Elara slithered ahead, her smile was still somewhat present but it was muted in favour of her being focused on the task ahead. Sam was halfway uncertain as she had not done anything like this before, but she also felt fine about it with the relative safety and the fact that she had her instincts.
Entering the first room there was a single Goblin in there, he had no weapons and was only armed with claws and teeth. He looked busy with... something, letting Elara silently sneak up on him. Sam was hidden around a corner, weapons at the ready, his boosted Stealth should keep him securely hidden but with his current gear, even with critical hits, he was untouchable. Having zero considerations about himself he kept a watchful eye on his companion.
She snuck up and bit the Goblin in his leg. Shrieking from both being startled and the pain, he found himself landing a step away from her.
[ The target’s Vitality is too low to save against [ Venom 1 ]! ]
This message made Sam smile, meaning he’d die in a few seconds, and as long as Elara wouldn’t be hit too much, she’d be fine.
As soon as the Goblin jumped, she slithered away, hiding in some rubble in the corner. The Goblin casually threw a broken bone at her, missing by a mile, and seemed more interested in scratching at the small piercing wounds on his leg that had a few droplets of electric blue-coloured fluid in it.
Seconds went by, and he was looking worse and worse. Reacting as if he had been punched every few seconds, it seemed that the poison did its thing, again and again, over and over. The Goblin started looking panicked, biting at the wounds in his leg, seeming like he was trying to remove the thing that went in there, but it was too late. It only took a few seconds before he fell over and stopped breathing.
[ Experience gained: +2. ]
Elara looked back at Sam with huge excited eyes, she didn’t say anything vocally but her expression screamed ‘I did it!’. Sam couldn’t help but get infected by her joy, noticing a strange proud smile growing on his lips.
Taking the excitement she slithered into the hallway and went to the next room. This room had two Goblins in it, which put Sam more on guard than the solo target. Elara had slithered ahead and ended up behind some debris close to them. She waited for quite a while before one of them said something and slapped the other. As the slap connected she bit the slap-recipient before hiding again.
It didn’t seem like they noticed her. Sam knew her fangs were very slender so it might just be that the Goblin didn’t properly notice.
[ The target’s Vitality is too low to save against [ Venom 1 ]! ]
Again Sam had to smile, this was going well for now, it didn’t take long for the Goblin to succumb to her Venom, and as the other one started panicking she delivered an injection to his leg. However, this time he noticed and started flailing at her. She was quite low to the ground, being a snake, so she didn’t have a huge problem dodging the attacks, he was getting weaker by the second and Sam was ready to spring to action if needed.
His aid was not needed and though she was close this time to getting hit, she avoided everything until the Goblin died like the others.
[ Experience gained: +4. ]
Stopping himself in letting out a chuckle, he found it interesting just how low the XP was in this dungeon. With his current gear even Critical hits didn’t pose a threat to him, so he could probably clear it in a few minutes. But, he kept a watchful eye over the fights as they went on.
Every fight happened in the same way, the solo targets were easily taken out and in the case where they saw her, she just had to run about. In the group rooms, it was a bit different, the Kobolds were more adept at noticing her, throwing spears after her, though one of them hit she only took the 5 damage. This had Sam wondering if the whole thing should be called off, but at the same time, she looked so happy; that he couldn’t take it from her in the end.
It didn’t take long for them to find themselves in the last hallway before the boss room. By the Questlog’s account, there should be a boss, two Goblins and a Kobold in there.
Sam called Elara over to him, he wanted to talk to her before the final room.
“Elara-” he started once she got in whisper range. “The next room is a bit different, there’s going to be 4 enemies, one of which is stronger than the others. Not to mention that you’re out of Venom for today, no?”
It was a loaded question, she only had 12 doses per day at her current Vitality, and he could see the information window pinned to his HUD listing [ Venom 1 - 0 / 12 ].
She almost looked like she was looking for a way out of it, a way she could continue doing what she was doing, her excitement was coming down and her happiness was dwindling. Sam knew she would only do a single damage per bite without her Venom.
“I... I understand, Master.” She looked a bit sad as the sparkle faded in her eyes as she looked to the stone floor.
“We can go again later if you want, I can take out the first few targets so you can try the boss room on your own.” Sam smiled. This was not an issue for him and though not today, it would let her have some more fun later.
This brought her smile and sparkling expression back, she seemed fine with that plan.
“Now, let’s clean up the rest of them and go rest for today.” He smiled back at her as he stopped hiding, with his current arsenal and skill the final room wouldn’t be an issue.
[ Conditions met; Ascendant will be transported. ]
“No, wait!” Panic spread across his face, he reached out for Elara as the white warm light enveloped him like last time. His objection didn’t change anything and he soon found himself elsewhere.
As the transport light faded another light blinded him, he found himself on a sunny beach with an open ocean as far as he could see, all the way to the horizon. Turning around he saw the beach he stood on before he saw the palm trees leading into a jungle. In the distance above the canopy was what looked like a mountain, perhaps a dormant volcano, it was covered in plant life. Birds were flying above him and there was a surprisingly gentle breeze across the sands. A strange thing was that even in this sun and in what looked like a tropical paradise, he didn’t feel the need to dress lighter.
“What... the fuck...” He commented to no one in particular. He didn’t expect, though he hoped for, a response. “Elara?!” He turned around, looking for his companion, his voice breaking as he shouted her name. Stepping in towards the forest line where the sand ended, he tried again more urgently. “Elara?!”
There was no response.
Looking at his HUD he saw that her information was greyed out, it listed the same numbers as he saw in the dungeon, but still greyed out like it was disabled and frozen. Taking out his phone he sighed when there was no coverage, nor any WIFI nearby.
He spent a few minutes panicking, trying to get any semblance of control. He was still wearing all his clothing and weapons, he was armed and good to fight. But he had no idea where he was, he had not gotten any quests or System Prompts, he was just... here...
Spending some time on the beach, mainly trying to decide or figure out what to do, he found himself sitting on a beached log as the sun was setting surprisingly fast. His mind had just wandered during this time, not processing anything good or practical, just randomly wandering and thinking of things. Was Elara safe? Was she still in the Dungeon alone? Would Janik find out or would he think that Sam abandoned him? Would Janik find and help Elara? What would he do for food or water... if he was going to be here a while this would be critical...
By the time he properly snapped out of his spiralling train of thought, rethinking the same questions and mental images again and again, the sun had entirely set in favour of the moons having come out. His mind needed a double take as he finally looked out, there were indeed two moons, one looking smaller, or further away than the other. There were different crater patterns in them but both were full and lit up the beach surprisingly well. He could probably read in this light without much effort.
Hearing the sound of something coming his way on urgent feet he became worried. His worrying train of thought, and consideration of the two moons, derailed entirely as his paranoia took full control. In a moment he found himself on his feet facing the forest, he couldn’t see anything through the solid shadow that the canopy created. Pulling out his full arsenal he soon felt well equipped and ready. He still needed four Psyhands for the Moonblade, the new dagger joined the floating weaponry with the Vampiric blade, four daggers from the bandits and 19 cheap daggers for a total of 17 floating weapons. Something in his mind felt like being extra safe so without planning for it he pulled two more cheap daggers from his normal hands.
He moved the Psyhand weapons closer to the trees, though the moonlight was quite bright, they would be surprisingly well hidden over there, besides entering the jungle itself there was nowhere for him to hide, and he wasn’t too keen on doing that.
The sounds came closer, it sounded like a collection of footsteps, hurried and rushed, not trying to be stealthy. It didn't take long before a group of four men came out onto the beach, one of the group looked smaller and more slender than the others, he didn’t look scared just submissive to the others. The other three looked gruff and surprisingly manly, unkempt beards from probably living in the woods for a while, wearing furs or leather attires. A man with two swords on his hips and short hair followed the smaller man. Behind him was a man with a ponytail and a bow, a quiver of arrows over his shoulder was copied by another one on his left hip. The last man didn’t seem to have any weaponry but was also the most buff of the group.
“Holy shit, you’re right! There was a newcomer here.” The buff man commented, sounding almost surprised.
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“I wouldn’t lie to you, boss. He’s been here for hours.” The smaller man confirmed with a happy smile of the sort that a commoner might have towards a king or man in power.
The muscleman didn’t comment or reply to the smaller man but rather stepped closer to Sam. “The question is, who is the newcomer?” His question was worded almost like he was speaking with the smaller man, but staring straight at Sam it was clear as day that it was a question for him.
“I’m... lost.” Sam commented honestly, still on guard. He chose not to share any details for now, keeping the Psyhand armament ready to go, these men looked shady, to say the least. The men all wore armour, Sam had no idea what Defense values they had, nor what powers, offensive abilities, damage rating on their weapons nor their Health.
He had underestimated the value of seeing opponents’ Health values.
“Well, that’s fine, we all started like that.” The man replied in a surprisingly condescending tone, almost the same tone as if he had replied to Sam claiming that it was dark out at night.
“What is this place?” Sam fished for information, still holding his daggers in hand as well as his more than ready main method of attack behind them.
“Well, this place is your new home.” The muscle man commented. He had walked closer to Sam than the others were, but he had stopped a few steps away.
Sam imagined that this was within his attack range, it felt like a logical thing to do.
“Naturally-” He continued in the same condescending tone. “You get to choose if you join us willingly, or as a corpse.”
Sam had to give him credit for at least being surprisingly honest about things.
“I... prefer neither. Just... leave me alone, please.”
The man burst out laughing, turning to his allies and repeating what Sam said in a mocking tone. “Leave me alone, please.” Putting an extra fake voice to the ‘please’ word he considered Sam close to worthless.
His posse joined him in laughing.
“Sooo... am I right in assuming that you’re killers, then.?” Sam asked, still doing his best to sound meek and weak... Not something hard to pretend as he still felt like it.
Turning back to Sam the muscleman’s laughter ended abruptly. “The fuck do you think? Join us or die, fucking shit. Your scrawny ass body is probably best to just feed the fucking Furs with-” He turned to the others with a huge smile. “Perhaps we’ll have him fight them, see how he does?” Turning back to Sam he kept his smile as he looked across his body. “Your weapons are shit, but you seem decently geared, that armour looks pretty nice.”
Sam wondered what the best choice was, the only thing he couldn’t risk was to get knocked out or blinded. If he was tied up he would be fine, likewise if he was just led through the forest. At the same time if he just attacked them he could run into the forest and hide, out in the open was the worst way for him to fight... But with the little value he had and the fact that the leader of the group looked like a close combatant without weapons, he was probably someone using his body as a weapon. Sam couldn’t risk it... The only bonus he could consider was that the men didn’t seem to wear much in the sense of armour, wanting his, was a good hint in addition to their clothing looking more like clothing than defence.
Janik had something he mentioned during their training, defense through decisive offense.
The main target was the leader, he pulled back all his weapons aiming for him since Sam didn’t need to look at his weapons to hit anything, he could ‘feel’ with the Psyhands, after all, he pulled them all in towards his back.
[ Silent Killer activated. ]
[ Critical hit, double damage. ]
[ Critical hit, double damage. ]
One of the cheap daggers missed its mark, but Sam was glad to see that every other blade in his incoming chaos of blades managed to slice into his back before stopping around Sam, two of which even delivered critical hits, doing a tremendous amount of damage. Or at least, he assumed they did a tremendous amount of damage based on the man’s reaction. Sam had no way to confirm his actual Defence rating but the man lost a significant amount of blood in that one move. He was also glad to see that Silent Killer activated on a target unaware of the attack, not necessarily having to be unaware of Sam himself.
“Jesus fuckign Christ!” The man with the two swords shouted out as he pulled his swords, the Archer pulled an arrow and the small man tripped in the sand trying to run away.
The leader of the group couldn’t do much other than let out a muffled grunt of pain, his eyes were wide and in shock, not surprising as 16 unexpected blades just introduced themselves to his body.
Sam couldn’t lose his momentum, they were all in a nice line from each other, but he needed to take out the leader first. All the blades had occupied the space between Sam and the boss, and in a sudden movement, they all came flying past Sam’s main target once again.
[ Critical hit, double damage. ]
Though two blades missed, one being the new Shadow Fang, one landed a Critical hit. The damage again looked substantial and whatever defenses the man had wasn’t enough as he was cut into shreds. The daggers on their own weren’t enough to cut any limb of his body, but the Scimitar took with it one of his arms, the rest of his body was barely hanging on through all the deep cuts as the man let out a single coughing grunt before he fell backwards.
The Archer let an arrow loose towards Sam, but to Sam’s happiness, it missed by a lot. He assumed the sudden arrival of all the flying weapons and their boss’ body losing a staggering amount of blood in only a few seconds was more than enough to set the fear in them.
Not wanting to gamble, Sam focused on one target at a time. The swordsman seemed to use a similar fighting style to Janik and attacked the incoming swarm of sharp edges, successfully parrying the Moon blade and Shadow Fang, his two most damaging weapons.
[ Critical hit, double damage. ]
Though there were two parries and two misses, everything else landed as they whipped past the swordsman. He was still standing strong and had realised what was going on, dashing for Sam with both swords in hand.
Sam pulled all the weapons back, aiming for the swordsman who was just a little bit faster. Trying to protect himself with his two daggers Sam realised just how much skill he was lacking as he might as well not have tried to defend, one sword landed and the split second after he could feel a kind of twisting jerk to the side as if some invisible hand twitched him like a chess piece.
[ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]
[ Evasion has negated a hit. ]
[ HP: 31 / 35 ██████░ ]
Sam had closed his eyes briefly as the swords connected, though the sharp pain of being cut by a blade forced him to open them again he felt very much alive, the HUD and information windows displaying that he took a total of 4 damage per hit.
The first thing he thought of was that the man did 44 damage per hit... a Critical hit would kill him instantly, the second thing was that he was completely fine just now, the evasion had triggered and saved him!
He couldn’t hold back a smile as the swordsman looked at him in the eyes with nothing but horror in his own. All incoming weapons except the Moon Blade landed true across the man’s back, neck, head and sides as they all sliced at him before ending up in the air beside Sam. Their proximity had Sam covered in blood a second before an arrow landed in his shoulder.
[ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]
[ HP: 27 / 35 █████░░ ]
The adrenaline dulled the pain but it was very much still present, he felt surprisingly unfamiliar with this kind of pain. Between the Scout and Archer, it was clear which one was a threat, the Scout just scampered to his legs and hightailed it towards the jungle, but Sam couldn’t let him return and call for reinforcements. The Ranger was booking another arrow so the next target was clear.
Feeling surprisingly cold in his analysis and current situation, Sam sent everything forward.
Although there were no critical hits, nor any chance activations, every single blade landed true and cut the man down mid-step. Like the switch in his brain flipped off he just fell forward mid-step and landed in the sand.
The Ranger had nocked an arrow, but the odd thing was that the tip of this one was glowing oddly as he let it fly. Having no idea what this was he tried his best to dodge it, but his lacking skills and instincts didn’t let that happen. And sadly the Evasion ability on his armour didn’t activate either.
[ Armour, Defence 40 has lowered the damage. ]
[ HP: 19 / 35 ████░░░ ]
[ Failed to resist the effects of [Sleep Arrow]. ]
“Fuck...” Sam muttered before he felt his eyes grow heavy. He had initially wanted to question the Ranger about things, but in the reactionary panic move, he sent everything he had at him, desperately even throwing the two daggers he held in hand.
Sam didn’t get a chance to see what was going on, well before anything hit his eyes closed themselves and the last thing he felt was the sense of falling.