[D'sP] An Upgrade Of Millimeters - Chapter 510 (Patreon)

The kobolds charge out of the slightly shorter wheat field Jim’s party had been partly ignoring as from the other side a single kobold riding a windcutter axebeak drove a few other axebeaks in front of her.

Jim released an arrow, spun ninety degrees, and released a second arrow right into the eye of a much stealthier kobold. Next to him Kellinger’s hands spew forth streams of bubbles. The bubbles block off a small barrage of wind blades arriving from the distance where a kobold elder is commanding a small skulk of razor foxes.

Tess and Jay meet the stampeding axebeak head-on, their weapons held horizontally in front as they brace themselves. Qi bursts forth from their joints as the axebeaks are stopped dead. The ground under their feet shattered outward, but the two were barely pushed back a piddling few centimeters.

Kelly’s eyes literally glow as she is forced to use a chant to stabilize her spell against the enemy male kobolds trying to counterspell her. Flaming Mana leaks from the tips of her fingers as coils of her fire ribbons spiral outward. It isn’t rapid-fire, but with the power packed into each ribbon, they don’t have to be. All around her the grass begins to dry out not from the heat, though that is there, but in reaction to the Mana leaking from her body.

Jim yells, “This is the end! No holding back!” And he pulls a bone arrow from his quiver. “Shatter Storm!”

The bone arrow has barely left the bow before it breaks apart into tens of shards. Then each shard sputters with psionic static as they suddenly begin tracking the monsters. They don’t start pulling U-ies, but as long as a target is vaguely in front of them, their path bends.

Kellinger swipes his hand, the bubbles suddenly juking to the side, slamming into the axebeak with the kobold rider that had avoided Tess and Jay. Each bubble striking more like a frozen paintball than the soap bubbles they appear to be.

The kobold is knocked off, though the axebeak manages to keep charging, so Jim drops his bow and pulls out both his kukris, crossing them in front of himself to take the hit. Except unlike the two tanks, he doesn’t stand his ground.

Rather, with a small hop right before impact, he flies backwards. On the way, though, the toe of his boot dips down and snags his bow.

The force of the blow being so focused on his upper body also spins him back, flipping Jim over. He uses this to stab his kukris into the ground to slow himself down as the bow topples through the air above him.

His feet contact the ground and he pulls the blades out of the ground while backpedalling to dump the last of the force. Right hand tossing the held kukri across to the other before reaching up behind his head and catching the bow.

While that happens, Kellinger moves the aim of his bubblebeam downward, forming a slick patch under the axebeaks feet. This isn’t enough to trip the bird, innate air magic swirling around to steady it, but it isn’t able to follow up.

Back with Jay and Tess, the gaggle of axebeak stopped by them don’t attempt to move away, instead rearing back to deliver flesh-cleaving strikes with their namesake.

Jay steps into the birds as they pull their heads back. His arms forcing his poleaxe up and around, cleaving a deep furrow in the neck of one bird and opening a bleeding wound on another’s shoulder.

Tess instead steps back bringing her spear around, readying for the attack. As the axebeaks attack her, the spearhead is positioned just right to pierce through the left eye of the beast. Tess’ hands mist as she burns Qi to keep ahold of the spear. Blood flows down the shaft of the weapon as the bird dies.

A trio of fire ribbons fly over Tess’ shoulder, digging deep into the face of the injured axebeak. Though Kelly had only sent those over as an afterthought. Most of her fire magic flies past the melee fight, at the kobold mages and the kobold elder with the foxes. Those three ribbons are enough, though as the axebeak dies.

Which brings her kill count up to one. While Kelly is causing damage, the monster mages have been fully focused on preventing her from taking them out. Over with the elder, the skulk of foxes are the ones playing defense. Their magic claws allowed them to swipe the fire magic out of the air without taking too much damage in return.

At this point, the fight has reached equilibrium. A few axebeak dead, more kobolds taken out, and plenty of wounds across both sides. The fight slows down as they show caution.

Right until the elder kobold falls over dead. A dagger in their throat. With that, Jeremy reaves through the foxes and the balance is broken.

Without the razor foxes, Kelly can focus on the enemy mages and the rest falls like dominoes from there. Each enemy dead allows them to kill the next faster with less danger right down to the last monster.

The team of six stands surrounded by dead monsters. Tess leans up against her spear, breathing heavily, but doesn’t let herself fully catch her breath before moving over to the others. Her magic flared up as she began healing them.

Jeremy sighs, “So, I don’t think we’re quite ready for the next floor.”

Jim looks up from checking his bow. “I wouldn’t say that. The difficulty of the actual monsters don’t exactly spike. Rather, the situation is what causes problems.”

Jeremy raises an eyebrow, “And the situation won’t be changing?”

Jim, “While I don’t think we’re ready this trip, next time we should be able to properly challenge 20.”

Tess snorts, “The odds on whether it will be a boss floor are stacking up among the general populace.”

Jeremy sighs, “I’m not the happiest they even know where we are at.”

Jay, “I figure we’re lucky people haven’t caught up to us. Like, I would get it if they were stuck on 17. What with the trap overload, but why 15?”

Jim, “Meh, I’d more say they’re stuck at 14, with a few standout figures managing to bumble around the start of 15.

“As for why? You should know that. I see you hanging out incognito in my Guild and the stories from those handful of teams that manage it are told often enough.”

Jay, “I mean, yeah, I hear that, but it doesn’t make sense? Like, sure, the kobolds work together and gather quickly, but they don’t gather That quickly.”

Kellinger laughs, “I think you don’t really get how much stronger we are than the regular delve team. The only reason we’re having so much trouble with the floors is the fact that we don’t know what we’re getting into.

“On floor 15? When we kill a group, at most another group joins in. For the others? Their fights can last over a minute! Which, given the strength of monsters this deep, means backup will have arrived. And that backup? It won’t be dead before further backup.

“The entire floor feels designed to wear people down with one fight after another. Worse? Those fights keep getting tougher!”

Kelly nods, “We’re in floor 19 and we can still regularly one-shot the monsters. Any group of people not from the inner circle? They either need a lucky shot or others assisting to even attempt it.

“You just haven’t seen them in the dungeon. Me? I’ve been guiding a few groups of mages from the tower and the difference is shocking in a way that can’t really be put into words. Those mages are using the same spells I did at their level, but the power? So much lower.

“Our group got an early lead and have only built an ever more stable foundation. And honestly? I’m not sure what it is. After all, if it was simply how early our group started fighting monsters? You wouldn’t be caught up to us in strength. Neither would the newer kin either.

“I’m positive that being in a position of power doesn’t grant you actual power. Not only because not all of our inner circle group have positions. But also because up river, Melonie is in control of an even more populous settlement than ours. So if anything of that idea was true? She should be stronger than us.”

Jim, “I would debate that. Though it might be a chicken or the egg situation. Also, you’re just talking about fighting strength. A path related to governance isn’t lonely to grant much of that, instead focusing on improving a person’s social and managerial abilities.”

Kelly, “But stats are stats.”

Jim shakes his head, “All the strength in the world means nothing if you aren’t braced right. After a certain point? Muscle strength isn’t going to add much more. Without the right training, trying to lift a car is more likely to result in someone lifting themselves. That or break off a piece of what you’re trying to lift.”

Kelly sighs, “Fair enough.”

Jim, “Anyway, let’s check on what we got! All the monsters have dissipated and we can try our luck with the loot portals.”

Off to the side, Tess sighs when she hears that. “An upgrade of millimeters at best.”

Kelly, “I won’t complain. Even though most of the equipment is useless to us, they’re useful for our attempts at enchanting.”

Jeremy, “And I won’t ever say no to a spare armor!”

Tess snorts, “As if ‘spare armor’ exists at the moment. Every day we still have idiots coming in with regular clothes who want to try their hand at the dungeon.

“I guess at least they aren’t expecting it to protect them? Not like those first few months where people would show up with pre-system padding and armor expecting it to work. Not only do most of the monsters not use anything that could be described as a bullet. A pre-system bulletproof vest wouldn’t stop a regular bullet if the person pulled the existing lead out and molded a replacement.”

Jeremy, “Thankfully, there weren’t exactly all that many gunsmiths with the equipment to do that kicking around.”

Jim, “Would have been interesting to see how a gun stacks up against my arrows.”

This topic continues for a while, but as it does, they’re pulling stuff out of the scattered loot portals. Though, yeah, they don’t really get an upgrade to any of their existing gear. Instead packing up most of the gear they get.

The one exception is a plate chest-piece. Those don’t exactly pack down. However, it isn’t abandoned. When the group is ready to check the next floor, Jay grabs the chest piece and pulls it through the portal with them.

However, on the other side, he drops it right away. “So, if we’re leaving it here, will someone have to make their way back to it if we make it through the floor?”

Jim turns back from examining what he can see of the floor, which is quite a bit more than expected, and walks back over to the group. “Well, if we did make it all the way through, I figure leaving it behind wouldn’t be the worst loss. But given what I can see? We aren’t likely going to explore that much.”

While that is happening, Jeremy was checking the area and calls over as he just found something by a tree, “Yep, kobold traps confirmed.”

Jim glances over and gives him a nod, “Good Job!”, but then he sighs and shakes his head, “Yeah, I’m not too one way or another, but my vote is on we look a bit more before leaving.”

Jay grimaces, “More traps? With trees so they aren’t just free-standing? Well, we handle them enough on 17, but yeah, not a fun time.”

Jim gestures towards where he had been looking around, “Take a quick walk over there and you’ll see the other reason I’m so down on exploring the floor right now.”

Failure And Fighting - Chapter 509

Looking Over Loot - Chapter 511