We moved carefully into the next room towards the largest opening in the rocks. I cast Barkskin on Zack, Gary, and myself while we slowly moved forwards. As we passed through the first gap all I could see were the towering rocks reaching from the dirt-packed floor to the ceiling above us. The path was just wide enough for Zack and Gary to walk side by side in the front.
“Elemental,” Gary spoke quietly and came to a stop after we turned another corner. I looked past him and saw another one of the rock elementals a short distance away. As soon as Aaron and Gabrielle followed me around the corner, the elemental raised its arm to cast.
“Fortress,” Zack created a large shield blocking the path in front of us.
“Drop the skill after its spell, I’ll charge it and get behind it,” Gary said in a rush. A loud crash came from the spell hitting Zacks Fortress and the skill vanished a moment later.
“Piercing Charge,” Gary sped off towards the ten-foot-tall rock elemental and I followed behind Zack as I looked for an opening. Gary’s skill tore a chunk out of the monster's chest but it wouldn’t be damaged unless we destroyed its core. I watched him continue to attack the monster from behind it and it sent a shockwave through the ground in response. I stumbled and fell to a knee while I waited for the tremors to pass and I saw Gary dive to dodge a rock the elemental sent his way. A barrage of Drill Shots from Aaron took the monster in the back of one of its legs and sent rocks flying off the limb.
“Snaring Roots,” I cast my skill towards the monster's leg while the tremors continued. I wasn’t sure if my skill would be strong enough to affect the monster but I still couldn’t move and Gary was struggling to dodge the monster's attacks. The thick roots from my skill quickly surrounded the monster's leg where Aaron’s arrows had hit and locked it in place.
“Vigor,” I heard Zack cast from in front of me before he charged the last few feet to the elementals back.
“Empowered Strike,” Zack smashed his mace through the core of the elemental. My Snaring Roots had worked better than I had expected and the monster wasn’t able to move out of the way of his strike.
“Good job, guys,” Gabrielle said as she joined us by the monsters’ bodies.
“So how are we supposed to make any money if we have to destroy the core to kill these things?” Aaron asked grumpily as we examined the shattered monster core.
“I don’t think it’s even worth taking, I can’t feel any Essence in it anymore,” I said disappointedly after Aaron handed me the larger pieces of the core.
“Well, it’s not like we can’t make money on the way back to Gorok if we need to,” Aaron shrugged half-heartedly.
“The experience here is its reward,” Gabrielle said excitedly, “Fireball just reached level nine and I can upgrade it at ten, it’s all I can think about.” I exchanged an understanding look with her and turned my attention back to the path ahead.
“Recover to full, then keep going?” I asked Gary.
“Definitely. Our strategy worked well for that one, as long as we can create an opening for Zack he can handle them in one strike,” Gary replied. I agreed and grinned as Zack looked away when everyone nodded emphatically. With our recent advancement to E-rank, our Essence recovered slightly quicker and we were heading deeper down the path within a few minutes. I had cast Barkskin on everyone besides Aaron and Gabriel as soon as we left in case of an ambush from ahead.
“Crystal elemental,” Zack pointed. Littered in between the massive rocks we walked between was a light blue, crystal elemental the same size as the others. As I studied it, the elemental raised its arm and I watched a projectile form in front of its hand.
“Fortress,” Zack quickly blocked the path with his skill and a sharp ‘ding’ came shortly after. “They aren’t nearly as strong as the rock elementals spell.”
“Same plan, after the next strike,” Gary said and I prepared to rush forwards to support. Another noise came from the shield and Zack dispersed it right after. I watched Gary Charge forwards as Aaron sent arrows into their leg and I prepared to cast Snaring Roots when I saw Gary take a crystal shard to the arm and fall to the side.
“Thornbolt,” I cast and hit the monster in the head, but it just chipped the crystal and bounced off.
“Meteor,” Gabrielle cast, and the monster was consumed by the flames of her skill for a moment before I could see it on its knees.
“Snaring Roots, Snaring Roots, Snaring Roots,” I cast the skill three times in succession as quickly as I could and covered the elemental in thick roots up to its waist. Zack was charging to it when he got sent off his feet from another shard and I circled to its side to try to draw some pressure.
“Thornbolt,” I cast at its face and only caused it to jerk slightly. Aaron sent another Drill Shot forwards and Gabrielle had kept up a constant barrage of Fireballs since I covered it in roots. Zack was back on his feet and signaled to Gabrielle to stop as he approached the monster.
“Empowered Strike,” Zack sent his mace through the core of the monster and it stopped struggling at once. I exhaled in relief and looked around to see who was injured and I saw Gabrielle already kneeled beside Aarons's prone form. I jogged over worriedly and calmed down when I saw it was a shard in his gut, although I knew it was painful I could heal it.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“From now on, you're casting Barkskin on everyone,” Aaron said with a hiss after Gabrielle pulled the shard out of his body.
I winced, “Sorry, I wanted to keep enough Essence for the fight and I thought you would be safe when we engaged it,” I rambled quickly and I felt terrible as I realized I could have prevented it.
“Relax, I’m not blaming you,” Aaron said with a painful grunt as everyone joined us. “I didn’t think I would need it, either,”
“Well, I can’t cast Rejuvenation for another few minutes…” I trailed off as Aaron sighed heavily and nodded.
“Sorry, Aaron,” Gary said with a commiserating look. I looked at him and saw he had a slight piercing wound and a serious bruise around his gut already forming. “I think you should cast Barkskin on everyone from now on. It’s too valuable not to have on any of us. Look at the difference between us,” he gestured towards their wounds. “It will be one of our lives, at some point.”
I nodded agreeably, “I’ll cast it on everyone as soon as we’re about to fight.” I thought back on the fight as waited and I planned to avoid using Thornbolt from now on. Even as a distraction it was a waste of Essence. With five Barkskins I would have slightly over half my total core of Essence, so I would have to be intelligent with my skills. We spent the next hour resting as I cast Rejuvenation until everyone was fully recovered and I was ready to move on.
“Good work, everyone. Let’s see if we can do the next one any better,” Gary said once everyone stood. We moved cautiously for the next hour and in what little I could see of the main chamber we were in I thought we were halfway through the room.
“Elemental, I don’t know what type,” Zack said hurriedly as he walked around a large crystal blocking my sight of the path ahead. I cast Barkskin on everyone as we gathered behind the crystal. “It was red and black, I’ve never seen a rock that looked like it.”
“Let’s go,” Gary said shortly before he took off around the corner and we followed in formation. When we turned the corner the monster started to slowly turn towards us and Gary rushed forwards.
“Piercing Charge,” Gary dashed forwards to attack the elemental while it slowly turned towards us.
“Snaring Roots, Snaring Roots,” I cast twice, once on each of the elementals legs as everyone sent skills it's way. I watched the monster ignore my skills and cast heated rocks towards each of us. I dodged the one it sent my way with a dash off a rock and saw Gabrielle get hit. I quickly headed towards her, although I didn’t have Essence for Rejuvenation, yet.
“I’m all right,” Gabrielle waved towards me and I turned back to the fight with a relieved nod. I glanced back and saw everyone had been hit by the strike beside me and Aaron, although they were all getting back up.
“Meteor,” Gabrielle cast a moment later and the monster was covered by the flames of the spell hitting it. As the flames cleared the ground pulsed and cracks began forming all along the floor all around us. I could see streams of red-hot rock moving like a liquid as it started to spurt up past the cracks. Zack and Gary attacked as I painfully tried to dodge the splashing liquid and reach them. I tried to dodge another spell from the elemental and got hit by a grazing blow to the side that took my breath and an armful of the burning liquid. I reached the monster as they were still bashing on the mostly shattered chest. I struck when I could and ignored the scalding pain of the splashing material as I helped chip away towards the core.
“Impale,” Gary cast again with a shout and finally penetrated the core with a loud, sharp noise. I sighed wearily and fell to my knee. I was in pain, everywhere. The burning sensation was overwhelming and I just groaned as I waited for my Essence to regenerate. I could see all five of my teammates moving, although they were all seriously wounded. The next few hours passed slowly as I cast Rejuvenate as soon as my Essence allowed until we were all fully healed. It was a painful process, especially for Gary, who insisted we all receive a cast before him. The burning rock it sent towards us was painful, but the splashing liquid was the most painful thing I had ever felt, by far. Everyone's armor was riddled with holes and no one talked as we processed and healed from the fight.
“Good work, everyone,” Gary began slowly as we gathered together. “That was…” he trailed off for a moment as he took a deep breath and shook his head. “That was a tough fight, for all of us.” I nodded heavily as I thought over the last few painful hours and I saw everyone with similar expressions on their face. “Despite that, under pressure, we took it down,” Gary said with a small pause between each phrase. “Let’s head back and camp for the night.” Although I couldn’t tell what time it was in the dungeon or the cave, I felt deeply tired and I could tell everyone felt the same.
“Back to the tunnel, or outside the dungeon?” Zack asked as we all grabbed our gear and prepared to leave. The monster's core was once again ruined by the fight and no one wanted to carry heavy pieces of rocks for the next few weeks. Especially if we had no idea if it was valuable, although we had all grabbed some of the crystals from the last elemental.
“We’ll camp in the tunnel, it should be safe,” Gary said and we slowly made our way back to the long tunnel connecting the first cavern and this new one. We only walked a few minutes down the tunnel before we stopped and set up a camp for the night. Since we were in a dungeon we used a few pieces of our tinder to start a fire and had a warm meal for the first time in a few days.
“Have you guys checked your status today?” Gabrielle asked as we ate dinner and I decided to check now instead of waiting until I was in my bedroll.
Eli - Lvl 5 Druid
Experience - 1040\10000
Strength-11
Dexterity-12 (+1)
Perception-10
Vitality-10
Spirit-13
Willpower-12
Barkskin - Level 8\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 1580\12800
Thornbolt - Level 6\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 2460\6400
Rejuvenation - Level 5\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 1040\3200
Snaring Roots - Level 1\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 186\200
I had leveled my Dexterity and nearly leveled Snaring Roots from the three difficult fights.
“Empowered Strike finally got to level four, and Strength reached level twenty,” Zack flexed his biceps through his torn leathers and we all laughed and congratulated him. I couldn’t imagine how strong I would become with twenty strengths and I felt my drive to improve increase as I listened to everyone share their advancements. The rest of the night passed cheerfully as we discussed our gains and our plans moving forwards for when we would head deeper, tomorrow.