Callum took a deep breath after he finished venting out his frustration in a rage filled scream. As he became more aware of his surroundings, he noticed that his party members were all looking at him; some in confusion and others with pity in their eyes.
"You didn't kill the runners did you? I guess that explains why you never cleared the first cavern," Alea said.
"I honestly just thought he was too weak to take on four goblins," Osmar replied in a bored tone.
"No, I never knew that they had runners I needed to deal with. I simply tried to withstand the goblin swarm as long as I could before I had to retreat. Lesson learned I guess," Callum confirmed as he stuffed another Beast Core into his bag.
'I knew that my lack of Intelligence was holding me back, but not realizing that the goblins were sending for help is a little much,' Callum thought to himself.
"Speaking of learning . . . . um, you've never sent a Beast Core fragment before, have you?" Ravi asked gently while a couple of the other party members stifled snickers or tried to hide smiles on their faces.
"I'm not going to like this am I? Ok, I'll play. What are these fragments?" Callum responded with a sigh of resignation. He had a feeling that over the next couple of weeks, the adventurers were going to overturn some of his long held beliefs about dungeons.
Ravi approached Callum and removed two of the Beast Cores from Callum's bag after a brief exchange. He held them up to Callum.
Beast Core (Common) (Durability: 0.03/100)
Beast Core (Common) (Durability: 0.02/100)
"A fragment is just a common word for Beast Cores like these. They're basically useless like this, but if you press them together while thinking fuse, you'll end up with something slightly less useless."
As Ravi talked, he demonstrated by pressing the two orbs together. There was a muted flash of light and he was suddenly holding a single orb in his hand.
Beast Core (Common) (Durability: 0.05/100)
"It's more profitable to sell Beast Cores once you get the durability up to 100%, plus it's a lot easier to merge them instead of lugging hundreds of them around. Low level goblins have some of the worst durability drops, but you can still get a decent haul because of their numbers alone."
He handed the solitary core to the dumbfounded Callum.
Callum stared at the innocuous orb in his hand and struggled to apply his newly gained knowledge. He knew he had hundreds of similar Beast Cores back in his caves, but he thought he'd be lucky to make two 100% Beast Cores after fusing them all together.
'Hmmm, I guess those dozen cores we liberated from the camp are a lot more valuable than I thought,' he thought to himself. He quickly fused the core he held with the other two cores that he had looted.
"I know this level of the dungeon poses little threat to us, but we're going to take our time and map it all out. This dungeon hasn't been delved before, so it's on us to ensure we explore it fully and document everything," Ravi declared.
Alea and Amarok led the party through many winding and twisting tunnels. Many tunnels branched off only to reunite with their chosen path; other passageways led to dead ends or into new areas to explore.
The party quickly found the passageway that they believed led them to the Boss Room and then stairs down to the next level. However, Ravi was disciplined and ordered the party to take another passageway.
They had to fight small groups of goblins in every cavern they came to and sometimes the roving patrols that they came across inside the tunnels themselves. These isolated groups of goblins proved to be no threat to the party; even if a Witch Doctor was present.
Ravi had a quill and paper out throughout most of the exploration. He rarely had to partake in the fights directly, only sending out a rare heal or buff. He carefully drew all of the twisting paths onto his paper; occasionally, he added little notes or symbols onto the map.
Eventually, Ravi felt satisfied that they had fully explored everything on the first level. They had fought through over a hundred goblins, dealt with numerous traps, and found two side rooms complete with small treasure chests and mini-bosses.
Ravi's map was complete and now it was time to take on the Floor Boss and its minions.
_____
The party was huddled around a passageway as they waited for the Shadowblade, Alea, to return from her scouting; she had been sent ahead so that they would know what they were up against.
Alea stepped out from Osmar's shadow and quickly placed her hand over his mouth to muffle the shout of surprise her abrupt return had caused.
"Godsdamn you, woman, you know I hate when you use my shadow like that!" Osmar silently cursed as Boren stifled his own laugh at Osmar's fright.
"Shh, keep it quiet, the Floor Boss is just down that tunnel," she admonished him before ignoring his spluttering in favor of addressing the group.
"It's a level 28 Goblin Chieftain closely supported by two level 25 Goblin Witch Doctors. There are also a dozen Goblin Skirmishers and three dozen Goblin Warriors; all of them are between level 22-25."
Callum remembered the one imposing goblin he had once seen and thought that must have been the Chieftain. The party discussed the layout of the room and makeup of the goblin forces as Ravi formulated a plan.
_____
The Shieldbearer, Boren, charged into the room; his stubby Dwarven legs carried him straight at the Goblin Chieftain. Shrieks of outrage and surprise greeted his sudden arrival; the slight hesitation to his arrival allowed him to almost reach the Chieftain.
However, the Chieftain quickly retreated and ordered his minions to form a blocking force before him; Chieftains were strong fighters, but were cowardly by nature and excelled at expertly commanding lesser goblins in battle.
The presence of a Chieftain or two could bring order to the usual chaotic goblin tactics; they also provided powerful buffs to their minions. However, they had strong defensive capabilities and were hard to eliminate first.
Ravi could have come up with a plan to take out the Chieftain first, but he didn't want to risk an all or nothing attempt; especially since they were missing two of their regular party members and had an unknown like Callum added to their party.
Boren reached the still forming goblin battle line and activated <
Distracted by the threat to himself, the Chieftain barely noticed the rest of the party members that filtered in after the Dwarf. Callum activated <
Meanwhile, Amarok raced towards the Skirmishers. His howl reverberated through the dimly lit cavern and temporarily froze many of the weaker goblins in fear. The Skirmishers scattered before the massive beast.
Osmar and Ravi entered the chamber right behind Amarok; the two vulnerable and cloth clad casters were relatively safe with the enemy's ranged threat neutralized. Osmar dueled with the two Witch Doctors while Ravi neutralized any of their debuffs.
A small circle of Goblin Warriors formed around Boren as he wielded his massive warhammer and tower shield with aplomb. Callum relieved some of the pressure that Boren was under by attacking the circle of goblins and forcing them to peel off and attack him.
Alea emerged from one of the Witch Doctors' shadows and cut down the distracted Witch Doctor that had been focused on its duel with Osmar. She then started to attack the Chieftain directly and forced it to focus on her.
The Chieftain had been in the process of ordering some of the Goblin Warriors to protect the threatened Skirmishers; Amarok was steadily eliminating them one by one and forced the rest to scatter before him.
However, Alea's attacks forced him to concentrate on his own survival. Alea had little chance of quickly eliminating the Chieftain, but she could distract it from the rest of the fights. The Witch Doctor couldn't come to his assistance due to its duel with Osmar.
Callum and Boren quickly finished off the last few remaining Goblin Warriors who were forced to fight without assistance from the rest of the goblins. Callum immediately turned towards the Witch Doctor while Boren moved to assist Alea.
Amarok took down the beleaguered Goblin Chieftain. Callum watched with glee as the Witch Doctor succumbed to a
"How do you like that! A pox upon you, you pathetic, pudgy, little piggy, pest!" Callum yelled.
Everyone looked at Callum.
'Oh right, I need to stop speaking my thoughts out loud. I'm not alone anymore.'