“You...you can speak? You're not one of the dungeon beasts? I asked while triggering Identify, voice showing my bewilderment. The man was speaking Eteri but in an accent and manner I had never heard.
Gerald - Human - Level 10 - Native of Earth - Health 40/40
“Of course I can speak, do I look like a beast to you? The question is why are you in our mine and how did you get here.” He replied. He adjusted his grip on the pickaxe as the others closed in.
Arthur moved to place himself between the two of us when we all got the same notification.
Survival Event! Old Mining Camp Dungeon Level 2 has merged with Thorks Mine! Cooperate or fight to the death! Choice is yours! Remaining ghouls 1000/1000.
Thorks Mine? Things were happening too fast to process. Ghouls started summoning from a portal on the far side of the large room. There were dozens visible and one thousand remaining. A running counter was visible in my vision.
“Quickly, you are much lower level than us, Sylar is level 30 and one of the highest in the world. You will lose if you fight us, that I promise. We can work together and figure out the details afterwards or you can keep advancing and foolishly lose your lives.” Arthur wasted no time in making his statement. He gripped his large warhammer and started moving towards Gerald.
“Wait! Wait!” Gerald was waving his hands in front of him. “We don’t want to fight other people. We have been stuck in this mine for months with only beast attacks for company. Please! My name is Gerald, I’m from Chicago. I’m just a salesman for mining equipment man!” Gerald was panting now.
Van sent me an annoying thought, he was tired of standing around and talking. I set him free on the ghouls and he roared with delight and charged the closest group. The miners shied away from him as he started his rampage.
“My name is Sylar. We are a group originally from Eter, we have been living in the mine above the dungeon for a few months now. We are trying to clear this second level to expand our town. We have to complete this event to do that. I promise that we will not harm you if you agree to work with us.”
“Agreed!” Gerald said and it was echoed by the miners behind him.
“Sylar, go with Van and Rocks and take out as many ghouls as you can before they reach a critical mass. I will work with the miners to create a defensive position as a fallback.”
Marci flew off with a shriek and started attacking the ghouls trying to circle around Van. She still couldn’t affect them much with her talons but it seemed like she enjoyed trying. Van was a one forest ape wrecking ball. He must have already killed a dozen by the time we caught up to him. The ape was simply too fast and strong for the slow moving ghouls to deal with. An idea I had been rolling around in my head presented itself.
“Rocks! Watch Van’s back, I’m gonna try something!” I shouted at the guard, he was busy trying to free his sword from a ghouls back.
I ran back to the group and snatched up the hallowed light before running back towards the fighting. I removed the top of the lantern and summoned Marci with a thought. She gave an annoyed shrill and flew over to my shoulder, I dipped my hand hesitantly towards the golden glowing liquid and summoned its description.
Hallowed Light - Mix of reagents that glow brightly when placed in a suitable container.
Next I pulled up the description of the hallowed bomb.
Hallowed Bomb - Bomb that does extra damage to unholy type beasts.
I had never been much of a religious person but if anything was unholy it was these damned ghouls. The glowing liquid felt warm but it didn’t burn. Splashing some of it on a mostly dead ghoul caused the ghouls skin to sizzle and burn where it touched. Success! I coaxed a very hesitant Marci into dipping her talons in the liquid. I tried to explain what I was thinking to her but it was too technical for her. She gave an annoying chirp and tried to shake the liquid off her talons but it wouldn’t come off, her talons were glowing. I projected a mental image of her attacking a ghoul.
She got the message and flew off in a rush to lash out at the closest ghoul. Where normally her talons would just rake across the skin and the ghoul remain unaffected, this time the ghoul took a large amount of damage and it began to disintegrate where she touched it. She let out a satisfied shriek and rose in the air before diving off after Van who was using a leg, or maybe an arm, of a ghoul to hammer another to death.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Congratulations! You have crafted your first modifier! Modifiers are a subclass of Alchemy! Alchemy level will apply to all craftable modifiers.
Modifier? By dipping Marci’s claws in the hallowed light she was able to deal extra damage to the ghouls. If I understand the notification correctly, this should apply to all weapons. Grabbing my spear, I dipped the head in the light and it began to glow in the same way. I rushed over and stabbed a ghoul that was trying to edge around and get to the miners. It only took two hits for the ghoul to be functionally destroyed. I checked the combat log to be sure.
Combat Log - Standard Eter Army Spear(40)*(Hallowed Light Multiplier(2.2))+17.2 hits Ghoul for 103 (105*0.2(Armor 20)) damage!
It worked! This would make clearing the level much easier, there should be enough of the hallowed light to modify our main weapons. Dashing over to Rocks, we coated his large two handed sword in the viscous liquid. I offered to modify Van’s fists but the ape wasn’t interested. He projected contentment, entertainment and beat his chest proudly after each kill.
“Arthur!” I shouted to get his attention as I jogged back to the miners. They had moved some previously unseen furniture and structures around to make a solid semi circle barrier. “Give me your primary weapons! I can modify them for extra damage against the ghouls!”
It took a few minutes to get all the weapons modified, I checked the counter and we had only killed seventy of the ghouls. They were summoning at an increased pace but so far Van and Rocks were managing the tide. Camile was using Inspire on the thorks miners who looked terrified. They would have had to see combat to survive this long but everyone reacted differently to stressful situations.
Gerald and three of the other thorks miners joined Arthur and myself as we rejoined Van and Rocks fighting the ghouls. When the counter hit 900 the next ghoul that was summoned was larger and better equipped. The change was obvious and where it had been five or six a minute it was now ten at once. I triggered Identify on the closest one.
Ghoul - Beast - Common Miner - Level 14 - Health 130/130 - Armor 25 - Old Miner repurposed by the framework. Slow and steady but tough as stone.
“Careful! These are stronger, they have 130 health and 25 armor. They probably hit harder as well.” I let everyone know. I wasn’t sure if any of the fighting miners had Identify skills but no one else in my party did.
Van was unimpressed by my statement and charged the first one. This time it took his charge and held its ground. Van pounded it with his powerful fists until the ghoul grabbed one of his arms in a death grip. Using his weight as leverage, he ripped the ghouls arm off and started beating it with its own arm. Van was alarmingly enjoying this.
“Work in pairs! Watch each other's backs! Don’t get turned around and don’t let them grab you!” Arthur shouted as he worked back to back with Rocks. They took out one of the ghouls together and moved on to the next.
There were six of the thorks miners fighting now, one of them was talking excitedly about leveling. This fight was going to last a while and if each ghoul was the same level as the miners, and even my party, they would likely be leveling many times.
“If you get a class change or skill slot move back to the barricade! We might need all the advantages we can get before this is over!” I shouted to the group. Shouts of agreement rang out and I saw the one who had been talking about leveling run back over to the barricade.
The counter hit 850 and a massive ghoul was summoned alongside the other ten. It appeared behind two of the fighting thorks miners and wielded a large iron stave. It clubbed one of the miners over the head before anyone could react. The other tried to fend it off but was battered out of the way, this ghoul moved quickly. I triggered Identify and sprinted over to help.
Ghoul - Beast - Mine Overseer - Level 20 - Health 200/200 - Armor 50 - Mine Overseer repurposed by the framework. Tough as stone, quick with his stave and whip to maintain order and keep production moving on schedule.
I was almost to the downed thorks miners when a furry shape barreled into the overseer. Van was enraged and must have used Frenzy. He was moving faster than I had ever seen, dodging the Overseer’s blows while hammering it with his fists. Marci was circling and diving, picking her spots for maximum impact. Arthur and the others were busy with the other miners. I used Identify to check the miners health, they were both below half, they would live without health potions for now.
“Come get them! Come get them!” I yelled back to the barricade. The noncombatants stared back at me blankly like I had two heads at the suggestion to run through the battlefield. “Quick! I’ll hold them off!”
Turning back, I jumped in against the overseer. He was limping now and covered in glowing scars as he slowly disintegrated. Van had its attention allowing me to get behind it and stab it right through the neck with my modified spear. It slid right through and back out as the overseer collapsed.
A few minutes later we had finished off the rest of the common miners. The counter was showing 810 remaining, one more spawn at this level before they got more difficult if the pattern held.
“Kill the first nine, save the last one. Let’s see if the dungeon will let us rest and regroup if one of them is still alive.” Arthur shouted out. “I’ll take it down and crush its feet.”
I let Marci and Van know the plan as we waited for the spawn. We quickly dispatched the first few and Arthur took one down and crushed its ankles and feet. We finished off the rest of the wave and waited to see what would happen. After what felt like a minute a collective sigh rang out. The plan had worked, we moved over to the barricade to regroup.