He Joins her

Litner sighed and agreed to join her. Taking on a boss at his level wouldn't be the smartest thing he's ever done, but probably not the stupidest either. Two years ago he had quickly learned that taking on a boss was best done through speed and striking at weak points, not through sheer brute ****. He had plenty of speed and striking at an opponent's weaknesses was a specialty of the assassin class. He could probably get the Moon Dogs back on their feet on his own, but it would be a slow process. Helping Tianna would speed things along. If they were successful that is.

Tianna seemed quite happy with his agreement and quickly slashed a finger through the air, bringing up a menu. With a few swipes of her finger, she sent him a request to join her Party. A message symbol appeared in front of him and he tapped it and accepted the invite, joining up with her for the time being. After accepting the invite, a Party screen came up, showing him several names. He recognized several of them. They were freelancers he had heard were selling their services to different Guilds and wealthy adventurers.

Two others he recognized were like him, head hunted from other Guilds. One was a man named Vincent Yates, registered to the mercenary Guild North Blades. Vincent was a skilled Guardian, using a large shield defend himself and his allies while countering the attacks with a sword or spear. He was well known as a pleasant man who had proven himself in many battles and taken on some hard quests on several floors. The other was a young woman named Celeste Barnal. She was a cleric registered to the World Leaf Guild. World Leaf was one of the largest Guilds in the Dungeon with a large array of healers, sorcerers, and warriors. Celeste's name was only known to him because she had been one of the healers in the group two years ago. Otherwise she wasn't well known.

Litner closed the menu and nodded to Tianna and got up from where he had been sitting. He was about to head back inside the guild when Tianna stopped him. With another swipe of her finger she transfered over enough potions to completely heal him and some food items. Litner thanked her and downed the potions and thanked her for the meal. Tianna simply closed her menu and told him to be ready bright and early. Litner agreed and went back inside. He ate a little of the food and tucked the rest away with the rest of his inventory. Didn't know when he would have a good meal again.

The next morning he was up and ready when the message came in. Tianna was calling him to the city gate. He arrived at the same time as Celeste, who flashed him a shy smile. The young woman was wearing white robes and carried a staff. She was a little shorter than him and her brown hair hung just below her shoulders. Litz had to admit that she was cute. Tianna was already there, along with some of the men she had hired. She greeted them before looking past them. Several other people were trickling into the group and soon their raid party was up to twenty strong, with Vincent arriving last, yawning loudly as he did.

"Mighty early for this Miss Meadows. Mind telling us where we're going?"

"The Staircase is in the North East section of this floor. My scout found it a few days ago and suggested we take one of two routes. Mr. Leeds?"

The man that stepped up was Greg Leeds. He was tall and thin, wearing a dark green hooded cloak and a long bow and arrows on his back. He pulled up a menu and went to his map of the floor. He sent a copy of the map to everyone in the party and once opened, it revealed things the scout had marked for everyone to see. One route was through the forest that took up most of the floor. It was the most direct route and cut through the thickest part of the forest. Going the second route took them slightly farther out of the way and through a less dense part of the forest, but also ran next to the edges of a swamp. After giving everyone a chance to look at the maps, Greg spoke up.

"Alright people, the direct route runs through the forest. It will take less time, but there are a lot of monsters in that area. A lone scout or stealth based person might be able to make it through without too much trouble, but for a group our size, we will attract a lot of attention. The other route wont be as dangerous where monsters are concerned, but we have a lot of tricky terrain to cover. Forest monsters may include Great Stingers, Treants, and who knows what else. On the other hand, the other option will take out the Treants almost entirely, but we could be dealing with some Bog Frogs, Slip Jacks, and other bog related monsters."

After that, Tianna called it to a vote. Litz thought about it for a moment. Great Stingers were giant wasp like monsters that could cause a lot of poison damage. Treats were tree like giants and could be tough to take down. The denser the forest, the more likely you would run into a group of them. Bog Frogs were large, frog like monsters that had poisonous mucus covering them. While not exceptionally strong, their mucus was annoying as hell. Slip Jacks were what really worried him about the bog though. They were humanoid monsters with fish like faces and scales all over their bodies. They were fast and silent, often slipping behind their prey to attack without warning. Slip Jacks were the assassins of the bog and almost impossible to detect. Litz didn't really want to deal with any of the monsters, but he cast his vote anyway.

Level 25:
XP to next Level: 600

HP:
1800/1800

Gear:
Weapon: Ninja Scythe and chain (Blue Steel)
Extra Weapons: Ninja throwing knives (10 count) (Blue Iron)
Body: Black Hooded Outfit (Green Cloth)

Potions:
Healing Potion: 2 (Heals 500 HP)
Enhancement Potion 2 (Attack increases for 3 attacks)

Food:
Half-Eaten Bread (Restores 5 HP, Relieves some hunger.)
Cooked Lizard Tail (Restores 50 HP and moderate Hunger)
Pasta (Restores 50 HP and moderate Hunger)