Tec Mage Chapter Twenty Six: Crypt-ic
As the team moved though the crypt Atlas noticed the walls, the place would of been quite luxurious with white marble walls if not for the dirt, moss, and damp caused by the water dripping from the roof, moving in the underground dungeon which had no light would of been difficult if not for the magical flare's that Atlas, Dracken and Mary had floating around them, Loki also had a moonstone lamp that Mary had made for him
Moving though the dungeon was a spooky experience, the many light sources twisted and made the shadows come to life, not only that moving though the dungeon was hard even with light, the floor was covered in bones and slippery moss not to mention the narrow corridors
Atlas formed a capital I formation with his team, up a head standing side by side was Mary and Dracken, Mary had the best armour and a boost in hp from the mining skill, Dracken on the other hand was quick with a boost in hp from mining and fishing, Dracken had the highest hp in the group, even higher than a warrior thanks to the levelling off his skills
Mary had swapped her massive war hammer for her spiked hammer and a long straight blade that was kept in the handle of the war hammer because there was no room to swing such a mighty weapon, Dracken had his twin short swords out
Behind them in a straight line was Loki and Atlas, Loki was carrying Marys heavy war hammer on his back and in his hands were his trusted pickaxe, Atlas just had his staff spear, keeping up the rear was Ash the assassin and his brother Conan the warrior
Moving was slow but steady, in no time the group came across their first enemy, a pack of three skeletons, at this point Atlas made his way to point, he had to know if the skeletons were sentient, the first test involved mana mouse circling around the skeletons, when that didn't get a response Atlas made the mana mouses bite the skeletons but even that got no reaction
Atlas used his mana flare and casted in to the face of the enemy, this got a simple reaction of the skeletons following it, but with the skeletons following they soon walking in to a wall like a robot that had no commands , this was weird, Atlas noticed a faint aura coming from the skeletons
Ever since Atlas Magical Aura Of The Eye skill had reached passed Intermediate he was seeing heavy condensed mana leaking from mana rich people or things like wizards and their staffs but the aura that was leaking from the skeletons was different, instead of leaking it was more like it was entering them, with this in his mind Atlas assumed that the skeletons were more like puppets just like his mana mouses
Atlas fell back in to the groups position "it's ok, i don't think they are sentient"
This was the sign that Dracken and Mary was waiting for, even though they didn't share the same view point as Atlas they still respected him enough to follow his orders when with him
Mary was first to strike, with no hesitation she slammed her spiked hammer down on to the skeletons head caving it in, the now crushed head of the skeleton turned around to face Mary, it stepped forward and then started to wobble as it fell apart in a clump of bones on the floor
Mary received some experience points letting her know she had destroyed the skeleton, with Mary's strength, the surprise critical hit and Mary's weapon being a crushing hammer she had one hit a skeleton that was a higher level than her
Dracken on the other hand didn't go in for the 1 hit kill, using twin short swords on skeletons was a waste and insufficient , but in stead he avoided and redirected the enemy's attack and used a couple of Magic Missile to keep them off balance, he wasn't trying to destroy them but instead keep them busy in till the heavy hitter was free
As a barrage of Magic Missile hit the nearest skeleton causing it to be stunned, due to Dracken natural affinity with lightning being mixed in with his missiles, Mary destroyed the 2nd skeleton and just as Mary was going to finish off the last skeleton Atlas stopped her
Atlas got the group to crowed around the stunned skeleton, the people in the group with heavy weapons wouldn't have a problem in despatching the enemy but Atlas with his spear, Dracken with his twin swords and Ash with his daggers needed a better way
After a couple of moments of touching the skeleton Atlas pointed out to the group to attack the spaces between the bones and if that was too small of a target then joints like elbows or knees that held the skeleton up
Atlas gave the skeleton to Dracken to finish, with his first swing at the skeleton Dracken managed to slide his blade in to the wrist and pop off the hand that held a rusty looking knife, then a leg was forced flying and finally the head dropped off
With that the group started to move on again in till Atlas stopped, the bones was still receiving mana, picking up one of the bones Atlas used identify
Ancient bone filed with mana
Atlas wondered what kind of medicine he could make with this type of bone, with that in his mind he started to pick up the bones and place them in his bag, this caught the eye of Ash
"What is he doing" said Ash while tapping the shoulder of Dracken
Dracken looked at the hand that was tapping him then at Ash's face, he stayed quite in till the hand was removed
"The potions we all use aren't free, he's collecting ingredients" said Dracken in a flat tone
"What.. the potions are made from bones" whispered Conan
"That's one of the ingredients" said Dracken as he put his hand over his blade "repair"
"That's nasty" said Conan "wait what did you say"
Dracken didn't pay attention to the last bit of what Conan had said "i would drink a thousand of Atlas potions to stay alive, i don't know about you" he wasn't impressed about the way that Conan was reacting to a free life saving item but that was the difference between players and NPC
Before Conan could react to what Dracken had said Atlas was back with three rusted daggers in his hand
"Mary stand still" said Atlas as he placed the daggers in her empty bag "we will do some thing with these later"
"Yes" said Mary
The exploration carried on like that, Dracken would stun 2 of the skeletons so the party had a target to practice on and after the fight any bones and weapon were placed in there bags, again nothing was wasted
After many fight with no injury's the team entered a round room filled with bones and three exits, Atlas had a bad feeling about this and it could be seen in his face, the team members who knew Atlas held back out of the room but Conan just walked in kicking the bones around
"Come on, isn't it obvious a party has all ready been though here" said Conan
Atlas didn't like it, Conan had a point, not every one picked up bones after they destroyed the skeletons but there was suits of armour and weapons on the floor and none of them looked rusted, in fact they looked good and well kept like they had just been dropped
"Come on, we are falling behiAAAAGGGGG" Conan was kicking at the bones, a skeleton hand had grabbed him and was pulling at his leg
"Seeing this Ash started to move forwards to help his brother only to be stopped by Atlas
"If you go in you will be surround by skeletons" said Atlas calmly
"I have to try, if i don't then i can't call my self older brother" pleaded Ash
Atlas nodded "Mary, Loki, Dracken hold on to me and brace your self"
Ash didn't know what Atlas was going to do but he put his trust in him and held on too
At this point Conan had a 3rd skeleton on him and more was on there way, if Conan kept a calm head he may of gotten away on his own with only minor injures but he had thrown his iron board sword away when the first skeleton had grabbed him, the skeletons was slashing away at Conan's body and he would soon be dead
Atlas was aiming for Conan, he could see that Conan was having difficulties, he was on the floor, Conan had popped open the cork of the flask that Atlas had given him and drinking the red liquid with shaking hands as more blades slashed at him, Atlas fired off some enchantment energy in to his biting belt, the golden lion head on his belt flew off and travelled towards Conan arm and when the lion's head made contact it bit down on Conan's arm
Atlas lurched forwards as the the head started to come back to the belt, if it wasn't for the added weight of the group Atlas would of been pulled towards Conan instead of Conan being pulled to the group
As Conan was pulled back to the entrance of the round room there was a skeleton still holding on to his leg, Dracken had such skill now that he could do multiply things and still use magic and so he fired Magic Missile at the skeleton and the following skeletons
One of the Magic Missiles hit the skeleton square on the head, it smashed in a hail of bones releasing the foot of Conan, with out the extra weight Conan flew towards the group at great speed only to be met with his brother catching him and redirecting the body so it wouldn't slam in to the group
"UP FRONT" Atlas ordered
Dracken and Mary stood next to Atlas on either side of him
"FIRE AT WILL" shouted Atlas
Mary and Dracken had started to fire Magic Missile, Dracken had a much higher level in Magic Missile so his was like machine gun firing, while Marys magic was weaker and slower it still help to keep the skeletons at bay, after all she had trained as a mage for a while even though now she was a blacksmith
Atlas was building up mana and started to change the surrounding area, stone hands popped up from the ground and got in the way of the skeletons, other smaller hands had grabbed on to the feet of the enemy stopping them moving forwards and finally big giant hands erupted from the walls making a tight area that pushed the skeletons in to a choke point
Mary was running out of mana so she equipped the war hammer that Loki was holding for her and replaced her long blade back in to it's handle, with the coke point she couldn't swing the weapon but she had enough room to bring it down like a sledgehammer
While Dracken was pushing the skeletons back and destroying them, Mary protected the front with massive strikes coming down from her war hammer
The round room was filling up with skeletons as they entered the room from the different exits, they were following the same path as the others, a huge amount of experience was flowing in to the party, each strike Mary used killed 3 skeletons
Even after 10 minutes the enemy was still pushing forwards, the enemy wasn't strong but there was just so many that if there wasn't choke point Atlas and Co would of been over run with skeletons, Atlas had a thought that the clean armour found in the middle of the bones were in fact player drops
Mary was getting tired and Dracken was slowing down with his Magic Missile so his mana regeneration could keep up
"Loki swap with Mary and i will take Drackens place" ordered Atlas
Atlas raised him self using a clay hand spell, he did this so he could see over the head of Loki who was at the front smashing skeleton with his pickaxe, Atlas could use two spells at once so as he fired off Magic missile he laid down Fire Traps in the most dense part of the skeletons causing them to fly from the explosion and fire
Ash was looking after his brother, even though he had been healed up within seconds of drinking a second potion he had been mentally effected
"We need to retreat to a safe place" Ash said, his main intention was to help his brother
Atlas always had two skills activated, one was an eye technique and the other was the skill called careful listener and what he could hear now sent cold shiver down his spine, it was the sound of clacking, the sound of bone hitting stone and it was coming from behind him
"Dracken take over from me" asked Atlas
Dracken sipped a deep blue mana potion and took Atlas place
"What are you doing" asked Ash
"Just a little protection" Atlas was building up mana and as he was about to cast the spell he saw the rough shape of the mana that was flooding into the skeletons walking towards him, he was thankful that the light sources was focused at the choke point and that Ash couldn't see this image in the dark
With the entrance closed off the only way was forward though more skeletons
Atlas had a quick check on his team, Mary,Dracken and Loki were having a good time of it, there experience on fighting the fish men hoards had given them the edge in this fight but Conan who was to full of him self was immobilized and had taken Ash with him
Atlas sighed this was a good place to build up experience with the ever coming skeletons and a good strong choke point but Conan needed looking after and his brother wasn't going to leave his side
"OK, I understand, I'll start making the base" said Atlas
Atlas used his skill Blueprint Construction which allowed a blue print of a construction to be made from Atlas mana, the added bonus of it reaching Intermediate was that he only needed to think about the plans and changes would appear on the blue print, after finishing the plans Atlas called for Dracken, Mary took Dracken's place firing missiles
Nothing needed to be said between Atlas and Dracken as Atlas handed over a copy of the blueprint, it would seem to an outsider that this had been discussed some where else before hand, after having a good look at the blueprint Dracken and Atlas moved to the marble wall
Ash was watching this with interest, at first it looked weird that Atlas and Dracken was running their hand down the marble wall, then it happened, the wall was moving away from their touch leaving an indention, the rate with witch the wall moved increased in till it was possible to start walking in to the area they had just made
Atlas and Dracken was using the skill basic elemental control, a skill that allowed for the user to manipulate the four elements, at first they needed to touch the element but as they got above beginner level 6 they were able to use the skill a couple of inches away from the element
They had raised the level of the skill by making a game of it, in the frozen Colosseum back in the home of the gnolls Atlas and Dracken had brought a stone bucket with water with them, the water was drawn out of the bucket and made in to a sphere, at this level that was the most that could be done but after a couple of hours of passing the ball of water to each other there proficiency increased and Atlas brought the 2nd element in to the game, the stone bucket was slowly crushed in to a ball and together with the water ball it was passed along, when they got passed beginner level 6 in the skill and no longer needing to touch the element Atlas introduced a fire ball, it really made the skill grow quickly with the mixtures of 3 elements, a 4th one wasn't introduced because air was unseen and couldn't be passed as easily as the other elements
Mary had the option of learning the skill but she couldn't see a use for it in blacksmithing in till Atlas showed that the dirt and impurities in red hot iron could be drawn out faster and better than before, he also showed that the mixing of the carbon with iron was more uniformed, not to mention the better placed heat on the weapon being forged with fire elemental control and a pure water that had less impurities in it and finally air which Atlas explained that a better concentration of oxygen could make the fire burn better but that was for later when the skill had become better
Mary also had change back to the class mage to learn the skill and later back to blacksmith when she had reached beginner level 6 in basic elemental control to take full usage of the elements in her blacksmithing, she did this while delivering the swords she had made for the police force
Back in the Sunken Crypt Atlas and Dracken had finished the base, all the walls were arched, compressed and enchanted to stop any cave ins, and it was ready to move in to, Ash dragged his brother in to the room, the first room was the size of a living room from a house and that lead to different rooms, every thing was bare and had no comforts in it
Behind the brothers come in Dracken then Mary and finally Atlas and Loki together, when every one was in Atlas summoned giant earth hands to block the door way, he left small holes for air to pass though but apart from that the door way was completely sealed, to make sure enough air was coming though Atlas enchanted a stones with air and placed it near the holes so a smooth circulation of air came in
With this the team were safe, on the floor was Conan and he was muttering to him self
"I lost my sword again, i can't believe it"
It seemed that he wasn't traumatized because he was hacked and slashed by the skeletons but instead he was upset by losing his sword again, before Atlas could ask Conan he had disappeared
"I'm sorry but i need to log out for a while to check on my brother" explained Ash
Then Ash also disappeared, this was fine to Atlas he had things to do to the base and he didn't want to be interrupted
----------------------------------OUT OF GAME------------------------------
Ash real name was Ash, he didn't see the point in changing it in the game, he quickly jumped out of his capsule and rushed to find Paul in the living room throwing his arms in the air
"What's wrong Paul, i've seen you take a bigger beating than that before, why are you so angry" Ash was talking to Conan who's real name was Paul
Paul turned towards Ash, his face was bright red with embarrassment and his fist were clutched
"I LOST IT AGAIN AND RIGHT IN FRONT OF ATLAS" Paul had lost his weapon to Atlas before and now he had done the same thing
"I know bu" Ash started to say
"I SWEAR IF THEY MAKE FUN OF ME THEN..THEN I WILL PUNCH THEM" Paul seemed really upset with the possibility of this happening
Ash grabbed his brother by the shoulders and looked in to the bright red face of Paul
"Calm down, i don't think they are like that" said Ash, his brother was still breathing heavily but he had stop shouting "lets do some dumb bell lifting to get ride of this anger and after that something to eat
Everyone has problems and it would seem that Paul's were that he cared what other people thought of him too much, after their weight lifting, food and wash they entered back in to the game
-----------------BACK IN THE GAME------------------
When the brothers logged back in they were no longer in the empty room that they had left, now it was completely different, Mary was working at a small compressed earth forge and she had melted down the rusted weapons and formed them in to pure steel ingots all stacked behind her, opposite to her was a cooking pot and earth oven, both was slow cooking something that smelled divine, a rain cloud was dripping water and filling up a compressed earth basin to the side of the oven, on a hook on the back wall all the teams bags and Atlas staff/spear was leaning on the wall, in the centre of the room was a strong looking table with 6 chairs that were all made from earth
Both of the brothers looked dumbfounded, with the calm look of Mary working at the forge, it looked just like a girl at ease at home instead of a person surrounded by monsters in a dungeon where you could lose your life, they watched her raise a red hot ingot with a pair of pliers from the forge and draw out the impurities with her hand, just as they were going to ask Mary questions they heard the unmistakable sound of bones hitting stone coming from the other room, they rushed in to the room with weapon drawn and in the case of Conan his fist raised to find Loki emptying bags of skeleton bones in to a big circle bath, as they looked in side the bath they found metal golf balls moving in a circle crushing the bones in to fine dust
"What's going on here" ask Ash
Loki scoped some of the bone dust out and placed it in a sack, he looked at the brothers and shrugged "I don't know what you mean" Loki had been with Atlas, the apprentice and gnolls for some time, so in his mind everything was fine and normal
"Where's Atlas then" asked Ash, he would get answers from the leader
Loki went back to work scoping more dust out of the bath "he's in one of the rooms, this place isn't that big"
The brother's left and entered one of the unseen rooms, this one was bare and had 4 sleeping bags on the floor, this was the sleeping quarters, the only thing of note in this room was the moonstone that was covered in a red cloth, this allowed for you to see but wouldn't wake up any one sleeping
The two brothers rushed out of the sleeping quarters and headed to the only other room left
"Wait he doesn't want to be disturbed" said Mary
But the brothers were full of questions and wonder, they ignored Mary and rushed in to the finally room, this room was slightly smaller than the living room but held more in it, with a quick look about they saw more unique things than in all the other rooms combined
Atlas turned around from what he was doing, he had a simply wooden mallet in his hand and behind him was a long earth table that had a strapped down skeleton, Dracken was also there and was touching the skeletons head, the skeleton was being stunned by Drackens Static Force spell
"Yes?" asked Atlas
The brothers didn't hear him, they were looking at all the thing in the room
"What is this" Conan was pointing at a bronze metal domed canister the size of armour, it had small shelves in it with nob's and a up side down glass flask filled with water at the top, the bottom had a glass flask that was being filled with blue liquid
This was why Atlas didn't want to be interrupted, to many question would delay him a lot but a question needed to be answered or the interruptions wouldn't end
"That is my Alchemy's Big Boy Travelling Companion, as you can see water is put at the top and travels down pipes in to flasks in side the dome, the shelves have herbs and minerals in side and can be pulled out if i need to change the mix, the nob's restrict the water flow at the different stages so a higher concentration of the liquid can be made, the thin plates of metal are enchanted so the heat can be changed by sliding different metal in" explained Atlas
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"That seems a little extreme" said Ash
Atlas shrugged and turned back to the skeleton "it's hard getting the right mix and stabilizing the flasks, this is for a moving Alchemist, plus it doesn't break as easy as glass"
"What about this" asked Conan as he pointed to a line of big glass jars that were emitting a green glow
Atlas quickly looked over his shoulder to look at what Conan was pointing at "those are my Lamps Of Growth
Conan had a closer look at the jars, in side were soil and plants, each plant was bathed in a green glow that came from the lid, when he looked even harder at the plants he could see they were growing
Atlas had used the Forest mana that he had extracted from green plants and combined it with moonstone to make a lid that shined down on the plants, Atlas had found out that the plants would grow faster than normal if they had leaves to adsorbed the light, and the Forest mana would last longer than just pouring it on the plant, all in all Atlas could now carry super charged mini greenhouses
Conan ran to a different table, on top was a different selection of tools but what held Conan attention was the little ghost mouses that just stood beside the tools
"What are" Conan started to ask
"Leave them alone and come over here" said Atlas, truly Atlas was becoming annoyed by the question when he was trying to work, instead he would talk about the thing he was working on now and explain it to them
"I've been wondering why there so many skeletons and why are they so weak" said Atlas "You may not be able to see this but some kind of mana is constantly entering the skeletons"
Ash and Conan looked harder at the bones but couldn't see anything, Atlas didn't expect for them to see it
"But the most interesting thing is this" Atlas raised his hammer and dropped it down on the skull of the skeleton causing it to shatter
"Why did you do that" asked a shocked Ash
"Just wait a little longer" said Atlas
The 4 members of the group looked at the broken skull and after a few moments the broken bones started to shake and move to reform the skull, as soon as the skull was complete the skeleton started to move again
"WH... what does this mean" asked Ash with a shocked voice
"I'm not sure but i think we have been fighting the same skeletons over and over again, i think that a spell is doing this, some thing or some one is using mana to reform the defeated skeletons, for what reason i couldn't say" Atlas had finished his explanation
"Does the other teams know about this" asked Ash
"I don't know i think there is something blocking whispers but Loki says that there is many people who are logged off at the moment" said Atlas
"What does this mean" asked Ash
"I don't know what it means but i can tell you what i'm going to do about it, nothing" said Atlas
"WHAT?" Ash couldn't believe his ears
Atlas held up one of his hands "take a look at your experience"
Ash looked upset but still did it, looking at his experience nothing was new in till he got a message
Your group has defeated a skeleton
Your group has defeated a skeleton
Ash was gaining experience from doing nothing
Before Ash could ask, Atlas explained
"Me and Dracken went out side where the skeletons were and set up some traps that reset them self after each use, so the skeletons get blown up, reform, and then get blown up some more"
Atlas had managed this by placing a fire trap down on the floor then covering it with ice and placed a new trap on top, he had repeated this in till he ran out of mana potions, above the trap was a piece of moonstone that grabbed the attention of the skeletons and at either side of the trap was a trip wire that Dracken had installed, each time a fire trap was activated by a falling skeleton it would blow the skeleton away and melt the ice underneath leaving a fresh new fire trap
At first the traps only got one or two skeletons but the more that wandered to the light the more got blown up and then the more got reformed, because Atlas and Dracken made the trap they were getting a lot more experience but none the less the whole team was getting stupid amounts of experience from doing nothing
"What do we do with our self" asked Ash
"Read a book, use your skills to improve them, it's up to you, if you really want something to do i could make a room where you could fight a single skeleton on your own" replied Atlas
That's how the group spent 2 game days just collecting experience from the traps, when Atlas needed to rest in the real world he did so in the comfort that both of his apprentices were safe and comfortable, those were the bare conditions for Atlas to allow them to join the dungeon dive, Atlas had entered the crypt at level 64, he was desperately low level for this dungeon compared to the weakest monster which was level 85 but now he had levelled to level 84 and gain a further upgrade to the title levelling Fiend
Atlas wanted to stay and level up some more in the safety of the base but the food was a little low for his taste, the skeletons didn't drop any food and they couldn't be eaten so the time to move on was now, the traps were still active and now they were destroying 10 - 15 skeleton per trap, even when Atlas put a choke point up and positioned the trap to do the most damage he was only able to get 4 monsters at a time, Atlas would come back here with his apprentices to level up
Everything was packed away, new potions had been made and Conan had a brand new steel sword that had special enchantments, one of the rules of enchanting was that an item could only be enchanted once, this made it hard to give more than one buff to a item but after reading his training book Atlas found by drawing runes on the sword with the red fire mana chalk he had made from fire mana and other ingredients the enchanting energy would change as it hit the rune and only in that area, the rest of the energy would stay the same, so in the end the sword got a burning effect glow and some stats increase
Two Handed Battle Sword Of Burning Touch Durability 100/100. Attack: 80 - 90
A talented blacksmith and enchanter made this weapon, by combining their craft they made some thing greater than the sums of the parts
Requires: Level 60, Strength 150, Warrior or Warrior similar profession
Equip: Grants a bonus to fire magical damage of 20-25 but any Warrior below 50 Endurance will suffer from the magical fire recoil when equipping the weapon
+10 to agility and to strength
25% to cause burn effect
When the group was ready to leave Dracken made a new way out using basic elemental control and Atlas stayed behind, if it was true that they had been fighting the same skeletons then they needed to be dealt with a different way, Atlas had used enchantments on the wall to give extra protection from cave ins but this would hinder his next plan, Atlas stood in the middle of the room used enchantment destruction, he started to glow and brighten the area, then a light shock wave burst from him destroying all the enchantments that he had made
Step one completed Atlas brought down the walls of the exit and used his brightest Mana Flare to attract the skeletons, it was a tsunami wave of twisted bones and rusted weapons as the skeletons pushed there way in to the base, Atlas hide him self in the shadows he wasn't sure about if they could see him but they went straight for the light anyway, he moved the light around to fill the rooms completely
When the rooms were filled to bursting Atlas made his retreat using the exit that Dracken had made, as he left he could still hear the skeletons pushing their way in to the base, meeting up with the rest of the group Atlas pulled out a model of the base he had just left
"Model destruction" said Atlas
Crushing the small model of the base in his hand Atlas activated the skill
Model destruction Beginner level 1
After a construction is made a small model of said construction is formed, when the model is destroyed so is the building it represents
The base caved in collapsing on the skeletons and pining them down under huge amount of earth, this didn't stop them from reforming but it didn't matter if they couldn't move
Levelled up
Levelled up
"Lets go" said Atlas, there was no point stay here anymore
There was little to no conflicts beyond that point, the armour and weapons that players had dropped were picked up, with no skeletons about the group went down floor after floor in till they reached a door with some steel armour in front of it, Atlas recognized the boots to be from the player Tork, apart from Mary and Conan he was the only person to have full metal steel armour set
The door behind the metal boots was a normal wooden door but it failed to open, there was no tricks to it, it was just locked
"No problem i'll unlock it" Ash said as he moved towards the door, being an assassin he needed to gain access to many places and so he had learnt lock picking
"Wait" said Atlas, he was worried, Tork wasn't a push over, his level was above 100 but he had died at this point
Atlas placed his ear against the door, with his enhanced hearing he could hear movement behind the door, a possible trap, Atlas decided there and then that they would not take the door in to the new room, it sounded like an ambush
Ash was disappointed, he and his brother had done very little in this dungeon and he felt useless
Atlas, Dracken and even Mary started to make a tunnel that went around the door, it didn't take long with three people doing the work, when they had finished Atlas made a small eye hole in the thin wall connecting the new room and tunnel, with his Magical Aura Of The Eye skill he could see mana taking shape, in the pitch black he could see the out line of a massive beast, it had four arms and was as tall as a house, the beast also had a red name above it, Goro, not only that there was the same skeletons they had fought before dotted around the place
Atlas asked Dracken for a seconded opinion, Dracken was a speed type mage but before that he had bought some skills from the thief guilds and trained with them, one of the skills was to see in the dark
Dracken verified what Atlas saw plus some traps near the door that Atlas had missed
Atlas made a simply plan, the four armed skeleton called Goro was an unknown so for a safer fight all of the group would take part in fighting the massive creature but that left the reforming skeletons, if left alone they would surround the group and the fight would be harder
Atlas decided to very carefully and slowly drag the normal skeletons underground with his clay hand skill, when only there heads were visible he stopped, the skeletons were like dolls, each one had simple commands that they followed, attack on site, follow any light source, team up on enemy's and reformed when broken, so they didn't get aware of what Atlas was doing to them
All that was left was Goro, Atlas watched it for a couple of minutes but all it did was stare at the door readying to deliver a surprise attack against it's enemy
After seeing the behaviour of the Goro, Atlas gave the orders to attack on his commands
Atlas set up the most powerful fire trap he could muster under one of Goro's leg, the spell didn't ignite because movement was needed but that wasn't a problem as Atlas ordered the attack
The wall collapsed and Atlas gave the command "Attack"
The giant four armed skeleton turned to see what the noise was and that movement was enough to ignite the trap, the trap blew the creature off it's legs and flat on it's back, the leg was on fire because of the nature of fire trap but the leg was still intact
Mary moved forward and swung at the Goro's arms that were trying to push it's self up from it's back just for the giant to slap down on to his back, the arms still was in one piece with no cracks even though Mary was using her heavy war hammer
While Atlas was igniting more fire traps underneath Goro, Conan and his brother Ash was attacking the leg that was on fire, concentrating there attacks on the most damaged part of the giant plus the fire attribute added to the sword had a stack effect on Goro's leg, each strike with the sword caused stronger flames to build up, Dracken had thrown his metal net at the other arms of Goro and was paralysing them with static force and a wire that connected the net with Dracken, Loki on the other hand had made his way to the giant's crouch and was laying it to waste with powerful attacks with his pickaxe
Every time the giant tried to get up his arms were batted away by Mary, Dracken was doing his part by paralysing the other two arms and firing missiles and throwing knifes while the brothers made sure it didn't stand, Atlas and Loki were using powerful attacks to bring down it's hp, the bones Goro didn't break or even crack but constant attacking would bring down the enemy in the end
When Goro's health points reached critical level a bright mana aura surround him and the half buried skeletons dismantled and flew to the four out stretched hands of the giant, the bones reformed on the hands and was made into 3 swords and a shield, pushing Mary away with the shield the giant made his way back on his legs, Atlas ran and jumped on the back of the skeleton, he slid his staff in to the space between the bones for a better grip, Atlas was punching the skeleton in the back of the head with his hollow claw gauntlets but just like Mary's hammer it couldn't break the bones, Atlas tried using gust and fired a small glass vial from his hollow spiked gauntlet, the glass smashed on Goro's head with a sizzle, the acid in the vial also did nothing, it seemed the bones were harder than steel
The brothers were slowing down the skeleton with continuous strikes to the legs, Dracken had discarded his net and was attacking the joints, Mary was up again fighting off the swings from the bone blades and some how Loki was swinging on his pickaxe that was in bedded in the crouch of the monster
Goro's bones were too strong, the hammer strikes from Mary that could easy destroy 3 skeletons in one hit couldn't even scratch it and that wasn't the end of it, Goro's bone blades started to glow with more mana that only Atlas could see, the giant was going to use a skill, Atlas blinded the giant with his fire cape, it unwrapped from Atlas neck and wrapped around the skull of the giant
This did nothing to stop the monster from attacking, it waved it's arms wildly around, the saying "beware a cornered beast" was in full effect here
Atlas was the safest of the group, but that was not his main concern, with Goro swinging wildly it would be hard to predict the attacks and a stray hit could seriously hurt Mary or Dracken
Atlas pulled a piece of string on his chest, the leather holding the 6 iron spears came lose and the spears fell from his back
"Time for reinforcements" Atlas grabbed his necklace "calling the fallen"
Atlas mana dropped like a stone but only to 50%, if any of the group had been watching Atlas at this time they would of seen the spears falling from his back and just as they were going to hit the floor they stopped and floated back around Atlas
"You look to be in a tight spot there chief" said Nelious
With the eye technique Atlas could see Nelious the spirit and his 5 spirit comrades, each one was possessing a spear, before Atlas could ask for help the spirits had started to attack the giant with spear techniques and interfering with the monster mana by passing their spirit body's though Goro's arms, each one of the spirits were killed by a necromancer and so they naturally hated the undead
The battle became easier the skeleton giant couldn't attack and his skills were being interrupted by the spirits but the health points of the giant wasn't going down, the strength of the bones just was too great
Atlas increased the power of his fire cape in till it burned dark blue, with it still around Goro's head it set the skull ablaze, Atlas also pulled the earth underneath the giants feet using a clay hand spell to make it fall on it's hands and knees
"MARY GET READY TO ATTACK THE HEAD" shouted Atlas
Atlas removed the cape from the head of Goro, the skull was shinning red with heat and fire, the fire came from Atlas cape and so it didn't hurt him, standing on the neck of the monster Atlas steady him self by holding on to the staff that was in the monster, with a powerful kick Atlas slammed his boot in to the skull
The skull started to hiss and ice grew from Atlas boot to cover the skull, cracks started to form and split the bones that managed to with stand strikes from a war hammer, Atlas had used his ice walk skill to cool the super heated bones and the diffence in heat had made small cracks appeared in the skull
"NOW" shouted Atlas
Mary lifted the heavy war hammer over her head and started to bring it down, the skeleton looked up to find the hammer racing towords it's face, the thought berifly went though Atlas mind what the skeleton was thinking when the hammer was coming ever closer to his head but Atlas had already made sure that it was a doll and had no thoughts for it self, the war hammer slammed on the skull and shattered it to pieces, Mary had put so much force behind the swing that even though Atlas was standing on the neck of the skeleton he was forceable knocked off
"Ding"
Levelled up
You and your team have defeated the gurdian of the sunken crypt
Atlas was getting up from the fall "quick pick up the skulls pieces before it reforms" Atlas had found out that if the skull was picked up and place in a bag the skeletons couldn't reform
Mary, Dracken and Atlas picked up the bone pieces, Loki was trying to get his pickaxe disloogged from the bones but the brothers were standing around the big pile of gold and jewels that were in a chest
"Look how much there is" Conan had big eyes looking at the gold
"Yea there is a lot but we've got to give 50% of it to the tutors guild and share the rest with the other players" said Ash
Atlas was standing behind the two brothers after picking up the skull pieces "no that's not completely correct, one of the rules Tork said that if you die then you would only get what you picked up, so if we are the only people who survied then the gold will be shared betwwen the 6 of us
The gold was a big pile, it had reached that point little by little, each new adventure that entered and fell in the dungeon increased the pile with there player drops
"Don't forget all the loot that the failed players dropped, some of those were magical and unique" said Atlas
"Does that mean we get a choice in the loot" asked Ash
"That is up to you, you are the CORE member that gives the right to the most valuable player" answered Atlas
"Y.. yes i remember" Ash had forgotten why he was with this group in the first place, he thought it over and it was easy to realize that the most valuable player was Atlas
Atlas wasn't the strongest but after seeing the exprince he showed in leading the group against hordes of skeletons and the healing potion he gave freely with out pay, not to mention the tactics and base that was set up from Atlas skills and orders, there was just so much he did that Ash had forgotten that he was meant to asses the group and just relied on Atlas as a true leader
Ash agreed, because they were the only people to survive the dungeon dive the money would be divided between the group and the items they found would be shared out with Atlas taking first pick, in the end after Atlas had identified the items he picked a bracelet that was made from mithril and other less impressive things, all the party got new and powerful things but Atlas was interested in this new metal he hadn't worked with yet, the gold was mostly given to Loki as he was a member of the tutors guild and he received 50% of the gold and his share
Each member got 15,000 gold, a hand full of jewels and there choice of drops, it was a true jackpot between them, Atlas gave 5,000 gold to Mary and Dracken of his share to pay them back for buying a shop and having it burn down, his guilt eased up and he felt better, both of the apprentice tried to refuse but Atlas said it was for his well being too and so they excepted
Ash and Conan explained that they were going to log out and post this fight on the Royal Road web site after they tidy it up a bit, they said there good byes and left
Atlas had held back in the dungon for a bit, there was still mana being shaped in the air and it lead to wall
"Something is behind this wall, get ready every one" Atlas had the spirits with him so he didn't fell understaffed
The wall melted away to reviel a new room, Atlas was expecting a new monster
"AHHHGG DON'T HURT ME"
The group turned to witness a small girl in the corner shaking and holding her hands up in protection
"DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE"
The group was shocked even Atlas couldn't believe it, they were expecting a monster equal to the skeleton giant but in stead they got a little girl
End Of Chapter Twenty Six