Chapter 7: [Rocky]

My heart pounded in my chest as I stared up at the newest enemy the Dungeon created for me and my siblings. Instead of a pile of rocks, it was now some type of golem, with large stones held together by only magic. The arms were on the stubby side but still thick, and the guy’s legs were so wide around I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my arms around one of them all the way.

“Beth, get away from that thing!” I kept my hands at the ready, but I only had [1 MP] so it wasn’t like I could do anything useful.

Peter fired a useless arrow at the beast which harmlessly bounced off the stones which made it up. I guess I shouldn’t say “useless.” It did a great job pissing the rock monster off, and [Rocky] took that anger out on Bethany who for whatever reason was still standing near it, hands pointed at it.

Ah, she must be casting [Shield], I realized.

The yellow wall appeared, protecting her from the incoming blow.

Except [Rocky’s] cobbled fist slammed through the [Shield] and into her, sending her backwards a dozen feet.

“Bethany!” I ran to my sister.

Peter distracted the monster by tossing small stones from the dirt at him, and while they didn’t do any real damage, they kept [Rocky] from completely pummeling Bethany.

I reached Beth’s side and yanked to her feet. “You should have ran. He must have a higher level attack than your [Shield].”

She shook her head. “Yeah. I figured that out for myself. Thanks.”

I pushed her away from the fight. “Come on, Peter. Let’s get out of here.”

“What? We can’t run away! We have to defeat this guy. Think of all the [XP] we’ll get from it,” he said.

“Yeah, and think of all the [XP] we’ll lose if we die.” I motioned him away. “Let’s live to fight another day.”

Peter chucked one last rock at [Rocky] before turning tail and joining us in our retreat. [Rocky] marched after the three of us, but his legs were not designed for running, and we quickly out paced him.

We stopped at the top of the second hill away from the monster to catch our breaths. Bethany sat in the dirt and wiped a couple of tears which fell.

I sat next to her. “Are you okay? That looked like a rough hit.”

She nodded. “I’m fine. It hurt, but I don’t have any broken bones. Just a few bruises. It mostly scared me, being tossed around that easily.”

“Yeah. This whole thing is terrifying.” I glanced up at Peter who paced next to us. “Sit down, Peter. Let’s take a quick break to regroup and refocus. Once we have our [MP] back up, we can take [Rocky] on again.”

“No. We should go find more [Grass Clippings] so we can level up,” he argued, remaining on his feet. “A level up will heal Beth and allow us to improve our [skills].”

I blinked at my brother in surprise. That was a very mature idea, and I was a little shocked he was able to think so clearly given how adamant he’d been about killing everything in sight only five minutes before.

“Okay. Let’s do that once we have the [MP] for it,” I said.

Bethany ran a hand across her face, leaving streaks of dirt on her cheeks. “Yeah. And I’ll try to help out more. I’m sorry I got such a stupid [class].”

“It’s not stupid. It’s probably going to be really helpful at higher levels, especially when we face bosses. All of us are struggling with our [classes] since we’re at such a low level,” I comforted my sister.

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Peter snorted quietly, but he had enough sense to not say anything. My brother wasn’t always a complete idiot.

I pulled up my status screen. “I’m at four [MP] now. I bet I’ll get most of the rest of it back while we walk around looking for [Grass Clippings]. Let’s just be careful not to touch any more slumbering boulder monsters.”

“Yeah. Let’s go. We’re sitting ducks out here.” Peter held his hand out to Bethany and pulled her to her feet.

I stood up without any help and dusted my pants off the best I could. I had a feeling that the dirt was going to become a regular part of my appearance pretty early on in this adventure, but I still wasn’t looking forward to it.

The three of us set off again with Peter at the lead. Bethany lost a lot of the pep in step, her eyes on her feet most of the time. I remained vigilant, checking both sides for trouble while Peter kept his focus ahead.

We’d been walking in some random direction for several minutes when he came to a stop.

“Target located,” Peter said.

I looked ahead and noticed a grass pile that was even bigger than the last one. “That might be more than we can handle, Peter.”

“Yeah. I think nine, maybe ten, is our maximum number of [Grass Clippings] that we can handle at once, and this looks like more than that,” Bethany concurred.

“But we’re going to level up after killing just one. It’ll work out. Trust me,” Peter said.

“It’s pretty risky.” I sucked my bottom lip.

“How are we ever going to make it out of this if we don’t take the occasional risk?”

I glanced at Bethany who sighed and ducked her head.

“You’re right. Let’s do this,” she said.

“Great.” Peter rubbed his hands together. “I’ll get close enough to trigger it, then Beth you cover me while I take the first one out to get our level up.”

“Shouldn’t I handle it? I can kill these guys from a distance,” I reminded the group.

Peter deflated, but he acknowledged common sense. “Right. I guess that’s a better plan. I don’t want to be rushed by all the [Grass Clippings] while trying to apply my points.”

“But maybe you can still trigger it by shooting an arrow at it? That way no one has to get too close,” Bethany suggested.

“Yeah. I’ll do that.” Peter wasted no time calling up his bow and launching an arrow at the grass pile.

I barely had time to get my hands up as the pile divided into fourteen separate [Grass Clippings]. The moment the frontmost one stood up, I used my two [skills] on it to tear it apart.

[Grass Clippings Defeated]

[5 XP Gained]

[Level Up!]

“I’ll upgrade my stuff later. You two do what you need to now while I use my [Shield] to keep them back,” Bethany said. She didn’t even wait for us to agree before casting her [skill] and creating the glowing wall.

I pulled my screen up in an instant. I didn’t even think as I dumped my [Attribute Point] into [Intelligence]. I did hesitate with the [Skill Point] since I still wasn’t sure if I should bother with [Pull]. A yell from Peter forced me to make a quick decision, and I put my point there instead of [Push].

Dismissing the screen, I turned back to face the onslaught of [Grass Clippings]. Peter was already in the midst of them, swinging that large sword despite looking far too skinny to even hold it properly. Beth was near him, casting [Shield] and ducking out of the way of the few [Grass Clippings] that were targeting her.

I put my attention on the creature closest to my sister and held both hands out. “[Push]. [Pull].”

[Grass Clippings Defeated]

[3 XP Gained]

It exploded into a confetti of grass, but I was already looking at the next enemy. I fell into a steady rhythm–target, [skills], notification, repeat. Mixed in there were the notifications from Beth’s and Peter’s success, but they were lost in the background as I focused on my single task of handling the stragglers. It took several seconds before I realized we’d defeated all the monsters.

I took a step back, blinking away my flow state to look at my siblings who were both covered in stray pieces of grass. Both of them had several cuts as well, but I’d come out of the fight unharmed.

Peter grinned at me, grass stains along his face. “That was epic. [Rocky] doesn’t stand a chance next time.”

Beth gave a shaky chuckle. “That was… pretty cool. I think we’ve got this fighting thing down.”

I dug the toe of my tennis shoe into the nearest pile of grass. “Yeah, as long as the enemies stay this weak and dumb.”

“Always Miss Positivity,” Peter mumbled. He dropped his sword. “Come on. Our [MP] will recharge on the way. I want a redo against that stupid boulder.”

Beth shrugged at me with a half-smile before following after him.

Sighing, I shook my head and walked after the pair of them. Peter was having way too much fun with this. I only hoped his enthusiasm wasn’t going to get us killed.