Chapter 13

  Ben was amazed at the performance of his cherubs. There were hundreds of lizardmen in the dungeon, of all different types.

  Even though the lizardmen guarding the entrance were level 3, most of the lizardmen in the dungeon were level 4 and 5. The fights were more complex because the Lizardmen classes were more diverse.

  The dungeon cave served as the Lizardmen’s home base, and it went deep underground.

  Wave after wave of Lizardmen charged Ben and his cherubs from a series of tunnels and rooms that were clearly carved and furnished to accommodate the Lizardmen. They were coordinated and used real tactics similar to players.

  They had front-line tanky LIzardmen, and Lizardmen archers with a variety of different ranged weapons, from shortbows, longbows, even crossbows.

  The mages were protected in the back. The mages were specialized and wore robes that matched their elemental affinity. It was very convenient for Ben. They could be very easily identified and focused down.

  The ice mages wore blue robes, fire mages wore red robes, healers wore white robes, etc.

  That made the battle even easier for Ben and his cherubs.

  Ben could certainly brute force the dungeon without thinking, but he valued speed and efficiency, so he did the smart thing.

  He targeted the healers and ice mages first. The ice mages specialized in control magic, like slowing and freezing. And the healers extended the battle by restoring health to their allies.

  The cherub archers focused on hitting the back line while the cherub warriors and cherub spear masters held the front line.

  The hammer masters flew to the backline of the enemy and wreaked havoc.

  Ben considered switching out the hammer masters for rogues that used daggers, but he decided against it. The hammer masters were able to hit multiple Lizardmen with wide swings of their oversized hammers. The cave was large enough to accommodate the weapons.

  It helped that the cherubs had perfect maneuverability in the air, and they were tiny so their swing arc was relatively small. They could operate unimpeded in the relatively narrow cave tunnels.

  As for Ben, he used his new weapon, the Rod of the Faithful, to send a constant stream of magic energy balls towards the back line.

  Every swing of the rod shot out an energy ball. The damage was low, but it was unlimited. Also, it had limited critical hit potential. If he used a bow and arrow, he could more effectively strike critical spots, assuming he hit. However, the rod was easy to use and it gave him a bonus to his faith abilities, which also buffed his summons.

  Ben practiced his aim to try and hit weak spots. Despite doing less critical damage compared to conventional weapons, performing a critical hit was still better than no critical hit.

  Ben turned the Lizardmen into target practice. They were absolutely no match for him and his cherubs. The cherubs barely took any damage. With Ben’s higher level, the cherubs were notably faster than before, and a lot more durable, given Eve’s Soul Link buff.

  The summons took damage, but the damage was negligible because the 12 cherub’s health totals were combined.

  After about 20 minutes of fighting, each of the cherubs still had over 75% of their hp.

  10 minutes after that, they collectively hit 50%. Ben monitored their health bars casually. He wasn’t worried at all.

  While Ben and the cherubs fought, Eve walked through the cave tunnels and side rooms to continue collecting loot. She noticed the low health of a cherub after it cleared a room of enemies. She cast a single healing spell on herself, and all the cherubs were returned to near full health given the heal multiplier of her Soul Link ability.

  Ben saw this and looked in Eve’s direction in exasperation.

  “Her ability really is overpowered,” Ben thought.

  The Lizardmen came like an endless tide, and were cut down like grass.

  Eve maintained a casual pace while she collected the spoils. To collect the loot, she simply had to be close enough and wave her hand over it. She didn’t actually need to bend down to grab the items. The items were sucked towards her hand like a vacuum, before disappearing and re-appearing in her inventory.

  Based on the loot setting, currency was automatically divided equally between party members, which was just her and Ben.

  Items like enhancement stones, potions, miscellaneous crafting materials, and the occasional town return scroll were taken by whoever picked them up, in this case, Eve. She planned to divide the spoils with Ben later.

  As for equipment like weapons, armor, and accessories, Ben maintained the Need before Greed setting. He set his personal preference to automatically pass on any gear below Rare grade. He didn’t want to have to constantly vote on gear that Eve picked up.

  Eve realized that her role wasn’t just to pick up the loot. Ben trusted her to sort the loot and help efficiently allocate it later. Ben was trusting her with a lot.

  She was determined to prove her worth.

  While she moved from location to location, she took time to optimize her inventory settings based on item type, and she made sure that new items would appear at the top of her inventory so she could easily identify which gear dropped from the dungeon.

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  After playing with the inventory interface, she was even able to isolate items looted by timestamp. She separated the consumables and gear she had before she entered the dungeon, from consumables and gear she picked up during the dungeon dive.

  By the time Ben had cleared most of the dungeon, Eve had a very efficient system set up.

  Ben took about 35 minutes to clear every area of the dungeon except the boss chamber. He didn’t bother going down side paths himself. He just sent cherubs to do the clean-up.

  Eve took the initiative to explore side paths and collect miscellaneous loot while Ben focused on cutting a path to the boss chamber.

  Dungeons were generally very long. The fact that Ben took over 30 minutes to clear a path to the boss area was a testament to that.

  The fact that neither him or his cherubs had a reliable area of effect attack was a big factor that slowed his clear speed. The Wrath of Heaven ability only triggered twice in 35 minutes of non-stop combat. His cherubs triggered the effect, but those cherubs were far away in side-rooms, so the ability didn’t actually hit many enemies.

  The sword of Michael appeared in front of the summon that triggered the ability. If the cherub was in a side-room, then the large area of effect was wasted.

  It was useful, but had limited and unreliable applications for now. Ben hoped the proc chance would improve as he leveled up.

  35 minutes was still an extremely fast clear speed. Normal parties would take hours. They would often need to stop to rest and restore their mana, stamina, and health. It was common to clear one room at a time and carefully manage the amount of enemies engaged at any given point in order to ensure that no one died. The penalty for death was too steep for players to try to rush through dungeons unless they were grossly overleveled for that particular dungeon.

  With the strength of his cherubs, and the power of Eve’s soul link, their speed was much faster than most, even without having reliable area of effect abilities.

  “Should we divide everything before the boss or after?” Eve texted.

  Ben was finishing up the last group of enemies in front of the boss chamber when Eve approached. Ben noticed her bubbly demeanor and raised a brow.

  “You’re in a good mood,” he said.

  Eve stopped in front of him and swayed gently from side to side. She didn’t type, instead she gave permission for Ben to view her inventory.

  Ben was taken aback for a moment. It was a huge sign of trust for a person to share any part of their character information. Especially their inventory.

  Ben hesitated.

  “You don’t have to go this far. I trust you to give me half the drops,” he said.

  Eve pouted but she didn’t argue with him. That might have been counter productive. She wanted to show off her inventory management skills while building even more trust with him, but not at the risk of annoying him. She was quickly learning his preferences.

  She dismissed the invitation and instead sent him a trade notification. She quickly placed about half the sorted items she had collected into the trade window and confirmed the trade on her side. Ben smiled in approval and accepted the trade.

  It was a good haul so far. They now had dozens of minor potions of each type, minor enhancement stones, miscellaneous crafting materials, and all kinds of level 4 and level 5 gear and equipment.

  Eve actually gave Ben all the weapons and armor that she didn’t want to use. She could have kept more for herself to sell later, but the idea didn’t even cross her mind. In her mind, all the gear really belonged to him. Ben was their main source of strength, her abilities were just a bonus, at least in her opinion.

  As they concluded the trade, Ben’s cherubs finished cleaning up the packs.

  They stood in front of a huge ornate double-door. Ben looked down at Eve.

  “Ready?” He asked.

  Eve raised one finger to signal him to wait a moment. Ben watched her curiously while she looked at her interface. A moment later, her body shined as she was adorned in a new outfit.

  Previously, she was still wearing the starter outfit and hooded cloak. Now she adorned a flowing white, long-sleeved robe. It was the Robe of the Faithful that she got from the Dire Bear Boss. She wore matching boots, gloves, hood, pants, and a shirt. Though it was hard to see her pants and shirt beneath the robe.

  Except for the robe, the rest of her clothes was part of a five-piece Lizardman cleric set. Her gear now provided notably improved caster stats and a decent amount of armor. The clothes were magically imbued with durability and protection so they were tougher than ordinary clothes, but not as tough as wearing leather.

  A mage could wear light armor like leather, or even medium armor, but light clothing was easier to imbue with magic, and also provided the least interference when casting magic. This reality made mages the most vulnerable members of any team, but Eve easily mitigated that with her Soul Link ability.

  Ben and his summons absorbed damage for her, so her effective health pool was gigantic. She could also heal much more efficiently with the heal multiplier effect of the Soul Link. She didn’t have much to worry about, and she knew it. The additional health that Ben’s summons added was a perfect synergy for her Soul Link ability. One could say that Eve and Ben’s classes were a match made in heaven.

  The final thing Eve equipped was the Staff of the Faithful. She finally looked the part of a white mage. The white hood that she wore reminded Ben of the Virgin Mary.

  Her wolf mask didn’t clash with the outfit as much as he thought it would. The wolf mask was closer to something that could be seen in a masquerade ball, rather than on the face of a barbarian.

  He stared at her for much longer than he meant to.

  Seeing her dressed like that was so familiar. Growing up in the church, he’d grown to admire such a modest, holy look. The women in his church often dressed like that. Including one woman in particular.

  A notification made Ben realize that he had been staring.

  “How does it look?” Eve texted.

  Ben quickly tore his gaze away and focused on the boss door.

  “It suits you,” he said.

  Ben spoke without looking at her.

  “Let’s get going,” he said.

  Ben stepped forward without waiting for Eve to respond. Eve grew a pleased smile and moved to follow. The wolf mask hid her tinted cheeks.

  Ben had two of his hammer Cherubs push the doors open.

  Ben and Eve walked through the doors to be met by a small army of Lizardmen. Ben could tell at a casual glance that there were multiple elites in the army.

  The army was in a large throne room. It looked out of place for the Lizardmen. It seemed they had taken over the throne room from someone else.

  There were marble pillars that reached up into the ceiling, and old paintings along the walls that were torn beyond recognition. Ben couldn’t imagine that the Lizardmen crafted any of the intricate architecture that he saw in the room.

  Behind the army was a Lizardman that was much larger than the rest. Its scales were a notable dark red, as opposed to the various shades of green that the rest of the Lizardmen had. It sat atop a throne of bones that looked especially out of place with the rest of the room. Ben analyzed the boss. It wore an imposing draconic mask that set it even further apart from the rest.

  [Level 7 Dungeon Boss: Kesh the Dragon-Blooded]

  It was easy to see why Kesh was the leader. Ben focused mostly on the weapon that Kesh had in his hand.

  A halberd. It was clearly higher quality then the rest of the weapons that dropped in the dungeon. Eve shivered when she saw a somewhat creepy smile grow across Ben’s lips. Ben was looking at the boss like a piece of meat.

  “That halberd is mine,” Ben thought.

  Eve actually took a step away from Ben.

  “Scary,” she thought.

  Ben pointed towards the boss with his rod. His cherubs brandished their weapons expectantly. They didn’t hesitate to act upon hearing Ben’s simple command.

  “Go.”