A dark cavern deep underground, a statue of a mage with an orb of light floating between his hands. Sitting cross legged at the foot of this statue was a dirty and ragged human. His shaggy black hair is held back by a dark green bandana with a red skull on it. Covered in cuts and bruises, he takes an angry bite out of the loaf of bread he is holding.
It had been about a day since Gii had become trapped underground in the Cursed Ruins. When he had approached the temple like structure he had proceeded with extreme caution. However, nothing had come out at him, not a single enemy. Even when he entered the initial lobby area of the temple there was nothing, not even any traps.
The lobby was huge, with a ceiling almost as high as the building itself that was held up by pillars along either side. The massive, mostly empty space, had been filled with statues and what looked like luxuries that had not held up to the test of time. On the opposite end of where he entered were two doorways. One on the left side and the other on the right side.
Common sense for any gamer would tell them that the possibility of those doorways leading to the same place was very likely. Thinking such, Gii had casually entered the right doorway. After following the passageway for a little while he came into an area that looked like the living quarters for whomever used this structure. However that is when his trouble began. Because he hadn't encountered anything until that point, his guard was completely down. Without caution, he entered one of the rooms and triggered a trap.
A large wooden hammer swung down from the ceiling and smashed him in the face. Because it was so old, the hammer was smashed into dust, but not before giving Gii a bloody nose and a few loose teeth. That was the start of a bombardment. The entire area of the living quarters was riddled with hundreds upon hundreds of traps. However, none of them were fatal. If anything they seemed more like pranks as opposed to deadly traps since the ones that did damage only made a small portion of his health drop. Unfortunately because of the deceiving layout of the area, it wasn't really easy to tell where the exit was. As such, he was forced to explore almost every room he came across.
He had triggered magic circles that electrocuted him, pulled a lever that shot a flamethrower at his nether regions, and there was even a classic movie style falling ceiling that stopped right before actually crushing you. At one point he triggered a trap that spilled very slippery grease on the floor of a room and then made it slant downwards. It had taken him hours to get out.
Eventually, after a very arduous search, he came to a door that looked to be an exit to another area. After he opened it the only thing that was on the other side was a sheer rock wall with the enscription:
“Got lazy, will finish this section later.”
Contrary to the despair and anxiety he was feeling when he first entered the dungeon, the only thing filling his head now was pure rage. Gii was normally a very levelheaded person and someone who values logic. However not even he could keep his cool after going through so many prank styled traps only to come up empty handed with a message similar to “haha, fooled you!”
He had stormed off back through the dungeon and was now in his current situation. He took the last bite of his loaf of bread and stood up to brush himself off. He took a deep breath and held it in for a second before giving a long exhale.
“Pheeeeww~~~”
He slapped his cheeks and looked at the temple with a new found determination.
“Alright....this time we're going left. I knew this wasn't a normal dungeon to begin with. Just take it 1 step at a time.”
Talking to boost his own morale, he once again entered the lobby area of the temple. Averting his gaze from the place he never wants to think about again, he headed for the left passageway this time. Similar to the passage he had followed before, this one seemed to go on longer. After coming to a turn in the passageway, he peeked his head around the corner to find a set of stairs leading upwards.
Well...this looks promising!
He slowly followed the stairs upwards, careful not to let his guard down. As he reached the top of the stairs, he popped his head out to observe the surroundings. What he saw was a large cavern that had been hollowed out. It seemed to be about twice as big as the lobby area. There was a handful of buildings scattered around but what caught his attention were dilapidated scraps of wood that looked to have a human shape.
“Aren't those...training dummies?”
As Gii approached to inspect them, a clanking sound came from behind the building to his left. He quickly rushed to the nearest structure in front of him and pressed his back against the wall. Looking back over his right shoulder he peaked around the corner to see what was coming.
Coming out from around the back of the building was a group of 3 gemstone golems. Just like the group that had ambushed him before, there was a Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald Golem. Seeing this, a smile spread across his face.
It's time for some revenge!
He knew that these weren't the same golems that had ambushed him before, but they would be able to serve the same purpose. On top of that Gii was really just looking for anything to take out all of his pent up frustration from the past day and a half. Since they didn't seem to notice him yet, Gii took advantage of that and sneakily moved about to observe them.
Truthfully, Gii's sneak skill wasn't very good. However, because he was barely wearing any armor at all
he didn't get any of the nasty penalties that came with wearing it. To be cautious he kept a safe distance away while observing the movements of the golems.
hmm...how should I go about this?
After observing the golems for a while, he began to see the patrol route that they followed. It seemed to be mostly random but every 5 minutes or so they would come back around towards the structure where he first saw them. From his previous experience, Gii knew that it would be stupid to just charge straight in and expect a victory, he needed a plan.
Firstly, he needed to identify the most problematic ones and eliminate them first. Out of the 3, Gii judged that ruby golems were the strongest in terms of pure damage dealt. But the one he thought to attack first was..
"In the end its the sapphire right?”
For Gii who was a close combat fighter, the ranged sapphire golem posed the biggest threat. The reason why he struggled so much before was because he had to deal with the sapphire's ranged attacks while also trying to avoid the ruby golems attacks. In addition to that, he wouldn't be able to drink a healing potion if the sapphire golem attacked him.
For Gii their priority went something like Sapphire >Ruby >Emerald.
I'm confident in my close combat abilities but 2 versus 1 still isn't ideal....i wish I had some insurance...
As Gii scanned the area thinking about how he would set up his ambush an idea popped into his head.
Hey! That might work!
***
Gii waited on the roof of the shack, lying on his stomach and peeking over the slanted roof to watch as the group of golems approached. Looking at their levels they all seemed to be level 15, which is 5 levels higher than himself. Gii was nervous because of the level difference, he wasn't sure that his plan would work. However he knew that if he really wanted to make it through this dungeon he would need to get stronger and raise his level. The alternative was death and who knows how much time in the spirit realm.
As the golems approached within a few feet of the house, he tightened the grip on his hammer and slowly rose to a kneeling position. The golems always moved about in the same formation. The emerald golem in the front, the sapphire in the back and the ruby sandwiched in the middle.
He waited until they had just about passed the house and made his move. When the ruby and emerald had passed the corner, Gii suddenly jumped into the air and brought the hammer up above his head. Using gravity to his advantage, he swung downward with all his strength. The sapphire golem had just enough time to look up and see a warhammer coming right at its head.
The force of the hit was like a mini explosion and the blunt force of the hammer smashed through the head of the golem with ease. Combined with the force of his fall, the hammer continued to tear through the golems body, smashing right through the chest and abdomen as well. Two large chucks of the golem went flying out to the sides while the rest shattered into little pieces and went flying everywhere.
Critical Hit!
NEW SKILL LEARNED
Devastating Blow!
The golems quickly turned around to see what the commotion was. Spotting Gii, their attentions gathered on him. However, Gii still held the surprise and rushed toward his next target. Charging the ruby golem, he thrust the hammer into it's gut and created a space. Using that space, he braced himself and spun a complete counterclockwise 360 with the hammer. His intent was to smash the golem's head.
Unfortunately the reaction speed of the golem was faster than Gii predicted. It couldn't dodge the full force of the attack but was able to deflect his blow with it's shield arm. Chunks of it's arm went flying and it's hp dropped by about 30%. The force of the blow also caused the golem to lose it's balance. Using that chance, Gii jumped a step backwards to create some space. It's a good thing he did because in the next moment a green blur flashed by his face as the emerald golem just barely missed with it's shoulder charge skill.
Realizing that things might have been a little to close for comfort, Gii decided to make a tactical retreat. He wanted to avoid a 2 versus 1 scenario if at all possible. He ran back to the building and jumped through one of the windows of the shack. After a few moments the ruby golem recovered and gave chase. Since one of the side effects of the shoulder charge skill was slowed movement, the emerald golem lagged behind.
Following Gii, the ruby golem jumped through the window after him. When it landed inside it got up and scanned the area for it's prey. In the darkness there was various furniture and debris scattered about. Chairs and tables were flipped and then in the corner of the room, behind one of the flipped tables, a human shape. The golem rushed over and with great force thrust it's sword into the flesh of it's prey.
--THUNK!
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Confused at the odd sound that was made, the golem pulled its sword back and observed what was stuck to the end of it. A wooden training dummy. At that moment, Gii burst out from under the debris behind the golem. Using the same motion he had done before, he spun 360 degrees. Only this time he aimed at the golem's feet instead of it's head. The result was much more effective than before.
Critical Hit!
The attack was enough to shatter one of the golem's legs. As the Golem collapsed onto the ground. It brought it's shield up to protect it's head. Gii brought the hammer above his head and swung as if he was hammering a nail into the ground with a sledge hammer. The force of the attack smashed the shield and the sound of glass breaking entered into his ears. The debris flew everywhere but the golem was still alive.
Gii repeated his attack 2 then 3 times, each time more and more debris would go flying and the sound of glass breaking filled the building. After 5 attacks the golem was finally reduced to rubble.
“Haa..haa..haa...i underestimated their durability a bit...”
Because these golems were in a dungeon, they were about 3 levels higher than the one's he had previously encountered. As such their defense was enough to cause Gii to use up his stamina just fighting 2 of them.
it's still not over...
Gii turned around to see the thing he least wanted to see, the emerald golem making a shoulder charge....directly at the building wall. Using what little there was left of his stamina he rushed towards the door. Just as he reached the threshold, a loud smash could be heard and the entire building shook.
---CRASH!!!
the emerald golem ran full force into the wall of the structure like a wrecking ball. The wall it hit was immediately smashed to pieces causing the whole building to become unstable and cave in on itself. Although Gii took a little bit of damage from the flying debris, for the most part he was able to escape from the building...just barely. The golem who was caught directly in the collapse wasn't so lucky and lost about 15% of it's HP.
“damn...that's quite some defense you got there..”
Because the emerald golem's initial role was to be the tank for the other two, it had a massive defense stat. The upside to that was it had a very low attack stat. The only move it could use that would be able to deal any significant damage to Gii was the shoulder charge. However since it could only charge in straight lines, it was generally easy to avoid in a 1 on 1 match.
Unlike the other 2 golems, Gii's attacks were barely effective versus this one. Even though he could dodge it's attacks, he himself could only do at most around 5-10% damage with a full swing of his hammer. Using his superior agility, Gii easily avoided the golem's attacks and little by little he was able to whittle the golem's hp down until it finally became 0.
Level Up!
“HAHAHA I DID IT!!”
Gii's victory shout echoed throughout the cavern as he raised his hammer above his head in a victory pose. With a smile on his face he stepped on the remnants of the golem at his feet and mushed them into the dirt.
“How do you like that huh!? Teach you to mess with me!”
because of the pent up frustration from everything that had happened, Gii couldn't help venting everything on his defeated foes. After taking out everything on the golems, a satisfied expression came upon Gii's face.
“Haa~ I feel refreshed~”
Suddenly Gii perked up.
I almost forgot..i learned a new skill!
Skill window
>>>Devastating Blow<<<
The user puts all of their strength and weight into a single attack, annihilating their foes.
Cost: 90% of Maximum mana
Effects: Deal damage equal to current STR x 30% of Mana Consumed
Current STR: 50
Current Maximum Mana: 650
NOTE: upon Skill failure 30% of damage is reflected back to the user
Restrictions: Blunt Weapons only
Skill Stage: 1
Oho...i learned something pretty good
Gii was surprised to see how powerful his new skill was. There are usually conditions to unlocking a skill but since hammers, and blunt weapons in general were underused in HCO, many of their skill conditions were unknown.
However, even though the skill was pretty much a sure kill if it hit, the risk was high. Even for Gii who hadn't used any of his stat points yet, 30% of the damage he dealt out would be enough to kill him.
Still...as a trump card goes...this should work great if I level it..
Skills in HCO were broken down into 5 stages. Because the developers wanted people to level up skills “naturally” they avoided using a numerical exp system for skills in an effort to deter skill grinding. It didn't really stop people from trying but as such, skills were broken into stages. Of course repetitive use of the skill would be needed to bring the stage up to another level, but conditions usually needed to be cleared in addition to that in order to get to the maximum stage 5.
Closing the skill window, Gii returned his attention to the area he was in. By observing the golem's on their patrol route, he had memorized the general layout of the area. Now that the enemies were dealt with, he decided to explore the area with more scrutiny. After rummaging through the buildings he didn't find anything of interest, they mostly seemed to be old storage areas. There were 4 shacks including the one that had collapsed in the fight, as well as the remnants of a fenced in area where the training dummies had been. After confirming his thoughts about the area, Gii felt a sense of familiarity.
“This is really similar to a guild training hall...”
In Listonia Online, Guild halls were very popular for guilds who had established themselves. They were symbols of wealth and accomplishments for that guild. However they were also areas where guild mates could get together and train. In the guild he joined, Crux, they had a training hall very similar to this layout where players could train skills.
Since Gii felt like there was nothing else to find in the area he decided it was time to move on. He was pretty sure that he knew where to go, he had spotted it while observing the golems earlier. On the opposite wall from where he entered was a very narrow passageway. The ceilings were high but as far as width goes he would barely be able to swing his hammer. His favorite spin move would definitely be sealed. Although he didn't like it, he didn't see anywhere else he could go.
He entered and began walking through the path, making sure to keep his hammer at the ready. Eventually a view he really didn't want to see came into his sight, a fork on the path. A sheer brick wall was right in front of him and a long passageway stretched to his left and right. Gii was sure of it now, this was the famed, popular in any fantasy setting, Dungeon Maze.
“Si~gh~”
Although he thought something like this might be the case when he entered the passage he had really been hoping he was wrong. He already wasn't sure how long his food supplies would last and having to navigate a maze would take time that he really doesn't have to spare. Nevertheless, he is left with no choice but to press onwards.
Fortunately Gii was becoming fairly good at navigating things like this due to his time mining. He was confident he would be able to clear it.
Turning down the right passage, he didn't even take 5 steps before he heard a click and the floor underneath him began to give way. But Gii did not forget to keep up his wariness and barely jumped back in time to avoid falling victim to the trap. Different from the traps he dealt with earlier, this one was most certainly deadly, with large spikes poking up at the bottom of a deep pit.
“Tch! I'm never choosing right again!”
Clicking his tongue, he angrily marked an “X” on the wall with a rock and turned around to head in the other direction. Gii used rocks to throw into traps and trigger them as well as mark areas as good with an “O” or no good with an “X”. He also occasionally used his hammer to test for pressure sensitive traps. Combined with the techniques he used to navigate and avoid areas in a mine where cave-ins could occur, he was able to progress steadily through the maze. A few times he missed some traps and took damage, but he was somehow able to avoid being killed.
As he stopped to rest after advancing a good ways into the mine, he was suddenly met by a ruby golem as it rounded a corner. After a tough battle in tight quarters, Gii came out the victor. Maybe because the passages were so narrow, but for whatever reason the golems he encountered from then on were always by themselves.
Contrary to what he thought before, the hardest golems to deal with under these conditions were the emerald ones. Their shoulder charge skill was incredibly hard to dodge in such a narrow space. In addition to that, unlike the other 2 golems, their high defense stat meant he couldn't kill them in a few hits. Because of that there were quite a few close calls where he almost died, but thanks to the predictable movements of the golems, he was able to prevail in the end.
With the introduction of the enemies he now had to fight in addition to dealing with the traps, Gii's progress slowed considerably. Unlike before when he had to climb, this maze was taxing both mentally and physically. The exhaustion was catching up with him and he was beginning to make mistakes even after taking rests. When he was beginning to lose morale his perseverance finally began to pay off as he spotted something peculiar.
As Gii was advancing through the maze, he began to notice a thin layer of fog hovering just above the ground. As he advanced through the maze he noticed that it was definitely getting thicker the deeper he went.
Spurred on by this new discovery he began following the areas where the fog was thickest. It wasn't long before he struck gold.
FINALLY!! an exit!
Careful not to fall prey to any more nasty traps, he tried not to rush and maintained his vigilance. However his worries were for nothing and he didn't trigger any traps as he approached the door. As he got closer he could see an ornate double door and spilling out from underneath it was a thick purplish fog.
On the double door seemed to be some kind of engraving, however they were so worn down that Gii couldn't make out what was on it. It seemed oddly familiar to him but because of the wear on the door it was pretty much impossible to determine what it was.
It's gotta be something from Listonia...i just can't put my finger on it though...
Well...i guess the easiest way to find out is to just open the doors.
He pushed on the doors and at first they seemed to be stuck , but after applying a little more pressure they gave way. As the doors opened, the fog poured out and he looked inside to see magical lanterns being lit in succession on either side. The effect was like the dramatic reveal of a throne room.
Large white marble pillars were stacked on each side of a flowing red carpet. The red carpet raced along the great hall and up the stairs to where the throne should be. Only there was no throne, in its place was a large alter, atop which sat a golden goblet overflowing with the purplish fog that filled the space.
As Gii was marveling at the sight unfolding before him, he was suddenly pushed from behind and stumbled forward into the room. Behind him a GACHIN could be heard as the doors closed. As he fell onto his hands and knees, he watched as the purple fog rushed past him and began swirling in the center of the room.
Almost instantly, a large vortex had been made out of the purple fog and crackling lightning could be seen and heard from inside of it. As fast as it appeared, the vortex vanished and in it's place stood a man wearing nothing but shorts and clad in the purple fog as if it was armor. He pointed towards Gii and spoke.
“You....You should not bee heeerree....GO BACK!”
As the man strode forth to approach Gii, he just stared dumbfounded at his situation.
“Eh!?”