[D'sP] Three Bears - Chapter 473

Doyle took his time mulling over the bear pattern. Well, that and watched as various critters entered the dungeon and got smooshed. The bear had very much been the local apex predator, keeping everything else in check.

After a week though, he broke through his instincts to not change lower floors, because he figured out the perfect place for them. Floor 3.

It was a small cave maze and a few bears would fit in. Exactly a few, or rather, they would after Doyle removed one of the assassin vines. Because the vines cost 300 and the bear only 100. Which just made the assassin vine feel even more expensive.

Though Doyle could get it. The points being spent weren’t a pure representation of how powerful a monster was. Rather, it also represents how much power is needed to support the monster. So when it comes down to it, a bear native to the area is always going to be cheaper than a plant monster from who knows where, like the assassin vine.

Then a new day dawns and Doyle gets to see his bears in action. Wolf’s Rest is still actively mining out the third floor every day. Though at this point more to ship the metals out to the rest of the community. After all, you can never have enough metal when you’re rebuilding.

This does mean the first bear encounter is a little one-sided and boring as a powerful group of people specialized in mapping areas comes across it. Said group was used because they were already over-leveled for the floor and could basically run through the floor. So yeah, even though it was shocking to find, they made quick work of the bear.

Though only one of the three bears. As the team instantly turns around and heads out to report. In fact, when they exit the dungeon, the group loudly announces their discovery. Whether people believe them or not? 

Well, they don’t actually care. They announced it because they wanted other people to do the same thing with their own discoveries. As mappers, the group inherently understands the dangers of the unknown.

Of course, a warning like that doesn’t stop people from trying their luck. Many of the people delving the lower floors are new to not just the dungeon, but the area as a whole and they don’t plan on staying. This is just meant to be a quick few days to gain some levels and experience some fights in a more controlled environment. All to say, Doyle gets to see a proper bear fight soon enough.

A balanced party of six people is the next to find a bear to fight. They have a couple tanks, a melee and ranged dps, someone to be sneaky, and a healer they hired to accompany them. Though admittedly, said healer is more focused on traditional science doctoring, with only minor magical abilities at the moment.

They hear the bear coming and so as the monster comes around a corner, their ranged dps already has an arrow drawn and brimming with magic.

Pow, right to the kisser.

The magically enhanced arrow blasts the fur off its lower jaw, leaves a bloody mess, and shatters a couple teeth. It is a decent shot all around. Then the bear charges them.

Both of the tanks have their shields up, but it almost doesn’t seem to matter. The bear barrels into the front line and bashes the two back into their teammates behind them.

Though this group isn’t completely inexperienced and the two tanks barely manage to keep their shields up. A good thing for them as a powerful swipe from the bear scores deep grooves into the wood of said shields.

Another arrow to the face. From so close, the magical archer is able to pick their target better and this shot causes the bear to recoil. An arrow sticks out of its eye, blinding it on the left side.

And speaking of side, the sneaky git of the team is off to the side fidgeting with a dagger. There just isn’t a good place to insert said dagger. While their team might have people called tanks, a bear is basically a fur-covered tank in and of itself. Though now with the bear blinded in one eye, maybe there will be a chance.

Crack

The team’s tank on the side the bear can still see is left holding half a shield. Another swipe by the bear hits low, and the shield breaks along the deep scoring from the first attack.

But this was also the chance. The rogue type ducks in under the bear’s arm and sticks a dagger shining with magic into the neck. With that done, they don’t even bother trying to pull the dagger out, instead letting go and ducking all the way under the beast, coming up on its blind side.

The bear howls in anger and pain, which ends up being its downfall. That dagger wasn’t exactly stuck in tight and got pushed out by the bear’s actions. Combined with another arrow, this one to the shoulder opposite the destroyed eye and the party finally manages to mount a successful defense, which they hold until the bear falls to blood loss.

Of course, they poke at it a few times to make sure it really is dead, but soon enough are rewarded with the loot. In particular, they receive a rare drop.

While sections of fur, bear claws, and meat in general are possible options. What this party received for basically being the first properly leveled party to defeat a bear was its entire pelt. Which, admittedly, is a little bulky. The party doesn’t care though, choosing to cut their delve short to make sure it gets treated right away.

After all, an entire bear pelt, claws and all? You don’t see that every day. Especially since this pelt is in perfect condition, being a drop. Even the pelt’s snout is perfectly fine despite how much damage it took.

Satisfied with their loot, the tank with a broken shield picks up the pelt with ease, and they all exit the dungeon. And this time the people outside really take notice.

The first team that announced the bears? Oh sure, the people waiting in line believed them, but there is a sizeable difference between believing there are bears and seeing a group exit with the pelt of a brown bear. Sometimes you just don’t realize how big something is until you actually see it in person.

Well, that and the fact that they now wanted a complete bear pelt for themselves. Which leads soon enough to tragedy. After all, two other teams handle the bear well enough, can’t be all that hard, right?

Wrong. The fifth group to fight a bear isn’t quite as well rounded and doesn’t have a healer on hand. Worse, they have only a single tank. Never needed another despite it being recommended. Instead, they had 4 dps to kill things quicker.

Admittedly, this can work. After all, you don’t need to defend yourself if the enemy is already dead. And it isn’t like the team was doing badly before this. They regularly farmed cattle on floor six.

Their downfall was simple enough. They just didn’t respect how much of a tank bears were naturally and how much being a dungeon monster built on that.

Their alpha strike looked spectacular as always. Four fire spears all launched in sync, and they even managed to all hit. Then through the explosion of fire magic, the bear trundled, fur burnt off, but still in the fight. It didn’t even slow down. If anything, the bear moved even faster.

So in a panic, the four mages try to hurry their follow-up spells. Because they weren’t stupid, they simply couldn’t believe that on floor three, a single monster could take four spells and not at least be stunned for a moment.

Smack, the tank is batted to the side where he slams into the cave wall and falls over. Which spelled the end for the party. Without the tank, the cloth-wearing mages didn’t stand a chance.

Not that this was a party wipe. The rogue they had to handle recon and kobold traps was quick to run. Besides him, two of the mages actually had wind-based movement buff spells. Though most shocking was the tank.

Their armor did its job quite well. Sure, their shield basically ruined from the bear’s swipe, but they weren’t planning to block anything with it, anyway. Instead, they took the chance while the bear was killing the two mages that didn’t get away, to run deeper into the floor.

This was a real risky move on his part as because of the bears, he didn’t have a map of the floor for the day. There was no way to tell if this was a dead end or there were other threats. The tank got lucky, though.

Not much further in was a tunnel branching off to the side. This path ended up being exactly what the guy needed as it actually wrapped back around, dropping him off in an area they had passed through earlier. Though this didn’t relax the man as he knew that meant the bear wasn’t that far away, and so he booked it for the floor’s entrance portal.

Back at the entrance to the dungeon, the usual crowd of delvers is a bit rowdy. Sure, deaths happen. Hell, they happen at least weekly to newbs thinking they’re hot stuff. But they just watched as the lamps for an experienced team lost two of their members. Worse, it was on a newb floor.

Not that they’d say it out loud, but the general consensus was that the floors before the first boss is easy mode. Small groups of monsters in constrained spaces. Even the second floor’s two bigger open areas are actually quite small compared to the deeper floors.

And here was a group of farmers from the sixth floor being killed on the third? That just didn’t make sense! So yeah, they were in a bit of an uproar. Not so much that they didn’t keep filing into the gate to do their usual jobs, but a few changed their plans to visit the earlier floors for some fun.

Back in the dungeon, more teams end up fighting the bears. Though none end quite that disastrously. Not that they’re forewarned or anything. These are still people who had entered before the other team lost two of their people. And it isn’t that they all managed to win.

Rather, these other failures simply were better at running away. Oh, and most teams do have two tanks, which is extra helpful when the opening attack from the bears almost always takes out a tank.

Though as the day progresses, an oddity appears. After the first shocking death and people learn what happened, more teams do choose to tempt things in hope of getting a full pelt. That or simply to progress if they’re new to town.

But it is exactly that. Those who are new actually have a decent track record against what is soon known to be three bears. They don’t have an easy time, but they do manage it.

Rather, the teams to fail the most often are those that regularly farm the sixth floor. Time and again they would be bashed around and forced to retreat. An oddity that none of those waiting around the dungeon portal could figure out.

As for Ace, Jim, and Doyle? All three of them in their own spaces can’t help but laugh at what they see happening, Doyle more literally than the other two. The bears are wrecking anyone who stagnated on floor six, whether by choice or not. All for one simple reason. They’re too used to fighting cattle.

Not that their ability to fight other things has necessarily gone down. They can kill a kobold just fine. No, the problem is that they’re not ready. Whether it is the cattle, the goats, the kobolds, or even the assassin vines? They all have one thing in common.

They aren’t aggressive brawlers. Oh sure, the cattle will run you over, but in the end, they’re cattle. A bear is an apex predator and acts like one. Something the teams from the sixth floor simply are not used to.

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