Chapter 28

Earth
Algonquin Park Dungeon, Ontario
August 15, 2019
17:52 EDT

The speed at which we were progressing through the dungeon had increased thanks to Mason and his new halberd. It had nearly doubled his damage allowing him to do an absolutely insane amount of area of effect damage. We had quickly decimated the previous two floors, and hadn’t slowed down at all on the eighth floor, the floor we were on now, either.

Like the previous dungeon, this one also had skeletons to fight once we got past the fifth floor. They were a bit harder to kill thanks to some slightly less-shoddy equipment, but other than that, there wasn’t any difference between them. There was one difference between this dungeon and the previous one, however; the prevalence of more skeletons able to resurrect fallen skeletons. We ended up calling them Skeletal Priests.

The Skeletal Priests were easy to tell apart from the other casters since their staves had white gems rather than the reds, yellows and blues that the Skeletal Mages were using. Whenever we came across a Skeletal Priest, Mason was the one to take it down. They were usually quick enough to get their shields up, but that wasn’t enough to stop him for long. If he timed it right, he could remove a shield completely with Whirling Leap and then finish one off with Siphoning Strike followed by Cleave.

About five minutes after we had entered the eighth floor we came across one of the markings that Ben had made at the first intersection we had come up to. We quickly deduced that we were being affected by a Disorienting Aura, so we were much more vigilant about looking for markings, making sure we didn’t waste another hour like we had a few days ago.

Once we knew we were dealing a Disorienting Aura, it didn’t really have an impact on us after that. With the markings that Ben put on the walls, we were easily able to navigate the floor. Within twenty-five minutes we had cleared four rooms of Skeletons and were on our way to the fifth when Mason broke the silence.

“Man, we really should’ve brought some food with us. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” I said, my stomach having rumbled a few times by now. It had been almost twelve hours since we had eaten breakfast, and since then had only had a few meagre snacks. “We’re making good time so we could head back up and find somewhere to eat after we clear this floor.”

“Where would we go? It’s not like there is anywhere close by,” Ben asked.

“Actually, that’s where you come in,” I answered. “You’ve used Teleport more than the rest of us, so you can teleport much further than we can. You could teleport back to the Adventurer’s Guild HQ and make your way down to the base, or you could just teleport to a fast food restaurant in Ottawa.”

“I hadn’t thought about that. I think it’s two hundred fifty kilometers between here and Ottawa, and my maximum range is one thousand or so kilometers. Where do we get food from, though? I don’t want to go to a bunch of different restaurants.”

Ben’s question started off a debate that lasted through the fifth room and the corridor behind it. It likely would have continued longer if not for an interruption.

“Stop!” Sonja commanded.

We all froze and waited.

“Mason, there is a trap right in front of you. I don’t think I’ll be able to trigger it with an arrow, so everyone back off and let Ben take care of it.”

Everyone retreated behind Ben who began casting Summon Skeletal Warrior. If Sonja couldn’t trigger a trap, Ben was the next best option. It took a little longer, but it allowed us to put a lot of distance between ourselves and a trap if we thought it might be particularly dangerous. As soon as Ben finished casting the spell, the Skeletal Warrior began clawing its way out of the stone floor beneath us.

When it had freed itself and gotten to its feet, Ben tapped the floor with his staff and the skeleton started walking forward. Sonja helped Ben direct it to the pressure plate and as soon as it stepped on it, the ceiling above it literally collapsed on top of it. There were audible snaps and cracks of bones breaking, followed by a loud crashing sound that shook the floor and threw dust into the air.

When the dust settled, we could see that the large stone block that had fallen had chains attached to it and was in the process of being pulled back up before being locked in place. When it stopped moving it was indistinguishable from any of the other huge stone blocks that made up the ceiling. That made it one of the most dangerous traps we had come across and Mason thanked Sonja for alerting us to it.

Usually after a trap is triggered it doesn’t get re-armed, but we weren’t going to take any chances. We hugged the wall until we were past it, but not before Ben marked its location with fluorescent chalk.

“Alright, I’m going to make a decision before everyone starts bickering about where Ben should go. We’ll go with our usual pizza place. Any change to the order we usually get?”

“Nah, that’s fine with me,” Mason said. “We should probably get our drinks in cans or small bottles instead of two liter bottles, though. We don’t have any cups.”

Everyone was fine with pizza, so Ben took out his phone and began ordering online. “19:00 pickup time should be fine, right? That’ll give us almost an hour to finish off this level before we take the waygate back to the surface.”

“How about making it 18:45,” I answered. “We’re not getting any experience from this floor since we leveled on the last one. You won’t be missing anything and if we end up taking too long you can go and pick it up.”

“Works for me. I know what Jonathan and Mason want to drink. What would you two like,” Ben asked, directing his question to the twins.

“Iced tea,” they both said without any hesitation.

“Alright, the order placed,” he said after a few minutes. “We’ve got about forty minutes until I need to pick it up.”

It was perfect timing since we had arrived at the sixth room. Opening the door, we could see a chest sitting in the middle of the room. Apparently it wasn’t a Mimic since Sonja didn’t fire an arrow at it, but we still entered the room cautiously. Once we were inside, we took some time to look around, and after a minute or so, Sonja gave us the all clear.

I went over to the chest and opened it up. There wasn’t much inside of it, but I could see the now familiar green color of a Tier D Skill Gem. I grabbed it and the white one that was well camouflaged by the Mana Crystal Shards blanketing the bottom.

With them collected, I put them in the small pouch that contained all the other Skill Gems we had acquired today. We had decided to wait until we were done for the night to take a look at them since it wasn’t likely that they would have a big impact. It did take time to look them up and roll them off, though, and we wanted to complete the tenth level tonight...

When I moved out of the way Ben moved in and started gathering all the shards and dropping them by the handful in the sack Mason was holding. We had over ten pounds of shards now, which would give us a nice little payday when we finished tonight, and that wasn’t even counting the Mana Gems and Mana Crystals that we could sell for more, if we wanted to.

As soon as all the shards were collected, Ben marked the way we had come in from, and then we chose one of the other three doors. Ben marked that as well, just in case we walked in another circle.

It appeared we chose correctly, because after traveling through a winding corridor with a few traps we bypassed, we arrived at another room. Opening the door showed that it was the room containing this floor’s floor boss. The fifth and sixth floor bosses were Skeletal Warriors and Archers, respectively, and in this one we would be fighting a mage. A fire mage, at that, based on the shiny red gem attached to the head of the staff it was holding.

In front of the boss were three identical groups containing five Skeletal Warriors, four Skeletal Archers, four Skeletal Mages and three Skeletal Priests. Such large groups of foes had been normal at this point, and we were able to deal with them without any issue. The previous floors had been similar to this one, and we found a pattern where the left group would charge at us first, followed by the right group, with the middle group being last. If was the same for this one, then we would probably be able to confirm it.

“Alright, Ben, as soon as the mage up there taps his staff on the floor I want you to start casting Meteor Shower. Mason and I will try to keep them contained but a few might get past us. Sonja, as soon as you see the meteors start falling, I want you to use Volley on the group and then work with Anja to pick off any skeletons that get past us.”

“Got it,” the twins said.

“Okay, let’s go.”

We had gotten pretty good at judging where the threshold that would trigger attacks was, so we all stood just before it. As soon as we were ready, Ben started the lengthy cast timer for Meteor Shower. When Mason and I judged that it was halfway done, we began to move. Mason had to run until he was within range to use Whirling Leap on the backline while I just used Blink and I was standing in front of the Skeletal Warriors.

I activated Mana Shield followed Precognition so I could tell Mason if he needed to move to avoid a meteor. I heard the mage tap his staff on the floor and suddenly the group of sixteen skeletons came to life. Before they could start attacking, Mason used Whirling Leap and landed in the middle of the group. Some of mages and priests were able to get their shields up before he struck, but they soon winked out under the strength of his attack.

He was moving before I even had to warn him of the impending meteors, using Dash to get behind the Skeletal Priests and following that up with Seismic Shove to bunch them up with the mages. When they were bunched up, he activated Cleave to deal another burst of area of effect damage.

All of the Skeletal Mages and Priests being bunched up meant that most of them were being hit whenever a meteor landed. There were a few meteors that missed but a lot of them hit, and the damage caused by meteors and Sonja’s Volley meant that all of the casters, and a bunch of the archers were dead. The warriors were left mostly unscathed and I was keeping them as busy as I could until I could get some help.

Two had run past me going for Ben or the girls, but I knew they would make short work of them, so I had focused on the three in front of me. They had surrounded me, but their attacks just bounced off my shields. The rate at which my mana regenerates meant that I could probably stand there with the skeletons trying to get through forever, but not be able to. When Mana Shield was active, I was invulnerable to anything but the strongest attacks. An entire group of skeletons could easily bring it down, but that wasn’t what I was dealing with.

I focused all my attention on the skeleton in front of me, content to let the others wack away. Barbed Spear didn’t do any damage over time, but it still did a bit of damage, and more importantly, let me pull the skeleton towards me, where it received a Shield Bash to the face. Between attacks where I actually had to move one of my arms, I was also firing off Arcane Bolt after Arcane Bolt using the hand that I now kept free.

As long as I had my sword out, I was able to attack with it at will and gain the benefit from Spellblade, allowing me to use my free hand to cast Arcane Bolts as if I had a staff or wand. Having four arms with my hybrid form allowed me to keep my spear as my primary weapon, otherwise I would probably have to use my sword while putting away my shield to cast spells.

Another Shield Bash followed by a Siphoning Strike finished off the Skeletal Warrior I was fighting, and I turned to the skeleton to my right. I left the other one to Mason who had just finished off the last of the two archers he was fighting. Just as I turned, I saw three flaming arrows impact the Skeletal Warrior I was turning towards, followed by shards of ice and a fireball, the latter of which finishing it off.

I looked around and saw that everything was now dead, which was confirmed by the mage tapping its staff on the floor again. With no rest, Mason started sprinting towards the other group while I Blinked, intercepting the it.

[Save Meteor Shower for the next group, Ben!] I sent. [Sonja, how about another Volley?]

[One Volley coming up!]

Mana Shield was still active so arrows, spells and melee swings were being absorbed, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to last for long. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. Mason had gotten close enough to use Whirling Leap, so he did the exact same thing he did with the last group. It was a very potent combo, and would be even stronger when more of us got area of effect abilities.

Volley wasn’t enough to finish off the casters when it landed, but Mason was able to render them pretty much useless thanks to Tremor. He didn’t use the ability often, but with it, he was able to knock down the casters. It prevented them from doing damage or raising fallen skeletons, which made the fight quite a bit easier. While waiting for Cleave to be available again, he focused down one of the Skeletal Priests very quickly with Gash followed by Siphoning Strike.

Another of the priests was taken out when Sonja used Triple Shot, which probably had the highest damage output out of any of our abilities outside of Meteor Shower, especially with each arrow dealing bonus damage thanks to Ben’s Aura of Flame. Moments later, the rest of the casters were finished off when Cleave came off cooldown, leaving all of the archers and three of the warriors.