The fact that the boss's skill differed from normal mode didn't co as a surprise. Yet this knowledge only helped the party so much. When Quickstep realized that the boss had locked onto her, she gritted her teeth, trying to dodge.
Unfortunately, it was useless. The boss's projectile was too fast, piercing her waist. The bolt travelled through her body without leaving any signs behind, but the sensation was anything but pleasant. Quickstep drew a sharp breath, swearing revenge as the fight finally returned to normal.
After Quickstep lost almost half of her HP, the party showed off their skills putting a lot of pressure on the boss. The golem's HP dwindled quickly. Soon, it pulled off another move.
The enemy's eye turned a deep red. It grabbed its crossbow with both hands, taking a stable posture.
Suddenly its movent sped up again. But instead of aiming for the players the golem rapidly fired multiple bolts which got stuck in the ground.
The wood sticking out of rock took on an ominous dark colour which would cause dread to rise in the heart of everyone who looked at it. Obviously, it was wise to keep a distance form those bolts.
Thanks to their run in normal difficulty the party knew that those bolts functioned like proximity mines. Thus, they did their best to stay away, which severely limited the space left to move around.
When the boss switched to his other skill it ca as expected. Bloody Edge was the first who managed to anticipate a bolt in advance. He felt proud as he managed to dodge but misfortune struck imdiately.
Boom!
The thief got too close to one of the bolts in the floor, which set off a deafening explosion. Shock waves carrying flas as well as dark magic spread around it.
Sweat poured down Bloody Edge's face. He expected massive damage but unexpectedly the goddess of luck smiled upon him. The thief's passive triggered, saving him from the attack.
Imdiately the thief received joking comnts from his friends.
“Wow, so lucky. Can you get rid of the other mines as well?”
“Why even dodge in the first place?”
“My friend, what did you do to please the goddess of luck?”
Bloody Edge's eye twitched as he answered in annoyance:
“Focus on the fight.”
The friends grinned but they followed his advice as the golem was about to shoot his third bolt. It rushed towards Fortune, but Silver Blade was there, blocking it valiantly.
From then on, the fight followed a steady rhythm without any major surprises. The party mbers suffered so damage, but Balm healed them quickly.
Soon, the Lord ranked golem was out of HP and collapsed helplessly to the ground.
Cyclone gathered the loot, but her luck seed to have been used up by the first golem, receiving nothing of value.
Thus, it was ti for the party to continue. Straight at the end of the corridor was a door leading deeper into the dungeon. But Liam and his friends approached the last door to the left.
It was the stone gate which the golem used to lean against. Thick cracks perated its surface, making it look frail. It appeared that soone tried to break through but was stopped at the last mont.
A quick check revealed that the door only had a single HP, an obvious hint for the players.
Balm puffed out her chest and raised her head as she stepped in front of the door with her wand.
“Let do it!”
The healer raised her wand high, using it like a club as she hit the door with it. Her wrist trembled painfully. Her face distorted for a mont before she quickly corrected it.
With a rumble the thick stone gate broke to pieces. Everyone covered their noses against the spreading dust. But at least the obstacle was removed.
The party stepped forward and entered another room. A spacious repair workshop entered their views.
The wall to the right held multiple long, closed gates, big enough to let more than five people cross them side by side.
To the left, workstations lined the wall. They were filled with disorderly tools and blueprints of all kinds. But the biggest part of the room was taken up by a line of oval-shaped platforms made from tal plates and with golden rims.
During their first run the party already explored the room, discovering everything noteworthy. For example, when Cyclone played around with the levers adjacent to the platforms, she discovered that those platforms consisted of multiple tal plates which could be individually raised or lowered.
It made sense considering that so of the platforms carried cable cars, which revealed the purpose of this repair workshop.
The cable cars looked similar to a short compartnt of a train. But instead of having rows of wheels below they were attached to the ceiling through wheels arranged in a single line.
Their exterior was made from calming dark wood, its upper half almost exclusively made up of glassless windows. The interior only had a few seats, which were usually reserved for the elderly, while most of the space was empty so the passengers had to stand.
Compared to the cable cars in Deep Bell City those in the dungeon were less luxurious, looking more practical.
Sadly, the party had no ti to play around now. Cyclone walked straight towards a certain lever, throwing her weight on it to slowly lower it.
Simultaneously one of the tal plates rose towards the ceiling, revealing a chest hidden within its hydraulics on the floor.
Cyclone grinned in anticipation as she opened the treasure chest. A bright light erupted, and a book appeared in her hand.
“Skillbook!”
The shout drew everyone's attention. Under her friends' urging Cyclone quickly revealed the book's content. Surprisingly it turned out to be a pet skill. Everyone revealed their disappointnt but congratulated Silent Acacia, nevertheless.
The hunter happily took the skillbook. Unfortunately, the skill was of physical nature, unsuitable for Zorn. Thus, he was prepared to give it to his winged tiger, whom he didn't have the ti to train yet.
After the pleasant surprise the party focused back on the dungeon gathering in front of one of the workstations. Silent Acacia sighed looking at the chaotic plans:
“Is there no way to avoid this puzzle?”
Liam shook his head.
“I am certain it won't be too bad. We have bested the puzzle before and we will do so again.”, encouraged Radiant Shield.
“Exactly! Just let do it.”
Balm bead at Radiant Shield as she began to sort through the pieces of paper scattered on the workstation. After a few seconds she stopped, having found the one she was looking for.
It was a scribbled note, quite inconspicuous if you didn't know what to search for. Even the notes were difficult to make sense off. Balm murmured along as she read:
“Number four always stops at platform four if the green light is on. Number seven stops at either platform one or seven if at least three lights are on. Number one stops at platform two if all nine lights are on...
Eh, there are nine lights this ti?”
“Great. It used to be five and we already wasted so much ti during the last run.”, sighed Quickstep.
“It's alright. At least we have the hints here. Who knows if the other guilds found this!”
Quickstep smiled but she didn't get her hopes up. As a professional player she was clear about the importance of scouting thoroughly. Surely the other guilds knew this as well.
However, this ti she overestimated the local guilds. Maybe it was because they were in a hurry but almost none of the guilds gathered enough information.
Galaxy’s second team, running the dungeon in normal mode, entered the right door after defeating the first golem and never even ca close to the repair workshop, thus unable to relay the information.
Mountain Lord's guild 'Friendly Gathering' found the repair workshop but missed the note, as did Nest of Flas.
Only Force of Nature's second team under the reminder of Callida put a thorough effort into scouting the dungeon and discovered the note.
Thus, Force of Nature was at an advantage right now. Right now, they had already cleared the puzzle and entered the room after that while the other guilds were still stuck.
anwhile Dream Avenue was just about to begin the puzzle. If the other guilds knew how swiftly Liam and his friends were catching up it would be difficult for them not to panic.
Fortunately - or unfortunately depending on one's perspective – none of the guilds knew about each other's progress. Thus, Balm and Cyclone remained anxious, hurrying to get started with the puzzle.
The two won pocketed the hint and approached one of the gates on the other side of the workshop. Next to each gate was a heavy lever.
“3, 2, 1, now!”
Cyclone and Balm counted down before throwing their combined weight on the lever. With a grinding noise the heavy piece of tal slowly got lowered. It took a couple of seconds until the lever snapped into place, producing a conspicuous clicking noise.
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