Endless conquest, p.3
Endless Conquest, page 3
part #2 of Dungeon Crawl Series
There was a wizard that had 1 strength that could after awhile no longer walk upstairs correctly and could not venture out into the wilds and had to spend all their money finding a training book, which increases their price.
There would probably be no need for him to live the rest of his life in a village if he had sold that training book he looted from that rat, the price in the cities were over a 1000 gold coin for one. They seldom appeared in the market, but Alex knew that they were dominant for a reason. If you could always re-arrange your ability points, they were a must for becoming stronger than the rest of the pack.
10 points were almost 10 levels higher from someone without a class. Still, he was also 2 levels ahead of someone that had a class, His spell library was a lot weaker since he only had the two wizard spells and his two Warlock spells, Fear and Void Bolt, he guessed they might be forced to show themselves at the boss of the dungeon if every event was this challenging.
The light beam shined down, and a roar was heard, the goblin warriors ran quickly with different weapons in their hands, some had shields and maces, while a few had even bows.
Alex quickly began targeting the ones with ranged weapons and threw Flame Bolts across the room, the bolt curved in the air. A goblin warrior stepped out of the path and intercepted it with his shield, Alex quickly tossed another two toward the now staggered goblin warrior which vanished into a pouch, the warrior had stood his ground while the three other DPS were waiting for the Tank to taunt them.
Alex was doing the bulk of the work by moving around and killing the archers in the back which were trying to hit him regularly, he was happy the spells were able to be cast while running, the only spell he had to stand still for to cast was Wind Blast and Fear.
There was a loud sound, and the Tank slammed his foot onto the ground, the goblin warriors toppled down on the ground. The other swordsmen rushed up and began poking and swiping the prone targets, there was no way they were all strangers with that coordination.
They had been together for a long time looking at that display of team play and camaraderie, Alex did his part and targeted the archers who were unaffected due to their long-range.
An arrow hit him straight in the gut. He felt the lost about 10 hitpoints for that, He launched another five Flame Bolts. He started to feel sluggish when the last archer died, it took around 2 bolts to kill an archer. He had thrown out at least 10, he saw his mana at the halfway mark, but that was good enough, he returned his sights to the melee. He cast a Wind Blast on the six remaining warriors, and they toppled over.
The battle ended like that, and he quickly rested and saw his experience gained from 75 to 275, these twenty goblins had earned him 10 exp a piece. If he was not in a party, they would have been around 60 for a single one.
The loot was still lying on the ground even from the previous battle, and now had pooled from a single pouch into two chests, this was one of the ways the world cleared itself up, from too many pouches at the same area, he had never seen this before, but he knew about it from the books in the school library, there were at least 100 corpses in there waiting to be looted.
He was trying to remember what the price of a goblin warrior was. Their weapons, when his body unlocked itself from its resting position, he rose to the ground. Everyone was prepping and going into formation, this wave would spawn a goblin leader, and he had known they came in four types. Thief, Warrior, Shaman, and Warlord.
The warlord was the strongest one while the shaman could heal and buff, and the thief could disarm, which were a dangerous status effect where your weapon would go back into your inventory for 10 seconds. A shield was not affected, which was why tanks always used them.
The first bell tolled, and an outline of a goblin leader appeared on the edge of the room, the second bell tolled. Now five warriors were surrounding that light, and the third light they activated, and another wave of normal goblins were poised all around them, there were at least another 30 surrounding them.
“Shit! It’s a rare type! It’s a summoner! Everyone kill the weak goblins first, heal only me! I will hold these five and the monster it spawns! Go! Go!”
The warrior rushed down this time to greet the five warriors, the summoner would only summon a creature and stand back. Which was good for them, Alex immediately took the south side of the room and started to cast Flame Bolts rapidly against the regular goblins, there were at least 60 of them, and with 4 people they should be able to make due before the healer ran out of mana.
The other DPS ran together down in the center pulling both sides together at once, Alex was alone battling 20 goblins. Still, he felt it was doable if he killed all of them with his magic, he would be out of mana, so he had killed them at even paces, he fired Flame Bolts at those grouped up, and Wind Blast’ ed those in the rear, now he had time to engage in melee to conserve his mana.
Alex walked forward and sliced the first goblin with his superior range, the goblin yelped, and he thrust again killing it instantly, he would repeat this motion until death was upon them.
The goblins in the back were slowly shuffling toward him, so he had a few seconds to spare he glanced at the warrior seeing him overwhelmed, so he cast a Wind Blast, putting them all into prone. He resumed killing, never stopping until they were dead. The goblin jumped to the side when the sword came toward him. Still, Alex was too talented he had already flashed a Flame Bolt the moment his sword missed, and the goblin turned into dust.
He flickered his sword to behead the other goblin, but he took some damage in return, the goblin scratched him, and he felt fine.
“Shit! Shit!” he heard, yelling behind him, but he could not divert his gaze, “Alex! Watch out!”. Alex jumped to the side, and a fireball landed where he stood, he still took some damage and quickly rose to his feet, there was an imp near the summoner channeling fireballs, he swiped the incoming goblin but took some damage from the return while standing, there were only five goblins left so he flame bolted them down.
He had less than half of his mana left. Still, the summoner was standing next to the imp, Alex threw a Flame Bolt toward the summoner, and he did not dodge. Again, he simply took a step back, Alex launched another four killing the summoner which acted slow-moving and straightforward.
Contrarily to his expectation, the imp was still active throwing fireballs, Alex had no choice but to approach in melee combat. Hence, he ran around the edge of the room circling when the fireballs tried to hit him, the spell was incredibly slow-moving. He wondered why the warrior had not shouted earlier so he could dodge, perhaps it was just nerves, or he simply occupied he was fighting five goblin warriors after all.
The distance started to close in so Alex stopped for the last fireball to fly out, it missed him by an inch, so he rushed up and started to engage the imp in a melee, the imp was tiny almost reaching up to his knees, so he had to swipe at a weird angle, the imp just took the damage while trying to channel another fireball, the imp had not a lot of hitpoints and crumbled into dust, but not before turning into a tiny black cloud that traveled up his sword into his arm.
Alex had no time to question what happened, so he rushed to help, the other swordsmen were doing fine one of them were running around in a circle while the two were stabbing the edges, Alex joined in on the side, and soon the room was cleared out of the small fries.
The now four goblin warriors were stabbing and thrusting their shields wildly toward the Tank which were holding on due to the constant healing provided by the healer in the back, A few moments later and everything in the room was dead, Alex by reflex rested as soon as combat ended giving him the group stared at him, they also began resting.
After the battle was over the, all approached the big chest in the middle of the room, which now had all the loot in one location. The ears were given out, which netted them 27 each. There were four extra. Hence, they did a roll, for all of them, one of the DPS won, so he got them happily.
“Alright, Listen, we got a lot of corpses, and I ain’t gonna wait around or take the time to sell them, a goblin skin is worth 2 copper a corpse is worth 1 copper, so the price is set at 1 copper each.”
There was a silence, and Alex thought about it, it would take him like half an hour to skin them, and if he was lucky he might get two pieces instead of one, he offered to buy them all. The five split the copper, his supply of copper was now shrinking, but he still had a few silvers left if needed.
There was a stack of 166 corpses now in his inventory which he was happy that they stacked so much, the weapons did not stack, so they had to take the ones that were above normal quality and break down the ones that were less, they scored another 100 wood, 24 metal and 12 leather, Alex did not want them, but the Healer bought it all for a copper each.
He could have taken the materials and made something out of it. Still, there was no need to get on the wrong side of the person keeping you alive if needed, the boss was the main goal, and these things were just icing on the cake, There was silence when they left the room, and the Tank glanced back at Alex, there was something in his eyes that made him feel uncomfortable almost like he was being sized up.
Did he not warn him of the incoming fireball to see if competent enough to be asked to join the party, or was he hoping that I would fail so he could take my loot and increase his experience point by having one less member?
There was no point thinking about it Alex kept his head calm and were probably overthinking the whole thing, They walked down the corridor and was greeted by nothing significant just a few more goblins and the exciting thing was a spider which the Healer shrieked in Fear at, it had hidden in the shadow and pounced on the Tank and gave him a little scare as well, they had slowed down the pace after that, and a torch was active to illuminate the shadows.
They slowly came to the boss’s room, which had a skull over the door. If they entered this room, there was no going back after two minutes inside the battle would start, and anyone outside will not be able to enter.
Alex glanced up at the door and saw the swirling mana in the eyes of the skull, the party nodded and stepped inside to see an ancient forest, the door was in the middle of the clearing and when all six had entered a timer popped up above it, they spread out from the door and sat down on a nearby log to wait.
The Tank kept staring at Alex, and he could not take it anymore, “Do you want to say something about me, or are you staring for another reason?”
The others clicked their tongue, The Tank motioned them to calm down, “You are good, better than most spell crafters I been tutored by, I have seen them use Flame Bolt and Wind Blast, but you are something else, almost like you knew exactly how to conserve mana and just when the situation calls it the knockdown comes, you have reflexes of someone that been in a lot of fights, but I know that you have not, I just thinking you lowborn’s are so interesting, how did a farmer such as yourself become a Player of such skill?”
Alex glanced away and let out a chuckle, “Hunting rats in the fields, you had to learn how to move fast before the rat scurried away, every child levels up the same way, and it teaches us the basics we need while the monster does not fight back, teaches us how to kill and how to value their corpses since we also learn how to make them into clothes we wear, but how I became skilled? When bandits and a wizard raided my village killed everyone I knew and loved burned their houses down and kidnapped my friend, I had to struggle to become as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time, or I would not be here today.”
The others froze at his bluntness, The Tank stood up and put a hand on his shoulder, “Your Majesty!” the Healer blurted out, the Tank turned around and frowned, and she lowered her head, “Let’s battle, time is up.”
The other stood up, and Alex could not resist raising an eyebrow of what he heard, this arrogant Tank had his girlfriend call him out like a king, these perverts were something Alex could not handle.
The timer was ticking down, and when it was 10 seconds left until the door vanished, it was replaced by the three bell chimes. After that, a roar that echoed across the field, “Worgen,” the Healer said, and they all got ready.
Trees groaned, and the leaves were shaking in the wind, something was rapidly approaching the area, The Tank was standing ready to intercept whatever came into view, but they all felt something was staring at them in the brush.
Alex focused his eyes and saw nothing, but he felt he was being targeted. His eyes were moving across every tree and brush to spot the monster in hiding, but there was nothing, !!!, He twisted his sword around and fired a Wind Blast, “ROAR!”
The Worgen appeared behind him and was knocked down on the ground, he fired another Flame Bolt before the Worgen lept into the brush again.
“Mutated Worgen, We need to go into the brush to find it, if we let it be for another minute it will be able to stealth again!”
The Tank rushed into the brush after the Worgen. Everyone followed suit, the Worgen were running on all fours but not as rapidly as it would have liked, Alex aimed another Flame Bolt in front of the Worgen, and it had to stop to avoid the damage, Tank rushed up and slammed his shield onto it’s back staggering it.
The other DPS rushed up and started to swipe in a practiced unison surrounding it keeping it contained, Alex was about to return fire when he was pushed to the ground, he felt something hit him, and he rolled to the side.
“Help!” he shouted while a new Worgen were trying to bite into his neck, he had managed to lodge his sword between them. He could not cast another Wind Blast, the Healer was on point, and his hitpoints were filling up constantly. Still, he was no position to fire any magic. He wrestled with the Worgen, which tried to snap into his neck, the sword slid from his hand, and now he had both of his hands pushing upwards.
The Worgen lept away in a yelp, and he saw one of the swordsmen assist him by poking it in the back, he quickly stood to his feet. His hitpoints were filled up. Both of the Worgen started to run away in opposite directions.
“We are going to have to split up, Alex, Gile, Hendrik, Leno, Both of you follow the closest, Go!”
Alex ran into the forest ahead of the pack. The Swordsman followed suit, they were a lot faster than him, but the Worgen was in vision range, Alex tossed out a Wind Blast, and the Worgen crashed into a tree and was laid stunned on the ground. Flame Bolts followed, and the swordsmen rushed in to engage, The Worgen quickly rose to its feet and knowing there was no running, it just hoped his packmate would kill the two that left.
The Worgen were fighting like its life depended on it, and it was on the line the same as theirs. Still, they were cycling blows correctly by retreating at the same time with one man staying near range, and soon they all were wounded, but the Worgen were struggling as well.
It was now breathing heavily, and it gave out a fearful roar, Alex was the only one at range not being affected. Still, the Worgen was going to kill the most wounded Swordsman, he grit his teeth “FEAR!” he exclaimed.
The Worgen lept back, hitting the tree with it’s back and stared frozen at Alex, He quickly fired all the Flame Bolts he could muster into it. It crumbled into nothing, not even a pouch remained.
“Thank you, We were about to become- His majesty! He’s only with Crystal! We need to hurry, Rest quickly!”
Everyone fell to their knees to rest, but they were in awkward positions that they looked at Alex which were standing earlier than them, they all moved out toward the sound of thuds and yells.
“Your Majesty! Were are you!?” they yelled while running, they could hear them but not see them “It’s a mirage and a maze! They separated for a reason, you would need to find the white oak! It activated something when we came close!” they heard in reply.
Alex and the swordsmen started to pan across the forest but could not find any white oak trees. Still, the forest was incredibly vast, and they had no idea where the sounds were coming from, the other swordsmen were starting to sweat, and panic was visible on their faces.
Crystal could not hang on forever, and his majesty could not deal with damage quickly enough needing to defend against the beast, they were four people, and it still took them almost everything to kill it.
There was something in the air and Alex could not put his finger on it, it was almost like a calling same as on the boat when he learned his second spell, he closed his eyes and stood still waiting for something to appear, he felt a tingle on his arm, and he pulled his hand into the air, he flickered it around in a weird motion that made no sense to the swordsmen that stared at him, “Summon” he whispered.
Flames rose from the ground, and a circle of blood appeared, soon a tiny imp the same they killed appeared, it skipped around him like it was the most significant moments of its life, the imp stopped when Alex stared at him, “Can you help us find, the Worgen and the two people battling it?”
The imp scurried into the forest, and Alex followed the Swordsman went as well. The imp was running almost in a straight line, after a few moments it stopped in front of a tree and started to poke it and vanished, Alex, put his hand on the tree and vanished as well, “It’s an illusion, I can’t see you guys anymore, but I see the Tank and Healer! I’m going to assist!”
Alex rushed next to the Healer and fired a Wind Blast on the ground, near the Worgen, which pushed it toward the side. It hit the tree hard, it was now prone and stunned the Tank had finally some time to go on the offense, he fired Flame Bolts like it was nothing into the back of the Worgen which were now flanked.
It knew running away was not an option when the swordsmen came, and its eyes turned red, Alex jumped away and so did everyone else when it roared.
This time there was nobody stunned by its yell. Still, it was a lot faster and deadlier now. It started to slash at any target in nearby range, so Alex had to step away, the Swordsman was going back and forth stabbing once and retreating, and the Tank was holding his ground pushing it.
