"This is where we store our items."
Jing Yuan introduced the building after guiding the group to the storage unit. The storage was behind the large building in the center, a warehouse just half the size of the main building.
"Is there anything useful inside?" Arcum asked, turning to Jing Yuan. "Armor, blocks, ores?"
Jing Yuan gave a small shake of the head. "I do not know. However, you're free to take a look."
Arcum walked into the storage alone as Jing Yuan opened the door for him.
Taking a look around, there were chests lined up in a packed manner, allowing for maximum storage in a constrained area.
Signs hung off the chests, words labeled on them to let others know what was inside each chest. An ominous banner hung off one of the wooden pillars inside.
Some chests said blocks, others had building materials, food, among other things.
"There are some ores," Arcum noted, already scavenging through the ores chest. "But not a lot. Maybe mining is hard, given the mobs?"
Arcum recalled his own mining trip, and how things could have gone south if not for Mydei. It was a wonder how the goons that jumped them had full iron armor and tools.
Closing the ores chest, Arcum made his way over to the blocks chest and grabbed as many miscellaneous blocks as he could.
His eye spotted a 'valuables' chest, walking over and opening it up.
Inside, there weren't many things. However, to Arcum's appreciation, there was an ominous bottle inside.
"So that's probably where they got the banner," Arcum thought. "Killed a raider captain, huh."
"I'm done," Arcum announced as he stepped back out of the storage. "I don't know about the others."
"Ready," Hysilens said.
Lingsha nodded, letting Arcum know that she was also ready.
"Very much so!" Stelle said. "Let's make this quick."
"Very well," Jing Yuan said. "If you keep following this path, you should see the mines that they've created. It should lead straight into the chambers."
"It's just underneath this base, you said?" Arcum asked.
"That is what I've been told, yes," Jing Yuan replied.
"You do know how to use the chat function, right? If you do, then make sure to use it to communicate with us if things happen up here, and we'll do the same."
"Of course," Jing Yuan replied. "I'll keep that in mind."
The group, once finished saying their goodbyes, followed the path that they were directed towards into the mines.
"They even put staircases," Arcum analyzed as they walked down on cobblestone stairs. Torches aligned the walls, letting the group see as they went deeper down. "Fancy."
"So," Lingsha verbalized, her eyes looking deeper down into the mines. "What plan did you create, exactly?"
"Hm," Arcum replied. "Beat them up on the first wave when they spawn. Once we clear that, set up a small farming area in the downtime we have."
"There's no strategy? No plan?" Lingsha questioned her face turning sightly more concerned. "You did see the injured inside that clinic, yes?"
"That's our plan," Arcum said pointing to Hysilens and Stelle. "Attack."
The sound of wind blowing started to pick up as the group finally reached the bottom of the staircase, the familiar look of copper blocks on the walls.
"I suppose breezes already spawned," Arcum noted. "Along with other mobs, I assume."
"It makes sense," Arcum rationalized in his head. "If they can't clear, it'd be weird if the mobs weren't still here."
The groans of zombies, the rattle of skeletons, and the sound of wind blowing were all heard before the group even entered the chambers.
"Alright, here's a plan now," Arcum announced, taking Lingsha's concern into account. "Hysilens, you can deal with the ranged skeletons. Stelle and I will deal with the breezes and zombies. Lingsha, you can heal us if we need it."
Peeking through the blocks that led to the chambers, Arcum could see multiple floors.
The spawners on each floor were already lit, signifying that they were already active.
Skeletons lined the top floor, looking around as if they were stationed to be scouts. Zombies and breezes roamed the middle and bottom floors, scouting for any other people.
"Well, this stinks."
"Ready set go?" Arcum asked, turning to look at the group.
"Go? Okay!" Stelle said, bursting out of the mines and into the chambers.
"Uh," Arcum started before getting cut off by Hysilens, who followed suit, leaping into the chambers to support Stelle. "..."
"You seem to be a... very good leader," Lingsha said, sarcasm clearly present in her tone.
"Thanks."
Arcum leapt into the Trial Chambers, landing safely on the bottom floor.
"Wait, how are they..?"
Stelle had already climbed to the middle floor, bashing zombies in with her bat and sending them flying off the floor.
Hysilens, who was just on the bottom floor with Arcum, was climbing the copper walls using the small textures and details engraved on the blocks, managing to jump to the top floor where the skeletons were.
"You can do that?" Arcum had to ask himself. "I mean... I guess?"
Blocks weren't just textures anymore, he had to remind himself. If you were skilled enough, you could just climb vertically, clearly.
Woosh!
Wind blew past Arcum as a breeze leapt behind him from the middle floor, shooting a wind charge at him.
Arcum moved to the side swiftly, dodging the wind charge that exploded on the pillar behind him.
The force of the wind blew Arcum forward, crashing his head onto the copper floor.
"Ow!"
Pushing himself up off the floor, Arcum pulled out his iron sword, swinging at the breeze, who leapt out of the way and onto a ladder.
"Now I'm seeing why they couldn't clear this."
Arcum raised his shield as arrows rained down from above.
Woosh!
Arcum was suddenly launched backwards by a wind charge, sending himself and his shield flying in different directions.
Bang!
Arcum's head started to hurt as his head slammed against the copper blocks of the chamber. His sword lay beside him on the ground.
A brilliant flash of orange blared out from the top floor, before embers started to flare out, some of them reaching the bottom floor.
"Out of my way!" Stelle shouted. "I'll tear through you all!"
Looking up at the second floor with unclear eyes, Arcum could see Stelle. Instead of hold her bat, which he had seen her wield for the past few days, she was holding what seemed to be a flaming lance.
She shot forward in a lunge, fire outlining her charge forward, sending some zombies and breezes flying off the floor.
A red mist started to flow in front of Arcum's eyes, his head starting to clear.
"That smells good," Arcum hazily thought, before snapping back to reality. "Tch. This pisses me off."
Following the trail of red, he spotted Lingsha. She was holding a staff, that was also an incense burner.
"So that's what that mist is... healing incense? Interesting," Arcum thought.
"I owe you one," he called out, grabbing his sword and running forward toward the breeze who was still sitting on the ladder.
The breeze, noticing his approach, leapt away behind a few zombies as they turned their blocky heads to look at Arcum.
They charged at him, arms outstretched as they ran down path.
Pulling out blocks, Arcum placed them at head height, effectively blocking off the zombies as they charged him.
Dropping to his stomach, Arcum used his sword to slash the zombies' feet from the one-block gap between the blocks he placed and the floor.
The zombies fell down, immobile and unable to move.
Leaving them for now, Arcum ran around the pillar of oxidized copper and wooden barricade to reach the breeze.
Swinging his sword, Arcum managed to hit the breeze once as it leapt away to a safer location.
"This thing is actually... so annoying," Arcum said, gritting his teeth in annoyance and anger. "I'll be so happy once I trap you all in a BOX!"
Turning around, Arcum quickly finished the zombies that were still on the floor, picking them up and placing them into his inventory.
"You need to slow down," Lingsha said as she got closer. "I can't heal fast, especially when you're so far."
"Your healing is great," Arcum replied, looking around for his launched shield. "Don't be so modest."
"Ah, modesty will not decrease my workload. Fear not, I am not putting myself down," Lingsha quipped back as she pointed out Arcum's shield on the floor.
With a nod, Arcum picked up his shield and put it into his inventory instead of his other hand.
"New idea," Arcum thought, charging the breeze again.
The breeze shot yet another wind charge at Arcum as he dashed forward.
Taking to his idea, Arcum pulled out one of the zombies from his inventory, using both hands and throwing it towards the wind charge.
Woosh!
The zombie corpse hit the wind charge, sending it flying at an incomprehensible speed backwards into the area they first entered the chambers.
"Ay, it worked!"
Arcum continued his advances to the breeze, leaping onto it and holding it in place.
The breeze, trying to escape, leaped away, dragging Arcum along with it.
Landing on the floor with a crunch, Arcum's back started to hurt—but unrelenting, he pulled his sword out and pierced the breeze, killing it.
"... breezes are annoying in-game, and in reality... but I do want this breeze rod."
Arcum had no time to loot the breeze for its rod at the moment. Thinking of a solution, he grabbed the breeze and shoved it into his inventory for later.
"I really do love this new feature."
The sound of mobs dropping from the top floors drew Arcum's attention back up above. Hysilens was in the middle of throwing each and every skeleton from the top floor to the bottom, effectively killing them with fall damage.
Stelle was doing decent, running back and forth on the middle floor with her lance, throwing any mob that got near her off with enough knockback to immobilize and stop them.
Zombies and skeletons that spawned on the first floor had turned to face Arcum, slowly locking onto him.
"Over here!" Stelle called out, a flash of orange beaming through the copper grates of the chambers, hitting the top and bottom floors with its light. "Focus me."
Most of the zombies and skeletons that previously were locked onto Arcum had their attention drawn to Stelle instead.
Even the skeletons that were firing arrows at Hysilens stopped what they were doing, focusing on Stelle instead.
"A taunt?" Arcum thought, seeing the blinding light and the actions that Stelle was taking. "Well, that's useful."
"Watch yourself," Lingsha called out as she stood back, away from the fighting. "Some of them don't seem to be distracted."
As she had called out, some zombies and skeletons were unaffected by Stelle's taunting.
"Well, it's called a Trial Chamber for a reason," Arcum explained. "It wouldn't be a trial without hardship, yes?"
Arcum charged the zombies with reckless abandon, swinging his sword at the zombies as he rose his shield to block arrows shot at him.
Every break Arcum got from the arrows, he would quickly place cobblestone in front of the zombies to halt their approach to ensure he could kill them without trouble.
Arrows continued to whizz past his head, narrowly avoiding them as he moved around sporadically, trying to ensure that he wasn't hit by any arrow while dealing with zombies.
Tink!
Arcum's eyebrow raised as an arrow, that was aimed at his left thigh, deflected off of a barrier that manifested and disappeared as soon as it came.
"A barrier? Shield?" Arcum questioned. "That's not me."
"Is that you?" Arcum asked, turning to Lingsha after placing blocks to give himself an intermission from the storm of arrows. "The shield-barrier thing?"
"I'm afraid all I can do is just heal," Lingsha replied.
"You have to give me some credit," Stelle called from up above. "That's all me buddy!"
"Oh, gee," Arcum responded. "If you had this ability in your back pocket, you could have used that on the first night!"
"Beggars can't be choosers!" Stelle shouted back cheerfully, finally finishing the last zombie on her floor.
"Your floor isn't cleared," Hysilens called out from above, looking down at Arcum's floor. "You've gotten sloppier. Slower, even."
"I was never fast to begin with..." Arcum sighed out. "Just switch with me if you're done. You two clear this floor, and I'll go ahead and make it farmable on the top floors."
"Alright," Hysilens replied as she leapt down from the top floor, using her hand to slow the fall as she slid down the wall.
Stelle leapt down from the middle floor into the fountain that was on the first floor, coming out of the water, lance still in hand.
"We'll clear this in 30 seconds flat!"
"Yes, you do that," Arcum cheered with zero cheer. "I'm going to go up now."
Dragging himself away from his cobblestone wall and away from the skeletons, Arcum grabbed onto a ladder and started to climb his way up to the middle floor.
"I really need a mace if I want to be strong..."