Chapter 23

First Encounter (Part 3)

Okegi Warrior - Level 2

Okegi Warriors attain their title after proving themselves in battle and attaining the next level in their evolution. These fierce warrior combatants and trained in many combat scenarios. They use weapons, claws, and teeth to rain destruction on their foes.

"These guys are level 2, that would explain the increased size. They probably have a lot more HP too so be ready if this fails."

"Oh yea... I forgot to mention that," Tyler said sheepishly.

"I'll cast the spell on the level 1 sentry. It might not damage the warrior much, but it'll have surprise on its side and my success rate goes up 5% when the creature is a lower level than me. At the least we’ll only have the warrior to fight unless the spell fails."

Everyone acknowledged the plan and Tristen cast the spell. Thankfully, the spell took hold and Tristen ducked out of the hut right as the sentry jumped from its resting place and grabbed a spear. Peaking around the corner, Tristen quickly inspected the warrior now it’d taken damage.

Okegi Warrior - 540/600 HP

“Oh, man… these guys will be tough. It has 600 HP!” Tristen heard groans from his friends and felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking around Aaron motioned for Tristen to step back and readied himself to jump into the hut and pick up aggro on the warrior. The fight didn’t last long. It ended with a wet thump, like the sound a watermelon or pumpkin makes when smashing it on the ground. Tristen shuddered at the sound, and cringed, not wanting to see the grizzly scene.

Aaron jumped into the hut and bashed the warrior, stunning him for a few seconds. Tristen, Tyler, and Natalia followed suit and attacked them with daggers and sword. Between the sentries attacks and Aaron’s [Bash], the warrior was already down to 340 HP. “Wow, that little bugger put up a heck of a fight.” They quickly burned through the rest of the warriors HP and thought they were in the clear when it activated a skill and stunned them all for 5 seconds. It’s HP also jumped another 100 points. A beserker skill?

The creature ran Aaron through with its sword taking off a whopping 100 HP with one hit. “We gotta burn through this thing fast. If it gets a hit or two on me, I’m done for. It'll set me back to level 1.”

“I agree with Tyler, burn all your skills and spells and don’t worry about stamina. We can take time to regenerate after this battle.” Tristen followed up by activating [Parry], followed by [Distract] as soon as his paralysis wore off. [Distract] likely didn’t mean much, but if it gave them a few more seconds to deal out attacks, it was worth burning through the Mana.

It didn’t take much more to end the creatures life, but Aaron lost a third of his health. Thankfully, no one else got hit by the warrior. It’d only take a couple hits to knock them down into [Last Stand].

As soon as the warrior died, both Tristen and Aaron felt a rush of euphoria as their HP, SP, and MP filled to 100%.

“Ding! Aaron and I gained another level. It looks like we got 30 Exp for the Warrior. We'll outpace you two quickly. I’ll search the forums after we finish this dungeon and see if I can find anyone else talking about the level pacing with non-human races.”

Congratulations! Level 3!

Through hard work, adventure, and perseverance you have reached level 3!

You have 5 stat points to allocate.

NOTE: The experience required for each consecutive level increases exponentially.

P.S. You’re doing great dad, keep it up! <3

Tristen read the prompt and saw Sai’s handiwork again, but this time it looked like a sideways heart emoji. Sai, you’re like a teenage girl. A grin split his face. Even though he’d told her not to call him “father” or “dad”, it was secretly growing on him and he enjoyed the little personal touches she added.

Stepping out of his reverie, Tristen said, “Let’s take a break so we can assign our stat points and loot these guys. We need to fight these guys with a different strategy. We should try to stun them as much as possible. That last move could’ve really hurt us if it changed targets to Natalia or Tyler.”

Okegi Warrior - Level 2

Okegi Eye

Iron Shortsword

Tattered Cloth Pants

Copper Coins x 12

Loot All? Yes/No

“More junk from these guys, but we got 12 more copper pieces.”

They waited a full ten minutes for everyone to regenerate their health bars and went over the scenario one more time. Tristen’s job was to cast [Fury] hoping to eliminate one enemy and then they’d focus down the warrior as fast as possible. Aaron would stun it if it looked like it was about to activate an area stun.

Tristen quickly assigned his stat points into his pre-planned attributes, +2 Strength, +1 Vitality, +1 Intellect, and +1 Charisma.

Tristen - Level 3

Intellect - 18 (+2)

Willpower - 8

Charisma - 18 (+2)

Stamina - 5 (+9)

Dexterity - 7 (+2)

Strength - 5 (+10)

Vitality - 5 (+3)

Luck - 5

Exp: 0/400

“I’m all set guys. Aaron, you good to go?”

“Yep, same stat strategy as before up to level 10.”

The group finished clearing the huts with two mobs in it and only once did Tristen’s spell fail. It became much more crowded in the little hut to take out both, but the warrior didn’t use his AOE stun until he was low on health. As long as they focus attacked the sentry first with Tristen tanking it, then they had no issues burning through the warrior and stunning it to prevent the mass stun. On the last group of Okegi, both Natalia and Tyler leveled up.

“Let’s take a few moments and let them assign their stat points. Tyler, I’m guessing that larger hut over there is the boss?”

"I’m not sure, I didn’t scout that one in case there were a lot of mobs and my stealth failed."

"All right, finish assigning your stat points and give it a look. We’ll be ready in case you pick up aggro. Everyone, make sure your abilities are off cool down and you have full bars. If this is the boss, it’ll be a heck of a fight."

Tyler finished his stat allocations and headed towards the hut with the rest of the group following a safe distance behind. Just before entering the hut, Tyler crouched, activated stealth and [Shadow Cloak]. In the low light of the torch, he disappeared from their physical sight.

“Yep, this is a boss fight, and dang it’ll be a pain in the rear.” Tyler crept out of the hut and dropped his concealment abilities. “Guys, this’ll be a hard fight. First, none of them are asleep. Second, the boss is a huge monster.”

“Them?” Aaron’s face showed concern upon hearing there were multiple enemies in a boss encounter.

“Yea, them… There’s a big, ugly looking dude in the middle of the room, fully decked out in some kind of cobbled together armor and on either side of the room are warriors.”

“Dang… Well, the upside of our recent level is that my [Fury] skill has a greater success chance. I can cast on one warrior and get him to fight the boss, then try again with the second warrior. Or, we could run in and attack if the spell succeeds. Maybe the distraction will give us enough time to take out the second warrior before the boss finishes him.”

"There’s also the option to have Natalia kite one around until we finish taking the other out. I’ll keep tanking the boss while you guys take out the of warrior-"

“That won’t work,” interrupted Natalia, “we need your stun ability on the second warrior so he doesn’t do a party stun. That would be a terrible thing to happen during this fight.”

“Right, good point. Ok, let’s go with Tristen’s second plan. We run in and attack at the same time one warrior engages the boss.”

“Everyone set on the plan? Natalia, I want you to burn as much Stamina as needed to keep a barrage of [Quick Shot]s going. Use your potions if you need them and let me know if you run out. I’ll give you mine. We need to burn this thing down as fast as possible. We’ve no idea how strong this boss is.”

Heads nodded all around as Tristen walked forward in a crouch toward the hut. Just before he reached the entrance, Tyler case [Shadow Cloak] on him. The warriors stood halfway between the boss and the entrance on either side and he crept within casting range without aggroing anything.

Tristen glanced at the boss, doubt and apprehension seeping into his thoughts. This thing looked fierce and its full complement of armor meant their attacks would do less damage. Calming his thoughts, he told himself they had a plan and if they stuck to it, all would go well. The best laid plans are only good until the first bullet… Shaking his head to clear it, Tristen chided himself for dallying and put his head in the game.

Without delay he started the cast. Up till now the mobs hadn’t reacted when he’d cast, but the warrior on the right jerked and cocked his head to the side. He didn’t look at Tristen, but knew something was amiss. “Guys, we might have a problem, get ready.” Tristen finished the incantation and gestures. The same familiar pattern settled over the head of the creature, but didn’t immediately enter his mind. Uh, oh… Tristen prepared to retreat and watched as the creature shook its head. Finally, the pattern settled into its mind, and its eyes locked onto the boss.

“Now!”

Tristen darted to the side as Aaron stormed into the room and rushed to the warrior on the left.

“I’ve got him, burn him down.”

The party laid into the warrior. Tristen activated [Parry] and glanced over at the boss to inspect him.

Okegi Leader - Level 4

1,140/1200 HP

The Okegi leader is the strongest and most experienced in any tribe. The leader is well-versed in combat and often has lead many successful war bands against other tribes, proving dominance to lead. These elite warriors are formidable foes.

The blood drained from Tristen’s face as he returned his attention back to the warrior.

“We need to take this guy out now!” Any playfulness, or casual banter ceased and his friends knew what that meant. They all attacked with vigor, activating abilities and skills in rapid succession. Just as the warrior was about to activate its area stun, Aaron used [Bash] and stunned him. The boss ended the other warrior's life at the same time.

“Pick up the boss Aaron!” Immediately, Aaron switched targets and stepped toward the boss who came rushing in with an overhead swing. Aaron moved to block with his war hammer, and mitigated the damage, but it still took 50 HP from him.

“This guy is strong, hurry and finish that warrior.” No sooner had Aaron spoke when Tyler’s last attack felled the warrior and they all switched their attention to the boss.

Okegi Leader - Level 4

980/1200 HP

“It still has 980 HP! Aaron, when you have 100 HP left, jump back and I’ll tank him for a few seconds so you can drain a health potion and get some HP back. This Light Wisp won't do much to keep you alive in this fight. I really can’t wait until Natalia gets healing spells. If both of us get too low on health, we can swap back and forth, or try to kite him around.”

The party attacked with everything they had. SP bars drained and replenished with the meager potion supplies they had. Tristen’s [Distract] spell didn’t work on the boss and no one had any attack spells that caused damage. We'll fix that, thought Tristen. Everything relied on stamina and they quickly ran out from the prolonged fight.

“Tristen, switch!”

Tristen jumped forward in Aaron’s place and activated [Parry] as soon as the boss attacked him. He still took 30 damage from the attack and his health bar dipped to 150/180. He glanced at Aaron to see him fumble with the health potion, but realized he wouldn’t be fast enough before the boss attacked again. Crap… [Parry] was still on cooldown so Tristen braced himself behind his shield for the incoming attack.

"Crack!" The sword striking his shield vibrated up Tristen's arm, and he fell backward, half of his health bar disappearing from the hit.

“Another hit like that and I’m dead!” Tristen scrambled to his feet and prepared to step back in, but Aaron finished the health potion and resumed his position. Tristen quickly pulled out his own potion and downed it, bringing him back to 125/180.

“Those two potions only restored me to 200/280. I can’t take much more of this.” Aaron spoke in a halting voice as he did his best to dodge while blocking the attacks.

Okegi Leader - Level 4

210/1200 HP

“He’s almost dead! Let’s finish him!” The party continued attacking him and at 100 HP remaining, the boss used an ability that pushed them all back. He followed up by issuing a guttural shout. A sinister grin plastered the things face as it readied itself for battle once more. Everyone waited, tense for something to happen.

After a few seconds, nothing happened and Tristen instructed the party to keep attacking. The boss’s grin faltered, and he looked panic as they hacked and slashed at him. A few more swings later, the boss finally succumbed to the onslaught. “Maybe that ability was a call for help?” offered Tyler.

“I guess he didn’t realize we already took out the rest of his tribe. There’s no way we’d survive something like that.”

Right after the boss the boss' frame dulled to gray, they heard a fanfare, and a prompt invaded their vision.

Congratulations, you have cleared the Okegi Dungeon!

You have defeated the Okegi tribe and earned your freedom from the dungeon. You may seek the alternate path out of the dungeon, or leave the way you entered.

“Alternate exit... Maybe we’ll get more loot on the way out? This stuff is garbage so far.” Tristen held up the shoddy armor worn by the boss and dropped it back to the ground. “I don’t even think we’d get anything for selling this. Maybe the sword will get us a few silvers though.” Tristen stooped to loot the corpses.

Okegi Leader - Level 4

Okegi Eye x 2

Iron Longsword

Wooden Buckler

Hardened Leather Cuirass

Hardened Leather Grieves

Hardened Leather Gloves

Hardened Leather Boots

Okegi Totem

Silver Coins x 5

Copper Coins x 33

Loot All? Yes/No

Okegi Warrior - Level 2

Okegi Eye

Iron Shortsword

Copper Coins x 5

Loot All? Yes/No

Okegi Warrior - Level 2

Okegi Eye

Iron Tipped Spear

Loot All? Yes/No

Tristen opted to leave all the gear and take only the quest items, weapons, coins, and totem. “Hey, we got a totem from this guy.”

Inspect.

Okegi Totem (Unique)

Subterranean Lizard folk dwell in tribes. The totem, passed down from leader to leader is a symbol of the tribal office. Gaining possession of a totem occurs only after the entire tribe ceases to exist.

“Ah, come on! Our first unique item and it’s useless, a mere bauble.”

Tyler shrugged, “Or maybe you don’t have the needed Intelligence to see any additional properties.”

"Touche, I’ll hang onto it for now, maybe we can unlock its properties later, Maybe it really is just a trophy for taking out the tribe. If so, that sucks, we got nothing for completing this dungeon. Maybe we missed something here..." Tristen looked around the room, but didn't see anything worth looting. "Do you guys want to try the alternate path out of here? You all read the same warnings I did, the alternate exit could be harder than the entire dungeon... It might be hard, but maybe we'll get loot we can use."

“I’m in!” Tyler agreed immediately.

“Me too,” said Aaron and Natalia, “but, let’s take a break first. We’ve been at this for almost five hours already.”

“Let’s take an hour and meet back here. If you log back on earlier see if you can explore this cavern for anything we missed.” Tristen watched as his friends dematerialize. Following their example, Tristen logged out.

Dungeon Quest Exit