When the blue void faded, it revealed a white square of tiles around ten feet across with my party standing upon it. It was ringed in gold amid a spacious stone cavern that couldn’t have been less than two hundred feet across in both directions. Stalactites hung from a ceiling that stretched out over fifty feet above, but the most interesting thing to me was the huge pile of gold ore a dozen feet from the gold ringed tiles.
Part of me demanded that I seize the gold before me, but my more intellectual side stopped me before I could leave the white tile. I breathed heavily. “Small landing zone for this Dungeon. Eh, Jaegan?”
“Aye, you’re right there.” He raised his staff and light blue floating balls of light spread out all around the cavern we were in. When I looked at him with raised eyebrows, he snorted. “You could see just fine, couldn’t you?”
Before I could reply, Raiju butted in. “Yes, he could. As could Ylsa and I. Only your paltry human senses were failing you.” She sniffed deeply before snorting out a few times. “Ugh, I smell something putrid behind that pile of shiny rocks as well as up by those spiky rocks on the ceiling.” I debated admonishing her, but gave up. She’s not used to living with people, it’ll take time for her to pick up social niceties and now isn’t the time to spend explaining those things to her.
Jaegan seemed to agree despite his frown. “It’s unusual for a Dungeon to drop a party in somewhere like this. Unless…” He did a one-eighty before flipping back to look at me with wild eyes. “The Dungeon entrance isn’t accessible. Do you know what that means?”
I took a beat before realization dawned upon me. “The Dungeon is about to break and this is the force that was going to lead the charge out into the world!”
“No doubt about it.” Jaegan sighed. “Our Dungeon crawl just got a bit spicier. We’ll have to play defense before we can go and raid this place for its riches.”
Ylsa cracked her knuckles before nodding. “Understood.”
For a second, I tried to summon a [Psyknife] before remembering landing zones prevented [Skills] from being activated on them. “Alright, let’s get to it then. Jaegan, we’re all yours.”
“Right you are.” The old [Mage] cackled. “Raiju, you’re in charge of taking care of the monsters up by the stalactites, alright?”
“The pointy rocks? Got it.” Raiju allowed herself to grow to her full size, nearly shoving Jaegan out of the landing zone before he figured out he had to move.
“Yup, pointy rock monsters for you.” He almost seemed to be in some kind of combat related fugue state. “Ylsa, you’re the tank, when I say so, get out there and piss some monsters off.” He turned to me. “Can you make a few elementals quickly to watch our backs? There are too many monsters in here for just Ylsa and Raiju to deal with tanking.”
“I think so, but let me check something first.” I closed my eyes and they flashed open to lock on the pile of golden ore. “Don’t worry about the pile of ore, it’s actually a huge [Aurimental], better known as a [Gold Elemental].”
“Shit!” Jaegan ran his fingers through his wild hair as his staff hung in his armpit, nearly smashing into both me and Raiju in the process. He stopped suddenly. “Why shouldn’t I worry about a huge [Gold Elemental]? They’re damn near immune to [Spells], unless you intend on fighting it with your pigstickers?”
“My daggers have nothing to do with this,” I glared at him, “but my [Elemental Pactlord] does. It won’t be able to attack me or anyone I’m in charge of.”
“What are you implying?” Jaegan leaned on his staff for support. “Did your [Summon Elemental] evolve?” He started feverishly picking at his bare chin, still looking for a beard that didn’t exist. “If I’m to be in charge of combat scenarios, I need to know what I’m working with!”
“It’s new!” I started to admonish him before taking a deep breath. “Sorry about that. It’s a unique variant of the evolution. It lets me summon basically any kind of elemental I want for half the Mana, plus wild elementals will just willingly join my side because their Elemental Monarchs want them to.”
He glared at me darkly. “We’ll be discussing that more in the future, but for now? Get ready to call backup if we need it.” His eyes flitted to the [Aurimental]. “Big shiny here should be good to watch our back if your new [Skill] is all it’s cracked up to be.”
It’s a [Unique Skill], but I don’t think now’s the time to correct him. Maybe I should just try and slip it into a conversation at some point? Nah, he’d just get mad again. I’ll tell him when we get out of here.
Ylsa looked at both of us anxiously. “Am I good to go out there and punch something?”
“Yes!” Jaegan and I both shouted. He glared at me for a moment before I raised my hands in apology. He continued. “Leave the gold pile alone, take out the things hiding behind it.”
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“Can do.” She grinned before stepping out and unleashing a ferocious roar as she slammed her knuckles together. “[Primordial Fury]!”
Her knuckles started glowing with blue and silver energy. In addition, wind started whipping around her with shards of ice in it as bolts of lightning started dancing across her massive body. She looked like the embodiment of a raging tempest in that moment.
She bent down like a sprinter before launching herself bodily over the [Aurimental] and landing with a huge shockwave. “[Thunder Stomp]!” She screamed as a dozen greyish green bodies flew out to the sides of the [Aurimental].
Not to be outdone, Raiju took off into the air above the battlefield with lightning dancing across her fur. As she approached the stalactites they started moving to reveal they were actually some sort of winged creature disguised as rock formations. Before she could get within reach, they hurled dozens of dark black spines from their spine covered backs. Undeterred, she hurled the lightning surrounding her toward the approaching projectiles. When the lightning was done, two of the dozen culprits were dead and Raiju appeared unwounded.
I looked over to where Jaegan was standing to find him a foot outside the landing zone with his staff held up in front of him. “[Arcane Gatling].” His staff started glowing as a circle of twenty bright blue spheres surrounded the head of it. He leveled it like a crossbow at a trio of [Goblin Warriors] who hadn’t died from Ylsa’s [Thunder Stomp] and breathed out steadily.
“You picked the wrong [Mage] to approach.” A moment later, ten of the orbs around the head of his staff glowed brightly before sending out searing lances of white light directly into their foreheads, sending them to the ground where they rested mere moments before dissolving into a couple of leather sacks. He turned to me and pointed at me with his non-staff wielding hand. “You, get out there and mess up some [Goblins], this place is fucking crawling with them!”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” I muttered under my breach as I stepped out of the safety of the landing zone, the one place in a Dungeon that was truly safe. The second I did, the [Aurimental] rose up to its full twenty foot height and turned to look at me.
It bowed and spoke in grating Terran. “Please, command me Pactlord.”
“Kill the [Goblins] to the last and then come find me.”
It nodded before exploding into a swarm of flying golden ore chunks to reveal hundreds of [Goblins], of all varieties, who had been hiding behind the massive elemental. It started sending dozens of those ore chunks into the field of unsuspecting [Goblins] and the results spoke for themselves. I felt as I absorbed part of the experience, one of a few hidden Stats I knew of from my training along with [Presence] and [Comeliness], each of the creatures once contained into my body.
One less thing to worry about, when I befriend an elemental, I get part of the XP it earns, at least while I’m… I stopped mid thought as more XP hit me all at once. Hold on, the [Aurimental] hasn’t attacked again yet and I haven’t attacked at all. I looked to the side to see Jaegan mowing down dozens of [Goblin Archers] who had been hiding behind rocks near one of three exits to the chamber we were within. Dominus, you absolute maestro! I’m getting XP from each of those who owe fealty to me, aren’t I? I’m willing to bet the reason I’m not feeling the same from Raiju is that the bond already syncs our levels and XP, so it just feels natural for her.
As I summoned a pair of [Psyknives] I pondered the possibilities. How many people can swear fealty to me at once? I’ll have to figure that out, but for now I’ll just enjoy the benefits. I threw the pair of psychic blades into two [Goblin Axewielders] who were approaching our circle of death from my side.
“It’s time for me to get serious!” I growled to myself as I hurled my body into the oncoming mass of [Goblins]. “[Rapid Strike].” I struck the largest greenskin in the chest three times before throwing myself beneath the group with a [Mana Slide], cutting all of the monsters along the way with my pair of purple blades. Of the thirty I hit in that move, more than ten died immediately and two more knocked their head into the ground hard enough to kill themselves to escape the mental anguish [Psyknives] delivered with a mere cut. I popped back up in front of the biggest [Goblin] I’d ever seen and I couldn’t resist checking its [Status].
[Goblin Warboss - Rank C Monster
Level: 25
Vulnerabilities: Fire, Lightning
Immunities: Poison]
I can work with those vulnerabilities. I leapt up and kicked off the chest of the [Goblin Warboss], dodging its massive bone cleaver with a flip as I mentally slotted [Air Step]. Never should have un-slotted you, you’re just too damn useful.
Twenty feet up, I hurriedly summoned the [Spell Console] for [Elemental Pactlord] and cursed myself for not setting up a few presets for myself the night before. I ended up with a pair each of [Azers] and [Arcweavers], dwarf shaped [Fire Elementals] and elf shaped [Lightning Elementals] respectively, for a third of my Mana.
“Kill the boss and as many as you can before going home!” I yelled in Ignan. “Any elemental stones they drop are yours as additional payment.”
I knew they’d respond well to my order, given their nature, but I did not expect how aggressive they’d be when doing so. I watched as the pair of [Azers] blew out a knee each on the [Goblin Warboss] before the pair of [Arcweavers] slashed its throat with paired scimitars of pure lightning. A moment later they waded into the rest of the [Warboss]’s forces like a scythe through ripe wheat.
“Well, that’s handled.” I spun around and found Ylsa fighting a dozen feet in front of Jaegan, drawing aggro off him with well timed taunts as he mowed down foes in droves. I looked up to find Raiju still struggling to deal with the ceiling-bound enemies. She was bleeding from a black spike poking out from her left rear leg and I’ll admit to seeing red for a moment. “I’m coming, Raiju!”