Wiping off his knife Helo pulls his tablet out of his necklace. The issue with the necklace is that it freezes everything inside. Helo considered wearing his storage bag on his belt but in the end realized that his tablet synced with the dungeon when he pulled it out. So, waiting for his tablet to sync Helo looks around the group.
Everyone is feeling pretty tired, they completed a lap around the goblin village. At first, they were intercepting goblin hunters and it was simple fights. Luna would start by using her two buffs on the group. She doesn’t have any instruments to use right now so her buffs don’t last long without her actively focusing on them. Due to the weaker nature of the goblins, she would start the fight by using ‘Softening Noice’ this lowers the defenses of the goblins. Without her channeling it the skill lasts about 15 seconds. Next, she would use ‘Strengthening Voice’, by the time the group hit the goblins their perspective buffs and debuffs overlapped for about 7 seconds. After that she would channel her ‘Haste’ skill giving the entire group a speed enhancement.
Her skills require noise so the party loses the surprise advantage. This idea goes against everything Helo believes in. But after getting talked to by Alli and Hinata about how he won’t always be able to attack in his preferred ways he relented. Now Helo is behind Kenneth and acting as a type of free safety. He is going where he is needed.
To regain their lost opportunity Kenneth uses his ‘Taunt’ skill that is actually ‘Control Grudge’. This forces all the monsters to focus on Kenneth. Then the party attacks together. They spent the first twenty-minutes finding patrols and killing them. After the first twenty minutes the group was attacked by larger and more numerous hunting groups of goblins. After that the rest of the trip was emptier.
Hinata assumes that initially they goblin leaders sent out more groups to kill them but as less and less groups came back, they pulled everyone back into their village. So, finishing off the final group before the party heads to the goblin village Helo checks his tablet and sees that they have been in the dungeon for about two and a half hours. It is about 11 o’clock and they are going to be in here until about 9pm.
Slowly making their way to the village Helo steps out ahead of the group and scouts the goblin’s home. One thing that Helo is thankful for is that since they are in a dungeon there are no children. Watching the village Helo can see a crude wall from the tree line and a small mob of goblins arrayed just inside the village gate. Well, they might be more intelligent than beast but they are still lacking in many things. Helo thinks to himself thankful that the goblins are not as intelligent as most sentient creatures. They didn’t set a trap or scouts. Nor did they go out as an army to hunt them.
Counting the goblins Helo can see about 60 goblins at the entrance to the village. Another 20 are milling about between the houses and another 10 are standing at the largest house yelling in a language Helo doesn’t know. “So, about 90 goblins are visible and 10 seem to be the leaders.”
Heading back, he finds the group slowly making their way forward with a sigh at how slow they are Helo drops down from the branches of the tree and lands in front of the group. Allie seeing the look on Helo’s face makes a correct assumption. “We are not that slow.” She says to him with a bit of sass in her voice.
Helo just stares at her for a moment before deciding not to argue about it. Turning to face the group Helo explains the situation for the party and starts leading them further into the forest. Arriving within the trees near the front of the goblin village they all stop to study the situation.
Hinata steps forward to discuss and decide on a plan. Looking over the village she makes a quick decision from what she sees along with what Helo said. “We will make a frontal assault. We want to fight the goblins at their gate. We will use it as a choke point. First, Helo will enter and kill as many of the leaders who are near the large house. Once they are all confused, we will rush to the gate and start the assault. Helo, you don’t have to kill all the leaders just enough to distract them. Then come back and make sure none of the goblins are using the walls to attack us.”
Everyone nods at Hinata’s plan and they get to work. Rushing around the village Helo makes his way inside from the back. The village is a lot busier compared to when he was here last. Slipping into the village was still easy but Helo has to be conscious about the locations of the goblins that are running around.
Making his way through he is sticking to alleyways and empty houses to sneak through the village. Entering a window Helo gags from the stench that comes with the goblin village. His powerful senses are being overwhelmed and it is almost painful for him. Covering his nose Helo sneaks through the house and kills two goblins that decided to use the bustling streets to slip away and relieve their stress.
Finally making his way to the main house Helo comes up behind it and carefully makes his way to the roof. Staying low and making sure that his weight is evenly distributed Helo crawls along the roof until he is facing the location where all the goblin leaders are organizing their people. Looking up Helo can see the surrounding village, then there is a shabby wall and after that Helo can see the tree line. Facing forward he can see the gate is straight in front of him. Dropping down directly behind the goblin chieftain and what Helo assumes are shamans. As he hits the ground Helo makes his way forward but a goblin that is making his way toward the leaders spots him.
The goblin quickly raised an alarm but it wasn’t quick enough. Stepping forward Helo quickly slits the throats of two warriors. Stepping past them Helo can see that the shamans are raising their staffs and starting to channel magic. On the right, a group of rocks are raising from the ground and on the left, there is a ball of fire forming. Jumping forward Helo ducks under the fireball. Raising up Helo has to jump in the air and flip to dodge the rocks that came toward him. Behind him Helo can hear the crash of rocks on the wall of the house and the explosion of the fireball.
Landing on his feet Helo lunges directly toward the earth aligned shaman and strikes it down with a quick blow. By this point all of the goblins are charging toward him or channeling spells. Deciding that he did his job Helo uses ‘Double Lunge’ to leap backward through the closing ranks of goblin warriors. Using his second step Helo disappears behind a house. With a surge of darkness Helo disappears from all the goblins senses.
Rounding around the main house Helo stays hidden and makes his way to the front of the village while killing any goblin he finds in his way.
Back at the main gate the party watches as the goblins are milling about not doing much of anything. Getting restless Kenneth speaks up. “Are we sure that he can even do his part of the plan.”
Alli who is standing behind Kenneth speaks up for Helo. “Yes. Helo is probably the best in the entire clan when it comes to stealth and burst damage.” She starts getting louder as she is speaking but as she finishes the goblins start acting different.
They all see as a wave of alarm spreads through the mob. Then the goblins turn to face the main house.
Taking this as their cue the group starts running forward. “SEE! I TOLD YOU!” Alli yells while running. The group makes it to the front gate in a few seconds by that time all the goblins were facing away from them. The few that saw them approach weren’t able to get the attention of their alarmed brethren.
Getting to the gate Luna uses her skills to weaken the mob of enemies. At the same time Alli and Cody let of a barrage of projectiles killing a few and injuring even more. After the projectiles land Kenneth uses his ‘Control Grudge’ and draw all the attention onto him.
A wave of enemies turns to face them numbering it about 54 at the moment. A portion of them move to man the walls of the gate and attack from there. Backing up to make sure they are in line with the gate the party starts defending themselves from the enemies. Hinata seeing that they were in a good place yell out. “Hold steady! We defend this line.”
As the melee enemies charge at them a mixture of a shield, barrier, and conjured wall appear to break the charge of the enemy. As the walls drop Kenneth steps forward and with an aggressive use of ‘Steady Bash’ he knocks back the center of the goblin mob. As they topple over Hinata and Gabi step forward. Quickly slaying as many as they can the group is fighting really well. The numbers are not an issue due to their positioning in the gate.
Everything is going well until a number of goblins step up onto the wall. Looking down over the party a mixture of three shamans and four archers start yelling down and getting ready to fire. “I told you he would fail!” Kenneth yells out to the group.
One goblin on the wall is dressed in nicer clothes and is a higher level than the rest. It raises its staff to start the barrage. Its yell goes from the cry of a monster to the gurgling of death. From behind a knife is stabbed through the back of the monster’s neck and out its open mouth. From behind the goblin Helo appears in a swirl of shadow. He used a two footed ‘Double Lunge’ assisted jump to move far faster than normal. From the roof of a house to the top of the wall Helo basically appeared out of thin air and killed the head goblin shaman.
Turning with his blade still in the toppling goblin shaman Helo crosses his arms and in a smooth motion pulls out both his throwing blade. Turing left than right Helo throws both blades to the goblins that are furthest away. Killing another shaman and archer there are now four ranged attackers left on the wall. Turning back around Helo reaches forward with is right hand and grabs the hilt of his kukri as goblin shaman topples over the wall.
Looking down at the group Helo give a small salute then turns and slaughters the rest. Down on the ground everyone turned to watch the shaman attack only to see it die. This stunned the party and the goblin mob. Speaking under her breath Gabi says into the silence. “Damn, that was hot.”
Her speaking snaps everyone out of their revery and they get back to fighting. Helo’s move was so quick that he killed three of the seven goblins in just four seconds. With Helo on the wall, he finishes off the ranged attackers than disappears again and hunts down any opportunistic opponents.
The others quickly clean up the rest of the goblin mob. Afterward the group sweeps through the rest of the village killing anything that moved. This normally isn’t okay but all the creatures are created by the dungeon and there are no non-combatants or children.
After they are done the group sits down to relax. Everyone seems to be happy with how they fought. Kenneth hit level 21 in the fighting, Cody hit level 20, and Gabi got to level 22. For Cody not only did he gain a new skill but his old skill ‘Duplicate Arrow’ turned into ‘Duplicate Barrage’. All the work he was putting into copying 10 arrows from a single one paid off. For his new skill he chooses ‘Stationary Enhancement’. The skill works by creating a small vortex when Cody stands still. This vortex sucks in ambient mana and turn it into ramping enhancements for his speed and strength. It empowers his ability to shoot faster and harder while sitting still.
As everyone was checking their statuses Helo did the same.
Class: Shaded Predator Level: 11 (156,834/1,025,000) (1000 + 1,024,000)
Helo can’t help but be a bit disappointed by his gains. Thankfully he is so under levered that he gains a decent amount of experience from that alone. What Helo needs is to find more enemies that are in a pack with an alpha. He gains four times experience on all those enemies. Thankfully even though he is lower level then everyone Helo’s body seems to have a lot of room to grow. He gets a lot of gains that are like this.
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Thanks to your continuous effort scouting you have gained +1 to end, per, and agl.
Seeing this message Helo pulls up his partial status.
Name: Helo
Tier 1
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level 11 (156,834/1,025,000) (1000 + 1,024,000)
Stats: 165
- Str: 10 (+5%)
- Agl: 24 (+15%)
- Dex:18 (+15%)
- Per: 29 (+30%)
- Vit: 31 (+40%)
- End: 12 (+15%)
- Int: 10 (+5%)
- Will: 31 (+40%)
Title: Nature’s Alpha (Epic)- This title augments your aura to be more connected to nature around you. Increases the efficiency of Vitality, Will, and Perception by 25%. Gain x4 to experience when killing an alpha and its pack in a nature themed type dungeon.
Gear: Alpha Wolf Hide (Epic), Boxers of Infinite Regeneration (Epic), A mother’s first gift, a father’s first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare)
Happy with his gains Helo decides that on his personal dungeon runs he is going to have to be a lot more aggressive. Realizing that his lower level is a boon he should put more effort into Helo decides to redo some floors where he can sweep through. Floor 15 is a tunnel system that he can clear out and gain massive amounts of experience.
Getting the group up Helo leads them to the exit of the 19th floor. As they arrive Allie is looking around hoping to find a loot box but she can’t find anything. “I don’t know why I was even hoping. These dungeon monsters were pretty simple on this floor.”
“There might be territory bosses around as a forest animal. But the goblins were just a numerous enemy, not a strong one.” Helo says to her. As they are about to enter the 20th floor Hinata speaks up.
“Now everyone should know that the 20th floor was completely wiped earlier. It was reported to me that the entire floor reset because they burned the floor to clear the goblins and make a new enemy type.” She smoothly lies about the reasoning to the group but Alli and Hinata know that it was Helo who did it. “I’m just letting everyone know because we don’t know what to expect.”
Taking a deep breath Hinata leads the group onto the 20th floor. As soon as the make it onto the floor they get a notification.
Floor Quest.
Ashes to Ashes
The grassland burned to the ground leaving only ash. In its wake Elementals awoke and are preventing life from returning. Kill the Elementals.
Earth Elemental (0/1)
Fire Elemental (0/1)
Dust Elemental (0/1)
Wind Elemental (0/1)
“Well, this isn’t too bad.” Hinata says expecting to get a reply from the group but they are all staring at the landscape. It is a vast plain with nothing on it but ash and dust. You can see as clouds of ash are swept into the air from the wind.
“You really meant that they burned it to the ground.” Gabi says.
“Yeah. This was more than I expected.” Kenneth replies as well.
As everyone is staring into the distance of the barren wasteland, Hinata and Alli turn to stare and Helo. Helo looks back and shrugs. He mouths to them, ‘What was I supposed to do.’.
“Anyway, focus everyone. Elementals are much more difficult to kill than flesh and blood enemies. They can take many forms and have multiple cores that all need to be destroyed to defeat them. Some elementals can even take on bodies like us made from extreme control from their affinity. So, we will take this slow. Anyone have anything to say?” Hinata asks the group.
From her question Luna speaks up. “Yes, one thing to mention is that classic elementals like this tend to be weaker in the lower levels. Fire is a tier 1 element. When someone takes a basic element all the way to a domain, they get a massive boost in power. But initially a fire element is weaker than something like blaze.”
“Good point Luna. We still need to be careful but it shouldn’t be overwhelming.” Hinata says as she leads the group forward. “Helo, can you scout forward.” Nodding his head Helo takes off across the plain.
Everyone watches as shadows swirl around him and make it difficult to see him. They can still see where his feet kick up ash but then he disappears over a hill. Running forward Helo takes a look around and tries to make an educated decision on where the Elementals are. Focusing on his senses Helo can feel how the wind is pulling in one direction. Assuming that the wind element pulls wind toward its Helo takes off following the flow of the wind.
Tracking the direction of the breeze Helo runs around hills and through the burnt-up grassland. Running over the ash covered ground Helo can’t help but think back to how he was here a day ago. Just a few hours ago this was a beautiful green landscape. Taking another step Helo stumbles and almost falls over. Turning back around Helo watches as a clump of dirt rises from the ground and coalesces into a being made from rocks and loose dirt. ‘Identify’
Dirt Elemental
Tier 1 Level 14
Simple elemental that came from a barren landscape. Elementals have an easier time growing in a location with an abundance of attuned mana and without any fauna or civilization.
“Huh, well that is kind of cool.” Helo says to himself as the elemental stops forming it end up looking like an oddly shaped torso without any legs or arms. Stepping closer Helo studies, the elemental and watches as an arm forms from the loose dirt and lashes out.
Ducking under the blow Helo rolls back and looks back at the elemental. The loose dirt is reattaching itself to the elementals main body. Not exactly sure what to do Helo decides to test how to fight the elemental. Jumping forward he lashes out with his knife. Similar to the slime the elemental loses some mass then it reforms. Traying again while using his bloodline Helo watches as that place regrows slower.
Taking that new information Helo steps back until he is about 5 meters away. Continuously leading the elemental away Helo focuses his aura on the elemental and waits to see what happens.
Helo can feel as the mana within the elemental becomes more unstable. At the same time the elemental is having a harder time gaining more mass. “Okay, so it is all about mana. Elementals are beings made from condensed mana.” While Helo is talking to himself the elemental keeps following him, as it follows it is losing more mass than it is gaining. Eventually Helo starts using his hands and punching away clumps of rock away from the main body.
After a few minutes all that is left is the main body and a core formed from a mana core. Stepping forward Helo snatches the core and watches as the elementals body falls apart. Stopping his aura’s ability Helo holds out the core and watches as it starts drawing in dirt from around it. “Interesting. So how do I kill it without breaking its core.”
With a shrug Helo send the core into his necklace and to his surprise the core disappears. “Nice.” Helo smiles and continues on his way. It wasn’t fast enough to be useful against a more powerful enemy but it will help with chipping away health.
Following the breeze for another few minutes Helo finds the wind elemental. Stopping he uses ‘Identify’
Wind Elemental
Tier 1 Level 22
Simple elemental that came from a barren sky. Elementals have an easier time growing in a location with an abundance of attuned mana and without any fauna or civilization.
“Well, this is the boss. But I don’t think I can fight it alone. At least not quickly.” Helo thinks that he can use his aura to wear it down slowly but that would take a long time. The elemental is a massive vortex of wind that is slowly spinning. Helo assumes that if it starts fighting that slow vortex will turn into a full tornado.
Looking off in the distance Helo can see what he assumes is the fire elemental. A massive form of fire is making its way toward Helo and the wind elemental. Looking between the two Helo doesn’t know what will happen but he doesn’t want to be close when it does.
Heading back Helo follows his own trial back to where he left his party. Finding the spot Helo then follows their trail and a mile or so up the trail Helo finds them fighting a group of small fire and sand elementals. As Helo is watching he sees two of the elementals come together. Watching them meet he sees the one that has a more powerful mana signature absorb the smaller one.
Fire Elemental
Tier 1 Level 14
Simple elemental that came from a fiery land. Elementals have an easier time growing in a location with an abundance of attuned mana and without any fauna or civilization.
Dirt Elemental
Tier 1 Level 11
Simple elemental that came from a barren land. Elementals have an easier time growing in a location with an abundance of attuned mana and without any fauna or civilization.
Slag Elemental
Tier 1 Level 17
Simple elemental that forms from superheated dirt. Elementals have an easier time growing in a location with an abundance of attuned mana and without any fauna or civilization.
“Ah…. Oh shit.” Helo whispers. He is remembering the two powerful elementals that he just left. Jumping forward Helo Focuses his aura on the slag elemental and with the full power of his bloodline tears it to. Eventually getting to the core Helo tears it out and stores it away as quick as he can. Turing around Helo can see everyone staring at him with weird expressions.
“Helo. Are you okay?” Allie asks him. “That was a little weird.”
Pointing at the elemental he just killed he asks them. “Did you see what it just did?”
Luna speaks up at this point because she knows a lot of things about a lot of things. “It was elemental merging. It’s a phenomenon that happens to new elementals. Normally it takes thousands of years for elementals to gain sentience. Before that they roam around and either fight off or absorb their kind to grow stronger.”
“Yes! That!” Helo says while pointing at her. Everyone is still giving him weird looks. “I didn’t know about that. So, I wasn’t worried but as soon as I saw them merge, I got worried. When I left the fire and wind elemental quest bosses, they were on a collision course.”
Everyone took a second to look at one another before hurrying to grab the cores and head out. “We have to go!” Hinata says to the group as they start moving, they all get a notification.
Floor Quest.
Ashes to Ashes
The grassland burned to the ground leaving only ash. In its wake Elementals awoke and are preventing life from returning. Kill the Elementals.
The Fire and Wind Elemental merged to form a Blaze Elemental
Earth Elemental (0/1)
Dust Elemental (0/1)
Blaze Elemental (0/1)
“This isn’t good.” Hinata says to the group. “They cannot merge again. I don’t think we would be capable of defeating them.”
Moving quickly the group fights their way down the same path Helo took. Unfortunately, because of the larger group and Helo now using his bloodline’s abilities they had to stop numerous times to clear out the elementals. On a positive note, the group got more comfortable fighting different types of elementals. Helo with his burst damage and precision skills was far more comfortable fighting sturdy enemies.
The trickier wind and fire elementals are difficult for him. Allie can fight them easily with her ability to cast multiple types of attacks. To everyone’s surprise the person who has the easiest time is Lelai. Her ability to make massive explosions is great at dispersing the mana of the elementals.
Following Helo’s trail back the group moves closer to his pervious location and they can feel the temperature rising as they move. Eventually it gets so hot that everyone is sweating profusely. Kenneth and Gabi have an easier time with their higher endurance.
Looking up in the distance Helo can see that the sky in front of them is lit up with a mesmerizing array of colors. Yellow, reds, and blue paint a picture in the sky in front of them. It is a swirl of color that keeps changing like squirrels chasing one another among the branches of trees. Cresting a hill the team looks down to see a massive being of fire burning the landscape around them. It is made of up fire the same color as the image painted in the sky. But it is far brighter and looks like a roaring blaze.
Looking down across the landscape Helo can see the charred remains of the goblin city going up in flames. “I think I understand now.” Helo says to himself.
“What did you say Helo-Chan?” Hinata asks him.
“Huh?” He says looking around. “Oh ah…. You see the remains down there near the elemental?” Getting nods from the group Helo says to them. “It seems that we are in the middle of the floor. My guess is that as soon as we entered the floor we were on a timer. The elementals start heading to the middle of the floor.” He says while not totally sure if he was right.
“Yeah.” Hinata looks at the rest of the group. “That makes sense. So, anyone have a plan?”
Everyone takes their time looking out over the Blaze Elemental.
Blaze Elemental
Tier 1 Level 25
Elemental that forms from a roaring fire. Elementals have an easier time growing in a location with an abundance of attuned mana and without any fauna or civilization.
“We need to spread out.” Helo speaks up.
“No that’s stupid.” Kenneth says back. “Why would we do that when we have a tank. That is basically saying I’m useless.” The longer Kenneth speaks the more annoyed he sounds.
“Can you block a wave of fire? Or heat?” Helo asks. Kenneth is about to start arguing again when Hinata talks over them.
“You both are right. This isn’t the kind of enemy that we all can stand still for. But Kenneth will need to defend our support members.” Hinata looks at the area. There are small rolling hills but the entire area where the Blaze Elemental is, is a large open plain over the corpse of a city.
“I think our most important attack will be Lelai.” Allie says to everyone. She gets a happy yip from the fox after she speaks up. Betting Lelai Allie continues. “We need to lower its heat. Slow its regen and then take its core away from its mass.”
Everyone nods at that and they come up with a plan to fight the Elemental. Moving around the group gets ready to fight. While drawing closer Helo guesses that the thing has to be at least a fifteen feet tall superheated fire.