They decided to sneak down the metal-lined tunnel and see what is going on.
After making sure that their armour was in order and that they had enough potions, they were ready.
They had barely gone more than 100 meters when there was a faint blue field across the road.
"What is this?" Sher asked as they observed what was clearly a shield like the one that covered the entrance where they had come into the Dungeon.
Louie shook his head. "This can't be another entrance to the Dungeon. Where are the last three golems and not to mention the Boss?"
They formed an inverted three-point formation with Louie and Joe, the two front corners armed with shield and axe and in Louie's case, shield and mace.
They studied the tunnel while keeping one eye on the shield.
There were no seams in the roof, walls, or floor where a door can block them from the rest of the tunnel that they can see. Joe reached out and touched the shield.
Welcome Delvers Congratulations on clearing the Dungeon.
Are you ready to face the final battle? Y/N
Joe shared the BB.
"Nope, not now, let's go get some rest, then come back and fight the BOSS."
Joe pressed N, and the shield flickered and turned dark blue with a 12hour countdown ticking off on their HUD.
"What the hell?" Sher asked.
Louie replied that it's probably a countdown till the shield drop. So they will have no option but to face the BOSS.
"Well, we are here to fight the BOSS, so we might as well go back and take a rest. I can't believe that there is no restroom here before the shield and that we will have to go all the way back."
Louie brought up his map.
It's only about two kilometres. It just feels more because we been fighting the whole way.
They started jogging back the way they came, relaxed in the knowledge that they have cleared the floor.
It's only when they reach the restroom that Joe brought up the fact that they might have missed a couple of hidden traps along the way and that they might be more careful the next day in going back.
Louie smiled as he opened the workshop door and saw it in perfect order.
He indicated for them to follow him.
"Rule No, 6, we will prepare but make no plans. I have an idea."
They walked to the big table, and Louie took a smallish rock out of his inventory and placed it on the table.
"Our biggest or my biggest problem will be that metal chamber, so we need barricades which I will supply," he tapped the rock. When he saw everybody noticed it, he placed it back in his inventory.
"Joe, your biggest problem is your limited amount of mana, so I think you might want to stock up on mana potions. Sher, I'm sure you got some goodies to bring to the fight with your class. It's been a long hard day, and you both have reached level ten, congrats and don't forget to allocate your points. Check the vendor for skills and spells and stuff you want to get because, one way or the other, we will be done with the Dungeon tomorrow. There are just over 11 hours left before we must fight, so we got ten hours to prepare and to rest. So get to it."
They all went to a different corner of the workshop, Louie, after making sure that they were busy, and left the workshop for the restroom with a smile. He was soon back and went through to the practice yard, where he dropped his biggest boulder and a couple of the slightly smaller ones.
He would then lean up against the boulder, and after a while, he would leave for his bathroom to take a shower or take a quick power nap before going back to working on the boulders.
He also took out the blue obsidian pieces, cut them into disks the size of a coin, and glued them to rubber bands that he shaped to an idea that he had.
He called Sher and Joe over and gave them each the wrist bands with the obsidian disk in.
Obsidian communication disk (bonded) Disk enables mental communication between friendly crystal holders
Touch the skin to send, must have bonded crystal in possession to receive.
+25% clear thinking.
+25% to perception.
+5% precognition.
+5% scrying.
+5% possibility of astral travel.
Range only limited by mana.
"If you want to send a message, then touch the disk with your bare hand or press down on it with your glove to touch the skin underneath, think of who you want to talk to and send. I made it like this because you don't want to send your thoughts all the time. This way, it works like a cellphone and not as an open microphone. I call them OCD's, imbue it to bond it, and it can't be stolen but still lost. If stolen, they will appear in your inventory after a while. If lost then it's gone. So don't lose it"
They each thanked him and tried the OCD out. It worked perfectly.
"The system is strange. I think intent has a lot to do with how magic works. The moment I cut the disks from the obsidian piece and started to shape it, I was thinking the whole time about how I hope it would work like a cellphone, and how many times I have misplaced my Nokia 3310 and when I was done, I noticed the bonded tag had appeared."
Joe just shook his head. "That phone was a brick. Phones got smaller for a time. I think the smallest was just bigger than a box of matches, then they got bigger and thinner again. I still miss my kindle. Some phones were the size of the vendor tablet."
Louie equipped his OCD and thought of Sher and Joe (Sher, Joe: can you guys hear me? Louie)
(Louie: Yes, we can. Sher, Joe.)
It came out weird, like two people talking over each other.
"Ugh, damn, don't try two people at once. It has a weird effect and gives you a headache."
They each made their preparations for the fight tomorrow before going to their rooms to take a well-earned rest.
The next morning they got up and made sure that everything was ready and where they want it in their inventory. It won't help if they had to go looking for stuff when you needed it.
Sher
"Just wanted to make sure nothing was left behind." He smiled, and they set off down the road.
They still had time for Louie to remove all the lightstones in the tunnel ceiling, casting the tunnel in darkness behind them, before they reached the blue field.
The moment the shield dropped, and they stepped into the room and saw the BOSS and its lieutenants, they knew they were in for a fight.
Louie started dumping the boulders that he had prepared the night before.
The big one he dumped in front of them as they split up to run around the edges of the room with him analysing the golems.
One looked like a ninja turtle made from a VW beetle
Ninja Turtle VW Beetle 4WD VW Beetle. One mean muddin machine. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Shell Top 4x4 Volkswagen Bug Beetle Car.
Watch the shadows and your back.
(Louie, Sher: It look like Bumblebee in his VW mode, just grey and uglier. Joe)
(Joe: Who? Louie)
(Louie: damn, I forgot, tell you later. Joe)
The big Boss looked like it used to be a crane truck and swinging a massive morningstar.
Rotator Golem Boss You don't send a boy to do a golem's job. This rotator tow truck was one of the heaviest and the largest tow trucks available. This heavy-duty tow truck features a pivoting boom with a crane-like arm. Now it is the Boss around here.
The last one was a giant cat that BOB immediately hated and charged.
Jaguar, XFR-S Golem A moment of brilliant madness from Jaguar, the XFR-S Sportbrake rivalled the best, and its exhaust would bang like a naval gun. This big comfortable Jag could eat up the miles in complete comfort and speed.
Everything is a toy to this kitty.
The cat was fast. It dodged and dived, staying just out of the reach of BOB. It had some kind of shadow step ability to jump from one shadow to another.
Louie started throwing lightstones in the corners of the hall as he passed to minimised the shadows while he dropped the boulders from his inventory.
Last night he had found that it took nearly no effort to liquefy the rock. In contrast, it took a considerable amount of focus and mana to force the stone into a specific shape. So he ran around liquifying all the smaller boulders that he dropped on the floor.
Ansi had scrambled up the wall and was running along the roof, throwing webbing at any golem that comes into range below her.
The cat screamed and tripped as a
BOB dashed in and grabbed it by its neck and tore a piece out of it but shocked himself also. The cat recovered by rolling away and jumped up against the wall and leapt off it onto BOB's back with its claws out ready to shred him, but it got a face full of metal quills as they suddenly stood up straight.
BOB spun around and grabbed the cat by the head and threw it against the wall, just as an imbued shot from Sher hit it in the shoulder and ripped the left leg right off.
Their happiness was cut short as the cat absorbed metal from the floor to heal itself.
Sher was on top of the Big boulder that Louie had transformed the night before into a huge steep-sided truncated square pyramid and shooting whenever she saw a chance for a clear hit.
Joe was fighting against the VW ninja. Every time Joe got a hit in, the ninja would fall back onto its shell and then do a backflip onto its feet, clearing a space between it and Joe, who took the opportunity to throw a
Louie had gotten careless earlier and was swiped by the cat as it charged past and had to drink a health potion as his right arm was nearly severed by the ten centimetre long claws.
He had stumbled back and practically ran into the Boss as it lined up to try and hit Sher with its morningstar while she was shooting at him from above.
Since Louie couldn't sink the Boss into the ground, he made the ground come to him.
It looked strange as Louie ran around the metal hall, being followed by a liquid rock wave. He had sent the liquid to cover the Boss.
Still, it was too strong to be encased, so he piled the stone on till it looked as if it was stumbling around with concrete boots and lumps of stone hanging from it slowing it down considerably.
Swinging the morningstar at Sher, Louie watched, and as the spiked ball made contact with the pyramid, he buried it halfway into the stone and traped it there.
The Boss roared and releasing its weapon as it couldn't get it out.
It started stomping after Louie which got it an imbued shot in the back of its head.
it wasn't the fastest golem around and he could easily stay out of its reach. Still, it was strong, so Louie had to concentrate not to get hit.
He saw Sher throw a ball at the Boss, and on contact, she shouted
By now, the floor was covered in nearly twenty centimetres thick layer of stone from the boulders that Louie had dropped. This greatly reduced the ability of the golems to regenerate.
He ran around dodging attacks and sliding around like a skater on ice or a hog in mud.
Using a stone spike to impale the cat just as Ansi fell from the roof and onto its back stopped the spike stopped it cold for a moment and she started biting and wrapped its head in webbing while injecting her poison it between the shoulders.
Louie used the liquid to trip the others, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ninja do another backflip and he liquified the stone under it, and trapped its shell.
This stupidly repeated action had caused its downfall as Joe took the opportunity to crack open its sternum with a mighty
The Boss roared and stomped up to Joe, and as it kicked, Joe rolled out of the way, and the kick landed in the side of the ninja, ripping it from the trapped turtle shell.
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Ansi shot the dazed ninja with webbing as Sher placed a PowerShot in the middle of its exposed back, across from where she thought its core might be located in its chest.
Joe chopped the two arms off and then continued to dismember it. At the same time, Louie forced the stone into the Boss's joints and solidified it, causing the legs to seize up and to topple over.
In the meantime, the magical poison (nanites) that Ansi had delivered with her bites has practically dissolved the cat's shoulder blades while BOB was busily ripping the rest apart.
The moment that the Boss hit the ground, Louie piled on all the stone he could and kept pouring it on as the Boss tried to break free.
In the end, he had to get Sher from the shooting platform so he could use the pyramid to bury the Boss.
He cocooned the golem in stone and was gasping for breath as he walked up to the 8 cubic meter block of stone that trapped the spreadeagled Boss in the middle, with only its head sticking out the top.
It was roaring and struggling to get out, so Louie covered the head with stone to silence the noise.
They took a break and looked around to see if everybody was ok.
Joe had a nasty gash in his armour. Still, there were no wounds visible, so he seems ok. Sher seemed to be suffering from mana starvation as her regeneration couldn't keep up with her mana usage.
BOB had a couple of very deep gouges in his side, but it's nothing that a couple of bars of steel wouldn't fix. Louie handed him and Ansi each a leg from the spider Queen. Ansi didn't seem to be bothered by the act of cannibalism of its mother's body.
They looked around and couldn't believe that it was over and much easier than they had thought.
Joe looked at the cube of stone.
"That spell of yours truly are OP. We will have to sit down and make some good plans for the next set of guys who come in here if they want to survive. They won't have your spells to help."
Louie just shrugged. "They will have panniers. Let them build barricades and load them in the panniers before they enter the Dungeon. And make sure one or two have good ranged skills, better if all of them do. If one or all of them get
Sher stretched out, rubbing her temples, "True, we made over 300g each in this Dungeon, so that will go a long way to set up loans for the next team. They can pay me back when they clear the Dungeon next. Are you still leaving?"
Louie walked up to the cocoon with the cat inside. "You forget the 1000G that is the Dungeon quest reward. And yeah, I'm leaving, but not right away. I might help Joe build some walls for his starter town, and then I want to go to Worcester quick, look for some survivors and go pick up some stuff before everything is destroyed. At most a week then I'm going. I want to hear if some people would like to go with me around the mountain. Like a trading caravan but with fighters."
He smiled as he looked at Joe. "Might clear out those nightmare baboons of yours. Get a bit of XP."
Joe shuddered as he remembered the baboons. "Those things were a nightmare, but then we were mostly all level 2 or 3 back then."
Louie reached the cocoon, and closing his eyes, he concentrated on the golem trapped inside. Manipulating the stone, he ripped the golem apart and only left the torso with the core. He inventoried the pieces before indicating that BOB could tear the rest to shreds and swallow the core. Gaining an + in his
They looted the body and moved on to the ninja.
Louie and Joe each took one of the oversized katanas. This was not a Nodachi, just an oversized Katana fit for an oversized golem.
Louie also took the turtle shell. It looked like a better quality than the beetle's Elytron shields that he and Joe were using.
He brought the ninja closer to the surface. He then exposed its torso, chopping it in half after separating its limbs. Then he secured any belt pouches it might have had before giving what is left to Ansi to devour.
Strangely when they got the loot spider feed sac notification, they also got the ordinary golem loot.
They moved on to the Boss.
Louie was wary of handling the Boss because it was enormous. It stood nearly 7 meters tall, it had a span of over 6 meters from fingertip to fingertip, and it was strong.
He voiced his reservations. "What I can do is tunnel into the joints and then cut it off with the engraving pen. It will take a while but it's too strong to rip apart as I did with the cat and ninja. What do you guys think?"
Joe shrugged. "Sounds good to me."
Sher looked uneasy. "You know that you are practically cutting a living being into pieces while it is alive."
After thinking for a while, Louie agreed. "Yes, it's true, but they are magical constructs, in other words, robots. I have no qualms about dismembering Robots."
Louie went ahead with his plans and tunnelled into the stone block, and it took him nearly half an hour to cut through a joint. He had to make a cut and fill it with liquid stone, or the golem would use its own metal to close the wound.
Two hours later, he was done, and he liquefied the big block of stone, exposing the golem's torso. Louie and Joe took to removing the chest piece to expose the core and remove it.
Congratulations on clearing the Dungeon. For being the first adventurers in this system to clear a Dungeon, you each will receive the title Trailblazer. Which grants.
+10% experience gain when clearing Nests, Spawn points and Dungeons.
+10% in perception and stamina when exploring new territories.
50g once-off.
2000 experience once-off.
"Damn nice. That will help a lot when I'm out there."
There were many notifications, but they were only interested in the last one as a big spell circle appeared with three chests in front of it.
One was green and had leaves and vines all over it of the other two. One was black with a bone motif, and the other was blue with lightning bolts. Sher opened her chest and reached inside.
"What the hell?" She took out the ugliest biggest bow that they had ever seen. It looked like somebody took a whole tree and made the bow without taking any of the branches off. It was nearly 2meters tall. The chest turned into dust after she removed the bow.
Bow of the Amazon hunter Level: 10. This bow was made especially for Gaea's Druid.
If the target enters melee range, the bow will bind to it and skewer the target dealing bleeding and poison effects
+2 to Agility, Constitution, Intelligence. 2 handed Bow speed: 5
Damage: 10 + (strength + agility + Constitution)
Inflict Bind + skewer in melee range
70%chance to inflict
Infuse with mana to create mana arrows
Joe shook his head while giving his chest a doubtful look. "It looks like it came out of the monster hunter game."
He saw Louie give him a confused look. "Weapons were like that but made from animal parts, horns, claws, wings. The weapons were not realistic at all."
"Ahh, one of those games. I hated that, armours with horns and spikes sticking out everywhere." Louie walked up to his chest and inventoried the whole chest. "Not interested right now."
Joe sighed and opened his chest.
Earthbreaker Level: 10. This maul was made for breaking your opponents
+2 to Strength, Constitution, Willpower.
2 handed Maul. speed: 2
Damage: 19 + (strength + agility + Constitution)
70% chance to impale target with earth spike
Infuse with mana to create an earthquake when the ground is struck
Range 10meter diameter
Louie laughed at the stupidly oversized hammer that Joe held in his hand.
Joe just shook his head and inventoried the maul.
After that, they went through the hall with a fine toothbrush looking in every nook and cranny.
Louie shaped all the rock into long rectangular blocks of stone that he inventoried, waste not want not.
Congratulations on clearing the Dungeon. The Dungeon will reset in 12 hours.
You have the option to be transported to a safe zone or outside the Dungeon. If you choose a safe zone, then a teleport circle will appear inside the safe zone in 11 hours to transport you to outside the gates of this Dungeon, after which it will reset
Safe zone/Outside.
"You guys want to get some rest before going out, or you want to go out now?" They all voted for taking a break before facing the real world.
They all walked unto the circle, and Louie clicked Safe Zone.
The safe zone they appeared in was one that they have never seen before
They were in some kind of lobby with windows overlooking the hall where they fought the Boss. When they entered the restroom, they saw that the quality of the interior has gone up again.
Louie just smiled again as he walked towards one of the rooms open the door, and looked inside.
"There is no workshop or training yard here. Probably because we are done with the Dungeon, luckily there is still a vendor."
This vendor looked even fancier than the last one they visited when they synced their tablets to the vendor. They got a notification stating that the tablet will indicate the direction to all the vendors in a 20-kilometre radius. It also had a section where you could buy spells and a more diverse selection of skills.
They each took a seat around a fancy coffee table and started browsing their tablets.
Louie placed his tablet in his inventory and started going through his notifications.
He brushed his notifications away as Joe addressed him.
"Louie, I know you are going to be travelling. Would you listen to a deal from me?"
When he nodded, Joe continued. "I'm willing to give you my third of all the loot that we gathered in exchange for clearing the ground and maybe raising the walls for the starter town." He waited as Louie thought of the deal.
"I agree on the clearing, but the raising of the walls will take me a couple of days, maybe a week. And there are a lot of things I want to do before I leave."
Sher looked thoughtful and then spoke up.
"You can have my share also as thanks for Ansi and the wall."
"Thank you. . . I will make the two of you a deal. I will clear the ground and raise the walls in exchange for your share of this Dungeon crawl except for the coin looted. Including the option of buying the future cores of this Dungeon's loot for half the price, the vendor pays for it, up to a hundred G coins. The vendor pays 2G for a core."
"Let me explain. I have enough cores for BOB at the moment, so I will give you 100G coins which you can use in the future to buy cores from the Delvers, up to a hundred cores that you will hold on to till I come back through here again."
They thought for a moment and then agreed. A moment later, a golden glow surrounded them all.
Louie clapped his hands and jumped to his feet.
"Ok, let's do some shopping."
Louie bought some simple healing spells and various other level 0 spells that might come in handy when he starts his caravan venture. Nearly all level 0 spells cost 2G each and came in little sparkly cubes.
Cube of Healing The ability to learn this spell is locked until the subject is deemed capable.
This healing spell can only be unlocked when the recipient understands the function of the intended target species' anatomy.
Increased understanding of the anatomy and how it functions will grant an increase in the Healing effect of this spell.
Effects and mana cost vary according to class.
Cube of Micromorph Level 0 This spell will allow the user to reduce its size down to the dimensions of its birth. Some users may retain or have boosted strength, weight, or mass while they are at a reduced size.
Level 0-5: User can shrink down to half of their normal size.*
Level 6-10: User can shrink down to a quarter of their normal size.*
Level 11-15: User can shrink down to a tenth of their normal size.*
Level 16-20:User can shrink down to a tenth of their normal size but may retain their strength from the original size while they are at a reduced size.*
(* = not smaller than birth size.)
Cast time: 5 Second
MP Cost: 20mp
Duration: 24hours or till cancelled.
Louie also bought the following skill cubes for 5G each, which he stored in his inventory.
Scholar This skill grants the ability to learn and understand a wide area of other skills (such as alchemy, cooking, arcane lore, etc.). It is used to remember details, rumours, tales, legends, theories, influential people, and the like, as appropriate for the subject in question. It covers what the character himself can recall. Scholar can be useful with an investigation to narrow a search for information.
Oratory This skill grants +40% in the ability to understand various forms of verbal communication. Users can speak any language that they understand fluently. The audience will perceive you as confident, trustworthy and knowledgeable. Eye contact is essential to form a connection with the audience. Additional languages can be learned 50% faster with this skill. Skill percentage can be improved through practice.
Trading This skill grants a +50% in the knowledge of business practices, exchange rates, the monetary value of goods and opportunities, and other information regarding barter and sales, including the ability to determine how to make money with another skill the user has. Trading can complement bluff, charm, and persuasion when haggling over prices for goods and services being bought or sold. Skill percentage can be improved through practice.
Caligraphy This skill grants a +50% in learning the ability to understand various forms of written communication and the ability to create literary compositions, including forging papers and identifying such forgeries. It can also help with the Cartography skill
Investigation This skill grants a +40% chance in gathering information, researching topics, analysing data, and piecing together clues. Skill percentage can be improved through practice.
Know-how This skill grants a +30% chance in figuring out how to perform an action in which the user does not have the experience and a catch-all skill encompassing areas not covered by other skills (such as utilitarian sewing or cooking).
Search This skill grants a +60% chance in spotting hidden objects or people, reconnoitring, lipreading, or eavesdropping on or watching another person. Skill percentage can be improved through practice.
Streetwise: This skill grants a +20% chance in finding information, goods, and contacts in an urban environment, particularly through thieves' guilds and similar criminal organisations, black markets, and other illicit operations. Skill percentage can be improved through practice.
Iron Will This skill grants a 20% resistance to all possession attempts and mental attacks. Skill percentage can be improved through resistance.
Quick Study This ability grants +50% ability to learn new skills and improve old ones. He/She always learns new skills as if He/She had a teacher (even if He/She doesn't), and He/She can improve skills He/She already knows for -50% stamina while this skill is active. The ability works very well with youth.
Later as Louie laid on his bed, he looked at the loot they had received through the day, and nothing stood out.
They had all gotten about 50G coin, 11500 experience and the usual metal and golem parts from the boss fight.
He didn't bother with the bags of tricks now, only checked those from the Boss fight.
He was shocked to his core with what came out of the BOSS's bag of tricks.
He had thought about how it might be done, but to actually see it done was a shock. He realised that it would cause a lot of pain and suffering when it becomes public knowledge, and he knew that the knowledge will get out.
So he took it and buried it far back in the corner of his inventory next to his lightning sabre.
He shook his head as he laid back and struggled to sleep.
Tomorrow will be a big return.
Huguenot tunnel (Worcester entrance)
[https://cdn.primedia.co.za/primedia-broadcasting/image/upload/c_fill,h_436,w_700/dnqi1br3bzp1w64jnafe]