Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Though his departure from the Aelveen was rather abrupt, and with everything going on with the Adversary right now harkening a crisis of epic proportions, Thaden’s trip to the dungeon wasn’t just a selfish desire to check out a Maximal difficulty Intermediate dungeon without the risk of a Nexus Corrupter or a Legion Commander popping out to mess everything up. 

At least, it wasn’t only a selfish desire to check out this dungeon that caused him to leave the Aelveen so abruptly.  He was still a bit salty about not being able to extract anything from The Badlands dungeon, after all, and he wanted to see if he could assuage that itch for loot somewhere else.

In the end, the main reason he was there was his need to distance himself from the Wardens and their Quest to save the world – for a short time, at least.  Just dealing with them had left his temper and emotions more than a little frazzled, and he needed to get his head on straight if he wanted to work with them successfully.  Ideally, without resorting to killing and Resurrecting them every time they made decisions that put the world in danger.  The sheer fact that he felt like he had to police the “Wardens of Tarth” was most assuredly pushing his personal responsibility in this whole situation way too far, but they had ticked him off enough by this point that he felt like he didn’t have a choice. 

And if there was anything he’d discovered about himself while living in Tarth, it was that he didn’t appreciate being backed into a corner without a choice.  He hadn’t responded well in his actions or even with his thoughts when presented with no options other than to work against the System’s plans.  Then again, even when I had options, I haven’t always made the smartest choices.  But that was beside the point, as he was trying to grow, to improve his interactions with people, and—hopefully—make good choices not only for himself, but for the rest of the Contenders from back home.

With the way he was feeling after dealing with the Aelveen, he had felt like he was at the point where he was going to make some poor choices.  His entire interaction with them up to that point could potentially be considered a poor choice from the get-go, but what was done was done, and he could only conclude that it had somewhat worked out in the end. 

Regardless, he was ready for a nice, relaxing solo delve through a Maximal difficulty Intermediate dungeon to clear his head and to reset his social interaction tolerance for the future.  The same might be achieved by staying in a luxurious, Diamond-Ranked room at an Adventurer Coalition building, but this way he didn’t have to worry about how people would react to the Aelveen following him to the city – because he was 100% positive that they would refuse to let him out of their sight.  Plus, this way, he got to blow off some steam by killing hundreds or thousands of monsters; in short, the dungeon was a win-win as far as he was concerned.

You have entered The Mines of Khanordun Intermediate Raid Dungeon (Maximal Difficulty)!

The Mines of Khanordun Intermediate Raid Dungeon

Current Difficulty: Minimal   Medial   Maximal

Maximum Raid Party Size: 350

Recommended Raid Party Levels: 370 - 390

As he stepped into the dungeon, he was greeted by a long, circular, dug-out tunnel reaching 20 feet in diameter – which was what he expected to see.  As Sadia appeared next to him, he reviewed what he knew about this dungeon, at least from the information the Guild had on its Basic dungeon and scouting of the Minimal difficulty Intermediate version. 

The Mines of Khanordun was modeled after what he would consider a “Dwarven” mine – if this was some sort of fantasy story – but instead of there being Dwarven-type monsters inside, it was instead full of different Golems that took over the role of mining.  There were supposedly long, twisting mine shafts that not only held Golem monsters, but an array of glowing metallic ore and crystal veins that leant the dungeon a vibrant quality that was apparently quite pleasurable to simply walk through.  He’d always been partial to Dwarves and their typical underground lifestyle, and while he might have originally been a little claustrophobic at the thought of exploring caves or abandoned mines back on Earth, he’d been in so many dungeons of different kinds by this point that it didn’t really bother him.  At least, not too much; he had no desire to try squeezing through tiny shafts that he could imagine collapsing on him at any point, but this dungeon reportedly didn’t have anything like that.  Theoretically, it could be different in its Intermediate form, but he doubted it; with so many individuals in a Raid Party, having tiny shafts or crawlspaces for people to wiggle through didn’t sound like something an Intermediate dungeon should have.

Of course, if he was wrong, he would simply turn around and go back if it became too much.  He had no need to complete this dungeon; he was simply trying to unwind a bit, and crawling through tight spaces didn’t sound relaxing.

Without a word, the two of them walked down the long grey stone tunnel with clear pickaxe- and chisel-marks along the walls, the entire length of it illuminated by a series of magical lanterns set in iron sconces every 20 feet or so.  In other words, there was plenty of light to see by, and it was a comforting light that was already making him feel relaxed.

After approximately 500 feet, the tunnel abruptly turned to the right, so Thaden and Sadia took the new route immediately.  When they fully moved through the turn, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face as the tunnel opened into a massive semi-spherical cavern, stretching at least a half-mile in diameter, with a largely flat stone floor with a number of random rock piles scattered about. 

But it wasn’t the cavern itself that made him smile – it was the sight of the multi-colored crystal stalactites growing down from the ceiling, as well as being embedded along the relatively smooth walls.  The crystals glowed with a soft light, but with so many of them in the cavern, it helped to illuminate the entire thing without any need of magical lanterns. 

It was a beautiful sight, and the stress of the last few hours started to melt away as the view of the cavern’s amazing ambience filled his vision.

“Ah, this is exactly what I needed,” he said to Sadia, who’s eyes reflected the glowing crystals perfectly.  “A gorgeous dungeon with monsters to kill – there’s nothing that could ruin this.” 

And, inevitably, as he stepped into the spherical room with the squirrel by his side, something decided to ruin it.  A shaking of the entire dungeon had him stumbling around, barely keeping to his feet despite his high Celerity stat, and the majority of the glowing crystals started to dim, until they were only a shadow of their former brilliance.  It was now just barely bright enough inside the cavern to see its basic shape, but the pretty and relaxing view was now gone.

“What’s going on?!  Is this the Adversary again?” he asked, but as he felt around with his senses, he couldn’t feel even a single trace of any concentrations of Adversarial energy.

“No, this is something else entirely,” Sadia said, barely audible over the rumbling seemingly coming from everywhere.  Off toward one side of the walls, he heard what sounded like a rock collapse, but it was too dark to see anything clearly; the only thing he saw was a deeper darkness in that direction, as if a hole had been forcefully opened.  “I think it might be a Challe—”

Warning!  Excessive digging in The Mines of Khanordun has proven to be a mistake!  Unfortunately, friendly miners have stumbled upon something that had been long sealed away, unleashing a swarm of horrific monsters that threaten the world of Tarth if they were ever to escape.  It is your job to hold out against these forces of death and pestilence for as long as possible, giving enough time for reinforcements to arrive. 

However, as all great warriors should know, retreating in order to live and fight another day is paramount to success in the long-term; do not throw your lives away today so that there is no one to defend your loved-ones tomorrow.  Knowing your limits is every bit as important as flexing your strengths, so once the time comes when your defense would fail, when you cannot lift that sword to strike down your enemy because your fatigue grows too strong, or when you have already taken too many casualties and cannot hold against the forces assaulting your position, do not hesitate to touch the central artifact orb to enact a single-use barrier, granting you 10 minutes of safety to gather your dead and retreat.

Rewards for your performance are based upon the total monster value of those killed before retreating.  

The Endless Onslaught Challenge will begin in 5 minutes once all party members assemble in the central cavern!

All party members accounted for!  Horde Siege Challenge commencing in 4:59!

“Hey, uh, Sadia?  What’s this?” he asked as soon as he was done reading the details of the Endless Onslaught Challenge.  Before she could answer, however, a glowing light emerged from the center of the cavern, which seemed to highlight a short pillar of stone with a spherical, glowing, blue orb attached to the top of it. 

“Well, as you read, this is an Endless Onslaught Challenge,” the squirrel said with a shrug.  “Unlike the Assault Waves or even the Undead Horde Siege Challenges you’ve done, this Challenge truly is endless; there are no Bosses that you need to kill in order to win and there are no clear conditions that can be met in a speedy manner.  This is simply what it sounds like; monsters will continuously attack in an endless onslaught that will, theoretically, never stop.  However, I can tell you that while the initial monsters are going to be relatively weak, as time goes on, the monsters will become stronger and stronger.

“Which is why that is there,” she explained, pointing toward the glowing blue orb on a pedestal.  “That is your ticket out of here when things get too rough for you; all you have to do is touch it to push back the monsters with an impenetrable barrier – which stops all internal attacks from reaching outside it, as well – and giving you a chance to retreat down the original tunnel we just walked through.  And don’t worry about the orb being damaged, because it is completely invulnerable and immovable, so it will always be there for when you need it.”

Thaden thought about the Challenge for a moment before nodding.  “Got it.  But what does total monster value mean when it was referring to rewards?”

“Simple.  Weaker monsters are worth ‘less’ than stronger monsters.  So, if a wave of basic Level 300 Goblins were to attack you, each might only be worth something like ‘1 point’ when determining their value.  A Level 400 Ogre, which is not only larger and stronger than a Goblin, might be worth ’20 points’ or something equivalent to its actual monster value.  In all, this should be a pretty good Challenge for you…

“… but I have some bad news, however.”

He sighed, even as he saw the counter reach 3 minutes.  “Let me guess, no loot or PICK?”

“Oh, they’ll be PICK for you.  In fact, historically, these types of Challenges are typically very popular with Contenders in the past, as it can provide a whole lot of PICK to the Raid Parties rather quickly – as long as they can hold on for a while against the endless waves of monsters.  But you’re correct in your guess that there won’t be any loot; similar to the overall theme of the Horde Siege Challenge, what reward you’ll instead receive will come from your final score at the end when you decide to leave.”

It wasn’t all bad, he supposed, as he’d at least be getting PICK.  And with the way his Achievements worked, he would get some from every single monster, even if he started out killing thousands of Level 1s.  Then again, the reward from the Undead Horde Siege was a full set of equipment minus the accessories, so perhaps this one will be similar.  If I can get some loot that I can actually use, I’d say that beats out extracting loot from tens of thousands of monsters and only receiving a few random pieces I can actually wear.

“Alright, I guess we can see what this Challenge is all about,” he said after a few seconds of consideration.  It wasn’t like he was going to leave now, especially since he was already there, and he didn’t mind the extra PICK at all.  “Anything else I should know?”

Sadia began to shake her head, before she seemed to think of something.  “Actually, yes.  It’s more of a warning than anything else.”  After a pause, she continued.  “When it says that it’s endless, that’s absolutely true.  When I said the monsters get stronger over time, that’s also true.  What I didn’t mention, however, is that while they don’t necessarily come in waves, there is no stop to them; what that essentially means is that as soon as one monster dies, another one enters the cavern to take its place.

“Normally, a Raid Party will take position and set up killing fields where they can steadily eliminate the monsters to keep a fairly regular flow to the incoming monsters that they can easily handle.  With Control Classes basically incapacitating a good portion of those incoming monsters, they literally control the pace of the battle so that no one is overwhelmed and they can conserve their energy when the stronger monsters come out later.  It’s both a test of endurance and patience, because if they kill indiscriminately at a rapid pace, they might end up being overwhelmed later when, instead of only a few at a time, hundreds of powerful monsters suddenly swarm them.

“For some context, since this isn’t a time-based Challenge, most Raid Parties – on average – use this time wisely, which means that lasting more than 6 or 7 hours to get to the point where they have to retreat with their dead isn’t uncommon.”

Thaden could see how that could happen, especially if they took their time to methodically kill one monster at a time, giving their Control Classes the opportunity to tie up the additional monsters that replaced the ones that died.  “I understand, at least somewhat.  Why the warning, though?”

“Because I also didn’t mention that, as far as I know, there is no upper limit to the strength of the monsters that will begin to attack you,” she answered.  “With the way your spells operate, with no way to control the flow, that means that the danger will rapidly progress for you.  Just be prepared to retreat when it gets too rough.”

Ah.  I see now.  “Will do.  Thank you for the warning.”

She just nodded in response, while the two of them watched the countdown tick away.  Soon enough, the Challenge was all set to start, and Thaden double-checked that he was as prepared as possible.

The moment the counter hit 0:00, there was a horrific screech that came from the dark hole that had been created when the entire cavern rumbled, followed by movement streaming out of that same hole.  It didn’t take long for him to see that it wasn’t the Golems he had been expecting, but was instead a swarm of black-shelled bugs, each the size of a medium-sized dog and shaped like a beetle but with the legs of a spider. 

Deepdweller Scout – Intermediate Maximal

Level 325 (Perceived Level: 423)

At Level 325, they were relatively weak even for this Maximal difficulty dungeon with a Level range of 370 to 390 – but there were a lot of them.  He couldn’t count them, mainly because they were hard to see even in the illumination that the glowing orb he stood near gave off, but also because they skittered over the ground and the random rock piles like an unending wave.  Before they got close enough for him to get a better look, however, they hit the line where his and Sadia’s Leach spells sucked the life right out of them, collapsing in death near-instantly. 

There was enough light to see what happened to them after they died, however, and it explained why there wasn’t any loot to extract from them.  Each Deepdweller Scout collapsed in death and then practically evaporated away, much faster than when he extracted loot from a corpse.  It was almost as if they were simply a shadow of a normal monster, and when they no longer had life in them, there was nothing keeping them together.

I guess that’s one way of keeping the battlefield clean.  He couldn’t imagine what it would look like after an hour or so of killing monsters and they didn’t disappear like that; he wouldn’t be surprised if the dead eventually filled up the entire cavern.  Fortunately, a towering pile of corpses falling on him wasn’t something he had to worry about, so he simply stood there and cast his healing spells, watching as the endless onslaught literally evaporated before his very eyes.

It didn’t take more than 20 seconds of constant monster-destruction to get through the initial surge of Deepdweller Scouts, when slightly larger beetle-spider versions appeared. 

Deepdweller Ambusher – Intermediate Maximal

Level 330 (Perceived Level: 429)

Despite their higher Level, the Deepdweller Ambushers didn’t last any longer than the Scouts.  They couldn’t really stand up to what Thaden and his companion were dishing out, after all.  But now he was looking forward to seeing just what was going to come out next.

With a smile of anticipation, he watched as the next grouping of newer, slightly more-powerful monsters entered the cavern, knowing that it was only a matter of time before he encountered something that actually challenged him….  

Chapter 24: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120553513