Might as Well

The final fight of the dungeon was in front of them, ready to be faced.

After receiving their affirmative replies, Sam stepped forward and, with a mighty heave, pushed open the giant door made of steel. Despite the situation and environment, they opened quietly, not even squeaking. As if somebody made sure to oil the hinges every day.

Inside the cavern was organized chaos.

In the background, they could see even more corridors all barricaded with the same style of doors, though the symbols on them were different. However, all of them were rusted beyond any reason, and there was a greenish-yellow pus-like substance leaking through cracks, pooling around it, creating a nauseating vista.

In the middle of the room, amidst ruins of ancient mining machinery, stalked the final boss of the dungeon.

It trudged through the mud, the broken-up ground mixed with the disgusting green liquid seeping into the room. The monster itself was the size of three men, and based on the stitches, it was made from at least three men. ‘Though looking at the size, maybe five or six…’ he mused, with some dark humor.

It generally looked like a ‘roided out human, with some pretty heavy modifications.

Both of the legs were enveloped in metal, though Sam could spot the originals under all the metal and mechanism. One of the arms was changed into a metal arm, ending in a drill that looked like it could spin extremely fast. The other was left as it was – stitched together and macabre – but it held a weapon resembling a military shovel, looking mighty sharp. The arm holding the weapon was unprotected, showing off the bulging muscles, however, the shoulder had a very spiky guard which continued into a breastplate that covered the entire torso. Naturally, it was also covered by mysterious mechanisms with steampunk vibes. It also had a neck guard, made of metal, and the head was covered fully by a helmet reminiscent of the mini-boss. The only thing they could see was the monstrous eyes, glowing dark green, fixed on them. And the entire body was covered in flexible tubing, through which the same disgusting liquid flowed that seemed to be seeping through the rusty doors.

For a long moment, the team looked at the monster and it looked back at them, its angry gaze showing that there was a surprisingly calculating mind behind it.

However, it allowed Sam to recall some lore about the dungeon.

Apparently, in the olden times, the mine was shortly taken over by a necromancer who wished to use the metal for some experiments. The authorities at the time didn’t want to dig out the dark mage, instead, they collapsed the mine on them. The monster was one of the servants helping to excavate the metal that the necromancer needed.

After the explosion, it was trapped in here, inactive and forever waiting for its master to return. When the Fracture happened, the concentration of necrotic energy managed to attract one fracture, and thus the monster was woken up and locked into an endless cycle of struggling against greedy players wanting to get rich.

To his knowledge, both acquired and inherited, there was no quest connected to it, but he would keep an eye out.

Sam glanced at the others as they returned the look. He nodded toward the already snarling monster.

“Standard formation. Clarissa, watch out for poison! Lucky distract!”

“Understood!”

“Woof!”

“Wohoooo!” exclaimed Katie and instantly charged at the monster which roared at her and raised its military shovel while the drill on its other hand began spinning up. Lucky simply jumped into a shadow and vanished from sight.

Dan flexed and raised his club, which was already shining with the white-hot heat of his spells. ‘He is getting faster at that…’ he observed with satisfaction. ‘Apparently, my instructions didn’t go to waste.’

Clarissa was already throwing out buffs by the time Katie’s giant greatsword crossed with the monster’s military shovel.

At the same time, Sam activated all his speed-increasing spells and skills and dashed behind the stitched-together zombie, and unleashed his new Surprise Strike at the defenseless back of the monster.

His sword was brimming with mana and all manner of energies, and his wind-natured mana spun around it, not unlike the drill on the monster’s hand. The weapon met with the armor in a loud clang; echoing off the walls.

The zombie monster showed that its boss status wasn’t just for fun, only received a simple dent in its metal armor. Instantly it let out a roar, and Sam could feel the energies from the roar pinging off his Mana Shield while Clarissa was reacting immediately shooting off small heals at Dan and Katie. Though the berserker girl didn’t seem to notice the damage, she just parried a strike from the monster’s shovel and continued the movement into another strike, her weapon sparking with yellow light, pooling along the edge, buzzing with unrestrained power.

With a giant yell, she cut upwards and unleashed the yellow light directly at the monster. The energy, in a crescent wave, traveled extremely fast, crossing the short distance in the blink of an eye, striking the zombie in the front, severing several tubes crossing its chest.

Instantly, due to the pressure the system was under, the disgusting liquid began spraying from it.

Sam could instantly feel that the mana in the artificial creation began to flow a little chaotically, and as he evaded the attack coming from the drill spinning extremely fast, thanks to the Flow skill he could see that the monster was a little slower than at the beginning.

Connecting the dots instantly, he yelled out.

“Aim at the tubes! The liquid powers it somehow!”

Right away, he had to launch himself backward as a missile made of extremely hot fire smashed against the zombie.

He could see a few fixtures melting under the heat, and the mana inside continued to trend toward chaos.

“Keep that up!”

The next second Lucky flashed forward from a small shadow and bit down on the monster’s leg, rupturing a tube, then vanished back into the shadow, like some kind of assassin shark.

For the rest of the fight, they simply kept playing keep-away with the monster. Thankfully, Katie had some aggro skills, and the zombie didn’t have the highest intelligence stat, so they didn’t have to expend too much effort to keep it distracted. And when Katie’s aggro disappeared, Lucky was there to take its attention.

Now, almost five minutes later, the monster was leaking the disgusting green liquid from several holes in its armor and body, while the military shovel was tossed aside in a crumpled ball after Sam simply tanked one giant hit with his shield when the monster decided to do the intelligent thing and went after Clarissa.

Unfortunately for the zombie, it didn’t help.

And now it stood in the middle of the room, the ruined machinery in even more pieces, the drill on its hand stuttering, trying to spin up but ultimately failing and both Sam and Dan charging up some big attacks.

It took a long look at them, then at Katie, who was no doubt grinning under her helmet and seemed to come to some kind of conclusion.

The monster reached up to his chest with his ‘organic’ hand and toggled something that they couldn’t see. Instantly, Sam could sense as the mana began churning even more chaotically, and the mana contained in the monster’s body began increasing. ‘Ahh, the self-destruct part…’

Basically, the boss monster had a rage timer. Around twenty percent of health it would trigger a self-destruct sequence. This meant that people fighting the monster should either burn through the phase with superior DPS or kill the monster within thirty seconds of the activation.

Sam saw that Dan was ready and exclaimed.

“Fire!”

Instantly a blazing missile of roiling fire shot off toward the monster, followed by Sam’s supercharged Wind Bullet, intending to feed the flames.

Before the monster could even contemplate dodging, the missile arrived, then almost a millisecond later, the bullet also hit it.

Sam had to avert his eyes as the giant body of the stitched-together zombie was replaced by a globe of light, radiating enough heat that the rusted pieces of ruined equipment melted into puddles of molten metal.

Then, with a twist of his mana, he set up a wind barrier around the burning monster to prevent any more air from reaching the target. Slowly and surely, the globe of fire died down, leaving a small circular indentation on the ground and no monster behind.

There was a brief jingle and with a flash of pixelated light a small mound of items fell into the still-sizzling hole in the ground, while a notification screen appeared in front of them.

[Congratulations!]

[You cleared the fracture for the first time!]

[Due to accumulated dimensional energies, the amount of items found is increased!]

[Fracture: Mining Shaft #789/IM/SE/B-42 is cleared!]

[Fracture can be visited again!]

[Cooldown: 600 seconds!]

Sam read it and nodded. The accumulated dimensional energies were just the technical phrase for the first clear bonus. But if the fracture was left without clearing long enough, then the bonus could be acquired again.

Dismissing the screen, he walked up to the mound of items, squatted down, and began going through them. Behind him, Lucky emerged from his shadow and began sniffing around.

As expected, there were a lot of ores and other materials useful for blacksmiths, along with a nice collection of reagents for necromancers and poison users. The big thing was a small booklet, frayed at the edges with a strange symbol on it. It was a circle, half filled with gear and the other half with flames.

[You found the blueprints of the Raging Furnace Mining tools!]

[You cannot learn it!]

Nodding slightly, he pocketed it with the intent on asking Liz to take a look at it to see if she could adapt it to her crystal construction. Coming out with a line of mining equipment would mean even more income.

Then came a book. From the look of it, it was for a necromancer skill. Sadly, it would need to be identified to be sure. But based on the memories he inherited and the mana he was feeling from it told Sam that it had something to do with death mana.

Taking another look around and not finding anything he stood up and looked at the others who were staring at him and the place from where the mound vanished with expectant gazes. With a wry smile, he shook his head, and his team let out a disappointed sigh as one.

“Don’t worry guys… We still found a fracture that can be visited unlimited times. That means our quest is almost complete!” Sam reassured them as he walked back to them.

Dan simply gave him a thumbs up and then returned to scribbling in his notebook. Katie gave him a cheery boo and then started petting Puffball. Clarissa just shook her head. Lucky sat down next to him, tongue lolled out and staring at him in a way that told Sam he wanted head patting.

He didn’t resist.

They arrived back where they started, with the portal merrily swirling behind them. They had barely a minute to get their bearings when the light not originating from the portal hit the other end of the corridor.

Sam turned around, the others following them, only to come face to face with a bunch of well-equipped guards, bearing the mine’s symbol and the Silvercrest family’s. Before he could even start to explain their presence, the lead guard looked them over and spoke up.

“Ahh, Master Samuel, the lord has told me you’d be around here…” he spoke, giving Sam a thankful look. No doubt, grateful that he didn’t have to go into the portal with his own men.

Sam grinned and stepped forward, offering his hand.

“Indeed, good sir.” The other man accepted it and shook his hand. “We just finished the fracture. I’ll deliver my notes to the lord later after we are finished with the assigned tasks. Until then, I’d beseech you to protect this site in the name of Lord Silvercrest.”

The leader of the soldiers glanced behind Sam at the portal. “There is no chance that monsters would erupt?”

“I don’t sense any anomalous mana fluctuations, so probably not!” Sam said cheerfully.

The man seemed to think about it for a while then nodded.

“You got a deal, Master Samuel!”

They left the mining shaft behind filled with guards from the Silvercrest family, heading for another mana signature that Sam sensed. Dan was busily writing in his notebook, while Clarissa occasionally pushed or pulled him to prevent any collision. Katie was skipping next to Sam, while Lucky was back in Sam’s shadow.

Their target was almost on the other side of the mining outpost, in a natural cavern that was used as a storage for the outpost. It was used to temporarily store material headed out from there, so it was on the outskirts of the outpost, close to the gates. And in one of the side corridors appeared the area’s second unlimited fracture.

On the way they talked a little, discussing random things, as well as the state of the game. Everyone was very excited to see the player base go up. As the more people played, the more money the company had for improvements, as well as for payroll.

Sam could feel that Clarissa was close to breaking. Soon, she would be asking to sign up as a permanent member.

Finding the storage cavern was rather easy. The roads were clearly marked, and thanks to Sam’s senses, they knew exactly where to go.

However, when they approached the site, they were met with a rather unwelcome sight.

A group of players, dressed in plate and finery, standing guard around the entrance. Sam could see the roaring lion symbol on their equipment.

‘Steel Lion… great. Pretentious fops, led by a rich guy… I wonder if face slapping is going to happen?’ he mused as one of the guards stepped forward.

“Halt in the name of the Steel Lions! This area is under our control! Turn around and go away!”