Chapter 225

Chapter 225

Chapter 225

All of them, they were all going.

Tanya, with her son Tim and daughter Julie. Hakim. Genua, Len, and Luke. Riven, Athela, Azmoth and Fay. The 23 skinwalkers in Athela’s new fan club, including Ak’ra and Selzi - better known to the people of Jerbyville as Sara and John.

They were marching through the forest, many of them laughing jovially in the early morning light amidst the chirping of birds and crunching of leaves and pine needles. Athela wore an assassin’s outfit with her black, ruby-studded Tiara of Silent Killing, disguised as a human with glossy brown skin and white hair - something she’d recently modified to look almost like a drow elf given Gaia’s Heartwood Token. Fay took on her usual blonde, tanned appearance - not even needing Gaia’s token but wearing it nonetheless. Azmoth had the appearance of a hulking bald barbarian, and Riven only changed his eyes to not give away he was a vampire - otherwise keeping his appearance of a handsome young brunette man.

[Gaia’s Heartwood Token (Epic): Wearing this token around your neck allows you to suppress any Charisma effects you may have, suppresses your vampiric qualities as well as the demonic qualities of your contracted familiars, as well as changes your status page information to represent a Level 55 Human. Those with identifier classes at high enough level can circumvent this ability.]

“Are you feeling well?” Genua asked, holding Len’s hand while she walked beside him - shooting Riven a very concerned frown and bringing her free hand up to her chest. “You don’t look it...”

She’d been nervous ever since the reveal of what she thought to be a pregnancy. It wasn’t a certainty, but the dots connected. Even if vampires weren’t usually supposed to have babies with mortal races it’d happened before when Riven had done some asking around. It was just incredibly unusual, so said some of the many pardoned Rippenvire vampires who’d joined the Thane Necropolis after a deal had been struck for their lives.

He grimaced when a twinge of pain flared in his lower back, but otherwise smiled at the elf with a shake of his head - blue eyes reflecting back at her underneath a black hood that shielded his skin from the sunlight. “I’m fine. It’s just a lot to take in... I never thought I’d have one so soon.”

“Have what?” Len asked curiously, peeking from around her mother’s leg - blonde pigtails bobbing while she walked a brisk pace to keep up with the adults. “What are you two talking about?”Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

“We’re talking about those poison cookies you used to make.” Riven grinned. “Remember when you poisoned my sister?”

Len giggled, holding a hand up to her mouth. “Those cookies were supposed to be for my big sister, Ethel! Not Allie! I wish Ethel was still around. I miss her.”

Riven tried not to cringe. “Yeah. Yeah, so do I. And Genua - if that is what’s going on, you have nothing to worry about. You will be taken care of, I promise.”

Genua’s tense shoulders relaxed, and she stared at the forest floor amidst the laughter of Athela, Tim and Azmoth behind them when Fay tripped on a root to screech and faceplant. “Thank you, Riven. I was worried.”

“It’s the least I could do. We’ll talk more about it later, I promise.”

Casually turning and raising a hand to point past Genua on her left, Riven summoned a blood lance the size of his arm. Red wisps of silky blood magic flowed out of his body and began sparking with black energy before tearing into the forest with a flash of crimson - blowing a huge hole in a large tree’s body.

The tree, in turn, screamed out an alien cry and flailed about - its entrails pouring onto the ground in layers as the disguised monster toppled over and died with a crash.

“Mimic. It was getting closer every time we weren’t looking.” Riven shrugged after seeing Genua’s shocked expression. “Picked the wrong group this time. Hey Hakim, are we almost there?”

The large african man at the front of the group, walking alongside his girlfriend Julie and her mother Tanya, gave a thumbs up after shaking himself from staring at the beast Riven had just killed. “Another ten minutes and we should make it to the clearing!”

Riven gave a thumbs up.

Then ten minutes later, Hakim proved himself right.

Two dozen tents were already set up through a large camping area cleared right outside a massive cave, one that opened into the side of a tree-covered hill. People with various weapons, classes and other equipment were moving in full swing - trading with one another, cooking, eating and joking around campfires. There were three clearly distinct groups already set apart from one another though - one of them being a well-outfitted bunch of hunters in camo with compound bows, long knives, and rifles. Another was the same group of mountain-men with axes and shotguns who’d harassed Genua just days ago - with three well dressed men in top-hats holding caster staves. The third was a bunch of mis-matched, non-uniformed people with various types of metal armor, swords, pistols, rifles, crossbows, hatchets, and wands.

They all were inbetween level 14 and 56, but this third group also had someone Riven recognized in it.

Her name was Jarla. She was the stick-thin woman in hiking gear he’d met outside the shop in Jerbyville, and she wore the same equipment with a large backpack and a couple cans of bear mace strapped to her hips.

[Jarla. Level 16 Packmule, Human.]

It didn’t take long for her to see Riven’s group coming into the clearing off the opposite hill when everyone else in the camp started looking their way, and a wide smile spread across her face as she brushed her dark hair back across her neck and put it up into a ponytail. “Hi Hakim and Julie! Tanya you look better than ever. - I can see where Julie gets her looks. Hey Riv! Hey Tim! I was just tellin my friend here about the new guys in town! Come for a dungeon run? And what happened to your wheelchair!?”

Riven shook his head. “No not that. The thing is, most of us are here to make sure the ones fighting don’t get killed. I won’t be fighting unless needed, same with those cultist-looking people in the back. Thela won’t be either, nor will that barbarian guy. This is a power-leveling trip, and for most of it I’ll probably be sitting in the background working on totems. So if you guys come along, that’s fine - just know that we’ll do our best to help you lot out but you’ll be less of a priority than the ones we already have with us.”

“Oh! That - that’s unexpected, power leveling doesn’t come cheap!” The mage laughed, then raised an eyebrow Hakim’s way. “No wonder they’re new to the area! I hadn’t realized you and Julie had the money to hire power levelers like this! Explains a lot.”

“He’s a friend, they’re doing it for free.” Tanya stated from the side, pulling out a sandwich from her ice-box she’d brought and handing the cold meat-and-cheese sandwich to Len with a warm smile. “And I for one am excited! I haven’t actually ever been in a dungeon and I’ve always wanted to see my son and daughter do their thing! They always tell me these bold, adventurous stories - so now with some more protection I finally feel ready to come too!”

“We’ll be in the back watching the show.” Genua confirmed. “Hakim, Julie, Tim, Luke, and Fay are the only ones fighting from our group.”

“More experience for us then!” The mage laughed. “With nearly 30 high rankers watching over us C-and-D rankers, I feel better about this already!”

***

The cave opened up into a huge tunnel that eventually smoothed out into a perfectly polished brown hallway of neatly packed dirt and stone that spiraled down into the earth. When it eventually came to a stop in the front of a set of large stone double doors that were already wide open, the sounds of battle and screams could be heard from inside with torches lighting the interior.

[You have entered Dungeon Petrus. Other in-area participants: 195]

Apparently there were multiple groups already inside, more than just the one that’d gone before them.

“Don’t bother helping, they’ll just get angry about us trying to steal their dropped coins and loot.” Hakim muttered under his breath, head-nodding to where the hunters in camo were firing projectiles or engaging in close combat with swarming large purple rats in the low level 20’s.

Riven didn’t pay them much attention, instead turning his head around to look at the various other hallways leading out into the rest of the dungeon. This was a lot different than Negrada had been, and was more similar to the other dungeon Hakim had visited with the drake. But even there, Riven hadn’t started out at the top floor - but instead had been summoned to the boss room at the very end.

Negrada itself had only seen his trek lead him across its top floor in the hellscapes. Even Gaia’s dungeon hadn’t been fully completed before the demigoddess had introduced herself. So this would, in fact, be the very first dungeon Riven went through from top to bottom.

The first ever. This would be new.

The thought made Riven chuckle, considering he was actually just babysitting for the trip. He gestured to the others behind him, everybody from the additional 18 of Jarla’s raiding party having gotten the heavy hint that he was the commander here. “Same plan as what we discussed earlier. Noncombatants you’re with me, the rest of you are on Hakim - he’ll be your de facto leader. Combatants, if you need to drop back to safety we’ll be here - but Elysium rewards those with more XP if you struggle to win. You’ll get more out of it if you put yourself on the edge, just keep that in mind.”

Jarla, two other people wearing backpacks including her husband, and one other man in spectacles exited the original 18 of their own raiding party to mingle with most of Riven’s original batch. 14 stood beside Fay, Julie, Hakim, Luke and Tim for a total of 19 combatants - healers in the back, archers and casters in the middle, tanks and fighters in the front, with two rogues and Tim being a forward scout to check for traps.

“Make sure the scouts don’t run into anything too lethal.” Riven told Athela in a voice loud enough for all of them to hear. “If it’s a trap - leave it for them to find and disarm unless you think it’ll outright kill them, but give the scouts an opportunity to try first. Try to stay hidden so you don’t alert any of the monsters here to your presence.”

“Roger-roger!” Athela saluted. “And you never asked about my two new blood abilities! Meanie. I’ve been dying to show you since we used that dao treasure - so if we come across something strong can I show you then?!”

Riven facepalmed. “Sorry! I’ve just been so busy I completely forgot. Yes! Of course, show me when the next opportunity arises!”

She aggressively groped his ass with a brilliant and almost predatory grin. “Good boy! I’ll be on the periphery. Oh and good luck Fay! Get some levels in for us!”

Then she blurred across the room to where Fay stood - so fast that most people couldn’t even see the movement and causing people to shout out in alarm and stumble in shock. She took Fay’s face in both hands, gave her a solid mouth-to-mouth kiss, and laughed before disappearing in a flash of black.

“Where did that assassin go?” The blonde mage from earlier asked hesitantly looking around with many of the others and avoiding eye contact with Fay while blushing furiously at the public display of affection. “Does she have a teleport spell?!”

“No. She just moves very fast, and is very stealthy.” Riven stepped back, motioning for Hakim to take charge. “Go on then. We’ll be here if you need us. Do you already know the way to the second floor?”

Hakim hesitantly shook his head - still ignoring the sounds of battle down one of the hallways on their right. “This dungeon, as most other dungeons I know about, changes from time to time. There’ll always be a way down, per Elysium’s rules, but that way down can shift. Let’s go the opposite way Jared’s group just went. I don’t like the look of camo anyways. Scouts run ahead, and let us know if there’s anything there. Let’s get a move on so we can make the third level by tomorrow!”

An excited cheer of agreement went up, and they all started down the leftmost hallway in quite high spirits.