Grand Quest Offline

Well Caelis would be correct to assume that the hands didn't have as much muscle or meat on them so they would indeed be easier to cripple. The problem was that this thing was eight feet tall, so its hands would be a small bit harder to hit. Not that the height difference was too great, but aiming for the hands was a bit harder in general anyway. Still, it was not a bad strategy, just one that was a bit harder to execute than hacking into the creature or hacking into its legs to cripple it. Without his torch, if he wanted, Caelis was able to wield his blade two-handed now so that it would have a small bit more striking power behind it, the likes of which he used to try and aim for the boss' hands.

The creature let out a loud, pained snarl as the blade bit into the back of one of its hands as it tried to parry the blade with its spear, but Caelis was able to angle and throw the swing so that it bit into the creature's hand instead. A bit of a deeper would was present on the creature's hand, which now seemed to have a more difficult time holding its large weapon. It didn't render the hand useless, as this creature was tough as nails, but it certainly did hamper its ability to fight and deal a nice bit of damage as well. From all of the wounds it suffered, which was probably how 'bleeding' was determined as usually hitting 0 HP in games meant one had taken too many wounds and they die from it, this creature was indeed on the ropes now.

Unfortunately it began its counterattack. Raijin and Caelis were both right next to the creature, or at least outside of the thing's spear reach thanks to being closer to it, Caelis right up close. The creature seemed to have pure rage in its eyes as it suddenly jumped backwards while at the same time wildly throwing its spear towards Caelis, which luckily he dodged as it actually put a dent in the floor with its large iron ball where the spear had been thrown, a blow that would have probably been very devastating had it hit. After that it stood in front of the crystal in a fighter's stance, planning to strike at them with unarmed combat. This thing was pissed.
 
Caelis sighed. The battle was going well so far, but it could easily still end badly. Plus, it appeared that the boss was nearing its end as it had drastically changed its fighting style. The rules of this fight had changed drastically. Getting close was going to be more dangerous than before, but this was something that just had to be dealt with. Caelis looked at Rai and said "Let's attack at the same time. I'll take right side and you take left?" as he readied his sword and prepared to run. This time he wasn't going to try to finesse a strike. No, he was going to go for any easy strikes or opportunities. If that meant just attacking its torso, then he would do so. Just whatever was needed to get those last points of damage to bring this thing down. Hopefully, this last engagement would be the end of it.
 
The appraisal of the amulet Zan found failed. He put the amulet in his belt pouch with the glass vial. Then Zan tried to pick up the gigantic axe. He had 12 STR. The Boss he had fought was larger and probably had more strength than him. Which would be why it was able to swing the axe like nothing. Zan struggled to lift up the axe and only succeeded in lifting it up a small amount. He was unable to get a good hold on it. The axe was extremely heavy and bulky. Zan could get part of the giant axe about a foot off the ground, the rest was a different story as it laid of the floor. A party would be a useful thing at the moment, but Zan preferred soloing. He either had to leave it behind or think of another way to move it. Zan decided to search the room for anything that would be useful, and also what ever the key was for.
 
Raijin was estatic, this combat was awesome, he had just scored a nice hit on the boss, and he got a nice skill for it as well. But now is when things got hard, as they both know had to take this guy out. A collaborative strike, as Caelis' had suggested, sounded good. The mob couldn't hit them both, and he had confidence in his ability to avoid it if it chose to hit him, and Caelis had enough health that he could probably survive a hit by it's bare hands. Either way, they were going to end this right here, right now.

"Fine with me, just give the signal and I'll follow you with an attack. Nothing fancy, just a slash or thrust to the torso. It's time to take this boss mob down." The moment that Caelis started his charge, Raijin would be right behind him, taking his saber and striking at the boss with his full strength, but he would also make sure to keep an eye on the mob, and evade any attack it tries to send his way. He couldn't afford to take another hit from this guy. As he got into position, he picked up some debris from the area around where the Goblin boss had thrown down his weapon. When he got close enough, he'd throw it into the mob's eyes, so that even if he couldn't get a hit in, he could at least make an opening for Caelis to take advantage of.
 
Caelis and Raijin decided to do a sort of co-op attack to try and end the boss here and now. The boss just sat there in a fighting stance, waiting for their strikes, watching as Raijin picked up a couple of small rocks in his hand to try and throw as a distraction or possible blinding attempt. Caelis lead the charge, with Raijin close behind him to the left. The boss attempted to dodge Caelis' strike, but to no avail as Caelis easily managed to slash deep into the creature's torso, leaving a deep wound as it growled out in pain.

Unfortunately it didn't even need to try and dodge the debris thrown by Raijin, as he just had really bad aim and sort of missed. The creature had taken Caelis' strike and, before Raijin could strike as he had spent valuable striking time throwing rocks, went on the counter-offensive. Instead of aiming for Caelis though the pig-like creature aimed for the obviously only wounded target before it, which was Raijin. A large, meaty fist would fly Raijin's way at a surprisingly fast speed for its bulk, it having decent reach to thanks to its size.

Raijin would find himself on the other end of that fist. A somewhat glancing, but still very powerful blow as it struck him in the side. The blow had an explosive amount of force in it that threw Raijin backwards. As Raijin sailed backwards and towards the ground, he would see his health bar dropping as pain racked his very body. Sure this blow wasn't as powerful as the spear, but it was still strong enough to drop his health down below 18, consciousness starting to leave him as that health bar hit -1.

Pain, the pain of getting hit, the pain of being near death. Those were things this game translated very well from reality, despite the fact that no player had ever felt them before. He would feel his strength leaving him before he would soon enough find himself slipping from unconsciousness. He wasn't dead though, as it didn't look powerful enough to kill, but it was possible that he would die soon if he didn't get attention, something that would only be possible after this boss was dead, something that would happen pretty soon after a couple more well placed hits like the one Caelis just scored.

When Raijin awoke, he would find himself in a black space, but still felt unconscious as if he was in some strange dream. t was very surreal. A window would appear in front of him showing his character's current health bar that was pulsing red at -1 HP and a window below that which read the following.

Character is Unconscious.

Character is Bleeding Out and trying to stabilize.

It seemed like Caelis and still spaced out Caim were the only two left to fight a weakened boss.
 
Haruko let out a relieved sigh. She had gotten really tenseat the last moment. If she didn't kill the boss, it was likely that her journey would be very, very short. The shadow clone lost its cohesion and broke apart. A congratulatory speech ended her worries of any subsequent threat.

"I guess that wasn't so bad for a first dungeon. " Who was she kidding? She knew she was already hooked.

Haruko collected her winnings. She gave the room a brief inspection before heading for the crystal. If she found nothing out of the ordinary, she would do as the voice instructed.
 
Caim jumped into the fray with his other party members, "sorry guys was having some difficulties on my end." he says and uses his skill sapping strike, attacking the boss. He hadn't been ready, first dive, first major enemy being a boss, he had expected mobs first, that would've prepared him, it was kind of staggering to run into a boss first, despite the puzzle no doubt speeding their progress towards this fight. He silently cursed his own ineptitude and was just determined to fight harder.
 
Caelis watched as Raijin went flying once again. He knew that this was going to be trouble as he winced as Raijin landed with a thud. But, unlike last time, Raijin wasn't moving anymore. Was he dead? Caelis couldn't really tell, but he muttered a curse under his breath. Typically in games, dead players eventually disappeared as they were respawned, but this game didn't allow people to respawn. So, Caelis wasn't sure exactly what happened to Raijin. Still, he had to deal with this boss before checking on Raijin. Then something odd happened. Caelis couldn't be any happier as Caim finally snapped out of his stupor. Perhaps there were some technical problems? It was rare, but machines still weren't perfect and had some lapses. Now, the boss was seemed like it was very manageable. At the same time as Caim who began to press the attack, Caelis tried to flank the boss from the other side that Caim was attacking from and deliver a solid blow with both of his hands on his sword.
 
Caim, who was finally moving now, decided to attempt to use his [Sapping Blow] Skill to try and stun the enemy. There would be a few problems though that would make this much harder. The first was that its head was a bit out of the reach of his sword pommel, so he couldn't target any vital areas. Sure he could try to hit its stomach to stun it, as that was the only choice he had, but this thing had proven to be incredibly tough and resistant to damage, so there was a possibility that it just wouldn't work.

Still, regardless of whether or not it succeeded, two fighters attacking at once would give a flanking advantage, making this boss having a harder time dodging. The sapping blow hit, but the thing had such thick muscles on its body that it easily brushed off the stunning affect of the pommel based strike as if it was nothing. It seemed such an attack was truly only effective against opponents of similar height or body structure as a human. Still, it did help Caelis thanks to the tactical advantage of flanking.

Which was just what he needed. Thanks to the two of them flanking, making it harder for it to dodge, Caelis was able to get in a full on slash on its torso, the blade biting in deep to create another large, glowing red gash. The creature howled out, struggling to move now before suddenly its eyes shut as it fell forward, landing on the ground with a thud, no longer moving.

A window appeared for Caelis now in front of him, reading the following. Another one having also appeared for him after dealing the killing blow.

Your Level has gone up by 1.

Longsword Adept has gone up in Level by 1.

He would feel his HP and MP being fully restored, but any fatigue he had from the battle was still there, and there was definitely fatigue from that hard battle. Not enough to detriment any abilities, but enough to hope that there would be no more fights.

Raijin would also suddenly feel his consciousness returning to him, as he had stabilized during the fight fortunately, as his HP and MP were also healed and a window greeted him upon waking up.

Your Level has gone up by 1.

Caim, unfortunately, didn't get a Level Up. He still got a bit of XP from that fight, but not enough to warrant a Level Up. Still, he was almost there, just needing 3 more XP to level.

The fight was tough, but with that it was finally over. A voice, the same one from the field, would suddenly speak to all of them.

"Thou hast solved the puzzles of this labyrinth and have defeated its guardian in a tough battle. I deem thee all worthy of entering mine world. Smash the heart of this place that lies before you, and your trial shall conclude".
​
The most likely culprit for the 'heart' they needed to smash was the giant, floating crystal that floated above the pedestal in the back of the room. Destroying it would finish the quest and allow them to finally progress into the main game. They could either do that, or go ahead and look around a bit since it wasn't like the voice was rushing them to do so.​
 
Caelis was relieved as the boss had finally went down and Raijin apparently still received the experience from fighting the boss as he awoke. Caelis went over to give him a hand and then said to the others "Let's check out the loot, and then get out of here." Caelis then began to search the corpses of the three enemies and the entire room as well. If this was a boss battle, then there should be some sort of treasure somewhere or at least decent loot.
 
Unfortunately for Zan, he wouldn't really find anything else that was useful. He really would have no choice but to leave the axe behind. Not even whatever the key was for was in here, so he would really only have the option of smashing the crystal and progressing without the axe since he really had no means of moving it. It was a shame too since it seemed like a pretty powerful weapon, even if it would be super cumbersome to wield. Either that, or it seemed like it was pretty valuable. Regardless, Zan would have no choice but to progress.

Unless Zan could think of anything else to do, smashing the crystal was his only choice. It took about three good swings with his great axe, but eventually the crystal was smashed and the moment it did, a bright light enveloped the entire room, a window appearing before Zan during this reading the following.

You have cleared the dungeon by yourself. 5 XP Earned.

Solo Dungeon Clearer: You have cleared a Dungeon all on your own and have grown a bit tougher from the result of the difficult task. +5 HP

When visibility would next return to normal he would be in a small room with two treasure chests, one on each side of the square room. There was only one way out as well, a door that clearly had light coming in from behind it. One of the treasure chests just looked like a typical treasure chest. The other one had a small, brass lock on it shaped like a skull, meaning that a key would be required most likely. It seemed like this was some sort of reward room and that the door before Zan would be the exit. It seemed after collecting his prize(s) and leaving, this dungeon would truly be over.

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Haruko would have a small bit more luck in searching the room. It really appeared that a keen eye was one of the best things to have, as she would have never seen it otherwise. A switch to open the trap door the giant rat came crawling out of was present. Upon pressing it, the door would indeed open, and a look down into the hole revealed of course the corpse of the dead rat. However the corpse had something shiny next to it in what could only be described as a nest for a large, horse sized rat, there being some other scraps and bones in the nest as well with the rat.

If she chose to reach in there to grab whatever it was from the obviously dead rat, she would see that it was a ring. It was a small, silver ring that had been on the finger of a broken up skeleton that had been in the nest as well. A closer inspection would reveal a small rune etched on the inside, but it wasn't something that Haruko could read. Regardless, it was a nice find that came from a very, very keen eye and skillful observation.

After that, when she smashed the crystal with some strong punches, as it took four of them, the same thing that happened with Zan would happen with her. A bright light would envelope the room after it shattered and, unlike with Zan, two windows appeared this time along with a feeling of relief as her HP and MP were fully restored. The battle fatigue was still there, but at least her health was back to full.

You have cleared the dungeon by yourself. 5 XP Earned.

Your Level has gone up by 1.

When visibility returned she would be in a small square room with two chests on the east and west walls, with a door outline with light showing the way out was on the north wall. One chest appeared to look like any other ordinary chest, while the other one also looked the same, but had a small, brass skull shaped lock upon it. It seemed that collecting the prize(s) and exiting this room would finally clear the dungeon.
 
The first search came down to the two smaller, pig like enemies. There wasn't really anything of use on the two smaller ones except for the swords they had, which looked like large machetes of a more medieval type design, both of them a bit chipped and rusted. They were probably not much better than the weapons they currently had. So all in all, they really didn't have much on them, which wasn't much of a lucky break. The next search came down to the much larger enemy. Its weapon, the spear mace as one could call it, was very, very heavy.

Caelis and Raijin, with their low strength scores, would barely be able to get the large ball part off the ground let alone drag the thing. Caim had a higher STR score, but he could also barely lift the thing up. It seemed like they would either have to leave the weapon meant for the eight foot tall creature behind or find a way to transport it otherwise. The creature also seemed to have a pouch tucked away in what armor it wore that didn't really cover up enough parts of its body to be called armor.

Inside of the pouch, which could probably be fastened onto a belt, was a bag filled with 30,000 Sens, and a strange looking Torc. It didn't look as though it was something made by creatures like this. Regardless, it was all that the creature had on its person aside from the mace spear.

The room, unfortunately, yielded no more hidden secrets either from Caelis' search, or any of their searching if they had helped. So with only the problem of how to transport the mace spear, or even bother with trying, being the only possible thing holding them back, the only way to progress now would be to smash the labyrinth's heart, which was most likely the five foot tall floating crystal.
 
Caelis made some disappointing finds. There wasn't much loot on the bodies of the monsters, but there was one thing that was intriguing. Caelis first split the money into equal thirds. 10,000 for each person. The rest though... that would be difficult to distribute. There was the large pouch, the money pouch, 2 rusty machetes. the spear mace, the poor, mismatched armor, and then the weird torc. Caelis first said "Well, the spear mace... I'm not sure how much it's worth, but maybe if we all helped carry it then we could bring it with us. I guess for now, everyone takes 10,000 sens?" Caelis then returned his attention to the torc. He tried to examine it using his appraisal talent to see if he could discover something about the torc and its purpose.
 
Raijin cursed as he missed with is attempted blinding, then got smashed by the mobs fist. He went flying backwards, and slowly fell into unconsciousness. He later woke in a blank room, only to soon be transported back to the dungeon with his MP and HP fully restored. And even better, the mob seemed to be defeated and Caim was back in action.

Since Caelis had already checked the bodies, Raijin sat down and thought about how they should distribute the loot. "I think everyone should get 10,000 sens, you should get the Torc if it turns out to be of any use, as well as the large pouch since you dealt the killing blow." As he said this he inspected the armor. wondering if their was any way he could make it so that it could fit any of the players currently present.
 
Torcs were pieces of jewelry that were placed on or around one's neck, sort of like rigid, one piece necklaces. So it was most likely an amulet/neck accessory of some type or another. Unfortunately that is all Caelis' attempted appraisal of the object would give him, was the fact that a Torc was just neck jewelry. And the fact that it was made of crude silver, so it might sell for something. What was more interesting though was the design on the two ends and the small symbol etched into the back inside of it. But other than that, it was impossible to tell what any of that meant.

So everyone so far, for loot, had 10,000 Sens. The armor, according to Rajin's inspection, was more or less just leather pads meant to cover various parts of the body as it was on this creature. It wasn't really meant for protection since this thing was not wearing a shirt and its entire torso was exposed. So the armor was more or less useless. The machetes would probably sell for something, but probably not a whole lot and seemed just like dead weight from a first look. The spear mace was also very heavy, and it was unclear how they were going to transport it unless they really did all carry it.

So essentially aside from the torc and the money, as well as the belt pouch and the extra money pouch the money they found came in, there was nothing really of used among these creatures that was worth the limited inventory space or time to transport. Except for one thing. A brass key was also found in the pouch on the creature's body. It looked old, but didn't have as much rust as it used to on it. There was nothing in the room that supported any keys, but it could be useful, but could also be junk.
 
Caelis couldn't tell much about the torc. Perhaps it had some special abilities, but Caelis couldn't tell. Maybe it was just a piece of jewelry? If that was the case, then they could just trade it for some money and just split that as well. But, first they would have to figure out if this really was just a normal silver torc. Caelis said to the others "If you guys don't mind, then I'll hold on to the torc for now. I want to get it properly appraised, and if it turns out to just be jewlery, then I don't have much use for a piece of jewelry. We could just sell it and split that amongst us later on."

For now, he just put on the torc and tied the large pouch to his belt. Even if he couldn't tell exactly what the item did. Perhaps, if it was an enchanted item, then it would change his stats and that would be reflected through more HP or MP. His attention then returned to the key that was found. A key meant that something was locked and there was only one reason to keep something locked. To protect important things. So, Caelis began to search the room once more for a chest or anything where the key could belong to. If he didn't find anything, then he would just wait by the large crystal, ready to move on and leave the dungeon.
 
Caim hefted the large weapon and huffed setting it back down "Yeah that's a significant movement penalty, god damn I would love to wield that weapon though...or find an NPC to either sell it to or break it down to base components that would be useful for well another NPC. A weapon or armorsmith perhaps." He says and walks around the giant's weapon. "We should head out, I'm ready to actually get majorly involved with this world now." He says smiling to his comrades, still somewhat ashamed of his lack of help before. He continued looking at the weapon and back to the crystal and towards the other two "Wouldn't that work only until we gate out though, hauling it together, I mean wiht you two helping we'd get it to the crystal then maybe I'd gate out with it in my inventory but other than that wouldn't we just drop it after we leave the area carrying it with each other?" He asks still wanting the weapon, he was wondering if selling it and giving the sens to the others would make up for his lapse in judgement and lack of activity.
 
Haruko was on a roll. She picked up the small ring she found in the rat nest. Again, she wasn't sure what the ring did, but she pulled off her cestus and slipped it on anyway. The ring fit like it was made for her.

She proceeded to break the crystal. It transported her to a final room containing treasure chests. She opened the unlocked chest first, taking its contents whatever they might be, and then inspected the locked one. She inserted the key she obtained earlier into the lock, confident that it was the correct combination.

If nothing else of note occurred, she would head to the North door and exit the dungeon.
 
When Haruko put on the ring, she would feel a small bit stronger. Not physically though, but more or less internally, as if there was a small bit more power in her. If she examined her stats, she would see that her MP rose a small bit thanks to her SPI going up by 1. The ring most likely increased her SPI Stat when put on. Not entirely useful for a fighter with no Skills that used Mana currently, but would probably be useful when she received some. She also felt the flow of mana in her become a bit smoother as well, the ring having also increased her MP Regen stat by one as well.

The first treasure chest that Haruko opened contained 20,000 Sens, another 2 of the red vials she had in her Belt Pouch, and what appeared to be some decent leather armor. While the money and the armor were basic, the potions were a very lucky find. When she went to the other chest and put the key in and turned it, the lock shone white for a moment, but then stopped. They would keep shining white, but not get any brighter as suddenly a window appeared in front of her.

An Item of yours is reacting.

Her bag, whichever one she put the black crystal in, would be glowing slightly with a black outline. If she reached in and took the crystal out another window would appear before her, this one having a yes and no option upon it.

Offer this Item to the Boss Reward Chest?

[Y] Yes [N] No

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When Caelis put on the torc, he felt himself just growing a tiny bit tougher. His HP rose by 4 and if he examined his status window, he would see a +1 next to both VIT and STR (look at your CS on the front page essentially). This Torc, most likely, increased VIT and STR by 1 when worn, a pretty good item for such a difficult boss.

Even if the three of them could carry the spear, there was no way it could fit into anyone's bag. Plus there was the matter of smashing the crystal while the spear was being carried. The spear wasn't exactly a practical battering ram, and Caelis had found nothing that the key could fit into inside of the room. The spear, which wasn't exactly the best made weapon upon a slightly closer look despite its incredible power, would probably have to be left behind.
 
After they had searched or done whatever they can, none of them able to find anything else of note being in the room, they would have no choice but to leave the spear behind. It wasn't really transportable with what they had anyway. Perhaps in future dungeons they could bring a cart or something in with them to transport large objects, if that was a thing in this game. With how much they appreciated realism and player freedom in this game, one could most likely do just that. Regardless, it was time to smash the Labyrinth Heart, as that was what the voice had called it, and clear both the dungeon and the quest.

It would take a few hits, or more than a few if it was Caelis or Raijin doing it by themselves since their damage output wasn't great, to smash it. The good thing was that it stayed stationary so they didn't have to worry about glancing blows. After it was finally broken, shattering into several pieces, a bright light enveloped the entire room. A window would appear for each of them, reading the following.

You have cleared the Dungeon. Earned 3 XP.

Caim got one additional window that the others had already received not too long ago.

Your Level has gone up by 1.

When visibility cleared, the three of them would be in a small, square room. To the north, a door outlined with light, indicating an exit. To the left, a regular looking treasure chest. To the right, a treasure chest that looked like the one on the left. The only difference was that this one had a small, brass lock shaped like a skull upon it. The room wasn't too big, so there wouldn't really need to be any looking around except for the two chests in front of them.
 
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