Empyrean 34: Enter the Dungeon (Patreon)

Amelia, here! :)
We are officially entering the last third of Empyrean, and I'm quite excited to share Elana's journey through the dungeon with you. Keen to hear your thoughts!

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Transfer through portal commencing…

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…

Passage granted!

Leaving sector 8,201 and entering sector 5,720—the Hatchling’s Trial.

This area has been previously explored and is not currently under the control of any Powers. It was last populated 2 hours ago by denizens of Shadow.

Recommended player levels: 1 to 50.

Recommended party size: 2-6.

You have been allocated a new task: Secrets of the Trial.

You are wearing the Hatchling’s Claw, which gives you special access to certain areas of this dungeon. Your objective is to find the secret room and beat the boss within.

As we entered the dungeon, the portal left me feeling dizzy. I fell onto my knees as we passed through. Soren stood next to me, a lot more solid on his feet, and held his hand out. “You alright, sis?” he asked.

I nodded and grabbed his fingers. “I’m fine,” I said. “This place is…”

“Beautiful,” he said, finishing my thought. And he was right. I looked around to find the walls and ceiling covered in gems. Varying in size, they were mostly sapphires and amethysts. Unusually, they were emitting a stunning light—giving the chamber a calming atmosphere I was not expecting.

But it would also make it difficult to hide.

According to the Game alert, the players had come through here 2 hours before we did. We lost some time, fighting the Devils on the way in, but I hoped that we could catch up to them.

The dungeon specified that the players were aligned with shadow, which I found interesting. It seemed that they had their own faction—one that Cantos was unaware of, and one that definitely did not align with Arinna.

I looked around the chamber we landed in and noticed nothing of interest, except a large wooden door to the left of it, and a small corridor leading out of it directly ahead of me. Walking toward the door, I pulled and pushed on it. It took some effort, but I managed to get it open.

“Come here,” I called to my companions, who were still marvelling at the gems around the chamber. Both swiftly moved to my side, and we walked into the room.

When we stepped inside, the ground started shaking. And, without delay, creatures started emerging from it. They looked like large versions of cockroaches but had strange blue and white coloring. My eyes widened and I immediately cocked an arrow to shoot at the nearest one.

You have killed a level 10 beetle larva!

The fire arrow managed to pierce through its armor, and it died from the impact. Behind me, Adalinda rushed forward and started slashing her claws at a second beetle. With five left now, I started shooting more arrows toward the ones left.

But they were quick. My arrows only scathing two, I was rushed down. One on each side, their pincer-like claws pushed down at the ground I was standing on. I dodged to miss one attack—only to shift right into the pincer of the second.

You have been damaged by a beetle larva!

You have been poisoned. Your health will decrease by 1% for 3 seconds.

Coughing and splattering at the waft of poison gas released by the beetle, I shouted at Soren to move away. But he didn’t listen. As I looked up at my brother, I saw him draw his daggers and plunge them into the first beetle.

And, to my surprise, it died immediately.

Charging my hands with light’s fury, I turned back to my own foe. It was preparing to come down with another attack, and before it could slam into the ground, I grabbed its pincers in my hands.

You have critically injured a level 10 beetle larva!

The beetle stumbled back and let out a piercing shriek. Readying another arrow, I shot it square in one of its four eyes to kill it.

Adalinda, in the meantime, had held her own against the last two insects. Letting out fire breath meant that the beetles were struggling to come near her and rapidly losing health. Within a few seconds of Soren and I overcoming our own foes, she had burnt her own to a crisp.

I let out a sigh of relief and looked around the room. With the beetles now dead, we had an opportunity to find anything interesting in here. Clearly the players had not come into this room, so we needed to exit, but it wouldn’t hurt to check for any useful loot.

But another rumble in the ground stopped me in my tracks.

Right underneath my feet, I felt a much bigger enemy coming toward us. I moved out of the way, readying my bow for whatever was going to get in our way. We still had no idea what to really expect in here.

The rumbling stopped abruptly, and out of the ground came another insect—but this time, it was much larger. At least three of the larva put together. I swallowed back some bile and shot an arrow at it.

You have injured a level 20 beetle soldier!

A beetle soldier has cast sonic boom. You have been deafened for 1 minute and staggered for 3 seconds. You cannot react during this time.

Before I had time to feel relief about the fact that my arrows could hurt it, I lost all sense of hearing. I tried to lift my arrow again but, to my dismay, was unable to move my arms without them twitching uncontrollably. Nothing but the rush of blood was evident in my senses.

I watched as the soldier lifted its pincers—each one at least the size of Adalinda—and punched down into the ground. The mud beneath it lifted ever so slightly and travelled toward me, almost like a trail of death.

Managing to jump out of the way, I launched three more arrows toward it, piercing the underside of its belly. I looked around frantically for my companions and noticed Soren staying in a corner holding his head. Adalinda was moving toward the beetle. Standing on her hind legs, she launched her body deftly toward it and latched on with her claws.

The soldier lifted its head in what I could only imagine was a scream. I held more arrows ready and shot them at the beetle, who was now twisting in an effort to throw the celestial off of it.

You have critically injured a level 20 beetle soldier.

As the third arrow hit it, the fire caught on the small hairs of its body and flames enveloped it. With a single flap, it launched itself into the air and started flying around the chamber. My eyes widened in awe, I could only continue to shoot my arrows at its underbelly and hope it would do some damage.

Adalinda, now clutching for life rather than damage, was still latched onto the beetle. As they flew around, the soldier swung its body around, still trying to fling the celestial off. But she held on.

She started crawling further up onto the beetle’s body. As Adalinda reached the underside of its wings, she clasped her teeth into its flesh and ripped it out.

But the soldier flapped more frantically, and Adalinda lost her balance. Within an instant, she fell down from the soldier and landed on the ground with what looked like a loud thud.

I continued to shoot my arrows at the soldier, hoping for another critical hit, or at least another flame to catch it.

You have injured a level 20 beetle soldier!

You have set a hostile entity alight.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I watched as the beetle plummeted to the ground unceremoniously. Decided on a different plan of attack, I cast witch armor on myself and ran toward the squirming insect. With light’s fury infused in my dagger, I didn’t have to run long to reach it and plunge the weapon into its exposed underside.

The beetle let out a piercing screech, announcing that my hearing had finally returned.

I stumbled backward, holding my ears, and felt some blood trickle out of them. With my dagger still stuck in the soldier, it twisted itself around to face me again. It lifted a single pincer and simply swiped across me—smacking me away from it and into a wall of the chamber.

The gems covering it pierced into my side, but my armor stopped it from harming me meaningfully. I watched as Adalinda was able to stand again. With her new speed boost, she was quicker than I could ever be, and she leapt toward the soldier again.

And let out a magnificent breath of fire.

The soldier screeched again, now set alight, and swung its pincers frantically around to try and hit the celestial. Managing to stand again, I held my arrows ready and shot them into the beetle.

Until it finally stopped moving.

You have killed a level 20 beetle soldier!

You and Adalinda have gained 2 levels and 2 attribute points. Congratulations, Elana. You are now level 30, a rank 3 player. You have gained an extra attribute point.

Your fire magic skill has increased to 42, reaching rank 4.

Your light magic skill has increased to 35.

Your summoning skill has increased to 34, reaching rank 3.

Adalinda’s tooth and claw skill has increased to 35.

Adalinda’s natural armor has increased to 40, reaching rank 4.

I waited and listened for any more rumbling unferground, but when nothing happened for a minute or so, I walked toward my brother.

Holding my hand out to him, I asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” he said, taking my gesture and standing up. “Sorry, that sound made me incompetent. What the hell was that thing?”

“A beetle soldier, apparently,” I said.

“Well, it was disgusting,” he said, shivering a little. “Thank you for killing it.”

I gave him a small smile and turned my head to the celestial. “How are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m alright, just need to recover from that. We were not expecting that.”

“Not at all,” I said. “Let’s have a look around for anything useful, then we need to get going. We have wasted enough time.”

I was worried about my brother. This was only our first encounter in the dungeon, and he was already out of his element in a fight. Granted, neither of us had ever faced something as grotesque as the beetles, but it made me concerned about whatever we would face next.

How he would fare in the fight against Alastair.

Shaking away my thoughts, I looked around the chamber. It looked no different from the entrance room, save for a table and a bookshelf to the far end of it. There were no more doors or corridors, so it seemed to be an optional encounter. Lucky us, I thought sarcastically.

I walked toward the desk, and as I neared, a book appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Approaching it slowly, I studied it intently.

You have acquired an advanced ability tome: improved light’s fury. You have the necessary skill; light magic rank 3, to learn this ability.

I let out an involuntary noise of excitement and, without hesitation, willed my choice to the Game.

You have upgraded your light’s fury ability to: improved light’s fury. This ability allows you to blind your foes in addition to the damage they will take when they encounter the force. Additionally, the range of this ability has increased from touch to short range.

This ability’s cast time is near instantaneous. It takes 4 more slots than the previous iteration. You have 6 of 12 Faith ability slots remaining.

Whistling at my newly found ability, I was happy to finally improve light’s fury. But I was a little shocked at how many ability slots it took. Pursing my lips, I realized it may be time to invest a little more into Faith.

But that wasn’t for now.

I looked back at Adalinda, who was inspecting the bookshelf. “Find anything?” I asked.

“Nothing of note,” she said. “These tomes seem to be an account of the history of this dungeon. Could be interesting for some reading later…”

She trailed off as she looked through the books a little more thoroughly. I was surprised that the celestial was able to read at all—in fact, it was not something that had crossed my mind. With her new form, she had become more adept. It made me swell with a little pride.

“What did you find?” Soren asked, moving toward the bookshelf. He started inspecting the books as closely as Adalinda.

“I found a new ability,” I said. “And Adalinda seems to have found some interesting history about this place.”

My brother ran his fingers across the shelves, also entranced by the titles. “My god,” he said softly. “This is… incredible.”

He pulled a single book out of the shelf and moved to my side. Flipping through it, I watched as his face twisted in fascination. “El,” he said excitedly. “Look at this.”

Soren handed me the book and I glanced at the title. A history of families by Shanasyn Shanis. My eyes widened and, opening it, realized what exactly he had found. Not only was it an account of our ancestors, but a full history of how our family ended up in Mesina.

Where we had come from.

“What is this doing here?” I asked, simultaneously puzzled and incensed by his find.

He could only shrug, though, as he knew as much as I did. I nodded slightly at my silly question and put the book in my backpack. “We’ll have to look at it later,” I said. “For now, we have to move on. Come, Ada.”

The three of us moved back toward the large wooden door and exited the room.