Chapter 317 - Brood Master

The main setup of the Dungeon didn’t vary from the previous two corridors leading to the boss rooms. There were no branching tunnels. There were no unexpected encounters. The only difference was the main kobold enemies switched to Warriors with a few miners scattered in the groups versus the other way around.

The tunnel continued to spiral ever downward, though it was a gentle slope. White protrusions stuck out from the walls, floors, and ceilings more and more often as the Party delved deeper into the cave. Upon closer inspection, it was clear to Reivyn and the others that they were the bones of one or more large creature.

I was pretty sure that’s what was in the second boss room, based on context, Reivyn thought. If they spend their days searching for ancient relics of Dragons, it would just make sense they were excavating the bones of a Dragon.

There was no Draconic Essence in the bones, nor did Identification give any feedback when Reivyn tried to use his Skill directly on the ivory bones. That could just be because his Skill Level wasn’t high enough or the Dungeon instance didn’t provide actual Dragon bones in the simulation of the past. There was more than one reason the Skill didn’t provide any information, but the most likely reason was that there wasn’t anything to tell.

They could probably mine some of the bones from the walls, but they would be useless ivory regardless of the reasons for the lack of essence. Maybe they had still contained the Draconic Essence when the kobolds were here in truth, but the Region didn’t have enough Mana to replicate it.

The Party made quick work of the kobold hordes barring their path. Without a Warchief empowering the Warriors, they were just slightly better armed regular monsters as compared to the Miners.

Eventually they reached the third and final boss room. Reivyn and the others peered into the much larger room from behind the threshold that would alert the monsters within to their presence. There were torches along the walls and placed upon wooden stakes throughout the room, creating an orange glow to the lighting. One good thing about the kobolds having lit torches was that the ethereal glow’s range didn’t restrict their vision. The entire room was open to their view.

Along the edges of the room, just like the others, were Miners hard at work scraping the stone away with their pickaxes and shovels under the supervision of Warriors. In the center were three Shamans, all bent over in some sort of prayer-like stance. In front of them were large braziers, but Reivyn couldn’t see over the top of them to peer within from his angle, and they were outside of his range for Divine Sense.

Standing behind each of the Shamans were two hulking kobolds in armor similar to the hauberk they had looted from the second boss for a total of six. They looked much like the Warchief above, but they were equipped with bone greatswords instead of greataxes, and they seemed to hold themselves differently.

Reivyn tossed an Identification at them.

[Kobold: Tier 4 (Champion) Lvl 100-120]
[Minor Threat]

Finally, on the other side of the braziers, was one final monster. The regular kobolds, including the Shamans, stood just below chest-height to Reivyn. The Warchief had stood shoulder-height to Reivyn, though its musculature had given the impression that it was larger than it had actually been. This monster stood head and shoulders taller than Reivyn.

Its muscles put the Warchief and the Champions to shame. Instead of any kind of armor, it stood with just its scales as protection. The scales were darker and glinted with an orange reflection from the torches, and Reivyn could sense dense Mana packed into each one. They weren’t going to be nearly as strong as the scales of the giant snake they had slain in the Tier 5 Region, but they were definitely much stronger than any other defensive measure Reivyn had seen on a Tier 4 Region monster.

It stood facing the far wall, its arms outstretched by its side. It was fully focused on the giant Dragon skull sticking out of the wall that had been excavated by the kobold Miners. Reivyn couldn’t see, but he would guess the bones that had been protruding from the walls ever since the second boss room and along the tunnel were part of this dead, ancient beast.

There was a tiny spark of energy Reivyn could just barely perceive in the skull of the Dragon. It might be the last remnants of Draconic Essence, or whatever.

Reivyn once more Identified it.

[Kobold-Dragonling Atavism: Tier 5 (Brood Master) Lvl 50-60]
[Moderate Threat]

“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” Teilon whispered.

“Shush,” Kimberly elbowed him in the ribs. Teilon just grunted.

“The new monsters are Kobold Champions and a Kobold-Dragonline Atavism Brood Master,” Reivyn shared in a low voice. “The Champions are high Tier 4, and the Brood Master is maybe Tier 5 Level 60. The System says it’s a ‘moderate threat’ to me.”

The Party retreated a few yards until they were obscured by the bend in the tunnel walls. They circled up and glanced at each other. Reivyn nodded subtly to his father, Refix having much more experience delving Dungeons.

“Well, the Shamans are obviously performing some sort of ritual that we’ll have to prevent,” Refix started the planning. “The Champions will try to protect them while the lesser kobolds rush us. We can probably expect another Aura buff from the Brood Master. Reivyn killed the other Shaman too fast for us to gauge what kind of Spells we can expect from them, but they might be too preoccupied with their ritual to play a part in the fight.

“If I had to guess, they’re just going to stand there with the Champions staying in place. This room is already well beyond what is usually found in a Tier 4 Dungeon without having to worry about advanced tactics on top of everything else.

“There might be a gimmick where the Shamans give up on the ritual once one or two of them are slain, so we should expect them to participate in the fight towards the end.

“The Brood Master will probably give the Aura Buff but stay out of the fight until everything else is already dead unless we attack it first.”

“So almost the same as the other two rooms, combined but dumbed down,” Teilon summarized.

Refix thought about it for a couple of seconds before nodding.

“That’s probably a fair assumption. It would make sense the System would teach us how to handle the final boss room with such a difficult setup.” He glanced at Reivyn. “If we had taken the opportunity to learn what it was trying to show us, that is.”

“Woops,” Reivyn replied, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish expression. “In my defense, nobody complained at the time.”

“Yeah, I know,” Refix snorted. “I’m kicking myself in the butt just as much. Well, hindsight is perfect, and all that.”

“Isn’t the saying, ‘hindsight is twenty-twenty?’” Reivyn asked, quirking an eyebrow. Nobody said anything and he looked around the rest of the Party to be met with confused looks.

“What’s twenty-twenty?” Refix asked. “You know what, never mind.” Refix shook his head. “So the plan is to stand in the entrance for the horde of lesser kobolds. Then we’ll advance into the room to engage the Champions. We can expect the Champions to be more powerful versions of the Warriors, but not as strong as the Warchief.

“We’ll need to keep an eye on the Shamans in case the trigger for their participation is attacking the Champions or wearing them down instead of one of them dying. If they don’t attack us while we’re fighting the Champions, we should try to take all three of them out at the same time.

“Finally, we’ll have the Brood Master to deal with. It’ll definitely be a much stronger version of the Warchief, but it might also have some surprises in store for us as a Dragonling Atavism. Everyone remembers the Dragonlings from the Wispan Dungeon?” Refix looked around to everyone nodding, but Reivyn just stood there and looked at his father. “Well, everyone except Reivyn. To be fair, he didn’t fight any of them when he did the Dungeon anyway.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that little tidbit,” Teilon said. “I wonder if he did it normally instead of wrecking the whole thing if his role would participate in the cleanup of the Dragonlings or not?”

Reivyn shrugged.

“We can always find out when the Dungeon recovers,” he said. “It should be open once again by the time we get back to Willowan.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Kefira whisper-shouted fiercely. “You almost died!”

“I think I have a handle on what happened last time, and I don’t think there will be a repeat of the incident,” Reivyn explained. “I’m pretty sure getting a boost to fight the Dragon as the Hero is part of the scenario, but something went wrong and I absorbed much more than I should have.

“Think about it. It’s a Tier 4 Dungeon, and from what you’ve told me about it, I pretty much one-shotted the ‘Dragon.’ I’m confident the Dragon is only a tiny fraction of its actual might, minus its Dragon Breath for Hard Mode, and the boost is there to bridge the final gap to make it possible to fight it solo.”

Kefira glared at him for several seconds.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she said.

“Sure,” Reivyn smiled. “And I can always wait until I’m Tier 5 or something to go again if that would make you worry less.”

“That would definitely help your case.”

“Anyway!” Refix called everyone’s attention back to him. “Are we all clear on the strategy for the boss room?” Everyone nodded their heads. “We’ll have Kimberly act as vanguard for the Brood Master unless it’s too tough for her. We’ll have Serilla step up to assist in that case, and if it’s too hard for both of them - which I don’t think it will be - I’ll take over as the vanguard.”

“Yes, sir,” Kimberly nodded her head, an eager glint in her eye.

“Look at you, acting all subordinate,” Teilon teased, nudging Kimberly with his shoulder.

Kimberly rolled her eyes.

“He’s worthy of our respect. You could afford to show a little, you know.”

“Hey! He knows I respect him.” Teilon held his hand over his chest like he’d been hurt by her words.

It was Refix’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Alright, since we’re all ready, let’s make it happen.”

The Party formed up once more, Kimberly and Serilla in the front, and crossed the threshold into the boss room. The familiar scene of kobolds stopping what they were doing to immediately zero in on the Party played out, but this time Reivyn sensed a wind pick up out of nowhere. It was only noticeable because there had literally been nothing for the entire cave until just this moment, and he felt it on the back of his neck.

A faint blue glow enshrouded the Shamans as they remained in place in front of their braziers. To Reivyn’s sight it looked like a faint blue flame was burning around them, but not on them. A blue line connected the ethereal flame to the braziers.

The Champions behaved in the predicted way, acting like powered-up versions of the Warrior bodyguards. They turned and took up ready stances at the Shamans’ backs, standing still and waiting for the Party to approach them.

That was impossible at first, though, as the horde of lesser kobolds descended on the Party. There wasn’t a substantial increase in the number of lesser kobolds, but as predicted, a red-orange Aura enveloped all of the kobolds in the room except for the Shamans. The Brood Master didn’t move an inch, only buffing the lesser kobolds in the room.

Nobody did anything fancy. The Party engaged the horde of kobolds the same way they had handled the previous two boss rooms. The aura made it more difficult to punch through their defenses, both mundane and magical, but they were still pretty weak. Reivyn just needed to concentrate a Beam on them a couple seconds longer or use an additional Bolt Spell or two to take them out.

After a couple minutes of controlled fighting, the lesser kobolds all lie dead at the entrance to the room. The Party advanced in formation toward the Champions. The Champions, in turn, advanced on the Party to build space between them and the Shamans. Reivyn mentally nodded at the small detail.

They approached close enough that the Reivyn’s Divine Sense finally picked up the Shamans and the braziers. There was some unidentifiable boiling liquid inside the braziers, but he had no idea what it was. It might have just been a visual representation created by the System for this encounter. It was clearly scripted, as the glow from the ritual around the Shamans didn’t exist until they initiated the fight.

The Kobold Champions were actually decent combatants with their greatswords. They had much more control and finesse with the weapons than the Warriors did with their smaller swords. They performed actual moves, like thrusts, slashes, parries, and blocks with the large blades, holding steady stances throughout. They didn’t overextend or create any obvious weaknesses.

If we were a regular Tier 4 Dungeon Party, Reivyn noted. I would gauge their Skill Level to be around 40 or so, not quite up to standard of a competent Adventurer, but not amateurs.

As it was, their Party greatly out-Skilled the Kobold Champions. There were too many of them for Kimberly and Serilla to handle the vanguard on their own, though, so Refix stepped up to lessen the burden placed on them.

The Kobold Champions didn’t allow themselves to be baited away from their actual purpose of acting as bodyguards. Teilon snagged the attention of one of them and tried to lure it away from the line they were holding, but it didn’t fall for the bait. As soon as Teilon was out of reach, it focused back on Kimberly.

The Aura buff was much more effective when it had a better base to build off of, and the Party had to whittle down their Health bit by bit. They weren’t able to make any fatal strikes to take any of them out right away. The battle was a bit of a slog, much like how it was against the goblins when they first entered the Tier 5 Region months ago. Their greater Skill Levels, though, allowed them to easily bypass the capabilities of the kobolds and quickly deplete their Health. It just took a bit of time.

Reivyn kept his focus on the Shamans as he flung Spells at the Champions with his Divine Sense. They didn’t react as the Champions began to fall under the Party’s combined strength. As each Champion fell, the others succumbed quicker and quicker until they were all killed, and the Shamans still remained in their prayer-like stance.

Reivyn was prepared to coordinate with the others to try and take all three Shamans out at once, but the plan deviated when the Kobold Brood Master suddenly spun about and bellowed at the Party.

It dashed past the Shamans, bare-clawed and swiped at Kimberly. The red-orange glow of its Aura intensified, and it moved in a blur. Kimberly barely danced aside, and one of the claws managed to clip her on the shoulder, knocking her spinning through the air.

Serilla stepped forward, slashing at the giant Kobold, but it simply turned and grabbed the naked blade with one of its claws. Reivyn could see the blade bite into the palm of the Kobold, and surprise quickly flashed across its visage, but it only cut superficially. The Kobold grasped the blade in its grip, lifted it and Serilla up into the air, and tossed her and her sword aside to crash atop Kimberly who was crawling to her feet.

Refix unsheathed his actual sword and stepped forward with a determined expression. The Kobold Brood Master leaned forward and screamed in Refix’s face. Refix didn’t let this attempt at intimidation go unpunished. He slashed it in the face, right through its left eye.

The Kobold stumbled back, grasping at its face as blood poured through its claws. It quickly regained its composure, though, and dodged the follow-up attacks Refix directed at it. Refix attacked it from the rear, sides, and above with his Ethereal Arsenal, but they were unable to pierce the Aura protection.

The Kobold Brood Master was much more Skilled with its natural weapons than the Champions had been with their greatswords. It wasn’t enough to make up the gap between it and Refix, though.

Refix maintained his position, the Kobold unable to push him around with its frenzied strikes, and he managed to slip multiple blows through the Kobolds defense. Teilon sprung up out of nowhere and slashed at its legs, but the Kobold seemed to have good Perception, and its tail flashed out and crashed into Teilon’s ribs.

Teilon was blasted away as Kimberly and Serilla joined the fight, Serilla having gone around for a pincer maneuver. The rear of the Kobold was defended by its tail, but its sides were open with Refix keeping it occupied from the front.

Reivyn felt his muscles twinge as a desire to fight it in melee combat flitted across his mind, but he remained in the back with Kefira, tossing Spells at the giant monster. The Aura was effective against their Spells, as well, but adding a bit of power to the Spells ensured they were doing damage to the creature.

The Kobold Brood Master had incredibly high Vitality, and Reivyn could see its wounds stitching closed as it regenerated in real time during the fight. It wasn’t anything close to what the meat monster and the Dragon had displayed in the Tier 5 Dungeon, but it was annoying.

Teilon learned his lesson and didn’t approach the monster from behind again. He instead danced in and out of range in accordance with Kimberly, showing off well-honed coordination between the two.

The wind Reivyn had noticed at the start of the battle slowly intensified, and so did the blue glow around the three Shamans. The blue flames grew in size and brightness as the fight continued. The wind swirled around the braziers in the center of the room.

Reivyn didn’t know what sort of timeline they were working with, but if he had to guess based on the growing Mana density, he would guess they had about ten minutes from when they engaged the Brood Master. There hadn’t been any apparent changes in the ritual until the last Champion had been slain, so this must be some sort of final check for the encounter. If they couldn’t slay the Brood Master within ten minutes, something bad would happen.

That’s probably what initiates Hard Mode, Reivyn thought. They weren’t here for Hard Mode this time. They were going to clear the Dungeon the regular way this time. There was always time to do the Achievements later.

The fight continued with the Party slowly diminishing the Kobold Brood Master’s Health and Vitality as its regeneration fought to keep it alive. Reivyn was confident they would be able to overcome the monster around the eight minutes mark if nothing changed.

At the five minute mark, the Brood Master leaped backward a dozen yards as its Aura exploded. The Aura blasted against the Party, knocking them back several steps and preventing them from closing on the Kobold. It threw its head back and took a huge breath. One that was magnitudes larger than what seemed possible for its size.

Reivyn could feel the concentration of Mana building in front of its face, and he dashed forward, unclasping his shield and bringing it up.

“Get behind me!” He shouted.

He placed a Mana Barrier over his shield, pumping as much Mana as he safely could into it. He felt Kefira add her own Mana to the mix. Normally a second Mage suddenly mixing their Mana into a working would backfire unless they coordinated ahead of time, but they had melded their Mana together so many times, she seamlessly added her own strength to his.

The Kobold Brood Master finished sucking in its breath, lunged forward with its open maw, and a beam of fiery Draconic Breath exploded out of it, smashing into Reivyn’s shield. The others lined up behind him and threw their weight into his back, but even with the entire Party withstanding the Dragon Breath, they were slowly pushed back by its force.

Reivyn felt his Mana quickly diminish, and he continued to pour everything he had into the Mana Barrier. He used all the Affinities he could think of that would counter a Draconic Breath in the weave. He had to use his Lightning Transcendent Ability to increase the pace he could funnel Mana into the Spell to keep up with the Breath attack.

After ten seconds of the Kobold unleashing its ultimate move, it finally ended. Reivyn had protected the Party from suffering any serious damage, but it had cost him a quarter of his Mana Pool just for that one Spell to defend against the Beam.

The Kobold Brood Master collapsed to one knee, panting heavily. The Party didn’t waste the opportunity and rushed forward. The Brood Master was unable to put up any resistance, and the Party devastated it with their attacks and Spells. The Aura had evaporated with the Breath, and it no longer had the additional defenses or accelerated regeneration.

After only another thirty seconds of attacking the Brood Master, it collapsed, dead. The Party quickly stepped forward under Reivyn’s urging, and they coordinated their final attacks to execute the three Shamans before they could complete their ritual.

The blue flames dispersed with the wind reversing direction. All the gathered ambient Mana exploded outward with a small pop, and the braziers exploded. Silence reigned.

Reivyn looked towards his Party members and everyone shared a smile. The brief presence of Mana coalescing in the center of the room alerted Reivyn to the arrival of the reward chest, and he nodded his head toward Teilon for him to go grab it. He looked toward the giant skull embedded in the stone.

The small spark he had noticed before was no more.