It flailed and screamed, not just from the pain, but from the fire. It seemed to have an innate fear of it.

  Is this because it affects their regeneration? Alex hoped so.

  It patted its wounds frantically, using its hands and dropping the massive weapon to do so. The troll was only able to do so much, though. The fire had already spread into its wounds, causing burns and worsening the damage.

  Alex and his team waited with bated breath, hoping to see the regeneration falter from the fire-seared wounds. The pungent smell of scorched troll flesh was hard to ignore, but at least the dungeon had an open-air theme.

  After a few seconds, they saw the regeneration kick in, but it was much slower than before. So slow, it was barely noticeable. The fire had turned the troll's 20-second self-healing into a minute or two. Plenty of time for them to kill it.

  “Fire it is. That slowed the regeneration down enough. Sam, you know what to do.”

  “Yep. I’ll light him up! Following behind Rykos, Derek, and Korgrith's attacks.” Sam said, then yelled, “IT'S BBQ TIME!”

  Alex smiled and continued, “Alright, Korgrith, join up with Derek. Let him soak the hits, you do the damage.”

  “Finally! I will enjoy fighting this creature.” Korgrith replied gleefully, eager to fight a strong opponent with his new class. The goblins hadn’t been a challenge for them anymore. “And what is BBQ?” He called out while running forward.

  “Remind me after! We’ll talk about the wonders of BBQ’d meats!” Sam said to him.

  “I want meat too!” Rykos growled out. “Do not forget me!”

  “Yes, yes. We will find some meat to BBQ after the dungeon. But we won’t have any sauce, so we might need to wait until after the tutorial. I’ll show you guys how a dad can BBQ!” Derek added, joining the fun, while trying not to get pummeled by a big, angry troll that had picked up its club again.

  “I want ribs!” Sarah yelled out with a smile.

  “Alright, alright. Focus up. We will definitely be BBQ’ing the first chance we get. Now let’s kill this ugly thing.” Alex said to them all.

  The party reengaged the monster. Rykos and Alex had continued cutting open the troll, causing new wounds, and then burned them with Alex's or Sam’s fire.

  Korgrith assisted Derek. When the guardian blocked a blow, Korgrith would step in and swing his mighty two-handed axe, sinking the edge into the troll's body, which again, Sam would burn.

  The troll, slowing from the damage it had taken, grew more erratic in its attacks. It came to a point when it stopped focusing solely on Derek and attacked anyone it could reach.

  One of its swings went wide and caught Korgrith in the side before he could retreat to safety. Even with his stone armor up, the blow had been brutal. It sent him flying ten feet, crashing into the side of the mountain, stone breaking under the impact.

  The troll lunged for Korgrith's weakened body and brought his club high. When he brought it down to strike Korgrith again, ignoring the attacks from everyone else, Derek suddenly appeared in front of Korgrith. He had used his [Cover Ally] skill.

  The skill was similar to charge, but he didn’t need an enemy. It focused on a friendly target instead. He had told Alex about the skill, saying that when he used it, he would charge ahead of the ally and take a blow for them. It also boosted his defense for that one strike. He mentioned the cooldown was a bit longer than his other skills, but it was a crucial skill to have. It was actually one he had rarely used.

  When the trolls club hit his shield, Derek didn’t even budge this time. He absorbed the attack like it had been a feather. The boosted defense from [Cover Ally] was clearly on display.

  The troll hesitated after the attack. Derek’s sudden appearance shocked the creature, stunned that he had withstood its attack.

  Its hesitation gave them another moment to strike. This time, Alex tried something different. He channeled fire mana into his sword, boosted his wind enhancement on himself, and ran forward full speed. Right before he was in range of the troll, he jumped, leaping high into the air.

  Several feet off the ground, Alex was able to reach higher on the troll's body. Turned away from him, it didn’t see him coming, and he stabbed his sword forward into its neck. Wreathed in fire mana, the sword didn’t have the penetrative or cutting power of wind, but that's why he stabbed, instead of slashed. With his increased speed, momentum, and strength, he was able to thrust his sword through its rock-like skin.

  Sinking deep into its neck and enhanced with fire, the sword devastated the troll. Immediately, the troll panicked and flailed around from the excruciating pain and burning. It dropped its weapon again and spun around quickly. The force of the flailing and spinning launched Alex off, but his sword remained embedded in its neck. He kept the connection to the fire mana on the blade and sent more mana into it, increasing the flames.

  Sam, seeing this was his moment, poured out his mana as well. He made a lot of his smoke-like substance and had it seep into the troll's wounds and neck. With a snap of his fingers, which he didn't need to do, but he just thought it was cool, the smoke exploded into flames. It burned and scorched the troll. With all the new fire from the explosion, he manipulated it to stay on the troll, continuing to burn and damage it.

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  Alex also channeled more fire mana into his sword and created some compressed fireballs to attack with. Between Alex and Sam’s fire, it didn’t take much longer for the troll to fall.

  With a ground-shaking thud, the creature collapsed. Its burnt body gave off a pungent stench that made your eyes water.

  “Well, that was a good time,” Alex said aloud. “How’re you doing, Korgrith?”

  Sarah was crouched over him, checking his wounds and tending his healing.

  “I will be fine. Sarah is a good healer.” He said while trying to sit up, causing him to grunt in pain, and Sarah pushed him back down. “Don’t move, you're not fine! You were almost turned into a paste by that attack,” she said to him.

  It's funny how she changes when healing is involved. She’s usually quite timid and nervous to say things, but when it comes to helping, she's forceful and full of authority. It makes her a good healer. Alex thought to himself while he observed them.

  “So what do we think?” Derek asked. His military mind was thinking about the situation and the fight.

  “They’re tough. Thick-skinned and strong. But slow. We will be fine if we focus on speed and fire.” Rykos replied, all business as usual.

  “I agree. We will just need to be careful if we have to fight multiple at once and take things slow.” Alex responded before turning towards Sam. “How’s your mana after that? Could you do it to multiple trolls at once?”

  “Hmm, all good. I should be cool to do it to a few trolls at once. But any more than that, I'll be all dried up like your grandma,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Oh? I never met my grandma. Next time you see her, tell her I wouldn’t mind meeting her since I have no other family.” Alex said with a smirk, knowing that comment would shut Sam up.

  “Uhhhh… O-okayy….” Sam quickly walked over and looked interested in the troll, anything he could do to ignore the awkward conversation.

  Alex chuckled and walked over to check the troll, too. He reached down and touched it, triggering the loot notification:

  Do you wish to loot Mountain Troll (Level 10)?

  Yes/No

  Alex thought Yes, causing the loot to appear. Several coins materialized beside the troll. He reached down and picked one up, and examined it:

  System Coin (Bronze)

  A coin generated by the Universal System to be used as currency in the universe. This coin is one of the lowest versions, Bronze rank. This item can be stored in your Soul Vault.

  When will we actually be able to use these, or how? Will we find random stores back on Earth, like maybe a System version of a mall? So many damn questions, never many answers. He stowed the coins away in his Soul Vault.

  “Who wants to dig out the troll's Core?” Alex asked aloud, hoping someone would speak up to save him from the gruesome mess it would cause.

  When no one responded, he sighed to himself and withdrew his sword again. He channeled wind mana into it to increase the cutting edge of the blade. Standing on top of the troll's corpse, he plunged it down into the creature's chest and carved out the core.

  Luckily for Alex, the troll's corpse was thoroughly burnt, so there was less blood and viscera than usual, though his boots got covered, and damn did it stink.

  God, I’m covered in this disgusting shit. I should have learned that water magic before we left. It would have been nice to clean my boots with it. When we get back to camp, that's priority number one.

  Korgrith was back on his feet and looking much better by the time Alex finished. “Everyone's mana good? Sarah?”

  “Yeah! I’m okay. Korgrith wasn’t too badly wounded. He’s made of sturdy stuff!” She said, patting him on the arm.

  Korgrith simply nodded, as if it was normal.

  The party pressed on, moving farther up the mountain path.

  “So, about experience,” Sam said to them all as they walked on. “I’ve been trying to work things about and I’ve noticed some big differences. Especially with killing lower tier monsters. Since we hit bronze, the experience from unranked feels… almost non-existant. Basically, a drop in the bucket.”

  Alex nodded. “I noticed that too. It might mean we have to fight things of our own rank to level up. It would make sense, depending on how the ranking system works. If we use your metaphor, comparing bronze to a bucket. Maybe unranked was only a cup? If the unranked only give a drop, maybe the bronze are giving us more at a time. The bucket fills quicker. Sure, we could fill the bucket with only drops, eventually, but who knows how long that would take. The key take away here is as bronze ranks, we need to fight bronze to get better experience. We need quality.”

  Sam gave a thumbs up. “Great minds again man. I was thinking the same. So killing all the goblins, creatures, or even the unranked asshole participants, won’t do much for any of us. At least, not a lot.”

  It’ll be even worse for me. My willpower racial ability makes me need an extra 250% more experience than normal, and the experience is greatly reduced for things lower than me. Leveling will be rough. I wonder how much the reduction is? The ability doesn’t say.

  Continuing on, Alex had walked ahead, stealthily as always. He was scouting for enemies.

  It didn’t take long to find the next troll. It stood along the path, just as the other one had.

  Following the same plan as the first troll, they killed it without a hitch. This time, no one was injured.

  “Hey, good job, Korgrith, you didn’t get smacked into the wall this time,” Alex said, clapping the big minotaur on the back.

  “Laugh more, and I’ll smack you into the wall.” He replied, lifting his axe to rest on his shoulder.

  Alex raised his hands in defeat, “Heyyy, calm down, big guy. I get it, it's a sensitive subject.”

  “Do it, Korgrith, smack him into the wall! I want to see it!” Sam called out. He heard Derek and Rykos chuckling behind him.

  “Whoa, wait a minute. Did you just laugh, Rykos?” Alex asked in bewilderment.

  “...No,” he replied and quickly walked away.

  “Alright, kids! Let’s get moving. We have a dungeon to finish. Leaving camp alone too long makes me worry.” Derek said, interrupting the fun.

  “Kids? I am not young.” Korgrith said, looking puzzled.

  “How old are you, Korgrith?” Alex curiously asked.

  “I have seen 63 winters. I am still a little young, but definitely no child.”

  “YOU'RE 63?!” Sam shouted out.

  “Yes.” He replied, puzzled by Sam’s outburst.

  “And you say that is young for your species?” Alex asked quizzically, eyebrow raised.

  “Of course. Why do you ask?”

  “Korgrith, our species, humans, only live about 75 years on average,” Derek said, chiming in on the conversation.

  His eyebrows rose, surprised by the information. “That is… such a short time. I am sorry.” He said, his deep voice tinged with sadness.

  “Beastkin lifespans vary by species, but most range from 100 to 200 years. My species, the minotaurs, live around 140 years. Being a leader in our village at such a young age was a grand achievement and brought much honor to my ancestors.”

  Rykos nodded in agreement. “Mmhmm. It was a good day. Much celebration and honor for you. We drank our fill and ate until our stomachs almost burst.” He licked his fangs while remembering the food and drink he had enjoyed.

  Alex was thinking about lifespans and the new integration. “You know.” He said aloud. “It's possible all our lifespans will be much greater now. With the integration and going up through the grades, it makes sense that we should live much longer. Even at Bronze, I bet we live longer than the average before integration.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense, dude. I liked fantasy and RPG stuff before we got thrown into this place, and that's how it worked in those stories.” Sam said, sounding certain he was right.

  Alex laughed. “Well, I guess we’ll see in a few years, if we all age or not. But let's keep pushing ahead.”