Grog and Caisin each tried again, but the rock was just too heavy. They could shift it a little, but their strength was simply not enough to move it.
"Step aside," Lance said as he strode up to the rock. "Giant Strength," He thought as he moved all of his extra attribute points over to strength and approached the rock. He settled his boots at the base of the canyon wall and placed his hands on the large brown piece of stone. He pushed with all his might and felt the supernatural strength from the belt flow into his muscles. The force of his push caused the rock to roll away.
A bit of metal was showing under the flint where the rock had been.
Grog dropped to his knees and began pushing the rocks away, his leather gloves protecting him from the sharper stones.
"This looks like some sort of door," he said.
Sparky bent down to examine the portal that was being unearthed. There was a small round metal piece on one side and he pushed it aside, revealing a hole. "Give me that crystal, Lance."
Lance removed the item from its chest and handed it to Sparky.
The crystal slid smoothly into the hole, and there was an audible pop as the door released. Grog and Lance got their fingers under the edge and opened the large metal door. Pieces of flint fell into the exposed hole, bouncing off a steep stone stairway that descended into blackness.
"Whoa, cool," Polly said.
Lance nodded. "Okay, guys, this is it. We have no idea what is down here, but…" He trailed off as he noticed Polly’s face.
"I think we triggered something. I think something’s coming," Polly said.
"Which way, how long?" Lance quickly asked.
"Moving toward the canyon, maybe two minutes."
Grog pushed the door closed. "Don’t want to leave enemies behind us."
Lance nodded, and the party prepared.
Cletus fairly vibrated with energy as Lance sprinted to the canyon entrance and quickly set a trap. This one had a simple trigger, exploding if anything passed over it. For the damage, Lance took a moment to think. The feeling he had sensed the last time he had left this place was dark, very dark. He chose light damage and ran back up the canyon to where his friends were. He joined Grog and Caisin as they stood across the canyon forming a front line with the other players ranging behind them.
The feeling started as a tingle but was steadily growing; the same feeling of darkness creeping nearer.
"Who can feel it approaching?" Lucinda whispered.
Everyone else raised their hands.
"Okay, so this thing is strong enough that Grog at level 6 can already feel it. He has the highest level so should feel the pressure the least. I am sure we can take it, but let's not be foolish." Lucinda stated.
Lance shuddered as he sensed the high-level creature drawing nearer and nearer.
Otis, Edie, and Cletus were quietly repeating, "It's coming, it's coming." Duke stood to the side looking embarrassed for his friends.
Within moments, a spectral creature streamed around the corner of the canyon. Its fluid movements felt more like slime sliding down a rock than something that walked. As it crossed Lance's trap, its translucent body faded even more as a bolt of light streamed up from the ground to engulf it. As it screamed in pain, its eyes locked with Lance's and he felt the pressure intensify, making it harder to breathe.
"Look out, Lance!" Cletus hollered. "You have agro!"
Caisin and Grog burst forward, Caisin letting loose with his gun. Lucinda faded from view as she scrambled off the floor and onto the wall of the canyon, keeping pace with the fighters.
The name tag over the creature read
The wraith streamed forward, and Grog shouted, "Ice Strike!" as he slammed his huge mace into its form. The mace flared with blue light as it struck. The enemy's health bar plummeted from ninety percent to close to eighty. Lucinda dropped from her place halfway up the wall with her daggers poised over her head. As she fell, she enabled her Back Stab skill and sunk the knife squarely into the back of the ghostly form, again chunking a large amount of health from the spectral creature.
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Still, the wraith held its eyes firmly on Lance as it slithered between its attackers. As it approached, its hand expanded to enormous proportions and swiped down at Lance.
Cletus screamed, "Run!"
Grog readied his shield and stepped into the path of the blow, using Shield Bash. But the ability failed, and the hand passed right through Grog and then through Lance. As the hand passed through him, Lance’s sword had been at the ready. As the sword pierced the engorged hand, it glowed a little, a look on the wraith's face showing pain. But the ghostly creature pressed through. Grog's health bar dropped by half, and Lance saw large letters across his HUD. "You have died." His vision faded to black.
Grog watched Lance drop as his own health bar was halved by the wraith. Immediately his health was refilled, he assumed, because Polly had cast a healing spell of some sort. He swung his mace and connected, but the damage he did was not as good as Caisin or Lucinda's, maybe three percent of the wraith's total.
While the wraith was distracted, Lucinda wound up another backstab, and the creature screamed as her blow struck home, apparently a critical blow this time as its health dropped below two-thirds. The wraith spun on her, its eyes shifting from black to red. Caisin was completing a complex maneuver as he stepped in front of the thief and took the blow intended for her. A shield suddenly leaped from his axe to surround the two of them as the wraith's eyes erupted with a laser-like beam aimed at the thief. The glowing shield deflected a portion of the blow but as the remainder struck Caisin in the chest, he deflated significantly, his health bar sagging by thirty percent. The beam passed through him and Lucinda's own bar dropped by ten percent.
Grog stepped forward and used his Shield Bash ability. The face of his shield glowed as it struck, shaving another five percent off the creature's health. Just then, an enormous silver and white cloud billowed into the canyon and began striking the spectral creature repeatedly with bolts of lightning, each costing it another four or five percent.
Lucinda faded nearly out of sight, climbing the wall again, as Caisin's axe spun in complex patterns, striking the enemy at one point and using a skill to deflect a blow at the next.
Sparky strode forward confidently, pushing a glowing hand that sparked with lightning. As he reached toward the wraith, reality seemed to bend around his hand like a bubble pushing the air away. Then suddenly, the bubble burst, and a focused beam left Sparky's hand. The smell of ozone immediately permeated the air, and the wraith's form straightened as twenty-five percent of its health drained away. The creature spun on Sparky. As it did, Lucinda, who had levitated using her boots, dropped silently, striking the creature, reducing it to zero health. With a shrieking wail, the ghostly form withered and sunk into the ground.
In the place where the wraith had died, a glowing blue chest sat. Next to it, a skill orb floated.
"Wow!" Polly said as she stepped up to the chest. “I haven't seen one like that before.”
"Yeah," Otis noted. "Elite creatures drop elite loot."
Lance's vision cleared and he found himself lying in bed in his offline home. "How do I get back? I need to be back there right now!"
"Hold your horses there, compadre," the raccoon over his shoulder said. "You are out of this fight. That's the rule, you get one death per encounter unless you want to spend Power, but I think the party has this one."
Lance relaxed a little. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Not really. But just as a reminder, that is one of three deaths you get in the starter area before getting shifted to another server."
"What else, do I lose any items? Do I have to ghost-run back? Loss of experience points?"
"Yes on the loss of experience. You are back to level 7 base as of now. Nope, on the other stuff, that only happens when you have a total party wipe, or if you are soloing. Even then, you only have a 50% chance of losing a random item."
"Okay, how do I know when it is time to go back?"
"I'll let you know."
"Can you see how things are going?"
"Yup, and they are about to finish that thing off... Aaaaand, done."
Lance entered the game world again, standing right where he had been killed. "Sorry, guys."
Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the casters in the party leveling up, bringing everyone to level 7.
After the party had assigned their new points, Caisin replied, "Hey, you did great. However, that trap of yours really got the wraith's dander up. You are going to need to be careful with the agro."
Grog looked a little ashamed. "There are also things that I could have done to keep him off of you, so the apology should come from me. I didn't use my taunt."
Caisin lifted the lid on the chest, and a glowing item floated out to stand in front of each player.
A cloak floated in front of Lance. It was pitch black and a little translucent like the wraith had been. He reached out to touch it.
"You have found a Cloak of the Wraith. -20% chance of being seen by enemies while sneaking. +20% cold resistance."
Lance equipped the cloak and noticed that wherever the cloak covered him, he was a little translucent, even without being in sneak mode. He looked up to see Grog settling a pair of goggles over his eyes. "What did you get, brother?"
"They are called Clear Sight Goggles. They give a big bonus to seeing hidden things and let me see better in the dark."
"Cool!" Lance was excited for his new friend.
As he glanced around the party, he saw Polly was holding a new staff, Sparky a new hat, Caisin a pair of gauntlets, and Lucinda a bow.
Lucinda looked a little frustrated.
"What's the matter?" Lance asked as he walked up to the thief.
"I have been wanting to learn the bow, and this is a nice one, but I already have two weapons, and I can't get my third until I get to level 10."
"Oh," Lance replied. Turning to the rest of the party, he said, "You guys like the items you got?"
There were thumbs-ups and smiles all around the party.
"Well, Lucinda can't use hers yet. How about we give her the skorb that dropped if she can use it?"
"Works for me," Caisin said immediately, and the rest of the party nodded.
Lance motioned for Lucinda to pick up the skill orb.
As she did, she nodded and said, "Yeah, this will do fine." As she faded to near invisibility, ice formed where her boots touched the ground.
The party sat down to rest and eat, needing to regain stamina and not wanting to exhaust their healer.
After a few minutes, Lance looked up to find the rest of the party gathered around the already-open door they had found before. He stood up and moved forward to stand by Grog.
"Thoughts?" Caisin asked.
"Any idea what we may be facing down there?" Lucinda asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
Cletus and the other assistants shook their heads too. Duke added, "This is a new dungeon; you are the first to find it."
"Okay then, let's go," she said.
The party descended into the dark.