Does it sound like I'm an addict? Well, I don't care.
I kept training.
* * *
She looked at the big sword in my hands.
I smiled.
I didn't know why she was in such a good mood, but I'd take it. Maybe because of my speech the day before? Women liked stuff like that.
We waited for Eternal before moving on. He did little damage, but it was still some damage, and we were almost pals now.
The vampire's eyes widened.
All the gabats had reappeared and we took our time annihilating them. After discovering the right way to do it, it became almost too easy.
As my agility increased by one, I realized this was a nice hunting area; if the upper floor was the same, it would be great for leveling up.
Anything could be waiting for us. Sooner or later we would at least find the gabats with four swords which had killed the ghouls, and I was not in a hurry to fight them.
The access ramp was about ten meters long, but Daggers found no less than twenty traps on it. And I found one. I felt damn proud of myself for differentiating the small rock from the ones nearby while Daggers was disarming another one.
Trait received: Scout
Detecting two highly concealed traps has shown that you are mindful of details in your surroundings.
» +1 perception when detecting hidden things, people or illusions
Scout level increased to 2 (+1)
Being a Legendary Spotter means you are a better scout.
» +2 perception when detecting hidden traps, people or illusions
It felt like forever since I had received a new trait. Which was it, negotiator? And why was it saying I had detected two traps when in fact I had only detected one?
It took me some time, but I remembered the trap in the prison. The game had a long memory.
Detecting the trap didn't mean I could disarm it but Daggers was happy enough to keep raising her trap disarming skill by herself.
Another corridor was ahead of us, this one about eight meters high. I called Eternal up and we began exploring the floor.
Soon enough we found the first chamber. It also had six gabats, but they were not five pawns and a rook. The livestock and the fences were there, and three pawns sleeping on the side, but that's where the similarities ended.
A tall metal structure was in the center of the chamber. It was like a soccer goal, and a gabat was hanging upside down from it by its feet. Its body was wrapped in its wings.
Instead of a single rook gabat, there were two in front of the upside down gabat. Well, at least they looked like rooks since they acted the exact same way.
Still six gabats, but a different setup.
There was no need to describe the scene to the party. The corridor was straight and both Daggers and Eternal could see what lay ahead.
Without waiting for a reply I threw four fireballs and killed two pawns. The third one didn't provide any difficulty for us when he got closer and the rooks didn't attack at once.
I knew I was being reckless, but after all that training I just wanted to kill things as fast as possible.
Soon my four fireballs flew again. The rook tried to dodge.
I had not shown my path correction ability to my colleagues but now was a bad time to worry about that. If the two rooks got to us, it could mean our collective deaths. So I corrected the path and all spells hit.
Both rooks opened their wings and ran in my direction. I had enough time to create a new fire morb and finish one.
Its corpse fell hard on the floor, and Daggers passed by me in shadow mode, running to the remaining rook.
Watching Daggers fight was beautiful. She was fast and flexible, dodging attacks as if they were nothing, moving constantly around the gabat to make its life harder. Eternal and I did what we could to help and it didn't take long for the rook to die.
The moment the body hit the ground, the gabat hanging on the metal bar opened its eyes and its wings. Two swords were in its scabbards, both the same size as the rooks' ones. It dropped from the metal bar, doing a half flip before landing upright on the ground. The two arms on each side crossed to draw the swords from the opposite sides.
I began creating fire morbs.
If Daggers had been great before, now she really shined. There was a moment when she simply twirled horizontally between the two greatswords swinging at her from opposite directions, like a damn movie scene. My fireballs helped and even my almost useless vampire friend hit two spells out of five.
Outside of Daggers little fighting world, there was not much adrenaline to be had, though. After receiving little more than five hundred damage, the gabat died with a pained growl.
Fortunately, they didn't take the bet. Instead of twelve, there were twenty-four chambers on that floor.
It took us hours to clear it completely, but we did it eventually and went to the third floor without any issues.
In the first chamber of the third floor, we found a pawn, two rooks, two knights – the one with two swords, which had been upside down –, and one which I believed to be a bishop gabat, going by the names up until now. I quickly disposed of the pawn.
The rooks were standing and looking at us. The knights were upside down on metal structures and the bishop was standing on a metal bench
in front of the goal post.
The knights we had fought before only attacked when the rooks died, which made things easier. Sadly, Daggers could only dodge a single gabat at a time, and I couldn't tank even one of them.
In other words, as soon as a pair started attacking, we had to dispose of one of them as fast as possible, before both of them could kill Daggers.
My best plan involved me killing one rook and letting Daggers almost solo kill the second one. It would allow me to be prepared to quickly kill one of the knights when they attacked. She would then kill the second knight almost by herself and we could work on the bishop with my morbs ready.
But if Daggers fought a rook and a knight by herself, with a little help from me after I finished creating my four morbs; and if the bishop attacked right after the second knight died; that would mean Daggers running out of stamina before the end of the fight.
I ran through multiple scenarios in my mind until I decided on a genial plan that only years of gaming made me think of, even though I had already used it in Valia: hit and run.
That way, even if the knights felt the rooks' deaths from far away, we would still have time to prepare and even rest a little. It was also true in case the bishop felt the knights' deaths.
We decided to use the last cave on the second floor as our fighting arena; it gave us both time to prepare in case the knights came for us and room for Daggers to fight. Eternal and I waited there while our Blackguard went to get us some opponents.
It didn't work.
I sighed theatrically.
The gabats were in the same place as before.
I got to the chamber where Daggers and Eternal were waiting and the rook was easily killed there.
They did. The first one was received by fireballs and Dagger's shadow skill, dying instantly. The second one didn't take much longer. I replenished my fire morbs and we all waited for the bishop, but it never came.
I had dreaded this moment. Telling him this would give him information about me that Marbareus might find useful. Yes, we were hunting together now and I kind of liked the silent coward guy, but if he had to choose between the vampire and me, I'm pretty sure he would choose his idol.
However, I wasn't about to let Marbareus get between my me and other people. Something nagged at my mind when I thought that, but I couldn't put my finger on it and let it go.
I laughed.
He was a little too excited.
He sighed.
I thought about what to core as I opened my character window and checked my traits.
Traits:
Adept Mage:11 + 10 [Items]
Adept Controller:11
Energizer:3
Diviner:2
Gold Digger:2
Scavenger:2
Scout:2
Antimage:1
Athlete:1
/>
Crafter:1
Healer:1
Meditator:1
Mind Seer:1
Negotiator:1
Nitpicker:1
Shadow:1
Warrior:1
It would be pretty nice to become a better energizer. If I remembered correctly, it'd made me able to create morbs while I ran. And who knows, as it got better I might become able to amass morbs as I fought enemies in melee.
Diviner also sounded awesome at high levels: being able to feel all magic around could be really useful if I decided to venture on covert business in a mage's house.
By becoming a high-level athlete, I would be able to act more in battle; for now, my stamina was too low and I tired too fast.
Antimage, crafter, meditator... Hell, even being a high-level gold digger sounded interesting, as it might become better at higher levels and more money meant better items.
Thing is, I had wanted to be a warrior mage, but after seeing Daggers fight I had my doubts. She could do what she did because she was a specialized character and probably had spent a lot of time learning to move that way. On the other hand, the reason I could hit enemies Eternal couldn't was because of my controller trait, which was also kind of a specializing path for me.
Not only that, but I had no skill at the moment to take advantage of if I chose the warrior trait as a core.
I still wanted to be a warrior mage but for now, my choices were pretty obvious: I had to pile on the high advantage I already had with my mage and controller traits, else I would lose it. At least I liked both traits a lot and I had nothing against keeping them going up.
Or did I? The mage trait gave me bonus damage, but it wasn't that versatile. Being able to create morbs while I moved would be much, much more useful. Yeah, making energizer trait a core sounded better.
And if I didn't like it, I could just change it later.
Suspicious of Eternal's strange smile, I chose my core traits.
You have selected two new core traits:
» Adept Controller
» Energizer
Unbound Deathlord: Challenge Page 30