by M Helbig
Decrona sighed and cast Lesser Heal, returning the area around Alizia’s left eye to its normal light green. “Back to the topic. In order to get to The Outpost of Fen, or anything outside the starter area we’ve been hunting in, we must first prove we are no longer newbs by completing a quest to defeat our first dungeon boss.”
Decrona has shared a quest with you.
Do you accept?
Quest: I’m Not New, and I Completed the Quest to Prove It
Description: It’s a wide world out there, and you’ve only seen a small part of it. To prove you’re ready to venture outside the safe confines of the new player area, you must defeat a boss in a dungeon. Bosses are much more challenging than sub-bosses or rares and should not be attempted without either a well-balanced group or a significant level difference.
Pyrite Games is not responsible for the loss of levels, money, marbles, or bodily functions due to dungeon bosses. Screaming is permissible and encouraged while taking on dungeon bosses. Do not take on a dungeon boss while under the influence of alcohol or most medications. Consult your doctor if you’re unsure whether a dungeon boss is right for you.
Completion Objective: Defeat a boss in a dungeon.
Reward: Beginner’s Key, 10,000 EXP, 5 gold
“With the boss defeated, we will then be able to unlock the door to exit the new player area, directly outside which is The Outpost of Fen, one of the oldest and best-run Player Towns in the world of Sun & Shadow Online.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Now who wants to take on a dungeon?”
“I can’t wait to kill my first dungeon boss!” I said as I accepted the quest.
“I can’t wait to see the loot and the money!” Alizia said.
Decrona laughed. “We’ll need the money when you see your first auction house in Fen.”
“And then you can meet your contact to find out more about Kasper!” Olaf added.
“That’s the spirit. Now let me tell you about dungeons . . .”
Castle of Forbidden Forbiddenness
As excited as I was, I was once more incredibly thankful that they’d made falling asleep so instantaneous that night. Getting to see my first real dungeon, seeing dungeon boss loot, visiting my first player-run town, and perusing an auction house: it was like cramming Christmas, a carnival, a birthday, a playground, and a candy store all into one action-packed day.
The next morning, we had a competition to see who could wolf their breakfast down the fastest and then raced toward the town gate. Fortunately, we got up so early that there was barely anyone in streets. We were already through the gates when Decrona remembered she needed to see her class trainer to learn the new spell she got from leveling. I felt pretty stupid since I needed to do that as well.
Olaf and Alizia used the time to get their new class skills from their trainers. Spell casting classes didn’t get nearly as many skills, so Decrona and I didn’t unlock any new ones. Olaf learned the Lockpick skill, and Alizia learned the Wall skill, which increased her defense and made her immune to knockbacks and stuns for a short time. I got the spell Thorns, a self-only effect that did damage to anyone who hit me with melee, and Decrona got Create Light to create a small light source.
Forty-five minutes later, we were back through the gates and past our previous hunting areas. Unfortunately, our excitement over our new abilities and getting to visit our first dungeon did not lend itself well to critical things like paying attention to our surroundings or remembering to check where we were going. Three hours and several near deaths later, Decrona called us to a halt.
“What now, Deccy?” Alizia asked. “This better not be another false alarm.”
Decrona pulled up her map overlay for us to look at yet again. “I swear, this time this is it.”
“Like you swore the wagon wheel, tree stump, and beehive were the entrance? You know Olaf is allergic to bee stings, right? You’re paying for his medical bills when we get back.”
Decrona pointed at the glowing red dot. “This is definitely it. And there’s no such thing as a bee sting allergy in this game.”
“Says you.” Alizia yanked on Olaf’s cheeks. “These weren’t that puffy when we left.”
Decrona continued looking at the map. “Stop that and help me figure out precisely what this dot is referring to.”
Alizia raised her middle finger to let Decrona know exactly what she thought the dot was.
Decrona continued to stare at her map, oblivious to Alizia’s actions. “This squiggly line seems to indicate that ridge over there. And this circle indicates that large crater—which would put the dungeon entrance roughly halfway between them on this yellow bushy thing.” She turned around and scratched her head. “Does anyone see a giant yellow bush?”
Olaf stared through Decrona’s projected map overlay and shrugged. “I do not see any bush on this map, friend.”
I moved in front of the overlay, opposite Olaf, and looked at where the dot that marked the dungeon was. “Is this yellow bush of yours a semi-circle?”
Decrona nodded enthusiastically. “Have you found it?”
I groaned. “Yes. It’s below Olaf’s nose and above his mouth.”
Olaf rubbed his finger across his mustache.
Alizia summoned a vial of something brown and handed it to Decrona. “Here. You need this more than me. Now, it won’t fix your vision per se, but you won’t be conscious enough to care anyway.”
Decrona pushed the liquid away and moved the map to face down toward the ground. “That should fix the issue of other ‘objects’ behind it being mistaken for parts of it. Ahh, that’s what I was missing. There were a pair of little squiggles I couldn’t see before. What do you suppose those represent?”
“A small cave that’s obscured by bushes?” Alizia said.
Decrona continued to stare at the map. “If it’s obscured, how can you possibly see it?”
Alizia grabbed Decrona’s chin and tilted it to the right. “Because two thugs just chased some guy out of it.”
The rest of the group crouched behind the bush before us. Roughly three hundred feet away, two large humanoids in dull ring mail were chasing a young gnome in bloody clothes up a steep incline. As none of them had been visible only a moment before, Alizia was probably right. Judging by the clashing colors of the gnome’s clothes, I assumed him to be a player. My first inclination was to leap to his aid, but since he was easily outpacing them, I decided not to chance it. The rest of the group, including even the suicidally zealous Alizia, were of the same opinion as we all stayed hidden in the bush.
“Did you see where they emerged from?” Decrona asked.
Alizia pointed at a fallen tree. We waited another few minutes until we were sure the thugs were too far away to notice us and hurriedly made our way to the spot Alizia had indicated. About a hundred feet later, the ground abruptly dropped, and we scrambled down.
Hidden under the trunk of a fallen tree was a small opening leading to a doorway buried in the side of the incline. As we crossed over the corpse of the fallen door, we found ourselves in the ruins of some sort of underground fortress or castle. Above, there was an intricate repeating pattern of tiles that looked out of place on a ceiling, until we came to our second doorway. I noticed the three steps leading up to it were also on the ceiling. The fact that the candle holders on the walls pointed downward confirmed my theory: the building was upside down.
We were saved from Alizia’s desire to see if the toilets were also on the ceiling by the scraping of boots behind us, which forced us to duck through the nearest doorway. The room we found ourselves in was shockingly clean, with a modest bed attached to what was now the ceiling. Strangely, the rest of the furniture was on the floor . . . ceiling . . . the place gravity dictated we stand on.
Alizia picked a doily off a coffee table and put it on her head like a hat. “So, what’re we hunting in here? Old ladies? I mean, I know this is supposed to be an easy dungeon for newbies like us, but if the first boss starts pinching our cheeks an
d tossing dusty toffies at us, my professional decorum just might go out the window.” She punctuated the point by sticking a vase full of flowers into her backpack.
Decrona finally stopped investigating a wardrobe full of antiquated clothes when the sound of footsteps faded into the distance from the hallway. “Those large, armored thugs we saw outside seem to disprove your theory that this dungeon is populated entirely by the elderly.”
Alizia summoned the vase from her backpack, poured out all the water and sent it back to the other dimension that held her pack’s contents. “Not true. My grannie Bev was built like a lumberjack who bench pressed tanks. She could’ve easily fit in that armor.”
“Be that as it may, I highly doubt anyone but you would’ve created a dungeon full of old ladies. Given that we’re in underground ruins, it seems much more likely that this is inhabited by the undead.”
“Which are probably really old and could all be ladies?”
Decrona bit her lip. “That’s . . . well . . . fine . . . Technically, that would make you correct, but that’s beside the point. Horus, as a Woodsman you should have Tracking now. What does it say?”
I pulled up the interface and scrolled down the list. “Besides a few squirrels that I’m guessing are outside, everything is coming up as triple question marks. I don’t think I have enough skill.”
Decrona nodded sagely. “Many dungeon mobs are of a harder difficulty than their level suggests, as they’re designed mainly for groups. I knew that extra difficulty translated to landing attacks and spells, but it looks like it also affects Tracking. Olaf, could you scout the hallway to see if it’s clear?”
Olaf saluted and faded from view. I could still barely hear his footsteps as he left the room, but if I hadn’t been focused on them, I doubt I’d have noticed. A few minutes later, he reappeared behind Alizia and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped forward and almost knocked me into the wall. After I managed to stop laughing, Olaf gave us the all clear and we went back into the hallway.
“Where to now, fearful leader?” Alizia asked.
Decrona pulled up her map overlay, but it was completely blank. “Fantastic. Maps for this type of dungeon are only good for about a month, and then the system randomly recreates the dungeon. This was supposed to be good for another week, but it looks like it’s expired—which means the information they gave about the monsters and bosses we’ll encounter is also useless.”
“So, you mean to tell us that whole thing where you pretended to figure out that ruins equal undead was a lie?”
Decrona crossed her arms. “I still believe it is. That’s usually the case with these sorts of places, and it’s still better than your grandmother theory.”
“I’ve now revised that to a half spider, half old lady. I call her the aracno-granny.”
Decrona shook her head, trying and failing to ignore Alizia’s antics. What she couldn’t ignore was the mace that crushed her in the back for 97! The group scrambled to summon their weapons as a towering being swung wildly in our midst, hitting Alizia and Olaf with one arching strike. We were fortunate that he didn’t hit Decrona again, as one more blow would’ve probably finished her.
I pulled my bow back to aim at whatever vital spot I could find on our new opponent that Inspect identified as “A Towering Brute” and found a nice spot at the nape of his neck. My shot was slightly off and hit the top of his shoulder blade. The 13 either wasn’t enough damage for him to notice, or he was in so much of a fury that he couldn’t feel pain.
If this had happened when we were still level four, we’d have had to make a run for it, but now we had our classes. Alizia managed to pull his attention toward her with her new Shout ability, giving Decrona time to heal herself up to 90% and then the others back to full.
Even with a shield, the bruiser hit Alizia like a truck. Three blows later, she was down to 61%. Meanwhile, our foe was still at 81%. Unlike with the kobolds, no one panicked, and we soon got into a rhythm. Decrona tossed a quick heal on Alizia to bring her up to 70%, and now that Olaf and I were in position, the brute’s HPs began to steadily drop. A couple of times, the brute turned to attack Olaf, but a quick Shout from Alizia turned him right back around.
“So, does anyone have any fun plans for the weekend?” Alizia asked while blocking a blow that could’ve taken her head off.
Decrona tossed another heal. “Alizia, focus on the fight.”
Alizia rolled her eyes at Decrona. “Yeah, I think we got this. Olaf, do you think I should grow my bangs out?”
“According to this month’s Avatar In Style, bangs are no longer fashionable. The Spiked Mohawk premium upgrade is what it says ‘all the cool kids are wearing now.’ That would look great with your natural green hair.” Olaf landed a perfect Vital Strike/ Flanking Attack and followed it up with a slash across the back of the brute’s lower leg for a Hamstrung effect.
Alizia yawned as her shield completely absorbed the next blow. “Interesting. While I am definitely a cool kid—so cool that I probably won’t be appreciated until after I die—I was going to dye my hair pink, and a pink Mohawk just screams ‘trying too hard.’ Maybe I’ll feather it. No one’s doing that.”
Decrona looked like she wanted to interject but was interrupted when another brute appeared from around the corner and charged toward us. It was on a direct path toward the exposed back of Olaf.
“Uhhh . . .” Decrona said.
“Brilliant as usual, Deccy,” Alizia said. “I hope your healing is better than your talking, cause I’m about to take on twice the hurting. Ten seconds, and it’ll be in shouting range.”
“Wait,” I said. “I’ve got a better idea.” I pivoted to the left and hit the brute in the knee on my second shot. The blow landed awkwardly for 11, but my goal wasn’t damage. The twisted foot icon of Hamstrung floated up and the brute’s charge slowed to a walk. I edged to the left to pull him around the group and continued to aim for his knees. A minute later, a deep roar of pain came from the direction of the group.
You have gained 440 (400 +40 Group Bonus) Experience Points! 13,936/40,000 to next level.
Alizia sped into my line of sight and let out a Shout to draw the attention of my shambling target. The brute quickly did an about face and began attacking her. I went back to aiming for his head. Three minutes later the second brute let out a nearly identical roar as he fell.
You have gained 440 (400 +40 Group Bonus) Experience Points! 14,376/40,000 to next level.
Decrona quickly looted both of our kills for nine silver and some trash loot. Olaf disappeared to scout ahead. A couple minutes later, he sighted another lone brute, which we engaged and dispatched. Alizia leveled, and while she was doing her new and improved celebration dance, Olaf scouted ahead and sighted another group. When he relayed that there were three of them, we ducked into a side room until they passed. We continued this pattern for about an hour, with both Olaf and Decrona leveling, before encountering the biggest pack we’d seen—about ten—and barely managing to hide in a large storeroom. This pack did not continue on its way like the others and parked itself outside.
“Lieutenant, what’re we doing?” a brute asked. “The boss instructed us to mindlessly walk straight down this circular corridor until our shift ends.”
“I thought I saw something go into this pointless storage room where we keep our crates full of sawdust,” a second voice called from the other side of the door.
Alizia began to sneeze uncontrollably as she opened the first crate, while Decrona tried in vain to get her to be quiet.
“See! Even the giant rats we let live in here for some reason don’t make noises that loud. We have intruders!”
Decrona punched Alizia in the arm, causing her to let out a louder sneeze.
“I hear it too, sir, but we have our orders. If we don’t get back to our mindless wandering in a straight line, the master will do much worse to us than any of those giant rats, scary see-through people, or raggedly dressed servants who never bathe or sleep wi
ll.”
“Very well, sergeant. Onward.”
A few minutes later, the sound of dozens of boots faded into the distance. Olaf disappeared as Decrona slowly opened the door back into the hallway. After Olaf’s all clear, we went back outside. We encountered a few more brutes that we easily took on by themselves and had one particularly hairy fight where one more appeared seemingly out of nowhere, but I managed through quick reflexes to draw him away from the group until they finished the first one.
An hour later, we ducked into a side passage and found the badly dressed servants that the brutes had mentioned, separated into packs of three across a long corridor that ended in a metal gate. Considering their droopy, desiccated skin, I didn’t even need Inspect to tell that they were undead. Having learned from our earlier encounter with the High Shaman, I asked Decrona to cast her Lesser Heal on them, and they fell after a few casts.
Eventually, we reached a locked, metal gate blocking a stairwell that led up. Even with our combined might, we couldn’t get the gate to budge. After Olaf’s twentieth failed attempt at picking the lock, I began to get bored and leaned against the dark wall behind me. I yelped as something sharp dug into my skin right below the shoulder blade.
“Let me guess,” Decrona said. “Another imaginary spider?”
Alizia hefted her scepter and pointed it behind me. “I hate spiders!”
“Even imaginary ones?”
“Those are the worst kind. Let me at them!” Her scepter connected with the wall and slid down slowly, ending in a clicking sound. The scepter nearly fell from her hand as she awkwardly jumped back in the guard position. The sound of stone grating on stone seemed to echo for an eternity as the wall slid up to reveal a hidden door.
Olaf gingerly attempted the handle, and the door opened with no resistance. He quickly pulled it back closed. “Very well-oiled. Suspiciously well-oiled.”
