by D Wolfin
Thankfully my weapons halve the amount of mana required for my religious skills, limiting this spell to use about a quarter of my mana.
In the air around me, eighty to ninety small wisps of dire flame flicker to life like a small starscape. I concentrate and target the three golems each with a third of my starbursts. Each and every one of the small dire stars shoots forward like a bullet, piercing into the golems.
Cracks spread across one of the golems like a cobweb and it immediately crumbles into a pile of rubble. The other two survive the attack, but are also near collapse. The dire flames flicker in the wounds of the golems. They don’t cause continuous damage like they usually would, but instead prevent recovery.
The entire party and I are surprised at the strength of the magic.
Completely unfazed by the condition of the enemy, Fen materializes several ice spears and quickly kills the remaining golems. In comparison to their strength against physical attacks, they are extremely weak against magic attacks. It is only CaptainGordon’s strange cannon pistol that defies this logic.
With our enemies defeated, we collect the dropped loot and distribute it equally amongst ourselves. There are several silver coins, a low quality spear made from obsidian, and more than a handful of iron ores. I forego the spear and coins, taking more ores to train my smithing. CaptainGordon takes the same approach as me, collecting crafting materials with the intention of making a new boat eventually.
Being able to easily kill the enemies, we wander the streets of the ‘Ruminu Forgotten Temple’ with ease. I see the party of Nekomata and Inudoga occasionally along with several other groups of players, but there is still ample room to hunt enemies. Our main problem is that the enemies’ levels are too low and we have little chance of gaining much experience from them.
“What is in the buildings?” I ask with interest as we walk past the open doorway to one of the buildings.
Verde also looks into the opening, casually saying, “I’m not sure, but the other parties in the area have shown no desire in going in so I wouldn’t imagine much.”
Out of curiosity, we walk into one of the buildings, which is unnaturally dark until Sir Laurence casts a spell that creates a luminous ball of light above him.
When the inside of the building fills with light, twenty or more ‘Stone Guardians’ come to life, standing up and attacking. To make matters worse, they block off the doorway and are only a few meters away in this enclosed space.
Without the need for direction, everyone starts using their strongest attacks. I falter in surprise when Fen fills the area with an icy mist and causes ice spears to form at random locations in the air and attack omnidirectionally.
Mason shoots arrows of wind that are an improvement to the previous version of his sacred art. Now they shoot like a blade of wind, cutting everything in their path. Matrix’s sword burns with an inferno, the flames now with a hint of blue fire within them. Sir Laurence raises his sword up high, slashing it down with an overwhelming golden light.
Verde, well, she has no magic-based attacks and is standing protected in the middle of the group with a sour expression. I wonder if she will learn some elemental magic skills at the cities’ churches next time she has the chance.
As I am about to use ‘Dire Starburst’, something strikes me from the side and sends me flying. I get a glimpse of one of six stone golems that were closing in on me before hitting the wall. My health takes a significant penalty as well, losing a third instantly.
‘Tch, aggravation caused them to focus on me again. I also need better armor, the monsters keep doing more and more damage,’ I inwardly chastise myself for not being cautious enough.
Eating a few restorative herbs, I silently watch the monsters and marvel at how powerful my auto-aggravation is as they completely ignore Fen’s relentless assault of ice spears up until the point they collapse.
I also don’t entirely understand Fen’s magic. I can see how much mana she has at all times, and it appears she has needed less mana to use her basic skills than ever before. I wonder if there is a limit to this reduction, or if she will eventually be able to freely control basic ice attacks without the need to spend mana at all.
Several other golems break through our assault and attack our party. Most are blocked by Sir Laurence, but two manage to land a strike on Mason and CaptainGordon. CaptainGordon suffers the most, losing seventy percent of his health from a single strike. His defense must be even lower than mine.
CaptainGordon brings out his own health potion, a middle quality one, and drinks it while hiding behind the others. The ‘Stone Guardians’ should have been defeated by now, but they have an annoying ability to absorb the rubble of their fallen comrades to heal themselves. As such, there are still nine remaining.
With my health restored and no current ‘Stone Guardians’ under my aggravation, I order everyone to attack all the targets evenly to bring their health down to fifty percent. Once that task is done, I cast ‘Dire Starburst’, creating carnage and damaging half of the golems. Perhaps it is due to there being more targets than last time, but my attack does considerably less damage to each golem. Still, it is enough that three are instantly killed and another three are quickly destroyed by the party.
The final few golems are quickly disposed of without much effort, and the room is now full of rubble. Several ornaments and stone shelves along the walls have broken as a result of the battle, but most of the room is intact. After collecting the loot, we divide up a large quantity of iron ore, a few bluesteel ores, and other miscellaneous goods.
The building is of considerable size, so we spend some time exploring the rooms and collecting any treasures lying around. More stone golems attack us, but nothing compared to the first room. We find a treasure chest in the back of the building, but it only contains a couple of low quality weapons and armor for each person.
I also can’t help but notice while we are inside that Fen keeps staring at me in an intimidating way. She is always next to me, so I do my best to put it out of my mind.
Leaving the building and going back onto the street, two of the parties see us emerge and express looks of utter surprise. Clearly, they know about the dangers inside the buildings.
One of the parties, the Nekomata and Inudoga party I saw earlier, quickly finishes the golems with an efficiency they didn’t have before and walks toward us. I put my guard up in case they attempt anything, but am confident we can defeat them with our strength.
Moments later, the party arrives before us and the leader, a handsome man with drooping dog ears and wielding a large two-handed sword, steps out and says, “Haha, no need to be so guarded. To be honest, I am surprised that you successfully went into one of these houses and came out alive. I have a proposition for your party leader: would you like to form a team and enter the main temple?”
“What’s in it for you?” I ask cautiously.
“Well, we don’t have the strength to go all the way through by ourselves. Judging by your strength, we should be able to if we work together.”
I look back at the rest of my party. Everyone apart from Fen and Verde nod their heads in acceptance. I also don’t have a problem working with another party, so I consent to working with them.
“That’s great! My name is NightHunt.”
NightHunt also introduces the rest of his party: PathFinder, GraciousOne, Gole, Pursuit, and HumorMe. The last person’s name causes me to laugh, but they seem to be straightforward people. They also happened to have come from another server when the merge happened, and they don’t know me or anyone from our party when I introduce us.
NightHunt also participated in the ‘Battle for Supremacy’, but it was only a superficial one as his server was already marked to merge with a different server. Since the result would have no impact after the merge, nowhere near as many people participated as ours had.
Taking part in minor chatter with the other party, I begin to grow more friendly with NightHunt and the others. Of course
, I protectively hold Fen close after a few lusty glances are sent her way. Verde receives some gazes as well and moves behind Sir Laurence and the others.
Fighting against the ‘Stone Guardians’ with two parties is incredibly easy, to the point of instantly crushing groups of five or six. It only takes half an hour before we arrive at the entrance to the grand temple in the center of the ruins.
The doorway is a massive opening five meters tall and three meters wide. Torches, whose flames could die out at any moment, are strewn across the ground at regular intervals, dimly lighting the interior.
We enter and proceed cautiously, as this temple apparently has enemies much stronger than the ones outside.
Stone bricks make up the floor, walls, and ceiling. Vibrant green vines cover most of them though, breaking up the world of grey.
The tunnel into the temple continues straight forward until it reaches a large, square room, sixty meters long on each side, in the center of the temple. The ceiling is a large dome, with a single hole at the apex through which sunlight follows a small tunnel from the temple roof and spills into the room. In opposition to the stone brick floor earlier, this room has several decayed gardens and even a dried up river in it.
Pathways snake around the room toward different exits. Among the paths and gardens, golems made of iron walk in groups of six or seven.
“Creature Analysis.”
Name: Iron Guardian
Level: 210
Health: 7800
Magic: 700
Stamina: 700
??
They’re very similar to the Stone Guardians, except stronger, and if my intuition isn’t wrong, even more resistant to physical attacks.
“They are near immune to physical attacks,” NightHunt explains to me, as if reading my mind.
Nodding to him, I turn toward the rest of my party. “Well, I guess they are evolved ‘Stone Guardians’. They are level 210, much higher than the enemies outside. CaptainGordon, if you want to, you know, test out your weapon on them that will be fine. If you don’t want to show it off in front of another party though, I understand. Verde… I’m sorry.”
Verde is downcast because she is useless in this dungeon since she only knows physical attacks.
Experimenting with physical attacks against the enemy, I use ‘Backstab’ on the nearest golem, appearing behind it. Stabbing two daggers down onto the hulking lump of metal, I am completely incapable of penetrating the surface. I quickly use my original sacred arts, ‘Triple Thrust’ and ‘CrossX’, before it has a chance to retaliate.
My attacks result in taking a mere sliver off its health, and several white scratches on the back of its torso. I expected the golem to take a bit of time to turn around before attacking me, but to my surprise, its head and hands simply spin around. Caught unaware, I am completely knocked away by an arm like an iron rod that connects with my shoulder and takes more than half my health.
‘Its attacks are much stronger, too!’
Quickly returning to the party, I let them know my findings while healing my wounds. Due to a lack of time, I consume several of my own potions and wonder why the others dislike them so much. They don’t taste great, but they’re not that bad.
Fen hugs me while I am healing and I imagine her licking my wounds. As strange as my daydream is, I realize that I like the idea. Maybe later, though, when we’re not in any immediate danger.
My aggravation apparently attracts quite a few golems toward us, and both parties curse at me before firing their magic attacks. Fen is a little late to join, as she stays with me and doesn’t seem to realize the situation going on around her.
She normally isn’t this much of an airhead, so I think something must be up. Just as I am thinking that, she bites her lower lip and says so quietly that only the two of us can hear, “I can’t… wait any longer.”
I don’t understand what she means, but before I can react, a dome-like ice barrier forms around us. The ice completely blocks vision, but it lets a pale blue light through from the outside.
I look deeply into Fen’s eyes as she suddenly grabs my coat, pulling herself close and laying her lips over mine.
Subconsciously I wrap my arms around her, feeling the chill of her skin while holding her tightly. She doesn’t struggle at all, accepting my embrace entirely. I brush a lock of snow-white hair out of the way as I initiate another kiss.
Once again my senses are overwhelmed by the sweetness of her lips, savoring the moment until the end. That’s not even mentioning the feeling of her tongue wrapped around mine. I have no clue what such a thing would feel like. Definitely not.
I quickly release her when I finally remember that a fight is currently going on around us, pushing her back slightly and mumbling, “Now isn’t the time… Later, okay?”
She nods meekly and moves behind me, dispelling the ice barrier at the same time.
Some of my party look at me with suspicion, especially Mason, who says, “What was that? Also, Fen, you are drooling.”
At this point, Sir Laurence’s attitude seems to take a jolt as if he has suddenly realized something.
“I forgot about Fen’s satiety level,” I hesitantly lie. “It got too low so she was hungry.”
Sir Laurence, unwilling to let this moment go, comments, “I bet. Hungry like the wolf.”
This triggers Mason’s knowledge of the situation, and he sharply turns toward the prince. “Really? You must be joking.”
“I never joke. By the way, she isn’t-” His words trail off into a whisper as he describes his conclusion to Mason in lurid detail.
‘Would you two just shut up! Especially you, Fake Prince!’ I silently scream as I realize the situation is completely beyond my control. If anything between Fen and I is to happen again, it must be as far away from these two as possible.
My only saving grace is that the others don’t appear to have many suspicions. NightHunt has a sly smirk on his face, but I give him a glare that says he’s dead if he opens his mouth.
While we are distracted, the golems somehow increase their numbers again and are starting to pressure us. In a panic, I cast ‘Dire Starburst’, killing the nearly dead ones and weakening the rest.
With the onslaught of two parties’ worth of magic, the battle is quickly won. NightHunt’s party is indeed not that strong, and most of the work is done by us, so we take seventy percent of the loot and the other thirty percent is theirs. This is quite generous, as eighty-twenty would be closer to fair.
An hour and many health and mana recovery potions later, we finally clear the room of all the ‘Iron Guardians’. The interaction between Fen and I earlier has also become common knowledge, much to my embarrassment and much to Mason’s and Sir Laurence’s pleasure. Verde acts strangely after finding out, occasionally sending me furtive glances. I look back at her once, only to have her quickly turn away.
I am completely silent as we leave the main room, following a random corridor. Fen keeps unusually close to me too, which isn’t helping my current situation.
Just as I’m considering running away from the group and exploring the temple myself, we enter a smaller tomb-like room connected to the corridor. ‘Iron Golems’ aren’t as concentrated as in the entry room, but they are still abundant.
Each room usually has a treasure chest, even if most of them are full of rubbish or trapped. Checking for and disarming them becomes Verde’s sole task. We discover that a strange new herb called a ‘Star Herb’ is often found in the treasure chests. As I am the only one with a use for it, I give up on some other minor goods and monopolize them.
We finally find a staircase leading to the second floor, which is about ten meters above the first. The second floor turns out to be a headache, with the ‘Iron Guardians’ increasing to level 220 and the corridors becoming something akin to a labyrinth.
We break for lunch after a particularly large fight that leaves us all tired, but our effort isn’t without reward. I have increased my level by two, and so
has everyone else in my group. NightHunt’s party is elated, as each of them has gained at least seven levels or more.
I am in charge of lunch, as usual. With my cooking equipment, I create a vegetable soup with several herbs, including the new ‘Star Herb’, which proves to be a new favorite. NightHunt’s party immediately gets closer to us after smelling the cooking. It is worlds above the pre-cooked meat and other smaller rations they have prepared.
With everyone extremely energetic after a good tasting meal and their satiety bars full, we continue our exploration of the temple. The second floor is very repetitive, and also very easy to get lost in. We do happen to find an easy method to deal with any large groups of ‘Iron Guardians’ though.
The top of the walls and floors are covered with vine growth, and there are occasionally thicker vines running across the floor that are easy to trip on. Whether it was intended by the game designers or not, we only need to lead the iron golems over one of these vines for them to trip and fall. The success rate of this is incredibly high, with only one or two fortunate enough to step over the vines.
With the increased efficiency from killing enemies that fall and can’t move, we manage to search the remainder of the second floor and ascend to the third. Just as I had suspected, the ‘Iron Guardians’ have increased by another ten levels to level 230. I don’t know if it is just my imagination, but they also seem to be getting larger and more resistant to physical attacks.
The vines are thicker on the third level, making the enemies even easier to trip and kill. This level is also smaller than the previous one, with wider paths allowing us to clear it in two thirds the time of the second.
Just like clockwork, the enemies grow stronger by ten levels, slightly larger in size, and the area of the floor is smaller all the way until the end of the fifth floor. NightHunt’s party is practically doing nothing by now, barely able to even damage the golems who have increasingly large health pools.
This changes once we ascend to the sixth floor. After several enemies, I notice in the dim light that they appear slightly different and use ‘Creature Analysis’.