BONUS Chapter 4/5
Ren had never been inside Vulcan's Cave before. He didn't even step foot inside the dungeon during his past life since he entered late in the game. The only thing he did was compiled reports from the supporting team who mapped the area.
Ren only knew the Boss through the data sent to him by their supporting team. They needed all the data of the cave since new members were required to at least clear the dungeon.
The damp and humid cave wasn't a problem to Ren. He was rather excited. The excitement of exploring a dungeon again was very precious to him since he never really got to appreciate the game in his previous life.
Though Ren had more than seventy percent knowledge about COVENANT, exploring Vulcan's Cave wasn't one of them.
"Is every cave dark like this one?" Nikolai asked after he slipped and gave the hard rocky floor a big hug with his face.
Ren chuckled and helped him up. There were a lot of scenic dungeons in COVENANT. It just so happened that this one wasn't one of them.
"Don't let this dishearten you. This is only your first dungeon," Ren said.
Nikolai pated his clothes. "I'm not. I just didn't expect that it was so real life. Kinda cool."
"Why is there no light?" Rosie whined and taped Lucia's shoulder. "You're a fire mage. Can you light our way?" she teased.
Lucia slapped her hands and growled, "Don't make me your personal lamp. And don't make waste mana on something so stupid."
"I don't think it's stupid. It helps us see in the dark."
"Ladies," Silvia butt in, "We're only at the entrance. There should be light further ahead."
"How do you know that?" Alecia asked.
"Its called making our life easier by buying information," Silvia replied matter of factly. If it could be bought with money, then it wasn't a problem at all.
The girls rolled their eyes and giggled.
And only after a minute in, there were already torches lighting the way hung on the walls. There were also other groups who raced them onward, but Ren and the others maintained their steady pace.
"Don't worry about them," Silvia said when she felt the girls uneasy. "If this dungeon is so easy, then it would have been cleared a long time ago by the number of groups who entered it first before us."
The girls released a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, that's right."
Jack grinned. "Though you guys wouldn't be able to farm since the others are beating us to it, and the monsters' respawn rate is too slow at this normal difficulty."
Ren scratched his head when the women's mood plummeted. He didn't know if Jack was purposely spoiling the mood or if he was just acting cute to get the women's attention.
It was indeed working, though, in a negative way.
Everyone breathed easy when there was finally light in the torches on the walls and illuminated the area revealing a path of six meters wide with dried molten rocks as walls and floors.
"Alright, listen up," Robert started, "Since all of you are new to partying and clearing dungeons. Let me explain the basics of team composition.
"Usually, there are more members in a party, but since we're attempting an easy cave, ten players will have to do."
Nikolai snickered and muttered to himself, "We're twelve, though."
Robert didn't mind Nikolai, and he proceeded, "According to our sources, this dungeon is extremely long, so we have to break our group into two. The main attacking unit and the supporting unit."
At least Robert wasn't exactly ignorant. Ren thought. If he didn't know at least that much, then his ten years as a pro player would surely go to waste.
"The main attacking unit would conserve their strength as much as possible while the supporting unit is in charge of mapping and taking out monsters in the area.
"The main attacking unit will comprise of me, Jack, Vida, Sylvia, and Pamela while the rest are supporting unit."
Alicia cut in, "But wouldn't the supporting unit be at a disadvantage if the main attacking unit wouldn't help clear the monsters? If we reach the Boss, what HP and MP would we have left?"
Vida rolled her eyes and explained further, "What Robert meant was reserving MP and HP. The main attacking unit will still help in clearing monsters though they will not use too much MP since there isn't a [Mana Potion] available yet. We have to reserve our MP in time for the final Boss."
"Oh, if that's the case, good then," Alicia said and gave an elegant half-shrug. She thought that they would do all the work while the Main Assault gets to laze around and benefit from the equal sharing of EXP and gill. That didn't sit well with her.
Nikolai looked over at Ren. He was about to say something when Ren put a finger over his lips to signal Nikolai to keep quiet.
Robert skidded to a stop and faced everyone. "So you two, Ren and Nikolai, are going to take the front together with Ruru while the main attacking unit will stay at the rear. The healers are aggro magnets, so they have to stay at the center and be protected. Make sure that you steal the aggro as soon as possible, or they will be annihilated."
Silvia frowned. "Shouldn't the tank be at the front to attract the aggro on him?"
Robert merely flipped his hair. "That is true. However, since I'm the Main Tank (MT), I should preserve my HP and MP as much as possible and have the Substitute Tank (ST) take the lead."
"Substitute Tank?" Silvia raised a brow. "We only have you as a tank."
"That kid is a Monk, right? His DEF should be high enough as an ST, and he has Ren supporting him, so they should be alright."
The girls looked at each other before Silva asked Ren, "Is that okay with you?"
Ren had a feeling that Robert wanted him gone as soon as possible. Since there was no revive in a dungeon, once you're dead, you'll be stuck as a wisp outside of the cave or the village where you made your last save until your party decided to forfeit the dungeon or got wiped out in the end.
However, Ren wasn't planning on dying.
"It's fine." Ren didn't have any qualms about the arrangement. Though his suspicion about Robert grew, he kept it to himself.
Like everyone agreed upon, Ren and Nikolai took the vanguard while Ruru was just behind them, mapping the dungeon and detecting any traps with her passive kill [Detect].
"Mister, are we the cannon fodder?" Nikolai asked.
"It seemed that's the case."
Nikolai's expression fell. "Are we going to be alright? My DEF isn't exactly that high."
"Don't worry. Just follow my lead, and we'll be fine. I've brought you here, so I'm responsible for you."
"Ehehehe." Nikolai rubbed his nose and beamed. "Anyway, I bought everything that you've asked."
Nikolai's voice went into a whisper, ensuring that only Ren heard him. "I've bought potions you told me to buy."
"Good. It's yours. But don't use it just yet."
"Copy that." Nikolai then looked over at Ren with his innocent big eyes. "But what about you, mister?"
Ren almost let out a chuckle. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."
He then winked at Nikolai though the latter couldn't see it since Ren's appearance was hidden. "I'm stronger than you think."
"Oh." Nikolai's eyes sparkled, and he was back to being an excited kid who hopped when he walked.
Ren had to praise Nikolai for his perceptiveness. He asked him to buy [Mana Potion] and [Health Potion] from all the gil he accumulated, keeping it a secret from the others.
The one thing that Robert and his crew didn't know about the game was the skill/spell unlock once their ATP hit a particular milestone.
And in Nikolai's case, a White Monk with an STR of +30 would acquire the spell [Soul Attack]. This attack was neither physical nor magical. It was a neutral damage that would land an amazing blow to enemies who were either immune to physical or magical attacks.
Moreover, this attack deals true damage that ignores its enemy's armor. It was one of the Monk's unique spells, and it was quite handy to have against enemies like Vulcan, who have a high DEF and could resist most physical damage.
However, if Ren was correct, the amount of MP from that single target attack was at least +50. And with Nikolai only leveling his STR, his MP was sure to be only in the +60.
It was a blessing that Nikolai could already access towns to buy [Mana Potions]. Though it had to be kept a secret least everyone would take advantage of his items.
Ren didn't tell anyone about Nikolai accessing towns since he feared something would happen to the kid. Since gil couldn't be transferred to players or used as payment to other players, he was afraid Nikolai would be bullied to buy potions in town using his hard-earned gil.
It was better to be safe than sorry.
And Ren was glad that he brought Nikolai along. He had a backup plan in case something . . . unexpected happen.
