Ashes of the Fallen

"I'm a friggin' popsicle, damn," he replied as he stood there shaking.

I was shaking too, but it was only cold, nothing more nothing less.

The frost mage stopped channeling his [Freezing Rain] as the group gathered around the frozen goblins, eager at our prospects. It wouldn't take too long for them to defrost but they were kind of anxious to check the loot.

"That seemed, almost… too easy," I said after some time had passed.

"Told you she'd be right," said Ethan.

"Easy for you maybe, both of your health pools were dropping incredibly fast there at the end," spoke up Alan. "It wasn't that easy to heal you two."

"If I weren't so damn chilly after, I would be in love with that strategy," said Barik as he frantically rubbed his arms to try and warm up.

I had a better idea though, and reignited the campfire that the goblins had been using prior. It had been put out from the rain, but the wood was still usable.

All it took was a little fire magic to get it going again.

Not that I had sufficient control or proficiency in fire magic.

All I could manage was the equivalent of a strong lighter.

It wasn't too bad though; came in handy more often than not.

Warming up at the fireside, I already knew that the loot wasn't of any use to me. During the fight I was able to get a closer look at all of the items that the goblins used, thanks to my hyper-attentiveness recording all of the useless information that entered my field of view.

My memory was in shambles from all of the concussions, but strangely the more useless aspects still worked better than intended. I would rather be able to divide and do multiplication in my head without it taking a few minutes, only to question the results. That assumed I was even able to complete the problem in the first place, which wasn't really a guarantee.

Eh, nothing I could do about that though.

My brain simply didn't work normally anymore.

Normal, being a relative thing.

"Anything you want Sigurd?" asked Alan after he had started to pick through the items. "I think you already have all of these pieces… less you want a backup?"

"Nah I'm good, thanks though," I replied quickly and sincerely.

"Fifth floor?" Barik asked bluntly not more than a second after I had spoken.

"Should we return to the town first, to pick up the quest?" I added on top of Barik's question. "From what I've read, there's a bonus for the first group that completes the dungeon and the dungeon's quest chain. It would be worth it."

"You mean what that forum post was talking about, with that dungeon in the central kingdoms?" inquired Ethan as he playfully shot miniature fireballs into the campfire.

"Yeah, according to the guild that cleared it first, just two weeks ago, they received a huge bonus to their experience and reputation reward from the quest chain, along with some spiffy new title," I started to explain while stretching out in front of the fire. "I think it would be worth it to grind this out and be the first group to clear it, reputation bonuses are hard to come by in this game."

"Right, I agree," replied Barik succinctly. "Any other opinions from ya lot?"

"None here," said Ethan.

"I'm fine with that," said the frost mage that had been mostly quiet.

"It's such a long walk though," complained Alan at the end. "That's at least thirty minutes of our time just walking. I don't even think we can clear the boss."

"He has a point," chimed in Ethan with a disappointed look on his face. "I mean, we don't even know what the fifth boss looks like… it could be something outrageous."

Everyone had gone silent for a moment to think things over, as I started to wonder if there was any merit to what was said. It was true that we didn't know how powerful the fifth boss would be, and there was a good chance it might be too strong for us to handle. What worried me, was that there were two [Goblin Guards] this time around. That meant there could even be three next time, and three was one too many for me.

"I'm in favor of clearing the trash and taking a peek," I finally said, shrugging my shoulders as if it wasn't too important. "There is the chance it's too tough for us."

"I don't mind either way," replied the frost mage as he sat idly by.

Ethan nodded, as did Alan and now all we were waiting for was Barik who seemed to be lost in deep thought. He was definitely thinking of something, but it was taking far too long. And then he surprised us all with his random outburst, "bah this sucks, can't even bring a handle with me, if this were a computer I could have been drinking!"

Four pairs of eyes were locked on the man as we tried to hold in a laugh.

"What are ye lookin' at," said a puzzled Barik. "Got somethin' on me nose?"

"Uh right," I said with a confused expression displayed clearly on my face. "Let's clear the fifth floor then, shall we… I don't think Barik is mentally with us at the moment."