"It is still chasing—"
"I know, Muti! Keep running!"
"That was not what I wanted to report. There is another red that seems to be approaching from our left."
It wasn't just Astrid who swore explosively at that news. Muti had warned of the approach of another swarm led by a red not long after the Wanderers had finished killing the first one. The decision wasn't hard to make at that point—they were far from being able to fight at their full capabilities, and taking some time to recover would be more important than getting into another fight so quickly. They started their retreat, though not fleeing. They'd seen little reason to, since they hadn't engaged in a protracted chase by any of the shimmerbugs before.
In their escape, however, they'd come across an orange that was perfectly in the way of where they were escaping. It and its swarm were exactly in the path that the Wanderers had previously cleared, and they'd already decided not to stray far from that line and possibly antagonize even more enemies. Everybody had then taken a few of the berries for recovery and the gross grapes to buff themselves up, so they could tear through the orange swarm quickly.
Even pushing themselves, the Wanderers had been slowed long enough with that fight that they could begin to see some of the first shimmerbugs under the influence of the red aura. In the past 15 minutes, they'd never been able to fully escape the view of the creatures, though they weren't running as fast as they could possibly manage. Instead, they let Astrid dip into her personal spatial pouch for the first time in a while.
Skandr hadn't stopped experimenting with enchanting different types of ammunition for her, no longer the simple windburst or frostbite enchantments from before. Now, a true lightning bolt enchantment had been perfected, and when Astrid threw the stones with unerring accuracy at the shimmerbugs, a trail of lightning followed the stone before it impacted against the creature. Then, the lightning exploded out.
Unfortunately for the shimmerbugs, the stones flew fast and hard enough to pierce through the shields of everything green and weaker, and the stone maintained enough momentum to still strike or even burrow into the bugs before releasing its magical payload. The bugs whose defenses kept the lightning limited to the outside of their body were only slowed. Those which were pierced by the stone quickly were reduced to kill notifications.
The swarm slowly thinned out, but the red only grew angrier, its trilling cries behind the rest of its swarm growing louder and more insistent as it drove its subordinates onward. And that brought the party to Muti's announcement that another was closing in.
"It's time to abandon the thought of maybe fighting this," Astrid said once she was done collecting herself. "There's too many to stand our ground, and if we'd had a few more minutes, we could have gotten to the point of taking on the swarm chasing us. If there's 200 shimmerbugs? We'll die."
Nobody disagreed with that sentiment, and Astrid reached over and grabbed Skandr. With him in her arms and Benedict in Felix's, they all activated their boosting Skills and burst forward, running faster than before.
"It's ironic that you're carrying me," Benedict said as Voice of Liberation pushed them all to greater heights, "now that I have a higher Alacrity than you."
"Don't worry," Felix laughed, his attention obviously flicking towards his lover, "I'll put you down before too long. You're not nearly pretty enough to be held by me for long."
"If one of us is to carry the other," Muti said, her smile audible even through her helmet, "then I should hold you. I am faster and stronger."
"If that's what you want," Felix shrugged, looking down at the significantly smaller Muti. "I think I might be a little bit too big for that right now."
"You will be perfectly sized in less than one minute, though."
The party continued joking back and forth, the tension draining away as they finally dedicated themselves to getting out of danger. Chased by a swarm, the red and oranges could choose to leave all of their followers behind to keep up, or they could stay with their subordinates and allow the Wanderers to escape. Either way, it would work for the party.
Just a few short minutes later, the party had fully escaped any potential entanglement and was nearly at the exit from the Dungeon proper. There, instead of actually exiting, the Wanderers all waited to see if the reds would continue to charge after them. They all were still far from fully recovered, but because of Benedict's Restful Reverberations, they lost very little in the way of stamina on the way.
After standing in silence for nearly a minute, Astrid leaned over to Muti. Before she could ask anything, Muti said, "They are not following. Either the distance was too great or they decided it is no longer worth it."
The party let out a collective sigh of relief at that, and after a few seconds of short deliberation, they all retreated into the cave that led to the exit of the Dungeon proper. They didn't leave, but set up there in the small cave, taking out some of the prepared food from Michel. Even though it was significantly better tasting than anything they could make here, nobody said anything as, in addition to their own meals, Astrid pulled out the corpse of the red shimmerbug and yanked one of the legs off of it.
"It's still weird to me that it gets so much weaker once it's dead," Benedict said. "I mean, so many other things that we kill have their bodies remain just as tough after, good for making equipment and so on, but the second one of these shimmerbugs dies, its legs become so weak and so easy."
"Don't talk about it," Felix groaned. "I'll do what I have to, but I don't like it!"
"Now that we don't just eat the insides," Benedict continued, grinning as the party's frontliner started to cover his ears, "we've learned how to make them taste so much better! Frying it and then seasoning it? It's got a good crunch."
Astrid just laughed as she pulled out the large pot that the party had set aside specifically for holding a large amount of oil in it for frying. To the Bronze or Iron tier Astrid, it would've been a stupid, needless expense, but now, it was just a few gold. Who cared if it was perhaps wasteful? It let the party have some more variety in the mana-rich foods they prepared. She put the pot on another magical tool, something that Olafson had made that he called a hot plate, and before long, the oil started to simmer and emanate enough heat to let her know it was time.
"Having the flesh be fresh is very important for improving the quality of the recovery," Benedict continued, bending over Felix, who glared at him.
"I don't think it makes sense that he's so grossed out by it," Astrid cut off any further teasing, "but it isn't really a problem that he doesn't like to think about it. He's going to continue to do what he needs to, and let's not make him want to throw up when getting the food in his belly will help us all."
The teasing broke off at that, and just a minute after that, the leg was finished. Knowing what its purpose was, the party cut the nearly two meter long leg into five equal sections, and they all ate their entire portion. It was pleasantly crunchy, and with the blend of spices that Michel had provided to them, it was, if not delicious, palatable. The mana-rich flesh was quick to digest, and Astrid could feel her mana recovery increase markedly. With, finally, an opportunity to focus on recovery, the party quickly found themselves in a position where they wouldn't have to run from another red.
"I don't have all of my Physique charges back yet," Astrid said, looking at the rest of her party. "However, I think we're just about ready to get back out there."
"Yes," Muti surged to her feet. "The weakened swarm may be close enough to take advantage of it before the red finds more subordinates. We will need to move quickly."
"Technically, I'm ready, but I'd like maybe another ten minutes to recast the spells in my rings," Skandr said. "The wind wall was a lifesaver, very literally."
"We'll get going when everybody's ready, not before," Astrid nodded to the Wizard. "I have about that long before I start to get my first three charges back."
With that decision made, they all spent a few short minutes doing whatever preparations each individually needed, and then, with just a few more minutes of waiting for Skandr to recover and Astrid's Physique charges to come off cooldown, were ready to get back into the Dungeon proper and see if they couldn't find another red-led swarm to take out.
The thought of all of that experience, and especially some real challenges, had Astrid almost giggling in excitement.
***
Marchioness
"We can't stand against them, not on the surface. The margin is too thin, so while we certainly have the Skill and attribute advantage, because we are outnumbered, it's too close to a fight."
"This isn't what I was promised," the Marchioness replied, fighting to keep her tone civil. "Somehow, the Duchess avoided you on the surface, and now you're saying you can't even find and kill her?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Finnegan replied with a casual shrug. "You promised some materials that are rare and valuable, nowhere near rare or valuable enough for me to risk my life. The same goes for my two companions. If you think you have something else that you can use to sweeten the deal for us, let us know. Until then, we'll sit tight for another month and then get back into the Dungeon."
The Marchioness nodded her head, her face as impassive as ever. "However, the same rules that bind you on the surface apply to the Golden Fist, correct?"
"Yes, if they start killing a bunch of people who aren't Arcanite, they'll find themselves wiped out before too long. If it's only one or two, they should be fine, though."
She nodded, clenching her jaw briefly. She'd already lost three of her best subordinates, all of them Adamantium, so the Golden Fist couldn't engage in the fight much more without getting themselves taken out permanently. However, just that small difference in the highest level combatants and the Golden Fist's own presence as a deterrent for her had led to an unbelievable stalemate.
It had been years since she ascended to Adamantium, and though she wasn't throwing herself into the Dungeon to gain levels, she was level 152! The so-called Duchess was still stuck in Mithril, and it was an embarrassment that she'd evaded every ambush, trick, and plan. Maybe the Class carried some hidden boost to pure luck, because nothing else could explain how she was still alive despite everything.
With a polite nod, the Marchioness stopped thinking about things that didn't require the Arcanite tier visitor's assistance and dismissed Finnegan. Then, that damn smile returned. He was always smirking, looking at her like she was a child, treating her like a fool. Despite the fury that it incited in her, she also knew that he was testing her. He wouldn't mind putting her in her place, even if he couldn't rely on his ascended Skills to do it. Those Skills he'd largely left behind at his final evolution were more than enough to destroy her, to say nothing of the attribute disparity of what was probably 100 levels between them.
While she stared at him, Finnegan continued looking at her. Then, finally, the Ranger inclined his head in the barest approximation of a bow and then disappeared. It was uncomfortable to know that he could get anywhere he wanted without her being able to stop him, no matter how many Bodyguards, Wizards, Alchemists, Artificers, Warriors, Rangers, Scouts, Rogues, Wardens, and more she threw at the problem. The simple fact was that, at a certain point, levels made you into something more than a Human, and while here, on the surface, that's what she was, down below, men and women like Finnegan ruled, not her.
She had chained her wagon to a rampaging dragon, though she'd only thought it an unbroken horse when she invited it into her home. Now, however, she was on the dragon, and she would ride it until she either reached the heavens or was incinerated.
Fortunately, she was a good rider.
***
With a scream, Astrid smashed the edge of her shield into the flickering shield barrier. The red's Skill broke with that, and she laughed as Felix maintained a firm grip on the monster's horn. It screamed, both of its sharp legs attacking him as he continued to activate Skills to keep its attention on him. The barriers from his helmet, his Boon, and his Skills held strong, though they started to weaken under the furious assault.
That didn't matter, and Astrid's hammer fell on the monster's head. As tough as it was, the party had learned that, once the red was held like this, the peak Steel tier creature wasn't nearly as dangerous.
The echoed strikes reverberated through the clearing as the other three members of the party focused on occupying the two remaining oranges and many of the other lower-level shimmerbugs. Muti focused on hampering mobility while Benedict layered Voice of Liberation over everything that came nearby. Finally, instead of attacking, Skandr had trapped the red in a fifteen diameter circle with the Wanderers. Desperate, the other, less intelligent shimmerbugs kept throwing themselves at the walls that separated them from their leader, but they kept getting thrown away by the spell as well as the other party members' efforts instead of being able to defend the red.
Finally, Astrid broke through the monster's defenses and dropped her hammer with one final blow. The beast's skull was reduced to smashed gore, and the kill notification was glorious.
All around, the remaining three dozen shimmerbugs grew significantly weaker as the red's aura faded. The oranges tried to fill in that gap, but they were far from capable of it. With impunity, Astrid rushed around the battlefield and cut down the few uninjured monsters. As the party continued to gain levels, the fights were easier, though the reds, with their boosts given to the rest of their swarms, did provide a mostly satisfactory challenge.
Less than a minute passed before the fight was over, and with only two charges of Physique spent. Astrid smiled and nodded at her party, but that was the only delay she took before she started harvesting the most valuable material she could find.
"I believe we have three minutes before the next monsters' arrival," Muti reported as her blade sliced into the guts of a yellow.
"Do we want to fight this next wave as well?" Astrid asked, ripping open the abdomen of the red. "I'm in pretty good shape and could do so without a problem."
"We have enough space to thin out the herd first, right?" Felix asked. "I'm pretty sick of getting cut up and surrounded by fifty bugs all by myself."
"Is the level 79 struggling?" Astrid laughed. "I am the weak one of us all who hasn't leveled up yet, and I'm fine."
In the past two days, the party had gained two levels, keeping at their absolutely breakneck pace of gaining experience, and Astrid was, contrary to her own belief, starting to agree with Skandr on the necessity to slow down at least a little bit.
"No," Felix laughed. "I just don't like getting stabbed, even if it's only in the leg."
"I think we push on for just a little bit longer," Skandr said, nodding at Astrid. The two of them had had a conversation the night before, and now was as good a time as any to bring it up to the rest of the party. "I think we should push to level 80, and then take at least a few weeks to make sure we are getting a lot of practice in."
"We all have open Skill slots," Benedict said, immediately understanding. "This is the last watershed before, which, in case you've forgotten, is unbelievable that we'll be in Mithril before being 30, our next evolution. But it makes sense to put some time into making sure that our next Skill offerings are exactly what we want, and high tier."
"Although I guess that I could just take the Skill evolution to Impenetrable Fortress, if I wanted to," Felix laughed. Astrid glared at him, and he raised both hands in surrender. "It's a joke, I wouldn't. There's a good chance that whatever evolution I get might evolve the Skill or even roll it into one of my other Skills. It would be stupid to take that over just about any other option that will come my way."
"So long as you realize," Astrid laughed. "But that's an idea that me and Skandr talked about. Sticking around here until we all poke our heads into level 80, and then go back to Neverwood. It would only take another day or so, so we could get to the level before the high tide comes. Then, once we're confident in our practice, we can get to maybe a different section of the Dungeon proper where there are stronger monsters, maybe even weak Mithril tier ones. I'm still annoyed that we didn't manage to kill that Steel tier Boss before."
The rest of the party chuckled, remembering the Leviathan that, if they were to encounter now, would give them very little trouble, though it might still be able to escape. Finally, after looking amongst themselves, Benedict sighed. "Just a couple more days before we can get a rest? I'm willing to work hard for that."
"Great," Astrid cheered. "Then let's get these bodies harvested as fast as we can, because we've only got one more minute before the next fight."
Nobody groaned, and instead, they all looked forward to the very real break that they had coming, and what it meant for their futures.