Chapter 18: Dungeon

Right after ignoring the first group of skeletons, we continue to rush through the dungeon.

On the way, we're met with an increasing number of bandits and sphinxes, while the proportion of skeletons kept decreasing.

Following the rule of speed coming first, we kept ignoring most attacks, even going as far as to intentionally take damages in order to not waste any time when needed.

Sphinxes were a bit harder, as they can't be shaken, but I just used my Palm Push to throw them far enough behind that they would reset long before they reach us.

We continued as such until we were met with a more troublesome type of obstacle: three Giant Sandworms.

This is then that we had our first real fight.

The Giant Sandworms may be huge, but their underground speed can't be underestimated. Because the time it takes to go from A to B is the same no matter the distance, it is in fact impossible to shake them no matter how fast you are.

With their substantial damages as well, ignoring them and counting on a reset would heavily increase the chances of the run going awry.

This is why it is one of those fights that is worth taking.

-Slip!

-Keep!

If we decided to take a fight, of course, we're going to be the ones attacking first.

In dungeon runs, for those specific CC skills which have a wide use among the group, we shout the skill names. It allows the group to not need to constantly keep an eye on the other members of the party.

Our policy is that while we work together, every member of the party must be able to handle themselves and do their job by themselves.

It is this level of trust we require our members to be worthy of.

While I and Dartagnan take one Giant Sandworm as a target, Soul, Silent, and Red take the other two.

Pinky is certainly powerful, but we have a need for her Explosion further down the line, so we can't have her waste mana in the early parts of the dungeon.

Red uses Chains to block one of the Giant Sandworms in place, while Soul uses a quick combination of Forward Slash, Slash, Air Jump, and Falling Slash, before making full use of his Swordsmanship skill to deal as much damage with ordinary attacks as possible.

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║ Air Jump

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ In an incredible display of skill,

║ you use the air as a support to

║ jump, with a maximum

║ force of 100% of your Strength.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ Quickfall

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 2 skill points

║ Cooldown: 1 seconds

║ Active

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Swordsmanship

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Any use of the sword becomes a sword

║ move, dealing bonus damages equivalent

║ to 1% of your dexterity.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: nothing

║ Passive

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

Of course, none of it would be possible at all wasn't Red's Chains blocking the Giant Sandworm in place, and stopping the Giant Sandworm from being sent flying by the powerful Slashes.

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Slash

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Deals a powerful slashing attack for

║ 10% of your Dexterity, looking as if

║ it could cut space itself, projecting

║ your target with a force equivalent

║ to the final damages dealt.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ Forward Slash

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 10 skill points

║ Cooldown: 30 seconds

║ Active

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Forward Slash

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ The sheer force of your move pushes

║ you forward as you deal a powerful

║ slashing attack for 5% of your

║ Dexterity and 5% of your Strength.

║ The attack projects your target with

║ a force equivalent to the final

║ damages dealt.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ Falling Slash

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 10 skill points

║ Cooldown: 30 seconds

║ Active

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Falling Slash

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Using your own sword as direction,

║ you quickly fall down onto your target,

║ dealing a powerful slashing attack for

║ 8% of your Strength.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 5 skill points

║ Duration: 2 seconds

║ Active

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Chains

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Binds a target to its current

║ position with chains.

║ The chains have a resistance equal

║ to 8% of your will.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 1 skill point per second

║ Cooldown: 15 seconds

║ Max Duration: 10 seconds

║ Active

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

As Soul's attack kill the first Giant Sandworm, I already placed Sticky Bombs on the one I took charge of, and am only waiting for its death, and Silent just used his strongest combination, using Advanced Targeting together with Switch to exchange his position with a grain of sand behind the Giant Sandworm, and using both Assassinate and Thorn of Confusion.

The first is an active attack that allows him to deal a great deal amount of damages depending on how unaware the target is of the attack, and the second is a passive skill that gives him further bonus damages depending on how confused the target is, which Switch tends to couple pretty well with.

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Assassinate

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Using your target's distraction,

║ deal damages amounting to x% of your

║ Dexterity, where x amounts to how

║ unaware your target is of the attack

║ on a scale of 30.

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: 10 skill points

║ Cooldown: 60 seconds

║ Active

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

╔═════════════════════════════════╗

║ Thorn of Confusion

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Any attack deals additional damage

║ for x% of your Dexterity, where x

║ is how confused your target is on a

║ scale of 5

║━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Evolutions

║ None

╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢

║ Cost: nothing

║ Passive

╚═════════════════════════════════╝

As far as this run is concerned, I have no need for this skill further down the line.

It goes without saying that all Giant Sandworms are dealt with in a matter of seconds, and we get back on course toward our objective.

Next up is a bandit attack, which I rightfully deal with using Mjolnir's Summon Lightning.

While it is a single target skill, it still has a bit of splash damage, which is especially efficient on a bunch of people standing right on top of an especially steep slope.

Once this group of mainly archers and spellcasters is either dead or fell on the ground, there is nothing stopping us from continuing our way.

Usually, they wouldn't amount to much trouble, but in the specific case of our strategy, they are right where our cut is.

I get Pinky back on my shoulders, and one by one, as closely packed as possible, we climb to the bandits' former position and jump on the small "platforms" on the wall one by one.

Of course, I have the hardest role, as I have to carry our less physically able member on my shoulders, but I also am the best of our group at this type of precise movement.

Even with Pinky on my shoulders, I still am able to catch the asperity I need to catch and spin around it once, avoiding the first eagle.

As for the second, it's a bit harder, as I literally have to leap in its direction, but I still managed to deal with it, and continue my way.

Now, the only thing left is the boss.