NOVEL NEXT Chapter 111 - Light Specters
James stepped over the threshold of the doorway, and was abruptly plunged into darkness.
He rocked backward, and his vision returned, and he took a moment to regain his balance.
Arbitrary magical nonsense!
Swearing, silently, to himself, he poked his head through the doorway again, testing his theory.
It seemed that the lux essence in the boss room was particularly highly concentrated. In the floor proper, it was merely very brightly lit. He stepped forward and removed his [Blind] helmet, and waited a few minutes for his eyesight to adjust to the bright light.
It was fine as long as he didn't look at any of the glow crystals directly for too long. Or his own [Reflect]-enchanted equipment, which was intensifying the light it reflected.
The Smith considered stopping to forge himself a new helmet, of lux essence saturated White Iron and enchanted with [Reflect], but he quickly set the thought aside. He was extremely low on food, and if the pattern held…
If the pattern held, and he continued up the staircases, he might find an exit.
James did keep in mind the possibility that the Dungeon could be doing something weird. He had never heard of a Dungeon with multiple floors that you both descended and ascended. No, in all the stories he knew, a Dungeon had an entrance at the top, floors that Adventurers descended, one at a time, and then they reached the final boss and collected treasure and then they returned the way they had come.
But by this point, James was completely done with magic. Magic bags were supposed to just let you put things in. But not nearly as much as his did. How did Coin, the merchant slaver from the camp, get it? Why were there restrictions on certain objects? What was essence? Why did it make items harder to enchant, but sometimes made those items stronger? How did the warding stakes work? How did they interact with the slave bracers he and the other slaves had worn? In fact, how had those bracers worked? He had never tried to do any magic, not being a Mage, but how did the other slaves experience it? He had never tried to make any Aqua Magia, so—wait, what the heck was Aqua Magia, too? Why did pushing mana into water create it?
James felt his jaw grow sore. He was clenching, and gritting his teeth something fierce.
He needed to focus on the present. This was no time for woolgathering, without even putting down any warding stakes.
In any case, he had a goal. Proceed up the floors and try to find an exit, as fast as possible.
So he pulled out his various helmets, to find the one that had already been enchanted with [Reflect]…
There weren't any.
[Appraisal]: Blind Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/10, Enchantments: Reflect (10), Blind (10)
[Appraisal]: Bucket Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15
[Appraisal]: Water Visored Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 18/18, Enchantment: Water Resistance (32)
[Appraisal]: Wind Visored Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 19/19, Enchantment: Wind Resistance (30)
[Appraisal]: Fire Visored Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 19/19, Enchantment: Fire Resistance (36)
[Appraisal]: Dark Visored Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability 20/20, Enchantment: Shadow Concealment (71)
[Appraisal]: Green Iron Bucket Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 11/15
[Appraisal]: Iron Visor Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 16/16, Enchantment: Water Resistance (3)]
[Appraisal]: Iron Visor Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 16/16, Enchantment: Water Resistance (24)]
[Appraisal]: Green Iron Visor Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 18/18, Enchantment: Water Resistance (15)
A sense of impatience washed over the Smith. He had just decided he wouldn't stop and forge!
He pulled out several fresh warding stakes and created a ward in the room, covering both the exit deeper into the floor, and the exit back towards the boss room. No sense in letting some wandering monstrosity block him in a small room again.
He put the rest of his helmets away, save for the regular iron bucket helmet. Quickly as he could without botching the enchantment, he etched the pattern for [Reflect] into the simple helmet, applied the Light Magic Dust, brushed over the entire thing with Aqua Magia, and shoved his magic in.
[Appraisal]: Bucket Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Reflect (10)
The rating then became (14) when his Light Enchantment Amplification Amulet was taken into consideration.
A far cry from his earlier work, using White Iron totally saturated with Lux Essence, but James' main concern were those lizards that turned invisible.
The ones that probably would have killed him instantly if he hadn't been wearing a full set of [Reflect] enchanted gear.
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How would Adventurers actually deal with something like that in a Dungeon?
Done, James jammed the helmet on his head, and his stomach growled.
So he paused and ate again. Just a little. Just enough to push the hunger off for a few more hours.
Finished, he gathered up his things and began his exploration of the floor.
It was surprisingly regular. Leaving the small room that led to the boss room, he entered a perfectly square room, twenty meters on a side, with ceiling some five meters high, with exits in the center of each wall. There were no monsters present, so he took the passage on the right and entered another room, identical except that there was no exit on the right hand side this time, only directly ahead and to the left.
The Smith continued straight, and encountered the first monster of the floor. Well, the first monster other than the boss. It was a brightly shining specter, floating in mid-air in the center of the room. Two yards tall itself, and floating a yard in the air, it loomed over James as it approached.
He readied his Light Tower Shield, and hunkered down behind it.
The specter flashed with light, but not blindingly so, and suddenly James was surrounded by a multitude of specters. He gasped, but quickly turned to check behind him, where a specter approached. He struck out with his Dark War Hammer, and—
The specter vanished as though it had never been there.
There wasn't even any sense of mana being used, or of his hammer striking anything.
He struck out several more times, and more of the specters disappeared.
Suddenly, he felt his mana drain, just for a moment. He turned back to the first specter to see it rebounding from his Light Tower Shield, and he narrowed his eyes.
He was wearing a full set of [Reflect]-enchanted armor. If this was similar to the specter in the snowy passage…
He advanced after the repelled specter, and carefully swung using his technique and enchantment.
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
The specter writhed, and shrieked with a ringing, high pitched note, before collapsing in on itself. A Light Magic Stone fell to the floor, and all the other specters vanished instantly.
James looked around and frowned.
Illusions?
He picked up the stone and moved on, straight ahead, into the next room, in which waited two of the Light specters.
They flashed, and the room was filled with twice as many specters as previously. But a swipe of his hammer dispelled the illusions, and the Dark Magic in his enchanted War Hammer was enough to dispel the real specters.
Two more Light Magic Stones fell to the ground.
The Smith continued on. Eventually he reached a room with only two exits, the one from which he came and one to the left, so he followed it. He dispatched more specters, but was always careful, looking for more of those lizard monsters.
None ever showed up.
Another corner, and he followed it around. More specters. Another corner. And then a room with four exits. The small room, and the boss room. He had made a full circuit.
His stomach growled again.
After a break to eat, and some time working on a map first on the ground in the dirt, then on a small portion of his Red Iron map plate, he determined that the floor was a regular pattern of rooms. At least, the outer portion was. More carefully, he resumed exploring, checking dozens of nearly identical rooms, until he peered down the passage to an unexplored room and saw a staircase at the far end, in the distance.
A staircase leading up.
By this point, after hours of exploration and fighting with specters, James was worn out. He headed into the room, cleared out the waiting specters, and set up his warding stakes to cover the entire room. He ate a carefully measured portion of monster meat, and still wearing his armor, slept.
When he woke, he found his wards on the verge of collapse, held in place by his mana alone.
But he still had most of it.
Specters were crowded against the edge of his ward, pushing up against it in a pack like the rats had on the floor below. At first he hurried, rushing to his feet, but then he stopped.
Haste makes waste. First, he ate a couple bites of monster meat, and then he stretched as best he could, limbering up. He made his plan: swipe through the ward with his Dark War Hammer, and dispatch the specters bit by bit.
When ready, he put the bucket helmet back on his head, and stepped forward.
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
[Hammer Strike]
[Blind]
Over and over he struck, finding a good rhythm. With each swing of his hammer, a small portion of his mana was used, and shadow swept through a specter momentarily before killing it, and a Light Magic Stone fell to the ground. More specters pushed up against the ward, occasionally flashing and creating illusions of more, but always outside the ward, and they disappeared easily enough when struck or the actual specter died, so James didn't worry too much.
In less than half an hour, nearly a hundred Light Magic Stones littered the ground, and all the specters were gone.
James sighed as he swept them all into his magic bag. Light Magic Stones were the one type of stone he had never lacked in this Dungeon.
Once finished, he paused before picking up the stakes. His mana felt a little diminished, but it was hard to say how much. He estimated he had somewhat more than four-fifths left, and decided that was enough to at least head up the stairs and see what he was dealing with.
He gathered the stakes and ascended.
The light dimmed from the brightness of the previous floor and the temperature rose. It was when he started actually sweating that he paused, and quickly descended the stairs again to check his armor, specifically, the enchantments.
[Appraisal]: Bucket Helmet, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Reflect (10)
[Appraisal]: Light Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (82)
[Appraisal]: Light Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24, Enchantment: Reflect (84)
[Appraisal]: Light Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 20/20, Enchantment: Reflect (73)
[Appraisal]: Light Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24, Enchantment: Reflect (79)
[Appraisal]: Light Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 28/28, Enchantment: Reflect (80)
[Appraisal]: Light Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (75)
[Appraisal]: Light Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 24/24, Enchantment: Reflect (75)
[Appraisal]: Light Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 25/25, Enchantment: Reflect (79)
[Appraisal]: Light Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 30/30, Enchantment: Reflect (71)
[Appraisal]: Light Tower Shield, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 36/36, Enchantment: Reflect (95)
Thankfully, nothing appeared damaged.
He did not want to let heat damage his enchantments again. He idly wondered if there was a way to make enchantments heat-proof, and before he knew it, he was near the top of the stairs. He paused, took a breath, and peaked over the top step into the boss monster room.
A red glow met his eyes.