They followed Sir Urthor outside, he had been smart and had brought his raincoat, the hood back up and covering his face, the rain was just hitting it and sliding off. Stupid nodes, they had dried a little while inside and now they were soaked again, Pepe hated this floor. The knight had offered his rain coat all gentleman like to Lady Michelle as he had started to call her. She had refused him; said she was fine; he had not pushed.

Pepe was running behind the rest of the group; they had picked up the pace as the way to the shadowy building they had seen was close by. It was surrounded by large grey walls on either side with a large double gate, one side slightly ajar. How inviting he thought, the rain had not let up it had increased, wind had also picked up. He hated the nodes right now; next dungeon better be at a beach resort with the sun out.

They had walked in and on the left, there was a little covered area and a hitch for horses, at least they had thought about the poor animal. Thanks nodes could have left us some raincoats and umbrellas, he hated being wet.

In the distance what could only be described as a large mansion stood, Pepe could not even identify parts of it, maybe Erin or Bobby could, but there was no time to ask. The road continued to the mansion, but it was still far way, he estimated at least twenty minutes worth of walking, so like a mile away. He noticed ahead and to the right of the road, some objects sticking out from the grass. What were they, he did not recognize the shape of them?

“What are those?” He pointed at the objects sticking out.

“Sir Pepe, those would be headstones, it is a cemetery.” Oh great, dead people, he sorts of knew what was coming, he hoped he was wrong.

“Oh.” Is all he said, shook his head.

“Sir Pepe is something amiss?” He shook his head at the night.

They walked on and they hit that invisible line, from the wet grass they saw arms, come out, freaking zombies, it had to be zombies. He saw one arm reach up then another, saw the thing pull itself out of the ground. The skin grey and dry as it had been dead and buried for a while, the skin on the face shrunken, no eyes as they had decomposed long ago, bones could be seen. What clothes it had when they had buried it now rags upon the desiccated body.

Other zombies were coming out of the ground as well around them. He took out his daggers, what they could do against zombies he was not sure. His friends took out their weapons ready to face the treat, the knight removing his shield from its back and taking out his sword. A light shone fort from both shield and sword, ooh holy magic thought Pepe.

“Friends behind me, these fiends shall die to my holy sword.” Yup just like he thought, a bit cheesy but hey who was he to complain. “Priest your spells shall be a bane to these abominations.” He nodded to Bobby.

Nice, Bobby’s spells are good against undead, well kind of made sense since his role was to cure the living, curing the dead or something would have the opposite effect Pepe assumed. They would need to see if there was a way for him to cast a spell on their weapons.

They were faced by three zombies, they moved slow as they shuffled and approached the group, the rest of the zombies too far away to trigger the aggro skill? He was not sure if that is what it was called, but it was nice that they would not be overrun by the zombies.

The Knight attracted the zombies by casting his own version of Taunt, and they started to move faster at him, not at a run but at a shuffling power walk Pepe guessed. Power Walking Zombies, that was kind of funny, what’s next?

The zombies were kind of easy, in minutes they were down, the knights holy shield and sword kept them at bay and on him, and the rest just concentrated on taking them out.

Minor Zombie x 3 defeated 60 XP earned

That was why they were easy, trash mobs, he knew that but thought they may be a bit harder to defeat. But they did have a holly knight NPP so that helped. Minor zombies he thought, that meant that there may be regular zombies or even major versions of them.

They moved on to another group, this time it was four of them and just like the first group they dispatched them. His daggers had been doing some damage to them, which made him a little disappointed, so he was weak against undead with his current setup. He would need to see if there was a way to improve his weapons to do more damage on these undead types.

There had been zombies on both sides, and the knight wanted to take care of all of them. They moved on to the next group they would clear out the right side and move on to the left side once this was done. The next group consisted of three of them, but one of them stood out, Pepe saw that it had what looked like a club, a large wooden stick shaped like a bat. It also had on a rusty metal helmet and some armor, so it may have been soldier when it was alive.

This one moved faster; it was just as dead looking as the other two that flanked it, but it had the weapon in one hand. When Sir Urthor taunted it, it moved at a not quite a run but not a shuffle either at the knight, his two friends power shuffling behind him. It raised the club and smashed it down on the knight, he heard a loud clang as it hit.

Manuel taunted one of the shuffling ones over to him they would take care of that one first while Urthor took care of the meaner one. He got behind and to the left of the zombie, he had noticed that this was where he always ended up, it worked so he kept at it.

Yes, again his daggers did less damage, but every little bit counted. He heard Bobby cast [Heal] and the notification that it was a Critical Hit, nice for Bobby his spells could sure do damage to these undead. It also afflicted the undead with an increase incoming damage debuff. Pepe saw the creature go down and not get up, the notification came that it was dead, did undead die? Or what would you call it?

Manuel did the same with the other minor zombie pulled him off Sir Urthor, Bobby cast heal, this time though no Critical Hit. It took another Heal against it and further damage before it was out like its friend. They moved onto the one with the mace, it had continued its swings of the mace, a clang heard every time it hit. He had heard it in the background, but he concentrated on their fight, it seemed the NPP could handle itself. It helped a lot, at least in being able to damage the zombies as the holy sword the knight carried with him did a good amount of damage on the zombies.

It took a lot more to defeat the zombie soldier but with them all damaging it was soon down, that was it for the side they were working on. They moved on to the other side of the road, first set of zombies were just the shufflers, at least that is what Pepe began to call them.

The first group consisted of four shufflers, they dispatched them in a matter of minutes, it was steady experience. While he still hated that his daggers did less damage to help, he continued outputting damage but relying on Bobby and Sir Urthor for most of the damage. In the end what counted was that the zombies were taken out.

The follow up group consisted of two Soldier, one caried a club the other a sword. Sir Urthor taunted the sword wilder, and Manuel went for the club one. His cousin pulled him in with his [Taunt], Bobby casted [Heal] and Pepe and the rest went to town with the damage they could output. Since this one was a bit stronger, it took a lot longer to take it out, it felt like an eternity.

As soon as they saw the notification, they quickly moved on to Zombie Soldier number two. They moved over allowing Mr. Knight to keep aggro and damaging him while they did their part. It took much less time to take this one down with the extra help.

Minor Zombie x6 defeated, 120 XP earned.

Zombie Soldier x1 defeated, 35 XP earned.

Minor Zombie x4 defeated, 80 XP earned.

Zombie Soldier x2 defeated, 70 XP earned.

So far, he had gained 365 XP on the run, not even halfway to the next level, how disappointing. He had come in with hardly any experience, only just leveling off Shroomy on the previous floor. They had a few more packs to go this side, while he did not like the zombies as he felt useless, they gave better experience than the shrooms. He was looking forward to finishing off the dungeon then get back to Master Corta his instructor and see what else he could teach him at this level. He also wanted to ask about facing undead creatures.

The next pack of them was only three Shufflers as he had begun to call them, they took them out fast and moved on to the next pack a Shuffler and a Soldier. Or was it a soldier, it carried a large sword, he believed they called it a great sword. It caried the sword on its shoulder, it like the soldiers was also fast, when it was taunted, it ran at Mr. Knight. The sword came forward and bashed against the shield making a large clang noise, it felt a lot harder than the others, it sounded like it had more force too.

There was no time to admire the fight with the large sword wilding zombie, he and the other concentrated on the shuffler, it was weak as all the others. It went down in less than a minute, they turned to work on the one engaging Sir Urthor.

They surrounded the monster, Pepe was finding it difficult to get in and actually damage it, as he went in, he felt a sudden coldness radiating from the zombie. Striking with his daggers, the cold radiated up his arm, a very unpleasant feeling. It was probably a good thing they had the large silly gloves still on or the cold he felt may have made it impossible to continue.

It took three heals from Bobby and a lot of damage from the rest before it finally stopped moving and fell to the ground dead. They looked around and no more zombies were present they had cleared the field on both sides, good he hated zombies, and this last one was the worse of them.

Minor Zombie x1 defeated, 20 XP earned

Zombie Elite x1 defeated, 75 XP earned

No wonder that one had been so tough, he did not want to fight any more of those that was for sure. It had continued to rain the whole time that they had been fighting the zombies, lightning and thunder went off and a small structure was illuminated further up ahead. Well, we know where we need to go next.

“Friends we must see if these monstrosities are present in the mausoleum.” He pointed at the structure that had been illuminated, so that is what it was called, Pepe guessed calling it the little building for dead people may have been a little on the long side. Before anyone could say anything Sir Urthor was off to the mausoleum, they followed close behind.

Once again, they reached the magic line, the lightning and the thunder came again, a hard cold wind blew, and the gates of the mausoleum slammed open. Then a cold voice was heard, it sent shivers down Pepe’s spine, “Who dares disturb my slumber? You have slain my brethren and shall face my wrath.” He did not like the sound of that, but he was eager to finish with these damn zombies, so let’s kill this boss.

“Fiend it is thee who shall face thy executioner, prepare to be defeated.” Ah Sir Knight, I will put in a complain, come on nodes, let’s work on the lines, that one was terrible. He would need to give them some pointers when he saw them next.

Warning…. Boss Encounter Triggered.

Boss Encounter will commence in 60 seconds.

Please ensure preparations are complete within this timeframe.

And there it was, they had reached the Boss. What did this boss have in store for them? What kind of mechanics would they need to worry about?

The timer began to tick down, when it hit zero from the entrance of the mausoleum a very large hand came through grabbing on to the side of the entrance. The thing would have no issue palming a basketball, as a matter of fact the basketball would look tiny in the enormous hand. The dry skin hanging on the hand, and various digits just bone, were a little on the disgusting side, the other hand came through on the opposite side. It was almost as if it was using the side of the opening to pull its enormous body through.

The head came next, it too equally large, the skull had patches of hair here and there, with flaps of flaky skin. Pepe felt his stomach churn a little from revulsion, it was not a pretty sight. The thing turned its head up to look at what it saw as it’s lunch or whatever it was going to do with them. Probably turn them to zombies, while a zombie Pepe might be cool a dead Pepe was not, so he wanted to avoid that dying.

The eye sockets black pits of darkness looked right than left, only reason that he could tell was because it had turned its head to look at them. It kept on going, the arms and head already out, it needed to turn for the shoulders to come through. The torso came through, it righted itself as the largest part had come through, it dragged the rest of the body out placing the hands on the ground and pulling until the monstrosity was outside the mausoleum. But it was not done, it reached back into the entrance it had just come through, pulling a massive sword through.

It had rags for clothes, they were likely very nice clothes back when it was buried, a fading purple coat, the trousers now more of a yellow. It stood as it came fully out, what could be seen under the rags it wore were bone and more desiccated skin. Pepe looked up at the thing, it was taller than Rotgert, so easily ten feet tall, maybe more.

Monster Type: Undead

Monster Name: Baron Hames

Abilities: Unknown

Difficulty Level: Medium

Baron Hames likes to steal the souls of those he defeats to nurture his undead existence, he raises their dead bodies and creates his zombie horde to protect his domain.

“Time to die little mortals.” The eyes started to glow like two blue flames as it looked down on them, the mouth full of yellow teeth moving as it said the words.

“Thou shall be the one to face thy doom fiend.” Sir Urthor we need to get you some new lines. “[Holy Shield] [Holy Sword] [Taunt],” the sword going up then down in an overhead smash at the knight, coming down on the glowing shield, he buckled going down on one knee. It raised the sword once again, and before the knight could right itself it came down once more. The force of the blow keeping the knight on one knee, it raised it once again with incredible force brought it down.

Pepe could feel the air pressure from the blows where he was standing, he had jumped out of the way when that first flow had come down. He ran around the things and began to try and damage it, his slashes, and swings not very effective. Had he mentioned how much he hated zombies? With the thing being as tall as it was, he only reached just above its knees. His strikes only touching the back of the legs at calf level.

He would need to wait on Bobby with his spells, they allowed his daggers to have a greater effect on the undead before so they should help once more. He saw the debuff land and finally saw that his damage increased, slightly but it increased. This was going to be a very long fight; he was not enjoying himself at all.

Pepe had been looking at his GUI, as he mindlessly slashed and stabbed with his daggers. Josh’s spells were doing more damage, than he was, Michelle and Erin were both in the same boat as he. As for his cousin his output was awful, but he was not meant to do damage, he was meant to take damage, so it was expected.

They needed to come up with something else, how in the heck were they going to beat this thing and not take hours to do so. While they could just continue and eventually beat it, it was just disheartening that it would take so long. So, what could they do? Could he do something more? Wait can I use the skills the uniform gave them somehow? Only thing he could do was try, what would be the worst thing that could happen, it did nothing?

The annoying undead Baron had just started, the sword went up once more, but the expected downward strike did not come. Instead, it went low and behind him, then the sword was swinging in an arc, an arc that put both Pepe and Erin in the way. As the sword came around, he was forced to trigger the jump mechanic, or be smashed by the sword. Up into the air he went, the sword blade missing, he was not sure if Erin was alright, but he saw no notification telling him otherwise. He heard the blade strike the gravestones as it passed, the gravestones not strong enough to take the force of the massive blade. Chunks flying all over the place, he felt small pieces hitting him like shrapnel.

He landed back on solid ground, saw the blade make contact with the Knights shield, the knight raising from the ground and sent flying, his back slamming against one walls of the mausoleum. The figure of Sir Urthor sliding down the wall, cracks forming where he had struck the wall. He saw a piece coming down and landing on top of the knight. Pepe was truly scared at this point, that swipe of the blade would have split him in half, if it did what it did to the knight what chance did he have?

There was no chance to react, no chance to panic, this thing was strong, stronger than anything they had faced. The monster turned to where Sir Urthor had landed, started to move, Pepe saw his cousin move, his stance change, no Manuel don’t do it. “[Taunt]!” The Baron turned, Pepe was even more terrified now, there was no way Manuel could handle this, he was going to be crushed under that massive sword.

The monster stopped already within striking distance of its great sword; Pepe could not move as the blade raised to its highest point. He felt like a child playing at something that he was not, a thief from a game. How stupid he felt, how could he be so excited all the time to do this, now his family was in danger, his cousin would not just be hurt he would likely lose his life. He had not really thought about that, he could not move, just stand there as he saw those two blue flames look down at the young man it was about to crush.

“No, Fiend it will not pass!” A great light shone, Pepe turned to see a knight standing amid a ruined wall, saw blood on the helm, noticed the normally immaculate armor dented. The NPP was hurt, and it did not matter if it was part of this world or this dungeon alone, it was hurt. Pepe did not care if the lines that it had been given were cheesy, he was glad to see it up once again, that it had not died.

Pepe saw the monster turn as well, the normally blue flames now turning red. It was all happening in flashes, he saw Sir Urthor raise his shield, crossing his sword in front of his shield, the Baron start to move towards him. The Knight saying some words that Pepe could not make heads or tails of, he finished saying the words and an explosion of light encompassing all. He closed and tried to shield his eyes from the light, opened them and saw black spots. Slowly he regained his eyesight, the light now something more manageable, he kept on blinking trying to see better.

“Now my friends, this will be our only opportunity, you must keep him off me!” He heard the words from Sir Urthor but was unsure of their meaning, chance for what? He looked at the Baron, the monstrosity had shrunk, before the light had enveloped them all it had been just over ten feet tall, now it had shrunk significantly. It still towered over all of them, the sword swill very large, but now more manageable.

Once again, his cousin got its attention, “Come on Baron let’s do this, [Taunt]!” He looked at his GUI and what he saw made him smile.

Name: Baron Hames

Type: Undead

Affliction: +50% Damage

Benefits: None

It was vulnerable to them, finally he could do something. Instead of sitting there frozen and scared he moved, he had a job to do, and he would do it. It was on Manuel and Pepe had reset to his normal place, he swung his dagger, saw the notification of the hit, finally it was decent damage. He looked at Michelle and she was smiling, saw her continue to strike with her daggers.

The notification that came made him so happy, they were damaging the boss.

Baron Hames at 50% health.

“This cannot be, you mere mortals cannot destroy me. You are my playthings, your souls mine to consume, your bodies mine to animate.” The Baron attempted to disengage from Manuel it turned to go after the Knight, without the Knights magic it could destroy them.

“I don’t think so, ven a qui Parka [Taunt]!” Manuel did not just stand there waiting on the undead to come to him, he moved after the Baron striking it on its back, “[Shield Bash] [Thrust],” the monster had moved only steps away from Manuel now it had no choice but to face him again.

They would not let it get away that easy, Pepe continued to damage it, his friends doing the same. They would end the Baron; they had agreed to help Sir Urthor and end this thing evil deeds. Was Pepe getting too into this dungeon? Yes, yes, he was. He was not sure why, but he felt like he needed to end this monster.

Pepe from the corner of his eye he saw Sir Urthor start to move in their direction, the holy light he provided getting closer and closer. The Baron seemed to be trying to move from the light, it weekend him, but neither Pepe, his cousin, nor his friends allowed him any respite. The monster started to move slower, the overhead strikes from its great sword now with less impact. It was close he could feel it, then the great sword dropped, and the monster went down on one knee as the Knight had been when it had started its onslaught.

“How can this be? I am invincible, you are supposed to be my playthings. All the others before you failed, so why you.” Oh man it was starting to monologue, why did villains do that? Oh, Nodes where did you come up with this stuff? While he loved the cheesiness of it, he would have to talk to them about it.

“No Fiend, it was never going to be, your days were counted when we came along.” There you go Sir Urthor, bring the cheese thought Pepe. Sir Urthor delivered the final blow, his sword coming down and thrusting where the things heart would have been. “Goodbye Fiend.” Pepe saw the red flames that had served as eyes go out, the bones crumbling to the ground. The notification showing them that it was over.

Sir Urthor removed his sword, and put the sword away, he was moving slow and the blood still on his helm plain for all to see. “Thank thee friends, without thy help I would have surely perished.” Pepe was not sure of that, they had been bit players in the Knights play, but even thought he had been terrified they had won.

Congratulation you have defeated Baron Hames!

Floor 2 complete.

450 EXP Earned

The fight had been intense, but it was time to end this Floor, he was wet, and he had been scared and worried about his friends. He wanted to move on to the part that now mattered, the loot.