Taking an armor piercing bolt, I started to take aim when the ancient being on the throne started to speak, “You would dare raise arms against your king?”

“You’re not my king, nor worthy of the title.” I said, before firing and pinning his left shoulder to the throne he was sitting on.

“YAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!” He screamed, trying to pull the bolt out. I started throwing pyrophoria potions on him, letting him burn as he struggled to free himself. After five potions, I stopped for a second to reload. Just as I finished, he tore the bolt from the throne and stood to free himself. The standing was the only thing that saved him from a bolt through the chest, as it instead struck through his stomach, and only staggered him for a second. Wincing at my unlucky moment, I pulled out my weapon and prepared to get within striking distance.

Voracious appetite,

Never sated. Consume all nearby.

Mana vortex!

Shouting out a quick incantation, a deep blue aura billowed out from the king. As it washed over me, I saw my mana dropping steadily and his health bar recovering. I backed off, lowering the drain on my mana as I reloaded my crossbow again. I decided that this battle was going to be one without mana, and used as wide of mana blades as I could to start slashing holes in the ground.

“What are you doing to my throne room? You will pay for that!” He screamed, and picked up his trident. As he bent over to pick up his shield, I fired a bolt that pierced through the shield and stuck in the throne. He tsked in annoyance, and started heading down the stairs to the floor to come and attack me. Once he reached the halfway point, I finally managed to get rid of all of my mana.

Smiling, I stood and closed the distance. The king gave a feeble thrust with his trident, one that I caught with my left hand and forced upward, priming the king for a smash to the side. Though I couldn’t use a mana shockwave, I could still feel his ancient bones cracking under the assault. “Not enough milk in your diet, your travesty?” I taunted, sending him even deeper into a rage. He threw the trident to the side, and started swiping at me with his claws and trying to bite down on my shoulder. I kept dancing back, smashing and slashing as I stayed out of his reach.

Once the king reached a quarter health, he backed off and screamed, “TO ME, MY GUARDS! YOUR KING NEEDS YOUR ASSISTANCE!” For some reason, we both froze in anticipation, but nothing ended up coming through the door. “My guards! What have you done with my guards?” He cried, going into a frenzy.

I had no chance to deflect all of his strikes or even dodge half of them, it devolved into a slugfest. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to withstand a boss level creature in combat like that, I took a deep slash along my left arm in exchange for a crippling blow to the king’s leg. Once he fell to the ground, I backed off and immediately downed two health potions. “If you guards were the ones by the stone out there.” I said, huffing a bit, “Then I killed all of them before I came in here for you.”

“Impossible!” He cried. “I have over a hundred guards out there! A veritable army! No mere kobold could take them out!”

“I hate to break it to you, but you seem to have been eating your guards to prolong your life. I only had to kill seven.” At my words, his face fell.

“But. . .No. . . LIES!”

“Look around you. These bones are the bones of your guard. You killed them to prolong your own life.”

“And what was I supposed to do?” He snarled. “Our ocean portal shut down when the ley line died! What are we supposed to eat down here? There’s nothing. NOTHING!”

“There are a million things you could have done. Move. Grow your own food. Trade. You chose to eat your own. You’ll get no sympathy from me.”

“Move? Never. We have ruled the seas from this throne for millennia! We don’t grow food, we take it.”

“From the looks of things, you haven’t ruled anything in ages. And now, your reign will come to an end. Perhaps the next generation will figure out what to do, perhaps they will die here. Either way, you will have no say in it.” I said, voice flat. Walking forward, I kicked the king’s hands out so that he couldn’t regain his feet, knocking the crown from his head in the process. I then repeatedly smashed the back of his head until he died. Once he was dead, my mana thankfully started recovering.

Prehistoric shark’s tooth crown

Fitting, that the lord of the depths wears a crown made from the teeth of a creature that ruled the prehistoric seas. The wearer of this crown gains both a fear aura, and the option to have others swear fealty to them.

Defense: 55

Durability: 1,000/1,000

Grants waterbreathing

Grants primal fear aura: Prey creatures and creatures under the characters level feel a fear aura within 30 feet of the wearer.

Wearer gains the ability to have others swear fealty, and can claim their own territory.

Not a bad drop for a battle that wouldn’t be too bad for a warrior type. That mana drain would be brutal on anyone who brought a mage or a healer in their group. I searched near the throne, but couldn’t find anything. As I turned to look at the room again, I noticed something in the wall in my mystic vision.

It was a perfectly circular portion of the stone, around three feet in diameter, that glowed with ambient mana. Across the way, passing straight through the throne, was another spot. It shattered the first mana blade that I tried to use on it, leading me to believe that I had found exactly where the ley line used to run. I tried thinking back to what the devs had said about mana excavation and how I would need to use it differently to actually mine some resources. I bet they are going to require me to use it like I do in my keen edge skill, and keeping it limited to the inside of my claws. Putting that thought to the test, I formed a blade lining my claws, and tried to make it as dense as I could. This time, when I slashed through the stone it actually cut, though it did drop my mana levels rapidly. Fifteen mana potions later, and I had taken out six inches of shadow fused stone. I got a popup warning me that I wouldn’t be able to mine any more of that resource from this location, so I headed to the opposite side of the throne room and did the same. All of that excavation had pushed my skill up to advanced level 7, and it was much easier to carve it by the time I was done. Searching through the rest of the throne room left me with nothing useable, so I started the long walk back to the beginning of the well, jogging whenever my stamina allowed it.

I flopped onto the ground once I managed to haul myself over the edge of the well, panting in exhaustion. “God, I am so out of shape.” I muttered to myself, before forcing myself to stand up. Making the executive decision to call it a day, I headed back to the room I started the dungeon in as it was the only one that had a safety seal. Ramirez perked up when I walked in, but I simply shook my head at him and he sat back down. “Half of the dungeon is cleared, but I didn’t come across your sword. I’m sure I’ll find it tomorrow, but I need a break right now.” I said, somehow feeling the need to justify my decision.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“God, dungeons can be a pain in the ass sometimes.” I complained as I flopped into a seat at Café Oblivion.

“You on the assaulting team or the defending team?” Derrick asked.

“Assault. Guys, if you get a divine quest chain, be prepared for a lot of heroic dungeons.”

“They that bad?”

“I spent a day clearing half of it. And most of that wasn’t waiting on health to recharge, either.” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “It’s the variety of stuff I’ve come across.”

“I thought dungeons were supposed to have a theme?” Jon asked.

“They do.” Phoebe said. “Or at least, all the game lore I’ve ever come across says they do.”

“Think it’s a bug?” I asked. “Cuz I just spent the day clearing part of a skeleton dungeon, only at the bottom of the well in the keep there were a bunch of ‘shadow warped’ creatures.” I said, emphasizing with air quotes.

“The hell is a shadow warped creature?” Phoebe asked, leaning in.

“Well, the first one I came across was a combination of a jellyfish, squid, and octopus that flew in the air. Then there was the alligator head on legs, and the shapeshifting ball of shadow. The boss of the area was a sahuagin.”

“Ok, that is weird stuff.” Phoebe said. “Have you figured out where in the continent you are? There’s only one mountain range near enough to the ocean to have sahuagins in it.”

“Sorry, and I could still be anywhere. They supposedly had a portal that let them access the ocean, but the ley line powering it dried up.” At my explanation, they all stared at me. “What?” I asked, defensively. “That’s what the king said before I killed him.”

“Marty, ley lines don’t ‘dry up.’” Phoebe pointed out. “They might shift, but they don’t dry up and they can’t be blocked. The mana would simply move through whatever was blocking it, changing it as it did so.”

“I understand the mana changing it, I got a good bit of shadow infused stone. Any idea what it’s good for?”

“How the hell did you find where the ley line used to run? It’s damn near impossible to get that lucky.”

“Ever heard of mystic vision?”

“Yessssss.” Phoebe practically hissed. “And if you know how to obtain a legendary skill like that, you will be telling all of us, right?”

“Sure, sure. Just. . . calm down for a bit. You’re kinda scary right now.”

“He’s got a point hun, you look like you are ready to vivisect him.” Jon said nonchalantly.

“Sorry Marty, it’s just one of those things that everyone wants to get. God, do you know how easy magic would be if my sorcerer could have seen the flows of mana?”

“Well, if you don’t mind grinding for a bit, you need to find a creature that drops a mana sensing organ. Get enough that you can transmute ten perfect mana sensing organs, and use self-transmutation to turn yourself into a variant.”

“Where the hell do you transmute things?” Phoebe asked, and I was wondering if I had opened a can of worms.

“Well, the alchemist’s guild headquarters has a few transmutation circles set up. I guess the cost is crazy high, so the top guilds might have one or two as well.”

“Damn, that won’t work then. So what’s it like?”

“Pretty. I see mana as splashes of color, and can see it as an aura around truly strong mages. I can even see the mana veins in people, so long as there isn’t more than a few inches of flesh to look through.”

“That’s awesome.” Jon said.

“It helps a bit. But anything too strong in magic can blind you. Don’t look at the seals that guarantee safety in the dungeons, or the flames along the temples. It hurts.”

“No doubt.” Derrick chuckled.

“Hey guys, I got a far more important topic to ask you if you don’t mind.” I said, and at their interested expressions continued. “What all loot did you and Phoebe get when you raided that clan?”

“Nothing too valuable. A good bit of rare equipment, some uniques. Nothing above that. Why?”

“Damn. I was hoping to trade you for some stuff. I came across this staff that was a drop from a corrupted world tree that had been forced to hold souls. It was incomplete, but Guildmaster Willow said it had the potential to become a legendary item.”

“Who’s Guildmaster Willow?” Derrick asked.

“Head of the alchemist guild. Pretty nice, for an elf, just don’t drink anything you get offered. I’ve heard he likes to experiment on people.”

“Jon. JON! Wake up Jon.” Phoebe was waving her hand in front of his face.

“Spirit. . . legendary . . . staff.” He muttered.

“Marty, I think you broke Jon just talking about your legendary staff.” Derrick said with a chortle.

“Looks like it. What about you Phoebe? Are you not fazed by talk of a legendary staff?” I said with a smile as she just shook her head.

“Marty, do you have any offers on that staff yet?”

“No, but the guildmaster is sending out feelers for a small fee. Do you have anything worth trading for it?”

“Not yet.” He said with a dejected sigh. “I was just thinking of how epic of a fetish I could have made with it. How in the world did you come across it?”

“A demonic dungeon that was taken over by a spirit caller who had turned to taboo to extend her life. Quite the nasty place.”

“Oh. Well, even if we could get great items for each other, we can’t really trade unless we do it in person.” Jon said, sounding even more depressed.

“There might be a workaround.” Phoebe said, staring off into space as she got an idea. “Marty, you can contact through the alchemist guild, right?”

“Yeah. I’ve been to the headquarters a few times already.”

“If I get this curse under control enough, I should be able to enter cities. Once I can do that, I wonder if they would be willing to pass along some messages, and facilitate us trading?”

“That. . . could work.” I said as I though on her words. “They would probably want a ten percent fee for each transaction, so we couldn’t do it all the time, but it is definitely something we could do for emergencies. Want me to hold on to that staff for you Jon?”

“Thanks Marty, just the fact that you would offer it is enough. I just don’t think I’ll get enough to make it worth your while anytime soon. Go ahead and sell it.” Poor guy, I hope he gets to find something great soon.

“Hey, let’s go ahead and agree right now, if we find something the others can use we give them first crack at buying it. Being a monster race is hard enough, right?” Everyone rapidly agreed with that, and we started talking about what all we needed. I emphasized any strange alchemy compounds or recipes, while Derrick obviously went with anything to help him resist fire. Though in his case, it had to be oversized gear. He was currently using a bandit’s greatsword, but it registered as a short sword due to his sheer size. Phoebe wanted leather armors or short spears, it seemed like she was really enjoying the versatility of the weapon. Jon needed strange items for his gear. For some reason the devs required that witch doctors craft all of their own gear save their weapons, though they could buy some things and make modifications. Their version of a shield required the head of a champion level monster they killed along with an enchantable piece of wood. They would then shrink and preserve the head, and impale it on the stick to create something to boost their curse potential and gain an attack bonus to whatever type of creature they ended up using.

We spent the next several hours relaxing and discussing what would be best for Jon to use. Derrick was arguing for using one of the light races, but the one witchdoctor in the village Jon had visited warned him that there was a large price if he did that. He would immediately aggro any light race who saw it, and it couldn’t be transferred. Since he was still somewhat squishy, he wanted to avoid that. Phoebe wanted him to go with a magical beast, while I didn’t really have anything noteworthy to add. Eventually we all got tired, and decided that it was time to call it a night.