by Dakota Krout
“Well.” Jaxon looked at the ground. “This could be an issue…”
“Yeah… I’m betting that they knew this area would likely kill you.” Jess hesitated, trying to find anything encouraging. “At least they aren’t stealthed?”
“I suppose.” Jaxon leaned back and rolled his head a few times. “Welp, let’s get going. You have a plan at all?”
“I do.” Jess tried to sketch a plan in the air for Jaxon to follow, and he did his best. “This room is shaped like a giant crescent with no real cover at all. I think I should get across the area, make a bunch of noise, and get them all to look my way. Then you should go out and find a way to cross the room behind them. When they start looking at you, you need to find a way to use the others for cover. Alternatively, you could try to fight one while I distract the majority.”
Jaxon sunk into thought, tapping at his chin and weaving around the room. He was walking in circles for a short while before Jess barked at him, “You are driving me nuts! There are only the two options! Pick one!”
“You said that there is a clear advantage to Rogues and stealthy types.” Jaxon had an idea, an inkling that there was more to this place. “What do you think are the odds that BackAttack or the others defeated all the opponents when they came through here?”
“I’m… I guess slim?” Jess shook her head. “Jaxon, this is the first room. I highly doubt you want to take the time to fight everything in the dungeon, especially when the monsters are all this strong.”
“I have an idea.” Jaxon looked at her and let a smile bloom on his face that could have powered a third-world country. “Let’s beat everything!”
Jess let her head fall back in exasperation, baring her neck as she stared at the sky. “Jaxon, why?”
“There has to be something more to this place,” Jaxon stubbornly insisted. “We’re going to find it. We are going to combine your ideas, though. If you can go get their attention, I’m going to start fighting the creature nearest me.”
“Are you sure about this, Jaxon? You could end up being deleted,” Jess softly reminded him.
“I have to do everything to the best of my abilities, Jess.” Jaxon shooed her away, and she reluctantly went back into the room. “I’m not wicked; I won’t run when I’m not being chased.”
“I don’t understand.” Jess stared for a moment, but Jaxon shooed her away. It took about ten minutes, but Jaxon heard her voice echoing through the area, if faintly, “Rock for brains! Yeah, that’s right, you overweight sloths! There ya go, over here!”
Jaxon peeked around the corner and saw that the nearest creature was ponderously turning in place to look the other direction. When it was facing away from him, he went into the crescent-room and walked over to inspect the armored being. Jaxon tapped at the creature, trying to find a weak point. The creature looked like a massive, ugly dog crossed with a dragon. It stood on four legs and had stubby wings on its back. It had no real neck, and so its head had a squashed appearance. Jaxon couldn’t see its face, which was probably for the best.
Jaxon also noticed another fact when he looked around the room. It seemed that the light in the area was all generated by the creatures. At first, this hadn’t been apparent, but as all the beasts finished turning toward Jess, the other side of the room became very dark. This only increased as their focus grew on Jess’s location. The cone of light that each of them somehow projected began to narrow, not quite getting to the level Jess had spoken of but becoming more like a flashlight beam as they searched for the still-shouting woman.
Jaxon returned to tapping at the creature but wasn’t finding any unarmored points. He was almost certain that the eyes would be a weak point, but the burning cone currently before them screamed ‘bad idea to touch the eyes’ to Jaxon. He decided to take a more direct route and punched the side of the dungeon mob.
-0
Alrighty, that didn’t work at all. How about… Adjust!
-5
The creature let out a low, keening sound. Right away, the others in the room began shifting around, ignoring Jess’s increasingly desperate shouting. Jaxon nodded and started punching the front leg of the beast. Zeros kept popping up in front of him, but by the time the creature had turned halfway around, Jaxon had been able to hit its knee forty times. He stepped back to see what would happen. “Adjust!”
-200
There was a mighty cracking, and the stiff knee of the strange thing shattered, causing it to slump forward and intensify its strange warning cry. The most important thing that happened was that Jaxon noticed that it could no longer look up at him very well. Its burning gaze had been mostly pointed at the floor but was also almost in contact with Jaxon’s feet. He skipped around it and ran into the dark area of the room just as the first of the creatures began staring at the one that was crying out.
Perception +1. Wisdom +1.
The noisy beast was now the focus of all the others, and in moments, its exterior began melting away. Within twenty seconds, it had mostly melted to slag upon the floor. Jaxon thought ‘mostly’ for the simple reason that as the thing stopped being able to make noise, the others had looked away from it. On the plus side, he was now fairly certain that these were artificial constructs, as there had been no body beneath all of that stone.
Exp: 85 (85 * Disappointed Defender x1).
The statues were resetting, but Jess started to shout again. At first, there was no reaction, but then she ran over and hit one with the pommel of her dagger. It chimed, and the others started to move once more. Jaxon checked his stamina and debated attacking the next one as well. Activating adjust had used the forty-four stamina and had done far less damage than he had expected. He looked at the skill, cursing softly when he saw that the Master rank damage increase had vanished. The skill was back to doing only five points per stack, and he simply hadn’t noticed in combat before now. Still, he could activate Adjust thirteen times in succession if he didn’t need to use his stamina for anything else.
“Hey, Jess, ever heard the term ‘staring a hole in something’? I think these are where that expression comes from,” Jaxon called as he mimicked his previous tactic on the next Defender. She almost told him to keep it down but realized that the constructs were turning thanks to the alarm anyway. “They are pretty good experience, too! Eighty-five a pop.”
“You suck!” Jess called back, irked that she hadn’t gained any experience.
“Adjust!” Just as before, the leg of the creature broke. This time, Jaxon hadn’t added enough stacks to break the leg off, so he decided to use forty hits as a baseline. It wouldn’t do to be wasting stamina. He kicked the leg, again, and a third time. It broke off, and he barely got his foot out of the way as it fell forward. He ran over to another construct and began attacking it even as the others began melting down their fallen comrade. The one he was attacking began to call a warning, but the much louder one overrode whatever protocols these things had in place. Jaxon broke the leg off this one just as the other fell silent and found that he had gained a good battle rhythm.
It was slow, ponderous work, but he had finally defeated twenty-three of them and was working on the last. Jess came over to help out or possibly to steal experience. When Jaxon broke off the leg, he found another issue: there was no other creature to melt this one down. “Huh. How to do this…”
He started attacking the other front leg, taking nearly a minute to build up stacks. He stepped away and motioned for Jess to follow. “We might need to have a bit of distance. Also, I am nearly out of stamina.”
Jaxon had needed to take a few breaks throughout this process, but he was hoping this would be worth doing. With a thought, the construct’s leg shattered fully and caused large cracks to appear where it had been connected.
-800.
“Whew.” Jaxon watched as the Defender fell forward and had its face pressed against the ground. Jess looked at him and started to say something, but he waved her off and pointed. Sure enough, after a few seconds, the groun
d began to bubble and melt. Jess and Jaxon left the room and walked through the hallway, getting a notification a minute later that the final construct had been destroyed. Then they got the notification Jaxon had been hoping for.
Exp: 1,955 (85 * Disappointed Defender x23).
You have cleared the first layer of the Dungeon of Occidendum. These must be cleared in order, else only a standard reward will be given. Layers cleared 1/4.
“I knew it!” Jaxon turned and grabbed Jess. “We can complete this dungeon. We don’t have to just survive it!”
Chapter Twenty-eight
There was apparently a reason that the notification had told them the layers needed to be cleared in a particular order. When Jess came back from the next scouting mission, she was happy to inform Jaxon that the next enemy had living, fleshy opponents that could be killed fairly easily. She thought that they were likely easy prey for BackAttack or really any Assassin that came through here.
Jaxon had studied the walls as they walked, and found another small inscription that read: ‘Don’t let shame control you.’
He decided that this phrase meant that it was time for a head-on fight, and it looked like the creatures in here didn’t have any weapons, armor, or magical effects surrounding them. Jaxon confidently walked out and punched one of them in the face, and when the others started coming toward him, he activated Living Weapons and started to tear into them. Lefty and Terror were very effective against this type of enemy and were happily tearing chunks out of the humanoids.
Jaxon was now in the middle of a group of them, already standing over a few bodies. He swung at the nearest one and received a shock—literally—just before his T-Rex hand would have impacted. There was a slight distortion in the air, and it seemed to be surrounding Jaxon on all sides. No… it was actually coming from the creatures, seemingly connecting all of them as they turned to face him. They didn’t attack, simply staring at him and shaking their heads. More of the monstrous humanoids started joining into the circle, and all of them slowly started shaking their heads back and forth. As more arrived, the distortion became more solidified.
Jaxon glanced at his notifications while allowing his hands to eat away at the fallen bodies. He needed to be ready for a fight, and they were able to recover Mana from eating. So… win-win.
Exp: 279 (31 * Circle of Shame Member x9).
“I seem to be trapped in a circle of shame!” Jaxon called out, his words echoing slightly. “The enemies in this place seem to be designed to convey how poorly the general population thinks of killing members of your own race, but they also create an electric barrier if they surround you!”
As he finished speaking, the members took a step forward, and the energetic circle moved toward him. After they moved, the circle became more transparent but quickly solidified once again. “I think they are going to close in on me and shock me to death! I would like to be rescued, please! I can be the damsel in distress. I really don’t mind! Frankly, I’m always surprised that that trope is always thought so poorly of. From where I’m standing, the idea of rescue is very appealing!”
The circle closed in once more, and Jaxon took a nasty shock before crouching down. A few seconds later, just as he expected the walls to close in for the final time, Jess slew three of the members in quick succession as they stepped forward. Jaxon dove through the break in the circle before the members could close around him once more and, with Jess’s help, quickly finished off the rest of the monsters.
Exp: 651 (31 * Circle of Shame Member x21).
Jaxon looked over at Jess and batted his eyelashes. “My hero!”
“I could hear you, Jaxon.” Jess rolled her eyes as Jaxon clasped his hands together and pretended to swoon. “Oh, stop that!”
You have cleared a layer of the Dungeon of Occidendum. Layers cleared 2/4.
“But back to something you said earlier, yes, I think this place is designed to inform you that you will be looked down upon by not only the game but other people when you kill another of your race simply to improve your own lot in life.” Jess sighed and slapped Jaxon on the arm. “Thanks for rescuing me from the guild.”
“Eh, we’ll see about that. I’m happy that we are giving it a try, though.” Jaxon waved off her concerns as they moved to the next layer. Again, Jess went and scouted ahead, this time coming back with a scowl on her face. “Just a few monsters but big and powerful. They are also carrying weapons that are bigger than I am.”
“How many in total?” Jaxon questioned her while looking for a phrase on the wall.
“Three.”
“Alright. Do you want to be the attacker or the bait?” Jaxon’s words caused her to sputter, and she refused to meet his eye. “Got it, you want to be the attacker.”
She nodded sharply, and he continued, “Good. If they are weapon users, I think I learned my lesson from the Lemure. I’m pretty sure I can handle this if we work fast. Let me know when you are ready.”
Jaxon found the phrase and took his time to carefully consider the extra-cryptic message. ‘You can elude the Law, but if it catches you, prepare to be broken.’
Just to be on the safe side, they waited until they had recovered all of their energy and Jaxon’s Living Weapons had come off of cooldown before entering the room. Jaxon saw the enemies right away, since it was hard to miss them. They were at least eight feet tall and were carrying melee weapons: a sword, a hammer, and a truncheon respectively. The most off-putting feature was the fact that their arms were at least twice as long as the creatures were tall, though otherwise they could have easily been called simple Giants. They seemed to be expecting Jaxon and nodded at him as they got into position.
Jaxon nodded back. After all, there was no need to be impolite, even if you were entering a deathmatch. Jess had come into the room before him and was slinking around the side, hugging the wall. It was easy to see that these large enemies could be snuck past; in fact, Jaxon would have tried it himself if he wasn’t following in Joe’s footsteps as a completionist. This might be the only chance he ever had to attempt this dungeon, so he needed to make the most of it.
Jaxon came into range, and without a word escaping their lips, the Giants attacked. Jaxon rolled forward under a hammer that had twenty-two feet of wind-up behind it. With the strength of a Giant and the power of momentum, when the hammer struck, it not only caused a crater, it formed a shockwave that carried a surprised Jaxon through the air and just barely over a sword that was sweeping across the ground. Obviously, these beings were well practiced in working together, and only sheer, dumb luck had saved Jaxon from his overly obvious method of dodging.
Luck +1.
Really lucky then. It was obvious that he wouldn’t have survived that slice. Jaxon threw himself to the side, assuming that a truncheon or hammer would be following him. He only managed to look paranoid, since the last of the Giants was currently gripping its pelvic region with a look of mixed pain and horror. A meaty splat echoed through the room just before the Giant shrieked.
“It was the only place I could reach in time!” Jess called to a shaken Jaxon. That Giant sunk to its knees, whimpering as the remaining Giants and Jaxon shared a wincing glance. Seeing that he was being genuinely disturbed, the Giants didn’t fly into a rage; but it was obvious that they were taking this battle far more seriously now.
Once more the hammer came down, but this time, it was way faster. The Giant was using both hands and focusing evenly on his target. Jaxon rolled backward, springing up and forward just before impact. He landed on the outstretched arm and started running toward the Giant’s main body.
“Jess! Look! I’m an anime!” Jaxon shouted as he activated Living Weapons and prepared to jump at an unprotected face. A small dagger sunk into his foot just before he leapt, pinning him to the arm below. “Ah!”
A wall of steel dropped inches from his nose, moving so fast that Jaxon could barely see it. His position shifted, and the arm he was pinned to along with the other that was gripping the hammer fel
l to the ground. The now-armless Giant was staring at his comrade in shock, blood spurting from the stumps of his biceps. The sword-wielding Giant looked surprised and speechless; and since he stood there frozen, he was an easy target for Jess to finish off by plunging her daggers into each of his eyes. Jaxon took the time to kill the armless Giant, and then Jess put the still-whimpering one out of his misery.
Exp: 900 (300 * Long Arm Of The Law x3).
You have cleared a layer of the Dungeon of Occidendum. Layers cleared 3/4.
“By the way,” Jess panted as she stood upright and brushed her hair out of her eyes, “you can’t be ‘an anime’. At best you would be an anime character.”
Jaxon attempted to retaliate, “At best you can… you can… please don’t chop off any more penises.”
Jess choked back a gasping laugh and started coughing. “I really wasn’t going for that, but… yeah. Plus, the plural of the word is penii.”
“So long as you don’t do it again, I don’t care what you call it.” Jaxon firmly informed her. To his chagrin, she only shrugged.
“Hey. No promises. It’s a weak point and a surefire critical hit.”
Jaxon paused, then shook his head. “Oh. I guess I really don’t care about that fact. At all.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“It’s the final layer!” Jaxon stated as they walked down an incline.
“If you burst into song, I’m going to do to you what I did to that Giant,” Jess growled, her words making Jaxon choke as he did his best to not say anything that could be considered lyrical. “Hey! Whoa! I did it! I finally got the Intimidation skill! I’ve been trying to get that since I started the game!”
“Aw, you didn’t need it!” Jaxon reached over for a hug that she dodged. “You made friends even without the skill!”
