by Dante Doom
“Never underestimate the power of pissing that thing off into a rage,” the paladin grumbled as he examined his badly dented shield. “You know, this thing wasn’t cheap.”
“Fame and glory never is,” Sivlander replied as he felt the wind blow through his hair and he gazed up into the sky. The cool mountain air was just what he needed to cool him off from the burning heat of battle. He had taken some blows, but he was alive, and that’s all that mattered.
As Sivlander stared at the mountain, basking in the glow of winning another excellent battle, he saw something rather curious. One of the crags of the mountain, the rocky formation, was morphing a little as a face began to emerge from it. The face was stranger than anything he had ever seen before—it had three glowing eyes and no nostrils. The face shifted and contorted for another moment before it vanished again.
“Alright, well, this Ogre Chief better have Ogre Treasure in his cave,” Kalifer fussed as he and his companions trudged toward the large mountain. “Come on, Sivlander, you can tactically distribute our loot.”
Meanwhile, Sivlander’s experience had increased enough to allow for him to level up. He glanced at his stats as they increased...
Intellect: 10
Constitution: 16 > 17
Strength: 18 > 19
Charisma: 8
Agility: 12
Longsword Skill Increased: +5 (40)
Climbing Skill Increased: +5 (35)
“I’ll catch up with you guys in a moment,” Sivlander said as he stepped back. “There’s something I have to do first.” And with that, the rest of his party moved onward into the cave ahead of them.
Sivlander stretched his hands upwards and the world around him suddenly grew gray. The clouds slowed down, the snow ceased falling, and even the wind was cut out. Two large buttons appeared before Sivlander; one read “Game” and the other read “Settings.” Sivlander touched the Settings button, causing a swarm of other menu options to appear before him. He selected the option “Report Bug” and began to casually write a description of the weird face that had been sticking out of the mountain. Whatever it was, it didn’t belong there, sticking out of the face of a mountain. He mumbled the words as he typed them into the bug report. “Strange face out of mountain; some kind of graphics glitch at Vemor Mountain Ogre Chief Raid.”
After he submitted the bug, he closed the menu and immediately the world around him sprang back to life. The wind picked back up, the snow began again to fall, and he could hear his party arguing over the loot inside of the cave. Sivlander glanced at his experience bar to the side and grinned. If he completed this quest, it would mean yet another leveling up. This was the start of a fantastic day.
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(Dragon Kings of the New World)