"Ah yes, thou seeks the sword of oblivion? name and number please"
Gatekeeper of the 20th Level boss for the Dragon's Dungeon, said to be a ghost whose fondness for dungeon hunting and treasure gathering grew so much, he begged the great dragon to let him live forever in the place, the dragon agreed.
William watched as his party stalked the corridors of the dungeon, its maze-like qualities yet to show their full force to them, Richard was jumpy but Raffa and Hope were calming his nerves.
By making him embarrassed.
"My my Mr. Silverbrand, a young man of such vigor, exploring a dark and dangerous dungeon with a trio of fair maidens? a dream come true isn't it?" Raffa spoke while smiling, Richard groaned but didn't speak so the two would get tired of teasing him.
"Seems it worked," Lucrezia said softly "Nice friends you have William"
"I honestly thought Richard would say no to getting trained, yet he has shown potential for leadership roles and isn't half bad with the shield and spear" William spoke to his ever-present companion, his skill with necromancy was advancing at a steady pace and soon he would be able to summon her as a spiritual protector, complete with spell-slinging and fighting capabilities.
The downside was that since they shared the same mana pool, he would be locked out of his big mana hog spells, doable if annoying.
"I know, that part of you that stares in complete wonder as you lift a slab of metal that weighs half a ton or throw multiple Ice Spears at the target has managed to infect me, but while large our mana is not endless, we aren't demigods William, and you would be wise to remember that in your upcoming battles" Lucrezia finished with a small sigh.
"Empty so far, wasn't it supposed to be full of small critters?" Raffa asked as she cast spells to illuminate the dark corners where the torches on the walls couldn't cast their flame, nothing but small insects revealed themselves, angry and afraid at the sun born right on top of them.
"Is that a gecko? that counts as a critter right?" Richard asked, "Don't answer that it's a rhetorical question" he spoke quickly before they could fire back at him, to the giggles of Hope and Raffa.
"Lucrezia? you still with us?" Hope asked as she poked William in the ribs, the woman had grown a bit too fond of breaking his personal space, which amused Richard greatly he found.
"Yeah, just thinking to myself a bit" William replied.
"I sure hope you don't do that in the middle of combat Lucrezia, I don't want you staring at the ceiling as a horde of gods knows what barrels through our defenses" Richard spoke again "Then again I doubt your condition wouldn't snap you out of it the second that happened"
William nodded as they stalked the empty halls, Hope shuffled towards him and spoke in whispers "...I've tried communing with Saal'Xhir, she accepted me and blessed me with the same Greater Blessing you have Lucrezia, beyond the mastery of the pleasures of the flesh I've found that dealing with other people became far easier it is like I can read their very emotions!" she was giddy with excitement "You should've told me earlier! No wonder you can figure out people so fast heh"
William smiled as the young woman came up with a lie far better than what he could've come up with, for his Greater Blessing did not allow him greater rapport with other people, he had tested before and it simply wasn't there, nay he was running purely on game knowledge and Lucrezia's sex appeal.
Why did Saal'Xhir lock that power away from him? a question he would ask the woman himself when he went to her cathedral, whenever that happened that is.
The party eventually broke free from corridors and breached into a huge underground mushroom forest, with huge trees made out of the stuff, small animals ran around and at a glance, all seemed peaceful.
Richard put his hand up, making a sign for the party to stop. Hope placed her hands on the ground and sent pulses of both mana detection spells and holy divination she had learned, the spells went on for minutes before she got up and said "Ciphers, a big village of them"
Ah yes, the most basic enemy there was bar the common thug, Ciphers were mana given form by large quantities of living beings, usually passive and peaceful, they come in all shapes and sizes on the outside world.
Down there they were a chimeric abomination, half-snake, half thunderhead gorillas, capable of low-level tactics and would make "villages" where they followed their whims, usually hunting dungeon fauna and flora, and using whatever materials they had to get better at their prime directive.
Kill everything that's not a Cipher.
"Don't like this, too big of a village" William spoke out loud and everyone snapped their heads to him, curses he thought as he cleared his throat "we are barely on floor 4, these villages are usually only below floor 10, we must sneak past them and kill whatever is on the way to the floor's exit.
Nods from all 3, Richard quickly placed his shield and spear inside his dimensional backpack and pulled softer boots, plus two nasty-looking shortswords "Here, in case you gotta stab someone in the back" he gave one to Raffa who nodded with a smile.
"Gather around, everyone" William said as he pulled a scroll from his person and sent mana to it, it burned on the air, releasing a blue mist around the party.
"It will cover us until we can get to the exit, walk softly and do not speak, hand gestures only from now on" he gave the orders and the rest was happy to follow, they walked slowly across the mushroom forest until breaking into a clearing, the Cipher village just outside their vision but the ethereal noises could be heard all the same, twice they encountered patrols, the first one they sneaked past it but the second had William and Richard taking out a pair of the things.
Spectral goo spilled all over William, and he felt a particular part of his mind snicker in juvenile humor as Richard was already casting his cleaning spell on him "Best we move before another patrol comes looking"
It took them a good few minutes before arriving at the gateway to the next floor, a group of big Ciphers stood against them.
"Best we go loud," Richard said, "If we were in the tunnels I would close behind us with my wands but that ain't happening here, I say we alpha strike them and rush to the exit in the chaos, how about you lot?"
"I can do a little loud" William said flexing his fingers "Hope, Raffa, two big blue fireballs right on top of them" the girls nodded and began casting the spell as William reached for his pocket and pullet iron rods.
"I'm glad you are using my spell, Saves a lot on mana too" Lucrezia spoke as William smirked and threw the rds into the air, they began splitting in silence on top of the Ciphers, and just as they were done the girls dropped their magical payload.
Shrieks of rage and pain blanket the exit, and William dropped the rods on top of them, Lucrezia called it Iron Rain, not creative in his opinion but he wouldn't be casting stones at her for being literal.
"Go!" Richard began running, shield and spear up as he acted as a mobile battering ram against anything that wasn't on fire or full of iron rods. they broke through the first defenders and saw a huge Cipher in the skies, on its back more of the damn things.
"What the fuck! Flying Ciphers are only below lv50!" William screamed but he was pulled back by Richard "Run!" Richard spoke as he nearly threw William towards the exit as they began sprinting.
Hope and Raffa had already made it when Richard got past the exit, his body disappearing from William's sight, he heard the flying cipher land and with a sigh of relief touched the portal, his body disappearing as he was teleported right next to Hope who jumped at the sight.
"Oh thank the heavens, you are safe, I mean I know you were safe I just..." Hope said her face red with shame, Richard snapped his fingers near her face and asked "You two alright? Raffa?"
"All good on my end" William replied a little out of breath, Raffa did the same and so did Hope.
"Good then, let's wait 5 minutes then, I gotta take a leak" Richard walked towards a secluded corner to do his business, William sat down on the ground with a flop.
"Fuck me, we gotta report this to the guild, A flying Cipher right near the start of the dungeon? shit is dangerous" he spoke out loud. Raffe turned her head and said "Indeed, I managed to snap its image on my memory marble so we have ample evidence of its existence"
Smart thinking William thought, Raffa always had a mind for the minute detail even in the middle of combat.
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"Couldn't we try fighting that big feller?" Hope asked her eyes glittering in the dark with lust for adventure, William shushed her and looked around, the floor they were on had changed and it looked like the halls of a castle?
"Shit, puzzle floor" he cursed loudly.
"Ohh! my parents told me about these! they run you through a gauntlet of puzzles from quizzing you on current knowledge to mazes and even movement-based puzzles" Hope spoke again, unabated by William''s shush "Sounds super fun but the uhh traps were nasty according to mom, one of her friends nearly had his arm and legs sliced off thrice"
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Richard scoffed "As if some musty old dragon could come up with actually good puzzles! those old lizards are all simpletons you know? all they care about is war and more war, even their mages"
The girls were taken back by Richards's low opinion of the dragonkind, Hope and Raffa went on a long debate with him about the many wonders the dragons had brought to the world such as gravity-defying magic, wonderful new types of fruits, and farm animals. William was checking for traps and constantly herding the arguing trio as they nearly set off a number of them.
After a harrowing call with flying arrows from the walls, William had enough and spoke "If you 3 don't stop this right now I will beat the crap out of everyone THEN I will cast ice on the wounds!"
That snapped them into form, with all 3 apologizing but not before Hope let out a little snark "Watch out Richard, our girlfriend is getting mad" to which Richard threw her a baffled look and said "Ours? oh gods above Hope, please don't do that it's bad enough when half the dorm keeps nagging me about it" he paused "Aren't you dating the prince? that ain't the type of joke one makes when dating royalty, woman! gods protect us all..."
"He won't mind" she spoke her face with a smirk William knew all too well from the game whenever the player picked a snarky response, ah yes he thought, beneath of the veneer of a good momma's boy the third Prince was a bit of a wild spirit as the royals called it.
That he was able to be open about that side of his with Hope this early in their relationship was something impressive William thought nodding to himself before clearing another trap, his mind was nearly out of the topic when someone came knocking.
"...What the fuck you mean wild spirit?!" Lucrezia howled "William you better start talking now or I swear on the All-Father's name..." she left on that note as William finished dealing with the trap and sighed
"Didn't you finish looking into my memories? the prince is a goddamn freak! every romanceable companion puts Hope through the wringer but he's the worse of the lot, you even get a debuff after spending a night with the man that says your back hurts too much! Surely you can put two and two together right?" William told her, feeling weird that she was even surprised about this since he wasn't holding anything back anymore, their bond too deep for any attempt anyway.
Ah, a realization made itself manifest and he noticed that she must've seen a hint of the information in particular and refused to believe it, thus trying her hardest to remove it from her memories.
Were Lucrzia's feelings speaking here? was she still feeling something for the prince?
All good questions William thought to himself, but he wasn't in the mood to confront the woman herself for the answers, he had a job to do and it was getting to level 35 of the dungeon.
Together with giving Hope some much-needed constant stream of battle awareness, level 35 housed a treasure, the Shield of Malinda said to be able to cast both miracles and spells from its intricate runes etched on the face of the defensive apparatus. Plus it was a strong shield and Hope could use one in his opinion, even if he had already given her a magi-tech one earlier.
"Don't change the topic like that you pervert! ugh, I swear your mind is a swamp of depravity and degeneracy! No wonder that Goddess gave her blessing to us!" Lucrezia was ranting now, Willam smiled and let her go on about it, better than trying to talk with her and getting her even more wind up he found.
William's mind snapped back to reality when he heard Raffa talking with the two "...You mean to say there are also rumors of Lady Lucrezia being in love with Hope?" she nodded sagely "Yes, yes I suppose one would make such a connection, given how much time she has spent with Hope and her training. Ye gods the Academy's rumor mill is nothing short of ruthless" Raffa finished and extended a hand to William, who took it and got up from the trap he had just disarmed.
"Pay no mind to it, As one blessed by Saal'Xhir it's just par for the course really" he spoke with confidence and Raffa smiled "Such dignity, even after mucking about in the dirt and hearing about your love life being speculated like that, are you made out of ice Lucrezia?" Raffa asked with a teasing face.
"Only flesh and bones here I am afraid" William replied with a laugh.
It didn't take them long, with Hope and Richard stepping in to help with the puzzles every once in a while and Raffa making sure nothing was sneaking up on them from the rear, they nearly got lost in a maze made out of sandstone walls before William had enough and started blasting through the walls, earning them a nasty poison gas trap at the end of it, and that too was easily beaten by William and Hope flying and teleporting the other two to safety.
"May ye wounds be cured, Light Everlasting..." Raffa chanted the little miracle, cleaning the residual poison from their bodies.
Richard who was on the ground taking a break asked "Lucrezia a question, does the chanting of the spell and or miracle, does help? I've seen you and the others and many priests just whipping magic out of the air all quiet like and I was wondering..."
"Depends, certain schools of magic and even particular spells have more or fewer benefits or detriments but you getting down to singular unique "the creator of said spell or that one god was feeling this or that emotion" type deal really" William continued rattling off stuff he had read in the lore books "Miracles while similar are tapping into the god's Sphere of Power, so unless you are I don't know, one of the immortals who were here when the God in question was but a minor divinity your best bet is treating any of the Gods with power with the appropriate level of respect"
They continued off, bantering and giving each other tips as the next set of puzzles were laid out, this time with actual enemies in the form of fancy-looking golems, soldiers, mages, beasts of war, and more.
This was getting complicated William thought to himself, But nothing he couldn't handle, together with his party that is.
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Richard was fighting for his dear life as he stabbed and parried attacks from the front, often he would switch to one of his spell rods and create stone walls to catapult golems to the abyss surrounding the arena, he tried at first to funnel them in but their spears had a longer reach than his so that plan was quickly tossed aside.
"Lucrezia, Hope! Shockwave these bastards!" He screamed as William began gathering mana to deliver a big thunder arc, the spell needed him to plant rods of iron around the battlefield, which was easy to do when things got chaotic or the enemy was simple automatons like these golems were.
He slashed the golem in front of him before punching another to his side and kicking the one behind that one into the ground, as the mana reached its apex he screamed and a mighty bolt flew from the rods, striking nearly all enemy golems in the arena. Hope did the same as her powers allowed her to copy William's move and after two more deployments of the spell, they were done with the encounter.
Raffa collapsed to the ground, William bolted to her side so she wouldn't hit her head or something like that but the woman lifted her hand trying to stop him, of course, he didn't heed her and grabbed Raffa by the waist, her face flaming red by being so close to him as William asked "Raffa! are you alright?"
"Yes, just give me a minute, and some space please..."
William propped her up and gave the woman ample room to cast her curative spells, light shone in the middle of the arena as Raffe sighed in relief "Gods be good, I've never been pushed this much and for this long, It's like I am about to fall over"
William pulled a vial from his backpack and gave it to her "Drink this, Elixir made by the alchemists in the Academy, it gives a stamina and mana boost for 6 hours, plus clears fatigue" William coughed "But the effects are very slow to take set in, it will take about 30 minutes for the potion to take effect, anyone else needs one?"
"I am good for now" Richard replied.
"Same here" Hope nodded with a smile "So what's next?"
"Well, this is an end of level type encounter so we should've gotten a treasure chest and the way below open" William looked around "But the trap might've removed the chest from this particular equation" William looked around, and lo and behold he found the stairs leading further down into the dungeon.
"No chest, shame" Richard spoke as he walked up to him, let us go, I am done with puzzles for a lifetime"
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The group was walking along a beach, the sun's warm glow heating them under their armor, this stage was known as the recreation of the dragon's island, the ancestral home of all dragonkind.
"Wonder how Kallista would react seeing this" William spoke to himself out loud, his party turned to him with puzzled looks.
"Who's Kallista?" Hope asked.
Raffa who was behind her spoke out "White Dragoness Kallista, Ruler of the northern mountains and matriarch of the biggest draconic horde outside of their island, the Wulfgrem have an ancient accord with her to rule the lands they have"
Richard's eyes flared up "Oh yeah, how could've I forgotten, mother told me about the dragoness and her ties to you! hmm, she is the sister of the dragon that rules this place yes? I remember reading that somewhere"
William nodded "Yes, Saark and Kallista left the Dragon's island and retired from the eternal war to live in peace, Saark eventually began his line here, the Dragonbloods who are usually Shatter-Spears, although other clans have a bit of his blood on them given they tended to..." William took a pause, searching for a way to put the next factoid he had "have more scions than the usual for a high noble"
"Amazing, so dragons are indeed horny as the books tell" Hope smiled as Willliam made a shit-eating grin "Indeed they are my friend"
"I do wonder if the two of them miss their home" Richard spoke "This is lovely scenery, after all, our beaches in the south can hardly compare to it" he walked forward towards something "Hey, I see an outdoor gazebo, might be able to take a rest there"
Indeed, William recalled in the game how the beach was a haven for players to rest, restock on healing items and then move on, so they walked towards the outdoor gazebo and found the place filled with chairs and tables.
He quickly went to work, setting up a small table and the chairs for the rest of the party, everyone had brought food and drink and so they ate in silence, enjoying the sound of the waves crashing in the sand.
"You think he misses home?" Raffa asked William as he finished eating "Saark I mean"
William debated telling what he knew since the dragon could be listening to their conversation, he was known to pay attention to the events in the outside world and Hope was THE event to pay attention to.
"Kallista never spoke of her brother, I am afraid we would need to confront the lizard himself to know..." he sighed not wanting to keep Raffa in the dark "But I think, I think he does misses a bit, leaving your home is never easy" he felt Lucrezia smile when he finished that, as he had come to see the north and its people as his home now. She liked that very much.
"Sounds like you miss yours too" Hope chimed in, having finished wolfing down on what was a feast for 10 grown men "I've never seen snow you know? mom and dad fought in the wastes trying to set up some gods forsaken outpost there for a noble family and they hate it"
William smiled as he felt Lucrezia surface, usually her presence stayed far below in their shared soul space, but sometimes she would surface to fully experience his actions, it was like she was blanketing into his very soul, and thus she could see from his point of view, hear and taste, and even feel a slight sense of touch. It felt weird the first few times they tested, but every once in a while he would indulge her with it.
"The cold seeps into your very bones, but after a while, you get used to it I swear!" William said smiling "your southerners complain too much about the cold you know" he felt Lucrezia laughing as those were the words in her mind.
"Mother told me the cold is pretty severe..." Richard spoke "but the homes and your castle, in particular, were very warm and comfy, the people and castle staff spoke highly of you even"
William felt Lucrezia's heartache at the mention of the staff, the maidens and servants who they trained to fight a horrible fight against her parents "I did my best for then, and in the future, I hope to do even more, for them and everyone in the duchy"
"A noble with a heart of gold" Raffa spoke with a smirk on her face "Don't let the Academy take that from you Lucrezia, gods know we need more people like you in this kingdom than the usual High Noble scions we have running around"
On that note, they finished eating and went towards the exit, William had a feeling in the back of his head that the next boss would be a wall that they would struggle to defeat, and anyone but him and Hope would ask to go back home.