“It's the nature of things,” Darin said. “Everyone knows that when they get into the tournaments. We just need to be able to stake our claim. And if we can do that, then we have a real path open to you both turning into professionals. If we can get to C-rank, would you be willing to devote more time to this?”
Taji thought for a moment. “I think I would. But I have to be sure. I can't just quit a good job over maybes.”
“Then we have our goal in front of us. Conquer the Cave of Origin, win the D-rank seeding qualifiers and then move up to C-rank.”
It sounded so straightforward. If only it were the simple, Leah thought, but then saying and doing things were always on different levels. They couldn't think too far into the future either. The first challenge would prove hard enough.
7
It had been so long since he had been here. Darin looked at the pair of pillars stretching into the sky, covered in an alien language and lit up with a green, eldritch light. There were so many theories about what they meant. Some players believed that there was a secret contained within the cave related to the pillars, something that would change the entire complexion of the game, or give them secret powers if they discovered it. Others just believed it was decoration and nothing more.
Darin hadn't thought about it much. It was all just a wild rumor, in his mind, something that the designers had added in for flavor. Not everything had to be a conspiracy of a big secret. Besides, the Cave of Origin was intimidating enough on its own.
He looked back at the rest of the party: Erika with her light armor and rapier, Taji wearing plate mail and carrying a battle axe and shield, and Leah with her bow. Darin himself had a halberd and medium armor as usual, along with support magic. He'd be directing traffic for the duration of the raid, attacking, defending and healing whenever it was needed.
“Deja vu,” Leah commented as they approached the archway leaving to the cage. “Want to take bets about what kind of monsters we're going to have to deal with this time?”
“Hopefully not the ice ones. Those were annoying.”
“What about them?” Taji asked curiously.
Darin shrugged. “The standard stuff, actually. They hit you with freezing attacks that slow you down. It's not like they're extremely dangerous, but even the grunts are annoying. You feel like you're trying to fight with your feet stuck in quicksand.”
“Have you ever actually had your feet stuck in quicksand?” Leah asked.
“Well no. But...”
“I kind of get the picture anyhow,” Erika said with a smile. “So hopefully there aren't any enemies like that. I can't say that'd be good for me using Flash Step.”
Darin turned his attention forward again and took a deep breath as the passed through the archway. Despite his experience, he gripped the haft of his weapon a little tighter. This was it. Now that they were inside the Cave of Origin they had to complete it or come back a week later if they failed. They'd only get one do-over at this point if they wanted to make the next tournament.
“Go with what we planned,” he instructed, moving into position. “Taji first, then me, then Erika and Leah.”
The rest of the group moved to their spots as well. Their formation was fairly standard, all things considered. Taji would walk up front so he was first to meet anything that came their way, using his defense to shrug off any hits. Darin followed behind him to offer support and healing. Depending on the situation he could either start an attack or provide extra defense to help Taji hold his ground.
Erika and Leah would be in charge of dealing out most of the damage, using their normal builds. Leah would use range and her powerful destruction magic, while Erika would rely on up close and personal attacks with precision.
“Is there a standard layout?” Erika asked as they walked. “I mean, I know the dungeon's randomized, but is there some sort of pattern to it?”
“There's an entrance and a boss room at the end,” Leah said. “Other than that it's completely unpredictable.”
“Every single time I've been through here it's been completely different,” Taji agreed. “Sometimes there's just a maze of tunnels with a few small rooms and nothing else, sometimes there's a couple of big rooms. You can never tell.”
Darin wondered what the designers had been thinking about when they created the cave. The highly random nature of the place meant that teams traveling through could end up stuck in difficult, sometimes completely unfair situations. But then, that was true in the tournaments as well. A pair of teams could be equally matched on paper, yet when they battled one could be clearly superior to the other.
One thing he did know was that the Cave of Origin was about testing their combat skills. Carved recesses in the walls held torches, bathing the entire cave with light. It wasn't the sun, but they'd have no trouble seeing. Nothing could just jump out of the dark to attack them. The monsters in here didn't need to. They had more than enough power.
He tensed for a moment as they stepped into a wider chamber, half-expecting trouble. For a moment Darin saw nothing, just dirt floors and rock walls with a few stalagmites and stalactites scattered around. They weren't large enough to hide anything, but…
But the ground beneath them started to rumble.
“Is that a boss?” Erika asked.
Taji shook his head. “They wouldn't throw one at us right away.”
Darin agreed, but the other possibility was far worse. He brought his weapon up into a defensive position and started casting Champion's Call, a spell that increased the strength of every in the party. If what he suspected was true, they'd need every bit of it they could get.
The rumbling grew more and more intense by the second, going from mere vibrations to an audible shaking. Darin looked around, trying to figure out just where it was coming from. There was only one doorway leading out of the room…
And then another suddenly opened as a stone slab lifted away. Not even a second later a horde of enemies started pouring into the chamber.
“Golems,” he heard Leah say via telepathy. “Looks like they're wearing earth seals.”
“Then this isn't going to be easy,” Darin replied as he watch more and more charge in. How many of them were there? Fifty? A hundred? There were probably even more than that.
Grunts might be easy to kill, but even they could pack a punch in large enough numbers, and right now they might be approaching that point. Moreover these were earth golems with boosted defense. They still would only take two or three hits to kill, but that was two or three extra times for them to get their own attacks in.
“Try to avoid as much damage as possible,” he told Taji. “I'm going to have to work as the secondary tank.”
“Got it,” Taji said, and cast Stone Skin on himself a second later.
The first golems charged forward, just simple, rotund bodies with stubby arms and limbs sticking out. They looked fragile, almost like they were made out of clay, but they had glowing lines running up and down their main body. In this case, the lines were green.
Darin moved forward and swung his halberd in a wide arc, trying to damage as many as he could with the first attack. If he could just get a critical hit he might be able to take them out with one swing. If not…
The weapon smashed into the first golem with an audible crack, sending shards of pottery flying everywhere. The creature remained upright, but the blow staggered it. The next two in line suffered a similar fate.
Darin gritted his teeth. Not good enough. The golems were still moving, and more pressed in behind them. Taji smashed out with his axe and shield, hurting a few more. But it wasn't enough. One struck out at him, then another.
Darin dodged first blow, then grunted as the second managed to make contact with his armor and send him stumbling back. He regained his footing and deflected another strike, but the rest of the golems were beginning to push them further back.
“Incoming,” Leah warned them over the telepathy link, and a moment later he saw an arrow streak over
his head. It impacted against the far wall where the golems had charged out from and exploded in a ball of flame.
The back ranks of the enemy horde were completely incinerated by the fire blast. More of them were knocked over by the blast, some completely disabled, others severely damaged. Darin had to brace himself for a moment as the shockwave rippled past him. There were still plenty of golems left, but Leah's attack gave them a slight opening.
“Switching from tank to attacker,” he said, then cast Pre-sight. The ability would allow everyone a split-second to react to enemy attacks. It wasn't much, but it could mean the difference between narrowly dodging an attack and taking a hit. While he was locked in combat Darin couldn't heal the others, so keeping the rest of the party from getting hit was the next best course of action.
Darin charged forward, focusing his attention on one of the damaged golems. He thrust forward with his weapon's spearpoint, catching the creature in one of the cracks that had formed. His attack must have caused a critical hit, because the golem broke apart into thousands of little shards.
He went on the attack again immediately after it fell, swinging his weapon around and catching another golem with the back spike. The weapon buried itself deep in the monster's body, and Darin yanked it back toward him. The motion ripped a large gash in the golem and caused it to stumble. Another swing finished it off.
He saw a blur flash by and a golem fell, stabbed in one of its weak points. Another fell, then another, then another. Darin had to smile at that. Erika was pulling her weight, using her speed and precision to get in close and then stab the golems in their vulnerable areas, right in their magic seals.
It would kill them instantly if they were struck there, but it took a direct hit that most players couldn't manage. Only the best archers could even think about hitting a target that small, and other close-combat fighters had to concentrate on defending themselves, so achieving it became difficult.
But a fast-moving fighter with Flash Step and good aim could get in and out of an area before the enemy had a chance to respond, hitting the golems in their weak points and getting away without taking any damage. It would only work so long as the ability's timer lasted, but it would allow them to pare down the size of the horde.
Darin aimed his own strike at a golem's magic seal, but the creature blocked the halberd blow with one of its arms. The limb shattered under the power of the swing, but the monster remained standing.
“How many are there left?” Darin asked, coming around with another blow and smashing the golem's body in with the axe head. In his position he couldn't count the enemy numbers, not without distracting himself too much.
“Looks like about fifty or so,” Leah said. “Anchor yourself. I'm using a Force arrow.”
Another shaft streaked into the midst of the golem horde, going off with a blue flash and sending a shockwave ripping through their ranks. Darin dug in his heels and tried to remain in place, but the power of the attack was too much. He stumbled backward, watching the health bar in the side of his vision drop by a third. He saw Taji struggle back as well, though his Stone Skin, heavy armor and shield took the worst of it. He didn't see Erika anywhere, but Darin imagined she had gotten clear. Leah wouldn't have risked killing one of their teammates, not this early in the dungeon.
But if it had wounded them, it had also hurt the enemy ranks far worse. Only a dozen earth golems remained standing, all showing signs of damage. Cracked bodies, missing limbs, it was clear that they were on their last legs.
“Take them out?” Erika asked over the telepathy link.
“Go for them, but we're going to hang back for a second,” Darin said. “Taji, I'm going to cast healing over both of us.”
“Shouldn't we wait until we kill them all?”
“That depends. The cave might send something else at us,” he said. No use in taking chances.
Darin activated his ability and watch his health bar climb steadily. The support magic's healing ability restored a certain amount of health, and that number could be split between the party. If there were two then each would get half the healing, if there were three they'd get a third and if there were four they'd get a quarter of it.
Right now they were still in good enough shape to fight without healing, but Darin didn't know if there were any elites waiting for them. He didn't think so, not when the cave had already thrown a tough challenge at them right from the beginning, but he couldn't be sure.
“OK, as soon as you top off head into the fight,” Darin said.
“Got it,” Taji replied, and a few seconds later he charged the next golems.
Darin watched his health bar reach full again as well, but he hung back, wanting to see how the other two fought by themselves. Another golem fell to the rapier and flash step combination. Three more moved in and seemed to surround Erika as the ability wore off, but she moved far, far too quickly for them to capitalize. A series of blue-green platforms appeared in the air and in a second she was behind the trio, out of danger.
The golems moved forward to attack her now that her best ability had worn off, but Taji was next to her in an instant, providing cover. The first monster's swing ran straight into his shield, reverberating off and causing the creature's arm to crack. Taji came around with his weapon, smashing the axe head into the creature's main body and cutting a huge hole into it. As it stumbled backward Erika moved back out from behind him, stabbing at the newly formed gash. The golem shook violently and then fell over, its magical energies completely gone.
“Going to stand around and just watch everyone else fight, huh?” Leah commented.
“Just seeing what they can do.”
“Funny, because it looks like you're just mailing it in and taking a break from my point of view.”
Darin gripped the haft of his weapon. “Well, when you put it that way...”
He charged toward another golem, leaping at it and thrusting with the spearpoint. By skill or sheer dumb luck he managed to hit the monster right in its magic seal, causing it to shudder and then explode in a cloud of dust and magical energies. Another tried to hit him, but Darin partially sidestepped the blow and deflected the rest of the strike off his shoulder armor. He countered with his own attack, a backhanded swing of the spike and ripped a hole into the monster.
Within a few seconds the rest of the golems were vanquished. Darin breathed a sigh of relief and then took stock of the situation.
“Anyone seriously injured?”
“I'm fine,” Taji said.
“Me too,” Erika said cheerfully. “They weren't fast enough to catch me, and when they did I had someone to duck behind. Thanks, by the way. You make a very good wall.”
Taji laughed. “Ah, that's sort of what I'm here for, right?”
Darin looked back at Leah. “Did you even have anyone come near you?”
“Of course not. You two did a pretty good job of capturing their attention,” she replied, giving him a thumbs up. “Of course, this was ridiculously tough for the first room of the Cave of Origin. Must have come up with an unlucky draw.”
Darin nodded. The room wasn't unwinnable, of course, merely difficult, but an unprepared team might have been slaughtered if faced with the same situation. Was this all just bad fortune, or was it an omen of something greater? They hadn't faced any of the dungeon's elites or bosses yet.
“Let's just hope those are the only earth golems we face in here,” Darin said.
“They're annoying,” Taji agreed. “Though water and wind golems aren't going to be fun either. Or fire ones.”
“I'll take monsters that we can kill in one hit over swarms of them that take two or three.”
“Speak for yourself,” Leah said. “I like not being shot at.”
“Well, we can see what's ahead,” Erika said. “One way forward.”
Darin couldn't help smiling at her remark. She might be the least experienced of them all, but her enthusiasm was infectious. Both she and Taji had it, in fact, though she was mor
e outright with it. He didn't mind it at all, though. In fact, it reminded him a lot of his early days in Avalon Online, where he was just one small person exploring a vast world with three comrades. It felt almost nostalgic, like a callback to simpler days.
“Right,” he said. “Form up into standard formation again and let's see what the rest of this cave has waiting for us.”
Taji took the lead once again. Darin tried to move up beside him, but the tunnel leading out from the previous previous chamber narrowed quite a bit, only allowing one person passage at a time. They'd have to advance in single file.
“Warn me if you see anything,” he told Taji. “And I'm back here if you need support spells.”
“Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Though I don't think that we're going to run into anything in here until we reach somewhere wider. It's never happened to me before.”
Darin frowned. “That's funny, because I can remember getting ambushed by an elite golem in one of the narrow tunnels. Maybe it was just luck of the draw?”
“Maybe.”
That was the trick of the Cave of Origin. There were so many factors that went into its generation, so much randomization that trying to predict what might be inside was nearly impossible. They could rely on previous knowledge of course, read what other players had discovered on their trips through. They could have a basic idea of what they might face inside, but they couldn't know for sure.
And once in a while, this kind of environment could throw a curveball at them.
Darin was about to say something else when Taji began coughing, stopping and blocking the tunnel with his considerable bulk. For a moment he thought his partner had come under attack, but then purple gas started filtering past him. Darin only had a few seconds to react. He cast Protection Ward, blocking the rest of them from being harmed by the gas, but it was already too late for Taji.
“That's not good,” Taji commented, coughing all the while.
One quick glance confirmed that he had been hit with status effects, lowering his defense. It would wear off, but for now he had less protection than even someone wearing light armor.
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