Improvised Strategy

"Siegmund!" Ignatius shouted. "Just dodge them and run back to where we first appeared! Careful of the lines on the floor!"

The Onion Knight immediately understood. He spun his two-handed claymore around him in a comical pattern as he staggered away from the six molten-fleshed Scab Fiends who were slashing him with fiery claws.

Siegmund tried to leap heroically over the lines of flame on the ground which the Scab Fiends left behind them, but he tripped and took an unfortunate amount of fire damage before moving past Ignatius. "Thank you for covering my tactical retreat!" the Onion Knight gasped. "What do we do now, my friend?"

Ignatius felt the sweat of tension running down his face—or was it just getting a lot hotter in the Hell-Iron Jungle? Considering all the open furnace doors and the flames zig-zagging across the floor, perhaps it was both.

He killed the second Scab Fiend which he'd already attacked, pushing Siegmund further backward so that neither of them took more than a tiny bit of damage from the explosion left by the monster's corpse.

"Hold on!" said Ignatius. "Protect yourself and eat some food to heal up." He dropped a [✧Bunch of Grapes] on the ground from his inventory, a food item which restored only a few seconds of the Hunger Clock but which also gave a small HP regeneration effect for the next ten seconds.

This early in the game, HP potions were far too expensive compared to the challenge Ignatius had expected the Eternal Tower to be. Or, rather, he knew that his biggest challenges would be floors full of AoE-focused enemies, and an HP potion would be nearly useless against that kind of threat.

It was a frustrating situation: Ignatius could defeat most enemies in 1v1 combat, especially if they relied on attacks he could parry. Basic HP potions gave a large heal immediately, then gave a trickle of healing over a few seconds. In most 1v1 fights, Ignatius could simply use his basic Monk Skill Gems to regenerate enough HP to outlast his enemy, like he'd done in his duel against Daemon.

But a swarm of weak AoE enemies would deal a constant stream of tiny amounts of damage, and a basic HP potion really wouldn't help much against that, except to buy a few seconds of time.

Since they cost ❖200 each, Ignatius simply hadn't bothered to buy any.

But one of those potions would come in extremely handy for Siegmund right now, since he had no way of regenerating his own HP except by dying. Ignatius cursed himself for not preparing for such an event.

Even as the six remaining Scab Fiends moved in, screaming and clawing at the air, Ignatius quickly checked his character menu to see how much Essence he had available.

╔══════════════╕

╟─╼Ignatius

╟─╼Monk LVL 7

╠══════════════╡

╟─╼Health Points: 100

╟─╼Energy Points: 100

╟─╼Power Rating: 235

╟─╼Essence: 2,207

╟─╼Crystal Coins: 101

╠══════════════╡

╟─╼ATTRIBUTES

║　╰╼[Vigor] 10

║　╰╼[Strength] 10

║　╰╼[Dexterity] 11

║　╰╼[Intelligence] 11

║　╰╼[Endurance] 10

║　╰╼[Luck] 10

╠══════════════╡

╟─╼ACTIVE SKILLS

║　╰╼[✧Sacred Fist] {⇝0.5 sec}

║　╰╼[✧Balance] {⇝2 sec|↻10 sec}

║　╰╼[✧Purgation] {↷10 EP|⇝2 sec|↻60 sec}

║　╰╼[✯Draw Energy] {⇝10 sec|↻60 sec}

╟─╼PASSIVE SKILLS

║　╰╼[N/A]

╠══════════════╡

╟─╼EQUIPMENT

║　╰╼R.HAND: [Empty]

║　╰╼L.HAND: [✧Dented Buckler]

║　╰╼HEAD: [✧Spirit Stone]┋[✧Sacred Fist]

║　╰╼TORSO: [✧Monk Robes]┋[✧Balance]

║　╰╼LEGS: [✧Monk Pants]┋[✧Purgation]

║　╰╼GLOVES: [✧Sarexia's Gauntlets]┋[✯Draw Energy]

╟─╼ACCESSORIES

║　╰╼BELT: [✧Monk Sash]

║　╰╼AMULET: [Empty]

║　╰╼R.RING: [✧Worn Tin Ring]

║　╰╼L.RING: [✧Worn Copper Ring]

╚═══════════════╛

Ignatius nodded grimly to himself. This was a very risky strategy, but the alternative was wasting all this progress when they were so close to beating the boss on the next floor. They were almost halfway to the Floor Ten checkpoint!

If Ignatius died now, he'd lose all 2,207 Essence he currently carried. Even if he gave it all to Siegmund and sent him to town, his death as a player would cause all this to vanish from Siegmund's inventory—as well as anything he'd bought with it before returning to the Eternal Tower.

And since he was a solo player and the floor would completely reset if every member of a party left it, there would be no way for Ignatius to reclaim his lost Essence from the Eternal Tower.

This was enough Essence to gain two more levels—not to mention all the useful items which could be bought with it.

So in a few heartbeats, even as the Scab Fiends closed in on them, Ignatius ran through every strategy in his mind, every combination of resources and tactics that he could imagine based on his many years of experience.

Then, despite the immense pressure of the moment, he smiled.

"SiegmundtakethisEssenceandgogetthesethingsfromtown!" He spoke as rapidly as possible, faster than a normal person would have been able to understand…

…But Siegmund was an NPC operating on the same logical framework that allowed humans who spoke completely different languages to understand one another perfectly. He immediately understood, saluted, and then vanished.

In the same instant, Ignatius turned and ran from the advancing enemies. He muttered a brief prayer as he went, hoping that his gamble would pay off.

Until Siegmund returned with the items Ignatius had requested, there was nothing to do but try to avoid the Scab Fiends and their fire trails as much as possible.

This was a difficult task. Ignatius felt like a toad as he leaped carefully over one flame line after another. Wherever the Scab Fiends walked, fire dripped from their molten skin and flesh to the hard ground below. It remained there, creating a hazard for players, until the Scab Fiend who left it died.

Since the Hell-Iron Jungle was such a cramped environment, full of oil-stained and dust-covered machinery that had been rusting there for many, many years, it was difficult to stay ahead of the enemy, and whenever Ignatius tried to cross back into a more open area, he had to deal with the fire trails again.

The only real benefit to the situation was that the Scab Fiends were a bit slower than he was, and that they lined up single-file to chase him when he ran between two piles of machinery or something similar.

That, at least, minimized the hazardous flame which was covering the floor more and more.

Ignatius ate food as he ran—grapes and cheese—to regain a bit of HP and restore his Hunger Clock while Siegmund was missing. "Come on," he muttered more than once. His vision was beginning to waver as he ran over the same portions of the map over and over, being extremely careful not to move deeper into the facility. If he triggered a second combat encounter while already evading the first, all hope would be lost.

All the while, Ignatius tried to ignore the fact that the atmosphere was growing drier and drier, hotter and hotter.

But when an alarming notification appeared, he could no longer ignore it.

GAME: The wrath of the Scab Fiends threatens to burn down the very facility which enslaves them! Until the flames are subdued, all creatures in the Hell-Iron Jungle take fire damage every second.

Ignatius cursed at nobody in particular. Everything just got worse and worse! Indeed, his HP began slowly draining, even though he wasn't touching any actual source of fire. And, of course, the Scab Fiends themselves were immune to fire damage...

Thinking quickly, Ignatius fixated on one line of the message: "Until the flames are subdued…" He led the Scab Fiends through the single remaining narrow passage which was not already consumed by their fire, a passage between the wall and a rack of tools which he'd been saving for a final emergency.

When the Scab Fiends followed in a neat line behind him, Ignatius found himself wishing he was a Gunslinger, so that he could have simply shot them all with [✧Piercing Shot].

Well, he 'wasn't' a Gunslinger, so there was no point wishing he was.

But once he had the Scab Fiends "trapped" in the narrow path, Ignatius spun around and drove a [✧Sacred Fist] into the lead monster. He repeated this twice more until it died, breaking apart until only its explosive core remained.

As confined as he was, Ignatius couldn't dodge as easily as before.

The explosion threw him free and left Ignatius with only 25% of his maximum HP. He groaned as he lay on the scorching ground… but to his relief, a large amount of the fire covering the ground faded away.

The environmental DoT stopped.

For the moment.

But the five remaining Scab Fiends, completely unaffected by their ally's explosion, were still coming. In a very short time, the ground would be burning as much as it had been just a moment ago, and Ignatius wouldn't survive much longer.

And just at that moment, Siegmund reappeared. "I found it!" he shouted, his voice nearly drowned out by the crackling flames.