Chapter 13 The Raid Party

For those of you who have continued to read to this point, I’m sure you think I have gained far more power than a player should be able to gather. This is far from the truth. A more accurate way to think of it, is that I have amassed a great deal of power earlier than most characters have. The level of power I have gained is something that many players will one day gain. It will take some time, but one day this level of power will only be considered rare, if not uncommon. Afterall, if knowing the game was all that was required to become the strongest in this world, it would not have interested me.

So the strength I have gained is not beyond all others, just ahead of the curve. But I am not the only one with such might. For overall battle power, my rank in combat is somewhere between 600th and 700th place. That means in one on one combat there are hundreds of players who are capable of defeating me.

If I had chosen a class where I could make the best use of my extensive combat skills and in depth game knowledge it would have been a simple thing to rise to the top 10, but battle prowess is not my goal, only a means to reach it.

Also, you may have mistakenly believed that I am very strong because I have yet to fall in battle. The reason I have yet to be killed is because I have not attempted anything beyond my abilities. The highest level monster I have killed was level 265. I am level 246 at the moment. There are dungeons where the weakest monster is over level 400. In such a place, even if I summoned a hundred monsters, conscripted two hundred of the highest level NPCs the spell Dark Heart could manage, and enchanted them all to the best of my abilities, I could not pass through the second floor of such a dungeon. An unlimited army of my strongest summoned creatures would not be able to kill a single level 400 monster on their own, not at their current strength anyways. And although such dungeons require great effort to discover, they are not at all uncommon.

There is one such dungeon I wish to reach the end of now. The monsters inside are between level 180 at the weakest, and level 350 at the strongest. It is over my abilities to pass through. At first I intended on waiting some time before challenging the dungeon. Recently however I decided to put the full use of this game into effect. While I cannot reach the end on my own, with the help of others I can.

I gain information about Royal Road directly from the code, but others have a different resource to fall back on to gain information. Websites, search engines, and chat forums. Using these, Users can share information and gain access to data they would normally be unable to gain themselves.

I created several accounts on these sites some time ago and started sharing detailed information that would lead to vast riches or quests. In doing so my account gained a high reputation for being reliable, and I had many followers that logged on daily to see if I posted a new piece of information.

Here is the basic piece I posted on about twenty different sites.

Ancient Dungeon Raid

In the Halcos Wasteland in the southwest area of Ritten Kingdom is a dungeon containing powerful weapons and items.

The location and contents of this dungeon was discovered through research and historical quests.

The dungeon is, as of yet, undiscovered. I will be leading a group into this dungeon on the last weekend of this month. After we enter, groups may stay together or work separately. I will make my way to the innermost part of the dungeon along the fastest route, those who wish to follow me must do as I say to stay alive or risk the dungeon on their own.

Noteable monsters within:

Basilisks

Three-headed Hydras

Black Ogres

Spellbinder Hags

There may be others to be wary of as well.

The dungeon emits a foul energy that draws in evil beasts and monsters.

There are many traps as well.

Qualifications to join this raid:

-Anyone or any group that believes themselves capable may join this raid. If you do not know if you are strong enough, look up the monsters listed above.

Reward:

If I make it to the end of the dungeon, all those with me at that time will receive 10,000 gold when the party is disbanded.

All treasure in the final room of the dungeon is may be divided as the group that makes it to the end wishes.

To join this raid, Meet me at the south gates of the town of Holesty in Ritten Kingdom on saturday. When the sun rises in the town of Holesty, I will lead whoever has joined to the dungeon as a raid party.

-S.E.

The monsters were some of the strongest mid-level creatures in the game. Finding one in any dungeon meant trouble, but in this dungeon they were the easy to encounter. I left out the details for the rarer, more dangerous creatures, but only because I had no ‘legitimate way’ of knowing what they were.

I posted the notice three weeks before the date to attend. This meant that anyone who was interested had three in game months to get to Ritten Kingdom.

Other than set up my preparations and train, I often logged out and visited the forums to see what people thought of my little post.

-Ancient Dungeon huh? Sounds way too dangerous.

-Black Ogres? Never heard of those. I know that regular ogres are like level 130 or something.

-Never heard of them huh? Be glad for that.

Black Ogres: level 270~300

Three-headed Hydras: level 295~340

Basilisks: level 320~350

Spellbinder Hags: 280~330

That raid is a deathtrap, a one way ticket to a 24 hour lockout and death penalties.

-I’m going, I’m level 291. I’ve killed three-headed hydras and basilisks before.

-The poster is S.E. right? I don’t think it will be a deathtrap.

After logging back on I made my way west. I had not arrived in Ritten yet, and it would be poor form for the raid party to form without me.

On the way however I had to make another stop. There was an abandoned rock quarry I had to visit.

I won’t bore you with the details but I successfully raised my Enchant Card spell to intermediate and now had many carded summons as well as many other items and useful things carded as well.

What I needed here however was rocks, large rocks. If I turned a boulder into a card then released it inside a dungeon’s tunnel it would seal off the tunnel unless it was broken.

In case you were wondering, such an application has a limit. If I had a boulder in card form that is a great deal larger than the hallway of the dungeon tunnel I wish to seal, the card will not revert in the hallway. The same goes for monsters too large for indoors. If I somehow manage to card a vast sea monster, larger than a whale, I cannot release it while in a dungeon or area too small for it. Cards can also not be destroyed in places where their contents will not fit.

I used dark magic spells like Dark Claw and Dark Cannon to break off large chunks of rocks. Now that I had a very high wisdom, all of my spells required far less casting time so Dark Cannon was now a viable spell. The reason I had yet to train it was because although the spell’s damage increased and mana cost decreased with proficiency, its casting time would barely reduce so it was not worth using or training before this point.

I spent three days at the quarry collecting hundreds of boulder sized rocks. You would be surprised how often a large number of giant rocks can come in handy.

It took another week by horseback to reach Holesty. It was still another four days until the deadline but I could already see there was a large number of high level users. At the moment the average level for the top 200 players was about 300. The average level for the Users that showed up in town was about 240, of which I was one, with scattered groups in the level 280s and even a couple over level 300.

I wandered through the town sizing up those who came. It wasn’t my intention to find a hero candidate but if one showed up it was all the better. No one however stood out. I could see stats, levels, titles, play time, and completed quests, but overall they were all the same. The stronger ones either spent more time playing or got lucky.

At the appointed day, I set up a table and sat outside the south gate of Holesty three hours before the sun was to rise. There was already a few people there, mostly in the low 200s.

When I set up the table one walked up to me and asked, “You S.E.?”

I nodded and said, “Yes, I go by the Scarlet Enchantress in game, though my name is Curi.”

I held up a hand before he continued and said, “I’m sure you have questions but I’m also sure others will ask the same questions. So I will not answer any questions other than that I am indeed the one who set up this meeting. Not until sunrise.”

“What? Come on. What kind of treasure is in the dungeon?”

I shrugged and ignored the question. Many others came up to me but I only told them who I was and told them to wait for further questions.

When the first light rose over the town, there was about 80 Users..

I rose from the table and said, “Alright, before we head off, there are a few things I’m going to point out. For those of you who came just for some fame, you should stay in town. The Dungeon is in the Wastelands after all, and anyone unprepared will die before reaching it.”

The Helcos Wastelands was one of the most uninhabitable places in Versailles. The same force that drew in the beasts of the dungeon also stole the life from the land. The monsters that could be encountered there were fearsome.

No one left the group, they either were ignorant of the area or were confident in themselves. Likely both.

I began walking and said, “Alright, let’s go, you can ask questions along the way.”

One person yelled, “How long till we get there?”

“More than a day, less than four days,” I answered. I was purposefully vague to prevent others from running ahead and entering the dungeon.

About three hours into the journey, the group encountered a Wasteland Wurm. It was a giant worm that moved through the earth like a fish swam through water, and it had a mouth that could swallow a car whole. It was level 380, but outnumbered. I lead the group purposefully into the creature to thin out the weaker ones. I’ll explain why later.

Several barbarians used Earth striking skills that could pass through the ground to damage the wurm. They lead it to a spot where mages were casting spells. A group of three mages cast ice magic at the same time, covering the wurm in too much ice to dive back into the earth. It was swarmed by the other players who slowly hacked it to death.

Seven Users were killed, but only the ones in the low 200s, the Users that had no business here.

I lead the group along a straight path, but slightly angled a few routes to avoid some territories while leading the group into others. I had to get them use to fighting powerful monsters together, so even with the lost numbers the group that made it in the end would be stronger.

At night we made camp on a outcropping of rocks. Monsters are 50% stronger at night, and the wasteland was no place to explore without the light.

Several of the leaders of various groups came to me at night, mostly with the same questions. I answered them in kind.

“Yes, I know which territories which monsters roam in through. Yes I have lead this party through some of them to avoid others. Would you rather face a wasteland wurm, or a wasteland drake? Would you rather encounter an ogre, or a giant? There is no safe route to the dungeon, but the fact that we made it this far should indicate that I have in fact chosen the safest route.”

The men basically said, “Alright, but tell us what is to come beforehand then so that we will be prepared.”

“That’s fine. I intended to do so once the tourists fell. We’ve actually already made it through most of the hard part. But the dungeon itself is hidden in the nest of a Desert Queen.”

“A Desert Queen’s Nest?! Are you insane?!”

I held up a hand to silence the man and said, “If I felt that this group wasn’t strong enough I would have already turned back. For those of you who don’t know, I’m called the Scarlet Enchantress for a reason. I can increase the power of every warrior and spell caster in this group.”

One of the other captains said, “I heard the one called Scarlet Enchantress could use unique enchantments and black magic. You’re really her?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’m in.”

The next day we made it to the edge of the the Queen’s territory.

A Desert Queen is a giant flying insect the size of an average two story house. Its level is high, but overall it is not overwhelmingly strong. The problem with them was that they breed countless hundreds of drone insects. Flying, ground, and underground creatures that acted in unison with no regard for their lives under the queen’s command. Most of which were poisonous.

The group captains informed the Users of the dangers ahead. Everyone lined up and I gave the remaining 59 Users multiple enchantments. The priests, bards, and shamans gave their buffs as well. The total power of the group more than doubled.

Not long after entering we met the first wave, several hundred flying drones. They had the bodies of a hornet with the arms of a prey mantis and were larger than an average wolf.

Several of the women shrieked. Unsurprising due to how horrifying the bugs were to behold.

The spell casters chanted in unison, they were all told only to cast fire magic so that opposing elements would not cancel each other out. Before the insects were in range, I started casting with my spell armlet. The more complex the use of the spell Psychokinesis, the longer the casting time.

The swarm started converging into a single, thick column of bugs heading straight for us. This made the magic far more effective as it burned through the hundreds of bugs.

By the time the bugs came within close combat range, their number had been reduce to a fraction of the original. The large scale psychokinesis spell to move them together to make for an easier target was a success.

The mages ran for cover behind the melee groups who protected them from the bugs. The creatures had high attack and speed, but their greatest asset was their numbers. For a body light enough to fly, defense was sacrificed and they were easily killed by swords and magic. Without a doubt the mages had each leveled up during the attack.

The enchantments and buffs were recast before each wave and the priest cured the poisoned men after. I told the lot I had a skill that told me when they were coming so the group was never caught unprepared. Thanks to my mana regenerating enchantments, the shamans and priests were able to recover mana without needing to meditate between waves.

Overall the only real threat was the swarming flying drones. If a party was caught unprepared, they would be cut to pieces within a few minutes. The underground drones looked like giant centipedes but were easier to deal with than wasteland wurms and they only came in small groups. The land covering drones were waist high beetles that came in numbers even larger than the flying drones, but their danger was coordination with said flying drones, so as long as the flying insects were taken out fast, the group could take its time with the ground beetles.

Or so I thought. The strategy developed into forming a circle where the melee fighters surrounded and protected the mages, myself included, who cast magic from the safety of within to wipe out large groups of insects outside the circle. The problem was that the durability of the melee fighter’s weapons and shield was wearing down. No one within the group had any skill to repair weapons.

Honestly this was something I had not seen coming.

Although I cast magic I do not use a magic staff to enhance my magic attack power. Something I have yet to explain, is that the armlet is basically the spellcaster, and I am the armlet’s staff. Because of this, equipping myself with staff doesn’t increase the spell armlet’s spell damage. That being said, powerful magic staves are hard to come by, and even a normal mage’s staff would only increase their damage output by a few percent. It is more common for mages to go without staffs than use them, so the fact that other classes use weapons which slowly degrade in ability was not something I had factored into this mission.

At this rate, we would still be able to attack and defeat the queen, but the dungeon in the nest, the main purpose to coming here, would be an absolute deathtrap when their weapons reach their limit. For the party and for me.

However. There was a chance we would still succeed. It was far from absolute, and diminishing with each battle, but there was a chance.

At the realization of what I felt, I let out a merry laugh.

A few of the men beside me looked a bit worried at this. A woman laughing at nothing in a dangerous situation was viewed by many as a sign of insanity, but I ignored it.

This was the feeling of wanting to take on a challenge I did not know the outcome of. Such is rare for me, I’m not much of a risk taker. My usual method is to create a scenario that leads another person into becoming something greater. I usually try to control every aspect of said scenario without leaving much to chance. The only variable in said scenario is what the hero does after becoming a hero and what happens to the world after the hero comes into it.

The reason I avoided risk was that is was rarely worth it and I usually found a way around it.

Other than some over the top cheating, I had no way to get around the risk other than go back. If I was alone that is likely what I would have done, but I was leading group I gathered using my internet profile. Turning back would lessen my accounts reputation and make others think I was unreliable which meant the effort I put into that profile would amount to nothing.

We continued forward.

The Desert queen’s nest was dug into a rocky area. It acted as camouflage to the area’s original purpose.

Though if you ask me, it doesn’t really make sense why a dungeon whose entrance was hidden in an insect nest contain non-insect monsters like hydras, ogres, and spellcasting old ladies. Such creatures could be found in a few areas of the Wastelands but.. Nevermind, I’m going off topic.

Several mages cast fireballs at a tunnel I pointed out in the rock face. Most missed but a few made it in.

I’ve mentioned this before, but the accuracy and precision of magic is determined by wisdom. Most mages pour all of their stats into Intellect to increase magic attack power and forget this fact. I would go as far as to say that for the mages on this trip, if I had not been crowding the insects together with psychokinesis, they would not have been able to hit anything. But on the plus side, because they were able to hit due to me, their highly strengthened spells were able to kill greater numbers of insects faster than I would have dared hope.

The few shots that made it inside attracted the attention of the queen. It burst forth from the rock face and shrieked with a high pitched wail.

After killing so many bugs and giant monsters, the monstrous form and size of the queen barely raised any eyebrows.

Along with the queen came swarms of every variety of insect at their highest level.

Everyone had already been buffed to the max, and prepared from the start. The mages were already chanting, their spells were not aimed for the queen, but for the swarms of flying bugs. They came out of the rocks in several places and came at the group in three directions.

I could only use psychokinesis to push a single stream into a point for attacking, but with multiple streams that would not help. Instead I cast a psychokinesis spell so large, it took more than half my mana to use. I forced the incoming swarm of bugs down to the ground. It was difficult. Pushing them sideways was simple, but pushing them down was harder as their wings actively repelled the downward force by pushing up. Nonetheless I was able to push them to the ground where they were trampled over by the incoming swarm of ground insects. The hive mentality did not allow for the beetles to consider that the things the pierced with their sharp legs were the allies that should be in the air.

The other two streams of flying drones were already upon us. They used hit and away tactics to strike someone once per flyby, and with hundreds of insects the attacks on the group per second was already over a dozen.

I used my remaining mana to cast another psychokinesis spell to push the remaining flying drones to the ground. During the time it took for the spell to cast, twelve Users had been killed. The spell did however go through. Because they were hovering lower to attack, there was less distance to the ground to push, so I was able to cast it on a larger number for the same amount of mana as the previous time.

The flying insects were crushed again, their remaining number reduced to a few dozen.

Spell Level up: Psychokinesis Intermediate [5]Dark Hand now available for use.

Convenient, but pointless at the moment. I was out of mana.

The queen was done watching from the rock edge and started its charge. Instead of waiting for the queen to plow through, the group charged through the beetles to the queen. This battle formation was arranged beforehand.

Strengthened by enchantments and buffs, the fighters and mages tore through the insects to meet the giant queen head on. The team then split into two groups. One group took the attention of the queen and attacked the front. The other went to the side and attacked the back end.

The mages cast fire spell after fire spell. Torrents of flame rode over the queen, charring its wings to prevent it from fleeing to the sky as it usually would if wounded. Pillars of scorching flames rose up from beneath the enormous insect and burned through the soft underbelly. The smell of the burning carapace was unsettling to most, but they had already grown used to it from the many burnt insects they fought their way through earlier in the day.

The queen eventually turned around to take out the mages and ignore the melee fighters in front, but this was the opportunity they had been waiting for. Switching from defense to offense, they charged the queen. Several had a leaping skill of some sort that allowed them to jump on the queen’s back and attack the back of the head directly. Several good shots were put in before the queen went berserk and bucked them off.

The battle looked exciting, but that was only because a few key players were attacking, while the rest were holding back the beetle and centipede insects. If everyone tried to attack, we would be overrun by the other insects within a minute. If the men were greedy they would try to attack the queen to kill it to get experience, but several men died trying this very thing against monsters on the way to this territory, and they knew this action would lead to their death.

The battle was slow overall, as the group prioritized defense over offense, but the horde of insects in the nest was not infinite, though it seemed to be at some times.

When the time came, I yelled aloud, “Everyone! Away from the Queen!”

They were use to my orders at this point and knew to follow them. They likely thought the queen was going to do something dangerous.

I opened the deck box on my belt and took out a card. I said, “Release,” and threw it into the air above the queen. When the card reached the apex of the throw, it turned into a giant van sized boulder and crushed the weakened queen beneath its weight.

You have leveled up!You have leveled up!You have leveled up!You have leveled up!...

Something I have not explained yet it that in a raid party, the person who deals the final blow to a monster, get half the experience for the kill. And for someone below level 250 to kill something almost twice her level, even half the experience was enough to gain eight levels.

Many of the captains complained, loudly. But I mulled them over by letting them take the queen’s drop loot. I used chance control to make sure the drop loot was worth more to them than the levels they could have had, so the captains were satisfied. I reminded the rest that there was still an unexplored dungeon around the corner.

The remaining insects picked a direction and scattered. Several still ended up fighting, but were quickly killed. The queen would not respawn for another month, so if we survived the dungeon it would be safe to leave.

Several people started asking more specific questions about how I knew where this place was. I simply told them I found out about it in a journal. The journal itself does exist, but it is the reward for a high rank quest I did not feel like doing.

We broke through a part of the nest that concealed the hidden passageway. The true structure of the area that was hidden beneath the nest was revealed. The whole thing looked like an ancient temple. There were many ‘oohhs’ and ‘aahhs.’

The group only rested to recover what was necessary. There was some talk of resting the night, but with such a tempting prize before them, they could not wait.

I lead the group of now 31 Users into the temple’s entrance. Only I knew what true horrors that awaited them inside.

Chapter 14

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