Earth

Algonquin Park Dungeon, Ontario

August 15, 2019

17:52 EDT

The speed at which we were progressing through the dungeon had increased thanks to Mason and his new halberd. It had nearly doubled his damage allowing him to do an absolutely insane amount of area of effect damage. We had quickly decimated the previous two floors, and hadn’t slowed down at all on the eighth floor, the floor we were on now, either.

Like the previous dungeon, this one also had skeletons to fight once we got past the fifth floor. They were a bit harder to kill thanks to some slightly less-shoddy equipment, but other than that, there wasn’t any difference between them. There was one difference between this dungeon and the previous one, however; the prevalence of more skeletons able to resurrect fallen skeletons. We ended up calling them Skeletal Priests.

The Skeletal Priests were easy to tell apart from the other casters since their staves had white gems rather than the reds, yellows and blues that the Skeletal Mages were using. Whenever we came across a Skeletal Priest, Mason was the one to take it down. They were usually quick enough to get their shields up, but that wasn’t enough to stop him for long. If he timed it right, he could remove a shield completely with Whirling Leap and then finish one off with Siphoning Strike followed by Cleave.

About five minutes after we had entered the eighth floor we came across one of the markings that Ben had made at the first intersection we had come up to. We quickly deduced that we were being affected by a Disorienting Aura, so we were much more vigilant about looking for markings, making sure we didn’t waste another hour like we had a few days ago.

Once we knew we were dealing a Disorienting Aura, it didn’t really have an impact on us after that. With the markings that Ben put on the walls, we were easily able to navigate the floor. Within twenty-five minutes we had cleared four rooms of Skeletons and were on our way to the fifth when Mason broke the silence.

“Man, we really should’ve brought some food with us. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” I said, my stomach having rumbled a few times by now. It had been almost twelve hours since we had eaten breakfast, and since then had only had a few meagre snacks. “We’re making good time so we could head back up and find somewhere to eat after we clear this floor.”

“Where would we go? It’s not like there is anywhere close by,” Ben asked.

“Actually, that's where you come in,” I answered. “You’ve used Teleport more than the rest of us, so you can teleport much further than we can. You could teleport back to the Adventurer’s Guild HQ and make your way down to the base, or you could just teleport to a fast food restaurant in Ottawa.”

“I hadn’t thought about that. I think it’s two hundred fifty kilometers between here and Ottawa, and my maximum range is one thousand or so kilometers. Where do we get food from, though? I don’t want to go to a bunch of different restaurants.”

Ben’s question started off a debate that lasted through the fifth room and the corridor behind it. It likely would have continued longer if not for an interruption.

“Stop!” Sonja commanded.

We all froze and waited.

“Mason, there is a trap right in front of you. I don’t think I’ll be able to trigger it with an arrow, so everyone back off and let Ben take care of it.”

Everyone retreated behind Ben who began casting Summon Skeletal Warrior. If Sonja couldn’t trigger a trap, Ben was the next best option. It took a little longer, but it allowed us to put a lot of distance between ourselves and a trap if we thought it might be particularly dangerous. As soon as Ben finished casting the spell, the Skeletal Warrior began clawing its way out of the stone floor beneath us.

When it had freed itself and gotten to its feet, Ben tapped the floor with his staff and the skeleton started walking forward. Sonja helped Ben direct it to the pressure plate and as soon as it stepped on it, the ceiling above it literally collapsed on top of it. There were audible snaps and cracks of bones breaking, followed by a loud crashing sound that shook the floor and threw dust into the air.

When the dust settled, we could see that the large stone block that had fallen had chains attached to it and was in the process of being pulled back up before being locked in place. When it stopped moving it was indistinguishable from any of the other huge stone blocks that made up the ceiling. That made it one of the most dangerous traps we had come across and Mason thanked Sonja for alerting us to it.

Usually after a trap is triggered it doesn’t get re-armed, but we weren’t going to take any chances. We hugged the wall until we were past it, but not before Ben marked its location with fluorescent chalk.

“Alright, I’m going to make a decision before everyone starts bickering about where Ben should go. We’ll go with our usual pizza place. Any change to the order we usually get?”

“Nah, that’s fine with me,” Mason said. “We should probably get our drinks in cans or small bottles instead of two liter bottles, though. We don’t have any cups.”

Everyone was fine with pizza, so Ben took out his phone and began ordering online. “19:00 pickup time should be fine, right? That’ll give us almost an hour to finish off this level before we take the waygate back to the surface.”

“How about making it 18:45,” I answered. “We’re not getting any experience from this floor since we leveled on the last one. You won’t be missing anything and if we end up taking too long you can go and pick it up.”

“Works for me. I know what Jonathan and Mason want to drink. What would you two like,” Ben asked, directing his question to the twins.

“Iced tea,” they both said without any hesitation.

“Alright, the order placed,” he said after a few minutes. “We’ve got about forty minutes until I need to pick it up.”

It was perfect timing since we had arrived at the sixth room. Opening the door, we could see a chest sitting in the middle of the room. Apparently it wasn’t a Mimic since Sonja didn’t fire an arrow at it, but we still entered the room cautiously. Once we were inside, we took some time to look around, and after a minute or so, Sonja gave us the all clear.

I went over to the chest and opened it up. There wasn’t much inside of it, but I could see the now familiar green color of a Tier D Skill Gem. I grabbed it and the white one that was well camouflaged by the Mana Crystal Shards blanketing the bottom.

With them collected, I put them in the small pouch that contained all the other Skill Gems we had acquired today. We had decided to wait until we were done for the night to take a look at them since it wasn’t likely that they would have a big impact. It did take time to look them up and roll them off, though, and we wanted to complete the tenth level tonight..

When I moved out of the way Ben moved in and started gathering all the shards and dropping them by the handful in the sack Mason was holding. We had over ten pounds of shards now, which would give us a nice little payday when we finished tonight, and that wasn’t even counting the Mana Gems and Mana Crystals that we could sell for more, if we wanted to.

As soon as all the shards were collected, Ben marked the way we had come in from, and then we chose one of the other three doors. Ben marked that as well, just in case we walked in another circle.

It appeared we chose correctly, because after traveling through a winding corridor with a few traps we bypassed, we arrived at another room. Opening the door showed that it was the room containing this floor’s floor boss. The fifth and sixth floor bosses were Skeletal Warriors and Archers, respectively, and in this one we would be fighting a mage. A fire mage, at that, based on the shiny red gem attached to the head of the staff it was holding.

In front of the boss were three identical groups containing five Skeletal Warriors, four Skeletal Archers, four Skeletal Mages and three Skeletal Priests. Such large groups of foes had been normal at this point, and we were able to deal with them without any issue. The previous floors had been similar to this one, and we found a pattern where the left group would charge at us first, followed by the right group, with the middle group being last. If was the same for this one, then we would probably be able to confirm it.

“Alright, Ben, as soon as the mage up there taps his staff on the floor I want you to start casting Meteor Shower. Mason and I will try to keep them contained but a few might get past us. Sonja, as soon as you see the meteors start falling, I want you to use Volley on the group and then work with Anja to pick off any skeletons that get past us.”

“Got it,” the twins said.

“Okay, let’s go.”

We had gotten pretty good at judging where the threshold that would trigger attacks was, so we all stood just before it. As soon as we were ready, Ben started the lengthy cast timer for Meteor Shower. When Mason and I judged that it was halfway done, we began to move. Mason had to run until he was within range to use Whirling Leap on the backline while I just used Blink and I was standing in front of the Skeletal Warriors.

I activated Mana Shield followed Precognition so I could tell Mason if he needed to move to avoid a meteor. I heard the mage tap his staff on the floor and suddenly the group of sixteen skeletons came to life. Before they could start attacking, Mason used Whirling Leap and landed in the middle of the group. Some of mages and priests were able to get their shields up before he struck, but they soon winked out under the strength of his attack.

He was moving before I even had to warn him of the impending meteors, using Dash to get behind the Skeletal Priests and following that up with Seismic Shove to bunch them up with the mages. When they were bunched up, he activated Cleave to deal another burst of area of effect damage.

All of the Skeletal Mages and Priests being bunched up meant that most of them were being hit whenever a meteor landed. There were a few meteors that missed but a lot of them hit, and the damage caused by meteors and Sonja’s Volley meant that all of the casters, and a bunch of the archers were dead. The warriors were left mostly unscathed and I was keeping them as busy as I could until I could get some help.

Two had run past me going for Ben or the girls, but I knew they would make short work of them, so I had focused on the three in front of me. They had surrounded me, but their attacks just bounced off my shields. The rate at which my mana regenerates meant that I could probably stand there with the skeletons trying to get through forever, but not be able to. When Mana Shield was active, I was invulnerable to anything but the strongest attacks. An entire group of skeletons could easily bring it down, but that wasn’t what I was dealing with.

I focused all my attention on the skeleton in front of me, content to let the others wack away. Barbed Spear didn’t do any damage over time, but it still did a bit of damage, and more importantly, let me pull the skeleton towards me, where it received a Shield Bash to the face. Between attacks where I actually had to move one of my arms, I was also firing off Arcane Bolt after Arcane Bolt using the hand that I now kept free.

As long as I had my sword out, I was able to attack with it at will and gain the benefit from Spellblade, allowing me to use my free hand to cast Arcane Bolts as if I had a staff or wand. Having four arms with my hybrid form allowed me to keep my spear as my primary weapon, otherwise I would probably have to use my sword while putting away my shield to cast spells.

Another Shield Bash followed by a Siphoning Strike finished off the Skeletal Warrior I was fighting, and I turned to the skeleton to my right. I left the other one to Mason who had just finished off the last of the two archers he was fighting. Just as I turned, I saw three flaming arrows impact the Skeletal Warrior I was turning towards, followed by shards of ice and a fireball, the latter of which finishing it off.

I looked around and saw that everything was now dead, which was confirmed by the mage tapping its staff on the floor again. With no rest, Mason started sprinting towards the other group while I Blinked, intercepting the it.

[Save Meteor Shower for the next group, Ben!] I sent. [Sonja, how about another Volley?]

[One Volley coming up!]

Mana Shield was still active so arrows, spells and melee swings were being absorbed, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to last for long. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. Mason had gotten close enough to use Whirling Leap, so he did the exact same thing he did with the last group. It was a very potent combo, and would be even stronger when more of us got area of effect abilities.

Volley wasn’t enough to finish off the casters when it landed, but Mason was able to render them pretty much useless thanks to Tremor. He didn’t use the ability often, but with it, he was able to knock down the casters. It prevented them from doing damage or raising fallen skeletons, which made the fight quite a bit easier. While waiting for Cleave to be available again, he focused down one of the Skeletal Priests very quickly with Gash followed by Siphoning Strike.

Another of the priests was taken out when Sonja used Triple Shot, which probably had the highest damage output out of any of our abilities outside of Meteor Shower, especially with each arrow dealing bonus damage thanks to Ben’s Aura of Flame. Moments later, the rest of the casters were finished off when Cleave came off cooldown, leaving all of the archers and three of the warriors.

I had killed one of the warriors while Anja closed the distance and took out another one. Since she got Ice Shard, the majority of her damage has been dealt at range where she is safe from attacks. She is the squishiest of everyone but Sonja, but Sonja has the benefit of being able to move around quickly via Ride the Lightning.

When we had finished off the skeletons we were focused on, we turned to another while I let the other two strike at my Mana Shield. Working together, we were able to make quick work of it. Anja was using her katana which prevented her from using one of her abilities, but she was very quick with it, allowing her to do quite a bit of damage. We had all five warriors dealt with by the time Mason and Sonja were done dealing with the archers, which triggered the third tap on the floor by the floor bosses’ staff.

I turned to the middle group and saw that Ben was in the process of casting Meteor Shower. Mason and I did our thing and kept the skeletons busy and clumped up while the twins waited until the meteors started falling. As soon as the first one landed, Sonja fired off a Volley followed by a Triple Shot at one of the priests, making sure it was taken out quickly.

The priests are especially dangerous as they don’t just resurrect the skeletons in their group, they can actually resurrect skeletons from the other groups. It can quickly get out of hand if a priest resurrects another priest that resurrects another priest. It had happened on the previous floor where a priest was able to resurrect a priest from the first group without any of us noticing, where it went about resurrecting fallen Skeletal Warriors and Archers. Luckily we caught it pretty quickly when an arrow struck my Mana Shield from behind me, allowing Mason to break off and deal with them.

Anja helped me with the Skeletal Warriors once more, with us having killed only two of them before we got help from Mason and Sonja. Meteor Shower sped up the rate at which we killed a group by a substantial amount, and soon we heard another tap of the Skeletal Mage’s staff.

Looking over at it, we saw it had begun floating in the air while a reddish-orange colored shield formed around it. It was casting something big, and before long there were fireballs being launched at an incredible rate towards us. For the next couple of minutes my friends ran around like chickens with their heads cut off while trying to avoid the fireballs raining down on us while I just stood looking up at it. I was able to absorb any fireballs that hit me thanks to my ridiculous mana regeneration while helping out Anja and Sonja as best I could with Arcane Bolt.

Ben had tried helping out with Fireball but that had resulted in the rate of fireballs being fired at us increasing for a short period of time. The mage was floating too high up in the air for Mason to hit it, so he was pretty useless as well.

[Sonja, try a Tethering Shot and see if that helps at all!] I sent.

Almost immediately I saw the familiar sparking arrow which lodged itself in the ceiling just above the mage. It began coiling around the shield, but it was hard to tell if it was helping at all. Standing there, I had time to come with an idea. I was pretty sure we needed to pop to be able to actually fight the mage, which was a problem since we didn’t know if the twins were actually doing any damage to the shield. Sonja’s arrows could be burning and Anja’s Ice Shards melting before they even got to the shield.

I realized that Sonja still had an ability at her disposal. She hadn’t used it in a while so it was possible that she had forgotten about it.

[Sonja, try Windblade and see if that lets you do any damage!]

[It’s got a limited range! I’ll need help getting that close!] she replied, firing arrows non-stop.

[Hide behind me. If this doesn’t work, I’ve got one more idea we can try.]

She used Ride the Lightning to quickly get behind me and then we slowly walked forward. I had a good three feet of height on her in my hybrid form, so there wasn’t a chance of her getting hit by a fireball on our approach.

[This is good!] she sent. [If you see any fireballs coming towards me make sure that you intercept them!]

She stepped out from behind me with her katana in hand and quickly started slashing in front of her. With each slash, a blade of wind was sent forward, impacting the shield. The shield flared with each blade of wind, but otherwise stayed up. She couldn’t maintain it for long, and soon she ran out of mana and had to hide behind me again.

[Sorry, my mana regeneration isn’t good enough to keep that up for long!] she sent.

[It’s fine. I’ve got something else in mind. I need you over here, Mace!]

Mason had Mana Shield up as well, but his mana regeneration wasn’t good enough to stand out in the open like I was doing currently. He used both Dash and Whirling Leap to close the distance, and was soon standing beside Sonja, both of them using my comparatively large frame as cover.

[Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,] I sent, looking up at the mage who seemed to have an unlimited amount of mana. [I’m going to try to create a portal in front of me, with the other end up there, behind it the mage. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it up, so we’re going to have to be quick. Mace, as soon as it is open, I want you to thrust forward with your halberd while Sonja steps out and activates Windblade again. I’ll be thrusting forward with both of my spears as well, so I’m hoping that the combined damage will enough to drop the shield.]

[Got it. Whenever you’re ready.]

[Alright, here we go,] I replied, putting away the two shields on my arms and taking out my spears instead. Looking in front of me I pictured a portal appearing with the exit being behind the boss. A moment later, a small portal appeared, with the reddish-orange glow being the only thing we could see on the other side.

I thrust forward with both of my spears immediately, which was followed up shortly by a thrust from Mason as well. The shield flared the brightest when Mason hit it, and he was able to get another thrust off. He was about to go for a third when the portal closed, followed by my Mana Shield dropping as well. I managed to get it up again just before a fireball impacted me, and a few seconds later the room got a lot darker. I looked up and saw that the shield had dissipated, while a few more blades of wind were flying through the air.

The mage began descending, and the twins were immediately firing off arrows and shards of ice once more. Mason didn’t waste any time, either, and as soon as he the boss landed, he was closing the distance to try to finish it off. It turned out that the shield was the hard part, and it was rather squishy when on the ground. It put up its shield once more, but it was quickly taken down by one of Mason’s strikes. Within ten seconds of it being on the ground, it was dead.

“Well, that was interesting,” Ben said. “I wonder if there is anything in that pouch of Skill Gems that would’ve made the fight easier.”

I chuckled. “I bet there is. Still, it was a good test for us, I think. Without Portal I’m not sure how we would’ve brought its shield down.”

“I definitely need better arrows. Wooden ones aren’t going to cut it if we come across more mages that can do that,” Sonja said as I walked over to pick up the items dropped by the boss. I was happy to see another Tier D Skill Gem alongside the usual Mana Gem.

“What’s the next step up from wood, aluminum?” I asked while taking the Skill Gem pouch out of my inventory and dropping the new one into it.

Sonja nodded, “Aluminum would be good, but they can melt if the temperature of that shield was high enough. I was thinking carbon arrows, but that could get very expensive very quickly. I’ll check what the prices are at the place I bought my compound bow from tomorrow.”

“You could also check the quartermaster back at the base,” Mason suggested. “They have bullets and power cells there, and I’ve seen people firing crossbows at the shooting range. He might carry arrows as well. Who knows, maybe they’ll even have a better material than carbon.”

“I’ll do that.”

“We should probably get going,” Ben said. “The pizzas will be ready in five minutes or so. It will only take a minute or two to get there and back.”

“That soon, really?” Mason asked, standing up again after sitting down for a breather.

“We were fighting non-stop for fifteen minutes or so, so that ate up a lot of time,” Ben answered. “I only ordered a little under forty minutes ago.”

“Alright, let’s go,” I said, walking towards the staircase that had opened up after the floor boss was defeated.

“Uhh, Jonathan, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?” I asked, looking at Anja.

She pointed at my chest and I looked down, realizing that I was still in my hybrid form.

“Oh,” I said, starting to shift back into my human form.

Everyone laughed but waited for the process to finish. As soon as it did, I walked down the stairs, the waygate lighting up when I got to the bottom. I stepped onto it and with a flash of light I was back in the lobby. The twins were right behind me and they immediately ran off. I stood there waiting for a few seconds for Mason and Ben to show up.

“I’ve gotta go to the washroom. I’m pretty sure that there are some picnic tables outside. Just bring the pizzas there. If I’m not back by the time you are, make sure Mason doesn’t eat all of our pizza.”

“Hey, I only did that once! And it was your fault for being late!,” Mason said to my back while Ben just laughed.

I heard a pop before I entered the men’s washroom, so I knew that Ben had left to go pick up the pizzas. After relieving myself and washing my hands, I made my way back outside where Mason and the twins were sitting, waiting for Ben to get back with the pizza.

“Hey, Mace. Go wash your hands or I’ll eat all the pizza this time,” I shouted while halfway between the dungeon building and the picnic tables.

“What are you talking about? I’ve been wearing gloves the entire time.”

“And I’ve seen you take them off to scratch your face or rub your nose a bunch of times. When was the last time you looked in the mirror?”

“That bad?” I heard him ask the twins, who nodded and giggled at the state of his face.

It had been a few hours since we had killed Berengar, but Mason still had blood splatters on his face from that fight, as well as a collection of dirt accumulated throughout the day. Everyone was dirty, but Mason bore the brunt of it.

“Alright, I’ll go,” he said, teleporting from the picnic table to just outside the building.

I watched him enter the building and then sat down, hearing another pop a moment later. I turned back to see Ben carrying two pizza boxes with a paper bag on top. He Blinked forward and placed everything on the table, handing the paper bag to me and then sliding one of the pizza boxes across the table.

I opened up the paper bag and placed the napkins in the middle of the table before handing out the drinks. I wasn’t a fan of dipping sauce, so I put one where Mason would be sitting and handed the rest over to Ben and the twins as well. When the paper bag was empty I folded it flat and stuck it under the edge of the pizza box in front of me, making sure it wouldn’t be blown away.

Just as I began opening the pizza box in front of me, I heard another pop and then Mason appeared beside me.

“Did you make Ben wash his hands before touching any pizza?” he asked, pointing over to Ben who was already munching on a slice.

“The pizza wasn’t ready when I got there, so I used the time to take a leak and wash up a bit,” Ben said when he had finished what was in his mouth.

Mason kept his mouth shut, knowing that he was the only one that needed prompting to wash their hands. At least until he grabbed a slice of the deluxe pizza sans olives that we were sharing.

“I figured we should use this time to roll off the Skill Gems,” I said, taking the pouch out of my inventory and placing it in front of me after I had finished my first slice. “We’ve got four Tier D Skill Gems and seven Tier E Skill Gems.”

“Gimme a sec,” Ben requested, taking his phone out of his storage and placing it on the table in front of him. Everyone did the same and Ben told me when he was ready.

“427D is first up,” I said, grabbing another slice of pizza while I waited.

“This one probably would’ve helped a lot on that last fight,” Ben replied with a laugh. “It’s Chaos Bolt. It’s somewhat similar to Arcane Bolt, but has a short cast time and deals a lot more damage in comparison. It carries a ten second cooldown and has the effect of draining the target’s mana by a percentage of the damage done. At rank one that is fifty percent of the damage done, and at rank one hundred, it will drain one hundred percent of the damage done.”

“That is useful. Alright, roll,” I said once my mouth was empty, hitting the button to roll.

Less than ten seconds later there was a chime from my phone and I looked at the results. Mason, and the twins passed, meaning that it was between Ben and I. I rolled 30 while he rolled 58, earning himself the Skill Gem.

“Here you go. Congrats!”

He learned the skill as soon as I tossed it over to him and I picked up another Skill Gem out of the pouch.

“Next up is 346D,” I said, taking another bite out of my slice.