Is this really a Game?!

Entering the fortress through the wide open gates everyone was on high alert, expecting an ambush at any point. The fortress was quite poorly built, the stones used for the walls were not even evenly put on top of one another, and you could see some of them being crooked and sticking out of place.

The inside was equally poor. Small wooden buildings in combination with some stone houses were placed inside, all of them build close to each other and making the place quite cramped. Straight ahead of the group was the main building, being a full 10 meters tall it stood above all, everyone was able to feel a big amount of mana being drawn over on the top.

"Well, whatever their doing needs a huge amount of mana, that's definitely the reason for them amassing so many mana crystals." Reign said while looking at the top with a serious expression on his face.

"I presume the chieftain is waiting for us up there, that's how it is in most games right?" Wolf asks while standing beside him, using his free left hand he runs through his golden blonde hair and combs it back.

"Yup, but I don't think all the mana crystals are up there, they definitely have a storage room, that's probably the hidden room in this dungeon." Shadow puts his hand on his chin as he takes a deep thinking pose.

"A hidden room?" Tank scratches his head in confusion as he asks.

"Yeah, every RPG game has those, it's similar to the hidden quest we finished with the elite monster back then, the game won't tell you about it and it's up to you to find clues about it, in the end if you manage to find it a lot of rewards are given to you, as the hidden room usually has a lot of loot in it, as much as the boss gives usually, sometimes even more, I'm certain that this place has one." Shadow calmly explains to Tank as he continues wracking his brain to figure out where the hidden room could be located.

"I-I think it's either next to the building or below it." Beast excitedly says.

"Below, of course, a basement where they could simply throw the crystals in without a care, that has to be it!" Shadow jumps in delight and excitedly hugs Beast.

"Alright, so get inside the building, find the basement and then go up to kill the boss, got it." Wolf looks back and nods at them.

"Let's go, don't put your guard down, these guys definitely have something prepared for us." Reign reminds everyone as they start walking towards the building.

Slowly trekking forward everyone examines their surroundings, the buildings looked abandoned and the ground had a lot of footprints on it, seems like the goblins were in a hurry when they approached them. The buildings were even worse than they thought at first, all of them had holes on the walls and some were on the verge of collapsing, one thing was for sure, these goblins were incredibly bad builders.

Crack.

Everyone stops in their tracks as they hear a cracking sound nearby, taking a fighting stance everyone surrounds Beast with their backs turned to him, as an archer his close combat skills were his weakness, and even though a goblin would find it nearly impossible to take his life, they were not taking any chances.

The wolves growl as they look around and Greenie cracks his knuckles in anticipation, this was going to be his first battle after evolving and he was pumped up about it.

Suddenly Beast kneels down on the ground and puts his hand on it, the wolves immediately jump on the left and right side of the group and close their eyes.

One of the abilities a low lever tamer has is to briefly gain the same power as their tamed beasts, by focusing on his wolves hearing ability he can amplify it and share it between the three of them. Suddenly he could hear everything, the breaths of his comrades, the low sound of the air passing by them, and even the breaths of the goblins hiding nearby, focusing on that one thing specifically Beast was able to grasp their numbers and general location.

Standing up Beast knocks an arrow on his bow and tells everyone his findings.

"10 goblins around us, they're right behind the nearest buildings, surrounding us." With a quick draw Beast pours a big amount of mana in his arrow and releases it to a building on their right, the arrow zooms through 2 open windows and explodes from behind it. The strength of the explosion was enough to kill 2 of the goblins in hiding and seriously wound one.

The rest of the goblins get out of their hiding places and scatter, giving it their all to run away from their enemies. Clad in black robes the goblins were hard to spot in the shadows and darkness, their mana and presence was cloaked as well, making it difficult to notice them. Reign charges at one and uses one of his new skills on him

"Inspect"

< Goblin Thief lvl8 >

Strength : 14

Agility : 21

Endurance : ?

Vitality : 10

Willpower : ?

Spirit : ?

Description: A special type of goblin evolution, these goblins have adapted to the darkness and learned how to hide their presence to get close to their enemies silently, using their speed to close in and quickly dispatch of them, they are strong in stealth but weak in head on confrontation.

Looking at the stats that became visible to Reign he knew why this part of the dungeon would be dangerous for parties, his agility stat was higher than these goblins but that is because of his ability, having an S ranked one is a huge boost from early on, and the difference between it and low ranked abilities will only be widened when he levels it up.

Catching up to the goblin Reign brandishes his sword and uses Lightning movement to close in and attack. The goblin screeches in confusion and panic, it never expected Reign to be faster than it, furthermore boosted by the skill his speed was higher by a lot compared to the poor goblin who couldn't even lift his dagger up in time to defend.

Slash

The sword leaves a trail in the air as Reign decapitates his enemy and runs back to hunt more of them. Arriving at where the others are he sees that there were no goblins in the vicinity, only a couple more corpses.

"We managed to kill 5, well Beast mostly, he killed 3 more after the explosion, those little fckers run incredibly fast." Shadow plays with his dagger as he tells Reign who nods at him, the goblins agility was high so he knew the others would have a hard time to catch up to them.

[Battle has been concluded, distributing experience...]

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

- lvl8 Goblin Thief killed, 80 exp points gained-

[The players have earned 560exp points and 21S coins]

"Let's move on, there might be more ambushes along the way, we need to stay vigilant." Wolf steps forward while examining their surroundings, as an assassin he knew how dangerous a well done ambush can be, allowing you to kill enemies stronger than you with ease.

Everyone nods and continues walking towards their destination.

After some time everyone arrives at the big crude door. Their bodies were drenched in blood and sweat, during their way they encountered 2 more ambushes, each bigger than the previous. The second ambush had 15 goblins in it, with a level 9 Goblin Thief leading it while the third had 20 of them and 3 were level 9. Everyone had to fight seriously against them as they almost failed to notice them on time.

In the very beginning of the battle Tank and Reign got injured while Wolf was able to defend against the level 9's sneak attack. They managed to kill off most of their enemies before they started fleeing.

" So this is it huh, only the hidden room and boss fight left before we can leave this place. " Shadow breathes out a deep breath before saying that.

"Don't get too comfortable Shadow, this part will be the hardest, we still don't know how strong a level 10 is exactly." Reign gives him a stern look and warns him.

"I know, I know, let's go and find that damn room first, we'll probably be able to rest up there before attacking the boss. " Shadow nods in acknowledgement and follows everyone inside.

"This, is not what I expected." Reign and everyone else look around the hall that they entered in wonder.