The next morning was brutal. I had slept fairly well, but it just didn’t seem like it was restful for some reason. I slogged through a silent breakfast. The only people who seemed chipper this morning were Codo and Podo, though I thought that was how they acted normally. Sighing as I sat back, I was trying to find some way to one up what I had managed to pull off yesterday. Unfortunately everything was blank. I did have one that was worth pursuing, and I pulled Khaliss aside to ask if it was ok.
“Hey Khaliss, got a question for ya.”
“Yes?”
“Would it be allowable for some of the dungeon runs to have me mixed in with Codo and Podo? Or are boss fights things that I can’t alter.”
“Since it is a miniboss, and you are only asking to add yourself I assume?” At my nod he continued. “That is acceptable. But at least one person has to be visible before the fight starts, and I don’t mean immediately before. To make it fair, you need to have someone visible when the intruders make it down the stairs.”
“Perfect. I was planning on that anyway, but it is good to know.”
“Hey fellas.” I said as I approached the twins. “Would you two like to team up with me on occasion for fighting the intruders?”
“Serious?”
“Hell Yeah!”
“Great! I talked with Khaliss and cleared it. The only restriction we have is that someone must be visible when the group makes it down the stairs, but I have a plan for that.” I leaned in to whisper how I imagined things going, and both were practically bouncing in their seats by the end.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dungeon day initiating!
Intruders will be allowed in to the dungeon in five minutes. Please finish all preparations and ensure you are in active dungeon areas.
Intruders have entered the dungeon
Thank God, those last five minutes were always killer. I wondered how long it would take the group to find us on the second floor, and how badly they would be freaking out from the traps and lack of enemies. Currently I was in the far corner of the room with Codo and Podo, while the twins themselves were hiding inside the pillars. I had cloaked myself with shadow manipulation, and my shadowgheist was on full display. It took the better part of forty-five minutes, but I eventually heard the clomp of feet on the stairs.
“This is such bullshit. Three sets of stairs on the first floor and not a single enemy? What kind of dungeon are they throwing at us?”
“Relax Ben, I’m sure we’ll find something for you to bash soon enough.”
“I see light! Thank God, a torch!”
“LEAVE IT BE!” Someone shouted.
“Why?” The quiet response came after a few seconds of delay.
“We have already had to use three resurrects on this damned place because of traps. Do you really think that the first torch in here wouldn’t be trapped? They didn’t even give us loot in the hidden alcove.”
“That old game quote was pretty funny though.”
“No, it really wasn’t.”
“Quiet, I see something up ahead.”
“Trap?”
“No, monster.”
“Description?”
“Alone. Has some sort of hammer. It’s just standing there, smiling at us. Judging by the armor it must be a rogue type.”
“Alright, let’s get this done. You all know your roles. Ben, mark him whenever you are ready and Alan will pick him up.”
Watching from the corner, they had a rather eclectic group. Ranger, knight, cleric, and a summoner druid. Not a bad build, as the druid’s bear could be an off tank. The ranger stepped forward and activated one of his skills.
“[Marked for Death].” A bullseye appeared above my clone’s head, doubling his chance for receiving critical hits when he dropped into low health. The tank then stepped forward to start the fight.
“[Shield rush]!” He surged forward, but I knew something like that would be the opening gambit and was already dodging to the opposite side of the ranger. Backing up, the group passed the pillars, oblivious to the surprise it would hold. “Grrrr, fuck this. [Attack stance].” The knight growled, shifting his posture into a more aggressive one. They traded some blows, and when the knight unleashed a cleave attack the rest of the group joined in.
“[Heartseeker].” The ranger launched an arrow as the bear moved to block an escape route.
“[Bramblethorn].” The druid’s spell went off at the same time as the ranger’s skill, forming a wall of brambles behind the shadowgheist, cutting off any retreat. The arrow struck home in the chest of my clone, dissipating it into wisps of shadow.
“What the?” The knight managed to mutter before chaos descended as Codo and Podo burst from their pillars.
“[Triple thrust]!” Both twins shouted, stabbing the squishier members of the party in the back with their fastest attacking skill. Looks like it was time for me to enter the fray as well. I let my shadows drop, and fired a bolt from my arbalest. The ranger had unknowingly shown me his side, and I took him just below the ribs, through all those lovely organs.
“AAAAAAH!”
“Ben!” The knight shouted, torn between protecting the ranger or the others. He wisely decided on the others, but I was already running as fast as I could to intercept him. The split second of indecision proved to be incredibly costly, as I smashed into him just before he could use a taunt skill to protect his friends. Before I could take advantage of his positon on the ground, a furry freight train ran me over in his rush to get to his druid. As I was being battered about by his stampede, he suddenly vanished. One of the twins must have finally taken out the druid.
“[Multishot]!” The archer unleashed his skill, but my unpredictable motion must have saved me from taking massive critical damage. Instead, I took an arrow to the thigh and one in the tail. Growling, I launched myself in his direction on all fours. It wasn’t any special, planned out attack. I just wanted to catch him off guard before he could launch more of those annoying arrows at me.
“Ungh.” He grunted as I slammed into his knees, wrapping them up as I torqued my body. He fell to the ground with a satisfying thud, and I heard the sounds of battle resume from behind me as someone engaged the knight. With that worry off my mind, I tried to stand up while keeping the archer from getting his feet. While I was on my knees, he had gotten scrambled just to the edge of my weapon’s reach. With nothing better to do, I hooked the scythe around his ankle and yanked, toppling him once again. Regaining my feet, I rushed over and smashed him in the back with my hammer.
He abandoned his bow, and drew a rather wicked looking kukri style knife as he rolled onto his back. I admired his fighting spirit, but I had him in a disadvantageous positon and took full advantage of it. I rained several heavy overhand blows on him. Blows that his positioning and lack of a shield couldn’t really do anything to temper. Once he was done for, I turned to see Codo and Podo dancing back and forth as they harried the knight.
“Stop this dancing and fight me like men!” He bellowed, slamming his sword into his shield to activate a taunt. Unfortunately for him, they were already focused on him so his taunt was worthless. Did he really think they would change their fighting style to make it easier on him? Since they had it well in hand, I pulled out my arbalest and spent the time to reload it. I waved it at Codo when the knight’s back was turned to try and communicate my desire, and he backed off and made a subtle hand motion to Podo.
As they closed the gap between each other a bit, the knight took a step back and tried to catch his breath. I took aim with a simple armor piercing bolt and unleashed it right as he tried to drink a health potion. The bolt slammed into his back right between the shoulder blades. As he spilled a good bit of his potion, Codo and Podo both launched forward with thrusting skills, though he got his shield up in time to completely block Codo and deflect the majority of Podo’s strike.
“[Cleave]!” He practically screamed. “Fight with honor damn you!”
“What use have monsters for honor?” I hissed, having crept up behind the knight.
“[Lacerating blow]!” He twirled and unleashed a strike from 2 to 8 at me. Unfortunately for him, I was expecting some form of retaliatory strike. I was back far enough that he wouldn’t be able to reach my body with his blade. I was also aiming for his wrist with an uppercut type swing of my hammer.
*Crack*!
“Aaaaaah!” His sword clattered to the ground as his obviously broken wrist flopped about. Luckily for him, Codo and Podo weren’t idle.
“[Triple thrust].”
“[Savage thrust].”
They both unleashed their skills into his back, and finally ended the fight.
All invaders have been killed.
There will be a half hour rest period for the dungeon to reset.
“That was awesome!” They both cried, giving each other high fives. “What do you think Angus?”
“I think that group would have torn me apart without you two helping.” I answered honestly.
“Really? They didn’t seem too tough.” Codo remarked.
“Think about it. My clone distracted them for one set of blows, that let you two take out their healer and druid. That got rid of the bear, which would have made a great tank in case the knight went down. With only one tank and one ranged damage dealer, they weren’t going to last long. Even those two could have taken out one of us in a two on one situation. Even a two on two they could have won about half the time.”
“How do you figure on that?”
“Depends entirely on the tanks skills. You two managed to split around him, which hurt him. But if he could keep you two to the front, and make good use of his taunts, that ranger would have picked you two apart from a safe distance. After one falls, the ranger kites the other while the tank downs some healing, they switch you off and finish you.”
“I almost understood that.” Podo said somewhat excitedly. “What’s kiting?”
“Sorry. It’s what adventurers call it when you get someone’s attention and simply distract them. They will do minimal attacking so you have to pay attention, but they will retreat around the room so you can’t hit them.”
“Oh, I hate it when they do that!” Codo growled. “Course, once we master [Dancing shadow steps] we won’t have to worry about any of that.”
“Heh, are you so sure about that? What are you going to do if the enemy has a similar skill? Mages can use [Blink] while warriors could use [Lunge].”
He opened his mouth and closed it several times, each time holding up a finger like he had an answer only to drop it and look down. “Damnit.” He muttered. “WAIT! What if we forced them to use their skill first? Then we could just follow with our own skills, and surprise them!”
“That’s exactly what you should do.” I said with a smile. Closing my eyes, I stretched and tried to pop my back. “Ugh, anyway. I think I’m going to head up a level for the next group. We wouldn’t want to get them used to all three of us being in this room now, would we?”
“Alright. But you gotta fight with us again sometime!”
“Sure thing.” I promised, then got an idea. This last group had apparently found my empty alcove, and I didn’t want every group to come away empty handed. That would just mean everyone ignored it. Heading through the wall, I pulled a chunk of stone from a place it wouldn’t be missed. Grateful for the stone manipulation and sculpting skills, I crafted a little keepsake for the next group to find it. The knight that had just been killed was on his knees, hands at his sides as his head hung in defeat. Behind him, both of the twins had their spears thrust through his chest with vicious grins on their face. Sure, it was a novelty, but crazy people would pay through the nose for certain unique oddities like this. Once that was done, I headed up to my favorite hallway, the one by the entrance so I could figure out how large the incoming group was.
Intruders have entered the dungeon.
Surprisingly it was three mages. Two humans and an elf.
“Think it’ll be a challenge?”
“Yeah. Message boards are already blowing up about how nobody has gotten the player in here yet. I’m excited to see what lovely bit of trinket he drops.”
“Besides.” The third voice added. “We have six resurrects to use. As long as the party doesn’t wipe, we’ll be good. Nothing short of a boss can get through our combined dps. At least, not fast enough that it can kill us.”
“Enough. Let’s make sure we are boosted. [Arcane enhancement: lightning].”
“[Arcane enhancement: flames].”
“[Arcane enhancement: ice].”
Great, three mages that spec for destroying things, each with a different elemental specialization. On top of that, they have finished the enhancement side quest. This lovely level 50 quest chain rewarded people with an option. Permanent boost to mana pool, mana regen, or the option that these three took and add 50% damage to the elemental spells of their choice. I let them get their boosts in, and make it to the central room before I stepped out into the hallway. Time to start chipping away at those resurrections.
Taking aim with an armor piercing bolt, I fired it into the back of the head of one of the mages. Immediately diving into the hidden hallway and closing the wall behind me, I left a little hole to listen to the aftermath.
“What the? How did Sam die already?”
“Damnit, stand back. Wait, take that arrow out first. Ok. Here goes.
Comrade gone beyond the veil,
There are tasks left undone.
Return once again to our sides,
Fight once more for the light.
[Resurrection].
“Ugh, what the hell happened? We were walking and I got the death notice.”
“Check your damage logs.”
“Oh, that’s just effing great. Unknown hits you for unknown damage. Critical hit. Fatal blow. You have died.”
“Damn, forgot about that annoying feature. If you don’t see what hits you then it will show up as unknown.”
“Fuck, I gotta wait another 28 minutes to use the enhancement again. What a waste.”
Well, isn’t that interesting? All those lovely buffs get cancelled with a death. Looks like I have two more that need killing. Heading off, I saw them making their way straight ahead. Instead of following them down, I let them go first and headed to the first staircase.
Walking through the hallway, I got to the dead end that would lead to where the three mages were. Opening a peephole, I caught them arguing over by where the trap would activate. Stepping through the wall, I took aim at the one I thought wasn’t in the trap area and blasted him in the stomach with a flesh ravager bolt. Right after I fired, I stepped on the trap plate and sent the spears crashing into the two remaining mages, killing one outright and grazing the other along his arm.
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“Wrath of winter cut you down. [Glacial spike]!” The one who was grazed launched a spear of ice in my direction, gouging out a groove from my hip as I desperately tried to avoid it. I hobbled forward as fast as I could, hoping to interrupt him before he could cast again. “Rage of the north wind, freeze him to his soul. [Blizzard blast].” Calm as a cucumber, he cast a cone of frost in my direction, those damnable quick chants giving him a 30% boost to his damage. When he started kiting me, I knew I would be in trouble if I didn’t do anything.
“Crackling flames, herald his doom. [Flame jet].” Inches from my face, a jet of roaring flame erupted. The only thing that saved me from becoming bar-b-que was the slowing effect from the blizzard throwing off the other mage’s aim. I stumbled sideways, brushing up against the wall. The stone wall, that could help me cast a spell.
Looking back to the first mage, I saw him silently muttering a spell. Most likely he would blast me with something strong enough to kill, so I switched to him as a target. Using stone manipulation, I caused a spike to erupt from the wall, piercing through his cloth armor with ease. Knowing that wouldn’t take him down, I caused it to grow a forest of spikes in random directions.
“AAAAAAHHHH!” Concentration broken, I broke the spike off from the wall so that the weight dropping around would rip things out and cause massive bleeding damage. The fire mage was busy chugging a health potion, so I hobbled at him. Getting close just as he finished his potion, I smashed his arm with my hammer. He stumbled a bit, and drew a wand that was rapidly blasting me with small bursts of force. Annoying, but as I was moving back and forth he couldn’t hit me more than one out of every three blasts, allowing me to close the distance. Slashing the back of his hand with the scythe caused him to drop the wand. The pain of it caused him to mess up his spell, and the backlash gave me the opening to finish him off.
“Damn, you’re persistant.” I said to the last player, having turned to see him finishing off the last of a healing potion. I thought for sure that the bleed damage would have done him in. As he lifted a hand to take aim at me with a spell, I split off a shadowgheist. Though combat with two bodies was beyond me, I could have both of us split up enough that an area spell would miss and charge at him.
“[Black frost bolt].” He sneered, firing a bolt that took me in the stomach, and I could feel the shadow energy trying to rot the wound. My body thought the mana was a poison, and automatically rendered it inert. The pain of the wound had made me forget about my clone, and it slammed into the mage first and then the wall. Both were slightly stunned by the impact, so I closed in and started slashing at the mage as he blasted my clone into oblivion with a final spell.
All invaders have been killed.
There will be a half hour rest period for the dungeon to reset.
“Damn. I. Need. Better. Plan.” I panted, frustrated with myself. Underestimating players would eventually lead to my death, and I got incredibly lucky this time. New rule: Unless you can take out all but one of a group, hit and run tactics only. Heading back up to my hallway, I was going to try and relax for as long as possible before the next group arrived.
Intruders have entered the dungeon.
Ugh, that wasn’t nearly long enough of a break. I didn’t bother getting up, the stone chair I had crafted was close enough to the wall that I could listen. Sounded like a small group approaching.
“Gnumble, what you got for us?”
“No traps nearby. But, there’s a void behind that wall there.” I felt something probing at the stone wall, and immediately started fighting against it. “Gimme a sec.” The voice grunted, and I realized it was a dwarf. So, the bastard wanted to use stone manipulation against me? We’ll just see about that. I peeked through the listening hole I had used. The dwarf was standing in front of a group, right in the middle of the false door. Kneeling so I was at his height, I gradually reduced my resistance right in front of his face. All at once a hole half a foot in diameter opened up. The surprised dwarf opened his eyes just in time to take a crossbow bolt to the face. Before anyone could retaliate, I shut the hole and smiled.
“WHAT THE FUCK!”
“Huh?” Taking my time to study the group, there was the dead dwarf, with two humans kneeling by his corpse. A disinterested mage was standing in the background. “Ten feet into the dungeon and we suffered the first casualty. You do recall you are supposed to be protecting me, yes?”
“What the? Yeah, we will protect you. Gnumble already gave his life once to protect you. Head on down that way a bit, my group needs to have a conversation.”
“Very well.” As the mage sauntered away, examining whatever happened to catch his fancy, I listened to the humans.
“Why do we have to protect that insufferable prick again?”
“Because, they are paying us a lot of gold and enchanting all of our weapons if we manage to finish this job. Need I remind you just how well the Loremasters pay? So when you sense danger, you activate your intercept skill and do your best to soak up as much damage as you possibly can.”
“Fine, I’ll do it. If I ever run into him again outside of contract though.” He let the tail end of that threat hang.
This looked like a fun group. The grumpy human was a knight, the leader a paladin, and the unfortunate dwarf was a knight as well it seemed. The group made sense when you factored in the Loremaster. A guild devoted to finding all the hidden secrets in Oblivion Online, the rumor was that they put all their stat points into intelligence and wisdom. They would take a spell to the utmost limit, and their enchanting was unmatched. The funding from said enchanting let them pay lavishly for protection in dungeons as they searched for secrets.
“[Resurrection].” The paladin finished the chant as I was lost in thought, bringing the dwarf back to life.
“Bastard shot me in the effing face! I’m gonna enjoy ending him.” He swore as he sat up. “Never thought they would have stone manipulation though.”
“Pardon?” The mage had returned. “You said they have stone manipulation? How do you know?”
“He was fightin’ me for control. I thought I was getting the better of ‘im too. Guess he was just lettin’ me think so and dropping the resistance in that circle. I opened it up and he shot me right in the face.”
I really felt bad about what I was going to do, but I had finished reloading my arbalest as the group was discussing my skills. Opening another hole, I saw the dwarf’s eyes widen in shock again as I fired another bolt into his face, getting my second kill of the day. I slammed the hole shut, and expected the mage to retaliate so I doubled the thickness of the wall as swiftly as I could. I was really glad I did, as I felt a massive shockwave travel through the stone. Turning, I fled down the hallway and crossed as swiftly as I could. Two kills, with four players that was half of their resurrections right there. I bet that dwarf wouldn’t be trying to get into any of my hallways though.
“What are these markings?” I heard the mage ask himself.
“Careful everyone. I sense a void in the stone on each side of the hallway.”
“Let’s hurry through then. I don’t want to get caught in an ambush.” The team leader was speaking.
“Absolutely not! There is some form of writing on this wall, and I don’t recognize it. So I’m going to study it for a bit, and make a few different copies of it. Do your jobs and protect me.”
“Right. Gnumble, keep an eye on both of those stone voids. Anything starts changing on the walls, you yell out a direction. I’ll stay with the client. Lance, you go on ahead for a bit and see what you can find. Don’t engage anything.”
“Sure thing.”
Oh, splitting the party. Too bad I couldn’t take advantage of it, not with that dwarf watching the stone like a hawk. If I went around and attacked from the side, I don’t think I can make it back to a hiding spot in time, so that is out. Guess I’ll have to head down to the next level and wait for them there.
“Nothing over this way, just a stairway leading down.”
“Another one? Great, we are stuck in a maze dungeon.”
“And we will be mapping every portion of that maze. Dwarf. You noticed the voids in the stone. Mark them on this map.”
“Of course.” He said in a sweet voice, then muttered as he turned. “Your majesty.”
As I was leaving, I heard the mage muttering about known languages and how it wasn’t quite runes that was on the wall. Well, they were probably going to spend a lot of time on that, so I headed to the area with my shadow tripwire trap, but left openings so that I could have advance notice of anything coming down the way.
Nearly an hour later, I heard the clanking of metal boots on stairs, it seemed like they had taken the second set of stairs. “Don’t care. I am here to study the dungeon, and anything that might indicate hidden lore. Hidden lore often leads to hidden quests, and should we find them I guarantee that I won’t be taking you fools along on it.”
“Whatever, I’m not about to spend another hour looking at bumps on a damn wall. If you didn’t know it off the top of your head, you should have just taken a screen capture and gone back to your no doubt extensive library and searched at your leisure!”
“Easy now Pat. We’re still in the dungeon, so keep your voice down.” Ah, the peacekeeper. Every good leader knew how and when to step in and deescalate a situation.
“SHUSH!” I heard the dwarf hiss. “I see a creature just ahead, but it’s facing away from us. I think I can sneak up on it, but it would help if you could cast [Muffled steps] on me.” After a few seconds, the dwarf continued. “Thanks.”
Here’s where I simply smiled. I was relaxing in my hidden hallway, using a speaking tube to connect to the area where the spears would trip down. What Gnumble was hunting, was my shadowgheist. Right behind the clone was the pressure trap. I felt the clone die right as I heard the trap fall.
“Ah, shit. Shit, shit shit. Damnit Gnumble, what did you do?” Panicked screeching from the human knight.
“I killed the enemy, what’re you talking about?”
“You triggered something, and now the client got killed! As did the captain!”
“What about you? You’re supposed to be watching! Why didn’t you knock the insufferable mage down and take the hit like you are supposed to?”
As they were arguing, I figured it would be a perfect time for an ambush. Heading over, I slowly dissolved a hole in the wall, trying not to alert the frustrated dwarf to my actions.
“Quick you dolt! Get out the resurrection scrolls and bring ‘em both back to life!” As soon as the dwarf said that, he took a crossbow bolt through the temple from point blank range. As his lifeless body clanged to the ground, I closed up the hole and went back to my spying.
“What in the world happened? A trap?” I heard the mage ask, seething with rage. “I don’t enjoy dying. I enjoy it far less when the people who are supposed to be protecting me don’t die first.”
“Sorry sir, it was just too quick. Had I tried, we both would have ended up dead.”
“Oh, so you didn’t even try and save me?”
“That’s not what I said! There was no time!”
“I’ve had enough of your attitude. Captain.”
“Yes?” I heard the resignation in his voice, and I’m sure the mage did too.
“There will be no bonus for this dive, and your player there has officially been blacklisted with our guild. The only reason your group hasn’t been is because of how you have helped in the past, but know this. I am sending a report to the higher ups, this will be a black mark on your relationship with our guild.”
“I understand. Don’t worry, Pat here will undergo extensive training before we allow him to join in further dives. Should he reach the point where we feel he can be more help than hindrance in the future, would your guild be amenable to a few free protection dives to test?”
“Hmm, we shall see. But it will be no less than three dives if he wants off the blacklist.”
“Like hell will I go on three dives with people like you and not get paid for it!”
“GODDAMNIT PAT!” The leader roared before the mage could respond. “You just wasted everything I just did to cover your ass. It’s a good thing I can’t kick you from the party mid dungeon. After this, you are gone from the guild. We won’t blacklist you, but you won’t be asked back and don’t even think of using us for references. Now, shut your mouth for the rest of the dive. Unless it is to warn of trouble or treasure, I don’t want to hear a peep out of you. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Good.” He hissed. “Now, where’s Gnumble? Wait, why is his name greyed out?”
There was a short search for the dwarf, and more testy conversation I gladly eavesdropped on.
“Great. Just fucking great. We blow all our rez’s on the first two floors, and our stone sensing dwarf is killed. New plan. Pat? You stick to that mage like saltwater taffy sticks to teeth. I’ll scout ahead on spots.”
“Uh, not the greatest metaphor there, boss.”
“Technically, it’s a simile.” The mage corrected.
“Whatever. Just do what I said, and hopefully we can finish this dungeon without any more mishaps. C’mon, let’s head up and take one of those other stairs down.”
Fifteen minutes later, I heard clunking coming down the stairs. Good thing too, as I was just about to go hunting for them.
“Great, three ways to go. Well loremaster, your choice. Ahead, left or right.”
“Go left first.”
A few seconds later and I heard a distinctive *click*. “Awwwww DAMNIT! I hate these effing traps. Everyone back up, no sense in everyone else dying with me.” Looking through the hole in the wall, I saw the mage and the knight walking towards me. *Click*
“HA! HAHAHA! HAHAHAHAAAAAA!” Maniacal laughter echoed strangely through the hallways. “Devious pain in the ass, it’s not a trap. Just something to keep us on edge.” As the mage and knight gave each other a strange look, the leader continued. “Sorry guys, looks like this entire hallway is a bunch of clickers hidden in the floor. It seems safe, so come on.”
As they went exploring, I carefully followed along behind.
“Hmmm, interesting. Captain, there’s a hidden panel on that back wall there, would one of you care to open it?”
“Pat, you’re up. Try not to die.”
I couldn’t quite hear what he said, but I was sure there was grumbling going on. While everyone was focused on that, I decided it was time to test one of my decapitator bolts. Taking aim, I gently fed the bolt my mana. As soon as the knight slid out the panel, I fired. The bolt flew true, and the captain had no idea what killed him as his head took flight. I started to back away, then swiftly ran when I heard the mage getting frustrated.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Patrickery’s POV
Damn Orick and damn the mage. Who are they to make me open up a hidden panel in a dungeon full of traps? Muttering curses, I stepped forward and placed my hand on the wall. “Here?”
“To your left six inches.” The mage corrected me. Rolling my eyes, I moved my hand over and felt the stone click backwards a fraction of an inch. Sliding it to the side showed a remarkably lifelike statue with something scrawled on the back wall. “Whoah.” I whispered, right as I heard some clanging sound from the Orick’s direction. Turning, I saw his headless body on the floor.
“Damnit, someone has been stalking us. Pat? Stay behind me and don’t move. Unless you want to die.” With that warning, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising as the mage channeled mana. His voice changed, and I felt it reverberating in my chest as he chanted his spell.
Storm clouds. Fire and Steel
Death from above, bound by my will.
Raging, power unleashed.
Erupt from my hands,
Destruction complete.
[Thundering annihilation]!
With the final cry of the spell, I froze in terror. A massive lightning bolt flashed down the hallway, big enough that it would cover my entire torso and have some room to spare. Smaller bolts crackled off at random bits, but I couldn’t think that anything would survive a spell of that caliber. Hands shaking, I tried to move. To speak. Anything.
“I hate having to resort to such measures.” The mage muttered as he downed a mana potion. Then another. And finally a third one. “It’ll take me a few days to get rid of all the static in my hair.” Once he brought my mind to it, I could see some of his hair poking out from his hood. Turning, he looked in the alcove that I had already forgotten about. “Oh, look at the detail of that statue! You can even see drops of blood rolling down those speartips. Absolutely fascinating.”
“Jesus Christ.” I managed to finally speak as he pocketed the statue. “What the Hell kind of spell is that?”
“That? Just [Thundering annihilation]. You can get it if you go on a level 90 mage unique questline. It’s powerful, but I can’t wait to upgrade it at level 125.”
“It upgrades?!” I practically screamed.
“Yes, there’s no need to shout. Most choose mass devastation and upgrade it to [Army killer], but I’m going to go with [Titan slayer].”
“Can. Can you tell me what they do?”
“Oh sure. Army killer creates a massive ball of lightning, that you send into the middle of what you are attacking. It explodes, and 6-10 arms of lightning like what I just conjured blast out at random. Titan slayer creates a coiled snake of lightning around you, the body is six feet tall. Channel enough mana into it, and the lightning turns blue. It then strikes, and nothing survives.”
“Sounds. . . terrifying. Why go with the titan slayer though? Seems that an area attack would be much better.”
“Oh it is terrifying. But the titan slayer costs far less mana. To really be able to use army killer, you need several mages channeling mana to you. Well, unless you limit your chants.”
“Limit the chants? I thought spells only have one chant.”
“They do, but the upgrades each have a minute cast time. In that minute, the more times you repeat the chant, the stronger the spell. Ever seen the Shattered Plains?”
“Yeah. There’s roughly a two-mile diameter area chock full of fissures. Why?”
“That is how powerful the army killer can get. Our guild leader and her second in command twin cast that spell, each had twenty mages funneling mana to them. There were representatives from every kingdom to see just what we could do with it.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Angus’ POV
I was cowering in the stairwell, the safest place I could think of when I heard that mage start chanting. That bolt of lightning was immense, and left pretty much zero chance that I would have survived it. I did take a small shock from one of the branching bits, and that nearly did me in. As it was, I still had pins and needles running through my leg.
I heard them talking about upgrading the spell. Knowing they were coming closer, I cloaked my body in shadow, as that was the best I could do. They stopped for a second at the bottom of the stairs, and I noticed that the knight was a lot more deferential to the mage. I didn’t blame him, after that display of power. There were major bosses that would be hard pressed to take that attack and live. No matter what, my next attack needs to be to take out that glass cannon. Hopefully, the cooldown on that skill is something in the ten-minute range.
Watching them go, I was silently cursing as they were heading away from the treasure chest room. I really wanted them to meet their end in there. Loading my crossbow with a flesh ravager, I had to limp slowly after them.
“Hold on a second.” The mage spoke, and I mentally swore. I was just about to step off the bottom step, if they detected me I was toast. “This is interesting. Hold your torch up higher, but don’t move forward. Do you see that?”
“See what? All I see is the floor.”
“Just about to the edge of your torchlight, do you see that line?”
“See wha? Huh. Yeah, I do see it. The hell is it? And how did you see it?”
“Mana sight. It appears to be shadow mana. Now, I should be able to do this. Bringer of life, cleave through the shadows. [Blade of light].”
“HOLY SHIT!” I heard the knight swear.
“Fascinating. The shadows formed a tripwire. Unless you were incredibly observant you wouldn’t notice an extra shadow at your feet. I think this confirms they have shadow manipulation in addition to stone.”
I heard their steps moving away, and let out a breath I forgot I had been holding. Damn, I didn’t expect them to figure out my trap like that. At least the loremasters were known for hoarding their knowledge of most things. A few minutes passed where I finally regained full use of my leg. When they returned, they were much more relaxed and headed in to see what the treasure chest room held. Here is where either I would die or they would.
As they walked in, I created a shadowgheist. What was this feeling in my chest? I feel, airy. It feels good though, is it nervousness? Anticipation? Yes! I was anticipating this, like no other fight before it. To see an enemy that can take me down with one blast, I have to do this perfectly.
“See that line there? Coming up from the floor?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t touch it. From the angle, it would be connected to the base of the chest at best. Go ahead and just open it, no need to fear a trap.” The mage confidently got close, but not quite close enough for the trap to get him. Not that the knight was going to set it off, but that was ok. I let him open it, as I took aim with my arbalest after switching it out to an armor piercing bolt. Taking aim not at the players, but at the wire of the trap, I let the bolt fly and gave my shadowgheist an order.
Things seemed to unfold in slow motion. Both players were mid-turn when the bolt cut through the wire and activated the trap. I saw the knight’s arm start to flail as the floor dropped out from under him, but the mage was unfazed. Completing his turn, he had his arm raised to cast a spell when my clone speared him in the midsection. Unable to brace for the impact, both disappeared over the edge and into the pit.
All invaders have been killed.
There will be a half hour rest period for the dungeon to reset.
I promptly collapsed. Dear God, but that felt good. That was incredible, but I felt that I barely scraped by on that one. I was feeling pretty bad for tomorrow, as I expected Rycran’s group would be much tougher than what I just managed to take down. Shrugging my shoulders, there wasn’t much I could do with my skills and experience sealed while in the dungeon. I did have a few changes to make, but that would have to wait until the end of the day so that nobody could give them a heads up.
The rest of the day was anticlimactic, as I tended to play conservatively. There were a lot more dwarves coming through today, and I treated them to the same thing that Gnumble got when they noticed my hiding spots. Sure, it was slightly mean to lead them on, letting them think they had the upper hand and then shooting them in the face, but not a single one of them was doing anything other than trying to manipulate the stone with their eyes closed. Seriously, did they not think that closing your eyes and falling that deep into concentration wouldn’t end up badly in the middle of a dungeon? The best part of the day was that the group with the loremaster had spent a lot of time exploring, so I didn’t have nearly as many groups to deal with today as I did yesterday.
Dungeon day concluded!
Thank you for serving your second day in the dungeon. The day is at an end, so you are free to make any further modifications you would like.
Stats:
Groups defeated: 7
Total dungeon kills: 47
Individual kills: 40
Looking over the kill sheets for a second, I was slightly shocked. Today was mostly smaller groups, but I had nearly the same amount of dungeon kills since I let them use their resurrections. Definitely something to think on in the future. Happy, I started whistling as I went about making changes to the dungeon.