(58) The Black Knight

The journey back to the Dungeon was quite peaceful; a few weak parties and no other monster encounter.

Kraton found Lysine acting a bit too paranoid though, it was probably due to the encounter with the Orc that Lysine kept turning back and scanning the shrubbery every now and then.

Luckily no problems popped up and the two safely entered Ophid Crypt.

The time was 2.30 in the morning and they were both exhausted from the journey and the talking in the Gathering. Upon falling onto their 'beds', they instantly dropped into a deep slumber.

*Thud...**Thud...**Thud*

It felt like they had only slept for a few seconds when the room started reverberating. When the sound quietened down again, the two tired Bosses resumed their nap...

*THUD*

But only to be awoken my countless more 'thudding' noises. After a while, they gave up on trying to catch a few more hours of sleep as every time they did, the room would shake again.

Glancing at the time, it was pretty early for the players to raid their dungeon. The current Players who raided their Dungeon normally came at 7.00 or 8.00, yet it had hardly passed 5.00 in the morning when the loud knocks came.

From the loudness of the knocks, and intensity of the vibrations, it was apparent that a large, or many large fights were occuring in the floor above them. And when their were pauses in these vibrations, one could also hear the muffled sound of fights elsewhere.

Because of this, Kraton could determine that both Floor 3 and 4 were being grinded away.

For three whole hours the dungeon walls shook, yet not a single person had entered the Boss Room. At one point, the sounds directly above Floor Five had seemed to disappear. At that point, the two Bosses had thought that they had left; Barren was still hibernating in his crystal as he always did until he had to strike. Kraton envied the Golem, why couldn't he be a monster that could block out the noise?

However, the silence was like the calm before a storm. Well, a short sudden downpour.

Green and Blue glows suddenly sparked up, illuminating the crevaces in the doors. The bright glows were then followed by two or three loud crashes, a few yelps of pain and then it vanished like it never happened.

Outside the Boss Room, a small party made up of three people stood by the staircase. They looked into the wide room with looks of fear and astonishment.

One of the three was a large, broadshouldered man. He had primarily blonde hair, but had veins of white running through it. His hair was arranged in bun at the back of his head. A large, heavy scabbard hung on his waist.

On his chestplate, he had two vertical rectangles etched into it. Most large Guilds or Families used these symbols, or similar ones in order to distinguish rankings.

The common soldier had no mark, whilst the order of leaders would have one to three lines, then a circle and then a star. This signified the lowest to the highest in ranking and leadership respectively.

In most Guilds, every 1-line could command a squadron of ten soldiers, 2-lines could command three 1-lines and 3-lines could command three 2-lines, et cetera.

However, with Families, although some did use a similar scheme, they were more likely to be used as a way to differentiate power levels, as well as loyalty levels.

Those who had been with the family for several years would earn respect from the Family they served, and suitable wages would be given out for different ranks. The rankings were determined by either the Family, or the Family Descendant that was in charge of them.

Sometimes the ranking was a bit biased with favouritism, however those who were frieds with the descendants were normally more loyal.

"How did Young Master's brother even reach the Bosses?" The swordsman gaped at the room before the the Boss Room, he had merged three parties together to go and attack the Bosses, yet they were already killed before they reached the door!

The other two beside him felt relieved that they were close to the swordsman, and weren't sent to attack the Bosses too.

Since they couldn't even beat the doorguards, they retreated and returned to Floor Four, waiting for the soldiers to resurrect and return.

They had orders from whom they called the Young Master, who was also instructed by his family, to raid the dungeons for as much valuable loot as they could.

The Young Master was not the only descendant directed by the Family. Because of the current isssue of bankruptcy, the Family had sent out every single one of their descendants to a different region in the continent. Their goal was bring back as much loot as possible so they could sell it and stabilise their economy.

Since Ophid Crypt had been labelled a gold-mine, the family had sent one of their most powerful sons to the region near Florid Boulevard, and although he didn't come to the Dungeon himself, he had sent over twenty parties to this dungeon.

The broadshouldered Swordsman was put in charge of Floor Four and Five if he could handle it, but since it was clear that Floor Five was off-bounds, he soley diverted his attention into efficiently grinding in the fourth floor.

He had tried his luck in the bottom floor because he had found the Nagas a very tough foe. The serpentine warriors seemed to be able to disrupt their formations easily, no matter how many people they had, or how tight of a formation they made.

He had heard that there were two doorguards - and they were Crystal Golems. Since the aim was for valuables, the doorguards would definitely drop what they wanted.

Whith the initial assumption that they could overpower the two Golems with numbers, he had spent some time to devise a plan to maximise their speed in killing the Golems.

Yet, even with precautions in the formation, a single blow from the Golems had completely shattered their line of defence.

As a general, he had to report back any results and problems to his superior. Although it was embaressing, he submitted his his Floor Five report whilst he waited for the soldiers to return.

Somewhere else in the territory of Florid Boulevard, in a Dungeon made of aquamarine bricks, a young man with short, blonde hair recieved a signal from the metal rock in his pocket.

He took out the small device and pressed a few buttons. Soon after, a few lines of text were projected above the stone.

"Useless", he snorted as he dodged aside. A strong gale of wind cut right were he was standing, a dirty trident was embedded into the ground, puddles of water suddenly cut open, splashing wildly, as though they hadn't realised that the trident had already finished its attack.

After reading through the text, the young man put the device away. He glanced up at the entity who chucked the trident. It was a humongous, spectral being, with a long greyish beard and had seaweed intwined in it. Ontop of its head was a large, mossy crown with a greyish-blue gem stuck in the middle.

The Spectre was the Boss of Undead Trench Dungeon; it was the strongest Boss, and the highest ranked Dungeon in Florid Boulevard's region. It was a level 52, 3-star Dungeon, and was difficult due to the numerous undead species that resided in it.

The Boss - a Spectral Fisherman, was almost completely immune to physical attacks that were not coated with mana, but even then it would not do too much. Furthermore, the intangibility trait of the Spectre also carried over to it's trident. By will, it could penetrate through the thickest defences, such as shields with ease.

Although it couldn't do the same with worn armour as the trident could not change it's tangible state whilst in another item.

"Roar!" The Spectral Fisherman cried out in anger when it saw that its attack had been evaded. The monster raised its fists and slammed them down, smashing the surface of the water ontop of the ground.

Ripples spread out wildy, and lthe large pools of waters spread out across the room also responded. The water started to rise, forming a large, thick wall. When the Spectre clapped its hands, the wlls of water crashed down, approaching the young man.

The man looked at the waves in disgust, he crinkled his nose as a putrid smell wafted past him. The smell was as bad as the water looked; all green and dirty, bones could be seen floating inside the mass of water, there was even a few undead who had been drowned in the lakes of water, unable to swim out on their own.

He brushed his blonde hair back relaxingly, unconcerned with the Spectre's attack. He raised his other hand calmly and a black light flowed out of his palm.

As the horrid wave approached, the black tendrils of light expanded violently, dimming the space in front of him in darkness.

*Crash*

Suddenly, a dark, black blade burst out of the ground, cutting the wave in two. As the water collided, it appeared to disintegrate into nothingness.

The black blade continued to rise, and shortly after the hilt had appeared, a fist had also shown up, clenched around the handle and pushing against the ground.

After the fist, followed an arm, and then a head and a body. The figure looked like a heavy knight, but the armour was black and jagged. The Black Knight was as massive as the Spectral Fisherman, and the giant sword glimmered and shrunk slightly.

The blade of the sword was pure black, the opaque colour made it seem like a void without an outline, it felt eery.

The large, darkness that clouded the blade before was like a shadow, although it was attached to the blade instead of the floor. It was made of the aura of death and corrupted the life around it.

The young man looked miniscule next to the two Giants. He was lucky the room was massive, otherwise it would have been hard to summon such a big monster.

With a flick of his wrist, the Black Knight swung its deathly sword at the Spectre. Sensing the danger, the Spectre reached out, its trident flew out of the ground and lunged towards the Black Knight.

The Black Knight spun around without stopping, it continued travelling towards the Spectral Fisherman even though it's back was turned towards it. With a twirl, the Black Knight slashed at the trident, a loud clang reverberated and sparks flew out.

The power of both weapons were equal, but since the Black Knight still held on to his sword, it could push with its own physical strength, blasting the trident aside.

Before the Spectre could call its trident again, the Black Knight swung round, inertia carried it right in front of the Spectral Fisherman.

Although the sword was physical, it was enveloped in a deathly aura. Holy aura or light energy would be effective againts undead and dark creatures as it could purify, burn or blind them, but the aura of death would still work on the spectre, exactly how a normal sword would still cut flesh.

With a silent heave, the sword accelerated, plunging through the Spectral Fisherman's head even before it could defend.

The head fell off the etheral body, but it had not yet died. The young man approached the giant head before the decapitated body could. With his palm outstretched, wisps of darkness pierced into the diamond-shaped gem in the crown.

The wisps concentrated and sped up, and cracks began to form on the surace. With a final push, the gem shattered and the giant fist of the headless body dissipated before it could smash the young man.

The man waved his hand nonchalantly and the Black Knight disolved away.

He then made his way towards where the etheral body disappeared an picked up a few items: a fishing net and a few bundles of seaweed of different colours.

"It was as poor as it looks. Waste of my time." The young man snorted, he had been assigned by his family to bring back valuable loot and was sent to the region of Florid Boulevard.

When he arrived, he identified the highest ranked dungeon in the area, assuming more powerful equals better loot. Yet all he got was a fishing net and some useless weeds.

He chucked the net away, but still pocketed the seaweed. Although they were not expensive at all, they were still quite rare. Any little bit of money would help his family right now, but if its value was too insignificant, he could always brew a soup with it.

On his way out, he seemed to have remembered something and checked themetal stone device again. "Ophid Crypt? Is that the one with gems? Sigh, If it wasn't for the money, I would have never wasted my time here." He muttered as he strolled towards the town centre, planning to check the value of the weeds first.