Chapter 8:
Blaze, Alexander, and Oliver left the stone room and the chains behind. Although the slave collar would remain, Mr. McCarthy brought Oliver to “tour” his compound. It wasn’t a pre-made structure, it was laid in an opening surrounded by buildings and there were walls surrounding the compound. These walls were made of stone and dirt, earth mages must have summoned them from the ground, in addition to the walls, there were also several huts and a large two story building in the center. People were entering and leaving the huts and more individuals seemed to enter through the compound's gate. There was only one gate, but it was less of a gate and more of a removable wall made from debris.
Blaze brought Oliver to the two story building, when Oliver entered, he was immediately met with a cafe. “Here is where the camp keeps its food.” Said Alexander, “And over there is the main storeroom, we keep all the best materials in there.” Oliver trusted these words, that storeroom was obviously important, because there were two people guarding it.
Blaze and Alexander moved Oliver into a room on the second story, where they sat him down and began to negotiate. “Mr. Briege, I am a man of my word… mostly,” Said McCarthy pulling at his icy blue tie. “I’d like to make a deal with you, I know I talked about using you as a distraction, but you’re not…prepared enough, yes.” He grinned. “So, I will let you enter the dungeon, there I’ll give you the rest of today to get as strong as possible. When the day is up, I’ll send some of my guys to get you, If you’re still alive.” He paused.
“Okay, and after that, what will you do to me?” Asked Oliver.
“Well… I’ll command you to attack the bandits, and after that, you’re free.” Replied McCarthy.
“I see, sounds like a good deal… But why did you capture me in the first place? I didn’t do anything to you.”
“My men saw your uniform and they told me about it, so I sent my fastest man to capture you. He invested every single point into agility, and is now faster than most. He was already a pro athlete before the changeing, and his speed only grew from there.” Said McCarthy, now sipping on a cup of a red liquid. “I thought you might have been with the military and would have some information for me. I guess not.”
“Yeah, I’m not with the military, so let's just get this over with.” Oliver said.
“Sure, Alexander, take him to the dungeon. I order you, Oliver Briege, go into the dungeon and don’t leave until nightfall. Okay then.”
Oliver's body began to move by itself, and before too long he had stood up and left the room. As his legs moved towards the stairs, he heard faint moans. Looking over into a room, he saw a girl, she was tied up and something was… no, that's all he saw before his legs continued to move to the stairs. “What was in that room, Alexander?” Oliver Asked.
There was no reply from Alexander, in fact, he didn’t say a single word until they reached the entrance to the dungeon. The entrance was quite ornate and was obviously placed into the city. The entrance was only a five minute walk from the compound and was close enough to be seen from the gate. The entrance was only a staircase that led down. Oliver couldn’t even see the bottom of the staircase.
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As Oliver's legs moved onto the first step of the dungeon, he instantly regained control over his body. Alexander then spoke, “The staircase will lead you to the first floor of the dungeon, there are two bosses on the first floor and in each boss room, there is a chest that will appear after the boss is dealt with. Anything you get from the boss is yours to keep, the collar will prevent you from leaving the dungeon, but you can use your magic to fight.”
Oliver nodded and started to descend the staircase. Just before Alexander left Olviers sights, he heard him yell down, “Just don’t go down to the second floor, it’s dangerous.” Oliver continued down, the sunlight quickly vanished and was replaced by torches set inside the wall, the walls themselves were nothing special, just smooth stone. As he approached the end of the stairs, he heard a familiar voice.
“Ah, you’re in the dungeon already? That was quite fast, how… wait, is that a slave collar you have on?” Asked the voice from the character creation.
“Hhh, yes, it is. How did you know?” Oliver said while leaning on the wall just outside from the staircase to the surface. “Do you know how to get it off?” He asked.
“No, sorry, that collar will only come off when the owner is killed or if he frees you. It is quite unfortunate for you.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Said Oliver angrily. “Why are you even talking to me?”
“Because I’ve taken an interest in you, is there anything wrong about that?” Asked the Voice.
“I guess there's no use in complaining. Care to give me some information about this place?” He asked, hoping that the voice would show mercy and give him at least a clue.
“... Sure, why not.” The voice agreed, “The two boss rooms are located randomly in the first floor, this floor is laid out to be a labyrinth and inside these walls are low level monsters.”
“Why thank you, could you tell me what the bosses are?” Oliver was surprised that the voice gave him so much information and once he was given an inch, he wanted the mile.
“No, good bye now, and good luck with that collar.” The voice said.
“Guess it’s gone now?” Said Oliver, picking himself up from the ground and choosing a random direction and going. “Let's go right.”
As Oliver walked he encountered a few low level monsters, but they must have been weaker than the chicken he first encountered when he spawned. So far, he had fought (and killed) slimes, bug type monsters, and a few goblins. Though when they died, nothing happened, they just fell to the floor. They didn’t disintegrate and they didn’t drop items.
“Hhh, how boring, I was hoping for something from these guys, even a piece of bread would satisfy me!” He said he hadn’t eaten for a while and it was starting to show, well it was starting to be heard. His stomach growled and he felt like the growls attracted more little monsters to him, but that was no matter, because Oliver got to practice his magic.
He had been using the fire affinity nonstop and wanted to try out his other capabilities. Oliver shot ice spears at goblins, made the ground into quicksand, and even tried to use a wind slash on a slime. The slime was split in two, but immediately healed itself. If you wanted to kill a slime, you had to get its core.
He continued to walk along the paths, the lower level goblins started to run away from him from immense fear, but the rest of the low intelligence monster still approached and still died. As Oliver was approaching the end of a hall, he sighed, thinking he’d have to go back the way he came. But there was something different about the wall in front of him, it was decorated and had a gem in the center of the wall. When Oliver touched the gem, the wall started to move, half to the right and half to the left, when the doors completely opened, Oliver could see a large room, the ceiling and walls were much wider than the halls of the labyrinth and he assumed it was one of the boss rooms.
He entered, determined to defeat this boss and see what glorious reward awaited him. As he entered, the door closed behind him and the ceiling and walls started to illuminate. Giant crystals poking out from the corners of the room lit up, and Oliver could see the boss, it laid on the ground, as if it was sleeping. It was a giant goblin, maybe an orc and it carried a staff. It wore robes and it’s skin greener than a field, along its face was a white beard, it looked old.
Then, in Oliver's mind, he saw the words, “GOBLIN SHAMAN.” The goblin woke, its eyes yellow and red, it lifted itself up from the ground and brushed off its robes of dust. The Goblin Shaman looked at Oliver and shrieked.