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Ch 10
The Unexpected End
Don used Dance of Death with the song he wrote for it in his head while going over the story he made up for it. The mountain trolls hesitated to move closer but they could not look away or escape either. Don smoothly and quickly lashed off their limbs faster than they could grow them back, killing the group of six one by one until all that was left was piles of meat and fur. The latter of which he collected. His skill with sewing had gotten decent enough that it was worth the effort to sell them to stores. Since learning under Bob he knew how to price his goods and haggle from store owners, giving him a fair amount of pocket change.
Finally he arrived at the town of Cletes. It was something of a frontier town placed at the edge of civilization, unfortunately its taxes were set fairly high for an out of the way town so it didn’t grow very fast. Don returned to the shop Bob went to resupply and gave the clerk a list of materials he needed. The clerk wrote a number next to each item on the list, at the bottom he wrote their sum, in total Don would need 13 gold pieces to buy everything he needed. His small fortune added up to only 5 gold pieces. Don sighed and left the store.
While wandering through town, Don saw an old dwarf running towards him. Don moved to get out of the way, but the dwarf changed as well, making a beeline for Don. When he got close the dwarf quickly said, “Hey! Are you between level 80 and 110?”
Don carefully nodded. The dwarf then said, “We need one more for a party, Now. Can you come with?”
Don had nothing better to do so he nodded again, the dwarf smiled and said, “Alright, follow me.”
The pair ran to the edge of town where four people were anxiously waiting. As soon as they saw the pair, the dwarf yelled, “Found one! Lets Go!”
The four started running away from town and the dwarf lead Don after them. After about thirty minutes of running Don finally asked the dwarf, “Where are we going?”
Still running, the dwarf said, “Dungeon, closes, at sunset, need to make it.” He seemed to have trouble running and talking.
Don looked at the horizon, the sun was almost completely down. Light from the setting sun had different properties than normal daylight, Don hadn’t done it before but he thought, ‘might as well do it now,’ and said, “Light of the Heavens.”
Sunset Buff
Resistance to fire increased by 30%
+15% Wisdom
No one noticed that the the light from the sun increased for a moment as they sped towards some unknown dungeon. Don picked up his pace to check out the other four. One was wearing plate mail, two were wearing robes, and one was wearing leather. Don figured that with armored dwarf, the party has two attackers, two spell caster, and the woman in leather may have been a archer. It seemed to be a decently balanced party, there was no need to recruit a total stranger just to have six people. From the fact that the other five all knew where they were going Don figured that they weren’t strangers, but they didn’t leave the town until a sixth man was acquired.
As the last light was fading into the horizon, the head of the party yelled, “ Almost there!!”
The group turned into the woods along the path and ran till Don saw a stone door that seemed to be closing, the dwarf yelled, “Run!”
Everyone made it into the door, though the dwarf had to slide through just as it closed. The group let out a collective sigh of relief, as well as a few, “we made it”s. Don had high stamina due to the Vitality stats he gained sprinting as often as he could, so he was the only one who wasn’t panting like a dying horse.
Don patiently waited until the leader of the group told him, “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
The dwarf laughed, “Short notice, there was no notice.”
The armored man who seemed to be the party leader said, “Well thanks for this. This dungeon has a room that needs six people to enter. Finding someone out here has proven difficult.”
Don asked, “Why six people?”
“There’s are statues with six levers that are spaced far from each other. We tried rope but it didn’t work. We’ve already emptied this place of monster, we just need a sixth man for the last lever. Will you join our party?”
Bolkan has invited you to join his party
Accept | Reject
The door was already closed and Don was interested in a dungeon that required six people to get through. “Alright”
You have joined Bolkan’s party
Bolkan said, “Imma knight, Thres here is an archer, Doch who you’ve met already is a warrior, Samos a priest and Kol is a shaman.”
Each in turn waved at Don, Thres said, “So what do you bring to our little group? Not that there should be much fighting.”
Don was tempted to lie but running away from his problem wasn’t the manly way.
“I’m a blade dancer.”
Kol turned to Doch, the dwarf and said, “You brought a dancer? Nice.”
Doch said, “Well I didn’t know he was a dancer, he’s wearing leather armor and swords for freya’s sake.”
Don rolled his eyes and said, “I can take care of myself.”
Thres said, “It’s fine either way.”
Don’s appearance in RR was originally an overly handsome elf with eye catching features. Now that he had over a hundred points in charisma and charm, his features had become even more attractive. Anyone looking at him would think he had focused on appearance over strength, giving people the impression he was weak.
After twenty minutes the group arrived at a room with six statues against the wall. Don whispered, “Detect,” and saw the six weapons the statues held glow dimly. The party members walked up to individual statues and each grabbed a weapon, “Elf, grab that spear and pull on the count of three.”
It took Don a moment before he realized Thres was talking to him. He had never thought of himself as an elf. Don asked, “What happens after they are pulled?”
Kol pointed to a wall and said, “We pull the levers, that wall opens. We collect the treasure within.”
Don was under the distinct impression this ‘We’ did not include himself. Don asked, “Are you sure?” The wall he had pointed to did not glow when Don used detect, though it was still at a low proficiency so that was not conclusive.
Kol said, “Yes, yes, now get to a spear.”
Don took one and with everyone else. Bolken said, “One.. Two..THREE!”
The six pulled the weapons down and at the same time six trap doors opened beneath them
“Woah-ooh~” Don slid down the hatch hearing the echo of yells from the other five while thinking to himself, ‘last time I ignore my instincts.’ A few seconds later Don landed in a pitch dark area. Don sat down, took a deep breath, closed his eyes and opened his ears. He heard nothing, which meant at the very least there was nothing waiting there to kill him. After a few moments he opened his eyes. Still he could barely see anything. He could take out his glowing swords but he wouldn’t be able to equip them. It was a weird system in which he could hold a sword in his hand but not fight with it. Don learned after getting his dual black blades that holding onto a weapon you couldn’t equip while fighting prevented the activation of skills and the damage was very low. Holding his moonlight blades would be like holding two glow sticks. They would be useless in fighting and give away his position. Besides, he didn’t need to see.
“Detect.” The walls shimmered lightly, Just enough for Don to make out the shape of the room. It had an exit which Don made his way towards. Through some passages Don had to use Detect to navigate he made his way to a large chamber with a few torches high in the ceiling, dimly illuminating the room enough to see, and enough to be seen. Don ducked down low, and moved slowly. “Detect” The room shimmered. The head of a statue that was near the exit glowed.
Skill level up: Detect [4]
Don looked around the room for a while and determined that the pass by the statue was the only way out. It was either a secret or a trap. Don looked around it but couldn’t see if there was a way to disable it, he had no choice but to go through. Don took out his moonlight swords, their brightness was blinding after having his eyes adjust. He held them both to his left and ran past the statue.
Instantly something like black smoke shot out of the statue at Don, but it impacted the swords and dissolved. Don used the unequipable blades to shield himself against the trap, but it seemed that the trap was a curse of some sort, and his blades repelled curses and black magic.
While thinking, ‘lucky,’ to himself he put his swords away and continued down the corridor.
Don heard noises at the end of the hall, the sound of fighting. He rushed over to the large, poorly lit room to see two people fighting. Don recognized them as Balkan and Doch. Don walked over to the pair who noticed him immediately, Doch yelled, “Oh great, another one.” Balkan didn’t seem too pleased to see him either. After that their fighting changed to keep one eye on Don at all times.
Don recognized this as the behavior of one fighting against more than one. They expected Don to attack them. For a moment Don thought it was because they didn’t trust him, then he remembered the curse from the statue. He hadn’t received it so he didn’t know what it was, but it could explain the situation. They likely saw their allies in the form of monsters, so they attacked each other.
Don took out his swords, the pair halted their fight and backed up. They were hesitating to focus on one opponent now that it looked like Don was ready to fight. Don wondered for a moment what he must look like to them. Then he started dancing. He thought of a calming song and tried to feel out its movements. He calmed his mind to the best he could and used the feeling to control his motions.
Doch spoke first, “What the hell? Is that thing... dancing? Wait..”
Bolkan said, “Elf? Is that you?” The pair looked at each other, then back to Don, then back to each other. Bolkan was the first to put away his weapons. Doch looked very awkward for a moment before saying, “Aww, crap,” and put his hammer away.
Don stopped dancing, put his swords away and walked towards the exit of the room, the pair followed. After a few minutes of walking Doch said, “Stop, I can see you again.” Bolkan said, “Me too,” before turning to Doch and saying, “Sorry about that, you looked like a mutant with a giant right arm.” Doch laughed saying, “Ha! You looked like some creature with thick skin for armor.”
Don was mildly curious about what he looked like but instead decided to ask, “How’s your health?”
Doch said, “Don’t mind us, we’re both tanks. Weren’t you affected?”
“I told you before, I can take care of myself.” Since they had made assumptions about him before Don decided to let them make a few more.
The group made it into another hall where the other three were waiting. Samos said, “Thank Lu you’re alright. I was worried about the curse. I was able to cure myself and Thres. Kol had high resistance so he wasn’t affected in the first place.”
Bolkan said, “Our dancer here straightened us out.”
Doch said, “Yea. Here I was, fighting an ugly monster, then another one shows up and of all things, starts dancing. After that we figured out what was going on and waited for the curse to dissipate.”
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Don said, “So where are we? I’m guessing you didn’t know about the pitfall.”
Kol picked up, “That was supposed to open the secret treasury. We didn’t know about the trap.”
Bolkan said, “I don’t know where were are or how to get back, for now everyone keep it tight. Don, how well can you fight?”
This was the first time Don was referred to by his name instead of ‘elf.’
“I can handle myself alone or against numbers. When mobs see me dancing they can't run or look away. My attack is moderate, I am difficult to hit. I do not back down.”
Bolkan looked over Don again and said, “Alright, you and me will take the front, Doch, cover the back.”
They continued through the dark hallways and empty rooms. Bolkan asked Don, “So what do you think is down here?”
He didn’t have to think much on it. “Danger. Six must enter, then are split up, then cursed to attack anything, then regrouped in two groups of three. This looks like it was designed to kill all but one off.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it could have been three groups of two, but it was two groups of three. Men fight differently one on one compared to two on one. One on one is a fight to see who is stronger, three is a fight to the death.”
Bolkan nodded. A few moments later the group came to a large door. Kol said, “Boss fight anyone?”
Samos started casting defense boosting holy buffs and Kol cast his offense increasing nature buffs. When ready they opened the doors. The room was vast, it looked like it could fit a few city blocks, and was too dark to see all the way to the back. From the darkness emerged dark beings. They appeared human and and wore human equipment, but they were covered in what looked like glowing purple vines.
The group charged the dark beings. A moment later they realized there were dozens of them in the room. Don shouted, “Get around me, I’ll draw their attention and you attack!”
Don started his dance of death in the front of the dark beings. They repeatedly tried to attack but each time they received a cross body parry to the heart. However that didn’t kill them, it didn’t even register as a critical hit. Don slashed through the vines that covered them but they quickly grew back.
From his back Don heard, “Hey! These purple things have cores! Find and aim for it!” Another voice cried out, “Easier said than done!”
Don circled a few times getting a few looks at each of the things around him, he noticed that the tendrils radiated from one point, so he prioritized slashing it.
Critical Hit!
After that things went smoother, the dark beings kept pouring in, but Don’s distraction and blade defense kept the fight consistent. Don didn’t mind, he was getting excellent experience. An hour later the hordes had finished. Don stopped dancing and collapsed on the ground. The rest of the party joined him.
Kol said, “Nice work Don.”
The rest gave similar remarks.
After another moment the lights in the room became brighter, illuminating a statue with six men facing different directions. Kol said, “Here we go again.”
Don said, “No, this one’s real. This whole thing was meant to whittle down the group of six, the best security measure would be another mechanism that needs six afterwards.”
The group found the levers on each side and pulled in unison. In the back of the room the wall opened revealing a hallway. At the end was six mannequins wearing sets of armor. Don looked through them but none had dual blades or leather armor that suited his class. Most of the party was luckier. Doch took the equipment form a mannequin wearing thick armor and an axe. The one set of robes went to Samos but the staff the mannequin had went to Kol. Those who couldn’t equip what was left divided the remainder between themselves. Don got a spear, some shoes he’d keep till he could wear them at level 150, and the set of knives.
At the back of the room was a staircase that lead all the way back to the surface. Don was surprised it was still night. As Don and the group parted Doch said, “I’m glad you agreed to party with us, it was great fun.”
Back at the town Don sold the level 150 spear and knives for 268 gold pieces. Luckily Bob had many valuable weapons in his cart so Don knew how to price such things so he would not get ripped off. He returned to the store and bought the materials he needed to make his case with.
First Don sealed together five pieces of glass in a box he could place on a bottom sheet of glass in an airtight container. Next he made a pressure gauge with a tall tube of mercury which Don filled up and inverted on a pool of mercury. The dense liquid was heavy enough to drop within the tube’s top creating empty space that was a vacuum. The lower the top of the liquid, the lower the pressure in the box. Don had already looked up the Djoma mountain’s height and calculated what its pressure after it snowed would most likely be. Don then got a thread that changed length at different humidities and attached a needle to the bottom that balanced even. He hung it next to a ruler he had already calibrated the string for. He marked the point the needle was at when the thread was 100% dry, and where the needle was when 100% wet. He then marked the middle of the two marks to show his goal of 50% humidity.
Don then spent the next few hours testing the setup and measuring tool to see how he could get the right combo. He settle on putting a damp rag that was just the right dampness and a piece of ice that was just the right size. After that Don hooked a piece of string from the top of the glass inside the case and secured it to the top of the sealed box, only the top. Don put ice that was chilled colder than normal on the rags and sealed the box. As the ice melted the temperature in the case decreased, which in turn decreased the pressure. The water that melted was partially absorbed into the rags, but not all of it was, some of it was in the air of the box in the form of humidity. Don waited.
After about twenty minutes of Don keeping ice against the glass box to keep the temperature and pressure right, the bottom of the hanging wooden box slid away from the hanging top. It had opened. Don picked up the glass case and looked at the contents of the wooden box. What he saw there, was an egg.
Don reached down to touch it, but when he made contact a screen popped up. It showed a landscape of smoke, mountains, fire, and thunder. Around this chaotic landscape was an epic clash. The opponents? Dragons, fierce, ferocious, dragons. Don saw large red ones, majestic blue ones, and some white ones too. In the back was a great black dragon. Looking at it made Don’s hairs stand on edge. Don then saw a large grey scaled dragon speeding to the east. Five dragons were on its tail, shooting fire and ice and lightning at the grey dragon in the form of dragon breath and dragon magic. The grey dragon seemed worried, though not for its own survival. The scene changes again to the grey dragon being struck down and falling into a stream of lava. As it sinks, Don sees it is holding onto something, the thing it was trying to protect, the thing the other dragons were after, an egg.
The grey dragon tightly wraps its arms around the egg as it dies. The scene changes again, this time it is a group of humans, they are mining a ravine for gemstones. The bones of the grey dragon are found, and within, the dragon egg is still there. The humans take it to an appraiser who pays them almost nothing for it. He in turn gives it to his king as a gift. Not long after that, the king notices the egg has grown. The scene changes to the king and some seers discussing what to do with it. They seem to arrive at the conclusion that when the egg is in the open, it grows, and one day will hatch. So the king orders the egg put into a box that won’t allow the egg to grow.
The video ends and another window opens.
You have acquired the egg of the Holy Dragon Thessalanos.
This egg was created in the time before the races existed, before the gods descended on the world, before the time history was recorded. Since its creation it has laid dormant, unable to grow due to being bound. If not bound by ancient stone or wood it will grow until it is ready to hatch.
Note: Because this egg was created in the time before the non dragon races it will not possess a natural hated for them. In the moment it is born it will seek one who it recognizes has the right one to raise it. This will either be a dragon or someone with an outstandingly high divine affinity.
Time till the egg hatches:420 days.
Don was amazed. The box contained the egg of a dragon so powerful, its life was sought after before it was even born. A dragon who would be loyal to him if he got a high holy affinity. Don decided he would do it, he would do everything in his power to obtain a high holy affinity. He wasn’t worried about the egg. The time limit was outside of the box, after putting it back it, the timer would stop. Don had all the time in the world, and when he had finished, he would have his own dragon. Don smiled as he imagined how manly he would look riding the back of a scaley, majestic holy dragon. Not that Don knew what a holy dragon looked like. He imagined it may look something like the white Dragon Kay Bern.
Don lifted the wooden top of the box and put it back on the bottom, but it wouldn’t fit. Don’s heart almost stopped when he realized he had left the box out too long, it had swelled in size. Don quickly tried to press the top back down, but suddenly he heard a CRACK*. The wooden sides of the box had broken off, it wouldn’t be a tight fit anymore.
Don felt all the blood rush to his head. Raising affinity was something that magicians who worked on a daily basis with the element had trouble with. Don had no way to keep the egg from growing. The only places with ancient stone or ancient wood were places with monsters too strong for Don to fight, he couldn’t make another box.
Don whispered to Bob.
- Bob, how can I raise divine affinity quickly?
- Why? Something for a blade dancer quest?
- No, I opened the box. In it was a.. Well... I need really high divine affinity to be able to do something with it. Please?
- Hmm, alright, but I expect details later. I have a friend in the Church of Lu in the capital city of Sairei Kingdom. Talk to him.
- Thanks, I’ll tell you everything later.
Don bought some supplies for traveling and started heading west for Sairie kingdom. It was one of the southern kingdoms that made up the central continent. Don sprinted, he didn’t have a moment to lose, he had 420 days, about three and a half months in the real world to accumulate as much divine affinity as he could. What was worse was that he only had two weeks left until his college started for fall classes. He would have to go to class, go to work, study, sleep, and keep himself healthy while training for divine affinity. But Don wasn’t going to back down. With the image of himself riding on the back of an awesome dragon as motivation, he knew he would do anything that could potentially raise his affinity, no matter how unmanly.
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