Denizens of the Labyrinth

They ascended and Jazmel emerged into carnage. The dwarves were fighting trolls and ogres of all types and sizes. Jazmel gripped his sword hilt but Frae held him back.

“We cannot. We have another job, just as important.” Frae said, Jazmel looked at him and saw the grip he had on the handle of his short axe. The white of his knuckles were showing too.

The ground tremored before their feet. Each step booming and cascading the surrounding area in vibrations. Jazmel looked around and could not see the cause of the ground shaking steps. But as if in sync with his thoughts, the system activated.

DANGER!

WARNING!!

GRAUG THE TROLL OGRE

DEFEAT THE TROLL OGRE CHIEF

Jazmel kissed his teeth; the chief was named. He remembered the words from Baek, monsters and monsters that were named were a mutated version of their selves.

“Frae, that monster is named.” Jazmel said to him, as they edged around the ongoing battle in the camp below the entrance to the mountain.

“So?” Frae uttered and Jazmel realised he did not understand the seriousness, because they were not linked to the system.

“He will be stronger than we thought. Maybe stronger than that too.” Jazmel said through clenched teeth.

“It dies today.” Frae reaffirmed and Jazmel understood the fire in his eyes.

“Ten of you will come and fight with us, me and Jazmel will do the heavy lifting. The rest of you will harry him with arrows and throwing axes. Stock up now, because once we mob him, there will be no leaving to get more.” The archers filled their quivers and stuck short haft axes into their already filled belts.

“The rest of you, you have to hold back any trolls or ogres who come to try and defend him. No reinforcements must reach us.” Frae told them, he held the eye of every dwarf present.

“It has been a pleasure fighting and mining with you all. If I see back in the mountain I will buy you a beer, if I do not, I will lay you beneath the mountain. But not before I send you all the company I can!” Frae shouted and at that he and his contingent of guards roared and ran at the group of trolls fighting beside the troll ogre named Graug.

Jazmel leapt into the melee too, clearly invigorated by the speech from Frae. The trolls were strong here, it took a few strikes from his blade before he cut one down, he removed the head to ensure the regeneration did not bring it back.

“Cut off the heads just to be sure!” he shouted and the dwarves around him roared in confirmation.

He met another, this one with a stocky wooden club in its hand, he cut through that with Nozarashi. The blade slipping through it like a knife through meat. The troll cupped its hands and slammed them down like a makeshift mace. He cut through both wrists. Before it could even wail in pain, he struck its throat. Cutting the gullet and larynx together. Blood pooled down its chest, but it was healing, he could see the skin on its wrist growing in inches as it tried to reform its hands. But he would not allow it, he cut the Achilles tendon and it fell to a knee, he cut the throat again, while it was healing and then twisting the blade, slash up cutting the whole face off of the troll. It was a gruesome display of carnage, but the trolls were worst.

They were throwing dwarves around, attacking with their sheer size and power. But he had power too, he flicked the gore off his blade. two trolls were trying to cut Frae off from his warriors, Jazmel was there before they realised their mistake.

Whirlwind!

He cut the legs off the one on the left. It fell squealing like a pig, Frae swung his arms both sides and his axe bit into the neck of the troll and his mace crushed the top of its skull. It fell and while it was on the ground, Frae struck its head again to make sure it was dead. The second, an ogre; was even worse, Jazmel ran beneath a swinging arm. Crouching and leaping up.

Flight of the blue kite!

from below the chin of the great beast, knocked its head back and made sure the brain of this simple beast was scrambled at the moment. But Jazmel did not give it a chance to come back to its senses.

Slash

He yelled and with Mana and the might of his arm, he struck the head of the ogre off its body. Blood spurted from its neck and Jazmel watched it fall to its knees and then stepped over it, a roar. More than a roar, it was like a howl and a booming trumpet in one sound. It was impending doom and Jazmel knew it. He looked over and saw Graug rushing towards him, knocking over trolls, and crashing through dwarves and ogres alike.

It was ten feet tall. Taller than anything Jazmel had seen before, the flesh was mottled grey, and it made Jazmel think of rock and stone. He steadied his feet and waited for it to charge at him, he moved out of the way as it crashed past him. But he side stepped it and struck with his blade. to his surprise it bounced off.

Great, it has thick skin. He thought to himself, but he was not alone because the place where he had struck was scarred a little and as he watched it move past him, he saw a firebomb fly through the air and crash on the body. This bomb was different, rather than exploding on a timed delay; instead, it broke on impact and liquid fire burst from within.

Jazmel was so amazed at the ingenuity of the dwarves. The troll ogre roared, more in annoyance than pain but it whirled on Jazmel and struck out, it missed him but the sheer force it struck the ground, made Jazmel misstep and struggle to get steady. In that moment Graug struck with a wayward arm. Knocking him back and off his feet.

WARNING!

HEALTH DOWN 30%

He sighed; a swinging arm was what struck him. His whole body felt like a bruise. He crawled back to his feet and then found Nozarashi not far from where he had fallen. He looked up and to his luck, Graug was not hunting him. Instead, valiantly Frae was fighting him, axe and mace, tooth, and nail. Jazmel admired him immensely. Frae tumbled through the beasts legs and when it turned to look for him, Jazmel saw something.

The place that the bomb had struck had cracked the external shell of the troll ogre and fleshy skin beneath it could be seen, Jazmel leapt forward and before the troll hybrid beast could see him, he pushed his sword into the wound. Before Graug could react, he shouted.

Slash!

Using the Mana from the skill, he cut up and carved through the tough flesh of the troll and it howled in pain. He finally got through. Quicker than before, it whirled on him and catching his hand. He winced as it broke his forearm.

WARNING

SEVERE BREAK!

Jazmel cried out, wailed even. The pain drove black spots into his eyes, he felt himself be lifted off the ground, but he could do nothing, still suffering from the delirium of his broken forearm.

“Jazmel!” he heard and knowing it was Frae but could not turn to look at him. The face of the troll ogre was grotesque, it raised its hackles and the tusks that protruded from its mouth reeked of carrion. Jazmel averted his head, but the roll roared in his face. Defiantly, Jazmel spat in his face. But the ogre was not pleased with his defiance, instead it squeezed harder and harder. Until he felt his spine bending beneath the effort.

WARNING!

HEALTH AT 50%

WARNING!

HEALTH AT 35%

WARNING

CRITICAL DANGER

The system pinged repeatedly in his vision and there was nothing he could do. Blood poured from between his lips, and he coughed up more, feeling it in his lungs.

Master I am with you!

As he heard those words in his head. Jazmel felt the shadow wraith pull him from the clutches of the troll ogre and in that instant, he was standing in the shadow of it. But before it could react, Frae was flying through the air.

“Troll, you die today!” it was a sight of craziness. Frae had thrown firebombs repeatedly and they had engulfed the face and torso of Graug. He clutched his short haft axe and struck the face of the troll ogre repeatedly.

“We burn! Dwarves are born in fire and bathe in flame!” Frae bellowed over the death cry of the enemy and trolls and ogres began to fall and die around them under the onslaught of the dwarves.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

…

LOST GATE, HAS BEEN UNLOCKED.

…

REWARDS WILL BE GIFTED

…

DWARVES OF OREVALOR

WELCOME BACK TO THE SYSTEM!

…

SEEKER TIER III

YOU HAVE COMPLETED A QUEST OF GREAT SERVICE TO THE SYSTEM

EXP EARNED

…

LEVEL UP

LEVEL UP

LEVEL UP

…

+5 STR

+4 END

+5 AGL

+5 DEX

…

EXT REWARD

…

THIRD PART OF THE PLACQUE OBTAINED

PLACQUE COMPLETED

…

REALM OF DEATH ENTRANCE KEY!

Jazmel's jaw dropped with shock. But before he could even consider it anymore. Frae was shouting.

“Jazmel!” he looked over, to his dwarven friend and saw his eyes somewhere else. He looked around and noticed everyone else had the same look about them too. They were linking to the system and seeing themselves and what the system said about them.

“HEY!” Jazmel shouted and everyone snapped to reality and looked at him confused.

“I can imagine your stats and your system status look really interesting, but we have a lot to do here. A lot of you need to tier up, a tier tribulation. A lot of you are getting that notification right now, but you do not have the items for it.” He said and a few gruff voices called out their concern.

“The only way you are all going to be able to tier up right now is through the use of the trolls and ogres. We need to collect all the corpses. Every single one of them, we need to bring them back into the mountain.” Jazmel called out.

“Listen to him!” Frae shouted, from his crouched position, clearly in pain.

“He is my proxy for now!” Frae called out and the dwarves immediately rushed to do the bidding of their King.

“Collect them all and bring them down the mountain!” Jazmel was saying and then he heard Frae cry out in anguish. Turning to his friend he watched as he punched his fist into the corpse of the named troll chief and pulled its heart out.

“I need to tier up!” Frae blurted out and then crashed to the ground clutching the heart. Jazmel watched as his friend convulsed and he watched over him as he went through his very first tier tribulation.

His body shook and convulsed again but before his eyes, Jazmel could see the Mana pooling around his body. It was wrapping itself around his bones, but also it seeped into his muscles as it rebuilt his sturdy body too. The core from the flower spawn followed and though Jazmel could not tell which parts of the tribulation he used them for, he could tell they were changing his body under extreme duress.

After a while his body stopped twitching and with a groan that quickly turned into a growl, he clambered up to his feet. “You weren’t joking about the pain of it.” He mused and then smiling Jazmel watched as he clearly opened up his system status and began adding points to his stats.

“What tier?” Jazmel asked.

“Seeker tier II.” He grinned.

“It probably hurt because you jumped a tier, you basically jumped a rank.” Jazmel explained and Frae still looking at his stats seemed to grunt at that.

“What is this now, Ahhh… that makes sense.” He was talking to himself, and Jazmel waited, as he did what was needed.

DING!

The system chimed in his thundering voice that rang out all around them, everywhere but also nowhere.

A KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN HAS BEEN CHOSEN

THE KINGDOM OF OREVALOR HAS BEEN FOUNDED!

ALL SUBJECTS OF THE KINGDOM WILL RECEIVE;

+5 VIT

+5 END

15% EXP BOOST

Jazmel whistled at that and Frae laughed.

“Come, let’s see how the retrieval is going.” Frae said and leading the way, he headed back into the camp and pushed even began to help some dwarves bring more trolls down to the cart platform.