One of Cruella’s weapons crackled with lightning as it punched into the leftmost lizardman’s shoulder. Her knife thrummed with some unidentifiable force as she thrust it toward the cursed lizardman’s exposed midsection. The high-leveled monster dodged and counterattacked in one smooth motion, bringing a dagger down on Cruella’s outstretched arm, piercing it from above so that the tip peeked out on the other side. She groaned and jumped back, but the cursed lizardman rogue was quicker, reaching out to grab her hair.
Cruella stabbed at its arm, but the wounds closed up as quickly as she inflicted them. Eli hurriedly healed her, bringing her plummeting health back to about half, then up to full, before applying buffs. The rogue nonchalantly slammed Cruella’s head into the stone wall—once, twice—before throwing her to the floor.
The corridor erupted with light as Samantha cast her spells, tearing into the trio of lizardmen, who stood fast against the damage before being promptly healed. Cruella got to her feet, swaying from side to side, as Eli finally spotted the monster in the back.
“It’s not a mage,” he said. “It’s a healer!”
He cast Silence. It failed, but on his second attempt, he succeeded, and he sighed with relief as the effect took hold. Seeing a curse on Cruella, he quickly cleansed it, while Simon stepped forward, his shield now much larger, covering his broad frame.
“I silenced the healer! Go!” Eli shouted.
Cruella disappeared into crackling red lightning and reappeared behind the healer, stabbing it through the back and driving her blade up into its chest. Her weapon emerged through the lizardman healer’s robe, and it slid off her blade, collapsing dead to the ground. Meanwhile, Simon slammed another lizardman into the wall, breaking its skull with a sickening crunch.
Eli toggled his Harming Healer talent and began attacking the cursed lizardman rogue, which was moving too fast for Simon or Cruella to land direct hits. Samantha joined in, and together they finally brought it down. Cruella was drenched in sweat, and Eli noticed she’d somehow gotten cursed again. He cleansed the curse and healed her.
Cruella looked pale, her eyes a little glassy, and she shook her head as if to clear it, and focused on the bodies scattered around them.
“Before we continue, I should enchant your armor,” Eli said to the group. “It looks like we’ll be taking more hits from now on unless you’re careful. I have an enchantment that will dull the pain.”
“That’s boring,” Cruella grumbled. “Do you have an enchantment that will give me stronger attacks?”
“You just took a knife through the arm,” Samantha admonished her.
“And had your face crushed against a stone wall,” Simon added. “Maybe some defenses are in order?”
“Boring!” Cruella repeated. “Give me some nice stats, or extra mana, to use my powered attacks. Something fun like that.”
Simon shook his head and turned to Eli. “I wouldn’t mind some pain-numbing if you can give it. These things hit like a truck.”
Eli nodded and got to work enchanting the groups' various armor pieces.
They ended up facing three more similar groups before finally finding their way out of the building. Cruella still hadn’t learned from her mistakes, but with Eli silencing the healer and then focusing his healing spells on the highest-level enemy, usually a cursed lizardman fighter with a wide variety of subclasses, the group still made steady progress, even as they grumbled about Cruella's lack of survival instincts.
Ding! You have reached level 41.
At level 25, Simon acquired a skill that made Cruella’s habit of charging into battle a little easier to handle.
Projected Bulwark of Light: Burden yourself with the wounds of others. Transfers some damage from the targeted ally to the caster.
“It won't work for all damage, though,” Simon reminded them, glancing at Cruella, who looked a bit battered. She was still taking plenty of hits, but at least now her health didn’t dip into the red quite as often.
Simon’s self-healing spells allowed Eli to focus more on Cruella and the enemies, keeping the group more stable in battle. Meanwhile, Samantha’s spells grew more potent with each level, and she picked up a few new tricks of her own.
The group exchanged determined looks, feeling stronger as they prepared to face whatever lay ahead.
It didn't take long for them to find their first scorch marks on the walls, showing where Mr. Thomas and his team had walked. Eli and the others stopped at an intersection and peered down the three paths they could take. One path led outside, and that was the one Mr. Thomas had chosen.
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“Do you want to continue in his footsteps?” Eli asked.
“I don’t care either way,” Simon said with a shrug.
“Same,” Samantha added, glancing at Cruella.
“I do kind of want to see what the outside looks like,” Cruella admitted.
“Let’s go, then,” Eli said, nudging Simon forward. For once, Cruella wasn’t going first.
As they moved down the hallway, another group of cursed lizardmen appeared right before the exit. Eli quickly cast Silence, which came in handy, as two of the four lizardmen were casters—one a healer, the other a mage. Both looked eerily human, though twisted, with distorted features, as if someone had attempted to remake them in the image of a person. One of them even wore human pants and boots but had an unusually large tail.
Cruella and Simon took them down with support from Eli, while Samantha added extra damage. After dealing with the lizardmen, the group took a brief pause to meditate and regenerate mana. Finally, they exited the hallway and found the area Mr. Thomas had described.
The place was arranged to look like the outdoors, with grass on the ground, gravel paths, and even trees, though they were still in a cave much like the one on the floor above. The roof wasn’t as high, and the trees brushed against the stone ceiling, their branches bending out of shape. Glow lights illuminated the paths, and as they emerged, Eli saw several groups of lizardmen roaming the area around clusters of buildings.
“There are a lot of buildings out here,” Eli noted. “Should we just pick one at random?”
Samantha pointed to a nearby building. “Let’s take it slow and go through them one at a time. Your boss mentioned there might be more bosses around here, so we should be careful not to pull too many at once.”
A single lizardman Goliath stood guard outside the building. This one carried a club for and the weapon was as long as Simon was tall. Working together, the group distracted the monster. Cruella danced around its long, flailing limbs, applying some sort of ice damage over time that stacked and slowed the Goliath. Simon did his best to tank the blows that Cruella couldn’t dodge, striking with searing light that made the creature’s flesh sizzle. Samantha used her own attacks, adding debuffs that amplified Cruella’s damage and drained the Goliath’s life with damage-over-time effects.
Even in its rage and confusion, the Goliath tried several times to reach the casters. Eli had to step in front of Samantha to shield her from a massive swipe of its club. Even with his Aegis, he ended up with a broken arm, and healing it—bones and muscles knitting back together—was almost more painful than the break itself. He silently thanked his lucky stars for his enchantments. Finding that pain numbing enchantment might just've been the best thing to happen to him since waking up in Aryxia.
Even with the accumulating from DOTs, slow debuffs, and the party’s attacks, it took a nerve-wracking fifteen minutes before the Goliath’s massive health finally dropped to zero.
“These things are like bosses in and of themselves,” Eli said, promptly sitting down on the ground to regenerate mana. He didn’t need to sit anymore with his evolved meditation skill, but it still felt better to rest. In most fights, he could stand back and cast spells, but this time he’d had to move around, positioning himself outside the Goliath’s range, which was considerable with its long arms and massive weapon.
He summoned a cup of lukewarm water with a metallic aftertaste, but it still tasted like heaven as it went down. “Feast of the Dying Light is really something,” he remarked.
“I can loot the club,” Simon said, and the huge weapon disappeared before reappearing in Simon’s hands, now several sizes smaller. “That’s disappointing.”
“You thought you’d be able to carry the club as it was?” Cruella asked, sitting on the stairs of the building the Goliath had guarded. She rested her elbows on her knees, her thick braid of dark hair hanging forward over her shoulder. Her bare arms were covered in pale scars, remnants of healed wounds, and an impressive collection of bruises.
“Maybe,” Simon said, putting the club back into his inventory. "I'm getting pretty strong."
After looting, several coins were added to Eli’s inventory. He noticed that his wealth kept growing, even though he wasn’t looting the monsters himself. The money was being split four ways.
“Are we ready to go inside?” Samantha asked.
“Yeah. Let's check what’s in there,” Eli said, walking up the three short steps to the front door. It was plain wood, without much detailing, and unlocked. He pushed, and the door swung open inward.
Inside, one of the bosses Mr. Thomas had mentioned awaited them.
The cursed lizard man knight stood tall, nearly eight feet, clad in plate armor polished to a shine. Every inch of it, from head to toe, was covered in metal. Even its face was covered by a gleaming helmet. In one hand, it held a massive kite shield that looked heavier than the four people in their party combined. In the other, it gripped a sword as long as Eli was tall. Danger and strength radiated from the monster as it stood there, motionless, waiting for them.
The group lingered just outside the room. Behind the knight, a whole lot of cursed lizardmen warriors of varying levels were arrayed, accompanied by several healers dressed in robes and even something ominously labeled a curse crier, as well as several cursed lizardman mages. Eli scanned the room before carefully shutting the door again, wincing as the hinges squeaked.
As one, the four of them stepped back down the stairs, retreating onto the grass. Eli turned to the side, frowning. “Do we want to check this way?” he asked.
Simon and Samantha nodded enthusiastically, but Cruella glanced at the door longingly before sighing. “Fine,” she said. “But we’re coming back for that thing when we have more members and levels.”
“Are you sure they’re not going to leave the house?” Simon asked.
“Doesn't look like they're following,” Eli replied.
Simon cleared his throat. “Maybe it’s time we think about going back.”
“Back?” Samantha asked. “To the office?”
“I mean, don’t you guys get exhausted from being in danger all this time?” Simon said.
“There’s no real danger when we have Eli with us,” Cruella teased. “You just want to take a nap.”
“A little healing isn’t going to save you from everything, Cruella,” Eli said. “You’re right, Simon. Maybe we should return and rest for a while and use our available skill points, attributes, and talents.”
That was when they heard a very human scream erupt from a few houses away. They froze, exchanged glances, and then set off running. Rest would have to wait.