Underground Key of Hidden Catacomb. In my previous timeline, this place and this key never appeared before. There are no records of it by the players or even any data from the developers that this place existed. I am very familiar of the Underground Cave of Gold's structure like the it is the back of my hand. There is no way I will miss any hidden passage here. So, does that mean this key is another addition to the game that did not appear during the first timeline?
"Are you okay Bladeheart? You seemed to be shaken?"
"Ah, don't worry. I was just shocked to see this key. If this key is indeed a key to access a hidden area, that means clearing the hidden area will give us good chance of good loot and good boss drops. We have to find the hidden area to access it though."
"If that is really the case here, that means we are quite in luck! Let's get going!"
As expected, Dolly is quite passionate and excited in finding new areas unexplored by others. She is always like this before so it was to be expected that she will act like this hearing it will be a hidden area.
With everything else cleared in the mini-boss room, we went back to the crossroads. The mini-boss room is situated in the northern part of the crossroad. Which means that the boss room and the treasure are on either west and east roads. The two rooms usually exchange places every time someone enters the road so it would be different everytime. Only the north part do not change and still remains the mini-boss room. If Dolly's luck continues, she will be able to reach the treasure room but if her luck is a bit bad, it will be the boss room. Either of those are fine as we can just go backtrack since we have to find the hidden area too.
"Lets go to the west road! I feel like our luck is going to be good!" Dolly said.
"Alright then, its the east road we go!"
"Huh? W-wait! I said west road! Hey! Wait for me!"
...
I wanted to laugh at the luck of Dolly. Once she choose a road, it is always a good choice to choose the opposite direction. It kinda became my habit in the past timeline since if you also choose the road of her choosing, you will end up in bad luck. When we arrived in the end of the east road, we arrived into the treasury where the treasures are being kept. Dolly's bad luck is indeed real.
"Wow! Treasure!!" Dolly immediately dive into the pile of treasure.
I'm relaxed for a bit but I suddenly felt a chill in my body. I usually feel this whenever I was under the challenge of enemies in a dungeon that I just challenged for the first time. Whenever a dangerous situation is about to occur, I will feel it without fail.
Quickly pulling out the Versatile Weapon and transform its form to Spear and Shield, I made a decision in split-second.
"Undying Soul! Ultimate Defense! Provoke!"
[Undying Soul] is one of the Necromancer's active skills. It allows the user to undergo invicinble state for 30 seconds. It has a 15-minute cooldown but this is a worth it skill if you are a tank. Too bad it was in the Necromancer's Skill Tree so only the Versatile class can truly benefit of its effects as Necromancers will have lower chance to use it due to the summons that will allow the user to just stand in the backline and command the summons to attack though this can be considered as a failsafe.
[Ultimate Defense] is one of the go through by Paladins as this will enhance their tanking capabilities.
It will raise your defense to 200% for 50 seconds, allowing you to catch all the damages dealt on you with only minimum blows. It has a 5 minute cooldown so it cannot be considered as broken skill since you can't spam it.
Another set of the Paladin's skills is [Taunt] and [Provoke]. [Taunt] is the basic Tier 1 skill that can allow users to attract the aggro of the enemy monster and will allow the other party members to attack. The reason it is different from [Provoke], is that it can only draw the aggro of one enemy and its effect is targetable which means that you can choose an enemy that will take the agrro to you alone. This skill is pretty handy on boss fights where the boss can call different enemies to confuse players, allowing it to do its job without problem. If the tank caught the agrro of the boss alone, the monsters will be much easier for the team.
On the other hand, [Provoke] is a Tier 2 skill that allows the user to get the attention of all enemies in the surroundings to attack the user. Unlike [Taunt] where it is targetable, this one does not and will immediately take effect to all enemies. The good thing is that, it will only allow the enemies to attack you with physical basic attacks for 30 seconds, making it a good deal if the enemy is a magic type user as they have to get closer to deal basic attacks. It also has a chance to cause an enemy to go Berserk for 1% which is a little bit risky since Berserk-inflicted enemies will have stronger damage to inflict, but sharp decrease to defense. They are also forced to just do basic attacks so it is kind of perfect skill for [Provoke].
The reason I used [Provoke] this time is because I have no idea how many enemies are there. I am more into testing the waters how many will attack me due to the skill.
BANG BANG BANG!
-You suffered 999,999 damage.
-You suffered 999,999 damage.
-You suffered 999,999 damage.
-You survived fatal damage due to the effects of [Undying Soul].
Someone indeed attacked me. Though I am no longer surprised. If there was a new item like the key, some features on the dungeon is also going to manifest in this place too. In my past timeline, this treasure trove is not even part of the hostile area. The only thing is that... what the hell are these amount of damages dealt on me?! Isn't this a one hit kill damage already and those are just basic attacks since I used [Provoke]!
"Bladeheart! It's an enemy! [Ice Arrows]!"
Dolly was quick on her response and immediately fired magic spell to the enemy that attacked me.
[Ice Arrows] is a tier 2 magic spell with no casting time and has only 10 second cooldown. It doesn't deal too much damage but it inflicts a debuff, "Frostbite" where the enemy inflicted with it will deal 200 fixed damage for the duration of the debuff and will suffer slow movements. It is not for pure damage but to debuff enemies instead.
Since the enemy was debuffed, I finally get a glimpse of the enemy.
[Leprechaun]
Lv: ???
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Attributes: Humanoid, Evil Being
Question Marks?!
Not even bosses and raid bosses have that HP and level labeled in question marks except for those bosses that will escape immediately like the Whack-an-Ore. However, what is this?! We never asked for this!