Chapter 53: Dungeoning (1)
Shinto swiftly rushed up towards a nt-like monster within the forest as he sent a mana spark, quickly knocking it back. From behind him, Raina hurriedly casted a bolt of fire over to the enemy, sessfully burning them.
"Phew..." Shinto let out a breath as he turned to the spot where the monsters once were. "Was there always this much monsters here?" he averted his eyes away, quickly looking over towards Raina as he asked.
"Yeah, the area leading up to the drnds is swarmed with many monsters," Raina answered. "If we''re not careful, we can get a surge of monsters wanting to kill us... and as fellow staff-users, that won''t be good right?"
"Aha, yeah. Unless one has an AOE spell, we will probably be dead before we could manage to reach the dungeon."
"Yeah, so best be careful around here," Raina reminded. "But since we''ll be crossing over to the next zone, we''ll be meeting up with the rest soon," she said. "The rest of the journey should be easier than earlier since the monsters should be cleared away for us."
"That guy was the one who did it right?" Shinto asked. "Lucas. was it?"
"Mhm. He went on ahead to clear the way for us so we don''t struggle," she nodded her head. "Should we quicken our pace now?"
...
The two sessfully made their way through the drnds outside of the old wood canyon as they reached the Shivuliz''s Den entrance. There they saw the two other members of the party. [ Ethaniel ] who was leaning onto the uneven walls of the entrance and [ Lucas ] who seemed to have just arrived at the area.
"You''ve finally arrived?" The blonde-haired man with the name Ethaniel said in an impatient manner. "Finally! So can we get onto the dungeon already?"
"Sorry, sorry... It took a while to find thest member of the party aha..." Raina apologized. "But, we can now begin with the dungeon since everyone''s here now."
"Wait," Lucas held up his right hand as he looked towards Shinto. "Does he know the strategy we''re using?"
"Ah, right! My bad... I forgot to mention the strategy to him while on the way..." Rainaughed awkwardly as she hurriedly turned to Shinto. "Uh, so basically. Ethaniel will be our main damage dealer for the boss while Lucas will be the drawing Aggro. As for us, we''ll be providing damage support for them with our skills," she exined. "For our individual roles, I''ll help clear the wave of enemies while you''ll focus on healing Lucas. Is this understandable?"
"Hmm, yeah. So we''ll basically be using the two swordsman assault strategy?" Shinto asked. The swordsman assault strategy was amon strategy among the yers within the 10s. As Raina exined, it was a strategy where one swordsman would tank while the other would be the main damage.
The reason as to why a DPS ss was in charge of aggro and tanking was because the tank ss, Knight was only avable for ss change when one reaches the level of 15. Thus, to rece the absence of the role, a close-range fighter would usually be the one to take up the role of a tank for the time being. Often times, it would be a brawler ss or a swordsman ss.
"Right," Lucas nodded his head. "That''s the strategy we''ll be using, so seeing as you know the name, I''m guessing you know the gist of things?" Lucas asked.
"More or less so."
"Good, then we don''t have to waste time exining. Can we go in now?" Ethaniel said.
"Everyone has their equipment at hand and potions ready, right? Then, we''ll be off," Raina said as the group entered into the dungeon.
...
[ You have entered the instance dungeon ''Shivuliz''s Den'', all outsidemunication is blocked. ]
[ You may not leave until the instance is done or you die in the dungeon. ]
The moment the group stepped foot into the dungeon, they were greeted by themon dungeon notifications. As the system indicated, Shivuliz''s Den was an instance dungeon where one couldn''t freely go in and out as they please.
The surrounding atmosphere of the dungeon gave a feeling of eeriness as only cobwebs and spider eggsid rest within the area. Besides those, there were small clusters of crystals that gave off a gleam green glow around the surrounding area which provided vision for the party members.
"Stay on high alert. The mages especially. Shivuliz''s servants are known to jump at you at any given time," Lucas ordered as he took out his sword. A sword made of steel. At first nce it may look like your average sword, upon a closer look there seemed to be a symbol of the hotel on the handle of the sword.
''The sword provided by the hotel... It doesn''t seem to have those shy designs like on the armour this guy''s wearing, I wonder how''s the performance of it?'' Seeing the sword that Lucas was holding in front of him, Shinto observed the gear. ''Judging by how that attendant described the equipment, it should be at least a boss monster''s equipment quality,'' he thought to himself as he heard a loud voiceing from the side of him, it was Ethaniel''s voice.
"You don''t have to warn us again and again," Ethaniel scoffed. "Let''s just sweep through the dungeon and done with it," he impatiently said. "Make sure to keep your end of the deal, alright?"
"Yeah, yeah. You''ll get to see him again after we clear the dungeon," Lucas said nonchntly.
Hearing the conversation between the two, Shinto raised his brow. ''Ethaniel... I still can''t seem to remember where I''ve seen that name. But anyway, from the looks of it, he seems to be here only for something at the end... I wonder what the deal is? Though who am I to care about this?'' he shrugged. ''That''s of no concern to me when I have other goals to achieve while I''m here.''
"Psst... Shinto?" Raina whispered over to Shinto through his ear.
"...Huh?" Taken aback by the sudden whisper, he turned towards Raina. "What''s up?"
"Ah well, I just to apologize on Ethaniel''s behalf... He''s quite the impatient person that maye off as rude at times, but he means well!"
"...I see. Not to worry, I''m not bothered by it," Shinto whispered back.
"Ah, really? Phew... Here I thought you''d feel ufortable by this..."
"Nah, not at all. So don''t sweat it," he smiled. "Though, I didn''t expect that you''d know him? I was under the impression this was an on-the-spot put together party seeing the way you approached me earlier..."
"Ah, well... I''ve known Ethaniel for a few days now. He''s been helping out with dungeons and stuff since my time ying the game aha..." sheughed. "And it''s my bad I approached you that way, I was in a little hurry to find another mage or a priest. So when I saw you with the cloak, I went up to you."
"Oh, so that''s how it is... What about Lucas?"
"Ah him? Well... Ethaniel wanted to do this dungeon for some reason, so he was the one who brought him. I joined in as well seeing as he asked me to join the party and since we couldn''t handle the gimmick from the boss with only three members, we had to find another one, which was you."
"Right... This dungeon requires you to go for a four-man party if you want to have an easier time..." he stated. In this instance, the boss of the dungeon had a gimmick where it would give four different types of status ailments every minute onto the party once it reaches a certain threshold on its health.
The way the status ailment is distributed to the party is based on the number of yers within the party. If there was only one person soloing the boss, they would be inflicted by all four ailments and it would cause a disruption during their battle. If there was only two, then, they would only get two ailments respectively. Thus, the easiest way to handle this gimmick was to go for a four-man party, where each would only gain one ailment.
Although it''s doable fighting the boss with a team of three or less, having to constantly be inflicted by the status ailments every so often was an annoying variable to handle especially if two ailments are inflicted upon the main damage dealer, it would be a call of distress. As such many would prefer going down the easier route.
"Yeah," she nodded his head. "Anyhow, let''s do our best for this dungeon run!"
As she said so, the two heard a loud cry at the front of the group.
"Shivuliz''s servants are here! Take your position and beware of their poison!"