by K R Dimmick
The other archers had also been busy, arrows raining down everywhere. Between us, six of the eggs were dead, with the remaining four severely cracked. I Sniped another egg as Baynor finished off the one next to us.
With the eggs all dead, we focused on the small spiders. Our melee team members were struggling and getting overwhelmed, so we had to hurry. I pulled back on my bow, focusing past the arrow on the head of the spider attacking Saris. As its head zoomed into focus, I let the arrow fly. I managed a critical hit and took 40% of its health with that single shot. Saris thrust her dagger into its side to put it down. We both turned to focus on one of the two spiders trying to kill Colt. Again, I pulled back my bowstring and focused on the spider’s head. Triggering Snipe, I shot it between its many eyes. I brought its health down 20% just as Baynor Sniped the same spider. He took the last 30% of its health as Colt and Saris finished off the other spider.
The rest of the team had been busy and there was only a single spider left. Every archer in the room fired a Basic Shot at it and it rolled over dead.
Chilath rose up on her sharp, venomous legs and the invulnerability ended. I continuously peppered the boss with one arrow after another, so glad that this game didn’t require me to have actual arrows or I would have run out a long time ago. A loud scream brought me out of the zone. One of the melee damage dealers had failed to get out of the way. She was pinned to the floor with a sharp, needle-like leg. I watched her health bar hit zero and she vanished. I had no idea how long it took to respawn at her level, so I didn’t know when she’d be back. We were down a player though, so the next special attack at 50% was going to be even harder than the last one.
After another long fight, we at long last got Chilath’s health down to 50%. The spider reared back and lifted its front legs.
“This is the AOE,” yelled Colt.
I counted to two and threw myself into a roll. Thankfully, I evaded the room-wide attack. Others, unfortunately, did not. A brief look around the room showed me that three of our six archers and two of our melee players were cocooned in spider webs. Their health bars were all rapidly zeroing out.
Before I could try to work out how to shoot a cocoon without killing the player inside anyway, Chilath crouched down and became invulnerable again. Ten smaller spiders appeared in a ring once again, trapping the melee players between them and the boss. Another ten large, gray eggs appeared a split second later, scattered randomly around the room.
I immediately focused on Rain of Arrows and managed to catch five of the eggs within the area of my attack. They all dropped to 75% health. In quick succession, I fired Basic Shot into the damaged eggs, one after the other. Four shots later, one split in half. Another split at the same time, as Baynor had focused it down. We took the next two down rapidly with lucky critical hits. I left Baynor to finish off the last one as I ran to help the only other archer in the room. Letting loose another Rain of Arrows, I managed to finish off two of the eggs she’d been working on. We had three more to go and I could see Baynor running in our direction. The last three eggs started to shake. I shot the egg closest to me as fast as I could and was rewarded with a lengthwise crack. One more shot, and that egg split open. Unfortunately, we weren’t as lucky with the last two.
The eggs cracked open and instead of the goopy mess that came out of a dead egg, a red spider uncurled itself.
The remaining three melee players were in even more trouble. Colt was bleeding profusely, and Saris was limping. Both were attempting to take on three spiders each and definitely paying for it. The other player had four of them, although one was nearly dead. We were never going to survive if the three of them died. I made a split-second decision.
“I’ll take these two and kite them, help the others or we’re all dead,” I yelled at Baynor and the other archer.
I fired Rain of Arrows down on the red spiders to gain their agro. Before they could move, I Sniped one of them. Its health was now down to 75%, the other still at 90%. Both took one look at me and started furiously spinning their webs.
Just as the first web reached me, I rolled to the side, Dodging the attack. I wasn’t quite as lucky with the second web. It caught my foot, meaning I couldn’t run. A little red X popped up on my debuff bar, showing I was immobilized. I could still shoot my bow, however. Another Rain of Arrows triggered a crippling debuff on one of the spiders. The other got closer, ready to fire its venom at me while I couldn’t move. I quickly shot it twice, getting it down to 30%. It reared back to perform its venom spit attack. This was going to hurt.
18
Ambushed
Suddenly, before the spider could poison me, it burst into two halves. The sword of the melee player that had died earlier rose out of the mess it left behind. She ran off toward Colt before I could say thank you.
The second red spider had recovered from its crippled state and was now making its way toward me. I knelt down to start Snipe. Its head zoomed into focus. I released the arrow and followed up with a flurry of Basic Shots. The spider rolled over dead, its legs curling up.
I looked around the room. The melee player that had come back had rescued Colt from his spiders and was now helping the other melee player and archer. Colt and Baynor were both helping Saris finish off her last spider. We were going to survive Chilath’s double special attack.
The giant spider rose up on her sharp, venomous legs and the invulnerability ended. Once again, the seven of us launched our attacks at her, slowly whittling away her health. At some point during the fight, two of the archers and one of the melee players that had died in the AOE came back into the room, nearly taking us up to full strength. Time passed in a blur of arrows, dodging and sword and dagger swings. Finally, we managed to get Chilath’s health down to 25%.
The final wave of eggs and spiders spawned, and the boss once again became invulnerable. I leaned back and let loose a Rain of Arrows on the eggs that were this time conveniently grouped up enough to reach six of them. All five of the archers using Rain of Arrows took out the group of six before any of us needed to use anything else. I focused Snipe on one of the eggs and the others did the same. With the eggs gone, we helped the melee team with the smaller spiders. This was much easier than I’d thought it was going to be.
Chilath again succumbed to damage and we all carried on wailing away at her health. Just as her health reached 5%, she suddenly reared back and lifted her front legs. This looked like the AOE she did at 50%, something she wasn’t supposed to do again.
I counted to two.
“Dodge!” I yelled as I threw myself into a roll.
Cocoons sprung up around the room as the others just stood there in shock.
A quick look around showed me that Saris, Baynor, two melee players and I were the only ones left fighting. The melee team started hacking away at the cocoons near them. Chilath, on the other hand, took the opportunity to start getting her own back. Just as Saris managed to get Colt released from a cocoon with 10% of his HP intact, Chilath bit down hard on Colt’s head. His headless body vanished before it could hit the floor.
I fired at the spider as fast as I could, yelling in the hope of attracting its attention and giving Saris enough time to get out of range.
With no melee players attacking her, Chilath took one look at me and launched herself forward with a jump. She landed on the two melee players trying to release their cocooned team mates, spearing each of them with her spiked legs.
Baynor ran to the opposite side of the room and started shooting at her, desperately trying to turn her around. She was having none of it. Chilath lunged at me, her fangs coming directly at my head.
“Swap sides,” I shouted to Baynor, Dodging underneath her belly to leave her chomping down on air.
The spider swiveled faster than I thought possible and swiped a knife-like leg at me. Somehow, I managed to evade it as I ran to the opposite side of the room.
Saris stalked the spider from behind and hit her with a huge backstab that took Chilath down to
3% health. Baynor continuously peppered it with arrows. It made no difference, Chilath was focused on me.
I ran around the room like some kind of rodeo clown, barely staying out of the way as the spider tried to finish me off, my stamina getting lower and lower by the second.
Grabbing a stamina potion, I downed it with a thought, the bottle vanishing in a puff of smoke. I heard a swishing sound and instinct made me roll to the side just as one of her legs swept through the space my head had occupied a moment before. I was getting too close to the edge of the room.
Yelling to Baynor and Saris to move, I turned and sprinted underneath Chilath again to give myself space to evade it. A rather white looking Saris ran under the spider in the opposite direction, hopefully getting herself ready for another backstab.
Sure enough, the spider suddenly dropped down to 1% health as she dove at the spider’s back with a stab of her dagger.
Baynor, however, hadn’t moved. Instead, he was kneeling down just ahead of me, getting ready to Snipe.
I immediately ran to my left to lead the spider away from him. Once again, she had other ideas and decided Baynor was the easier target.
His Snipe hit home, and I watched in horror as her fangs descended on him.
I let loose several Basic Shots in quick succession as Saris attacked the spider’s back.
Just as the fangs were about to reach Baynor, he let loose another Snipe, right into her mouth.
A look of surprise crossed the spider’s face and then she rolled over dead, her legs curling up into her body.
The three of us collapsed to the floor where we stood.
The team started trickling back into the room as they respawned. Each of them seemed surprised the boss was no longer in the room.
After downing another stamina potion, I got up and walked over to where Chilath’s body had disappeared. A beautiful, silver necklace was on the floor.
You have received: Chilath’s Amulet of Speed
+ 20 SP
+ 10 Dexterity
Quality: Exotic.
Rarity: Rare.
I couldn’t believe it. Another exotic item. Asking around, I found out both Baynor and Saris had also gotten exotic quality necklaces. Everyone else only received fine quality ones. I guess the game had decided to reward the only three that had been left standing. I quickly equipped my new necklace, taking my stamina up to 400.
My notifications told me I’d increased my Dodge skill to level 5 and my Archery up to level 8. Plus, I was 90% of the way to level 7. All in all, a good result.
Colt, on the other hand, was clearly extremely annoyed by the whole situation. With a growl, he left the party and vanished, presumably back to the guildhall. Most of the others followed his example, leaving Saris, Baynor and myself alone in the room.
As we were about to leave and head back to the entrance, I noticed a little pillar with a faint golden glow on the far side of the room. Touching it, I discovered it was a portal stone that would take us straight back to the entrance.
“Anyone know what that other team was up to?” I asked as the three of us walked along the path back to Milgate.
We’d all reset our spawn points back to the guildhall after we’d left the dungeon.
“No idea, all I know is that they had some special mission,” said Baynor.
We rounded the corner and walked up to Kailu’s place. It was odd, there were no leather hides strung between the poles outside his workshop and some of the poles had even fallen over. As we got closer, I could also see that the door to his storage hut had been torn off. Something was definitely wrong.
“Kailu,” I shouted, running through his gate and looking around frantically.
“Leave, or this arrow goes through your head.”
I turned around slowly to find Kailu standing there with a bow and arrow leveled at me. He had a black eye and his armor was torn in places. Baynor instantly pulled his bow back, aiming it at Kailu.
“Will everyone please calm down,” I shouted, now really worried about what had gone on. “What happened?”
“Don’t play innocent. I can see you’re one of them,” Kailu snarled.
“I’m not playing innocent, I was on a dungeon raid, as were these two,” I indicated the others. “Baynor, put your bow down. Kailu is a friend of mine.”
“Some friend. You’re in the same guild as the ones who attacked me.” Kailu finally lowered his bow. “They took everything.”
“What? Why?”
“How would I know,” he replied, starting to get irritated again. “They stormed in here, ripping all my cured hides down. When I tried to stop them, they said the leather was theirs now, as I was just a stupid NPC, whatever that means, and if I complained any further, they’d shut me up. I tried to keep them away from my storehouse, but one of them knocked me out.”
The anger seemed to suddenly leave him as he deflated. Before I could catch him, he collapsed on the floor.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. Without leather, I can’t make any gear, and if I don’t complete the pieces the village tradesmen commissioned, they’ll kick me out of this area.” He put his head in his hands.
“So, the Dragon Hunters did this?” I asked, just to make sure.
“Yes. It’s a regular occurrence, but they usually don’t take everything. This time though…” he trailed off.
“Well, he is right,” declared Saris. “He is just an NPC and this is a game. Let’s go.”
“There’s no way this is right,” I shouted at Saris. “We’re all the same in this world. It’s not like we can leave, either. This is just how the nobles treated me growing up. Like I was worthless. Well, I’ve had enough.”
I grabbed all the bat wings out of my inventory and dropped them on the floor in front of a very shocked looking Kailu. Then I grabbed the vampire deer skins I’d forgotten to take out earlier and added them to the pile.
“You said these were rare,” I indicated the vampire deer skin, “so hopefully they’ll at least help you get started again.”
Kailu was speechless.
“What about you two?” I demanded, eyeing Baynor and Saris. “I’m sure you have some bat wings from today’s excursion, don’t you?”
Baynor nodded and added his to the growing pile.
Saris, on the other hand, was looking at me like I’d grown another head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She put her hands on her hips. “Why would I want to do that?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do and you know it.” I stared at her.
“It’s a game. We’re supposed to loot everything,” she yelled.
“Well, it sure doesn’t feel like a game to me,” I shouted back. “If we don’t solve this riddle at some point, we’re going to be stuck here in this zone forever. Can you imagine that? 100 years from now, will you still be harassing the locals? I think Andrew is leading us in the wrong direction and worse yet, I think he knows it.”
Baynor’s eyebrows disappeared into his hair. Saris just scowled.
“I solved part of the riddle, you know, and we have to get to level 10, and I’m pretty sure we need a certain amount of Intelligence and Wisdom as well. In other words, exactly what we’re not allowed to have in the guild approved builds. Plus, Andrew is responsible for killing off all the Alchemists and magic users. Don’t you find that odd?” I was about to lose it.
“Why don’t you leave the guild, then? Too scared to go it alone without the help of Andrew’s potion?” Saris taunted.
She was right, of course, but I wasn’t going to let her know that.
“I want to know what he’s up to and why he’s doing what he’s doing first. But I’m really starting to think we picked the wrong side.”
If Baynor’s head could have swiveled any faster as he looked from Saris to me and back, he would have transformed into an owl. As it was, he just stood there in shock.
“Whatever!” Saris yelled. “You’re just an ungrateful brat who can�
�t stand to think she might be wrong.” With that, she vanished, almost certainly disappearing back to the guildhall.
“You sure know how to stir things up, don’t you,” said Baynor. “She’s just going to go straight to Andrew, you know.”
“I don’t care. Let’s help Kailu get this place cleaned up a bit and I’ll go talk to her once she’s calmed down.”
“Look, I don’t know if you’re right or not, but I don’t want to get in the middle of anything. I’ll see you back at the guildhall.” Baynor also vanished, leaving me standing there next to Kailu.
“I can’t quite believe you did that,” Kailu was looking at me as if the sun shone out of me. “No one has ever stood up for me, or rather, not since I was declared an outcast.”
“Yeh, well, some things are just worth standing up for,” I muttered. “Let’s clean this place up.”
A couple of hours later, Kailu had taught me Leatherworking and given me the kit for free. He’d supervised as I cleaned and cured each hide and we’d strung them out to dry. I’d already leveled up to level 9 and was well on my way to becoming an Apprentice.
Saying my goodbyes, I selected the guildhall from the menu and ported in.
I arrived at the entrance to find Andrew, Saris, Colt and a group of guild members I didn’t know all gathered at the entrance, waiting.
This didn’t look good.
19
Hidden Quest
“Saris tells me you gave an NPC our precious leather supplies,” Andrew said calmly, while Saris stood behind him with a huge smirk on her face. “Not only that, you convinced Baynor to do the same. Is that correct?”
