Holy Maiden’s Trial (Instance Dungeon)
Maximum Participants: 12
Pray for the world. Be proud that you are the Holy Maiden.
With your allies, challenge Goddess Flaudia and gain a new strength.
Made daring by her excitement, Frey punched her palm. “So this is the dungeon we’re going to challenge. Defeating it will not only gain us new experience, but Sharon a new power! Spectacular!”
Beside her, Kent was looking rattled. “It really says we’re going to fight Goddess Flaudia...” He let out a shaky whine. “I’m getting nervous.”
“Little Lottie, the Holy Maiden... I’m so proud of you, sis. I’ll protect you from anything this dungeon has in store, cut down any enemy that shows up,” Rudith declared, as eager for battle as always.
“Through this door is the dungeon,” I said as I buffed the team. Applying buffs before entering an unknown trial was standard procedure, in case some danger lay in wait right at the starting point. Leroy and Mio quickly followed suit, casting their own spells.
“Okay. I’m ready. Let’s do this,” Lina said.
“Flaudia won’t beat me,” L’lyeh muttered.
“We need to give it our all,” Luna added.
“We’re going to make it through, no matter what...!” said Cocoa.
“I never thought I would fight Goddess Flaudia...” Mio sighed.
“She’ll be powerful, but Meowster is stronger!”
“As the Pope, I cannot sanction Goddess Flaudia’s deeds.”
“No matter what awaits, I will protect Her Holiness with my life.”
“Okay, let’s go!” I said, making sure all buffs had been applied.
We stepped through the door and into Holy Maiden’s Trial.
At first, we found ourselves in a world of sparkling crystal well-suited to the Holy Maiden title. The building we were in was constructed like a temple—like a religious palace of sorts. A crystal sprouted from the tiled floor, a human-sized obelisk emitting vibrant hues of pink and blue. When I looked closely, I could see a juvenile monster trapped within it. All sorts of colorful plants grew around the crystal, the stems of a carnivorous plant monster mixed in with the foliage here and there. These were similar to the Chomp Flowers in Labyrinth of Flowers, except more beautiful and more sinister. They must have been monsters of a very high level, poised to swallow us whole if we stepped too close.
Kent—who led our formation—blew out a breath as he surveyed the structure, his hand never leaving the hilt of his sword. “It’s pretty to look at... Scary, though.”
“We aren’t close enough for them to attack, but I can sense how strong the monsters up ahead are. Can we really make it through this dungeon...?” Lina asked, probably reflecting how most of the group felt.
I shared the sentiment. In the game, I’d been able to die and respawn as many times as I’d liked. In this very real world, we had to make it out of this dungeon alive. Here, there was no coming back from death. “It’s my first time too, so it’s hard to guess what we’re going to face. The silver lining is that there’s no time limit. Let’s take our time and be careful. None of the monsters should respawn once we defeat them, so we’re going to lure them over one by one and take them out.”
ID’s like this were designed for a specific quest, so they weren’t like normal hunting grounds where monsters spawned endlessly. Other than to complete a quest, players had usually only entered ID’s to hunt for rare drop items that couldn’t be found elsewhere.
“Yes, Meowster. Let’s go through it slowly!” Tarte huffed, rekindling determination within the others.
Kent screamed as he was blown back toward us.
“Heal Absolutely! Are you okay, Kent?!”
Just as I healed Kent, Rudith stepped up. “I got it from here! Taunt!”
Before us stood a single monster—a Fallen Angel. It had a beautiful face that contrasted with the ominous black wings on its back. Shackles on its wrists indicated that it couldn’t use magic, though that didn’t stop its physical attacks, which were devastating enough to send Kent flying. Its shrieking cackle was more than annoying, leaving a ringing in my ears. At least there’s only one of them. If we’d had to face a horde of Fallen Angels as our first encounter, we would have been in trouble. First, we needed to figure out how to defeat this thing.
“I want to see if it’s weaker to physical or magical attacks,” I told the group. “Only use physical attacks for now.”
“You got it!” Frey answered without missing a beat. Seeing that she’d raised her sword, I cast Smiting Light, boosting her damage output. “Hero’s Strike!” Frey used a Skill that ensured her attack would be a critical hit, the damage of which was tripled by my Smiting Light.
With one last shriek, the Fallen Angel burst into light.
“Looks like it had a really high Attack but not much Defense. That was easier than I thought,” I said.
Frey sheathed her sword. “Still, it did that much damage to Kent in one hit. We can’t underestimate those things.”
Kent rejoined the group then, muttering, “The impact of that...” I’d healed him of any damage, but he looked a little shaken by having been sent flying. “Dammit, I need to hold my ground against the next one somehow. The tank can’t just drop out of the fight like that.”
“There’s no guarantee I’ll be able to cover you either...” Rudith added. I’d leave it to the two boys to figure out the best way to solve that problem.
We progressed through the crystal corridor for a while until we could see a clearing ahead that looked like a great place to sit and rest. Except, there’s usually something waiting for players at a place like this in an ID. “Stop!” I had a bad feeling about this.
“What’s the matter, Lottie?” Rudith asked.
“That open area could be dangerous... There may be a particularly powerful monster, or a large horde of monsters...” I explained.
“Got it,” Rudith said, and everyone shifted their stances, raising their guards. We had taken on a few Fallen Angels so far and knew too well how tough the monsters in this dungeon were. “Why don’t we use Taunt to lure one monster at a time from the clearing?” Kent suggested. “Take them out one by one.”
“Good plan,” I said.
“All right, I got this!”
This had been a pretty common strat in the game, especially when facing monsters at a higher level than your own. A party could usually handle one powerful monster at a time, even if a horde would have been overwhelming. I used a Farseer—a pair of spectacles that worked like binoculars. Let’s see what’s waiting for us. There were several Fallen Angels in the clearing and a heinous-looking monster called Corrupted King who wore a simple cloth wrapped around his bloated body and nothing else.
I realized each of us was staring at the monsters through our own Farseer. We’d each purchased one before coming to the dungeon. Everyone was at a loss for words. Taking on that thing looked like the opposite of fun.
“I mean, we have to do it, right? There were no turns so far and that’s the only way through...” Kent said, looking a little dispirited.
“You got this, Kent! I’ll help take them down as quickly as we can...!” Cocoa said.
Kent’s eyes lit up, and he looked primed for the fight again. “Yeah, let’s do this!”
Ten meters away from the clearing, I applied my Skills to Kent. “Protective Light, Holy Maiden’s Boon, Moonlight, Starlight... You’re all set.”
“Okay! Taunt!” Kent used his Skill from where we stood. Each species of monster had its own distance at which Taunt would start affecting it. To make sure that only one was attracted at a time, we had to start from a decent distance away and slowly move closer. “No good. Let me get a little closer.”
“Yes, please,” I said.
Kent blew out a breath and began slowly approaching the clearing, activating Taunt at each step.
Maybe they’re designed to not leave the clearing. If that was the case, we’d have to take on the handful of Fallen Angels and the Corrupted King—whom I suspected to be a miniboss—all at once. That would be an ordeal.
Fortunately for us, when Kent was about three meters away from the clearing, one of the Fallen Angels started to approach him.
“We got one!” Kent announced.
“Leave the rest to me. Hero’s Strike!”
I’d already cast Smiting Light on Frey, so her single attack turned the Fallen Angel into a burst of light, leaving no drop items behind.
“Our prospects are good!” Frey cracked a grin as she drank a Mana Potion. “Go get us another one, Kent!”
“You got it! Taunt!” Kent said excitedly, and lured over another Fallen Angel that Frey promptly took out in one hit—a one-sided beatdown that kept us very safe.
“Looks like there isn’t much we can do, Cocoa,” Luna said with a shrug.
Cocoa chuckled. “With the Fallen Angel’s resistance to magic, we can’t contribute much anyway.” We’d discovered that Fallen Angels were far more vulnerable to physical attacks than magical ones, so Frey had been tearing through them by herself so far.
After a few more Taunts and one-shots, we’d swept the last Fallen Angel from the clearing.