I have no idea how long I laid there and cried. Long enough that my hip and shoulder to develop an ache from the stone floor. I splashed a bit of water on my face to take care of the dried tear streaks, and checked the popup I had received.
Yeah, lovely. God, I hope that none of the other trials are as emotionally draining as that one was. If they are, I’m going to be sending off a complaint to the developers.
What? Divine attention? Oh no, I am not about to join up with one of those, especially Maniae. What could I have done to get her attention anyway?
Mechanically chewing some rat jerky, I headed out to the next temple. I took time to study the door once again, as they had proven to provide at least a hint towards what to expect, but this one had me confused. Once again it was a battle scene, but each weapon that was piercing a body was also piercing the wielder. Pushing open the door, I was greeted with a black bow covered in red streaks.
Getting really sick of these questionable rewards. I grabbed the bow and opened my eyes as an elf. At my back, an enormous tree, while a small group of goblins were arranged against me. Drawing an arrow, I was mildly surprised when my vision telescoped in to view the five goblins, and that I had a vague idea of where the arrow would hit. Targeting the leader, I fired and took him with a solid gutshot. Staggering back, I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. Not only that, but a small portion of my health bar had dropped as well. So, that’s what the double weapons on the door meant. Steeling myself, I took aim and started loosing arrows as the goblins charged. By the time all the goblins had dropped, I was down to a third of my health.
“Are you kidding me?” I shouted at the tree, as I quickly learned I had no inventory here, and no potions on quick slots on my belt. “So every hit drains my life, and I have no way to replace it?” Clinking metallic sounds interrupted my rant at the tree, and I saw three armored hobgoblins with three goblins entering the clearing. “This is going to suck.” I murmured to myself as I launched an arrow again. Five arrows later, and I was back in the temple.
Blasted curses and their damned challenges. How the hell are you supposed to beat a level where you can’t heal and every attack causes you damage? I grabbed the bow again, not really having a plan. Once again I was faced with the five goblins. This time, instead of killing them, I tried disabling them. Targeting feet and knees, I missed more often than not, but eventually got them stopped. I stared back at them as they glared at me, hatred apparent in their eyes. This went on for ten minutes or so before I realized that I had to kill them before the next wave would appear. Walking up to the first one, I tried hitting it with my bow in the hopes that only injuries caused by arrows would injure me. When that didn’t work, I took an arrow and stabbed the bastard. Still losing life, I just started firing at all of them. Once the last one was dead, I looked up to see the next wave facing me with only a third of my health.
This time I let the group pass me. They sneered in derision, and started attacking the world tree. I felt every blow, and watched as I started losing health once again. Damnit, how the hell? I fired an arrow into the back of a goblin’s head, fully expecting my death. Instead, I lost no health as the creature fell dead. Seconds later I was cast back into the temple.
I may have lost, but I know your secret this time, you bastards. I took a swig of water before grabbing the bow one more time. Once in the clearing again, I crossed half the distance to the goblins before taking aim. On a whim, I tried using an archer skill. “[Snipe shot]” I murmured while aiming at the lead goblin’s heart. The arrow streaked out of my hands, bursting straight through the chest of the goblin and narrowly missing the one behind it. The goblins froze in terror, and I smiled as I had lost no life. I would still have to manage my mana, but this fight just got a lot easier. Putting my emotions aside, I started mechanically targeting vital points on the goblins. Eyes, forehead, and hearts. Five shots, five deaths. The goblins with the next wave fared no better, but I couldn’t get one shot kills on the hobgoblins. However, I noticed that a critical hit took away the same amount of health as a normal hit. The third wave came, and I was hovering at 85% health. This time it was a heavily armored orc, two hobgoblins and two goblins. A [Snipe shot] took the ork in the face, ending it and giving me a slight health boost. Noting that a one shot kill would refill a portion of health, I started gaining confidence on this trial. The goblins fell next, and I took damage from the hobgoblins. It seemed the health restore was based on the initial health of the creature, as the orc gave more in return than both goblins combined.
Wave four was three orcs and four hobgoblin archers. This was the first time I had to move around, and I took out the orcs first as they were rapidly approaching me and the tree. Taking out one of the archers helped immensely, as they didn’t have the discipline to volley. The last fell before long, and I was down to about half health and two thirds mana. Arrayed before me were three orcs with tower shields, an orc on each edge with recurve bows, and two orcs behind the shields with halberds. The first orc bowman managed to hit me in the hip, dropping my health to a quarter. I had no choice, I started firing [Snipe shots] as fast as I could and still be accurate. The archers died first, taking my health back up to an acceptable level. The center of the shield wall was the next target, and after he fell I started picking shots of convenience. I lost the last of my mana with one shield bearer and one halberdier left, and started taking a good bit of damage. When the last one fell, I was a little worse for wear and had a paltry 10% of my health left.
It seems the fifth wave was the last, thank my lucky stars. As I read my notification, a green glow arose from the bow and gently moved into my chest. I headed out through the back of the temple, and went up once again to the next temple in line. This door’s battle scene was another odd one. Each weapon seemed to be either moving at an insane speed, or had several mirages surrounding it. Opening the door revealed a massive hammer of silver etched with golden runes.
Oh, this should be fun. I grabbed the hammer on the altar, and breathed in the clean air of the arena. A goblin with a spear was my first opponent. He charged, and dodged my overhand swing. “GYAAAAH!” I cried in agony as his spear struck a solid blow to my side, knocking off almost half of my life in one blow. Thinking he had won, I used the distraction to strike a backhanded blow with my hammer, catapaulting the goblin to the other side of the arena and his death. It shattered into sparks, that coalesced into a wolf. Snarling, it leapt across the sands towards me. I let it come charging, and slammed the hammer into its side as it leapt at me. The body flew away again, shattering and reforming into a kobold.
Smiling, I beckoned it to come at me with its sword. It didn’t bother charging me this time, taking its time trying to figure out how to get at me in the safest manner possible. I kept adjusting the hammer, so the head was on whatever side the sword was. Getting frustrated with the lack of action, I feinted a lunge, and whipped the hammer in an arc over my head at the kobold’s off side. Though it fell for the feint and slashed at where I should have been, it was still spry enough to dodge under my hammer blow and drive the blade into my side, killing me.
Damn, I should have done better than level three. I’m going to blame it on the weapon, as hammers are just unwieldy. Give me a good dagger any day and I’ll slice ‘em apart. A pale orange glow exited the weapon and the doors opened. Before I left, I tried to grab the legendary hammer of Durkhan. As I approached, a small lightning bolt blasted my palm. Taking the hint, I left the temple and the hammer behind me.
Wondering how many temples there were, I looked at the door of the next temple in line. This showed an army being laid waste to by an army of elementals. Though I didn’t always play mages, this could be a fun little challenge. I opened the door and saw a bone white staff with four stones in the top. Emerald, topaz, sapphire and ruby. It looks like this was definitely an elemental staff, let’s check out the challenge.
Endless mana and a staff of a master elementalist? Dear lord, Phoebe will kill me just because I have this chance instead of her. I activated a remote recording for Phoebe, grabbed the staff and welcomed the chaos to come.
I found myself on a castle rampart, looking out over a flat plain leading up to the castle walls. The first thing to start appearing were groups of elementals of all kinds. I smiled, as the air elementals took the first flight to try and assault my position. Pointing with the staff, I calmly said, “[Sandstorm]” and watched as a massive cone of sand burst forth and shredded the elementals. The water elementals were slightly in front of the flame ones, so I cast [Thunderstorm] followed quickly by [Deluge]. The slow earth elementals eventually got into range, and I unleashed one of my all-time favorites, [Firestorm].
Eventually I started wearing down, I think around round 60 or so. They had progressed from basic elementals, to rare ones like ice, magical creatures, and finally all the races of light. My downfall was an elven sniper mounted on a griffin. I came back into the temple laughing at the challenge.
This time it was a multicolored light that left the weapon and entered me. Once again the temple opened up, only this time there were no other temples to enter. Simply a staircase heading over the lip of the cliff. I ate one more ration of my lovely jerky with some water, and decided to use my tent at the base of the stairs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Rolling up my tent, I prepared for the end of this quest. I wanted to get back to Home Cave and see the kids again just to see how far they had progressed. Walking up over the cliff edge, I saw a slight depression with five miniature versions of the temples arranged in a pentagram. In the center of all this was a grayish altar with green veins running through it, and a swirling orb of multiple colors on it. I started walking towards everything, mindful of my surroundings but seeing nothing.
Upon closer inspection, the orb was floating a few inches above the altar. The lines forming the pentagram were made of some red stone, and there was a circle inscribed inside the intersecting lines. Inadvertently I walked around the altar widdershins (counterclockwise) as I studied it. Once I had completed a circuit, I got a series of popups.
Oh? Lucky me, I’m going to be the first to evolve! Hmm, now what to choose? I enjoyed stalking through the shadows, the only drawback to the goblin monster so far has been its lack of height. Obviously the only choice to me would be the bugbear. I tapped my choice and confirmed it, then was cast out of my body. I had a free roaming view of my goblin as he grew from three feet in height to seven and gained muscles to make a gym bro jealous. My green skin turned a dusty brown, and coarse black hair covered almost my entire body. The only things left hairless were my palms and face. I was drawn back into my new body, and smiled as I was now looking down on the altar that was at eye level earlier.
Well well well! Isn’t this a fantastic turn of events! I take back my earlier words about question mark rewards system, I will definitely be taking this! Since I enjoy my daggers and have no intentions of going PvP, I think I’ll upgrade to witch doctor. Once I chose my upgrade, I got another popup that had me smiling.
Yes. Yes I would.
