In every MMORPG game there is always some sort of dungeon or maze. They provide a certain challenge to the players and provide bountiful rewards. Dungeons in Elementos:Online exactly give challenges to the players by randomizing the rooms everytime a party leaves. Loot also refills in every room except the treasure room. The treasure room is a hidden room that is being guarded by many strong monsters. Will our heroes be able to find the treasure room and beat HKP to it?
–Chapter 7
After I recovered and my arm was attached again, we gave our thanks to the Grandmaster and went back to the forest. The compass already broke once we entered the dungeon but I memorized the way to go back. We used the key to open the dungeon again and once we entered the lock closed. I grabbed a torch and looked for the sign from before. Just I suspected, the rooms changed again. If only we had a dungeon map we could easily navigate this. Wait...
"Aiko, can you also use Control Form on your Botany skills?" I asked.
"Yes? Why? I only know Flower Magic skills though." She replied.
"That's okay. I want you to make a trail behind us, like petals or something."
"I see, okay I'll do it. Flower Magic: Healing Petals, Control Form." Aiko chanted.
Then flowers appeared above her and dropped petals as we walked, it worked! With this trail we won't get lost and confused. We walked around a bit looking for loot or relics. We stumbled upon a room filled with checkered tiles, they look suspicious.
"Hold up, we should test if it's safe. Recall Pet: Doro. Huh? Doro won't come up." I said as I repeated the Recall skill.
Then a notification popped up...
[Notice:]
Pets or mercenaries cannot be summoned in quest dungeons.
Dang it, there's only one way to know if these tiles are safe or not. I opened up my bag and grabbed some Synthesizing Potions from before and crafted some Magic Orbs.
[Note: Magic Orbs are a support item used in boss fights. They boost 15% of magic damage during the fight.]
These orbs are also a good substitute to marbles. I tossed a few and some tiles triggered a trap. I knew it, this whole room is a trap room. We should avo--
"Look Hitoshi! Something's glowing." Aiko pointed.
It's too far away so I can't see it that well. We should get close.
"Aiko follow my lead and be careful."
I tossed some more orb marbles and triggered more traps. I also picked up the ones who didn't trigger one. I stepped into a tile and ice shards suddenly rained on it, I barely avoided that. Once we were half way in the room I could already see the glowing item. It looks like a relic, nice find! I told Aiko to go back and I tossed more marbles to let her know which tiles are which. As I became closer to the relic I ran out of orbs. I opened my bag and I also ran out of craftable items. Crap, should I just YOLO it? I casted Glory Shield and ran towards it. Amazing, every tile I stepped on triggered a trap. Once I reached the end of the room I flipped the lever to disable the tiles and grabbed the relic.
"Aiko, come here quick." I said as I beckoned her towards me.
"What is it?" She asked while still avoiding trap tiles even though I flipped the lever.
"It seems like a statue of a fairy holding a crystal, the same crystal from the grass cutter. Maybe send some magic in it?" I asked.
She nodded and touched the statue, then it glowed. Suddenly the fairy figure became alive and the crystal showed us a map of the dungeon. The fairy flew away and waved goodbye to us. Bizarre scene.
"A dungeon map? That's awesome but, only the passage ways are shown and not the rooms. So we still need to enter each one of them until we find the boss one? Damn and I thought we already had a fast pass in this quest." I said while trying to locate the next the room.
"Look at this Hitoshi, this passage way is going down, maybe it's a treasure room?" Aiko said while pointing to one of the passages.
She's right it does go down and it's right next to us? Where is it? I looked around in the room but nothing's out of the ordinary. Wait, that tile over there.
"Aiko flip the lever." I said while hopping in that certain tile.
It had an icon that looks like a coin? It's the only one who has a design. Aiko flipped the lever and the trap tiles activated again. Then the tile I was stepping on clicked and the whole floor collapsed. We fell down into some water and looked at the map, there is only one passage way in this area.
"Where are we?" Aiko said as she tries to dry her hat.
"I think this is the second level?" I replied.
We walked forward until we saw a door with a sign next to it. I put the torch near the sign and read out loud.
"Treasury."
We found it! We actually found it!
"Nice work Aiko! We found the treasure. Good thing you saw the passage way going down." I said while opening the door.
Aiko then hid her face with her wet hat. I opened the door but as I turned around, Aiko collapsed. I then heard a familiar laugh and looked up and saw a man... It was 7, he was still alive. How?
"Aren't you glad I put the relic in that tile room Hitoshi? Well you fell for it, literally! Greed has consumed you and now you shall pay the price for it. I had to be revived by that damn Puruz himself, and he even downgraded my weapon because I was defeated by someone like you! Now DIE YOU STUPID BRAT! 7 then pulled out a sword that was broken but it shot out blades. A magic item?
I carried Aiko's unconscious body in the corner. I looked at her status and she was inflicted with a paralysis spell. 7 then dropped down from the walls and shot more blades at us. I deflected some of the blades until my own sword broke in half.
"How? How the hell are you still alive?" I asked while dodging his attacks.
"Eh? Well before that darn mage killed me with her magic, I killed myself by shooting my foot with my own dart. Viruses revive if killed by other monsters or Viruses. But Puruz became angry because of you two. GAHH! ENOUGH TALKING, NOW DIE!" He then rushed towards me and shot out more blades.
I casted Boost on my arm and deflected them with it but I got hit. There's no other choice then.
"Come forth, dark blade--"
7 then stopped. And he looked at me with fear.
"H-How the hell do you have t-the CURSED SWORD?!" He fell down to the ground and begged for mercy.
I wasn't even finished chanting my spell and he already begs for mercy? What is the deal with this sword?
"I already know the power of that damn necromancy sword. Y-you can literally summon a horde of zombies with it. I surrender!" 7 cried out.
I then laughed at him.
"Good thing you know about this. Fine. I'll spare you for now but if I see you again, I won't hesitate to kill you." I turned around to cast Enlighten on Aiko.
"Thank you! Thank you... Thank...YOU FOR LOWERING YOUR GUARD DOWN!"
I got cocky. I turned around and saw a blade heading towards my heart, it was too fast for me to react to. Suddenly my whole vision was slowed down. I can't move, so this is what it feels like to witness death huh? But my arm glowed black and the dark aura appeared in front of me, pixelizing the blade. It then formed a sword in my arm. The Cursed Sword activated by itself?
"W-why. WHY! Why does it protect the carrier of it! It doesn't even belong to you!"
The sword then moved by itself and stabbed 7 in the heart. He then said with his last breath,
"C....curse...you..."
Then he disappeared into dust. The aura then disappeared and the notification popped out again. The black spot on my arm grew big again, I'm guessing I only have 4 or 3 more uses of this skill before I get consumed. It acts on it own when the carrier is about to die? It's pretty useful except for the consuming your whole body part. I turned around and casted Enlighten on Aiko. I opened the door and saw a corridor full of monsters, a lot of them. Then at the very end of it was a treasure chest. I closed the door quickly and thought a plan for a moment.
Aiko then woke up and I explained everything to her except the part about me using my sword. She then panicked and told me that her Healing Petals skill was cancelled. The petals did disappear, this is bad. We are stuck inside the dungeon without Escape Krystas.
[Note: Escape Krystas are a one time use that can help you escape tricky situations. Teleports you to a safe distance.]
I then told her to cast a skill inside the corridor to kill the monsters, she then peeked at it and shook her head.
"That's too many, wait I'll think of something."
She said.
It took her a while to think of a skill to use, she opened her menu to browse some. After a few minutes of her looking at her skill menu, she chanted.
"Flower Magic: Sweet Fragrance!"
Then a soothing smell filled the corridor and all of the monsters fell to ground. They were asleep. I rushed to get the treasure chest and grabbed it and ran back to the door. Almost tripping myself from excitement. We closed the door shut and opened the chest.
"What the heck is this?" I said as I picked up a weird looking stick.
"It looks like a handle of a sword but there's no blade." Aiko said.
"Wait there's a magic crystal, Aiko activate it."
She then touched the crystal and sent out some magic power. Suddenly a blue flame erupted from the handle and formed a blade made up of pure magic, wait not it's water. It's a magic water sword! The crystal had some writing in it that looks like a battery percentage, well with Aiko's power I'm guessing this will last a day or two.
I turned it off by tapping the crystal again and put it inside my bag.
"Now that's done, how the hell are we going to escape from this room?" I said.
We looked around the room only to see nothing but water, it's not filling up? Maybe there's a drain somewhere. I then saw water getting drained in a corner.
"Aiko look, there's some sort of drainage here otherwise this room will be flooded. Follow the water."
We followed it to a seemingly suspicious wall. I pushed it and it opened, a hidden exit? It's not in the dungeon map. We entered the room and once the door was shut the room then moved. After a minute of moving, it stopped. The door then opened and pushed us out with an invisible force but, when I looked at the map we were somewhere deep. So this must be a random teleporter?
"Hitoshi where are we?" Aiko said as she held her staff tight.
The room was dark so I couldn't make out where the hell are we. The only light we have is the small light emitted by the dungeon map.
After walking blindly for about a few minutes, the torches on the wall lit up and an annoying notification popped up on our menu.
Dungeon Guardian!
Dungeon Guardian!
Dungeon Guardian!
Then a tall figure stood holding two axes. It looked like a minotaur, it roared at us and he then charged straight to Aiko. I tried to get it's attention towards me by using the tamer skill Attract. It fell for it, his defense was then weakened. Hmm maybe this is the perfect opportunity to use that magic sword.
"Aiko hit it with Hydro Blades and I'll last hit it to get more loot." I said as I turned on the sword.
It's surprisingly light. I dodged the axes as he swinged it towards me. I circled around him exposing his back to Aiko's Hydro Blades. Then he turned around to try to stop Aiko's spell. I swapped places with her and hit the Minotaur in the hand, it sliced through it! He dropped his axe and an item was dropped, Minotaur Axe. I collected it and sliced his foot by sliding underneath him. He fell down to the ground then I stabbed it in the head. After a while of struggling it finally stopped. It couldn't take in more damage and it disappeared. Minotaur Hooves, Horns, Skins, and Axes were dropped. I all put them in my bag and check our menu. We leveled up once, well this guardian was a low level but still it took a while to kill it. Come on Grandmaster give us some credit!
"Why is there a guardian in this area? Wait Hitoshi, does that mean..."
"Yes, we must be near the boss room." I replied as I put my sword back in my bag.
We kept moving forward until we hit a dead end, it was the Boss Door. I can't believe it, we finally reached the goal. I geared up and put out some healing potions. Aiko then recharged her MP and once we were ready, I opened the Boss Menu by pressing the door. It then asked what difficulty to set to.
"Select difficulty, Easy. Star-- What the?"
The room then shook as if there was an earthquake. Then the whole room changed, we were being dragged again. That means...
"ANOTHER PARTY ENTERED THE DUNGEON!"
—To Be Continued in Chapter 8