Firm: Opal’s Story

Chapter 35



My vision is dominated by white, then suddenly I’m in a stone hallway with a wooden floor and ceiling. Torches line the walls every 20 ft or so. The stones walls are a dark gray color, each stone is about 2ft x 1ft, but I don’t know how deep they are. The wooden boards that make up the floor and ceiling, stretch from one stone wall to the other, so I cant tell how long they are either. I look behind me and see the same entrance door. So is this what it meant by farming for resources? Probably.

I try to pull one of the stones out of the wall, and sure enough it slides out with enough pulling. It’s about 2ft deep making the whole thing 2ft x 2ft at the base and 1ft tall. Kind of an awkward shape for a stone, but I won’t judge. I grab it, a torch, which easily comes free from its wall holder and touch the door again.

Ding!

Would you like to leave the Dungeon? Y/N

I think Yes, and there’s a light. I’m outside next to the Dungeon door again with the stairs in front of me. Seems pretty safe so far, so I put down the stone, smother the torch with my hand and put it down too. I then turn around and re-enter the Dungeon.

I look around, but the torch and stone I removed are back again. Strange. So I exit again, and there they are on the ground where I put them. Yeah this is definitely what it meant by farming for materials, I bet I can even get the wood from the floor and ceiling, so I go back in to test my idea. I’m back in the hallway and on my hands and knees pulling out one of the stones right above where the boards extend under the stone. It’s a little harder to pull out, but I get another stone. I then turn to the opposite wall and remove the stone above the same couple boards. After that I can just wiggle the boards up if I angle them right, and now I have two wooden boards as well. I look underneath the wood, but it seems to be solid stone, no edges. I punch it, but I think it’s firmer than me. Oh well. I get a couple more stones and boards and leave the dungeon, drop them off next to the door outside and then enter again.

So now I know this place is good for building materials and torches, I bet the girls will know what to do with it. For now I’ll continue on and see what else this place has.

Not much further down the hall, about 5 torches length, so maybe 100ft, is another door, this one is made of wood. I touch it but I don’t get a screen, it’s a double door about 8ft tall, with each door being 4ft wide. I put my forearm up to it for reference, and I guessed about right. Probably. I push the doors open, kill a couple stupid orcs on the other side, and then find the doors hinges. I pull the little pins out and then gently pull the doors off. They are probably pretty good doors, definitely thicker than the doors on the houses I saw in town. So I grab the doors, it’s a little awkward, but I take them outside too and place them next to the other materials I found.

Once I’m back inside I see the doors are back. It will be pretty tedious to keep getting the doors later, but for now since I’m making sure it’s safe I’ll just get a couple of each material. I push the doors open and kill the dumb orcs again. This time I look around this new room, and there doesn’t seem to be much, more of the stones for walls and wood flooring. There is a big cauldron over a fire pit and a little stool to sit on, so I might as well take them. I pour the contents of the cauldron onto the floor, and then take it and the stool outside.

About an hour later

I get to a set of stairs that go down and at the bottom is another dungeon door, like the one at the entrance. I touch it and see…

Ding!

Go to the 2nd floor? Y/N

I take my hand off and it goes away, it seems I’ve finished exploring the first floor. It said there were 10 total right? I better head back and show the girls all the materials I’ve found. I start walking back, remembering the few turns that will take me to the entrance, the halls splitting off to dead ends a few times before the stairs to the second floor. I pass some of those blue orbs on the floor, they are super small, but I learned my lesson when I slipped on them the first time. The dumb orc’s bodies disappear after a while and these orbs fall out, kind of annoying, they can roll from where they fell so you have to be careful.

So the materials I found so far are the stones in the walls, behind which is more solid stone that I can’t pull out. Unfortunate. There’s also the wooden boards for the ceiling and floor, the torches, a cauldron, which I had to poor some stupid bubbling stuff out of, and a stool. In further I found a few tables, chairs, and even a bed. I thought I found one of those blue chests but bigger, it turned out to be a monster, so no free chests. I was really hoping to have something to put our stuff in, oh well. When the monster chest disappeared it left its giant gross tongue instead of the stupid orbs. Monsters in here are the worst.

Even worse then them though was my level 25 skill for Radiant Progenitress.

Sacred Blood: (Passive)

Blood you shed has the Holy property, can deal damage to the undead, and be used in Health potions.

I don’t have blood though…

I’ll just not think about the useless skill and instead go see how my kids are doing. I finally get back to the entrance and leave. I see the piles of stuff I brought out and grab the table, carrying it up the stairs to the camp. Might as well save a trip.

I see everyone is back in the camp again, Amber is sitting on the well and sees me as I come up the stairs. “Hey Amber, get everyone here, I found a bunch of materials and the first floor is safe enough for anyone to go in with a party.” she looks at the table I’m carrying and then says “Okay Mom.” then runs off yelling for everyone to come. While they are gathering I bring up all the stuff I got over the last hour or so. I tell them “So the only monsters on the first floor are orcs, all level 3, so easy to kill, and a monster chest, it’s blue and above it’s head it says Mimic level 10. It’s the only reason I say you should go with a group, it’s kind of surprising and if you aren’t as tough as me, it’s big teeth might be able to do some damage.” The women are doing a good job of paying attention overall, but I know they want to know about the materials, most of them eyeing the bed and mattress I found.

I continue “I haven’t checked the next floor, so no one should go there yet just in case. As you can see I was able to find some pretty good stuff, I’m not sure how we can use all of it, but I was thinking the stones and wood could be used for that structure we were talking about for everyone to sleep in. The beds will help with that too. You can go in and then leave without a problem at any time and all the materials are there again, but don’t worry, the stuff you bring out doesn’t get sent back, it’s new stuff every time.

Tina speaks up “I can use my magic to make sure the stones stick together, I think I can manage to do a simple concrete. Did the monsters come back every time like the materials and did they give experience?” I answer her “Yes, the monsters come back every time and give experience.” Everyone seems excited and Ruby speaks up this time “So that means we can go in, kill the monsters, grab a bed, and then leave. Then turn around, go back in, and kill the monsters over and over again?” I nod to her in response, it does seem like an easy way to get experience for weaker Players since the monsters are so spread out and limitless.

The second floor might have stronger monsters that are even better for leveling, but I can do that later when everyone else is sleeping. For now I’m going to help them go through it, or at least a party of them. Also It looks like Tina is inspecting the stones so she might be more interested in them then the monsters. If I didn’t have to keep one of my bodies at the gate to keep watch I’d help her farm more bricks. So far it doesn’t seem like we needed the water for the dungeon. Oh well.

Amber and her daughter come to me and ask me to be in their party. I don’t see why not so I accept and we find one other daughter who doesn’t have Firm. That way she can use us to take the hit from the Mimic. I make sure to describe the Mimic to everyone in detail so no one is caught off guard. Sapphire gets 3 other elves without firm for her party, since she can heal them if they get hurt. Ruby and Tasha are in a party together with two of Ruby’s kids. I don’t really keep track of the others, I’m sure they’ll be fine.

Sue makes sure that everyone knows they need to make at least one trip to grab a bed, but I see a lot of eye rolls and Ruby even responds saying “Like we could forget the most important thing.” Sue laughs, and takes her party to the entrance, disappearing. My party goes in after them, but when we get into the hall we don’t see them. Strange. No one comes behind us either, so I guess it sends teams to different places. I hope it’s not a different layout or monsters, but since it was the same every time I came in, then I probably don’t have to worry. Probably.

As we go through the Dungeon I point out where everything is to my party, including how to remove the doors and wood floors. Amber’s daughter asks if I drank the stuff in the cauldron, but I tell her it looks gross, so of course I didn’t. Amber tells her that it looks poisonous, so she doesn’t try it herself. I let the girls kill all the monsters, including the Mimic, after pointing it out to them of course. Amber takes it’s first hit and seems fine, she does have Firm. They don’t take too long clearing the place out, so we grab the one bed and head back. We’ll have to make a few trips so everyone can get one, which also means more experience for everyone, since we clear out all the monsters every time.

Amber suggests that the orbs might be useful somehow, so on our second trip we make sure those not carrying the bed carry the orbs out. Too bad none of the rooms had a bag of some sort. After we do a few more runs through the first level I leave their Party. They can take it without me fine now, and I’ll just be lowering their experience. Also I want to make sure everyone from the other teams is doing alright.

I sit there for about 30 minutes and in that time all of the teams with all of their members are fine. Some of their cloths are torn since they weren’t expecting the Mimic’s first attack to be so fast, but they can just get new ones later when they have more Credits again. I was fiddling with one of the orbs while waiting and I got a chime.

Ding!

Would you like to exchange Monster Orb(Tiny) for +20 Credits? Y/N

I of course think yes while watching my credit total. The orb disappears and my credits go up by 20, so Amber was right that they were useful. My baby is so smart, I then tell everyone coming out about the orbs and how they can be exchanged for Credits. Everyone seems happy about it, some of them doing it right then.

This Dungeon is a little tedious so far, but it has good materials.

Ding!

New Quest!

(War)

Your capture of an orc camp controlled by Hark the Orc King has been reported to his nation and you are now at war. Quests for Conquest can be taken at the Quest Board. Quests for Defense will be given automatically to inhabitants during Defensive encounters. Take what is his, or just keep what is yours.

To War and Conquest, good luck Player


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