Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Dungeon, penultimate floor

Eldi created Lightning Walls between him and the boss, not because he thought it was going to fall into them, but to buy time. And while the monster was going round them quickly, he used Stand with three of their spears and raised an Earthen Wall to hide them. Then he left, waiting for the right moment.

When it had him in line of shot, the enormous dog shot two Fireballs that Eldi was already expecting and dodged. Then, he run towards the tunnel, that wasn't far. But, as he thought it was going to happen, it got in his way. And was about to launch two more Fireballs from closer.

He used Earthquake and Propel, interrupting and stunning it, and exhausting his energy a little more. Then, he ran to the Earthen Wall he had created. After recovering and as he expected, as it was the same distance as on the previous occasion, the hellhound used Pounce again. Given the speed of this skill, he had no choice but to entrust himself to Feline Response, the last he could use it in a while. It was risky but it went well, because the floor boss hit the wall and was impaled by the spears he had hidden, and were fixed on the ground.

Immediately and before it could release itself, he cast a Lightning Wall and two Burning Walls on it, which was stunned by the effect of the wall. Immediately, he attacked with the hammer, thus getting spears penetrate more into its body. He didn't use any skill, since his energy was low.

Stuck in the trap and unable to make use of its agility, the monster soon succumbed to the continuous attacks of the hammer, the fire imbued in it, the spears stuck in its body and the walls. And meanwhile, Stand had risen to 4.

A regenerated fairy took charge of picking up the weapons that were around, and other two gathered the fungi and some veins of metal from the cavern, while Eldi rested next to the passage to the next floor. And when he finally went down to the penultimate floor, Eldi again headed straight for the rest area.

The next day, at least from his perspective, he left the area and began to walk the tunnels. He found veins of magical metal, as in the other floors, which indicated that this dungeon hadn't been visited in recent times. Or it hadn't been by someone capable of identifying and extracting minerals.

He also found fungi, with the novelty of one with hallucinogenic properties, which could be refined in some type of drug. He didn't like it, but he kept it in spite of it.

What bothered him the most was having no found any monster. It reminded him of the first floor, where the slimes were gathered in a large cavern. And, while thinking on them, his bat-sensor warned him that something was nearby, probably in a side tunnel that opened a little farther on.

In fact, what he found was not a tunnel, but a cavity in which there was a huge worm four meters long and one in diameter. And it shot him a strange substance as soon as he appeared. As a precaution and to raise the level, he was always wearing Projectiles against me?, which blocked the substance.

What was shot to him was a corrosive acid, probably similar to that of the slime. That monster was a cave worm, a blind being, capable of shooting acid, with quite resistance to magic and to most physical attacks. It can also throw himself against its prey. In the game, it was an annoying monster, but it had a weak point for those who were skilled with piercing weapons.

Eldi moved away when he saw that the worm was contracting like a metal spring, so the monster failed and hit the other wall. Without hesitation, the man took the spear and, using Perforating Impact, pierced its head. An attack like that at another point would only have done some damage, but that was its weak point, something that Goldmi knew how to exploit perfectly. She could kill hundreds of them by using a single arrow for each, something Eldi knew he wouldn't be able to do. He didn't have the skills to pierce that skin to such an extent.

He continued to explore the cave, using Mill against the few worms he encountered and having uneven luck with Javelin. And he found nothing worth mentioning until, as in the case of the slimes, he found a huge cavern.

The worms weren't at the ceiling, but piled around a huge worm three meters in diameter and twelve meters long. And as soon as they felt his presence, they began to move and shoot him. Soon, the exit of the tunnel was impregnated with that corrosive acid, which could damage the lance while using Mill, as he had soon discovered.

Eldi had already left the entrance when the first worm arrived and used Metal Spring in his direction. He dodged it easily, and pierced it with the spear, as well as the next. But they soon arrived in greater numbers.

The Frozen Walls were good at delaying them, and were doing some damage but not enough. And they couldn't stop them from shooting, while Earthen Wall could only manage to hold them for a second. The worms soon accumulated at the entrance to the tunnel, one above the other, all moving towards him and shooting, without worrying about hitting their kin.

He tried the arrows, but as expected, they weren't very effective for someone not expert in archery. Mill was able to stop the acid from the worms, although he couldn't trust everything in that skill. With so many at once, the speed at which the spear degraded increased. And although he had several, he couldn't just waste them.

Without a plan to confront this mass of worms, he moved backwards, letting the walls to slowly damage the monsters, too slowly. He had already placed more than fifteen walls, testing all types, and his mana pool was less than half. So, they would be insufficient to kill them.