Chapter 116: Ruins of Kolz Pt. 1
“Sorry about that, Hae-won, we just needed a quick group discussion in private.” Aegis declared once he’d turned his livestream back on that following morning. He’d managed to craft two large chests and the party had unloaded all of their extra items into them, so that if they were to somehow die on their upcoming exploration, they’d only lose what they had equipped.
Aegis then buried the chests in the ground and marked it off so they could easily find it again.
“Here you go lil buddy, you stay nice and snug right here with Melon, okay?” Darkshot said in a babying voice to his baby bird. He’d taken his nest backpack and hooked it to the side of Melon’s saddle, then gently settled in the baby bird into the nest with more food than it’d need for awhile.
“You should stay here and take care of Melon and Darkwing.” Aegis instructed Snowflake, and it let out a resistant squawk. “I know you can fly over there easily, but, it’s going to be dangerous.” Aegis replied, and got another squawk. The others stared at Aegis weirdly as he continued this conversation. “Well, I need you to protect the horse and the baby bird though. What if something happens to them?” Aegis replied. He got a third, grumpy sounding squawk. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it.” Aegis finished, and Snowflake let out a disappointed huff of air.
“Okay, we’re ready. You got the long rope?” Aegis asked Pyri.
“Yup. I’m curious why you brought a 100 meter rope with you, though.” Pyri turned to Lina.
“Always need to be prepared.” Lina smiled with an awkward shrug. “Whenever going on an adventure, always bring lots of rope. It’s something my parents always said when I started playing adventure games.”
“Good advice, you can never have too much rope.” Rakkan said as he moved to the ledge looking over the ruins nestled into the gigantic treetops below with excitement twinkling in his eyes. The sun was just now rising over the horizon giving a dark orange-blue hue to the sky as it crept up over the sea of black mist in front of them.
“Did you scout any monsters or any movement at all while you were keeping watch over night?” Aegis asked Darkshot, and he shook his head.
“Either the ruins are empty, or the monsters prefer to stay inside.” Darkshot replied.
“Okay.” Pyri took a deep breath. “This is my first time flying, so if I fall into the abyss, no one laugh.” Pyri hesitantly tapped her own shoulder. “Fly.” She casted the spell. She then picked up one end of the rope whilst Lina securely tied the other end to the largest, sturdiest looking nearby tree.
“Here goes nothing.” Pyri said once Lina had finished. Everyone watched eagerly as Pyri hovered up above the ground, then anxiously began floating up away from the land. The moment Pyri flew over the ledge, Aegis could hear everyone gasp and hold their breath, watching as she slowly levitated away from the island of Kalmoore to be above the ocean of black mist below.
“It’s working.” Aegis said as he saw her move a few meters out.
“Just don’t look down. They always say in movies that you shouldn’t look down when you are high up.” Darkshot suggested, which prompted Pyri to immediately look down.
“Oh shit, holy shit, what am I doing?” Pyri panicked as she saw the huge drop into the endless darkness below her.
“Stay calm, control the spell.” Lina called out to her encouragingly. Pyri did exactly that, using her finger movements to float away from the party with rope in hand. Truthfully, controlling the fly spell was easy for Pyri, but she’d never been a big fan of heights. The act that it was a perceived void of darkness below her didn’t help that fear whatsoever.
After a few moments of levitationg smoothly through the air, the group watched as Pyri gently landed on the chunk of land nestled in the giant treetop. She carefully scanned the area for the sturdiest anchor for the rope, finding a large broken stone pillar and wrapping the rope around it, tightening as best she could with a knot, but there wasn’t much rope left to work with and it went fairly taut.
“Okay, I think it’s safe!” Pyri shouted out to them as loud as she could, her voice echoing over the abyss. At this time the sun had risen a good amount and dawn was upon then.
“Alright, that’s step one. Who wants to go first?” Aegis said as he looked to Rakkan, Lina, and Darkshot. No one looked particularly eager to volunteer, but the thought of exploring the ruins and finding new ancient runes overrode Rakkan’s fear.
“I’ll go.” He stepped towards the rope as it dangled above the abyss, hanging between the tree on the island and the pillar on the ruins. He grabbed the rope and tested it with a few yanks as the others watched, until he felt confident that it would hold his weight. It was going down at an angle so, rather than climb, he decided to equip his spear and hold it over the rope to use as a handle.
“You’re going to glide down, with a spear?” Darkshot looked at him in disbelief.
“Yeah… why not?” Rakkan asked, suddenly much less confident in the idea.
“No reason… just, have you ever glided down a rope like that before?” Darkshot asked.
“No… But I’ve seen people do it. It didn’t look hard. Why, is it?” Rakkan asked Darkshot worriedly.
“I dunno.” Darkshot shrugged back. Rakkan suddenly lost his will to go forward and looked at Aegis pleadingly after peering over the ledge and looking down into the abyss.
“Y’know, maybe Darkshot’s got a point, we should go see if that Airship guy will give us a ride.” Rakkan suggested.
“Oh c’mon, guys.” Lina sighed as she moved in front of Rakkan and hopped up onto the rope, then quickly sprinted down while running atop it. Rakkan, Aegis and Darkshot watched her in disbelief, terrified she’d fall, but Lina easily ran down the rope and reached the ruins beside Pyri within about 12 seconds of running.
“It’s cause she’s a thief, she’s got all that agility and balance.” Darkshot said to Rakkan and Aegis once she’d reached her destination.
“No way in hell I’m doing it like that.” Rakkan shook his head.
“Don’t worry, if you fall and drop your stuff, I can craft it again.” Aegis tried to reassure him, but this was probably the worst possible way to do it.
“Th… thanks.” Rakkan shook his head, then took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.” He said before he gripped tightly onto his spear and jumped forward off of the island. Darkshot, Aegis, and even Snowflake moved to the ledge to watch Rakkan anxiously as he glided down the the rope, shouting out in a panic about midway as he looked down at the abyss below. “THIS WAS A BAD IDEA! OH SHIIT!” Rakkan shouted as he held onto his spear for dear life, and a few long moments later, he was overtop of the ruins and the land. The momentum of the downward gliding spear carried him onto the ruined island and caused him to crash into a roll on the earth, but he recovered quickly.
“Whew! Did you guys see that shit?!” Rakkan shouted excitedly as Pyri and Lina helped him stand back up. “That was frikken awesome!” He added while punching his fist into the air.
“See? Not so bad.” Aegis said to Darkshot as Darkshot looked back at Aegis terrified. “You wanna go next, or should I?” Aegis asked him. Darkshot thought on it for a second, then stepped forward.
“No way in hell I’m going last.” Darkshot said as he swallowed all the saliva in his mouth and grabbed the rope. He wiggled it a bit to confirm it was sturdy, then wrapped his arms and legs around it, and began inch-worming his way down the rope.
“Seriously? That’s going to take forever.” Aegis groaned.
“It’s safe, and secure! I’m not running tight rope, and I’m not gliding!” Darkshot snapped back at Aegis defensively as he inched a few more meters down the rope. Aegis just rolled his eyes and patiently started tapping his foot. While the others had taken less than 15 seconds each to traverse the rope, Darkshot took nearly 10 minutes of slowly hugging the rope with all of his limbs and inching his way down.
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“That’s your dad, by the way.” Aegis said as he tried to point out Darkshot to Darkwing who was nestled in the nest on Melon’s saddle.
“I made it, woohoo!” Darkshot shouted. “That wasn’t so bad!” He added as Aegis looked and saw Rakkan, Pyri and Lina rolling their eyes at him.
“Ok, guess it’s my turn. Make sure you protect Melon and Darkwing, and the rope, okay?” Aegis said to Snowflake, and he let out an understanding squawk. Aegis then approached the rope and grabbed it. He had seen three methods of using it, and decided Rakkan’s was best.
He pulled out the wooden quarterstaff from his inventory that he’d originally crafted for the training grounds but never used. He threw the quarterstaff over the rope and grabbed it tight with both hands. After a deep breath, he did his best to not look down as he leapt forward off the island and began gliding down the rope towards the ruins below. The wind rushed at him as he picked up speed, his feet dangling back behind him as the downward momentum picked up and rushed him forward. He began to feel it, the exhilarating adrenaline that had prompted Rakkan to shout, and he couldn’t help himself.
“Woohoo!” Aegis yelled as loud as he could as he closed in on the ruins, but saw that he was coming in a bit too fast. The others cleared out of the way, and as Aegis got above the ruined land, he let go of the quarterstaff with one hand and dropped down from the rope onto the ground into a rolling tumble. It took a bit before he’d stopped rolling and got back to his feet and the others converged on him.
“That was pretty fun, we need something like that in Rene.” Aegis said with a big dumb grin.
“I know right?” Rakkan nodded.
“No thanks.” Darkshot shook his head. The group took the time to dust themselves, and now that they were together, felt safe enough to stop and look at their surroundings.
“Somewhere in these ruins is the ancient text of Shiva.” Aegis declared.
“I’m bettin’ there’s a lot more than that.” Rakkan said.
“Probably ancient, magical treasure.” Darkshot rubbed his hands together.
“A really strong, dangerous boss, too.” Pyri added.
“And lots of deadly traps, and puzzles.” Lina joined in.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Aegis replied with a smirk as he took the first steps forward into the ruins.
“You’re really starting to like this game, aren’t you?” Darkshot said as he lightly bumped him on the shoulder. “You’re totally into it now. When’d that happen?” Darkshot asked.
“Pff, I’m not that into it.” Aegis replied defensively.
“Nah, really? You saved a kingdom cause you got mad some guys snuffed your NPC, you read up on the lore to get a secret class…” Darkshot went on as the others listened.
“That’s all just to reach my goal, and make money. The game’s paying the bills.” Aegis shrugged.
“Nuh uh, that isn’t it. Admit it, you’re having fun.” Darkshot nudged him on the shoulder again. Aegis looked to see everyone waiting for his answer, all with hopeful glimmers in their eyes.
“Alright, yeah, I guess it’s a little bit fun.” Aegis sighed.
“Haha, finally. I told you you’d like it. So much stuff to do in this world.” Darkshot grinned triumphantly.
“I’m having lots of fun too. I never thought I’d get to play a game like this again, and especially not with you.” Pyri said as she ruffled Aegis’ hair with a big happy smile on her face.
“Me too… I’m happy to play with Ae… everyone.” Lina smiled with big red cheeks.
“Yeah, it’s fun.” Rakkan nodded.
“D’aww, look at that, we’re all just a big happy family.” Darkshot wrapped his arms around everyone and pulled them into a big huddle, bumping everyone’s shoulders together as they walked along the ruined streets.
“Ok, c’mon, focus. Deadly ruins above the abyss.” Aegis chuckled as he broke free of the huddle and motioned to the buildings around them. It was only a few more steps forward into the ruins before they all got a message that popped up in the middle of their interfaces.
Entering Dungeon: [Ruins of Kolz - Level 60]
“So, this whole place is a dungeon.” Aegis said as he waved the message away. As he said this though, they heard the sound of crumbling rocks coming from inside one of the nearby ruined structures, causing them all to stop in their tracks and look in the direction of the sound. They saw a light blue-block stone house with cracks in the walls, a doorless door frame with vines and moss draped along it.
The inside of the house was illuminated through the sunlight piercing through cracks in the roof, allowing them to see the decrepit broken furniture within, as well as a large crack in the floor where a branch of the tree the ruins sat on had broken through and sprouted leaves, absorbing the sunlight.
With all of them standing still, it went eerily quiet, save for the sound of the howling winds blowing over the abyss and up against the lower edge of the island of Kalmoore behind them. The silence was broken by the sound of a drop of water falling from somewhere inside the building. Then another, then a third, and the time between the drops began to speed up rapidly until it sounded almost like bubbling, and across the floor of the interior of the structure, it looked as though a pale green liquid was filling it, without leaking outside of the doorway.
After a few seconds of this, a red name began to form above the puddle. [Kolz Ooze - Level 55].
“DODGE!” Lina shouted, pushing Aegis out of the way as seemingly out of nowhere, and very suddenly, a large fist formed out of the ooze and cartoonishly punched outward from the puddle, growing the ooze outwards towards Aegis, and it just barely missed hitting him as it whooshed past his face, Despite this, he still took damage.
You take 233 Acid damage.
“Multicast cinderbolt!” Pyri shouted as two orbs appeared over each of her shoulders and shot forward at the ooze, burning into it as she dashed backwards, but as they hit the ooze, it formed two more slimy fists and grabbed the cinderbolts out of the air, engulfing them in slime and extinguishing them without taking any damage.
Darkshot drew out his longbow and nocked an arrow, firing it into the ooze, and while it did damage, it was barely any and the arrow dissolved into nothing upon impact. Aegis fastened his shield to his arm whilst Rakkan leapt back to buy himself time to equip his spear and longsword.
“Rune: Echo!” Rakkan shouted, copying himself.
“Smoke bomb!” Lina shouted as she threw the bomb at the ooze, then dashed into the smoke and slashed at the ooze with her daggers. “Ah!” She winced in a painful cry, and a second later shadow stepped out of the smoke to the shade of a nearby ruined building. Aegis looked and saw that Lina’s health had dropped to below 500, her health bar nearly empty as it blinked red.
“Lina!” Aegis shouted worriedly as he ran to her, beginning a heal on her as he put his hands on her arm where acid had burned through the armor. She was shaking it to get rid of the pain as quickly as possible, but luckily it only lasted two seconds.
“I hit it and it splashed me with acid. My armor lost a lot of durability.” Lina said to Aegis worriedly.
“Are you okay?” He looked at her with concern as he gently held her arm where she’d been burned.
“She’s fine, it’s a video game, focus on the deadly ooze thingy please!” Darkshot shouted anxiously as he saw them staring at each other. He fired a few more arrows, but they weren’t doing much besides dissolving. Pyri sent another cinderbolt out at it, but it got snuffed out again.
Rakkan tried sending his echo forward to swing at it with a longsword, but the acid ooze of the creature splashed out back at the echo causing the echo to disintegrate, and Rakkan took half of his health in damage.
“Shit. The echo takes and deals half of my damage, but all the damage it takes goes back to me. Looks like hitting it with melee weapons causes it to splash you with acid.” Rakkan declared as he backed up, and they watched as the large puddle of bubbling ooze slowly poured itself out of the ruined building into the streets under the sun, while the group cautiously kept backing away.
“It doesn’t seem to be moving that fast, but it’s got crazy reach. Try with different types of magic.” Aegis suggested, looking at Pyri. “Do you have anything other than fire?” He asked.
“Uh… yes. Maybe lighting? I learned a lot of the beginner spells. I’ll try lightning.” Pyri said as she thought for a moment, stepping backward for each few centimers the ooze slunk towards her. “Lightning Bolt!” She shouted, and a spark of electricity shot out of her hands at the ooze, causing it to surge with electrical sparks for a moment, growing upwards and bubbling violently.
“Did it work?” Darkshot asked as he stepped back alongside Pyri, nocking an arrow and aiming it at the ooze. A second later, the ooze exploded into a shockwave of acid.
“Guard!” Aegis shouted, projecting a shield in front of Pyri and Darkshot whilst he moved to stand in front of Lina with his shield up, and Rakkan dashed behind him as well. Aegis was able to utilize his shieldwall skill that reduced damage taken by those behind his shield, which included Lina and Rakkan. The result, though, was that he took massive amounts of damage from absorbing the explosion for all of his party members.
You take 15,302 Acid Damage.
Skill Learned: Acid Resistance
Enchanted Iron Shield of Eirene’s durability has dropped by 213.
“Fucking hell!” Aegis felt the surging pain of burning acid over his body for a moment, but he was more amazed at how much durability he’d lost on his shield. Worse, though, was when he looked back at the ooze and saw that not only did the lightning spell cause it to explode, it had split, and there were now two Kolz Ooze monsters in front of them. One began slinking towards Aegis, Rakkan, and Lina, whilst the other moved towards Pyri and Darkshot.
“How the hell do we fight these things?” Aegis shouted to his party.