Obelisk

The dungeon entrance was uniquely surprising - in pairs, the adventurers would stand in the red circle, then levitate until eventually flying into the yellow ring above them and disappearing.

As Jay entered the dungeon, he was a little disappointed that he didn’t trigger the chance for the level four dungeon - he was level five after all and it would’ve been easy for him alone, much more so with Anya.

As they landed on the dark landscape of the dungeon, Anya seemed as serious as ever as she looked around at the surroundings and gripped her new crossbow.

Is she scared? Jay wondered. Oh well, I better summon a feeble creature.

“Anya, I’m going to use my skill to summon one of my little friends. It won’t attack you, so don’t attack it.”

Anya nodded back as she remained vigilant, but it wasn’t long before she was standing in awe at Jay’s abilities.

Jay thought ‘Shift’ as his ring flew off his finger and got bigger before bones left it and floated around Jay. Small bones at first, then the bigger ones - until finally the two large black marsh bones joined the ring.

“Arise” Jay said, his hand emitting a green gas which was more dense than the wisps of gas mixed with the floating bones.

Before Anya’s eyes, a beast formed.

No, not a beast, a monster… an abomination, she thought as her mouth was now open, speechless.

Again, ligaments began popping with bones snapping and moving themselves into position; green gas became more dense and mixed with them before it solidified. At the center of the eye sockets of a large rodent-like skull with horns, two glowing green eyes first glared at Jay, then at Anya as its skeletal body formed.

Jay smiled as his necrotic ring changed back into the ring form and flew back onto his finger.

Hmm, only about three or four skeletons left in it, he noted, looking at his ring with a smug attitude. I’ll stock up soon enough, he thought as he pulled out and ate some bondtussle root from his inventory.

[Mana Regen buff 1%] - lasts for 1 hour (s).

Now, time to name you… Jay started grinning, thinking about naming it Don as well, but this time he had an even better idea, he grinned evilly as he put his plan into action.

“Today, I, your creator, gift you your name - your life. Today I shall bestow upon you your eternal name.” Jay said seriously, ceremoniously and solemnly “henceforth, you are... Muffin!”

Jay bent over with laughter, it echoed through the dungeon while Anya just stood there, not even vigilante at this point, absolutely amazed at Jay’s pathetic level of humor. All she could do was shake her head at him as he laughed.

“You’re stupid.” She went back to being vigilant once more, still shaking her head as she scanned for threats.

It was night-time in the dungeon, a diamond-shaped blue moon was the only source of light. The entire landscape was flat, paved with black stone, while black obelisks the size of trees randomly dotted the land. In the distance, an obelisk stood out much higher than the rest - it was the size of a mountain.

“That seems like where we need to go” pointed Jay towards the huge obelisk “Muffin, take the lead”. The goblin-like skeleton walked ahead of them.

“I’ll stay in the middle of you two since I’m ranged, so protect our backs” said Anya, and Jay nodded in agreement.

***

“Wait! Don’t leave. I want to catch up to that level five loser. We’ll get loads of exp from the level four bayrings.” Matheson said with confidence.

“But they told us we should leave if this happens, and~,”

“No! You’re using my bow, and you will be my partner till this is over!” He interrupted Trenly, ignoring whatever he was saying.

Sighing, Trenly frowned. They had stumbled into the higher level dungeon which the trainers warned them about, and the duo started exploring the level four dungeon.

***

As Muffin was walking past an obelisk, it lit up with a gold glow. Suddenly, a circular indentation appeared on the walls of the obelisk - two bayring’s flying out of it. Before the obelisk activated, it appeared as if they merged with it.

These monsters were strange, Jay had never heard of anything like them. They were simply a flying yellow ring with a blue diamond-shape crystal floating at the center. Jay analyzed the creature.

< [Bayring - Level 2] >

Type: Phenomenon - Normal

HP: 50/50

<[Skills]>

[Coil] (Passive) - The bayring’s outer body naturally spins at high speeds, giving extra damage to its melee attack and charging its crystal.

[Discharge] - 5 electrical damage - 5% chance to stun for 2 seconds. After charging its crystal, the bayring unleashes a devastating attack. 30 second charge time.

[Graze] - 3 Friction damage/second - Slows down the Bayring’s coil, resulting in a lower charge rate. If the target is in contact for longer than five seconds, they become burned and take [50%] extra damage, though the Bayring is safely discharged.

<[Description]>

[No one is sure what these things are - do they grow from the obelisk, is that their home? Are the Bayring’s just a defense mechanism of some long-dead ancient civilisation? We don’t know, perhaps we never will.]

Huh, they have a lot of health for a level two monster. Jay compared them to the monsters from a level one dungeon. Perhaps their base stats get higher, the higher level the dungeon.

Immediately, the two rings flew at Muffin and started grinding from either side.

“Shit!” Jay ran towards Muffin and stopped the attack on one side with his shield. Anya had already responded with a heavy bolt, hitting the other bayring perfectly in the crystal at its centre - it went flying away and tumbling to the ground; it’s yellow ring stopped spinning completely.

A damage number appeared over it

-10

It was a critical hit.

“Nice one Anya” Jay called as his buckler was heating from the bayring grinding against it. Muffin was quick to act as it started slashing at the bayring, some attacks hitting the crystal while others hit the ring.

“The crystal is the weak spot!” Anya yelled as she was racking another bolt.

“Got it” Jay said as he made Muffin focus its attacks on the crystal.

The Bayring on the ground spun up again as it levitated once more.

“Ouch,” Jay pulled his buckler away as it was almost getting too hot. He took out his knife “guess I can’t let them have all the fun” he said, stabbing his old cooking knife into the crystal.

Muffin’s claws were only doing one damage without a bleed effect since it was an inorganic life-form; however, when it tried to bite the crystal, it didn’t only crit, but did double damage because of its piercing attack. Damage numbers slowly floated above it.

-1, -1, -8

The other bayring was flying back as but Anya hit it with another bolt, sending it flying away once more.

-10

“Just finish that one, I’ll hold the other one off!”

Jay nodded as he went back to stabbing the bayring. It wasn’t long before it died, it’s hard outer ring flickered for a moment before it vanished from existence; all that’s left was its crystal centre.

[30 Exp]

Jay analyzed the crystal after sending Muffin off to attack the other one.

[Minor Crystal - Green]

[Alchemy ingredient Tier 1]

[Spell channel Tier 1]

“... spell channel?” whispered Jay to himself as he stashed the crystal, running over to fight the other bayring.

It was half health, and it nearly charged its crystal since it only used [Graze] once at the start of the fight.

It was making a humming sound just as the crystal glowed its brightest -

*~HmmmMMM~~~CRACK!*

Suddenly, with a loud cracking noise, the crystal released its energy, hitting Muffin squarely on the skull.

A flash of light lit up the dungeon for a moment, a thunder sound echoed back at them a few times afterwards.

“Shit!” Jay and Anya could only wait for their eyes to adjust to the darkness again. Checking that each other were ok, they realized the bayring attacked Muffin with a powerful bolt of energy. It needed to die.

Nodding to each other, they didn’t need to say a word - they knew what they had to do.

The feeble creature was already attacking the bayring, but it soon fell to a pile of smoking bones. It was low health from the [Discharge] attack, and another [Graze] injured it.

Another bolt hit the bayring, sending it to the ground once more. “One more of your bolts should do it” Jay said calmly, he had the situation under control.

“Right.” said Anya, impressed with Jay’s cool-headedness during the fight.

Trying to buy some time, Jay ran to the bayring, stabbing the crystal at its centre before it could start levitating again, successfully hitting it three times - all critical hits since he hit the crystal.

“Move!” Anya called - aiming the bolt in Jay’s direction.

Jay stepped back as the bolt whizzed by and took the remaining health of the bayring.

“Nice shot.” he praised her.

“Thanks. Any loot?”

“Yeah, I got a green crystal from one of them, you can have the other,”

“Thanks. These are useful for spells.. When we learn some anyway.”

“Spells? How do these work?”

“You’re meant to socket them into a weapon or armor, but even a necklace would work. They allow you to cast offensive spells more quickly, no chanting or charge time. They’re quite useful to combat-based mages. You can even hold them if your hand and sue them, but most people prefer to hold a weapon.”

“Hmm, interesting.” Jay gazed at his small crystal.

Walking over to the bones, he tried to raise Muffin again but got rejected with a notification.

[Not enough resources]

Huh, so that’s what happens when they die; some bones are destroyed… guess I’ll need to add some more to re-summon it.

He made his ring [Shift] again, “Arise”.

This time, the remaining bones on the ground and some additional ones from the ring formed Muffin again.

[Chimera Research 3%]

Part of the marsh bone must’ve mixed into its skeleton, he analyzed it as he smiled, seeing his creation come back to life as if nothing ever happened.

Ah, my life is gonna be so easy, he thought as he shook his head with a joyful smile. It’s a shame these bayring’s don’t drop any bones though.

“You good?” Anya asked

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“Well, I’m ready. Let’s move?”

It surprised Jay that she asked his consent this time “Oh, you were gonna wait for me?” he tested her.

“You’re more useful than I thought.” She tried to be expressionless, but for half a second, a tiny smile appeared as she looked away to the next obelisk.

“I’ve nearly leveled up anyway, so I want to keep going. Maybe I can reach level five too, before we get too tired.”

“Sounds good. Let’s move.”

The two continued like this for the next few hours, finding that the smaller obelisks would eject two level one bayrings or one level two - while the bigger obelisk’s would eject two level two’s and rarely, a level three.

As they walked, they came to realize that the distant mountain-sized obelisk wasn’t getting any closer. They both concluded that it was simply an illusion, designed to have them walk in a certain direction.

“Hmm, I wonder if there’s a boss in this dungeon,” said Jay. So far, it seemed endless, and there wasn’t a progression in the obelisk sizes - it was all random. “They said there would be level seven obelisks in this dungeon right? It seems weird that we haven’t even found a level four one yet.”

“We’ll figure that out on our own.” said Anya as she looked at the moon and her crystal.

***

“Just fucking hit it!” Matheson said, dodging away from the flying bayring’s [Graze] skill.

“I am! It’s got so much damn health!” Trenley yelled back. The level five bayring had a huge health pool, but they had gradually taken it down to about 15% HP.

“AH!” Trenly suddenly screamed as a level five bayring was digging its crystal into his back. He fell forward as it pushed into the wound “Fuck this, I’m outta here! We’ll die if we continue!” Trenly knew he needed to escape, at this point it doesn’t matter what Matheson said.

Trenly screamed, slowly losing consciousness as he ran away from the bayring - he could leave if he made enough distance; thankfully he had a movement ability, [Dash], which gave him enough distance to meet the requirements to leave the dungeon - he had to make it out of the monsters damage range.

“Little stupid, unreliable bastard!” Screamed Matheson, seething with rage while seeing Trenly abandon him as he killed the bayring they both damaged together, before grabbing its crystal and exiting the dungeon.

“Ah!” Trenley yelled as he floated down from the yellow ring - the dungeon entrance. His ranged class trainer caught him.

“Tend to his wounds, then take him back to the guild.” The trainer said in a calm voice. They expected these things to happen.

“Sir.” A guard grabbed the young man from the trainer and carried him off.

Before long, out came Matheson, swearing with a red face full of anger. “Fucking bastard! He nearly got me killed! I tried to tell him we shouldn’t attempt the level four dungeon, but he didn’t listen! I only stayed there to protect him! Instructor, I want to join another party!” Matheson did nothing but lie.

The instructor shrugged “All the others are in the dungeon. There’s no one you can join. You can go by yourself.”

... He’s a pretty poor liar for a noble, thought the instructor.

“Ugh! Can’t you come with me? Hmm?!?”

“No. We have strict orders to guard the students, because of another situation happening in the forest. Not even your father can override these orders. Why don’t you take some of your personal guards with you?”

“Bastard…” said Matheson, he knew the instructors couldn’t punish him so he cursed at them freely, yet he wouldn’t embarrass himself by bringing his own personal guards to help him. Turning around, he floated back into the dungeon.