Nicholas: "That was amazing!" He patted his full belly after eating a large serving of lamb stew.

Maria: "I can still smell the aroma of the lamb stew even after eating it."

Nicholas: "I know right, that deep meaty flavor with a hint of herbal aromatic. It might have stuck in our clothes due to the steam coming from the stew."

Clarice: "The best part is the meat. Ugh… So tender and juicy even if they braised it for long hours."

They just left the establishment after eating their fill; now they are currently talking while walking back to Nicholas's office to get their carriage for them to ride to the dungeon location. After a few minutes, they arrived at a building with a sign named Apple of the Eye." It was the name of the beauty company that Nicholas and his mother made; the name of the company is a play on the word countess iris name.

As they entered the lobby on the first floor, they were greeted by Marice, the lobby assistant of the office space.

Marice: "Good afternoon, young master." She bowed her head as she greeted Nicholas.

Nicholas: "Marice, can you ask someone to fetch me a carriage?"

Marice: "Right away, young master."

Nicholas: "Thanks."

She immediately left and asked someone to get a carriage for him. And Nicholas, Maria, and Clarice waited for the carriage to arrive outside, then they rode the carriage and arrived at the portal location.

[First Bastion]

[Level Requirement – 22-30]

[Party Size 5-7]

[Scene: This site was the first city to fall during the invasion from another nation. It was the prelude of a war. Thousands of corpses of soldiers and civilians littered around the city were left after the invaders proceeded to continue their conquest. This attracted the attention of hordes of monsters that came in to feast on the rotting corpses and made it their base along the way.

[Clear Reward 0/1]

Nicholas: "Let's go."

They all went inside the portal, transferring them to the dungeon.

[Dungeon Quest]

[Monsters have made this bastion their home; find the leader of these monsters and kill it to prevent future cases of this kind of thing happening.]

They arrived at a medium-sized city, which was covered with high walls all around it. The scenery is gloomy, with ruined houses and cobbled walls all around them.

Clarice: "This site is really depressing no matter how many times we clear this dungeon."

Maria: "Well, this dungeon depicts ruined cities; of course the scenery would be depressing."

Nicholas: "Enough chit-chat; we should focus on clearing the dungeon. We should aim to kill a large number of monsters before proceeding to the castle in the west bank."

Maria: "Master, I have observed from our previous runs that most of the monsters are concentrated on the north-west side of the city. It would be best to lure and bait as many monsters in one of the open areas and eliminate them all simultaneously."

Nicholas looked at Clarice to confirm her opinion. Clarice understood Nicholas's look and nodded him, confirming that she is on board with Maria's plan.

Nicholas: "Okay, let's proceed with your plan."

The trio headed to the northwest area and looked for the largest open area; it didn't take that much time since they already knew the possible locations. They just compared each open area to the amount of monsters nearby. At the end, they scouted several open areas with 30-60 monsters roaming there.

Nicholas: "So, here's the plan. We will target the smallest open area first; by counting, there is an approximate smallest horde of 30…"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Nicholas began talking about the plans on how they will eliminate 20 horde. The first is luring the enemies to a certain location. Monsters often avoid and maintain appropriate distance with each other, so Nicholas and Clarice will summon [Earth puppets] and [Fire mimic] to lure as many monsters as they can into the designated position. Second would be setting up traps for the monster's arrival. Nicholas and Maria had learned several kinds of skills that would compensate for their lack of manpower; these are often Area of Effect skills or trapping skills. Third is clean up the monsters in the area where they would set up the trap, which they are on their way now.

Clarice: "I think that would be the best place to set up the traps." She pointed to a space that had the fewest monsters but had a large area.

Maria: "Yeah, the walls on the side would serve as a choke point so that monster wouldn't escape our barrage."

Since everyone agreed at the place, they went to work and cleaned up the place of monsters.

[Bi-horn Lv.25]

[Power Level – 14,050]

[Moss Rag rat Lv.20]

[Power Level: 7,000]

There was about one bi-horn and six rag rats in the vicinity. The bi-horn looks like a dark-reddish hairy ox with a large curly horn that will surely puncture armor if it hits anyone, while the moss rag rats look like large-green disgusting rats with buck teeth outside their mouths. Their size is enormous, ranging from a meter up to a meter and a half in length.

Nicholas: "Let's dispatch these monsters quickly."

Nicholas and Maria started casting their long-range skills, while Clarice went on standby before rushing to the bi-horn.

Maria used [Wind Cutter], she summoned three crescent-shaped wind blades that rushed to 3 different rats, while Nicholas created some stone daggers using [Earth manipulation] and used his [Dagger throw] skills to hit the remaining moss rats.

*Puchi* *Puchi* *Puchi*

Their skills accurately manage to kill the closest three moss rats in their position since they caught them off guard. The rest were able to dodge the projectile since they were farther away from the three unfortunate rats, which gave them time to dodge the skills.

Now that their location was revealed, Clarice began her confrontation with the bi-horn. Meanwhile, Nicholas summoned [Earth puppets] to support Clarice and protect Maria from the moss rats. Maria cast [Wind arrow] and [Wind siphon] on a moss rat to prevent the rat from dodging the attack.

Nicholas: "I'll deal with the rest of the moss rats; go help Clarice with the bihorn."

Maria: "Copy that, Master."

Clarice was confronting the bi-horn; she dodged the direct attacks from the horn since she wouldn't be able to defend head-on. The bi-horn while packing a power with its attacks lacks speed, even worse when compared to Clarice while she is using [lighting rush]. She was able to dodge each attack perfectly and dish her own counters when necessary. On top of that, there are earth puppets supporting her in this battle. It was quite an easy task to defeat this kind of enemy for her in one-on-one battle.

*Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash*

*Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash*

She was accurately slashing the bi-horn skin, slowly wounding it until it slowed down significantly. She was waiting for the perfect chance to deal a lethal blow while dodging continuously. And after a while, the bi-horn lost its patience since it could not hit her and decided to channel its best attack. The problem is that it took some time for the bi-horn to cast its ability, making it a chance for Clarice to end the battle.

*STAB* *STAB* *STAB*

She used her skill [blade dance] to perform several stabs to the vital parts that were covered earlier. She followed up with a [flame slash] to deal a lethal blow to the bi-horn.

*GROOOOOAN* The monster wailed in pain as it was on its last breath.

Clarice: "That was easy." She slashed her sword downward to get rid of the blood in her sword.

Maria: "[Wind cutter], Clarice, lookout, the groan of the bi-horn attracted some more monsters."

It did attract some monsters, but they both immediately dispatched them all in a few minutes.

Nicholas: "That was the last. *phew*" He wiped his forehead of imaginary sweat.

Nicholas: "Okay, let's set up the trap. Maria, let's go, and Clarice, you should gather the useful parts of the monster."

Maria and Clarice: "Roger"

Both of them replied, and they began their duty. Nicholas and Maria set up the traps using their own skills [Plume Bomb] and [Frozen Prison].

Nicholas used [Plume Bomb] on inconspicuous areas on the entrance where the monster would come from. Plume Bomb is a great skill that Nichola got from the system skill selector. It requires learning both nature and poison element skills in order to be learned. Then it allows the caster to plant a poisonous mine that, when stepped on, will cause an explosion of spores that will paralyze and slightly poison a small area.

Maria, on the other hand, used [Frozen Prison] at the center of the entrance to capture as many monsters as she could using the skill. This is a supportive ice elemental skill that will lock monsters in a certain area when she activates it.

Both of them deployed the maximum number of traps they are capable of using; at the end, they were able to deploy a dozen traps in total.

…

15 minutes after they fully set up the traps

They are currently waiting on the other side of a ruined wall, trying to conceal their presence when the ground started lightly shaking. Far away from them but still in sight, they saw a brown and red silhouette being followed by a horde of almost 30 monsters.

Nicholas: "Maria, wait on deploying the frozen prison until most of the monsters arrive on the choke point. Clarice, you and me will handle the paralyzed monster first, then let's fight head-on with the rest later."

Maria: "Should I help you with killing the rest?"

Nicholas: "Do at your own discretion, but prioritize the monsters that may escape the frozen prison. Do you guys agree?"

Maria and Clarice: "Roger"

With Nicholas instructions, they waited for the monsters to arrive at the entrance of the chokepoint, where they set up their trap.

*BoOm* *BoOm* *Screech* *BoOm* *BoOm**Screeak* *BoOm*

And when they heard several explosions and screams of monsters.

Nicholas: "Maria, deploy the trap!"