Struggling with the situation I had left behind, I threw myself violently into the next rooms of the Elite dungeon. I was grateful that things were straightforward once out of the safe room. The twenty-first room of the dungeon was a horde fighting challenge, and it was the most enemies I had faced at one time. To compensate, their levels were lower, which meant not only could I cut through their numbers like a thresher, I saw my first real look at how the others fought.
The gang of three from Earth were a mixed bag. Clearly they had each seen combat since the System began, as they weren’t level one when entering the dungeon, but none of them had a style or skill worth a damn. To Larry I had leant the Grim Blade Of Nezzerul. He lacked the mana to properly use its enchantment, but it was still a rare ranked weapon and sliced through enemies thusly. Morris was more prepared, using a mace and shield he had brought from home to protect the group as their main tank.
I had been able to help Rashid grasp the Mana Bolt technique easily enough. He told me that his Mental attribute was his highest attribute, so the skill made sense. In a further showing that everyone was unique, the small orb which I created had taken on a personal touch as Rashid continued to get used to it. His Mana Bolts were probably closer to Mana Arrows as shards of razor sharp energy shot forward. “It’s just more efficient,” he mumbled when he caught me glaring slightly.
The most impressive was, to no one’s surprise, Hassian. I had read the Gibralan sharkman like a book on our first interaction, and speed was definitely the name of his game. He didn’t shy away from the strength of his bulk also, making him move like some kind of berserker ninja. An arm length blade in each hand, his fighting style was evocative to say the least. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional, but his charging sprints, short swords aimed to the sides, reminded me of a great white’s assault.
The berserk portion of my description came from the fact that nothing really seemed to hurt him, and the cuts and bashes that he did take only made him angrier. He sprinted past my position and I caught that his eyes had rolled back slightly, revealing a white covering. I shivered a little. Definitely glad he was on my side. Hassian was scarier than the enemies at least.
Monster - Angry Billy - Level 28
Hundreds of charging goats was… a choice. Was the System running out of ideas or was this some metaphor I didn’t understand? After meeting Nezzerul, I had assumed that the Elite dungeon was linked to the character Mortesax the skeleton knight had mentioned. Were they a shepherd? Seemed unlikely to me, but I didn’t have much else to distract me.
Arguably, the rooms had been getting more dangerous with each one passed, but I didn’t notice. When the room was not combat-focused, I regained my energy and let the others work out the solutions. No one bothered me for help, though I kept my attention on them to make sure no one made a life ending mistake. Room twenty three, four and five were all puzzles, which gave me enough time to think. Naea might have described it as overthinking.
As the group finished up a tricky positioning puzzle which required them to stand in specific places around the room, I allowed myself to be placed. With a gentle nudge of Air Manipulation and a step to the right, I fixed the small mistake which would have set us back to the start. The penalty was time wasted and a small shock of electricity, but I was getting tired of it. Tired enough to figure out the puzzle myself.
A riddle was spoken aloud into the room by a System voice, the same one from the Shift countdown. I couldn’t remember hearing the System speak since, and it brought back negative memories to go along with the doubts in my mind. It didn’t help that the questions it asked were frustratingly open ended. Symbols appeared on the floor of the twenty metre by ten metre long room, possible answers to the vague riddle.
“From what do you draw strength?” The System had asked as the floor ignited with magic for a moment. Morris had placed me on an arm, which I guess worked but the heart symbol I stood next to seemed more poetic and fitting to me. Likewise, while Hassian thought he was standing on a sigil denoting a scabbard, I was pretty sure that was just a stylised plank of wood. He stumbled to the side a little, looking down before over to me, where I gave him a thumbs up. Hassian’s face was doubtful, but there was no chance it wouldn’t work.
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When the room gave its assent for us to leave, the exit door appeared at the other end and Hassian sidled next to me. “Wise and strong, truly, I made the right choice pledging myself to you.” I smiled, rubbing the back of my head. Did Hassian mean the kneeling display he had given when we met was actually more serious than I had taken it? I supposed I couldn’t begrudge him for trying to get as much value out of tying our fates together for a while, if such a thing truly mattered. “But please, I am struggling. Why would I draw strength from a feather?”
I laughed in good nature, genuinely tickled by the question. “It wasn’t a feather. Or, it was, but not just a feather. It was a quill. They were used for writing in the past on Earth.” Hassian’s mouth opened into a shocked circle as he slapped a meaty fist into his palm.
“That’s cheating!” He accused the System, turning back to growl at the hallway we had traversed so far. “On Gibral, we have a similar practice using the spines of sea urchins and ink from their nests. Do the birds here produce their own inks?”
“Ink in their nests?” Did sea urchins make ink on Earth? I realised how out of my depth I was. “No, our birds don’t do anything like that. Mostly they’re just pretty. Or tasty, depending on your diet.”
“We only have small things on our island, the larger sea birds stay around the larger landmasses.” Hassian sighed wistfully, then turned a hungry predators eye on me. “I should very much like to try some of these cooked birds.” Rashid sidled up, sensing some business opportunity and began talking to Hassian about restaurants and menus. I tuned it out, glad to have my thoughts to myself again.
It was all just getting messy. I was saving Londimin, but in half measures. I had sworn I wouldn’t do that again, but the real world laughed in the face of such resolutions. I consoled myself with the reminder that things were bound to go wrong in the town eventually, I had just been the powder keg which the flaming tensions ignited. “Didn’t need to chuck myself into the fire though,” I chided myself with a shake of my head.
My attention snapped forward as the door to the next room came into view. I shot forward, not leaving the group but standing in a protective position. “Miniboss,” I breathed. My words were a warning but even I could hear the excitement in my voice as I moved forward. The last one had been as informative about the Greater Connection as anyone I had met, so I was hopeful for some more answers. Even more questions would be fine, if I didn’t know to ask them before.
I opened the door and stumbled slightly, even knowing there was going to be a drop of a few feet. Instead of the hard floor I expected, I slid in mud and tumbled slightly down a steep hill. There was a quickly contained chuckle behind me, but I didn’t know who made it. I just glared at the whole group, stood in the doorway and not covered in muck. There was no deathly haze of anti-Dao mana covering the floor of the swamp I fell into, but the mud itself was stinging my skin.
I shot a burst of mana from every pore I could, and it blasted away from me with a splatter. The swamp beneath me parted slightly too, and I hopped on a step of solid air before hovering above the mud. “Did you forget you can fly?” Morris’ incredulous voice behind me came with a guffaw and I had my culprit. In a moment of childishness, I used Air Manipulation to give him a push. He tumbled face first down the same muddy hill I had, coming out in a much less graceful and clean way.
Before he could voice his complaints, my attention snapped upwards. This room was like the safe room, a world within the dungeon. There was a strange barrier in the near distance I could tell would act as walls, but it truly seemed like we had appeared in a section of another planet. Part of my heart bounced with thrill, excited as always to see the new opportunities of the System, but I also knew this was a dangerous place.
The weight of mana coming from above was proof of that. I had felt strength like that before. Twice. “Requirements: Two combatants - met.” As the System spoke, I slapped my hand on my forehead. Yeah, that was definitely my fault. It had to be someone, but I didn’t mean to make that choice for Morris, who was looking slightly terrified. Larry, being held back by Hassian, was slightly more frantic.
I landed next to Morris, pushing the thick mud away slightly like a landing helicopter and cleaning him up with a flick of mana. “I promise I won’t let you get hurt, but you’re probably going to need to protect yourself a little. Are you okay with that?” The man had been staring at the sky like I was, not sensing the mana most likely, but looking at the descending threat with his mundane eyes. It was hard to know which was a scarier way to see it.
A dragon was scary, no matter how you looked at it, I judged.
Miniboss - Cavarix, Nightmare of Bone - Level 80
“...Fuck.”
“What?” Morris asked in response to my curse. “What?” He asked again, more frantically. I didn’t even want to shift my attention from the impending fight for long enough to describe how fucked we might be. The times I had felt this power were when I first met the Storm Dragon, and its might was evident in every dao filled breath I took in its presence. This thing had the same Dao. The same one which roared viciously in my chest. The second time was when Ascentown had been at the mercy of the only Grade Two I had met since the System descended.
Now, I had met another dragon and Grade Two at once.
My lucky day.