Homestead Survival

<06 September 2024, WHITE SANDS OF ARD ANDOREN, S>
[Theo and Julia]
As Theo slammed his axe into the head of the most recent rounds of undead and strange monsters, he felt the damage buff reset. So he took a moment to check how they were doing.

"Ohh fun, we completed a hidden quest!" Theo said, as the horn sounded and fifteen strange ent-type goblins clawed their way out of the sands.

"Cool. What the hell are these?" Julia said as one of them shimmered briefly, and for the moment that it shimmered, it seemed to ignore the damage that Retaliate tried to do to it.

Theo slammed his axe into one and then turned, summoning his master tool in the form of a sledgehammer and arcing it down into the head of another goblin creature. "No clue! But they seem to die easily enough."

The creature under the tent called out. "Technically, for the dungeon and the System, these are all considered mana constructs, and the dungeon is just assigning skills as needed for an increased challenge for every wave."

Three more of the goblin-things died to retaliate, and four more to the backlash of the Ward runes. Theo and Julia took a moment to look at the strange creature under the tent. It shrugged, "Just saying, thought you might want to know."

"Whatever," Theo said before turning to slam his axe into another of the strange creatures. They quickly killed the rest. "Well, nothing to do but keep on churning and burning!"

Julia nodded. "Let's keep it up!"

Theo was dripping sweat, his arms were heavy, and he had no notion of when his axe had gotten so heavy. "That has to be near the end."

Julia looked at the dungeon status box.

"This is wave ninety-two," Julia said, not as tired as Theo, but certainly exhausted. "We are almost there."

"Oh my gosh," Theo said, feeling his energy start to wane. "Hey, boss man!"

The creature in the tent looked up. "Me?"

"Yes, you," Theo said, "give us all the last waves at once."

The creature paused. "I am able to do that, but are you sure that you want that?"

"Yes, sir." Theo nodded.

"Very well, young humans, good luck."

The horn sounded eight times, each time a separate group of monsters crawled from the sands. The creature spoke once more. "I have paused the countdown. Should you survive this, I have a proposition for your remaining time."

Theo and Julia nodded. Theo spent the time putting his Master Tool, which had been moving from hand to the sand quite a bit, back into his quick-access slot. Julia took the Rod of Lesser Healing out and held it in her left hand. In her right hand was the Glimmer Branch she had been using to launch projectiles since wave twenty-seven. They looked at each other.

"Are you ready?" The creature asked. Theo and Julia nodded; the creature smiled. "Then begin!"

The final wave, consisting of waves ninety-two through one hundred, charged. Julia slammed her Ward skill into effect, placing a ring of small Ward runes layered ten deep around herself.

Theo stepped over the runes and began channeling Penitent Strike after he had spammed taunt a couple of times. The monsters charged in, many of them hitting Ward runes that Julia was planting in front of them, some of them crumbled away in a shower of blue and purple sparks, others moved forward as if the damage from the rune was nothing.

Theo felt the blows hitting him and felt the heat from Warmth of the Hearth as Julia focused on healing him through the damage. When he was halfway through the twenty-second channel of Penitent Strike, Theo had a thought and yelled out. "Julia! Ring of Ward Runes about fifteen feet out from me!"

Julia wondered what he was thinking, but complied. "Done!"

Theo terminated the channel seven seconds early, getting another fourteen hits worth of energy. He slammed his foot down, sending a pulse of energy out, slamming into the monsters and throwing them back, straight into the Ward runes that Julia had just placed. Many of the monsters died. Theo swung his axe several times. Theo took a breath, spammed taunt, and held his arms up in a defensive posture.

"Ten seconds to do it again!" Theo called out, taking hits.

Julia put up a new ring of Ward runes. "Ready!"

At the ten-second mark, Theo slammed his foot down, and the monsters slammed outwards into the fresh Ward runes. Suddenly, he was alone with a small horde of creatures outside the Ward runes.

"Let's keep it up!" Theo called out and charged out to collect the next group of monsters.

A while later, Theo felt the axe turn over again and grinned. "That makes seventeen, seventeen percent additional damage reduction and eighty-five percent additional damage to opponents."

"That axe is broken," Julia said with a chuckle. "Now get out there and kill him."

The last monster was a giant of some kind; he looked incredibly aggressive. And had been pacing outside the Ward runes while Theo and Julia finished up all the other monsters.

Theo stepped outside, and the giant leaped, moving with shocking speed, and began to lay into Theo. Until Theo started to channel Penitent Strike, immediately breaking the channel and slamming his axe upwards, a dull thump sounded like a muffled sonic boom emanating from where he hit the giant. The axe blade slid through the giant and removed one of its legs.

Theo channeled Penitent Strike once more, cutting it off to slam the axe into the giant's neck as it tried to crawl towards him.

With a final blow of the horn, Theo and Julia looked at the box that appeared.

The creature from the tent came forward and bowed to them, "Congratulations, Lord and Lady Sorrin, you have completed a difficult task with time to spare. Firstly, as promised..."

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His voice trailed off, and he handed them a crystal halo that they both Identified.

"Why would we want to go to Dugax?" Theo asked.

"I can not say, but I think you would enjoy it." The creature said. "Now then, I have an offer for your remaining time. If you choose to accept, you will face an endless horde for the total of your remaining time, and should you survive, you will be rewarded."

Theo and Julia looked at each other. They were both exhausted. Theo shook his head. Julia turned back to the creature. "I think that we are good, thank you."

"Very well." The creature said with a bow, "Now then, as to your reward. Let's talk about your points and how you can spend them."