It had been an hour since I dropped into the dungeon, and it was terrible.
At some point I had passed out, being held upright by Merlin.
Merlin was a large man, probably 6 foot 7 or taller with a very athletic build. In all honesty, if I had met him on Earth I'd go out of my way to avoid him, but here, things change.
Weirdly, racism was difficult here. You could no longer argue you were very different once stats had been allocated.
"So, why are we stuck down here?" I ask, just waking up.
"You because you're an idiot, us because we're also idiots," Merlin joked, helping me to a seated position.
The woman who healed me was currently healing the rogue with a very faint green light. She was a shorter woman who dressed in a very 'druid' way.
"Do you need more potions? I have 2 more stacks."
I had brought every potion I had remaining, amounting to 27. Now down to 20 after giving her the first ones.
"No, low intensity conserves mana," she says, looking over to me. "Is your head hurting?"
"No..." I say, looking down at my arm. "So, any healer you know able to regrow my arm?"
She doesn't respond, giving me a sorry look that I can only nod to.
"This caster, Tero, it's serious shit. He comes every once in a while and attacks us, but he never just kills us off."
"If he never kills you, how are you down two people?"
"It never kills us unless we attack it," he corrects. "He's a summoner."
"Ratmen?" I ask, swinging my staff around with my left hand.
"Demons. Imps to be exact," Merlin says, sighing. "They are all level thirty Elites, and he summons a few at a time. They use fire magic and have impressive physical stats. The boss himself though is legendary."
"Are we going to try again on legendary once we beat this?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood.
Merlin and the woman laugh, but don't say anything.
"Can I get your name?" I ask the woman.
"Jane, this is Erin," she says, sitting by us again.
As bad as the smell was, being immersed in it fully for an hour started to make me nose blind to it.
"So, we have three casters and a rogue?" I ask.
"Pretty much, I specialize in telekinetic magic. What about you?" Merlin says.
"Arcane. Or... simple magic, let's say."
"Alright, we're full on mana and frankly about as ready as we'll ever be. Next time he shows his face we'll fight in full force. That sound good?" Merlin says, standing with the help of his staff.
"Sure," I say, doing the same.
Even simple things like standing up were different now. The balance of my body shifted so much.
[Whisper from Sheral] "You fucking retard! What did you do!"
[Whisper to Sheral] "In a dungeon on a different layer, saving a friend"
[Whisper from Sheral] "You're going to give me a heart attack"
I wanted to respond, but I stopped myself.
It was unfair of me to keep doing this to her, and I knew that.
"What am I targeting?" Erin says, standing and walking up to the rest of us. He had such a slim build it looked unhealthy.
"The boss," Merlin says. "Stall him till the rest of us can get to fight him."
"Are we both on the offensive?" I ask Merlin.
"No, I'm going to be on the defensive and Jane will be fighting with you."
"I thought she was a healer?"
"I'm not a pure healer," she cuts in. "I have plant growth spells, thorns, and poisons."
"Okay, is the boss immune to poison?" I ask.
"No, and the Imps aren't immune to fire," Merlin responds.
"Hm, I could try to locate him."
"Navigating the tunnels is a bad idea," Erin cuts in.
"I won't be navigating them, it's a spell."
Merlin looks around for a moment, towards the higher parts of the cylindrical 'drainage room' we were in.
"Is it continuous?" he asks.
"I could make it, but it costs a good chunk of mana."
"Then don't, we're still on its time here and knowing exactly where it is in the walls won't help us much," Merlin says, starting to cast a spell. "I'm going to put an alarm around the area, that should work."
I nod, handing him a mana potion after.
"Does an Alarm spell not take a constant amount of mana?" I ask.
"Depends on how you make it."
It made me think about my favorite spell, Magic Missile.
Although it's still viable for most ranged mobs, the usefulness of it has faded rapidly on melee-oriented creatures.
Missile Binding was the same way. The easy solution was to just add more mana to the spell, but that left an unsavory taste in my mouth.
For this fight I came up with a crude solution. Instead of having Magic Missile do any damage at all, I would change that rune out for the 'force' rune.
This was for magic like what Falk would cast. It did one thing very effectively, move things.
Its total force upon an object in comparison with the mana it cost was higher than the projectile rune of the old Magic Missile, but it dispersed that force evenly across the entire face of the target's body.
I approximated the feeling of getting hit by this as similar to running and jumping into a mattress, or more like a mattress being thrown at you.
[[Stats][Magic][Inventory][Skills][Help]
Mana: 1320/1320
Spells:
Magic Missile: 6 Mana
Magic Force: 7 Mana
Missile Binding: 14 Mana
Mana Fist: 28 Mana
Fireball: 78 Mana
Locate: 70 Mana
Locate (Map): 140 Mana
Cross-layer Teleport: 5000 Mana
Summon: Skinning Knife: 20 Mana
]
From then it only took another hour before the alarm spell was tripped, a soft sound rang out, similar to a wind chime.
The sound seemed to perk everyone up as their eyes darted to the upper parts of the area.
A few seconds later a pair of Imps came from three different tunnels.
[Level 30 Imp (Elite)]
They were small and skinny things with spiked tails and overly long noses.
Their eyes seemed to be on fire as they fell from above, already casting spells at us.
Quickly I saw one be blasted into the wall with enough force to break it, along with the spine of the Imp.
This was Merlin's magic, and I knew it cost him a pretty penny because he already was downing a mana potion.
At the same time, I started to rapid-fire my new spell, slamming them all into the walls of the structure as Jane started to cast a spell, massive thorned branches forming around the imps and cutting into the skin as it restrained them.
By the time she had cast her spell the imps were done preparing their magic, sending balls of red flame at us all.
They weren't as big as my fireballs, but I could feel the heat as soon as they were formed.
But even with them coming straight at us I only looked to my next target, putting 20 Magic Missiles into the head of another Imp.
Just as was planned, the fireballs were halted before hitting us all. They sat in midair for a moment before all 5 flew right back at one of the imps, killing it on the spot in a brilliant yet small explosion.
[Killed Level 30 Imp (Elite): 2 XP]
[Killed Level 30 Imp (Elite): 2 XP]
[Killed Level 30 Imp (Elite): 2 XP]
It took me a second to notice the main event was watching, looking down on us with an evil grin.
[Level 30 Demonic Sewer Mage (Legendary)]
It had wicked curling horns that were flaming with demonic fire.
Its legs were that of a goat, and its right arm twisted into a tangle of flesh around its staff.
The staff itself gave off its own wickedness, its vile energy tainting the air around us as it started to glow with magic.
The feeling of being cursed was fundamentally unpleasant, like holding my breath for far too long.
[Curse of Mana Drought]
Not wasting time I planned on sending the creature off the ledge he was sitting on, but I had no need as it fell on its own.
As it fell its body changed, from that of a ratman to some sort of mutated monstrosity matching its arm.
Erin charged it still, throwing a dagger into its flesh as it fell and clashing with its claws with the other.
Erin was impressively fast, so fast that tracking him didn't come easy, but he still had to be wary of the rat's attacks as it was doubtful he would even survive one.
On my end things were faring well as I sent another barrage of Magic Missiles at the still-restrained Imps.
Sadly it was as I feared, the Imps only needed to block with their arms as they burst into demonic flames.
The flames almost instantly ate through the vines as the Imps descended upon Jane.
Jane hadn't cast a spell since the initial binding, a speed that seemed to be quite amateur, but trusting in her abilities I continued on.
Not letting them fall gracefully to the ground was imperative to me.
So I rapidly cast Mana Push to send them into the ground as hard as I could, and in the next moment Jane compounded my efforts as a large single tree sprouted from the filth on the floor, its roots and branches tangling and killing the imps inside.
[Level 32 Ent (Elite)]
With the imps all but dead I looked over to the other fight, watching as Merlin skillfully blocked killing blows from afar, giving Erin the chance to land hits into the weak points on the chitinous 'armor' the mage made for himself.
After studying everything for a few moments, trying to sync myself to their actions, I started to use Mana Push to throw the rat ever further off balance.
With every attempted strike massive forces pushed him away from his target, and it was apparent the mage was getting enraged.
From under the feet of the mage formed a massive spell circle, the same demonic fire rune ever present in its construction.
Both me and Merlin knew this spell, it was about the most simple spell a mage can use.
The bastard was planning to roast us all alive.