They didn’t seem to get the importance of what I had said. Not that I could bla them. I had t the three of them in Ring Two and had only seen them in Ring Four when we were about to head to the dungeon. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if they didn’t even know about the Thralls. One of them wasn’t even a Zairgon citizen.
“Thralls…” Ugnash rubbed his chin. Instead of a goatee, there was a pointed horn growing out of it. “The symptoms would make sense then, yes. I can also see how most of the Scarseekers I know of who are in Zairgon would be strong enough to defeat a Gold-ranked monster like a Greater Brillwyrm, so it isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”
“Why in the Pits would any Zairgon Scarseeker co to Seethescale Dungeon to kill a Brillwyrm?” Khagnio asked. “They got a sudden hankering for wyrm blood for so reason?”
“We’ve been having problems in Ring Four regarding Scarthralls,” I said. “They were terrorizing neighbourhoods and attacking people, but they’ve been mostly hiding for a little while now. It would make sense they’d slake their thirst on wyrm blood while lying low.” I frowned. “It would almost make sense why we couldn’t find them if they’ve been hiding inside the dungeon.”
Just as I had suspected, it didn’t create that big of a reaction from any of them. Ugnash and Cerea both looked troubled by the news, though in a way that one would frown at the tragic loss of innocent life that had nothing to do with oneself. Khagnio couldn’t even spare that much.
“How could they have gotten past the Ward, though?” Cerea asked.
“I thought the Ward was only for keeping things inside from coming out,” I said. “Not for preventing others going inside.”
She shook her head. “No one can cross the barrier without the token.”
“Cerea is correct,” Ugnash said. “It’s next to impossible that the Preservatory Guild would lend a token to these Scarthralls. They could possibly have lent it to a Scarseeker, however, which would work alongside the possibility that the Scarseeker killed the Greater Brillwyrm, and then the Thralls were led inside by said Scarseeker…”
“It’s none of our business though.” Khagnio was already turning away, ready to continue what supposedly was our business. “If these Thralls know what’s good for them, they won’t show their faces in front of us. Let’s finish this dungeon. Wyrm blood is way too sticky.”
I stood my ground. “It’s my business. Ring Four is my ho. If the people threatening it are here—”
“Then you take care of it on your own ti.” Khagnio fixed with a look, his eyes turning to sharp slits again. “Right now, your job is to be a mber of a dungeon expedition party, not a suicidal investigator trying to get to the bottom of a bloody mystery. Let’s go.”
Ugnash nodded before following Khagnio. “Co on, Ross. We aren’t equipped to deal with an infestation of Thralls, nor do we have substantial proof of their existence. Just hunches and clues that point to it being a sufficient explanation. We’ll alert the guards as soon as we get out.”
Cerea gave a comforting smile, placing a hand on my shoulder as well. “The faster we get this done, the faster we can co back for the Thralls next.”
Different flavours of the sa basic thing. Whether the Thralls actually were here or not, I wasn’t going to be able to make this party see them as a problem. For one, I definitely couldn’t argue against the compelling argunts they had made. For another, there was no way the Thralls would ever be a priority for them like it was for .
Before we left, I untied the cave-sheep and checked its teeth. It resisted but thankfully didn’t bite. No, just regular, broad teeth. The sheep wasn’t a Thrall.
We got moving and I followed, dragging the cave-sheep behind . Every step felt like I was using Gravity to weigh my leg down, but I forged onwards, close to Cerea, keeping up with the party. I wondered if the two most recent missing n were down here too.
We t more monsters as we wound our way through the tunnel. The strategy we had co up with to deal with was deadly effective.
I called it a strategy, but really, it was just Ugnash and Khagnio making sure they were the ones really dealing with the Brillwyrms. Ugnash’s imnse Power and Vitality was enough to both tank what they could dish out—minus the poison that was relieved by my rune Sacrifices—and puml the monsters in place.
It was Khagnio who then delivered the real fatal blows, his dagger punching through the thick scales and skin of the Lesser Brillwyrms with brutal efficiency.
anwhile, my and Cerea’s jobs were to keep away from the monsters. We maintained good range. The poison spit wasn’t too difficult to evade, and I had my shield available to ward off the more dangerous scale shots.
If any of the Brillwyrms wanted to charge in, Cerea was always ready with so very precise lightning strikes. She blinded at least three of the monsters on our way to our goal.
Said goal wasn’t to kill as many of the beasts we found to cart off their corpses. There was a limit to how much Cerea could carry. But Ugnash looked hopeful. The more monsters we fought, the closer we were getting to our real destination.
The chamber with the treasures.
“That’s how they function,” Cerea explained to pass the ti in between monster-killing bouts. “The dungeon has an inherent ability to absorb everything that’s left within the dungeon and doesn’t possess any sort of life or is being actively used by another creature. It then regurgitates what it has absorbed in a form that attracts more life into its bowels.”
I had a small smattering of experience about dungeons from my experience with fantasy as a genre of dia back on Earth. But hearing them being talked about like that was fascinating in a very different way. “You an they’re alive in a sense?”
“Correct. Dungeons have mana cores too, but in a vastly advanced form compared to say the slis we harvested. Far more intelligent and sentient. In fact, right now, we are being directly observed by the dungeon.”
That wasn’t a creepy thought at all. A carnivorous sentient gastructure that operated on a tiscale I couldn’t even begin to fathom.
It made wonder if dungeons were equivalent to so sort of gods. Although, for gods, they were severely restricted. Whatever threat and danger they presented, one easy deterrent to all that was simply to exit the premises. Another was the fact that they clearly couldn’t take active decisions.
Hmm, well, maybe not gods after all then.
We stopped getting monsters for a while. Ugnash predicted that the main chamber was right ahead. They probably had all the monsters gathered there for one final defence. Instead of trying to take on all four of us in small numbers, they were going to gather themselves to present a concerted defence.
“I can sense the cavern opening up ahead,” Ugnash said. “This should be the final battle.”
I tied the cave-sheep to a stalagmite. “You’ll be safe outside, here.”
The sheep clashed its teeth at . Good thing it was too dumb to eat through the ropes.
This text was taken from . Help the author by reading the original version there.
Khagnio clinked his daggers together. “Ready for the buffs.”
Cerea stepped forward. She cast a different Aspect from the ones I had seen so far. Threads of crackling golden energy wove out from her outstretched hand, wrapping around and the rest of the party, sinking into our bodies.
My muscles ward up and buzzed, my skin tingling pleasantly. It felt like the threads were injecting energy via minuscule shocks, but rather than hurting, it had the satisfying drag of scratching an itch. The buff sohow made my muscles, bones, nerves, heart, and everything else start functioning as one much better than they already did.
“What was that?” I asked.
“My Aspect of Buffing,” Cerea said. “Just simple ones to your Attributes and Aspects. Nothing as specific as the runes. It’s a nice thing to have when you go on expeditions as often as I do.”
I counted off my fingers. “Aspect of Buffing, Dinsions, Lightning… any other tricks you got up your sleeve? What sort of Path allows you to learn things that are so… different?”
“I’m a Silver nearing Gold, Ross.” She smiled at . “And I never said I had one Path.”
That made sense. I had two Paths with one Aspect each. Assuming ranking up a Path granted another Aspect, then I’d have four in total at a minimum once they were both Silver-ranked.
Also, no one had yet ntioned that Silver-ranked Paths were limited to two Aspects. I needed to confirm that.
Ugnash and Khagnio were both getting ready with personal buffs too. Khagnio’s body rippled with shadows. He wasn’t disappearing with his Stealth this ti. Ugnash had that red aura again, but the threads were solidifying over his form, hardening into a tertiary coat of armour.
“Plan’s the sa as always,” Ugnash said. “Khagnio and I will do the heavy lifting of taking out the Brillwyrms. Cerea and Ross—you two will just need to survive. We won’t be needing any particular support in this battle.”
Khagnio’s smirk was as sharp as his fangs. “Because we’re going to go all out.”
I had expected a mont like this to crop up. Or at least, expected there would be so sort of final fight where we’d need to pull out all the stops. Which was why I had been saving so of my runes.
“One sec,” I said.
I pulled out one of each of the runes I had and Sacrificed them all. White threads burned out of , feeling more energetic than they usually did as they wrapped around my offerings. Was it because of Cerea’s buff?
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Rune of Ailnt Ward. Windfall bonus activated.
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Rune of Regeneration. Windfall bonus activated.
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Rune of Augnted Power. Windfall bonus activated.
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Rune of Mana Firepower. Windfall bonus activated.
You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Rune of Lifesteal. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward: Aura of Ailnt Ward negating all damage from [Minor] statuses and debilitating effects engaged
Reward: Aura of Regeneration restoring health, stamina, and mana at a [Minor] rate engaged
Reward: Aura of Augnted Power doubling all physical damage dealt and the effectiveness of associated Augntations engaged
Reward: Aura of Mana Firepower doubling all magical damage dealt and the effectiveness of associated Augntations engaged
Reward: Aura of Lifesteal restoring all lost energy upon enemy death engaged
Reward: All effects engaged in a radius of 8 ters for 1 hour and 30 minutes ]
Several different sizzling sensations ran riot through my body as soon as all the runic auras ca into effect. I couldn’t even begin to pick one apart from the other. My body felt like it was burning and freezing at the sa ti, squished and expanded simultaneously, sohow becoming calr and yet more energetic too. It was extrely weird.
But through it all, I felt ready.
Khagnio whistled. “You’ve been holding out on us, mageling.”
“I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity. This felt like it.” I paused, considering what to say. “You guys didn’t see my screen. Just so you know, the Weave says it’s all an aura effect in a radius of eight ters, and I don’t know if they go away if you move out of it.”
Ugnash perford the simple experint of moving a good distance away from , frowning as he tried to note the sensations. “It lingers. But it does fade after a while. So ideally, we would need to stick close to you.”
“If you define eight ters as close, then yeah.”
“Eight what now?”
“Uh, sorry, my Weave units are weird. About six arm spans in any direction from should be close enough.”
“A little too close…” Khagnio said. “But also, we don’t need to stick against the mageling permanently. Just swoop in, rekindle the effect, and then swoop out to continue killing.”
“Easy for a rogue to say,” Ugnash muttered.
Khagnio laughed.
We didn’t have a better option, and it really was better than nothing. Eight tres would still be pretty close. Probably too close for Ugnash’s command of “stay at the rear”.
Regardless, we went in. The cave-sheep wished us good luck with a bleat. I wondered if it had gotten buffed too.
The chamber was the largest we had been in yet. I liked the fact that we had space to move around and that there were more lava pools and little glowing waterfalls to make the Darkstick lamps not necessary. We couldn’t afford too many distractions.
Because Ugnash was right. The huge room was flooded with Lesser Brillwyrms.
At the far end, there was a strange glow. Everyone else’s eyes were right on it. I figured that was our main goal—the treasures the dungeon had created to lure in enterprising adventurers such as ourselves.
“Let’s go!” Ugnash said, rushing forward with a speed that belied his massive bulk, his heavy steps thumping hard on the ground.
At his and Khagnio’s approach, the small army of Brillwyrms guarding the treasure all roared and leaped at our main attackers. Cerea and I weren’t that far behind, trying to stay back enough to not draw attention while remaining close enough for the other two to make use of my Sacrificial rune buffs.
Ugnash and Khagnio crashed into the monsters with incredible fury. I was actually a little shocked, even though I had already seen them execute that exact sa strategy against the lone monsters we had encountered so far.
The difference this ti was that they had not only pulled out all the stops, they were also empowered by way too many buffs all at once.
None of the Brillwyrms got a chance to shoot their scales or their poisonous spit. Ugnash smashed into them like a boulder with rocket boosters, bowling over dozens of monsters in one rush.
Then Khagnio flashed in with deadly force and accuracy. He slashed past several monsters, his glowing daggers leaving debilitating lacerations that rained blood all around, before his charge ended at the head of the group, where he made short work of the farthest Brillwyrm. Two quick stabs, and the monster toppled over, dead thanks to the spiking red mana.
The massacre just continued on from there. It wasn’t a perfect execution of every single monster there, of course. Sharp scales still flew in. Poisonous orbs of spit still arced through the air. Both Ugnash and Khagnio suffered blows.
But all the buffs active were doing well to keep them on their feet. Lifesteal especially was pulling its weight. No matter how many wounds they picked up, they just had to kill a monster to regain their lost health.
I did catch Ugnash tanking for a mont so that Khagnio could squeeze in a drink of his health potion. But overall, they were fine.
“Just a little more,” Cerea said. She was a bit farther back than as I had to remain closer to keep the other two in range of my runic buffs. “We’ve almost—”
She had spoken too soon. A chorus of hisses fell upon us from above. We had been so focused on the monsters ahead of us that we had ignored the ones on the ceiling and high up on the walls. Looked like whatever perception-style abilities any of the others might have had wasn’t specific enough to locate monsters’ exact locations when there were so many of them in one place.
“Retreat, Ross!” Ugnash yelled as the first of the Brillwyrms rained down from above. He had clearly tried to get to and Cerea, but he was bodied by a few of the monsters. There were just too many of them. He couldn’t focus on the main horde and try to protect the party mbers mainly there for support. “Protect Cerea!”
As more Brillwyrms landed with loud thumps, hissing out their roars as they gathered closer, I stepped closer to Cerea.
“Looks like we’re on our own,” Cerea said, her voice tight. She swallowed. “I’ll create an opening. When I give the signal, just run for it, got it?”
“Wasn’t I supposed to be protecting you?” I asked.
She grinned hard. There wasn’t much mirth in it, her silvery hair looking almost blonde in the lava-light. “I pronounce your mission accomplished. You even got to Silver! No need to waste that achievent!”
“You’re sounding awfully fatalistic.”
“I’m just being real—”
I held out my hand as several Brillwyrms prepared to throw their globs of poisonous spit. “Give one of the Brillwyrm hearts.”
“What?”
“Now. You’ve got them, right? I saw you guys separating the organs and shit. Heart. Now.”
Cerea looked like I had gone mad, but battle-hardened experience had her handing a soft, slightly-pulsing organ the size of a basketball into my hand. I held out my shield and pushed Cerea behind as the poison globs splattered against the tal.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, voice rising.
“Sacrifice.”
I channelled the Aspect and drove the thread of burning white mana straight into the monstrous heart in my hand.
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