TQG 34 Gyudue of the Blackest Night

The last of the Gemos Golems fell to a combination of our efforts.  Magic, swordsmanship, and archery had won the day against the numbers and power of the golems in the gauntlet.  I exhaled a sigh of relief when a minute passed and no other monsters dropped from the boss room’s ceiling.  We had cleared the gauntlet.

“Be on your guard, My Lord.  You said yourself that the Dungeon might wake up at this point,” Tarisha reminded me.

“I know,” I said, perking back up.  I raised my [Gemos Longsword] and waited, but nothing came.

Gemos Longsword

Rare, Requires level 23

Damage

C-

Strength

2

Dexterity

5

I had only just received it.  It was the upgraded version of the sword which had served me so well when I had been stuck at level ten.  It wasn’t a rapier, and strength was a useless stat for me now, but it was still Bee Eye Ess.  Fortunately Tarisha had been quite insistent that I raise all of my weapon proficiencies to level twenty over the past week for exactly this reason.  Even though I preferred a rapier, I could use a Longsword with almost as much skill.  And while I was slightly slower with it, each attack inflicted more damage.  My overall dee pee ess had increased compared to the rapier it had replaced.

Out of curiosity, I quickly checked my status screen to see how much experience I had gained from the gauntlet.

[blue box]

I felt my heart swell in celebration; the gauntlet had pushed me into level twenty-four.  That meant that I had gained three levels from this dungeon, and a powerful weapon as well.

“Man, we were really close the last time,” Laurant said.  “Everything had spawned, we just didn’t have the dee pee ess to finish it off, I think.”

“I’m sorry I was useless back then,” I said.  “I was trying my hardest but--”

“I dragged you into it kid, you have nothing to apologize for.  Nobody knew anything about core instances or whatever at the time.  If anything I was overconfident that we could protect you, and I’m the one who should be apologizing for almost getting you killed,” Laurant said, interrupting me.  “But now look at you, you’re a little dee pee ess monster!”

“Thanks,” I said, grinning.  “You’re not exactly a scrub yourself.”

“Compared to some people I am,” Laurant said, glancing at Tarisha, Lloyd, and Rashid.  Rashid was our healer, playing a [Dervish], while Lloyd was our tank.  Among the changes to the dungeon was the presence of Korvat golems, which followed more traditional mechanics compared to the Gemos golems.  They varied in shape, from humanoid to quadruped to various combinations thereof.  They were weak compared to the Gemos golems, but they would come at the party five to eight at a time, requiring a tank to keep them off of the healer.

It was still a training dungeon, Tarisha claimed, but the difficulty had spiked significantly.

“I wouldn’t have allowed your presence if I thought you were lacking,” Tarisha said.  “I understand that you have not been part of this world for very long, and witnessing your training against Lord Hail has left me impressed.  I will be considering poaching you from <Nethersong Mavericks> once you hit level one hundred.”

“Thanks, something to work for,” Laurant laughed.  “Although I’m not certain I could handle being in character all of the time.  I’d prefer to just be me, you know?”

“I understand.  We have several sister guilds which do not put such an emphasis on role play,” she suggested.  “I could see you making your way into one of them.”

“They’d have to take Phil.  We’ve been friends for a long time, and I’m still kind of annoyed that you didn’t let him come on this mission,” Laurant responded.

“Perhaps.  I haven’t had the chance to gauge his skill properly as I have yours.  If he meets our criteria for development, then he could perhaps join us,” she said, sounding noncommittal.  “But it is hard to truly gauge a tank’s skill until the level eighty dungeons.”

“Yeah, well, all the same.  Where he goes, I go,” Laurant said firmly.

“Is this the time for this discussion?” Rashid asked.  “Is there not the possibility of a difficult ambush from an irate dungeon core at any moment?”

“Yes, there is,” Tarisha answered.  “We move forward.  Lord Hail’s penance is nearly complete.”

There was no loot for the gauntlet, but it also cleared the way for the next boss.  The room shifted as another tremor struck it, and a crack formed in the wall.  The crack continued to open until a passage was revealed.  Warily, we made our way through it.

There were no more enemies along the way, simply a long passage which turned from natural stone into a carved hallway.  At the end was a door with ancient carvings upon it.  This was all within expectations, but we still approached it carefully, with Tarisha and Laurant searching for traps.  Laurant had the [Detect Traps] and [Disable Traps] skills, while Tarisha simply had the experience to spot them naturally.  There was nothing, however, and we passed through the hallway unbothered.

“The final boss is a humanoid statue,” Lloyd reminded us.  “Despite being a statue it’s quite fast and can control the earth, launching stones at range.  It’s nothing that this group can’t handle, but we need to keep an eye out for surprises from the core.”

The door opened, revealing the throne that we knew would be there.  However, sitting upon it was not a statue, but an elf with skin as black as the firmament.  He raised his gaze to us when we entered, then nodded.

“So, you have returned, Dungeon Buster?” he asked.  “Will you set me free from my prison at last?”

I frowned, confused.  The forces of darkness did not usually speak.  “Who are you?”

“I am Gyudue of the Blackest Night.  And I am prisoner to this cursed dungeon.  I believe you would call me ‘Dungeon Spawn,’ yet because the core has been unable to gather its strength I have languished in its core instance for the last fifteen years.  Will you set me free?”

“Dungeon Spawn?  You’re a worldboss?” I asked.

He chuckled.  “Hardly.  I belong to the dungeon yet, and am so restricted in level, as are your friends who would otherwise be quite mighty, able to rip apart everything else the core had sent in front of them.  But if I were to get outside, I would be level two hundred.  Oh, the havoc I could cause … but first I must be set free.  Will you do that for me, Dungeon Buster?  Simply touch the Core and choose to release me, and I will smite your enemies for you while sparing your home.  I swear this.  Not loyalty, but the destruction of only those you hate.”

I frowned.  “I will not release a worldboss into the outside.”

“Then why have you come here, young Dungeon Buster?”

“I have come to reclaim the dungeon core for my grandfather, King Rain of Yuikon.  Will this set you free?”

“If that is your goal, then I must oppose you,” Gyudue said, “For if the core is reclaimed before I am freed, then I shall perish.  And so it is as I expected.  We must fight to the death, Dungeon Buster, though I bear you no ill will.  I would not oppose you if your goal was simply to evolve the dungeon, but I do place some value on my own life.”

The drow stood, casting aside his cloak and lifting his left hand, into which the darkness coalesced to form a spear.  He held out his other hand, and the lights in the room flowed into it, forming a sphere, which he then crushed, leaving us in darkness.

“Hail, Rashid, a little help?”

I quickly cast [Spark] eight times, sending the candleflame magic to hover around us while holding out my fire-imbued sword to light the way.  Rashid spun about while chanting, and balls of light appeared.  None of them illuminated Gyudue, however.

I cried out in pain as the spear struck my spine, piercing me completely and doing half of my health pool as critical damage.  Rashid spun and the damage was healed with his magic, but I could not move until Tarisha rushed forward, forcing Gyudue to engage her instead.  I took a moment to recover, then joined her, along with the mace wielding Lloyd.

Despite being outnumbered five to one, the drow fought with valor and skill.  For every blow we landed on him, he landed three on us, although the damage was not as severe as the critical blow he had inflicted upon me to start the fight.  Rashid was more than able to keep us in top shape, while Gyudue’s health began to slowly decline.

At ninety percent health, he abruptly vanished again.

“Will you not turn back, child of the surface?” a voice called from the darkness.  “I will not pursue you if you choose to leave.”

“Never trust a drow at his word, My Lord,” Tarisha called out.  “They’re infamous for breaking it in every world where they exist.”

“We keep it when it is in our best interest,” Gyudue countered.  “Having you leave me to my prison is better than engaging you in combat.  I say again, I will not pursue you if you choose to leave.  And once you exit the dungeon, then I cannot pursue you at all.”

“I must reclaim the Dungeon Core,” I answered.  “I will not turn back!”

“Then you will die here,” Gyudue said.  I tensed, expecting another ambush from behind, but instead the drow appeared behind Rashid.  We rushed to the healer’s aid and drove the drow back, but not before critical damage was inflicted.  Although Rashid was able to heal himself, it was not a repeat of the beginning of the fight, as after fifteen seconds Gyudue vanished and immediately appeared behind Laurant, ambushing him.

Rashid was quick with the healing.  Laurant spun, then [Backflipped] out of danger.  I got two [Empowered Fireballs] off on the drow before he disappeared again, ambushing Tarisha this time.

The fight proceeded like that for some time, with Gyudue vanishing and reappearing to ambush party members in seemingly random patterns and intervals.  However, although he did significant damage, it was nothing that Rashid could not heal through.  It was not even that dangerous unless we were ambushed twice in a row, which seemed to never happen.  His tactic was annoying for Tarisha and me, as we wound up chasing after him, only for him to vanish seconds later.

“Clump up!” Tarisha called.  “Laurant and Rashid, stand three meters apart, with the rest of us in the middle.  We’ll be able to--”

She was interrupted by a sudden ambush, but the rest of us gleamed her tactic and quickly moved to follow instructions.  Gyudue continued his ambush strategy, but with everyone close together we were able to deal more damage between his vanishings.

“How’s your mana, Rashid?” Tarisha asked.

“He’s pushing me, but I’m above eighty percent,” Rashid answered.

“Expect another phase coming up,” Tarisha warned.  “Continue as we are for now, but be ready to break apart and adapt to whatever he throws at us.”

The new phase happened at sixty percent health.  Abruptly the ambushes stopped.  Gyudue disappeared for a moment, and the light came back into the darkened throne room.  He stood by the throne and shook his head sadly.  “I see you are determined.  I am as well.  Very well then, I will not ask you again.  This is a fight to the death, and both parties must accept the outcome.”

The shadows around him rippled, then became real, standing and forming clones made of darkness.  There were five of them, and Lloyd immediately charged in to begin tanking them.  He was easily able to take them on, except for one which Tarisha and I isolated between ourselves.

“They share a health pool!” Tarisha called out.  “It doesn’t matter which one you damage, just do as much dee pee ess as possible!”

After her insight, the fight proceeded quickly as we burned the shadow clones indiscriminately.  After a bit of experimentation, I found that Arcane Weapon did the most damage to the shadows, and so I used that exclusively for the rest of the phase, which continued until the collective health pool reached thirty percent.  Then the drow again changed tactics.

The shadows vanished, as did Gyudue.  He reappeared in the corner of the room, shadow spear in hand, shaking his head as though disappointed in his opponents.  I don’t know why, we were winning!

“I’ll give you one last chance to--”

“Stow it, shadow-brains, we’re killing you and that’s final,” Lloyd called out.  “Get on with the final phase already!”

“As you wish,” Gyudue answered.  And his shadow spear turned into a whip.  He once again appeared in the middle of us, but unlike before I and the others were unable to dodge his weapon effectively.  While Lloyd was able to draw most of the drow’s ire, many stray strikes inflicted Tarisha and I.  Often the whip would even extend and strike Laurant or Rashid, even if they were at a significant distance.

The damage to the party was the highest that it had been throughout the fight, and it was mostly unavoidable.  But if there was one thing the [Dervish] class was good at, it was Aye Oh Ee healing.  With the damage seemingly unavoidable, we simply stopped worrying about avoiding it and focused on doing as much damage to Gyudue as we could.

Finally, after several intense moments, the drow reached zero health.  He vanished one last time, then appeared before the throne, clutching his chest.

“I curse you,” he said.  “With my last breath, I--”

Laurant shot him with an arrow, and the drow collapsed.  Everyone turned to look at him, with the members of <Peasant’s Revenge> looking annoyed.

“What?” Laurant asked.  “What if he was about to trigger some trap?”

“Then it would trigger no matter what we did,” Tarisha said, sighing.  “But now that you interrupted it, we’ll never get to see his full death sequence.  It is a significant disappointment, as I had hoped to record it.  With the dungeon being reclaimed, Gyudue of the Blackest Night may never spawn again, and we missed out on his death sequence because of you!”

“Oh.  Sorry,” Laurant said, rubbing the back of his head and trying to look chastised.  “I won’t do it again.”

“Whatever,” Lloyd said, sounding as annoyed as Tarisha.  “So where is the core?  It should be nearby, shouldn’t it?”

“And the loot!  That encounter replaced the final boss, there should be loot,” Laurant said.

As if summoned by his word, a chest appeared beside the fallen drow.  The [Archer] walked over to it and kicked it open, then sighed.

“It dropped his spear,” he said.  Sounding disappointed.  Then suddenly he perked up.  “No, wait, holy shit!  It’s Bee Oh Ee!  Oh man, and it has a C plus damage rating, but it only requires level twenty-nine.  That’s effing crazy!  And it’s probably unique, like you said, so even if we sell it just as a skin it will be worth millions!”

“That goes to Lord Hail,” Tarisha declared firmly.

“No,” I argued.  “If we’re selling it, which is what I think Laurant just suggested, then everyone gets an equal share.  We all worked hard.  We get the same amount from the Adventurer’s Guild, so we should get the same amount from selling the spoils as well.”

“If that is your wish, then I will abide by your decision,” Tarisha said, and her guildmates looked quite pleased with my words as well.  “Is there anything else in the chest?”

“Looks like a new ring for the kid,” Laurant said.  “Ring of the Blackest Night.  Pretty damn good, probably Bee Eye Ess for ten levels or more, and not bad for ten levels beyond that.  That’s it though, just the two items.”

I walked over to the chest and [Analyzed] the ring.

Ring of the Blackest Night

Rare, Requires Level 23

Spell damage

9

Intelligence

9

Wisdom

4

I could easily see why Laurant thought it was Bee Eye Ess for me, the ring had me almost salivating.  It would replace my Gemos Ring, which provided insignificant stats compared to this!  I quickly took it out of the chest and equipped it.  I was the only one who could get any use out of it, since Laurant was purely Dexterity based and everybody else was above level one-eighty.

Grinning with pleasure at the successful boss fight, I joined in the search of the boss chamber for the location of the dungeon core.