The Manaverse

The Crypts

Granite City

After surviving the Monster Wave, Jut figured these four people could work well together. He was pretty sure they would fight together to try and complete the dungeon quickly and efficiently. He couldn't have been more wrong.

The first thing Jut noticed upon entering the Dungeon with the Crusaders in tow was they were in the exact same starting hallway. However, they had stepped out of the portal into the middle of the hall instead of at the far end. As they all adjusted to their new placement, the sound of stone lids scrapping against the coffin edges came much sooner than he was used to.

Brick held his shield and club at the ready and faced down the hallway towards the light that was the main room with the boss coffin. "They're already coming. Heads up."

Diggy stepped up next to Brick. "We will take care of these ones."

Jut shrugged and stepped into position facing the opposite direction, activating his Dragon's Vision. "Then I will watch behind us."

Joy followed Jut silently. It was the optimal call based on how everyone moved, Jut knew. But he would have switched himself out for Diggy in this arrangement. With the hallways being just wide enough for two people to stand comfortably side by side to fight and Diggy using a war axe, Joy would be able to dodge the wide swings and allow Diggy to deal the most damage possible. However, Jut didn't want to put her in an uncomfortable situation due to the two's failed romance, so he remained silent.

"I'll fire my wand over your shoulders and into the on coming monsters while waiting to heal as needed." Isabelle said, taking aim between Diggy and Brick.

Jut grinned excitedly. He couldn't wait to see how fast they would tear through the first wave. He activated his equipped skills, his scales, and ensured his aura was active. His blade glowed mana blue, the wind magic gathering around it. A dark energy joined the blue, swirling eerily.

Then the second difference in the run became apparent.

"Shit. They're Stone Rank. All of them. Be careful!" Brick cursed when the first three Human Monsters got close enough so he could examine them. "None of the other groups mentioned this when I was asking around about the five person run."

"We'll just have to adapt." Jut added, bringing his sword up to deflect a Monster's sword. A dark swell of energy flowed down Jut's blade and into the Monster. He knew Consequence had triggered, adding a stack of Vulnerability to the Monster, increasing the damage it would take.

Jut expected to see Joy dodge in and strike the Monster, taking advantage of the debuff. However, she laughed excitedly and sped down the hallway, striking at another Monster instead. Jut didn't have time to call out to her, having to dodge the next strike and taking the chance to land a counter on his attacker. The strike split it's side open. He felt his Windy Steps Skill trigger, increasing his movement speed fractionally.

Jut leaned back frantically to avoid a different Monster's attack who had stepped into the space made by Joy. The Monster's hammer swung past his face, close enough for him to feel the air move with its passage.

A started yelp behind him made Jut turn. A Monster had slipped past them, reaching Isabelle from behind. He took two slices across his back as he turned and ran the offending monster through with his sword before turning back to his current adversaries.

"Watch it, Cow Boy." Jut heard Brick shout as the Guardian dodged a wild swing from Diggy.

"My bad. Watch out." Diggy said sheepishly before using his Bull Rush ability. He darted forward, red energy flowing around his body, his horns level with a Monster's chest. His weight carried the Monster into the wall, skewering the beast in place.

Another Monster skirted between Diggy and Brick, aiming for Isabelle. Brick missed his swing at the Monster, but couldn't follow up as he was already holding off three others.

Isabelle was not defenseless, however. She began firing at the Monsters as soon as she saw Diggy leave an opening. The closest one's head took multiple shots before it burst apart and crumpled in a heap. She delivered a Magic Bolt down the hall just behind that attack, killing another monster who was right behind the first.

It was sheer chaos for long minutes. Too many monsters got past both defensive lines. Everyone was taking a lot of damage, damage that Jut believed they could have avoided with proper teamwork. Yet, no one fell. With a bit of luck and Isabelle's magic, they managed to make it through. The last Monster fell and the hallway went silent except for everyone's hard breathing.

Jut examined the group.

Brick's armor was fractured in places, blood seeping through the cracks. Diggy wasn't any better. They both hovered around thirty-five percent HP.

Jut himself was covered in open wounds. He could feel the ones on his back seep blood down the inside of his armor. His HP was no better than Brick's or Diggy's, sitting at thirty percent. That's even after he managed to use his own healing Skill in the combat multiple times.

Somehow, Isabelle had managed to get out of the battle at fifty percent HP, but her white outfit was smeared with just as much blood as everyone else's.

Joy, who was being healed by Isabelle, was the worst off. Her leather armor was in tatters and her health was slowly climbing up from ten percent. She was looking at Isabelle with a disbelieving look and was the first to break the silence.

"Why didn't you heal me sooner? We could have ended the fight much faster." She crossed her arms and stared daggers at the teams healer.

"I'm sorry. I would have, but I had to focus on Brick. He was dropping too quickly for me to turn away."

Joy went to argue further, but Brick interjected. "It's true. I almost died a time or two."

Joy scowled. "So, what? I'm the expendable one then?"

Diggy nodded. "The tank takes priority." He crossed his arms and looked at Joy, his face a challenge.

Soon the three devolved into bickering and arguing. Isabelle looked a little pale but kept silent while she continued to heal Joy.

Jut was lost for words. It was once their tone reached a volume that was hurting his ears and driving him crazy that he stepped in. His shout was loud enough to make everyone go silent.

"Enough!"

Everyone turned to look at him. Joy liked like she was going to start arguing with him instead.

"I said enough. Are the three of you trying to trigger another wave of Monsters?"

Everyone stayed silent then. Joy closed her mouth, looking speculative. Both her and Diggy looked away from the group in different directions. Brick looked at Jut, waiting for him to continue. Isabelle kept healing Joy.

"We can point fingers, argue, and complain later, after we finish this run. Isabelle, will you be able to heal everyone to at least three quarters?"

Isabelle nodded. "Yeah. If I drink a potion. If not, I'll only be able to get the rest of you to about sixty percent."

Checking the party interface, Jut noticed that Joy's HP was nearly full. He nodded. "Save the potion. Just cast regeneration on yourself, Diggy and me. Focus your healing on Brick, then conserve mana until the next fight. I need two ritualists, two body draggers and someone to scope out resources for after the looting."

Isabelle complied and cast the appropriate spells. Brick stood and began dragging corpses after getting his regen buff. Diggy began drawing two circles with a stick of chalk.

The mood was a dower one. It didn't help when Joy stomped away, sounding disgusted. "I'm not looting bodies or dragging corpses. Especially not when they are humans. No thanks. I'll look for resources and gather the plants."

Jut sighed.

Diggy stood and gestured to the circles, each already sporting a corpse. "You two perform the rituals. Let me and Brick do the dragging."

Isabelle and Jut each knelt before a ritual ring, not looking at each other. They pulled Mana Chips out and began dissolving the bodies placed there. About half way through, Isabelle spoke quietly.

"Do you think we will get to the end?"

"If we make past the next hallway, I'll pay you one gold." Jut said quietly back.

The only sign Isabelle heard him was a brief pause in her activating her ritual and sorting the loot.

"Damn it. Guys! The one's in the middle didn't wait for us to get out there." Diggy said loudly. He was the furthest away, going to get one of the corpses Isabelle had shot from down the hall. "And there's more than one."

Jut and Isabelle jumped to their feet and moved towards Diggy quickly, Joy and Brick right behind them. Diggy was fighting five Monsters that were different from all that came before. They were each wielding a different weapon and wearing armor. Their features were even more defined and had slight differences to their appearances. They also sported information that sent chills down Jut's back.

Human - Elite Monster

Stone Rank

One looked like a Guardian, carrying a hammer. There was a rouge like Monster carrying two dagger. The other damage types were carrying a sword and spear. They even had an archer.

Jut didn't wait this time.

"Brick and Joy up front. Diggy, fall back, drink a potion and make a fall back line. Isabelle, fire at will. There's an Archer. Take that one down first."

Jut stopped and focused. He mentally willed his Gusty Strike to activate. His sword glowed a darker green and he swung it at his party's back. A long crescent of magic fired off, speeding down the hall.

Isabelle screamed. "What the hell are you...?"

Her voice trailed off as the blade of magic passed through the front line, leaving them unharmed,and struck all five Monsters. The attack did what Jut wanted it to, which wasn't a lot of damage. It made the Monsters flinch from surprise and that's about it. However, Jut also gained five stacks of haste instantly.

The brief interruption allowed Brick and Joy to replace Diggy on the front line and the Minotaur was able to fall back. He was messed up. His health was at thirty percent again, more of his armor was damaged, and he had two arrows sticking out of him. Blood pooled beneath him slowly.

Isabelle blinked at the scene, shook her head and turned to Diggy. "Grit your teeth. This will hurt." She placed her palm around one arrow shafts and inspected it briefly. She yanked hard and the tip came out. She repeated the process successfully before healing Diggy for a moment. She cast a regeneration on him, nodded and turned to the fight, firing her wand at the archer.

"Attack me, bitches!" Brick shouted loudly. His voice was amplified greatly as he activated his taunt Skill, Battle Cry. The party felt the magic wash over them as all five monsters looked towards their Guardian. They mindlessly struck at Brick, who blocked the hits with his shield.

Joy unleashed on the monster that was carrying two daggers. It turned to her after she struck it five times. Joy's glowing fists tore chunks off her opponent each time they made contact. She danced around most of the Monster's counterattacks, delivering even more punishment in return.

When the group of four surviving Monsters turned on Joy after their rogue died, Jut called her back. With the last of his Haste, he stepped into the spot she made and swung across the Monsters, hitting two of them and refreshing his buff a little. He fought for long moments, dodging and striking when he could. He ended up taking a deep spear jab and a crushing hammer blow, leaving his foes with a debuff each before he fell back. Brick interceded with a shield bash, cutting off Jut's pursuers. Diggy stepped into the gap until Joy was ready to swap in once more.

The Elite Monsters were tough. They could take a lot of punishment without falling. The hammer wielding monster was the worst, wearing chain mail. It was the largest threat and the hardest to damage. The Monsters didn't seem work together like his party did, though. If they had, the team would have struggled against them a lot more than they did.

This cycle of swapping out fighters repeated only one more time and only worked so well because Isabelle killed the Archer with a smartly placed Magic Bolt. The three remaining Monsters eventually fell, Brick killing the hammer wielder, Joy taking out the spear wielder, and Diggy splitting the sword wielder in two. Once again the party was left breathing hard.

"Let's finish up looting and try again on the next hallway." Jut said between deep breaths.

No body argued or complained this time. Before long, all the remaining corpses were looted and the various materials were collected. The air was heavy, and not just because they were in a crypt.

The center room was a little different than in the single-person run. There were five times as many smaller coffins, stacked tall, in each alcove. The alcoves themselves were taller too, tall enough to accommodate the additional four coffins and allow their occupants to easily climb out.

"Should we just take on the next hallway?" Brick asked, pointing to the opening in their right.

"Avoid the light." Jut said. Then he looked over the team's resources in his vision. No one was over seventy five percent with Diggy the lowest at under sixty percent. Their armor was even worse than before and they all sported bleeding wounds. "Should we rest for a few more minutes to recover a bit?"

"Can't we just keep going? We're high enough and we know what to expect now." Joy said.

"I think a rest would be better but this is our first run as a group. Maybe we should push farther in and see what else may be different?" Diggy suggested.

Jut looked at Isabelle. "As you're our lifeline at the moment, it's your call."

Isabelle nodded confidently. "I'm ready to get this over with."

Jut nodded and Brick led the team down the second hall.

The Monsters didn't immediately climb out of their stone beds and attack them as was expected. Instead, the party didn't hear the sound of stone dragging on stone until all of them had made it halfway down the hall.

"Keep going. Let's run to the end and fight on one front." Jut said. He was surprised when everyone followed the direction without comment. They barely made it in time to not have a single Monster behind them and nobody took a single attack.

Jut's confidence in their success grew for a while as their rotating formation started tearing through the Monsters. He would even sneak in the use of Harvest when the corpses were getting in the way.

That confidence crashed when it became clear they just weren't strong enough. They didn't quite do enough damage fast enough. They weren't going to survive the damage they were taking. Unlike fighting the Normal Ranked versions of the Monsters, the small hits the team took damaged their armor further and left wounds that zapped their HP constantly.

It quickly got to the point that their tattered armor barely provided any protection and Isabelle's Mana wasn't infinite. She, however, insisted on consuming her potions as needed. Despite the reduction in her Mana supply, Isabelle was only able to drink four before she ran out. She refused to take any of the ones she gave out before the run either

The Crusaders made it to the second fight with Elites before someone fell. In a desperate fight where Isabelle only had enough Mana to use her once a day, full heal called "From the Brink", she had to choose between Brick and Diggy. Seeing this dilemma coming, Diggy used the last of his HP to take a hit for Brick, buying Isabelle the moment she needed to activate the non-equipped skill.

Jut watched as Diggy fell to his knees, his head rolling off his body before he broke down into nothing, similar to a Monster. His body was completely gone in less than two seconds. His sacrifice did allow the team to prevail against the Elites, but they were nearly decimated.

Even with Joy helping to loot bodies and the group taking a longer rest, they were still hovering at fifty percent HP at best. Without Diggy to swap in with Joy and Jut to take pressure off of Brick, it was inevitable they would all fall.

The team only lasted halfway through the third hallway before Joy then Jut were taken out back to back. Brick was left alone when he could no longer stop all the Monsters from swarming Isabelle. He even used his taunt but it didn't last long enough.

In a moody silence, the Radiant Crusaders trudged away from the Dungeon, parting ways at the Town Hall's front doors. Despite their gear and health being completely restored, no one was happy with the turn out. Jut was already dreading the meeting they would have to have to discuss this disaster of a run. As none one was in the mood, he decided it would have to be after his lunch with Dan tomorrow. His thoughts returning to the quest only added to his frustrations as he wandered back to his penthouse to take a long, hot shower.