Chapter 24 - 24

The run to the Hall is a short one, everyone getting out of the way of the seemingly crazed Healer running through the streets. She's laughing hysterically and not even trying to dodge pedestrians, instead running in the midst direct possible line towards the Hall. What is it she found out, the crowd wonders. Did she finish a quest with a particularly good reward? They do give out some good ones at the Hall now and then.

"Do you still have it? Is it here?" Misha pants at the shop keeper.

"Relax miss, it's still here. 4 gold coins for the Rank D version of Turn Undead." The shop keeper laughs, knowing exactly what the panicked Healer is looking for.

Misha slaps coin on the counter and whoops in glee, before noticing that everyone is staring at her.

"Sorry, I really wanted that spell."

Cain comes in seconds later, carrying the Succubus with the mage running along beside them. "Did you get it?" he asks and the whole store bursts into laughter.

"Yeah, she got it. Since Paladins can already use it without learning it from a book, Turn Undead often sits a day or two." One of the workers informs him.

"Anything we can get you? What classes books can you use?" The worker asks him with an appraising eye.

"I can use Hunter and Shaman, specializing in constructs." Cain tells him.

"Well aren't you in luck? We've got one Book you can use, a Rank C reinforce constructs passive for Shamans. It's been here for ages, so we'll give it to you for Rank D pricing, how about that?" That sounds more than fair to everyone present. Almost favoritism level, if they didn't know how rare construct users are under level 100.

"Done." Cain smiles, putting down the coins and waiting while they get the book.

[Reinforce Construct] Passive. Reduces construct damage taken by 10 percent. Increases construct [HP] by 30 percent.

Now that's exactly the sort of skill he needed. Not having a list of secondary abilities to add points to and chose from like other classes can be a pain sometimes. Sure, the good stuff comes mostly from books for everyone, but even simple things like reduced casting cost abilities are unavailable to his class.

Even Misha looks happy he got it, but then it makes way more difference to her life than his. She's the one tasked with keeping them alive. They don't have anything for Mythryll unfortunately, the glut of mages ensuring their books are sold in minutes, if not seconds.

"Sorry guys, but I should run. I've got to get some Tailoring done, I got a few custom orders yesterday." Lickity tells them sadly.

"Feel free to visit anytime. We're always happy to see you." Misha tells her with a hug.

"Should we check the dungeon now, try out your new ability?" Cain asks Misha.

"That would be great. I've got too much built up energy to not use it on something."

The Undead Dungeon stinks. Literally. The whole place reeks of Death and Rot. But they're here to make money, the bath at home can fix the smell.

"Why did the first pull have to be juicy zombies? Mythryll sighs, smashing then with a Vine Whip spell.

"At least they're not doing much damage." Misha is excited for a good chance to try her Turn Undead. It is supposed to chase away and damage Undead within 20 meters, but the Golems and Vines are destroying these ones too fast to get a good sense of how it will work.

"There's about 30 skeletons over there you can try it on." Mythryll points with her staff and the group turns to engage them, sending only the Greater Golems at first, so the skeletons don't get bogged down in bodies.

The spell works fantastically, doing quite a bit of damage, stunning the ones that get hit soon afterwards and causing every skeleton not actively being hit to run away. This causes an unexpected side effect, though they likely should have expected it. Once the spell wears off, they return with friends, any Undead that were near them when the spell ended gets dragged along.

"I'll herd them into a circle, then you use Blizzard and clear out the herd." It's a working tactic, the skeletons aren't smart and neither are the zombies, they're easily rounded up and packed tight for Blizzard to shred them.

They all wish they had a little more Area damage, but they'll need to wait a few more levels to upgrade unless someone gets a skill book for it.

They soon find their first Elite, a boss level Lich Lord. His paralyze spells prove to be an annoyance, constantly hitting Misha and not targeting anyone else, but they do keep most of his big damage abilities like drain life and necrosis under control.

[Summon Greater Golem Form Gained: Lich Lord]

[Level Up]

"Sweet, you guys made level 43!" Mythryll cheers, having just made 37 herself. Everyone takes a moment to check their status and spend points as needed.

[Name] Cain

[Level] 43

[Class] Puppet Master

[Race] Human

[Skills]

[Summon Lesser Golem] lv4

[Summon Greater Golem] lv2

[Poison Arrow] lv3

[Light Foot] lv2

[Reinforce Construct] Passive

[Stats] +5

[STR] 90

[DEX] 45

[CON] 70

[INT] 30

[HP] 280

[MP] 150

Cain wasn't sure exactly where to put his newly gained points, and decided to hold off for a while, using them when he finds a deficiency in his build. But at level 40, getting 5 points a level instead of 3 like the basic classes do, he's way ahead in Stats to begin with. He's heard some of the advanced classes also get more than 3 per level, but everyone is pretty quiet about their actual status outside of their close friends.

The clear was going incredibly smoothly, the large numbers of replaceable constructs making up for the disadvantage most groups faced that led to them getting swarmed and overrun. If it wasn't for the smell, this dungeon would be great.

Looking over the new form he'd gotten for Greater Golems, he saw that the Lich Lord form could use necrosis, a form of damaging and debilitating aura, but that would cost the group their tanks. Maybe he'd find a use for it later? The Demon form was doing a great job with its long claws and high attack speed.

The run ends with only a single epic drop:

[Clean Socks] grants 5 percent movement speed.

Hey, an upgrade is an upgrade, right? Even if your new socks came from a zombie.