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            Maybe a little less realism in certain aspects would be nice.

            Once there, Fergus moved up behind Rand. The elven ranger could spot ambushes better than any of them. Asha followed him, with Tiana next and Killum bringing up the rear.

            They marched into Deadman's Swamp with weapons in hand. Killum noticed Tiana activate the enchantment on her hooded mantle, and she got a bluish glow around her. Everyone in their group could see her, though she'd flicker in and out of vision, but other players and mobs would find it difficult to spot her. Of course, any spellcaster, whether mob or player, could see her just fine, too.

            Fergus stepped off the trail to pull up an herb. The ranger's herb lore was insanely high. He stuffed the herb into his inventory, which Killum understood to have an amazing one hundred slots. The battle-mage couldn't imagine how much Fergus paid for it.

            Probably a month's pay for me, he thought. I seriously need to score some treasure.

            "Hobgoblins!" Fergus shouted.

            The hobgoblins attacked from both sides. Somehow they'd managed to stay submerged long enough to lure Killum's crew into their trap. Hobgoblins were human-sized cousins of goblins, scrawny and hairless. One and all carried round wooden shields and rusty cutlasses. And they attacked in eerie silence.

            "Zombies!" Asha cried. She threw a blue fireball into one, and it incinerated the monster. "Beware their bites!"

            That made Killum pause. Would a zombie bite kill him, or just turn his character into an undead battle-mage? If that happened, and he couldn't find a way to restore his character's "life" then he'd have to create a new battle-mage character and start from scratch.

            That would suck big time.

            Killum activated his Power Sword's magic, and noticed his mana start to deplete immediately. That sword would consume all of his mana in about ten minutes of use. He did have five potions to help restore his mana, but each dose only restored 25 points.

            Fergus and Killum turned into the attack and charged off the trail. Killum slashed left and right, the awesome power of his blade shattering shields in a single strike, and usually took off the arm holding it. Undead hobgoblins dropped like flies around him.

            He cleared out all of the zombies around him in just a few moments, and quickly killed the magic flowing into his Power Sword. Now it was just another fine steel blade, but good enough for slaughtering undead hobgoblins. He noticed Tiana winking in and out of sight, darting between the thick cypress trees to come up behind the hobgoblins. She was good at striking the undead mobs in the neck, severing their spine and killing them.

            Rand and Fergus fought back to back, their blades purple with hobgoblin blood. The monsters were stacking up around the two fighters.

            Asha suddenly claimed his attention by leaping ten feet into the air and hovering there, while she threw fireballs at her foes. There were three hobgoblins jumping up and down under her, their boney hands missing her feet by just inches. The spell only allowed her to hover about thirty seconds, so Killum charged them. He bellowed his battlelust as he slew them one by one.

            "Thank you," she said as she dropped down beside him. "Come on, Rand and Fergus are on the move again."

            There was only a pair of hobgoblins left. Killum wanted to take them out, but then one of them dropped his cutlass to claw at his throat. An invisible knife sliced it open, and severed the backbone. His head came off, and the undead bastard was dead.

            "Well met, Tiana!" he called when she blinked into sight a second later. She picked up the dropped cutlass and hacked off the last hobgoblin's head. "Quick. Catch up and get back into position!"

            An undead troll appeared on their right flank. Killum stopped to gawk. It was the biggest troll he'd ever seen. The mob was easily ten feet tall. He concentrated on it.

Troll (Lvl 6). Undead.

            He was only a level 6, but that was still going to be a hard NPC to kill. Killum steeled himself for a god-awful fight to the death, but Asha pulled her sword. She stopped, held the sword horizontal to the ground, and spoke a quick spell. The fine elven blade flew out of her hand, spinning like a buzz saw, and took the zombie troll's head off in three seconds flat. And then the sword returned to her hand, and she sheathed it.

            "You have to teach me that spell," Killum said.

            "Actually, you have to be Level 40 to use it," she said. "So level up, my friend."

            Killum paused. Zeta was right. Asha did use the world "actually" a lot.

            "I'm actually trying to level up," he said, but she just nodded acceptance. He sighed and shrugged, thinking, Once again, she didn't get the joke.

            His eyes lingered on the beautiful olive-skinned sorceress. First on her breasts, and then on her butt when she turned away. He wanted to run his fingers through her thick, waist-length black hair so badly it hurt. Mostly, though, he wanted that sexy sorceress in the worst way. One day, when FIVR tech was advanced enough… God, I can't wait for the day I can take her to bed and show…

            Killum noticed Tiana watching him with a knowing smirk. He felt his face heat up, knowing his character was blushing as well.

            Stupid game designers, he thought, motioning for the thief to get moving. They don't have a problem shaming us, but can't let us have the fun, too.

            Tiana barked a laugh and followed Asha. Killum's shoulders slumped, knowing the little thief would tell Asha what she saw. So embarrassing, but it wasn't the first time he’d been caught lusting at the sorceress. The only one to ogle her more was Rand, and he was the acknowledged perv of the group. That thought made him wonder if Asha and Tiana thought he was a perv, too.

            Random undead goblins, hobgoblins, and even a pair of ork zombies attacked them along the way. They all earned some experience points. No PKs, so none of the zombies were players, so Killum didn't learn if he could be turned into a zombie. He resolved to check the manual after they finished with the dungeon.

            Fergus held up a hand to stop everyone. "Shhhh."

            They slowly crept up and dropped to a knee in the dark water to either side of Rand and Fergus. Killum found himself at the edge of an island. The dry ground was clear for about twenty-five feet between the shore and a yawning cave entrance. Only the cave was stone, roughly hewn in the shape of a vicious looking dragon skull, complete with stalactite fangs.

            "That's actually quite cheesy," Asha said. "I expected more of a secret dungeon."

            "Let's hold off and rest a moment before we go in," Killum said, and then checked his stats.

Current status

:

Name:

Killum

Race:

Human

Class:

Battle-mage

Leveclass="underline"

35 (96% to next level)

Alignment: