It is decided that the team has all had enough of the cold. Fortunately for them, there is a less popular second dungeon in the vicinity. A post-apocalyptic city ruin full of demons.
"There has to be a reason people would rather freeze, right?" Cain asks, looking at the nearly abandoned entrance to the dungeon.
"I mean likely. But as long as it's not freezing, I'm game to try it at least once." Mythryll laughs.
Stepping inside it seems to be a fairly normal dungeon. The expected packs of demons, waiting for them in a destroyed version of what looks like it used to be the downtown core of a modern city, with wandering Demonic patrols.
It doesn't smell funny and the lighting is good. Maybe the whole thing is just that it doesn't drop the crafting plans that the other dungeon is known for?
It's not long before they realize what the problem with this dungeon is. All the demons have a chance to give [Marked by Shadow] a 10-second debuff that reduces STR and CON by 5 points. Too many stacks will kill you if the hit that applied the last one somehow didn't.
The Golems are falling at a pretty steady rate, so Cain starts just replacing them when they get too many stacks. With the two now much larger treants from Mythryll's upgraded nature magic spell, the group is in good shape, well-defended from the demons by a wall of Golems.
"Large targets in the distance, it looks like there is some form of a demonic gargoyle in that building. An elite." Cain says softly, so as not to draw too much attention. Not that a group this large accompanied by giant trees can sneak anywhere, but it's probably best not to make the situation any worse.
Some of the pulls in this dungeon were considerably difficult on Cain, as a warm-blooded man. The demons rarely wore much clothing, straps of leather or a strategically grown bit of scaly skin being the only separation between their fashion and an R18 fetishist show.
Jiggly demon boobs everywhere were quite distracting.
Not all of them though. Some were misshapen monsters with limbs where they shouldn't be, extra appendages or grotesque pustules and boils. The 6 shambling monsters before the elite pack proved to be one of those final types.
"Stay back, these burst with acidic blood." Misha frowns, casting a heal on the Golems. "I'm starting to understand why everyone prefers to get cold. Plus these are like 10 levels higher than the other dungeon."
"The experience is even better though." Mythryll replies, trying to keep a note of positivity, even while in combat with what might be the most disgusting thing she's ever had to fight.
The advantage they had in the Ice Caverns, of being higher level than the monsters was reversed here. While they did a significant amount of damage, the Golems also took a significant amount more from these demons, and it was giving Misha a workout.
"There we go. The area is clear, you can move on to the elites" Mythryll informs them, crawling back through a gap in the broken wall. Being much smaller than either of the humans, she was often using the rubble to scout a bit ahead. Without that, the group would have walked into any number of surprises, and not of the good kind.
The drops in here are worth a fair bit of coin as well, enough to make all the hassle worth it.
"Alright, four elite Demonic Constructs they're called. Focus down from left to right, they have big claws that seem like they might kill the tanks faster than the debuff stacks will." Cain directs and sends his Golems forward into battle.
He was right. One turns on a lesser golem at the start and crushes it in just two strikes. Misha and Mythryll wouldn't take a second hit from that thing either, it's just plain brutal.
They're also durable, and if it wasn't for the Mage using [Restraining Vines] and the freeze chance of their weapons the group would have been in a lot of trouble.
"Low on mana" Mythryll huffs, leaning with her elbows on her knees, gasping with exertion.
"That mana use really takes it out of a girl." Her smile is forced, but she's still smiling. A good sign, Cain decides. Maybe she'll stick around, it's good to have her in the group.
The Golems rumble in victory as the last monster drops.
[New Form Learned: Summon Greater Golem: Elite Demonic Construct]
[Mythryll Has Received Grade A Spell Book]
[Book of Shadow Bolt] has dropped.
[Shadow Bolt] Requires cleric. Does 240 percent spell damage as shadow damage to a single target.
"Hey Misha, I got a spellbook for you. An actual bona fide attack spell for clerics." Mythryll cheers, and Cain laughs.
"No more standing around feeling awkward when the pulls are too easy."
Misha takes and immediately learns the spell, her smile threatening to split her face in half.
"You guys have no idea how happy this makes me. I've waited so long to get an ability that can do some damage." She cries and Mythryll pulls her into a hug.
"Congratulations. I know it's tough being a Healer. You've got this." The mage whispers until the cleric calms down. She's way better at that comforting thing Cain decides, thinking of good ways to entice her to stay with the group.
"Didn't I see you got a new Golem form?" Misha asks once she recovers her composure a bit.
"Yeah, want me to give it a try on the next pull?" Cain smiles.
The new form is nearly identical to the monsters it was gained from. Huge, winged gargoyles with long claws. They're durable, like the tank form, but still take more damage than the shield types do. Not as much as the tree form though. Where they truly shine is in damage. The claws shred the snake monsters of the next group, leaving behind a [Cripple] debuff that increases damage taken.
This quickly becomes their preferred form for this dungeon. The curse stacks are making the reduced damage taken by the tank form less relevant and the speed at which your group clears much more important.
The dungeon proves much too large to fully clear, so eventually, they just call it a day, knowing it will reset in the morning.
"Did we get anything good?" Misha asks, having lost track of all the random things that dropped during that extended day inside the ruined Demon city.
"Lot of crafting materials, a new ring with some shadow damage added to every attack, and a few clothing options that aren't as good as the gear I'm wearing. No plans though." Mythryll shrugs.
"About the same, but I got these cool black leather and chain pants and some boots with spikes on them. Not sure how they'll look on my class though." Cain adds.
"I got 4 leather crafting plans, but nothing I could wear. One is epic though, so it might come in handy later. oh, and the materials and a [White Demon Bikini]." Misha says.
"Fashion show?" Cain laughs.
"You're up first." Mythryll calls out and Cain equips the pants and boots he just got. They're very tight at the top, but stretchy, with a metal studded leather belt. The Boots have a 3-inch platform sole, spikes, and straps all over, and tuck the pant legs inside. As he forgot to equip a shirt, that's all he's wearing.
"Very nice. Male stripper meets punk rock singer. The dangling chain mail completes the look." Mythryll cheers.
"You should wear that more often."Misha agrees "But we need to find you a shirt on our next run."
"You're up" The mage cheers "Pick an item at random and we can see how it all looks."
"Let's start with the epic item [White Demon Bikini] then." It's a well covering white bikini, with a pentagram front design and strappy pentagram pattern hips. Revealing, but on the suitable for swimwear side of sexy.
"If we're doing swimwear, I think I've got something." Cain laughs, linking [Black Plum Smugglers] a green quality item before equipping them.
They might be swimwear, but they're also underwear, as they didn't replace his pants, and he forgot to unequip them.
Deciding against modesty, as it's nothing she hasn't seen before, Misha steps forward and pulls the front of his pants open to look down.
"Yep, definitely plum smugglers." She laughs, seeing the tight, black spandex.
"OK, first up, let's try the [Strappy Demonic One Piece] that sounds like a swimsuit," Mythryll says.
Oh, it's strappy all right. And that's all it is. It's a black leather body harness that covers exactly zero of the essential bits a swimsuit should cover. Not having looked at herself yet, Mythryll does a twirl.
"So how is it?" she asks, then looks down and freezes in horror.
"I for one like it very much." Cain whistles.
"I second that. Good choice." Misha cheers, clapping her hands.
Mythryll immediately puts her robes back on and frowns. "Stupid demons."
"Let's try this next [Blue Party Dress]" Misha announces to break the tension. It's a flirty, short blue sleeveless dress. Very suitable for a summer day.
"How is that an equippable armor?" Cain laughs "Everyone was complaining it is impossible to find normal clothes and you get a sundress?"
"It's green quality armor. Grants 1 percent casting speed. Not great, but it is armor. Maybe they just can't find it because nobody does the dungeon it drops in?" Misha shrugs.
"This one has got to be better." Mythryll sighs and links [Red Racing Swimsuit].
Crossing her fingers she equips it and checks her cleavage line before she unequips her robe. It's a very normal red one-piece swimsuit, with a grey stripe up the sides.
"Yes, winner! Now we've all got suits to go swimming" Misha cheers, but Cain thinks he'd rather find some swim trunks instead. This swimsuit rides up in strange places.