Saying goodbye to his trusty Chuck Taylors, Garath slipped the dirty old sneakers into his Items panel and pulled the new boots on right there in the dungeon. They were also white, but considering how silly he looked wearing a pair of beat-up jeans, a dark leather cuirass, and a silver circlet, Garath didn’t mind at all that white clothes have a tendency to get dirty. He made a mental note to make them dirty intentionally as soon as they weren’t surrounded by ice. Better yet, he was sure Sharon could help him dye them black when they got back to the Guild Hall.
The other members of the Party each took a minute to inspect and appreciate their own loot, and then they made their way through the portal that lead them back to the plateau where Athios, Sharon, Steve-oooooh, and NickCarter were waiting for them.
The sun had moved quite a bit on its daily journey across the sky while the first group was in the dungeon. Athios and Sharon both rushed over to him when they saw the Necrologist appear out of thin air beside the shimmering portal, each looking relieved to see him. Garath was touched, but gave them both the typical Garath response of nonchalant cockiness. Athios punched his shoulder and Sharon called him names, but soon the whole group was laughing and talking as Garath recounted the dungeon run.
He checked the clock on his UI, it read 10:13 (GST), what would have been 1:13pm (PST) before the stupid new clock system. Had they really been inside the blindingly white dungeon for so long? He shrugged and mentioned to everyone that group two wouldn’t be able to enter until 11:13 (GST). Garath, Athios, and Sharon each pulled a few canned goods from the Items panels to share with everyone for lunch.
The mandatory one-hour waiting period between instanced encounters passed in a flash as everyone ate and talked. Garath found that the lust to continue growing in power and the urges to do whatever it took to do so were somewhat lessened around these people. NickCarter especially took his mind off the taint as the handsome young man regaled everyone with a story about some neuroscience students drinking too many Four Lokos back when he was in college. Garath had a hard time picturing NickCarter, with his goody-two-shoes appearance, skinny dipping in one of Portland’s many public fountains, but it was the story that mattered, not the truth of it.
Garath’s second run through of the dungeon was an interesting experience, with two rather large surprises. The first one was NickCarter. As a Huntsman, NickCarter was able to spot and mark every Ice Elemental in the icy chamber with ease, which was incredibly convenient because the perfectly-camouflaged creatures were pretty darn hard to spot. With a red crosshair hovering unnoticed over the head of every Ice Elemental, the second group would have a much better chance to avoid pulling more than a single Elemental at a time. The charismatic Huntsman also struck Garath as a natural leader, but without the domineering personality that was too-often paired with other natural leaders he’d met. Even being in a Party with Garath, Athios, and Sharon, who had already been through at least one dungeon each, NickCarter began giving Steve-oooooh directions on the best target to pull next in order to clear the room as effectively as possible. Garath didn’t object, as the directions coming from NickCarter were exactly the suggestions he himself would have made.
The second large surprise was the unintended result of one of Steve-oooooh’s Class Skills. With NickCarter clearly stealing the spotlight, the Armoron stupidly designated ‘Steve-oooooh’ was desperate to do something impressive in hopes of catching Garath’s attention. After the Party had systematically taken down the first few Ice Elementals with relative ease, the Party’s tank decided it was time to make his move.
After pulling the next Ice Elemental, he triggered a Skill he said he’d never used before— Commanding Presence. It came with a one-minute cooldown and cost Steve-oooooh nearly half his total Rage, the Armoron equivalent to Mana. The Skill description had led the inexperienced tank to believe it would increase the amount of threat he could generate by 300% for ten seconds. With his Commanding Presence active, Steve-oooooh shouted at the Ice Elemental and rammed it with his shield. To be fair, Commanding Presence did have the intended effect. Unfortunately, it also applied his 300% increased threat to every enemy within twenty meters of the tank’s position.
After Steve-oooooh’s mistake became obvious, the tank panicked. Elementals converged on the Party from every direction and the Armoron struggled to pick even a single target to effectively tank. Garath had to shift into House Cat form to make use of his Skills, at the added cost of tainting his soul, but between the damage-over-time attacks from Garath and Handsome and the impressive burst damage coming from NickCarter, the Elementals dropped to the onslaught quickly. Thanks to the rolling heal-over-time spells from Sharon and clutch relocations of Party members, Elementals, and ice spikes from Athios, the whole Party made it out of the chaotic battle alive.
Following his near fatal mistake, Steve-oooooh contritely followed directions from both Garath and NickCarter without question. The Party then continued pulling one Elemental at a time until they’d cleared the room. Garath directed NickCarter and Athios each to one corner of the room, then he and Bill split up to take the other two corners. They pushed the hovering blue platforms into place to trigger the dungeon Boss, and then met back up in the middle of the room where Steve-oooooh and
