After his interaction with Efferus, Mylo left Valsea in haste. Two hours after following the guided direction on his map interface, Mylo finally reached his destination. Upon entering the marked out location, all he could see was a plain grass field with a few trees and bushes scattered around. Not only was the area empty of any players, not a single living soul could be seen roaming through this beautiful greened plain.
"The scenery is way to pretty and calm to be the camp of dark mages. Did Efferus make a mistake?" Mylo thought loudly.
Mylo patiently looked around in order to find any hint to the mage's camp. After roughly ten minutes of wandering about, a sudden familiar notification appeared Infront of Mylo peripheral.
[Undiscovered dungeon has been located 20 meters south from your location]
"!"
The sudden message surprised him seeing as nothing but a plain field was south of him. The only noticeable thing were the two relatively tall trees which where a few inches apart from each other. Something was strange about those trees, they where of the same length and size and the distance separating them way to linear, not one inch of unevenness could be seen. Mylo pulled himself out of his thoughts and walked over to the trees.
[Undiscovered dungeon has been located 18 meters south from your location]
[Undiscovered dungeon has been located 15 meters south from your location]
[Undiscovered dungeon has been located 8 meters south from your location]
[Undiscovered dungeon has been located 1 meters south from your location]
Mylo was standing right next to the gap separating the two trees. Without further inquiring about the systems message, he took his first step inside the gap.
"What!"
To his surprise, the foot that he had placed between the tall hardwoods had disappeared. Yet, he did not feel any pain, a sense of discomfort was still lingering as he removed his leg away from the gap. "Is this illusion magic?"
Without waiting any longer, Mylo dived full body into the unknown space presented Infront of him. Not leaving any trail behind him as he does. A few moments later, Mylo appeared inside what seemed to be a tunnel. Thick stone walls surrounded all four sides, torches attached to the stone walls lightly illuminated the hallway. While the light barely managed to show the full spectrum of the way ahead, it gave enough vision for Mylo to see the dried bloodstains lashed on the floor.
"That's better, this atmosphere fits the theme of dark and evil mages way more then the previous grass field."
[Congratulations! You are the first to have discovered the Dungeon: Corrupted Mages Lair]
[All experience and loot drop rate will double for the next 24 hours]
[Leaving the dungeon will remove all bonuses]
"Time to explo-"
While Mylo was getting ready to venture deeper into the dungeon. He suddenly heard a voice a few meters from him. The hallway was relatively short, at the end was a corner that turned right.
"Hey, did you hear that?"
"Heard what?"
"I think a heard a voice at the entrance?"
"What are you on about? The leader summoned us all here today. No one was unaccounted for."
"I know that. Let's just go take a quick glance. An animal might have snuck in by accident. Those happen sometimes.
"Yeah, let's get this over with and go back to the main hall for the leader's announcement."
Before they reached the corner, Mylo drew out his rapier and ran straight at them. As they turned the corner, Mylo swiftly launched his attack aiming directly at their throat. Unbaling them from warning their friend of an intruder.
The two mages stumbled on their feet after being hit unexpectedly. Realizing that they had been infiltrated by a uninvited guest. Both quickly stood up and branded their staffs in direction of the enemy readying their counter attack. However, as they tried to retaliate a unanticipated situation occurred.
"---!"
"!---!"
Having been inflicted with the thorns effect of Mylo's rapier, both mages where unable to spew out a single word. Words where the mage's weapon, being unable to recite their spells made it impossible for them to go on the offensive.
[You have inflicted the Thorns on Dark Mage Minion #1 & 2.]
[Having successfully maimed their vocal cord. The usability of magic has been disable]
"Oho~! I guess it's not only players that need to recite the skill they are going to use if they want to activate it. It so happens that humanoid npc's are the same. "
What Mylo deduced was correct. In order to trigger an [Active Skill] one has to orally say it out loud, Be it players or npc's. Of course exception existed, for example, beast's that did not make use of their voice could manifest magic with their [intent] alone. Humanoid species also had the capabilities of manifesting their magic through [intent] but this required a certain level of knowledge and talent for magic. Those existence where rare in the early stages of the game but would be more frivolous in the later stages of the game.
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Name: Dark Mage Minion
Level: 28
HP: 900/900
Description: Dark Mages are mages that are affiliated with the "Dark" tomes and element. In exchange for access to the special nature of that element, one has to sacrifice what they hold 'dearest'. In exchange, they would procure stronger offensive stats then their counter parts, while also allowing themselves to grow with the amount of sacrifices they make.
[Maim' ailment is in effect in the vocal cord. Unable to cast spell until restoration of vocal cords. ]
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"I expected it to be a difficult challenge, since it was a quest assigned by the king himself to Efferus. But this might be easier then I thought. Thanks to you guys, I'm feeling much better of my build. Hahaha!"
"..."
"Oh, my apologize. Please let me put you out of your misery."
"..."
"..."
***