Max woke up not really looking forward to the day ahead of him. He wasn't exactly keen on the idea with fighting his way to the Ant territory, especially if he didn't know what was going to happen when he got there.
"Do I really want to go forward with this?" He asked the air. The man let out a sigh of exasperation. The simplest answer was no, he really didn't want to tangle with a bunch of ants, nor did he want to get there without any healing abilities left. But Max knew, from playing hours and multiple tables of D&D, that he would die down here eventually by himself.
If he didn't have anybody to back him up, then he would die in the more dangerous parts of the dungeon for sure. That was a certainty in his mind. No matter how strong he got, without decent armor and weapons with amazing enchantments, there was absolutely no way in the world that he was going to make it down here.
And knowing him, he already wanted to beat the thing. That was the most dangerous part of it. The adventurer in him, the part that had already bested encounter after encounter in his mind, it wanted to explore. It wanted to gain levels down here and complete the dungeon. Maybe he could make it. He'd become the best [Warrior], or if he had his way, [Swashbuckler] in the entire world, and glory and power would go to him.
And that was the part of his brain that he told to shut up, because it had gotten three of his characters dead over the course of his time playing D&D. If he really wanted to best this dungeon, then he would need help. He wasn't always going to get lucky, the further down into the dungeon he went, the more likely he was to run into traps.
It was a miracle in itself that the first trap he had run into was the Gargoyle room, and that had already been mostly cleared before he had gotten there. Perhaps this floor had already been explored by those who came before him, and they had gotten rid of a majority of the traps. That made sense. But it also made sense that the further down he went, the more likely he was to die to something that he couldn't see.
He'd need a [Rogue] or something to handle the traps. That was first on his list. Then, he'd need a [Wizard] or someone capable of blasting shit apart. Finally, a [Cleric], or some sort of magical healer. That would be sufficient. He'd take the role of Fighter, although if he could find another front liner while he was at it, he wouldn't say no. Especially not to a [Paladin] or [Barbarian]. That would be super cool.
But the real question was how he'd be able to convince them to join him on this quest. Glory-seekers would just jump into trouble, and might get him in trouble. But by the same token, people who thought about things too hard would be incredibly hard to convince to join him. At least a wizard or witch of some sort could be bribed with the spellbook, especially if he just handed it over to them.
So the answer was this; he didn't want to leave the dungeon, but he needed to if he wanted to live.
And with that conclusion, he prepared for his journey. Luckily, all of his good fit in the bag of holding. It was incredibly handy that he had found it so early into his journey, without it he probably would have died lugging all his shit to and from places in the dungeon. He'd have to drop everything every time a monster came and attacked him.
Not very efficient. But having this bag was efficient. So he kept it tied to his belt. That way, if he needed anything from it, he'd have it ready in a matter of seconds.
He attached his rapier to his belt, and made sure that his bowie knife was snug on his other side. Once he was certain that he was properly equipped, he took a look around the area that he had been staying in one last time.
A fountain sat, it's sparkling water flowing freely from it. A couple of broken pieces of furniture sat in one corner, along with Max's chair that he slept in. He still had a small crick in his neck from sleeping in it for the past couple of days, but he'd been happy to have something rather than just the floor.
A makeshift fire pit sat in the corner, and Max saw the remnants of last night's fire in the form of charcoal. If anybody else came by while he was gone, hopefully they'd see the signs of living and know that the water was safe to drink from.
A small chest sat off to the side, empty of it's belongings. That was where he had gotten his bag of holding from. It was plain wood, but it was important to Max, since it represented the first treasure that he had gotten down here.
And so, with a weary nod of his head, he departed his camp. He would return one day, with a group of people ready to take on the dungeon. Until then, he'd leave it alone. It would serve as a place of protection, just in case anybody else managed to make their way into the dungeon.
As the thought flitted through his head, he was struck by another; what if someone else from his world appeared in this dungeon while he was gone? They'd have no way to defend themselves.
It was with this harrowing thought that gave Max pause. If someone else stumbled in from his world, then they were in for danger. He rushed back to his camp, and took his bowie knife off of his leg, and left it on the edge of the fountain. He also laid his rusted broadsword against the wall. Just in case.
And with that, Max actually took off, not looking back once.
Max had traversed this maze three times now; once on his first way through, and twice when he had gone to get the sewing supplies and when he had gotten the rapier. He still had to figure out what this thing was made out of. Adamantium? Mithral? He wasn't certain, but he had a feeling it was one of the two, that is assuming that either existed in this world.
He was making good progress through the maze when he walked right into a group of undead. Ok, maybe he didn't exactly walk into them, but he stumbled upon them and they noticed him instantly.
He pulled his sword out, and got ready to fight. Max wasn't certain which of these were more dangerous to him. He was pretty sure that normal damage didn't always kill zombies, but that could just be in D&D.
On the other hand, the skeletons from the day before had barely been able to hit him. But that had been with him parrying attacks and getting ripostes off. He was pretty sure that he'd be in this fight for significantly longer.
He wasn't going to let the undead get the first hit in, however. That would be stupid. So he rushed them, and jumped over the first slash that came for him, clearing the skeleton and stabbed at one of the ones in the back, who was wielding a short bow.
From memory, undead with ranged weapons were so much more of a hassle than undead with melee weapons. You couldn't parry ranged attacks, or at least you can't in Pathfinder. And Max wasn't about to take any chances.
He must have been a total badass in his past life, or rolled two nat 20's in a row, because he utter eviscerated the bow wielding skeleton with that one strike. What an absolute confidence booster! He saw a swing coming at him from one of the zombies, who were wielding swords, and parried it with easy, before riposting and stabbing the zombie right through the head.
It was unfortunate that he was using a rapier and not some slashing weapon, as cutting the head off the zombie might have been more effective, but he could tell that he had done some damage to the undead creature.
Three more sloppy attacks came for him, but they were uncoordinated, and Max was easily able to evade them. What a pitiable group of undead! Max was able to sneak in another attack on the skeleton closest to him, but was saddened by the fact that he didn't destroy this one in one hit too. He was, however, able to destroy the shoulder of the skeleton, meaning that it had to stop and pick up its weapon with its other hand before it could attack him again.
He was so caught up in this, that he failed to dodge all three attacks from the other undead. Luckily, he was only hit once, but his pride was hit too. He had been certain that he'd be able to parry if he was sure that he wasn't able to dodge in time.
He pulled himself together. He needed to be more wary. The zombie that had hit him had left a nasty gash on his left upper arm. It didn't really affect him that much, but it was bleeding a little nonetheless.
He'd have to resolve this quickly. He struck out at the skeleton that he had just hit, dealing a nasty blow to it's head, but still it stood. The skeleton managed to cut him a little bit as he hit it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the hit from the zombie earlier. He watched the attacks coming from the others, and made to parry one of them.
He wasn't exactly successful, but he managed to parry it without taking the hit. Unluckily, he had missed his riposte attempt in dodging the other attacks. His swordplay would need some work.
He hit the skeleton that he'd been working on, and this time he took it down without a problem. That left two zombies and a single skeleton. He had already stabbed one of the zombies earlier, but it appeared as though it hadn't been affected much by the wound.
The zombie in question made to attack him, and he knew by the arc of the blade that he didn't have time to dodge it. His hand rose instinctively, and somehow he managed to parry the attack. How had he done that?
He didn't have time to wonder, and pressed the momentary advantage. He cut at the zombie, and then proceeded to dodge the attacks from the other undead.
This zombie was beginning to take a beating from him, but he could tell that it was still hitting hard. Maybe he should just go for the last skeleton before focusing on the zombies. With that thought in mind, he took careful aim, and swung hard at the skeleton in question. His sword cut through the skeleton like butter, and he remembered that his weapon was capable of piercing rock, of course it would be effective against bone!
Max dodged out of the way of the zombies' attacks, before turning in time to parry the attack coming from the skeleton. He cut at it again, this time barely striking it. Maybe precise stabs were better than reckless swinging, especially when using a rapier.
He focused on his target again, before piercing the skeleton straight through the chest, breaking it's body to pieces. Three skeletons down, two zombies to go.
The more damaged zombie swung at him, and he didn't even bother with a parry as he dodged the attack and drove his weapon right through the creature's neck, severing the spine, and the undead creature dropped to the ground in a lump of rotten flesh.
The final zombie didn't have an easier time of striking at him, and missed him entirely. Max took the moment to attack the creature, striking it in the legs. Now hobbling, it made to attack him, and missed entirely. Max cut at the zombie's face, before taking a risk and striking at it one last time.
Time slowed down for Max for a moment as he cut through the creature's chest, starting at the hip and dragging his sword all the way up through the chest to the other side of the neck.
With the creature cut in two, it was no longer able to sustain itself, and Max looked at the sight in front of him.
If he had encountered this group of monsters on his first time through the maze, he was certain that he would be dead. But with the power of a clearly well made rapier, and being a level 8 [Warrior], he had taken those things down like they were nothing. And he had only gotten hit twice!
Max took a moment to get out the camelbak and heal his wounds before continuing. He had a long trek ahead of him.
He set out through the rest of the maze, and after a little bit, made his way back to the first room that he had slept in. Even though it had just been a couple of days ago that he had first entered into this world, it felt like forever ago that Max had killed his first monster here.
He shook his head and made to continue, before grabbing one of the cloaks that wasn't so moth eaten. Just in case the land above was in winter, you know? Max didn't want to be walking around in a bunch of snow wearing just a t-shirt and pants.
He actually left the room this time, and wandered to where he had first entered this world. The beat up and dejected wooden door sat at the end of the tunnel, and Max gave it a thumbs down before he continued. He had really been hoping to play that new Fire Emblem game, but now it was more likely than not that he'd never get the chance. Oh well, if he was going to get stuck in this world, he was going to make the most of it.
Max wandered into the Idex room, and looked at the remains of the smashed eggs and destroyed Idex that he had taken out. Sweet memories here. This was where he had picked up his rapier, and what a beauty it was. He took a moment to appreciate it, before steeling himself for the rest of the journey.
There would be no going back once he walked into Ant territory, and even though it was still another hour of exploring away from him by the look of the map, he was still committing himself to leaving the dungeon one way or another by continuing through the other side of this room.
By death or life. He'd leave the dungeon dead or alive, and wasn't that always the case? He'd thought that he would die down here when he'd first arrived. He'd seen monsters attack one another, and he'd taken down the Leonir looking for a water source.
Speaking of water sources, Max finally realized that he would have to make it past the Hydra if he wanted to head into Ant territory. What a welcome sign that must have been for the Ants, to have to deal with a Hydra upon first entering the dungeon. Hopefully Max could sneak by it, since he was completely positive that he wouldn't be able to take down a fully grown hydra at his current level. Hell, he probably should have tried to reach level 15 [Warrior] before he had come this way.
But it was too late to back down now. He'd just have to try really hard to sneak past it, and hope it was sleeping or something.
He stepped out of the lair of the Idex, and made his way towards the underground lake. On the way, he got bit by a giant rat, but managed to take it down without any other problems. He also encountered another two skeletons, but they were just as easy to defeat as the ones from earlier, and he didn't take any damage due to his parrying and dodging ability. He was getting a little better at this whole parrying thing, and his arms weren't as sore as yesterday after the effort of parrying so much. Still, he shouldn't strain himself too much, and promised to himself that he'd only parry as much as needed to not take hits, rather than just to practice it.
His journey was coming close to its end. He entered into an underground cavern that had a ceiling so high that he couldn't even see it through the darkness. What he could see, however, was a sleeping hydra along the beach of the lake, sleeping directly between him and the other cavern entrance, the way towards the Ants.
What was the most heartbreaking, however, wasn't the fact that the beast lay between him and the way out of the cave. What really stung was the fact that while the beast clearly slept, one of the heads remained up and swivelled about, clearly making sure that nothing snuck up on it while it was resting. The hydra had five heads, four of which were definitely snoozing. But that last head…
Max couldn't sneak by that beast. Not while that head was awake. What were his options? He could try and fight the beast. CR 8 by D&D standards, which meant that even with a party of 4, he'd be stupid to even try and take it down before level 25 to 30. That could be arranged. But not here and now. He'd need to be level 40 just to fight it by himself and make it out alive. He was level 8. Level 12 if you counted the [Survivor] levels, which Max sure didn't.
So that meant that his only other option was to try and swim around it. Max knew that hydras were water based creatures. So the lake was probably it's domain; there likely wasn't anything in the water that could kill him, as the hydra would have taken down anything that opposed it.
That was the safer option. But not by much. The beast would surely notice the ripples on the water's surface and would come to investigate. Then he'd die.
There really wasn't an option to him. He'd just have to risk swimming. His only other option would be to wait for the hydra to wake up and hope that he could make a run for the other side of the cave while it hunted for food below to the surface of the lake. But who knew how long that would take, and Max really didn't want to risk waiting here for too long, that gave the hydra a better chance of spotting him.
He took a stop towards the water. He'd have to make this quick. Max walked into the lake, and mentally prepared himself for his ankles to touch freezing cold water. But it didn't quite happen like that. Instead, a small flash of blue light came from his right hand, and the water around Max's sneakers solidified, giving him traction atop the water's surface.
"What the fuck?" Max hissed out, before realizing what had happened. "A ring of water walking? Holy shit! This thing has got to be worth a fortune."
He snapped his head towards where the hydra lay, and it still didn't seem to see him. He was lucky, but now he'd be quiet. He snuck onto the lake, watching as the water seemed to carry him above with not even a ripple to show that he had been there. He was so fucking lucky that the ring that he had found on his second day here was one of water walking. He took his time, and twice he had to still to make sure that the hydra wasn't looking at him, but he successfully walked a perimeter around the hydra without it spotting him, and after a half an hour, he was on the other side of the beach.
What a stressful time, all to be circumvented by luck! He wished that he had known what he had beforehand, planning this all out would have been a hell of a lot easier. But now he knew what he had, and a ring of water walking was beyond worth. Well, in D&D, it was worth like 15k gold, but now this ring was worth his life, and there was a snowball's chance in hell that he was selling it unless he absolutely needed to.
He took one last look at the sleeping hydra and gave it a salute, before continuing into the dungeon. He soon came to the spot that his map had said was the entrance to the Ant territory, and came to a full stop at the sight ahead of him.
Not twenty paces ahead, laying strewn about like broken dolls, lay the utterly destroyed bodies of what must have been hundreds of giant ants.