Chapter 119: Ruins of Kolz Pt.4

“Okay guys.” Aegis paced behind the party as they stood in one of the upper hallways of the Castle of Kolz. To their left was a giant hole in the wall that allowed bright sunlight to shine down on them. Looking outside the hole as Aegis paced, he could see they were on the third floor of the castle and had a good view of the top of the outer walls and courtyard below, but that wasn’t what he was interested in.In front of him stood his four party members, and beyond them, a Kolz Ooze. It was slinking towards them through the hallway, shooting acid fists at them, and they had all unequipped their leather armor to take the hits.

“It hurts, but it's necessary. A King Ooze will not hold back.” Aegis explained as a fist of acid smashed into Rakkan and he gritted his teeth, taking the damage. “Heal.” Aegis tapped him to recover the health he’d lost from the hit. “Therefore, it would be irresponsible for us to not take advantage of these slow moving enemies, to prepare ourselves.” Aegis continued.

“I take it all back, there’s no way you’re enjoying this game.” Darkshot mumbled under his breath before he too got hit by an acid attack from the ooze.

“No complaining. Heal.” Aegis healed Darkshot up. “The higher our acid resistance is, the easier the boss will be. This is necessary training for our future in this game world. Who knows how many acid enemies we’ll encounter?” Aegis asked rhetorically as he continued to pace. Pyri was reading a book with her back facing the ooze, she was wearing a common shirt in place of leather armor, of which the acid had completely destroyed the material on the back of the shirt. The others looked similar. Rakkan too, had a book to read, while Lina looked at Aegis with determination, and Darkshot kept glancing back at the ooze and wincing.

“Why aren’t you getting hit with us?” Darkshot said as he watched Aegis pacing.

“I need to be the healer, but once everyone has level 10 resistance, it’ll be my turn.” Aegis reassured Darkshot.

“Only 10? That’s a bit low. I’d like at least 15.” Pyri replied to Aegis.

“You guys are masochists. Seriously.” Darkshot shook his head in disbelief at them. “Can I at least lower my pain threshold?”

“That will only make it take longer.” Aegis shook his head at Darkshot. With only one enemy hitting his allies, even though they took more damage than him, Aegis could heal them back up with one spell cast after each strike, and he had enough mana to sustain casting a heal every few seconds, so the party opted to take advantage of it. It was far from fun, but certainly a rewarding experience to see the damage numbers of the Ooze on his companions slowly go down as the sun set that evening.

Level Up!: Healing Wind has reached Level 58!

Level Up!: Heal has reached Level 57!

Once all of them had gotten to level 15 Acid Resistance, Aegis took his turn standing in front of the acidic ooze. By this time, his healing spells had improved a significant amount. Due to his Light of Eirene skill, he was able to reach level 15 acid resistance much faster than the others, and opted to go further than that, given that he would be the one needing to take the hits of the King Ooze.

“This might be inappropriate for younger viewers, please avert your gaze. But I can’t resist the urge when I see such a great experience opportunity in front of me.” Aegis said as he unequipped his leather pants, and common pants, so that he was in his underwear. Pyri and Rakkan didn’t even bother paying attention, they were so into reading their books at this point that they’d taken positions beside each other, leaning against the wall opposite the hole, in order to use the last bits of sunlight to read the words on the pages.

Darkshot shook his head in disbelief at what he saw Aegis doing, while Lina shyly looked away. Aegis stepped forward into the attacking ooze and placed his feet inside of it. It hurt, a lot, and he began to take a continuous stream of acid damage as he felt as though the skin on his feet was melting off.

You take 310 Acid damage.

You take 293 Acid damage.

You take 344 Acid damage.

It was hurting him at intervals of three seconds, in addition to the punches the ooze was landing on him in between. He had to make sure to keep a Healing Wind active on himself, and repeatedly cast heal. He also kept his gloves equipped, and his shield on his back, in order to get the healing enchant bonuses on them. But it did not take long at all before the damage numbers went down due to the massive amounts of experience he was gaining in his acid resistance skill. Unfortunately, though, through all of the acid punches he was taking, it was inevitable that several would hit his behind, burning away his underwear.

“Aw, dude, seriously? I can see your-” Darkshot winced and looked away.

“It’s just my character. And, why are you looking? Better yet, is your profanity filter turned off?” Aegis turned to face Darkshot, giving him a full frontal view of Aegis’ character. Aegis looked down at himself just to confirm, and sure enough, all he could see was a blank canvas - it was all his stream could see as well, thanks to his profanity filter.

“What the hell, man?! At least warn me when you’re going to do that!” Darkshot shouted as he'd glanced back towards Aegis to answer his question, saw him standing bottomless, and threw his hands over his eyes. He then spun around to see Lina's face redding as she stood beside Darkshot in the hallway looking away as well, but she had an expression that said she really wanted to turn around and check, but was resisting the urge.

“Thats what you get for turning your filter off. To me, I’m a Ken doll. Nothing weird about bathing in acid like this.” Aegis put his hands on his hips proudly and wiggled them.

“Okay, okay, I’m turning it on.” Darkshot replied as he frantically went through his interface to turn the filter back on. Once he had, he looked back at Aegis and saw the filter doing its job - even though Aegis was nude below the waist, there was nothing between his legs. He truly looked like his character was a Ken doll. “Nope, it still looks weird.” Darkshot turned away, seeing that Rakkan and Pyri were still not paying attention, both completely immersed in their respective books. Looking at Lina, though, he saw her face was still flushed bright red.

“Why are you only giving me grief? Lina’s got her filter off too.” Darkshot ratted her out after seeing her expression.

“No, no I don’t!” Lina replied flustered, staring at Darkshot in a panic while refusing to turn and look at Aegis, while Aegis casted heals on himself a few more times.

“She’s just really shy and modest, don’t pick on her.” Aegis defended her.

“Too bad her boyfriend isn’t. Sitting there butt ass naked in the middle of a dungeon.” Darkshot shook his head again in disbelief.

“Boyfriend?” Pyri suddenly looked up from her book, interested in the conversation. Lina looked wide eyed at Pyri with an expression of horror, and quickly looked down at her feet to break eye contact with her.

“Yup, we’re dating now, don’t make it weird.” Aegis declared on behalf of Lina, drawing Pyri’s gaze onto himself.

“Why would I make it weird? And why are your pants off?” Pyri asked him curiously as she eyed him up and down. “And did you really not customize your character's body at all? That looks just like in the real world.” She motioned to his lower body.

“Mom! Seriously?!” Aegis shouted out in disbelief, flushing his face red. To this, Darkshot put his hands on his mouth and struggled to hold in a burst of laughter. “Why isn’t your profanity filter on?”

“I told you, I’m an adult. Never mind that. I don’t make things weird. I think you and Lina are adorable together.” Pyri shrugged as she went back to looking at her book.

“Hear that Lina? If you turn your filter off and look now, you’ll get a preview of what Aegis’ is rocking in the real world.” Darkshot nudged her with a mischievous grin. For a moment, he could see the temptation in Lina’s eyes, but she remained stoic, staring down at the floor of the castle.

“Can’t a guy bathe in acid ooze without being treated like a piece of meat?” Aegis grumbled back at them in between several more heal casts.

Level Up!: Acid Resistance has reached Level 25!

“Ok, it’s 25, that’s enough.” Aegis declared as he stepped out of the ooze. It bubbled angrily at him and tried to attack a few more times while he used guard to block the acid hits and put his armor back on. At that time, Aegis watched Pyri and Rakkan put their books away and everyone drew out their weapons.

“Rune:Frostbrand.” Rakkan said proudly as his longsword began to glow light blue. He took a clean swing at the ooze, and where the sword cut into it, it left a frozen slash mark imprinted on the creature, and Pyri followed it up with some icicle strikes. It wasn’t long before they’d killed the ooze, but at this time the sun had long since set.

“Everyone ready to go hunt a King Ooze?” Aegis asked the group, and he received a few nods. With that, the party continued their exploration of the ruined castle. They knew their destination was up, so they just kept exploring rooms in search of staircases. As they got to the upper levels they began encountering more gargoyles, but the party took it slow as to not get overwhelmed by more than one or two enemies at a time. The castle was huge, though, and it wasn’t until sunrise that they’d found themselves in front of a spiral staircase leading to the top of the uppermost tower.

“It’s gotta be up there, right? This is the last tower.” Rakkan said as he pointed out a nearby window, showing that they were now nearly on the highest floor of the ruined castle. They also got a nice view of the sun peeking up on the horizon over the sea of black mist that surrounded the ruins far below.

“Guess so.” Aegis shrugged. “Everyone, eat a lynx steak for stamina buffs.” Aegis instructed them, and once they had, he did the rounds and gave everyone a bless buff. He double checked they all had full health, stamina, and mana, then led the way up the stone spiral staircase. The stairs were not in the best condition, with several chunks of stone missing on some steps, but they were stable enough that they could get to the top without issue.

Aegis had used his spare materials and his crafting skills to repair the durability on all of their items in preparation for this fight, including his shield, but he was still apprehensive about using it to block acid attacks. Unlike when he started out and carried multiple shields with him, he only had one shield right now, and had grown rather attached to it. He worried about its fate in the upcoming boss fight as he reached the top of the spiral staircase. It lead through the roof of the round tower they were climbing, and once they stepped off the top step, they were on the floor of a large room with curved walls.

Aegis knew they were in the highest tower of the castle now, as he could see light beaming inside from multiple windows on all sides of the room, in addition to a large crack in the roof where light shone down on them from the morning sun. Along the walls were shelves filled with various treasures, including gold trinkets, weapons, tomes and the like. Each and every shelf was encased in a glass cage, to protect it from being dissolved by oozes, and Aegis was grateful for this.

There was no sign of any King Ooze, though, and as the others joined Aegis in stepping into the room from the top of the stairs, he spotted an eye-catching lectern in the center of the room encased in glass. On it stood a very large book with a fancy colorful cover, with the symbol of a trident embedded on it.

“That’s gotta be it, that’s the ancient book. It’s got the symbol of Shiva on it.” Aegis said as he motioned to it.

“I see the book, and I see all the treasure… but what I don’t see…” Darkshot said as he panned his eyes around the room cautiously. “Is the big bad ooze that’s supposed to be guarding it.”

“It’s here somewhere…” Rakkan said as he joined in looking around for it.

“Maybe it’s out on its lunch break?” Pyri grinned.

“Yup, probably eating some steaks somewhere.” Darkshot replied sarcastically as they all spread out from each other slowly.

“I don’t see any pressure plates.” Lina commented as she carefully scanned the floor. “But it’s clean here. No dust or moss or anything.”

“It’s definitely here somewhere, waiting for something to happen before attacking.” Aegis said as he found himself staring at the book on the lectern a few meters in front of it. Eventually everyone stopped moving and looked at Aegis and the lectern as well.

“What are you thinking, that it's going to attack as soon as we break the glass and try to take the treasure?” Darkshot asked apprehensively.

“Yep.” Aegis nodded as he walked closer to it. “Weapons out, get ready.” He said as he took the last steps and arrived right in front of the glass box. At first he tried lifting it up, but it wouldn’t budge, so he decided to go with a less civilized method of getting at the book inside. “Ready?” Aegis turned to his party behind him and saw their weapons and spells were all prepared. Rakkan had casted frostbrand, then echoed it to have two frostbrand longswords. Pyri was holding her staff, Lina her daggers, and Darkshot his bow, all glowing with the bless buff.

Once they’d all nodded at him, he took a deep breath and thrust his shield forward into the base of the glass, smashing it and causing it to shatter to pieces. He then reached for the book and lifted it up carefully and quickly, expecting the boss to come at him at any moment. There was immediately a loud humming sound that rang throughout their ears, and the tower they stood in began to shake violently for a moment, then stopped.

The group looked around, expecting more to happen, but it went silent. Aegis took the time to try and add the book to his inventory to keep it safe, but it didn’t work, prompting him to properly check the item card for the book.

Name: Book of Shiva

Type: Book

Quality: 83%

Durability: 16/20

Option 1: This item cannot be added to a players inventory and must be carried.

Description: An ancient book containing the teachings of the God Shiva of the Shattered World.

“Uh, slight complication. I can’t put this in my inventory. The quest says we can’t let the text be destroyed, and we’re in a dungeon full of acid monsters that like to dissolve things.” Aegis said as he waved the book around.

“It’s fine… nothing’s coming.” Darkshot replied as he pointed his arrow around the room, jerking his head around looking for signs of movement, but there were none.

“You’re sure they said there was a King Ooze?” Pyri confirmed with Rakkan.

“Yeah. Well, basically.” Rakkan shrugged.

“What do you mean by, ‘basically’.” Darkshot looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“The book downstairs said that they captured a big King Ooze, and then they made the smaller oozes by feeding the King to make him grow, then splitting off parts of him to create the small oozes.” Rakkan explained, and everyone froze to stare at him.

“You mean to tell me…” Pyri said in disbelief, but as she did, Aegis ran to one of the windows to get a look at the rest of the castle below them. “That all of the smaller oozes are actually just parts of one monster?” Pyri confirmed, and Rakkan nodded awkwardly.

“Yeah.... Basically… Why, is that bad?” He replied nervously while Lina ran to the top of the spiral stairs to look down them.

“Here they come. The humming sound must’ve been an alarm.” Aegis called to the others as he looked out of the window. Outside, sliding up the walls outside the castle were hundreds of ooze puddles, all slinking their way up towards the party, many of them merging together to form larger oozes.

“The bottom of the stairs is already flooded with them, we can’t go back down that way.” Lina shouted to Aegis worriedly after backing away from the stairs. Darkshot moved to the window to look out as well.

“Oh man…” Darkshot panicked as he saw nothing but green liquid overtaking the rooftops and walls of the castle. “We really should’ve killed more of them on our way up.”

“I don’t think it would’ve mattered, they were respawning. This was going to happen no matter what.” Aegis replied as he started scanning the room for anything they could use to get out of this situation.

“What’s the plan?” Pyri asked Aegis calmly, despite everyone else beginning to panic.

“Uh… we need to somehow either kill them all, or get out of here without this book getting destroyed. I’m thinking we’re going to have to make a run for it.” Aegis said as he looked out the window again and saw them getting closer, some of the oozes were arriving at the base of the tower already and making their way up the walls.

“They’re speeding up, look.” Darkshot panicked as he pointed at them. “The more they group together, the faster they get.”

“Okay.” Aegis took a deep breath. “Here’s the plan.” He spoke loudly to try and calm everyone down, and it worked, they all turned to him. “That’s easily over 100 oozes, we’re not equipped to fight them all, so we’re making a run for it. Break the glass cases and pocket everything you can.” Aegis said as he motioned to the other shelves around the vault. “Mom, take the book and fly it out of here.” He said as he handed it over to her, but she shoved it back in his hands.

“Nuh uh.” She motioned out of the window down a few floors of the castle to point out several gargoyles in their rock form, staring up at the tower. “Think of something better.” She added, and Aegis let out a frustrated sigh while Lina, Rakkan and Darkshot got to work on the glass cases.

“I’m all for getting treasure, but it’s pointless if we all die. We need a way out.” Darkshot said as he stuffed some expensive looking, jewel encrusted goblets into his inventory.

“They’re at the top already!” Lina pointed at the top of the staircase where a puddle of ooze began to bubble over the top step, with [Boss] floating above its head in red text.

“What are we doing?” Rakkan asked as he and Lina had finished looting their side of the room and rushed to Aegis’ side. Together, the party regrouped on the far end of the room furthest from the stairs they’d used to enter. From there they watched anxiously as the puddle of ooze filled the farside of the room and began to grow upward. It was joined by a stream of ooze that began flowing inside the room from multiple windows.

“Wow, that thing is huge.” Pyri said with wide eyes as it got bigger and taller.

“Living here for 250 years unchecked and eating everything will do that to an ooze.” Rakkan said as he swallowed his saliva.

“If we try fighting that thing, the chance of this book surviving the battle is really slim.” Aegis said as he did another one last desperate look around the room.

“If we stay up here, that thing’s gonna get big enough to just drown us in a bit.” Darkshot replied. Hearing this, Aegis moved towards a nearby window and looked down once more.

“I guess there’s only one choice, then.” Aegis sighed as he tightly clutched the book to his chest and moved to stand up on the windowsill, looking down at the oozes climbing the walls up towards him. “Even when I’m fighting a boss made out of acid, it’s still always bludgeoning damage.” He said reluctantly, then jumped.

“Aegis!” Lina shouted, shocked as she saw him do it.

“Crazy ass-” Darkshot mumbled in disbelief as the four of them moved to the window and watched Aegis catch himself using his shield projection.

“I noticed when we fought the gargoyles before, they don’t dispel guard. It’s not considered magic, but a physical ability.” Aegis declared as he stood about a meter below the window, staring up at them.

“That’s good for you, but what about the rest of us?” Pyri said with a raised eyebrow.

“If we jump from this height, we’ll die from the fall damage. And if we try to use magic, those gargoyles will cancel it.” Lina explained to him anxiously as she glanced back into the room to see the King Ooze bubbling towards them.

“Well..” Aegis paused to snap his fingers and recast his guard after a little hop. “Here me out.” Aegis said as a devilish grin grew across his face. “Rakkan, gimme a hug.” Aegis instructed him, pointing downward at his shield projection to imply he wanted Rakkan to jump on his projection with him.

“Huh? There’s not enough room for two people to stand on that.” Rakkan protested.

“Just, trust me, we don’t have any time.” Aegis insisted, recasting his projection in between. Rakkan looked at the King Ooze and did a double take. “Come on, hurry, this skill eats my stamina crazy fast.” Aegis urged him.

“Ah, fuck it.” Rakkan nervously jumped out the window with his arms wide, and Aegis caught him and held him in place as his feet landed on the shield. He and Aegis huddled together with their arms around each other, the shiva book squeezing between their chests.

“Okay, easy. Next.” Aegis let the shield projection cancel. “Guard.” He said, recasting it beneath his and Rakkan’s feet to catch them a meter lower. “Darkshot, jump on our shoulders.

“You’ve gotta be joking.” Darkshot looked down at Rakkan and Aegis in disbelief, as they awkwardly looked up at him with their heads side by side.

“Just do it, no time!” Pyri nudged Darkshot out of the window and he fell awkwardly on top of their heads, blocking their view above.

“Aw, ow, seriously, I can’t even see anymore.” Aegis said, his voice muffled as Darkshot wiggled around on top of them. “Guard.” He recasted it, but it was delayed and he and Rakkan fell a few centimeters, all while several puddles of ooze that had been climbing up the tower wall were stopping and preparing to strike out at the three as they hovered mid-air a few centimeters away from the tower.

“We’re next, let's go.” Pyri said to Lina, and Lina nodded. The two girls jumped out of the window and landed awkwardly on top of Darkshot, causing him to let out a groaning sound.

“I’m slipping, I’m slipping!” Darkshot shouted, but Rakkan heard this and released one arm from Aegis to grab Darkshot’s thigh and stop him from falling off. The result was a big ball of 5 players all tangled with one another, barely balancing on Aegis’ shield projection.

“Ok, everyone hang on tight, we’re gonna drop lower to the ground a few meters at a time.” Aegis announced to them, his voice muffled still by Darkshot’s leather armor squishing his nose.

“This has got to be the stupidest shit anyone has ever done in this game.” Darkshot shouted as Aegis’ guard projection faded, and they dropped down several meters before he casted it again.

“You mean coolest, right?” Aegis forced out sarcastically.

“What in the hell am I looking at right now?” Tommy said as he watched the livestream of 5 players struggling to balance on top of Aegis’ shield projections.

“Clever… use… of game mechanics?” Shinji replied awkwardly through their Simbox call as he worked on editing the stream.

“What Aegis lacks in coolness, he makes up for in creativity.” Hae-won said with an awkward smile as she stood casting in front of Aegis’ stream.

“Uh, the boss man is not happy that we’re escaping. He’s looking like he’s about to shoot acid at us.” Pyri said from atop the pile as she looked up and saw the Boss partially pouring itself out of the window that they’d jumped from, and a gigantic fist of ooze was beginning to form.

“Can you do something about it?” Aegis asked desperately.

“Nope, got gargoyle’s staring.” Pyri replied nonchalantly.

“Okay, give us a countdown when the attack is coming. Me and Rakkan will jump to the side. Got it Rakkan?” Aegis’ muffled voice declared, still unable to see what was happening.

“Got it.” Rakkan replied with a strained voice.

“Big fist of acid coming in three… two… one… jump!” Pyri shouted, and Rakkan and Aegis leapt off of his shield projection to the side a few meters just in time as a gigantic fist of acid shot down at them, just barely missing them.

“Guard!” Aegis shouted once they were in the clear, trying to catch them from falling. Unfortunately, the forward momentum created by their leap was not so easy to stop given the odd balance of weight from their pile of 5 people, and Rakkan and Aegis continued forward, stumbling off the side of the shield projection.

“Oh shit.” Aegis shouted as they began to fall.

“Ah, we’re falling!” Rakkan declared.

“Fucking hell, I knew this was a dumb idea!” Darkshot squealed, while Lina let out a panicked gasping short scream, and Pyri let out a loud high pitched woo as they dropped down nearly 80 meters before Aegis’ guard came off cooldown 2 seconds later.

“Guard!” He shouted desperately. At this point, their dogpile had tilted sideways during the fall. All the guard served to do was slow their fall and break them apart, blocking their downward momentum as they all lost grip on one another and rolled off the side of the shield projection, landing on the ground of the castle’s courtyard a few meters below.

You take 4620 Bludgeoning damage.

“Oww…” Aegis groaned as he struggled to get back up, the others landing nearby and slowly standing up as well. He double checked to make sure the book was safe and dusted it off.

“Healing wind, healing wind, healing wind…” He casted it on everyone one by one to help them recover from the bludgeoning damage they took as they all looked up to see the King Ooze quickly sliming its way down the tower towards them.

“It worked, we made it.” Aegis declared with a proud smile as he looked at the others.

“We’re never doing anything like that, ever again.” Darkshot replied.

“That thing is moving really fast.” Lina said nervously.

“Yep, we’re not out of danger yet. Let's get the hell out of these ruins.” Aegis nodded as he looked up and saw the Ooze suddenly began to vibrate violently, making a loud echoing bubbling sound. “Uh…” Aegis slowly backed away while he looked up at it, moving in the direction of the gate leading out of the courtyard.

“What’s it doing?” Darkshot asked as he did the same, and a few seconds later, the King Ooze ballooned itself, forming a giant bubble of air on its inside as it began to look like the highest tower of the Kolz castle had a giant green pimple bulging out of its window.

“Oh no, I don’t like the look of that…” Pyri gasped as she saw it, and a moment later, the ‘pimple’ popped, exploding acidic ooze over the entire sky around the ruins, raining it down on them.