"Whew, the difficulty really ramps up in here." Evren said as they finally killed the ogre savage that was the boss of the 20th floor. What dropped was a dull gray kite shield. When Evren picked it up he found it was a bit heavier than the adamantium shield he had gotten, but might consider using it instead because it's less flashy. He put his adamantium shield away and took a few stances with the shield before saying, "Huh, this actually feels pretty good. Feels heavier than iron though, I wonder what it is."
They gathered up all their things and headed to the back of the cavern, exiting to head to the next level. It had taken them a week to travel the five floors of ogres. Not only had the foes gotten stronger, but they also came with massive numbers. The fight against the ogre savage also included fifteen ogre commanders.
They were planning to take a break after they find what the next level's monsters were, so they were heading down the passage to do that. When they got to the bottom, Evren had already found one with his sensory field. They just waited for it to come into view.
"Gah… trolls." Evren said.
"Oh look! It's Mr. Evren!" Harley quipped and everyone laughed.
"Alright. Alright. Ha ha. Careful, these guys regenerate." Evren warned.
"How much do they regenerate?" Fletcher asked. "Walter! Thanks for volunteering!"
"Wait, I didn't…" Walter started.
"Cut something off and pull back. I'll hold it off for you with this trusty new shield." Evren said holding the gray shield up.
Walter sighed and the two of them moved forward. The troll saw them and shambled over to them at its fastest speed, which someone could walk away from. It swung down its massive arm and Evren stepped forward to block it, taking a couple steps backward.
Walter said, "Deflect it, don't block it."
Evren replied, "Oh shut up, I wanted to see how strong it is."
Walter shook his head and stepped forward, cutting the arm off the troll, then stepped back behind Evren. Within the span of a few minutes, it was visibly noticeable that the arm was growing back. By the time ten minutes had passed, the arm had fully regenerated. The scary thing was that the arm that was on the floor was growing a new troll out of it, already the shoulder completed and the chest starting to grow out.
Evren sheathed his sword and grabbed his scarletite spear from his backpack. He poured magic into the spear, causing the spearhead to burst into flames. He smiled and looked over his shoulder as he said, "Like that?" He stabbed the troll in the stomach and kicked it back to observe the wound. He said to Harley, "Harley, freeze that arm if you would."
"Ok Mr. Evren!" she said and caste 'permafrost' on the arm. As they fought the troll with cuts and stabs, they kept their eye on the arm. Although the regeneration had slowed down, it wasn't for long.
"Nope, ice is a bust. Guess fire is the spell of choice." Evren commented.
"What about poison?" Walter asked.
Evren looked at Walter and shrugged. He turned to the troll and cast 'venom' on it. The troll's attacks became weaker, and its skin took on a purplish hue. After thirty minutes of fighting, the troll arm had created a head and another arm and was currently regenerating its legs while it tried to attack the party. Evren managed to keep both of the trolls busy during that time.
"It looks like the poison made it weaker, but it's regenerating the damaged areas, so I don't think it'll do the job." Evren commented. "Harley, do you have any spells you want to try?"
"Hmm… Yes! Back up you two!" she called out.
Evren and Walter backed off and Harley stepped forward casting 'blaze.' From in front of her, a fire appeared on the floor and began to spread out before her. Eventually it covered both of the trolls setting them on fire. Harley kept the fire around the trolls as they moved about and continued to burn them until they fell and eventually dissolved. A single blue mana gem was left on the floor.
"Just one huh? I guess that you only get a crystal from the original one." Walter said.
"Ok, let's head back up and camp out behind the boss chamber." Evren said as he turned to the passageway. "I'm thinking of getting a few more shields. We could give two of them to the summoners for a little extra protection."
Quietly next to him Walter said, "You just want to see how long it takes them to get tired and complain."
Evren shushed Walter with a smile. "I'm honestly impressed with this shield. I think a few more would be a good idea."
"Ok then, want to go now?" Walter asked.
"Nah, not now. Let's give everyone a break for the day. I want to do a little research too." Evren replied.
Once they reached the 20th floor, Evren began unpacking the supplies for the camp. The team set up the camp and went about their own thing. Evren began reading through one of his books and chewing on jerky with the shield set up next to him. "Huh." He said as he continued to read.
Ellis looked up from the bedding he was preparing nearby and said, "Find something?"
Evren nodded and said, "Yeah, I think this is made from meteoric ore."
"Meteoric!" Walter shouted.
Evren continued nodding with a smile, "It would seem so. Reading up on some of the properties of this stuff, it's got the strength of adamantium and the magical conductivity of scarletite."
Isobel stepped over to look at the shield. "It's very unassuming too. I think I want a couple."
Fletcher opened his mouth in a mock surprise, "Gasp! You have grown weary of your blue and red matched set already? Oh, the whims of a woman!"
Isobel took a swing at Fletcher, and he dodged out of the way, running off, "Sorry! Don't hit me!"
"I wonder if this stuff would have started dropping in Aernide if we would have continued." Evren said as he flipped through the book he was holding.
"What's that book you're reading from Mr. Evren?" Harley asked as she tried to read some of the pages.
"This book is 'Minerals and Metals, a reference book.' It's good reading, do you want to borrow it?" He asked as he handed the book to Harley.
Harley shook her head slowly, "No. Thank you, Mr. Evren."
As he flipped through the book he added, "It's an interesting book, not bad for the non-scientific world this is. There's a few things wrong in here, but it isn't as bad as it sounds."
"Hey Tim and Bryan, come here for a sec." Evren called out to the two.
They wandered over, still not happy about being in a dungeon. "Hold this shield and tell me how it feels."
Tim took the shield first and grabbed it by the enarmes, hefting it up to waist height. He slipped his arm in the enarmes and held it in front of him.
Evren asked, "Can you lift it up over your head?"
Tim tried and succeeded, but it was shaky. He hit his fist on the shield as if knocked and almost knocked Tim to the floor.
Bryan was a little more successful, but not much.
Evren nodded, "This'll be a good way to get some exercise with some isometrics. We'll get one each for these two. Walter, do you want one?"
Walter shook his head no.
Evren continued, "Ok, we'll get Walter one as well."
"Why did you ask?" Walter asked.
Tim said, "Mr. Evren, what are i-so-met-arcs?"
Evren took the shield back and held it by the enermes in front of him, flexing his arms. "These are. Basically, you flex your muscles and hold it there. I mean, you can lift them while you're carrying them. You can do curls like this. Or straight arm lifts like this. You can even put one arm through and do butterflies like this. And then switch arms." Evren went through all the different exercises as he named them.
He clapped Tim on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry when we get you two some, I'll do the exercises with you. Hey, do you want one for each arm?" Evren said with a maniacal smile.
Fletcher grabbed Evren's shoulder and said, "Evren, look at what you're doing. You're scaring them."
Evren frowned, "No I'm not." But Tim and Bryan were both nodding.
"Listen, I'm not forcing you guys how to fight. I'm just trying to find a way to protect you. A shield could save your life. But if the shield causes more harm than it does good, it's better to not have one. I'd love to put you guys in armor, but I'm afraid you'd be unable to move." Evren said.
"I hope to not anticipate you needing them on the troll level, since you can walk away from these things, but they've got long arms, and that gives them quite a reach. So, for now, we'll get you some shields, you'll carry them around to get used to the weight. If you get into a dangerous situation and you think it's slowing you down, just drop the shield. It'll make a noise and we'll know where you are so we can help out." He explained.
"Alright, so that's the plan for tomorrow. The day after, we can have the magic team burn out the trolls and we'll work our way down. I'm kinda excited to see what the troll boss will drop!" Evren said with a smile.
Two days later, they were heading down to fight the trolls. Using 'explosion' and 'detonate' on the trolls was no good. The troll wouldn't die, and the parts would splattered everywhere would regenerate to make new trolls. All the rest of the spells in the fire category were perfect though. The only valid complaint was that the dungeon's ambient temperature was rising.
As the team got lower in the dungeon floors, there arose a variant of the troll called a troll savage that could move at a quicker pace. As they were on fire most of the time, Evren used 'wall' and air spells to keep them away. The air spells made the trolls burn faster and some of them pushed them back enough to immobilize them.
When they reached the 25th level, the new troll was a troll brute. It was twice the size of the already large trolls, but just as slow. It had two savages and six regular trolls with it. Evren kept the two savages busy while Harley and Karina used 'salvo' to set the room on fire. Walter had the brute chasing it, conceding to use a shield in the process he got off of Bryan. Then Ellis used 'blaze' and literally set the room on fire. When the troll brute was finally finished off, Evren cast 'permafrost' on the wall of the room to lower the temperature.
"OH! A sword! We're doing this one again." Evren said as he saw the meteoric sword drop from the troll brute.
"So, we'll get one for Walter and one for Fletcher. Here, how does it feel to you Walter? Can you use two hands with that grip?"
Walter caught the sword and held it in his hands for a while before nodding. "This is considered a hand and a half grip, so it's usable for one- or two-handed swings."
"Alright, so two more times then. One for Fletcher and Walter." Evren said as he looked at Ellis and Karina. "I don't know what'll drop for you guys, but we can always come back for something later."
Ellis waved his hand, "Ah don't worry about it. I'm sure something will come up."
"Alright, let's head out and see what's on the next floor." Evren said, visibly excited.