Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 361

Chapter 361 – Victory?

The Pyramid was the new bottleneck of the dungeon. Now that everyone knew the ways to avoid Shai-hulud, more groups were making it to the Pyramid, and testing themselves on the boss fight. The boss monsters didn’t pull any punches, but people were starting to learn their tactics and patterns.

Even so, no one had beaten the boss yet. Escape charms meant that most of those who went into the dungeon came back out, one way or the other, but there were still some deaths. Not many, of course. The dungeon was dangerous, not a rogue.

Up until now, roughly one in twenty adventurers diving the dungeon died permanently, or got sent to the Breeding Halls. Most of those, however, were new to the dungeon. Once you got past your fourth delve, the death rates plummeted. By that point, people had learned to respect the dangers, and were quick on their escape charms when things started going bad. Or they had a healer at a high enough level to revive someone who had only been dead a little while. Either way, once you got past the familiarization stage with the dungeon, your chances of dying went down dramatically, with only one in every hundred seasoned adventurers falling to the dungeon’s traps or monsters.

The Pyramid’s spike in lethality was causing more than a few deaths, but none so far had been of the sort that couldn’t be fixed with revival magic. None of that had been because of leniency on the dungeon’s part, of course. Instead, it was a testament to the way the different parties prepared, and shared information with each other. Indeed, other than the random nature of the curses during the boss fight at the end, the whole Pyramid floor was fairly predictable, with all the fights and traps being in the same place with the same loadout each time.

Talks with the Demon had revealed that it was intentionally that way. There were three elements that the Demon was testing the adventurers on, that they would need to pass in order to succeed, and make through the floors that followed. Sharing information was one. Being able to overcome the raw damage and defense check that was the boss fight was another. But the third test was against complacency.

So far, most of the floors in the dungeon had some element of randomness to them. Goblin Town was the best example of this, with its randomly changing configuration, but not the only one. For example, even on the first floor, one never knew when Captain Hentai or the Hunter would strike. The only floors that could be said to be ‘same-ish’ each time one went through them were the inside of the Water Temple on the sixth floor, the Black Temple of the ninth floor, and the Arena of the twelfth floor. Well, discounting the seventh floor, which was a rest area.

But the whole Pyramid floor was static. Even the curse tiles in the final boss fight were on static patterns. Oh, the patterns changed at certain intervals, but they changed the same way each time, meaning that you could predict them, and work with them.

One might think that such predictability was a boon. And, in some ways, it was. However, being predictable led to complacency. Complacency led to carelessness, and carelessness caused mistakes. And, because of the nature of the floor, one mistake could be fatal. Worse, they could snowball, and cause more mistakes, bringing the entire team down.

However, you couldn’t be on edge the entire time, either. If you tried to be wound too tightly, and hypervigilant the entire time, you would burn yourself out, or start jumping at shadows. And that was almost as bad as carelessness. The balancing act between vigilance and staying loose was one of the hardest lessons people had to learn in the dungeon.

“[Hurricane Blast]!”

Tabitha Murphy, the Hurricane Sorceress and Master Scribe for the Golden Sabers party, smiled as she saw her spell connect with the enemy healer. [Hurricane Blast] was a powerful spell, combining wind and water magic. Part of the spell’s power was that it could interrupt spellcasters, keeping them from casting for ten seconds. Not mind-blowing, but when you had a damage dealer that could also interrupt heals, that was a good spell to have. More importantly, the spell also had a knockback effect.

The Dark High Priest flew back, off the platform, and out of the spell barrier. Now, they wouldn’t have to worry about the priest’s healing spells, or that knockback spell, until he returned to inside the barrier. She ducked as she saw the archer turn her way, and used a [Shield] spell to deflect the incoming arrow, rather than blocking it. Used less mana for that, and was less vulnerable to piercing skill effects.

Avery Wagner, their Bladewind Tempest (formerly Swashbuckler), slashed at the archer, tearing its attention away from her, and giving her a chance to check on the healer. It was still where it had fallen, on one of the black squares. The undead healer had been petrified by one of the curses!

“Black Square Curses affect the enemy, too!” She called out, letting the rest of the team know. “Healer is petrified! Pour on the damage!”

Ryker Cooper, the Golden Knight, and their main tank and leader, laughed, and said, “All right, guys, we’re winning this fight! Toby, Aria, Julio, focus fire on the boss! Avery, keep the archer occupied. I’ll keep the warriors tied up. Tabby, help out where you can, but keep your [Hurricane Blast] ready, and keep focused on that healer. Every time they get back on the platform, I want you throwing them off it again!”

“””GOT IT!””” the crew chimed in.

With the archer forced into melee, and the healer basically out of commission, since their spells couldn’t penetrate the barrier, the fight quickly swung in their favor. Even the periodic groups of adds were of no concern, since Julio Brady, their Order of the Bow Initiate archer, could turn and shoot them down with ease from his perch on one of the walls. The [Wall-walking] skill was not something most people would take, since there were spells and equipment that did the same thing, but didn’t take up a skill point, but Julio didn’t use it like most people, who just saw it as a means to easily climb up ledges or avoid traps. Getting good line of sight with his bow thanks to being able to just… stand up by the ceiling was huge. Even more so when you considered that he was able to walk on the ceiling, except where antimagic fields were deployed, with no time limit or MP cost.

Tabitha used [Electric Blades] to cause her party’s weapons to start sparking like downed power lines in the rain. Well, minus Julio, since he was outside the barrier. At any rate, now their weapons were dealing some extra lightning damage, and had a small chance to stun on contact. Not a terribly large buff, but extra damage was extra damage, and it was a spell that had a set duration, meaning she didn’t need to worry about sustaining it or anything like that.

Toby Shepard, their Sunblessed Healer, brought his mace down on the boss’s hand, causing them to drop the scepter that was boosting their soul magic spells. No one knew exactly what effect all his spells had, because everyone was too scared to just let them hit and see what happened, but it was clear that the scepter he held was a focusing item, like a wizard’s staff. Which meant getting it away from him should lower the strength of his spells.

Aria Horn, the only other woman on their team, and a Shadowstriker Rogue, dived forward, slipping between the Pharaoh’s legs as she snatched up the scepter, clearly intending to play keep-away with it. However, all she managed to do was knock it off the platform, as she yelped in pain, the moment she touched the scepter, and then her body fell still, like a corpse. Or, more accurately, like an empty husk.

“She’s not dead!” Tabitha cried, to keep Toby from wasting magic. She’d seen the whisp of white pass from Aria’s body to the scepter, before it rolled off the platform. “I think her soul got sucked out by the scepter!”

“Julio!” Ryker called out, not taking his attention from the fight in front of him. “Priority intercept! No one touches that scepter, friend or foe! We’ll deal with trying to get Aria back at the end!”

“Understood,” answered the bowman, as he put two arrows into the healer’s face, causing the undead to stagger onto another black square, and begin dancing in place. “Will we have enough damage, though?”

“Tabby, start blasting mobs off the platform. Away from the scepter, if you can. That will ease up the burden, and let us work on ending this. [Sunder Shield]! [Golden Cleave]!”

Tabitha turned her attention away from Ryker, as he used two skills to reduce his targets’ defense, and cleave through them with a golden slash of his sword. Instead, she looked at the enemy archer, and hit him with a [Hurricane Blast], launching him from the platform, away from the scepter. The agile bowman recovered in mid-air, so he didn’t go sprawling like the dark priest had, but he still couldn’t help sliding into a black square, and getting a curse restricting him to melee attacks for thirty seconds.

That freed up Avery to turn on the boss, his dual blades carving into the mummy lord. The Pharaoh tried to defend himself, tried to use magic to attack, but without the healer to worry about, and only needing to cast a [Shield] now and then to ward off the archer’s arrows, she could help by using [Counterspell] on the Pharaoh’s casts. It wasn’t cheap, but there was no point in holding on to mana potions and not using them when needed.

“[Holy Judgement]!” Toby called out as he delivered a finishing blow to the mummy lord’s head. The boss fell to the ground, defeated, but the rest of the enemies still fought on. There was also the chance that the healer, if they got back on the stage, would be able to revive him, so it was too soon to celebrate just yet.

While Toby and Avery joined Ryker in taking on the warriors, Tabitha stepped off the stage, activating her [Cloud Platform] spell as she did so. A cloud formed under her feet. For anyone else, it was as insubstantial as a normal cloud. But for her, it was solid enough to stand or crouch on, allowing her to use it as a flying platform. Now, she hovered over the fallen scepter, and used [Mage Hand] to pick it up, lifting it up and out of reach from the healer and bowman, who were trying to get to it. She noticed that they were very adeptly avoiding curses, except when Julio’s arrows intercepted them, keeping them from getting to the scepter.

That was fine, however. The scepter was now out of reach, and, since she no longer needed to worry about the barrier, she could use some of her better spells, that she hadn’t been able to call upon thanks to the possibility of catching her party members in the crossfire. “[Wavecrash]! [Lightning Cone]!”

Two wide area damaging effects, one after the other. [Wavecrash] basically conjured an ocean wave to batter anyone in its path, dealing damage and, potentially, knocking them off their feet. It also left them soaking wet, which reduced their resistance to the lightning spell, which, as promised, created a crackling cone of lightning from her outstretched hand. The secondary effect of the cone kicked in, stunning both of the undead for thirty seconds. Long enough for black squares to sweep under them, cursing them with what looked like poison for the healer and silence for the bowman. Not particularly effective curses with that combination, but it still helped.

Julio’s arrows peppered them, striking what would have been vital organs, if undead had such things, since they couldn’t exactly move or fight back. Just as they were coming out of the stun, Avery danced past her, using his high DEX to move ahead of the black squares, and bringing his twin blades to bear on the last remaining enemies. And then, it was over, and the black squares faded into white.

Tabitha felt a twinge of magic next to her, as the enemies began disappearing, as they always did when a boss fight was done. Looking over the scepter, she saw it transform into dust, but a white light shot from it, to the chest that formed in front of the pharaoh’s throne. Looking down, she saw Aria was still motionless. Her soul hadn’t returned after the boss fight was over.

“Check the chest, hurry!” She said, as she dispelled her spells, and landed next to the fallen rogue. “I have a hunch something in there will help us save Aria!”