When the team returned to the camp, they saw two new small huts, that had been built on the edge of the clearing. William and his team waited for Elo's group at the fire.
When Elo stepped onto the clearing, William stood up.
"Welcome back. We have built the huts that we want to sleep in, just like you asked us to do."
William looked a little bit afraid. He could still clearly remember the impact the small woman's fist had on his body.
"That's good, we have brought meat, did you already eat?"
William was visibly confused. As far as he knew, meat was really hard to come by, but the other group was still willing to share theirs.
"No, we already had our meal, we..."
He got interrupted by his own stomach rambling.
The group didn't invest a lot of time in hunting today, because they had to construct the new huts.
The two who did go hunting only found a small rabbit. Because of that, they didn't have enough food for everyone. But William
didn't want to be a burden right from the get-go.
When Elo realized William's fears, he smiled at him friendly.
"That's no problem, we have enough food for everybody. And you are a trading company, right? Tomorrow we want to take your magician with us, as compensation, we will give you some food now."
When William heard that, he started smiling. The small kid had no real value to him anyways. It could only light a small fire, so this trade was only profitable to him.
"I would love to trade with you, you could almost say that that's what I live for."
He winked at Elo.
-"To easy, it seems like he really doesn't understand the value of a magician. But in the end, it's the kid's decision anyway, so it's understandable to accept the deal."-
Ella and Lara cooked the meat while everyone waited patiently.
Although the different teams stayed together, the mood was way better than the day before.
After the meal was served, the people went to their huts to sleep.
When Elo woke up the next day, his entire body hurt. Always sleeping on the ground was pretty hard for his body.
As he stepped out of the hut, he realized that all the others were already awake. They sat on the fire and talked to each other.
When Elo appeared, the small boy jumped up and ran his direction.
"When will we set out?"
"First, we have to eat, and before we go, you will also have to join our team."
Lars looked at William worriedly. When he nodded, Lars smiled at Elo again and sat down next to him.
While they ate, Lars asked a lot of questions, but the only answer he got was that he would see it soon.
When Elo's team set out, they walked straight to the dungeon. While walking, Elo explained what they would do. After entering the dungeon, they would clear the first floor of the dungeon and get him to level 2. If another ancient box were dropped, they would gather coins until they could open it.
Then they would enter the second floor and test Lars' abilities there.
After about one hour of walking, they finally arrived at the dungeon. When they entered, Lars' eyes widened.
It was tough to even find one animal in the forest, but here, multiple huge rats attacked on sight.
Lars stayed by Elo's side, behind the other team members that slaughtered the enemy.
When they reached the hell rat's cave, Elo took out some red stones. Of course, it was the mysterious power stones.
"Ding"
"You received:
-14 Power Stones, gifted by Iocic and others"
At this moment, Elo's accumulated wealth was already 52 soul gems and 30 power stones.
He gave 30 soul gems to Lars, who took them as if they were the greatest treasure he had seen in his life.
And indeed, all the soul gems the other team had gathered, were all used by William. And even with the accumulated wealth of the entire team, he still only leveled up once.
But now, Elo gave him those soul gems as if it was nothing. After thanking him sincerely over ten times, he consumed the soul gems and put all his points into magic, just as Elo had told him to.
While Lars leveled up, Elo also gave 20 soul gems to Lara. She was overjoyed and used them as soon as she took them from Elo's hands.
She had not thought that Elo would give the valuable gems to her after she told him she wouldn't use them to get more attack power.
Lara put her point into Stealth, and her eyes brimmed with energy when she woke up again.
When they entered the hell rat's cave, the rat became angered, but it wasn't hard to kill it this time. Because of their strength and experience, the read fell down dead after just a few minutes.
"Ding"
"Hell Rat (dungeon boss, hard) has been defeated.
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-17 rat meat
-1 dungeon key (1)
-1 soul gem (rare)"
Sadly, the rat didn't drop an ancient box, so they directly entered the gate that brought them to the second floor.
When they arrived, the abomination in front of them had already noticed them. Slowly it started walking towards them, and the entire dungeon seemed to tremble.
When Lars was about to die of fear, Gorden dashed forward to attract the monster's attention.
While the others started fighting, Elo turned towards Lars.
"You have to try and kill this thing with your flame. Otherwise, the others will be exhausted when they finished it off.
When Lars heard Elo, his eyes focused on the meat golem in front of him. He wanted to show his worth, while at the same time testing out his new abilities.
He had become much stronger with an accumulated stat gain of four in magic. Before, he had only 3 points in magic, which meant that he would have more than double the strength he had the day before.
A small ball, brimming with red light appeared in his hands. He had used almost half his mana to create the flame.
It was made out of strongly condensed fire and so hot that even Elo felt like he had been transported into an industrial oven.
He yelled at his team to get away from the golem, what they did without questioning.
When Lars threw the ball at the golem, his eyes brimmed with curiosity. He couldn't fell the fire's warmth, but Elo had told his teammates to back up, which meant he anticipated something useful from him.
When the ball was unleashed, it flew at the golem in a straight line.
When it hit its target, it exploded into a ball of fire, which devoured the Abomination whole.
"Ding"
"Damaged Flesh Golem (hard) has been defeated.
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-2 soul gem (rare)"