Nero's pillar reached a hundred feet and he placed a portal there, then dismantled the pillar and sealed the gate with stone. He gathered his party and took them to the other side of the gate, now a window into the sky above the Dungeon.
"And now I'll just shoot the goblins from up here," Nero proudly announced. "Once we clear a mile around the safe zone, we can think about going outside and picking the goblin battalions separately."
Rodther and Moira exchanged a glance of complicity. Been there, done that.
"Yes, let's do it then. Go ahead," Altia said, a bit scared of the height.
Nero spent ten seconds casting a fireball and threw the spell at the nearest goblin army. The bead of fire flew, flew, and sputtered. Nero felt a sharp headache that quickly vanished. "What the..."
Crystal chuckled with her fingers covering her mouth. "It seems you got counterspelled, brother."
Rodther hissed a chortle through his clenched muzzle. Moira playfully bopped it.
"Yeah, right. Counterspell," Nero idly mumbled as he watched the goblins rush the castle. Byron had warned him that the safe zone only remained safe if there were no goblins attacking. "Let's see if he can counterspell this. Knazer, Fotia, get on your bellies by my side and fire at will at anything that looks like a spellcaster."
Nero unslung his own rifle and aimed at the goblins with the eanlings. Everyone else took some distance and the roar of the rifles raining electrified metal down on the goblins occupied the next twenty minutes. Three battalions of four hundred goblins each died and became floating motes of white light, red crystals, and a few cards.
Crystal returned once they finished firing at the last goblins they angered into action. "Can we clear the dungeon normally now?" She complained.
Nero frowned, looked at his Status in the Arbitrium's display, and then at the eanlings. "Did anyone gain an Accolade?" Fotia and Knazer shook their heads. He scanned around and nobody did. "I guess we can't gain Accolades if we are on this side of the portal. There's no shortcut for this Dungeon then. Let's go down through the other portal," Nero said as he closed the portal they were using.
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"Let's go over our formation again. We'll fight them at the gates of the fort. There's no reason to stay out in the open. Moira, Hefalina, and I will stand at the gate, blocking the passage. Crystal and Altia will stay behind us, supporting from the back row. Fotia and Knazer will be up on the battlements shooting. Rodther, you'll stay as a reserve. Once one of us in the front needs to rotate to heal or anything, you step inside. If the pressure gets too much, you step in to help us. You can hold your own with your Skill. And now that we are going to engage the goblins as Adventurers should," He poked his tongue out at Crystal, "Let's gear up. It isn't your birthday but I got yellow and blue cards for everyone."
The highlight was the seven sets of yellow-grade Legion Leather Armor he obtained for everyone. The green armor Altia and Nero were using so far only gave Endurance, this one was a step above. He handed a set of cards for everyone else but him and they summoned the armor.
> [Legion Officer Leather Armor] - yellow Equipment - Armor. Requires level 20.
>
> +2 Strength
>
> +2 Vigor
>
> +2 Third-Highest Attribute
>
> +2 Second-highest Attribute
>
> Armor value: 5
>
> "The pinnacle of leather armor, the standard armor of Legion officers are custom-built for every person. It comes in male and female versions with adequate padding."
>
> Special: You can wear another set of armor over this one, using the best Armor Value between both. Ignore other statistics from the other set of armor.
>
> Special: +5 to the highest Attribute for every 3 allies wearing Legion armor in a range of 50 yards.
>
> Special: +1 to all resources for every ally wearing Legion armor in a range of 50 yards.
Nero used blue [Enchant +4] cards along with [Self-cleaning] and [Elemental Resistance] modifiers. The green [Permanency IV] card granted a +33% chance of successful modifiers. Some failed the fourth modifier, but that was not a problem.
> [Legion Officer Leather Armor] - Armor
>
> +6 Strength
>
> +6 Vigor
>
> +6 Third-Highest Attribute
>
> +6 Second-highest Attribute
>
> Armor value: 9
>
> Special: You can wear another set of armor over this one, using the best Armor Value between both. Ignore other statistics from the other set of armor.
>
> Special: +9 to the highest Attribute for every 7 allies wearing Legion armor in a range of 54 yards.
>
> Special: +5 to all resources for every ally wearing Legion armor in a range of 54 yards.
Nero kept his old armor. While the armor didn't grant great protection for its grade and rank, the ability to wear another armor over it was coveted. Legion officers leading large groups of soldiers were feared on the battlefield because the Legion gained strength in numbers. There was a [Legion Commander Armor] that gave even bigger bonuses for allied combatants wearing Legion armor, but these were available only at the second and third tiers. But their group was large enough to grant the coveted +9 bonus, and the thirty-five points of Stamina and Mana would come greatly in hand.
Nero gave the rest of the equipment, "only" blue grade as Rodther mocked and filled most of the slots of his party with equipment that gave great Attribute bonuses. Rodther, for example, tripled his total Attribute points. He made a point to give them clockwork equipment whenever possible and adequate, so he could include more modifiers later. A Skill slot would eat up eight points if installed later - along with the increased risk of failure, but it was still worth it.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
As for weapons, both Moira and Hefalina were using sword and shield, Rodther had two green-grade daggers. Altia kept her whip and the eanlings, their the rifles. Crystal returned clutching her new item, a gnarled wooden stick five feet long with seven colorful gems along the top in a spiral pattern. Nero looked at her and knew why she was clutching the item like a treasure. It was.
"Did you like your new toy?" Nero asked in a joking tone.
"Toy? Toy? Are you kidding me?" Crystal gushed over her new weapon.
"What does it do?" Altia asked.
Crystal showed them the Status of her new item.
> [Arcane Elementalist's Staff of Randomness +6] - purple equipment - Two-handed.
>
> +7 All Attributes
>
> +8 VIgor
>
> +8 Agility
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> +13 Reason
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> +13 Willpower
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> +8 Perception
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> +8 Charisma
>
> Special: All your elemental effects are increased by 50%.
>
> Special: Spend 7 points mana to shoot 7 bolts of elemental energy at a range of Willpower yards. Choose between fire, acid, lightning, cold, stone, light, or wind. Damage based on Reason and Willpower +6.
>
> Special: Spend 7 points of mana to shield yourself from elemental damage for 7 hours. All elemental damage is reduced by 46% while the shield remains. While the shield lasts, you have a 16% chance to recover 7 mana for each elemental attack that hits the shield.
The random Attributes were Vigor and Agility as the original card had only mental modifiers - not counting the "All Attributes" - Not only it added Attribute points across the board, but its effect was also supercharged by the purple modifiers Nero gave her, the same ones he used for his equipment. And the best thing was that Nero could recharge Crystal's mana by tossing his flames on her while she kept her [Mana Shield] up. The staff had the potential to turn Crystal into a magical powerhouse.
"Everyone get in your positions. I'm sending the pets to gather the loot. We might draw another goblin battalion to us."
He sent the badgers and the lioness. Kefira was wearing leather saddlebags. The pets spent an hour filling the packs with the crystals and cards, while the rest of the group got used to their improved Attributes. It was especially important for Rodther and the nereids because their base Attributes from Class, Skills, and levels were too low.
When pets return, Nero and Rodther start to count the crystals and put them inside an Essence scale, a gadget that tallies the total Essence and partitions the crystals inside the best it can for a certain amount, an item essential in wholesale trades. Nero measured some of the crystals and came up with a couple of discoveries.
"The goblin soldiers are only level ten," He announced to the party. "But killing them from the shelter allowed us to gain the full amount. We have more than a thousand crystals worth a thousand Essence."
They celebrate the windfall for a while and Nero does the math. It is still not a good Dungeon to farm for Essence as It took too long to kill the monsters and gather the loot. They got a lot of white and green grade equipment along with modifiers they once treasured, like [Enchant +1], [Enchant +2]. The crown jewels were the dozen white-grade [Permanency] for ranks I to III they got. The party's average level was nineteen so the expected rewards would be divided by that much.
Nero surveyed the next battalion of goblins as they marched around their position. He couldn't see the spellcasters, but it made no sense they would be at the edges. He laid down next to the ground, thankful that the marshland was almost level with no hills between them. His intention was to shoot a fireball close to the ground, betting the caster wouldn't see the spell coming. Ten seconds and he shot the first spell. The ball of flame hit an earth bump three-quarters of the way to the goblins and blossomed into a huge globe of flames while Nero cast the next.
"I researched that spell while you were out," Crystal remarked. "Your spell is too slow and too big for a normal [Fireball]. You are using the siege version of the [Fireball] spell. It's supposed to be fired from an army of low-level casters."
"That explains a lot," Nero said as he shot the second [Fireball]. "I'm going to update it later, this build was made for the undead crypts. Prepare to shoot. I got feedback from some kills, I think I got half of the goblins. Fire at will."
That said, he took his own gun, leaned against the gate's left wall, and shot his magnetic-propelled shells at the incoming goblins, aiming for the apparent leadership. As the horde approached, the eanlings started to fire, then Crystal with her Staff, shooting varied elements as she willed it to switch every casting. Because why not. Moira would cover him with her large shield, while Hefalina held the right side, using her own smaller round shield to protect her aunt's right flank.
They kept their barrage, thinning the horde until the inevitable clash. "Moira, don't use [Intervene]! Altia will keep us at the front healthy. Don't break the line!" Nero shouted before the greenskin wave was upon them. He turned on his bayonet and did no more than wave the saw in front of him, killing goblins just because those behind were pushing the ones in the front against the grinding weapon.
"Don't kill too fast, niece!" Moira barked. "Go for the arms and hands! A crippled goblin in front of you is a goblin that won't hurt you!"
Between Nero and Moira, Rodther darted to toss a dagger or slash at a goblin limb. Crystal's elemental bolts flew over that gap, while Altia lashed with her whip whenever there was an opening between the two frontline nereids.
Above on the wall, the eanling twins had to dodge some pesky goblin archers. Their weapons held a small chamber, with only six shots, forcing them to stop and reload too often. Nero counted the bullets on each rifle and discovered he could shoot at the same time he cut with the bayonet. He developed a technique for hordes of monsters where he would kill a monster with a downward strike from the bayonet and shoot at the one right behind with little aiming. In this ocean of green bodies, he was bound to hit something. He just wished he thought of that before the monster stampede in the Dungeon.
Three goblins rushed on Hefalina, jumping on the nereid while the other two tripped her, causing the woman to fall on her back with the goblins trying to gouge her eyes. A roar from Hefalina's right announced a swipe from Kefira, the high-level lioness tearing ribbons from the flimsy goblin. Rodther drove a thrown dagger in the skull of another and Altia's whip squeezed and flayed the goblin as the thorns in the vine enveloped the scrawny monster.
"Move back! I got this!" Rodther shouted and jumped to fill the gap, triggering his Skill and putting to bear the highest defense value of the whole party as it compounded with his [Legion Officer Armor] and his though scales.
Hefalina stood back and saw a red mist fall around her. She looked over her shoulder and grinned at Altia. Instead of getting back in the fray, she took her time to catch her breath. "Rod, switch when your Skill runs out!"
"Okay. Count to three then fill the gap at zero!" The ietermahue shouted.
"Wait!" Nero cried. "Kefira, go out and kill goblins!"
The lioness ran as Rodther retreated, pouncing on a goblin to rake with her claws while biting off the head of the one behind the first. The level forty-nine monster was in a league above the goblins and carved a wedge as the goblins avoided her to get a chance at the lower-leveled people behind.
"Don't advance. We finish them from afar!" Nero commanded. "Moira, stay sharp!"
They mopped the rest of the goblins with the ranged attacks. Altia even shot a few [Magic Arrow]s at the goblin archers. Once the combat ended, the Adventurers released a collective sigh of relief. Even Nero was feeling his arms burn from wielding his bayonet that long.
Kefira returned, covered in blood, and with a few cuts and bruises. Altia solved it with a potion and everyone conveyed on the courtyard to talk while the badgers and Kefira went to collect the drops. Knazer had an arrow stuck to his shoulder and some other wounds but Altia healed everyone with her potions.
"Still bored?" Nero teased his sister.
"Shut up!" Crystal gargled a laugh. "This staff is so amazing. I'm out of mana, by the way."
They laughed along with the [Enchantress]. Everyone was tired but with a victorious grin splattered across their faces.
"I got an Accolade on Dexterity," Fotia announced.
"Awesome!" Rodther cheered.
"We're doing some changes," Nero announced. "I'm making a trap shelter and putting three portals to capture the goblins. One where Hefalina stood, another two next to the gate along the walls on either side. I bet a lot of goblins will just fall through. I'll make an illusion to mask the portals, they'll fall right in. This will make our job easier as we can kill the goblins later."
"What should I do then?" Hefalina asked, worried she would be left out.
"You'll be on the wall shooting with the twins," Nero said. "Welcome to the Nero Rifle Association," He said, extending her a blue [Clockwork Rifle] card and a set of modifier cards.