Loco chopped the head off the last ram they were fighting and said,"That's all 400! Let's go to the last bossroom now! Strategos, you have those coordinates in your visual map right?"
As Germaine collected the rest of the ram wool Stratgos and Loco started to plan their way to the boss room once more now that they had collected all 200 golds worth of fleece. Strategos responded,"Yes leader, we only have to take a couple of turns and return to the deeper area via the steps. Leader, right next to the boss room, my map is having trouble rendering a piece of the wall, a possible secret hidden there."
Loco ears perked up in curiosity and said,"Hm, Drake didn't inform me of a secret room, maybe he doesn't know about it? Alright Strategos, let's go back over there and check it out!"
The group walked back to the boss room they had already found and Queenbee asked Loco,"Wait, so what are we doing? Why aren't we just going to the boss right now?"
Loco quickly responded,"Strategos has a suspicion that there is a secret room near the entrance of the boss room. I have never heard of this kind of thing yet in the forums, but I don't doubt the authenticity of the map that has led our group this far."
They arrived back at the big alcove right before the boss room and started to look around. Strategos walked over to a barren wall and touched its solid surface and focused on her energy. She extended her energy into the wall to see if it was a fake wall of sorts, but no, it was an actual wall. However, her map said otherwise as it this part of the wall on her map continued to flicker and glitch out.
Loco walked over to her and attempted to do something similar with his own energy, and much to the amusement of Strategos it didn't work for him either. She coyly said,"Did you think your energy would do anything different, hihi"
Loco chuckled and responded,"Quiet you. Back up a bit, I'm going to bust through this wall."
Strategos did as she was told, and backed up to an appropriate distance with the rest of her siblings. Loco grabbed his scimitars from his hip and slashed using his blood scythe at the wall. Much to his surprise this actually worked! The wall crumbled under the attack and revealed to the group a set of stairs descending downwards.
Loco and his group exchanged looks but started to walk down the stairs nonetheless. The group walked down the stairs, carefully taking each step as they continued downwards for what seemed to be hours. However, after about 5 minutes of careful walking they came upon a research room of sorts.
In the room were a bunch of books on the walls and floor, like a big fight had happened here. There were scorch marks on the wall, as well the room carried a lot of pressure that even Loco couldn't figure the feeling. It felt like someone was watching them and they all felt it. There was a single long desk in the middle of the room, it had a bunch of papers on it. There were various cages and other objects that could be connected to torture strewn around the room in a haphazard fashion.
Loco walked forward towards the desk and looked at some of the papers on it. He read the titles at the top of each of the papers. Loco immediately noticed the 5 most interesting ones, which were 'Nature's Guardian', 'Energy Bender', 'Spirit Cohesion', 'Weapon Telekinesis', and 'Daughter of Gasilia'.
He picked up the 'Energy Bender' scroll and looked at it for a moment before he realized what this was! Drake had told him about this a long time ago! These were rare artifacts, most commonly found in the overworld near a field boss or major story event. These artifacts could grant the user skills when ripped up.
Loco took a deep breath and quickly ripped the paper in two and instantly he gained the knowledge of the scroll!
[System notification: You have learned Epic Class Energy Bender! Congratulations Player!]
[Energy Bender: Let's the player more efficiently control their own energy, as well as control the energies in their enemies. Certain restrictions apply to the latter, for more information, do more research!]
Loco scoffed and said,"So another variable that won't be easy to control? Thanks game!" The irony and sarcasm in his voice was palpable. He turned to the other three and said,"Find a scroll that you think would fit your class and then let's collect all the rest of the artifacts here. When you find one or two that you think would fit your style, or sound good to you, simply rip the paper and acquire the knowledge."
The other three quickly rushed forwards to claim their own skill scrolls. Loco then warned them,"Most of this will become property of the guild and will become an early part of our marketing to pull players into our guild. Only select one or two of these scrolls, not even mentioning that they are extremely valuable to our future, you shouldn't randomly grab skills, your fighting style should be a focused effort and not a random assortment of skills."
With the lecture from Loco over with the three siblings looked around for some skills of their own. In the meantime, Loco also ripped up an Uncommon skill called, 'Instinct', which would alert him if anyone showed any bloodlust towards him. A very useful skill that could warn him of incoming or even invisible threats.
Germain came up with two scrolls in his hand and he said,"Leader, I have picked my two skills, which are Rare Class Weapon Telekinesis and Uncommon Class Armored Castle."
Loco nodded and confirmed his choices, saying,"These sound like a perfect fit in my eyes, well done." Germaine then ripped up both sheets of paper and blanked out for a few seconds before coming back to his senses.
Next, Queenbee came forward with two very interesting picks of her own. She said to Loco,"I have also decided on my own. I have landed on the two, when I gazed upon these two scrolls my energy seemed to influence my decision, so I can only assume these have a high synergy rate with my class."
Loco mused out loud,"Hmm.. Now that is interesting, I didn't have the sort of reaction, maybe it really is meant to be as you say. Besides that, what are the skills?"
She responded,"Oh, yeah, they are Daughter of Gasilia and Spirit Summon. First one's an epic, the next one is rare."
Loco thought about this for a moment but relented, telling her,"I don't mind these choices, it seems like the holy nature for your class type must have some form of link with Spirits, I believe this to be a good choice on your part."
Having been complimented by her new leader Queenbee happily got behind Germaine as they waited for Strategos to pick her scrolls. After another minute or so she walked forwards and said,"Leader, Request for acquisition of the skills Natures Guardian and Force Pull! One is an Epic class, the other is an Uncommon class!"
Loco smiled and patted her on the head, saying,"Go ahead, you have already proved your worth many times over in these past couple of days. Don't think I won't remember that it was you who gave us this treasure trove in the first place."
Strategos quickly ripped up the papers while seemingly hiding her face from Loco. It seemed to Queenbee who was watching on that the praise she was getting from Loco in the past few days had started to make her develop a crush. Queenbee smiled a little and started to think of all the ways she could use this to embarrass her little sister.
The group then walked back up the stairs after collecting the rest of the scrolls. Other than the ones they had consumed themselves, they had 38 common scrolls, 16 uncommon scrolls, 5 rares and 1 epic left. The last epic left was 'Spirit Cohesion', however Loco planned to see if Drake wanted the scroll before he started to plan what to do with it.
As they walked Loco realized that he could use a mercenary for hire system. What this would entail would mean that Loco's guild would constantly hand out missions to their own guild members as well as other people not associated with the guild. However, when they accept the mission, whatever it may be, they would unintentionally spread the name of Loco's guild. Then when they complete the mission they gain guild points or something similar, which could then buy them certain skills or possibly even information on different boss areas. Information was worth its weight in gold after all.
Loco smiled as he looked at the final boss room.