Everyone was filled with joy as the boss died!
They'd finished at least the first phase of the dungeon, even if it had taken them over twelve hours! After all this time of constant fighting against organized and vicious nagas, everyone was exhausted.
When Apophis created a new staircase and descended to collect the Naga Queen's loot, the whole team received the same item:
[Roulette of Fate] [Consumable] [Legendary]
Item Summary: "The Roulette of Fate turns. What was, what will be, and what now is, may yet fall under the Shadow." Randomly gain one Legendary Passive Skill, chosen from all available in the game.
This was incredible loot! It was much better than the items that dropped, which might eventually become obsolete as better equipment was found. But Passive Skills were always available, so it was always good to have another!
Apophis didn't waste any time and activated his Roulette of Fate immediately.
A sub-menu appeared before him, displaying a huge roulette wheel broken into thousands of tiny subdivisions, each containing a Legendary Passive Skill.
He spun the cursor, and it sped from one skill to another! Soon, it slowed, and after thirty seconds, settled on its choice.
[ Ghost ] [Passive Skill] [Legendary]
Skill Summary: "Banish your body for a time, leaving only your spirit behind!" Enter a ghostly state, during which you can pass through physical objects and ignore physical attacks.
Apophis almost fainted with astonishment! What an absolutely incredible skill! It had no maximum duration and didn't even consume energy! If this was only the loot from the first boss, what more lay in store for them at the end of the Dungeon? IronMan difficulty rewards truly were incredible!
Everyone was happy at last as they saw the proof of how their hard work and intense stress had paid off.
Nevertheless, they still had the rest of the dungeon in front of them, and that would surely not be easy! Considering how long they'd been fighting through the dungeon, the party agreed to take a break and get some sleep.
It was the perfect opportunity to take a break, actually. Having reached lvl 20 earlier, each party member had unlocked their next character evolution. This would provide a huge power boost and make the rest of the dungeon easier, of course, but would take many hours of time to complete.
Everyone climbed the wooden stairs and returned to the wall, just in case more nagas attacked while they were resting.
Before deciding on his own evolution, Apophis spent 50 Skill Points to evolve his ~Demon God Flame (lvl 2).~
~Eternal Flame (lvl 3)~
Skill Summary: "The Demon God's flames incarnated into their eternal form. Divinely beautiful, but apocalyptically deadly." Your flame-based skills consume no energy. Deal more fire damage of a percentage equal to -10 times your alignment. Flames you create cannot be extinguished except by you.
*This skill can be upgraded for 100 talent points.*
.
This was incredible, but also terrifying!
Apophis looked at that second effect in the description, which gave him a new damage bonus. He realized that, since it gave a negative multiplier, that meant that he would receive a damage penalty for having a positive alignment, but a damage bonus for having a negative one!
In his current state, at -100 alignment, ~Eternal Flame~ gave him a 1,000% damage bonus to his fire skills, rather than the 500% damage bonus the skill's previous stage had granted.
But if he returned to Neutral and then gained 10 positive alignment, putting him only slightly in Good, that would still be enough to give him a 100% penalty to all his fire damage… reducing it to nothing!
This would force Apophis to stay evil-aligned if he wanted to keep his power. He suspected that the influence of his [God Tzeentch's Rings of Power] was behind the fact that he'd ended up with this skill.
Well, time for something more pleasant to think about. Now to evolve his character race!
*Calculating your evolutionary potential…*
*Please select from the available evolutionary paths.*
-Demonic Human (Legendary) [Tier 3]: "The God Tzeentch granted hearts of eternal fire to his most loyal disciples, giving them unimaginable power in exchange for their humanity."
-Pureblood Zetark (Epic) [Tier 3]: "It is whispered throughout the galaxy that the greatest empire ever to exist may one day rise again. Could this be their time?"
Both were excellent choices, depending on what one considered valuable.
Demonic Humans had much higher base stats than even Pureblood Zetark, but forced the player who chose that path to have a negative alignment and constantly to make chaotic and evil choices. It completely corrupted the player's free will, filling the player with raw emotion and egotism.
Since he didn't want to lose his sanity and free will, Apophis easily chose Pureblood Zetark as his next evolution. Even if he needed to keep his alignment Evil to keep his damage bonus, there was no need to go completely insane.
*Evolution will complete in 5 hours.*
With nothing else to do, Apophis told everyone to meet back up in five hours, then disconnected.
