King of the Mountain

Chapter 40: Training Montage (My Dumb Luck)

Soon all of the little slimes had been dealt with. My little ones came back to my side and we all stared at the giant slime. Why was it just staying in one place? I signal everyone to stay back as I take a pistol crossbow out of my inventory. I do not want them to get caught in the coming explosion. I load an explosive rune enchanted bolt into the pistol crossbow. Why a pistol crossbow and not something larger and more damaging? Mainly I was worried about the strange behavior, I am afraid that something unique and damaging might occur when this slime is finally attacked, so I want to use something smaller that still causes significant damage. Also a gun in this instance might ricochet unpredictably and injure one of us.

I lined up my shot at the darker part of the slime. If I get enough penetration, I might actually one shot kill this and crack its core with the minor explosion this bolt should cause. I fired the pistol crossbow and the arrow sunk into the orange slime only about six inches before making a small explosion. Slime spread out from the impact area and left a rather large dimple in the mass of the giant slime. However, the slime other than jiggling from the mini explosion did not move. Hmmm, is it sick?

I had everyone take another few steps back and put my pistol crossbow away. I took a full size hunting crossbow out and loaded it with the same type of explosion bolt, only this one should be 3 times stronger due to its larger size. I aimed for the same spot I hit earlier and fired the crossbow. This time the bolt embedded itself completely into the giant slime, probably about 2-3 feet and the resulting explosion was many times greater, but the exact same thing happened. A spray of slime and instead of a dimple on the surface there was a large crater that showed an exposed slime core. Now I was getting a little nervous. A giant slime who was not acting right, with an exposed slime core it was not trying to defend. What the heck was going on? I carefully loaded another bolt into the crossbow but did not immediately fire it.

I increased the number of fire orbs above my head by four and sent them out to float around the room. I wanted to inspect this room carefully before I did something else that might trigger a bad event. After 5 minutes of patiently examining by eye and magic the entire room I finally turned my attention back to the giant slime which still had not moved. I had found nothing out of the ordinary, and that made me even more nervous. I had the little ones move out of the cavern of the giant slime and went back to the entrance myself. I was going to take as many precautions as I could and still be able to finish this dungeon. I raised a small stone wall with my Earth magic and knelt behind it and finally took aim at the same spot I had hit two times previously.

With the giant slimes core basically exposed as long as I was close to it with this shot the resulting explosion from the crossbow bolt should destroy the core. I fired the crossbow and hit the giant slime right next to its core. As fast as I could I ducked down and waited. I heard the explosion and then nothing. I carefully raised my head above the barrier and looked at where the slime used to be. The entire slime had collapsed and spread out onto the floor. Ok that looked normal for a defeated slime. I then noticed that the giant slime had actually wedged itself into what looked like an alcove of the cave wall. The alcove was covered in shiny orange slime that suspiciously was not dripping at all.

Something was screwy with that area. It should be dripping slime like everywhere else that was hit with the exploding goo, but it looked like the slime was actually frozen to the wall. Interesting, frozen to the wall, I picked up a rock and threw it at the mass of slime still attached to the alcove walls and watched it strike the slime and freeze into place. It must be a trap. The giant slime must have activated a magic trap and was stuck to the wall the entire time I was shooting at it. What was the trap guarding though?

I called back my dragon crew and told them to avoid the area with the trap. I first cleaned up the area and collected the loot drops from the slimes. I opened a small chest on one of the walls and found a minor magically engraved dagger and some semiprecious gems. Pretty standard loot for a smaller dungeon. Then I contemplated the frozen slime wall. Obviously there is something behind this trapped wall, but what is it and do I want to mess with it? Of course I do, who am I kidding, this is just what I need to spice up the trip and relieve some tension. How am I going to do this though and not get caught by the same effect that doomed the slime?

From my experimentation I know that if it is a magic symbol causing the trap effect all I had to do was disrupt or destroy the magic symbol to break the effect. So if I plant some magic explosion devices next to the affected area they should overpower the effect if they are strong enough and break the magic symbol. I use my earth magic to carve a line from five feet away on the wall until it starts to stop. That stopping point is where the effect starts. Now all I need to do is create a hole in the rock with my earth magic, place one of my explosion symbol spheres inside of it, charge it to the maximum, and now retreat.

From behind the barrier I created earlier and with my dragons once again safely out of the way I go ahead and take the MA 12 rifle out of my inventory and carefully aim at the hole containing the magic grenade. I gently squeeze the trigger and the resulting explosion is much larger than I thought. The entire dungeon around me is shaking. I hear a noise above me and look up just in time to see a chunk of rock falling towards me and then blackness.

Some time later I come too with all four dragons looking a little worried and licking my face. Man my head hurts. What is up with my luck? I find an amazing and undiscovered location in a dungeon and finally remember to take safety precautions and I still ended up unconscious. I just think that me and explosions are enemies. Oh well, time to see what I uncovered. After downing a quick restorative potion, I look into the cave chamber where the alcove was and saw a lot of rubble and what looked to be a hole in the wall that led further down. I may have overdone the explosion again, but better too much than not enough in a time of crisis.

I approach the new hole in the wall with my dragons surrounding me and send a small fire orb down the hole so I can see what is there. The fire orb can travel about 25 meters from me until it sputters out and it goes the entire distance before fading. That is a much deeper hole than I was expecting. It is relatively steep but should pose no problem to me. I carefully start down the new passage with my group and after about 100 meters I could see a large metallic grate blocking the way with a sign of some sort next to it. I cautiously approach just close enough to read the sign in the dim light.

“Welcome Great Game Player!”

"You have discovered a limited instance dungeon. If you choose to enter please take note that all teleportation, communication, and other distance magic to contact or leave the dungeon will cease to function until the dungeon is complete.”

Interesting, Help.

“Yes.”

“Can you explain what a limited instance dungeon is?”

“Yes I can.”

Stupid literal game screens.

“Help, please explain what a limited instance dungeon is.”

“A limited instance dungeon is a mobile dungeon that is hidden within another dungeon. Only one group may enter and the dungeon will only remain in place until it is conquered and the one who beat it leaves. At that time it will move and attach itself to another dungeon somewhere in the world.”

“Help, how powerful is a limited instance dungeon and what level is recommended to conquer it?”

“Each dungeon is unique and the level needed would depend on several factors, however all instance dungeons range from 2-4 times the level of the dungeon they are attached to.”

Alright, that means since the slime dungeon was recorded as a level 25 dungeon, this instance dungeon should be level 50 – 100. Since I was going to try a level 100 dungeon towards the end of my trip anyway I might as well start one early. I am going to be smart about this though. I will go back outside the slime dungeon and collect the achievements and rewards for both myself and my little dragons and have a good rest before reentering and attempting this instance dungeon. That sounds like a great plan.

A good 12 hours later after a nice night of camping out I checked my little companions.

Name: Elvira Race: Elemental Air Dragon

Level: 21 14% Status: Companion/Pet of Mark Anderson

Name: Esmerelda Race: Elemental Earth Dragon

Level: 20 77% Status: Companion/Pet of Mark Anderson

Name: Azure Race: Elemental Water Dragon

Level: 20 83% Status: Companion/Pet of Mark Anderson

Name: Sir Bruce Shadow Flaming Ember of Doom Race: Elemental Fire Dragon

Level: 23 33% Status: Companion/Pet of Mark Anderson

As I expected. Each of my little ones has gained quite a bit from just a single dungeon run. They also appear to be about a meter longer this morning versus yesterday. I also notice that my impression of Bruce being a little bit of an experience hog is true. I noticed yesterday that he liked to jump in the other dragons fights which is why he probably out leveled his sisters and brother. I did not reach the next level myself but did pick up a chunk of experience towards the next level. Well, all of us should increase with the limited instance dungeon. I contacted Jacob and told him to let everyone know that I planned on staying at the slime dungeon for at least another day and then headed back inside to where we found the new dungeon.

After clearing out the slimes on the way, I had forgotten that they would respawn, we came to the giant slimes cavern. I looked at my companions and told them to be careful because the giant slime would be mobile today and we needed to defeat it before we entered the new dungeon. As we entered we saw a similar situation as to what we experienced yesterday with the distinct difference of a bright orange, very large, bouncing slime. I quickly decided that until we knew what it could do it would be my opponent. I told the dragons to work on killing all of the surrounding small slimes while I attacked the large one.

My four dragonlings each immediately jumped onto the nearest slime and started ripping it apart while preparing a breath weapon to use on other slimes that were closing in on them. The large slime started moving forward into attack range. I can’t let that big bully hurt my little ones. Took out one shotgun from my inventory and checked quickly that it was loaded with the right ammunition. Slugs with fire enchantments. I then lined up a shot and pulled both triggers. With an underwhelming whoosh, air powered guns just don’t sound right compared to old explosion/black powder weapons the two slugs lodged deep within the large orange slime and started to release their heat. This was basically trying to cook it from the inside. The slime stopped its movement forward and exuded an arm and then left it on the ground.

It actually was smart enough to send the slugs outside of its body so it would not hurt as much. Well I definitely have its attention now. It is not even acknowledging that their might be other organisms in the room. It started rolling quite fast in my direction immediately crushing 2 out of the dozens of slimes already in place. I quickly reload the shotgun with electric damage buckshot for this round and let it have two more barrels almost at point blank range. That blew a large chunk of its body. That has got to hurt.

The giant slime seems partially paralyzed now due to the electric charge on the buckshot. Time to get out the fire damage spear. I do not want to get to close to a large slime. It would be bad for my reputation and It could possibly just roll over me trapping me underneath its weight. While the large slime is distracted by pain I glance around and take stock of how my little dragons are doing. They are just ripping through everything. I guess I am the slow one in this family, time to step it up a notch.

I jump forward and thrust towards the darker spot in the slime, aiming directly for the core. With my strength and magic the result was anticlimactic. I did not pierce the core, I still need to work on my aim a bit with the spear, but as soon as I pierced the slimes outer covering I channeled my mana through the spear and activated the fire rune in the spear. The giant slime was cooked completely destroying it and rendering it into ashes almost instantaneously. There is a reason for levels and the disparity between them is difficult to overcome for non-sentient monsters.

Thinking about sentience, I redouble my determination to practice more with my hand to hand weapons. I have discovered that the majority of early success with my projectile weapons was based on surprise and non-sentience. The more sentient monsters and other people if they become enemies I have learned through my military council tend to have defenses against projectiles. The spell and magic rune to protect yourself from projectiles is ridiculously simple once you learn it. This means that projectile weapons are generally only good for distractions, surprise damage, and against non-sentient monsters.

It seems that my success in the bloodlines dungeon was about 75% luck and the rest was a combination of surprise against the dragons and the use of multiple types of elemental damage which reduces their protections. Usually the monsters that I killed like the Lich, Witch Doctor, Dragons, and others have protections up once they know something is in the area. I got lucky in surprising them and damaging them before they activated their protections. I was a little bit humbled when I discovered this. It seems that my current level and situation is due more to dumb luck than skill. This does not mean that projectile weapons such as my air guns and bows are useless, just that they usually only do damage from surprise or after overwhelming a defense. My military commanders say that they are also essential as a distraction. If you are concentrating on protecting yourself from projectiles you are less likely to notice other things on the battlefield.

When I first learned this it explained so much to me. I always wondered why if there was magic available people used what we on Earth would consider “primitive” weapons. It turns out, that protecting from up close slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage is much more difficult than protection from projectiles. No one really understands why the difficulty exists and they usually just chalk it up to the Great Game wants it that way. Now that I know that I cannot rely on what I thought was my overwhelming advantage in firepower, but in reality was my surprise and trap making ability, I resolved to improve my skills.

My little ones finished cleaning up the rest of the slimes and I took the time to loot and check the area. The chest was closed again and yielded a set of bracers of minor deflection and some more semi-precious gems. Now that the “original” dungeon is complete it is time to start my adventure into the limited instance dungeon. As I enter the alcove that I discovered yesterday with my dragonlings I received a Great Game message.

“Welcome to the limited instance dungeon Arachnid Warrens. All teleportation and communication magic has been disabled until you conquer the dungeon. The Arachnid Warrens are a level 100 limited instance dungeon. Remember that you have committed to finishing this dungeon by entering and will not be able to leave until it is complete.”

Wait I did no such thing. I did not make that commitment. It was never mentioned in the help yesterday that I would not be able to leave until it was conquered. Not to mention Arachnid Warrens, I hate spiders, I have changed my mind. When I turn around to leave I notice that the exit is now non-existent and only a smooth wall remains. Yep, my luck is functioning quite well. I find something extraordinary, get a little greedy and then have to suffer for it. At least this time I am not alone and have my little guys with me. Although I will have to be careful on what they fight until they level up a bit more. The Great Game message did say that this was a level 100 limited instance dungeon.