^^ Mantle of the Spider Queen ^^
There were 16 Fey/Grey Dungeons total, in the Level 25-50 range, but none of them were Dragon Hoards, to my irritation; thus, I was being carried, yet again, through a Dungeon by a group of higher-powered Adventurers. At least this time my party was being carried with me, I guess.
80K XP Gained by Party: 2K XP Gained!
2K XP Gained from Elder DragonBorn Lvl 40 (x40)
(Progress Lvl 25: 88,660/90K-> Lvl 26)
"Alright, that's the last of them; now for the Boss Room; Captain Bordeaux, you're up! Try not to get Fried, yeah?" Derrick the Lvl 45 Archer/Shadow-Mage grinned at me and bowed sarcastically.
"Yeah, yeah, take your sarcasm and shove it up your bum, before I do it for ya..." I grumbled at him, raising the Hood of my Mantle of the Spider-Queen, (which my entire party was wearing a Copy of in the form of a Cloak of Shadows, apparently because I'd named us 'Silver Web' in the spur of the moment,) and then began sneaking forward into the tunnel ahead of us. There hadn't been a Mini-Boss yet, which meant this was a Phase-Type boss, and with my Luck of 40, I was betting on a Matriarch or a Dragon Lord, which was a new type of Dragon Boss (to me, at least,) which could summon several dozen smaller dragons of half its level to serve it during the Fight.
To prepare for such a situation, I let my Smoking Slime (or, Elemental Fire Slime, now,) begin to fill the room with Paralysis Miasma; if I could control the Lvl 20 Dragon Soldiers that it summoned, I could add them to my Dungeon and place them in with my Matriarch, or even just in different caves around my Labyrinth, so I had more Traps that led to little Dragon Hoards. Placing a few nice magic items and a pile of gold or gems in there with a Level 20 Dragon was a decent challenge for a single adventurer dropped into a room alone, followed by a decent reward. I felt that was fair and balanced, and the GM hadn't said otherwise yet, so we would see.
'You in yet?' -Joe-DiMaggio.
'Derrick, interrupting my concentration in a room with a sleeping dragon? Probably not conducive to my success or survival.' -Captain-Bordeaux.
'Nah, you'll be fine.' -Joe-DiMaggio.
I refused to respond to the infuriating man, and instead walked towards the mountainous pile of platinum and Mithril in the center, where a blurred creature rested. While the Fire Slime spread the Miasma's, I sent the Earth/Acid Slime to begin carefully carving grooves in the ground and filling them with Sleeping Potion, while I observed the creature for movement. Seeing none, I nodded and began to enchant Fire Traps into Vials of Poison I pulled out of my Inventory, setting them around the dragon and connecting them with copper wire like a line of controlled explosives, which I suppose they were, in a sense.
'Aaaaany time now, Squirt...' -Joe-DiMaggio.
'... I will Murder you, Derrick, if you make one more comment. About anything. Short Joke? Dead. 'Tick-Tock Ha-Ha I'm funny and original'? Dead. Hurry Up? Dead. 'I'm growing grey hairs'? Dead. Shut. The. Hell. Up.' -Captain-Bordeaux.
'... but will you, though?' -Joe-DiMaggio.
'Watch your back, Derrick; someone might Shank it.' -Captain-Bordeaux. I frowned and finished my enchantments, pulling a long cord of copper back towards the entrance and UnStealthing while standing directly behind Derrick. "Its a Dragon Lord, not a Matriarch."
"JESUS!!!" Derrick leapt way from me, hissing in surprise, but I ignored him and handed the cord to one of the Mages in the group.
"Electrocute this Cord as soon as you get the Spawn Message, then put your masks on and charge in. I'll make him waste his first Fire Breath, considering I'm resistant to Fire and also Magic." I nodded as they agreed to the plan, then walked past Derrick and disappeared again, making him flinch. 'I told you to watch your Back, Derrick... what's the matter, you can't keep up with me?' -Captain-Bordeaux.
There was no response as I entered the boss room again, and slowly approached the blurred figure, Shadow-Striding up to its back and summoning a Shield before dropping Stealth all at once. Instantly, the blur disappeared, revealing a blood-red scaled back and the blazing jaws of a Dragon Lord, pointing directly at me.
Phase-Type Boss Discovered: Dragon Lord Argos!
The shield took most of the damage, at first, before it began to melt, and then the fire began to stutter, spraying random directions as the dragon began hacking and coughing from the Poison that my traps suddenly released; I was immune, and so I Auto-Saved, gritting my teeth and holding on as it writhed around.
Con Save against Elder Poison... Fail.
Losing HP = Con x Lvl (20 x 25)
'Watch out for the ditches I dug; they're full of Sleeping Potions. Try to get him to step in them, and he'll fall asleep for a few seconds.' -Captain-Bordeaux.
"Hey, Dragon! How about you blow someone your own size?!?" Derrick taunted the dragon as he and the party entered, my party trailing behind and diving behind cover.
I drew out my Spear, Dracolich's Bane, and sent the Shield away into my inventory as I stabbed the back of the dragon and gritted my teeth. "Petrifaction!" I chose the Petrification because if it worked, if, when he died he would become a Dracolich, and be my Servant, according to the Item Rules. Technically, because he was within 30 Feet of me and also being hit in Melee, he should auto-fail, but Bosses had a bad rep of being Immune to many types of damage.
Con Save against Petrification Curse... Auto-Fail.
Losing HP = (50 x 25)/Second.
Healing Player = (50 x 25)/Second
Counting down 60...59...58...
"HA!" I grinned and sent the spear back into my inventory, drawing out my rifle and pointing it at his eyes, as he whipped around and hissed at me and the small patch of stone between his wings where I had stabbed him. "Hello!" The trigger depressed, and I instantly thanked my lucky stars for my sunglasses, as the light was still blinding even with them on; upgrading the Hidden Space to using Sun-Crystals had upped the Luminance of the beam immensely. The eye I aimed at was sundered instantly, dealing 7,500 Damage and destroying half of his Defense as he jerked away from the beam, but I kept it trained on him for the full second it lasted; the scalding beam of Radiant Energy traveled down his neck, scattering scales left and right (which my Slimes were commanded to gather stealthily,) and leaving a long, cauterized line down his entire neck.
The rifle became a little hot to hold, so I was forced to sling it on my back to cool down for a moment, drawing my spear and stabbing the creature again with it, seeing if I could Stack Curses like Buffs.
Con Save against Witless Curse... Auto-Fail.
Losing HP = (50 x 50)/Second.
Healing Player = (50 x 50)/Second
Counting down 44... 43... 42...
The Effect Stacked, thankfully, and now it was losing a massive amount of HP per second, but I was also on its back, which was burning my skin with direct contact; my resistance to Fire and my Healing Buff were keeping me at full health, however, so I just dug the staff in deeper and held on for dear life, as magic spells began to blast the side of the Dragon. Magic resistance helped a bit, but only my Healing Buff kept me alive. "Please keep the Friendly Fire to Lightning or Poison-Based Attacks?!? Please?!?" I called out after an Ice-Attack took nearly 75% of my HP in one hit, though it healed up almost immediately.
"Got it!!!" Jack replied from somewhere in the room, and a wave of Poison Gas washed over the dragon, who failed his saving throw after a few seconds, and his HP suddenly, finally reached 50%. "Here come the Lair Actions!!!" He yelled out, getting everyone's attention while I went Invisible.
The dragon roared loudly, leaning back and sending fire at the ceiling, apparently as a Signal for his Minions; the others took the opportunity to continue attacking as his attention was taken up, but I frowned and looked down, away from the display, into the Pile of Coins. As I suspected, a snout slowly appeared, then another, and a few more, as smaller dragons began to emerge from the Hoard stealthily. Instead of alerting everyone and risking them killing them, I sent some of my Sleep Potion from the grooves in the ground into the snouts that peeked out with Fluid Manipulation; this allowed me to send the Baby Dragons to sleep while the Boss Dragon's Health refilled all the way, and save them for my Dungeon.
Still wreathed in shadows and invisible, I leapt off the dragon's back, near one of the dragons fighting the sleep, and laid a hand on it, activating the Servant Contract.
Attempting... Fail... Fail... ... Success!
Baby Dragon, Lvl 20, Contracted!
—
I only had three Slimes with me, today, so I was able to contract all 20 Baby Dragons in about two minutes; during that time, the Boss's Timer finished, but because he was a Phase-Type, he wouldn't be Perma-Dead until his final Phase, so I snuck back up to his back and waited, (striking him once to keep my HP Drain ability up and heal myself, because the others didn't know where I was, and were being understandably less careful with their attacks,) for the final, Ninth Phase.
When it finally happened, and the Ninth Phase was halfway done, his body burst into an Inferno, bathing the room in flames and taking about half of everyone's remaining HP; I only survived because I healed in the middle of the Damage, and I was resistant in the first place. "Bad Dragon!" I laughed at my double entendre, stabbing him in the spine with my Spear and activating the Petrification Curse again, then raising my Shield just in time for him to bathe me in flames.
My HP bar looked like it was having a stroke, as it constantly drained and then jumped back to full, over and over as the ten seconds of Flame and Healing melted through my shield and dealt a massive amount of damage to me, but healed me at the same time.
"You having fun yet?!?" One of the Warriors we'd been temporarily Partied with called up to me, seeing my health fluctuate wildly while he Tanked the flames and stabbed at the chest of the dragon.
"Kinda Toasty!" I called back sarcastically, stabbing again and activating the third Curse, to up my Healing Factor to 3,750 per second, because it was draining that amount now from the Dragon.
"I kinda like it! Reminds me of Arizona!" He laughed, blocking the next breath of fire from the dragon while I readied my Rifle for another shot.
It's HP finally fell down to 10%, draining past 50% for the first time as its final Phase ended, and the Dragon seemed to notice my intentions, halting its fire attack on the Tank and turning towards me with a low snarl.
"Smile?" I chuckled weakly, firing an ice-shot into its open mouth before it could flambé me to death.
"Nice!!!" The Warrior laughed, and swung his sword upwards as it whipped away from me at 1% health, but my heart stopped for a moment as he missed entirely due to the surprise, and it reared back to swing a claw at him... before turning to stone, finally dying.
400K XP Gained by Party: 20K XP Gained!
20K XP Gained from Dragon Lord Argos, Level 40
(Progress Lvl 25: 108,660/90K-> Lvl 26)
Level Up! Congratulations Sam, Lvl 26 Alchemist!
Abilities Unlocked: Unholy Splice (3)
(Progress Lvl 26: 18,660/110K-> Lvl 27)
Unholy Splice (3): Recombine the Essences of Three Monsters to create a new creature with all the Skills of the three 'Parents'.
Servant Created from Cursed Corpse!
Dracolich Lord Argos, Lvl 40.
The stone on the body of the dragon slowly shattered, as the flesh fell from his bones, leaving behind a large skeleton that was currently unmoving while my Slimes ate all the stones quickly, to gain the Dragon-Scale and Organs as Loot.
"Don't attack it, it's my Servant!" I called out, and then tapped its head, confused. "Uhm... move?"
Incomplete Creature; Unable to Comply.
"Ahhh, it needs a Phylactery!" I nodded and sent the creature into my Inventory for now, regardless of the twelve slots it took up, and landed on the pile of Mithril and Platinum, which, though much smaller than before due to its losing the twenty Baby Dragons that'd been hiding within, was still massive. "Well, that's fine; let's get the Hoard dealt with, yeah?" I waved to the group, sitting down heavily.
Hellen approached and healed me, cutting her eyes at the male cleric who'd been walking up to do what she viewed as her job, and he held his hands up in surrender, healing the Tank instead. "I've never seen someone play Rodeo with a Dragon, but it worked out well enough, I suppose, and you got a Level 40 Servant out of it, so that's good news... how are we doing this part?" She lowered her voice, glancing at the Hoard.
"Honestly." I shrugged.
"Hmm... if you say so." She sighed, frowning at Derrick as he bothered Jack now, slightly wary of me.
"Hey, Derrick? Did you Level Up from that fight?" I called out, smiling evilly as an idea worked its way into my mind.
"Hmm? Ah, yeah, just barely over to Level 46! Don't worry, we'll meet the deadline if we keep at it at this pace!" He grinned, throwing an arm around Jack's shoulders. "How about you, cutie? You level up from the Boss XP?"
I narrowed my eyes and went invisible, now that he wasn't looking at me, and activated Shadow-Stride just because, quadrupling my Stealth... and my Sneak-Attack Damage. When he looked back up from the uncomfortable Jack to where I'd been sitting, his eyes widened at my empty place, whipping around and swiping the air with his bow, but I waited until he turned back around again to strike, driving both of my Spider-Queen's Fangs into his kidneys, dealing 2,800 x 8, or 22,400 Damage, before reappearing in front of him. "I told you to watch your back... but I lied." I smiled sweetly at him as he slowly turned to dust, and left behind a tombstone, which I gathered into a loot bag and tossed at the dumbfounded cleric.
46K XP Gained from PvP with Lvl 40 Player!
(Progress Lvl 26: 64,660/110K-> Lvl 27)
He sputtered and tried to formulate a response in his dumbfounded state, eventually managing. "What-how-WHY?!? You can't just kill people in your own Guild, that's-"
"He only lost a few hundred XP, get over it." I waved him down, then sat back down with Hellen, and settled Jack next to me. "Also he was being a Creep to Jack."
The tank sighed, rubbing his hair slowly before waving down the cleric as well, getting us back on track. "Yeah, alright, he didn't lose anything, and we kept his Loot from disappearing, and I'll have a talk with him about inappropriate behavior when he resurrects. Now, you said something about the Hoard, when we started, about how you could make it worth more, somehow?"
"Yeah, you can your inventories with all the goodies you want, but I would focus on the Mithril and the Gems; the platinum is pretty, but the Mithril and Gems are worth like 20x more, and I can Purify those once we leave, which increases their worth even more." I nodded, and sent my Slimes to begin sorting the Hoard, separating it into piles according to Type; Gems, Platinum, Mithril, Magic Items of Level, such as below 20, below 30, and below 40, and then the Materials. The Materials Pile was mostly junk from the eyes of the others in the party, (just bones, stone fragments, some herbs, etc.,) so they didn't even blink at me asking for it, though the certainly did when it disappeared into the belly of my Earth Slime.
As for the Mithril, it was an Alloy or Silver and Platinum with certain Magical and Anti-Undead properties in this world, so my Slimes actually couldn't fabricate it, because it was considered 'Magical', but they could spit out what they ate; so, once everyone took what they wanted from the piles and filled up their inventories, I sent my Slimes to devour the entire Gemstone and Mithril Piles, leaving behind the much larger Platinum Pile so I didn't bankrupt the Dungeon.
As I was gathering the Magic Items and placing them on a large Cart I removed from my inventory, which my Slimes would Pull behind me, the Tank approached me, cautiously skirting around the Slime next to me. "Uhm... what in the hell is going on?"
"Hmm? Didn't I tell you when we started? I'm gathering most of the Hoard; not enough to Bankrupt the Player who owns this Gate, but a nice big sum for me! This is going to be Start-up Capital for my Gambling Hall, until people get interested enough to actually visit regularly!" I grinned, and the Slime tossed the next set of Weapons and Armor into the cart, emptying the pile and leaving the room barren except for the Platinum.
"Oh... alright... I guess we're not the ones gathering it, so do as you like? I guess?" He shrugged, glancing at the others who were too busy laughing amongst themselves to care much about what he was asking m, and then back at me. "Yeah, do as you like."
One of my Slimes tapped me, and then pointed at the area under where the Hoard had been, were a staircase had been revealed, and I hummed, intrigued. "Now I wonder where that goes... go find out." I flicked a finger at the slime who'd found it, and it went invisible to the rest of the group, though I could still see it, sliding down the stairs swiftly. When it didn't die immediately, I turned to the others and cleared my throat, clapping once. "I seem to have found a secret passage, everyone, I'd like to draw your attention to it before going off on my own? It's possible there's a Hidden Boss or some Traps down there, or it could just be an exit, who knows?"
The Wizard, (who, along with the Tank, seemed to be in charge of these two Parties that'd formed into this Raid,) nodded at me calmly. "You killed our Rogue, so it's up to you to find out."
"That's fair." I shrugged, and started to walk down the stairs, going invisible instantly. 'Stay still until I give an All-Clear or MayDay, please.' -Captain-Bordeaux.
"Aye, Aye, Cap-tain!" Uric saluted snarkily, getting his head bopped by Hellen as payment. I smiled and continued down the stairs, their light-hearted bickering and playful cheering up of Jack lifting my heart a little. These joyful little people were the perfect Antidepressant, I was sure of it.