Tycen, Anna, and Piper were all woken up from their sleep to see Levi performing a ritual with his familiar Dameion. They had all seen and felt Levi’s rituals before, but this was much different. There was a new level of power in this ritual. They gave each other bleary-eyed looks and watched as Levi was doing something with his familiar. At first, Anna thought Levi had reached 4-star already. But that wouldn’t be possible. Levi was nowhere near the progress of that.
Typically, when rituals were done, all the materials in the rune circles would glow with an external light. That did not happen this time. In fact, it seemed like any light that went near the rune circles was consumed. Dameion got darker and darker along with the orb and the stone until they were no longer visible. For several heartbeats, Levi stood and watched patiently as Dameion was altering its form—finally, a flicker. A small light blue light appeared. The light grew to a long veil; additional maroon lights swirled around the blue light. Dameion was no longer a black hole, or what looked like one, but now a veil nebula. Fuchsia streams of cosmic energy swirled around formless; it moved like a serpent without a distinct head.
“Dameion,” Levi said. The veil nebula turned toward Levi. A thinly outlined head of a serpent could barely be seen while looking directly at Dameion. “Dude, you look sick as hell!”
Familiar Dameion Evolution
Familiar Dameion has entered the veil nebula form.
Dameion is now much stronger as it has developed a deeper connection to the Void and to its summoner. Dameion is now in the veil nebula form. This form has the power of creation and destruction. Dameion has allowed summoner to use nebula healing.
Dameion can now alter its state in this new form.
Fuchsia - Definite Force
Midnight Red/Dark Gray - Chaotic Energy
Light Blue & Maroon - Healing Energy
“Dameion, you’re a beast!!” Levi said.
“What happened?” Piper asked.
“Dameion got a new form,” Levi said. Dameion was orbiting around Levi, slithering like a cosmic serpent. Levi was smiling like a little kid. Anza and Serenity were sitting watching Dameion interact with Levi.
“How?” Anna asked.
“I met the Void, his mom or dad or creator?” Levi said. “It gave me an item along with the void orb I got.” Levi explained all that happened, how he was sleeping, and then woke up to a serpent, Dameion, and the Void. The team listened carefully as Levi retold the story. By the time he was done, there was an hour and a half left before the platform moved. Levi pulled out his cooking gear and started creating a meal. While it was cooking, Levi went over his system notifications.
Objective: Floor One - Monster Waves - Completed
Reward: 10 Gold pieces, 100 Silver Pieces, 1000 Copper Pieces
Reward: Summoners Salt 10mg
Monster Defeated: Blind Glivals x20
Loot: Venom Shard Dust 50mg
Loot: Venom Glands
Loot: Glival teeth x3
Monster Defeated: Lycan Moose x10
Loot: Summoner’s Snow 10mg
Loot: Coal Dust 10mg
Loot: Gold Dust 10mg
Monster Defeated: Forest Elemental Knight
Loot: Elemental Shield
Loot: Crushed Leaves 25mg
Loot: 10 Gold Pieces, 100 Silver Pieces, 1000 Copper Pieces
Boss Monster Defeated: Preferred Clergy
Loot: Staff of Order
Loot: 1 Platinum Piece, 10 Gold Pieces, 100 Silver Pieces, 1000 Copper Pieces
Loot: Spell book of Order Magic
Loot: Purified Summoners Salt 1kg
Progress: Levi Winters
Plus 10 to Strength
Plus 10 to Stamina
Plus 5 to Speed
Plus 10 to Vitality
Plus 15 to Wisdom
Attributes Total: 1350
Strength 135
Stamina 160
Speed 130
Vitality 235
Wisdom 640
Levi marveled at the items he had received. This was the first time that he had received summoning materials as loot. He wondered if this was a feature of the dungeon or because he now has that extra tab in his UI. Levi brought his attention back to his group. They were stoically ready for the next room, unsure of what they would find. Dameion in his new form was slowly playfully slithering around Levi. Levi thought about his three familiars who now all like being present instead of fused. Anza, the drone who was in her alpha size. Serenity the aura dragon who was in her smaller size. And now Dameion who was a veil nebula with a translucent serpent’s head. They all were amazing creatures in their own right.
Levi looked at Piper who had a concerned face. He grabbed her hand. She turned and gave him an uneasy smile. The last battle was hard, the boss had taken significant damage out of Levi who was now fully recovered. It was clear that she nor anyone for that matter was prepared for the difficulty of this dungeon. The platform approached the next room. It was a large ballroom with what looked like thousands of chest.
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The platform stopped completely, and the team looked around nervously.
“Thank the gods,” Anna said, with relief in her voice.
“What?” Piper said.
“I can see which one are traps, which one summons a monster, and which one gives us loot,” Anna said.
“Dope,” Levi said. “So, this should be an easy-ish room.”
“Yes,” Anna said. “But it will take some time. I bet we will have to unlock that gate over there that doesn’t look like it is friendly.” Anna pointed. Across the expansive room was a large gate with thick magically reinforced bars. Levi pushed his senses out and his aura interacted with another one.
“Oh, damn,” Levi said. “That’s a four-star monster.”
“We cannot beat a four-star monster,” Tycen said.
“No,” Anna said. “We definitely cannot.” A clock appeared over the comically large keyhole on the fence. It had 300 instead of 12 hands. It started clicking down. “We have 5 hours.”
“You direct,” Levi said. “The rest of us search!”
“What are we looking for?” Tycen said.
“We’ll find out when we open the first loot chest,” Levi called. All three ran off in different directions as Anna started directing where everyone should go. Levi was the first to arrive at the first loot chest, it had a symbol of fire, he used an orb of fire and the chest opened. Inside was a key with the fire symbol.
“Change of plans,” Levi called. The team all gathered around Anna. “It appears each chest will require a specific spell to open up or some type of damage. This key should open all fire chests. We should seek the ones that are loot and have symbols for what we can attack with.”
“Okay,” Piper said. “We have ice, water, fire, lightning, chaos, and onyx. Am I missing any?”
“Cosmic,” Levi said.
“Right,” Piper responded. “We should split up after we have keys for each of the elements, then go off in groups.”
“Willow & Crystal,” Levi said. “Can you go swarm mode, Anna can you direct the two where each of the loot chests are? Then you two leave your wisps at that chest, that will save us time on searching through the chest.”
“Yes. Come on, Willow and Crystal,” Anna instructed. The two wisps split into their many bodies and followed Anna as she instructed where each of them would go. The rest of the team strategized what to do next. While waiting for Anna, they decided who would be doing what and going where.
“Alright,” Anna said. “Let’s go.” The group made their way to the next loot chest. It had the symbol for water on it. Anna opened the chest. Inside was a scroll. Anna put the scroll in her inventory. The next few dozen chests did not show any keys, not helping the group with efficiency. Levi gave the key to Anna, and she and Tycen left to the other side of the ballroom to open all water and fire chests. Any other chest that they couldn’t open they would tell Piper and Levi. Each chest that was opened had some kind of loot, from scrolls to money to bad armor and the occasional decent item.
Levi and Piper were able to open fifteen more chests, but they did not gain any big-ticket items or keys. They managed to find some wands and staves; they were lower ranked items but could sell well when they needed to sell some items. Anna and Tycen were finding much of the same rewards. One hour of their five was gone. Anna was starting to panic as she still didn’t understand what exactly they were doing.
Levi, having played a lot of video games that had strange puzzles that didn’t explain the rules tried something different. He and Piper went back to Anna and Tycen and met in the middle.
“Give me the key back,” Levi said.
“Why?” Anna asked.
“Have you used it yet?” Levi asked.
“Yes, we get the same crappy loot.”
“Which one of these is a trap chest Anna?” Levi asked.
“Uhh,” Anna said looking around. She pointed at one, “that one. Why?” Levi walked up to the chest, which had a fire symbol. Levi took the key and inserted it into the chest. “Levi, what are you doing? It’s a trap??” The chest clicked open, and inside was another key. This one had a different symbol that Levi hadn’t recognized, but he knew he had seen them.
“I was thinking the keys disabled the trap chests and the other keys would be in there,” Levi said. “Judging by how the last floor went. We’re gonna have to fight.”
“But what’s our objective?” Anna asked.
“Behind that picture is a door with holes in it, each a different shape,” Levi said.
“I don’t see anything,” Tycen said. Dameion flew over to the wall and projected his aura. A large painting on the wall shifted over and there was a large metal door with six holes forming a rune.
“How did you know that was there?” Tycen asked.
Ability: Dungeon Treasurer
Passive Ability
User Interface can be upgraded. Every time the user enters a dungeon, an additional map with be shown. The dungeon map will lead to secret rooms and hidden items. If the user reaches the end chest, guaranteeing one Legendary item. This is a passive ability that will activate inside a dungeon.
“Never mind,” he said. “Anyone find any of those shapes?”
“Yes,” Piper said. She held up a diamond-shaped crystal stone, walked over to the door, and placed the stone inside the appropriate slot. The stone glowed brighter, and lines slightly emerged from its positioning to partially fill the rune.
“That’s our objective,” Levi said. “We have four hours, let’s get to it.” With the new strategy, the team was able to find two more shapes in relatively quick succession. Levi knew that they would have to fight; he was hoping it wouldn’t be for a while, but he assumed either the chest would have loot inside the monster's chest, or the monsters would drop what was needed. They opened their first one and a salamander that was on fire crawled out of the chest. Anna used her water spell, and the lizard died. Inside was another shape that they needed.
The fighting took much longer than opening the other chests. Some monsters they fought were solo and weak like the first lizard they fought. Others were not, not at all. They would fight very large and very hard-to-kill insect variants. They had tough outer shells with dangerous spikes. After another two and a half, they found the next piece they needed. There was one piece left in the door to be unlocked. They had about ninety minutes left. The team at this point had opened about 75% of all the chests in the room. They had killed all the monster chests.
Levi suggested that they open some of the trap chests normally. He reasoned that they found something by opening the normal chest; they found something from the monster's chest, so the next logical solution was that something would be in a trap chest. The party, not having any other better ideas, opened the first trap chest. There was a loud boom, and their time was shaved in half. There were 45 minutes left until the monstrous creature was released from the gate.
“We just lost half our minutes,” Anna complained. “No more trap chest!”
“I believe Levi was correct,” Tycen argued.
“Are you willing to risk another half or our timing?” Anna confronted.
“It’s better than my next thought,” Levi said.
“Do I even want to know?” Anna asked.
“It’s probably behind the monster in that final gate,” Piper said.
“Exactly,” Levi confirmed. “Can you sense a chest back there?” Anna closed her eyes, and she began pushing her senses toward the gate where the monster lay. She felt a large chest just behind the behemoth of a monster lurking.
“There is,” Anna said putting her head down.
“Anna,” Tycen said. “You stay closest to the door. Piper you are our fastest, you stay right next to the gate. I’ll be straight ahead. Levi, you got to unlock the chest, you’re the only one who can mask his aura the best out of all of us.”
“Sounds good, bro,” Levi said. “We should get the rest of the loot chests and then get into position with 5 minutes left.” The team followed Levi and Tycen’s direction and got the rest of the loot. Levi, in one of the final boxes, finally got himself an item worth keeping: a Chaotic Link Staff. He would have to read the description once they got out of the dungeon floor.
Levi masked his aura with a ritual and his familiars. Levi’s teammates could no longer sense him besides seeing him; even then, that was a tricky thing to do. One of Dameion’s new effects is that he could allow the same visual effect he had on people, where it makes it feel like their eyesight is failing. This made seeing him physically but not magically made things exceptionally unnerving.
The clock had a 60-second countdown. Each team member was in position ready for the four-star monster that was going to be their opponent to run. As the time ticked down, Levi closed his eyes. He could feel his heart attempting to break out of his chest with thunderous beats. With another deep breath, the clock’s time ran out, and there was a still, eerie moment of silence before the gears on the lock began to turn. Steps that shook the entire room slowly walked out from behind the freshly opened gate.
There out walked a creature that stood on all four legs. The monster walked like a gorilla despite having all legs and no front arms or hands. It was red with leathery skin and beady black eyes. It was about fifteen feet tall, three feet wide, and five feet long. This was a massive creature. Levi sneaked into the area behind the gate to find the final chest. He unlocked the chest with all the keys he had gathered, and the chest opened. The final stone piece was found.
“Let’s go!” Levi shouted as he grabbed the stone and ran towards the door. The big monster turned at the noise coming from behind its cave. The monster was not fast, it was a big lumbering creature that was destroying every chest in its pathway. It was making a B-line right for Levi, with his aura still masked. Vapor created a massive cloud of smoke. Levi reached the door and placed the final stone in place. The rune was now completely lit. There were more clicking sounds, that were slowly clicking, to the point Levi thought they were fooled, and he was wrong. The giant monster turned and waved its feet in the air; giant arrows began falling from the heavens.
Piper was the last one to get to and through the door, as she had the furthest to travel. She was unable to dodge every arrow and had taken quite a few to her body. Littered with arrows and bloodstained, Piper pushed on. Entering into the door, Tycen chanted a healing spell and Levi pulled the arrows out. Through the door was an expansive downward staircase that led the team to their next floor. Rather than walking all of them down, Levi jumped off the edge and began freefalling.
Levi did a superhero landing once he reached the bottom. Levi had Vapor use her clouds to soften the fall, not to do too much damage. He told her to do the same for the others in case they decided to jump. Tycen jumped, but he had wings and gently landed next to Levi. The girls found their own form of transportation down to the bottom. There was another door with the number three on it. They walked in, and it was another rest room. Once they all piled in, the time on the wall began. Once again, they had four hours to rest before the next challenge.
Progress Made: Brawler’s Dungeon
Room 2 - Completed
Reward: Void Cloak
Reward: Summoner’s Armor