Dungeon Guild Read online

  Just as he was settling into position, he heard Sh1fty in the party chat say, “Now”. Without thinking too hard about it, Devin triggered his Backstab ability and aimed his twin knives toward the gap near his targets’ neck. His right Fang entered deep into the Commanders’ neck, while the left skidded off the helmet which moved slightly when the right one entered the gap. Disappointed that he didn’t get both in at the same time, he was nevertheless pleased when he got a critical strike on top of the backstab bonus. Unfortunately, even with all that damage he only was able to take off about half of his target’s health points.

  Knowing he was in a world of hurt if it came to a face-to-face confrontation, he looked around the room to see how the rest of the party had fared. Toward the back of the tent, both the Wizard and the Cleric were down on the ground with four to five arrows each in their backs. Sh1fty had used his razor before the fight to cut small slits in the tent near the casters so that Gahbriyelle and Strang3r could fire straight into the tent when the time was right. Their aim was so accurate that they were able to fire multiple arrows through a three-inch hole which was practically invisible unless you knew where to look.

  Satisfied that there wouldn’t be any opposition from that front, he looked toward the next worst threat – the Assassins. De4th had used his Execute skill on his target and instantly killed him – while Sh1fty was still contending with his Assassin in the corner. The Thief was winning due to the surprise attack in the beginning and the fact that all of his attacks had numerous poisons inflicting DOTs on his target. Although the conclusion wasn’t in doubt, they didn’t have a lot of time to mess around.

  Running toward the Assassin that Sh1fty was tangling with, he watched as De4th engaged the other Commander who hadn’t seen any battle yet. With a flying leap, Devin launched his body toward the back of the stealther in the corner with his Fangs extended. Not expecting the additional attack, the Assassin went down under the weight of the Rogue with two knives stuck in his back. Although it didn’t kill him, he was in no position to defend himself as Sh1fty stabbed down with his own knives and nearly decapitated the prone Assassin.

  Devin rose to his feet quickly, after retrieving his Fangs from the back of the dead player. It was just in time as he looked up to see the Commander that he had initially Backstabbed running toward them. He dove out of the way of a clumsy strike from the player and rolled to his feet about ten feet away. At least it looked clumsy – it could be that my Agility makes him look so slow and predictable. Or he’s just disoriented from the sudden attack. Either way, Devin wasn’t going to allow him to get his bearings – he needed to take control of the fight.

  With a quick look toward Sh1fty, he tried to convey his plan toward the Thief who nodded and started circling around the Commander whose attention was solely on the one who had hurt him so much initially. If players had aggro, then this massive tin can was fully aggroed on Devin – which was fine with him. He started quickly dodging all of the strikes thrown his way while attempting to land any type of damage on his opponent. There was a reason why a Rogue shouldn’t try to go up against a tank in a fair fight – there was too much damage mitigation. Each of his strikes did little to no damage because they kept skidding along the plate armor worn by the player. The one hit that got through on the elbow joint did so little damage that Devin despaired of ever killing this guy.

  Fortunately, he didn’t have to do it himself. As he barely dodged another sword swipe, he saw the Commanders’ knees suddenly fold forward and found Sh1fty standing behind the plate-wearing tank with a smile on his face. After literally cutting his opponents’ legs out from under him, he executed a precision stab with both of his knives into the same gap Devin was trying to hit at the beginning of the battle. The defeated player fell forward onto his face and stopped moving.

  Throwing quick thanks toward the Thief, he turned toward the remaining Commander. De4th wasn’t struggling per se, but he wasn’t making any progress either. Just like a Rogue going up against a tank, there wasn’t much that the Assassin could do to damage him – he could dodge and avoid all sorts of attacks but that didn’t help the situation. Devin and Sh1fty ran to help but before they could get there, they observed two arrows protruding from the eye slit of their opponent. The arrows themselves didn’t cause a whole lot of damage due to the high health points of the Commander, but they did make it hard for him to see.

  Devin looked out the entrance and saw the two Rangers aiming inside the tent again, but it was too late. De4th had taken advantage of the momentary blindness of his opponent and quickly moved behind him. A short flurry of stabs into the smallest gaps in his armor and the Commander was quickly choking on his own blood.

  Silence reigned in the tent as the five combatants stopped to catch their breath after the intense fight. Suddenly, Devin remarked, “Uh, we should hurry – I’m pretty sure the rest of the camp heard that.”

  Sh1fty chuckled softly and responded, “We do have to hurry but the rest of the camp didn’t hear anything – I used my very expensive Thief-use only spell scroll to keep all sounds within this tent. It’s called Golden Silence, and I popped it as soon as we entered the tent. It keeps all sounds from carrying more than ten feet from the source – because ‘Silence is Golden’, and silence usually leads to gold in my profession.”

  Mollified for the moment, Devin looked toward the center of the tent where the stack of crates stood waiting for them. There were crates of all different sizes, stacked on top of each other with no discernable pattern. There must have been almost 50 of them, and if it wasn’t for his special connection to the Dungeon Core it would have taken quite a bit of time to search through all of them. As it was, all Devin had to do was step closer and he homed in on an unassuming, average-sized box nestled under three others. He moved some boxes off the top and as soon as he touched the one he was fixated on he knew he had found it. “Here—” was all he got out before he heard an alarm raised close by in the camp.

  Although there wasn’t supposed to be any way to contact those in the game from the outside, one of the players they had just killed must have found a way. Either that, or they were being monitored closely and someone saw that they had all logged off around the same time. It didn’t matter in the long run because now they had to escape quickly. Turning to Sh1fty, he told him to start the group teleport to get them out of there.

  “I’ve been trying to use this fucking thing since the alarm was raised. This piece of shit doesn’t work because we have possession of the Core. It must be why Divine Truth didn’t teleport back to their castle with it – they couldn’t.” A veritable tide of curse words followed this statement from Sh1fty as Devin tucked the box under his arm – he didn’t have time to open it up right now. As he did this, he noticed something in the corner of his vision. He concentrated on it and received an urgent system notification:

  You have retrieved the Dungeon Core!

  You now have 39 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes, and 37 seconds to return the Core!

  As a reminder, most restrictions on the DUMB have been lifted in order to use any and all means necessary to return the Dungeon Core – these include:

  The level cap of the DUMB is eliminated while the core is missing – if the core is returned the cap is reinstated to the level cap on the strongest floor

  Travel restrictions are eliminated

  Communication and trade between the DUMB and testers is permitted – outside communication is still restricted

  The DUMB may join parties, raids, and even guilds of testers to retrieve the Core

  While it is in your possession, all parties and raids the DUMB is a part of will receive the bonuses attributed to the Dungeon Core

  Current bonus: 12% increase to all damage dealt, all resistances, experience gained, and currency looted

  An additional restriction has been imposed on all carriers of the Dungeon Core: No teleportation is allowed, and it may only be transported on foot – no mounts are allowed.

  I
f the Core is not returned to the dungeon within the time limit, the current dungeon “Altera Vita” will be reset back to its original ND101208 configuration and all extraneous programs will be deleted.

  Good Luck!

  Well, there goes that plan. They were anticipating being able to teleport out of the camp with the Core but with the restriction on it they were going to have to find another way. He looked toward Sh1fty, but he was facing De4th with an expression of anticipation. It appeared that with the theft out of the way, the guild leader was going to take over again.

  De4thfrmbeh1nd ran his fingers through his hair in what appeared to be a nervous tic, and announced, “Alright people, this is what we’re going to do…”

  Chapter 6

  Devin only started slowing down as he reached the scouts on the fringe of the Reckless camp. With the morning light just starting to lighten the sky, he continued to follow behind De4th and Sh1fty. He saw that they were heading for the command tent – which was where he needed to go as well. As they passed by tents set up by the Reckless guild members – and even a smattering of other small guilds – they heard cheers and congratulations from everyone they encountered. It wasn’t so loud that they would alert the neighborhood of their location, but the enthusiasm was there.

  The guild leader and lieutenant entered the command tent and Devin followed right along. As he entered, he saw the other two lieutenants he had met previously – EyesHlzU and St4lwartshield – along with some others that he didn’t know. As De4th walked by two low-level Mages that were standing near the entrance, he pulled them aside, quickly murmured instructions, and sent them away. Clapping then greeted their entrance and additional congratulations followed in its wake. De4th graciously accepted the praise but insisted that they got down to business.

  “Thank you all – however, we wouldn’t have succeeded if it wasn’t for Devin here. He led us unerringly to the Core when we would have been searching for hours otherwise. Now, we’ve got to get moving as fast as possible – we’ve got an entire guild on our heels looking to take back what we just stole from them. I’ve already ordered the camp stricken and we’ll be moving out shortly. I’ll answer any other questions on the move. Now, let’s go!” De4th acted on his own orders and started heading out of the tent.

  Devin, still holding the crate containing the Dungeon Core, looked lost until EyesHlzU came up and led him out of the tent toward the eastern part of the camp. Looking around, he was amazed at how much progress had been made in just the little time they were all gathered in the command tent. Most of the tents were taken down already and players were streaming toward the east and gathering together, waiting on orders to leave. As Devin walked, he realized that he was extremely tired after the last couple of hectic hours. Still in a bit of a daze over what had happened, he realized Eyes was asking him questions and he was inadvertently ignoring her. “I’m sorry…what was that again?” he asked apologetically.

  “I asked why you all didn’t teleport back to the camp like we expected you to. Don’t tell me you lost the teleport scrolls?”

  He tiredly drudged up the answer to her question, “I wish that we had teleported – we had a hell of a time getting back here. To answer your question, anyone in possession of the Dungeon Core cannot teleport or use mounts to transport it. It must all be done on foot. When we found that out, we thought we were screwed – especially when the alarm sounded shortly after retrieving our objective. If it wasn’t for Gahbriyelle and Strang3r we wouldn’t have made it back. They sacrificed themselves to ensure we got back safe with the Core.”

  “How did you guys manage to survive an entire guild coming after you?” Eyes asked him.

  Devin thought about the horrific ordeal they had suffered through on their escape from the Divine Truth camp. He emotionlessly recounted the experience to Eyes as they walked. “When we left the tent where we found the Dungeon Core, we dropped any thought of a stealthy escape and booked it for the edge of camp. We stayed near the tents on the way out for as much cover as possible, but by that time players and NPCs were streaming out of their tents and were getting in our way. Fortunately, they got in each other’s way as much as us. The mass confusion caused by the alarm, coupled with the secrecy of where the Dungeon Core was actually hidden, made it possible for us to blend into the crowd and safely arrive at the perimeter.

  “It was only when we passed the last row of tents that we were spotted. The sentry guards had turned their attention to the camp and easily spotted us as we emerged. Charging straight for the chainmail-armored NPC guard directly in front of us, we easily overpowered him with a combination of critical strikes from De4th and Sh1fty and precise arrow shots from Strang3r and Gahbriyelle. He was dead in mere moments, but by that time the damage was done. The commotion brought on by the battle had drawn all the players looking for us near the tents.

  “We immediately ran for the trees along the edge of the clearing, hoping to lose them amongst the dense foliage. I guess we all knew it was a forlorn hope that they wouldn’t be able to track us – despite being mainly raid-focused in their daily routine, they were still a top-tier guild. This meant that if their players weren’t the best-of-the-best, they were damn near close. They were on us in less than a minute.”

  Devin started jogging after those ahead of him, trying to catch up with the rest of the group who had moved further through the forest. It was difficult to move too quickly through the forest – it was essential to watch where you were walking. He knew from experience that hidden roots just seemed to leap up at the most inopportune times. As they reached the rest of the group, Devin continued explaining to EyesHlzU about their escape.

  “A party of four Hunters caught up to us as we were discussing which direction to take. We had thought that we had done a good job at camouflaging our tracks, but with the appearance of the Hunters it didn’t matter. De4th told me later that they could track down a specific flea at a dog show – that was their specialty. Since we weren’t going to be able to escape, we had to fight. Armored head to toe in leather gear, the four Hunters were deadly with both ranged and melee weapons – as we found out.

  “Two of the Hunters stayed back and fired directly at me. I was fortunate that my Agility was so high – even holding the crate I was able to dodge both arrows rather easily. Of course, they were only a distraction for the other two who were in my face as soon as both arrows whizzed past. I was saved from a nasty decapitation by a wicked-looking short sword when De4th slid in and intercepted the strike meant for me. That first loud clang was the first of many as I watched our Assassin and Thief trade blows with the two Hunters near me. I had to dodge another pair of arrows, one of which hit the crate and lodged itself near the edge.

  “With the ranged attackers focused on me, our Rangers – whom, as you know, have pinpoint accuracy – began riddling them with skill-infused arrows. By the time that they could focus on where the arrows were coming from, each of them was sporting one arrow in an eye and one arrow in their neck. Without being able to focus properly, they were speedily taken down by the additional arrows fired by the duo. Which was a good thing, since the two Hunters near me were liable to kill De4th and Sh1fty if they hadn’t provided some support.

  “When that fight was done, the health points of both the guild leader and lieutenant were both under 20%. Fortunately, they thought to bring plenty of health potions just in case they were needed. They quickly quaffed them, and as we turned to continue running we heard what sounded like a huge group of players coming from the direction of the Divine Truth camp. We all looked at each other, realizing that they had heard all the noise from our fight with the Hunters and knew exactly where we were. If they had any more Hunters, we’d never be able to get away and would end up leading them right to the Reckless camp.”

  Stepping over another root on the ground, Devin looked at EyesHlzU and realized she had been paying rapt attention to him. Which was a change – he wasn’t used to being the focus of anyone’s attention, let a
lone a girl. It’s probably because I’m so tired from everything that has happened lately that I don’t really care anymore. I’m normally nervous talking to most people, but now it’s just flowing out of me without a thought. He’d gotten through this far without any problems, so he continued on with his story.

  “It was then that Strang3r and Gahbriyelle stepped up and told us to run and that they would hold them off as long as possible. They made the choice to sacrifice themselves so that we could escape with the Dungeon Core. I was expecting De4th or Sh1fty to protest and figure out another way, but I think they knew all along that we may not all make it back alive. As we ran away as fast as possible, we watched as the two Rangers climbed some trees on the opposite sides of the pathway we were taking. Their plan, which they quickly relayed to us, was to eliminate any potential Hunters in the group following us which would help us avoid being tracked anywhere we went.

  “After about a minute, we heard intense fighting behind us – complete with screams and large explosions from some casters. Those two could hide pretty good but most likely couldn’t hold up under massive AOE spells casts. Apparently, they had taken out any trackers, because we weren’t found the entire way back to the camp. We took multiple detours and laid false trails where we could, until we finally made it back here. We heard shouts in the distance, but we got lucky and didn’t see any opposition. You know the rest from there.”