Mage Tank - Chapter 9: Dog Pile
Chapter 9: Dog Pile
Once we were done roleplaying a group of hobbits in a potato patch, we made our way through the field, once again following a wall. We walked past the tall harvester guy, but it didnât pay us any attention, still appraising each crystal it went past and stopping to pick the ones it found to its liking. We traveled in the same direction as it did for a few minutes and I wasnât able to discern how it was choosing between the essences. The thing took crystals of varying sizes and shapes, and each had little else to distinguish them. The stalks were of a fairly uniform height and each crystal had the same vibrant green color and radiance as the next. Maybe it was collecting a sampler, or a curated variety of sizes to decorate its house with. It could put them next to an incense burner shaped like a dragon and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita it had never read. Iâm sure they looked very nice beside a labradorite orb and a book on astrology.
Unlike the chamber above, we quickly found a hallway branching off from this room. We continued around the perimeter without going down it to make sure we didnât miss any other paths, and found three more, one on each wall. The room was so large that, moving at a careful pace, a trip around the perimeter took us nearly an hour. After coming back to the first hallway weâd discovered, which Varrin had marked with an âxâ using some chalk from his pack, we stopped to discuss a matter of increasing importance.
âWeâve been in this Delve for a little over eight hours,â said Varrin. I wondered how he was able to tell, since he didnât have a watch or any other obvious timekeeping device. But, after studying my interface for a minute, I was able to bring up the system message that had given us our objective.
You have entered Delve 1156:Â The Toxic Grotto.
Difficulty: Platinum
Current accumulation level: 0.5
This Delveâs accumulation has been interrupted. Find and eliminate the cause of the disruption to clear the Delve.
Reward: Early harvest and distribution.
Time Remaining: 15 Hours, 43 minutes.
More than half the time had been spent exploring this massive, two-level essence farm.
âIâm hoping that this area is the main body of the Delve,â said Varrin. âIf so, then weâre doing well with our time. However, I think itâs best that we not spend more time than we need on sight-seeing.â
âIs that what weâre doinâ?â asked Sayil.
âThe essences were a good find. But, we spent a while gathering them. I donât think we can afford any more delays like that one. I want to make sure weâre all on the same page.â
Sayil shrugged. Xim looked like she was about to start chewing on a nail, then caught sight of the state of her hand and decided against it.
âI donât think time is going to be our problem,â she said. âAnd Iâm fine with focusing on finishing the Delve, but we still donât know what weâre looking for. We have to give the environment some level of attention.â
âFair enough,â said Varrin. âFor now, letâs keep a cautious pace. Weâll revisit this when the time drops below twelve hours.â
While the others discussed our temporal allowance for dilly-dallying, my eyes wandered over the environment. I looked out at the essence plants, absorbed by how strange they were, and by the scale of the underground farm. Regular drops of green liquid came down from above, and I glanced up toward the ceiling again, studying the dense fog above us. Thatâs when I noticed the first creature crawling down the wall toward us.
It froze when it saw me see it. It was about the size of a bulldog, with an oversized head that was two-thirds mouth, full of sharp, carnivore teeth. Two long arms grew from just behind its head, and it gripped the flat surface of the wall with wide fingertips, like those of a gecko. It had two stumpy legs ending in a pair of three-toed lizard-like feet, a pair of tiny black eyes, and dark, slimy-looking skin. Behind it, a pointed tail rose up and pointed down at me. At the end of it was a sharp stinger. There were at least a dozen more around and above it, with more creeping out from the mist. I was amazed that we hadnât noticed them.
âNo one ever looks up,â I whispered, then reached out a hand and placed it on Varrinâs shoulder. He looked over at me, then followed my gaze. Xim and Sayil followed suit, then slowly began backing into the hallway. The first creature cocked its head, and a thick stream of drool ran off its teeth down toward me. Its tail began to glow, then jerked and sent the sharp stinger shooting off of it. The barb pierced me right above the collarbone.
I swore at the burning pain and jumped into the hallway, the monsters clamoring down the wall now that the brief standoff had ended. A couple more stingers thumped into the soil behind me as I flew out of their sight and one of the creatures landed hard on the ground, dazed. I was initially confused by that, but remembered my I Donât Attack You, You Attack Me skill, and assumed it had gotten stunned after launching the stinger that hit me and had lost its grip on the wall.
After sprinting a few meters, I spun to see the creatures crawling into the corridor along the walls and ceiling. Several let themselves fall to the ground, spinning in the air and landing on their short legs, their feet making a wet smack as they hit the stone. They raised their comically long arms and bared fangs, then started lumbering down the corridor. Some of them had fat tongues hanging out over the row of sharp teeth, and I wondered how they didnât accidentally shred them.
We made it a hundred feet or so down the hall when Varrin turned back toward the creatures and drew his sword.
âWhy are we stopping?â I asked, sliding to a stop and nearly slipping on the wet stone. There was some sort of moss growing on the floor here.
âWe donât know whatâs down this tunnel,â he said. I raised my eyebrows and pointed back toward the encroaching monsters.
âNot those!â I said, then ripped the stinger out of the base of my neck. It had only done four damage, but stacked another five toxicity which took me to thirty-seven.
âWell,â said Xim, getting ready behind Varrin, âyou canât say that for sure. Might be a whole nest of them down there.â
âYeah? Or there could be a fucking food truck selling tacos and cheap tequila shots! We donât know.â
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Sayil was the farthest down the hall, looking between our group and then deeper into the corridor. All I could see was the hall disappearing into darkness and fog. I used to like fog, thought it was cool. Kind of spooky, but aesthetically pleasing. That opinion was changing rapidly.R/ĂȘ/Ad latđSt ch/a/pters at nĂŽ(v)e(l)bin/.c/o//m Only
âThis is a good bottleneck,â said Varrin. âWe force them to fight us head-on.â
âBrother,â I said, waving at the rapidly approaching wave of monsters, âtheyâre on the fucking ceiling. I donât think thatâll work the way you want.â
Two more of the stingers landed in my back.
âShit!â I turned to face the horde. âFine!â I put up my dukes and got ready to throw down.
âWait, you need to get behind me,â said Varrin.
âNah,â I said, as three more needles plunged into my chest. âI got this.â
I wasnât just full of bravado. I had a reason to stand out front in this fight. I wasnât troubling myself too much with concerns about whether it was a good reason, I just acted on the first thing that came to mind.
The creatures were launching ranged attacks with the stinger on their tails. They did a little damage which wasnât a big deal. I can soak the damage and Xim can heal up the others who got hit. The bigger problem was that the stingers caused more toxicity to build, which Xim wasnât able to heal, and for which we only had two more antidotes. Even a couple of those stingers would give any of the others enough poison that theyâd be losing health for the rest of the Delve, unless we wanted to spend an antidote on them. I, on the other hand, was at forty-seven toxicity and still had a lot of runway before it overcame my health regen.
I also had a suspicion that I wanted to confirm. In my first fight with the Stickmen, their regular attacks couldnât hurt me. It was only when they used their big, glowing attack that I took damage. The atrocidile bite hurt, but its mouth was as big as a door and it probably had the jaw strength to match its size. These little assholes looked like they weighed about sixty pounds. Yeah, their stingers could do a drop of damage, but I was betting that was a special attack like the ones made by the stickmen. When the first pair of the dog-lizard-scorpion beasts got close enough to launch themselves at me teeth-first, I offered up my forearms.
They chomped down hard enough to break teeth, and I grinned wide when it didnât do shit.
I held my arms out to either side, the monsters dangling off of them, and Varrin cut one in half while Xim clobbered the other with her scepter. Another pair of lizard hounds dropped from above and went after my neck and head. Hot, wet breath slammed into my face and I was reminded of how blessed I was for having my sense of smell obliterated by constantly inhaling the Delveâs toxic nasal-spray. A slimy tongue slapped me across the cheek and I considered catching it in my teeth to give the monster a taste of its own bitey medicine, but felt like french-kissing a venomous dog-lizard wasnât something I wanted to add to my list of enriching life experiences.
The monsters piled on and a couple more stingers hit me, sending their owners to the ground, stunned. Before long the beasts started hitting each other with the needles more often than me. I was also able to confirm that once a monster fired its stinger, a new one didnât immediately grow back, so it was a one-shot style of attack. I staggered backward as the weight and force of so many of the beasts pressed into me, leaving a mound of corpses behind from Varrin and Ximâs uninterrupted attacks. Xim even tossed a couple of heals into my back until I told her not to worry about it, which I knew would lead to some hard questions after the fight.
After a few minutes of relentless biting, stinging, clawing, grappling, licking, drooling, and dying, the last of the creatures was sliced in half by Varrin. I pried its jaw from around my bicep, letting the severed head drop to the floor where the rest of its body lay. Xim quickly pressed an antidote into my hands and looked me over. I was covered in blood, very little of it my own, and I casually tugged several stingers from my chest. I tried handing the antidote back to her.
âIâm uh, not actually losing health yet.â
Her jaw hung open. Varrin swung his sword, slinging monster blood and guts off the blade.
âDid you-â Varrin began, but was interrupted by the post-combat notification.
Your party has slain 14 Gekkogs: Minor Amalgam, Grade Zero. Your party receives the following reward(s):
1: 12 Ruby Chips
2: 14 Gekkog Stingers
Party Leader has set Chip and currency allocation to: Even Distribution.
You receive: 3 Ruby Chips.
Party Leader has set item allocation to: Master Looter.
Party Leader receives all other rewards.
Varrin swiped his notification away, then continued.
âDid you put all of your points into fortitude?â
âThat canât be,â said Xim. âYou have a spell that can do ok damage, and you can cast it more than a couple of times. You have to have points in WIS and INT.â
âOk, hereâs the thing. I put all of my Creation points into fortitude.â
âWhat does that mean?â asked Xim.
âDid you- did you have other points?â Varrin stammered.
âI already had some points distributed, but I didnât place them myself. At least, not intentionally. I mean, I made life choices that gave me the points, so in that sense I placed them where they ended up, but getting an extra point in Intelligence wasnât really on my mind when I decided to pick up a double-major, yaâ know?â
Xim held up her hands, then shook them.
âHow?!â she said.
âHow many?â Varrin said at the same time.
I pointed at Varrin.
âFirst, not sure I want to tell you that.â I pointed at Xim. âSecond, great question. Third,â I pointed down the hall, âthe fuck did Sayil go?â
Xim and Varrin both turned to look down the corridor, but Sayil was gone. We soon got another notification. One that weâd already seen one too many times this Delve.
A party member has been slain: Sayil Starion.
All items in the party memberâs inventory will be distributed to the survivors upon completion of the Delve.
âDid more of them come from behind?â Varrin asked as we marched down the corridor, looking for Sayilâs body.
âIf so, why wouldnât they flank us too?â said Xim.
âI was a little distracted, but did either of you hear anything?â I said. âIf he were attacked, wouldnât he call out or something?â
âMaybe they didnât come after us because they were satisfied with Sayil,â said Varrin. âOr he fought them off while we were focused on the front, but fell later on.â
âIf he fought them, then where are the corpses?â said Xim. âThe blood?â
I looked at the ground as we went, but there werenât any out-of-place bodily fluids.
âSo, with Chilla,â I began, trying to word my thoughts delicately, âit seemed like she was affected by the atrocidile fear thing, and was driven away. Then she got ambushed by something. Do you think that Sayil may have run off as well?â
âFrom what fear effect?â Varrin said.
âMaybe a non-magical one? Like, he was just scared the normal way?â
Varrin shook his head.
âYou think Sir Sayil ran from those petty beasts of his own volition? No. Something took him away. We must not have heard anything over the sounds of our own fight.â
Xim looked up at me.
âYou were yelling a lot.â
âI was?â
âYeah, you were saying that the gekkogs were bad boys and that you werenât going to give them any canned food for a week. Then you said that the Delve had a âone bite ruleâ so you were taking them to Dr. Varrin to be put down and that you were very sad about it.â
âHuh,â I grunted. I didnât remember any of that.