As soon as the battle started, an Icy Web descended on each of us from the cave ceiling, slowing our movement. We couldn’t get rid of it while the boss lived, and the web nets tightened, digging in and beginning to cut our bodies into segments.
We didn’t wait to see wiiat else the boss could do. Bomber used Charge and drove the Queen into a wall. The sound of broken crockery rang out—the boss split into shards of ice, and a spot of silver lymph splattered across the wall.
Nobody got experience, but the Queen dropped an interesting sword with a freezing effect. We decided to give it to Patrick.
The Kar’sanmai Queen is dead.
Unlocked achievement First Kill: Kar’sanmai Queen!
You are the first in the world to kill the final boss of Kar’sanmai
Lair—the Kar’sanmai Queen!
The Kar’sanmai Queen is dead, but before death, she inadvertently transferred a modicum of her power to you.
Reward: Snow Wanderer (you deal 10% more damage to Holdest residents).
Attention! The achievement T Came, I Saw, I Conquered Again’ has been upgraded to T Came, I Saw, I Conquered Forever!’
You have received another achievement in the First Kill category in a dungeon on your first attempt! The gods of Disgardium call on you to stop: this reward will be the last!
Reward: Dungeon Hero title, Dungeon Hero perk (+25% damage and movement speed in instances).
I wasn’t the first in Dis to earn the achievement T Came, I Saw, I Conquered Forever!’ but all the same, it was nice to finish it off.
We declined All hail the heroes! to avoid revealing our location. It wasn’t worth enough reputation and fame to risk it anyway.
We left the instance without delay, to jump straight to the entrance to the second one the boys had found. We quickly w^ent in. This time, enriched with experience, Irita and Patrick even managed to avoid getting too cold.
“Nothing special inside. Usual assortment of mutated monsters,” Crawler said.
“Which exactly?” Patrick asked with curiosity. I couldn’t recognize the former drunkard. No sign remained of his usual depression and gloomy sarcasm. He made a few thrusts with his new sword and smiled a bloodthirsty grin—he couldn’t wait to use the weapon in action.”
“Nether knows,” the undead gnome shook his shoulders. “We didn’t go far in.”
“Walruses,” Bomber the undead titan said with authority.
“Where have you seen walruses with legs?” Infect asked him, laughing. “But they do have walrus tusks, it’s true…”
The tusks were no help to the mutant walruses. This dungeon was in the mountains, and was higher in level than the Kar’sanmai Lair, but it gave us no trouble.
I allowed Gyula, Patrick and Irita to fight for themselves, and to be honest, they did a great job even without our help. Of course, Gyula the demon hunter was above level one hundred and could one-shot the mobs, but even Patrick and Irita only needed a few hits to take one down. The girl fought with a blue morningstar, a kind of club tipped with a spiky metal ball. She skillfully blocked enemy attacks with her round shield. Her equipment might have been great in the sandbox, but we needed to replace it now.
I liked how Patrick conducted himself. The old soldier was as if reborn. He showed no fear, no emotion, and fought coldbloodedly. Everyone noticed how masterfully he controlled his blade, how skillfully he dodged strikes from mutants and counterattacked. Whoever he was in his past life, his veteran backstory in Snowstorm’s game had been reinforced by the relevant skills.
Bones broke, mobs howied, Infect played his guitar to invigorate the group. Patrick, Irita and Bomber fired jokes back and forth. The dungeon took us half an hour. We took out two of the bosses in passing, a huge Altered Walrus and a chimeric mutant reminiscent of a huge fish with six fins.
The final boss in the dungeon—Bonechewer, a two-headed white bear with a scorpion tail—fell to a fireball from Crawler.
Bonechewer is dead.
Unlocked achievement First Kill: Bonechewer!
You are the fij’st in the world to kill the final boss of Snowy Mutant Cavern—Bonechewer! The corrupt influence of the Nether gave rise to a cross between a polar bear and a giant scorpion. The beast terrorized the inhabitants ofHoldest until it ran into you.
Bonechewer is dead, but before death, he inadvertently transferred a modicum of his power to you.
Reward: Polar Explorer perk (you take 10% less damage from inhabitants ofHoldest).
After that, Irita was surrounded with a column of light—she’d leveled up for the second time today.
Patrick, all ready to rush into the fight, angrily thrust his sword back into its scabbard.
“You kids sure know how to min my fun!”
“You didn’t see these boys in the Lakharian Desert, buddy,” Gyula told him. “I couldn’t even shoot before the poor critter I was aiming at fell down dead.”
“Next time I’ll bring along a folding chair and the latest newspaper,” Patrick said thoughtfully. “By the way, I don’t suppose Disgardium has any non-alcoholic beer, does it?”
“There’s cream beer,” Irita answered. “And ginger beer and root beer. I’ll order a few barrels just for you, Uncle Patrick.”
The veteran put a hand on his heart. “Thanks, kiddo.” He turned to Gyula. “This girl has a heart of gold. Not like these stinky dead guys. You don’t seem to need air either, Gyula, but at least you’re not a pain in the ass.”
That last part referred to me and the boys, but I just smiled. Uncle Nick used to say: the less happy a man is, the more angry he gets. And we really did smell of decaying flesh. The stink
