???, Liggit Mine, West Fander Field

Winfrey

Down, down and doooown we gooo...

This place seriously gives me the creeps. Just, the whole vibe here is like, weirdly oppressive and desolate. Hell if I know why I get that feeling, I just think I'll chalk it up to the place being basically haunted or something. Still feels personal in a way it really ought not to, and from the way Olrica and Sher have been muttering to each other I don't seem to be alone in that.

Maybe the boss is the same, but it's hard to tell through the helmet, and the others are too far back to know what they're making of the atmosphere down here. Beside that it's not easy to get a good long breath, and it smells like stagnant water. Y'know, generally cave-y, which I guess beats rotting flesh.

Whatever the hell that was earlier, it was like the flesh that remained had petrified completely, and it's not like the Terrorstone winding through it all was properly fusing them, like muscle fiber or anything. It was too random for that, no steady progression evident from the terrain or the bigger chunks. More like they'd been spattered with glue and got stuck together.

The spooky vibe was strongest around them, come to mention it. I mean, obviously, but...Tangible. I guess, like it was just radiating off 'em like how it feels standing next to the boss whenever he ticks me off. Which has been pretty often recently.

"Something's up ahead," Reit calls out, "Anyone else hear that?"

"The mangled sobbing of a woman," the adventurer guild lady clicks her tongue, "An enemy, doubtless. No innocent damsel could be interred here, decades later."

"Finally," I grunt, eager to get stuck in and take my mind off the creepshow, 

The tunnels after the blockage have varied in width and height, covered in scratches and gouges from desperate fingers. Ahead is one of the wider ones, with a chaotic mess of grooves carved into the floor ahead of a half-stood skeletal figure, slowly, very slowly trying to drag itself forwards, it's extraneous limbs reduced to smooth stumps, arms and hands wrapped around in disturbingly familiar fashion as though trying to prevent it leaving. The figure's jaw is missing, a giant splint of Terrorstone shoved down through where it's throat used to be and warping the exposed ribcage.

And it's moaning.

Somehow, despite lacking a throat.

I've seen dead bodies before - so it's not really a big deal to me, my years of VRRRPGs and medical training just inured me further, but if there's like, one thing that every coroner on the planet is just not ok with, it's the corpses moving around and talking. I sort of inherited that before I switched courses from pure medicine to pharmacology.

I start moving to engage, per my role, but get stopped by the boss's hand on my shoulder, "Wait a moment. Something seems familiar about the set-up here."

"What do you mean?"

"Reminds me of the Shrieker Barnacles from Nights Under Umbr 2,"  Olrica comments, "Or was it 3?"

"A sentry and alarm combination, you mean?" Morn, quiet as ever, ponders, "Ah. So this would be...the Fearstruck Miner equivalent?"

Oh, damn. Almost set it off, then, huh?

"That would seem likely, since we haven't encountered any so far, and it is clearly not anything like a Shard of Terror," the Boss confirms seriously, "Right or wrong, we needn't approach recklessly. Reit? Take a shot at it's head. If it survives, and it turns out it can move Windy will intercept. Jade, Oil, be ready to follow-up if the first shot isn't enough. On the premise it will attract reinforcements like a Fearstruck Miner, I don't want it to have enough time to bring the entire Lair down on our heads."

The old mage woman discretely moves further back while he gives out the instructions, obviously not intending to help us out. Which I still think is bullshit, but this still beats having to try and mediate all these chaebols and chaebol roleplayers kicking up a fuss in our headquarters. Just 'cos I know how to talk the talk, doesn't mean I'm really all that interested in aping Uncle Eric.

Grumbling under my breath, I'm reminded that we're going to be facing him tonight. Part of why we're doing this so early, not that Alex said anything about it to the others. At least we've finally started making money, not that I've seen a cent of it myself. Morn and Olrica need enough to get themselves out of Berlin before Morn's lease expires.

"On my mark," standing shoulder to shoulder with him, near enough, I notice Silver's breathing rhythm subtly shifts as he readies himself for combat, taking in a little bit more oxygen than normal like a professional sprinter might, and file the detail away for my own practice later, "5. 4. 3. 2. 1 - Take the shot!"

The snap of the crossbow's taut string distorts in the tunnel, the bolt barely a blur from the corner of my eye. The zombie looking thing is basically a stationary target and there's no airflow or obstructions so you'd have to actively be trying to miss your shot to not hit the glabella dead-on at this distance. In less than a second, a shudder spreads across it's body and a scream erupts, digging knives into my own skull, prickling my skin like I stuck my face up to a furnace.

[thievesescapewhereamipainwhatmustwedoleadushomebringthisbackberich]

My vision swims as jumbled voices talk in my head. The gibbering is constant, making it hard to think clearly. Yup, this thing needs a beatdown, no matter how pathetic it is. No matter how familiar some of the emotions being imparted are.

I run ahead alongside Alex, who pulls ahead before I know it, arriving and taking a big baseball bat-style swing at the thing that sweeps it's head off before the arrow from Sherry's bow reaches it.

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Greedlost Fool(Elite)!

Awarding 12000 Experience.

In the swirling darkness, shadows cast by the feeble lanternlight, a fuzzy black figure forms, pulling chunks of that weird rock from the floor and walls. Shards of Terror spawning in, but somewhat different. A club formed from a mostly consumed mining sledge, an axe with someone's leg used as the handle, part of the foot still dangling at the end.

They're not quite as uniform as before. Different weapons, so I know to expect different behaviours. Changing tactics on the move, I bash the nearest with my shield to tag it and lunge to slash at the other. Alex practically one-shot the thing summoning them, so I'll move on to clean-up.

Except...it's still ranting in my head. It just sounds more...

Distant? Than before?

Twisting my waist to block a swiping blow behind me from the hammer-wielding Shard of Terror, I squint into the darkness in the...direction the voices are coming from. And I see, clawing at the wall of the tunnel ahead, a second one.

Ohhh, that's not good.

The slow-down of my mental perception of time fades away, and even more voices start joining in.

"Shit, it's a resonance-type alarm," Alex curses, raising his voice, "I'm going to go on ahead and take down all the parts of the chain, hold fast! <Lord's Imperative>!"

Just like that, he's gone in a blur and the head second hell-raising corpse falls to the floor.

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Greedlost Fool(Elite)!

Awarding 12000 Experience.

But, more of these buffed up Shards of Terror-looking fuckers are spawning in and they're not respecting our formation at all, forcing the squishies to huddle in so I can grab the aggro for them. Bad as the situation is looking for us, the old space wizardess isn't doing anything at all to help out.

Point of fact, when a shard spawned at the back and poked at her with it's stony sword-thing, she moved out the way so fast it was like she teleported again. Might have, for all I know, but cloth-spellcaster or not, she's such a higher Level than it - and her clothes are probably way tougher than they look, too - I'm not entirely convinced she'd have felt an itch. Must be like the boss says, and to the NPCs it's like the mob was trying to touch her with a booger-tipped finger or something.

Distracted by my random thoughts, I raise my sword to block a little too slow.

-398

Fuck! Right in the head, my brain rattles from the sledgehammer bellringer, I stagger back and take an axe to my open left shoulder.

-333

I don't know if it's just these things that're strong, or if it's me, but I am getting my ass handed to me. Not my gear, I don't think. Unlike the others I'm still relatively Level-appropriate thanks to Silver and Henna a while back. Must be them, then.

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Greedlost Fool(Elite)!

Awarding 112000 Experience.

Finding space to dish out some hits of my own is tricky, but their gimmick of needing to hit their weaponry specifically means I can focus on aggressive counter-blocks and parries. It doesn't do shit for damage, but it's keeping the, as of now, five assholes trained on me specifically with some minor assistance from Olrica occasionally dipping in to try and divert swings that're in my blindspots.

Meanwhile, I'm taking more and more hits and getting more and more healing Spells. The constant back-and-forth is giving me a weird feeling like shotgunning several cans of concentrated energy drink in a row after donating plasma.

Don't...ask me why I know what that feels like. I just do.

Oh, good, another one just popped out the ceiling! Except I can't afford to move over and grab it, it's taking too much of my concentration to keep track of the ones already on me and trying to disengage when I'm almost encircled like this is just asking for trouble. But I still have a job to do.

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Greedlost Fool(Elite)!

Awarding 12000 Experience.

And from the looks of things, the boss man is still busy hunting down the spawners. Given that it's kind of slowed down on the spawns in the last minute he's probably got a bunch more of them trailing after him down there as well.

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Greedlost Fool(Elite)!

Awarding 112000 Experience.

Oh, look at that, a twofer. The chattering voices are getting quieter and quieter every time he kills one, to the point that they're just on the periphery of my awareness now, like background noise in a restaurant.

-422

-345

-360

Ow! Fuck!

Focus, girl, focus...

"Olrica, can you bring the new ones over to me?!" I request as politely as I can manage under the circumstances, but my voice is strained and comes out more passive-aggressive than I mean to sound.

"Yes ma'am," is the sardonic reply I get back.

-329

A spear slides past a bad parry into my chest, puncturing through, leaving me open for another two hits as I try to stop it going all the way through with my shield-holding hand, but they're superficial. Still clutching the spear, I smash my sword down on it as hard as I can before I'm forced to hunker down again.

The pointy stone stick snaps like a tree branch, my blade rings from the impact.

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Fragment of Independence(Elite)!

Awarding 14000 Experience.

Just in time for me to replace it with the one Olrica lures over. This might take a while. I just hope that the healers can keep up, because there's not a whole lot I can do about present circumstances.

---

 

Congratulations, your party has defeated a Fragment of Independence(Elite)!

Award-

The notification marks the end of the otherwise endless spawns of these beefier Shards of Terror. There was so many of them clogging up the corridor they couldn't all get to me to take a swing. A big part of me being able to corral them like this was thanks to Morn and Oil's crowd control Spells turning the ground beneath them slick with icy mud while we slowly retreated behind the fresh spawns.

The result speaks for itself, really. All these attacks definitely hurt, but with two healers on me, I wasn't in too much danger so long as I avoided any nasty hits, but until the boss got back, it was pretty touch and go.

If I had to call out an MVP through all that, though, it'd be Henry - Grand - since he was our best damage dealer for all these spawns. They don't have special resistances against magic like they do for physical, so he and Oil could fire off indiscriminately, but Oil only has one extra Spell - Minor Mespem Sheen - and Grand has his crit passive as a Wizard, which Oil doesn't as an Elementalist. 

I think their thing is supposed to be like, efficiency with elemental magic? I'm surprised Grand didn't go for that when he had the chance, cryo energy-based CC was kind of his entire identity in VA. It was bullshit in 1v1s, which is probably why he's Gold ranked while me and Sher aren't.

"Good job holding out," Silver praises us between breaths, "How are we looking on MP?"

"A little fuzzy-headed," Grand rubs his palm across his face, "Should be good to go in a minute or two once the potion works its magic. I don't wanna try using my Skill in this place, and it's too long a walk to get back somewhere...cleaner?"

"Low, Win took a hell of a beating," Angelus - bless his soul - smiles at me, "You alright, by the way? You practically died twice over in terms of Health restore if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah," I stretch out my arms, "I'm gucci. Pain doesn't really bother me, to be honest."

"If you say so."

"I'm middle-of-the-road," Karin hems and haws, "With how my Class functions, spamming heals isn't really that great an idea since I don't...think? That the regen procs stack independently. Was better to let Angie here do triage while my heals ticked over."

'Angie' - snrk - gives her a funny look that turns to respect in moments, "Good insight. But please stop with the nicknames."

"Hey, I'm not new at this - and no, never," Karin beams back smugly, "How 'bout you foxy, lanky 'n' baldy?"

Oil rubs his scalp self-consciously, "Baldy..?"

Jade shrugs, "I barely used any. Not a lot I can really do against those things that don't seem more like moral support."

"Same," Reit sighs, "Though I'm fairly certain I had a better time dealing damage just by virtue of my using a crossbow."

"Mm, probably," Jade huffs, her pride prickling, "They give good xp at least, so it's almost a shame to shut down the respawns. Day or two down here and I could get myself a gun at long fuckin' last."

"Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't work like that," Silver comes in, ready to rain on her parade once again, "There should only be a fixed number of them in this Lair, so if they can respawn, it won't be for a long while, and we have a job to do. Besides, we both know how ridiculous the Experience requirement scaling is."

"Killjoy," she sticks her tongue out at him. Adorable.

"Are we clear to take a break, then?" Morn asks quietly.

Silver looks back behind him, down the corridors we need to go through, "Ought to be able to take a few minutes to catch our breath. I've already dealt with everything I found up ahead. Just the boss monsters left, I expect."

Fun. Wonder how much the bosses have changed if just the random mobs are this tough now.