Endless: Hell's Swordsmen

chapte 10 nightingale's cry

Astro coalesced in Stagnant Moss town with a haggard expression. He had gone through quite the harrowing experience just then. From high to low then high to low again, before finally experiencing a high.

For him, it was the mental equivalent of running a few laps around Sturgehaven Kingdom. Astro felt that a breather was in order.

With that in mind, the best way to unwind would be...

A dungeon run!

Around Stagnant Moss town were three low level dungeons that players could enter in four man parties to clear. There were also a couple of ten man party dungeons and one single 20-man dungeon called Riverside Barrow.

Draco first checked the leaderboards for Sturgehaven Kingdom.

1st - Riveting Night: Level 4

2nd - Sublime Notion: Level 3

3rd - Dark Knight: Level 3

4th - Rambunctious Buttlover: Level 2

5th - Dreary Traveler: Level 2

He only had eyes for the first five, as they'd set the average for the current level standard. Astro was shocked to find that Riveting Night had already reached level 4. She must've had her own special encounters to climb that high.

Astro had no idea that such encounters were born from Riveting Night trailing him. Currently, she was taking part of the War of Attrition along with Sublime Notion. If Astro knew this... he might spit blood and die.

Rambunctious represented the proper standard that Astro expected. After all, it hadn't been a full day since Boundless launched. Astro was just abusing his knowledge.

Astro noticed that Stagnant Moss town was less crowded than it had been when the players ported in. Probably most of them had gone to level up in zonal areas or clear dungeons. The few who remained were those who targeted Tradeskill classes such as merchants, advisors, smiths etc.

Sighing, Astro blinked and appeared a few meters from the nearest 4 man party dungeon. None of the people there even noticed his appearance due to the spot he chose.

The dungeon he was at was called Nightingale's Cry. It was a forest dungeon, the spooky kind. Thrust into perpetual darkness, the monsters within were of the undead variety.

Astro chose this dungeon because of his Lightbringer title, which gave him and insane advantage over evil aligned beings. Coupled with every boon he had acquired so far, including his high level... he could solo this dungeon on survival mode for a whole day.

There were different ways to tackle dungeons in Boundless, three types to be exact.

A player could chose the traditional way and enter with a party to clear out the dungeon by defeating the boss and claiming the treasure chest. The Neo-Modern way was to clear by checkpoints. The dungeon would be split into sections with mini bosses at the each of each point. Defeating them allowed the party to exit and come another time to continue on the next part. The rewards were much less valuable in this situation until the final boss was defeated, but the difficulty in clearing each section was higher than fighting the boss in the traditional path.

The third and most revered way was the survival mode. That one was simple, you enter the dungeon and fight till you drop. Monsters kept respawning in set intervals, including bosses. For this mode, rewards were doled out according to the length of time you kept fighting and the quality of enemies you killed.

If you spent your time chasing after minions while avoiding bosses, you might survive longer but will end up with much less at the end than someone who fought difficult monsters for half the time.