Lvl 2: Death on the Brain
Entering the gateway was an odd feeling; it was sort of like walking through jello, but it shimmered like liquid. A refreshing coolness coated Terry and slushed off as he came through the doorway into a locker-room. There was a red digital clock reading 00:24:55 above the door on the other side of the room.
Morris answered the unasked question explaining, “We have 25 minutes in here to prepare before the mini boss. In Hoard rooms you get 15. It is one of the reasons people do the boss first.” Terry nodded and studied the room.
There were 8 lockers set against the walls with wooden looking benches in front of them. The walls and floor were tiled adding to the locker-room effect. He saw another door on the opposite wall, above that was another digital clock. This door had embossed letters on it reading “Onward to the Level”.
Sid and Tid were already moving to lockers and opening them. They pulled out clothing and prepared to put it on. Muttering and bickering with each other as they got ready. Morris and Hurk moved to the other side, so Terry followed them. He chose a locker and opened it. Inside there was a set of clothes, some cleaning supplies, and a set of thick boots. On the door there was a long rifle like a cross bow and some bolts in quiver.
“Whose stuff is this?” Terry asked sort of to no one, but Morris answered.
“It’s yours. The lockers generate random clothes and equipment based on your attributes. You had the Wind and Determined, right? So it gave you dexterity and agility based equipment. You don’t need to use it, but it is there.”
Terry shrugged, he was not sure how the Wind and Determined upgrades worked for his dexterity, so he asked Rosa as he changed. “For you not being a native, the elixir that you drank modifies the host so that the upgrades can be set and your body can improve. The upgrades work across all attributes and stats like Speed or Strength, But here they are called Initiative and Indomanence. So your Wind gives you boosts to speed and agility and Determined will, boost other parts. You just haven’t had a chance to notice since you have not exerted yourself since receiving them. You should gain a lot to make up for the relatively soft life you lead prior coming her”
Terry nodded understandingly and slightly insulted, “What do I do with you, can I just keep you in here till I am done?”
Rosa replied, “Yeah, I am fine with that. I can actually watch the fight from here too, put me on the top shelf” He did and she moved to the back of the locker, it changed a moment later to a screen and he could see a blank area on it.
“Nifty.” he said and closed the door on her. The clothes were like a jumpsuit, a long sleeve coat and pants both in black with a white strip up the sleeves and legs of the pants. The boots were thick and black like military combat boots from movies. There was a belt attached to the quiver as well.
The others had similar, if not the same, outfits but they all had different stripes. Sid and Tid were red and blue, Hurk had a green and Morris had orange stripes. Both Sid and Tid had only changed their coats and used the belts, Terry could see Sid’s snub nose gun in a holster at his side. Tid had gotten a Club much like the one Hurk had outside the level, and Hurk was giving him pointers. Morris had gotten a wand-like stick in his locker, when he noticed Terry eying it he replied, “It acts as a spell focus. If I did not have this I would need to touch whatever I want to cast a spell on. With this I can just point and shoot. I think Sid, you and I are going to be in the back while Tid and Hurk rush in to draw attention. When making a plan before entering a level it is important to keep it flexible, you don’t really know what you’re facing till you get out there .”
Hurk piped in at that moment, “That is exactly the plan, but I will go over it now. Once we leave the doors we will see the random environment and monster we are taking on. You three” he pointed in turn to Sid, Terry and Morris, “stay back and make your shots count. That is where the main damage will come from for now. Tid is going to stay right and I am going to stay left. Depending on what way the enemy goes we will need to stay in pursuit and keep damage coming. How many shots do you have?”
Terry counted and looked up to answer, “15.”
Sid cut in, “Enough.”
Terry noticed that the bolts had different color felching. Some were blue and others green and two were red. He did not get a real chance to ask before Sid continued, “let's get out there and do this!” There was still 10 minutes on the timer, but he and his brother both opened the door and rushed out. Hurk and Morris both rolled their eyes and followed so Terry was the last one to leave.
The arena was large and circular, the floor was a tiled stone and the walls were large, flat and featureless. There was nothing in the area except a pillar in the center with a screen on top, much like the bowl and pillar from the end of Terry’s tutorial. The screen had two columns, one labeled ‘boss’ and the other ‘environment’. As they all entered the arena the columns gave a whirring screen like a counter randomly selecting numbers. But when the image stopped it was not numbers.
The image under the environment was a bomb and crater looking symbol and the area round them began to take shape. “Aww sick, it’s a bombed out town” Tid let out as the flat ground became dust and debris covered. Structures came up from the ground, but were in obvious disrepair only coming up to waist or chest height and having uneven tilts and angles. There were small fires that popped up in places as well.
The screen remained and the symbol under the Boss was interesting to say the least. It had treds on the bottom like a tank and odd arms that stuck straight out from either side. The head was a dome with a flat bottom floating above the square chest piece.
Terry did not know what it meant, but he saw it a moment later as the boss rolled into the center of the bombed out street in front of him. It was about the size of a man made of a shiny medal. It did indeed have treds allowing it to roll well on the uneven rubbish covered ground. Its arms ended in barrels that looked to be from machine guns. The dome on its head was glass and a human brain was inside, lighting with different colors as a robotic voice came from the head.
“Now it is my turn to play” the boss began rolling forward and the barrels on each arm lit up as they began to fire. Single shots rang out from the guns.
Terry dove to the left to get behind cover. The walls around him exploded as they were peppered by the rifle fire. Terry did not stay in place for long, he kept his head down and ran.
-
Morris saw the symbols on the screen and knew that they were in trouble. He had looked at the guidebooks and studied for classes on levels and the threats that one could expect in the areas. Seeing the bombed out environment was nice, it was easy to move in and there was a lot of cover and potential caches.
He was not happy with the enemy however, a Death-Brain at this low level is about as unlucky as one could be. The single shot high powered rifles for arms, the tread rover design, and one random elemental based attack! All were extremely deadly and this fight needed to be handled differently then they had briefly talked about in the locker area. This would need stealth and opportunity. Morris looked to see where his teammates had made it to as he crouched behind cover from the shots being fired.
He could see Hurk was pressed against a wall in front of him, Morris called to him, “The guns are very inaccurate at long range.” Hurk nodded and passed the message to Sid who he could see, but Morris could not. Morris looked around for Terry not sure how he would react to the sight.
Morris did not immediately see him, Terry had come in behind him and the walls near the back were a bit higher than the ones around him. He decided to move away from this area and try to find Terry. Morris tried relaying this to Hurk, but he had moved further up through the maze of rubble and low walls. This was turning into a fiasco fast.
The Death-Brain was continuing to move down the middle of the path where it had spawned. Morris knew they were heavily armored in the front and less so in the back, so it did not turn or move quickly. Morris thought this was a good time to bail and try to find their missing teammate and his new friend. He liked the way Terry took an interest in everything he liked to talk about and wanted to see more of his truly outside perspective. He kept his body low and head down as he moved away along the low walls and rubble strewn ground.
-
Hurk had taken the nod from Morris to mean he would move off and try to flank. Tid and Sid had stayed near him and their even shorter size to him made the terrain easier for them to stay in cover. He felt it gave them a false sense of bravery.
Hurk was older than most who had just received their tutorials. He had grown up a part of a roaming tribe of goblins and after a failed raid, the town had taken him in and healed him. No one had ever taken down the Iron Bay, and goblin marauders were apt to try and take on something everyone else failed at. There could be glory in a successful siege and goblins were nothing less than enthusiastic when it came to any possibility of success.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
A goblin in their most base desire and being wants nothing more than to live in a chaotic bundle body and base desires. Hurk found a new one focused on training and lifting once he healed. There were other rehabilitated goblins in Iron Bay, they took him in and monitored his growth and helped him suppress the base desires he often felt. Every time he felt the desires or the pressures of his kind, he trained instead. He had become a very avid and strong individual as a result.
This was the environment that he had trained for, levels were a real test of one resolve and cunning. A place where all his training could pay off. He had been fighting monsters outside the gateway’s influence to prepare and earn a living. He only got exp for that if he came to a level and apparently the tutorial did not count his outside experience. This would give him all the rewards he had been working toward.
Sid and Tid were not his first choice and had barely been his third or forth, but he had said he would grab team members and the twin bullies were extremely resourceful. Sid had gotten a hold of one of his father’s element guns and acid ammo. This might not help immediately against the current form of their enemy, but if they could open the armor the acid would make short work of the inner component parts of the Death-Brain.
Hurk led the gnomes around a corner to flank the enemy from the other side. Sid was obviously excited, testing if he could move out and lead, but Hurk kept him back. After the third time Hurk’s hand barred the eager gnomes' path they became fed up. Sid dashed forward with a burst of speed while Hurk was checking around a corner.
Sid ran out and aimed the handgun, standing in clear view for the Death Brain. Sid shot first, but not by much. The shot from Sid's gun was a good hit, but the strong armor plating was not as corrosive as the pieces inside. The shot from the Death-Brain was a lot more devastating, it was more like a rubber bullet from earth. Meant to knock down an enemy, but multiple could and would kill a player. Sid’s rash actions earned him a shot straight to the head.
He flew back and he let out an “oof” Hurk and Tid were there in moments, picking up and bringing his body to safety behind another low wall.
“Idiot, you need to shoot from cover!” Hurk put in, however looking down he could see there was something else wrong. Sid had landed on his side with the shot and the several pellets in his pocket had burst. The acid was eating through Sid’s pants and leg quickly. Hurk cursed the gnome's idiocy and quickly tried to help by ripping off the gnome's pants with his massive strength. It was not soon enough as the smell of burning flesh and Sid’s screams echoed around the battlefield.
-
Terry moved fast, faster then he had before and he immediately understood what boost to base stats meant from his upgrades. Even when ducking down to stay in cover he felt a control over his movements that was best described as super human. When he peered again over the low walls of the battlefield he could see the robot was turned in another direction still firing its arm guns. He also got a glimpse of Morris moving in his direction.
Terry had initially dived and ran from fear of the enemy, but with it occupied somewhere else he felt a bit less terrified. He could see the back of the robot had some sort of energy pack. The entire chassis was well armored, but the pack on the back was a clear glass or plastic allowing him to see the inner workings of the robot. There were plenty of delicate parts and components that would probably allow them to take it out if they could get something inside.
Terry made it to Morris making very little sound and a scream punctuated the struggle happening elsewhere.
“That sounded like one of the gnomes…” Terry said close to a whisper, that made Morris jump. The blacksmith had been looking the other way and had not seen or heard Terry’s arrival apparently.
Morris put in, “yeah, they were always eager and not extremely bright. I was looking for you, I know what this thing is and possible weak points. I do a good bit of studying between tasks, this is a Death-Brain. The top dome is the main weak spot if you can get past the glass to the brain that controls everything. The other best place is the…”
“...The back panel? It looks to be made of the same thing.” Terry finished for him. He wanted to show that he was paying attention.
Morris looked over to him, ”Yep it is, I told Hurk to try and draw it so we could make a try and flanking it and breaking that panel. Once the panel on the back is broken it moves to stage 2 of its form and attack. You have a crossbow yeah? That should be enough to break though and you should be able to get off a good shot while it is turned around like that”
“I’ll try.” Terry nodded, bringing out the crossbow and loading a bolt, one with blue fletching he saw. Using the wall to steady his shot, he used the sights to aim. He had never fired a crossbow or even a gun, the only point of reference he drew on was the hunting rifle arcade game that had been at the college bar he went to a couple times.
He was not amazing at the cabinet, he would have bet that the calibration was off from the age and regular use from the bar patrons. Terry did feel like the weapon in his hands was easier to trust the sights of and as he fired he saw how true the bolt flew. Terry was not aware of the fletching’s significance, however it soon became apparent. As the bolt flew through the air it turned into a bolt of blue light flying straight towards the target.
The bolt punched through and lodged into the back panel. It did not break however, and the Death-Brain started the process of turning around. Morris motioned for them to move, and Terry followed loading another blue bolt. They moved to stay behind as the enemy slowly turned on its treads.
After a moment, the Death-Brain was finally turned to where Morris and Terry had been. Terry came up to fire again, but he saw a small form rush to take advantage of the enemy with its back turned. Tiddly was going to avenge the pain his brother had endured and he ran, club up ready for a powerful down swing. He hopped into the air, higher and further than Terry thought was possible for the tiny gnome, bringing the club home on the bolt Terry had fired. This broke the back panel and started the transformation to the stage 2 that Morris had mentioned.
The transformation started as the body of the Death-Brain gained the ability to pivot on an horizontal and vertical axis. The top frame moved quickly around and down at this new attack and the arm guns pointed directly at Tiddly as he landed. He barely had time to dive out of the way before the arm gun fired, but this time it was not the bullets. A jet of flame coated the area on the ground just out of sight from where Morris and Terry had seen Tiddly land.
Terry could see clearly the back panel was closing as another medal piece moved into place over the puncture he and Tiddly had created. He took aim, but barely had enough time before firing again. Even with the increased speed on the bolt it did not make it before the panel closed over with another panel of armor plating.
“Sparks” Morris let it out like a curse, “nothing short of an explosion will get through that, we will need to work on that head dome.” He raised his wand and said, “Break” with a power Terry could almost feel more than hear.
A push of focused air came from the wand, but the distance on the spell was not enough to make it to Death-Brain and one of the low walls broke and crumbled as the spell hit it.
Morris looked at Terry and a wordless communication happened between the two. They moved along the rubble and low walls closer to the enemy. Terry loaded another bolt noting the green fletching on the end. If blue is speed, what does the green do? I also have red in here but only 2 of them. I wonder if they are more useful.
Once Terry got the bolt loaded, he put the stock to his shoulder, stood and fired again. He felt comfortable using the crossbow, it felt familiar and he realizes that he might have also gained proficiency with upgrades along with the stat increase. The green bolt fired normally, still with enough force to drive the hard head of the bolt into the armor plating. On impact there was a green smoke screen for a short second. When it faded the Death-Brain was wrapped in thick vines like a mummy in cloth. The arms were forced downward from the vines, but the head was still exposed. The pinned arms began to spew fire again, to burn off the vines, but they were resisting and the Death-Brain continued to spew fire. Now that he was closer Terry could hear it spewing catch phrases and insults.
“Your petty vines will not stop me” a robotic voice intoned as it struggled.
Morris stood again pointing his wand, ‘“Fuse” he spoke with power again. The vines sank into the Death-Brain with the power of his spell fusing the arms more securely in place. “That will hold it a bit longer. We need to crack the dome with the brain. Look!”
Terry saw Hurk rush out at the enemy, he had his club and gave a massive SMACK before reaching to grab something, Terry assumed it to be the body of Tiddly, from the ground. The hit was directly to the head and Terry saw the brain dome spin comically like a cartoon as Hurk dashed back to cover with the load in his arms
Terry loaded a red fletched bolt, and took in a controlled breath. He moved to stand again, not wanting to miss this shot, aiming for the dome. He fired and crouched again as the dome righted and turned to the new threat. An unseen barrel on the front under the dome sprayed fire like a dragon catching the bolt before impact. However this was also a trick bolt, and the red fletching indicated it was an exploding bolt.
Even though it did not impact, the explosion was triggered by the flame breath attack. The shockwave rocked the Death-Brain, who was immobilized, and thrown back from its spot to clatter on its side. The walls caught in the explosion crumbled and blasted debris in all directions. Morris and Terry felt their shared cover buckle under the force and wondered if the Death-Brain was down for the count.
They peeked over the wall and saw the charred circle from the explosion. They stayed low and moved in on the still form of the enemy in the smoke cloud from the explosion, Terry loading another of the green fletched bolts. They saw Hurk rise up from a bit of low wall just outside the blast zone and he met them as they approached the downed bot.
“Is it dead?” Terry asked as they drew near. He could hear whirring and buzzing from inside the robot.
As the smoke cleared they saw a large crack on the dome and some sort of clear fluid leaked from it onto the ground. The lights in the dome went out and the area began to change.
“I need help with Sid and Tid, come on” Hurk said now they were sure the trouble had passed. The column in the center was still standing and as Morris went to assist Hurk with the twins. Terry moved up to the column and a bowl rose from the top and filled with water like before when he had finished his tutorial. This time it was not the joker on the screen, but the Death-Brain they had just defeated.
“Congratulations on your victory, meatsacks! I have given you each exp and some rewards for your able handling. I hope to see you in the future so I may terminate you then.” the robotic voice intoned as several draws opened from the pillar. Terry saw there were 5 potions in a carrying case, each had their names on them. Terry grabbed the bottles and moved to follow Morris and Hurk who had the gnome’s bodies cradled in their arms as they made it to the exit and into the locker room.
No one stopped in the locker room to remove the supplied gear as the situation with Sid and Tid was close and booked no time for indecision. Hurk let out, “We need to get them to a healer. Morris, bring Sid back to the Bay, we need to hurry!” and he busted through the exit Morris right on his tail and followed by Terry leaving the locker room and the level in a sort of odd daze.