Gerald turned for the Succubus. Stacia reached over and pinched Marysue’s arm hard enough to inflict a single point of damage, which was all that was needed to break the Daze. “She be fine,” Stacia told Gerald, then Dazed the Succubus in return. On round fifteen, instead of the usual Imps with the wave, they got three Succubi and three Destroyers. The Succubi Dazed Marysue, Fluff and Karen as the Destroyers came in. Stacia slapped Karen on the ass, breaking that Daze. Alburet pinched Fluff’s arm to snap her out of it, while Stacia’s double, Kitten, turned to pinch Marysue just hard enough to break her out of the Daze.
“Stacia, Daze two of the Succubi,” Alburet told her. “Gerald, you get the Destroyers. Tiny, come with us. We need to kill the unaffected Succubi first. Fluff, Karen, Bob, focus her down.”
The next wave was almost identical, except it included three Imps as well. Wave seventeen was worse, with six Imps instead of three. Wave eighteen saw them battling nine Imps, three Destroyers, and three Succubi. The Imps jeered at the group from a distance as they lobbed their Fire Blasts, and had to be chased down one by one. Wave nineteen was five Destroyers and three Succubi, but only five Imps. They managed it, but held the last mob under Daze until everyone was back up to full life and mana in preparation for the final wave.
Wave twenty consisted of five Destroyers, three Succubi and ten Imps. “Stacia, Ally two of the Succubi, then Daze two Destroyers. Tiny, we’re going out to pick up the last Succubi, then the Imps.” Alburet had held off using Stacia’s ability Ally for the last wave knowing it would be the worst.
Their two Allied Succubi Dazed two of the remaining Destroyers, leaving Gerald with only one to worry about. Gerald taunted the Destroyer and moved out to help corral some of the Imps. The Destroyer followed, with Gerald taunting the mob when his ability came off cooldown to keep it following him. Tiny went from Imp to Imp, getting aggro with each before the DPS started damaging them. It took them nearly two minutes to clear most of the last wave, then they had to wait for the ability Stacia had used on the two Succubi to expire.
When the last Demon died, a chest appeared in the middle of the Henge. No one got anything worthwhile, since the dungeon was lower level than they were. “We can see if anyone in the guild can use the items,” Alburet suggested. “Or if you want the coin, you can sell it.”
“I like the idea of handing it off to another Alpha Company member,” Gerald agreed with the idea. “We have time to hit another zone and do the dungeon there after a quick lunch. After that, we could pool the drops and see if anyone from the guild wants them? Maybe raffle them off?”
“Yeah, or auction them off with starting bids of a copper?” Marysue added. “With the money going into the guild fund.”
“I like the raffle idea. First pick gets to choose, then so on until everything is gone,” Karen put in her two cents.
“The raffle would be easier,” Fluff tacked on.
“Okay, let’s do a raffle this time. We can see about an auction when we move up to the next set of zones.” Alburet dropped the gloves he got from the dungeon into his bag, “In the meantime, we need to turn in quests. How about we stop by Giardino’s for lunch, then go hit the Goblin Villages?”
When they got to the Quartermaster after turning in quests, Alburet took the mystery box right away. He smirked at Gerald, who was staring at the box. They both remembered Alburet’s gloves in the first one. Alburet opened the box… and found a Shiny Rock. A small window popped up displaying some text as Alburet dumped the rock into his hand.
Shiny Rock
No value
This rock is shiny, that is its only real value.
Everyone had a chuckle at the flavor text and Alburet put the rock in his bag with a rueful shake of his head. “It was too much to ask for another scaleable piece of armor.”
“What are you going to do with the rock?” Gerald asked.
“Put it on a shelf at the house,” Alburet replied as the others all chose their rewards, “it will remind me that not every mystery box is a good idea.” Karen laughed.
Once they’d finished up with the Quartermaster, they went back to Stormguard for lunch, then out to the Goblin Villages. By that time news of Alburet’s change had spread through the guards, so there were no more problems with them, though some of the merchants looked at him warily. At the first village they came to, Alburet and Stacia were surprised to see Chris Eveningstar and Deidre Crowley.
“Sis, what be ya doin’ out here?” Stacia asked.
Deidre turned around and beamed at Stacia, “I be huntin’ with Chris. He was kind enough ta ask me yesterday. I found me class today! I be a priestess of the Dark Lord.”
Chris smiled broadly, “She has been quite eager to keep me healthy.”
“Aye,” Deidre said, “it be so wonderful to finally be able to do thin’s.”
“Are you two going to be out here for a bit?” Alburet asked.
“That is our plan. Did you require assistance?” Chris asked.
Alburet held up a finger asking him to wait as he pulled out his Guildstone. He tapped out a message into guild chat then squinted at Chris, seeing that he was level fifteen and that Deidre was level nine. “Have you considered joining a guild? Either of you?”
Stacia grinned, “Oh, tha’ be a wonderful idea.”
“Going to invite them?” Karen asked.
“Depends on them,” Alburet replied, keeping an eye on guild chat and sending another message. “What do you think?”
Deidre answered first, “Ya have been nothin’ but helpful to me family, Alburet. Ya gave me sister her dream, an’ gave Erin her freedom. An’ since ya came here, me an’ me sisters be findin’ our classes finally. Iffin Chris says yes, then so do I.”
Chris glanced at Deidre then to Alburet, “The woman I think most highly of has vouched for you. You introduced me to her, and for that I owe you a rather hefty debt. If you will have me, then I accept.”
Alburet tapped one more reply into guild chat before he pocketed the stone. He tapped his interface a few more times and held out two scrolls, “Welcome to Alpha Company.”
Chris shook hands with Alburet and Gerald, while Deidre hugged the women. “Is there anything we can help you with now that we are going to be in your guild?” Chris asked.
Alburet grinned, “I have three damage dealers waiting to team up with you. They’ll be at the portal guild in a few minutes. I suggest you go turn those scrolls in, then meet up with them. That will give you a full group and you guys can really start to level. Also, once you’re in the guild you’ll be in the running for a couple of guild quests I put up today.”
Chris nodded, “Deidre?”
“Aye,” she hooked an arm through his. “Thank ya again, Alburet. We be seein’ ya later.” Stacia gave her sister another hug, then Chris and Deidre vanished.
“So we can recruit the… the Alpha Worlders into the guild?” Gerald asked.
“Invite any long term tester or native who you think will meet our standards,” Alburet replied.
“I’ll keep an eye out,” Gerald said.
Karen shimmered out of visibility as her stealth became active. “We have the quests and we’re at a village. Let’s kill some Goblins.”
The goblins were mostly just larger versions of the ones from the Goblin Fort. They went right through the mobs outside of the dungeon without issue. The dungeon was a bit more interesting. It ended up being a small town, similar in a way to the Orc Village from the Grasslands. The biggest difference was that instead of the mobs staying mostly inside their huts, here they were constantly moving from building to building. The trick was to pull them off the main street and into alleys to fight them. If another goblin saw, they would come join in. It wasn’t very challenging, but it was a lot of fun to try and keep up with the random movement of the goblins between buildings.