Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

Chapter 2: Well of Despair

"Maybe I can help." Lucan said.

Goldbear nodded for him to go ahead.

Lucan held out his palm. Shadows twisted and small brown mouse took form. Lucan set it on the ground.

"One of your five spells is a familiar? How useless."

Lucan had started to get annoyed with Hikaro and Cracked Teapots remarks.

"Pah, what do you know? Is all magic a spell? Was that a spell? No, or did you forget warlocks have magical abilities? What kind of weak ass spell caster can't manifest a familiar without casting spells?"

Lucan payed no more attention to Cracked Teapot and connected his mind to the small mouse. He could now see through its eyes. The mouse slowly turned the corner to see three pale-skinned dwarfs sitting around a table. Lucan watched them for a few minutes before the mouse retuned back to him.

"There are 3 deep-dwarves. Two have swords while the third has a crossbow. They are all sitting around a table in the center of the room. The only way in is the way we came or a door on the opposite side of the room. Currently the door is shut along with the windows. No one should be able to see anything if we keep things quiet."

"Ha, good work." Goldbear said, giving him a slap on the back. "Cracked, you can use that chain lightning you keep bragging about to keep them paralyzed. Hikaro and I will rush in while Lucan focuses on the same target as Hikaro. This should be the fastest way to move through them quickly.

They slowly moved to the end of the tunnel and waited for the mage to make his move.

Cracked Teapot jumped around the corner and pointed his staff towards the dwarves. "Chain lightning."

A blue arc of lightning leapt into the room followed by Hikaro and Goldbear. Goldbear transformed into a bear with dark gray fur and charged at the two closest dwarves. Hikaro readied his spear before stabbing into the third dwarf. Lucan turned the corner and started firing shadowbolts from his wand as fast as he could. The dark balls of magic silently shot through the room, bombarding the third dwarf every half second.

With Shinny healing Goldbear, he had no fear as he traded blows with the dwarves. Every 10 seconds Cracked Teapot would cast another chain lightning, stopping the dwarves from moving for 2 seconds.

When Hikaro's dwarf died he stored his spear and took out two swords, turning to join Goldbear. Lucans mana was already down to 30% left. Using another ability, the wand in his hand changed into a dagger with a red and blue blade. He plunged it into his thigh. His health began to fall. Every second 5% of his health disappeared while 10% of his mana was restored. Lucan didn't grimace at the familiar pain, he only stretched out his hands towards the closest dwarf.

The two remaining dwarves were covered in injuries and had less than 40% of their health left. Hikaro's opponent began to lose blood faster. Its health plummeted while Lucan drained its life away, causing his own health to only fall 2% a second instead of 5%.

When his mana was full, he pulled the dagger from his leg, transforming it back into a wand. With his hand still stretched out he sucked the last bit of life from the final dwarf who now had everyone's attention.

Lucan's Damage Per Second (DPS) may have dropped at the end, but he finished the fight with full health and mana.

[Congratulations! Your level has risen.]

A pillar of white light surround Lucan as he became level 86.

Goldbear gave him a nod while shinny gave Lucan a thumbs up. Hikaro and Cracked Teapot could care less.

[You have acquired 1 silver and 22 bronze pieces.]

[You have acquired dwarven leather gloves.]

Lucan didn't bother to check the gloves once he saw they were level 95. He couldn't wear them for a while.

When everyone was restored and ready, they peaked out the door. It was like Goldbear said. A large stone bridge spanned across a bottomless chasm. On the other side stood an Elite level 100 dwarf. The dwarf overseer cracked his whip while yelling at the 15 dwarves mining in front of a large gate.

The dark depths were known as the Well of Despair. The dwarves had control of a mine beside the chasm. The dark energy inside the Well eventually corrupted the dwarves. They began kidnapping surfaces goers to bring them down to work in the Mine of Despair. The Lord of the area issued a quest to go into the dungeon and clear out the corrupted dwarves. The overseer was the first major obstacle and the reason most people didn't like running this dungeon.

You couldn't enter the dungeon without first defeating the overseer. When you died in 'Evolution' you would lose a level and had the chance to drop an item. Everyone wanted to avoid this. Normally it took Lucan 2-4 days to get a level. Inside a dungeon, you would only lose 10% of a level and wouldn't drop any of your gear. The high chance of death right before this dungeon made it less than ideal.

There was also the fact that if you died in the dungeon, you would revive at the start, but if you died outside you would only respawn in the graveyard back in town.

After everyone had a good look at the situation, they shut the door and discussed what to do next.

"Lucan, I am not trying to make fun of you or anything but since this is your first dungeon, I wanted to tell you about something you should know."

"Okay, I am listening."

"You need to turn off your notifications. Once we start this fight, things will be crazy, and every dwarf will drop many different things. There is a good chance a lot of us will also level up. I am telling you this because there will be times where you may get 20-30 notifications in a second. If you leave your notifications on, you may accidently cover your entire field of view with pop up messages."

"Oh wow. I never though about that. I will turn it off now. Thanks for the heads up."

"Good, no thanks necessary. I am just trying to give us the best chance to kill the overseer."

Even Hikaro and Cracked Teapot nodded at this.

"Alright, Lucan, do you still remember the plan?"

"Yeah, you and I will go halfway across the bridge. I will intimidate the overseer, so he freezes up while you attract the attention of the dwarven miners. The miners charge onto the bridge and make it so the overseer is stuck at the back. We retreat to the guard house and force them to come through the door, one at a time while we kill them off."

"Yep, you got it. Are you ready?"

"You can count on me."

Goldbear nodded and opened the door. Lucan followed behind. He glanced over the side of the stone bridge and felt a fear that made him go cold.

Goldbear pulled him away from the edge. "Don't look into the Well of Despair."

Lucan nodded and followed behind the druid. They soon reach the halfway point. Any further and the dwarves would notice them.

"Whenever your ready, go for it. I will wait till the Elite is frozen in fear before I act."

Lucan was nervous as he stood before so many enemies that could easily destroy him. This was the difference between playing solo, he had a team to back him up. He took a deep breath and gripped his wand tightly.

*Whistle*

Lucan took a step forward, put two fingers in his mouth a whistled. All eyes turned and focused on him. "Intimidate." Lucan said while pointing his wand at the overseer. The warlock's eyes turned from blue to a bright purple. When his eyes locked with the overseer the spell took effect.

'Something is wrong.'

"You dare trying an intimidate me!" The overseer screamed in the human language. "I will rip out your eyes. I will kill you if it's the last thing I ever do!" He howled while charging forward with twice the speed of the miners.

'What happened, why didn't it work?'

Lucan turned to run but bounced off of Gold bear. Since it didn't work, he expected the druid to already be running back towards the guard house on the other side of the bridge. Goldbear held out his hand to help pick Lucan up.

'He didn't just abandon me.'

Lucan took his hand. He was jerked up by the full strength of a bear. While rising up Lucan saw an assassin step out of the shadows of the guard house, directly behind shinny and the others.

"Watch out!" He tried to yell, but Goldbear caught him around the waist and knocked the wind out of him.

"We know, thanks for helping us get past the overseer." He said before tossing Lucan off the side of the bridge.

'WHAT!!!'

Lucan fell into the Well of Despair. The last thing he saw before being lost in the darkness was a raving mad dwarven overseer jumping off the bridge with a whip in one hand and pickaxe in the other. His eyes were still locked onto Lucan as he plummeted down after him.

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