Chapter 5: Why?

"... What is wrong? Did you change your mind again?" Carol asked while she furrowed her eyebrows.

"No… I just wondered if the enemies will spawn in larger groups now," Andrew replied, a bit surprised. "Not that it matters if we work together."

            Andrew wondered how she could keep her eyebrows like that. When he tried, he got tired quite soon. In any case, the walls moved a lot sooner than Andrew expected… It seemed that the five minutes of Diego's group had already ended.

"Leave this turn to us," Ann declared when they stepped forward.

"I am going to borrow his for a short while," Andrew said while he took Diego's spear. "Ann, focus on the Archer."

          Ann nodded and readied her aim, but she couldn't help but frown when she saw Andrew with two spears. Fighting with two would take too much experience and ability, and the environment didn't help… still, she realized what he was thinking when he prepared a throw while he approached the platform that was emerging.

            When the monsters appeared, they saw Andrew throwing a spear, and they tried to defend themselves, but Ann stopped them with a wind sphere. As usual, the impact forces them to the sides, but despite that, Andrew's throw still pierces the head of one of the goblins. The feeling of piercing flesh wasn't there, but the scene still was quite gruesome… it didn't stop Andrew, though.

            He prepared the second throw in a single moment and then attacked. Diego's spear also flew in a straight line toward the chest of one of the spearmen… Andrew hesitated again. Still, that finished the job… somehow, the archer wasn't getting up. It seemed that Ann snapped the neck of the creature. Her Wisdom finally reached a level where such a thing was possible more often than not.

"As I thought, you probably would be better than me with a bow…" Ann said. "That is so unfair when you never practiced any sport during high school."

"I practiced some shooters," Andrew said while picking up the fallen weapons.

"I mean, real sports," Ann said.

"You mean sports that use more of your body than your brain," Andrew said. "Well, we don't have time for this. Let's move on."

            The group behind them was quite surprised, Andrew was surprised as well, but in the end, physics was what saved the day… The heavier a weapon is, the higher will be its piercing power once it is thrown… up to a certain distance, of course.

              Now that Andrew used about one-fourth of his stamina, he could feel his body getting a bit sluggish. He didn't feel any mental exhaustion when he used all of his magic, but overusing his stamina might be dangerous.

"You and your girlfriend are pretty good," Diego said.

"Girlfriend? Nah," Andrew said while patting Ann's head. "We are just childhood friends.

"I already told you about the head pats…" Ann said and then hit Andrew's left side with two fingers.

(Your relationship with Diego improved, and it is now at level two)

(The skill Throw has leveled up, and its power increased by ten percent.)

(Your relationship with Carol improved, and it is now at level one)

(The skill Active Meditation has leveled up, and its power increased by one point.)

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          Diego laughed a little, and the battle seemed to leave a good impression on Carol, so Andrew could recover mana again. However, it seemed that Louis was a bit suspicious of him… it was no surprise. Only one hour had passed since everything started, and he already could fight that well, and Andrew also would be wary of such people.

"This system has some ups and downs, but it will be pretty good to find people who dislike me and will hide that," Andrew thought as they began to move.

          Although he was wounded, Diego tried to increase the pace of the group since he also knew the time they had between fights. At the same time, he asked how Andrew could throw spears like that… he didn't think it was a skill. Andrew told him what he learned based on the uses, but it was difficult to know if anyone could pull it off just after hearing him. It seemed that Diego thought that Andrew was used to throwing javelins.

"With your main arm wounded, it will be difficult to pull that off," Andrew said.

"The pain is mostly gone. That won't be a problem," Diego said while moving his arm and rotating it. "Besides, the battles are getting harder, so we need new tricks as fast as possible."

          They realized that as well… maybe working together with those that could keep their heads cool in such a situation wasn't so bad. In any case, when the next enemies emerged, Diego's group took the lead in fighting them. Carol was the first to strike by making some rocks fall on the enemies. One Spearman and one archer got dizzy when they were hit. Diego moved to the side and gave a chance to Louis to use his bow. Much to Andrew's surprise, he fired an arrow that became two and then hit the chest of the standing goblin spearman.

"He is that good… is his aim better due to the system, or is he that skilled?" Andrew thought.

            The strategy to disrupt the enemies and take them one from a distance and one after the other was a simple one that most groups could deploy, but Andrew knew that could only work for so long. Since energy was needed, no one could use it during all the fights, so they ended up getting hurt.

            Regardless, Diego got in range and then kicked the head of the goblin spearman, that was almost getting up, and then attacked the goblin archer with his spear. Diego stepped on the chest of the remaining enemy while he stabbed the archer, but that hadn't been enough to stop the creature. He tried to stab him with his spear, but Diego stepped back and avoided the hit. He read the attack so well that it seemed that he had already been hit by something similar.

"That was how he was hit, and yet, and he used the same strategy…" Andrew thought.

          After dodging the attack, the goblin tried to get up, but Diego didn't give him. The chance to do so, he didn't hesitate and impaled the neck of the enemy. Andrew wondered if he was just that fast to adapt or if the wound made him lose all of his hesitations… some people were also prone to be violent.

            In any case, after the battle, Andrew waited to see those three doing something out of the norm to improve their abilities using the system, but they only congratulated each other.

"They either know that it isn't a good idea to show what they need to do to get stronger, or their systems are weird like mine," Andrew thought.

              The group began to move again after picking the spears and splitting the arrows between Louis and Ann. After seeing his bow skills, Ann also asked him for some tips, and he didn't refuse to answer the questions. He also replied to them while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

"So, what are your opinions about this place?" Diego asked. "Do you think this is real? Are aliens really behind this? Can we go home? I would rather play basketball than keep fighting such dirty monsters."

"It would have been easier for others if they thought that this is an illusion… I would rather not risk my life by running away from reality," Andrew said. "I don't think that humans have drugs or machines able to do this to make us dream so intensely… besides, if this were a dream, Andy wouldn't be so real."

"How is my dream-like version in your head, then?" Andrew asked.

"For starters, he doesn't look down on me by patting my head," Ann replied. "He also follows my lead and doesn't speak nonsense from time to time."

"He must be a bundle of fun…" Andrew said and then sighed.

          Putting that aside, Andrew couldn't help but think about the questions… how was someone able to create a dungeon where only the starting points could fit seven billion people? And why would such beings still want to find the strongest and most intelligent species in the universe? Weren't they strong and smart?

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