Not sure of his intentions, all in his party readied their weapons and got ready to defend themselves. The Troll started moving toward them and Domn3r almost gave to order to attack when it unexpectedly spoke, “Hi guys! Thanks for coming on such short notice!”
Confusion set in for all of them as Domn3r took a closer look and saw that he was looking at a Troll Archer/Druid, which was crazy because he had never heard of a dual-classed mob before. The lightbulb apparently went off for Ambrose, because she asked, “Devin? Is that you?”
“Of course, who else would be here waiting for you? And an Archer/Druid to boot? Oh, yeah, I’m a Troll – sorry, I should have warned you. It’s got high physical damage and resistance bonuses, so it was the best choice for my mixture of classes,” responded the hulking behemoth.
Domn3r had been monitoring the guild chat and had been listening as different members were giving advice to Devin on what he should choose for his character build. He had to admit that he honestly didn’t believe he could change his character that easily and was expecting the Human Rogue he had met previously. To say he was surprised was an understatement – he was also insanely jealous of his ability to change on a whim. To be able to change to whatever you wanted to be was so unfair as to be almost criminal. Some days when he was tired of soaking up all the damage for the party, he wished he had chosen a Mage or something else that could cast spells from long range. To be able to do that – even if it cost money – would be something he would jump on in a second.
He looked at the rest of his party as they caught on to who they were talking to. Their Healer, Ambrose, looked smug as she was the one who had figured it all out in the first place. Bolt3n, their Archer, looked surprised still as he took in his counterpart – most likely he’d never seen anyone that big wielding a bow. With characteristic suspicion, Maxinista looked at Devin like he was a situation that still needed to be investigated. And finally, Mac (short for Macgowenishburt) looked happy – most likely because he had another magic caster to play with.
“Well, then, what exactly are your thoughts on how to do this, Devin?” Ambrose asked. Devin looked confused for a second – as much as a giant troll can look confused – until he caught on to what she was asking.
“I figure I can follow you all down the Dungeon Boss and then kill it. I’ve never been here before, so you’ll have to show me where to go in there.”
Domn3r thought this was a good a plan as any, but he added something to it, “Along the way I want you to practice using your spells and attacking as much as you can – I’m betting you haven’t tried killing anything yet since you changed. To take the Flame Dragon down by yourself you’ll need to be on top of your game. The boss is level 28 – which sounds easy since it is two levels below you – but keep in mind that it’s a BOSS and has much higher health points and resistances than the typical level 28 mob. I’m sure you know all of this, since you’re part of a dungeon yourself – but you’ve probably never been on this side of the encounter before. This boss is meant to be taken down by a group of players working together.
“Even though the typical group tackling this dungeon is about ten levels below you, you’ll be working at a disadvantage based on trying to do it solo. Most of the problems you would normally have trying to do it by yourself are caused by the mobs on the way to the end – which we will be able to help with. They aren’t hard, but there are a lot of them. You just need to concentrate on staying alive until we can deliver you safely to the Dungeon Boss.”
Devin seemed to consider this and quickly agreed with enthusiasm. They then headed into the dungeon entrance with Domn3r’s group leading the way. They had all talked about this dungeon on the way here and it turned out that all of them had run it through at least once – just in different groups. They had all been part of numerous groups before they had been thrown together trying to obtain the Dungeon Core. It was ironic that it was the same dungeon they were now helping to get stronger. After they had leveled too much to be able to try for the Dungeon Core anymore, they had stayed together because they all seemed to mesh well together. The trials through the dungeon had brought them all closer together and he felt confident that he could call them his good friends.
Domn3r thought about how everything they now enjoyed about the game they were playing revolved around Devin and the dungeon he was part of. The bonds of friendship forged, the epic guild battle in the clearing, and now being the first players to escort a dungeon mob through another dungeon so that it could take it over – these were what made playing games like this worth all the time spent in-game. He was excited to see what would happen next.
Chapter 13
Devin followed after Domn3rs’ party, anxious for the first time since playing this game. He wanted to show them he had the skills to accomplish what he needed to do. He thought that he had practiced enough, first when he was fighting in his own dungeon with various classes, and lastly with his Archer/Druid in the forest just before he made his way up the mountain. Even though they were a couple of levels above him, he thought he could show them a thing or two as they made their way through the first floor.
After watching them in the first battle, he changed his mind and was determined to learn as much as he could from them. Their teamwork was stellar – they were able to anticipate each other’s attacks and instinctually knew where they needed to be at any given time. It was clear that they had spent a lot of time together and knew one another’s strengths and weaknesses. He realized that he didn’t have much experience fighting normal mobs – he was more used to fighting players. He needed a whole new set of skills to succeed here.
The first creatures that they ran across were some innocuous-looking mushrooms that stood about three feet tall, were about as big around car tire, and were a deep red color. They were arranged haphazardly in the initial room they came across and if they hadn’t been attacked by Domn3r’s group almost immediately he would have tried to walk by them, thinking them just some random flora. As soon as Domn3r rushed ahead with shield leading the way, the room came alive with a horrid screeching that sounded like someone was running nails across a chalkboard.
Cringing and covering his ears, Devin watched as the other players with him ignored the sound and attacked full out. While he was still trying to catch his bearings, he looked up and saw the mushrooms around the room had somehow grown short arms and legs – barely big enough to handle their stature but enough to make them mobile. They all rushed Domn3r with their now-visible mouths full of razor-sharp teeth as he gathered their aggro to him.
Devin looked closer at one of the mushrooms and saw that it was called a Magma Shroomba (Level 20). From what he could see from his position, there were nine of the Shroombas closing in on the Defender in the middle of the room. It looked like too much for him to handle and, indeed, he was swarmed almost as he thought that. Before he could take more than a couple of points of damage, however, Maxinista appeared from Stealth behind one of the mobile mushrooms and backstabbed it – killing it instantly. At the same time, two arrows flew through the air in rapid succession, striking the two Shroombas on either side of the Rogue. Apparently, they were critical shots, because they were one-shotted as well.
As this went down, the rest of the party was marshalling their own attack. Mac cast Ice Shard after Ice Shard toward the creatures on the opposite side of where Max had appeared, taking down four in as many seconds. The remaining two Shroombas each got sliced in the head by Domn3r, doing a healthy amount of damage. Ambrose followed up each strike with a quick Smite, which blasted them into oblivion. The entire battle lasted no more than about ten seconds, from when Domn3r rushed ahead to when the last Shroomba fell. It was over so quickly that by the time Devin thought about helping there was nothing for him to do.
Feeling a little useless, he cast Nature’s Boon III on Domn3r to help regenerate the couple of points of damage he had sustained. It wasn’t necessary because he had regenerated all but one health point by the time the spe
ll landed on him. They all turned toward him, and he shrugged as if to say, “Sorry.” Each of them laughed, realizing that they had been too efficient in their slaughter.
“Sorry about that Devin, we’re just so used to working together that it is almost automatic now – we’ll try to leave you some to practice on from now on. These guys are so far beneath our level that most of the time we can sweep through them without breaking a sweat,” Domn3r apologized.
And so it went – through the next few rooms there were increasingly larger groups of Magma Shroombas, at least a few of which Bolt3n designated for Devin to kill. His first arrow went way off target, as Devin got nervous and forgot how to properly hold the arrow on the string with his massive fingers. Shaking his anxiousness off, he put another arrow on the string and fired it off – hitting the walking mushroom he was aiming at in the junk. Or at least where its junk would be if it had some. It wasn’t exactly where he had aimed it, but at least he hit it this time.
His next two arrows were more on the mark: one hitting it on the top of its head and the next flew straight into the mouth of the Shroomba, instantly killing it with a critical strike. Elated, he switched targets and put the next two arrows into the mouths of the two mushrooms heading in his direction – again killing them instantly. He was finally getting used to the different feel of firing with his large hands and was improving his accuracy by leaps and bounds. He was lucky that their mouths were so large, thereby providing a bigger target for his arrows. If he had to aim for their eyes, for example, he wasn’t sure he could have hit them accurately.
With his accuracy improving, he switched to using his other skills and spells over the next couple of fights. First, since he was already getting better at using his bow, he used his Ice Arrow III skill to see what kind of extra damage it would inflict. He was pleasantly surprised when he hit a Shroomba in the back with one of these special arrows – it did three times the amount of damage a normal arrow. When he checked his combat logs, he saw that it was due to the mobs’ lower resistance to water-based elemental attacks. He was glad to see this, since this was the basis for his strategy for the Dungeon Boss later on.
After experimenting with his different Archer skills, he switched to using his Druid spells to see how effective they were going to be. On one of the last rooms before the Floor Boss, he asked Domn3r to gather up the whole room full of Shroombas, which had now increased to 25. In addition, he had him attempt to keep all of them in front of him, without letting them surround him. As soon as they were mostly in position, he cast Deathly Chill IV on the assembled mobs, which was designed to reduce their resistance to water-based elemental attacks. Within a second, a cold gale of wind blew thick, frosty air outward from his position. Although he couldn’t see any obvious effect on the Shroombas, he thought they looked a little slower in their movements – which was an unintended side effect.
As soon as the wave of super-chilled air hit them, Devin used Freezing Rain III and centered it on the outside of the pack of deadly mushrooms. He did this to try to avoid hitting Domn3r, who was still trying to tank the whole lot of them by himself. The result was spectacular – as soon as the freezing rain pelted the Shroombas with what looked like tiny icicles, they started taking massive amounts of damage. They had just enough time to turn toward Devin – as he had taken their aggro – before they collapsed almost as one. The spell continued for another seven or eight seconds before stopping, leaving a puddle of water 20 feet in diameter containing all the mushroom corpses.
He looked around, overjoyed at how well that worked, but his elation was short-lived as he saw his companions shivering in their armor. He was confused for a second, but suddenly everything clicked – his Deathly Chill spell said all “enemies”, which technically all players were. He would have to be more careful in the future not to hit any of his allies with an AOE spell since friendly-fire was a distinct possibility.
“Sorry, I won’t do that again. I didn’t know it would do that,” he told the murderous glares directed his way – apparently they didn’t like the cold any more than he did. He tried to avoid their gazes while listening to their teeth chatter and after another couple of minutes the effects wore off. Gathering themselves back together, they headed off to the Floor Boss room with disdainful glances directed his way. They’ll get over it…I hope.
The Floor Boss was a Giant Magma Shroomba (Level 24) that was almost identical to its smaller cousins other than the fact that it was fifteen feet tall instead of three. Despite the size, Domn3r’s group was able to take it down without much struggle in about 20 seconds. Devin was even able to get a couple of Ice Arrows off before it was killed – which, with his improved accuracy was able to hit it in the mouth every single time. Devin told the group that they could loot everything in the Boss Chest, just as they had looted everything before this. He couldn’t carry anything, so it would do him no good – besides, they were doing most of the work so should get all of the rewards. It wasn’t anything great, but they would be able to sell most of the stuff they picked up back in Briarwood or another town. After that, they headed down to the next floor.
There were five floors in this dungeon which made it a bit longer than most other dungeons in this level range, so it was good that they were able to fly through the first floor so quickly. The second floor wasn’t that much harder, but it was comprised entirely of another new mob. As they entered the first room after following the staircase down from the previous floor, the temperature in the room began to rise dramatically. He could see small lava flows on either side of the room which gave off such heat that it was almost stifling.
Domn3r led the group toward the middle of the room, where he placed everyone in two rows facing outwards toward the lava flows. He told them all, including Devin, to look for anything coming out of the lava and to call out when they spotted something. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to look for, but he diligently stared at the lava waiting for something to happen. He didn’t have long to wait as a large lizard-shaped creature emerged from the molten expanse and shook off the lava like a wet dog. Through the rain of fiery goblets – none of which got near the party – he found the name of the lizard was a Lava Salamander (Level 22).
Devin had a pet salamander when he was really young – probably around age 5 or 6 – and it was a cute little guy named Stinky that he could hold in his hand. As it got older, it grew in size but even then, it wasn’t larger than his forearm. The Lava Salamander was entirely different. First of all, it was about the size and shape of a walrus, was a light red color just slightly darker than the lava flow behind it, and he could see wisps of fire emanating from its mouth. He was so startled by its appearance that he forgot to call out right away and only as it started heading in his direction did he shout, “Hey, over here! Help!”
Domn3r immediately rushed toward the giant lizard, cutting it off from reaching the rest of the party. Once aggro was established, everyone except Max unleashed their ranged attacks and brought it down within seconds. Max oversaw watching for any other Salamanders that might attack and just after the first went down another emerged. This one went down as quickly as the first, but as it was collapsing in death Devin shot an Ice Arrow that flew over its head and landed in the lava flow. As soon as it entered the lava, a cloud of steam erupted when the water-based projectile became super-heated.
“And that is why you should never cast Freezing Rain or any other water-based spells that might get out of control. The amount of steam released would kill us even quicker than any of the mobs in here. I’ve seen it happen, and it’s not pretty,” Mac told him. “Ice Arrows are ok, because they only release a small amount of steam and you could fire them all day without worry – just hold off on your other spells for now, though.”
“Thanks, I’ll try to remember that,” Devin responded. He was glad that he hadn’t kept trying his spells out – he had already made one mistake and didn’t want another one to kill them all. It looks like I still have a lot to learn.
Chapter 14
After Devin left to capture the other dungeon to expand their territory, Krista floated around watching the different parties’ progress through the dungeon. There was a really determined guild called the Swordsmiths that was steadily improving – this time it looked like they would all make it through with few casualties. As she watched the last group of five complete the Orc Village, she realized that 19 of them made it through – a player had fallen off one of the elevated bridges onto the rocks and was lost.
This was the first time since the Dungeon Core was returned that anyone looked like they would challenge her Guardian. Krista was a little nervous – but also really excited – to see how her Undead Abomination would perform guarding the Core. As the players gathered in the Staging Room just outside of the Guardian Room, she transported her viewpoint inside to let Bruce know about the upcoming fight.
She found him walking around the room in slow circles, talking to himself. “And what do you think about the rock in this area?” “Well I think it’s a little too dark – it doesn’t really go with the rest of the room.” “I think it works just fine though, it gives it a little contrast compared to the bare aesthetics of the stone wall.” “But what about that crevasse over there?” “What about it? It gives the wall definition.” “How far do you think it is from one wall to the other?” “Doesn’t matter – I could walk around here all day.” “But the stone floor hurts one of my feet. Can we get shoes?” “We don’t need shoes, what we need is…”
It was hard to get a word in edgewise – the constant chatter between Bruce and himself was a constant self-dialogue. It was as if all the personalities of the bodies he was composed of wanted to speak all at once. When she saw no pauses forthcoming, she butted in, “Hey, Bruce! We have incoming players who want to try to steal the Core. Get ready!”
Dungeon Guild Page 8