World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins
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“Seriously? The most useless profession in the game?” Baxwell asked in disbelief. “And here I thought you might actually know something. You just got lucky.”
Rose shrugged. “Believe me, don’t believe me, I don’t really care.”
“We’re ready,” said Giggle-Bella, setting the scroll on a small stone altar in the center of the room. She then backed out, taking up a place in the ring, directly across from Stephanie.
I cast ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’ on Rose’s shields, then I equipped my own spear, slamming the butt into the stone floor, causing a ripple of holy energy to radiate and crawl along the floor. Buffing my spear, I stood ready.
Giggle-Bella cleared her throat loudly, pulling all attention to her. “Okay enchanters, this ring is built for grand enchantments, both creating them and breaking them. Today, we will be breaking one. The outer ring is responsible for the outermost layers of the enchantment, you each should be able to see the first layer of the enchantment now. This is the easiest layer. On my order, you are to begin working through the enchantment to break that layer. Once the first layer has been broken, the second ring will be able to start breaking their layer and so on and so forth. As each layer of the enchantment is broken down, figments will spawn, that is for the fighters to deal with. Last chance for questions, anyone?”
“What are figments?” I asked.
“Monsters, shades most likely. Beasts formed from mana sealed into the scroll based on the intent of the master enchanter that made the scroll,” answered Giggle-Bella.
“Also scaling?” Rose asked.
“Yes,” Giggle-Bella replied. “Any other questions?”
“Um . . . I have the skill, but I’ve never broken an enchantment before. Do I just use the skill?” a player from the outer ring asked.
Giggle-Bella closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, so you should see a diagram in the air before you, showing an intricate enchanting formula. When you make an enchantment, you start with the primary pattern and then build onto it. Breaking an enchantment is the reverse process. You need to break each piece of the enchantment from newest to oldest. Use your skill ‘Break Enchantment’ to break each piece of the enchantment. Each time you break the wrong piece of the enchantment you will trip one of the failsafes, reducing the spawn timer on a new a figment. Breaking them correctly and fewer figments will spawn. The reason we use the weaker enchanters on the outer layer is because the figments get progressively stronger the closer you get to the final segment of the enchantment.”
“Have you ever played the ‘Puzzle Box’?” Stephanie asked.
“I hate that app,” complained the player.
“Well, one of the common puzzles is mechanical disassembly. If you don’t remove the parts in the right order the puzzle fails. Here, it’s not as significant if you break it in the wrong order, it won’t cause the whole thing to collapse like it would in the ‘Puzzle Box’,” explained Stephanie.
“Oh, that makes sense, thanks,” said the player, there were several others that mumble the same thanks. Apparently, the player that asked wasn’t the only player that had never broken an enchantment before, but he was the only one willing to speak up.
“Yes, thank you Miss Weird,” said Giggle-Bella. “Any other questions?” Giggle-Bella gave it a minute before speaking again. “Okay, then I’m sealing the room and we can begin in 10-seconds.”
I heard the stone door grinding then making a thundering sound as it locked in place.
“5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1, begin breaking,” ordered Giggle-Bella.
With the scroll in the center, smoke began to waft from the parchment. Not like a fire but more akin to a thick black smog, an unseen wind then picked it up and began swirling the smoke into a vortex, rising to the ceiling.
“Here they come,” called Giggle-Bella.
Rose clapped her two shields together.
The first monster spawned,
Rose charged, slamming her shoulder into the monster and knocking it to the ground. She then slammed the edge of one shield then the other into the monster.
“Rose, behind you, second mob,” I called, seeing the second spawn forming. I hit it with a ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ stunning it and giving Rose a chance to grab agro.
The other enemy was climbing back to its feet and chasing after Rose as she engaged the enemy I had just stunned. It didn’t make it very far as it was bombarded by the other fighters, lighting it up. It died quickly, evaporating into smoke.
Same for the one I stunned.
Then three spawned at the same time. Rose charged, her shoulder again slamming into the monster, then quickly shifting and slamming the edge of her shield into the other two targets before she turned back to the first target and battering it with both shields together.
I cast ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ on one, ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ on another and used ‘Jab’ on the last and they were all dead thanks to the combined efforts of the various damage dealers.
“Ha, this is easy,” laughed Baxwell, earning a glare from the entire room.
“You just had to jinx it,” complained Grave, vanishing from view.
Five spawned this time. I stunned one with ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ then unloaded as much damage as I could. I lost sight of the others but hoped they were fine. When I turned around, eight more were spawning.
I chose another of the weak enemies and quickly eliminated him. Rose picked up most of them holding six of them, while Grave and Winky tag teamed another, but another ten just spawned.
“First layer cleared, second layer go,” called Giggle-Bella.
We needed to clear the board before the next layer’s figments spawned. “Clear the area,” I called.
Yelling loudly, Rose cried out, “Hold it right there!” The mobs all froze, a ‘Frozen in Fear’ debuff appearing by their status bars. It gave me the opening I needed. As Rose ran back while I began channeling ‘Boar Charge’, enjoying the view as the drove of spectral porcine charged through the mob of Shaded Crawlers, quickly burning down their HP and stunning them repeatedly.
Boar Charge
Level: 5
Experience: 0.00%
Spell Damage: 125-300 per second
Spell Cast Speed: 5.00 seconds channeled Cooldown: 30 minutes
Spell Mana Cost: 250
Spell Effect (Active): Summon a stampede of spectral boars that will charge a targeted area dealing damage and knocking down anyone in the area of effect.
Charm Earned Bonus (Passive): Blessing of the Boar Spirit - +10-Endurance, +10-Stamina.
“Save your AoE spells, we need to save them where possible,” called Rose to the rest of the group. “We can easily wipe out any leftovers.”
“Your boyfriend just used one,” snarked Baxwell.
“Yes, he did, we should have established an order first, but Jack did the right thing, we can’t afford to get overrun early in the process. Next time we need an AoE, I’ll call it out,” said Rose. “As it is, Jack has a 30-minute cooldown on that spell.”
I should have communicated better with Rose rather than just use my Area of Effect spell like I did, I was more worried about getting overrun too early in the fight.
“Mine is only 5-minutes,” said Baxwell.
“Good, then you got next,” said Rose, then added, “Only when I call for it.”
“Yeah, yeah, next spawn is up,” said Baxwell, pointing to the smoggy vortex.
Rose charged before I could even see the mob.
Rose’s charge barely knocked the beast back, only sliding back maybe a foot. It leapt forward, bringing down two massive fists like hammers. Rose thankfully reacted fast enough and brought her two shields up fast enough to absorb the attack, though her knees did buc
kle a little and her HP dipped.
I hit it first with a ‘Lesser Holy Shock’, watching the stun take hold and a red -224-HP float up from it before running in. I flipped up over Rose, landing behind the Brute then let ‘Justice Strike’ fly, -358-HP floated up from the monster. I cast ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ adding the first stack. I didn’t relent, hitting the back of its knee with my subskill ‘Ligament Rip’, inflicting both a bleed and a debuff that increased the damage it took. I added a second bleed with my ‘Impale’ subskill, and finally struck hard with two ‘Power Thrust’ attacks before adding a second stack of ‘Lesser Holy Fire’, not that it needed it, the beast evaporated like the crawlers a moment later.
“Next spawn,” called Rose, already charging across the room and slamming into another Brute.
Rinse and repeat, we fought five more brutes but never more than one at a time thankfully.
“Third layer, go,” called Giggle-Bella.
I wondered briefly why the others couldn’t fight while they were waiting their turns or why they couldn’t help fighting the figments when they were done. A quick look to the back row answered my question, they were all pretty much running empty on both mana and stamina.
Rose charged.
“Why?” one of the enemies cried, wailing and stopping Rose’s charge in her tracks, causing her to sink to the floor, a new debuff ‘Brokenhearted’ by her name.
“That’s bad,” commented Baxwell unhelpfully.
I quickly equipped my shield and ran to get in front of her to wait for the debuff to clear or for someone to clear it.
“You stole my heart,” cried another of the Ardentia shades, I felt something wash over me, but I saw a resisted notification pop-up briefly. I stunned the last one before it could cast the same spell. I had to hope they had a long cooldown, or we would be in real trouble.
“Where’s a bard when you need one?” Winky complained. “We could sure use their mental defenses right now.”
“Rose has a ‘Command’ spell for it, but they just happened to get her first,” I said between dodges and blocking the clumsy swings of the Ardentia, they seemed to be more zombie like which was good, but if they got enough of us with that debuff we would be in real trouble.
Three more spawned and I was barely hanging on, thankfully it seemed Rose was back in the fight and just in time too as I got hit by one of the new mobs with that wretched spell.
When it took hold, it was like the worst depression in the history of depression. I felt alone, sad, distraught, and completely heartbroken, like I would never . . . could never feel love again.
“Stand strong,” called Rose, wiping away the debuff.
I stood and blinked a few times, it took me a second to realize I had been crying.
“Kill them all,” I cried out in anger, that depression debuff was wrong. The ability to use it was wrong. Nothing like that should ever exist in a game, let alone be allowed to make us feel something like that. It was worse than any pain this game had ever made me experience.
Winky really shined in this phase, he had a silencing shot ability that didn’t have a cooldown, it depended completely on his accuracy to shoot the target in the throat or mouth . . . he was a good shot. The rare shot he missed, Grave was there to garrote the target, also silencing the enemy.
Before we knew it, Giggle-Bella was calling for the fourth layer to begin. After that, it was Giggle-Bella and Stephanie’s turn for the final ring.
One thing at a time though. This time we had spawns of all three of the previous layers at once. Three crawlers, one brute and one brokenhearted.
“Brokenhearted first,” shouted Rose, not interested in feeling that debuff again. “Then the crawlers, brutes last.”
I stunned the brokenhearted, while Grave appeared out of thin air and stabbed both of his daggers into the back of the shade. Winky shot it in the throat before the stun even faded, ensuring it wouldn’t be able to cry out. A lightning bolt incinerated it a moment later. After that it was easy pickings, wiping out the crawlers proved to be as easy as the first time. The brute was the dangerous one, having more health and doing more damage than all the others, but it still fell under the onslaught.
There were only three more mobs like that, including single double mob that nearly wiped us out. If not for Silly using an AoE sleep spell, we would have been in real trouble. We kind of were anyway when the spell caught Rose and Grave. Luckily, the druid had a very simple solution to waking them up. He thumped them each with his gnarled staff, forcing them to wake up.
After that it wasn’t so bad.
“Final layer, starting,” called Giggle-Bella. “Get ready for the boss.”
The scroll began spewing smog faster, the vortex reshaping itself into a hulking bulls head followed by the body of a man, made entirely of smog before slowly turning solid with glowing red eyes, above its head appeared the name
If I remembered my mythology correctly, Pasiphae was a queen who was punished by Aphrodite with an unnatural lust to mate with a bull. The result was the minotaur of legend, the final boss of the original labyrinth.
The minotaur stood tall and bellowed loudly in challenge, a club of shadows forming in one hand and a shield in the other.
“Charging,” called Rose, blurring from sight, her shoulder impacting against the bull’s shield, stumbling it only a step, the minotaur countered with an over hand swing of its club. Rose blocked but still lost a healthy chunk of her HP in the process. Then even more when the minotaur followed up the attack with a kick to Rose’s armored but unblocked chest. The hit sent her skidding across the floor, more than half her HP was gone, but that didn’t deter her, she was back on her feet and charging in again.
Rose blocked another overhand club attack but this time she stepped in, slamming the interlocked shields into the minotaur before he could kick her, this time he was lifted from his feet, landing hard on this back. Rose slammed the edges of her shields down on the minotaur, one after the other until he recovered enough to roll out of the way.
“I should have plenty of agro now, start dps slowly,” ordered Rose.
I started out with my DOT, ‘Lesser Holy Fire’, waiting until I had built up all three stacks before I hit it harder.
“This is easy,” said Baxwell, letting lightning fly from his hands, reminding me a little of another cinematic classic.
“Coming up on 10%, prepare for transition,” called Rose.
Just like she called, the minotaur bellowed, releasing a wave of energy that knocked us all back. It then started stomping its feet hard, reminding me of a little kid having a temper tantrum. Except, when a little kid stomps his feet, he doesn’t unsettle your feet and knock you to the ground. I couldn’t stay stable long enough to target him to stun him.
When the stomping finished, he had changed weapons, now he wielded two scimitars made of shadow.
“Healers, brace for extra healing,” warned Rose, charging in once more, trying to regain agro. “Wait for agro before you dps again.”
I barely heard Baxwell snort before a bolt of lightning zapped past me, impacting the minotaur. The bull bellowed, turning away from Rose and facing Baxwell, it lowered its head and charged.
“Get back here,” called Rose, trying to use her ‘Command: Taunt’ spell to no affect.
I tried to stun it, but the spell bounced off him. I tried to stab it as it passed only for my spear to do no damage. It was a ‘Juggernaut Charge’ if my guess was right. It was something in gamer speak that basically meant the one doing the charge becomes invulnerable during the charge. Baxwell stupidly stood unmoving, trying to get off another spell in the hopes of stopping the minotaur. When his spell bounced off the beast a mere foot away it was too late for him to run. A resigned look came over him as he took a single hit and was gone, his HP zeroed completely.
The minotaur bellowed triumphantly, his HP jumping back up 5%.
“Anyone else want to be stupid with their agro?” Rose asked, charging in again and retaking agro and trying to work the beast back into the center of the room.
“Okay, slow damage only,” called Rose.
And that was how the fight went. Every 10% mark it would bellow, throw a temper tantrum and change weapons. Before we knew it, the Son of Pasiphae was defeated.
“That . . . was . . . epic!” Winky shouted from his back, panting. His stamina was completely depleted.
There was the sound of something shattering, drawing all our attention to the center of the room. The seal on the scroll had broken, shattered.
Suddenly there was a loud bell tolling. It was so loud, unbelievably so, it shook me to my core.
ATTENTION CITIZENS AND ADVENTURERS OF THE WORLD TREE!
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MILENNIA, THE COMPLETION OF A GRAND ENCHAMENT PROFESSIONAL QUEST HAS BEEN ACHIEVED.
TO CELEBRATE THIS CROWNING ACHIEVMENT, ALL EXPERIENCE GAINS ARE DOUBLED FOR ALL WORLD TREE CITIZENS AND ADVENTURERS FOR THE NEXT 24-HOURS.
WELL DONE AND CONGRATULATIONS!
Rose Thorns (Quest Originator)
Stephanie Weird
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Special Thanks to Bye-bye Jacko
I was also given an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
Hidden Quest: Grand Enchantment Professional Quest for non-Enchanters – Completed!
Your participation in a quest for which you do not possess the profession for is an achievement unto itself and one that should not go unrewarded.
Reward: +10,000-Experience (+10,000-Experience Bonus), Title: Professional
I was quick to check the title.
Professional (Increases all professional experience gains by 25%, increases speed and quality of all professional products by 25%)