Gacha Leveling

The next day went about the same way the first day. Matthew made Sebastian fight the monsters with Sarah aiding when necessary.

"Isn’t this a bit boring?" Ffyr pouted.

"It might be for you. They’re having fun." Matthew pointed to the two fighting a pack of wolves.

"Let’s just gooo." Ffyr protested. "I want to get to the Fae!"

"We don’t know even if there’s an entrance." Matthew tried to reason. "But I guess I should take point. They’re getting tired."

With those words, Ffyr sent a couple of air blades and took the heads of the remaining wolves.

Sebastian and Sarah looked at them puzzled.

"Ffyr is getting bored and you guys are getting too tired." Matthew explained giving them a mana potion each. "You rest and follow while Ffyr and I take the front now."

Sebastian thought about protesting, that he could still fight, but decided against it. He decided to trust Matthew who was far more experienced than himself.

Matthew stepped forward guiding the party through the dense forest. He held Aym’s blade and used it to cut his way forward through the dense vegetation.

That’s when a Treant jumped in front of them, but it was harmless against Matthew and Ffyr. They both sent a barrage of air blades and cut the monster into dozens of pieces with ease.

Sebastian was surprised by their teamwork. They didn’t even need to talk to each other. They already knew what the other was going to do and just reacted appropriately.

When a swarm of giant bees surrounded the party, Ffyr used a fan of flames to herd them all into one single place. Then Matthew sent a fireball in the middle of the swarm blowing up all the bees at once.

"They’re impressive." Sebastian commented.

"They are both above level 40." Sarah smiled, proud of her brother and Ffyr.

"I don’t mean that. I mean that they just work so well together. I’ve never seen a party functioning like this." Sebastian explained.

"Well... They have been fighting together for 2 years. They went through hell and back. It’s no wonder they are so synergized." Sarah pondered.

Sebastian’s eyes were fixed on the duo. Every peril that came their way, Matthew and Ffyr dealt with, with the ease of squashing an annoying bug.

After a couple of hours they made it to a round stone altar in the middle of the forest. It had 8 pillars around it, each depicting images of fairies and other spirits in a party.

Stepping on the altar prompted a Stat Screen to appear for each of them.

"Checkpoint 1 Activated.

Checkpoint 5 Activated."

"Finally." Matthew smiled and then noticed something odd. "Sarah. Which checkpoints are activated for you?"

"Just 1. This is the first one we found, isn’t it?" Sarah looked at him puzzled.

"It says I have checkpoint 5 activated as well." Matthew said.

"Wait, why? This is the first one we found. You’ve never been here before, have you?" His sister questioned.

"Yes." Matthew concurred.

"No." Ffyr corrected him. "We have been here before. When we met Matil, remember?"

"But the dungeon was different back then." Matthew protested.

"It seems it doesn’t mind. Or mother made it so that it wouldn’t." Ffyr said.

Matthew then looked at Sarah and Sebastian. She was level 16 and he was 9. Going too deep might be dangerous for them.

"We can try." Sarah said, guessing what he was thinking.

"What?" Sebastian asked.

"Going deep inside with Matt. To checkpoint 5." Sarah explained.

"Yeah. We can handle our own. Don’t worry." Sebastian agreed.

"Alright. Here." Matthew said, giving Sebastian one of his guns. "Use this. Avoid getting in close combat. If the monsters there are as strong as I suspect, you’ll not live a close combat. Just shoot and run. You too Sarah." He instructed them.

"Ok." Both said in unison.

Checkpoint 5 was very similar to Checkpoint 1, but it only had 4 pillars surrounding the round stone altar.

Ffyr immediately flew around trying to find out something different than what they’ve seen.

Meanwhile Sarah examined the altar and Sebastian and Matthew took a look around searching for enemies.

"There seems to be 8 Checkpoints?" Sarah pondered upon seeing the number of pillars.

"Wouldn’t it be 9?" Sebastian questioned.

"If the last one doesn’t have any pillars, yes." Sarah counted in her head.

"We’ll have to reach the last one to know." Matthew said.

They continued their travel through the jungle with Matthew up front.

The first enemies they found were a pair of werewolves. Each at level 30.

Matthew drew out Belial’s blade.

"Shoot them when you see an opening. Don’t mind causing harm, just sapping away a bit of their Vital Shield will be enough." He said and attacked.

With his two blades he kept the werewolves’ attention centered on him, opening enough way for Sarah and Sebastian to shoot them on the back.

Then, with a sharp turn and a spin, he decapitated both werewolves in a single strike, each with one of his blades.

"Good job." Matthew said.

"Like you needed our help." Sebastian scoffed.

"I didn’t. But it helped nonetheless. Just because your level is much lower than your opponent, it doesn’t mean your attacks are useless. I’ve seen enough times when overwhelming numbers of low level adventurers defeated more powerful opponents. Just get ready to shoot when the opportunity opens. Sometimes a well placed shot can open their defenses." Matthew was didactic.

Sebastian and Sarah nodded, taking in the lesson.

A level 40 gorilla appeared next and Matthew defeated it with Ffyr’s aid.

"We’re really out of our level here." Sebastian laughed nervously.

"Don’t worry. I can handle it on my own. Just stay safe you two." Matthew gave them a reassuring smile.

Shortly after, they heard a loud sound. Trees were being broken and disappearing in mists of mana.

They sneaked ahead and took a look at what was making that noise.

"Fuck." Matthew sighed.

"One of those." Ffyr chuckled. "Brings back memories."

"What is it?" Sarah said while looking upon the giant creature.

It was a cobra snake that spanned 30 feet long (about 10 meters). It had a single horn shaped like a khopesh sword made of silver. It had two limbs close to its head each with three fingered claws. It also had a pair of white bird wings close to its arms. Its scales alternated between huge black circles with smaller blue circles in between. Its belly was white and its eyes were yellow, almost green.

"It’s a Bashmu. The same type who killed Faynn the last time I was in the Labyrinth." Matthew said.

"You killed one of those?" Sarah was impressed.

"Not alone. Faynn did most of the job. And I almost died finishing it." Matthew said.

"Well, you were level 14 back then. But now you’re level 44 and you have me." Ffyr smiled.

"You two stay hidden. Only attack if you think it’s safe." Matthew said while covering his body in miasma.

He shot his gun, taking the beast by surprise. His bullets, covered in unholy fire, bounced off its vital shield, doing no harm.

"How the hell did I even harm that back then?" Matthew pondered and dodged when it whipped its tail against him.

Ffyr flew behind it and covered it in fireballs.

The Bashmu quickly turned around and spit a curtain of poisonous acid smoke in the air, forcing Ffyr to land to avoid it.

Before it could attack Ffyr, Matthew charged forward with both blades in his hands. Aym’s dagger and Belial’s sword cut through its Vital Shield like butter. He also didn’t have such great weapons back then.

However, it wasn’t deep enough to cause much harm. Matthew was forced to dodge its claws and a headbutt. Especially since his dragon armor was being fixed in Nuilynn.

That’s when Sebastian and Sarah opened fire from their positions behind a fallen tree.

Their bullets did nothing. But it did make the cobra monster look in their direction.

A distraction Matthew didn’t waste. With a powerful jump Matthew slashed the Bashmu’s head with his dark blade covered in unholy fire covering the wound in blue flames.

It hissed loudly and tried to bite Matthew before he could land on the ground. But Ffyr used a powerful gust of wind to drive Matthew away from its teeth.

Matthew stepped forward and stabbed at the creature with both his weapons piercing its scales. Then he used his weapons as a conduit to burst unholy fire inside the giant beast.

It fell to the ground and disappeared in a mist of mana.

"See?" Ffyr smiled walking to him while using wind magic to douse the flames her spells spread out the forest. "Easy peasy."

"Much easier than before." Matthew agreed. "And perfect timing you two. It really helped." Matthew praised them.

Sarah came forward with a smile pointing to the floor where the beast was defeated.

"Something fell from it." She said.

"Is that its horn?" Sebastian questioned.

Matthew picked up the silver piece of metal from the floor. It was shaped exactly like the Bashmu’s horn. He used his Identify skill on it.

"Bashmu’s Khopesh" Matthew read.

"It’s a sword. Needs a handle, but looks good. It’s made of Mythril!" He exclaimed.