Shadow ran around the room, torch held high and providing vision of the entire cavern. A sea of glowing eyes clung to the wall, belonging to an army of hairy black spiders that were following Shadow’s movements closely.
A cacophony of chittering built, the sound sending a shiver up Orion’s spine. Green venom dripped from the large fangs of the arachnids—a green that was the same color as the pools in Doc’s and Merv’s dungeons. At a quick glance, there could be anywhere from fifty to a hundred of the creatures.
Legs started moving as they crawled down the walls, all eyes fixed on Shadow.
“Don’t swap with me, Orion!” Shadow continued to sprint around the room. “I might live through this!”
The statement gave Orion pause. His backup plan had been to do exactly what Shadow was doing—he would run in to the center of the room and draw the attention of all the monsters before using Swap to change positions with a monster on the outskirts. If there was no monster to swap with, however, he knew he would go out as a martyr to Arika’s Explosion—a fate he readily accepted if left absent choice.
He’d briefly considered discussing it with his team, but didn’t feel comfortable suggesting someone else be the bait, so he willingly designated himself.
Did Shadow see through my plan? He must have, at least to a certain extent, because he yelled for me to not swap with him…
A new plan forming, Orion sprinted as fast as he could into the room, heading directly toward Shadow. The spiders were getting closer-and-closer, slowly forming a circle around their target. Shadow still had plenty of space to move, but the room would soon be filled with a sea of fuzzy arachnids.
“Don’t use Explosion yet, Arika!” Orion took off running. “Honeypot, with me!”
Arika stood there looking somewhere between terrified and physically ill as both Orion and Honeypot took off toward Shadow, leaving her alone in the room’s entrance.
“Stun any that get close, and be ready to distract if necessary,” Orion said to Honeypot as they ran.
“Aye, boss!” Honeypot responded, his usual joviality nowhere to be seen.
The spiders were slowly but surely surrounding Shadow; the spiders advanced, meticulously creeping their way forward, leaving no gaps or opportunities for their target to escape.
“Here!” Orion yelled, signaling Honeypot to stop moving. “We need to wait here for them to get closer to Shadow!”
“Use explosion, Arika!” Shadow roared.
The sounds of Shadow’s armor joined the chittering cacophony of the spiders as his Silent Speed ability ran out. Praying that Arika would listen to his own instructions rather than Shadow’s, Orion watched and tried to remain calm as the spiders closed the distance between themselves and his friend.
Orion could feel something radiating from the group of spiders, something primal and unflinching. After a moment’s consideration, the word for it came to him. It was neither hot like anger, nor cold like determination; it was the inevitable drive of hunger. The spiders wanted to devour his friend, and if Orion’s plan didn’t work, either they would, or Arika’s Explosion would end Shadow’s existence—for good.
Seeing that the spiders were now close enough to Shadow for his plan to proceed, Orion turned to Honeypot and gave him a nod. “Stay right on me, within reach. I won’t be able to Portal us out if we’re separated.”
Shadow let out a cry of pain as a spider darted forward with inhuman speed, extending dripping fangs and injected him with its sickly looking venom. Once again, Shadow yelled at Arika to use her Explosion. As he’d looked up to yell, he realized for the first time that Honeypot and Orion were approaching the horde of spiders. For a second, Orion saw a look of confusion cross his friend’s face, but Shadow didn’t have long to consider what his teammates were doing as he took off running again, dodging the lunge of another spider as it darted toward him from the advancing line.
Orion could see more spiders lunging, some connecting and drawing cries of pain from Shadow as he did his best to avoid the relentless assault. He was looking visibly injured, a sickly green pallor taking over his countenance as the venom dripping from multiple spider’s mandibles coursed through his body.
The tentacled hat kicked in, prehensile limbs waving around Shadow’s head as he ran, his body showered with the green sparkling effect of the heal. Orion could still see the green pallor on his face after the heal effect had run its course; the venom of the spiders hadn’t been cleansed away.
All the while, spiders were still darting out, launching themselves at Shadow. Most were dodged or bounced off, but some connected, fangs piercing the weak points of Shadow’s armor and bringing his health consistently lower.
Orion could do nothing but wait for the right moment, and a feeling of helplessness slowly took over. He looked on in horror, worried that Shadow would succumb before the spiders moved in close enough for his plan to work. Shadow kept dodging as the general mass of arachnids closed in further, his armor putting in work to fend off the spiders that hit him.
Finally, the horde of spiders had moved close enough to Shadow that Orion thought he could get within range without drawing their attention. He inched forward, Honeypot right on his heels as they desperately advanced. In their haste to reach Shadow, they’d evidently moved too soon, as three sets of glowing-green eyes turned on the pair.
The three arachnids locked on as one, striking an animalistic fear into Orion. They moved toward the two adventurers at a blistering speed that was in complete contrast to the slow advance the rest of the horde was using to encircle Shadow.
Honeypot dashed forward, stunning the first spider to reach the pair. Orion swiftly followed up by smashing it with his staff, landing a critical hit because of the spider’s incapacitation. A flash of Honeypot’s scimitar, and the spider was dead.
The victory was short-lived, however, as another spider collided with Orion. It slammed into his body, luckily striking only a glancing blow as its momentum carried it further past him. He thought he avoided the spider’s bite, but after a moment, a searing line of pain tore across his chest and shoulder. He glanced down to see his robe torn, and a shallow cut running from his chest that glistened with the green venom of the spider.
The effect of the bite took hold immediately as a slight green tinge took over his vision. Orion felt his Stamina and Strength slowly leech out of his limbs. His health ticked down just a fraction, and he instinctively knew it would continue to do so until the venom was cured or had run its course.
The other spider had attacked Honeypot, but the agile Priest parried the arachnid as it flew at him. The two spiders were now behind the pair, blocking their way out. Orion and Honeypot both knew the path forward. They turned and continued their dash toward the hoard of spiders and Shadow; retreat was never an option, even before the way out was blocked by their nightmare-inducing enemies.
A few strides later, seeing that he was finally close enough, Orion used his Swap ability. A spider leaped forward to sink its fangs into an already low-health Shadow, but hit something with an exoskeleton and entirely too many limbs to be its intended target. Unwittingly, it sunk its fangs into one of its brethren; where a spider had previously been positioned at the back of the group, now stood Shadow. He looked one-hit from death, but he was alive.
Shadow wasn’t expecting the reposition and stood for a moment, stunned. Orion reached forward and gripped Shadow’s arm, then grabbed Honeypot’s cloak with his other hand.
He used Portal.
The three arrived at a new location, Shadow and Honeypot clearly feeling disorientation as they made to dash in opposite directions. Much to all of their immediate dismay, however, they weren’t the force in control of their bodies; a concussive shock-wave hit them, quickly overwhelming the relative stability of gravity and sending them flying away from the center of the room.
The arachnophobic Fire Mage had clearly wasted no time in releasing her trump card, using Invoke to blast the horde of spiders with Explosion a split second after her party cleared the area.
Fearing the worst for Shadow, Orion tried to focus on the party interface in his field of view, but between his spinning vision and the sparkling effect of his tentacled hat, he couldn’t see a thing. As his vision cleared a little and the sparkling effect faded, Orion could see Shadow still had a sliver of health. The small red bar was barely visible.
Beyond hope, the Warrior had somehow survived the Explosion and subsequent propulsion away from it.
A spike of horror struck Orion’s core as he noticed the green tinge around Shadow’s health bar showing an envenomed effect, still active. Shadow’s health ticked down again, and Orion breathed an involuntary gasp. His vision cleared further, and he saw Shadow’s health bar still had what looked like a single pixel of color remaining.
Before even looking back at where the horde had been, Orion pulled a Health Potion from his inventory. Removing the stopper and leaning over, he poured some of the viscous liquid into his friend’s mouth, causing Shadow’s health to tick up a minuscule amount—bare milliseconds before his health dropped again from a tick of damage.
With Orion’s terror and fear vaguely assuaged for now, he noticed some chittering coming from the other end of the cavern, still terrifying, but quieter than before. He glanced up to see two of the spiders approaching, clearly injured but still alive. The two that had been focusing on Orion and Honeypot must have survived, damaged by the concussive force of the blast but not being close enough to be caught in the searing heat of Arika’s Explosion.
Honeypot was up, standing guard between his party and the approaching spiders. Arika stepped up shakily, looking terrified of the approaching spiders, but resolved to protect her friends. She stood beside Honeypot, raising her staff before her in a defensive position. Orion knew she had no spells left to defend herself, yet she was still willing to put her body between the dying Shadow and the approaching spiders.
Shadow continued to drink the potion, but could only consume it slowly. He was lying prone while Orion held his head and continued to pour the potion into his mouth. Orion returned all of his focus to Shadow, trusting that Honeypot and Arika could keep the enemies at bay. He didn’t stop until he poured the very last drop into Shadow’s mouth.
As Shadow drank the last mouthful, the green pallor faded, and he sprang to his feet, back at half health and no longer envenomed. Orion made to join him, but Shadow put a firm hand on his shoulder, keeping him sitting on the ground.
“Here,” Shadow said, handing Orion a potion he pulled from his own inventory.
Orion took the potion and tried to stand up again, once more being held down firmly by Shadow, his body too weak to overcome the healthy Warrior’s Strength stat.
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“What are you doing?” Orion demanded, looking on in frustration as the spiders continued to close with Honeypot and Arika.
“Orion!” Shadow’s tone arrested Orion’s attention. His face was white with panic. “Look at your health…”
Orion felt the blood drain from his face. Most of his health bar was depleted, tinged with the same green color that had afflicted Shadow.
The spider’s venom had ticked away at his health, having a much more noticeable effect on his smaller health pool. He had a couple ticks worth of health remaining before it would hit zero. He quickly removed the stopper from the health potion as another tick of the envenomed effect came. His arm shook, his muscles failing him, but Shadow steadied his arm and helped him down it in a few mouthfuls.
He got to his feet, intending to join the party. As soon as he finished downing the potion and his health stabilized, however, Shadow had sprinted at the spiders and closed on them with Honeypot and Arika. Orion watched as Shadow slew a spider with a single Vicious Blow. The other spider lunged at Arika, who let out a scream, but Honeypot intercepted the arachnid midair, stunning then killing the already damaged spider with a slash of his wicked scimitar.
Orion blanched at how close he’d inadvertently come to dying. They all stood for a moment, waiting for something bad to happen. Maybe more spiders were hiding, maybe a single spider boss would jump out, enraged at the slaughter of its children—but nothing came.
Instead, they were met with notifications.
You have advanced Dungeon Hunter from level 3 to level 4. Congratulations!
You have advanced Portal from level 4 to level 5. Congratulations!
You have advanced Swap from level 3 to level 4. Congratulations!
You have advanced Dark Vision from level 1 to level 2. Congratulations!
You have advanced Dark Vision from level 2 to level 3. Congratulations!
Critical Quest updated: Cull the Doc
Progress: 2/4
There was a flash of light in the center of the room and a chest appeared that glowed a faint purple. Despite the loot just waiting to be collected, everyone sat down immediately, clearly overwhelmed with the fight that had just occurred. Shadow silently passed out snacks from his inventory, and they hastily ate the savory pastries he’d picked up from town.
“Why did you run in without saying anything, Shadow?” Orion asked, breaking the silence.
Shadow raised an eyebrow and shot him a look.
“You were going to do the same thing, weren’t you?” He shook his head at Orion’s shocked expression. “I’m not stupid, Orion. You would have used your Portal in, baited the entire group, then had Arika blow you up with the horde.”
Orion paused for a moment, not expecting Shadow to see through his plan so easily. He’d suspected that the boss room would be filled with a plethora of monsters, and because they had no tank, he’d planned to sacrifice himself—if necessary, of course.
“Alright, I was going to if I had to,” Orion said. “But I’m the leader, as you all keep saying. If anyone has to, I should be the one to go down with the ship.”
“No,” Honeypot said. “You shouldn’t. You’re the brains, and if your plan was to have someone sacrifice themselves, it should have been one of us.”
“How could I ask you to do that?” Orion asked, frustration rising and showing on his face. “We’re in a critical dungeon. If you die in here, you’re dead forever. I can’t be responsible for that…”
“So you’d kill yourself, leaving us with the guilt of causing you to lose your life?” Arika’s disapproving face plainly showed how she felt. “They’re right, Orion. Shadow was the best choice if we had to run a distraction play like that. Just look, he survived, didn’t he? You almost died from a single glancing blow. He endured much more than that and was in there doing it for much longer.”
She shook her head.
“You should have discussed it with us. Shadow says he’s not stupid, but clearly I am, because I had no clue you planned something so block-headed. If you saw that possibility, you should have planned with us, using the best tools we have at our disposal instead of just sacrificing yourself.”
“You’re not tools at my disposal! That’s the thing! You aren’t disposable, and I couldn’t ask you to give a life for me, I—”
“It’s not for you!” Genuine anger appeared on Shadow’s face for the first time. “It’s for us. You would have died if you went in. I didn’t. As we snuck through that last stretch, I realized what you were planning. I also noticed there were likely multiple spiders that laid the webs—I saw the way you were glancing at them all. Pausing and trying to discuss it might have alerted the monsters to our presence, so I did what I had to do.”
Shadow stared at Orion, lines on his face becoming more pronounced as his frustration grew.
“What if you had died there and Felsteg and his goons were outside, waiting to ambush us in the dark? What if, after killing all the spiders, a boss spider was waiting to attack us? Your utility and your brain are the key factor in our success, as far as our survival goes. I don’t want to be the meat-shield, but if the other option is you trying to be, I’ll gladly take a hit or two.”
Orion was lost for words at Shadow’s emotional reaction. He knew his party might be upset with his plan—which was why he didn’t mention it in the first place—but the depth of their anger was more than he expected. He didn’t consider sending in Shadow to be a distraction because it wasn’t even a remote possibility in his mind; it was tantamount to a death sentence, which just seemed… wrong. It was different deciding to do something yourself than being ordered to do so, wasn’t it?
Orion wasn’t an idiot, however, and his party’s logic was sound. It was a risk planning to send himself in, and they did have a higher chance of survival and success using Shadow as the bait. He hadn’t even considered using his Portal and Swap to get Shadow out until the hulking man had taken it upon himself to sprint in.
The possibility of causing someone else’s death was so repugnant that he’d ruled it out as an option. He wanted to avoid the pain of someone else dying, all the while pushing the pain of his death onto others.
Despite what he’d told himself, his plan for self-sacrifice wasn’t a heroic deed; it was the action of a selfish coward.
Because of his inability to place others in danger, he had limited his own ability to be an effective leader. He’d made a huge mistake; it was an unforgivable error. His party might have lost a life—if not multiple lives—had Shadow not intervened and put a stop to his self-serving plan.
“You’re right.” Orion hung his head. “I was selfish, shortsighted, and ignorant. I couldn’t stand the idea of ordering someone else into a deadly situation, but if I had been the one in there, I would have died. There’s no way I would have made it out of there…”
“It’s not ordering if we all discuss it beforehand.” Honeypot tried to diffuse the tension with a soft smile. “Arika is the bringer of war-crimes, Shadow and I are the cool rogues, doing cool-rogue-shit, and you are the brains of the operation. Brains are best used for all the thinky-thinky stuff, and telling other people what to do, not flailing around a room of spiders and sentencing themselves to death-by-a-thousand bites.”
Honeypot rubbed his chin.
“Actually, it would have been death-by-a-single-bite. You would have died to that single bite without a healing potion. You’re truly a terrible choice for being the heroic master baiter of spiders, given your piss-poor health pool.” He turned to Arika, wiggling his eyebrows. “Get it? Master baiter?”
She sighed. “Yes, Honeypot. I got it.”
Orion couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright. Your point’s taken. I’m sorry for planning to sacrifice myself, and I’ll do better in the future, despite how I still feel about putting you guys at risk.”
“Great!” Honeypot said. “Us smooth-brained folk are relying on that wrinkled brain of yours to navigate this world.” He clapped his hands together. “Now, all that aside, shall we loot the chest? All this talking while there’s epic-grade loot just waiting to be picked up is very unlike us.”
“As leader,” Orion said, “I shall allow it.”
“Oh god, it’s gone to his head already.” Arika smiled and rolled her eyes.
The party stood as one and made their way toward the chest. They exchanged their ability advances with each other as they walked across.
Orion let them know his Portal, Swap, and Dark Vision advanced to level five, level four, and level three.
Shadow’s Silent Speed and Vicious Blow advanced to level four and level five, Arika’s Invoke and Explosion advanced to level three and level five, and Honeypot’s Chastise and Stealth advanced to level four and level six.
Content with their increased abilities, they opened the chest and received their reward for clearing the dungeon.
They all received the same item.
You have received an EPIC Augment Token! Use this token to augment an existing class ability.
If only you can use this token on your woefully bland personality. Or maybe even your face? That’d be nice. Oh well.
Augment…? What does that mean…?
One-by-one, they dismissed their notifications. No one spoke.
“Alright, I’ll be the one to bloody say it. What the hell is an augment token? Has anyone heard of this shit?” Honeypot looked between them, notably unimpressed with his admission of ignorance.
Orion shrugged, as did Arika and Shadow.
“Should we discuss which abilities would be best for the party to be upgraded?” Honeypot asked.
“No.” Orion shook his head. “You guys should still have autonomy. I don’t want to micromanage every little thing. If you want help deciding, ask away, but if you know what ability you’d like to upgrade, and what you think would be best for the team, I think we should trust each other with that decision.”
“I uh, I’m glad you said that…” Shadow’s eyes cleared, and he looked at them with a sheepish expression.
A small wave of power pulsed out of Shadow, and he looked into space in awe.
Arika let out a snort of laughter. “Let me guess, your speedy quiet move?”
“It’s called Silent Speed…”
“That’s what you upgraded, right?”
“H-holy shit.” Shadow couldn’t suppress the childlike-joy that came to his face. “Holy shit!”
“What?” Honeypot’s eyes went wide. “What did you get, man?”
“Blink! I got a blink! Using Silent Speed lets me blink five meters a single time in any direction while it’s active!”
These augment tokens are no joke, Orion thought.
It had essentially given Shadow a get-out-of-jail move—or more likely, a teleport-behind-someone-and-stab-them-in-the-back move.
“My friend…” Honeypot put his hands on Shadow’s shoulders. “That’s some cool-rogue-shit if I ever dun seent it. Super sick. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, Honeypot.” An actual tear ran down Shadow’s cheek as the two men stared into each other’s eyes.
Arika shook her head but couldn’t help smiling. “Well, I’m using mine too, then. Explosion already hits super hard, so I’m going to upgrade Invoke and hope I get a crazy-good bonus.”
A similar pulse came from Arika. She stared into space, then she laughed.
“I guess I can’t get away from upgrading Explosion. Invoke now makes the ability used with it do an additional fifty-percent damage.”
“Jesus Christ, Arika.” Honeypot mimed the sign of the cross and looked at her with wide-open eyes. “You’re one misplaced Explosion away from an international sanction. Watch where you swing that girthy power of yours, alright?”
She faced Honeypot and pretended to make the motion needed for Invoke, but used her middle finger instead.
The pulse came from Honeypot. A moment passed, and he made a tsk.
“Well, that’s fuckin’ lame.”
“What did you get?” Shadow asked.
“A fifty-percent damage reduction while stealth is active! Can you believe that shit, Shadow? Very not cool-rogue-shit.”
Arika looked to Orion, then Honeypot, confusion evident. “That’s… kind of insane, Honeypot.”
“Yeah, I’ll take less damage if someone manages to bonk me while I’m creeping, sure. I was hoping for more damage, or maybe a way to fuck with people a little more. This just helps me…” He made a vague gesture with his hands. “… survive.”
“God forbid you survive.” Arika rolled her eyes. “You probably shouldn’t have used it on Stealth then, idiot.”
Orion used his token as their bickering intensified. As soon as he did, his attention was drawn towards his abilities, and he directed the token’s power at Swap.
Ability ‘Swap’ has been augmented, congratulations!
Swap
Tier 1 Level 4
Cooldown: 13 seconds
Swap any two friendly (self included) or enemy targets within 11 meters of the caster.
Augment: Inanimate objects and items may now be substituted as Swap targets.
Before he even noticed what the augment was, he saw that Swap advancing from level three to level four had reduced the cooldown by a second, and increased the range by a meter.
Maybe leveling abilities improves all aspects of them, just at different rates for every aspect…?
Then, the augment hit him.
The pulse exuded from him, and a feeling of something shackling him fell away. The ability felt more whole than before, as if this iteration was closer to its true form.
He told his friends what had changed as they started making their way out of the dungeon, but he hardly heard their responses; his mind raced with possibilities and applications.
They easily followed the path back out, the way plain as day now that the explored dungeon was filled in on their map. The invisible Honeypot used his recently upgraded ability to scout ahead and keep an eye out for trouble, just in case.
When Orion, Arika, and Shadow were almost at the exit, Honeypot appeared before them, breaking his stealth.
“Hey, Orion, so remember we had that entire conversation earlier about how important you are as the thinker?”
“Yeah?” Orion said when it was obvious the priest would not continue.
“Well, remember how Shadow said it’s important you don’t sacrifice yourself because we need you around if, say, Felsteg and his goons were waiting outside for us to exit the dungeon and we needed you to come up with a plan?”
“You cannot be serious,” Arika said, Orion not needing to turn around to see the look of incredulity on her face.
“Yeeeeaaaaaah,” Honeypot drawled. “We might need you to use that wrinkled brain of yours sooner than expected. They have some new friends with them, too.”