Mark watched as their forces closed on the translucent portal. From just a glance, some eyes might easily skip right over the alternate dungeon entrance, but up close or for those looking for it, the portal was easily recognizable. The view from behind it was distorted. It was like looking over pavement on a hot day, except several degrees more intense. The fact that the phenomena was localized on a perfect 20 foot diameter circle made it stand out all the more.
This alternate entrance led into Derrick Blackwell’s dungeon. Three days ago, Avery had made an enticing offer. Tired of her advancement being held up by the other nearby dungeon, Avery proposed for them both to storm his dungeon with adventuring parties. The enticing part was that Avery would be sending five teams in first, allowing them the opportunity to complete the job and earn the unique reward conquering a dungeon would offer.
By far Avery would be getting the better part of the deal since it would be relieving her of an annoying thorn in her side. She would be able to progress her dungeon far less encumbered. Mark would definitely not have been on board if the attack meant just wiping out another contender and helping another dungeon out. However, getting another unique reward for the small price of only a couple days worth of production was worthwhile.
It was also true that it was hardly worth considering what aiding Avery would mean for them in the long run. It was far more likely that they got wiped out by one of the other closer threats, far before they would have to contend with her. Another unique reward would certainly make a difference. A couple day delay to unlocking magic energy production III was a small price.
Mark had Henry align the first adventuring team closer near the entrance. They still had some time before it would be their turn to assault the dungeon, but they needed to be ready. Mark had tried to send a green goblin through, only to have the unit blocked. It was expected. Only one adventuring party could attack a dungeon at a time. Still he had thought it was worth the attempt. A visual ‘under attack’ appeared in the middle of the portal. It did not disappear. The dust formed words seemed to hang in the air presumptively until the last of Avery’s forces were wiped out. They would have to wait. Meanwhile Amelia was getting a play by play from Avery Kingston on her own adventuring parties progress. Her fifth team was currently fighting the defenders on Derrick’s fifth floor.
While Mark had quickly agreed to joining forces with Avery for the attack, he had of course had Amelia ask dozens of questions to get as much information as possible for their upcoming assault.
Dungeon wise, Avery had only information up to the end of his fourth floor. An adventure party assault had already been something she had attempted months ago. However, she was currently feeding them information on the fifth floor as well.
Unit wise, Derrick had at least three branches as far as Avery could tell. The first two, Mark and Amelia were already intimately familiar with. Mareth had attacked them with the golem and scarecrow branches since the first month of the battle. The third was Derrick’s level 2 branch gargoyles. The other construct dungeon they had dealt with had taken the level 2 guardian branch. They had been extremely powerful, so Mark expected for the gargoyles to offer something similar.
As far as the pseudo fourth unit types Avery had seen Derrick put to use, Avery was fairly certain they did not come from having unlocked another branch. For one, he had not displayed many of them. Second, every single one of them was different. They were categorized as amalgamation constructs. Construct creatures, made from an assortment of different materials, from trees and rocks to parts off of corpses.
Amelia announced that Avery’s fifth adventuring group had just finished with the fifth floor defenders. Now they only had to contend with the floor’s guardian which was one such amalgamation construct. She described a stone and wood giant wearing a scarf of wiggling tentacles. It had a power rating of 5.1. While she was certain that her fifth adventuring party would prevail, they had already taken heavy casualties. At best she would only be able to give them an idea about what the sixth floor had to offer and take out some of the weaker units.
It was not as far as they had anticipated. Avery thought it was likely that Derrick would have at least seven floors. She had been hoping to take down the first six, leaving the last floor or two for them. However, taking the fifth floor had been exceedingly costly. The third adventuring party had made it onto the fifth floor at three quarters of its strength, but the floor had wiped it out easily along with the stronger follow on fourth party.
It was likely that the higher floors would be even more difficult. Amelia’s play by play reports were starting to sound more frantic, and she was interspersing plenty of doubts amidst the updates. It was clear that Amelia was beginning to question on whether they would be able to finish the job if Derrick had more than another level or two after the sixth. However, Mark’s concern was not at near the same level.
In truth, from what he could gather Avery had a lot of difficulty dealing with the more powerful constructs when facing them in equal numbers. It was not to diminish that Avery was not powerful, she would be an extremely deadly adversary from what Amelia had passed on to him. She just did not have a lot of units that had enough raw power to crush higher level constructs.
It was not a problem that Mark felt that they shared with her now. Not now that they were able to summon a hundred rock crushing bugbears. They had other units like the scorpion that would be able to deal with high level constructs as well, but they were too slow. Mark had decided to just go with bugbear mages and the war hammer class. Mark had contemplated snagging the fifth level of the warrior class for a 100,000 MP. Another 15% boost would be welcome, however it would set obtaining magic production III for even longer. The level 4 mages and war hammer bugbears would just have to be enough.
“Her forces have reached the final chamber on the sixth floor….” Amelia delayed as she read the next message. “There are 24 gargoyle kings and bishops, power ratings just over 4. The guardian is a crab amalgamation, power rating… of 6.2.” Amelia announced the last power rating glumly. If a 5.1 construct amalgamation had given Avery so much trouble, how much more would one with a 20% stronger power rating.
Mark nodded. It was kind of a shame. The gargoyle kings and bishops would likely be the only units from the branch that they would see. The kings were the most powerful level 2 units the branch seemingly had to offer. The bishops on the other hand were more lanky, mage types with a slightly lower power rating. Both unit types sounded just like larger and more dangerous looking versions of those he had seen from gothic architecture. There was reportedly one major difference, the kings had bat-like wings and tails. The bishops on the other hand looked more like lizards, with ridges on their backs.
The next thing Mark knew the dust words of ‘under attack faded, the dust seemingly collapsing back to the earth. At the same time, came Amelia’s final update on the battle. “Avery took out five Gargoyle king’s. The crab amalgamation and five bishops were left untouched.”
The first adventuring team of bugbears started pouring into the portal. The party consisted of 18 from the war hammer class and two mages. They each only had a power rating of around 3.6 with the 25% adventuring unit bonus, but that did not take into account their gear. This first batch did not include units with sets of iron armor. They each only had metal breast and back plates that increased their defense. Instead they wore an assortment of other enchanted items.
A necklace that increased their vitality. Bamboo vambraces that increased their strength. Bamboo grieves that increased their endurance, and boots that increased their agility. A leather undershirt would give them some resistance to fire damage. Mark had not been sure on how beneficial it would be against constructs, but since fireball was one of the standard mage spells he had included it. Round wooden shields hardened with stone essence would provide additional protection. All of the items were of good quality, so the boost would not be negligible. Mark would guess they were at least a 0.4 power rating stronger or so.
Their first adventuring party assault started off extremely lackluster. The 20 unit adventuring party passed right through floor after floor. Avery had wiped out all of the lower floors. She had even recleared the 24 defenders that had respawned on the 1st and 2nd floors. The 3rd floor defenders had not yet respawned by the time the party made it to the end of the 3rd floor. That likely would not be the case for the next adventuring party or the party after it. If all went well, they would only have to re-clear the 24 defenders from both the 3rd and 4th floors. It was the fourth floor, on which the first spawner had reappeared. There had been another on the fifth floor, but the respawn criteria on them were not clear. Regardless, they would not be overly difficult to deal with.
The adventuring party passed right through the fourth floor without a fight. The 20 undead from the spawner did challenge them on the fifth, but the bugbears breezed right through them. The elite most units were skeletal knights with a power rating of 3.1, but there were only two of them. Most of the rest did not even have a power rating of 2. If the bugbears took wounds from the fight, they were not serious enough for Mark to notice. Without mages, the bugbears smashed their way through them relatively uncontested. They would be just a minor annoyance that all of the successive adventuring parties would have to deal with.
The first real clash came when five magic lances streaked out from the defenders. Timed perfectly to meet the upcoming group of adventurers, just entering the room. All five were caught on round wooden shields, carried by their prospective bugbears. The shields shattered and the bugbears who had carried them were blown back, some with their arm that carried the shield shredded. The rest of the bugbears just surged past. The injured bugbears took a moment to down a potion before they followed in the others' wake.
Half of the other wooden shields were cast aside as bugbears chose to wield their warhammers two handed instead carrying the defensive item. It was a bit of a waste, but Mark was not disappointed with the initial clash. For the first time, Mark saw units put the basic skill surge into practice. Each of the bugbears only had one skill. Mark had not sent any from this group through the gymnasium. Instead he had just bought each of them the Surge skill which boosted their strength and endurance. The boost would not last more than a minute, but their ability to kill enemy units quickly here was all that mattered.
Several gargoyle kings went down in the initial clash, their bodies reduced to rubble even as they collapsed on the ground. Other’s managed to cover and guard against the onslaught with their wings that enclosed to block the strikes. However, one strike sent cracks throughout the wing and a second crushed the wing. The crab-like amalgamation was the only thing that kept the construct line from wholly collapsing.
The crab amalgamation was slightly bigger than an arachne, except its legs were longer and held its body twice as far above the ground. It looked just like a crab with four sets of legs and two pincer appendages. The crab caught two strikes with both of its pincers. It quickly retaliated at the two attackers. One bugbear jumped back in time, falling backwards nearly avoiding being caught.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
The other bugbear was caught in vice grip. The bugbear gave one long scream as its breast and backplate crushed in. The scream diminished as blood started spurting out of the mouth. Only three seconds after having been caught the bugbear was split in half. The crab amalgamation dropped it reaching for another. Both pincers could seemingly react independently, searching for new prey so it did not take long for one of them to find another. The second bugbear met the same end.
But even as the crab amalgamation killed the two, the rest of the gargoyle king’s crumbled around the floor guardian on both sides. The floor guardian would soon be a lonely island amongst a sea of enemies. Fire balls streaked from the bishops smashing into bugbears amidst the chaos. The fireballs caught on individuals or small clumps as they broke apart. A dozen bugbears screeched as the flames clung and licked at their skin, but the flames around them soon died out 3 seconds later. The still smoldering bugbears brought potions to their mouth, even as they rejoined the fight.
The only lasting benefit of the attack was that several bugbears had been killed by the gargoyle kings they were engaged with at the time of the attack. The bishops had not bothered to care whether any of their comrades got caught in the blasts, but the flames also seemingly had no effect on the gargoyles, except making it easier for them to kill their adversaries. Bugbears consumed in flames, had lost battlefield awareness and fell to enemy blades. More than a couple were moving past the guardian toward the back
However, the fireballs would be the last attack the bishops were able to make unchallenged. Several bugbears had emerged from the melee and flames and made it their purpose to take on the ranged combatants.
Half a minute after the battle had started, twin lances streaked out from the bugbear mages. Each targeted one of the legs on the left sides. Seconds later the crab amalgamation could only shuffle precariously with only its 2nd and 4th legs remaining on its left side. Before that moment it had been able to quickly spin around the face the bugbears attacking from all sides. It had caused the battle to a sort of stand still as the bugbears hung back unable to move in attack and back out quickly enough without being caught. A half minute had been enough time to reduce half of the gargoyle kings to rubble, and the bishops who were currently engaged would not last much longer. Several more bugbears had been caught and snapped in twain after the first two, but now the guardians' limited mobility emboldened them, the ones not still held down by the gargoyle kings started to attack the guardian’s blind spots.
Only one more bugbear shrieked as it got snapped up, but once the bugbears had finished off the gargoyle kings it was left with ten attackers smashing in from all sides with their hammers the crab amalgamation was quickly losing substance as pieces were smashed right off of its body. Once one of its pincers was smashed off, the guardian could hardly put up much more of a fight. It became too easy for the bugbears to attack from the unguarded side.
Eleven bugbears, including the two mages were left standing. They quickly composed themselves, picked up their shields and continued onto the next floor. Only losing nine of their first adventuring party was a good start, but they had all burnt through their skill already. The degree of savagery they had just displayed would be diminished enough where gargoyle kings would not fall as easily. They would likely only be able to whittle down the weaker defenders, leaving the guardian and a few others for the next adventuring team.
Amelia chuckled smugly as her eyes took on a distant look. She was likely bragging to Avery that they had taken down the rest of the six floor within the first couple of minutes of battle. Mark sighed. He would prefer it if she downplayed their strengths. Friend or not, Avery was someone they would potentially have to contend with at some point.
Mark’s assumption that the 11 would be able to significantly whittle down the defenders on the next floor turned out to be a bit of hubris on his part. Without the surge skill burning, they only held a slight advantage to the gargoyle kings. The war hammers were the right weapon against the constructs made out of stone, but the stone was still extremely durable. Without the extra boost of the surge skill, the bugbears were forced to continually beat on the same opponent, with cracks only slowly forming with each strike.
The guardian on this floor was also more suited to dealing with the bugbears. A four bone armed earthen giant that clutched clubs in each of its hands. It was ideal for dealing with the bugbear threat. The power rating was weaker with only a 5.5, but it proved to be far more deadly against the adventurers. In addition, this floor had a spawner of eight orc magi with power ratings of 2.9. Only two gargoyle kings met their end in the assault. In reality the short skirmish had looked like a one sided slaughter.
Mark only contemplated for a few seconds before sending a second team through the portal. Now that they were on the 7th floor, they would have to wait more than an hour for the second adventuring team to make it to the 7th floor. It would be plenty of time for Mark to chide himself on being stingy. Fact was he had only prepared three adventuring teams of bugbears. While he did have more optional goblin teams standing by. They likely would not amount to much, unless only a handful of units were leftover on the last floor. He had also elected not to buy any new additional upgrades, despite having plenty of MP. Hopefully, his frugality would not cause the attack to fail.
They watched as the second wave proceeded on slightly slower than the first. This adventuring team had a complete set of armor. They still had the fire resistant undershirts and vitality necklaces, but they no longer had the boost to agility and were heavier. The second team actually had to fight respawned defenders on both the 1st, 3rd, and 4th floors. None of the bugbears died in the fights, but several had to use one of the two healing potions they each carried. A couple had even used portions of their surge skill despite having been told to try and save it for the seventh floor. The undead on the fifth floor was once again an easy victory.
Another half hour and the units hit the final room to the 7th floor. Pretty much every floor of this dungeon had the exact same layout, ending in a singular large room. Derrick apparently was not overly creative, or just wanted to keep spaces wide open for his constructs to fight in.
Lances blasted them at the doorway halting the onrushing attackers. However the shield bearers that withstood the onslaught did so far better than those that had been in the last team. After being knocked back momentarily they surged forward anew, although a few had one arm hanging limply.
The addition of the surge skill made this clash go far better for their forces. The gargoyle kings once again could not withstand the force of the hammer wielding bugbears. Individual units were beaten back and down quickly. The four bone armed earthen giant amalgamation stepped forward to put a stop to the attackers as it had last attack, but this time the blows were met with hammers. The bugbears might be knocked back, but they were only battered and able to rejoin the fight. A small group of four bugbears steamrolled right through the defenders toward the magi, but of the four two got peeled off and stuck in the melee. The remaining two rushed toward the orc and gargoyle magi. Magic bolts glanced off them harmlessly. The magi had chosen to drop spells with longer cast time for the weaker quick option. They seemingly had no effect.
The two bugbears smashed right through mage after mage until two lances formed and knocked them back. Unshielded, the two bugbears were both heavily wounded, but both remained standing. One took a second lance and went down, but the other threw back a potion and charged forward to finish the mage threat.
During that time the other bugbears worked to deal with remaining gargoyle kings and the four armed guardians. While bugbears had survived the attack with the guardian, just as many had been crushed to death. Once their surge skill ran out a minute into the battle, their struggle became even more fierce.
The one remaining bugbear had dealt with the mages, but he was in no shape to come to the aid of the five remaining bugbear warriors attacking the monstrosity from all sides. The two mages each sent their third lances into the guardian, but unlike the crab amalgamation this guardian did not have spindly appendages that could easily be blown off. The guardian had plenty of pockmarks from magic lances or from hammer strikes, but it was clear the remaining bugbears would not be enough to bring down such a sturdy foe.
Hopefully, this was the last floor, but when had Mark been so lucky. As the remainder of the battle played out, Mark made his decision. “Henry, pull out all of the stops for the last attack.” Mark ordered, in the midst of his description of what the guardian on the 7th floor would look like. He was hoping the battle managers were not paying attention to the golem balls that were getting passed to each of the bugbears. Henry was doing it discreetly, but it was not like the battle managers could not figure it out from other non-visual means. They were all in a created world afterall. Hopefully, it was an unnecessary preparation.
Hopefully, after Henry killed the 7th floor guardian they would next see a core room, but Mark had to prepare this adventuring party like it would be the last. A goblin adventuring party could follow. They would likely have to fight through several floors worth of respawned defenders and a couple of respawners. It was definitely doable for the well equipped force, but they would most certainly take heavy casualties. If Henry could not lead the next team to victory, then their assault could very well end in failure.
The four armed amalgamation stretched its arms up in victory as the last of the bugbears fell. The scene disappeared, even as Mark ordered the next team through. The decision to include Henry on a team had not been made lightly. Now that the unit had a power rating of 10.4 it would take him eleven weeks to respawn should he fall. However, Mark also could not pass up sending such a powerful unit on an attack with the stakes the way they were. He was the only unit who had all four skills. Nine of the others on the adventuring team had completed the three physical skills in the gymnasium. Mark had decided that there was little purpose in giving them the pull skill that increased wisdom and intelligence. The other nine who had gone through with Henry receiving all four skills had already become defenders for their 7th floor, so could not be used for this attack.
A little over an hour later, Henry made it to the final floor with his team. The five orc magi had indeed respawned. Five lances struck true on the shields of the bugbears leading the charge. They were knocked back, even as Henry pushed right past him. His target was the floor guardian. Other bugbears would make their way around the fight to deal with the magi. Others would join Henry in the attack, but for the most part they were there to contain the floor guardian. Mark did not want to lose units on this floor if they could avoid it.
Could Henry take on a giant more than twice his size. Mark was not for certain, but his power level was closer to doubling his opponents than not. The four arms struck in from both sides. One of Henry’s bars began to drop as he turned on his dash skill. It was a slow trickle, but it was enough to increase the generals speed enough where he could dodge the guardian’s attacks completely.
When Henry brought his hammer down, rubble was sent flying from the creature’s midsection. The biggest pockmark on the creature yet. Twice as big as any that had been created by the magic lances or other hammer strikes, but it would not be enough. Henry took a couple seconds to reset, even as he dodged more attacks from the clubs. His body weaved between the attacks as he turned back toward his opponent. One of the things that made these construct amalgamations so deadly was their ability to not be affected by damage they had or were currently taking. The counterstrikes aimed at the bugbear general would have caught up to a lesser bugbear. However, Henry was showing excellent battlefield awareness. Ten seconds later he was able to fight his way back through the guardian’s guard and strike again. His hammer smashed into the same area, this time knocking out an entire section of the amalgamations midsection was just gone.
The arms still swung after Henry, but it was clear that the guardian had lost some maneuverability. Then a third smash expanded the hole even further. Henry became comfortable enough to turn off his dash skill, conserving the 30% of the energy bar that was left.
The two mages had already joined in on the attack as soon as their magic lance spells had charged, but once the guardian was sufficiently weakened the others joined in as well. One got batted away, much to Mark’s dismay, but that was the only one. The one that had been smacked away, had a dented chest plate, but after a brief interim of another bugbear hammering it crudely back into place and both of his healing potions the bugbear was nearly as good as new.
The time lost was not too big of a deal. Even if there was another floor and Henry could not lead this team to success. Mark doubted that they would be sending another adventure team through at this point. Another team would likely have to fight several floors of defenders and spawners. Mark and Amelia watched the moment of truth, but When Henry stepped through the portal they found themselves on another floor instead of in the core room.