Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 422 (Patreon)

Chapter 422 – Set Up

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Booth watched with the rest of the 1st Ranger Battalion as the artillery barrage hammered the Exclusion Zone. The plan was simple, which was both good and bad. Simple plans were more adaptable, since they didn’t have every response planned with complex coordination involving different elements of four different commands all working together across an entire theater, which was good. The bad, though, was that the plan usually boiled down to ‘go in there and try not to get killed as you take out any hostiles you can find’, with limited intel on numbers, locations, and terrain. Booth did not like simple plans.

The plan for this operation was relatively simple. The entire 75th Ranger Regiment was on the field, along with 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment. The 1-9 would pound use a mix of high-explosive and incendiary rounds to pound major structures in the Zone, and then be on standby to provide artillery support if the goblins grouped up in large enough clusters. Regimental HQ and the Intelligence Battalion were posted down in Fort Lauderdale to the south, for command and control. The JSOC boys of the Regimental Reconnaissance Company would start over in Aberdeen, and move along what was left of US 441, heading south along the west side of the EZ, to encourage any goblins looking to skirt around the walls to either turn back towards the center, or head into the swamps, for the gators.

With luck, they would hook up with Lieutenant Colonel Ashton Khan and 2nd Battalion, who would be moving in force up north from Tamarac, sweeping the western side of the Zone, and make a concerted push to the center. His 1st Battalion and Lieutenant Colonel Logan Matthews’s 3rd Battalion would be doing a similar maneuver in the east, with 1st Battalion starting by Boynton Beach, and 3rd Battalion pushing up from Pampano Beach. That was the area where the most goblins were expected to be, since it had the highest concentration of intact or semi-intact buildings, and was closer to the reported location of the broken dungeon core that was the cause of this mess. If they could secure the site of the dungeon core, then fresh spawns would be easy kills.

Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that. Enemy troop estimates clocked numbers at well north of 20k. Maybe as many as 80k, but the safe bet, according to all intel, was closer to 30, or 35. But those were all estimates. While he’d put one of his men against any one of the goblins, he wasn’t foolish enough to ignore the weight of numbers on the other side. Quantity had a quality all its own, after all.

Thankfully, they’d done testing and training beforehand. Even if most of the regiment were already part of the service before the Initialization, they’d spent the years since getting used to having the System bolster their abilities. To make sure they weren’t using it as a crutch, System Interdiction Fields had been placed in some training areas in Fort Benning, Hunter Army Airfield, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, allowing all units of the 75th Rangers to train and prepare for fighting without the System backing them up.

There’d been some key takeaways from that training. First, monster kills in the SIF would not grant XP. Even when you left the SIF, there would be no change in your XP. So, no leveling up from hunting monsters inside a SIF. However, you could unlock new General Skills from your actions, depending on what you were doing, so it was clear that there was at least a partial record in the System of what you were doing. And intel from the System Shop said that participating in a Broken Dungeon Cleansing would give everyone involved a healthy chunk of XP, so they would still have some benefits.

Second takeaway was that the SIF didn’t eliminate their System attributes, abilities, and skills. You’d still be just as strong, tough, and so on, but the System assist on things would be turned off. A Fighter didn’t lose their knowledge of how to use different weapons and armor, and a Wizard didn’t lose the ability to use magic. However, unless they relearned to use their abilities without the System assisting them, they would be limited to just the knowledge, or passive effects. A Wizard would need to work out how to form a [Fireball] spell on their own, and even when they worked that out their efficiency would be trash, unless they practiced extensively. A lot like working from basic shooting proficiency to getting expert level marksmanship.

Third thing was that this also applied to gear. Passive effects, like armor and attribute boosts still worked while in an SIF. Active abilities, though? That was a no go, unless it was a ‘conditional’ or ‘charge’ effect, like drinking a [Health Potion] or using a charge on a [Wand of Lightning Bolt]. However, it wasn’t all bad. Turned out, there was a difference between a [Backpack of Holding] and an [Extended Magazine], and the difference was a game changer.

The [Backpack of Holding] was your standard issue army rucksack, enchanted to hold up to a thousand cubic feet of material, but only weighed five pounds. However, going in and grabbing something from the bag, or putting something in it, counted as an ‘active effect’. The storage space didn’t disappear, and you didn’t lose any of the items in it, but you couldn’t access the space, either to take stuff out or put them in, until you were out of the SIF.

The [Extended Magazine], however, was a standard issue magazine for their weapons, but with an expanded internal space that didn’t increase overall weight. For their M4A1s and M249 SAWs, the [Extended Magazine] took the standard 30-round STANAG magazine, and made it hold 3000 rounds. The M17 sidearm he carried took the 21-round extended magazine, and made it hold 210 rounds. All without increasing weight. With the extra ammo packs they were carrying, that meant each of his soldiers were loaded up with 12 magazines for their primary weapon, and 6 for their sidearm.

And if they had to get to melee, then they had combat knives and breaching tomahawks for that, and the cutting enchantments on the blades would still work just fine. He didn’t want things to get to that range, but it was probably inevitable. After all, the goblins weren’t stupid enough to just sit around waiting to be killed.

The goblins were expected to be fielding patchwork armor, if they had anything at all, and blades and clubs that would either be primitive make, or improvised weapons. Some would have crude bows, but he knew that an arrow was still a lethal weapon, especially if it hit right. And there would likely be some alchemists in the bunch, and who knew what kind of nastiness they’d have available. Fortunately, the SIF should keep any of their shamans or other magic-types from contributing to the fight in a meaningful way.

Temporary Blessing of Kuronoth

The God of Pleasure, Domination, and Dungeons, Kuronoth, blesses your actions to cleanse the broken dungeon of Boca Raton. For the duration of this event, you gain the following benefits:

+25% damage to goblinoid creatures

-25% damage received from goblinoid creatures

Prevents 1 instant death effect, leaving the individual at 1 HP instead.

And then, there was the other advantage that they had, which the goblins wouldn’t. Everyone involved with the assault had received the System message shortly after Command announced that the Demon of the Dungeon was going to be lending his aid, and they were assured that the effects would still apply inside the SIF. Extra damage to the goblins and reduced damage from them was big enough on its own, but the ‘instant death effect’ protection gave him pause. The fact that it was needed meant that there were likely things in there which could kill them, despite other protections. And at 1 HP, without any ready supply of healing, it wouldn’t take much for someone to get killed right after. Still, it would save some lives, and that was important.

“Bombardment’s almost over, sir.”

Booth nodded to his XO, Major Davis Baxter. “Right. Are the men ready?”

“Ready, but nervous. We have plenty of ammo, but a sweep and clear of all hostiles in the zone is a big ask, considering the numbers. And they know we’ll need to confirm kills on the Goblin Nursery. They aren’t looking forward to that.”

“Neither am I, Major. But that’s the job, and it is the only way we end this threat from the broken dungeon.” He paused, and then said, “What about Sergeant Ellis in Alpha Company, and Lieutenant Spencer in Delta Company?”

There were only two women in 1st Battalion. Considering that there were only two hundred women with Ranger tabs in the Army, and only thirty of those were actually in the Regiment, that wasn’t surprising. Especially since sixteen of the thirty were Intelligence Battalion. 2nd Battalion had five, and 3rd Battalion had three. There was actually one, Sergeant Ellen ‘Zombie’ Romero, in the RRC, and word was that she’d earned her spot with the JSOC boys by being an absolutely devastating sniper even before the Initialization.

His concern for Lieutenant Spencer and Sergeant Ellis wasn’t the old ‘women in combat’ bullshit. That ship had long since sailed, as far as he was concerned, and women had thoroughly proven themselves as soldiers. He knew the men and few women under his command could and would do their jobs, regardless of the equipment in their pants. That much, he wasn’t concerned about. No, it was the other thing.

Everyone in the regiment knew what the goblins did to women they captured. The briefing packet was very direct on that. And while these ‘dungeon goblins’ apparently had their ‘magic STD’ suppressed, so any woman who fell into their clutches wouldn’t be getting transformed, that didn’t eliminate any of the other consequences of getting captured. And he wasn’t about to let something like that happen to any of his people.

The concern was that goblins had a passive racial skill called [Sense Females], which did exactly what it sounded like. They got an extra sense that let them find and target females of any race. His big concern was that having women on the field might drive the goblins into a frenzy, and they would be targeted in particular.

“Everyone knows the score, sir. Spencer and Ellis are not leaving their teams, and while they don’t exactly plan on playing bait, there’s some talk that it might be easier if the goblins key on them, especially after trading stories with some of the Adventurers up on the walls. Focused opponents are more predictable. The Adventurers use that to help draw goblins into kill zones when they’re doing their culls, or guarding the convoys on I-95.”

Booth nodded. “All right, then. So long as everyone is on the same page. Get them ready. We’re going in as soon as the 1-9 signals they’re finished softening up the targets. According to the plan, they’re hitting big targets with the high-explosive rounds to try and break any fortifications and kick over anthills, and then they’ll switch to try and soften up the swarms with incendiary. The fires will take a bit to go out, but any goblins caught in the open are going to be learning the joys of white phosphorus. That should keep them from getting organized from a bit.”

Baxter grunted. “Before the Initialization, I wouldn’t have wished Wille-Pete on anyone, not even terrorists. These goblins, though? Yeah, I’m OK with this. But even so, we’re going to need to get some people in to talk with the troops after. This isn’t going to be pretty, no matter what happens.”

“I know, Major. I know. But that’s a concern for future me. Right now, we need to handle the mission.”