by Trey Myr
6
Dexterity
7
Wisdom
4
Constitution
7
Agility
8
Intelligence
8
HP
20/20
Mana
20/20
HP regen
0.7/hour
Mana regen
6/hour
Shard
Level
Essence
Conjure Phantasm
3
96/300
Summoner
Lightning Field
4
4
120/1200
280/400
Phantasmal Goblin Spearman
Race
Goblin
Class
Spearman
Shards
2/2
Strength
5
Dexterity
6
Wisdom
2
Constitution
2
Agility
5
Intelligence
1
HP
7
Mana
4
HP regen
0.2/hour
Mana regen
1/hour
Shard
Level
Essence
Goblin
3
840/1500
Spearman
Sharpness
4
2
580/1200
380/2000
Phantasmal Kobold
Race
Kobold
Class
None
Shards
1/2 (1)
Strength
3
Dexterity
1
Wisdom
4
Constitution
2
Agility
2
Intelligence
6
HP
7
Mana
16
HP regen
0.2/hour
Mana regen
6/hour
Shard
Level
Essence
Kobold
2
880/1000
Icebolt
5
Sealed
The fourth floor of the Labyrinth was still a cave network, but unlike the earlier floors, it was clearly not a natural cave. The marks of picks could be seen on the walls, and the glowing moss was replaced with torches set in regular intervals. A crude wooden door closed off the exit from the entrance chamber, and a pair of hobgoblins stood guard before it. Wearing crude hide armor and carrying long spears, the hobgoblins charged Ingrid as soon as she passed through the door. She stunned one of her attackers with a shield bash, but by its very nature, a shield bash breaks one's guard, and Ingrid received a deep wound from the other hobgoblin's spear. Bleeding and at a disadvantage against the hobgoblin's longer weapon, Ingrid hunkered behind her shield and waited for the rest of the party to arrive.
Ed's goblin, arriving a second later, took advantage of the hobgoblin's attention being fixed on Ingrid, and stabbed it in its kidney. Jagged yellow lightning erupted from the goblin's spearhead, shocking the hobgoblin. Ed himself entered the room next, and immediately attacked the hobgoblin, dealing another shocking hit to the wounded monster and finishing it.
By the time the rest of the party was in the room, the second hobgoblin was also down, and all that was left was for James to heal Ingrid.
"Good work guys," Kevin told Ed and Ingrid. "We might want to start sending the summons in first from now on, since the Labyrinth is trying to catch us flat footed."
"Might be a good idea to send the goblin first all the time now," James offered. "These hobbos look at least somewhat organized, so we can't ignore the possibility of traps."
"Yeah, we might want to see about getting a locate and disarm trap Skillshard."
"And harvesting, and appraisal, and a dozen other things. We just don't have the slots for utility yet. The scapegoblin will have to do for now."
Having decided on a new marching order, the party opened the door and entered a roughly hewn passageway stretching for ten meters before ending at another crude door.
Waiting behind the door were two hobgoblin spearmen and two archers. Ingrid went toward one of the spearmen, while Ed took the other, having sent his goblin towards one of the archers. Ed and the hobgoblin spearman were fairly well matched in skill, and neither one of them could get a good hit on the other. Ed, however, had an advantage in his Lightning Field skill, since even a grazing hit would deliver the full elemental damage, and the hobgoblin was quickly pressured into a fully defensive stance, trying to block all of Ed's attacks.
Ingrid, meanwhile, had stunned the other spearman, and headed towards the second archer.
Ed's goblin had taken an arrow to its left arm on its way to the archer, but after that one hit the archer was forced to drop its bow and pull out a nasty looking dagger. The longer range of the goblin's spear was negated by the hobgoblin's longer arms, and it managed to grasp the spear's haft and close in, delivering a nasty wound to the goblin's stomach. The move cost it, however, as it wasn't paying attention to the ranged members of Ed's party, and was quickly slaughtered by a barrage of fire, lightning covered ice and steel, but not before dealing a killing blow to the goblin.
Ingrid blocked the second hobgoblin's arrow, and her shield and mace were more than a match for its dagger. A crippling mace blow to the hobgoblin's leg left it barely able to stand, and it took only a couple more hits to finish it.
Ed wasn't getting any further against his defensive opponent, but with both of the archers down, the rest of his party could gang up against the other spearman, finishing it shortly after it shrugged off Ingrid's stun, and with the whole party focused on Ed's opponent, it soon joined the rest of its squad in death.
When Ed resummoned his goblin, nobody could possibly miss the fact that it was carrying a different spear. The torchlight shone over a broad, serrated head sat on top of a heavy shaft made of dark brown wood. While made of mundane materials and unenchanted, this was clearly a spear made by a master weaponsmith.
"This may not be the time, but I really want an explanation about your gobbo and its spears," James stated.
"Not now," answered Kevin. "We need to rethink our strategy here. We can't lose the goblin every fight. It takes you how long to regenerate your mana, Ed?"
"Two and a half hours. And I don't have enough left to extend Lightning Field to my summons for the next fifty minutes."
"I thought so. Ingrid, you'll have to taunt both archers after stunning one of the fighters. Ed, you will take the other fighter, and your goblin will join once you have its attention. The rest of us will focus down the archers one after the other."
"I can do it, but I'm going to get hit. James, I'm counting on you to keep me on my feet."
"As if I ever let the group down," sneered James.
The following fights were not at all easy for the party. Ed and Ingrid ended up being hit a lot more than they might have liked, and only James's quick casting saved them from serious damage.
Ed thought that they were about halfway through the floor when he got a long awaited for message.
Your Spearman Shard (Phantasmal Goblin Spearman) has leveled up!
+10% damage to all polearm damage
Spearman Shard (Phantasmal Goblin Spearman) is Closed and can rank up!
Soon after, when the party had stopped to rest and recover mana, Ed brought up the status and rank up menu for the spearman Shard.
Spearman
Tier 0
Level 5
Closed
A variant on the Fighter class, Spearmen are trained in the use of spears and pikes.
+2 Strength
Gives basic knowledge and muscle memory nee
ded to use spears and pikes.
+1 Shard slot, useable for a melee Skillshard that can be used with a spear.
+10% to all polearm damage
Rank up options
Spearman (tier 1)
Lancer (tier 1) requirements unmet
Dragoon (tier 1) requirements unmet
Having researched the spearman class tree before buying it for his goblin, Ed knew that the tier one spearman class would increase the abilities granted by the tier zero class, without offering anything new. Lancer was a step in the direction of the knight class, and would focus on more defensive abilities, and dragoon was a class focused on mobility skills and charging attacks. The recent battles have shown Ed quite clearly that his goblin had serious survivability issues, which both of the locked classes would address in their own way. Having none of the Skillshards needed to unlock either of them, Ed closed the status window and the party proceeded forward.
It was about half an hour, and three hobgoblin groups later, that the party found themselves in front of a fancier set of doors. Still crudely made, these double doors were decorated with badly drawn symbol depicting two crossed spears over a tusked skull, and written beneath them the words "Chiff Roome! No Enter!"
"Nice of them to mark the boss room," Ed remarked.
"And make the entrance wide enough for three of us to enter at once," added Ingrid.
"Everyone ready for the boss?" Kevin asked, and seeing nods from everyone in the party, "go ahead Ingrid."
Ingrid kicked the door open, and the party charged into the 'Chiff Roome'. Goblinoid decorating sense, apparently, was universal. The room was thirty meters across and twenty five wide, with a five meter high ceiling. Sputtering torches were more or less evenly spaced around the walls, in between crudely tanned furs. The floor was carpeted by more furs, and a large throne like chair, decorated with the skulls of horned rabbits and wolves, stood in the center, facing the entrance.
The largest hobgoblin that the party has ever seen sat on the throne. It must have been at least a hundred and ninety centimeters tall, and at least as much around its large belly. The hobgoblin chief was dressed in what once must have been a fancy set of robes, but was now stretched over a far larger girth that it was tailored for, and stained with the food of a hundred feasts. A crude iron crown decorated the chief's head, and it was holding a haunch of unidentifiable meat in one hand, and a long, thin staff in the other, with a surprisingly pretty looking banner on top of it, showing the same crossed spears and skull insignia that was on the door.
Standing behind the chief was a much smaller hobgoblin shaman, wearing a bone skirt and carrying a staff tipped with a hobgoblin's skull. Two hobgoblin spearmen stood on each side of the throne, and a large wolf lay in front of it, gnawing on a bone.
"Stupid humans!" shouted the chief as soon as the party entered the room. "You no read sign? This chief room! You no enter!"
The chief then slammed his banner down on the carpet, causing a circle of blue light to expand across the floor from the tip of the staff. When the light reached the other monsters, it briefly climbed them, and vanished.
"Kill the humans!" the chief shouted, before taking another bite of its dinner, and the hobgoblins and wolf charged to meet the advancing party.
"Ingrid, Ed, hold the melee. The rest of you, focus on the shaman!" Kevin shouted, before launching an arrow at the shaman.
Ingrid immediately used her taunt skill, followed by a shield bash to stun the first hobgoblin to reach her. These hobgoblins were much faster than any others the group fought, however, and the second hobgoblin reached her before she recovered from her attack, and managed to score a hit on her left arm. Ed intercepted the third hobgoblin warrior, and quickly found himself forced on the defensive, barely managing to block the hobgoblin's attacks. "I think the chief hasted them!" he shouted, trying to stop himself from backing away towards the party's back line. Ed's goblin was having an even worse time, taking numerous small hits from the larger and faster hobgoblin it was facing.
"We can't hold them for long!" Ingrid shouted while fighting the second hobgoblin. "As soon as my stun wears off, they'll start getting through!"
"Keep it up as long as you can!" Kevin answered her. "We're almost done with the shamaargh!"
Their full focus on the hobgoblins, the party lost sight of the wolf, which slinked around the room and leaped at Kevin from behind, biting down hard on his arm until it let out a loud snapping sound.
"We eat sheep tonight!" shouted the chief gleefully.
Fortunately for the party, the constant barrage was enough to kill the shaman, and the group's ranged attackers turned their attention to the wolf, which soon joined the shaman. By that point, the kobold was out of mana, and Ed sent it to physically attack one of Ingrid's hobgoblins. He didn't expect it to do any damage, but just distracting one of the attackers was better than nothing.
With three melee fighters and one semi-useless kobold to prevent the hobgoblins from ganging up on her, and with Lucy joining in, Ingrid managed to land some hits on her attacker, and managed to kill it in time to turn to the second hobgoblin, just in time to replace the now dispelled kobold.
"Can you taunt again?" Ed shouted at Ingrid, who growled out a challenge at hobgoblins instead of answering. Free from his attacker for a moment, Ed resummoned his kobold, now with full mana, and turned back to attack one of the two hobgoblins attacking Ingrid.
With the aid of the kobold and Lucy, Ingrid quickly killed another of the hobgoblins, and turned to the third one just in time to catch its attention after it killed Ed's goblin.
Lucy and the kobold left Ingrid to deal with the hobgoblin, turning their attention to Ed's foe, and quickly blasting it into oblivion. The kobold was once again out of mana, but with only one enemy actually fighting, its aid was no longer necessary, and Ed, Ingrid and Lucy quickly killed the last hobgoblin warrior.
Seeing his bodyguards dead, the chief threw aside its meal and stood from his throne, taking hold of a large axe that was lying next to him. "Now you fight chief! Strongest warrior in tribe!"
The chief charged the party, but while it might have once been the strongest warrior, too many full meals and not enough fighting had left him slow and clumsy, and he was quickly cut down and killed.
With the battle over, the members of the party caught their breaths, and turned around to treat the unconscious Kevin. Unfortunately, while James could heal his wounds and stop the bleeding, fixing Kevin's broken arm was beyond his ability.
Chapter 6:
A Night on the Town
With Kevin out of commission, there was no discussion about continuing on. Floor five was well known as a "boss floor", and therefore a sharp difficulty spike, and even with the group in top shape, trying it would have been a huge risk. The group quickly looted the dead monsters, finding among the usual essence drops only one remarkable item.
Banner of Lesser Haste
When held prominently, all allies of the holder gain a +25% bonus to movement and attack speed
Ed would have liked to take the banner as part of his share of the loot, but he was still in the position of a melee attacker, and wouldn't be able to use it together with his quarterstaff. Besides, the need to buy Shards for his phantasms left him with very little free credits, and the banner would reduce his share by a significant amount.
The party left the floor, taking the stairs back to the floor of the bazaar. Quickly selling their loot and dividing the credits, the party split, promising to meet again in the morning.
James left straight towards the Pug. A tough battle stream meant more income for him, and he meant to capitalize on it by chatting to his fans. Ingrid offered to escort Kevin to a healer that would treat his broken arm. The money to pay the healer was already taken from the combined loot, and wouldn't come out of Kevin's share.
Ed was planning on going to look for some Shards for both himself and his phantasms, but Lucy grabbed his arm before he could move away.
&nb
sp; "I know you're going to look for Shards, and I need to buy a couple of them too. Come on, I'll buy you dinner and then we can go shopping."
"Shouldn't I be the one buying you dinner?" Ed asked, but didn't resist when she started pulling him deeper into the bazaar.
"As if you have any credits for it, with all the Shards you're buying all the time."
Ed had to concede her point, and walked with her, acutely aware of her closeness.
Lucy led Ed to a small restaurant attached to a butchery specializing in monster meat, and ordered them a variety platter full of familiar types of meat from weird and exotic beasts.
Between bites of horned rabbit bratwurst, Sæhrímnir bacon and behemoth minute steaks, Ed and Lucy talked about their respective shopping lists.
"I'm kind of torn, actually," Lucy said after washing a bite of bacon down with some mead. "We're getting higher in the Labyrinth, and we need more firepower, so I want to get a higher tier spell Shard. On the other hand, I'm our main bottleneck between fights, since we're mostly waiting for my mana to regen, so I'm thinking that a Manaflow Shard might be better."
"You're talking about a Shard for the slot from Elementalist, right?" Ed asked while cutting open and spreading mustard on a freshly baked bun. "You should go for the Manaflow. Passives are always a better use for bonus slots, and your mana will limit your use of a stronger spell anyway."
"You're probably right. I'm thinking of picking up both a Manaflow and a spell Shard now, so I'll have one ready if elementalist fills up in mid delve."
"Probably a good idea. And at least you have the cash for it," grumbled Ed.
"Poor Ed, using more Shards than anyone has any right to and running out of money," Lucy raised her hand, rubbing her finger and thumb to mime the world's smallest violin. "Speaking of which, what are you going to buy?"
"I'm honestly not sure. I could use a Manaflow myself. I'm still not sure how the mana cost for my… you know, is calculated. The first one rose from ten to fifteen when I Sliced spearman, which might mean that it'll rise again when I rank it up."