Chapter 225 (Patreon)

Chapter 225

All of them, they were all going.

Tanya, with her son Tim and daughter Julie.  Hakim.  Genua, Len, and Luke.  Riven, Athela, Azmoth and Fay.  The 23 skinwalkers in Athela’s new fan club, including Ak’ra and Selzi - better known to the people of Jerbyville as Sara and John.

They were marching through the forest, many of them laughing jovially in the early morning light amidst the chirping of birds and crunching of leaves and pine needles.   Athela wore an assassin’s outfit with her black, ruby-studded Tiara of Silent Killing, disguised as a human with glossy brown skin and white hair - something she’d recently modified to look almost like a drow elf given Gaia’s Heartwood Token.  Fay took on her usual blonde, tanned appearance - not even needing Gaia’s token but wearing it nonetheless.  Azmoth had the appearance of a hulking bald barbarian, and Riven only changed his eyes to not give away he was a vampire - otherwise keeping his appearance of a handsome young brunette man.

[Gaia’s Heartwood Token (Epic): Wearing this token around your neck allows you to suppress any Charisma effects you may have, suppresses your vampiric qualities as well as the demonic qualities of your contracted familiars, as well as changes your status page information to represent a Level 55 Human.  Those with identifier classes at high enough level can circumvent this ability.]

“Are you feeling well?” Genua asked, holding Len’s hand while she walked beside him - shooting Riven a very concerned frown and bringing her free hand up to her chest.  “You don’t look it…”

She’d been nervous ever since the reveal of what she thought to be a pregnancy.  It wasn’t a certainty, but the dots connected.  Even if vampires weren’t usually supposed to have babies with mortal races it’d happened before when Riven had done some asking around.  It was just incredibly unusual, so said some of the many pardoned Rippenvire vampires who’d joined the Thane Necropolis after a deal had been struck for their lives.

He grimaced when a twinge of pain flared in his lower back, but otherwise smiled at the elf with a shake of his head - blue eyes reflecting back at her underneath a black hood that shielded his skin from the sunlight.  “I’m fine.  It’s just a lot to take in… I never thought I’d have one so soon.”

“Have what?” Len asked curiously, peeking from around her mother’s leg - blonde pigtails bobbing while she walked a brisk pace to keep up with the adults.  “What are you two talking about?”

“We’re talking about those poison cookies you used to make.”  Riven grinned.  “Remember when you poisoned my sister?”

Len giggled, holding a hand up to her mouth.  “Those cookies were supposed to be for my big sister, Ethel!  Not Allie!  I wish Ethel was still around.  I miss her.”

Riven tried not to cringe.  “Yeah.  Yeah, so do I.  And Genua - if that is what’s going on, you have nothing to worry about.  You will be taken care of, I promise.”

Genua’s tense shoulders relaxed, and she stared at the forest floor amidst the laughter of Athela, Tim and Azmoth behind them when Fay tripped on a root to screech and faceplant.  “Thank you, Riven.  I was worried.”

“It’s the least I could do.  We’ll talk more about it later, I promise.”

Casually turning and raising a hand to point past Genua on her left, Riven summoned a blood lance the size of his arm.  Red wisps of silky blood magic flowed out of his body and began sparking with black energy before tearing into the forest with a flash of crimson - blowing a huge hole in a large tree’s body.

The tree, in turn, screamed out an alien cry and flailed about - its entrails pouring onto the ground in layers as the disguised monster toppled over and died with a crash.

“Mimic.  It was getting closer every time we weren’t looking.” Riven shrugged after seeing Genua’s shocked expression.  “Picked the wrong group this time.  Hey Hakim, are we almost there?”

The large african man at the front of the group, walking alongside his girlfriend Julie and her mother Tanya, gave a thumbs up after shaking himself from staring at the beast Riven had just killed.  “Another ten minutes and we should make it to the clearing!”

Riven gave a thumbs up.

Then ten minutes later, Hakim proved himself right.

Two dozen tents were already set up through a large camping area cleared right outside a massive cave, one that opened into the side of a tree-covered hill.  People with various weapons, classes and other equipment were moving in full swing - trading with one another, cooking, eating and joking around campfires.  There were three clearly distinct groups already set apart from one another though - one of them being a well-outfitted bunch of hunters in camo with compound bows, long knives, and rifles.  Another was the same group of mountain-men with axes and shotguns who’d harassed Genua just days ago - with three well dressed men in top-hats holding caster staves.  The third was a bunch of mis-matched, non-uniformed people with various types of metal armor, swords, pistols, rifles, crossbows, hatchets, and wands.

They all were inbetween level 14 and 56, but this third group also had someone Riven recognized in it.

Her name was Jarla.  She was the stick-thin woman in hiking gear he’d met outside the shop in Jerbyville, and she wore the same equipment with a large backpack and a couple cans of bear mace strapped to her hips.

[Jarla. Level 16 Packmule, Human.]

It didn’t take long for her to see Riven’s group coming into the clearing off the opposite hill when everyone else in the camp started looking their way, and a wide smile spread across her face as she brushed her dark hair back across her neck and put it up into a ponytail.  “Hi Hakim and Julie!  Tanya you look better than ever. - I can see where Julie gets her looks.  Hey Riv!  Hey Tim!  I was just tellin my friend here about the new guys in town!  Come for a dungeon run?  And what happened to your wheelchair!?”

The other two groups segregated to other areas of the camp shot confused or surprised looks over to Riven’s band of misfits, and the mage in the tophat who’d propositioned Genua not long ago for a good time quickly avoided looking in their direction with a flush of embarrassment.

At least the guy hadn’t been an asshole about it when Genua had said no, so Riven could at least respect the man for that.

Hakim clasped hands with the thin woman and  patted Jarla on the back.  “That’s right!  We’re here to get some leveling in, and with our new friends I think we’ll go far.”

“You think you’ll make it to the third dungeon floor this time?” Jarla asked curiously, looking their group over one by one and pooching her lips.  Her gaze lingered on some of the skinwalkers - who were all wearing various disguises of humans themselves, all of them looking something like a cult with identical brown cloaks, simple rags for masks masks, and hidden weapons underneath - but she shrugged it off a second later.  “Your friends are all pretty high leveled.  Riv here is level 55, and a warlock no less!  That’s impressive, I hadn’t seen that before.  Thela is a level 55 assassin… Fay is a level 48 illusionist.  Wow that’s a class you don’t see often.  That big barbarian guy is level 66!  Holy hell that’s high!”

Jarla shot Genua, Len and Luke - the three elves - a quizzical stare.  “And those weird cult people behind y’all are in the 40’s to 50’s too.  What about the three elves though?  You really bringing a kid into a dungeon?  She’s level 1, so is her mom.  I guess the old guy is alright though, level 17 Stormrazor Battle Priest doesn’t sound too bad.”

“I’m not old!  I’m just wrinkled!” Luke protested with a humph, getting laughs from the surroundings.

Riven brought up a hand and pated Len’s pigtails.  “She’ll gain passive experience while being retained in the group, and I am confident in our ability to protect her.  She asked to come, I’m more than certain it will be fine.”

Jarla gave them a skeptical look, but she also didn’t realize what she was actually looking at.  She didn’t realize that the number 4 spot on the power ladder on this planet was the one she was talking to, that a single one of his 8 summoned bloodstricken undead could likely blaze through most or even all of the dungeon within the single 5 minute summoning he had if only he knew the way.  She didn’t realize that the entirety of a small clan of level 50-98 skinwalker demons were on babysitting duty to make sure the weaker members of the party weren’t killed.  She wasn’t aware that two world-boss class entities were here, or that the ‘barbarian’ Azmoth by himself had fought toe to toe with one of those summoned bloodstricken paladins and had come out even - adding another person to the party that could wipe this dungeon out with little to no trouble all on his own.

Riven had come a long way from fighting that level 20-something satyr warlord miniboss in Negrada.  How he had struggled back then, it was a night and day difference now from the army-killing disaster on wheels he’d developed into.

“Alright well just know that the average monster level is 29 on the top 2 floors, and it gets progressively higher the farther you go down.”  Jarla gave Len a worried frown, pulling on the straps of her backpack.  “Just be careful.  On the last and fifth floor, you’ll even see some monsters reaching into the 60’s!  The one group to actually finish this dungeon and send it into hibernation said the boss they fought was level 61!  That aint nothin to scoff at, ya hear me?”

“I certainly do.”  Riven nodded with a polite smile, hands clasped behind his back.  “Let me assure you that I am not worried.”

Those kinds of levels were exactly what he was looking for.  Hakim was in the low 40’s along with his barbarian class, while Julie was now a level 27 healer and Tim was level 24 thief.  Fay was still level 48, not having ranked up at all in a long time since she’d left, while Luke was level 17 - and it was a perfect training ground for all of them.  Even Azmoth might get some experience if the boss was good enough, and Tanya, Genua, and Len would gain some passive experience from being in the party while in proximity of the fighting.  He, Athela, the skinwalkers and Azmoth would all be waiting on the periphery as guards to make sure things didn’t go south unless needed - in which case he’d send in the four-armed brutalisk first.  Azmoth was leaps ahead of most things on this planet, but he also trailed behind Riven and Athela by around 35 levels.

Regardless, it would all be a good precursor and warm up for what lay in waiting for them in Negrada over the next two months - because he fully intended to transition most of them to a real battlefield soon enough should powerleveling go as expected.

Hakim jabbed Riven’s side with a laugh.  “I think he’ll be more than enough to make sure the lot of us do ok.  Thanks for the concern, Jarla.”

One of the others from Jarla’s group of 18 people, a tall and lanky blonde man with a ponytail, walked over and placed a wooden staff onto the forest floor butt-first.  “Hey!  I was kind of eavesdropping and heard you guys would be going into the dungeon soon.  I already asked the other two groups but they honestly think we’re a little too weak to pair with.  Five of our top classers didn’t show up today, don’t know why, but perhaps you’d all want to throw in with us?”

Many of the rag-tag men and women from Jarla’s team were watching more intently now, having overheard the conversation and looking hopeful.  One guy in half-plate and half-studded leather called out as well: “We’d owe you big time!  I have a wife to feed!”

Some people laughed, while others just nodded in agreement.

“Wife to feed?” Riven asked, somewhat amused.  “Does this dungeon really give enough loot to make a living off of it?  Especially since only one team actually made it to the end.”

“Every monster drops meat and Elysium Coins, sometimes items, and there are more than enough monsters to go around.”  Jarla confirmed with a wide smile.  “Any items we get, they give to one of us three pack mules and we divy it up at the end of the trip.  They even drop magical items once in a while!  Got a dagger that did an additional 68 lightning based damage the other day - I haven’t seen my husband’s eyes boggle like that since the integration!”

A thinner balding man in the background scoffed, probably because of the teasing grin his wife was giving him, then looked away after sticking his tongue out at her.

“Anyways we might not be as strong as you all, but Jarla seems to trust you.”  The mage went on, raising an eyebrow when the team of hunters started their way into the cave on their own.  He watched with everyone else as the hunters in camo disappeared, then turned around to shove his free hand into a pocket.  “We’ll even split it 70/30 in your favor due to power discrepancy, but at least we’ll get something instead of nothing at all if we just up and leave.  How about it?”

Riven shared a look with Hakim, then the others behind him.  No one spoke up, leaving the decision to him.  “Yeah, we can probably do that.  But know that this actually isn’t a normal dungeon run.”

Jarla and the mage both looked confused, as did many of the others.

“What do you mean, Riv?” Jarla asked while pooching her lips again, hands on her skinny hips.  “How would this not be a normal dungeon run?  Were you only wanting to stay on the top floor or somethin?  We’d only been wanting to go to the second floor, so if that was the issue I suppose we could just take in the first if you’re more comfortable with that.”

Riven shook his head.  “No not that.  The thing is, most of us are here to make sure the ones fighting don’t get killed.  I won’t be fighting unless needed, same with those cultist-looking people in the back.  Thela won’t be either, nor will that barbarian guy.  This is a power-leveling trip, and for most of it I’ll probably be sitting in the background working on totems.  So if you guys come along, that’s fine - just know that we’ll do our best to help you lot out but you’ll be less of a priority than the ones we already have with us.”

“Oh!  That - that’s unexpected, power leveling doesn’t come cheap!”  The mage laughed, then raised an eyebrow Hakim’s way.  “No wonder they’re new to the area!  I hadn’t realized you and Julie had the money to hire power levelers like this!  Explains a lot.”

“He’s a friend, they’re doing it for free.” Tanya stated from the side, pulling out a sandwich from her ice-box she’d brought and handing the cold meat-and-cheese sandwich to Len with a warm smile.  “And I for one am excited!  I haven’t actually ever been in a dungeon and I’ve always wanted to see my son and daughter do their thing!  They always tell me these bold, adventurous stories - so now with some more protection I finally feel ready to come too!”

“We’ll be in the back watching the show.” Genua confirmed.  “Hakim, Julie, Tim, Luke, and Fay are the only ones fighting from our group.”

“More experience for us then!” The mage laughed.  “With nearly 30 high rankers watching over us C-and-D rankers, I feel better about this already!”

***

The cave opened up into a huge tunnel that eventually smoothed out into a perfectly polished brown hallway of neatly packed dirt and stone that spiraled down into the earth.  When it eventually came to a stop in the front of a set of large stone double doors that were already wide open, the sounds of battle and screams could be heard from inside with torches lighting the interior.

[You have entered Dungeon Petrus.  Other in-area participants: 195]

Apparently there were multiple groups already inside, more than just the one that’d gone before them.

“Don’t bother helping, they’ll just get angry about us trying to steal their dropped coins and loot.” Hakim muttered under his breath, head-nodding to where the hunters in camo were firing projectiles or engaging in close combat with swarming large purple rats in the low level 20’s.

Riven didn’t pay them much attention, instead turning his head around to look at the various other hallways leading out into the rest of the dungeon.  This was a lot different than Negrada had been, and was more similar to the other dungeon Hakim had visited with the drake.  But even there, Riven hadn’t started out at the top floor - but instead had been summoned to the boss room at the very end.

Negrada itself had only seen his trek lead him across its top floor in the hellscapes.  Even Gaia’s dungeon hadn’t been fully completed before the demigoddess had introduced herself.  So this would, in fact, be the very first dungeon Riven went through from top to bottom.

The first ever.  This would be new.

The thought made Riven chuckle, considering he was actually just babysitting for the trip.  He gestured to the others behind him, everybody from the additional 18 of Jarla’s raiding party having gotten the heavy hint that he was the commander here.  “Same plan as what we discussed earlier.  Noncombatants you’re with me, the rest of you are on Hakim - he’ll be your de facto leader.  Combatants, if you need to drop back to safety we’ll be here - but Elysium rewards those with more XP if you struggle to win.  You’ll get more out of it if you put yourself on the edge, just keep that in mind.”

Jarla, two other people wearing backpacks including her husband, and one other man in spectacles exited the original 18 of their own raiding party to mingle with most of Riven’s original batch.  14 stood beside Fay, Julie, Hakim, Luke and Tim for a total of 19 combatants - healers in the back, archers and casters in the middle, tanks and fighters in the front, with two rogues and Tim being a forward scout to check for traps.

“Make sure the scouts don’t run into anything too lethal.”  Riven told Athela in a voice loud enough for all of them to hear.  “If it’s a trap - leave it for them to find and disarm unless you think it’ll outright kill them, but give the scouts an opportunity to try first.  Try to stay hidden so you don’t alert any of the monsters here to your presence.”

“Roger-roger!”  Athela saluted.  “And you never asked about my two new blood abilities!  Meanie.  I’ve been dying to show you since we used that dao treasure - so if we come across something strong can I show you then?!”

Riven facepalmed.  “Sorry!  I’ve just been so busy I completely forgot.  Yes!  Of course, show me when the next opportunity arises!”

She aggressively groped his ass with a brilliant and almost predatory grin.  “Good boy!  I’ll be on the periphery.  Oh and good luck Fay!  Get some levels in for us!”

Then she blurred across the room to where Fay stood - so fast that most people couldn’t even see the movement and causing people to shout out in alarm and stumble in shock.  She took Fay’s face in both hands, gave her a solid mouth-to-mouth kiss, and laughed before disappearing in a flash of black.

“Where did that assassin go?” The blonde mage from earlier asked hesitantly looking around with many of the others and avoiding eye contact with Fay while blushing furiously at the public display of affection.  “Does she have a teleport spell?!”

“No.  She just moves very fast, and is very stealthy.”  Riven stepped back, motioning for Hakim to take charge.  “Go on then.  We’ll be here if you need us.  Do you already know the way to the second floor?”

Hakim hesitantly shook his head - still ignoring the sounds of battle down one of the hallways on their right.  “This dungeon, as most other dungeons I know about, changes from time to time.  There’ll always be a way down, per Elysium’s rules, but that way down can shift.  Let’s go the opposite way Jared’s group just went.  I don’t like the look of camo anyways.  Scouts run ahead, and let us know if there’s anything there.  Let’s get a move on so we can make the third level by tomorrow!”

An excited cheer of agreement went up, and they all started down the leftmost hallway in quite high spirits.