Defeated lvl 20 Warden of the Pit!
EXP +50,000
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Infernal Affinity +1
The longest battle of James’s life finally came to a close, not with a whimper but with a bang. With fanfare. With System-generated congratulations.
It was his axe that drained the last of the Warden’s life. He’d seen the blood pour out, heedless of physics, like it was being sucked in by the blade. It was being sucked in by the blade. The cursed thing clearly said in its description that it thirsted for blood, and with every drop it drank, James could feel its power growing.
Bloodhound Axe +1
Had he been on Earth, he would never have touched the thing. Or if he had, he would have recoiled immediately and never picked it up again.
Grimora, however, played by a different set of rules. His life was on the line. James understood that the only reason he’d survived the fight was due to the axe’s ability to cut through the Warden’s armor. The enemies were only going to grow stronger, so he needed to grow stronger, himself. A weapon which grew in power the more he used it in battle? There was nothing more suitable.
It also increased, with use, his own infernal affinity. That sounded like a bad thing; his enemy was the Demon King, whose entire basis was undoubtedly infernal. It would be better by far to increase holy affinity somehow and strengthen himself with the Demon King’s weakness. The trouble there was that he hadn’t the faintest clue how to do so… Had he known about affinities when they were back in town, he might have asked Brother Clyde for assistance.
Wasn’t that always the way? If he’d known then what he knew now, he would have done things differently.
James shook his head. It wasn’t worth going down that rabbit hole.
“Woo! Level 15!” Desiree whooped. The girl was barely alive, her health less than a quarter full, but that didn’t dull her enthusiasm one whit.
“Get Vital Pulse,” her mother instructed, clearly thinking along the same lines.
Desiree grinned. “I’ll do you one better,” she said. “Sanctified Pulse!”
Her body glowed once with a soft white pulse of light, then her health bar began to refill.
“It cleanses status effects, too!”
Inara’s surprise transformed into pride. “Good choice,” she said simply.
The wattage of Desiree’s smile kicked up another notch at the praise.
“Inara,” James asked, “did you level up, too?”
“No.”
He frowned at that, but her tone was enough to stop him from asking any more about it. He realized, then, that he hadn’t noticed her leveling up at all since they’d started traveling together. Was she that high level, that 50,000 experience points were a drop in the bucket? The skill she’d used against the Warden had certainly been impressive… but if she was that high level, then why did she struggle at all in the fight? It should have been over before it began.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
James held his tongue. He was curious — but not so curious that he would pry into her affairs.
“Hello there! I don’t suppose the Warden has his keys on him?” Virgil waved a hand, rattling his chains together.
James looked up guiltily. He’d forgotten all about Virgil. “I’ll be right there!” He rushed over and pulled out his key, the one which had opened every cell door and Virgil’s first set of manacles.
“Sorry about that,” he said softly. For some reason he didn’t want Inara to hear him apologizing to the man.
“It’s quite alright,” Virgil replied graciously. “At least I am lying down instead of hanging by my wrists.”
James winced. Hanging by his wrists was how they’d first found Virgil. He didn’t like to think about how uncomfortable such a position must be, or how long the scholar was stuck there before the party arrived.
The key refused to turn in the lock of the manacles.
“Damn,” James swore. He tried again on the larger chains, with the same result. “There must be another key somewhere,” he said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find it.”
He retreated back to the Warden’s corpse and knelt to search the body.
“Wait a second,” he paused. “Desiree, you did the most damage, didn’t you?”
“Oh! I did! I totally did! Ha!” She slapped her hand against cold armor. Immediately, the Warden dissolved into silver and black sparks, until only the loot remained.
Desiree rubbed her hands together. “Let’s see what we’ve got! This looks like... a key ring.” She tossed it to James.
Warden’s Key Ring
Keep all your keys in the same place! Why not write down all your passwords in the same notebook while you’re at it? It’s all good, so long as you don’t lose it.
“Perfect!” Without waiting for her to go through the rest, James returned to Virgil. The ring held almost twenty keys, so they had to go through a few to find the right one, but then the lock clicked and the chains fell away.
“Oh, thank you,” Virgil said, sitting up and rubbing his wrists. “That’s two rescues I owe you for, now.”
James scratched the back of his neck. “No worries,” he said. “And if anything, you already paid me back for the first one.”
“Ahh, right.” Virgil stretched his arms. “The fireball spell. I will not be able to open the book again until tomorrow, and you must reach level 15 before it will do you any good.”
“That’s fine,” James assured him. “I’m not trying to rush you or anything, it seems like we have a ways to go in this dungeon anyway.” He smiled. “We’ll be stuck together for a while.”
Virgil smiled back. “I suppose we will.”
The two rejoined the ladies, who were looking down at the small loot pile.
Desiree nudged a gold coin with her toe. “I thought there’d be more,” she pouted.
James looked it over.
Pit Warden’s Glaive
Increases armor effective by +1 for every prisoner. Ineffective against infernal damage.
Military Rations x2
Food doesn’t need to taste good, you just need to survive! (If you pinch your nose, it’s not as bad.)
HP +75
Gold Coin x4
Money!
He let out a low whistle. “No wonder he was so hard to hurt in the beginning,” he said. “His armor was practically impenetrable except for infernal damage, and the only way we could do infernal damage was by using his own tools against him.”
That got James thinking. Infernal creatures were weak to holy damage, but what if this happened again, and he was only able to hurt one via infernal damage? Maybe the other way to think of it was that he was in no position to turn down power in any form, and the axe was certainly powerful.
That made the decision for him. He’d hold onto it for now. If another, better weapon cropped up he would switch them out, and until then, he would be grateful for the axe.
“It’s useless to us, though,” Inara pointed out. “Unless you’re planning to start taking prisoners.”
She said it without judgment, like if he was going to start taking prisoners, she would find a way to help make it happen.
He shuddered at the thought. Even if they were demons, it wouldn’t be worth it. The morals alone were questionable enough; the logistics of keeping prisoners while traveling to the Demon King’s stronghold would be an impossibility. It would be suicide, like handing the Demon King extra troops for his army.
“I guess we’ll leave it behind, then,” he said. Too bad there wasn’t a store he could sell it in exchange for armor that was actually worth something.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that Desiree was right. The loot was good. It was hard to go wrong with gold, and the military rations would certainly come in handy. The key ring had already saved Virgil.
But there should be more. There should be something useful, some kind of gear — ideally, gear for each of them, so they would be that much better equipped for the next floor.
“I found it! Guys! Come look! James, get the keys!” Desiree bounced on the balls of her feet.
The rest of the party joined her, all looking confused. As far as they could tell, it looked like she’d led them to a wall.
The girl rolled her eyes. “Look!” She pointed at the near-invisible seam and a handle that was disguised as a metal protrusion not unlike the ones Desiree had climbed during the fight.
It was a hidden door.
James grinned. “Now we’re talking. Let’s get this thing open.”
