"I'm not sure why this feels different, but it does." Astrid said as the party strode into the passage between the third and fourth floor. "It just feels like we're going to an entirely different Dungeon branch for some reason. Probably all in my head, but still."
"Yeah, I get it." Skandr agreed.
The rest of the party made various sounds of agreement or just generally noncommittal sounds, but Astrid rolled her shoulders as she made sure that the pouch of gnoll ears and the shaman token were where she'd put them. Traveling with camping supplies wasn't anything new, but doing so in the Dungeon was definitely a bit unfamiliar. Astrid had spent nearly a year coming into the Dungeon, and that entire time, she had only brought what was necessary to kill monsters. Now, however, the pack that she usually carried, a light one with food and a little bit of medical supplies, was now replaced by a large backpack with a sleeping roll and enough food for four days of meals. While they stepped down the pathway, Astrid turned and picked up her newest equipment addition.
To prepare themselves, they'd spoken in depth with Klara about camping out in the Dungeon, how to keep watch specifically while in the monsters' territory, how to make sure that there wouldn't be any gnolls spawning on the if they didn't make it to the stairway, how to make sure that they were aware of how much time was passing, and so on. Before too long, the party had realized that there was no substitute for experience, and so off they went. They only planned to delve for two days, but had supplies for twice as long, and even splurged on buying a mana potion as well as their health potions. Then, with nothing else to do, they left early that morning. Funnily enough, after the slight hesitation due to the party not having ever fought an irregular shaman, they'd run into one on the third floor. Fortunately, it had been in command of a pack of only six gnolls, none of them irregular. The fight was one of the easiest the party had had in a couple days.
It hurt Astrid somewhere deep in her heart to leave that irregular corpse behind, but they made the decision only to collect a section of each irregular's frill and any additional equipment that they had that was worth enough money. Most interesting to Astrid was the conversation that Klara had had with them about getting their materials and trophies back to town when they were done.
"Look, you've heard of dimensional storage pieces of equipment and how they make long delves possible. Get your heads out of the clouds. You're not gonna get any, not until you're at least Steel tier. Every one of them's damned expensive, and finding a crafter able to work with the highly valuable and rare materials required to make something capable of creating a dimensional pocket is just completely out of your reach right now. For most people, they never, ever see a piece of dimensional equipment, much less delve with one. However, there's plenty of even Bronze tiers that spend days in the Dungeon. They still manage to pay for everything they need because they use that Great One given brain to think of things."
Astrid squinted, about to ask Klara some clarifying questions, but then she remembered those stables that she'd seen outside of the inn every day since she'd gotten to Kznietch. However, there were very few delvers who would ride on a beast of burden or buy a steed, ever. Most delvers started off too poor to buy their own equipment, much less enough to buy and feed an extra creature. Those who'd finally gotten to the level and tier to have the money to make it worth the money to buy a horse or an ox or donkey were so much faster and stronger than those mundane creatures that it would be stupid to waste their time and money taking care of the creature. There were some who tried to tame monsters, to limited success. Only some scant few Classes had the ability to gain a Skill that'd facilitate it, and as monsters in branches didn't grow but were formed wholly adult, it was nearly impossible to gain a Skill early enough to gain a Class focused on subduing monsters.
"Wagons?" Astra didn't say anything more to clarify what she was asking, but Klara smirked.
"Those are a little more expensive, but yes. Sleds are common, and so are carts or even stretchers. The stretchers are especially useful in case somebody needs to be carried out. They're not as good for carrying tens and hundreds of kilos of monster bodies as the others, but they're better than trying to carry the entire corpse over your shoulder."
A little embarrassed that she hadn't ever thought of it, Astrid nodded slowly. "And how much is a sled or a stretcher? And then, just to see what the highest cost option is, how much is a wagon?"
"I don't have a damn clue. I haven't had to think about these things in so long, and the Guild doesn't sell them. All of our crafters are focused more on equipment than on things like this. I can give you the information of a guy I know in town who makes some pretty good wagons. He'll probably have at least information about the other options as well as what he sells."
With Klara's guidance, the party had looked into buying a wagon. Astrid never would've expected to hear a double digit gold price tag listed for a basic wagon, but as the Cartwright, Paul, explained the material, experience, and opportunity cost that even a simple cart took, Astrid had felt her eyes glaze over as she begged for forgiveness for her ignorance. The party wasn't about to spend 10 gold on a smaller wagon, so instead, they looked into sleds and stretchers, both of which were affordable, but also far from as effective as anything with wheels. When Astrid had looked into buying a simple two wheeled hand cart, Paul had warned against it.
"A cart like that would hold up to regular roughage," he explained with an apologetic look on his face, "but in the dungeon, it's pretty common for things to go wrong, even if you're doing everything right. You know, between monsters attacking and the heightened mana levels, there's dozens of ways that things can go wrong with all the moving parts. With people, you heal. With a wheel? If that breaks and you don't have a replacement, or you don't know how to fix it, then there's a good chance you're gonna have to leave the entire thing behind. I'm gonna guess that none of you have any experience with fixing axles or jerry-rigging wooden spokes out of whatever you can find in a Dungeon, but I would suggest you not buy a cart, if you've gotta buy something, get a wagon, you have plenty of space to pack spares, and other materials, but with the hand carts, they just aren't as hardy as the wagons and less spacious to boot."
"Plus," Skandr said with a shrug, "getting either of those down the stairs would be terrible. I mean, I wouldn't really be the guy in charge of that, but I'd imagine that wouldn't be your favorite thing."
"Of course, any wagon or cart that's being sold to delvers will have a mechanism inside it to ensure that it can get down the stairs, but you'll have to unload everything from it and even then, there's a chance that you might accidentally break the mechanism or some other important part it in doing so."
Finally, after all of this "great" news, Astrid finally came to the decision of what to do. Between a stretcher and a sled, she eventually came to the decision of a dual-sided sled. It only required one person to pull it, and it, with a little bit of testing, could trigger her Steady Load's secondary effect, so long as it was carrying enough. Better still was that only a single person was required to pull it, it was better and more secure than the stretcher, given that it was effectively two 2 meter sleds in one, where if it flipped over, the other half of the sled would continue to slide over the ground. In a moment of pique, Muti had slipped into the sled, and Astrid had decided not to argue with the Barbarian about it. Instead, she dragged the sled through the snow, and when Muti, from inside the sled, rolled the "C" shaped sled onto the other side, Astrid had no difficulty in continuing to pull it forward. Fortunately, before they'd reached the Dungeon, Muti had slipped out of the sled, and Astrid went from leaning forward and trudging through the snow to easily stepping through the snow and then down the stairs to the first floor of the Dungeon's branch. The lacquer wood probably would be fine bouncing down the stone stairs, but Astrid was instead careful as she carried the new, one gold sled, down the stairs. That it had cost that much still grated on her, even though she recognized that it was made from the same wood as her staff, a dark ironwood that would hold up to as much abuse as most mundane metals.
As the party stepped into the fourth floor, Astrid turned to Felix. "How heavy is that pack?"
"It's annoying, but it's nothing too bad." The Bodyguard replied with a shrug, his back laden with the pack of supplies for the Silver Wind. "I prefer not to get into any more fights with it still on, but I don't really know where the Silver Wind is camped out. After all, they're probably just set up in the middle of the floor without any real worries."
"Probably not." Skandr disagreed. "After all, their assignment is to keep an eye on the entrance into the Dungeon proper through here, and isn't that usually on the edge of the floor?"
"No, they can be anywhere." Benedict corrected. "Sometimes they are, but the Dungeon isn't exactly linear space underneath the ground. Like, where the Dungeon "should" be isn't literally there. If you dig down where the entrance to a Dungeon would be, there's just dirt, no matter how far you go. It's the same way with how the Dungeon proper connects with its branches. These connections can be at the walls, but they're just as often in the center of the floor."
Astrid nodded appreciatively at what Benedict said. Then, she added, "Klara explained how to find the entrance. If you all will keep your eyes out to make sure we don't get surprised by any gnolls while I lead us in the right direction, we'll get moving."
Nobody complained, and Astrid stepped out to guide the way. After just a few minutes, Muti perked up and signaled to the rest of the party to be silent. After taking a couple deep inhales through her nose, the Barbarian nodded twice and signaled to the others that there were at least fifteen gnolls approaching, and among them at least two irregulars. The party all settled onto their haunches, Muti slightly apart from the rest, as they waited to see what would happen with the monsters.
A mere 30 seconds later, the gnolls let out calls and Astrid could hear them thundering towards the party.
"Everybody get ready!"
She didn't need to have said anything, but as she stood ready to receive the monsters' charge, she saw the nearly 20 monsters rushing forward, with one irregular of each type. The shaman seemed to cackle in glee as it unleashed its bloodlust aura and rushed forward with its knife in hand. Its brawler irregular counterpart seemed to swell in size as the shaman's aura suffused it, and as soon as Astrid popped up, an arrow smashed into the side of her helmet. Luckily, it had been enchanted by Isana all those months ago, as Astrid understood that it probably would have killed her if the metal were still totally mundane. As it was, the steel dented and her head whipped to the side and against her shoulder from the whiplash.
"Muti, you need to kill that ranger as fast as you can! Felix, only taunt if the brawlers ignore us and start closing in on our back line. I'll be the secondary frontliner for now, and I'll focus on the shaman! Skandr, Benedict, throw everything you have at them!"
Astrid shrugged the sled straps off of her shoulder as she stepped forward and drew her hammer with a cry of challenge. Luckily, as she'd hoped, the shaman focused on her while the brawler went to Felix. With six brawlers attacking each of them, Astrid and Felix both were immediately assailed with hits, and Felix grunted in pain as, despite his best attempts, he was immediately bloodied. When the irregular's fist scraped off his shoulder and clipped the top of his head, he started to stumble, and Astrid's heart already sank. She'd managed to get two glancing hits on the shaman, but she was being overwhelmed as well and couldn't help the Bodyguard.
"Die!" Screamed Benedict, letting out a sonic burst towards the irregular brawler. It was largely unaffected while the rest of its fellows were blasted back by a couple steps, though that was all the negative effects they suffered, the irregular shaman's bloodlust aura keeping them from being harmed, or at least showing signs of it. Then, Skandr threw his hand up and let loose a curtain of lightning focused on all of the monsters surrounding the frontliners. Lighting crashed down all around, and Immediately after, Astrid could hear him chanting the same words to let out another curtain of lightning. She couldn't think about that any longer, instead focusing on the very slightly slowed shaman in front of her.
It stepped forward as it stabbed towards her belly, and she parried it with her shield as she smashed back with her hammer. It ducked the blow, only taking an inconsequential hit across its chest. While two scales fluttered to the ground, Astrid pressed the attack. She had just a few seconds of opening from the rest of the brawlers, she needed to do something big. She punched forward with her left arm, her shield's edge grazing the gnoll as it ducked back. As it did so, its forward knee was exposed, and Astrid kicked with her left foot, following the twisting momentum of her body as she drove her shin into the outside of the shaman's knee. It twisted, and though it yelped in surprise, it was not anywhere near down for the count. Regardless of it disregarding its pain, the leg refused to work as the monster obviously wanted it to.
Three brawlers leapt on her back, trying to bear her down, but Astrid screamed as she drew on the slight increase in Alacrity from Steady Load's secondary effect and twisted to hit her hammer's head into the monster's elbow. Bone cracked as the knife fell from unfeeling fingers, and Astrid forced out a laugh as she continued moving. When a pair of jaws started biting through the armor on the back of her neck, through the reddened vision of her rage, Astrid took careful note of how many enemies remained. She tried to keep her mind clear, but all she could think about was how close death loomed with every additional second while jaws gnawed through her neck's protections. She twisted right then left then right again as she smashed her elbows into the gnoll's ribs. Bone cracked, but the creature continued snarling and seeking her life.
As she grunted in determination, she dropped her hammer from her right hand and reached behind her neck to grab the top of the gnoll's snout. Her fingers pulled open its upper jaw. With a scream of effort and a burning in her shoulder and triceps, she wrested her whole body to pull it in front of her. Her fingers, through the gloves, were bleeding as it chomped to try to sever her digits, but as soon as it was off of her back, Astrid threw it as far as she could. It landed right in front of her, fortunately stopping the shaman from pressing the attack, and the red in her vision swelled to leave no peripheral vision.
Something bit into her left hamstring, and she smashed the edge of her shield back into its neck, screaming in victory at the kill notification that flashed in her eyes. She didn't have a clear enough view to pick up her hammer, so instead, she started dealing death with fist and shield. Each time a brawler came close, Astrid drove one of her fist with a knuckle raised into their eyes. Even with the bloodlust aura from an irregular, that sent them reeling, and once she only had two brawlers on her, her body's strength was enough to throw herself back at the shaman.
With so much weight smashing into it, it went down. Astrid was forced to one knee. She tried to struggle to stand, but she couldn't. She didn't care. The shaman came to its feet, and she smashed the edge of her shield into its other knee. Both legs buckled, and it lay on the ground before her. She raised her shield again with a scream. Again and again, she smashed the heavy metal into the ground. Blood and scale and viscera covered her. She felt her legs give out as brawlers ripped into her flesh. She activated Quick Recovery. She turned, her legs working once again, and she bore two more brawlers to the ground. Their jaws slavered, going for her vitals, but she didn't care. One took her shield to the face three times while the other succumbed to two head butts. With no bloodlust aura supporting them, the brawlers showed weakness from their wounds. Astrid turned, looking at Felix, who was covered with blood from glancing wounds, but stayed on his feet. He hadn't managed to kill many of his brawlers, but when they'd peeled off to attack Felix and Skandr, he'd drawn their attention.
With one irregular and five brawlers assailing him, Felix took a heavy blow every second. His eyes were swollen shut, and his bracered arms were covered in blood. He continued to stand strong, dodging more off of instinct than off of sight. Astrid looked down just long enough to see where her hammer was and grab it. Then, surging to her feet with a shout of defiance, she left and smashed the hammer into the top of the brawler irregular's skull. She felt its spine compress as it died, and she pushed on to the next enemy. Despite the blood slicking her gloves, Astrid laid waste to everything around her. When an arrow smacked into her back, she turned with a snarl, and saw Muti.
The Rogue had largely been left to her own devices, and though she killed the irregular and three other rangers, she had at least four arrows sticking out of her shoulders and body. Skandr shot three Lightning Bolts at the brawlers attacking Felix as he shouted, "Help Muti!"
Astrid didn't need any more encouragement as she screamed and bore one of the two remaining rangers to the ground. There, it was a moment's work to kill the beast. As it lay broken and bleeding on the ground, she turned to the other, which Muti dispatched with three quick slashes of her blades.
As Astrid surveyed the state of the rest of her party, she felt her stomach twist. Skandr had blood trailing from the corner of his lip, evidently having taken some damage somehow, while Benedict worked to help Felix kill the last few brawlers. They turned to escape, but Skandr shot a bevy of Lightning Bolts, slowing the trio from their escape. Despite the several arrows still lodged in her, Muti rushed forward and hurled one sword at one of the brawlers, instantly killing it. The other lodged into the second's spine, and it went down, paralyzed. The third was stuck in a one on one with the berserking Barbarian. The fight was a slaughter, to no one in the party's surprise, and Astrid, as the adrenaline of the fight faded, fought not to sink to a seated position as the pain in her shredded legs finally would no longer be denied.
"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?"