3. Return to Gemos Cavern
I zoned into the nexus point near the Adventurer’s Guild, where I had once met Severus and been trolled pretty hard. I wondered what had happened to the mage, who had been the first Traveler in the world to bear the [Mark of Cane] after he killed me.
I no longer believe that Thedum had actually saved me from death. Rather, he had simply shielded me from realizing that I had been murdered. Or, as the travelers might put it, PKed, since I couldn’t really die in Lagrea. It was a kind lie to give a child, but I wasn’t that idiot kid anymore.
Or so I told myself.
Without much fanfare, I walked up to the Looking For Group desk and tapped it with my guild token, which was iron, despite my low level. That was an inconsistency I was worried I might have to explain. Fortunately I had an excuse ready, which wasn’t even far from the truth. I scanned the list of active parties, but nobody was looking to do the dungeon I had in mind currently. So I put myself into the list.
You have joined the Looking for Group Queue
Name
Hagi
Guild
None
Class
Mage
Rank
Iron
Level
15
Role
DPS/Support
Goal
Gemos Caverns.
The expected wait time, according to the system, was thirty minutes, so I figured I had enough time to run to the nearby auction and pick up some gear. Unlike [Warrior], I could use my [Blade of Eclipse], a black rapier, although the sharp of the blade was pure white. It wasn’t that uncommon for [Mages] to use swords instead of staves or wands to boost their magic, and I don’t think my sword was iconic enough to be recognized on its own merit yet. However, the stats were completely wrong to be used as a warrior. It had dexterity, which was good, but also Intelligence and Spell Damage, which would cause people to wonder why I had such an expensive item on a class which wouldn’t fully benefit from it.
My sword only gave me eight intelligence and eight spellpower to work with. I needed much more if I was going to be useful to my party. Fortunately there was a bit of gear available once I visited the auction master that suited my purpose. I promptly equipped my new [Woolen Robes of the Novice Mage], [Amulet of Lesser insight] – an item which I had possessed before but had discarded – [Enchanted Slippers], [Broach of Minor Devastation], and [Pointy Hat #43]. They gave me a sum total of 14 Intelligence, 5 Wisdom, and 16 spell damage.
I pulled up my Status, curious to see the totals now that I was somewhat properly equipped.
Name
Hail Jeoran
Level
15
Guild
None
Strength
16
Health
3198/3198
Dexterity
25
Mana
17588/17588
Vitality
27
Experience
0/4500
Endurance
17
Age
15
Intelligence
47
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Wisdom
34
Class
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Mage
Charisma
53
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Armor
6
Veteran of Mooncrest Manor
Spell damage
49
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Mana Regen
394/sec
I had slightly more Spell Damage than I’d had at this point as a [Spellsword], but the coefficients for my health and mana had changed. My mana regeneration was significantly higher as well, but that made sense since I’d be doing nothing but casting spells and meditating.
There was another difference. Casting spells was more complicated, as I had many more of them in my spellbook. Whereas before my fire elemental spell had been one spell that I could [Empower] or [Swiftcast], it was now five spells, and I lacked the ability to amplify or shorten them. I was memorizing the cantrips and motions I needed for each of the five when the LFG queue pinged in the corner of my vision.
I nudged it mentally, and it expanded into a picture of a young man with spiky white hair. “Hey. Our archer sucks, so we kicked him. Want an invite?”
“Good archers are hard to find,” I lamented. Although I disagreed with the practice of kicking people for not performing up to some impossible standard. But I didn’t know the whole story. It might be that the Archer was continuing to mess up on simple mechanics and had been slowing the party down. “Have you started already?”
“We’re halfway to the first boss, yeah. We’re doubling back to summon. You want in or not?”
“Yeah, I’ll come.”
Torzen has invited you to join a party
Accept?
Yes
No
I quickly accepted, and a few moments later I received a similar prompt asking me to accept a summons to Gemos Cavern. I took it, and after the brief kaleidoscope of fast travel, I arrived in a nostalgic place.
I was surrounded by the group I was joining, and under their scrutiny. So I scrutinized them right back. Torzen was a level eleven warrior and, judging by the sword and shield he had equipped, he was our tank. Kaiser was a level twelve Rogue, Ralts a level ten Druid, and Warren, a level thirteen Urchin.
It was not the best party composition, considering that Urchin is the child version of Rogue, which was supposedly easier to play. It also immediately identified him as a minor.
“Warren’s my little brother, in case you’re wondering,” Torzen informed me. “Be nice to him or I’ll kick you too. If you’re wondering why he’s higher level than everyone else, it’s because we wiped on the last boss and the lucky little twerp only lost ten percent of his experience bar instead of an entire level.”
“So you’ve done this place before?” I asked.
“Yeah. Yesterday. Yesterday yesterday I mean. In real time,” Torzen explained. “But it was late, so we had to call it a night after the wipe. Now we’re going to pay that jerk back for wiping us and steal his loot. Have you done it before? Why does the LFM menu say that you’re iron ranked when you’re only level fifteen? And why do you have an effing sword when you’re a mage.”
“I haven’t done Gemos Caverns since it was reformed,” I said, starting at the beginning of his questions. “I lost a lot of levels because I thought it was a good idea to try to exploit the [Through the Valley of the Shadow] buff, but [Reaper’s Embrace] knocked my ass down to level one. Had to start completely over. But I managed to get my hands on a growth item, which is the sword, and--”
“Don’t swear around the kids,” Kaiser scolded.
“Whatever, I don’t care,” Warren said.
“I do,” Kaiser said. “Sorry. Friend of the family. Their parents wanted me to keep an eye on them in game. Make sure they’re not picking up any bad habits, like swearing.”
“Oh. Sorry,” I said. “So you all know each other, um, IRL?”
“I’m pugging, just like you,” Ralts said. “But I was here yesterday for the wipe. I guess Kaiser marked me as a contact, because as soon as I logged back in he sent me an invite to try again. Although I don’t see how it’s going to get any easier the second time now that we’ve lost a level.”
“We’ll gain it back on trash, and maybe a second or third level if we clear everything,” Kaiser explained. “Yesterday we skipped most of the branches and sub-bosses because they don’t usually drop anything.”
“And we also had a crappy [Archer] instead of a badass [Mage],” Torzen said. “You better not suck and make me a liar after I said that, Hagi, or I’ll totally--”
“Language!” Kaiser said, more seriously this time.
Torzen spat, and nodded towards the entrance. “Let’s go then.” He led the way, though Kaiser held me back for a second.
“Torzen’s a nice kid in real life, but the anonymity on the internet makes him think he can act like a jerk,” he warned me. “Try not to let it get to you, and I’ll try to keep him in line.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” I said, and we progressed through the swirling motes of the dungeon entrance.
For a moment, I was alone. I looked around at the familiar cavern, lit by luminous crystals and bioluminescent moss. At first I thought that the Gemos Golems were back, but then I noticed that the crystals were part of the walls instead of protruding out of them on large boulders.
Welcome, Dungeon Master, To Gemos Caverns.
Do you wish to challenge the unique instance?
Yes
No
I considered for a moment. The truth was that I did, as I was hoping to use the opportunity to gather more Dungeon Cores, but I knew that doing so would give away my identity to my current party. Aside from that, they had already wiped on the final boss of this instance once, and I was uncertain that they could handle the added difficulty that challenging a dungeon core requires.
“I wish to declare my intent,” I said, and the menu went away. “I come for two reasons. One is to gather any Dungeon Daughter Core that I might acquire by challenging this dungeon. The second is to speak with Gyudue of the Darkest Night. I do not wish to evolve, reclaim, or destroy this dungeon. But I do wish to challenge it.”
For a moment nothing happened, then the other members of my party appeared as they were transferred from whatever instance of the caverns they’d been in into mine.
“Took you long enough,” Torzen said, and he marched off into the room.
Only for a Cave Scorpion the size of a goblin to drop from the ceiling just behind him as he passed, it’s tail lashing out and catching him in the back.
“Ah crud, they respawned already? We were outside for two minutes!” he exclaimed.
More scorpions began dropping, and he didn’t have much time to complain after that. I polymorphed one of them, then began casting my Fire Volley spell. It was effectively the same as my [Swiftcast Fireball] had been before. In fact, I had learned [Swiftcast] when a Traveler had been trying to teach me this spell, which I suppose is one of the ways in which the system had modified for me.
Fireball took three seconds to cast and did about the same amount of damage as a fire volley spell, but with my current mana regen, I could cast it for about two and a half minutes if that was all I was doing. Fire Volley would, on the other hand, run me dry in about twenty-five casts, which, at one second per cast, was the fastest way to burn through my mana. I could cast the empowered version of the spell, Flare Sphere, for significantly longer while doing about the same DPS as Fire Volley. I would have to stand still while casting the full three second cast, however. And the high mana cost of that spell ran me dry in a minute of casting.
“Don’t burn through your Mana in the opening room,” Kaiser advised me. “If they’ve really respawned, then there’s about to be a swarm of the nasty little critters. They all die in two or three hits, but they’re endless.”
Pausing, I observed for a moment as, indeed, the swarm built up. The rest of the group were busy killing the scorpions one by one, and there were already almost twenty of them. Every one that my allies put down was replaced by another falling from the ceiling or skittering from the walls.
There was another spell I’d learned as a mage. I hadn’t been able to cast an equivalent version of it as a [Child] due to lack of mana, so it hadn’t entered my spellbook before. I called out “There’s a faster way to do this,” and I began to cast [Inferno].
“What the crap?” Torzen asked as I went through the five second cantrip and hand signs required.
A wall of fire exploded from my hand, forming a circle in the middle of the room and catching the majority of the scorpions inside. That focused their attention on me immediately, but they didn’t have very much health, and as I channeled the spell they fell by the dozen. I channeled it for as long as I could after the ignition, but I burned through my entire mana pool in five seconds. Each second they took damage equivalent to a fireball, effectively clearing the room.
“What the hell was that?” Torzen exclaimed, turning on me. “Did you just attack us you prick?”
“Sorry. Is that your first time tanking inside AOE?” I asked. “We’re in the same party, so--”
“Seriously, what hell man?” Torzen yelled. “You can’t just do that without--”
“Look at your Health bar,” I told him. “You’re fine. It doesn’t affect party members.”
“Not now, Torzen, we have stragglers to pick up, and Hagi needs to regen his mana after that, I’m betting,” Kaiser said. “Also, watch your language.”
Indeed I did need mana, having drained it all the way. I put two fingers to my head and activated the meditation skill, keeping half an eye open to make sure that none of the surviving scorpions came after me.