A few lone Gravekeepers loitered around the tunnels, immediately fleeing upon spotting the Caesar’s group. Most were only rank one, not even fit to sleep inside bronze coffins. Halfway to the second treasure room, they finally discovered one who was Level 22.
“Their vision’s terrible,” he remarked as the Skeleton Mage began to cast Boulder. Down this long tunnel, they had managed to come close enough to surely strike it from range as it scrambled away. With a smooth motion, he pulled out his new Spear of Slaughter and threw it straight at the Gravekeeper, yet narrowly missed.
“Good try,” Alta said.
“I still need more practice.” He went to retrieve his fallen spear, examining its beauty again in greater detail. A glossy surface covered the dark brown wood of its handle, and a silver-gray metal protruded outwards as the blade. His eyes traced little etchings contained inside the metal, then looked back up.
The boulder sailed into the air and struck the lower body of the Gravekeeper, knocking it down. Alta sprinted forwards and swung her twin axes, easily cleaving apart its legs from its torso, then dragged the scraggly thing back to Caesar.
“Indeed,” he said. “It lacks the same intelligence of other undead such as the Ghoul King or even my Skeleton Mage.”
“The types of undead found in this dungeon seem less independent than the more common types outside. Even compared to simple zombies,” she said.
I wonder how the boss will look, he thought and watched Alta’s weapons descend again. Those axes resembled his spear, with the same glossy wood handle and metal blades, but hers had white markings etched onto the wood, ending in a bone-white spike. Tusks, like his hippo, or the fabled elephants his parents had told stories about. Finding them meant a greater likelihood of locating them in that region.
The party continued moving ahead, with the Ripjaw Ant Queen taking the lead this time as they approached the second treasure room. He noticed more and more Gravekeepers appearing, and this time they watched the party travel for a while before scampering off. It was not long before two showed up in the same place, touching each other lightly on their shoulders like primates.
They glanced upwards and bared their teeth, then returned to what they were doing, ignoring the presence of the four intruders into their home. Yet they didn’t seem hostile. Caesar kept an eye on them but made no move to attack as he continued walking with his party further into the tunnel.
“They seem a bit cowardly,” he whispered once the two monsters had disappeared in the dimness of the slight light that pervaded the dungeon. “Don’t attack unless necessary.”
His companions nodded their heads. Soon they entered the last fork in these tunnels, where the other three secret rooms lay to the left while the second treasure room lay to the right.
It seemed those Gravekeepers maintained the existence of the treasures inside the room, because when his ant queen poked its head down, five heads gazed back at it. Anger marred their faces but froze when Caesar, Alta, and the Skeleton Mage peered through the hole as well. Four looked cowed shortly afterwards, but the strongest of the five, a Level 27 Gravekeeper, growled and activated an ability to embolden its companions to fight.
He nodded his head to Alta and took his head back, letting her go inside alone. That little demonstration had confirmed the weaknesses of these monsters, and her assassination capabilities were certain to grant them victory.
She launched herself into the hole and landed lightly onto the floor while the Gravekeepers scrambled up the walls to reach the ceiling. Their strong grips allowed them to grab, hang, and leap from the earth, but their leader stayed behind. Still fearful in the end, she thought, and struck with twin axes.
They bounced off, yet she had expected this. An ability that helped these craven beings ignore pain would certainly accomplish more than any other. Thus she attacked again, and again, flickering from time to time as a distraction. Before the undead had managed to recover from her onslaught, her axe swung cleanly through their leader’s head, easily killing it once its barrier fell.
Caesar joined her a moment later, with the ant queen quickly crawling into the room to leave an exit for the other four Gravekeepers. They frantically escaped and left everything behind. Not that they could accomplish much anyways if they fought; he had unsummoned the Skeleton Mage during the battle for an emergency that might require him to summon the hippo.
In the front of the room stood two stone pedestals, decorated with black stones he recognized as Stygian Shards. He allowed Alta to jam a spike in to retrieve some, letting whatever energy they exuded dissipate. Those four chunks of rank one black metal caused damage to whoever held them, except for the undead.
After handing them to his Skeleton Mage for safe storage, he replaced the ant queen for his Tomb Hippopotamus. A grisly thing resembling a head lay under the silken red covering on top, and it made him wary. Thus, he decided to destroy the pedestals first before uncovering them.
Blasts of magic shot towards the bases of the stones, slowly creating little web-like cracks but keeping the two heads undamaged. Although nothing happened, he ordered his hippo and Skeleton Mage to continue. The two expended half their Mana before the structures became brittle enough for him to send Alta to finish the job.
She swung her axes and waited for an attack. Nothing came, and the bundle of cloth and whatever lay underneath simply rolled onto the floor. Some more Stygian Shards were discovered in the rubble, which seemed enough for them to forge a blade.
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Caesar put them aside and told Alta to walk towards the spheres, letting her pick them both up while he watched in suspicion. Then, he unsummoned her. The heads disappeared with them, and he knew it was safe.
She returned and uncovered the cloth, revealing two artifacts both made of a human head. With jaws agape and sagging skin, their eyes still glowed with power: one red, and the other a softer blue.
[Item]: Bearer of Wisdom – Rank 2
[Rarity]: Rare
[Effects]: The vessel requires enough necrotic energy filled within for the effect to activate. Once a month, increase nearby entities’ Spirit by 10 for six hours. This excess Spirit may not store extra spells.
Enough Spirit was required to learn Skills, but what happened if one learned too much?
Some items indeed granted extra Spirit without the aforementioned modifier attached, which allowed its wearer to cast more spells as long as one continued to wear it. Yet taking off that item would cause one to become unable to cast the costliest spell in their arsenal, eventually forgetting it entirely if too much time passed by with deficient Spirit. The same applied to his five remaining Soulsear coins, which could force a mage to lose some of their mightier spells in the midst of battle.
Thus, it seemed this head instead allowed one to learn spells at a greatly increased rate – a great artifact for many factions.
[Item]: Bearer of Strength – Rank 2
[Rarity]: Rare
[Effects]: The vessel requires enough necrotic energy filled within for the effect to activate. Once a month, increase nearby entities’ Strength by 5 for six hours.
Although appalling, he kept both, for their effects were much too powerful to simply toss away. The first guaranteed spells for everyone within range, even Rare, if their affinity was high enough and they had a spellbook as well. The second provided him with immense offensive capabilities each month, perfect for challenging dungeons.
Those heads fit nicely into a Raider’s Bag of Holding at the Skeleton Mage’s side, which currently held the Horrific Halberd, the Khopesh of Shattering, the damaged iron armor, and now two heads. That filled up one bag, and hopefully, the next room would fill up the other.
A smile wormed up Caesar’s face as the Skeleton Mage lifted them back up into the tunnels, and they rested for an hour for the cooldown to recover. Then, they continued.
The third treasure room contained no enemies. Perhaps more unfortunate than fortunate, since another chance to level up was near, and the items in the room were not exactly worth protecting. He identified a few miscellaneous Uncommon rank 1 materials and put them into the Skeleton Mage’s back, then unsummoned it for its own safety. Three bottles of an interesting potion were also here, which he placed in an empty pouch.
[Item]: Embalming Fluid – Rank 2
[Rarity]: Uncommon
[Effects]: When an item which can rot away or decay is submerged completely within this liquid for an hour, it can last for thrice as long.
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With the treasure rooms fully explored, they moved to the final two rooms. The fourth, surrounded by stone walls all around, prevented the python from simply digging in. And a stony door engraved with the same symbols outside, “Beware,” sat in front to warn others of danger. Yet a lever was present on the side which Alta had used to open up a little crack.
He nodded at her to open it fully and readied his spear for combat. The python had managed to open up a larger space here, letting him summon the Kelpie and the hippo for a dangerous fight. A full minute passed before crimson colors lit up the room.
Hellhound – Level 22
[Rarity]: Rare
Burning with red and black, these gouts of living flame charged from the gap and assaulted the hippo standing in front. It met them with the same ferocity, immediately pinning one down and mauling it. The Kelpie rammed another into the wall, tearing at its prey, uncaring of the fire that lapped away at its flesh. His Doppelganger smashed her axes into the third and pummeled it into the ground.
A little underwhelming, Caesar thought as he watched his three summons easily kill the creatures. At least that should be two levels.
[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Doppelganger (Alta) has leveled up to Level 27! +2 Free Stat Points
[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Tomb Hippopotamus has leveled up to Level 27! +2 Free Stat Points
He began to distribute stat points for his currently active summons. Both the Kelpie and the Doppelganger received two more Strength, while the hippo acquired two additional Magic.
The death of the Hellhounds had caused their flames to die down, revealing grotesque creatures with bloodshot eyes and their maws ripped open with myriad scratches. Scales grew on their skin, ending in a little serpent-like head at the ends of their tails. While alive, it afforded them some protection, but none while dead, for his Doppelganger cut through them as easily as she did the skin of man.
Alta ripped out a still beating heart, continuing to burn with crimson flames. “They’re catalysts, but very dangerous,” she said and grimaced a little at the fire.
Caesar frowned. “Use them to explore the room,” he said, noticing the pitch-black darkness inside. While she strolled around, he thought of a way to preserve the hearts.
These creatures are odd. They reminded him of the Demon Shrike, his second Epic he had encountered long ago, which had culled his arrogance that time. Although he could expend all his Embalming Fluid, how long would it take for him to acquire a monster suitable to consume the catalyst? Too long, he thought, and decided to leave the bodies alone.
Alta returned and said, “A few gnawed bones remain in the room, but nothing else of worth.”
He nodded. “Only one more room to explore, I suppose. No items in the walls?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
A little disappointed, he unsummoned the two beasts and resummoned the Skeleton Mage and Ripjaw Ant Queen. To open a way into the hollow room, the python exerted lots of effort to dig a passageway through the dirt until it encountered the anomaly. But Alta had prevented it from making the final push, citing a sense of danger as her reason.
It honestly did look like a trap. So, he ordered everyone back to the Hellhounds’ prison and prepared to unsummon the ant queen right as it opened a passageway. The Kelpie waited for the order to run with both Caesar and Alta on top.
As soon as an opening appeared, a green gas gushed out with a violent force, corroding the ant’s body even in that single second of contact. Caesar was slightly shocked but managed to scream at his Kelpie to go before the cloud reached them. He kept his head down, allowing only his back to brush the ceiling.
They returned shortly after once the wave of energy dissipated. Embedded into the farthest wall of that hollow room, a glittering blue orb appeared, shining like the stars. It flashed dimly but increased in intensity as Caesar walked closer with eyes full of rage.