Phantasmal Party

by Trey Myr

  Groups of three goblins required Ingrid to use her shield bash to stun one of the enemies, after which she would move to a second one, while Ed’s goblin fought the third. Unfortunately, the group couldn’t deal enough damage to kill one of the goblins before the stun wore off, forcing Ed to join the fight and leave the rear of the party unguarded. Fortunately, the patrolling goblins seemed oblivious to the noise of the battle, and the party was never attacked from the rear.

  A couple of hours, and about thirty goblins later, Ed got a very welcome message.

  Your Spearman Shard (Phantasmal Goblin Spearman) has leveled up!

  +1 strength

  Kevin has just ordered a rest stop, to enable himself, Ingrid and Lucy to regenerate some mana, which prompted James to sneer contemptuously and remind the rest of the party, once again, that he had a Sorcerer Classshard that let him regenerate mana far quicker than the rest of them. Having learned to ignore James by then, Ed spent the time looking at his status.

  Eduard Fergusson

  Race

  Human

  Class

  None

  Shards

  1/2

  Strength

  6

  Dexterity

  7

  Wisdom

  4

  Constitution

  7

  Agility

  8

  Intelligence

  6

  HP

  20/20

  Mana

  14/16

  HP regen

  0.7/hour

  Mana regen

  6/hour

  Shard

  Level

  Essence

  Conjure Phantasm

  0

  64/100

  Phantasmal Goblin Spearman

  Race

  Goblin

  Class

  None

  Shards

  2/2

  Strength

  4

  Dexterity

  5

  Wisdom

  2

  Constitution

  2

  Agility

  4

  Intelligence

  1

  HP

  8

  Mana

  4

  HP regen

  0.2/hour

  Mana regen

  1/hour

  Shard

  Level

  Essence

  Goblin

  0

  320/500

  Spearman

  1

  20/600

  A normal monster in the Labyrinth would normally provide five essence per level to the Classshard and Raceshard (if any) of anyone involved in killing it, and another five essence per level to each of the skills that person used. It seemed that with Ed’s Conjure Phantasm skill, the phantasm itself gained essence the way he expected it to, but the Conjure Phantasm skill only gained one essence per level for each creature the phantasm helped kill. This was far far better than Ed had any reason to expect, seeing as Impediment skills usually had no combat application whatsoever and therefore couldn’t level up at all.

  Half an hour later, Kevin gave the order to move on, and the party continued on its way. Taking the time to rest turned out to be a good thing, since five more minutes of walking brought the party to what was clearly the boss fight of this floor.

  Even before entering the room, Ed could see that the bioluminescent light of the glowing moss was replaced with the harsher, yellow firelight of torches. The passageway opened up into a large room, twenty five meters across and twenty wide, the ceiling at least five meters high. Torches burned in three meter intervals on the walls, and the furs of horned rabbits and wolves hung between them. A carpet made of red fur stretched from the entrance of the room to a large chair in the middle.

  A man sized figure sat on the throne, with greenish yellow skin, long tusks and large, sail-like ears. It was wearing a leather jerkin, and a large mace sat across its knees. The hobgoblin’s throne was flanked by two goblins, both larger than normal and carrying swords that looked almost well cared for.

  When the party entered the room, the hobgoblin rose from its chair and, waving its mace above its air, shouted in goblinspeak, and charged at the party, flanked by its two bodyguards.

  “Ingrid, stun the boss, and keep it stunned as long as possible! Ed, you take the left mob, and send your goblin on the right. Lucy and I will focus on your target, and after it’s dead the three of us all switch to the other mob. James, try to keep us all healed at first, and once you’re down to 50% mana let the summon die.”

  And with that, the battle was joined.

  With a roar of her own, Ingrid slammed her shield into the hobgoblin’s face, stunning him, and followed it up with blows from her cudgel.

  Ed sent his goblin to fight the right bodyguard, and ran towards the left. This goblin was far better trained than the others he’d fought and Ed found that he couldn’t get past its guard. Fortunately, he still had a reach advantage on the goblin, and could parry its attacks, while Kevin and Lucy shot arrows and pink Firebolts at it.

  A few seconds later, Ingrid’s stun effect wore off the hobgoblin, and it immediately shouted something incomprehensible, holding its mace above its head. The goblin facing Ed glowed red for a second, and Ed could feel it start to move faster under the effect of its leader’s warcry.

  Quickly running under Ed’s next attack, the goblin moved inside of Ed’s guard, and thrust its sword into Ed’s left thigh. Ed had barely enough time to turn left and let the sword graze him instead of dealing a serious wound, and cried out in pain as he tried to retaliate with the right side of his staff, but found that the goblin had already moved past him and was going towards Lucy.

  A shout from Ingrid told Ed that the boss was stunned again, just as he felt the warmth of a healing spell sealing his wound. Running towards the now slowed goblin, Ed managed to trip it from behind, and followed it up by smashing his quarterstaff on the goblin’s head. Another Firebolt slammed into the goblin, and it stopped moving.

  James was running towards the fallen goblin with his dagger drawn to ensure it was dead, and Ed moved towards the second bodyguard, just in time to see it run his phantasmal goblin through with its sword. The hobgoblin was once again coming off the stun, and Ed waited for the hasted goblin to move towards him before resummoning his phantasmal goblin behind the charging bodyguard. Caught between Ed and the phantasm, the hasted goblin couldn’t pull the same trick the other one managed, and was soon cut down by a combination of melee and ranged attacks while Ingrid used the last of her mana on a third shield bash to keep the hobgoblin from joining in.

  With the two bodyguards dead, the entire party could focus on the Hobgoblin. Kevin was using his lesser pierce Shard to deal extra damage to the boss, and Lucy used the last of her mana to cast Firebolts at it. The hobgoblin came out of the stun and instead of using his warcry, slammed his mace down on Ingrid, who managed to catch it on her shield, but was clearly staggered by the blow. While it was recovering from the attack, Ed’s goblin came in from its left and managed to hit its left arm with its spear. Ed came in right after his goblin, slamming his quarterstaff down on the boss’s head. The hobgoblin turned towards them, smashing the goblin with its mace and killing it instantly, but leaving its back exposed to Kevin, who managed a piercing shot straight to its right shoulder. With a wounded left arm and crippled right shoulder, the hobgoblin could barely lift its mace, and quickly fell before the party’s combined assault.

  The bodyguards’ swords turned out to be low quality and badly maintained, and weren’t worth taking. The hobgoblin’s mace, however, was decent enough that Ingrid wanted to keep it as an upgrade over her cudgel, and its leather jerkin had survived the battle relatively intact, and would provide Ed with some protection in future delves. After a thorough cleaning, of course.

  In addition to the hobgoblin’s equipment, the party found two more teeth necklaces on the bodyguards, and a l
arger, more elaborate necklace on the hobgoblin, all of which could be sold to alchemists as sources of essence.

  After gathering the loot, the party formed up before a door that appeared once the boss was slain, and which would lead to the stairway, where they could choose to continue to the third floor or back to the bazaar.

  “OK guys,” started Kevin, “we’ve got some fairly decent loot here. Can’t know for sure without an Appraisal Shard, but we should have around 450 credits in essence drops here, which means around 90 for each of us. Slightly less for Ed and Ingrid, a little more for the rest of us. Decent haul so far. We’ve got a good chance at a goblinoid floor if we continue down now, but I think we’re all low on mana, and we’ve seen how the danger spikes before. What do you all say?”

  “I’m up for going deeper,” answered James. “I’ve still got a decent amount of mana, and I regen faster than you lot anyway. I can probably keep you alive against more gobbos.”

  “I’ve Sealed my Firebolt Shard on this last fight,” Lucy countered. “Can’t get any essence right now, so I vote to leave. I’ll grab a Classshard before our next delve.”

  “I vote to leave,” said Ingrid. “My shield got banged up good by the hob, and I’ve leveled my Shieldbearer, so I can Slice another Shard. I’d like to do some shopping before we go deeper. Getting a taunt Shard would make my job a lot easier. Ed?”

  In all honesty, Ed really preferred the option of leaving the Labyrinth. Any delve without a full complement of Shards was a waste of potential essence, and now that he’d have some credits to his name, Ed wanted to fill up his second Shard slot as soon as possible. On the other hand, the fact that his Phantasmal Worker somehow mutated wasn’t something he wanted to reveal yet. The knowledge would help too many people for him to keep it a secret for long, but he’d only known his new party members for a few hours, and didn’t quite trust them enough with a secret of this magnitude.

  “I can keep going. Getting decent essence for my goblin, and I don’t use mana most of the time.”

  “That’s two votes to continue and two to leave,” summed Kevin. “Personally, I’d feel a lot better with a bit more power before we try the third again, so let’s leave for now. Do your shopping, and we’ll delve again tomorrow. If we can get a good biome, we can try the third then.”

  “Assuming we keep Mr. Peasant here,” added James snidely. “I’d really prefer to have someone with an actual weapon as our second melee.”

  “We’re keeping Ed,” answered Ingrid. “He’s good enough to hold his own, and having the goblin as an extra melee is working really well.”

  “Ah, guys,” interjected Ed, “I’m right here, you know?

  “Sorry Ed. James has a way of getting on my nerves.”

  “He does bring up a good point though,” said Lucy. “I do think that you did a good job today, Ed, and I’m in favor of you staying on, but it is a decision we need to make as a group. And that’s if you even want to stay. Lord knows that James is enough to drive most people away.”

  “I’m in. You guys are a good group, and since I lucked out once, I don’t feel like playing the PuG roulette again.”

  “I’m in favor too,” said Kevin. “Ed’s good, and I don’t feel like waiting a week for another melee. Welcome to the party, Ed. Now let’s get back to the bazaar. There’s always a risk something bigger than the hob will come along if we stay put too long.”

  “Baaaa,” muttered James loud enough for everyone to hear, but said nothing more as the group went through the door finding themselves walking out of a horizontal door and onto a vertical walkway, looking forward at the floor of the bazaar. Not yet used to the alien geometry of the stairway, Ed had to shut his eyes for a minute until the dizziness passed. Two sets of stairs and two more dizzying changes in their orientation later, the party was standing on the floor of the bazaar, looking for an alchemist to sell their loot to.

  Chapter 3:

  Shopping

  Ed’s new leather jerkin was appraised at ten credits, and Ingrid’s mace at fifteen, leaving Ed with 85 credits from the sold essence drops.

  “Well, I’m off to the blacksmith,” said Ingrid. “Going to take a while to repair my shield, and I want it ready for tomorrow’s delve.”

  “I’m going too. I want to look for a pyromancer Shard,” answered Lucy. “I’ll see you all tomorrow!”

  James, already on his way deeper into the bazaar, didn’t even bother answering.

  “I want to find a leatherworker to fit this jerkin properly,” Ed said to Kevin, “and I think I should get my stuff and get a room in one of the inns in the bazaar, now that I’ve got some credits. “

  “Get a room at the Pug. It’s slightly more expensive than most other inns, but you get better security and far better food.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Same room at the Pug?”

  “Nah. We’re meeting at the common room for breakfast.”

  “See you at breakfast then.”

  Of course, getting his jerkin fitted was only part of Ed’s plans for the evening. Seeing that his summoned goblin could gain essence and level up its Shards, Ed decided that he was going to abandon his plan to get a melee Classshard, and went looking instead for a Summoner Shard.

  Summoner, Ed knew, was a rather paradoxical Shard. Unless you were lucky enough (or rich enough) to get high tier Skillshards, summoned creatures were considered almost completely useless beyond the first few floors of the Labyrinth, and with the Summoner class specializing in buffing summoned creatures, it was often considered one of the weaker base classes. On the other hand, with the proper Skillshards, Summoner could rank up into the Battleweaver class, which gave the ability to use ordinary Skillshards to conjure walls of elemental energy, spinning blades, or any other substance a skill could create. In addition, Summoner was known to unlock the ability of some of the elementally aligned Raceshards to evolve into special forms. These upgrade options, combined with the fact that Summoner could only be found on the rare monsters capable of summoning other monsters, made it one of the more expensive tier zero Shards.

  A couple of hours later, and 55 credits poorer, Ed entered his new room in the Drunken Pug, wearing his newly fitted leather jerkin, and holding his new Summoner Classshard.

  Summoner

  Tier 0

  Level 0

  0/300 essence

  The summoner specializes in summoning and empowering both called and conjured allies.

  Store Pattern – When unsummoning, lets the summoner to store the summoned creature in his aura, letting it be recalled without spending more mana

  The next morning, Ed came downstairs at seven AM. Not seeing any of his party members around, he ordered a cup of coffee, chose a table at random, and spent some time looking around the common room.

  A middle aged man with a torn ear stood behind the bar, taking orders and making drinks. A surprisingly large number of people chose to start their day with some heavy drinking, and the bartender prepared alcohol and caffeine with equal indifference.

  The other patrons in the room were a mix between young, eager newcomers to the Labyrinth and old grizzled veterans. Cargo pants and muscle shirts mixed with chainmail and mage robes. Plain mass produced swords next to rune-carved and jeweled maces, and even a few firearms next to the elaborate elven longbows. Everyone who wasn’t part of the Five Families, and probably some who were, came to the Drunken Pug to share news and tactics, look for new party members, or just plain get drunk.

  The waiters and waitresses moving among them, taking orders and delivering food and drink were all veterans of the Labyrinth. All those who lost their edge, their courage or their will to brave the deadly depths were welcome by the Pug, and the patrons all knew better than to harass them, on fear of Mustafa.

  Ed’s coffee was delivered to his table almost simultaneously with Lucy and Ingrid. Lucy plopped down bonelessly next to Ed, picked up his cup, and drained the coffee in one long gulp, setting it down in fron
t of Ed and telling the waiter, who hadn’t even managed to turn around yet, to bring her another one.

  “Make that three, please,” added Ingrid. “I think Ed would like to actually drink his coffee, and I know that I could use a cup myself.”

  Ed was still getting over the surprise, and thinking about complaining, but Lucy was leaning against him, and between the pleasant feeling of Lucy snuggling to him and the fact that he wasn’t sure she was even awake enough to understand it, Ingrid was finished talking to the waiter and turned to him before he could say anything.

  “Sorry about that Ed. Luce is a coffee zombie in the mornings. She’ll start functioning after her second cup, and will probably apologize for stealing yours.”

  “…comfortable…” muttered Lucy against Ed’s shoulder. “Think I’ll keep this pillow…”

  “Err. I think it’s OK. I’m not even sure I should be complaining,” he told Ingrid, only half joking.

  “I never do,” Ingrid grinned at that, and sat down on Lucy’s other side, but her reply was cut short by the arrival of Kevin and James.

  “Last time I saw anyone this close to Lucy, Chad was sporting a shiner for the rest of the day.” Kevin’s amused comment and raised eyebrow were a marked difference from James’s glare.

  “Yeah, well, it isn’t Ed that is doing the molesting this time,” answered Ingrid, grinning even wider at seeing Ed’s darkening cheeks.

  Fortunately for Ed, the smell of fresh coffee from the approaching waiter reanimated Lucy, and she straightened up, took her new cup and drank from it at a more human pace. Ed added a pack of sugar to his own coffee, stirred it for a minute, and finally got to drink some himself, while Ingrid was busy adding something amber colored from a small metallic flask.

  Kevin and James both ordered cups of English breakfast tea, and the group quickly ordered breakfast. All except Lucy, who simply ordered yet another cup of coffee.