“Clive can deal with the fire crows by himself, but we should use this chance to get used to fighting the fire crows as we advance. Just take one of them down per fight, Clive.”
“All right.
It was a bit bothersome for the fact that I couldn’t do my best for now, but it was fine. We were acting and planning with the future in mind, after all. Once they get used to the situation, they will do a better job and will be able to deal with the monsters when I am resting.
In another aspect, that also proved that I could hold my own in this section alone. Using Rapid Fire every battle would be a bit too much consuming of stamina, but I had some experience to use and improve my stamina regeneration. Besides, just using it two times and then dealing with the other monster normally could do the trick too.
“What is the path, Clarice?”
“They are pretty faint since not many people come to this section, and there aren’t many of the footprints either. So, I might make a mistake now and then.”
“It is fine.”
Clarice nodded at Jalal’s words and then she proceeded to check the surroundings. I also had to make my own map of this section, so it was fine. If we found some dead ends, we would need them to camp, after all.
We used our ordinary formation to dispose of the fire crows. I disposed of one of them and then Clarice wounded two others with her arrows. She seemed a bit annoyed that she couldn’t do the same as me, but not enough to complain out loud.
I wondered if I should give her my frost-enchanted arrows. That would do the trick. We, as a team, didn’t plan much for this run since we imagined that we would need two or three more to reach the next boss. That was the original plan, but things changed since some of us were being watched.
I solved the problems of the heat and stuffy air with my bow, so it seemed that we would be fine for a while… I had other countermeasures if things got more difficult, but it was better not to solve them immediately, the group needed to get mentally stronger too.
In any case, thanks to Clarice’s help, we found the next floor after half an hour, and just as I had expected, its length had been around two kilometers already. It was different from the other places I explored.
‘I guess in this one, the nine floors between the bosses will be multiplied by the number of the section… that will determine the length of the floors.’
With some luck and if the battles didn’t get too hard, I imagined that we would have the chance to reach the boss in two days. However, it was hard to believe that we would become strong enough as a team to deal with the boss of the fire crows. Those three mentioned that only three parties so far managed to defeat the boss.
One hour before sunset, we found the entrance to the fourth floor and decided to camp in front of it. We didn’t notice the strength of the fire crows increasing on the previous floors, so it was clear that the difficulty would spike up in the next one. It was better to recover before trying the fourth floor.
“We did well so far, and we aren’t getting overwhelmed by the environment thanks to the effects of Clive’s bow. With some luck, perhaps we can reach the seventh floor tomorrow.”
Everyone nodded at Jalal’s words. Getting the materials from the fire crows was a lot easier since we just had to pluck the feathers. We only needed the ones of a certain length, and they only had a few that had any type of magical effects. They were mainly on their heads and tails.
“Did you schedule another run, Clive?”
“No.”
Jalal blinked while thinking about that a few times… he only now realized that I was truly determined to conquer the second section of the dungeon in this run. It seemed a bit out of character. I was aware of it.
“Are you in a hurry for some reason?”
Rebecca asked while trying to stay composed as usual, but I could tell that she was a bit surprised and suspicious. This kind of behavior was indeed odd. One could think of all possibilities, like I had done something wrong or I was running away after doing a crime or something similar. The explanations were endless. Maybe I should just be truthful here…
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“Well, more people are coming to the dungeon, so I figured out that this would be my best chance to achieve my goal here. It won’t be efficient to stay here for months to only get a few classes.”
While that was true, they also knew that they were getting a lot of experience there… I was essentially going against the current, since everyone assumed that the first option was the better one.
“I understand what you are thinking, but I hope that you can listen to us if we decide together to take our time getting stronger in this section before facing the boss.”
“Of course, I have my own goals, but I am not planning to let any of you suffer for it.”
We had supplies for ten days, and this was only the first day. There was no reason to hurry up that much. Staying here for that long was within my plans as well, so it was fine.
The parties at the frontline of dungeon exploration were all part of large clans, and that gave them a serious advantage. These clans had other support teams whose entire job was to bring in fresh supplies and transport any loot or materials back to the surface. That way, the main exploration teams could stay focused on pushing deeper into the dungeon without worrying about running out of resources or carrying heavy loads themselves.
We, on the other hand, didn’t have that luxury. Without the backing of a big clan, we had to do everything on our own, gathering materials, managing our supplies, and hauling whatever we collected. It meant we couldn’t push as hard or fast as those teams that had full support systems. We had to take it slow and be cautious. It made things tougher for us, especially when I wanted to move ahead quickly. But that was the reality of not having the same resources behind us.
In any case, I offered to take a good part of the night in guard duty since I could deal with the fire crows on my own and the others agreed to it. We could try to split the watch in three turns, as long as Rebecca had the chance to use my mana, but we decided to use two groups instead. The main reason for that was that it would be a pain for the middle group to wake up to fight and then fall asleep again. So, they took my place at round three in the morning. I got almost ten thousand experience points thanks to it… I couldn’t help but grin. Rapid Fire also reached level five.
Rapid Fire Lv 05: Launch a quick series of three arrows at the target, dealing damage equal to your dexterity in a rapid succession of shots. Cost: 20.8 Stamina
The cost increased a bit, but I also noticed that it became easier to use the skill as it leveled up. Sometimes, I would get my shoulders hurt by firing arrows that fast, but it was happening less and less often.
After breakfast, we headed to the next floor and soon enough; we found a pack of six fire crows moving toward us. I used Rapid Fire and then got rid of half of them immediately. Clarice and Rebecca used their bows and then wounded the remaining fire crows. While the beasts were falling, Jalal and Gao finished them off, but the last enemy was able to use fireball one last time. Gao blocked the attack with his spear, but his hands were too close to the impact and his fingers got some nasty burn marks.
“Sorry…”
Rebecca apologized while she was using the ointment on Gao’s wounds and the rest of us gathered the feathers from the corpses of the monsters. It looked like she felt guilty since that was the crow she targeted. Perhaps if she had caused more damage, the monster wouldn’t have had the chance to attack.
“It wasn’t your fault. Besides, you already covered for us countless times. We wouldn’t be coming to the dungeon expecting to not get hurt a few times.”
While he said that, Gao’s hands were still shaking, and he was sweating cold a bit thanks to the pain. That made him a lot less convincing. We had two options to avoid that kind of issue. Since Rebecca’s dexterity should be low without any multipliers, we could have used my mana. I wasn’t using it anyway… She also could use frost-enchanted arrows. That would solve the problem, but only for as long as I am around. She will have to make some investments for when I am no longer around.
“Things will get a bit harder now, but we don’t have to worry. Let’s just work together and things will be fine.”
Everyone nodded at Jalal’s words and then we began to move again. It looked like they were fine with me dealing with half of the monsters for now. If things continue to stay dicey, I will have to kill more of them, but it was fine with me.
“Be careful.”
I grabbed Jalal and Gao by the shoulders all of a sudden, and then two holes of steam suddenly expelled a huge deal of steam in front of them. They gulped when they realized that they almost got hit by those… there were a lot more of those than on the previous floors.
“It looks like we will have to slow down a bit while we explore this part of the section. Can you two notice when those holes are about to expel the steam?”
Clarice and I nodded. We got used to them and they emitted a weak pitching sound before they were about to do that. Fortunately, they didn’t show up in areas where we were fighting. Regardless, that slowed us down a lot. When we had to take a break for lunch, we just found the entrance to the next floor.
Thanks to that, we were a lot less talkative than before. The effects of my bow were getting weaker as well and, by my estimation, the nineteenth floor will be the same as the eleventh floor when we experienced it for the first time.
All of a sudden, Clarice clicked her tongue and looked in the direction of the main path of the dungeon. We were resting at a dead end, so that made everyone frown a bit. Before long, I heard some footsteps and then the others did the same. Then, we found a group of Elves showing up. They looked in our direction and then began to walk toward us.