Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Well, that sucks.

Who would’ve thought he would go up against something that could heal itself?  Certainly not Thaden, obviously, because he was absolutely flabbergasted at the sight of the repaired Magma Colossus and he could barely even think straight.  Granted, that was probably because he was still recovering from nearly burning alive from the concentrated heat of so many monsters around him, but it was also because he didn’t expect to come up against that defied his expectations so thoroughly.

As the Boss stomped its way over to him once again, it took until it started slamming its fist down at him again to jumpstart his malfunctioning brain.  He quickly contemplated how he might be able to kill the Colossus, possibly by preventing it from moving back to the river of magma or trying to do enough damage to it that it wouldn’t have time, but he was stymied at every turn.  The problem, of course, was that as soon it became obvious to the Boss that it was damaged it would simply turn around and heal itself, and if it wasn’t trying to hurt Thaden during that time, the Lifewarden didn’t have any other way to hurt it. 

Even as the blows continued to rain down, he looked around the area looking for some sort of solution, such as a way to shut off the flow of magma into the cave, but there didn’t seem to be anything like that.  He could only assume that a “normal” party of Contenders would likely be able to finish it off before it could get to the river to heal, or taunt it to the point where it had no choice but to stay and fight – but Thaden had no such ability. 

When no visible solution to the healing magma river presented itself, he even looked behind him at the tunnel he had come through to get to the Boss, thinking that if he lured it out into a different cave, then perhaps the Colossus wouldn’t be able to heal; that idea was shut down almost immediately when he saw the that the tunnel was only about a third of the massive monster’s size, meaning that there was no way it could fit through – if it would even follow him in the first place.   

Next, he looked through all of his spells, Competency Advancements, and Achievements to see if there was something that he might have overlooked, but it was all for naught.  Nothing had really changed from the last time he had checked, so he decided to wait and see if the Colossus would heal again once it had been hurt enough, as it was possible that it was a one-time thing. 

In the meantime, he decided to start extracting what loot he could from the piles of random body parts left over from them being squished by the Colossus.  In some areas, it was actually difficult to determine what exactly he was extracting from, as all the monsters had been practically obliterated – especially when they had been smashed multiple times in a row.  Thankfully, he had seen much worse in the Mausoleum fighting Undead, who were typically rotting and disgusting, so he had no problem wading through the carnage.  The only problem was that as soon as he located something he could extract from, the fists from the Colossus would sometimes land right into a pile before he could accomplish his task, making it all that much more difficult.

In addition to that, it was obvious when he looked around that some of the monsters had been so destroyed that the majority of their bodies parts had gone flying, with a good portion of them landing in the magma river, never to be seen again.  It was disappointing that he wouldn’t be able to loot them, but it didn’t seem like it had been more than a dozen or so.

By the time he had finally extracted everything he could, his ears practically numb from the constant pounding of the Colossus’ fists against the stone – which amazingly didn’t shatter from such abuse – the Boss was looking ragged once again.  As he waited to see what it would do once it was damaged a little more, he evaluated what he ended up getting from all of the extractions.

Extractions complete!

Loot obtained:

62 Gold, 37 Silver, 10 Copper coins

2 Minor Heat Resistance Ring (Uncommon)

1 Flame Sabatons (Uncommon)

1 Flame Breastplate (Uncommon)

1 Flame Gloves (Uncommon)

1 Flame Helm (Uncommon)

1 Heated Battleaxe (Rare)

1 Magma Cutter (Rare)

1 Cloak of Burning Ash (Rare)

1 Wand of the Blazing Storm (Epic)

87 Heat-resistant Salamander Hide (Uncommon)

56 Shattered Magma Wolf Collar (Uncommon)

13 Magma Elemental Core (Uncommon)

496 Magma Salamander Teeth (Common)

238 Magma Wolf Claws (Common)

97 Magma Elemental Jelly (Common)

Looking through his spoils, he couldn’t help but see that he’d gotten quite a few Rare and even an Epic drop; compared to what he’d gotten from extractions the last time he was in the Mausoleum with Sarah and her party, it was twice or three times as good.  He couldn’t tell if the difference was because he was solo, if it was because this dungeon was more difficult since it started at Level 40 on Minimal difficulty, or if it was a result of his Fortuity.

He chose to believe it was the latter, justifying even further his decision to pump so many points into it.

Granted, as he briefly looked at all the items that were able to be equipped by someone, the only ones that he could use were the Heat Resistance Rings – but it was better than nothing.

Minor Heat Resistance Ring

Rarity: Uncommon

Class Restrictions: All

Level Restriction: 40

15% Heat Resistance

From what he could tell, the 15% Heat Resistance that each Ring provided meant that he could ignore 15% of the heat that surrounded him; with two, he would have a 30% Heat Resistance, which sounded blessedly nice at that moment.  He slipped off his Casket Ring of the Undead, which took away the 40 points of Mentality and brought his Personality back up, and then he put both of the Heat Resistance Rings on, one per hand, and felt immediate relief.  While he wasn’t surrounded by monsters that were suffocating him with their accumulated heat, he was still in a cave with a river of magma; while the rings didn’t eliminate the heat, it immediately went from feeling like a hot summer day in the sun to a hot summer day in the shade.  In other words, it was just short of being comfortable.

As much as he would’ve liked to wield something like the Epic-rarity Wand of the Blazing Storm, or a Cloak of Burning Ash, if only because they sounded bad-ass, neither of them were suited for his Class.  The same went for the almost whole set of “Flame” armor that looked perfect for a Fighter to use, or the other weapons that definitely weren’t suited for a Support Class.

There were also a ton of materials that he’d obtained, though he didn’t remember seeing any Bronze or Silver Quests looking for any of them.  He could only assume that they might be used for alchemy or crafting of some sort, which is what he’d overheard some Contenders mentioning back in Ashcleft about some of the loot drops near there, but he never got around to finding out what exactly he could have done with it.  Once he was done with this dungeon, he resolved to look into it – possibly with the help of the Coalition Vice-Leader, Veronia, if she was available.

It was about that time, when he was finished looking over his spoils, that the Colossus finally crippled his leg once again, nearly in the same place, and Thaden watched with anticipation to see if it would heal itself again.  His hopes rose when it looked like it was going to try pounding him into the floor again with its fists, but it paused in the middle of the strike and put its arms down before turning away from him.  Running in front of it as it took a step, he hoped that kicking him would do more damage to it… and it did!

Unfortunately, all it did was add another crack to its chest, which ultimately did nothing.  He continued to try and get in its way on the way to the magma river, even going right to the edge of the superheated molten rock to get in some more reflected attack damage, but there weren’t any more reflected strikes against its legs.  As it limped into the river and started to heal, he debated on whether he might have more success if he tried again after another round, but he had gotten fairly lucky in his reflected attacks on its journey to heal itself.  He was also located just about as far as one could get in the cave, so extending the journey wasn’t something that was likely.

In other words, he didn’t think anything along these lines would work.  With no other options, he debated on whether to look at his notifications to see if he earned something that might help, but then he remembered that more than a few things he couldn’t do while he was in a dungeon, such as Leveling up.  As a result, he decided to forgo checking them at the moment, if only because he preferred a quieter – and much safer – place to check them, and being the target of violent smashing attacks wasn’t exactly the best time to make important decisions. 

Shaking his head in disappointment, he headed back into the tunnel that had brought him there, wondering again how he could get so unlucky to find a Boss that could heal itself.  It was only as he was putting his normal clothing on again – since he was still naked after taking off his robe earlier – that he figured out that this type of thing might be more common than he thought at first.  Remembering his fight against Nehetmo, Monarch of the Dead, he realized that the Boss was a vampire of sorts, which could suck out the Health of its victims to heal itself; that didn’t work against Thaden, of course, because the Boss ended up sucking out his limitless Mana and exploded, but against any other Contender Party, it was essentially “healing” – just a different kind when compared to the Magma Colossus.

If this is a common occurrence in these Bosses, or eventually even in normal monsters, then I’m going to have to find some way to deal damage that isn’t related to my protective Fields.  Or, I might have to look into finally finding someone to party with. 

He wasn’t sure if even that would be enough, considering that everyone was far below him in terms of Level, but it was certainly something to consider.  If he could find another bunch of people similar to Sarah and her group to party with and who weren’t going to try and kill him, then that might be a possibility; unfortunately, he hadn’t had a good experience with other Contenders, especially as the confrontation with Peter, Meghan, and Suzee near the Goblin Mine Dungeon was still fresh on his mind.

I still have to figure out what was going on there, too.

Thaden’s mind was occupied with thoughts of the future as he navigated his way through the now-empty dungeon, setting off a few traps that he had miraculously managed to miss on his jog through it, but he ignored them as much as he did the others.  With his new Heat-resistant Rings on his fingers, the stroll through the magma pools and waterfalls was much more pleasant, as the heat coming from them was like passing too close to a campfire on a cool night.  It was as if it was hot enough that if he stood there too long it might burn him, but his casual passage was like it was enveloping him in a warm blanket for a few seconds.

Before he knew it, he looked up to see the entrance tunnel and the wavy distortion that awaited him there, and with a look back at the first cave he felt a wave of disappointment crash into him.  While he wasn’t exactly well-traveled and an expert on dungeons, this was the first time that he hadn’t been able to complete one that he had entered – including the first one where he barely survived against the Vogmites.  It also meant that he wouldn’t be able to complete his Silver-Ranked Quest, though he still had a little more than 44 days to figure it out. 

Perhaps I’ll have better luck in the Forest’s Wrath Dungeon?  If not, then he could at least re-enter the Magma dungeon and farm it for loot and PICK until it didn’t benefit him any further, because he could certainly kill the other monsters in there, if not the Boss.  He would probably take it a little slower, however, because he didn’t like the feeling of nearly burning alive as he was surrounded by so many of their number; even with his new Rings, he didn’t want to suffer through anything similar to that again.  As it was, Thaden was fairly certain that this recent experience would quickly join the other nightmarish memories he had of his experiences upon his arrival on Tarth; he didn’t need to add anything else to the highlight reel.

Stepping over the threshold, the Lifewarden was blasted by cooler air, as the heat outside the dungeon in the large Magma cavern was at a noticeably lower temperature.  He hadn’t realized how hot it really had been inside, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath in relief from being out of that place.

As he made his way over the bridges and islands to make his way to the main tunnel leading to the surface, he was attacked by more Magma Salamanders, but he simply did what he had done previously and made them follow him as they tried to bite through his Fields.  At the end, he stopped and let them work on doing themselves in, using Major Health Reduction to speed the process up a bit.  This time it only took 12 minutes or so before they all died, and then he extracted the loot – which was very similar to what he’d received before – before heading back up the tunnel.

The walk back up the ascending tunnel was a workout for his calves, though with his Physicality being relatively high, he didn’t think he’d have to worry about them being sore at the end of the day.  And even if they were, he was fairly certain that a simple healing spell would take care of it.

As had been the case when he had descended, there was no one in his section of the tunnel, but before he got too far, he deactivated the channeling of his Fields so that he wouldn’t have the glow around him when he did eventually meet up with people.  He had to get himself back into a subdued mindset before he reached that point, because he was still riding a bit high on what he’d done back in the dungeon.  It had been extremely stupid to race through the magma-filled caves and pull all the monster with him to the boss, and that stupidity had nearly killed him in the process; his arrogance and belief that he was indestructible after his success against the Maximal difficulty Mausoleum of Despair had messed with his head a bit, and he was going to have to be more cautious if he didn’t want to end up dying. 

By the time he began seeing Contenders moving around the tunnel up ahead, he felt like he was getting his head on straight and he walked confidently ahead.  Fortunately for him, it didn’t appear as though anyone was paying attention to where he was coming from, which wasn’t something he had worried about until that moment, because he would be hard-pressed to explain why he had gone all the way down.

Easily slipping through the relatively thin crowd moving in and out of a dungeon turnoff, he kept trudging ahead as if he belonged there, though he did his best not to make any eye contact with anyone.  The last thing he wanted was to be accosted by another party wanting a fifth party member. 

He was so absorbed in his act and exhausted from his experience down in the Magma Dungeon that he didn’t notice the pair of eyes that had watched him ascend from the depths, nor did he notice as the owner of those eyes silently followed him back up the tunnel.