Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Looking Onwards

The stench of burnt wood and stone filled the room, thick black smoke rising upwards as the room was slowly rendered visible once again. Scattered fires still smoldered in corners of the blasted temple, massive chunks of metal and rubble leaving the space even more of a mess than it had been when they entered.

One of the debris piles slowly stirred, moving ever slightly as it was disturbed from below. The larger chunks of blasted stone were knocked off the pile, dust and pebbles being scattered away as well, a blue-hued piece of metal clawing free from beneath it all.

The familiar shield slab rose all the way free, a straining Elise right behind it as she did her best to push free from the remains of the pillar they’d hidden behind, her previously pristine aquamarine armor now coated in a fine layer of soot to match the scorched plates and hastily-repaired joints.

“Nnn… Y-You both okay…?”

Following behind her as she finally stood up again came a dizzy and disoriented Prim and a remarkably stable and unshaken Silk, the diminutive spider already significantly more well-versed in handling kitsune-based explosions than the other two.

“Chkchk!~”

“I… I think I’m fine…? I might throw up, but… no problems otherwise…”

“T-That’s a relief, I was worried Id be a b-bit too slow.”

“Yeah, I was amazed with how fast you got over me, I don’t think the blast had even gone off yet by the time you covered me… Elise?”

“W-W-Well, I just kinda a-assumed I should, just, y’know, hehe...”

She was pointedly looking away from the crafter already, face as red as their caster’s newly scorched fur. And with that thought, she was graciously awarded a wonderful segue off of the topic.

“Hey, s-shouldn’t we look for Moni?”

“…oh, hell, right. No telling if she’s even alive in here anymore, she could’ve gotten booted back to town as soon as she went nuclear there.”

“Chk…”

“O-Oh, no no no, I’m sure she’s fine Silk, really! C’mon, l-let’s look around.”

It took them a while to clamber out from the remains of the pillar that had collapsed over top of them all, digging far enough out that they could move about the room freely again.

Everywhere they looked was equally destroyed, the floor itself impossible to find under the sprawling mass of debris, having to carefully trace a path back towards the boss platform itself.

The destruction wreaked upon the rest of the massive chamber was nothing compared to how badly the point of impact had fared, however. The edges of the ritual platform curled outwards, peeled back like foil as the central area of the was now a perfectly rounded crater, the massive amount of gold present within it now splattered and sprayed over every inch of the hole.

And at the center of it all lay the accumulated remains of the platform itself, gathered into a large mound, a single arm poking out of the top, trembling and twitching weakly as it grasped at air.

“C-Chkchk!!~”

“…she’s distressingly hard to kill for someone with zero defense.”

Relieved sighs were shared by the trio, quickly sliding and clambering down into the crater, pulling debris away from the entombed fox as they rushed to free her.

Monica gasped long and deep the moment she could see light again, eyes half-lidded as she processed the faces of her companions above her, still recovering from her self-imposed blast trauma as she flailed blindly.

“Whuh… did… where’d they… did I get it…?”

“Yeah, it and everything else in here. Almost including us.”

She flumped her head to the side, analyzing the sassy crafter.

“…you look fine to me, so I think I did ok…”

“Y-You did, um… you certainly… took care of it…?”

“Yeah… never doubted I had that one…”

Pushing herself clumsily to her feet, the Gloom Mage dusted herself, shaking her head to try and clear her thoughts as she stumbled and nearly fell right back into the wreckage once more, the elvish girl quickly catching her and holding her upright, almost just carrying them.

“E-Easy now. We… We r-really won, huh?”

“I really didn’t think we had any way to deal with any of that, but… maybe the ‘spider queen’ here is actually onto something with this stuff, heh.”

“I told you I was a professional dungeoneer, see?”

She puffed her chest out as proudly as she could manage without falling directly onto her face, Elise giggling as she helped her stay balanced, Silk flexing alongside her, and even Prim stifling a laugh as she headed towards the back of the boss room.

Standing there, just as last time, was a massive, intricately crafted chest, as large as the Berserker herself as it shone brilliantly with its own light. It was made of the same checkered black-and-white stone the walls and floors of the temple had been, and bore gold inlays in the shape of a phoenix on the lid.

And beside it sat a much smaller, simpler chest, hovering a few feet above the ground as it bobbed up and down on tiny wings, the size of a rather small jewelry box and composed of wood and cloth.

[Dungeon Clear Rewards: Phantom’s Gold Mine / Party]

- Awarded for clearing dungeon and killing boss as a party.

[Party Clear Reward]

- Awarded for first dungeon completion as a party.

“Oh, so these are our rewards for clearing?”

“Yeah, that’d be them, but…”

The caster sighed as she looked over the chests, poignantly aware one was missing.

“No f-first time reward because of that Glass person you both mentioned, right?”

“Please don’t remind me of them.”

All of them gathered around, unanimously deciding to open the larger of the two reward chests first, crowding in to peer over the contents as they spilled out.

- 9000g

- 3x Boss Skill Scroll: Aspect of the Sun

- Head: Sun God’s Circlet

- Feet: Dawntreaders

- Accessory: Thread of Sunlight

[Sun God’s Circlet] (Head)

- HP +70, VIT +40

- Regenerates 2% of user’s max HP every 5 seconds.

[Dawntreaders] (Feet)

- HP +25, AGI +20

- User may leave patches of flame when running, which inflict Burn on contact.

[Thread of Sunlight] (Accessory)

- HP +45, STR +25

- User’s melee attacks deal bonus fire damage and can inflict Burn.

Piles of currency glittered up at them, as well as a selection of a slender circlet made of weaved gold, a pair of tall boots bearing winged heels, an almost distressingly familiar long scarf, and a trio of tightly bound scrolls each capped with a flickering garnet at either end.

“W-Wow, this really seems like a lot…”

“Yeah, that’s more money than I’ve seen… ever, actually.

“Wait, really? I kinda assumed a crafter would be loaded.”

“Maybe I need to hurry up with opening the store already…”

Each of them took a third of the reward money, as well as one of the identical boss scrolls, peering over the remaining three items as they decided what to do with them all.

“The fancy tiara seems made for Elise, why not let her take that?”

“Works for me, means I don’t have to worry about making her a helmet later.”

“O-Oh, if you’re both sure, thanks!”

“And that leaves the scarf to you Prim, seeing as I’m not exactly much of a STR build. Not to mention looking at it is already making me feel annoyed.”

“Sure thing, guess that leaves you the boots, then?”

“They have AGI on them, how could I refuse?~”

They passed out their respective items, quickly slipping them on to test their newest toys. Monica hopped in place a few times, quickly bouncing back and forth across the chamber as she tested her even further boosted speed, and Prim fiddled with her new scarf, her hammer now sporting a coat of flame around the head.

Elise idly poked at her circlet, not able to test much but certainly feeling healthier.

Satisfied with the meat of their rewards, the party returned to the only piece of loot remaining untouched, each of them unraveling their own copy of the boss scroll as the decorative garnets poofed harmlessly into flame in their hands.

[Boss Skill Scroll: Aspect of the Sun] used. Please select a skill below:

[New Skill: Phoenix Crash]

- Unlock: Skill Scroll only.

- Rush towards an enemy, dealing heavy fire damage in a line.

- Scales with STR, requires melee weapon.

[New Skill: Leyline Protection]

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- Unlock: Skill Scroll only.

- Renders user immobile, but reflects projectile attacks for a short duration.

- Duration scales with level.

[New Skill: Rising Sun]

- Unlock: Skill Scroll only.

- User leaps upwards, inflicting Burn in a massive area on launch and landing.

- Area/Distance scales with AGI.

“Well… only one of them is STR based, guess I’m taking Phoenix Crash.”

“…you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Don’t blame me they got all this stuff right before-”

“T-The Leyline one already works with Stalwart, so I’ll take that!”

The flustered Vanguard stepped in, loudly separating the other two as they bickered. Both of them were too worn down to really protest either, grumbling aimlessly instead.

“Guess I’m getting the mobility one, Leyline Protection sounds nice but I’m kinda already built to move and dodge or die.”

“O-Oh, right, that makes sense…”

Their spoils settled and taken care of, their eyes turned to the last remaining item, the winged chest hovering in place before them, too small to contain anything larger than a closed fist.

Monica was the one to tap the lock, letting the tiny box pop open, revealing…

…a small, wooden coin, engraved with a crossed sword and staff.

[Guild Proof]

- Awarded for completing a dungeon as a party of three or more.

- Allows creation of a player-owned guild.

A few extra pages rolled past on their screens, explaining full guilds would allow participation in guild events, as well as allow for shared benefits such as shared guild buffs, ingame messaging, and various other small rewards.

“Huh, I thought we already were a guild, kinda.”

“Nice to make it o-official, I suppose?”

“Chkchk!!”

Affairs sorted, skills learned, equipment sorted, and guild creation pending, the four of them regrouped, beaten and exhausted, but smiling and contended as they stepped through the exit, whisked away from the destroyed temple ruins behind them.

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The return trip to town was long and uneventful, but decidedly not quiet, all of them chatting and laughing and arguing as they unwound, perfectly relaxed already even after their constant stream of near death experiences only hours earlier.

Monica had slipped back into her normal clothes before they came back within view of the city walls, fluff concealed below her hat and robes with Silk wrapped up inside her hood as she did her best to try and retain some level of anonymity, Prim and Elise following suit somewhat as they kept they crafted weapons and damaged armor tucked away.

Unlike the last several days they’d been here, the town was now practically buzzing, players rushing back and forth, talking excitedly in large groups, and streaming in and out of every entrance and exit.

“Hmm, something happen while we were gone?”

“Seems like it, town hasn’t been this lively since launch… hey, what’s everyone so excited about here?”

The crafter flagged down a pair of players strolling past, a human Warmage and dwarven Ranger, both of them returning a bewildered expression to her question.

“Didn’t you hear the announcement they made in town earlier? The devs finally announced the first event starting soon!”

“Aye, said it’ll start a week from now, and only properly recognized guilds can enter, so now everyone is up in a tizzy over figuring out how to make a recognized guild.”

“Huh, interesting… thank you both!”

“No problems, take easy!”

“And be careful out there, that wandering spider boss has been around here recently, my bets are this event is gonna be something to do with them, heh.”

Both of them turned away again, resuming their own conversation as they wandered off in another direction.

“Ooh? A ‘wandering spider boss’ huh? I’m really getting famous around here~”

“I don’t think being accused of being a cryptid qualifies as a compliment…”

“Maybe not to you!”

They kept walking, listening in to the pleasantly lively town chatter as they headed back to their makeshift base of operations, hordes of players either seeking parties or seeking people to fill their own parties, plenty of calling for specific roles to fill gaps for standard MMO party comps.

“A p-proper guild event already… feels like the game is still t-too new honestly.”

“We still have a whole week until it starts though, and seems like we might be one of the only actual guilds by then.”

“Eh, people might get that coin off the first dungeon too though, and that one’s already a famous cryptid-sighting landmark.”

Reaching their store again finally, the three of them quickly slipped back inside, Silk popping out from their hiding spot immediately and flopping out across the familiar front counter, a favorite sleeping spot for all spiders in their party.

“Well, maybe this cryptid could be a nice little advantage you’ll both have over everyone else, hmm?”

“Sure, an extra bomb is always useful.”

“I can do things other than explode, y’know!”

“…can you?”

“…chkchk?”

“I… I can…”

Dejected, a blast-stricken fox slunk to the floor, Elise doing her best to cheer her up again as she gently scolded Prim.

After they all managed to unwind and relax themselves back at their ingame home, they each pulled a chair up to the largest table they had, sitting their newly acquired guild coin in the middle as they mused over it.

“So…”

“So……”

“S-So………”

“Chk…………”

Each of them grumbled in silent contemplation, minds wracked as they all came together to work on their most difficult and demanding challenge yet, testing them in ways they were wholly unprepared for.

“…has anyone thought of a decent name yet?”

“Nope.”

“N-Nuh uh”

“Chhhk…”

“I dunno who should even use this either, not sure who the ‘leader’ here would be.”

“Well, I v-vote for not me, you both invited me, I don’t feel like it’d be right for me to take charge of either of you.”

“And I just don’t think leading is really my thing, crafting, gathering, and punching are things I’m already much better at.”

The other three slowly turned to the only remaining option left, the halfling rolling the coin over towards her.

“Wait, you want me to be in charge?”

“You’re the one that claimed to be a professional and… I can’t really argue with the results so far.”

“Mmhmm! Your fighting style is… u-unique, but it’s always worked!”

“Chkchk!~”

“E-Even Silk agrees, see?”

The kitsune rolled the coin in her hand, staring at it hard enough to burn a hole through the center of the wooden disk.

“Ehe… just don’t blame me if I run us into the ground immediately then.”

With an embarrassed laugh and sigh, the Gloom Mage slapped the coin against the table, a satisfying ding sounding off as the item was consumed.

“Then as guild leader, I proudly welcome you both to the ranks of Primonilise!~”

“…it’s been days and you still couldn’t think of anything better?”

“That’s not true! Elise’s name is in there now!”

“I’m already having second thoughts about this…”

And so with round after round of laughter and bickering and talking one another’s ears off late into the night, the start of what would soon become a guild name known equally in fear, reverence, and outright bewilderment as the guild Primonilise began their misbegotten adventures.

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