Topside, I found myself entering the closest tavern.

Hembree had me rotate out. The Duke wanted to tackle the next tunnel with only his men to “see how they’d fare”, but Hembree did mention that the Duke’s pride was bruised with how fast we cleared the beginning portion of section 1 along with the first offshoot. I was fine with it. On my way out, I had paid the repair fee for the other robot.

Upon leaving the dungeon, I had the robots go about picking the stones from the monsters. This freed up more manpower to funnel do the frontline, and I found that the moment one of the robots picked up the stones, it was immediately deposited into my account.

Back to the tavern situation – since the adventurers had dropped the ball from the beginning of the siege, they were relegated to the support divisions. They were nothing more than glorified man power. Which, from my understanding, should have been their position to begin with. That was what they originally were to begin with.

So, that would’ve been a tactical fumble on all our parts.

But I reasoned it was more on these useless people’s heads more than ours. They knew exactly what we were going to do, and signed up to do it.

“Hey, Mercy!” Renel called out from the corner table where her team had basically struck up camp.

Odd seeing fantasy people setting up corner camp like they were homeless people under an underpass. Matter of factly, the tavern looked more like an homeless encampment. It also smelled like goblin still.

“This place reeks.” I sneered as I looked at the trashed establishment.

She shrugged. “Unforntately, no ale service here.”

“Looks like no service,” I said back.

Renel smirked before ushering me into what was basically curtains nailed to the roof to divide their team from the other teams. That was what the other adventurers did as well, but with just pushing wood into dividing lines.

“You all look like hobos rather than competent adventurers,” I commented.

“Our dearest leader has also commented on that as well,” Grimes said. “But accommodations are poor. Also, the shitty co-workers over there woke us from our rest with their petty little arguments. I feel like we’re in an vagabond camp as well.”

“Bullshit aside, whats up?” Renel asked.

“Need you guys.” I said. “I was hoping to have you guys get a few more hours of rest before I pulled you in, but it looks like we’re going to need tanks.”

“What happened?” Grimes asked.

“Nearly lost one of these little guys?” I pointed to the wyvern above my head.

“Ah,” Renel looked like she wanted to ask more about how the wyvern worked. “If is defensive issues, I have a few defensive spells that could temporarily empower them to withstand attacks. What hit them?”

“Mutant orcs.” I said.

Her eyes with wide. “Mutants? Are you sure?”

“Hembree confirmed it.” I said.

She went into thought for a moment then nodded. “We’re going to have to go shields first with no damage dealers at the helm. Mutants are smart.”

“I noticed. They already took one of my drones and I’m counting down a clock before these drones have to go.”

“Clock? How long?” Renel asked.

A timer was over their squad roster. “22 hours as of now.”

“22 hours? That sounds like plenty of time.” Renel said.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Maybe, but it costs a lot to get them back into the fight.” I complained. “I need them to not go down. So I need some tankers.”

“Fair enough and you are going to pay us a hefty sum,” She said.

“Mhm,” I smiled. “Time to earn it too.”

By the time we got back to the dungeon, I’d earned 2,840p in total.

Since I did, I ordered a few packs of earmuffs. They appeared at my feet as I had stopped us. I cracked open the case and started handing them out to each of the team. “So here’s the plan. Gunfire in confined spaces for those without protection will practically be the death of your hearing.” I felt bad for Hembree. I should have done this sooner. “So, wear these. Once we get to the second section, I want all the shields to the front and crouched. The robots stand behind you and firing. Renel–”

I looked at her and she nodded. “ – what kind of defense spells can you use?”

“Overshield, Stonewall, and Turn projectile.” She said.

“How does the first and last one work?” I asked.

“Overshield creates a barrier around the target that you have to break before it reaches the target. Turn Projectile is like a light barrier that sends projects back in the direction they came.” She said.

“Does it work both ways?” I asked.

“Unfortunately.” She nodded.

“Then let’s just use the first one. I think I know what the middle one uses and lets hold off on that. Any questions or concerns?” I asked.

“What are these?”

“Sound-dampening ear muffs,” I said. “And yes, it will make communications are, but it’s pretty simple. Shields just keep pushing forward. Keep at last ten feet between you and the next living monster at all times. If there is one still alive, don’t move. The robots will do most of the fighting. I’ll want Renel to cast overshield on the wyverns to keep them in the air at all times. Anything else?”

“What about the swordsmen?” Grimes asked.

“They’ll be responsible for clearing offshoots as we pass them.” I said and looked to the four swordsmen. “Can you do that?”

They all nodded.

“Then we have a plan?” I asked.

Everyone nodded.

We delved back into the tunnel and collected the robots as we passed. It took a bit until we reached the end where Hembree was. He looked concerned. He saw me and greeted me. “They just finished passing the first offshoot.”

Ah, well, their time had already been double of what it took for the first section to be cleared.

“16 soldiers dead and double the wounded.” He added. “At this rate, we’re going to run out of men before we reach the bottom.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“More mutant orcs than goblins now. I think its safe to say that after this section, there might just been all mutant orcs or worse…” He said.

“What’s worse?” I asked.

“Monsters can mutant in many ways. And if we’re encountering these kind of mutants now, then there should be stronger variations deeper in. With how they’re building fotifications and how the dungeon itself has mutated… This no longer is an F-ranked dungeon. It can easily be an A-ranked one. And this is supposed to be doubled? Yeah. We need reinforcements.”

“Preem.” I smiled.

“Preem…?” He asked.

“Don’t worry.” I waved my hand and we pushed past Hembree as I shoved his earmuffs into his hands. “Everyone get your muffs on.”

Hembree fell in line as we crossed over the small chasm. Cold air rushed downward, tickling my nose. On the other side, we picked up the pace to a jog. It took less than 5 minutes to hear the fighting. Another two before we reached the rear of the group. There were a lot of wounded. We did not offer to help.

Another two minutes and we were on the rear of the fighting.

“Cast Overshield on the wyverns!” I half turned and pointed up as I called out to Renel.

As we came to a stop, Renel muttered some words, doing her wizard or witchy thing. Within five seconds, thin purple membranes covered the drones. It was thin and allowed near-perfect visibility. With a thought, I moved them over to the remaining humans. Both of the drones opened fire. The smart munitions fluttered out, almost dancing away as they corrected their courses for their selected targets.

The continuous rapid explosions overhead startled both groups. The fighting humans were slightly more though. Hot casings rained down over them. It took a few seconds but they realized I had joined in the fray. I had the tanks push to the front with the robots in tow. The wyverns focused on anyone who looked like they were going to throw spears or anything. It did well to suppress.

With the orcs still confused on the sudden change in the fight’s dynamics, the tankers were able to establish the line in the small gap between the two sides. The orcs saw this and tried to make their push. Unfortunately for them, once the tanks had set their shields and got low behind them – they were finished.

The robots opened fire upon the monsters, cutting them down. Muzzle flashes kept a near-constant illumination as they unloaded upon the target-rich environment. I pushed up with Yang. In three seconds, all the robots would have to reload. The monsters may take that as their moment to push on us, but I wasn’t going to let them do that.

I wanted to shock and awe.

It was time to incorporate some Xi Long tactics now.

The shooting ended and as one synced unit, the robots began to reload. Switching one eye to thermal and one eye on low-light visibility, Yang and I jumped over the line. A few orcs had taken shelter behind a few body piles. Once the shooting stopped, they sprung out with war cries.

Yang liberated its head from its neck. It then pounced towards the next target. An orc that had sheltered in the doorway of this section’s first offshoot. This orc managed to land the first hit. It stabbed forward with its spear, skimming over Yang’s chest armor and losing its own arms to the robot’s blades.

I pushed forward on the front, unspooling my left monowire and allowing my SMG to hang at my side. The wire glowed in the near darkness, attracting the attention of two orcs who’d used their fellow monsters as meat shields. Both of them lunged at me with glee. The monowire spun around me, creating a beautiful orange mirage circle around me. It bit into the right one from the neck, exiting under the left armpit - then into the left’s stomach and out its thigh.

The right one went down and would die within the second. Its friend screamed though. I dispatched it with my right claws. Knife-handing it through its face before turning to the next target. Six more orcs, though each wounded. They were attempting to escape, so I didn’t bother to chase.

Using my right hand, I pulled my SMG up and opened fire. The rounds danced through the air and struck the rear most monsters before the lock-diamonds moved through the group. I reeled in the monowire just as the weapon’s action locked back. I dropped the magazine and stuck a new one in. The last of the group disappeared around the bend.

I clicked my tongue as I turned back to the humans.

All of them had agap mouths and stood there. But I didn’t have time to care. My blood was pumping and it… I wanted more kills. I wanted to kill more monsters. I was more like my brother than I thought.

I didn’t fret about that and turned to Renel, pointing to the wyverns. “Cast it again!”

She did, and I sent them all forward as I and Yang turned into the offshoot. I wanted more action. I needed more action. At first, it was tedious and a little nerve wracking. I think I found out why edgerunners did what they did.