Now that he was taking the time to look at the Den Mother properly, Jay realized she wasn't quite as scary as he had thought. She seemed to be alone this time and was curled in a ball, presumably sleeping. She was still big, but nearly as menacing. Then again, he had nearly bit his leg off last time.
He pushed away that thought with a shudder, turning to his group of delvers. "This is the big one. It's alone, but we'll need a lookout so we don't get hit from behind. If all goes well, you'll all level after this fight," Jay whispered.
"Pete and Kyle, you're with me. If it comes running, get out of the way as fast as you can. It's fast and it's deadly. You're probably the only two who could face it relatively head on. Lock it in place with Earth Spikes if you can, then Pete can wail on it." Their plan was simple, but simple was easy to remember.
In the heat of combat, it's easy to forget what to do. By giving them each one thing to worry about, Jay hoped he could help keep them alive. If everything went well, they'd be out of here with a level, some gems and not even a scratch on them. Well, besides Luke. That wasn't going to be fun to explain.
With a nod from Jay, the three of them leapt into combat. Kyle tried to summon a spike under the fox, but it didn't even pierce the fur. Instead, the Den Mother awoke and prepared to charge. Kyle threw up a second spike, draining most of his remaining mana as Jay threw a mixture of lightning strikes and fireballs.
The fireballs hit at joints, making it stumble and fall. Its throat landed directly on the spike Kyle had laid in front of it. As Jay's lightning kept it on the ground in pain, Pete ran up and started smashing its head in with his bat.
The Den Mother struggled for a few more seconds before becoming still.
[Party has slain an Adamantine Steel Fox Den Mother. 200 XP gained. You have completed the first floor of Level 1-10 New York Underground Dungeon. Would you like to exit and claim rewards or continue?]
Jay quickly selected exit, and appeared outside the tunnel with the rest of the party in tow. As level up announcements popped up, the group began to cheer. Ignoring that, Jay decided to look at the rewards.
[Choice accepted. Determining rewards…Rewards determined.
First floor clear rewards: 300 gems, Adamantine Steel Fox Den Mother core. Adamantine Steel Fox Den Mother Fur Armor (10x).
Please come again.]
While the rewards were nice, that tenth set of armor was a reminder of what they'd lost. Luke might have been a moron, but he was a person. A life they were trying to save. He knew a whole lot more were going to die, but it still hurt regardless of what he said in the dungeon.
He could deal with those emotions later. For now, they had an extra set of armor for whoever went in the dungeon next and some money for them to buy the integrated lenses. While most of the rewards were shared, it seemed that everyone got the gem reward, so at least they had that.
Jay showed them all how to access the shop while he waited for Sarah and Andrew to bring another party around. As he did so, he saw several members of the group donning new items and admiring each other's armor. While nobody had anything fancy, they all seemed to have listened and got the lenses.
A few of them had picked up a weaker weapon from the shop, eager to get something that might keep them alive a bit longer. Kyle even came over and showed him an endless canteen he chose. He had to admit, unlimited water seemed pretty helpful.
Seeing as he was responsible for them making it through alive, Jay figured it was fine if he took the core. Then again, it might get someone a better class than beginner earth mage. With two of them, he could test one out and still keep one for himself. If the first one was really good, maybe he could share the others two. Maybe.
That could wait a moment though. First, he had to sort through those annoying blinking notifications. Most of them were pretty standard. Most were for killing enemies or looting, but Mana Manipulation and Mana Channeling had reached level 2 and Meditation had reached level 3.
While none of them were directly going to impact his damage, they would increase the amount of mana he could use at once, how quickly he could use it, and how quickly it came back. All three would contribute to significant improvements in the dungeon. In fact, Jay had a feeling he was nearly strong enough to go to the next floor.
Unfortunately, it would be a while before he could take anyone down another floor. Until then, he had mages to make and a dungeon to run. Jay called out to the party members that didn't have a class yet, asking them who wanted to be a mage.
While a few seemed set on a melee or ranged class, 4 of the remaining unclassed individuals were up for the task. Jay gave 3 of them the normal Earthly Steel Fox cores, while the last got the Den Mother core. As much as he hated giving it away, having classed mages would be far more helpful.
The 3 that got the normal cores all received beginning earth mage classes, but Jay was far more interested in the last one. He couldn't quite remember her name, but she had been quieter and stuck towards the back of the group. After a few moments, she seemed to smile in relief and turned to Jay.
"It says I got the 'Beginner Metal Mage' class. Something about it being a concentration of earth magic? It sounds like I can mold metal into weapons and stuff." Not quite what Jay had expected, but this could help them outfit members that weren't in the dungeon yet.
"That's great! Here comes Sarah. Let her know what you can do and see what she says." As they were talking, the redhead beauty made her way over to them with another group of nine behind her.
"Hey Sarah, this is…she's our first metal mage. She said she could help make armor and weapons for the new recruits if we get her the materials."
"I see. Jess, I'm glad you found a good role for yourself. Hey Jay, where's Luke? I thought he was in the first group." Jay's heart dropped. With all the excitement of leveling everyone up and giving them classes, he'd forgotten about Luke for a moment.
"Luke didn't make it, Sarah. He ran ahead and found trouble before we found him. It shook up the delvers pretty bad, so I think we should try to keep it on the down-low."
Shock crossed her face, but Sarah quickly shook her head to clear it. "We expected some mistakes. I just hoped it wouldn't be until later. Bring this batch alive. Every life matters."
With that, Sarah led the first group away, leaving Jay with a fresh group of delvers. "Listen up. This is dangerous. If you listen to what I say, you should be alright. If you don't, I can't protect you. Is anyone in this group pre-registered?"
Having given them all a quick rundown, Jay stepped back to see if anyone knew what they were doing. He'd made the mistake of being unprepared in the last run and he wasn't going to let it happen again. Fortunately, one of the guys was registered and had chosen an "ice flail" as his reward. He was designated Jay's assistant and the two entered first.
After clearing the dungeon another 2 times, it was nearly 8 hours later and Jay was substantially wealthier. He'd lost a member of the third group, but each party seemed more prepared than the last as a general rule. He had barely even noticed when he leveled up again and didn't have the time to stop and allocate points. At least a third of each group left with a class and everyone was level 2 by the end of it. With how little time they had left and their need for sleep, Jay could only hope it was enough.
He reentered the shop and, after suffering quite a few insults, paid a full 200 gems for taking the wand. The dwarf might still be mad, but at least he tolerated Jay's presence. While he was there, he picked up a canteen for himself and as many common swords as he could buy (about 15 in total). He was left with about 25 gems, but he felt a lot better about their chances in the morning.
But for now, it was time to sleep. Jay collapsed into the bed from earlier, eager to drift off and forget the blood he'd seen. It wasn't a very restful night, but it was better than nothing. The apocalypse could wait a few hours.