Speaking of that, he knew he was getting closer to the whereabouts of the Dungeon Core because the pulling in his chest had intensified over the last couple of hours. When he had first begun searching for the Dungeon Core – just outside the dungeon entrance – it had been a vague feeling of direction. It was almost like a faint ping in his chest when he faced the right way. Over the last few days, the faint ping had turned into a thumping and then a pounding of his chest – it was quite distracting, but it also ensured that he was going the right way. Eventually, the pounding faded and now it was as if he was being physically pulled toward his destination.
He stealthily crept ahead, moving in the general direction of where his body told him the Core was located. He wasn’t sure what was in store for him when he got there, but he also didn’t want to stumble blindly upon it either. He was also aware of the two Rangers that were following him from the Reckless camp he had left behind a couple of hours ago. He wasn’t too worried about them – if they had meant him harm they could have killed him with a ranged attack a hundred times over by now.
Although they had quite a few levels on him, Devin had a pretty high Agility score and Stealth skill due to his stat allocation and gear bonuses. This allowed him to see them even though they were stealthed – it wasn’t perfect because if they were standing still it was near impossible to see anyone using the Stealth skill. It was only when they were moving quickly to catch up to him that he was able to glimpse them out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t let on that he knew that they were there because he didn’t want to provoke them in any way – he still had a job to do. Since they had left him alone and hadn’t done anything to try to stop him, he tried to ignore them and kept his focus on what was in front of him.
The pulling was getting so strong now that Devin was worried that it would start hurting if it got any stronger. That must mean I’m really close now. As he worked his way around another tree he stopped as he heard two muffled thumps followed by a cut off cry of pain somewhere above him. He looked up and saw the body of an Elf Archer plummeting toward him. His high Agility saved him as he quickly dived and rolled forward as the body hit the ground right where he was standing.
Devin looked behind him, searching for the Rangers that had been following him. They must have been standing still because he didn’t see anything. Sending out a silent “Thanks” in their general direction, he turned back toward where the Core was located. If it wasn’t for the Rangers’ help, he’d probably be dead by now – he vowed in the future to look up more often. There was likely to be more scouts the closer he got to where he was going, and he didn’t want to make any more mistakes.
Navigating his way north through more trees – while keeping an eye on the tree branches above him – he eventually came to a slight hill in the forest with a thick clump of trees located on the crest. On the tree nearest him, he saw an extremely blurry form sitting on a high branch near the trunk. Figuring it for another scout, he headed east to make his way around any observers. When he estimated that he had put enough distance between them, he made his way back toward the Northwest where he was being pulled.
As he crested the rise, he looked down the other side and immediately flattened out on his stomach. Below him was a massive camp – at least five times bigger than the Reckless camp that he was dragged into not that long ago. On the outside of the camp were posted sentries every 50 feet that looked alert even though it appeared they had stopped not long ago. The rest of the camp was in a state of disarray – players and what looked to be NPC servants were putting up tents and portable crafting areas.
While it appeared everything was placed haphazardly, the camp was actually quite organized. Laid out in a rectangular shape, tents for individual players were set in orderly rows along the outside of the camp while longer meeting tents were farther inside. After that came the portable crafting areas which included a small forge for blacksmithing, racks for tanning leather, tables loaded with paraphernalia for enchanting, and separated from the rest were two reinforced shacks for alchemy. In the center of the camp were two large tents that were most likely set up for the leadership of the guild or guilds inside.
Devin couldn’t believe this was one or even two guilds together – the entire camp looked like a small city the way it was spread out along the small valley floor. From where he was hiding, he could see hundreds if not thousands of different people running around down there. The one thing he didn’t see were any type of mounts – he knew they existed, but apparently were not being used at the moment. It was probably because navigating their way through all the trees in this forest was next to impossible while on top of a horse – it was just too dense to make it through easily. Now I know why I was able to catch up so quickly – they can’t move that fast with all of the stuff they’re bringing along.
The sheer amount of people and tents were a bit daunting for Devin. He knew in general where the Dungeon Core was located but couldn’t pinpoint which tent it was in. Somehow, he was going to need to slip into the camp undetected and follow the pull until he was able to determine its exact location. Based on where it was, he needed to formulate a plan to sneak in, reacquire it, and somehow get out without getting caught. He figured that the best time for this would be sometime that night when it was fully dark, and the sentries were a little less alert.
With that decision made, Devin looked around for a good place to hide out until the time came to move. While he was technically stealthed, he was lying flat in plain sight for anyone who might come by. He wasn’t sure if there would be any roving patrols, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. Nearby he spotted a stand of four trees nestled up against each other which would hopefully give him plenty of cover while still allowing him to have a good view of the camp below. He carefully made his way over to the trees while keeping a low profile on the ridge. Making it without being spotted – he hoped – he crouched down out of view while still maintaining a good vantage of the “tent city” below.
Resigned to wait for a while, he started looking for things to do while he was stuck there. He pulled up his Equipment list first to remember what he had to work with.
Serpent’s Fangs
Physical Damage
210
Agility
+40
Strength
+20
Health Points
+60
Attack Speed
+20%
Bonus:
Inflicts poison on each successful hit which damages the target over 10 seconds – may stack up to 3 times
20 physical damage per second
Increases critical chance when attacking from Stealth
+30%
Class Restrictions:
Fighter, Rogue
Level Restrictions:
Level 30
Cost:
3500 rp
Hood of Shadows
Physical Resistance
40
Agility
+50
Strength
+5
Constitution
+10
Bonus:
Increases Stealth skill level
+1
Class Restrictions:
Fighter, Archer, Rogue
Level Restrictions:
Level 28
Cost:
2400 rp
Midnight Cuirass of Striking
Physical Resistance
80
Agility
+100
Constitution
+20
Strength
+10
Bonus:
Increases Stealth skill level
+1
Increases physical damage when attacking from Stealth
+15% additional physical damage
Class Restrictions:
Fighter, Archer, Rogue
Level Restrictions:
Level 30
Cost:
3400 rp
Trapmakers’ G
loves of Agility
Physical Resistance
10
Agility
+80
Bonus:
Increase to Disarm Trap skill
+2
Class Restrictions:
Rogue
Level Restrictions:
Level 24
Cost:
1300 rp
Whispering Pants of Darkness
Physical Resistance
21
Agility
+80
Constitution
+20
Bonus:
Increases Stealth skill level
+1
Increases movement speed while using Stealth
+30%
Class Restrictions:
Archer, Rogue
Level Restrictions:
Level 29
Cost:
2700 rp
Swift Silky Slippers of Stealth
Physical Resistance
5
Agility
+70
Bonus:
Increases Stealth skill level
+1
Increases movement speed while using Stealth
+40%
Class Restrictions:
Defender, Paladin, Warlock
Level Restrictions:
Level 27
Cost:
2300 rp
Ring of Agility +3
Agility
+100
Class Restrictions:
All
Level Restrictions:
Level 25
Cost:
700 rp
Ring of Agility +3
Agility
+100
Class Restrictions:
All
Level Restrictions:
Level 25
Cost:
700 rp
Necklace of the Shadow-touched
Stealth Skill increased
+2
Class Restrictions:
All
Level Restrictions:
Level 30
Cost:
1200 rp
His first thought when he needed to outfit himself a couple of days ago – when he was heading out to bring more monsters back to the dungeon -- was to increase his stealth up as far as possible so that he could sneak by the players surrounding the dungeon undetected. He was hopeful that it would also help immensely with his upcoming foray into the enemy camp in front of him. His skills that he had selected were probably a little overkill at the time, but they would definitely help now.
Stealth XIII
(Rogue Class Skill)
Hide in the shadows to move around undetected
Effect:
98% less chance of being detected
Cooldown:
After stealth is canceled, you must be out of combat for at least 5 seconds
Backstab II
(Rogue Class Skill)
Does damage from behind a target that can only be used while stealthed
Physical Damage:
60 with a 30% chance of critical damage
Cooldown:
60.0 seconds
He had upgraded the Stealth skill up to level 7 but with an additional +6 to the skill from his gear he ended up at level 13 – just 2 away from the max level which was 15. It was pretty impressive for a level 30 to have almost maxed out Stealth – that is until you saw the rest of his skills. He had upgraded Backstab to level 2 just to have some sort of damage skill, but he wasn’t expecting to have to fight other players at the time. He just needed enough damage output to kill mobs that he brought back to the dungeon. Now it looked like if he got into a fight he wasn’t going to be able to survive too long – although his Agility was pretty high, and his dodge chance would help with that.
Character Status
Race:
Human
Level:
30
Class:
Rogue
Experience:
3000/3000
Strength:
35
Physical Damage:
1999
Magical Damage:
0
Constitution:
100
Physical Resistance:
356
Magical Resistance:
0
Agility:
890
Health Points:
1060
Mana Points:
0
Intelligence:
0
Health Regeneration:
300.0 per min
Mana Regeneration:
0.0 per min
Wisdom:
0
Block:
0
Critical/Dodge Chance:
89.0%
Skills:
Stealth XIII, Backstab II
Upgrades:
Lure
As the sky began to darken, Devin started planning out where he wanted to start making his way through the camp while there was still some light to see by. If he waited until most of the camp was asleep, he should be able to sneak by the sentries if he moved slowly enough. He was most likely to be seen when stealthed while he was moving, so by traveling at a snails’ pace he hoped to be able to avoid being spotted. When he looked at the camp, he saw that there was one section that had one less sentry along the north side – he planned to circle around to that side when he was ready to enter the camp a little bit later in the night.
From his current hiding place, he couldn’t accurately pinpoint the exact location of the Core. Therefore, after he successfully infiltrated the outer tents, he planned on using his innate Dungeon Core sensing to narrow down which tent felt the most likely to house it. If it was up to him, he’d put it in the most heavily guarded area – which was probably one of the guild tents at the center of the camp.
Trying to wait patiently was almost like torture to Devin – he was so close to his goal, but he just couldn’t reach it. Once it got late enough, he shot out of his hiding place so quickly he worried that he may have called attention to his activities. He froze, heartbeat thumping loudly in his chest, and ducked behind a tree. He waited another couple of minutes with his senses active for any change. Although he could hear random camp noises coming from that direction, he noticed nothing out of the ordinary. He started moving again, this time slowly making his way toward the north side.
Moving into position halfway between two sentries, Devin began slowly making his way out of the relative safety of the trees, picking his way carefully in order not to make any noise. Just as he was about to pass the last tree, he heard what sounded like a branch crack behind him. He turned around as silently as possible, but it was already too late – before he could react something hard smashed into his head and he blacked out.
Chapter 3
“Here we are again, young Devin – if that is your real name…”
Devin felt woozy as he slowly came back to his senses, listening to the voice behind him. He couldn’t see anything but could feel that his hands were tied together to the chair he was sitting in. Well, this seems familiar… The bag on his head felt itchy and annoying – this was the second time in less than a day that he felt alone and vulnerable and he didn’t like it. He was also pissed off that they took him just as he was about to…try…to get the Dungeon Core back. Even if they let him go now he wouldn’t have enough time to get back tonight and follow through with his plan.
He felt the bag suddenly jerk off his head, and a bright light shone down on his face. He found himself in the same tent he was in earlier in the day – a larger-sized rectangular canvas tent with a center pole and a flap-tie entrance. He looked around and saw the level 85 Assassin De4thfrmbeh1nd surrounded by three other members of Reckless. Without even looking at the class tag above her head, he could tell the level 79 EyesHlzU was a Cleric based on how she was dressed and, well…by her name. Sh1fty – who looked extremely roguish in his all leather ensemble – wa
s a Level 81 Thief as per his class tag. Lastly, in a hulking suit of plate armor standing in the corner, stood a massive Level 82 Commander by the name of St4lwartShield.
Each of these players could wipe the floor with him in probably no more than a single hit – even the Cleric. They all had advanced classes that were accessible at level 40 – which meant that they had a lot of abilities that he hadn’t even seen before. He knew that the Assassin and Thief were advanced Rogue classes, the Commander was and advanced Defender class, and the Cleric was an advanced form of a Healer. There were two advanced classes per base class – very few of which he had actually seen in person. Devin couldn’t wait until he got to 40 so that he could experiment with these classes in the future – of course he had to survive that long. Interrupting his perusal of the room, De4th started asking questions again which meant that, even though he was still a little woozy from getting hit over the head, he had to start paying attention.
“What were you doing at that camp, Devin? Who are you working for? Who are you really?” De4th asked him.
Devin tried to brush off these questions like he did the last time with answers like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and “I just stumbled upon the camp.” However, De4th was having none of that – he most likely was expecting these kinds of answers because he was quick to reply.
Dungeon Guild Page 2
