Rune Seeker

As soon as Seeyela said the word, a pair of notification windows sprung up in front of Hiral, one in front of the other. The fact they even got any for a lower-Rank dungeon was nice, though the pessimistic side of him noted it could’ve been up to four achievements if they’d run it at C-Rank.

Ah well, he’d take it, so he focused on the first window.

Achievement: Should’ve Stayed Hidden

Reward: Class Modification: Infernal Conjuration becomes Class Modification: Entropic Conjuration+

Entropic Conjuration+ – Conjured items or creatures gain the Infernal and Entropic characteristics.

First, Hiral chuckled to himself at how wonderfully short and succinct his early ability descriptions were, even when changed to the plus-version. Compared to the practical fortresses of text he got for things like his advanced class, it was a welcome relief.

Second, that Entropic characteristic had to be what The Fourth Crusade was doing, which was certainly a nice addition. Right and Left – especially – would enjoy the extra damage-type option in their arsenal. Oh, and so would Seeyela, with her TRAPs.

Third, if he got an upgrade to an ability they’d already had before, what did Gran and Romin get? So, he asked that question.

“Entropic Conjuration,” Romin answered. “Adds something called an Entropic characteristic to conjured items and creatures. I’m… not sure what that means.”

“No plus on the end of it?” Hiral shared his achievement window for the Bonder to compare.

“No plus or Infernal,” Romin said.

“Gran?”

“Same as the kiddo,” the vampire said. “What’s that Infernal thing from? Where’d you get it?”

“First dungeon we ever ran,” Seena piped up. “Splitfang Keep.” She looked off to the side a little wistfully at that, like it was a fond memory. And, maybe it was. Back before… bad things happened.

“It’s the purple flame Right has,” Hiral said, using his double as an example. “If we ever get back to that zone, maybe we can still run you through it to get? Or, I guess since we’re such high-Rank compared to it, that’s out of the question?”

“It was E-Rank,” Yanily said. “We could probably sneeze our way through it at this point. Not going to get any achievements.”

“Probably not,” Seena agreed. “This Entropic thing is the red stuff the dragon was using?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Hiral said.

Seena nodded. “Yes, Hiral, we’ll test it later.”

“I didn’t even…”

“You were thinking it.”

“You really were,” Yanily said. “Could see it on your face.”

“Let’s finish up with achievements,” Seena said, once again getting everybody back on track. They really did have a tendency to yammer sometimes.

Closing the first notification window – and feeling his own PIM preparing the changes for finalization within his body – Hiral opened the second window.

Achievement: Wave to the Crowd

Reward: Class Modification: Three’s A Crowd

Three’s A Crowd – Attacks and abilities deal 10% more damage when fighting three or more enemies at the same time. Bonus is doubled when using an attack that hits more than three targets at the same time.

Note: Enemies only need to be present – not actively targeting you – for bonus to apply.

Hiral immediately looked at Seena – this ability was practically tailormade for her. And, yup, from the manic grin on her face – and Li’l Ur’s – they were thinking the exact same thing. Then, as if she was caught in the act, her eyes met his, and she quickly looked away with a guilty smirk.

She was totally imagining going back to the Endless Tunnels for another antpocalypse.

“Everybody done?” she asked, and got eight nods in return – even Wallop, back in his smaller size, stating he was ready to go. “Great. Let’s get out of here and see if Nivian’s party beat us.”

“No way they did,” Yanily said, while Seeyela said, “Exit Dungeon.”

The blue portal opened up, and the party exited back out to the Ascender’s Tower in short order. Unsurprisingly, the six Bonder parties openly gaped at them from the rest-side of the floor. From the looks of things, they’d just settled down, small fires sparking under cool cooking pots, while others made room for the additional people in the area.

“No way…” Biv – who appeared to be the unofficial spokesperson for the groups – said from where he sat with a roll in his hand. “You can’t be. It’s been what, ten minutes?”

“Should be less than that,” Hiral said, looking over to Yanily for confirmation. Less than five to clear the dungeon – most of it spent on the Hidden Boss – and then the yammering they did while getting their loot and achievements. The spearman nodded like he agreed.

“Eight?” Yanily asked.

“Sounds about right,” Seeyela said. “You can check yourself.” A thumb over her shoulder at the interface invited anybody to do just that.

Biv was on his feet and jogging over right away, five others – probably the party leaders – quickly following, while the rest simply watched.

“Time Records,” Biv said after a swipe of his hand. “What… is this? The Plateau of Four Valleys? Why is it different? And! Under five minutes?!”

The mystery and time seemed too much for Biv, the poor Bonder staggering back like he’d been punched.

“The Plateau of Three Valleys has a secret, thirteenth wave,” Romin explained to the watching Bonders, though a few more of the other group leaders went over to confirm what Biv had seen. “If you complete the normal twelve within a certain time – I’m not sure how long – a thirteenth will come, with only a single monster. A powerful Hidden Boss that I don’t think anybody in C-Rank should even consider battling.”

“Strong?” one of the other Bonder-party leaders asked.

“Very,” Romin said. “We were able to handle it thanks to our B-Ranks, as well as their power.” He looked at Hiral, Seena, Seeyela, and Yanily very specifically to let the Bonders know who was really responsible for clearing the dungeons so quickly. “As much as I’d like to say I contributed, they would’ve cleared the dungeon either way.”

“We were almost a perfect counter for that place,” Hiral said, partially to make sure Romin didn’t feel like he wasn’t helping, and to ease any wounded, Bonder pride.

“We were,” Seena agreed, then looked at the still shell-shocked Biv. “Has Nivian’s party come out yet?”

“Are you crazy?” Biv asked before taking a breath. “Under five minutes to clear, and you’re wondering if the other group beat you?”

Seena shrugged.

“No, they haven’t come out,” the Bonder finally said. “I didn’t see a time for them yet in the Time Records either, so they must not be finished.”

“Hah,” Yanily said, offering his fist to Hiral, who gave it a gentle bump with his own. Then the spearman turned his attention to Seena. “What’s the plan, Boss? Wait, or get back in there and…?”

“Our domains are still on cooldown,” Seeyela said.

“All the more reason to go back in,” Yanily said. “Without cheating.”

“I’m good to go back in,” Hiral said. “We’ll still have Banner of Courage we can use. And more experience can’t hurt. Getting close to my next level.”

“Allied Killing Spree was pretty great in there,” Seena said.

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“I wouldn’t mind a chance to actually do something,” Gran said.

“Me neither,” Romin said. “I hardly got to test out my new weapon.”

“That settles it then,” Seena said. “Oh, wait, do we have a cooldown on the dungeon before we can go back in?”

“There is no cooldown,” Romin said. “Though, most groups need to rest and recover resources before jumping right back in.”

“I think we’re good on that,” Seena said. “Everybody game?”

From the looks on the party’s faces, they weren’t just game, they were eager.

“Only one question,” Yanily put up his hand.

“You don’t have to raise your hand to ask a question, Yan,” Seena said with a roll of her eyes.

Yanily’s hand dropped back down. “Are we going to clear it again? Or farm it? Romin said something about three times before it goes on cooldown.”

“Good question,” Seena said, eyes glazing over like she was looking at something. “Huh. If I’m reading this right, The Fourth Crusade was worth more experience than the rest of the dungeon combined. Even with all those waves, we actually didn’t get much.”

“Maybe we countered it too well?” Hiral asked. He hadn’t seen the PIMP give them experience penalties for things being too easy, but if he’d learned one thing since he’d come to the surface – there was a first time for everything.

“More likely our Rank and advanced classes,” Seeyela offered. “My vote is we clear it this second time, and see if the experience thing holds true. If it does, then maybe we clear it the third time as well. Focus our farming on the B-Rank dungeon.”

“That’s assuming we can even kill anything in the B-Rank,” Gran offered.

“We can,” Seeyela replied, not a hint of doubt in her voice.

“I agree,” Seena said. “Clear it this time – and probably the next – then focus our time on the B-Rank. Any objections?”

There weren’t any.

And, so, they went right back in – even with their domains no cooldown – to see how quickly they could run it. As it turned out, it wasn’t quite as fast. Without the domains to auto-kill everything trying to reach them at the center of the plateau, it took longer to chase down the monsters. Especially the stragglers near the end of each wave.

Yanily and Seena, of course, murdered most of the monsters with Fireballs and Chain Lightning while the monster-numbers were high. Even Gran turned out to be deadly with the large packs in the first and second waves of each rotation of bugs, birds, and imps. One of her Stitch skills would send out a needle and thread to punch through one monster after the other. Then, after she had dozens of them connected, she’d yank on the connected thread to pull all the monsters into one giant clump. While her own health drain effect killed the groups on the first, fifth, and ninth waves, it didn’t do quite enough damage for the others.

Not that any of the others weren’t willing to help blow up a nicely packed group of baddies.

Romin and Wallop probably had the hardest time, though Romin’s ‘new’ blunderbuss certainly helped. Wallop also had abilities to attract attention from every monster within a certain radius, but he couldn’t kill them quickly on his own. Nobody was worried about that though, as it was finally a good display of how well the tank-combo could attract attention and keep it. In fact, by Hiral’s estimation, Romin and Wallop may actually have been even better at dealing with groups than Nivian was.

The waves gave Seeyela more practice using her TRAPs on what she started calling trash-monsters – for how quickly they were taking them out, apparently. Practically using the item on cooldown, pillars of deadly elements went off all over the plateau. It was interesting that flying monsters could trigger the TRAPs just by passing over them, even without touching. And, when the item was on cooldown, she used Bamf and her elemental vents to fill in the gaps. The blades from Hiral’s Emperor’s Decree and the Sho-Val of the Valley certainly didn’t hurt either. Especially when it became apparent she could add her own flavors of energy to them. The woman was a terror.

And still mostly invisible to his sensory domain. Yet another good reminder to stay on her good side.

Of everybody, it probably took Hiral the longest to find his groove – though that was mainly because he was testing. His RHCs and Greatsword of Amin Thett were both overkill and too slow at the same time for the large number of weak enemies. The Bloodletting Field from stabbing Death Knell into the ground worked ‘okay’, but the radius was relatively small, and still took time to kill the monsters – painfully.

Intimidating Aura+ was almost slower than anything. Monsters crashed to the ground under the weight of it – some of them getting outright squashed – but without A Violent End, the deaths were few and far between. And, since they weren’t moving, it spread them out, which meant the party had to do a bit more chasing, oddly enough.

No, for Hiral, the best option for the dungeon turned out to be his claws of Separation combined with Expansion and some of his other runes. A single swing of his arm would send blades spanning half the width of the plateau to bisect almost anything that got in their way. It was quick and efficient enough it let him play with a few other things at the same time. The little Gravity bombs that had eventually evolved into his Rune of Recall also proved to be very potent against the swarm enemies.

All in all, it took the party an average of a minute or so per wave, with another three minutes to bring down The Fourth Crusade for the second time. Fifteen minutes total, compared to sub-five minutes last time.

“We can do better,” Seena said as the party huddled under the Banner of Courage next to the dragon’s corpse.

“Definitely,” Hiral agreed. “We were doing a much better job on those last few waves splitting up which areas of the plateau to cover, instead of all of us running around wherever.”

“Sorry I couldn’t do much in this one,” Right said, frustration on his face. Everything he punched died – no questions asked – but aside from his columns of flame, his area-of-effect options were really limited.

“I didn’t go much better,” Left said with a shrug. The double had mostly played the role of support, with The Pack helping thin numbers where they could. Like his twin, his attacks were mostly focused on single-target enemies. If he had access to the Way of Light, he’d have more options, but Hiral needed to unlock the Edictof Time Dilation for that.

He didn’t feel like that was one he was close to yet – though he had been using it more to create illusions of himself recently. Something to keep working on.

“This guy here,” Seeyela thumbed at the fading dragon. “Takes way more damage from blunt-force trauma than stabbing. You more than pulled your weight on him.”

Right nodded grudgingly at that. “The scales are definitely stronger against stabbing and cutting.”

“One more time?” Yanily asked. “Like the first time, experience for the dragon was more than the rest of the dungeon.”

Seena thought about it for a moment. “If Nivian and Wule aren’t out there, yeah. Let’s do it again. Last chance we’ll get before we have to wait… what was it Romin?”

“Four-hundred hours,” the Bonder said.

“That’s fine, like we said, we’re going to spend some time in that B-Rank dungeon anyway.”

With the party in agreement, they once again left The Plateau of Four Valleys to find out Nivian and his party had not, in fact, finished yet. There wasn’t a clear time for them, but Hiral wasn’t particularly worried. They’d still been in there for less than thirty minutes, and Nivian had mentioned they didn’t have great area-of-effect options. The numerous small monsters probably weren’t a challenge – just a slog.

So, in the party went, one more time – domains still on cooldown – and did their best to burn through the waves. In Seena’s case, that was very literal – though she was using her Spearing Roots a lot more often.

All in all, they cleared The Plateau of Four Valleys in just over eleven minutes – shaving about a quarter off their time. Part of Hiral had been hoping they could do it in under ten minutes, but he was satisfied enough with the results. The others looked to feel the same way, and they left for the final time.

This time, when they exited, they found Wule and Nivian nearby, a small glare on the healer’s face when he spotted them.

“Less than five minutes?” he asked. “Really? You couldn’t even go a bit easy on us?”

“Would you want them to?” Nivian asked his brother.

“Yes!” Wule said right away, and Nivian rolled his eyes.

“How did you guys do?” Seena asked. “Any trouble with The Fourth Crusade?”

“The what now?” Wule asked.

“Thirty-six minutes,” Nivian answered Seena’s question. “The Mid-Boss and Boss waves were the quickest, but each of the others took over two minutes each to deal with the little monsters. Politet’s poisons lingered too close to the ground for most of the flyers – which was everything in that dungeon – so we had to do it the old-fashioned way.”

“Poor Bash is still sulking,” Wule said, glancing over to where the Troblin sat with his face in his hands, his hammers discarded on the floor next to him. “He hardly got to smash anything other than the Bosses.”

“Between us,” Nivian said quietly. “It was kind of funny watching him run around chasing the bugs with his hammers. Like a kid with a net chasing butterflies he could never quite catch.”

“He really took it out on the Bosses when he caught them though,” Wule said with a shudder.

Nivian nodded… fondly? The tank really had taken to the little Troblin.

“How’d the others do?” Seeyela asked.

“Igwanda and Finotol did most of the work,” Wule said. “Both ranged damage dealers – though Fin’s companion is melee – but more focused on single-target damage. Nothing lasted long, there was just a lot of it. What was that fourth thing you asked about though?”

“Hidden Boss,” Seena said. “Dragon. You have to clear the other waves quickly enough for him to appear. Maybe under thirty minutes?”

“Damn,” Nivian said. “Did you get an achievement for it?”

“Upgrade to Infernal Conjuration,” Seeyela said since both of the twins had the ability.

“Damn again,” Nivian said, then looked at his brother. “Think we could run that again in under thirty?”

Wule rubbed his hands across his cheeks as he thought about it. “Since we know what’s coming, probably? Burn some cooldowns early to get ahead of things. And, it wasn’t like you all needed much healing, so I could help out with damage more than I did. It’s not much…”

“Your lanterns have some good options for hitting groups,” Nivian pointed out.

“Expensive,” Wule hissed. “But you’re right. Yeah, I think we can do it. What about Gran and Romin, did you get anything from the achievement?”

“Entropic Conjuration,” Gran said. “Might be my new favorite thing, since my strings count as conjured. Don’t your lanterns?”

“They do,” Wule said with a nod. “I can use Infernal Conjuration on them already, but, like I said, expensive.”

“Well, why don’t you give it a go?” Seena said. “We’ll wait here for you.”

“Not going to run it again?” Nivian asked.

“Uh…” Seena’s eyes shifted left and right. “We… may’ve already run it three times.”

“Three!?” Wule asked, then threw up his hands. “In the time it took us to do one? You know what, fine! Be that way. Let’s get in there Nivian and show them how it’s done. Hey, Bash, guys, come on! We’re going back in to smash some stuff!”

“Smash?” the Troblin asked, looking up with that glint in his eyes.

“Smash!” Wule agreed, storming over to the dungeon interface. “Well, Nivian, what are you waiting for?”

The tank just rolled his eyes again.

“Watch out for the dragon’s breath attack,” Seena said, giving him a comforting look. “Oh, and blunt damage hurts it more than anything else. We’ll see you when you finish.”

“We won’t make you wait long,” Nivian said, then joined his brother and the rest of their party to enter the dungeon.