The cave was dark, even darker than the forest. Even the moonlight that was their guide abandoned them in this dungeon.
"Leo, please light up the torch," asked Shesmu.
"Sure, give me a second."
Leo took out the torch from his inventory and lighted it up. The fire was like a savior- a guide to the trio who just a few moments ago couldn't see two feet past their nose.
The trio kept exploring the cave and after two minutes, they found their first foes.
Two wolves, both of them had black fur and red eyes. Their fangs were sharp and their claws deadly. Shesmu inspected them and found them both at level 11.
Wolf
HP: 730/730
Wolf
HP: 750/750
Shesmu had the urge to just use Demon Slash and be done with it. However, remembering the Energy cost and cooldown of the skill, Shesmu stopped himself.
Both Leo and DepressedRyan dashed towards the monsters without waiting for Shesmu's orders. At this point, they already developed enough of team coordination to not need Shesmu to give even the most basics of instructions.
With dexterous movements, DepressedRyan dodged the wolf's attacks and countered with his own. He then slashed towards the beast's neck and activated Empowered Slash at the same time. Two damages appeared above the monster's head, killing it instantly. This was the first time DepressedRyan was able to successfully perform Empowered Slash Cancel in a real fight.
Leo took a much simpler approach. He first blocked the wolf's strike with his sword before countering with his own attacks. With a couple of rotations, Leo was able to kill the wolf easily.
Shesmu didn't take part in the fight and just stood behind the duo, watching their every move.
Leo is doing good. He is slowly developing the style he was so famous for ten years from now. The only thing he is missing is a shield. As for DepressedRyan. Well, he really is a monster. It's one thing to learn a new technique, it's another to be able to pull it off in your first fight.
"Good job, both of you. It seems that you no longer need me now, maybe you should try and duo the dungeon for a change."
"You're joking, right? Of course, we can, just sit back and relax."
Shesmu was just trying to tease both of them a little, but who would have thought that Ryan would be even more quick-witted.
However, while Shesmu understood the joke, for Leo it just went over the head.
"Hey, Ryan. What do you mean? Are you for real trying to have us duo the dungeon? I really can't, dude."
Looking at Leo's worried face, both Shesmu and DepressedRyan burst out laughing.
"Hey, you guys! Why are you laughing?!"
"I mean, we were just joking, Leo. Shesmu just wanted to tease us a little, so I wanted to spice things up a bit and make him the one in an uncomfortable position."
"Uncomfortable position your head. I'll just leave you two on your own and enjoy the moonlight."
Looking at Shesmu's deadpan expression, DepressedRyan started getting worried.
"Hey, you're for real?" asked DepressedRyan with a worried tone.
Shesmu just kept looking at him, neither denying nor confirming his worries.
"Hey dude, it was just a joke man. I'm sorry, okay?"
Even with the apologies, Shesmu kept his deadpan expression making DepressedRyan's worries grow further. But after a few seconds looking at DepressedRyan's face, Shesmu could no longer hold back his laughter.
"Dude, you should see your face. You look like you're about to piss in your pants. Haha."
Looking at Shesmu laughing his heart out, DepressedRyan felt a weird mix of relief and annoyance.
"You- you idiot. One day I'll get back at you, just remember!"
While the duo was bickering and joking around, Leo just stood next to them with a dumbfounded expression.
"I really don't understand what you guys have been on about for the last minute, but we should keep exploring the dungeon."
"Hmm, yeah, let's do that," said Shesmu, still smiling and laughing about what just happened.
The trio kept exploring the cave, killing wolves left and right. The monsters posed no challenge, making the party bored out of its mind. The situation kept repeating itself multiple times until the first elite appeared.
Silver Fang Wolf(Elite)
HP: 2300/2300
"Well, I guess this is the first monster that won't be one-shotted," declared Shesmu.
He then dashed and appeared in front of the Silver Fang Wolf. He then executed his Empowered Slash Thrust Combo, dealing more than 3000 damage. The beast dropped dead with one hit.
"Nah, just kidding. It was still one-shotted," said Shesmu dejectedly.
"You really like bragging about, Shesmu. But I like that, a strong person has the right to brag, that's my motto!" declared DepressedRyan with hands on his hips.
"Oh, I don't think he is bragging. I too didn't think that it would be one shotted, it's an elite after all."
"You know, Leo. Sometimes, I really don't know if you're trolling or not."
DepressedRyan looked at Leo with tired eyes, already used to his friend's antics. Leo, on the other hand, had a confused look on his face.
"Well, let's just continue guys. I'm getting bored of this dungeon already, I just wanna blitz it," said Shesmu.
With those words, the party continued their exploration. The trio blitzed through the dungeon like there was no tomorrow, wasting no more than 20 seconds on every pack of wolves. Even elite wolves couldn't survive one combo from Shesmu, so the whole ordeal was a breeze.
After much exploration, the trio found themselves in front of a big door. All of them assumed that it was the boss room. By the time they reached this far into the dungeon, Shesmu reached level 13 while Leo and DepressedRyan were 12.
"It really sucks that none of the wolves dropped any weapon, but at least the elites dropped good quality pelt and wolf armors, so I guess that's not too bad," DepressedRyan commented.
"Well, yeah. We were in need of new armors anyway. It would be really weird if we had insane weapons but all the other equipment was trash," responded Shesmu.
"Anyway, the exp was good, and the gold that dropped was pretty high, so I'm fine with that. Plus, isn't the boss going to drop some cool weapons and items? That's the custom, right?"
"Well, yeah Leo. Plus, things are finally going to be fun. I hope."
Shesmu had an excited smile on his face as he opened the doors to the boss' room. In the middle of it, a beast three meters tall with ripped muscles stood. Its silver fur shined through the moonlight that came from the rooftop.
Shesmu used Inspect on the wolf and his excited smile became even more deranged.
Silver Wolf King(Boss)
HP: 30000/30000