[Alisha’s PoV]
Sitting on the ground near the table, I placed Sally’s head on my lap, I can see she was breathing fine. Looking back at the spot where Sally had appeared, I kept my eye out for Alice and Pup. While I was concerned about Olivia, I knew she would make it through just fine. Looking for a way to distract myself, I look at the quest rewards.
[Trial Quest: Thunderstruck completed.
Rewards claimed:
20,000xp
Pair of Fingerless Gloves]
Looking at the pair of gloves that appeared in front of me, they were just plain old gloves. Looking at the remains of my gauntlets, now all but destroyed due to the fight against the Guardian in the Depths of the Crater Hell, the corrosion from the Hooded Heretics and using them while damaged against hundreds of wolves. Sighing, I toss the destroyed gauntlets to the side and put on the new gloves, at least they were nice to wear. I look at the other notifications.
[You have levelled to 17!]
[The monster inside awakens further.]
[Agility Stat Rank increased to D+]
----------------------------------------
Alisha
Demonic Fox and Human Hybrid
Level 17
Health: 850
Mana: 800
Experience: 10,600/32,000
Class: Demonic Dancing Fox Fighter
Class Level: 1
Experience: 1,000/50,000
Skills: Demonic Fox Awakening (Incomplete, 50.00% Awakened), Lashing Fire Kick, Drunken Brawler
Spells: Wind Magic, Lightning Magic (Incomplete)
Stats
Strength: F Agility: D+
Intelligence: F Toughness: F-
----------------------------------------
Biting down, I resist the feeling of my monster side awakening. I knew it would be bad news if it took over, unlike Sally I couldn’t accept it. That wasn’t me. The feeling passes as I breathe a sigh of relief. Suddenly, I hear noise from where Sally appeared as a System prompt came up.
[Dungeon Performance Rating has increased to C+]
Looking up, I see Olivia standing there, Alice on her head and Pup in her hands. Olivia was smiling rather brightly, humming something strange. Alice looks into my eyes with me and with a “Kraa!” flies over and sits on my head again. Pup runs over and lays next to Sally, closing his eyes and seemingly following along with sleeping.
“They were with you?” Looking up at the lively Olivia, she nods.
“For some reason I arrived at my trial with them, we had some fun. My trial was fairly straightforward, treating soldiers on a battlefield and defending the city from monster attacks. My reward was 20,000 experience and a tome on some healing techniques.”
Sharing her experience in one go, without much detail, she kneels down next to me and places her hand on Sally’s head. Closing her eyes, she frowns at first then nods, “Seems she is just exhausted, no need for healing, just some rest.”
Thanking her, I ask her “What did Alice and Pup do in your trial?”
“Not much actually, they helped me fight a bit but it seems like they didn’t have any quests or anything. I’m also not sure why they were put with me.” Shaking her head, she reaches up and gives Alice a pat.
With everyone back out of the trials, it seems that Gray had changed the most, awakening the monster within himself and getting a Class Up. After resting for a few hours, Sally stirred awake and sat up. She looked around with a bit of confusion then realised where she was.
“Sorry, it seems I overexerted myself there. My trial had me learn about Blood Magic. I wasn’t too successful but I know how to create a Blood Barrier, it can take a few hits but it's still weak. I got 20,000xp from the quest, but nothing else.”
Nodding, it seems like my trial, where it had me learn lightning magic, but it wasn’t complete. Speaking up, Elizabeth asks everyone “Now we’re out of the trials, we need to regroup a bit and think of our next steps. Sally doesn’t have her shield anymore and Gray’s role is now similar to Alisha and I. While it doesn’t seem like much, it changes how we’ll fight.”
Thinking over how the first floor was, Elizabeth was right. Without Sally and Gray being able to distract the enemy we would have a rougher time. Looking at Elizabeth I asked her how we should proceed.
“We’d need to be careful, you especially Alisha, one hard hit and you’ll likely be in a critical state. Sally is still the best to lead the group, while she won’t have the shield she can use that Blood Barrier and her sword to block attacks. I’ll switch to Gray’s position and keep enemies distracted, I have a bit of experience thanks to Cerberus’s Domain. Gray will take my place alongside Alisha and be the main attack force. Olivia keeps doing what she currently does. How does that sound?”
Agreeing with Elizabeth, I trust in her advice. The others also agree, and we start preparing for the next room. Checking our equipment, Sally and I had lost our main pieces, Gray and Elizabeth had gained new weapons and Olivia hadn’t changed. Our medical supplies were nearly depleted, we only had two healing potions and some bandages left. We’d need to be careful moving forward. With that, we moved to the next floor.
Arriving in the next room, we’re on a ledge overlooking another large room. Inside, there are dozens of cloaked enemies, with eight to ten around a magic circle each. There are about six magic circles in total, which were shining with a bright red glow. The sound of murmurs reached my ears, I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying but knew it had something to do with the magic circles. Hearing a gasp from my side, I looked at Olivia who looked shocked.
“There are numerous Elites in there, and we can’t reliably fight one group at a time, we’d be overwhelmed in no time.” Looking at the enemies, I checked their information.
[Level 16 Elite Corrupted Worshipper]
The ones that weren’t elite were level 15. Olivia is right, we’d be overwhelmed in no time, we know nothing about them.
“There is something at the far back, likely an entrance to another room. We could stick to the walls and sneak past all of these enemies and check it out?” Speaking up, Gray points towards the back, I couldn’t quite make out what he meant. Sitting down, I started to speak.
“The quest said we have to conquer the dungeon, if that room just moves to the next part of the dungeon, are we really conquering it? We’ll need to kill everyone in here right?”
“Not necessarily, the quest says to conquer, not kill. This room looks like a ritual or summoning, so if we disrupt it, it may count as conquering or rather getting rid of a threat. The next room might hold the key to doing this.” Olivia shared her thoughts on what the quest meant, with Elizabeth following up.
“To conquer means to take over something by force right? Wouldn’t we need to use force to deal with this?”
Shaking her head, Olivia counters “There are many steps to conquering something, like damaging the foundations of the target or removing threats prior to attempting to conquer. While this may mean we need to kill, it doesn’t mean we only have to kill. We should look at the other room, we can always come back if needed.”
Frowning, I wasn’t sure which way to go. The risk of dying was high if we faced the enemies, but sneaking around could lead to an answer. If we sneak through and can’t progress afterwards, we’d be back to square one. Looking at Sally and Gray, we all nod at the same time.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Let's go check the other room, if we can’t come back or something goes wrong we’ll deal with it. The chance of dying here is too high if we try to kill them.” Speaking up, Sally stands up and as usual with her, she starts moving down the stairs into the room. Following behind her is Elizabeth, then myself and Gray who was holding Pup and Olivia at the back.
Moving along the wall as quietly as we can, we can make out the murmurs a lot more clearly but couldn’t understand anything from them. We inch slowly towards the next room, though it seems the hooded figures weren’t paying attention to their surroundings. Eventually, we make it and enter the next room while staying silent.
Creeping into the room, the first thing we see is a huge platform with stairs leading up to it. A deep red colour shines from it, not able to see the source from here. In front of the stairs is a humanoid figure, with long black hair. The moment our feet crossed the threshold into the room, a slam came from behind us, looking back I saw a door had appeared and locked us within.
“Well done on reaching this far, we required fresh sacrifices for our lord, the Blood God.” A female voice rings out, the figure in front of us turns. Deep red eyes glaring at us, a strong aura surges around her. Taking a look at her, I’m shocked by what I see.
[Level 17 Guardian of Worship, Velka the Votary]
Moving forward quickly, Sally readies herself and moves towards Velka, as Elizabeth moves behind her. I set off running to my left as Gray goes right, keeping himself low to the ground. Olivia notches an arrow and fires it.
Moving quickly, Sally reaches her and swings as I approach behind Velka, and lash out a Lashing Fire Kick. Laughing, Velka raises a hand towards my leg as a magic circle appears around her wrist. A thin wall of red appears in front of the hand as my leg strikes it and bounces off, leaving a burn on the red wall. Reaching out towards Sally, she grabs her sword wrist and throws Sally away towards Elizabeth. Elizabeth side steps Sally and swings her sword, causing Velka to dodge, leaving an opening for Gray to step in and slash at her neck.
Just as his dagger cuts through her skin, a blood barrier appears around Velka, and a spike shoots out towards Gray. Narrowly dodging the spike, he moves back and waits. Taking this chance, I spin my wind around my fist heavily and strike out at her shoulder, piercing through the blood barrier and striking her shoulder. With an angry shout, she turns to glare at me directly in the eyes.
“Blood Boil.” Pointing at me, I sense danger and kick away quickly. Landing, I see her still glaring at me before turning her attention to Sally who has approached. Just as I ready myself to move, I’m hit with intense pain, overwhelming my body. Unable to move, I’m paralysed as I see Velka once again point at me and a spike of blood comes directly for my head. Watching in slow motion as it approaches, I try to move, or fall or do anything, but I can’t, something within is preventing me from doing so.
Inches from my face, I prepared myself, I couldn’t focus my mana to try and redirect it. At that moment, I see an arrow slam into the spike and redirect it slightly to the right and downwards, the spike pierces my shoulder. I can’t feel the pain from it since my body was still in immense pain. Hearing a sound behind me, I felt a cooling feeling spread from my back, and a hand reached over and yanked the spike out.
“That was too close. I think she did something to you, I can’t tell what but it’s dangerous.” Feeling my body again with the help of Olivia, the pain soon disappears and I rejoin the fight. The fight that was playing out was leaving us on the backfoot. Gray had been successful in landing some blows, but my attacks weren’t as effective. Biting my lip as I consider what to do, I approach Elizabeth who was being healed by an exhausted Olivia.
“It’s only the third time she’s used that weird ability and healing it is draining. We need to find a way to counter it.” Saying this, Olivia looks at me. “Are you fine?” Nodding, I turn to Elizabeth.
“Can I borrow a sword? My punches aren’t having much of an effect, her blood barrier has gotten stronger, I’d use up all my mana trying to breach it.” Nodding, Elizabeth passes me her new sword. “I’m not using it yet, I need to practise. Try and hit her with it, maybe the effect will land.”
Nodding, I unsheathe the sword and place the scabbard on the ground. Moving in again, I continue working with the others while we slowly cut away at Velka, as Alice uses Blindness over and over, failing each time. Velka was becoming more and more aggressive, using those spikes constantly, even her barrier was creating them after we hit.
“Olivia said she can’t heal us anymore, mana exhaustion. She’s doing her best to regain her mana.” Hearing Gray’s whisper behind me, I nod in acknowledgement and strike out with another sword strike. While swinging it, I came up with an idea and quickly adjusted, I controlled my mana to send lightning magic down it. Overdoing it, sparks fly everywhere, nearly hitting Sally and hitting the blood shield around Velka as I slash throw the blood barrier. Cutting deeply into her back, I move back in the hopes the Ruin effect kicks in, an arc of lightning bouncing on the sword.
Seeing nothing change, I move in as Velka glares at me once again. I see her eyes brightly glaring once again, this time I move the sword up to block her looking at me in the eyes, hoping it’ll stop that pain. Feeling nothing, I move my sword and see Velka’s face distorted in pain. She wasn’t moving, and not knowing what was happening, I decided to take advantage of the moment and swing my sword directly at her eyes, cutting through both of them vertically. Gray stabs down on her shoulder blades as Elizabeth and Sally both strike down, slashing down on her chest. Moving again, Velka lets out a deep roar as we back off. A surge of blood erupts from her wounds and swirls around her.
“HOW DARE YOU ALL DEFY THE BLOOD GOD” Her blood swirls more violently, spikes shooting out in all directions as we dodge. “OH MY LORD, GRANT ME YOUR BLESSING TO LAY WASTE TO THESE HERETICS, CURSE THEM SO WE MAY DEVOUR THEM.”
[You have been cursed with weakness by Velka.]
A red pulse surges from Velka as I felt a weakness overcome me, deep within me as a powerful aura came from Velka. Laughing, Velka raises her hand and swings it around her, releasing a blade of blood towards us. Ducking low to dodge it, I move in weakly and continue attacking her, along with everyone else as we dodge a barrage of blood blades, spikes and trying to get through her barrier. Olivia strikes her arrows true into Velka’s body whenever a weakness in it shows. Elizabeth charges in, dodges an attack and strikes a stab through Velka’s chest, directly into her heart, an area that had opened itself.
With a shout, Elizabeth drags her sword upwards, tearing through her shoulder and out as multiple spikes hit Elizabeth, sending her flying. Dodging Elizabeth to the right, I cut through Velka’s neck as strongly as I can, only managing to cut through slightly. Gray appears behind her with his shadow step and punches his dagger into the back of her head as Sally stabs her sword down from above into her skull.
All of us back off as Velka stops moving. She mutters out “Forgive me…my lord” as she collapses.
[You have defeated the Guardian of Worship, Velka. Gained 30,000xp]
[You have levelled to 18!]
[The monster within is attempting to seize control.]
Holding my head and resisting as best as I can, I feel a sinister aura around me for a second before it fades, along with the bloodthirst I had felt for a moment. Seeing Sally glance at me in concern, I nod to let her know I was okay and sit down. I still felt weak and needed a moment to rest. The fight was sudden, we all were covered in holes from the spikes and without healing from Olivia, we needed a moment to rest. Seeing Elizabeth, she was pale and panting. Grabbing one of the last healing potions, I hand it to her and before she can refuse I tell her “You don’t have our regeneration, we’ll be okay with some rest. Take it.” Nodding, she accepts after a moment of hesitation. Draining the contents, she lays down on her back and falls asleep.
"So...that was blood magic. I can't wait to learn more." Hearing Sally from the side, I see her looking drained as well. While she had used her own blood barrier, it couldn't stand up to a simple strike from Velka.
After we rested for a while, Sally and I moved up to the platform to investigate while the others looked after Elizabeth. Leaving Alice and Pup with them, we climb the stairs and arrive at the top. A giant magic circle lays up here, with a magic crystal hanging in the air. Around the platform on the magic circle there were hooded figures that had daggers pierced deeply into their hearts, they were still alive and were bleeding onto the magic circle.
“If we kill them the magic circle will disappear, yes?” Saying this, Sally pulls out her sword. Shaking my head I say “No, don’t kill them, it could be a trap. We should destroy the crystal instead, it might be powering this magic circle.” Nodding, Sally and I move to the crystal and start striking it with our swords. Soon, cracks appear where we were striking until suddenly it breaks apart, crumbling into hundreds of pieces. The magic circle flickers before fading away. I hear moaning and gasps from around me before silence returns once again.
Looking around, I see those that were stabbed had stopped breathing. None of them remained alive. The door to the last room opened and I could hear a commotion from it. Wondering what was happening, I glanced at Sally as she also frowned. Moving together, we grab Gray and slowly move to the other room to investigate what was happening.
The hooded figures that we had seen were moving around, talking in a language I couldn’t understand in a frantic state. Soon, they started fading away into a white light as a notification came up from the System.
[The people of Zalus were kidnapped and forcibly mind controlled by Velka to worship the Blood God. By destroying Velka’s magic circle, you have freed them from her hold, allowing them their freedom. You did not kill any of the brainwashed or corrupted worshippers. Assessing dungeon performance grade.
Dungeon Performance Rating has increased to A+ and additional rewards have been added to the quest: Blood for the Blood God.]
[You have angered the Blood God. A secret passage has been revealed.]
The light from those we had freed moved towards the centre of the room, forming into a white magic circle. Understanding this to be a teleport circle, we move back to the room with Elizabeth and Olivia and report our findings. Elizabeth awoke during our report and listened in.
“The main quest hasn’t been completed yet, meaning we’re not finished here, that guardian wasn’t what we needed to kill. We’ll have to use the teleport circle, let's hope it's not a trap.” With all of us agreeing, we rest for a few hours.
Letting our wounds heal, we do another equipment check. During this time, I checked Alice’s stats.
----------------------------------------
Alice
Dark Raven
Level 4
Experience: 33,000/60,000
Skills: None
Spells: Dark Magic
Bonded to Alisha through the use of Blood Oath
----------------------------------------
Knowing that bonded pets required more experience to level, I grabbed Alice from the top of my head and pet her while talking to her about my trial. Even though I don’t know if she understands, I still like telling her stories. After a day of rest we get up and move towards the teleport circle. Taking a breath in, we step on it together, leading us to what we hope was the final part of this dungeon.