The first floor of the nest went by in a blur, the ants too weak compared to the rapidly strengthening group to pose much of a threat or even challenge. Sabs wasn't really able to even test the new daggers and adjust to them as the opponents simply died far too quickly. Even the second floor proved to be practically routine at this point, though here Sabs and the group were definitely able to see a noticeable difference with her new weapons, as she tore through these ants with ease, barely using Dice at all while still shredding the large insects.
When the group hit the third floor is when they had to focus and actually become serious, as they were starting off with ants at their level and heading into rooms with ants above their level. These kinds of fights, even before the strength increase that getting beyond level ten would bring to beasts, were still more than dangerous enough for the attitude of the group to shift.
The first two rooms of the floor offered no surprises, and the group killed their way through them with relative ease, first two and then three level sevens really not enough against even just the three lower leveled girls. Beth's purchase really shone here, as Sabs could not only deal damage to the level sevens but, as her comfort with the new blades increased, she increasingly demolished the opposition. She had, in fact, far overtaken Kim in terms of damage, leaving her first ant a lacerated mess while Kim was still gamely swinging away at her first opponent.
Room three is where the equation changed again, though only slightly. Luckily, everyone had by now gotten used to scanning a room in the simple dungeons before engaging it, which led to them finding the fourth ant in this second to last room had leveled up to level eight. After a slightly more careful scan of the room, Kim was just about to give a quick review of the plan when Beth motioned her to stop. She then waved at the group to head back up the tunnel a little.
Once back halfway to room two of the third floor, Kim asked, "What's up? See something?"
"Just a timing issue," Beth replied with a shrug.
"What do you mean?" Soph asked a little crossly. "You know I hate having to spend even more time in this damp pit."
Beth simply pointed down towards room three again, where the group saw a level five ant trundling around the curve of the tunnel. They quickly moved forward and dispatched it, so fast that the ant barely had time to register the group before it became experience for Sabs.
"Good call Beth. I wasn't paying attention to the new ant spawns," Kim said with a slight wince, running the fingers of her left hand through her hair.
"No problem. We're all still learning; it's just that I've done this dungeon an awful lot at this point. Really got a feel for it now," Beth replied with another shrug.
The group then moved back down to the entrance to the third room, quickly deciding on the 'usual' for taking on the group of ants. Sabs volunteered to tackle the level eight first, still eager to test where her new limits lay. Beth and Blood simply stood by and watched, though Beth was thinking at this point it was time for them to fight as a team of five. The girls already being at level seven meant they weren't really getting big gains from anything but the final room, at least for now, and getting the two dungeons farmed out quickly was becoming more important than leveling.
The fight, somewhat unsurprisingly, proceeded just as smoothly as the previous two high level rooms. Sabs was able to Dice the level eight quite nicely, though the tougher ant did take more time and effort than the level sevens. The new daggers still performed quite well, the overall size and toughness increase of the ant slowing Sabs down just a little in finishing the beast.
With that room clear it was time for a rest, a far change from the first day of group fighting. Even with Soph casting relatively 'big' spells to start many of the fights, they could clear all the way to the boss room before they needed to recover mana and stamina. Blood moved over to the door to the boss room tunnel to intercept any new spawns while they rested, Beth sticking with the group.
"You guys can clean this boss room, but Blood and I will start to help on these runs now," she informed the group, Soph the only one in deep meditation.
"What's bringing that on?" Kim asked with a raised brow.
"Now that everybody is at least level seven, only the boss room really gives any noticeable experience. It does seem like a lot of people play it safe all over the universe by killing lots of same or even lower-level beasts to gain experience, but it takes a lot of time. Not much difference at this point with us joining in, and it would be nice to work on teamwork with all five of us. It's also just better that we clear these fast and get the silver so we can try to get the emblems," Beth explained.
"So, you can go train while we babysit," replied Sabs, making a rather sour face.
"Yeah, I know, I know. At least babysitting is better than guard duty," Beth tried to console, earning a frown from Sabs and a stuck-out tongue from Kim. "Look, the harder we work at this stuff, the faster we can get you guys the emblems. Once we all have emblems, we can step up our game in a number of ways. I'm going to also scout around the next couple days with Blood and see if we can find any other dungeons or things like it."
"As much as I didn't want to be part of all this, I have to admit I'm starting to have a little fun," Kim replied, adopting a slight grin. "I don't really know if this whole adventurer thing is what I wanna do with my life, but it's actually not as bad as I thought at first. It wouldn't be bad to spend at least a couple days a week just fighting through dungeons all day."
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"Yeah, I'm actually having a good time. I think being in the group really helps a lot, as well," Sabs added in.
"You just like your girlfriend checking you out while you look all cool," said Kim, to which she now got a stuck-out tongue from Sabs.
"Isn't there anything else you can get from that place you keep going to? Don't they know about dungeons?" asked Soph as she finally opened her eyes, done with refilling her mana for now.
"Maybe; I can check today when I stop in. Baelvyr did mention something about finding Trials, so I assumed they were something that appeared, kinda like dungeons. I'll see if I can find him today and ask," Beth replied, grabbing Soph by the arm and easily lifting her off the floor before gently setting her down on her feet.
"Alright, boss room, then wolf time," Kim said as they walked over to join Blood, the massive wolf giving a soft bark, as if to affirm Kim's plan.
The five made their way down to the boss room, finding as they stopped outside that nothing here had changed. Two level eight common ants and a level nine princess greeted them, and they immediately went with the same plan of attack, with Beth and Blood moving in close but not engaging.
The fight here yet again went on to demonstrate the difference that good equipment could add. Unlike the day before, when Beth had to briefly step in to relieve the pressure on Kim, she didn't even need to step forward today. Though it still took some time compared to the lower leveled ants, Sabs was now able to singlehandedly turn a level eight ant into chopped liver in a one-on-one. This allowed her to more quickly come to Kim's aid, also bringing that little bit more strength to eviscerate the boss without Beth or Blood having to assist.
The girls were also starting to learn just how long a short fight could seem. The intensity of the three of them fighting against the boss room had them dancing along the razor's edge the entire time. In this sort of circumstance, the fight felt like it lasted an hour, but in reality, the boss and her two guards were dead in under two minutes, the three lower-leveled girls' growing coordination shining through, particularly in the beautiful two-on-one Kim and Sabs executed against the boss.
Kim motioned for the group to rest for a moment, but Soph flatly refused, not wanting to linger a second longer than absolutely necessary in the damp nest. The five made their way up and out, only stopping to rest for a few minutes at the base of the nest on the large couple of rocks at the edge of the little copse.
Once they were rested, they were up and skirting around the neighborhood, heading down into wolf territory. Unlike their natural counterparts, it was made clear from the wolves in particular that low level beasts lost all hesitancy, even having a driving urge to fight. This morning, for example, the girls killed their way across the fields to the Breeding Ground and, though it was quick, had killed nearly a dozen quite low-level wolves before reaching their destination.
The girls were definitely more serious about fighting the wolves than the ants, at least regarding the lower leveled specimens. The ants were simply too slow and unwieldy, with few weapons they could bring to bear. The wolves, on the other hand, were much faster and more agile, creating a much more dangerous opponent at low level.
Even in the outer room of the dungeon the group was already quite serious. Nothing focuses the mind like two gleaming rows of inch long fangs streaking for your un-armored throat, accompanied by a chilling, guttural growl. This dive into the dungeon was different from the previous few days, however, mainly due to the addition of Beth and Blood to the combat roster.
While the wolves were dangerous, it was far and away offset by these two. The strategy employed, even with their help, was the same as the previous day, blazing directly for the boss room. The group only briefly paused to rest after the second room before diving directly into the boss fight. With Beth quite literally pounding the Frost-Orb-slowed boss's skull into paste and Blood helping tear apart the low-level wolves in a blink, even the boss room was finished quite quickly.
The five quickly made their way out of the dungeon and back across the fields to the highway, stopping across from the neighborhood. Beth mounted up on Blood's back before turning to the rest of the group and saying, "Blood and I are going to do some more hunting today, mainly to explore. We'll be back in the evening."
"Have fun; we certainly won't be," Kim replied with a frown.
"See ya later, hon," Sabs chipped in with a slight darkening of her cheeks.
"Ohhh, hon, is it?" Kim immediately taunted.
"Yeah, it's hon, what about it?" Sabs shot back with a glare.
"You're both insufferable," Soph interjected coldly before turning and crossing over to the neighborhood.
"Got it right in ten seconds, pretty impressive Kim. We're off then," Beth said with a smirk and a wave as Blood trotted off.
When Blood reached the point where they normally turned to head down to the CRA building, Beth leaned forward and said, "Hey, let's head east some more and circle above Middleton. Let's see if we can find anything interesting."
Blood just chuffed in response and trotted forward again, diving into the woods that bordered the highway in this area. It wasn't a great distance until they hit some fencing and turned north, starting to circle around some of the houses of the next town over. Beth's neighborhood was on the eastern edge of their hometown, offset a little bit from the main part of town and a couple miles from Middleton with not much in between. Middleton itself was smaller than Beth's town, making it quicker to circle while also having more woods and farms around where anything could be currently happening.
Circling through a section of woods to the northeast of town they came out in a little clearing for a moment, looking over to see a large bear sat down eating an old berry bush clean. The bear simply glanced at the two before continuing scrapping the bush clean, leaves and flowers disappearing down its gullet along with the berries. The two trotted by and on through the wooded area.
"Was that the same bear?" Beth asked.
Blood simply barked in reply.
"Right, dumb question," she said, focusing back on feeling Blood's movements under her. She was trying to get a better feel for riding the massive wolf, especially since they lacked a saddle or any other gear.
Beth was getting a much better feel for it when Blood pulled up short, nearly un-seating her, stopping at the edge of a field without any houses nearby. The two scanned the field, seeing a pack of the same kind of boars that Beth had killed several of already. Beth observed the situation for a moment and noticed one boar clearly stood out amidst the pack, towering over even these massive hogs. It appeared to be some kind of variant or uncommon type as it was larger than the others, as well as the fact its coat actually had a dark orange hue, like orange peel viewed through a dark lens.
"We roughly know where this is, let's keep going," Beth said to Blood, the two circling the field and heading southeast.
They carried on this way for a while, when Beth suddenly noticed something and patted Blood. The wolf slowed and turned, trotting over to an unusual small cave off to the side of the trail they had been trotting along. Beth hopped down as they approached, pulling her phone out and turning the powerful LED on the back on to the highest setting to provide light. The two moved forward into the cave, Blood sniffing about the floor and walls as they advanced.
They moved in deeper, entering a somewhat narrow passage near the back of the initial room. It was a minute of walking and two twisting turns later that they arrived in another cavern. There was a faint light here, the two girls quickly realizing it was coming from a large door at the back of the cave. They cautiously approached the door, but nothing happened, and there seemed to be no beasts or monsters about.