Our journey through the dungeon is rather uneventful. We get attacked by a band of wolf-like monsters, but it's nothing the party can't handle. Since a lot of the adventurers are still careful around me, I'm making sure to not display my power too much to avoid anyone thinking I'm trying something against them.
We eventually reach the center of the dungeon, which appears to be this abandoned city's town square. Normally, we dig a hole and place the disruptor in it, but this place is covered in cobblestone. While the years have displaced them and caused holes to appear, there is no good place where digging is possible.
"If we had a mage capable of manipulating earth, we could just..."
I hear the party leader mumbling to himself. Manipulating earth, mh? I wonder if that's something my new powers allow me to do.
I focus some of my energy under the cobblestones a good distance away from us and cause a pillar of earth to rise up, pushing the stones aside. I then bring the pillar back down and use more power to dig a hole in the ground.
The leader looks at me doing this before asking:
"Weren't you a Sword Fighter?"
I shrug before answering:
"I'm not really sure what I am at this point."
Without adding anything, the leader drops the disruptor into the hole, then turns towards me.
"Can you close it?"
I focus energy on the earth around the hole, like before, and cause it to collapse over the machine, being careful to not crush it.
"Well, that certainly makes things easier. Alright everyone, let's move out."
On our way back, I try to expand the area over which I can feel magical energy in an attempt to test my limits, but also to see if anything is coming our way. With a power like that, I shouldn't have to worry about ambushes anymore.
As we move towards the barrier, I spot weak creatures in the ruins of the buildings ahead of us. Looks like they're hiding, likely to surround us after we reach a certain point on the path.
They're not dangerous, around level 5 if my rough estimate isn't off by too much, but a surprise attack could still severely injure some of the weaker adventurers here. I walk faster to catch up to the leader to let him now about the danger.
"Weak monsters? Do you know what kind?"
"Unfortunately, no. I can sense their power, but I can't recognize monsters based on that alone."
"Going by our current location and the level you estimate them to be, it's probably goblins. They're weak but they can deal vicious wounds if they manage to stab you in the back."
The leader turns towards the rest of the group and uses hand signs to let them know what's going on, likely to make sure everyone gets the message without alerting the foes hiding nearby that we're aware of their presence.
There are a lot of them. Our party has 8 members, and I can count around 40 monsters. Even if they're individually weak, there's strength in numbers. I'm not worried about the higher-level members, but they could overrun and seriously injure or kill some adventurers if we're not careful.
We eventually reach the point that causes the monsters to begin the ambush. Hordes of small humanoids pour out of the nearby ruins, rushing towards us. We expected this, so everyone immediately starts fighting back.
Adventurers took the habit of naming monsters based on the pop culture, fantasy and mythology from our own world. So while these things are called "goblins", they're actually noseless and sport a small horn in the middle of their forehead. While most of them have green skin, you can spot the occasional one with grey or red skin. As far as we can tell, they are no different from the more common goblins, and there's no way for us to know if their culture puts any value on skin color.
Our frontliners do their best to stem the flow of small angry creatures, but some of them manage to run around them or between their legs, charging towards our spellcasters and healer.
However, to me, they appear extremely slow. Without much effort, I intercept them, allowing our backline to keep focusing on its work.
A goblin attempts to jump and stab the party leader in the neck, but as I expected, his level is too high. The dagger simply bounces off without causing so much as a scratch.
Everything seems to be going smoothly. I move where I'm needed, making sure no one gets injured, while the rest of the party takes care of most of our opponents.
As we're finishing things up, I suddenly feel a much larger presence coming towards us at a very high speed. I turn towards it, but can't see anything.
I focus a bit more... It's in the sky!
I look up and see it. Two large wings attached to a lizard-like body. A wyvern.
I've only heard about them in the tales of high-level adventurers. Wyverns are extremely powerful, with a large and resistant body as well as the ability to cast spells. Thanks to that, they can open barriers and enter dungeons, taking low-level groups by surprise. If things aren't going their way during a fight, they simply fly away and escape from the dungeon. While a few adventurers can use their magic to fly, they're extremely rare, so no group ever managed to pursue a fleeing wyvern.
In this country, only two free companies have confirmed wyvern kills. We came here prepared to clear a level 10 dungeon. We have to run.
I point towards it and scream:
"A wyvern!"
Panic immediately spreads through the group as everyone looks up, seeing that large, looming shape approaching. The leader reacts quickly:
"Everyone! Run to the barrier. Higher-level members, cover the party's back."
They don't need to be asked twice to make a run for it. The combat formation breaks as everyone takes to their heels, with a few members waiting to find themselves at the back before they start running as well.
I create one of the small crystalline projectiles I started using right after unlocking my power and launch it at the monster. Despite its speed, the creature has no issue dodging it. I can tell that while I received a major power boost recently, that thing is still far stronger than me, and that little experiment simply confirmed it.
We run, but it flies faster. As it gets closer and closer, I notice something: it's staring at me. Could I be its actual target?
I turn towards the leader and say:
"Boss, I'm gonna try something. Don't worry about me, just make it out of here as fast as you can."
He looks puzzled, but he doesn't question it. Not that I give him any time to do so.
I change direction and start running as fast as I can, pouring magic into my legs to further enhance my speed. I can hear the air moving past my ears as I reach my fastest speed to date, going in the opposite direction from the rest of the group.
And sure enough, the wyvern changes trajectory to follow me.
On one hand, this is a good thing, since it means the rest of the party will make it out alive without any more issues.
On the other, this is a bad thing, because I'm in serious trouble right now.
Even at this speed, it manages to fly faster than me. I'll have to find some way to make it to the barrier before it lands a serious hit on me.
