Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

After Mirthor considered all the points pointed out by Psyker, and since Gear did not give a contrary opinion, he decided to go along with Kaizen's plan about them splitting up to explore as much of the dungeon as possible in as little time as possible.

In this way, Mirthor organized three pairs that he judged to be the most efficient pairs so that no one would have a problem with the possible dangers they might encounter.

Mirthor stayed together with Aulenarca, considering that he was a Warrior and she was a Magician, this was the best formation for her to support him and for him to be able to protect her. Following this same logic, Mirthor chose to leave Gear, the Wind Elementalist, under the protection of the Templar named Khaduth. Lastly, Kaizen and Gnorlin were left, and again following the logic of having a melee combatant and a ranged combatant, he kept this pair without making changes to the others, because Gnorlin was a Monk, that is, a melee combat mage, and he believed Kaizen was a Summoner.

With all the pairs formed, they split up and followed three corridors that pointed in totally different directions.

The duo of Mirthor and Aulenarca went straight ahead; Gear and Khaduth went left; Gnorlin and Kaizen went right.

The corridor that Kaizen and Gnorlin started down was very narrow and barely fit two people walking side by side.

Moreover, the place was full of webs in the corners of the walls and an unscrupulous smell that seemed to come from the cracks. Still, the Monk Class man was with a smile on his face, walking around happily as if he were in an amusement park.

"It's really nice to finally be able to see the path clear in front of me after so long. Just looking at their backs made me think that I would always be behind them, like a shadow." Gnorlin stated.

Kaizen was holding Hellround on his lap so that the puppy was neither too far back nor too far forward. He heard Gnorlin's comment, but preferred to stay put. He didn't want to meddle any more than necessary in the problems of other people's groups, nor did he want Gnorlin to think that Kaizen cared about him.

The atmosphere in these crypts was as eerie as walking through a graveyard at night. Everything was very quiet and this caused a constant uncomfortable feeling. A few times a minute you could hear the sounds of beetles walking. Because these beetles were so large, every one of the frantic steps of their many legs echoed through the corridors. However, Kaizen had already noticed something very different about the sounds in this place, and that was that the closer the footstep sounds were, the further away the beetles actually were, and the reverse was also true, that is, the further away the sounds were, the closer the creatures were.

Gnorlin did not seem to notice this as he walked passively while the sounds were far away.

Kaizen saw the giant beetles in the distance as the vanguard of the group quickly killed them. He knew these creatures were weak, though they were mutant level, and he didn't worry, following Gnorlin until he turned into a dark corridor lit by the Monk. Ironically enough, when Gnorlin turned into this corridor, he lit up an entire nest of giant beetles.

The beetles' completely red eyes, already glowing in the darkness, in the light of the torch flames glittered like rubies. These creatures immediately let out a shrill squeal, which startled Gnorlin to the point that he stepped back and dropped his torch to the ground.

As the beetles advanced, they swallowed the torch flames as if they were absolutely nothing, leaving everything dark around the players again.

At that moment, Gnorlin felt a hand touch his shoulder, and that hand pulled him back. Logically, it was Kaizen who did this.

After pulling Gnorlin out of the way, Kaizen crouched down and used <Free Manipulation of Flames> forward. Out of his right palm came a tornado of fire towards the ten pairs of red eyes in the darkness and this tornado lit up the entire narrow corridor around them for a few seconds. Thus Gnorlin saw the silhouette of this Summoner letting off fire from his hand.

Kaizen smiled as the killing notifications started coming in for him.

[You killed a Giant Stiff-shelled Beetle. You gained +2,000 XP].

[You killed a Giant Stiff-shelled Beetle. You gained +2,000 XP.]

[You killed a Giant Stiff-shelled Beetle. You gained +2,000 XP.]

This species of beetles was highly resistant to various temperatures, an intrinsic ability of the race. However, they could not resist the fire abilities of Kaizen, who was not using a simple fire spell that any mage could conjure. Kaizen was directly manipulating the natural force of fire, causing his flames to increase in volume and intensity as he expended more of his mana.

After a little over 15 seconds, Kaizen all the culling warnings and item messages ended, so he stopped using <Free Manipulation of Flames> and everything went dark around them again, except for the flames that still lingered on the charred corpses and the webs on the walls.

The yellowish bricks of the corridor changed tone to a matte black.

Gnorlin, very shocked by the Summoner's strength and his ability to use fire, was simply speechless, slumped on his buttocks on the floor.

While Hellround was sniffing the remains of the giant beetles, Kaizen turned around and reached out a hand to help the Monk stand up.

"Come on, get up. We have to make our way. If I'm right, there are probably some treasure chests ahead."

Although Gnorlin was a bit afraid and disappointed in himself, he accepted Kaizen's help to get up, because he had suddenly created a huge admiration for Summoners.

He smiled nervously as he stood up, put a hand to the back of his head in embarrassment and said with half-closed eyes:

"Sorry about that. I who should have protected you and in the end it was you who saved me."

"There is no reason for you to apologize. Just pick yourself up and move on. This is your first time facing a new place head-on after some time. You don't need to be ashamed of being afraid, not least because we don't even know what level of creatures we are facing."

"You're right." He said, a little discouraged despite the words of comfort spoken by Kaizen. "By the way, I didn't know that Summoners could conjure spells too, after all what does your summon do for you?"

Kaizen picked up a piece of unlit torch that lay on the floor of the hallway, lit it with the fire that was consuming the webs at the corners of the wall and lit up the section of the charred hallway, thus showing that Hellround that was basking in the corpses of the burning beetles.

"That's all he knows how to do for now." Kaizen said and in a wry tone exclaimed, "Ah! He also knows another skill. What's it called again? Growling! That's it, he can growl."

Gnorlin put a hand to his mouth, holding back his laughter and couldn't do that for long.

"Hahaha! You're funny, Klaus."

"That's what they say." Kaizen said and started walking down the charred corridor. Immediately, Hellround stopped eating the tough beetle meat and started following Psyker.

"Hey, wait. I promise I'll get ahead now and I'll help you, just don't leave me behind in the dark." Gnorlin exclaimed.

And then they moved forward to the corner where the nest of the Giant Stiff-shelled Beetle lay. The flames dispatched by Kaizen were so intense that even the fragile eggs of the nest, built around a humanoid statue, were consumed.

Kaizen, if asked about the labyrinth, would say that the Gorgons who dwelled there nourished a beneficial union with the giant beetles. The latter, in turn, fed on the flesh of the stone people who ventured into the dungeon, using them to feed their young, and the adult beetles were the Gorgon's meal, or even her statue removers. If either of these scenarios were true, or even both, it was worrisome to find so many beetles together, as this might indicate that the Gorgons were not far away.

But Kaizen was more concerned about the dungeon's treasure than its dangers, after all, he needed increasingly rare raw materials to create even better weapons. So when he discovered a large room with chests not far from where he had burned the giant beetles, he celebrated inwardly.

+

[Creature: Giant Stiff-shelled Beetle

Level: 70 | Attribute: Insect | Nature: Mutant

HP: 500 | MP: 20

Attack: 95 | Defense: 160 | Speed: 90

Strength: 100 | Wisdom: 30 | Endurance: 170

Resistance to Spells of: Blindness and Temperature Variation].

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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