Ch. 8 - Avelion (III) (Patreon)

The two made their way stealthily through the forest. They scrabbled up trees when a large group of Kobolds was making their way through the undergrowth, and a few re-uses of the Detect Object power, along with hours of travel, led the two to an enormous, singular tree that shot up into the sky. “Why couldn’t we see this from further away?” Felix asked.

Tinuriel smirked, “Dungeons are hard to find. They can masque their presence.” She pointed to a slightly glowing, purple line that marked some type of barrier surrounding the tree itself, “That’s the edge of the Dungeon. Once we pass that, we are in it.”

“How many of these have you dealt with?” Felix asked.

Tinuriel held up three fingers, “On various Tiers as we made our way down to this one.”

“Once you pass that barrier, the Dungeon’s entrance will be revealed,” Lucifer added.

Felix looked around, and not spotting any Kobolds, counted off to three. One the count, the two rushed over the small span of clear ground and crossed the barrier. The world shifted and reality distorted around them. The sky turned deep crimson, and the tree in front of them was no longer a mighty, enormous oak. Rather, it was a withered, desiccated plant with an enormous hole in the center that sloped downward. At that entrance was a small palisade with Kobolds who immediately spotted the two and began shouting, readying ranged weaponry.

Right into it then, Felix thought as he pulled his Elven Shortbow and knocked an arrow, letting it loose. It sailed true and hit one of the Kobolds in the head, slinging it backward and pinning it to the tree. He ducked several arrows and rocks that were slung his way.

Tinuriel shouted and charged the barrier, taking several impacts to her armor. A few stones found gaps in the lightly plated surface, and she began to bleed from a cut on her head. Felix kept shooting as the elven warrior took the brunt of the assault as she closed the distance. He kept knocking and pulling, and even though he had never used a bow before, his shots kept finding their mark – guided by the instinct his Warrior Class level provided.

Tinuriel reached the barricade and rammed her shoulder into it, crashing through and sending the remaining Kobolds flying. She slashed into them as they flew upwards, slashed down at them as they lay on the ground, stunned. She stabbed the last few as Felix ran up. As the tumult died down she huffed in exertion, wiping her brow as the blood and sweat mixed. “Good shooting. Rivaling our own bowmen.”

Felix went about gathering the arrows he had used, “How are you holding up?”

Tinuriel shook her head, “I’ve suffered worse. I’m saving my Health Elixirs.” She stabbed her blade into the ground, pulled out a small bundle of leaves covered in a waxy substance, and applied them to her few cuts and wounds.

Felix nodded and began looting the Kobolds.

[Loot Obtained]

·         Forest Kobold Ears (x4)

“They aren’t dropping as much Loot,” Lucifer commented.

Tinuriel finished patching herself up and put away the bandage leaves, gripping her blade once more. “Dungeons keep the good stuff at the end.”

I didn’t get any experience, either, Felix thought.

Maybe it all gets accumulated at the end?

How come you sometimes know stuff, but other times you don’t?

The System Admin likes screwing with me.

Felix grimaced and nodded, “So we go deeper?”

Tinuriel nodded, “How good are you at finding traps and the like?”

Good question. Lucifer?

I mean, Rogue kind of implies it, but there’s no dedicated skill. Let me query the System…okay, so just like how the Warrior Class gives you the ability to use pretty much any weapon you pick up, the Rogue Class lets you steal and disable traps. He sounded confused as he finished his statement. Why hide that?

Questions for later.

“Yeah,” Felix said, returning to the conversation at hand. “I can do that.” Tinuriel gestured for him to proceed in front, and Felix did so, activating Ghostwalk again as they descended into the Dungeon.

The descent was slow and cautious. The dark tunnel was gnarled and rotting wood on both sides and above, but the ground below was packed dirt. A glint of wire caught Felix’s eyes and he stopped, gesturing for Tinuriel to pause. “Trap,” he said, pointing at it.  How do I disable it?

Get closer.

As he did so, he could see small lines of gold as instructions scrawled across his vision. He followed the directives, tracing the wire to the wall and finding a small pin. Holding that, he cut the wire with his knife.

[Loot Obtained]

·         Explosive Trap

He waved forward and the two continued their descent, coming to a large chamber with a single pedestal in the center and two mirrors on either side, and a sealed door in front. “What could this be?” Felix muttered, glancing back at Tinuriel. He deactivated Ghostwalk.

“I’m not sure. What does your Arcanist Summon say?”

“No clue. I’d guess this is a puzzle room.”

Tinuriel chuckled, “Your Summon is not very helpful.”

“Hey…screw you.”

Be nice, Lucifer.

Why? Because you want to get with her?

Felix’s face went flush and he shook his head, “Sorry about him,” he said to Tinuriel who had gone to investigate one of the mirrors.

“It’s fine. They’re capricious things,” She replied as she touched the mirror. The glass wobbled at her touch and rippled like water. “I wonder…” She poked her head through and pulled it back after a moment. “It’s dark. Do you have light?”

I’ve got this. Hellfire Wick.

So I can keep that active without issue since it drains Anima at the same rate as it regenerates.

Correct.

A small line of black and red flame floated just above and behind Felix, providing decent illumination. Tinuriel waved Felix over and he pushed his head through the mirror as the flaming orb followed. Inside was an empty chamber with no entrance like the one they came through. A near-copy. He pulled his head back.

“Empty.” He briefly described the room, then went to the other mirror, and repeated the process. His breath caught in his chest as he saw a room full of glittering piles of gold, gems, and jewelry. He pulled his head back. “There’s a bunch of treasure in there.”

“An obvious trap.”

Tinuriel leaned against the wall and put her hand to her chin. “I wouldn’t be so sure. Dungeons are tricky. Maybe the treasure is the actual path.” She looked up to Felix, “Any ideas on how to test which way is safe?”

“I could try to use that Detect Object to find a path.”

“Worth a try. Using it now.”

The golden line split off into three paths – one going straight ahead past the pillar to the door in front, and two splitting off into either mirror. “That doesn’t help one damned bit,” Felix said bluntly. He walked over to the pedestal and inspected it, looking at the ground, the sides, the top. It was a single rectangular piece of stone. But, the closer he got to the bottom seam, he saw that it was sitting on some type of pressure plate. “What do you make of this?”

Tinuriel came over and got on the floor with him to inspect it, “A trap?”

Felix shook his head. No, I don’t see the golden circles or the instructions like with the other trap.

Tinuriel stood up and motioned for Felix to step back. She then put her hands on top of the pillar and pushed down. The two mirrors vanished, and the door in front of them opened. “That was surprisingly easy.”

Felix felt his skin form goosebumps and he glanced around.

“Above!”

Felix tackled Tinuriel out of the way as some type of slime creature dropped from the ceiling right where she would have been standing. He rolled after the tackle, coming up to a crouch and pulling his knife. Use half of my Vigor for Affinity Empowerment.

Got it.

Felix held up his hand, “Hellfire Beam!”

The beam launched out and slammed into the slime creature, igniting it as it jiggled with rage and fury. A pair of googly eyes looked on sadly as the slime shifted to a red and black color.

Tinuriel rolled to her feet, “Don’t use Magic!” Felix nodded and moved around to the left, keeping his distance from the slow-moving creature. Tinuriel circled the other side, “It absorbs Magic and changes its type. What did you hit it with?” She was interrupted as the slime split into two, and each separate slime moved towards them. “Aim for the eyes!” she yelled as she tried to chop into the thing.

Felix ducked as a pseudopod lashed out at him. It barely touched his armor, but where it contacted it hissed with smoke as acid burned it. He backed away, keeping his distance from the slow-moving creature, and drew his bow, firing off several shots that hissed into the slime’s form as the eye darted around. Any ideas? Felix thought.

Powers/Magic are useless. And you don’t have a big weapon to hit the eye. We know its reaction time is good. Get to the other one, maybe together you two can pin down the eye enough to get it.

Felix turned his aim as he continued to circle the room – running out of space as he made his way back towards the hall they entered from – and loosed more shots into the other slime Tinuriel was slashing through. One of the arrows found its mark, and the slime collapsed into a steaming puddle. “Get over here and distract this one!” he shouted.

Tinuriel charged past him and began to slash at the slime, forcing the eye within to move around until it was in a corner of the mass. Then, Felix let loose a final shot, piercing the eye as the slime stopped moving. Tinuriel was covered in burn marks and breathing heavily as she stepped back, reached into her hip pouch, and chugged a Health Elixir. Within seconds, he burned skin repaired itself. “Good shooting.”

Felix slung the bow over his shoulder, “Thanks.”

[Loot Obtained]

·         Absorbing-Acid Slime essence

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

She nodded, and hefted her sword onto her shoulder, “Yeah. You?”

Felix nodded and gave her a thumbs up, “Let’s keep moving.” He led the way as they continued their descent into the Dungeon. The twisting, winding corridors were laced with traps that Felix quickly disabled and added to his inventory, totaling seven Explosive Traps. They did not encounter further creatures or monsters, and that had him worried. This Dungeon had supposedly been around for so long that the Kobolds were spilling out from it into the surrounding forests. “Where are they all?” He muttered.

Tinuriel frowned as she stood right behind him, “There are not enough creatures in here. Something is off. Every other dungeon I have ventured into has had an equal mix of traps, puzzles, and fights…but this has been mostly trap-based.”

“We should count ourselves lucky then.”

The tunnel leveled out and the duo entered an enormous cavern. The whole expanse was dark save for Felix’s flickering Hellfire Wick that only illuminated a small area. “This looks like the bottom of the Dungeon,” Tinuriel commented as she held her weapon at the ready, taking the lead. Felix prepared his bow as the two slowly walked forward.

A billowing, warm, rancid-smelling breath reached the two of them and they held their breaths. That has to be something huge, Felix thought. Lucifer, can you send the Hellfire Wick further out?

Sure. Lucifer sounded fearful. The flame slowly floated forward, and the creature that it illuminated filled Felix with dread. It was an enormous lizard-like creature that had mottled green, leathery skin, and a massive maw filled with razor-sharp teeth. It hissed as the flame stayed put.

Tinuriel held her weapon at the ready and growled, “A Wyrm. That explains the lack of creatures. It’s a powerful Dungeon Boss.”

Referencing System… Felix, that thing spits poisonous clouds.

Are the clouds flammable?

The System doesn’t have that information. What are you thinking?

Felix lowered his voice, “Tinuriel, can you distract it for a few moments?”

Tinuriel nodded and slowly, cautiously, circled to the left of the creature as it carefully tracked her movement. “It won’t attack until you attack it,” she muttered, just loud enough for Felix to hear her.

The System shows that these Dungeon bosses have to wait until engaged before they can fight. Don’t do something it can see and perceive as hostile.

Felix activated Ghostwalk...

...hoping the gloom and shadow would be enough to let him hide, and snuck closer to the creature. Tinuriel was doing a good job keeping its attention, and Felix was able to get within a few feet of its large, car-sized feet. He gently placed the seven Explosive Traps from his inventory in a semi-circle in front of it, using Execution before placing each of them.

Slowly, he crept back to the cavern entrance. Tinuriel had reached the wall and the creature just stared at her. “Felix?” she asked cautiously. “Damn, I should’ve known you were a coward.”

Lucifer, bring that Hellfire Wick down onto the traps.

Hell yeah! Let’s burn it!

The floating wick shot downwards and hit one of the Explosive Traps as Felix dropped Ghostwalk. An enormous kaboom echoed through the cavernous space and the creature roared as it reared backward, its leg blown clean off all the way up to the mid-chest. It locked eyes on Felix and charged at him. He let off several arrows as he ran sideways, trying to get over towards Tinuriel.

The elven warrior let out a battle cry and charged the creature while it chased Felix, slicing into its midsection and carving gashes as her sword swings arced with blue light from some Skill she was using.

Felix ducked under the creature’s bite attack, but it slammed its head into him and sent him crashing toward the wall. The wind was knocked out of him as he slammed into it. Something cracked and broke as he coughed up blood.

Using Vigor Elixirs and activating Regeneration. You aren’t dying here!

30 Vigor was restored, and then twenty was used to fix Felix’s smashed body.

The healing was rapid enough that Felix was able to get up and roll to the side as the Wyrm tried to bite him, instead only snatching empty air. He held up his hand and used all of his Anima, “Hellfire Beam!”

The Basilisk reared back as the searing bolt impacted it in the eye, burning deep and continuing to sear away its Anima. It turned to Felix and opened its maw, unleashing a cloud of poison. Felix didn’t hold his breath in time and caught a lungful of the substance. It burned and seared his throat.

Tinuriel must have hit something vital, because the Wyrm left Felix alone and turned to engage her. She ducked under the bite and swung upward, chopping into its neck before spinning away as the blade wrenched free. She jumped up as it turned rapidly, swinging its tail around, and she brought her blade down on the edge of the appendage as she returned to the ground.

Felix got out of the cloud of poison and coughed his lungs clear before knocking another arrow. He loosed a volley into the creature, and it roared in pain. Tinuriel used that opportunity to get under it and stab her sword up into its throat, twisting and exiting the other side of the creature as it collapsed, bleeding its life essence out. Felix shot a few more arrows into the creature, activating Execution on each shot to try and deal the killing blow. One shot went into its eye. The Wyrm began to grow hazy and vanished.

The cavern rumbled before the whole space distorted and shifted. In the blink of an eye, the duo were back outside, in a clearing, with a large chest on the ground between them.

Dungeon cleared!

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