After the boss farming, the rest of the dungeon week progressed according to the schedule. We cleared a dungeon every 2 days and gradually paved the path for the promotion.
The next dungeon we challenged after the â¹Cat-Dun⺠was another unpopular dungeonâââ¹Venomous Scorpion and Sandstorm Dungeonâº. Just as its name implies, the dungeon had low visibility due to the chaotic sandstorm and gust of winds blowing more menacing than ever. The scorpion type monster that appeared there from the ground below was another reason behind why it was less preferred, A single sting attack of theirs was enough to inflict â¹Poison⺠ailment. And depending on the variety, there were even some capable of inflicting â¹Paralysis⺠â¹Confusion⺠â¹Sleep⺠ailments. They were truly a troublesome opponent.
The recipe â¹Purifying Dustâº, that we had found in â¹Cat-Dunâº, swiftly came in hand. In fact, this recipe was the reason why I chose this dungeon as our second target. The main obstacle this dungeon posed was â¹Internal Abnormal Statusâº.
Of course, that which can't hit can't hurt you applies here as well, but it wasn't always possible to defend against the multi-strike pincers attack. You thought you blocked the twin pincers? Io and behold the stinging spectacleâthe sting attack! As if that was not enough, they were surprisingly fast, and strong to boot. Apparently, many students fell prey to them.
But, in the end, it was just a dungeon with monsters completely relying on physical based attacksâA place for the tanks to shine. Rika had pulled a marvelous performance, seemingly to make up for her blunder in â¹Cat-Dunâº. And since scorpions mostly rely on close-range attacks, she absolutely dominated this dungeon.
Lana and I supported against the abnormal statuses, and in situations we couldn't make it in time, someone else would use â¹Purification Dustâº. For the most part, it was a bump-less ride, and we managed to clear this dungeon in two days as well.
It was an unpopular dungeon among the upperclassmen, so we had the option for boss farming here as well, but this was where girls immediately voted against. As a result, we left the dungeon as soon as we were done with the boss. I guess that was inevitable huh? Pitiful worm monsters, they always receive the short end of the stick.
Aside from prioritizing swift clearance, we also went around the five hidden rooms, and each of them ended up â¹Silver Chestâº. We used â¹Okarina⺠here as well and out of three attempts, managed to hunt it down two times. The rare material this time was â¹Golden Scorpion's Toxic Stingerâº, a strong weapon which could perform â¹Poison Attack⺠â¹Paralysis Attack⺠â¹Frenzied Attack⺠â¹Sleep Attackâº. ......A pity that girls refused to use it, so I passed it to Marie-senpai's guild.
While we were on it, we also went around checking out the dead ends in â¹Cat-Dunâº. And much to our surprise, we discovered a â¹Gold Chest⺠just on our first dead end. It dropped â¹Meowzingâº, an item capable of performing dowsing modeled after a cat. By registering the material and item we want to search for in it, it would make a 'Meow, Meow' sound either of them were in our near victiny. Any of the â¹Collection Department⺠â¹Trap Disarming Department⺠students would jump in delight at the sight of it.
Speaking of it, Hannah had opened this treasure chest. It was her long-awaited â¹Gold Chest⺠so she was truly delighted.
On the last weekdays of Dungeon Week, our third targeted dungeon was â¹Beast Assembly Dungeonâº. It was quite an odd dungeon, with paths and plazas alternating between. The plazas were crowded with the monsters. There was no random encounter in this dungeon, but the fights in plaza were unavoidable.
The monsters in this dungeon that appeared were, for the most part, a group of 5~6 â¹Wolf⺠type monsters. They were quite challenging battles since each of them excelled in maneuvering as a group. The battles were time consuming here.
It was as if monsters were saying 'Proof your worth by defeating us if you want to pave your path to success', truly fitting the image of a dog-eat-dog dungeon. It wasn't difficult, but more of a nuisance dungeon, so I really wanted to avoid coming here on normal days.
But, of course, how could there be a blind spot in my â¹Dungeon Activity⺠database? Anyone worth their salt knows that this was the easiest dungeon around.
This dungeon here was more like a simple maze play. Even the maze was just a maze in name, and they were as simple as a riddle from a children's book.
So, in short, while the battles in plazas were unavoidable, it was possible to skip them entirely by deducing the correct route and moving onto the next floor. The same rule applies for all floors. If there was an easy out, why bother grinding yourself, right?
Well, this was practically the only dungeon among all where it was possible to reach the boss room without engaging in a single encounter. Of course, the battles in plazas were unavoidable if the goal was hidden room and collection, so this option was limited to when the target was just the boss.
This was also the primary reason why I chose it at the end of Dungeon Week. I mean, if push came to shove, I had the backup plan to straight make a beeline for the lower floors with the help of Ester and Celestine's carriage and get over it in just one day.
So, with that in mind, we moved the schedule up by one day to Saturday. The end result was I still had Ester and Celestine working out to race toward the end. I didn't say this method was saved for desperate times, right? Celestine's workload seemed to have reduced so it wasn't a problem to invite him. But since he had yet to clear the requirement for Int-mid, I borrowed â¹Guest Bracelet⺠from the academy for him. With this, it turned into a dungeon exploration with 10 member battle force and 2 support.
We safely reached the last floor while avoiding the guardian boss and wandering boss. The boss of this dungeon was the evolved version of â¹Battle Wolf⺠that appeared in Beg-midââ¹Battle Wolf (3rd Form)âº, along with four subordinates.
â¹Battle Wolf (3rd Form)⺠was four meters big, a jet black body and eyes shining in ominously red glowâa perfect description of a wicked beast. Even Lulu, who loves animals and fluffy things,appeared afraid of its visage and hid behind me in fright.
It seemed to be quite confident in its battle strength, as it didn't even lift its tail despite noticing us. I showed him his place by breaking that confidence with a single attack. We won easily.
Of course, one reason was that we have fought â¹Battle Wolf⺠multiple times, but even more than that, I could say I had the most â¹Battle Wolf⺠kills in the game. I had so many ways to deal with it that the fight wasn't even a struggle.
This dungeon and the boss was a perfect ultimate combo. I promptly decided to make this our main hunting ground to max out levels. It was going to be a hunting fest till tomorrow's evening! We could then advance to even greater heightsâAdvanced Jobs!
On sunday's evening, I suddenly felt like â¹Battle Wolf⺠tail drooped as soon as it caught sight of me. No way, right?
Aside from that, we received another blessing. The through â¹Battle Wolf⺠farming gave us a total of 6 whooping â¹Gold Chestâº! Had we encountered â¹Gold Chest⺠Rush!? I wondered.
â¹Gold Cat Coin⺠had finally started to show its effect. I also decided at that moment to offer rare monster meat to â¹Sachineko-samaâº!
I raised my level till 71 before I started to saw the decline in leveling speed. Aside from Lana and Ester, who stopped at the same level as me, majority of members surpassed LV65. I guess it was too much to ask for hitting the level cap in just two days. I estimated we should be able to hit level cap by next weekend. Ah, no, we will have D-rank test before that. After the fight with â¹Battle Wolfâº, we had cleared all requirements for the promotion.
Fuhaha! Everything was set! â¹Eden⺠was now stronger than ever, and we just need to clear the text this week, and then, â¹Eden⺠will rise to D-rank!
Though unstoppable momentum we were riding on, still had a long journey ahead of the, right?
Arc 7 - End