Despite the girls trying their best to kill the Boulder Elemental as quickly as they could, Sol was unable to prevent his death.
Proving itself to be an incredibly strong foe despite its lack of speed; the size, and strength of the elemental combined with the relatively small size of the area it lived in caused them to suffer their first party-wide wipe.
Running back to the location and taking care to tread to the Boulder Elemental's sleeping spot as a group, they managed to eke out a victory after much kiting and Sol almost dying for a second time.
Thankfully, their hard work was rewarded as they all recovered their lost Exp and even leveled to 12.
As the Boulder Elemental crumbled into dust, a shine attracted their gaze and they excitedly picked up the item.
Sturdy Boulder Shield (Common) Lv. 10
Special Effect: 'Rock Hard' - All non-elemental attacks have their damage reduced by 5% when blocked.
"Good, this works out perfectly. Pretty rare to have a common item with an ability this early on." Handing over the heavy shield to Sol, Luna nodded as she led the group deeper in the forest.
Expecting the shield to be much heavier, when Sol equipped the lightly tanned slab of rock it surprisingly felt only a bit more weighty than that of his Iron one. Looking at its stats though Sol was a bit confused. "This item doesn't have any durability or health?"
As if expecting the question Luna answered as they kept walking. "It depends on the item in question.
Most equipment like armor will have a level, rarity, and might have an ability attached to it.
Weapons, such as a sword or shield will also have levels, rarity, and have a higher chance to have an ability. Generally, a piece of equipment with an ability will be worthwhile unless it clashes with what you're trying to do. For example, if a shield gave bonuses to healing but the class doesn't have any healing abilities, the shield is less useful than it could be with a different ability.
On very rare occasions you may be able to find rare items like amulets, gems, potions, and many other types of mysterious things that have more niche abilities or temporary buffs.
Even the items that affect your familiar are rare but can be found such as the one we used to change my familiar Aquis into an Ice familiar.
But to answer your question about the durability of items and equipment, it isn't like such a function doesn't exist but rather with the world being so much more realistic, the wear and tear of your stuff depending on how much punishment it goes through as well as what it is made of.
More common items can be repaired it isn't worth the cost all the time and players can swap out lower-tier items pretty easily. Besides items don't break too rapidly unless you're bashing it against a wall constantly."
Rushing to catch up with the ladies who had already gone ahead, Sol looked towards Luna. "Oh...gotcha. Where have we headed again? Something about a dry ad commode?"
"It's called The Dryad's Abode, there is a merchant in town that had caught sight of a large Oak tree within the woods and was attacked by one of its defenders."
"What are Dryads?" Looking at Luna expectantly, Sol questioned.
Unexpectedly, Diana chimed in very knowledgeably. "Actually Dryads are a branch of Nymphs which are creatures of all different elements. Dryads are the widely accepted term for nature, or to be more accurately wood, nymphs. While Dryad used to be known for an Oak tree, the term has been adopted to encompass all wood nymphs.
Another branch of more widely known nymphs are the Naiads or water nymphs and are also separated by different bodies of water such as waterfalls, lakes, oceans, and the like. Some speculate that such tales are where mermaids and sirens are based on.
Anyway, nymphs are mythological creatures on the various elements and are a large reason why they show up in various folktales and games since they are versatile and can be placed in many different kinds of environments."
Clapping and amazed at the detailed explanation, Sol questioned further. "Ohhh...that is so amazing. You're so knowledgeable big sis Diana. I am curious though, does the term nymphomaniac come from nymphs as well?"
Blushing slightly at the genuine praise she received, Diana coughed lightly. "Well yes to some extent. However; the term wasn't created during the time of the Greeks but rather around the 19th century and just use Greek terminology."
Nymph is loosely translated to young woman, which is why most if not all nymphs are young and beautiful females, and mania loosely means crazed or madness like in pyromania. Thusly, nymphomaniac just refers to how generally women have a high sexual appetite.
Of course, that was mainly during a time when women were under harsh scrutiny by the majority of society while now it can be applied to anyone who has a high propensity towards sexual activities."
"Wow, that is some pretty interesting history. I thought you'd be more irritated by that kind of terminology and such."
Laughing, Diana just shrugged. "Why? Because I'm female that I should be offended by the word nymphomania and where it comes from? No, both my sister and I share our love of mythology and history, specifically the various legends that come from Greek and Roman times.
Just because a term can be used doesn't mean that where it came from and how society has grown since then. Of course, we as human beings will never be perfect, but being able to learn from our past and build a better future is the intelligence we're given and how we utilize that intelligence is what matters."
Looking at Diana in a newfound light, Sol couldn't help but wonder at the view she had given and appreciate how great a person can be. "You should be a philosophy or history teacher. I would learn a whole lot."
"That's what I said! Diana gets into teacher mode when it comes to a topic she is passionate about." Minerva sighed. "But unfortunately she doesn't have the patience to teach people who don't want to learn and she has a hard time getting close to people."
Glaring at her sister, Diana didn't refute Minerva's claims. "Anyway, so about this Dryad's Abode, are we able to clear it right now with just our party?"
Despite having been quite a while since Luna had entered into The Dryad's Abode in her last life, with it being the very first dungeon for most of the players the layout and boss fights were straightforward. Of course, she couldn't outright say every single strategy and boss's ability before they even entered.
"I'm not sure, we will just have to figure it out when we get there." Confident that despite holding back information, Luna was 100 percent confident that they would make it through.
Hugging the shoulders of both Diana and Minerva, Sol cheered. "Yeah! Together, there's nothing we can't accomplish!"
Resisting the urge to punch Sol in the face, Diana just grits her teeth while Minerva couldn't help but giggle.
After they finished resting, Luna led them to the dungeon entrance. Located at an enormous oak tree, a small entrance practically glowed in a light green hue. Even getting close to the entrance the whole group felt a calming warmth wash over them.
Rejuvenated by the aura that the dungeon gave off, the group entered the small entrance.
'You have entered The Dryad's Abode'
Like in many fantasy and magic movies and stories, the inside of the oak tree was somehow massive compared to the outside appearance. A spacious light green field entered their view, with a large structure reaching upwards in the distance.
Roaming around the field were the familiar sprites, however, they looked larger than the ones they had previously fought.
Grove Sprite (Rare) Lv. 10
Health: 300
Seeing the strength of these sprites, the rest broke out in virtual sweats. Despite roaming by themselves, these sprites were more dangerous than the boulder elemental they had encountered recently. They all knew that despite their much lower defense stat, their speed was incredibly difficult to deal with.
Chuckling at the group's hesitation at the strength of the enemies, all of the memories of the first time people entered this dungeon and failing miserably as they were swarmed by the entry-level sprites.
While Luna could have led them to the dungeon earlier, leveling them all to at least level 13 as well as her Aquis' frost slow would be just enough to kill the grove sprites one at a time.
Despite being hesitant about their chances of killing all the sprites, Sol led the way and cautiously aggroed the closest sprite to them and kited it away from any of the other patrolling sprites so they wouldn't get overwhelmed.
Initially, there were a couple of close calls when fighting the extremely fast sprites, but thankfully with Luna slowing them and the quick reactions of Sol to prevent the sprite from attacking any other member, they were able to clear the field as they progressed to the structure in the distance.
By the time they had made it to the structure, the group had almost crested level 15. While the sprites gave a sizable chunk of experience to complement their difficulty, the drop rate of items was still pitifully low and only Minerva was able to get a decent healing staff along the way.
Nurturing Glow (Common Staff) Lv. 12
Special Effect: Friendly targets hit by healing or protective spells (not including this item) is suffused with a Nurturing Glow and healed for 25 health over 5 seconds.
"That's a very nice staff, that makes the mini-boss much easier now." Luna nodded, happy to see one of the better items dropping for them so soon.
Scrunching his brows Sol questioned. "But it heals for so little when we all have around 500 health. Also, the attack is pretty low, but I guess she isn't going to melee attack stuff."
Minerva clutched the staff closely. "No, I feel this is fantastic! While they heal itself is low, based on how the special effect is worded, any of my heals or shields will get an extra bonus that not only smooths out the damage you take but also lets me save mana in longer fights."
Diana agreed while nodding her head. "Do be careful about when you use your spells though since you may not be used to the timing of things with the extra healing. Also, there may be an internal cooldown of sorts or some kind of limitation on what spells will proc the effect so pay attention if that is the case."
Walking up to the structure, it ended up being a surprisingly tall tree-like structure with a winding staircase made up entirely of vines and branches. Sitting at the base of the staircase was a huge mass of rocks covered in thick vines.
As if noticing them get close, the vine-covered rocks unfurled into a monstrously large elemental practically triple the size of the previous boulder elemental they had fought.
Grove Guardian (Rare) Lv. 15
Health: 1,000
Seeing the elemental's stats and size, everyone looked towards Luna. "Are you sure this isn't the boss of this place? Its health is insane! I doubt we can do damage higher than double digits if we're lucky with that much defense. And with that size, despite the low speed, it will be hard to avoid its attacks with how much reach it has."
Shrugging at their dismayed expressions, Luna just laughed. "I never said this would be easy, nothing ventured nothing gained. If anything I'm sure Sol will sacrifice himself to protect us distressed maidens. Being a guardian I'm sure it won't stray too far from the staircase."
"Hey! I take offense to that despite it being true." Shaking his fist exaggerated, Sol twitched as he envisioned his multiple deaths in the near future.