Side story: Sock's point of view
Master told us to get stronger. So that's what we've been doing. We have a demon race, two beast riders and Nargzar with us. Totaling six members. We could have one more but it could leech experience off us and slow our level progression down. We'll recruit another person once we can move up to tier four dungeons. My levels were still too low for Pokodo to feel comfortable doing tier four dungeons.
Right now handling tier three dungeons, we shouldn't need any help. The main problem is the weaker members of our group. The two beast riders are woefully under skilled and leveled. It will take the longest time to get them caught up. They both use crossbows and fight dismounted instead of mounted. I think they're brothers.
The demon tribe member is strong enough. With a few dungeons he was already strong enough to go into tier four dungeons with us. But the brothers need to catch our level so we'll do a few more tier three dungeons. Pokodo is… Far above average when it comes to healing. So she can make up for their mistakes… I've been shot in the back far more times then either of the gnolls would like to admit. If I wasn't wearing extremely strong armor for arrow blocking, I might have been in trouble… I think Zergnar dumped the weakest two of his group off on us. It makes me angry because we could have been leveling faster without these two clowns.
They've been leveling steadily but the amount of stray arrows that hit me is still too high. If they don't fix that in later difficulty dungeons it might cost our lives… They're ready enough to handle tier four dungeons I think though. Pokodo doesn't want to risk it but we should be fine with her healing.
We enter the tier four dungeon. It's an earth dungeon… I have no idea what type of monsters we're going to face. We enter and the first enemy is… A snail… Really? I move in close to it and attack but it retreats into its shell… Hey what is this thing doing!? Is it just going to hide in it's shell without fighting? WHAT A COWARD! Before I had the chance to even notice it poked it's head out and shot acid at me! Shit, it hit one of my basilisk plates! I quickly take it off before it melts through. That was close! These guys are going to be a freaking pain! Will I even be able to attack them without ruining my sword?
As I think that Pokodo forces water into the shell, flushing the snail out. It spits acid again but I easily dodge and slice it in one go. This should be a little easier now with her countering the snails shells. Just have to be careful of their slimy acid or I could lose more than just a plate of armor. A huge hole in my armor is now there because of that snail! I'll have to fix it once we get to the rest floor.
We push forwards, I notice a surprising lack of enemies on this floor… Is it because the snails are so dangerous? We continue to push forwards to the second floor. There we see why the enemies were low in this dungeon. Another group of adventurers is in here… Common courtesy says we should leave and let them finish. They didn't see it that way, upon seeing us, a group of monsters one of them charged. He was a warrior I barely got my shield up in time to block his swing. I need to sort this out.
“Hey what are you doing? We're not part of this dungeon! Continue attacking if you want to die! We didn't know their was another group in here clearing we'll leave.”
Master taught me the rules of dungeon exploring. What I should and shouldn't do if we encounter another group. The group was confused by a talking wolf… They saw our group as being stronger I think and let us be on our way… I think we're going to need a human sooner rather than later if we want to avoid killing other adventurer groups… Man I was really looking forwards to killing a tier four boss at that time. Disappointed we leave the dungeon.
We go back to running tier three dungeons for a week. Managing to get me up to level fifty with my classes. I should have waited until then because new skills can save lives. With warrior I got cleave, monk I got palm strikes, druid I got frenzy and bear form and knight I got another increased stamina boost.
Cleave is a defense breaking move. Palm strikes is a stun that deals damage to pressure points and can deactivate control of limbs for a short while on humanoids. Bear form is obvious but frenzy is another thing all together. I can use this to cut my defense in half but increase my strength by my lost defense. It fits my tanking style of kill first tank second. I'll have to be careful though, that loss of defense could be deadly, I won't use frenzy against bosses.
We head to the adventurers guild in Merideth, most of the people who see us are shocked by a walking, talking wolf. I've been here before but the amount of people here, even if I lived here for a full year. New people would still see me everyday. We put in a group request looking for an adventurer that fits into the support role to join our group… I put group of monsters on the request so the person joining knows we're going to be monsters. A few people have applied but as soon as they seen the group they left. I guess they thought what I put on the request was a joke They think I'm a joke! Maybe I should put not a joke in the request? Finally someone approached us.
“Greetings creatures, I hear you're on the lookout for a support mage. Well I can fill that role.”
The man who applied wasn't a man at all… It was a tiny boy… Are we not being taken seriously?
“BOY! WHY DO YOU WANT TO JOIN WITH US!”
The boy pissed himself and ran away… Shit was I too loud? We wait four days with no more applicants. Doing the adventurers guild quests while we wait. I'm getting sick of waiting. After I scared the kid no one else has applied. Maybe I could force a human to be my companion. Finally someone approached us.
“I hear you're looking for a support...”
Looking at the man… What the hell, is this even a man! He's a giant! I've never seen someone so big and strong before! I answer his question.
“YES! Yes… Sorry um, yes we're looking for a support class.”
The man is not the right shape to be a support. He should definitely be a tank. What questions should I ask him to see if he's right for our group. Pokodo responds.
“Might I ask which support classes you are and what experience you have with dungeons. Also your name and weather or not you can get along with non humans would also be good to know.”
“My support class is elementalist. Experience is tier six dungeons as a guardian tank but I've decided to quit and focus solely on support. My name is Brick and yes, I do get along well with non human races and animals very well.”
Looks like we got ourselves a support!… But Pokodo is already a elementalist, do we really need another one? I'll ask.
“Pokodo do we really need another elementalist?”
Bricks eyebrow raised up, I think that's how he shows that he's surprised. Us being monsters didn't surprise him but mentioning elementalist did… I wonder what that's about? Well I guess if we continue to adventure together we'll find out eventually. We head towards the last tier four dungeon we tried before. The raid boss should have respawned if they finished.
The two beast riders also have gotten stronger, Garzar and Zargar were indeed brothers. Normally when gnolls give birth, it's to a litter of gnolls. Four to six at a time. So they might have three or four other brothers too. After attacking them for hitting me in the back so often, they started to hit me less and less. Garzar is a blue mage, archer and Zargar is a archer, blue mage… I make sure to not mix them up because they get mad when I do.
It's only been around two weeks since we've been here last time… It feels longer though. Entering the dungeon the snail at the beginning last time was surrounded by three earth golems. Brick didn't have any weapons or armor on…
“Hey if you die it's not my fault if you're not going to wear protection.”
I had to tell him so I wouldn't regret it once he dies… It was all for nothing though because he picked up the snail on the ground and tossed it at the golems instantly killing two of them. The third golem he punched a hole through bare handed… WOW! His strength must be through the roof to pull that off… Wait a second, he's guardian elementalist, he shouldn't have such high strength.
“Wait a second, did you lie about your classes? You shouldn't be that strong with a defensive and support class.”
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“It's one of my secret skills, my body is imbued with the elements. So I'm as fast as the wind, I can endure as the earth, smart as the water and strong as the fire.”
How can you be as strong as fire? Does that mean if he gets water poured on him he'll die… No because he's also water… I'm confused even more now. I guess I'll drop it. Maybe that's why he doesn't wear armor, because he doesn't need it?
We push further in, Brick is strong enough to break through the snails shell. Blunt weapons like fists work well against enemies like that. He doesn't normally kill them though. He tends to pick up a snail and use it as a throwing weapon. Making sure the hole is facing away from himself. When he doesn't have a shell to throw he switches to his fists or pieces of rock pulled out of the walls. A few times the earth golems just collapsed from him soaking them in water so their bodies destabilized.
We easily make it to the safe floor. I want to continue but some of our group is starting to get tired so we'll take it easy from here on out. Brick is off by himself. Everyone else is close together. I'll invite him over. I approach him.
“Hey you should come sit by us! If we're going to be adventuring together you should join us.”
Brick gets up and moves towards us. Most of our group like him, he gets along with everyone except the member of the demon tribe. A few times I've seen each other look angrily while the other one wasn't looking. I'll ask about it.
“Hey why don't you two get along?”
Pointing at Brick and the demon tribe member.
“My class is his classes weakness. If an extermination was called on demon tribe members… They'd call in elementalists...”
“How are you his weakness?”
“Well, spellthieves rely on interrupting the chanting of spell casters. Elementalists don't have to chant. They can't counter spell us, our magic is elemental based so anti magic runes don't work against it. You can't spell steal a rock or water or air or plain fire. We beat them at long ranged and close range with the help of elements. We devote some of our teachings to countering the spellthieves completely… So the demon tribe probably has built up resentment towards me… Heh, this reminds me of school.”
I wonder what he meant by that. Well I'll drop it for now. I should still say something so they don't try anything.
“Just don't kill each other and we'll be fine.”
We go to sleep and the next morning start clearing towards the dungeons boss. The enemies are starting to get harder now. The small golems are now big golems. Almost double if not triple the amount of snails. Brick was almost hit with acid from one of the snails who was hidden inside a hole in the wall. He managed to stop the acid mid air by controlling it… Or so I thought Brick did. It was Pokodo. Bricks eyes showed amazement at Pokodo. He questioned.
“How? Acid isn't water. You shouldn't be able to control that. Yet here you are controlling it.”
“I'm attuned towards nature. I can control more things in this dungeon than you. If you hadn't noticed yet, I've been augmenting your elementalist powers with my own since the beginning.”
“...To be able to notice the small changes in the surroundings enough to help me… You are more than just a monster. You're a monster when it comes to skill too.”
We make it to the last floor. There is an obvious rare trap at the top of the steps… Should we risk it… Getting close to it I notice something though… The rare isn't on the pedestal… What!? Looking around I haven't anything else. I guess the only thing we can do is push forwards. We make it to the dungeon boss room. With Brick and Pokodo we shouldn't have any problems in this dungeon.
We push forwards into the room… And see a giant golem. Even larger than Rock at the fortress! This might actually be difficult… In the corner of my eye I see something. It's a pile of bodies… A red trail of blood left by someone moving them into the corner... Was the the boss?
I'll worry about that later, boss first. I get between myself and the group inching forwards… I won't be able to take any hits without serious damage or death so I have to be careful. Brick rushes passed me. Launching himself into the air by shifting the ground under his feet. He lands on the golem and punches straight through it's head… Instantly killing it… WHAT THE HELL!? THAT'S BORING!
Warrior level 55 to 60
Monk level 52 to 57
Druid level 50 to 56
Knight level 60 to 64
“Why!? We need experience fighting! You can't keep bailing us out if you're not around!”
“Yes I know that but some of the adventurers over there are still alive. I wanted to expedite the process of battle some.”
I look at the group again… It's the group that attacked us two weeks ago! We rush towards the surviving member… He doesn't look good… Even worse his friends look even worse… He must have ran out of food at some point… God of life, he's been eating his companions to stay alive… He's almost terrified by the sight of us… His legs have been smashed to pieces by the golem… He yells towards us…
“I had to… I had to… I had...”
What's wrong with him!? Pokodo addresses him.
“Hey what happened? You're group shouldn't have lost against a golem that easy.”
The man responded.
“I had… We… We picked up this item...”
He held up a gauntlet.
“We… We were attacked by a giant when we did… He… He chased us all into this room… Before the door closed he manage to kill all of them except for me… I escaped his only attack enough to not die… We… We didn't even fight the golem...”
Oh god of life... It sounds like the demigod from the fire dungeon. If we went in before them they would have all been spared from the giant because we would have known what to do. Pokodo heals him as much as she can…
She doesn't have any spells that heal mental damage though. We'll have to carry him out of the dungeon. I loot his friends, some of them aren't really people anymore… More like goop with torn, destroyed clothing and gear mixed in. They stink, the flesh has started going rotten… And the surviving adventurer was eating them as his only food source...
We manage to get six upgrades out of that dungeon including the gauntlet. It's a legendary quality gauntlet… I hope this one doesn't start talking like the person when they get knocked out like masters did… I'll just hold onto it for now… This one is a left handed gauntlet, meaning it could pair with masters if he wants it. I put it away… Master is the only one who can heal this mans legs, so we'll make a quick stop back at the fortress before we continue. We still have six months left until we're supposed to go back. If we don't take this man to master. I doubt he won't kill himself or become sane again.
(Sock stats when Kite asked) (strength- 800) (dexterity- 500) (intelligence- 100) (stamina- 1250) (total = 2650)
(Current stats) (strength- 1000) (dexterity- 600) (intelligence- 120) (stamina- 1500) (total = 3220)