Dungeon Oasis

POV Clyde

I wasn't sure how much mana Darrel and Lily had left but I wanted to at least make it to the next room. To do that we would need to get past these archers though. Unfortunately, Darrel was our only party member who could fight at range, and he would need to release the water wall in order to do that. It would be nice if he could fire a ranged attack through the water wall. There's little hope of that I'm afraid. If he were obsidian rank or higher it wouldn't be a big deal, but wood and stone rank mages simply don't have the mana control for more than one spell at a time.

Trying to think of a way to actually win I ask everyone how they're doing. Lily assures me she's fine. Darrel on the other hand admits that he is down to only a third of his mana from having to maintain the water wall so much in the last two rooms. I knew it would have a toll on him, but I didn't realize how much. I finely get a bit of good news with Cole who says that his taunt skill is no longer on cooldown. Though he does warn me that he can only use it once more during this delve. This is my fault. I allowed them to get complacent in their training by staying on the first floor for so long. As party leader I should be pushing them to become better. At any rate knowing that we'll only get one shot at this I start to formulate a plan.

The plan is simple. As soon as Darrel lowers the water wall, he will start casting water spears instead. Meanwhile Cole will immediately cast taunt to get the archers focused on him. I will try to close the distance with Cole following as soon as he is done casting taunt. Lily will stay back and try not to get skewered again. After all, if the healer goes down there's little hope for the rest of us. At least that's what I tell everyone. In truth seeing an arrow sticking out of her leg made me want to try and talk her out of being an adventurer. I know that even if I was successful however, it would only cause her to despise me in the end. So, keeping her as far away from the fighting as possible is the next best thing. I know I shouldn't let personal feelings get in the way but that's one of those things that is far easier on parchment than in practice.

Darrel dropping the water wall breaks me out of my thoughts a few minutes later, and I begin charging at the closest archer. A few seconds later a see arrows and water spears flying past me. I don't get a chance to see the results though as just before I strike the ground suddenly opens up. My first thought was 'this is it, after all that I die to the first trap'. I wish I could say that I was a vision of stoic manliness during the next two second, but that would be a lie. In truth even though I had just defeated wolves and skeleton for about two heartbeats I was a little kid who just wanted his mommy. Even after I landed it took me half a second to realize I wasn't dead.

Fortunately, the rest of the plan went, well ... according to plan. Darrel managed to take out two of the archers with water spears before Cole's taunt ability wore off. Shame it only lasts 30 seconds. Cole continued to charge the last archer while Darrel kept it distracted. Soon enough a horizontal slash from Cole ended the encounter. The celebration was cut short however by Darrel triggering the second trap as he was walking up. Cole just got lucky apparently. It turns out the traps were more annoying that fatal, but I get the impression that won't always be the case.

One of the Archers this time dropped a leather helmet. I promptly collected it and added it to the other items in the storage box which was getting full. It was just one of the cheaper versions of a storage bag after all. Not only was it comparatively large and unwieldy, being a box instead of a bag. It also held much less stuff than a proper storage bag. I think we were all ready to leave at this point. We still decided to at least peak in and see what the next room was like. That way we would know what to prepare for next time.

As soon as we enter the next room it doesn't take long to spot the four wolves who immediately charge us. Without hesitation I order everyone back to the previous room. Luckily the wolves don't follow us. We probably could have defeated the wolves. The reason I didn't try though is because we already have Injuries that will take time to heal fully. I'd rather not add to them and prolong how much time we have to wait before delving again. Next time though we'll be ready for the second floors tricks.

As we make our way back out of the dungeon, I'm already making plans for the next delve. Now that we know what we're dealing with I'm confident I can plan around it. Upon making it to the surface which didn't take nearly as long as I expected thanks to not having to cross the first floor again, to be fair I knew about the instant teleportation to the surface but knowing about it and experiencing it are two entirely different things.

On The surface once again, we split up with Cole and Darrel going off to our shared residence. Me and Lily on the other hand headed to one of the shops that opened up here. I still find it strange that they would want to set up shop in the middle of the dessert. They did offer to share 10% of their profit with me for allowing them to set up right outside the dungeon though. On top of that I got a 50% share of the sale price from whatever my party brought out of the dungeon. Naturally that was shared with the party, The shop manager was already familiar with the type and number of Items We usually bring out of the dungeon, so I shared all the low-quality gear first.

He thanked me for the donations after taking note of what I had brought to donate and was about to turn and leave when he noticed I was still standing there. It was then that I pulled out the Mid-quality wood tier gear we had acquired. This caused his eyes to light up. It's not that mid-quality wood tier gear is special or anything. It is however a significant step up from my usual offerings. It also meant that the shop now had more than just the lowest possible quality gear.

After that We went to the leatherworker to drop of the rat leather. I had a similar deal with the leatherworking as with the adventurer's gear shop. Just like before with the gear shop owner his eyes lit after seeing the high-quality dire rat leather. Unlike with gear that was already made the tier of gear that could be made depended more on the skill of the crafter than on the quality of the material. Though the quality of the material was also important. Having high quality material to practice with would help him improve his craft which in turn would improve the quality and possibly even tier level of everything he made.

The whole thing took longer than normal on account of Lily's leg, but she insisted on coming with me. We finished up by dropping the berries and rat meat in the food warehouse. Once news of the berries gets out, I suspect it will attract alchemists to set up shop here as well. As we make our way over to check on the construction of Cole and Darrel's houses respectively, I can't help but think how big this simple little outpost has gotten already.