Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Fifteen. Glacial Lord? Giger Lord!

The thing about people from Earth, Bob mused, was that they expected nature to be more or less symmetrical. Things that weren't symmetrical set off a sort of warning bell in their heads, a sense of wrongness that was hard to define.

The Dungeons they'd built and those they'd delved into before the System update had monsters that were unnatural amalgamations of creatures that should never be, but they more or less held to that trend of symmetry.

It wasn't really the number of limbs that the Glacial Lord possessed, although like every right-minded person he found centipedes and millipedes horrifying. No, it was the placement. He'd counted thirteen legs, but there might be a few more on the bottom that he hadn't seen yet. They were attached in almost random places and jutted out at angles that were not efficient. They also didn't all have the same number of joints.

Out of everything he'd thought he might see, the bastard love child of a cockroach and a harp seal, as seen through the mind of Giger, was not what he expected from the Glacial Lord.

"That's fucked up," Mike shouted as they rushed across the valley floor to engage the boss before it could destroy the station.

"I'll let you take the lead!" Jack was grinning, apparently unbothered by the approaching horror.

That was all the time the team had for banter before they crashed into the Glacial Lord.

It was forty feet long and ten feet tall, with tusks that curved out of the sides of its mouth like pincers. It started off the melee by lowering its head and bellowing, a cone of snow howling out of its gaping mouth like an arctic blizzard.

Jack and Mike both took the blast head on, and their health bars dropped to fifty percent immediately, while Wayna and Elli, who were on the edges, dropped to sixty percent. Neither of them were quite as durable as the two actual tanks.

Planting his staff, Bob summoned out his Magma Jake, designating the Glacial Lord as his target and letting the UtahRaptor go wild as he channeled the fifteen mana per second required into the spell.

Harv swept his staff in broad arc, raising a wall of ice in front of the rest of the group, leaving narrow slits for everyone to cast through.

Jessica and Erick were pushing healing out, dropping they mana pools by almost twenty percent in the first few seconds as they hit their teammates with barraged effect over time heals.

Bailli and Dave both delivered blasts of Magma through their Magma-Infused Focusing Staves, their pools dropping as well. Rexxy and Auruffra, both resplendant in their Magma forms, hit the flanks of the Glacial Lord like wrecking balls.

The boss monsters wasn't taking those hits without relatiation. It lashed out with its myriad limbs, the differences in length and joints making it hard to predict what angle the strikes were coming from. Even its feet were wrong. It had a variable number of toes, or claws, or hooves, both cloven and non, as well as what appeared to be chitinous spikes. The only commonality was that they were all coated in a blue-green light, and when they landed they dealt cold damage that had an effect over time component.

Mike took two blows, which he managed to mostly parry, while Jack took three, his two sheilds helping him deflect almost all of the damage. Wayna shifted forms as a blow struck out towards her, shifting to a snowy owl and diving to the crowd, avoiding the blow entirely, shifting back into her polar bear form and crunching her jaws around one of the joints of the limb as the Glacial Lord attempted to retract it.

On the other side, Elli moved in closer, forcing the boss to engage him with a single leg. Elli dodged the blow with almost contemptous ease while lashing out with his Magma-Infused Heavy Sabre, digging deeply into the joint connecting the limb to the Glacial Lord's body.

As the Glacial Lord opened its maw to blast the group with cold again, Jake struck.

The UtahRaptor wasn't a peaceful creature. Jake was, by and large, a furious killing machine filled with rage and hate. One of the side effects of utilizing the Magma Elemental Heart to modify the summoning spell was that it seemed to have a classical orientation. More specifically, Jake hated Ice attuned creatures, even more than his normal hatred of all living things. He might also hate Water attuned creatures, but they hadn't encountered any of those yet. The practical upshot was that when the Glacial Lord opened its mouth, Jake saw the perfect opportunity to tear into tender, unprotected flesh. Honking his rage, Jake leapt into the Glacial Lord's mouth and began biting and clawing.

The Glacial Lord's breath weapon was effectively stoppered by Jake, with what little escaped being off target as the boss monster swung its head wildy, attempting to disloge the Magma-Infused UtahRaptor.

It was at that point that things started to horribly wrong for the Glacial Lord.

Jake gave not a single solitary fuck how much damage he took. He just wanted to rend flesh, break bones, and devour. Bob's threshold bonuses meant that the breath weapon had crushed the refreshing Eldritch Shield, and burned off twenty-five percent of Jake's health. In another second the shield would refresh, and Jake would pick up about twelve percent of his health from the healing effect. The UtahRaptor wasn't going anywhere.

The rest of the team weren't holding onto their mana either, dumping everything they had into their attacks, their Magma-Infused weapons delivering significant damage.

It was a testament to the Glacial Lord's durability that it took another twelve seconds for the team to bring it down. When it finally fell, a very angry Jake tore his away out of the monsters throat, honking furiously, the boss's blood coating his flaming feathers.

Bob dismissed the UtahRaptor.

Bob was presented with a set of System noficiations.

Quest Advanced!

An Eire monitoring station has been overrun by Feral Winter Minks! If left unchecked they will destroy the station with its valuable equipment, leaving the Eire blind to conditions at the pole!

Destroy ten of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.

Destroy one hundred of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.

Destroy one thousand of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.

Discover where the minks are coming from to receive a reward!

Discover why the minks attacking the station to receive a reward! Complete.

Stop the minks from overrunning the station to receive a reward! Complete.

Quest Complete!

You have exterminated the tides of Feral Winter Minks, and in the process have angered their progenitor!

Defend the station from the Glacial Lord! Complete.

Reward added to Dungeon Completion list.

"A little weird that we beat the boss without completing the entire Dungeon," Dave observed.

"I have a feeling we'll need to track the boss back to wherever it came from to finish it," Amanda suggested. "Given it's size, it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Sounds good to me," Elli shrugged. "Let's go find out where everything came from. I know that I don't want to do this one again."

Bob could only nod his agreement, noting that everyone looked eager to get out of the Dungeon.

Following the Glacial Lord's tracks was just as easy as Amanda had predicted. They followed the trail into a canyon, which they cautiously followed for half a mile before discovering a massive arch of ice. It was cracked and crumbling, but Bob could clearly see that it had been a ritual portal, although it was too degraded to determine anything more than that.

Quest Advanced!

An Eire monitoring station has been overrun by Feral Winter Minks! If left unchecked they will destroy the station with its valuable equipment, leaving the Eire blind to conditions at the pole!

Destroy ten of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.

Destroy one hundred of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.

Destroy one thousand of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.

Discover where the minks are coming from to receive a reward! Complete.

Discover why the minks attacking the station to receive a reward! Complete.

Stop the minks from overrunning the station to receive a reward! Complete.

Calculating Rewards.

Quest Advanced!

You are the first user to enter this Dungeon!

Clear this Dungeon to receive a reward! Complete.

(All Quest goals must be completed during the user's first entry)

Calculating Rewards.

"Yeah, I don't like this one," Jessica said.

"Hopefully the rewards are worth it," Jack grinned and rubbed his hands together.

"Should we let Nordrax know that we're leaving?" Eddi asked.

"Why?" Jack asked. "He's basically an NPC."

"Well, he talked to us, so maybe part of the whole scenario is letting him know he's safe?"

"Might as well," Harv agreed. "It's not exactly out of our way."

With the Dungeon effectively complete, a series of portals delivered them back to the monitoring station in moments, where they were greeted with by a smiling Nordrax.

"Truly, Vorstrach has blessed us," he beamed. "All of Krestor will sing your praises my friends, and I have no doubt when we are delivered to the next seed, that you will be sheltered deeper."

"Happy to help," Bob replied. "Before we go, could you tell us the most direct route to Krestor?"

Nordrax turned away from the group, still smiling, and descended the stairs.

"Next seed? Sheltered Deeper? Krestor?" Amanda shook her head.

"Look, I'm not saying that both Nordrax and the Mad Eire both look like tier eight dwarves, but they look like tier eight dwarves," Dave said. "We all know where dwarves live."

"It would explain why we didn't see any signs of anyone on the planet, and the theme of the two Dungeons we've delved," Amanda mused.

"I'm pretty sure that Nordrax thinks we're Eire, yeah?" Jessica added. "Like, the System makes these Dungeons for the people on the planet, right? So everything is designed around a group of Eire delving them."

"That might explain it," Bob muttered, tapping his armband and bringing up the screen.

"Explain what?" Jack asked, cocking his head and leaning over Bob's arm in an attempt to read the screen.

"There should have been a couple more Dungeons," Bob replied distractedly as a three dimensional image of the planet appeared, with purple dots spread across it. Bob tapped a part of the globe and it shifted, showing a three dimensional topographical map of rolling hills. "There should be a Dungeon somewhere around here, but there isn't," he mumbled, tapping his armband again. Layers of color spread over the map, and he frowned. "There," he pointed to a splotch of yellow amongst a sea of dark reds, violets and purples. "I wasn't looking for it, but I'll bet there's an active mana drain there. Assuming there are dwarves living beneath the surface, they'd need mana catchment systems to bring it down to their cities to build their Dungeons. Either that or they'd have to constantly travel to the surface to delve, which I wouldn't do in their shoes."

"What does it mean, for us?" Eddi asked. "I mean, we aren't on their land or anything, if they live underground, right?"

"I don't know," Bob admitted. "I guess it depends on if they object to us being on the planet."

"This is all a lot to think about, but maybe we can do it someplace a bit warmer?" Jessica suggested.

"I don't think we'll get anything useful out of Nordrax, so how about you pop a portal and we get out of here?" Mike asked, looking at Bob.

Bob tapped his armband, closing his display and opened a portal.

He didn't much care for the cold either.

Dungeon 801972G610N497ISS6PM18D Completely cleared. 1,600 Feral Winter Mink Manifestations dispersed. Scenario anchor "Eire Monitoring Station" Discovered. Elemental Portal discovered. Scenario prime manifestation "Glacial Lord" defeated.

User may select from the following rewards.

500 energy crystals.

Eire Winter Survival Suit.

Eire Thermal Imaging Visor.

Partial Eire Environmental Shelter.

Frozen Heart.

"Ok, so that's not quite what I expected," Bob muttered, displaying his System notification to the rest of the group. "Everyone has the same thing, right?"

"Lot of Eire stuff there," Dave observed.

Eire Winter Survival Suit.

This full body suit covers the Eire from head to toe, allowing the user to comfortably operate in temperatures as low as eighty degrees below zero. This item requires one mana or stamina per second to operate.

This item is self repairing, requiring one hundred mana or stamina channeled to repair or replace one percent missing or damaged material.

Eire Thermal Imaging Visor.

This visor grants the user the ability to see variations of heat by utilizing both fire and cold aspected mana. The visual range is five hundred and twelve feet. This item requires one mana or stamina per second to operate.

This item is self repairing, requiring one hundred mana or stamina channeled to repair or replace one percent missing or damaged material.

This item may be integrated with an Eire Winter Survival Suit.

Partial Eire Environmental Shelter.

This item represents one quarter of an Eire Environmental Shelter. When inactive, the cube measures eight inches per side. When activated, at the cost of one hundred mana or stamina, with an ongoing cost of one mana or stamina per second, it expands to sixteen feet on each side. In order to activate, it must be linked with three or more other Partial Eire Environmental Shelters. Once active, the Eire Environmental Shelter provides protection from temperatures ranging from two hundred degrees below zero and four hundred degrees above zero. It is air tight, with environmental controls available for each section.

This item is self repairing, requiring one hundred mana or stamina channeled to repair or replace one percent missing or damaged material.

Frozen Heart.

This item increases the cold damage dealt by the user by eight percent.

"Ok, so I'll be the one to say it - there rewards are objectively worse than what we were offered out of our first Dungeon," Jack said.

"I'm guessing, and this is just a guess, that the difference is the hidden objective of killing the Mad Eire," Amanda replied.

"It's a hundred mana crystals less, so a missing objective sort of makes sense?" Dave agreed.

"Thematically, it makes sense, yeah?" Jessica said. "Our Dungeon is probably close to Krestor, so the scenario is designed around the city and the Eire who live there, where as this one is exactly what the scenario suggests; an outpost that will get cleared just often enough to keep it from overflowing. Maybe not even that, this is one I think we can let go."

"Yeah, but let's talk about those portable shelters," Mike said. "Two hundred and fifty-six square feet doesn't sound like a lot, but it's more than we have now with our tents. Link them together would give us three thousand square feet of climate controlled space and only costs use one mana regen." He shook his head. "That's some system fuckery right there. No mana crystals? Sign me up."

"Honestly, we have our space suits if we really need to survive extremely cold environments," Bob mused. "I can teach everyone how to cast a thermal vision spell, and none of us are casting cold spells. I'd say the shelters are more valuable than the five hundred crystals."

"Yay, magic legos!" Dave grinned.

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