Chapter 50 – Stuck!

“Hey, cous! This grind is boring as shit. How about we take a break for a couple of hours?” Kevin yawns, stretching his arms above his head.

Squinting his eyes at Kevin, Greg frowns. “We don’t have time for that shit. We just reached level ten, and Aria demands we reach level thirteen by the end of the week.”

“Djeez, we’ll make it even with a short break. Don’t be such a nag.” The human paladin sighs.

Greg’s jaw clenches as he bites his reply back. It takes every single ounce of willpower he’s got, but he’s managed to keep himself from bitch-slapping that brat for two weeks now. “We don’t have any time. The mobs will only grow stronger from here on out, so our leveling speed will slow down remarkably as soon as we reach level eleven.”

Kevin groans as he keeps prodding along. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t given all our gold to that little asshole earlier.” He mutters just loud enough for Greg to hear.

Greg’s eye twitches as he spins around, glaring at Kevin. “You’re blaming this shit on me!? We wouldn’t have been in this mess in the first place if you hadn’t pissed off the guild leader with your idiocy. Need I remind you that joining the guild was your dream, not mine?”

“Chill, cous. We’ll get there. We’re the heroes of the guild at the moment. Aria won’t kick us out for taking a little break.”

“You seriously think we’re the heroes? What the fuck? We’re the god damned jokes of the guild is what we are. If we don’t prove our worth now, we will be marked as the two most incompetent players in the game. We wouldn’t even be invited into casual social guilds. So quit your bitching. We can rest when we reach level thirty.” Without waiting for a reply, Greg spins on his heel and stomps onwards. Kevin’s constant whining is starting to get on his nerves, and he’s one stupid comment away from logging off, walking over to his cousin’s house and give this little brat the ass-whooping of his lifetime.

“Take care of your cousin, Gregory. It will be fun, Gregory. We’ll pay for your subscription if you’ll play with him, Gregory. Family is important, Gregory.” He mutters to himself. His fist clenches as he repeats the words, further souring his own mood. Why does he have to take this crap? He swears. As soon as he makes enough money to pay for his own subscription, he’ll ditch this little dipshit the first chance he gets. Fuck the consequences.

The pair travels in silence for a few minutes until they head into an alleyway up ahead. “There should be an entrance to the Harbour District’s sewers around here somewhere. Look for it.” Greg grumbles as he heads deeper into the alley. This place is a maze of alleys, and the map they received from the guild is inaccurate at best. One would have thought the guild would bother to properly scout out the entrances to a hidden grinding zone beneath their very own city, but Greg isn’t going to question it. They’re on thin enough ice as it is.

He sighs. This grind is boring as hell. The grinding is slow work, and it’s only marginally faster to level this way rather than taking on a fuckload of quests or grinding in a low-level dungeon. This place doesn’t even make any sense. Why would the developers create a leveling zone that doesn’t have any quests associated with it, drops shit equipment, and no named monsters to gain any renown from? There’s nothing to gain down here except experience. Hell, the only reason they are even down here is because all the other leveling zones are stacked full of other players, and this place at least offers a decent amount of monsters to grind for easy experience. If they had to share this place with other players, it wouldn’t even be worth it. The only reason to bother going down here is to level. You certainly won’t get rich or have a great time doing it.

“Hey, I found it!” Kevin shouts from an adjacent alley.

Greg grunts as he heads over towards his voice. It doesn’t take long until he finds his younger cousin crouched over a metal hatch hidden in an alley behind a bakery.

“Last chance to take that break!” Kevin says lightly while grinning. Greg resists the urge to step on his hand as he wordlessly moves over and starts descending into the sewers. “Tssk, I know you’re a dwarf, cous, and I get that you like roleplaying, but being this grumpy isn’t going to work out for you when we’re picking up ladies later.” He chuckles at his own joke.

As soon as they’re both at the bottom of the ladder, Greg equips his shield and mace. “Right. According to the guild, there should be zombies and ghouls down here. They have a lot of health points, but our holy magic should give us a decent damage boost while fighting them. We should move carefully, as I doubt our Perception his high enough to spot the traps down here.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. We’re both paladins, which is basically two kickass undead killing machines. We’ll hardly break a sweat.” Kevin laughs as he strolls ahead, pulling out his two-handed hammer as he goes.

“Right…” Greg mumbles while rolling his eyes. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm his already ruined mood before he follows Kevin down the dark tunnel.

The pair moves slowly down the corridor, carefully hugging the walls and peeking around every bend in the tunnel. It only takes a couple of minutes, but they soon come upon the first signs of life. Or is it unlife? Whatever. They just passed a t-intersection and are carefully skulking up the tunnel ahead. They can hear some loud moaning sounds from around the bend in the tunnel up ahead, and it sounds exactly like what zombies in this game should sound like according to all the gameplay footage Greg looked up online. It’s annoying that they don’t know how many mobs or what levels they are though.

“Okay, listen up. Let’s sneak as quietly as we can up ahead and try to kill one of the zombies in a surprise attack. Zombies move slowly after all, and we should be able to almost kill one of them before the rest can react.”

Kevin sighs. “They’re only undead, cous. Let’s just charge in and do some smiting, paladin style.” He smiles, caressing his large hammer.

Greg clenches his jaw, taking a deep breath. “Let’s just find out how strong they are first. If they’re easy kills, then we’ll do it your way during the next pack. Deal?”

“Whatever you say, cous. Let’s just get this over with.”

Greg takes point and slowly makes his way down the dark tunnel. He takes extra care not to rustle his chainmail armor too much, not that it matters. This is still a game, and some things just don’t follow real-life physics as we know them. Players wearing heavy armor were never meant to be the quiet types.

Hugging the wall, he slowly inches his way forward. He soon finds himself peeking around the corner. There are three shapes ahead of him, and he quickly inspects them.

[Dark Elf Zombie(10). HP: ???/???.]

[Human Zombie(11). HP: ???/???.]

[Feral Ghoul(12). HP: ???/???.]

“Buggers…” He mutters before he can stop himself. The three monsters turn their heads, locking their black eyes upon the dwarven Paladin. “We’ve got incoming!” He shouts while taking a step backwards, raising his shield.

That is all he manages to do before the Ghoul is upon him. The sickly gray undead is unnaturally fast, making it difficult for the Strength-based Paladin to keep up. The Ghoul lashes out with its long claws, scratching shallow cuts into the shield with every strike. The forceful blows cause Greg to stagger a little, but not enough to make him fall. Ghouls are tough opponents to beat, and it’s nearly impossible for a regular level ten player to face it one-on-one while being two levels behind. Luckily though, Greg’s not alone.

“Light’s Hammer!” Kevin shouts while swinging his hammer in a horizontal arc. The skill-enhanced weapon briefly illuminates the dark tunnel before it impacts the Ghoul in the shoulder. The powerful blow enhanced by holy energy rips the sickly gray flesh apart, causing the Ghoul to shriek in pain. The ghoul is forced backwards, reeling from the blow. Greg releases his breath as he finally catches a break.

The two Zombies stumble forwards, raising their rusty iron weapons threateningly as their dead gazes fall on the two Paladins. “Take down the weakest Zombie quickly. I’ll hold the Ghoul at bay!” Greg shouts as he channels his holy energy into his shield. “Light’s Guard!” He bellows, slamming his shield into the Human Zombie. The Zombie is knocked backwards, its flesh ignited by holy fire where the shield hit.

The strike was only meant to buy the pair some time as the Ghoul is already back on its feet and launching itself towards Greg once more. This time, however, Greg is better prepared. “Aegis!” His whole body is illuminated by a golden glow, forcing the nearby undead to take a step back. The Ghoul shrieks in pain as it tries to shield its eyes from its anathema.

Greg charges forwards, taking advantage of the Ghoul’s hesitation by slamming his mace at its head. The strike connects, and the Ghoul is knocked to the side, dazed by the powerful blow. “I’m not done yet!” Greg shouts, lifting his mace for another strike. Sensing the incoming attack, the Ghoul takes a wild leap backwards, determined to escape the dangerous light.

“Hahaha! Take this! Light’s Hammer!” Kevin shouts in glee. Greg takes a second to glance over his shoulder just in time to see Kevin’s hammer connect with the dark elf Zombie’s head with an overhead strike, crushing it into a pulp.

[Kenwin Smiteman(10) has slain Dark Elf Zombie(10). Gain 20 Experience.]

That’s one down. Greg smiles. Fighting undead as a Paladin is much easier than he would have thought. For a second, he thought they bit off more than they could chew. If it’s this easy to kill high-level undead though, they should be able to reach their goal by the end of the week with a lot of time to spare.

Greg’s smile falters as his Aegis skill runs out. The retreating Ghoul turns back towards him, releasing a menacing snarl. “Ah, fuck.”

Greg assumes a defensive stance, raising his shield to cover his upper torso while bending his knees slightly to absorb the force that will undoubtedly come as the Ghoul resumes its onslaught. He’s not wrong when the eighty-kilo undead throws itself at him, swinging its claws with reckless abandon, each strike more powerful than the next. “Holy shit, I think I pissed it off!” He shouts, putting his full attention on blocking the strikes.

“Hold on! I need a minute!” Kevin shouts from somewhere behind. Greg doesn’t dare to look back, not unless he wants to risk having his throat ripped out.

Greg grits his teeth as he absorbs blow after blow. He is slowly being pushed backwards, getting ever closer towards the t-intersection. Every second that goes by feels like an eternity as he struggles against the Ghoul. His Aegis skill only has a minute cooldown, but during combat, a minute might as well be an hour.

“Damnit, this isn’t working.” Greg mutters, trying to come up with a way out of this. His mace is completely useless when he is being pushed back like this, and even though he manages to absorb most of the blows, some damage is still ticking in from the pure blunt force from the Ghoul’s strikes. Deciding to sheathe his mace, he braces his shield with an elbow while placing his now free hand on his chest. “Quick Heal.” He says, golden light gathering around his hand. He releases a breath of relief as his health bar is slowly trickling upwards. Having access to holy energy offers some much-needed utility for a heavy fighter like a Paladin, and no one is more resilient when it comes to drawn-out fights.

“Are you done yet!? I could really use some help with this thing!” Greg shouts, putting all his effort into trying to push the Ghoul back.

“I said hold on!”

“Damnit…” He curses beneath his breath. How can he deal with this thing? It’s just so damn fast, not giving him any room to counterattack without leaving himself exposed. Perhaps that’s what he needs to do? … “I hate this part…”

Greg reequips his mace and quickly starts to channel his holy energy. With effort boosted by his willpower alone, he pushes forward with his shield, pitting his Strength attribute against the Ghoul’s. With pure brute force, he shoves one of the Ghoul’s claws to the side. This leaves his torso open for an attack from the other claw, but Greg doesn’t give a damn. The Ghoul’s claw slashes across his chest, cutting past his chainmail and into the soft flesh beneath. A spike of pain shoots through his body, but he is ready for this. He swings his mace wide, aiming for the overextended Ghoul’s body. “Light’s Hammer!” He bellows from the bottom of his lungs as his mace emits a golden glow. The Ghoul is unable to react to the reckless attack of its opponent and takes the blow head on. The holy energy burning its skin as its jaw is ripped off its face.

The Ghoul is reeling in pain while scrambling backwards. Clutching his wound, Greg decides not to push his attack, choosing to rather turn and try to help Kevin finish the second Zombie.

Greg quickly backtracks, throwing himself at the Zombie’s exposed back. He hits the zombie in the back with the full force of his dwarven bulk, knocking the Zombie to the ground. Capitalizing on the assistance, Kevin lifts his hammer for a powerful overhead strike and quickly aims to finish the Zombie’s life. The powerful strike connects, and the Zombie’s head explodes in a shower of gore.

[Kenwin Smiteman(10) has slain Human Zombie(11). Gain 30 Experience.]

“Nice timing, cous.” Kevin grins, hefting his hammer to prepare to fight the remaining enemy.

“You took too long.” Greg grunts, getting back on his feet and face the Ghoul. “I need to heal. Can you tank him for a sec?”

Without waiting for a reply, Greg quickly backs away towards the t-intersection. This Ghoul is seriously tough. Too damn tough. Perhaps they should grind out another level back in the Shanty Town before attempting this? His foot tugs on something as he reaches the center of the t-intersection. He doesn’t get time to even look down before he hears a faint clicking sound above him. He looks up just as a thick white liquid is pouring on top of him, trickling down his upper torso. “What the fuck!?” He raises his arms to protect his face but it’s already too late. The liquid is fully covering his torso, and he can feel the sticky liquid restricting his limbs.

“What the… is this glue!?” He shouts, trying to frantically get the liquid off himself.

“Hey cous! I could really use your help over here!” Kevin shouts desperately from down the corridor.

“I’m stuck!”

“What do you mean, stuck? Get over here already!”

“I’m fucking trying, aren’t I?” Greg grunts, trying to forcefully pull the glue off his armor. The glue just sort of gets in everywhere, locking the metal plates of his shoulder pads with his gauntlets. “FUUUCK!”

“I can’t hold him! You need to tank him!” Kevin shouts, swinging his hammer wide to force the Ghoul back before he turns around and starts sprinting towards Greg.

“What are you doing you idiot!? Hold him!” Greg shouts as he still struggles to get his arms free. With a grunt of effort, Greg manages to free his left arm, freeing up his shield, and it’s not a moment too soon. The Ghoul is already upon him, slamming its clawed arms into his shield, battering the short dwarf to the ground.

“Good job, cous! Just keep him still for a moment.” Kevin says while stepping forwards with his hammer raised. Suddenly, something slams into Kevin’s back, causing him to stumble forwards. Spinning around, Kevin finds himself face to face with a muscular half-orc covered in leather armor and wielding an iron shortsword. “What-”

“What are you stopping for!? Fucking keep moving you dimwit!” An unknown voice shouts from down the tunnel. The half-orc immediately complies and brushes past Kevin. Four similarly dressed enemies approach behind the half-orc, each and every one of them sprinting as if their lives depended on it. Seeing the approaching enemies, Kevin’s eyes go wide as panic sets in.

“Oh, shit! Greg! It’s another Thief Lord! We have to run!” He screams while turning on his heel, sprinting down the tunnel past the Ghoul and in the opposite direction of the incoming enemies.

“Wait, what!? Don’t you fucking dare-” Greg screams at him, but it’s already too late. Kevin is already halfway down the corridor. Still on his back, Greg struggles to keep the Ghoul away, but to no avail. He tries to roll to his feet, but the glue keeps his body stuck to the ground. “I can’t believe he fucking did that again!”

His eyes are drawn towards the approaching footsteps, and he tries to inspect as many of the enemies as he can before he dies.

[Half-Orc Thug(10) HP: ???/???.]

[Halfling Prowler(10) HP: ???/???.]

[Halfling Thief Lord - Villain(11) HP: ???/???.]

“Oh my god!” Greg’s eyes go wide as he inspects that last one. His shock is short-lived though, as the Ghoul is still battering him from above. The Thief Lord is coming towards him at a rapid pace, and his jaw drops as the Thief Lord sprints past him, following the half-orc down the hallway behind him. “Why didn’t he finish me off!?” He mutters to himself while simultaneously trying to keep the Ghoul from tearing out his throat. “Why were they running like that?”

His sight is turning foggy as he feels his health points starting to redline. For some reason, it looks like he suddenly finds himself inside a green mist. What the hell?

[You have been afflicted by Blight. You take 30 damage per second for 20 seconds.]

[You have died.]