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Chapter 58: A lot of Shinies

We kept travelling the 10th floor, fighting more groups of undead goblins. There was no sign of Gobmi the named undead, but we kept our eyes peeled for any blurs. We didn't want to get caught off guard like last time so we made sure to be on guard the entire time. Ray had been grumbling about being robbed the entire time and wouldn't let it go. He kept talking about the various ways he would beat up the named undead if he ever caught it.

We had been in the dungeon for a while and had collected a decent bit of loot, even if it was from undead goblins and hobgoblins, it would still fetch us some cash. We had recently fought a group of only undead hobgoblins, which was a bit annoying to deal with but we dealt with it swiftly. we were starting to get near the boss room when Ronia spoke up and got everyone's attention. "Hey! Look over here! There's some illusion magic at work here. Wonder why its here?"

Herald got his shield ready and questioned Ronia on what kind of trap she thought it was. She shook her head and said "It's not a trap from what I can tell. Theres simply a room behind the illusion. I can't tell what's in it without crossing the illusion though." Her eyes were glowing blue due to mana. It was one of her skills that she used to check for traps. It was rather helpful as it had prevented us from falling into numerous pitfall traps.

Herald kept his shield up but sounded confused as he said "If its not a trap whys there an illusion covering it in the dungeon? It just seems too fishy. Could it be a monster zone?" Monster zones were rooms in dungeons where monsters spawned in at an accelerated rate, making them far more dangerous.

Ronia didn't reply but simply warned us to be ready to flee at any moment. She picked up a stone from the floor and tossed it at the illusion. The stone passed through the fake wall and the illusion rippled before going back to normal but nothing happened. No trap sprung, no monsters came charging out of the fake wall. Nothing. We waited for another minute before Herald spoke up, "I'll go in first, the rest of you follow behind me when I call you, otherwise stay out here." Herald held his shield firm and used a skill to increase his defence before slowly making his way towards the illusion wall. He stepped up to it and carefully inched in, making sure there was solid ground on the other side. Ronia's trap detecting skill was good but it wasn't perfect by any means so we made sure to be at least partially alert when the skill told us nothing was there on the other side.

Herald passed through and we waited for him to give the ok. We were ready to come busting in with help if Herald got into trouble but otherwise stood still. After a few seconds of silence Herald popped back through the illusion, with a confused look. He told us to come in but said "I-I don't get it. Whys there so many copper coins here? Theres got to be at least a few silvers worth of copper."

We walked through the illusion and what greeted us was a rather empty room, save for some worn down furniture and a small mound of copper coins, with some random pieces of armour and weapon strewn about. There were even a few pieces of jewellery on the pile I had a sneaking suspicion as to what we had found and voiced my suspicion to the others.

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"Isn't this that named monsters stash of loot? It seemed to be fond of copper coins and stuff didn't it?" The others seemed to have come to the same conclusion as me and nodded their heads.

Ray rubbed his chin and seemed to notice something besides the loot as he spoke up in a loud voice. "So thats how it evolved into an undead hobgoblin assassin on the 10th floor!" He started moving to the loot but he started shoving the copper coins away and eventually uncovered a pool of rainbow coloured liquid. There were several tiny crystals in the pool, no bigger than someone's pinky nail.

Ray pointed at the pool and said "The monster found this pool full of various mana crystals and probably soaked in it or drank the liquid. That eventually let it evolve into a hobgoblin assassin. Thats my best assumption."

Ronia nodded her head and said "That makes a lot of sense actually. My question is why this even exists in the dungeon. This isn't on the map we bought from the guild. Could it have appeared recently?" Ronia pondered the question a bit but Ray interrupted her.

"Whatever happened, it doesn't really matter now does it. We got a big haul and we didnt even have to fight the named monster for the loot! Zane, shove this pile of coins into your storage magic thing and lets go!"

Ronia sighed at Rays enthusiasm and just started to help us put the loot away. We were about halfway done when we heard a scream. It was a voice we had heard earlier.

"SHIIIINY!! MY SHINIES! SHINY THIEFS! GIVE GOBMI HIS SHINIES!!!" There was a loud thud as something slammed into Herald's shield rather hard, scratching and tearing at it before leaping away as fast as it arrived. There were some scratch marks left on his shield but he was fine otherwise. We turned around quickly and looked for the named monster but didn't see anything as it was rather dark. I used a spell to make some balls of light and scattered them around the room. With that we saw Gobmi circling us quickly and leaping at Ray. Ray struck out with his spear, cutting the named monsters leg but missing anything vital. The monster slashed at Ray but only slashed his armour with its dagger, sending sparks flying. The monster hopped away before I could use my sword to attack it, resuming its prior circling. IT kept repeatedly attacking and hopping back, repeating this back and forth.

This went on for a while before Ronia got an idea. She took out a shiny bracelet from her bag. She tossed it to the left and said "Look, more shinies! Over there!" The monster looked at the bracelet and dashed for it. Before it could get to it however, Herald attacked with his weapon. He smashed into the monsters back, sending it flying. The monster skittered across the floor but got up quickly. Not before Ronia embedded a few arrows into its legs and one in its gut. The monster coughed up black blood but didn't seem to care. It dashed towards the bracelet once more and hopped over Herald. Herald was wearing a helmet so the claws that struck his head did nothing, but the monster got behind him. He turned around but the monster had grabbed the bracelet and was muttering "Gobmi get better shiny. Gobmi happy!"

Ronia motioned for us to leave but the monster seemed to notice. It screamed at us "SHINY THIEVES NO LEAVE! SHINY THIEVES DIE!"

I sighed .It looked like we weren't going to make a quick and easy getaway with our ill gotten gains that easily. "Damn it Ray! You had to tempt fate earlier didn't you!" I yelled out as I readied a spell to slow down the zippy bastard and hopefully take care of this nuisance once and for all.