The ‘Dragontooth Teleport’ deposited Elijah at the bottom of the pit. A deep rumbling reverberated through his bones before his bats had even dissipated. Looking around, he spotted the source of the sound. Giant drills spun out from the center of the room, their red-hot drill heads filling the room with dust and dim light. A long tendril of orange mana connected each drill to some sort of device in the center of the room.
He looked around for any sign of the boss, walking cautiously around the device in the center. The danger those beams posed was palpable; if he got too close, they would fry him.
The drills made a grinding sound and turned back once they reached the far wall, startling him as they began their slow cycle back towards the center of the room.
”You are too late, adventurer,” the boss’s voice called out to him. It was no longer obscured by the speakers, and he felt a shiver run up his spine at its deep bass tone. It seemed to come from all around him, echoing off the walls and floor before disappearing up the pit.
”Show yourself,” he hollered. He tried to hide the nervousness in his voice as he spoke.
The boss laughed at him. “How blind you are, adventurer. Can you not see what is in front of your face?”
[Quest Updated]
Mountain Goblins
Description: The Mountain Goblins’ secret, which they tried to hide long ago, has been uncovered. Yet their history remains undiscovered.
Elijah cleared the quest update from his vision as the device at the center of the room shifted, rising from the ground on two legs that ended in tank treads. A panel slid to the side to reveal a face made of metal, and above it a text box shimmered with the golden glow that designated Legendary-tier power.
[World Boss]
Whir the World Miner
Threat Level: Legendary | Level: 700
HP: 15,000 / 15,000
Elijah fell backwards as fear gripped him. He felt so stupid. He’d expected a standard boss monster, something he could easily defeat even if it was several dozen levels stronger than him. After all, he’d faced off against a celestial threat in the past and won. But this wasn’t just any boss. It wasn’t even a raid boss.
It was a world boss. He’d watched a stream several years ago where a group of adventurers had uncovered a world boss. An entire city had mobilized to take it on. They’d defeated it, barely, but the fight had scarred the landscape. And that one had only been Master-tier.
Here he was, alone, and faced with a threat that would take near-celestial player intervention to defeat.
The air in the room seemed to grow hotter around Elijah.
The world boss looked down at him and smiled. “I want to thank you, little adventurer.” Its words were softer now, non-threatening and almost patient. That still didn’t help the fear that shot through Elijah’s body. He wanted to teleport away, but he couldn’t focus on anything but the boss’s smile.
”I am just moments away from breaking through to the leyline now. Afterwards, I will return to the surface and put into action my creator’s plan. The containment would have taken me several years to break through from the inside, an unfortunate but necessary flaw in the design, but thanks to you my way is clear.”
Even as the boss spoke, the drills began cracking through the last of the bedrock. Impossibly bright blue light shone up through the cracks in the ground. Elijah’s mana immediately refilled before a debuff screen appeared.
[DEBUFF: Mana Overload]
Description:
You are being overloaded with mana from a cracked leyline. -10 HP per second while your Mana is full. +50 mana regeneration per second.
He had to act fast. There was no way he could burn that much mana that quickly, turning the benefit of his class’s mana economy into a detriment, and his health wouldn’t last long with that amount of damage over time. He’d learned from the Heartwood trials that debuffs like this would automatically reset themselves, so there was no point in him trying to adjust it with ‘Reality Warp’.
This was all his responsibility, and he had to at least make an effort. He cast swarm, increasing the number of bats by an order of magnitude. His mana plummeted before refilling again. He recalled dozens of them at a time, letting them land on him and grabbing their debug menus in his mind. When he had several hundred of these bats circling him, he adjusted all of their debug menus with ‘Mass Warp’. He didn’t get to use this skill very often, but this was as good of an excuse as he’d ever get.
The bats rejoined the swarm as it finally cut off. Several effects went off all at once as they contacted the world boss.
Fire Bolts, Thunder Claps, Lightning Strikes, even a few Staggers. As the bats finally cleared, he could see Whir’s health. It had barely moved and was now sitting at fifty points lower than maximum. His attack hadn’t even phased Whir, like gnats flying around a building, and now Elijah’s own health was desperately low.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A powerful surge of mana emanated from the ground, overloading his mana reserves. At the same time, he felt the connection to his familiars snap; they’d been killed somehow. He had no choice and activated his teleport.
The teleport felt like he was fighting through molasses, like it didn’t want to connect to the other side. He forced more mana into it, overloading the spell. The bats burst into mana as they circled him, but more bats sprang forth from his shadows.
The debuff finally faded from his vision as his health dipped below ten remaining points. He fell into the water of the group bath from the inn that his friends were staying at.
He thrashed about as he sank into the water. Panic gripped him—this wasn’t where he had meant to land—he couldn’t find which way was up as he spun in the water; his eyes were blurry from the pain and the sudden shift.
He thought he was going to die. Going to drown once again and relive the most traumatic experience of his life.
But a firm hand gripped his arm and pulled him, dragging him through the water and hoisting him onto solid ground. When he finally caught his breath, he saw Nicholas, clad in full wooden armor that was slowly leaking water now. His friend had dove into the pool wearing his heavy armor to save him.
“Sasha!” Nicholas roared, his deep voice echoing around the bath. Whir’s deep voice had filled him with dread and fear, but Nicholas’ deep voice instead filled him with a sense of safety and belonging. This was his friend, his team leader, his protector.
Sasha came running out the door, her eyes locking first on Nicholas’ water-logged form then following his line of sight down to where Elijah lay. As soon as she saw him, there was no hesitation; the healing spell was forming in her hand before she’d even made it to him.
Her magic immediately warmed his body, washing away the aches and chill that had invaded it from the constant stream of damage. He would be whole again soon, although it would take several castings. He heard footsteps and looked up to see Benjamin and Bo rushing to his side.
“Dude? What the hell happened to you?” Bo asked as he kneeled next to Elijah. “You look like you got into a fight with an Ink Wraith.”
Elijah didn’t know what an Ink Wraith was, but there wasn’t time to ask. They all had to get far away from here before Whir surfaced. He pushed himself up even as Sasha insisted he stay down. “Guys, I screwed up. I thought I was just doing some solo grinding, but I ran into something. Something bad.”
It was at that moment that the game made Whir’s existence known to the rest of the world.
[World Event]
Whir the World Miner, a Celestial-Rank world boss, is escaping from its ancient prison just north of the city of Klade. If he is not stopped, the land surrounding him will be destroyed, and mana may cease to function properly for a time.
Time to prepare: 15 minutes
Leaders of guilds may choose to teleport all members of their guilds who are not currently in dungeons to the staging area of this event in 5 minutes.
Good Luck Adventurers!
“What the fu—,” Bo began before being cut off by a harsh look from Nicholas.
The leyline must have boosted Whir from a Legendary-tier world boss to a Celestial-tier boss. Elijah thought he understood the mechanics at work. If a party found him and could summon enough allies in time, they could defeat the world boss more easily, but if they failed or if a single overly confident idiot player found him, he would become a greater threat. One that would require direct intervention by the Celestial-tier players to defeat.
“We have to go,” Elijah hissed. “I can get Benjamin a hundred miles from here in time for him to open a portal to evacuate the rest of you.”
“Are you kidding, Elijah?” Bo asked him, which was a shock. “A Celestial-tier world boss is exactly what we need right now.”
The rest of the group gave him a questioning look, and Elijah was about to call him insane, so he explained himself.
“Celestial world bosses are incredibly rare. That’s not because of their difficulty, but because of their loot drops and experience rewards,” Bo told them with a grin on his face. “Twenty-million experience points up for grabs, split up between every single person who takes part based upon their contribution. If someone figured out how to solo one, we’re talking about more than enough experience points to boost them straight up to Celestial-tier.”
Elijah shook his head. “You don’t understand, Bo. The thing Whir was mining was a leyline. The debuff from the mana overload is brutal. You regenerate it super quickly, but anyone with access to mana will start taking damage immediately if they can’t burn off the excess.”
Benjamin seemed to perk up at his words. “So you’re saying I can unload on it with all my spells and not worry about the effects of Mana Drain?”
Elijah shook his head, unable to believe that out of everything he said, that was what the irresponsible young mage had gotten out of it. “Mages especially are at a disadvantage, Benjamin. You can’t burn off enough mana to avoid taking damage. There just isn’t a way.”
“Well then,” Benjamin laughed, turning to face Sasha. “I guess it’s a good thing that I know one of the best healers in the game.”
The young man fixed Elijah with a look somewhere between manic enjoyment of the situation and a calm clinical idealism. “Whatever you all decide, I’m going. With that much mana, the chance to unload without worrying. I at least want to experience it. In fact, I have a plan and need to experience it for what I want to do.”
Elijah looked over to Nicholas, the strong-willed protector of the party. If anyone could talk Benjamin out of this suicidal idea, it was him, but the big man just shook his head. “I know you are scared, Elijah. Any of us would have been if we were placed in your position. But that’s too much experience to leave lying on the table. Especially when you getting to Celestial is the only way we are going to get out of this game.”
Nicholas was right, as much as Elijah hated to admit it. At their level, even a small fragment of the experience available would boost them several levels, and they’d proven they were all capable of handling threats that far out-levelled them. Not only that, but they wouldn’t be alone. They’d have, hopefully, several hundred players to bolster their power.
The idea of the Celestials being present worried him, but hopefully in the chaos of the World Boss they would forget about him. The announcement also stated that only members of guilds not currently in dungeons could be teleported. That means that the Reaper Army was still safely locked away within the trial chamber of the Heartwood Glade.
