100 Chapter 28 - Highway to Hell (1/2)
”This Dungeon's specialty is it's 'corrupt gear' so that's what you should be looking for,” Bazza continued, as they followed him through a hedge maze. The damn thing was near immune to magic and prone to unleashing a torrent of harpies should you try to climb the tall walls of green.
”Corruption sounds bad,” Kenji said, ”why would we want that?”
”Corruption means one thing changing from how it should, mate. In this case, that means Spirit equipment, also lootable but still damn rare, that has been corrupted by demonic magic. You might get something absolutely useless, dangerous, or sometimes - insanely powerful. The only way to get one for sure is to solo the faith level boss, but you can forget about doing that. That's impossible for you lot, no offence mate.”
The adventurer party's followed close behind, Ellie re-arranging them as she wished. Bazza had made it abundantly clear he would do none of the actual fightings, even if he steered them to their destination himself.
”Speaking of Spirit gear, we've found the third-floor boss,” Bazza said, turning a corner to find what appeared a stone samurai with flowing green lines crisscrossing its body and a tall gateway shut behind it. In rows to either side were spearmen and archers on stone platforms, appearing like pieces to a chess game if still with the Japanese theme.
”If there is a samurai sword here I really want it!” Kenji announced, no one else knowing what that was. Soon 'Samurai sword' was whispered through the ranks, and hushed talk as to what that could mean spun up some real excitement.
”What's your plan chief?” Bazza asked Ellie, the girl again looking frizzled when addressed by the Australian.
”Um, we'll destroy those statues first-”
”Didgery-don't do that mate, those statues stay dormant unless they are attacked. Still, getting rid of the little fellas first is a good plan.”
”Thanks, Master Kenji taught us to always target the 'trash mobs' first,” Ellie smiled, practically glowing with the rugged man's praise. Kenji rolled his eyes. ”In that case, we'll try to keep the boss busy while holding reserves in the way of the boss and his reinforcements. If we can protect them from being damaged, then we can focus our entire firepower on the boss itself.”
”That's me girl,” Bazza ruffled Ellie's hair and found her freshly looted silvery blade at his throat. Clarity came to her eyes, and she backed away, ”s-sorry, a force of habit, I didn't mean to-”
”Hey, no harm was done, alright?” Bazza said with concern, looking at Ellie as if she were ill,
”Just focus on getting yourself under wraps for the battle. This isn't the time do fail because of a silly little habit, is it?” His eyes swept them all, their excitement, their hushed planning and their companionship and seemed on the verge of tears.
Pulling out a bottle of beer from thin air, Bazza gulped the whole thing down fast and wiped his mouth. ”Better get started, we have a few floors to get through today.”
The samurai awakened the instant they stepped into the arena and assaulted at once. The more damage the Raid team did, the more power flowed through the stone that cracked and shattered from the inside out. Every time the stone samurai went to awaken its brethren it found adventurers blocking its path, sacrificing shields and expensive plates of [reinforced] armour to buy the time needed to shower the boss with spells.
Eventually, it was left a smoking ruin, a stone chest unveiling with the bosses defeat.
A stone spear imbued with spiritual energy, a skill book for [Slash] and several pieces of jade were their rewards. Ellie divided it amongst those who would see an immediate benefit, Taki receiving the pieces of jade when he found they enlarged the amount of spiritual energy he could handle.
The Fourth Third floor was an endless war. Elementals of earth, air, fire and water raged against a flux of demon soldiers that attacked in well-ordered companies. Bazza's trick to get they passed the battle was to take a high mountain pass, demonic siege engines making battle with Jungle Titans well below. The battlefield stretched for leagues, rank after rank of demon flame bearing monstrosities crashing into the constantly reforming lines of the dungeons defenders.
”Don't get me wrong, slaying a commander from either side gets you great loot. But it would take too much time to do safely, at your levels you'd have to go far away from the main battlefield, where small squads of soldiers meet and fight regularly,” Bazza said, ”instead we'll take the scouting path. Their still strong, but so small in number you lot should have no trouble crushing them underfoot.”
In that manner, they came across elementals made of wood and leaf, and demonic scouts with crimson skin and molten blades. They only ever numbered two or three at a time, their equipment often melting away, or fading to ash. But Bazza was right about their strength, each hard to notice without the Sundrakes [Detection] spell, and hard to fight when they showed a great deal of skill.
It would take hours, but the Raid Team finally circled the entire battlefield to find a bastion of the defenders. A great fortress of stone and tree, elementals prowled wooden walls, while stone guards with ivy crawling along their blades stood motionless before several stone arches.