“Dungeons are a major part of the economy and ecosystem of NEMO. Normal dungeons have a cooldown of two hours while Hard mode takes a full 12 hours to reenter and Expert 24 hours. Teams would organize to farm them at different difficulties to minimize downtime. Newer groups would explore the surrounding areas of the dungeon between clears. Informal trading communities would spring up outside more popular dungeons and pvp raids were a constant risk.”
Excerpt From “Dungeon Ecology” by Lara Jones.
Year 1, Month 1, Day 3, 17:00
Stabitha whistled to herself as she brewed another healing potion. Life was really looking up. Her little brother was beside her, able to move and play and not feeling pain for the first time in more than a year. He made mana potions with a smile on his face. Their games where they pretended to be out in the forest making concoctions for the villagers were more than just childish fancies now. They needed more recipes, another alchemy skillbook and they needed a proper lab, but they were happy. They had dreams again, dreams that were more than just finding some way to help her brother recover. Their future was as bright as her nail polish was black.
Mark and the rest of the scouts were hidden just behind a forest ridge, looking at the carnage below. A Red Hat Raiders force had ambushed a smaller guild, killing them all but attracting too much attention. Their numbers dwindled as they fought to escape from the goblin warband surrounding them. He slid down and motioned for the rest to join him. “Let’s slip back to the dungeon and set up outside. Keep an eye out for scouts but don’t attack. We need to be quiet and not start a running battle.” They slowly crept away in a single file line doing their absolute best to stay undetected.
Torgon and the others sat in the entrance of the dungeon, gathering themselves before beginning the final pathway. “The better swords are going to help a lot in this clear. I don’t think this is going to be doable for most until they hit level three or they have comparable gear. I don’t want to think about trying the next mode until we’re all in a better place with weapons, armor and utility”
“I agree with you Torg.” Ovarrix continued, “I’m not convinced we’ll be able to clear the final boss cleanly if it’s much harder than the first two. Most of the guild is several days away from being able to farm normal mode.”
“I have an idea.” Hyperia gestured at the dungeon, “We can write up a guide and give the information to people we consider friends or allies and then sell the information to those who want it quickly, while making it known that we’ll publish it on the forums a single in game day later.”
Torgon nodded, “That’s a great idea, whether we successfully complete it or not, our notes should be valuable to everyone. Giving it away after additional time, especially if we’re up front about it, will buy us goodwill from everyone who wasn’t going to oppose us no matter what. We can make the information available for a low cost, something like either a blueprint or a recipe, doesn’t matter what, just something we can pass on to the guild”
Dusty stood up and stretched. “Let’s get this done. We still need to make it back to the city through terrain filled with a hostile army and we need to do it before it gets dark”
“We could get home in just a couple of minutes if we make a bunch of noise outside” Allestor added. Everyone stared at him, disapproval clear in their gazes. “What? I’m just sayin.”
Hyperia muttered under her breath, “I swear to the system if I just had a rolled-up newspaper right now.”
Allestor gasped, “I’m hurt Hyperia. I didn’t know you were old enough to know what a newspaper was. I mean Torg is, but I thought the rest of us were born this century”
The team focused back on the task at hand and moved to the final archway. It opened into a long corridor with a stone wall that featured openings every few inches. The floor was irregular with small square stones of a lighter color every few feet.
“Traps?” Ovarrix asked.
“Traps” Dusty answered. “I’ll hop on the small square stone first. It should either be the trigger or the safe spot. With their spacing, I think this is an agility test.” Dusty jumped to the first stone, and nothing happened. She began jumping from stone to stone, completing the passage in short order.
“I have to know,” Allestor said. He jumped near the first stone and when he landed, force bolts shot from all the openings across the passage, on hitting Allestor for minor damage. “Ok, so, one at a time is the way to go.”
“I’ll admit, that’s going to be good to put in the guide,” Hyperia conceded. The team moved carefully through the corridor one at a time. When the last person made it to the other side, the shimmering barrier faded allowing the group into the next room. Each of the next two rooms involved short fights with a small number of skeleton guards. Trickles of experience and more coins were added to the haul.
The group paused again before the penultimate room of the dungeon. “That’s a lot of skeletons,” Torgon said, watching the dozen skeletons moving around the room. “It looks like there are three casters and the rest are melee. Dusty, I want you, Hyperia and Ovarrix to prioritize those mobs while Allestor uses his sweeping slash to grab the attention of the others. I’ll try to keep him healed and we’ll creatively reposition ourselves away from them until we can get them all down”
Dusty pushed in first, running around the side of the room to get to the casting skeletons. Allestor ran straight towards the pack of melee skeletons, hitting five of them with his sweeping slash and drawing their aggro. Dusty and her group eliminated one caster after another, tanking the force bolts the skeletal mages hurled at them. Allestor pulled the melee skeletons away, taking a few hits to keep their attention and dealing massive amount of damage with his slashes. Torgon tossed force shields and used his healing as much as he could. The touch range of the healing spell was a huge pain in an active combat. He found the attention of two of the skeletons on himself, but Dusty arrived and took over tanking while Ovarrix and Hyperia finished off wounded skeletons with force bolts. The chaotic battle soon ended with most of their mana and energy spent, but every single one of the skeletons defeated.
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The shimmer over the entrance to the final boss chamber disappeared, leaving a skeletal giant wearing robes and holding a massive sword visible. “Ugh, please tell me that this isn’t going to be how I think it will be” Hyperia groaned.
“Oh yeah, spellsword giant. Will it have abilities of the other two bosses, or will it have a new set all its own?” Ovarrix pondered during their recovery. “The caster boss was immune to spells but the melee boss we needed to keep range from. It would be stupidly hard if this one is immune to spells, can slow us and stun us. Maybe a light mix with some new wrinkles?”
Dusty worked the kinks out of her neck and readied herself. “There’s only one way to find out and we’re all topped up again.”
Torgon addressed the group, “We’ll try the same strategy as the first boss. Dusty to tank, Allestor and I will add dps on the flanks in melee while Hyperia and Ovarrix start out with spells. If it’s immune to spells they’ll close in for melee. I’ll stick with dps until Dusty needs healing then I’ll move closer to her. The touch spells are tricky, so I’ll do my best to time it between swings or casts. We’re so close to that sweet, sweet dungeon loot. Keep potions handy in case we need to use them, no point in conserving right now.”
Dusty pushed into the room, engaging the giant skeletal spellsword in passing and turning it away from the group. Torgon attacked with his sword and noticed something wrong. “My sword strike did zero damage” The others attacked with spells and weapons while Dusty dodged the first swing of the giant skeleton’s oversized sword.
“Spells damage it,” Hyperia yelled.
“I dealt damage to it Torg,” Dusty said between swings and dodges.
“My sword works,” Allestor supplied “It’s ok if yours doesn’t. It happens to a lot of people your age.”
“I’m going to switch to full healer. This one is immune to non-magical damage. We’d be screwed if we didn’t have enchanted swords. Hype, Ovarrix, you are casters only this fight” Torgon moved near to Dusty, trying to stay clear of swings and not hamper her fighting. Dusty backpedaled quickly as the boss’s health dropped, anticipating its first ability.
When the boss fell to 75% health, an electrical blast erupted in a forward cone, enveloping Dusty while multiple magical bolts of force fired at everyone else in the room. Dusty took a hard impact from the sword that sent her sprawling. Her health dropped nearly 30% from the single strike. Torgon reapplied the force shield to her and moved to try and heal her. She reengaged the boss while everyone else kept attacking.
“Torg took one bolt, Hype and Ovarrix took two and I took four. I think the bolts are directional with one in front, two to the sides and four behind” Allestor filled the group in. “I’m moving to the flanks as the bolts chunked me down to 80% health”
Torgon deftly maneuvered behind Dusty and healed her to full before finding Allestor and doing the same. The group kept applying pressure to the boss and Dusty kept dodging the massive sword. Every miss sent sprays of rock shards flying around the room. The skeletal giant’s health declined steadily. When the boss’s health reached 50% shards of ice fired in all directions. Dusty took a glancing blow as the cold reduced her ability to dodge, knocking her health down to just above 50%. Ovarrix and Hyperia had fallen to 80% health and Allestor was at 60%. Torgon stumbled, half frozen, as he moved to heal Dusty, his hand reaching out to touch the only part of her in range. He knew that healing someone via a butt grab was not going to go unremarked.
Two casts later and Dusty was topped off with health while the group recovered from the cold effects. Torgon moved to heal Allestor. Ovarrix and Hyperia downed health and mana potions. Torg used a mana potion to stay in the fight while the boss dropped lower and lower. Dusty launched another double strike against the boss, dropping it to 30%. “Low on energy, the last part is going to suck. We need energy potions too” Dusty remarked while trying to avoid the giant blade. “Also, Torg, if you say that the only reason you cast your spell on my butt was because it was the biggest target, I will end you.”
Everyone except Dusty pulled back far from the boss as it approached 25% health. Torgon maneuvered directly behind her to be in position for healing. When the skeletal spellsword’s health hit 25% a blast of ice and electricity shot wide. The cold hit everyone and the electricity stunned Dusty as the massive sword twirled in an arc. Dusty was slammed back into Torgon with her health below the 20% mark. Torgon held her up and cast heals as fast as he could manage as she struggled to regain her footing. Allestor pushed in close, despite his own health being below 50% and he swung at the giant’s sword, knocking it to the side. Dusty recovered and tanked the boss deftly, moving smoother now that her health had recovered to nearly 80% after three heals. Torgon downed his last mana potion and stayed ready. The last chunks of the boss’s health fell away without any last-minute surprises, leaving a battered, exhausted but ultimately triumphant group.
“Congratulations! You have defeated the Ancient Skeletal Spellsword! This is the first time this boss has been defeated so rewards are doubled!”
Torgon snagged the loot and went over it with the party. “We have 5 silver coins, a skillbook, a blueprint, and a set of boots”
“Skillbook: Common, Magic, Ice Shard. The caster hurls a shard of ice in the direction they cast that explodes on contact with the first thing it hits. Damage 1-8 +(1xInt +1xSkills). Affects a 5 foot + skill/5 foot radius and slows enemies by 10% for skill/5 seconds. Cost: 10 Mana, Cooldown: 10 seconds.”
“Blueprint: Copper Long Sword of Strength: Materials Required: 1 unit of copper, 600 Mana. Time to Craft: 1200 seconds. Creates a Copper Long Sword of Strength: Basic, Damage 2-16 +(1xStr +1xSkills). Grants the wearer 1 point of strength plus an additional point for every 20 levels the maker has in the blueprint. Durability 200/200”
“Copper Boots of Agility: Basic, Armor 2. Provides a +2 bonus to the Agility Attribute. Durability 200/200”
Torgon tossed the skillbook to Hyperia, kept the blueprint and handed the boots to Allestor. Once the boss was looted, a large chest appeared in the center of the room. Torgon quickly brought up the guild chat and fired off a message to their scout team, “Mark, how is it looking outside the dungeon?”
“It’s clear for now, lots of goblin patrols in the area though. Are you guys almost finished?” Mark replied.
“All we have left is popping the final chest then we’ll be out, and we can all head back for our Pizza Party.”
“Roger that Boss. Good luck on the drops.” Mark settled back in to scanning the area with the rest of the scout team.
“Congratulations! Your party has successfully completed a Dungeon. Each member is awarded 200 xp and 50 copper. The group is awarded a Basic Dungeon Core and a Basic Dungeon Chit”
“Regional Notification. A Party from the guild Risk of Injury has become the first to complete a Normal Dungeon in Miller’s Crossing.”
“Congratulations! For being the first party to complete a Normal Dungeon in Miller’s Crossing, each member of the party is awarded 1,000 xp, 2 silver and 100 reputation with the town of Miller’s Crossing. The group is awarded 4 Basic Dungeon Cores and 4 Basic Dungeon Chits.”
Dusty cheered, “Library, here we come!”
“Nothing cool this time, just the cores and chits” Allestor grumbled.
Torgon shrugged, “We’ll take it, that Library is going to let us expand our skills rapidly. Let’s get the hell out of here, start the construction and then have some greasy pizza.”
