The first thing I noticed about the dungeon: It was dark. Extremely dark. Long, winding tunnels stretched as far into the dark as we could see.
"Here, let me." Caroline held out her staff. The crystal on the tip lit up like a mini-sun. I could see the dark walls and floors clearly.
"This is a bug hive alright." I muttered under my breath. Five tunnels led deeper into the dungeon. Big, white chalk Xs marked the farthest left and farthest right paths taken. "Looks like we've got three options. What do guys think?"
"We've only got five minutes to pick." Harper said, stepping up from behind me. "I don't know if we really have enough information to make an informed decision anyway."
"I think we should go this way." Caroline pointed down the central path. "It's the only option where the paths will be symmetrical after us."
"Seems as good a reason as any." I shrugged. "No reason not to."
"We'll be going deeper into the dungeon than either of the other path." Max took a step down the path. "That means possibly stronger mobs, but the likelihood of a stairwell down is higher too. Could be a winning strategy."
The sloping path took us down deeper into the mountain. The paths split and dead-ended, and turned back around on themselves. Every time we came across a fork, we marked our path with chalk before we moved on.
"So..." I asked, rubbing the back of my neck "When do the monsters show u-"
"Screeeeeeeee!"
Three ants the size of large dogs rounded the corner with a horrific battle cry. I mean, largish dogs. Like, not a Tibetan Mastiff or anything, but maybe a Doberman? German shepherd?
[Evaluator: There are so many sizes of dog, why would anyone ever say "It was the size of a dog?"]
[Connor: Yeah, honestly I have regrets right now.]
[You have lost 2 Agility from Debuff: Gigant Battlecry. Debuff timer: 00m 30s]
"Shit!" Harper dropped to her knees and started hurriedly unlocking her briefcase. "Guys, buy me time, I need to get my bow out!"
"I got it!" I ran forward first, holding up my mace. The lead ant snapped its mandibles at me as I swung the mace downward. I wasn't quite fast enough to get my hand away from them. I screamed as pain shot through my arm.
"Connor, look out!" Max took a step towards me but both of the other giant ants collided with him on the way. He was able to brace them with the shaft of his hammer before they could bite him too, but I was on my own.
A stat screen filled my vision
[You have suffered a Gigant Bite.]
[HP 70/100 SP 150/150]
[Strength 14(0), Agility 15(-2), Endurance 15(0), Vigor 10(0)]
[Intellect 21(0) Perception 6(0) Charm 12(0) Luck: 28(0)]
A skill list flowed down beneath my stats, blocking my vision of the ant chewing on my wrist. Numbers were slowly ticking away from my HP. Running out of options I kicked directly into the Gigant's knee joint. With a sick crunch, the ant let go and wheeled back. I swung the mace into its trash can lid sized head with my injured arm. It hurt. The shock of impact sent a flash of pain through my wound, but the ant was hurt worse. Cracks spread through its exoskeleton. The mace had been the right choice. I swung again, targeting the same spot. CRUNCH! Green goo exploded out of the ant's head as started thrashing wildly.
"Yeah, take that!" I shouted at it. "That's for biting me, you little-" it kicked me in the head, and the world went upside down.
[HP: 14/100 SP 80/150]
My head was spinning. Somewhere a million miles away, I could hear a voice echoing around me. I had no idea what it was saying. I tried to make my eyes focus, but in the end all I could see was... a blue message box.
[Evaluator: Hahah, you're in danger.]
[Evaluator: Seriously, you're about to die. It was a fun game, though. It turns out that you really didn't have what it takes to change your life without dying horribly.]
[Connor: Screw you. You stupid... little...]
The ant towered over my prone body. This was it, it was going to eat me.
An arrow buried itself up to the feathers in the crack in the ant's exoskeleton, sending it reeling.
"Here, here, sit up slowly." Caroline gently helped me off the ground. A Gold Card was in her hand.
[A healing skill has been used on you. HP recovery rate increased to 20 per second for the next 30 seconds.]
I watched as my HP number ticked up rapidly, from 14 to 34 to 54, and so on. I looked over at the ant I'd injured. It was having a hard time moving.
Harper Snatched the arrow out of its head, pulled it back against the string in one smooth motion, and sent it flying back into the Gigant's eye socket.
[Your party has killed a Gigant Drone. You have received 50 XP.]
Damn, that was an advanced move. Harper spent all her money on one super sturdy, high damage arrow, and she was using her skill to recover it so she'd only need the one. It's the kind of move a dungeon combat genius would come up with!
[Evaluator: Well, I'll be damned, you did it.]
[Evaluator: Well, not you, per say. but you brought people with you who did it. Good on you, you surrounded yourself with less incompetent people than you. Great work.]
[Connor: Gee. Thanks.]
"You holding up okay, Connor?" Caroline was looking over my wounded arm. "Your HP should be topped up by now, but sometimes serious injuries can have lingering effects. Try flexing your hand or stretching your arm a little to check for pain."
I touched each of my fingertips to my palm one at a time. I felt way more like I'd just done a hand workout than been chewed on by a giant insect. "Wow. Caroline, your healing is... amazing. Thank you."
"I'm a healer, Connor. It's my job. Yours is to kill those ants."
"Right." I heaved myself to my feet. "I can do that."
Max was pinned to a wall by one ant while the other tried to snap his legs out from under him. As the mandibles closed on his calf, I saw him grit his teeth and suddenly it looked like I was looking at him through a gold tinted window.
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[Evaluator: Oooo, your friend has a really good skill there.]
[Connor: Really? What's it do?]
[Evaluator: Check your HUD. There should be a new menu, with three little figures on it. That's your party tab. It'll tell you all your party members active skills]
I checked the corner of my vision and sure enough, there was the party tab. Max's statblock had part of the skill section already highlighted, inviting me to click.
[Card Name: Brave Man's Shield]
[Card Rarity: Gold]
[Card Type: Tank]
[Card Effect (Activated Effect) While this skill is active, all attacks targeting your front side, or originating from a point in front of you deal no damage and cause no ill effects. While this skill is active, all attacks that strike you from behind or originate from behind you deal damage with a 3x multiplier. This skill lasts for 30(1/2x Vigor) seconds and has a cooldown of 44(60-Intellect) seconds]
[Connor: That... is a good skill. I mean, it's extremely high risk, but no damage from the front is amazing.]
[Evaluator: I'll bet you could come up with amazing strategies for a card like that.]
The message was right. It would be an all but unbeatable card in one on one combat. In a group fight, putting your back against the wall would still give you a lot to work with, if I had-
A voice in my head reminded me of my Memento Mori skill. I shook my head. No. No, that was an awful thing to think.
[Connor: Wait a second. I can see his skill? Can they...]
[Evaluator: No. They most definitely can not see your Skill Card.]
[Evaluator: Sort of. They can probably see Deathwalker, because that's a passive skill. But activated and triggered skills are only visible when they've actually been activated.]
[Evaluator: By the way, if you really don't want to Memento Mori Max's skill away from him, you'd better give him a helping hand.]
[Connor: Seriously, can you not read my mind, that's creepy.]
[Brave Man's Shield Duration: 00:14]
"Oh shit, Max!" I dismissed the message window and swung my mace into the Gigant that was holding him against the wall. Cracks crisscrossed up and down the thing's thorax.
Thwack! Harper followed up with another arrow shot, then Snatched the Arrow back out of the wound.
[Your party has killed a Gigant Drone. You have received 50 XP.]
Suddenly, I felt curious about something. I opened the party tab and pulled up Harper's profile.
[Card Name: Snatch]
[Card Rarity: Silver]
[Card Type: Utility]
[Card Effect (Activated Effect) When this skill is activated, one object of no more than 25 (1x Intellect) pounds moves towards you at 60 (2x Agility) feet per second. Snatched items will do damage if they are not caught.]
[Evaluator: Huh. Turns out her Snatch is pretty dangerous.]
[Connor: Hey!]
[Connor: That's my joke.]
[Evaluator: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. At least, that's what people who steal other people's jokes always say.]
"Connor, look alive!" Max's shout broke me from my conversation with the Evaluator. The last Gigant was coming right at me. Nothing to do about it. I wrapped both hands around the handle of my mace and let out a grunt as I lifted it over my head. I brought it down with all the muscular force I could muster, which admittedly wasn't much. But the mace was heavy and swinging down, and gravity was on my side. I could hear the crunch of exoskeleton and the squeal of gas escaping from the insect body. I swung again, the mace crunching into the same spot. I kept swinging, the mace vibrating from the repeated impacts. I didn't stop until a blue box appeared in my vision.
[Your party has killed a Gigant Drone. You have received 50 XP. You landed the killing blow! You've earned an additional 75 XP]
[XP goal achieved! XP to level 2: 225/200. You have gained a level! You are now level 2. XP counter to level 3: 225/500. You have gained new ability points. Current ability points: 5]
"Oh shit, I leveled up!" I pulled open my stat screen.
[HP 100/100 SP 150/150]
[Strength 14(0), Agility 15(0), Endurance 15(0), Vigor 10(0)]
[Intellect 21(0) Perception 6(0) Charm 12(0) Luck: 28(0)]
[Ability points: 5]
"Hey, guys, what should I spend my ability points on?"
"Vigor." Max said instantly. "Your health is shit. No offense."
"Yeah," Harper agreed. "It's alright that you went down kinda easily."
[Evaluator: That's what she said.]
"That's what she said." I echoed.
[Evaluator: Now who's stealing other people's jokes?]
"Ha. Ha." Harper deadpanned. "It's okay to be kinda weak at level 1 but you should definitely invest into making sure it doesn't happen again."
Caroline raised a hand as if she was in class "Some strength wouldn't hurt either. You aren't doing much damage. I mean, I'm not one to talk, my strength is lower than yours, but that's why I don't do the fighting."
[Evaluator: Sounds like you're bad at defense, and bad at offense. Don't worry though, you have something valuable to contribute. Uh... don't ask me what]
[Connor: Ha. ha.]
I waffled a bit, but ultimately put 3 points into vigor and the other two into strength. I figured high damage wouldn't matter if I died because a higher level monster looked at me funny.
[HP 130/130 SP 150/150]
[Strength 16(0), Agility 15(0), Endurance 15(0), Vigor 13(0)]
[Intellect 21(0) Perception 6(0) Charm 12(0) Luck: 28(0)]
[Ability Points: 0]
[Lock in your expenditure? Y/N]
I punched in the Y automatically.
[Evaluator: Oh, this is gonna be good. For me, you just made a terrible mistake.]
[You have received a Debuff: Unlucky (Vigor). All effects and statistics that draw on your vigor stat will be halved. This debuff will last until your base vigor stat is no longer 13.]
[HP 65/65 SP 150/150]
[Strength 16(0), Agility 15(0), Endurance 15(0), Vigor 13(-6.5)]
[Intellect 21(0) Perception 6(0) Charm 12(0) Luck: 28(0)]
"GUYS WHAT THE FUCK MY HP WENT DOWN!" I shouted in a panic.
[Evaluator: Hahahaha, I might win my money back from Sandra yet.]
