Ajax was forced to make a very difficult decision. On the one hand he could try and warn the team about the magma mana he felt when he siphoned the arch and this would most like lead to a much safer run if they were to take a different arch. On the other hand revealing something wasn’t something to be done on a whim. In the first place it would basically be outing that he had a Legendary skill as Rare skills weren’t hard to find when u had a kingdom’s worth of people and none had been discovered that could tell what the next floor would be like.
“Well let's get to it” the leader said as he took a step towards the arch. “Also where the hell is -”
Trevor II’s question was cut off by the scout that had just appeared from the foliage of the dense jungle floor theme. Not only that but from the way he was breathing and the greed in his eyes it was clear that something good just happened, this meant that at the very least Ajax’s choice was postponed, for now.
“Boss!... Boss!...” He heaved as he tried to get some air, the speed he rushed back at as well as the excitement had left him winded. “I found a small camp of spawns. Ones we can take outside.”
Ajax frowned slightly when he heard of spawns. He knew the term but he hadn’t run into any of them before as they simply weren’t something a dungeon would choose to use on lower floors. In simple terms spawns were humanoids spawned by the dungeon. Unlike kobolds these weren’t monsters but could be humans, dwarves, beastkin, elves or any of the other hostile humanoid races. Most noticeable about them would be that they never dropped a core, also once the levels got past ninety chances were they had better gear than delvers did so a team could get all new gear for the rest of the delve. Now that there was a camp whose weapons they could take outside was one of the biggest jackpots the could hit.
“That’s more like it!”
“I told you guys I was due some good luck.”
A few members of the team already started celebrating their early payday. A few of the people didn’t seem all that excited and were instead more cautious. “What are we dealing with this time?”
The biggest challenge with facing spawns was that they were essentially bloodthirsty humanoids. The worst part of all this was that they wouldn’t know what to expect from them. Unlike usual monsters where you could mainly assess their attributes, humanoids were extremely versatile, they could be glass cannon mages, bulwark tanks or anything in between.
“Did you get a look at their equipment?” Trevor asked.
“Not a good one, I didn’t want to risk giving myself away if one of them was perception based.” the scout replied.
That was the other problem with dealing with spawn. Unlike regular humanoids they didn’t have to level, the dungeon created them at the appropriate level for the floor meaning they could have builds that would be totally impractical to use to actually get to that level, the lesson most prominently shared by the Adventurers guild being the one cast mage. A mage that had practically no Mind or Wisdom but was stacked with intelligence, the could fire one spell and one spell only but that spell could be on the level of something twenty levels higher. The story was something of a myth or legend, only somewhat confirmed by teams when they met them as they were climbing to the floor they wanted to get to so they overleveled said mage with no public record of any team meeting one at an appropriate level for them. Then again it could be that no team had met them and lived to tell the tale.
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The team made a careful approach, Ajax had his bow drawn and was ready to release a two hundred mana magma arrow, he was looking for a sure kill on his opening shot. Sadly it wasn;t to be a perfect ambush. The foxkin had gotten a whiff of them before they all got in position and the jungle exploded with movement.
Ajax’s arrow was quick to hit its mark, penetrating the staff holder right between the eyes before releasing a small amount of magma right inside his skull killing him instantly. It wasn’t enough to even melt the spawns face but it doesn’t take much magma to the brain to get a solid kill.
The rest of the foxkin were also quick to follow. All three of their physically focused melee combatants were quickly swarmed in one versus three and dispatched. The other staff wielder did manage to give the team's assassin a good shot around the head, turns out it was a monk staff wielder and not a caster so the dagger through the back wasn’t enough to kill him. The seven arrows that turned him into a pincushion after were however.
As for the ranger foxkin, he did well to get some distance from the melee, and even managed to get a few shots off towards the teams bow wielders, though none of them landed. The issue was with him being away from the main fight he turned himself into a clear target for the three mages that blasted him with spells the moment they had a clear shot.
“Everyone good?” Trevor asked once it was clear the fight was over.
“He will be in a minute.” The healer said as he was patching the assassin up, blood now colored his hair where his skull cracked slightly.
“I want that staff.” the assassin cried out, a small hiss of pain following his cry. “I took it to the head so I get to take it home.” Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝕟𝕖𝕥
The rest of the team did make some over the top rebuttals and comments about his hard head but it all seemed in good fun. It seems that when it came to finds the loot was given out in a pick order. The order was determined first by the most injured in the fight, there was only one this time, then by kill contribution. The healer was getting the short end of the stick there but a high level healer had the easiest time making money on the side outside of dungeons.
“Alright, fine you can get the staff,” Trevor conceded. “But I also expect you to turn in an accident report for the hit.” That was a hit as it would put a spotlight on his carelessness.
“What do you want, Ajax?” Trevor then asked.
“Damn, you can make it spew magma inside their skull?” one of the people that was investigating the corpses asked as he inspected Ajax’s kill.
“I’ll take the other staff.” Ajax said as he picked up the staff. Most important thing about it was the obvious enchantment runes that were running all across it. Ajax hoped it was a mage’s staff and not a healer’s but that was for later.
The rest of the gear was quickly distributed, the mages were also given a stern talking to. Reason for the talking was that they didn’t use ice spells to kill the archer and ruined most of his gear in the process, all that was salvageable was his bow and arrows.
Having seen the team in action Ajax had now determined to not share what he knew about the magma archway. After all the team had made preparations for any type of floor even if this would be one of the more dangerous ones. Ajax was mostly worried about the companions. Bisons and bears didn’t mix all that well with high temperature environments. And none of the companions was in their sixties yet, though that would be an issue regardless of what floor they would go to.
Progression Achievement : Delver
Pass through an advancement arch inside a dungeon.
Reward: +10 to all stats.
Progress : Passing arches to levels you haven’t been to advances this achievement.
Reward: +1 to all stats for any progress made.
Ajax took a fond look at the that had stacked up so nicely during this delve as they entered the floor. It had started as a +1 to all stats back when he got to the second floor in the dungeon near Lessis, went up to +3 after the delve he had done a few weeks ago. But this dungeon truly deserved its name as the goldmine as it gave him seven floors of progress so quickly.
“We’ve got an environmental floor, heat based by the looks of it.” Trevor called out and everyone started swapping their gear to its correct configuration. “Any of you want to send your companions out now’s your chance.”
Nobody took him up on the offer though a few of them did look tempted. One thing that Ajax was thankful for was that despite the magma theme the floor wasn’t a deep cave with tunnels layout or a desert type. Instead it seemed to be a full plant ecosystem that adapted to the rough rocky terrain as well as the rivers of magma that could be seen flowing.