Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 12: Scouting the Everfree Forest
It's been a couple of hours since the new guild members first battles and they've all picked their own rooms.
After that Twilight's party decided it would be a good idea to go out and continue to get more practice in while Celestia's went back to Ponyville to check up on how it's doing and to prepare the town's construction crew to come to the Guild Hall and begin building a new city.
Frank and his friends are getting ready to scout out the new dungeon in the Everfree Forest, so they're in the vault stocking up on food, potions, and ammunition.
"So what do you think this Dungeon will be like?" Jack asks the others.
"I don't know, the Princesses didn't give any details but I'm guessing it'll be a level ten to twenty area," Frank replies and closes his inventory screen.
"I hope we find better loot there, using under levelled gear is a drag," Jack complains as he taps the head of his warhammer.
"I'm sure we'll find better gear, maybe some tin deposits so we can start making bronze gear as well as better woods, cloth, leather, and gems," Satoshi says stocking up with six-hundred arrows.
"Well let's get going! We haven't done a Dungeon in days and I want to explore the Princesses old Castle!" Daring Do tells them while jumping on the spot in excitement.
Frank chuckles at her eagerness with a shake of his head and looks to the others. "So are we all good to go?" he asks them.
They all confirm they've got what they need, so the party heads up and out the Guild Hall, they then use the anchor crystal to teleport to Ponyville and from there into the Everfree Forest.
"Hey, Sam! Why don't you try that slime mount you got?" Jack asks the cleric.
"Oh, okay," she replies and summons her mount with a yelp as she's lifted into the air and the yellow slime mount appears under her where she's placed onto the saddle with the reins in front of her. She grasps the reins and looks down at her friends as she's now a metre higher than them.
"Man, I hope we can find some mounts of our own soon, maybe we can buy a few of those plane runners back in Ponyville?" Jack wonders.
"Maybe, but right now we'll just have to go on foot." Frank replies and opens his map. "The Dungeon is supposed to be south west of Ponyville so let's get going," he tells his friends.
The party cheer together and begin their trek through the Forest.
It isn't long before the group run into their first monster, a large lion like beast with a red mane, small bat like wings, a scorpion's tail, and sharp claws.
"A manticore? Oh look it's level ten!" Jack says pointing to the tag above the beast as it snarls at them aggressively.
"So at least we know this is the next area to level in," Satoshi says and draws an arrow from his quiver.
"Alright, standard formation guys, let's bring it down," Frank tells his party before using his Shield Charge skill to slam into the manticore.
<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>
The Manticore recoils from the impact taking 240 damage and stumbling back a few steps. Frank then follows up by taunting the manticore to get its attention.
Jack bends his knees getting ready to jump and leaps into the air. "YOLO!" he yells and brings his hammer down onto the manticore with a satisfying thud dealing 110 damage and generating 10 rage.
Satoshi shoots an arrow into the beast's left side making it grunt in pain for 213 damage points and quickly notches a new arrow onto his bow.
The manticore then pounces on Frank and pins him to the ground, dealing 147 damage to the guardian. "Frank!" Jack shouts out and slams his hammer into the manticore's head while inflicting 230 damage to it and knocking the beast away from the pinned Guardian as well.
"Thanks, Jack!" Frank says to the warrior and quickly gets back on his feet while Laura casts her Fireball spell dealing a good amount of damage and setting the beast alight.
The manticore roars in anger and goes for Laura as Samantha heals the damage Frank took.
Frank growls and Shield Charges the beast followed by a Taunt reclaiming the aggro. He then swings his sword and cuts the manticore across its face dealing 142 damage.
Daring Do sneaks up, uses her poison blade skill, and then stabs the manticore in the left flank dealing 103 damage and inflicting a poison effect for a while.
The beast swats her away with its tail for 80 damage and returns its attention to Frank where it slashes him across the chest for 118. It then raises its tail and lunges it at Frank poisoning him for a minute.
The Cleric casts a renewal spell to counteract the poison which is followed by a lesser heal spell.
Satoshi continues to fire arrows into the beast and after a few more seconds of attacks from the party, the manticore falls to the ground defeated.
<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>
"Phew, we've been fighting low levels so long I almost forgot how much a monster your level can hit for," Frank mumbles to himself and picks up the loot bag containing manticore venom and ten bits. Jack then goes and skins the Manticore for a tier two leather pelt which then the body fades away.
"Well let's keep moving, I don't want to be out here at night... this place gives me the creeps," Laura says looking around.
"Good idea, let's keep moving people!" Frank says while opening his map and getting cheers from the others.
The party continue through the forest and battled a few more manticores as well as bigger, higher level timberwolves. They've also fought a cockatrice which turned Jack into stone for a minute.
"You have no idea how freaky that was! I think I know how Discord feels now..." Jack says shivering as he remembers how he couldn't move and the cold feeling from the experience.
"Just be grateful it wasn't permanent, Sam hasn't made any ether potions yet so we'll need to be more careful," Frank replies.
The group comes across a rocky outcropping with tin veins along it where Frank gets to work gathering it up with his pickaxe. In all he got thirty-three pieces, just enough for some weapons.
After a few more minutes of walking the party of six arrive at the ruins of an old castle.
"This must be it," Satoshi states as the group look over the derelict moss and vine covered ruin.
"Okay guys, here's the plan. We'll go in and find the entrance to the dungeon and look for anything that could be useful to us," the Guardian briefs his friends.
They agree and set out to search the ruin.
The first area they searched was the main lobby which only had a few rotten benches and torn tapestries barely hanging on the walls.
The next rooms were the servant quarters, which contained a few coins and a couple of monsters in them. After that was the Kitchen where rotten food was laid about and rusted utensils rested atop the counters, but nothing in there was of use. There were even a few skeletal remains of ponies on the floor.
The party went up a set of crumbling stairs to the next floor and found the Princesses old rooms, along with a few manticores which they killed.
Frank finds a large greatsword within a display case in Luna's old room, it even still looks in good condition. It has a deep blue almost black blade with a silver crescent moon hand guard and a full moon pommel, the grip looks like it's made from a black kind of leather.
"Guys, look at this," the Guardian beckons his friends over.
They all gather around as he pulls the sword out of the case which disappears into his inventory. Frank opens his inventory and checks the stats of the sword.
Moonlight's Edge
Two-Handed Sword
Level Required = 100
Damage = 3800
Attack Speed = 1.20
Strength + 200
Endurance + 200
Effect: On hit, 50% chance to deal 1000 holy damage to target and heal the wielder by 500 HP.Crafted by: Luna Nocturne
"Whoa, dude. Is that a legendary weapon!" Jack shouts out in disbelief as he looks over Frank's shoulder.
"It would appear so, and a level one-hundred one to boot," Satoshi says with raised eyebrows.
"Well, I think it would be best to return this to Luna," Frank says and closes his inventory screen.
"What!? Why? I could use it when I hit one-hundred! You found it and she left it here so finders keepers," Jack tells his friend desperately wanting the sword.
"But she may not have been able to recover it when they left, she made it after all and I'm sure it has some sentimental value to her," Frank replies and heads for the door.
"But!.. Fine, I still think we should keep it," the warrior grumbles and follows Frank out.
In Celestia's room there was an old dusty book but still in decent condition, it has no title and not one of the group could open it.
"Might be their magic, a security measure only letting certain people open it," Satoshi theorises.
"Guess we'll take this back as well," Frank says and stores the book.
Four hours Later
With the whole ruins searched the group meet up in front of the entrance of the Dungeon which is ironically in the Castle's Dungeon.
"So I think we got a nice haul, we found some more tin, wool, wood, leather, and plants as well as that badass sword," Jack says looking through his inventory.
"Yeah, but doesn't it seem like the monsters here are getting more aggressive the longer we stay? We've been attacked every five to ten minutes for the last hour," Laura replies looking around the area.
"True, I think we should head back to the Guild Hall and then return tomorrow to grind some more levels before we enter here," Satoshi says looking at the swirling portal to the Dungeon.
"Sweet! I can't wait to do another Dungeon!" Daring Do says with excitement getting the others to laugh lightly.
"Alright, let's use our crystals and head home," Frank says pressing the recall crystal on his hotbar.
After ten seconds of charging up the party teleport back to the Guild Hall's anchor crystal.
"Well then, you guys put what we found in the vaults, I'm going to Ponyville to give the Princesses back their possessions," the Guardian informs his party.
"Okay, see you in a bit!" Jack replies and heads into the Guild Hall with the others.
Frank then uses the anchor crystal to teleport to Ponyville, the ponies all smile and wave at him which he returns on his way to the town hall.
Once he arrives the guards at the door let him in without trouble. Frank walks to the front desk and smiles at the mare behind the counter. "Hello, are the Princesses here? I have something that belongs to them," he asks her.
"Oh yes, they're in their office," she replies looking up from her paperwork.
"Thank you," Frank says and heads down the hallway to their office.
Once he arrives he knocks on the door three times. "Come in!" Celestia shouts out from inside.
Taking the invitation, Frank opens the door and steps inside. "Frank? What brings you here so soon?" Luna asks him.
"We scouted the Everfree Forest and it is indeed the next area to train in. My party and I will be heading back there tomorrow to level up some more before we take on the Dungeon," the Guardian replies and opens his inventory. "I also found these in your old Castle," he tells them and places the sword and book on the desk.
Luna gasps and picks up her old sword with a look of disbelief.
"You found my old sword!" she exclaims with a happy smile while holding her sword in her hands.
"It was just sitting in a display case in your old room," Frank tells her.
Celestia meanwhile is staring at the book in front of her, she then hesitantly opens it to the first page and runs a hand down the old paper. "I thought I'd never see this again..." she says with a faint smile.
"Erm, not to be nosey or anything, but what is it?" Frank asks her.
Celestia looks up from the book to the guardian. "This is Starswirl's spell book, I feared I would never see it again," she replies while placing her hand on the dusty pages.
"I see, but what stopped you from getting them yourselves? You said the forest overran your Castle a thousand years ago, but the monsters appeared only twenty years ago... What stopped you from going back there before the monsters?" Frank asks them.
"Tirek was the one who grew the forest in the first place, he has the ability to absorb magic around him to empower himself. He attacked us in order to steal our magic and after a long battle we stripped him of his power and banished him to Tartarus, but his forest grew rapidly and overran the area before we managed to stop it. As for why we didn't go back in, pony magic is negated in there so we couldn't cast spells, use our great physical strength, or even fly," the new Light Bringer replies and skims through the book.
"I see. Well Laura's and Sam's magic worked just fine in there so your new magic will as well," he explains to her.
"Really? We'll have to go over there ourselves once we've, erm... levelled up some more," Celestia says, still getting used to the idea she's now considered weak or low level.
"It's alright, we've even found better materials in there so now I'm going to head back and get the equipment we'll need to level up faster," Frank tells them and turns to the door.
"Thank you for bringing these back to us. It means a lot to us," Luna thanks the Guardian with a warm smile.
"You're welcome. If there's anything else you left in there we'd be happy to get it for you," he replies and walks out the door.
Luna looks at her old sword and notices the stats on it. "WHAT! Level one-hundred required!?" she yells and puffs out her cheeks in frustration while Celestia just giggles at her, and she was looking forward to wielding her lost blade again too.