Chapter 25: Chapter 24

With some self-control, it was a really nice vacation, this Karak. The food was good, the beer was good, the company was good. And the training ground was also good. She tried to convince herself for ten solid minutes that she was on vacation and wasn’t going to go training every day. And then she went training every day. Elaine liked watching, so that was the reason. Totally, not because she was just a nutjob who couldn’t stop working to try overcome her lack of self-confidence. Not at all.

 

The ‘Elite’ Training was difficult, and took her quite a while, especially because she wanted to overcomplete them. The rewards for such were interesting, she was given the choice between plus 3 to a stat, or three medals - which would become six with her Highly Decorated trait - and she picked the medals. They really gave a lot of cool stuff, and her stats were pretty dam high already.

 

Eventually, the final day came, and she was exploring the rest of the Karak - the thing was huge and complex, so she got lost often - when she saw a most interesting hole. Well, it looked like a hole but to the Dawi it was probably a tunnel. Opening the oft-unused minimap, she saw irritating fog of war. And so went into the shop and bought a map that revealed the whole of the Karak, tunnels included. Down there was pretty extensive, but what was exploration without going into the horrible tunnel system filled with monsters? So she equipped her armour, the backup sword she bought from a smith, her shield, and finally the two pistols - Troll-Drenger and the thing she won from the random box. With those, she stepped into the tunnels, and got a popup.

 

Field Dungeon - Expansive dungeon located in the real world; treasures and possibility await. Field Dungeons can possess their own mini-dungeons as well the Field Boss, a mighty opponent that has guaranteed Orange-rank loot

 

Estaria’s eyes lit up when she saw that the Field Boss had guaranteed Orange-rank loot. That was definitely something she was going to get, so she opened the shop and bought the advanced map, which would track the locations of allies and enemies. She had experimented with the system in her downtime and the simple map she got - but rarely used - was pretty intuitive when worked on. Blue dots and red dots lit up the tunnel, and one large blue dot showed her the location of her friend, Traukon. So, using her extreme speed, she took off and hunted down the Dwarf, finding him cutting his way through a small crowd of Skaven. They really were real, huh?

 

“Estaria? What are you doing down here?” he asked, after braining the last rat with his axe.

 

“Found the entrance, thought it looked fun, decided to check it out. Is this what you do every day?” she asked, looking about the place.
 

“Aye. As an Ironbreaker, it is my duty to keep these tunnels as clean as can be. And as a player, killing hordes of enemies every day works spectacularly for leveling an’ looting” He nodded, then cleaned off his axe and looked to the map. Dwarves had good sense of direction underground, but a magical all-knowing map that designated enemy locations was more helpful than that.
 

“So, ever gone to the Field Boss?” she asked, tapping the large red dot with a skull on it.
 

“Ahh, that Drengkai. I went there a while back and almost died! A little apprehensive to return, despite a higher level” he exclaimed. To be called a Drengkai - Thing that needs killing, in common tongue - meant he really was not happy with how the last fight went. But, Estaria could understand his feelings, she’d still not gone to the B-rank dungeon boss because of how last time went.

 

“Why don’t we try it together?” she asked him, offering something rather novel. This whole other player thing meant she didn’t have to solo play anymore. Traukon looked up, and then nodded at the idea.

 

“Aye! Try not to run off like a damned Elgi though. A dwarf is like a rock. Doesn’t move fast, unless rolling down a hill” Estaria laughed at the idea of a dwarf rolling down a hill, and together they went off to go to the Field Boss. The enemies that they faced were in small packs, and between two mid-level players, didn’t stand much of a chance. And so they followed the map to the Field Boss, which was in the middle of a Skaven Warren. By herself, that might have been a problem, since there were a lot more rats here than outside.
 

Still, most of them were just slaves and Clansrats, so their only boon was number, and that boon was devastated on the front of two Players. The number was enough to level up Estaria, which was to be expected really. Though they were pretty low level, she had carved through over a hundred ratmen to get here, and then that number again in the nest. Had they all have been larger Clansrats, the two might have struggled to get through the horde, but as it stood, this mini-dungeon lacked the elites to press them proper.

 

“We’ve come quite a way” Estaria spoke, looking at the map and the distance from where they had started. “My high Stamina is making long things feel less long because I just don’t feel the trek, but it’s a good hour away by a normal pace” she commented, sitting about abit to make sure her Luck and Fatigue were at the best possible values before heading in.

 

“Ahh, we Dwarves don’t feel the strain of activity at the best of times, but I will certainly admit I can spend all day in here with my Ironbreaker brothers, and then all night here by myself, and have but an hour to sleep and an hour to eat. It is most industrious” Traukon made sure none of the sneaky Skaven were playing dead, and then nodded.

 

“Even though I could statistically, I don’t think I could mentally handle that kind of activity…” Estaria shook her head, before moving onwards, and coming to a deep pit. Inside it, was the red-coloured “Gnawsplit The Unbreakable” Field Boss. A tremendous mass of horrific flesh and metal slithered in the pit, far beyond anything Estaria had ever seen in her life.

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“What the fuck is that?” Estaria demanded, recoiling at the sight. She was rarely so vulgar, but this...thing, was….vulgar to the extreme.

 

“An Abomination of the Hell-Pit. We don’t usually see them in the tunnel because it is just too big, but out in the field, it can be a terrifying force to be reckoned with. The Longbeards tell stories of it taking cannon volleys and crushing Steam-Tanks under foot” Traukon explained, pulling out one of his throwing axes.

 

“And we are meant to do what precisely? I wouldn’t even know where to start!” She exclaimed, staring at the mass of flesh.
 

“Just hit it, Umgi! It’ll die eventually” Traukon then launched his ax and lept into the pit. The axe sunk deep into the creature’s back, and then the fight had started. Great.

 

Estaria pulled Troll-Drenger and shot an important looking pipe, which seemed to really piss the creature off since a thunderous roar filled the air as some sort of chemical bile spilled from the pipe. She shot off her second bullet and then, summoning her Handgunners around the edge to provide fire support, jumped in herself, rushing the creature and slashing at what looked to be a leg, summoning her Swordsmen as well to give her some extra support on the ground. The leg, could have been a fist. Could have been a head. Could have been a whole new limb. This thing didn’t really have any central biology to make a good idea of where to hit. And to make matters worse, the wound seemed to spit and belch out new flesh to regenerate the damage already done.

 

“A regenerating, monstrous creation of science. Lovely!” she exclaimed, using her Double Slash to bite deep into the creature’s flank and spill what might be blood. Or just more chemical soup. Traukon was busy hacking, slashing, whacking and generally smiting the damn thing, and didn’t engage in banter at all.

 

Though Estaria’s banter was short-lived as the creature swung around and smashed both her and Traukon with it’s massive tail. Between his armour and stocky build, Traukon managed to stay on his feet, and the Swordsmen mostly got out of the way, but Estaria tried to leap over it and misjudged the size, so was blown into a nearby wall. After extracting herself from it, she took the opportunity to reload Troll-Drenger and shoot a few more vital looking contraptions on the thing. The floor was slick with blood by this point, and Traukon’s armour was coated from head to toe. One of the cogs that she shot let out a shrieking grind and then part of the creature’s flesh began to bubble and bloat before bursting in a shower of steam and slime. A volley of bullets from the Handgunners seemed to just, soak into the creature’s flesh, leaving wounds till they popped the bullets out.

 

“There is no bath big enough to justify fighting this thing!” Estaria shouted, leaping into the air and driving her sword into the mass of flesh that might possibly pass for a head on this damn thing. It had either suffered enough damage or run out of whatever was regenerating it, since her slashes were leaving lasting marks now. Though it’s size was so great that even driving her blade down to the hilt didn’t hit anything vital, she could still do that and then writhe the sword back out, splitting a massive rend across the creature and filling the air with more pus and blood.

 

Ditching the puss-covered slime sword and ordering two of the swordsmen to throw her their blades, she turned herself into a whirlwind of steel, slicing and cutting and ripping apart the beast. It roared, slamming a fist that Es avoided with a roll - bad idea, because it covered her in pus and slime and Sigmar knows what - and then as she recovered she spun on the spot and sliced both blades through the creature. Traukon’s own actions hit also something that was clearly quite important because the beast let out a roar and swayed, crashing into the wall.

 

In it’s death throngs, the creature lashed out, obliterating the Swordsmen and ‘merely’ fatally wounding another. The handgunners despawned from the time they had spent fighting, though the beast was slow and wild now, easier to dodge, easier to attack.

 

One great roar from Traukon, two mighty blows from axe and hammer, and the beast fell, it’s supporting leg cut clean off and no more regeneration to recover. A final whine was drowned out by a quick-loaded Troll-Drenger, and the beast was silent. Not wanting to be caught off guard, she reloaded and fired into the creature several more times, before stepping back and flicking her hands of slime.

 

“That was grotesque.” Estaria groaned, looking at the dead monster. She would then buy herself a barrel of water from the shop, which she then ripped open and dunked over herself. The raging torrent of water washed away the surface and cleaned some of the floor gunk, but she would need a long, hot use of the Dawi’s fabulous flowing baths before she truly got over that monster.

 

Traukon, in all in Dawi stubbornness, merely grunted and turning to look for any more Skaven. When there were none, he would turn his attention to the System. It was time for loot.

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