The days continued passing, and as the last day of the low tide came and went, the Wanderers had grown comfortable with fighting the oranges. That wasn't to say that every encounter was without danger or that they could afford to fight against multiple swarms an hour, but they had fallen into a routine. In the morning, get into the Dungeon, avoid whatever fights they could to get towards the deeper part of the forest, where the yellows and oranges lived, and then do basically the same thing every hour for ten or eleven hours. First, find an orange swarm, kill it with overwhelming force as fast as they could and retreat a little ways to give themselves time to recover while picking off smaller groups of the shimmerbugs. Once they were back to peak performance, go look for another orange and repeat the process over again.
The schedule worked well for them, and the fact that they were, after four days of concerted effort, only getting about ten kilometers into the forest at the most had helped to assuage any worries of destroying the ecosystem. On top of that, they were getting real experience with pushing themselves hard and not taking any of the fights lightly. They continued to experiment and train, but after the scare fighting against the first orange, they no longer allowed themselves a single moment of relaxation within the Dungeon. It wasn't the first time that they had promised that they would do so, but now, they remained alert and attentive.
Added to that was the fact that each hour, each member of the party was getting about 70,000 experience between the large swarms under the jurisdiction of the oranges and the smaller groups of yellows. As such, with four days of pushing deeper behind them, the Wanderers were comfortably halfway through level 76. Fighting swarms of monsters, with most of the yellows and all of the oranges still higher level than the Wanderers themselves, was a particularly fast way to gain levels. However, with each level and more familiarity with the way the oranges fought, this section of the Dungeon couldn't pose much of a threat anymore.
"Once we find the reds," Astrid said, as the party was walking towards the exit of the Dungeon proper, "I don't think that there will be much more challenge to be found, at the very latest, once we hit level 81. Entering the final watershed, we should probably start thinking about looking for monsters that are Mithril tier, and at this rate, we're only a week or so away from that."
"Yes," Muti agreed. "We should find those that are that strong. Yes."
"Calm down, kill fanatics," Benedict interrupted. "We don't need to push quite so fast. At this rate, we'll spend less time in Steel than we did in Iron."
Astrid took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before she said, "I'm not sure that's exactly a bad thing. Yes, we haven't focused on our Skill development as much as we have before, but we can do that just like we did in Iron, in the last few levels of the tier. But what does everyone else think?"
"I haven't made it a secret that it would be good for me to slow down," Skandr said. "I need to better understand what kind of storms I can create if I'm going to be able to get a good Class evolution, and I've barely experimented so far."
"And I must strengthen my ability to become one with the shadow," Muti said, her voice reluctant as she changed her stance. "Perhaps that training would be best done against those of a higher tier and who I would not result in killing, such as those within Neverwood."
"I really don't need any additional practice like that," Felix shrugged. "I'm doing exactly what my Class needs me to, so I don't mind pushing on in getting levels."
"Me too," Astrid laughed. "But we could probably both benefit from slowing down just a little bit. I don't know if I've ever heard of somebody going through all of Steel in less than half a year."
"Between the wyverns and now," Benedict spoke again, "it's only been like two months. Even if we take a week to get to the next watershed and then train for four months, it'll be less than half a year!"
"It's been two and a half months since we evolved, so it'd be longer than that," Astrid corrected, grinning when Benedict glared at her. "It would be over half a year, but not too far off. And your point stands, we deliberately slowed down what we were doing at the end of Iron to make sure that our fundamentals and foundations were really good. It makes sense that we might do that again, even though pushing hard now would get us to Mithril quicker."
"I'm gonna get four months to study?" Skandr asked, a very genuine excitement coloring his tone. "That's not nearly enough, but that's a great step! Four months with minimal delving? Duchess, yes!"
"You don't have to be that excited about it," Astrid grumbled. "I like delving."
"No, you live for delving," Benedict shot back as the party walked into the cave mouth that separated the Dungeon proper from the surface. "It'll probably do you some good to take a little bit of time to ground yourself among regular people."
"I don't want to be like regular people," Astrid replied, unable to not notice how childish she sounded.
"We know that," Skandr said, "and we're happy to stay with you and so on. That being said, sometimes taking a little bit of a break is good."
Leaning into the general feelings of the rest of the party, Astrid leaned forward and growled, eliciting a sigh from Benedict and laughter from Felix and Skandr. With the party altogether, they walked out of the Dungeon proper and towards their camp.
"How are we going to deal with the high tide coming tomorrow?" Skandr wondered aloud.
"Honestly, and it pains me to say it," Astrid grumbled, though humor touched the sound, "we might have to stay out of the Dungeon proper on the high tide days."
The three Human men made faces of surprise, each a varying level of comedic, while Muti's face flickered through a couple expressions before she seemed to understand what Astrid was getting at.
"If we cannot escape the notice of the hundreds and thousands of violets and indigos, then we will be wasting too much time and filling up on experience on fights that give us nothing."
"Exactly," Astrid nodded. "We were already feeling that way when we were only level 65 and 66, but now we're 10 levels higher, and it would be counterproductive to spend much time where we aren't really pushing ourselves."
"Am I hearing this right?" Benedict placed a dramatic hand on his chest. "You think it's not worth it to go into the Dungeon for several days a week?"
Astrid ignored him and looked at the rest of the party as she continued talking. "It's about an hour to sunset right now, so do you want to travel through a good part of the night to get back and spend the night at Michel's, or do we want to just spend the night here, travel tomorrow, get one night at Michel's, and then travel back on the second day of high tide?"
Benedict, no longer caring to put on a show about his disbelief, shouldered his pack and looked meaningfully at the rest of the party. Astrid laughed as she looked at the others, and nobody looked particularly eager to camp out when an extra night, even if only a short one, was available to them at Michel's.
The journey ahead of them would be a dark one, but even Felix, with the lowest Acumen among them, had over 300 with his boost from his equipment, and seeing in the dark when illuminated by the stars and moon overhead was no trouble. Their familiarity with the path that they stepped on was no small boost either, and the party took less than a minute to make all of their preparations to go. With Voice of Liberation and a pair of enchantments from Skandr working together, the slowest members of the party found their Alacrity spiking even higher, and they ran through the forest with feet that stepped surprisingly lightly upon the ground, leaving only a negligible trail through the pristine Verdant Sanctuary.
***
Entering Neverwood once again, the Wanderers quickly made their way to the inn, where Michel didn't hesitate to welcome them in, and, while he didn't have meals prepared, he promised them plenty in the morning. Then, back to the almost too comfortable beds they retired and found a good night's sleep.
The morning went as most mornings in the inn went, comfortable and just generally a delight. A delicious meal, biscuits and gravy with a fresh juice that Astrid didn't know the name of the fruit for, greeted them as soon as they woke, and then, knowing what was coming, the party split to go visit Vera as well as Olafson. Rather, Benedict went to visit the Greenthumb while the others allowed him his privacy and approached Olafson's shop without him.
For the first time in their experience, the door was closed, and when they knocked and called out, there was no answer. Finally, after about a minute, Gabriel, one of his neighbors and a retired delver that Astrid knew, came around.
"He's gone, picking up some valuable delivery," he explained. "He does this a couple times a year when he's particularly anxious about the materials or stuff like that. Left a couple days ago, and he usually doesn't travel too quick, so who knows how long it'll be before he's back home. I'd guess maybe two weeks"
"Thank you," Astrid nodded her head. "We'll actually be around for the next day or so. Would you like me to tell you a little bit about the entrance of the Dungeon proper you told us about?"
"I might be a hermit," he growled back, a faint smile on his face, "but I do talk to people. I don't live in a cave off in the wilderness, I live in a tiny little village in the wilderness. Now that you brought up the topic, though, I do wonder if some of the guts might find some value, at least at the higher levels. I've been told that the greens are good at regenerating. Those qualities make for good alchemical ingredients, so while the greens weren't quite strong enough to be valuable, if the stronger ones have better regenerative properties, look specifically for... Well, you wouldn't recognize it, but it's an organ called a regenerative organ."
"We brought a couple yellows and some oranges today," Astrid said, allowing her smile to quirk up at the side of her mouth. "And, with what you're saying, we need to make sure we learn what part that is, because we'll have plenty more coming before too long."
"Make sure you do. A monster at the peak of Steel that can be made into healing potions and so on? That's a damn valuable creature. Kind of thing that nobles keep hidden, and the Guild only sends their selected squads into."
While there was a mystery as to why some of the, or rather most of the, people in Neverwood were there, Gabriel had never made it a secret as to why he didn't dwell among the Human lands. He hated the nobles, distrusted the Guild, and didn't want anything to do with either of them. The older Astrid got, rather, ever since before she met him, she couldn't find herself disagreeing with the man.
"We'll make sure to bring everything back we can," Astrid said with a nod. "Is there anybody other than Vera who might find use for them? I have a sneaking suspicion that, in the next week or so, we're going to more than oversaturate her ability to do anything with the organs that she's apparently going to be wanting."
"She's the main one," he shrugged. "But most everybody around here is high enough level that they can find a use for them, though they might not have something that you think is valuable in return. I'll ask around, talk to some of the more solitary people. Who might take you by surprise is Pollock. He won't be happy about me telling you his Class, so I won't, but I'd bet my left arm that, once he sees what kind of materials you're bringing back, he'll be interested in them."
Astrid felt her face scrunch up involuntarily at that, her distaste towards the stubborn, generally asinine Barbarian no secret.
"I'll talk to him," Gabriel said, chuffing out a laugh at her face. "See if we can get you some equal trade going on without you two scowling at each other the whole time."
"You can't take my right to scowl from me," Astrid said back, laughing. "And thanks. We haven't been here long enough, and frankly won't be here long enough, to build the relationships necessary to really become friends with everybody here."
"Eh, I gotta look out for the young ones. Too many of you slip through the cracks, especially at the highest and lowest quality."
Astrid cocked her head to the side, confused at that, and he chuckled.
"As far as I know, and this information extends back about forty years, the Guild and the nobles hate each other. As you know. Now, whenever there's a promising new delver who shows up, the nobles try to steal them and the Guild tries to protect them, and in the end, they both hold each other at an impasse while also not wanting to get the other to commit too much to fighting over possession of the new one. In the end, talented kids like you end up having to fight for yourselves and either sink or swim. Luckily, looks like you got some good swimming legs on ya."
At that, Gabriel was done talking and he walked back into his house. Astrid was used to the old man's brusque nature, and she simply waved goodbye at the back of his head as she turned to look at the rest of her party.
"Onto Vera's, then. I wonder what it was that Olafson decided to go pick up, but maybe we can ask him when he comes back."
"What he does is none of our business," Skandr shrugged. "You guys go talk to Vera. I'm going to take what time I can to see what I can better understand about that stone storm and continue to compress wind."
The Wizard didn't say anything else before he turned and started to walk away, and the party left him to his wizardly ways as they all went to speak with Vera.
"I wonder what it is that makes that piece of the monster a regenerative organ," Muti said as she led the way into the shop. "I will harvest it and see if I can add it to my strength."
Astrid sighed and followed her party members into the shop. After all, the rest of the day was a day off, and tomorrow afternoon, they'd get moving back towards the Dungeon proper. Until then, she could force herself to actually relax. Or try to.
***
Olafson
With his specialty enchanted binoculars, it was easy enough to keep watch for the inbound ship. Even with a pod of Cetacean Kin, it was better to stick to the shallows, away from the deep sea where the strongest, most hidden monsters dwelt.
It had been a couple days since he set up here along the coast, and where this natural cove was, where he'd received permission from the Verdant Walkers to receive shipments, he'd also received permission to set up a nest. Part of why he enjoyed receiving shipments sometimes by himself was because he could leave early and then enjoy some time in his nest.
His workshop was great, no complaints. After all, he'd largely made it according to his own specifications and could relatively freely adjust it, so long as he didn't go about digging his basement too deep. He was trusted enough by the Walkers to know what he stood in danger of damaging if he started expanding downward, and he wasn't going to invite that kind of disaster on himself. However, just hanging out in the trees? Feeling the wind on his face and the rustling of leaves in his ears? It was glorious.
There remained at least another week before The Faraon was due to appear, and he had plenty of time to continue fiddling around with his little projects. Most of these ones weren't worth spending time in the workshop on, as they were too unlikely to go anywhere. However, out here, where he had nothing but his own fingers, he could indulge himself.
The spring-loaded mechanism he was playing with had actually borne fruit, even though it was unfinished and generally an embarrassment of an attempt at artificing. Skandr's clever little idea on his grimoire had resulted in quite an interesting application of this mechanism. It still wasn't quite able to rotate the way that he was wanting it to, but progress could be made. He could almost taste the end result. The only question would be how he could get the rotating enchantments to better interface with a singular manastone deposit.
Could he keep it guarded in the handle? Or would he have to have a series of stones, each one paired to the individual mechanism? He wanted to avoid that, but, since he wasn't actively attempting to create a fully functional prototype, he could pursue success and then adjust however he needed to once he tested the spring. However, he really wanted to know if it was possible to have a single attribute stone feed all of them, and wasn't in a rush to get it to a customer or anything.
He let a wide smile cross his face and continued fiddling with the spring action.
Yes, these moments of peace were precious, and he needed to treasure them while they lasted.