Whatever force prevents me from making changes to the floor while someone is on it won't let me get close enough to really examine the situation closely. I do manage to pinpoint the extra person as being inside Lily. Makes sense, I guess. Her and Clyde have been a couple as long as I've known them. Still as much as I'm aware that they have lives outside the dungeon I'd kind of just assumed that it was mostly waiting around till they could delve again. A little self-centered I know but I really can't imagine what else there is to do in a desert. Guess they managed to find a way to keep busy though.
This does bring up more questions. Do they even know about Lily's condition? If so, why would they continue to delve? Even though it wasn't intentional, Injuries to the abdomen are the most common type of life-threatening injury. So why then would they take that risk? This leads me to believe they don't know. That revelation brings with it a whole host of questions. Should I tell them? should I let them find out on their own? How would I even go about bringing up such a delicate topic? Eventually I decide to bring it up after the delve. In the meantime, I'm not going to pull any punches. I'm still a dungeon after all.
The first floor is almost boring to them now with each fight, if you can really even call it a fight, lasting mere seconds. The second floor still isn't a walk in the park but there are still only a few rooms that pose even the slightest actual challenge. Such is the deference between wood rank and stone rank that it's only those mobs at level 10 that seriously threaten them anymore. Not that they can't be injured or even killed by lower-level monsters if they relax too much. The boss of the second floor however still poses a significant threat.
This fact is evident on their faces as for the first time this delve there's no witty banter as they prepare for the fight. Admittedly, that could also be due to the skill of my dire wolf boss. While the fear effect does diminish with each passing level of the delver It will continue to have an effect until their levels are equal with that of the dire wolf.
As the fight starts Cole runs forward to get the wolfs attention. doing a valiant job of fighting through the effects of the boss's skill. Chandra then uses a skill to almost blend into the background. I can still see her clearly but then I've got more senses than any of my creatures will ever have. While Cole is doing his part to keep the wolfs attention Darrel begins casting a huge spell. He doesn't target the boss directly but rather forms a wall of spikes all around it. Meanwhile Clyde is ready to defend against a surprise attack, should the boss decide to go on the offensive.
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A few moments later my boss realizes what's happening and jumps clear of the ice encirclement. Guess they forgot he could jump. Then again maybe not. The moment the dire wolf leapt into the air a bunch of knives began sailing through the air. Being in midair there was nothing he could do. He died shortly after landing. I hate to say it, but they made that fight look embarrassingly easy. Although Cole might disagree since he was the one tanking all the dire wolf's attacks throughout the fight. I am admittedly curious how long it took them to come up with that plan or if it just sort of happened.
Either way they're off to the third floor after taking a brief rest and collecting their loot. This time they actually managed to make it a little bit further than last time. Entering the room with the skeleton fighter that nearly ended his life last time Clyde is understandably shaken. If he wants to continue delving though he's going to have to get past this and I think he realizes that. Once again Cole uses his taunt ability to get their attention. This time however Clyde doesn't rush up to help him immediately.
For a few seconds I think facing the mob that nearly killed him might be too much. It turns out he learned from his mistake and was just looking for an opening because a few moments later a vertical slash infused with a skill to increase weapon damage causes the skull of one of the fighters attacking Cole to seemingly explode. Shortly after that Chandra appears behind another one and stabs it in the back of the skull. By this time the effect of taunt has worn off and the skeleton fighters start to regain their senses.
By that time, it was already too late though as Darrel had already made his move causing two ice spikes to appear under their feet successfully killing one. The other one managed to dodge in time and attempted a diagonal slash using a movement speed skill. this attack manages to make it past Cole's shield. Fortunately, he has long had a full set of heavy armor. As the tank he sacrificed mobility for as much defense as he could get which paid off just now. His shoulder will be sore after that, very likely bruised even. Aside from that he is fine though. the skeleton however even with his movement speed skill can't dodge three incoming attacks all from different angles.
They are pleasantly surprised by the loot drop from the four skeleton fighters. I can see the visible relief in his eyes when Clyde realizes that he is unharmed. After gathering the loot and being extra careful to make sure they didn't miss any. They make their way into the next room. this one has more than just fighters though. To make matters worse they are all stronger than the group they just fought. Although they made the last fight seem easy it was actually anything but easy. Especially for Cole who will be going into this fight with a sore shoulder, among other bumps and bruises he got from constantly tanking hits before that fight.
