Bastion, Elyra, Lilia, and Ariel emerged from the mining cave to a desolate sight. Mining equipment was strewn about, buildings where miners would have slept had been reduced to rubble, and the place was completely devoid of life, not that they had expected anyone to be there besides the adventurers who'd had a head start.
Beyond the ruined mining town lay a vast river that snaked through the canyon, its waters carved deep between jagged cliffs and sheer rock faces. Along the river's edge ran a worn path, clearly traveled, marking the route that led deeper into the dungeon. Climbing the canyon walls to gain a higher vantage wasn't an option. Though the cliffs appeared climbable, the dungeon's design blocked all access, forcing the adventurers to follow the path laid before them.
"What's our formation?" Ariel asked seriously.
She'd been in more than a few dungeon dives, most of them solo, but whenever she worked with a party, the formation was always the first thing settled. Normally it was simple. Tanks up front, melee on the wings, squishier members protected in the center, and ranged fighters to the rear.
This time, though, none of that applied. Their composition and objective hadn't changed, but the environment and their enemies had. In a harpy dungeon, with enemies in the sky, there was no real front or back to anchor a formation to.
"Standard formation," Bastion replied. "I have Taunt, so I'll draw most of the heat while Elyra watches my back. Lilia will generate fog for cover and protect herself, and I expect you to do the heavy lifting."
"Because I can fly?"
"Because you're our only sharpshooter," Bastion replied wryly. "I may have an autocannon and the stats to control it, but I don't have the visual acuity to reliably hit fast-moving targets. I can't just open fire at the sky either, not unless they conveniently group up. You're the only one who can consistently land shots at range, so you'll be our primary source of damage while I keep them distracted for as long as possible."
"Alright, leave everything to me," Ariel said, drawing her hand cannons from her waist.
With their formation set, the party moved out, following the path at a brisk pace. They could have ridden Bastion's diamond steed, but they didn't want to catch up to the adventurers ahead and risk skipping all combat due to the slow respawn time.
Fortunately, whoever decided that a 10-minute wait between parties entering the dungeon was optimal had it right. Less than five minutes passed before they spotted their first quarry, a group of 50 Apprentice-ranked harpies nested in the crevices of a cliff face.
The creatures looked like beautiful, naked women with wings for hands, talons for feet, and feathers for hair. Their brown coloring blended seamlessly with the cliffs, providing perfect camouflage. Their eyes were large and avian, but their mouths were filled with sharp, predatory teeth.
"Do I just shoot them?" Ariel asked.
"Go ahead, and there's no need to ask unless one of us is injured. No matter how many enemies you attract, I can handle it."
"Alright," Ariel said, aiming her hand cannons and firing.
The barrels roared in unison, bullets tearing through the air before finding their mark. Two harpies' heads exploded, causing the rest to screech in panic. Ariel increased her pace, shooting them down one after another, taking ten out before they could even identify where the attacks were coming from.
Once they spotted Bastion and the girls, they dove from their nests, trying evasive maneuvers in vain as each of Ariel's shots never missed. By the time the flock reached Bastion, ten more had fallen, leaving thirty who immediately focused on Lilia, who seemed the weakest.
"Come at me, you flying chickens!" Bastion shouted, his voice carrying across the canyon.
The furious harpies took the bait, unable to resist his Taunt. They dove in a chaotic swarm, swooping down on Bastion with outstretched talons.
This allowed Lilia to melt into her fog along the riverbank. Once she disappeared, ice arrows shot from the mist, striking the harpies clustering around Bastion one after another.
Bastion brandished his whip sword, lashing out in a blur of steel and slicing through necks and wings with terrifying precision. He ignored the scratches and gouges his armor took as talons raked across it. The damage was minimal, barely a scratch against his Rank 1 armor.
A few managed to grab hold of his arms and tried to lift him away, but he wrapped his legs in earth magic and cemented his feet to the ground. As for the harpies who were suddenly sitting ducks, unable to fly away, Elyra would slash at their talons, freeing Bastion to continue his attack.
She made sure Bastion's blind spot was always covered, slashing at anything aiming for the back of his head with her twin swords and occasionally throwing her knives. She also beheaded any harpies left grounded after having their wings clipped, preventing them from adding to the chaos.
Less than a minute after Ariel began her assault, all the harpies had fallen, leaving behind feathers, talons, and internal organs.
"I can see what you meant when you said you didn't have the visual acuity," Lilia commented. "Barely half of my shots hit center mass at this range. I doubt I could hit them at all from farther away or if they were faster at higher ranks. How do normal adventurers even fight these monsters?"
"Archers are about as accurate as Ariel, so they dominate in this dungeon," Bastion replied, having done the research. "They also have Taunt users like me to draw attention while their party members focus on attacking. As long as the tank can take the hits, the rest just aim around them. Some parties are entirely composed of physical attackers, and they can survive as long as they maintain a tight circular defensive formation."
"That was fun," Ariel said with a big smile before her expression turned concerned. "Do you think I have enough bullets for this dungeon though?"
"We should have enough bullets if you can land every one of your shots," Bastion replied. "I wouldn't be confident in reaching level 200 in this dungeon otherwise."
"You're level 185, so you'll definitely hit the level cap. But what about me? I'm only at level 177."
"I'm sorry to say, but you'll have to hunt on your own once you're ready to reach Rank 2. That probably goes for Lilia as well."
"That's fine, I guess. I can always run the Troll dungeon in Brightstone and take down as many Rank 2 trolls as I can find."
"I guess I'll be joining you for a while," Lilia added.
"Happy to have you."
The level difference between Lilia and Bastion was only about half a Rank 3, roughly equivalent to 50 Rank 2 enemies or 5,000 Rank 1s, which she could reach after a few dives in the Troll dungeon in Brightstone. Farming there was far easier and faster than in the dungeon city, which was filled with weaker enemies like these that required bullets to be taken down efficiently.
The party continued their dungeon dive in much the same manner. Ariel would begin the attack, Bastion would tank, and Lilia and Elyra would help keep him alive. By the end of the 1st floor, they had taken out three nests, roughly 150 harpies, before reaching a mining shaft similar to the one they had exited from.
Inside, they found a set of stairs leading deeper, along with a teleportation circle that would allow them to leave the dungeon immediately.
On the 2nd floor, they fought roughly the same enemies, except the number of nests increased to four. This trend continued until they reached the 10th floor, where they were finally able to face their first dungeon boss.
Unsurprisingly, it was a Rank 1 harpy, its plumage beginning to include red feathers. It was accompanied by a flock of a hundred Apprentice-ranked harpies, which would have been impressive if Bastion hadn't used Diamond Rain and Diamond Shatter to reduce their numbers to a pittance. The boss itself went down quickly after just a few shots from Ariel.
After the boss fight, they settled for the night in a makeshift camp filled with adventurers who planned to delve deeper the next day rather than return outside and start over. Among them was the young noble and his entourage of guards, who avoided interacting with anyone in the camp, likely because of Bastion's presence.
The next day, Bastion and the girls continued their dungeon dive, facing ever-increasing numbers and ranks of enemies while the environment remained largely the same, an empty canyon with howling winds, filled with harpies.
By the 20th floor, they were up against a dozen well-coordinated Rank 1 harpies, which Ariel easily took down with her hand cannons. By the 30th floor, after five days of continuous diving, they fought a hundred Rank 1 harpies and were finally encountering groups of Rank 1s alongside small armies of Apprentice-ranked harpies.
As for the relative difficulty of the dungeon dive, it remained the same. Any excessively large groups were quickly wiped out by Bastion's Diamond Rain and Diamond Shatter combo, while the strongest enemies were only Rank 1, which Ariel could take down with a single headshot. The loot was equally insignificant, Rank 1 harpies started dropping nuggets of gold and silver, with the occasional sparkly gem that would sell well if Seraphina weren't moonlighting as a jeweler.
Even when they began encountering Rank 2 harpies on the 50th floor and above, Ariel simply switched to her cannon and achieved roughly the same results. It wasn't until the 55th floor that their monotony was broken by a dungeon anomaly.
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