Even though the party started to go a little deeper into the forest, it wasn't for more than a cursory scouting expedition. After all, with all of Astrid's charges of Physique on cooldown, they weren't working at their full capacity, to say nothing of the recovery that the rest needed to get back to their peaks. Once they were all confident that there weren't any other shimmerbugs in the vicinity, they pulled back half a kilometer or so. There, Astrid began a conversation with Muti.
"Of course you didn't sense their approach, or else you would have said something," Astrid said, unable to get comfortable in the clearing they settled in.
"I did not sense their approach," Muti confirmed. "Not until the last second, as they appeared."
"I know you were on the opposite side of the clearing," Astrid said, scratching her neck, "but you should have felt them, right?"
"Yes, I should have. I do not know how they evaded my notice."
"Skandr," Astrid called out. Once the Wizard was looking at her, she asked, "Have you noticed if the auras from the yellows and so on boost anything other than the attributes of the shimmerbugs?"
"Like if it's something similar to Muti's Shadow Aura?" he confirmed. "No, I haven't noticed that. However, I can keep an eye out from here on."
"Do you think that maybe, with the increase in level," Benedict asked, jumping in, "that there's an aspect to the aura that changed? Like, not only did it gain levels and become orange, it also crossed the watershed. We've all mentioned it before, but the indigos' cutting Skill is so much better than the violets', while the increase from indigo to blue isn't as stark, just gaining the charging Skill. Then, the greens get the regeneration Skill, but also, their charging and shielding Skills are significantly stronger than those of the blues. Following that same pattern, counting the new variety at each new watershed, it shouldn't be too surprising to think that, crossing the watershed at level 81, the oranges gain an additional aspect to their previous Skills."
"What do you think, Astrid?" Felix asked, the rest of the Wanderers waiting for her answer. "You're the one who spent the most time fighting it, so could Benedict be right?"
Astrid nodded, subconsciously agreeing with the thought as she considered what she'd seen from the orange. Had all of its Skills increased as Benedict guessed? The cutting arms had left marks on her shield, marks that would disappear as it repaired itself, but marks nonetheless. They'd also cut through her armor much easier than she had experienced until then, and its charge and shield were both faster and stronger than before as well. Its regeneration was impressive, allowing it to survive a hit that should have been deadly.
"That's probably right," Astrid answered, answering Felix's question. "The Skills are definitely a lot stronger, and if, on top of becoming just plain stronger, the aura now lets them become more stealthy or avoid detection, then that would make sense."
"If that is the case," Muti said, "then I will put a much stronger focus on searching actively for incoming enemies at all times."
"I think that's all we can do for now," Astrid concluded. "How's everybody feeling about your mana and stamina?"
"Having two fights back to back without any real recovery time is hard," Felix was the first to say. "Even if we had just five more minutes with Restful Reverberations, I would have been in a better position. As it was, I was too wasteful with my mana in the fight against the yellows before that and that affected how well I fought against the orange swarm."
Muti nodded in agreement, her already somewhat disappointed face growing more sour. "I have begun to rely too much on my mana, and to expect a rest after each fight. It is unreasonable, and I must be more cautious in maintaining my own reserves."
"That's on me," Astrid said, leaning back against the vine-tree she stood beside. "I have Physique. I have a responsibility to make sure that everybody else is getting the benefit from at least a few charges to keep themselves in the fight."
"I appreciate it," Benedict said, doing his strange whistle-talk where he whistled and spoke at the same time to make sure that everybody was constantly benefiting from Restful Reverberations' accelerated recovery rate. Now that it was Steel-tier, it offered a constant 250% increase to everybody's passive recovery, dwarfing even Champion's Physique's bonus of 150%.
Astrid pulled her attention away from the weird sounds coming from the Bard's mouth as he continued, "It's nice that you want to help us, but it's each of our individual responsibilities to make sure that we are fighting capably while we are in the Dungeon, be it the Dungeon proper or a branch."
"Yeah, that's true," Astrid agreed, "but while everybody needs to make sure you're staying on top of your resource usage, in this last fight, or fights, I spent two charges of Physique just to kill a yellow a little bit faster. Then, I used a third just so I could stay at my peak. I didn't try to reposition myself or do anything to get any of those charges to help anybody else. Then, of the next five that I used, only one included somebody other than myself.
"I'll be the first to say that me jumping in and taking the attention of the orange and the yellows, while you all took care of the rest, wasn't a bad idea. I kept them occupied, kept them from pressing hard on Skandr and Benedict as you recovered, and so on. I was alone out there, and making sure to spend charges to make sure I didn't go down at that time was key. However, that still leaves two charges wastefully used, a third where I didn't extend its benefits to anybody else, and a fourth that was focused on stabilizing Skandr, but I still didn't extend the effects to anybody else. I've just gotten used to being able to spend them wastefully."
The rest of the party didn't argue with that, and they each began to talk about how they could better apply their own Skills in the fights moving forward. After all, for the first time since they came to the Dungeon, they were facing a real challenge. That they ran into a yellow weeks ago didn't really count, because they had simply been overwhelmed and then retreated. Now, they were facing real challenges, similar to when they'd been fighting the irregular wyverns before.
"I need to be more flexible in shifting between Skills and which effects to focus on. I was all in on Song of Victory healing and forgot to even try to give Inspiring Song to somebody."
"Of course, there is the question of my failure to recognize their appearance. Also, my mana expenditure was unacceptable, and I should have focused on more mobility, clearing out enemies from positions of surprise to take advantage of Assassin's Bearing."
"I could've helped Astrid out quite a bit more by not being so focused on what was in front of me. I'm sure there were openings where I could have hit one of the shimmerbugs with Guardian's Amplification to help her finish that fight faster. Of course, I needed to change the way that I acted with my resources before that in order for myself to even have the mana to do that."
"I need to keep my damn eyes open so I don't get blindsided by that stun Skill, whatever it is," Skandr finished off the discussion. "And I should probably spend some more time on more lasting effects for my spells. Those tend to be less mana-intensive if I get them up at the beginning of a fight."
"Yeah, that stun Skill was strange," Astrid agreed, pulling the party's attention to that. "It wasn't something that was blocked by Heroic Aura, either. So, it's an entirely physical effect, not a mental one."
"But even so, shouldn't Mental Fortress have helped?" Skandr asked.
"No," Astrid replied, "because that only affects Self-Mastery-aligned mana. I'm pretty sure that what the oranges do to stun is focused on Fortitude, maybe Power as well. Pairing that with the fact that their attributes are probably naturally higher than ours are, they're a real challenge."
Benedict's face screwed up at that, and the rest of the party didn't look thrilled either. The Bard complained, "It doesn't really feel that we are as high level or as high rarity of Class as we are. I mean, some random bugs have higher attributes than we do?"
"Bugs that are an entire watershed above us?" Skandr shut down his complaints. "Other people don't fight watersheds above them. And if it was just oranges, Astrid showed that she can take one on by herself. I wouldn't be surprised if Muti, Felix, and I could take one on as well. The issue isn't that we're not that strong, it's that fighting against a hundred monsters at the same time is, to nobody's surprise, pretty difficult."
Benedict sighed, but didn't disagree with the statement.
"And there's a question about if they're getting more intelligent with each tier," Felix continued. "Was it just an opportunity that they focused on Skandr? Or did they realize that he was a vulnerability and decide to attack him accordingly?"
"There is no telling from just this first encounter," Muti said. "He was the closest to their angle of attack, so it could be either. They have not been especially intelligent until now, but that may change at the two highest tiers."
"So we'll make sure that we're protecting Skandr, Muti, and me from that Skill," Benedict said. "Maybe you two as well, depending on how much stronger the reds eventually are."
"I somewhat doubt that the Skill will be particularly effective against us, but either way, I guess it's just an excuse for us to ask Vera some questions," Astrid said, wiggling her eyebrows at Benedict as she changed the subject. "After all, if we are looking to get something that will temporarily boost you three's Fortitude or physical resistance, that's the place to go."
Benedict's face, previously twisted up in unhappiness, relaxed into a soft smile at that, but he shook his head and glared at Astrid because of the ease with which she distracted him. She laughed, and the party continued planning about what to do for the next encounter they had, as well as how to ensure that Astrid and Felix were correctly positioned to protect the rest of their allies. By the time the hour was through, the party had come to a general decision about what to do moving forward. Then, their decision made, they actually walked back towards where they would find monsters.
This time, Muti led the way with deliberate steps, her head on a swivel and constantly making signs to the rest of the party to make sure that they were aware of everything that she was seeing. The Barbarian's every step was taken with care, and the party made slow progress forward. Even so, they did continue on their path, and they continued to move towards the next fight.
The next contact that they had was with another yellow, this one not locked in combat with a second yellow, but just leading its little swarm in stripping a section of the forest down. This time, the party made sure to preserve their resources, moving forward as one squad.
Instead of rushing straight into mana- and stamina-intensive Skills, each of them focused on the basics. Astrid and Muti both used minimal amounts of mana to dispel Skill shields, Astrid and Felix both making sure to break the shimmerbugs' charge before the monsters could threaten the back lines. Benedict used only Voice of Liberation to get the party to be able to react faster while also fighting back against the bugs. Unlike usual, Skandr focused not on an offensive spell, but instead on a supportive enchantment, lightning dancing over the three melee fighters as they crushed the initial charge from the shimmerbugs.
The three greens and single yellow that stood against the party's initial defenses closed in, but instead of a frantic, frenetic fight, the Wanderers controlled it, using Skills sparingly and focusing not on finishing the fight so much as being steady.
About one minute passed before the fight was completely over, something like three or four times as long as they regularly would have spent on dispatching a smaller force like this. However, Astrid hadn't used a single charge of physique, and every other member of the party hadn't wasted any of their resources either. As the yellow kill notification flashed in her eyes, Astrid looked at the other members of the party.
"I'm at somewhere from 80 to 85% on both stamina and mana. You?"
A chorus of agreement filled the air, the rest of the Wanderers having done just what they had promised they would.
While they all settled up together, following Muti's lead to the next fight, they all saw as she noticed the approach of their next fight. She started to signal to the party that something was approaching, and from which direction, when suddenly she stiffened and bared her teeth. Unlike Skandr, who had been completely stunned, she could still move a little as she grunted, "Larger group."
"Feel free to use buffing Skills," Astrid commanded as she grabbed Muti by the arm and pulled the Lethal Shadow behind herself. "Benedict, if I don't see the value of Inspiring Song, I'm going to have to inspire you with a boot to the arse. Felix, we are focusing on dispelling the shields of everything but the orange. Skandr, show us Microburst. Muti, hurry up and get a hold of yourself, we need you."
That was as much time as they had before the hidden shimmerbugs made themselves known.
Just like before, a solid mass of greens made for the opening charge, but this time, the party was all close together, and Felix and Astrid stepped into the lead, holding their shields side by side. Astrid didn't gain any strengthening buff, but she could see when Inspiring Song took effect on Felix. With Body Surge and Defender's Avatar helping the two people on the front line, Astrid would have expected them to have about equal levels of strength to stand against the monsters.
That was not the case, and Felix lowered his shoulder as he used mana that flowed through his shield to pull seven of the greens towards him. Each one, over a meter wide, was too large to be able to have all seven hitting his shield at the same time, but as he activated his other Skills and stepped forward, once Astrid had helped to break the charge, he stood as an undefeatable wall.
"Choose me, Muti, and Felix for a charge of Physique," Benedict said, his voice swelling with supernatural strength as he used Inspiring Song again to boost Astrid.
She didn't argue with the command, pointing her hammer forward and creating a large, writhing mass of deathly tentacles with nearly half of her mana and stamina before she used a charge of Physique. The use of the Skill had very little impact on her physically, though she did feel some of the same exhaustion and discomfort as she took on the brunt of Muti's suffering under the orange's Skill. Then, she was totally back to full, and with Body Surge and Inspiring Song pushing her, Astrid jumped over the front line.
Below her, Felix's axe smashed into various different shimmerbugs, the front lines breaking as he smashed the creatures that his Skill forced to attack him into pieces. Astrid spared a further glance back, seeing as Benedict tossed a small, fluorescent blue berry into his mouth, one that she knew was from Vera and would help him recover his mana. As soon as he did that, he, for a third time, cast Inspiring Song, this time on Muti. She, largely purged of the stun by the charge of Physique and with the further boost to her attributes, rushed into the battlefield, both of her blades dancing between the closest shimmerbugs and slicing through Skill shield and leg. If a golden opportunity presented itself, she would deal the killing blow, but she was focused entirely on a more supportive role for now.
And then, Astrid couldn't look behind herself any longer. Instead, she focused on the slightly different battlefield she had ahead of her.
Instead of one orange and two yellows, this one had three.
A flash of fear ran down her back, but she didn't pay it any mind. Instead, she called back to Felix, "Guardian's Amplification on the second one whose shield I break!"
He shouted wordlessly in confirmation, and Astrid, glancing at her Status, couldn't help but laugh just a little. She didn't care about anything else, only looking at the difference in her attributes.
Attributes
Current
Power
980 (+270) {+1,862}
Alacrity
589 (+130) [+353] {+1,120}
Fortitude
939 (+326) {+1,080}
Magical Potency
405 (+105) {+162}
Self-Mastery
386 (+136) [+154] {+154}
Acumen
261 (+54) [+104] {+104}
Those numbers at the top were truly unbelievable, and she laughed out loud. Like this, she could stand against the monsters in front of her. Then, with the confirmation of what her strength was like now, she threw herself at the closest yellow. Its fellows fell on her flanks, and instead of trying to kill the first monster she fought, she simply broke its shield before stepping forward and delivering a devastating kick into its underside.
Since it had no Skills keeping it grounded, it flipped back maybe fifteen or twenty meters as Astrid smashed her hammer into the next approaching yellow. The orange was right behind it, but she'd already broken this yellow's shield with her own.
As she began her fight, the constant sound of a raging storm surged behind her, lightning falling and flashes of light trying to blind her as the sound of sizzling flesh filled the air.
With a thought, Astrid pushed a heavy amount of mana and stamina into a Spectral Burst and trusted in Felix. Just as she started to swing towards the exposed yellow, a faint blood-red aura started to emanate from it, something she knew to be a sign of Felix's so-often forgotten Skill. Her hammer smashed through the shimmerbug's head, lodging inside of its guts as the effects from her Skill pulled all the color from the yellow corpse. Astrid grinned as her attack went exactly according to plan with the appearance of the kill notification.
And then the orange smashed into her.
She was sent flying, its sharp legs catching at her own, and she let the strikes hit. This time, the counterattack wasn't as devastating as the first orange's had been, and she found her feet as both of the two remaining yellows closed in on her.
The fight evolved from the quick blitz that had resulted in a kill to instead Astrid dancing between cutting arms and exchanging hits back. She was giving much better than she got, breaking the orange's shield, as well as both of the yellows', leaving cracked armor and dripping ichor in the wake of her strikes, but their superior numbers and continuous regeneration, which was better even than her own passive healing, meant that she would have to spend more of her resources to be able to turn the tide.
Then, Muti appeared, dropping from above and burying her midnight mithril blade in one of the yellow's heads. Shadows burst around the creature, and Astrid could hear sharp mana scrambling the insides of the bug as the kill notification flashed in her eyes.
"I am here," Muti said, and Astrid could hear the grin in her voice as the Barbarian disappeared from the orange's counterattack.
"Leaving me here all by myself, huh?" Astrid laughed as the remaining yellow and orange focused on her once again. Now, though, she wasn't alone, and she only had to give opportunities to her companions. As the third yellow was dispatched, Astrid's speed lurched to a slower pace as Benedict's Skill ran out. It wasn't a surprise, as sustaining that level of mana cost for three people at the same time wasn't feasible.
The orange tried to seize the opportunity, but as Astrid swung her hammer and dissipated its shield for the fourth time, a wind suddenly appeared under the beast. The tornado lifted the bug into the air, spinning it around as what seemed to be a dozen wind blades appeared, each somehow different from the rest of the wind. Each cut into the orange, slicing ribbons of flesh off until, after a full second, the corpse was a series of filets laying on the ground.
Looking around, Astrid saw where Skandr stood, a gale-force wind whipping around him but somehow remaining silent. The visual aspect to his boosting Skill stuck in her head, lighting flickering around his body and clouds billowing from his fingers.
Astrid smiled as she looked at her party, all of them largely uninjured and victorious over a foe that had, only an hour ago, presented a real threat to them. And they would only continue practicing and getting stronger.