Chapter 41 - First Clear of an Elite dungeon (1/2)
After giving them the treasure chest, Pecandor went into the forest. They got hold of another black iron treasure chest. They quickly opened the chest and three items were visible in it. A small token with picture of five treants on it, a small parchment which looked like a recipe and the third was a long staff with a black jet lignite on the top.
[Token of Baron Pecandor]
Level 0
Requirement: Can only be used by a member of the light faction.
Vitality +10%
Allows third grade citizen access into the great forest of gaeta skogar.
[Poison of corruption Recipe] (Basic poison recipe)
Required Materials: Corrupted poison ivy, blue weed
Effects: Reduces Strength and Agility by 20% for 10 seconds. Not stackable.
[Lignite staff] (Black Iron Staff)
Level 2
Requirements: Perception: 6,;
Intelligence +8; Vitality +5
The token of a Baron of the great forest is something that guilds would fight over for because of the access it provided. Balthazar knew it would be worth a lot if they ever sold it. Its value would probably rise by a large amount after a few months.
”Hold on to the staff,” said Balthazar throwing the staff to Quiet Fire. ”Tang hold on to the token. I will make good use of the recipe.”
He immediately learned the recipe. With his experience, he could easily craft a basic potion. In a couple of minutes, he easily managed to create 3 bottles of the poison. Though he wasted a couple of sets in his first two attempts, the rest were all successful.
”It is best we use them on our weapons when we are fighting Vultarc. He is faster than Vultusk and even stronger,” said Balthazar giving Blinding and Tang a poison bottle each.
”Are we sure, we want to attempt killing Vultarc? We had such a hard time with Vultusk,” said Quiet Fire addressing the concern of the rest of the girls.
”It is best we try it out. We got an antidote from his poison. It is hard to kill him. We have an unseen advantage. I already know about its patterns and can lead you through the fight. The hard part was the poison knives thrown by Vultusk and fighting Vultusk and Vultarc together after it loses 50% of its health. We already killed Vultusk and have a quest item to deal with the poison,” said Balthazar explaining the situation.
”I guess it is best we try. It does provide good equipment and experience in case we win. If we die it is just a little bit of experience,” said Blinding in support of Balthazar. She also wanted to finish the dungeon and take down the pride of the Sirius Imperials. She wanted to show it off to the boyfriend who broke up with her.
”I am fine with it,” said Tang shrugging her shoulders.
”We also get the first clear awards and our name goes on the boards,” said Balthazar. That was the icing on the cake that convinced Quiet Fire and Little White Feet.
Without any delay, Balthazar led them to the clearing and another path. This path was had very little light and had a canopy of foilage of corrupted trees preventing sunlight from passing through.
There were also a few packs of corrupted rabbits. But with the poison applied on their blade, the fight became a lot easier. There was another treasure chest hidden in the forest by the path. Balthazar managed to get to it while he was scouting and opened it.
It was another white treasure chest and he only found a couple of raw materials in it, corrupted poison ivy and a jet lignite crystal. One could be used for making poison and the other is a good storage for Mana. The jet lignite could be used in making mage weapons, tools and also as a core to deploy small scale spells.
He quickly put them both in his inventory and continued with killing the corrupted rabbits. As they went further in the trees grew taller. Some of them even had faces on them that had their eyes and mouth open in horror.
”This area looks like it had been copied out of a horror movie. Look at those trees,” said Little White Feet pointing to one of the trees with a face. ”It is really creepy.”
”Oh! Come on. All the games always had a very creepy and chilling story lines. This game is just a bit more immersive and experient than the others. It all matches with the plot of dead treants of Pecandor's family,” said Balthazar.
A few minutes later, he stopped and said, ”We are near Vultarc. Eat some bread and have water. Fill up on your health and mana. He is a Lepusvir of ranger occupation. So be long distance attacks would be the ones that take down his health. Both Quiet and Little Feet get ready, focus only on attack. Blinding will act the primary healer as her range is shorter.”
”That would be a lot of stress on a paladin wouldn't it?” asked Quiet Fire.
”Let me explain. Vultarc would be just attempting to shoot you with normal arrows and penetrating shots. He would be running around us and shooting at us. I would be following him and call out whenever he is shooting. Try your best to avoid the shots. Sometimes he would run towards other and strike at you with his sword. Tang and Blinding need to tank those strikes. His aggro will be mostly towards mage and priests because they will be the main damage dealers in this case. Tang needs to use provoke whenever he does that.”
”Once, he loses 50% health, he will start using poison. So use the antidote as soon as his health goes down by 50%. He will also start fight in close combat after that. Then, we will move back to the strategy we used for Vultusk. Luckily his close combat damage is worse than Vultusk. His attacks stun rather than deal damage,” finished Balthazar and moved forward.
They saw a dead treant in a clearing ahead. It was about 9 feet tall. The clearing was in the shape of a perfect circle and surrounded by tall black trees except for the path they entered it. There was a small hut made of wood on top of the dead treant directly opposite the entrance.
”You have killed enough of my pets to garner my attention,” said a voice in a weird squeaky accent. It came from the hut on top of the dead treant. An arrow suddenly whized in the air hitting Blinding in the chest. The force of the hit pushed her a bit back
”Oww! That hurt!” she cried out in pain. ”It was like someone struck me on the chest with a hammer.”