The Wolves Ch. 028

The mage began descending, and the twins were immediately firing off arrows and shards of ice once more. Mason didn't waste any time, either, and as soon as he the boss landed, he was closing the distance to try to finish it off. It turned out that the shield was the hard part, and it was rather squishy when on the ground. It put up its shield once more, but it was quickly taken down by one of Mason's strikes. Within ten seconds of it being on the ground, it was dead.

"Well, that was interesting," Ben said. "I wonder if there is anything in that pouch of Skill Gems that would've made the fight easier."

I chuckled. "I bet there is. Still, it was a good test for us, I think. Without Portal I'm not sure how we would've brought its shield down."

"I definitely need better arrows. Wooden ones aren't going to cut it if we come across more mages that can do that," Sonja said as I walked over to pick up the items dropped by the boss. I was happy to see another Tier D Skill Gem alongside the usual Mana Gem.

"What's the next step up from wood, aluminum?" I asked while taking the Skill Gem pouch out of my inventory and dropping the new one into it.

Sonja nodded, "Aluminum would be good, but they can melt if the temperature of that shield was high enough. I was thinking carbon arrows, but that could get very expensive very quickly. I'll check what the prices are at the place I bought my compound bow from tomorrow."

"You could also check the quartermaster back at the base," Mason suggested. "They have bullets and power cells there, and I've seen people firing crossbows at the shooting range. He might carry arrows as well. Who knows, maybe they'll even have a better material than carbon."

"I'll do that."

"We should probably get going," Ben said. "The pizzas will be ready in five minutes or so. It will only take a minute or two to get there and back."

"That soon, really?" Mason asked, standing up again after sitting down for a breather.

"We were fighting non-stop for fifteen minutes or so, so that ate up a lot of time," Ben answered. "I only ordered a little under forty minutes ago."

"Alright, let's go," I said, walking towards the staircase that had opened up after the floor boss was defeated.

"Uhh, Jonathan, aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" I asked, looking at Anja.

She pointed at my chest and I looked down, realizing that I was still in my hybrid form.

"Oh," I said, starting to shift back into my human form.

Everyone laughed but waited for the process to finish. As soon as it did, I walked down the stairs, the waygate lighting up when I got to the bottom. I stepped onto it and with a flash of light I was back in the lobby. The twins were right behind me and they immediately ran off. I stood there waiting for a few seconds for Mason and Ben to show up.

"I've gotta go to the washroom. I'm pretty sure that there are some picnic tables outside. Just bring the pizzas there. If I'm not back by the time you are, make sure Mason doesn't eat all of our pizza."

"Hey, I only did that once! And it was your fault for being late!," Mason said to my back while Ben just laughed.

I heard a pop before I entered the men's washroom, so I knew that Ben had left to go pick up the pizzas. After relieving myself and washing my hands, I made my way back outside where Mason and the twins were sitting, waiting for Ben to get back with the pizza.

"Hey, Mace. Go wash your hands or I'll eat all the pizza this time," I shouted while halfway between the dungeon building and the picnic tables.

"What are you talking about? I've been wearing gloves the entire time."

"And I've seen you take them off to scratch your face or rub your nose a bunch of times. When was the last time you looked in the mirror?"

"That bad?" I heard him ask the twins, who nodded and giggled at the state of his face.

It had been a few hours since we had killed Berengar, but Mason still had blood splatters on his face from that fight, as well as a collection of dirt accumulated throughout the day. Everyone was dirty, but Mason bore the brunt of it.

"Alright, I'll go," he said, teleporting from the picnic table to just outside the building.

I watched him enter the building and then sat down, hearing another pop a moment later. I turned back to see Ben carrying two pizza boxes with a paper bag on top. He Blinked forward and placed everything on the table, handing the paper bag to me and then sliding one of the pizza boxes across the table.

I opened up the paper bag and placed the napkins in the middle of the table before handing out the drinks. I wasn't a fan of dipping sauce, so I put one where Mason would be sitting and handed the rest over to Ben and the twins as well. When the paper bag was empty I folded it flat and stuck it under the edge of the pizza box in front of me, making sure it wouldn't be blown away.

Just as I began opening the pizza box in front of me, I heard another pop and then Mason appeared beside me.

"Did you make Ben wash his hands before touching any pizza?" he asked, pointing over to Ben who was already munching on a slice.

"The pizza wasn't ready when I got there, so I used the time to take a leak and wash up a bit," Ben said when he had finished what was in his mouth.

Mason kept his mouth shut, knowing that he was the only one that needed prompting to wash their hands. At least until he grabbed a slice of the deluxe pizza sans olives that we were sharing.

"I figured we should use this time to roll off the Skill Gems," I said, taking the pouch out of my inventory and placing it in front of me after I had finished my first slice. "We've got four Tier D Skill Gems and seven Tier E Skill Gems."

"Gimme a sec," Ben requested, taking his phone out of his storage and placing it on the table in front of him. Everyone did the same and Ben told me when he was ready.

"427D is first up," I said, grabbing another slice of pizza while I waited.

"This one probably would've helped a lot on that last fight," Ben replied with a laugh. "It's Chaos Bolt. It's somewhat similar to Arcane Bolt, but has a short cast time and deals a lot more damage in comparison. It carries a ten second cooldown and has the effect of draining the target's mana by a percentage of the damage done. At rank one that is fifty percent of the damage done, and at rank one hundred, it will drain one hundred percent of the damage done."

"That is useful. Alright, roll," I said once my mouth was empty, hitting the button to roll.

Less than ten seconds later there was a chime from my phone and I looked at the results. Mason, and the twins passed, meaning that it was between Ben and I. I rolled 30 while he rolled 58, earning himself the Skill Gem.

"Here you go. Congrats!"

He learned the skill as soon as I tossed it over to him and I picked up another Skill Gem out of the pouch.

"Next up is 346D," I said, taking another bite out of my slice.