“3, 2, 1,” I started casting
The two monsters split apart as they chased the pair of us. We began our clockwise circling of the room.
Daisy and Kelsey moved into the middle of the room and started hitting the one on Voice.
The plan was relatively simple. Everyone was to lay into the one chasing Voice. I needed to keep the one chasing me, chasing me, but otherwise needed to also hit the other if I could. We wanted that one down as quickly as possible and then Voice would try and pull the aggro from me.
I hit it with a
It was faster than I had hoped… but it was slower than I had feared. I used the opportunity to hit the other Scorpion with a
My distraction nearly cost me. I thought the tails could only strike forward, but it seems like they are more flexible than that. The furthest tail from me curved backwards around the other and struck out in my direction. I would need to be more alert.
Fortunately, the strange angle meant it lost much of the speed in its attack, and collided with my staff instead of me. Still the blow was enough to force me back a few steps and I could feel that my armour set’s mana shield had just popped.
I baited the backwards tail strike and then as it came in I dodged and lashed out with a two-handed
I went to move left and its right tail lashed out at me. If I had committed it would definitely have hit. It was learning. Not good.
I dodged back from the next attack while releasing another
I saw movement and Voice charged past me, shield raised, he drove into the beast and forced it back two meters.
I turned to see the other one was down, both of its tails removed. I grinned as I turned back and saw Sam come up on it from behind.
I switched back to my Inferno Staff. Might as well get some
Daisy and I had just gotten started on our meditation enhanced mana regen when the other three came walking back into the chamber from the next.
“Nope,” said Kelsey. “Not happening.”
“Agreed,” said Sam. Daisy and I broke out of our meditation and went to see what had made the three of them decide that we weren’t even going to discuss the next room. Daisy got to the door first.
“Yep. Hard nope from me,” she turned and followed the others. Really curious now, I looked into the room myself.
Below the largest dome-shaped force field we had yet seen, I could see the rolling, rippling of muscle, throbbing tentacles shifting and flexing. It was some kind of Lovecraftian nightmare that sent shivers down my spine.
“Yeah… they ain’t wrong.”
I joined my group in the ante-chamber and eyed up the five chests in there.
Opening mine, I got:
‘You have been awarded 3 gold and 2 silver pieces.’
‘You have been awarded [Arcanus Boots of the Discerning Mage] for the first time clearing of floor 7’
I pulled the boots out of [Inventory] and was surprised to find a pair of stiletto heeled ankle boots.
‘[Arcanus Boots of the Discerning Mage]
Part of the Arcanus Mage Set (7 piece set)
Feet
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“These boots will enhance the mages mana regeneration”
Grants a 10% bonus to mana regeneration’
I put them back into [Inventory] and turned to see Voice putting on a pair aviator style sunglasses and Daisy now sporting a pair of white ankle boots, which were an improvement over the initiate healers set she had been wearing. Hers looked more sensible than the random ones I had won.
We got a few looks as we stepped out into the sunlight. The five of us in our sunglasses and fancy boots.
“Does anyone need anything else from here? Or should we start making our way south?” I asked. “I’m assuming everyone has been to the Provisionary and grabbed some quests?”
Turned out they had all had a look, but none had picked up any quests. I tried sharing mine using my new upgrade and they were all eligible for the quests I picked up, which saved us a trip to the Provisionary.
We took a roundabout route around campus, and then headed to the Explorator’s guild to hand in the quest for the college mapping.
It turned out Daisy hadn’t unlocked the Wardens and Explorators, so while she did that the four of us reviewed the available Quests. Wardens were quickly dismissed, they all required us to either head east to where they were pushing back the jungle to claim more of the ancient skyscrapers for housing or north to try and clear out some of the Farmable land on top of the cliffs which was infested by various lifeforms. The best we could find though was a single quest, re-mapping the road south. We decided to grab that and the ‘map the commercial district’ mission to do on our way back.
Once Daisy was done and we had all selected the same missions, we headed towards the lift down to the main city.
We stepped off the lift and started walking out into the city proper. The queue of players had grown quite a bit since I was last here. Some of whom were giving us jealous looks as we strolled past and headed south.
The avenue led us past the road to the docks and down towards the river.
“We should pop into the commercial district on our way past.” I said after some thought.
Voice gave Daisy a quick look. “Agreed.”
“We looking for anything in particular?”
“Healer’s set mostly.” I said. “Better shield?” I asked Voice.
“If we find one, but this one is pretty good. You, Sam and Kelsey are all well equipped. Speaking of, where did you get your [Explorator Ranger] set?” he asked the girl.
“I helped an old lady on the coast when she was overwhelmed by crabs, apparently it was a gift for her daughter, but she went a different way.”
“I can buy my own way,” insisted our group’s healer.
“We know but it’s a selfish habit we have.” I said to her, “We don’t like dying.”
“It’s practically a guild rule at this point,” Voice added. “We pool our resources to make sure the healers and tanks are always strong enough to handle the level of content we are attacking. The general feeling is that you will pay the rest of us back by ensuring we don’t die.”
“In my experience, we are getting the better end of that deal…” I said.
As I had been told the day before, the commercial district, or Artificers district as Christoph had called it, covered the buildings on either side of the river near the bridge crossing it. This side seemed to be the shops selling the more lightweight armour and weapons. So on the assumption cloth armour is best for us finger wigglers who should be the last ones getting hit, we went looking for a tailor.
It wasn’t the biggest of shops so Daisy and Voice went in and he waved me away when I went to pass him some of the gold I had acquired. Apparently clearing towers to the east had been quite profitable.
While we were waiting, I checked out a wand shop. At the price point I could afford the wands were pretty much the same as my staves at best. A few offered increased range, some offered increased accuracy, which I assumed meant a better chance to crit, as I hadn’t missed an attack yet.
The ones out of my price range though…wands which synergised with each other for dual wielding, combined bonuses to the spell level, added penetration power, and could cause vulnerabilities to a damage type which would encourage you to rotate through your spells, hitting with different schools, snowballing the vulnerability...
They were priced at 10,000 gold… I wouldn't be getting them any time soon…
I found Sam drooling in a gunshop at the mana pistols. Like me, everything here was either a sidegrade or out of our price range. But it’s good to dream. Right?
We found Kelsey in a jewelry store. She had just brought herself a small necklace with a narrow obelisk-like crystal which flared gently near the top.
As we got back to the tailors we found Daisy coming out in a new dress. Healer’s white, it had several armoured plates sewn in to give it a bit more padding in the more vulnerable areas without being too restrictive and it was cut to let her move around. It was short enough to reveal her leather leggings and left her upper arms bare.
“Travelling Merchant Healer’s set,” Voice said when he joined us. “We got a deal in exchange for delivering a letter to a farm which is only slightly out of our way.”
“Bonuses to healing and traveling stamina.” Daisy said happily.
“Do we want to look around the stores?” Voice asked.
I shook my head. “Can do if you want but from what I’ve seen so far, we will just be window shopping. The only things I can afford are all side grades.”
“Maybe the potion shop,” Sam suggested pointing across the river. “But I have to agree, I could call it aspirational future planning, but retail therapy only works for me if I can buy it but choose not to.”
“You want those guns,” I said.
“I want those guns,” he agreed.
“Like you can say anything with how you were drooling over those wands.” Kelsey laughed.
“Alright. I’ve not got much left now either.”
“How much do I owe you?” Daisy asked. “I insist on it being a loan.”
Voice sighed. “15 gold. And really I consider it an investment in keeping my butt alive.”
“I’ll pay you back!” she insisted.
“Do it by keeping his butt alive, and by extension our butts unhurt,” I told her. “To the potion shop and then onwards to adventure.”