I pull the sword out of the last zombie, wipe the sweat from my face, lean against the wall, and start catching my breath. The crypt floor is littered with undead corpses... and how they stink! I feel sorry for everyone who works in a morgue, this is a nightmare.
It took me a good twenty minutes. Initially, I started fighting the undead right in the crypt, but after taking a series of hits, I realized that the tactic wasn't great. So I decided to cheat—I retreated to the passage I came from.
This neutralized their numerical advantage, as physically only one creature could fit in a row in the passage. So I started eliminating them one by one, sometimes going up the stairs, sometimes down. A couple of times I stumbled and took several hits—it was difficult to hold the torch, effectively swing the sword, and watch the distance simultaneously.
Somewhere in the middle of the action, I again came across a spider, got scared, and killed it. And this turned out to be a big mistake—about seven similar ones immediately crawled out of the darkness and aggroed on me. I had to shift all my focus to them, as the negative effects of arachnophobia were making my position noticeably worse. One spider almost stung me (I don't want to think about what would have happened), but I dealt with them quickly enough.
As I understood, these spiders are neutrals, but if you attack one, the surrounding ones will intervene. Good to know.
When only one ghoul and one zombie were left among the opponents, I squeezed back into the crypt and finished them off here, as I was tired of roaming the passage and bumping into walls, fearing to run into a hanging monster again.
Despite the fact that I took down a whole crowd, I only leveled up twice. The zombies turned out to be of the same 3 level, just more tanks than the attacking ghouls. Accordingly, after I leveled up to the 3, the experience gained dropped sharply.
But this was compensated by the fact that I got my first active ability! This happens very rarely, according to the algorithm they start to open after class selection. I was pleasantly surprised.
[Quick Strike (level 1). Active effect: with your next melee physical attack, you will make 4 strikes at maximum attack speed. Cooldown—9 seconds.]
Roughly speaking, it only works on melee weapons or fists if the situation is really bad. You can't spam fireballs from a staff, so it's not very useful for a mage.
But I'm not a mage yet, so it'll do. The ability is, in theory, rare, and doesn't require mana. If, God forbid, I have to engage in hard PvP in close combat and it has no visual effect, they won't expect this from me.
After catching my breath, I go to search the corpses in the passage and on the floor. I end up with a dozen rotten flesh and three new items:
Received [Zombie Heart (2 pieces)], [Cursed Bones (3 pieces)], [Poisonous Spider Glands (2 pieces)].
For now, I have no idea what all this is for and... why are the bones cursed? I'll ask Patrick.
In the middle of the room, I suddenly find a small amount of ordinary things and a bag of money. They clearly belonged to a player, some newbie didn't manage the dungeon. Unfortunately, everything except the money is junk.
Received 2 gold coins, 14 silver coins, 21 copper coins.
Next, I go to rummage through the coffins and break the few wooden boxes. There's only junk here that will sell for copper coins at most, so I don't even take it to avoid cluttering my inventory—
—and that very luck kicks in! Inside an inconspicuous box, I discover a green gem.
Received [Large Emerald].
Looks worth at least a couple of dozen gold. It goes into the backpack, which is already quite full.
Oh, right!
I go to the menu and completely turn off the music. Throughout my epic battle, a very intense theme was playing, more suitable for a psychological horror. It disturbed my concentration and made me shake quite a bit. To hell with this music, at least here.
So, I'm done with the loot. Time to move on.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
At the opposite end of the crypt, a new passage leads down. It looks a lot wider than the first one, but in a more destroyed state.
It's unlikely that the developers inserted two or more such crypts with more than a dozen mobs for a level 3 location. I remember that Patrick mentioned a boss at the end. Most likely, the passage leads to it.
Even though there's almost no fear left after this mess, I'm still tense. Judging by the location's level, the boss will be about level 5, so we're almost equal. But I haven't encountered bosses yet, and it might have some magical ability.
I drink a regeneration potion to fully restore my health. Those bastards took more than half. Within three seconds, my HP is back in order, I grab the torch and go into the passage. No need to delay—Patrick could return at any second, I don't want to keep him waiting long.
What kind of boss is there? I think, carefully descending the cracked steps. The main thing is that it's not some giant spider or half-spider, that would be a real pain.
It should be some kind of undead, since I'm still in the crypt. I'll test the ability on it, in the worst case, I'll throw the torch at it. Undead suffer a lot from fire.
I cover the passage in half a minute, and a rather spacious round hall opens up before me, barely illuminated by two chandeliers on the ceiling. In the center stands a large golden coffin, with a stylishly engraved nobleman on it, and various frescoes and runes on the sides.
Really stylish, I wouldn't mind lying in one like that myself.
Four thick columns stand at different edges of the hall, there are no other surrounding objects.
Something to hide behind.
I cautiously step towards the coffin, thinking I need to somehow open it. But somewhere in the middle of the way, the coffin's engraving flashes, something massive hits inside it so that the whole damn crypt shakes. I decide to play it safe and jump back.
In the next second, the coffin lid is pierced by... a thin, bony hand. A very thin one. And this shook the whole building? Seriously?
The second hand, two legs. The limbs intensively scratch the lid, making new holes... In short, the lid flies off and nearly hits me. Nice aim, scumbag!
A tall skeleton slowly rises from the open coffin, dressed in a rather expensive red robe with golden sleeves. On its head is an incomprehensible black headband, in its left hand a dark staff, in the right a short sword.
Now this is bad, it'll be difficult to stand against a mix of sword and magic.
The skeleton lets out a fierce roar and beats its chest. Hey, dude, you'll damage the robe! And I want to loot it for myself. And how can it even scream? It's literally a skeleton.
At this second, it flashes at the top:
Crypt Keeper (level 5).
And below it, its HP bar. Doesn't seem like too much.
After finishing roaring, the Crypt Keeper jumps out of the coffin, lands nearby, and sits on its wall. It's in no hurry to fight.
"What, crapped yourself, noob?" it asks with a smirk.
What the...?!
"Um—"
"Shut your trap, noob. Get out of here before I put you on a stake," it continued with the same intonation. "You haven't been punched in the face enough to mess with me, sucker."
What the hell is it talking to me in this manner?! No, why is it talking at all?!
I wasn't ready for such a turn, which made me freeze.
"What, noob, don't want to do it the easy way?" it added ominously. "I'm giving you one last chance, then you're going on the stake."
"How are you talking?!" I came to life.
"I told you, sucker—you haven't been punched in the face enough to understand this life."
"Go to hell!" I exclaimed. No, really, this isn't even some kind of cutscene. What's going on?!
Some bosses can talk about their past and the motives that led them to become evil. This is widely spread in local story branches. But this isn't my case.
Suddenly, a popular legend pops up in my head: from time to time, players report encountering hostile mobs that behave almost indistinguishably from real people. This is supported by a rumor that some developer modifies the code of a small number of mobs to make them joke with players and confuse them.
And, based on what I see—apparently it's not a legend, but reality.
"Okay, noob, you don't want to negotiate normally. Then, before I tear you apart, I'll tell you about my past that made me who I am," it said threateningly, twirling the staff.
Yes, this is exactly the part of the code editing that others report.
"Well, go ahead, asshole. I'll chop you up myself," I provoked, activating the ability. No visual effect followed, I just felt an incredible concentration of energy in my body and a desire to release it.
"This crypt has belonged to my noble family for generations, many relatives were buried here. At some point, I became the head of the family, and... Ha-ha, trolled the noob. No past for you, sucker."
This is already crossing all boundaries, another player can't be joking with me, right? The boss's name and its HP don't disappear, but... no, this is already concrete nonsense.
Oddly enough, I can get a good benefit from this situation. After the fight, I'll send a report about the glitch, that AI monitoring the rules will contact me and give a reward, since this is a serious problem theoretically interfering with gameplay.
I could send it right now, but there's a chance that it will freeze this part of the code and the boss will naturally disappear, and I need the experience. I didn't crawl among these spiders and zombies for nothing.
"I can only say that after the stake, the same fate awaits you as the other inhabitants of the crypt," the Crypt Keeper chuckled.
We'll see about that, I thought, attacking preemptively.
In a few jumps, I close the distance between us and hit in the area of its torso, releasing that energy. The series of strikes is delivered incredibly fast, I can't even follow the sword myself. Seeing the health taken away, I jump back.
Less HP was taken than I thought. It'll take some work with this one too.
"For this, not one stake awaits you, but four at once," it growled angrily, launching a green ball lightning from the staff at me.