Book 2: Chapter 32 (Patreon)

Even though they had already rested before the ninth floor, nobody argued to move on right away. With the tenth-floor boss coming up, they would need every advantage they could muster. Daniel was feeling the drain of his fight as well. Orrin took pity and moved back to regular rations, pulling out a small cake he’d been saving for after the defeated the entire dungeon.

“I think we earned it,” he explained as he laid out a blanket, plates, forks, and a cutting knife.

Garret just stared. “I still can’t believe you brought all of this into the dungeon.”

Orrin shrugged and cut into the fluffy white cake with small red berries and cream, handing out pieces to the girls first. He’d seen it in a shop window and spent one silver coin on it.

“Orrin, this is delicious.” Madi had shoveled half her slice into her mouth.

Emily was taking smaller bites, but she leaned against the wall in a more relaxed pose. She moaned in approval after a bite.

Once everybody was fed with more than just cake, Daniel wanted to talk about strategy for the next room. Madi put her foot down, saying in no uncertain terms that they would not be moving to the next room until they’d all rested again.

“But I’m basically back to normal,” Daniel argued.

“The rest of us use more mana than you.” Madi put her plate back in the dirty pile. “We don’t all have Orrin’s crazy regenerative powers and taking a mana potion now would be one less we can take during the fight. We’ll rest and then fight it.”

Orrin wisely stayed out of the argument. Once the other three were asleep, Daniel moved over and sat by Orrin. They sat together in silence, listening to the soft snores of Emily. Orrin checked over his status. The last floor had brought a lot of growth. Orrin had made sure to hit every one of the monsters he could. Even only getting part of the experience pool for each kill, he’d seen his largest growth in one go.

Orrin

Utility Warder Level 14   (4,136 /5,000)

AP: 19

“When we get out of here, we shouldn’t head back to Dey,” Orrin said quietly. He’d been doing a lot of thinking on their next project. “If we do, something else will inevitably come up and we’ll get stuck doing something else… again. We need to get up to the elves and figure out a way to end the fighting.”

Orrin pulled up his Quests, ignoring all but one.

Stop the war in Odrana

Reward: 200,000 XP and   Variable

Failure: Loss of 10 levels

“Emily and Garret are great adventurers, but we need to shake them somehow.”

Daniel nodded. “We could ask them to go back and report in for us.”

“And if they say no?”

“You can [Teleport] us away.”

“If I have any mana left after the next fight, I can. Time the conversation well.”

Daniel picked at a loose thread on his pants. Wrapping his finger around it twice, he yanked it. A small seam pulled loose.

“This dungeon hasn’t been easy but it hasn’t been as tough as I thought it would be,” Daniel finally muttered. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s had its hard parts but…”

“I get it.” Orrin started using up his daily allotment of [Analyze]. “We might have gotten lucky or maybe it’s just a good group.”

Daniel shook his head. “You idiot. It’s you. I was going to say it’s had its hard parts but having you here made it all a lot easier.”

Daniel rolled the broken thread in his fingers and tossed it away. “I’m glad you’re by my side. It’s more than just the buffs and healing. I’m glad I have someone I can trust to lean on.”

“You’ve got Madi, too.”

Daniel nudged his friend with his shoulder. “Yeah, we do.”

Daniel stood in front of the door to the tenth and final floor of the dungeon. They’d already discussed multiple strategies for whatever they had to fight. Emily confirmed that most tenth-level bosses were single entities, usually stronger than anything found before that point.

Orrin had cast [Utility Ward] on the party before increasing his own intelligence and will to the maximum. He’d also spammed [Increase Strength] and [Increase Dexterity] on Daniel.

Garret had his Citrandish bow out and was getting more curved arrow practice in. He’d spent an hour already sending his missiles flying at various angles around the room.

Emily and Madi were having another hurried discussion about magic. Orrin was glad Emily had opened up so much to the team but the amount of knowledge she’d been sharing with Madi was showing real results. Madi’s slow-moving [Shimmersight] could be launched more like a high-speed baseball now. Even her butterflies were able to move in clumps, obscuring a monster’s line of sight on the party.

“Hold your breath and hope it’s not a water level.” Daniel saluted with his sword and stepped through.

“Why would he jinx us like that?” Orrin complained as they all walked through.

The party arrived in a forest. The trees clumped tight enough to block their view for more than a dozen yards in any direction. Garret tapped one tree with the tip of his bow. It rang hollow with a metallic note.

“Irontrees.” Garret noticed Daniel’s confused face. “Trees of iron. The dwarves made them. They usually only grow along the mountainsides and never in this number.”

Orrin already had his [Map] up. “There’s something headed this direction but it keeps skipping.”

“Skipping?” Daniel raised an eyebrow as he readied Gertrude.

“It’s like it’s lag- uhm jumping around. Coming from that way.” Orrin pointed to the south of the door.

Daniel nodded. Emily’s hands began to glow and Garret had an arrow nocked.

“Madi, try and blind it. Then everyone, go wild. Orrin, if you can hit it, try and slow it down.” Daniel rested on his back foot, ready to attack.

The floor boss flitted among the trees just out of sight. Just before reaching the party, it disappeared.

“Orrin! Location?” Daniel yelled.

Orrin frantically zoomed in and out of the [Map]. “It’s gone. I can’t find i—”

Something large and impossibly fast melted out of a tree behind them and slammed into Garret, pulling him deeper into the forest.

“It got Garret, after it.” Daniel charged in the direction of the archer.

They found him twenty yards away. Garret’s entire body was encased in the same metal as the irontree. Two long cuts were sliced across his upper chest and lower left hip.

“Is he alive?” Daniel frantically turned, watching every corner and shadow.

“That’s his failsafe spell,” Emily explained. “He did it to himself. He basically turns into a statue for a few minutes.” She knelt and poked the gash along his side. “This is really deep to show up even after he triggered this.”

“Is he going to be alright?” Madi had her back to the Garret statue, spear extended.

“He’ll be pissed he missed the fight. I’ve only seen him use this once. He said it has too long of a cooldown to be useful in any but the most deadly situations. He must have been in real danger.”

Orrin took his eyes off the [Map] to toss an [Identify] on Garret. His health had gone down by a third in the few seconds he’d been dragged away. He tried to cast a [Heal Small Wounds] but the spell didn’t trigger when he targeted the statue.

Unfortunately for the party, that was the moment the boss attacked again.

Unfortunately for the boss, it targeted Daniel.

Madi’s yell gave Daniel just enough time to trigger [Dwarf Star], giving him the extra mass he needed. Even with his strength maxed out, the beast pushed him a few inches back.

Daniel loaded on [Stone Skin] as the monster started slicing at him. The beast had the general shape of a praying mantis, with two long arms ending in curved hooks. It clicked its mandibles together, trying to reach close and bite Daniel, but the [Hero] put his huge sword between them. Daniel screamed and pushed. The monster turned in the air, kicking off Daniel’s chest and sailing through the air.

Orrin and Emily both scored hits on it before it hit a tree and melted into the metal.

“That looks a lot like what that druid guy could do,” Daniel complained, rubbing his chest.

“Are you ok?” Madi pulled Daniel back toward the Garret statue. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Orrin, please tell me you got a read on that thing.”

“Yes, and even better, I got a dex debuff off on it, too.” Orrin held his hand up for a high-five but nobody took their eyes off the woods. He let his hand fall. “It’s a Gazzelym. Looking it up now.”

“I don’t know that one,” Madi said as she swept her spear back and forth.

“Me either.” Emily threw a ball of fire into the darkness of the woods. “Missed it.”

Orrin flipped through the pages. He turned a page back and moaned. “It’s not in here.”

Emily threw another spell into the trees. “It might be too rare. Not every monster can be categorized. List off anything you’ve noticed about it. Maybe we can figure out a weakness.”

“It’s strong and quick with sharp sword-arms,” Daniel started.

“It has chitin all over it like a bug,” Orrin chimed in.

“It melts into the trees and can move between them somehow.” Madi cast some [Lightstream] spells not the forest trying to light it up. A shadow attacked each one, seeming to drink the magic up. “Shit, it has darkness magic.”

Orrin thought of Sof, the druid from the Dragoon team. He’d also been able to step between trees. How would he have fought someone like that?

“We need to draw it into a clearing and surround it. If we can take away its mobility, we’ll have a better chance. It’s using hit-and-run tactics to take us out one by one, it just made the mistake of going after Daniel first or well… second.” Orrin glanced guiltily at Garret. “I’m going to focus on hitting it with as many inversed dexterity spells as I can and then do the same for strength. If we have any luck, that will take it out.”

“And if not?” Daniel asked. He’d been there when Orrin’s spells hadn’t fully taken down another member of the Dragoon team, Bin. They had a theory it had something to do with higher constitution stats but didn’t exactly have someone high leveled to test the theory out on.

“Then we hit it with everything we have.”

In the minute they’d been talking, the Gazzelym hadn’t reappeared. Emily’s spell must have hurt it enough for it to be cautious.

“I’m going to release some butterflies in that direction,” Madi announced after a moment of silence. She cast her [Lightshow] and twenty butterflies of light spread from her open hand. “Hopefully, it will targ—”

The Gazzelym sped from behind a tree and sliced through the flying insects. Orrin maxed out the dexterity debuffs he could cast on it but didn’t have time for more.

Emily launched more [Firestrikes], while Madi tried to hit it with a [Shimmersight]. Emily scored three hits but Madi missed. By the time Daniel reached the insectoid monster, it had disappeared into another tree. He hit his sword against the tree in anger.

Gertrude sank deeply into the iron where the monster had touched.

“The tree isn’t solid where it touched it,” Daniel thought out loud. He turned Gertrude and dug part of the tree out. “It’s like a sludge here.”

The tree still stood but a quarter of its mass had been carved out. The part that splattered against the ground was slowly absorbed into the ground.

Emily stepped closer and reached a finger into the puddle before it disappeared. “Fascinating. It’s water and darkness magic together. It’s creating portals through the trees by melting them.”

“Watch out!” Daniel swung his sword directly at Emily. The fire mage wisely ducked as the Gazzelym dropped from a branch above. Daniel connected with a solid hit of the flat of his blade and knocked the boss off target, but it was still able to shove one sharpened arm down into Emily’s body. As Daniel struck it over and over, pushing it back, Emily curled into a ball. Flames sprouted from her, licking up the iron trees to either side.

“Orrin, Emily’s hurt.”

“I know that you idiot,” Orrin yelled at him as he ran to her side. The fire burned him but it would take a bit to get through his [Ward]. “Emily, Emily, I’m here. I’m going to heal you, ok?”

She didn’t respond with words but the flames retreated and she moved her arms from around her center. Orrin saw the deep stab and almost threw up. The monster’s bladed arm had hit Emily a few inches to the right of her bellybutton and sliced cleanly and very deeply to the side. Orrin could see her ribs and moving slimy parts inside through all the blood.

[Heal Small Wounds]

[Heal Small Wounds]

Orrin cast his spell at level three. With his Will at 100, each spell was ten times more powerful than it should have been. Four hundred healing per spell is a little OP, he thought as the extra healing hastened the closing of the wound and fixed… things… inside the mage.

Emily gasped and opened her eyes. She waved a hand on fire wildly. She pushed herself to her knees and coughed. Then, with literal fire in her eyes, she screamed and ran at the monster still batting Daniel’s strikes away.

“For fuck’s sake, I just finished healing you,” Orrin complained as Emily threw herself at the tenth-floor boss.