Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! FEAR THE SOLDIER!
ANYWAY, Monster Hunter Cross. Nuff said.
I already got my ticket to the Hype train’s first class passage, what about you guys?
ALSO… Is there anything to speak more at all? Oh, might not have an update tomorrow, as there are some extra classes. Instead, we get an update Thursday because it’s a holiday! Hooray!
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After some healing for my broken body but little to nothing for my shattered ego, we once again left off towards the entrance of the cave. The fact that no one was looking me directly in the eyes was painful, but understandable, so I didn’t delve too much into it.
Right on the entrance of the dungeon, there was a small shining light with some thin smoke coming out of it, almost as if warning us that there was a whole new world on the other side of this smoke. If my guess is correct, the moment I cross this line will mean that we will enter the dungeon and be in an isolated area from the server, since this was an instanced dungeon.
And just as we did that, a window popped up in front of me.
You have just entered Yksar’s mana-infested Mines.
Objectives:
-Disable security Drone Excel-Loran
-Kill the Crystal-infested Alpha: Crystalline Moonlit Ravager (AKA Doggy)
-Activate the Mana diffuser to stop the spread.This is an instanced dungeon. Those who aren’t in your party won’t join in the same dungeon as you.
This is a repeatable dungeon. Even if you kill the boss, you can come back to run it again.This dungeon is locked for other players until you complete your quest. As you are the first players on this dungeon, each boss will drop an exclusive item on defeat, besides the usual drop.This place was once known as a mine owned by the elven researcher Yksar, who used the cave’s resource in his research, however a terrible accident occurred, making the whole cave to be flooded with potentially toxic levels of mana. Although countermeasures were made, there wasn’t enough time to implement them before the outbreak started and thus they decided to simply seal the area. However, even the seal is now unable to contain the spread, so now it falls to you to stop this excessive mana from spreading.
I must say that I find that last piece of lore a bit unneeded, I mean, I’m here in a quest for the very god of chaos, so whatever I do here will probably end even worse than before, right? Well, no matter.
Still, extra loot is good, even if I promised to not get anything from the dungeon… I suddenly feel regret.
Anyway, as my vision got used to the darkness of the cave, I couldn’t help but notice the loads of crystals completely surrounding the long corridor in front of us, with crystals popping from the ceiling, walls and ground. There were still many places where you could see the rock the mine had been carved into, but the crystals greatly overshadowed everything else.
Looking closely, we could even see some old rotting wood supports inside the crystals, probably what the miners used to support the cave previously. Just as outside, everything inside the mine had a slight blue tint, thanks to the sheer amount of mana in the air. There weren’t any enemies in sight for now, but I knew that they were probably waiting for us right after the next corner.
But what really caught my eyes were the shining spots on the larger crystals. And it wasn’t just any shining spot, but the ones only miners can see.
AND THEY WERE EVERYWHERE! SO MUCH MINING!
I wouldn’t be surprised if I had started salivating right there, as I picked up my pick-axe and approached a nearby mining spot.
“Shishou, what does ‘instanced dungeon’ mean?” I heard Yuu asking me from behind. I reached the spot, put the pick in the ground, and rubbed my hands together.
“You see, Instanced means that it’s isolated from the rest of the world, so no other player besides us can enter the same dungeon as us. If they try, they will be taken to a similar dungeon, but without us in it.”
“I see… And why would they do that?” She asked me tilting her head.
“Two or three reasons, really.” I picked the pick again and raised it up high. “One, is because during a dungeon, you already have a hard time focusing on the monsters. Having to focus on possible back-stabs by other players would be too taxing for most people. The second…” As I said that I brought down the pick into the spot, making a large chunk of crystal pop up from it.
WARNING: You have damaged the crystals in the mine. Nearby patrols will be redirected towards your current location to stop you.
…
Whoops!
“GOD DAMMIT GON!” I heard Hanbei shouting angrily as she put her hand in her sword.
“Guys, get ready!” Yagver said while he took the front-lines.
His friends quickly made their formation with Xredder right behind him, Lenny, lets call her that for convenience, taking some distance to his right and Forgotten right in their middle. Yuu and Hanbei quickly noticed their formation and copied their positioning, with Yuu to his left and Hanbei besides Xredder.
Me? I kept on mining. The message already popped once and it would not get any worse for now, and since there still was no enemy in sight, I took my time mining.
Sadly, there weren’t any elemental crystals in this mine. Maybe it is because it’s not ore per-se?
Soon enough, as soon as I had finished the vein, we started to hear the hurried metallic footsteps and some claws scratching the ground coming from the turn ahead in the corridor. I patiently took my position besides Lenny and pulled my bow from my back, picking an elemental arrow from the inventory and nocking it into the bow.
Soon after, around eight monsters appeared from the passage. Five of them were wolves with cristaline claws and fangs, and some slight shining blue patches of fur. The others looked like some rounded armors, with large boots and hands and an almost perfect circle for body. A small projection from its top marked the head.
The armor thingies looked kind of cute actually.
Shaking my head to regain my focus, I aimed my bow towards the wolf in front of the group, seeing as a plaque appeared above all of the group.
Crystal-infested wolf [lvl 19] [Elite]
Equivalent level: 20
(aggressive)HP: 1000/1000
-Howl
-Shatter crystal
Crystal-infested Mining drone [lvl 19] [Elite]
Equivalent level: 20
(aggressive)HP: 1500/1500
-Heavy plate
-Shoot crystals
-Emergency measures
Damn, that is a lot of HP there… I’m a bit afraid on how strong the boss will actually be.
I let loose the arrow at the wolf leading the group when he was around ten meters from us, and as soon as the arrow burrowed into his body, the wind-crystal ingot activated, knocking him back and taking the ones behind him together.
-27 -2 (971/1000)
Immediately afterwards, Yagver charged forward before leaping in the air, crossing the distance between him and the remaining monsters in a blink of an eye while slamming the bottom of his shield in the ground, causing a small earthquake that brought all the monsters down, followed by a loud roar that was his taunt.
“WAR!” Xredder shouted while looking at me and I nodded, he started to charge a punch right where we were standing. I shot another arrow at a drone and grimaced when it bounced off its armor, dealing low damage.
When I turned back to the tiger, I saw that his fist was trembling with energy, and immediately cast Tactical charge on him. As soon as he saw the skill activating, he let out his skill, jumping forward towards the fight and slamming a nearby drone, dealing over one hundred damage and stunning it and the two wolves behind it with a shockwave.
Meanwhile, on Yagvers left side, Hanbei was slashing away at the wolves generating rage before jumping back just in time as a barrage of fire and ice spears flew above her, freezing the ground and spreading fire all around.
I smiled as I saw that damage, but frowned when I noticed some movement coming from the smoke.
“Watch out! The drones didn’t take much damage!” Yagver shouted us a warning, just in time as I saw some crystals shards flying out of the fire and attacking Yuu, taking out a third of her health.
I grimaced and shot a piercing shot towards the Drone together with Lenny, but our arrows simply bounced off its armor dealing less than twenty damage.
“The drones are resistant to ranged damage! Hanbei and Xredder, focus on them! Leave the wolves to Yuu and me!” Lenny shouted. I nodded agreeing with her while I charged forward.
“Yag, I will take these two drones back, you focus on the remaining mobs!” I shouted to him while I approached the drone that was preparing to take a shot at Yuu again and activated Offensive Cycle.
-7 -18 -1 -35 -1 -21
-86 (1324/1500)
Geez, even after taking Yuu’s bombardment this guy was still almost full health!
“Hey, Tin-face. Come take someone your size, will you?” I used taunt on him before turning towards the one that Xredder was attacking. “And you? Afraid to take on a pile of rocks? What a great miner!”
It’s a bit embarrassing the fact that my taunt works through words, but at least is effective, as both of them turned towards me. Luckily, their melees attacks are nowhere near as damaging as the crystal shooting skills, so all I needed to do was to block their wild fist swings.
I used shield-slam on the one that I had just pulled so I could gather some more agro before lifting my shield and blocking their attacks. But while I did this, the third drone targeted me from afar and used his long range skill hitting me in my legs.
-20 -21 -19 -15 -21
-95 (525/660)
Dammit. That hurts a lot more than I expected. But luckily, soon a light green aura surrounded me as my health started to increase again.
+20 +12 +15
+47 (572/660)
Altough the heals were small, they kept coming constantly, and after around five seconds I was back in full health. I took advantage of this to use a couple of whirlwinds to deal damage, just in time as Han-chan used a skill, impaling one of the drones, dealing a large amount of damage and breaking the armor-plate revealing a crystal core within. I blinked surprised and shouted for Lenny while taking a step back, showing her the spot.
Immediately after an arrow impaled the drone and dealt a huge amount of damage to him, making it even take a step back for a moment.
The armor-less drone fell not even ten seconds later, while the other one still had a good amount of health remaining.
By then, I had already taunted the remaining drone and noticed that there were only two wolves left.
I quickly returned my attention to the two drones in front of me and started to attack them with shield-slam and stab, and when their health got to a certain level, the armor shattered. So, it seems to be a reaction towards its health getting too low. But Hanbei’s still had more than half health when it broke. Why the difference?
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We quickly finalized one of them just as Yagver and Yuu finished the last of the wolves, so they turned towards us and came to help us with the last one.
Well, for an unexpected fight, I guess it went fairly well, without many problems. I don’t know about the wolves, but these drones, as soon as you get into range they become much easier to handle, since they stop using the ranged attack.
Still, I kind of wonder what the last skill is… The heavy plate is probably the one responsible for being resistant to ranged damage, and the shoot crystal is self explanatory.
Now, emergency measures… It kind of smells like a last-stand like skill…
Just as I began to wander on my thoughts, I noticed something. The crystal in the drones body was starting to shine dangerously. It took me almost a second to register this fact, before finally paling while I understood what it was. I took a quick glance towards its health and noticed that he was still above four hundred.
“GET BACK!” I shouted to everyone who didn’t seem to notice this. They looked at me confused for a moment. “FALL BACK, NOW!” I shouted as I moved my arms back. “YUU, MAKE A FEW ICE WALLS BETWEEN US AND THE DRONE, YAGVER, GET BEHIND YOUR SHIELD AND PREPARE FOR IMPACT!”
Yuu didn’t make any more question and ran towards us, making the walls. Yagver stood confused for a moment, but as soon as his eyes landed on the drone, he understood. I cast Tactical charge on him so he could get closer faster, and he used a simple slash skill to reach us. As soon as he turned towards the ice walls, he planted the shield on the ground and we all took shelter behind him.
The monster exploded in a huge ball of mana, breaking everything around it and shattering the four ice walls that Yuu made for us, making them into shrapnel, as well as still pushing back Yagver a few feet back while blowing the remaining of us back.
When we got up we saw a huge crater in the middle of the area, with barely anything left, not even the bodies of the enemies we defeated. Sir Yagver had lost around three fourths of his health while the rest of us lost around a half or more. Worried, I quickly looked around for Lieutenant and Aura. Lieutenant was laying on the ground behind me with his health on the double digits, I quickly took him to Forgotten who healed him back to full health in a few seconds.
As I looked around worriedly for Aura, I found her right in the middle of the explosion, looking… Annoyed, actually. I blinked surprised at seeing her perfectly fine while only looking slightly annoyed at the crater she was in.
It took me a moment to remember that passive pets do not take damage, so she was immune to the explosion. I sighed relieved as I felt my health coming back up from the healing.
“What… Was that?” Yuu asked surprised as she sat back up besides me.
“Probably emergency measures…” Yagver said coming closer to us. When I looked at his shield, I saw many ice fragments stuck into it. Even if the ice walls somehow stopped the shockwave, they became dangerous shrapnel. Luckily, Yagver acted quickly and stopped them from reaching us. “But why did this one explode, and the others didn’t?”
I stopped to think for a moment before turning back to them and saying.
“Probably… Because it didn’t die fast enough after losing the plate…” I said. Compared to the other two, who died a few seconds after losing the plate, the third one spent almost a full thirty seconds without the plate with the crystals to show.
“I see…” he said nodding as he was healed this time. “So, I guess that we need to set them as priority targets… But then the wolves might get troublesome…” He said in a pensive tone. I blinked surprised.
“Are the wolves that troublesome?” I asked him surprised, and he looked slightly troubled.
“Well… By themselves, they aren’t all that troublesome, but their howl skill is troublesome...” He said while thinking. “They cast it every twenty seconds, and for every wolf casting it, they earn a one percent bonus in damage that lasts thirty seconds.”
“So, it’s a soft enrage, huh?” I asked while thinking. “Then you can focus on the wolves first, while I tank the drones.” He looked surprised at me. “It seems to me that the plate breaks when they get below a certain health.” I told him, making him nod understandingly. “Altough there was a time when Hanbei’s attack broke it earlier…” I turned to her confused and asked. “What exactly was that?”
“That?” She tilted her head confused, before blinking. “Oh, that was storm piercer. It’s a high cool down skill that deals large damage and reduces defense. Maybe it was that?” She said tilting her head.
“Could be… But it’s best to be sure…” I turned towards Xredder. “So you have a skill like that?”
“Nah. I have a few skills that applies ailments, but reducing armor isn’t one of them…” he said shaking his head.
“I… Do have a skill like that, Shishou.” Yuu said lifting her hand. All of us turned towards her surprised. “It’s a Spear mastery skill, so I have to get close to use it.”
“Wait… It wasn’t a joke?” Lenny asked surprised.
“No…?” Yuu said tilting her head slightly. “Do you want me to show you?”
“No… Leave it to the fight…” Yagver said slightly surprised.
In the end, we decided that in the next enemies wave, they would all focus on the wolves first, and after finishing them, they would turn towards the drones I would be focusing. With Yuu and Han-chan exchanging their timing on the armor removal, where we would focus down the unprotected drone, one at a time.
All the time while we were talking, I couldn’t help but notice that Lieutenant was looking pretty enraged while cracking his knuckles, or trying to… It seemed that the explosion left him pretty pissed off.
Oh, he’s so young and unexperienced, to let himself get taken by rage only because of one simple enemy… He should learn to control himself better.
“Well, now that we have finished our strategy, it’s time to go and mine away!” I said happily picking up my pick-axe again and looking around for the veins.
Except… That even the mining spots were destroyed by the explosion.
There was nothing left.
Not. A. Single. Vein.
So many resources… Wasted… Gone… All because a single drone decided to blow up…
I fell down on my knees, feeling despair for having lost so much material for the drones. Just imagine the weapons and armors I could have made with that thing, can you even imagine how much I lost all because of that drone… That… Single… Drone…
“DEATH TO ALL DRONES!” I shouted angrily while getting up.
“NYAAAA!” Lieutenant shouted together with me, as the two of us were completely consumed by rage.
Aura and Hanbei were both shaking their heads to us, but we paid them no mind, as we started to urge the group forwards so we could have our revenge. As we advanced through the cave, Yuu approached me and asked.
“Shishou… What is soft enrage?” She asked me confused. “Is that some kind of martial arts style?”
I blinked surprised as I processed the words, and for a moment all my rage disappeared as I looked at Yuu trying to process the words. Before starting to laugh at her, which made her blush slightly with a confused face.
“No, dear apprentice…” I said while petting her. “Enrage is a feature that some enemies might have so that you don’t drag the fight for too long.” I explained to her. “They usually are found in bosses to make the fight a bit more challenging with a timer. These enrage are usually divided in two kinds. One is the hard enrage, where after X minutes the enemy earn a huge boost in damage or use a skill that kills everyone on sight. The other one is the soft enrage, where after every X seconds, or after using a certain skill, they increase their damage slightly but progressively, until it gets to a point that the healers are unable to keep up. Did you understand?”
She made a pensive pose for a moment before nodding cheerfully. She makes me so proud to be her teacher. I petted her a bit more before going back to berserker mode and pounding our my way ahead.
But before we even reached the next group, we were stopped by a T division in the cave, where one side kept being the same crystal in cave, and the other had some better worked floor, with some chiseled stones and so on.
“Okay, which way do we go?” Xredder asked. “Not like we can use our maps in here, after all…” I blinked surprised and looked at my mini-map, noticing that the whole area was died in a deep black color, except for the way that we came from.
I actually hadn’t noticed that, kind of nifty, giving a slightly more realistic feeling to dungeon crawling.
“I don’t know… Whichever one is good for me.” Yagver said while examining both paths. “I only hope that we don’t get the wrong path.”
I looked at both paths and noticed that Lieutenant was pointing towards the Chiseled-stone path.
“I guess we go that way then…” I said while looking at the direction he pointed. Yagver’s group looked at me surprised, then towards to Lieutenant.
“Are you sure about it?” They asked me. I looked towards lieutenant, who pointed towards our back.
“Oh, there is a map here…” I said looking at the old map locked within the crystal. Probably from the time this place was still working. I could hear as everyone else started to face-palm themselves.
After taking a good look at the map and using Lenny’s surprisingly good drawing skills, we made a quick copy of the map and followed it towards a suspiciously large room. The way we were taking had rooms and corridors with a more regular shape, being rectangular, reminding something man-made, while the other was more irregular, resembling a normal cave.
It didn’t take us more than one minute after taking the turn to find another group of enemies, but this time was only a single drone a three wolves, so it was a much easier fight than before.
Yuu and Lenny executed the wolves quickly, and then turned towards the drone I was tanking.
“Yuu, test you skill on the dro…” Before I could even finish my words, I was interrupted by someone.
“NYAAAA!” Lieutenant jumped before any of us could even move and held himself on the drones armor.
We all blinked surprised at the raging Lieutenant. Even the Drone stopped shocked for a moment and stood still trying to understand what was happening.
Lieutenant hissed at the Drones face once again and suddenly pulled two of the throwing knives from his inventory and stabbed them in the small space between the body and the head, before meowing loudly and ripping the armor away forcefully. Immediately afterwards he jumped back up and stabbed an explosive knife and a fire knife in the exposed crystal core before walking away as both knives went out together in a huge ball of fire.
We looked surprised at Lieutenant who was cleaning his paws after a job well done.
Sadly, the damage wasn’t enough to actually kill it, so we had to finish the drone ourselves. Lieutenant didn’t seem to mind though, as he started smiling in a silly way for having let out his rage.
For having manually removed the armor of his enemy your pet has unlocked the Skill: Dismantle ArmorSkill: Dismantle Armor [lvl1]
0%Your pet jumps at the enemy and forcefully damages the armor, reducing defense by 10% for fifteen seconds. Only works if the enemy uses armors.Cool down: 1 minute
Well… What can I say, Lieutenant’s rage is a bit scarier than what I expected.