"A mistake that many new dungeoneers make is assuming that the only loot that comes from a dungeon is from drops or treasure chests, the truth is that most of a dungeons value comes from the environmental resources, such as herbs or ore, that are present throughout a dungeon, as while dropped loot is certainly valuable, it is lacking in quantity and reliability when compared with harvestables."
-Quote from Andrew Zyx, professional dungeon appraiser
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Resuming our exploration once more, the next group of snakevines we encountered was a group of seven who were level 11, with one level 12 leading the charge, and rather than the pattern we had become accustomed to, where one would lunge at my construct with the rest a second or two behind aiming at different people, all seven of them went for my hawk simultaneously, the combined attacks causing it to dissipate before it could react, the retaliatory effect from its Lightning having no effect when split amongst all seven. With their target disappearing under them, the monsters were left in freefall for barely more than a second before they landed on the ground and immediately turned towards Roxy to lunge as a group once more, only to collide with a crystal wall made by Roxy, buying enough time for Jordan to send an echo charging into the group, causing them to abandon their initial target in favor of the pure white silhouette, which dissipated just as quickly as my construct, but managed to group them enough for me to strike with a bolt of Lightning for 200 mana and focusing on pure power, reaching the limit of what I could control, I sent a blinding blue streak crackling at them.
*KRACKOOM*
With a flash of light that would've blinded us were it not for our superhuman endurance, I saw as the three snakevines nearest to the impact were torn apart by the force of my attack, the heat from the lightning cleaving through them like a knife, the other four far enough that while they still felt the impact, they were far from out of the fight, their lack of eyes working in their favor as they needed no time to adjust despite being so close to the blast, instantly jumping at Jordan, who just barely managed to jump out of the way just barely managing to get behind a new wall as the monsters lunged a second time, for Roxy to come forth with her axe in a flurry of swings far faster than she was usually capable of, the red glow about her body evidence of using her skill and managing to cleave through the remaining enemies.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 11 Thorned Snakevine x6 and gained 1,200 EXP Congratulations, you have defeated a level 12 Thorned Snakevine and gained 200 EXP
With the fight concluded, and another vial of Lifesap obtained, we continued on our trek, discussing how these snakevines fought differently than past groups despite being the same species, but in the end being unable to think of a reason for this change, besides the increase in level. I also questioned how Roxy was able to use her enhancement skill, as it required her to absorb kinetic force beforehand and they hadn't touched her once throughout the fight, which caused Arnold to admit with a sheepish grin that he had been hitting her with his sheathed swords while they were focused on me and Jordan, as he was unable to really do anything against them while they were grouped up without losing a leg at the very least. While we had managed to end this fight without any real injury, Roxy and I had used notably more mana than in the previous fights, my total count up to 230 when you consider the hawk, and her having used almost half of her total just for the two walls, causing us to pause in our walking and come up with new strategies, as noone wanted to see what would happen if a group of snakevines managed to actually land on their targets without a wall from Roxy or I to stop them, but even after debating about it we were unable to think of any solid plans that would cost less mana, so in the end we decided to just take a break after every fight to regenerate to at least three quarters of our maximum, still having enough food on hand to last for a while, and more than willing to extend our expedition for however long we could safely hunt, as we had all told our families that we might stay longer if we found anything interesting beforehand. After waiting for our mana to regenerate we once again set off, but this time instead of an ambush starting the fight, Amy got all of our attention before pointing out what seemed to be a very large venus flytrap that had a few vines hanging off of it, and after focusing on it for a second I felt a system ping.
Mantrap - Level 13
With the knowledge that it was a monster, I quickly changed my focus to the three vines hanging around it, confirming that they were in fact snakevines, each at level 12. Despite the fact that none of us were particularly hidden, the group of monsters made no movement to attack, or any movement at all really, just sitting there and occasionally being pushed along a breeze, likely imitating non predatory plants and waiting for prey to get close before attacking.
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"Something tells me that that isn't the miniboss."(Jordan)
"I agree, but it's still a higher level than us, and seems to at least somewhat control the snakevines, seeing as they aren't currently flying at us."(Mason)
"Maybe it's because its higher levelled? I mean they're all dungeon creatures so it's not like they'd fight each other in the first place."(Arnold)
"Reasoning aside, do you think we should fight? It's only one level higher and its five versus four."(Roxy)
"Risky."(Amy)
"I agree, we don't know anything about how it fights."(Jordan)
"Yeah, but look, it's just sitting there, Mason could totally open with a huge attack and then we would just need to take care of the scraps, it's probably an ambush predator like the snakevines, so it won't be good at direct fights."(Roxy)
In the brief debate that followed, it was decided that we would try to fight them, as none of us wanted to go back just yet, so we all readied ourselves, happy for a fight that we could actually start rather than having to react, and since I actually had time to aim I decided to open by shooting a wide crystal blade in hopes of hitting all of them at once, deciding to go all out and use 250 of my mana, my extra level of attunement with Crystal meaning I could handle using a bit more mana than with Lightning, and after making my projectile, focusing on speed and sharpness, I launched it towards the still unmoving plants, the clear crystal making it within inches of impact before they reacted, still too close for the mantrap to dodge, but enough for the snakevines to avoid being cut in half, only losing an inch or two off the tips of their tails as they scurried to the top of the larger plant, the blade lodging itself halfway through its thick stem before stopping, quickly followed by an arrow that lodged itself in its enormous mouth.
*SCREEEEE*
With a roar that sounded like balloons rubbing together in baritone, roots burst from the ground around it, lifting it in the air as it charged towards us, the snakevines still riding passenger as it closed the distance much faster than expected from a plant that was previously rooted in the ground. Having already made a plan for if the monster was capable of movement, Jordan sent forth an echo to intercept it in hopes that the snakevines would lunge from it and leave their perches, but unfortunately the mantrap merely bit it as it ran, not even slowing down as its jaws latched around the echo and closing with enough force to dissipate it instantly. With the echo and continuous arrows from Amy failing to slow its charge, I focused on connecting with the crystal blade still lodged in its body as Roxy made a crystal wall between us to buy some time, letting me focus on extending my will to extend past my body and connect to it, feeling it on the fringes of my range as I managed to tether it to myself just as the mantrap got around the wall, putting another 100 mana to give it another push forwards, slicing through the remainder of the mantrap's stem and causing it to fall to the ground, the three snakevines abandoning it in favor of charging at us, slithering along the ground before being intercepted by Roxy, Jordan, and Arnold, who were able to handle them with ease now that they lacked the element of surprise, the three splitting up rather than ganging on one of them, showing that it wasn't the level that caused the difference in strategy when compared to the last one. With the last three mobs being occupied, I moved to the corpse of the mantrap, still keeping an eye on the other three in case they needed help, but as I approached the down enemy, I saw it twitch, the instincts formed through my constant training and fighting letting me jump back just in time to avoid a vine whipping out from what I thought was an already defeated foe, the sound of the vine colliding with, and breaking through, a branch at least three inches thick showing that it was far from dead, as it lifted itself off the ground once more having failed its latest sneak attack, no only four or so feet tall without its root cluster, using four of its six remaining vines as feet as it charged after me, the others still finishing up their fights leaving only Amy to assist me, the mantrap now actually reacting to her arrows and attempting to dodge as it ran at me. With only a few seconds before it would close the distance, and seeing both of its vines already swinging at me from opposite directions, I called upon the Lightning within me, focusing on just keeping me safe rather than trying to conserve mana, and sent it outward in an explosion around me, sending it out in an expanding sphere that knocked away the two vines and causing it to pause its charge long enough for Roxy to catch up and land a downward cleave, finally finishing off whatever was keeping it alive, finally feeling the system message ping at me as I felt my insides ache from using more energy than I was able to handle in that last attack, a quick glance showing that I had used all 300 of my remaining mana in that last attack, the standard headache from running out of mana pulsing in synch with the rest of my body.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 12 Thorned Snakevine x3 and gained 600 EXP Congratulations, you have defeated a level 13 Giant Mantrap and gained 400 EXP
"Well, that could've gone better."(Mason)
"Yeah, next time why don't you wait until the fights actually done before you look at the corpses."(Roxy)
"In my defence, the damn thing was cut in half! How was I supposed to know that being bisected was only a minor inconvenience."(Mason)
"Everything more or less worked out, so let's just take it as a lesson learnt and move on, okay?"(Jordan)
With Jordan calming things down before they could become an actual argument, we instead set up camp and started discussing the new monster type while we waited for our, or more specifically my, mana to regen. Our discussion was mostly trying to identify any abilities or traits it had, such as the speed of its whips or the incredible amount of damage it took before actually going down, and we also discussed how differently the snakevines acted when they were still on it, and how quickly they reverted once they left. It wasn't until Amy mentioned how some plants were capable of communicating via their root networks that we finally thought of a possible reason for the inconsistent level of intelligence of them, our new theory being that it was numbers rather than level that increased their intellect, likely additive rather than multiplicative as the mantrap seemed to have a higher base intelligence, which would explain why the group of four had at least a similar level of intelligence as the group of seven, as we could all imagine how dangerous it would be to fight a mantrap with all six of its vines being free to attack with plus three snakevines ready to lunge at its opponents at the slightest opening.