ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 19: Tier II Dungeon (RED)-RUM

Chapter 19

Tier II Dungeon (RED)-RUM

Alexa knew that as soon as she entered the red layers of the Tier II dungeon that the training wheels were off. This was made particularly clear with the message sent to her mind.

You are now entering a Tier II RED dungeon.

Know that in a RED dungeon run, rules change. For the sake of this run, this dungeon is no longer considered a Trap only Dungeon, but will be a hybrid. This means a few things. First and foremost, monsters can appear on each and every level. The further down you go, the stronger the monsters will get.

Special Conditions: You can opt to Stay at your current difficulty, or opponent type if you feel you are weak against them. This is performed by say the word Stay at the end of each floor. Note:Staying can only be invoked a total of ten times during a single dungeon run. To get more, you will have to leave, resetting all your current progress, then return.

WARNING: There is a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of summoning a dungeon with a dragon as the sole boss.

Note: At any time, you feel you cannot compete against the monsters summoned to fill the trap dungeon, you can exit at any time. Be advised that exiting in such a way will prevent you from being able to return to this same Tier II dungeon for a month.

Those were the rules of the Tier II Red dungeon. Alexa had been right in her slow methodical approach to these dungeons. If she had assumed that she was ready from the start, she would have missed out first on her skill crystals, which would likely prove even more beneficial here, as this was still a trap dungeon, just with monsters thrown into the mix. But she also got well over two hundred augmentation crystals added. Again, as this was a trap dungeon most of those crystals went to her Mental attributes, with a small sampling of Strength, Endurance, and Agility thrown in from side passageways and death trap rooms.

Looking at her wristwatch, she read the time and today’s date.

Thursday: 8:18 AM.

With the time calculated she figured she had just over Three and a half days to truly change herself enough that no one would mess with her, at her new school.

Well, she was going to be the new girl. Inevitably there would be some type of learning curve applied. But she would be sure that she could stand up for herself in the new school. Especially as she was going to be in the new school alone.

She had known this day was coming. The day when she would be separated from her twin. In a way, she found that she didn’t hate him as much, when she realized how much he had given up being with her too.

That was the great thing about emotions, they let you rationalize and empathize with people. People who, when judged by the merits of their own actions seemed to make no sense.

With that in mind, she entered her first hybrid dungeon room.

As she entered, she saw a string of green skinned male warriors fighting with exotic and graceful female warriors. In the fray were also giant furry dogs, and graceful cats that were also fighting. In a few cases, some of the stronger females and males rode the different animals. Male green skinned creatures rode the furry dogs. While the exotic super model warrior women rode the giant cat creatures.

Quest: Champion. Choose a side to fight for. Eradicate your foes and move onto the next floor.

Warning: Your choice in a side will depict how the rest of this and other future floors play out for you.

Seeing the two sides, Alexa instantly interpreted this to be some type of battle against good and evil. That the green skinned warriors were supposed to be fought against.

Coming to this floor, Alexa knew instantly that her brother, Luke, would choose to side with the sexy model elves. Fortunately for Alexa she felt no such compulsions.

Instead, she decided to look at this as a microcosm of life. Two sides fighting, most would instantly be swayed by the beautiful dancing models that were clearly going to lose without assistance.

Alexa on the other hand did not care about the concept of good versus evil. In this, she was given a choice, either fight and get stronger, or die.

Also looking at the exotic models with long ears, she couldn’t help but think of the Dathney Williamses of the world, and the way they always looked down on everyone.

With that mental image in mind, she made her move.

With speed that had not been seen on the level. Alexa charged forward, grabbing a sword from a fallen female’s hands. Then began slashing at the nearest opponent.

Slink, slice, chop.

She had no flare for the weapon. More often she relied on impaling the creatures with the pointy end of the sword than any real finesse moves.

Still, she cut down all those pretty little witches. Not because she was angry, not because she felt compelled to, but because she knew at the end of the day. She would always be the ugly outsider to them. The one who was good enough to tag along, until she was no longer useful. Then they would cut her off.

Enemies Killed: Elite Elven Forces.

Your faction rating with the Elite Elven Forces has dropped.

Your faction rating with the Orcs of Bendahar has increased.

Alexa knew this and began slicing through the pretty little witches. No malice in her thoughts, no anger, just pure pragmatism brought on by years of observing social hierarchies. Also some of them had to be witches, as their robes and glowing staffs were sign that they were either the crew hired to lead the retreat, or they were magic users.

For Alexa there was no reason to bother being judged, when she knew she would never be accepted for who she was. Thus, her option was easy.

Absorber Class Material Found: Would you like to absorb essence of Elite Elven Maiden?

“Yes.” Alexa said.

With that one word, the complete course of the battle changed in an instant.

A sadistic smile formed on Alexa’s face as felt alive with the thrill of battle and possible crystals awaiting her.

Seeing the demonic female with long black hair appear within their ranks, the Elves began to scatter wildly.

The Elven Commander seeing this random assassin appear within their ranks reacted. Turning Pulva, her Elite Feral Panther towards the intrude.

Swipe, blur, swipe, blur, blur, swipe.

The black-haired goddess of death cut down warrior after warrior. Each strike caused a faint glowing green mist to enter their body. At the sight of the energy transfer one word came from the Elven Commander’s lips. This was a battle cry to rally all her soldiers to the cause of defeating this one monster.

“Necromancer!” She cried out, as she kicked at Pulva’s sides driving her forward into a gallop.

Within three steps Pulva was at full speed. By five steps she was already within pouncing distance. So that was just what Pulva did. She jumped. She jumped high into the air, teeth and claws extended to tackle the assassin to the ground.

That is when the monster turned her face towards Pulva and the Commander both.

Her eyes glowed brightly with the light of stolen energies. An eerie smile filled her face, as she just stared at them for a second. Then they paused.

Their muscles didn’t constrict, they didn’t feel the painful tremors of normal Necrosis Shocks filling their bodies. Instead, they just froze, right there in mid-air. Odder too was the fact that rather than falling to the ground as logic would dictate, they just hung there suspended.

As the Elven Commander tried to grip the reality that was happening to her, she took her eyes from the target.

Not that it mattered.

Whoosh.

Alexa jumped into the air, directing her stolen sword towards the necks of the two enemies she was holding easily with her Telekinesis. The power was insane, especially with the fact that she was able to hold the giant cat creature, and the skinny elven model.

Just like what inevitably happened to all her Barbie dolls she received as a child. The Elven Commander’s head popped off and rolled lifelessly on the ground. She remembered as a child a cold detachment to the circumstance. Ultimately concluding that their heads were too big for their skinny necks to be adequate. At the time she never meant to pop the heads from the toys, they just did. That or Luke and his friends would do something similar with her toys. In the end it made no difference to her, she grew out of toys at five no longer seeing the need for them. Particularly when she had things like Augmentation crystals to win.

This time however, this time with the power of the Absorber class at work. She felt a strange thrill fill her.

Quest Completed. You have chosen to fight for the Orcs of Bendahar. You have slain the enemy leader. The remaining forces will soon disperse.

At that, Alexa began to panic.

This was over too soon. She had grown too complacent with her blood lust, striking down all enemies who would dare challenge her. Never fully realizing that there was a set social structure to this type of event. Though in retrospect it should have been obvious, all super models ultimately have one queen bee that they all look up to. If you take that one queen bee down, then you no longer must worry about the others.

She had known this from all her social interactions. Learned this lesson over and over, until finally the methods, actions, and most importantly, predictable outcomes could be identified.

Alexa had done everything right, but she still was wrong in that she couldn’t kill them all.

A few took to running.

That was when Alexa quickly surveyed the battlefield and identified several short daggers and knives on the ground. Running to them, she picked them up, then using her freely given Throwing skill, she struck out.

Whoop-woop-woop-squish.

Whip-woop-whip-squish.

Over and over, she threw the daggers at the backs of the fleeing female warriors. With that taken care of, Alexa was hit with a class message.

Energy Gained. Do you wish to convert energy absorbed into class experience? Attributes? Or Elven only powers?

Current Work: N/A

With that Alexa did a quick check to see what options she had available to her for Elven Powers.

Elven Powers Available: Longevity, Agile, Magic: Nature, Healing, Wind.

At the sight of the word, Magic, Alexa’s eyes glowed brightly for a second, as the last of her stolen energy fueled excitement faded. Still, she did see the practicality to Magic. Supposedly it was rare.

Looking back through the course of the battle it was clear that some of the elves in the back were clearly unprepared for war, only wearing soft robes. That said, the other models weren’t much better, with tight fitting leather garments, rather than garments with metal padding interlaced.

With a mental check, Alexa found that she had 22 Elven Essences.

Just Unlocking Magic took 1, Healing would take 14, while Wind and Nature would take 7 each.

Deciding on a way that would help her out in the future, she decided to go the Healing and Nature route. Spending all 22 of her essences on those two powers.

Magic Unlocked.

Magic Category Unlocked: Healing Magic.

Magic Category Unlocked: Nature Magic.

With that, she felt she had made quite the wise choice. Healers were always welcomed. Also, if she showed herself to be a healer, other students might not bully her as much.

The only problem was her focusing so intently on her Absorber class options allowed the Orcs of Bendahar to fully encircle her.

In all she counted, thirty fierce male warriors, most of whom easily stood a head and a half taller than her, all built like all pro-linebackers.

The minute it was clear she was once again paying attention to her surroundings, the largest of the Orcs moved forward to face off against Alexa.

Quest Received: Battle for Dominance. The Chieftain of the ragtag Bendahar Orc tribe sees you and wishes to challenge you for your crystals. If you win the spar, you will become war chief of the Bendahar Orc Tribe. If you lose all your crystals earned from this battle will go to the Chief and his men. This Quest cannot be avoided.QQQuestQuest Received: Battle for Dominance. The Chieftain of the rag-tag Bendahar Orc tribe sees you and wishes to challenge you for your crystals. If you win the spar, you will become war chief of the Bendahar Orc Tribe. If you lose all your crystals earned from this battle will go to the Chief and his men. This Quest cannot be avoided.

Looking around at the thirty muscular orcs who cut off her path, it was clear why this quest was unavoidable.

Holding up her sword, she could see that even against the paltry flesh of the Elves it already had quite a few dings and dents. Still, it seemed to be structurally sound enough for what she had to do next.

In fact, for the first part she knew she didn’t even need her sword.

The big war chief sauntered forward, no doubt thinking to intimidate the whelp of a human female before him.

Big mistake.

This allowed Alexa enough time to focus on the mighty orc and crush him with her Telekinesis.

In a second thousands of pounds of force crushed to war chieftain’s chest inward.

Crack, snap, pop.

Bones bent and broke.

Quest Complete: You have gained dominance of the Bendahar Orc Tribe.

The prompt flashed before her eyes.

Then she looked on at all the orcs that cowered in place at the way she brutally and efficiently crushed the chieftain before her.

Alexa was not done there, not by a long shot.

With the first vestiges of spirit of orcentering her, she grinned a feral grin.

“Let me tell you my first and only rule:” Alexa began, before she began to blur around the circle darting from one end to another. Slicing, chopping, and cleaving the orcs into pieces. They were slow, far slower than the Elves were. Unlike the elves however, the orcs did not flee at the sight of their commander dying. Instead, they all decided to fight until the bitter end.

The entire time Alexa moved around; she continued stating her one rule to her soon to be ex-soldiers. “No one ever tries to take my crystals. Take my friends, my clothes, my shoes, my food, my texts, take all of that. I don’t care. But if you, or anyone ever tries to take my rightfully earned crystals. Even in a dungeon, I will be angry.”

That of course was one of the rules of a dungeon. Whatever happened in a dungeon, whatever one did in a dungeon didn’t matter in the outside world.

In fact, there were only two rules that were taken seriously from within dungeons. Don’t kill a real living breathing human who was part of your team. The second one was don’t contract a rare communicable disease. The second one was a direct result of the Lykanthropy and Vampyre viruses that were currently running rampant around the world. If there was another equally devastating disease to come, then no one knew if the world would be able to handle such a situation.

One quick look at the Orcs showed they were even less skilled than the elves. At least in any meaningful way. Once again, they all seemed to sport powers that were like the werewolves, with Regeneration, Night Sight, then a few other ones that Alexa didn’t particularly care for.

At first Alexa was tempted to put their energy all towards her attributes but paused when she saw that she could also put this energy towards her class. In a way she was curious about what would happen to her slotted class if she in fact put all her energy there.

She debated the idea for a moment, then realized such an act would go against her true purpose for coming here. As such she opted to put the energy towards an attribute.

In all she had 31 essences that she could put towards any one Physical Attribute. With that, she pushed all 31 points towards Agility. Alexa did not like the fact that seven of the elves got away.

With that, she then went around collecting all her crystals from the monsters she killed. The elves all disintegrated into four Agility Crystals. While the orcs dissolved into five Strength crystals.

Alexa took the time to look around the floor but found that it was just an open battlefield. Odd as this one seemed to be completely different than the other floors she was used to from this dungeon.

Just as she was about to leave the floor. She was met with a new system message.

Quest Failed: Finding a Path with Friends. You have failed to choose a path to walk. Instead choosing to walk your own path. Be warned, your path is now more dangerous than ever.

Alexa read the message, and just like always, she felt nothing.

Apparently floor 101 was a test floor designed to fit you into some overarching schema.

In these types of situations, she tried to imagine what her brother would do. In his situation, he would likely be panicking and seeing if there was a way he could reset.

As for Alexa, aside from missing the seven cowardly elves, she was fine with her choices.

But as she got to the edge of the field, an idea formed in her mind. Sitting down she took in augmentation crystal after augmentation crystal. In nine minutes, even her emotional mind agreed that this was the best course of action for her currently.

She walked right up to the portal, then uttered the one word no one had ever uttered in the history of the 101st floor.

With a cold icy voice, she called out crisply and clearly. “Stay.”

Then with her will accepted she walked through the portal to, once again, see the two sides fighting. Then with reckless abandon, she charged in between the enemy lines and began striking down anyone who got in her path, be they orc or elf.

This time, the only difference was, she saved the head elf and her mount for last.

This time like last time she was given the same options. Once again, all her Orc essences went towards improving her attributes, this time Endurance. Then all her elven essences went towards purchasing every form of magic offered.

Magic Category Unlocked: Wind Magic.

Magic Category Increased: Healing Magic II.

Magic Category Increased: Nature Magic II.

This time like the last she noted that her reputation with both factions dropped.

Just as she had hoped, she managed to further increase her Healing and Nature Magic, while also unlocking Wind Magic. Better still, she had three elven essences left after her purchases. This was fortuitous, as she smiled from her battlefield and crystalline high as she once again walked to the portal and once again had her command heard and obeyed. “Stay.”

By the fourth time through, she had earned enough extra elven essence to put her Wind Magic on par with her Healing and Nature Magic. With her tenth time through she had managed to unlock Longevity, and Agile. On that same level, she managed to Maxout all three magical schools.

It appeared that magic schools could only be pushed to the tenth iteration, then they were considered Max.

Again, even the emotional side of Alexa was proud to have maxed out not one, but three magical classes.

Better still, she managed to do so while only using up nine of her stays on that first floor, floor 101. She didn’t know what or if she would use the tenth one for this time, but she knew having the option to repeat a floor could prove to be invaluable.

Of course, there was only one minor problem. When she was done, her reputation with the two groups were at Blood Feud. Not that this changed anything for Alexa. At least, that was what she thought. That nothing she did within the dungeon would follow her once she left the dungeon.