"Yeah," I replied without much care. "Troublemakers, what can I do."
Barik had been standing out in the rain in front of the dungeon portal, waiting for the group to gather. My one hour window to eat and relax was mostly wasted by the four stooges. Well, at least I made it on time.
Now, we could finally get this dungeon run started.
We were all on the fifth quest chain and needed the fifth boss. It was a moment we had been preparing for, for nearly a week now. To finish the dungeon before any other party, to gain the reputation bonus and a potential title to hang above our heads, some fame, some experience, and maybe even some extra coin too.
They were lofty goals, but they were reasonable.
Our party was experienced and our unit cohesion was top notch after days of grinding and experimenting. I was nearing fifty and the others had already passed the first mark nearly three days ago. As far as the leaderboards were concerned, we were in the top one-percent of the player base. We weren't in the top ten, but we were within the top one-hundred. That was good enough for me.
The levels themselves never meant much to us, anyhow.
It was all about proficiency and learned skills.
Barik was an excellent tank, significantly more developed than I. Allen and Ethan both were more proficient in their respective fields as well, so too, was the frost mage without a name. He had one of course, at least I assumed he did. He was a quiet guy, one that didn't talk much, so no one bothered to ask.
They were all well-developed and ready to proceed.
The only one that had lagged behind slightly, was me.
What I lacked in my singular proficiency though, I made up with being adept at multiple roles. I was a red mage as far as one could tell, a hybrid, jack of all trades type of guy. My tanking skills fell behind by a tier, as did my magic, and my bow proficiency was at least two if not three tiers behind a similar leveled player… but my versatility made up for it.
My Ancient Relic made up for it.
To think that scaling a mountain could have proved so fruitful.
Yeah, it was a nice feeling. Hard work, practice… time devoted to improving myself had created a player beyond reproach.
I may have been outmatched in individual skills, but the combination of my abilities put me a step above the competition at the moment. To say I was the most valuable member of the party wasn't a stretch, even if it was cocky and egotistical of me to admit it. There were certain truths, that didn't really need to be explained.
Now, we would put it all to the test.
"Are we good to go?" I asked as everyone had gathered in front of the portal.
Four nods and various responses followed, and we all turned and entered the dungeon for hopefully the last time. There wasn't much left to do, two hours of clearing trash mobs and four mini-bosses that we had killed a dozen times before, all for the single culminating event of the big boss.
The big baddy that had us too scared to even attempt it.
That goblin, with his inordinate amount of subordinates, to the point that it defied the logic and thematic style of the dungeon in its entirety, was the one that we wanted.
The first boss fell without so much as a hitch.
We had a lot of theories, for potential strategies going forward.
We would be facing off against fourteen goblins and my [Chain Lightning] was limited to five targets. The frost mage's [Freezing Rain] would be effective, but only if we could hold them all together. Ethan's [Flame Wave] was great too, though it couldn't do enough damage, quick enough to matter. So, we were limited with our options.
In order to challenge the fifth boss, we needed to be considerably stronger.
Strong enough that the second boss was killed with three people while two rested.
No other group had managed to take the fifth boss down.
Though, one guild ended up bragging about being the first to conquer the fourth floor a day ago, about a week late to the party, really. They were ridiculed in short order, a lesson to their public relations guy or gal, I'm sure.
One of the keys to our strategy, was to rely on my [Discharge] to disrupt and stun the mass of goblins, with the intent to keep them locked inside the [Freezing Rain] for as long as we could. The second step, was for Ethan to utilize his [Flame Spike] in conjunction with [Flame Wave], a two-part combo of Area of Effect magic that would hopefully take care of the [Outcast Minor Goblins] holding the front line.
[Flame Spike] was a straight-line skill shot that engulfed anything in its path.
It made quick work of the third boss's entourage, so there was definite promise.
We weren't sure though, how effective everything would be.
Multiple spells that required precise timing to effectively chain off each other, wasn't necessarily easy to accomplish. Barik also needed to essentially volunteer for a suicidal mission to run into the center and taunt them all, briefly holding their attention while I worked to off-tank the two [Outcast Goblin Guards]. In truth, with the fourth floor's boss setup of two [Goblin Guards], we had plenty of opportunity to practice tanking, with Barik on two, and with me on two during other runs.
We even gave it another go, to make sure.
I ended up tanking both [Guards] on the fourth floor, taking very little damage this time around. Thanks in large part to hundreds of opportunities to tank random goblins.
Yeah, we had made some pretty significant strides.
Alan had figured out an easy rotation to keep us healed, and both Barik and I were instinctively good tanks outside of our practical efficiency. Having two tanks with one doubling as an extremely bursty damage-dealer was quite handy, too.
And now, we stood before the fifth floor's boss.
Seven [Outcast Minor Goblins] front and center in a line, as if they were on a two row stage of sorts, being displayed for all to see. They weren't much but they would eat up my lightning if I wasn't careful. Behind them were the real threats though, two [Goblin Archers], [Goblin Priests], and [Goblin Guards] with one of each flanking the [Outcast Goblin Chief] directly in the center.
The big bad boss, wasn't really all that big at five feet tall and maybe a hundred and twenty pounds… but he was certainly bigger than the other goblins. Curiously, they all looked male and I had yet to see a female, well, I wasn't about to check for genitalia anyways… maybe they were asexual.
That was easier to process, too.
The thought of goblins reproducing down here in the dungeon was a bit disturbing.
Oh well, my mind was wandering too far on a tangent.
"So, which strategy should we try?" I asked after everyone had recovered and settled in. "AoE bombardment, then taunt and tank?"
"No tellin' if we can actually pull it off 'till we give 'er a go," said Barik as he jumped up and pulled out his sword. With his shield at the ready, he was eager to start.
"Let's just see what happens," chimed in Alan.
"I'm ready when you guys are," stated the frost mage.
"Oi, time's a wasting," chirped Ethan as he rolled a small flame around his fingertips. "We've already been here for over two hours."
"Yeah, well then," I agreed with a shrug.
I guess it was time, after all.
Getting into position, Barik took up center next to me while Alan sat far behind us. The frost mage took position up on the left and Ethan took the right, filling out our loose formation. Whether or not that was for the best was to be decided shortly. Mainly, we wanted eyes on target from different vantage points, just in case shit hit the fan.
Taking a deep breath, I exhaled slowly as I focused on my target.
"Five," I called out as I brought my hands together and began to chant my three verses, intending to get one solid [Chain Lightning] off on the [Chief]. As my hands started to glow and electricity sparked and flickered about, to my right an intense flame had been gathered and was steadily increasing in size as the seconds counted down.