Ultimate Level 1

“How the hell do you have a greater regeneration potion?” Miles asked, his voice waiver as they considered the guy before them.

‘Greater… regeneration potion?” Racha stammered as she looked between Miles and Max.

“It’s not what you think,” Max said as he raised his hands in the air.

“You’re a noble, aren’t you?”

Max turned and looked at Brutus, who almost appeared green for a moment.

“No! I’m not!” Max exclaimed as he took a step back, almost tripping over the corpse of the kobold he had run through. “I’m just like you… well… I mean.”

Stuck in a dungeon with a group of adventurers freaking out about him and how he was healing was going to cause problems. He couldn’t tell the truth, and yet he couldn’t come up with an answer they might buy.

God, this grouping thing is going to be a pain…

A moment later, Max knew what he had to do.

“Ok, listen,” Max exclaimed as he held up his hand to cut all of them off. “I will be honest and tell you the truth, but I need each of you to swear as an adventurer not to breathe a word of this. Doing so might not work out for any of you if my father found out.”

“I knew it,” muttered Brutus as the man groaned.

Max tried to channel his inner noble, remembering how the few he had met acted.

He glowered at Brutus, watching the man actually grimace and almost take a step back.

“Yes, I am a noble. No, I can't tell you where I am from. Yes, I have a few things most won’t have starting off, but I really am level three.”

He imbued each of those words with as much authority as he could muster, watching as Miles and Racha both bobbed their head as he spoke.

“I chose not to obey my father and have struck out on my own. I didn’t want to succeed because I was gifted with every item under the sun. The adventurer you see before you is who I am. I was content to walk this path alone, but I will be more than happy to group with you if you will let me. I shirked some of the training I should have and ignored the advice of those who my father hired. I think we could work well together if you would have me and be willing to keep my secret.”

“And what if we don’t,” Brutus asked, his voice carrying a hint of a threat.

Max saw how he stood, arms crossed, leaning back as the warrior watched him.

“Ever had a noble upset with you?”

Brutus shook his head no, his eyes widening a little bit.

“I can only imagine what my father might do or who he might hire to solve a problem he thought might tarnish our family name. Sadly, I have first-hand knowledge of how far he has gone before.”

An audible gulp came from Miles as the three of them stood there for a moment.

“So, what do you suggest?” Racha finally asked. “Carrying on like you aren’t a noble? Keep clearing this dungeon?”

“That is exactly what I want. I want us to go as far as we can today, and if things go good enough, seriously consider trying to clear the dungeon.”

Miles leaned over and whispered something in her ear.

Brutus was watching the two of them, repeatedly shifting his eyes back to Max.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Racha smiled.

“We would enjoy keeping you in our party and doing what we had planned to do all along.”

“What?! He is a noble!”

“Shut it, Brutus,” Miles shouted. “Use your brain and not your muscles. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. You know how many trophies we have collected so far today. Clearing a dungeon? The reward at the end? The reward from the guild? Are you also forgetting the unbelievable experience we have earned? I’m almost halfway to level four!”

Racha nodded also as she pointed the the bodies on the floor.

“If I’m honest, I don’t think Seth needs us as much as we need him. Two days of hunting with him would easily take us a solid week or two to earn as much experience. Imagine the armor and weapons we can buy after we turn all this in.”

Grunting, Brutus glanced around the room and slowly began to nod his head.

“You really aren’t a prick-noble are you?”

Max let out a laugh that echoed through the cavern.

“Have I acted like a prick since we have been grouped?”

Brutus paused for a moment and then shook his head no.

“Actually, you seem like a guy I could drink beers with if I didn’t know who you were.”

Racha blew a raspberry at Brutus and then motioned to the corpses.

“Enough sizing up whose is bigger. We need to collect these trophies, retrieve my arrows, and keep going. There is experience to be earned and coin to be made!”

“Seth,” Miles called out as he bent over to cut the ear off one of the kobolds. “Would you like to take that kobold caster’s stuff?”

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Max smiled and shook his head no.

“I believe I’m last in line for the loot. It belongs to you. Hopefully, there will be enough for all of us.”

That same amazing grin that just needed one more tooth to look perfect filled Miles's face as he sliced off an ear.

“I gotta say, it feels better knowing I’m getting loot before a noble.”

They all laughed and set to work on the bodies. It was time to prepare for what was next.

Almost two hours later, Max found himself bent over, waiting for the heal to come from Miles.

The second kobold caster in this group lay dead at his feet. This pack of eight was a lot harder, and the party display showed that Brutus needed to be healed first.

“How do you keep going,” Brutus groaned as the green light covered him, removing some of the burn damage from the fireball he had not dodged fully. “Your health goes up and down constantly.”

Max shrugged and motioned to the corpses.

“Maybe one day I will share, but right now we barely know each other, and I know for a fact if you knew and my father found out, he would kill you.”

Brutus’s eyes went wide when he heard how matter-of-fact Max had said that.

“Some people think nobles have it easy. I call it a curse. One connected to a father who has no value for those he deems beneath him.”

Spitting on the ground, Max shrugged.

“Thankfully, we are the opposite. I want to get better to help others, not find out how to control them.”

Brutus let out a sigh as the second healing spell took him close to being fully healed.

“Can you wait a moment?” Miles asked, panting from the exertion of the spells.

Max nodded, seeing how empty his blue line was on the party screen. His mana regen was horrible, and choosing between the buff or no buff also affected how fast it recovered. Those ten hitpoints had almost been the difference for Brutus when he overplayed his position, not ending the kobold before trying to step over it.

“I’ll help with the trophies while you rest. I think this is as far as we should go today. Racha is almost out of arrows, I believe.”

“You’re keeping track?”

Max nodded as he bent over, cutting off the ears from the kobold caster that had been the last one standing. He tossed the trophies near Miles where he sat on the floor.

“I remembered when you said you only had ten left two fights ago. That means you have maybe five?”

“Six, but still impressed.”

Brutus sighed as he stood up after harvesting a set of ears.

“I’ll tell you, Seth. You make it really hard for me to hate you.”

Max glanced over at him as he started to cut another set of ears off. Everyone could see Max’s smile.

I’m so glad they bought that lie. Hopefully, they will keep their mouth shut and just enjoy the fact we all made out like bandits.

“I’ll try harder to be an ass if you want.”

Holding up a pair of regular ears, Max pretended to put them in his pouch.

“On second thought, I need to charge a tax for being with me. Sounds about right, doesn’t it?”

Racha and Brutus both chuckled and nodded.

“Spoken like a true noble goblins arse.”

Tossing the last of the trophies over, Max began collecting the weapons and storing them in his pack. Everyone else's packs were full.

Miles began chatting, and the green glow covered Max for a moment. Miles mana bar plummeted to the bottom as Max’s hitpoints rocketed back up to a level everyone felt more comfortable with being at.

“Ready to head out? It is going to be a long walk.”

Having finished putting everything in his pack, Max nodded and grabbed his spear from the ground.

“With luck, we should make it back to town before the sun is completely gone.”

With no kobolds to fight on the way out, the two-hour slog turned into a forty-five-minute jaunt. Miles also did not have to sit down and wait to gain mana for minutes on end.

The blue shimmering portal brought a collective sigh from everyone, and Max jogged a little to get ahead.

“Same plan as before, I’ll lead.”

His vision blurred, and what felt like a second later, Max found himself standing a few yards from the orange portal on its platform. The rest of the party popped into being near him, and everyone smiled.

“Let’s go,” Racha declared as she pointed in the direction of town. “I got a date with a tub and a glass or two of ale.”

“Don’t forget the bank. We’re going to need to deposit some money after we turn in all of this.”

The four of them had stood in line at the adventurer hall for a good twenty minutes. Multiple parties had returned, trying to make it back before it got dark on the road. No one wanted to be set upon by a pack of kobolds or goblins now that the dungeon had respawned.

“Next!”

Max smiled and motioned his group over to where Greta was waving at them. They had passed on a previous spot, as Max told them it would be well worth it.

“Adventurer Seth,” Greta said, flashing a smile at him before taking in the group around him. “Seems you found a party today. Got some stuff to turn in?”

Grinning, Max nodded and pointed at her wooden tray.

“You’re going to need a couple of those.”

Mountains of kobold ears appeared as Miles unloaded the stack from one pouch before grabbing another and repeating the process two more times. Gasps were heard from other groups when Miles chuckled, lifting one more pouch and emptying out the kobold caster ears.

“That’s a… a lot of trophies,” Greta said, her voice faltering a moment. “You all have quests to go with those, right?”

All four of them put a quest on the counter. Max had made them go and collect a ten kobold quest versus the four they each had picked up earlier.

Greta smiled, nodding as she saw it.

The others knew Max had a twenty-kobold quest, but none of them questioned how or why. They were just excited at the prospect of what was going to be theirs.

“Is that everything?”

Max and the others chuckled as they heard the waver in her voice.

Brutus and Max took off their packs, placing nine kobold caster staves and four wands onto the counter.

By now, a small crowd had gathered around them, small groups staring at the trophies and congratulating them.

Everyone was smiling, giving nods, and waving to those who came up.

“This may take a while to sort out. Do you want to wait?”

Taking the lead, Max shook his head.

“I’m sure that based on everything here, each of us has easily earned three silver. Can we collect that now and get the rest tomorrow?”

Greta stroked her beard, which Max noticed was shinier and fluffier than usual.

Had she done something different with it?

“Your beard looks amazing,” Max said as he admired it.

Her cheeks matched her red beard, and she tugged on it a little harder than she intended for a moment.

“This old thing?” she replied while she smiled at him.

Regaining her composure after a moment, she nodded her head and began counting out three silver for each of them.

“Stop by tomorrow? I’ll have it by lunchtime!”

Max heard a small chuckle and noticed Racha smiling at him.

“Tomorrow sounds good, but we may be a bit late.”

Leaning over the counter, he looked around and motioned her toward him.

Flashing the best smile he could, Max whispered, “Tomorrow, we are going to try for the boss of the Kobold dungeon.”