89. Mikal Mine

Despite my repeated protests that it was irrelevant, Joe was quite insistent upon reading up on what information was publicly available about the dungeon and its bosses.  Even though the entire layout of the dungeon had apparently changed due to the trap he had stepped on, and despite the fact that we were encountering a type of monster never before seen in this dungeon, he still seemed to think that the outdated information was relevant.

The original dungeon was a bit of a labyrinth, with a twisting map that doubled back on itself in three dimensions.  The chief difficulty, according to the testimonies on the forums, was simply getting lost.  The enemies, which in the normal version of the dungeon were a type of giant insect, an ooze monster which normally required the presence of at least one magic damage dealer to deal with, and a bipedal species of mole-like enemies called Tunnelians.

Those monsters were all still present in this new version of the instance, in addition to the Burrowers and a mimic monster that pretended to be old abandoned mining equipment until you got too close to it.  There was also a lot of actualold abandoned mining equipment strewn about, making the mimics hard to pick out from the junk on the floor.  Adding to the difficulty was the surprisingly powerful ambush abilities of the mimic and the fact that they seemed to know that Leanne was our healer, often deliberately waiting until she was in range before striking.  The only solution we had come up with was to have Joe go around and just … poke everything.

The new monsters weren’t really a threat, however.  The threat of the dungeon came from its changed layout, which had become even more complicated and convoluted than before.  And the traps.  Some of the traps sealed off entire sections of the dungeon, forcing us to detour to reach the next area, while others triggered hazards, explosions, or released a wave of enemies to challenge us.  There was no way to determine what a trap’s effect was without triggering it.

Fortunately our Archer, Ike, had a [Detect Traps] ability, which allowed him to identify and mark most of them.  A Rogue-class would have been better, but we were already heavy on melee damage with me and Corinth.  And Ike’s ability was great, he just lacked the ability to actually disable the trap.  All he could do was send out a pulse which would cause triggers to glow faintly to the rest of the party.  Strictly speaking, even that was unnecessary; the traps were visible to the naked eye with or without a skill.  The detection spell that Ike released simply made them much easier to find and avoid.

Still, even with the changes, the beginning of the dungeon wasn’t particularly difficult.  Crawling through the detour spaces was annoying, especially when we were likely to be ambushed immediately on the other side, but the enemies weren’t particularly strong or menacing.

After battling and navigating our way through the extended entryway, we arrived in the chamber where the first boss was traditionally located.  It was a giant ooze, and the basic strategy hadn’t changed very much from what was listed on the forums.  It was resistant to physical damage, which meant that by the time we finally defeated it I was responsible for dealing more than seventy percent of the damage in the fight.  The others weren’t just sitting on their thumbs, however.  The boss’s damage output was low enough that Leanne could cast a few offensive spells, and periodically the boss would split into smaller enemies which were more susceptible to the damage they could put out.

Overall it was an easy fight, lasting only a few minutes.  With my new sword, I really ripped through the blob’s health pool.  I just alternated between spamming [Empowered Firballs] and regenerating my Mana with [Battle Trance].  Other than physical resistance, the boss didn’t have any surprises for us.  It’s damage ramped up over time as it built a stacking debuff on the tank, but we killed it before that became an issue.

Its loot was a strength-based cloak which Joe and Corinth argued over for a few minutes before leaving the decision of who would get it up to Are En Gee.  And it also dropped a ring that went to ourhealer.  Then we went back to clearing trash and navigating the dungeon, which seemed determine to continue collapsing around us as we progressed.

The traps intensified after the first boss’s room.  They were everywhere.  Stumbling through them blindly would have been impossible without Ike’s ability highlighting them.  Even with the ability to see where they were, many of them were so inconveniently placed that it was easier to simply have Leanne shield and buff Joe and have him trigger the trap and soak the damage.  Except that some of the traps still caused the way forward to collapse and forced us to take detours.  Detours through even more traps.

“Why are there so many traps?” Corinth asked.

“Don’t know.  There was no mention of them in the articles about this dungeon,” Joe mentioned.

“I told you, the Core instance is always different.  And since we announced that we’re here to destroy the dungeon, it’s probably throwing absolutely everything it can at us,” I pointed out.  “Two new enemies and a bunch of traps is probably within expectations in that regards.  We can also probably expect at least one more boss or special challenge, I think.”

“First boss was the same,” he argued.  “It was worth researching.”

He wasn’t wrong, so I let him have his small victory.

The most frustrating aspect of the prevalence of traps, hazards, and obstacles that we faced was that we didn’t actually gain any experience for bypassing or disarming them.  Or at least that was my opinion.  They were significantly adding to the difficulty we were facing without any rewards to mitigate the inconvenience.  I was frustrated; after spending weeks stagnating while grieving my grandfather, and then dealing with the politics following his death, I had finally begun leveling again.  I wanted to use this opportunity to gain as many levels as possible.  So perhaps not getting any rewards for bypassing the traps bothered me more than I should.

However, when we reached a room where Ike’s ability failed to light up a single object, I felt myself go on edge, rather than relaxing.

“Boss room, do you think?” Corinth asked.

“If it is, it’s a new one,” Joe pointed out.  “Nothing like the second boss in the guides.  Don’t see anything though.”

I glanced at him suspiciously, then motioned to the mountainous pile scraps in the middle of a room.  “It’s obviously a mimic boss, Joe.  Go poke it with your warhammer to wake it up.”

Joe shot me an annoyed look, but he followed my suggestion.  And he did not look happy when the pile of rubble that looked like several railway carts that had collided and collapsed woke up and attacked him.

In its active form, the mimic was three meters tall, with a skeleton of iron and shadowy flesh that resembled wood here and stone there.  Unlike it’s smaller cousins, it didn’t seem to rely too heavily on ambush tactics, and it quickly became clear that we were in for a difficult fight.  It’s attacks did very heavy damage to our tank, and at the same time it fired off lightning discharges at anyone at range.  Standing close to it wasn’t an easy solution either, as it would swing it’s massive limbs about in sweeping motions that would deal damage and knock back anyone who got hit by them.

The fight was difficult from start to finish … but it wasn’t complicated either.  The boss’s high damage put stress on Leanne to keep Joe and the rest of the party healed.  The rest of us were busy both avoiding as much incoming damage as we could while simultaneously trying to kill the boss before Lean ran out of mana.  But there were no sudden phase changes or new tactics.  It was very nearly a ‘tank and spank.’

After a bit of experimentation, I discovered that it was mostvulnerable to water damage, allowing me to get some use out of my rarely used [Water Jet] and [Aqua Blade] abilities.  This had actually been true for all of the mimic creatures we had faced, and I had gained more levels in those spells in the past hour than I’d had in them to begin with.  By the end of the fight, I’d brought [Water Jet] up to level sixteen, and [Aqua Blade] up to level thirteen.  They had been at seven and four, respectively, before that.  So much progress!

Of course, perhaps because I was using my lowest level skills, I also wasn’t as far ahead of the others in terms of damage.  With the arcing electricity shooting out from the boss periodically, Corinth was able to keep [I’ll Take a Bullet For You] active a fair amount of the time by intercepting bolts directed at Ike or Leanne.  And both he and Ike had also made the wise decision of selecting the weapon option as their rewards for participating in the battleground, allowing them to pack a significant punch to their attacks.

In the end, Corinth couldn’t quite manage to beat me out for the number one spot on damage, but he was close.  Ike wasn’t too far behind him either.  I thought his numbers were great, but he seemed dissatisfied when the fight was over.

“So how do I get me one of those super Oh Pee damage boosting boons like that?” he asked Corinth as we were waiting for the boss to finish dissolving into mist and for its loot box to form.

“I dunno.  I got mine from jumping in front of a poison dagger thrown by an endgame assassin to keep Hail alive,” Corinth admitted.  “Hail says that he doesn’t have any control over it.”

“I don’t,” I insisted.  “The only boon I can consciously control at this point is [Through the Valley of the Shadow], but it comes with the massive curse that offsets it.  I can’t even manually assign [Mark of Karma], although the system or whatever does seem to give that out like candy these days.  Have you all gotten it yet?”

“Yeah.  It’s sweet,” Ike agreed.  “I hear that means that I might also get summoned for your events, is that true?”

“I think so.  I’m not really sure how that ability works yet.  I can only use it once a week, it seems.  It’s still on cooldown from when I wasted it before the battleground,” I admitted.  “And I don’t think it summoned everyone with the mark when I did.  I think the system summons just enough to give me a chance to overcome the challenge, but it also seems to balance itself out a bit if the enemy is outmatched when I use it.”

“Is that a week in-game, or real time?” Ike asked.

“Huh?  Oh, right.  A week in this world,” I clarified.  Even though I knew that their world experienced only a single day for every week that passed in mine, it was sometimes hard to keep the difference in context.

“Probably not something you should go around talking about though,” Corinth said, eyeing the others as much as me.  “I mean, it’s awesome that you have an ability that let’s you call for backup without starting a full on battleground.  But we don’t want its limitations to be too well known.  Griefers and endgamers are going to be trying to get you to start more battlegrounds from here on out, and we don’t want to make it easy for them.”

“Right,” I agreed, and we turned our attention to the loot.  There was a shield, which Joe greedily claimed as his own.  But more importantly, a pair of boots!

Faux-Iron Toed Boots

Uncommon, Requires Level 33

Dexterity

8

Vitality

5

Endurance

3

Armor

5

They I think I was salivating as I studied them, and I looked nervously at Ike, who had just as much right to claim them as I did, being another Dexterity based class.  He was also studying the drops, but not as fervently as I was.

“Um, Ike, those are a massive upgrade for me,” I informed him.  “Do you want to roll me for them?”

He looked up.  “Are you Dexterity based?”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“Huh, I didn’t know that.  What have you got now?”

I linked him my [Sturdy Crystal Toed Boots], and he laughed.  “Oh man, just take them!  I mean, yeah, they’re good for me too, but I’d only be gaining like two Dex.  Need before greed, man.  They’re all yours.”

“Thank you,” I said, bowing politely.  “I really appreciate it.”

“No problem,” he said.  “Seriously, stop mentioning it.”

As I had gained a level during the trash we had been facing, I was able to equip the new boots immediately.  It had been a while since I had taken an in depth look at my status, so I spent a moment evaluating it while the others discussed which path to take of the three that had opened up when the boss had died.

[Blue Boxes]