Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
And then it hit.
The golden light engulfed me as the goblin's eyes grew wide at the sight. Wide enough to see the axe heading straight toward its face, but not enough for it to properly evade.
Throwing up its sword in a feeble attempt to deflect the heavy axe, it only served to weaken its own guard. From behind the rogue had landed a fatal [Backstab] directly into the heart of the disgusting creature as my axe chunked off a part of its cheek.
Collapsing to the ground in front of me, the last of the five goblins had been defeated. I had finally killed my first few dungeon mobs, and cleared my first dungeon trash group.
Yeah, these mobs were only trash.
They were what stopped you from getting to the better mobs, the mini-bosses and the boss of the dungeon. Things to waste your time, impede your progress, and cause you general pain. There was certainly plenty of pain involved for me, but that was the life of a tank. Getting stabbed repeatedly, slashed and sliced at continuously… those were the things I would have to get used to.
Maybe it wasn't so bad if you lowered the pain-threshold.
But I couldn't do that… I elected to go the Ultra-Realism route.
It seems pain will follow me wherever I go.
Chapter 40: The First Floor, Pt. 2
(Sunday, May 23rd Game Day / Wednesday, February 17th Real Day)
With the fight finally over the group sat down to recover their lost stamina, mana, and health. It was a sloppy fight with little coordination but that was expected from pick-up groups with no familiarity. Coordination was typically born from experience… either with those you have worked with, or from having done similar work extensively.
There was none of that here.
Breaking my train of thought as the archer decided to open his mouth again, "That was pretty messy at first, but we recovered. So, let's rest up and I'll bring the next group."
Yeah, no.
His strategy sucked.
Those minors had only slightly less attack power than the regular goblins, but they had significantly less health and almost no defensive capability. Five seconds to kill a minor or twenty for a regular.
There was no reason to let the minors attack me for forty seconds with impunity. Plus, it left me to attempt to guard against four or five targets at a time. I had no interest in being overworked for the benefit of some archer's ego. All he had to do anyways was mindlessly shoot his bow. Not to mention, one of them had hit me with an arrow in the back.
Speaking up, "Mind if we switch it up a little?"
The archer seemed displeased and replied coldly, "What did you have in mind?"
"Since I'm not a Shield-bearer, I don't have the AoE Taunt skill for taking initial aggro. It would work better if you let me pull them."
Silence quickly filled the air as all four members stood still. They were most likely discussing the proposition in their guild chat, where I couldn't see it. I wasn't sure what all they had to discuss though, their tank was telling them that he could tank better if he pulls.
What was there to debate?
After what felt like five minutes, I finally got my reply.
"That's fine. You're familiar with pulling, right?"
"Yup."
With a smile, I immediately got up and ran around the corner with my bow in hand. A moment later I was running back towards the large room where my party had been standing, dumbfounded that I left them.
Turning back around, I readied my axe for the four goblins coming my way.
As the goblins came into sight, the archer quickly stated the obvious, "Ugh, there's only four goblins… did you lose one?"
Yelling back to him as the goblins charged into me, "Already killed one!"
"Wait, what?"
"Focus the Minors first!"
Ignoring the idiocy of the archer-leader as I had no interest in arguing nor sitting around for five minutes while they internally discussed the merits of my proposals, I continued the fight. Once you're in combat, it's best to listen to the tank.
The goblins hit me with their charge as I took 17% of my health in damage from the minors while deflecting the regulars. Corralling all four of the goblins in front of me, I side-stepped and turned so that the archers would have a clear firing line.
Now, we could fight.
As the minor goblin to my right fell almost instantly to the rogue, a smile crept up on my face. Only to turn into a wince as the other minor goblin stabbed me in the thigh.
Swinging my axe down towards the oncoming swords of the regulars, the clang of metal on metal rang out throughout the cave, reverberating off the narrow walls of the passageways. The echoes continued to bounce back and forth as the fight escalated.
As I turned my focus to the two regulars, I noticed a few arrows had landed in their core. The archers had ignored my call to attack the minors. Typical leader-types with too much of an ego to step aside when out-classed.
The rogue felled the other minor goblin in record time though, and with that it was 5 versus 2 in short order.
As the Outcast Goblin in front of me lunged forward attempting to land a thrust, I simply stood my ground and took the blow. The goblin was oblivious of what was to come as I dropped the axe down.
The goblin had nowhere to go and was full of openings; leading to a clean decapitation as the goblin's head rolled in front of me. One look to my left and the other goblin soon fell to the rogue's [Flurry] of stabs and the archer's volleys.
Not interested in any further discussion or commentary from the archer, I quickly left to pull the third group. The priest had only used 30% of her mana this time, opposed to the 80% she used last time.
That's measured progress.
With every pull, we came one step closer until we finally reached the boss. There were seven trash groups and a mini-boss per level, it seemed.
Stopping for a minute to explain the situation, "Next one's the boss, did you guys want to sort the loot before or after we start?"
The rogue replied to me as the archer had long since gone silent, "We sorted the items when you were pulling, it's all junk."
Well, I didn't doubt her.
I had a good look at those cracked and rusty swords as they pierced my abdomen or sliced at my arms and legs. They were just old, extremely brittle iron swords that were only good for a few hits.
Vendor trash, essentially.
Take it and sell it at the trade post for its scrap cost, or keep it to melt down for resources for yourself. Definitely not worth using in a fight, unless you wanted it to break mid-fight.
Approaching the mini-boss for the first floor, one could easily see the difference between the [Outcast Goblin Guard] and the lower level [Outcast Goblins] and [Outcast Minor Goblins]. The Guard was level 40 while the two Goblins were 37. Those two Minors were only level 27.
Of course, I was only level 30 so, I didn't know if the levels really meant much.
The rogue then explained the situation to me, "The boss is fairly normal, we've fought him twice and only beat him once. He actually has leather armor on in addition to that shield and spear, so he's a bit dangerous."
Leaving the party in the previous room, I went alone to pull the boss.
As soon as I was at the very end of my spell range I stopped and placed my bow down against the rock wall with my axe hanging off my back. Bringing my hands up near my chest and turning slightly to the side, I started my Chanted Verse.
"Through power, darkness turns to light, render all to ash, Lightning Bolt!"
Electrical energy coursing through my hands, the balled up mass of raw power shot straight out of my open palms and instantly traversed the distance between us.
The Minor Goblin that was my intended target was soon convulsing on its knees as an arrow found its mark in the center of his forehead. Drawing once more, I released in the general direction of the [Guard] with a thwack.