บท 17: Misty Floors
Setting foot on the tenth floor for the first time, the trio take measure of their surroundings. The area seems to have gotten vastly larger. Whereas before it was a collection of corridors and large rooms they connected, now it seemed as though they stepped foot into a large valley.
The ground grew soft grass, which was a welcome change from the rough stone ground on the previous floors. There were also occasional trees growing here and there, but they all looked dead. Rose warned them that monsters like orcs use them as club weapons against adventurers.
But the most troublesome change was the fog covering the whole floor. It wasn't too bad yet, it resembled a particularly dense early morning fog that occurs in colder seasons. Luckily, with Cassian's senses, it became a non-problem for him. Even if his vision was obstructed a little, his hearing more than compensated for it.
/Thud/
Suddenly they heard loud footsteps approaching them. A large monster was coming their way. All three glanced in its direction and saw a large silhouette parting the fog, revealing itself to be an orc.
It was big, over three meters tall (10 feet tall), and it was fat, obscenely so with each of its limbs looking like logs. Finished with green skin and the face of a pig. It was truly an ugly creature to gaze upon.
"Oh Cass, why didn't you tell me your relative was visiting us?" Nico said to Cassian, making his brother give him a strange look.
"You do realize you just insulted yourself too, numbskull?"
"Are you two seriously going to do this now?! That thing is charging at us!" Leo exclaimed visibly nervous at the three-meter-tall bipedal pig. And sure enough, it was charging at them.
"I'll take this one. Wanna test my sword out." Cassian told Nico. The orc and the tree club he was carrying would be a good way to test out his first proper sword.
/Roar/
The orc roared just as Cassian charged him. Cocking its meaty arm back, it swung the club at Cassian just as he approached.
Instead of evading the slow swing, Cassian decided to directly confront it. Wouldn't be much of a test otherwise.
/Clang!/
Swinging his sword, it collided with the orc's club with a loud impact. Contrary to the orc's expectations, instead of the opponent's, his arm was violently flung back, making him stagger.
'That was a strong hit and my sword definitely felt the brunt of it. The edge portion that collided with the club is visibly deformed a little. I guess this is the limit of mundane materials like steel.' Cassian finished inspecting his sword's condition and put his attention back on the recovered orc. He decided to avoid direct hits like that or his sword wouldn't last long.
Cassian charged the orc with blinding speed. The only thing the orc could do was respond with a clumsy swing. Cassian immediately ducked below the swing, getting behind the orc's defenseless back.
He shot off the ground and plunged his sword into the orc's heart, making it release a last wail, until it slumped down, dead.
'Certainly stronger than the monsters we've been facing so far. I guess we're gradually catching up to the power level we currently are at and will be able to start facing monsters in our league.'
The monsters they've been facing so far were extremely weak compared to them. Compared to Nico who dealt with them from a range, Cassian felt the difference even more vividly. Even if a horde of hundreds of Killer Ants surrounded him, he could slaughter them all with his bare fists.
As a result of that their growth had been very slow. Considering their low stats and good fighting prowess, their stats should've already reached G rank, and yet they haven't even reached three digits.
The growing difficulty meant that would change and the notion excited Cassian.
"Just in time" Cassian heard a group of orcs and smaller monsters, he presumed were imps, approaching them. "Get ready, we have enemies approaching! I'll serve as the tank and draw their aggro. Nico concentrate your firepower on the orcs, they're easier to hit, while I eliminate the imps. Leo, move together Nico, and harvest the corpses in your vicinity. 3 meters (10 feet) is the furthest you are allowed to move away from him."
"Got it!" came the simultaneous acknowledgment from both of them and just as soon the group of monsters came charging from the fog.
"Tempest, Wind Blade!" Before they could even get close, two of the leading orcs were bisected by Nico's attack.
Cassian then shot off towards them, somersaulting over the front line and releasing a blast of Igni downwards, setting half a dozen monsters on fire, making them start screaming and flailing.
Cassian surged forward, his sword a gleaming arc as he cleaved through the air. The first Imp shrieked as it was cut down. The other Imps screeched in fury, diving at Cassian with claws bared from the shoulders of the orcs they were riding.
"Gale, Wind Bullet!" Nico chanted several times, releasing a flurry of bullets made of wind that punched holes through the orcs with great precision. The orcs were riddled with holes throughout their bodies and died, but more replaced them shortly afterward.
Cassian continued dancing through the monsters, dodging the orcs and cutting apart the imps, until there were none left.
Only a few orcs remained but they were easily taken care of afterwards by the brothers.
"Phew, not bad. They were certainly more of a challenge than the monsters we've faced so far. How are you holding up?" Cassian said after killing the last orc.
"Pretty good. I didn't need to use much of my mana to deal with them." Nico replied only slightly winded.
"How about you Leo? Any injuries?"
"No, I'm alright. None of them got to me." She answered. Currently, she was harvesting the monster stones from the remaining monsters.
Throughout the fight, she and Nico have been moving around to get different angles to attack the monsters, while also guiding Leo to the corpses so that she could harvest them. This way a portion of the monster stone harvest would take place during combat itself, cutting down the total amount of time they needed to spend in one place.
After 5 more minutes, she had dealt with all of the corpses and they could move on now.
"Okay, we're going to continue going like this all the way down to floor 12. Silverbacks and Hard Armoreds will start showing up on the next floor so be careful. They're much stronger than orcs. Any questions?"
"What's a tank?" Leo raised her hand and asked with a curious expression on her face.
"Huh?"
"You said earlier you'd act as the tank and draw their aggro."
"Ah, that. A tank is a role of sorts in a party, their role is to act as defenders by grabbing the monster's aggro, in other words, aggression, and attention. They then keep their attention on themselves so that the other party members are safe and given an opportunity to freely attack the enemies."
"Oh, I see, that's great. So, you're the tank of the party?" Leo's eyes were shining at learning this. She wasn't treating this dungeon dive as a simple way to earn money, no she wanted to learn as much as she could about the adventuring profession to become one in the future.
"More or less. I'm more suitable to be a damage dealer, but since our party is small, it's up to me to fill both roles."
"Ah, and Nico?"
"Ranged damage dealer for now. As he grows, I'm planning on having him fill the utility and crowd control roles as well. Ah, crowd control basically means disrupting enemy groups to decrease their effectiveness and tactic usage." Cassian explained patiently, slowly earning Leo's admiration.
From what she heard from Rose, most adventurers were brutes with muscles for brains, especially in smaller and some medium familias. Their planning and strategies were simplistic lacking organization. This was one of the main reasons she admired Finn Deimne so much, as he was known as a master tactician.
"Ugh, you're planning on working me to the bone, aren't you?" Nico's complaining snapped her back into focus.
"You were the one who declared you would become the archmage, did you not? No use whining about it now." All Nico got in return was an evil grin, which sent shivers down his spine from fear of the future. He still vividly remembered the torture that evil bastard made him go through when they signed up for a kickboxing club.
The party of three then continued going through the tenth floor, battling and killing dozens of orcs and imps, before descending down to the eleventh floor.
The first thing they noticed was that the fog on this floor was denser, compromising everyone's eyesight even more. However, with Cassian's hearing it was futile. This is why Cassian considered his enhanced senses one of his most important powers, even more so than his enhanced physique. They allowed him a far greater awareness of his surroundings, despite how bad the environment may be.
It didn't take long for new monsters to show themselves. A Hard Armored stood before them.
"Who came up with that idiotic name?" Cassian questioned, genuinely annoyed at the impracticability of that name.
"Oh hey, it's a giant armadillo with a tough shell, what should we name it? A Hard Armored! Geez the creativity of whoever came up with it must be in the gutters." Nico couldn't help but agree with that. Even Leo, despite being a native of this world, found herself agreeing with them a bit.
The Hard Armored did not give them the opportunity to idly chat away though. As if enraged at the slander thrown at it, the armadillo monster roared and charged Cassian.
"Aw, it seems we hurt its feelings." Cassian grinned before taking off to meet the monster in its charge.
Sidestepping its predictable lunge bite, Cassian swung his sword at the monster's neck from the side to decapitate it.
/Clang/
The sound resembled metal striking metal. Unexpectedly, the sword bounced off of the scales of the Hard Armored, only managing to rock its head back with considerable force but without piercing the scales.
Cassian frowned at the sight and before the monster could recover thrust forward his sword with all his might into the side of it, but the result was the same.
The sword was deflected to the side, only managing to knock the monster back. In return, a tiny piece of the sword tip broke off.
'It seems the sword I made is completely inadequate for monsters even on this floor much less the middle floors. I need more practice and better materials. But more importantly need to start using runes.'
Seeing as the sword was ineffective and would only break if he continued like that, Cassian sheathed it and raised his fists instead.
'My strength and body are sufficient to deal with it, it's just my weapon that was incapable of keeping up. It was like hitting someone with a cardboard rod. A fist would be much more effective.'
The armadillo regained its footing and immediately charged toward its now weaponless prey.
Cassian did the exact same sidestep and avoided the monster's lunge, before lashing out with a fist strike that dented the monster's face, knocking a couple of fangs out.
'The intelligence of monsters on the upper floors is abysmal. It repeated the exact same attack as before, despite the previous failure.'
Cassian did not give it a moment to rest though. He immediately continued his assault by pivoting his foot forward and crouching down his body, before delivering a devastating uppercut, shattering all the teeth of the monster and making blood spray out of its mouth.
One more punch to the temple was enough to cave its head in and kill it.
"Phew that was a good workout." Cassian was satisfied with the monster's strength. A single direct punch from him was enough to put a crater in an orc's head, but the Hard Armored needed three. It had impressive durability.
Leo immediately went to take out its monster stone by cutting open its belly. Normally her knife wouldn't even put a scratch on this monster's scales, but after monsters die, the power that was held in their bodies weakens greatly along with the mana they held dissipating. As a result, their corpses become much more fragile and easy to damage, allowing even supporters to carve up a monster like a Hard Armored with only small difficulty.
After extracting the monster stone and even lucking out and getting some of its primary scales as a drop item, the party continued hunting on the new floors.
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