Chapter 247

"We can still beat him!" Ralph attacked with his sword recklessly.

Another tumor grew, to disgorge a Lone Arrow flesh-clone wielding a bone and sinew bow. Dave ran into the boss's melee range to tank it with Ralph. The faux-Lone on the back of the boss began shooting ice arrows at Dave.

A notification appeared in front of Dave.

***

Your half-undead state grants you immunity to [Slow] effects. You resist the [Slow] effect of [Ice Arrow].

***

Dave waved away the notification.

"Boss is down to 15%!" he shouted.

"Alright, my turn. This is going to make me a priority target, be ready to take back his aggro," Tess said. She whirled her scepter around her head and slammed it into the floor. The flesh floor hardened and cracked, trails of red smoke formed and circled her motionless figure.

The boss repositioned itself to face Tess, flesh reforming into a fist that launched at Tess. Fortress stood like a bulwark in front of the magician, poised behind his shield and ready to use [Block]. This time something different happened, the fist split into two. One continued toward Tess and the other curved toward Mercy.

Fortress used [Block] to save the sorceress, keeping her safe to continue her attack on the boss.

Tess pushed both palms out in front of herself and the crimson smoke drifting around her condensed into a red spear that shot away from her at the boss, piercing the amorphous beastlike form completely through from one end to the other.

[-120,882]

+16,000

Mercy tried to run from the rapidly approaching fist but another smaller flesh fist was coming at her from another direction.

Perfect and Dave ran to help Mercy.

"Stroke, I'll take the smaller one,"

Dave nodded and lunged forward ending in a dave, lifting his shield to successfully [Block] the fist that was going to splatter Mercy.

Perfect jumped in front of the smaller fist, giving Mercy the chance to land her big attack on the boss.

***

Your party member (Perfect Shot) has died!

***

Mercy ducked under the fist that was assimilating perfect and lunged forward, both hands wielding the jade daggers, shoving them right through the mangled boss's eyes.

[-113,600]

"We can do this!" Ralph said.

Just as he was about to bring his sword down to end the boss's life. Lone Arrow's flesh avatar shot [Ice Aura]. An elemental ice-cyclone spun up around the boss, turning both Ralph and Mercy to popsicles in seconds. Before they could use a counter to the freezing effect, the boss bloated up like a balloon and engulfed them both.

***

Your party member (Mercy) has Died!

Your party member (Blaster) has Died!

***

The boss began healing, its HP pool climbing back up towards full.

+16,000

+16,000

Dave was shocked, two level 400 players had just been killed in an instant. He turned, Tess was still with him. With her legacy skill there was still a chance to kill the boss. Faux-Flanker's healing was still not on the level that they couldn't deal with for now, the fight can still be won.

"Tess, what are you doing?" Dave said. The sorceress was absolutely still, not moving a muscle.

Fortress gave his girlfriend a concerned look, "That's the drawback of using her strongest legacy skill, she enters a silenced State for 10 seconds."

The boss formed two fists this time.

Fortress looked over at Dave, "Sorry man, but the raid is fucked. See you on the flip side."

The fists shot out, striking and consuming both Fortress and Tess, leaving Dave to face the growing monster alone.

Another notification appeared to Dave, informing him to the death of his last party members.

***

Your party member (Human Fortress) has Died!

Your party member (Tess) has Died!

***

+16,000

+16,000

…

Dave was too low level overcome the constant heals on the boss, both Flanker's and the passive [Cursed Flesh] that restored the boss's HP to 40%.

Annoyingly, yet another notification came.

'What is it THIS time? Everyone else is dead already'

Dave spared another moment to glance at the latest message.

***

Attention player: You are now ALL ALONE. Are you certain you want to continue against a BOSS monster ALL by your lonesome?

It's hopeless. Why not just give up and give in to the inevitable…

***

'WHAT THE HELL IS THAT FUCKED UP MESSAGE?!'

Dave shoulders slumped, the message wasn't wrong. There was nothing he could do, he should have planned better, done better. Brought more game. Now, they would have to redo the dungeon, taking days to travel from Urberg to the tomb through the wilds again; going through weretigers, unique mobs, smallzies and one legendary dragon that wanted revenge on Dave.

"You got lucky this time you ugly fuck. But I'll be back," Dave said defiantly as the mass of flesh lunged at him.

The flesh creature around Dave, tightening around him. The flesh worked its way between the gaps of the draugr's armor like a viscous liquid. Dave waited for the death notification to come but instead, red numerals appeared above the boss.

-16,000

-16,000

-16,000

The red semi-solid flesh engulfing Dave hardened and turned green, the color of moldy bread. The green virulence spread rapidly until it covered the entire four legged boss creature. The Ashkar beast howled and screamed as bits and pieces of the rotten meat he had been began falling to the floor. Faux Flanker and the other copies of his party members melted into black pools of ichor as the boss slumped, its body liquifying into a large slimy puddle. The bones and tendons melted along with the meat as the slimy creature pooled on the floor like a rancid stinking puddle of black goo. A slightly larger Miasmic Aether Vial and a round object were left in the middle of the ichor.

Then Dave remembered something that explained what was happening, "Undeath negates heals!"

***

You have defeated: Ashkar the Necromancer King.

You have killed Ashkar using the Curse of Undeath, penalty applied: -100% Combat EXP

***

You have obtained 4 kg of Miasmic Aether

***

Dave picked the vial up from the ground and his hand tightened around it, shattering it. The liquid spread across Dave's skin like it had a mind of its own, completing his transformation into an undead draugr.

***

Your Skill [Never Fear] has been restored.

Passive skill restored and amplified!

[Never Fear]: Fear inducing effects are ineffective against you. All crowd control skill durations on you are lowered by 25%

New passive obtained

[Horror]: Your fear inducing skills now cause a [Horror] effect on targets, doubling damage done to the targets under the effect. There is a 0.01% chance that the [Horror] effect will cause the target to be instantly [Executed].

***

"Wow, an [Execution] skill!" Even with the very low probability of the [Execute] effect proccing it was a big deal. Dave rubbed his boney hands together gleefully, then turned his attention to the other item.

***

Signet of Fleshomancy

Category: Ring

Attributes bonuses:

+100 INT

+100 STA

+100 VIT

+100 WIS

+100 DEX

+100 INT

+100 AGI

Requirements: (Champion of Undeath)

Skills:

[Imperfect Reflection]: Creates a clone with the same HP and defensive values of the ring wearer. The clone doesn't attack or defend but will absorb all damage done to the wearer until its HP pool is depleted. The clone lasts for 10 seconds and all damage it absorbs is doubled.

Cooldown: One (1) hour

[Perfect Reflection]: Swaps location with the flesh clone.

Cooldown 1 Hour

***

"Niiiice ring, thank you, I do." Dave unequipped his [King Decree] ring. It had been with him since he was level 60, he'd out-leveled it quite a while ago.

The Flesh Ring coiled around his finger like a living worm and tightened itself around his ring finger.

'That should be it.'

Dave was about to tear a teleportation scroll and leave, he noticed something in the logs. With the 4 kg of Miasmic Aether from Ashkar he only had a total of 8 kg. He was short 2 kg of the damn stuff.

Dave turned, looking around for hidden rooms or cubbies in the walls of the Boss room. But he didn't find anything out of the ordinary aside from the walls of rotten flesh.

***

You cannot communicate with people outside Necromancer King Ashkar tomb.

***

The party chat was disabled.

'That explains why I didn't hear Flanker whining about getting killed off.'

Dave shook his head.

Thinking for a moment, he remembered that there was still a tunnel they hadn't explored.

Dave ran back to the room with three doorways and entered the third and final tunnel. There were dead or dying flesh monsters lying on the floor, the death of the dungeon boss had affected all the mobs in the dungeon.

Dave stopped, grinning with EXP avarice he struck down at the seer to decapitate it. The head bounced off the floor and he got a notification.

***

You have gained +1 EXP.

***

His smile faded into disappointment.

"I guess that would have been all too easy."

He moved deeper into the tunnel, finding another dome shaped room that contained a pool of bubbling rotten blood.

A Miasmic Aether vial was floating on the boiling blood.

Dave picked the vial up, expecting a repeat of what had happened before. But this time his hand didn't squeeze and break the glass of its own volition. Instead a notification popped up.

***

You have successfully completed the first part of the SS legacy quest "Tomb Raid"

Reward: + 3,000,000 EXP!

Bonus EXP (due to level difference): +1,000,000

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

…

This is a chain quest. Return to Urburg to receive the second quest in the chain.

***

The tomb started shaking and the flesh wall that covered everything started rotting at a greatly accelerated pace.

Dave dug through his inventory for a teleport scroll, tore it open and disappeared.