Earth

Hillside Lake Dungeon, Ontario

August 17, 2019

14:48 EDT

(Sonja)

“Fuck, that guy hits hard,” Mason said, rubbing the side of his face. He had taken his helmet off and had a nice cut on his cheek.

[Why didn’t you have Mana Shield up?] Jonathan asked. [It would’ve saved you some pain.]

“What do you mean?! That was through Mana Shield! My mana regen isn’t as insane as yours and I ran out while I was fighting the last warrior,” he replied, standing back up and putting his helmet back on.

“I’m surprised nothing is broken, especially since you got hit by a metal arm. What skill was that anyways? Or was it a skill unique to the boss?”

“It’s a perk, actually,” Ben replied, answering my question. “Metal Skin. Whenever someone with the perk takes physical damage from someone, they become near-immune to further physical damage for a short time. It does drain a lot of mana whenever it activates and the same person can’t trigger the ability more than every thirty-seconds or so. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be triggered in quick succession. Mason triggered it and then you did, putting it on cooldown for both of you. It was probably already on cooldown for Jonathan, so it didn’t activate when he thrust his sword through the boss’ back.”

“Weak to fire, right?”

“And frost,” Ben said, nodding.

“It doesn’t sound like a particularly good perk if you have to take physical damage to activate it,” Anja said.

[I disagree,] Jonathan sent, still being unable to speak in his dragonkin form. [It seemed like Metal Skin was active for about five seconds, which is five seconds where you wouldn’t have to worry about getting hit. Not to mention the fact that it probably allows someone to hit harder using their fists or arms, as Mason can probably attest to.]

“Piss off!” Mason said, turning and walking over to the chest to see what was in it.

The rest of us laughed, Jonathan’s coming out as a deeper, more gravelly laugh, before following him. Except for Ben, that is, who went around collecting all the Mana Gems that were left behind by the boss’ minions. Mason took the sack out of his storage, proceeding to gather the crystals before bending down to collect something else.

He held his hand out, palm up showing two Tier E Skill Gems. Jonathan couldn’t manipulate the strings of the small pouch very well, so he handed it to me. I dropped the two Skill Gems into it, realizing we had quite a few to sort through after, before looking up with a smile and handing it back to him.

Mason didn’t wait and bent down to grab the remaining items in the chest. When he had them, he turned around and showed them to us. The first looked like a well-made pair of bracers, made out of steel or some other steel-like material for the outside, while having leather on the inside to provide some padding. The second was a plain silver ring, with no distinguishing features.

Seeing that Jonathan wasn’t going to switch back to his human form like he usually did when we were sorting out items, Mason started handing them around so everyone could ‘see’ the stats on them. He handed them over to Anja who passed them on to me after a few moments. I took a quick look before passing them along as well.

High Chieftain’s Armguards

Rare

+10 Strength, Agility or Intellect, whichever is highest

+8 Constitution

5% Magical Damage Reduction

Increases your mana regeneration by 10% of your highest stat. This is added after any other calculations.

Lesser Enchanted Silver Band

Uncommon

+8 Intellect

+8 Endurance

10% increased Spell Damage

Both were pretty good items, but felt lacking compared to the last few items we’d received. My bow is incredible, as is the halberd that Mason received, though perhaps that’s the difference between an epic item and a rare one. I was eyeing the bracers more than the ring, but it wasn’t bad. Intellect always helps, especially when it comes to hitting the one hundred Intellect requirement to finally be able to cast Summon Air Elemental. I would undoubtedly have competition for either.

Jonathan held the two items in his hands, almost spacing out before transferring the ring to the hand holding the bracers. His phone appeared in his hand a second later, and he turned towards me.

[Mind handling the rolling for me?] he asked. [I don’t wanna shift back to my human form and then switch back.]

“Sure,” I replied with a nod, accepting his phone. I opened up the team app and tapped on the button to take me to the roll screen before taking out my own and doing the same. I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at me with their own phone out, causing me to chuckle and look back up to Jonathan. “Which one are we doing first?”

[The bracers. I’ll be passing on them.]

“Okay,” I said, tapping the button to initiate the roll before hitting the pass button on his and the roll button on mine.

It didn’t take long for the roles to come in. Anja won with a 56 while no one else even broke 25.

“Looks like Anja is the winner. Grats, sis!”

“Thanks!” she replied, walking up to Jonathan and accepting the bracers. They disappeared almost as soon as she picked them up, all of us knowing that she had put them into the dimensional storage of her suit.

[Grats, Anja!] Jonathan said. [Okay, let’s do the ring. I’ll be participating in the roll this time.]

“Got it,” I said, hitting the reset button and then initiating another roll. I hit the roll button on both of our respective phones, and it seemed like the result came in instantly.

“Damn, nice roll, Ben!” Mason said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Jonathan looked at me, and I nodded, so he held out his hand so Ben could receive the ring. He took it and looked at it closely before it disappeared as well.

“Thanks, guys.” Ben said.

[What was the roll, anyways?] Jonathan asked.

“A 97,” I replied as I exited the app on his phone and then handed it back to him. “Mason was the second highest with 78, and then you were at 63. Anja and I were well below that.”

[I see. Anyways, I’ve got something to show you guys before we continue.] he said.

We all looked up at him expectantly. When he saw he had our attention, he turned in place so he was facing away from us. Nothing happened, but after a moment we saw him breathe in. A moment later, he leaned forward and exhaled that air, only it wasn’t air anymore. He breathed a jet of flame that reached twenty feet away before dissipating, but even behind him we could feel the heat. He was able to maintain the jet of flame for a good ten seconds or so before stopping, at which point he turned back to us, a big toothy grin on his face.

“No freaking way!” Mason exclaimed. “When the hell did you learn to do that?!”

[During the fight with the boss. He punched me in the stomach knocking the wind out of me, but there was also a small jet of flame at the end. It felt weird, and things suddenly clicked after that. Now I can use it at will, though it probably won’t help much in this dungeon. I’m not even sure why breathing in air is necessary, since the flame is generated with mana. It’s something to ask Selalea about, I suppose.]

“That is interesting. Everyone always thought that dragons had a sac containing a highly-flammable substance, but it looks like that isn’t the case. Just make sure I’m not anywhere near you when you learn how to breath acid, yeah?”

[You got it,] he said with another one of those gravelly laughs. [Let’s get going, yeah?]

We decided we’d been standing around too long, so we continued down to the sixth floor where the dungeon took on a more dungeon-y feel. Rather than the cavern-like first five floors, the sixth looked like a man-made structure. Whether they were or not, no one knew, though I really doubted it. Not if there were dungeons similar to this one many other planets through the galaxy.

Ben was leading the way with his two skeletons in the lead, with me right beside him keeping an eye out for traps. It was a good opportunity to level up the abilities since they didn’t die too often. We disarmed two traps while walking down a long corridor with one of them being a spiked pit trap. The second trap we had triggered had stumped us, because nothing happened. We stood around and waited for a solid minute, afraid that something might happen if we moved. Ben finally had his remaining skeleton walk forward, and we were relieved that nothing happened.

[Move!] Anja shouted suddenly after we turned a corner.

Ben’s Mana Shield instantly flared up and we turned around. Mason was on the floor, his back up against one of the walls while Anja had her katana in her hand. Blood was dripping off the blade, and there was a headless kobold at her feet. A female one, at that, wielding a dagger in each hand and wearing leather armor that covered her from head to toe.

Before we could register anything, she disappeared into smoke and there was a gurgling sound from behind me. I turned again and stood face to face with another kobold, a dagger sticking through her neck and blood on her lips. Anja stood behind her, an angry look on her face. Ripping the dagger out, she pushed the dead kobold to the side.

[Umm… what just happened?] Jonathan asked.

[Kobold Assassins happened, I think,] Ben answered.

[I’ve gotten to the point where I can keep Precognition active for about three seconds or so before deactivating it for two and reactivating it again,] my sister said as she wiped her bloody weapons on the kobold in front of her. [It allows me to make sure the effect is always active, and keeps my mana full. The two of them were invisible even when they were about to strike, but I saw what was going to happen, so I struck where they were.]

[Shit, I guess I’ll be using Precognition as well,] Jonathan said. [Ben, Sonja, you’ll stay in the front, Anja and Mason in the middle, and I’ll follow after you. If anymore appear, you take care of the ones in the front and I’ll take care of the ones in the back.]

[Works for me,] Anja said.

Mason picked up the two Mana Crystal Shards and we continued on our way. We didn’t come across anymore Kobold Assassins, but we did come across our first room. It was very similar to the chambers on the previous floors, but actually seemed quite a bit easier than the fifth floor. There weren’t any elites, either, which made it super easy.

We cleared the room pretty quickly before continuing, and came across multiple traps on our way down the hallway. There was another one that seemed like a dud, but a few minutes after triggering the trap, we were ambushed by Kobold Assassins, again. Jonathan dealt with two that came from behind, while Anja launched an Ice Shard over my shoulder that hit the one that attacked from the front. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but it did give me a target to aim at.

That’s the way the next few rooms, and floors went, it turned out. We would get ambushed when going between chambers, but we always dealt with the assassins quickly. In rooms, would be a large group of kobolds waiting for us. There were no assassins mixed in, fortunately, so they died just as quickly.

We ended up clearing three floors before something changed, but that wasn’t to say that those three floors weren’t boring. We determined that those ‘dud’ traps were ones that spawned the assassins, having been able to skip a few groups of assassins by stepping over the trigger plate rather than getting one of the skeletons to stand on it. We even got a couple of drops, those being uncommon pants, while also getting another Tier-D Skill Gem to add to the pile. We opted to hold off on handing out the pants, deciding to wait until we killed the boss on the tenth floor, instead. That would give us three items to roll off rather than just the two.

The ninth floor was where things got interesting. Each room was comprised of a smaller number of kobolds, though they were all elites, and there were Elite Kobold Assassins mixed in as well. They were visible when we entered the room, but soon turned invisible when they noticed us. It caught us off guard at first, though we adapted to that pretty quickly.

Jonathan, Mason and Ben were nigh-invulnerable against the Assassins, which meant that they could only really attack my sister and I. The problem with that was that Anja was able to see their attacks before they even happened, so she was able to deal with them on her own, or warn me to get away. Ride the Lightning was very good for that, having a pretty short cooldown while also being cheap on the mana. It allowed me to disappear, and then Anja would appear right behind it and either cut off its head using her katana or stab it through the back with one of her many other weapons.

We always killed the Elite Kobold Shaman and an Elite version of a Kobold Chieftain whenever we entered a room, knowing that while it would enrage the other kobolds, it would make it a lot easier when the kobolds weren’t getting healed. It also allowed Jonathan to be engaged in the fight from the start rather than have to keep the chieftain busy. In the second room, Jonathan had actually used Blink to appear behind the shaman and closed his hand over its head before proceeding to squeeze, popping the kobold’s head like a melon.

It was extremely effective, while also being extremely disgusting, something we all agreed on after clearing the room. He didn’t do it again, as the first time he had to take a minute to wash all the blood off his hands before we continued. Instead, he went with a neat beheading before continuing on to the chieftain. The ninth floor was also quite short, only having four rooms and none of those containing a floor boss, which was surprising, but not unwelcome.

[Shit, a Disorienting Aura,] Ben sent when he spotted one of his markers indicating we had been here before.

[Seems par for the course,] Jonathan said, looking up at the ceiling. [Too bad it’s not a labyrinth or I could fly up and see where we need to go.]

[That would be nice,] Ben said, continuing to lead us.

He actually had three skeletons now, two warriors and an archer, Raise Skeletal Warrior having hit rank three about halfway through the previous floor. It allowed us to go quite a bit quicker, as his skeletons didn’t need to be summoned as often.

Having turned left at the first intersection, we turned right so we would head into another direction. It proved to be the right one, as we soon came up to a small room with a chest in the middle. There was no glowing aura around it indicating it was a trap, so I didn’t need to fire an arrow at it. Mason opened it up, finding a Tier E Skill Gem, as well as the usual Mana Crystal Shards. After gathering everything up, we continued, picking one of the two paths at random.

There were five ambushes by Elite Kobold Assassins before we reached a room containing ten elite Kobolds, as well as a Kobold High Chieftain. We went all out on the fight, with Jonathan taking out the shaman as quickly as he could before focusing on the High Chieftain next. Anja’s job was to deal with the three assassins, while Ben and I helped Mason out with the archers.

Trying a new strategy, we took out the archers as soon as possible, because it was easier to avoid attacks from a warrior that had to run around, rather than an archer who could stay stationary and firing off arrows without a care in the world. It worked rather well, having killed all three archers within the first minute of the fight and then turning to deal with the very pissed off warriors.

It ended up being quite a bit easier than the boss on the fifth floor, even with the assassins added into the mix. We couldn’t tell if it was because of our experience or because they were easier, but it was probably a mix of the two. The High Chieftain didn’t have Metal Skin as the boss did, so that made him quite a bit easier to deal with when all three arrows found their mark, rather than one hitting and the two just bouncing off.

After that, it was just a matter of navigating the maze. That was the annoying part, having taken us nearly forty minutes to finally make it to the decorated doors that lead to the boss room. The door was quite large, showing a large kobold-looking creature, though there were some noticeable differences. It actually looked more like a dragon than a kobold, having wings on its back and having two swept back horns sprouting from its head.

Deciding to see what we were in for, we opened up the doors and stepped in. We were getting used to the darkness, so we walked forward until the doors slammed shut us and the lights came on. The room was massive, having what looked like perches all around the room. The one that caught our attention was the one directly opposite the entrance, a grey creature standing up and beating its large wings. It roared before jumping into the air and gliding down into the middle of the room.

It looked to be just as big, if not a bit bigger than Jonathan was in his Seotross form, sporting some wicked looking claws and what looked like very thick scales. There were jagged areas on its forearms and its elbow, and it had some very sharp teeth. It looked incredibly muscular, and it made me wonder how such a large creature could fly. There was no way it’s wings would be able to lift its weight, which meant that the only possibility was magic.

[If I’m right, that’s a Dragonewt, though it’s quite a bit smaller than I was expecting. Usually you don’t see them until level fifty or so. I’ve never seen a grey one, either. Usually they’re more colorful.]

[Dragonewt, huh?] Jonathan said. [What can you tell us about them?]

[Well they can fly, obviously, so get ready for it to fly around. I’m pretty sure it’ll also be able to breathe fire, but I’m not entirely sure. Besides that, it’s incredibly strong as you can see, and he should be pretty fast as well. I have no clue what type of abilities he’ll have.]

[I could probably take care of it pretty quickly if I changed forms again. What do you guys say?]

[Nah, let’s do it as we are. Ben and I can both summon our elementals and then we can go in. Maybe this guy will actually put up a challenge,] Mason said.

[I don’t think there is much point in Ben summoning his, so we’ll go in as soon as you’ve summoned yours.]

[Oh, right, the fire resistance thing. Alright, gimme a minute,] Mason replied as he began summoning his earth elemental.

Ben also began casting something at the same time, though the cast times were much shorter. By the time Mason’s earth elemental was summoned, there were two Skeletal Archers and a Skeletal Warrior standing in front of Ben. He hadn’t used them before on a boss fight so I was curious to see how it would go.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Jonathan turned and extended his spear and his cutlass before proceeding to walk towards the boss. Normally we all ran in, but he seemed like he wanted to slow it down a little. It seemed to be a good choice as well, since the boss took a big breath as soon as we walked past a certain point.

Jonathan reacted instantly, stopping and taking a breath of his own. Mason and Ben put up Mana Shield, while Anja and I made sure to spread out. Moments later, the boss breathed out a jet of flame that traveled the hundred foot distance pretty quickly, only to meet Jonathan’s own fire breathe about thirty feet away from him.

It looked like he wasn’t able to breathe it any further just yet, but his breath weapon was easily strong enough to hold up to the dragonewt’s. The duel must have lasted for at least thirty seconds before both of them stopped, Jonathan coughing a little at the end. There wasn’t any time to recover, however, because the boss immediately started running forward, using a quick beat of his wings to increase his speed.

Jonathan met him halfway, his spear activating and reaching across the distance when they got close enough, the spear impaling the boss’ waist. Seeming to not even feel the attack, he began swinging one of his arms. The backhand connected with Jonathan, who got Mana Shield up before the strike even hit, but promptly flared up and fell, sending Jonathan flying a short distance.

That triggered the rest of us to attack. A red aura encompassed my hands, increasing the speed at which I would be able to fire off arrows. Wanting to increase that further, I activated Rapid Fire just as the first arrow appeared in my hand. I quickly pulled the bowstring back, loosing a Siphoning Shot followed immediately followed immediately afterwards by Triple Shot. The three arrows crossed the distance in an instant. The third arrow actually bounced off his chest, though the other three found their mark.

It didn’t seem like they did any damage, but it did get his attention. Turning towards me, he backhanded the earth elemental in his way and then charged towards me. I fired a Tethering Shot along his path to see what would happen before activating Ride the Lightning so I could get away. Instead of traveling quickly to my left or my right, I decided to travel directly towards the boss, to see if lightning had any effect on him.

The dragonewt shrugged off the effects of Tethering Shot, it not even slowing him in the slightest, but as he drew his arm back, spreading his claws as if to slash me, I turned into lightning and traveled right through him, quickly appearing a hundred feet or so in the other direction.

That did get a reaction out of the boss, though. I only got to see the aftermath, but I did hear the boss grunt. He was still sliding across the floor, his legs, arms, tail and wings doing a little dance before going briefly still. The only sign that he was alive was his chest expanding and his tail twitching.

Jonathan made good use of the free time, appearing behind the boss with both swords in hand, forming an X, almost like a pair of scissors. With a shout of effort, he pulled the two swords away from each other, actually severing one of the boss’ wings.

Shrieking in pain, the boss’ tail moved quickly, catching Jonathan in the side and knocking him back to the floor, though not breaking through Mana Shield this time. Getting up, the boss stalked towards Jonathan, the rest of us in shock as the boss’ wing began regenerating. The only things that weren’t stationary were the boss and the four summoned minions of our group. The Skeletal Archers fired off arrows, while the Skeletal Warrior and earth elemental ran towards the boss.

The archer’s arrows bounced off the thick scales of the dragonewt, making me wonder how Skeletal Archers actually got powerful. The earth elemental though? It was quite strong. Each of its strides shook the floor, if only slightly, causing the boss to look up just as the elemental launched itself towards him. The earth elemental was Jonathan’s dragonkin size, though it seemed to be quite a bit heavier. The dragonewt raised his arms to brace against the elemental, but it didn’t have much of an effect. Both went tumbling a short distance with the elemental recovering sooner.

Raising its rocky arms up, but began bringing them down onto the boss only to be met with the boss’ own arms. The dragonewt was able to prevent all forward movement, before taking another deep breath and firing off a jet of flame up at the earth elemental. It had a dramatic effect, the rock quickly heating up before exploding in all directions.

As the boss stood back up I was amazed and a little horrified to see that its wing was regenerated, looking as if it was never severed in the first place. He scanned the room, his eyes locking on Jonathan before beating his wings and launching himself once again. Jonathan was on his feet by now, but disappeared just as the boss was about to hit him.

When he appeared, he was carrying one of the crystalline swords made for him by Abi, holding it in a two-handing grip and swinging it over his head. It severed the boss’ tail this time, causing the boss to bellow in pain and turn towards Jonathan again. Swinging with his arm, the boss only met air as Jonathan once again disappeared.

He appeared again and gone was the massive crystalline sword, instead being replaced by his two one-handed swords.

[Well, what are you guys waiting for?!] he sent, looking at us as we stood there just watching everything.

He spurred us back into action, Mason running toward the boss while my sister stayed where she was, firing off Ice Shards as quickly as she could. I knew she wouldn’t be going anywhere near the boss, and nor would the rest of us for that matter. Not if a single swipe from the boss was capable of dropping Jonathan’s Mana Shield.

I fired off another flurry of arrows, each of them finding their mark, just as Mason used Whirling Leap to get into the fight. He started off by using Seismic Shove, though it didn’t seem to have the effect he was hoping for. The boss only slid back a few feet, but was able to keep his footing.

He used Dash to quickly move away, just as a swipe from the boss arrived where Mason was previously standing. A rock shot out of the ground below the boss’ feet, but it had little-to-no effect, seeming only to amuse the boss. He walked towards Mason, arm raised only to bellow out his pain once more, looking at the fresh stump on his hand.

That wasn’t all, though, as immediately afterward a jet of flame hit the boss, a yelp of pain being heard along with a sizzling sound. The boss beat his wings, trying to get away, but it appeared as if the damage had already been done. Landing on one of the platforms around the room, he was clutching his arm, the wound there being cauterized closed, preventing the boss from regenerating.

Breathing in, he let out a roar, one that had us clapping our hands over our ears trying to prevent the noise. It did help, but only a little. When it ended, we looked back up to the boss who just stood up there. Seeing movement out of the periphery of my vision, I turned and saw a group of Elite Kobolds run out of a door we hadn’t noticed before. There wasn’t a chieftain or high chieftain leading them, but there was a shaman in the group.

Jonathan appeared behind them as they ran towards us, closing the distance and severing the shaman’s head from her body before tearing into the archers. They died almost as quickly, and then he fell upon the warriors as well. The other four of us were only able to kill one of the warriors before the group of seven kobolds were alive, but suddenly Anja moved, her katana slicing through the air. A head dropped to the floor with a disgusting plop, but Anja never stopped moving. She only sliced through the air three times, but each time she did so, a head went flying.

It seemed like we dealt with the entire group, but that just caused the boss to roar out in displeasure. Turning back around, we could see that there was another group of kobolds entering from the other side of the room. They were dealt with just as quickly. Each group dying made the boss angrier and angrier, and he finally glided back down when the fourth group was dealt with.

A red haze was covering his body, but his right arm was still severed just below the elbow. Jonathan was the source of most of his anger, so the boss immediately charged towards him. While faster than he was pre-injury, he couldn’t move fast enough to prevent Jonathan from using Blink. He didn’t even have to move very far.

He Blinked beside the boss as he charged by, Jonathan’s swords flashing briefly. It didn’t seem to do any damage, but the boss’ left leg buckled and the boss went crashing to the floor. The two swords instantly collapsed as he let them go so the handles dangled around his wrists, his crystalline sword appearing in his hands again. This time he went for the boss’ tail, severing it close to where it protruded before breathing another jet of fire to cauterize it.

The boss reacted sooner, using his large wings to move him just out of the range of the fire before turning around and swiping again. This time the attack connected, as Jonathan was too slow to react. Mana Shield was up at least, absorbing the brunt of the damage and sending him flying again.

Mason didn’t seem to want to get close to the boss, which was understandable with how hard he hit and how fast he was now moving. The rest of us didn’t have a problem with that, however, Ben casting Chaos Bolt whenever he could and Anja doing the same with Ice Shard. I fired off arrow after arrow, some of them hitting their mark while others weren’t able to penetrate the boss’ thick scales. I got his attention once more, though he actually seemed a bit unsteady as he ran towards me, no longer having his tail to keep him balanced.

I didn’t bother with the Tethering Shot this time, instead opting to go with another Ride the Lightning. I didn’t go very far, anticipating that the boss would be stunned for a short time. You can imagine my horror when the boss quickly turned toward me, his arm already in motion. I tried to dodge out of the strike, but it never came.

Jonathan appeared standing in front of me, his right arm holding onto the boss’ wrist. His left arm was already moving as I opened my eyes, a howl of pain and widening eyes signifying that Jonathan’s strike had hit its mark. There was a sizzling sound followed immediately by the smell of cooking flesh, and some smoke coming up from the boss’ chest. I backed up while moving to the side and saw that Jonathan’s sword, the part I could see at least, was glowing red hot. It was sticking out of the spot where a human’s heart would be, and it seemed like the same was true for dragonewts. Twisting the sword, he pulled it free doing more damage, likely shredding the boss’ heart even more.

The boss fell to his knees, the shock clearly visible in his eyes, before collapsing into a heap on the floor. It began disintegrating shortly thereafter, allowing all of us to breathe a sigh of relief when it was dead. It was likely the hardest boss we had faced so far, and it would’ve been a hell of a lot harder if Jonathan hadn’t learned how to breathe fire.

“Thanks,” I said, looking up at him.

He turned and nodded before looking down at his armor. There was a bit and damage to his armor, but none of it went through, the armor holding up. The sword in his left hand, however, was totally ruined. The material seemed incapable of withstanding the heat and warped when he twisted it. Looking at it, he put it away before another brand new one appeared in his hand. Sliding it into the vacant slot on his belt, he turned to look where the chest was. Spotting it, he started walking over to it.

“Well, I’ve never felt so useless,” Mason said as he fell into step, looking up at his friend as they walked. “I’m not going to complain anymore about whether or not a boss is a challenge or not. Without you in your dragonkin form, or your dragon form for that matter, I doubt we ever would’ve killed him.”

I saw Jonathan nod his large reptilian head as he looked down. [I wasn’t expecting the massive regeneration, but was glad that it wasn’t completely immune to fire. If it had been, then it probably would’ve taken massive heart damage or severing his head to finally kill him.]

“That was the first time I’d seen something regenerate that quickly,” Ben said from behind us. “I definitely haven’t read anything about dragonewts being able to regenerate either. I wonder if that is where the name comes from as newts and salamanders, as well as other lizards are able to regrow tails and limbs.”

“I wonder if you’ll be able to regenerate that fast if you shift into a dragonewt. You did scan it right?” Mason asked.

Jonathan nodded as he stopped walking when he got close to the chest. [I’ll try it later tonight. You wanna do the honors?] he asked, looking at Mason.

Nodding, Mason walked up to the chest and opened it up before peering inside. He reached in, grabbing the two Skill Gems and handing them to me. I could see that they were both Tier E, dropping them into the pouch when Jonathan handed it to me, before handing it back. Mason gathered up all the crystals and then pulled out the first item, which was a pair of gloves. They were leather, for the most part, with thin pieces of metal that covered the back of the fingers, with a larger plate covering the rest of the hand. He handed them to Ben and then bent down to pick up the second item, this time removing a large, slightly-curved tube that I immediately recognized as a sheath, otherwise known as a saya.

Ben passed the gloves to me, allowing me to get a quick look before handing them on.

Trik’s Fists

Rare

+12 Strength

+12 Agility

+8 Constitution

+6 Endurance

Increases physical damage done by 10%. When unarmed, triple this.

Looking back to Mason, I could see that he was inspecting the sword. The entire thing was about four feet long, and grasping onto the handle and the saya, he pulled, unsheathing the sword entirely. The blade looked wickedly sharp, and he stepped away to slice through the air with it a few times, each one being punctuated by a noise following it. He sheathed it again, just as Anja looked over, having missed his display while looking at the gloves.

“A Nodachi!” she said, walking over with her hands stretched out. Mason handed it to her, and she unsheathed it just enough to look at the cutting edge of the blade. Nodding, she sheathed it again and then handed it to Ben so he could pass it around.

“What’s a Nodachi? It looks like a katana to me,” Mason said.

“Nope, it’s way too long to be a katana. Nodachi were two-handed swords used in open areas, and were very good against cavalry. They’re pretty much the Japanese equivalent of a longsword or claymore.”

“Oh,” Mason replied.

The sword was passed along to me so I got a good look at it as well.

Enchanted Steel Nodachi

Uncommon

14 Weapon Damage

+12 Strength

+8 Agility

Strikes with this weapon deal an additional 5% damage as True Damage. True Damage ignores all damage reduction effects.

[Alright, let’s get started,] Jonathan sent holding out his phone to me. [We’ll start with the gloves first, since they’re the best of the three items. Everyone got a look at the gloves?]

Everyone nodded.

I tapped the button to start the roll on my phone and then hit roll on Jonathan’s as well. The chime let me know the roll was over. Ben was the only one who passed on the item.

“Congrats!” I said, turning Jonathan’s phone around so he could see the result.

He had to lean forward a bit to read it, but he grinned when he saw that he rolled a 94, the gloves instantly disappearing. I looked back down, noting that Anja had been second with 65, while neither Mason or I even came close.

[Okay, the sword next. Anyone interested in it, or does Anja get it?]

“You don’t want it?” she asked. “It’s pretty much a one-handed sword when you’re in that form, you could wield it and your cutlass.”

[Nah, I’m good. I’ll wait until another one handed sword comes along. Besides, you’re the one that uses Japanese weaponry.]

No one else spoke up, so he handed her the sword. She took out an empty collapsible sword and tried putting the nodachi inside of its dimensional storage, but nothing happened. Puzzled momentarily, she took it out of its sheath and tried again. This time, it went in without an issue and she looked back up, noticing that all of us were watching her. She activated and then deactivated it, nodding when the sword extended and then collapsed.

“I guess I’ll just be leaving this in my room,” she said, holding up the sheath.

[Okay, last item,] Jonathan said, taking the pants out of his ring’s dimensional storage rather than the suits so that they wouldn’t be soulbound to him. [Everyone remembers the stats on them, or would everyone like a refresher?]

“Refresher, please,” Mason said.

Jonathan handed him the item, and he took a few seconds before proceeding to hand it around to the rest of the group. I had been the one to pick them up initially, but it was good to look them over once more. Like the gloves we rolled on just before, the pants were leather with armor plates attached to them, this time protecting the thighs.

Lesser Enchanted Cuisses

Uncommon

+10 Strength, Agility or Intellect, whichever is highest.

+8 Constitution

+6 Endurance

They weren’t the most impressive pants, but they were good for all of us thanks to the special armor we were wearing. I handed them over to Ben who handed them over to Anja before giving them back to Jonathan.

I initiated the roll a moment later, Mason doing a little fist pump when our phones chimed and he saw he was the winner with a 90. He accepted the pants and they quickly disappeared. I handed Jonathan his phone, and then we continued on to the eleventh floor.

The eleventh floor took our breath away. It looked normal enough as we walked down the steps, activating the waygate along the way, but we soon came across a door, which was the first we had come across when arriving at a new floor. Usually there was just a passageway we would follow.

All of us shielded our eyes as soon as Ben opened the door, that’s how bright it was. We could hear birds chirping around us, and when we could finally see we saw that we were standing at the base of a mountain with a forest below us and large plains beyond it. There were deer or some other animals grazing in the distance, though they were too far to tell exactly what they were.

We looked to be in a valley, another mountain being directly opposite of us, at least several kilometers away. Assuming that’s where we had to go, we would have to cross two forests, the large plains and a river that was running through it to get there. Looking up, it looked as if the sky was real, rather than being something fake. The sun was high in the sky and there was the occasional cloud.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see one of these so soon,” Ben said as he scanned the area. “This isn’t one floor, it actually counts as five. The gryphon enclosure was probably based on something like this. Somewhere out there, there will be a boss we need to kill to get a key to open the door. I have no idea what it might be, but we’ll know it when we see it. I also doubt we’ll see any kobolds in here, as they hate daylight.”

[Huh, interesting,] Jonathan said. [So, should we just head for the other mountain, or is there somewhere else we should look?]

“The mountain is a safe bet,” Ben said with a nod while looking up at Jonathan. “The boss will find us more often than not, so we’ll probably find it, or its minions along the way.”

[I could transform into something and scout the area. It probably wouldn’t take me long to find where we need to go.]

I immediately shook my head. “No, let’s not rush through it. This floor is different enough from every other floor we’ve been on so far, it deserves some exploration.”

“She’s right about that,” Ben said. “There are frequently rare materials that can be found on floors like this one, such as herbs. I bet some rare metals could be found too, if someone wanted to check the two mountains. Floors like this one are different from other floors in that none of the monsters respawn when they die, it’s a much more natural ecosystem, with a cycle of life and death. It also allows for skinning of animals and the collection of body parts, if there is anything worth collecting.”

“What about bosses? If we kill the one on this floor does it mean that it’s dead forever?” Anja asked.

“Nope! No one’s actually been able to capture it on camera, but it’s theorized that if a boss dies, one of its minions consumes something that turns them into a boss. Or the dungeon just chooses one of the remaining minions to become the new boss. There are differing theories.”

“Well, should we be going?” Mason asked. “It’s about 17:30 now, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, especially if we’ve got to find the boss and get a key from him.”

[Right, hopefully we’ll be able to get through the floor within a few hours. I’d like to kill the boss on the twentieth floor if we can manage it.]

It was a bit of a hike down the mountain before we entered the forest, quickly finding a game trail that we followed, assuming it would lead us to the plains. It was a long forest, though not a particularly thick one, meaning that it only took a few minutes before we had arrived at the edge of the plains. Jonathan had to actually shift into his human form, otherwise he would have snapped smaller trees and just made a lot of noise in general. We didn’t come across anything hostile on the way, though things were eerily quiet, the wildlife ceasing their calls. It sent goosebumps across my skin, and I was happy when we left it behind us.

We were walking through the plains for about a minute before a sound could be heard that stopped us in our tracks. It was a horn, clearly coming from the forest we had just been in. Turning around, we didn’t see anything, but a moment later small creatures with red eyes, pointy noses and long ears exited the forest.

They were all incredibly ugly, having blotchy green skin and fat rounded bellies, while being covered in dirt. They were also short, being no more than three or four feet tall, and were naked save for the loincloths all of them wore. They carried a variety of weaponry, the most common being spears and slings, though a few even had bows and bolas.

The horn sounded again. This time, much larger versions exited the forest, carrying actual metal weaponry, and being about twice the size. The shortest of the new arrivals were about six foot tall, minimum, and were much more heavily muscled than their smaller counterparts. There were at least sixty of the creatures all together, but that was before the horn sounded again.

That signaled more of them to leave the forest, these ones being the same size as the large ones. The difference? All of them were riding on top of massive wolves, ones that put the size of Arkus to shame.

“Ugh, Goblins,” Ben said. “Told you they’d find us.”