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With only the guard left, the dwarf had no issue defending himself as I quickly ran over to the priest and looted the hand-axe mid-fight, then ran behind the guard and began to hack away. Out of mana, I could only use what items I had left, and decided to wield an axe in my right and a dagger in the left as I hacked and slashed, and slashed and stabbed as furiously as I could.

Blood was splattering everywhere as the goblin guard shrieked in pain and threw its shield wildly about while thrusting and swinging its spear in a loose circle. I nimbly dodged the shield this time around, wiser to the mechanics of the fight, and simply rolled to the side and resumed my attack on its flank.

One [Heavy Thrust] later from the guard as it attempted to kill our tank with its last blow, and I was able to chop deeply into the neck of the goblin, cutting the entire length of the axe-head into its throat. Then with as strong of a pull as I could muster, ripped it out as its head flopped about.

As the goblin guard fell to his knees with his head loosely held on, I took my new hand-axe and hacked once more all the way through, severing it completely as it fell to the floor and rolled away. It was disgustingly gruesome, but it got the job done.

I wasn't about to die to a goblin a second fucking time.

There would be no letting down of my guard, before the fight was truly over.

I learned my lesson the first time and I would make sure a dead creature was truly dead from that point on. But, damn, I was getting mad again and I didn't really understand why. Maybe it had to do with the competition, the nature of the game, but I was getting angry during a lot of these fights.

Whatever, it was working for me, so I couldn't complain.

"That was easy," said the dwarf after we all had a moment to breathe.

"It actually was," chimed in the priest a little later. "I didn't have to heal you nearly as much since they all fell so fast. What changed? It was supposed to be harder."

"Less goblins," the dwarf replied casually. "I only saw three of 'em and the two smaller ones fell quick. I'm half tempted to try the fourth floor right now."

I was in agreeance, now that we had learned the mechanics of the fight and the group was in sync, we had a pretty good chance of clearing through the entire dungeon. I didn't want the group to end so long as the goal line was in sight, but before anything could be said to persuade the group, my hopes were crushed.

"Ah no can do guys, I've got work in five hours," interrupted the mage as he waved. "I'll see you guys later but I'm logging off, need some sleep, good run all."

"Eh, work," mumbled the dwarf, clearly disappointed.

"Let's sort the loot and be on our way then?" proposed the priest as he eyed the items on the floor. There wasn't a whole lot from this boss, just a [Crude Iron Dory] which was a decent quality, common grade spear that was slightly better than the [Old Dory]. Oh, and the hand-axe I picked up, a [Crude Iron Hand Axe] that was a decent quality item as well, and was surprisingly decent.

It was actually better than the two-handed axe I was using before and could easily double as a small woodworking axe or as my one-handed axe for my tanking set, paired with a shield. I started to laugh a little as my quest to become a full-fledged Viking was progressing smoothly. Now all I needed was my longship and a few warriors to run around with me… and maybe a pet dragon.

If we could have a pet dragon, that is.

"It is three in the mornin'," said the dwarf with a sigh. "Guess it ain't a bad time to call it quits, can hit it again tomorrow."

"I could kind of guess from the accents, but Aussies yeah?" I decided to ask, just for future reference. "It's only ten in the morning here, so figure you're on the other side."

"Yeh, it's a bit late 'ere," he replied. "We'll be back at it, I'll invite ye if yer around." At that moment, I received a friend invite from the dwarf and I readily accepted it, seeing as I had no reason not to. He was a good player, had his head on straight, and was a bit aggressive, all the things I valued in a party member. Now his name was visible in the drop-down menu that listed all of my two friends and I started to chuckle at how empty it truly was.

But hey, I was on the road to popularity now!

Ellieby was the first one, that trader I had met previously, and now, this dwarf tank known as Barik Grimsson was on my friend's list as well.

I wasn't expecting much from the Call to Arms so everything else was a bonus.

I was only really expecting to find some quests, random pick up groups, maybe some loot, and a bit of experience, but as it were, I was forging some early connections that could be quite useful down the stretch. It was always a good thing to have potential allies in a game that was so heavily focused on both the Player versus Player action along with the Player versus Environment aspect.

"Ey, mage isn't yer first role is it?" asked Barik with a grin.

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