Chapter 246: Knights Knights Knights (1/2)
‘Despair’ Ilea wrote down in her notebook, taking his words seriously. First Dragonrider Ilea – The legendary warrior healer returns from her journeys. She could already hear the proclamations of the newspaper boys. If newspapers have become a thing by the time she reached the apparently ludicrous goal. To be fair, they are usually supposed to be game changers for whole empires. “I get it. Don’t fuck with dragons.”
“Your little human body will combust even getting close to one of those creatures. The forces are something completely beyond your imagination.”
“I said I. Get. It.” Ilea said again, not letting the elf destroy her dream so easily. If her levels weren’t somehow capped at some point or her body vaporized, she didn’t see how it would be written off as unachievable. I guess it kind of rules out that the elves are serving dragons… they wouldn’t go look to fight them if that were the case. She considered.
She got up from her chair and made her way back into the dungeon, “You’re not the source of unlimited information I thought you’d be elf.” He only grumbled something in return, continuing his work. Would a truly strong elf really hang around here, in front of a dungeon he could instead explore himself? I doubt whatever pain, fear or religious beliefs keep him from entering would stop someone with a mission.
At least she could take her time to clear out the whole place on her own without an annoying second person stealing her experience. Another knight would fall before she left the cave to train with the stalkers of the mist.
‘Tenth day of Nul, 358
The Soul Rippers have proven to be most dangerous, even to experienced veterans in the ranks of mercenaries as well as adventurers. Queen Invalar has ordered the dungeon entrance to be shut, to avoid further incursions from the beasts at night time.’
Ilea read through the translated log book by the guard captain. Kingsguard captain likely… can’t imagine how powerful that one was…, Around half of the log book was already translated, Elfie really doing a good job. Just over a month after he had cracked the code, the elf had already transcribed so much of the book. He was still frantically deciphering, telling her about the new discoveries he had made.
A looming war with an unknown nation, a previously rather unproblematic dungeon suddenly taken over by a beast described as Soul Ripper as well as the daily business of the guards. Assassins and spies apprehended, questioned and likely tortured. All overseen by the man called Reyker. He didn’t seem to be quite a fan of the king but never missed an opportunity to praise a decision by the queen. Invalar was the name of the two and Ilea had a feeling there was more than just loyalty keeping the man in his position of guard captain.
She left the book and checked her armor again. The fourth one already and it was time to switch again. Dents and cuts lined both her arms as well as her torso, the knights usually not trying to hit her legs or head. Ilea changed to a fresh set and chucked the barely usable one to the collection of armors growing in the corner of the cathedral.
The elf hissed at the noise, “The metal. It bothers me. Are you even trying to find anything new in there?”
Ilea rolled her eyes and summoned her notebook, flipping to the page where her map of the dungeon was growing by the day, “Look… all the buildings with nothing in it are marked. The kingsguard is too strong for me so I’m not bothering with the palace yet.”
She closed the book after he had taken a look, calming down a little. She knew he was just struggling with deciphering the book still. Apparently the captain had changed the algorithms every month, giving Elfie a new riddle every fifty pages or so. That was at least how many days the months in Rhyvor had. Be happy it isn’t thirty. Even if he hissed at her sometimes, the elf hadn’t attacked her a single time. He did leave from time to time but then again Ilea sometimes stayed in the dungeon for over a week at a time, only going out to get rid of the armors.
She had killed another twenty four knights but the only reason she knew the number was because of the corpses stored in her necklace. Ilea tried not to think about it too much. Getting to the last usable set of armor, she was inclined to visit Goliath again. Fighting through the Tremor dungeon proved to be a long term project, the knights making it harder and harder for her to separate them and while she was getting more used to them, she was a long way to fighting two or even more at the same time. Still, she had gotten a couple levels and perhaps a new step to further power with the last month’s worth of fighting.
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 237 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 238 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 239 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 240 – Five stat points awarded, 3rd tier skill point awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 230 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 231 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 232 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 233 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Hunter’s Sight reaches 2nd lvl 12’
‘ding’ ‘Hunter’s Sight reaches 2nd lvl 13’
‘ding’ ‘Embered Body Heat reaches 2nd lvl 8’
‘ding’ ‘Embered Body Heat reaches 2nd lvl 9’
‘ding’ ‘Wave of Ember reaches 2nd lvl 19’
‘ding’ ‘Ashen Wings 2nd lvl 17’
‘ding’ ‘Health Drain Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Health Drain Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 6’
‘ding’ ‘Mana Drain Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 4’
‘ding’ ‘Mana Drain Resistance reaches 2nd lvl 5’
While her levels were steadily rising, the knights still providing good experience, her resistances against the Miststalkers were taking a long time to grow. Considering how long she had trained with Trian, Eve and Kyrian, she was certainly prepared for the time consuming resistance training. Still, some of the nights Meditation was all that prevented her from just going back into the dungeon and fighting more knights instead of sitting near the sea of mist. She kept telling herself that in the long term it would be worth it.
Ilea was at level 240 already and in another thirty to fifty, she would get little experience from the normal knights. Either she had to face whatever lay deeper in the dungeon or she could simply kill a couple hundred Miststalkers. The latter would probably be easier considering the hard time she had with the knights. Her forty remaining stat points she distributed into Endurance, Intelligence and Wisdom. Twenty into her main damage stat and ten each into her resources. She was now at six hundred for both Vitality and Intelligence, the two skills she considered most important next to Wisdom.
Her skills enhanced a variety of things like Resilience which likely had something to do with how much damage an attack actually did to her or with Vitality directly. Her speed wasn’t listed anywhere but a variety of skills enhanced it as well. Strength and Dexterity were a little weird. Even the base stat improving from an initial five to now 266 didn’t make sense to her, especially coupled with the fact that several skills improved both properties additionally. Her corresponding strength wasn’t exactly what one would expect. At first her strength and the physical impact of her fists had done the majority of the damage, later replaced by the mana intrusion damage of both Wave of Ember and Destruction.
If this were a game, there was no reason for her not to simply invest into Intelligence and Wisdom alone. With her ashen limbs and Wave of Ember it would likely result in the highest and longest available damage. The problem was that perhaps a monster would arise with a weakness to physical damage and near complete immunity to mana intrusion. The knights she was fighting were resistant against physical damage, at least the blunt type Ilea was dishing out. Their bodies were already dead and even if she managed to break a bone or rupture muscle, the magic keeping them animated would simply ignore it. Having seen the bodies afterwards she was sure of this.