by Jakob Tanner
“And he cooks too,” said Serena, flirtatiously.
“Yes,” I said, hoping something witty and cool would also follow my initial one-word response but then I remembered I’m Mr. Smooth (aka. an idiot).
I turned to my inventory, pleased I’d now cleared up two more slots, meaning I would be able to loot as hard as Shade. Okay not as intensely as him—I wasn’t sure it was possible—but I was happy to have room for more treasure.
Edward and Serena took the first steps into the shadows of the dungeon with Shade and I following behind. It got darker and colder as we descended. I kept my hand against the stone cavernous walls to keep my balance and orient myself while in the murky blackness. We headed downward into the gloom for a good few minutes until a faint glowing light emerged.
At the bottom of the steps was a large cavern lit by a pink radiance coming from the walls. Illuminated crystal shards poked through the stone surrounding the underground cave. Mining picks and wheelbarrows laid about the ground.
“Whoah,” I said. “What are these crystals?”
“Crystallized mana,” answered Shade.
“It exists underground?”
“Of course it does,” he said. “How do you think the continents float in the air like they do?”
I’d never thought about it. Interesting. “But what happens if we mine it all?”
Shade shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious?” He then gestured with his hand to mimic a continent falling and crashing into the sea. “But hey, none of the makers of managuns or airships want you thinking about that, so nobody does.”
“You better not be making an underhanded comment on the Laergardian Royal Family,” said Edward, walking right up to Shade, ready to trade blows.
“Hey guys,” I said. “Let’s not fight—”
My words get cut off by a rumbling in the ground. The earth at our feet splits open and out comes a horned bug out of the dirt. [Crypt Beetle] hovered above its name as it climbed out onto the cavern’s surface. I took in its stats.
Crypt Beetle
Level 20
HP: 1130
MP: 25
Two more beetles climbed out of the hole it dug through and faced us to fight. Edward unsheathed his shining sword and went to work, stabbing the beetle head on. Serena came behind, leaping into the air, and struck down with her massive sword like a butcher cutting through a massive slab of pork. Despite the spectacle of their moves, they didn’t deliver much damage.
Staff in one hand, I powered up an energy ball in the other. The power of the ball was more intense than usual. It must’ve been the staff picking up the excess of mana floating amongst the crystals. I fired it at the beetle Edward was fighting and the damage was so-so. It had equal amounts of magic and normal defense stats.
One beetle did an uppercut attack to Edward in the chest, knocking him back. “They’re defense is too high,” yelled Serena. “Our attacks aren’t doing any damage.”
I turned to Shade to see if he had any ideas. But he had completely disappeared.
“Guys—where’s Shade?”
The cat thief appeared out of the shadows behind the beetles and lifted one up with his arms. The tiny beetle legs scurried on the ground and dug into Shade, but he simply heaved the beetle until it was upside down, rolling on its curved back.
“Get it while it’s down,” Shade smiled, pulling out his dagger.
We all attacked the one flipped over beetle, hailing a flurry of attacks at it. Critical hit stacked critical hit until its legs stopped crawling in panic as the life left its body.
+175 EXP!
We turned to the other beetles which were both aggro’d on Edward. His HP was above 50%. He was trading blow for blow with the two beetles. Serena and Shade came up to one and flipped it on its side and went over to the next. As they flipped over the remaining beetle, I pummeled the current upside down one with as many energy balls I had. Next I ran up to it, infusing my sword with my mana and swiped again and again, slaying the giant insect. When I finished, they had already cleared the other beetle themselves. The stacks rolled by in my HUD.
+175 EXP!
+175 EXP!
Shade glowed as he leveled up again.
I scanned the beetles for items and picked up a beetle horn off each of them. The party was already heading deeper into the cavern by the time I had finished scanning the beetle corpses. I caught up with my team and we continued through the crystalized cavern. The dungeon narrowed and a small archway formed, linking the cavern with another room. We walked through the archway towards the other room with trepidation.
The ground turned from dirt to cobble stone and the room we entered was full of statues. The stone monuments were of old Rorn kings.
“Whose crypt is this?” Serena asked.
Replying to her question, three stone tombs rumbled. The coffin lids slid open and out came ethereal spirits of dead Rorn. They were short and stout like the Rorn, but they lacked a physical nature. They were ethereal, made up of white bluish wisps. One of them wielded a sledge hammer, the other had a battle axe, and the other had a great sword. Their weapons were made of the same ghostly material as they were.
“I do not like the looks of these guys,” said Shade.
Rorn Spirit
Level 20
HP: 730
MP: 18
The ghosts ran at us and Serena and Edward met their charge. Steel clashed against the ghost weaponry. I fired up an energy ball and whipped it at the sledgehammer ghost. Shit damage. Damn, high magic defense. Unsurprising: they were magical spirits from the afterlife.
I infused my blade and jumped into the battle. My blade swung into the battle-axe spirit, digging into its ghostly flesh. I dug the sword in and out, sawing at its ethereal skin, cutting away health points with every slice back and forth. The spirit decided he’d had enough. Turning his attention away from Serena, he side swiped his battle axe into my stomach. Blood burst from my gut as 30% of my HP fell off. The bleeding debuff flickered onto my status bar.
“Stay out of the way,” Edward said, as his blade clashed with the sword-wielding spirit.
“You don’t have the toughness to withstand hits from these guys,” said Serena. “Stay back.”
I stayed back and guzzled down an HP potion. My HP bar restored itself and my disemboweled stomach sealed itself shut, good as new.
Shade circled the battlefield, dancing in and out of the fray. He front-flipped into striking distance and threw out a nasty backstab with his dagger and then back flipped out to safety.
Serena unleashed a blade tornado, twirling between the three spirits, ricocheting between them like a deadly pinball until their red HP bars fell to zero. They exploded into dust, littering the cracks of the stone floor.
+175 EXP!
+175 EXP!
+175 EXP!
I walked over to the fallen blue dust on the ground and it registered in my HUD as “Spirit Dust.” I picked it up and added it to my inventory. Crafting materials for the win.
The bricks of the center wall moved and rolled back, forming a secret archway. The killing of those three spirits had triggered the opening of another room. When the door fully emerged, a purple shadow swirled in front of it.
“Looks like we found the end of the dungeon,” said Serena. “The purple shadow signals the room inside is a boss room. If we run through the shadow, we can’t come back until the boss is defeated or—” Serena didn’t finish her sentence.
“The mutant skren bandit must’ve gone in there,” I said.
I turned to Shade and Edward. “Are you guys sure you want to go in there? If Serena and I go in—we’ll come back even if we die. It’s not the same for you.”
“A royal knight never leaves his party behind,” said Edward. “If you two are going to fight whatever lies beyond this shadow, then I’ll join you.”
“And Shade?”
The cat thief smiled and said, “You think I’d run away now? After fighting Skren, Golpe, giant b
eetles, and Rorn spirits. I’m sorry mate, but I’ve already been given plenty of excuses to leave. Yet here I am. Also, lest we all forget, rare creatures mean rare loot.”
“Okay then,” I said. “It’s settled.”
I took a step forward when Serena put her hand on my arm.
“Clay,” she said. “Can I talk to you over here a minute?”
We stepped off to the side and Serena’s face was intensely serious. “Clay—we can’t enter the room thinking we’ll be okay if we die. Those players I saw fighting a similar monster never came back. You’ve already been branded by it in your death. If it kills us, it’s forever. Are you still sure we should go in there?”
I gulped. The harsh reality wasn’t pretty. But we hadn’t come all this way only to decide now the mission was too dangerous.
“Whatever happens, we have each other’s back, right?”
Serena smiled, “Of course. You’re my spell caster, my DPS.”
“And you’re my tank,” I replied.
I walked back to the group. I pulled my staff from behind my shoulder and gripped it in my hand. “No more wasting time,” I said, charging through the shadow gate. “Let’s fight this thing.”
26
The boss arena was a massive square chamber with high ceilings. Dungeon moss and vines grew around the stone columns in each corner of the room. It reeked of death and decay. Off to the side, lying in a pool of blood, was a dead creature.
I walked towards it.
“Clay,” Serena said. “Watch out. We don’t know if this room is trapped.”
Heeding my friend’s advice, I took each step carefully as I moved towards the dead creature. Crimson scars ran across the different amputated pieces of the body. When I finally stood over top of its deformed snout, drenched in a puddle of blood, there was no denying it. This dead thing in front of me was the mutant Skren bandit.
Did it come to this place to die? Or did something more powerful kill it?
The floor at my feet trembled. The walls rumbled. Appearing in the center of the room was a ball of wispy light. The ball grew and grew until—pop—a gigantic specter of a Rorn king appeared. He was like spirits in the other room but ten times the size. His knees were at our eye level. The sheer power and energy coursing through him blasted his silver hair above his head.
This was the boss of the dungeon. Or, at least, it had been. The spirit wasn’t completely ethereal. Stretching from his right shoulder where a wispy blue spirit arm should’ve been was an enlarged Skren arm with claws. What the--? The mutant Skren and the Rorn spirit had combined into this ultimate horrific creature.
The boss was duel-wielding. He had a silver spectral battle axe in one hand and in the other was the Skren arm, black worms festering off the fur. The mutant arm which had instant killed me with a single touch last time. I shuddered.
The mutant Rorn spirit turned to us, its fragmented caption popping up above its head: [R0rn SP3r1t K3ng]. I pulled up its stats.
R0rn SP3r1t K3ng
Level: ??
HP: ??
MP: ??
“Well’s let’s not stand here,” yelled Serena, running forward, dragging her giant blade with both her hands behind her.
“Agreed,” said Edward, running towards the spirit, sword in hand.
“I’ll see what I can do from behind,” said Shade, sneaking towards the walls and heading around the boss.
I gripped my staff and powered up an energy ball, throwing it at the huge spirit in front of me. It did damage but not much. What was I going to do? How was I going to help here? I had to figure out how to beat this thing. Where was its weak spot?
Serena and Edward went back and forth landing blows on the side of the spirit. But the ghost of the Rorn king had had enough. He gripped his axe with both hands and did a wide radius swipe across the room. Both Edward and Serena fell back, roughly 40% of their HP being knocked off in a single blow.
Holy shit. This creature was strong. 40% HP off Serena and Edward—such an attack would’ve instant killed me for sure. It was a good thing I was firing support blasts from the back then.
Edward and Serena each guzzled down an HP potion and Edward recast the Royal Honor buff on both of them. In seconds they were back to swinging against the monster. They circled around it as they fought. The giant spirit turned on its feet, struggling to keep up with them. He swiped his Skren arm but they were always a few meters away from where he targeted.
Leaping out of the shadows, Shade appeared with his dagger in hand. He landed a critical hit in the back and dragged the blade through the wispy spirit flesh. The boss cried out in pain. It quickly turned away from Serena and Edward and swiped its claw out towards Shade. The thief jumped away and fell on his back.
Oh no. Shade was wearing light armor like me. One hit and he’d be a goner and there was no coming back for Shade.
I summoned a large energy ball and whipped it at the spirit’s back. Please draw aggro to me. The attack landed but it did no use in changing the boss’s target. The spirit’s hate was fully on Shade now.
Shade crawled backwards to escape the monster’s shadow. It lifted its Skren arm, readying its instant kill attack. Right as it was about to thrust its arm right through Shade’s chest, Serena leapt in the air and stabbed the Skren arm, forcing the spirit boss to recoil in pain and confusion. It turned around, all of its aggro back on Serena and Edward.
Phew. Too close.
The boss’s HP bar, despite being undefined in the stats, was around the 55% mark. We were slowly whittling it away. Victory was in our sights. Edward and Serena chipped away at the boss’s health until the bar dropped to 50%.
The boss lifted both its hands in the air and channeled power for an AOE attack. The rocks from the ceiling fell. Small ones and large ones. There was no safe place to hide from the incoming onslaught. It would kill us all.
“Come to me,” yelled Edward, lifting his shining blade in the air. A liquid orb enveloped Edward and the area around him. I dashed across the ruptured ground and leaped into the protective bubble. Shade jumped in from the other side. Rocks crashed all around us but none broke through Edward’s magic force field.
The rocks stopped falling and the spirit returned to normal fighting mode.
“I won’t be able to protect us like that again,” said Edward. The re-cast time on the spell must be super slow. “We need to give it everything we got before it unleashes the attack again.”
Edward and Serena returned to hitting the mutated ghost king with their blades. I power up another energy ball and knock it in the chest. We were fighting on a timer now. We needed to destroy it before it did the earthquake move again.
Where was its weak spot? Back in my first fight with the Skren bandit, the best attack I had landed was in its eye. But the spirit was ten times my height. So? I was a fucking power jumping Aeri.
I ran full speed towards the spirit boss. I leapt into the air, created a mana platform and jumped again. I did this a few times until I hovered way above Serena and Edward, flying full speed towards the Rorn king’s head. I unsheathed my sword, infusing it with mana as I did so, and did one final power jump, propelling myself right at the spirit’s head, particularly its ghostly eyeball. My sword blasted through the spirit’s pupil. I worried the attack would fly through the spirit, but when my sword landed it physically puncture the ghost flesh. A white gravelly dust spurted forth from its eye as I stabbed it over and over. I slid onto the spirit’s shoulder and kept swinging my mana infused sword all over its face and neck.
The spirit boss flailed its arms.
“Get the hell outta there Clay,” yelled Serena. “You can’t handle all the aggro. It will kill you!”
“Don’t worry about me,” I yelled. “Let’s finish this.”
I kept stabbing the creature in the head, over and over. While the rest of the party did damage down below. The creature kept moving so erratically, I’d occasionally fall off the ghostly shoulder, but I would power jump
back on. With me hitting it in its critical zone, it wasn’t able to reorient itself or deal direct damage to anyone else. We all stabbed our sharp weapons in and out of its spirit skin. Again and again. Its HP bar slowly decreased. It went down to 5%... 4%... 3%...2%...1%.
“C’mon,” I yelled, ripping my sword free and lunged it back into the creature’s eye.
I waited for the experience bonus to flash across my HUD. But nothing happened. The creature was still alive. I stabbed it again. Then another time.
“It’s not taking damage,” yelled Serena from below.
What? It only had 1% of health left. There must be something missing here.
The boss spun and I fell off of it. I power jumped at the last minute to cushion my landing to the floor.
The spirit lifted both its hands up towards the ceiling. Oh no. The AOE attack. We won’t be able to defend against it. Unbelievable. After all of this, we had lost. Serena and Edward desperately sliced their swords into the spirit’s legs, hoping to land a final killing blow. But it wasn’t happening.
This was it. We were all going to die. I had failed. I didn’t have the strength to save my friends. I had been given a second chance and yet again, I had failed to be the person I wanted to be. I was a failure, just as my mother and father had always thought.
Rocks fell from the ceiling. First small ones but the big body crushing ones would come soon.
A burning sensation enveloped my wrist. What was happening? I didn’t see any of my HP drain. I pulled off my gloves and saw the black swirl on my wrist had spread and was enveloping my arm and turning my veins black.
What was happening to me?
My arm jerked forward and an intense energy swarmed through my wrist and blasted out of my hand.