Aurora

My plan was proceeding perfectly. The only hiccup so far was when they teleported us over here. I thought my head was going to explode. What almost made it worse was the lack of pain combined with the nausea. I nearly lost the connection for a minute after the teleporting spell took effect. Everything had been… off for a minute while my mental connection stabilized. Just the thought that I might have to go through that again later filled me with dread already.

My original plan was to test the limits of my connection on the way over and if I reached my max, I would come up with an excuse to leave, but the teleporting had thrown me for a loop. I could tell I was almost maxed out, but there should be enough to dive the dungeon. Drac was also nearby in case of an emergency and in case my plan to capture the dungeon worked.

So far the dungeon was exactly as Roland and the others reported. Natural caves with nothing to write home about. The monster was almost nature based. Watching the party take the golem down in a matter of seconds gave me a new appreciation of their powers. I had to make note of Maxwell’s powers. He managed to deal a heavy blow to the golem all on his own.

Once the golem was down, I moved around the party and played my part as scout. Not that there was much to worry about. This dungeon really was just a natural cave system turned monster spawner. There was only one trap in the first part of the dungeon, which was a collapsing floor after the third chamber.

“That was easy,” Maxwell remarked to the woman named Sasha. I hated the fact that Maxwell had gained more players on his side. Even if you counted Opal and Mira, it was hard to say they were on my side, I was just about on my own. That didn’t change how I felt about the situation. Something about Maxwell just rubbed me the wrong way. Even if the event with the holy energy hadn’t occurred, I’d probably still hate his guts.

I pushed down my idle thoughts and focused back on the dungeon. Hatred or not, I was currently playing the role of this scout. I checked the surfaces, even going so far as to use my Dungeon Trap skill. My eyes lit up when I found a trigger to the side of the path. It wasn’t so much as well hidden, as it was just completely disregard-able to the average person being a simple rock.

It looked like my vampires had either missed something their first time through, or the dungeon reset some since their visit. I checked the trigger more thoroughly and found that it was a trigger for a trapdoor. I couldn’t tell from the limited information, but I thought it might be a short cut. I made a mental note of it, then moved on to the rest of the tunnel. Other than the hidden trapdoor, there was nothing to note.

“All clear!” I shouted once I was sure. I wondered if I would get an Acting skill if I kept this up long enough. It would be nice since I had the part of Spider Queen? Spider President? To play down in the Abyss. The rest of the part soon filed into the tunnel after me.

The next chamber was mostly the same. A slightly larger space compared to the tunnel. The only difference from the first chamber was the column of stone in the center and the two golems instead of one to fight. While I could have stayed out of the fight, the party was packing more than enough firepower to take down these low-level monsters without my damage added in the mix, I felt it was a waste not to get in on the EXP.

My main body did get some EXP from things I killed in this body, but only a fraction. These bodies had levels as well. That meant I would have to level up more than a single character to keep them all effect. Plus, I knew I would likely be creating more in the future as my influence expanded. With that being the case, I made sure to fire off a single flame spell from my pistol on each of the golems before letting the rest of the party go crazy.

The two golems of the second chamber were soon turned into piles of rubble. We continued on like that quickly. The golems dropped crafting material and mana stones. Neither of which were being fought over by the group. I grimaced at the fact that Maxwell was getting more ammo to use against me, but I would deal with that problem later.

In no time at all, we soon cleared the first section of the dungeon reaching the first boss room. I already knew the first boss appearance from Roland and the others, but seeing it in person was a different experience. The first boss was a golem like the rest of the monsters so far, but it was massive. I could practically feel the earth mana washing off the monster.

I walked to the front of the group and pointed back over my shoulder nonchalantly. “This is as far as I got. I do know that it throws so heavy earth spells that hit most of the chamber. Earthquakes are also on the list.”

“I see. Razz, what do you think?” Maxwell asked looking at the goblin.

“If he’s like the golems from before, then it shouldn’t be too hard. We just have to stay on our toes with the spell effects. Kaga, how was the boss’s speed?”

“Slow. Ungainly to the extreme,” I replied glad that Roland had mentioned it.

“Then we have the advantage,” Sasha said with a grin to her guild members. Looking them over, I only saw one man with a shield. The rest looked dressed for nimble movements. If that was enough to beat the boss, my vampires would have made easy work of the thing. Light handed blows were enough to damage the thick ass stone protection. Though, they were all players. The situation might be different due to that simple fact.

The priest from the Jade Collective blessed the party to increase their stats for a short time. I flinched when the holy magic washed over me, but thankfully, I just felt extremely uncomfortable for a few seconds. It looked like our levels being close to each other kept me from burst into flame or whatever would have happened. I was controlling this body with Aberrant Sorcery. That sort of screamed unholy magic.

With preparations complete, we filed into the chamber and surrounded the boss. Being the same room with the monster added to the effect. The boss golem was nearly five meters tall and was nearly two meters wide at the shoulders. A thick block head sat on its shoulders that was close to a meter thick on its own. Everything about the monster screamed high defense.

The boss, unlike the golems from before, was able to make noise, which it did by emitting a horrendous stone grinding roar that felt like it would make your ears bleed. I was glad that pain was disabled for this game. At least it was for now. Who knew when the aliens might be interested in how us humans would react to feeling pain again.

Recovering from the roar, the party went to work. The defenders took their positions around the boss, ready for when it selected a target. One of Razz’s members slammed his hammer against his tower shield in front of the boss. There was a small wave of mana and the boss focused on him. It must have been a taunting skill of some sort.

Not that the boss was aggroed, the mages went to work next. Maxwell’s spatial tear was the only skill that made more than a trickle of dust fall from the boss’s surface. The icicles, fireballs, and wind scythes more or less bounced off without doing much damage. I would have liked to use something other than fire, but this body was had to use what I showed the others so far. Thus, I did my part sending a few fire rounds at the head of the boss. I did more damage than the other mages, but not much.

Even with our ineffective attacks, we started to piss off the boss. It raised its foot, bringing it down heavily. Cracks spread out around the chamber as a quake shook us violently. I barely managed to stay on my feet. Would have been easier in my main body, but I kept that to myself.

The quake finally subsided as the cracks began to seal. You had to love game logic. With the attack over, Razz and the rest of this group took the chance to rush in, literally climbing onto the boss. At some point they had switched to hammers and maces. The weapons were doing far more damage than their bladed cousins.

The boss roared then of all the things it could have done, it jumped nearly five meters into the air. The thing had to weigh two or three tons. What goes up must come down, however, and down it did, right on top of the goblin defender. The guy’s legs were crushed into a paste. Pain or no, seeing your legs like that would cause most people to scream. This guy screamed.

The rest of Razz’s party was thrown off the golem by the force of the jump and resulting impact. They avoided any fatal damage, but the tumble cost them a few bruises and cuts. Since I was playing the role of scout, my hands were mostly free other than the occasional potshot with my pistol. I decided to be a team player.

Rushing between the boss’s legs, I dived next to the guy with crushed legs, rolling him onto my shoulder like I had seen in the movies. I was honestly impressed that I was able to pull it off without issue. I carried the man to safety as the Jade Collective tank took over the boss’s attention. From his face, he was determined not to let himself end up like this guy.

Once I was a good distance from the boss, I lowered the man to the ground. I shook my head looking at his legs. Blood, flesh, and bone were poked out in numerous places. If this was Earth, then this man would likely never walk again on his own feet. I patted his shoulder then turned back to the fight.

The golem had gained a few more jagged gashes across its body. Maxwell was going ham with the spatial tears. As I watched, he landed two more on the boss’s head. It wasn’t long before the block of granite was sent flying. The boss took a few lumbering steps as if trying to avenge his head before the massive body collapsed to the ground and silence filled the chamber. Well mostly silence, the goblin with the crushed legs was still whimpering. Not that I blamed him.

The others looted the boss and tended to the injured while I stood to the side. I didn’t have the desire to mingle, so I made it seem like I was inspecting the room. “Hey!” I jumped as I wasn’t expecting anyone to talk to me. Turning around, I found Maxwell. He had a grin plastered on his smug face. “Thanks for getting Derz out of that mess before the boss could finish him off.”

I assumed Derz was the tank that I rescued. “It was no problem. We’re all in this together right,” I replied turning back to the wall. My eyes lit up when I found another secret passage. If this dungeon was like my own, then these were ways for the dungeon keeper to move around quickly. I sent a message to Drac outside then turned back to Maxwell. “I didn’t find anything.”

“Too bad. I was hoping for some more loot. Even the boss only dropped crafting materials.”

I couldn’t help shrugging. “You win some, you lose some. There are more bosses to deal with, right? Perhaps one of them will drop something good.”

“Good point.” Maxwell gave me another grin. Something about the man reminded me of the politicians that had run our country into the ground. I kept that to myself though. “Its not good to get too greedy this early in the dive.”