My watch read 11:30 A.M
The dungeon would be up in 30 minutes.
I headed out the door and went to the left. Down this way was a whole bunch of alleys. The apartments here had collapsed a long time ago. People excavated paths through the ruins to reach the dungeon at the center.
The Mudtooth Mines, was a relatively simple dungeon, just Stalkers and Mudteeth, no puzzles, no traps. When you enter you appear at the top of the quarry, and you must descend through a series of mineshafts that can be accessed through a tunnel at the bottom.
As to why there is a mine below a quarry, don't ask questions, the 3 love to take creative license when it comes to dungeons.
Anyway, your goal is to reach the bottom of the mines, at the bottom you'll be facing either, a Greater Mudtooth, or an Abyssal Stalker, as your boss.
Your odds as to the boss is a 99.75/0.25% split. Under pretty much every circumstance you'd want to get the Abyssal Stalker rather than the Greater Mudtooth.
Whilst MudTeeth are mud golems in the shape of an emaciated dog, Stalkers are, giant invisible mantises.
Mudteeth clock in at most 3 feet tall, and Stalkers hit a respectable 2-foot max.
Whilst the Abyssal stalker hits a 4-foot height every time, the Greater Mudtooth hits a nice small, eh, 9 feet.
Golems don't care about physical damage, they die when their head is destroyed.
And mantises can be beaten with a mace. Both of these little friends possess a great vulnerability to explosives, or at least they would. If detonating a pipe bomb in a rickety mine was a good idea.
Anyway, you want to get the Abyssal because it has an Abyss Core rather than the normal Mist Core. And a far better treasury.
Every dungeon has 2 possible bosses, 1 has a 99.75% chance to be there, and the other has a 0.25%. Whilst the 1st one was far easier, and would reward you with a Greater Mist Core, which whilst retaining the same radius, would ward off the mist for a month. Abyss cores did no such thing, as whilst all other cores had affinity under The Weave, Abyss Cores had affinity under The Ancient.
This was the only circumstance in which you would find an enemy with Ancient affinity. This was how every dungeon operated, the enemies inside would all be under the Affinity of one of the other 2, and the final boss had a 0.25% chance to be something else under The Ancient. Naturally, the enemy varied from dungeon to dungeon, all Ancient, creatures use forbidden magic.
There were 3 kinds of magic.
Arcane and elemental magics fell under The Weave. What made Arcane special was that it always, under every circumstance, blew up. It lacks an element, and it's pretty much raw destruction. And Elemental magics are exactly what you would expect, Fire, Wind, etc. Their properties varied depending on their type.
And then there's the last magic, this type falls under The Ancient, these are known as forbidden magic, and rather than just costing mana, they had a material cost as well, specifically in the form of life/something that was alive, or a personal cost.
Anyway, we are getting sidetracked here. Abyss Cores could be consumed to increase your affinity with your god, affinity is affected by eating cores, the rarity of your main class, and your subclasses that aren't of common rarity.
Being more noticeable to one of the 3 can be both a blessing and a curse. The only way to get Legendary, items, classes, titles, etc, is to have the one you hold affinity with grant it to you. Naturally, they only give out such rewards to those that they believe are deserving.
Having a greater or grand affinity is like making 1 star brighter in a sea filled with those of the same shine. Since I serve The Ancient I have few competitors.
Since there's no way to have my affinity and not have gambled most people shy away in the first place.
I'd only need to eat 1 core to reach a greater affinity.
I ducked under a piece of exposed rebar above. Voices ahead told me I was close.
I rounded the corner, revealing a few individuals scattered about, preparing, checking firearms, and sharpening blades. But the most striking thing here was the pulsating crimson orb in the clearing, leaking blood, or something that at least looked like it, whilst slowly pulsating.
"Aren't you a little early, we haven't even started yet,"
"No actually I was looking for you."
Her eyebrows quirked, she was probably 6'2, but she gave off an intimidating aura, considering her level, that was certainly caused by her race evolution option at lv 50. Probably an Ascendit Homo Sapiens. Whilst the 3 manifested themselves in many ways, The Cycle's boons manifested in the above-average category. Either way, she laid her next sentence upon me.
"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but what, 'business', could you possibly have with me?"
"Fair question, I find myself to have awakened most recently, anyway, I need corpses, humanoid corpses, from the mist. I've been informed you're the only one who can get them to me."
she grimaced.
"Yeah, I know, it's all ready for you."
"Ah, he told you yeah?"
"Yeah."
"I can get it to you at 6, where am I leavin' it?"
"Back door of the Orphanage, I'll be there. Either way, we might be working together in the future, so I'm fairly certain this is the part where I introduce myself."
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"Sure, give it a go."
"My name's Admatha, but you can call me Marwood, I'll take Mar too."
"Eliza Rowan. Quick question, why do you need corpses in the first place?"
"Oh, he didn't tell you that part, why, I'm just Your Neighborly Necromancer of course!"
That seemed to throw her for a loop a bit, but as quickly as it appeared it was gone. She seemed very laid back, or maybe uninterested.
"So You're Ancient then yeah?"
"mhmm"
"I'm fairly certain we'll be seeing you next raid, so, welcome to paradise. Dreams come true here, anyway, dungeons almost up, so I gotta go."
Did, she just leave? Just like that? Certainly, an interesting woman, just as the people said. She was a lv 63 Warrior. No one in Mudtooth matched her. She could solo clear easily, and it's the main thing that kept us afloat even though we only have 6 awakened since people delved in pairs of two's, or, I guess it's 7 now.
I guess I just leave now? I'm not doing a raid with no minions.
"Yeah, um, I'm gonna go."
I said to no one in particular. Are you ready for more walking, I know I am.
--------------------
"Anything else for you today."
"Nah, I'm good."
"You free tomorrow?"
"Yeah man, what we doin?"
"I got some-"
Isiah reached into his pocket.
"-cigs. And even better, Vodka."
"8 sound good?"
"Sure man, oh, and take 1 for the road."
I'd just bought an assortment of knives, I wasn't sure what I was gonna need. I probably didn't need to know how to butcher a corpse, I just needed to not damage the skeleton, and I was golden. And that shouldn't be hard at all considering what I was carving.
"You got a light?"
"Mmm."
He handed me a box of matches.
"I'll see ya then."
"Bye!"
With the clattering of bells, I was out again.
It was 4:58 P.M., so I didn't want, or have, to do anything else today.
Uh, besides the corpse carving. What am I gonna do with the flesh, I don't want to keep it, that's for sure. So, do I like, just leave it?
I'm gonna have to ponder that one, for a while.
--------------------
I stood outside, waiting She was supposed to be here bu-
"Do yo-"
"JESUS CHRIST!"
my arm hurt, I may or may not have slammed it into the wall.
"Holy hells. Why?"
"What?"
"You can, yknow, approach from a distance, like a normal person, greeting another. LIke how normal people do."
Her face was blank.
"But I'm not normal."
"Yeah no shit clearly. Do you have the thing?"
"Of course." Then she threw what was probably a 9-foot-tall abomination on the ground, yknow, with one arm, like a sack of potatoes.
"Well, that thing, is disgusting."
Grey-dried blood covered the creature, and holes dotted its divited flesh, most noticeably in its chest where its core was removed. Its arms were lanky and it looked like it had 2 elbows, and they reached just below its knees. And it possessed talons rather than the conventional foot I was accustomed to, 1 on the back and 3 on the front, kinda like the picture books with those "Velociraptors". It was indeed, somewhat human-shaped. Easily the most noticeable factor was that it had no eyes. It was just a grey rounded slate with a wide sharp-toothed smile. Oh and upon closer examination it was more like 8-9 8-10.
"Well, I guess, it's time to do this."
On the busted AC unit behind me, I'd laid out all my knives. But Eliza piped up before I grabbed anyone.
"You planning to carve this guy up?"
"Yeah, I want a skeleton, not a zombie."
"With those?"
"Yeeeaahhhhh??"
"Mhm, that's not gonna work, take this, it's flesh is far too tough."
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Name: Heart Piercer
Affinity: The Weave
Condition: Perfect
Description,
A dagger forged in another dimension with a thin long blade. Its blade is unnaturally durable and sharp, and It boasts an unnaturally dark look. The hilt is inscribed with "Forgive me".
Bound Spells:
Life seeker: When activated this dagger will fly out of your hand and embed itself into the heart of a target you desire, upon reaching its target it'll go hilt deep near instantly before twisting, removing itself, and returning to your hand. Can be used once per day, casts instantly. The spell is canceled if the victim catches it successfully before it enters halfway into their heart.
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"Umm, thanks?"
"Don't mention it kid."
And then she just started walking away again. Is she not particularly sociable? Meh, doesn't matter. I just got a fancy new toy.
Now came the unpleasant part.
I sat down on the shattered concrete of the road, and with a bit of effort, sunk the dagger into the flesh. The sound was sickening. Like someone tearing an apple apart with their bare hands. I sawed back and forth for maybe 2 minutes before I could remove this strip of flesh.
I extracted the blade, now marred with grey blood, and promptly removed all the contents of my stomach.
"At least you don't smell bad."
"Tonight's gonna be a long night."
--------------------
It was 11:18 P.M. A man squatted over a corpse covered in blood, flesh was scattered about the dark alley lit somewhat with candles. The man heaved a sigh as he stood up and examined his work.
This is what someone else would see if they decided to take a walk behind the orphanage at this particular hour. I was tired, cold, hungry, thirsty, tired, oh, and of course covered in blood. Which meant that I couldn't even go to sleep, I had to head to take a shower, and not just any shower, a cold shower, and that would hurt even more.
With a nice loud groan, I stood up even though every bone in my body protested it.
Supposedly all you have to do to cast a spell is want to do so.
Every spell you cast was cast from your hands, so I put the dagger down on the grey-smothered cement.
A dark green orb appeared in my hand, before flying out to the now nearly flesh-free skeleton.
Green orbs of fire appeared in its fleshless skull, fun fact, it did in fact have eyes, it was just hidden behind the flesh.
It stood up shakily before staring down at me from above. Its circular eyes gazed down with no discernable emotion, its teeth had taken on a more ethereal look.
"Holy. Aren't you a real beauty? You look even more grotesque without your meat suit. It's kinda making me dizzy."
----------
WARNING!
Mana Exhaustion (Major)!
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"Oh that'sssss the proglem."
That was the last sentence I uttered before I passed out.