Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Thaden watched impassively as the last of the monsters from the first wave approached him only to die in midstride when they reached the range of his Wild Health Leach.  When the last of them had died, the slab of stone covering the entrance slid back into the ground, revealing the way back – if he chose to go through it.

1:59

Wave 2/9

Thaden spent the time until the next wave extracting loot from the corpses of the Lesser Rock Giants, Bassault Ants, and Dirt Runners.  While there hadn’t been any of the “Boss”-strength monsters that had attacked him, every single one of those that attacked him were Level 150 with a perceived Level of 195 – and as he extracted loot from them, he counted a total of 180 of them.  They moved out of the darkened archways in groups of 18, with 3 each of the Giants and Dirt Runners, while a dozen Ants accompanied them.  The combination of the different attack types would’ve been a slight challenge for a Raid Party, but he judged that it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal for them to defeat – especially considering all of the sections they would’ve cleared before making it to this point.

It was even easier for Thaden, who literally had to stand still and cast the occasional healing spell on himself or his Mirrored Vigil.

This time, when he extracted loot from the corpses of the monsters, their remains actually disappeared after a few seconds.  He figured this meant that the Assault Waves either didn’t respawn – or it was the final section of the dungeon; soon enough, he would find out which one it was.

Wave 2 introduced 6 – 2 of each type – of the Stone Giants, Granite Beetles, and Dirt Binders at Level 152 (Perceived Level 198) in addition to the 180 monsters from the first wave.  It was a small step up in difficulty for most Contender Raid Parties, but it wasn’t that bad.

Wave 3 doubled the number of Stone Giants, Beetles, and Binders from Wave 2, which was again not that big of a deal – for him or likely for Raid Parties.  The number of extractions he had to perform in between waves was getting annoying, but that problem was thankfully solved in the next wave.

In Wave 4, there wasn’t a single “lesser” monster that came for him.  Instead, there were only Stone Giants, Beetles, and Binders – 9 of each, for a total of 27.  Killing them didn’t take any longer than the waves before; if anything, it was easier because there were fewer targets to hit with his Leach spell.

Wave 5 was a little irritating because the Lesser monsters were back by themselves, but in numbers that were ridiculous.  Thaden couldn’t even extract all the loot from the 360 Ants that attacked him before the next wave started, so he was forced to instead focus first on the 45 Lesser Rock Giants and Runners that were included in the horde before getting to what he could of the Ants.

There was another big change in Wave 6, as he saw his first Mini Boss appear in the Assault Waves.  The Crystone Giant walked out of one of the archways at Level 155 (Perceived Level 202) with a smattering of additional monsters from all three previous secions to accompany it, but the biggest difference was that there was no shield of invulnerability around it.  As a result, Thaden ended up taking it out before even half of the other monsters were dead, but as soon as it cracked in half, the counter for the next wave started. 

Huh.  So, the Raid Parties would have to ensure they killed the smaller monsters first before taking down the Mini Boss, otherwise they might be stuck still fighting by the time the next wave arrived. 

Fortunately, Thaden didn’t have to worry about that, as he had everything cleared up before Wave 7 started.  As he was starting to predict, Wave 7 consisted of the Igneous Millipede at Level 157 (Perceived Level 204) with three dozen additional monsters accompanying it.  It fell just as easily as the first Mini Boss because it didn’t have its shield from the beginning, and he moved on to Wave 8 – which held a similar setup, but with the Monolith of Mud at Level 159 (Perceived Level 207).  After it was dead, there was a difference in the counter that appeared to his vision.

4:59

Wave 9/9

The biggest difference wasn’t that he had a full five minutes to wait until the next wave, though that was significant enough that it was noticeable.  What caught his attention the most was the fact that when the counter reached 0:00, the slab that normally blocked off the entrance didn’t appear.  It was as if the dungeon knew this final wave was harder than the others and was giving those inside a chance to retreat. 

He could well understand why some Raid Parties would want to do that.  While the waves hadn’t been too difficult by themselves, with most of them somewhat repeating what the Contenders would’ve already gone through to reach this point, the difficulty lay in how they were taken in quick succession.  Thaden didn’t need to wait to regenerate his Mana or his Health, after all, but that same benefit that he enjoyed wasn’t shared with any other Contender.  The Assault Waves would be a test of endurance and managing resources so that they could last all 9 of them without running on fumes half the time.

He was beginning to see how Raid Parties and these Intermediate Dungeons could teach the Contenders how to survive for longer periods of time against seemingly countless enemies; only by rationing resources instead of burning out immediately would they be able to survive.  He wasn’t entirely sure what the Adversary attacked worlds protected by the Assimilation System, but he could only assume that this kind of scenario was not only possible, but more common than he would’ve expected.

Shaking his head to clear it of all those thoughts, he looked around to see what would emerge from the dark archways.  After a few seconds, he started to become extremely confused as nothing seemed to be coming out, but that was when a shadow fell over him.  Looking up, he spotted what appeared to be a dragon—no, not quite. 

Stone Wyvern of the Gorge (Boss) – Intermediate Minimal

Stage 1

Level 165 (Perceived Level: 215)

As the Wyvern descended in a dive and a big woosh of air as it passed overhead, he saw a transparent light-brown shield covering it, which protected it from any damage as it hovered across from him approximately 100 feet away.  The Wyvern was something like 80 feet in length from vicious-looking jaws to its thin tail tipped with a cluster of spikes, and it had a wingspan twice as long.  When it whipped those wings back and forth, a cloud of dust from the floor of the coliseum billowed forth, attempting to blind him, but that wasn’t necessarily an attack; it was simply a natural part of such large wings moving back and forth.

Unlike what he thought a dragon possessed, the Wyvern only had a pair of back legs in addition to its wings, and not a pair of forelegs; it was more like a bird in that respect.  That being said, it was a formidable-looking monster that had dark brown scales covering its entire body, and wet-looking clumps of dirt clung to them as if it had just woke up after resting in a hill of mud for a while.  But what made the Stone Wyvern of the Gorge really intimidating was its claws, each of which were at least 5 feet long and shined with the appearance of sharp metal.

At least, that was the initial aspect of the Wyvern that made it seem dangerous, but within a second of starting to hover in its location and its shield faded away, a field of boulders began to form in the air above him before raining down on him like the sky was falling.  To top that off, it also screeched loudly and the sound of it slammed into him like a sonic boom, making him stagger backward from the force of it.  It didn’t actually hurt but appeared to be designed to stun and disorient him while knocking him on his butt; it wasn’t negated by his protections for some reason, but apparently his Physical and Magical Resistances were enough to resist the afflictions.

As he ran forward to get within range of the Wyvern for his Leach combination to hit it, he realized this was the first time he’d nearly been affected by an affliction by one of the monsters in this dungeon; all of the other physical and magical attacks that came near him had either been negated by his protections such as Damage Shield, his Mirrored Vigil, or his Incarnation of Protection.  But why did this get through?

The answer was easy enough to pinpoint once he thought about it for a half-second.  This was the first time he’d fought something above Level 190 (even if it was a Perceived Level), which apparently counted toward outstripping his protection from Superior Protective Guards and Superior Protective Barrier, both of which only worked up to Level 170.  His Hardest Protection Advancement upped that to Level 190, but these two spells were essentially worthless after that.  He hadn’t thought that Perceived Level counted toward their similar source Level limitations, so he hadn’t even thought about it being something that he would have to worry about for a while.

The realization that he’d been protecting himself with only Damage Shield and Stacking Buffers made him feel a little more vulnerable than before.  Thankfully, they were fairly strong now, and along with his insanely high maximum Health and Resistances thanks to the multiple Plates on his equipment, he wasn’t in danger of dying anytime soon, but that complete invulnerability he’d had before was gone.  There were other spells that he’d acquired lately that would work for higher-Level sources, of course, but he wasn’t set up to use them right now.

As he outraced the rain of boulders, now taking special care to avoid them rather than let them hit his protections, he quickly came in range of the Wyvern and slammed a Full Heal on himself, Leaching a massive amount of Health from the Boss.  The monster’s wingbeats suddenly froze as the Wyvern flash-turned to full-on stone like Medusa had looked at it, and it shattered into pieces as it hit the floor of the coliseum.  At the same time, however, another shield surrounded the scattered pieces, as if it was trying to protect it beyond death.

Before he could investigate further, he was distracted by movement in a couple of the darkened archways as a number of Stone Giants, Granite Beetles, and Dirt Runners at Level 155 emerged and moved toward him.  As he sent his Mirrored Vigil to start killing them with the Leach combo, he looked back at the Wyvern and noticed a change come over its nametag.

Stone Wyvern of the Gorge (Boss) – Intermediate Minimal

Stage 1 -> Final Stage

Level 165 -> 170 (Perceived Level: 215 -> 221)

It took him a moment of looking at the glowing pieces of the Wyvern that quickly faded a few seconds later to realize what was likely going on.  He could only assume that when the Wyvern got down to a certain Health percentage, it would undergo a change and become stronger while it was protected by the invulnerable shield.  Thaden messed that up a bit when he essentially destroyed it in one hit, but the System attempted to enact the change anyway.

Uh, oh.  Did I just mess up and attract attention to myself again?

He hoped not, but he’d deal with it if he did. 

It didn’t take long for his Vigil to take out the rest of the additional monsters, and as soon as they died, the shield surrounding the pieces of the Wyvern shattered in dramatic fashion, as it was accompanied by a thump that he could feel in his chest.  The reveal of the “Final Stage” of the Wyvern was anticlimactic, as there was only a pile of rubble with vaguely recognizable pieces that had originally belonged to the Boss. 

With its official “death”, the slab of stone covering the exit descended into the floor, freeing up access to leave the dungeon.  Or at least he assumed that was the case, given that he’d just defeated the dungeon’s Boss, but who knew how these Intermediate dungeons operated?

After extracting the loot from the most recent wave of monsters as well as the Boss, Thaden made his way to the newly revealed exit. 

“What the—  Holy crap!” he couldn’t help but shout out in surprise as he entered what ended up being the treasure room at the end of the dungeon.  Though, based on the huge size of the room and number of items he saw, it was more like a treasure vault, because there was so many items that he was a bit overwhelmed.  There were at least a dozen armor and weapon stands scattered around the room, along with dozens of individual chests and piles of coins scattered about.  There were even small alcoves dug into the stone walls that held even more stuff, and it was practically falling out onto the floor. 

“I… uh… well, I suppose that this much stuff would make sense for a whole Raid Party,” he murmured to himself as he looked around with a clearer eye.  “Though most of looks like junk to me.”  He spotted a few Rare pieces here and there scattered among the equipment he could visually see on the armor stands and weapon racks, but almost everything else looked like Uncommon in quality with a few Common items thrown in.  As he began opening up chests and storing what he found inside into his Inventory, he found Major Health and Mana Potions, pockets of coins with the majority of them being Silver with a few Gold, and a plethora of Uncommon and a few more Rare Accessories.  As he swiftly looted everything, he didn’t look at anything too closely other than to check the Rarity, and he didn’t see a single Epic or higher item in the entire room.  It was a bit disappointing, but he supposed that most of the Contenders who finished this particular Intermediate dungeon were more concerned with acquiring PICK and earning what rewards they could get from completing Guild Quests. 

Before he completely left the now-empty treasure room, he glanced at the AMP Synchronization indicator in the corner of his vision, seeing that it had shot all the way up to 99.3%.  He waited for about a half-minute to see if it would tick up another point, but it didn’t appear as though it was going to budge while he was watching it.  Shaking his head at the mysterious process, Thaden finally exited the dungeon, pushing the stone wall at the back of the treasure room open to find himself on the other side of the Crestline Gorge dungeon.  It was familiar enough to him because of his previous visits, and as he looked around the hilly region with the Ragewater Sea – which didn’t rage nearly as much as it used to – off to his right, he saw that he wasn’t alone.

“Hey, is he one of yours?” said a feminine voice near the edge of one of the large groups that seemed to be congregating around the exit.  A quick look showed that two different Guilds who appeared to have just recently completed the Intermediate dungeon were resting and recovering, if the exhausted and somewhat bloody appearances of those he saw was anything to go by.

“No… he’s not in any Guild, it appears,” said another Contender from the other Guild group.  “Poor guy, I think he was running the basic dungeons in there.  Must’ve lost his party inside.” 

“Yeah, looks that way… wait.  Did you check out his name?  It’s that guy at the top of the Rankings!”

Looking closer at the two groups, he saw that the second one to speak was from the {Past Mistakes} Guild – whatever that was supposed to be – and the first one, Francesca, was from a very familiar Guild: {Guilded Glory}.  Huh.  I wonder if Rachel would be willing to work with me on my Evolution Assignment.  Addressing Francesca, who appeared to be a Support Class, he smiled and approached her.  “Ah, you recognize me?  I guess I have made a name for myself a bit,” he told her with a wink that made him feel a little uncomfortable, but fortunately his relatively high Charisma made it seem a bit more natural.  “Tell me, is Rachel still your Guildmaster?  I’ve been a bit out of touch for a bit,” he added with a bit of an apology for asking.

“The Guildmaster?  Oh, yes, she’s still in charge.  Why do you ask?”

“Do you have any idea where I could find her?  I have a question I’d like to ask her.”

Francesca shook her head, but then turned to her Raid Party and shouted, “Anyone have access to the Guildmaster?  Or does anyone know where she is?”

No one seemed to have direct access to Rachel, but two separate people quickly reported that she was last seen in Darkwood Vale. 

“And that’ll be 100 Gold for the information,” Francesca said with a smile, holding her hand out.  He’d forgotten for a moment that the Guilded Glory was a Guild intent on making money, but he smiled and pulled out 200 Gold before handing it to her in a little pouch he had in his Inventory.  It didn’t hurt to tip, after all, and while he hadn’t checked yet, Thaden was fairly sure that he’d earned a lot more than that inside the dungeon. 

“Thank you for doing business with Guilded Glory.  I hope you find what you’re looking for,” she replied in a rote sort of tone when she took the Gold.  She looked around herself with her eyes without moving her head, before she dropped the volume of her voice.  “I can give you this back if you’re willing to share what you’re doing here.”

Thaden waved away the offer.  “There’s no need to return it, I’ll tell you that for free,” he replied in a similar tone before raising his voice.  “I was just soloing the Intermediate dungeon on Minimal difficulty; I’ve been out of touch for a few months and haven’t been able to test myself against one quite yet.  It was easier than I thought it would be,” he added after a few seconds, grinning as he caught the shocked and disbelieving faces of the people who heard him – which was just about everyone nearby, as he had raised his voice enough that they could easily hear his proclamation. 

It wasn’t necessarily to boast, though that was part of it.  Rather, it was mainly to try and establish his worth to prospective Guilds if his idea of having Rachel help him didn’t work out the way he hoped.  If they knew he could solo an Intermediate dungeon by himself, then he might be worthy of consideration.

He wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was worth a try, nonetheless.  He couldn’t think of any other way at the moment, so he was willing to puff up his abilities a little if it got what he needed from a Guild.

Rather than wait around and try to answer the accusations of lying that he could sense were coming from the assembled Guilds, he instead took off, applying a good portion of his Celerity to essentially disappear from their sight within seconds.  Flying across the ground toward Rageharbor, he wanted to get back to his room so he could go over his gains from the Intermediate dungeon while also solidifying his idea to talk to Rachel from the Guilded Glory Guild.  He still had the communication stone she had given him in his possession, but he wasn’t exactly sure how to use it to get her attention and ask her for her help.  Besides, he’d rather talk to her face-to-face rather than clandestine service posts on the Contender Market.

It felt like it took forever to reach Rageharbor, but in reality it was only about 20 minutes before he was able to get inside the city and make his way up to his room, where he collapsed on the bed with a sigh.  There was a lot to think about considering the Intermediate dungeons, the Guilds that seemed to have a stranglehold on Raid Parties, and what his plans were going forward…

…but now it was time to check out his rewards from the dungeon he’d just completed.