• 3^rd Person POV

A man and his oversized dog went deeper into the forest. The smell of damp earth, Umbra’s paws leaving trails on the soft soil. Evan sharpened his senses to search for any entities nearby as he widens it for a quick second. Since he sees something that he wants.

Across the distance, Evan can see a patch of flowers with myriad of colours. He can tell that it isn’t a normal wildflowers he usually ignored since he realized it by now. The [Red Flower] & [Blue Flower] have the same characteristic as the patch of flower he’s seeing in front of him.

Before the headache settles in, Evan senses that there are no entities roaming about; Players, NPCs, or monsters alike. He stopped the ‘radar’ and moves forward to the patch with Umbra guarding him.

He began picking the flowers and as usual the system ‘helped’ him by giving Evan around two flowers for each kind. “… they cannot escape game logic” Evan sighed as he moves further to the forest leading to the mountain.

*CLANG *WHOOSH*

“KIEEEEK….” The cries of goblin falling can be heard by the pair as they comes to the edge of the forest and sees the path toward the mountain. There are already several players busying themselves with battling mountain goblins to grind.

Although it’s a bit far for Evan to reach, he can spot [Leven Berry] bushes & [Elves Ear] plants growing on the foot of the mountain. It is a fairly common ingredients after all, since it is ignored by the players.

Evan did not want to expose himself to them as he outstretched his hands to telekinetically pull the things towards him. Concentrating on the weave of mana, he shaped it to some kind of claw to grasp the ingredients from afar.

In doing so, two berries and two elves ear have now entered his inventory. Upon receiving it though… Evan heard some kind of shouting.

“What’s that?! A field boss? Everyone!!” One of the players shouted to the back to his party members, he’s wearing some kind of thick heavy armour and tower shield. An image of a tank role in any fantasy games. Evan noticing it turn invisible quickly and dismissed Umbra as he meld into the shadows.

“Huh??!” The tank look back to the forest, seeing nothing as if it is just an imagery as multiple figures appeared from behind him all drenched with goblinoid’s blood. “What? Where?” a lithe figure appears wearing leather armour and two daggers already in hand. With many follow suit wielding their respective weapons.

“Ah… sorry guys, I think I see things” The tank rubbed the back of his head as the others just sighed before telling him. “I think its time for us to rest, we’ve been grinding nonstop for the day.” A female mage recommends it as the healer nods to the suggestion.

“Agreed, meet up again at the same time?” The tank asked with all of them gives varying degree of response but ultimately, they agree to meet up again. They all recalled to their respective respawn home as Evan leaned his body to the side glancing the empty rocky field as his invisibility is dispelled.

“Fiuf… that was close” Evan thought as he went up to the mountain path, continuously activating his ‘radar’ sometimes expanding it whenever he has a hunch. So far, he didn’t detect any entities until some appeared on the edge of his ‘radar’ field.

“Three entities just appeared on the edge” He summons Umbra as the dog emerges again from his shadow. The dog look at Evan and roll his eyes since he dismissed Umbra so suddenly.

“Sorry for that” Evan thought as the dog just nudge his snout to Evan’s cheek and lick his cheek. “Thank you for forgiving me hehe…” Evan then decides to check what three entities that have entered his ‘radar’

It seems Umbra knew what Evan intends to do as the dog stays in front of him. Protecting Evan while the mage continues his movement forward to that direction. There he finally sees the three entities, they are mountain goblins that he had encountered before.

“Can I take them all? I mean it is free monsters to hunt. Since besides them there are no entities, but they are level 45… agh~ why not let’s try.” Evan decided as he move a bit closer to the three entities that haven’t notice him.

“Umbra! Shadow leap” Umbra vanishes to the shadow as he emerges again amidst the three goblins. “Kiee!!” Two goblin shrieks pointing to one of the goblin with that one replies “Kie?” scratching the top of his head. Umbra menacing figure look down on the confused goblin as he clawed the goblin using shadow strike dealing double damage since he attacked from the back.

The goblin’s body vanishes as it is defeated, with the two brought out their club and lunge towards the dog. Upon dunking their iron mace though a thin barrier envelops Umbra like a protective cocoon lessening the impact.

“Hehe…” Evan smiles as he weaved the mana once again condensing it into a mote of intense red flare almost as big as a marble. With that, he point it to the goblins.

*BOOM*

A big explosion occurred amidst the goblins and it is placed in such a way to avoid hitting Umbra. After the initial explosion ended, it seems the goblin still survive the impact. “Well… they are level 45 after all. Umbra is really strong.”

“GRRRRR. ARRRR” Umbra bites the attacking goblins drawing their ire from Evan. As Evan begun to cast another spell. He weaved the mana thinly like a needle as the temperature around him drops. A single spike of ice appeared in front of him as Evan unleashed it to the goblin.

*PRANG*

It shatters upon impact with the goblin take significant amount of damage as it turn his head to the Evan. The ire now drawn to him instead of Umbra. “KIE KIE KIE!!” The goblin ran to him as Evan cast another spell by weaving mana and made the ground incredibly soft & slippery.

“KEI!!!!” The goblin slip on the ground and fell with its trajectory went elsewhere hitting a tree. Taking that chance Evan shaped mana into being copying what the maiden of frost lake did. Several ice spikes formed on the sky as it rained to the prone goblin. “Kiee….” The goblin body vanishes to thin air as Evan can hear the notification regarding his inventory.

“Sigh… 3 and a half spells to kill a level 45 mountain goblin. Makes sense but still unnerving.” Evan grunted but as he look to where Umbra is.

Umbra manages to kill the other goblin. “Yeah… my INT isn’t high initially that’s why my damage isn’t that high as well. I wonder what’s the highest INT stats veteran player have?” Evan thought as he heard several pings regarding his status.

Thankfully, he levelled up from 25 to 27 with Umbra as well. As usual the status point gained is given to INT with Umbra becoming stronger than Evan. “I feel safe with Umbra though Hehehe…” Evan chuckles a bit as he sell the goblin drops.

“Its not much, I only get around 5 gold but clearly its worth more than slimes for just 3 goblins” Evan thought but he knew if it is more than three. It would be a dangerous situation for him & Umbra. As Evan ruffle Umbra’s fur while using a spell restoring Umbra’s HP slowly to full.

“Good! Let’s go climb the mountain path, I’m going to gather more Leven Berry and Elves Ear so much so that I’m going to be a hoarder” A goal is set in stone in Evan’s mind as he waits for his MP bar back to full.

After that, he activates ‘radar’ again while climbing the path. In between, he casted invisibility on himself & Umbra not wanting to make the mistake of being seen. He didn’t see any entities, but he can see several Leven Berry bushes & Elves Ear as he picked them. Automatically the invisibility is dispelled while he’s picking them.

Gathering enough materials in the inventory, Evan stands up and sharpened his senses seeing the flow of mana on higher ground. He feels calming with Umbra stare into the expanse of green & the blue sea including seeing the Clamshore from the distance.

“its pretty. Right Umbra?” Evan thought as Umbra replies “Woof!” with the male smile in return. The wisps of mana, its bluish tendrils or even glimmers made the sight beautiful. Unfortunately, he cannot screenshot the wisps of mana. Only the view that he have.

He moves forward following the path upward. There his ‘radar’ & Umbra sniffed the air seemingly indicating to Evan about what’s going on. The ‘radar’ and Umbra detected multiple entities around the corner. Leaning his head to the side following by Umbra’s snout that lay on top of Evan’s head.

The pair can see, there are group of goblins currently gathering in front of a cavern entrance. In short glance, Evan can determine that mouth of the cave is a dungeon entrance since it is displayed on top.

 

“I see… I mean, the ‘hint’ is already right in front of the entrance.” Evan stare at the cluster of goblins that is idling. Either thumping the ground with their weapons or making weird dances. One caught his particular attention.

A large size goblinoid or more likely being described as a hobgoblin wearing ragged robe and crown made from stitched wood. It is holding a staff made from animal long bones where on top of it lies a skull. In this case, it is a skull of a goat.

Evan opted not to barge right in, knowing how dangerous and the difference of levels between them. “Umbra is strong yes… but he’s no match again this sheer number.” Evan thought as he & the big dog continues to watch them.

The hobgoblin warlock begun thumping its menacing staff on the ground accompany by loud *Thud *Thud *Thud in rhythm with the goblin dances as Evan had a hunch, he sharpened his senses to identify presence of mana.

“I see it!” Evan watches as the wisps of mana is being manipulated to form layers. Similar to layered cake in his imagination while the warlock perform a ritual of some kind. After the songs and dances ended the layers of mana are turning solid in his eyes and something begun to appear in the middle of their dancing circle.

It is a large humanoid like creature, with rounded belly and warts on their shoulder carrying a wooden club. A typical troll although it has darker green colour and gas appears to be erupting from the warts.

“Ew….Although… that’s ritual magic I suppose? By layering the mana, it creates stability for stronger spells, but it does consume a lot of time.” Evan thought as he can hear *ding* on his panel signifying his permanent INT up buff that he ignores.

*SNIFF *SNIFF. The troll like creature walk around the group getting itself settle as the warlock & the other goblins decide to move away from the cavern entrance. Towards the other side with Evan just stare at the troll to see its status.

 

After seeing that, Evan quickly duck away as he pushes Umbra’s snout gently with the dog obeying the gentle push until he hides behind the wall. “That’s a field boss!! So that’s how they respawned a field boss. Its interesting!!” Although his heart beats wildly, it is from excitement.

As it leaves, the entrance to the dungeon lies empty which makes Evan in deep thought.

“Should I challenge it? Its great for levelling but it’s a high-level dungeon. Hmm… well they do not have a restriction for low level players to enter high level dungeon. Only a slight warning. Also adjustment if challenged solo.”

Combative Dungeon is automatically adjusted to players that challenge it solo. Although it also impacts the rewards they are given. For example; the most common knowledge, is the penalty for legendary items. Combat Dungeons that are challenge solo will never drop legendary magical items.

The developers also encouraged team plays by making the chance goes higher the more members are in the dungeon. With a maximum of 4 for small size combat dungeons.

Evan had something in mind besides that. ”It’s also a great chance right now! There’s no one here except me. It would get more hectic & players the longer I stood still”

He urges Umbra to follow him as he left the hiding spot towards the entrance to that dungeon. He sees it again of the dungeon’s level.

 

“it takes time but worth a lot of exp. If I lose, I would just not get the reward and get a status penalty. So its not a big loss too. Besides I already harvest a lot of those for potions making” Evan lips curved upward as his train of thought leading him to that. Turning his head aside, he look at Umbra and thought.

“Ready to go?” as Umbra replies. “Woof! Woof!” in Evan’s mind it is translated to agreeance as Evan smiles and enter the depth of the cavern entrance. A panel appeared again in front of him.

 

Evan without a doubt press (Y) as his figure & Umbra vanishes to the depths of the cavern entrance.