The Crippled Vampire Prince Walks The Heavenly Demon Path Chapter 19: Infested Dungeon (Patreon)

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Paul and Chris found something weird about the Obsidian Skeletons the moment they stepped into the Dungeon. First, they were at least twice as large as last time, yet they had just chosen the same difficulty as before, which was already the hardest difficulty before.

Second, their bodies were covered in sharp red crystals, growing all over their bodies. Their rusty armor and weapons were also no longer present; the crystals seemed to be their spiky armor of sorts, and their weapons were just spears made of this red crystal.

The entire dark ruins were riddled with these shiny red minerals, and they were left in wonder as their foes rushed towards them with the intent to slay them, as all monsters do to invaders.

Instance Dungeons create a “server” for the party to fight on, so there is never a dungeon shared by everyone; a separate space, a copy of the original dungeon is created instead, only temporarily, and it crumbles down after an estimated time.

The harder the dungeon difficulty, the more time it takes to crumble down. The [Obsidian Skeleton Lord Lair, whose Infernal Difficulty was Tier 3.5, takes two hours to crumble down. So, naturally, players would usually take it easy and slowly explore the dungeon.

However, in all of what Paul has researched, there has never been an instance where Dungeon reported that something had changed like this. It felt as if the monsters had completely transformed and evolved.

“This could be a game mechanic that nobody has discovered yet, Chris!” said Paul excitedly. “The monsters are also stronger; are they all peak Tier 3!?”

“I don’t know but be careful! Are you using the Trait?” asked Chris as his Arcana Aura surged from his body, his magic bow pointing at the incoming skeletons.

“No, I want to test how strong I can be with my equipment alone first,” Paul said. “Fire arrows of fire at those that I throw down!”

“O-Okay? Sure!” Chris was slightly nervous but decided to follow Paul’s command.

Vlad’s armored self-charged, or well, flew through the air, clashing against a dozen Obsidian Skeletons at once with nothing but his tough armor. 

The first test was that of durability! He wanted to see how tough his armor could be by taking a few hits first. 

The crystal spears rushed down; Paul imagined they would be tougher than the obsidian bones the skeletons were made of.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

The giant skeletons attempted to impale him, only for the spears to slide through the armor and end up hitting the ground, an invisible phantasmal force pulling the force of the impact away and decreasing the damage dealt.

Paul checked the armor’s entire durability; it had only decreased by 11 out of over 80k!

When an equipment piece's Durability reached zero, it would break. However, when the pieces of equipment were unified into a set, such as Vlad and Paul’s equipment, their durability combined into a single pool that every piece shared. 

This means that unless all the item's combined durability reaches zero, the armor will never break, no matter how many hits it receives. It was incredible and had a strong effect, which perhaps only a few players as of now have discovered.

“He tanked all the hits?!” Chris gasped.

“Now’s my turn; I am not even going to waste Arcana with this!” 

Vlad’s Blood Power Aura surged, combining with his Soul Aether, his palms, covered with hard gloves of metal, unleashed a barrage of blows.

“{Winds Of Speed}!”

{Soul-Eating Fist Technique}: {Soul-Piercing Needle}!

Vlad’s fingers became golden and crimson needles, piercing the souls of the skeletons in front of him at a rapid, lightning speed. This was thanks to his armor’s Spell {Winds of Speed}, which encompassed his body on a swirling field of winds that enhanced his speed by moving his body forward.

BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and ten punches struck the skeletons in front of Vlad, and none of them died. But their bodies quivered in pain, and their souls felt as if vicious jaws took pieces out of them with each impact.

“Chris, now!”

As Vlad punched them away, three more skeletons appeared from behind him, attempting to trip him down with their spears.

“Aye!”

Chris’ magic bow flared with Arcana, magical powers forming and blazing together into the shape of an arrow of flames, firing down not once but three at a time.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three explosions of flames engulfed the weakened skeletons, their bodies shattered into pieces and their bones burning. Undead were weak to fire, no matter what weird mutation they had gone through.

“RAAH!”

The three skeletons behind Vlad pushed him away; his great size and weight made it harder for them to forcefully push him. Vlad quickly twisted his posture around the air, controlling the power of the simple spell {Float} with more dexterity than before.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

The spear attacks impacted him once more, but this time they came with blazing explosions of fire. Paul and Chris quickly learned the nature of the crystals; they were imbued with combusting prowess, yet it could only be activated by the wielders of this crystal alone.

BOOOM!

“Ugh…!”

Paul was pushed away more than he thought, almost falling. The heaviness of his armor was something hard to get used to. The skeletons rushed to finish him off, leaping into the air and rushing down with their spears.

“{Stone Wall}!”

RUMBLE!

A wall of four meters made of stone surged out of the ground, blocking the attacks, and collapsing almost immediately after. The skeletons pursued Vlad, only to be greeted by his fists as she appeared from below.

It worked in his favor that they were so tall, hiding right beneath the wall, not caring about the rubble that couldn’t harm him, and quickly moving his fists upwards.

Imbued with the Blood Power his Blood Core cultivated, plus the Soul Aether, untouched by his Curse, his fists had become rather strong.

BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

CRASH!

The crystals of the skeletons shattered as Vlad’s fists broke through their defenses, then he quickly spun away as their spears attempted to impale him again, only hitting the ground and creating explosions of fire.

BOOOM!

“Chris!”

“Yeah!”

The Incubus appeared above the skeletons, this time wielding his Trident, right in between the eyes when they least expected it. Their black skulls were all caved in and broken, the crystals filling their heads exploded, and blazing flames covered everything.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Wooaah!”

Chris lost balance due to the shockwave of the explosions. It seemed that the skeletons decided to blow themselves up the moment they saw Chris destroying their skulls.

Losing his balance, Chris fell from the sky.

“Shit, that’ll hurt- Ouch!”

CLANK!

However, instead of hitting the cold floor, he hit cold metal, as Vlad managed to barely grab him before he fell, carrying the incubus like a princess.

“You good?” Vlad wondered, his helmet disappearing as it was stored inside his inventory to allow for better visibility.

“…” Chris remained in silence for a moment.

He felt enthralled by the sight of a handsome vampire knight just holding him in his large arms.

“Chris?”

“A-Ah, yeah! I’m good, thanks, bro, but don’t hold me for too long; that’s kind of gay, haha!”

Chris quickly flew away from Paul, who inwardly sighed.

“What’s gay about it? You almost broke your skull while falling. You have to practice flying techniques,” said Vlad. “I thought you could float freely, but you need some dexterity to do it, right?”

“Y-Yeah, yeah, you’re not wrong there,” nodded Chris, trying to regain his composure. “Alright, so first room... fifteen? Damn, that’s a lot.”

“It sure is, but there’s five rooms before the boss, and we’re only at the entrance,” said Paul. “Remember that there’s a hundred of these skeletons before the Lord.”

“It’ll be a bit complicated then; their new form is a bit more annoying than I imagined,” Chris sighed. “How are we going to deal with them?”

“Just like we did now, but don’t get too close for now... Their combusting crystals seem to only activate at their command; if we break them, it doesn’t explode,” said Paul, analyzing the corpses left behind and storing everything. “I’ll distribute our gains once we’re out.”

“Fine by me,” said Chris. “Should we livestream this? I mean, it’s something that has never happened before. We could get a lot of attention!”

“I-I don’t know if I’m feeling like livestreaming. Can’t you just film it and make it into a video?” wondered Paul.

“Oh, that’s nice too, sure!” Chris nodded. “I’m pretty good at that myself.”

“Your talents never cease,” Paul joked around.

“What did that even mean…”

As the pair made their way to the first room, they discussed the capabilities of their new equipment. 

“The armor is much tougher than I imagined; did you see how I tanked all those hits? I’m a sickly and crippled bastard, but I was totally acting as a tank there. Maybe I should get myself a floating shield next,” said Paul with a smile. “No wait, several floating shields... or floating weapons? Wait, can I do that too?”

“I think you wouldn’t be able to control too many floating things, dude, but the bow was good; I liked it~” Chris smiled. “It helped a lot, and I can use it from above, so I am pretty far from danger.”

"Yeah, I made it for that purpose,” said Vlad. “How about the skimpy clothes?”

“S-Skimpy?! Hey, it’s all I can equip right now! Their stat boost is good though; yeah, the Arcana I get is much more now; I can do a lot,” said Chris. “The gameplay is totally different when you have a lot of Arcana to work with, huh?”

“It sure stinks; we can’t grow stronger in this dungeon, but we should raid the others later,” Paul said. “I was planning on going to the outskirts; there are no chances for treasure chests, and it is much more dangerous because you risk getting jumped by hunters or player killers, but the energy we can get there is much more plentiful.”

“I like the idea, sure,” said Chris. “Alright, we’re going in then.”

“Yes, but first, you have yet to use the gloves. The further we go, the more monsters; summon the two wolves if possible.” Chris said. “Can you do it?”

“Of course I can, bro; leave it to me~” Chris smiled; he liked being relied on. 

“{Crimson Wolf Magic Runes}!”

FLASH!

Both of Chris’ gloves shone with black and crimson light, fire and stone transforming and taking the shape of two large wolves, each one made of that element and around two meters in height.

“Woof!”

“Awroo!”

“Nice! Works well! You two protect our backs, alright? Can you obey me?” Chris wondered.

The two wolves seemed to nod, making very intelligent summons. Vlad didn’t really know what their composition truly was; they were simply spells given form, but they seemed smarter.

“Let’s go.”

BAAAM!

With a powerful kick, Vlad opened the door to the next room. Eighteen skeletons greeted them this time. Each one was the same as before, covered with red crystals, and twice as large as the normal ones, reaching over three meters.

“These things would wipe out a party immediately; they’re sure huge!” said Chris.

“Let’s chat later, though,” said Vlad, charging forward. “I’ll get their attention; you shot them down from above. The wolves... use the stone one to protect you if needed. The second comes with me.”

“Okay then! Redy, go with Paul! Rocky, with me!” Chris said.

“Redy and Rocky?” laughed Paul. “Those are cute names.”

“Shut up and just fight! Why do you care how I call my damn dogs?!” Chris got more embarrassed than he would have wanted.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

The skeleton's attacks reached Paul, who was quickly attacked from several areas; his armor made him impenetrable, and the skeletons tried bombarding him with exploding blows once they saw their first attacks didn’t work, only to get their long legs broken by Paul’s fists.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

CRASH!

Their bodies quickly collapsed the moment their legs broke, an easy way to deal with skeletons with such thin legs as these. The taller they became, the lankier and thinner they were too.

Explosions of crimson soul flames erupted with each of Paul’s attacks; the skeletons were only being pushed back!

Redy also did his part, roaring, barking, and charging with his blazing body, forming tiny explosions that the skeletons didn’t like that much.

At the same time, Chris fired three arrows.

“Move!” he said.

BOOOM!

The arrows exploded in contact, and the skeletons swarming Vlad and Redy met their end at that moment, exploding into countless crystal and black pieces.

“GAAAHH…!”

However, the scream of a few furious, surviving skeletons reverberated from behind Chris.

“What the…?!”

His eyes widened as he saw something he didn’t expect.

The four surviving skeleton crystals were moving as if they were a separate living organism, fusing...

And then creating a winged entity.

“Chris!”

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