Swapping Echoform Reliquary into its crowbar form, Deacon stepped forward toward the last antlion staggering against the tunnel wall and brought the weapon down in a brutal sideways swing, smashing its head hard enough that the chitin cracked and collapsed inward.
Feeling that its chitin around its skull had cracked and it was only seconds away from death, the antlion let out a horrific screech that ricocheted through the tunnel. Still driven by its queen’s command, it struggled to wrench itself free from the wall and fight on.
Deacon’s headache was nearing its limit, the pain becoming bordering on unbearable after more than two and a half hours of nonstop combat and constant antlion screeching – to the point where he was quite literally contemplating cracking open his skull if the screeching did not stop.
Gritting his teeth, he wound Echoform Reliquary back and brought it down again—and again—until the screeching of the antlion cut off as the remains of its voice box and head painted the bloodied walls of the tunnel.
Only after its body fell lifeless and a System Notification chimed in his head did Deacon step back, huffing through his nose as he leaned lightly on the crowbar and glanced down the length of the tunnel with Blood Sense still tinging his sight red.
The antlions were gone — at least for now.
“We’re clear,” Deacon said, turning back toward the rest of the Party.
The moment the words left his mouth, whatever stubborn willpower had been keeping everyone upright finally gave out.
Sam dropped first, landing flat on his ass with a groan, followed immediately by Bonehead and Esmeralda, neither of them bothering to avoid the antlion corpses, gore, or shattered chitin littering the tunnel floor.
Jass remained standing despite her exhaustion, braced on her glaive as she waited on Deacon. Only after he gave her a reassuring nod did she finally let herself sag, leaning against the bloodied tunnel wall and sliding down to the ground where she could at last catch her breath.
“Thank fuck,” Sam breathed, fumbling into his Spatial Satchel and pulling out a Stamina Crystal with shaking fingers.
“You’ve still got seven minutes left,” Deacon said as he slumped against the tunnel wall and slid down it, ending up sitting on his ass while watching Sam out of the corner of his eye as he nursed the Stamina Crystal.
Hearing Deacon, Sam, could only nod, unable to even muster up the energy to ask him how the hell he managed to see him use his Stamina Crystal from earlier and keep track of how long his cooldown was until he could use another one.
Seeing that nobody had the stamina to do much more than sit there and breathe, Deacon finally let himself relax and pulled his attention inward, opening the backlog of System notifications he’d shoved aside during the fight.
Reaching the end of his Kill Notifications, he was greeted with the very notification that everyone in the Party received just as they rushed to meet the antlions head on, but were forced to put at the back of their minds. After all, distractions on the battlefield were a surefire way of getting yourself killed – especially a distraction called a Hidden Quest.
HIDDEN QUEST UNLOCKED!
The Temple of Solomon:Description:
You, a being who has yet to fall for the temptations of the Ars Goetia, have crossed the Boundary Line of Solomon’s Fourth Temple during its most tumultuous time. Delve within Solomon's Fourth Temple and sequester the Artifact of Solomon before it falls into the hands of Aamon's Mortal Champion.
Task Objective:? Retrieve the Amulet of Solomon
Optional Objectives:? Kill the Antlion Queen Sun’ar
? Kill ?
ACCEPT QUEST?
WARNING:
WARNING:
Deacon let out a slow breath, a small, incredulous chuckle slipping out despite himself as he leaned his head back against the tunnel wall.
“I’d love to see the look on Uncle Bjorn’s face when he hears about this,” he muttered quietly to himself before remembering that he was now able to wear his new gear.
Clasping on his new bracers, Deacon looked over to Sam and Bonehead, who had finished putting on the new robes that he’d purchased for them, and saw that Sam had made a campfire to check out the new stats they all received from the respective sets they wore.
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Bonehead now wore a black robe lined in green, decorated with etched images of potions and bubbling cauldrons. Sam, meanwhile, wore a kaleidoscopic robe that mirrored the northern lights seen in Floor Zero’s skies at winter’s end, golden highlights accenting the edges of the fabric.
“You boys decent?” Jass’s voice resounded from behind an earth wall that separated the males and females of the Ravenlight Party from each other while they changed.
“Our modesties have been preserved; we allow you to enter,” Sam replied in a sickly sweet, posh voice.
Rolling his eyes at Sam, Deacon couldn’t help but smirk, and Jass seemingly couldn’t either, as when the Earth Wall fell, a smirk was plastered across her face.
“You look good,” he said, looking over her new armor set: the Halberdier.
It was the one she’d planned to buy herself after clearing Floor Ten, since anyone hoping to advance to Floor Eleven would be forced to wait until the five-month test period came to an end to be able to go to the lower Floors without the Tower telling them that they failed the Floor Quest.
Unlike his own armor, which was brown leather hide reinforced with enough metal plating to teeter on the edge of what was Medium Armor and Heavy Armor, hers sat at the opposite extreme, balanced just shy of being considered Light Armor.
The leather was barely reinforced: two plates at the shoulders, one at the chest that reached up to her clavicle and ended just past her abdomen, and smaller plates on her arms and shins. She much preferred this armor set over the old Barbarian armor set she previously wore it provided her with much more mobility and needed points into her Agility stat.
“As do you,” Jass said as she joined Deacon in tossing a blank parchment into the campfire.
At the sound of a throat clearing, Deacon snapped his head towards the noise just as his smoldering Status Page drifted free of the campfire. He looked at Esmerelda and couldn’t help but feel thoroughly appalled with himself.
She now wore a light blue mage robe woven with images of snow-capped peaks and drifting clouds. Soft, cloudlike trim traced the edges of the robe, lending it an airy, almost weightless feel.
Placing a knee to the ground, Deacon lowered his head in Esmerelda’s direction and put on the heaviest posh accent he could. “I did not wish to place my unworthy eyes onto thy beauty that the very skies themselves retreat away in envy of you.”
“Boo!” Sam and Bonehead exclaimed, both of them holding their hands out with their thumbs pointed down at him.
The boos and the sight of Esmerelda’s frown turning into a smile did nothing to save his balance as Jass’s boot slammed into his side, sending him tumbling onto a squashed antlion corpse.
“Was I not beautiful enough to earn your attention?” Jass asked, staring down at him with her arms crossed beneath her chest.
, Deacon complained as he stared up at her.
“Yeah, he’s calling you ugly!” Sam shouted from beside the campfire, jeering on as he mocked Deacon by flipping him the bird behind Jass.
“Oh, goddess of the earth and glaives; Jassmine Vanir Pines,” Deacon serenaded as he got off the ground and back onto a knee in front of Jass. “How can this lowly peasant with nearsighted vision appease your anger.”
Jass haughtily hummed in thought at the sight of Deacon kneeling before her and glanced at the jeering boys behind her before turning back to Deacon. “I demand four tubs of mint-choco ice cream, and for you to beat up the two curs behind me after we complete this Hidden Quest.”
“By your orders,” Deacon nodded, getting up from his kneel and smirking at Sam and Bonehead, who found themselves frozen in place under Deacon’s gleeful smirk that promised them pain.
With their bit of fun done, Deacon looked over at his Updates Tab in his Status Page before going to look at the changes in his Status.
Achievement Upgrade: [Finder of the Hidden II → Finder of the Hidden III]
Finder of the Hidden III:You have discovered both a Quest that had remained undiscovered for over three hundred years, as well as a Hidden Quest within another Floor shortly thereafter. Hidden areas are now far more noticeable to you. Gain:
Deacon Surtr Hayes
Race: J?tunn Lv 20
Class: Warrior Lv 20
Health: 2012/2182
Mana: 413/650
Stamina: 1140/1677
Stats:
Strength: 193 (202)
Endurance: 155 (162) +5 (Lesser Heart-Fire Ritual)
Agility: 88
Intelligence: 63
Wisdom: 65
Willpower: 91
Perception: 60 (63)
Free Points: 4
Racial Traits:General Skills:Class Skills:Spell Masteries:Affinity:Achievements:
“Very nice,” he murmured to himself before putting those Free Points into Intelligence and Perception, bringing them up to 65 and 62, respectively.
Reading over the Equipment Panel in his Status Page, Deacon couldn’t help but admire how many stat points he gained from equipping his full Barbarian set; an additional +20 to both Strength and Endurance.
While he’d lost a total of five Vitality from his old Barbarian Armor Set, he more than made up for it with his current one — enough to where his Vitality stat now stood above his Strength stat for the first time in a long while.
Looking down at his training suit shirt on the ground that had temporarily taken the place of his chestpiece, he could only shrug in admittance of just how well-made it was, not suffering a single scratch.
, Deacon thought to himself as he picked it up, and along with his Status Page, he tucked them into his Spatial Sling Bag.
Glancing at his Esmerelda, who cast atop the campfire to kill the flames, Deacon clapped his hands to get his Party’s attention onto him.
Seeing that everyone was rested and watching him, he nodded and said, “Let’s go see what this Hidden Quest has in store for us.” Then he took the lead, heading down the tunnel, eager to discover what Solomon’s Fourth Temple truly was, and why they needed to claim the Amulet of Solomon before the Antlion Queen of Sun’ar did.
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