Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Expecting to see something similar to the Mausoleum of Despair, which was a massive arena where he was confronted by multiple Mini Bosses and capped off by the extremely powerful Monarch of the Dead Boss, Thaden was in for a completely different experience when he started walking through the tunnel to the Boss cave.  The first thing that happened was that there was an abrupt turn to the tunnel that, once he started walking down it, he realized cut off any lingering light from the previous room.  In other words, he was walking through complete darkness that even his glowing Fields couldn’t penetrate deeply through, and it wasn’t even due to being blinded or because of some sort of magical effect – or at least not one that he could sense, anyway.

The second was that the feeling of pressure ramped up to a higher potency with each step.  Back in the Mausoleum, Thaden – along with Sarah’s party – had been forced into a confrontation with the Monarch of the Dead and its Mini Bosses, but here it felt like there was a warning that was giving him the opportunity to turn back. 

He almost did, too, as the Level Compression that Sarah had mentioned made his knees buckle to the point where he could barely keep walking.  Using Major Cure Mental Affliction was just enough to push past the worse of the oppression, allowing him to move again, but it was a struggle.  He was slightly worried at this point, because it somehow felt worse than when Nehetmo had suppressed him, but the Monarch had been 40 Levels higher than him at the time.  If this Boss was the same, or more, then he was in trouble. 

Before he went any further, he switched out some of his healing spells for Death Ward once again and waited for the cooldown to end before using it on himself.  If the Boss was over Level 100, which seemed impossible for a dungeon that had monsters thus far only up to Level 75, and that was just in the last few caves, then he couldn’t see it being that much higher than them.

Once he was as prepared as possible, he shuffled ahead, keeping his right hand brushed up against the tunnel wall to orient himself.  When he felt the wall come to an end, he looked out into the thick darkness and couldn’t see a single thing.

ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR—

The roar of some sort of beast was literally deafening as it reverberated throughout the cave, passing through his Fields as if they weren’t there, and he experienced a complete lack of sound coming in through his ears – but he could see feel it in his chest as his knees collapsed underneath him.  He rapidly cast Major Cure Physical Affliction on himself and his hearing came back, only to hear what might’ve been the same or even a second roar that deafened him once again, so he decided to ignore his lack of hearing and concentrate on what he could sense before bringing his hearing back again.

The ground under his knees literally shook as he something came toward him, but he couldn’t see a thing.  As he strained his eyes to make anything out in the feeble glow of his ongoing protection spells, the face of a bear suddenly loomed in front of him, causing him to elicit a tiny—but manly, of course—squeak of fear as he fell backwards.  It wasn’t the sight of a what appeared to be a black bear that scared him, because he was still halfway expecting it, but the sheer size of the face and head.

It was the size of a bus.  Not the entire bear’s body… just its head.  He couldn’t see the whole thing in the darkness, but extrapolating it based on the size of the head, the Boss was enormous. 

A clawed paw came slamming down on him as he lay on the floor of the cave, and he winced as it bounced off his Field.  He wasn’t entirely sure he would survive the attack because he hadn’t gotten a chance to see what it was that he was fighting, but he breathed a sigh of relief when it prevented all the damage; he felt even better when he managed to finally get a glimpse of the Boss’s name and Level, as it was almost impossible to see in the darkness.

Denmother Direbear of Supreme Darkness (Boss) – Maximal

Level 95

Denmother?  What is that supposed to mean?

His question was answered a second later.

“YOU DESTROYED ALL OF THOSE WITHIN MY CARE!  SUFFER THEIR WRATH BEFORE I RIP YOU TO PIECES FOR YOUR SACRILEGE!”

It can talk?  And what does it mean by suffer their wrath—?  Oh. 

The answer to that made itself known as Thaden was suddenly surrounded by shadowy forms that he could barely see in the oppressive darkness around him, but he recognized their shape well enough: Shadowcoons, Ebon Vixens, and Molemurks.  He imagined that there were probably some Deerkin Gloomwielders out there somewhere he couldn’t see, but that wasn’t important at the moment; he was suddenly surrounded by dozens of shadowy figures, all attempting to sink their inky appendages into him. 

Are they undead now?  He thought that they might be the ghosts of the monsters he’d slain on his way through the dungeon, but a quick experiment with Major Healing Burst proved that his guess was incorrect.  Instead, they were simply shadowy vessels that just looked like the previous monsters, not a spiritual reincarnation of them.

So, just like he did against those monsters through the dungeon, he set up a Major Wild Health Leach process in which to start leaching Health from them, but it didn’t take long before something became apparent.

Any damage that he did to them, or that they did to themselves from reflected damage, was almost immediately healed.  He could only guess that because they were literally made of shadows, the darkness in the cave was complete enough that it acted as a perpetual source of healing.  After about a minute of watching this, however, he also discovered that something was different concerning the Denmother.  The fact that he could see something different was proof enough that something was happening, because he could see more and more of the Boss with every passing second as the darkness that pervaded the cave began to thin.

Unfortunately, it too was being healed automatically of any damage it was doing, but unlike the Magma Colossus, it seemed as though the darkness had an end to it, unlike the river of magma that had healed the other boss. 

It took another 10 minutes of constantly healing his designated target and allowing the leaching of Health to continue, but the gloom that had once completely filled the cave was now thin enough for Thaden to see more than 10 feet away at a time.

Another 30 minutes later allowed him to see the distant walls of the cave, which seemed to be about 300 feet away at its widest, and 200 feet at its narrowest; the most distant portions were still a bit vague, but they were still somewhat visible.  The massive Denmother was also completely visible by this point, though the Lifewarden wished it had stayed hidden in darkness because it was so impossibly large that it barely seemed to fit inside cave.  There was technically more than enough room for it to move around, but it perhaps it was because he felt completely dwarfed by it sheer size that it seemed like it could barely fit.

At an hour, the ceiling was finally visible as the last of the darkness was consumed from the room to power the constant healing of the shadowy monsters, who were looking more and more transparent as time went on.  It was only a short few minutes later that the entire Boss room was free of any shadows, the light that was trying to break through from multiple holes in the ceiling were finally allowed to shine freely inside. 

That proved to be the final straw for the shadow figures, as they all immediately dissolved into thin air.  From the vibrations he felt on his body when they were vanquished, he assumed they probably growled and roared as they were killed, but he hadn’t brought his hearing back for a while; whenever he did, it was like the Denmother could tell and subsequently roared, interrupting its attack to do so.  This was counterproductive for Thaden, as more attacks against his Fields meant more reflected damage, so he had left himself deaf for the moment. 

And then it was just him versus the Denmother, who didn’t seem to have anything other than a big paw that swiped at or smashed into him, and an occasional bite that made him gag from the rancid breath it breathed on him.  It took another 30 minutes for the big bear to get itself down to 10%, looking ragged and bleeding inky blood from numerous wounds, but then it suddenly backed off, both startling and worrying him.  His alarm only increased when it opened its mouth and roared again – which he could feel but not hear – and a huge black cloud streamed out of its throat. 

Oh, no!  Is it bringing back all the darkness to heal itself?  This is just like the Magma Colossus—

His worry was unfounded as the dark cloud suddenly contracted into a dense sphere as it floated toward Thaden, almost throbbing with concentrated power that was looking to be released.  As it touched his Absorption Field, it exploded with such force that he could feel the wind blowing at his robe and he took a step back, as thousands of sharp spears of darkness shot out in all directions, which would’ve impaled anything in the cave with deadly impartiality. 

“Phew!” he said, wiping the faux sweat from his brow.  “You had me worried there for a second, my scary little teddy friend.  Incredibly powerful spells designed to absolutely devastate the back line of a Contender party is something I can handle,” he joked with a little chuckle.

The Denmother then created another and then another condensed sphere of shadowy death spears, one right after another, but that was fine with Thaden, because it was still being damaged from the reflected damage of his Field; if anything, it was even more damage being done to it with each explosion of darkness, as the spell was apparently quite powerful – which was surprising when he though of the paws that was the size of an SUV slamming into him or the claws that were each the size of a claymore sword attempted to cut him in half.

After 5 minutes of condensed darkness spheres, the Denmother finally fell, defeated essentially by its own attacks.  It took longer than he would’ve liked, but at least he didn’t have to retreat like he did at the Magma Dungeon; he was genuinely worried when he saw that everything was healing, but all it took was outlasting the darkness in the cave for him to achieve victory.  That, and patience, which wasn’t always his strong suit, but when facing such overwhelming odds, he was just glad that he was able to hold on long enough to see it through.

As the Denmother fell, the pressure of its Level Compression – which he had slowly gotten used to over time – disappeared, and he was able to get up without any difficulty.  He still wasn’t sure why the Compression felt even worse than it did from Nehetmo despite there being less of a Level gap, but it was something that he would have to keep in mind in the future.  If the dungeon from his Quest had an even stronger Boss, then he wouldn’t just have to worry about his Fields not being able to prevent damage from them, but the Compression could incapacitate him to the point where he couldn’t even think. 

In other words, Thaden badly needed to get his new Class so he could increase his Level to prevent something like that happening.  With that in mind, he hurried to extract the Boss without looking at what he received from it yet, and then quickly moved toward a glowing spot on the far wall of the cave.  Once there, he found a cleverly hidden passageway that he could squeeze through, and he found himself in a relatively small, natural-looking cave.  Inside it weren’t chests and armor stands, but instead what appeared to be the staged remains of Adventurers that the Denmother had killed over the years and where it threw all the useless junk it couldn’t eat – as if it were all trash.

Of course, that trash, even piled up haphazardly, was anything but garbage… and almost entirely unusable by Thaden.

He found a full, 4-piece Legendary set of Mage Class cloth armor, similar to the Royal Assassin set he’d found in the Mausoleum of Despair.

Shadow Mage Robe of Illusion

Rarity: Legendary

Class Restrictions: Mage

Level Restriction: 80

Physical Damage Resistance: 10

Magical Damage Resistance: 50

+120 Mentality

+30 Celerity

+15 Personality

+50% Increase in effectiveness to all dark and shadow spells and effects

20% Decrease in all dark and shadow spell costs

Set Bonus (2): +33% dark and shadow spell damage, +90 Mentality

Set Bonus (4): All previous Set Bonuses, the wearer is covered by an illusionary camouflage when casting any spell, +66% dark and shadow spell damage, +120 Mentality, and +25 Fortuity

Each piece was similar in their bonuses, and it was composed of a robe, a familiar turban that he’d seen on the Deerkin, a pair of cloth and leather boots, and a belt – which wasn’t something that he had even considered as a clothing item until then.  He would have to look into purchasing one in the future if he didn’t find one that he could use.

There were also a plethora of weapons for Scouts, Mages, and Control Classes in the Rare to Epic range, as well as another full set of Leather Dusk armor for a Scout, and a jumble of necklaces and rings that he couldn’t use.  They all went into his Inventory anyway, as he figured he might be able to sell them later if he needed money, but with the additional 200 gold coins he found in the treasure room, he didn’t think that was going to be necessary anytime soon.

There were, however, two items that he could technically use, though only one was designed for a Support Class.

Major Supportive Focus Stone of Darkness

Rarity: Epic

Class Restrictions: Support

Level Restriction: 75

Physical Damage Modifier: +0

+90 Mentality

+33% decrease in casting time for all Support spells

+9% decrease in Support spell mana cost

Spells cast through the Major Supportive Focus Stone of Darkness have a 10% chance to cause a blindness affliction

Unfortunately, Thaden couldn’t yet use the Major Supportive Focus Stone of Darkness because it had a Level Restriction of 75.  The other item, though, was something that anyone could wear, and it only had a Level Restriction of 60.

Hood of Obscurity

Rarity: Epic

Class Restrictions: All

Level Restriction: 60

Physical Damage Resistance: 0

When worn, obscures the wearer’s nametag and Level and face from most determined inspections by other Contenders

At first, he wasn’t exactly sure what use obscuring his nametag and Level would be considering that he had the ability to change it to show whatever he wanted, but only a few seconds of thought revealed how powerful it could be – at least to someone wanting to sneak around somewhere.  It would certainly be ideal for an Assassin Class that was determined to kill Contenders that were a higher Level than them, but it could also be useful to Thaden when he simply wanted to pass through an area where he didn’t want his nametag to shout out his presence.  For instance, just thinking about the situation he encountered before he had entered The Den, if he had wanted to hang back and observe without being spotted, it would’ve been much easier without visible words pinpointing his location from the forest.

And by hiding his face, at least from all but the most intense of inspections, he could gain another measure of anonymity.  

Sadly, the Hood didn’t have any other stats that it boosted or spells it improved, but he thought it actually looked a lot better than the Wolfen Magma Cap he had been wearing.  That, and it matched his new Shadow Silk Robe of Darkness’ Embrace fairly well, as if they were a matching set.

Sure, he was going to lose 9 Mentality, a 9% increase in casting speed, and an extra 9% Heat Resistance, but the anonymity was worth it all by itself.  He could theoretically help people he passed by without revealing who exactly he was, or even complete Quests in a Coalition branch without gaining too much notoriety.  Then again, if I saw someone that didn’t have a nametag and I couldn’t see their face, that might give them even more notoriety.  Better scratch that last idea, but the first is certainly doable.

While he was storing all the loot from the treasure room, he also took a look at what he’d extracted from the Denmother Boss, he found that it was another single item, similar to what he’d extracted from the Magma Colossus.

Major Onyx Gem of Twisting Shadows  

Rarity: Legendary

Crafting Reagent

Another crafting reagent.  Woohoo.  The Lifewarden was sure that something awesome could be created from it, as well as the Weak Heart of the Mountain he gained from the Colossus, but he never did get a chance to find out more about local crafters specializing in such things in Forgestone.  If he had time, Thaden would look into it more in Rageharbor when he got there, but for now it wasn’t too important to him.

When he was done with the treasure cave and equipping the one item he could actually use, he followed another glowing spot on the cave’s wall and found his way out of The Den.  A long tunnel led toward the side of the entrance, and emerged, wary of another party being nearby.  When the stony wall closed behind him without a sound, he stood there listening for any hint that someone was nearby for nearly a minute, before deciding that it was clear.

He was tempted to check his notifications immediately to see how well he’d done, but decided to wait until he found a place to sleep for the night.  It was getting dark already and he didn’t want to camp out in a tree anywhere near the dungeon, so he took off after a slight boost to his Celerity, heading northeast to try and get through the large strip of forest before it became too dark to see.