As with most Pure Elementals, the area of effect attacks were not the most dangerous aspect of Merrick's current enemy. While the darkness would eventually fill the room again, it was pouring out like a leaky faucet or a clogged fountain. A more immediate danger came from the minions that were summoned from the darkness.
For a brief second, Merrick wished that one of his Faction-mates were here to help with the minions so that he could focus on the Elemental summoning them. Not only was that impossible, all members had been PK'd except for Thom and Alric, Merrick immediately gave himself a mental slap. He was more than capable of dealing with a single Pure Elemental and some minions on his own.
Alric had been right. Merrick had missed a step somewhere, gotten complacent, and now he was barely carrying himself. He had stopped focusing on the game's mechanics as much and more on the mysteries that he was trying to solve. Now was not the time to think of the grand overarching ruse that Mouseion was maintaining. Now was the time for violent video gaming.
The Mage-class was as versatile as the player behind the controls. On top of that, Merrick had looted more dungeons than most Adventurers in Dungeons Below. He had plenty of tools at his disposal that could deal with this.
With a quick draw, Merrick pulled a wand from his satchel. It was similar to the one that knocked him out in his first adventure in Dungeons Below, but instead of a sleeping spell this one contained a nova burst. Merrick cast the nova into the air, it would take a few seconds to explode.
While the nova floated toward its explosive destination in the center of the room, Merrick ordered Crudle to fire a metal spear at the Pure Shadow Elemental. Merrick moved across the room toward his enemy, one hand gathering energy and the other pulling at at the corner of his robe's collar.
At the same time the nova of energy exploded like a dying star, the metal spear struck the cracked core of the Elemental and Merrick covered his eyes with the fabric of his robe's collar. The starlight flooded the room making it impossible for the shadow minions to hold their shape. The metal spear sunk with a sickly crackle into the Elemental Core.
As the light faded and the shadow minions started to surround him again, Merrick finally held enough energy in hand. He dropped the cloth from his eyes and hoped that the minions would be unsummoned if their master died. An inky black sword bit into his leg as Merrick fired a lightning bolt at the Pure Shadow Elemental within point blank range.
The metal spear acted like a lightning rod, carrying the spell's energy through the protective exterior of the Elemental Core and directly into the soft interior that held the Pure Shadow Elemental's being. Knowing that it was his own loot being used against his Faction hurt a little, but not as much as watching as his spell caused that loot to break into thousands of tiny shards that exploded outward like magically charged confetti.
In the explosion, Merrick made sure to turn away and cover his face as best as he could. However, that opened him up to the death throes of the shadow minions that felt their coming dissolution. Fortunately, without orders, Crudle blocked most of the attacks and only a few got through to bite into Merrick before the scene grew still.
With the darkness gone, Merrick shot magelight to the sconces to light up the room. The three doors that led deeper in could be dealt with later. One was leaking molten goo, one was smoking, and the last one led to the empty Coffers. What stole Merrick's focus now were the mushrooms growing alongside the walls.
They looked identical to the ones that Desci had tried to take Yorin out with during the last Faction War. After dumping a potion out from a jar, Merrick used the jar to collect some smaller mushrooms from the wall. If Hades Collective was behind the attack, Thom already knew that but Merrick figured a little proof would help push Mouseion from inactivity.
As he was twisting the top back onto the jar, Merrick heard a pained voice call out from behind the smoke billowing out of the Arcane Spellcrafter. "Merrick! Is that you!"
Rather than responding, Merrick simply walked over to the door to see that Faction's Quartermaster was stuck underneath a fallen set of shelves. If Merrick did not recognize the voice, he would not have been able to tell who it was. "Muster, is that you?"
Muster, a burly adventurer, was completely buried by the shelf and its contents. It took a second for his head to poke out. His face was bruised and bleeding but he seemed fine other than that, "Give me a hand already!"
"What happened in here?"
"I figure you already pieced that together!" Muster snapped and then tried to wriggle free, "Give me a hand!"
Merrick tried not to laugh as he pulled the bookshelf to the side. He was not strong enough to move it. That made sense. If Muster, a Blacksmith, was stuck underneath it, a Mage probably would not have the physical strength to move it themselves. With Crudle's help though, he was able to shift it just enough to give Muster enough leverage to slip out.
Once the Blacksmith that served as the Curious Glade's Quartermaster was free, he rose up to a staggering height of nearly seven feet tall. Merrick finally asked, "How did they get the drop on you?"
Muster sheepishly looked away and let out a cough.
Merrick could not help but laugh as he realized what happened. Muster had been stuck before the attack happened. However, he did not make any jokes. The day had been rough enough already. Once Merrick helped Muster clean up, they found that most of the Arcane Spellcrafter had been untouched by the attackers. It was good to know that the Curious Glades did not lose all of their resources, just most of them.