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1175 Words
Another chest armor similar to the one he was wearing appeared in his mind, but vanished into whatever holding mechanic the test had, and another dagger easily went away as well. What gave him pause was the item, or rather the skill, that one of the spear wielding goblins dropped.
Mentally inspecting it gave him a description, and it seemed to be a simple lightning spell. It wasn’t quite [Jolt], [Bolt], or even [Arc], but something in between. He also knew that he’d get exactly three uses out of the spell before it too fell apart.
Continuing to run toward the tower, Matt quickly climbed the winding stairs to reach the top, where he gratefully picked up a shining, golden ball of light.
As the item inside appeared in his mind, Matt nodded. A shield wasn’t his ideal choice, but he wasn’t going to complain.
Gold-quality loot, though even more random than most of the drops the monsters gave, were substantially more durable than anything else and was enchanted as well, making them invaluable for doing well on the test.
A quick inspection told Matt that this shield had the ability to reflect projectiles back at the attacker, which would come in handy with the growing number of archers that this set of waves was sending his way.
Equipping the shield, he exited the slowly fading tower and waited for the next wave as the final few seconds ticked by. He didn’t bother to set off toward the monsters, since he was in a nice open field with dense trees nearby, offering good cover if he needed it.
The third wave consisted of the same number of goblins as the last wave, thankfully, but they were instead better equipped than their previous counterparts.
However, with his own upgrades, Matt had no problems in killing them, though both his current armor and dagger fragmented into motes of light in the process. His armor had been replaced instantly by the other set he’d picked up, and fortunately the dagger didn’t break until he was finishing off the final archer.
As he picked over the loot, Matt found and instantly equipped a spear to match with his shield and was pleasantly surprised to find an archery skill in the drops. It would increase the penetrative power of six shots, which was useful with the monsters now appearing with armor.
He was almost to the second tower when the fifth wave came out of the water like barrier.
Every five waves was a much harder wave, and Matt expected to spend most of his spells and gear taking this one down.
At first, two dozen goblins came out of the water like apparitions, and instead of trying to fight them one by one, Matt activated the lightning spell he had received. A bolt of lightning as thick as his arm lanced from his arm, bouncing between the armored goblins like they were lightning rods.
The spell started out strong enough to instantly kill the first six goblins, but it only wounded the final six. Even then, Matt was quite happy with the result. He didn’t recast the spell but instead rushed forward with his shield raised high, killing the goblins still standing with his spear.
He was nearly done with the goblins when the boss appeared. A ten-foot ogre emerged from thin air and instantly sprinted at him. Disengaging from the goblins he was fighting, Matt turned and ran as fast as he could, wanting to get as much distance as possible.
Seeing the monster crossing the distance a little too fast for his liking, Matt cast his lightning spell once more at the unarmored monster.
The spell still bounced from the ogre to the goblins, but it didn’t kill the ogre, only angering it instead.
Once Matt got far enough away, he summoned his bow and cast his empowering shot spell while pulling back his arrow.
If he were a better archer, he would have gone for a headshot, but with his mediocre skills, he only aimed for center mass. And the ogre helped by being a massive target.
His first arrow blasted a hole the size of his fist right through its lower abdomen, while the second hit something vital in its upper chest, ending its life.
A silver drop appeared in the place of its body, but Matt wasn’t able to pick it up, as the small horde of goblins weren’t too far behind them.
Swapping back to his spear and shield, he was able to kill the remaining monsters, but destroyed his spear on the second to last goblin, which forced him to end the final archer’s life with a dagger.
With ten minutes between this wave and the next, Matt collected the gear and sorted it.
He got two new spears made out of better materials, a full set of armor made from plaited leather, a helmet, and a pair of boots that the ogre dropped, which increased his running speed by half at the cost of constant degradation As for spells, two of the goblins dropped a mana weapon spell, which would cover his weapons in mana, increasing the damage they dealt for ten blows while strengthening them against harm. Sadly, these spells were single cast, but he had received two of them, which made up for it.
Finally, he got a fairly standard [Fireball]-like spell that could be cast five times before crumbling.
Needing to test the boots, he equipped them and found that his entire lower body seemed faster than before, without throwing off his sense of timing or balance.
Putting the boots away, he ran toward the tower and claimed his reward.
Laughing, he equipped the helmet that would create a burst of flames anytime he killed an opponent.
Not the longsword he hoped for but quite a strong item.
The sixth wave came out of the air like before, but instead of goblins, a half-dozen flying imps appeared and started dropping small, bomb-like vials of liquid that exploded in noxious green gas wherever they landed.
Matt, with his less than stellar skill with archery, would have had a hard time with the flying enemies. They seemed to only have a single bomb each, however, and could only engage him in melee afterwards. Though the bombs were a threat, each imp was a pitiful challenge when he could directly strike it. A lucky shot finished the first wave of imps early by hitting one in the air, causing its bomb to kill its nearby friend.
As Matt looted them, he found that they dropped interesting items.
One dropped a cloak that would allow him to hover in the air for a few seconds, and a second dropped a spell similar to their bombs, that would create an explosion and small area of dangerous gas. With only two uses, Matt put it away in his metaphorical pocket and kept moving to the next tower.
He was able to get the next golden drop before the ninth wave.
Finally, a gold-quality spell..
- Writer
