Chapter 3, part 2

During their journey, Ainzach had explained how the dungeon works, though they had already learned most it from their chat with Moknak. Once they arrived at the Adventurer's Dungeon the guild master accompanied them to the right wing of the dungeon. About twenty feet into it they were met by an Elder Lich, wearing a red band on its arm.

“Hello,” Ainzach greeted the undead monster, “this group of adventurers had been allowed to challenge this wing of the dungeon by his Majesty,” he continued.

“Understood,” replied the Lich a deep hoarse voice.

“Well, it's all yours. I look forward to seeing how you fare,” Ainzach told them.

“Thank you Ainzach-san,” replied Marv, as he and his group walked inside, past the Elder Lich.

They came to a room with a few undead monsters blocking the passage. However, as per Ainzach's explanation, these monsters were meant to be challenged by a mithril group, so they posed little issues to orichalcum adventurers.

After quickly fighting their way through half a dozen connected rooms, they came to a large, empty room. Once they walked in the door behind them closed, and a door on the side of the room opened, an undead being emerged from it.

“Wait!” Shouted Marv at his companions who were about to engage the Elder Lich. “Look, it has the red band on its arm.”

The Elder Lich that emerged to observe their fight with the first boss pointed at the door on the other side of the room. Another undead emerged from it. It was a skeleton with a large tower shield and a sword. About two meters tall it and a Death Knight looked alike, but without the powerful aura of oppression that the later radiated.

“Surround it and engage!” Marv ordered.

He and Shola moved to engage the undead in a melee, while Kiza and Zirek moved around in a circle to position themselves behind the undead.

They engaged and Marv quickly realized the foe was no match for them. While the undead was pretty strong and didn't have much trouble blocking Marv's attacks, it couldn't simultaneously block Shola, who was attacking it from the side. Nor could it block Zirek's arrows and Kiza's spells, both of whom were attacking it from behind. All Marv had to do was parry and avoid the enemy's attacks.

The monster realized that it couldn't hurt Marv, and decided to attack Kiza. However, it was too late, it had taken too much damage already, and with both Marv and Shola laying into it with their weapons, the undead didn't make it far.

After a thunderous head blow from Shola's mace, it collapsed to the ground.

“Congratulations, here is your reward for defeating the first boss,” said the Elder Lich which was observing their fight.

It handed Marv two silver coins, the likes of which he'd never seen before – the silver tokens one could exchange for items in the Adventurer's Guild.

“Well, that was pretty easy,” said Shola.

“Remember what Ainzach told us, the first boss is much easier than the rest, to allow newly qualified groups to get the next tier of equipment. It should become more difficult from here on,” Marv cautioned him.

They continued on. Marv was right, the enemies they were facing now were a bit stronger. However, this was still a part of the dungeon meant to be a challenge for mithril ranked groups. It was a simple matter for an orichalcum group.

They advanced through the dungeon, dispatching monsters that got in their way until they came to another boss room. Towards the end of it stood an Elder Lich, with a red band on its arm. And in the middle of it was an undead with a shield and sword, the same type they defeated previously.

“Hmm, this should be the next boss, but this doesn't make sense, why would it be the same undead we've defeated already?”

“Stay on your toes. We will engage it in the same way as before, but watch out for a change in the situation,” Marv said.

As they entered the room the undead ran at them. Just like the first boss, it was also engaged by Marv and Shola in melee combat, while Kiza and Zirek circled to attack it from behind.

They were landing some nice hits on the monster when with a loud thud the side walls of the room came down to reveal metal bars. And behind those bars stood about eight skeletal archers.

“Quickly, move closer to Marv,” shouted Kiza at Zirek.

He could cast a barrier that would protect them against ranged attacks, at least for some time. The two of them ran towards Marv.

[Lesser Protection from Arrows] Kiza cast his spell once he was in range to cover the other two. It was a 3rd tier spell which could protect against ranged attacks, at least for some time.

“Keep fighting it. We'll clear out the archers” Zirek shouted, as he notched an arrow to shoot at the skeletal archers. Although arrows were not very effective against skeletons, Zirek was using special arrows which inflicted bludgeoning damage.

He shot and a Skeleton Archer crumbled to the ground after its head exploded from the impact.

Next to Zirek Kiza was casting a [firestorm] a third tier area of attack spell.

“Behind us! Shola, engage the new enemy! Zirek move behind Marv!” Kiza shouted as he ran toward Marv.

From behind a new enemy was approaching. It must've come from the door on the opposite side of the room, but they missed it due to their attention being drawn to the walls coming down and the Skeletal Archers. The new enemy was an undead soldier armed with a polearm. It was quickly approaching, just steps behind Kiza.

After hearing Kiza's shout Shola moved to intercept it. But the situation was becoming somewhat chaotic.

They didn't inflict as much damage on the first undead as it moved around to keep both Shola and Marv in front, and their ranged support had to run back almost as soon as they got behind it.

“Finish off the archers, then assist me!” Yelled Marv.

However, the undead had other plans. The shield warrior he was fighting rushed Kiza who was almost next to Marv.

“uhh!” a groan came from Kiza's lips as the undead shield bashed him. He was able to block it with his staff, but was still pushed back by the blow's force and fell to the ground.

After knocking down Kiza, the undead turned around and attacked Marv who was attacking its back. They exchanged several blows but neither side could inflict any damaged.

“Damn it! Watch out!” Shola yelled. The undead soldier ignored Shola and rushed the magic caster on the ground.

A multitude of growls came from the corridor through which they entered the boss room. Casting a quick glance behind Marv cursed. Ghouls, about eight of them. Ghouls were rather easy to kill for adventurers of his caliber, but they were already being overwhelmed.

“Zirek, kill the ghouls behind us!” Marv called.

Zirek who had killed four of the eight archers on his side quickly put his bow behind his back drew a sword and moved against the ghouls who were rushing towards them.

[shield bash] Shola used his martial skill to stop the undead soldier from attacking Kiza. However, his target was able to turn and block the attack with the pole of his weapon. After blocking, the undead pushed back against the shield, but Shola held his ground. The two of them were pushing against each other when...

[Fireball] Kiza cast his spell, and a ball of fire flew at the undead behind Shola's shield. Momentarily disoriented by the noise of the explosion and the smoke from the attack Shola felt the pressure against his shield vanish.

The undead, who was not affected by blindness or loud explosion moved to attack Kiza. The undead thrust his polearm at the magic caster. Kiza was again able to partially deflect the thrust with his staff, but the attack still grazed his shoulder.

“Damn it!” Cursed Shola as his moment of disorientation caused an injury to his group mate. He rushed towards the unprotected back of the undead. But was met with the shield from the undead warrior, who moved to intercept him.

This was a great opportunity for Marv to attack the undead warrior from behind. But he couldn't do that, he had to engage the soldier with the polearm before it inflicted more damage to Kiza, who was just blown against a wall from the impact of blocking a full swing from the undead.

Marv engaged the undead soldier to keep it from going after Kiza. Almost immediately he realized that he had an advantage. The undead was not fast enough to quickly parry and counter with its large weapon. On the other hand, Marv with his two swords was overwhelming it.

“Ghouls cleared! Taking out archers now!” Zirek shouted from somewhere behind.

The once chaotic battle was coming to a close. Shola tied down the undead warrior, Marv was overpowering his opponent, while Kiza had recovered and joined Zirek in taking out archers.

The archers were taken out, and the two of them helped Marv dispatch his target. After that, they finished off the undead warrior.

“Whew, almost got overrun there,” - said Zirek.

“I didn't expect them to work so well together, switching targets and going after the least protected one,” sighed Shola. “Makes it pretty hard to keep their attacks on me.”

“Congratulations. You have defeated the second boss of this wing,” said a hoarse voice. They saw the Elder Lich approach them. “Here is your reward,” it added as it extended its skeletal hand and handed Marv three silver tokens.

After a bit of rest, they continued through the dungeon. The enemies had become stronger yet. Groups of ghouls, skeletons, and other abominations attacked them as the advanced. However, they did not pose much of a threat – their numbers weren't large enough, and they didn't possess high enough attack power.

They were moving through some room where they had just defeated a bunch of skeletal archers when Zirek stopped.

“Hmm, something seems off here. Hold on!” He said as he approached a wall. He knocked on it and a deep “boom. boom,” sound came from the wall.

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“A hidden passage?”

Zirek placed his hands on the wall and pushed, it began to turn like a door would. The other joined in and soon it had opened up to reveal a narrow passage, at the end of which they could see a chest.

“Could be a trap,” said Marv, “let me open it, Zirek you come with me but stay a bit behind, Shola stay further back so you can heal us. Kiza, stay here and look out so we don't get rushed.”

Marv walked up to the chest and looked around. The corridor was about six feet wide, and thirty feet long. Zirek was standing in the middle of it, Shola at the entrance, and Kiza was further behind, back in the room to keep watch.

“Alright, here goes!” Shouted Marv as he opened the chest.

Nothing happened. With a sigh of relief, he looked inside and saw two silver tokens inside. He picked them up and started to walk back.

Suddenly a hidden door opened up and ghouls began to rush in from the middle of the corridor.

“Engage!” Shouted Marv. It wasn't too bad, ghouls could only attack in pairs due to the width of the corridor, and both he and Zirek would have no problems fighting off against two ghouls.

Just then, with a screeching noise, a wall moved into place blocking the entrance to the corridor.

“Kiza!” Shola yelled, as he tried to push the wall aside, but to no avail.

[firestorm] Kiza must've been facing a group of enemies.

“Finish them, quick!” bellowed Marv as he mowed down the ghouls in front of him in a frenzy.

Zirek was doing the same from the other side and pretty soon all of the ghouls were dead. However, the wall blocking the entrance did not move aside. All they could do was stay behind it and listen to the battle raging on the other side.

They heard Kiza cast [firestorm] two more times. As a magic caster, Kiza possessed high damage capability, but if he got mobbed, even if by what would be considered weak monsters such as ghouls, his ability to cast spells would be in jeopardy.

[release spell 2] They heard Kiza use his innate talent, which allowed him to store up to three spells, which he could then activate instantly. His normal loadout for an unknown battle was either two single target spells and one area of effect, or if multiple targets were more likely, then two area spells. This time he went with the later.

They did not hear anything else. And a few seconds later the wall section moved aside, allowing them to move back into the room where Kiza was.

There ware about two dozen ghoul corpses on the ground, and Kiza was panting, leaning against the wall.

“After the wall sealed you away, they came out in groups of six,” he said pointing at the dead bodies, “I managed to pick them off pretty quickly, but the last group got to me before I could cast. Had to use a stored spell.”

“It's OK, you still have one more firestorm stored. We should be fine,” Shola reassured him.

“Well, we got two more tokens,” Marv told them.

They continued and after clearing several more rooms they came to a large room with three Elder Liches.

“That one is wearing a red band, so he's an observer,” Zirek pointed at a Lich standing next to the wall. “The two in the center must be the boss encounter.”

“Still, two Elder Liches. Plus there could be more surprises,” Marv said. “Let's see if we can pull them back here?” he asked Zirek.

“Sure. Stay back and let me engage them.

Elder Liches, like any magic caster, were fairly easy to overwhelm in melee combat. But they could cast a 3rd tier spell [fireball], it would do a good deal of damage, even to someone with Marv's equipment. Getting hit by two such spells could be near fatal. Hence Marv decided to try and pull the Liches back to his group, while they waited behind a corner. Robbing the undead of the line of sight and forcing them to attack from melee range would make things much easier.

After making sure that everyone hid behind a corner Zirek shot one of the Elder Liches and moved back behind a corner. He peeked around to see if the undead were coming, but he didn't see them.

“Hmm, they aren't coming, let me go check what's going on,” he said to the rest of the group.

A little while later he came back dispirited.

“Those bastards are staying on the opposite sides of the room, they have the entrance covered from both angles, there is no way to engage one without getting a fireball from the other,” Zirek reported the bad news.

“I have an idea,” Kiza said, before explaining his plan.

The four of them moved toward the entrance to the room with the undead. Zirek then moved into the line of sight of both Liches.

[fireball] Both Elder Liches cast their spell simultaneously.

Just then, Marv, Shola, and Kiza rushed in, while Zirek moved back out of sight. Both spells were interrupted. This gave Marv and Shola a bit of a head start as they rushed their respective targets.

[Firebolt] Kiza cast his strongest magic – a 4th tier single target spell. Marv saw the Lich in front of him begin casting [fireball] but before the spell could finish a bolt of fire flew from behind him and smashed into the undead, blowing it into a wall.

"Good, we can finish it off quickly and then help Shola with the other one," Marv thought.

[fireball], came a hoarse voice from behind him, and a second later Marv felt an explosion on his back. He was blown into a wall, not far from the Lich, and fell to the ground.

“Keep going! We've tied both of them down!” - Yelled Zirek, he and Kiza were attacking the damaged Lich. While Shola had engaged the other one.

When Marv got on his feet he saw the Elder Lich he was trying to engage retreating from his group, toward the other side of the room. As it was being pelted by spells and arrows.

A door on the other side of the room opened, and an undead soldier with a polearm came out. It started running towards them, while the Lich continued to move away.

“Behind us!” Shouted Zirek.

[hail of arrows] He used his martial art, unleashing a volley of arrows. About 20 ghouls were rushing them from behind.

[firestorm] Kiza joined him.

[fireball] Marv heard from the other side of the room. A second later he heard Shola scream in pain. He saw the cleric getting up from the ground.

[fireball] [fireball] The Liches cast in unison.

“Finish the ghouls quickly!” Yelled Kiza.

[release spell 3] He activated his talent again. six more ghouls fell dead. Arrows were sticking out from the other two. But a new group of ten ghouls had emerged from around the corner and was now moving towards them.

A fireball flew at Zirek and blew him forward. Meanwhile, he could hear an explosion and Marv's groan from behind.

[lesser heal] Shola cast a healing spell on Marv. Before smashing the Lich in front of him in the head with his mace, interrupting its spell.

[fireball] Came from behind them.

“Watch out! Undead Soldier coming at you,” Marv yelled.

"There are just too many enemies. I should finish off this Lich, and trust them to handle that Solider," Marv decided.

[frost binding] Kiza cast a spell which slowed movement on the Undead Soldier.

[release spell 1] A firebolt flew at the lich at the end of the room. In turn, the Lich had sent a fireball of its own towards... Shola.

As Marv rushed forward, he heard Kiza release his final sealed spell. And a firebolt knocked the lich off its feet. He would not allow it to get up. Slashing at the undead in front of him with all his power he knocked it to the ground again, and with several, more slashed he had finished it.

He turned around, but instead of a celebration, he saw a pretty desperate scene. The undead soldier had almost reached the group, Zirek and Kiza were swarmed by ghouls, Kiza was beating them away with his staff, trying to create some distance, while Zirek was swinging his sword wildly.

Shola cast a healing spell on himself, having sustained two fireballs he was too close to death for comfort. The Elder Lich he was engaging used this time to cast a fireball aimed at Marv. Marv wasn't the best target, but because of the swarming ghouls, the Lich only had a clear sight of him and Shola, who would just block the spell with his shield.

Marv rolled away as he saw the fireball fly towards him. He was able to dodge it but the Lich was already casting another one.

[shield bash] Shola smashed his shield into the Lich. He used his mace to kill a ghoul that was trying to attack him from behind. Before engaging the Lich again.

“Kiza, run towards me!” Marv shouted as he ran towards the undead.

Kiza was in pretty rough shape, several ghouls were attacking him and the undead soldier was getting ready to attack him as well. A hit from a polearm could be fatal. The undead began to swing its weapon at him.

[lesser smite] A flash of light hit the undead being, making it roar in anger. Kiza used this moment to run past the undead, although several ghouls were still chasing him.

Marv blew these ghouls away and engaged the undead soldier. From his previous experience, he knew he could beat it one on one.

“Help the others!” He told Kiza.

Several [firestorms] later the number of ghouls had been reduced considerably. Zirek was now able to fight off the ones which were attacking him. Also, he had sustained pretty severe damage.

“Keep going like this! Keep killing the ghouls, hold the lich down, we can win!”

Kiza and Zirek focused on killing the ghouls, which kept coming in waves of ten. Shola bashed the Elder Lich with his mace, and Marv overwhelmed his opponent with speed.

It went on for a while, but eventually, the Elder Lich crumbled to the floor. And then the undead soldier was finished off. The ghouls stopped coming once the last undead died.

“Congratulation, you had defeated the third boss,” came a familiar hoarse voice. The lich with a red armband which was observing the fight was walking towards them. “Here's your reward,” it said, as it handed Marv

four silver tokens.

“That was a heck of a fight,” said Shola panting.

“Yea, I thought I was a goner, I would be if it wasn't for that lesser smite,” replied Kiza, sitting on the ground.

“No wonder Moknak's group can't beat this encounter,” - said Marv as he sat on the ground too.

“Well, we've got 11 tokens,” he told the group, “let's rest here a bit and continue. I wonder what the last boss will be like.”