Sabri

  “We found it,” Malise said, emerging from the shadows beside Sabri and startling her. “That’s a boss. The entire room is filled with a poisonous cloud, and it knows we’re here. I couldn’t eve close.”

  Sabri stared into the gloomy chamber. There were a few of the glowing mushrooms providing light that diffused through a greenish mist that filled the room. Dangerous-looking red-and-white toadstools sprouted in clumps around most of the perimeter of the chamber. Of the boss, she could see no sign, other than the dense webbing that hung in drapes from the roof and down the walls. Creepy as the se was, she gave no sign of her unease. Ce! We take this.

  “I want some of those mushrooms,” Malise said, grinning and showing her gleaming white pointed es. “Good poisons for my daggers.”

  “We should collect the web after we beat it,” Brena added. “I saw a quest for it on the jobs board this m. It pays quite well.”

  Oh nice, Sabri thought, perking up at that. At least she could make some mooday and make a dent in some of her debts. Maybe stock up oh potions, too.

  “Everyone ready?” Brena asked.

  Sabri nodded, getting to her feet and readying her shield and sword. “Where is it?”

  “In the ter, up on the roof,” Malise said, pointing, and theepped into the shadows and vanished again.

  “Thanks,” Sabri said and advanced into the greenish mist.

  You have been afflicted by Poison Aura.+0.3 Poison damage per sed within the aura.Duration: Indefinite.

  The green miasma cwed its way down her nostrils and into her lungs, provoking a bout of nausea and dizziness, but she strode to the ter of the room, gazing upward into the dense shadowed webbing. Something lurked up there, deep within its ir. A hiss prickled the hairs on the back of her neck, and a massive bd green spider dropped down into the chamber suspended upon a silken thread as thick as a rope. Legs unfurled and it leapt.

  Sabri dropped her weight into a defensive croud swung with her shield, imbuing it with her soul magic to strike with more damage. Her shield caught the spider right in the face, with a resounding crack, making the monster shy back, hissing angrily.

  The spider’s legs cwed the ground like swords scraping across granite and it advanced, nearly as tall as Sabri – far rger than all the spiders they had fought on the way to the ir. Vibrant green markings on its razor-sharp legs glistened with viscous venom that flicked into the air as tiny droplets as it shed out. She dodged backward, defleg the strikes with her sword, and thealiated with a terthrust of her own.

  “Avast, foul beast!” Theon yelled, rushing in with his heavy two-handed hammer already desding. Sabri winced as the massive steel head struck the spider with a loud crack, but this time the spider stuck to her instead.

  The sword-like legs blurred toward her, orike blocked by her breastpte, but Sabri judged the attack poorly, and her guard was just a little too high. The sed strike sshed deeply into the flesh of her forearm, slig down to the bone in an instant.

  You have been afflicted with Poison. +0.3 Poison damage per sed.Poison – Duration: 10 minutes. t: 1

  To her dismay, the poison stacked with the aura, leaving her seeing double for a moment and taking damage twice as fast. With the speed and power of its strikes, she would o be extremely cautious. She didn’t hesitate, immediately retrieving one of her potions and downing it.

  The loud crad fsh of lightning and trails of fme announced Brena and Cai’s entrao the chamber, but Sabri had eyes only for the monster before her as it shed out again. Desperately, she blocked and deflected its rapid sshes, retaliating with another sword strike, but she didn’t e out of the exge unscathed.

  Your Poison has increased to 2.

  Theon hammered at the spider’s abdomen, drawing its attention away from her, and she reacted by using her Soul Shout, taunting it back to her before he could get bitten or sshed. But the strike intended for him gnced off the edge of her shield and found a gap betweees of her armor, slig int.

  Your Poison has increased to 3.

  She grimaced at the wave of dizziness and weakness from the rapidly mounting poison and hit back at the spider, trying to ehat it would stay focused on her. She fell into an anxious zone of blog and defleg while seeking openings to strike, but her health dwieadily away, even with the magic of her healing potion w to repair her wounds.

  Your Poison has increased to 4.

  Ugh, that poison. As soon as her healing potion wore off, she downed a sed one, but her health was not doing well at all. As she blocked another furious flurry of strikes – some of them so sharp and fast, all she felt was the warmth of her own blood – her health dipped below half and tio fall.

  Twenty pert was their trigger to run and as she saw her health dee uhe heavy strikes and stant poison drain, she dreaded having to be the oo call the retreat. Theon would not let her live it down.

  But it was Brena’s voice that called out, “Run!”

  She smacked the spider in the face with her shield and sprinted out after the others, feeling a guilty sense of relief flooding her body, but the massive spider did not give up the chase until they had entirely left the long web-covered tunnel. It chased them all the way, keeping the aura of poison on them right up until it finally gave up auro its ir.

  “Why did you run?” Theon demanded. “I was just getting going.”

  “I am on fifteen pert health,” Brena told him angrily.

  “Well, use a health potion!”

  “I did. You o heal, Theon. Remember what the Guildmaster told you about your role oeam?” Brena’s face was flushed with anger.

  “But then I ’t hit it,” he objected.

  “I saw you heal yourself twice,” Malise said, joining the argument.

  “Guys…” Sabri said, trying to make herself heard over the arguments. Her health had passed twenty pert and was still spiraling downward at an arming rate. The spider’s venom still coursed through her veins, only the aura having been withdrawn.

  “That’s not the point!” Theon yelled back.

  “I need a heal!” Sabri yelled, losing her patience.

  “What the fuck for? Take a potion,” Theon yelled.

  “I used two already, I have ten stacks of poison. I’m going to die if you don’t heal me immediately.”

  “Stupid weakling,” he snapped, but she felt his healing magifusing her body with warmth, aenacious aptitude reacted to improve the amount healed.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll need another one in a minute.”

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  The whole team sat down to wait out her poison, and she tried to ighe daggers Theon was gring her way.

  ***

  Sabri slumped down on the cou the guild hall, tired and sore, and feeling rather sick after all that poison in her system. They had made several attempts to kill the spider, but they had not been even close to successful. To his credit, Theon did heal her during the ter fights – whenever she asked for it – but he grumbled about it every time, and she had been forced to call the ehing off when she had run out of health potions, earning even mres and grumbles.

  She tried to ignore everyone, wanting to be alone, but she basically lived at the guild and had nowhere else to go. To her surprise, one of the bronze-ranked girls walked over and sat on the couch beside her.

  “Here, you look like you could use this,” she said, Sabri one of the skewers she had sampled that m – when she was still full of hope aement about hunting the new boss. Normally, she would have refused, but she felt miserable, and hunger was at least a part of it. With the number of health potions she had wasted today, she would be on light rations for the rest of the week.

  “Thank you,” she said. And then remembering her manners, “I’m Sabri.”

  “Teagan,” the girl replied and Sabri remembered she was the lead for one of the higher-level groups. A shaman.

  She ate her skewer in silence for a while, and then because the girl seemed rexed and friendly, she decided to ask. “How do you handle poisons in yroup?”

  “I have a poison cure spell,” she answered.

  “Well, that’s not fair,” she muttered, uncharacteristically frustrated.

  But the irl didn’t seem offended. “Did you find a monster with poison?” Teagan asked, studying her curiously.

  “We found the sed sewer boss. It’s a level-eight venomous Tunnel Weaver with a poisonous aura that fills its entire ir. After I get about ten stae, I ’t survive and we have to run, even with all my healing potions and Theon’s healing. When he remembers to heal.” She couldn’t help letting the frustration creep into her voice, even though her mother had taught her not to say unkind things about other people.

  “That sounds difficult,” Teagan said, pursing her lips. Then she looked up and yelled loudly across the guild hall, “Hey, Basil, do you have a minute?” A quiet, studious-looking boy turo face them, seeming a little startled at the volume.

  Sabri hadn’t inteo let the whole world in on her problems and so she found herself fighting off a wave of heated embarrassment as Basil scurried across the hall to join them.

  “What do you eagan?”

  “Sabri is struggling with poisons.”

  Teagan said it so matter-of-factly that Sabri wao just sink into the floor and disappear. But Basil smiled at her.

  “What kind of poison?” he asked.

  “Venomous Tunnel Weaver,” Teagan supplied.

  “Oh, that’s easy, here take these,” he said, retrieving a small crate with several dozen vials filled with dark viscous green liquid.

  Antidote Potion – level 5e: Attempt to cure toxins, venom, or poisons afflig you. Duration: 30 seds.Created by Morwynne Fizzlebang – “Also good for a tummy ache!”Potion

  “But… those are expensive,” she stammered, not wanting to take such a valuable gift.

  “Morwy me have these to help with my studies, but now that I’ve learhe recipe I don’t he extras,” Basil answered. “You e a favor. Maybe bring me some samples of the spider venom, or a few poisonous mushrooms to py with and we call it even.”

  “I… thank you,” Sabri said, accepting the gift.

  I’ll o talk with Brena – maybe we defeat that ugly spider, now.

  stepped into the Landing and surveyed the now almost empty chamber. Ever since Malika’s skill adva, the more difficult groups of elementals had been going quite smoothly – even the few double Living Fme pulls had been tanked and burned down with minimal chaos and panice they had figured out just how far to split them apart, that was. Double explosions were no joke, and they had wiped out most of Ali’s lower-level minions a few times figuring that out.

  The key had been learning just how fast the elementals could move and judging the distao the first explosion. That, and making sure that they didn’t get bunched up in the archway aonate on top of Malika and Mato while they were scrambling to secure them.

  All that remained now were the two enormous elementals guarding the three stone doors at the far side of the nding. T substantially taller than all the other elementals that they had fought thus far, he knew he was looking at a boss, even without using his Explorer skill.

  Living Fme – Elemental – level 65 x2

  [Explorer]Category: Dungeon BossThreat Level: GroupMoype: ElementalDamage: Fire, Physical

  “ we fight them o a time?” Ali asked, standing behind him at the arched storao the Landing.

  “I don’t think so,” he answered. Explorer identified the pair as a singur boss. It didn’t matter whie he focused his skill on, the result was the same.

  “The fme auras are a lot wider, and they look more powerful,” Ali said, squinting into the room. “I ’t see the full extent, but they’re filling the entire Landing.”

  “I see,” said. It was a good thing they had decided to pull each of the elementals out of the chamber to fight them in the smaller caverrance before the archway. The boss auras would have made all the elementals in the room impossible to kill by healing them with their fire auras.

  “Ali, how far do you think the boss will chase us before it has to return?” They had been down here quite a while and, at some point, the elementals ba the tunnel were going to be respawned. It would be rather risky to flee from the bht into fresh elemental respawns.

  “Maybe into the tunnel?” she answered, looking back over her shoulder.

  “Ok, I think we should check that first,” he said, retrieving a gold from his ste, flipping it into the air, and pulsing a little mana into it.

  You have gaihe Blessing of the Wanderer+12 to Dexterity.+8% to Movement speed.Blessing – Duration: 3 hours.

  He smiled happily at his patron’s blessing – for a boss with an unknow of abilities, being able to run faster would be perfect. He didn’t even mind the loss of a gold this time.

  “Let’s all back up into the tunnel and be ready to run. I’ll pull it and see how far we go.” Everyone backed up to the far tunnel, but remained in the archway entrance by himself. Right before they got into position, all of Ali’s Acolytes loaded him up with Restoration spells. He smiled a silent thank-you and slipped into the illusion of his stealth magic, vanishing from sight as he ran forward on sile.

  The instaered the Landing, his body began to burn, ignited by the powerful auras of fme emanating from the two boss elementals at the far side. At least this would be a fight he would not be starved for mana. I’ll o be quick. He hit his maximum range, and drew his bow, firing a single shot at the closest elemental instead of using multishot, not b to ambush or preserve his stealth. The bosses were certainly linked, but it didn’t hurt to be thh. As soon as his arrow struck, both elementals turned, surging toward him in a smooth, flowing rush, while the air around them sizzled and shimmered with the intense heat and fme. I guess that would have been too easy.

  He spun about and sprinted back, making full use of his movement speed buff, but the two elementals were fast, almost keeping pace with him across the rocky ground of the Landing. He hopped over rivulets of va and dodged rocks as he passed through the archway, running ft out, but he hadn’t been able to outruwin auras, and the intense burning was beginning to eat into his health as the restoration magic began to expire.

  As he closed in ounnel where his friends waited, he saw them beginning to back up further, and the Kobolds refreshed their restoration magic when he reached the maximum range of their spells. But as they did, their little bodies ignited from the fire auras in a wave that clearly depicted the forefront of the fme aura. They scrambled to make more distance, letting out shrill chirps of arm.

  sprinted up the tunnel, easily catg up with them, but suddenly the iy of the fme abated, and he spun to find the two giant elementals returning to the Landing after almost reag the tunnel.

  “That looks like the limit of the domain enha,” Ali observed. “They’re tied to the area in the Landing.”

  “Not quite to the tunnel,” he said. “That gives us a bit of time.” The dungeon would respawn the elementals in this region of the tunnels at some point, but not for a while yet. Now he just o figure out how to split them apart so they could kill them safely.

  He made his way back to the arched storand surveyed the chamber beyond. Other thawin Living Fmes and the stone doorways behind them, the chamber seemed to be a roughhewn artificial cavern, carved out of the stone a unfinished simply because the miners had little o make it pretty.

  “Let’s try having Mato tank one on that side by the wall, and Malika tank hers over here by this wall,” he suggested as the others looked in on the chamber beside him. It was just about as far as they could get within the Landing itself.

  “You mean to fight it in the Landing?” Malika asked.

  “Yes, there are no other monsters left,” said.

  “I’m not sure that will be far enough,” Ali said. “The aura ce is huge.”

  “Let’s try it,” Mato said. “We run out if it doesn’t work.”

  “How do we split them?” Malika wao know as she stared nervously at the two enormous Living Fmes. While she had unlocked a potent tanking upgrade, it was ret enough that she robably still a little uain of her abilities – and had to admit, the rger elementals sure looked intimidating.

  “Wait in the ter with Mato, and the two of you agree whie yoing to hit. I’ll pull them up the ter to you guys and then you hit one and run off to your spot.” This wouldn’t be a difficult pull, he just had to make sure he didn’t do unnecessary damage so that it was easy for them to redirect their target’s attention from him, and for that, unented multishot erfect. It even split the damage so each shot would be weaker individually.

  “Hmm, ok,” Malika said, hopping on one leg and theher to limber up.

  “Over here,” he said, leading them into the Landing, to where he had marked – just out of the ra which the two giant elementals had noticed him – and then gave them a few moments to set up.

  “We’re ready,” Malika said after Mato firansf.

  “Getting them.” jured two glowing arrows of light onto his b, ented them with increased range, and then fired, immediately bag up to wait behind Mato and Malika.

  The surge and hiss of the elementals gliding toward them was followed immediately by the sudden iy of the fme washing over him. It felt like being dunked into a pool ing fire, and his hair, and even the skin on his arms and ears, caught alight. The pain was mitigated quickly by the holy restoration magi Ali’s minions, but nothing could be done about the stench of burnt fur, hair, and cooking flesh.

  The pull went off like clockwork. The two Living Fmes surged forward and there was a flurry of punches and cwed swipes and then Mato and Malika took off in opposite dires, aook the opportunity to back away, trying to exit the aura of fme.

  “Explosion! Double!”

  spri Ali’s shout, only stopping when he was certain he had ed both Living Fmes. But the simultaneous detonations filled the entire Landing, a shockwave crashing into him from the left and then, as he became airborhe sed catapulting him to the right. His ribs ched from the first impact, and his arm snapped audibly on the sed. Ugh, fuck. Fring his wings briefly, he dropped himself down to the ground and surveyed the damage.

  Ali hovered in a golden bubble while Mato and Malika had both weathered the explosions well enough, boung off the walls and still holding the attention of their respective targets in more or less the appropriate location. But at least a third of Ali’s minions slid down the rock walls, nding in crumpled unmoving heaps, or spshed down in va pools.

  “Healers?” he asked, cheg in quickly.

  “Three alive,” she responded.

  “How does it look?” If they were not in immediate danger of a wipe, he was most curious to see how the strategy would work.

  “Not nearly far enough,” Ali answered. “Both of their auras fill the whole Landing.”

  “That’s not going to work,” he muttered. Then, raising his voice, he yelled, “Retreat for now!” Everyone scrambled for the archway and the anticipation of safety iunnel beyond. Well, Ali sacrificed two of her Kobold healers to eo and Malika made it back safely – mostly Mato. Malika’s spri her Living Fme far behind.

  “That didn’t go too well,” Malika observed as the giant elementals gave up auro their ir.

  “Crispy,” Mato agreed, gruffly.

  “I’m holy not sure how to do this,” admitted, eyeing the Living Fmes as they glided smoothly bato the Landing. The auras were bigger than he had anticipated, and so were the radius and power of the explosions.

  “, the auras cast shadows,” Ali said.

  “What do you mean, shadows?”

  “I see it as a bright, turbulent glow of fire mana that fills the entire room. It’s a little like a ghostly bonfire burning on the rock. But it works like a light, the space behind the archway is dark, it only es through the gap.”

  “Wait, so we hide out of line-of-sight, and it won’t hit us?” he asked.

  “Yes, the fme aura projects out of the archway like a beam, about halfway into this space even from where they are right now.” She drifted over toward the archway and stopped a little off to the side. “Here, I’m o the fme aura, but I’m not in it.”

  He joined her, notig that the ever-present burniion of this dungeon’s ambient atmosphere felt ‘normal.’ He stepped sideways to where he could see the twials and suddenly his hair ignited, and his skin began to blister. Stepping back to where Ali was made it vanish instantly.

  “Oh, well that ges everything,” said, studying the space with airely new focus, trying to imagihe auras he was blind to, and where would be the best setup.

  “Yes, Mato could do his cooking right here,” Malika suggested, wiping her brow. It only caused more soot to smudge across her forehead.

  “If you like ders,” Mato agreed. “What’re you thinking, ?”

  “We should tank them here,” he said, walking up to the rock wall o the stone archway, but a little off to the side – and outside of the Landing.

  “Both of them?” Malika asked.

  “Well, we should put the other one on the inside of the Landing. Bag up to the same wall.”

  “Oh, back-to-back, with a wall between them?” Malika asked.

  “Exactly,” answered.

  “Where do I put the healers? In the archway? Won’t they get burnt by both auras?” Ali asked.

  “I’m thinking two inside and two oside, he wall so the explosions don’t blow them around so much,” he suggested.

  “That could work, so the rovides cover blog the damage from the other one,” Malika said.

  “Yup, that’s the idea,” firmed.

  “My minions are too weak to survive the pull, though,” Ali pointed out.

  “Actually, I had a thought for that,” said. He remembered something Mato had told him about his trip to the alchemist for fire elixirs. “Mato, how many of the level-twenty elixirs did you get?”

  “Twelve,” he answered.

  “You want to use them on my minions? Isn’t that expensive?” Ali seemed a little surprised.

  “Well, if we hide them behind the wall on the first pull, only Mato’s healers will be exposed to the double aura. With some elixirs and careful barriers, I think we make sure they survive long enough to beat the boss.” Burning fire resistance elixirs was going to be expensive, and he was sure people would think him crazy for spending them on minions. But the kobolds tributed enormously to their group’s healing and damage and making them more robust just seemed to be a sound strategy. Besides, for them, the potions and elixirs cost a few essences. Mato could easily harvest a batch of Ali’s fire grass and flowers, and then there was just the time for Eliyen and Morwyo make them – a chore for certain, but a retively reasonable iment.

  “That actually sounds like a good pn,” Malika approved.

  quipped dryly, “I knoould have thought – us having an actual pn?”

  “Let’s try it!” Mato sounded excited already and quickly transferred the softly glowing red vials from his ring to Ali and her minions as she repced the ohat had died.

  “Why no shamans, this time?” asked. Ali had switched up the distribution of her minions dramatically, heavily fav rogues and bone mages, and had made ara Hobgoblin and Acolyte.

  “I ’t make them above level een, so they ’t use the elixirs. The explosion is se nothing e it, so the rogues and hobs do more damage than the archers. I o get some higher-level minions,” she said, sounding a little frustrated.

  But it was uandable – they were fag a level sixty-five boss, and most of her minions were barely above twenty. It robably only due to the fact that she had extraordinary gear and elixirs, and the Kobolds had a natural racial resistao fire that this was even w at all.

  “Ok, Mato, you take yours to the inside of the Landing. Malika, bring yours out here, we’ll kill it first and then all go inside.”

  He set up the pull again, noting that Ali had hidden almost her entire forinions behind the wall, leaving only herself and two Kobold Acolytes waiting near Mato’s tanking spot, barriers already up to protect them.

  He fired. The glowing pair of arrows soared through the scorg air, striking both Living Fmes dead ter in their cores. Did that even touch their health? The familiar hiss and sizzle filled the Landing as they surged fliding effortlessly across the broken rod va pools.

  He waited, a little behind Mato and Malika as the two t elementals bore down on him. His heart raced as his skin sizzled and scorched, but the two of them were fast, log down their respective elemental before they reached him.

  sprinted back, following Malika out of the Landing, while Mato diverted to his side. Up by the archway, behind the golden barrier, a tall pilr of holy light told him that Ali had preemptively burned one of her acolyte’s Devotion recharges to ease them through the chaotic first moments of the pull.

  “Explosions!”

  barely made it through the archway wheonation smmed into his back, flinging him across the room and sprawling dowunnel before he was even able to summon his wings. But he had only been hit by a single explosion this time, and as the Goblins and Kobolds rained down across the room, only a single mage failed to get back up.

  Momentarily out of view iunnel, triggered Eclipse taih. Sneaking bato the chamber, he lined up his shot and then unleashed it with a quality of teique that would have made Nendir proud. His arrow fred into brillia the st possible moment, smashing the elemental’s core back against the rock with the full force of his enormous Ambush critical strike. The elemental fmes dimmed dramatically as they spshed against the rocky wall like water. He grinned, lining up his shot – there was nothing quite like the feeling of a good Ambush.

  While the boss’s damage output seemed much higher than the Living Fmes they had entered so far, just judging from the iy of the fmes, it had no particur surprises for them. The first explosion was followed by three more on the predictable timer, followed by a fme tornado and shield bo, just as expected.

  “How much mana does this thing even have?” Malika pined.

  “Probably five times more than the normal ones,” said. At least, he assumed that number just based on Ali’s skills and how much extra mana her bosses had.

  It took four cycles through the regeing fire before the first Living Fme imploded and colpsed to the ground. let out a sigh of relief. Their pn had not been fwless, and there had been many rather close calls during explosions, but their group seemed robust. Halfway there, he enced himself as they all charged through the doorway to where Mato was still tanking the other Living Fme.

  “, do you have any spare mana potions for my healers?” Ali asked.

  “Yes,” he answered, flying over to eae in turn, handing out some of the cheaper mana potions he used for his own small mana pool. They probably wouldn’t help Ali much, but they should be ok for the Kobolds. He smiled to himself. There had been a time he could barely afford these, and now he sidered them to be cheap.

  The shield went up to the distinctive ato’s cws scraping against the impervious magical barrier. The fme tornado filled the inside of the giant bubble with a roar that caused the ground to vibrate. returo shooting, deg to save his Righteous Fury for the oer it was drained.

  “Unknown powerful magic spell!” Ali called out, making his heart lurch with ay. “It’s a domain magic!”

  What is it doing? But all he could do was keep firing at the shield. This was the thing that could disrupt their erategy, and not knowing what it might be filled him with dread.

  “Fuck!” Ali shouted. “It’s a domain respawn! It’s resurreg the other one!”

  “Seriously?” Malika excimed.

  ’s eyes widened in shock. “Hit it hard! Get ready to run!” If it could raise the other oo life again… well, it was a good thing he had ied ira recall potions to get Mato out of there.

  Everyone unleashed their attacks in a furious assault, but kept gng at the intense frown on Ali’s brow and the pure focus with which she stared at the monster before them. Seds ticked down one by one like the beads of sweat dripping down his back. Daggers cracked against the shield while magical spells and his own arrows rained down uporansparent spherical shield like the endless roar of hail on a tin roof. Suddenly, the barrier cracked and splintered, and his arrow flew through a gap, striking the Living Fme squarely in the ter of its core.

  “It… broke? The formation is gone.” Ali called out with uainty and surprise in her voice.

  “Good. Keep a lookout for it,” said. He had no idea what had just happened but tried to put it out of his mind for now. W would do no good. “Ali, you destruct the remains?”

  “Explosion!” Ali yelled; all traces of hesitation vanished.

  The boom of the detonation echoed in the empty rocky chamber, kig up sprays of va from the rivulets and pools. This time everyone rained down ihe Landing, some of the minions dropping hard onto the rock, and some spshing down in pools of va, but the extreme fire resistance seemed to be doing the trid almost all the minions were able to swim out and sprint back to the fight.

  For four shield cycles, they endured. Each shield came with yet another panicked call from Ali that the Living Fme was attempting to resurrect its panion. And each time they mao shatter the barrier before anything happened. It has to be ected, somehow…

  “It’s empty!” Malika shouted.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” muttered.

  “Domain Respawn!” Ali yelled.

  “Ali, we he dead elemental core destructed!”

  “I did already! It’s not helping!”

  The shield sprang up, and burned his Righteous Fury. This was the critical shield, the faster they could shatter it the less mana it could regee, and starting oy it might mean they might be able to kill it before the one. He ented all his arrows fully, burning the expensive ones from his ring for just a little more damage, and even blowing mana on his explosion ent when he could mao clip the top of the elemental’s shield without risking hitting Mato. He downed a mana potion without missing a beat, aill had ten seds on his Righteous Fury when the shield splintered in a great shower of magical shards.

  It didn’t st long after that. A short flurry of notifiade him sag in relief. We did it. Yes!

  Yroup has defeated Living Fme – Elemental – level 65 x2.

  Archer of Light has reached level 48 (+2).+20 attribute points.

  Radiant Archery has reached level 30.Arrows of Brilliance has reached level 34.Motes of Light has reached level 18.Explorer has reached level 28.Blessing of the Dawn has reached level 23.Eclipse has reached level 24.Righteous Fury has reached level 17.Mirage Armor has reached level 9.

  Cartography has reached level 11.Basic Daggers has reached level 2.

  Following his puted attribute trajectory, he spent seven points ea dexterity and intelligend put the remaining six into perception, marveling that, even now, he could sehe subtle sharpening of his eyes, and the lightening of his limbs as the attribute improvements took effect. He smiled – level forty-eight henomenal progress, but the thing that really caught his eye was that Radiant Archery had just reached level thirty.

  One more arrow. His multishot skill had a regur, built-in mini adva now – every ten skill levels he would be able to jure an additional magical arrow, and the jump from three to four would certainly be noticeable. Fighting the spider swarms with four arrows and four simultaneous explosions was going to be a dramatic improvement every time they fought their way down to the Landing – and it would make clearing the Fme Broodmother’s summoned spiders that much quicker, letting him return to shooting the boss much faster.

  His chime sounded once more and sucked in his lips as he read on with mountiement.

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Patroy: The Wanderer.Blessing of the Dawn has surpassed level 20.Has exhausted stamina during a battle.Has exhausted stamina during training.Intelligence has surpassed 200.Sought out master-level training ih and movement.Successfully used Ambush during bat.

  Blessing of the Dawn gains Inexhaustible Stride.Blessing of the Dawn – level 23Mana: Your Dexterity, Intelligence, and Perception are increased by +76% [40 + skill + base intelligence / 10]. The stamina cost for your skills is reduced by 50.37% [3% redu per skill level]. Reserve: 20%Light, Buff, IntelligenceAccept this adva?

  He studied the Wanderer’s influenced adva carefully, but it was just about perfect for him, and he quickly accepted it. He was always running out of resources in bat, and a whopping fifty pert redu in the growing costs of his stamina skills would dramatically improve his staying power in bat and enhance his ability to scout longer and range farther with stealth before having to recover. And it would get progressively better as he leveled his skill up. Of course, the skills grew more expensive as they grew in power too – he would o redo all his calcutions. Now I just need one for mana too.

  He stored his bow and sighed. I might o i in another notebook.

  Mato

  Mato shifted out of Bear Form and joined his friends iermath; it had been perhaps the most b fight he had experienced so far. His job had been to tank his elemental in the Landing, almost alone, apanied only by two tiny Kobolds in their fancy shimmery robes, hiding behind their golden barriers. He had dohat for half the fight, not w about doing any damage or anything plicated – just surviving, keeping his Brutal Restoration stacked, and blog as much as he could to preserve his two little panions’ mana.

  He hadn’t been able to see how the others were doing, but he could hear them shouting to each other. After a while, everyone joined him, and they had killed his one. Sure, there had been explosions that smacked him into the wall, cracked his bones, and burned his flesh, but he really didn’t have to actually do much.

  I hope there’s something more iing once we open the door. Let’s check what I got.

  Druidic Shapeshifter has reached level 49 (+2).+20 attribute points.

  Swipe has reached level 31.Brutal Restoration has reached level 34 (+2).Bear Form has reached level 30.Bestial bat has reached level 28.Natural Prowess has reached level 21.Survival Instinct has reached level 23 (+2).Battle Trance has reached level 14.Last Stand has reached level 4.

  He studied his skill growth carefully, grunting in satisfa as he plopped himself down on the ground beside Malika. Just one more level to fifty! He dropped five points into each of his primary tanking attributes: vitality, endurance, and strength. Two of the remainder he spent on perception to improve his Survival Instinct, and the final three went to wisdom.

  Not bad for being a pung bag fiant animated fireball.

  ----------

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