Once they had finished treating Kyle’s injuries the party exited the Dungeon to the sounds of explosions and the screams of both people and monsters. After quickly checking their gear in case they had to defend themselves as they ran towards Greenhearth they exited the ancient building that the Dungeon entrance was inside.

“Holy crap,” Kyle breathed as he stared towards the walls of Greenhearth where he could see flying monsters being struck down by a variety of multi-coloured magical projectiles which were the only things that he could see clearly at this distance although he was sure that he would be able to see plenty of physical projectiles as well when he got closer. From the number of bodies falling from the skies the monsters that were currently attacking the city were still fairly weak but that would soon change, and as larger groups of more powerful monsters rose from the depths of the Dungeon what was for now little more than a skirmish would turn into an all-out siege by the monsters of the Dungeon.

“Right, kids make sure to stay close, we’re going to be moving as fast as we can, so I want you all to keep an eye out for monsters or any of the other groups,” Zerah said quietly. Despite the calm manner with which she was speaking Zerah was worried. While the Twisted Forest was officially only a D-ranked Dungeon but from what she had seen today that would soon change and if the defenders of Greenhearth weren’t prepared for the more powerful monsters then they would be in a lot of trouble.

“Alright, Fi, Herman we spot any monsters I want you to Identify them right away, if we know their Level, we can decide whether it might be worth it trying to break through instead of avoiding them,” Kyle said glancing sideways at Zerah who hesitated briefly then nodded her assent.

Having decided this the group moved out before they were surrounded by monsters, Zerah kept the party moving at a pace that all four of the students could keep up for a long period of time, making sure to keep checking Hal and Kyle in case their injuries were troubling them further.

Kyle grimaced as he ran, even now his shoulder was troubling him but once Zerah had healed the worst of his Afflictions he had requested that they move out despite her objections. The remaining pain served as a reminder that he wasn’t invincible but if they got into a situation where the pain was going to hold him back then he had told Zerah or Fi to heal him.

Avoiding groups of monsters was relatively easy with Zerah along, most of the monsters that were currently on the surface were more interested in attacking the city like the other monsters instead of attacking the powerful individual that was closer, but every now and again the party had to change direction slightly to avoid the larger groups.

As they got closer to the city they started seeing humanoid figures being lifted over the walls and relaxed slightly as they realised that at least some of their fellow students had made it out safely, they could also hear the sounds of battle now and it became apparent that there was also fighting going on below the walls as those with melee classes engaged the monsters on the ground allowing the ranged classes to focus on preventing the flying enemies from entering the city and endangering the civilians. It was also at this time that they encountered the first of the other groups.

Everyone was surprised when they heard the roar of what sounded like a bear off to their left followed by shouting and the banging of something striking metal and Fi quickly took to the air so that she could see over the collapsed building that was between them and what was making the noise and gasped in shock as she saw what was going on.

“Guys! That roar was Theodore, Claire and the others are under attack and I can’t see Malkin anywhere,” Fi shouted from her position high in the sky.

“Well shit,” Zerah cursed upon hearing that Malkin, who was the teacher that had been accompanying Claire’s group wasn’t present. Malkin was a Rat type Beastman who primarily used a bow and knives in combat and seeing as neither him nor the rest of the group really had access to any magic which would allow them to block off the tunnels inside the Dungeon she could only assume that he had been forced to stay behind to fight off any monsters that had been following them which meant that they didn’t really have any other choice but to help the other party. “Alright, are you guys ready to fight?”

“Of course,” Kyle replied determinedly, and the others quickly agreed with him. There was no way that they were going to let anything happen to their friends and Zerah breathed a sigh of relief before beginning to issue commands.

“Fi, you go on ahead and help out any way you can,” Zerah began and Fi nodded in agreement before shooting towards the increasingly desperate sounds of fighting. “I’m going to follow her, so you guys make your way around the building.”

“Alright,” Kyle said as Zerah turned and leapt onto the top of the collapsed building making his eyes widen in surprise as she touched gently back down before rushing off. Zerah had just jumped several meters into the air which was admittedly something that Kyle might have been able to mimic by using his Leap Skill but he was sure that it wouldn’t have been so graceful and he would be hesitant of doing something like that without knowing the state of the thing he was landing on, he was also certain that Zerah hadn’t used a Skill to perform the leap as well. It wasn’t often that the teachers at the Adventurer School showed just how high their physical Stats were and the teachers that took classes on magic did so even less often so it was rather surprising when the diminutive Zerah showed just how powerful even someone who didn’t focus on their physical Stats could become when they reached her Level.

“Well that was impressive,” Hal said.

“Yeah, but we should get moving,” Sasha reminded the others who were still staring in the direction their teacher had run off in.

“Right,” Kyle said shaking his head in embarrassment. “Let’s go.”

The whole group broke into a sprint at his words and soon they could see Claire’s group were fighting with a large group of reptilian monsters that had dull green scales and spines running down their backs to a long tail that ended in a spiked club.

“Lesser salamanders!” Herman shouted upon seeing them. “Mostly Level 3’s but there are a couple of Spitters which are Level 5 and a Level 6 Mauler!”

“Amy make sure you keep your distance!” Kyle shouted as he increased his pace to his maximum speed which was higher than anyone else in the party thanks to his high Agility. “If one of those things manages to spit on you, you’re going to take a lot of damage and we don’t have any way of healing you!”

Amy nodded at his words as she slowed to start casting spells at the lumbering lizards. Unlike their cousins which could produce a liquid that ignited when mixed with air much like the liquid that Herman could produce, Lesser Salamanders instead produced an acid that would eat away at Amy’s body unless they found a way to clean it off. This acid was produced in greater quantities by the Lesser Salamander Spitters which could fire globules of the liquid with great accuracy. Lesser Salamander Maulers on the other hand coated their front claws with the liquid and were known for leaving wounds that were very difficult to heal. Lesser Salamanders had fairly tough hides which combined with the acid that they could produce made them a far more dangerous enemy than the Scorprats that they had faced in the tunnels luckily there were only around 7 monsters that were still alive which meant that by the time they got in range the Lesser Salamanders would be outnumbered which would be a nice change from the fights with the Scorprats.

Kyle had rushed on ahead because he had seen that things weren’t going well despite Zerah and Fi going on ahead. From what he could tell Claire had been injured before Zerah had arrived and the gnome was currently attempting to stabilise her while protecting them with a swirling wall of needles. An enraged Theodore who to his surprise was over twice the size that he had been the last time Kyle had seen him which told Kyle that he had unlocked his battle form was currently on a rampage knocking salamanders left and right with his now massive paws while Resald and Gloria attacked the ones that he had sent flying.

Meanwhile Ulrich was being kept busy by the Mauler, each of the beast’s heavy blows left deep gouges in his shield from which ran rivulets of a viscous liquid that eventually dripped on the ground below causing small puffs of steam to rise up when the droplets struck. Ulrich was actually doing extremely well considering how much higher Level the beast was but even he was going to need help as soon as possible.

Deflecting a blow to the side with his rapidly deteriorating shield Ulrich was surprised when a flaming object slammed into the crocodilian head of the salamander allowing him to deliver a swift blow that tore into the flesh of the beast’s neck with his short sword and sprayed his face with the monster’s lukewarm blood.

“Heard you could use some help,” Kyle quipped as he landed heavily on the salamanders back having used his Leap Skill to launch himself through the air and sent a cluster of Mana Darts into the Salamander’s neck.

“Heh, about time you got here,” Ulrich replied as he stepped around to the side of the beast’s head and swung his sword powerfully opening the wound on its neck even further.

The salamander’s powerful body bucked as the attack struck home causing Kyle to leap off of its back and quickly sidestep as its powerful tail slammed down where he had been standing kicking up a small cloud of dust, now that he was wounded closer Kyle could see that the salamander was quite badly wounded with holes in it scaly hide where it would seem that a couple of Zerah’s needles had penetrated it and several of Resald’s arrows had broken off in their wounds as well which was probably the only reason that Ulrich had been able to last this long against the more powerful monster.

Quickly he cast first Mana Skin on himself and then Minor Physical Defence Enchantment on Ulrich’s shield in the hopes that it would slow the items deterioration as he backed away and circled around behind the salamander which snarled as Ulrich’s blade flashed once more this time carving a channel in its scaly face as he thrust it forwards.

Kyle and Ulrich then started a dangerous dance with their third partner stuck between he two of them unable to understand which one pf them was the largest threat. If it was just goin off of how much pain they were causing it then things would have been far simpler for it as Kyle’s attack speed and enchanted chain allowed him to pump out more damage than the defence focussed Ulrich could but Ulrich was able to keep its attention by taunting it or striking accurately at its wounded neck and face while Kyle continuously pummelled it with his chains.

Meanwhile the other members of Kyle’s party were helping Theodore and company take care of the rest of the monsters making things much easier for Ulrich’s exhausted teammates with Fi flying overhead attempting to keep everyone in fighting shape with her healing magic.

Eventually the only enemies alive were the Mauler and one of the Spitters which had clambered on top of one of the nearby collapsed buildings which allowed it to spit jets of acid at the students while making it much more difficult for them to attack it as the only people who were really capable of attacking at range were Resald and Amy and with Amy’s inherent weakness to the Spitter’s attacks she had to keep at a safe distance which made her spells far less accurate so she instead decided to focus on protecting the others with a mixture of Mana Barriers and hastily conjured walls of earth that were slowly dissolving under the Spitter’s assault.

“Sasha, Gloria, let’s go and switch places with Kyle!” Hal shouted seeing that they weren’t able to do much against the Spitter and ran over in Kyle’s direction calling out to him. “Kyle, we’ve got this you go and help Resald and Amy take care of the Spitter!”

“Alright!” Kyle replied quickly casting Mana Skin on his friend as he passed. “Make sure to do your best to keep that things attention off of Ulrich, he’s pretty beat.”

Ulrich frowned slightly at Kyle’s statement, but his beaten and bruised body made it difficult to deny so he gratefully took a step back allowing Hal and the others to engage the salamander in his place as Fi cast Restore on him. It wasn’t like the monster was going to last much longer anyway with the injuries it had so he felt that he had done his part

Resald ducked behind one of the earthen barriers that Amy had conjured with a loud curse, unlike the other salamanders the Spitter was quite agile allowing it to dodge quite a few of his attacks before returning fire with its acidic spit which was thankfully telegraphed by two pouches on the side of its neck inflating. Poking his head out from behind the slowly dissolving barrier he saw the monsters head suddenly turn towards something to his left as a small blue projectile hurtled towards it.

Kyle fired a handful of Mana Darts at the salamander as it leapt to the side to avoid his Mana Bolt, the smaller projectiles hurtling across the distance between him and the monster striking their target as it landed causing it to hiss loudly in pain, seeing this Resald fired an arrow that glowed briefly before accelerating and blasting completely through the meat of its shoulder.

“Good shot!” Kyle exclaimed as he slid in behind the barrier next to Resald. “How much more do you think it can take?”

“Well that last arrow probably did more damage than anything else that I’ve been able to hit it with,” admitted Resald. “It can only fire one shot every five seconds or so though so if you can keep it distracted for a bit, I should be able immobilise it.”

Kyle nodded at his friend’s calm analysis of the situation. This was something that Resald was quite good at and Kyle also trusted his friend’s claim that he could immobilise the beast despite him not having a Skill that could do that before.

“Alright, I’ll buy as much time as you need.”

Rising to his feet Kyle activated his Dodge Roll Skill as he saw the salamander’s throat beginning to expand rolling to the side as a caustic stream of vile smelling liquid shot towards him before firing a Mana Blast at the monster in return that hit the overgrown lizard directly in the face snapping its head back as Kyle flipped backwards. His erratic movements and attacks instantly capturing the dim-witted monster’s attention causing it to forget about the other enemy that had been shooting it with fragile pieces of sharp wood.

Ignoring his friend Resald instead pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back and started imbuing it with his Mana, while in the Dungeon Resald had been focussing on his magical abilities and had managed to unlock a spell that he’d had his eye on for a while. As a Forest Elf Resald had chosen to unlock the School of Magic of the goddess that his people worshipped; the goddess of the forest Jura which had up until now only really allowed him to coat his arrows in poison and temporarily increase his Health regeneration but now he could do something that was far more useful, it just took a while to cast the spell which could thankfully be stored in whatever item he cast it on.

Brining his hammer down on the Mauler’s head one final time Hal felt like collapsing in a heap from exhaustion, his chest heaving he turned towards where Kyle and Resald were still fighting just in time to see Resald rise to his feet and fire a glowing green arrow that quickly grew into a tangle of thorn covered vines that wrapped themselves around the Spitter which immediately started struggling causing the vines to tighten even further around it as Kyle came to a halt and started chain casting his Mana Darts into the badly injured beast.

Eventually the struggling creature fell off of the ruined building that it had climbed up striking the ground with a bone shattering thud that crushed both of the legs on the left side of its body allowing Kyle to dart in and wrap a chain that glowed with the unearthly glow of his Minor Soul Syphon spell around its neck and activating his Choke Hold Skill.

Once the Salamander’s weak struggles stilled Kyle slumped to the ground groaning at the burning sensation in his arms as Fi flew in with an excited look in her face.

“Kyle, you Levelled Up again!” she said landing on his chest and looking up at his disgruntled face.

“Oh, right, you didn’t want to Level Up, again did you?” Fi said blinking as she realised the source of his irritation.

“Don’t worry about it,” the exhausted Kyle sighed unhappily. “I kind of knew that this was going to happen when I woke up this morning.”

While Levelling Up again was another step towards graduating the Adventurer’s School which ran counter to his desires when he considered the situation that they were in right now it was probably a good thing that he had Levelled Up now.

“Well I suppose we should assign my new Stat Points,” he groaned as he sat up.

“Alright,” Fi replied bringing up his Status.

Kneading his forehead Kyle told Fi to assign two points to his Intelligence and one to his Constitution.

Statistics

Name: Kyle Fergusson

Race: Aethereal Human

Level: 3

Class: Chain Fighter

HP: 136/142

HP regen: 1.5 p/s

MP: 62/165

MP regen 6.5 p/s

SP: 51/140

SP regen 7 p/s

Str: 11(8)

Dex: 18(10)

Agi: 20(12)

Con: 13(10)

End: 14(11)

Int: 14(12)

Wis: 11(11)

Will: 11(11)

Exp to next Level: 37%

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

After examining his Stats, he nodded happily. He had chosen to assign his Stats this way because his experiences in the Dungeon had taught him just how fragile and reliant on magic he was when he was unable to use his chains properly. His reasons for increasing his Constitution were pretty obvious but he had chosen to increase his Intelligence primarily because of the Exhaustion Affliction that he had been suffering from. Exhaustion was something that was brought about when one continually depleted too much of either their MP or their SP, in the Dungeon Kyle had done this to both of these Resources which had made the Affliction worse and while his Endurance had increased when he Levelled Up his Intelligence hadn’t. He understood that assigning his Stat Points this way wasn’t actually that great an idea for his Class, he should probably be assigning his Stat Points to his Dexterity or Endurance in order to increase his physical capabilities which was what his current Class was supposed to specialise in, but he was determined to continue on the path that he had chosen. His access to magic gave him a big advantage in most fights allowing him to be much more flexible than most people with Tier 1 Classes and assigning his points in this manner would hopefully show dividends when he reached Level 5 and unlocked his Tier 2 Class.

His musings were cut short when Zerah dispelled the whirling needles that had surrounded her and Claire and slung the still unconscious girl over the back of a worried Theodore who had shrunk back to his normal size now that the last of the Lesser Salamanders had been defeated.

“Right, we have to keep moving guys,” the tired looking gnome said looking around at her students who were looking even more exhausted than she was after the events f the day so far. “I know its tough but if we stay here, we’re going to get cut off.”

“That’s fair,” Gloria groaned as she and the others rose to their feet. “But how’s Claire doing? She was hit pretty hard.”

“Claire will be fine,” Zerah replied calmly. “She might have a scar unless we can get her somewhere where I can treat her properly, but I’ve managed to fix the worst of the damage, she’s just unconscious from the stress.”

“Well let’s move then,” said Ulrich who looked down at his shield with a pensive look before tossing the ruined item aside. Despite the spell that Kyle had cast on it to increase the strength of the metal he could tell that fixing it would be too expensive for it to be worthwhile and keeping it would only slow him down.

Kyle quickly grabbed the gore covered Soulstone from the corpse of the Salamander before following his friends and as one they started once again on their way towards the besieged walls of Greenhearth.