Thanks to Muribelle, the raid party moves out of the berserk golem’s path and gets even closer to the hole that devoured half the castle. The golem doesn’t seem interested in us and keeps advancing in a straight path, leaving destruction and hundreds of monster corpses in its wake.
I’m sure it’s because the golem has gone berserk and doesn’t care. As long as there’s something to smash, it doesn’t matter what it is. And since the closest target is the monsters, it ignores us and focuses on the easiest prey.
Thank god… I can only imagine the mayhem it’d have caused if it were to smash right through the middle of the raid party.
The raid continues pushing forward, each step being harder than the latter. With me and Muribelle running out of MP, there’s nothing much we can do on the frontlines, so we retreat to the middle of the formation to recover. Calaban’s party stays back because they’re still doing fine.
It’s the first time we’ve separated since we met. It doesn’t matter. We’ll see each other for as long as we stay alive.
The last stretch is the most dangerous because there are no other buildings near the castle, and monsters surround us in all directions. Even with the players rotating every few minutes, there are inevitable casualties, and by the time we reach the edge of the hole, about a quarter of the players have died.
We received reinforcements right before leaving the buildings, and Ferox and the other guides joined us, but even with those extra numbers, the current player count is lower than when we joined.
“This is one big hole. Mooohahaha!”
“It is…” I nod, “... and it looks different from what I imagined.”
“Right? It explains how the monsters were getting out. I thought they were climbing, but I was wrong. Mooohahaha!”
What looked like a sharp cliff next to an abyss is, in fact, a pronounced slope. And at the bottom, I can see… nothing, I can’t see the bottom. The reason I can’t see and also why it deceived us is the same: the hole is filled with dark smoke. It’s the same particles released by the monsters upon dying, as well as the same as those that are continuously being sucked inside from all around the labyrinth.
The endless stream of monsters emerges from within the dark fog. We can see their shadows grow clearer as they ascend the slope, until they’re fully visible.
What we can’t see, however, is how they spawn. Not yet, at least. Though I have a vague idea. To avoid problems, it would make sense if they were created into any free space inside the fog. Since the visibility is so bad, no player can see them suddenly pop out of nowhere.
“...do we have to go inside?” Balmy reluctantly asks, fully aware that it’s this or being left behind by the raid and swarmed by monsters. “Ugh…”
“What do you think will happen if I throw a Meteor inside?”
That we will obtain a lot of points…? My eyes start shining in anticipation. “Do you have enough MP?”
“No…” Muribelle shakes her head.
What a shame. “...then there’s no use thinking about it, is there?” Yeah, stop giving me false expectations.
A commotion breaks up near the frontlines. The players aren’t too keen on diving into the dark fog.
“Why did you stop!? Keep moving! Are you scared of a little darkness? Such wimps…!” The leader of the raid, the dwarf who everyone calls ‘Boss’, points his cannon-like gun to one of the players standing at the front and pulls the trigger. The bullet explodes on his back and throws him inside the fog. “Hah! My daughter has more balls than you lot. Jump in before I kick your butts!”
The other players, now more scared of the dwarf than the darkness, valiantly step forward; and we soon follow.
As we step inside, the thick fog caresses our skin. Soon, my vision is reduced to almost nothing. The only thing I can see is Moo’s giant figure right in front of me and Muribelle, who has a slight glow because she’s using a Fire Slime, and who’s next to me.
The outside sounds get muffled too. There’s a short period of uneasy silence.
Everything is dark. Complete silence. The sticky fog is asphyxiating. I’m sure that going down to hell must be similar to this.
“S-stay close to me, Koala. I-I-I’ll protect you!” Balmy says while shaking. “D-don’t go away. There’s no need to be scared of the dark.”
She’s currently perched on top of my head and hugging my fur as if she didn’t want to be separated from me ever again. Who did you say was scared again? I roll my eyes at her hypocrisy but decide to let it go. One of us has to be the adult, right? If we both start quarreling like children, there will be no end.
“Aaaaah! Save me!” The silence is interrupted by the shout of a player.
The surroundings grow nosier as more and more shouts fill the previous silence. The players don’t know what to do, and more and more screams join the previous.
I hear the sound of people running, of players leaving the formation. Someone bumps into me and makes me lose sight of my teammates. I stop, and Balmy covers her ears. She starts crying.
“Hate this… I don’t want to be here…”
Thank god this is a game and there are no body fluids. It’d be horrible if my fur got covered in snot and tears in real life… ah, but I don’t have fur in real life, so I’m safe. No, but I do have hair… Stop! I don’t even want to imagine it!
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I don’t know where’s the front. I don’t know where we’re supposed to go. If I walk in the wrong direction, the next one to scream could be me.
But then, in the middle of the chaos, the Boss’ powerful voice reaches us. It’s as if the fog’s muffling was but a lie.
“Fuck! Are you retarded? Don’t split off the group! Follow my voice! No one’s allowed to die until I say so, understood!?”
Like a beacon, we find where to go. Things finally calm down, and the players recover their courage. I don’t know why, but the sound of his swearing and rough speech is kind of comforting. I walk towards the direction I heard the grumbling dwarf and soon find Muribelle and Moo.
The disturbing experience continues for one minute, when I hear relieved sighs coming from the front. Five steps later, we emerge from the fog and enter a clear space.
As soon as she realizes we’re out, Balmy pats my head to get my attention. “Please, don’t tell anyone.” She asks.
You know they’ll see it if they watch the video DMA records of this Mystery Event, right? Well, who cares?
“...sure.” I nod. “But I can make fun of you for it, right?”
“Nooooo!”
Shit, my eardrums. I should just have said ‘yes’. Well, at least she left my head and went to pester Moo. It’s something.
I look around while rubbing my ears at the sudden scream – although I kind of expected it after provoking Balmy. A few stragglers are still jumping out of the fog, but the number has dwindled. The raid leader, the grumbling dwarf, is organizing the rest.
About half. Of the hundred players, less than fifty remain.
“Wow, talk about a massacre…” I shake my head. “Where’s Calaban…?”
It doesn’t take long to find him, as he’s one of the few players staying close to the fog, the others not wanting to get within ten meters of it. Like me, Calaban is looking around, searching for someone. The single player near him is Thunder Thighs.
I walk next to them. “Where are the others?”
“I… I don’t know.” Calaban shakes his head. “We were in the first line when we went into the fog. Somewhere in the middle, we heard Warpoke’s shout, and Navigator suddenly left us to find him… Why did he leave?”
Given that their party was in the most dangerous spot, that we lost two out of a total of eight members isn’t so bad. We’ve lost about half the total number of players, after all.
“Yeah, it was a stupid move…” Thunder Thighs shakes her head but suddenly stops and points forward. “Ah! Look there!”
Calaban and I turn our heads simultaneously, just in time to see a familiar orc emerge from the dark fog. As soon as he sees us, he starts walking in our direction.
Before he can reach us, Calaban asks him. “Did you find Warp–”
“No.” Navigator shakes his head. “There are worse things than the monsters emerging from the sinkhole inside the fog. I couldn’t save him…”
Calaban drops his head. “I understand… What did you find? What took him?”
“I couldn’t see it properly.”
“...”
A gloomy mood takes over Calaban’s team.
“Hey, hey. It isn’t so bad, right? You were in the most dangerous position but only lost one member.” I try to cheer them up, patting their shoulders. “Look at the rest of the teams, there are a few with only one player remaining.”
“...You’re right.”
The mood improves slightly and we decide to get closer to the rest of the raid party. The dwarf is currently admonishing the players while at the same time trying to cheer them up. In his particular way, I mean.
“Are you made of gelatin!? Stop shaking! We didn’t come so far to back away now, right? Are you warriors or chicken? Stand like warriors, fight like warriors!”
I take this chance to take a look at our surroundings. We’re in what looks like some kind of manufacturing facility. It reminds me of the golem forge we saw earlier, but it’s hard to see because most of it is dilapidated. There are fragments of rock and parts of the fallen castle everywhere.
The reason there are no black particles in here is because they’re constantly getting sucked into the dark crystals growing everywhere. They create a safe perimeter. From the angle they’re placed, I believe they create a dome. I say ‘believe’ because I can’t see very far, there’s not much light in here.
From above, I can see a huge amount of particles swirling, getting sucked into something placed near the center of the dome.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the final boss’ room…”
As if in response to me, all the black crystals start emitting purple light, and the dome, at least a hundred meters in diameter, becomes fully visible.
What immediately grabs my attention is a crystal the size of a bus, situated right in the middle of the dome. Like the other crystals, it’s shining in a purple light.
But then, my eyes inevitably gravitate towards the largest humanoid thing I’ve seen in my entire life: a golem with some of those crystals embedded in its body.
Remember when I said how big the roaming golem was, the one we found after visiting the golem forge? And how lucky we were to avoid the berserker golem when pushing forward with the raid because it could have spelled our doom?
Well, this golem… this golem is twice that size.
And finally, less noticeable because of their small size compared to the other two, there are a few dwarfs with heavily adorned armor and another dwarf wearing a crown. All of them have completely black skin and are standing next to the giant golem.
“The dwarf king and the royal guard, probably…?”
Similar to what happened to the crystals creating the dome, the crystals on the golem start shining. The light condenses into several purple beams, which are shot in our direction.
One of them is aimed directly at my head!
“The fuck…!?” I quickly cover my head with my right hand. The light hits me, and… nothing happens? “Wait… what’s this?”
I realize that the tips of the fingers from the hand I used to protect my head are turning black. It’s the same as what I’ve seen countless times with the players who die in the dungeon.
I’m turning into a monster!?
“Ah, my orb!” Shouts Balmy when the black orb she has been holding until now suddenly flies out of her hands toward the central crystal and gets absorbed into it. The same happens to the players holding similar orbs.
‘That’s the least of our worries…’ I think, looking alternatively between my hand and the crystal-infused golem that starts walking in our direction.
*Thump, thump!*
The whole world shakes under its steps.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
DMA released more content during the game’s life. New factions, new monsters, new skills… They had extra care with the latter since they knew they could easily break the game’s balance. A single skill could interact with others to create a combination that was too powerful.
This is why they usually tested the skills in special events before releasing them for the players, though they sometimes also created skills for the events just to see how they would perform, without any intention of adding them to the game.