No time to dick around.

"Hold tight!" shouted Cali before pulling on the shaft of the vicious pointy rod of rusted metal.

"Arrrrgg!!!" The jagged javelin hurt as much going out than going in, and John really wished not to make a habit of having one of these stuck in his abdomen. He had been **** to spam spells left and right to get rid of this group; the presence of an Alpha had been a real issue. Sylvia didn't run to him to heal his wound, as she was too occupied healing Vesta.

Far from a frontline leader, the Alpha had stayed back for most of the fight chucking javelins at them while boosting the moral of the dozen were-rats. This fight didn't go as well as the previous ones; in fact everyone ended up getting hurt, even Sylvia.

John knew that they would have to take a short break to rest after this fight, but before that he wanted to pick up the item from the second traveler. This room was the place where the second of the dwarves had died. She seemed to have been a female dwarf from what was left of her body and had been wearing white robes under a thick leather jacket before the rats teared all of it to pieces for their ghoulish feast. Her clothes, armor, wooden shield and all of the contents of her bags were destroyed as it had been for the first dwarf; only one thing was left intact.

Quest progress: lost travelers
2/3 found
500xp (shared)
Special item

Runic hammer of Thungni: sacred item
This rune engraved hammer is a sacred item of the dwarves. It is dedicated to Thungni, ancestor god of Runesmithing.
Fruit of the practical dwarven mindset, this is a religious artefact, a tool and a weapon at the same time.
Runefather: if wielded by someone with knowledge of runes, items forged with this hammer will be able to hold more runes and enchantments than a normal item.
Expert tool: items crafted or forged with this hammer are of better quality. They get +20% durability, armor and damage.
Bonecrusher: on a critical strike this hammer will fracture a bone in the area hit. +20% dmg against skeletons and hard shelled creatures.
250/250 durability

John sat on the ground and used his last mana points on a healing spell for the hole in his belly. His situation was stable, and he could wait for Sylvia to be finished with the others before getting healed. He would regain some hp by meditating if need be.

He opened his inventory to check a few things and noticed something. His interface had a notification system for new things in his gallery since lvl 10. He had two new additions, which was pretty strange considering that he had been only fighting for hours now. The first one was... Him, looking at his interface, the invisible camera focusing a few meter from him on a panting Vesta. John turned his head and saw something that he had not noticed before. It was more obvious now that she was lying down, but it seemed as if the slime suit that she was wearing under her armor was moving by itself over her skin. The living material of the suit did not appear to be sentient but could react to some mental commands by changing shape. It was either affected by her current stream of thoughts or his Arouse skill had affected it too. In all cases it had been sufficient to trigger the recording, and it was streaming it on the network in real time. The second file was becoming even more meta...

Anna, in the library, lying naked in one of the seats, her legs on the arm rests. She was watching three interface screens at once, two were some of John's bedroom adventures, and the last one was his current one. In her left hand she was holding a book, one of the transcripts from an online story that he had written. Her right hand was between her legs, her fingers on her pussy and her thumb caressing her clitoris. It appeared that his girlfriend had gotten bored and found a way to occupy herself at some point. John skipped to the end of the video and noticed that it was matching current events. Anna had stopped pleasuring herself and had closed all other windows.

John: <How is it going in the kingdom?>

Anna: <John? Oh thank you! I was so worried. I was watching you fight, I didn't want to disturb you. The last fight... I was so afraid! Are you all right?>

John: <This was a bit touch and go at some point, but we managed it. Don't worry about the wounds; I only feel pain on the instant or from permanent things. I think that once I get one more item there'll only be the boss fight left.>

Anna: <Just promise me to be careful. You are a hard-core character, so you don't have any extra lives. I love you, and take care of the girls too.>

John: <I love you too. Nothing could stop me from coming back to you!>

While resting, John used Move to remotely kiss his three group members. Once past the initial surprise, it got him three smiles. John opened his lunch box, happy to find some delicious food in it. Nothing like some succulent fried chicken to get over having been skewered alive a few minutes earlier.

Everyone fully rested and restored, the group continued its travel. They were taking care to clean the few small rooms and lateral tunnels of the few rats that they could find in them; they had no desire to walk the entire place again later to find the last rat.

The dwarves had obviously come here looking for something. Their path had gone for three large rooms in succession, if it wasn't in the third, then whatever they were looking for was in the last boss room.

This room was similar to the other ones, and Oh surprise! there was a dead dwarf in one corner and a bunch of enemies guarding it. No alpha this time, but a Broodmother. The female was massive and her belly swollen. As soon as they entered the room, she had let out a high pitched squealing. The place had soon swarmed with rats of all sizes, from the dog sized junk rats to regular sized rats.

Cali had shot a few poisonous arrows at the beast while John was swinging his sword like a scythe, reaping many small creatures with each powerful strike.

The pollens of Sylvia and the fire of Vesta were the best weapons against such an enemy. John was doing his best with his sword and the recently looted hammer as an offhand. He was trying to reach the broodmother; her annoying screams seemed to draw in a continuous flow of the small creatures.

Using his uncanny ability for multi-tasking, John was reaping the small rats around him and using some spectral hands to remove the ones trying to climb on the girls to attack vital spots. He had kept such a pair of hands free though, using it to slip under Vesta's armor to touch her body, pinch her nipples or dip fingers in her ardent pussy. The sensual contact was overcharging the firecaster. Vesta was whirling around, creating firewalls to canalize the swarm and incinerating it using her hands as flamethrowers.

The broodmother was bleeding from dozens of cuts and wounds now, and John was taking care to regularly throw a poison bomb on her. The green liquid was seeping into the wounds, slowly eating her health bar.

John had noticed that the speed at which Sylvia was regaining her energy was diminishing. There was a limit at the quantity of magic that she could cast outside of a place to which she had an affinity apparently. This adventure would have to stop really soon, or it could turn bad.

John managed to get close enough to the monstrous female rat to vault over her body. Just before his jump he used a darkness infused Magic Projectile at her, blinding her long enough for a 'Stealth attack' with his sword and to smash his hammer on the back of her skull. The critical strike cracked her skull, stopping her screaming and the flow of creatures. A few more sword attacks on the fat, limp body finished her, while the rest of the group was finishing the smaller threats.

John kneeled down in front of the third dwarf. As insane as it seemed, this one seemed to not have been wearing any armor at all, only wearing a pair of boots and some leather pants. Some very big axe (destroyed) was still in his right hand. John could still notice the bright orange hair and beard of the dead dwarf.

The dwarves had succumbed in part because of the durability draining attacks of the rats. After checking his group, he noticed that except for his equipment which was of superior quality, everyone was nearly at their limit. It would cost thousands of dollars in repairs and in fact would make it more logical to just scrap most of the non unique stuff to craft better gear with the resources that he would have gathered.

Quest complete: lost travelers
3/3 found
500 xp (shared)
Special item.

There was a small axe in what was left of the dwarf's belt. It was rather short, with a solid pick at the back of the blade on the end.

Prospector Axe: Dwarven weapon.
This weapon is one favorite of the dwarves. The short shaft and sturdy pick are strong enough to support a fully equipped dwarf when climbing and a good tool to look for veins of ore or rare gems. The blade on the other side is helpful to cut some firewood or defend a deposit. And on top of that this weapon is perfectly balanced to be used as a throwing weapon.
Dwarven quality: this weapon comes from a Dwarven forge and is of very good quality. +50% durability and - 20% durability loss.
Balanced: easy to swing around, this weapon won't deviate if thrown.
210/210 durability

"Cali! Your weapons are about to break, take this axe and these. We might need them for the boss fight. Apparently there are only 17 enemies left, let's hope that this fight aggroed all the little ones. I don't want to spend hours hunting the last rat," he told the huntress, handing her the axe, a few swords looted from monsters and a bundle of javelins. She didn't reply to him, simply nodding and accepting the gift. Cali made them disappear into her inventory through the ring that she was wearing, except for the axe which replaced the dented tomahawk on her harness.

John removed his mask and hood and walked to Sylvia. He held her close and slipped his fingers in her green hair.

"How are you holding up? Keeping us all alive must be a very tiresome task. Do you need some rest before we finish this?" he asked her.

"I... I will hold... It's just that there isn't any energy flowing here that I can tap into. All of it comes from me and this wonderful staff that you gave me. I will give you all that I can to finish this, but I'll be happy to be back in the glade and to bathe in the fountain after that," she confessed.

"As we all do. I don't want to spend a minute more than what is necessary here. We find this last room, clear it, kill the boss, pick up the loot and we're gone."

Vesta was twitching, the matter of her slime suit wasn't so much shifting as it was boiling now. Her increased arousal induced temperature and the lowered durability of the item was putting its heat resistance to its limits. John knew that giving her what she wanted, what her body was asking, would reduce her efficiency in the last fight.

"Just a little bit more, Vesta. Be strong for me, and as soon as we get back, I'll make it worth your while. You did very well so far; you have been an invaluable member of the group, and I'm really proud of you. Only barely more than a dozen left before we can loot the treasure and go home," he told her. She smiled at him, and he could see her regain her focus by the instant. She would endure this for him, he was sure of it.

"What do we do now?" That was an excellent question!

John took a few seconds to study the map: it was clear that there was only one spot touching the central space that had not been explored yet. And without surprise a tunnel was leading directly to the boss room.

Using stealth in the dark tunnel, John approached to check inside, trying to remain invisible. He could spot 16 were-rats inside, all of them wearing some armor made of junk metal. Four of them were Alphas! At the back of the room was a large pile of junk with a lot of shiny things glittering in it. Groups of creatures scattered around a boss room without a boss to be seen, John knew this!

"Girls! I know this, this is a classic boss set up for an RPG. As soon as we enter they will attack us0 and either the boss will spawn immediately or when we kill them. Anyway, no need to take that kind of risk. Cali, you will pull them one group at a time making sure not to aggro the rest, and we will fight them in this tunnel..." he began to explain. Cali raised her hand to interrupt him.

"What do you mean by pull? And what is aggro?" she asked him.

"Ohh sorry, these are video games terms. Aggro means that they will engage in a fight with us. To pull one group you will sneak to the entrance and shoot one or two arrows at the closest group before running back here. The objective is for the target group or monster to follow you without raising alarms with everyone else. I'll be hidden in the tunnel and will perform sneak attacks on them once they pass us. Simple? With a little luck we can manage to do it for all four groups and then fight the boss on its own," he explained. He was so happy to organize a raid boss fight in real life.

The ambush site was near a bend in the tunnel; Vesta and Sylvia could stay out of sight while Cali would bait monsters. John would be a shadow against the wall, ready to spring for a lethal strike. So far into the adventure, poison had been applied to every weapon and ammunition.

When Cali ran into the tunnel, followed by a group of four pissed off were-rats, everything went according to plan. Cali stopped at the bend to taunt her pursuers and shoot a few more arrows at them.

When John struck, one of them died instantly from the damage of a critical sneak attack. By the time the second rat was hit, all three of them had turned back to face this new threat, only to receive arrows and fireballs on their less protected backs. They should have panicked and fled, but one of the perks of the Alphas was to prevent them from doing so; it would be their downfall. With the other rats dead in less time than they needed to understand the situation, the Alpha was now fighting 1 on 4. If they had managed to kill one with a dozen guards earlier, this one did not stand a chance.

The next two groups went about the same, dying one by one and letting the Arcadian expedition recover between each ****.

John evaluated that there was a good chance that the last group, keeping very close to the treasure junk pile, would trigger the boss arrival before dying.