The goblin doesn't stay frozen. It does however ignore Lily completely. Turning to charge at Clyde instead. Clyde is busy dealing with a goblin of his own. For a humanoid being without armor they're surprising tough to deal with one on one. Fortunately, due to sheer dumb luck Clyde moved at the last minute causing the stone blade to lodge in his shoulder instead of the back of his neck. That's not to say it wasn't painful.
Meanwhile Chandra was finally able to land a hit on the goblin attacking Cole. The knife buried itself in the goblins hip. This slowed it down enough for Cole's next swing to decapitate it. So, the two of them were now coming to aid Darrel and Clyde. Thanks to the wound Clyde now had limited use of his left arm. This in turn limited his ability to swing his great sword. This leads to him getting cut a few more times despite now being aware of both goblins. Using his speed skill to increase his reaction time he's able to keep them from landing any fatal blows.
Suddenly it's the goblins turn to get attacked from behind. A throwing knife from Chandra takes out one while a Vertical slice from Cole takes out the other one a few seconds later. After that dealing with the one Darrel has restrained requires hardly any effort. Lily though is still stunned by what just happened and so it takes her a minute to realize that the fight is over. None of the others witnessed the interaction between her and the goblin. So, while they are confused why she hesitated to start healing they don't think much else of it. For some reason she opts not to explain anything that happened to them. Not that I blame her I mean how exactly would you explain something like that. Especially when so many people have died in my dungeon that everyone is aware that I have no problem taking lives.
I'm also a little confused. I mean first off something has the ability to supersede my control over the space inside my dungeon. That alone would be bad enough and is definitely something I plan to look into. However, it can also apparently supersede both my control of my own mobs as well as their control over their own bodies, or maybe just their awareness since it seemed to be unaware of Lily afterwards. Despite the fact that it was centimeters from her. On top of that there is this mysterious system gifting me mana. From where exactly? Not from this world I know that much. Possibly not even from this dimension. Given how high a level she is, getting twice the mana I would have gotten for killing her suddenly sucked into my core should have definitely created ripples in the ambient mana and there was none.
The question then becomes, why her? While I'm busy pondering that Clyde's party has gathered their stuff and after downing a few health potions they decide to continue the delve. This time heading to the northern room. I guess it makes sense seeing as none of them actually noticed what happened, but I can't help thinking what if it happens again. What if it keeps happening. Fortunately, the next room is just wolves. Even though they are mostly level 14 Clyde's party has long since become an expert in dealing with the wolves.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Immediately upon entering the room Cole uses taunt to get all the wolves to target him. Chandra meanwhile heads off to try and keep the alpha distracted. Darrel then throws an ice spear which takes out one of the wolves attacking Cole. This however gets the attention of two of those wolves. One of which just barely manages to dodge a diagonal slice from Clyde losing most of an ear in the process. Clyde immediately transitions into a vertical slice not wanting to give the wolf time to retaliate. Unfortunately, the wolf is easily able to dodge this and lunges at Clyde.
At the same time Darrel throws another ice spear. this time to my shock instead of throwing it at the one coming towards him he throws it at the one still attacking Cole. He successfully killed that wolf but now he barely has time to raise his staff up to block his face and throat from getting bitten. Cole who is now free immediately runs over to help. Meanwhile Clyde has just stabbed another wolf in the neck after being thrown to the ground and having his arm used like a chew toy. He's definitely going to need new chest armor after this delve. Before he can make it to his feet though Cole has already made it to Darrel. He had hoped to take out the wolf while it was distracted but Cole isn't exactly stealthy, so the wolf heard him coming and managed to dodge in time.
Clyde then stepped between the wolf and Darrel allowing Lily to come up and start healing. Fortunately, skills seem to get stronger the more they're used so while it is still technically the same healing spell as before it is much stronger. Also fortunate is the fact that while there is a lot of blood none of the claw marks are deeper than three centimeters. Which while still bad could have been much worse. At least this time nobody needs their organs stuffed back inside.
While all that is happening, Cole runs up to help Chandra with the level 15 alpha wolf. Once again Cole's lack of stealth leads to the wolf hearing him coming. This time however that momentary distraction is exactly what Chandra needs for one of her knives to connect with the side of the wolf's neck. Clyde on the other hand simply activated his heightened reflexes skill while goading the wolf to attack. Once it did, he side stepped with a vertical slice decapitating the wolf. This effectively ended the encounter. If it wasn't for the fact that this floor hasn't 'updated' since I changed all mobs to include a chance to drop meat, they would probably have their first bit of wolf meat by now. As it is they did get some wolf pelts out of it though.
Watching them fight I can't help but think they definitely should have noticed something. That goblin literally ran right by Darrel after all. This means whatever it is, it's somehow able to directly affect delvers as well. Something that I seem to instinctively know I'll never be able to do no matter how powerful I become. This means I can't even discuss it with Clyde for fear of angering whoever or whatever this entity is.
