As the swarm of weapons had manifested in the air behind the Forge Golem, who was busy attacking his allies, Sam ensured that Clustered Strike was active and sent them forwards into the boss, triggering Static Pulse as it landed.
He had to dedicate 10 Energy to the Invisibility, which removed 10 of his lower-damage-dealing hands. With his current loadout, this made up a total of 95 Damage in weapons alone. Not considering Static Shock or Thunderous Blow, he naturally used his highest-damage weapons.
One weapon was missing, bouncing off the stone and making up the Golem’s body. The Void Fang didn’t trigger its penetration, but it didn’t seem like it was needed.
[ Silent Killer activated ]
Due to Cluster Strike, it all counted as one attack, Silent Killer added +50% to the total damage, something Sam hadn’t properly tested before but hoped this was how it worked.
The Golem fell in the one attack.
Its back took enough damage for the central stone making up the bulk of its core to shatter, having the whole creature fall forward into a pile of rubble. By this point, everything in the boss arena had been handled, and Sam stood, invisibly, contemplating what just happened.
Checking what happened in the logs he could, he found that the collective physical damage done was a neat 800, this was lowered by the Boss’ defence down to 700. The Electrical damage was also halved, from 164 to 82. The Static Pulse did 88, lowered to 44, rounding the total damage to 826, but then this was boosted by 50% from Silent Killer, which as he confirmed, counted the whole attack as one attack, bumping it to 1239.
Sam was both taken aback but also not. He knew that his method of attack worked around a lot of stuff, but he didn’t imagine that even with 10 fewer weapons, he could do this kind of damage to something with that kind of defence. 100 Defence and 50% Elemental Resistance was huge. But compared to a normal team it started falling into place.
Considering a party of four, where three had different methods of attack, using Janik’s rough damage of 200-something as a baseline, each attack would be lowered to 100 after the Defence. Sam didn’t know how much damage spells at this level would do but after everything outside they might be nearing low on mana unless they take some time to rest or use potions.
So three attackers, using one harder-hitting weapon of 200 something could end up doing only 100 per person hitting 300 damage per volley. Perhaps more but Janik did confirm that they were better geared than normal. With good skills or crits, this could change dramatically but.. As far as Sam considered it, his full volley in this round was around 6-7 times that of a normal Player.
“The fuck...” Janik commented after he had scanned around the room with his flashlight, wanting to make sure there wasn’t anything else to blindside them. “Did you just one-shot it?”
Sam disabled his invisibility and nodded towards Janik. He took a moment to explain the math. Partly to share with his party, but also that there was a slight ego-boost in this.
“Well... that’s kind of terrifying.” Janik smiled, seeming to enjoy being on this side of things. “And you say you can remain invisible forever?”
“Not exactly, it only lasts for 30 minutes even if I want it to last longer, but I can just reactivate it after, so in practice; as long as I keep the timer in mind it’s infinite.” Sam smiled back, and it was true. Though it wasn’t factually infinite, if he timed the reactivation in the correct moment he would only blip into visibility before disappearing again, and if this was done right it would be practically infinite.
“However...” Sam continued with less enthusiasm in his voice. “I have tested it before and though I’m invisible, I still make sound and other senses can find me.”
“Dia could smell Zar!” Dia broke in, having walked closer and decided to become part of the discussion.
Sam pointed at her in a conforming manner. ”Yes, I can’t do much about my smell, I can train and get skills to help with sound, or just stand still. But my Invisibility is only for visibility, which is why it didn’t do much against the echolocation from the first dungeon here.”
“Well... It seems to suit your style a lot, then. But... won’t Silent Killer just keep activating if you remain invisible?” Janik asked with an almost suspicious look.
“I imagine so?” Sam didn’t sound entirely convinced. “The wording is ‘the first attack against an unaware target’. I don’t know if there is a cooldown between attacks but... I suppose it depends on what ‘aware’ means?”
“Well, that can easily be tested, use one of your shit daggers and test on something.” Janik looked excited as he suggested this, almost as if it was Janik himself who was doing the testing.
Sam was surprisingly flattered at Janik’s continuing happiness on Sam’s behalf, but couldn’t respond with anything besides a satisfied smile. However, his smile disappeared in almost surprise as the System Window popped up.
[ Dungeon clear conditions:
Kill the Forge Golem: 1/1 - Complete
Optional: Kill all monsters
Monsters: 40/40 - Complete
Rewards:
1 000 000 xp
1x Random mid-level crafting material
Bonus rewards for optional step:
1 000 000 xp
Random Box - X. ]
A few seconds later, the Random box manifested alongside the XP added to their growing bar. Sam was a bit over halfway to the next level, and looking at Janik with Appraisal active he saw that this was enough to push him over the edge, he was now Level 22 like Sam was, but in the early percent. Like Sam, Janik needed a considerable amount of XP for the next level.
Elara was getting close, and Dia was still reliant on Sam levelling up first so she was locked still.
Both of them opened their Random Boxes. Sam got a single Arcane Crystal. Janik got one as well but he also got a mana potion.
All in all, a bad haul.
At least Dia was using this time to get the cores in the room.
“You know, I sometimes hate these things,” Janik commented dryly, holding the crystal in one hand and the potion in the other.
“Tell me about it,” Sam replied with even less enthusiasm, having recently opened a... few...
Janik seemed to catch onto that tone, as he forcefully changed the subject. “So!” He turned towards Sam, he put his spoils in his backpack as he continued talking. “Given that you handled the boss in like five seconds, I don’t think you’re going to have problems handling this place.” He smiled widely and honestly, referring back to their earlier talk about Sam going in alone.
“Running this a few times shouldn’t be too problematic, but what about the others on this Floor?” Sam wondered if there were more interesting ones or perhaps better ones to run if they intended to grind up in level.
“From what I can see, getting all kills and doing the whole thing will net us 3 175 000 XP each, I don’t know how much time you’ll need per run but, from what I read in the guides this is one of the easiest ones as it’s quite straight forwards. It has a lot of targets and no weird traps besides the... drop if they get you. A standard tactic is to go in, get outside and snipe things before they get to you. Naturally, that’s a problem to do multiple times but for people who just want a few runs for that day. Now for you.” Janik ended with a large smile and an overdramatic gesture towards Sam.
“Yeah, I get where you’re going with this,” Sam commented. This relied entirely on him. He could outrange the knockdown from the Harpies and could invalidate the incoming rocks. Now, if he used Invisibility he could do it even better. His skill set was truly built for this kind of thing.
“I don’t know how long I’ll use on this, but now that I know how to do it,” he mused towards the ceiling, thinking and trying to count time on something he hadn’t done before. “It’s not that long walking, and I don’t need to stop so... 15 minutes?”
He didn’t sound entirely certain, but realistically speaking, it was just 4 bridges, a courtyard and a few caves to walk through.
This had a wider smile grow on Janik. “So, if all goes well, we... you, can end up with about four runs an hour. So around 12 million experience per hour, as well as a few boxes. I suppose the cores will be lost unless we spend time getting those...”
Sam smiled, seeing Janik’s greed in his eyes was oddly amusing. “If the two of you trail after, you might get attacked since they won’t see me, so it’s speed and XP or take our time and get the cores.”
This put Janik into an internal crisis, ignoring the boss Core they only got 21 of the 40 kills they had. Since a surprising amount of them ended up in the chasm. But the 21 they got was, if the Guide app’s cost was up to date, would net them around $63 000 each. Or at least split up between Janik and Sam. From the expenses they talked about before, this might be able to cover all his expenses for about 4 months.
“You.... have a good point there,” Janik finally let out as he contemplated internally. “This run alone will set me up for a while but...”
“I mean, we can always just hope for something good in the Random Boxes, or you can get some of the cores from the starter targets before I leave the cave?” Sam explained as an almost comfort.
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“Yeah... That could work! And if you get the cores from the Boss and others in the Boss room, it could make it a little bit better!” Janik stated this as a fact rather than a request.
Though Sam was flinging around a weapon costing almost three million dollars, he still needed money. So he wasn’t against the idea, it was also the most streamlined option with the smallest loss in time.
“I suppose we can do it a few times, and see how that goes.”
Janik seemed almost happier than Sam about this, having just levelled and considering the speed they had been improving since Sam joined the group must be a rush to him.
As they were heading towards the exit area of the Boss room, Sam noticed something as he looked at his group with Appraisal still active. He could again see the possibility of increasing stats on Janik. Taking a look around this was the same for everyone else as well, including Elara.
“Uh... guys,” Sam stated as he stopped walking, getting the attention of Janik specifically. “I see the stat increase thing on us all again.”
Janik’s eyes lit up. “Oh wait, oh, hold on. You can do that +1 thing again on me... us?” His greed showed through for a moment, Sam couldn’t blame him but it was still amusing.
“Yes.” Answering simply Sam looked over Dia and Elara as Janik seemed like he needed to get his excitement out of his system.
Elara got a point in Dexterity according to their earlier agreement, and he put the point in Dia’s Vitality. She was already doing well in health but it felt appropriate to round it off at 20.
“Do Dexterity, please.” Janik finally managed to ask. Sam did as requested to Janik’s almost squee-like response.
Sam put his point in Spirit, though it wouldn’t give him extra Energy, nor more hands, it did lead the way for a Levelup or the next boost. Not to mention that it did help the weight math.
Janik snapped out of his glee shortly after, seeming to realize something.
“I... just thought of something. Won't they-” he made quotation marks around ‘they’ with pressure on it. “-catch on if we keep doing this?”
“I don’t know. I have some cloakyness but... not sure how it’ll affect you guys. Since the change is small, perhaps it’ll just... work out?” Sam shrugged, he had no idea if this would get them weird attention or not.
“I’ll admit that I’m conflicted. But considering how... things are run, I think it might be smarter to continue. If the changes are small and gradual, would you notice over time on people you watch?” Janik responded, seemingly hinting to the Entities sometimes looking into people.
“I suppose you have a good point. I think that Elara and Dia might be fine as they’re connected to me, but you’re not... So I suppose you know the risks... So it’s up to you.” Sam smiled, somewhat happy that Janik was at least making a properly educated guess on this.
“But then I’ll let you know whenever I see something like that in the future.”
“Please do, but for now, I guess we have something else to do,” Janik changed the subject and smiled at Sam.
“Yeah, be carried,” Sam smiled before he walked into the range of the exit portal, leaving before Janik got a chance to respond.
Elara and Dia came with him, finding themselves outside shortly thereafter. Janik joined them a moment later.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get you a burger later,” Janik responded in a joking tone. Purposely ignoring that a single target taken out by Sam covered quite a significant amount of burgers.
There wasn’t much discussion needed before they could start. The plan was simple and straightforward. Janik confirmed that even if they remain in the starting area, as long as someone completes the dungeon, kills someone or does something, everyone would get the same progression, XP and so on. Which meant that they just needed to go in with him and he could take it from there.
He kind of enjoyed the idea of doing this, boosting his party with maximized safety for them all. But at the same time, he did feel a bit weird being the one doing all the work. It was a weird and conflicting feeling, as on one hand, he didn’t care that much about the cores, loot, hoarding all the XP or stuff like that. He just wanted his group of friends and allies to come with him, he was looking forward to hitting the Fourth Floor, where all the cool shit was going down at the moment. But on the other hand, he had his sense of greed, with extra work should come extra rewards. He didn’t want to take a larger share, but at the same time, he wanted one... Having zero doubt that he’d get a larger share if he just mentioned it, he also felt that this would be oddly forced and... he didn’t know how to approach this in a good way.
They entered the Dungeon like they did before, coming into the same cave as before. Leading down the same hallway with the same turns, and all in all there were no differences so far. There was a single Golem inside as well as a Harpy. As there were no tests intended this time both targets were taken out before they could do anything, the Harpy didn’t even get a chance to take off before it was shredded.
Dia got to work as Sam walked to the mouth of the cave and looked through the path he’d be taking in a moment. The four bridges lay in front of him, Harpies perched here and there or flying around, Golem standing on the platforms between the bridges, ready to throw their rocks. This view wasn’t entirely bad, Sam liked it a surprising amount. Had it not been filled with death and monsters.
“Well, I suppose this is the first test.” Sam smiled out towards the landscape in front of him.
“You go, girl!” Janik commented back.
Sam chuckled as he activated Invisibility with 10 energy, going completely invisible.
The process was almost idiotically effective. Being invisible the only danger he had was his smell and sound, but there were enough passive sounds from the wind and moving Golems to hide his, and the wind also handled his scent. Even if it carried downwind they needed to come in his range to do something about it and... it didn’t end well for them.
Walking across the first bridge was effortless, the Harpies that flew around had no idea and it wasn’t until he was safely across that he started attacking the Golems. Sam called out his weapons after his Psyhands were in position and ready to strike, as they pulsed with Static Shock and cracked into pieces Sam pulled the weapons back into the Item Box. Only blinking them into existence for a few seconds at a time. This triggered Silent Killer every time, as they died from the one attack, letting him spread out his swarm for extra effect.
The Harpies came over to investigate, which ended with them exploding in a splurt of blood and feathers before falling limply to the ground, or into the chasm.
This process continued until he reached the drawbridge, still having loads of Rocks in his inventory, and the ability to pick up more on the way after taking out the Golems, he could take his time and send them flying. He found out that he could ignore them as well as they were hard to hit, focusing on getting the Drawbridge down first and using the stairs on the inside to get up in range and take out the Golems with his weapons instead.
The courtyard was also unaware of his presence, though it was a bit more silent nothing could find him in time before they were shredded, leading to a record completion time so far, finding himself with an open door into the Boss room and everything dead behind him.
Entering as agreed on, he found himself in the once-before-visited lava and water boss room. Nothing could pinpoint him at all, almost stressed throws towards the rough area of the first killed Golem, the next Harpy, and so on, didn’t even land close. The sounds of the rocks landing and rolling were more than enough to mask his footsteps.
Taking out the targets as he got closer to the boss was almost amusing to Sam, their faceless ‘faces’ felt panicked as he took them out one by one. Strangely this felt nice, it felt good wading through them like this. It was almost like he got a tiny revenge on the System, even though these specific targets had nothing to do with his Solo Dungeon adventures.
The boss was taken out with a single, Invisibility-altered full volley like before, leaving him with plenty of time left on his Invisibility. After a few runs to get into it, 15 minutes would probably be rather correct.
[ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]
The Random Box landed in his hands, opening it right away only gave him a single Aether crystal, netting him two from the completion of the Dungeon, as well as the few cores he got from inside this room before he left.
Coming outside he found Janik standing there, having already exited using the passive Dungeon Escape method, since there was nothing else to do in there it wasn’t like he lost anything. Dia and Elara were bound to Sam and came out with him.
“So... That was strangely uneventful,” Janik smirked at Sam, who had done everything on his own.
“Yeah, kind of,” Sam replied, not mentioning that he somewhat liked being the invisible force of death that washed through the Dungeon.
“You game to go again?” The duelist was bagging three Aether Crystals, hinting that his Random box gave him two of them. Dia happily gave Sam the Cores she had gotten, having Sam add them to the pile.
Entering the Dungeon again, the grind started.