Warbreaker's Risk: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure (The Connected System Book 2), page 36
FREE THE CORRUPTED
THE INHABITANTS OF THE CAVES HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED. FREE THEM OF THE INCURABLE CORRUPTION BY SLAYING THEM.
CORRUPTED SLAIN 0/40
Loch watched the letters fade from his vision. He turned to confront Cerie, glaring at the fairy that hovered just above Piper’s shoulder.
“You said this wasn’t a Challenge Dungeon,” he spat.
“It’s not,” Cerie replied with a little fear in her glowing green eyes. She flew back a foot or so.
“Why are there Objectives?”
“There are always Objectives with Dungeons, even Resource ones,” she answered, no longer as afraid. She still stayed back from Loch’s angry glare.
“You didn’t mention that.”
“I apologize, Lord Lochlan.”
He continued to glare at her, trying to control his anger. He knew it wasn’t all directed at her. The Objectives had caught him off guard. But she hadn’t warned them. She had been told to let them know about things like that, even if it wasn’t directly asked.
“Dad,” Piper said.
He took a deep breath, finding his center again. He’d try to be nicer to Cerie going forward. It wasn’t all her fault.
“It’s okay, Pipes,” he said, turning away from Cerie. “Just caught me by surprise. Sorry.”
He directed the apology to the others but not to Cerie, giving her a last glare to make sure she understood.
“What’s this moss?” Julia asked.
She had walked over to the wall but kept a few feet away, not getting too close and not reaching out to touch the moss.
Loch tried to use Evaluate. It didn’t work.
Cerie flew closer, eager to get away from Loch.
“It is common to cave-style Dungeons.”
“Can it be harvested?” Loch asked. “Be used for crafting?”
“Yes,” Cerie answered. “Alchemists can use it to brew light globes or in Darksight Potions.”
Those had to be some kind of flashlight, Loch thought. The potion’s use was obvious.
“How can we harvest it?” Julia asked, still not reaching out for it.
“Just scrape it off the walls,” Cerie answered. “It will no longer glow, but the property will still exist within the moss’s structure.”
Loch was happy. Not even past the first room, and they had already found their first Resource. But something was off. It was too easy.
“What’s the catch?”
Cerie’s eyes glowed green as she deciphered what he meant.
“Yes. There is a catch.” She paused with the use of the word, making sure she had it right before continuing. “The moss is connected such that if you remove a small bit from any of the patches, all will lose their light.”
“So it’s a trade-off,” Loch said. “You collect the Resource but sacrifice the light.”
“Correct, Lord Lochlan. And it takes a large amount of the moss to produce a single potion or globe.”
“It does regrow?” Julia asked.
“Not in this instance of the Dungeon. But it will be here again when the next party enters once the Dungeon has recharged and respawned.”
Another of the Connections games.
The moss was useful, but it took a lot to make it useful, and they could only take a small amount out of the Dungeon at a time or completely sacrifice their source of light. Which meant they would keep coming back to the Dungeon to collect more moss.
They could use one of the potions to give them the ability to see in the dark or one of the globes, but Loch had a feeling that it took more of the Resource to make those items than they could collect in one or maybe even three trips into the Dungeon.
The patches weren’t even that big. The smaller ones were only six inches or so in diameter. The larger ranged from a foot to two feet long but only a foot or two high. And there weren’t as many patches of moss as he had first thought. The moss was just that bright.
He knew there would be moss deeper in the dungeon, but it was still going to be a choice between the Resource or having light.
“Let’s collect some of the moss,” he said. “But leave enough to provide plenty of light. Then we head deeper into the Dungeon. Looks like we have some corruption to stop.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
They started down the slope.
Harper was in the lead, using her Shadow Sense to scout for any traps. Loch came next, followed by Piper and Julia, with Brian in the rear. Loch had been disappointed to learn there was no party system in the Connection. When he and the girls had gone into the Challenge Dungeon, he had forgotten to check. Now he had asked and gotten the negative.
It was strange to him. Why wasn’t there?
The Connected System gave out quests and objectives. It had character screens. Quantified Health, Strength, and all the rest with numbers and math. It had Abilities and Skills.
So why not a party system?
It wasn’t really needed but would have made things so much easier. Julia would have found it easier. She hadn’t ever needed to heal anyone in combat before, usually just after the fights with the monsters back at the camp. Having a way to track everyone’s Health would have been beneficial.
“I do have that,” she said once Loch had finished complaining. “Or something like it.” Her eyes lost focus as she accessed her Status. “Well, it’s not as good as what you described but should still work. It’s called Awareness and is one of my Class Skills. It says that I have a basic sense of the Health of my allies and enemies. I don’t think it will give me hard numbers. It sounds like it will be just a feeling.”
“For now,” Cerie said. “As that Skill Ranks up, you should start to see buffs or debuffs that the target has active, and your sense of how much Health they have will become stronger.”
“I’ll get numbers?”
“No, but your sense will be more accurate and exact.”
It sounded like a healer’s version of Evaluate. His Skill gave Loch the name of the monsters, and once it had Ranked up, he could get a general feel for their strength compared to his. Julia could do the same, just with Health. Both dealt with Health, he realized. One was just about learning how much Health was needed to kill it. The other was about how much Health was needed to keep it alive.
Two sides of the same coin.
There had to be something to that idea, Loch thought, trying to think it through.
The idea slipped through his grasp.
There was no moss on the walls of the sloping tunnel leading them down. The light came from the moss in the cave above, Loch was glad he had told them to not harvest any near the entrance to the tunnel. More light came from below. More moss.
The walls were rough and jagged, filled with cracks and areas where large pieces were missing. The roof of the tunnel was lower, only three or four feet above Loch’s head. He was glad there were no formations hanging down. Loose rocks covered the ground, larger ones that they had to step around.
There were even animal bones. Most were small, squirrel-sized. A couple were larger. Coyotes or wolves. Pre-Adapted ones.
Harper held her hand up, stopping them. She was at the opening, pressed to the side, leaning out a little to get a good look. Loch raised his hand, passing the signal down the line. He didn’t think Julia was ex-military, but a hand raised was a pretty universal signal to stop.
Loch waited, impatient. He wanted to be up there.
Harper was the scout, he wouldn’t take that away from her, but she didn’t know what to look for. Not yet. He had a better idea of how to assess an area. But she had to learn, and experience was the best teacher.
A few minutes later, Harper moved silently back to him. He motioned the others to come closer, Harper waiting until Brian was there to start talking.
“It’s an oddly shaped cavern,” she started. “The opening is on one end with the cavern off to the right but widening so part of it is hidden. There are some stalagmites growing up from the floor, scattered randomly around. Not that many, with lots of space between them. Some loose stones across the floor.”
“And the monsters?” Loch asked, knowing there would be some.
It was the first official room of the Dungeon. Their first look at what to expect from it.
“Four bears. But big ones,” Harper said. “I couldn’t see anything special about them. Just bigger.”
She sketched out a rough layout of the room in the dusty of the tunnel floor, marking the location of the four bears. Her Evaluate hadn’t given her any information. It hadn’t Ranked up yet, just giving her the monster’s name.
SICKLY CAVE BEAR
“They didn’t look sick,” Harper said.
“Maybe they aren’t fully corrupted yet,” Julia suggested. “A sickness that can lead to corruption, like a cancerous growth.”
That was as good an explanation as any.
The bears hadn’t been moving, but not sleeping.
Another quirk of the Dungeoncore. The first room was supposed to be easy—a way for the party of Connected to get an idea of the Dungeon. Cerie did say that some Dungeons made the first room incredibly difficult, wanting to wipe out the Party before they got too deep. But she had stressed that the Black Bear Caves was a lower-Ranked Dungeon, even with Loch’s presence adjusting it, and it wouldn’t start off with a tough room.
They didn’t have a choice but to believe her.
Loch was still going to proceed with caution.
He had the others wait, creeping forward as silently as he could. There was metal on his armor, but each piece was stitched to the leather, which didn’t let it creak like all metal armor would. He still wasn’t as quiet as Harper, but he did his best.
Reaching the edge of the opening, he leaned out, studying the cavern.
He could see the four bears, just as Harper had described. They were the largest he had ever seen, bigger than polar bears but having the bulk of grizzlies. The beasts were massive. He used Evaluate.
The feeling he got from the closest bear was of a power somewhere between Harper and his own. Level Eleven or Twelve? Two of the others gave off a similar feel, with the last being much closer to Loch’s Level than Harper’s.
The four would be tough for him alone if could face them one on one. With their numbers, they’d manage to kill him. They would be tough for any party from the camp that didn’t have him in it. One of the bears alone would overwhelm Julia and probably Brian. Harper could take one, but not two. Piper would be hard-pressed to take out one.
He’d come up with a plan of attack after Harper’s debrief. That wasn’t going to change.
With one last look, he headed back to the others.
Harper disappeared into the shadows in the tunnel.
Loch stepped out into the opening, arm pulled back in the action of throwing. As he stepped into the cavern, he threw Onyx. The axe spun end over end, the head landing in the first cave bear’s shoulder. Lightning crackled around the wound.
The bear roared, standing up, ignoring the wound as Onyx disappeared. It looked around, eyes glowing red with rage. Finding Loch, it roared again.
A challenge.
Not waiting for a reply, the bear charged.
It thundered across the space, the rock formations spaced out enough to give it a clear lane.
The ground shook, the bear’s large claws digging into the stone. It was massive. Shoulders as wide as Loch was tall, its back almost seven feet off the ground. The thing would tower over Loch if it stood on its hind legs.
The roof of the cavern was tall enough that it easily could.
It came closer, Loch shifting his feet, raising Onyx to defend. He didn’t Activate a Stance. Not yet.
Harper appeared out of the shadows behind a stalagmite. She lunged at the bear’s side, leading with both tonfas, the ends crackling with lightning. The blades speared in deep, the bear roaring in surprise and pain, coming to a stop, its momentum sliding it along the ground a couple of feet.
Rolling back, planting her feet on the bear’s shaggy head, Harper cut deep and jagged wounds into the monster. She landed on the hard ground in a roll, not stopping until she was against the wall. Hopping up, she set herself with weapons raised, waiting on the bear.
It had turned to swat at her, too slow to connect. Now it stared at her, body half turned, blood gushing out of the wounds. It didn’t know whether to go after her or Loch.
He didn’t give it a choice.
With Windstep, Loch shot across the cavern, closing the distance.
Onyx slammed into the side of the bear, cutting through its thick fur into flesh and muscle. He sliced it along the bear’s flank, twisting the axe head to widen the wound.
The bear’s body shook, taking heavy damage in seconds.
It turned quickly, twisting its body in hopes of snagging Loch with its claws. It was too slow.
Loch crouched down, pushing himself up. His strength lifted him as high as the bear, booted feet landing on its back. Before it could try to shake him loose, Loch pushed off.
He landed on the other side of the monster, Bulwark Activating. The shield caught the swiping attack from the second bear. It had been aggroed when the first had been attacked, the bear’s roar a signal to the others in the cavern.
Thick, long claws scraped across the translucent surface of the shield. Loch Activated the new features of Bulwark. Lightning Bulwark’s field exploded out at the bear, pushing the large creature back. It reared up, standing on its hind legs as small bolts of lightning crackled around its body. Wisps of smoke curled up, the smell of burnt fur filling the cavern.
Loch followed up with a quick swipe of Onyx with Cleave Activated. He didn’t need to use his Ability to see weak spots. With the bear reared up, it was obvious where to attack. The bear’s neck was too high, but its belly was exposed. Onyx cut deep into the softer underbelly, Loch twisting the weapon.
The cave bear fell forward, Loch barely managing to leap out of the way.
With Offensive Stance Activating, Loch stepped to the side, Onyx swinging. He was faster than the wounded bear, the thing not quick enough to turn to swipe at him. Onyx cut deep into its neck, the body twisting to the side as the shock stole the strength from the bear. Loch pulled the axe back, swinging it down again.
And a third time.
The bear’s head stayed attached.
Barely.
It fell on its side, body giving one last breath before shuddering as the life left the monster.
Loch didn’t stop, running past the dying creature. There were still two more, and both were now awake and ready.
They hadn’t charged like the second had. These two, including the strongest on the left, with some gray in its black fur, making it look older, were smarter. They had watched the quick fighting, using it to learn about who was attacking their cavern. They spread out, putting some more distance between them. The elder stepped behind a stalagmite, giving it some cover.
It never expected to be attacked from behind.
Harper appeared behind the elder cave bear. Her tonfas struck, scoring a deep wound aided by the Critical Strike. It roared in pain, rearing up and turning, paws swiping at where Harper had been. The third bear got distracted by its elder’s roar of pain. It turned that way.
Onyx caught it in the side of its head with the hammer.
The blow knocked its head to the side, causing the monster to shake its massive head. Its head wobbled, the red eyes unfocused. Another strike from the thrown axe caught it in the shoulder, the bladed head biting deep.
Onyx back in hand, Loch threw it at the elder.
He charged the third bear, leading with Bulwark. The shield had shrunk, looking like a buckler but with spikes growing from the front. Translucent spikes slammed into the bear’s shoulder, points stabbing deep. Dismissing Bulwark, Loch leaped up, feet slamming into the bear’s side. He pushed off, hitting the ground in a roll.
The maneuver had worked for Harper, Loch had thought to try it.
It worked, but he didn’t know how to hit the ground the right way to avoid damage. His full weight, with added force, hit the hard ground.
It hurt.
He stopped the roll, jumping up into a fighting position, hand held out. Onyx appeared, back at full size. His strength had managed to push the heavy bear a couple of feet.
Recovered, it looked around the cavern for him.
Finding him not that far away, it didn’t even bother to roar, it just charged.
Loch Activated Offensive Stance. One foot solid on the ground, he pivoted on the other as the bear reached him, swiping with a giant paw. Loch batted it aside, stepping into the bear’s reach where the claws or the snapping jaws could get him. He had to be quick, even though he was safe from the claws, he wasn’t safe from the arm hugging him.
Dying by bear hug was not the way he wanted to go.
He swung Onyx, the axe biting deep into the monster’s neck through the thick, almost armor-like fur. The bear growled in pain. Loch could sense the arm bending in. He ducked beneath it, rolling out of the way.
A blast of liquid silver energy slammed into the bear, spreading out from the impact. Fur started to smoke. The bear staggered, woozy, blood gushing from the neck wound. Loch risked a glance behind him, seeing that Brian was charging his way. Piper and Julia were not that far off, just in front of the bear they had managed to kill.
Harper appeared on top of Loch’s bear, tonfas stabbing straight down.
Loch turned to the last and strongest bear.
He threw Onyx. The bear reared up, great paw swatting the axe out of the air. It slammed into the ground, metal against stone, screeching as it slid across the rough rock. Loch froze, surprised.
That had never happened before. He didn’t think it was possible for that to happen.
The elder bear charged at Loch.
He barely got Bulwark Activated and raised, the great mass slamming into the shield. It pushed Loch back, and he stumbled, falling to the ground. He landed so hard that the breath was knocked out of him.
A shadow loomed over him. The bear was up on its hind legs, arm raised, claws ready to swipe down.
