Eternal Dominion Book 11: Connubiality Read online

  Today they were taking on the hell mode of a fire dungeon that had a mix between enemies of pure fire and lava. For this they would need to worry about the heat overwhelming them and Aalin would need to worry about her ice spells being weakened. Ignis also needed to focus on fire support as his fire-based spells would be strengthened, but would do little against the monsters. Most players in Xeal’s last life had thought that made most fire spells useless in such dungeons during the early stages of dungeon exploration. Yet the fact that each spell carried more power had a side benefit, one that had taken months to uncover. It could open hidden areas, or alternative versions of certain dungeons. All a fire mage would need to do is hit the right spot and it would make a change to the dungeon that was either a treasure trove, or a living nightmare. It had been a fire mage who wanted to get some practice in on his spells and wasn’t even actively trying to clear the dungeon, as he and his friends had just been messing around at the time when the discovery had been made. It wasn’t long before it had been found to be true of several dungeons that heavily focused on a single element and the system would only allow attacks of the same elements to reveal different secrets. That said, only about 15% of all dungeons hid secret areas or versions within them, with them being more common the higher the level of the dungeon and many days had been wasted by players trying to find them.

  The Flame Tunnel was one of the few dungeons that had such an area in the lower-level ranges and Xeal intended to exploit this. On its surface, all the dungeon consisted of was a straight lava tube that had live rivers of lava to each side of the path. It was from these rivers that monsters would emerge from, making the rear always susceptible to attack, just like the front as well as the sides. To counter this, Xeal’s party would have him taking point, Amet and Clara as mid guards and Friva as the rear guard. Saima would switch between the different positions, as Vento and Caleb focused on dealing damage and Ignis and Aalin focused on shields and support. The normal strategy for completing this dungeon was to simply run straight through, as you forced the monsters in front of you off the path and kept ahead of the ones behind you by obstructing their path. The alternative was to move forward slowly and ensure that each monster in the area was dead before moving on. One would take around two hours while the other would take a full eight, or more. Xeal smiled as he finished going over the intel report that his members had gathered on the easy and normal mode of the dungeon as he explained which method they would use.

  “Alright, I think that we all want a quick day, so let’s go for the running-for-our-lives method, as I think we all could use the time off. Now Ignis, I want you to try attacking the stalactites that hang from the ceiling behind us to try and cause issues for the trailing monsters.”

  “At least I will be of some use in there if it works,” commented Ignis, sounding like he was disappointed in the dungeon run today.

  “Hey, at least we should get the rest of the day off,” chipped in Amet.

  “Less talking, more moving,” interjected Gale excitedly.

  Xeal just smiled as he activated the dungeon and led them all in and they were instantly in a sweltering hot tunnel. Xeal knew that every hour in here would be as bad as four in the Nuya Empire’s desert and running would just make it worse. Still, that was what they did once they had formed up and it wasn’t long before they had a good 50 monsters on their tail and Ignis was attacking the stalactites. It happened on the third stalactite Ignis hit, as a rush of water came down with it and steam billowed off the violent reaction from the lava coming into contact with the liquid.

  “Stop! Vento, get a wind barrier around us. Aalin, freeze as much of it as you can. Ignis, give us a shield to the front. Everyone else, get ready for whatever happens.”

  Everyone was quick to act as they stopped and followed Xeal’s orders, as Ignis voiced what was on all of their minds.

  “What the hell is going on? Nothing in our intel said anything about this.”

  “Who knows, but from the looks of it, the water isn’t slowing down,” commented Xeal, hiding a smile as he knew what was coming and he couldn’t wait for it.

  The first change was the steam hitting the wall of wind, as Aalin turned it into snow that instantly melted and returned to be frozen again and again, until a clear dome of ice had formed around them, and Vento dropped his wind barrier and Aalin focused on improving hers. Next, the steam moved past them and they got a clear view of the waterfall that was still dumping water into the tunnel, turning the rivers of lava into normal rivers. At the same time, Xeal knew the whole dungeon had changed from a fire-based one to a water-based one. He knew that the water carried new monsters to replace the ones that had been killed by it. These monsters-were actually harder to defeat, but each kill would drop high-quality essence gemstones that could be used by all kinds of crafters. This water version of the dungeon had been so valuable that some players who couldn’t reach tier-6 would get themselves killed until they were back down to level 109 and keep themselves there to just run it over and over. These players needed to be skilled to do this though, as they had to face at least the hard mode to activate this variation. Still, with an efficient crew, a group of ten running this dungeon once a day would normally be able to earn enough that they could live somewhat comfortably in a small apartment, if they had a roommate.

  “Alright, looks like we are going to have to take our time and make sure that we don’t mess things up, though we might also be on the clock with the water rising,” commented Xeal.

  “Hold on, I thought we were going to do a quick run so you could spend time with Aalin and I?” whined Gale.

  “I think we will still be done in the next five hours due to the rising water level. Do you see how the water is already overflowing onto the path behind us near where we started?”

  “Yah. Are you saying that the water is going to fill this whole tunnel?”

  “It could. Either way, we should let the water in the channels stay ahead of us, as I don’t know about you, but I am enjoying the decreased temperature. Now let’s get back in formation and Aalin, go ahead and drop the ice dome.”

  Xeal smiled as they started to move forward, just as another rumble was felt and the hole dumping water increased in size and the rate of the tunnel filling quickened. Xeal knew that in five hours the whole of the tunnel would flood and they really didn’t want to let the water reach their feet as once it was up to their knees, they would likely die. As they pushed forward, it didn’t take long to run into the first monster of the new dungeon, a crab the size of a car, if you included its legs, which were 90% of its volume. On the peak of the crab’s shell was a cluster of red gems the size of a dinner plate and its name was fire crab. Xeal knew that the color of gems on its back were what determined its element and there would be fire, ice, water, lightning, and rock crabs in this dungeon now. The gems on their backs would range from common to mithril-ranked materials and he wasted no time in ordering the attack.

  “Aalin, hit it with a cold spell before it dries off. Everyone else, keep its legs busy while I focus on the body.”

  Aalin quickly reacted and the bits of water in the crab’s joints froze, causing its movement to be hampered as a fireball started to form in its mouth. However, Xeal’s dragon's breath attack interrupted this as everyone went to work quickly overwhelming the crab, who only got off a few fireballs that were blocked by shield spells. It had also been using its spear-tipped legs to attack, but the damage to its joints that Aalin’s ice had caused hampered it drastically. After looting the crab and getting its meat and the gem cluster, they pushed on and quickly ran into more and more crabs of various sizes, shapes and elements. While the fire crab had been mostly legs, the ice and water crabs were built such that their shell covered most of their bodies. The lightning crab was in between, while the earth crab was more compact with a massive claw. Still, with Xeal knowing how to handle them, the party had little issue in defeating them. The only issue was that the water was slowly gaining on the
m and Xeal was worried it would catch them as they drew near the final quarter of the tunnel.

  “Aalin, I need you to freeze the water behind us.”

  “What?”

  “Our feet are starting to get wet. If we keep going like this, we will find ourselves up to our knees by the time we reach the final area and I don’t want to deal with what that will do for our mobility. If you can freeze it six inches deep, it should hold for at least a bit.”

  “That will eat up half of my MP at least and I am already almost down to that level already. If I do this, it will make me almost useless moving forward.”

  “It’s fine. We can cover for you as you focus on recovery. If nothing else, Amet makes a good meat shield.”

  “Are you just going to accept that, man?” commented Ignis.

  “What? Being a meat shield is what my build was designed for.”

  Xeal just smiled as Aalin got to work and the rest of them took a break while keeping their guard up. Part of the issue with this dungeon was there weren’t any boss rooms until the end, and monsters could still show up after you thought you had cleared the area. This made it hard to take a break and recover MP, SP and stamina, adding to the challenge of the dungeon. Luckily, nothing decided to attack during this break and once Aalin was done, they waited for a bit as she recovered some of her MP and were off. From that point on, Aalin limited herself to only freezing the joints of the crabs until they reached the final area, which held the only boss monster in the dungeon, which took the form of a magma elemental. As this was hell mode, there would be two of them. However, due to the water, they would both be weakened significantly. To make up for this, there would be two aquatic bosses added to the mix and the steam that was filling the room was sweltering as the two lavafalls poured into the room, causing the invading water to be pushed back slightly. Just before they were ready to face this challenge, a crash followed by a rush of water could be heard in the distance, as Xeal figured that Aalin’s barrier had failed. The way she had done it was such that the tunnel behind it would fill before overflowing the top, to avoid it failing instantly from the pressure. Still, Xeal had known that it was only a matter of time before it started to melt and subsequently failed.

  “Alright, let’s get in there and get this over before we end up underwater.”

  At Xeal’s words, they all charged in to find the room was now covered in steam and the pair of lobster monsters seemed to be in bad shape as the heat slowly cooked them. Next, the completely healthy lava monsters rose out of the lavafalls and Xeal smiled as he gave his orders.

  “Vento, Caleb, focus on keeping the lava elementals’ surface solid. Ignis, roast the lobster to the left. Everyone else, kill the lobsters before the water fills the room.”

  Right as Xeal finished speaking, the water reached the room and steam started to rise up from the fresh lava being cooled by the water. Xeal knew that they needed to act quickly before the lobster monsters were refreshed, so he launched a dragon's breath attack at the one to the right, as Clara and Amet worked with Ignis to take care of the other, and Friva and Saima focused on harassing the lava elementals with Caleb and Vento’s support. This left Gale, who was focused on healing and support, and Aalin, who was almost out of MP and only able to cast a few minor spells, to support Xeal as he went all out on the lobster monster. Unlike the crabs, each lobster had three gem clusters; a brown one on its front underbelly where its claws attached to its body, a dark blue cluster on its tail and a yellow cluster between its eyes. The fact that it was so hot was what was keeping the lobster from being able to use its water abilities, but the shots of electricity and ground-shaking hammer claws were enough to still make it a formidable opponent, just not quite final-boss-level like it was meant to be. Had the water been on the floor, Xeal would have had to worry about the lobster manipulating it and the electrical attacks that he dodged still doing some damage to him due to conductivity and his electricity immunity being disabled in dungeons. With each second that this fight took, he knew that was becoming more likely as the room filled with steam as the fresh lava fought the water in a losing battle.

  Five minutes into the fight, the water had won and Xeal and his party found themselves in six inches of water as the lobsters became difficult to deal with. However, Aalin also used the last of her MP to freeze the lobsters’ joints and combined with the damage that they had managed to pile on before, the one that Ignis’s team was focused on fell shortly after. This allowed them to focus on the one Xeal had been engaged with. Vento and Caleb had also joined in the assault on the lobsters when the water took care of the lava elementals’ molten surfaces. This had made the final portions of the fight simple as once Xeal’s lobster was down, the lava elementals were easy to beat, with the only issue being how time consuming it had been. The water was almost up to their knees as Xeal quickly looted and selected to complete the dungeon. This happened just as he noticed a single tentacle was about to wrap around his ankle, though it disappeared and they got the notification and announcement messages went out.

  “Why did it take so long to announce that we had cleared the dungeon?” inquired Clara.

  “It was likely due to the fact that the water could have still killed us before we exited,” responded Aalin.

  “Or maybe there was a monster that we could have fought in the water still,” added Friva.

  Xeal wanted to yell out that no one should ever fight whatever the water hid, as all that was known was once its tentacles pulled you under, you were dead. Escape was possible if you avoided being pulled under, but killing whatever it was wasn’t something Xeal thought possible at their levels. Still, he kept quiet on this as he joined the conversation.

  “Whatever the reason is, we made it, though I would have liked it better had we not had so much water in the final room. We should have probably never stopped running when the water came pouring in as it would have likely let us save 20 or so minutes and not have needed to have Aalin block the water like she did. Especially as doing so was a double-edged sword as it ate up time for her to do that and likely didn’t cut back on the final water level, but it made that final battle much easier.”

  “Either way we made it through. Now let’s enjoy the rest of the day off while Ignis files the report,” cut in Gale.

  “Wait, why me?”

  “Easy, you need the practice and the rest of guild leadership here has other plans for the day.”

  Xeal could see Ignis was ready to retort when Gale grabbed Aalin and himself and pulled them away in a hurry, leaving Ignis without a target, as Clara and Amet had taken the hint and escaped as well. When he turned to look for Friva, she had vanished as well, along with Caleb and Saima, leaving only Vento and him behind.

  “Would you like to shoot the breeze with me for a while?”

  “I’m good.”

  “I’ll breeze through the paperwork with you if you’d like.”

  “That is tempting.”

  “Well then, let me blow you away with the whirlwind of a report we will file.”

  “You know what, that sounds perfect.”

  Ignis was smiling as he thought about everyone having to read all of the wind puns that Vento would fit in, as revenge for making him file the report while they all had fun. Meanwhile, Xeal enjoyed his time with Aalin and Gale as they enjoyed a relaxed evening and night, before calling it a session and logging off.

  (*****)

  Evening February 28, to Morning March 2, 2267 & ED year 2 days 316-321.

  Alex continued to pass the time swimming with Kate and sitting with Sam and Nicole, as he continued to miss Ava and Mia’s teasing that had become a part of his life. Kate commented how she was a bit envious of how Alex would seem to be looking for them and frown at the fact that he wasn’t taking care of them during this time. Still, each day passed and Gido ensured both of them were in high spirits during their five to ten minutes of consciousness each logout.

  Sam also managed to let her parents know about Alex’
s involvement with the twins and Kate. Her mom had taken the news about Ava and Mia in stride by simply saying “so he finally gave in,” but had required a lengthy discussion about Kate before she calmed down. What Alex had found irritating was that Mrs. Carter wasn’t mad about there being a fifth woman, but that she hadn’t met Kate before she was allowed into the arrangement. Meanwhile, her father seemed to want no part of the conversation for some reason, once Sam’s mom had finished.

  After Sam had managed to get her mom off the phone, Nicole had called her parents to inform them. Only all she did was say hi and make sure both of her parents were on the phone, before saying the twins and another woman named Kate were dating Alex as well now and hung up. Her reason was simply that her parents had raised their voices in anger at the news, so she hung up and ignored their calls until the following night. When she called, she had asked if they had calmed down yet and while she could tell that they were still not happy, they kept their voices in check at least and allowed her to explain. In the end, it had turned into an exchange that consisted of short and direct questions and answers that lacked any emotion.

  Once that was done, both Sam and Nicole had talked about wedding details with their parents and what to expect, as they were set to marry Alex in ED on Saturday the ninth in reality. From the reports Alex had seen from Taya, who was handling his guest list for the day, apparently, they were expecting around 1,000 attendees, 400 or so of which were family, or friends of family. All of whom had been invited by Alex’s, Sam’s and Nicole’s parents and most of them were being power leveled by his guild, to include 200 that needed to reach level 80 due to already playing in a different country. Alex had no issue helping them get to level 80, but refused to help any of them pass anything above normal mode on the trial without them signing a restrictive contract, as he wasn’t about to help a major guild. Luckily, most of them were casual players who didn’t care about reaching tier-7, as the description of gameplay that the developers had put out for that tier and up didn’t interest them. They would say something like, “this isn’t a job, so the normal trial will be enough for me.” Some had also mentioned that they wouldn’t mind switching races once they reached Nium.