*Shring shring clang shring*
Matheon’s sword made a ringing noise as it sliced and bounced off the stone statues.
“Hmm…” he frowned slightly before jumping back and staying at a safe distance.
“This isn’t working… and my fire gem has no effect on their stone bodies.”
“... perhaps the mist keep dungeon isn’t right for me… but the silt wolf one is a little too advanced.”
Matheson decided to leave the dungeon and do some thinking, he needed to find a dungeon that was somewhere inbetween.
“Hmm. The soap rat dungeon is a little too low level now, it’s not worth my time… perhaps I will try one of those non-instanced dungeons. I know there’s a level three one somewhere in the south.”
Matheson decided to head back to the association to find the level three dungeon he vaguely remembered seeing.
The non-instanced dungeons were not as popular, as people competed over enemies to kill.
Since these dungeons were non-instanced, if people in two different parties went into one, they would see each other. No one would be alone or separate in these dungeons.
Enemies would respawn quickly, and these dungeons were more like basic hunting grounds than lucrative adventures. They generally didn’t have progression, and the bosses were not as threatening as an instanced level three dungeon would be.
Overall, the non-instanced dungeons were much easier than their instanced counterparts.
Leaving mist keep, Matheson ran up the hill past the quarry and headed into the association.
After having his clothes shredded by silt wolves, he had since bought some black close-fitting clothes with a dark hide tunic, complete with shoulder pauldrons.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe guards no longer mocked him either, as his running stride seemed more professional and his new clothes were no longer billowing around; they matched the focused hungry flame within his eyes.
Entering the association, he found the map location.
[Feral Plains - Level 3 Dungeon]
[Non-instanced] [Unlocked]
“It’s pretty close to the stink-rat marsh. Good.” Matheson thought as he looked at it.
There was added information about the dungeon too, a simple note which said ‘swarm tactics’.
“Swarm tactics? Sounds stupid.” he thought as he turned and left the association.
Matheson decided he would head home for a quick meal and drop his new trophies off before continuing on his mission to get stronger and become independent.
So far, he was slowly acquiring these things - but was also finding that he was gaining so much more; his thoughts changing as he learnt discipline and drive. Realisations about what power and strength truly meant were beginning to shape his mind, slowly turning him into a different person.
As he ran down the hill like he usually did, his eyes drifted on someone lurking in the bushes below the path. He slowed down his jog for a moment out of curiosity, but soon he regained his focus, picking up his speed with a renewed spirit.
“What are those?” Anya asked as she watched the skeletons gather some strange looking crystals.
“Huh? Oh, they’re for a quest. Soul stones.”
“You got a quest?” she was surprised, never having heard of someone getting a quest for this dungeon.
“Yep… hmm. I wonder if you can loot the soul stones off their corpses now that we’re in the same party?”
“I’ll try.” she said as she walked over to one of the recently deceased stone soldiers.
“Nope. Nothing. It must not let me since I don’t have the quest.”
“Yeah… probably” Jay said, but he had his own theories about why only he could loot the soul stones.
Anya proceeded to move to other corpses and loot them, making Jay confused.
“What are you doing? I thought you couldn’t get soul stones?”
“I’m getting the rings? Duh.”
“The rings...”
Suddenly, Jay felt like his heart stopped beating as he realised a crucial mistake he had made.
All this time, he only had his skeletons collecting the soul stones and ignoring the rings. Not all the statues had them, but he would have lost hundreds of rings probably.
Anya was still gathering the helvetian rings so she didn’t see Jay turning pale.
“Fuck…” he stood still, not blinking as his eyebrows creased “I completely forgot… I could have had the skeletons gather the rings this whole time..” he thought to himself.
“And I reset the dungeon too so those are all gone..” he clenched his teeth as the realisation dawned on him.
He could no longer hold in his anger.
“FUCK! …FUUUCK!” he yelled out loud as a wave of frustration rolled over him.
“Woah, what?” Anya turned and looked at him, worried they might be under attack.
Jay was red, an angry expression on his face as he looked at the rubble on the ground clenching his fists.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm“Nothing” he snapped and exhaled angrily, “Never mind.” he said softly and turned away.
“O...kay...” Anya said, a little confused before she went back to gathering.
Meanwhile Jay was commanding his skeletons mentally.
“ALWAYS gather ALL loot from creatures. ALWAYS!” he enforced a new rule on his skeletons, yelling through his thoughts to them as he gritted his teeth.
Jay got so caught up with the soul stone quest he received that it was like he got tunnel vision.
The skeletons happily obliged, following their master’s new order, which was more like a rule now as they started to get helvetian rings from the corpses too.
“I don’t even want to calculate how much gold I’ve lost.” He shook his head, still frustrated.
Anya was still collecting the loot with hungry eyes and a tiny smile, not missing a single statue as she ignored Jay’s weirdness and went about her business.
“Anya, half of those are mine.”
“Of course.” she said, glad that Jay didn’t demand more since he technically did most of the work.
After looting all 25 corpses, they both took a break. Anya retrieved what crossbow bolts she could while Jay healed his skeletons.
Thankfully the skeletons didn’t suffer too much damage, so after restoring them Jay’s mana was still relatively high; his mind still sharp.
Now that they were ready, they began to march closer to the pyramid entrance.
The open doors of the pyramid still had six spearmen statues guarding the front, ever vigilant.
“Six statues, shouldn’t be too hard.” Jay said as he squinted at them, looking for traps.
“Hopefully.” Anya said, trying not to sound too doubtful.
“I’ll distract two of them, leaving a skeleton to fight each of the statues. You can attack one of the statues the skeletons are fighting so they can help the others before helping me.”
“Sure.” Anya nodded, readying her crossbow.