The world’s dungeons were a mystery. Why were they there? Where did they come from? Why was the mana in them so dense? Why did monsters always appear in them? And treasure, why was there always more treasure?
#Levyna’s Perspective
The demons were overrunning the city. So much so that elves were fleeing. The demons were not kind to those they left behind. The smell of blood and cooked flesh permeated the air. Levyna was running on adrenaline, even with that her stomach was complaining.
“I am so glad I haven’t eaten for a while.” She said idly and then looked over at Mariya and the cowering elves behind her. She walked over to the tall elf and reached up with her hands, “Let me fix that for you.” Grasping the collar she channeled some of her Earth magic into a blade to slice it clean.
The tall elf reached up and felt her neck, “How did you do that? It’s supposed to be impossible to remove.” She then turned quickly and looked at the cowering elves and raised her club.
The strike did not come as Levyna held onto the elf’s wrist, “Don’t. They don’t deserve it, save your anger for the demons.”
“Bah! They’re lucky you’re here.”
“Mariya, you wouldn’t happen to know where ‘The hero of the Eighteenth Demon Rising’ is would you?”
“Never heard of them. But if they’re anywhere they’d be at the palace.”
“Do you know the way?”
“Humans aren’t allowed in the palace!” One of the still cowering elves exclaimed.
“Get out of here you bastards, before I do what I stopped Mariya from doing!” She turned back to Mariya.
“I’ve never been there, but I assume it would be down the road. I’ll go with you.”
“There’s no need for that. But I wouldn’t mind the company.” Giving the tall, auburn elf a good look. “Though we’ll have to find you some clothes around here.”
Mariya gave the human a head tilt and shrugged her shoulders. The ripped, coarse cloth that covered her didn’t do much to hide the resulting motions of her curved form. “It’s hot here in the low lands. I’ve been here almost all my life, but I’m used to the heat. Only when we get a blizzard do I need anything covering, and these fools never provide it.”
“It’s for more than heat.” Levyna answered, “I think… Nevermind we won’t discuss it now. Let’s find the palace and the hero.” During the walk, Levyna checked her messages.
- You have defeated a demon enforcer level 20
…
- You have defeated a demon officer level 25 – for defeating an opponent 10 levels higher than you, you gain bonus experience.
- Novice of Elements has gained 2 levels – 10 attribute points are rewarded
- Fire Resistance is now 13 / Second Tier
- Air Resistance is now 11 / First Tier
- Air Affinity is now 19 / First Tier
- Mariya, level 25 labor slave warrior, is now part of the party. Experience rewards will be shared
She added another five points to strength and durability.
“Oh Mariya, how are your hit points?”
“Down to about three quarters.”
“Ok, let’s wait a moment. Waters of life!
Levyna had to cast the spell another couple of times before they were back up to full health.
“We’ll have to be careful, not to run into too many demons. I hope you can fight.”
“I can fight Levyna. They often threw us into the fighting pits for their amusement.”
“I take it the elves are the melodious nature lovers you often hear about.”
The answer was a snort, “No they aren’t. I don’t know where you heard that. These high elves are a bunch of imperial bastards. They raided my village sixty years ago, and ran off with all the children.”
“Doesn’t sound like nice people. Oh, that must be the palace up there. Let’s find a place to get in there. It looks like the demons are gathering before the gate. I wonder is there a wooded hill or forest about a mile away from here?”
“Not on this side of the city, but I think there might be one on the to the north. Why?”
“Well, there might be an escape tunnel or something like that. I wouldn’t put it past them to have something like that. Despotic rulers usually have a way to escape when the populous revolts, and I wouldn’t put it past the ones here.”
The two avoided the demons, and Levyna learned a bit more about Mariya and about the system she was dealing with. A few status messages came up about acquiring new skills, but she put those away for later so she could pay attention to avoid the demons. She was at full mana, stamina, and health but she decided that she was being a bit too careless earlier.
“There’s the woodlands. Think you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for here?”
“That’s a very good question, but you never know. I might be lucky and find the hero.”
“You never said why you were looking for the hero. I know it’s not to turn them over to the demons.”
“I got a quest when I was summoned here, saying that I needed to rescue the hero. Which means that they’re probably needing rescue enough that I was pulled here. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
#Warnik’s Perspective
The two were back into the cave, some of the bodies had been torn further apart than they had left them. Warnik let out a sigh, “I just hope that I’ll get used to that. This world might be brutal, at least this part of it.”
“You said it, my man. Let’s go see what’s in this tunnel.”
Warnik had started to carry his pole-ax more like a spear than as the simple long-handled ax. “You never told me why you shifted stances with that ax of yours.”
“I’d prefer a pike. But this will do. It is much like how the bronze age infantrymen used to fight. Spear to keep the enemy at bay, and a sword for close-in work. While the pole ax is probably a good medium-range weapon for me it does have a spike on the end that can be used as a spear. In the cave, I want to be able to move my weapon around as needed, so I’m using it more as a spear. For ax fighting, I need big swings to pick up the momentum for the head to cut.”
“That makes sense. You know I never really thought about it that way. … Hey, you always used that pole-ax in my dungeon. And that had tight caves. At least as tight as I could make them.”
“Yes. But you had rules you had to follow, all the playable races had to fit. The hit model for the characters were all the same. And the weapon animations didn’t care about if the weapon clipped through the wall or ceiling. I’m not going to have that luxury here.”
Warnik took the lead, at least in the tight corridors. He had to bend over to fit in some of the shorter caves. It wasn’t long till they heard the first growls from deeper in the cave, “Sounds like the same thing from last night.”
“Wait a second. I just got a notification. You’ve entered the Elemental Playground, Mountain Wilderness Edition. Recommended Level Thirty-Five through Forty-Five.”
“Is that bad?”
“I’m only level twelve in this world.”
“This might be a problem then.”
“We were both capped at level one hundred in Third Shift Delver. And the class was imported.”
“So you might be level one-twelve? Then this should be a cakewalk for us, you get to carry me.”
“Just be careful.”
“Noted.” Warnik’s voice seemed to get a bit distant as he moved forward. “It’s a good thing you have that light with us.”
“Yes, thanks to the Staff of Magnus I can cast a twenty-foot sphere, for only one mana per second.”
“That’s handy, how much would it be without the staff?”
“I think around sixty. I didn’t really calculate it.”
“And how much do you have? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Six-hundred and Ninety.”
“So without your staff, you could give us light for eleven and a half seconds?”
“I could shrink the size, it’s based on volume.”
“Ahh, a nice cubic cost.”
When they rounded the corner in the cave, the light from Dimitri’s staff was reflected by a pair of eyes. They had entered into a chamber, where the light didn’t reach the other wall.
“Our first monster. Stay in the hall, make it come to us. Control the territory.”
They did not have long before the beast came charging into the light. Four-footed, with three elongated claws on each forefoot. Its mouth was full of teeth, with large fangs. It came to waist height on the barbarian, chest height on the warlock.
Warnik quickly reversed his poleax and used his enhanced strength to drive the spike at the end into the ground. A normal warrior would not be able to drive a spike into stone, but he managed it. He also drove it in at an angle, and stepped forward to plant his shield at the top of the ax head, and braced his body behind the shield, and used the poleax as additional support.
He completed the stance just in time for the beast to charge into him. It was like hitting a wall, the beast was stunned for a second. With a loud roar of his own, Warnik pushed the beast back with main force, and tore his poleax from the ground, and lept into the room.
Forgetting what he told Dimitri about controlling the terrain he rose his poleax over his head as he came down from the leap, tearing the ax head through the fur, hide, and bone of the beast.
The beast was injured by still alive and bloody mad. It made a swipe at Warnik, who blocked the claw with the haft of his weapon. The beast was too close in for the barbarian to get in another swing. He dropped his poleax and forgot the sword they had purchased. He just dove in with his hands, reaching for the beast’s mouth as it moved to bite him.
“
Dimitri wasn’t sitting idly as Warnik went beserk. He tried to find a place to cast a spell, but couldn’t and decided to try his luck. A ball of acid exploded amongst the two combatants. The beast let out a cry and did its best to get away from Warnik who did not appear to notice the splash of acid that cascaded over his body.
“
Another explosion went off, again the beast cried out but this time for the last time. And again Warnik did not seem to notice. He was still beating on the beast with his hands for several moments before he realized it was dead. He breathed out and then calmed down.
“What happened?”
“You went berserk!”
“I can tell. I couldn’t control myself for some reason, and just ran on instinct.”
“You don’t look hurt.”
“I don’t feel hurt, why?”
“I just dumped two third level spells on you. Each was over a hundred mana.”
Warnik looked dumbfounded for a moment and then gave a deep laugh. “Forsaker!”
“You think that worked here?”
“It must have. The magic must work based on the system. And the system doesn’t seem to work for me, so your magic won’t work on me. I’ll just have to be more careful. Since healing magic and potions in Third Shift Delver didn’t work on forsakers.”
“I always wondered how you got around that, without the in-combat healing.”
“Forsakers had some healing, but it was a passive skill that was always active. You know how characters didn’t heal in combat unless they used a healing skill, Forsakers always had a skill that gave health every second. It worked out to be the same as the normal healing skill cool down.”
“Why didn’t more people play forsakers then?”
“Magic use, we had to rely more on our skills and builds more than others. When the newer tiers of equipment came out, and the power creep that always happened with that, the devs didn’t really balance well for the Forsakers.”
“Oh, anyway that was a level thirty-five dire claw fiend, lightning-based. It didn’t shoot any lightning, did it?”
“Not that I noticed.”
“Well it was more than twenty levels more than me, so I got bonus experience.”
⸘⸘⸘ You’ve defeated a Dire Claw Fiend (Lightning) level 35. For defeating a foe thirty-five levels more than yourself, you’ve received bonus experience. ⸘⸘⸘
⸘⸘⸘
⸘⸘⸘ Fault Detected… Unable to apply experience and attributes… ⸘⸘⸘
#Levyna’s Perspective
The elf and human pair found the nature area, more of a park than wildlands. It was in the city and at least a mile away from the palace.
“This might be a good place to hide a secret exit. I’m just not sure where it would be.”
“I haven’t been here before Levyna, so I’m not sure.” The tall elf looked around, trying to figure out just where a secret entrance could be hidden.
“There aren’t any demons nearby, maybe there isn’t an escape tunnel after all.” The human woman was looking slightly dejected.
They searched for a good portion of an hour until they found a small mound of rock. “Hey, Levyna! There’s something here.”
“Well, that’s something at least.”
They had found a cave, hidden in a crevasse between two boulders. “Let's hope this is it. And let’s hope that the demons won’t get into the palace if it isn’t.”
You have entered the Elviathius Palace Dungeon
- Area is under spacial lock
- Mana regeneration is doubled
- Unable to rest peacefully
- Recommended party level 15-20, for four members
“That’s an interesting name. The Elviathius Palace Dungeon.”
“Is that what that box says? I’ve never paid attention to them before.”
Levyna stopped and looked at the elf, “You’ve never read your status before? I would have thought it was a fundamental part of life here.”
The elf looked a bit embarrassed, “I can’t read.”
“Oh… We’ll fix that later, but for now, let’s see what we can find.” She pulled out her daggers, “Fire!
The light from the jets of flame lasted about a second, more importantly, was that the illusional fire that flowed along the wrists of her bracers provided illumination. Her daggers were also lit with fire, showing she was ready to strike, giving the pair more light as well. She just had to recast her weak attack every fifteen to twenty seconds to renew the flame on her wrists and daggers.
“I really should invest in a torch, or light spell.”