Gacha Leveling

That week, Matthew's class went back to the Chilling Highs dungeon, the one where they fought the Yetis and Erin almost died. This time Mia was there partying with Helen and Tina. Matthew got together with Erin and Faralynn again.

Erin acted like nothing happened around Matthew, but he was acting extremely awkward around Erin after their date. Specially with Faralynn around them. The elf, however, did not notice his awkwardness and was solely focused on defeating the Blizzard Foxes with the intention on leveling up.

It didn't take long that day. Both Erin and Faralynn leveled up at the same time. Both going to level 9.

Faralynn picked the Mage class with the Solidify Mana skill. Her idea was to create a solid mana armor around her to protect herself like Erin did when she was bit by the Yeti the other time they were there.

Erin picked the Caller class and the Pact skill. Caller was because she needed it to pick the Visomancer class and Pact seemed the only beneficial skill she could take from the class at that time.

While they were resting, they saw a Yeti walking in the distance. A single one, out of its lair. The three of them were stronger than last time, but a Yeti was still a level 15 monster and Matthew was only at level 12. He'd need to use demonic mana to fight with certainty of winning, something that he didn't want to do, specially after how Ffyr was affected by it.

"I think we should." Erin said guessing what was in his head. "Otherwise you'll earn no XP from here."

"We're stronger and it's only one this time." Faralynn agreed with her.

"I don't want to use the demonic mana unless I have to." Matthew explained his hesitation to them.

"You don't need to." Faralynn said picking up her bow. "From here, the three of us can kill it."

"The other time we were got by surprise and had to protect Robert." Erin commented preparing her staff. "But now we have the advantage."

"Ok." Matthew agreed.

Faralynn's arrow flew true and hit the Yeti right on its temple making it tumble and almost fall on the tundra grass. It roared and charged the three of them taking shots from Matthew and arrows from Faralynn the whole charge forward.

When it got close enough, Erin used her staff to create a wall of electricity between them and the charging Yeti. The monster hit the wall with its body destroying it, but also being burned by the high currents of the spell.

It fell forward when the electricity made its muscles spasm giving Matthew an opportunity to get close and deal the coup de grâce with his sword right on the monster's nape. It turned to mana mist around them so easily that Matthew wondered why he was worried in the first place.

And then a message appeared for him:

You leveled up!

Rolling Gacha for class

Congratulations!

You draw a tier 1 class!

Caller

Matthew Lordstone – Level 13

Doctor (T2) – Level 1

Warrior (T1) – Level 1

Gunner (T2) – Level 1

Plague Doctor (T3) – Level 1

Ranger (T4) – Level 1

Summoner (T2) – Level 2

Priest (T1) – Level 1

Necromancer (T3) – Level 1

Witch (T3) – Level 1

Witch Doctor (T3) – Level 1

Caller (T1) – Level 2

Stats

HP = 22/ VIT = 16

MP = 41/ MAG = 23

STR = 16/ AGI = 16

MIN = 25/ CHA = 23

Skills (1): Anesthesia (E), Imbue Mana (E), Boost Gunpowder (E), Resist Disease (E), Animal Companion (E), Purification (E), Unholy Mana (E), Witchcraft (E), Healing Totem (E), Summon Spirit (D), Pact (E)"

Just the Yeti was not enough to make him level up. That meant he did amass a huge deal of XP killing the Gnoles the other night.

Caller again? Not that it was a bad class for him, specially now that he had Ffyr with him. But part of him was hopping for something new. Something exciting. His MP was pretty high for his level. HP, Magic, Mind and Charisma were all over 20, the average for a level 13 adventurer. Then he decided to increase his Strength, Vitality and Agility with his free points.

As for the skill, he chose Spirit Magic. This would allow him to use Ffyr's fire and wind mana as his own. Meaning that he could now coat his sword in fire using Imbue Mana in connection with Spirit Magic.

"What you're looking at?" Erin asked noticing Matthew looking at the air.

"I leveled up." He answered nonchalantly.

"Did you?!" She asked with a wide smile. "What class did you get?"

It was always a thrill for everybody whenever he leveled up. The gacha nature of his unique skill was always the object of curiosity. The prospect of drawing a Tier 4 class was always a source of excitement.

"Just Caller. Again." He said.

"That's… Nice." Erin said having her expectations crushed.

"But look what I can do now." Matthew said igniting his sword on fire.

"That's so cool!" Erin exclaimed looking at how the flames danced whenever he moved his weapon.

"How can you use fire mana?" Faralynn asked getting closer. "I thought your familiar was a wind spirit?"

"No. Ffyr is a Fae. She has both fire and wind mana." Matthew explained.

"A Fae?" Faralynn got surprised. "How did you meet a Fae?"

"Inside a dungeon. It seems that the Labyrinth of Enkidu is controlled by the Fae. Or it uses the Fae. I didn't understand myself. But Ffyr was there." Matthew tried to recall what was said back then.

"Labyrinth of Enkidu?" Erin asked.

"It's a dungeon that creates random pathways. But it also gives real magic items as rewards." Faralynn explained.

"My party, Vanessa and I and two other friends, we were exploring it for some time now." Matthew added.

"You're going back there this weekend?" Faralynn asked.

"No. Vanessa is busy with a project of hers. Paula and Michael, my other party members, are going to a raid with the Valhalla Riders, a party of a friend of ours." Matthew explained. "I'm on my own this weekend."

"Oh! Then you should come with us." Erin said clapping her hands with excitement. "Lynn, me and the girls will be going to a dungeon on Saturday."

"We still haven't decided which." Faralynn added.

"Really? I'd love to." Matthew agreed.

"Great! Let's find the others to tell them the good news." Erin said with a wide smile.

They found Mia, Helen and Tina collecting a bunch of mana crystals from the floor. They had just killed a bunch of Blizzard Foxes.

"Hey!" Erin screamed waving when she saw them.

Helen waved back at her as they drew near.

"It's almost time to leave." Tina said looking at her watch as soon as they approached.

"Matt is coming with us Saturday!" Erin said with a smile ignoring Tina's comment.

"Oh! That's great!" Helen smiled too.

Mia smiled also and Tina just nodded.

"We should pick a place to go." Faralynn said. "Which dungeons are good for us?"

"We got Mia to level 6. Me and Helen are at level 8." Tina said. "Helen should level up soon though."

"Lynn and I are on 9" Erin informed.

"I'm 13." Matthew announced proudly.

"Are you a monster?" Tina asked sarcastically. "You need to kill almost 2 thousand goblins to get at level 13. You did that in only a few months?"

Matthew got surprised by her reaction, but didn't say a word.

"It doesn't matter." She added shaking her head. "Anyway. Let's go to the Castle of Novak? It's good for adventurers of level 10 to 15. With Matt, we can handle it."

"You're going to the Castle of Novak?" Professor Orpheu asked getting closer to them after overhearing their conversation.

"Probably, we're deciding." Helen said.

"It's a nice dungeon. But you guys don't have a Scout, do you? That one is filled with traps." Orpheu added.

"No…" Tina said thinking to herself. "Unless Matthew got a level in Scout recently."

Matthew shook his head negatively.

"I can go with you all. I have 4 levels in Scout." Orpheu offered.

"Why?" Tina asked suspiciously. "I mean no offense, professor, but it doesn't make sense you wanting to come with us."

"Well. To be honest with you, I have and interest in the Castle for some time now. I think there's more there than it seems. But I'm having trouble going in with a party." The professor explained. "This way I can explore further in and keep an eye on you kids."

"I don't see why not." Helen shrugged. "We do need a Scout and the professor is really wise."

"I would love to explore the dungeon with Professor Orpheu!" Erin opened a wide smile.

"Guess we're going in with a big party." Tina ceded.

"Great." Orpheu gave them a thumbs up. "I'll meet you all in front of the dungeon on Saturday then. Now you all need to go outside, I'll call the other students."

That was odd. A professor forming a party with his students. But if anything, they would feel safer with him. But what kind of interest did he had in that dungeon?