“Looks more ominous than my uncle’s fake leg,” Edgar quipped as he looked at the chest. “That thing looked like the devil himself had made it.”

“Uncle?” Jonathan asked as he headed towards the chest.

“Yeah, Duke Bithynia, or something like that. I hardly remember the names of the noble families at this point. Most of them were heavily inbred. Keeping the blood pure and all that.”

“Ah,” Jonathan said, knowing full well what Edgar was talking about. The various royal families of Europe had been prone to the same thing. “What about the leg though?”

“It was made out of the horn of a plainstalker mastodon, and was pitch black in color. The Duke used it as a weapon, supplementing his pugilist style. He used to brag that the scarlet spots on it were from blood.”

Jonathan simply nodded, and opened the chest with a single hand. There was a small pile of metal ingots inside, and a helmet. Jonathan wasn’t interested in the helmet, as he already had his own, more powerful armor, but he still scanned it.

Twilight Helm of Tartarus

Tier 2 Armor

This helmet is part of the four piece set that can be found by fighting through the Dungeon of Endless Twilight. The set pieces can be found randomly distributed throughout the dungeon. While worn, it provides a sizable boost to darkvision. The full bonuses can only be unlocked while the whole set is worn.

Bonuses: Locked

It was the first time that Jonathan had seen a piece of armor on its own, and he soon realized why. Without the full set, it did not provide any stat bonuses. The darkvision ability was interesting, but Jonathan didn’t need it. Instead, he put the helm into his storage device, and checked out the ingots.

They were of a metal that he did not recognize, and a quick scan told him that they were cthonium ingots. Channeling the skill allowed him to see that they were formed in places close to the depths of the world, in a physical, or a conceptual way. They were harder than steel, and great at conducting heat. Glad for the valuable find, Jonathan quickly put them away. All that was left now was to clear out the caves surrounding the area.

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Leaving the chest behind, the two men strode away from the center, and towards the nearest cave entrance. Jonathan was not sure what they would find, but was certain that it would not pose much of a challenge.

A few minutes later, he was regretting his hubris. The caves were filled with massive spiders, twisted and bulging with the corruption of the darkness. They were the size of a human, and a pair of glistening fangs protruded down from their mouths. Even worse, they had human eyes.

Their webs were black in color, and would no doubt spread some sort of taint if they were touched. Jonathan observed this from the edge of the cavern, and sent a pleading look Edgar's way. The other man grimaced, and then nodded. A wave of wind swept through the caverns, bringing razor sharp blades of energy with it. Each of the spiders were swiftly decapitated, leaving behind twitching corpses. Edgar did not relent until the job was done, and the floor clear notification met them. They were quickly whisked away to the next floor.

The next three floors were much the same as the first two, except the fifth one warned that there was a boss battle at the end of the floor. The floor was a dimly lit mausoleum, filled with ominous looking architecture and gravestones pitted with age. After fighting their way through a horde of shambling humanoid creatures, they were met with the boss. It was a larger version of the humanoids that filled that particular floor, and oozed with dark power. Jonathan learned that it was called a Twilight Revenant, and was level 170. At least the levels were starting to grow decently. Jonathan was very close to another level, and was optimistic that this would push him over the edge.

The monster was about fifteen feet tall, and seemed more alert than its smaller brethren had been. As soon as the two men neared, the monster turned towards them, and bared its fangs. With a strange gait, it shambled towards them, moving far faster than it had any right to. It picked up speed as it went, and then extended its claws outwards, ready to slice through them.

Jonathan rolled to the side as the creature approached, slicing down with its claws. Edgar propelled half to the side with his wind powers, narrowly avoiding the attack. Both men moved in after the monster, Jonathan with a fist coated in the Void, and Edgar with a long blade of concentrated wind.

The revenant turned towards them, whirling around faster than its bulk seemed to be able to support, and leaped at them, ready to rend them to pieces with its claws. Jonathan ducked under a slash and drove his fist into the monster’s abdomen, blasting a chunk of dark flesh away. The Revenant bent over double, putting its face in range of his fist. Jonathan uppercutted the monster, sending it off its feet and straight into the path of a wind spear.

Skewered midair, the monster fell to the ground, bleeding heavily. Jonathan and Edgar beat on the creature until it was dead, and a wave of essence entered them. It had been oddly anticlimactic, but then again, the monster was only a few levels higher than they were.