he reached in, pulled out a leather cap, and put it on the counter in front of Max.

“One gold, please.”

Resisting the urge to grumble, Max slid a pouch with fifty silver to the man. The attendant picked it up, gave it two slight tosses, and then nodded. “Pleasure doing business with you, Adventurer Seth. Remember, you can always sell any item you no longer need or want.”

Max picked up the helmet and replaced his old one with it. Walking away, he deposited it into storage and let out a sigh. He could have afforded the pants but didn’t want to spend most of his money on them. Sure, they would have been nice, but a bonus of one strength from the helm would have to do for now.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

[Simple Stat Check]

*****

HP: 170/170

MP: 50/50

Stamina: 85/85

STR: 13+5

DEX: 9+1

CON: 12+5

INT: 10

WIS: 7

*****

Unable to hold back the grin, Max set off to finish the last thing on his list for today.

“Tell me why you haven’t come to say hi and don’t give me no stupid, ‘I’ve been adventuring’ answer either.”

Max winced as Aimee stood beside him in the inn's main dining room. The normal crowd of patrons had not arrived yet it was still early in the evening.

“But I have! Tomorrow, we are going to attempt the lizardman boss. That’s why I’m here studying everything I can.”

Aimee smirked and then gave a playful hit against Max’s shoulder as she started to laugh.

“I’m just messing with you, Seth. I had no doubt the only thing keeping you away was some fancy quest. Nothing boring like baking pies, cakes, bread, and more every day.”

Max rolled his eyes and motioned to the chair across the table.

“I don’t think baking is boring, but it sure is much slower when it comes to leveling.”

Aimee eyed the chair momentarily and then glanced around the room before sitting down.

“I can’t stay long. Dad will wonder what I’m doing, and Big D has a bad habit of telling him everything. I guess it's expected since they’ve known each other for like twenty years.”

“Twenty years… that’s a long time to stay in one place.”

Aimee nodded, letting out a sigh as she glanced once more around the room. “Tell me about it. Someone new comes in every day, and within a month or two, they are gone. No one sticks around. Only a few of my childhood friends are still here and they are always working as well.” She chuckled and then shared what she had been thinking. “I always figured I made the wrong choice and should have been a [Banker]. Those guys have the easy life, working banker hours.”

“Maybe the gods messed up and meant to give you the [Banker] but forgot to add the ‘n’ to it.”

Grinning, Aimee nodded and then her face changed, her smile replaced with a frown. “How long till you leave?”

Sucking air in through his teeth, Max winced a little at that question.

“I don’t know but maybe two months or so. Once I finish most of the dungeons I can do here it will be time to move on.”

Sliding out of her chair, Aimee gave him a grin and held her hand toward him to prevent him from standing. “I need to go. Maybe you can stop by and bake again. It was fun getting to see you work.”

Max nodded and waved as she left. The thought of living the life she had seemed foreign now. Before, all he could think of was being a [Baker] and now it seemed like he was consumed with killing things and getting stronger.

In the back of his brain was an itch he could never fully scratch, begging to feel the rush of power as that cold wave came over him.

Looking at the book on the table, Max opened it to where he had slid a bookmark and began scanning the information on the boss again.

Four lizardmen and the boss… and the four that spawn are always random… thirty seconds after the fight starts before the boss activates…

Knowing that tomorrow those four could be anything made planning hard. If the combination was wrong, taking everything out before the boss became active would be impossible.

He glanced at the skill section and let out a low whistle.

Four skills… what the hell were the gods thinking?

Looking at the four of them, Max recognized the Power Slash and Power Slam. Both were dependent on the weapon the boss spawned with. Either a sword or a mace would dictate that skill.

Iron Skin… I mean, come on…

For twenty seconds, the boss would have 50% resistance to all physical attacks.

Max’s finger froze on the last one as he read it.

“Dual Wielding… you got to be crapping me.”

Realizing he had said something out loud, Max looked around and saw that no one was within range of hearing him.

If he has Dual Wielding and one of each weapon…

The possibility was scary and, at the same time, exciting. Most adventurers would fear the possibility, but Max saw each of these skills as a chance for more power.

The way Consume worked still confused him as he hadn’t gotten a skill from the goblin boss. If it only had one skill, there had to be a factor in how it worked. Yet if this boss had multiple skills, it might give him the opportunity to at least get one. Choosing which one would be hard if given a choice.

Getting the eggs before the hen Max. Slow down and wait.

Closing the book, Max could feel his hands trembling and had to open and close them a few times before it stopped.

He chuckled when he realized why they had been shaking.

Gods, I can’t wait for tomorrow.

“Holy elf tits!” Tanila shouted out as she gave a fist pump after Max killed the last lizardman. “I didn’t think I would get it but I did. Level seventeen!”

Everyone gave her a few claps and Tanila gave her best bow as they set to work harvesting the lizardmen.

“You three want to go inside and get the timer started while I finish up here?” Max asked as he stuffed a few clubs into a bulging backpack and put it in storage.

“You sure?” Fowl asked as he looked at the other two corpses that still needed to be harvested.

“Yeah. It will give both of them a little time to rest, and we need to wait two minutes anyhow.”

Fowl nodded and moved to stand by the orange portal.

He turned and flashed a grin, motioning to it with his head. “The last one in is an off-tank.”

The three of them chuckled and portaled over while Max moved to one of the last remaining corpses.

With them all gone he finished up and then pulled his spear out of storage.

[Ice Enchant]

His spear glowed blue and Max could tell the enchantment had grown stronger since he had gained all his Intelligence.

[Inspect Weapon]

*****

Berserker Spear

+1 Strength, Constitution, Dexterity

25% bonus damage against higher-level enemies

Bonded

Enchantment:

Ice Enhancement - +5% damage, 10% chance to apply a chill effect upon striking an enemy. The chill effect lasts twelve seconds and slows the enemy by 20% - 6:56.

*****

He smiled, feeling his hands starting to shake before he clenched his spear tight.

There was a boss to fight and he would be the one to kill it.