As lunch ended and the laughter died down the group began to pick up their packs to depart. “This group is great! I hope we stick together for a long time.” Emilie smiled.
“THIS GROUP WILL BE TOGETHER FOR 100 LEVELS AND AN IMMORTAL LIFETIME! CAW CAW HAH!” Cawthorn declared.
Jenora perked up. “You know I was sure I’d hate that bird but I’ve definitely warmed up.”
Serena finished gathering her gear. “Yeah he’s been a bit of a surprise. He’s been around me for a while now but he only just started talking and I like what I am hearing.”
Victor petted Cawthorn who practically passed out while his head gently leaned in almost falling of Victor’s shoulder. “He has been pleasant. Swordie on the other hand has been decidedly… helpful teaching me as I go.” He tried to hide is annoyance at Swordie.
Swordie wrote. “I am helpful to those who need help, knowledgeable to the ignorant, and a failed mentor to a foolish student.”
Victor snapped Swordie shut and put him in the book pouch on his waist. “Well that’s enough of his knowledge for now. I know it’s time to go.”
The four of them began the walk back to the cave through the forest. The trees overhead left only dancing lines of light wavering with the wind. The smell of old wood and new growth filled their noses as they returned to the stagnant air of the cave. No new enemies could be seen on the horizon to the cave. Jenora lead them forward motioning them forward. They took a few steps into the cave and with a few moments passing Jenora tapped the sun on her chest causing it to dully glow. Emilie lit a torch and holding it above her. Serena also held up a torch. Victor suddenly felt as though he had forgotten a key item pretending he didn’t notice. As they entered the cave just beyond the point it became dark they encountered a wooden door with runes on it. “Serena can you check for mechanical traps?”
“One moment. Vitality boost.” Victor tapped her.
“Vitality Boost.” Emilie tapped her.
She quickly tapped the edges of the door running her knife along it. She found a string and stepped to the side of the door. She cut the string and a spear pierced through the middle of the door. Both casters released Vitality Boost and they waited a minute listening. Jenora finally directed them. “We can move forward.” She raised her shield and pulled open the door. A burst of acrid air offended the sense of every member of the group. This door had been sealed for weeks, months, possibly longer. The thick dank air seemed to hang only inches from the door not fully escaping it. “Everyone back away.”
The group wordlessly backed up to the cave mouth watching ahead of them before reaching the tree line. Beneath the trees a cool breeze reinvigorated their lungs. “What was that about?” Victor asked.
“Those runes on the door I don’t know for sure but I suspect it’s a magical lock.” Jenora noted.
“It’s possible.” Emilie put her hand on her chin. “I’d have to have a few moments to inspect it.”
“THEY ARE BARRIER RUNES!” Cawthorn spoke up. “INACTIVE BARRIER RUNES!”
“Is that bluster or does Cawthorn actually know what he’s talking about?” Emilie asked.
“Did your skill tell you that Cawthorn?” Victor asked.
“YES! THEY ARE RANK 2 BARRIER RUNES! ONCE CROSSED THEY WILL REFORM EVERY SECOND UNTIL THE RUNE CRAFTER IS DEAD!” Cawthorn explained.
“Does he actually have that skill?” Jenora asked. “Is Cawthorn right?”
“Cawthorn is always right.” Cawthorn puffed up his chest. “In this case he is also correct. His eagle eye skill is rank 5. I suspect he’s right. Does that mean if we want to leave we have to kill the caster?”
“I definitely do not want to enter there.” Emilie noted.
“Agreed. We can try and lure out some undead. Its trigger condition may be a living creature crosses it. As long as we don’t disturb the runes we can probably lure out some in the first room. Farming undead for experience and leveling up here is probably out but no reason to waste the trip.” Jenora noted.
“I absolutely don’t think we should try to lure out monsters.” Serena shook her head. “What if one of the undead pulls someone into the cave? We’d have no choice but to either let them die or go in and save them.”
“Would everyone enter the cave if one of us got pulled in?” Victor asked.
Emilie sighed. “As a follower of the Golden Goddess I cannot condemn an ally to death by my inaction.”
“Nor can I.” Jenora nodded.
“And I wouldn’t ever abandon someone in need who I can help.” Victor noted to Serena’s sigh. “She won’t ever abandon me. So I think that covers our bases.”
“What worries me even more is the runes. It’s possible the skeletal mage here but it’s unlikely. Rune magic temporarily drains stats from the caster based on how powerful the runes are. It’s why blacksmiths don’t just craft magic items every day. This magic on the other hand doesn’t look freshly inscribed. It looks significantly older.” She noted.
“We have enough food for several days and unlike most groups if we get more powerful we can take advantage of it and level up in the dungeon.” Victor noted. “Are these kind of runes locking people in common?”
“That’s the thing they are common when the boss has magic. A skeleton mage could have this but they’d need to be more powerful than the average mage. Adventurers are often justifiably scared away by the barrier since no one wants to be trapped somewhere they can’t flee.” Jenora explained.
“Why are we even discussing this? No one is going to get sucked in and it’s not like we came out here to waste an entire day for 6 skeletons.” Emilie shook her head and shrugged.
Serena commented one last time. “I don’t think it’s wise to do this.”
Jenora leaned against a tree. “How about we try it once and see how it goes? Everyone other than me will stand off to the side so anything inside won’t be able to see you. I will lure them out.”
Everyone nodded and the four of them returned to the entrance. The horrid smell of death leaked like glass cracked and dripping once again offended their senses. Each of them held their light sources and Jenora began to bang on her shield. After a few minutes an arrow clinked off her shield and then another. She stepped to the side. In the distance, then closer and closer the clattering of bones against stone approached is unnerving consistency. The Jenora stepped back shield and mace in hand. The first skeleton emerged with a bow and took aim at her.
Victor immediately used speed boost and cut its legs. The clunky the sword on bone felt as though he’d tried to dig a hole with a fork, possible but exceedingly difficult. Serena threw one of her throwing daggers at the creatures neck popping it off only for two more skeletons to emerge. A sudden lunge at Jenora resulted in another dismembered skeleton. The other lunged at Victor, it was at this moment victor really felt what a huge difference leveling up made. He ran to the skeleton as it turned toward him and once again cut its legs at the knees. It couldn’t even lunge. A pair of throwing daggers swiftly cracked the necks of both skeletons in short order after they hit the ground. Victor dropped his boost waiting for more enemies.
The clattering of more bones approached. This time another 5 skeletons emerged. “Speed boost.” Emilie tapped Victor. The Victor visualized himself slicing through their legs and suddenly 2 of them lost their legs once more. Serena slammed two lunging at her to the ground. One turned to Emilie lunging with enormous speed only to get stabbed in the head by Serena. Serena followed up quickly throwing daggers at their necks. All save one connected easily killing each skeleton. Jenora caved in the skull of that skeleton. For at least a moment no more sound could be heard. “Collect their weapons quickly.”
The four of them grabbed all the weapons and moved them away from the corpses. Serena had no trouble piercing the head of each and every one of them. A few moments of catching their breath and mana regeneration passed before Emilie added. “We should take these back right now.”
Skeleton 4 x16: Experience Increase 0.1%
Current Exp to level 11 2.6%
“Agreed, that was a bit lucky that it wasn’t 9 at the same time.” Serena noted.
Emilie put her hand on Jenora’s back “Regenerate”. The four of them walked toward the entrance of the cave coming into sunlight. Emilie stopped. “No…” She pounded on the air. “No!”
“BARRIER!” Cawthorn crowed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Jenora dropped to her knees.
Serena sighed. “The barrier was on the cave entrance. The runes cast it at maximum range. Shit.”
“So we are trapped?” Victor asked.
“Unless we can destroy this barrier in a single second, or have the magic writing skill one rank higher than the barrier runes. Most magic writing can be beaten by equal or higher magic writing but runes are effectively one level higher. We can’t escape unless we clear the dungeon.” Jenora struggled to her feet.
Emilie’s hand started shaking and she approached Jenora. “We’re going to die aren’t we Jenora? We won’t be able to defeat a skeletal mage of that caliber.”
“We’re not going to die.” Victor shook his head. “Let’s think about this. There were 6 skeletons outside of this door but inside where the barrier zone. They left that area before we became trapped.”
“THE BARRIER FADES!” Cawthorn insisted.
“I figured it had a duration but I don’t know how long.” Victor noted.
“ONE WEEK! DURATION IS ONE WEEK!” Cawthorn crowed.
“Well shit.” Victor sighed.
“We can close that door and wait the week right Jenora?” Emilie asked.
Jenora took a deep breath. “No. We probably can’t even wait a day. I suspect the now missing skeletons will alert the boss of this dungeon long before we escape.” She stood up with her large metal mace towering over the other three. Her shadow stretched toward the door. “We’ve got no choice. If we wait things will only get worse.”
Emilie stood frozen for a moment. “Can we beat a skeletal mage?”
“THE STARS OF VERDAN CAN DEFEAT ANYTHING! NO UNDEAD STANDS A CHANCE AGAINST US!” Cawthorn proclaimed. “SHINE BRIGHT! YOU ARE A STAR!”
Jenora put her hand on her chest once again glowing golden light. “Cawthorn is right Emilie. The Golden Goddess wouldn’t let us lose to undead.”
Emilie took a deep breath. “Lead the way.”
“Anything we should do before we enter?” Victor asked.
“Pray to the Golden Goddess because no one is coming to help us.” Jenora strode forward confidently. “Besides I’m hoping Cawthorn is a prophet.”
“I CAN SEE EVERYTHING! YOU WILL ALL LIVE AND SLAUGHTER THIS DUNGEON AND EVERYTHING IN IT!” Cawthorn proclaimed. “OTHERWISE MY PREDICTIONS WOULD BE WRONG! THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE!”
Victor smiled. “Well I wasn’t really hoping to do this so soon but I’m definitely feeling stronger. I will maintain vitality boost on myself. Emilie what other boosts do you have?”
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“Speed boost, vitality boost, strength boost, and prowess boost. I can maintain exactly 1 on someone else and the second one will drain my mana quickly.” She explained.
“How much health do you have Jenora?” Victor asked.
“300” She answered.
“I can’t maintain my Vitality boost on anyone other than myself, and with it I have 390 health. If Emilie maintains that on me the entire time I can take point. With that much health even if a trap hits me we’ll have plenty of time to heal.” Victor noted.
“I can’t maintain the sustained version of regeneration that way. Is that worth it Jenora?” Emilie asked.
“Hard to say, how many potions do we have amongst ourselves?”
Serena added. “We both have 5.”
“I have 20.” Emilie noted.
“I have 8.” Jenora finished. “We have sufficient potions to stop the bleeding so it isn’t the worst idea. What we need is a securable room so we can fall back to it and regenerate mana. If we find one of those we’ll probably be okay. We should also be on the lookout for another way out of this place, though we may encounter another barrier.”
“Do priests normally carry so many potions?” Victor asked.
“Yes, I refuse to die because I run out of mana.” Emilie glared defiantly.
“We should get moving. Cawthorn, I genuinely mean this to everyone no unneeded conversation, no loud shouting, and ideally once we find a room we heavily secure it and clear room by room.” Jenora reiterated.
“So do you want me to lead?” Victor asked.
“No, it’s a good idea but my armor makes me a better candidate. I have plenty of healing magic. In this case Emilie can you cast vitality boost alternating between Serena opening doors and me. I will kick the doors open after Serena checks them.” Jenora walked to the door confidently stopping at the threshold. She took a deep breath and crossed over the threshold. The dense acrid air suddenly hitting her nose and mouth caused her to cough before regaining her senses. “No poison, just really dense air.”
The others stepped in each coughing immediately upon stepping through needing to get accustomed to the air. “Why is the air here so horrible?” Victor just finished coughing.
“This place is old, very, very old.” Jenora took another step forward suddenly lighting up 28 torches throughout the room. “Well that’s a lot.” She walked forward to a stone railing. The entire room was made of the same black stone Victor had seen several times before with dull white magical torches made of black stone affixed to the walls. The domed ceiling with arched braces and columns supporting them had a chandelier hanging from them tiered 3 times one for each floor below them. The dull white light from each chandelier illuminated 3 floors below them in addition to their own floor.
In front of them three black archways one on each of the four sides of the room dotted each floor. Not a single door lay in front of them. Emilie looked around the room. “Let’s move. Quickly.”
Below and around them the clatter of movement started to shift and scrape. The four of them followed Jenora to the right archway. She peered around the corner to a seemingly empty room. Victor spoke up. “Cawthorn, quietly look to see if the room is clear.”
Cawthorn quickly flew in and returned quickly. “The room has an ooze and some junk in it.”
“What kind of ooze?” Jenora asked.
“Green, I do not know the name.” Cawthorn answered.
“It’s likely a fungal ooze. Do you have a fire spell?” Jenora asked.
“No.” Victor noted.
“We need to skip this room, weapons are ineffective against oozes and without fire magic killing it will be a pain.” Jenora quickly moved past the archway and waited on the other side. The ooze didn’t seem to notice or at a minimum didn’t care. She motioned for them to come and each of them scurried past one at a time. They waited for almost a minute before moving to the next room. An empty broken down lab with shattered glass everywhere and long dry chemicals.
“Victor can you tell Cawthorn to remain on my shoulder for scouting.” Jenora asked.
“Cawthorn you’re up.” Victor could see Cawthorn had to maintain incredible self control to not immediately scream in joy.
Cawthorn hopped up with a low clank on her armor and peered around the corner before flying in and checking. “Broken glass, rusted metal, and a collapsed bookshelf along with moldy books, no creatures.” The three of them crept around the edge before peering into the third archway. This time Cawthorn wasn’t required to inform them of the threat. A single skeleton stood before them with 4 arms holding 4 spears facing away from them toward what appeared to be a stone staircase headed down.
Jenora turned to them holding up 4 fingers. “Large” Is the only word she had to comment on. She gripped her mace nodding at them and stepped into view running at the creature with the clank of her boots causing it to turn far before she reached it. It’s wide sweep bashed her shield knocking her back. She blocked another arm with her blade only being grazed along her arm by the third. Victor and Serena managed to get behind it curving around as it wound up another four slashes.
“Barrier Shield!” Jenora lifted her shield as the overhead strike began to fall. The barrier cracked then broke holding just long enough for Jenora to avoid getting hit. Serena and Victor had made their way to it’s legs and together slicing across from each other severed one leg. “Barrier Shield! Shield Slam!” With that Jenora pushed the creature forward leaving it hanging half off the steps. It flailed at them slashing Jenora twice as Victor shot a jolt through his blade into its skull. The creature continued to flail horribly narrowly missing the rest of them before throwing all 4 of the spears at Emilie. Serena redirected two cutting them cleanly in half.
“Barrier Sphere!” She tried to block the spears but could not. The first one flew just past her face after shattering the barrier and the second one went straight through her left leg. She immediately downed a potion while running forward and tapped Jenora. “Regeneration! Strength Boost!” A few short moments later Serena managed to stick both her daggers in the skull causing it’s dull glowing eyes to extinguish. A dull thud and the cracking of bone could be heard over the sounds of Emilie casting “regenerate” repeatedly on her leg.
Large Skeleton 9: Experience Increase 5.1%
Current Exp to Level 11 7.7%
“You good Emilie?” Jenora asked.
“I will be.” She panted. “Give me a few seconds.” The wound on her leg started to close and she slowly got control over her breathing. “I really liked this robe.” Her disappointed head shake immediately punctuated by. “Well that wasn’t so bad.”
“You aren’t worried she’ll die from a hit like that?” Victor asked.
“No, unless she gets hit in the head I doubt anything here will kill us in one hit. If she’s alive a few seconds after she gets hit she’ll be fine. Same goes for the two of you. Just don’t get killed in one hit and she’ll be able to heal you.” Jenora explained.
“Yeah scars are just part of the deal.” Emilie agreed. Serena nodded to Victor. “I have 200 health without the boost. I doubt that was even half.”
“Is my health just really low?” Victor asked Serena.
Emilie looked up. “How low is it?”
“90.” Victor answered.
“You know you mentioned this earlier but I didn’t register how bad that is. Keep your vitality boost running for combat.” Jenora added.
“Emilie when you are ready we should push on. I hear something shuffling around below.” Jenora nodded.
“Cawthorn be careful but check the next floor from the center.” Victor instructed.
Cawthorn flew to the center practically floating in the dense air without even flapping his wings. In the room below them he noticed a skeleton with green ooze dripping off it shuffling around a long rusted metal table. One of the rooms had a steel door and the last room practically buried in bones had nothing save that floor made entirely of bones. The final room seemed filled with fog, Cawthorn couldn’t see into it. Cawthorn flew back to them and calmly explained. “Green Ooze Skeleton, Steel Door, Fog, and lots of bones.”
“Shit we don’t have any fire magic.” Jenora shook her head.
Victor pulled out Swordie. “Swordie What is the weakness of a Fungal Ooze?”
Fungal Ooze – This creature is weak to fire and cold magic. Other magic affects this creature normally. The creature is nearly immune to conventional weaponry which it commonly eats. The creature has large amounts of health.
“Swordie says any magic works on it normally.” Victor noted.
“I don’t have an offensive magic spell. I can’t really deal any damage.” Emilie noted. “I’ve been meaning to pick up a single one but haven’t had points to do so.”
Serena walked over. “Can I see Swordie?” Victor handed him to her. “Status Sheet.” She quickly tapped on the book. “I leveled up killing that creature and assigned my points to vitality, now I have 210 health.”
Jenora smiled. “Well at least that is a bit of good news.”
“We should go to the other room and try to kill the fungal ooze.” Victor noted.
“Why would we waste our time with that?” Jenora asked.
“It’ll let us know just how many times it can survive my jolt.” Victor noted.
Emilie spoke up. “Oozes are rather slow and Jolt has good range. They tend to only be dangerous if you step near or on them or they drop on you. We have a lot of room here.”
Jenora shrugged. “Give him prowess boost and see how well it goes.” The four of them walked back over to the archway and the fungal ooze had barely moved.
“Well it’s all you.” Jenora motioned as if to say ‘after you’.
“Prowess boost.” Emilie increased his prowess by 30 and stepped back.
“Jolt!” Victor hit the center of the ooze only for it to start sliding toward them slowly. “Jolt, jolt, jolt.” Victor started to back away as it reached the archway. “Jolt, Jolt, Jolt, Jolt.”
As he continued he could hear Cawthorn counting on Jenora’s shoulder. “13, 14, 15.” The ooze finally stopped moving as he nearly circled around the center. “20.”
“That was with prowess boost Jenora.” Emilie noted.
“That’s not encouraging.” She noted.
“Swordie what can we do to a fungal ooze skeleton?” Victor asked.
Fungal Ooze Skeleton – This creature is weak to fire magic and immune to cold magic. Other magic affects this creature normally. The creature is resistant to conventional weaponry which it commonly eats. The creature has above average health.
“Is that more or less than a normal Fungal Ooze?” Victor asked.
Fungal Ooze Skeleton – Fungal oozes may sometimes inhabit other creatures to feed off them. The ooze spreads itself thin losing health and durability in exchange for mobility. It is no longer nearly immune to conventional weaponry only resistant.
“Thank you Swordie.” Victor nodded. “We can probably kill it but it will take a long time. There is also a locked door down there and a room filled with bones and a room with fog. I think our best bet is to try and push forward to reach that door at a minimum.”
“I don’t have a better plan so we’ll try and pin it down.” Jenora noted. The group made its way back to the room with the crushed giant four armed skeleton. The long black steps stretched into the darkness to the room below with only a dull glow at the end of it. The group proceeded step after step with on those long black stone steps before reaching the end. Jenora turned to see the skeletal creature with green slimy lines traced through its body around its limbs. It stood at an old broken alchemy table with dozens of broken glass bottles and vials beneath it. The area around it dripped soaking wet. “Barrier Shield.” She charged at the creature knocking it to the ground.
Emilie gave Victor prowess boost as before. Victor swiftly began moving into position and casting jolt as fast as possible. He had no trouble hitting the creature and while it moved significantly faster than the previous ooze it couldn’t contend with the constant slams from Jenora’s barrier shield. All in all the party spent almost two minutes killing the creature with simple but effective tactics. Victor looked to his experience.
Fungal Ooze 10: Experience Increase 9.2%
Fungal Ooze Skeleton 10: Experience Increase 9.9%
Current Exp to Level 11 26.8%
Jenora needed a moment to catch her breath. “I can’t keep that up. Emilie can you please keep regenerating me?” She coughed up blood.
“You over did it didn’t you.” Emilie touched her. “ Regenerate .”
“Yes. I ran out of stamina halfway through. If it reached our equipment it could have damaged or destroyed it, there’s no chance we make it out of here if that happens.” Jenora added.
Serena preemptively answered Victor’s inevitable questions. “If you keep using stamina when you are out you suffer exhaustion but you also take damage. A minute has to be hard on her.”
“It’ll be at least 10 minutes before I can continue.” Jenora explained. “Nothing is currently attacking us. Stay alert but take a short break.”