Ultimate Level 1

“We ready?” Max asked as the four of them finished putting on their gear. Max was sweating slightly from the layers of clothes he wore under his armor. He could feel a difference just standing inside the adventurers hall.

“Gods, yes,” groaned Fowl. “I feel like a steamed sausage in my armor right now.”

Tanila and Batrire nodded, moving quickly into the blue portal near them.

“Holy blue balls!” Fowl shouted, trying to make sure everyone heard him over the wind. “It’s a bit chilly in these nether areas!”

Everywhere around them was snow, up to their knees and still falling. The wind assaulted them, and the cold air found every bit of unprotected flesh, letting them know that Tom had been correct about how bad this would be. Snow swirled down on and around, leaving only a small area of visibility.

“I can’t see but maybe fifteen or twenty yards!” Tanila yelled. “Let me summon my familiar!”

Max nodded, wondering if the magic resistance from his armor was helping him not to feel cold or if it was something else.

A roaring ball of fire appeared next to Tanila, and Max saw her visibly sigh in relief.

“Stand next to it!” she told Batrire, who came and nodded that things were much better within the small area of its aura.

“Okay! I’m driving the piton! Batrire, you’re in charge of it first!”

Max pulled out the spike and the first of the many ropes they had purchased for this dungeon. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know how much rope adventurers lost. Tom had given them a list of equipment and some instructions for this zone, and not getting lost was high on the list.

He tied the rope's end to the spike and handed Batrire the rope pouch. How it worked still amazed him, but supposedly, over two miles' worth of rope continued to let itself out as they walked.

“Ready here!”

Batrire cast her buff and gave a thumbs up.

“Lead on Fowl!” Max shouted as he motioned to his dwarven tank.

The dwarf's curses as he moved through the thick snow were drowned out by the wind.

The wind affected Max’s sonar skill, creating an almost painful throbbing in his head. The range had actually shrunk, and he could barely make out his friends in the area it detected.

“TWO!”

Max and Fowl fought the first two yetis. They had stumbled upon them, not realizing they were there until the red eyes appeared, charging at them.

They were covered in white fur and had massive claws on the tips of their fingers. Huge fangs jutted from their mouth. They had blue-skinned faces, and the white coat of fur that covered them from head to toe completely hid their presence until they attacked.

Fowl blocked the first yeti’s attack with his shield, causing the creature to roar in agony and anger. Max stood off to the side, ready to back up Fowl if needed, but they wanted to see how Fowl managed against two from the start.

They slashed and clawed at the dwarven tank, doing no damage to him as their claws couldn’t penetrate his defenses, and Max saw that after a minute they were bleeding slightly. Fowl's new skill reflected small amounts of damage back at them.

The trolls could heal themselves, so Fowl’s skill did little besides make them hate him more.

As their tank easily defended and landed blows against the eight-foot-tall creatures, Max knew it was time for Plan B.

“Light one up!” Max shouted, motioning to Tanila.

A standard fireball appeared beside her, yet Max could tell it was stronger than his. It flew to where both yeti were and exploded, turning them into smoldering yeti flesh corpses.

“I wasn’t done yet!” Fowl shouted, glancing at the burnt corpses at his feet.

“That was a normal fireball!” Tanila replied. “I wasn’t trying to go all out!”

Shaking his head, Max looked back at their mage, trying to imagine what one of his spells would do compared to hers. The amount of damage she had just done reminded him of when he had slaughtered the dungeon monsters for Aimee and her father.

“We should be fine!” Max shouted, chuckling at Tanila's appearance and almost embarrassed by what she had done. “Let’s keep moving, clear what we can, and leave!”

The hours it took to sweep a massive dungeon section were long and tiring. Max cast his Fire Nova multiple times around the group, melting snow and creating a moment of warmth.

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Max and the rest quickly broke into a jog when the portal appeared ahead.

The second dungeon floor greeted them with even more wind and snow, making them shiver the moment they appeared on it.

“Let’s get out of here!” Fowl yelled. “My nuts are in hibernation mode!”

No one felt the need to reply as they all moved to the nearby portal and exit to the dungeon.

“Gods, that was miserable,” Fowl muttered, his teeth clacking against each other as he shivered. “How did they ever beat those dungeons in the beginning?”

Max shook his head, shivering from the cold while watching Tanila and Batrire do the same. “Tom didn’t do a bad job warning us, but I guess he knew the second floor would be too much without magical assistance. How much rope did we use?”

Batrire slapped her hands against her arms a few times and then took the pouch from her belt. Opening it, she shook her head. “We used over half… was the floor that long, or were we not moving in a straight line?”

“Probably the latter,” Tanila replied. “These dungeons are worse because you can’t keep track of your direction unless you have someone gifted with that ability. Typically, a miner would have those skills, but I guess an adventurer could also have them.”

“It's probably a scout skill,” Max said. “Who knows? I’m just glad we’re out of there.”

“First, are we going to visit Tom or return to the inn?” Tanila asked.

“I say we visit Tom, pick up the items he has for us, and then go back to the inn,” Max answered. “I’d rather just rest and be done for the day then hit this again tomorrow morning.”

Batrire and Fowl nodded as Batrire began to help Fowl take off his armor.

“I have a question,” Max asked as they rode in the back of their rented carriage. “Just how much damage are you doing with your fireball against those yetis?”

Tanila clicked her tongue a few times, gazing up at the carriage ceiling as she tried to figure out the numbers.

“So, let’s say my intelligence is almost three times as high as yours… then with the twenty-five percent increase in damage from my new skill and the increased damage yetis take from fire, I’m basically broken in that dungeon… almost as bad as in the troll one, but not quite.”

“Why do I feel like the third wheel?” Fowl whispered to Batrire, not trying to be quiet.

“You’re not the third wheel,” Batrire replied with a grin. “You’re the fourth.”

Sighing, Fowl nodded and winked at Tanila sitting across from him. “Don’t worry, I’m just messing around. It was bad enough getting outclassed by our resident bald guy. Now I have this elven mage lighting things up like a birthday cake for a two-hundred-year-old dwarf.”

Max and Tanila both started laughing.

“Don’t worry. We will need you more than you realize once we hit the level fifty dungeon. I know some people choose not to do them, but the rewards are well worth it if we go before going inside the tower.”

“What are the rewards?” Max asked Tanila, not having considered doing any more dungeons once they were high enough to enter the tower.

“Yeah, why didn’t Tom tell us to do them?” Fowl asked before Tanila could answer.

“Because they're hard, like really hard,” she answered. “Most people don’t do them because it's too late by the time they can.”

“Which brings me back to what are the rewards?” Fowl grumbled.

Rolling her eyes, Tanila held her hand up in Fowl’s face. “Just let me finish, and I’ll tell you!” she exclaimed. “There are only two here in this city and two in each of the others. All are basically the same. You only get one chance to enter; if you leave, that’s it. No other chance. Not even in the other cities. The first dungeon is filled with demons and other things that haunt most people's nightmares. Magic isn’t effective against some, and others are immune to basic weapons, not that anyone would be using those there.”

Max grinned as Tanila took a breath. “Imagine not having magical weapons stored in your backpack… stuff like, say, axes and clubs.”

Max ignored Fowl’s comment and waited for Tanila to continue.

“Anyways… they use dark magic, curses, life drain abilities, and more. Fear is common, and the boss is typically not easy to beat, even for a well-equipped standard five-person group. That said, the demon dungeon is often considered the easier of the two,” Tanila stated. “The other dungeon is full of lizards and drakes, culminating in a battle with a smaller dragon-like drake. It’s not a full dragon, but similar in enough ways that most won't risk it. Imagine getting fire, ice, lightning, or another element blasted at you.”

Fowl was rocking back and forth glaring at Tanila, who smiled, knowing what he was waiting for.

“The part our tiny warrior wants to know is that first, no items are given for defeating those dungeons.”

“WHAT? No loot?! That sucks!” Fowl began to shout and complain. “Why in the gods would someone–”

“JUST WAIT!” Tanila yelled, cutting Fowl’s tirade off. “I’m getting there. Can you wait for just a single moment?”

Fowl covered his mouth with his hand, and his cheeks looked slightly red as if he was momentarily embarrassed.

“As I was saying,” Tanila continued, “there is no loot, but there are bonuses to the people who actually beat the dungeon. At the center will be an item you can touch once the boss is defeated, and it grants the adventurer half of a percent of resistance per tower level they complete, the type depending on the dungeon they beat. The dragon is physical, and the demon one is magical.”

Fowl and Max both let out a low whistle.

“That would add up at the higher parts of the tower,” Max pointed out. “Why don’t they have tower climbers helping with those bosses and dungeons?”

Smiling as she shook her head, Tanila put her hand out to stop Fowl’s incoming question. “The dungeon knows. If anyone, and I mean anyone who has been in the tower, joins the group and enters it, no one will get any rewards. Even if the tower climber helps clear to the boss and doesn’t go further. It was very painful for those who learned bout this the hard way. You are getting the benefits of a lifetime of knowledge that most don’t have or won’t share.

“That is why I don’t think Tom or Everett have mentioned it to us,” she continued. “We all know they are excited about the four of us and what we might bring to their Faction. Losing us would be a major blow to their potential growth, especially if we continue to excel at finding rare spawns.”

“Damn, she’s smart,” Batrire stated. “Perhaps Tanila can spare a few intelligence points for our warrior.”

“Hey, leave me out of this,” Fowl complained. “It’s not my fault I grew up near a forge.”

Max ignored the other three as they continued to tease and joke with each other, considering what he had just heard.

“Seth?”

Max nodded, acknowledging Fowl’s calling of his name.

“What are you thinking? That grin on your face tells me we’ll probably attempt at least one.”

Max nodded. “I think we need to get back to Tom, pick up our gear for the yeti dungeon, and clear it. After that, we can do the fire salamander one and then go clear the troll dungeon and any other dungeons we can until you all hit level fifty. After that… we clear those last two dungeons.”