Chapter 20: The Cranberries
The torch light flickered off of the cave walls. The group passed through the cave in a single file, picking their way through the even terrain. Dr. Funk decided to follow them into the cave with only a little prompting.
Soon they left the humidity from the waterfall behind. The roaring sounds of water crashing onto rock were replaced with the echoing footsteps of their descent into the dark. The cave angled slightly downward, and Riley felt the walls pressing in on him on either side. He wasn’t usually claustrophobic but after the system message he had been prepared to find enemies around every corner. The complete lack of them so far had him on edge.
As the tank it either fell to him or the rogue to lead the group into the deep dark places of the world. The group decided that the likelihood of traps was lower than their chances of running into a hostile monster. Plus, Riley knew the basics of how to check for traps. They didn’t come across anything but that only added to Riley’s tension.
His Rock Armor was a big comfort in this moment. He had recovered some of his mana from his earlier test of the ability, so he still had two more casts of the ability if he needed them later. As he summoned his Rock Armor Riley tried to flood the skill with extra mana hoping to make his armor denser. He was partially successful. He did use more mana when casting the spell. Most of it was lost to environment, but he thought that he felt some of it go into the ability as well. It was a promising start to his next modification.
The tunnel they were in came to an abrupt end. Something had broken through a natural wall revealing a mine shaft behind it. Half rotting wooden support beams lined the tunnel every 10 feet and green torches left an eerie flickering light along the walls. Abandoned mining equipment was left strewn about the shaft. Pickaxes, helmets, even a small metal cage hanging off of a hook partway up the wall. The lack of bones spelled good news for the previous occupant’s fate.
Riley extinguished his torch deciding to save it for later. The green light was dim but enough to see by. More concerning was the fog which pressed in on them from further down the shaft. It blocked them from seeing what was ahead. As Riley stepped into the shaft the echoing steps of his party grew muffled, almost entirely lost to the fog.
With both dampened sight and sounds the group prepared for an ambush. Scott traded his bow for Nermit’s spare spear leaving Nermit his own mace. Casey kept her short sword dagger combo that had worked so well against the Porcs. Heather wielded a dagger in her off-hand but kept one hand free to use her spells on. She had an insight during the last fight and was hoping to upgrade her magic bolt soon.
The party inched their way forwards ready for an attack at any moment. The sound of shuffling feet ahead cause the group to slow. The creature let out a distinctive moan and the entire party shared a knowing look. Through the fog shambled a lone figure. Their rotting skin was sloughing off their body exposing bones in places. One leg was broken and being dragged behind the once human in miner’s garb. Upon looking at them the monster bared its teeth and started shuffling forwards.
Zombie Miner (Elite) - Level 30
Riley called out a warning regarding the Elite tag. It was something the group had theorized might be present in this system. In video games that tag always meant that you had encountered an enemy stronger than its level indicated.
The Zombie was alone for the moment and Riley approached with his shield leading the way. The zombie held a pickaxe in one hand, and it showed a level of intelligence as it hooked the edge over Riley’s shield and tried pull Riley off balance. Riley relaxed his arm and dislodged the pick before he could stumble. He thrust his sword through the Zombie’s gut, or at least he tried to. The sword got stopped barely an inch into the Zombie. It was enough for Riley’s Lingering Leech skill to activate, the power grabbing onto something form the Zombie and pooling the energy in his core for later use.
Riley recovered from his surprise, parrying another attack from the Zombie when the rest of his party entered the fight. Nermit’s mace hit the Zombie’s good leg, causing it to stumble while Casey went for the obvious weak spot, the Zombie’s head, to get an instant kill. Her sword didn’t fare any better against the Zombie’s tough skin and she had to Shadow Step away to avoid the Zombie’s retaliatory. Scott’s spear thrust around Riley catching the Zombie’s pickaxe arm but not doing much to actually stop the creature.
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The Zombie swung its arms wildly at the assault catching Riley on the shield and sending him reeling back due to its strength. The Zombie’s swings were frantic and wild as it ignored the others in favor of pursuing Riley relentlessly. Riley’s superior skill kept him from getting overwhelmed by the Zombie, but he could only just barely keep up. His Rock Armor cracked as it was struck dead on by one of the Zombie’s attacks, both his sword and shield out of position to catch the blow.
Immediately Lingering Leech flooded Riley’s arm repairing the damage caused. His armor was useless where it had been struck, but it had done its job.
The Zombie fell to the ground. Nermit’s mace finally managing to snap the bone in its good leg. Riley jumped on the back of the creature, using the weight of his Rock Armor to keep the monster’s arms pinned behind its back. Casey grabbed the pickaxe the creature had dropped when it fell and with an overhand swing pierced its head. The Zombie’s struggles beneath Riley ceased.
Riley let out a sigh of relief. Even with his Rock Armor and the zombie’s lack of leverage it still had almost overpowered him and freed its arms. Its strength was no joke.
The group gathered for a quick debrief of the fight. Contrary to a zombie’s typical weakness piercing weapons were ineffective. The party just didn’t have enough strength to get through the zombie’s tough skin. They switched their weapons for more of the abandoned pickaxes in the area. Riley kept his sword so he could still parry attacks. He wouldn’t be doing much damage, but he could still trigger his Lingering Leech more easily with the faster sword and his party would be the ones to finish off the zombies.
Scott was the one to pull the Zombie’s ability, getting a Deadened Pain passive ability that allowed one to ignore any injuries. It was a good ability for melee fighters as real life didn’t have any pain sensitivity settings Riley could lower. But it wasn’t something he would ever waste one of his precious ability slots on.
The group continued forward down the shaft. It opened up into a much wider mine shaft that had a track for mine carts on it. They had been in a side tunnel and could see another tunnel directly across from theirs. After a brief discussion the group decided to explore the other side tunnel before the main one. They found another zombie at the end of it and the group worked together to kill the zombie.
The fight went much smoother the second time. Their new weapons focusing the power of the attacks to a single point allowing them to pierce the skin of the zombie more easily. Heather’s Mana Bolt wasn’t very effective, but she still weaved in the spell periodically with her attacks. Dr. Funk even joined the fight, darting in with a meow. Golden energy covered Dr. Funk’s claws and they cut through the Zombie’s legs like a slotted scoop through litter bringing the Zombie down to the ground.
With the zombie pinned Scott used his Spore Breath attack and they found it was super effective against the creature. The flesh practically fell off of the zombie, quickly exposing its skull to the bare air. Without the tough skin in the way the bone caved more easily.
The group went back to the main shaft and carefully marked the side tunnel they had entered in on. It would be easy to get lost in the fog and the symmetrical nature of the mine shaft.
The main tunnel sloped slightly downwards, and the group had to decide whether they wanted to delve deeper into the mine or not. Not wanting to leave enemies at their back the group decided to head upwards, clearing out the side tunnels along the way. Their secret entrance had probably been a bit of a shortcut but no one in the party was satisfied with leaving potential loot behind.
Down one of the side tunnels was a pile of wooden crates stacked against the back wall. Nermit smashed through the crates with his mace revealing more rotting tools along with a pristine miner’s helmet. It was bright yellow and had a lamp on the front of it that still worked.
Helmet of Light: +5 to Body, increased attack damage when using mining equipment. Gives access to the Light ability.
Casey took the helmet. Riley wanted to use it, but for the duration of the dive at least the extra damage was too useful to not give to their main damage dealer. Casey’s attacks, paired with Scott’s Spore Breath, was a potent combination against the Zombies and they were only fighting the trash mobs for the moment. They needed every advantage they could get and that meant Riley had to think of the group.
The helmet make Casey look silly as it sat over her bone white mask. She looked like a mannequin modeling a miner’s costume than the deadly rogue she was.
Soon the slope started to level out and the group reached the entrance to the main tunnel. Sounds of squeals reached their ears and they snuck their way forwards the final stretch keeping to the shadows and darting from rock to rock. Two Porcs guarded the entrance to the mine, but their backs were turned to the group as they were guarding from threats outside.
Beyond the two guards Riley could see a thriving Porc encampment. Warriors were sparring in a crowd while a group of shaman overlooked the fighting. Groups were coming and going into the encampment. The ones returning bring back slime cores or the bodies of giant snakes. Riley was glad they had found the slimes and not a nest of the snakes. Riley hated snakes.
The party backed away carefully. There was no way they would have been able to fight through that encampment, not as they were now at least. A flash of anger ran through Riley as he thought of how much easier this would be if they only had more people. He shook his head in disappointment. There was nothing they could do about it.
The group descended back into the abyss.