Path of the titans sys.., p.3
Path of the Titans - System Consolidation: A LitRPG Epic Fantasy, page 3
“She’s doing great, she even helped kill some monsters on her way back, so she didn’t feel so useless. Her level is increasing steadily,” Terrim said, then pausing, he seemed to consider something before continuing. “I might even invite her to do a dungeon run at some point.”
“That sounds nice,” Knox said, hearing his friend but his own mind going to the time he told Sarah that she couldn’t come with his group. Why hadn’t he allowed her to come on a run, sure she was a lower level, but she could have learned and perhaps gotten stronger or more skilled.
They continued off in silence after a while and Knox wondered at what they’d find when they reached the pirate lands. They followed the coast currently, adding at least a day to their journey to the Mire’s Gloom Dungeon town.
What they ended up finding was nothing short of shocking. Piles of dead bodies lay strewn about here and there. The ocean breeze was the only thing keeping the scent of the stink of dead smoldering bodies from being overwhelming.
All the buildings were smoldering wrecks, everything they left behind had been put to the torch, even a few larger ships lay in burning wrecks, only one looked like it might be salvageable. Knox didn’t know what he expected but this wasn’t it at all.
“Why would they burn it all when they left?” Knox asked the party and Leo answered.
“Why wouldn’t they?” he asked in turn. “Whatever extra supplies would just be helpful to others and these pirates are a selfish bunch. If I had to guess, they won’t be returning to this port any time soon.”
“Still, let’s look around and see what we can find before we set off,” Knox said.
They began their search of the mostly burnt-out ship that still floated at the water’s edge. Knox could see holes where it had taken cannon fire and the sails had all been burnt up, but the boat was otherwise in great shape. John went ahead looking for traps and, good thing he was with them, because he found several. Each trap was meant to explode a large section of the ship or perhaps the entire thing. They had a black powder filled to the brim in barrels and a flint and steel contraption that would ignite it.
They did what they could to salvage the traps and prevent any explosions. With a bit of work, they got the barrels of the stuff onto the shore for later use. Knox would send Mr. Tome to secure the location, as he could be trusted with such a substance. What was more, the ship looked in decent enough condition that Knox was going to see about having it fixed up, one never knew when a ship might come in handy.
John took the task of going back to town and delivering a message about the pirates while the rest of the team went on ahead. With the black spheres the pirates had, they’d captured many over the months, John would be safe to travel alone. He could also move a good measure faster on his own, so he hoped to catch up with them before they made it to the dungeon town.
With the matter of the pirates settled and one threat crossed off on his list of many, Knox took a deep breath and wished they’d run into a monster or two already. But as luck would have it, they had a very uneventful trip to the Mire’s Gloom Dungeon town, arriving late in the night on the third day.
John joined them the next morning as they prepared to go into the dungeon.
The town seemed almost ordinary on Knox’s return to it. Gone was the mystical sense of excitement that he’d first felt when arriving. He no longer worried about any of these Adventurers being stronger than him, even the gate guard at the dungeon didn’t have an aura as powerful as Knox’s own. It was almost disappointing in a way.
“Here to run the dungeon,” Knox announced, passing over the writ to the dungeon guard.
“Lots of changing going on here, we’ve been allowing groups in but honestly with the new levels and abilities, we’ve lost more than our fair share inside. Be careful and mind your pace while inside. Seems like the dungeon is hitting a bit harder than she usually does, something has her out of sorts,” said the armored gruff man that Knox didn’t recognize.
“Noted,” Knox said with a curt smile and a nod.
The group walked up to the dungeon pillar and placed their hands on it. Before they disappeared, Knox heard the gate guard say something about him, but he didn’t catch it. Something like, “Wasn’t that that Knox fellow?”
Light flashed in his eyes and once more he found himself in a cavern area inside the dungeon. They’d resupplied and were ready for several days inside. Setting up camp, Knox was moving fast and was very eager to start clearing out the dungeon.
“Should we jump to the end for more of a challenge?” Knox asked, smiling wide as he cracked his neck to the side in preparation for some physical exertion.
“We can vote on it,” John suggested. They did so and Knox was overruled, most wanting to take out each path of the dungeon before going forward.
So, they found themselves in the easiest wing of the dungeon, killing monsters barely worth his time. He did note that they hit harder and faster than he remembered, but that could just be time blurring the lines for him.
It took only hours to clear the first path, the boss being no issue as Knox went full power at him, killing him within minutes. The loot was good, at least for lower leveled folk, Knox suggested that they save all the loot and give it away to lowered leveled members of Luminar later, Leo and John seemed hesitant, but they agreed, asking only that they still get dungeon points to spend later.
Path after path fell before them until they reached the final themed path forward. Here he had slain upstart sheriffs, killed dragons, and more, so he wondered at what adventure awaited them now.
“It’s been a long day,” Leo said, Henry seemed more worn out than the rest of the group and Knox knew Leo was speaking on his behalf. “Let’s rest before finishing the final path.”
They’d cleared all the paths in a day, maybe two, but they hadn’t stopped to rest the entire time. Seeing as most of them didn’t need much rest, it was fine, but Knox had been so narrow minded in his pursuit to kill monsters that he hadn’t noticed how tired Henry had become.
“Sorry,” Knox said to Henry, before turning to the group at large. “Let’s rest for the night and we will challenge the themed dungeon path first thing tomorrow.”
“And let’s eat, I’m starving,” Terrim said, stuffing some dried meat in his mouth. He’d been eating the entire time, but Knox forgot how not everyone could survive on just essence alone.
“Okay, let’s eat then sleep,” Knox said, nodding to his friend as they headed back to the base camp to rest.
Beth had been unusually quiet during the run, ignoring most of John’s flirting advances. But now she came to stand beside Knox and fixed him with a glare.
“What?” Knox asked, unsure what he’d done to attract her ire.
Beth cleared her throat and stared him down, saying nothing at first. Then, after a solid half minute or so, she spoke low enough that only Knox could hear but with anger clear to be heard in her voice.
“You trying to kill yourself?”
Knox blinked at her and matched her gaze. “No, I don’t think so.”
She pinched at the bridge of her nose, something she rarely did before continuing. “The way you keep throwing yourself headlong into the fights, you’ve taken more damage than all of us combined, and you are the reason Henry is so worn thin.”
“Oh,” Knox said, thinking back he hadn’t really seen it like that. He was the strongest in the group and the monsters were so weak that he just wanted to get it over with so he could find a real challenge. Sure, he’d taken a few hits here and there but was it really so bad as she made it out to be?
“Some of us still care if you live or die, remember that won’t you?” Beth asked, her voice softening as she spoke. When she’d finished speaking, she turned and joined the others for a hot meal over the fire.
Knox hadn’t realized he was being so reckless, but now as he thought back, he truly had been throwing himself into battle without regard for his injuries. He would do better, he decided. He’d fight with his team instead of ahead of them, he had too much that could be lost still if he weren’t careful.
CHAPTER 4
THEMED DUNGEON
They stepped through the threshold and into the last branch of the dungeon, expecting anything. What they got was a cold breeze and an area filled with trees that swayed with the wind. A single large moon hung high in the sky, lighting the way and shadows spread out rampant and odd in their formations. It was as if there was a whisper in the wind and Knox could almost make out what was being said.
“Greetings,” came a voice from behind them and they all spun to find a dwindling old man in rags, holding a map, along with a round orb that glowed a dim blue light from runes carved into the surface. “You have come to seek the treasure of the Wizard’s Tower?”
“We have,” Knox said, not missing a beat. These themed dungeons always had some scenario they wanted you to play out and he’d found by hard experience that it was best just to roll with it.
“Then map and key I have for thee,” said the glowering old man. “Be ye ready for such a challenge, only time will tell. Take this now and be ye well.”
Knox nodded along, taking the map and the sphere from the old man, then turning, he saw in the distance lit up by the large moon, a tower rising up high into the sky.
“That’s it?” Terrim asked, sounding a bit confused. “We just accept random stuff from an old guy and go headlong into that tower?”
“If ye seek answers you may ask three questions and I will answer them,” came the old man’s voice.
Knox shrugged. “We go in and kill stuff, it won’t be terribly difficult, I’m sure. Let’s just go and end this.”
“If we follow your map, will it lead us to the end of this adventure?” Leo asked, ignoring Knox as he began to walk forward toward the tower.
“Wise questions, there is a path that must be followed exactly on the map. Stay to that course and ye will find your footfalls relatively safe, though monsters do walk the halls, only the strongest ye will avoid.”
“What waits for us on the top?” Knox asked, turning back and playing along.
“A terrible fate for those that can’t withstand the gift giving nature of power. Give and you shall conquer.”
“How does the key work?” Terrim asked, drawing sharp looks from Leo and Knox as both had questions they wanted to ask.
“Keep it at your side and doors will open for ye as ye proceed ever forward. Lose it and tempt the fate of the tower’s guardians. Three questions asked and answered, goodbye.”
And with that, the old man shifted into mist, disappearing from sight. It was more than a little creepy, but Knox steeled himself and signaled for his group to follow him through the woods toward the tower.
The tower lay at the center of a grove of trees, some as tall as the very tower itself. It had a pace some hundred paces wide with a single wooden door that glowed with a faint show of power. All up and down the tower were runes that glowed so fiercely that they were visible even without his sense. Knox recognized some of the symbols but was surprised to find some that he didn’t even remotely remember seeing in all his study.
Odd that he was still encountering runes and formations he’d never encountered before, it was like the system of runes was as endless as the power they could call forth. At the top of the tower, it flared out and held tall windows that shone with white light from within. An indication of life inside or just the glow of the power that they were meant to find, Knox didn’t know which.
The moon, not their normal moons that they were used to, was huge behind the tower, its light almost seeming to lend its own power to the tower. Where was this dungeon getting this image of a world with only a single moon, and so large? It boggled the mind to think that perhaps the dungeon knew of other worlds, or perhaps Knox was overthinking it and it was just a made-up world that the dungeon created.
Up to this point, Knox had felt little rush from the battles he’d faced, and very little offering in the way of peace from his emotional burdens. He knew, of course, that no matter how hard he fought or tried, that Sarah and her sister wouldn’t be coming back, so why even bother to distract himself?
These questions lay heavy on his head as he approached the door, sphere held out before him. He didn’t know what he expected, but the door swinging wide as he approached wasn’t on his short list of expectations. No, in fact, he’d assumed the sphere would offer some sort of puzzle making it harder to gain entry, perhaps a code phrase or a working of runes. To have it open so freely sent trigger alarms throughout his head, but still he kept the lead and walked right through the door, his party following behind him.
The first thing that he noticed was the size of the interior, it was bigger on the inside. The next thing was the floor glowed under his sense, triggering his alarm bells once more. He held out a hand stopping anyone from entering any further than he had, his foot only a pace away from the nearest of the glowing vines on the floor.
Light streamed in from a window that definitely didn’t exist on the outside, falling on a large figure standing stone still and wielding an axe nearly as tall as Knox.
“John,” Knox whispered, pointing at the figure that still stood motionless. “Check the ground for traps, but I have a good guess of what we are about to face. I’d bet my lunch that if we touch those strands of magic on the floor, we will have to face big ugly over there.”
“Let me have a look,” John said, kneeling down and running his hand dangerously close to the glowing on the floor.
“Perhaps we ought to put the big guy in front,” Henry suggested, nudging Terrim forward, but Knox stopped him from going much further.
“I’ll be fine,” Knox said. “For now, I’m taking the lead, but if we wake up the big guy, I’ll step back and let Terrim tank it.”
“Good, I’m not sure I’m ready to heal you through whatever he could do to you,” Henry said, a touch of reproach in his voice that Knox ignored.
“Traps, or rather one huge trap, covers most of the floor and I see no way of disarming it,” John announced, stepping back and shaking his head.
“The spots between the lines I can see are big enough for two of us at a time, so perhaps we try and make it to that door without triggering them?” Knox reasoned.
The door he spoke of was barely visible behind the titan-sized monster. It stood as tall as Terrim times two with the ceiling being three times Terrim’s height.
“Dog and I will go last,” Beth said, Knox turned and gave her a nod.
She stood proudly with her massive wolf in the back with a bow drawn and arrow nocked. She was ready to fight and would likely be the first to strike out when and if combat began, but Knox worried that her ever-growing wolf would be too big to fit in the spaces that would only fit two people standing abreast.
“Have Dog hang back, I doubt the two of you will fit in a space together, just have him follow one step after you,” Knox suggested.
“You heard him, fat boy,” Beth said, stroking Dog’s head, he leaned into it and eyed Knox with all too intelligent eyes.
The wolf had grown to the size of a small bear in the weeks following his taming. It was like the creature grew stronger along with Beth, which meant there was no telling how big he’d get eventually. He was already big enough that she might be able to ride him, which gave him an interesting mental image of her sitting astride him while jumping from spot to spot.
Knox went first, jumping to a spot and indicating where Terrim should land. His large friend made it perfectly into the spot he’d meant for him and soon they were four spots in and halfway across the floor. Dog finally jumped into the first spot, and he was just small enough to fit, his feet narrowly missing touching the edges. The way he adjusted his feet gave Knox pause, it was almost as if he could sense where the lines were as well. Smart Dog, or uh wolf.
They were only five feet from the mighty guardian, a being made of thousands of strands of wood with thorns coming out in odd angles and wielding a mighty axe. Now that they were so close, he could make out that the creature was almost entirely made of vines and thorns, which oddly enough looked similar to the patterns they were avoiding on the ground.
“Shit,” John said, and suddenly a flash of light went off behind Knox.
He turned just in time to see vines reach up out of the ground and cover John’s leg that had hit one of the invisible lines they’d been avoiding. Of all the people to trigger the trap, John was the last on Knox’s list, but there they were.
A mighty roar echoed, and the ground flared, the light seemed to retract as the trap faded. The strands of power pulled themselves into the guardian and suddenly it had eyes of white flaring with as much power as had been on the ground, trapping them.
John was just getting his leg free when the golem of vines and thorns came to life, swinging his axe in several slow testing motions. It lumbered forward, letting off another shout as it came forward.
“Terrim,” Knox shouted, but Terrim was already moving forward, his shield raised.
The battle was on, and they took their normal formation as they prepared. Knox, for once during the dungeon, let Terrim take the lead against the mighty foe.
Before the monster could so much as take another step, a half dozen arrows blazing with fire smashed into it and set it ablaze. The vines withered at the touch of fire, and it let out a mighty scream of pain, but that didn’t stop it from attacking, its axe lifted and ready to strike.
The vine guardian, what Knox had named the monster in his mind, lunged forward. His mighty swing smashed against Terrim’s shield and Knox heard a faint cracking sound from the crystalline shield that Terrim used, but it held. He pushed back and the monster staggered.
Taking the opportunity to attack, Knox cast Lustrous Chains, hoping to slow down the already lumbering monster. Chains of golden and white light sprung up and wrapped up the monster. It roared again and Knox brought a hand up to his head to shield his ears from the overbearing sound. The spell held long enough for another barrage of arrows to ignite the vines on the monster, Beth using her special abilities to burn into it.
