“Okay, I know that we just sort of jumped into this quest, but did you guys prepare anything? Like… torches for example?” Q asked, barely able to make her way forward in the darkness.
“Yeah, no problem on that front.” Fortis said, almost stumbling on a rock. “I have a spell to create a lightsource. I just haven’t used it yet to preserve mana for now.”
“Sounds convenient. But what if you run out of mana?”
“...” An uncomfortable silence followed Q’s question.
“Fort… are you serious?”
“Hahaha, I’m sure it’ll be fine!” Fortis said, with a bit of sweat going down his back.
“*sigh* Well, let’s see if this works. [Spark]!”
A bright light emanated from Q’s hand, temporarily illuminating the dark cave. With the brief flash of light, Q narrowed her eyes and analyzed everything she could make out. The walls of the cave were curved and smooth, and slowly lead downwards into a tunnel. A few rocks dotted the ground, and other than the stalactites on the ceiling there wasn’t anything else of notice.
“A there’s a tunnel in front of us that leads downwards. Also, watch your step, there are a few rocks in the ground ahead, particularly in front of you Neira.”
“Really? Thank you for the warning.” Neira said as she began probing the ground in front of her.
“Wow… how were you able to see so much?” Aeryn asked with a surprised look on her face.
“I have good eyes.” Q simply brushed off the question as she cast another [Spark].
“Hmm… alright, here’s the plan.” Verne spoke up. “We all hold hands and have Q lead us forward. Are you alright with that Q?”
“Yeah, no problem. [Spark]. Brie, do you mind?” Q asked as she held out her hand. Brie stared at it for a while before timidly grabbing onto it. “Just this once okay?” Brie said with a slightly blushed face. Sorry Brie, but you’ll be my shield here… Q apologized in her mind just as Melun suddenly appeared.
“Me next!” She said, jumping forward and grabbing onto Brie’s hand.
“Ah, that’s no fair! I was going to hold her hand!” Aeryn complained as she held onto Melun’s hand. Fortis came next, followed by Kukis, Verne, and then Neira who brought up the rear. The group then made their way through the tunnel, with Q casting [Spark] whenever it was off cool-down.
The group managed to pass through the tunnel without incident, and found themselves inside a large open area. The darkness in this section of the cave was incredibly intimidating. Whenever Q stopped casting [Spark] the darkness would rush forward to envelop the party in its embrace. “Hey Fort, mind taking over now? My spell doesn’t light up enough.”
“Alright. Thanks for leading us here by the way. Now… *ahem*. I call upon the spirits of light to illuminate our way forward! [Lustrous Orb]!” Hearing Fortis chant out his spell, Q wondered about how she invoked her own spell. I don’t have to say anything besides the spell name to use it... Maybe depending on how powerful the spell is the longer you have to chant? Her thoughts were quickly ended though as a ball of light came out from Fortis’ staff.
“““““Ooooh…””””” Everyone let out a voice of amazement as they saw the cave become brighter. The walls were lined with different colored sparkling stones which gave off a colorful glow when the light hit them, bathing the walls in an array of colors. The ground was strangely soil rather than stone, and the ceiling curved upwards to make a dome above their heads. Up ahead the players could see that there were a few different paths to head down, but for now they all simply stared at the beautiful sight.
[You have discovered the Gemstone Caverns] - Being the first players to discover this area, you will receive double exp and loot drop chances for the duration of 3 days while in this area.
[Experience Gained]
[Fame Gained]
“Yay, rewards.” Verne absentmindedly murmured, as he admired the beautiful sight.
While everyone was taking in the view, Kukis was studying the gemstones on the walls, and decided to pull one out. “HRNG-! This thing is hard to pull out.” She grunted as she tried to exert as much force as she could in pulling out the stone.
“Heh, players can’t take out gems if they don’t have the mining profession, which I just so happen to have.” Aeryn smiled, pulling out a pickaxe from her inventory.
“You’re a mage but you took up mining?” Q asked with curiosity.
“Yes. I plan on mining gemstones, then getting an accessory based profession to utilize the gems that I get.” She explained, going up to the wall to mine some gemstones. After a few swings of her pickaxe, a few small blue gems fell onto the ground. “Wow, that was easy.” Aeryn exclaimed. “Usually I wouldn’t get this many gems in that amount of time. Thank god for increased drop rates right?”
“Right. Aeryn, for now keep mining. Fortis, start meditating and keep up your spell. Neira, Brie and Kukis can stay here and secure the perimeter. If you three find any items lying around make sure to pick them up alright? Meanwhile Melun, Q and I will go to scout out the area.” Verne gave out his orders and the party members began to do their assigned jobs.
Verne, Melun and Q moved forward, investigating the large cave. Although she didn’t need to, Q continually cast [Spark] as she explored the cave. I might as well take this opportunity to level up this skill right? Though it’s really something that Helen prefers doing... The three of them didn’t find anything of interest besides the three paths leading further downwards and were about to head back when Q noticed something strange.
“Hey guys… look at this.” She said, pointing at a flower growing out of the ground.
“Oh, that’s a pretty flower.” Melun commented, reaching out to touch its petals.
“STOP!” Q’s hand darted out and grabbed Melun’s wrist, stopping her from touching the flower.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Melun asked curiously.
“Don’t you find something strange about this flower?”
“No… what’s so strange about it?”
“How about the fact that it’s growing in this cave?” Q began to explain. “Now, I may be wrong and this could just be a fantasy flower that happens to grow in dark places, but I think that all plant life needs nutrition. Judging from this place, there isn’t anything to feed and sustain a flower. So why is it growing?”
“Hmm…” Verne was contemplating Q’s words, when he suddenly noticed something. “The flower is moving!”
Q looked over to see that the flower was indeed moving, as it was swaying from side to side. The flower wasn’t the only thing that was moving either, as the ground around it began to swell up! The three quickly backed up just in time to avoid sharp teeth poking out of the ground! The teeth chomped on the area they were just standing in, then sunk back into the ground.
“What in the world…” Verne muttered, but before he could say anything else he was interrupted by a deep rumble. The ground began to swell up again, and this time something jumped out of it! A large hulking creature appeared with long sharp teeth inside its huge mouth. Somewhat resembling an angler fish, its limbs were incredibly short and just barely lifted up its 3 meter body. Above its head they could see the flower from earlier sitting there, and in addition to that a name and health bar appeared as well.
[Lure Flower] - Level 16
“Heads up! Enemies!” Verne yelled at the other players currently on the other side of the room. Hearing this, they stopped what they were doing and began to make their way over to where Verne was. Before they could even take two steps though, multiple flowers began to pop out of the ground, each one of them bringing a giant monster with them! The Lure Flowers slowly began to fill the cave, and eventually there were 15 of them!
“Stay there and hold your positions! We’ll make our way to you!” Verne gave out orders as he urged Melun and Q to move. The Lure Flower wouldn’t let them get away so easily though, as the Lure Flower suddenly spit out (more like barfed out) a strange liquid aimed at Q and Melun! Q was able to dodge it but Melun wasn’t as lucky and her leg got hit by the liquid.
“Ew… what is this? It’s sticky and smells bad!” Melun complained, trying to pull herself away from it.
Q took a look at her health bar and saw that she didn’t lose any health, but the real problem was the slowly approaching Lure Flower! Now that its target was stuck, it had all the time to approach her. Making a quick decision Q turned to Verne and said, “Help her up!” as she leaped towards the Lure Flower.
“Wait, Q!” Verne began to protest, but Q ignored him as she engaged the Lure Flower.
Running to its right side, Q made a quick slash at it with her dagger. The Lure Flower made no indications that it felt the attack at all as it ignored Q and continued heading towards Melun. What the heck is its body made of? Soil? Q wondered as she saw that her dagger had some dirt left on it. At the very least it did some damage, but it wasn’t enough to get its attention.
“Alright then, how about this?” Q ran towards the back of the Lure Flower and jumped up, climbing on top of it. The Lure Flower didn’t seem to mind her presence on its back, but when Q began to approach the flower growing on top of its head it let out a scream and began shaking its body in an effort to get her off. As soon as her footing became unstable, Q stabbed her dagger into the Lure Flower’s back in order to get a grip on it, then shot out a [Spark] towards the flower.
Once the [Spark] made contact, the flower was instantly set aflame and the Lure Flower’s health dropped down significantly. “The weak point is their flower!” Q yelled loudly. She wasn’t sure if the other members heard her, but she needed to focus her attention on the Lure Flower. While Q was dealing with the Lure Flower, Verne was able to pull Melun away from the liquid and got her to safety.
“Q, I have her! Let’s regroup!” Verne said with urgency in his voice.
“Just a second.” Q was comparably calm by comparison as she continued to cast spark at the flower. Eventually it died and she was able to kill it without much difficulty besides a few scratches from being thrown around on its back.
“Weird, I thought it might use a special ability to get me off its back...” Q was slightly disappointed that the monster didn’t pose much of a challenge.
“More on that later, we need to break through and get back to the others!” Verne indicated the 5 Lure Flowers which were slowly making their way towards them.
Meanwhile on the other side of the room, the rest of the group were struggling against the Lure Flowers. “Aeryn, are your spells working?” Fortis asked as he began to enchant the front-line fighters.
“Yeah, water doesn’t work but fire works fine. Though I feel like it’s doing a lot less damage than usual…” Aeryn replied while shooting out another fireball.
“Less talky more fighty!” Kukis said, swinging her dagger at one of the Lure Flowers. Her attacks were about as successful as Q’s were, only managing to chip away at the Lure Flower’s health. Brie was also in a bit of a bind, as she tried to stab at the flowers but they were too high for her sword to reach. Neira had the toughest time of them all, as she had to hold off multiple Lure Flowers to keep them from getting behind her. Using her shield she tried to bash their faces in but the Lure Flowers simply opened their mouth and tried to eat her arm instead.
While the Lure Flowers slowly made their way forward, the group was also being cornered into a wall. Just as the rear fighters backs touched the wall, a flash of red appeared above the Lure Flowers. It was Q!
“I said aim for the flowers didn’t I?” She chastised them as she landed on top of one of the Lure Flowers and fired off a [Spark]. As soon as the [Spark] hit the Lure Flower it started to rampage, but by then Q had already jumped off and was attacking another one. The group watched her in amazement as she jumped from place to place, casting [Spark], slicing flowers with her claws, or even sometimes throwing her dagger at the place she was going to land before picking it up.
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Verne and Melun appeared at this moment to reunite with their companions, and once Verne saw their reactions he snapped at them. “Hey, stop gawking and do something! Neira, you’re holding the front with me. Brie and Kukis, stay behind us and attack the monsters if you see an opportunity! Aeryn, focus on Area of Effect spells to cover as much enemies as possible. Melun, aim for the flowers. Don’t miss alright? Fortis, keep your healing spells ready.” Having received their orders, the party members got into position and began their counterattack against the Lure Flowers.
“Alright then, watch this! [Hawk Eye], [Precision Shot]!” Melun took careful aim and activated her abilities, letting an arrow fly that hit the flower dead in the middle. The Lure Flower roared as it’s health dropped down to low levels. “Kukis, Brie!” Verne shouted, and the two immediately understanding his intentions rushed forward to attack the Lure Flower. Kukis continued to slice and stab at its sides, while Brie attempted to stab in-between the gaps in its teeth, hoping that it would cause pain to it. Despite the small amount of damage they did to it, the Lure Flower fell in no time thanks to its low health.
“Watch out everyone, I’m using a spell!” Aeryn warned as she began to charge her magic. “Spirits of flame, heed my call. Go forth and burn my enemies. [Flame Wave]!” A large wave of flames swept forward, past her allies and into the enemies. It dealt a substantial amount of damage to the Lure Flowers, and the ones who had their flowers hit by it immediately began burning and took massive amounts of damage.
“Neira, look out!” Melun cried as she saw that one of the Lure Flowers was heading straight for her blind spot. Once Neira heard Melun’s warning, she turned and quickly brought up her shield, but was still knocked off her feet by the force of the blow. “Gah!” She let out a grunt of pain when she hit the floor.
“Neira!” Verne saw his comrade get hit but he couldn’t help her as he was busy dealing with his own Lure Flowers. The Lure Flower approaching Neira opened its mouth and was about to spit more of that liquid again, when Q suddenly jumped onto its back.
“[Spark], [Magic Fist - Spark]!” Q’s magic attacks hit the flower and caused the creature to go crazy. She leaped down from the Lure Flower and helped up Neira. As she extended her hand to help her up, she noticed that there was a slight glow around Neira as her health bar filled up. Looking at Fortis she gave a thumbs up, then she headed over to Brie.
“Brie, want to do more damage?” Q asked, casting a [Spark] at the Lure Flower Brie was fighting.
“Gladly.” Brie responded, stabbing the Lure Flower in its mouth.
“Alright then. Follow me!” Q ran past the rampaging Lure Flower, and reached its back as Brie followed her closely.
“Jump on the back, then stab its flower from there.” Q gave instructions as she jumped onto the back of the Lure Flower. Brie found it a little difficult at first, but after imitating Q’s movements she was able to get up there without any problem. With the higher vantage point, Brie was able to oversee the battlefield, and saw the situation clearly.
Currently there were 9 Lure Flowers remaining, all at about half health. The rest of the group was surrounded with their backs to the wall in a semi-circle, with Kukis, Neira and Verne fighting off the Lure Flowers as best they could. Brie saw that one of the Lure Flowers was a distance away from the others and had under half health.
“Melun!” Brie cried out.
“What is it cutie~?” Melun replied in a sweet voice.
“The Lure Flower over there!” Brie pointed at the creature, “You can probably hit it!”
“Oh, why thank you.” She said as she fired an arrow at the Lure Flower, killing it.
Excellent. Now to kill this one. Brie thought as she aimed her sword at the flower. How did Kukis describe this process again? Oh yes… Brie concentrated as she yelled out “[Piercing Strike]!” and thrust forward with her sword. Her attack dropped the Lure Flower’s health to critical levels, and she quickly finished it off afterwards with a few more stabs.
“Nice job!” Suddenly Brie noticed Q on top of a Lure Flower nearby. “Come on, jump over here!” Q said as she reached out her hand. Brie nodded and took a running start, then leaped over to where Q was. Q caught her and pulled her up onto the Lure Flower.
“The battle’s getting a little bit easier.” Q said as she observed the state of the battlefield. Right now there were only 6 Lure Flowers remaining and besides the one they were standing on, the rest were all on low health. “Brie, mind stabbing this guy a few times for me? I need to set up something.” Q said as she leaped over to another Lure Flower. Brie nodded as she approached the flower and began to attack it.
Meanwhile Verne and the other front-line fighters were all dealing constant damage, but were also getting hurt in the process. Luckily Fortis was there to heal them, but after a certain point he said, “I have a quarter of my mana left! Be careful or else I’ll have to dispel [Lustrous Orb] and we’ll be fighting in darkness!”
“No worries about that!” Q’s voice rang out. Looking up they saw Q standing on top of one of the Lure Flowers, and was surrounded by other Lure Flowers. Though they didn’t know why the Lure Flowers were all gathering around her, Q brought their minds back on track as she said, “Aeryn, strongest AoE please! And somebody catch me when I fall!” She tried to stabilize her footing as she prepared herself to jump off.
Hearing Q’s words, Aeryn nodded as she began to charge up her most powerful fire spell. “Spirits of flame, heed my call. Form as my will, and bring down fire upon my enemies! [Flame Pillar]!” A large pillar of flame came down from the sky, falling right into the middle of the group of Lure Flowers! At the exact moment that the fire came down, Q had leaped off the Lure Flower and fell into Verne’s arms as he caught her.
“Ah! That’s no fair! I was going to catch her!” Melun complained.
That’s exactly why I didn’t jump in your direction… Q thought as she lay in Verne’s arms.
“Uh… n- now’s not the time for that.” Verne stammered as he held Q in his arms. This girl… why is she so soft!? And she smells so nice… Wait, what am I thinking? As he held Q in his arms, he noticed that her hands were covered in the liquid that the Lure Flowers had spit earlier. Before he could ask why she had them on her hands Q spoke up.
“Thanks for catching me. Also, mind letting me down now?”
“O-of course!” Verne quickly let Q out of his arms. Clearing his throat and composing himself, Verne looked over at the Lure Flowers to find that they had all died, save for the one that Brie was on top of. That one was quickly killed as well though with a few stabs from Brie. The entire group gathered together and simply sat down, exhausted after their battle.
“Well… that was fun.” Q said as multiple windows appeared in front of her.
[Level Up!] x2
[Stats Gained]
[Skill Proficiency Gained]
[Spell Proficiency Gained]
[New Skill] - Climbing Mastery (Passive) Increases speed and ease when climbing.
[New Skill] - Jumping Mastery (Passive) Increases length and height when jumping.
[Items Received]
“That was… awesome!” Kukis exclaimed. “That was so intense! I didn’t think we were going to make it when I saw those thing’s levels.”
“I know right?” Fortis laughed. “Seriously, those things were scary.”
“Actually, I think the scariest one here is Q.” Verne said, remembering what she had done earlier. “While we were surrounded, Q actually killed 4 of them in order to let us regroup.”
“Aw… that’s nothing.” Q scratched her cheek in embarrassment. “Their weak points were really easy to hit so it’s not like it was that hard.”
“Q… you’re crazy.” Kukis simply let out a sigh as she had already been slightly numbed to the amazing things that Q could do.
“Good job though everyone.” Fortis smiled as he encouraged the team. “Anyway, I think we all know what time it is. It’s time for-”
“LOOT!” Melun yelled out as she began to put her items that she got on the ground. All the other members followed suit, and the loot was divided between them. The random drops were generally split evenly, and each player got a few things like flower petals or clump of magic soil. There were quite a few pieces of equipment, and those were distributed according to what player needed them the most.
Neira got a new shield, Aeryn got a pair of earrings and Fortis got a bracelet. The armor pieces were few in number, but Q was able to get a belt while the rest were given to the frontline fighters. There was also a few weapons there were given out, with Kukis getting a one-handed sword and Brie getting a small parrying dagger. Q also got a new dagger to replace her current one, and Verne got a magic sword that let out a slight glow.
[Leather Storage Belt (Waist, Rare)] Durability (20/20) - A belt with three small boxes attached that can be used for storage. Strength +2, Defense +3, Vitality +2
[Dagger of Minor Dexterity (Weapon, Rare)] Durability (30/30) - A sharp dagger that slightly raises dexterity. Dexterity +5, Damage: 10-15
Satisfied with their rewards, the party equipped their new items and went about restoring their lost health and mana. “Though that was a dangerous situation, we did quite well didn’t we? Though I think most of the credit should go to our temporary members here.” Aeryn indicated Q, Brie and Kukis. “If it was our usual party, we might have died in that battle. In fact, with you girls here it was sort of easy.”
“I wouldn’t say that it was easy.” Neira shook her head. “Those things hit hard… and I dread to think about what might have happened if we got hit by that spit in a crucial point in the battle.”
“That reminds me,” Verne turned to Q, “Why did you have the Lure Flower’s spit on your hands earlier Q?”
“Hm? Oh, they seemed to be attracted to prey that was bound by their spit. While you guys were dealing with most them I moved around a few of them until they spit at me. I let it hit one of my hands, but they didn’t follow up. I let my other hand get hit, and once I put it together with my other hand the Lure Flowers began paying attention to me. From there I just ran on top of one of them to gather them all up.”
“That’s… I don’t even know what to say about that.” Verne looked at the small fox-kin with renewed interest. It takes an incredible amount of speed and skill to dodge the spit, but Q was able to make sure that it only hit one part of her body. Furthermore she ran up one of their backs without stumbling even while her hands were bound, showing that Q was an incredibly skilled individual.
“I don’t know either but… I’m kind of hungry after all that fighting.” Kukis’ stomach let out a small growl in agreement.
“Same here. Melun, you have the food right?” Aeryn asked.
“Ah. I knew I forgot to buy something...” Melun muttered.
““““MELUN! YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!”””” The Crios Blades all cried out in unison.
----------------------------------------
A/N: Hello everyone, Emeraldgem here. Do I refer to myself as Emeraldgem now? No, because I don't speak in the third person. Anyway, group battle ahoy! A lot of things were going on in this fight, so I thought that it might have been a bit confusing to keep track of everything. More generally speaking, how to keep the battle in constant motion for all people involved (because if I'm focused on one character doing something, I sort of neglect the other characters and leave them 'frozen').
There's also another thing that I'm concerned about, and that's regarding the equipment everyone uses. I never described them in earlier chapters, so it kind of came out of nowhere that Neira was using a shield. Are you guys concerned about that, or is it fine and you can just easily fill in the blanks for yourselves?
Well regardless, thanks for reading! Leave thine thoughts and comments if thou so wishest to do so.
Fun-fact: I suck at coming up with names for things.