Chapter 229: Heading Up

  Compared to the previous attempts, the third floor of this tower dungeon proved itself to be a lot easier this time around, though that was to be expected, as Zach had come prepared: very prepared.

  Including himself, he’d brought along a force of ten, consisting of six Legion Portal Guardians, three Vixen Portal Commanders, and his war-mount. Together, their combined strength was far more than enough to deal with the three Legion Portal Guardians, two Vixen Portal Commanders, and the two bald, human, and staff-wielding healer mobs that awaited in the encounter area, blocking off the sealed entrance that led up to the fourth floor.

  Aside from a little hiccup, things proceeded very smoothly, but the one minor mistake he did end up making was something that served as an important realization to Zach, and it was better that he become cognizant of it now rather than later at a potentially worse time. To be specific, it was here that Zach realized he could not always rely on his cards to behave in ways that were logical or made sense when it came to what attack they used.

  His plan had been simple enough. With two of the Vixen Portal Commanders under his control and the third under the control of Landy, they would use the ice-encasing attack to temporarily subdue the two healers and the two enemy Vixen Portal Commanders, removing them from the fight, and from there, they would have their entire force very quickly burn down the three level-60 Orcish elites. Once those were either dead or captured, they could then quickly deal with the rest.

  But what Zach hadn’t counted on was that his red-haired Vixen Portal Commanders weren’t guaranteed to open with their crowd-control, ice-based spell. Even though it made sense, and even though there was no reason for them not to do so, only one of them had actually used it. The other one had charged directly at a hostile Vixen Portal Commander and instead found itself on the receiving end of that very same spell, taken out of the fight for fifteen long seconds.

  Thankfully, Landy had helped set things straight. In full control of the card, he was able to cast the spell consecutively and much faster than what looked to be ordinarily possible. Now, with most of the hostile elite mobs on this floor CC’d, Zach sent his six Legion Portal Guardians after the three hostile ones across from them.

  Orcish roars filled the room, and dual-wielded axes whipped every which way, sending streaks of blood and the occasional body part skittering about. Provided they had a line of sight, his rapier-wielding cards also sent an icicle every so often into the three enemies, skewering them.

  “B is ready to be captured!” Landy called out, backing away from it right after slicing its neck with the icy rapier.

  Zach nodded and activated Card Capture. The entire form of the elite Orc shrank down into a little white ball of light, which whisked itself across the room and into Zach’s open hand. The moment he caught it, however, Landy exclaimed, “Now C and A are ready!”

  Zach activated Card Capture twice more—but only succeeded once. Legion Portal Guardian C was spared from death a moment before it was nearly decapitated, but Legion Portal Guardian A died too quickly for Zach to add it to his growing force. Ah well.

  +9000xp

  A glowing blue light remained following its death and subsequent vanishing, indicating that Zach had gotten a rare drop. But he ignored it for the time being. He instead focused his attention on the two Vixen Portal Commanders and the two healer mobs, the latter of which he needed most of all. And he got them. He got all four of them: without a hitch, too!

  I love it when things go well, he thought, smiling.

  As the four cards flew into his hand and joined the two that he was already holding, Zach finally learned the name of these bald, stout, staff-wielding humans: Acolyte of the Portal. The card had an illustration in which the mob was sitting in front of an ancient-looking temple on a hill that overlooked a river, the sun a great big orange ball in the sky. It appeared to be in a state of meditation. Unlike the other two cards from this place, this one had a much more cartoonish, flat, and 2D art style, but Zach kind of liked it.

  “Good work, Landy,” he said, giving his Vixen Portal Commander a thumbs-up as the flattish piece of stone blocking the stairs to the next floor slid aside, no longer barring their passage.

  “Let’s keep going,” Landy said. “We have all day. Right? Right!”

  “Yup. But let me summon these cards first and see what I got for loot.”

  He wasn’t overly excited about whatever had dropped, as it was only a regular rare, but who knows, maybe it’d be useful. Before that, he activated Card Summon six times, sending out two more Legion Portal Guardians, two more Vixen Portal Commanders, and now, finally, a pair of Acolytes of the Portal. The moment these bald-headed, plain-robe-wearing mobs came into existence, they immediately began raising the staff they wielded, causing green light to encase his various other cards, healing automatically without having to be told to do so.

  As an experiment, Zach tried putting them on passive, and he was intrigued to see that they stopped healing. Interesting, he thought. He let them get back to it, however, and then he marveled at the fact that they had no stamina and could never get winded, which meant they could just heal and heal and heal forever. A huge advantage to have on his side, even if the heals themselves weren’t exactly spectacular. They also seemed to prioritize the most wounded of those in range, restoring about 105k HP per cast.

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  “Okay,” Zach said, strolling over to the spot where Legion Portal Commander A had died. He actually had to push several things out of the way as it was getting crowded in here. He now commanded a force that consisted of eight Legion Portal Guardians, five Vixen Portal Commanders, and two Acolytes of the Portal. With so many mobs around him, he legitimately had to wade his way through several of them to get to the drop.

  “Let’s see what we got,” Zach said, bending down. Then he released a cry of pure glee. “A helmet! Yes. Yes! A helmet!”

  The shine faded as he grabbed the item, which turned out to be a tough, durable, and dark-brown leather helmet with an elongated visor just above the frame and a single chin strap that secured it to the wearer’s head. Zach inspected it immediately.

  (RARE): Sturdy Portal-Forged Headguard: discovered by Zachys Calador

  Level-58 Leather Helm

  Armor + 25

  +10 dex

  +10 con

  Helm Sight Level: Full

  “Helm sight!” he cried out joyously as Landy gave him a confused look from the eyes of the Vixen Portal Commander he was controlling. Zach, still almost entirely naked except for his underwear and boots, quickly put the helm over his head and then secured the strap below his chin. “Finally,” he said, overcome with joy.

  “Gods, I can finally see things again!” To Landy, he explained, “Literally all my equipment broke when I first came here, and I can finally see important information again without using Unleashed Phase. It’s an ability I’ll tell you about later.” Zach pumped his fist. “Yes!”

  The Vixen Portal Commander that Landy controlled also pumped its fist. “Yes, yes, yes!” her voice screamed as she began to stomp on the floor and punch the nearest stone wall, her fist breaking through it. “Yes! YES!” She drew her rapier and began stabbing herself again, causing both healers to begin casting their heal on the card, lighting its body up green.

  “Landy, take it easy,” Zach said with a laugh. This caused the card to glare at him with clear hatred and malice in the way its eyes widened in fury. “Or…or keep celebrating. That’s…that’s fine too.”

  Now that he could finally see things properly, he was at last able to learn how much HP the Vixen Portal Commanders actually had, as well as the Acolytes of the Portal. He was also able to confirm that both mobs were, in fact, elite—not that he really needed much confirmation, as it was blatantly obvious by this point.

  “I am tired of waiting,” Landy said. “Let’s go. I want to go now!”

  Brushing two Orcs and a Vixen Portal Commander aside, Zach maneuvered his way to the now-unsealed exit. “Yep,” he said. “Let’s go see what the next floor has for us.” With that, he entered into another ordinary staircase, this time with a giant line of mobs and a saber-toothed cat trailing behind him. Seriously, it was starting to get way too crowded. The sound of all their feet stomping down on the stone stairs was surreal and almost made Zach feel like he was leading an adventurer raid.

  Exiting the narrow confines of the stairwell, Zach was happy to see that the fourth floor was the largest one yet. Stepping out of a gap in the stone that served as a sort of "door," he found himself in a single, wide, and completely open room that occupied the entire floor—all except for a small, square-shaped opening in the very middle that curved slightly like a funnel and dropped all the way down to the first floor. The small tunnel passageway that cut across the third floor also intersected it on the way down, and with some careful positioning, it would be possible to land on top of it if, for some reason, Zach wanted to return very quickly to the previous floor.

  Like the other floors, there was little in the way of decoration or furnishing in this one outside of several more unlit chandeliers spaced evenly around the place, which Zach realized just now he might actually be able to put to use if he cast Flame Arrow II on them or, even more simply, just lit a match. It was something that might actually provide some light if he decided to stay here past dark later today when Landy went off to do whatever crazy thing he intended to do.

  There were also some mobs here, but not enough to pose a threat. And all the way across from him, at the other end of this room, was yet another exit framed by a thin slab of stone that would almost certainly slide out of the way once Zach dealt with the inhabitants on this floor.

  Three of each type, Zach realized. Not as big a step up as I expected.

  Throwing out his right hand, Zach ordered everything he had to attack, and with that, sixteen cards and his war-mount drove up the level of noise in this quiet floor as the Orcs shouted out their war cry and leapt into battle against nine foes.

  And Zach captured all of them. He also did so much more easily now that he could see their HP numbers for himself.

  His collection of cards grew once more, becoming comically large. For this reason, as he climbed his way up a much longer, winding, and eerily dark stairwell that led to the fifth accessible floor—but one that was significantly higher up—he was unworried as he and Landy found themselves stepping into another large floor, this one totally and completely empty except for a hairy, tremendous, and eight-legged fiend hanging halfway down from a ledge above.

  “Boss fight,” he said, grinning. “Let’s crush this thing and keep going.”