Chapter 2: Dungeon Troubles

                              -ACCESS RESTRICTED, REACH LEVEL 900 TO WIELD-

Alice let out a sigh and pulled out the short sword from the guild, Cleo had conjured a staff, and she aimed it at one of the goblins who had just taken notice of them, Cleo closed her eyes and focused as an orange orb materialized at the tip of her staff, her eyes flash open as the ball propels itself forward into one of the goblins, exploding on contact. It was pretty cool, but Alice had no time to gawk at her teammate's magic, she had to defend herself too. One of the goblins took the initiative and charged her, dagger in hand ready to strike her down. She had to go about this carefully, once the goblin was close enough it swung, just barely missing Alice by an inch, but this allowed her to sink her own sword into his chest, she mentally cringed at how the blade sunk into flesh, she used all her strength to pull up, the sword tore through the goblin's chest effectively killing it, and when it did die a pop up appeared,

                                                                 -LEVEL UP-

This pop-up closed on its own after a while, but she had forgotten that a system like this often came with player levelling, which meant a fast method to get stronger. The two of them worked together to clear the rest of the goblins, where Alice learnt that assisted kills count towards her exp count. She had gained a total of 2 levels from killing those four goblins, plus another level from clearing the side quest, so she was at level 3 now with a total of 15 stat points which she planned on holding onto for now. "I'm not really a combat mage," Cleo says after chugging a mana bottle, " My skills revolve around supporting others, but I obviously have skills that can also help me whenever I need to fight back," she explained. The path they had taken led them to a broken wall, which led further into the dungeon, Alice went through first in case monsters were waiting on the other side, which fortunately wasn't the case. Instead, they found themselves in what looked to be the boss room. It was a throne room; there were 10 hobgoblins, with five on each side standing crosswise from the others. Sitting in the back was an even bigger one, probably the king. She had noticed it before, but the level of the monsters was displayed above their heads, the goblins they fought before were level 4, while the hobgoblins were level 15. The King level 20, made her question how the dungeon was rated at only 4 stars. Being able to see monsters levels applied to everything, as when she glances over at Cleo her level is displayed clearly above her head, which would be level 5. The king spoke in their language, followed by a series of grunts, before nodding his head in their direction. One of the hobgoblins broke free from its line and stalked toward them. It was tall, dark green in complexion, and wore very little armour. It had a great axe in hand. I drew my own weapon,

" How long do your buffs last for and how many times can you cast them?"

"...Huh?"

" Your spells, I need to know how long they last for," Cleo wasn't expecting this, but it's not like they could just go back the way they came, 'cause they can't. The crevice they emerged from was gone. Cleo fumbled nervously to get her staff out, " For now applied buffs last for around a minute or two, but if I stack them they last for a total of five. My current max is 12 if I'm using all three, but 20 if it's only one," she says holding her staff outward toward Alice, the head glowing three different colors. Alice could feel the buffs take effect, in the top left of her vision three icons appeared, one with a sword, one with boots, and one with a shield, with the buffs having taken effect she charged in, and when she was close to the hobgoblin it slammed its great axe into the ground, just barely missing her as she swung her blade, drawing first blood. Even with the buffs on, she was struggling. By the time the hobgoblin fell due to the sheer amount of cuts inflicted on it, her breathing was rapid, and her arms ached. Killing the one hobgoblin gave her enough exp to reach level 5, giving her a much-needed boost. Through this level up she obtained three skills, although only one caught her eye. " Hunters Surge", it was essentially the same thing as what Cleo had given her, but this one lasted ten minutes, the effects were slightly better, and it could be upgraded over time. The king sent in two hobgoblins this time, Alice braced herself, her buff would only last for another two minutes, which gave her three options. She could try and kill two in those two minutes or have Cleo renew the buff, or she could just use her skill...option one it is. She needed to hold onto her hunter's surge for when the King made its move. Alice paced herself, though she had no idea how she was going to fight this two vs one. Alice ducked under the swing of one hobgoblin, who was wielding a club, somehow, Alice's foot slipped on the stone floor causing her to stumble and allowing the club goblin to swing back his giant wooden stick into her side, throwing her away a few feet. Her entire body shook as she managed to push herself up, she could feel her friend's worried gaze on her, which helped her to get up. If she fell then Cleo would follow shortly after. Of the 25 stat points she spent 10 on def, and the rest on strength, Cleo recast her buffs as Alice paced herself toward the two hobgoblins, she broke into a sprint startling the club goblin into swinging, this allowed her to duck under it easily and sink the short sword into the chest of the hobgoblin, but instead of pulling it back out she let go and ran past them, skidding to a stop next to the fallen great axe. She had no choice but to use hunters surge, once she gripped the handle of the axe her skill took effect, but even with all those buffs it took a considerable amount of effort to lift it, swinging it was an ordeal of its own. Thanks to the reach granted by the large weapon Alice didn't need to get too close to kill the club goblin, the great axe ended up cleaving it in two, unfortunately, that was all she'd get out of it as the second hobgoblin shattered the axe handle, throwing Alice off balance. She scrambled to her feet as the hobgoblin reared its sword to swing again, she managed to retrieve her short sword and block one attack before it sent her flying again AND breaking her weapon in the progress. Her short sword had been shortened, and with no real plan in mind she charged in, the hobgoblin went for an overhand swing, the blade slammed into her dagger as she focused all her strength into holding her guard, using the momentum from the swing she managed to redirect the blade into the ground allowing her to leap onto the handle and push off of it, tossing the dagger from her left hand to her right hand she swung her fist into the ugly things face, causing it to let go of its blade and stagger back, Alice had planned for this as she had sunken the dagger into its side, holding onto it tightly as the hobgoblin fell to the floor giving her the chance to rip the dagger free and lodge it into its heart, and just to be safe she dragged it down, ripping open a cut through the heart. She staggered back, letting the dagger drop to the floor as she reached for the sword in the ground, it was smaller than the great axe but still heavy. She turned to face the remaining 7 hobgoblins, using all her strength she lobbed the sword at the King, it spun through the air before it just barely scratched its face and getting stuck in the wall beside it, the King merely grinned. Alice prepared to fight with what little strength plus buffs she had, when a bolt of light pierced the five hobgoblins killing them instantly before another one pierced the two on the other side, in a blur of light Arthur took his stand before Alice.

"Took you long enough," Was the first thing she said to him, " I remember specifically saying to meet OUTSIDE the boss door, not make your way in and try and beat it," Is the first thing he said to her, they would've gone on about this if Clair hadn't voiced in, " Focus Arthur, this is still a dungeon we're in!" Arthur let out a sigh and turned back to the King, who had gotten out of his seat, but before he could do anything Arthur pointed two fingers at it, from which a beam of light shot straight through the neck of the King, its head dropping to the floor first before the rest of the body.

                                                          -ASSISTED BOSS CLEAR-

                                                                  - LEVEL UP+ -

Alice couldn't help but smile at this, to which Arthur berated her. Clair used her healing magic on Alice to mend her wounds, they weren't too bad, a few cuts and bruises and a fracture in her left arm from when she tried tanking the hobgoblin sword slam, fortunately for her Clair's healing magic was top-tier. While she did so Cleo explained how they ended up in the boss's room, which they fortunately believed. With that having been settled, the duo waited with Clair and Arthur until the remained time ran up, in which Arthur spoke to everyone, letting them know that they all passed as bronze rank hunters, while three of them ended in silver. With that, they all made their way back to the city, only this time Arthur followed behind, with Alice, Cleo, and Clair. " You two fought well, despite going against orders you still held out pretty well against 15-star monsters," Arthur said before forcing his attention forward, warranting a laugh from Clair, " Arthur has always been bad at letting someone know that they've done well," Clair says smiling warmly at Arthur, who can do nothing but purse his lips in annoyance as she told the two strangers things about him. By the time they got back, Alice had learnt a lot about the young hunter, like how he was the same age as her, that he- despite being the allowed age- didn't drink as he had a super low tolerance to it, and before she could tell them more about it Arthur threw a fit, which only warranted more laughter from not just Clair, but also Alice and Cleo. It took around an hour total for Clair and Arthur to hand out all the bronze badges, and the one silver. Alice and Cleo were last to receive their badges, which were both silver. Two of the three adventurers he had mentioned before were them, Alice accepted the well-sized coin, it had a carving of two women praying on the side with a sword in the middle. Alice glanced over to her friend who had just been staring intently at it, she looked like she was gonna cry.

"WE DID IT!" Cleo yelled suddenly as she grappled Alice in a tight hug, jumping up and down before eventually settling down. Clair invited the duo to stay for a meal, which Alice gladly accepted. They all sat around the wooden table as Clair brought out the food, " What was up with that boss room," Alice asked Arthur, " YOU said it was a 4-star dungeon, but those monsters were clearly higher," she continued, using her fork to point at him, which seemed to annoy him, she would keep that in mind. Arthur glanced over to Clair who just nodded, " This is something that not many people know about, and since Clair seems to trust you two I'll let you in on it. Over the past couple of days, there have been dungeon anomalies, one of those anomalies occurred inside the perpetual dungeon, so we used the excuse of holding the Adventurers assessment so we could take a closer look, and we found this," Arthur reaches out into the empty space, only for it to cross over into a subspace, an inventory. When he pulled his hand out he was holding a strange-looking crystal, its edges were dark purple but it slowly melted into a lighter purple. It exuded a strange aura, and a sudden pop-up which startled Alice making her bang her legs on the table, warranting a suspicious look from Arthur, so she once more pointed to the crystal using her fork, " So what is it, is that small rock causing these dungeon anomalies?" She asked driving the focus back onto the crystal, Arthur let out a sigh as he put the odd rock back in his inventory, " We're not sure, it's the only one I've found. I'll have to look into it more tomorrow," with that Arthur ended the conversation. After having a hearty meal getting to know more about Arthur despite his protests, Clair saw them out, " Now that your Adventurers you'll be able to take on commissions and do dungeons, or join a guild. Come back tomorrow and I'll help you figure it all out," Clair waved to them as they walked away. So much has happened, from getting sent to another world, getting a system, fighting monsters in a dungeon and becoming a full-on Adventurer, Alice hadn't given much thought to the fact that she's...homeless.

                                                         -MAIN OBJECTIVE-

FIND -NAME-, CITY OF ADVENTURE

open map to locate( to do so, just think it!)

PARTAKE IN THE ADVENTURERS ASSESSMENT AND OBTAIN A RANK

FIGURE OUT THE ORIGIN OF THE CRYSTAL OF ENTROPY

Reach Level 900

                                                            -SIDE OBJECTIVES-

CLEAR THE GROUP OF GOBLINS

DEFEAT THE DUNGEON BOSS

Defeat the Goblin Kings guards(10/10)