by Sarah Lin
"Silence, insolent strumpet!" For just an instant she saw a smile on his face, then Bloodwraith took his hands away and his eyes became steely serious. "But if we're going to make it through, we need to exploit the system for everything that it's worth. I have an idea for surviving encounters with several of these Fellwolves, but we're sure to encounter more dangerous opponents deeper in the dungeon. Even if we use trickery, we'll need power just to keep up with such opponents."
"You have something in mind?"
"I see you've been working on your ability to make glitched potions. That's good, but when it comes to gaining power I need something simpler: your status as an NPC who can grant quests."
"Ah." Meara smiled at him, her mind moving along similar lines. She clasped her hands together and began fluttering her eyelashes at him. And fluttering. And fluttering. And fluttering.
"Uh..." Bloodwraith gave her a strange look. "Are you alright?"
"This is harder than it looks, give me a second!" But even as she spoke, she felt the contours of power begin to slip into place. It wasn't so difficult anymore, because there were such strong connections between all of them. Soon a box appeared, and as Bloodwraith looked at it, Meara was able to make it out as well.
[Quest Accepted!
Increase the strength of your party.
Sub-Quest I: Raise Danniah's Level.
Sub-Quest II: Raise Gharavi's Level.
Sub-Quest III: Earn Necromancy Points for Undead Companion Izilthor.
Sub-Quest IV: Help Danniah acquire a flame-based attack.
Sub-Quest V: Help Gharavi recreate her custom axe staff.
Sub-Quest VI: Help Undead Companion Izilthor reach a new tier of Undead Companion.
Reward: EXP]
His eyes widened in surprise. "That is... quite a quest. It almost perfectly parallels what we need to do anyway."
"Yes, there's no way I could have created that perverse a quest objective at the beginning." Meara smiled smugly at the text. "But after encountering the box gods themselves and seeing just how cheap they can be, my mind has expanded a bit. I think this is probably my limit when it comes to exploiting the quest system, but I hope it helps."
"It definitely will." Bloodwraith looked around the room with new eyes: when he looked at his companions, she could see that he was considering them as resources, but that was what they needed right now. Eventually he gave her a determined nod. "We take one day to prepare, then we destroy this dungeon."
Chapter 12
Saying they would take one day to prepare sounded like a decisive thing to declare, but Bloodwraith soon realized that there was no time in the tavern and so the statement was basically meaningless. Thankfully, Meara didn't mock him about it and they simply focused on their preparations.
Meara and Gharavi had finished repairing all their damaged equipment and Gharavi had built herself a makeshift combat wand. Her original staff had held a massive +5 Intellect and this carried a mere +2, but it would still improve her casting efficiency. She also did her best to see about improving the enchantments on their equipment, though she suggested that might take some time.
For her part, Danniah alternated between increasing her defenses and working on developing a new attack. She was actually making a large hole in one of the tavern walls just because she'd struck it so many times, ruining her practice mace. If everything went wrong they could try to keep working on that hole, but Bloodwraith didn't think they should take that option. It was the dungeon or nothing.
To do his part, he sat down, swallowed his pride, and thought about rage.
The experts at the Savages Guild had suggested that he hadn't yet tapped into the true potential of his abilities. Considering that the boxes had declared that he'd unlocked new abilities when he hit Level 10 and he'd only seen one so far, he suspected they were likely correct. But apparently finding the heart of a barbarian's powers meant all kinds of ridiculous things like tapping into his inner rage. He was concerned that it might involve yelling a lot.
Avoiding such undignified attempts, Bloodwraith instead queried the boxes further regarding his "class abilities". They refused to give much information, but he learned a little more about how the statistics related to the real world. Unfortunately, unlocking this ability wouldn't involve simply getting the right numbers, but some sort of vaguer requirement.
By the time he felt like about a day had passed, Bloodwraith had made no breakthroughs. He did note that none of them were getting hungry or thirsty, just like in the Forest of Beginnings. That was one benefit of this prison, at least.
Seeing the others were no longer preparing and instead gathering together, Bloodwraith rose to his feet and faced them. "Are we ready?"
"I think we've gotta try now." Danniah gave him an encouraging smile and hefted her equipment. "So how are we going to do this? You have an idea, right?"
"Yes, but it might not be possible. We need to perform two experiments first, and the first might be incredibly dangerous." Bloodwraith made the tavern box appear again and his hand hovered over the option to restore the trap door. "If the wolves are still right by the entrance and they come through, we could be in for the fight of our lives."
Understanding the threat, the others spread out in a tactical formation for such an attack. Hopefully there wouldn't be a pitched battle, but... nothing to do but move forward.
When he pressed the option the trap door appeared again, but nothing burst through it and he didn't hear any growling. Danniah moved forward and he felt the urge to step in and do it himself in case they were waiting silently. Yet he had to admit that her defenses were better than his and the best thing he could do for her was be ready with an Enraged attack to strike any wolves rushing through.
Yet when she pulled the trap door open, there was nothing on the other side. Danniah bent down to peer down the corridor, then stood up and shrugged. "I don't see anything."
"They probably wouldn't wait an entire day at a dead end. That resolves the threat, but there's still a major open question..." As he spoke, Bloodwraith hooked his greatsword on his back and instead picked up one of the generic bar stools that were littered around the tavern. He got several curious glances but didn't explain, just moving into place.
While Danniah held the door open, he set the stool down on the top steps of the dungeon so it was partially inside the tavern and partially in the dungeon. Then he took a deep breath, stepped back, and turned the dungeon option off.
The trap door vanished entirely, leaving a smooth wooden floor... and half a bar stool sitting on it.
"Whoa, really?" Danniah hesitantly reached down and touched it, but she was able to pick up the half of the stool easily. The bottom half was cleanly severed as if by an impossibly fine blade.
Bloodwraith breathed a sigh of relief - if that hadn't worked, he wasn't sure how they were going to accomplish the first steps of his plan. He saw Meara and Gharavi smiling in understanding, but Izzy perched on the bar with a curious expression. "What are we gonna do, Da?"
"You'll see soon, Izzy. Stay back in case this doesn't work and they get through."
Though Danniah might be the best defended, she wasn't the fastest runner. Since there was still a chance that this wouldn't work, Bloodwraith decided that he should only risk himself. While the others waited, he descended the stairs into the dungeon, this time ready to-
[Welcome to the Testing Dungeon!
This vast dungeon spans three enormous floors, each featuring a dazzling array of mazes, puzzles, and monsters! Your journey begins on the Floor of the Wild and will advance through the Floor of Bone and perhaps even to the Floor of Mystery!
EDIT: Calm the fuck down, Greg. It's a glorified testing room.
WARNING: Please be aware that this isn't the tutorial dungeon - see the new Starting Forest for that (someone should get on improving that name, btw). There are no safeguards here and it operates under all local rules. I populated this one with real monsters for a more robust test of physics
and magic, but this is in no way balanced for normal players. Don't waste copies messing around here or we'll revoke your access.]
The same message as the previous time appeared and Bloodwraith irritably waved it away. It would be bitterly ironic if his plan was sound and it ended up failing because he was distracted by idiotic messages. With the boxes suppressed, he headed in deeper toward the chamber that branched into several corridors. Yet he hadn't even arrived when he heard the sound of claws on stone.
Bloodwraith turned and sprinted back. Just as he'd suspected, the wolves heard him and gave chase. This time he did look over his shoulder, seeing three of them rushing after him. They were fast, but he had too much of a head start. He took the stairs five at a time and hurled himself into the tavern, hands reaching in midair for the white box.
When the Fellwolf came snarling up the stairs, Bloodwraith turned off the trap door. It vanished and cut the beast in half.
Even though its back legs had been severed, the remaining monster still managed to keep moving, dragging itself across the floor toward him with a bloody smear. He wouldn't have been able to get up fast enough on his own, but he didn't need to. Danniah knocked the wolf backward with a blow from her shield and Gharavi blasted it with lightning until it stopped moving.
Then it had worked. Now the only thing that could stop him was...
[Victory! You received 7408 EXP and half a Fellwolf Pelt.]
Bloodwraith chuckled darkly. Meara could see the box for herself, while Danniah and Izzy picked up on his happiness, but Gharavi glanced at him with a neutral expression. "You mean that the system rewarded you for killing it this way?"
"Exactly." Bloodwraith examined the box in satisfaction before dismissing it. "Most importantly, this will let us clear out the pack and prevent us from becoming overwhelmed. But this will also be an easy way to gain more EXP. I still need over 100,000 EXP to reach Level 16, but to reach that we only need to pull off this trick 14 more times."
"I'll admit it's clever, but that will only be a small boost and I doubt we can do this with everything in the dungeon."
"Oh, you're absolutely correct. But it's a start, and that's better than we had before."
Pushing his positive mood down, Bloodwraith forced himself to focus again. Depending on how swiftly the wolves reacted, they could very well give him only a narrow window of opportunity. He couldn't afford to get careless.
When Bloodwraith activated the trap door again, it reappeared in raised position. Almost instantly the wolves lunged from the depths and Bloodwraith deactivated it just as quickly. He actually reacted too quickly to the snarling attack - instead of cutting the Fellwolf in half, the barrier decapitated it. That left it just as dead, though.
[Victory! You received 7408 EXP and one Fellwolf Head!]
Before he had reacted, he thought there were two more wolves lurking on the stairs. He didn't open the door again right away in case the Fellwolf body could somehow still fight for a time without a head. Yet as he waited and looked at the others, he saw smiles all around.
Bloodwraith scowled back at them. "Let's not get overconfident. This is too early to celebrate." For some reason this just made them smile further.
Fortunately, the Fellwolves were as mindlessly aggressive as almost all the monsters created by the box gods. Bloodwraith opened the trap door again and the process repeated again: slicing it in half, then the three of them beating it until it died. By the third repetition they had it down to an art form and the only problem would be running out of enemies.
The next time he opened the trap door, a wolf charged through just as before. But this time, one more wolf lurking in the shadows slammed into it from behind. He hastily deactivated the entrance, but for the first time it didn't work as intended. Only a head and one shoulder of the second wolf remained, but it pushed the first wolf forward so quickly that it lost just part of its hind leg.
Which meant that a Fellwolf was now inside the tavern. It snarled and rushed to attack.
Fortunately, this time Danniah didn't flinch at all. She charged directly into the monster's attack, preventing it from targeting anyone else. Though she tried to bash it with her shield, the wolf slashed with a claw and the two forces seemed to neutralize each other. Danniah staggered back but stayed on her feet.
That was long enough for the others to join in: Gharavi sent a bolt of lightning shooting through the Fellwolf and Bloodwraith struck it in the head with his full power behind the blow. Both the strikes did less damage than he'd hoped, but the wolf fell back, snarling in rage.
At that moment Izzy flipped overhead, burying one knife into its eye. She didn't attempt to strike further, which was good, because despite losing an eye the Fellwolf swiped back at her almost instantly.
Realizing that it couldn't take down Danniah easily, the monster chased after Izzy instead, which unfortunately took it toward Gharavi. She didn't give up any ground, firing another bolt directly into the beast's face. It slowed just slightly, but that was enough for Bloodwraith to swing, cutting into the wolf's remaining hind leg.
Though the creature's enormous life force allowed it to keep moving when it shouldn't have been possible, even it couldn't keep moving forever. With one back leg severed and the other wounded, it was prevented from attacking so recklessly. The four of them stayed defensive and helped each other, slowly whittling down the creature's Health.
In the end they had all received some serious bruises and cuts, but the Fellwolf lay dead. The conflict was a reminder that they were still outclassed in this dungeon, yet Bloodwraith found himself ultimately satisfied. He glanced at the victory notification and then turned to the others.
"I think that was all the wolves that came to the entrance, but regardless, we're done for the day. If we aren't at our full strength, a conflict with one of them could easily get all of us killed."
"I agree, but we're not done quite yet." Meara had been watching from a distance but now approached their group. "It strikes me as possible that all the dead bodies might attract more wolves, plus we might have a use for all these Fellwolf Pelts."
"That's a fair point. Okay, we cautiously retrieve the bodies now."
Though they stayed constantly watching the tunnels, no more monsters attacked them as they dragged the bodies up into the tavern. All in all, they'd killed six of the Fellwolves via the trap door trick. Not fairly, but playing fair was irrelevant to him. The only thing that mattered was victory.
Even after healing potions his body ached from the combat, but Bloodwraith forced himself to keep moving. He began skinning the Fellwolves for their pelts, which were unsurprisingly dense with mana. Gharavi joined him, working with an elegant knife as if she'd done such work before.
While they worked Izzy lurked around them, snapping her teeth and staring at the bodies. Once one was completely done, Bloodwraith pushed the remains over to her. She eagerly began chomping down on the flesh, her body quivering in delight. Considering the strength of the monster and the fact that she'd never eaten one before, Bloodwraith hoped that it would give her a significant amount of strength.
Turning away from Izzy's feast with a queasy look, Danniah instead looked around the tavern. "I wasn't tired before, but now I feel like I really need to sleep. Except this place doesn't have anything that would be comfortable at all... Bloodwraith, were there any settings in the box that control beds?"
"I'm afraid not." Though he considered telling her that she'd need to tough it out, Bloodwraith realized that it might not be necessary. He hefted the finished pelt in her direction. "Take this. The fur should be soft enough."
"Uh... are we really going to sleep on the bloody pelts of things we just killed?" Danniah took the pelt hesitantly, but Meara came up beside her with a smile.
"I think my domestic talents should apply here. We can clean it off, sew it up a bit, and create a decent bed. Sound good?"
"Sounds great!" Danniah went off with Meara to the other end of the tavern to work, so Bloodwraith re
turned to skinning his second wolf. But before he finished, he heard a satisfied slurping sound from Izzy and then another box appeared in his vision.
[Izilthor Necromancy Points +10!]
"So tasty!" Izzy began to eye the other bodies with hunger in her eyes. Bloodwraith imagined that he looked much the same, except he was staring hungrily at the numbers in the box. Ten Necromancy Points from a single Fellwolf? Given the trouble, that actually seemed fair.
The second and third corpses Izzy ate both gave her 9 NP, then the three after that gave her 8 NP apiece. That meant the rewards were decaying faster than he might have hoped, but Bloodwraith wasn't too troubled by it. She would get more strength when they encountered different kinds of monsters... plus, it meant that Izzy had gained 52 NP in a single day.
He'd never had such an excess of points before and had to wonder what to do with them. Considering that they weren't going to throw themselves into battle again, they had time to come up with a strategy. But Izzy was yawning widely and blinking now.
"I feel a bit sleepy... I'm gonna go sleep with Danniah."
Gharavi glanced up at her and raised an eyebrow. "I suggest cleaning yourself off first, or Danniah might be taken a bit aback."
"Oh, because she doesn't like tasty things! You're smart, Gharavi." Izzy scampered away to one of the tables still loaded with mugs of beer. The liquid might be insubstantial, but it was real enough for her to clean herself off.
Since that was resolved, Bloodwraith set about considering their next moves. Getting a good night of rest was obvious, then once they were prepared, they would repeat the strategy. There were a few easy decisions, like continuing to train and invest their new power. But beyond that, they would need more than tricks. What they needed to do was leverage each trick into a new stone in a foundation for success.
"That's one day." Gharavi was cleaning off her knife and giving him a somber look. "I'll admit we're making more progress than I would have expected. But how much time will we lose before we get back?"