Callie and Zinnia enter Ahita’s blacksmith’s shop. They sort through their inventories and retrieve their unrefined centipede ores.
“Hey, Zinnia! I have a rare level thirty ‘Skull Paladin Shield’ that you can have. The shield is kind of weak for your level but if the shield is upgraded it would be better than what you currently have equipped. I was going to sell the shield since I never use shields anyway and the shield’s special skills only apply when wielded by the undead. I forgot all about the equipment.”
Zinnia replies “I think that I will find something better by the time that I collect the resources to upgrade the shield to level fifty. You do raise a good point though, I should get a better shield. I was the last line of defense during the centipede battle in the challenge against Dread and Nox. I will use my ore to craft a shield.”
“If those monsters are considered a ‘segment’ of the Centipede of Greed, then is the entire body made of the four segments the entire centipede? Or is there some kind of even worse legendary tier version lurking in the dungeon somewhere?"
“I do not know. I have only encountered rare and epic tiers of the monster.”
“Well then, what kind of equipment should I buy with my ore? I really should try to aim for a whole set of some gear for bonus skills and effects. The problem is we would have to fight the same centipede so many times over. We might not even encounter another rare centipede for a long time.”
Callie continues, “Then there is the issue of paying for the blacksmith to craft these items. We have to spend the ten silver coins we earned from grinding for a day. Selling the skull paladin shield will earn two silver. The endless cycle of grinding for equipment and grinding for coins to upgrade the equipment."
Zinnia replies, “Having a mismatched set of gear is still better than nothing. There is a starting point for everyone’s adventure. We do not have to worry about crafting special sets right now if that makes you unhappy."
Callie raises her hand to her chin. She wanders through the blacksmith’s shop looking at the sets of gear on display. There are swords, daggers, helmets, earrings, and ect. There are even full sets of armor.
“Any suggestions, my blacksmith pal of mine?”
Ahita replies, “Ingots are not mage friendly materials. You can only hope to make heavy equipment from heavy ingots after all. Small items such as daggers, wands, rings, and such should not restrict your movement much."
“I think that I should go for a dagger then. A physical attribute weapon is going to be useful in the next dungeon I plan on visiting. The enemies there have high magical defense. I want to at least be able to deal decent damage against them. There is the bonus of being able to get critical hits with the dagger too. Most mage classes and gear offer little to no critical hit capabilities except for mage assassin hybrid builds.”
Ahita replies, “The forging process will require several hours. Please return to collect the equipment tomorrow or at your earliest convenience."
“That is fine. I was thinking that maybe I should go find an inn somewhere and get some sleep anyway. I will see you tomorrow, Zinnia.”
Zinnia suggests, “We have spare rooms in my palace. You could stay in one."
Callie checks her reputation tab of the menu and is reminded that her affinity with the queen is at zero.
“No thanks. I get the feeling that the queen doesn’t really like me based on the last conversation we had. I would rather avoid seeing her. No offense.”
The following day Callie returns to her apartment after a long day. There is a calendar on the wall that marks the date as the first of October. She flops face first onto a pillow. After a long period of inactivity, Callie flops around and checks her phone.
The titles of various suggested videos for the following day read, ‘The Potential Complications of Using AI for Military Use’, ‘New Classified Military Grade Drone Leaked’, ‘Will Air Quality Ever be the Same as it was a Decade Ago? Scientists say no’, and ‘Hero Parrot Rescues Family from Fire by Calling for Help’.
“No way! I have to learn more about this interesting topic at once!” Callie clicks on the parrot video.
Callie enters the world of ROW. She finds Zinnia working at a construction site. She is sitting at the top of an incomplete tower wielding a hammer. Zinnia scrambles down the tower as fast as she can when she sees that Callie has arrived.
The two enter Ahita’s blacksmith shop where Zinnia receives a rare quality level fifty shield. The shield is a purple color and named ‘Shield of Greed’. Callie receives a level thirty five dagger of a similar naming scheme.
Callie slashes at Zinnia’s shield to test the weapons. The two weapons are sturdy. Callie then slashes at nothing other than the air repeatedly to try to get a feeling for the change of dagger. Zinnia walks around the store with her shield raised and shield bashes the air.
Callie states, “Great equipment. Sadly we were not lucky enough to have them forged with extra effects this time around.”
Callie continues, “The dagger reminds me that my mage class has leveled up. I can actually buy a proper defensive spell now. The spell that I have chosen is icicle which eventually becomes ice wall. Plus my disciple class leveled up from level three to level five. I can now make a full hand appear instead of a single claw and stun enemies. The damage is still underwhelming.”
Zinnia responds, “I am not even a quarter of the way there. I think that I am going to be stuck at level fifty forever.”
The duo leave the shop.
Callie asks, “Did you know that today is the first of October? Around this time of year there are a couple of Halloween themed dungeons that do not appear very often. Around this time of year a friend of mine travels from across the sea to visit the city of Crimson Rain too. It would be nice to pay her a visit and maybe check out the limited time Candy Cavern dungeon that appears in Crimson Rain too.”
Zinnia replies, “Any friend of yours is a friend of mine! I would like to meet her!”
The duo make their way to the city of Crimson Rain. The city is decorated with mural art of spiders, ghosts, and ghouls. There are decorative cobwebs, cauldrons, and plastic display skeletons. There are witches riding broomsticks in the air, phantoms floating through buildings, and bobbing for apples stands.
Callie notes, “Yesterday the streets were so barren that the city looked deserted. Now there are a lot more people going out during the middle of the day now and the city looks so lively. I guess our plan to have Dread and Nox confront their old guildmates worked. Our plan must have put a halt in the guild rivalry between Undead Paradise and Blood Toll.”
Zinnia states, “I have heard that the guilds decided to merge into a new guild called Undead Blood Toll. They were running out of options since there were on the brink of disbandment with only around ten members in each whereas a successful guild has around fifty members. I have also heard that their blood feud was created by their previous guild masters who simply decided to leave to form stronger guilds.”
“Hmm. So the remaining guild members wised up and realized they were pawns for Dread and Nox’s game of guild wars. Good for them.”
“It is good news for my kingdom too. I was finally able to make a trade contract with the local merchants for the mass amounts of crimson ore that my kingdom needs for reconstruction.”
There is a rabbit girl running a caramel apple stand in a public plaza. She is dressed in a red chef’s robe and there is a small chubby and puffy ghost accompanying her. She sells a caramel apple and then turns around for the ingredients to make more caramel. Her delicate ear twitches as she hears the sound of footsteps approaching her stand.
“Hi, there! How many apples can I get you?”
“One caramel apple please. A green one with a bunch of peanuts sprinkled all over.”
The rabbit girl freezes in place. “That voice, that delicious choice! I would recognize that voice anywhere! Is that you, Callie?”
The rabbit girl spins around in a flamboyant manner.
“Nice to see you, Heli! Are you visiting to explore the culinary scene of this side of the world again?”
“Yeah, how did you know? I just hope nothing bad happens again like the last two years!”
Heli gasps. She squishes Zinnia’s cheeks and stares at some thin slits. “You are cut! Do not panic! I will make you an apple that will heal you back to full health in a second!”
“Hello! It is very nice to meet you!”
“No. She is not injured. She is a robot and those are marks left over from her manufacturing process.”
Heli tries to force feed Zinnia an apple. Zinnia takes a slight amount of damage for attempting to consume a piece organic food.
“What is a robot? And here I was thinking that I could cook food for anyone! I am a fool! I have much left to learn! Ooh but what do robots even eat? Ooooooh but please forgive me! I promise I had good intentions when feeding you that apple!”
“All is forgiven.”
Heli extends her hand with a caramel apple. “You may have a caramel apple on the house as an apology. Gahh, what am I even saying? No you cannot!" She smacks the apple out of her own hand with her other hand.
Her familiar catches the apple and starts chewing the apple. The chunks phase through the ghost’s body and drop to the floor.
“Where do I even go to learn to cook for robots? No matter! Where there is a will, there is a way! I shall learn! Ooh, I know! I was invited to a fancy dinner and culinary contest where a bunch of famous chefs from across the world are competing to see who can make the best desert. There is bound to be at least one chef there that knows how! Would the two of you like to be my guests?”
Callie replies, “That sounds like fun! I would love to! Besides we better stick together in case something weird happens this year again."
Heli grabs a hold of Callie’s hands. “No way something weird will happen three years in a row! Right, Callie?”
Callie looks away. “Right.”
Heli packs up her items. She leads the way to a noble’s manor. “This is where I am staying! The generous noble that owns this place is also organizing the culinary contest and they paid for everybody’s fare across the sea. They are even letting us stay in our own personal rooms for free. Isn’t that really nice of them?”
Callie sarcastically replies, “So nice of them! I bet they have the purest of intentions.”
The gates are creaky and rusty. They eerily open of their own accord. There are statues that depict people with sharp fangs and capes, zombies holding their own detached heads, and even a gargoyle that pretends to be a statue and takes off when the party gets too close.
Heli screams and wields a frying pan like a weapon. The gargoyle never bothers returning and so the party continues. They do not notice that all the remaining statues behind them have turned to face them.
Heli knocks on the door. A butler opens the door and asks for an invitation that Heli hands over.
“I see that you are accompanied by some uninvited guests. No matter. The more the merrier. They may participate in the festivities. We would be delighted to have you all for dinner.” The butler chuckles maliciously.
Callie stares at the butler with narrowed eyes.
Heli cluelessly chuckles along.
Zinnia exclaims, “Hooray! Festivities!”
“I will show you to your rooms.”
Callie states, “We are a party of three and we shall share one room, thank you very much."
“As you wish. You may take room number seven. Please join us for dinner in half an hour.”
They are taken to a room with three beds and one bathroom. Heli leaves the bag containing all of her stuff on a pile on the floor. She then leaps into bed.
“I have never known such luxury! These beds are so comfy that I just want to go straight to bed! But we must prepare for dinner!”
Callie replies, “Not even a small nap that lasts for only a few minutes? No? Okay, then we all better get ready. We want to do our best to look presentable. How about we start by choosing our outfits?"
One hour later Heli asks, “Can you make up your mind already, Callie?! We have been mixing and matching every set of outfits that we own! We have even traded our spare outfits between the three of us for the last hour! I am so sick of it!"
“I am sorry. Time flew so fast that I did not even realize. Curse my sensitive taste in fashion. As I thought, our original outfits were the best after all. Please change back. Last time, I promise.”
“Ugh! Fine!” Heli grabs her original set of clothing. She enters the bathroom and slams the door behind her.
Callie then blocks the door leading to the exit of the room.
“Please move! I am hungry and I want to go to dinner!"
“Dinner?”, “Yes, dinner! What is up with you?”, “The dinner taking place downstairs? Is that the dinner you are talking about?"
A couple of screams can be heard coming from downstairs. One of them says, “Help me!"
Heli asks, “What was that?"
Zinnia states, “Screams and a cry for help. Duh."
Callie feigns an expression of surprise. Her tone of voice sounds so dull and monotone. “It sounds as though it came from the dinning hall. We better go and see.”
The butler chuckles as the trio enter the dining room. He leaves through a hidden entrance in the wall that closes behind them.
Heli asks, “What have you done to them?! Answer me!" Her hand bangs on the wall to no avail.
There are odd crystals of various colors scattered everywhere that make the dining hall seem as though it were a war zone. There are eerie sculptures made of the same materials with faces expressing fear and panic. They all have some sort of chef robe or hat.
Heli chips at a piece of crystal on the wall that the butler escaped behind. She sniffs the crystal cautiously. “This is rock candy?" She licks the crystal. “This is rock candy! Do you think this is all just some kind of mean Halloween prank?”
Callie equips her dagger. She very lightly scratches one of the candy ‘sculptures’.
“I have never heard of a sculpture with a health bar. These are the chefs. They must have invited you to the manner as a trick to turn you all into sculptures."
Heli gasps. “Why does something weird like this always happen when I visit Crimson City?! Am I cursed?”
Tears start to run down her face. “If it wasn’t for you, I would have been turned to stone! You saved my life! I am sorry that I yelled at you! And I am sorry that I was being mean to you! I was just so hungry and I wanted to eat dinner! And I am sorry that I always drag you into these messes even though you are a good friend of mine! And—.”
Callie thought to herself, “I feel a little guilty for picking favorites but we can only save one NPC to act as a guide and give quests during the event. Heli isn’t even the original NPC that is supposed to give us the quest but I like her way more than any of the other chefs. I only discovered that it was possible to change the NPC that we work with during the second year run of a similar Halloween event. I think I will choose Heli as a guide every time this event comes around."
Callie grabs a firm hold of her shoulders to interrupt her. “That is okay! My indecisiveness can be both a blessing and a curse! I am just glad that you are safe! We know that they are all still alive at least! We can stop them! We can save them before the vampires do anything worse!"
Heli starts to wipe her tears. “I know how to make potions to reverse the effects of petrification! The only problem is that we are going to need to find a lot of ingredients. I wonder if we can use some of the crystals and items we find around the area as substitutes.”
“We can try. Now to figure out how to open the hidden wall blocking our way."
Rock candy that is not a part of any petrified sculptures is harvested from the dining room. The trio then carefully search the area until Heli finds a hidden switch under the table. The press of the switch opens the hidden wall to reveal a staircase descending through a basement and even further down to a dungeon cavern.
A notification appears letting the party know that they have entered the Candy Cavern dungeon. There is rock candy growing directly on the walls of the dungeon. There is a variety in colors of candy that make the cavern seem as gorgeous as a coral reef. There are golems that seem to be made out of solid candy wandering around. The party point out the butler wandering further into the cave at a distance.
Callie asks, “Are you ready for a battle, Heli?"
Heli tightly grips her frying pan. “I can do this. I have done this kind of thing before and I can do this kind of thing again. We are going to have to defeat at least one of every type of enemy to see what kind of items they drop. I want to harvest at least one of each type of candy growing on the cavern walls too. I just might be able to scramble up something helpful with the materials in this dungeon.”
Callie takes a moment to check her level. Heli happens to be level thirty. The golems that Callie can see range from level thirty to thirty five.
Callie states, “We can handle the dungeon. These guys do not seem so tough. The city of Crimson Rain has always been a level thirty through level forty area."
The first encounter is a red rock candy golem. The golem stomps on the ground and a trail of rock candy forms from where the golem steps in a spiky trail leading to Callie’s party as a form of attack.
Callie and Zinnia evade by dashing away. Heli gasps as she fails to guard using her frying pan as an improvised shield and takes fifteen percent damage.
Zinnia casts, “Hand of Greed!" The phantom hand attempts to crush the golem but the golem resists the stun effects of the spell. The golem takes fifteen percent damage.
Heli’s frying pan starts to heat up and creates a burning ball of flames. She tosses the fireball into the air and smacks the fireball at the golem as though the fireball were a tennis ball and her frying pan was a tennis racket. The golem takes a measly eight percent damage.
Callie instructs, “Magic is no good against this variety of golem. Your magic is only dealing decent damage because of your drastic fifteen level advantage, Zinnia. On the other hand, their bodies are much more fragile than their stone golem counterparts. Zinnia, move in to melee range. Helis, keep on supporting us from a distance."
Callie casts lunge to close the distance and slashes at the golem with her dagger. She deals fifteen percent damage.
The golem creates a red ball of magic over their head. The ball crystallizes and bursts into shards of rock candy that strike in a wide range around the golem continuously. Callie and Zinnia take five percent damage each and rock candy starts to form over their skin in small amounts.
Heli warns, “Candy Hail! I have seen this ability before! You will be petrified temporarily if you stick around too long!”
The golem then raises both of their hands and smacks them against the ground to create a small shock wave. Callie is agile enough to jump off of the ground in time. Zinnia makes a failed attempt a mere moment later and takes eight percent damage.
Callie slashes at the golem but the golem abruptly decides to charge at Callie while she is in the middle of her attack. She takes fifteen percent damage while dealing the same amount of damage. The charge knocks Callie out of the golem’s path and the golem unintentionally advances towards Heli.
Heli calls, “Go, Glutton!"
Her chubby and round ghost familiar faces against the golem while using the skill ‘Taunt’. The ghosts puffs up its stomach to make itself slightly larger. The golem bashes the ghost familiar for twelve percent of the familiar’s health. Although attacked, Glutton does not seem to mind at all. They resist the physical damage on account of their phantom body. Glutton just looses their taunt and returns to regular size before slowly hovering back to Heli’s side.
Heli has already retreated by running a short distance away from the golem.
“I cast pancake batter into an iron skillet!" Heli starts to cook pancakes in her frying pan that she flips over and then flips into the air for her familiar to eat. Her familiar’s health is fully restored.
Callie points out, “The name of the skill is just ‘Cooking’. She added her own flavor text onto the ability.”
Callie and Zinnia catch up and step in between to block the path to Heli.
Zinnia casts shield bash and strikes the golem. The golem suffers from a stun effect and takes thirty percent damage. She and Callie both slash for a combined total of forty five percent damage split as thirty and fifteen. The golem is quickly defeated.
Heli calls, “We should take a moment to regroup over here! I can heal us back up to full health!"
Heli makes some more pancakes that restores Callie and her own HP back to full health.
“Sorry, Zinnia! I don’t know how to cook food to heal you yet!”
“That is okay. I am sitting comfortably at eighty eight percent health and I am so over-leveled for the area that I take less damage from these enemies.”
Heli checks the golem’s drops. “Various assorted Halloween candy? Why does a golem even have these? They can’t even eat candy! I can’t use any of these for anything either! You two can have those. Thankfully I think I can use the rock candy chunk as an ingredient to reverse the effects of petrification!”
Callie thought to herself. “The ‘Halloween Candy’ item is something that can be exchanged for some limited time Halloween themed items or eaten for taste. Players can also get Halloween candy from trick-or-treating but they will get less from doing so than completing event dungeons.”
Heli points. “I see a phantom and a zombie dead ahead! We should check what they drop!”
Zinnia replies, “Tally-ho!"
A vampire bat hanging from the ceiling of the cave swoops down before the trio can make the first strike. The vampire switches to a human form as they approach and drop down behind Zinnia. They attack Zinnia with a rock candy dagger for a surprise critical hit dealing fifteen percent damage.
Heli casts a fireball that smacks against the bat in an attack that is super effective and deals eighteen percent damage. The attack makes the vampire burst into a swarm of bats that retreat to the side of the rest of the monsters.
The zombie lunges at Callie but Zinnia interrupts by shield bashing the zombie in mid attack. She then slashes the zombie for a combined total of sixty percent damage.
Callie slashes at the zombie but the zombie narrowly evades by using the skill ‘An Early Grave’. They sacrifice ten percent of their health and sink into the ground. Instead of waiting for them to reemerge, Callie chooses to advance and face the rest of the enemies while the zombie is immune to attacks.
Zinnia remains in place with her shield raised acting as a barrier between the zombie and Heli. They are forced to wait until the zombie reemerges a moment later. Zinnia wastes no time slashing a zombie immediately and dealing thirty percent damage. The zombie’s health drops from fifty to twenty.
Zinnia realizes, “You are not the same zombie as before! Does this mean they cast Horde to spawn minions?"
A trio of zombies emerge from the ground with fifty percent health each except for the one Zinnia just attacked. A fourth emerges a moment later.
Zinnia’s eyes seem to focus on the last zombie. “I can recognize that one as the original zombie thanks to their health bar sitting at thirty percent health!”
The trio of zombies lunge at Zinnia for nine percent damage.
Heli commands, “Glutton, go!" The fourth zombie similarly attempts a lunge when Glutton suddenly intercepts the last attack and takes twelve percent of damage.
Heli casts a flaming fireball strikes the weakened zombie summon and deals eighteen percent damage. The attack agitates and redirects the attention of the two percent health zombie.
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The weakened zombie roars. They change targets and start sprinting after Heli.
Glutton body blocks once again. He effectively controls the battlefield and keeps the zombie at a distance even as the zombie strikes him twice for ten percent damage.
Heli has the opportunity to cast another fireball from a safe distance. Heli chants, “May the flames of my searing hot oil burn so bright that they cast away the night, Fireball!" The attack slays the weakened zombie summon.
Zinnia casts, “Hand of Greed!" She constrains the zombie closest to her. The zombie slightly resists the dark elemental damage but the level difference is too much to overcome. They take a hefty amount of twenty four percent damage. She slashes the weakened zombie and slays them.
The last zombie bites Zinnia for three percent damage. The original zombie bites as well for a stronger attack and the cast of a skill that deals eight percent damage. Zinnia is immune to the bite’s continuous damage.
“Infection skills like the Plague do not work against me!”
Zinnia shakes them off. She attacks with a shield bash that simultaneously strikes the both of them for thirty percent damage each. The original zombie is defeated.
The final zombie attempts to bite Zinnia again but they are interrupted when a flaming fireball smacks against them. The attack gives Zinnia more than enough of an opportunity to slash and finish off the final zombie.
The other half of the battlefield has their own battle going on at the same time as Zinnia and Heli fight with the zombies.
Callie lunges at the vampire but the phantom intercepts the attack. The phantom resists some of the physical damage but takes twelve percent damage.
The phantom shrieks. They warp and change the shape of their hands into claws that they use to slash at Callie for fifteen percent damage. Callie tries to guard but she misses the timing with her unfamiliar weapon. The phantom never stops moving and moves past Callie at a rapid pace once the attack lands. The phantom is soon out of range for a counter melee attack.
The vampire casts, “Crimson Dagger!" They create a set of three crimson rock candy daggers that they throw at Callie all at once.
Callie switches weapons to her wand. She casts, “Icicle!" An icicle rises from the ground ahead of her that defends her from the daggers. The icicle remains standing long after absorbing the attack and becomes a part of the battlefield for what seems to be the duration of the battle.
Callie emerges from behind the icicle with a Spear of Ice that she hurls at the vampire.
The vampire elegantly lifts their cape. They chant, “I call upon the night to shroud me from sight, Dark Fog!" They twirl and a dark fog emerges. Callie’s spear misses.
Callie’s lower lip starts to twitch and warps into an uncontrollable smile. She replies, “Miss me with that dollar store smokescreen! The sun reveals all that hidden in the night, Morning Glory!" The blinding flash of light counters the Dark Fog and removes the fog effect. The vampire takes a super effective hit for eighteen percent damage.
The shrieking banshee’s voice can be heard gradually coming closer. They attempt to strike Callie with a back stab type of attack.
The sound of shrieking is more than a plentiful warning for Callie to turn around. She defends herself by casting, “Hand of Greed!" A hand appears like a barrier standing in between that the phantom crashes into. The hand deals a negligible amounts of damage that the phantom resists.
Zinnia and Heli enter the fray. Zinnia slashes at the phantom for twenty four damage. Heli casts a fireball for eighteen percent damage.
Callie orders, “Stay back, Zinnia! You are already at half health! I can handle tanking for a while!"
“I understood! Good luck!”
The phantom is freed and zooms to the vampire’s side again. The phantom wails and several ghastly phantom illusions appear around the phantom that only last for a few seconds.
The blinded vampire furiously rubs their eyes and then the blind effect disappears. The vampire raises their hand and a crimson colored aura appears around their party.
“Ghastly Aura is a team buff that raises magical attack and defense. Vampiric Aura is team buff that grants twenty five percent lifesteal for one attack with the downside of an incredibly long cooldown. Get ready to defend! They are scheming and planning something nasty!"
The phantom shrieks and numerous phantoms appear that rush across the room with a wide range of effect attack. Callie defends with the use of her wand and takes eight percent damage. Her resistance to dark elemental damage cancels out the phantom’s buff effect. Heli and Glutton are unable to defend and take eighteen and twelve percent damage. The phantom heals for ten percent health and now has sixty four percent HP.
The vampire creates a dark orb in the middle of the battlefield in between Callie and her allies. The orb increases in size for a moment before bursting into a wave of dark elemental magic.
Heli warns, “Watch out!" She and Glutton are able to escape in time.
Callie turns in time to see the orb bursting. She attempts to dodge out of the way but the range of the dark wave is farther than she was expecting and deals twelve percent damage. The vampire heals for three health and is now at sixty seven percent HP.
Callie casts, “Pillar of Earth!" She stuns the vampire and deals fifteen percent damage. She continues her assault by immediately casting Spear of Ice on the same target. The phantom intercepts the second attack to defend the vampire and takes twelve percent damage.
Heli asks, “Can’t block two attacks at the same time, can you?" Heli takes the perfect shot at the vampire while the phantom is busy guarding against Callie. The vampire is struck for eighteen percent damage. Heli does not stop there. She casts another the moment that her spell cools down.
The phantom redirects their attention to Heli. The phantom slashes and Glutton intercepts the attack for twelve percent damage.
Callie casts another Morning Glory that slays the enemy vampire.
Heli hurls a fireball at the phantom, Zinnia casts Hand of Greed, and Callie back stabs the phantom for a critical hit dealing double damage that slays the phantom.
Callie asks, “Things are getting rough for your health bar aren’t they, Zinnia? Fifty three percent remaining. We better be extra careful to avoid unnecessary battles like these for the rest of the dungeon. We can always return to gather more materials to cure the petrification later. We better take care of the noble vampires that lured the chefs here first."
Heli seems uneasy. She reluctantly replies, “Okay. I wouldn’t want Zinnia to collapse. Nothing bad could happen to the petrified chefs in the meantime right?"
“I can assure you that they will be fine once the vampire nobles are out of the picture. The monsters in the dungeon are tame when there are no adventurers to attack. They tend to ignore anything that is inanimate such as candy sculptures anyways.”
Heli checks the monster drops. “A ghastly veil, vampire cape, and a torn clothing pattern. These are all useless cosmetic items! Do you two want them?”
Callie states, “I already have those cosmetics items.”
Zinnia takes all three cosmetic items. She wears the cape and then applies the torn clothing pattern to make holes appear all over the cape.
“Wait, what is this? The vampire was holding a crafting recipe with instructions on how to craft the potion that turns people into rock candy! I can use this to better understand how their version of petrification works! Now I know exactly what kind of ingredients I will need to reverse the process! A chunk of red rock candy, a chunk of purple red candy, and some uncommon green chunks.”
The party ventures further into the dungeon. They skip through the next two floors taking extra caution and time to avoid any unnecessary conflict. They descend to the fourth floor and the next floor has an immediately notable change of aesthetic.
The scenery of the stone of the natural cavern walls changes into man-made stone bricks. There are hieroglyphics depicting an over-sized tick larger than the depictions of humans side by side. The pathway leads to a small open area similar in size to the PVP arena where there are three vampires chanting in front of a rock candy sculpture that looks like a cylindrical platform with a sculpture of a red tick at the top.
Callie silently activates her live-streaming feature.
Heli speaks up before Callie even has a chance. “I have never seen anything like this! Do you remember last year when something similar happened and there were three vampires standing side by side with their candy weapons, Callie? There was not a candy totem like that before! Merely looking at that totem makes me feel queasy as if there is some nasty aura in the air. I bet that totem is bad news!”
“You are right. As far as I know, we might be the first adventurers to stumble across this kind of encounter. The unusual variation might have something to do with the fact that we have the disciple subclass."
Heli winces. She looks almost physically repulsed. “You mean you are a disciple now? But you are so nice! I don’t get it!”
Callie makes a curious expression. “You know about disciples? I barely even know anything about them. What can you tell us about them?”
Heli responds, “What do you mean that you don’t know?! Disciples are terrible people! The ones that I have personally met were all awful! Before I met you two, I had no idea there could be any exceptions!”
Callie dramatically poses and Zinnia mimics her.
“We are just magical that way. What else can you tell me about them?”
Heli continues. “Now that you mention it, I am pretty sure the vampires turning people into sculptures are disciples! I think I recognize that tick totem as something that makes disciples go nuts.”
“Beyond that, I am not so sure! I barely paid attention to occultist type of clubs and rumors when I was still in school. I only really cared about my love for cooking and summoning. I promise that I will do my research and tell you more about them some other time when I have the chance. We should really focus on the dungeon at hand right now!”
The party get closer to the trio of vampires. All of them are titled ‘Vampire Disciples’ set at level thirty five each. They are all rare tier monsters. The tick totem starts to shine and a beam of red light shines at one of the vampires that makes their body burst out into red rock candy. The rock candy does not completely petrify them, but instead seems to become their new body. The tier of the affected vampire changes from rare into epic. Their name changes into ‘Candy Vampire’.
Callie notes, “The sculpture has a durability bar which is essentially the same thing as a health bar for nonliving objects. The sculpture is glowing a faint red color as though it is collecting energy probably to evolve another vampire. I guess technically, we are already considered to be in the middle of combat even though nobody has attacked anybody yet. We better defeat the vampires before more of them start to evolve."
Callie instructs, “Alright everybody, focus fire on one of the weaker vampires. We should try to finish off the weaker ones first. Combo with me, Zinnia."
“Combo skill Hand in Hand!” Two phantom hands appear around one of the vampires that crush the vampire in between as though they were crushing a mosquito. The vampire takes forty five percent damage mostly from Zinnia’s strength.
Heli lobs a fireball at the weakened vampire for a super effective attack dealing eighteen percent damage.
The attacked vampire shouts, “Enemy disciples are attacking! I always knew the disciples of Greed would come trying to steal our treasures one day! They are nothing but miserable thieves!"
Callie warns, “Remember that you are already down to fifty three percent health, Zinnia. Try to be careful.”
“I will do my best.”
The candy vampire casts, “Candy Hail!" A wide area of effect ability appears. The range of the ability is larger than the candy hail the rock candy golem from a previous battle was capable of conjuring. The spell damages the entire party for continuous five percent damage. Small pieces of rock candy start forming over their bodies.
Heli warns, “Taking four ‘rock candy’ type of attacks like that one will petrify us temporarily! We will be left defenseless if that happens so watch over each other!"
Heli warns, “I cannot heal you if you are petrified either! There is no way a sculpture could eat my cooking!"
The party is forced to hastily advance out of the range of the Candy Hail spell or alternatively petrify.
Vampires A and B simultaneously cast, “Dark Wave!" Two orbs of dark magic form and congeal. One of them appears by Callie and Zinnia. The other appears by Heli and Glutton.
Callie does not even attempt to defend against the dark wave attack. She resists the elemental match-up and takes twelve percent damage. She rushes out of the affected area of Candy Hail.
Zinnia is forced to pause her advance. She swaps to her wand to defend against the exploding orb. She takes four percent damage. The spell makes her stay within the range of Candy Hail and take five percent more damage as well as give her a second stack of the rock candy petrification effect.
Heli attempts to defend but her frying pan is not a very effective shield. She takes ten percent damage. Her familiar, Glutton does not even seem to be a summon capable of defending. They take twelve percent damage. Both of them are inflicted with a second stack of petrification.
Callie casts, “Morning Glory!" The spell deals eighteen percent damage against Vampire A and drops their health down to nineteen percent.
Zinnia lunges out of the Candy Hail area and strikes the weakened enemy vampire in order to finish them off.
Heli dashes out of range of the hail and leaps to a better position on the map. She hurls a flaming fireball at Vampire B who takes eighteen percent damage.
The remaining vampires chant, “May this sacrifice appease your endless hunger, all mighty Tick of Gluttony! Please grant us the power to defeat the enemies standing before us so that we may continue to serve you!"
The defeated vampire does not disappear instantly like normal monsters do after they are defeated. The remaining vampires hurl some kind of potion resembling a red variation of a potion of crystal skin at the vampire that turns them into a candy sculpture.
The tick totem fires a red energy beam at the vampire that seems to siphon their remaining life force in order to power the totem. The totem then fires a second red beam at Vampire B and makes them evolve into a ‘Candy Vampire’ as well. There are now two epic tier Candy Vampires.
One of the vampire’s fingers merge together and form a blade. They stay on the ground level. The other starts casting a spell. They hover high into the air.
Callie calls out, “So that is how the totem works! It makes them stronger depending on the sacrifices made! Leave it to me to think of a way to counter the effects! We will call these guys Slasher and Caster to coordinate!"
Slasher lunges and slashes at Zinnia. She defends with her shield but takes four percent damage. The indirect attack is unable to add any stacks of petrification.
Slasher immediately switches targets and lunges at Callie as though their lunge ability has no cool down period at all. Callie is caught off guard and takes fifteen percent damage. She is inflicted with a third stack of petrification.
“Not good! Another attack like that and I will be rendered helpless!”
Slasher moves for a third strike aiming at Heli.
Heli has already seen Slasher dash from target to target. She is already in the middle of creating a fireball that smacks against Slasher’s chest while they are in the middle of a dash and deals nine percent damage. The attack oddly leaves Slasher stunned in place.
Heli calls out, “My fireball doesn’t stun monsters! Slasher’s weakness is that we have to strike them when they are dashing!"
Callie notes, “They are no longer weak against fire! That attack should have done at least fifteen percent damage even without the bonus super effective damage! This means that these guys have forty percent magic damage resistance! That is insane!”
Caster casts, “Candy Cavern!" A wave of rock candy similar to the ability that the red rock candy golem created previously appears from the floor in a wide area of effect. The attack creates a wave of spiky rock candy that slowly advances throughout the floor.
Zinnia and Heli attempt to defend. They are are affected for five percent damage each and receive their third stack of petrification. Oddly enough even Slasher takes damage from the ability but they are not affected by the stacks of petrification.
Zinnia warns, “The attack cannot be blocked!"
Glutton had flown high into the air in an effort to intercept a direct fireball type of attack they predicted would be hurled at Heli. They effortlessly and unintentionally avoid the attack.
Callie casts, “Wind of the Fairy!" Callie flies in a mad burst of speed into the air to avoid the attack.
“Lets see how you like the idea of getting stunned. You may be made of the same thing but you are much smaller compared to a golem."
Callie casts, “Hand of Greed!" A phantom hand attempts to crush Caster. They only take nine percent damage but they are stunned.
Callie commands, “Focus Slasher while they are still stunned!"
Heli casts fireball for nine percent damage.
Zinnia shield bashes Slasher. They take twenty four percent damage and their health drops to thirty five percent HP.
“No way! They can resist twenty percent of my bash’s physical damage too! Our stun effects only work against Slasher if we interrupt their movement abilities!”
Slasher makes a second attempt to dash at Heli but Glutton blocks the attack and takes twelve percent damage. All of the party members are now inflicted with their third stack of petrification meaning any more direct attacks and they will be petrified.
Slasher sees Heli cooking up another fireball.
Slasher almost mechanically turns around and switches targets to strike Zinnia for four percent damage. Zinnia defends the attack. Her health drops to twenty two percent.
Caster casts a second Candy Hail centered around Zinnia that deals five percent damage and petrifies her. At the very least, Zinnia’s magical defense drastically rises. Her elemental type also temporarily changes into ‘candy’ making her completely immune to any further damage inflicted from the effects of Candy Hail.
Slasher attempts another physical attack at Zinnia.
They suddenly rise into the air above a Pillar of Earth that deals fifteen percent damage. They are not stunned and their movement is hardly hindered at all. Their attention turns to Callie who cast the spell in the distance. They leap after her and attempt to lunge at her.
Callie panics and casts, “Morning Glory!" The spell deals nine percent damage and leaves Slasher with eleven percent health left. They are not blinded but they are momentarily stunned.
Callie instructs, “Step up, Heli! Make Glutton step us as well! We need to take the heat off Zinnia while she is helpless! Use Glutton to keep Slasher at bay and focus fire on Caster! We have to defeat both of them at the same time otherwise they will evolve again!"
Heli and Glutton advance and now are blocking the path to Zinnia.
Caster casts, “Dark Wave!"
Callie worries, “Damn it! He is aiming for Zinnia!"
The Dark Wave bursts around Slasher. He takes nine percent damage and only has two percent health remaining.
Callie looks so confused that her face scrunches up. She then realizes, “He is stabbing his friend in the back to make himself stronger! Stop him!"
Callie casts and hurls a Spear of Ice at Caster. Heli casts a fireball. Caster takes a cumulative total of twenty four percent damage.
Caster casts a second Dark Wave.
Heli points. She commands, “Protect him, Glutton!"
Glutton attempts to intercept the spell but the attack bursts right besides Slasher and is nearly impossible to completely block. The spell slays Slasher and the force of the attack pushes Glutton away.
Caster hurls another red potion at Slasher. He chants, “May this sacrifice appease your endless hunger, all mighty Tick of Gluttony! Please grant me even more power to defeat the formidable enemies standing before me so that I may continue to serve you!"
Zinnia breaks free from her petrification status. She sees her party members attacking Caster and so she joins the fray. Her spell strikes Caster and the attack is met with an ‘immune’ status effect. The rest of the party members are met with the same message.
Heli states, “They are healing back to full health and there is nothing we can do to stop them. We should do the same while they are too busy powering up." Heli cooks some pancakes to restore Callie, Glutton, and herself back to full HP.
Caster is idly hovering in place as his body begins to grow in rock candy mass. Eventually his ability to hover can no longer support his heavier body. Caster drops to the ground with his health fully restored.
He appears only one size smaller than a bulky candy golem. He keeps some semblance of his spell caster physique. The red beam of energy from the tick totem never disappears either. The energy beam remains linked to Caster.
Caster begins to chuckle. His chuckle breaks out into laughter. He raises both of his hands into the air as if revealing his new grandiose form to the world. There is a grotesque faint phantom image of a tick peering from behind his shoulders.
“I can feel power surging within my body! All of this power for the price of a few measly sacrifices! I predicted monks, holy paladins, or maybe even clerics to venture would try to stop me. To think that the last thing standing between me and immortality is a battle between disciples. I wonder which is the greatest sin, Greed or Gluttony?”
The phantom image of Greed appears peering over Callie and Zinnia’s shoulders. Callie and Zinnia do not seem to notice that they have extra teeth forming across their cheeks. There is a set of phantom eyes and teeth that have formed on the face of the Shield of Greed that Zinnia has equipped. There is a set of facial features that have appeared across the arm Callie uses to wield her Dagger of Greed.
Callie replies, “A few measly sacrifices?! Those were your friends! Your comrade in arms and you struck them down in cold blood! How could you do that to them?! You could have taken the risk of continuing the battle for at least the chance to save Slasher!"
Caster leans his neck a little closer without actually moving the rest of his body any closer to Callie.
He replies, “You act as though you are so high and mighty. You are forgetting that not only are a disciple as well, you are the greediest type. You would do the same if you were presented with power. No, you would do worse."
“Not a chance!”
Callie calls out, “Caster became larger in size and probably stronger but at least they did not evolve this time! We better watch out for his ramped up attacks!"
Callie casts Morning Glory which makes Caster take nine percent damage. His health spontaneously starts to heal after receiving the attack for one percent every second.
Caster laughs. “A feeble attempt.”
Callie thought to herself, “The totem must be running out of energy because they are no longer immune to attacks. Realistically, there is no way that we are going to be able to keep up with that health regen. We do not have the kind of classes or skills made to counter that. We stand even less of a chance when he can stop us in our tracks by turning us to sculptures."
Callie calls out, “Focus on the totem to stop his healing!"
Callie casts Spear of Ice and hurls the spear at the totem. Castor intercepts the attack and the damage he takes can be considered negligible considering that they start healing immediately.
Zinnia casts, “Hand of Greed!" The totem takes twenty four percent damage.
Heli hurls a fireball at the totem for nine percent damage.
Caster warns, “Attack the totem and you shall perish!"
Caster casts, “Dark Wave!" Two orbs of dark energy simultaneously form instead of Caster’s usual ability to only cast one at a time. One forms in front of Heli and the other forms some distance ahead of her in the direction that she is running.
Heli makes a mad dash past the first dark orb. The first dark orb starts to condense and then bursts behind her back. She narrowly manages to avoid the first attack with a risky hop. She lands barely ahead of the second congealing dark orb that explodes.
Heli gasps, “Grah!" The attack makes her loose her balance, tumble, and smack against the floor. She takes fifteen percent damage from the orb and five percent damage for her brutal tumble.
Heli leaps back to her feet and wipes the dirt off of her chin.
Caster casts, “Combo skill Candy Terrain!" A second wave of Candy Cavern spikes traverse across the room and a Candy Hail starts to rain. Glutton and Zinnia are affected by Candy Cavern and take five percent damage each. Zinnia receives a stack of petrification. Glutton receives his fourth and petrifies into a candy sculpture.
Zinnia calls out, “Jump, Heli!" She creates a Hand of Greed near Heli that hovers in the air doing absolutely nothing.
Heli uses the phantom hand as though it were a platform in order to safely avoid the oncoming onslaught of spikes.
Callie casts, “Wind of the Fairy!" She safely hovers into the air to escape Candy Cavern where an unavoidable barrage of Candy Hail is waiting for her. The attack deals five percent damage and petrifies her in place. She drops down to the ground and takes an extra five percent damage for the fall.
Caster mocks, “Finally some peace and quiet. You are much more tranquil this way. Now Shatter into a million pieces!”
Caster rushes after Callie. He punches her petrified body and shatters through the petrification effect. He deals forty percent damage. His onslaught does not end there. He attempts to strike again with a second punch for a combo attack.
Callie gasps. She is released from her candy cocoon at the price of an attack dealing over double damage.
She is able to quickly react and switch weapons to her dagger before the second punch lands. She attempts a makeshift defense with her dagger. The attempt is ineffective as a result of the equipment type and she takes ten percent damage despite blocking. She receives a stack of petrification.
Heli exclaims, “Oh, no! Callie! My fireball isn’t going to cut it! I am moving in!"
Heli leaps from her platform and strikes against Caster’s back for a critical hit dealing double damage. The attack is an impressive display of accuracy, agility, and dexterity. Sadly, the damage dealt is negligible in the face of overwhelming continuous healing.
Caster almost mechanically spins around and punches Heli. She does not manage to raise her frying pan in time to defend. She takes fifteen percent damage and she is petrified in place.
Callie threatens, “Hey! Look over here or I am going to stab you in the back!"
Caster ignores the warning and punches the petrified Heli for forty percent damage. She is down to twenty five percent health. Her candy cocoon shatters. She tries to raise her frying pan as another slow defense attempt.
Caster is stabbed in the back for negligible damage before he can strike a second time.
Caster turns around and lunges at Callie.
Callie casts, “Icicle!" She narrowly avoids being punched as an icicle forms beneath her and takes the punch in her place. The icicle shatters immediately.
Caster advances and charges.
Callie casts, “Pillar of Earth!" Callie defends a second time and Caster bashes into the pillar for fifteen percent damage. They are momentarily stunned.
Heli does not miss the opportunity for another back stab type of attack that deals thirty percent damage.
Caster attempts to retaliate and Glutton appears to intercept the attack. They take twelve percent damage.
Caster dashes a small distance away from both sides of enemies in order to avoid being cornered.
“Your desperate attempts matter not! All of this damage will be washed away like crimson rain down the drain! Wait, what is wrong with my health!? You insolent fools, what have you done?!"
He turns his attention elsewhere.
Zinnia is standing by the scattered remains of the shattered tick totem. She shouts out, “We are all set! He cannot heal anymore! Time to take him down!"
Caster shrieks, “No! You shall pay for this! Combo skill Candy Terrain!"
Caster attempts to cast two spells at once. He casts Candy Cavern that strikes the entirety of Callie’s party for five percent damage each. They all receive a stack of petrification. The surging power of Candy Hail backfires and implodes against Caster’s own hand. He takes twenty percent damage and loses the ability to use the affected hand.
Callie snickers. “The stacks of petrification aren’t so powerful once they reset. We have weathered the worst of it. Now you have to build up the stacks from scratch again to deal any sort of impressive damage.”
“No, no, no! I was so close! The ritual would have succeeded!”
A fireball explodes against him for nine percent damage leaving him with twenty six percent health.
Caster pleads, “Why not join me instead? The three of us are all disciples under a different sin! Think of the kind of new heights we could achieve as partners! I could teach you to petrify enemies! You would be unstoppable!"
Caster attempts to cast another spell. They are interrupted when Callie lunges at him and slashes at his hand for fifteen percent damage. Callie slashes again and defeats Caster.
Callie states, “That was rough. Two more attacks and Zinnia and Heli would have been defeated. One more petrification shatter and I would have been defeated."
Callie can see that her reputation in the eyes of Heli has increased by a moderate amount. Her already high standing reaches over a hundred points. As a comparison, her standing with Zinnia is at a hundred and fifty points.
Callie leads. “Come on. Lets get out of here. All this guy has is a bunch of store-bought and wrapped Halloween candy. There are also some red rock candy chunks that we are not going to harvest from him for obvious reasons. We will just harvest some naturally growing in the mine later.”
The party reaches the other end of the dungeon where there are two separate flights of stairs. One ascends while the other descends.
Heli wonders, “What is waiting for us down there?"
The party takes a peek and they see another floor of the dungeon where the roaming monsters range from at least level forty to fifty.
Heli is sweating bullets. Her hands are trembling. “There are even stronger vampires roaming down there! What if there are even more petrified people in need of our help?"
Callie states, “We better turn back while we still can. There is no way that we could stand a chance against these guys. We were almost wiped out in the last battle. We better leave this kind of advanced dungeon for some of the stronger adventurers to handle. They live for this kind of event."
Heli seems downfallen. “I hate it when you are right.”
Callie thought to herself, “Advanced dungeons made for the higher level players to enjoy the event while farming for even more Halloween candy. The story line is roughly the same thing except in harder and harder modes. No assistance from a chef NPC either which is really boring. No, I bet some people enjoy that kind of thing. Maybe it would be more accurate to say ‘to each their own’ instead."
The party returns to the other flight of stairs. The exit leads to a random house in the city of Crimson Rain likely belonging to one of the fallen vampires. They promptly leave the property and enter the nearest cafe which happens to be on the same street.
Heli complains, “My body hurts now that the adrenaline is wearing off. Everything feels so sore that I don’t want to even lift a spoon."
Heli leans her head forwards and bites into a piece of carrot cake served on her table. She does not even bother to lift the muffin, she just pecks at the table as though she were a chicken. She sips at her coffee through a straw. Her health and stamina slowly start to regenerate.
Heli continues. “To think all that is buried beneath the city of Crimson Rain. Working in plumbing and sewer maintenance must be a nightmare. Ha ha. Okay back to serious mode. I am going to report this to the adventurer’s guild once I have the energy to walk again."
Callie sighs. “The dungeon could have been fun if there wasn’t a depressing vampire segment. To think that we have to go back through there a couple more times. I don’t really want to but I can do a second run of the dungeon once we rest up a little. I have nothing better going on later. Hopefully we can free all of the petrified chefs by tomorrow. I want to get that task out of the way as fast as possible so that we have as much time as possible to hang out for the rest of October.”
Callie has a chocolate muffin and a coffee.
Heli replies, “Would be nice to hang out without facing some kind of looming threat over our shoulders. Weird that this kind of thing happens so often here."
Callie teases, “Even weirder that you still choose to return here time and time again. What does that say about you as a person?”
Heli tears off a little piece of her muffin and flicks the piece at Callie’s face. She repeats each time she brings up another point in her reply.
“Forgive me for wanting to see my friends here, for wanting to go sightseeing in one of the most gorgeous cities in the world, and wanting to expand my culinary knowledge.”
Zinnia states, “I think the dungeon was kind of pretty. I wouldn’t mind returning once the vampires and their rituals are taken care of."
Zinnia has motor oil she sips on and a repair kit she is working with.
Callie responds, “No, you did that wrong. You have to pretend to be tired so that you can complain about it with us."
Zinnia replies, “I see! My body is aching and I feel as though I cannot move at all. I never want to see another piece of rock candy for as long as I live."
“That’s the spirit!", “Good job!"
Callie opens her inventory and takes out a couple of silver coins that she spreads evenly into three groups. “There is our take for the dungeon. Two silver coins each dropped from the monsters. You were too nervous to even notice them, Heli.”
Zinnia asks, “What about the odd coin out?"
Callie replies, “Easy. You are forgetting about our fourth party member."
Callie flicks the coin in the air and Glutton immediately swoops in and tears the coin to pieces.
Heli looks mortified. “No, Callie! Why would you waste a whole silver coin like that? I could have bought Glutton a bunch more snacks with that!”
Callie snickers. “One and done, I promise. I just like seeing your reactions to silly little things like this.”
Heli lifts her hand to throw a piece of her muffin at Callie. Callie responds by gently tossing her muffin back. Heli does not hold back as the food fight escalates. She winds up and hurls the rest of her muffin as though she were a pitcher playing baseball. Zinnia mimics the behavior and hurls her can of oil.
“No! That’s flammable!" Callie narrowly manages to snatch the can out of the air using a spell before oil spills everywhere.
The trio is then justifiably kicked out of the cafe.
Twenty minutes or so later and the party returns to the dungeon where they spend an hour. They mine naturally growing rock candy and fend off whatever monsters that interrupt them. The following day they spend another few hours to finish collecting all of the necessary potion ingredients before Callie calls it a night.
On the third day of October Callie walks around to see an entire city block bustling with even more people and activity than normal. They are scrambling about in a busy manner delivering potions and adventurers waiting to receive the potions before they set off. There are a number of players and NPC present that all somewhat fit the appearance of chefs, mages, shamans, clerics, spell casters, witches, or anything else with an affinity for crafting potions or cooking food.
There is are humble restaurants and apothecary stores practically oozing with people that spill out on the streets. Even the Crimson Rain’s branch of a public mage guild is overwhelmed by the crowd. There is the sweet wafting scent of melted sugar in the air and several other boiling herbal scents coming from the various occupied buildings.
Callie has no option but to push her way through to a restaurant.
“Excuse me! Pardon me! Coming through! Hey, Heli! Can you speak with me for a moment? What is going on here?”
Heli is in the middle of boiling down several different types of rock candy into a syrup. There are many large pots and pans run by multiple chefs doing the same thing. There are also a number of chefs using different recipes to create various potions with the same effects.
Heli replies, “So I reported the dungeon to the adventurer’s guild! They decided to declare a state of emergency and sent out an emergency quest. The mage’s guild is now working in tandem with the adventurer’s guild to make anti-petrification potions and have the adventurers venture into the Candy Cavern dungeon to rescue the petrified chefs and victims."
“More and more petrified victims were discovered deeper in the dungeon. There were so many that the mage guild could not keep up with the demand of potions. They reached out to the nearby restaurants and businesses. Even the local apothecaries stepped in to help and even restaurants closed down their businesses to open their kitchens for potion brewing.”
Callie remarks, “This kind of thing did not happen during last year’s Halloween crisis. We were left on our own to figure out where the missing chefs were. The only other option was to place up job requests if we willing to pay up the sum of a small fortune of coins."
Heli responds, “Maybe everybody felt bad this year about how they neglected the chefs last time? All I had to do was bring up the topic and everybody seemed to be on board."
Callie thought to herself, “Or there is a new story line that has been uncovered. That is more likely. That and the Halloween event was probably updated this year to remain relevant with the recent discovery of the fallen kingdom."
Zinnia asks, “So are you going to help us brew potions? We can teach you some new recipes we have learned. All the ingredients are being provided by the public Crimson Rain guilds."
Callie sighs. “Curse my moral compass. Okay, fine! This quest has one final hour of my time and then I am done with this event for good!"
Callie starts with the easiest recipe of melting a few types of rock candy together. She then tries some weirder potions that mix a selection of ingredients including forest herbs, salamander tails, unicorn horn shavings, clumps of moss, a selection of mushrooms, and phoenix feathers.
Callie complains, “I have learned so many new potion recipes that my head is spinning trying to remember them all. I have unlocked the option to invest skill points into several skill tree branches and options under both my mage and disciple classes that I am most likely never even going to use.”
“I even leveled up from this on top of leveling up from our Candy Dungeon runs. My main class of ‘Mage’ went from level thirty four to level thirty seven. My subclass of ‘Disciple of Greed’ shot up from level three to level eight.”
Heli responds, “Oh cool! Our main classes are now the same level then! I leveled up a bunch from cooking and brewing potions all day. I think that I may have to stop participating in this quest as well. I am super burnt out from these last few days of nonstop quests."
Zinnia seems gloomy. “I did my best to try to level up."
Heli pats her on the back. “At least you learned a bunch of new potion recipes all for free! Imagine the kind of fees you would have to pay to learn all these recipes from healers across the world under any other scenario.”
“I do love learning new things and learning about the wonderful world we live in.”
Callie slumps down into a chair in the part of the restaurant where people would normally sit down to order food if the restaurant was open. There are a number of other players taking a break as well. If everybody in the room seems burnt out, then Callie seems as though she were burnt to ashes.
“Time to spend skill points. Cool. Icicle is now a stronger defensive spell and Hand of Greed can actually deal damage now.”
“I have gathered so many Halloween candies that you could call me a pinata. If I hoarded them all for myself I could exchange them with a merchant and actually buy one of the expensive legendary event items. There are weapons, there are sets of armor, and there are skills. All of these are legendary tier items that I cannot even use because they are all ‘Gluttony’ series of items related to the ‘Disciple of Gluttony’ class.”
“So what is the deal there? A new ‘Disciple’ type of class has been discovered? I will have to check which adventurer discovered that later. The little that I have pieced together so far is that disciples cannot use equipment relating to other factions of different sins. Or is my subclass of ‘Disciple of Greed’ so greedy that the class wants me all to itself? Nah, too unlikely and unreasonable.”
“So now that we know that the candies can be used to shop, do the two of you want your share of them?”
The candies are equally distributed among the three.
Callie states, “I think that I am going to use my portion to buy a rare set of mage robes with the effect of increasing my mana pool and slightly increasing the strength of my defensive spells. I am going to have so much mana that my mana pool is practically infinite for my spell casting purposes. There is not really going to be much of a change in my stats compared to my uncommon robes though.”
Zinnia states, “I will replace my common robes and shoes with uncommon gear if I can afford to. That can be considered the most balanced and well rounded approach."
They turn to Heli as if expecting a response.
“How the heck should I know what they sell, hello? A better frying pan maybe?”
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