Chapter 133
After the fight Aiden had gone from person to person and checked them for wounds. He laid hands on Jay and healed a few minor wounds and scrapes using his first Class Ability, Patchwork. It left patches over the spots Aiden had healed but that was fine, the patches would dissipate when the wounds were fully healed.
The Snatcher's body didn't stay on the floor very long and quickly dissipated in to motes of light. The group was disappointed to see that the candy apple red cutlass vanished as well. They had hoped to get a closer look at it. Left behind was a copper treasure chest with wooden bands wrapped across its surface. It was the size of an overstuffed backpack and appeared to be shut tight.
“Treasure time!” Norri said in excitement. “Can we open it now? Pleeeeease?”
M'redith laughed, “Sure, why not? As long as no one else minds?”
No one else minded. They could all use a little break after the workout they had just gotten and passing out treasure was the perfect way to spend a break.
M'redith looked over at Jay and gave him a nod. Jay knew what she wanted and walked over to inspect the chest.
It wasn't fancy, just a copper chest with some wood bands wrapped about it. No keyhole or clasp. The chest just appeared to rest in the closed position yet could be opened just by raising the lid, no key required.
Jay inspected where the lid met the base and lightly ran a finger along the seam to check for triggers. His finger didn't catch on anything and he couldn't see anything that looked out of place.
“I'm no expert but I don't see any traps.” Jay finally admitted.
“Well that fills me with confidence,” Norri said with a smile. Still, she got up and opened the lid after Jay had proclaimed it 'probably' safe.
The inside of the chest was lined in dark velvet and contained five wrapped bundles along with a small stack of coins.
“What are the bundles?” Carly asked from off to the side as she watched Norri go through the chest.
Norri picked one up and inspected it. “Pants?”
“Pants?” Carly replied with a tone that implied she didn't believe her.
“Yup. This one is pants. This one is a shirt. And this is a hat. Ooo, it's a sailor's hat with black ribbons just like the one we fought!” Norri nattered on as she kept up a running commentary of what she unwrapped.
Jay looked at one of the shirts and inspected it after focusing for ten seconds.
Sailor's Shirt – common – part of the Landlocked Lighthouse armor set – provides +1 Strength and +1 Dexterity while worn – this item has a zero armor value and is not suitable for combat
Jay tried again but inspected the pants this time.
Sailor's Pants – common – part of the Landlocked Lighthouse armor set – provides +1 Constitution and +1 Intelligence while worn – this item has a zero armor value and is not suitable for combat
Jay figured he might as well inspect the hat too.
Sailor's Cap – common – part of the Landlocked Lighthouse armor set – provides +1 Charisma while worn – this item has a zero armor value and is not suitable for combat
“Oh cool. Armor that doesn't have armor and is unsuitable for combat. Just what I've always wanted!” Aiden said sarcastically.
“It's not that bad,” M'redith insisted, “don't we all need a set of this armor for our quest?”
The group had forgotten about their quest due to all of the excitement but sobered a bit at the reminder.
“Ok. I changed my mind. I want a piece of that after all.” Aiden said with a grin. “Even if it is mostly useless.”
“Can you imagine what other people before us must have thought after looting this stuff? I mean, we need it for our quests but other than that these things look useless.” Carly thought out loud.
“No, these things ARE useless. Other than our quest. Who would wear that set just for a +1 to every statistic.” Aiden groused.
“Statistics are a lie.” Jay said without thinking.
The others chuckled at that. They had learned earlier from Jay that in a way statistics were a lie – wearing an outfit just to get a temporary +1 to every statistic wouldn't have any effect on a person's combat abilities. It made no sense.
The mini-boss they had just fought wasn't easy. Only thanks to Jay and his group's coordination had they been able to defeat the enemy. The fight would have been a lot more complicated without M'redith's Fancy Doppelganger ability. So the fight was challenging, not a pushover, and that kind of fight deserved a valuable reward.
Yet here they stood around a copper treasure chest filled with useless 'armor.' If it weren't for their quests they'd be a bit disappointed with the reward on offer.
“Let's just store them until we collect enough for a full set for everyone. No point in trying to keep track of who has what when we can just wait and hand everyone a full set.” M'redith stated logically.
Norri frowned but then shrugged and smiled. “That's fine. It's still fun opening chests!”
Aiden smiled. “Anything else in there?”
Norri peeked back in to the chest and took out the pile of coins. “Five silver! Yes!”
Everyone else grinned while Norri handed everyone a silver coin.
“See?” M'redith said to Norri, “We still all got something at least.”
Norri nodded before she stretched her arms over her head.
Jay walked over and took possession of all of the wrapped bundles. They fit easily in to his backpack.
With a quiet poof sound the treasure chest disappeared.
“Well, that's that. Ready for more?” M'redith asked her group who all gamely replied in the affirmative.
The group walked over to the descending stairwell and proceeded to the next floor.
They walked down the winding stairway until they stepped out in to a new room. Next to them on the wall next to the stairs were a large B3 painted on the wall.
The darkness was more pronounced on floor B3. Although there were lights glowing faintly it was just enough to see objects without being bright enough to make out details. The area around them was ringed in shadows but the group could just barely make out the shape of the room they were in.
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It was basically a hallway. The hallway curved around clockwise and appeared to spiral the entire border of the lighthouse before the spiral gradually led further and further in towards the center.
There were no fatal funnels. There were no doorways. There was just the one unimaginably long hallway that felt as if it were never ending.
They had traveled perhaps a quarter of the length of the outer spiral before they were attacked.
The hallways was featureless save for occasional light sconces that did more to highlight the darkness than dispel it. They almost missed the creature when it approached them and M'redith gave a cry as she suddenly drew her sword.
The hallway wasn't that wide, maybe five feet at the most, and so there was really only room for Norri to step forward next to M'redith and help with the combat. Aiden waited behind them to heal them should the need arise. Jay kept an eye behind them while also waiting for an opening. Carly hung back with Jay and watched as the two women in front of her suddenly attacked something that she could barely make out.
A stream of webbing shot past her face and she yanked her head out of the way before moving to the side of the hallway, hopefully out of range of the creature.
M'redith had been ambushed by a three foot high spider. Some spiders are known to have a light covering of hair but this spider took things in a new direction entirely and had long flowing hair that grew off of its main body. It looked like a large fluffy dog – with pedipalps, too many eyes, and eight legs.
It scuttled towards M'redith who cried out in horror as she drew her sword. The spider halted in front of her and spat a stream of webbing which she dodged. The spray continued on past her and almost struck Jay, who was unprepared for the attack. Thankfully his stumbling about took him out of the line of fire.
Norri didn't strike the creature but instead used her first Class Ability, Control Creature. She focused on the creature's spinneret and forced it to squeeze and flex.
Spurts of webbing shot out of the spider at odd angles, some of it tangling about the spider itself as the spider's spinnarets forced more and more webbing out of the creature.
The creature flailed about as Norri locked up one of the spider's main attacks.
M'redith followed up with slices with her sword and quickly cut the spider down. First a few legs, and finally the head and body were cut apart by M'redith's sword swings.
Norri finally stopped focusing and gave out a sigh. She was sweating lightly and Jay could see a bead of sweat run down the side of her face. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand and grinned. “That was fun!”
M'redith shivered and grunted. “The hell it was. I hate those things.”
“More than slavers?” Aiden asked flippantly.
“Yes.” M'redith insisted before shivering once again.
They watched as the three foot insect quickly dissipated in to motes of light and left behind nothing. No loot. No coins.
“No loot.” Aiden remarked sadly.
“What did you expect?” Norri asked. “It's not like spiders have pockets or carry coin pouches.”
Aiden tilted his head in thought before sighing. “Why do you always have to make so much sense?”
Norri giggled.
“Ok, let's focus. We've got a ton more hallway to travel through and I doubt that was the only spider so stay alert. They could sneak up behind us as well so keep an eye behind us Carly. You too Jay.” M'redith asked in a professional tone of voice.
Carly reacted to it well and nodded in agreement. Jay would keep an eye on any spiders as well as Carly herself, just in case she slid back in to panic.
They fought a number of spiders on the way to the center of the basement level they were on. M'redith and Norri handled each of them until the spiders had gotten smarter. The next attack had come from the front as well as behind the group.
Norri and M'redith had made short work of the spider in front while Carly bombarded it with her Starburst ability. Jay had used his staff to keep the spider at bay so Carly was free to focus on her ability. Things had gotten a little hairy and Jay's lack of ability with the staff resulted in him taking a bite to his leg as well as Carly taking a puncture wound on her leg where the spider had used the tip of one of its legs to pierce Carly's body.
Once the spiders had been dealt with Aiden went from person to person and laid hands on them. Patches were left behind which covered the healing wounds. After a few minutes they were prepared to continue.
The spiders continued from that point on to attack them from the front and back when they would ambush the group. Eventually the spiders decided to send more than two at a time and the difficulty level of their encounters grew.
Things progressed until the ambushes were comprised of no less than four spiders at a time. Jay's group began to take wounds from their encounters which forced Aiden to use his ability more and more. They walked on and on along the spiraling hallway as they moved ever closer to whatever waited for them in the center of floor B3.
Class Abilities weren't free. Every time they were used they cost the caster a certain amount of mana, which was a limited resource for each of them. Every time Aiden cast his healings his mana dropped further and further. Every time anyone used one of their abilities their mana dropped. After a seemingly endless progression of ambushes the entire group was running low on mana.
“Hold here,” M'redith said to her group after they dispatched yet another ambush comprised of four 3 foot hairy spiders. “I could use a little more mana. I'm guessing Aiden is almost out entirely?”
Aiden's eyes lost focus for a moment as he checked his mana and discovered he was almost at 0. “I'm practically empty. If you guys want me to be able to heal you then we need to take a break.”
“Exactly!” M'redith replied with a grin.
They took up positions on the floor so that even sitting they would be able to see anything coming at them along the hallway.
A crinkling could be heard before a plume of steam rose in to the air and Aiden pulled out a piping hot grilled cheese sandwich out of a foil pouch he held in one hand. Stowing the pouch away once more Aiden tore the sandwich in to five pieces and handed them out.
“Muenster cheese, triangle cut. Yummy.” Norri muttered almost to herself as she took a bite of her piece. Everyone began to eat and the hallway was filled with the sounds of chewing. It didn't last long. There wasn't very much sandwich to go around and it ended up being more snack than meal for the group.
Still, it was a nice touch and left the group feeling re-energized. They each took sips from their water bottles before stowing those away as well.
They would have sat there all day if it weren't for M'redith who got everyone up and back in to line. Everyone checked each other for wounds as well as checking over each other's armor and equipment. Everything looked good so M'redith led her group further down the spiral hallway.
They fought more spiders but thankfully the ambushes never grew past four spiders. Five would quite possibly have been too many for them, no matter how easy the spiders may seem as enemies.
After another ambush the group began to notice that they were getting closer to the center of the floor. A few minutes later and the hallway ended completely. The inner wall of the hallway held a wooden door that was closed.
The door was solid wood with no openings or windows. The group couldn't see what was inside but doubted it would be friendly. Not a lot of friendliness found in most dungeons, Jay thought to himself.
M'redith called a halt, “Let's stop here and rest until our mana is topped off.”
Everyone nodded tiredly and took a seat to rest. M'redith sat next to Jay and leaned up against him as everyone went quiet. They had been at this for hours and were happy to have another break.
“What's next do you think?” Carly asked out loud, but she mainly intended the question for Jay whose guesses had been mostly spot on so far.
Jay shrugged. “I'd have to guess a mini-boss. Any time we fight a bunch of smaller enemies and then reach a new chamber it usually contains a boss. But it could be anything.”
They sat for another few minutes before Aiden nodded. “I'm done. Anyone else?”
Jay and M'redith nodded. They were both full on mana.
“Just another minute and I'll be good to go,” Norri said without opening her eyes, her head tilted back and resting on the wall of the hallway next to the door.
Everyone quietly waited while they enjoyed the silence. Combat had been so loud and constant since they arrived on level B3 and everyone was happy for the break. Finally Norri popped back up to her feet with a grin and tossed her staff from one hand to the other and back again. “Good to go!”
Jay stood and offered M'redith a hand up which she took thankfully. Everyone dusted themselves off before getting back in line.
“Ok, focus up everyone. Let's go kill another boss!” M'redith said with a wide smile, her hair a bit wild from all the prior combat.