Down the bottom of the cliff the crab saw Lauri falling and lifted its claw up to grab him. He used Hold Monster on it right away but couldn't believe how quickly he reached it, traveling the 10 meters down in less time that it took to count to two. He barely angled himself in time to take advantage of the raised claw, bouncing off of it to then slide across the crabs carapace. Lauri started casting Aura of Invisibility with his left hand as he grabbed at the carapace with his right hand. Though failing to slow himself even as he caught sharp edges, which would have cut his hand open if not for the divine protection adventurers are blessed with. At least his attempt spun him round so his legs oriented towards the ground as he collided with it. A snapping sound and a sharp pain came from Lauri's right leg [Lost 2,800 SP, Lost 4,800 HP]. Lauri cried out in anguish, the noise echoing through the cave and the spectator crabs jumped up and down in excitement as they clicked their claws.
[Received damage. Resist seduction?]
["No"] Lauri though at the back of his mind as he continued casting his spell, the daze perhaps being the only reason he hadn't stopped. He replayed the words in his head to drive himself on, "kill them all for me."
The bugs all came at him as a ritual circle appeared beneath him and he finished his 2 second cast time, turning invisible. Shifting his right leg, he regretted it so quickly, he instead used his left leg to leap away from his position. He clenched his teeth, as the pain was still severe, and he looked back to see that the bugs had not followed his movement. Still swarming where he'd just escaped from. Lauri started casting Cure Wounds as fast as he could, which was a 2 second cast time followed by a 3 second cooldown. To have physical damage bypass divine protection from so high in HP, the impact must have been extreme, and if the bone was broken then Cure Wounds wasn't going to have enough oomph. In 45 second Lauri had cast Cure Wounds for the 9th time and the pain from his leg went away, which indicated to Lauri that it must only have been a fracture. That being the far limits of the healing capabilities of Cure Wounds, if it had been otherwise he'd be a goner. Back to 10,200 out of 10,500 HP he hesitated a moment as he considered whether it was worth another use of Cure Wounds, which heals 500, when he only needed 300 more until full health. The bugs stopped swarming and things suddenly felt quiet, taking the choice away as he dared not make any sound now. Thankfully Protection Bubble wasn't a spell nor was vocalisation needed, so he activated it for an SP of 6,510.
Up on the cliff Hero had lost sight of Lauri as the bugs swarmed and, not being in a party with him, simply assumed that was the end of him. "He was all talk it seems. Oh well. We get to keep all his stuff now."
Sophie quickly recovered from disbelief, knowing she'd been naïve again but refusing to internalise it. "Looks like I got to learn about my new skills and profit at the same time."
"You knew the end goal then? Nice job."
"Don't make me sound so vindictive. Let's just say that your actions were none of my concern. All I did was play my role and nothing more."
"Sure sure, tell yourself whatever you want. Let's empty the bag of our loot." Despite what he said the first thing Hero does is to take out a single Agility potion and try to uncork it, unsuccessfully. "What gives?"
Ken was curious and tried to uncork one himself but it didn't work. Secretly activating one of his thief skills he succeeded at uncorking a bottle and drank it. "Nice," he notes gaining +1 Agility.
Hero tried some more but it wouldn't budge, so Sophie suggested "maybe you need to wait until he's dead?"
"Then how did Ken... wait, he's not dead?"
"Not yet. He lost all his shield and a chunk of health but his health is back up, his shield is higher than before and I just started gaining EXP."
"You're kidding?"
Lauri had found Chitin Cracker Warhammer and as he picked it up thought to himself "no wonder there was an empty spot to jump to, this is where the ankheg I killed was standing before." He shook his head as he wondered what the deal with this 'destiny' thing was all about. "Is this the classic trope of the guy who thought everyone were his best friends only to be unexpectedly kicked out and left to die? Doesn't actually apply to me, I don't think, but it could still be the same trope. A subversion of a trope is still the trope." Lauri could only distract himself for so long and as he slowly got to his feet he replayed Sophie's voice in his head again, "kill them all for me." Lauri made good use of invisibility to sneak up on one of two beetles and smashed it's head in with one swing. Maybe it was because of more strength from the higher level or a bonus from a sneak attack but, with only a single hit, it died 3 times faster than the first beetle he'd fought. As all the bugs turned on him he swallowed, then knocked off an ankhegs head. In less than a second Lauri found himself being flanked and used Sleep, only barely managing to catch all the bugs within its radius. With a duration equal to its cooldown of 5 minutes, the biggest threat was that an enemy would wake up from a first attack and might wake up those around it with a good nudge or two. For this reason Lauri killed the ankhegs first, then the second beetle, then whatever seemed the most likely to die in 1 hit. Eventually there were 4 giant cricket-like things and the crab left. The crickets took two hits each but thankfully didn't wake each other up during the process, nor get any attacks off.
Hero moved back near the edge of the cliff and looked down at Lauri in time to see him strike the crab, somewhere in the space between its eyes. [Crit, 10,248 damage] it seemed like a good deal of damage but the crabs HP bar only dropped down to 93%.
The crab stood up and shifted around a bit before it's eye stalks both bent towards Lauri. "You're kidding" Lauri muttered. Then another System prompt distracted him for a moment.
[Quest: Strike With The Reverse Of Your Nadziak
The blunt force of hammers allows their damage to partially bypass heavy armour. The spiked side can punch a hole through armour and can even deliver a coup de grâce.
Reward: Hanuman's Ritual Gold Gada]
Lauri looked at the spike at the back of his war-hammer and realised for the first time that it wasn't just decorative. Sadly being so close to the crab didn't make him any less hard for it to attack, with a massive claw suddenly snapping shut around his naked waist with incredible force [Lost 3,800 SP, Grappled] [Received damage. Resist seduction?].Turning his warhammer around he was thankful that the crab hadn't shifted his position much, as he slammed it down at the crab as hard as he could, [Crit, 15,372 damage, Coup De Grâce]. While he'd aimed for the seemingly weaker part between the eyes the arc Lauri was forced to use hit it in the much harder carapace. Thankfully that wasn't all bad as it smashed a hole through it's shell, leaving cracks around where it penetrated. Lauri franticly tried to pull it out so he could make as many attacks as possible, since while the damage was still higher, it wasn't enough. Unfortunately the war-hammer was stuck and he had no other weapons. Hold Monster, Lauri attempted, as he tried to save himself from the crabs next attack. [Invalid target], the crab disappeared, coins falling to join potions and coins on the floor and Lauri essentially dropping as well. "What happened? It should have still had spades of health left?"
[Quest Complete. Reward: Hanuman's Ritual Gold Gada]
Lauri slung his war-hammer on his back and tried to pick up the Gada but was shocked at the sheer weight of it. Even with both hands and doing a dead-man lift, with a Strength value of 1,281, he struggled with the unwieldy weapon. "I think I've heard of gaga's before, they supposedly suck." He checked its description.
[Hanuman's Ritual Gold Gada: Despite the name, this divinely-rare gada is a gold-osmium alloy, being harder as well as heavier than gold. As if that's not enough, it's enchanted with gravity magic, making this the heaviest gada in current existence. Used for ritualistic purposes, this weapon rarely sees real battle and when it does it never critically hits and always does minimum damage. As a two handed weapon the users full Strength Attribute contribute to damage]
Lauri looked at the two exists from his current room. Despite his proximity to the cliff, with the way the rooms snaked around, Lauri recalled that the final room is only two to his right. Though that implies an increased difficulty. Otherwise if he went left the difficulty would scale down but he'd have dozens of rooms. It's almost as if by design they wanted challengers to get a good glimpse of the room near the end. Or maybe the dungeon intended for undesirables to be kicked down to their doom? Lauri shook the thought from his head, surely that wasn't the case, right? He decided two rooms would be easier than dozens, especially since he could see that there was only a single level 35 rhino beetle to the right. He picked up all the coins and was thankful how they disappear, as he was naked with no bags or pockets, collecting some 1,680 System Points worth. As he did that he used another 3 Drain Levels on the spectator crabs to bring himself to level 36, to be on-par with the beetle. The spectator crabs were more excited than ever as they danced and made strangely rhythmic claw clapping, not responding at all to the drain ability used on some of them.
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{
Class: Ritualist
Profession: Level 1
Effective Level: 36
HP: 17,490/18,000, SP: 4,660/11,160, PP: 17,212/19,980, MP: 61/99
Strength (F-T): (2,160) 2,196/2,196, Toughness (S-T): 1,800, Agility: N/A, Memory: 504/1,080, Reasoning: 288/1,080, Charisma: 1,116/1,080, Luck: -36/36, Destiny: 36/144
Skills: 7
}
Up on the cliff Sophie is watching Lauri make a few practice swings with the new weapon as an idea comes to mind and she asks Hero, "should we get out of here?"
"No way. I want to watch."
"Won't he be angry?"
"Who cares. He's not going to kill us. Remember what he said about the PvP stats?"
"Oh. Right."
Entering the next room, shaped more like a hallway, the beetle charged as soon as Lauri was in. Freezing for only a moment Sophie's voice replays in his head, "kill them all for me." He nods to himself and smiled, grateful for the motivation, he got into a sprinting start position and lunged forward like he was doing one of his full-power exercises. He held the gada in front of him as he charged, having learnt from his practice swings that it was simply impractical for him to run with it behind him nor to swing like that, with any effectiveness, even if he tried. As the two neared each other Lauri felt like it wasn't enough, he realised that he was about to lose this one and his life flashed before his eyes. What was a split second felt more like his lifetime. As he snapped back to the moment he remembered a titbit from something he'd read. It was about the human body only using a 10th of its full strength, unleashed only in life-or-death moments, people were actually capable of incredible feats of strength. "Everything!" He shouted out loud as he pushed his gada forward to meet the beetle, attempting to surpass his limits. [Lost 4,200 SP] [17,568 damage] [Received damage. Resist seduction?]. While winning the battle of damage Lauri lost the battle of momentum and, while he slowed its charge, his gada was deflected back.
Round two, Lauri pushed the gada forward again and struck the beetle in a second collision. While the beetle never stopped completely, Lauri was stopped and now was even being pushed backwards. Lowering his centre of gravity Lauri lent forward and tried to plant his feet to stop his backwards slide [Lost 460 SP, Lost 3,740 HP] [4,392 damage] [Received damage. Resist seduction?]. Lauri managed to slow his slide for a moment before a sudden butt or toss sent Lauri flying back even faster than its charge, creating a gap between them [Lost 4,200 HP] [Received damage. Resist seduction?]. He still had 9,550 HP and was ready to take more hits but the beetle was speeding up again and Lauri was already at his limit. "Kill them all for me," he recalled hopelessly as he lifted his gada above his head and moved a hand lower on the poll. "Was using this weapon a mistake?" The thought crossed his mind. As his slide came to a halt the beetle was almost on top of him, lowering its head to prepare another butt. Regardless, Lauri leapt forward with such force and determination that the bone he'd earlier healed snapped. Then he brought the gada down so fiercely that the muscles in his arms bulged and tore. [Lost 6,300 HP] [Sacrificed 2,196 HP] [175,680 damage] [Rhinoceros Beetle Killed, 15,040 EXP] [Received damage. Resist seduction?]
[Achieved Skill Limit Break]
[Quest: Charmed and Dangerous
Kill all the bugs while seduced
Reward: Regeneration Skillbook]
Lauri saw that the rhino beetle dropped Black Fishnet Thigh-Highs. Surely the reason it was part of the loot table was because Sophie was still in his party. He ignored the quest as he looked into the next room, expecting to see a boss, but there was only a chest. Maybe the chest was the boss? Maybe a crab was going to jump down? He could see the exit on the other side, just a stone throw away. "Wait, why did I aim for level parody? I could level all the way to 100 if I want." Foresight being 20-20, Lauri used Drain Level every 30 seconds until he was level 91. He left a little so that if a level 100 crab really did jump down then he could drain it down to 95 and could possibly get another drain off to reach level 101 during the battle. With that plan in mind he walked forward and tried to open the chest. Sharp pains in his leg reminded him that if a crab jumped down he'd still be screwed.
[Soulbind Item Box?]
["Ummm. Yes, I guess. But how am I going to carry this thing?"]
The chest disappeared and a new screen appeared in Lauri's System, with 10,000 available Extra-Large inventory slots. "Oh wow. I wonder how much I could have sold this for if I hadn't soul bound it?" He tried to store the stockings and they disappeared from his hand, appearing in a slot on his screen. Looking at the quest Lauri knew that his Cure Wounds wasn't going to cut it for his broken leg and that when his current adrenalin wore off he was going to feel the pain ten-fold worse than even now. Sophie's words echoed in his head once more, "kill them all for me." With a sigh Lauri cast Cure Wounds on his leg some 28 times before it seemed well enough that he could walk, all-be-it with incredible pain. While held together it wasn't properly healed and walking on it like that wasn't usually advisable. Accepting the quest, he turned from the exit and started walking back into the fray. Lifting his gada his arms screamed out, despite Cure Wounds, so he stowed it in his item box and switched to his war-hammer.
"What is he doing?" Hero asked. "He was right at the exit."
"Going back to kill the rest," Sophie explained.
"That's crazy. His leg clearly broke. You saw that right?"
"He's still under the effect of my charm and I told him to kill them all."
"Oh great. He's he's still dead then. I was worried for a moment."
'Worried' Hero should have remained. Using Protection Bubble, Sleep and Hold Monster Lauri slowly but surely made his way through the rooms of bugs. Despite his policy of actually reading skill-books, he consumed Regeneration as soon as he got it and cast it on his legs and arms, healing as he walked up the ramp. Hero and Ken had rested for 8 hours and their HP quickly went from 10% and 4% respectively to 100% within the next 60 seconds. As for why nobody ran when he came to stand before them, Lauri had no idea. Sophie was actually the only one to look fearful... but not for long. 8 hours of continuous fighting had cost Lauri a lot of energy and he'd gotten that from fat reserves. Between that and the regeneration of his muscles, they were now clearly defined, with none of his earlier chubbiness to be seen. While double checking that Lauri was still seduced, Sophie caught herself with her mouth watering, licking her lips before swallowing and walking forward lustfully. "Mmmmm. Good job hot-stuff. Lets go back to the tent and I'll give you your reward."
[Warning: Spell cannot force morally reprehensible actions. Resist spell?]
["Yes. I don't need it, to keep driving me forward, anymore. What morally reprehensible action?"]
[Seduction resisted successfully. Cannot force a person into sexual acts without their freely given consent]
Seeing the spell end Sophie took half a step backwards in shock. Lauri nodded at her, he was bursting with endorphins and some things were just more important. He withdrew the stockings and passed them to her, "let's first dress you up a little more, before I undress you."
Sophie's grin might have been just as much from relief as lust, "I love when you dress me up."
Lauri turned to Hero, "you're not welcome back in the party. If you've healed up then give me back my stuff and head off."
"No, I like this stuff. It's mine now. You think you're hot stuff now? Broken leg and still level 4?"
Lauri did a double take. He was naked... meaning no Necklace of Greed. Dropping all his Drain Levels he was hit with 10 [Level up] messages. "Level 11 now." Lauri apologised as he stored the shield and mace Hero was holding.
Confronted with this, and nothing in hand, Hero realised he had no choice. "Come on Ted, we're heading back."
Ted looked at Lauri before he went to follow Hero but found the spear stored away, right out of his hands. With neither of them having a weapon Ted looked at Lauri again, ready to plead, but saw that he was holding a flaming spear and a two-handed club. "I haven't identified these yet but I'd like you to have them, Ted. Gifts for a job well done. The spear should suit you well and you can sell the club for some coins for your future dives."
"Thanks," he managed to spit out, "I'm really sorry about what happened."
Ted leant the club to Hero and Lauri said nothing about it, he'd expected as much. In fact, if he wasn't so angry at Hero he'd have given the club to Hero instead of leaving it to Ted's prerogative. Hero seemed to come up with more to say, though, before he left. "Why aren't you kicking Sophie out? You know she was in on this."
Sophie had finished putting the stockings on and had been smiling but this remark wiped the smile from her face. Lauri looked at her and asked "please tell me you had nothing to do with me being kicked down there."
She was flustered. "I... ah... but you see..."
Hero got angry again, despite having no right to given the situation. "Why are you even asking her? You know she's just as guilty as me."
"I know no such thing. Sophie, check your notes if you need to. Then please tell me you had nothing to do with him kicking me down, naked and unprepared."
Sophie realises, like she was slapped in the face, what she's actually being asked. "Darling, I swear, I had nothing to do with it."
He looked back at Hero. "There you have it. She's innocent."
"We ALL discussed it in the tent. You're alone and a fool and you don't even realise it."
"Think about it Hero. Am I going to take the word of someone who kicked me off a cliff over someone who's only shown me love and affection? Of course not."
Hero was dumfound. He tried to grasp at words but in the end he could only make his departure. With that settled Lauri took Sophie into the tent and, after an hour with her, had let off all his built up tension.