14. Sometimes, Wipes Happen.
I had one day left before Marquise Peori’s dance, which I had no option but to attend. I was looking forward to it more now that I knew that [Lord] gained experience from doing lordly things, but I wasn’t going for personal enjoyment or amusement. I was going to try to convince other Natives to join the cause of putting my little brother, barely a few weeks old, on the throne.
However, I felt that the most effective way to prepare for that was to continue gaining free experience on combat classes and using that to push [Lord] even higher. I would have most of tomorrow, until the afternoon at least, to select the clothes that I would wear, so I wasn’t worried about the stain from baby vomit on the suit I had worn previously. Instead, I was worried about finding a new dungeon to bust with my current group.
They were all at least level twenty after the bonus experience was applied, and I was level twenty-five, so we decided to do Runeheld Ruins next, a level 20-25 dungeon which was a miles south of the gnoll lair we had farmed together last week. I Fast Traveled to the nearest Nexus Point and rode there on Shadow as quickly as I could, although I was only following a way-marker that the others had put on my map. They were planning on doing the same if I got lost, but they had to go and buy a mount before they could make the journey in a reasonable time frame.
The ruins were, fortunately, rather hard to miss, although I nearly managed it anyway. I came across the wall on its northeastern border and had to circle around to the south to find the Summoning Stone, which doubled as a Nexus Point. With it, I was able to summon the other four party members in no time.
Unlike Tilarack’s Tower, which was a very short dungeon comparatively, we expected Runeheld to keep us busy for the rest of the day, at which point the others would either need to log out to take care of their bodies, or go to sleep entirely. That still gave us almost twelve hours to find the Dungeon Core and modify it.
I wouldn’t destroy it, that would draw too much attention and potentially cause too much friction between Kordock and its neighbors, and possibly Yuikon as well. As it was, Kordock would be looking for a team of dungeon busters operating within its borders and it was likely that my name would be high on the top of that list. I had advised the others of the risk, but they had seemed okay with it.
We zoned in, and I was once more asked if I wished to proceed with the Unique Instance. I selected yes, and declared my intent.
“I am here to farm Dungeon Cores and Evolve this dungeon so that it is more difficult to complete,” I stated openly. My reasoning was very simple, if everyone knew that the low level Kordock dungeons were difficult, they might avoid starting in that nation. Which would hopefully draw more Travelers to Yuikon and its allies. Or at the very least it might throw off the guides that the Travelers who leveled in Kordock relied on, which would hopefully amount to the same thing.
The others were brought into the instance with me, and we began.
The Runeheld Guardians were stone constructs. They appeared to be rubble until you got close to them, at which point they activated, their runes lighting up, and they swarmed out of the ground to take their battle forms, which varied from humanoid to quadruped to a swarm of stones. They were strong individually, and immune to crowd control effects, but that was irrelevant since we rarely faced more than two at a time.
We traveled as fast as Wren’s mana regeneration allowed, only pausing occasionally for her to get topped off. Once I got going, I was able to operate almost entirely on Anger, which generated quickly from the powerful blows I was tanking from the constructs. Not every strike I made was a [Furious Blow], however. Most were simply attacks without any skill applied to them at all. These still did damage, and, when my skill in maces leveled from low to moderate, they dealt significantly more than before.
We were making good time, but the dungeon was simply enormous. It took four hours to reach the first boss. Its name was “Ikal, the eternal defender,” and it was a larger version of the humanoid constructs that we had already been facing. It wielded an enormous stone blade, which it swung as easily as I might use a paring knife.
The pull went fine. The opening of the fight went fine. Everything went fine until “Rojal, the swarmer” arrived at eighty percent health and attacked Wren. I [Charged] to the rescue, but I wasn’t able to pull aggro off of her in time. She panicked and forgot to heal herself. She died, bursting into blue mist.
I put up a last stand against the two bosses, certain that I was about to die. I was right, and a few moments later I was once more in the lobby, staring at my menus. The rest of them didn’t last much longer after that. At least, I assume not.
“Sorry, everyone. I wasn’t kidding when I said that core dungeons throw surprises like that at you,” I said into party chat. The party hadn’t dissolved quite yet.
“It’s my fault,” Wren said. “If I had healed myself instead of running you would have been able to get it off of me.”
“Whatever. I’m going to go to bed,” Azarath said. “Try again tomorrow?”
“I’m not certain what level I’ll be by then,” I informed everyone. I viewed my contact list, which was extensive at this point, and added a second star next to their names. “I’ll keep an eye on you guys, and if I’m ever looking for a party member around your levels I’ll give you a shout.”
“We still came out ahead,” Lyle said. “Even with the death penalty. That was a lot of gold that we got for the dungeon bonus. I’m going to use it to upgrade all of my armor, and even then I’ll have tons left over.”
“Yeah, gold has never been a problem for me,” I admitted. “Goodbye everyone. Sorry about the wipe, it was fun partying with all of you.”
The party dissolved a moment later, and I pulled up my class sheet. I had been able to get warrior to level 26, but with the death penalty I was back to level 25. I hoped for half a moment that I would be able to raise everything to level 26 because it was the highest level I’d been since my setback, but unfortunately not.
There was another potential exploit I was about to test out. I switched my active class to mage, and tried to log in.
You have died recently. You are on a 24 hour (3.4hr RT) cooldown
Time Remaining: 23:48
I checked the time and realized I had a problem. It wasn’t just that my hope that I would be able to trick the system and log in as a mage immediately after dying as a warrior didn’t work. It was that once my death timer ran out, I only had forty minutes until the Marquise Peori’s Dance. All of the things I had planned to do tomorrow, I wouldn’t have time to do them.
I panicked for a moment, then calmed down. This was what friends were for, after all. I opened the messenger system to talk with my friends, opening another group chat with everyone I had made canon.
Hail
Hey everyone, um, I’m kind of in a bind. I’m sorry to ask, but I need some help.
Tarisha
Of course, Lord Hail. What do you need?
Laurant
Yeah, what’s up?
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Phil
BTW, spy hunting is really fun. We’ve been at it all day since yesterday/last week/whatever
Hail
I sort of died again. In a group. It was a full wipe because the healer died on the boss. I’m not sure if it was their fault or mine, since you know how the dungeons throw surprises at me.
Tarisha
You’ve been busting dungeons?
Hail
Only two so far. I want to see if I can pug them. Is that a problem?
Tarisha
It’s not that I have a problem with it, it’s that I can think of problems that it can cause you, Lord Hail. Ruining your assumed identity is on the top of the list, but there is also the response of the locals. Haven’t you been in Kordock recently?
Hail
They won’t be able to prove it was me, so I’m fine. Probably. Anyway, I haven’t been destroying them, only evolving them, so I don’t think it’s a problem at all.
Tarisha
I hope not.
Cedric
I’ll run some counter-intel down there.
Hail
Oh, right. I forgot you were in this group now, Cedrick.
Cedric
Well, I haven’t been on the list for very long, but I’ll try to make myself useful. I’m guessing this has something to do with the gala that is coming up tomorrow, yes?
Hail
I was hoping to get Lord to level 30 and buy some new clothes and things to wear to it to raise my Charisma. I only managed to get it to level 25, and I won’t be able to go shopping tomorrow. I’ll barely have time to get ready at all, there’s only 40 minutes between the time when I can log in and when the dance starts
Larissa
So, basically, it’s like Cinderella, then? We need to get you all dressed up for the ball
Hail
I don’t know what Cinderella is, but yeah. Um, I’ll try to find out what items I need you guys to buy me from the auction network.
Thena
What about accessories? At level 25, you can start getting decent craftable gear. If you’re stacking Charisma that might be one way to get some. We’ll have to custom order the items, though, because I don’t think they’ll be on the market.
Hail
As long as they have high charisma you can buy me whatever you think I’ll want. I’ll pay you back. Seriously, I’ll set a 20,000 gold limit on that statement and let you guys go nuts.
Daemon
I don’t think it will cost that much to outfit you, Hail. But leave it to us. How are you going to occupy yourself in the mean time?
Hail
I guess I’ll review what I know about the attendees, or something.
Larissa
We’re going shopping for Hail. This is going to be fun!