The Wolves Ch. 035

Mason hopped off and walked over to investigate the chest while I began shapeshifting back into my dragonkin form again.

[Being a team comprised entirely of Scyftans must be like having a cheat code,] Ben said. [I'll take it, though. Puzzles like this one really suck.]

[It is very nice, I will admit,] I replied as Mason walked back over. He held out his hands to show me the Mana Gem in one hand, and, surprisingly, a Tier C Skill Gem in the other. I took the pouch we were using for skill gems out of my storage and handed it to Mason, my hands being too big to handle it's small size. After dropping the Skill Gem into it, he handed it back.

[Well, that would've made it worth going through this room, even if we did have to do it the normal way. I think it's only something like a seven percent chance at a Tier C Skill Gem in rank II dungeons,] Ben said.

[What's the chance of us getting a Tier A Skill Gem from this dungeon?]

[I'm not sure off the top of my head, but it's under one percent.]

[So not great odds, then.]

[Nope,] Ben replied. [There won't be a great chance of getting a Tier A Skill Gem until we start delving into rank twenty dungeons. Even then, the chances are under ten percent, but it does start to increase pretty quickly after that. Anyways, let me summon another Skeletal Warrior so we can be on our way.]

Ben's skeleton wasn't needed as we walked down the next corridor. It only took a minute or so to get to the next room, and when we arrived we were surprised to see another team already in the room. They were a group of four, and looked to be in the middle of a fight. We could see piles of dead skeletons all over the room, and they were fighting what a Skeletal Priest and a Skeletal Warrior.

[Jonathan, move back and change into your human form!] Anja sent. [I don't think we would want to explain why there is a giant dragon-looking thing in our group.]

[Oh, right,] I said as I realized I was standing out in the open, watching them. Turning around, I ran around the corner and began shapeshifting back. As soon as I was back in my human form, I returned and looked at Ben. "Should we help them?"

"Nah, we wouldn't be allowed to," he said. "This is the clearly the floor boss room for this floor. As soon as they started fighting, a forcefield was likely activated, preventing anyone from interfering in the match. If they win, the forcefield will drop and then the room will reset so we can try. It should only take them a few minutes to deal with them and then we'll be able to fight the floor boss and head down to the tenth floor."

"Are you sure there is a forcefield up?" Mason asked, stepping forward. "Why can't we see-"

We all laughed when Mason walked into the forcefield and was knocked back a few feet, falling on his ass. While the forcefield wasn't visible, it did flare up when he walked into it, showing us that it covered the entirety of the fighting area.

"Forcefields are invisible, got it," he said as he got back to his feet.

The other team of adventurers seemed to focus a bit more on casting spells than our group did, having a tank, an archer and then two mages. One was a fire mage, while the other seemed to be a frost mage, and each was focused on a different target. The frost mage was doing her best to keep the warrior frozen while the rest of her team dealt with the priest.

It seemed like a decent strategy, though the priest was giving them some trouble. It was protected by a shield, and also seemed to be able to periodically dispel the ice holding the warrior in place. Still, the warrior was kept out of the fight for the most part, which probably made the fight easier than it otherwise would have been, if they didn't have a frost mage.

We didn't know how long they were fighting when we arrived, but it took them five minutes or so to finish off the priest before moving on to the warrior. It took substantially less time to take him down, and soon the forcefield shimmered before dropping completely.

The frost mage seemed to notice us while the rest of her team picked up their spoils, and called out to them to alert them to our presence. They all looked our way before going back to picking everything up, while the frost mage walked towards us.

"Good morning!" she greeted as she got close. "Sorry it took us so long to deal with them. Were you waiting long?"

"Nah, only seven or eight minutes or so. Nice strategy keeping the warrior frozen," I said.

"Thanks! Our fifth got called into work this morning, otherwise it would've been pretty easy, I think. We're not used to fighting as a group of four, so we had to adapt. It took us a long time to finally exhaust the priest allowing us to finish it off. Oh, where are my manners... my name is Kaya, and the women behind me are Kendyll, Astrid and Hailey," she said pointing to each as she said their names. "Our fifth is Vivienne, but she had to work. Together, we form Victorious Secret."

"Victoria's Secret? Like the lingerie?" Mason asked.

Anja slapped his arm. "No, you dummy. Victorious. That's V-i-c-t-o-r-i-o-u-s. It's a play on words," she said before turning back to Kaya. "Nice to meet you. My name is Anja and the woman standing behind me is my twin Sonja. Standing up front is Jonathan, and over here are Ben and Mason. We're The Wolves."

"Nice to meet you all," she said. "Do you mind if we watch your fight? We're pretty new at this, only being able to delve on the weekends since work keeps us busy. We might be able to pick something up by watching you guys work together."

I looked at my friends who shrugged with indifference. "Sure, it's fine with us. Just know that we are stronger than the average person at our level, so what works for us may not work for you."

"I understand. You guys look pretty strong, especially in that armor. What's it made of?"

"Leather and kevlar for the most part," Ben said before I could reply, which was a good thing because I had no idea how to answer that. "It's durable while allowing us to be pretty mobile."

"Huh, maybe I'll have a look around for something similar," she said as the rest of her team walked up behind her, the tank in the group, who was identified as Astrid, stopped right next to her. She easily had a foot in height over the rest of her party, and seemed to be of Scandinavian descent."

"Everything is gathered, Kaya," Astrid said. "We got a Tier D Skill Gem in addition to the regular stuff."

"Nice! Ladies, these are The Wolves; Anja, Sonja, Jonathan, Ben and Mason," Kaya said. "They're going to take on those skeletons next, and they're kind enough to let us watch."

"Cool! Speaking of which, it looks like they're respawning," the woman identified by Kaya as Kendyll said.

"That they are," I replied as I saw the skeletons clawing their way out of the stone floor. They seemed to be the exact same size and makeup as the groups on the eighth floor, each being five warriors, four archers, four mages and three priests. There was one difference between these ones and the other ones though, and that was that all the skeletons on this floor were one level higher. It would make it slightly more difficult, but easily dealt with. If we weren't being observed, I could probably take on an entire group by myself, but I figured we would tackle it the same way we did on the eighth floor.

"Ladies, if you'll excuse us," I said, walking past them while activating my sword and shield.

There wasn't any point in using my spear as skeletons can't bleed, but my sword would allow me to do more damage by using Gash and Quick Slash, in addition to Siphoning Strike. I stopped just along the edge of the fighting area, with my friends filing in and stopping beside me.

"Alright, we take care of it like we did last time. I'll use Blink to close the distance and keep them in one area. Ben, Sonja, use your area of effect abilities, and Mace, you leap in and deal with the priests as soon as the meteors start falling. Anja, you deal with anything that gets passed me, and then help me deal with the warriors, alright?"

"You got it," Ben said. "I've got a surprise, but I'll be saving it for the floor bosses. Also keep in mind that I can't use Meteor Shower on all three groups, I can only use it on the first and third."

"Okay, let's go."

We all stepped forward, the forcefield activating when we were inside. Both the Skeletal Warrior and the Skeletal Priest standing on the raised platform tapped their weapons on the stone floor, and the first group of skeletons started running towards us. It was the group on the left as always, so I ran forward and used Blink when I was in range.

As soon as I appeared in front of the group I activated Mana Shield, making sure I was ready for the barrage I knew was coming. Three of the warriors encircled me, while two ran past. That was fine though, as the rest of the group was entirely focused on me. I was peppered by spells and arrows until that stopped completely when the first meteor fell, dealing a lot of damage to the backline and knocking them down.

Like clockwork, Mason jumped in with Whirling Leap, dealing a massive amount of damage to the knocked-down priests, and then finishing them off with Cleave and Sweeping Strike. He also threw in a Seismic Shove to knock them down for good measure. I kept hacking and slashing at one of the warriors in front of me, taking it down a lot quicker thanks to my additional abilities before switching to the next one. Arrows were falling all around me, while also flying passed me to hit the archers and mages.

I had finished with the second warrior and was turning to deal with the third one when a shadow appeared behind it and Anja stepped out of it. She immediately struck the warrior with Backstab before moving back a short distance and firing off Ice Shards as fast as she could. When the skeleton fell, I looked to see the status of the mages and archers to see that Mason and Sonja had dealt with them.

We all immediately turned and started running, heading towards the right side of the room where the next group of skeletons were 'waking up'. I used Blink once again, cutting off their advance as best I could while Mason went flying overhead, landing in the middle of the group and unleashing another Whirling Leap.

Arrows started falling from overhead, and he used Dash to get behind the priests, finishing them off before they could raise any of their allies. All of our weapons were flaming for this group, signifying that Ben had Aura of Flame active for this fight. It did seem to be adding quite a bit of damage now, especially since it worked with two of our group's best area of effect abilities, Mason's Whirling Leap and Sonja's Volley. It actually only took slightly longer to deal with the second group, as Aura of Flame seemed to have helped a lot.

The third group was finished off just as quickly as the first, and we immediately moved to deal with the floor bosses.

"I'll keep the warrior busy! You four deal with the priest!" I yelled, running over and blocking the warrior's overhead strike. The Skeletal Warrior was bigger than any of the other skeletons, being at least eight and a half or nine feet tall, and carried a massive spiked mace. I knew I wouldn't be able to do much damage to him in my human form, so I didn't even try. I threw in the occasional Shield Bash to stun it, but otherwise dodged as many of its attacks as I could.

Soon, there was a deafening noise coming behind me, sounding as if there was a furious blaze right behind me. Keeping my attention on the warrior, I moved around him until I could see the source of the noise, and was astonished to see a Fire Elemental beating on the Skeletal Priest's shields. I wasn't aware that he had reached the one hundred Intellect requirement to cast the spell, but apparently he had.

With the Fire Elemental's help, it only took a couple of minutes to drop the shield, allowing them to quickly finish off the vulnerable priest. The warrior didn't last nearly as long, falling within twenty seconds when my friends turned their attention to it. Ben immediately dispersed his elemental, probably wanting to regain his mana.

"Nicely done, guys, and nice surprise, Ben. I wasn't aware you hit one hundred Intellect."

He nodded, "One hundred five, actually, thanks to that Minor Jack of All Trades Skill Gem I got the other day."

"Well, I'll definitely be getting my Intellect up to one hundred next, that Fire Elemental was awesome!" Mason exclaimed.

"I had Mana Shield up so I didn't feel the heat. How were you able to stand so close to it without getting cooked?"

"There was no heat," Anja replied. "I reflexively backed up when I saw it appear near the boss, but the area didn't get hotter as well."

"That's normal," Ben interjected. "It wouldn't be worth using with allies all around you if they got hurt as well, would it? That was only a rank one Fire Elemental, too. As the ability ranks up, they get bigger and the color changes to signify the heat they put off. It goes from red until rank twenty, orange to rank forty, yellow to rank sixty, white to rank eighty, and finally blue at rank one hundred. People will typically give a blue Fire Elemental a wide berth on a battlefield."

"Well, let's get everything gathered up before we talk to Victorious Secret. They seem excited," I said, looking over Ben's shoulder and seeing the women standing just on the outside of the fighting area.

We split up and gathered all the items dropped, picking up a Tier E Skill Gem, two Mana Gems, and a number of crystal shards. When we had everything gathered, we walked over to the women who were patiently waiting.

"That was awesome! What level are you guys? Thirty? Fourty?" Kaya asked, firing off questions one after another."

"Nah, not that high," I said with a chuckle. "We just hit level nineteen off that boss fight, actually."

"Level nineteen with that many Tier S abilities?" Hailey asked, the suspicion clearly audible in her voice. "I saw at least nine Tier S abilities in that fight. How does a group of level nineteen adventurers have that many?"

Once again Ben came to the rescue. "I've seen a few of you eyeing my staff since the fight ended, so I imagine you know what it's made out of. My family is quite well off thanks to our Magewood tree, and that allowed me to acquire a few Tier S Skill Gems for my friends and I."

"I've heard that Magewood is very expensive," Kaya. "That staff has to be worth like five-hundred thousand credits, right?"

"More than that, actually. Magewood takes such a long time to grow that a staff such as this is worth millions of credits. If members of my family express interest in adventuring, they are allowed to cut off a small section of our Magewood tree, either to use, or to sell to outfit themselves with good equipment. My older sister wasn't interested, so I was able to cut off double the amount. I didn't need two staves, so I sold a little under half of it, and used it to outfit us with armor, weapons and a few Skill Gems, each."

"I was wondering how your weapons collapsed and extended. They're dimensional weapons, right? You channel your mana into them and they extend, and when you stop channeling mana they collapse?"

Ben nodded. "They're quite handy, and means that stuff like sheaths or scabbards aren't in the way."

"I can imagine," Kaya said. "Well, I'm sure we're all running against the clock. Do you mind if we join you, at least until we get to the boss room on the next floor? It might make things go quicker."

"Sure, though I'll warn you now that we're leaving after we kill the boss. We're not getting much experience from this dungeon, so we'll be going to a higher level dungeon after we get a few more pieces of equipment."

"That's fine with us, we'll even let you go first so you can leave when you're done. We know how long it takes to get to a dungeon, we had to drive for two hours this morning to get here."

I nodded. "Alright, let's get moving."

The nine of us made our way down the stairs to the tenth floor, pausing for a minute to allow Ben to summon a Skeletal Warrior before continuing.

"That's kinda creepy," Abigail said from behind us.

"You get used to it," Anja said as Ben led us with his skeleton out in front. "It has been able to trigger every trap we've come across so far, and if it dies Ben can just summon a new one."

"Huh. I never thought about using something like that to trigger traps. Astrid is able to detect them, so she usually activates them from a distance. We ended up getting Raise Skeletal Archer earlier, so maybe one of us will learn it so we can trigger traps more easily."

"It could also help you in boss fights," Ben said. "It probably would've been a bit easier to deal with the Skeletal Priest if you had it firing arrows."

"It wouldn't have helped that much, would it? Even the skeletons we've been going up against are pretty weak," Hailey said.

"True, but you've gotta start somewhere, right? Spells like this one require a skeleton to be summoned to rank up. Eventually it will get strong enough that enemies won't be able to ignore it, and you could have a small army of them. I've seen a few clips of teams that delve into dungeons using an undead army with anything from skeletons to ghouls to flesh golems. A max rank flesh golem can be incredibly strong."

"Just the name makes me shudder. I definitely wouldn't want to be around a large group of undead all the time."

"To each their own," Ben replied.

"Stop!" Sonja shouted, causing some of us to bump into each other. "Trap just ahead, Ben. Move it a little over to the left and then forward, and it will step right on it."

"Got it," he said, concentrating and commanding the skeleton to change its angle and walk forward.

Five seconds later, it triggered the trap, falling into another of the blade pits, as I began calling them. I activated Mana Shield, as there were a few bone shards that went flying in all directions. Ben started summoning another Skeletal Warrior while we waited for the trap to reset.

"Yup, I'll definitely be learning Raise Skeletal Archer. That is one nasty trap," Kaya said.

"It's the second time we've seen one like it. It's probably the deadliest trap we've come across so far."

"The worst we've come across is one that dropped a large stone when activated."

"There will be many more dangerous traps as we delve into higher level dungeons," Ben said as he continued once his skeleton had clawed its way out of the stone floor. "Stuff that makes these ones look like nothing. Meat grinders, snake pits, acid pits, even ones that literally explode. The most successful teams are those that always make sure they're able to detect any traps there might be, and they never rush through as fast as possible."

The tenth floor ended up being a maze, like the fifth floor in the Gatineau Park dungeon was. There were lots of traps and very few enemies, the only ones we'd seen were two Mimics. We made our way through five rooms while navigating the maze, each one containing a chest or a Mimic. We split the spoils between the two groups, each team taking turns looting a chest or a Mimic. We let Victorious Secret loot the first chest, so they ended up getting three Skill Gems while we only got two. We were lucky than they were, however, and ended up getting one Tier D Skill Gem and one Tier E Skill Gem, while Victorious Secret only got three Tier E Skill Gems.

It still took a while to find the boss room, but we soon found the usual embossed door approximately forty-five minutes after first entering the floor. Ben informed us that only one group would be able to enter the room at a time, so we took a few moments to exchange contact information with one another. The two groups got to know each other while we walked, and we found out that all of us were from Ottawa.