Chapter 27
It only took a few minutes for Z and the Knights to finish clearing the entry to the dungeon of the remaining Dickens. Despite being overcome by a swarm of dickens, Oak was actually in a relatively good mood. Everyone had smiles on their faces, actually, and laughter could be felt in the somewhat stale air of the first floor. Being situated in an underground cave, the farm-based floor had always had a strange mixture of what James figured was a farm-like, animal smell, combined with strange spices and sulfur.
“Are we sure those were only level 50?” the tank asked as they finished looting the corpses. With the coast clear, James and the others, all of the squishy magic type members of the party, made their way into the dungeon properly. Once they’d all stepped foot onto the grassy terrain, the door behind them closed, floating strangely in midair to signal the exit to the floor. The path to the second floor was further in the dungeon, situated in the big red barn.
“That’s what their tags claim.” Z said as he gave badgey’s head a scratch. The intelligent, fiercely dressed pet leaned into it, while at the same time it growled like a rabid beast, eying everyone with dangerous intent, daring them to say anything. Badgers, James had learned, gave zero fucks.
“They do double their stats when they’re in flocks,” James offered up, “and if I had to guess, this ‘git gud’ mode as Steve called it probably gives them additional skills and whatnot.” Totally not a guess.
“You’re probably right,” Z looked at the others, “which means we need to be on our guard for the rest of the floor. Looks like the Dickens have been upgraded with whatever that crazy long distance leap was, and a fire breath,” he looked at Oak, grinning a bit. “Never thought you’d be cooked to death by a white hot stream of fire from a dicken, did you?”
Oak threw the piece of dicken meat he was eating at Z. Before the projectile could hit the man, Badgey’s sword shot up, the flat end intercepting the meat, causing it to drop into the creature’s waiting mouth. Badgey let out a burp, and flashed all his teeth in a wicked smile towards Oak.
“It’s no doubt those Swiner’s are likely plague engines of some sort.” Z pointed at the very obvious, fifteen foot, bloated, bipedal pigs. “Not sure about the Sacrificial Lambs.” There was a flock of the black and red wooled creatures lazily munching on the grass a good hundred or so yards away. Past that, James could see the obsidian skinned Mad Cows, their fiery horns giving them extra cool factor even at a distance.
“And I bet you those damned goats are even more annoying,” Elm added, pointing with his bow to where two Scape Goats were in the process of head butting each other. They were surrounded by another flock of dickens, with a Swiner towering over them, and a sleeping Mad Cow. The floor was more densely populated than previously, as James had been given double the number of mob points to use for hard mode.
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Back when DCO had first started, and he was a Tier 1 Rank 1 dungeon, he’d had 100 mob points for his first floor. The moment he’d become Tier 2, his first floor had a total of 200 mob points. Now, his hard version of the floor had 400 mob points. When your highest costing mob was only 5 points… 400 points went a long, long way. And that wasn’t even adding in the fact that the system was programmed to ensure for every adventurer on the floor, each creature would gain an additional respawn opportunity.
“It’s safe to assume they’ve all got new skills,” Z reiterated, “meaning we should try to use ranged attacks to aggro them in small groups, so we can figure out how they’ve been upgraded.” He looked over everyone, “past that, I’m sure Old Man Jenkins has some new tricks too, and is likely an even higher level.”
The elf turned his focus back to James and Rue, who’d been listening quietly. James had smile on his face, though the grotesque gargoyle features of his Archon class likely hid what it truly was. Rue, on the other hand, had both her fangs showing by how wide her smile was.
“Now that we’re here, anything else to share with the class?” Z asked with a raised eyebrow, his tone amused. “Or do you plan to stand back and watch us get dicken piled again?”
“You know we can’t share any secrets,” Rue replied, her tone a mixture of sweet and sultry, “and you have to admit, that battle was enjoyable.” She pointed at Z then, “besides, you’re all over 30 levels higher than these mobs. Telling you anything extra would really just be overkill, wouldn’t it? Where’s the fun in that?”
Z smiled, and James saw the look in his eyes. The look the leader was famous for. The look that said he was about to throw caution to the wind, in the name of chasing a fun challenge.
“She’s right, you know,” Z said, causing his teammates to grown. “Sure that was a hectic battle, but we are extremely high leveled for this floor.” He looked down at badgey, and then up towards Turk, the giant eagle circling in lazy loops above them, scanning the floor. “Do you guys want to play it safe and slow, or take this on with reckless abandon like the good ol days?”
“Are you really wanting to YOLO it against these demonic farm animals?” Faust asked, being a sort of voice of reason. “After all we’ve seen of this game and its monster types, do you really want to give the dungeon the chance to unleash even more chaos on us?”
“Yes,” Z said with a chuckle. “We took to the sixth floor in a cautious manner. We’ve already died since then, and don’t have any experience worth worrying over losing. And I’m sure Nyx and Rue would prefer we take this floor on face first, rather than play it slow and safe. After all, they’re looking to level, and we can’t do that quickly, till we’re facing some higher-level foes.”
James looked at Rue, mentally trying to send her his approval for her words. She’d been gentle, but her nudge had been all that was needed to move the group to a faster clearing plan. One that would ensure not only the most chaotic, ridiculous encounters possible, but also, a faster clear rate to get them moving along to later floors, where James would be able to discuss what he needed to with Z in a more discreet manner.
“If we’re going the reckless route,” James cut Z and the others off. The Knight’s weren’t arguing over being safe or not now. They were discussing who should tank, Hornz or Oak, and also, which group to fight first. “I think its time we bring back the final member of our party.”
Oak looked immediately at James, pure joy on his face, “Steve is…” he trailed off, his excitement still there, but faded slightly, as he noticed James’s finger pointing towards the ground, where a massive, swirling summoning sigil had appeared.
“It’s time to bring Ifrit out to play.”