88. Declaration

My Dusk Guard switched out with my Midnight Guard after we left my father in law’s house.  Luke of London and Peter of Yorkshire maintained their positions as the veterans of the guard, while the remaining four spots were filled with Travelers who lived in Asia, apparently.  I had no issue communicating with them thanks to the system’s robust translation magics, and according to my friends in <Peasant’s Revenge> it was actually a significant relief to offload this particular shift onto Travelers in a time zone that made it more convenient for them.

To be honest, I thought that these new guards were a little pushy.  I understood that they were being upfront about their interests in getting closer to me, and I appreciated that more than if they had used underhanded or subtle methods of ingratiating themselves, but I shut them down hard when they suggested that I replace my friends with members of their guild.  It took a very explicit threat to block them to finally shut them up on the matter.

I wasn’t stupid; I knew that my friends were amateurs whose best efforts wouldn’t match up to someone who had trained their entire lives for a profession.  Phil wouldn’t be as skilled of a constable – er, ‘deputy’ – as an actual police officer from their world, for example.  I knew that giving him that position was somewhere between a whim, and an act of favoritism/nepotism on my part.  But I ultimately viewed that as my mistake to make, and I was unwilling to back down from my earlier appointments without giving my friends the chance to rise to the occasion.

And it also kind of just pissed me off a little bit that these strangers thought that they could sway me to their side so effortlessly.  I might have sent them away, but Luke took me aside and assured me that he would inform Tarisha of their behavior, and that she would handle it when she had rested.  I had handled the situation “Perfectly,” according to him, but I should leave it alone from there, or I might risk undermining Tarisha’s authority.

I took his advice, though a part of me still wanted to send the new guard members packing.

Luke, Peter, and the four members of the guild based in Asia took up six spots that were assigned to endgamers.  The remaining four were designated to Travelers my level.  Corinth among them; he had decided to stay up extra late in order to help me bust Mikal Mine, since I wasn’t planning on waiting several days to do so.  Most of my friends who lived in America were apparently logging out to go to sleep around this time.  Tarisha helped us fill the remaining party spots before she logged out, recommending a level thirty one Priestess, a level thirty four Barbarian for a tank, and a thirty-three Archer as ranged damage.  I thought a Mage would have been better for the final slot, but it might just be that I’m still biased against Archers, since I find them so difficult to kill in pee vee pee.

It might have been easier to fill the spots with endgame Travelers, like we had when we busted [Gemos Caverns], but I was rather insistent that we did not, this time.  Partly because I wanted to see if I could rise to the challenge of Busting a dungeon without being carried by high level friends, but also because I thought it was wasteful to enter a one-time event with a bunch of people who wouldn’t actually get any benefit from completing it.  We knew now from experience that the core instance of dungeons gave unique and improved loot, and those items would be much more useful to Melissa the low level [Priestess] than a healer like Rashid, whose gear was almost exclusively made up of items that had dropped in endgame raids.

Tarisha had argued with me briefly on the matter out of concern for my safety, but ultimately she had given in to my demands.  And she seemed to be a little proud of my decision.  In the end we came to a compromise.  She contacted several of her skilled endgame friends, who would be coming along to help me using low level ‘alts.’  This would satisfy her worries about my safety being in the hands of skilled Travelers, and it would satisfy my concerns about wasted drops.  I would have rather gone with friends who were on their ‘mains,’ but no compromise was perfect.

To my surprise, each of the Travelers who would be busting the dungeon with me requested the [Reaper’s Embrace] / [Through the Valley of the Shadow] combination from me.  They assured me that they were aware of the risks, so I saw no reason to deprive them.

We set out in the morning, after I had breakfasted.  Eolstree is a large territory, but it has a number of smaller teleportation centers, and we used one which brought us within ten leagues of our destination.  For the rest of the journey, I got the opportunity to show of Shadow, who relished in the chance to stretch his legs as he raced the other mounts, ordinary horses that were ubiquitous and cheaply available to Travelers.

I think he inflicted an inferiority complex into the lesser steeds.  My companions certainly seemed to be jealous of him.

We arrived at the dungeon entrance shortly before noon.  My mount vanished into my shadow, earning me another jealous glance from my bodyguards.  The endgamers had no reason to complain, they would have had ample time and opportunities to obtain rare and exotic mounts by now.  In fact, they probably did, but were restricting themselves to generic horses to remain a part of the group.

After attuning to the meeting stone outside the dungeon, I stepped through the swirling lights that was the threshold separating the dungeon instance from the rest of the world.  My four companions who would be busting the dungeon with me joined me a moment later, while the rest of my bodyguards settled in to … wait patiently, I guess.

You have entered an unique instance of Mikal Mines

Unique first time clear bonus available

Difficulty has been adjusted

Do you wish to continue?

Yes

No

I paused before selecting yes.  This wasn’t the first time I had received this message, and I had always agreed to it before, but I was wondering what would happen if I selected no.  The last time I had pondered the issue had been a high-stress event and I had quickly shoved the question to the back of my mind, but there was no reason not to experiment with the options now.  So, for the first time, I chose ‘no.’

Entering Standard Instance of Mikal Mines

Interaction with the Dungeon Core is impossible in this instance

Standard difficulty and loot available

Do you wish to continue?

Yes

No

Huh.  So it didshunt me into the normal Traveler version of the dungeon if I selected no.  I selected no again, and conveniently the first prompt appeared again, informing me that I was once more in the unique instance.

This was good.  It meant that I would be able to delve dungeons without being forced to evolve or destroy them in the process.  Considering how important dungeons were to the process of leveling, especially at higher levels, this option might speed things up considerably.  In this case, however, I was definitely here to bust Mikal Mines, so I selected yes.  However, instead of vanishing, a new menu appeared.

Castle Buster Title Active

Declaring Intent May Affect Difficulty And Rewards Of The Instance

Your Declared Intent Will Be Binding On Interactions With The Dungeon Core

Do You Wish To Declare Your Intent?

Declare Intent

Obscure Intent

“Oh, that’s new,” I said.

“Good new or bad new?” Corinth asked.

“The system is giving me an option to declare my intent.  I think that if I were just here to evolve the dungeon, it would take things easy on me, but it doesn’t look like I can trick the system by saying I’m here to evolve the dungeon and then, when I get to the end, destroy it instead.  But it does say that declaring my intent will affect both the difficulty and the rewards.  I’m not sure what to do.”

“Do you have to answer?” the barbarian, a young man named Joe Shmoe, inquired.

“No.  There’s an option to obscure intent.  I wasn’t expecting this, it didn’t happen the previous times I’ve busted a dungeon.  It seems it’s due to … a title I recently acquired,” I explained.

“Let’s do it hardcore mode.  Declare your intent or whatever, and tell this stupid dungeon that we’re here to destroy it,” the priestess said, sounding surprisingly bloodthirsty.  Her name was Leanne.

As soon as she’d spoken, the option to declare my intent went away.  “Um, I guess it’s too late now.  I think the Dungeon Core heard us.  The option is gone.”

“Great,” said Ike, the archer.  “Thanks for making things as hard as possible for us.”

“Greater difficulty means greater rewards.  It explicitly said that, didn’t it?” Leanne challenged, looking to me for confirmation.

“Well, not exactly.  It just said that our rewards will be affected by declaring our intent.  But that’s how I read the prompt, yeah,” I admitted.

“I think it’s great,” Corinth said, drawing his sword and limbering himself.  “I’m all about hard mode challenges and stuff.  And we’re all supposed to be elite, right?  Well let’s freaking prove it then.”

Joe gave him a suspicious glance.  “Aren’t you on your main right now?  You’re not elite, you’re the tag-along.”

Corinth shrugged.  “I only just migrated from Blade’s Edge.  You’ll see, I can handle myself fine.”

“Whatever, scrub,” Joe said, although his tone wasn’t serious.  “What do we know about this dungeon anyway?  Has anyone actually completed it before, or watched a video, or anything?”

“You should assume that the core instance is completely different than normal,” I informed him.  “Especially since the core knows we’re here.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Joe said, walking forward. “But we have to start somewhere.  I mean, the map itself probably isn’t going to change, right?  Just more challenges, stronger enemies and bosses and stuff, right?”

As he was speaking, there was a sudden ‘click’ beneath his boots.  He froze, looking down at the pressure plate he had stepped onto.

“Shit.  Traps,” he said.  “Did we know there were traps?”

The room shook, and the sound of distant explosions shook the entryway.  The way forward was blocked off by falling rocks.  A rope fell from the ceiling, and it became apparent that the dungeon was forcing us to take an alternate route than was originally presented.

Corinth walked up and slapped Joe on the back playfully.  “You know, I’m not normally superstitious.  But it’s almost like you jinxed us just now, you know?  But hey, at least you didn’t say ‘at least it can’t possibly get any worse!’”

An enemy dropped from the hole in the ceiling.  For some reason Corinth thought that was hilarious.

Our foe was a giant hairless rat-like beast with tentacles for its face instead of a snout.  When I [Analyzed] it, I learned that it was called a Mikal Burrower, and that it was level thirty-one.  I [Swiftcast] [Slow] on it, and then began casting an [Empowered Fireball].  The burrower turned and began charging towards Leanne, but before it could reach her Joe and Corinth both interposed themselves.  Corinth deliberately took a single swipe from the creature’s claws to activate his [I’ll Take A Bullet For You] boon before swinging around to the side and allowing Joe to establish control.

My [Fireball] hit the beast at the same time as a flurry of arrows from Ike, our [Archer].  Leanne quickly began casting her various buffs on the party members while I continued to chant the cantrips for my spells, burning through half of my mana quickly before imbuing my sword and closing into melee distance.  I chose to use [Aqua Blade], as it was the lowest level of all of my imbue weapon spells, and judging by the rate we were killing this burrower, we were in no danger of dying, so I might as well use the chance to gain some skill levels.

It did take a few minutes, as the burrower seemed to have a very high amount of Health, but its damage output was nothing special and Joe kept it under control easily.  Once it collapsed and turned into black mist, Joe turned on Corinth.

“What the hell, man?  Why did you get in my way?” he demanded.

“What?” Corinth asked.

“When I was picking it up, you totally cockblocked me, man!  What the hell?”

Corinth frowned, looking sheepish.  “Um, sorry.  I have a special boon, and I’ve been trying to find ways to use it.”  He displayed the perk that he had gotten for dying for me in Storm’s manor, and that surprisingly did seem to calm Joe down quite a bit.

“Yeah, okay, that’s a cool ability,” Joe admitted.  “But still man, don’t screw up the party dynamics to activate it, okay?  You’re melee, not the tank.  Don’t get in my way when I move to pick stuff up, and we won’t have any problems going forward.  The damage buff you get from that perk isn’t worth the annoyance factor of you getting in everyone else’s way.”

“Yeah, I know, sorry.  Like I said, I literally just got it the other day and I’m still figuring out ways to use it,” Corinth apologized.  Then he grinned.  “It is wicked Oh Pee in Pee Vee Pee, though.  You should have seen me in the battleground!”

Joe snorted.  “Yeah, I can imagine.”