Three groups gathered around a scarlet pond; a multitude of dead Flatail Cougars and Inferno Kelits decorated the floor. Red spires held up an orange and yellow stone ceiling. Once they settled, the criminals started a mandated analysis of their operation.
"Think they'll find this area?" One mber said, a human woman with black hair and a thick fra.
"Not a chance. They'd have to leave the intended path for that part of the Beast Divide. Even if that group doesn't leave, there's no way they'll co out this way where the elite fla tail cougars hole up. Much more valuable to go up." A monic woman with brown apparel and white hair said. Green runes pulsed on the sides of her face.
A hooded individual said, "What sort of Spell Sword learns elentalization so early? Bastard is acting like he's a hot-shot 3rd tier. Vander's not going to be happy we botched this job."
A bulky tora man spoke up, his fur red with black spots, "Told you fools, soone walking around with quality gear like that wasn't going to be the pushover you thought he was."
"What did you expect? The kid had no signs of a wealthy patron, and his aura…You only get that through blood. No greenhouse flower combat class can ever buy that." An elven man said.
"Enough, the job failed. We'll inform the client the target has been upgraded to the B class definition. Should make it expensive enough so the spell sword's not in our hair anyti soon." One of the group leaders said.
A young human man stabbed his spear into the ground, "They were on their last legs. You sure we shouldn't co in and take what the client demanded? That sword looked like it was at least unique tier in quality." The young man put a hand against the nearest red spire, "And where the hell did he get a piece of gear the shadow tailors made? Don't you know how few pieces they make a year? That's dozens of gold, if not more."
The sa leader responded, "His group was at their wits' end. But the target, the only one we are tasked to 're-possess' his valuables, was far from it. Don't be fooled. Update the Golden Lions. Unless our clients are willing to pay an order of magnitude higher, he isn't worth it."
An elven mage woman nodded, "I'll get in contact with the high lions now. In the end, what we do is up to them."
The tora man grunted, "The representatives can stop sucking up to the Miels and Pyrites long enough to pick up the signal."
The stats Luke stole from the Chira began to be distributed to him with the party leaving combat. Imdiately, he grasped his chest. The Reaver doubled over in pain, "The hell is going on?"
His eyes reddened, and he fell to the iced soil. His fingers began to rip through the dirt. Sooty panicked and flapped around Luke, letting out various noises. Luke retched and, after a while, rolled over. He dry heaved for a while. Bits of blood ca out his mouth.
Cassandra had pushed herself up off the red spire the group was around. The archer forgot about her wounds and tried to check on Luke. She spoke to him at a short distance. A hint of worry colored her tone, "Luke, what's wrong? Are you alright? Is this because you pushed yourself too much or?"
Luke only breathed for a minute. Gradually, the spike in pain went away. It felt like his body had changed. Like his skin or flesh toughened, he had trouble fully understanding what happened. Luke started to browse the combat log for answers but only saw a vague ssage with no other details attached.
[You have shed the first vitality threshold]
"I've got no idea; sothing about a vitality threshold is all the Interface will say about it," he said.
Casandra's appeared as confused as Luke felt and said nothing. The rest of Casandra's group had their backs against the spire. Lilly, in particular, looked guilty at her lack of mana to help Luke or her party mbers. Darius and Kyle were in and out of consciousness, unaware of their surroundings. The ordinarily hot area beca temperate. The frost the Reaver recently produced caused that.
Once Sooty knew Luke had recovered, she landed near Lilly and let the distressed girl play with her as a distraction. Luke handed over four Dryad bandages and so of the salve he bought to Casandra. He'd also offer the potions, but the group was all under the thirty-minute cooldown.
"Thanks, we owe you one," Casandra said as she took the healing items.
Casandra and Lilly took the bandages with the salve and hurriedly applied first aid to Darius and Kyle. Once those two were treated, Lilly bandaged Casandra and Luke. Lilly recovered a suitable amount of mana after the first aid work.
She started healing Darius first and the others afterward. Luke accepted her healing last. He'd taken damage throughout the fight, not to the degree the rest of the party did, however. It did rejuvenate him from the sudden flash of pain, its last vestiges gone with Lilly's spells. He got up to stretch and popped about every bone he could.
Giving the group a mont to catch themselves, Luke couldn't figure out how to broach the subject, so he ca out with it, "Are any of you being hunted?"
"Hunted? Why would soone target a run-of-the-mill group like us? We keep to ourselves." Kyle said.
"No idea Kyle, that's why I asked. This event wasn't natural; no way waves that concentrated are common. No one would co to this dungeon then. Has anything like this happened before?" Luke wanted to rule out them being targeted. For all he knew, those three groups were here for one of those four, not him.
"We've had a few spats with other hunter groups, but a wave of monsters like this? Not once," Cassandra said.
Luke paced around, then looked back at them, "What's the plan for your group, Casandra?"
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Casandra inspected at her other three party mbers; judging their condition, she decided, "After Lilly patches up us, we'll end it for the day." Her eyes traced Luke. "You ripped those Chiras a new one. No wonder you ca here alone at first. You and your companion wouldn't struggle in the Beast Divide at all."
"You have no idea." He spotted Sooty, who Lilly held in her arms now, "Lilly, let my companion go free. You can't restrain her like that."
Lilly hurriedly released Sooty, "Sorry," she said, looking at Luke. The corvid hopped around and grood her feathers.
"Not you should apologize to. We should get moving, or is this a safe spot?"
Darius shook his head, "It's not," he used his spear as a support to get up, "We've healed enough, Casandra; we find a safe point and use a recall scroll."
Casandra began to create arrows, "Once Kyle's ready, we'll go. There should be a safe point about twenty minutes from here."
Kyle, who appeared not to want to hold back the group, scrambled to get up, his shield ready. The group reford and strode forward. With their recent encounter, the group remained mute, only straining their senses. They stepped over the mass of beast bodies. Sweat started to form on their faces now that Luke's frost had lted where they reached.
Lilly began to breathe hard, and the group slowed to her pace. Unable to hold back his curiosity, Luke asked, "What level are you, Lilly?"
The healer looked hesitant to reply; in an attempt to open her up, Luke went first, "Forgot Argel's lesson; I'm…well, let check first, actually."
Luke intuited that he leveled up from that mass wave; those beasts ranged from about 17 to 19. His experience from various fights enabled him to tell without the Interface. Sothing he hoped to develop with people but had yet to do so. He sped over the Interface Log, and sure enough, two ssages stood out.
[Your companion, Sooty, has reached level 23. Acquired 1 skill point]
[You have reached level 23. Acquired 2 skill points]
With it not being an exactly safe place to scroll through the battle log, he stopped looking for other ssages.
He told Lilly again, "Based on that last fight, I'm level 23 now. You must've gone up a level or two, right?"
Lilly forgot herself and proudly stated, "I gained four levels. It was amazing if you ignore that we all nearly died." Her mood lowered at the end.
She peeked at Casandra, who chuckled, "Tell him already, Lilly, he's stuck with us this far."
The healer grabbed at the hems of her cloth armor, "Well, Luke, you see…the thing is, I was level ten. But I'm level fourteen now, way more suited to the Beast Divide, and I'll pay you and Cassie back for the help!"
"Cassie, huh? Seems like you two are close," Luke said.
Luke saw the hints Lilly was under-leveled for this place since the start. Her deanor, limited abilities, low mana-pool, even her gear set up. Unlike him, who only had one missing gear slot, at a glance, she was missing several key pieces. With that all as a prir, he wasn't too annoyed or shocked at her reveal.
Kyle began to relax and entered into the conversation as they trudged on, "We're near to the safe point; I can see the green spires at the edge of my vision."
"Awfully nice of the three of you to carry Lilly like this. You never ntioned your usual fifth mber, by the way."
Darius scratched the back of his head, "She's a pure rogue; when she goes into stealth, I can't keep track of her at all. Great for short fights, but a sustained one we went through? Well…"
Casandra finished for him, "It's alright to say it, Darius; if she wasn't out sick this ti, that freak mass of chiras would've eaten us alive. Spell Sword here," she pointed to Luke, "saved our hides."
Green spires started to replace the red ones around them. The arid temperature lowered, although it still kept at an uncomfortable level. Small monster packs of molten wolves and demonic apes prowled around their group but didn't engage. Their eyes darted onto Luke, and caution kept them back. It didn't help Cassandra's group slled of the most potent deterrent to beasts—a stronger beast's blood.
The further they delved into the green section of the dungeon, the fewer monsters appeared. A floral scent of fresh grass and spice invaded the air. The black soil around them turned more verdant, and shrubs supplanted the red crystals. A small pool of yellow water was about a two-minute walk away from them. Luke made out another group already there, resting.
Before their group entered into earshot, Luke asked, "Your healer is level 14 and was level 10. Previously, you said you'd stop at level 15 monsters, probably for her," he jutted his chin over at Lilly, "Is that still your plan? What level are the rest of you, anyway?"
Kyle put up his helm visor, "Barely hit level 19 now, was 17 when we first grouped up. Not looking forward to the repair cost on my shield." Kyle's tower shield had a few spiderweb cracks splintering the wood behind the tal casing. He gazed at it in pain, "Have to say, the shield kept us alive; I'd pay extra silver in return for that any day."
Darius put his spear through a strap on his back, "Casandra's got us all beat, probably level 21 now, right Cassie? You were close to level 20 before we had that freak wave hit us."
As the party's backup scout, Casandra kept her head on a swivel, likely feeling responsible for failing to see the wave earlier. She kept her eyes on the other group they were approaching, "Spot on, Darius; managed the clear the hump over level 20 and hit level 21 too. Didn't expect to grow so much on this trip where we were supposed to power up Lilly." She patted the priest on the head.
The priest looked down in sha, "I'm sorry, everyone, I couldn't do my job as a healer, and Darius nearly died for it."
Darius said, "Listen, Lilly, no one could've expected a freak accident like that. On the bright side, we should get you to level 15 soon. You'll be more in demand; don't forget about us when you hit it big." He laughed toward the end.
Lilly said, "I'd never do that. After today, I owe you all a massive favor."
"We'll stop the conversation here, guys." Casandra affixed her body toward the other group around the yellow water pools, "Hello," she said.
The group hadn't moved since they were spotted; only the one who seed to be their leader got up, a tora woman with purple-black fur, "Good to see another friendly group out in the wild made it to the safe point. You all look beat, well, except him." She nudged her arm toward Luke.
Casandra answered for the group, "A mass group of Chira decided we looked tasty. Convincing them to stop trying to make us beco their dinner was difficult," she said.
The tora woman grinned, "Bet it would be. Well, we won't try and eat you like those beasts do. Co, sit around the waters with us."
Both groups intermixed, beginning to talk to each other. Luke asked, "There are monsters a distance away; why is this called a safe zone?"
A human paladin, the tank for the other group, answered, "It's not truly a safe zone except in special circumstances. Nowhere in dungeons are. We call it this because it's the lowest density of monsters anywhere on this floor. Maps for the Beast Divide should have it marked down."
Luke read over the map he'd bought, and sure enough, each floor had safe zone spots marked. In a small note next to the map legend symbol for the safe zone, the words "Monsters May Be Present" were written.
"Don't mind then, my mistake for missing that detail on the map I bought," Luke said, putting a hand up to his right eye, fingers partially over his forehead.
"Happens to the best of us," the man offered a purple-colored drink, "want so? It's damn tasty."
The group felt friendly, but Luke wasn't about to drink sothing entirely unknown; he politely refused, "No, thank you."
"Suit yourself," the man began to guzzle the drink.
The tora's group had a monic man who was an experienced druid. He kindly double-checked Casandra's group for any remaining damage, but once he touched Luke with a green light, his expression drastically morphed. He hastily spoke, "You're a heart bearer?" There was trepidation in his voice.
Luke felt funny and internally asked if strange stuff could quit happening today already. He said, "What are you talking about?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)