Dungeon # 653
Name - Sleepers rest.
Tier - 2
Class - Chaos + Miasma
Reward class - Aura + Mana
Light from Mark's orb pushed back the gloom around their group. They had taken the first steps into the dungeon and without taking an eye off the dark tunnel below, Lisa’s voice reached them.
“Alright, from here we’re going to have to move as one unit. I need our close-range combats with me. Casters, maintain Mana levels at sixty percent.”
Jonathan and Gibby moved to the front while Sam and Mark remained with Terry and Bonnie.
Glancing to the side Mark saw the mirror caster and the other woman taking amongst themselves before the woman stepped towards Lisa. The mirror caster hung back with them. Patrica and her people stayed right where they were.
Seeing as he needed to trust these people with his life, Mark turned to the mirror caster and greeted her, introducing himself and his role there.
In turn, she matched his energy and in Mark's opinion had the right amount of nervousness for the situation.
‘Nice to meet you guys. I’m Jade. My magic makes me a good all-rounder. My offense and Defense are good, but I am really excellent at distraction on the battlefield.’
Mark nodded at that, taking it into account. Less than a minute later they were all in position and Lisa advanced.
The trip down was quiet, but it couldn’t last.
Mark was proved right when they arrived on the ground level.
The space opened up into a large transit hub that would have once been filled with people changing lines, waiting for trains to arrive, or just passing through. There were small kiosks scattered throughout the place, along with fallen newspaper stands and abandoned food carts.
The room was packed with Corrupted, climbing over the fallen rubble and debris towards them. Learning from his previous mistake, Mark shot his light up to the ceiling and increased the flow of Mana to it. The large hub was bathed in warm radiance, banishing the shadows and giving them a better look at the enemy numbers.
The walls were caked in blooming ichor, as it grew from every crack and crevice.
Screeching voices bounced off the walls, as hundreds of Corrupted came into view. Amongst the corrupted humanoids, Ghouls as well as Titans could be seen lumbering towards them en masse, they moved toward their party with vengeance and that same territorial aggression.
Unlike the first Dungeon, this area provided no natural chokepoint so they were hit from all sides simultaneously.
Marks construct caught the incoming projectiles while their frontline spread out to meet the initial charge. Lisa’s blade cut through her enemies, immediately cauterizing the wounds it made. Tyler's hand morphed into beastial claws, that he used to cut his foes to ribbons. Gibby was the most shocking, as his thin build began to visibly pack on muscle until his lithe form was a mass of rippling muscle beneath his armor, which grew to accommodate his new bulk. The greatsword was used as a club just as much as a blade. His physical strength, not caring which side of the thing he used to annihilate the Corrupted in front of him.
Wesley’s fighting style reminded Mark of Daphne's slow and deliberate pacing. He let the Corrupted come to him rather than advancing. His heavy shield interposed itself between him and the Corrupted, only for a short spear to snake out from behind it and strike at their skulls with terrifying precision.
The woman that was with Jade - who Mark had since learned was called Shameez- manifested two blades of murky glass. They were shaped into short swords, which she wielded with incredible speed.
Though most of them had only just met a short while ago, they fell into a rhythm almost immediately. Jonathan and Lisa, lead from the front.
Mark held a dome over their backline while he worked to mow down the weaker Corrupted with [Force bolt]. With his improved control over the spell, he found that he could kill Ghouls with three or four bolts in the right spots. Seeing that their frontline dealt with the weaker Corruted with ease, Mark focused on taking out their ranged threat. Sam kept a stream of fire and lighting magic going, and at odd intervals, they would mix for just a moment to deliver a devastating release of energy.
Patrica and her people didn’t use magic, in fact, the two men beside her pulled out firearms and unloaded them into the oncoming hoards. If the situation weren’t so dire Mark would have cracked a joke about priests with guns, but he refocused when a Ghoul slammed against the outer layer of his barrier.
Then Terry and Bonnie began their performance, and Mark found out what it meant to be on the other end of their magic. He could still hear their music as it exploded out into the space but it was quietened for them, background noise. It was something Mark could easily ignore in the heat of battle. The enemy, however, could not. Their bodies vibrated, but unlike humans who lost their balance because of the pressured change. The Corrupted seemed unaffected by this though their advance did slow as the force pushed them back.
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Mark saw no changes in their bodies until the nearest Corrupted collapsed—their bodies twitching, trying to move, but unable to—as their brains trickled from their ears. The accumulated damage from their magic built up until the unfeeling corpse could no longer function.
Terry was weakening everything in the terminal at once. Of course, the damage was not huge, unless they focused the vibrations down. However, the continuous nature of it meant that dealing with the Corrupted that did arrive, was made all the more easy.
The most dangerous point was predictably the Titans, as they were only marginally affected by Terry’s magic, and gave the frontline the most trouble.
However, the frontline held firm, as each one of them was able to take care of a single titan on their own. When the numbers got too great Mark, Sam and Jade would work to make them room. Jade excelled in this area, throwing exact-looking copies of their group into the hoard. They could do no real damage but the illusions threw the corrupted into disarray. It was actually disconcerting to watch a slightly blurry version of himself move out into the crowd and get chased around by Corrupted, before being pounced on and ripped to pieces, and fracting into shards of light.
The time gained was not wasted, and the room of hundreds dwindled as their team felled everything inside the terminal. New Corrupted dashed in to replace them, no doubt drawn by the noise and music, but even that reached its limit too, and their team was left standing amongst mountains of corpses. Not having retreated an inch since arriving on this floor. Satisfied smirks, grins, and looks of relief went around the group. Mark found that familiar thumping high returning after days of peace, and he couldn’t help the smile that spread over his face. Lisa and Jonathan eyed one another competitively, as they had both taken on multiple Titans at once, and neither wanted to be outdone.
Mark took the time to inspect everyone while they took a breather but found no real problems, everyone was holding up well.
Progression became an interesting problem, as there were six different routes that led away from the entrance. Gibby found an old map brochure for the lines, but all that told them was the direction it was heading in. This place was a network of tunnels and sub-passages. Like Lisa said, a maze.
The answer came to Mark when he overheard Lisa and Patricia talking.
“These levels are twice that of a tier 1 Dungeon. I need you to start earning your keep already. Just keep us even, save your strength for if we come upon the core.”
Patrica nodded and began to cast a spell with the help of her followers.
Lisa was referring to the current level of Corruption. If the entrance was already an Orange zone then the core could only be worse. The ring Mark had traded to Patrica was lowering the incoming Corruption by a level, but now Mark felt her magic rushed to fill the space as she began to give off a gentle glow.
The presence had returned, her Ideal burning the surrounding Corruption away, until Mark couldn’t feel it at all. The area around Patrica and her followers was reminiscent of the eye of a storm. The effect was so strong that he could visibly see the Ichor on the walls squirming and melting away.
Mark now understood why Lisa had brought her along, they wouldn’t be able to make extensive dives down here if the Corruption got any worse. The deeper they went the shorter time they would be able to remain down here.
Patrica could extend this period, but Mark knew from experience this type of magic was costly.
Glancing at the tunnels Mark stepped out and walked past each of the openings with his hand extended. He sent his senses out, as he tried to gauge the level of corruption coming from each. Just as they had said, the core was the focal point where the Corruption was at its strongest. So it stood to reason that if one was sensitive enough, they could follow the gradual increase of Corruption to lead them towards the core.
To Mark, all the passages felt about the same, but after going back a second time he noticed two of them had marginally more Corruption coming from them. The difference was so small he would have missed it if he had not been watching closely.
When Lisa asked him what he was doing he explained his thought process and Patrica began inspecting each of the openings as well.
After a moment of squinting she named the same two that Mark had been eyeing. Glad his suspicions were confirmed Mark voted to simply proceed by following the Corruption. Lisa nodded to Mark and spoke up.
“Alright people we have a direction, stay on guard, we don’t know the numbers down here. We are taking the left tunnel seeing as both options seem to lead to out goal Things will have shifted around since the Fall so Jade, you’re on navigation duty.”
Jade made an okay symbol with her fingers and Shameez passed her a small disk of clear glass she had just manifested. The disk flicked for a moment and then began to reflect a small image of the room they were currently in, with six routes stretching off from it. She had created an identical 3D map of the space, moving forward she would update the map as they went along. Sam was incredibly fascinated by her magic and plied her with quiet questions as they moved forward.
Following the train tracks saw them taking a gradual descent into the earth. The Corrupted did not give up, but no one expected them to. Though Mark noticed their numbers were significantly higher than the first Dungoen they had been in. Luckily, their team was made up of frankly, some of the strongest individuals they could find, so their speed did not suffer because of the increase. Mark found himself able to secure many more kills than before, on account of his increased Mana regeneration. The iron spears were coated in black blood and [Force bolt] had not seen down time, since they got in here.
At a certain point, they noticed another source of light up ahead, the Ichor on the walls had been giving off its own purple bioluminescence for a while now, but this was different. This was the fluorescent strip lights coming from inside a train up ahead. The colossal, forsaken beast lay abandoned, left to rot where it met its end. By some miracle, the cart's emergency power had not yet given out. The train car itself was blocking most of their path forward, so it was either through, or over. They could see the odd Corrupted moving about inside. Deciding that it was better to clear out any obstacles for their retreat, they opted to go straight through it. Mark noted the sound of water trickling in the distance, and as they got to the car’s door they could tell by the pools of pungent water that some pipe had burst further in the tunnel.
Seeing nothing suspicious Lisa pried the metal door off its hinges and used it to bat away the corrupted inside. One by one they enter the cramped space, watching for any signs of danger.
Lisa led the way through the compartment and into the next, which they dealt with in much the same way. It was only when they got to the third compartment, did Mark realize something had changed, he had enough time to wrap their backline in a construct before the windows exploded inward and the metal of the train car groaned.
Creatures Mark had never seen before rushed in through the new openings, one of them colliding with his screen.
At a glance, the thing looked like massive a leach, beneath its pale flesh, thick cords of muscle constricted. A beak-like maw sat at Mark’s eye level, as it reared back and pounced with the speed and strength of a striking snake.