13 Breaking the stalemate

Dustin woke up in a cold sweat the morning after he had entered the undead dungeon. He checked his status worriedly, but found there were no unusual ailments afflicting him. The image of his patrol leaders eyes boring into him were burned into his mind.

Was he supposed to call it a memory if it never happened? Or was it now a premonition?

He pulled his mind away from the whirlwind of dark emotions he so easily got caught in, and spent a couple of hours in the morning poring over how best to spend his Dos. He ran through the notification spam from the dungeon, purchased a couple of things, and allocated his attributes from leveling up.

He had leveled up three times, putting him at level 9.

Strength 15 (+5) → 20

Wisdom 20 (+5) → 25

Charisma 24 (+1) → 25

Constitution 21 (+4) → 25

His attributes were still balanced, and the rounded numbers were pleasing to his eyes. Once gear and multipliers were thrown into the mix, it was a lot more trouble to organize them.

[Early Exorcism: You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to clear the City of the Dead dungeon. Your corpse cannot be reanimated after death. Gain 5% of non-holy damage dealt to undead as holy damage.]

[Thaumaturgy: You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to modify a spell. +5 Intelligence. 10% chance when combining spells to preserve existing modifiers.]

[High Achiever (I): You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to reach 20 achievements. +1 to all attributes per level up to level 20.]

It was a toss up between Thaumaturgy and High Achiever for which was the best achievement of the three. Plus one to all attributes per level was amazing. The roman numeral next to High Achiever indicated it was part of a series. It likely increased the level of which he could continue gaining attributes, encouraging him to continue hunting achievements if he wished to keep the bonus.

The increase would be more noticeable on attributes like Agility and Constitution, where Dustin's values would be much lower than the ones he prioritized for spell casting.

Thaumaturgy on the other hand had the possibility to create powerful spells. All the attributes in the world meant nothing without proper spells and equipment. A person with a thousand strength could break rocks with his bare fists, but against a monster with incredibly high health and mitigation, weapons or spells were needed to breach the gap.

Dustin could merge his Storm Bolt with another ability, for example, Storm Cloud, and create Storm of Bolts, which would send bolts of lightning to enemies underneath it periodically.

If the chain modifier was kept, this would be even more devastating as each bolt had its own chain. Dustin had to stop himself from wasting time in his head creating powerful spell combinations and jumped right back into the present time.

He had a new payout from the dungeon, giving the ability to buy another spell or two. He had both a strong single target spell, and now mediocre multi-target spell. What he really wanted was something both a little more stealthy, but keeping on track with his other spells.

The Double Dip achievement incentivized using spells from different schools, so Dustin went through the Hydromancy tree and found a suitable spell.

[Spell: Ice Bloom]

Hydromancy

Attach a flower petal made from ice to the target. After three seconds, targets will take frost damage, increasing over time as the petal remains attached.

Use: 60 Mana. Maximum: 3 Petals.

Ice Bloom was used more for its controlling ability, freezing people in place. Dustin had seen the petals placed on people's necks, or on their hair. When it popped, their head would be frozen, stopping them from shouting, and making it hard to breathe.

For that reason, Dustin purchased one other spell, which was entirely used for dealing damage.

[Spell: Shadow Dagger]

Umbra

Create an ethereal dagger made from shadows. Wounds inflicted with this dagger silence the target for 0.5 seconds. Dagger will dissipate once thrown or dropped.

Use: 100 Mana.

Umbra was the primary school for shadow and chaos damage spells, which were popular among rogues and dark magicians. It was similar to Occultism, and very often the spells crossed over into the other school.

The mana cost was quite high, which was understandable as the ability wasn't meant to be used consecutively. The dagger had to be held at all times, practically making it more of a weapon then a spell.

It was undeniable that when weapons that provided a built in silence were found, the spell was basically useless as anything more than a backup. The cost was worth it as the silence effect, although short, was very important.

Any amount of silence was enough to interrupt channeled spells. Often the act of silencing someone was enough to confuse them for longer than 0.5 seconds, as they caught off guard by the silencing motion.

Dustin now had three schools to affect enemies, four if the healing orb exploded at the right time. It was already a 15% damage increase with just his current skill set.

A pair of boots had also entered Dustin's eyes, giving a nice chunk of movement speed, but the cost was too high.

[Swift Leather Boots]. 1,000 Dos.

15/15 Durability.

3.0 - 5.0% Physical Mitigation.

Boots made from the leather of an old wyvern. They feel airy and light, but sturdy enough to protect the feet.

Swift: Increases movement speed by 18%.

Setting aside his unparalleled hunger for upgrades, Dustin found his next target to follow. An old man was one of the names on his list of disappearances, and was easy to track down.

He used to be on the local council, organizing fundraisers and other sorts of things. Dustin easily managed to find him in the neighborhood just by asking around. He apparently left home early in the mornings, caught a bus into town, bought a newspaper and went over to the old community centre.

Dustin could already hazard a guess as to where the dungeon was. The community centre the old man visited had been abandoned due to safety hazards as a result of stricter regulations. There were plans to knock it down, but the old man had some sway on the council still, and didn't want to see it fall in his lifetime.

Dustin didn't even get to follow the man as worry was already circulating about his disappearance. The shopkeeper who had told Dustin his usual route hadn't seen him in a couple of days.

Dustin ran straight over to the old community centre, pushing aside the rusted gate easily. The hinges were well oiled, despite the rest of the gates appearance, probably from the old councilman who visited it so often.

There was a degraded children's playground just to the left of the entrance, and an old swing twisted with creaky sounds from side to side in the wind. If Dustin hadn't come here with a purpose he would have already run away. It was eerily similar to some scene from a horror film.

He was comforted by the fact that he didn't have to enter the building, as the dungeon began claiming the land around him, transporting him into a dark cave.

[Welcome to the Spirited Colony dungeon, uploading current information to mini map.]

Sure enough, the mini-map revealed Dustin was standing in the middle of a tunnel. Although it looked like there was space behind him, the mini-map indicated that area as out of bounds, meaning Dustin wouldn't be able to enter it.

The tunnel suddenly lit up as Dustin took a torch from his inventory, sparking a flame onto the oiled sticks at the top. He looked around, and noticed the horrible smell coming from up ahead.

"Shit." Dustin whispered to himself as he came closer to the source of the smell.

His worst fear was confirmed as an old man's corpse was bundled up against the wall. A couple of slimes were latched onto his lower limbs, slowly dissolving the skin, flesh, and after a long time, the bone.

Dustin smashed them against the tunnel wall effortlessly, and knelt down beside the old man. He was undeniably dead, from the cold colour of his lips, to the stiff limbs and lifeless eyes.

He could only mutter a quick apology to the man, if he had been earlier, perhaps he could have prevented the man's death. But for someone so old, they were probably going to die the moment the dungeons broke open, regardless of Dustin's intervention.

Dustin continued through the empty tunnel, which had a low ceiling despite its width. He could picture the different kinds of insects that would fit in the oddly shaped tunnels, any of them would be a nasty sight to see.

The tunnels were going deeper into the earth as Dustin had to slide down some of them, not possessing the natural advantage that insects had in climbing.

When he reached the point where slimes no longer wobbled along, he came to face the main enemies. They were floating balls of energy, varying in colour depending on where Dustin found himself. The purple balls of energy would shoot lightning out, and were completely unharmed when Dustin shot his own Storm Bolt at them.

The colours corresponded to an element, meaning they were Elemental Spirits. Dustin seemed to have spawned in between the territories of the lightning, and the earth elementals, which were fighting each other. He happened across multiple spirits throwing spells at each other, and he waited until they were running low on energy to strike.

Thankfully the Shadow Dagger did will in disposing them, as none of the elemental spirits were resistant to it. His staff and throwing knives both possessed lightning modifiers, making them less effective to the purple spirits.

The fight happened closer to the Earth domain, so Dustin headed in the opposite direction when stronger elementals appeared. The Lightning domain was easier to navigate as they didn't possess the natural advantage of being surrounded by earth. The attacks always came directly from within them, and were often inaccurate. Dustin had no trouble cleaning them up, until he came too close to the center, and a contingent of multi-coloured spirits emerged.

Rather than just purple, Dustin could see a larger white ball of energy, and a similar light blue coloured one behind it. They belonged to Air and Water respectively.

Since two of the three elements were not immune to lightning, Dustin had his stuff held in one hand, with the dagger in the other.

The healing orb floating just above Dustin was about to explode like the bell in a boxing fight, but as it healed him pointlessly, a flurry of spells did not come hurtling his way, but a pair of identical twins rushed out from behind the large air elemental.

"Don't hurt them!"

Dustin's eyes moved between the elementals, but the aggression he had felt from them was disappearing.

The twins were both girls, and they stood with arms out facing Dustin. He realized how awkward it was. They were trying to protect the elementals from him, not the other way around…

"Want to explain to me what's happening?"

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[Subdue the Elements (½)]

[A war between the dungeons elemental spirits has raged on since the creator of the tunnel system disappeared. The elements must agree to work together, or be subdued, to defend against the upcoming threat. The ant colony that created these tunnels have laid dormant, and the rampaging elements tainting their land have stirred them.]

[Air Elementals are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]

[Lightning Elementals are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]

[Water Elementals are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]

Dustin read the quest conditions under the watchful eyes of the elemental mini-bosses. If he declined the alliance, they would probably return to their aggressive state and attack him.

He didn't fancy his chances taking on three of the mini-bosses at once.

As he accepted the quest and all three alliances, the oversized light bulbs started floating away, with the twins following them. Dustin sighed and ran after them, checking the three auras that had been temporarily given to him.

Ally of Water: 15% increased Health Regeneration. +50 Mana shield.

Ally of Air: 15% increased movement speed. 5% increased attack speed.

Ally of Lightning: 15% increased Mana Regeneration. +5% increased cast speed.

Air was probably the most impressive buff, but the others couldn't be completely discounted. Dustin caught up with the group as he closed the display. The two twins completely disregarded his presence and followed the air elemental like loyal children.

"So uh, what now?"

Dustins mini-map was updated as the lightning elemental gestured towards him. It revealed the territories of the three elements he had allied with, and part of the areas they had launched attacks into.

The area Dustin was just in was in favor of the earth elementals, as the territory was smaller than its allies. The air elementals were sandwiched in between their allies, so they had not gained nor lost any land.

The water elementals were located right next to the fire elementals, so they were pushing far into their land as the battle favoured them. The three mini-bosses were patrolling the territories, but played no part in attacking.

Dustin realized very quickly that it was practically a stalemate. None of the elements would ever completely kill each other off, as the pioneers entering the dungeon would fulfill that role.

Dustin spared a glance at the twins before leaving, they would safer next to the air elemental than the would be with him.

The entire dungeon consisted of tunnels and caverns, which wound wildly around, but ultimately formed a doughnut shape, with blank space in the middle.

He relied on the map to cross back into the earth elementals territory. The easier task would probably have been to help the water elementals finish off the fire domain, but if lightning lost too much land the water forces would be pulled back. It was like a wave trapped in a pool, only able to move from side to side.

If Dustin defended against the earth elementals, water would overtake fire on their own. There was limited communication between Dustin and the spirits, but he managed to convey his plan to the alliance well enough.

Lightning gave him three elementals to aid his defense, and Air sent their forces to push with Water, rather than keep them in reserve to defend Lightning.

Three little orbs, each about the size of a basketball, floated beside Dustin and followed him around. He learnt that he could also command them to do simple tasks. Attack a certain spot, hold off on attacking a target, and retreat.

With his little kill squad in toe, Dustin set about dismantling the earthen offensive, which was difficult. Being underground negated the ability to rely on stealth for attacking, as the elementals could detect them approaching.

Dustin had taken from nasty bruises from rock pillars shooting out from the ground and nailing him. One particular elemental had broken his arm, which he had to cover with a regeneration salve.

He finished off another couple of brown lights when the notification finally came through.

[Fire has been subdued.]

Dustin sighed in relief, and looked up at the two emotionless spirits that were left. The missing spirit had been smashed into the wall, and splintered into thousands of pieces like a smashed up Christmas ornament.

The mini-map revealed the fire territory as it was now covered in the waters blue sheen, rather than the bright red colour. With one faction taken out, water was now bordering on Acid, which was an ugly green colour. The fight was basically a stalemate as neither side held an advantage over the other.

Dustin wiped the sweat from his forehead as he reassessed the board. The air elementals were about to continue their push north with the water elementals. Pure numbers would give them victory, but it would take even longer than subduing fire had.

Dustin didn't want to stuck killing earth elementals the whole time, the rate of killing, and reward, was… shit. Rather than focusing on the direct neighbours, Dustin looked at the minimap as a whole.

The terrain itself was hidden, but the elementals were aware of what colour corresponded to what section of the minimap, giving him the borders, but not the layout.

On the other side of Earth were the Ice elementals, which was as much of a stalemate as Acid vs Water. Next to Ice was Steam, which was a losing battle for Ice. The order than went Metal, Holy, Void, Shadow, and finally it looped back around to Acid.

Shadow and Void were allied with each other, as they had a joint defense effort against Holy, which was devastatingly effective against both of them. Acid was alone, and had been eating away at Fire from the other side.

There were no other alliances at the moment, but a non-aggression pact or two had been formed. Metal was not fighting Holy, and had committed its full forces to pushing Steam. It was a very slow push, despite the numbers, as Steam was effective at slowing down Metal, just not defeating it.

Meanwhile, Steam was also fighting an intense battle with Ice, but neither side had pushed against each other as of yet. Ice was practically in a stalemate on both sides, making it the only element besides Air to not make any progress on either side.

Dustin bit his lip, trying to pinpoint the best places to weaken. If he could put the elements against each other, and let them consume each other, it was better for his health. At the same time, he needed to isolate an element that was easy to kill, so he could reap the exp and Dos gains for himself.

The immediate issue was Earth. He needed them to back off from Lightning, which would free him up to fight across the board.

Ideally he wanted Acid to be fighting Earth, but they were on opposite sides of each other. If he could broker a non aggression pact with them, perhaps they might be able pass through the alliance and keep Earth busy.

Of course, this would only work if they believed Shadow were attacking them, forcing Acid to find refuge with another element.

Dustin chuckled, and created a shadow dagger in his free hand. The two lightning elementals escorting him looked at it curiously.

-----------

Dustin pretended like nothing was wrong as he watched the acid elementals begrudgingly float past to attack the Earth elementals.

He had provoked a war between Shadow and Acid by using the dagger to attack the latter, making them pull troops from the frontline against to water to retaliate against Shadow.

If Dustin left it as it was, Water would eventually take over Acid, but the cycle would continue again with him stuck literally between a rock and a hard place.

He convinced the alliance to broker a deal with Acid. We would defend them against Shadow, and they would defend us against Earth. The easiest way to do this, was to switch territories. Lightning and Acid literally switched places, putting water in the middle, rather than air.

The twins had been angry at Dustin for doing so, as now Air was next to Acid. Dustin just shrugged, Air vs Acid was preferable for them, and now Lightning was tearing a hole into Shadow.

Holy was winning easily against Void as Shadow was preoccupied defending itself. Dustin put air to the task of defending their western border in case Acid turned against them, whilst sending spare troops to support Lightning.

Void and Shadow collapsed under the pressure from both sides at the same time, leaving Holy as the newest neighbor.

As they were the only other element with two territories under control, Dustin denied the requests for peace, and let the four territories split between water and lightning deal with them.

Dustin wanted Earth gone quickly, so he used Ice Bloom to eliminate fringe spirits that patrolled between on Ice's border. It didn't take long before Earth struck back, and the stalemate that had formed between them was broken.

Unfortunately the stress on Ice from both Earth and Steams advances pushed it to the brink, and forced Dustin to intervene even further. Steam was pulled back from Ice to protect from Metal's 'counterattack'. Dustin smiled at the game-like board that was on his minimap. It was kind of fun, in a way.

[Earth has been subdued.]

Dustin sighed in relief as Acid took over Earth's territory. The board was beginning to look a little like a game of superpowers as three elements remained unallied and owning a single territory.

It only lasted an hour before the Void territory that Holy controlled was taken by Lightning, making Acid the next biggest target. Dustin hoped that the alliance system remained in place, and wasn't a giant mistake. Lightning controlled the largest land by far, and was the element that was resistant to his strongest offensive spell.

Dustin had water retreat from the northern part of the doughnut, pushing them, with air, into attacking Acid.

He didn't want any other elements holding two territories for long, as to keep them weak. Lightning was basically already out of control, and would have no trouble crushing the rest of their path.

Ice ended up allying with Acid to protect themselves, and it was Steam to fall next, giving way to Metal.

The board was setting itself up for the two alliances to battle, though it would be a quick victory for Dustin's side. Holy fell under lightnings gigantic force, only adding more momentum to the thunder train. Metal was forced into joining Ice and Acids alliance, but failed to stop the inevitable.

Once it was clear that they would win, Dustin helped the air elementals push against Acid. He suffered some ghastly wounds from the splashes of acid that melted his skin, but the smile never left his face as the satisfying sound of ugly green lights shattering echoed through the chamber.

He only had a single lightning spirit left, the other had caught a nasty torrent of acid, and disintegrated. Dustin was just thankful it wasn't him that took the brunt of the Acid mini-boss attack.

The remaining spirit, however, had grown on him. It seemed to remember his fighting pattern and complimented it, rather than waiting for orders. He no longer need to zap his own throwing knives, as the spirit did it automatically.

Eventually the remaining Acid mini-boss was felled under a storm of bolts. The other side of the room was filled with lightning elementals as they had pushed through to the other side, meeting Dustin at the border of what Ice used to own.

[Subdue the elements (½) complete!]

[Subdue the Ants (2/2) activated!]

As the elemental war has come to an end, the dormant denizens laying below had awoken, only to find their territory stolen. Descend through the ant colony, and eliminate the Queen Ant.

Dustin rest his staff against his shoulder and read the display. Two large elementals filed into the room behind him, and the twins followed just behind the white one.

"To the Ant Queen?"