Shadow took the lead and any goblins he could notice in the dark, he would usually wait till the others came a bit forward and once the goblin comes out to attack, it would be stunned by him with the use of cheap shot and killed by their combined efforts.
[Dark Goblins] (Common Monster)
Level 10;
HP: 3500/3500;
These goblins were small with a height of about 3 feet and held small knives, which they used to make surprise attacks. They were also pitch black in color and if not for their eyes, one would find it very hard to make notice of them in the dark. This was the reason that the dungeon was hard as once the goblins failed to make a decent ambush on the player, it was quite easy to take them down.
Due to the enhanced stealth effect of the mask of shadows, he didn't have to fear much from any goblins which hid in those smaller holes and those which were missed by him would usually land a few hits on the tank but due to the support of the three mages, it wouldn't be much of an issue for Bitter Beast. In short, Bitter Beast was the bait for the goblins as he held the torch and the spirit wolf summon served as his guard.
Balthazar made this strategy to deal with most isolated and small group attacks of goblins based on a similar strategy which was well known in his previous life when he joined the game. That strategy required one tank, two mages and two assassins at the front and made assassins quite popular at the start of the game due to the requirement.
In this way, they went through the tunnel for about 10 minutes without much issue or damage. They got a few equipment from the goblins during this time, but they weren't that good compared to their loot from the fort. Shadow also made sure to pickpocket the goblins once he used cheap shot. It was a habit of his that he found to be of good use.
Though their travel through the tunnel was easy, he knew that the previous goblins they encountered were all scouts and small scout teams and that the elite monsters would soon make their entrance. If such a simple strategy could be used to clear through an entire dungeon, the dungeon would easily provide equipment and also the game would lose its appeal.
They soon came in an area where there were no smaller holes in the walls of the tunnel. This clearly showed that there wouldn't be any ambushes in the area, but it just signified that the harder part would start now. As the team noticed this change in the tunnel, sounds of clamor could be heard from the depths of the tunnel.
In a few seconds, a mob of goblins running towards them could be heard by them all. Shadow being ahead of the rest was the first to identify them. There were about 15 goblins being led by 3 goblin mages. These goblin mages were behind the horde of the other goblins and were either healers or warlocks. One couldn't determine whether these were healers or warlocks by appearance alone.
[Dark Goblin Mages] (Elite Monsters)
Level 11;
HP: 4500/4500;
As soon as Shadow saw them, he suggested Bitter Beast to tank them for a few seconds and hold aggro of the goblins as he wanted to test the goblin mages. Shadow knew that if he didn't kill the healers, the damage they suffered would be substantial. So, he at the very least needed a path to reach them. Usually, a bit of time and bombardment from the mages would give enough time for a player to get near the goblin mages, but it required a good effort from them and some potions.
Merlin and Grenadier had decent firepower against the mob and were quite useful against the horde. But Mob who was a summoner didn't have many quick offensive spells except spirit bolt and spirit blast. The spirit bolt caused damage while confusing enemies and the spirit blast was something like chaos wave and caused mass hallucination for a couple of seconds.
All the other spells of the summoner class were summons which take time to cast. This made summoner a very hard class to play with at the beginning of the game. Later, methods to call forth summons quickly came to be known which made it quite powerful, but these methods required a few rare materials and lot of preparation.
Shadow never intended to reach the goblin mages in that manner, so he decided to use a couple of firecrackers at the horde to stun them. Goblins especially dark goblins lived in dark and damp places and a firecracker was a good way to blind the goblins and goblin mages.
They were bound to meet other groups of goblins in the dungeon and they didn't want to waste too many potions and killing the healers was very important for that. If he got rid of the healers, the horde of the goblins get much more easier to get rid of, else even goblins that were hit in the neck and crippled could suddenly ambush a player when he thought that it would bleed to death.
The tough part was to identify the goblin mages which served as healers. This could only be done my attacking them and observe the goblin mages' actions to determine which were the healers. So, it was necessary for them to fight without attacking the mages for some time at the very least. Luckily, with the other goblins nearby them, the players had a lot of cover to hide from the goblin mages' attacks. Apart from that they had another advantage which was that they were equipped with crossbows and any attack of the non-healing mages, which are warlocks take some time to cast and any player who saw the animation could shoot at it to disrupt it. This would allow them to quickly tag the healers among the goblin mages.
Thus, Shadow gave quickly told the three at the back that he had a plan. He asked them to attack at the non-mage goblins only while he tried to determine the healers among the mages and then, they needed to only aim for the mages and support Bitter Beast, once he used the firecracker.
He moved back to get closer to Bitter Beast and cooperate with him while the other three attacked the horde. As expected by him, the goblin mages soon started to use their spells and he identified two of them to be healers as their spells were directed towards other goblins.
He had immediately tagged the warlock, informed in the team chat that the two that weren't tagged were healers and began execution of their plan as Shadow used a firecracker. With the confusion caused by the firecrackers, Shadow ran at this top speed evading and pushing the goblins that were in his way. The same time the three at the back moved closer to Bitter Beast and Spirit wolf, so that they could his behind these two, while being able to get closer to the goblins. Even though, they had long range attacks, all of the long-range attacks were more effective and caused more damage if the distance was smaller. So, despite being closer to the goblins being dangerous, this allowed them to kill the goblins faster which was their priority for such large numbers and small space.
Once he managed to get behind the goblin mages, it was easy for him to land a few hits on their necks. A throat cutting strike on the neck or a quick cut to the any joint of the mages from Shadow was enough to cripple them. With his experience, it was quite easy to deliver effective attacks. Combined with the new weapon, he had it was quite easy for him to cripple and cause bleed effects on the two healers.
He made sure to aim for their necks. All mages in the game had to use a spell for defence or attacks, unless they had special tools or racial traits. So, silencing them was the best way to stop them from using their magic. This could be done by rare skills by mages, but all physical-attack based classes can silence mages by attacking on the throat or the body parts involved in producing sound like jaws.
Though it is technically possible for everyone to do it, it is not easy to land a hit that would serve this purpose. The most effective way is to use cut-throat skill. Shadow with his experience didn't need these skills and could easily cut through the armor and land a hit on the goblin mages' throats to silence them.
Though they are silenced, their natural healing would get rid of this effect in a minute or two. This time was quite crucial, and it was the best time for them to get rid of the goblins. After silencing the healer, Shadow focused his attack on the third goblin mage, while the other spamed their attacks on the goblins.
Shadow had a very high damage rate and could cause a HP loss close to 200HP per second with just the normal strikes. Moreover, he always chose to attack at the weak points causing bleed and cripple effects. So, a silence effect that lasted a minute was more than enough for him to kill a mage who had a health of 4500HP.
Though the goblins tried to help the goblin mages it wasn't of much use due to Shadow's high movement speed. His speed allowed him to easily escape the attack of the non-mage dark goblins. Also, Merlin and the others also were attacking them from a direction opposite to Shadow. Their support made it easier for him to deal with the goblin mages.
During this time that he was attacking the goblin mages, he also noticed that Mob also managed to summon a spirit bear in the chaos which was a defensive summon. Its large size would help block most attacks. He also noticed that the four of them cooperated very well with each other and also managed to provide support to him.
At this early stage of the game most players are still not completely used to the technology, but these four have already adapted well and are able to work in tandem with one another. They also killed a third of the goblins in the two minutes he took to kill the mages, which was a lot better than what he expected from them.
"This might be the Merlin's personal farming team," thought Balthazar as observed their impeccable coordination. They didn't even talk to each other, but always managed to cover each others flaw's and reinforce one another attacks. This kind of fighting required a high level of trust and an almost complete knowledge of one another's skills and techniques.
For someone like these gamers who aren't natural fighters, something like that is only possible through a lot of experience. So, Balthazar thought that, they were the team that had always worked with Merlin in other games. It was common for skilled players to have their own team while playing the game. The other players of these team might not be involved in competitions or could be trainees or just players who worked well with one another. They needed to spend a lot of time playing with the others and for this, the most essential requirement is to be able to tolerate the others for continued duration and a high degree of compatibility.
"But don't such teams tend to have five members as a standard," thought Balthazar. This was quite an obvious thing as the common dungeons at any levels in most games were usually five-man dungeons. So, it is expected to have five members among such groups. "I can ask him later but must be sure to ask him. Else I might find myself being replaced," thought Balthazar as he put it in the back of his mind and moved on to attacking the non-mage dark goblins after he killed the goblin mages. Being attacked from both sides, it became harder for the goblins to resist and they soon perished.
With the goblins dead, the five of them looted their corpses and moved forward in to the tunnel. Shadow already knew that they reached the end of the path. In a couple of seconds, the others also realized the same as found the tunnel ending abruptly. There were just a few tattered cotton clothes and an ornamental stand with a key dangling from it at the end.
"The fuck!" cursed Bitter Beast as he began to search for any possible secret passages. "I refuse to believe that this is the end after killing all those goblins. What does the key even do?" he continued as he picked the key.
"System: You have acquired one of the three keys. Find all three and locate the chest to acquire the goblin's treasure."
"Dungeon sub quest," thought all of them as they saw the system announcement.
"It means that we need to go through at least three more tunnels to finish this. That is assuming that we don't accidentally get into the dungeon boss's location before that," said Merlin.