Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 340 (Patreon)

Chapter 340 – Close Call

Once the sacrifice was made, the door slid open with the grinding sound of stone upon stone, allowing them into the interior of the pyramid. Without saying a word, Ashera slid smoothly into the front of the group. Normally, either Bargulg or Ratha would be in the lead, since they were the vanguards, but, even if they hadn’t been in a dungeon, he and his team were far too experienced to believe that there wouldn’t be traps ahead. Tombs always had traps, especially when they were on this scale.

And it was a good thing that she was. The traps on this floor were far from harmless. Unlike the traps in the earlier floors, these traps were designed to kill, not merely inconvenience or incapacitate.

Ena paused near one of the traps, where wooden spears had launched themselves from the wall, attempting to skewer anyone who tripped it. “The wood of these spears is Tier 1 stuff, easy enough for us to break through. The spearheads, however, look to be Astral Steel. That’s a high Tier 2 metal! These traps will almost certainly get through your armor, Master, to say nothing of those of us with lighter armor.”

Tanila nodded at her sister’s words. “And there was that trap two rooms back that we couldn’t figure out what it did. Probably means that it either dropped you into a pit, or collapsed the room. Either way, that would have certainly been deadly, even for us. This floor is definitely a step up in terms of difficulty, from the ones before.”

“No, I don’t think it is,” Ratha shook her head. “At least, it isn’t a change from the other desert floors. We’re just feeling the pressure now, since these floors are at a level where we can actually be threatened. Our armor and levels kept us safe, because we were prepared. A group who didn’t have completely sealed armor like ours would have had big problems with the creatures like Captain Hentai or the gas traps. Plus, we weren’t as affected by the features which would have put people in a battle of attrition, like the gauntlet on the Ranger’s Mansion floor. And we never did that boss fight, or have to deal with any of the mechanics in that mansion.”

“Ratha is correct,” Bargulg nodded. “The Black Temple was taxing for me, personally, given the requirements of passing through the temple, but that was mostly due to the makeup of our party. The boss fight was a true challenge, and the ‘Atlantean’ floors were good challenges for us. We didn’t feel the pressure of the desert floors as much, because our armor protected us, and we had strong enough magic to lay waste to the bosses of those floors without coming into direct contact with them. But an ordinary group would not have been so fortunate, even if they knew what was coming.”

“Problem ahead,” Ashera whispered, as she returned from scouting the next bit of the tomb, cutting off any further conversation.

“What is it?” Bargulg subvocalized into the group frequency, rather than out loud.

“Pressure plate just past the door. Can’t quite tell, but I think it seals the room. There are five undead in the room beyond. Not zombies, skeletons, or vampires. They have some wrappings over their bodies, like some burial customs. May be this world’s version of the vorthan.”

“That would be a mummy,” Lyrei subvocalized. “While we were preparing, I asked one of the local priests to give me descriptions of different types of undead native to this world. They are supposed to have supernatural strength, and often pass down diseases or curses with their attacks, in addition to any magic they might have. Can you see what weapons or armor they have?”

“Four clear warriors with what looks like leather armor for the chest and a skirt for the upper legs. They have shields and spears, but with blades as backups. Strange shape, looks almost as if they were trying to combine an axe and a sword. Looks good for chopping or slashing attacks, but not as much with thrusts.

“Fifth one looks to be a caster of some kind. A woman, by the shape of her, wearing what looks like a type of scale armor with gems on it. She has a staff that looks functional as both a casting aid and weapon, and is wearing the symbol of Lord Kuronoth at her throat. Makes me think she’s a priestess of some sort. Probably an evolution of the Dark Priestess profession, which means her spells will likely heal the undead while harming us.”

“Right,” Bargulg nodded. “Could you see anything else about the room?”

“Long room. Probably forty meters long and ten wide. The warrior mummies are at the ten-meter mark, and the priestess at twenty. I saw some kind of altar at the thirty-meter mark, with braziers on either side, burning with blue flames. Feels important, but I can’t say if it is for the fight, or after.”

“This is probably a sub-boss fight, then,” Bargulg said. “We’ll assume that the altar is something to do with the fight, and if it isn’t, we’ll deal with it later.” He took a breath, and then said, “Ashera, mark the trap in our HUDs. I’ll lead, with Lyrei and Ratha next to me. Ena and Tanila behind us, and Ashera in our shadows. Ranged focuses on burning down the caster as fast as possible, vanguard holds the line against the warriors.”

He turned to look at his healer. “Lyrei, precast protections against dark magic, curses, and disease, on top of the normal anti-undead buffs. During the fight, focus on melee defense, and quick-cast heals if needed. If you have to do a bigger heal, step back and we’ll adjust. Try to save your big anti-undead magic for the right moment, since we don’t know what will happen in the fight.”

“Understood, Master,” the Battlesaint nodded. “[Holy Saint’s Protection]. [Sanctified Soulward]. [Blessing of Divine Health]. [Lightwarden’s Armor]. [Blessed Blades]. [Ward Against the Unliving]. [Soulanchor].”

Bargulg nodded as Lyrei spoke, each spell conveying protections on their group. [Holy Saint’s Protection] helped them resist spells of the ‘darkness’, ‘death’, and ‘unholy’ types, making it a strong defense against a Dark Priestess type of enemy. [Sanctified Soulward] protected against curses and afflictions to the soul. [Blessing of Divine Health] offered immunity to diseases and poisons unless they were significantly higher-level than the caster, or were divine in nature. [Lightwarden’s Armor] made all their armor fare better against the undead in general, while [Blessed Blades] did the same for their weapons. [Ward Against the Unliving] penalized undead who strayed into the area of effect, making them easier to hit. And [Soulanchor] was insurance, so that, should the worst happen, and one or more of them died, they could not be twisted into an undead creature while the spell remained in effect, which would, at least, mean that they wouldn’t be forced into a position of re-killing a family member. Especially since some forms of undeath made resurrection magic impossible, even after returning the victim to the grave.

Bargulg made his own preparations, as did all the others, but most of the emphasis in this fight was going to be on Lyrei. That was just how things were, after all. Just as golems were the responsibility of melee fighters, and creatures that were resistant to weapons were faced with spellcasters. Everyone had something they were the best at facing, and they covered for each other’s weak points.

As they made their final preparations, Lyrei drank a mana potion to quickly recover her magic, rather than waiting for it to regenerate naturally. She nodded, and took her place one step behind and to the side, with Ratha matching her. Ashera marked the site of the trap she spotted in their armor’s HUDs, and then disappeared into their shadows, ready to strike. Ena and Tanila took up position behind the vanguards. All ready.

Bargulg took a breath, and then moved forward, capable to jump over the pressure plate. Lyrei and Ratha joined him, in a loose wall. Close enough that a fighter would be hard-pressed to slip past them to the ranged attackers behind, but not so close that they could easily be caught all in one attack. Ena and Tanila broke right and left, avoiding the plate but staying near the doorway, so that they didn’t have to move too far into a room that screamed of ‘trap’ and ‘hard fight’.

Tuaa

Godblessed True Human Mummy Female

Level 5 Dark Saint / Grandmaster Alchemist

Titles: Devout, Deathspeaker, Undead Toughness, Willbreaker, Corruptor

His eyes fell on the Dark Priestess. Dark Saint, rather. Proving that she was, indeed, Tier 3. Her face, what could be seen of it beneath the wrapping, was oddly whole, and unblemished, which was unusual for the various types of undead. Typically, only Vampires and their like did not have some obvious trait that made them clearly not a living creature, though those were countered by the fact that the sun itself was a threat to their existence.

The warriors did not matter. All four were ‘True Human Mummies’. Clearly ‘True Human’ was some Tier 3 version of Humans. But their classes were all as close to a generic ‘fighter’ class as any Tier 3 class got. He couldn’t discount them, of course, but they were not the ones that worried him.

Before he could utter a sound, the Dark Saint cast her first spell. The world moved around him, and he felt a sudden impact on his back, as he was thrown down upon the stone. The shouts of his women were strangely far away, as was the sound of the battle beginning in earnest.

He tried to rise, but mystic chains of black metal coiled about him, binding him to the stone he lay on. They glimmered in the blue flames. He could barely move enough to turn his head as the sound of stone shifting caught his attention, and he saw more of these ‘mummies’, in the garb of priests and attendants, come in from a side door that just revealed itself, carrying what looked like clay jars and implements of torture.

Black-red light flared from somewhere out of his field of view. Ena going to work with her Abyssal Flame, no doubt. He couldn’t just lay here, waiting for those priests to do whatever they were planning on. He needed to get back to his pets!

But, struggle as he might, it was useless. The chains bound his magic and sapped his strength, making it impossible for him to break free. And, with how the chains were attached, he didn’t have the kind of leverage he needed to snap their anchors from the stone.

Except, suddenly, he wasn’t alone. Ashera burst from the shadow behind his head, when he leaned up as much as he could, trying to at least see his torturers coming. In a flash of blackness, the Silent Blade of Shadows flickered forward, and struck. The priests and attendants were no combatants. In fact, they seemed almost mindless, for they barely put up a fight as she carved through them.

However, that must have been the key to the trap, or whatever it was. After the last attendant fell, the chains disappeared, and he was able to spring to his feet and bring his sword to hand. Looking around, he saw that he was standing upon the stone altar that Ashera had mentioned, the one flanked by blue-flame braziers. Clearly, the boss triggered a teleport, taking him to the altar. And then the attendants came out to… what? Turn him into one of those mummies?

That was the likely scenario, if he had to guess. Fortunately, the attendants were weak. Most likely the incident was intended as a deadly challenge, but one that a confident and skilled group could adapt to, rescuing their comrade before they were killed, and raised. Probably also meant that the process of being raised wasn’t a quick or easy thing, either, which made him all the happier that it was interrupted.

Right, the fight wasn’t over! He looked back to where the rest of the fighting was… or rather, had been. It seemed that the fight was, indeed, over. A simple look at the ground told him everything that happened. Lyrei must have reacted to his teleport by popping one of her anti-undead spells. Probably [Destroy Undead], which took the rest of her MP, and turned it into direct damage to any and every undead within line of sight to her. After that, Ena and Tanila unleashed their most powerful attacks on the priestess, and that was the end.

It was the kind of thing that most classes could do, to some extent. Every class, by the time they got to the higher levels of Tier 2, had at least some kind of ‘ultimate’ ability, the kind of thing that gave them the power to unleash truly insane damage, or to shake off blows that would have killed warriors a Tier higher than they were, but left them vulnerable right after. But that didn’t matter, right here and now, since the fight was over, and they still lived. They could spend some time resting, before continuing through this tomb.