“Quiet,” Savantha hissed at Pear as the last Golem stomped around beside them.
“I know,” Pear whispered back as he studied the Golem’s flows of Earth mana through its core.
Not hearing the two watching it and planning its demise, the Golem moved closer to the trapped Earth-petrified Oak Tree that they’d managed to set up for this fight. As he watched the Golem stomp heavily toward the tree, Pear hoped the plan they’d made would work again and allow them to destroy this final Golem, completing their Quest.
Once the Golem had stepped up to the tree, Pear’s new spell-form activated and the trap was sprung as Water mana flooded the area and forced the dense, heavy Earth mana away, leaving the Golem without most of its powerful defenses.
Seeing the water suddenly flood out from the tree, Savantha dashed forward and whipped her leg in a roundhouse kick into the back of the Golem’s leg, forcing the creature to the ground and shattering the heavy stone exterior as Pear drew the spell-form for Arcane Slash with his wand.
“Going for the left arm!” Pear called to his partner as he completed the spell and sent it flying at the Golem.
While the Golem flailed about wildly, attempting to keep its balance, Savantha drove a flurry of punches at the Golem’s back, cracking its thicker armor as it tried desperately to recover. Just before it was able to stop and throw its arm out to catch the smaller woman that was destroying its armored shell, Pear’s spell arrived and sliced through the entire arm, dropping it heavily to the ground where it shattered into several thousand tiny pieces.
Missing an arm and one leg hanging by a thread, the Golem finally attempted to lunge out of the field of Water mana that was even now being eaten by the thicker and never-ending Earth mana. As it moved, its injured leg finally broke off entirely and the Golem fell heavily to the ground as Savantha switched her efforts from punches and kicks to heavy stomps that punched holes through the creature’s back.
“Why won’t it die!?” she screamed, punctuating each word with a stomp as Pear approached her and the Golem that was trying to crawl pitifully away from them.
Wordlessly, Pear pointed his staff at the Golem and began drawing the spell-form for an Arcane Missile, aiming directly at the now sputtering, golden-brown core of the Golem. Following a final stomp from Savantha, Pear released his spell and pierced through the Golem’s core, finally killing the creature and completing their quest.
“It’s about damn time!” Savantha yelled, still tense from their ambush. “Let’s get out of here and blow through the next floors! Come on, Periwinkle!”
“Hold on,” Pear said, attempting to rein in his Party member. “I know you want to get out of here, I do too, but we need to make sure that we get that key the Quest promised us.”
“It’s just going to put it in a chest for us,” Savantha said as Pear checked his Quest completion notification and triggered the rewards.
You’ve completed a Quest!
Clear the Earth-petrified Oak Forest of Golems: You have managed to destroy the Golems that were destroying the Earth-petrified Oak forest. As you’ve done this with few of the Elementals attacking you, your rewards are enhanced slightly.
Rewards: Passage to the next floor.
Perk: Earth Skin: Your skin has been bathed in massive amounts of Earth mana. You will benefit from faster MP regeneration in areas thick with Earth mana. You will have a natural resistance to Earth spells. You will have a natural resistance to physical attacks.
Earth-petrified Oak wood.
Item Upgrade Token (Monk): A token that can be used to upgrade an item to a higher tier, increasing its capabilities. Has been restricted to only be usable by someone with a Monk class.
Key of the Earth.
“Oh look, it put that key thing in a chest,” Savantha said with bland sarcasm as three chests appeared before them and she opened the first to see the strange rock that was clearly the Key of the Earth. “Whoever could have seen that coming.”
“You act like we wouldn’t have had to claim the completion to go to the next floor,” Pear said, gesturing to the swirling portal that had appeared.
“Yeah, but then I was always cranky when I’m hungry,” she said pointedly.
“I told you, if we want to get through all of this without running out of food, we need to start actually rationing our rations,” Pear sighed. “I know it sucks, but it’s not like they were all that good after the fifth one of them.”
“But do we have to split them into quarters?” Savantha whined. “It’s not enough to do more than take a bite, maybe two, and it doesn’t fill me up.”
“If we break them into quarters then we can make them last a lot longer,” Pear said patiently. “I know you understand that.”
“I hate this floor,” Savantha finally said with a sigh as she opened another of the chests and pulled out the item inside. “Stupid Golems needing stupid spells to stop their stupid overpowered regeneration forcing us to stay here for so long.”
“Cheer up,” Pear attempted to encourage her. “You got your item upgrade thingie, maybe you can use that to help fix your quarterstaff.”
“I hate it though,” she said as she pulled the thin length of polished stone from her back and examined it. “It says in the item description that it’s a broken piece of a mythical weapon. How is one upgrade token going to fix it?”
“It probably won’t,” Pear said with a wince as he examined the weapon and read through the description again. “But it might make it so that you can use the command again. That would be nice.”
Staff of the Primate King (Center): The center piece of the quarterstaff wielded by the martial artist who became known as the Primate King. This weapon was carried by him as he ascended to heights of fame that allowed him to become more than a legend. Each of the staff’s three pieces has retained a part of the enchantment that allowed the whole weapon to become as much a myth as its wielder. The central piece has the most complete part of the enchantment, though without the other two pieces to feed power to it, it is unable to make use of the full effects.
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Expand: A simple enchantment that allowed the Primate King to grow his staff to great sizes. As the enchantment is broken, the command word, Expand, must be chanted to activate. Each activation has a chance to damage the broken enchantment further, rendering it useless.
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“Yeah, it was useful the one time I got to use it,” Savantha muttered as she examined the staff herself and weighed the idea of using the token on it.
“And I’m still glad that you used it to save me,” Pear said gratefully as he tried not to shudder as he remembered the scene ten days ago where the first Golem they’d faced had nearly killed him.
“Oh cool, I can confirm if I want to use it,” Savantha suddenly said. “Will it break my set bonus from my clothes?”
“Find out?” Pear suggested delicately.
“It says that it will,” Savantha groaned unhappily. “Nothing like being rail-roaded into using an item on another item you don’t really want.”
“You could hold onto it,” Pear pointed out.
“Yeah but if you don’t use it, then you don’t have it,” Savantha said as she confirmed using the upgrade token on the staff. “Who wants to reach the end of a game, any game, and find that they just beat the last boss without touching a single item that would have made the entire thing easier?”
“Must take a real idiot to do that,” Pear said as he tried not to blush, knowing that he was one of those sorts of people. “But I guess they do it for the sense of accomplishment?”
“It’s not like you get an achievement or something for doing it,” Savantha pointed out. “Anyway, my staff looks better and I’m ready to go. You?”
“I’m ready to go to the next floor,” Pear said with a nod as he stepped into the portal. Light swallowed him and swirled in a now familiar kaleidoscope around him before he was deposited in a smoky gray world.
“Shit,” Pear muttered to himself as Savantha appeared next to him. “I think we’re on the Death floor.”
“Is that bad?” Savantha asked as she scratched at her arm.
You’ve stumbled onto a Dungeon Quest!
Escape the Death Maze: You are in a maze that has been flooded with Death mana. Typically, this maze is home to Death Elementals, but there is a powerful source of Life mana at the end of this maze. This source of Life mana has lowered the amount of Death mana to the point that the Death Elementals cannot spawn. Escape the maze and remove the source of Life mana to return this floor to its natural balance.
Rewards: Passage to the next floor. Death Perk. Set Upgrade Token (Monk). Key of Death. Elder Vampire’s Fangs.
You have been afflicted with Lesser Necrosis (Lesser). You will take tiny amounts of damage every minute until you remove yourself from the source of the Necrosis. This effect will stack up to ten times. It can be cleansed with any amount of channeled Life mana.
“Ask a stupid question,” Savantha muttered.
“You’re going to have to lead the way,” Pear told her. “All I see is the Death mana moving around. It’s everywhere, just like the other floors were thick with their mana.”
“But you could see just fine on those floors,” Savantha pointed out. “What’s different about this one?”
“I can’t make out where the walls are,” Pear said.
“Well there’s one right next to you,” Savantha said. “You can’t see it?”
“Not even slightly,” Pear told her as he reached out and touched the wall, finding its smooth surface closer than he’d have thought. “You lead and I’ll keep the necrosis from getting too bad for us.”
You have been afflicted with Lesser Necrosis (Common). You will take small amounts of damage every minute until you remove yourself from the source of the Necrosis. This effect will stack up to ten times. It can be cleansed with a small amount of channeled Life mana.
“Better get started on that,” Savantha said as the notification appeared before them. “I think the stuff upgrades itself at ten stacks.”
“I think you’re right,” Pear said as readied his staff and wand for casting.
“Finally!” Savantha yelled triumphantly as she led them out of the maze. “We’re finally free!”
“Calm down,” Pear said, trying not to snap at her as he raised his wand for another unfocused blast of Life mana in her direction, cleansing her stacks of Lesser Necrosis again. “Where’s the source of Life mana so we can get out of here?”
“You can’t see them?” Savantha asked. “They’re just some teeth on the pedestal in front of us.”
“We’ve been through this,” Pear said with a sigh as he tried not to let his irritability show. “I can’t see nearly as well on this floor as I could on the others.”
“Right, sorry,” Savantha said. “My bad.”
“Not a big deal,” Pear assured her. “Let’s just hope the next two floors aren’t like this one. Fire should be up next and then Life after that one.”
“Cool, do you want to hold the creepy teeth?” Savantha asked him.
“Since I have the bag that has the Archangel’s Shackle, the Greater Demon’s claw, and the Elemental woods, sure. I’ll hold onto the creepy teeth,” Pear said. “Can you grab them and put them in my bag?”
“Can I use your wand so I don’t have to touch them?” Savantha asked.
With a quiet sigh, Pear extended his wand to her with his bag so that Savantha could place the strange teeth inside of it. Gratefully, Savantha took the bag and wand and carefully slid the teeth into the bag. As soon as the draw strings were pulled tight, they both received the Quest completion notification.
You’ve completed a Quest!
Escape the Death Maze: You have reached the end of the Death Maze, and taken the source of Life mana.
Rewards: Passage to the next floor.
Perk: Death Skin: You have been bathed in massive amounts of Death mana. You will benefit from faster MP regeneration in places thick with Death mana. You will have a natural resistance to Death spells. You will recover HP in areas thick with Death mana.
Set Upgrade Token (Monk): A token that can be used to upgrade a set of items to a higher tier, increasing their capabilities. Has been restricted to only be usable by someone with a Monk class.
Key of Death.
Elder Vampire’s Fangs: Fangs ripped from an Elder Vampire to prevent his feeding upon the abundant life force of others. They have retained their desire to feed on Life even now. Insert them into your mouth and drink the blood of a living creature to become a Vampire. Insert them into your mouth and drink the blood of a dead creature to become a Lesser Vampire.
“Well that’s nice to see,” Savantha said as she pulled her new upgrade token from its chest. “Just put the nasty, strange teeth that came from someone else’s mouth into your mouth and drink blood and you’ll get a new race. Almost like a strange sort of STD.”
“That’s so gross to think about,” Pear said with a shudder. “Come on. Let’s go to the next floor before it gives us another round of Necrosis for fun.”