Dave stood tall in front of the cave to the Dark Threading Dungeon. The graveyard was a few hundred meters behind him. There were tall and dark looking trees that cast eerie shadows everywhere. he heard the rustle of the leaves behind him, and once he turned he saw a beautiful elven lady looking at him with a warm smile.
"Hey," said Lone Arrow as she looked at Dave and his group of undead.
"Oh, you level up nicely." She said as she looked at Dave"s level 68.
"I can say the same to you," said, Dave, as he inspected Lone Arrow
Player Name: Lone Arrow
Level: 55
Cla.s.s: Hunter
"I have been solo grinding this whole time, but man, that was really boring," she said as she twirled her character"s hair in a cute manner.
"So we go in?" she asked
"I was thinking about that, but I guess we need to do something first," said Dave as he looked at Lone Arrow.
"What kind of thing?" she replied
"We need to accustom ourselves with the new Evasion mechanism. You seem to have forgotten that we can no longer attack monsters without risking failure and at the same time, we can evade attacks decreasing the damage taken. After all, we do not have a priest in the party, and taking damage is no longer a viable option. Especially with the level of this dungeon"
"Ah, true.I know a thing or two about this dungeon, but I can"t claim to know everything. It would be risky to go in without testing the new mechanisms."
"Don"t worry, I memorized everything important. We just need to find some monsters for testing." replied Dave while looking around for prey.
"There are some undead on the way, should we try that?" she said
Dave gave her a solemn look then pointed at his group
"I can"t attack undead." he said with a look that meant: "are you serious?"
"Ah, my bad my bad," she giggled "so what are we going to do?"
"Let"s look around for some other type of monsters, there should at least be something worth our time," he said as he went behind the dungeon hoping to find something.
Lone Arrow and the undead group followed behind until they reached a small opening that was right behind the cave.
It was a cliff area where a few dozen panthers could be seen. These panthers were level 30 and were tagged as Feral panthers, something much more powerful than regular ones.
"It would be best if we try on this group, I will go first," said Dave as he moved forward.
Almost instantly a group of three attacked Dave where he backed away slowly trying to gauge the movement of his character.
The first panther pounced on Dave where he easily managed to sidestep the attack while the beast only managed to strike empty air. Almost immediately, Dave struck at the feline"s back causing it to stagger.
immediately, Dave used the [Spectral Bomb] and the creature lost two-thirds of its Hp.
"Are you sure you are not a mage?" asked Lone Arrow as she saw the impressive damage value.
"This is thanks to the new update, staggering an enemy causes your next skill to deal 50% bonus damage." He said as he moved away to dodge yet another attack.
"This looks rather simple," Said Dave as he began to dodge the pounces of the panthers without retaliating. as if to accustom himself with the new mechanic.
"Really, this is rather fun," he said with a voice that clearly contradicted his expression of happiness. After all, Dave"s character was an archaic Draugr with an abhors voice that would send s.h.i.+ll down one"s spin once heard. "You should try it," he said as he kept toying with the wolves.
"Alright," said Lone Arrow and jumped into the fray. Also almost immediately, Lone Arrow got the hang of it and didn"t miss once.
"This is much better than before; Kiting enemies should be simpler now. Before, I needed to keep using skills to keep them at distance, now I will be able to shake off enemies without the use of skills," she said as she kept on jumping around dodging the panthers.
"Alright, time to finish this. I thought it would be much harder." Said, Dave, as he began hacking away at the poor creatures.
howls of pain reverberated through the dark forest as a devilishly looking Draugr was decimating some poor kittens.
After a minute or so, all three beasts died.
"Alright, time to test something else." Said, Dave, as he ordered one of his skeletons to move forward to face another panther.
He picked a solitary beast to face his archer and made them fight. However, no matter how Dave tried, the archer was unwilling to dodge how Dave wanted to. Yet, it would still try and dodge an attack once in a while.
"It seems the IA of this undead it low." He said as a thoughtful look appeared on his face.
"What do you mean" Said lone arrow as she just finished with the last monster of her group.
"I can"t control the undead to dodge. but, once in a while they will do so on their own."
"That would be troublesome in the future I guess," she said as she began thinking about it more seriously.
"Probably not, once I rank up, I will have more underling. Losing one or two who can"t dodge attacks, will not be that much of a bother."
"Oh, you will have more? That would be interesting! I would like to see that." she said as sparkles almost seemed to appear in her eyes.
"Sigh,I never seen anyone so hyped about bags of moving bones... alright, let"s go now. We can be more familiar with the new mechanism once we are in the dungeon," he said as he walked toward the cave.
Once Dave reached the cave entrance, he heard the voice of a couple of people.
They were two players with guild-tags, they were members of a sub-guild under The Devastators. they just entered the dungeon but Dave didn"t have the chance to inspect their level.
"We have company," he said and a solemn look appeared on his face. He then turned around to look at Lone Arrow
"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Lone Arrow. "Hey, I didn"t tip anyone about this." She said with a grumble, "I don"t want others to ruin our dungeon, really. You should start trusting me." She said as she pouted.
"I didn"t say anything... It doesn"t matter anyway. We will go after them, if things get risky I will just use the End Mission and leave you alone" he said.
"Omg, that"s not cool! You are evil! you will leave a maiden all alone in this dark cave! what if something bad happens to me!" she said but it didn"t sound like she was angry with Dave, no it sounded more like… antic.i.p.ation.
"she must be an M" said Dave as he remembered her look that time when the lich from the ice palace used chains on her.
"Alright, let"s go," he said then moved forward.
But right before he could enter a small dwarf appeared from within in. This was the dwarf belonging the the Devastator guild which would collect entrance fee for the dungeon. He had a haughty look on his face, but the moment he laid eyes on Dave, his face turned pale and he immediately fell on his back Unconscious.
"Your face is so ugly you can make dwarves faint…" said Lone Arrow trying to hold her laughter.
"Sigh… at least we don"t get to pay the entrance fee, you should be grateful" said Dave with a grumble as he entered the cave.
The cave was pitch black, and that was the reason why Dave asked Lone Arrow to bring the torches. Lone Arrow grabbed a torch and before she could light it up, Dave shook his head and said
"not now...It will reveal our location, look there." he said as he pointed down the enormous stairs.
At a few hundred meters below, two small flickering lights could be seen.
"These are from the adventurers that came in before us". Said, Dave, as he looked down. "if we light up our torches they will be able to see us."
"Alright, but how are we going to go down there? It is too dark." She said
"it is supposed to be dark, It"s called Dark Threading after all, but I can see clearly. Even in the dark", he said
"Well, you are an undead, a night creature. I am just a sweet elven maiden, I need my light." She said almost grumbling but clearly teasing Dave.
" Just wait here, I will be back in a second" he said then took an unlit torch from Lone Arrow and went down alone.
The stairs were made of stone, and at the side was an enormous chasm that would be the doom to any unlucky adventurer to fall from it.
Once Dave got closer to the two-bit torches, he saw two adventures walking down and slaying monsters in their wake.
"Man I tell you, it sucks to be forced to use a torch here, I can"t use my s.h.i.+eld…" he said as he tried to shake away the monsters.
"Comon, stop being a crybaby, it is not that difficult," said the other guy who had a lone sword and struck down at a three meters Werewolf.
The mere sight of that werewolf made the hair on Dave"s back stand.
"I really! Really! Hate werewolves!" he thought to himself as he tightened his fist and slowly got closer to inspect the two adventurers.
Player Name: Pain Killer
Level: 115
Cla.s.s: Tank
Player Name: Monsoun11
Level: 120
Cla.s.s: Swordmaster.
Dave"s face became grave as he checked out the levels on the two guys. This dungeon was supposed to be a level 80 dungeon, nothing that these two should be hanging around.
However, something caught Dave"s attention as he noticed that the two guys were actually a bit far from each other.
"Alright, the Night Boar will be charging soon. Try not to stand in the middle of the pathway otherwise, he will ram you to the side." Said Monsoun11 as he spoke to his friend.
"I know, there is no need to tell me that," said Pain Killer as he walked closer to the edge of the stairs next to the deep chasm.
Dave remembered the Night Boar he already memorized everything about this dungeon before the server went back online; it was a monster, which would sp.a.w.n in the dungeon, and it would come charging and knock people who gathered at the center of the stairs off to the abyss.
Dave grinned after a moment. He then began stroking his beard. A moment later, he produced a red skull then order it to float in the dark toward one of the two guys.