Blood expertly piloted them north, or as expertly as someone with a handful of hours of flight-time and supernatural reflexes and senses could perform. It was roughly an hour of flight, the bridge home to several idle conversations covering mainly the situation on Luttraine recently as well as the political upheaval, when they got to the areas Rell had been discussing. Blood didn't even need to discuss anything with any of them, as the very first thing they found was a massive swarm of ape-like beasts with fur similar to stone. The area was lightly forested and Blood set the ship down on the edge of it, with the team disembarking as soon as the ship was settled.
Beth, Andrea, and Bjorn led the way, with Bjorn taking center stage. The massive man with titan blood in his veins was strong, perhaps even too strong, given his level and number of rebirths. He didn't have a Mana Physique yet, but he did posses multiple skills either at the peak of Gold or in Platinum. Combined with his bloodline giving him a natural level of toughness and strength greater than many other species, Bjorn was a true terror on the battlefield.
The three heavy melee fighters took the front, while Blood, Itharion, and Adam moved around them, often flanking the horde of beasts to keep them channeled into the meat grinder that was the spearhead led by Bjorn. Kris stayed at the back, slinging spells with precision and lethal grace; her style relied on combining spells from her two natural affinities, coating enemies in water before dealing devastating damage or death with void lightning. She had the precision and skill to weave her spells together with both perfect timing and extreme accuracy, Beth not even getting frizzy hair above her armored neckpiece.
Rell stayed back with Kris, keeping behind her and guarding the team's back. He was perfect for such a position, as his class was designed for holding a large area alone. His hammer swings took up a huge amount of space while carrying extreme destructive force and, though he was not as mobile as the others, he still had enough agility and speed to move back and forth at a considering pace, further expanding the area under his hammer. He was easily able to keep Kris protected, allowing the phoenix to fully focus on cutting large swathes of destruction through the heart of the huge cluster of beasts.
The group's teamwork started quite strong and only improved, Beth and Andrea finding a good distance and area with which to space themselves from Bjorn. Truth be told, Beth felt that the massive man could easily handle holding the lead position alone without danger, but it was what she did best, so they split the work. The flanking team had the most to sort out, the three figuring out how to move around each other and coordinate to not get tangled up or overextend too much, not that any of them couldn't survive in the midst of the horde for long enough to extricate themselves. The most difficult part to integrate was Kris, as the rest of the team had to be aware of her actions and plans while also dealing with their own battles. This is where the quiet woman's experience and skill shone, as she was well-versed in keeping her teammate's movements and positions in mind, as any good caster should be.
Settling in for the long haul, the team was able to fight the ape-like creatures for hours without even pausing. The experience split was a bit tricky, as they had a wide range of levels and eight people, but the number of members meant they could cut through the hordes far quicker, killing more in less time. Despite being at the lowest level, Beth and Blood both saw their levels increase several times in those first few hours, the advantage of having such a powerful team of elites capable of fighting up dozens or more levels. Everyone got at least one level, and several of the others got two, though that came with the tradeoff of them needing a decent bit of rest. Beth and Blood were the best off, better than even Adam, as they were the most used to fighting for hours or even days at a time without a time without a break. Adam was right behind them with his Mana Physique allowing him to fight longer and recover quicker. Bjorn was next, his stamina appearing to be limitless, though he was not immune from mental fatigue, not being quite as used to continuous fighting as Beth and Blood.
The next five days went much the same way, with the team fighting for hours, resting, fighting for hours, then packing up on the airship and flying to a new destination. They found a few interesting places that they wanted to explore later, but they didn't want to dive into anything else too complex while preparing for the special challenge. The great thing about those days was the result of their continuous, grinding efforts, with everyone gaining at least fifteen levels, while Beth and Blood gained more than twenty. However, despite their crazy leveling speed, they weren't anywhere close to their goal, which was for everyone to breach level two hundred within another week. Beth had known from the start that that was unrealistic, but she was still impressed with their progress. At their current rate, they would get everyone above one hundred fifty, and several of the team members had already surpassed the goal of two hundred.
"I doubt we'll make the auction if our plan is to do the special challenge first, lassie. Not at this rate," Rell commented as they were resting on the ship before flying to the next location.
"We don't have any hard deadlines," Beth replied with a shrug. "But like I said, I do have a contingency."
"Not gonna elaborate, lassie?" he asked.
"Let's wait and see where we're at in another week or so," Beth replied.
"It's up to ya, lassie," Rell said.
"We could split up," Bjorn commented. "Lower speed, but better kills."
"I don't know that it's worth it," Andrea refuted. "Getting more experience per kill for every kill only slightly balances out the much slower overall speed."
"Relax," said Beth. "We're not in a rush. We don't even know if there's going to be anything good at the monthly auction. No reason to go crazy."
"I'm just excited," Andrea defended with a little pout.
"It's fine. Let's just chill for a while, then we'll keep going," Beth said, getting acknowledgement from the rest.
The group continued their movements for another week, making almost two full weeks they had been out fighting. It was a bit unusual for many teams to do such things, at least, if a team didn't have their own, high-class airship to rely on. Another week had seen the growth continue, mainly because as they leveled, they could utilize the airship to find even higher-level groups to fight. It was especially true as more than half of the group had second or third stage classes, meaning they were getting quite a few stat points per level.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Should we just focus on leveling up until the day of the auction?" Andrea asked as they sat in the galley.
"So, we do have a way," Beth said, giving Blood a glance and getting a shrug from the wolf in return.
"How's that, lassie?" Rell asked with a raised brow.
"We have access to somewhere with time compression," Beth replied succinctly.
"How much?" Bjorn asked in a rumble.
"Ten times," Beth answered.
"I have a place with four times," Bjorn said with a shrug.
"If we could do fifty days in five, we could still likely clear the challenge and be in time for the auction," Andrea bounced on the bench.
"Is it that important?" Beth asked. "I mean, do we care that much about the auction to push that hard? Blood and I don't mind, but we're talking about fifty days of constant fighting…"
"We can handle ourselves, lassie," Rell said.
"I have no problem," Adam said.
"I can do it," Kris quietly added.
"Agreed," Bjorn nodded.
"It's fiiiiine," Andrea drawled.
"Fine," Beth said calmly. "Let's get somewhere where we won't have anyone, or anything, knocking on the door."
"Aren't we going to the dungeon you've found?" asked Rell, eyebrows climbing towards his hairline.
"No. You'll see," Beth said calmly. She was prepared to reveal a little about her Gate power now as she had both some confidence in her strength, as well as confidence in all the insanely powerful people she had positive connections with being able to back her up if someone decided to try to abduct her or some such.
The entire group assumed their places on the bridge and Blood set course for an out-of-the-way location they had stumbled on two days before. The place was a little glade on a mountainside that was sheltered from above by steep, impassable terrain, and had only a single, narrow approach from below. The clearing in the center had more than enough room to park the ship, with Blood setting down in the dead center, as it was better for the ship to be away from any obstructions like trees or the cliffside so that all its weapons had a good firing line. When they were parked and the ship was in standby, weapons armed and ready to repel anyone or anything unauthorized, Beth led everyone to the small cargo bay that occupied the front part of the ship ahead of the cabins on the second floor and the maintenance area on the bottom floor.
"What's the game, lass?" Rell asked, chewing on the end of his pipe stem as he gave Beth a strange look.
"We're going to use the time accelerated Gate to farm," Beth replied calmly.
"Gate?" asked Itharion, noticing something about her wording.
Beth ignored him for now and asked, "What enemy are we fighting? Pick what you want."
The rest of the group looked at each other, exchanging tremulous glances before returning their attention to Beth. Rell clenched his pipe between his teeth and sucked on the unlit device and gave Beth another penetrating look as he mulled it over. Eventually he came to a decision, taking the pipe from his mouth and pointing the stem at Beth for a moment, gesturing at her emphatically.
"Our Lord always has an eye for people," he said calmly. "What about hobgoblins, lassie?"
"Gotcha," Beth replied with a nod. She went into the menu that linked to the Ancient World Gate skill and selected hobgoblins, ten times time compression, and an open plain for the area. That would be enough to give the group a good idea of what was what and help them get a few quick levels before they decided on anything else.
The arch rose from the ground as a twisting piece of stone and crystal, the materials and design not something that Beth recognized. She wasn't sure exactly what the look of the arch meant, as it had become more complex and strange as she leveled the power. The arch finished rising from the floor of the cargo hold before filling with an indistinct, silver and white light. Beth glanced around to see various looks of surprise on different faces, though it was mainly Rell and Andrea that were the most surprised. Adam seemed ambivalent, Kris was reserved, and Bjorn was entirely unimpressed.
"A personal dungeon power, lass?" Rell asked. "Those are rare as Death Diamonds in the Milky Way."
"Not that rare," the reserved Bjorn tossed out, but didn't elaborate.
"Well, they're still quite rare," Rell commented, clenching his pipe in his teeth as he examined the gate.
"A very fortunate find very early in my career as a Wayfarer," Beth commented and explained no more.
"How much control do you have?" Andrea asked, looking at the gate with a frown.
"Enemy type, area type, level of compression," Beth listed out most of what the gate could do.
"Only ten times?" Rell asked around the pipe, clearly referencing the time compression.
"I could make it a lot less, if you want?" Beth asked with a sarcastic lilt in her voice.
"No, no, lassie. Just curious," Rell responded. "Our Lord has access to several similar things, but seeing one so young with such a power is quite amazing."
"Let's get started," Bjorn said, clearly not caring about the discussion or Beth's power. He led the way inside, walking through the gate without any hesitation. Then again, with the level of insane toughness he had displayed so far, Beth wasn't sure a gate collapsing while the titan-blooded man was using it would do much damage to him.
The rest followed him inside, the others adjusting quickly after the transition and surveying their surroundings. There were a handful of hobgoblins visible at a moderate distance from the gate, and more could be seen if one looked closely at the distant scenery. The one big negative that Beth still couldn't correct in opening a gate to a certain type of enemy was still present, with the closest beasts being her level. That meant everything started at level one hundred and forty-eight and slowly went up from there.
"We'll need to run. A lot," Beth said.
"Why's that?" Bjorn asked with a frown.
"Can't set it to anything other than the enemies around the gate starting at my level," Beth explained. "They appear in concentric circles from the gate going outwards, with the levels slowly increasing. The size of the groups also increase until the level increases; what I mean is that they'll be level one-forty-eight enemies spaced around us, then further out a group of level one-forty-eights, then there'll be a ring of level one-forty-nines. There'll be two rings of one-forty-nine groups, then a ring of single level one-fifties."
"So, we have a hike ahead of us to get to the level two hundred beasts," Adam said with a sigh.
"Yes, but fortunately, by the time we get that far out, the rings of groups of enemies will be massive, meaning there's an awful lot to kill," Beth tried to shine a positive light on it.
"Enough talk," Bjorn growled, though Beth didn't sense any hostility.
"He's always focused when it's time to go fight," Adam explained as Bjorn took the lead.
The huge man started accelerating and didn't stop for a long time, eventually moving fast enough that the wind whistled and shrieked around him. He didn't pause for the low level beasts in his path or try to divert his course, but instead simply ran them over. He was so massive, so powerful, and so sturdy that he didn't slow down nor take a lick of damage. Most of the hobs he splattered into meat paste, even as their levels started increasing, not hesitating in the least. Furthermore, as the levels continued rising, he still ran them over without any hesitation, and anything that managed to survive was easily finished by the rest of the group as they followed behind.