James switched to various climbers, watching as many parties either volunteered to go with the group for the second bucket refill or left the village to hunt breakfast. A lot of climbers are sticking to their original party from when they went through the first battle, with the few who don't filling in the gaps to bring other parties up to either four or five members. It also looks like a lot of the parties that first left the village together are still working together, with some switching out for new members due to some former party members not wanting to leave the village yet. It doesn't look like anyone is trying to leave without having at least four members in a party, and some parties are sticking together even without being able to share experience with each other, just to have the safety of larger numbers. James messed with the climber menu until he learned how to open multiple observer feeds at once, and kept going until he had one screen for each party that left the village walls, and one more screen to watch everyone who stayed.

By the time Tony's group left to go for the river a second time, 77 of the 89 climbers of floor 1 had left the village walls. The 77 left in 12 parties of 5, 4 parties of 4, and one familiar lone wolf in the form of Elizabeth, the rogue woman who had been the only climber thus far to end the first battle at level 2, and who James hadn't seen join a party since arriving at the first floor.

Tony's group comprised 23 climbers from 5 parties, and a similar group of 3 parties for a total of 14 climbers was led by Joseph Moore, the tall priest whose group had barely survived a goblin ambush the day before. His party had since returned to a group of 5, and he had taken under his care two other parties made of primarily second wave climbers nervous about leaving the village on their own. One final team of 9 climbers formed by a party of 4 and a party of 5 stalked through the forest together, leaving 6 separate parties of 5 exploring the floor on their own.

As for the remaining 11 who stayed in the village, James didn't bother to track what parties they were in. Three climbers worked on digging more holes for the eventual outhouses, while a few wandered the village on their own, their eyes barely leaving the ground as they shuffled about aimlessly.

Suddenly being put through a game of life and death would be hard on anyone. It's no surprise that a few are scared of leaving the village. I'd bet that the only reason so many left the village already is because of hunger, and the knowledge that there's a time limit, but knowing you have to go out and risk your life in order to survive won't motivate everyone. It takes time to come to terms with such a thing, and I'm honestly surprised there aren't more people staying inside the village walls.

James turned his gaze away from the climbers within the village. There isn't anything I can do to help people psychologically. The best I can do right now is watch the climbers outside of the village, and try to come up with ways to help them survive.

James watched as Joseph's group focused on gathering wood and berries where possible, four climbers forming a lookout around the others who focused on stripping wood and leaves from as many trees or bushes as possible. Once Joseph noticed the rate of progress began to drop as all the easy to break branches were taken, he'd call out to the group which would begin to head off further away from the village. Whenever anyone saw a monster, they'd call out and everyone would stop what they were doing to converge on the threat until it was eliminated. They killed a few goblins and horned rabbits this way without casualties, and eventually stumbled upon a group of seven magic deer, each with a set of antlers that began to glow as mana gathered within them.

James focused on the observer showing Joseph's group as he watched information appear over the deer. It showed one of them as a level 2 and the rest as level 1, and the skill they were about to cast was called Magic Arrow. The melee oriented climbers charged at the deer that swiftly leaped around, trying to keep their distance without losing line of sight. A volley of magic arrows launched almost at the same time, but the deer each focused individually on the climbers closest to them, and while most of the arrows hit their mark, none of the climbers affected were taken out of the fight. The mages in the group sent out spells of their own, along with a climber using a bow, and they had more success in hitting the deer, as well as causing the others to hesitate in their leaping enough for the faster melee fighters to close in. The magic deer are good at staying away and firing spells, but they can't take a hit well. The fight quickly ended after that, and Joseph along with two other priests quickly healed anyone damaged by the deer.

"This is enough for breakfast, right?" One climber asked, and Joseph nodded.

"More than enough I imagine. Let us gather more firewood, and we'll head back to begin cooking shortly." Joseph received a round of nods as the climbers began reforming into their three parties, eventually spreading out like before once they found enough trees close enough together to work on them all without feeling too separated from one another in the case of an attack.

Many of the climber parties followed this strategy, returning almost immediately to the village once they found enough food for everyone in their party. Two parties found enough berry bushes clumped together that they ate their breakfast right then, choosing to continue exploring the floor now that the weakness of hunger was not plaguing them as strongly.

James would only discover this later, however, as his attention would first be taken by the sight of Tony's team of 5 parties reaching the river, and finding a group of goblins larger than the first.

Another group of goblins already? Did they respawn? They don't look like they're using the river though, more like they're... patrolling it? James thought, none of the goblins were in the river itself, and all of them were on the side Tony's team was on. As the two groups came into sight of each other, Tony called out.

"Mages, left to right, front to back, fire!" Tony shouted, and James watched as the mage in the party from the front and left of the team launched a fireball, shortly followed by another mage from the back and left party, the short delay giving them time to ensure their spell was aimed elsewhere. Another two spells were launched then by a party on the right and front, followed by one more from the right back. Tony's party didn't have a mage, but three warriors, a rogue, and a priest, and the rogue whispered "Sneak," before vanishing, the warriors blocking the sight from the goblins by stepping up along with warriors from the other four parties. As this happened, the goblin warriors charged up to the collection of climbers, with arrows from goblin archers and a few spells from goblin shamans raining down ahead of them. Unlike the climbers, the goblins did not pause to prepare or worry about casting spells at the same target, and James noticed the shamans that attacked exclusively used the spell Magic Arrow to do so. Other shamans said a spell that caused a glow to surround the warriors in front, and James waited for a moment for the observer to hover over one such goblin and display that the level two goblin had been buffed by an Empower spell that gave a small boost to its strength.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

James noticed a similar glow appear over Tony and the two warriors in his party, though the observer showed the spell was called Protection and reduced incoming damage instead. One other warrior from a different party received a Protection as well, but no further spells were cast by a priest until the warriors clashed, and they began healing those who hadn't been able to strike first. For a time the focus was on the group of seven warriors, a merchant with a wood and iron club, and two mace wielding priests fighting off a tide of over twenty goblin warriors, aided in large part by the mages who continued to rain spells down on the warriors who had yet to reach the climbers, and rogues who would reappear from stealth to strike any goblin separated from the rest before reactivating their Sneak skill.

One rogue was immediately brought out of stealth by a rain of arrows from the goblin archers who had noticed the rogue in the time it took the climber to finish off the goblin warrior and reactivate Sneak, but a quick Heal allowed the rogue to recover and reactivate Sneak before the warriors nearby could begin to swarm them.

The priests were quickly becoming one of the major factors in the battle. The goblins looked to outnumber the climbers over 2 to 1, but unlike the goblins, who could be easily slain by a single attack or spell from a warrior or mage, the climbers could take a hit without immediately becoming incapacitated, and with the warriors working to cover for each other whenever one was hit, and the healers quickly returning them to the fight, the warriors were able to keep the tide of goblins from overcoming them and swarming the climbers behind them. It didn't always work this way, one climber got an arm dismembered by a goblin wielding a large two handed stone axe, and while the healing spell from a nearby priest stopped the arm from bleeding out, it did not regenerate the arm. Would it have worked if the warrior had grabbed the arm and stuck the severed ends together before the priest cast their heal? James wondered, as the climber missing an arm continued fighting, swinging their sword in their off hand with significantly less skill and much more panic than before. The climber hadn't dropped from the fight immediately, but they had lost any cohesion with the rest of the team, turning their panic and pain into fuel to fight, they shouted as they rushed ahead at any goblin close to them, and forced their party to follow them in a bid to protect the warrior from getting himself killed on his own.

The goblin archers landed more hits than the warriors who were used as fodder to delay the climbers from attacking the others, but were eventually brought down by a combination of mages who thought to prioritize them, and rogues who had finally made their way across the battlefield and began attacking the archers and shamans. This caused the archers to focus on the climbers much closer to them, which James realized must have come at the nick of time as he noticed the warriors were no longer being instantly healed upon suffering a hit, the priests beginning to run out of mana.

Things turned for the worst when goblin hunters, who must have activated their own sneak skill near the beginning of battle, finally reached the priest and mages who stood behind the warriors. Two priests and three mages fell instantly as the hunters attacked all at once with the familiar method of jumping onto their prey and stabbing as much as they could as fast as possible. One mage shot a fireball at the priest who had fallen next to them, setting both the bleeding out priest and goblin hunter on fire. Others either struggled to pull or smack or kick the goblin off of their friends, with one rogue with a bow running to them and stabbing at the goblins with their arrows. Only six climbers were attacked before the five goblin hunters were slain, but four of them had died before the goblins could be dealt with and healing potions used on the wounded.

The battle ended with the climbers victorious, but not without cost. In addition to the four who died from the hunters' ambush, two rogues had died before killing off the shamans and archers, along with the warrior who had lost an arm and one of their party members who had tried to save him before the rest realized the futility of such a thing and pulled back. James didn't see it himself, but the merchant who had fought at the front with the warriors had used their skill which let them access a version of the general store from anywhere to sell any goblins he killed, and turn them into money used to provide healing potions for himself and the others he fought with, the low quality health potions providing life saving aid when consumed in bulk, but often only serving to slow the bleeding long enough for a priest to eventually heal them.

The team led by Tony had consisted of 23 climbers prior to the battle, and was now reduced to 16. The five parties reformed into four. Tony had reached level 2, along with all the others who fought on the front lines. James assumed they weren't the only ones, but wasn't about to check the levels of all 16 survivors.

"Let's refill these buckets and get the hell outta here." Tony said more than shouted. His voice was still loud enough to receive plenty of nods from the climbers nearby, and they quickly moved to the river, four climbers carrying the four buckets they wanted to refill while the rest worked on picking up as many goblin corpses and weapons as possible. The bodies of dead climbers were taken by those who were once in a party with them, and James noticed that when the climber he was observing touched one of the fallen, they received a popup.

{Dead Climber "Ralph Hopkins" has been claimed. Acquiring Inventory.}

"Wait, so anyone who takes a dead climber into their inventory also gets everything that climber had in their inventory?" James asked 61-3.

[Affirmative.]

I wonder if they didn't know that until now, or if they decided the inventory should go to those who previously worked with the ones who died. I hope it doesn't cause issues later on. People aren't fighting over the goblin corpses, but in later floors a climber could have a lot more on them than what a goblin or climber on floor one would have.

James brushed the thoughts aside, and watched as the few who killed enough to already complete the goblin slaying quest filled the bucket they had been given as a reward before putting it back into their inventory, and the group began making their trek back to the village.