They find a nice cave to shelter in the first day. It seems to have been some sort of monster lair in the past, but the scent is long faded.
"Well, that was less fun than expected. Getting chased out of town because we didn't keep quiet enough about our abilities." Misha sighs.
"But look at it this way, we get to go on an adventure. Sure, we might be sleeping in a cave tonight, but tomorrow we get so see somewhere new, with all new people, not sick in the same city for ages." Cain says longingly.
"He has a point." Char adds. "Something about being Spirit Folk makes me enjoy being in the woods, like I belong here. Plus it smells better than the city."
"Especially the city full of adventurers doing the undead dungeon and rarely bathing." Mythryll adds and everyone laughs at her scrunched up nose. "What? I've got a sensitive sense of smell."
They keep heading northeast in the morning, headed wherever they happen to go, when they come across a wilderness dungeon. Not all of these are explored, so they enter carefully, not knowing what level it is going to be.
The first pull is Imps, around level 50. Not bad for the group with all their extra summoned members. The Greater Golems are set to Shield Bearers and the Lesser Golems to gargoyles, their usual setup for dungeons. But with the addition of the Poisoned Wasps and the [Summon Cloning] Passive, it feels like they've brought an army to bring down this dungeon.
At first they go slow, but it's all Imps and other lesser demons they're already familiar with. The first boss changes the pattern up though. It's a Balrog, a 4 meter tall winged demon with a huge axe and a flaming whip.
"How do we fight that?" Mythryll asks. "My ice armor is weak against fire, and that whip looks really nasty.
"I will use the stone skin totem this fight too. With the extra duration it should be up enough to help." Char suggests "But if that hits us, it might be bad."
"How about 2 tanks stay back on defense and 2 go to the monster. Fight from behind the tanks as long as he doesn't do anything unexpected?"
"Yeah, that should work. Let's try that, call out anything new." Misha adds and gets herself psyched up for the fight.
As they feared, the whip targets them at range, while the Demon uses its axe to fend off the tanks in melee range. The tactic of using Golems to block the ranged attacks is working though, the whip hitting whichever is closest and being stopped by the Golems shields.
A furious Blizzard rages, courtesy of Mythryll, and lighting crackles in the air, but the boss is only slowly going down. The amount of damage it can take is insane, most bosses would be long gone by the time and this thing is only at half. By the time it finally drops, they're all struggling with mana, relying on regeneration to keep casting.
"Good thing we all picked mana regeneration items, that was intense." Misha says, collapsing on the floor for a breather.
"Difficult to navigate tricks are one thing, but there's something to be said for raw brute strength." Char agrees.
After a short break to recover mana and motivation, they move along, finding that the Imps have mostly given way to larger gargoyle type demons. Not difficult to fight, as they're not magic users, but so incredibly durable that it's slow going.
"At this rate, the final boss is just going to be a huge chunk of demonic steel we've got to whittle away." Mythryll complains.
She's not far from wrong. The final boss is a huge gargoyle. When it sees them it summons six smaller gargoyles, the size of the Lesser Golems, from the floor. It seems it's done preparing itself, as it then stomps the ground in challenge.
"Split again, two will tank the boss, everything else will kill the little Golems, we will attack the big one." Cain suggests.
"It's as good of as plan as any." Misha shrugs. "Let's do this."
The plan is going well, the little gargoyles are being destroyed at a decent rate, and are down for a couple of minutes before the boss calls in a fresh batch and they're forced to start the process over. Like the Dragon boss, this one has a wind attack that knocks you back into pools at the edge of the room.
"Don't panic, they're hot springs, I'm not taking any damage." Mythryll splutters, being the first one blown into a pool. That's good news, at least it's not something deadly like acid.
When the boss drops, the last of the small gargoyles crumble, leaving them alone in the room.
[Level Up]
While Mythryll and Char relax and Misha goes to check out the hot springs, Cain decides to check his status, and finally use up the points he's been saving. This dungeon showed him just how much mana he was lacking, so a few points went to bringing his STR to a nice even 100, which brought a [Damage Modifier Increased] notification, and the rest went into INT for extra mana.
The next few Levels, Cain decides, will be used to increase his CON, making his Golems more durable, reducing his mana usage and making them easier for Misha to heal with time released effects that are easier on her mana pool.
[Name] Cain
[Level] 48
[Class] Puppet Master
[Race] Human
[Skills]
[Summon Lesser Golem] lv4
[Summon Greater Golem] lv2
[Poison Arrow] lv4
[Exploding Arrow] lv2
[Light Foot] lv3
[Reinforce Construct] Passive
[Summon Insects] lv1
[Stats]
[STR] 100
[DEX] 45
[CON] 70
[INT] 50
[HP] 280
[MP] 250
"Hey guys, you've got to try this." Misha calls, and everyone turns to look. She's out of her armor, floating inside the hot springs pool in the corner of the boss room. It really looks relaxing.
"How long do we have in here before it resets or we're kicked out?" Cain asks.
"Once, a young Elven warrior with a broken leg, last of his party, took two weeks to make it to the exit. He had no regeneration or Healing potions left to fix himself, so he just crawled. Sleeping here overnight might not be a bad idea. Nobody can intrude on us, and it's safer than the outside, now that we've cleared out all the demons." Mythryll gives a long winded explanation.
That's all anyone needs to hear. The Golems are set as guards blocking the only door to the room, just in case something was missed, then armor is removed and it's hot springs time.
"Every dungeon should end like this." Misha sighs, sliding deeper into the hot water. "Just a big bath, so you can go home clean and relaxed."
