“Hmm.. What are my options.. It’s going to hit me one more time when it uses that double strike skill.” Jay thought as he dodged another spear thrust.
It would normally be hard to think like this during combat, but since Jay was level 9, he was far quicker than the level three and four soldiers he had fought so far.
“I guess I could just take the hit… hmm. But I can’t just do that every time, that would create a bad habit in my fighting. Besides, I don’t want to be a pin cushion.”
After nearly ten seconds passed, Jay backed off from the fight again - right before the stone soldiers’ double strike skill came off cooldown.
“Hmm… I think if I predict when it uses the skill, I should be able to block it..”
Jay waited another 5 seconds before stepping back into the fight. He was certain that the soldier would use the double strike skill as soon as it came off cooldown.
With a whistling noise, a thrust came towards him which he easily dodged - though this time, he raised his shield immediately after dodging.
*Thwungg~* Jay smiled fiendishly as the spear was stopped by the shield; as it made contact, he took no damage as the shield had a 15% chance to ignore all damage when blocking.
“Deathwalkers sentry, you beautiful bastard!” Jay smiled at his shield, jumping forward with excitement again, continuing his onslaught with his hammer against the stone statue’s head.
Jay was more focused on counting the seconds than the fights as he swung his hammer wildly, but before he could get to 10 seconds, the statue fell backwards, it’s torso splitting into two halves as it cracked on the ground; defeated before it could muster a third double-strike.
[100 Exp]
The two skeletons were still fighting the swordsman, and Jay analysed it before helping. Finding that it was level 3, and posed no threat, he decided to loot the other soldiers.
[Empty soulstone]x2
[Helvetian Ring]
“Soul stones again.. What about that helmet.” Jay walked over to the black helmet, picking it up to try it on.
It was far too big for him, he looked like a child wearing his fathers helmet.
Jay tried to analyse the helmet.
“Hmm?” Nothing happened, and he didn’t receive any notifications.
“I guess it doesn’t count as armour maybe?” he tried to store it in his inventory, but still, nothing.
“Huh, it must count as part of the dungeon or something… I can’t even stash it away. Damn.”
Jay pursed his lips, a little dissatisfied that he had to leave the helmet here. After physically inspecting it, he found that it didn’t even have the slightest mark from when he smashed it with his hammer.
“It’s a shame. I guess it has no use to me.” he thought, leaving it sitting on what was left of the spearman’s crumbled stone body, a tombstone of sorts.
“It does seem a little strange that there is even such a thing in a dungeon - an invincible helmet?” Jay thought as he walked away “Maybe it’s not invincible, maybe it’s just a training mechanism of the dungeon?” he wondered to himself.
[35 Exp]
The two skeletons had finally slain the last stone soldier, and Jay casually went over to loot it too.
[Empty soulstone][Helvetian Ring]
“Phew, a little rough but we did well.” Jay thought about the fight, “And I have learnt another lesson the hard way: always analyse enemies. That reminds me, come here.” he beckoned Lamp over as he used [Shell Restoration] on it. Green gas left Jay’s hand as the creature's hitpoints slowly returned to 100%.
“Thankfully you only took 5 damage this time.”
After Lamp was healed, Jay finally took a moment to admire the massive pyramid before him. It was the smallest of the ones he saw, but in front of it he was like an ant; it was larger than the hill that the adventurer association was built on.
Even the gigantic pillars he stood between seemed to betray it as they paled in comparison.
Jay felt like sitting down, gazing at it for a while, but he resisted the urge.
Walking forward, he made his way towards the entrance. As he got closer, the slab roof above casted a large dark shadow, noticeably colder as he passed into the shadow.
Since the structure was so large, it took him a while before he even made it into the pyramid.
Walking through the entrance of the dark pyramid took 10 minutes, and Jay held the deathwalker sentry shield forward, using it’s [Shade Vision] skill to see any looming threats in the darkness.
Not much light got past the entrance or the large statues holding up the roof, so it was hard to see the walls on either side.
The large rectangular entrance was the start of a long passage, which continued for some time - but after a while it gradually became smaller.
“The air smells stale and dry,” thought Jay. Nevertheless, he pressed on as he waited for his shield to detect traces of enemies in the darkness ahead - nothing was seen though.
"Hmm, it's getting a little too dark now…" Jay took out a small luminous orb, a soft blue glow emanating from it.
The skeletons were already using both hands to carry their hammers, so Jay sheathed his sword to hold the orb.
"If a fight happens I'll just place it on the ground and get out my hammer."
Jay’s orb was a small, budget-friendly version that wasn't as bright as Anya’s one. It gave just enough light for Jay to see enemies a few metres ahead of his skeletons, which were walking a few metres ahead of him - though this didn't really matter to his skeletons which could see in the dark, having the same shade vision skill as his shield. Meanwhile Anya’s would be able to shine twice as far.
Of course, mana orbs weren’t expensive, but Jay was just cheap as he didn’t think he would need to use it very often. He even had some orbs at home, but they were mounted onto the ceiling; Jay had mostly forgotten about them anyway, after his father left there was no one around to channel mana into them to keep them functional. Thankfully, the ambient light from other houses and the silver moons were enough for Jay to get by on; of course, he would light his fireplace and use sugar-candles when it got too dark.
“Mana is so useful...” With a warm smile, he added some mana to his orb as it glowed in his hand, walking into the darkness.
As Jay walked, the large entrance got much narrower, and was slowly becoming smaller; a more human-sized corridor.
“Hmm, it’s starting to feel like another chokepoint…” a slight shiver went up Jay’s spine as he remembered the silk-wood’s dungeon - all the spider corpses piling up into mountains of their own bile and goo as they tried to leave their massive nest, only to be sliced apart. Nevertheless, Jay planned to go back there someday and clear out the nest if he could ever find it again; It shouldn’t be too hard because of all the spiderwebs in the trees leading to that particular dungeon.
Jay began to caution himself "I'll try this with just two skeletons. If I need to, I'll quickly summon Sweeper and Blue, otherwise this will be a good combat experience…" he slightly grinned to himself "Not to mention, it’ll probably be fun too."
