Chapter 27: Party-Type Dungeon
1 Week after the update.
Nines Own Goal officially met for their first plan to take over the mine. They gathered their members and took over the mine after a few skirmishes, causing the guild to retreat. After the mine was claimed, they planned to hold the territory with monster NPCs and defenses from TouchMe's pockets. In real life he was actually pretty rich, he worked for the state as a police officer who loved his job. They used the resources from the Celestial mine to begin their preparations for the destruction of [Modreal] city. They had become thick as thieves with each other, and their aspirations grew. For them, the destruction of [Modreal] city was but a first step. They would take their fights to other worlds and be resolved to make themselves act like great villains. They took their time planning to mount an assault that surpassed Treech's one-man city destruction by city size alone.
Meanwhile [Dark Reunion] had been hunting down any information they could find on the forums, or through a Treech's information network. Thankfully, they managed to find a dungeon that fit Treech's harsh requirements. He wanted to find a dungeon that resembled a tree in some way and had a Party-type limit for the dungeon. Although the dungeon was only level 90, he was content with it. This was because these end-game dungeons with [Restrictions] on them made the dungeons more difficult, but he predicted the developers added some kind of achievement system to these dungeons. The Party-Type restriction was one of the more difficult restrictions, second only to the Simultaneous Attack-Type dungeon restriction. The Party-Type restriction limited the maximum number of players that could attempt the dungeon from the usual 30 to only 6 maximum. This would be an issue for normal players and guilds, but [Dark Reunion] was anything but common. Treech had handpicked his guildmates and made sure they would be talented in some aspect. In addition to Wings, seemingly endless support of money into the guild only reaffirmed his confidence that they could take on the dungeon.
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The Reverse Tree: Hyperion
[Level]: 90
[Location Type]: Dungeon
[Restriction Type]: Party-Type (6 max)
[Description]: A tree, born from a mutation, that absorbed the energy equivalent of a small star at birth. This tree absorbed some of the metals in the ground and thrives in the unnatural environment of the [Costmus Valley], an environment thick in nitrogen and heat lightning. Its roots stretch up into the sky, absorbing the thick lightning element in the area, condensed in the area by the surrounding mountains. Due to its thickness and height, it attracted monsters from different dimensions that inhabit its hollowed areas inside. It stands at 250 meters above ground, and below the earth is 1,200 meters deep. In the place of leaves, it has caverns present in the earth.
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Treech, Wings, and Prince took a look at the magnificent dungeon before them. It was quite literally a reversed tree. The entire tree was covered in a thick metallic bark that was a white-grey, like a birch tree, with a slightly reflective surface like chrome. Its roots stretched up into the dark sky above, which had a constant overcast of black and grey storm clouds. Powerful purple heat lightning, arced silently around the area, hitting the sides of the mountains on either side of the valley. It arced like a tesla coil after bouncing off the metallic branches, zapping the jagged rocks nearby. The tree was 3x as thick as the redwood trees Treech was used to seeing and he could barely make out some gargoyle-like creatures flying around near the top of the roots.
They could see a hollowed-out entrance to the dungeon and could enter it through a carved-out archway in the side of the giant tree.
"Sensei, will we really do this on our own?" Prince couldn't help but confirm with Treech once again after witnessing the magnificent dungeon before them.
"Where is your faith in your master, young disciple?" Wings commented.
"Mhm. We can complete this. No, I dare say if we can't complete this then nobody in-game could. At least not for a few years, when they have the same level of gear as us." Treech replied.
Over the past few weeks, he had brought Wings gear up to par with Prince's and his own. All their gear was filled with the strongest data crystals he had gathered, damage reduction, mana cost reduction, crowd control resistance, and many other effects that were defensive in nature. In order to take on a dungeon-like this, the developers basically wrote in big bold letters, have a bunch of overpowered gear to take on a dungeon meant for 30 players with only 6 people or less. How could Treech miss such an obvious hint?
"Alright, are both of you ready for a long battle?" Treech confirmed once more. Once they enter the dungeon, their raid would last a few hours. They wouldn't be able to easily take breaks from their VR headsets during this time.
"I'm ready, sensei!" Prince nodded.
"Kuku, let the earth run rampant with the blood tides of our enemies!" Wings covered his face with his arm.
"Alright." Treech selected to enter their party in the dungeon in his HUD. Afterward, the carved doorway in the side of the tree opened. The white bark on the door opened slowly and the 3 of them entered.
(Author's Note: Sorry fam, I don't want to write a dungeon grind so I will just give a play-by-play.)
The three of them walked down a small carved staircase inside the trunk of the tree. It was hollowed out in some areas, and in these areas, they would meet monsters to fight. All the monsters were level 90+ and were significantly difficult to fight. The monsters could cast 10th-tier spells and use rank 10 techniques with ease. At one time, they faced more than 8 monsters at once with their three-man party, but they made it through thanks to Treech's leadership and Wing's abnormal reaction times and self-techniques. After 15 minutes of traveling downward, they finally encountered the first floor of the dungeon.
The floor dungeon was filled with Greater Darklings, a void-type being that rarely appeared outside of the void realm. After much difficulty, they cleared through the floor and fought the first dungeon boss [General Finsdran], a Greater Darkling. It was a tough fight and lasted an hour and a half to just complete. It was only possible thanks to Treech strategically swapping out each other to share the damage and focus from the boss. The boss had significant penetration abilities and would deal with about a third of Treech's health with his best attack. After the boss was defeated, it dropped a rare data crystal [Void Shift] which gave the racial ability of the Darklings to a weapon or equipment to phase into the void dimension and the physical plane.
They continued down to the 2nd floor, then the 3rd, then the 4th, then the 5th, and cleared them one after another. It was only possible to clear the 5th-floor thanks to Treech's preparations in their gear. The Boss was a [Chronos Sprite] and dealt a lot with time manipulation. If Treech hadn't focused so much on defense in their armor against time magic, death magic, and other resistances, they would have failed.
They continued climbing down and it had already been around 10 hours of the raid without a break. Both Prince and Wings were showing signs of exhaustion from their real-world bodies, but they pushed onwards. Their excitement fueled their exhaustion, pushing them to continue on.
They passed the 6th floor and the 7th floor with much difficulty, finally arriving at the last floor. The 8th floor was packed with True vampires and vampire servants, which were difficult to deal with due to their immunities to most crowd control. Treech could only handle them with a few summonses here and there. He wanted to save as many of his skills as he could for the final boss. They were exhausted now and he figured he they couldn't handle much more of this.
They had just now finally made it to the final boss area for the entire dungeon. Treech, Prince, and Wings were taking a short 15-minute rest before the final fight. All they could see in the room before they were 3 sarcophagus-like coffins laying on the ground. They understood that those coffins would open once they entered the room and they would begin a fight, possibly on 3 bosses.
"Sensei, how should we handle things if it really is 3 bosses at once?" Prince asked.
"Hmm, if that is the case we will use tactic 12, with a slight alteration of adding Wings to the juggling act," Treech answered after thinking shortly.
He currently was looking over the board of [Conqueror's Merit] calmly. The item had quickly become one of his most important strategic tools and he always used it to scout for dangerous things. Especially due to its ability to indirectly locate World items. He had hoped that since this was the boss room of the dungeon, perhaps there would be a world item? But he wasn't noticing any details on [Conqueror's Merits] board.
"*Sigh, nothing I guess" Treech collapsed [Conqueror's Merit] and placed it back on his belt.
"The darkness calls me to return to it. It temps me with its dark powers, kukuku," Wings was muttering to himself in a corner.
Prince watched Wings talk to himself with an annoyed look. He really couldn't stand this guy, but when he asked his teacher why he allowed him to join Treech had told him 'He has money, but also he is strong so dealing with his weirdness is a small price to pay.' What Prince didn't know is that Treech continued commenting in his mind afterward: 'I deal with your weirdness too kid. Don't judge others so easily.'
"Let's go. we've had enough rest." Treech said and their party got ready to enter the room. They put away their resting supplies and entered the room.
Almost immediately, a scene played out like a cut scene while they walked. They felt their attacks locked for now until the cutscenes ended. Torches along the walls lit up in sequence towards the 3 coffins. A small gremlin-looking thing approached the coffins with a data crystal in its hands. It held it up, offering it to the 3 coffins.
"Awaken, my masters!" It called out. The data crystal shined a bright light and the coffins all lit up.
"Ooh Nooo!" A manly voice was heard from the side, but Treech and the others couldn't see the source in the darkness.
*Boom*
The three coffin lids were kicked open and shattered into dust.
(Author's note: Play [Pillar Men Theme but it's EPIC VERSION (Awaken)] on youtube. AY Ay AyAyAy)
Three humanoids exited the coffins with what looked like-perfect bodies. Every move they made was like a programmed pose that a bodybuilder performed. They immediately killed the gremlin thing and strut down to stand in front of their challenges at the end of the row of troches.
Treech thought these bosses were really weird. Did the developers have some kind of weird theme going on here? This floor was filled with vampires but what the hell is a Pillar-man.
"Kuku, a worthy challenge for the demon genocide dragon god." Wings drew his swords from his back.
Prince took a fighting stance.
And Treech readied his spell arsenal as he read the middle Pillar-man's status on his HUD.
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[8th Floor Boss]: Truks
[Race]: Pillar-Man
Level: 98
Hp: 100
Qi: 96
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(Author's note: You guys can hate me for putting another JoJo reference in, but I think the pillar men are kind of a ridiculous boss and one of a kind. Making jokes like these gives me the motivation to continue writing. Thank you have a nice day.)
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