Amongst the loot gathered, there were many monster cores and a few soul cores. But one core, in particular, caught his attention.
It was the Somnus Bat’s soul core!
This was a big boon for him. Astaroth had already tried using normal soul cores to make spirit companions, but failed. It appeared any monster under the elite stage wasn’t strong enough to be converted.
But the Somnus Bat was an elite monster! He could now have a third companion.
No one in the party objected when he started grabbing the cores for himself, as they had agreed upon it. Then, they dispatched the meats and leathers equally between each other.
Next were items.
Most items dropped by normal monsters were ingredients and materials. But zone bosses also dropped gear occasionally.
The previous zone boss, the ape king, had dropped two such items. And this one just dropped three!
The ape king had dropped a tower shield, made out of one of its chest plates. It looked like a big stone slab, but it was actually quite light and thin.
That didn’t take away from its durability, though, and Gulnur had immediately equipped it. The other item it had dropped was a ring of constitution, which had also gone to Gulnur.
This boss, though, had dropped a set of daggers, a necklace, and a quarterstaff. The daggers went to Astaroth, who was the only dagger user in the group.
Bat Fang Daggers (2):
Grade: Special
Attack Power: 30 (Agi)
Durability: (50) (50)
Stat Bonus: +10 Agi
Special Ability: Has 50% chance to life leech the damage done on hit. Life leech heals for 10% of the damage done.
Description: These daggers were once the fangs of a mighty monster. Its ability to heal from its injuries is still embedded in the weapons.
He equipped the dagger set immediately, already feeling the agility boost. The daggers looked sharp and vicious, their white surface gleaming in the campfire light.
The necklace was called the Echolocation Necklace. As its name implied, it allowed the user to echo locate, and made the wearer able to maneuver in complete darkness with ease.
The echolocation ability had a range of a kilometre, and thus, it was given to their scout, Athena. She had tried it out almost immediately to get used to it.
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An image of the surrounding kilometre radius showed in her mind, in black and white. The shapes were distinct, and she could tell this would be a great tool for her in the near future.
As for the last item, the quarterstaff, they gave it to I’die. It was called the Staff Of Swarms.
It allowed the person equipped with it to summon a small swarm of creatures to control. The monsters it summoned had to be small, and weren’t very strong, but he could use them in many ways.
I’die was already thinking about how to use this new item. After doing the split of loot, the sun was slowly peeking above the horizon.
They decided to rest for half an hour, and let the adrenaline from the previous fight go down before proceeding further. Astaroth used that time to tame the Somnus Bat’s soul and closed his eyes.
After a brief struggle, Astaroth beat the creature down hard enough for it to yield. It then accepted the soul-binding contract and became his third spirit companion.
Funnily enough, the Somnus Bat had shrunk from its massive size, and was now the size of a regular bat on earth. Astaroth had named Morpheus, finding the name fitting a bat that induces sleep.
He couldn’t wait to meld with it, to discover the new abilities he had gained from it. In the meantime, the new soul started orbiting his own, sweating into place.
When Astaroth opened his eyes again, he noticed everyone was looking at him. They seemed to be ready to get back on the road, and were gazing at him.
They didn’t need to ask him if he had been successful, since he was wearing a grin on his face. Astaroth apologized for making them wait and gathered his things.
They soon left in the dungeon’s direction.
On the way there, they crossed stray monsters many times, but never a horde. Either they were just outside the boss’ territories, or they were just lucky enough to not cross paths.
They counted it as a good thing, since they still had almost a full day’s worth of walking to do to get to the dungeon. Stopping every hour to fight a horde of monsters was good for farming, but would delay their goal.
Their trip proceeded smoothly, mostly, and they only ever stopped for brief breaks. Most times to eat, and let the helmet players rest off the game a little.
At some point, Phoenix and Astaroth discussed the possibility of buying pods for I’die and Athena. Gulnur also said he could chip in.
Astaroth had his money slowly piling up, and Phoenix still hadn’t touched her prize money. As for Gulnur, he had explained he was from a wealthy family and had money set aside from his allowance.
Of course, they discussed that while the two players in question were offline. Violette wanted to help too, but she didn’t have an allowance, so she had no money.
After their long day of walking, interspersed with breaks and fighting, they finally reached the dungeon entrance. The group rested outside of it, since it was a safe zone.
The game devs had made the entrance to dungeons safe zones, since when one died in a dungeon, he would respawn at the entrance outside. This ensured a player didn’t die again from bad luck as soon as they reappeared.
The other cool thing about dungeons was that they waived the death penalty. That meant a player could die as many times as they wanted inside a dungeon, and not lose Exp.
This had made dungeons hot contested spots, since they ensured quick levelling without penalty. Guilds were already fighting over most of the known ones.
The party instilled a watch again for the night, keeping the pairings as they were, and started resting.
Tomorrow was a big day.