Turnip
HP 61% | LV. 14 | XP 14% | Col 1641
Location - Floor 2: Springs
Having left the scene of his good deed – which may seem like a pretty odd thing to do – Turnip flicked through his inventory to examine his new loot, smirking as he passed his keepsake section. Included in there were such items as <Random Stick> ("This stick does not appear to be of any real use whatsoever."), <Dagger of the Foul> (He'd forgotten about that one, he really needed to make some more friends), and even Turnip's first real blade, entitled "Patience". The blade itself was nothing special, particularly, unlike the dagger, but he kept it as a memento, and for a gag if someone annoyed him enough to make use of it.
And thus, he came upon his newly acquired equipment. The armour was admittedly pretty decent, for light armour – though that wasn't really Turnip's style, so he passed, as was the case with the guy's shortsword. There was some food, some potions and various materials and ingredients that Turnip could probably make some use of later, on top of the Col you'd expect to find on any player. The armoured figure did find a ring that made Sword Arts recharge 10% faster, which seemed pretty useful, but nothing else was really worth equipping. Might sell for a decent amount, though.
Turnip jumped down yet another ledge, making his way through the rocky terrain that surrounded the Springs area. He was starting to get a little bored – there didn't really seem to be anything down here, and it was starting to seem very reasonable to suspect that this was a complete waste of time. He plonked down again, and snapped immediately to his left.
Wohoo, here we go.
A somewhat imposing entrance was visible in front of the warrior/vegetable, with noises of monsters reverberating from the inside – the unmistakable characteristics of a dungeon. Well, unmistakable for such an experienced dungeon-crawler as Turnip. He'd probably spent more hours in dungeons than he'd had hot meals. He drew his sword as he stepped inside, though the prospect of taking on a dungeon so soon after entering the second floor struck him as perhaps a little risky. Still, it was possible it could be a low-level dungeon. He supposed he'd just have to take a little look inside – hopefully he wouldn't aggro fifty-thousand mobs at once.
The dungeon was moderately similar to the ones of floor one. There weren't any mobs in the area immediately after the entrance, but several hallways led on from there that carried the sounds of monsters. He peeked down a few of them, starting with the left side. The hallway appeared to lead to a single room, in which there appeared to be nothing other than a grand-looking blade. From the size and shape of it, at least from a distance, it looked to be a similar size to Turnip's bastard sword, "Composite Long Bow +1". That naturally excited the armoured figure, with the loot appearing so out in the open, but common sense told him that the room was almost undoubtedly trapped, heavily so. As he peeked in a little further, he caught movement to his right.
Oh, dear.
Well, Turnip had wanted to know what he'd be up against in this dungeon, and it seemed he was going to find out. Two <Salamander Warrior>s, armed with spears and both higher level than Turnip currently was, came gallivanting out of a hallway and towards the warrior. One he could probably take based on dexterity and weapon skill alone, though it may take him a while. Two was asking for a bit more strategy to be employed.
Turnip began by launching Boomeraxe at the backmost salamander – with any luck, the hit would help to slow its advance, giving Turnip more time to focus on the closer one. He deftly sidestepped the first lunge, then went for a sideways swipe at the back of the salamander's head. The reptilian creatures weren't particularly light on their feet – understandable, considering they had none – and as such Turnip could make use of unbalancing them with dodging and well-placed strikes. After hitting a few more times and retrieving Boomeraxe, he was forced to duck and roll away to avoid a hit from the latecomer. Draw Steel would be useful at this point, but it still hadn't recharged yet. With any luck, that new ring would help it to be ready before too long.
The two salamanders lunged in unison – Turnip managed to bat one of them to the side whilst barely dodging the other, ultimately leading to little other than a slight inconvenience for his trench coat. He moved towards the two, swiping the lower half of one of them – the other unexpectedly slashed at Turnip with its claws, scraping his arm. He needed to be wary of that; he'd prioritised avoiding the spears, so he hadn't thought that the creatures would use their claws.
Pretty clever AI, props to the devs on that one, as bloody annoying as it is right now.
Turnip fell back to a safe distance, then launched Boomeraxe again, standing his ground. The curve hit both salamanders, the flinching from the hit giving the armoured figure enough time to catch the axe before they were upon him again. This wasn't too agreeable of a situation: the salamanders were now on the verge of pushing Turnip further into the dungeon, that wouldn't do.
Alrighty. I'll probably take a hit, but might as well make it worth it.
Turnip charged at the salamanders, sliding under the initial two lunges and slashing the left one twice across the chest as he stood. He brought his sword around his back with barely a glance to deflect the claws of the one on his right, then over his head to slash the left one again. He continued his move past the salamanders, stabbing the right one and drawing his sword out in a defensive slash at the left's hands, before he was pushed back by a thrust from the right's spear to his shoulder, pushing him backwards. He gladly went with it, rolling back before skidding to a halt in a crouched position.
"Ow." Turnip groaned, more in annoyance than in pain. He glanced around his HUD, noticing that his health was taking a bit of a punishment. He smirked, though, when he noticed that Draw Steel was no longer recharging. He stood, sheathing his sword and readying Boomeraxe.
So these bastards want a piece of me, eh? I guess they haven't heard… Turnips don't taste very nice.
And with that thought of mediocre badassery fuelling him onwards, Turnip charged, launching Boomeraxe with raging fury. It caught the back salamander directly in the face as the other surged forwards in a lunge. Turnip, weaponless, twisted to dodge the spear, grabbing it and pulling the salamander towards him. He kicked the mob in the gut, spun once, then unsheathed his sword in a Draw Steel straight down the monster's middle. It flew backwards and crashed into the dungeon wall, out for the count for now.
Turnip caught and sheathed Boomeraxe as the other salamander came at him. He readied his sword, and stood his ground, now confident that he could take the monster before him. Each thrust and swipe was but an individual attack, easily sidestepped or knocked away with "Composite Long Bow +1". The armoured figure barely moved, easily staying within a square meter, striking and dodging with fluid movements. Mobs in general were only really troublesome in numbers – individually they couldn't compete with anyone who knew what they were doing. Of course, there were some exceptions, but you wouldn't find any amongst the likes of salamanders. The salamander soon broke into red pixels, leaving Turnip to finish off the other – still slightly dazed by the Draw Steel, it proved little trouble.
Turnip's health was low-ish, but Battle Healing was already beginning its work. The salamanders yielded a bit of col, and their spears could sell for a bit more. A couple of ingredients could prove of some use, too. The armoured figure turned and was about to leave when he heard a voice to his right.
"Hey, you! You with the armour and the sword and the crappy name!"
Turnip turned to where the voice seemed to be coming from, but saw no-one there. Just that same room he'd been looking in earlier, with the blade on the pedestal that was probably surrounded by traps. He got a better look at the sword – there appeared to be a large ruby seated in the pommel, which lead up through a deep red grip into an intricately designed cross-guard. The hilt seemed to be made primarily of some kind of dark red metal, embossed with gold lettering that Turnip couldn't quite make out. The blade itself shone a stunning gold, clean and sharp. At the centre of the cross-guard was what looked like an eye, also made of metal. The eye wouldn't ordinarily seem at all out of place on such a sword, and in general it wasn't – until it moved.
"Yeah, you! Get over here!"
Turnip raised an eyebrow, then nodded slowly in realisation, "Aaaah, I see what this is. You're a sword with like a soul in it or something. Well; first of all, my name's amazing, you're obviously just jealous. Secondly, I'm not going in there. Looks like trap central to me."
"The
precise term is DemonSword, thank you very much. And come on, there aren't any traps in here! Trust me!"
"Trust a DemonSword? Sure, sounds like great life advice."
"Are you serious? I'm- ah, actually, I'll give you that one... If there were any traps in here, I'd totally lead you into them – still, allow me to introduce myself: you may call me Vengeful Acts."
"Way worse than Turnip."
Vengeful Acts ignored the jibe, "I am a mighty and powerful demon – but, as you can see, my form has been sealed inside this blade."
"If you're so 'mighty and powerful', how come you got sealed inside a blade?"
The eye narrowed, "Because shut up, that's how."
"Harsh."
"Now, I don't particularly want to be wielded by anyone, and I certainly don't want to end up being wielded by just any old codger. But, as you might expect, living alone in a cave is damn boring. Plus, I guess being used is preferable, as at least I'll get to see some bloodshed, even if I'm not entirely in control of it. Now; you seem alright. A bit of an arse, but at least you aren't boring. Still, you're going to have to prove yourself if you want to wield me."
"Well, I could easily say the same about you – but what makes you think I want to wield you?"
"Because I'm a good bloody sword, you moron! What, you think a blade infused with the soul of a demon is gonna be a bloody butter knife?"
"Point taken."
"Alright. Now, first thing – my power's going to overwhelm you if you're not strong enough."
"Eh, I'm pretty damn strong."
"Heheh, sure. Come back when you're level fifty or so."
"Level
fifty!? Bloody hell. Agh, that sucks, too. I'd wield the crap out of you IRL."
"Uhhh… yeah, sure you would. Anyway, on top of being strong enough, you've got to prove that you're cunning enough. You've got to find out my name."
"Your name? Uh… Vengeful Acts…"
The demon laughed, "I said that's what you can call me, that doesn't mean it's my name, dingus. Look; you're the first person here. You've got a head start, and there's probably plenty of time before anyone reaches level fifty anyhow. Just get working on it. And when you're done, we'll spill blood as one! Blood! BLOOD FOR THE- aghem, sorry. It's just, uh, blood gets me a little carried away sometimes. Uh, anyway, yeah, wield me, fighting, glory, et cetera, et cetera, hoping to hear from you soon, Vengeful Acts."
Turnip laughed, "Alright. Peace."
"PEACE!? I HATE PEACE!"
And Turnip left the dungeon, leaving Vengeful Acts raving on about his despise of peace, love, babies, chocolate and trampolines. The armoured figure's health was rising, but still a little low – plus he was getting that nagging feeling in his stomach again.
Dammit, Vengeful Acts. Hating trampolines, cursing me with hunger… He decided to head off in the direction of that village he'd seen earlier on his way here. Looking at the horizon, he noticed that tree he'd seen yesterday.
Dammit, I'd forgotten about that. Maybe there's a better grinding spot there – the plains are a bit boring, and the dungeon's a little risky. Ok. Brunch, sell loot, tree. And if I can, I'll see what I can find out about Vengeful Acts…
