Capítulo 48: The Third Level
The tight space within the azure vein was quickly filled by Jack and the party as they scurried through with as much speed possible. It wasn't the fastest way to enter the third level, but it was the easiest and offered the stealthiest passage in the entire mine.
The order of the line was Maynard, Brunar, Jack, Slivia, Troni, and Rydel. Occasionally parts of the vein were obstructed or filled with earth, forcing Maynard to act and clear the way. Though it was nice to have some short breaks in the larger openings, it would waste too much MP for Maynard to do that too often, let alone carve out the entire vein.
Whenever Maynard would cut through the vein, there were always a few azure clusters that escaped the destruction of Maynard's attacks but were still forced off the walls. Jack and the other young adventurers would scramble to pick them up and store them away before continuing.
Sometimes if they weren't paying too much attention, they would get snagged on the crystals. The neighboring adventurers would help unhook any cloaks, hair, or clothes from the crystals, letting everyone move forward freely.
"Jack."
Hearing the whisper from behind him, Jack responded, "What is it Slivia?"
"Umm…" Slivia hesitated before she spoke her mind. "If the second level was so dangerous, won't the third level be even more…"
"Yeah, it'll be more dangerous." Jack finished her sentence for her. "But don't worry, we'll be fine. All we have to do is sneak past the outposts. After that, we'll have the advantage and surprise attack the goblin city. Then, we can fight on our terms."
"But what if we can't sneak past the outposts? My other party never made it to the city walls before we were surrounded," said Slivia with a dull look in her eyes.
Jack peeked behind him to notice the disbelief in her eyes. "Hey, we're from the Adventurers Association. They chose for us to act, meaning the association trusts the strength of this party and thinks we'll be able to handle it. Do you trust the association's judgment?"
"Yeah…" answered Slivia. She blinked a few times as she looked up to see Jack staring back at her.
"Then don't worry so much. Besides, didn't you already level up and reach lv. 13 too?" said Jack, trying to lift her spirits further.
"You knew?" Slivia felt a little better when she remembered that, but she was startled that Jack was able to tell. Since people could only recognize another person's level if it at least five levels above their own, Slivia felt some of her former thoughts had been confirmed. "You've leveled up that much?"
Jack smiled and said, "I'm almost lv. 10 now, and we'll see how far I can get by the time this is all over. You should almost be lv. 14 now, so I'm sure you'll be at least lv. 15 by the end. Then you can finally join the association."
Slivia finally smiled and replied, "Thanks, Jack." Suddenly, Slivia held up a hand towards Jack, "Jack, you—"
"You don't need to thank me." Jack cut her off, trying to play it cool as his head collided with a protruding azure crystal. He had been walking forward while constantly looking back to Slivia, so Jack had overlooked the crystal that hit the back of his head.
As he tried to recover his cool, Slivia laughed heartily along with the rest of the party. "Thanks, Jack, I feel much better now."
"Glad I could help," said Jack, quickly turning forward to hide his embarrassed face.
"We should be nearing the third level soon. Be ready for when we finally breakthrough." Rydel warned everyone.
"Yeah, make sure ya don't get in the way. Who knows what's going on down there?" Maynard added.
Everyone refocused and set their sights ahead, keeping their chuckles to themselves. Maynard had to cut through the passage twice before anyone else spoke.
"I'm stuck," said Slivia. That part of the vein was extra tight and was difficult for everyone to squeeze through. Slivia was wedged in by her well-endowed chest, plus her cloak was snagged at waist height. "Help, please."
Jack looked back with some red on his cheeks. Seeing her chest pressed against the wall didn't leave much to the imagination as her clothes were tightly wrapped around her. "I don't think I can be of much help."
Behind her, Troni got a good look at her. His eyes lingered around her waist, admiring the view. He said, "One second, I think I see the problem."
"Okay, but hurry," said Slivia, obviously embarrassed to be in such a situation. Then, she felt something poke her from behind. She wasn't able to turn her head, so she yelled, "Hey, what are you doing?"
"Your cloak got snagged by a crystal, I'm just getting it off." Troni's voice was calm and emotionless, but a smile shone on his face as he took his time with the cloak.
After a few more pokes, Slivia felt her waist become free and she wriggled out of the tight space. She glanced at the now expressionless Troni and grunted, "Let's go."
Not daring to anger her further, Jack pressed forward and caught up to Maynard with Slivia in tow. Troni chuckled as he stepped forward, caught off guard by the quiet voice from behind him.
"You're more scheming than I thought."
Rushing to the rest of the party, Troni left Rydel behind without an answer. Rydel shook his head and let out a long sigh. He then moved ahead, not returning to the subject.
After another half an hour of travel, Maynard and Rydel were sure they should've hit the third level already. "Pay attention everyone; we may have to change our trajectory."
"What?" asked Brunar.
"If the vein doesn't reach the third level and branches off in a different direction, then we'll have to carve a path to connect to the third level. It's best if we don't waste Maynard's MP, but we may not have another choice," answered Rydel.
Maynard nodded and said, 'If we don't connect within another ten minutes, then I'll start carving out a new path. Rydel, start trying to figure out what direction I'll need to go.'
'You got it.' As Rydel answered, Maynard and the party pushed forward with determination, hoping they would be lucky and reach the third level with ease.
Against their wishes, ten minutes passed by easy enough. Under the direction of Rydel, who held a hand against the wall and activated one of his skills, Maynard struck upward and to the left. A new path quickly opened up and Maynard swiped his swords a few times to carve out some footholds.
"Follow me, but don't ya dare get too close," Maynard joked as he jumped into the opening.
Maynard continued to extend the opening while the rest of the party climbed along the footholds he provided and paid close attention to the powerful strikes of the samurai. Jack spoke mentally, 'Any guesses as to what part of the third level we'll be in?'
'I'm not sure, to be honest,' replied Rydel. 'Hopefully near the outer regions of the third level; the closer to the city, the more likely we are to be discovered.'
'Let's hurry up and see for ourselves,' said Maynard as he made a final push. The earth was cleared, leaving only an opening in its place.
The party hurried out of the tunnel and into the third level, but they were shocked by what they discovered.
There were no azure crystals in sight, only darkness. Maynard and Rydel didn't know what to think while Brunar and Troni were following along with their master's surprise. Still, in the residual glow from their manmade tunnel, Jack turned to Slivia and asked, "Was it like this when your other party came through?"
She shook her head and slowly stammered, "No-not at all. There were always dark regions, but-but we never saw this."
"Everyone, hurry," said Rydel as he ran into the darkness with his kari crystal lit.
The others followed him like they had on the previous levels but were distracted by unexpected circumstances. Brunar spoke up, "What do we—"
"Quiet." Rydel interrupted him.
"But—"
"I said—" Rydel tried to shush the young samurai but out of the darkness an arrow flew into Brunar's right shoulder. Taking charge, Rydel commanded, "Everyone, we've been discovered! Prepare to fight!"
"But how? No one knew about that vein?" asked Slivia, startled and afraid.
"It was the light from the tunnel." It was Jack that explained the sudden ambush. "The goblins can sense heat, but they're not completely blind either. Normally, such low light wouldn't be easy for them to see or follow, but when that's the only source of light it's like setting off a beacon that we've arrived."
"Yup," Rydel agreed as he nocked two arrows with his bow drawn and ready to fire.
"Well, these are probably just from an outpost or two. With some light, we should be able to handle them. Brunar and Troni, keep those two safe. Ya know the drill." Maynard had both swords drawn. Knowing that his MP wasn't even half its max, he wouldn't be able to go all out without knowing the strength and numbers of their enemies.
Jack sighed and looked at Bowser on his shoulder. The fox pup was still resting, undisturbed by their running and shouting. Jack put Bowser in one of his cloak's large inside pockets and prepared for battle while everyone got into formation.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
TheSilverQuill
TheSilverQuill I'm not starting the new job quite yet, so expect LOTS of chapters! Thanks for reading, voting, commenting and reviewing. You're awesome!
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Capítulo 49: Bloodline Skill
Not wanting to lose initiative, Rydel took out a torch and lit it. He then threw it into the ground and stuck the bottom point into the earth in front of him.
With a swish of his arms, his bow and arrows swung through the flame and launched the two arrows into the distance. One struck the earth and lit up its surroundings while the second struck the chest of some living thing within the darkness, the light revealing a goblin now on fire. The other goblins froze, taking that shot as a warning.
"Get ready, we were surrounded the moment they saw the light from the tunnel," shouted Rydel. He took in his surroundings while launching lit arrows at a frightening pace. There were no walls near them, just a rocky, open floor. The ceiling was about five meters high in this part of the cave, preventing Rydel from causing any sort of shower of arrows.
"Right!" everyone drew their weapons and stood in wait for the goblins to rush, but they didn't come like the party had anticipated.
The goblins only stood there to maintain their encirclement, not acting or stepping into the perimeter that Rydel had created.
A couple of minutes passed while Rydel completed the perimeter, not leaving any part unlit. Jack swallowed some saliva and spoke his thoughts for the party to hear, "We need to leave. They're stalling for more goblins to show up. How else could they fight with Rydel and Maynard without overwhelming numbers?"
"Impossible, how could they contact the other goblins so quickly?" asked Brunar.
Everyone tensed up, paying close attention to Jack's answer. "I don't know, but would you rather wait here and find out? If we don't break the formation and escape now, we may end up like the other parties."
"Right!" Rydel shouted as he released two more arrows, this time at full strength. The arrows barreled through the air and pierced through not one, not two, but three goblins as they lodged themselves in the third goblins' carcasses.
In a fraction of a second, Maynard vanished from where he stood and reappeared amidst the goblins outside of the perimeter. Before the goblins could retaliate to the charge, four goblins were beheaded and dropped to the floor.
With no other choice, the goblins charged the perimeter. Like the party had guessed, the goblin ambush was made up of two outposts that swarmed after seeing the light from the tunnel. Had the party attacked sooner they wouldn't have much trouble but given the extra time, most of the straggling goblins caught up to join the fight.
Facing the remaining thirty-two goblins, Maynard and Rydel acted the quickest but each was soon met with a lv. 30 goblin captain, one from each outpost. Most goblins were lv. 15 but there were a few at lv. 20 as well.
With both Rydel and Maynard occupied, many goblins charged in without worry. Brunar and Troni readied themselves and began to face the goblin waves. They focused on repelling and injuring rather than killing, knowing that they had two people to protect.
"Hey, you might want to get out that fox of yours," shouted Brunar, busy pushing back goblins.
"He's still resting from the last time. Give me a minute, okay?" answered Jack.
Brunar was going to reply, but he saw that Jack had already closed his eyes and gone into some kind of trance. Angered by this, Brunar took his rage out on the goblin swarm alongside Troni.
Slivia was terrified of the scene, flashing back to her memories of her last party and the death of her former captain.
Maynard yelled amidst his fight, "These weapons really are from the Royal Court!" The goblin captain's smug face swiftly contorted and became ugly as he felt Maynard's rage become palpable. "This is unacceptable!"
Like red lightning, Maynard didn't hesitate to use his trump card, unleashing "Bloody cross" to quickly finish off the unsuspecting goblin captain.
As the goblin captain fell dead to the ground, Maynard appeared behind the second goblin captain. But as the other captain turned to face Maynard, Rydel activated a skill and a layer of green light surrounded his arrow. "First lesson of combat: pay attention."
That green arrow shot directly into the goblin captain's chest, piercing its heart. It slumped over on the ground and drew its last breath.
"Let's get this over with," said Rydel, nodding with Maynard. They split up and began mowing down the goblins that were still trying to keep the encirclement.
During all this, Jack was busy with his achievement system. Thanks to Maynard and Rydel's initial attacks, Jack reached lv. 10 and completed his first leveling achievement. He gained twenty skill points and quickly spent them all to upgrade his companion bloodline skill to lv. 2. By the time he had gone through his notifications, achievements, and skill tree, both captains had been killed and Jack rocketed to lv. 11.
Glad to try something new, Jack drew his bow but kept his eyes closed. He focused on his connection to Bowser as if he were establishing a wordless conversation with the fox. Jack's thoughts of Bowser's bloodline transformation triggered an increase in his heartbeat.
Jack's body started to glow like he was a hot piece of metal, and his body expanded slightly, gaining half a meter in height. His level grew temporarily from lv. 11 to lv. 13, boosting his strength even further together with his new flame body.
Everyone froze with their gazes on Jack, including the goblins who could feel the bloodline pressure better than the human party.
The lv. 5 wooden bow that was in Jack's hands was burnt to a crisp and fell apart in ashes, along with his clothes. As if in a rage, Jack pulled out the lv. 10 sword and charged. However, Jack's movements weren't the smoothest and he bumped into the three party members at his side, leaving them with burns on contact.
The small fire giant lunged at the goblin hoards, burning holes through the lv. 15 goblins with a single punch and pushing back any lv. 20's he could reach.
Taking advantage of the situation, Brunar yelled, "Slivia, hurry up and heal my burns so I can join in!"
Surprised to see that Brunar wasn't angry, but excited with Jack's transformation, Slivia activated her basic healing spell to cure their burns.
"Right, I can't let some newbie show me up!" Brunar jumped into the fray, running amuck alongside the seemingly wild Jack.
One goblin slipped past everyone and stabbed a knife towards Slivia. She cried for help and was happy to see Troni quickly slay the goblin, saying, "Don't worry, you're safe with me."
With mixed emotions, Slivia nodded and accepted his protection, sure that she would die otherwise.
Rydel and Maynard saw Jack's rampage, and both smiled. Not wanting to be outdone, they picked up the pace and finished off any remaining goblins in the darkness.
It didn't take much longer to defeat the goblin ambush and relax with a deep breath. They all gathered in the center of their fire perimeter while Jack returned to his normal self while breathing heavily.
"Jack, that was amazing!" Slivia ran up to hug him.
Jack smiled and extended his arms, but he fell over before he could wrap them around Slivia.
Baffled by the sudden exhaustion, Slivia then noticed Jack's nudity as her face became redder than a ripe tomato.
Rydel spoke to Slivia in Jack's defense, "The kid's probably pooped after trying that for the first time. I have no clue how he did it, but it has something to do with that fox of his so don't worry too much. Just let him rest."
"Okay, thank you, captain," answered Slivia, retrieving a spare black cloak to cover the nude Jack.
'Yo Rydel, what level is the kid?' asked Maynard telepathically.
'The kid's already lv. 12, probably nearing lv. 13,' answered Rydel with a jealous tone. 'This kid's a monster; he'll be a peak figure in the continent.'
'I guess ya and I will have to protect him till then, huh?' laughed Maynard.
"Let's hurry up and leave this place. If we aren't careful, we'll get ambushed again." Rydel threw Jack over his tall shoulders and retrieved a thick cord from his storage. "Everyone, tie this around your waist. We can't use the kari crystals down here or the goblins will catch us again. This way, at least we can't lose anyone."
"But what about the corpses, I'm sure they've got some valuable stuff," commented Brunar, reluctant to leave behind such a harvest of loot.
Maynard stored a few of the goblin weapons on the ground before he grabbed the opposite end as Rydel, being the first to tie himself in. "Hurry up, unless you want to meet their reinforcements on your own."
Hearing Maynard's deadpan tone, the young adventurers felt their spines tingle from the thought. They obediently followed their leaders' examples and tied themselves about a meter apart from each other.
"Good, now keep silent and follow without question," commanded Rydel, who turned around and began trudging into the darkness. Being pulled along, the others followed closely behind while Maynard focused on erasing any tracks.
By the time more goblins arrived, the party was long gone and untraceable.
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TheSilverQuill
TheSilverQuill
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