The main gate of the University looked less like a campus entrance and more like a medieval siege line.
Floodlights powered by mana batteries cut through the pre-dawn gloom. Sandbags were stacked six feet high. Behind them stood three "Guardian Golems"—towering constructs of clay and rune-etched stone.
[Guardian Golem (store-bought)]
[Rank: D]
[Price: 500 Gold each]
Blake had spent 1,500 Gold on static defenses. He really was terrified of me.
"That is a lot of rock," Gor-rok grunted. The Orc Mercenary flexed his massive green arms, testing the weight of his battle axes. He towered over me, standing nearly eight feet tall. His breath smelled like raw meat.
"Can you break them?" I asked.
Gor-rok laughed. "Rock does not bleed. But rock cracks."
"Cipher," I said without looking back. "Stay behind Gor-rok. If anyone casts a spell, identify the source."
Cipher adjusted her goggles, tapping furiously on her laptop. "I'm picking up thirty signatures inside the perimeter. They are all wearing matching gear. Blake outfitted his whole inner circle with Auction House armor."
"Standardized equipment," I noted. "Smart. But experience beats gear."
I stepped into the light.
"Open the gate!" I shouted.
The response was immediate. A siren wailed. Figures scrambled behind the sandbags.
Blake appeared on top of the library steps, overlooking the courtyard. He looked magnificent. He was wearing a full set of Silverlight Plate, armor that glowed with a faint holy aura. In his hand was a new weapon—a Sun-Forged Spear.
[Item: Sun-Forged Spear]
[Rank: C+]
[Effect: Blinds enemies on hit. +20% Damage to Undead.]
He had built a loadout specifically designed to kill me.
"Vance!" Blake's voice was amplified by a magical megaphone. "I knew you'd come back. You're predictable."
"And you're expensive," I called back. "How much was the spear, Blake? Three thousand gold?"
"It doesn't matter," Blake sneered. "I have the resources. I have the people. You have nothing but a few glitches and a death wish."
He raised the spear.
"Fire!"
A dozen archers on the roof released their strings. But these weren't normal arrows. They were Explosive Bolts bought from the shop.
The air filled with whistling death.
"Gor-rok," I said. "Earn your pay."
The Orc roared.
[Skill Activated: Whirlwind]
Gor-rok didn't block. He spun. His axes turned into a blur of steel. He generated a vortex of wind pressure that slapped the arrows out of the air.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The explosive bolts detonated harmlessly ten feet in front of us. Smoke filled the courtyard.
"Charge," I ordered.
Gor-rok burst through the smoke like a runaway train.
The three Clay Golems lumbered forward to intercept him. They were slow. Clunky.
Gor-rok didn't stop. He lowered his shoulder and slammed into the center Golem.
CRACK.
The clay crumbled. The Golem toppled backward, its chest cavity caved in.
Gor-rok swung his left axe. It bit into the stone neck of the second Golem. He swung his right axe. It shattered the knee of the third.
In five seconds, Blake's 1,500 Gold investment was reduced to rubble.
"Kill the Orc!" Blake screamed. "Focus fire!"
Spells rained down. Fireballs. Ice shards. Lightning bolts.
Gor-rok tanked it all. His [Berserker Rage] passive reduced magical damage by 50%. He laughed as the fire scorched his green skin. It only made him angrier.
While everyone was watching the giant green monster, I moved.
"Beta," I whispered. "The archers."
The Crimson Shade vanished.
A split second later, a scream echoed from the roof.
Beta appeared behind a sniper. Its glass claws slashed. The sniper fell. Beta vanished again.
Teleport. Slash. Teleport. Slash.
It was a rhythm of slaughter. The archers on the roof panicked. They stopped firing at Gor-rok and started shooting wildly at the shadows.
I walked through the shattered gate. Alpha walked beside me, deflecting stray arrows with the flat of his greatsword.
I locked eyes with Blake.
He was standing at the top of the stairs, surrounded by his "Paladin Guard"—five students in heavy armor holding tower shields.
"Form the wall!" Blake ordered.
The five guards locked their shields together. A golden barrier of light shimmered into existence.
[Skill: Phalanx Defense]
[Durability: 5000/5000]
It was a solid wall of holy energy. Impenetrable to low-level attacks.
I walked up the stairs until I was ten feet away from the shield wall.
Blake smirked from behind the safety of the gold light. "You can't break this, Vance. This is a Guild-level formation. Go home."
I looked at the barrier.
It was based on Mana. It required a constant stream of energy from the five guards to maintain.
"Cipher," I said into my earpiece. "Can you see the mana flow?"
"Yeah," Cipher's voice crackled. "It's a shared loop. If you overload one node, the whole thing shorts out."
"Perfect."
I didn't attack the barrier.
I raised my hand.
"Rise."
A skeleton appeared in front of the shield wall.
"Rise."
Another one.
"Rise. Rise. Rise."
I spammed the summon. I wasn't summoning warriors. I was summoning Bone Bombs.
These were unstable skeletons. I summoned them with flawed mana structures intentionally.
Fifty skeletons crowded the stairs in the blink of an eye. They were jammed against the golden barrier, clawing at it, piling up like a mound of dead ants.
"What is he doing?" one of the guards yelled. "They can't scratch the shield!"
"Detonate," I said.
I released the mana hold on all fifty skeletons at once.
BOOM.
It wasn't a chemical explosion. It was a pressure wave of necrotic energy. Fifty mana cores rupturing simultaneously against a holy barrier.
The feedback loop was instantaneous.
The golden light shattered like glass.
The five guards were thrown backward, their shields glowing red hot. They screamed as the backlash fried their mana circuits.
Blake was left standing alone.
His guards were down. His Golems were dust. His archers were dead.
He looked at me. He looked at Gor-rok, who was currently ripping the head off a linebacker in the courtyard.
Blake gripped his Sun-Forged Spear. His knuckles were white.
"I am the Chosen One!" Blake screamed. "I have the System's favor! I have the Gold!"
He charged.
The spear glowed with blinding light. He thrust it at my chest.
It was a good attack. Fast. Powerful.
But I had the [Glitch].
I didn't dodge.
"Summon: Wall."
I cast [Raise Undead] three times in the space of a millisecond directly in the path of the spear.
Three skeletons materialized in mid-air, stacked on top of each other.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
The spear pierced through all three skeletons. They shattered.
But they absorbed the momentum. The spear stopped six inches from my chest.
Blake stared at the shish-kebab of bones on his weapon. He tried to pull it back.
It was stuck.
I stepped forward.
I grabbed the shaft of the spear with my left hand. I pulled him closer.
I drove my right fist into his solar plexus.
OOF.
Blake doubled over. The expensive armor absorbed the damage, but it didn't stop the wind from being knocked out of him.
I let go of the spear. He fell to his knees, gasping.
I looked down at him.
"You have gold," I said. "But you don't have a build."
I kicked him in the chest.
He tumbled down the stairs, clattering in his shiny armor until he hit the bottom landing. He lay there, groaning.
I turned to the library doors.
The "Statue of Jeremiah Roth" stood in the atrium.
I pulled out the Rusty Iron Key.
The statue's eyes seemed to track the key. The stone base rumbled.
I inserted the key into the hidden slot I had found yesterday.
Click.
The mechanism engaged.
The statue didn't slide this time. It sank into the floor. A spiral staircase was revealed, winding down into the darkness.
A rush of cold, stale air blew up from the depths. It smelled of ancient dust and high-tier loot.
[Dungeon Discovered: The Crypt of the Mourning Prince]
[Difficulty: Hell]
[Recommended Level: 25]
Cipher ran up the stairs, panting. She looked at the notification.
"Level 25?" she squeaked. "Kael, we are Level 15. That's a suicide run."
Gor-rok stomped up the stairs. He was covered in clay dust and blood. He peered down the hole.
"Dark hole," Gor-rok grunted. "Good smells."
I looked at Blake, who was trying to crawl away at the bottom of the steps.
"Alpha," I commanded. "Guard the door. Nobody enters. Nobody leaves. If Blake tries to stand up, break his legs."
Alpha nodded and took position at the top of the stairs.
I looked at Cipher.
"The difficulty rating assumes a fair fight," I said.
I stepped onto the spiral staircase.
"I don't fight fair."
I began to descend.
The shadows of the crypt rose up to meet me. The first real dungeon of the Apocalypse.
And down there, waiting in the dark, was the Armor set that would make me immortal.