All mentioned features and skills will be listed below.
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After a half-hour walk, they came across the entrance to a cave.
"I'm absolutely certain this is the rats' den."
"Let's continue in the formation we discussed earlier. Boran, take the lead."
"It's too dark inside, does anyone have a torch?" asked Boran.
Elif cast a spell, and an orb of light appeared above their heads, following them.
"That'll do."
The cave interior was wider than they had expected. The echoing water drops with each step gave a sense of the ceiling's height and the space's depth. The walls were rough and damp, while the floor was slippery and muddy.
Countless small passages branched off from the main tunnel, extending like a labyrinth in every direction. It was difficult to understand how the rats had created such a complex network of tunnels. A faint smell of mold from every corner showed how old this place was.
The light orb created by Elif's spell cast dancing shadows on the walls, creating the feeling that they could encounter a rat at any moment.
When they encountered the first rat swarm, everyone took their positions. Halil drew his bow, Emir held his sword ready, and Elif raised her hands. Boran waited at the front of the group.
Halil's first arrow struck one of the glowing eyes in the darkness. The rat's painful shriek set the others in motion. Dozens of rats began attacking from all directions.
Emir's sword whistled through the air, each swing neutralizing rats that leaped from small holes. But the rats weren't idle either; they were trying to bite Emir's legs with their sharp teeth.
Elif was using her spells masterfully. Sometimes throwing purple orbs, sometimes creating magic missiles. Each spell meant the end of at least one rat.
Sude watched Emir carefully, casting healing spells whenever he was wounded. The bites on Emir's legs closed instantly, allowing him to continue fighting.
As for Boran, he tried using his Taunt ability for the first time. When his power activated, a powerful breath rose from his lungs to his mouth. When he opened his mouth, an unintentionally powerful roar came out. All the rats that heard this sound froze in place for a moment and turned their attention to Boran. But they all died before they could reach him.
The battle continued as they progressed through the tunnel system. They encountered new groups of rats at every turn, systematically neutralizing each one. Halil's arrows never missed, Emir's sword never tired, Elif's spells never ran out.
After nearly an hour of clearing operations, no living rats remained in the cave system. Every corner of the underground tunnels had been checked, every nest cleared.
The group returned to the cave's exit, tired but successful.
"I checked the quest, just one task left, friends! Let's keep following Halil, when we find their den, we'll rest briefly and complete the quest. Everyone's health is full and we have enough mana. This will be easy."
As they advanced following Halil's lead, they saw an enormous cave entrance in the distance. The mouth of the cave was extraordinarily large.
"This is it! Must be the giant bats' nest," said Halil, preparing his bow.
"Let's catch our breath first," suggested Sude. "We'll enter when everyone's ready to fight."
They rested for about fifteen minutes at the cave entrance. Meanwhile, Elif renewed her magical light orb and Halil checked his arrows.
"Ready?" asked Emir, standing up. "Let's use the same strategy."
When they entered the cave, they saw hundreds of bats hanging from the ceiling. Most were sleeping, but some were slightly moving their wings as if disturbed.
Halil drew his bow and prepared his explosive arrows. "Be careful, this is going to be loud."
The arrow hit right in the middle of the bats and neutralized dozens of them with a powerful explosion. The sleeping bats began flying around in panic.
Halil's explosive arrows were easily clearing out groups of bats. Each explosion echoed off the cave walls and brought down more bats.
While Emir dealt with the fallen bats, Elif targeted the ones in the air with her spells. Sude waited behind the group, ready for any injuries.
Within ten minutes, all bats in the cave had been cleared. Halil's explosive arrows had made the task much easier than expected.
"Let's check all corners," said Boran. "Make sure no bat remains."
Everyone jumped with joy as they made their final checks.
"This is it!" Emir shouted joyfully. "We did a great job. We completed the quests!"
"I gained two levels! We won't need to enter the Misty Ruins again! We can move on to other regions right away," said Halil.
"Look at the team, everyone gained two levels! If we continue like this, we can quickly progress to the region with the really good adventurers!" said Sude.
"By the way, we got two chests as rewards. One of the creatures must have dropped an extra chest. If anything you need drops, I'll share it with you," said Elif.
"Did everyone level up? I haven't been getting XP gained notifications for a long time," Boran thought to himself. "Friends, I didn't level up at all. Do we collect quest rewards from somewhere?"
Everyone looked at each other, then Emir stepped forward with a mocking smile and put his hand on Boran's shoulder.
"Boran, how should I put this..." said Emir, with fake sadness. "I actually kicked you from the team a while ago. I don't want to share my experience points with you. You weren't useful anyway. You were just dead weight."
"Wait... you kicked me from the team? Why didn't you tell me? I've been following you around for two hours!" Boran waved his hand angrily. "If you didn't want me, you could have said so, and I could have found other people!"
"Oh, don't be dramatic." Emir rolled his eyes. "I kept you around in case an Alpha Wolf showed up. But lucky for us, no boss spawned. So you just took up space."
Boran couldn't believe what he was hearing, just standing there with his arms spread, staring at Emir.
"Well, we're done here. Go figure something out for yourself," said Emir dismissively and turned back to his team with a smirk.
"There aren't any tanks at higher levels?" said Elif.
"Of course not. This loser will never make it there anyway," said Emir with a snicker.
Just as they were about to teleport, it dawned on Boran. "Wait!" he shouted after them, but they had already teleported.
"No, no! That bastard! I can't open the system on my own! I need to get a notification!"
He began pacing back and forth in front of the cave they had cleared alone. He was thinking about what to do.
"Notification... I need to get a notification somehow! How can I get a notification..." after thinking for a bit, he considered the most likely option.
"I need to level up!"
Mentioned features and skills:
[Taunt]
Type: Active - Threat Generation
Description: Draws attention of all nearby enemies for 6 seconds.
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Threat Power: Increases with Charisma