by Lucas Dunn
Chapter 38
I awoke the next day feeling very refreshed. Eating a quick breakfast with my squad, we continued on. We expected the rest of the floor to go by quickly, but it was truly massive. It took two more hours and a couple more level ups before we finally reached a staircase that led upwards. Expecting it to be the way out we hurried up the steps and were met with a marble door six times our size. Shoving it open we were met with another floor. Groaning we slowly went to one of the doors in the room. Wary of what challenge we faced next, we were prepared when a fireball bigger than mine flew towards us. A boom resounded throughout the chamber as Jackson blocked it with a mana shield. Looking into the hallway we saw what we were up against. Level 70 Fire Golem. What was it with this place and fire? Not wasting anytime I sent all 20 zombies forward. As they charged my group spread out around the chamber and I ported a good distance behind the elemental. When the zombies reached the elemental its body brightened and in a bright flash it released a bigger version of fire wave. Flame exploded from its body incinerating the zombies leaving nothing but specks of ash. Very disappointed in how they turned out, I ported to the creatures back striking with both my pick axes only to find a familiar red shield blocking my strike. The humanoid fire golem turned around and sucker punched my shield completely shattering it and shaving of 200 health. Porting to the corner of the room, I recovered and watched Elif infusing water magic into her arrows and rapidly firing at the golem. They had little effect alone, but the amount of them slowly whittled down the creature’s fire shield. The creature glowed brightly once more and released a massive stream of flames at Elif, but Elizabeth was there to tank the damage blocking the worst of it with her earth enchanted armor. Jackson fired weakening curses he created after we encountered the first flame shield that were like cold wisps slowly wrapping around the super-heated shield. Raken continued to launch dark bolts that ate at the shields strength. Blade stood back due to his swords having little effect on the golem. Calling my shadow panther to me, we charged the golem together while his attention was on the others. My picks did massive damage against the flame shield but his shield was still incredibly strong. Using a fourth of my mana, I darkened the whole room so I could teleport anywhere. Activating heavy strike multiple times, I got in the pattern of striking, porting to his back, and striking again. This cycle continued and it was only a couple of minutes before his shield shattered. Going in for the kill, I slammed my picks into the golems flaming core and cast soul steal. The golem froze as its flames sputtered, giving off a cold aura. Finally, its core shattered and flames washed around me taking away almost half of my remaining health. Thankful for my resistance, I looked around as the flames cleared. I had received a splendid level soul from it! Looking down I saw a gem that pulsed a deep red. Excited I stooped down to pick it up but before I could, a black flash appeared before me. Quicker than even my dexterity could keep up with, my shadow golem gobbled up of the red glowing stone.
“What the hell! Give it back!” I shouted at the greedy shadow panther, but it was too late. Cursing in frustration I started towards the panther but was pushed back as when a wave of black flames sprouted from the panther giving off more heat than even the golem we just faced. Looking at the greedy panther I analyzed him.
Level 82 Merged Shadow Panther. This golem has merged darkness with fire. Merged golems are extremely more powerful than a golem of one element. Due to having two elements this golems elements gains special attributes. Combining fire with darkness has created decaying flames. These flames damage living organisms twice as much. Merged golems lose their 100% resistance to their element, but gain a 50% resistance to every element it is made from.
“Hmmm, well I guess you can keep them for now.” I said begrudgingly. I wasn’t going to say it out loud, but that was an extremely powerful bonus, I just wish I could have seen the stats of the stone. The fact that the golem lost its 100% resistance to physical damage sucked, but it did gain a 50% resistance to both fire and darkness. This meant its physical damage resistance dropped to 50% too.
My group gathered up and we continued through the floor. After our fourth golem, another stone finally dropped.
Item received. Splendid level fire essence gem. This item can be used to enchant weapons. Due it being an essence stone, it will be much stronger than a regular fire enchantment. Anybody can use these stones to enchant by attaching it to a piece of equipment, but an enchanter can maximize and shape the true power of the stone.
It was what I was expecting, but Gannon never mentioned an enchanter could do much more with it. Maybe he didn’t know. Either way, it was an extremely powerful gem. It was clearly a drop that didn’t happen often also. Continuing on we came across two more golems and after defeating the second one, I got a prompt.
Congratulations! You have reached level 50.
Assigning all my stats into dexterity, I reached level 215 and got my next prompt.
Congratulations! You have reached over 200 in dexterity, ability gained. Reflex: You are able to sense when something dangerous is coming your way and instinctively react. (Passive)
It was kind of broad, but whatever. “Elif, shoot an arrow at me”.
I was expecting an argument, but in one fluid motion, Elif shot the arrow completely taking me by surprise. A feeling came over and my spine began to tingle. Without even being able to see the arrow flying to me, my hand raised and snatched it out of the air, right before it went through my eye. Impressed, but grumbling at her carelessness I decided not to confront her because I did ask for it.
The room we were in was clearly the final room of this floor because of the extravagant stairs once again leading upwards. The stairs were decorated in golden stenciled flames on a white marble background giving it an almost heavenly appearance. As we continued upward, we came to another massive door made of solid white marble. This had to be it, the boss fight. Whatever was in here was going to be extremely hard to beat. Making sure we were ready, I used my massive strength and pushed the doors open.
Level 100 fire elemental. Elementals are pure forms of their elements that evolve from golems from infusing with extreme amounts of energy. It is suggested that you run when facing one of them. Especially if its twice your level.
Well, the prompts did not lie. Shouting “Run!” We tried to go back through the stairs but the marble door slammed shut. Turning back around, we stared at the elemental. It was twenty feet tall with a humanoid body made of fire from the waist up. From the waist down however, the elemental was a swirling tornado of fire.
I could use elemental merge to boost my stats 100% and make me on par with the level 100 elemental but it would only last five minutes so I wanted to use it when the situation got desperate… Well, even more desperate than it was now.
The room we were currently in was wide open and pure marble. I guessed it was probably as large as the whole second floor. Ignoring my wandering mind, I ported behind the elemental and struck at the back of its knees only to once again hit a familiarly annoying red shield made of flames. This one didn’t even crack upon hitting it. I felt my spine tingle and instantly jumped backwards. With my high dexterity and strength, it was no small jump. I launched myself almost 20 feet backwards as an explosion of fire landed where I just was. The flames lapped the floor causing me to spring backwards once more. I ordered everyone to take cover and only strike from distance. Elizabeth provided cover for Elif and Rake while Jackson and Blade tried to move to the furthest corner. My level 82 Golem lunged forward in a blur of motion and struck the elemental with its claws and teeth. The black flames around the panther flared up as the elemental tried to throw the giant panther off of him. The black and red flames battled, but eventually the panther’s flames were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of red flames and the panther went flying backwards. After the exchange, there were huge cracks in the elemental shield giving me hope that we might survive this due to my panther being greedy. Its merge with the elements had truly made it stronger th
an a regular golem of its level.
My Golem was lying injured on the floor, slowly getting up. As I turned my gaze back to the fire elemental I saw it getting ready for an attack. Its body pulsed waves of heat and a gaze of hate was aimed at my golem. Quickly realizing its plan, I activated my elemental merge doubling my stats. Lunging forward I put all my mana into a continuous shield and activated heavy strike and speed attack. My picks worked in a flurry of motion and the elementals shield shattered with a resounding boom. The heat around the Elemental increased tenfold and I got an intense tingling in my spine. The building heat around the elemental was released in a massive fireball exploding into me at point blank range. My shield didn’t have time to explode, but was vaporized absorbing most of the damage from the fireball. Even with my shield taking most of the damage, I lost around half my health. After flying through the air I finally hit something that gave way. Hearing a groan from underneath me, I grunted and got back onto my feet.
I was about to apologize to Blade when he shoved me onto the ground.
“What the f…” I started to say before he jumped on top of me smothering me. I tried to push him of but felt an intense heat wave. In the corner of my eyes I saw Blades shield wink out of existence and felt and extremely hard impact. Blade suddenly vanished before my eyes and I was suddenly covered in a fine black ash.
My hearing muted from the point blank fireball explosion, my mouth dropped as my brain tried to process what just happened. In my dazed state, Jackson pulled me to my feet and surrounded me with a shield of his own. I realized Jackson was shaking me and I snapped out of my incoherent state. Screaming at Blade’s death I turned to the Elemental to attack it with reckless abandon but someone had gotten there before me. My golem roared in defiance as it slowly beat down the elemental. The golems flame overpowered the weakened fire elementals, almost seeming to devour it until the Elementals core imploded.
Everything around us started to shake and a pedestal rose from the ground with a stone on it along with a return panel. Without thinking I picked up the elementals loot along with the mysterious stone. Slamming my hand on the panel I was teleported back to the dungeon entrance.
I heard my name being called but ignored it and continued along to the castle. Without remembering the trip, I found myself in my room. Taking a look at the mid-evil décor I felt like I fully realized my decision to come to this world was not to be taken lightly. This was no game and people were going to die. Not NPC’s, but people.
This wasn’t my world to enjoy. I didn’t come here to escape from reality. Those were all selfish thoughts that had led to my carelessness. I came to this world to protect and save. That was why I was here. Steeling my resolve, I decided to spend the rest of the day and night in my room thinking about the future of this world. I needed to become strong. As it was now, I could hardly match a guard in a normal city much less battle a god. Closing my eyes, I let sleep take me with promises to myself that I would become stronger no matter what.
Chapter 39
Breakfast was a somber affair. My squad sat silently in the throne/dining room all drearily eyeing the place Blade would normally sit.
“Stop!” I suddenly shouted. Everyone in the room looked at me.
“This is not how he will be remembered. He saved me using up his own life! We will honor his memory.” Walking up the throne, I drew from the city’s mana pool.
Slowly a statue began to rise. A valiant white marble statue resembling and exact copy of Blade formed next to the throne. On its back rested two empty silver sheaths. Lucian pulled two swords from his bag and swiftly inserted them into the statue.
The hall of people stared at the perfect marble statue. As the magical swords were inserted into the sheaths the hall descended into silence. Warm waves emanated from the statue causing the hall to be permanently filled with a pleasant warmth. The people stared at the front of the hall with tears in their eyes. In the middle sat a regal, majestic, yet unassuming throne. To the right sat a beautiful stone wolf, and to the left was a valiant man comforting the whole room. It was truly a throne room that conveyed the many hardships that were to come, but at the same time showed that no matter what the challenge was, it would be defeated.
Chapter 40
“It has finally begun” Lucian said under his breath. It had been a week since Blade had been killed and the incident had only bolstered his troops. After the mages completed all the houses within the inner walls, all his troops had begun to move into the castle.
A flash of blue light appeared in the distance and ten Dwarves covered in plated armor appeared. After talking to Elif they immediately went to occupy the first of the houses built in the inner wall.
Lucian watched from afar as more and more troops appeared, after a while every single house in his city was occupied meaning over 100,000 warriors of the dark races were currently presiding in his city. 350,000 more would come once the second wall were built, along with 100,000 civilians that were needed to run a city and keep thing working. Even though this wouldn’t be the highest occupancy the secondary walls could hold. The Dark Alliance didn’t want to stretch themselves too thin.
After the troops filled the city, the second walls were immediately started on. They would take quite a while, but with so many soldiers and mages, production would speed up greatly.
“Ughhhh! I have a headache, I can’t do this right now!” Lucian complained.
“Sir, you insisted on learning enchanting, and you specifically told me not to let you quit like you did with smithing.” Akron said.
“I know, but this is different, I just got done overseeing and army and I am tired!” Lucian once again complained. “OWW! YOU SUNOFABITCH!
“Sir, you told me you might say that and if I didn’t poke you with the engraver than you would poke me later.” Akron once again pleaded.
“Alright I submit! Let’s continue.” Lucian said miserably
“Very well lord. As we were discussing, Different metals have different properties for enchanting. If we were to enchant with lower quality metal or components such as Oak wood, iron, and copper. Then the enchantments would be only a fraction of their true power. For example, if I was to take a steel sword and an iron sword and put the same enchantment on it such as penetration. Then the iron sword would only have a 5% penetrating power while the steel would have a 10%. Obviously, this changes with the enchanter’s skill and material but you get the point.
Another thing to mention is the difference between using a plain flawless soul gem and a fire gem of equal quality. While you are forcing a fire enchantment to take shape in the plain soul gem the fire soul gem will naturally have more power due to its original affinity. Therefore it is better to use elemental stones for enchanting the elements and regular soul stone for irregular enchantments like adding to one’s dexterity or reducing one’s need for sleep and hunger.
That should be enough for today, I have three books for you to look over that will help your learning speed greatly.
Item Received: Basic book of enchantments-basic knowledge and runes.
Item Received: Basic book of enchantment-Enchanting with Elemental Stones
Item Received: Basic book of enchantment-Enchanting with Soul Stones
Though I was complaining in the beginning this enchanting knowledge is going to be extremely useful. Not only that, but I can finally fulfill my Profession! With the knowledge of the other world I should be able to make some truly remarkable things.
Selecting professions from his options, I quickly chose Enchanter and saw a massive skill web pop up. There were options for enchanting armor, ring, bracelets, as well as bonuses to ones enchanting and certain skill one could get. Completely overwhelmed I turned off the screen and rushed to my room so I could study everything in peace.
After reading the books and looking over the forum, from what I could see, to unlock things on the skill web, one needed points. These points were given from completing profession quests, and leveling up. Ev
ery time someone leveled up they would get two profession points, but since I had a special class I would get three. These points started accruing at level twenty since I didn’t have a profession leaving me with 90 skill points.
Looking back at my skill web there were many things I could choose but most of it was greyed out due to my level one enchanter ability. I had four options to start. +10% enchanting efficiency, Durability enchantment, Sharpness enchantment, +1 to ability to work with certain components. While the durability and sharpness enchantment were there, they were pitfalls. Enchanting came from using runes so it wasn’t necessary to choose these options. Sadly, they were a completely different set of runes than the ones used in spell casting since the power was applied on physical objects rather than mana. After memorizing the countless runes, I realized raising my intelligence didn’t just increase my mana but made my brain more efficient. I had an almost perfect eidetic memory that allowed me to recall every single rune!
After disregarding sharpness and durability, I also decided to not choose the ability to work with more components since that would come with practice as well. In the end, I chose +10% efficiency because it would make my enchantments stronger and I could always come back to these abilities and choose them if something went wrong.
After exiting my menu, I formed a small iron dagger and on the blade, I formed the inscription for piercing. Pulling a basic soul stone out of my bag, I willed the soul into the blade causing the blade to shine with a white light. After the soul gem emptied I appraised the blade.
