Gamer Guild’s Dungeon (3rd Floor, Floor End)
--- Jon ---
“Yeah, we can handle it easy.”
“Alright, then shall we see what we’re up against?” Ying suggested before pushing the door to the boss room open a bit. “Hmm, that’s interesting.”
“What is?” He asked, making his way over.
Rather than answering Ying went ahead and opened the door all the way to reveal a large room with several hut like structures around a circular arena with a large bonfire in the middle.
“Well, this is different than the last two boss rooms.” He noted trying to figure out what it meant.
“Stupid goblins, they think because the third floor gives them their own little village that make them better than us and our temple.” The Boss Kobold helpfully grumbled, before turning to Ying with a malicious gleam in her beady little eyes. “Mistress let’s burn their village to the ground with your mighty dragon roar!”
“Wait, we should hold off on doing anything drastic until we know where the floor boss is.” He decided to argue when it seemed like the draconic teen was legitimately considering the kobold’s idea.
“Oh, that’s easy. They’re probably in there.” Ying told him with a gesture towards a large hut with a boar skull above its entrance, causing it to stand out from all of the other huts.
“That’s… probably accurate.” He admitted.
“In that case, we can start burning things down then, hmm?” Ying clapped happily. “Now how to do it without wasting too much energy… Jon, do you have any fire arrows?”
“What? Uh, I could make some with a bit of cloth and alcohol but it’d be better if I used a heating- No, wait.” He shook his head. “We should not be burning down any villages even if we are fighting the goblins.”
“Why not?” Ying asked, looking legitimately confused about why burning down the village of sapient creatures might be considered morally wrong even if they could resurrect themselves.
“Because…” He ran a hand trying to figure out how to voice that particular concern, before noticing Ying’s eyes. (Oh…) “Ying…”
“Yes?” The draconic teen blinked.
“Why do you want to burn the village down?” He asked cautiously, remembering the last time she took this particular conversation poorly.
(Lightning sparked across her skin as a growl erupted from a maul full of teeth too sharp to be human and slitted snake eyes narrowed at him, uncaring of the blood dripping from her claws.)
He shook his head. (No, she’s not like that. She’s doing better, you’re just shaken from her lightning roar a minute ago.) (Or I’m in denial.)
Ying frowned to herself as she thought his question over, something she wouldn’t do in the first few weeks following her corruption. (See, she’s doing better…)
“Dragon.” He told her mentally steeling himself (just in case).
Ying froze before closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. “Oh…”
“Yeah…”
“Mistress?” The Boss Kobold asked with some concern.
“Right. No burning the village down.” Ying told the kobolds. “Instead Jon will draw the boss out and we’ll provide support based on just what he’s dealing with. That alright with you?”
“Yeah, I can work with that.” He nodded, before turning to his team of kobolds. “While I’m drawing the boss out I want you guys to find places around the village to hide, preferably near the entrances to the huts because I’m pretty sure goblins are going to spawn from there.”
“Understood.” The kobolds nodded before splitting into their previous two teams with Kenny leading one group and the other by Sue. “Wolf, you mind filling any opening they leave?”
His canine companion gave him a yip of agreement before trotting after the kobolds.
“Wait, why is he giving orders?!” The boss kobold screeched.
“Because he’s leading the vanguard.” Ying shrugged.
“But I’m the floor boss!”
“Are we on your floor?” Ying asked curiously, as she gave the kobold a look.
(Okay, I’m just going to walk away from this.) He decided before making his way towards the bonfire because he did not enjoy watching people argue if he could help it.
Nearing the bonfire he heard a war horn blow in the distance before a set of tribal drums began to beat throughout the room. After a moment goblins began exiting the various huts, though none of them looked quite as well equipped as the various goblins he’d seen up to this point.
“Hold back!” He called, as he spotted several of his kobolds beginning to inch forward.
The goblins surrounding him took his words as a command toward themselves and began to laugh and jeer at him. (Good, don't need them swarming me.)
From within the boar skull hut a goblin larger than any of the others appeared, standing as tall as him and twice as wide while wearing a large mask even more ornate than those of the other Shaman and holding a staff twice as large.
“Puny adventurers you dare come into our village so that you can-”
(Right, we prioritized shaman goblins so I guess that turned the boss into one too.) He figured while ignoring the boss’s speech. (Makes sense, and it means this one has a mix of healing and crowd control. Which also means the shaman is going to-)
“Pah,” The goblin chief spat. “Deal with this rabble.”
The various goblins surrounding him began stepping forward, and so he raised his hand and put his thumb to his fingers. “You folks sure you want to do this? Last chance to settle this without a fight.” He warned them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Ha!” The goblin chief laughed. “You stand here by yourself and you think you can fight our army?”
“Not really an army.” He felt the need to point out, after all (I’ve fought corrupted hordes bigger than this.)
“And where’s your army?” The goblin chief growled.
He looked the floor boss in the eyes, and snapped his fingers.
From all around the boss arena kobolds dove out of hiding and spectral wolves lunged from the shadows, before tearing into the goblin forces. Behind him he heard a dragon’s roar and the smell of ozone announced Ying’s entrance as lightning danced all behind him and her kobold swarmed the field.
He blamed the various negative influences on him for the smirk on his face as he said, “Mine’s better.”
The goblin chief snarled at him before raising their staff into the air and slamming the base of it onto the ground, where dozens if not hundreds of thorny vines shot out creating a wall of greenery between them and their various allies.
“So, you’re going for a one on one fight?” He asked, judging the walls around him as he pulled his axe from his backpack with one hand and reached into his jacket with the other. “You sure that’s a good idea with you being a healer?” (Not that I’m stupid enough to think that means you can’t fight, but I do think you’re stupid enough to let the comment distract you.)
A small flame began to gather around the tip of the chief’s staff as they let out a laugh. “Unlike the rest of my mystic brethren I actually learned how to-” A throwing knife to the shoulder cut the chief off with a pained cry. “Grah! You bastard!”
“No, unfortunately my parents were married for about a decade.” He admitted, easily sidestepping the fireball the goblin chief threw at him. “Also just because you have an offensive spell doesn’t mean you don’t need to work on your aim.”
The knife he threw into the goblin chief’s other shoulder told him he needed to work on his own aim a bit, given how he’d been aiming at the center of the goblin’s chest.
Growling at him the chief began to chant before slamming their staff into the ground once more and the faint sound of shifting dirt and creeping vine was all the warning he needed to throw himself to the side as several thorn covered vines erupted from the ground. Once in the air these vines froze before beginning to twitch and whipping towards him in a follow up strike that turned his roll into a rough handspring.
(Okay, so the plants are active Puppets.) He noted as he got his feet back on the ground. (Meaning standard puppeteer protocols should apply here.) With that thought in mind he rushed the goblin chief axe in hand, to prevent it from spawning anymore of the hazardous herbs.
His first strike with his axe was blocked by the goblin’s staff, though given how it was only meant to distract from his knife, he was more than okay with that as his blade found its way into the goblin’s side.
Roaring the goblin shoved him away in a blow that only sent him so far because he leapt back with it. A flex of his wrist and a twist of his magic had his knife flying back with him and into his hand, though it did nothing to the two throwing knives lodged in the goblin’s shoulders. (Really should get around to enchanting those…)
The faint scent of smoke had him glancing over his shoulder where he could see a sparking hole beginning to burn into the green vines separating him and the chief from the rest of the arena’s occupants.
(Dang it Ying I told you not to burn the village down!)
Figuring he really should wrap this up before she really did burn the village down, he rushed the goblin chief once more. And though they swung their staff at him, the blow missed him completely as slid around towards the back of the dungeon denizen. Where he promptly delivered a powerful kick to the goblin’s backside, sending it stumbling forward.
With the goblin chief half hunched over, he ran forward placing one foot on the goblin’s back before stomping the other onto their skull, sending the goblin face first into the bonfire where the proceeded to burst into flames and then the squarish lights that all dungeon monsters seemed to dissolve into.
As soon as the last of the goblin chief’s lights faded, all of the floral constructs the goblin had created began to break apart into their own storm of lights before leaving him standing in the middle of a goblin village that was half burned down and a small army of kobolds that was notably smaller than before they’d invaded the boss room.
“Ying, the village?” He asked calmly ignoring the cinder and ash drifting through the air.
“It was the kobolds’ fault.” The draconic teen told him, throwing her minion under the bus without a second thought.
Inhaling and exhaling, he looked around for any remaining goblins while also taking note of the fact that all of his kobolds had survived the exchange.
“Let’s just go into the treasure room to wait on Pix and Roxanne.”
---
“I can’t believe you two went ahead and did the boss without us!” Roxanne cried as soon as she entered the treasure room.
“Sorry.” He shrugged, somewhat helplessly before putting up the trap he’d been teaching Wolf and his kobolds how to make. “It didn’t seem that big of a deal, and honestly it wasn’t even all that difficult.”
“It’s…” Much like he had upon seeing the goblin village, Roxanne inhaled deeply before exhaling just as deeply. “Fine. Right, this party is broken by this dungeon’s standards. Whatever.”
“Sorry?” He apologized again because he felt like he should for some reason.
“No, it’s, it’s whatever.” Roxanne sighed, before walking over to the potion chest. “I’m just glad you guys didn’t open the treasure chest yet, there was this bit I forgot to tell you guys about when we were setting the challenge markers.”
“And that is?” Ying prompted as she stood up, and the kobolds she’d been sitting on collapsed.
“When you set the challenge marker it mixes up the floor’s treasure dice, so that the different enemy priorities affect everything.” The more experienced dungeoneer began to explain. “I’m guessing you guys had a sort of super shaman as a boss right?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “He was mostly throwing around these floral constructs to try and separate me from everyone else.”
“Huh, weird.” Roxanne commented before shaking her head. “Well, anyway Shaman means we probably get a staff or something for the weapon chest and a big bonus for the potions chest. Now I’d think that the armor chest would give you a mask or something but wouldn’t you know.” The gamer teen tossed them a mask similar to what the various shaman goblins had been wearing. “We sort of lucked out with the treasure room’s chest. Oh, and the mask gives a bonus to all magic attacks and healing done by the wearer.”
“Meaning Pix or Ying should wear it since the only magic I’ve got is my contracts right now.” He decided before something occurred to him. “Wait, Wolf, do you want the mask? It might help out with your wind attacks and spirit wolves a bit.”
His canine companion seemed to consider it for a moment before walking over to him and sniffing the mask a bit. After a moment she seemed to decide that yes she did in fact want the mask, and bit it out of his hand before tossing it onto her face.
“Okay… Um, sorry, you were saying something about the poti-” He blinked as Roxanne opened the potion chest without talking to them.
“Yeah, I was saying since you guys are clearly above the rank and file of this floor, and the equipment loot is going to be more or less obsolete by the time we get to a floor that is actually a challenge for you I figure that the boosted potions are the best loot draw for now.” Roxanne continued finishing her previous explanation.
“Still shouldn’t you have consulted us before opening the chest?” Ying frowned at their fellow teen.
Roxanne’s eye seemed to twitch as she stared at Ying in a way that made him wonder just how much Madness those gamer power ups infused into their users. “I’m sorry, but given how I’m the only member of this party who didn’t actively try to burn this floor down, I thought my desire to leave this floor as soon as possible was perfectly reasonable.”
He couldn’t help but wince at the reminder that by the time they’d gathered all of the loot and corralled all of the kobolds out the goblin village had gone from half burned down to somewhere around four-fifths burned down.
Spotting a happy little fairy followed by a number of awe filled kobolds -and noting all of the cowering kobolds running as far as they could from her- his wince turned into a full on grimace. (What did you do Pix?)
“Look, um, how about we all just head to the next floor and move on.” He suggested, wondering if he was better off with just the wolf and fairy who couldn’t actually speak than the two teenagers glaring at each other. “After all, potions are good, and we did… lose control a bit back there.”
Ying continued to glare for a moment, before finally relenting. “Fine, there’s more important things to worry about anyway. For instance, what exactly is the next floor about?”
Roxanne seemed to inhale and exhale once more before visibly forcing herself to move on from whatever traumatic experience Pix -and he had no doubt it was her fault- had put her through. “Well, the next floor is