Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 382

Chapter 382 – Mountainheart

As suggested, they rested the night, and set out early the next morning. Or what passed for morning underground. Without external aides like the System interface telling the time, it would be impossible to tell the passage of time underground.

The steel gate blocking the way to the teleport circle was just as she’d seen it the other day. Cold and dark, with a softly glowing circle in the stone next to it, a perfect match to the keystone they’d been given. She placed the keystone into the circle, and a barrier she hadn’t noticed flickered out of existence, before the gate swung out towards them. She removed the keystone, and they quickly stepped through the doorway as it slowly closed behind them.

They were in a wide room, a natural pocket in the stone, roughly sixty feet across, with low benches lining the walls. The ceiling was slightly domed, thirteen feet high at the wall, but more like twenty at the center. Another doorway sat on the other side of the space, and Gracie could see a soft silver glow coming from that direction. That must be where the teleporter was.

Ramon frowned as he looked at the room. “I think I see this room’s intended purpose. Assuming that the teleport circle works something like the Lord’s portal network, groups passing through would need somewhere to gather before moving on, especially if they cannot all fit at once. But standing in the middle of the circle while it is trying to activate from the other side would be dangerous.”

“That’s true,” Logan nodded. “But this also has the feel of an arena, or boss room.”

Gracie nodded to King, who stepped forward, the Angel holding his hammer and shield ready as he did so. He had only gone two steps into the room before [Danger Sense] screamed at her. “EVERYONE IN!” she yelled, and they rushed into the room. Seconds later, there was a crack of stone upon stone behind them. Gracie whirled, only to find a wall of stone sealing their way back, completely filling the corridor.

Liam took a sharp breath. “If we had still been standing there, we’d be dead.”

“That was the goal, slaver scum!”

Halfway along the left-hand wall of the arena, the stone melted into the floor. Not with heat, but with magic. The stone shifted and flowed according to the will of a mage, who stepped through a moment later, a look of righteous rage upon his face.

Golgor Oreblade

Stoneborn Krils Male

Level 45 Heart of the Mountain / Master Golemancer

Titles: Escaped Slave, Chainbreaker, Destroyer

Left

Greater Stone Golem

Level 40

Right

Greater Stone Golem

Level 40

It was the leader of Shatterchain, as expected. The Krils were basically ‘space dwarves’, generally reaching only about four feet tall, and Golgor was no exception to that, but he was clearly some Tier 2 version of the race, since his body looked like it was made out of solid stone, with crystals for his eyes, yet he moved like he was made of flesh and blood. He carried a heavy, two-handed maul made of solid stone in his hands, and despite the mage robes he wore, he also had armor made from stone over it, almost certainly spellwork, since there did not look to be any latches or straps on the stone helmet, breastplate, gauntlets, and greaves.

Behind him towered two stone golems, each twelve and a half feet tall, and looking as though they had been carved from the mountains themselves. They were armed with tower shields and spears that were made of stone, though Gracie suspected that they could use other weapons, as well. Either way, that was one hell of a defensive wall.

“So, you’re the leader of Shatterchain, then?” Gracie asked as her pets moved into a combat formation around her. All except Ricardo, who had slipped into a shadow. “Bold of you to come out, all alone, with only your rocks to protect you. What will your people do if you end up getting returned to the city in chains?”

“Hah! Better than you have tried to take me back. You wretches hide behind your collared and branded slaves, thinking yourselves invincible. I will not die until I see the entire cavern of Khav-Srokzas fall in upon itself! But you will not live to see it. Your actions have set back my plans, but not stopped them. When you die, I will rebuild what you have broken, and then destroy Khav-Szarol to ensure that the slavers learn their lesson!”

“[Azure Blaze]!”

Gracie started the fight with one of her signature spells, a torrent of blue flame racing towards the mage. However, a stone shield intercepted it, the golem on the left interceding. The blue flames splashed harmlessly off the golem’s stone. Of course, golems were almost completely immune to magic, and stone golems had increased defenses on top of that, which is why they were such a pain to deal with.

[Danger Sense] flared again, and Gracie just barely stepped to the side before a spear of stone shot up from where she’d just been standing. A hair slower, and she would have been impaled. However, with the golem blocking the view thanks to its mass and shield, targeting the spell should have been impossible. “Looks like he has some kind of extra senses. Be careful, and listen to [Danger Sense]!”

“As if you can defeat me while surrounded by my element!” Golgor laughed. “Right, skewer those insignificant fools! Left, defend me!”

If there was one good thing about stone golems, it was that they were slow to move. They were big, and strong, but only half as fast as a normal human. That didn’t typically matter too much, since they were tough enough to have a weight of inevitability to them, but it meant that you had a chance, so long as you didn’t get pinned in place, or forced to fight in close quarters.

“Spread out! King, Logan, defense. Dhon, distract the other golem. Everyone else, focus on the mage!”

Her party did as they were told, Liam’s bow launching arrow after arrow across the room as he strafed to the side, drawing Left’s attention. Not enough to make it chase him, but enough that the massive shield was no longer blocking Golgor from their view. Meanwhile King strode forward, and used a basic [Taunt] to draw Right’s gaze, keeping it from targeting the squishier party members.

“[Counterspell],” Logan spoke softly, reaching out with her own magic to counter the mage’s next spell. It was not necessary to call out spell names or skills, of course, but it made the casting slightly quicker and easier. More importantly, it let the rest of the team know what was going on. Knowing that the High Wizard was focusing on countering the Heart of the Mountain’s spellwork, the others could focus their attacks accordingly.

“[Force Missile Barrage]!” A multitude of magic missiles streaked out from Nalaea’s staff, curving around Left to strike unerringly at the krils mage. Every missile hit its mark, but, because of the nature of the spell, they hit center mass, rather than being capable of finding weak spots. Even so, Golgor stumbled backwards by the sheer force of the missiles hitting his stone armor one after the other.

“[Azure Flamespout]!” Gracie’s spell caused a blast of blue flame to erupt from underneath the mage’s feet. She doubted that would be enough to kill him, since he likely had good resistance against elemental damage, if his race was anything to go by, but she knew he wouldn’t get out unscathed. More importantly, people who had a bunch of fire in their face tended to overlook other things.

Dhon sprinted forward, and unleashed a [Hellfire Breath] on Left. The golem turned, its spear thrusting forward, but the Dire Hellhound had already moved, rushing towards Golgor. The Hellhound’s breath was clearly magical, but, according to the System, it did not count as a spell, which meant that it could hurt the golem. Of course, the golem’s resistances still made it do half the normal amount of damage, but that was fine. After all, he just needed to keep the golem’s attention for a bit.

“[Shadow Strike], [Triple Strike], [Assassinate]!” The moment the azure flames died, Ricardo emerged from Golgor’s shadow, using three skills at once. [Shadow Strike] allowed him to ignore armor with his blades for three seconds, with a thirty second cooldown. [Triple Strike] used a good deal of MP, but created shadowy copies of his blades, allowing each to strike three times on the next attack. And [Assassinate] was another skill that could only be used when the target was surprised, or unaware of the attacker, quadrupling the damage of a [Sneak Attack] and ensuring an automatic critical hit on top of that, but it had a ten-minute cooldown, on top of the usage restrictions.

The krils mage roared in anger, clearly not dead yet, despite the blood pouring from his wounds. Probably a racial trait or skill keeping him in fighting form. That was fine, though. If he bled, then he could be killed.

Ricardo jumped back, narrowly avoiding the massive maul as it swung wide, faster than one might expect from such an unwieldy weapon. Probably created by magic, making it a part of the mage’s own powers, rather than an actual weapon. An arrow sprouted from the mage’s neck, passing through the gap between his helmet and breastplate from the rear. Liam wasn’t sitting idle, after all.

“[Forceshield]!” Nalaea’s spell intercepted Left’s spear as it attempted to skewer Dhon. The shield held up for only a second before crashing under the weight of the blow, but that was enough. Dhon darted forward, under the spear, circling the golem, before breathing again, forcing the mage’s defender to focus on him.

“[Shattershield], [Divine Smite], [Sunder Arms]!” King’s hammer glowed with divine power as it struck Right’s shield. The first two were spells, of course, but [Shattershield] briefly stripped a target of its immunities, including a golem’s immunity to magic. [Divine Smite] increased the damage of his next attack, and the [Sunder Arms] skill dealt triple damage to weapons and armor, including shields. Right’s tower shield shattered, sending the golem staggering back.

But the golem wasn’t defeated. Instead, the stone of the shattered shield reformed into a hammer as tall as King, but the golem wielded it one-handed, now attacking with both spear and hammer. “[Divine Aegis], [Reflect Damage].” Ramon’s spells wrapped King like armor, the first enhancing his defenses, and the second reflecting the impact of any attack back at the attacker, but only for the next five attacks. Perfect for dealing with attackers who used a few powerful attacks, instead of many smaller ones.

“[Azureflame Arrow]!” “[Implosion Sphere]!” Nalaea’s spell fell on Golgor a second after Gracie’s spell hit the cracked stone of the mage’s breastplate. The pressing force crushed in on Golgor, but his stone armor burst outward, pressing against the prison. He survived, but at the cost of his protection.

That was a vulnerability that her pets would not overlook. “[Deadly Arrow]!” “[Shadow Strike], [Lacerate]!” Liam’s arrow pierced Golgor’s heart, while Ricardo’s blades flashed in the darkness, cutting deep enough across the Stoneborn Krils’s throat that his head rolled back, connected only by sliver of stony flesh.

“Bastards!” The mage still talked, even with his throat cut. Magic of some sort, probably due to his race. “You may have escaped me this time, but so long as the mountain’s heart endures, I cannot die!”

The mage collapsed to the ground, and, with him, the golems. They were not free constructs, after all, but projections of his mana and will. Without their master, they were simply stone, and collapsed into rubble. Then, both mage and golems crumbled into dust, and disappeared, leaving behind only a chest.

Loot:

Robes of the Mountain King

Golem Creation Manual (Stone)

Ring of Stone

Ring of Shacklebreaking

Gracie looked over the loot. Robes that enhanced the wearer’s defense and MP regeneration so long as they were on the ground and a ring that greatly enhanced the wearer’s Earth magic. Nice, but not something her team needed. The manual contained the spells needed to create a Stone Golem, though you would still need to get the materials and craft them into the appropriate shape. Still, this would let someone have their own golem, without needing a Golemancer to sustain it with their MP.

Ring of Shacklebreaking

Type

Ring

Rank

Rare

Cost

55000 gp

Weight

0

This ring is the natural enemy of all who would keep another bound in their service. By spending MP equal to an individual’s Level*(INT+WIS+CHA), the wearer can forcibly break any bonds (both physical and magical) and compulsions on the target. Shackles and magical restraints shatter, and Titles like Slave, Thrall, or Puppet are forcibly removed.

The ring, though? That was powerful. And dangerous. Especially in the hands of anyone who objected to the whole ‘slavery’ thing. Sure, it would take a good deal of MP to strip a Slave of their title, especially when they got up into Tier 2 or higher, and were more likely to have higher attributes, but it was not out of the realm of possibility. This was not something she wanted to be let out in the world, if possible. Sure, it was worth a lot, but it could be used to take her pets from her, and that wasn’t something she was willing to endure. Better to toss it in her inventory and leave it there.

“Right,” she said, looking at her slaves. “Good work, everyone. Let’s keep going, and see what this underground city has in store for us.”