The deeper they went, the more goblins began to appear and swarm them.
But now with Rowan on the frontline instead of the two boys, they were quickly mowed down by shotgun blasts.
"I really want to try one of those," Lee watched the power it carried and felt the urge stir in him.
Unlike Jack and Tyrone who used swords that scaled with strength, or rather, needed strength and other stats to be combat effective, a shotgun at the end of the day was still a shotgun. It took a significant investment into strength before a sword slash could rival the raw destructive power a shotgun put out.
"I don't think it is as easy as it looks, Lee..." Even as a D rank mage, Cordelia had never seen anyone quite like Rowan before. He was E rank, but his effectiveness was on par with or outclassed even his peers who were dedicated ranged damage dealers.
Rowan glanced at his SP count climbing higher, but his level stayed flat, which made him frown.
'Is party play not the way?'
It was not confirmed yet at this point in time, but in the future it would be.
EXP was divided among party members. Any registered member near a monster's death would receive shared EXP, within a range of roughly 10 meters from the point of death.
The best way to level was to squeeze out the most EXP by balancing the number of players in the party, the gate difficulty, and the clearing speed.
Just because clearing a gate safely was possible did not mean it was efficient.
The single fastest way to level up, without dispute, was to solo a gate ranked higher than yourself.
But even for Rowan, he had hardly ever soloed before. By the point he was strong enough to carry a team, Orelia was already there.
Even while lost in thought, his fingers still moved on their own, flicking between reloading and firing, putting down goblins one after another. When the last of the wave dropped, they moved in and harvested the [Mana Cores] from inside the fallen goblins.
[You received: Mana Core (E)]
A [Mana Core] was the lifeblood of the hunter economy. Even at its lowest rank, a single core could generate enough power to run an entire household for a year.
And for anyone wondering, yes. It was used to boil water. It was always about boiling water.
"Hm..."
Something stirred inside him. A danger sense he had developed over years of surviving the apocalypse. It was not a skill registered in the system, but it had saved his life more times than he could count.
"The boss is probably close. Lee, can you heal them up?"
"Y-Yes!" Lee got to work on the minor wounds Jack and Tyrone had picked up while Rowan closed his eyes and sharpened his focus.
'What is this?'
It was not just a feeling. He could see something, a pulsing, lingering heat bleeding through the air around them.
'fifty small ones and another one that stands out.'
He had never perceived anything like this before, even with a dexterity that enhanced perception.
His current stat was hundreds of times lower than what he had at his peak, and yet this was clearer than anything he had ever felt.
'Is this connected to my class being Tier 2?'
A Tier 2 class. A secret Orelia had never told him about, and perhaps his greatest advantage yet.
"Let's go." Seeing the two warriors healed up, Rowan unconsciously took the lead and walked into the boss's room.
Jack and Tyrone glanced at each other, nodded, and grabbed their swords, eyes fixed on Rowan's back.
Inside was a cave filled with brown makeshift tents. A campfire burned at the center, animal bones piled around it. The rest of the space was packed from wall to wall with armed goblins, all ready for a fight. But the one that stood out most was at the far end of the room.
A goblin, larger than the rest, gripping a giant staff with a skull hanging from its tip.
"Goblin Shaman!" Rowan called out but got no response from behind him.
And before anyone had time to process what that meant, it was already too late.
A flame lance erupted from the staff and streaked directly at Rowan with pinpoint precision.
His body was engulfed in flame as it exploded on him.
[Specter Form (S): Temporarily transforms you into a soul state for 2 seconds, ignoring all damage from the material world.]
[Soul Points remaining: 17]
His body looked untouched.
"I said shaman, what were you-" He turned and caught the expressions on Cordelia and Lee's faces.
Shock.
He shut his mouth.
He had spent too long surrounded by hardened survivors.
The same people who stayed until the last war, who knew their role and their task by heart.
Even to die when they needed to...
But these were not those people.
'They are still kids...'
While he tried to calm himself down, Jack and Tyrone went in.
"Caster type, we need to close in," Tyrone moved first but ran straight into a group of goblins that cut him off.
The same happened to Jack, and before long both were pinned back-to-back, covering each other from attacks on all sides.
"NO, YOU IDIOTS!!" Rowan shouted but the two were already out of position and too deep to pull back.
Not only had they made it impossible for Cordelia to blast the entire horde with a fireball, but they had also left the entire backline wide open for attack.
"Gah!!" The remaining goblins spotted the opening and rushed in.
"I got this!" Cordelia raised her wand as flame began to gather at its tip.
"NO!" Rowan threw himself back and grabbed her wand before spinning back around and opening fire.
The spray bullet from his shotgun pushed back the waves of goblins enough to deter them.
"What is your problem?" Cordelia looked genuinely insulted.
Rowan turned on her, jaw tight. "When both sides have casters your job is to protect, not attack!"
"W-What about you, sir?" Lee's eyes were wide with worry.
"I am going to kill the boss." Rowan swapped out his buckshot for a slug round and moved in.
He moved past the goblins that tried to reach the backline and killed them all in stride.
The goblins caught between Jack and Tyrone noticed him coming, but Rowan activated [Dash] and launched himself into the air, planting one foot on top of Jack's head to steal a second burst of momentum, vaulting clean over the entire group of goblins.
"Die!!"
Rowan fired midair, the slug spiraling out from the muzzle.
The shaman had no time to react. The slug screamed toward it but stopped dead against a shimmering red barrier, cracking the surface but not breaking through.
The shaman's lips pulled back into a smirk as its staff began to glow once more.
The flame lance tore from the shaman's staff and soared toward him, but Cordelia was already moving. Her flame arrow shot forward and met it head on. The two collided midair and detonated against each other, canceling out in a burst of heat.
Rowan seized the opening and kept firing, slug after slug hammering the barrier until it finally shattered.
The shaman staggered as its last line of defense crumbled. But instead of closing in for the kill like he normally would, Rowan loaded one more round. He wanted to test something.
'Let's try something new.'
Normally, [Soul Eater] had one strict condition; the attack had to always remain connected to him. He could not throw a weapon, let alone fire one.
Bad news for the shaman. He had upgraded it.
[Soul Devourer] [SP -5]
The bullet wept.
When he pulled the trigger, the shot that left the barrel was nothing like a normal round.
The flame turned grey, replaced by a soul fire as the slug tore through the air like a wailing ghost.
It pierced the shaman's chest and latched on, dragging its soul outward from the inside.
The soul evaporated on contact as the shaman's body folded and collapsed to the ground.
[SP: 22] [SP: 23] [SP: 24]
As the souls of the dying goblins flowed into him, the system appeared with a prompt to choose a skill from the dead shaman.
There were two skills.
[Flame Lance (E): Creates a fire lance and attacks an enemy.]
[Magic Barrier (E): Creates a magical barrier.]
Rowan chose the one that would be most useful to him.
[You have gained skill: Magic Barrier (E): Creates a magical barrier.]
'Love me some defensive skills~' Rowan always preferred to collect defensive and buff skills over attack skills, because he was already more than capable of doing the killing himself.
[You leveled up!] [Gain 5 free points]
"5?!" Rowan usually only got 3 per level up.
Being Tier 2 was ridiculously more powerful than he thought.
But while he was still sitting with that surprise, a blade pierced through his heart.
And instantly killed him.