Chapter 7- Enter the Dungeon

Chapter 7- Enter the Dungeon

Entering into the Dungeon we trigger our first trap. It's trap magic, by placing my foot over a concealed magical circle I set off a magical landmine.

It's the first damage I've taken in the game. I should be more careful. The smoke from the explosion clouded my sight for a moment, but it faded quickly. The explosion itself didn't hurt as much as I expected. I didn't even flinch. I guess who would play a game where the pain settings are 1 to 1?

I'm not saying it didn't hurt, but more like mild discomfort. It felt more like I was suddenly heated up for a moment before returning to my normal body temperature.

"Are you okay?"

The damage was minimal. At level 125 my HP was at 915. My Ancient Robes of the Sorcerer also has magic resistance, on top of that my natural magic resistance is high. All of this brought the damage down to 4 points.

"Do you need to use a recovery potion?"

"No. I'm fine. Just watch where you step."

It would be a waste to use a potion now. My own Recovery skill only lets me recover 30% of the damage, a 1 point waste for the MP and cool down time it would require.

Julie turns her back to me and heads deeper in. She has not equipped a weapon. I suppose this means she's a caster after all.

The dungeon itself is dark and hard to see. There is no light down here. It makes me wish I had picked up a night vision skill.

I place a hand on the dungeon wall to get my bearings and recoil from the touch. I can't see it, but my hand feels wet and slimy. God this is so gross, I almost want to gag.

I shake my hand off, splattering the slimy substance on the floor and wall. Afterward I wipe my hand on my robe to clean the rest off. So disgusting.

The wall itself felt cold and rocky. I don't even want to know what that slimy stuff was. I can't take this atmosphere, it's so filthy that it's making my skin crawl.

I create a fireball in my hand to light my surroundings. The flame hovers above my palm so I have to keep my hand held up. It's nice and warm, comforting.

"You don't have any skills to help you see in the dark do you?"

"I believe flame magic counts."

"You're going to draw monsters toward us with that." Julie points out.

"Isn't that the point? To level grind and collect treasure."

"Yes, I just wanted you to be aware."

"I'm alright. I'm more concerned about how you'll fair, Julie."

"I have enough spells to keep me safe, but I'm glad you're worried about me."

I look into her eyes and she looks back into mine. We both smile at each other at the same time before our attention is drawn away.

It was a buzzing sound that caught our attention. This passageway wasn't exactly narrow, but there was only one direction the sound could be coming from. The noise grew closer and closer and as it did I could tell it was multiple buzzing sounds overlapping.

"Aren't you going to pull out a weapon?" Julie asked me.

"I don't need one for these."

As they came closer we were finally able to tell what was making that buzzing. Bees, Giant Bees all between level 25-30.

There were maybe seven of them. Julie would never be able to take them on alone without using wide range attacks with fast cool downs. It made me curious to see how she'd handle this, so I decided to step back and watch.

As the Giant Bees grew closer Julie activated what I assume was Wind Magic. A powerful gust of wind shot out from her hands, sending the Giant Bees tumbling into each other and the dungeon walls.

It didn't deal much damage overall, but it was a start. Every time the Giant Bees got up and tried to fly closer she'd spam them with another wind attack.

It was becoming quite effective. Not only were they losing HP from each wind attack, but depending on how hard they slammed into each other or the dungeon they'd lose even more HP.

After a while of this the bees got back up, but backed away. They turned around and began to fly off.

"No you don't. Get back here!"

Julie ran after them and as her party member I ran after her. She was already switching the type of magic she was using. Poles made of yellow light appeared around her before shooting out and piercing the bees one by one.

"Light Magic will finish this."

Each bee let out a screech as they were impaled. A transparent yellowish liquid squirted out of their wounds. I don't think Julie was trying to aim at any vital points, the bees were hit in different parts of their bodies.

Being closer up I can make out the details of the bees better. Some still have a leg or wing twitching. It's gross, so f*****g gross to stare down a human sized bee even if it's their corpse.

I want to vomit so bad. I have the urge to cover my mouth, but I don't want Julie to see how squeamish I am. I didn't have this reaction when I killed the Hero or those players. No, this reaction has nothing to do with how violent or bloody the game can be. I simply despise the fact that they have giant bugs crawling around in this dungeon.

"Do you want to go in a bit deeper?"

Before I can respond another bee charges straight for us. Thus one looks different than the last seven, like a living bee battering ram.

"I've got this."

Julie uses her wind magic again, but this bee passes right through it. I can see its level as it knocks Julie into the wall. She never had a chance, this one is level 36.

"Hey, ugly. Over here."

The bee turns to face me. Its flight becomes erratic all of a sudden as it charges at me. This must be my Intimidation skill causing it to attack in confusion.

As it swings with its stinger I effortlessly move to the side. The stupid bee is still trying to jab its stinger into the spot where I had been standing.

It finally changes directions to face me, too slow. I slash at its exposed belly with an ice shard I created. I cut the thing's stomach open with one downward slash. It falls over on the ground, twitching a bit as transparent yellow fluid leaks out of it.

The ice that I covered my hand with shatters. Whenever I encase my hand in ice like that I find it chills my skin. My hand goes numb from the cold for a while, I wonder if a cold resistance skill exists.

In regards to experience points I hardly gained any. I'm sure Julie gained more from her kills than me.

Speaking of which, Julie walked over to me while rubbing the back of her head.

"That bee really hit me hard. You took it down so easily… how did you do that?"

"It probably fought through your wind pressure, but when it came after me I used a physical attack. Have all the attack and HP you want, but a fatal attack is still fatal."

The bee didn't die from my single strike. I took down some of its HP, but it had plenty left. No, what happens when a fatal strike like that lands is that it'll quickly lose all its remaining HP. Think of it like bleeding out from a wound.

When fatal attacks land that doesn't guarantee the target will die. They could have a recovery or Regeneration skill or be treated with Recovery Potions. Recovery as a skill won't do much, it'll maybe get you a few more seconds. Regeneration will fix you right up if you can heal faster than your HP drops, and you'd need a Full Recovery Potion to recover from a fatal wound otherwise the Potion would be wasted. This is why resistances exist, to decrease the chances of fatal attacks.

If that bee had higher resistance or resistance to ice attacks I'd still be fighting it until I found what it doesn't have a resistance for. Although I can't expect much from a low level NPC monster.

"Do you still think you can keep going?" I ask.

Julie pulled out a vial with purple liquid inside it. She drank the fluid before the vial disappeared back to her inventory.

"My MP is recovered now. I did take some damage, but I can keep going."

"How about I lead the way this time?" I suggest.

I began to walk in front of her before I realized something important. What time was it? Is it dinner time yet? If so, what should I do? I think I need to log out.

Author's Note

We're about to see Elsa's home life soon. A reader wrote to me asking about her background, how she was able to afford the game's ultimate edition. Well if you're still reading the answers are coming up soon.

I know this story feels rushed with the pacing. Beside expanding on details I think these first 7 chapters are fine. This story starts with fast pacing to set up the world. These last 3 chapters have been more connected and focused on one thing rather than jumping around. Fact is though when Elsa created her character only one chapter was needed, logging in for the first time also only needed one chapter. She needed to kill the Hero before he grew too powerful so I couldn't waste several chapters on that either. Meeting the Dark Lich is a quick encounter. It's not like everything will be resolved in one chapter, but I'm not going to unnecessarily drag things out.

Lastly I just figured out how to work tags. I have no idea what I'm doing with those so I just put as many as I could think of that apply.