I pushed through the brush and the trees, keeping an eye on the map as I went. Occasionally, I caught myself twisting my neck in an attempt to read it better, only to cause the minimap to move with the twist of my neck. I felt foolish on each of those occasions and swung my hand at the map, grabbing at it. The minimap moved through my vision, unrolling at a readable distance. My gut churned slightly with motion sickness as it moved with the tilt of my head, and I kept my head as still as possible as I confirmed what I'd noticed earlier.
Only a single path lay before me, the boundaries of this 'area' less than two dozen feet off to either side. Curious, I kept an eye on the minimap as I approached the outlined boundary, looking for signs of it in the air and the ground. Nothing stuck out to me. I reached a tentative hand forward and took hesitant steps. Something solid slammed into it, an invisible barrier separating me from the rest of the forest. Or, perhaps, it was simply a wall projecting the rest of the woods. Either way, It reaffirmed what the minimap had shown, the singular path ahead.
I'd run into two more unavoidable batches of Bad Apples before entering a cave guarded by a murder of Dark Ravens that would dive bomb anyone who got near the mesa. The cave was triple-tiered, patrolled by Goblins and Spinning Wheels. In the bowels of the cave slithered an icon I'd never encountered and had only seen mentioned in passing in the bounty of guides I'd read while trying to keep Blaze alive.
It was a Basilisk, typically encountered as the boss of a dungeon in earlier areas, only to be used as a mini-boss in later dungeons of the game.
I closed out the map, sending it back to its corner. In the twists and bends of the caves, it would be possible to avoid the Spinning Wheels and Goblins if I so wished. The next batch of Bad Apples and the Dark Raven guardians, however, were a different story.
I shot a quick glance at icons showcasing what status buffs and ailments were affecting me. As I hadn't been noticed yet, the master of disguise and vanish abilities were still going strong. The timer on my stats boost, however, was running out, so I switched classes once more to strengthen myself, then tapped into my own magic to boost myself even more.
[40/50 enemies remaining]
The second batch of Bad Apples was dispatched as quickly as the first, and the trees ahead parted to reveal the base of the mesa. A dark hole indicated the entrance to the cave system up ahead as the Dark Ravens circled up above. Dark Ravens were a crafty enemy, able to see through illusions and attack in murders rather than waiting one by one. If I'd had only master of disguise or vanish cast, I would have been unable to sneak up on them, their keen eyes able to see through illusions.
As it was, I had a few ideas on how to bypass them. Although Dark Ravens were creatures of the air, and attack damage was halved, like many of the abilities, that wasn't the only use for the spell gust. Gust, as used with the Bad Apples, could also be used to knock enemies back.
I waited patiently for the murder of Dark Ravens to get into position and sent a whispered gust after them, knocking them back into the solid rock wall. Before they could recover, I followed it with a quick toss, doubling the damage and keeping off-balance. I repeated the motions twice more before the Dark Ravens vanished beneath the onslaught.
[30/50 enemies remaining]
With the cavern entrance now unguarded, I slipped in unnoticed. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dull lighting from the bright sunlight outside, helped by the luminescent green gems embedded in the stone walls and the faint emerald glow from the Spinning Wheels.
Small nooks shot off from the main sections of the cave, positioned in key places in dungeons to allow players like me to pass unseen if it suited our playstyle. Many players simply ignored them, preferring to charge into battle head-on. I made use of them now, switching to the gunslinger class and waiting for my targets to get within sight.
I aimed carefully, shooting the weak area, the center of the Spinning Wheel, as it passed my cranny. The bullet rang true, hitting the dead center of the wheel, killing it in a single hit.
[29/50 enemies remaining]
That, after all, was one of the pluses of the gunslinger class. Its main attacks were weaker, but if you aimed for the weak spots and managed to shoot them before being noticed, any normal enemy could be killed in a single hit. Bosses were an exception, but a gunslinger could do massive damage in their first hit before they were noticed and drew the attention to themselves, allowing the more powerful mages and swordsmen to follow up with rapid attacks. Occasionally, entire teams of gunslingers would raid a dungeon together, mixing their skills with those of a thief to pass into the bosses area unseen, timing it to shoot the boss at the same time, delivering numerous deep blows to the bosses' health and even, if they were skilled and collaborated enough, killing them in a few well-timed blows.
My own version of the strategy took away some key points. Use thief skills to sneak up on the enemy and kill the roaming Spinning Wheels in a single hit. Groups of Goblins, like the one of ten that waited ahead, as well as the boss, would require a quick switch back to the more powerful mage class for any subsequent attacks, delivering a wide blow of damage.
By crouching down behind a conveniently placed boulder at the entrance to the widened cave in the tunnel, I was able to defeat three of the ten goblins in the area before switching to mage and using a combination of gust and explosion to wipe out the rest.
[19/50 enemies remaining]
One more pack of Goblins, eight more roaming Spinning Wheels, and one Baslisk remained. So far, this was easy.