[Mist Keep - Level 3 Dungeon]
[Unlocked][Instanced]
[Enter Mist Keep?]
[Yes/No]
“Yes” thought Jay with a nod as the thick wooden door flung open and his body was pulled inside. He thought he heard a snicker from some other adventurers as he went through.
After a moment of darkness, he found himself in an empty black desert, standing on more of the dried out, cracked soil. There was no life around, everything was desolate.
The sky above crackled with thunder and dark, heavy clouds slowly rolled over as they stretched into the horizon - though no wind blew.
A few blackened tree stumps littered the earth around him; it was as if he was in a forest that had been drained of life decades ago.
After looking around for signs of anything, Jay soon found that nearby a toppled statue had fallen next to an old road - both of which were almost non-existent at this point as they were being lost to time. It’s degradation was so bad that took Jay a second look to realise it wasn’t just a pile of rocks.
After checking through the statue rubble, there was nothing of interest.
“Guess I’ll follow the road.”
The dirt path led up a small hill, and reaching the top gave Jay a view which made him speechless.
Before his eyes was a stone kingdom; though it had been completely destroyed. Every building was in ruins and every building was in rubble.
All that remained standing tall were a series of black-stone pyramids, each bigger than the last, going off into the distance. They had sets of pillars at their fronts that led to each of their entrances.
After counting, Jay found a total of six pyramids rose from the ruins - though these were themselves not untouched by whatever happened here, as some of the cap stones were cracked. They looked like they had been attacked by an army of angry stonemasons.
At the destroyed gate of this mega-city, two stone statues of knights stood resolutely. Similar to the ones at the dungeon entrance, these looked brand new, expertly crafted and extremely lifelike.
Squinting a little, Jay noticed a few more of these soldier statues dispersed throughout the destroyed city. It was like they were still guarding it’s streets - even though there was nothing left..
Jay now believed he understood the information about the dungeon, specifically the part where it said ‘Pyramid trap. Be able to comfortably fight at least four at once’.
He guessed that the pyramids would trap him inside while he would have to fight at least four stone statues at once.
The adventurer guild provided enough information to keep adventurers safe, but not enough to give every little difficulty or secret away. It attempted to provide guidance between nurture and nature, to grow adventurers as much as possible without letting them kill themselves through inexperience.
Of course, they wouldn’t be responsible if you died anyway.
At the entrance of the destroyed stone gateway of the city, the stone statues didn’t move or even appear to have eyes, though it was hard to tell behind their thick stone helmets.
Jay thought he should be cautious anyway. Heading back the way he came, he went down the hill until he was out of sight of the destroyed city.
Jay shifted his ring into the orbital form, summoning Red and Lamp using the silt-wolf bones.
No one saw this, but their skeleton bodies in the dark ravine near the hamlet collapsed immediately as they were resummoned into this dungeon.
Just recharged their swords with essence and as he was about to hand them over, however, he then put them back into his inventory.
“Swords probably won’t do much against stone.” he said quietly to his skeletons.
“We can do better than swords anyway..” he smiled as he sat cross-legged, assuming his crafting position.
“It’s hammer time.”
Jay had purchased six iron bars, so he would create one hammer for himself, four for each of his minions and one spare hammer left over, for emergency - Jay would not be caught without a weapon at hand.
“Ok, crafting this will be a little different… I’ll be working with more than just bone.” he thought, holding an iron bar.
“Hmm… how am I going to make the bone attach to the bars…”
Jay looked at his skeletons for a moment as he analysed their knee joints. Thinking for a moment, he had an idea.
“I’ll have the bone will form a Y-split that the bar will seat in - but the hard part will be forming something new: a tendon. I’ll wrap the tendon around the bar and attach it to the top of the Y-split, pulling the split tight around the bar, which will in turn pull the bar into the split.”
Thinking about each step involved, Jay began the process,
Thick, dark green smokey mist left his palm as it pulled out a bone from his ring.
It was a large thigh bone, extra thick. His essence seeped into it and began to mould and meld it, reshaping it according to his desire.
A split formed at one end and was reinforced with the green gas as parts of it solidified the structure.
Jay concentrated, holding everything in place as he got one of his minions to hold an iron bar in place inbetween the split.
“Ok, now the tendon…”
The tendon would be made predominantly from his green gas. More gas burst forward from his hand as it went onto the end of the bone and solidified.
Before long, a string formed across the bar, getting thicker as more of Jay’s essence flowed into it.
After it was thick enough, Jay finished the process holding what seemed like an iron hammer with a bone shaft - though before Jay could even test it, the iron bar slipped out.
“Damn… well, it probably wouldn’t have worked on the first try anyway.”
Jay repeated the process another time, yet the same result.
“What am I missing here? Hmm..”
Jay had one of his skeletons come over. He analysed the joints of the creature as well as the tendons, particularly the flexor tendons on their claws.
“Hmm…” Jay made it open and close its hand “Oh! Right!”
Jay realised that tendons don’t just hold things together, but they actually contracted and extended; he realised he would need to make the tendon in an extended state as he wrapped it around the iron bar, then contract when it was finished.
Once more, he used the same thigh bone which was already a Y-shape. Having Lamp hold the bar, Jay crafted the tendon around it.
Once again it got thicker and formed - then he had it contract.
The tendon was quite strong, and Jay felt like the bone threatened to crack from the force of the tendon pulling it together, so he added more green gas to solidify the bone.
Jay knew he was getting closer now as he had a feeling that it was starting to craft itself, and soon it felt like the hammer was drawing in Jay’s essence by itself.
The bone got thicker for a moment and elongated. It took more of a shaft shape, gone were the bulbous parts of the bone at the end; then went to reinforcing its structure.
The bone had a tint of green by the end of the process, looking like any other war hammer with an unwrapped shaft; most shafts were wrapped with leather, but Jay’s hammers’ was covered in thick veins of green going up and down it.
After grasping it, Jay wasn’t disappointed. The vein-like structures proved to give enough grip, and the shaft got longer so he could build up a stronger swing.
“Nice.” Jay thought, his eyes gleaming with expectation as he looked at it.
“The only part I don’t like is the iron bar, but it will do the job.”
The iron bar was square and flat at the ends. It wasn’t much to look at, and Jay felt like it betrayed the rest of his fine craftsmanship. The bone with strands of green going through it gave it an ornamental feel.
“Beautiful. Can't wait to smash some heads open with you. Let’s see your stats.” Jay analysed the bone hammer.
