Chapter 157 - Once more, with feeling (Patreon)

After the weekend off, the group met up with Runir and Thomas once more in the Carpon Caverns. The two were sharing a hotel room for a while until they found a more permanent residence. Before heading out, Blue and Alex wanted to stop by a store to see if they could get something with the rewards they got from the rampage.

Alex wanted to make a cloak with the chameleon skin, while Blue was looking for a wind armor. Since Blue wasn't thrilled with her choice of spells, Helena suggested that she could try wind. It was a more or less common element for people who focused on grapples, and among other options, several gap closers were relatively cheap.

The three women first headed into the city, in the Carpon Caverns. Hera suggested the store where she got her chakram upgraded. Blue wanted to look at some armors, but her main focus was the new spell she got. As they arrived at Ronan's smithy, Hera greeted Clayton, who was operating the store's front once more.

After a few minutes, Alex agreed to leave the hide so Ronan could make her a cloak with it. While looking around, Blue found a pair of shoulder guards that seemed very interesting. It was very flexible, and it could activate a unique effect that would make her arms look like smoke when activated. That would be very useful to confuse her enemies. It also had agility scaling, and for a while now, that had become Blue's second-highest attribute, only losing to endurance. Paying 15 000 for the shoulder guards after trying them on to be sure they didn't restrain her movements.

Alex and Blue thanked Hera for the suggestion. The small shop had no lines, and the crafter looked very worried about what they wanted. Ronan even offered to make some small adjustments for Blue's old gear that was starting to feel a bit tight.

After the moment of shopping, the three headed to the guild to meet up with the rest of their party. Before heading out, they all talked about what had changed after the rampage. Alex was now level 5, just like Hera. She got two rank ups for the [Improved Stamina] and one for a skill called [Pinpoint Weak Spot] that helped Alex to find weakness on her enemies' bodies. Her cutting wind also increases in rank, from beginner to novice.

Blue was level 4. She leveled up on day 3. Her skills got some upgrades, including a [Taunt] that could make a monster target her. It wasn't like Thomas forced duel spell, but thanks to her controller role, it had some special effects. She also had an increase with the [Improved Stamina] but only to rank 2, unlike Hera and Alex.

Runir was level 6. He got a level up on the second day of the rampage. His shields spells increased in rank to novice as well, and the skills he had to perceive danger and increase the effect of barriers and heals also improved. His buff spells could now target two people at once, the same with the debuffs.

Thomas shared his status for the first time. The only thing they knew was that his [Improved Stamina] was rank 5.  He was level 8, and most of his skills were at least rank 3. The fighter spent most of the year focusing on training his abilities instead of leveling up. As he said before, he only had buff spells, all in the novice rank as well. They could only be self-applied but could increase his strength, defense, and accuracy. Aside from some other small spells like the dancing light and a small stream of water that he could create to clean his armor. He also had a spell called 'Duel,' where he would force a monster to focus on him. This was an intermediate spell that could affect most creatures on the Carpon Caverns. Only some named monsters could resist its effect.

Hera expected him to be strong, but the information surprised her. The way he fought made it seem like he was over level 10 already, but in reality, the source of his strength was the skills and his gear. That was the second rampage he ever participated in, and a year hunting on the second layer would mean that he should have a lot of money to spend.

"Before we advance in our noble hunt. Let me inquire. What are your goals? What do you wish to accomplish?" Tom asked the group while they were eating in a small restaurant.

"I want to help Helena. I told you about the parasites. I want to find a way to get rid of them," Hera replied.

"I want to be the fourth hero. I know I'm kind of asking for a crisis in the world, but yeah. That’s my dream," Blue said.

Tom scratched his cheek with an embarrassed expression, "Apologies. I should have been clearer. My question was about more immediate desires. Not that thy goals are not noble. Yet, what I wish to know is what do you want to do at the moment? Are we hunting just for gold and glory or looking for something specific?"

"Oh... I don't know. I mean, the only quest I have is my role quest right now," Blue said.

"Same, I have that and Helena's tasks, but those are more to the side of 'go out and find some stuff.' I do have my role quest too, but I have no idea how to do it," Hera looked at her tablet to confirm her role quest. Where would she find a secret?

"Mine is a bit tricky. I need to find and kill a named monster before it is able to notice me," Alex explained.

"I'm already halfway through mine. I need to heal and protect a number of people. You would think that the rampage gave me a nice boost, but it didn't even give me half of what I need," Runir took a sip of his drink.

"Does each person only counts once?" Hera asked.

"Nope, but it only counts if they are hurt, or I stopped them from getting hurt."

"That's not so far from mine. I need to change the battlefield a set number of times. Whatever that means," Blue scoffed.

"Very well. We all have short-term goals, and only two of those have specific requirements. I suggest that we face some beasts as one to familiarize ourselves with our peers' combat style. I believe that during the rampage, we all were unable to focus our attention on the fight of others," Tom suggested.

It was an interesting idea, giving Alex's cloak a chance to be ready. Runir and Tom were also waiting for orders they had placed during the last few days. Runir had ordered some accessories that would give him minor buffs to his barriers and his mana regeneration. Thomas was waiting for a new rapier. He got frustrated that his current weapon wasn't strong enough to pierce the Wendigo's shell and wanted to rectify that.

The group left and went hunting once more. Hera and Alex checked with the guild if they had any quests to hunt and gather small materials from the monsters. They had quests for both, but the rewards were pretty low compared to the quests that asked for the hide and monsters' meat. But carrying all that back would be too much trouble. None of them had any intention of doing that, and with just the rewards from the hunting quests, it would be more than enough to get by.

While hunting, Hera felt much more confident in what she was doing. After fighting nonstop for almost a week, facing a single monster wasn't much of a threat. Now Hera, Blue, and Alex started to focus on the fight in a different way. They could not just react to the monster and try to find an opening, but focus on their own movements and see where they were making mistakes.

Their teamwork had improved a lot, especially between Hera and Alex. The two fought together for most of the rampage, so it wasn't much of a surprise. Blue became much more proficient in holding back the monsters. Now the creatures would hardly ever change their focus when she started fighting them, allowing the rest of the group to focus on dealing damage. Her shoulder guards also helped a lot. Even the moles who focused more on smell than sight had a hard time seeing her arms through the smoke cloud that wrapped her arms.

Runir's timing with his barriers was incredible. He was able to cast it just as they were about to be hit. On the other hand, It was hard to gauge Tom's improvement since they didn't see much of his abilities before the rampage.

They spent two days fighting around the city in the Caverns. During that time, Hera kept trying to figure out how to make the mana projection. It was hard to make an object out of thin air. The mana kept dispersing since it had nothing to hold it together. She tried to coat her weapons with the mana and then split it, but the shape would break just the same. However, while covering her chakram with mana and trying to pull it away, she managed to pull it to the side using only her mana.

She started to test that idea while the weapon had the mana reinforcement buff. After several tries, Hera figured out a way to make her mana work almost like a propulsion system. Making small bursts, as if she was emptying an oxygen tank in space, she could move the chakram around. That would increase mana cost of the buff by a lot, but as she practiced it, it became clear that she would be able to use the wire trap style without having to control the thread directly.

After a couple of days, Hera had some information to share with Helena. The moles had smell, earth, and blind affinities, which seemed to vary even among the same types of moles. The only difference that Hera noticed was in the skills that they used. The ones with blind affinity were more perceptive than others at close range, while the ones with smell affinity were more elusive. The ones with the earth affinity had stronger hide and claws.

After everyone got their gear and took it for a spin, the group talked about what they could do and since Hera wanted to find one of the MAZE's secrets while Alex had to kill a named monster. Thomas had one suggestion.

"We could attempt one of the dungeons in this room. I am familiar with one that might have what two among us are searching for."

"What's the dungeon like?" Blue asked.

"It is a cave, as one is to expect. It is a place filled with fungi and elemental spirits. They are sneaky little creatures that are very difficult to hit. That is a great tool to increase our accuracy. In there, I know of both a named monster that our silent assassin can attempt to kill at once and a secret that could help our brave adventurer."

"Ok, I'm in. Is there anything else we need to be on the lookout for while there?" Alex asked.

"Our maps will not work until the boss has fallen. The glowing mushrooms lit up the entire area, and as they change colors, the paths are hidden or revealed. Not just that, but the lights make seeing the spirits something very difficult. People tend to refer to this dungeon by a different name because of this," Thomas explained.

"Stop being cryptic, man. What name?" Runir asked.

"The proper name is Underground Forest, but it is more commonly known as Mushroom Rave," Tom said with a smile.