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The money situation just didn't want to look up. I had less than three hundred left in my account. I hadn't had any interesting loot over the last few days—the beasties had mainly dropped pelts and alchemy ingredients. This was compensated by excellent experience, but it also meant I had to address my finances. Overall, we'd farmed about two hundred gold, but then we had to share it between the three of us which made the results less than impressive.

By the evening, I'd filled a hundred twenty vials with various potions. After some thought, I auctioned all the Minor Life elixirs, leaving only two for myself: a medium vial of life and the same of mana. Both healed you 100 points, not bad at all. I'd also added a few more exotic bottles to my collection, like True Vision, Invisibility Vial and Fear Potion. The latter duplicated a useful new spell I'd learned last night. A very clever bit of magic. It allowed you to frighten the target so much that it bolted away and kept running for ten to fifteen seconds, scared witless. The effect stopped once you dealt damage to the target. It was a competent use of control spells like these that decided a player's efficiency. Stuns, roots, blinds, fears—these were things that nearly always meant the difference between a victory and a defeat.

I put the remaining Talent points to good use, too. I raised the summoned creature's level, fine-tuned my buffs, Life Absorption and DoTs, then got myself a new poison-based one. I distributed the Characteristic points between Intellect and Spirit 3 to 1. That was it, no spare points left. As far as skills were concerned, I was all maxed out.

I spent the evening with Taali. We went for a walk around the city, stopping occasionally in a café or two. We listened to a nice band, followed by a performance from a truly talented singer. All of them were just other players enjoying themselves in the role of a minstrel. Later that night, two fire mages offered an impressive firework display in the city's main square. Altogether, it had been a great day.

The next morning I donned full combat gear and headed for the city gate hoping to buy myself a couple
 
of nice fat buffs. After some wait, a high-level cleric arrived and, sitting down on the parapet, posted his price list in the chat. I hurried to pay him for the most expensive hit buff he had: a four-hour +110 Life. He charged me twenty gold, the bastard, plus I needed a piece of malachite to make the spell work. At least he added the free gift of a +90 Armor buff. In total, counting the shield I'd gotten from Eric, good old me was worth over 2000 Life. Not easy to smoke; my Life Absorptions could give one bad indigestion. Finally, I ran across a Conjuror and got myself a 30-min mana regen bonus. Now I could go back to the cave.

The hermit studied me without saying a word. Finally, he nodded his approval and waved his hand in the air, removing the spell. The passage opened. I stepped in.

"Good luck," the weak voice croaked behind my back.

The door slammed shut. The bars clanged. It didn't look as if I'd be able to go back to reclaim my corpse. Either I'd walk out of here on my own two feet, or I'd be doomed to spend the rest of eternity on the graveyard bench with all the other disrobed losers.

A steep rough passage had been cut in the limestone. A set of two torches had been mounted on the wall every dozen feet or so, allowing me to see my way. I concentrated on their flames, triggering a pop-up:

Torches of True Flame. No stealth or invisibility spells can hide one from the light of Primary Fire.

Yeah, right. Apparently, AI wanted me to fight in the open. I couldn't just steal my way to the altar. The torches would make super artifacts. I tried to pull one off its mountings. As if. My inner greedy pig heaved a sigh of disappointment. Okay, time was money. The buffs weren't going to last forever.

I reached into a pocket where I'd stored the Soul Stones I'd so lovingly
 
selected last night. My private elite. One level 50 and two 49.

I recited the summoning spell. Alert and long-limbed, Plague Panther arose from the stone fragments. She'd been a pain to capture, using at least three skills to fight us.

When the dust had settled, I noticed a new message in the system chat.

Activation alert! Gnoll King's Breastplate has activated its magic effect! The summoned creature has preserved the Bleeding Wound ability giving 5% probability of delivering the attacked creature a blood wound and dealing 140 points damage over 10 sec.

Excellent. My heart missed a beat as I checked the panther's level—51. Now we were cooking. I switched to the alternate spell layout and buffed her up a bit. After a short regen stop, I summoned Hummungus who filled the narrow cave passage. All ready. Time to do it.

The passage led to an enormous hall, its fallen columns teeming with imps. Well, well, well. Zombies I'd expected. But these were hell monsters. Then again, who said it was going to be easy?

The imps—the same level as the panther—whizzed across the room. You needed good spatial thinking if you wanted to pull only one mob and not a dozen out of the air packed with monsters. I watched them for a while before casting a DoT with a snare over one of them. The imp dived to the floor and hedgehopped to me. The panther intercepted him halfway, then Hummungus joined in. I waited a few seconds before casting a couple more DoTs. Then I got closer, exposing myself to his hits, redirecting some of the damage to myself. I shouldn't have any regen problems; plus it was time I started using the shield's effects to help absorb the indecent amount of hits. No need to get my pets exposed if I was entitled to 500 damage off each pull.

The melee lasted another minute. Finally, the imp shrieked and collapsed. One done, a thousand to go.

I did a quick status check. Mana loss 20%, Health on full, the panther down 30%, Teddy fit as a fiddle. Not bad. Looked like I could manage two mobs, if necessary. Immediately I reminded myself not to get too greedy. Wouldn't be a good idea to attempt a fresh monster with mana under 50%. Better safe than sorry: the dungeon was a one-off thing.

I looted the imp's corpse. Holy cow. I could use a couple of those. Seven silver and a Soul Stone. My inner greedy pig was drooling over himself as he estimated the number of monsters, multiplied it by seven and calculated the difficulty factor equation. Myself, I was more than happy with the Soul Stone, a great replacement to the one I'd just used.

As I later found out, hell creatures' souls were quite loose in their bodies, dropping Soul Stones twice as often. Still, at first I didn't know what to think about their abundance.

The first hall had taken me almost thirty minutes. The mobs were too difficult for solo pulling. At least they didn't respawn. Once I mopped up the room, I walked around the perimeter creating a map and checking the room for any buried treasures. Herbal skill kept clicking as I picked some mushrooms and a handful of glowing moss and transferred them to my bag.

And what would that be? A clay-sealed niche glittered silver in the corner. I slammed it with a gauntleted fist. The clay cracked, letting silver coins trickle onto the floor.

Congratulations! You've discovered a treasure!

Your Piercing Vision ability has improved! Current level: 1

This is a passive ability that demands no activation or training. You should spend some time visiting the locations abandoned by humans and searching for hidden treasures.

Great timing. I scooped up the silver. Thirty coins felt heavy in my purse. Off we go, then!

Two and a half hours later, I was sitting next to a long passage. At its other end stood the floor boss. My shield and
 
staff lay on the dusty floor next to me. I lowered my eyelids to keep an eye on the monster while I enjoyed the cold beer and sandwiches, courtesy of the Three Little Pigs' chef. The floor hadn't cost me much blood. I'd done my best to spare Teddy and the panther which even managed to steal the fire imp's Ignition ability.

Then the Lich skill got activated, adding more smoldering corpses to the dungeon's interior. In all honesty, I hadn't been sure if accepting it was the right thing to do. By now, I'd done 1.5 levels as opposed to Teddy's two. And still I was angry. I stroked my precious pocket with a level 52 stone, the one which now held the soul of a Succubus. My heart craved revenge. The hellish thing had kept casting Magic Nullifier, stripping both me and the panther of our precious buffs. I'd really had to watch my back for the last hour of combat. I was so upset I even improved the Bone Shield to absorb 130 points damage. Not much—a hit or two max—but it's that couple of hits that very often makes the difference between life and death. Also, I liked this kind of buffer, enabling me to receive part of the damage in exchange for some mana I could use on shield regen.

There was another good thing about it. While I tried to use magic under the mobs' pressure, I inadvertently improved the passive concentration skill. It allowed me to resume a spell broken off by a hit without losing concentration: no need to start casting it all over again. Which was when I discovered another mega bonus my leveling pattern offered. Pure mages didn't really get a chance to level this particular skill. They simply couldn't be exposed to hits: it was a sign of certain death for them. That's why any hand-to-hand fighter who got close enough could make mincemeat out of a mage before the latter could finish the spell. Which was exactly why mages had so many control spells to keep their distance in battle.

As for me, I could have afforded to tank, all the while leveling up that truly life-saving skill. Looking into the future, I could see an amazing top character: an impervious caster armored to his ears, with an equally impervious concentration. Love it.

I turned my attention to the floor boss. She was beautiful in the Lilim way, a cross between a demon and a human, a whip in each hand. What I didn't like was her level. 55. In theory, it had to be the ceiling for this particular dungeon. Who would the next floor boss be, then? And could anyone tell me how many more floors I was yet to do?

The boss was alone. Without much thinking, I sent the panther to meet her: I was too wary of some vicious ability in the vein of the Gnoll King's daily Deadly Touch to attack her myself.

Whips cracked. The panther's blood and tufts of hair flew everywhere. I cast a bunch of DoTs and sent Teddy toward her. But Lilim was full of surprises. She uttered a short songlike spell, and the bear swayed in a trance. For combat purposes, he was now little less than useless.

Enchantment! Hummungus has fallen for Lilim's charms! He is temporarily unable to control himself and follow your orders!

You Succubus bitch. I stepped in, redirecting some of the damage to myself as I tried to draw out the fight, allowing Teddy and the DoTs enough time to work. I pulled out at 60%, renewed the spells and gave the bear a quick heal. Teddy came round and was about to jump into action when he froze again like a tit in a trance. Oh—I just hoped I had enough mana left. That's the triumph of intellect for you: I took a swig of hits/mana elixir, my second one in that fight, renewed the shield and stepped back in. Rinse and repeat.

Bang!
 
Lilim collapsed. The dungeon's walls shuddered, its ceiling crumbling, sand flying everywhere. The torches flared up twice as bright. The floor was cleansed.

Only then did I notice a short pedestal and a tiny stone on it, glinting black. I picked it up.

Tiny Fragment of the Dark Altar

Item class: Rare

Suitable for improving other items

Requires level 50

Effect 1: 10% bonus to all Dark spells (Blood, Death, Hatred, Shamanism, etc.)

Effect
 
2: 10% resistance to all spells of Light

Aha. This wasn't the quest object yet, but a hefty freebie nevertheless. I crouched over Lilim's body. Ten gold coins clinked. My hand grabbed the whip.

Whip of Constraint

Item class: Rare

Weapon type: one-handed

Damage 31-48, Speed 2.1, Durability 180\180

Effect: Gives 9% chance of getting control over the victim and paralyzing it for 1.5 sec

That was It. A stun puncher on speed. Bug would absolutely love it. But I had to agree with my inner greedy pig in that we couldn't afford giving freebies just at the moment. Most likely, I'd have to auction it.

After a quick regen, we walked down the stairs to the second floor. Same stones. Same glowing torches cast shadows on the sooty ceiling.

In the very first hall I walked into a huge slug, its insides bulging under the translucent skin. A loathsome creature, too big for a monster. I really, really didn't like it. But I had no choice. There was no way I could bypass it. Banzai!

Teddy made a dart for it, his teeth sinking into the soft flesh. The creature squealed. My mana bar shrank.

Warning! The slug has used Mana Absorption skill to strip you of some of your mana!

I knew it. I knew it couldn't be as easy as it looked. I had to smoke the bastard quickly before it drained me dry. I reached for more elixirs.

But the monster was full of sick surprises. With every 10% Life lost, it produced two level 40 maggots. Every thirty seconds it emitted a blood-curdling squeak. I had to send my pets to fight the maggots while I had to cast Life Absorption over the slug double quick. That was the only way I could deal some fast-working damage.

That had been close. But at least now that we knew the monster's tactics, we could come up with some quality countermeasures.

Er... had I just done 47? I hadn't even noticed which particular pair of maggots had earned me a new level. Having said that, Hummungus didn't seem to have risen in level for a while. I opened the menu. WTF? The pet's level had frozen at 23. His experience bar was maxed out. Why wasn't he growing? I opened the Wiki. After two minutes' search, it became abundantly clear. A combat mount's level couldn't exceed half of that of the player. Shame. Still, it made sense. The comments advised not to get too hung up on numbers. The most important thing was that a combat-leveled mount could pull the aggro from a pet onto himself. So his level didn't really matter as long as it worked well in the end result. True, where would I have been without my Teddy? I wouldn't have even smoked the first dungeon boss, that's for sure.