Chapter 66

“What did you find?” asked Lone Arrow.

He showed her the items.

“Oooh a blueprint!” She inspected the item:

Crystal armor (full-set).

Epic Tier Armor

Ingredients:

X3 Fragmented Crystal Exo-Skeleton

X50 Moonstone Ingots

X25 Gold Shards.

X30 Meteorite Steel.

X20 Diamonds

“This is a blueprint for epic-tier armor, the whole set too!”

“What’s a blueprint do?” asked Dave. He was still new to the game and unfamiliar with much of the non-combat related mechanics of it.

“A blueprint contains instructions and templates for creating an item. In this case a complete set of armor, not just a single piece of it.

“You could auction this for an ungodly amount of gold, more than all our diamonds together will sell for. Much more.

“You could also give it to a high-level Smith so he can make a set of the armor for you. Any high-level Smith will do it for free. Hell, they would pay you to let them make you the armor just to get their hands on the blueprints.”

“Why so?” Dave didn’t understand why anyone would so nuts over what was basically a crafting recipe.

“Think! If only one Smith in the game can make this armor, he or she has a monopoly. At least until another blueprint of this armor or another one as good is found, if ever.”

“Do you know anyone who could use the blueprint to craft a couple sets for us?”

“I do have a friend who is a high-level Smith, one of the best in the game actually. Naturally, he would be thrilled to get his hands on these plans. But the armor isn’t a good match for my DEX-focused build, so you only need him to craft one set.”

"Let’s get a set crafted for me then”

Dave looked down the tunnel, trying to see what might be waiting for them. “I also got a fragment of crystal turtle-shell. The blueprint calls for three fragments to make one set of armor. We’re going to have to kill more turtle-demons to get them.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it will be a problem." Lone Arrow looked at Drahma, “Right?”

“They are nothing but mindless beasts. They are not a worthy challenge to the might of a Doom Knight,” he replied.

Lone Arrow’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Drahma, smiling.

“What are you thinking?” asked Dave.

“Nothing, nothing. I’ll tell you later.”

She changed the subject, “What about the runes?”

Dave threw one of the runes to her so she could inspect it while he inspected the other one.

Xuanwu Rune (Medium Tier)

-Defensive School-

The essence of a mythical creature coalesced into a rune.

+1000 VIT

Reduces the cooldown of [Bastion] by 5 seconds

[Chest piece rune]

Cannot be equipped with Agility or Offensive school runes.

“This will break the game balance!” Dave looked at the rune, mind spinning with possibilities.

“Yes, it is a game changer.” She tossed the rune back to Dave so he could inspect it.

Flood-Dragon Rune (Medium Tier)

-Intelligence School-

The essence of a mythical creature coalesced into a rune.

+100 INT

Increases the Damage of water-related spells by 15%

[Gauntlet-Piece Rune]

Cannot be equipped with Strength school runes.

“Any mage-class player would go crazy for this.”

“We are probably first to discover Runes. But we didn’t get any game notification on it, or rewarded for it by the system,” said Dave sounding a bit dejected.

“You can’t be rewarded for everything you know, just look at the stats the Rune gives, those are not anything to scoff at.”

“I can’t use them, wrong school.” Dave shook his head and handed both runes to Lone Arrow.

“Put them up for auction, they should go for a nice sum.”

Lone pocketed the runes, then stopped abruptly and placed a hand to her temple.

“Just got a message. The guildies found some boats on the lake shore and had a little excitement crossing to this side. A few of those two-headed snake monsters attacked them. The group killed one and looted a rune from it. It sounds like the snake-rune we got, but a Lower tier”

Looking at the remaining timer on drahma, he figured that the situation became grimmer.

“How many players in the lake group?” he asked.

Lone Arrow sent a message and ended the conversation with “I’ll tell you later.”

“What is it?”

“The guy was wondering why I was asking him about all of this, he does not know that we are inside the Raid-Zone, Anyway, There are about twenty. The highest is a level 350 Beastmaster.”

Dave knew Drahma could easily take down twenty players. But if word of the giant berserker got back to the guildies outside the Underworld, everyone would come charging in to take a whack at the giant. Not to mention a chance at Mr. Skeletal.

“Drahma, we need to move faster.”

Drahma stomped forward in such a thunder Dave was afraid the cave might collapse.

Dave heard another howl, this time two of the turtle creatures stomped their way towards them.

The two Demonic-Snake-Beast were rushing at Dave using their power-Roll skill, they looked like two crystal wrecking balls charging his way.

Drahma stepped forward to intercept their advance. A swing of his iron pole sent the two spinning balls into the far wall. The creature’s shells cracked from the impact, resulting in high pitched screams of pain.

“Welp, that’s a home-run.” Dave snorted.

Dave and Lone arrow used [Spectral Bomb] and [Binding Arrow], This way once Drahma got rid of the two monsters they will be entitled to the EXP and Loot.

“This is cheating!” said Lone Arrow, almost pitied the doomed demon-turtles.

“It is not cheating, it is called ‘being power-leveled by a boss-mob,’ and it is cool!”

Only one of the turtle-demons used the [Rolling-Stone] skill to attack enemies randomly this time. Lone Arrow was the unfortunate target, but she escaped the danger with a perfectly timed use of her [Blink] skill, and Drahma ended the fight shortly after.

Dave was disappointed, they dropped less loot than the first demon-turtle.

“Only two Crystalline shell fragments and a Xuanwu Rune this time.

“But, the rune is for a helmet-piece.” He showed it to Lone Arrow.

Xuanwu Rune (Medium Tier)

-Defensive School-

The essence of a mythical creature coalesced into a rune.

+1000VIT

Reduces the cooldown of [Warrior’s Will] by 5 seconds

[Helmet piece rune]

Cannot be equipped with Agility school runes.

“It gives a different Skill Modifier. Any tank-class would kill or die for a reduced cooldown on [Warrior’s Will],” she said

“Yea, but we need the right equipment to use these. I haven’t seen any items with sockets for runes yet.” He stashed the rune.“Alright, let’s keep moving.”

It took them about half an hour later and fought another group of the same monsters in the cave.

Dave worried as he looked at a ticking timer next to his HUD.

Anti-Bully

01:56:03 Time Remaining.

Drahma will soon disappear and Dave will most likely be forced to disconnect until the underworld is closed. otherwise he will risk being found by the guildies and killed.

Dave shook his head and looked at the loot they just recieved.

They got more Crystalline shell fragments and more runes of the same school.

Now Dave had five of the defensive runes, each one meant to be slotted into a different piece of armor. They also had four of the Flood-Dragon runes.

“These runes only modify the Basic skills, not the Specials,” he remarked.

“It’s already a powerful mod, runes to modify Special skills would be really broken.” Lone answered.

They were approaching what seemed to be the end of the tunnel.The tunnel opened onto a ledge that looked out over a wide canyon. A river of magma flowed through the canyon only a short distance below the ledge, and there was a bridge to the other side, with another tunnel visible from where they stood.

The magma bubbled and eddied unnaturally as it flowed past the bridge. There was something underneath it the flaming surface of molten rock.

“This is going to be troublesome,” Drahma spoke up. He had a serious look on his face.

“Show yourself, Zora!” His voice blasted across the canyon and echoed back to them. The magma seethed from the force of the sound.

Dave and Lone looked at Drahma, both wondered what the hell he was doing.

a beautiful woman emerged from under the magma. She had red scales all over her body except her belly. Her red hair was draped conveniently over her chest.

Golden horns grew from her temples curving gracefully into dangerous points.

She had the upper body of a beautiful woman, but clearly, the rest, still under the surface of the magma-river, was not. Dave saw some sort of fin splash the molten rock when she moved to rest her arms on a nearby boulder.

“My dear Drahma, you escaped your prison. What brings you back here...again?”

The giant berserker answered through clenched jaw, “I thought it was only by chance that I was summoned here, but it seems fate is playing with a dishonest deck.” He clenched his pole tighter.

Dave realized there must be some history between the two.

He inspected the female mob.

Something strange was going on.