RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 161

They continued with the previous strategy of running away for another half an hour when the boss finally reached went berserk. During this time, he had used the spear throw skill another three times with its targets being one of the two friendly dwarves, Sultan and and lastly another of Merlin’s mage servants. Sultan actually took the blow for Quiet Fire and he collided into Quiet fire due to the blow back effect, even after that. Apart from Sultan the other two, immediately died of the attack.

Merlin felt really bad on losing another one of his servants, but the others were all very relieved that they were not targeted by the skill. If they were the target, they would either get killed or at the very least be severely injured by his attack that they would be stunned or crippled. The worst part was that they expected the boss to go berserk after the last throw of the spear.

But the thing that followed the attack surprised them more. Black smoke started to billow out of the joints of its armor. Ten dwarves that were closes to the boss died falling down while more smoke came off the dwarves and joined with Hadbufar. It took the shape of a demon as the smoke formed into scales and pair of horns on the head of Hadbufar. These were all expected changes for Balthazar.

The biggest change was that all the other dwarves stopped fighting all of a sudden. It was like they were about to get out of the trance they were in but suddenly stopped. The boss began to throw its axes and even dwarves that were close to it. The axes were definitely slower than the spear and as the entire team had been quite vigilant after their previous experience and evaded them or blocked as necessary, but it went and flung the frozen dwarves instead.

“Everyone, focus on the boss alone. The dwarves are incapacitated. You just need to evade the ones he throws,” shouted Shadow knowing what is required. With the other dwarves in that state they could completely concentrate on the boss. This was the only advantage in the berserk state of the boss. The only thing that they had to be aware of what the boss could throw.

Previously, they used to simply deal damage to the dwarfs when they were frozen to kill them as the dwarfs would suddenly become alive if they hit their target and dealt more damage. The boss also jumped about the same distance once every ten minutes and attacked. That would be a sure kill attack. So, the players usually attacked and killed all the dwarves before they fought the boss, so as to avoid that specific attack. But now, they didn’t want to hurt the dwarves. So, they are stuck to evading and attacking instead.

He hoped that there wouldn’t be anyone who wouldn’t manage to avoid the throw and realize that the dwarfs would become alive once they hit the target. But it was far too much to expect that of them as Tang was the first one to block the dwarf with her shield rather than evade. She was quite shocked and shouted in fear when the dwarf caught onto her shield and attacked her.

“They are not frozen. Attack them,” shouted Tang as she came to her senses. This put the rest of them all into a tensed state suddenly, some of them were quite close to other dwarves and immediately jumped away from them disregarding other things.

“Don’t panic. Only the dwarves thrown are getting unfrozen when we contact them instead of evading,” shouted Shadow and also messaged them. At this time, the others would just consider it an acute observation of Shadow. Still, a majority of them didn’t immediately notice the message or heard Shadow and continued to panic. It took about 10 seconds for them to realize that the other dwarves weren’t attacking them, but in their panic a couple more dwarves were successfully thrown on to other members of the team, Bitter Beast and Tetsujin.

“Yeah, they aren’t attacking us,” realized Tetsujin as he pushed back the dwarf that whaled on him. As they realized, the situation became better and they slowly started to fight with the boss decently. This continued for some time and they were able to reduce the boss’s health steadily till it became about 700 HP. Then, the boss suddenly jumped instead of throwing a dwarf. It aimed for Merlin but landed on Spirit Bear and Bitter Best who were covering for Merlin and managed to cushion it for Merlin. The attack caused the bear to dissipate into light and it blew away Bitter Beast crippling him. As he flew away, he collided into Merlin causing both of them to lose significant bit of health.

“Kill him faster,” shouted Merlin afraid that it might have changed its attacks again. Though Bitter Beast was down the others started to all use their best attack in fear that the boss might continue. IF that was the case, even the physical classes were no longer safe even if they kept their distance fro the boss.

So, Sultan took initiative to use his Glaring Blaze skill to allow others to use its effect and pile up the attacks. Even the boss wasn’t immune to the skill. Though it didn’t go blind like other monsters, it didn’t fight Sultan head on and started to retreat instead.

This attack couple with Quiet Fire’s cloak of fire, Merlin’s Siphon health and other skills executed by Tetsujin and Tang managed to reduce its health to a meagre 200 HP within 10 seconds. Merlin also tried subjugation during these 10 seconds of Glaring Blaze, but it failed almost immediately. His health siphon could persist for another 20 seconds. So, he continued with that skill while retreating under cover provided by Sultan, Tang and Mob while the boss tried to throw more dwarves at Merlin. Tetsujin and Shadow also stood blocking the dwarves, when they realized Merlin’s plan.

The boss threw four dwarves at Merlin in these 10 seconds, but none of them hit their target due to the interference of the other players. After the 10 seconds, it simply fell down as it lost its health to Merlin’s skill.

“System: Congratulations on obtaining the first kill of Hadbufar. You will receive the first kill rewards in your mail on exiting the dungeon.”

The dwarves also were out of their possessed state and immediately began to move towards their lord tied up on the platform. There were about 20 dwarves left whom quickly removed Bungar from the platform and were cheering among themselves.

“Nice plan,” complemented Tetsujin laying down as he started drinking water and bread to get rid of his tired feeling. They had spent an hour just in this cave which was extremely taxing to continuously keep moving for such a long time.

“I think your siphon skill is the best way to quickly reduce the health of a boss, in hard situations. Especially, if when they have high defence and speed. It is very hard to land physical attack in these cases,” continued Tetsujin.

“Ya. I personally think it is best used for handling the berserk state of monsters. We can keep distance and block while reducing the opponent’s health,” said Sultan.

“You need to advance your weapon as soon as possible Merlin. It is best if this skill becomes stronger,” he continued looking at Merlin.

“Ya. I didn’t think that far. I just used it along with a potion as the attack which crippled Beast also caused me to lose a lot of health with bleed effects. It was just a way to replenish my health faster so that I didn’t die,” said Merlin. He also didn’t actually think that it could be used on a monster in berserk state to that effect and always thought it to be a life-saving skill than anything else.

“Let us actually finish the dungeon by talking to Bungar, shall we?” said Shadow as he went to the platform. The other also followed behind him. The dwarves let them through as they came to meet Bungar.

“Adventurers, I had lost hope till you came. I am really glad that you have managed to save all of us from the demon. They managed to infiltrate our ranks and incapacitate us. We managed to help most of the dwarves escape, but we warriors stayed behind to protect or land. Alas, we lost,” said Bungar shaking his head.

“Though you have killed quite a number of our men, you have also saved 24 of us from the demon Nakshak’s evil hold. With my fellow dwarves, we will be able to bring back the fort to its former glory. For this I thank you and want to give you this as a toke of my appreciation,” said Bungar as he pulled out a dark gold treasure chest and gave it Shadow.

“We thank you for your help in our time of need adventurers,” said Bungar as system announcements sounded out.

White Heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merlin Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast, Psychotic Mob, Sultan-e-Shehzad, Tang and Spicy, Tetsujin, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet the members of Blazing Fury for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Bungar’s Keep. All players of the team will be rewarded with 50 White Heart City reputation points.

White Heart Kingdom System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merlin Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast, Psychotic Mob, Sultan-e-Shehzad, Tang and Spicy, Tetsujin, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet the members of Blazing Fury for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Bungar’s Keep. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 White Heart Kingdom reputation points.

“System: First clear rewards will be delivered to you via mail after you exit the dungeon.”

“System: For clearing a dungeon of the dwarf territory, while saving more than 20 dwarves, you are being awarded the title ‘Dwarf’s friend’. You will be given some of the privileges of a third-rate citizen in most dwarven towns and cities.”

As they heard the announcements, a portal appeared beneath their feet transporting them out of the keep. As they came out of the dungeon, they also received experience points for saving the dwarves and 6 of them immediately hit level 15.

“You guys got the new title too?” asked Tang as she checked the system announcement. Everyone nodded along as they checked their announcements. Even Balthazar was surprised by the new title that they received. Players would be allowed in the towns and cities of allied races, but they need to have reputation if they want to buy land, special equipment or compete with other dwarf players.

Though the title doesn’t allow one to buy/rent land or shops it allows them entrance to some areas restricted to citizens. This would be quite useful in later stages of the game when various races would intermingle with one another. It would provide a starting advantage to them a it is very hard to gain reputation in other race’s territory, especially since most of the common means to gain reputation like dungeons would already be used by the players of that specific race. At such times, these titles would be quite useful in exploring higher level lands of other races.

As others were enjoying the special awards they received and allocating their free attribute points, Merlin’s voice rang. “Open the treasure chest dude. Let us see, what we have won.”

The others also turned to Shadow on hearing Merlin’s voice. They were busy receiving congratulations from their peers and checking their reward in mail that they almost forgot about the special award they received for saving the dwarves. They surrounded Shadow waiting for him to pull out the golden treasure chest. Grenadier, Mob and Bitter Beast were more interested than others as it was the first gold treasure chest they had ever seen in the game.

Shadow didn’t want to keep them waiting either and opened the treasure chest immediately. There were three things in the chest. A dark gold chest plate, a gold forging design and a bag. They first checked the bag as it was something that they hadn’t seen before, but they were bitterly disappointed when Shadow opened it.

“Copper ores? It is copper ores?!” asked Merlin shocked by the contents of the bag. “A bag of 50 copper ores. That is also in a treasure chest,” shouted Merlin in anger. He had been hoping it to be something special.

“Dude, we saved 20 dwarves and that gave us a title and treasure chest. Aren’t you being too greedy?” said Tetsujin shaking his head.

“I am not angry that it was a small reward. I am angry that the system put something so trivial in a dark gold treasure chest,” said Merlin. “Move to the next one. Armor details please.”

[Galgar’s Chest Plate] ( Dark Gold chest armor)

Level 15;

Requirements: Strength: 25; Vitality: 25;

Endurance +15; Magic Resist +30;

Special Effect: Helwagor’s Blessing (Passive): Recover’s 1% HP (uptil 150 HP) of the player per second. Uses 10 MP for every 1% HP.

Active Skill: Rock Guard: Forms a rock layer of armor around the player doubling his physical defence and magical resistance. MP: 500; Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 15 min.

[Blessed by Dwarf Sage, Helwagor and worn by lord Gulgar (Bungar’s father) in his youth.]

Durability: 45/45.

“Damn! The specs on it is ridiculous. This is a tanks dream,” said Sultan as soon as he looked at the description.

“Tank or attacker, it makes them a fort. They don’t even need to worry about the healer. Even, if it needs MP for healing, it makes a person downright undefeatable at his level,” added Tetsujin. Both of them wanted to pounce on Shadow to take the equipment. It was extremely tempting for them. They felt that it would make them impossible to kill even if they tried to fight the mini boss Chrome head on while wearing this armor.

“It is a good one, but only until certain level. I doubt it will be much useful past level 18 or so, but it would be very useful for a guild to get resources from a dungeon. They could exchange the armor among the player and repeat the dungeon multiple times, unlike us,” said Merlin as his eyes sparkled with newfound enthusiasm which had waned after he had seen the first item of the chest.

“You want to put it in auction? We can use it right now. It will be easier for us to clear the hell mode with it. I suggest one of us uses it till level 18 or so,” said Sultan.

“Of course, we are using it, now,” said Merlin rolling his eyes at Sultan. “I was just suggesting that we sell it after our use. This thing will still be valuable to guilds as they will have a number of new players constantly. For this game, I actually expect that such a trend will continue for a couple of years.”

“Oh! Cool! Soooo?!” said Sultan. “Who gets it?”

“Roll for it. I don’t have a better idea, now,” said Merlin. “Only plate armor classes,” he added as he saw almost every getting ready to roll for a number. “It is a waste to use it on low defence or low health players.”

His conditions left only four players who could roll for it – Bitter Beast, Tetsujin, Sultan and Tang. The four of them quickly use the roll function available to generate a random number between 0 to 100.

Bitter Beast – 43;

“Shit! How can it be so low,” shouted Beast. With that number, he was sure that he wouldn’t get the armor.

Sultan – 88;

“Not bad! Let us see if anyone else gets a better number,” gloated Sultan. He currently had the highest probability of winning the armor.

Tetsujin – 97;

“Hahaha,” laughed Tetsujin. Even the others, including Tang were sure that Tetsujin won.

Tang – 84;

“I can’t believe that you got such a high number,” she grumbled walking away. Tetsujin took the armor from Shadow in high spirits and immediately equipped it. He was a martial artist who put a lot of his attribute points in strength and agility, while focusing less on endurance. He was really glad that he got to pair up with armor that provided him exactly what he needed.

“Now, show the forging design,” said Merlin.

[Connective Twin swords] (Gold Two handed weapon)

Level 15;

Requirements: Strength: 25; Agility: 25;

Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 4; Copper Ore x 2;

(Can be split into two swords or can be used as a double ended blade)

Attack Power +45;

Special Effect: Party counter: Every parry in the combined form has a chance of inducing a counterattack from the other end of the weapon.

Active Skill: Wheel Slasher: Allow the player to rotate the weapon at high speed while attacking. Increases the attack power by 50%. Duration: 5 seconds; MP: 400; Cooldown: 5 min.