by Adam Elliott
With judicious use of Area of Effect skills from Shifty, and timely heals from Celia mopping up the remaining slimes was accomplished with relatively little trouble. The lower their numbers, the lower the risk, which meant by the time they'd halved their numbers Cayden was halfway back to full health, with eleven slime kills to his name.
“Mine.” Cayden said with a laugh, towering over the last remaining creature. It knew no fear, even sitting amidst piles of ash that were once its comrades. Like every other one of its kind, it bounced, lunging at Cayden, only to be promptly bisected by a baseball-like swing of his sword.
“Did we miss any?” Shifty asked, slumping back against the switch.
“You think I was keeping count?” Celia laughed, tapping the butt of her staff against the stone tiles. “Anyone else hungry? No? Didn't think so.”
“I don't think they eat anything if they kill it." Cayden remarked to a roll of Celia's eyes. "What, it's a valid point."
“Yeah, but you don't always have to be correct.”
“Well, maybe you don't...” Cayden trailed off at the sharp look from his healer. “I mean, yes Celia. You are absolutely right. Please don't leave the party. I don't think I have it in me to do that again.”
“Ugh, right? And we still have a slime boss ahead of us.” She added, jerking a thumb towards the now open chamber.
“Believe it or not, that is the easy part.” Shifty chuckled. “All smooth sailing from here.”
Chapter Sixteen
Despite his Murphy taunting proclamation, Shifty was right. The slime boss, Cayden's first actual boss encounter since entering Babel, was a joke.
For another party, or perhaps just an equal level party, Cayden could see how the thing might have been a threat, but Celia might as well have been the bane of its existence by itself. In its first form, it had only two attacks, an engulf attack avoided simply by not standing on the ooze when it smoothed out into a puddle, and the same attack as its lesser brethren writ large.
Owing to its size the attack did substantial damage when blocked, and knocked away nearly half Cayden's HP when unblocked, but it didn't matter. A single use of Time Warp after each blow erased the damage in its entirety, while the intervals between attacks were such that Celia regenerated almost the entirety of her MP between swings. By the end of the first phase Cayden wasn't even blocking, just swinging away with his blade, trusting Celia to top him up if he couldn't avoid it.
The second phase was no more challenging. When reduced to below 25% the boss began to throw off sections of itself, spawning small bunches of additional slimes every few seconds. A taunt collected them, and a single fan of knives dispensed with the baby slimes after each time they were spawned. After the tooth and nail battle minutes before, it was almost disappointing.
His loot, on the other hand, was anything but.
Unlike a typical monster drop, activating the crystal did not automatically distribute the loot. Instead, the crystal shattered with a spark of light, and as the glare faded four items were found in its place.
Babel allowed for a variety of different loot systems: Personal, Group, Need before Greed, even the time-honored DKP. Unfortunately Cayden hadn't thought to discuss the issue before they'd begun, and apparently, neither Celia nor himself had selected a preference before hand. This meant it defaulted to Shifty's preferred method. Leader's choice.
“Ugh, no pressure here.” Cayden chuckled, trying to ignore the piercing stares of his companions. “Skill Use: Observe”
Slime Cutter
An exceptional dagger that was claimed to hold magic properties detrimental to slimes. It does not.
One-Hand Damage 20-120
Required Level: 4
Required Strength: 4
Required Dexterity: 10
Durability: 16/16
25% Increased damage vs. magical beasts
Special: This weapon has no special effect on slimes whatsoever.
Stick of the World Tree
This mage's staff is purported to have originated as a branch of Yggdrasil. It did not, but the enchantments laid upon it are still quite powerful.
Two-Handed Damage 20-70
Required Level: 4
Required Strength: 4
Required Dexterity: 6
Durability: 16/16
+2 Energy
Quick Incantation (1) Once/Day
Special: With proper incantations, the user can unleash the unlimited cosmic power of the stick.
Lord's Bucket
Reputed to have been ripped from the head of the most insane warrior to have ever lived, Lord Buckethead, the Lord's Bucket protects the wearer from traumatic brain injury.
Defense: 110
Required Level: 4
Required Strength: 18
Durability: 18/18
25% Resist to Control, Dominate and Confusion Effects.
Bonus Resist Damage 5 (Physical)
Wearer takes 1 point of sonic damage in addition to any normal damage when struck in the head.
Special: Your voice sounds really cool coming out of this.
Elixir
Be honest; you're just going to horde this until the final boss.
Restore All HP, MP, and TP.
“So... was this a joke dungeon? Or what?”
"Hmm?" Shifty asked. At a glance, the items, apart from the bucket helm, looked perfectly normal. It wasn't until he pulled out his mirror and surveyed them for himself that Shifty began snickering. "No, I don't think it is. We never handled or got any of the loot when we were grinding down here. First I've ever seen of it."
"Well, joke or not I guess it is better than what most of us have?" Celia had already answered the question before Cayden even finished asking. Her hand was outstretched, reaching for the staff though she wouldn't be able to touch it until he okayed it within his display. Judging by the way she was drooling, he ought to do that quickly.
He couldn't blame her, the staff was nice. Really nice. +2 Energy worked out to another eighty Mana for her, but it was the second effect that was a mind blowing upgrade for her.
Mage spells were divided up into tiers; no doubt derived from the Vancian style spellcasting of Dungeons and Dragons. Every spellcaster started their character with access to level one and level zero spells, and roughly every twenty levels, depending on the particulars of their class, they gained access to a new tier of spells that would be far stronger than previous magics.
In addition, the new mastery in their primary magic skill would make casting lower level spells less difficult. One level below her max and the arcane incantation would be vastly shortened. At two levels below her maximum, the arcane portion was removed entirely, meaning she would only have to speak the English portion of the spell. Four levels below and just the name of the spell would do.
Celia's new staff duplicated the two level boost for a single first level spell, once per day. It made for a perfect pocket heal. In a pinch, she could call upon the staff's power to turn an eight-second casting into a one-second casting, seconds that could mean the difference between victory or defeat, life or death.
"Yeah, it's yours." He said to her unspoken question, passing off the item to a positively giddy Celia. Ownership of two of the remaining items was a simple decision. Shifty was happy to replace his forged blade with an uncommon item, and Cayden was... content to equip the helmet and its significant bonus to his defense.
Cayden donned his helmet with a few clicks of his menu and was less than impressed. The view slit on the bucket helm was ridiculously thin, providing solid defense, but essentially nothing in the realm of visibility. Considering his focus on mobility and active defense, the item would have been a no-go, even if his companions weren't laughing uproariously and making jokes about flesh wounds.
"Okay, enough of that." Cayden muttered as he pulled up his option menu. It was in a weird place, but he still found the option quickly enough, and with two ticks of his finger the helm shimmered, then vanished from existe
nce. "And that is why God created a visible helms toggle."
“I'm sure the developer will be glad to hear you speak so highly of them.” Celia scoffed.
“Let me take a win where I can get one.” Cayden scowled.
The visible helms toggle was exactly what it sounded like. When toggled on, everything was normal. When toggled off, any helm he included in his item slot would continue to add its stats, bonuses, defense value and so forth to his stats, but it would not appear on his person. It had its advantages and disadvantages, improved vision weighed against the resistance to crits provided by a narrow view slit, but sad as it was, it mostly came down to fashion as far as Cayden was concerned. He would have gone entirely without if the alternative was wearing that godawful thing day in and day out.
"Oh no, bring it back. I had so many jokes left." Shifty cried without sincerity.
“You'll have to go in search of the original Lord Buckethead then, and try plying him with your sad attempts at humor.” Cayden scowled before turning his attention to the single vial still sitting on the ground. “So, what do we do with this?”
“Take it to a vendor and split the profits?” Shifty shrugged. “Unless you want to keep it. I think if the girl or I am ever in a position where we need it, then it probably isn't going to help, if you catch my drift.”
It was a good point of course. Shifty was dismissive, and Celia still seemed wrapped up alternately in admiration of her new staff and thoughts of him in the bucket helm. Executive decision time. “I'll hold onto it for now as an oh hell button. Depending on what else we get from the remaining bosses I may just hold onto it. Never know when a full heal out of the blue can change the course of a battle.”
Shifty wrinkled his brow at that as if to say really? Despite his obvious irritation at the veiled jab, he shrugged off the suggestion. Two votes for apathy meant an Elixir for Cayden.
“So where to next?” Celia asked, pulling up a copy of the dungeon map that Shifty had been courteous enough to share with them.
"Next we follow the path. The dungeon gets pretty straightforward now that we're entering the waterworks proper. Should be two or three groups of trash mobs for us to clean up, and, if we have time, I wouldn't mind sliding over here to grab a few extra components for your alchemy."
“You wouldn't use them yourself?” She seemed surprised.
Shifty shook his head "Not trained. I have every gathering profession under the sun maxed out at the novice level, but the potion makers are a completely separate group from the farmers." He shrugged. "Keep me fed with potions once in awhile, and I'll keep dumping components on you whenever I get the chance.
The delay didn't sit right with Cayden, but by that point, it just felt like he was paranoid. If Shifty had wanted him dead, he probably could have done it during the slime battle or even the boss fight. Celia wasn't going to stand up to a pure DPS class in combat if it came to that so if he wanted Cayden gone, all he had to do was wait for a moment of weakness, of which he'd had plenty.
They cleaved through the trash mobs like a hot knife through butter as they entered the waterworks proper. The facility was a steampunk-esque imagination of a water treatment plant, a sort of what if humanity had decided to use oversized gears, 1800's era gauges and a healthy dollop of magic rather than industrial chemicals to treat their wastewater.
It wasn't connected to the city above, Cayden knew that much. About a year or so back a film crew had won some documentary award for their in-depth reporting on just precisely how indoor plumbing worked in the cities of Babel. He hadn't watched the documentary, but the overall findings still popped up as a neat fact from time to time.. A complicated series of water creation relics and a piping system that fed all the city's wastewater directly into an all-consuming sphere of annihilation, the magical equivalent of a black hole.
Whatever it was in Babel, it most definitely did not float down there.
The facility itself appeared to have been built into some sort of cave system that the 'waterways' connected to. Its wood paneled surfaces were broken up here and there by several outcroppings of rock that was too difficult, or too expensive to bother trying to work around. The haphazard nature of it gave the place a very devil may care feel. It wasn't an orderly place. Instead, it was one where things were placed where they fit, even if it wasn't exactly where they needed to be.
After collecting a few handfuls of moss and some Mario-esque sized mushrooms they were on their way once again, taking to the stairways that circled the edge of the facilities. Cayden could have guessed where they'd find the boss even without the map. The chain suspended platform hanging a hundred feet above the main working floor of the facility positively screamed boss fight.
The rat was waiting for them as expected, though the enormous beast paid them no mind as they ascended the stairs to face it. As they drew closer, it soon became apparent that the creature wasn't shirking its duty, or waiting to fight them in some honorable fashion. It was just asleep. Its head rested on the cross guard of the enormous rusted sword whose tip it had wedged into the space between two planks.
It looked like a cartoon caricature of a mouse, and a rat bred together with the horrifying nightmare of an abused child's dream. Its ears were enormous, each half the size of its bulbous head, the edges of them curled and yellow-green with pus and decay. Its nose was long and crooked, two sharp incisors clicking against their lower brethren as the thing's bulbous pot belly rose and fell. Its limbs were long and gangly, with such little muscle that Cayden wondered how the beast could ever hope to lift its weapon.
“Talk about your nightmare fuel.” Celia shuddered.
“Gotta say I second the young lass.”
“Yeah, I'm going to make that unanimous.” Cayden added. “You know, I was never much for the whole 'murderhobo' thing in video games. Always big on the diplomatic solution. But that thing needs killing.”
Shifty laughed. “Don't worry. He isn't the most talkative of fellows.”
“Give us the rundown.” Celia interjected into their banter, only to apologize just as quickly for her tone. “Sorry, I just don't even like looking at it. Sooner it is ash the happier I'll be.”
"It has that effect on people." Shifty admitted. "It is one of its abilities, looking at it causes discomfort that lowers damage, increases skill prep time and just generally makes its enemies worse at everything."
“Any way to avoid the effect?” Cayden asked.
“Don't look at it?” Shifty replied
“Any realistic way to avoid the effect?”
Shifty shook his head. “It diminishes as you deal damage to it, but it doesn't go away. Resistance to Fear would reduce or eliminate the penalty, but we didn't exactly bring a Paladin, so we're going to just have to suck it up.”
"It's first phase is pretty simple." Shifty continued. "Not that dissimilar from the slime, just a bunch of direct attacks on Cayden. It does have a whirlwind-style attack that doesn't care about aggro, but the damage should be pretty manageable provided you don't just stand there and let him hit you."
“I thought that was what I was supposed to do?” Cayden smirked.
Celia shot him a look, clearly less than impressed. “I think he means you should maybe use your shield to block. Unlike last time.”
His hands raised in surrender, Cayden turned his attention back to the grinning older player.
“The second phase kicks in when it goes for one of the chains.” Shifty indicated the thick iron chains supporting the platform. “It is going to snap one of them, tilting the battlefield and making everything incredibly unstable.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun.” Cayden muttered, glancing down over the edge to the work floor some hundred feet below.
“It gets better.” Shifty said dryly. “Once it has struck off one of the chains it is going to try and pressure you off the edge. It has a bunch of push style attacks, so don't think you can just use your Grasp the Earth ability. You need to keep mobile.”
“Got it.”
"The third phase is super short, but it is all or nothing. He'll roar and retreat to the center of the platform. We have fifteen seconds to DPS down the remainder of his health, or he'll snap the chains and we all fall to our deaths."
“Actually I can slow my fall.” Celia remarked with a smile.
“I can leap attack the ground to eliminate the falling damage.” Cayden joined her.
“Or I die then.” He looked to Celia. “Any chance you cou-”
“Nope. Self only.” She smiled cheerfully.
“... wonderful. Alright, well can we not screw this up then?” Shifty asked.
“The best rallying cry ever.” Cayden snorted and thrust his hand into space between them like some 1980's era sports flick. “One, two, three! Can we not screw this up then!?” Cayden threw his hand up with the end of the chant but drew only withering looks.
“After you then?” Shifty said to Cayden after the latter lowered his hand in embarrassment.
Cayden approached the edge, casting a quick glance downwards before drawing away with sudden nausea. Logically he knew there wasn't much of a threat if he fell, but somehow he still couldn't quite get that knowledge through to his vertigo.
The gap between their ledge and the boss platform was only three feet. An easy jump. Just backup, get a bit of a running start and...
Cayden slammed down onto the hanging platform with a screech of metal and a groan of wood. The whole thing swayed unsettlingly under his feet, causing him to lose his footing and fall to a knee. Ahead of him, the sleepy-eyed boss was weary no longer, its roar more of a high pitched squeal of rage as it drew the oversized blade from between loose planks and advanced towards him.
The thing had no difficulty navigating on the unsteady ground. Talons the size of fists topped each of its toes, their spear-like tips penetrating and grasping the wood with each step as it closed on Cayden.