Disaster

"Are you sure we have a fighting chance? Neither of us has good enough equipment or level."

Nyssa wiped the sweat off of her forehead as they finished killing the lizardman.

"Then we better hope those chests will give us some."

[Loot Inventory]

[Floor 1 loot chest]

He pulled the chest out of the inventory and dropped it to the ground.

With a strong kick, a thunderous crack split the air as lightning struck the chest, prying it open with a burst of energy.

Hundreds of items rotated around the box like a carousel.

One by one, they began to disappear until only 5 were left.

[+Light Armor kit level 10]

[+5 Escape Stones]

[+5 000 gold]

[+Ring of The Pack]

[+Hood of The Summoner]

 Leo took out the set of armor and applied the enchantment scrolls to each piece.

[Hood of The Summoner]

[+5 Magic]

[+5 Summoner Slots]

[+1 in all statistics per 5 Summoner Slots]

[Equipment]

[Slime staff]

[Ring of The Pack]

[Pygmy Necklace]

[Hood of The Summoner]

[Chestplate (ench)]

[Greaves (ench)]

[Gloves (ench)]

[Set bonus]

[All Summons intelligence increases to match the user]

[Set bonus]

[Increase summon damage by 50%]

[Summoner Slots 14/14 ⚚]

"Wow, you look so much cooler in this!"

She walked around him, mesmerized by the shimmering enchantments of the armor.

Her compliments brought a flush to his cheeks, but he quickly pushed the thought aside, there was no time to get too distracted.

Especially since the XP booster was already ticking down.

'Still would like to have a weapon so I can fight as well.'

"I think I got something amazing too..."

Nyssa's voice was shaky, grabbing his attention.

What he saw blew him away, her chest only had one reward but it was something unbelievable.

[+Gideon]

Orange light shone brightly from the item.

"No way you got the legendary gauntlets!"

"I can't believe it either!!"

Her hands and knees shook as she put them on.

"Look Leo, thanks to our teamwork we got stronger."

Thanks to her smile, he couldn't even feel jealous of how lucky she was.

Clap

They high-fived each other, celebrating the powerful equipment they got.

Unknowingly attracting the attention of a close group of salamanders.

Hisssss!!

One of them ran towards Leo who was oblivious to their rush. 

"Leo watch out!"

Nyssa threw a punch with the new gauntlets, decimating the mob in a single punch.

[+160 (+80) XP]

[+35 Gold]

[+Material: Lava stone]

...

"Maybe I chose the wrong class after all..."

The blank expression on his face as he stared at the corpse disappearing. 

|I still think you are way cooler Master!|

"pfft Thank you."

She smiled at him while going towards another lizardman.

Leo used all of his summon slots on the slimes and sent them to pick monsters from far away.

Their chemistry and teamwork let them fight monsters everywhere at once. 

[+160 (+80) XP]

[+160 (+80) XP]

[+160 (+80) XP]

Experience points poured in faster than they could keep track of, but the number of lizardmen grew just as rapidly.

***

[3:02:21 +50% XP boost]

"I'm so gasp exhausted..."

She fell to the ground. Both of them have well over a thousand kills each.

[Inventory]

[497x Kobold Skin]

[24x Iluminite Ore]

[2x Pygmy Necklace]

[95x Salamander Essence]

[2x Molten Rock]

[143x Lava Stone]

"Here grab this."

He threw a bottle of water her way while he scrolled through his inventory.

The sheer amount of loot exceeded his expectations, spilling across the inventory like a treasure cavern.

"gulp gulp gulp Ahhh that hit the spot."

She savored the taste of water with her eyes closed while looking through her inventory.

"It's full of lava stones and salamander essence... Did you drop any equipment from them?"

Nyssa stared at Leo, waiting to get an answer that would explain the lack of any armor or a weapon.

"That's because equipment only drops from Bosses, and only a few monsters have an accessory on their drop table."

[Party Status]

[Nyssa Choi 🜲 - Level 14]

[100%]

[Leo Astralis - Level 15]

[100%]

They have raised their levels to a satisfactory point in his min.

Which made him consider leaving right now and taking a small break outside before the gates opened.

"Nyssa we sho..."

[12x Slimes died]

In an instant, almost all of his slime army died.

If it was just one or two, he wouldn't care but 12 at once put him on high alert. 

He stood up and looked at the horizon, seeing an enormous beast approaching, tar smoke emitting from its body.

It was still too far away to see what it was exactly, but it for sure wasn't anything good.

The engine sound from earlier got louder with each step the monster took.

Nyssa, who was too lost in her inventory, only now looked at Leo, instantly getting up as she saw his terrified expression.

"...we should run!"

With one swipe, he took out two escape stones, throwing the other one to Nyssa.

[New Quest]

[Slay the disaster]

[0/1]

[Reward: Profession Slot, Profession Voucher]

[Failure: Losing 50% of XP]

Leo was ready to ignore the quest and escape anyway.

But then he saw the penalty and he pondered. 

'Am I really going to risk my life to not lose most of my levels?'

"Leo!? Are you going to use it?"

She was clearly in distress, waiting so both of them could use it together.

On the other hand, he wasn't sure if they should do it. Teleporting back and losing most of their progress felt unfair.

[Quest Updated]

[Defeat the disaster]

[0/1]

[Penalty: Escape crystals won't work as long as the creature is alive]

[Reward: 2x Profession Slot(shared), 2x Profession Voucher(shared)]

'Why are you doing this!'

|I'm sorry master, even I can't help with that|

This time the window also showed up for Nyssa, startling her. 

As she read what it said, her smile disappeared and her eyes welled with tears.

Seeing the usually cheerful Nyssa reduced to such a broken state made something snap inside him. He felt like it was his duty to protect her by putting them in such a situation.

[Successfully bought 50 Health Potions for 5 000 gold]

[Successfully bought 100 Mana Potions for 10 000 gold]

His staff creaked with each slime he summoned, only being held together by wrapping it in Kobold's skin.

[Summoner Slots 0/14 ⚚]

"Nyssa, you can hide."

Leo ran towards the incoming disaster, commanding his summons to defeat everything in their path.

The flat terrain offered little to no advantage in a fight against such a formidable beast.

In his mind, it was all his fault that Nyssa got caught up in this.

'I shouldn't have hesitated...'

[HP 421/800]

Gulp gulp gulp

[HP +400]

[HP 800/800]

When he finally reached the monster he almost fell to his knees.

Its overwhelming presence was far too much for him.

Now up close he could make out the features of it, seeing that it was one of the mini-bosses on this floor.

[Disaster of The Fifth Circle ⚠︎]

[HP 10 000/10 000]

One of the slimes jumped to attack the minotaur-like creature. 

[HP -10]

Right after landing a single blow, his summon disintegrated in the lava lake on the disaster's body.

ROOOOAR!

The enormous beast swung its hand at Leo, sending him flying across the entire terrain.

"OH SHIT!"

CRASH