As Zeke continued fighting through the ranks of the enemies, a few attacks have made their way to his body. Arrows and sword slashes all got their fair share. Though they are painful, Zeke didn't stop moving.
The [Lesser Regeneration] skill which he invested a lot of his points on and his [Endurance] stat healed him completely, tearing his clothes in the process but leaving him virtually undamaged. He continued in this assault until, the effects of [Mana Conversion] started wearing off.
Meanwhile, Allesiah has already created a portal, strong enough to let three people through.
"Marin the portal started opening!" Boulder shouted at the swordsman who is now worn down as he tried fending off two skeleton soldiers. A lot more skeleton monsters passed through the second wall, making the twin archers panic. They only had a few arrows left. Once these are depleted, they'd have no way of helping in shaving down the waves of enemies. And, this was enough to fuel their betrayal.
"Outta the way!" They said, jumping through the portal and, shrinking it in size making transport only available for one more person.
"Idiots!" Allesiah shouted.
The problem with the portal spell is that, the initial mana cost is too large for it to be casted twice. Thus, sorcerers need to concentrate as they channel more mana into it, making the portal larger in order to make it possible to transport more people.
"Boulder!" Marin shouted as the second wall began crumbling. This is also because of the twins who pushed him, breaking his concentration on the spell.
"Those morons!" Boulder shouted as he ran to help out Marin. Allesiah also wanted to make a run for it but, she just couldn't leave her allies behind.
"Fireball!" She shouted, hitting three more soldiers that were able to pass through.
However, this is not enough as two hobgoblins also made their way through the walls. These monsters dashed toward Marin who is now on the ground after fending off the two skeleton soldiers.
"Come on buddy, we can get through this." Boulder said as he helped Marin get up.
"Thanks." Was the swordsman's reply.
Soon after, the swords of the hobgoblins came down on them. Boulder was able to respond in time and shielded the two of them from the attack. This used up some of his mana which means, he now doesn't have enough to create a third large wall.
"Marin, a little help here." He said, as it took all his effort to carry off the weight of the heavy metals. However, Marin had other plans.
The swordsman activated [Quick Step] running out of the portal and closing it completely. Allesiah was not able to stop him anymore because she is focused on firing spells at the hobgoblins in order to stop them from killing Boulder.
"ASHOLES!" Allesiah shouted, completely infuriated.
Zeke looked back as the walls that crumbled down. He saw that the portal is not there anymore, confirming his worst assumption.
"Ahh, these people are a mess." He said out loud, getting another shield that was just lying on the ground and tanked his way through the leg of a hobgoblin. His enemy came falling sideways, hitting another hobgoblin and making them both fall in the process. He then took the sword that they dropped and, used the side of it to bash the heads of these fallen enemies.
He estimated that there are at least 30 archers, 25 skeleton soldiers and 4 hobgoblins remaining. The number dwindled significantly as he fought through them but, now that [Mana Conversion] has finally reached its limit, he's not sure if he can still beat them all.
"Woah" Allesiah said as she and Boulder finally defeated the two hobgoblins with much effort.
They saw the battlefield before them. The decreased number of opponents. And Zeke standing on top of a hobgoblins that have just been destroyed.
"Okay, that's definitely not something you'd see every day." Boulder said as he got up. They wanted to go help Zeke of course but, there are still a lot of skeleton soldiers preoccupying them at the moment.
What Zeke didn't know is that, he has already leveled up a couple more times as this fight went on. Right now, he's gone past [Level 20] with the system updating as the fight went on. He wasn't able to see this of course as he muted all notifications as soon as they entered the dungeon.
With his current level, Zeke was able to make it past the remaining enemies. However, tired as he is, he had a hard time doing this. Hence, he was not able to react as the last of the hobgoblins made a swing for him. If it weren't for [Counter] activating, he would've been completely sliced in two as, his body automatically moved, placing his shield in front of his chest. This flung Zeke away, sending him back to the corner where Boulder and Allesiah are.
The shield he used broke at the process. Some bones also got shattered, making a cracking sound upon impact.
"Oi, are you still alive?" Boulder said as he rushed to where Zeke is. He created a smaller version of the wall, using up all his remaining mana in the process.
"I think so." Zeke said, failing to get up and looking as if he's about to run out of air.
"Hey, don't go dying on us now." Boulder continued, seeing Zeke's eyes close little by little.
"I'm just gonna take a little nap." Zeke said as he finally lost consciousness and, it is at this time that he interacted with the system.
"Good grief." Boulder said.
"I-is he dead?" Allesiah said in a frightened tone. Arrows came flying inside the wall but Allesiah prevented them from hitting by creating a thin barrier.
"The kid's sleeping." Boulder replied.
"Will that last?" He continued, pointing at the barrier.
"I hope so, I'm almost out of mana." Allesiah replied.
As this happened, the crystal inside the secret dungeon finally completed charging, sucking up the remaining skeleton soldiers and archers and, collecting all the scattered bones on the battlefield. Boulder and Allesiah heard all this and prayed that, whatever would come next, their sleeping porter would wake up to help them face it.
…
…
…
"Crap, I lost conscious?" Zeke said, not feeling his body anymore.
He wanted to come back immediately but, this isn't something he can control if his body is too tired and weakened. All he can hope for is that he'd wake up sooner rather than latter, knowing that his body isn't lying anywhere safe.
"Unmute status updates."
[You leveled up!]
[You are now level 21.]
[9 skill points are given as reward.]
[9 attribute points are given as reward.]
[System has updated to version 1.3]
[The next update will be available at Level 30.]
[System Feature: Job Class Specification]
[Please choose from the list of Job Classes available.]
As Zeke went through the list, he momentarily forgot about the fight that's still ongoing. He forgets about everything else once he begins a certain task and, this is the reason why he was able to fight flawlessly earlier.
"There's a lot of boring stuff mixed in here." He told himself, looking at job classes that are too strength dependent, agility dependent, or intelligence dependent. Having only one of these and focusing merely on it would greatly reduce his capacity at others that he may be able to do. Thus, he kept on browsing, figuring out which class would benefit him even in the long run.
Then, time seemed to stop as he finally made his choice. A wide grin grew on his face as he felt the excitement rush through his body.
"Oh I'm definitely having fun when I wake up." He said out loud, clicking on a job class that is near the end of the list.
[Job Class: Conjurer]
[Job Class Rank: F-]
[Information: Creates an animated copy of a dead monster. The substance used for conjuring is pure and dense mana.]
[Information: Conjured monsters earn experience points each time they successfully defeat an enemy. They can be respawned if they are defeated, as long as the owner has enough mana.]
[Information: All skills of the conjured monster are available: Active, Passive, Continuous, and Scaling.]
[Information: Conjured monsters can be combined in order to create a stronger monster from the same species. This feature is limited to creating one mutated conjure per day.]
[Information: Conjuring stronger monsters require more mana however, maintaining them in battle does not cost anything.]
Zeke then went to the skill shop, already knowing what skill he'd buy with the points he just received.
[8 Skill Points] This is the leftover reward from the [50 points] he got by acquiring information about Mythos.
[6 Skill Points] He got this from all the acucmulated [Optional Quests].
[9 Skill Points] This was gained when he leveled up.
Adding them together, Zeke has a total of [23 Skill Points] which have yet to be used. With what he has, these are the skills Zeke bought and their prices:
[Skill Name: Legion's Banner]
[Cost: 7 Skill Points]
[Rank: F-]
[Skill Type: Passive]
[Mana Consumed: None]
[Information: All creatures summoned by the caster gain additional 5% Endurance and Health.]
…
[Skill Name: Alpha's Domain]
[Cost: 7 Skill Points]
[Rank: F-]
[Skill Type: Passive]
[Mana Consumed: None]
[Information: All creatures summoned by the caster gain additional 5% Strength and Speed.]
…
[Skill Name: Merlin's Blessing]
[Cost: 7 Skill Points]
[Rank: F-]
[Skill Type: Passive]
[Mana Consumed: None]
[Information: All creatures summoned by the caster gain an additional 5% Mana and Intelligence.]
…
[Skill Name: Lesser Mana Increase]
[Cost: 1 Skill Points]
[Rank: F-]
[Skill Type: Passive]
[Mana Consumed: None]
[Information: The passive's owner gets a 2% increase in their total mana.]
Zeke then went to the item shop and, bought mana potions, consuming most of the money he has in the Gamer's System thus far.
"Let's have some fun." Zeke said as his body began waking up.