Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

The party fought there way through the Nether forest for the next several days. Without knowing the location of the dungeon, they could only seek out the center of the forest, the most logical place for it to be located.

With such a large area to cover and not knowing where its boundaries were, they followed the levels of the undead, assuming that the strongest would be in the middle of the area.

"I feel like we must be getting close." Resilient said after shattering a frozen level 115 zombie with his mace.

"Adrestia found a creepy looking cave up ahead that is guarded by skeleton Elites." Lucan said.

"Creepy cave, Elite skeletons, that is probably the entrance to the dungeon." Silent added.

The group slowly moved forward until they approached the edge of a clearing.

Looking past a hedge of gnarled black bushes, the five players could see two skeletons dressed in armor with weapons. The skeletons stood on either side of a rock wall with an opening between them. The stone opening led underground but because of the angle, they could only see a few feet in.

Lucan's brown furrowed. Like mindless zombies, skeletons operated on instinct and couldn't be swayed by illusions. Heck, they didn't even have eyes to see them. He really needed more spells that did damage.

The warlock gave Furry the nod the begin.

A large bear charged into the clearing. Both skeletons drew the swords from their hips. Furry swiped at the closer skeleton hoping to knock it away but his target stood unwavering after deflecting the attack with its sword.

Its partner was about to slash down towards the bear when arrows, black shadowy bolts of magic and icicles started to pound into it.

Blood began to stain the bears fur, a golden light descended, causing its wounds to slowly close.

The second skeleton abandoned the bear and ran to where the arrows and magic were fired from but soon found itself locked in placed as its lower half became incased in ice.

Skeletons weren't smart or adaptable, nor did they have a plethora of abilities to unleash. After 10 minutes both enemies were just a pile of bones.

"That was no sweat." Frosty Willow said with a smile as she stepped into the clearing.

"Then you can be the one that takes all the damage next time." Panted Furry after changing back to his human form.

Once everybody's stamina and mana was recovered, the group stepped into the cave. A descending slope led them deep underground while Lucan led the way. The narrow path that had started as only 5 feet wide eventually grew to 20 feet before it leveled off.

With his night vision, the warlock could see an empty cavern spanning hundreds of feet. On the far side stood a large door.

'Jackpot, we found it.' He thought to himself.

With no enemies in sight, Lucan stepped into the cavern.

Torches on the wall suddenly lit themselves to illuminate the empty cavern. He hesitated but still didn't see anything that could be a cause for concern.

Lucan crossed the cavern and stood before a 10-foot-tall door that was directly embedded into the stone wall. Unlike the door to the recruitment dungeon in the floating isles, this door was covered in runes and symbols. Even with all of Lucan's studying in formation, he didn't recognize a single one.

"Perhaps a dead langue." He mumbled to himself before turning to the group. "Alright, take a minute to prepare yourselves. I am going to take a moment to purchase a spell from Raze."

Lucan browsed the menus before pulling the trigger on a spell that had been sitting in his favorites for a while. It cost him everything he had saved up but it would hopefully be worth it.

[Shadow Domain]

[Use shadow mana to create a domain of shadows that reaches out from user 50 feet in every direction. All shadow magic spells are strengthened in the domain.]

[Shadow Domain can stay active for up to five minutes. After cast, user will not be able to create a shadow domain again for 2 hours.]

[Enemy creatures killed in your shadow domain have a 10% to have their shadow stolen. Elites have a 1% chance of having their shadows stolen. If a shadow is stolen from the deceased, it will permanently reside in the shadow domain and follow the users will while the shadow domain is active. Shadows can be dismissed from the shadow domain only when it is active. Shadow domain can hold up to 5 shadows at its current size. When a seized shadow in the domain is killed it will come back to life the next time Shadow Domain is activated.]

When the others were ready Lucan pushed the door open and entered.

[You have entered the Nether Forest Dungeon, please select difficulty.]

Lucan chose normal.

He appeared with his party in a graveyard. This was the dungeon's safe space and where they would go if they died inside of it.

They were still under ground, but the cavern was now massive. Globs of light danced around the ceiling, thousands of feet in the air and illuminated a large palace. The building was decrepit and seemed to be falling apart. This was not what they were expecting for a forest dungeon.

Furry took the lead once everyone readied their weapons and opened the double doors ahead of him and stepped into the palace.

After taking only a single step inside, a group of 4 flaming skulls floated around the corner. When they saw the druid and the rest of the group, the skulls hissed and the soft orange fire surrounding them intensified into an enraged and powerful blue fire.

"Shit." Furry cursed while activating his bear form.

The skull leading the charge unhinged its jaw and screeched. The jarring noise knocked the group off balance and caused them to stagger. By the time they regained control, the skulls were upon them.

Frosty raised her hand and a cone of blizzard winds pushed the skulls back while furry swiped at the closest skull. He connected and it shot away, bouncing off a wall before floating higher and trying to soar over him.

Unable to hold the floating enemies in place, the bear stood on its hind legs and let out a massive roar.

All 4 skulls stopped and turned their attention to the bear. Two skulls charged to bash into him while the other two pulled the fire surrounding them directly into their eye sockets.

Icicles and arrows pounded the two skulls with fire in their eyes. A black shortsword slashed at a skull which had just been swatted away by the bear. When it tried to rise up a shadow bolt sent it bouncing back against the wall before the sword struck at it again.

Silent and Frost focused their attention on one of the skulls, sufficiently drawing its ire as it turned from the bear to face them. With a screech, a ball of blue fire launched towards them, having been fired from the eyes of the floating skull. The two female players dove away but the ball exploded where they previously were, and fire was sprayed in all directions.

The two were able to use their abilities to shake off the fire but it still took a fifth of Silent's health and a third of Frosty's.

Resilient finished chanting and a golden light swelled and covered Lucan and the others as their health slowly began to climb.

Inside the dungeon, almost every enemy was an Elite causing the battle to still be ongoing ten minutes later.

Lucan pulled back and began the chant to his new spell while the others covered him. 30 seconds later, shadows rolled out in all directions, filling the hallway. Lucan didn't hesitate to start firing off his shadow bolts with both his wand and scepter. Not only did they do more damage inside the domain, but they caused more knockback to the targets as well.

Everyone gave a final push as the skulls began to die.

*Pahh*

When the flames of the last skull were permanently extinguished. It dropped to the ground and a black shadow began to rise out of it.

A skull made of shadows floated in Lucan's domain. Shadow fire surrounded the floating skull as it looked at its new master.

Lucan smiled. Beginners luck sure was kind to him. He wanted to test the domain and never expected the 1% chance of capturing an elite shadow would actually trigger on his first try.

As he was grinning, the shadow domain disappeared, and the skull vanished. His time limit had expired.

"Looks like your new spell worked out for you." Silent said, walking up to Lucan.

"I got lucky." He said with a grin.

"Just wait until you see the ability I bought. It will knock your socks off." She said.

"Why wait, I can just look it up now." He said.

"Hey, that's not fair. If you look it up, no more squeezes for you."

Lucan chuckled. "Okay, you're the boss."

"Hey, what are squeezes?" Resilient asked after he finished cleaning up the loot.

"Ahh, nothing." Silent said as she turned away to hide her red face.

"You shouldn't mention it to anybody," Lucan said to the cleric. "But silent is in possession of a magnificent treasure. One squeeze and it mends all ailments of the heart."

"Shut up, you pervy warlock." She said, punching him in the shoulder.

"Ha, ha, okay, I get it." He said while giving Lucan a wink and a thumbs up.

Silent huffed and went ahead to look for more enemies, quickly fleeing the embarrassing situation.