Raising his hammer hand to deliver another overhead attack, his face scrunched up with pain. Behind him was Luke taking wide diagonal swipes with a short sword. The smith gave him a confused look, thinking wasn’t that the ranger? He swung around and cleaved with his sword, cutting across Luke’s stomach and deflecting onto Penny’s shield hard enough to force her to the ground. The smith pulled his sword back and thrust it at Luke.
Instead of jumping out of the way, Luke attempted to block the blow with his own blade. The smith’s strength was much greater than Luke’s and the parry forced Luke’s own sword to drive into his side. The smith smiled and Luke responded with a shit-eating grin of his own before uttering a single word. “Backstab.”
One of the fallen goblin's blades drove through the smith. Penny followed up Backstab’s attack and drove her blade down from overhead. The blade sunk down into the neck of the smith and poked out his waist. Backstab and Luke collapsed to the ground from a mixture of pain and exhaustion while Penny stood, panting heavily.
Luke saw that Nanoc’s health was dipping into critical levels and tossed him a heal before forcing himself to his feet. Even though he was in extreme pain, he couldn’t help but smile. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or insanity, but he sure was loving this game.
Penny quickly joined Nanoc’s fight and served as a distraction for Nanoc to unleash a flurry of revenge strikes on the smith. The smith tripped over himself trying to block in two directions at once and a hammer blow meant for Nanoc’s head instead led to the barbarian catching the hammer and ripping it from the smith’s hand.
Luke joined the fight by launching his remaining two arrows and hitting his mark both times. Without his hammer, the smith could not withstand the attacks from all sides and was quickly overpowered. The fight ended when Nanoc split the goblin’s skull with his massive axe as the smith went to block one of Penny’s thrusts.
Goblin Worker x4 defeated. 123 party participation exp gained (100 base + 25% discovery bonus - 1% guild contribution).
Goblin Smith x2 defeated. 618 party participation exp gained (500 base + 25% discovery bonus - 1% guild contribution).
The team rested and waited for Luke’s mana to recover. They let him heal them all to full instead of wasting potions. To his surprise, nature’s regrowth set and healed the bones in Backstab’s shoulder and neck. It took an extra cast to fully heal him, but it was well worth the price to get their rogue back on his feet. When the team was finished resting, Luke pulled up the rest of his notifications. He ended up gaining a rank in nature’s regrowth, short bows and water shot.
“I know that fight was intense, but you can’t ignore gains like that.” Penny commented.
“Sure, if you don’t mind shattering your bones,” Backstab muttered.
The group searched the room but the only thing of value they could find was a quiver of arrows buried in a crate. Penny replaced her shattered shield with the biggest shield she could find. It wasn’t anywhere close to the shield she had, but it was still much larger than the shard of metal that was left of her original tower shield.
They started heading the rest of the way down the chasm and stopped in front of the ornate doors. Everyone pulled out their weapons as Penny pushed them. The doors opened inward to pure darkness. Torches slowly began to light, illuminating their next challenge.
CHAPTER NINE
Boss Fight
They slowly entered the room, keeping their guard up as much as possible. The room had marble columns set in a large circle with torches lighting up a round stone pattern on the middle of the floor. Beyond the columns in all directions was darkness. When they reached the center of the room, the doors shut behind them and the rest of the room lit up. Opposite the double entry doors was a small raised platform.
Standing on the platform was a massive goblin, easily eight feet tall and covered in muscles. He had a giant single bladed bone axe in one hand and a massive circular shield in the other. He was wearing only a loincloth and a metal helmet with eyes glowing red behind the visor.
A chime sounded and in the upper center of Luke’s vision appeared the name Xirx, the Goblin Warlord Lv 10. Underneath the new name appeared a long rectangular box outlined in gold with dragons on either side. The bar filled up from empty to full twice, first with a red color and then with green.
“Oh, my god. How am I supposed to tank that?” Penny said with a tinge of fear bleeding into her voice.
Xirx bent his knees and leaped into the air toward them. The group scattered and when Xirx landed, the stone cracked and broke into rubble under his feet. The air pressure from his landing pushed the group even further away. Xirx opened his mouth and let out a massive roar that was so fierce it took one percent off everyone's health.
“Tomahawk!” Nanoc threw his axe at the beast but it turned and knocked the axe away with its shield.
Luke ran behind a column and set Ringo down. “Stay here!” Bolting out from cover, Luke shot a pair of arrows as he ran in a circle around the room. Both arrows landed in the beast's massive body but its health indicator only showed a small dip.
The creature’s attention went to Luke but before it could decide on who to attack, Penny began taunting it. “I’ll keep its attention the best I can. Luke, focus on healing me when you're able to and the rest of you kill this thing!” Penny shouted orders, regaining her battle composure.
Xirx took some slow swings at Penny that she was able to deflect or dodge without taking too much damage. Backstab ran up behind Xirx and jumped up, daggers in hand. “Double strike.” Four long cuts appeared on the beast’s back before it swung its shield arm back at him. Thinking quickly, Backstab crossed his arms and braced for the impact. The shield hit him dead center and sent him flying towards a column.
Before hitting the column, Nanoc leaped into the air and caught the projectile rogue. The two fell to the ground and slid for a few feet before stopping. “Let’s not do that again.” Nanoc got up and began to turn red. “Ahhhh!” Running forward he bent down to grab his axe off the floor without losing stride. He began to spin his body as he approached screaming “Whirlwind!” His axe cut deep into the side of Xirx and green blood started dripping down the boss monster's leg.
Ripping his axe out of Xirx he went in for another strike but its massive shield blocked it. Luke launched two consecutive water shots at Xirx’s shield arm. Both hit their mark, and the creature let out a shout of pain. Glancing up, he saw that half of the green health bar was already gone. “We're doing it guys! Let's keep it up.” Luke shouted words of encouragement to his team.
The shout distracted Penny just long enough for Xirx’s kick to land against her. She went flying back and slammed against the wall. The impact forced the air out of her lungs and she fell to the ground. She began taking large gulps of air and her HP took a 60% hit. Green energy flowed over her and her wounds started healing.
Backstab ran up to the beast as it reeled back and swung a cleaving slash at the fast moving rogue. Backstab took a small jump into the air and landed on the large bone axe’s blade. Using the enemy’s axe as a springboard he shot forward driving dual daggers into its chest. Quickly pulling his legs underneath him he kicked off the creature and performed a back flip to get out of the monster’s reach.
“He may hit like a train, but he's slower than my wood panel station wagon,” Backstab commented.
“Shield toss!” A spinning shield slammed into Xirx’s back before flying back to Penny. She caught the shield and slid it back onto her arm. “Look! One of its health bars is gone. We're halfway…” before Penny could finish talking Xirx slammed the hilt of his weapon into the ground and he began to emit a dim red light.
The light was getting brighter and brighter as it began to pulse. The group began to wipe sweat from their brows as the temperature in the room started to spike. Taking advantage of the lull in combat, Nanoc charged the boss monster. He took two large cleaves with his axe that dropped another 10% from Xirx’s health.
The others quickly joined the assault. Penny was taking large swipes with her sword as Backstab danced around the enemy with his daggers, opening dozens of shallow cuts. Luke wasn’t lax either, peeking out from behind a column. He was launching arrows as quickly as his hands would allow, activating his rapid fire ability.
Xirx’s health quickly dropped to 5% from the full force of the party. Things were looking up before he let out a howl of pain and anger. A small orb containing fire appeared in front of Xirx, floating in the air. A white hot flash blinded the group as the orb exploded. Fire cascaded outward, coating the entire room in flames.
Luke blinked rapidly to clear his vision. When color and shapes started reappearing, he saw a vision of horror. Xirx was pulling his axe from the ground, surrounded by his fallen teammates. Backstab’s leather armor was half melted to his skin, and he laid face down and motionless. Nanoc the shirtless barbarian’s skin was deep fried as he twitched. Penny was the only one who didn’t look like death incarnate. Her metal armor protected her from the initial blast. Luke could see that her metal armor had super-heated, and an icon of fire appeared under her name in his vision. Another icon, resembling a white explosion, was under all of his teammate’s names. He focused on the icons to make the system give him more information.
Stunned. While stunned, you can not move or take any actions, including activating abilities until the stun is removed or expires naturally. Time remaining: 28 seconds.
Overheated, 2 stacks. You have become overheated. You will continue to take fire damage for the duration of this debuff or until you correct your body temperature. Effect: 10 fire damage every 5 seconds. Time remaining: 28 seconds.
Luke began to panic and started flailing about. Wait… I can move? Double checking his own status he saw no active debuffs and his health was only at half. He instantly knew he was burned, even before touching the left side of his face to confirm, but his right side felt fine. It appeared the column in front of him absorbed most of the blast on his right side. That must have been one of the boss’s game mechanics. We were supposed to hide behind the columns!
His attention was brought back to Xirx when he heard the stone crumbling from Xirx pulling his axe out of the ground. Xirx looked around at the carnage and began strolling toward Penny. He raised his axe high above his head to perform a killing blow. As his axe reached the peak of its ascension, a water coated arrow pierced his arm.
Xirx looked over to see Luke let out a grunt of pain. Holding his bow in his damaged left arm was causing Luke agony. Fearing thatPenny would soon die, he acted quickly and shot her a heal. Healing Penny and landing an arrow was enough to draw the monster's attention. Lowering its massive muscular arm, Xirx took hulking steps toward the damaged ranger.
Completely out of stamina and with only a sliver of mana, Luke dropped his bow, panting in exhaustion. Xirx raised his axe in a familiar killing blow motion above him. Luke looked up and saw just how close they were to defeating this beast. Xirx only had 2% of his health remaining. Through gritted teeth he uttered his last words, “Screw You.”
A gray blur suddenly crossed Luke’s vision as Ringo wrapped his fanged mouth around the arm of her master’s enemy. Green blood gushed from the open wound and Xirx let out a scream of pain. Grabbing Ringo with his shield arm he started pulling with all his might, ripping the small furry wolf away. Tossing the wolf across the room, it collided with a column, letting out a loud whimper of pain.
The goblin warlord turned back to his real opponent, an expression of dread stretched across its face with what he saw. Luke was pointing an arrow bursting with water up at him. Ringo provided just enough time for Luke to recover enough stamina to shoot a single shot.
Imbued with water mana, the arrow launched at an increased speed into the beast’s chest. Luke grinned as he saw the monster’s health reach 0 and its eyes go lifeless. Xirx’s corpse fell back and Luke followed suit, collapsing from reaching zero stamina. He laid back, full of pain, panting and happy as a flood of system messages greeted him.
Congratulations! You have completed The Den! For being the first party to complete the dungeon, you have earned a bonus reward. Because your party was lower than the recommended level, you have earned additional rewards. You have been rewarded five skill points, an Uncommon Class Weapon Box, the title Slayers of the Den and 5,000 exp. You will not be able to re-enter a dungeon after completing it for one week. The dungeon, The Den, is now open to all travelers.
Title Slayers of the Den. People speak of your great deeds as your renown increases. While this title is equipped you will gain a bonus 2% positive reputation whenever you are rewarded reputation and lose 1% less reputation when reputation is taken from you.
Xirx, the Goblin Warlord x1 defeated. 3,093 (2,500 base + 25% discovery bonus - 1% guild contribution).
Congratulations, Level Up! You have been awarded +1 agility, 1+ intelligence, +2 attribute points and 1 skill point, based on your class. Be careful with your decisions as they can not be undone.
Congratulations, Level Up! You have been awarded +1 agility, 1+ intelligence, +2 attribute points and 1 skill point, based on your class. Be careful with your decisions as they can not be undone.
Skill up: Nature’s Regrowth, Beginner 5.
Skill up: Water Shot, Beginner 3.
Skill up: Rapid Fire, Beginner 1.
Skill up: Short Bow, Beginner 8.
Skill up: Beast Mastery, Beginner 3.
At the last notification Luke remembered his animal companion. He could tell before reaching her that Ringo was dead. Penny walked over, fully healed from her own level up, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “What happened?” she asked droopingly.
“She saved us. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have been able to finish off the boss and we would all be dead. She… she died a hero.” Luke was unsure if it was his growing affection for Ringo that made him so emotional or if his skill ups in beast mastery were affecting him somehow but he didn’t care. His friend had died and died protecting him. Ringo wasn’t a traveler and wouldn’t come back after death.
“Why don’t we take her with us? Maybe someone in the city can resurrect her or something,” Penny added with a tinge of sorrow in her voice.
Resurrection! Luke mentally kicked himself for not remembering his own skills. He scooped up the lifeless body of Ringo and walked to the center of the room. Sitting cross-legged, he placed his deceased companion in front of him and activated resurrect companion.
Black lines started tracing a large magical circle around Luke. Several shapes and symbols filled the circle before it was completed. His mana bar started draining rapidly as green energy started tracing over the lines and causing them to glow. After a few moments the entire circle was glowing and Ringo’s lifeless body faded out of existence. Another, much smaller magic circle appeared a few feet in front of him and glowed green as Luke’s circle began to fade and disappear.
He stood and walked over to the newly formed green circle. Barking came from the ground underneath the circle as Ringo floated upwards out of it like a ghost. Ringo ran into Luke’s arms and let out whimpers of happiness as she was reunited with her master.
“Are you crying?” Backstab asked Penny.
“It’s like a fairy tale or something.” She sniffled before continuing. “If you mention this to anyone I’ll make sure you get the aggro of all future monsters.” Backstab’s eyes became so large that Nanoc thought they would pop out of his head.
“Never again buddy. I won’t let you die again if I can ever prevent it.” Luke squeezed Ringo tight.
“Sooo. Not to break up this little love fest but that was awesome! I gained a whole level off that and I’m close to leveling up again,” Backstab said with excitement.
Luke looked over his party on the system display and noticed everyone gained at least one level. That explains why no one is screaming at me for not healing them. Penny had hit level seven, and both his damage dealing comrades were now level six.
>
“You big fat cheater!” Backstab was pushing Luke’s chest with a finger. “You gained two levels? You must have cheated, there's no other explanation.” He pretended to be shocked and hurt. “And you didn’t include me in your cheating? I thought we were friends Luke. I thought… I thought we had something special.”
“I didn’t cheat. I was just level three remember? Frankly, if I didn’t gain at least two levels I was never going to catch up to you all,” he responded in a joking tone.
The group began to all share a good laugh before breaking apart and looking for loot. Luke was drawn to a glowing outline of a mushroom. Is this where a mushroom should have grown? I don’t get it. He reached out and, to his surprise, felt a bumpy mushroom cap.
Ghostshroom (rare) x3 obtained. Undetectable by anyone other than an herbalist, this mushroom is hard to locate and grows only in dark humid environments. Used in alchemy.
“Hey guys, there's a chest over here.” Nanoc called for the team to gather. Luke pocketed the mushrooms and joined his team.
“Ohhh, can I open it? Pleeeeease let me open it.” Backstab begged like a child as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. Penny nodded, and the rogue threw the top of the chest open so fast that Luke could have sworn he saw the hinges breaking.
Backstab pulled items out and placed them on the ground for the group to see. There was a sword, some daggers, a book, two orange potions, a wooden wand and a bag of gold. When Backstab placed the bag of gold down, he let out a sound of annoyance as the bag shrunk a little.
“What was that?” Luke asked.
“That was the guild’s cut. Whenever someone in the party gets gold, the 5% guild tax automatically kicks in. My poor wallet,” Backstab replied.
That explained why I didn’t lose any of the gold he gave me earlier. They tax the first party member that picks it up the whole amount. Luke thought as he reached out and picked up the book for a closer look.
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