Chapter 158. Maulwood
Happy with the gains, Michael continued his hunt.
Except for the annoying Corpse Balista along the way, all other monsters fell quickly. By now, he realized that this Dungeon was also a mix between undead and spiders, which turned out to be quite disgusting in its own right.
The statue motifs didn't change as he ventured deeper in, and all of them were of women, making Michael even more curious about this place's story.
The third construct soon appeared, and the Unique Elite guarding it stepped up to the plate after its destruction.
[ Malduxus Deathtrap (Elite) - Level 47
*Waller: Manipulates the earth to create a wall around the target. ]
With more Rare item boxes gained, the Necromancer didn't complain about the lack of higher quality loot but instead rejoiced at the prospect of selling everything and recovering his lost money.
The fourth Skeletal Construct also fell, and after the Unique Elite died, the Dungeon Quest changed.
[ Woxith Blightcal (Elite) - Level 47
*Summoner: Creates three summoning circles through which demonic creatures can be called upon every 2 minutes. ]
[ Dungeon Quest update - Defiled Catacomb
Objective: Slay the Gate Keeper and collect the Catacomb Key. ]
Realizing that it should be another powerful Elite ahead, Michael rested for a couple of minutes, after which he continued his search of this Gate Keeper.
Upon finding the mini-boss, Michael realized it was alone, and its modifiers were not summoning-related, making dealing with it a bit of a hassle. Thankfully, his own minions were enough to tank it.
[ Defiled Catacomb Gate Keeper (Elite) - Level 47
*Cold Enchanted: All attacks deal an extra 350 Cold damage.
*Frozen: Summons five balls of frost. Upon explosion, they freeze and deal 500 fixed damage in a five-meter radius. ]
The minions died multiple times, but there was nothing the Gate Keeper could do except die.
After collecting the key, which was a Quest Item, the Dungeon updated its objective.
[ Dungeon Quest update - Defiled Catacomb
Objective: Use the Catacomb Key to open the Catacomb Door. ]
'How... straightforward...'
Upon seeing the Boss room, Michael replenished his stock of Healing Potions at the Healing Well and ventured in.
To his surprise, the Boss wasn't an undead or the witch he hoped to see, but a seven-meter-long spider instead.
[ Broodguard (Boss) - Level 47 ]
To make matters even more disgusting, the Boss used three main skills besides its normal melee attacks.
One would throw silk webs randomly around the room, impeding the movement speed of the Necromancer and his summons.
The second would summon some hulking corpses, which, once killed, would explode and throw around tens of spiders in a five-meter radius.
The last was the worst, as it hurled five balls of poison at the target, which would stay on the floor if missed until someone or something stepped in it. Then, the poison would come alive and devour the said foolish person until it was dead or somehow managed to out-heal the 15 seconds' worth of poison debuff.
Fortunately, Michael had his 'noble' Reapers to take the brunt, so he used them as meatshields.
Each time the five balls of poison appeared, the minions would sacrifice themselves. Then, the Necromancer would resummon them and repeat the cycle.
After a grueling forty minutes since the spider Boss wasn't stupid enough to stay in his Corpse Explosion blast, he finally cleared the Dungeon and collected his first Legendary item of the day.
"Let's see what this puppy is."
[ Osseous Gale Enigma Cube
Legendary Focus
492 Item Power
-----------------
336 Damage per Second (+336 when compared to the currently equipped item)
* [224 - 336] Damage per Hit
* 1.20 Attacks per Second
* +4.5% Cooldown Reduction
------------------
* +9 to All Stats
* +19.5 Basic Skill Damage
* +2.3% Lucky Hit Chance
* +3.2% Damage Reduction while Fortified
Legendary Aspect: Your Bone Storm consumes up to 8 Corpses to increase its duration up to 8 seconds. (Necromancer Only). ]
The item itself and its attributes were decent, but the Legendary Aspect was amazing!
By using it, his Ultimate skill could almost double its duration to a total of 18 seconds. That also meant that the damage it dealt would severely increase as well.
Just imagining both him and his Quarterback charging into enemy lines while having this skill active was enough to give him chills.
'I'll return to Nevesk to sell my other items first, then go to Kyovashad. If I can extract and imprint this Aspect on any of my rings, it would be a huge win!'
As he wanted to help the local economy as best as he could, the many items sold in Nevesk bolstered his gold reserves with an extra 190,922.
'Now I have 439,036 gold coins. *Sigh* I'm so stupid... I could just farm items in the Dungeons and sell them to get quickly to the one million goal...'
Reminding himself of the Ring of Communication, which he could use to constantly keep in touch with Helen, the Necromancer pumped himself up and traveled back to Kyovashad.
Michael grinned happily after paying another 33,144 gold coins to extract the Aspect.
[ Osseous Gale Offensive Aspect
Legendary Aspect
492 Item Power
--------------------
Your Bone Storm consumes up to 8 Corpses to increase its duration up to 8 seconds.
Allowed Item types:
*One-handed weapons
*Two-handed weapons (Power increased by 100%)
*Gloves
*Amulet (Power increased by 50%)
*Rings. ]
After paying another 4,322 gold coins and 2 Veiled Crystals, he imprinted the Aspect onto his Loop of Gore Quills, transforming it into Osseous Gale Loop.
Nodding, satisfied, he also checked his experience bar. With 172,192/254,065, he realized just how much of a difference the Elixirs made when it came to leveling up.
'There's also the increasing experience needed per level. But going at this rate, I should be able to meet my goal of clearing all the Dungeons in Fractured Peaks before Level 50.'
Checking the time and seeing that it was already 11:12 AM, Michael hurried to Margrave.
From there, he traveled to the Maulwood Dungeon, which he discovered when he explored the mining tunnels for the first time.
Getting rid of some Worgen on the way, the Necromancer entered Maulwood.
[ Dungeon Quest issued - Maulwood
Objective: Slay the bandit sentries. ]
Scratching his head at the subverted expectations, Michael began his exploration.
Obviously, more Wargs, Volkdaks, and Wood Wraiths stood in his path, making him realize that the Dungeon should be a combination of Worgen, walking trees, and bandits.
Among the lot, the Wood Wraiths were the worst to deal with. They were slow, but once they hit, the Reapers would die in one shot.
The first Dungeon Quest objective was soon found also.
[ Bandit Sentry, Defender of the Woods (Elite) - Level 47
*Terrifying: Summons four spell circles on the ground. Targets affected by it would fall into 'Terrified' status. Targets inflicted with Terrifying would become 'Vulnerable' for three seconds.
*Explosive: Explosions send shockwaves around the creature afflicted with this modifier, dealing 550 damage to its surroundings. ]
Its modifiers were a disgusting combination, as they sent his minions in a vulnerable state, after which the sentry would close in on them and explode randomly.
Throughout the fight, the minions were resummoned more than seven times.
The second sentry was even worse as it had the same modifier as its predecessor, but also Chilling Wind on top of those, turning Michael's Cold Mages useless.
Fortunately, the third sentry didn't have four modifiers and instead just swapped out the Chilling Wind for Teleportation.
After it fell alongside another Wood Wraith Elite, Michael found a note on the ground from it.
[Gregor, need a word with you. Fence says the math doesn't add up right. Says she saw you skulking around the reserves last night. Says we're short two boxes of the good stuff.
No need to worry. I know you'll make it right. And I know you'll come and tell me exactly how. I'd hate to let you go. The Wargs like you, my friend. But they like fresh meat too. Think on that.]
Reading the note from the bandit boss, Michael sweated for the poor Gregor. As for what the 'good stuff' was, it was alcohol, most likely.
If Gregor was fed to the Worgen or not, he probably wouldn't find out anytime soon, but the Sanctuary nagged him to complete the conquest of the Dungeon before worrying about silly stuff.
[ Dungeon Quest update - Maulwood
Objective: Travel to Skeletal Rise. ]
Sighing while hoping that a third type of enemies don't join the existing annoying ones, the Necromancer proceeded deeper in.
After encountering a Trap Room, he also realized how problematic his new Aspect was. It was indeed quite impressive for the Bone Storm to last longer and deal more damage as a result, but the Corpses it would use were detrimental to his current build.
If he didn't have the Reapers to generate more... it would've been quite catastrophic.
Annoyingly, the new Quest he got was to destroy 3 Skeletal Constructs, where he pretty much repeated Defiled Catacomb's whole run, where he would wreck the constructs and then kill the Elites that spawned from it.
Halfway through the fight with the second Elite, he leveled up and wrapped it up faster than he initially expected.
[ Class: High Necromancer
Attack Power: 639
Armor: 3,121
Life: 2008
--------------
Strength: 256
Intelligence: 309
Willpower: 331
Dexterity: 284 ]
The changes weren't on a scale that would drop one's jaw, but progress was good!
He managed to abruptly complete Maulwood after the third Skeletal Construct fell, but his exploration continued since more parts of the Dungeon were covered by fog on the MAP.
After clearing droves of bandits and undead, he finally walked in on a Cursed Chest Event but only had to kill the chest's guardian this time around.
The Resplendent Chest contributed two more Rare boxes, as well as the second Legendary item of the day. It was a pair of boots!
'A good find! Now, I'll go to Menestad first and sell the useless items for more gold coins and then travel to the Bear Tribe Refuge. I have one Dungeon left to clear, and it's already 1 PM. I should hurry a bit.'
The sold items increased his gold hoard by an additional 157,000. With the rest of the gold coins looted throughout the Dungeons, he was now past half a million and had 568,570 to his name.
What he was mostly proud of was the new pair of boots. Not only was it better than the old Rare quality one, but the Aspect on it solved his issue of having sufficient Corpses.
Furthermore, it was the Aspect on the Legendary helm he salvaged early this morning.
[ Hulking Boneweave Treads
Legendary Boots
507 Item Power
-----------------
254 Armor (+30 compared with the currently equipped item)
* Attacks reduce Evade's Cooldown by 0.6 seconds
-----------------
* +24 Dexterity
* +13.0% Fortify Generation
* +13.5% Shadow Resistance
* + 1 Rank of Corpse Tendrils (Necromancer Only)
Legendary Aspect: Your Golem has a 10% chance to reduce its active Cooldown by 2 seconds and a 5.0% chance to spawn a Corpse each time it attacks an enemy with a normal attack. (Necromancer Only). ]
[ Lurking Striders
Rare Boots
448 Item Power
-----------------
224 Armor (+124 when compared to the currently equipped item)
* Evade grants +30% Movement Speed for 1 second.
------------------
* +8 to All Stats
* +1.2% Dodge Chance
* +5% Movement Speed ]
While losing +8 to All Attributes was slightly bad, all the other stuff the Legendary boots offered was much better.
Furthermore, the skull motif on them matched the skulls on his pants quite well, making him look like a proper Necromancer.
'Not to mention that now I have my Corpse Tendrils to 5/5. Happiness really came too quickly today. Let's finish Zenith, and then I'll go rest. Helen wanted me to cook for them tonight as well.'
Teleporting to the Bear Tribe Refuge, Michael mounted his horse and went through the Serac Rapture to the Zenith Dungeon's location.
There wasn't much intel on this one, so the Necromancer was tasked with collecting every bit of information he found relevant and bringing it back to the City Guards.
On his way there, he found another weird statue with a faded plaque, similar to the one he saw in the mining tunnels between Yelesna and Margrave. If that one depicted an angel of death, this one was of a woman holding a triangular object in her hands. The object was also chained to the ground for some reason.
"Let's see... 'Atone... thy darkest... sins.' *Sigh* Can't make out more than those words. Still... there's the same strange violet magic circle in front of the statue under the snow... I should tell the girls about this just in case it's something important."
He found the Dungeon again and saw statues of idols made of gold under the melting snow.
It was a very interesting decoration choice, this close to Kor Valar and Inarius's residence. Though, judging from how weather-worn it was, something told him it was more than ancient.
"Still... it's almost spring, huh?"
Looking around, Michael entered Zenith and prepared to clear the final Dungeon of the day.