Ultimate Level 1

“Seth!”

Everyone was saying his name, and he had fallen off the wall of earth he had created at some point.

Lying on his back, his weapon was still in his hand, unable to open as half of it was still stone.

Max could sense everyone coming near him.

“Say something!” Tanila shouted.

The panic in her voice pained him to hear, but it also felt wonderful because it meant he was really alive.

Most of the poison was gone. His arms and hands finally worked by the time everyone got close.

“I tried to heal!”

“We had to wait for the body to vanish!”

Everyone was shouting over each other, but Max just smiled as Tanila dropped to her knees, bending over his chest and looking into his eyes.

“Say something, please,” she begged, tears running down her cheeks.

“You look amazing,” he muttered, still not choosing to try and sit up. “Though it hurts when you push on me like that.”

She sat up, took her hand off his chest, and winced.

“You almost died,” Tanila whispered. “You were almost completely stone.”

Nodding his head slightly, Max just grinned.

“You’re worth it.”

Fowl blew a raspberry and chuckled.

“Ok, he’s milking it now,” the warrior said.

The sound of a staff against metal rang out, and Max didn’t need his sonar to know Batrire had bonked Fowl again.

“That’s impossible,” Cordellia said out loud, gasping when she realized what she had done. “I mean… a gorgon’s poison… only a few rare potions… or a very high-level cure. It’s always deadly.”

“What can I say? I’m just built differently.”

Tanila groaned and held out a hand as Max sat up.

“I’m fine. Help me up, and let’s go see where this chest is and what the boss gave us.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Fowl said as he moved forward and held out his hand, pulling Max to his feet. The dwarf gave him a quick embrace and stepped back.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help more.”

Tapping his friend on the shoulder with his fist, Max smiled.

“You help a lot. Today, you were king of the stone creatures. I know for a fact you killed more than me today.”

Fowl grinned and nodded, his chest plate rising as he stuck it out a little.

“That is true. Now, lest we forget, there is a chest we need to find!”

Cordellia and the other two walked ahead, letting the pair of dwarves lead the way.

Tanila held Max’s hand, rubbing her thumb against it.

“How close were you?”

Sighing, Max grimaced.

“If my skill hadn’t helped, I’d be gone.”

She squeezed his hand and nodded, not saying another word.

“Holy mother of all dragon balls,” Fowl proclaimed. “Look at all that!”

In the center of the coliseum was a massive area at least one hundred and fifty yards across and seventy-five yards wide. All over the dirt floor were hundreds of different stone statues. Some were rare creatures and animals. Others were groups of what appeared to be parties of adventurers that had fallen to the gorgon.

“Does the tower use the same boss over and over?” Max asked. “I mean… the way the frost giant spoke. I thought those were just rumors or legends.”

Fowl chuckled at Max’s words.

“We forgetting how rumors and legends work now?”

Cordellia ignored the banter between the two and shook her head.

“There are bosses, again typically in the later levels, who are said to stay until defeated. Other times, a floor boss might vanish for a while, only to be rumored to have returned. That doesn’t usually happen until the thirty-fifth floor, though.”

Max nodded and pointed at the giant stone chest waiting in the center of the dirt floor.

“Well let's forget that for now and see what we won.”

Max broke a portion of the wall off with a kick, toppling a large piece of stone, and then summoned a stone wall from the ground, angled up to create a way down.

“You get the other one?” he asked, winking at Tanila.

She nodded, still holding his hand, and a steep ramp was ready for them to descend down.

Every statue looked so lifelike, all of them frozen in a horrible manner. Faces were contorted in pain and agony.

Near the occasional one was broken rubble, most likely the remains of ones the gorgon hadn’t liked.

The chest was the size of a raid one. It was made of stone-like granite with different flecks of color. Unlike all the other chests, which had a relief of what had been defeated, this one had a pile of rocks in the middle.

“That’s almost funny,” Fowl said, pointing at the design. “I think it’s your turn to open up the chest.”

Everyone nodded, and Max grinned, moving to the lid and tossing it open.

Inside were four double-sized green crystals, and Max knew Everett would be excited at seeing those.

A shield was waiting for him, a bracelet for Fowl, and snakeskin boots for Cordellia. The same colored stone armband as the chest was for Batrire, and a matching stone ring waited for Tanila.

Five green potions also waited inside.

“What are those?” Fowl asked, standing on his tiptoes to look over the edge.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Max withdrew one and inspected it, feeling his eyes widen at what he saw.

[Inspect Potion]

*****

Petrification Cure

Removes Petrification Curse from one entity

*****

“These remove petrification,” Max informed everyone, holding the potion up and looking at it from different directions.

“What would we do with these?” Cordellia asked, holding one in her hands.

Max took a deep breath and watched as everyone else reached in and withdrew one. Looking around, he saw all the stone statues and stored the potion. He pulled out the ring Everett had given him and slipped it on.

“What are you doing? Why are you bugging Everett?”

“Look around,” Max said as he waited to activate the ring. What if someone in here is a member of the Faction? If we could find that out and revive them, wouldn’t that be worth it?”

Her face scrunched, but she nodded.

Putting his fingers on both sides of the ring, Max waited for it to glow.

A clicking sound came, and then an image of Everett appeared above the ring, sitting behind his desk, with a look of concern showing over the man’s face.

“Everett? It’s Seth.”

“I can see that! What’s wrong?!”

“Nothing,” Max replied with a grin. I'm sorry. It's my first time using the ring, and I wasn’t expecting to see a floating image of you. As for what I need, do you know of any Faction members who fought a gorgon boss and died?”

The older man’s head was visible by all snapping back before it leaned very close, the image getting focused on his face. Both eyes were about as wide as possible.

“YOU KILLED A GORGON?!”

“Well, obviously, or we’d be stone and not calling.”

The man coughed and choked, banging on his chest, and everyone snickered at the sight of it.

“We got a potion that cures petrification, and we weren’t sure if we should save them or see if someone from our Faction had died to a gorgon. If so, and if any of these statues were one of our members, we’d like to try to save them.”

“Give me like fifteen minutes! I need to check some stuff! Turn the ring off and save the power!”

Before Max could reply, the image of Everett was gone. Holding his fingers on the ring, it returned to normal.

“I guess we should loot while we wait and see,” Fowl said, rubbing his hands together and glancing at the chest.

“You’re seriously going to use up a potion like that?” Cordellia asked.

Max saw how her eyes kept blinking rapidly as she stared at him.

“If you were one of them, wouldn’t you want someone to save you?”

“I mean yah… but… how do you even know one of those will work? How can you make sure one of them is actually a member of our Faction?”

Fowl cackled gleefully as he slipped his loot on, and Batrire and Tanila were also taking out their items.

“Call me interested. Even if we lose one potion, it's a risk I’m okay taking if it means saving someone's life.”

“Just let it go,” Fowl said as he joined the two of them. “Get your loot and realize he’s a lost cause. If there is one thing Seth can’t help himself with, it’s helping other people.”

Shaking her head, their ranger gave Max one more look before moving to the chest and withdrawing her new boots.

The look on her face when she saw the stats made her forget the concern she had just a moment ago.

“Looks like you’re up,” Fowl said while winking at him.”

Max nodded and moved to the chest, reaching in and feeling the shield materialize in his hand.

A green scale covered heater shield like Dexic’s came out as he moved his hand back, earning a whistle of appreciation from Fowl.

[Inspect Weapon]

*****

Gorgon Scaled Shield

+20 Strength, Constitution, Dexterity

Impervious

Indestructible

Bonded

*****

The stats were nice, and having a shield that could stand up to almost anything was an added perk. After having his last shield shattered, it hadn’t been fun using the backup one, which provided almost no stats at all.

“That looks pretty sick,” Fowl said with a grin. “Does it turn your enemies to stone?”

Laughing, Max shook his head.

“I’m not certain I’d want something like that. Imagine how dangerous it would be, especially if someone managed to get it from me.”

Fowl nodded and then motioned to the rest of the items in the chest.

“Take those, and I guess we can scout out the floor and start studying the statues. That way, if Everett comes back with something, we may already have an idea of the person he’s talking about.”

Max’s shield hit the ground, and everyone turned, just as stunned as he was.

“You ok?”

“My god, Fowl, that was the smartest thing I think I’ve ever heard you say,” Max replied, his face frozen in shock.

“Bah, screw you,” Fowl muttered as he made a hand gesture, moving toward some of the statues.

Max picked up his shield and saw Batrire smirking, watching her man walk away.

“You ok?”

She nodded at him and started jogging after Fowl, grinning the whole time.

“He’s right,” Tanila said. “I’ll go this way, and you two can go opposite ways. We got a few minutes before it’s time to contact him again.”

Cordellia turned, still struggling it appeared based on her body language and how stiffly she was walking.

They spent their time moving through the statues, finding that over half of them were humans, elves, or dwarves, while the other half were a variety of different creatures. Some looked like the goblins they faced that exploded when killed. Others were snakes that were leaning back, mouths open and in apparent angst as they froze. A few minotaurs and other monsters were missing arms, yet all had the same look of pain.

“You there?”

Everett’s face appeared and he nodded, holding a book as Tom’s face appeared over the man’s shoulder.

“I have a book of things we know. We’ll use most of this ring if you want to go through the list. You got four more. Hopefully, we can verify that someone in here is there, and that works.”

“And way to go!” Tom shouted behind him. “A gorgon that’s–”

“Tom!”

Their Faction leader's outburst cut their trainer off, and then Everett turned back to them,

“Let’s start.”

Three rings were used, and they had a list of people and descriptions to look for. Fowl thought he had already seen one but needed to verify that others thought so. It took them about forty minutes as they moved around the dirt floor, scanning each statute and comparing it to their lists.

“I think there are three candidates,” Tanila said. “One is almost certain, as they have the same scar on Everett mentioned. I guess we’ll use the ring and check and then try the potion.”

Everyone nodded and followed her to the dwarven warrior she had found.

“Does this look like him?” Max asked as he held the ring close to the dwarf’s face.

“By the gods, that’s him! That’s Mustuck!” Everett exclaimed, coming out of his seat and leaning as close as possible to the communication device.

“Ok!” Max replied, just as excited to hear that news. “Now back up a moment so I can see more than your eye, and let's see if this is him and if it works.”

He nodded at Tanila, who took her potion and pulled out the stopper.

“I’m just pouring it on top as his mouth can’t drink it?” she asked

“That’s how it is supposed to work,” Everett replied.

She slowly poured the green liquid all over the dwarf’s hair, watching it run down the stone some before absorbing into it.

When the bottle was empty and not a single drop remained inside, Tanila stepped back, and everyone waited.

“Anything?” Tom asked through the connection.

“Nothing yet.”

Another minute passed, and everyone sighed, wishing it had worked but nothing had happened.

Grunting, Everett leaned back in his chair.

“Well, I appreciate you trying. That speaks a lot about your commitment to–”

“It cracked!” Fowl exclaimed. “By Ockrim’s beard, it’s cracking!”

His shout caused them to turn and watch as the stone began to show more lines and fractures until the entire statue was covered with cracks. All of a sudden the statue moved and everyone jumped back a step.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The loud scream that came from the dwarf’s mouth frightened everyone as he fell forward, his arms and legs windmilling before Max reached out and caught him.

“Mustuck!’ he exclaimed.

“Wah… who the hell are you!” the dwarf exclaimed, backing up from Max’s grasp.

“Mustuck! It’s me, old friend!”

Everett’s voice snapped the dwarf out of his confusion, and he turned his green eyes to see the image floating above Max’s ring.

“Everett? That’s you? What happened? You’re old…”

Chuckles came through the connection and Tom leaned forward.

“And you’re still fat,” their trainer replied.

“Bah, you’re a bastard, and you know it!” the dwarf shouted, grinning now. “Wait a second. Someone tell me what happened and what is going on!”

“We don’t have time,” Max said quickly. “Let me find another statue and show you in a minute. We can tell you on the way.”

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