Jim looks over his party and sighs. That last patrol didn’t end up dropping any equipment, not that they were depending on it doing so or even hoping that it would. Still, it would have been nice to get something to equip Jay with. Though admittedly, his leather armor was of better quality than everyone else’s normal armor, but at least for the moment the dungeon based stuff was the best available.

Besides that, though, the patrol did end up dropping quite a large amount of non-equipment including a trio of health potions. Two of which were coagulants and the other a flesh mender. Good stuff, even if he did question why they couldn’t just make a more generic healing potion like what was in pre-system games.

Jim shakes his head and refocuses. Without a second party to support them, completing this floor was going to be tough and require new strategies. Until now, people had mostly given up when they realized that after killing the second patrol the other three would be called back to the walled town. Not an impenetrable defense, but definitely not easy for six people to handle.

Good thing that more people have taken up the mantle of healer or this might have been a hard stop for much too long. There were even a couple core members, Mos and Justin Smith, who took up the role. Though Doctor was going to be the best in Wolf’s Rest for a long time. There was just something about having a pre-system medical degree that boosted his abilities.

So much so, in fact, that Ace had a standing order to gather as many pre-system medical books as possible. Though that was true for most things honestly. Every scrap of pre-system knowledge was being hoarded by the town at the moment. Not necessarily to keep to themselves so much, but rather to preserve it until needed. A book on how transistors worked didn’t exactly benefit anyone at the moment. In the future, though? They could be the key to some kind of amazing magitech device.

Without pause, Jim leads his team around the perimeter of the floor. Sure, there was only a single gate into kobold town. That didn’t mean they had to use it. Not that this was the first time Jim had thought of this. Rather, until now, they had kept the plan under their hats because of one helpful reaction that the kobolds currently had.

Whenever they called back the patrols to guard kobold town, they would also call in all the animals. Animals that in normal times would act as an early warning system in case someone tried to sneak up behind the town. After today, though, the animals likely weren’t going to be kept inside anymore. Both a blessing and a curse.

With them out and about, this tactic wouldn’t work anymore. On the other hand, it would allow teams to slowly pick away at the animals without having to face them as part of a full on assault of the gate. Because if there was one thing the kobolds didn’t do anymore, it was send out the animals first in one large stampede.

Now behind the kobold town, Jim peaks out from a tunnel. There is a single kobold on the wall, but they aren’t there to patrol. Rather, it looks more like they had just decided to walk around a little to stretch their legs and so soon left to join back up with the other defenders at the gate.

Jim gestures to the rest of his team, and they all begin to sneak up to the wall. The very wooden wall. And they have Zach with them, a proficient wood mage. Yeah, once they reached said wall it didn’t exactly stop them.

Of course, once they were in the kobold town, things got a lot more dangerous. Over time, the place had gotten more elaborate with every building having a second story and the back alleys being quite the maze. Jim was particularly frustrated with this natural feature of a kobold warren as while it provided a tight space so they wouldn’t get overwhelmed, it also allowed the kobolds to come at them from any direction once the group gets discovered.

Not that they are going to go shouting their presence. As far as Jim is concerned, they can stay hidden for the rest of the floor. While unlikely, Susan goes a long way towards allowing this as the moment they are into the town she vanishes into the sprawl. There aren’t many kobolds just walking around right now, but any that are won’t be soon enough.

With Susan otherwise occupied, Jim leads the rest of the party into one of the ever so slightly too short buildings to hide out. It wouldn’t do much good for Susan to go off if the party instantly gets found out. Though they don’t have to wait long before she returns.

Though the frown on her face doesn’t exactly point towards good tidings. Susan sighs, “They are mostly sticking to the gate right now. I guess we wouldn’t have gotten in so easily if not for that, but it also means there weren’t many out and about for me to pick off. Not to say I didn’t get any. But compared to the horde at the gate one kobold with a small herd of 5 goats and a lone wind wolf sniffing around isn’t exactly moving the needle.”

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Doctor shrugs, “I’m sure in the future you will be able to have a lot more fun with this floor. For now though, any of them down is another that isn’t going to be attacking us later.”

Jim nods, “Plus, it isn’t like they have reinforcements coming. That kobold, wolf, and those goats aren’t being replaced. Now, what did you see out there?”

Susan gestures in the gate's direction, “Like I said, they’re all guarding the gate. More specifically, the animals are mostly gathered in a large open area next to the gate, the ranged attackers are of course on the wall, and everyone else is spread through the nearby houses. Oh, and there are traps. Simple stuff like tripwires and pitfalls, but suffice it to say, the kobolds haven’t left the rest of the town completely undefended.”

Jim shakes his head at the last bit. “Those traps sure are a nuisance. Anyway, did you spot the boss? If we don’t beat her, the shortcut isn’t unlocked.”

Susan chuckles at that, “I guess I did skip mentioning where she was. So there is this throne, right smack dab in the middle of that open space. The boss is, of course sitting on said throne in the middle of all the animals with six beefy goats flanking her.

“Like, I didn’t really notice it in the past, but with all the animals standing around, those goats are stacked! Just under a head taller than the other goats and tough as nails. Not that they should offer too much of a problem for us, but it does look kind of silly next to the other goats.”

Zach snorts, “Those are likely just higher level than the rest. If the dungeon put them as a sort of honor guard for the boss, it would only make sense.”

Jim shrugs, “Either way, it doesn’t really change my plan. Since we can’t do a boss rush, we will need to start somewhere we can defend from while still having a way out. That is going to mean next to the outer wall. Susan, you will guide us to a good spot. Though make sure we can spend a little bit of time unnoticed. There is still a little preparation we need to make.”

Such a spot was easy enough to get to though did involve stepping over and around a handful of the previously mentioned traps. Once there, Jim has Zach do a bit of modification. Stuff that everyone considered to be quite clever.

First on the list of changes was creating an escape route. This involved Zach hollowing out a section of the wall and leaving the inner and outer layer connected to the rest of the structure by only a few points. This not only made it so that a slight shove would allow the group to escape the kobold town, but provided material for the next bit.

That of spreading a lattice cover over their heads. It wasn’t some solid wall of wood, there wasn’t near enough material for that. It, however, was enough that projectiles would be screened. Sure, stuff could still get through, but some would be blocked while allowing the party to see if any sneaky kobolds had decided to take the high ground. As a bonus, Zach used any spare material to block up the windows above them.

The third and final change was to partially block off the direction they came from. Their location was more of a sharp corner alley than anything else, which meant there were two ways in. Zach didn’t completely block off the second way that was directed away from the gate. Rather, he just bowed the walls out enough that they would have to file through one at a time. For the kobolds that would probably allow two at a time if they squeezed, but Jim figured it would be enough to slow them down without forcing them to think of an alternate way to get to the party.

Then, with preparations in place, Jim gets the party started with a loud shout. See, the alley they are in continues a short distance forward until it meets with the open area with all the animals in it but the angle of the path’s curve is so sharp they are out of sight. Convenient for blocking even more of the ranged threats and also means that it doesn’t take long for the kobolds to realize where the enemy party has gotten to.

Though the first around the corner isn’t any of the kobolds. No, the animals had been getting restless and Susan had killed one of the herders who had been keeping them under control. In fact, the first to attack are the wind wolves, now down to just four. Their elemental nature allowed them to pinpoint the location the shout had come from and speed ahead of the rest.

An unfortunate situation for them. They aren’t weak, but just the floor before involved fighting through a den of wolves. Anyone that has made it to the boss floor will be more than versed in how to handle a handful of wolves in a tight corridor so the fight itself isn’t all that interesting. What is a twist on things is what happens after they are dead, but before the next batch of enemies arrive.

Sure, the corpses of dungeon monsters will fade away with time. Jim just figures that time might not be quick enough to prevent the area from clogging up. This is easy enough to fix with Zach around. The walls on both sides physically reach out and grab the bodies, drawing them into the buildings. If they win, the party will be able to go and grab the loot and if they don’t? Well, they won’t have time to worry about things like wolf pelts and goat meat.

Then the next wave of monsters arrive, though calling it a wave is a bit of a misnomer. Rather, it was the rest of the monsters as one big blob. They hadn’t really been prepared to fight within their own town, at least not like this and so the kobolds fell back on mob tactics.

Not the easiest thing to face, but the chosen location really benefited Jim’s party. Even the small touches, like restricting the other direction, quickly came into play and proved their worth as all the dagger wielding kobolds seemed to have the same idea and had gone for a flank. They, of course, soon died and were swept to the side by Zach.