"I can't even," Jessica shook her head, the normally loquacious blonde at a loss for words.
"I want to ask both how, and maybe more importantly, why?" Amanda said as she eyed Bob's Eternal Servants.
"They eat leaves," Mike said suspiciously. "I saw it in a documentary once. The leaves aren't even good for them, but they eat them exclusively."
The group was standing near the edge of the glacier, watching as Bob demonstrated his Eternal Servant skill to Eddi. A pair of Jakes with the skirmisher path were making what could only be called strafing runs at a large boulder. Sitting on their shoulders, clutching their necks for balance, sat the targets of the group's disbelief.
"Look, it's not my fault," Bob said defensively. "I know they aren't really bears, which means the System knows they're not really bears, but I tried just about everything to summon something like the lavabears on the twenty-sixth floor of the Harbordeep Dungeon, but apparently it has to be 'bear-like' because it only worked when I either summoned an actual lavabear, or summoned a polar, grizzly, brown, or black bear. I tried making lava dinosaurs, and it didn't work," he finished bitterly.
He really missed his Magma Jakes, but he'd lost them when he'd reincarnated.
Dave was wheezing with laughter as he choked out, "Dude, when we talk about bear calvary, that's not what we mean."
Bob sighed as he watched another Jake run past the rock, the Koala on its back opening its mouth to spit an uneven ball of lava at the boulder.
"Do they do enough damage?" Amanda asked doubtfully.
"Just as much as the ambushers, without the need for the target to be unaware or defenseless," Bob replied. "They're pretty damn potent."
"You weaponized Koalas," Jessica said sadly.
"The one animal in Australia that wasn't trying to kill us all," Dave agreed.
"Not everything in Australia is dangerous!" Jessica objected.
"Jessi, there's a reason we always paid for your ticket to come see us, and it was because we weren't tough enough to come visit you," Amanda said.
"I thought it was because it was cheaper to fly just one of us halfway around the world and back," Jessica replied.
"That too," Dave agreed.
"I've got to figure out how to make Rexxy breath fire," Eddi said happily
----------------------------------------
Bob touched the entrance to the Dungeon.
You have access to How can I name it if I don't know what's in there, this is stupid.
Capacity 81%
Estimated time until overflow 386 solar cycles.
User Tier Eight, level twenty-four.
Dungeon set to Tier Eight, Level thirty.
"Yeah, that's the money shot," Jack chortled.
"I panicked," Eddi said defensively.
"Yeah, I'm definitely installing video cameras in here," Mike grinned.
"The rest of them are named Glacier Valley Dungeon two through forty," Amanda said.
"They're all different scenarios against monsters called Bountos, which are basically Kobolds," Dave explained. "Because the Dungeons are so close together, they have a much lower capacity, so we can keep all forty of them from overflowing pretty easily."
"It'll be nice to have a change of scenery," Bob said. "I won't lie, the Hidden Dungeon was starting to get a little repetitive."
"Starting?" Amanda scoffed. "I was ready to be done with that place after the first month."
"Have fun, either wait for us to get out, or we'll wait for you to get out," Jessica said.
Bob nodded and touched the Dungeon again, choosing to enter it.
He was greeted with a System window.
New Quest!
How can I name it if I don't know what's in there, this is stupid was once a mine for a group of refugees, struggling to build new lives for not only themselves, but those yet to come. While they succeeded, it has since been abandoned and over run by monsters who have seized control for themselves. They will not relinquish their prize easily.
Defeat ten monsters to receive a reward!
Defeat five groups of miners to receive a reward!
Defeat five overseers to receive a reward!
Defeat the management team to receive a reward!
Dismissing the screen, Bob looked around. He was, unsurprisingly, given the description of the Dungeon, in a mine. It was pitch black, and he would have been blind were it not for his mana sight.
Fortunately, he'd had long experience dealing with being underground thanks to his time on the Eire seedworld, and he began weaving the threads of mana necessary for a thermal vision spell.
It took him nearly five minutes to complete the spell, but it came together, locking away a portion of his mana. The tunnel he was standing in now showed in the muted colors of cool stone, and the silvery hues of mana.
Bob called out Jake, and deployed his Eternal Servants around him as he began to make his way down the tunnel. He could hear the sound of metal on stone up ahead, and after fifty feet, he could see the glow of light coming from around a corner where the tunnel turned.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Carefully, he crept up to the corner and peered around it.
Sure enough, there were five of them, eight foot tall humanoids, complete with scales and whip-like tails, hammering away at the stone walls with pickaxes. The light came from a tripod with a glow crystal set atop it, behind which sat a wooden cart.
He sent Jake in. Well, Jake as piloted by Trebor. The most noticeable difference when Trebor was piloting Jake was the lack of furious honks and hisses.
The UtahRaptor hit the first miner like a wrecking ball, charging in and head-butting the surprised miner, sending it flying backward to bounce off the wall where it sprawled on the floor. The second was caught by a wicked claw that ripped into its side, and then the battle was joined as the Bounto reacted, surrounding Jake and swinging their pick axes at him.
It was at this point when the calvary arrived. The two skirmishers pounced on the two Bounto that were attacking Jake on his left flank, ripping deeply into their packs as their Lavakoala riders spat balls of lava that rocketed through the short space between them, driving deeply into their flesh where they continued to burn.
Trebor, trusting in the calvary to handle that flank, turned to face the other two, forcing them to face his vicious claws and dangerous teeth.
Bob winced as the first miner charged back into combat, burying his pickaxe deeply into Jake's exposed flank. Unlike the Gwarli, all the miners seemed to possess the same path. Based on the damage they were dealing and taking, it was likely a path akin to his own Skirmishers, which meant that Jake was taking some decent hits.
The two Bounto that had been engaged were fighting back, but with the lavakoalas enjoying the cover of their UtahRaptor mounts, the scaled humanoids were forced to fight against the much more physical dinosaurs to get to the adorable, furry little glass cannons on their backs.
The fight went on for two more seconds as the three Bounto that were engaged against Jake kept the UtahRaptor on its toes as they maneuvered to flank him, while the two that had engaged the cavalry went down hard, bloody slashes and steaming holes giving mute evidence to the damage they'd suffered.
The calvary came in behind one of the Bounto flanking Jake, and it went down in an instant. The maneuver was repeated on the other side, and then they hit the one that was desperately trying to defend itself from Jake.
All told the fight had lasted eight seconds.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," Bob muttered as he dropped Jake, re-summoning him a moment later. "Let's see what else we've got in here."
----------------------------------------
Bob had expected to find the overseer whipping his fellow Bounto, driving them to swing their pickaxes harder and faster, collecting more of what had turned out to be iron ore.
In this expectation, he had not been disappointed. What he hadn't seen coming was the fact that the overseer, after seeing his victim working harder, would then heal the damage he'd inflicted.
He immediately reevaluated his tactics. Kill the healer first.
The problem with that plan was that the overseer was behind the miners. Doubtless a design choice by the System.
Fortunately, Bob was not a one-trick pony. He dismissed Jake, and then opened a portal beneath his calvary, which opened on the ceiling above the overseer, who had only enough time to look up and open its mouth before it got two face fulls of lava, and two giant scythe-like claws, one down its back, another down its front. It went down, hard, as the miners turned toward the calvary, their faces clearly expressing fury.
As they rushed toward, Bob summoned Jake in between the calvary and the onrushing Bounto.
The miners had accepted that they were going to face off against the skirmishers and their lavakoala riders. They were as unprepared for the arrival of Jake as their overseer had for the calvary, and they crashed into the UtahRaptor, bouncing off and giving Jake the perfect opportunity to pin one to the ground with a clawed foot, while dipping his head down to rip chunks of flesh off the Bounto.
The remaining Bounto went berserk, charging Jake to bury their pickaxes in his flesh. Apparently, seeing one of their own being eaten alive had triggered some sort of rage routine, as they made no effort to defend themselves as the calvary pounced on them, one after another.
Despite the addition of another monster, and a support at that, the fight had ended even more quickly than the previous fights.
"Alright, so new plan," Bob said as he picked up a mana crystal one of the Bounto had dropped. "Have Jake start eating one right away so the calvary can go to town."
----------------------------------------
Two hours later, Bob found himself swearing as his Eternal Servants and Jake faced off against the management team. There five of them, with the group composed of two beacons, two skirmishers, and a support. He'd managed to get the jump on them, but the support had taken an extra set of blows to die, which had allowed the skirmishers to land some blows on the calvary. Matters had been made worse when only one of the beacons had engaged Jake, the other focusing on the calvary. This wasn't good because his summons could be influenced by a beacon, making it more difficult for them to focus their attacks on anything else. Jake had immediately pinned the Beacon, and was worrying it to death, but apparently, management didn't have the same trigger as the miners.
One of his lavakoalas went down to the focused blows of both skirmishers, who then set their sights on the second. The beacon holding the calvary's focus was on its last legs, but it held on long enough for the skirmishers to get the second lavakoala. His two Eternal Servants turned on one of the skirmishers, but it was a lot closer to a fair fight than what Bob preferred. Jake finally finished off the beacon, and came barreling in to save the day, pinning one of the skirmishers while Bob's two remaining UtahRaptors destroyed the skirmisher left to face them alone. Moments later, the battle was over, and a moment after that, the lavakoala that had died first reappeared, slowly and carefully climbing back up on its UtahRaptor mount.
How can I name it if I don't know what's in there, this is stupid Completed!
You have defeated five groups of miners!
You have defeated ten groups of miners!
You have defeated fifty groups of miners!
You have defeated five overseers!
You have defeated ten overseers!
You have defeated the management team!
You have completely cleared How can I name it if I don't know what's in there, this is stupid! No monsters remain!
You have received 600 energy crystals.
Bob brushed away the System window before tapping his armband and checking the time.
"Two hours and five minutes," he noted.
He could clear it more quickly now that he knew the layout, as well as utilizing the berserk reaction from Jake getting his grub on. There were also several instances where he suspected he would be able to drop the calvary on one of the miners, then summon Jake to intercept the other four. It wasn't viable in all of the encounters, but there were enough opportunities that it could drop the clear time a bit.
Bob opened his interface and selected the option to exit the Dungeon, where he sat down to wait for the group.
----------------------------------------
"How is it that you're done before us?" Dave asked.
"I'm guessing you were up against groups of ten, with two overseers to a group and a management team of ten?" Bob asked.
"Yep," Amanda nodded cheerfully.
"I was up against groups of five, a single overseer to a group, and a management team of five," Bob explained. "More challenging to do it solo, but I have my advantages, and ultimately, you had to kill twice as many monsters. Also, they were a lot higher level, which means they had more tricks."
"So true," Jessica grumbled. "I think around level thirty-five or so was when the overseers started using protection shields."
Bob winced. "I was dropping the calvary on them through a portal, so they never had much of an impact," he said.
"I wish I had permanent minions that were useful," Amanda complained.
"Just summon a batch out with barrage and effect over time, open the portal and send them through," Bob suggested. "That's what I did before I took my path."
Amanda sighed. "That," she said morosely, "did not occur to me, and should have, as I've seen you do something similar in the past."
Dave wrapped his arms around Amanda from behind, squeezing her. "It's okay, babe. Bob's been rocking that summoner build for more than twice as long as you have."
"He's been doing it for a few months longer than me, and I didn't think of it either," Eddi muttered.
Bob shrugged. "Gotta remember all your tricks. I'm a little surprised that both of you wound up with Dimension."
"We figured each group needed a dimensionalist, and the truth is that if things start to go wrong, the Summoner is going to be the last person standing," Mike said. "They can move in and out of combat under the protection of their summons to deliver healing potions or to get someone out of a bad situation, and they don't even need to max their portal spell to pull it off."
"So, do we want to run this one again, or move over to the next?" Dave asked.
"I'd like to run it again. I have a couple of ideas to speed things up," Bob said.
"Did you know if you start eating one of the miners alive, the others will go berserk and stop defending themselves?" Bob asked.
"You mean when you have your summoned monster eat the miners alive, right?" Jessica asked.