Chapter 13

The next twenty minutes of the dive was, while entertaining, not overly exciting. The Knights had decided to explore the passage in front of them first, rather than continuing with the ‘follow the left wall’ strategy. Once they came to the massive opening with another Chem-Era, they defeated the mob and backtracked to the entrance. From there, they went down the path on the right, and confirmed, after a bit of a walk, that the third path, just like the other two, led initially to a room with a Chem-Era.

They dispatched the third mob with ease. As had always been a trait of the veteran adventurers, they learned quickly, and picked up on the attack patterns and skills of a mob. This let them work out the best strategy for a battle in a relatively quick time. Whereas the first battle against the Chem-Era had caused them to blow powerful cooldowns to overcome the mob, the third battle saw not a single cool down spent.

Instead, they went with a more… practical… attack pattern.

And by practical, James meant they’d gone with cheese tactics. Since they’d figured out focusing down a single head was the most effective way to defeat the boss, it came down to a matter of which head to focus. The answer, by all logic, was the serpent head that acted as the tail of the Chem-Era.

When they focused on the lion or the goat head, all three heads, in turn, had the ability to strike at whoever held aggro. That strategy also allowed the snake head, with its agility and increased length, to make strikes and attacks from different angles, as well as lash out as needed at other adventurers. Combined with the lion paws of the creature, and its other available skills, taking the Chem-Era head on at the front, was the hardest possible path.

So, they initiated battle by using Z’s pets to initiate battle. Hornz was sent in to grab hold of the serpent head from the back of the mob, while Turk the Eagle dropped atop the creature’s back, dispatching a feral Badgy to begin hacking at the base of the tail, while Turk did what he could as well.

Then they’d send in a very disgruntled Oak, to aid in pinning down the serpent tail, while Faust and Med Ic utilized snares to keep the Chem-Era from rotating around. They also kept spells at the ready to disperse the breath attacks of the mob, with Z and Elm focusing all of their precision damage and high penetrating strikes on the serpent neck.

Once they finished off that particular head, the Chem-Era itself because a rather easy mob to take down. It became a… somewhat embarrassing for the giant creature, game of ring-around-the rosy honestly. The players just kept striking at the back and body of the mob, staying behind it, while it bounced and bounded and tried to turn to strike. With Hornz and Oak each applying taunts from either side of the back end of the mob, they could essentially keep it immobile in such a way that made the battle painfully easy.

James took notes. So many notes, of how the Knights embarrassed his mob. There was obviously nothing he could do right now. But he did have two upgrade points for the Chem-Era at the moment. And he had every intention of taking care of some of the more obvious weaknesses and flaws the mob had, a little later down the road. He was pretty sure there had been an upgrade path for the mob that involved… missiles, which James figured could ensure the mob would be able to hit the pesky targets, even if they stuck to its flanks and rear.

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Not that James was particularly vengeful, mind you, when it came to his mobs. Just that… he was proud of making a dungeon that was challenging. And if his mobs got abused too easily, well, what type of Dungeon Core would he be, if he didn’t shore up their weaknesses. Besides, doing just that, would force adventurers to figure out new strategies, and force them to adapt. Keeping the floor ever changing, and the difficulty continuing to increase, was what would keep it fresh.

At least, that’s what he told himself to justify the plans he was making. By the time they’d finished off the third Chem-Era, and were taking a celebratory dicken break, James was all but certain he’d also be adding in a troop of J-Kappa’s, or maybe a hidden Fogeyman or two if other players and guilds treated his Chem-Era the same way. If the players wanted to resort to cheese tactics, well, James could do that too.

He mentally looked around the dungeon as the Knights ate their fried Dicken, unconsciously licking his lips as his mouth watered for the spicy meat. James was curious which route the Knights would take next. Would they go all the way back, and start on the left path again? That would see them facing the J-Kappas and Fogeyman. But if they continued on their current path, the rightmost path from the entrance of the dungeon, they’d be facing against his When-Wolfs.

Beside that, past the When-Wolfs, there was a Solem, and then, more interestingly, one of the mysterious Orb Mini-bosses. In particular, the green orb, which was the Orb of Poison. Each of the three paths, by design, led to a different Orb. The left path led to the Orb of Flames. The middle, the Orb of Frost. And the right, the Orb of Poison. Though their location in the labrynth, past that, varied quite a bit.

The Orb of Poison was the easiest and closest to the players as it stood. While the Orb of Frost, the furthest away. And not just distance wise technically. A loud crack echoed through the dungeon, as the Jormun-Grander bit down into the Orb of Frost. The labyrinth shuddered, as the boss instantly grew in size, the length of its body shooting forward a good fifteen feet, its enlarging head crashing through one of the labyrinth walls before it orientated itself to the left, following the path of least resistance.

James’s attention was immediately drawn to it, as he saw its scales shimmer, the feathers around its head shimmering with newfound light. A faint blue hue was applied to the scales, and the feathers sparkled, as every single one became coated in ice. At the base of the massive boss, tendrils of ice snaked outwards, climbing the walls, freezing everything around it. Its body heaved and shuddered, and then James watched as a good foot of ice encased it, covering it with protective armor. The sound it produced as it moved, was that of cracking ice. The impending doom of an avalanche, or an iceberg preparing to calve.

He moved his attention away from the transformed boss, knowing full well that it’s stats had been boosted by quite a bit thanks to its consumption of the Orb of Frost, and focused once again on the Knights. They were all white as, well, snow, and appeared to be reading a notification. Before he could ask Steve what notification they’d received, Elm read the notification aloud, disbelief, surprise, and worry, in his voice.

“An Orb of Power has been consumed by the Jormun-Grander,” he said. James noticed frost in the air as he spoke and realized the temperature in the dungeon had dropped when the boss had consumed the Orb. “Ragnarök draws nearer, as the World-Gorger continues its feast.”

The Knights all looked at each other silently. Everyone seemed to process the information, but it was Oak who broke the silence first.

“That’s it,” he shook his head, “I’m in hell.” He looked at the others, his face going, impossibly honestly, white. “Of all the types of bosses,” he sighed. It was a defeated sound, “this one had to be the freaking World Serpent.”

Elm walked over to his brother, patting him gently on the shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better,” Elm said softly, a small smile on his face. “Considering what level the mobs are on this floor… if we do come across it, well, we’ll all die pretty quickly.”