The both of them, Arielle and Augustus stood silently in the aftermath of the goblin slaughter.
"I better not offend her," Augustus promised himself.
Three hundred goblins had been defeated by Vera's impressive sword skills. Even Augustus was taken aback by her transformation, as the once shy girl was now a force to be reckoned with.
"Umm, Vera," Augustus finally spoke up now that there were no more goblins around and she returned to her normal self.
As Vera reverted to her usual demeanor, Augustus approached her with a request, "Let's talk. Can you lend me that sword?" Augustus wanted to inspect the sword.
Vera, hesitant to part with the sword, "Is that an order?" Vera asked, not willing to give the sword to Augustus.
"Umm… No, I just want to see the sword and inspect it," Augustus assured her it was definitely not that.
"Okay, please return it." Vera reluctantly handed over the weapon.
As it left her hand, it disappeared and reappeared in Vera's hand instantaneously.
"This behavior is similar to Dawn Blade, A soul-bound item. I'll just inspect it while it's in Vera's hand." Augustus thought to himself.
[Sword Master's Sword]
Stat Increases: +10 Basic Stats, +20% Basic Stats, +100% Movement Speed, +15% Critical Chance, +150% Critical Damage
Passive Skill: Sword Master's Sense Lvl 1
Active Skill: Sword Master's Counter Lvl 1
[Sword Master's Sense Lvl 1]
This skill allows the user to sense their opponent's movements and predict their attacks, allowing them to respond more quickly and effectively in combat.
[Sword Master's Counter Lvl 1]
Upon defending with a sword, the wielder reflects attacks aimed at them back at their enemy, but with more than double the power.
[Cooldown: 1 Minute]
Augustus examined the sword and was impressed with what he found.
"This is just as impressive as Xu Jiyu's bracelet; it might actually be better with the extra skills," Augustus observed as he inspected the sword.
In addition, it had several powerful attributes, including increased basic stats, movement speed, critical chance, and critical damage. But the most impressive aspect was the sword's passive and active skills.
"It was a soul-bound item, which meant it could not be stolen or lost." Augustus reassured Vera since she treasured the sword.
As Augustus finished inspecting Vera's sword, he offered to show her his own. "I have one too," Augustus offered the Dawn Blade to Vera to inspect.
Vera eagerly took him up on the offer and tried to grab the sword, but it disappeared from her grasp and reappeared in Augustus' hand.
"Oh, the master has one too," Vera noted. Vera was surprised to see that Augustus had a sword just like hers, and he explained that it was called the Dawn Blade.
"I'm so jealous of you," Arielle teased Vera, happy for her friends getting stronger.
"You're a sword master and now you're getting stronger and stronger. I don't think I'm needed anymore," Arielle said with a hint of sadness.
Arielle couldn't help but feel left out. She worried that she was no longer needed, now that her friends had become so powerful.
"Communicating with spirits is a rare ability, even for elves. You are strong too!" Vera tried to encourage Arielle which caused her to brightly smiled at Vera's encouragement.
Augustus proceeded to explain the roles of each member of the party, as they would be fighting together for a while. "Arielle is an excellent support, with a great support class and perfect support talent. Vera would have been a great support as well, but now she's a damage dealer, probably even better than me. So, I'm thinking I'm best suited to being a half-tank, mainly distracting and attracting enemies."
'I'll try my best to recruit a tank later on.' Augustus muttered in his mind.
The group progressed to the next room, which proved to be much harder as the goblins were grouped together. "For now, I'll watch both of you. In the next room, the goblins are in a group, so I hope you guys can cooperate," Augustus explained.
As they battled their way through the rooms, they discovered that with the system's help, everyone received experience as long as they contributed to the battle in some way. This allowed them to test out party composition right away without worrying about who was getting the kills.
Arielle and Vera also noticed a difference when partying with Augustus - the monsters didn't drop any items, as every item was automatically picked up by the system.
Augustus revealed that it's the ability of the system, which reassured them.
They continued through the rooms, facing tougher challenges as they progressed.
After clearing the troublesome ninth room, Augustus was finally able to offer some advice, as mistakes were more obvious in that room.
"Vera, your main task is to deal damage to those that pose the most threat to the party, and not simply kill anyone you see and randomly use skills," he explained. "There will be times when you can't dodge an attack, and you'll have no choice but to try to use your counter. But what if your counter is on cooldown? Mistakes will cost you your life, so keep that in mind."
"Arielle, your main task as support is to protect Vera, not deal damage. You shouldn't bother taking down enemies - maybe it's a habit to try to secure kills for experience, but for now, it's fine," he continued.
Arielle and Vera accepted Augustus' advice, knowing that he was more experienced in battle than they were. At that moment, Augustus handed over all the usable equipment to increase their stats, defense, and firepower.
"We're going to face the Goblin King again, with only three people. Are you guys ready?" Augustus asked, preparing to push open the gate.
"Wait! Let me apply buffs to you guys. My spirit says it can give a buff now after I leveled up," Arielle said, muttering something to her spirit.
As she finished, the spirit showed herself to Augustus and Vera - a cute little fairy-like creature. It surrounded Augustus and gave him the buff.
['Spirit Buffs' applied for 10 minutes]
[+20% Movement Speed]
[+5% All Stats]
Augustus examined the buff and praised her, "This is a decent buff, especially since it buffs all stats."
The spirit then surrounded Vera and granted her the same buff, and finally, it applied to Arielle, its master.
With the plan in mind, Augustus briefly explained it to the group. "Great, the plan is to kill all the mobs first. I'll attract the goblin chiefs." He then opened the gate and the group entered the chamber, causing the chambers to light up revealing groups of goblins and the Goblin King.
"Kwek" The goblin king shrieked as he recognized Augustus. He jumped up from his seat, grabbing his weapon.
"What? This is not what happened last time," Augustus was surprised, watching the goblin king join the fray instantly.
Changing his plan, Augustus said, "I'll do my best to get his attention. You guys deal with the rest. Don't be scared; you're much stronger than the goblins." Augustus disappeared into the front lines and faced the goblin king head-on.
"Let's do our best, Arielle," Vera held her sword tightly and joined Augustus on the frontline.
"I got this!" Arielle motivated herself as she focused on the battle, supporting Vera from behind whenever there was danger about to inflict on her.
As Vera cleaned up the weak goblins, Augustus was distracting Jahrakal, dodging his slow attacks as he's huge right now.
He noticed that both Arielle and Vera were doing very well in the battle. Despite the difference in numbers, Vera dominated the goblins on her own, while Arielle supported Vera from behind with her magic arrows.
Arielle's arrows had gained more variations as she leveled up. Previously, there were only three types of arrows: Normal magic arrows mainly for damage, Fire Arrow, and Ice Arrow.
But now, she could shoot multiple arrows that could home on enemies, as well as piercing arrows that got stronger the longer she charged them. Her shooting speed had also increased over time.
Augustus was excited about Arielle's potential, as he could provide unlimited Mana Stones to her.
Now that Augustus think about it, He thought of the possibility, taking her to the magic tower to train.
At the same time, he could also summon Vera to the training ground. Maybe Leo wouldn't be bored anymore, as he could finally train someone worthy.
Augustus knew that the system would put some restrictions in place if he's able to bring them to the magic tower and training ground, but he was eager to see how much stronger they could become.
Getting rid of the useless thoughts, he finally got serious and stopped fooling around," Augustus said. "You guys aren't done yet? If this was a normal tank, he would've been tired by now."
"We're going to finish this," Vera shouted triumphantly, taking down the last remaining goblins.
Vera and Arielle were ready to join the fight.
"Coming!" Vera and Arielle approached the Goblin King, standing tall before him.
"Finally, I can unleash my counter," Vera exclaimed, excitement evident in her voice.
She deliberately let the Goblin King swung the giant axe on her, Vera then activated her counter, which sent a powerful shockwave back to the Goblin King, dealing twice the damage it had inflicted upon her.
Jahrakal was surprised by the force of puny human attack, and he fell heavily to the ground, severely injured.
Vera should have aimed for his leg rather than his face, as it would have been more effective, but it was too late for that now.
Augustus saw an opportunity to exploit the situation. "If we keep doing the same thing, we might be able to kill him before he enters his rage mode," he said.
"Buy time and focus on dodging until your counter is up. Keep doing the same thing until his face is softened, and then we'll kill him instantly." Augustus developed a new plan following his party capability.
With the aid of the buff and the stat increase from the sword, Vera's speed and agility within the chamber were unmatched.
They repeated the same strategy over and over again until the Goblin King's head was finally soft enough due to the stacking damage.
Augustus then commanded Vera, "Finish him cleanly." Vera climbed up Jahrakal's body, taking advantage of his weakened state, and with one clean slash, she severed the Goblin King's head, killing him instantly without allowing him to enter his rage phase.
The notifications of their progress flooded in:
[Your subordinate 'Vera' Leveled up]
[Your subordinate 'Arielle' Leveled up]
[Your subordinate 'Vera' Leveled up]
[Your subordinate 'Arielle' Leveled up]
...
...
[Your subordinate 'Vera' Leveled up]
[Your subordinate 'Vera' Leveled up]
[Your subordinate 'Vera' Leveled up]
[Your subordinate 'Vera' Leveled up]
Arielle had gained three levels in total, while Vera had gained an astounding ten levels in one fell swoop, now standing at Level 25 due to her Sword Master talent.