CH 19,20,21 Party On The First Floor (Patreon)

19

“Burst,” I punched an undead and elbowed another, dealing double damage. A buff hit me, increasing my movement speed by 50%, and I tore through the undead.

I acted as the spear, Hati hit any distant undead that looked like trouble, and Azizi maced any that tried to flank me. We were charging for the second floor and avoiding other teams. A party increased the number of mobs. The drops had been crap after joining the team. Unfortunately, I couldn’t show off Double Helix until I was strong enough to make stealing it a terrible proposition. We aimed to settle party symmetry and find a way to the second floor.

“Are we almost there? I’m running low on mana?” Zeff asked.

Hati grunted while launching arrow after arrow into the knees of the closest undead. Thanks to my gauntlets, my fists were enough to take down most zombies with one blow. I was informed that the dungeon could drop gauntlets with damage ratings if I did enough unarmed damage. They were normally hesitant to do so because those same gauntlets had a secret effect. They could boost the damage of held weapons by percentages based on gauntlet rarity. Common boosted 5%, but legendary boosted 60%, doubled if the weapon had the same rarity as the gauntlets. Dungeons were hesitant to equip adventurers with such weapons in the early floors.

Azizi opened the map, and I moved to guard her while Hati shot incoming mobs. An adventurer stumbled out of a tunnel with a head that didn’t match its body. It was an ox head atop a wolf. The adventurer's body looked emaciated, and the head of the adventurer pulsed.

“Hello friends, I found a treasure chest. Come, one of you, I need help carrying the loot.”

I didn’t know why, but I hated the creature from the moment I saw it. There was something so familiar about it, but I couldn’t put my fist on it. With 5 seconds of burst left, I crossed the distance and punched it. Its ox head snapped back, revealing the head of a tick. The pulsating head lit with light DMG before exploding with small head-shaped ticks. I moved swiftly and started stomping.

One jumped, aiming for my neck too fast for me to catch it in time. An arrow from Hati caught it midflight and pinned it to a wall. We killed the remaining abominations, and Zeff hit us each with a cleanse.

“The dungeon must be gearing up for its event. We all have heard horror stories of adventurers leaving alone to take a piss and return impregnated with monster parasites.” Zeff said.

“They didn’t seem experienced in dealing with adventurers. The head was wrong.” Azizi picked up a glowing blue mace and tossed her old mace into her bag of holding. “We need to take a vote, go further, or retreat and inform the guild,” Azizi said.

I searched through some of the armor, but there wasn’t anything special. A scarf with metal plates or something to protect my neck would have been great. The thought of one of those things snipping off my head and replacing my head freaked me out.

A few more kills would put me over the edge to lvl3. Another 0.1 to my modifiers would be great. Grinding more stats while we could was the thing to do.

“It's not like we can prepare for those things with our funds. They will only get craftier and better at stealth killing with time. We are better off going for the banshee queen while they don’t know to match bodies with heads.” I said.

“With the banshee queen taken care of, drops will return to normal, and we can better equip ourselves and get coin. The dungeon will also continue to double our stat gains.” Hati said.

“From what I saw, the creatures go for the neck. Will the dungeon even drop something to protect that region, or will we need to commission special equipment for the first floor?” Zeff said.

Azizi laughed, and that wasn’t a good sign. These monsters must freak her out more than normal.

“They seem more of a threat to the unwary than a direct threat to us. We should stay together at all times.” I said.

“We already went over that,” Zeff said.

“It's worth stating twice.” Azizi groaned and pissed in front of us on the victim's corpse. The rest of us joined her as a kind of send-off of the dead adventurer. “Dungeons really are slaughterhouses,” Azizi said.

…

20

The gate to the second floor had three big bronze locks on it, turning our attempt to charge for the next floor into a slog. None of the drops were worth much; we stored anything uncommon. A door off to the side was our only way forward. Labeled above it were the words boss gauntlet. If we entered, we would be pitted against three bosses simultaneously, each with a key. All we had to do was defeat them to reach the next floor. Otherwise, we would have to search every room on the first floor for the bosses.

“Are optional bosses stronger than normal dungeon bosses?” I asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard rumors that they drop uncapped treasure boxes,” Azizi said.

“That would be what an adventurer remembers,” Zeff said.

“Stop beating around the bush; if you know, fill us in,” Hati growled.

This felt too familiar. Zeff seemed to be eating up the anticipation while he paused. Hati seemed to get angrier with every second that passed without an answer.

“From my observations, the optional bosses are more like boss prototypes designed either by the dungeon or someone working for the dungeon,” I said.

“That has not been confirmed. Eye witness testimony of an adventurer is not academically viable. Outside of the strictly academic, there are many testimonies with similar takes. Due to how academia conducts research, I can’t back your observations.” Zeff said.

“So basically, we can look for the bosses and take them individually or try our luck with all three. Everyone check your stats; we must be in the upper 30s to even stand a chance.” Azizi said.

Gold Fiber

Integration T1 2/5

All stats +0.1 to modifier per Integration lvl.

Spells cooldown time +5% more and have +5% more spell effect with each integration level.

At Integration 1/5 +2 Spell Slots

At Integration 2/5 +2 Ability Slots

At Integration 3/5 +3 Spell Slots

At Integration 4/5 +3 Ability Slots

At Integration 5/5 +5 Spell Slots

Cost:

1. Defeat 1 mana-rich enemy.

2. Defeat 10 mana-rich enemies.

3. Defeat 100 mana-rich enemies.

4. Defeat 1000 mana-rich enemies

5. Defeat 10,000 mana-rich enemies.

Vincent Hawk lvl2

HP 51/51

MP 36/36

SP 35/35

Stats   Weapon MOD

STR 28 +11 x1.2

CON 32 +19 x1.2

END 25  +10 x1.2

DEX 30 +25 x1.2

PER 18 +10 x1.2

INT 26 +10 x1.2

WIS 25 +10 x1.2

CHA 30 +10 x1.2

LUK 26 +10 x1.2

Free Spell Slots: 1/3

Free Ability Slots: 3/3

Spells

Tier 1: Burst

Tier 1: Capture

“My highest stat is constitution, and it's 32. Sorry guys, but I’m not quite there yet.” I said.

Technically it was more like 38 with his modifiers but thems the breaks.

“Going down to the second floor increases stat gain by 50% on top of our doubled stats, but it's not recommended with stats below 30. The monsters on the second floor are much stronger.” Azizi said.

“Our equipment seems to be reaching its limits as well,” Hati said.

“Maybe making deals with the dungeon didn’t work out well,” Zeff said.

“I have a spell that could turn the tables in our favor, but I can only cast it twice before I use up almost all my mana,” I said.

“Capture could stall the other bosses for a few seconds allowing us to kill one of the bosses,” Hati said.

“He told me about its purpose, and it isn’t to stall bosses,” Azizi said.

I nodded and looked back into the tunnel, where zombies slowly shambled toward us. They could run, given enough of the worms in their body to reinforce their movements.

“What are you implying?” Zeff asked.

“We will capture some mobs and use them as fodder.” The wolfman shrugged. “What’s there to figure out. They won’t be members of our party, so the dungeon won’t swarm us for using them.” Hati said.

…

21

“Capture,” I called, and golden chains erupted from what little light nearby torches gave off and wrapped around one of the undead.

Roll

Dombie Zog HP 15/15

Resistance Roll Stat: CON 15

2D10 +15 Resistance

Element: Dark 2x weakness to offensive light

MPR(Max Possible Resistance): 35

Vincent Hawk

INT 38

Capture Rolls: 4D10

Element: Light 2x strength to defensive Dark

MPC(Minimum Possible Capture): (42)84

Sweep Snatch!!!

The chains wrapped around the zombie, and I felt them enter the monster with almost no resistance. I and the undead connected; I was suddenly a monster tamer.

“Raise your hands,” I ordered.

The undead raised them over its head.

“Hop on one foot.”

It shambled to a foot from a downed undead and started jumping on it repeatedly.

“Stop,” I ordered, and the undead stopped. The connection wasn’t just to the undead but to the worms inside it controlling the dead meat.

“This is completely overpowered; why hasn’t anyone done this before,” I asked.

“Because when it's abused, the dungeon will target you with assassins immune to your particular capture elemental type. Don’t abuse it, and we won’t be wiped. We can safely get three more before the dungeon decides we’ve abused its floor 1 mobs.” Zeff said.

I pointed to another mob and auto-captured it. Then I marched the mobs into one another.

“What are you doing?” Hati asked.

“They are basically a collection of worms controlling dead flesh. We aim to win against three bosses, not distract them for a second.” I said.

“So what are you doing about it?” Zeff asked.

“I’m going to make a stronger, more intelligent mob. Undead A, add the arms of undead B to your body along with all the muscles and control worms. Undead B merged with the Undead A worm colony.” Worms broke out from the skin in wiggling masses as the two nests converged. The other undead’s muscles, except for the arms, were stripped to the bone. “Dumb the organs that serve no function to the colony for more useful muscle,” I ordered the more intelligent worm colony to obey. I could feel the connections between myself and two distinct entities merge into one. Most of the groundwork had already been completed by the dungeon and the dungeon helpers. The worm colonies were hive minds that grew more intelligent with their size. Slowly the new entity took shape and stood a few inches taller and broader. “Good, now take point and punch out any undead that gets in our way,” I said.

“That was disturbing. Was that what the researcher you killed was doing here?” Zeff asked.

“His undead was already finished melding. It seemed like he was trying to make something sapient,” I said.

My four-armed monster punched through an undead, which was the last monster I needed.

Gold Fiber

Integration T1 3/5

All stats +0.1 to modifier per Integration lvl.

Spells cooldown time +5% more and have +5% more spell effect with each integration level.

At Integration 1/5 +2 Spell Slots

At Integration 2/5 +2 Ability Slots

At Integration 3/5 +3 Spell Slots

At Integration 4/5 +3 Ability Slots

At Integration 5/5 +5 Spell Slots

Cost:

1. Defeat 1 mana-rich enemy.

2. Defeat 10 mana-rich enemies.

3. Defeat 100 mana-rich enemies.

4. Defeat 1000 mana-rich enemies

5. Defeat 10,000 mana-rich enemies.

Vincent Hawk lvl3

HP 51/51

MP 36/36

SP 35/35

Stats   Equip  MOD

STR 28 +11 x1.3

CON 32 +19 x1.3

END 25  +10 x1.3

DEX 30 +25 x1.3

PER 18 +10 x1.3

INT 29 +10 x1.3

WIS 25 +10 x1.3

CHA 32 +10 x1.3

LUK 26 +10 x1.3

Free Spell Slots: 4/6

Free Ability Slots: 3/3

Spells

Tier 1: Burst

Tier 1: Capture