“But then there exists another type of dungeon: the magic dungeon. The monsters within these dungeons are enhanced by the ambient mana around them. It seems that these caves even take on a mind of their own, somehow ‘growing’ to immense proportions. It isn’t quite known what creates these magic dungeons, only that the loot within them is… extraordinary.”— Dungeoneering: An Adventurer’s Guide
Firestone Mine, Territories of Rielle. Day 02.
Alert! You have just entered an Instanced Dungeon. As there are Guardians already inside this Dungeon and the total number of Guardians in your party and theirs is less than the dungeon’s limit of 6, you have the option of entering to assist them or be placed inside your own instance of this Dungeon.
Know this: If you join the other Guardians, your levels will automatically be suppressed to +5 over the lowest level Guardian currently inside this Instanced Dungeon and all Guardians will be notified of the arrival of another party. You will not be able to detect each other beyond the capabilities of your present spells, skills, or abilities.
The message popped up the second Saiph’s foot had crossed the threshold of the mine’s entrance. So this mine was an instanced dungeon. And someone else had beaten them to it.
Strange. It wasn’t uncommon for a guild to hide an instanced dungeon as long as they could in order to be the first to beat it, but someone always inevitably found out about it. Nix knew Saiph’s guild ran into that issue all the time. The guild’s extreme fame made it hard for them to keep their movements hidden for long.
But as far as Nix knew, this part of the world hadn’t even been in the game, if that could even make sense. And there was an instanced dungeon just sitting here this whole time. How many more could there be?
Nix had to ask Saiph to repeat his question.
“Do we go in alone or try and find the other players?”
“I think we should try and find the other party,” Rose said.
“Same. If they’ve cleared a part of it already, it’ll save us time, too,” Nix added.
Annwyn Online often used a party vote system for group decisions. That seemed to still be the case as each one of them cast their own vote on the menu that followed the prompt.
As they accepted the option to work with the other party of Guardians inside, Nix got the brief feeling of the two others inside the dungeon. Nothing specific, he couldn’t tell where in the dungeon they were, only that they were inside. Nix’s health, mana, and stamina all dropped by forty percent as his level was adjusted downward to sixty.
Body unfreezing, Nix almost tripped as his foot fell forward in the step he forgot he had been taking. He turned around and saw the light behind him and Rose seemed to stop at the opening as though the dungeon’s darkness wasn’t willing to give up even an inch of its domain. Further in, Nix could see a bit better than he’d been able to before entering. All three turned on their lanterns and proceeded deeper into the mine.
The air grew warmer as small pinpoints of orange light appeared within the walls with increasing regularity as they moved. The stone passageway opened into a large cavern with twinkling clusters of firestone dotting the ceiling like stars in the night sky.
There weren’t any other passageways inside the atrium, save for a large pit roughly twenty feet in diameter in the center. Bolted to the ceiling directly above the hole was a system of pulleys. The ropes that had once linked them together had likely rotted decades ago.
Nix peered over the edge alongside Saiph. The pit was deep enough that they couldn’t see the ground. The remains of a moldering wooden stairway that wound around the sides of the pit were visible, but there wasn’t anything substantial enough for Nix to trust their weight to.
“I don’t see anywhere else to go but down. But it’ll be a little hard,” Saiph said.
“If we had some rope, we could maybe make a ladder or something,” Rose offered.
“Actually, I might have a better idea.” Nix pulled his grimoire from his belt.
He summoned an earth elemental. Not the same triceratops-like monster he’d had in the nightstalker fight, but a small beaver-like animal called a stone kena.
Nearly every one of Nix’s earth elementals were defensive in nature, and the stone kena was no exception. Rather than be a wall of stone and earth to soak up damage, the kena created earthen barriers of protection between itself and any threat. A spell Nix could now cast thanks to his Summoner Class’ spell-sharing passive.
Nix cast his new spell and a wall of stone rose from the ground, stopping at about shoulder height. Satisfied with his creation, Nix moved to the pit and began casting.
He smiled as a stone barrier came out of the wall of the hole. He cast the spell again and was satisfied at the beginnings of the stairway he was making.
“We’ll have to go slow, but this should be better than a rope ladder if we have to make a quick escape.”
The pit was far deeper than they’d initially thought. After several spins around the pit and a fair bit of mana, Nix began putting the steps further apart.
When they finally reached the bottom, Nix looked up and watched his stairway disappear into the blackness above. Ahead of them, the pit split into two pathways, each branching away from the other in a V shape.
“You guys hear that?” Rose asked.
Nix didn’t hear anything but the sound of their own breathing. He looked at Saiph and they both shook their heads.
“It’s like a faint clicking sound. I think it’s coming from the left. Come on.” Rose said, then darted down the passageway.
“Guess we’re going left,” Saiph shrugged.
They followed slowly after Rose and found her crouched behind an outcropping of stone. Nix kneeled beside her and he could hear the faint clicking sound now. Slow and repetitive, like a pickaxe striking stone. Was someone mining down here?
“Definitely someone down there and they aren’t friendly. They triggered my Stalwart Protector passive,” Saiph said through their party chat. “You wanna scout it, Rose? Let us know what we’re up against?”
“Yeah, I got it,” Rose answered.
Nix had to do a double take every time Rose used her Rogue abilities. It was one thing to know on paper how broken strong high level stealth builds were in a game, but it was an entirely different experience to see that brokenness performed in front of you. She became a blur and Nix couldn’t even tell she’d moved away outside of her appearance on his minimap as the small green dot that indicated a party member.
Nix glanced at Saiph. “We should probably back up. If we start casting spells, the light from the mana could draw the monsters’ attention.”
Saiph nodded and the two retreated to the fork in the path from the pit.
Rose met them a few minutes later, her expression grim. “Twelve dreygur, all between levels fifty-five and sixty-five. Some were dressed like miners, others adventurers, I think. But… I’m pretty sure some of them were kids.”
Nix frowned. Eric had alluded to the fact that the town had given the dungeon plenty of bodies over the years, but the prospect of fighting children, even undead ones, unnerved him.
He had to remind himself that they were committed. The people here had been dead a long time, taken possession by the dungeon. The only way to stop others from sharing their fate would be to stop whatever monster had taken over the mine.
Saiph put on his helmet after Rose finished her description. “Think we’ll be able to lure a few back this way? A small pull, I mean.”
Rose shook her head. “No, it’s a pretty wide open space. I think once we start the fighting, it’ll draw all their attention. There’s hallways on the far side of the room, but I couldn’t see what might be hiding down them.”
Saiph lifted up his helmet and scratched his beard in thought. “Wide open space, so we have enough room to move around?”
“Plenty. Room’s bigger than the one we entered the pit through. Nix should even be able to work his fancy new bow as long as he only goes for stragglers.” Rose turned to Nix. “I’m not sure if friendly fire is a thing, but I know how strong that bow is. I’d rather not get hit by it, just in case.”
Nix shot Rose a glare as she went invisible, her snickering echoing quietly off the walls around them.
“No way around it, I guess we rush the room. If we get overwhelmed or more appear from the passageways, we fall back to the stairs you made and fight our way back up,” Saiph said.
Nix nodded his agreement and began summoning. A column of yellow-gold light opened up from the cave’s ceiling and a level sixty Raine von Alder appeared inside it, her hand resting on the hilt of her sheathed sword. She tipped her tricorne hat to Nix in a nod.
Not finished yet, Nix downed one of the mana restoration potions Saiph had given him and began casting again. This time, a forest green light bathed the cave. Bushes began to grow until they blocked the path behind them. A short, portly man whose skin was made of bark and sported a beard of thick vines and leaves walked out from the bushes. As quickly as the plants had appeared, they shrank away and vanished.
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Name: Gwydion
Race: Elder Treant
Class: Archdruid, Level 50
Subclass: Cleric - School of Earth, level 50
Profession: Archmage, level 50
Health Points: 6,890/6,890
Mana Points: 21,750/21,750
A level one hundred Summoner had four total summoning slots they could use. Fortunately, the dungeon’s level suppression system didn’t take that away from Nix and he was able to have both Raine and Gwydion active together, each one taking up two of his summoning slots.
Nix equipped Arc d’Noir and felt the slight increase in his mana regeneration the bow’s enchantments promised him. “Gwydion, can you buff us up? Saiph’s the tank, so he gets buff priority.”
Gwydion nodded and began casting spells of his own upon Saiph and Rose. The only indication Rose was even in the room were the small motes of mana appearing roughly in the spot she had been standing in.
When Gwydion got to Nix, he could feel his skin tingling as it took on the texture of tree bark. An icon near his health bar indicated his armor rating had been increased by fifteen percent. Not much for him, but a boon on Saiph and Rose.
Ready for battle, Saiph took point. He raised his shield and activated his dragon charge spell. Fire surrounded Saiph’s body and he was propelled forward, connecting with one of the dreygur in the room.
“That’s our cue, go!” Nix shouted.
Raine leapt into action, relieving the dreygur closest to her of one of its arms. Rose flickered in and out of existence, appearing just long enough for her dagger to sink into the necks of one of the dreygur in a critical strike that was very nearly a one shot.
Almost immediately, Nix began to notice something was wrong. Saiph wasn’t fighting back against the dreygur pelting on him, their rusty swords finding spots between his armor and wicking away his health bar.
The status bar on Nix’s HUD painted the picture. Saiph had multiple stacks of fear debuff. But how? Dreygur were manaless and couldn’t cast spells.
Without even needing to be told, Gwydion began casting two spells simultaneously. A bed of lavender, jasmine, and chrysanthemums appeared beneath Saiph’s feet and the fear debuff fell away. The second spell, a bed of Yarrow and Sage, sent pulses of healing magic around the Sentinel.
“Thanks, I… I really needed that,” Saiph sounded shaken.
“Did you see what feared you?” Nix called out.
“No. I just… No, I didn’t.” Saiph shook his head. “Just keep an eye out for whatever did.”
Just what had the fear debuff done to throw Saiph off like that? Nix pushed the question from his mind as he grabbed an arrow from his quiver.
“Why didn’t you save them, Summoner?” The words were like large rocks dragged across gravel.
Nix turned, the arcing of the arrow’s tip catching only air.
“Those soldiers died because you were too weak to save them.” The haunting words came again.
Nix grunted and swung the arrow again, but still it didn’t catch anything.
“Their blood is on your hands, Summoner.”
“What could I do?” Nix shouted, the images of those guards’ deaths flooding his mind. The man stabbed through the chest and thrown like discarded trash and the woman’s head evaporating as the spear punched right through it. “What could I do?”
“Nix, move!” A different voice, Lueur Rose’s voice, pierced through the taunting whispers surrounding Nix.
Nix turned and gasped as a hand of razor sharp talons grasped at him. The hand led to a putrefying corpse with blackened skin wearing a long, tattered billowing cloak. The rotting flesh and exposed muscle surrounding its rotting teeth and gums was curled upward into a horrific caricature of a smile.
Whatever that thing was, Saiph had seen it, too. He raised his hammer and slammed its head into the ground. Electrified golden chains shot from the ground surrounding the hammer and pierced the backs of the five remaining dreygur.
But another twelve chains hung in mid air, illuminating twelve black clouds that resolved themselves into twelve more of the floating monsters. Nix suddenly knew what he was seeing.
Wraiths. Ghastly undead, that unlike lesser undead, could cast spells. Their smiles disappeared as they howled in pain and fury from Saiph’s Chains of Prometheus.
The wraiths rushed Saiph, raking their talons along his armor, each swipe adding a fresh stack of the fear debuff to his status bar.
Gwydion was quick to cast his cleansing spell again and Rose moved to plunge her dagger into one of the wraiths’ necks.
What should have been a critical strike passed cleanly through the wraith’s body like it was made of mist.
Raine came in, her glowing red and gold rapier passing through the wraith as well, only this time it shrieked in pain. Fire burst from the airy the blade had passed through, flooding the room with light. The wraith dropped to the ground, clutching at its chest as it burned from the inside out.
“You need to deal either light or fire magic to hurt them, otherwise your attacks will have no effect!” Raine shouted before moving to another wraith.
Rose fell back, swapping her daggers for her bow. She felled two wraiths with headshots from flame-enchanted arrows.
Without enchanted arrows of his own, Nix unequipped his own bow and joined Gwydion in healing and counteracting the remaining wraiths’ debuffs.
Now that they understood what was happening, they cleared the room of the remaining undead without much issue. Rose scouted their next room while everyone else rested and recovered.
“That fear spell. It was no joke,” Nix said to Saiph.
Saiph shook his head. “No it wasn’t. I think I’m gonna find as many items with mind-protecting enchantments as I can.”
“You and me both.” Nix turned to the loot drops among the dreygur and wraiths.
Most of the loot was of very little value, being mostly mining equipment and ratty clothing. The flavor text indicated most of the items were decades old.
Still they gathered the items, figuring they might be welcomed keepsakes by the descendants of whatever families the undead had left.
It was slow going, but they cleared three more rooms. Nix estimated it was taking them about an hour per room, but by the third room, they’d halved the clear time.
The clicking sound was even louder now, the sound echoed through cracks in the walls. Whoever was making them, they were nearby.
Saiph walked down the next corridor to have a look and Rose called out, “Saiph, wait!”
It was too late. He’d stepped on something glowing. They waited a breath for the trap to go off, but the light only dissipated without any other effect.
Saiph turned around, a smirk on his face. “I saw it there. One of my passives lets me disable traps by intentionally triggering them.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but I wanted to look at it. What’s a trap doing down here? I don’t remember any dungeons having mixed types of enemies.”
“You thinking something like kobolds are down here?” Nix asked.
Kobolds were small, rat-like creatures commonly found in the caves around Navorinelle. They never came to the surface, but they made dungeons extra difficult because they were one of the few monsters smart enough to create traps. And those traps could be extremely devious.
Saiph lifted his foot from where the trap had been. “I don’t think it was kobolds. The trap was warded, see? Kobolds don’t use wards. At least, they didn’t in the game. And it was right out in the open. Kobold traps are way less obvious than that.”
Where the disabled trap lay, a white rune with intricate glyphs surrounded it. Something about that ward made Nix’s skin tingle. He was certain he'd seen those symbols somewhere.
He looked around. “Did you guys notice the noise stopped?”
No sooner had Nix uttered the question, the ground began to thunder as heavy footsteps pounded towards them from deeper in the tunnel ahead of them. A large, monster of a man who barely fit inside the narrow passage barrelled towards them, bellowing a bestial roar.
Saiph cast Dragon Charge and forced the man back in the direction he had come. Nix, Rose, Raine, and Gwydion ran after the pair.
Saiph’s spell stopped well short of any wall when it ended. The man grabbed Saiph by the helmet, forcing his head down as he rammed his knee upward. A loud crack rang out through the cave and Saiph doubled over, crumpling to the ground.
The behemoth made a stone greatsword appear in his hand as he charged straight for the rest of their party.
Rose and Raine tried to slow him down, but he was as swift as he was strong. He knocked Raine to the ground with a single, heavy blow and grabbed Rose’s hand before she could plunge her dagger into his neck. He pulled Rose from behind him, letting her dangle in his grasp for a moment before he threw the rogue against the wall. She smacked off it like a ragdoll and hit the ground. Nix could see the frenzied anger in the man’s reddened eyes as he turned to face him down next.
Was this the monster who had killed and reanimated all those people they’d fought?
The rest of his party hadn’t stood a chance against him. How could Nix hope to?
No, the monster had only caught them by surprise.
If Saiph got back on his feet, he’d be able to hold the monster’s attention while they worked to kill it. Nix needed to buy Saiph time to recover.
The monster turned to Raine, who was fighting hard to get to her feet.
Nix needed to act.
Time.
Nix needed to buy his party some time.
“Hey ugly!” Nix shouted.
The monster stopped and looked at Nix. Rose was still down, but Saiph stirred. That was a good sign. All Nix had to do was stall. He could do that.
Nix knew he couldn’t die, but that didn’t stop the fear in his chest at the prospect of it. The truth was, it didn’t matter if he died. Summoners were useless without their summons. Better it be him so they could work together to kill this monster. He would respawn and could rejoin them later.
But the pain of death, would he feel it all? Nix shook his head, banishing the fear as the monster stood, taking slow deliberate steps towards Nix.
Nix needed a weapon. But where had his staff gone? Right, Raine was using it as her sword. And her sword was too far for him to get to.
The monster took another step.
He still needed a weapon. His bow? No, there wasn’t enough time or distance to ready and fire an arrow.
Something else. He needed something else.
But what?
He didn't have any other weapons in his inventory besides his lesser bow.
So what then? My fists? Fat chance.
Unbeknownst to Nix, his grimoire responded to his need. A blank page appeared in the book next to Raine von Alder’s page. Words spilled onto the page, messy and incomplete, but they were enough.
A prompt appeared in Nix’s vision alerting him to a forced change in his subclass. He dismissed the message quickly. He was focused on the words of power that suddenly flooded his mind.
The monster stopped, a look of confusion on its face as Nix chanted.
The monster’s hesitance bought Nix just enough time. He finished the incantation and called forth his summon.
“Come to me, Clarent!” Nix’s voice boomed with the authority of his Summoner class.
Golden light enveloped Nix’s hands and a sword’s hilt appeared at his fingertips. Long and thin with a blue blade, the weapon looked to have been cut cleanly in half down its length all the way through the handle and pommel.
Nix raised the sword, its physical requirements overridden by his high willpower thanks to his Arcane Blacksmith profession’s changes.
He couldn’t help but smile at the beauty of the weapon in his hands. It was perfect.
Nix pointed the tip of the sword at the monster’s chest, and with the cockiest voice he could muster, said, “Come and get it.”
And the monster did.