The 6th lobby floor was the same as the others, new writings, another altar. After waving our hands over the newest altar Murgil and I immediately noticed an additional ring added to each of our ring fingers. We removed the rings and studied them, they each held unique seals. Mine held a mining pick and Murgil’s a sickle. It seemed obvious that they would grant access to upgraded facilities within our respective pocket universes, but the addition of another ring implied the ability to exchange them. We were able to manifest the additional tools, so I handed my extra ring to Lady Darkrose. She placed it on her finger and conjured the royal pickaxe with ease, and it seemed safe to assume that if she had some kind of mineral or an ore deposit to test it on, it would produce an opening to Sanctuary. And presumably there would be some sort of quarry or mine added to Sanctuary.
After much discussion and imagining what the 70th floor could provide we decided to push onward to the 61st floor. We were instantly overcome with a powerful stench. We could see the probable source, sludge dripping from the walls. Again we were met by a giant toad, but this time it had three eyes, and spat some sort of sludge at us. I charged in attempting to lure its tongue from its mouth, hoping for an opening for a slash from my blade. Dash and Lucretcia were both wielding shields now, Lucretcia sporting a new much higher quality tower shield; And Dash rocking the old Luseal shield from my pendant. Lady Darkrose flung magical projectiles from her scythe, deflecting the giant toad’s own ranged attacks. Murgil stood back, studying our foe. After a moment of combat we could all feel a strange power overcoming us. Just then Murgil struck the toad's 3rd eye with a large shard of ice, conjured from his staff weapon. The moment the eye was struck the strange energies faded. Murgil shouted over the noise of the battlefield “Premonition aura.”. It was unclear to me precisely what that meant, but after that point the battle became far easier. Obviously if the toad was glimpsing the future then it would have been aware of my plan to sever its tongue, so I decided to go for a new attack, a crazy attack; An attack the toad would never have sensed.
I shouted for my party to blind the creature as I faked right, as the creature's face was overwhelmed by vision obscuring magics I moved left. I leapt near the back of the beast's neck and drawing on about half of my stored essence into yet another attack, I plunged my blade deep into the flesh just next to where its spine was. Then I unleashed the rest of my energy sprinting down the creatures amphibious back, slashing an 8-foot wound open down one side of its body. The copious wave of blood surged across the floor for a moment before it all vanished releasing a small loot pile. I had almost forgotten this was just a trash floor. The others actually cheered on the awesomeness of the killing blow.
Then we began to encounter rooms full of monsters that had spawned as bosses on the earlier floors. First was treants, but Murgil wasn’t the only one of us who could wield fire. It seemed Lucretcia was the only one who didn’t produce at least a little flame during the encounter. Next we encountered large gargoyles, we struck at them as soon as we saw cracks begin to form. We killed half of the stupid things before they were even able to fully animate themselves.
On one of the floors we were met by a giant deer with no eyes. It had two vultures on its antlers. Shit was getting weird. The vultures took to the air and we engaged the massive creature. It was surprisingly spry for such a large beast, especially considering it had no eyes. It behaved as if it could see us even when behind it. The beast was dodging many of our attacks, and viciously sweeping the room with its antlers. It never took long for us to realise that the vultures must have served as this creature's eyes, providing it with multiple viewpoints of the battle simultaneously. Once we made the obvious connection between the deer and the vultures we began to target them. It didn’t take much effort to slaughter the pesky flying scavengers. After that the battle got much easier. But as we began to injure the giant deer creature it stood on its hind legs and began to mutate. Again I delivered the “Spike Hellsing Special” by leaping to its back and slashing all the way down its spine. It was not a killing blow this time, and the group teased me for “stale moves” but it did the trick anyway, allowing the rest of my team to conquer the beast.
We almost turned back when met with a heavily armed squad of armoured entities. It seemed we were once again faced with an enemy that prevented our senses from penetrating their armour, or likely possessed nothing within their powerful suits at all. We smashed them around as best we could, careful to avoid or inhibit any attacks that they unleashed. Unfortunately this room was circular which made it difficult to force them into a dense group. We took advantage of their slow locomotion, using it as a way to force them into each other's way. After a few opportune moments, we were able to push a few of the kings into the income attacks of their comrades. Their numbers were quickly reduced and we bashed the final few into oblivion.
Eventually we had cleared the 69th floor of the dungeon and were preparing for the 7th boss encounter. The dungeon guardian we were faced with on the 70th floor ended our mission in its tracks. Quite literally, it was a woman with the lower half of a snake, and snakes for hair. She seemed content to stand in the centre of the room watching us. Her intense stare filled me with dread, I felt almost as if my toes and fingertips were getting numb. One of my companions began to shout “Look away!”. But as her attention turned to the others and she prepared to notch an arrow on her impressive looking bow, I watched her as my hands and feet grew numb and my cloak wrapped around my head. Feeling gradually began returning to my extremities, but combined with the confused shouting of my allies made the whole experience rather disorienting, causing me to fumble my sword. I fell back and once I had my back turned to our foe my cloak finally unravelled from my face. I could hear arrows pinging from my comrade’s shields. I looked back at the creature rapidly firing arrows at us and I lost feeling in my hands and feet much quicker this time. I think I finally caught on because I looked away once again, looking to my hands revealed that they had hardened and turned grey, They had been turning to stone; Petrification. Once I had cleared my thoughts and regained feeling in my limbs again, I began to make my way around to the far side of the room focusing my gaze near her feet. Upon glancing upward my eyes were met by a swarm of snakes. Yet again I froze, and yet again Luceal’s power, still in my cloak covered my eyes. I knew this was no time to dally, so I sprinted forward, leaping into the air and swiping swiftly to feel her out with my blade. When I felt the blade strike solid metal I quickly attacked again, this time chopping down with all my effort. My blade was met by a solid grinding, then sheering, and finally the familiar slicing of flesh. I had aimed to strike her head, but as my cloak lifted I could see that I had struck her shoulder. Her worthless armour guided my blade into her neck. I made a mental note, not to repeat this mistake in my own future projects. And followed up with a thrusting stab into her side. I kept my head down, and hoped for my party to use the opening to finish her off. As I heard the blasting of powerful magics and my cloak formed a shell over me, I heard the pleasant sound of treasure raining down on me yet again.
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Murgil began recording the new creature in a book. He called the snake-haired lady a medusa. So we repeated the routine, with the exception of finding even more powerful armaments this time around. We moved onto the 7th lobby room and after upgrading our rings again we recorded the dragonic writings on the wall. This time we were even granted the same ring upgrade. An additional guest ring. I was given a ring with a vial on it, and Murgil’s had an anvil. It seemed logical to exchange these rings for now.
Murgil mentioned his [Escape Rope], a cheeky little item that would allow him to leave the dungeon and also return if used in a lobby. So we had the option of leaving. Of course we never took this option and entered floor 71.
We battled the most savage hob-goblins probably ever to exist, they rode fierce beasts that matched their smaller figures. But with our new equipment we made easy work of them. The next room had a soil floor and vines covering the area. The vines grabbed at us and some had thorns that dripped with potent acid. Dash was grabbed by some kind of sticky vine and pulled off her feet and dragged around a corner, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust behind. We ran ahead to see where she had been taken and when I saw around the corner she was pulled into a giant plant. I ran to help her and as I did I noticed the swarms of giant bees inhabiting the area. It seemed these new levels were now occupied by multiple monster types. I quickly made my way to attempt to recover Dash from the massive pod she had been pulled into as I was swarmed by the insectoid menace. Lucretcia protected me with her defensive spells and my pendant (although I believe the pendant was independent from her now). Murgil and Lady Darkrose took them out a few at a time using more magical and/or physical attacks. I could feel Dash’s life force fading fast so I slashed at the pod above where I could feel her presence. The material was very tough to slice into but once I got an opening I was able to tear it along the fibres. I could feel the wretched bees attempting to sting me dozens of times, but only a few managed to hit their mark. Before I knew it, Dash was joining in on the battle and I was tripping balls.
Even once the battle had ended I was still struggling to survive. Interestingly my symbiote was doing its best to filter the incredible toxins from my body, it was barely able to maintain my organ functionality. The sensation of “tripping balls” was simply a result of the brain damage I was undergoing. When I began to vomit Lucretcia pulled out her newest crystal ball and began ranting out every cleansing spell she could imagine. I don’t think I suffered any permanent loss of brain functionality thanks to the alchemical, spiritual, and magical methods used to repair the damage. And I eventually was able to return from my voyage to Tripout City and move onto the next god damn shit show.
When we entered the 73rd floor we were met with pitch blackness. The room smelled musky, as if the air had grown stale. I shouted out expecting nothing, but heard the echo of a moderately small chamber. As Murgil began an incantation for a illumination spell an object in the corner of the room began to shine. The energy it emitted felt corrupted and all too familiar. I approached it and Lady Darkrose stopped me. She could feel the same darkness as I could and it stunk of the forsaken kingdom’s energies. We tried to avoid the strange device but there were no foes and the exit was sealed. So rather than turn back I approached the device. I felt an overwhelming energy vacuum, and the light went out.