As I enter the High Orc Dungeon, I’m pleasantly surprised to find it’s well lit. I’m also unpleasantly surprised to find that the reason for that is an expansive desert with three suns bearing down on me. “Holy fuck, it’s hot!” I exclaim, as I immediately begin feeling sweat drip its way down my back and bead up on my forehead. It’s almost hard to make out my party through the air shimmering in the pure heat these suns are putting out.
“Oh yeah, you don’t have any heat-resistant armor. That kind of sucks, but you’ll get by. If we get any heat-resisting drops, we’ll let you use them. That’s just more motivation to move quickly and get through as many High Orcs as we can,” James says.
I don’t feel my HP going down, but I definitely feel like my stamina isn’t going to be nearly as much in this climate, so it doesn’t seem like it’ll do much other than hinder me. I’m really glad that all I’m responsible for here is keeping up and dealing the final blows, because there’s no way I’d be able to fight in this condition. “Alright, let’s get a move on then. I need out of this heat as soon as possible,” I say, wiping sweat from my brow as we begin walking away from the safety of the entrance portal.
Interestingly, there is no sand. Even the deserts I know from growing up in Arizona had sand, or dust at the very least. There is hard, cracked ground, however. This should help with any case where I need to run away from an enemy, but now that I’m thinking about it, it’ll probably help them catch me too… I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.
Now that I’m paying attention to the terrain, the odd shadows that form around my feet remind me of the three suns. Something about it feels like an itch at the back of my brain and reminds me of something the Void Lady had said. The Void exists in the seams where our realms overlap or something like that. Does that mean that the portals take us between the realms? Am I in the Void Lady’s realm now? Does that mean that the void is the portals? I suppose I have some new questions for the next time I see her.
I’m staring at the ground, trying to keep the sun out of my eyes, when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look up to find Robin looking at me with a smile as she signs out, “T-E-A-C-H-?”
I laugh and applaud her, saying, “Damn, you learn fast! This is the sign for teach, by the way.” I pinch my hands together in what is honestly pretty similar to how you’d hold a sock puppet. I hold them on either side of my head at eye level and push them away from me twice, pulling them back between the two pushes. It’s kind of hard to contextualize without seeing it, but trust me, it’s much faster than spelling out the word.
She copies my sign a couple of times, memorizing it, and then we begin going over different signs for things around us. I teach her a couple of ways to sign desert, the sign for sun, and some signs for dirt. I also explain that for a lot of words in sign language, they’re just combinations of other words rather than their own. “For example,” I explain, “desert can be dry-land or dry-flat, and dirt can be its own word or added on to others depending on what you’re trying to convey by saying it.”
She signs back, “O-R-C-?” Causing me to pause for a moment. I explain that there aren’t likely to be a lot of monster names in ASL since they didn’t really make their way into daily conversation, and if there are, that I definitely don’t know them.
I say, “For Orc, I’d probably go with big-green-man or big-green-monster, and for High Orc, I’d probably add a royalty or king sign at the beginning. Also, while we’ve got green man on the brain, I’d probably call goblins small-green-man.” Making sure to sign out the words as I say them.
She nods and signs back, "King-big-green-man,” and points off to my left, where I see the rest of the party has rushed ahead as we lagged behind. They’re already engaged in a fight with an eleven-foot olive green behemoth wielding a massive spiked club that swings at James as he darts around it quickly.
I look back to say she should probably go help, but she’s already gone. In a flash, she’s caught up with the other four and is pulling a long staff out of a small bag Carlos holds. I run to catch up with them and watch Abe strumming his guitar with his left hand; yet more notes are being played than should be possible without a second hand to hold down the frets. I’ll probably hold my questions about those things until the end of the fight so I don’t piss anyone off.
Surprisingly, Maria is somewhat participating in this engagement. She’s got glowing musical notes hovering around her that I assume are from Abe’s spells, and each time she swings or dodges, one gets used as her motions are accelerated much faster than what I expect from her. She is getting most of the buffs from Abe since only a few go toward James and Robin, but even still! She’s kicking far more ass than I would’ve expected from a [Blacksmith].
Maria has an altered tower shield that covers her full body that she’s paired with a flail burning with a bright blue flame. James is dual-wielding daggers; one is green and drips occasionally onto the ground with a sizzle and trail of smoke, and one that’s blue and seems to calm the heat that shimmers around it when it’s swung. Maria wields a wooden quarterstaff with metal caps on the ends of it, and as I get closer, I hear a strange tink noise every time she swings it. I’ll add that to the list of questions I have after the fight is over.
Speaking of which, they move fast. It makes sense as I assume they’re all around the same level as James, and these High Orcs are supposed to be between Levels 60 and 70. I think the main reason it’s going so well though are the commands Carlos gives out. He’s directing this fight like a symphony. Every command is followed even if it doesn’t make sense in the moment, like when big ugly bends over to catch its breath and Carlos shouts, “Back fifteen feet.” I would’ve taken that moment as the perfect opportunity to strike. I would’ve died. A red aura explodes around the High Orc surrounding it in a radius of, you guessed it, fifteen feet.
It looks like maybe the High Orc has some ability similar to the [Berserker] class I turned down. Its aura condenses after the small explosion, and it immediately begins attacking with renewed ferocity, charging at Maria and relinquishing its focus on the other two. This definitely isn’t this team's first rodeo with High Orcs, as even as Carlos is saying to do it, James is already airborne and sailing toward its unguarded back, both daggers in an underhand grip.
He plants them on either side of its spine and slides down its back, severing the muscles from the bone they previously connected to. I wince as a phantom pain reminds me of a slight back injury I got in my first year of lifting when I wasn’t super careful about how the weight moved and only cared that I got it up.
Thick red blood pours out of the wounds, soaking James. It doesn’t seem to bother him much, however, since he moves forward as the High Orc falls face first into the ground. He cuts its Achilles tendons, rendering it floored. He then moves forward and cuts the tendons on the inside of its elbows, locking it in place, completely immobile. He waves me over with a “Mike, you’re up.”
I walk over tentatively, not wanting to get caught in some last-ditch effort or hidden ability it may have left. “It’s all good; it’s got nothing left once it uses its rage ability at forty percent HP. It should have around twenty-five to thirty-five percent HP left. I hadn’t tried to immobilize them like this before, but that’s a good option to take forward into future fights even apart from pushing your levels. Anyway, he’s all yours,” James says to calm my nerves.
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I hoist my [Gravity Afflicted Barbell +15] onto my shoulder and swing it down into its head. It turns its head to look at me with a slightly confused look. “Oh fuck you,” I say, repeating the action. I’m ashamed to say it takes me twenty more swings to take out its remaining HP as the others stand by and watch, leaving me exhausted and with lots of muscle fatigue. What I’m not ashamed to say is that after finishing it off, I received ten Levels. I’m also slightly confused by some damage notifications, but I suppose that could’ve been the sun. After all, I haven’t been super focused while I was training Robin.
[-15 HP]
[-17 HP]
[-18 HP]
[-22 HP]
[-27 HP]
[-38 HP]
[-48 HP]
[-50 HP]
[Level 63 High Orc Slain - Exp. Awarded]
I check my stats to get a good look at where this pushed me to.
[Michael Ward
HP - 1240/2530
Titan - Level 22
Strength - 206
Dexterity - 30
Defense - 108
Intelligence - 17
Vigor - 115
Charisma - 37
Skills -
[Passive] Overwhelm I - Increase your Strength stat based on physical muscle size. Increase height by 6” and muscle growth by 10%.
[Passive] Might I - Two-handed weapons can be wielded one-handed if strength requirements are exceeded by 50% or more, and ordinary objects can be used as weapons, receiving stats based on their material and shape.
[Active] Shatter I - Hitting a creature while this skill is active deals extra damage equal to your Strength stat. 1 hour cooldown. Ready
[Passive] Basic regeneration I - Restore 1 HP per level, per hour.
[Passive] ??? - Prerequisites not met
Mutations - N/A
Available stat points - 52
Party - The Misfits
Conditions -
Teamwork - Share all Exp. based on combat participation. (Minimum 8.3%) Receive bonus Exp. from combat while your full party is in a dungeon.]
Another thing to keep as a mental note: even when you’re full HP, you don’t receive the HP gained by Leveling. “That was ten Levels. Holy shit. I think I may need to get out of this sun, though. I’ve taken 245 damage since we’ve been out here,” I say.
“No worries, muscles, I can fix you up,” Carlos says as he unleashes another torrent of his healing. My improved strength after the burst of levels leaves me standing this time, and it’s actually kind of refreshing in the heat. Also of note, my muscles don’t feel fatigued anymore; I need to get on Carlos’ good side so I can bring him with me when I go to start training my strength. “It’s not the sun doing damage to you, though. Even before we had these items, we would come out here for hours and not take any damage. Check your stats. Might be something you missed in there effecting you,” he finishes.
“I just checked my stats, and there was nothing in there,” I mutter to myself, but comply. I’m unsurprised to see my HP has hit max and [Overhealth] has returned. I glance over everything a couple of times to make sure there’s nothing I’m missing, and right as I’m about to say there’s nothing in there, and the problem might be just that I’m underleveled for the area and the sun is effecting me more, I notice my Strength is now sitting at 210.
I exclaim back to Carlos, “My strength went up 4 points after being healed! The damage must have been to my muscles while I was swinging the barbell, but your healing made it to where I don’t even have to wait for my body to heal and grow on its own!” I bask in the slightly increased size of my lats, triceps, and chest.
James looks at me, then at Carlos, before Carlos interrupts him as he’s about to speak, “Now don’t you get any bright fucking ideas, James. I’m not going to sit around while he works out and build his muscles for him.”
“Why not?” James asks, “This is a great opportunity! If we train him up to our level we can have you throw healing at him for a couple of hours a day and then we’ll be able to challenge even harder dungeons! Think about how much money we could make, man. At the very least, just consider it. It could be worthwhile.”
Carlos scowls but doesn’t respond. He walks over to the High Orc’s body and begins stuffing the items it dropped into the bag Robin pulled her staff out of. He pulls out a chain necklace with a blazing sun hanging off the end of it and tosses it to me. “Here you go, Princesa; it’ll make the heat easier to deal with,” he says. As it hits my hands, it registers as a [Solar Empowerment Necklace]. As I put it on and suddenly feel a bit of energy begin entering my system. I look back at Carlos and ask what it does.
Maria says, “It’s got mid-level enchants that take that exhaustion the suns have been making you feel and flip it to an energy increase. Basically, any time you’re in direct sunlight, you’ll have more energy than you would otherwise. The more sunlight, the better. It’ll also slightly increase your speed in the sun and fire resistance all the time. I’d have to do a full inspect on it to tell you the exact numbers since they have some variation, but it’s not super important since you’re only on cleanup duty. Once we leave, I’ll use my inspect skill and let you know how strong the enchants are.”
“That’s awesome; thank you both! Also, while we’ve got some time for questions, how does that bag work, Carlos?” I ask.
“Beats me; I just know it’s a [Bag of Holding] and lets me throw a bunch of shit in there. Maria said something about pocket dimensions, but as long as it works, I don’t care about the magic or science behind it,” he responds.
They go to head off, and I figure I can ask one more question before I start annoying them. I toss it back and forth in my mind between Abes guitar and Robins staff, but settle on Abes guitar. I figure I can ask Robin while we walk, and she won’t be too upset with answering me so long as I’m teaching her in the process. Once I ask, Abe begins explaining, “It’s actually something Maria came up with. By charging the wires with Mana, I can control the flow with my mind and effectively pinch together any part of the strings to the frets. She’s currently working on a variation where I’d be able to play completely hands-free and use a weapon at the same time once my Intelligence is high enough to split my focus that far.”
I mull that over in silence for a bit before Robin comes to continue our lessons while we walk.
-
We continue on killing 9 more High Orcs, just as James had said, and I get the answer from Robin between them. She explains, spelling out a lot of words before I could teach them to her, that it’s another Maria specialty and that there is a [Gravity Binding Ring] inside of the staff that increases the effect that gravity has on a 5-inch-radius sphere surrounding it by fifty times. It’s constructed so that the staff is hollow, and when she swings, the ring goes from one side to the other, so the swings hit harder. There’s also a catch point in the middle that will hold it in place until she swings it so that it’s lighter for carrying around.
As Carlos heals me from the muscle fatigue and damage upon killing the last High Orc, I get a notification I haven’t seen before.
[Overwhelm I has progressed to Overwhelm II]
I bring up my status for a quick glance at the progress I’ve made.
[Michael Ward
HP - 5281/4781
Titan - Level 31
Strength - 302
Dexterity - 34
Defense - 144
Intelligence - 17
Vigor - 151
Charisma - 46
Skills -
[Passive] Overwhelm II - Further increase your Strength stat based on physical muscle size. Increase height by 9” and muscle growth by 12.5%.
[Passive] Might I - Two handed weapons can be wielded one handed if strength requirements are exceeded by 50% or more, and ordinary objects can be used as weapons, receiving stats based on their material and shape.
[Active] Shatter I - Hitting a creature while this skill is active deals extra damage equal to your Strength stat. 1 hour cooldown. Ready
[Passive] Basic regeneration I - Restore 1 HP per level, per hour.
[Passive] ??? - Prerequisites not met
Mutations - N/A
Available stat points - 92
Party - The Misfits
Conditions -
Teamwork - Share all Exp. based on combat participation. (Minimum 8.3%) Receive bonus Exp. from combat while your full party is in a dungeon.
Overhealth - Due to excessive healing energy pumped into your system, your HP has been temporarily increased. Bonus HP will decay over the course of 2 hours.]
I’ve gained twenty-nine Levels in total from this trip and also twenty-seven Strength aside from leveling, just by swinging around my barbell. With all the strength increases, what was a pretty difficult exercise when I began only two hours previously isn’t really doing anything for me anymore. I only took 50 damage off the last High Orc I killed and only gained one Strength point from the last two combined. I let James know that I’ve climbed over his 25 Level goal and am ready to leave, to which he laughs and says, “You remember I did say we were killing the dungeon boss, right? That portal is the fastest way out of here, unless you want to walk two hours back in this heat.”
While the new sun amulets are definitely making the heat less of an issue, I really don’t want to walk two hours back toward the portal. Plus, getting lost in an open expanse like this would really suck. I look toward the glowing red portal with a bit of dismay. “I guess if it’s the fastest way out, it’s the fastest way out,” I say.
We all begin walking toward it, and they enter as a group, with me following right behind so I can keep safe in case the boss charges us. The moment they’re entering, however, the portal turns a deep red that almost looks black. I’m not quite sure what it might mean, but I can’t really believe that it’s a good sign. I sit for a moment to contemplate. I could try leaving and heading back to the entrance, but if I come across an enemy, they’re going to be way too high of a Level for me to realistically fight or run away from. If I enter, however, that enemy may be too powerful and burst through our formation and also will be too high of a Level for me to fight or run away from.
I guess my best option is to follow after them and hope that they can handle it and keep me safe. “Ugh, I just want to go home and take a nap,” I whine to myself as I enter the Boss room behind them.