Hannes the Magnanimous ruler was dead. Well, even more dead, seeing as he was a skeleton. Turn Undead turned him into a pile of bones.
"I didn’t actually expect Turn Undead to work on bosses," Eli said. "Almost feels like cheating.”
“Eh, I don’t care,” Samantha replied, walking over to the corpse of the ruler. “Those little fires and all that help he was summoning… It would be more than we fought in the last two rooms combined. Wading through mountains of bones is no fun.”
He joined her by the boss's corpse. “So, what’s in here?"
"A crown, his staff, and a cloak.”
He took a look at the items one by one.
The Ruler's Crown (Rare): A true ruler lifts all those around him. Increases effectiveness of all buffs and inspires the wearer's subjects.
+10% Wisdom
+10% Experience gained by those near the wearer
Level requirement: Level 25
This was the first item he'd seen with a level requirement.
“You’re going to look so dumb walking around with a crown on,” Samantha teased. “You should take it. I’m not wearing that thing. Also, you wearing it means I get 10% more XP.”
“Thanks,” he said, selecting need on the item. Only bosses gave the option to select if you needed an item or not, and he decided he liked the mechanic. It was especially useful in bigger groups, like with the full Ravenous Barbarians party. Putting it on, the crown turned into a simple hat to go with his gray Priest robes. He breathed a sigh of relief. Indeed, it would have looked out of place to walk around with a crown on his head.
"That's no fun," Samantha grumbled.
The Ruler’s Mantle (Rare): A true ruler must be able to summon aid. Increases the strength of all summons conjured by the wearer.
+10% Intelligence
+10% Strength to summoned creatures
Level requirement: 25
“Guess we'll save that for someone else,” Samantha muttered, kicking the pile of bones. “Stupid ruler skeleton. And the staff too. Nothing for me!”
"You can't use the staff?"
"Nope," she said, taking out her wand. "Only wands and since becoming a Scholar. I can equip something called a Focus, too, but I don't know what that is."
The Ruler's Staff (Rare): A true ruler must inspire his subjects. Increases buff duration and effects.
+10% HP
+15% All buff effects
+10% Buff duration
Level Requirement: Level 25.
He chuckled, equipping the staff. It turned into a simple, but well-made wooden staff. “Why don't you take the book?"
Book of Professions: Weakness
"Weakness? What sort of profession even is that? Whatever, I'll take it."
Along with all the items and experience, they also found 300 gold coins, quite the wealth.
"Almost a third of the way to starting a guild," Eli mused, dividing the coins between the two of them.
“Why do you want a guild?”
“Why not? I mean, it’s an option, so it has to be good, right?”
“Not necessarily,” she replied.
"Explain," he said, walking over to the nearest skeleton, one sticking out of the wall, stuck at around chest level, and looted some basic gear, along with a few lesser magic-rarity items. They would be useful for lower-level people back at the office building. "I mean, if nothing else, we’ll be able to add more people than the party-limit. Having everyone in the building in the same group could come in handy.”
“Maybe,” she said, shrugging. “I don’t see why you feel responsible for everyone else. They’re adults. They can make their own decisions without you babying everyone.”
“I’m not disagreeing with that,” he replied. “But sometimes people need a kick in the ass to get moving. And what’s the alternative? Leaving everyone behind, letting them sit in that building until some other threat comes and wipes them out?”
Samantha sighed wistfully. “That would be kind of nice.”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I’m only kidding. You don’t have to be so serious all the time, Elijah.”
“Please, call me Eli.”
“Fine, but only if you call me Sam.”
“Ah, so I’ve reached nickname status with you now, have I? You don't hate me anymore?”
“You know what? I changed my mind. Call me Samantha.”
“Too late, Sam,” he replied, standing up after looting the last skeleton. His inventory was brimming with items now. He'd have to take a long moment to go through it all, along with all his available skills, talent points, and attribute points. Once again, he'd neglected his own progress. This time, he did have an excuse: not wanting to neglect the quest for too long, fearing the prisoners might die.
Samantha snorted. “So, do you think we’re through with this dungeon soon, or what? I’m… I’m really kind of tired.”
“I hope so,” Eli replied, his gaze shifting to the dark, unexplored corners.
The way forward was another circular staircase, except the entranceway was barred by the inky black goop of corruption. Thankfully, it shied away from their orbs of light without either of them having to actually heal anything to make it move. Heading downstairs, Eli and Samantha were faced with a new obstacle.
The entire room was filled with undulating goop to about hip level. It pulled away from the two of them, but then closed in again right behind as they made their way through the sludge without being touched. Without making a sound, a skeleton rose from under the surface, swinging a scimitar right into Eli's arm. It was covered in goop and its skeletal chest was filled with the stuff.
Aegis blocked the strike, and Eli healed the offending skeleton. The spell did not damage it. With another strike blocked by Aegis, he inspected their new foe, while Samantha shouted for him to get out of the way.
Skeletal Warrior. Level 18. Corrupted.
Not undead. Even though his heal did not damage the skeleton, it did force the corruption to withdraw a little, but it was painfully slow. The skeleton, on the other hand, was a quick bastard. He thrust forward, sliced, and stabbed, quick enough for Eli's Aegis to run out. The scimitar dug into his shoulder and terrible pain flashed.
Eli pulled back and re-cast Aegis before healing himself. That allowed the skeleton to shift its focus to Samantha. Unfortunately for the skeleton, it also gave her a clear line of sight. Light blasted into the thing, doing plenty of damage and forcing the corruption back. Eli toggled Harming Healer and began heal bombing the skeleton to help.
Soon, the corruption was gone.
Skeletal Warrior. Level 18. Undead.
Both of them cast Turn Undead and both scythes of light sheared into the enemy, killing it instantly. They were both breathing hard, and he checked the damage to his robe. A neat slice near his shoulder almost made the sleeve come off. The scar left from healing was thick but white and almost faded.
"We're going to have a lot of scars the way this is going," he muttered.
"At least you have Aegis."
The room they were in was more of a corridor really, except wide enough for fifteen people to walk in a line. Eli cast Sigil of Light
Eli cast Sigil of Light on the floor in front of them. The corruption sizzled and undulated, unable to withdraw from the light fast enough. The area cleared almost immediately. More skeletons had waited in ambush, hiding in the goop, and the Sigil of Light revealed their ambush. Proving themselves a little more intelligent than the usual monsters, they attempted to dive back into the goop to obscure themselves. With the corruption gone from the skeletons, Turn Undead destroyed them with ease.
“I don’t like this,” Samantha said, frowning. “They can pop up wherever.”
Eli looted their weapons. “We can just keep casting Sigil of Light and moving in that way. We won’t have trouble with any more rogues either, if we do that.”
“It still feels exposed,” she grumbled.
“Don’t you have any defensive spells?”
“I have one, but I haven't picked it yet,” she replied.
“What does it do?”
“It’s called Light Mirage, and I think it lets me either turn invisible or maybe teleport? Maybe not. The description is kind of weird.”
“What does it say?”
“Become one with the light for a brief period of time. Neither spells nor strikes will pierce your flesh, as light is faster than all else,” she read.
“That sounds defensive at least,” Eli said cheerfully.
Samantha shimmered as she picked the skill. "There, dumped three points into it."
"Try it out!"
She punched the air in front of her, fingers splayed. A light ran from the top of her head and down to her feet before disappearing. Nothing else happened.
"Uh. Did something happen?"
Her hand dropped, and she looked around quizzically. "I'm not sure."
"There's a buff by our health bar, at least. Looks like it has charges and not a duration?"
"Great," Samantha said, jumping forward, then to the side.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to activate it, of course!"
Failing to use the skill, her face turned red with what Eli interpreted as anger. "Let's just go!"
Using the sigil method to traverse the corruption was an arduous task, but he didn’t know a better way. Not until Samantha finally realized she could cast her light mist to achieve the same effect. Its area of effect had grown a lot, expanding away from her and pushing the corruption away, revealing more skeletons.
Ding! You have reached level 29
They walked in that damn tunnel forever, it felt like, and the drain on their mana as they kept moving actually became noticeable. With around a third of his mana pool left, Eli stopped to drink a potion. It was his last one.
He looked back the way they’d come, then willed his orb of light to traverse the tunnel in front of them. “We have to be at the end of this thing soon, right? I keep thinking Ephraim will rise from this ooze and attack us again. It looks just like what he turned into.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Samantha agreed. “And there’s no point in going back now. Let’s just press on so we can save those bastards and then get the hell out of here.”
“I really hope they haven’t died already,” Eli said. “That would suck.”
“I don’t know how they can survive here,” she murmured. “It can’t all be filled to the brim with this black bullshit.”
Ding! You have reached level 30.
Finally, over an hour later, they found the end of the tunnel.
"Another set of stairs," Samantha groaned. "What floor are we even on now?"
Eli began his descent. "I've lost track."
After going around, down in a circle, the wall of the staircase stopped abruptly. The sides below were open to the air, and the stairs were held up by the pillar of stone in the middle. They entered a vast chamber from above with a clear view of the immense space below them. Torches lined the walls, like dots of light in the distance. Many torches stood arrayed on the floor as well, lighting what looked like people in dark brown robes. Two bonfires, large enough to fill a small house, burned merrily in the center, with more dark robed figures surrounding it, their hands held up into the air.
From that distance, Inspect did not work, and it was too far away to see if they actually were people, or more skeletons. None of the corruption from the previous floor could be seen here, except for two concentrated, round spots that looked almost like pools of darkness.
"What the hell is going on down there?" Samantha breathed.
"I'll bet you 100 bucks the ones we're supposed to rescue are down in those pits of goop," Eli said, pointing.
"I really hope you're wrong."
Eli took a step down the stairs, turning to look back up at Samantha. "Let's go find out."
"No."
"No?" he asked, surprised by her sudden reluctance.
"Look at all those things down there. Must be hundreds of them. If we go down, they'll overrun us in seconds."
"You want to turn around now?"
She grinned down at him. "No. Of course not. What I'm saying is, we should bombard them from up here!"
"Ooooh," Eli said. "Right."
He rummaged through his inventory and pulled out a whole lot of Explosion Potions and Potions of Liquid Fire. The orange, almost glowing color in the swirling liquid reflected off Samantha's eyes as they widened in surprise.
"You got some too, huh?" she asked, filling her own hands with even more of the same.
Eli couldn't help but chuckle at her eager expression. "Perhaps now is the time to drink that Potion of Experience?"