The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  We searched for another 20-minutes but found nothing in the ruins.

  “I seem to ask this a lot,” started Rose. “But, now what?”

  I sighed and look up the mountain slope. This section of the mountain above us was in rough shape. There were gaping holes and jagged rock formation all over it. “It’s probably hidden up there then.”

  Everyone grimaced as they followed my gaze and looked at the mountainside.

  “Everyone, pair off,” ordered Rose, “Baby, you’re with me.”

  “I guess it’s you and me, mate,” said Heath, appearing next to me and putting an arm around my shoulders.

  “We’ll go right,” volunteered Olaf for himself and Micaela.

  “We’ve got middle then,” said Rose.

  “I guess that leaves us with the left,” I said, looking at the path ahead of us. But then I stopped.

  “Wait,” I called, halting my friends.

  “What is it?” asked Heath.

  “I see tracks,” I answered. “Boot tracks, the same style of boot as I saw by where Davies was killed.”

  “Can you follow them?” asked Olaf, hopefully.

  “Yeah, there are a lot of them coming and going from the same path,” I said. Right there on the left side, where we were about to ascend, were the highlighted boot prints. So many boot prints, but they all followed the same path.

  “Lead the way,” said Rose excitedly.

  The path up wound between jagged spikes of rock and through loose rock and dirt. I even lost the tracks a few times when they went over hard rock only to pick them up again a few yards later. Eventually, they led us to a small cave we would never have seen from below and probably never would have found up here if not for the tracks to follow. The entrance was large enough but the rock outcropping around it almost created a maze.

  About five-yards inside the cave was a large stone door with the glowing image of the moon inside a glowing yellow sun, both engraved on it and surrounded by Norse writing.

  “Open in the name of the Forefathers, who keep time moving forward,” Rose read the inscription aloud. A grinding noise followed by the door sinking into the floor. Just behind the door was a grey mist we couldn’t see through and if not for the system message we would never have known what laid beyond.

  You’ve discovered ‘Hidden Norse Temple’

  Hidden Norse Temple – Dungeon – Level 5-7

  The Hidden Norse Temple was lost in the annals of history, thought to be destroyed long ago this temple houses many mysteries and grave dangers for any who enter.

  “He actually found a dungeon,” said Baby in disbelief, her eyes wide as she looked at the mists before us.

  Olaf though held out a hand toward Baby and made a pay up motion.

  Baby sighed but fluttered over and dropped a few Silver into the waiting mitt.

  “Pleasure doing business with you,” said Olaf, adding the money to his bag.

  “Did we really just find a starter dungeon?” asked Rose, not quite believing what she was seeing.

  “Yes, we did,” said Heath, sounding slightly awestruck, his accent forgotten again.

  “What are we waiting around out here for?” asked Micaela, snapping us all out of our slightly dumbfounded states. “Let’s get in there already.”

  The woman was infectious, her excitement spread to us all.

  “Rose is in first followed by Baby. Dungeons don’t usually have enemies right by the entrance but better safe than sorry,” I ordered, just as excited as everyone else but trying to temper it with a sense of caution.

  Rose stepped inside followed closely by Baby.

  I went next. When I stepped into the mist I wasn’t sure what to expect. I suppose I expected something to happen, but it didn’t. I took two more steps forward and then I was out of the mist facing a stone hallway with luminescent blue light glowing from the ceiling. It wasn’t bright, but it gave just enough light to see everything without being able to see much in the way details. It was slightly better than torchlight, it was constant and didn’t flicker.

  “Yeah, this light is going to give me a headache,” complained Rose, a few feet ahead of me.

  Someone bumped into me from behind, jostling me forward a few steps. I didn’t think about the people coming through behind me. I looked back to see Olaf who was then bumped by Micaela as she entered.

  I took a few more steps forward just to clear the doorway and give them enough room to enter properly as well. I looked at the stone hall again. It was as wide and as tall as the door outside was and must have been about fifty-yards long. I could see a larger room beyond that but couldn’t make out any details.

  “Should we worry about traps?” asked Rose, as she stepped forward to lead the way.

  “Don’t know yet,” I answered.

  “Okay, then, for now, I’ll lead, Jack, stay on my hip for now, if you see a trap call it out. Baby, then Heath and Mic, Olaf, you’ve got the rear,” ordered Rose, giving us a basic formation.

  We moved slowly down that first hall, not sure what to expect. When we got to the end of the hall the room was less a room and more of an intersection. There were tattered wall hangings with illegible Norse writing. A rotted corner table and broken vase but nothing else of note. From the intersection there were three paths, or rather should have been three paths, one of them was completely caved in.

  “Which way do we go?” asked Rose, she looked tightly wound right then.

  I put a hand on her shoulder getting her to look sharply at me. I smiled at her and took an exaggerated deep breath and let it out slowly. She took the hint and did the same. It seemed to calm her.

  “Well, the middle path usually leads to the last boss, so I’m saying we take the tunnel on the right,” said Olaf. “I want to see what all this place has to offer.”

  I was going to agree, but something about that collapsed tunnel had me curious. “Say, Olaf, Mic, would you guys be able to clear that cave in with your mining skills?”

  Olaf blinked in surprise but then grinned. “You bet your mystery finding behind we can.”

  It didn’t take long for them to clear the path. It turned out the collapse only went a few feet deep. The hall beyond was lit similarly with the same glowing blue light. But before we entered the tunnel, I renewed everyone’s buffs including my own.

  This hall was narrower, so we had to move single file. About ten-yards in, the path turned right and then opened to small armory, ten feet further in. The room appeared to have been mostly looted, except for a few pieces of rusting armor. It made no sense to me. Games don’t put in hidden rooms unless there was something to be found.

  “Look around, we’re missing something,” I requested. As I was searching I didn’t notice as Heath and Olaf took up position on either side of me until I bumped into Olaf causing me to pause.

  “So, how was it?” Olaf asked softly.

  “How was what?” I asked.

  “Your date, mate?” asked Heath, also quietly.

  “What date?” I asked. When did I go on a date?

  “With Rose?” asked Olaf, looking at me in slight disbelief.

  “When?” I asked.

  “Last night,” added Heath, giving me a similar look.

  That was a date? I was about to question them both rather loudly when Olaf warned me off with a finger to his lips. “That was a date?” I asked softly.

  “Did you really not know it was a date?” asked Heath.

  “How would I know that was a date? I didn’t ask her out and she didn’t ask me out. We just . . . kind of went about our business.” Now, I was feeling a little self-conscious. If that was a date, then was it a good date? If you couldn’t already tell, I don’t have much experience with dating. My ignorance of it being a date is ample proof of that fact. “Wait, did Rose know that was a date?”

  Heath and Olaf shared a look for a moment before they shook their heads and simply walked away leaving me confused. Was that really a date? I sighed and tried to
refocus on the task at hand.

  After 10-minutes of searching, we found nothing. In my frustration from a combination of not finding anything and feeling confused about the whole Rose-date situation, I kicked a rusted helmet. It clattered along the floor until it went unimpeded through a wall without leaving a mark. It made the sound of metal clanging against metal a second later.

  “Did everyone else just see that?” I asked.

  “The helmet going through the wall?” asked Heath. “Nope, didn’t see a thing.”

  I chuckled in spite of myself. I followed the path of the helmet to the wall. It was completely solid at chest level. I started feeling downward until my hand went through the wall near my knees. “It’s a small opening,” I said, kneeling down to poke my head through. When I did, it hit wood rather painfully, causing me to jerk back and rub my head as if it would sooth the pain.

  Rose was in front of me in a second with her sword drawn and shield ready to protect me. “What was it?”

  “Not a monster,” I answered, calming her down. “I think I hit my head on a chest. Olaf, think you could reach inside and pull it out. That thing didn’t even budge when my head hit it.”

  “Consider it done,” said Olaf. His big meaty arm reached through the illusion hiding the treasure chest and with a grunt of effort pulled it through for us to all see.

  It was a treasure chest made with rusting steel bands and dark wood clearly starting to rot. I even saw a crack where my head hit it, even though, I felt I took more damage.

  “Shall we break it open?” asked Micaela excitedly. We were all excited. It was our first treasure chest.

  “Leave it to me,” said Heath, slipping in front of the chest and kneeling before the lock, his picks going to work deftly. “This thing is a rusted bloody mess. Olaf, mate, got any oil on you?”

  I was surprised when Olaf was actually able to present a small oil can.

  “I use it for some of my engineering projects,” Olaf answered the unasked question.

  A few seconds later there was a clicking of the lock giving way followed by an angry screech of the chest lid opening.

  It was filled with dust and scraps of leather.

  “Rotted books,” I said softly and feeling disappointed.

  “Only on top,” said Heath, as he dug through it. He pulled out an intact book which he passed to Olaf who was closest. He then dove back in and started pulling out fist-sized gemstones, three of them. “That’s all folks.”

  “What’s the book, Olaf?” I asked.

  “Don’t know, can’t read it. My UI reports as ‘Unknown Text’,” he answered, holding it out to me.

  I accepted the book. It was covered in Norse runes but there were some I just didn’t know. As a result, all I got for a description was ‘Spear of (Unknown Rune, cannot translate)’

  “I can only read part of it. Rose?” I offered the book to her.

  Rose took it and took a look as well but quickly passed it back to me. “Same.”

  “Should I hold on to it then?” I asked the group.

  “Might as well. You’re more likely to be able to translate it in the future than the rest of us,” said Olaf.

  Rose coughed.

  “You and Rose that is,” clarified Olaf.

  I rolled my eyes at Rose, but put the book into my bag.

  “What are the stones?” asked Baby, as Heath seemed to study them.

  “Description says Mana Crystal 0/1,000,” Heath answered.

  “May I see one?” asked Baby, excitement in her voice.

  “Sure,” said Heath, tossing one of them to her.

  She caught it was both hands and sagged in the air from the weight of it. She then focused on it and it started to glow blue. “Yes, it’s what I thought. You can charge this with mana and use them to recharge your own mana later. Can I keep this one?” she requested.

  “Yeah, mind if I keep one of them?” asked Heath.

  I looked to the others, but none of them seemed to mind so I shrugged. “That leaves one, who wants it?”

  “I think we should give it to Baby also,” said Rose. “I know you and I both use mana, but not to the extent she does.”

  “I’m fine with that,” I replied. I truly was fine with it too. Hopefully, we’d come back to this dungeon a few more times before we left this province now that we knew it was here.

  “Thanks, guys,” said Baby, putting the second stone into her bag. “Next time we take a break, I’ll try charging them up.”

  “That’s fine,” said Rose. “Anyway, let’s get moving.”

  When we returned to the intersection there was an extra glow not there before.

  and had taken up residence in the room. I counted 6 of them, two ghosts and four zombies.

  “Where did they come from?” whispered Rose.

  “Probably spawned because we opened that chest,” suggested Heath.

  “I didn’t see any traps on the chest,” I defended.

  “Then maybe when we pulled it from its hiding spot,” Heath countered.

  “Look, it doesn’t matter what caused them to spawn. What matters is how we’re going to deal them,” interrupted Rose. “Now, Jack, see the one standing by himself?” she asked pointing to one of the . “I want you to try and pull him to us by himself.”

  “And if he brings the others?” I asked.

  “Then it’s a good thing the hallway is narrow,” Rose replied as she readied her sword and shield.

  Chapter 36

  ‘Holy Smite’ should have been the perfect spell to pull one of the monsters to us. I thought it was a good idea at the time. I hit the lonesome as planned. I didn’t plan for it to get a critical strike or for it to be weak to Holy magic . . . really weak to Holy magic, like 53% of its health gone in one hit weak to Holy magic. Unfortunately, it only had eyes for me and completely ignored Rose’s attempts to taunt it. That left me flipping around and bouncing off walls to avoid the deranged zombie cultist, while my friends did their best to kill it without accidentally killing me. As if that wasn’t enough, we learned it was resistant to all physical damage. Long story short, my trying not to die, ended with me doing about 90% of the damage to kill the thing, and ending up with just 11% of my health remaining, because when it hit, it hit hard.

  “Okay, so, any suggestions?” asked Rose, looking at the remaining five undead enemies.

  “Just one,” I said. “Hold out your weapons, let’s see if this works.”

  Rose held out her sword and I put my hand on the blade then chanted for my spell ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’. It seemed to work when her sword took on a white glow.

  “Does it hurt you?” I asked, slightly worried because she was a half-vampire and holy and vampire generally don’t get along very well.

  “Not at all, I think we’re good,” Rose replied.

  “Good, next,” I said, looking to my friends. Heath was easy, Baby passed because she was more worried about healing. Micaela and Olaf both require the spell be cast twice, once for each weapon. It hurt my mana pool, but it would be worth it. Especially, if we could actually damage these guys.

  “Okay, let’s try this again. This time, don’t crit, Jack,” warned Rose.

  This time I avoided using ‘Holy Smite’ and instead lit the next one on fire. It came with a friend too, so we got one ghost and one zombie. I tried to give Rose plenty of time to get aggro and she seemed to have them down. Then Olaf let the zombie have it with both barrels. Critical strikes taking off 75% percent of the health, was probably not what he had in mind. Suddenly, it was a scramble to kill the one he pulled. Thankfully, my combo, which was pretty much all Holy damage, was enough to wipe it out in short order.

  “I hate this guy,” complained Rose as she fought the ghost. “It’s ignoring my shield, just goes right through it.”

  I cringed, I didn’t think about putting ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’ on her shield. I was
well aware, I’d be getting an earful about it soon.

  With the zombie dead, our DPS turned to the ghost. We tried to be careful but one of us still pulled aggro from Rose.

  “Screw the undead, this is ridiculous,” Rose complained loudly as she waited for Baby to finish healing her.

  “I have a suggestion,” said Olaf. “We’re not going to be able to prevent taking aggro from you. But if we do it one at a time and kite them, we should be able to kill it before it gets to one of us.” Kiting wasn’t a bad idea. It was risky trying to drag an enemy around on a string the way you would a kite in the air, but it was doable if you had enough space to work with. As it was, we had enough space and I knew I would be able to generate plenty of threat to make it chase me.

  “We can try it,” I said, then I cringed for what was coming next. “But first, let me see your shield, Rose.” She started to hold it out to me, then paused halfway. Her eyes narrowed. Yep, she figured it out.

  “We’ll have words later,” she said as she finished holding the shield out toward me.

  It took only a moment for the ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’ to take hold on her shield.

  “Okay, take three,” said Rose, looking into the enlarged intersection and the three grouped up undead cultists.

  “Let’s get the ghost first,” I said. Rose would have an easier time with the zombies, than she would the ghost so best to make her life easier right now.

  “Charging in,” warned Rose before she blurred from view and reappeared, slamming into one of the zombies, then bashing the other with her shield and taking a large chunk of its HP away.

  I cast my ‘Holy Smite’ and ‘Lesser Holy Fire’ getting full aggro and knocking out almost a quarter of the HP from the . Olaf fired next taking another 20% and his second shot taking 22%. My second ‘Holy Smite’ hit right after and got a critical strike, taking out the rest of its health. It didn’t even make it halfway across the room before it died.

  We looked back at the two zombies Rose was fighting and both were down a fair bit of HP, both hovering around 80% remaining.