Sentenced to Troll

by S. L. Rowland

  When I agree, the stone fits perfectly into the socket on the axe’s side. I cast another Horror of Finesse and this time, my mana almost doubles its regeneration rate. I couldn’t be happier with the results of beating the giant wyrm.

  To my surprise, I look over and see Limery tossing a rock with the first horror I summoned. Though it doesn’t speak, it seems to be enjoying the playtime with the imp. It makes me appreciate all the more how advanced this game is. Each horror acts of its own accord, not some preassigned robotic set of movements and commands.

  “Are you ready to get going?” I ask Limery.

  “Where’s we going?” Limery stops the game of toss and the horror turns away, on guard duty once more.

  I need to retrieve my quest rewards, but there is somewhere I want to go first. It seems like the perfect place for a mana-hungry wyrm to go.

  The faerie dungeon.

  18. Dungeon Diving

  We travel to the faerie dungeon without event. I use the time to practice casting Horror of Finesse. Every thirty seconds, I summon a horror. Since we are not in combat, they begin decaying after the first minute. It takes ten minutes for one horror to lose all HP and die, so I am able to summon twenty of them. The horrors of finesse have ten percent of my HP, giving them one hundred and ninety-six health upon casting. Due to the bonus increase in my own HP and Strength for having horrors summoned, I gain three hundred and ninety-two HP with all twenty horrors active. By the time they start dying off, the weakest of the bunch have twenty-four HP, hardly a threat to anyone.

  For now.

  I’m glad I put my stat points into Dexterity to bring it up to par with my other stats and increase my overall attack speed, but I’m thinking it might be more beneficial in the long run to invest in Constitution. The longer they can last, the stronger I become, and in turn, the stronger they become. Once I have the other two horrors unlocked, I’ll be able to summon a maximum of sixty horrors when I’m not in combat.

  The days of trolls hiding away in the forest may be nearing their end.

  Limery perches on the rock in the center of the copse where I first found the faerie dungeon. The mushrooms and herbs that surround the rock formation have changed slightly. The mushrooms all have an aura around them—it’s faint, but I can definitely see it. A small blue furry creature with large round eyes sits atop one of the mushrooms, watching me intently. When I move forward with my small army of horrors, it scurries away.

  I approach the carved runes and the same prompt hits me as before.

  Faerie Dungeon. Would you like to enter?

  This time, when I accept, the ground trembles beneath me. The rock Limery sits on rises higher into the air, causing him to jump off in surprise and revealing a cavernous archway that leads underground. Stone steps descend into darkness. Limery hovers in the air above my shoulder.

  “We goes inside?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  I cast another horror and instruct them to lead the way into the dungeon. They respond to my thoughts just as quickly as my commands. It’s dark underground, but my night vision allows me to see unimpeded. Limery must be able to as well, because he doesn’t complain.

  Rubble and dirt crunch underneath my feet with each step. It must have been a while since the last time someone was in here. Spiderwebs hang from the ceiling and small feet scurry away from our approach. A door closes somewhere beneath us with a thud. I continually cast Horror of Finesse, keeping my rotation at twenty. Whatever comes next, I want to be prepared.

  Somewhere in the depths, the trickle of water echoes, but I can’t pinpoint the source.

  Light shines in from the foot of the stairwell. My horrors move into a large room where dozens of yellow wisps float through the air.

  Wisp. Level 10. Harmless unless touched, these ethereal creatures are light incarnate.

  The wisps range from level ten to fifteen. At the other end of the room is a door. Whatever scurried away must have gone through there. Limery could probably make it through without touching the wisps, but I’m way too big.

  While I’m in the process of formulating a plan, one of my horrors bumps into a wisp. Electric bolts shoot out from the floating ball of energy, killing the horror in one shot. The oldest horrors are always at the front so that they can disarm traps or take lethal blows without risking the HP of the stronger ones.

  The next thing I know, the rest of the wisps come swarming towards us.

  “Oh noes!” Limery shouts and tosses a fireball, sending one of the wisps up in smoke.

  The wisps swarm my horrors, electricity filling the air as bolts zap out like an electrical storm. The horrors attack, but their blows seem to be missing entirely and I’ve already lost a quarter of those with low HP.

  I activate Sweeping Slash and swing for a nearby cluster of wisps, hitting them square on, but my blade passes straight through, doing zero damage. Several arcs of lightning strike the axe and travel down the handle, stunning me in place and taking out a chunk of my health.

  Limery seems to be the only one having success as he fires fireball after fireball at the incorporeal damage dealers.

  “We need to get to that door!” I shout.

  With my horrors falling by the wayside, the wisps have turned in my direction now. Limery zooms through the air, too quick for their lightning strikes. Several bolts hit me even as I try to dodge and make my way across the room. With so many of them, all of the damage is beginning to add up. None of my physical attacks are working, not even Intimidation, and without anything to land a blow on, my healing from casting Horror of Finesse isn’t working either.

  Every third lightning strike stuns me in place. If I don’t find a way out of here soon, I’ll be swarmed and unable to move at all as I’m hit with bolt after bolt.

  I’m stunned once more when a group of wisps pin me against the wall. Limery tosses a fireball at the cluster of wisps and it sets off a chain reaction, exploding four at once. There’s still a minefield of wisps on the other end of the room that haven’t moved. As it is, there’s no way I’ll make it without being hit unless I waste Berserker Rage in the first room. I wish I had a giant bubble of protection around me to just barrel through them.

  That’s it! I call what horrors I have left to me and instruct them to climb on my body. I don one of them over my head like a helmet along with one on each shoulder, two on my back, and several more on my legs and arms. Their health begins to drop as the wisps converge on us.

  I take off running like a bat out of hell, the crack of lightning raging all around me. The horrors’ HP drop in droves as we cannonball across the room. I lose the imp-like monsters clinging to my arms first and take a shock to the shoulder. The one on my head goes and I dive through the open door just as two final strikes kill the horrors on my back.

  The door closes behind me and the wisps disperse back into their original positions like we were never there.

  “Holy shit.” I let out a sigh.

  Dungeon diving is not for the faint of heart. I probably should have put together a team before attempting something like this, but there’s no turning back now.

  I send one of my horrors down the hall, and a dozen poisoned darts shoot out from the walls, killing it.

  Better him than me.

  “Chods okay?” asks Limery.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for your help back there. I didn’t know those things only responded to magic attacks.”

  “Nasty little balls. Limmy doesn’t like.” He shakes his head in disgust.

  Hopefully, the next level will treat us better. I wait for my health to regenerate as we sit in the corridor that leads to the next level. There is another wooden door at the end of the hall. Limery peeks through the slat in the door we just came through. The wisps managed to kill all but three of my horrors, pinpointing my weakness against anything that isn’t flesh and blood. Maybe Jira will have answers for how to deal with monsters like that once I get back. All of this mana has to open more opportu
nities than just summoning.

  As I heal, I continue to cast horrors, hoping this next batch fares better than the last. Ten minutes later, I have twenty ready to go. At the door, something scuttles on the other side. It’s almost a clacking sound, like horse hooves on pavement. There is no slat to look through on this door, so once it opens, it’s game on.

  “Ready?” I ask Limery.

  He nods.

  With a quick heave, I open the door, and my horrors spill into the room. A chittering sound rings out and the clattering intensifies. Torches line the walls of this room, casting eerie shadows from large columns that stand throughout. I immediately spot the source of the noise. Large beetles, the size of a golden retriever, rush towards us, their shells a shimmering iridescent rainbow. Pincers hinge open and close with each step. Wingless faeries sit astride the large beetles while faeries with dragonfly wings zoom through the air firing arrows.

  The fairies are bigger than Limery, but not by much. They have ivory skin, colorful hair, and daggers for teeth.

  “Stay behind me and target them with your fireballs. Me and my horrors will push the attack.”

  The first row of horrors collide with the beetles and are immediately mowed down. The wingless faeries shoot bolts of magic from their hands while those airborne fire imbued arrows across the room. One hits me in the chest and I get a notification that I have been poisoned. I have my Tiger’s Eye Pendant to clear the poison, but I want to save that until we clear the room. For now, I’ll use my healing bonus to keep the poison at bay.

  I cast Horror of Finesse and the icon telling me my next attack will heal flashes in the top left corner of my vision. I jump the line and bring my axe down with a powerful strike that tops off my health. Luckily for me, most of the faeries are attacking the horrors that rush to them like ants on a fallen ice cream cone and leave me be.

  Behind me, Limery hurls his fireballs all the while yelling “take that” and “stupid faeries.” His attacks are pretty accurate, incinerating the wings of many airborne fairies and forcing them to fight on foot.

  I kick and claw as I continue to summon more horrors as time allows. One faerie comes running at me, hands glowing, and I stomp him into the stone floor with a crunch.

  My horrors attack like rabid animals, moving from one beetle warrior to another. The pincers rip at their flesh, but they remain undeterred, sinking their claws and prying the shells apart with sheer numbers. I continue to raise more as soon as the cooldown allows, using each opportunity to fill my health with a basic attack, countering the poison that continuously damages me.

  Though I lose more than half of my horrors, it doesn’t take us long to overwhelm the faeries. With my Tiger’s Eye Pendant, I clear the poison that runs through my veins.

  The door out of the room opens and we enter another corridor.

  So far, this dungeon hasn’t been so hard. I don’t know if I’m overqualified with my new class or it’s really just a beginner dungeon. Careful not to become skewered by darts or some other contraption, I send one of my horrors out first. It trips a tile and the floor collapses underneath it, sending it falling into darkness that not even my night vision can penetrate. I hear a splash and then can no longer feel the horror’s presence.

  I toss the rest of my horrors across the pit, and when they make it to the door unmolested, I follow.

  We exit the corridor into a wide room with a large fountain at its center. Glowing blue water illuminates the room, eliminating the need for torches even if we didn’t have night vision. The water reminds me of the nanites in the pod where my body is.

  The room itself is similar to a Roman bathhouse with the way water drips down from the ceiling and spills out from an obelisk in the fountain’s center. The fountain overflows into a large pool with channels that carry the water into drains. It explains the dripping I heard when entering the dungeon. I remember passing a stream not far from the dungeon’s entrance, and I bet it runs underground and into the dungeon as well.

  Aside from the fountain, the room is empty.

  This has to be where we fight the boss.

  As we wait for something to happen, I continue to raise horrors, making sure I am continually topped off. After several minutes of nothing happening, I approach the obelisk in the center of the room.

  At the room’s center, the stone floor quakes, sending out ripples through the pool where the obelisk rises. There’s movement in the water and something moves beneath its depths. I take a defensive position with my axe, ready for whatever vile monster is about to emerge.

  I’m surprised when a humanoid creature with beautiful eyes and hair rises to the surface.

  Water Nymph. Level 17. Guardians of the world’s most beautiful places, nymphs are wild and spirited, embodying the elements of the locations they protect. They are naturally charismatic towards all manner of creatures.

  Her skin is light blue and only a few thin pieces of cloth cover her curvaceous body. Blue eyes stare out at me and she speaks, but I can’t understand her.

  “What is she saying?” I ask Limery, wishing I already had my communication stone. I keep my eyes on the nymph but turn my head towards Limery.

  His yellow eyes bulge even larger than normal. “She says, ‘Prepare to meets your doom.’”

  There’s a splash from behind us and I turn just in time to see two wyrms slither through the drainage pipes and into the room. They rise up like cobras, ready to strike, their scales glistening with the toxic slime that seeps from their skin.

  Wyrm (Mana-infused). Level 12. These mana-infused wyrms have been mesmerized by a water nymph, answering her beck and call.

  19. Fire and Water

  The twin wyrms sway back and forth, their hooked snouts hissing like snakes. They aren’t as big as the wyrm I faced in the woods, but they are still massive. At least seven feet tall. Plenty long enough to wrap me up in a tight embrace, and not the warm and fuzzy kind.

  The nymph continues to talk, even though I can’t understand a word she says.

  “Limery, I’m going to need you to translate everything she says until we make it out of here. Got it?”

  “Yes! Limmy can do it! She says, ‘You is not welcomes here. This dungeon is hers. Prepare to die.’”

  “Alright, Limmy. I hope you’re ready for a fight.”

  I hear the familiar crackle of fireballs igniting in his palms and know I can trust the imp to have my back.

  Without waiting for my opponents to get the fight started, I send my horrors on the offensive. They split and claw at the towering wyrms, dropping slivers of health with each raking scratch.

  Blue flames erupt in a cone from the wyrms, setting the horrors on fire and destroying the front line. I cast another horror and a blast of water from the nymph knocks me off my feet, taking five percent of my health. There’s a dull ache from the blow, but it’s nice to put my actual tanking to use against something that isn’t breathing fire at me.

  I rise to my feet just as the wyrms slither across the stone floor, knocking the horrors aside. Evidently, the wyrms aren’t strong enough to burrow through solid stone.

  Not yet, at least.

  Limery tosses fireballs at the wyrms, but they do very little damage against those magically-resistant scales.

  “Focus on the nymph,” I say, not knowing if he will fare any better against her.

  I swing at one of the wyrms as it passes by to join its master, connecting with its side and healing myself just as a massive tail smashes into my ribs from the other side and knocks the breath out of me.

  Horrors rush to my aid, blocking a wall of flame meant for me. Several of them die to the blast. I cast another and land a claw in the side of one wyrm as they retreat behind the nymph in the fountain.

  Every fireball that Limery throws her way is negated by a water bubble that shoots out from the pool, intercepting the blast in a puff of steam.

  We are truly fucked.

  A wave of luminous water rises from the pool and rus
hes across the stone floor. It collides with my horrors, scattering them around the room like bugs in a rainstorm. I stand my ground, unable to move against the rushing torrent as the toxic water slowly burns me. The toxic slime from the wyrms has contaminated the water and it damages both me and the horrors with every touch. When the water recedes into the drain, I call my horrors to me and lead a charge toward the fountain. Flames target me and I barely dodge to the side as puddles of water sizzle on the floor, causing a curtain of steam to rise into the air.

  I’m hit in the face by a giant water bubble that surrounds my head, cutting off my air and obstructing my vision. I try to pop the bubble, but my axe and claws just cut through the water like jelly.

  My lungs start to burn, and I don’t know how much longer I can hold my breath, when the bubble dissipates and hot steamy air coats my lungs.

  Limery zooms through the air as streams of water and fire chase him across the lair. The effect of both elements intertwining causes a huge layer of steam to rise. If this continues, we won’t be able to see anything soon.

  Maybe that’s the key to winning this.

  I cast another horror and instruct them to spread out. I have twelve still alive at the moment and since we are in battle, they no longer decay over time. If only I had a way to heal them, then I would be unstoppable.

  They take their positions around the edge of the room. I don’t want any of them to be hit in a cluster. A dozen orbs of water rise from the pool and hover in the air. My horrors have attack speed but no agility, so when the orbs come soaring across the room, only one manages to dodge the attack. Luckily, the water negates some of the fire damage by simply boiling their skin instead of burning them. It’s not ideal, but the damage is a little less. Steam rises with each attack, until I can barely see the horrors on the other side.

  We’re still screwed, but I’m hoping an opening will appear at some point. As of right now, the wyrms still have ninety percent of their health and the nymph has all of hers. Limery and I are topped off, but my horrors won’t last forever.