Studying the Map

After traveling for 2 hours by train they finally arrived at the Rift. The Rift was shining with a very dark green light, the more intense the color of the rift the more difficult the dungeon will be. When they saw the guard, Rengo and his team went to him and said: "Give us the information about this dungeon, we will clear it and find the Boss." After confirming their identities and their ranks, the guard looked at Rengo and gave him a map with all the details written on it.

"This is the map," the guard said as he unfolds it and was about to explain to them what this dungeon is about, but shortly after, as he was about to explain he was interrupted. "Don't waste our time we know how to read a map!" Dogan said and took the map, he then placed it in his inventory and they walked to the Rift. After nodding to each other they walked in.

The guard just stood there shaking his head from left to right and sighing out of disappointment. "Young people truly do not know how to behave nowadays." Suddenly he saw another young boy approaching him. "Young one did you also come to go inside the Rift? Let me see your recommendation letter of the Guild." The guard said to Lothar that heard and saw everything the group of 4 did. He was sitting on a branch of a tree that was next to the rift in his transformed spider form, watching everything that happened.

"No sir, though I am from the Guild I am interested in this dungeon because no one was able to clear it. I was hoping that you could show me what this dungeon is about, sir." Lothar was speaking to the guard with respect and he showed interest in what the guard had to say. The guard thought to himself, "At least not every young person is rude, what should I do, I am only allowed to show people who will enter the dungeon, but at least someone is showing his interest."

He was lost in thought as Lothar began to say: "My name is Lothar I am a Scout, and I am interested in maps and how to read them. I want to improve my Mapping Skill so I can find shortcuts or strategic waypoints." Lothar obviously lied about him being a Scout, but he thought that knowing his surroundings is crucial for a Rifter. At some points, it could save lives to know a way to withdraw from attackers or a place where a team could fight more efficient against hordes of enemies.

"My name is Reinhardt, nice to meet you, Lothar. I am also a Scout and know a bit about mapping. My mapping Skill is at Lvl 4 what is yours at?" Lothar was smiling because he was able to see through Reinhardt and found that he was eager to show his knowledge about this dungeon from the reaction he gave when Rengo and his group denied him. "Nice to meet you, Sir. My mapping Skill is at Lvl 2" Reinhardt quickly took a liking to Lothar and placed the map of the dungeon on a table and began discussing things with Lothar. As soon as it was on the table Lothar split his mind and branded the whole thing into his brain. He was getting better and better at remembering things since his Int stat raised to 15.

He saw where the mobs spawning areas are. The mobs can be categorized into 4 different races. Naga, a race that is half snake half humanoid. They are hybrids that can live on land and inside water. The second race is Murlocs, Murlocs are a subspecies of Naga, they are smaller and developed legs instead of a snake-like lower body. Then there are crab-like creatures that attack with their scissors, and the last on the list are Slimes that have poison inside their jelly-like bodies, once you hit it your clothes and low-grade weapons will corrode.

Lothar could not help but notice these mobs all have something in common, they are able to live underwater. As he looked back at the map he scanned it for water sources, he soon noticed that behind every spawning area a little pond was stationed. "If my guess is correct the mobs all spawn from the ponds you can see on this map." Lothar said and looked at Reinhardt's smiling face. "Your right, they do not spawn outside of the water they come directly out of the water." Reinhardt was surprised to see that Lothar was able to see through this so quickly.

"So what is with the lake at the center of the dungeon I don't see a spawning area around here?" Lothar asked. "Your right the lake in the center contained a whole lot of Manastones before the Guild excavated it, but nothing else. The Manastones were completely unguarded, which is extremely unusual." Reinhardt's smile grew wider and wider he could not help but notice how many details this young boy was able to notice in this short amount of time. He was having fun because being a Scout and uncovering secret routes is worth a lot, and for him this was fun. Before the Rifts appeared Reinhardt used to be a geographer, to him this was more than just a Skill he was a mapping nerd.

"Where do you guess could the Boss room be hiding, Lothar?" Reinhardt asked. "Hmm, If my guess is correct it could be underground and only reachable through diving in the water. But this is only a first guess." Reinhardt approvingly nodded and said: "That is also what I believe. But all the Rifters that tried to dive into the ponds did not reach the end of it or were attacked by respawning mobs that had the advantage underwater. If my guess is correct this is also the reason why the other world that is connected to this Rift still did not manage to clear this dungeon." Lothar grew a smile on his face and thought to himself, "Perfect, it is as if this dungeon was designed especially for me."

"Thank you, Sir, for exchanging all this information with me, I have to leave now," Lothar said. "No problem kid, come back whenever you want, it was fun" Reinhardt was truly feeling grateful to Lothar he was kind of bored since no one tried to clear this dungeon seriously anymore and only new teams that think too highly of themselves come for their first dungeon experience. He finally saw that not all young people have gone mad and lost respect for adult persons.

After waving their goodbyes Lothar went so far away that Reinhardt could not see him anymore and transformed into a fly. He then flew back straight into the Rift.

After entering the dungeon he turned back into human form and everything turned black for a moment, he felt as if he was weightless, like when he was inside the yellow Rift and was about to choose his training course. After a few seconds, he felt the ground underneath his feet and he was inside a tunnel, the walls had glittering small illuminating stones on them that made it possible to see. Lothar looked up above his head and noticed that there was a name written over his head. "Lothar" the nickname he chose was hovering in a grey color over his head. "Disguise"

He changed his nickname since Rengo and his team would be here, and he does not want them to find out who he might be, so he changed it into "Blue Lightning". It was a combination of his parent's names. Black Lightning and Blue Thunder, and since he was wearing his parent's Equipment he wanted to honor them by giving himself their nicknames. In the leather armor from his father, there was a mask integrated into the hood, that let him cover his face. So Rengo and his team should not be able to recognize him. Beside the Leather armor and sword from his parents, he was also wearing a set of 5 dark pink gemstones, 2 were on bracelets on either side of his arms, 2 were integrated into the ankles of the leather armor there where silver slots to integrate gemstones, and the last one was a necklace.

The first thing Lothar did was to activate his stealth Skill and get used to his surroundings. He scanned the area for enemies and visualized the map inside his mind. "First things first let's move up the ranks by starting with the weakest mob." He then moved into the direction of the Slimes. The Slimes and the Crabs were nearly on the same Lvl of difficulty to handle but since Lothar has poison resistance he thought that this might be a lot easier than the crabs for the beginning.

When he was nearing the spawning area of the Slimes he saw Rengo's team running into his direction, carrying Astrid, neither of them was wearing any clothes and their complexions weren't good as well. They seemed to be poisoned, and their healer was unconscious, maybe due to using up all her Mana or because she was poisoned too severely. "No one is going to talk about this, ever again. Let's move to a save point and recover before we try the Crabs!" Rengo shouted to his teammates. The faces of the twins who followed him became red, they were feeling very embarrassed about this, they simply nodded and ran away together with Rengo.

"He is always so arrogant and now this, and what's up with his nickname? Blademaster? Are you kidding me?" Lothar thought to himself as he just watched them running away as he tried to suppress his laughter. "Let's see how strong these Slimes truly are." He then proceeded further into the spawning area and scouted his surroundings. He was able to see 4 shadows moving in the same pattern slowly waving over the ground absorbing the plants that grew on the floor beside the pond.

"I guess these are all Slimes they all move the same way, should I probe them or fight them with my most powerful attacks? Hmm, maybe holding back is no good idea. If I get used to them than I can try new things." Lothar walked slowly using stealth making no sound at all, he walked behind a mob and concentrated. When he was ready he unleashed a strike with his blade, as he practiced inside the Swordsmen training course, a slash with swordforce imbued with fire and wind elemental powers. Since the system would not give it a name he decided to name it Firestrike. The Slime he hit with the attack disintegrated into nothingness and only steam that formed from the heat evaporating the Slimes body could be seen.

---You gained 32 exp---

After finishing the first one he activated his Increase Agility, Wind Boost, and Dash Skill all together and in the blink of an eye, he appeared behind another mob and used Firestrike, evaporating one after the other. In only a few seconds he took care of all 4 of them. After finishing them he used his stealth Skill again and turned back into the pathway he came from, scanning his surroundings.

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---Congratulations you reached Lvl 2---

If someone were to see this they would believe a high Lvl Assassin would just have taken care of the mobs. Everything happened too fast not even the Slimes knew what was happening to them. All that could be seen from an outsider's perspective was a blue flash heading from a mob to another mob and unleashing a fire attack at them.

"This felt quite good maybe this was a bit overkill, they did not even realize I was there. I should try some other methods, too." As soon as he saw he could make progress he entered his training mode and was thinking of ways to improve himself, in this regard Lothar was one of a kind.

After about 20 minutes of rest, he saw how another pack of mobs appeared out of the pond, just like he was suspecting when he was talking to Reinhardt the guard outside the Rift.

After the mobs respawned he tried to approach them openly this time. He was fast enough to escape their attacks and he had poison resistance as well so he should be safe. This time he wanted to try pure physical attack to see how much a Slime could take. Lothar used all his agility buffs and used the movement techniques he learned from his father and easily evaded every attack the Slimes unleached, they jumped at him, they used spray attacks and even unleashed poison gas. The most difficult to deal with was the spray attack since if he got hit his armor would corrode, but he was simply too fast for them and the poisonous gas did not affect him at all because he was immune to low-grade poison.

He hacked and sliced at them for about 10 minutes and discovered that they were immune to pure physical attacks. His sword was of high quality so there was not corroding effect on it. After being cut in 2 or more pieces the Slime would simply reconnect itself. He then decided to touch one of them so he could transform into a Slime if needed, so he can use this ability in an emergency and escape dangerous situations. After that, he finished them off with his Firestrike and headed back into the pathway to take some rest.

---You added Slime to your Transformation List---

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---You gained 32 exp---

---Congratulations you reached Lvl 3---