[D'sP] A Quick Fix Gets Them Through - Chapter 413

Doyle was interested in how they would handle the leather and kept an eye on it. Well, some of it. Most of the untreated ashen cattle hides

Doyle was interested in how they would handle the leather and kept an eye on it. Well, some of it. Most of the untreated ashen cattle hides were being handled in a more traditional fashion.

So Doyle instead focuses on an experiment they were running to speed tan hides with the help of magic. Now, while he didn’t know the exact time to tan a hide, the best he could remember was that a bigger hide would take over a week. Magic was short-cutting it down to maybe three days.

Though the leather workers the results were passed onto all judged it as being subpar. However, it still maintained the resistance to fire and heat, so they decided to run with it. In particular, Jay was getting a full refit.

More interesting to Doyle was what they did with the extra leather. Instead of turning it into small items, they reduced it to leather thongs and replaced all the armor straps for the rest of Jim’s party. Doyle couldn’t help but silently applaud their decision.

While that armor wouldn’t be as protected as Jay’s was, the leather straps were also the most vulnerable. Besides, after their last trip to 16 the straps all needed replacement, anyway.

And so less than a week later, Jim’s team is once again delving straight for the sixteenth floor. Ally could only shake her head. ‘I guess you weren’t wrong about not being able to rest on your laurels.’

Then the two of them watched Jim’s team walk through the floors. It was becoming ever more obvious that part of what had held them back was simply the time it took to give it another try. Though because of how easy it was for them to reach the ashen cattle, they ended up receiving even fewer hides.

Jim wasn’t happy about this. “How do they get so much meat out of the sixth floor? I’ve noticed this, but it didn’t really click until now. The easier a time we have with the floor, the less drops there will be. Shouldn’t those farmers be having a cake walk on six by now?”

Kelly shrugged, “That would only matter if it was easy for them to the point of not getting a full pack of meat. Sure, at this point they have to complete more of the floor than they would prefer, but they aren’t doing full clears. Besides, this isn’t about earning levels, it’s about drops.

“We could in theory get a steak from every cow if we did stupid things like tying our arms behind our backs or what have you. Drops are simply based on how much effort we expend.  

“Though honestly, if we needed to farm steak for ourselves? The best way would be to use the floor for combat drills and exercise. Have one guy go out to fight and give guys at the entrance pumping iron or what have you?”

Jim, “Huh, not the worst idea. Though I don’t see it as necessary if people are still having trouble with the sixth floor. I really did think the average delver was better than that.”

Kelly shrugs, “The average adventurer is better than that. These aren’t adventurers that we’re talking about. They’re dungeon farmers and I bet they’re only registered with your guild because they get better drops if they are.”

Jim sighs, “I guess I need to take a look at how normal people are doing.”

Jay shrugs, “Eh, they’re not your responsibility. I’m sure Ace has someone keeping an eye on them. If only to make sure there aren’t any hidden threats.”

Jim shakes his head, “I guess you’re right. Well, let’s finish off the cattle in the center.”

The team turns to the only cattle they hadn’t killed yet, gear barely even darkened. Though it certainly helped that this time when facing the second side of the caldera, they stayed back to aggro, the first group. That way, they didn’t end up under sustained fire.

Down on the next floor, Doyle and Ally both feel a bit nervous. They know Jim and his team aren’t here with bad intentions, but this will be the first time delvers reach the last floor in months. And of course, those final ashen cattle soon fall.

Jim’s team stands in front of the exit portal to floor 16 and takes a moment to fully recover. Then they step through, appearing in a dense forest.

Jim squints up at the ceiling, “That’s one of the faker attempts at a false sky we’ve seen yet.”

Kelly raises an eyebrow, “I don’t see it? Looks normal enough to me.”

Jim, “I think I might have more invested in my eyesight than you do.”

Jeremy nods, “The sky is flat. There might be a realistic enough scene painted on it. Well, not painted? More like one of those fancy screens they used pre-system to make realistic fake windows. Anyway, there isn’t proper depth to it, though I agree with Jim. We likely just have a path or skill which gives us a better sense of depth.”

Jay shrugs, “Give me a scent and I’ll tell you if it’s real or not. And speaking of scents, we’re going to be fighting a whole lot of kobolds.”

Kellinger groans, “I can just see the traps coming our way right now. At least this isn’t a moon. Well, and these are the lizard style of kobolds and not the more dog-like ones. Though I doubt a dungeon has to worry about copyright, if their lawyer department even exists at this point, anyway.”

Tess sighs, “I’m going to get a lot of practice using magic to remove splinters.”

Jeremy shrugs, “Well, none of us should walk through those two trees over there if we want to avoid it for the moment.”

The rest of them besides Jim look closely at the trees he pointed out.

Kellinger frowns, “Not seeing it.”

Tess sighs, “I don’t think anyone besides Jim has spotted it.”

Jim nods, “We’re the scout types, so it makes some sense. Though I’m kind of thinking the opposite of Jeremy’s suggestion.”

Tess raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

Jeremy nods, “While I think I might know why, what reason do you suggest that?”

Jim gestures at the trapped area, “We know there is a trap there. Right?

“Well, can you guarantee that is the only trap in sight? Sure, the both of us are quite good at spotting them, but we’ll eventually hit a point where they won’t be the case. Now, can you assure me we haven’t reached that point?

“Because I don’t know about you, Jeremy, but it took me a moment to actually spot that trap. So, if as Jay said, there are a lot of kobolds, I’d assume that is not the only trap in sight.

“However, the kobolds haven’t stacked traps yet. Not really. Sure, they sometimes place them near one another, but they don’t chain them or connect them to the same place. So, if we disarm or avoid that trap, we should be able to move forward.”

Jeremy sighs, “I wish I could say I trusted my ability to spot traps, but you’re not wrong. Besides, I’m trained to find human placed traps. The kobolds were already placing traps in ways that felt slightly off way back on floor one. Besides, we should at least get you all familiar with the traps while right next to the way out.”

No one else really had an opinion on the matter and so they all gather near the trap as Jeremy squats down where the trigger is.

Jeremy hovers his hand just above the ground. The others don’t see what he is pointing out, at least at first. He has to gently lift off some ground litter.

Then they spot it. There is a moss that is oddly humped up. Kelly frowns, “What’s the mechanism? It doesn’t seem to connect to anything else.”

Jeremy gestures to the side, “You should be able to see it from this close if you look carefully. They buried something that releases an actual wire, now can you spot what it will drop on us?”

Tess grimaces, “Is it just a wire? Well, not just. I can barely see it against the tree bark, but it looks an awful lot like barbed wire if the wire was super fine.”

Jeremy nods, “And when it triggers, the wire will slide over another wire, creating a noise like a badly tuned string instrument. Well, I assume that is what it will sound like. We’d have to actually trigger it to be sure and I’m sure a hunting party of kobolds wouldn’t be far behind.”

Jay sighs, “We’re about to experience said kobolds any moment now, no matter what we do. There isn’t much air flow, but I can barely smell a fresh scent. I think they’re hunting lizards, going by the tinge of fresh blood.”

Kellinger, “Aren’t they lizards as well?”

Kelly shrugs, “Never stopped people in some places from eating monkeys. Besides, I’m pretty certain they’re not actually lizards. The scales aren’t lizard style scales. Though I’m not sure what that means.”

Jay nods, “They don’t smell like proper lizards. I just don’t know what they are. Strange little guys.”

Jim, “Well, let’s set up for a fight. Do you have an idea of which direction they’re coming from?”

Jay takes a deep breath. “Left of the portal.”

With that, the team set up for a fight. A fight they don’t have to wait long for as soon enough, a group of ten kobolds wander out of the trees and seem completely surprised to see Jim’s party.

Kelly and Jim both attack the group directly, while Kellinger lays down a web to the back of the gathered kobolds. The web proves particularly prescient as the two magic users try to retreat into the tree cover, only to be caught.

Jay advances into the monsters, his glaive swinging out in a wide sweep that knocks down three kobolds and slicing open a forth. Though within moments the kobolds in the middle of the group have slings spinning. Then, with a synchronized release, Jay is pelted with four proper sling bullets.

This forced him back as he hisses, “They’re using metal!”

Jim frowns as he sinks an arrow into one of the mages. “They’re not wearing metal armor, so that’s odd.”

Jeremy slides out from behind Jay, low to the ground and stabs two of the downed kobolds. “They’ll probably have proper gear further in.”

Jay hunches over to shrink his cross section and lunges forwards, spearing through one of the sling wielding kobolds. “I’m going to need metal armor if I’m going to keep tanking. Though how we’ll manage that with the previous floor, I don’t know.”

Another sling bullet whistles past his head and nails Kellinger in the shoulder, disrupting his channeling to keep the web up. This doesn’t instantly dismiss the web, but it begins to lose coherence.

Though it handled the mages long enough as Kelly sneaks in a fire ribbon that takes the second mage across the neck. Then a sling bullet knocks her over, hitting her square on and likely cracking a rib or two. She tries to curse in pain as she falls to the ground, but it seems to have also knocked the wind out of her.

Tess steps up in front of her and kneels down facing her, back to the enemy. A healing spell already half cast. Two more sling bullets strike her back, but her leather armor is a good bit thicker and resists them. Not that she won’t be bruised later if it isn’t healed.

Jay growls, “How dare you ignore me!” Ignoring the fact he has literally just hunched over to make himself a smaller target. Either way, his glaive is perfect for this open space and a good swing knocks over a couple more kobolds.

All the while Jeremy and Jim had been silently bringing down kobolds one after another, forgotten by everyone as the more flashy attacks had been drawing attention. Though it is exactly one of those flashy attacks, that ends the fight.

Kelly could tell they likely wouldn’t be sticking around on the floor long and so tossed out a proper fireball in the back of the enemy formation. Even if it doesn’t kill them all, the ones at the front that survive are knocked forward. Which makes them easy targets for Jeremy to finish.

Jim grimaces, “Jay, can you smell anything else coming? I can’t hear anything, but the kobolds have proven at least silent enough to get closer than comfortable.”

Jay dashes forward past the carnage and takes a whiff of the air. “Hard to tell, but there isn’t anything obvious.”

Jim nods, “Loot what you can and we’re leaving. Tess, focus on getting Kelly on her feet.”

Kelly groans, “Just got my breath back. Long as someone gives me a hand up, I can walk out of here.”

Sustained Fire - Chapter 412

Observing Visitors - Chapter 414