***Back to Astaroth, falling into darkness***
“YEEEEEEHAAAAAHHHHHH!” Astaroth shouted, as he was free falling into the darkness of the pit.
The feeling of falling like this felt quite exhilarating.
He guessed this was how parachutists felt as they dived, before opening their chutes. Of course, he had no parachute, but he was not worried.
He had faith that he would survive this fall. Meanwhile, the others falling with him had already started finding their own solutions.
The druid had used magic to grow a gigantic dandelion in his hands. The dandelion was in the seeding phase of its growth, so its head was white and fluffy.
The multiple white strands caught the wind of the downfall, reducing his falling speed to a very much survivable level. Astaroth zoomed past him, as I’die slowed down.
Next, he flipped on his back, to see how the others were faring. The redhead, Phoenix, had pulled out a leather tarp with two handles.
She was currently holding the two handles in one hand and heating the air inside it with the other, creating a makeshift hot-air balloon. She was the next one to slow down.
Athena was redirecting her downward motion by bouncing off the walls on each side of the pit. It seemed to work, as her speed was already slower than Astaroth’s.
She did this until she passed near I’die, who gave up his dandelion to her, before magically forming another one.
‘Hmm. They have a tight bond and trust each other.’ Astaroth thought.
He turned back to face downward, only to see that the dwarf was still free-falling. He didn’t seem to have a solution to break his fall and was screaming for help.
“Aarrgghh!!! Help me!!! I can’t slow down!!!”
Astaroth used propel again, this time pushing himself towards a wall. When he reached the wall, he pushed off of it in the dwarf’s direction, picking up much speed.
As he made it to the dwarf, he grabbed his small armored form and propelled himself once more to the wall. He used Athena’s trick and bounced himself off the walls, transferring some momentum to them as he did.
He was happy it worked out for him, most of the reason being he was still buffed with White’s stats, but that was short-lived.
The tunnel was becoming slightly brighter, but that made him realize something. The pit walls ended before he would reach the ground.
Astaroth slightly panicked as he thought about a way to survive. As he was thinking, the walls ended, meaning he had nothing left to break his fall anymore.
His eyes went wide, as he now saw the ground. It was coming in fast! One last idea flashed through his mind, but it was risky.
He started gathering wind mana around his hand as much as he could. And just before he hit the ground, he fired it at a forty-five-degree angle downwards and sideways.
That move effectively reduced his downward momentum to zero, but he was now rolling on the ground really fast. He and Gulnur rolled for quite some distance, until they stopped, bodies half over a ledge.
They both gasped in surprise and fear, at how close they had been from one more drop. They both pushed themselves back from the ledge and flipped on their backs.
They could see the others gliding down from the ceiling, and felt a tinge of jealousy.
“You idiots still alive?!” Phoenix’s voice sounded, from overhead.
Both Astaroth and Gulnur raised a thumb to the sky, before looking at each other and bursting into laughter.
“Nice catch, you long-eared freak of nature!” Gulnur said, slapping Astaroth’s arm.
“You should have seen your face, you heavy hunk of steel!” Astaroth retorted, laughing his ass off.
“Hey man, what kind of madman smiles while he’s falling to his death?” The dwarf rebuked, looking at Astaroth with a wide grin.
“This kind.” Astaroth replied, pointing to himself with two thumbs.
Another round of loud laughter spread in the open space before they both stood up. Athena was looking at them cautiously.
Meanwhile, I’die was looking at them with a shy smile, and Phoenix was looking at them like they were dolts. She watched the boys get back up, judging them silently.
“Are you boys done being stupid?” She asked them, looking around the gloomy cave-like area.
There was no light source in the cave, and yet, they could see well. It was like they had suddenly all gained dark vision.
“Where are we?” Athena asked, looking around, her bowstring taut, ready to respond to danger.
“It seems like we are under the combat map.” Astaroth declared, dusting his clothes.
Gulnur walked around a bit, after getting up. But a frown found its way on his face.
“This is a cave network, and a big one, too.” He said as he laid his hand on the wall near him.
“And how do you know that, little man?” I’die said, mockingly.
“It’s a dwarf thing.” He responded, ignoring the comment about his height.
He was concentrating on the rock under his hand, and he closed his eyes. His dwarven senses echoed through the rocky surface, giving a flash of how the cavern network looked like.
This was indeed a special skill of the dwarves, one they gained naturally once they reached level ten.
It was the reason dwarves never got lost in caves and such. They could read the rock like one would read a map.
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“Wait. All the entrances?” Astaroth asked, astonished.
“Yes. From what I saw, there is seemingly an entrance in each zone above us.” The dwarf confirmed.
“I knew there was something more to this map. Wait. You said big caves?” Astaroth exclaimed, before asking.
“Yes. Enormous caves. One of them is right under us.” Gulnur said, nodding his head.
Astaroth tilted his head, before turning it to where the ledge had been. He walked to the side of it, trying to see down below.
It was so dark he couldn’t see anything. So he remedied the situation.
Phoenix had been feeling weird ever since they had landed here. Like something was watching them, and they weren’t the predators here.
When she saw Astaroth raise his hand and light a fireball, she immediately panicked.
“No! Stop!” She shouted.
It was too late. Astaroth shot his flame beacon spell.
He also enlarged it so he could get light at the bottom. But he instantly regretted it.
From under the cover of darkness, thousands of eyes, all fixed on the man who just shot a giant fireball over their heads. The monsters were looking at him with snarls, jaws dripping with saliva.
Astaroth immediately extinguished the flame beacon, but the damage was done. The entire group had seen the monsters down below, and they were all now white as ghosts.
“Well, shit.” Astaroth said.
Howls started sounding from below, as the ground started rumbling. Phoenix was the first to react, as she lit her hand with fire.
“Idiot!” She said, pointing her hand at the monsters.
“Flame Torrent!” She chanted, as the fire on her hand flew forward.
The fire expanded massively, as it left her hand, turning into a gigantic fire wave, and washing over the monsters. The monsters howled in pain, but that was far from enough to kill them.
“Help me kill them! Don’t just stand there!” She yelled at the four players behind her.
They were all looking at the flame wave in astonishment.
‘So overbearing!’ They thought.
Astaroth had seen some bigger flame spells before, but even then he was awestruck. This was a player, not an overpowered NPC.
The other players finally reacted and started attacking the monsters from a distance. The only one who only stood and watched, was the dwarf since he had no ranged attacks.
Astaroth thought about something, as he started flicking small fireballs at the monsters. Since this was going to degenerate into a monster-slaying festival, wouldn’t that mean they could hunt together?
He looked into his menu and tried inviting Gulnur to a party. Gulnur turned towards him with a frown, before he appeared on the party list.
‘Yes! It works!’ Astaroth exclaimed in his head.
He immediately shot out a party invite to the other three, before turning back to the enemies. This would turn out better than he had expected.
All the monsters below seemed to be level thirty, but they were legion. But that mattered not to him, as his melded stats blew that out of the equation.
The sad thing was that he only had two minutes left to his melding for now. So he deactivated it directly, before summoning out White Death instead.
The others had all accepted the party invite at this point. They knew this would play out better as a party, than if they were fighting on their own.
Astaroth turned to the druid.
“I’die! Do you think you can make a small ramp for the monsters to get up here?” He asked.
“What?! Why would he do that?!” Phoenix exclaimed.
They were currently using their range advantage, why would they waste it so? Then she saw the dwarf just standing there.
“Can you do it or not?!” Astaroth asked again.
The elf looked unsure about the request, but when he turned to his friend Athena, she nodded at him. Athena knew full well the melee battle prowess of the man, so she trusted he could handle a few monsters alone.
“I can do it!” I’die responded, regaining his confidence.
“Good! Make it small, enough for two monsters at most! And make it come up on the far end!” Astaroth said as he pointed to the edge of their elevated platform.
“Ok!” I’die said, splitting from the other ranged attackers.
He walked to the edge where Astaroth was now standing and crouched down. He touched the ground before chanting softly.
“Nature’s Call: Earthen Path.” He said, and the ground started shaking.
A small ledge started forming from the wall, as it followed it down towards the monster mob. Astaroth smiled at the sight.
“It’s time to hunt!” He howled, getting ready to fight.