The Raid Dungon Pt1

[Would your party like to enter: Lost Divinity Raid Dungeon?]

[YES/NO]

Standing at the edge of the pit, I make as if to step over the edge and find myself stopped by the world itself while this question appears before my face. It was exactly twenty minutes after Mistress and her party of ranger or assassin troops had entered the raid dungeon and all communication had been cut. As a dungeon, it looked like I had been right about storage.

For the occasion, I had helped in the crafting of weapons from the soul bone I had previously given out by blessing the blank crystalline bars I made. These weapons actually had a material perk of increased their damage to undead by half of the weapon's PATK value.

The simple transmuted swords made from the materials I gave out had between one-ten and one-twenty damage, proving the material's A grade in its appraisal. When my team made their own weapons, they were all at least one-fifty, adding seventy-five damage to their attacks against undead. They were equal to Hauntings.

When I produced, blessed, transmuted, and material enchanted my own fuller sword of black crystal, the weapon came out to a whopping one-eighty damage with three different blessings. However, this sword and Hauntings shared the same level restriction of one hundred. I was not restricted by this, of course, but nobody in the game could use my weapons besides me at the moment.

Because Hauntings had already grown enough to raise my stats by three after feeding on the lich lord, though, I did not intend to use any other weapon. If I was going to be fighting against undead, what weapon would I use besides one that eats undead?

"Yes," I say a minute after taking the step, having received readies from the other in my party.

Just like when Mistress and her team went in, the darkness of the pit rushed up from below to consume us and drag us down. For a brief moment there was the sensation of falling at an incredibly high speed with almost tons of G force and then there was nothing. A few moments later, the darkness vanished and I found myself standing on a large naked granite cliff. Near the end of the cliff were a small group of scouts while at the back was a large camp of collapsible rods and canvas still under construction.

The cliff itself jutted out from a sheer cave wall that stretched about a hundred feet up to the ceiling from our position. From the ground below, it the ceiling would be about a hundred yards overhead. Our cliff itself was only two hundred yards wide at the cave wall and stretched out in a broad triangle for about two hundred yards.

From what little I could see at the 'spawn point' in the center of the cliff, I could see a massive expanse of rock rubble and ruined architecture. Strangely, the ruins of a small city a mile or two in circumference were mostly lit up with buildings that still burned, spreading a bright green or purple glow over the surrounding areas. Only a handful of buildings in view still had walls, most of the outskirt areas were just rock and some ruined foundations.

Making my way forward toward the front end of the cliff the small city grows steadily in my field of view until I am standing among the scouts viewing the area with different kinds of equipment. Even without a magic telescope I could see that the middle areas of the small city were better preserved with larger structures mostly intact.

However, in these areas were several points of interest that did not sit well. Instead of just randomly burning perma-fire there were large fort or even castle-like structures of rubble spread throughout the middle of the city. In the middle of this crude encirclement stood what looked like a large manor or small mansion that belonged to the city's government.

About the tops of these crude buildings and areas were ghostly flames that illuminated the surrounding area to reveal hundreds of large and small bodies of various species.

I could not see them individually even after enhancing my vision but I could tell there were over a dozen different species and there were dozens upon dozens of these creatures all over the place. Worse, still, was that there were even smaller bodies that looked like a combination of skeletons or ghosts that followed the larger demonic bodies around.

"Report," I say to nobody in particular after attracting the attention of a few people viewing the city.

Standing upright and at attention, one man lowers his equipment and promptly replies, "The location appears to be occupied by six different demonic forces and all of them are reinforced with undead. We believe there is some greater purpose for the placement and occupation of the outpost ring around the city's castle but there is no evidence to support this just yet. However, sir, I think you should look down here," he replies, pointing downward at a ninety degree angle from the cliff so that it looked as though he were pointing nearly right below us.

Following his gesture, I find myself looking at a ruined cathedral of sorts with large stone and metal walls surrounding it that were still intact. However, outside of those walls were a few hundred obscure demonic bodies that looked like they were trying to destroy the wall. Despite their efforts, though, every attack on the wall was rewarded by a small burst of light and the attacker would briefly fly through the air.

"They're trying to get in the cathedral and something is keeping them out," the scout informs me simply, essentially stating the obvious. When we enter the city, the cathedral and its hallowed grounds would naturally be the place we should set up our camp and defenses. We think there's something important to the dungeon in there that we will need no matter what, from the effort they are putting in to get through."

I had spent the entire few seconds he spent talking examining the long domed style cathedral of white marble arches and looking through the numerous gaps in its long tiered roof. I guessed pretty much the same things he said within the first second, but I could tell something else from his report. This siege upon the cathedral was probably an eternal battle without give or take on either side like a permanent stalemate.

Why? Because there was nothing else of interest to report within their twenty minutes of scouting and securing camp. If they saw nothing but deranged demons throwing themselves at a padded wall in that time, then there was no reason to rush right now.

The cliff itself would become crowded soon enough when the party of mages and tanks finally arrived in another ten minutes. With a collective one-fifty players to deal with the situation, I was sure we could take the cathedral in a relatively short time. However, getting down would be the first issue we faced.

With my large pool of mana that was in the upper two thousands, this could be dealt with. After ascertaining our next destination and getting a good look at the ground below, I simply say, "Give me some space for a minute."

Growing out my wings at a cost of one-fifty MP apiece at the full flight size of ten feet apiece, I take out a two-part mana regen potion and quickly drink it before dividing my fingers out into three-pronged appendages. Once ten fingers became fifteen hollow tubes, I stared emptying out my mana pool spraying out thick cordycep silk cords spread out around the end of the cliff.

Once the assimilated Gigantula spider web was securely anchored with small coils of silk on the ground, I flap one hard time to rise over twenty feet in the air before angling out into a slowly gliding dive toward the cathedral. Draining away about a hundred mana per second in cordage, I am soon forced to stop and take a break only a third of the way down to make use of the last few ticks from the potion while my natural out-of-combat regen rate slowly replenishes.

Stopping only one more time with the assistance of another potion I soon arrive safely at the ruined belfry at the top rear of the cathedral. The belfry tower was broken off at the top at an angle to the ground where the bell and all had fallen through the building, but the back hundred feet of roof behind the belfry tower was still in relatively good repair.

Anchoring the new zip-lines of assimilated silk to the middle of the remaining belfry toward, I honestly wonder at whether or not the tower could maintain the weight of fifteen people at once. Not to mention storage containers. The fact that the camp being set up was the camp Thirteenth had provided showed that player inventory was not open here.

After letting my mana refill once more, I spend all of it all over again by spewing out a few hundred feet of thick silk cordage all over the roof for a hundred square feet of padding that was several inches thick. The very end of the zip-lines were about fifty feet above the roof, meaning the drop-point itself for the back of the roof top started at one hundred feet in height.

Players falling from those heights in heavy armor were not just at risk of hurting themselves but would probably end up hurting the roof. This much padding over such an area should be enough to absorb and disperse the shock of such heavy impacts all around.

Having secured our exit from the cliff and entry to the first destination, I take the opportunity to skim through my menus to check my currently restricted services. Private messages and private groups were disabled among friends, party chat was active, but all else in the Social window was restricted. As well, my player inventory was indeed inaccessible.

Sending a message to my party that transportation was secured and would be ready by the time everyone was together, I decide to take the time to do my own explorations since I was already here. All I needed to do was apply a light acid to to both the zip-lines and the padding, this acid was only strong enough to consume the proteinaceous adhesive of the silk and not the silk itself and would give the lines the ability to zip.

The anchor points only need a little bit of ice magic to deactivate the acid that comes into contact with it, protecting the security of the zip-lines.

Walking away around the tower toward the gaping hole the belfry itself left behind, I admire the green, almost glassy, flat stone shingles used to cover the cathedral roof. The little bit of firelight that reached the area reflected from the evidently holy structure, casting a dim and neutral green glow about the building itself. Whenever the walls around the cathedral would flash from the attacks of demons, those flashes would briefly reveal the entire world with bright green reflection.

The 'hallowed grounds' of the cathedral spanned for a few tens of acres to incorporate a large frontal gardens area and numerous walkways around small ponds and a self-sufficient stream throughout them. The intricately designed aqueduct was now dry and barred similar to all of the surrounding ground. There were not even the signs of any plants that might have once grown here, simply naked earth with some pits and cracks.

Off to the front sides were some smaller structures that had fallen into ruin, what purpose they serves was now purely up for speculation because there were no signs of anything but shadows among the dilapidated structures. The back sides of the property held two large and low buildings apiece that looked like they would be used for housing.

These buildings were in better repair with one-story rooftops that were only two stories below the three-story back half of the cathedral. In the very back of the property was a large gaping hole lined with rocks that might have once been a pond or pool of some sort while all the surrounding land was covered with the large chunky remains of headstones and mausoleum.

Despite the fact that most of the land in the graveyard was upturned and run through with fissures, the giant pond in the back did not appear to have a single stone out of place. If any of this was hallowed ground, so far, it would be the all the areas related to housing or water. The cathedral, the 'apartments', the pond, and the aqueduct.

Turning my attention back to the roof and the fifty-foot wide hole just a few yards away, I wait and watch for a while in the hopes of seeing anything within the cathedral. However, no matter what light or reflection and where- even a Firebolt cast through the hole itself- nothing inside the cathedral could be seen. "Is there anything I should know before I hop in there?" I ask of nobody in particular.

[Your notifications are turned off because the entire dungeon is registered as a combat zone]

"Thanks, that explains a lot," I reply before casually jumping down into the darkness. As soon as I entered the building, the darkness was gone and I found myself falling through a white-lit building with internal structure and furnishings that were still whole. Where torches and candles in chandeliers once burned now existed small but intense while soul-like flames all about the walls and along the center of the ceilings.

The place I lightly crouched down on was not the ruined belfry but a remodeled bell-house that looked to have been constructed from scraps. At the time of the belfry tower's breakage, there had been people here. Now, though, I could only look around at the rest of the sermon hall lined with hundreds of pews in which sat a few thousand… remains.

Many of them were not even in the pews but huddled together as friends and families as if their last moments had come knowingly and suddenly. However, they were all now bleached white skeletons that maintained the positions in which they died.

"Fuck this is creepy," I can't help but mumble to myself, only for things to become worse as my faint voice echoes in the otherwise silent space.

As if awoken by the sound of my voice, all of the nearby dozens and even further hundreds of skeletons suddenly shifted and I found countless blank skulls looking in my direction.

*