Chapter 254: Questionable Cooperation (1/2)
“You thought they just fought like that for three hours without rest?”
Ilea remembered Taleen machines fighting for much longer than that. Miststalkers didn’t let up with draining either. “Plenty of monsters can do that.”
Terok grunted, “Aye, emphasis on monsters. Well I can tell you that these are definitely great if you want to train your skills and learn to fight against swordmasters. As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve not seen a better one than those either.”
Ilea didn’t feel like being a smart ass and just nodded, “So they’re like me in a sense. Durable and self healing? I never felt anything through my skill though and it allows me to understand the state of someone’s body.”
Terok shrugged in his exoskeleton, “I suppose that could be said. Though I think they’d do more damage to you.”
“I feel personally attacked.” Ilea said but she knew from experience that it was true. Her fists weren’t blades and had no way of cutting or heavily denting their armor. Neither of her gauntlets had that ability either, her heavy ones too slow to get a clean hit anyway.
“You shouldn’t. You’re not an undead. They’re unfeeling, single purposed in fights and equipped with high quality gear.”
Ilea was all that as well when it came to fighting but she wasn’t about to get into that. “Something’s fueling them then. Is that normal in a dungeon?”
Another shrug, “Guess we’ll find out. Necromancer might be part of the dungeon, any idea where they might be?”
“The palace. It’s in the lit up part of the city but the knights there are much more nasty than anything else I’ve fought here. I don’t feel safe with engaging them.” She explained.
Terok thought about her words, “Maybe I can sneak in?”
“Getting in isn’t much of a problem. Teleporting gets you there but if we alert even one of them it might be over and I’m not dragging your corpse out of there.” Ilea said, “I’ll explain the layout and everything I know. You think about places for us to visit where I can fight non regenerating enemies.”
“Does ash blind them?” She asked, tapping on the notebook with her pen. Terok was working on his rig a couple meters away, both staying in the cathedral at the highest point of Tremor. The dwarf’s metallic eye swirled and zoomed in on the steel plate he was scratching into, part of the previously destroyed head. Night had fallen and the two were sitting in warm magical light provided by the engineer. Ilea had spent most of her nights outside with the Miststalkers, the lack of light in the dungeon never becoming an issue.
Terok had put up the two repaired lamps on the railing of the first floor, overlooking the big hall on ground level. “We tried smoke before, freezing, fire, dark magic. They seem to rush into whatever magic they can find. You’ve seen how big they are haven’t you? Once they notice anything intruding the dungeon, they group up, more and more appearing. Your high poison resistance might be enough to battle them but combined with the ranged monsters I doubt you’d be very effective. At least I don’t believe they can heal themselves.” The dwarf explained. Ilea put a question mark next to the hastily sketched Drop Saurian inhabiting the Penumra dungeon.
It would’ve been the closest to Hallowfort, next to the Descent of course. “Levels unknown?” Ilea asked and saw him nod through her sphere, a small white spark visible in the corner of her eye when he finished fixing another enchantment. “I could try again but it might not be the best start. If they catch me and prevent me from blinking I’d be toast… probably.” Their damage potential was hard to gauge but it likely wasn’t below the knights of Tremor.
“The city leading to the Descent. You said it was dangerous?” The page in her notebook was flipped, the name of the dungeon in question written at the top of the page.
“Ye. People aren’t as nice as they are in town so you have to look out for any random person, dark one or otherwise down there. It’s all very old, different monsters from further down sometimes make their way up and walls break, flooding entire sections. Some tunnels leading along the sea bring the most dangerous creatures inside, other than the miststalkers sometimes wandering in at night.”
“Blue Reapers they’re called. Mind magic supposedly and lightning. They’re pretty small but anybody encountering them drops dead damn near immediately. Fuming at the mouth and paralyzed. Even groups can’t take them down, the monsters just switching to area attacks just as powerful. The only saving grace is that they don’t seem to be interested in the place, likely they wander in from a further away dungeon. Neither do they attack if not provoked.”
“Might be a stupid idea to do so then.” Ilea said, “Mind magic and lightning are some of my highest resistances though so depending on just how hard they hit they might be perfect for leveling.”
Terok laughed at that, waving her off, “Of course the most dangerous magic is what you’re best against. And you struggle with mindless undead swinging swords. Don’t worry though, most everyone in Hallowfort would love to see the little fuckers taken care of. We don’t have guilds here but there are prices for their tiny heads. An easy way to make money as well if you’re looking for that.”
Ilea tapped the notebook and wrote down Blue Reaper below The Descent. “What about further down? You said there were layers to the dungeon, different entirely.”
Terok walked over and gestured for the pen, Ilea handing it to the dwarf who quickly added a couple sections on the page. “The first layer is mostly harmless, to a human it might even be nicer than Hallowfort. Why some of the more nature inclined races rather reside there. The second layer is a big cave with traps and earth magic insects of varying levels. After that comes a big layer filled with water. I never ventured there but came close several times. Further below lies Heroes’ Descent, probably a place built by the city above and those who made the statue Hallowfort sits on. People don’t share information on it but those who can venture there or further either come out rich or die trying.”
He added some information on each of the layers, not many Ilea admitted. If there was a town at the fourth layer called Heroes’ Descent then it probably meant that was the starting point for the initial citizens. “You think it goes much further down?”
“The language of the city is Standard and they liked their statues, murals and inscriptions. It is said that Heroes’ Descent is where the strongest are tested, where they are trained and sent to recover artifacts, magic and technology of the deep. That dungeon was like a religion to them. There is information on more layers there but it’s apparently neither accurate nor plentiful.” He explained, moving a hand through his black greasy hair. “Guess you’ll find out when you go there.”
“Unrelated… did you see the same necromancer connection for the undead knights that nearly killed you?” Ilea asked, switching back to the page about Tremor.
“Now that you mention it… no. You really mean to face them again? One had a triple mark. I doubt you can reasonably fight monsters at level five hundred and higher. Not when they’re so small and specialized.” He said.
Ilea considered it but having fought them she had to agree with him. Even if they didn’t have an ability to recover, the noise and required space to fight had already brought three of them upon her. Maybe I can lure one out… A test for later.
“Why would you even fight them? Just go for something you can kill much easier until you’ve safely increased your powers.” Terok suggested.
Ilea couldn’t deny the logic but it hadn’t brought her to where she was today, what she was. “Doesn’t sound very fun, now does it?” He laughed instead of lecturing her, a trait she definitely appreciated after the treatment most humans had given her.
“I think you should try the Descent then. Maybe… but only maaaybe try to fight a Blue Reaper. Only if your resistances are in the second tier and you have some way to heal damage to your mind. Otherwise I strongly suggest not doing it. The monsters in the descent range from level two hundred to triple marks in the third layer already, depending on how unlucky your are. Or lucky as someone like you might see it.” He said with a smile.
She nodded, “Sounds reasonable. What about the monsters in the lake below Hallowfort? I saw some shapes but decided not to engage back when I was there.”
Terok shook his head, “Nothing that would be worth the trouble. Most creatures are below two hundred even, except the whales. Black creatures lined with bone if the stories are to be believed. Some say they feast on Miststalkers at night. I suggest you wait with finding out until you can survive and kill whole groups of stalkers.”